“You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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In the movie “Gandhi” there is a scene where a march to the sea is organised, to make salt. In 1930, in order to help free India from British control, Mahatma Gandhi proposed a non-violent march protesting the British Salt Tax. The Salt Tax essentially made it illegal to sell or produce salt, allowing a complete British monopoly. Since salt is necessary in everyone's daily diet, everyone in India was affected. The Salt Tax made it illegal for workers to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn't really afford. Before embarking on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to Dandi, Gandhi sent a letter to the Viceroy himself, forewarning their plans of civil disobedience:
“If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil.”
On April 5 a large crowd reached the coast. After prayers were offered, Gandhi spoke to the large crowd. He picked up a tiny lump of salt, and in doing so, broke the law. Others did the same, following his example of passive defiance, picking up salt everywhere along the coast. A month later, Gandhi was arrested and thrown into prison, already full with fellow protestors. The Salt March started a series of protests, closing many British shops and British mills. The scene depicted in the movie is the march to Dharshana, which resulted in horrible violence. The people did not defend themselves against the policemen, and many were killed. The world embraced the concept of non-violence, condemned British actions, and eventually enabled India to gain her freedom.
In Egypt, where we are seeing all kinds of demonstrations, Coptic Christians - a minority in that country - stood with the protesting Muslims. Pope Shenuda III, Egypt's top Coptic Christian, told demonstrators on Friday night to take into account "concessions" made by the government after more than a week of demonstrations at Tahrir square. "He told us we should not go to protests”, says a man named Ihab, "But we come to the demonstrations regardless because we want it to be recorded that Christians were here,".
What is salt? How many kinds of salt are there? Do they all taste the same. A quick Google brings up all kinds of information.
Different natural salts have different mineralities, giving each one a unique flavor. “Fleur de sel” is a natural sea salt harvested by hand; its flavour is unique, and it is often reputed to be the best salt for cooking. In traditional Korean cuisine, "bamboo salt" is prepared by roasting salt in a bamboo container plugged with mud at both ends. Completely raw sea salt is bitter because of magnesium and calcium compounds, and thus is rarely eaten. Rock salt, like the salt from Japan, has yet another flavour. In Hawaii, a particular salt from the iron-rich waters of the ocean - called "alaea" salt - is blessed by the Kahuna for use in religious ceremonies, as well as for cooking. It is a large crystal salt, reddish in colour, and gives a very particular flavour to meats.
In the story of Gandhi, salt became the symbol for injustice and oppression. Of all the evils of the British Raj, preventing people from making and using salt for themselves was a way of keeping them under the thumbs of the British, because they had to buy their own salt back from the British at exorbitant prices. If they were able to make and sell their own salt, control would be theirs.
Gandhi was not, strictly speaking, a Christian. Yet he was well-read in all the faiths, and was recorded as saying that he was a Hindu, and a Moslem, and a Christian, and a Jew. Yet he acted in a non-violent way, in the best tradition of all those faiths - and certainly in the best of what we believe exemplifies Christian values based on our understanding of who Jesus was.
Frank Schaeffer in his sermon “Zesty Christians” asks what makes a Christian salty? Perhaps that is exemplified by the actions of the Christians in Egypt. A Christian will speak for what is right and just, will not just stand idly by, but will speak out against those who oppress or discriminate others. This is isn’t easy to do, as we have seen. Some people have lost their lives. Jesus walked a fine line all the time, between teaching and living according to the values he believed were critical.
In this second section of the “Sermon on the Mount” Jesus talks about salt being tasteless, and tells the apostles that they should be “salt and light”. What did he mean? Jesus had a wonderful way of taking ordinary things people would relate to right away - and salt was one of those things.
If you take salt and just leave it sitting outside, what happens? It absorbs moisture, gradually degenerates, becomes tasteless and useless for anything, and has to be tossed aside. So he is really saying, use it or lose it! We generally use that phrase to refer to muscles - and brains. If you don’t use it you lose it. So your saltiness, if you like, depends on how you use your faith muscles.
Well, what does all this mean and how does it affect ministry? In the current ministerial climate, pastoral ministry has leaned more and more to a ministry of affirming each other in almost everything, and never being confrontational at all. There is no question that affirmation is important for each of us, but ministry is also supposed to be - feel free to disagree with me - confrontational. There is a saying that good ministry should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. That was the message of Gandhi - he comforted and stood up for the afflicted...the “least of these” we hear Jesus talk about; but he afflicted the comfortable to the point where they had to face how their comfort was built on the backs of others.
Jesus was really good at comforting the afflicted; he was also really good at afflicting the comfortable. When he tells his disciples to be salt and light, he isn’t saying spice up the world a little and be upbeat cheery people, he’s saying “here’s your mission. To stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves, to bring light to those who see nothing but darkness around them, and to give people hope for a future.” May it be so.
Sources:
1. Zesty Christians a sermon based on Matthew 5:13-20 by Rev. Frank Schaefer
2. http://thenagain.info/webchron/India/SaltMarch.html
3.newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20110205-318683/Christians-join-Muslims-in-plea-for-change-in-Egypt
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt
5. Charles James Cook, in "Feasting on the Word", David L. Barrett and Barbara Brown Taylord, eds. Lousiville; Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 334.
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