Matthew 5:13. April 29, 2012

Transcription

1 COVENANT PULPIT SERMONONTHEMOUNT Get in the way, know the truth, live the life salt Matthew 5:13 April 29, 2012 Dr. Bob Petterson Covenant Church of Naples PCA 6926 Trail Boulevard, Naples, FL (239)

2 When Sherriff Billy Ford headed across the Guadalupe badlands, little did he know that he would plunge the Pecos region into two wars, rearrange the borders of Texas and New Mexico, and bring the United States to the brink of military conflict with Mexico. Had Sheriff Ford understood the high stakes that night in 1854, he might have formed a bigger posse than 17 Americans, 10 Mexicans, and an Englishman. He surely needed more firepower than the 61- pound howitzer that he had borrowed from Fort Bliss a lot more, if he was going to take possession of the Salinas de San Andreas for former Secretary of State James Wiley Magoffin. Acre for acre, the Salinas de San Andreas was the richest real estate in Texas. It was worth its weight in pure gold. Whoever controlled the Salinas de San Andreas would be worth millions back in Even in prehistoric times, it had lured primitive wanderers. The Aztecs and Mayans travelled hundreds of miles to extract its riches. In 1647, the king of Spain granted Don Diego de Vivar the exclusive rights to mine its wealth. From its bounty, his family had become mega-rich. In 1854, Magoffin was willing to sell his very soul to get his hands on the Salinas de San Andreas. Sheriff Billy Ford should have known better. For more than 200 years, Commanches, Apaches, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Mexicans, American settlers, and Tejanos fought to the death over this treasure trove of the Trans Pecos. Ford s outgunned posse ran into an army of Mexican-American Tejanos. After the shootout that followed, the bullet-riddled sheriff s posse was forced to hightail it back to New Mexico. Some 23 years later, the conflict over the Salinas de San Andreas erupted again. Like a scene out of the cowboy comedy Blazing Saddles, several small armies converged west of El Paso. Mexican Federales crossed the Rio Grande from the south. Apaches rode from the West, and Comanche from the North. Vigilantes marched from El Paso, and an army of 500 Mexican-American locals rushed to protect their claim to the Salinas de San Andreas. Hired gunslingers came by railroad. Twenty Texas Rangers rode in from Austin. In the confusion that followed, the Texas Rangers were captured by the Tejanos. A few folks were scalped by Indians. Mexican soldiers fled back across the Rio Grande. The 9 th Cavalry, made up of African- American Buffalo Soldiers, finally restored order. This war looked more like an eye-poking contest between the Three Stooges, but it garnered world headlines and brought the United States and Mexico to the edge of yet another border war. What was this treasure that made men go mad with greed? It wasn t gold, oil, or cattle but the richest salt preserve in North America, left behind by a prehistoric sea.

3 History remembers these two armed conflicts as the Magoffin and San Elizario Salt Wars. Unless you hail from West Texas, you probably never heard of these two shootouts that almost plunged the U.S. into an international conflict. Not long after the San Elizario Salt War, the nation turned to cheaper salt from Kansas. Today Salinas de San Andreas is deserted. In an age of cheap table salt, Texas history recalls the words of historian Will Durant: More wars in history have been fought over salt than have been waged over gold or religion. There was a time when salt was the most valuable commodity on planet earth. There was profound significance in Jesus words: You are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) Had you lived 2,000 years ago, you would have whistled in amazement and said, Wow! I must be really valuable! By the end of our time together, I hope you can say the same about yourself. Here s the principle from Jesus words that shows our significance as salty kingdom people: The cure for everything is salt. Salt is 39% sodium. This chemical element is necessary for survival. It controls blood volume, muscle contractions, transmission of electrical nerve impulses, body heat, hormones, absorption of glucose, and transport of life-giving nutrients across membranes especially our intestines. We get some salt from meat, and even less from plants and water. But, without extra salt, humans die. Most ancients lived a long way from the sources of salt. Those who possessed the salt preserves were fabulously wealthy. Salt was bartered for gold ounce for ounce. Slaves were bought and sold for salt. The old saying of slave auctioneers is still used today, He s worth his salt. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, called salãria from which we get our word salary. Salt was so valuable that Romans built their finest roads to and from salt mines. A special highway leading into Rome was called the Via Salãria or the Salt Road. It was plagued by bandits who tried to hijack salt shipments the way today s robbers might go after a Brink s armored truck loaded with Fort Knox gold. Salt thieves were considered so heinous that they were summarily crucified. By controlling the salt trade, Rome fueled its massive war machine. Empires rose and fell on their control of salt. Timbuktu became the wealthiest city in Africa by cornering the market on salt. It sent this precious commodity throughout Africa and the Orient in giant caravans that sometimes numbered 40,000 camels. The island city of Venice later became a world empire by controlling the Medieval salt trade. Liverpool rose from a seaside village to become the planet s largest seaport by supplying most of the world s salt from the nearby Cheshire mines in the 19 th Century. New England Colonies became rich by exporting salted codfish to the world. The British

4 tried to break the American Revolution by cutting off its salt supply. George Washington later said that his army survived only because patriots secretly supplied contraband salt to his troops. In the War of 1812, a strapped U.S. Congress paid soldiers in salt rather than cash. Thomas Jefferson tricked a skeptical Congress into funding the Lewis and Clark Expedition by claiming there was a salt mountain west of the Missouri River. Ghandi won the independence of India with his nationwide strikes against the British salt tax. In the history of the world, nothing else has ever come close to the value of salt not gold, oil, cattle, or any other commodity. Little else has done more to sustain mankind or advance civilization than salt. No wonder it was called the divine substance by ancient Greeks. It s not surprising that Jewish law demanded that salt be thrown on the altar of sacrifice. You need to grasp what the ancients knew when Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth. Though we will never viscerally get it the way those Jews did 2,000 years ago, here are some truths that might stoke our spiritual fires: 1. BEATITUDE LIVING IS WORTH ITS SALT Jesus opens his Sermon on the Mount with the eight beatitudes. These beatitudes summed up what was necessary to get into and stay in the kingdom of heaven. Folks often look at each beatitude separately, like eight pearls on a tabletop. But Jesus strings them together in a pearl necklace. Each beatitude flows out of the previous and produces the next. When we have counted from the first pearl to the eighth on the necklace, we are driven back to the first again and then around the necklace again and again, in a neverending circle of spiritual life. The first is poverty of spirit grasping the fact that we are spiritually bankrupt. This leads us to the second: mourning grieving over our spiritual poverty; which leads to the third: meekness a recognition that we can t even justify ourselves in comparison to other spiritual paupers. Like St. Paul, we must say, I am the chief of sinners. The first three beatitudes have to do with repentance that leads to a hunger and thirst for righteousness a desperation to get what we do not have: righteousness. But it can only come when God fills us with Christ s righteousness. This fourth pearl brings justification or salvation. Which leads to the sanctification process of the next four pearls: mercy receiving God s mercy, we will become merciful to others; leading to pure of heart having been humbled by our spiritual condition, and filled with Christ s righteousness, we can be open and transparent, no longer pretending to be who or what we aren t; which leads to peacemaker having peace with God and peace within, we bring peace to others; which will lead to persecution a pearl so painful that Jesus repeats this eighth beatitude twice. If we look like Jesus, speak like him, and act like him, we will be persecuted like he was.

5 We will often react in anger, despair, compromise, or even cowardice. This will take us back to the first pearl: poverty of spirit and on and on we go around the neverending circle leading to being conformed to the image of our King of kings. Now Jesus goes on to tell us two things that happen to disciples who live beatitude lives: we become the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In this edition of Christ s Sermon on the Mount, we are going to focus on what salty Christians do: 1) SALT ADDS ZEST That ancient sufferer spoke of bland food: Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me. (Job 6:6&7) Salt is one of the basic human tastes and cravings. Actress Hayden Panettier said, I ve always had an addiction to salt. I ve been known to pick the salt off pretzels and eat it. Today s snacks are packed with salt to make them appealinglytasty to a generation that craves salt. Most folks think that nothing could be more boring than becoming a born-again Christian. The truth is: nothing can be more boring than listening to folks who prattle on about things that have no ultimate meaning. Stripped of spiritual values, the world is a pretty boring place. A lot of folks are mind-numbingly bored as they flip from one television channel to another in a neverending blandness of sporting events that mean nothing, reality shows that prove nothing, and celebrities who say nothing. A pretzel without salt is bland, and so is life. Jesus says that we are the salt on the pretzel. Sometimes we are even hot sauce. Beatitude life is never boring. It s a scandal when Christians are lukewarm boring. Dr. Rayburn used to say to us seminarians, The greatest sin in the world is to take the most exciting gospel in the world and turn it into the most boring sermon in the world. In Colossians 4:6, St. Paul captures the guy I want to be: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt 2) SALT HEALS Matthew 4:23 tells us what Jesus did in the weeks preceding his Sermon on the Mount: And he went throughout Galilee healing every disease and every affliction among the people. Jesus came to bring healing. He tells us to do the same when he calls us the salt of the earth. Salt was a virtual, omnipresent part of healing for thousands of years. The Roman military physician Diosturides wrote history s first medical journal, Materia Medica a few years after Jesus walked this earth. In it he wrote, Salt is the most important ingredient in a doctor s medical bag. Napoleon claimed that he lost thousands of French soldiers in his winter retreat from Moscow because there was no salt to heal their wounds. He wrote that the lack of salt killed more troops than the cold, starvation, or Russian

6 soldiers. We still mouth an expression that ancient doctors used when prescribing medicine: take it with a grain of salt. Writer Isak Dinesan says it best: The cure for anything is salt water that comes from sweat or tears. When Jesus calls us the salt of the earth he is telling us that we must go out with sweat and tears to bring healing to hell bound sinners, broken hearts, wounded spirits, hurting neighbors, fractured families, and conflicted communities. 3) SALT SAVES In ancient times, the people of the Middle East would seal a covenant by eating a pinch of salt together. In Leviticus 2:13, the Mosaic Law said, You shall seal all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. God s covenant with his people was sealed with salt. And what was his covenant? He would be their Savior, and through them he would save the world. Salt was a picture of the Messianic Savior who would bring to this world everything that salt represents: life, healing, and salvation. The very word salvation comes from the Latin word salis or salt. Until Vatican II, when the Roman Catholics baptized folk, a pinch of salt was placed on their lips signifying salvation. If you look closely at Leonardo Da Vinci s Last Supper, you will see that Judas Iscariot has knocked over a bowl of salt, signifying that he was a lost soul. When Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth, he is reminding us that we are to bring the gospel of salvation to the whole world first to our own community, but surely to the whole world. He is not willing that one inch of the earth not be salted by his gospel of grace. 4) SALT PRESERVES Before meat could be preserved, people had to eat it within days before it spoiled. Almost all food was quickly contaminated with yeast and mold. As a result, prehistoric people were wandering hunters and gatherers having to eat their food immediately before moving on after more. Some 4700 years ago, a Chinese man by the name of Pen-Tzo-Ken-Mu stumbled on the process of salting meat by accident. Some historians have suggested that his discovery was as significant as the invention of the wheel or writing. With the ability to use salt to preserve meat and bread, people could settle in one place and build cities. Civilizations spread. With portable food, armies could march out to conquer and explorers could go far distances to discover new worlds. When Jesus calls us the salt of the earth he reminds us that the moment life is snuffed out, death and decay start. All meat is dead meat. Once grain is cut, fruit is picked, and plants are uprooted they are cut off from the source of life and begin the process of decay. When humankind was cut off from the source of life, death began. God warned Adam in Genesis 2:17, In the day you eat of it

7 [the forbidden fruit] you will surely die. St. Paul wrote in Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. I Corinthians 15:54 says that we are perishable items. Romans 8:21 says that even creation itself is in bondage to corruption. Scientists call it the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Everything is in the process of decay. We are the salt that is put in this world to preserve families, marriages, friendships, retard the decaying process of rotten politics, bring life where there is death, and health were there is sickness. Without the beatitude people of the kingdom of heaven, the world would have rotted away long ago. 5) SALT IS IN TEARS Matthew 5:4 says, Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Tears are salty. The shortest verse in the Bible says, Jesus wept. (John 16:2) He wept at the gravesite of Lazarus when he saw the overwhelming sorrow of Mary and Martha. He wept when he saw the people as sheep without a shepherd. He wept over Jerusalem. The 19 th Century British writer Rebecca West wrote, Nobody likes salt rubbed in their wounds, even if it is the salt of the earth. There are a lot of hurting people who feel the sting of salt in their wounds. God cares about those people. The Psalmist begs God, Put my tears in your bottle. (Psalm 56:6) Revelation 21:4 says that in heaven, God will wipe away every tear He wants us to have the same compassion for people who weep. When Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, we should think of salty tears. St. Francis of Assissi calls us to embrace hurting people with the comfort of Jesus. The compassionate saint said, Let there be such oneness between us that when one cries, the other tastes salt. 6) SALT BRINGS THIRST There can be no salvation until people hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) When Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth he is reminding us that our beatitude lifestyle should make other people hunger and thirst for a righteousness they see in us. When I was an 18-year-old college freshman, we got hold of some fake I.D. cards. I must have looked all of fifteen. I don t know how they let me in the bar. It was my first time in a tavern. What amazed me most were all the dishes of popcorn, potato chips, and peanuts. I was astounded that they were free. We could eat all we wanted. I couldn t figure out how the proprietors made money off those free snacks. Then thirst kicked in. Raised a Baptist, I couldn t bring myself to order a beer. So I drank six Cokes all in those tall thin glasses that held about 4 oz a shot, at about $3 a glass. Eighteen dollars was a boatload of money for a student in I discovered that all those free salted snacks had a purpose. And so do beatitude people: we are God s pretzels, potato chips and peanuts! put in the world to make people thirsty for the Living Water of heaven s King.

8 2. WITHOUT SALTINESS, KINGDOM PEOPLE ARE USELESS Having told us about the value of salty people, Jesus goes on to warn us: but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything. Most salt in Palestine was rock salt. It came in chunks. The grains of salt were mixed with rock and other elements. If left out in the rain, or allowed to sit in humidity, water would dissipate and dissolve the sodium crystals. The white chunk might look the same, but the salt granules would be gone. What good is salt if it loses its saltiness? Jesus is reminding us of a sad fact of life: you can look like a Christian, sound like a Christian, and act like a Christian without the punch of spiritual vitality. St. Paul speaks of this when he describes some Christians as, Having the appearance of godliness, but denying the power (2 Timothy 3:5) Just like rock salt, our saltiness can dissolve, leaving us a shell of spiritual reality and power. I call it piety without power. Jesus says that empty religiosity is useless. If the world isn t changed if salt doesn t get out of the salt shaker and sprinkled all over people out there it is meaningless. The kingdom is near but it s not here inside you or out there in the world. 3. IF YOU WANT TO STAY IN, STAY SALTY Jesus ends verse 13, it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people s feet. Useless is useless. It takes up valuable space in an overcrowded world. So it gets tossed. Jesus is not a hoarder. He gets rid of that which gets in the way of growth. He cuts off branches that don t bear fruit, culls out goats who get in the way of sheep, and tosses salt that has lost its saltiness. But he has better plans for us. We are the salt of the earth. By continually living the beatitude life travelling the neverending circle of growth we get saltier with every passing day. So our best days are ahead of us as individuals and the church. The Salinas de San Andreas supplied salt to North America for 6,000 years. But today it stands desolate in the Pecos badlands of West Texas. Cars drive by on a lonely stretch of highway, and passengers don t even know that at one time wars were fought to gain the salt that enriched generations of people. May better things be said of us that we will remain the salt that cures everything. Copyright April 29, 2012 by Covenant Church of Naples / PCA