As some of you know, when I went hiking in the Bob Marshal wilderness this summer some mountain goats visited our campsite. It was our first day on the trail and we had just finished the long and steep path over the mountain pass. We were tired and sweaty but happy to have found a beautiful alpine meadow to set up our hammock for the night. So we were really surprised to find these wild mountain goats so interested in us! At first, we assumed it was because other campers may have fed them. And that may be the case. But we later learned that what they were most likely interested in – was our salt. Sweaty salty bandanas would have seemed like a salted caramel nut roll to them. They wanted salt.
Salt is essential not only for goats – but for us too. What would we do without it? We use it not only to season our food, but also as a preservative, a cleaner and even hate to think about it yet but to melt ice in the winter.
Probably because we use it for so many things, the word “salt” has come to mean much more than its everyday uses. In Jesus’ day, salt was so valuable that Roman soldiers were paid in salt – which is where we get the word “salary.” When warring tribes came together to make peace, they did so over a meal which had meat and… of course salt. So when a covenant, an agreement was made, they said it was “salted.”
Jesus uses the word metaphorically in Matthew, telling his followers, “You are the salt of the earth.” In our passage today from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says three different and kind of confusing things about salt. But I want to focus here on the last one (Our Bible study on Sunday will focus on the other two). Jesus invites his disciples to, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
To understand what is going on, let me remind you that the disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus answers that if they want to be first, they must be last and servant of all. And then, he picks up a child – a person in those days who had no status whatsoever – as an example of who he wants them to welcome. Jesus wants the disciples – and us – to see that he is turning the world’s values upside down. It isn’t who you know or how much money you make or how much status you have that is important.
But before Jesus can even set the child down --- John interrupts by telling Jesus about how he and the other disciples told off some guy who was using Jesus’ name to heal because he wasn’t a part of their group – he wasn’t following us – that is, the disciples.
At this point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is already heading to Jerusalem. He has been teaching in parables and showing his might and power through acts of healing. But there isn’t much time left. So Jesus becomes a lot more direct. As Flanner O’ Conner once said, “To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.” And that is just what Jesus does. He uses hyperbole and strong language to get the attention of his disciples because he doesn’t want the disciples or us to get distracted by tweedle beedle battles or spend their energy fighting amongst themselves.
For what Jesus wants for his disciples and us is to live like the people that God has made us to be. This is why he extolls them and us to: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” For Jesus knows, challenges will come.
And challenges have certainly come for us this past year. And by “us” – I mean everyone. As is always the case, the poorest and most vulnerable were hit hardest, but pandemic has affected everyone in some way – some got ill, too many lost loved ones, many felt isolated, children fell behind in school, parents were stressed, those on the front lines were pressed into hard service again and again and we all got weary. And when we get tired, that is when it’s easiest to stumble. At least that’s what I’ve found.
It was a long way up the mountain pass but I had my eye on a big rock that I assumed was the top of the pass – and it didn’t look so far. But… when we got to that rock, we discovered that it was only a lovely plateau. Hidden on the other side of that rocky ledge was a very large rocky avalanche field with a narrow path that wound back and forth and up and up and up the mountainside and I could not see where it ended. All I could see was that it was going up. The sun was getting higher; there was no shade. My pack was feeling heavier and I was getting weary and I was starting to grumble on the inside but I kept on trudging forward because I knew we had a long way to go. I was trying to smile but my feet were starting to stumble.
My partner noticed. Maybe his feet were tired too. He had an even bigger pack than I did. He said, ‘let’s sit down and have lunch and drink some water.” And so we did… we had a meal of chicken salad and salted nuts. With my backpack off, I was able to look back and see how to see beauty around us and look down at the glacier fields below us and see how far we had come. We still had a long way to go but it didn’t seem as impossible as it had before. I felted refreshed and “salted” and ready to begin again.
I wonder if that is what we need to do for one another. Perhaps what we need is to be “salted” – so that we can be at peace with one another. After all, this is a time in which I think everyone is weary from dealing with the pandemic and so sometimes we do not act as our best selves. So what if we recognized this in ourselves – and in others – and gave both yourself and whoever you consider “other” a huge helping of grace – or call it “salt.” For what Jesus wants for us and for all of God’s children, including or maybe especially for the weak, the vulnerable, the powerless, is that we be “salted” and be at peace. Thanks be to God. Amen.
September 26, 2021 Faith -Lilac Way Lutheran Pastor Pam Stalheim Lane