Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 15, 2023 “Salty Christians” Matthew 5:13-16 - Common English Bible Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise our God who is in heaven. It was 1930 in India, a country occupied by the British Empire. The British liked to project illusions of gentlemen and civility, but like any imperial power, they ruled with an iron fist. Indians wanted to be free of their colonizers. Mohandas Gandhi was tasked with identifying a plan of action for the Indian National Congress, the main proponents of independence. Gandhi’s idea? Making salt. Seasoning for food. Why in the world? The British forbade the production of salt or sale of it by anyone except the British, who sold it for an exorbitant price with a hefty tax on top. It was illegal for Indians to collect salt along the sea or anywhere else in the country. Collect it or sell it. In the hot and humid country of India, salt not just flavoring; it was a nutritional necessity. Gandhi proposed collecting salt along the sea as a non-violent demonstration. Delegates to the Indian National Congress laughed at the idea. And when Gandhi sent a letter to the British Viceroy informing him of his intention for a Salt March, he too laughed and said, “The prospect of a salt campaign does not keep me awake at night.” Gandhi went ahead with it anyway. He gathered 80 participants and began a march toward the sea, 240 miles away. Along the way he stopped in towns and villages to explain his program of non-violent demonstration and to gather more supporters. He provided education and training in his ideas. By the time he reached the sea 24 days later, there were more than 12,000 people marching with him. The press started following along, which drew more attention – which is, of course, the whole idea. Non-violence lets people see the absurdity of the law. Indians are not allowed to collect and produce their own salt?! It prompts change when met by an appeal to morality; or embarrassment. On the appointed day, April 5, Gandhi spoke and led prayers and then walked down to collect the sea salt crystalized at the beach after every high tide. The British were still unimpressed by the demonstration but just in case, soldiers had crushed into the mud all the salt that had gathered. There would be no salt to harvest. Undaunted, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud. And with that, he defied British law. Inspired by this simple act, civil disobedience broke out all across India. Not violence. Just millions of Indian citizens collecting, boiling, whatever it took to make salt for seasoning food. British authorities arrested 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. He was jailed on May 5th until the next January. Later that month a poet led another march of 2,500 people. Several hundred British-led police viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators, prompting international condemnation. Change did not come quickly, but 16 years later, India won its independence. And it started with salt. American Civil Rights leaders went to India in the 1940s to learn from Gandhi himself, including Bayard Rustin, a Quaker already steeped in pacifism and non-violence. He spent 7 weeks with Gandhi learning how to apply his methods. Martin Luther King, Jr, was introduced to the ideas of Gandhi and non-violent demonstrations while he was in college. You may or may not know that Bayard Rustin was the architect of many of the demonstrations through which we came to know Dr. King, including the famous “I Have a Dream” March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. It was Rustin’s leadership that contributed to the success of numerous non-violent demonstrations, but recognition of his role was minimized because he was an openly gay man. He was open only because he had been set up in a sting operation by police in Los Angeles, but he embraced his identity. Dr. King was strongly advised to shun Rustin, but he refused to do so, though he kept their cooperation quiet. Rustin was too much of a genius to ignore. Much of what we remember as the civil rights movement came from Gandhi and Rustin as well as Dr. King. Anyway, as I was thinking of my sermon for this Sunday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I googled MLK and salt to see if he had said anything about this passage in a sermon. None that I could find. But I kept digging and came upon Gandhi’s salt march. I don’t remember hearing about it before, or if I had, it was long ago and I forgot and couldn’t tell you anything about it. But I liked the idea of connecting the significant impact of Gandhi upon Dr. King and the larger civil rights movement, and how they connected to the words of Jesus – You are the salt of the earth. These words follow immediately after the Sermon on the Mount – the Beatitudes – where Jesus speaks of “them” and “they.” Those who mourn. Those who are meek and peacemakers and so forth. Then he looked directly at the crowd and said, “You.” You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Not, one day you will be. Not that you should be. Not, if you do such and such, then you will be salt and light. No, right here and right now, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. However, Jesus asks a very challenging question. What good are you if you have lost your saltiness? What good are you if you hide your light under a basket? Let your light shine so people can see the good things you do and praise God. Not praise for you and the good things you do but which cause people to praise God. The story is told that one Sunday morning Gandhi decided to visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta – not to project, just to visit. But as he entered, he was stopped at the door by the ushers and told he was not welcome. This particular church, he was told, was only for high-caste Indians and white, neither of which he was. Because of that rejection, Gandhi later declared, “I’d be a Christian if it were not for the Christians.” Another story is told that he said “I like the teachings of Christianity. Christians should try them.” I can’t verify whether he actually said this or it’s a popular legend but it raises the question I think Jesus posed: Are you salty enough? What does that mean? I’m glad Juanita and Larry asked to read from Letter from Birmingham Jail. I’ve always been challenged by the line: the greatest stumbling block is not the KKK but white moderates. Christians without flavor. Are you salty enough? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turned ordinary values upside down. He turned conventional wisdom on its head. He redefined the idea of blessing. In his first sermon, instead of those who were used to being privileged by virtue of their wealth or power or status, Jesus elevated the poor, and the meek, and the oppressed and persecuted – they are blessed by God, said Jesus. Are you salty enough? Jesus declared “blessed” are people in mourning and those who are merciful. He praises those who get in good trouble for being prophets – who hunger and thirst for justice – and says, “You are the salt of the earth.” You who live by the values of the kingdom of heaven have a unique flavor. Is it salty enough? I have a couple of questions about our saltiness. At Riverside Church in New York City, a UCC congregation, Dr. King said, “A true revolution of values will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar [or promising they’ll get their reward in heaven]. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” So, first question: Is your faith salty enough to encourage a prophetic response to injustice or a tasteless complacency with suffering? Second question: Does your faith promote non-violence? Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King said, “Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes in the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.” Does your salt have taste? Third question: Is your faith salty enough to be first and foremost grounded in love? Dr. King said, “there’s a reason Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: love has within it a redemptive power; a power that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.” Does your salt have taste? Or will it be thrown out and trampled underfoot? Final question, though there are many more: Does your faith work toward the fundamental dignity and equality of all human beings, repairing the breaches of the past, or look the other way when some act like they are superior, even if you don’t believe that? Dr. King observed, “On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. Over and over I have found myself asking: ‘What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?’ It was to those Christians that Dr. King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail. “In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern. And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.” But Jesus himself asked: Do you actually love your neighbor? Every neighbor? Do you feed the hungry and clothe the naked or visit the sick and those in prison? Do you welcome the stranger? Do you seek justice for the widow and orphan and immigrant? If not, of what use are Christians who have lost their saltiness? What good is a church that has no taste? You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Let others see your deeds of love and justice in order that they may come to know and to praise God.
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