Sermon, 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

"Everyone will be salted with fire…Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (Mark 9:49,50)

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell us that in the economy of God, every human being has an everlasting value.  And God's value is worth far more than any "value" which the economy of man might assign.  Today, Jesus drops the other shoe.  But of course if you cut off a foot, then you don't need that other shoe, do you?  Now other than the occasional lunatic, no preacher in any pulpit preaching from this Gospel is going to take Jesus's warnings about amputation literally, otherwise we would all blind and lame.  But this Sunday, Jesus turns over the coin that last week said, "value," and this week says, "price."  The Good News is that whatever price must be paid in our lives can be paid, because Jesus has paid the greatest price already.

To catch us up: remember that last week, Jesus had predicted for the second time that he was going to be crucified and raised.  His disciples, for the second time, missed the part about resurrection.  And out of their anxiety for the future, began arguing about who would be the greatest when Jesus finally kicked the Romans' butts out of their Promised Land.  They were arguing over who was most valuable to Jesus.  So Jesus sighed and put a little child before them.  And taking that little child in his arms, Jesus told his followers to welcome that child as they welcomed him.  He presented the least valuable person in society and told his disciples to treat this person of no “value” as they would treat him.  The Seminary-speak for this is transvaluation.  Our values need to be transformed.  Our calculation of what, and who, is worth our time and investment needs to be transformed.  But what also needs to be transvalued is the price we are prepared to pay for that which we consider most valuable.

Something or someone can be valuable to us because we derive a material benefit from that person or thing, which we can quantify.  If the price is high, that means its value to us is high and we won’t sell it unless we get something of at least equal value.  It is worth our while.  To be blunt, it is worth the price we must pay.  Now Jesus has been imploring his disciples not to set a value on each other, because they are all of equal and everlasting value.  But as I already said, there’s another word for the value of something – price.  That which is most valuable is also that for which we must be prepared to pay the highest price.  And today is when we begin to get a glimpse of how high that price might be.

Of course, the price for eternal life is infinitely higher than we could ever pay.  Of course Jesus has already paid that price by his blood.  That is our blessed assurance, that by God's infinite grace a room in the house of heaven has already been prepared.  And yet, one cannot read today's Gospel, or Good News, and avoid the realization that we likely will have to pay with something of ourselves before we can fully benefit from that grace.

Are we too proud of our ability to see and know things that others cannot?  Does that ability give us the right to impose our better idea on those whom we suppose can't see as well as we can?  Is that what we must cut out of ourselves?  Can we manipulate the world around us and bring the piece of the world within our reach under our control?  Does this ability give us the right to manipulate and control people the same way we handle things?  What in our lives are we the most proud of?  Or to look at it another way; what are we most afraid of losing: our intelligence, our physical strength and talent, our independence?  Or what part of our lives do we work the hardest to hide, from others, even from ourselves?  Can we conceive cutting these off in order to enter the everlasting kingdom of God?

It has already been established that we are of everlasting value.  If Jesus's disciples didn't get that when presented with that little child, Jesus reemphasizes that truth with a different metaphor -- salt.  This week, the Hope diamond, all 45 carats of it, was brought out for public display this week by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.  But shiny and valuable as that rock might be, it's got nothing on salt.  There are about 14,000 known uses for salt today, in our factories, our hospitals, our homes.  Not all of those were known in Jesus's time of course.  But Roman soldiers understood the value of salt, perhaps better than we do, because part of their wages were paid to them as salt.  When Jesus says, "Have salt in yourselves," he is testifying to the everlasting value that each one of us has in the eyes of God.  At the same time, what most gives us that value is the price we are ready to pay, the fire that does not consume us but only refines.

Each of us needs refining.  Those parts of our lives of which we are the most proud, those are the parts of ourselves that we risk confusing with ourselves.  But we are not valuable to God because of anything we can do for God?  If you need to cut off your special talent, the thing you are most proud of, in order to discover that your true value comes from God’s grace, then cut it off.  If you need to cut off that part of yourself of which you are least proud, in order to fully know your need of God’s grace, then cut it off. 

Whether it is that of which we are the most proud, or that of which we are the least proud, those are the areas that will be salted with fire.  But let us not fear the fire.  Every Sunday we pray to the God "from whom no secrets are hid."  And yet that same God welcomes us to the banquet of his Son.  So let us not fear the fire, in whatever form it comes for us, and hide from it alone.  Let us have salt within ourselves, and be at peace, with God, with ourselves and with each other.