SPECIAL DAYS: Third Sunday in Lent, Girl Scout Sunday

March 3, 2002 - Lesson: Matthew 5.13

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1. You will never guess the inspiration for this sermon title.
1. I was thinking of the old children's story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
2. She invaded the home of the bears.
1. She tried the porridge: Too Hot, Too Cold, Just Right
2. She sat in chairs: To Big, Too Small, Just Right
3. She wanted to take a nap in one of the Beds: Too Hard, Too Soft, Just Right.
3. We need to find ways to get it just right.
4. Get what just right?

MAIN BODY:

1. The lesson for this morning as it was read: "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
1. We can add the saying from the Gospel of Mark: ⁵⁰Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." (Mark 9:50, NRSVA)
2. What is salt?
2. We can define salt by what has gone before.
1. The Beatitudes from Matthew 5:3-11 (NRSVA) are the salt.
1. ³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. ⁴"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
3. ⁵"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
4. ⁶"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
5. ⁷"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
6. ⁸"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
7. ⁹"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
8. ¹⁰"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9. ¹¹"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
2. This is the salt.
   1. It is salt because of what Jesus has said about the "new commandments," the principles of his kingdom.
   2. These are the characteristics and actions that Jesus desires us to achieve.

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3. Salt as grace.
1. ⁵Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. ⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6 (NRSVA)
1. Gracious is a word for which we ought to seek a meaning.
2. Lets look at a little Greek:
1. ÷Üñéò, charis, khar'-ece: graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (...especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude):--acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).
3. Grace can be understood as:
1. Manner of living: life-style.
2. Type of actions that are acceptable and beneficial.
4. But then salt has to be used.
1. What does the scripture say?
2. "You are the salt of the earth;
1. but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
2. It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
3. If we are the salt both inwardly and outwardly then it is talking about us.
4. We are no longer good for anything but to be thrown out as useless.
5. The uses of salt.
1. Salt as influence.
1. ENRON
1. The GAO (General Accounting Office) has filed a suit to collect information from Vice-president Cheney.
2. Did ENRON influence domestic energy policies?
3. We will only have to wait and see.
2. Political Actions Committees have enormous power through the generous contributions that they make to specific candidates.
3. Lobbyists use their influence to convince legislatures and the general public of the benefits of their proposals.
4. The Christian also has enormous influence.

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. ⁽¹⁾

5. To be influential use what I have discovered in Homiletics Magazine as The Bartimaeus Principles found in Mark 10:46-52 (NRSVA)
6. Bartimaeus was blind and wanted Jesus to heal him.
7. He meet all kinds of opposition, but prevailed, and received his sight.
8. The Bartimaeus Principles are:
1. You must call on the One who has the power to heal and reform.
2. You must refuse to stay put
3. You must refuse to slow down
4. You must refuse to shut up.
5. He "followed him on the way" (v. 52).
1. He had been sitting
2. Then he's standing.
3. Now he's following.
4. He refuses to slow down.
9. Here is a wonderful story that I read that comes from an anonymous source.

Sarah came from a family where there was little love.

Criticism, fighting, ridicule and violence were the rule. Never spoken were "I love you," or "I am sorry, forgive me."

Then Sarah found a new self in faith through Christ. She met Jesus and in faith she began to act differently at home.

She would stop in the middle of a fight and ask to be forgiven.

She began to say, "I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad."

She began giving hugs.

She began returning blessings for curses, compliments for ridicule, forgiveness when wronged.

Over a period of two years of giving blessings to parents and siblings, the entire family met Jesus and gave themselves to his love.

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2. Salt as a preservative.
1. The less salt the less the preservative.
2. The more salt, the more preservative

"William Buckley said:

"If you mention God once at a New York dinner party, you are met with stony silence.

"Mention God twice and you don't get invited to any more dinner parties." ⁽²⁾

3. You don't even have to mention God, you just have to be.

Years ago, a Johns Hopkins professor gave a group of graduate students this assignment: Go to the slums. Take 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and environment. Then predict their chances for the future. ⁽³⁾

The students, after consulting social statistics, talking to the boys and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys would spend some time in jail.

Twenty-five years later, another group of graduate students was given the job of testing the prediction. They went back to the same area. Some of the boys - by then men - were still there, a few had died, some had moved away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They found that only four of the group had ever been sent to jail.

Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly good record? The researchers were continually told: "Well, there was a teacher ..."

They pressed further and found that in 75 percent of the cases it was the same woman. The researchers went to this teacher, now living in a home for retired teachers.

How had she exerted this remarkable influence over that group of children? Could she give them any reason why these boys should have remembered her?

"No," she said, "no, I really couldn't." And then, thinking back over the years, she said musingly, more to herself than to her questioners: "I loved those boys...."

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CONCLUSION:

1. There is an old saying:

Some people bring joy wherever they go.

Other people bring joy whenever they go. ⁽⁴⁾

2. Let us be salty people
1. Not too much
2. Not too little
3. Just right.

   1. Betty Reese

   2. Quoted in John M. Buchanan, "Oh, The Places You Will Go!" (24 October 1993), Chicago, Illinois.

   3. Cited on Top 100 Inspiring Anecdotes and Wisdom, www.bizmove.com

   4. Anonymous

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