A Poem/Reflection for V
Epiphany St.
Andrew’s Church, Nags Head, N.C. February 9, 2020 Thomas E.
Wilson, Supply Clergy
Salt and Light When You Have Nothing Left To Lose
For the past couple of weeks Matthew
has been telling a story of Jesus moving into his ministry. Matthew tells the
story of Jesus getting baptized by John. Jesus joins John’s group, but he needs
to find out more about his own ministry. In order to do that, he must confront
his own soul. C. G. Jung wrote: “People will do anything, no matter how absurd,
to avoid facing their own souls.” As Matthew tells it, the angels drive Jesus
into the wilderness, where Jesus must face his own soul.
We will get to that story in three
weeks on the first Sunday of Lent, which is a time for the church, and all of
us, to confront our own souls.
When Jesus
comes back from the Wilderness, he starts to return to John, but John had been
arrested by Herod. Jesus has lost his friend and mentor. I imagine that his
heart is broken because he is adrift. He wanders and picks up some followers
and finds that he is free; he has nothing to lose, because he has lost so much.
He has left Nazareth, his home, he has lost his father and the warmth of the
company of his mother and family. He has lost his past and now the only thing
is his present and God’s future. Jesus begins
to sing the Blues.
I am reminded
of one of my favorite songs written by Kris Kristofferson, and sometimes sung
by Janis Joplin, “Me and Bobbie McGee.”
Freedom's
just another word for nothin' left to lose
Nothin', don't mean nothin' hon' if it ain't free, no no
And, feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know, feelin' good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGhee
Nothin', don't mean nothin' hon' if it ain't free, no no
And, feelin' good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know, feelin' good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGhee
In 20th
Century America there developed a style of music called the Blues. It grew out
of Gospel Music but was practiced away from the church and sung in places far
away from traditional religious settings; but they were also places where
people were gathering to be honest in facing their lives. In Blues, one sings
of the sorrows to get them out, claiming them without blaming others and then
to put them away. Blues is truth telling, in order to see a new hope.
Throughout history the oppressed have sung variations of the Blues, based in a
faith that life has some sort of meaning.
Being free,
with nothing left to lose, Jesus gathers crowds and starts to share his soul. That first real sermon, about the Kingdom of the Heavens as he sees
it, is sometimes called "The Sermon on the Mount", on the shore of the northwest corner of the Sea of
Galilee. I remember when Pat and I were studying in Israel, one day we went walking
up the incline which is the traditional site for that event. There is a church
close by, but there wasn’t when Jesus preached, singing the blues. I had a
dream a couple weeks ago and in that dream we were back in that spot and it is almost as if I
could hear the moaning of a saxophone as Jesus is preaching. In the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus starts off with a series of beatitudes. “Blessed are” he
begins each beatitude while he proposes different ways of losing. He claims the
sorrow, getting them out in the open with a rigorous honesty and without
blaming others in order to claim hope.
Blessed are those no longer able to be full of themselves,
for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Blessed are those who are broken hearted, for they will be
comforted.
Blessed are those who no longer want to force others to
their will, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who can’t find rest in the smug status
quo, for they will be filled.
Blessed are those who no longer seek joy in revenge, for
they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are those who are no longer burdened down with anger
and greed, for they will see God.
Blessed are those no longer calling for war, for they will
be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are not safe because they take God seriously,
for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
The Greek word that Matthew uses for
“Blessed” in “makarioi”, which also can be translated into
English as “Happy”. Too often we just want to be happy as our life goal.
However, Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When All You Have Ever Wanted Isn’t
Enough, said, “You don’t become happy by pursuing happiness. You become
happy by living a life that means something.”
Jesus, our
Blues Singer and our Good Rabbi, points us in the direction of Happiness when
we live a life of meaning. He tells us that our meaning is found in being the
salt of the earth. In the time of Jesus, as well as in our own day, salt has
two functions: one is to give a certain savor, an awakening of a pleasant
flavor to something that can be seen as humdrum; and two, in the time before
refrigeration, something to keep things, like meat, from rotting too quickly,
so that it can be stored or transported. We treat salt so casually now when we
have refrigeration, but in the time of Jesus it was precious, indeed. If we are
to be salt of the earth, we are to be agents where people can savor the deep
flavor of creation. If we are to be the salt of the earth, we have a task to
keep those things which are precious from being wasted.
Part of my job as a priest of the
church is to help people face, taste and cherish their own souls. The Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. warned, “Any religion that professes to be concerned
about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the
economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple
them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
Jesus calls us to be the “light of
the world”, shining light to illumine the darkness of this world. To be salt
and light is to live into verse 8 of the 34th Psalm: “Taste and see
that the Lord is good; happy are they who put their trust in God.” Jesus is
singing the blues. Sing it brother!
In our nation now we have many
sorrows. Too often we want to blame others, to find scapegoats and place all
the blame on them. Scapegoating is what many of us do to avoid looking at our
own souls and sometimes it becomes a classic American art form; “It it were not
for those people; we would be happy, safe, secure, whatever it is we want to
avoid looking at our own souls to find hope.” It is what happens to Jesus; the
scapegoating of Jesus that we remember in Holy Week, when we especially meant
to encounter our own souls in order to find meaning in hope. As surely as
Easter follows Good Friday, Jesus is singing the blues. Sing it brothers and
sister!
Are we free
from, and/or free for?
All those
thoughts, words and deeds
in the past
moments are like weeds,
plucked and
thrown out souls’ door,
away from
robbing more of our energy,
and sets us
free; but free for us to do what?
Am I to pick
them back up again, to cut
them up into
a salad to feed a lethargy?
Or, throw
them away, as a hellova burden
we don’t
need, if we’re to do important work,
which for we,
in shame, found excuse to shirk;
to bring
light, not weeds, to God’s garden.
Reflecting
light helping Spirit’s fruits to grow,
so our lives
might have a meaning to show.
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