Sickness and Salt

As we finish up the Epistle of James, James brings us back to some basics of the Christian faith. For the core of Christianity has never been the Ten Commandments, a series of rules that must be followed to keep away the wrath of an angry God, but the core has been the Gospel, the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, part of God, who came to earth to teach us and sacrifice Himself that we might have our relationship with God the Father restored, and that we might realize the depth and breath and height of God’s love for us. And so James reminds us that we do not run from a wrath-filled God as children might run and hide from an abusive alcoholic father, but instead, Christians turn toward a loving, helpful Father who cares deeply about our struggles and delights in a mutual, loving relationship with us. James tells us:

¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 

When in trouble, we should turn to God in prayer, asking for help. When happy, we should also thank God with songs of praise. In both cases, we acknowledge the power and love of God – and our comparative weakness in front of God.

James continues:

¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James tells us that when we are ill, we need to turn to God, asking the elders, those of a deep, mature faith in the church to pray over us and anoint us with oil in the name of the Lord, of Jesus. And James tells us with full confidence that these prayers will make a sick person well because the Lord will raise us up.

Our illnesses have always been of two sorts. In 1900, people mainly died from infections – Pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria. Today, people mainly die from sin-related diseases - heart disease, cancer, diabetes, suicide, accidents, stroke. COVID is unusual and scary for us because we’ve mostly prevented infection-related death through vaccinations and antibiotics.

You see, there are the illnesses of infection – common in crowded cities, but less common on small farms. In ancient times, many deadly infections came about through accidents – a minor cut may become infected. Before antibiotics, a good cure for many of these wounds and abrasions and cuts was to apply oil to the wound. The oil suffocated the bacteria and led to healing – some of you may remember the old remedy of applying butter to a burn to help it heal – the butter was more common on our American farms than olive oil, and had the same effect.

The second type of illness found throughout time are the illnesses of sin, which we still have today. Cirrhosis of the liver mainly due to too much alcohol, heart disease mainly due to eating too much fat which the ancients called gluttony, diabetes mainly due to eating too much sugar, COPD and lung cancer and other cancers due mainly to smoking and too much alcohol, Congestive heart failure because of too little exercise which the ancients called sloth, high blood pressure due to eating too much salt as well as stressing ourselves out because of greed, envy, pride, and anger – what the ancients called wrath . Various other diseases because of too many sexual partners which the ancients called lust. Sometimes, the sin illness is caused by the sin of another - 2nd hand smoke, toxic-chemical caused cancers, etc. 

Yes, the illnesses of sin are still among us. James’ answer? “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

James’ prescription is quite simple. Turn to God and ask for help and forgiveness. Implicit in turning to the elders is also the idea of getting good advice. For, like today, people did not call in the elders until they were worried. Prayers were asked for when the normal remedies failed and the patient grew worse. Miracles were needed in those days, just as in these difficult days of COVID. And God delivered the goods. Confession is the first step to reducing stress as forgiveness is granted.

Every year at Annual Conference, there is a service of Remembrance for those pastors and their spouses who have transferred to the Church in Heaven over the previous twelve months. And I am constantly amazed at the very high ages of those who passed on – heavily weighted to the upper 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps there is something to this praying for good health?

So who should you call? Myself, of course. But also whoever you think of as elders in the church, people like Brooks and Donna and Patty and Terri and Pauline and Gene and Karen and Larry and Sam and Darla and Phil and Traci and whoever else you look up to in the church! This is not a ministry you decide you have – it is a ministry that other people decide that you have. It is not age-dependent – if you are called upon, pray for the person! If you feel you need oil, take some olive oil – or purchase some fragrant healing oil at Mardel, the Christian store beside Hobby Lobby.

Notice that James believes this is a ministry that many, many people can have, because this is not a special power given to only a few people – the Lord is the one with the power. James says:  “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

This is to be a mutual ministry, regular Christians praying for each other. And James uses Elijah as an example.

¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

And James goes on to tell us that there is another mutual ministry, another ministry for all Christians. He says:

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, ²⁰ remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

My friends, Christianity was never meant to be a spectator sport, a sport with a few professionals and many observers. No, Christianity is something where everyone gets onto the field, gets their hands dirty, works to help each other, lifting each other up, working together like an ant colony that has found an open sugar bowl or an Amish community trying to build a house with a line of thunderstorms moving in. They have it right, working together for God’s glory.

Jesus established this idea of working together. One day the disciple John came to Jesus, all in a tizzy. “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

Jesus never tried to limit people from joining His cause – and He never tried to restrain people from doing good. It is a good policy for the church to follow – if you have an idea for a ministry, talk it over with a few people and then, after getting advice, DO IT! The church should not be a controlling entity, but instead should be an encouraging entity.

Do you realize that there are only three things which I can do in the Methodist Church which you cannot do? Those three things are to baptize, to bless communion, and to perform a wedding. Do you want to preach? We have a Basic Course that will take you a day plus a few hours of prep work and you can preach. Do you want to do a funeral? There’s a track for that in the back of the hymnal. And I’ll tell you this – in a pinch, if someone is dying and you are at their death bed and I’m not able to be there – go ahead and baptize them.

You see, Jesus has given permission to you to do ministry. In fact, Jesus has asked you to do ministry. Lift up other people, pray for their healing, anoint them with oil, take up the mantle and act like a Christian leader and you will be blessed by God. As Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” Do the least good, do it to anyone – that is what Christians do.

Jesus then spent some time talking about things that cause us or another to stumble. And His prescription is – get rid of what is causing you to stumble, get rid of what is blocking your path. He even says that if your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble cut it off or pluck it out because it is better to enter life handicapped than to go to Hell with a perfect body.

What is preventing you from doing good? What is preventing you from helping people? What is preventing you from going to church?

Is it Sunday work? Go to the Cedar Grove United Methodist website and watch or listen to the service when convenient.

Is it too much attention paid to a television show? Call a person each day and speak with them about Jesus!

Is it time spent endlessly scanning Facebook? Post uplifting messages or texts.

Is it time watching football? Invite friends over and tell them about what you’ve learned in church over the years.

Is it a fear of dialing the phone? Walk next door and take your neighbor some dessert.

Is it fear of speaking to your neighbor? Put the dessert on the porch with a kind note, ring the doorbell, and run away!

Is it fear of COVID? No one has yet contracted COVID through the telephone lines. Call someone – start with people in the directory you don’t know and introduce yourself as attending the church.

For it is better to cut off, to throw away what ever is making you stumble, whatever you fear, whatever is keeping you from loving God and serving God than you should go to Hell.

Have you considered that your health, your diabetes, your heart failure, your trouble breathing has a cause and it may be something under your control with God’s help? Have you considered that your tiredness is causing you to stumble, that your inactivity is the direct cause of people dying and NOT going to Heaven, for you believe that your health, your energy level is not under your control? If you had more energy, would you feel more like serving God? The two are connected, but many of us actually enjoy not having energy, we enjoy being couch kittens, we love the excuse that our health gives us. Satan loves our excuses, also. Satan loves that we do not follow James’ advice to invite the elders of the church over to pray over us. For tiredness, hurting joints, poor health can be cured by God. And we can join in His mission. If we want – and follow the biblical advice of James and Jesus.

And now the deep part of this reading. Now for the deep water.

After telling people to cut off offending members and pluck out offending eyeballs that cause us to stumble, Jesus says this difficult to understand pair of verses:

⁴⁹ Everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰ “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

These verses draw upon two ideas.

First, as part of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 5, just after the part where Jesus speaks the Beatitudes – you know, “blessed are the poor…blessed are the peacemakers, etc.”?, Jesus tells His listeners that ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

Let’s understand this in more detail.

Today, we buy salt for less than a dollar a pound. But in ancient times, salt was expensive to buy and transport. Even in the 6^th Century, a caravan of horses and camels left the Mediterranean coast of Africa, the north coast, and traveled to Timbuktu in the western part of the Sahara desert carrying gold. In Timbuktu, the gold was exchanged for an equal weight of salt, which was then carried back to the coast and shipped to Europe. Salt was literally worth its weight in gold. In today’s money, it would have had a value of about $28,000 per pound.

Why so valuable?

First, salt is necessary for life. I know you’ve been told to cut back on your salt, but if you cut it out completely, you will die. It is so important that one of the basic types of taste buds on the tongue is devoted to finding salt. That’s why salty food tastes good. Many animals get their salt from the blood that remains in the meat they eat – and plant eaters, like deer and cattle, get their salt from licking salty rocks. But without salt, we all die. Salt gives life.

Second, salt is a great way to preserve food. Have you noticed that ham is often preserved with salt, spam is filled with salt, even sauerkraut has much salt in it. Salt keeps food from rotting – it preserves it. Wherever the salt touches the meat, the bacteria that would rot the meat die. Salt defeats corruption – salt preserves.

In Numbers 18, verse 19, the offerings that are sacrificed by Israel are said to make “an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD.”

The followers of Christ - We are to be the salt of the earth, giving the earth good flavor, giving life, destroying the sin, preserving the good, keeping the covenant with the LORD. Not just pastors – all Christians. All people who follow Christ.

And…Christians should remember…on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit arrived as tongues of fire.

And so, Jesus, speaking here months before Pentecost, is speaking about how “everyone will be salted with fire.” Imagine flecks of the fire of the Holy Spirit being sprinkled over each of us, God’s grace entering us, giving us life, preserving us from decay, destroying sin in us like a kernel of salt will kill the bacteria in meat. We have been sprinkled with the holy fire, like you might sprinkle salt on a steak. That’s verse 49 – “Everyone will be salted with fire.”

And verse 50? “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?” Of course, the question is rhetorical – you can’t make salt salty if it loses its flavor. And if we are to be the salt of the earth, then Jesus is asking us – what happens if we lose our saltiness? What happens if we stop being a good seasoning in the culture? How can our goodness be restored if we lose it?

Yet, many Christians have lost their saltiness. They cannot be distinguished from the bland, ordinary people of the world – fighting, bickering, whining, worrying, complaining. Christians should be easy to spot, for they are the people who everyone should want to be near, for they bring life, they do not carry the sin of decay, they are constantly seen as valuable. Do you have the salt of the Spirit – or have you lost your saltiness? If you have, dig deeply into scripture, pray strongly, and ask for God’s help restoring your saltiness!

He commands us: “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” We are to remain faithful, healing each other, lifting each other up, giving life to each other, praying, healing, helping each other when we drift away, pulling together, preserving the good, destroying the sin and evil among us, and remaining known as the salt of the earth. We are to be human salt shakers, sprinkling that powder of the Holy Spirit that God has given us all around, like a magic dust that gives life, preserves goodness, and destroys evil and sin. Shake your salt everywhere you go!

We are to jointly give our community a good flavor. We are to be responsible to and for each other – there is no sitting in the stadium watching – we are all players on the field in this game. Or we will be overwhelmed by the evil of the world. What is your part? What will you do to support the mission Jesus has given us? Who will you heal? When will you step forward and join us in that mission? Where does your salt fly?

And this does not take extreme work – it does take a radical change in attitude, for every time we walk past a person we can speak to them words of life, spreading salt. Every time we sit beside a person we can speak more words of life, spreading the Gospel. Every time we meet someone, we can either act like the bland people of the world – or spread a little bit of Holy Spirit salt. Following Christ is not measured by a couple big events in our lives – following Christ is something we do daily, hourly, even every minute. A grain of salt here, a grain of salt there – and the world tastes better for all.

John Wesley spoke of the “Character of a Christian”. It is a character that is always looking to improve both ourselves and the world around us. It is a kindly character, a friendly character, an uplifting character, a pleasant character who loves everyone – even our enemies, even those who are unpleasant, even those who would banish us from this life. It is an active character, people who have eternity on their mind rather than the little, trivial things of the moment. The Christian character is striving to become holy, separate from the world, closer to God and Christ – and wants to lead others toward this better life, this better character. We want to change the world for the better – and then go onto eternal life with Christ much changed from the day we met Him.

We each have a different way to contribute, but we come together as a team. We each have a different way to support God’s mission but each way supports other ways. Consider your way to help others heal – listening, laying on hands, prayer, anointing, spreading the salt of the Holy Spirit, teaching, donating money, sharing uplifting posts and sermons, singing, calling up people and praying with them. Heal others – and yourself – through your gifts. Heal the rot in the world by sprinkling the salt of the Spirit all around!

Amen!