You Already Have What It Takes to Change the World

You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

When I was growing up in Ireland,

my father had an expression,

just one simple phrase that summed up a person,

and it was a compliment.

He would see somebody that he thought well of,

somebody that he thought was authentic,

they were genuine, you could count on them.

He would say,

"Ah, that man is a salt of the earth man."

It was a sort of a definitive statement.

It meant that you could always count on him,

that his handshake meant something,

that he would never go back on his word,

that you could always believe he was authentic,

believe what he said.

In so many ways, he witnessed this himself.

He was a man who was salt of the earth himself,

and he himself would model this.

The whole intention, of course,

rather subtly was to say,

I want you to be a salt-of-the-earth man.

A person who people can always rely on,

a person who will always speak the truth,

even to power,

who is not afraid to say what needs to be said

and to always be a companion for those in need.

I think we all know people like that,

because they stand out.
They stand out like a light in the midst of darkness.

We have people in our families

who we would say they are salt-of-the-earth people.

We have people in our community here

who we can always rely on.

They are the ones who always show up without being asked.

They are the ones who we can always rely on.

When things are difficult,

they are the ones who we hear,

they are the ones we listen to.

They are the ones who hold our communities together.

This is the salt of the earth.

The challenge in Silicon Valley today for us

is that we somewhat glorify or hold up

those who are agents of disruption,

innovation, of power.

They are the ones we tend to glorify.

They are the ones we tend to hold up

as models or our leaders in our community.

I suppose they are, in one sense, leaders,

driving our community to new levels

of competition, new levels of innovation.

But the ones who hold our community together

are the ones who are the quiet salt of the earth,

men and women,

the ones who are behind the scenes,

who want no fanfare.

They do not look for recognition

and they give without counting the cost.

They give without recognition.

They are the ones in a sense

that hold families together.

They are the ones who will be there

to give wisdom, give love and compassion,

empathy when needed.

They are the salt of the earth

that we rely on to keep our communities bound together.

In a lot of ways, that is what the Boy Scouts

and Girl Scouts rely on,

to be that type of person,

to stand out as one who is known for their actions.

In today’s readings,

we hear this whole theme of the salt of the earth,

and we have to unpack it a little bit.

We have just heard the Sermon on the Mount,

we have just heard the Beatitudes.

And now He launches into this.

He says, that is what they are called to be,

to be merciful, to be peacemakers, to be humble.

But now He comes along and He tells them who they are.

And that language is rather shocking.

He does not say, I need you to become

salt of the earth or light of the world.

He does not say, if you do this,

then you will be salt of the earth.

He says, you ARE salt of the earth.

You ARE the light of the world.

And it is because of what is already within them,

the gift of faith,

that Christ Jesus already is within them.

It is what they already have.

Now their challenge is to live it,

to be what they are,

to be this salt of the earth,

to be this light in the world today.

It is not a challenge of what to do

as much as to who they already are,

to let it come out, to let it shine forth within them.

Now, if you look at these readings,

they are really powerful.

What does salt do?

In the ancient world,

it was a really important substance.

This was not just having it on the kitchen counter.

No, this was a really important commodity.

Salt preserved food.

It was critical for that

because they did not have refrigeration.

Also, salt was for adding flavor to the meal,

enhancing the meal to new levels.

Salt was also used for healing wounds.

I know it sounds painful,

but that is actually how it was used.

In fact, salt was how they paid the soldiers.

The Roman soldiers were paid in salt.

That is where we get the word salary from.

Salary comes from the word salt

and they were paid in salt.

That is how important the commodity was.

We are called to be the salt that He tells us we are.

We are the ones who are called

to preserve justice in our world.

We are the ones who preserve the values

of what Christ has called us to be.

We are the ones who are called to enhance the world

with empathy and with kindness and with gentleness.

We are the ones who are called

to be the salt in the world,

to bring healing to our world,

to those who are wounded,

to those who are in need of tenderness.

That is our challenge.

This is echoed by our first and second readings.

Our first reading now turns

to the metaphor of the light,

this light of the world.

Isaiah reminds them that they are the light of the world

when you take care of the homeless and the needy,

you are the light to them.

You bring the light in the darkness.

But here is the thing about light.

We do not see light.

We see because of light.

Because we have light, then we see.

But we do not actually see light itself.

It is the other way around.

So, the Lord is calling and saying,

we are the light of the world.

In other words, people will see

the good works that we do.

They will see God present in our lives

and then give glory to God.

That is what Isaiah is saying.

So, when we do acts of charity,

those acts of justice,

where we reach out to those who are in need,

whether they are immigrants or whether they are homeless,

that this is what we are called to do.

Acts of generosity, acts of sacrifice.

When people see that,

then they will give glory to God.

In the letter from Paul to the Corinthians,

he continues to remind them

who the center of their life is meant to be, it is Christ.

The one who does this is Christ

who is already within us.

And the faith that we have

is that Christ is already working in our hearts.

We do this,

not because we are so good,

but because Christ is working through us.

That we are humble enough to know

that it is not us,

but God’s grace through Christ in our lives.

Now, all that sounds amazing.
It is wonderful.

The question is,

how do you and I do this in our own lives?

There are a couple of different circles.

The first circle is the inner circle

inside our own family,

that we need to be the light inside our own family.

We need to be this salt of the earth inside our own.

We are the ones who we should be caring

for the littlest in our family, and the eldest.

To make sure that we are kind

to our parents and grandparents,

that they feel our love.

That in their most fragile time of life,

they need that we are pouring our hearts out to them.

But also, the youngest who need our attention to grow,

to grow and be formed in the faith.

That this is what we do. This is who we are.

It is the salt of the earth, light of the world.

That is who we are.

But then we also need to be the salt of the earth

and light of the world in our community.

And how do we do that? It is by our deeds.

By our deeds of being this.

First of all, believing that it is Christ

who is working through us,

that we are called to speak up for justice

when necessary.

To use our voice and maybe use our feet.

And sometimes that requires us to protest.

I get that.

But most of the time it requires us

to witness empathy and kindness

to those who are on the furthest extreme.

That is where we are called to be,

not just in our community, but in the whole world.

I believe wholeheartedly, my friends,

that that is our call.

In a few minutes, we are going to acknowledge

the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who are among us,

who learned this through their parents

and their scout leaders.

How to be this light in the world.

How to add, in the sense of salt,

to add and preserve,

to preserve goodness and truth and beauty in our world.

That they are called to be,

and we are all called,

to be a healing presence in our world.

That is a call for all of us.

So today, as we come forward to receive Christ,

to be this in the world,

know that Christ is already working in our lives.

All we need to do, and it sounds so simple,

we have to cooperate with the Christ

who is working in our lives.

But that is our work.

We need to do something with that.

We cannot, as the gospel says,

we cannot hide the light under a bushel basket.

That is not appropriate.

We have been given this light,

so now we must shine it for all to see.

So today, let us hear the words really carefully.

Not only as a challenge,

but as a reminder of who we are.

You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.