"Salted for Service"

“Salted for Service”¹

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus says, “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Salt is necessary to every living thing on this planet, and it serves very specific functions. But if it loses its character, it is of no value. But how can salt lose its saltiness?

You are Christians. You have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, and He has marked you as a redeemed child of God. In this way, you could say that Jesus has salted you. And what happens when salt is present? It flavors everything around it. Just a little bit in a recipe changes the whole composition of the dish. It only takes a little handful of salt to melt a whole sidewalk full of ice. And there is no way salt can be anything but salty. When Jesus asks how you can make salt salty again, He is indicating that salt cannot lose its flavor. Salt is by nature salty, and nothing can change that. Likewise, you are a child of God, and nothing can change that fact. You cannot become un-baptized. God will never un-love you.

Life Together

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The World War II-era German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, Life Together,

Without Christ we should not know God, we could not call upon Him, nor come to Him. But without Christ we also would not know our brother, nor could we come to him. The way is blocked by our own ego. Christ opened up the way to God and to our brother. Now Christians can live with one another in peace; they can love and serve one another; they can become one. But they can continue to do so only by way of Jesus Christ. Only in Jesus Christ are we one, only through Him are we bound together. To eternity He remains the one Mediator.¹

In this way, Bonhoeffer summarizes the two basic dimensions of Jesus' work for you. He died and rose to reconcile you to God in heaven. And He also died and rose to reconcile you to your brother here on earth. Jesus is, and ever shall remain, the one Mediator between God and man, and between man and his brother.

"Lord, I Believe; Help My Unbelief!"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What makes one worthy to be healed by Christ? Is this child, brought by his father before the disciples, who failed to heal him, truly worthy to have his evil spirit removed? Are you worthy to come before Christ our Lord and beg Him to remove the evil spirits which plague you daily and much? Only those who are truly worthy and well-prepared may approach God and hope to receive His blessings and favor.

However, we believe, teach, and confess that “worthiness does not depend upon great or small weakness or strength of faith, but upon the merit of Christ, which the distressed father of little faith enjoyed as well as Abraham, Paul, and others who have a joyful and strong faith.” (FC SD VII 71 Triglot). For, you see, the merits of Christ, His glorious omnipotence, and His all-availing sacrifice on the cross are sufficient to make worthy by faith to receive the mercy and the gifts of God.

The thing is, the healing which Jesus brings to body and soul is only for those who have put to death any hope of finding help elsewhere. And this is precisely the problem.

No Other Glory

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The desire to see God is a common drive among mankind. Though it may manifest in various ways, much of man's searching and striving in life is an effort to see, to apprehend, to comprehend the divine. The divine touches every inch of creation, and yet how does one touch the divine?

A great many people seek to see God in nature, in the things of this world. This is a worldview common among tribal religions the world over, which seek to pacify the spirits who control the elements which might otherwise conspire against them. Hindus, too, see the divine in everything. The pantheism native to the East says that everything is divine, and so everything must be regarded as a potential object of worship. A deity might choose to speak to you through the newspaper you choose to read. The cow in your pasture might be the mother of your grandchildren. The trees house the ancient spirits of the earth.