In our reading from the Gospel of Mark this week, we observe Jesus continuing to teach his disciples about how to live their lives when he’s no longer with them.
The disciple John came to Jesus with a worrying story of a man, who wasn’t one of their close knit group, who appeared to be driving out demons – and using the name of Jesus to accomplish it.

This didn’t seem right to the disciples and so they mentioned it to Jesus, expecting their master to be as angry as they were.  But Jesus surprised them by pointing out that it’s better for people to do these things in his name, rather than their own, because then they weren’t acting against him, as some of the religious leaders constantly were.

Jesus was being really hard on people whose actions caused the little children to sin and suggested that there would be some quite dire consequence for these sorts of people, like drownings with millstones around their necks, hands and feet cut off, being thrown into hell, where the fires never go out, etc.
In his ministry, Jesus had been using salt as a very important illustration of influential Christian life in the world.
In this passage he now compares purification by fire with the method of salting the sacrifices made at the temple.

Salt is an element that dissolves in water and when it dissolves, it grows weaker.
When the amount of water exceeds the amount of salt used, that salt loses both its saltiness and its identity.
We notice this in saltwater swimming pools after a lot of rain.

By resisting the dilution of their saltiness from the world’s wateriness (that is sin), Jesus was encouraging his listeners to stay strong in their convictions.

Many people probably think of salt as simply a granular, tasty, food seasoning, but only about 6% of all salt manufactured today goes into food.
Of the remainder, 12% is used in water conditioning processes, 8% goes for de-icing highways in frozen lands and 6% is used in agriculture and the majority is used in manufacturing and industrial chemicals.
Apparently, we use salt in more than 14,000 different ways from the making of products as varied as plastic, paper, glass, polyester, rubber and fertilisers to household bleach, soaps, detergents and dyes.

I think Jesus was referring to salt in a different way, so let me describe the world in the time when Jesus was ministering.

When Jesus came into this world, human life had lost its way and had fallen from the original glory that God has designed for it.
Sin had entered the world and people were becoming enslaved to it, controlled by its power.
Therefore, Jesus saw that the entire human species was needing restoration, renewal and transformation.

To restore humanity as a whole to the original status granted by God, Christ declared in John 10:10 that “I came to give life and life in abundance.”
This was an overt act of restoration and Jesus came to restore our life graciously and very generously.
One of the many great acts and actions of this good shepherd is the restoration of our souls.
The soul is the essence of human life and when it is restored, the essence of humanity is restored - regaining value, wisdom, character, dignity and hope.

To achieve renewal, the old must pass away so that the new may come.
God has been constantly renewing the covenant with his people.
This message has been echoing all the way from the days of the prophet Isaiah, through John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and it was even stated as an apocalyptic hope in the Book of Revelation.

The new life brought into the world, through Christ's plan of restoration, can never be put into an old container.
Jesus used the metaphor of putting a new wine into an old wineskin, which ends up producing a disastrous result both for the wine (which goes sour) and the wineskin (which breaks).

Thus, we see that renewal is at the heart of Christ's mission.
He renewed humanity by killing his old self and rising up with a newly resurrected identity of hope and future.

And that brings us to the process of transformation, which means going beyond the current state of being or format. This process of transformation happens through a transforming agent, which we call the Holy Spirit.
Jesus talked of the Holy Spirit as being a teacher, counsellor, companion, guide, leader, encourager and purifier. 

It was the Holy Spirit that Jesus was referring to, when he was talking about the fire that transforms.
As restored, renewed, and transformed human beings, we get our new identity from this Spirit.

The renewed Christian life, which was granted a salty identity to enable it to be influential, was made into what it currently is through the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Becoming salty means:
1. Becoming a symbol of value.
    In the days of Jesus, salt was a valuable element of transaction and commerce.
2. Becoming an element of therapy and healing.
    For nearly 8,000 years, salt has been used as a means of healing diseases and infirmities.
3. Salt has also been used as a substance of preservation through the ages to maintain and keep.
    Foods last longer when they’ve been salted.
4. Salt is now used to melt snow on very slippery roads, allowing people to still drive safely.
5. Salt brings out flavours and improves the taste of foods.
    It brings taste to the tasteless and flavour to something that doesn’t necessarily have any flavour of its own.
6. It’s used in making soap and chlorine.
    These elements are cleansing and purifying elements.

So, the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life transforms us into becoming the salt to the world.
This then makes us agents of purification and cleansing to society and the community.

These uses are all very symbolic when it comes to being restored, renewed, and transformed in our lives as Christians.
In this process of becoming and being salt to the world, the role of the fire of the Holy Spirit is very highly significant.

So, as I asked at the beginning, how do you feel that your level of saltiness is going?

And I’m not talking about the level of Sodium Chloride in your blood stream.
We all know that too much of that can cause cardio-vascular problems.

Instead, I’m talking about the kind of saltiness that heals, protects, preserves, clears the way and improves things.

This is what Jesus wants us to be – strong, salty people.

Do you think that you’re the sort of people that Jesus would want to be his representatives in the Kingdom?
You know, the strong & salty kind?

As you travel through this sinful world that we live in, don’t let it dilute or weaken you and your resolve to live your life the way God has always intended you to.

I’m encouraging you to be the sort of strong, salty people that Jesus can be proud of.

Pastor Rick

The reading from Mark’s Gospel isn’t a very long passage, but it contains a couple of interesting stories.

They must be important messages, because they’re covered in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke). We find the other readings in Matthew 18:1-5 and Luke 9:46-50.

The message in each Gospel is essentially the same:“Don’t think too highly of your own importance and welcome all people to you, especially the children.”

In the earlier chapters of Mark, we read that Jesus took Peter, James & John up onto the mountain and, whilst they were up there, the disciples saw Jesus talking to Moses & Elijah before he was transfigured (ie. lit up like a dazzling white figure) and they heard God saying “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Yet, despite this miracle, which, I’m sure, the 3 onlookers would have recounted to the other disciples, all the group could think about was themselves.
They didn’t appear to understand Jesus when Jesus said that he (ie. the Son of Man) would soon be killed, buried and would rise from the grave on the third day.

Instead of focusing on what Jesus was saying and doing, while they were walking, they argued about the preference given to three of them at the transfiguration and who, therefore was the favourite disciple.

Matters of rank were important to the Jews (remember in Luke 14:7-11 at the wedding feast. Should the host seat the guest at the top of the table, or lower down?), so it was natural for the disciples to be concerned about their status in the coming messianic kingdom.

The disciples were still anticipating an earthly kingdom and wondering what great positions they would have.
After all, they were the chosen 12, weren’t they?

When they reach Capernaum, Jesus asked them what they had been arguing about whilst they walked along.Even though they remain silent, their master knew what they had been talking about.

He calmly explained to them about how one must not only put oneself last, but be a servant to every person, in order to achieve first place in God’s kingdom.

Here the word “servant”, as used in the reading is diakonos in Greek and it depicts one who attends to the needs of others freely, as opposed to one in a servile position (doulos, a slave).
Jesus didn’t condemn their desire to improve their position in life, but he did teach that greatness in his kingdom wasn’t determined by their status and power over others, but by what they did to help others – ie. their service.

Jesus indicated to them that they were asking each other the wrong question.
They should’ve been concerned about what they could do to serve God, not about their positions in the kingdom.

As he had done in previous lessons, Jesus used the example of a small child to emphasise his point. 
Remember, in Jewish and Greco-Roman society, children were at the bottom of the social ladder.Children had done nothing to achieve greatness, yet God loved them so much that Jesus told the disciples that by welcoming the children in his name, they would be welcoming him and, not only him, but “the one who sent him” (ie. God).

In Matthew’s account of the story, Jesus told them that they must actually change, and become like little children, or they would never be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

He also went on to list some pretty dire consequences if people caused the children to sin, but I’ll let you read about that on your own time – you’ll find it in Matthew Chapter 18.

If you keep reading the next few verses after today’s lesson, you’ll read that the disciples told Jesus about some random exorcist that they saw driving out demons in the master’s name. They had told him to stop doing this, because he wasn’t one of them.

Maybe they were still smarting about their failure to drive out the demon in the young boy (read Mark 9:14-29).

Jesus told them that what the man had done was ok, because by hitching his wagon to the Jesus train, he could not then turn around and condemn Jesus. His words were:
“Whoever is not against us, is for us.”“Against us” and “for us” leave no room for neutrality.
If one is working for Jesus, in his name, he cannot work against him at the same time.

Though this man didn’t appear to follow Jesus in exactly the same way as the twelve disciples, he nevertheless followed him truly and stood against Satan.

Even one who performs the smallest act of hospitality in Jesus’ name, such as giving a cup of water to someone because he belongs to Christ, will certainly not lose his reward.
He will ultimately be recompensed by participation in God’s kingdom, not on the basis of merit (a good deed) but because of God’s gracious promise to people of faith. Interestingly, Jesus uses the title “Christ” instead of “Son of Man”, which is rare in the Synoptic Gospels.

So, what can we learn from these words?

The position we have in God’s Kingdom isn’t determined by how great we are on earth, or what positions of greatness we may achieve, but by how humble we make ourselves and how we serve others and therefore God.

That we, too, can perform miracles in the name of Jesus, if we have enough faith to believe that we can.

That even small acts of kindness - like giving a cup of water to someone who is thirsty - are important in God’s eyes.

To make ourselves great in God’s eyes requires a great heart, not a great title.

Think of what positive actions you’ve taken in the past week, month, year - no matter how small.

Ponder these during your times of silent meditation with God and ask yourself what else YOU can do to serve him in some tangible way.
He isn’t asking you to make yourself the greatest at anything, but rather to assist others who are less fortunate than you are.

“Loving Lord God, help us to keep a humble heart and look to what we can do for others, rather than building ourselves up in the eyes of others.
May we look to building up your kingdom here on earth and assisting others to come to the knowledge of your love for them.
Keep us and our loved ones safe in this time of COVID lockdown and bring us out the other side with a positive attitude and love in our hearts.    Amen”  

Pastor Rick