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Sermon Title: A Little More Salt, Please!
This is certainly a “sporty” weekend! Super bowl… Seattle Seahawks, vs NE Patriots.
And the Puppy bowl on Animal planet, my personal fave if my beloved Green Bay Packers aren’t in the other game.
Are you following the Winter Olympics coverage? We watched part of the Parade of Athletes at the opening ceremonies.. Watching these young people express so much joy and enthusiasm as they came into the stadium… dancing, waving to the crowds and the cameras. The, excitement and passion and Joy was practically jumping off the TV screen!! The crowd support for the teams was great too, even teams with just a handful of athletes got applause. And the loudest, longest applause was for the team from Ukraine.
Several athletes are from Wisconsin, or have ties here :D
Among them are Jordan Stoltz, speedskater, who is favored to medal, he’s being hyped to win gold, may medal in 5 events!
Others include Luge , biathlon, etc..
UW Madison womens hockey is very well represented!
Even on Team Czechia, there is one current player, freshman Adéla Šapovalivová; she’s the first European to play for UW and is the first to represent a country at the Olympics other than USA or Canada.
On Team Canada, there are five former UW women’s hockey players, Emily Clark, Blayre Turnbull, Daryl Watts, Ann-Renee Desbiens and Sarah Nurse.
Team USA has four current players, Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Ava McNaughton and Kirsten Simms, and two former players, Hilary Knight and Britta Curl-Salemme.
At just 21 years old, Laila Edwards is a trailblazer in American ice hockey -- she was the first Black woman to play for the U.S. women’s senior national team. Now, she’s about to become the first Black woman to compete for the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team at the Olympics!
From Cleveland Heights Ohio, She’s a two-time NCAA national champion with the Wisconsin Badgers (2023, 2025) who led the nation with 35 goals in her junior season. At the 2024 World Championship, she did what no one had done before: became the youngest MVP in tournament history and the first Black woman to score for Team USA at Worlds.
Can you imagine what an honor and thrill it is to be in this position?
She’s making history during black history month! What a privilege.
Why should WE sing Lift Every Voice, the Black National Anthem?
why should WE discuss Black History Month?
It’s important for us to be support. We who profess to follow Jesus, who talk about community, who promote that every human is a child of God…we need to acknowledge our own privilege and use it to support people of color, people of less privilege. To support black history does not diminish ours, it elevates, broadening our understanding of the whole picture. This is one of the ways we can be the Salt of the Earth…. The Light of the World.
Sermon Movements
I. Salt That Still Has Its Flavor
Jesus calls ordinary people salt of the earth. Ok why use the image of salt?
Salt preserves, salt water…saline, is within every one of us, it can cleanse and heals, and brings life — salt may seem insignificant, but essential to life.
In these times, Salt was also a symbol of friendship!
Black history reminds us that faithful “salt”-supportive people often worked quietly and courageously. Many many people giving support behind the scenes help every movement. Just as the olympic athletes are supported over the years by families, coaches, and their wider community.
Our lesson from the prophet Isaiah reminds us
God rejects hollow religion--religion that is in name only. Religion that defies the dignity of another. Religion that encourages mean spiritedness does not honor God or humanity and God WILL reject such proclamations.
True faith loosens bonds that oppress, feeds the hungry, and restores dignity..
The NLT says vs 6-8 this way: No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
Lighten a burden, remove chains, share, give generously!
THIS is true religion that honors and proclaims jesus. This is religion that changes lives.
A gospel that doesn’t change lives has lost its savor--its ‘saltiness”
III. Light in the Darkness (Psalm 112)
Righteousness shines even in hard places
Generosity and justice become public witness
Faith that lives out loud gives God glory
God’s Word will guide us when the way is unclear (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet!)
IV. The Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2)
Spiritual wisdom reshapes how we see power, success, and faith
Beatitudes -upside down kingdom! Not the wealthy, powerful
But the one is who truly blessed is the one who recognizes..when we’re stuck or at the end our rope, we can turn to God.
The Spirit teaches us to value what the world often ignores or belittles.
The church is called to discernment!
V. Jesus Raises the Stakes (Matthew 5:13-20)
Salt and light are not optional.
Jesus deepens the law into transformed hearts and lives
Faithfulness is not about minimum requirements — it’s about living the fullness of love.
Living faith, means to honor and uplift one another. Some one may claim to be christian, but they make fun of those who are different, they deny rights and benefits to the needy, that is not what Jesus preached. And what Jesus said is said all thru scripture… in the books of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms. Over the last year or so as your interim minister, I have worked on helping you all see the connections throughout the Bible. Now Pastor Jamieson is using the lectionary each week and now so am I, and I hope you see the connections in today’s texts. Sometimes those connections are not so obvious! Today’s are. And i think this is a very timely message. Faith lived out glorifies God. Some of us are the Olympic athletes of faith, or the Super bowl athletes of faith!
some of us are the teachers or coaches-, some are the family members driving to the practice field. Some of us are in the stands cheering! And praying!
To be the Salt of the earth means to take action in whatever way we can. To be a caring presence. This is how we help untie…loose the bonds of injustice.
To help build community, authentic community that brings light to life.
At the Super Bowl, there will be a performance of America The Beautiful.
NFL contracts with entertainment company Roc Nation has made concerted efforts to diversify and modernize the show and pregame entertainment, including the performances of the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.”
singer Brandi Carlisle, whose hometown is Seattle, was chosen to do America the Beautiful.
“‘America the Beautiful’ is one of the finest pieces of music and lyrics … that this country has ever seen,” Carlile said. “And it’s written from a perspective that I don’t know anybody that can’t get behind. I do believe in what the song is saying, and particularly if you delve into the lesser-known verses of this song, and you think about who wrote it and the situation.”
She said in another interview, that she read the lyrics as a prayer as well as a poem.
”I’ve spent a lot of time on it and meditating on it, and I feel really proud to do it. And I feel really proud that they asked a gay woman to do it.”
“If we can draw as many people as possible to that original poem and the woman that wrote it, it’ll be a really interesting perspective on America,” Carlile said. “I’m really excited to get to sing that song on such an important stage as a person from a marginalized community.”
Imagine! This example of an entertainment company bringing an emphasis on inclusion in community events! :) how much more so can Jesus’ followers be salt to season and light to brighten this dreary world!
Author Dallas Willard put it thusly: “The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”
All inclusive means anyone and EVERYONE is welcome, invited, joins in, and is a vital part of that community system. That Loving community. And God’s own self is the One who upholds and maintains this beloved community and is the most glorious inhabitant. This is what the prophets and psalmists proclaimed, what Jesus preached and what we are to live.
So as we go through our week and look forward to Lent, let us be salt and light, cheering, coaching, praying, shining brightly!
Please pray with me: Go now as salt that seasons and light that shines. Choose the fast God chooses. Loose the bonds of injustice. Share your bread. And know this. When you do, your light will break forth like the dawn, and God will say, Here I am. Amen.