Proper 21

When the heart malfunctions it sometimes needs a regulator. It’s called a “pacemaker,” a cardiac pacing device that keeps the rhythm of the heart steady and sure. For those who have heart failure or heartbeat issues, the pacemaker resynchronizes the heart and makes the heart beat more efficiently.

The heart’s electrical system controls the heartbeat. But aging, muscle damage from a heart attack, or some kinds of genetic conditions can cause the heart to beat abnormally. It can get sludgy, therefore not pumping enough oxygen to the brain and other organs. If you heart is beating too slowly, the pacemaker sends an electrical signal to your heart in order to correct the beat.  Some pacemakers will even increase the heart rate during exercise as needed. Once implanted, the pacemaker makes sure the heart stays regulated, so that you stay healthy.

The body is an interesting and complex organism. Without extenuating circumstances, such as illness or aging, the heart regulates on its own. Amazing, right? The body has other regulators as well. The body self-regulates its temperature, so that its internal organs function properly. No matter how cold it gets outside, or how hot the sun shines on our bodies, our internal temperature remains regulated. Only when the immune system perceives an attack from an outside invader does it ramp the body’s temperature up to try to destroy the attacker. When it feels it has succeeded, the body’s temperature returns to normal.

The body also needs a fluid regulator. Our human adult bodies are made of 60% water. 60%! The bulk of who we are sounds something like a sea creature. The brain and heart alone are composed of 73% water, the lungs about 83%, the skin 64%, and the muscles and kidneys about 79%. Even our bones are made of 31% water. Imagine that!

What regulates all of this water, its retention, its temperature, its release?  A vital mineral called salt.

Listen to this: the human body holds about .4% of its weight in salts. That’s pretty much the equivalent of sea water. So, an average person would contain about 40 teaspoons of salt in their bodies. We are in fact sea creatures!

So what does salt do within the body? It regulates.

That shouldn’t be too big a surprise. In fact, salt regulates in other ways outside of the body, too. Want to melt ice? Pour some salt on it. Want to heal a wound? Add a little bit of salt to warm water and slosh it around. Want to regulate a barbecue before you cook the meat? Add a little salt to the fire. It will control flare ups without cooling the coals and will cook your food more regularly and consistently. Want your fireplace to burn more consistently? A little salt will control the flames.

Salt regulates.

It’s interesting that, although the Bible is certainly not a science book, it’s often right on target when it describes some of these very interesting metaphors – like salt. In Jesus’ day, those cooking in outdoor stone ovens or over an open fire would have valued and known about the benefits of using salt to calm the flames and regulate the cooking of the meal. Back in Jesus’ day, people also knew the benefits of salt as a preservative, a healing agent, and even a purification substance.

It’s evident that Jesus knew the regulatory function of salt. Because in today’s Gospel, that’s exactly the way he describes it. Listen again:

“Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Obviously to be salted with fire refers to being touched by the Holy Spirit, that purifying, change-agency of God that takes our restless, obstinate, sludgy, or petulant hearts and spirits and creates within us a sense of calm and peace.

The conversation with Jesus’ disciples began when some of the disciples began “tattling” on someone “throwing out demons” in Jesus’ name. They are ready to stop them. They are jealous. There’s a territorialism coming out in their manner and speech. Jesus jumps on that like a ton of bricks. Let them do it, he says. “Whoever is not against us is for us.”

The point Jesus makes is that there’s no reason to be in conflict. In fact, Jesus seems to be advising them to avoid conflict. Don’t trip up anyone else, he says. Look at your own sins and your own life, he warns. And then he assures them that everyone who follows him, regardless of who they are or their affiliation, will be equally “salted with fire” by the power of the Holy Spirit. All who follow Jesus will be part of a new kind of community, not an exclusive community made up only of his current inner circle, but a huge, diverse community, made up of many kinds of people.

So, Jesus teaches, no matter what you do, “have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Stick together, don’t argue amongst each other. Support each other and those who support me. Regulate your heart.

Or better said, allow the Holy Spirit to serve as your pacemaker.

No flare ups.

No angry outbursts.

No judgments against others or initiated conflicts.

Love one another. Be at peace with one another. This is what it means to be salted by the Spirit.

You see, when the Holy Spirit resides within your heart, you no longer function out of your feelings of jealousy or rage or envy or competition.

Instead, you function out of a place of good will, patience, love, and peace – the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus assures his disciples that the closer we are to God, the more we allow our lives to be shaped and regulated, molded and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit, the more our lives will produce the fruits of the Spirit.

You may be made of water like the sea, but you are also imbued with the breath and the spirit of God.

Each one of you from the moment you were born were given breath. And each one of you from the moment you were baptized were given the gift of the Spirit. May you feel that Holy Spirit moving within you, molding you and changing you, lifting you and calming you. May the Holy Spirit bless you with the peace of God that passes all understanding.

And may we go out today and always to pass along that peace. For that is how God’s kingdom moves and changes the world, the way Jesus lives and breathes through us.

May your faith be briny, your heart be peaceful, and your life be long.