It sometimes seems like Missouri Synod Lutherans are the fuddy-duddies of the Christian world. We’re not alone, of course – but we’re usually right there at the top of the list when people accuse us of being old-fashioned. Of being too conservative. Of being intolerant. Of being unwilling to change. Of sticking to old concepts and old beliefs that just don’t apply anymore. Other Lutheran churches sometimes refer to the Missouri Synod as the “Misery” Synod.
Well, I’m here to tell you this morning that we are fuddy-duddies when it comes to theology – when it comes to matters of our faith – and that’s a good thing. Because we fuddy-duddy Lutherans do – or should – fit the mold of what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel lesson.
Beginning last Sunday and continuing again for the next three weeks, our Gospel lessons are all taken from what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount, the teachings of Jesus included in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. Some scholars spend their lives studying these three chapters, and entire books – some very good and some not so good – have been written about them. You hear the words “Sermon on the Mount” and you probably assume that you’ve heard everything there is to hear about it because you’ve heard it read and preached on so many times.
And you know what? A lot of people get it wrong. They think that the Sermon on the Mount is just a guide for living a good life, a “how-to” book or set of rules for how to live so that we make God happy. But it’s not. In fact, even though probably thousands of people had gathered to hear Jesus preach on this occasion, His true audience for the Sermon on the Mount is a whole lot smaller than we realize. Last week’s Gospel lesson began with these words: “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them.” The “them” referred to by Matthew is not the crowd, but the disciples. The people in the crowd heard Jesus, of course, but His words are directed specifically to the disciples, the men who had just recently been chosen to follow Jesus. To learn from Jesus. And eventually to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus begins by talking about salt. Like many of you, I am plagued with a mild case of hypertension. It seems to come with age. So we try to lose weight, cut down on fats and use less salt, but using less salt is not always easy. Over the years we get used to salting almost everything we eat, so what we eat starts tasting a lot different – and perhaps not nearly so good – when we move that salt shaker over to the side of the table where it won’t be quite so handy. The salt substitutes you can purchase just don’t taste as good as the real thing. And even if we can somehow manage to quit covering our food with salt before we eat it, it still seems like a losing battle sometimes because so many of the food items we purchase already have salt in them. I read the other day that a simple McDonald’s cheeseburger contains over one-third of the recommended daily salt intake for an adult.
No matter whether we add it before we eat or it’s already there before we purchase our food, salt is considered essential to enhance flavor – to make our food taste good. Not only that, but a certain amount of salt is necessary to keep our bodies functioning as they should.
But two thousand years ago, salt had an entirely different use – one that we’ve heard of but probably never actually used ourselves. In ancient times, salt was primarily used as a preservative. Since there was no refrigeration, salt was put on meat to preserve it, to keep it from going bad before it could be eaten. Meat that was salted could be kept for a long time. Salt prevents the meat from decaying and turning rotten.
When Jesus told the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount that they were the salt of the earth, he was making it clear that they had a responsibility as His followers and as the men who would be given the command to teach all nations the good news of the Gospel. They were responsible for preserving the Gospel, the good news that Jesus died for our sins. As apostles – as preachers and evangelists – they were responsible for spreading God’s Word to what would become the Christian Church. As your pastor, I have that same responsibility. Every pastor has that same responsibility.
But if Jesus is speaking of salt as a preservative, then it becomes clear that the pastor must – absolutely must – preserve God’s word in its purity and wholeness. And that’s where we start to see the difference between us fuddy-duddies and so many pastors and preachers today who refuse to be old-fashioned or conservative or intolerant or unwilling to change. That’s where we see the difference between us fuddy-duddies and so many contemporary churches and modern-day pastors who feel that the words of the Bible just don’t always apply today in every situation. Who feel that the words of Scripture written 2,000 years ago simply are not relevant to our society today.
Listen again to verses 17 to 19 of today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
So if Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, then how do we reconcile abortion rights or assisted suicide with the Commandment that says “you shall not kill?” How do we reconcile all sorts of sexual sins with the Commandment that says “you shall not commit adultery?” How do we reconcile the popular belief that there are many paths to God with the Commandment that says “you shall have no other gods?”
Now let’s widen this a little further. If we believe that every word of Scripture is the inspired, inerrant word of God, then how do we reconcile St. Paul’s writing that women should not be pastors with the common demand of so many Christian denominations and even some Lutheran church bodies that women can and should be pastors? If we believe – as Scripture teaches – that the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated only with those who share our confession and our understanding that we truly receive Christ’s body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine, then how do we reconcile this with those who practice open communion, where anyone and everyone is invited to participate, no matter what they believe or what they confess? If we believe that every word of Scripture is true, then how do we reconcile this with those who believe that many words and, indeed, whole sections of Scripture are not true?
When Jesus called the disciples the salt of the earth, He was telling them to preserve God’s holy Word, to teach it in all pureness and honesty, to teach all of God’s Word and not just those parts that make us feel good while ignoring those parts that might offend us. Because if they don’t preserve God’s Word in every respect, then they will lose their saltiness and they will lose their pure teaching. What is left will be – just as Jesus said – “no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
As your pastor, I have a God-given responsibility to make sure that God’s Word is preached in pureness and wholeness, and that the Sacraments are administered exactly as our Lord gave them to us. I have the God-given responsibility to preach the Law than condemns us and the Gospel that saves us. I have the God-given responsibility to preach and teach the timeless truths of God’s Word and not the latest fads and buzzwords that replace God’s Word with modern-day opinions and attitudes. I have a God-given responsibility to be a fuddy-duddy in matters of faith.
But you know what? I’m not the only fuddy-duddy here this morning. As members of St. Paul Lutherans Church, you’re all a bunch of fuddy-duddies, too. You also are the salt of the earth, for you also help preserve the Christian Church. Each of you must also hold true to God’s Word, for each of you represents the salvation that Jesus brings to His people. We are forgiven, we are saved, and we are proud to let others know that we are forgiven and saved by Christ. Just as salt preserves food from decay, so Christians seek to preserve the earth from corruption. On one occasion Jesus said that He is the light of the world, and when He says here that we are the light of the world, we realize that we – by our lives and by our faith – reflect that saving light of Christ in a world that has been darkened by sin.
We – all of us – are fuddy-duddies as far as the world is concerned. We are fuddy-duddies as far as so many other churches are concerned. And we are fuddy-duddies as far as our God is concerned. Because we hold true to the inspired words of Holy Scripture. We hold true to the fact that we are all lost and condemned sinners who have been redeemed by our Savior Jesus Christ, who willingly and lovingly gave his life on the cross for us. We hold true to Jesus exactly as he has been revealed to us and exactly as He speaks to us. And by the grace of God we will continue to be the salt of the earth, to preserve our Christian faith and spread news of it to all nations, until we are called to join our Savior with all of the fuddy-duddies – the true believers – who have gone before us to their eternal rest in the arms of Jesus in the glories of heaven.
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