“Vacation, Vacation, Vocation”
Matthew 5:13-16
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

va•ca•tion:  A period of time devoted to rest or relaxation; A break, recess, holiday; leave, departure, the act of vacating. The Latin root of the word is vactus, past participle of vacre, to be empty.

Vacation is an emptying of life in order to rediscover life. If we were told to vacate the premises, we would know what that means.  We would leave the building.  Vacation is vacating the premises that occupy and dominate our time and attention, to empty our lives in order to rediscover our lives.  Vacation opens our hearts to vocation, to re-creation, to wonder, and to the still, small voice of God.

Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk, mystic and activist wrote these words,  Life is this simple.  We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story.  It is true.  If we abandon ourselves to God..., we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently.  God shows Himself everywhere, in everything – in people and in things and in nature and in events.  It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without (God)...  The only thing is that we don’t see it.”

On July 15th the Western Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church will convene in Portland, Oregon.  Eighty delegates ... half clergy and half lay persons, will be charged with the responsibility of electing two new Bishops to provide leadership for the United Methodist Church in the Western United States as well as the worldwide church.

 I will again lead the California-Nevada delegation as first elected clergy along with Randall Miller, first elected layperson. It will be yet another time of intense engagement with our vocation as Christians ... what God is calling us to be and do here and now.  

Following the Conference, I will be taking three weeks of vacation, a time of disengagement ... a time of refreshment, renewal and regeneration that is no less crucial to vocation than the days, weeks ... and months ... that precede it.  Vocation ... vacation ... vocation.  We vacate, and we re-inhabit ... We rest and rediscover.  We let go and we re-connect to blessing.

Our scripture lesson this morning is from the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel... Jesus’ teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has just offered the words of blessing we call “the beatitudes”... “blessed are the poor in spirit ... blessed are those who mourn ... blessed are the meek ... those who hunger and thirst for righteousness ... blessed are the merciful ... the pure in heart ... the peacemakers.”

Jesus names the blessedness, the happiness, of those who live the truth of their lives, those who would be salt of the earth and light of the world.   He says, “You are the salt of the earth” ... then adds, “but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”

Salt had many important uses in the time of Jesus. Salt preserved fish and grain.  Salt was a leveling agent for fuel made for outdoor ovens.  Salt was used in preparation of offerings and in the sealing of covenants. Salt poured into wounds hurt, deeply, but aided deep healing.  Salt seasoned and enhanced the flavor of food.

I think it was that last property that Eugene Peterson had in mind as he translated this mornings’ passage from Matthew, “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?”  It’s not salt’s taste on its own,... but what salt brings forth in other things that is powerful.

Salt can lose its saltiness.  In the marketplace, dishonest merchants would sell salt mixed with white sand.  They would profit more from less, but the salt would not be salty and would lose its strength to preserve, heal, and flavor.  

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus invites, challenges us to be salty salt.

Diane Ackerman in her text, A Natural History of the Senses wrote that a weak enough solution of salt... tastes sweet. Like salt diluted to the point of sweetness ... faith diluted to pleasantries misses the mark.  When Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth” he meant faith’s full-bodied power ... God’s preserving, healing, full-flavored love and justice spread through all the earth.

What is salt - that is not salty?  Salt’s identity and action are one.  Faith’s claims and faith’s actions can never be separated.  The Bible testifies to a loving power that is both personal and political.  If we believe God is love and live as though we do not, we deceive ourselves and diminish our vocation.

“You are the Light of the world... No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.”

John’s Gospel says Jesus is the Light of the World. But according Matthew, Jesus tells his followers – YOU are the light of the world. You are the light of the world.  You are not called to see light, but to be light, obstinate light that will not be hidden.  

Salt and Light followers of Christ preserve, season, heal, shine for a purpose beyond ourselves– whatever occupation we are or are not engaged in, whether we ever get a paid vacation, we have a vocation to proclaim with our lives the Kindom of God.  We need time to vacate our premises, to rest and reflect, every day, every week, every season.

I know a pastor whose soul soars making music now that he has retired from active ministry. I know a homemaker nearly 80 years old whose heart is filled with love and prayers for the children of this community. I know a grieving teacher who is learning to dance.  I know a refugee who lost her own children and now cares for dozens of orphans ...I know a homeless man who advocates for others as a city commissioner... I know a neighborhood creating and being nourished by beauty in a community garden in the midst of daily violence ...I know a student taking a leave to heal addiction and clarify call ...I know hungry souls with and without occupations who are helping each other find the bread of life in this rhythm of blessing.  I know people who live in the interplay of work and respite, engagement and regeneration, vocation and vacation.

“Let your light shine before others in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify (God)...”  In every situation, we need to discern what we are called to be and do, and how to restore life.
As a community, we seek to discern what we are called to be and do, how to restore life and let God’s glory shine.

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew, Emily Hughes’ partner, wrote,
I vividly remember the months after a fire destroyed all my belongings; I’d just moved, and the move coupled with the loss of almost every possession thrust me into an in-between time of grief, of trying to remember who I was, of searching for the new me on this side of a loss.  While that period was wrenching, it was also formative. With hindsight I can see how vulnerable I was, stripped of everything familiar, and how grief opened my being.  That in-between time exposed my raw self to God’s raw self.  The person who scrambled out of the ashes was profoundly different.

Again ... we vacate, and we re-inhabit ... We let go and we re-connect.  Every breath is an occasion to vacate our premises. Let us empty ourselves with every exhalation – and breathe in the continual and continually changing call of God to abundant life.