Oh the Irony: 5th Sunday OT

It’s an oft-told story; I’ve told it before and will tell it again, but it’s a good one. Years back, The Times of London sent an inquiry to various famous authors and intellectuals, inviting submissions on a simple question. Their question was, “What’s wrong with the world?”  I assume some of their respondents wrote at some length, but the answer still remembered was a very brief one: “Dear Sir, I am.  Yours, G.K. Chesterton." A great Catholic answer from a great Catholic thinker.

On one hand, we can say that Chesterton’s answer is certainly incomplete. There’s far more wrong with the world than any one man, even one as large as he. But he won because he declined to externalize a problem that he was involved in. He took responsibility. I think it also shows that Chesterton had taken to heart our Lord’s words in the Gospel: “You are the salt of the earth.  But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?”


It’s a very vivid and concrete example, and maybe even more so to the original audience. They didn’t have access to the cupboard full of flavors and spices that most of our kitchens have. They’d never even heard of Chinese take-out or pizza delivery: life was challenging back then. But they had salt... this amazing stuff that makes everything taste better, that makes a boring meal more interesting!  But what if they found that the salt had somehow lost its flavor, lost its power, if the salt was no longer doing its job... well, then you’re just stuck.

This Gospel always reminds me of similar ironies in my own life. If you wear glasses, at some point you’ve had the experience of not being sure where they are, and you’re looking for them.  And you quickly realize the irony of your situation.  Your glasses are what help you find things.  What do you do if you can’t find your glasses?

Jesus also talks about the light of the world.  We don’t use candles for light very much anymore, but have you ever been camping, or the power is out, and you have to find something?  What do you use?  A flashlight.  And what’s the very first thing you can’t find? Your flashlight! See the pattern? See the repeating irony? What do you do if the solution is the very thing that’s missing? What do you do if the remedy is the thing that’s sick? Then you’ve got a problem.

So listen again to the Lord’s question, and be warned, if you really hear this it’s going to cut. “You are the salt of the earth... but if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?”  We Christians can throw up our hands in frustration and ask God, “Why is the world so messed up? Why so much suffering? Why so much injustice? Why aren’t things better?”  And God’s answer just might be: “I put you here to make them better. You tell me.”

You put salt on something to make it taste more interesting.  What do you do if the salt becomes boring?  You use a lamp to light the darkness.  What do you do if the lamp is what’s lost?  You use your glasses to see things.  What do you do if it’s your glasses you can’t see?

Jesus uses his disciples to make the world better.  What do you do when the Christians become just like everyone else? Then you’ve got a problem.

There are two billion Christians in the world, more or less, if you measure it simply by how many people call themselves Christians. We started with twelve.

They were country folks, blue-collar you might say, Galilean fisherman.  They were not educated, they had absolutely no power or influence.  They were not great writers or brilliant thinkers.  They were not natural-born leaders.  They were unwealthy, uneducated hillbilly nobodies in the eyes of the world, in a forgotten backwater of the great Roman Empire.  Twelve of them.

They conquered the world.

Within a generation, their message had spread to the corners of the known world. If you could walk there, ride there, or sail there, the Gospel had gone there. It didn’t just spread... it exploded.  It blazed like the world was on fire.

The mighty Emperors of Rome, who commanded legions beyond number, wealth beyond counting, power without limit, threw all their might into extinguishing this fire. They used the lions of the Coliseum, the horror of crucifixion, the lure of bribes. They killed - we know not how many, but it was a terrible number - and still the Gospel spread.

There’s plenty of paganism around us. If that word sounds derogatory to you, I don’t mean it that way. It’s not a put-down. Paganism is simply what people have when they don’t know the true God. They are left with sad substitutes, which never seem to change.  Money, sex, power, like always. They are being worshipped all around us.  None of them evil in themselves, but a sad substitute for the living God.

It’s so very easy to point out what’s wrong with the world. Some of us are professionals. We know all about what the Bishop is doing wrong, or what Congress is doing wrong, or what our neighbor is doing wrong. It’s so easy to point out what’s wrong with other people.

But don’t take that complaint to God.  “God, where did you go wrong?  Why all the darkness?  Why all the misery?  Why, if you’re so good and loving, are people still starving?  Why are families falling apart?  Why is marriage becoming more and more meaningless in our culture?  Why are people so hopeless and angry that they blow themselves up in crowded markets?  Why are pop stars glorifying relationships that are totally shallow, totally about using people and letting yourself be used?”

Too many Christians have learned to point fingers everywhere else.  It’s the politicians, the Republicans or the Democrats.  It’s the media.  It’s big business, or socialist ideology or capitalist greed. It’s the people who get welfare. It’s the evil one percent. Wait, I know… It’s Miley Cyrus’s fault! But it isn’t. They are doing what the world does. What’s surprising about that? 

You’ve heard the saying, “you can stand there cursing the darkness, or you can light a candle.” Well I submit that it’s especially foolish to stand there cursing the darkness when you are the candle. The question we should be asking is, “why have we failed so massively to communicate the ecstatic, joyful, life-changing power of the love of God?  Why has the Gospel been so powerless in our hands?

Caesar, with all his legions, could not silence the Gospel.  Here’s a news flash: neither can the modern media. Or the Department of Health and Human Services. Or a hysterical crowd ready to call you a hateful bigot for suggesting that having two Daddies doesn’t replace having a Mommy. No one, however powerful they may be, no one can stop the Gospel from being preached...

... except us.

If we were better disciples, it’s true, some people would hate us for it. Jesus promised as much. But it’s also true that many people would find it irresistible. They would see us filled with love, more willing to sacrifice for others, more generous, and more joyful, because we have Jesus Christ for our Lord.  We wouldn’t blend in, we’d stick out.  People would look at us and say “see how they love each other... see how they refuse to judge and condemn... and why are they so full of joy?  What’s gotten in to these crazy people, and where can I get some?”  It’s happened before, and it can happen again.  That explosion of conversion, of transformed lives, of redemption and love... it can happen again.

You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  But if the salt loses its flavor, if the light is hidden away under a bushel basket... whose fault is that? 


What’s wrong with the world? My answer is that what’s wrong with the world is that I’m not a Saint. What’s yours?

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