September 30, 2024

Today's Reading: Mark 9:38-50

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 1:37-2:15; Matthew 6:1-15

“Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’” (Mark 9:50)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The church is always bigger than you think it is. It is bigger than the congregation you attend, and it is bigger than the church body that that congregation is part of as well. In other words, there is no true visible church on earth. We confess the church, but we do not get to see it. This is why Jesus tells His disciples not to stop people from outside their circle from casting out demons in His name. The distinctions between people that used to define who was in the community and who was outside the community are erased in the shadow of the cross. Good works, even mighty works, can be done in Jesus’ name by people who are not part of your circle.

Jesus goes on to teach His disciples that if good can be found outside their circle, then evil can also be found inside of it. This is what lies behind the language of cutting off the hand, foot, or eye if they cause you to sin. This is not language exhorting individuals to get elective surgery to cure their sin problem. There is no such thing as a sin-ectomy. You do not have to cripple yourself to be part of the kingdom. Amputation is not a mighty work done in Jesus’ name. What this means is that some who are in the community may not be part of the community.

This is where the importance of the salt language comes in. What makes you one of the people of God is having that salt within you that can only be given to you by God. This is the salt that comes with the Gift of faith: the belief that the mightiest work of all, Jesus’ death on the cross, was a death that was for you. This salt makes you part of the church that cannot be seen but only confessed. This is the salt found in the waters of Baptism and the salt that flavors the Lord’s Supper. This is the salt that is the taste of eternal life. This is the salt that makes even the most ordinary act of giving a fellow believer a drink of water a mighty work done in Jesus’ name. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Everlasting Father, source of every blessing, mercifully direct and govern us by Your Holy Spirit that we may complete the works You have prepared for us to do; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

-Rev. Grant Knepper, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church Modesto, California.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

In Embracing Your Lutheran Identity, Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day.