The Presiding Bishop was in Topeka over the weekend, preaching at Grace Cathedral on Sunday. Her sermon was based on Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “You are the salt of the Earth”. She called on her hearers to use salty language when necessary to call attention to injustice. Toward the end of the sermon she pointed out the danger that salty language such as Fred Phelps (a Topeka resident) can pose as well.
The Topeka Capital Journal reports on the sermon thus:
“Appropriately salty language, she said, ‘can indeed be divinely abrasive signs of God’s urgency.’
‘Your letters to a member of Congress or to the editor of the local paper or the words you speak in a town meeting can be salt when they challenge a sleepy government or community to pay attention to the needs of hungry children or the unemployed,’ she said. ‘That is the salt of compassion even though it may feel irritating to those who are invited to wake up to their neighbors’ needs and demonstrate compassion.’
Jefferts Schori did urge moderation, saying, ‘Like all good gifts, salt can be overused.’
She also applied her salt theme in a different way, saying: ‘I heard Fred Phelps and his clan were demonstrating outside our meeting place yesterday, and I heard they were here today, too. I didn’t see them.’
‘Their message — their hateful message — just might embrace enough salt to entomb it,’ she said.
The congregation interrupted her with applause before she added ‘perhaps like Lot’s wife’ and noted nuclear waste is buried in salt mines.”
Read the full article here.
UPDATE: October 27
Full text of sermon can be read here