Viola White. Mary Wingfield. Mary Louise-Smith. Claudette Colvin.

Do any of these names ring a bell?

Each of these black women refused to give up her seat to white passengers on the Montgomery Bus line in Alabama, before Rosa Parks.

I don’t share this in any way as a slight against the courage and resolve of Mrs. Parks. I share it because even if we don’t remember their names, I still believe their individual actions made a difference.

Because, you see, if you know the whole story, then you know that the Montgomery Bus Boycott did not happen over night. It did not erupt spontaneously as a result of Park’s decision to remain seated on December 1, 1955. On that historic day, Rosa Parks became the face of the movement. But Rosa Parks was not the first to move.

The conditions that led to the boycott were years in the making and depended on the actions and organization of countless individuals, and I want to lift up the names of Viola White, Mary Wingfield, Mary Louise-Smith, and Claudette Colvin in particular, because as small and unnoticed as their decisions to stay seated were at the time, I believe their unsung actions acted as a catalyst for change.

Now I’m not a chemist. Chemistry was frankly my worst subject in High School. But I know how to google, so I can tell you that a catalyst is “a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction by providing an alternative pathway with lower activation energy, without being consumed or permanently changed in the process.” You all got that? Good, because I barely do. (Still no good at Chemistry.)

But if I understand this correctly, I think it means that a catalyst is something that can bring about change simply by being present in its purest form.

Viola White, Mary Wingfield, Mary Louise-Smith, Claudette Colvin, were catalysts for change because they refused to be treated as less than who they truly were: as less than their white neighbors, as less than human. And their willingness to stand firm- or in this case stay put - their willingness to remain grounded and fully present in a system that didn’t recognize their inherent dignity and worth, eventually changed the system, not them.

You know what else is a catalyst? Salt. Particularly in cooking. A little sprinkle of salt makes almost everything taste better because salt - by its very nature - suppresses bitterness. The presence of salt enhances all the other notes of sweetness, sourness, and umami in our food. When you add salt to meat it not only browns better, it becomes more tender.

Salt can act as a natural catalyst for healing as well. It can be used to cleanse wounds, reduce inflammation, and boost respiratory health. I can personally testify that epsom salt has been a big part of my healing regimen as I have been recovering from my back injury.

Salt can act as a preservative, a disinfectant, a stain remover, and a deodorizer. It can be used to extinguish a grease fire and perhaps most importantly in times like these, salt can be used to melt what?

ICE.

Just saying…

And salt does all that, simply by being itself.

One tiny grain of salt in and of itself has all the power, the properties, and the potential of a 20 pound bag.

And if Jesus is to be believed, you do too.

I know it doesn’t feel like that right now. I know that living under the chaos and cruelty of this  administration has us all wondering what, if anything, we can do to right all that is going wrong. But I want you to remember that when Jesus preached his sermon on the mount, he was preaching to people who felt as powerless in their time as we do right now.

Jesus looked out at that crowd - a people who were poor and meek and merciful, vulnerable and persecuted, a people who meant no harm to anyone, who wanted nothing more than to be left in peace, and he told them the extraordinary truth about themselves. He told those people that they were blessed and he reminded them of who they really were…already.

“You are the salt of the earth,” he said.

“You are the light of the world.”

He didn’t say: “buck up, be of good courage, pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps and try to be like salt.” Or “listen, if you could all just get it together, get organized, get right with God, or attend the following training, you too could be light.”

No. He looked at them and declared:

“You are the salt of the earth” already!

“You are the light of the world” right now!

And I believe this is so, so important to highlight, because what he said of them was just as true of all those beautiful, brave, black women who stayed seated before Rosa, and is, even now, just as true of you and me.

We are salt!

We are light!

We are enough, already!

Jesus looked out over a sea of people who had nothing to speak of, the have nots living at the mercy of the ones with all the power, the wealth, and the weapons, and he reminded us all that every human being is endowed by our Creator with a level of potency that no one can take from us.

I mean, can salt lose its saltiness? No.

Can, does, would anyone set an oil lamp on fire and then hide it under a bushel basket? Absolutely not.

The light would go out or the basket would burn.

Jesus is being absurdly rhetorical in order to prove his point!

Salt is what it is. It’s salty.

Light does what it does. It shines.

These elements cannot be anything other than what they are. They are powerful agents of change in and of themselves. And so, says Jesus, are you!

I think we all need this reminder right now, because God knows how easy it is for good people to feel small and powerless, isolated and overwhelmed in the face of such violence and corruption.

But that is a lie!

The truth…the truth is that God has created us all with the power to resist evil by simply grounding ourselves in our true nature.

Friends, each of us has within us the power to evoke sweetness and tenderness, the power to cleanse and to heal, the power to preserve and protect, the power to reduce bitterness, melt what has become hardened, and calm what has become inflamed.

Each of us has the power to shine a light in the darkness, expose what is wrong, and invite those who have lost their way back into the fold.

These aren’t the result of special skills or talents that only the best, the brightest, or the bravest of us possess, but the result of choices we are all capable of making from one moment to the next.

And the moment has come.

I think this best describes what we all see playing out in Minnesota and beyond. I have been reading the news everyday and I can tell you that for all their effectiveness and their incredible show of resistance, no one in that great state has done anything particularly extraordinary… not even Renee Good or Alex Pretti.

Renee and Alex were not super humans. They were merely good humans. They didn’t die like heroes. They were executed for simply trying to help the people around them in the most ordinary ways imaginable.

Renee was a concerned citizen shining a light and showing up to bear witness to what was happening in her neighborhood.

Alex was a nurse helping a women up off the sidewalk after she had been shoved down by federal agents.

“I’m not mad at you,” Renee said, trying to reduce the bitterness in the air.

“Are you okay?” asked Alex, at the ready to tend and to heal.

These are not the last words of martyrs determined to go out in a blaze of glory.

Alex and Renee’s only crime was showing basic human decency. But, and this is the point of the whole sermon so listen close, there is still so much power in that; a power we all have. And when we join together we become even more powerful still.

Over these last few weeks we have seen what it looks like when thousands upon thousands of ordinary people resolve to simply show up as their best selves. People have been taking to the streets in the most obvious ways possible.

Rather than cower when ICE arrived en masse and armed to the teeth or arming up in response in a misguided attempt too fight fire with fire, the people of Minneapolis and Maine have grabbed their phones and their whistles and doubled down on simply being good neighbors: the sort of people you can trust to have your back, walk your kid to school, or drop off groceries.

Lawyers, judges, journalists, police officers, ministers, teachers, and volunteers, it’s like everyone in these cities has leaned extra hard into being who they already are. They have stood firm and found that there is power in simply being present. In their refusal to back down, look away, or deny the truth they have become catalysts of change in the midst of a broken and abusive system.

Watching ordinary citizens continue to bear witness in the face of tear gas, threats, and shattered glass, listening to ordinary citizens who have been assaulted, arrested, and robbed of their loved ones, calmly and clearly testify before congress has been both horrifying and inspiring. Their words and their witness are acting as a disinfectant in the face of this administration’s lies and abuse.

Watching thousands come out to protest with their signs - some so salty I can’t repeat them in church and some so heartbreakingly gentle - like “Darn Ice to Heck,” - they can’t help but melt your heart, has been galvanizing.

But what is shining through most of all, is the fact that Mainers and Minnesotans are doing these things out of the goodness of their hearts. They are a kind, gentle, justice seeking people who care …and that is their superpower.

They are altering the chemistry without compromising their integrity. They are turning the tide without becoming swept up in the hate. They are changing the trajectory without being changed themselves. And slowly but surely it is working even as the movement is growing.

I personally have been following the work of the Resistance Singers in Minneapolis. Anybody else? You may know that there is a movement across the country to disrupt the sleep of ICE agents. When people learn where they are staying they show up outside the hotel and create as much noise as they can. These people are pouring the salt on thick and shining a light so bright that ICE cannot escape the glare, and there is a place for that kind of resistance.

But in Minneapolis they are taking a different tack. They are using their voices to woo ICE in from the cold. They are calling them in rather than calling them out, singing:

Ooh it's okay to change your mind

Show us your courage

leave this behind

Ooh it's okay to change your mind

And you can join us

Join us here anytime

In lieu of the death metal some activists are blaring or the cow bells others are clanging, these folks are gathering in parking lots downtown, with their faces turned up to the windows of the Marriott and the Hilton, and reminding the agents of ICE that:

We walk the same ground,

but we’ve been torn apart,

Put down your weapons,

come play your part.

You can’t sing words like that without some hope and love in your heart, a hope that such people could experience a change of heart - and that hope and that love is the only thing I know that can triumph over hate.

These folks are not just shining a light on injustice they are leaving the light on, so to speak, in an effort to call these folks back… back into community, back to the love they too were made for, calling every last one of them back home to us, back to their best selves, back to where they truly belong.

And as awful as things still are, I believe that it is working.

Slowly but surely we are alchemizing a soulless world back into a sacred one.

All of these little acts of love are breaking down the cycles of vengeance and acrimony and fear that have pervaded our society.

All of these ordinary, individual people are effecting change for the better without being changed for the worse and they are doing it by simply being present in their purest form.

It is enough, because they are enough.

It is enough, because we are enough.

It’s enough for you to be you, your best self, because you being you gives me the courage to be me…to be my best self…. It doesn’t take more than that from any one of us if all of us stand together

Viola White. Mary Wingfield. Mary Louise-Smith. Claudette Colvin.

Rosa Parks.

Renee Good.

Alex Pretti.

Their gentle witness, their quiet resolve, and their ordinary actions, have accrued, accumulated, and set off a chain reaction that is even now emboldening more and more people to loose the bonds of injustice, repair the breach, and restore our streets for the good of all.

And ours can too.

No action is too small.

No one here is inconsequential.

For you are salt.

You are light.

You have power.

You have a purpose.

You were built by God for this moment, created by God for this moment, brought here to this church for this moment. Your grain of salt alongside mine, my light coupled with yours can and does and will make a difference. Together we can protect and preserve, heal and cleanse, tend and transform the world around us into a sweet, sweet place where all of God’s people can heal and breath and live and thrive.

We are enough…already. Amen.