Salt & Light - The Rev. Brian Petersen
Below is a transcript of Father Brian’s first sermon to the St. Andrew’s community, offered during 8 am and 10 am worship on Feb. 8, 2026:
Good morning, good people of St. Andrew’s! For those who I haven’t met yet, I’m Father Brian, and It’s an honor and a blessing to be here with you on my first Sunday as your interim priest-in-charge. It’s a really special honor for me personally, because St. Andrew’s has a very special place in my heart. This is the place where I was ordained to the priesthood, back in 2022. And Mother Brenda was my clergy mentor for my first year of ordained ministry. I also had an office here, at the Neighborhood Center, for several years while I served as the priest-in-charge at Holy Cross in Carlsbad. So, St. Andrew’s is a very familiar and very special place for me!
One of the things I’ve always known about St. Andrew’s is how dedicated you are to being a presence of love and service in your community. My office days for Holy Cross were on Thursdays, so I was always here to see and experience the amazing work done at the food pantry. I also worked alongside Mother Brenda on several collaborative justice and inclusion efforts here in North County, and it was always clear to me how passionate St. Andrew’s was about supporting those efforts. And now, as you enter into this “in-between time”, this time of transition between rectors, which probably brings up feelings of sadness, excitement, anxiety, and hopefulness in equal measures – I think it’s even more important to be reminded of and always pay attention to that core of who you are as a faith community.
That idea of presence – knowing who we are, and taking action in accordance with what we value – is at the heart of Jesus’ words to his disciples that we just heard. If you recall last week’s gospel, Jesus identified who is blessed in God’s eyes: the poor, the sorrowful, the suffering – and this week he tells his disciples what to do about it: go and be salt and light.
Salt and light are wonderful metaphors that Jesus uses, because they are so incredibly ordinary. They are the “stuff” of everyday life – especially in Jesus’ time, when everyone used candles or oil lamps to light their homes, and salt to preserve food. They are seemingly insignificant but allow for powerful presence: light makes things visible, and salt helps not just to preserve but to share the abundance that God gives us – because what is preserved is not wasted but can be shared.
Of course, salt and light are merely tools that can be used to heal – or to harm. A flame can light a home, but also burn it down. Salt is a great preservative, but try using it as a fertilizer – not so great. The gifts of God are good, but remain good only when we use them for the good of others.
This is why the heart for the good of neighbors, and especially those neighbors who are most in need, is such an essential thing to keep at the forefront of your identity as a community here at St. Andrew’s. Such a heart is powerful, not just because it attends to immediate physical needs, but because it proclaims God’s love and goodness to a world so desperately in need of good news.
If you remember a few weeks back, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ mission, his calling, was based on two main things: proclaiming the Good News, and healing the sick and the suffering. It’s a balance of word and action, and as you think in the coming months about the kind of community you are and the type of rector you want to call to lead you – it’s important to keep both of those things in balance.
Both our proclamation and our action make up our presence in the world – and both of these things are informed and shaped, as Christians, by the way that we pray. Without prayer – whether individually, or communally in the way we gather to worship – our proclamation and action will be powerless.
I think this might be what Jesus is getting at when he talks about “tasteless salt.” Of course, salt can’t really lose its flavor – but if it did, you’d really want to throw it out! But when our actions, no matter how “good” they are, or our words, no matter how “holy” they might seem, lose their connection to their source in God’s grace – they become simply empty words and action that don’t have the power to transform the structures of oppression in this world. We need to keep our flavor – so there’s a question to think about in the days and months ahead: what’s the flavor of St. Andrew’s?
Our Bishop has declared that 2026 is again going to be the “Year of Evangelism” in our diocese. I think this is incredibly timely, because in such turbulent times as we are experiencing right now, we need a church that stands up and proclaims the truth of the Gospel – that truth of God’s unconditional love that is more powerful than war, than hate, than death. We need a church that understands that proclaiming the Good News involves both word and selfless action, driven by a heart that is connected to God’s goodness through the power of prayer.
And so I am very excited to join you all on this journey, to walk with you all into both this Year of Evangelism and a new chapter in your lives together here at St. Andrew’s. You are already blessed with a heart for the “least of these”, those beloved ones of God – and I hope to help you to grow deeper in your practices of prayer, of proclamation, and of acts of love and service as you prepare for what the Spirit has in store for you. Amen and Alleluia!
