You can join the Mission of SALEM

One of my favorite parts of the many years I spent with Gottfried Müller was how wonderfully he told me stories to illustrate a point. On a long walk through the forest, during one of our first meetings several decades ago, he was telling me about the founding of SALEM, about his perception of the essence of his SALEM work. He said one of his main guiding principles was a story about Jesus.

One day, he said, Jesus’ disciples came to Him and asked Him how they could end up with Him in heaven. And He told them that in the last days, He would sit and separate the “goats from the sheep” – the bad people from the good people – based on their works.

And Jesus told His disciples that those who had fed Him when he was hungry, who had healed Him when he was sick, who had visited Him when he was in prison, who had given Him water when he was thirsty, or had welcomed Him when he was a stranger, would be able to join Him in heaven.

Now this, Herr Müller said, totally horrified the disciples. “We’ve never seen you hungry!” they said. “You’ve never been sick or thirsty or a stranger to us! You’ve never been in prison! How can we make it to heaven now, when we can’t do these simple things for you that you say are required for us to join you?” They were in a great distress!

And Herr Müller stopped walking along the trail, turned to face me, smiled broadly and lifted his finger into the air and said, as I recall, “But he then told them the greatest secret, gave them the most important order. ‘As you do it to even the least of the least, you have done it to me.’ And then they knew their work. And, knowing this story, so do I!”

That was in 1978, and later that year I began to read the Bible through, from beginning to end, for the first time. And when I came across the second half of the 25th Chapter of the book of Matthew I laughed with joy. This one time in the entire Bible when the disciples asked Jesus frankly and candidly what their spiritual work was, Jesus told them bluntly. Serve the least of the least.

Often Herr Müller used that phrase with me. Worms were the least of the least, and so he had to save their lives when possible.

The people of Uganda, when the Red Cross pulled out because their people were being shot, were then the least of the least, and therefore he and I had to go into Uganda.

The children who had been cast away by society or brutally abused by their parents were the least of the least and could find a home at SALEM.

The animals used in laboratory experimentation were the least of the least and so he created the SALEM Research Institute to prove that alternatives to animal experimentation were both cheaper and more effective for medical discoveries.

Food-factory animals were the least of the least and so he was a vegetarian.

A pregnant mother who wanted to keep her child but was faced with overwhelming economic or other pressures to abort was the least of the least so he opened a home for unwed mothers to come for free.

Those who couldn’t be healed by conventional medicine were the least of the least, so he opened a clinic with alternative therapies as an option, often of last resort.

And now the work continues in Togo, Uganda, Ecuador, Sudan …

Matthew 25 was, for Herr Müller, at the core of Christian teaching, and the teaching of all the world’s great religions. He took it as his own personal job assignment. There was a rather notorious man in prison who nobody had visited for years, and while this man was alive Herr Müller visited him once a year. He cared for anybody who asked for his help. He looked around the world for those surrogates of the suffering Christ who he may serve, and served them with enthusiasm.

The SALEM work lives on. And if we would like to join in serving the least of the least, we can do so by contributing our time, effort, or money to SALEM. And who knows? Maybe one day we’ll all meet again as the goats are separated from the sheep …