Salt of the Earth

February 9, 2014

Matthew 5:13-20

            A woman who used to attend St. Aidan’s once admitted to me that sometimes after one of the readings she would think, “Huh?”  And then she would furtively look around to see if anyone else had any idea what the reading meant, or if she was the only one that had no clue what the heck the Bible was saying.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of readings like that.  For me, Jesus’ line about salt this morning has always been one of them.

            But I think the Boy Scouts helped me finally put it in perspective.  

Dylan just joined the St. Aidan’s affiliated Cub Scout pack this year.  Let me start by saying that there’s a lot that seems great about the Boy Scouts.  Kids encouraged to respect each other, do their best, and take care of people.  They do a lot outside, hiking and camping.  They learn to do new things and have interesting adventures.  I’m glad that the Boy Scouts is on the road toward greater inclusivity, and have been impressed with the loving and enthusiastic leaders of the St. Aidan’s pack.

But the focus on badges and beads and pins makes me crazy, in both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.  I admit that part of that comes from my distaste for ironing.  Even with that sticky ironing tape, the badges never stay on.  But besides the ironing issue, I also wonder if awards that are so easily bestowed really mean much.  Pretty much every meeting or outing leads to a badge or bead or pin.  Most of them, the kids probably couldn’t tell you what they’re for and others have pretty tangential connections with the kids’ participation.

Most recently, Dylan came home with a bobcat badge and pin added to his uniform.  Now, Holden is the Boy Scout guy, so my information comes second hand, but my understanding is that Dylan got the badge because he was able to recite the Boy Scout pledge and Law of the Pack.  But the badge is affixed upside down with the pin.  I learned that it will be turned upright once Dylan “performs a good deed.” 

Now this is an idea I could really get into!  I started spinning the possibilities.  Maybe Dylan could look around the house for gently used books and toys to take the family homeless shelter in Old Town.  And he could look for lonely or new kids at school to invite over to play.  As a mom, I also thought of him helping me with dishes or laundry or cooking and looking for ways to surprise his sisters with sweetness.  Looking for more information, I asked Dylan if he was supposed to do a good deed every day?  Or every week?  Oh, no.  Just once and the pin gets turned.  Box checked.  No more good deeds necessary.  I was even more disheartened to hear the example given by one of the Scout leaders:  Dylan could open a door for someone.  Once.

It’s a pale comparison to what Jesus suggests for us in this morning’s Gospel.  Maybe instead of a pin or badge we all need a shaker of salt in our pockets and a flashlight on our key chains.  Not as an award for a box easily checked off but as a reminder of our identity and call as followers of Jesus.

            Let me read the first piece of Jesus’ words for his disciples this morning from the Message translation of the Bible:

“Let me tell you why you are here.  You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.  If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?

You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.  God is not a secret to be kept.  We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.  If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?  I’m putting you on a light stand.  Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine!  Keep open house; be generous with your lives.  By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”

This is Jesus’ description of discipleship.  This is how we follow Jesus – by being salt and light.

The light part sounds familiar, we’re used to hearing, singing, praying about light.  And we know what light does.  It allows us to see, produces warmth, creates growth and energy.  So Jesus here is telling us that our job as disciples is to help the world around us see beauty and grace and hope and love.  To help the world see the way out of fear, hatred, violence and oppression.  To be bearers of love to the world, piercing the darkness of pain and loneliness, and to be encouragers of spiritual health and growth.

But the salt part?   Salt doesn’t feel quite as familiar as a metaphor. 

Salt for us now days is so cheap and plentiful we don’t think much about it, but in my research I discovered that salt has been an incredibly precious and symbolic item in our world’s history.  Jesus’ listeners would have understood this metaphor much better than we do.

Back before refrigeration, salt was used to preserve food.  It was also an antiseptic.  And so salt was not just a way to flavor food; it was a matter of life and death.  In many times and places it was so scarce and precious that it was a currency of commerce.  The word “salary” actually stems from the word salt.  Wars have been won and lost on the basis of who controlled salt.    

But salt was also a matter of prestige.  Guests sitting at a table in Jesus’ time were sometimes ranked in relationship to the salt dish.  Distinguished guests sat at the head of the table, above the salt; less esteemed guests sat below the salt.  Maybe because of the way early Christianity bucked this system, Christians referred to table fellowship as “sharing the salt”.  If you look closely, in da Vinci’s Last Supper, Judas is shown with an overturned saltcellar in front of him; he is already out of fellowship with Jesus and the disciples. 

Salt was also intimately involved with Judaism.  The Torah instructed that salt was to be part of every Temple offering and sacrifice.  Salt symbolized the covenant between God and Israel.  A “salt covenant” during Jesus’ time was an obligation that was especially holy and enduring. 

            So what might Jesus be saying in his exhortation that his disciples are the salt of the earth?

Salt is used for seasoning and stimulates thirst.  Maybe Jesus is telling us to enhance the world by showing the joy and purpose of God’s creation.  To wake the people around us up to their thirst for something beyond themselves.

            Salt preserves food.  Maybe Jesus urges us to call the world back from its self-destructive ways to God’s ways of wholeness and healing.

Salt has healing and antiseptic properties.  Maybe Jesus is encouraging us both to heal the broken world and to name injustices and convict the world’s power structures.

Salt keeps ice from forming.  Maybe Jesus is calling us to help thaw the coldness of the world, to be peacemakers in a hostile world.

But, Jesus warns, salt can lose its saltiness.  (This is the part that I’ve never understood, because I’m not really sure salt can lose its saltiness.)  But I think this warning can be understood in two ways.  First, we all know you don’t eat salt on its own.  It tastes gross alone, and would give you terribly high blood pressure if you did it often.  Salt isn’t meant to be eaten by itself; it isn’t useful on its own.  Its entire value comes from its transformation of other things, the way it preserves or seasons or heals whatever it is applied to.  Our calling to be salt and light isn’t an individual calling; we aren’t meant to be salt and light on our own or only to ourselves.  We are called into a community of faith to live for each other and for the world around us.  By our saltiness, our transformative, seasoning, healing presence, we point the way to the Creator and Provider of all transformation, seasoning and health.

But I think there’s another warning here too.  If our saltiness comes from God, sometimes we might need to find ways to unplug the holes in our salt shaker, or find something to add to our mixture so that our salt doesn’t get clumped up.  To enable our own saltiness, we need time with God, Sabbath rest, worship in a community like this, soul friends that feed us.  We need to know how precious we are to God and to rejoice in that.

Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples they ought to be salt.  He tells them they are salt.  That is who they – we – are created to be.  Each one of us is of great value – and we are created to give our distinctive flavor to life, and by our presence and witness to transform the world around us.  To live courageously and generously.  Not just once, to check the box and turn the badge upright, but as a way of life, even if it is just one grain at a time.  No matter what we do or where we live or who we know, this is our vocation, our identity, as disciples of Jesus.   Amen.