"You Are Salt. You Are Light"

Matthew 5:13-16

Today's passage comes just after Jesus' daunting list of Beatitudes, part of one of the most challenging sermons ever written, full of Jesus' difficult teachings. This next section is a two-part saying - to be salt and light. Think of it as a sentence in the last paragraph of most of my sermons - a summation of the previous three and ½ pages. I try to boil it all down to a phrase or concept for you to ponder the rest of the week. You'll have to wait for it this morning, but it will be there😊. That's just what Jesus does here in summing up the Beatitudes.

You may recall that during my sabbatical, I read a few of the books given to me by congregation members. One was about the sin of Christian Nationalism in the Evangelical church in America: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory, by Tim Alberta.

Author Tim Alberta was interviewing Charlie Kirk, an evangelical pastor who was encouraging his congregation to pray for America, be patriot warriors, support Donald Trump, and fight the ultra-leftist liberal agenda and wokeness that was ruining our beloved country. That was the focus of the entire worship service. He ended his rant with a nod to today's passage, saying that doing such things is how we Christians are to be salt and light to the world. That is taking the quote fully out of context.

Jesus has just preached how to embody being salt and light - to help the impoverished who are crushed by their poverty, to comfort those who mourn, to be meek, to hunger for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure, to make peace and to be strong and faithful, following Jesus' teachings amid persecution. That is what being salt and light is about, and I think I remember yelling that at that particular page when I read it😊

Let's look at what else it means to be salt and light in the world, beginning with salt.

In addition to helping those who are crushed by their poverty, comforting those who mourn, being meek, hungering for righteousness, being merciful, being pure, making peace, being solid and faithful amid persecution, what else did Jesus mean by telling us we are salt? Let's look at some of the characteristics of salt to see if we can find additional understanding.

Let us begin with a brief history of salt, which we take for granted today.

Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates back to around 6,000 years ago when Neolithic people living in Romania were boiling spring water to extract the salts; saltworks in China have been found, which date to approximately the same period. The ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and the Egyptians prized salt. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara in camel caravans. In the Middle East, salt was used to seal an agreement ceremonially, and the ancient Hebrews made a "covenant of salt" with God and sprinkled salt on their offerings to show their trust. (See, for example, Leviticus 2:18, Numbers 18:19, 2 Chronicles 13:5) Salt was a precious resource in ancient times. What can salt be used for today?

First of all, salt gives flavor to food. Salt makes food taste better.

Demonstration - potato chips. Salted chips and unsalted chips. Which one tastes better?

When we were in Iceland in June, I wanted to buy some items to help me bring back a little bit of the country to Ashland. I got a couple of things - a snow globe depicting Pingvellir National Park, where the Vikings gathered annually for their annual assembly. The name Þingvellir is derived from þing ("thing, assembly") and vǫllr ("field"), meaning assembly fields. By the way, this is where we get the word "thing." Although the old Norse pronunciation is really "Ping." It just changed over the centuries. Now, you know a new ping or two about the origin of a word. Pingvellir is also where the Nordic people of Iceland accepted the Christian faith in the 900s. So, I have this little globe on my desk to help remind me of that place.

I also wanted to bring home some of the tastes I experienced in Iceland. But that would have been a little difficult to get items through customs. I could have possibly taken home some fermented shark, which I'm sure would have lasted the next two weeks through Scotland, but that was a taste I did not want to bring home. I did, however, take a bag of Icelandic geyser salt home. Here is all that is left. I've used it for seasoning meat and pasta and put it on popcorn, etc. The taste of the salt reminds me of Iceland, and I have to say that this salt has a strong flavor and has been a real treat to use when I marinate meats for grilling.

I also have another tale about salt from our second stop for my sabbatical. When we went to Scotland, we had oatmeal pretty regularly for breakfast. One of our servers knew we were Yanks, and I discussed proper oatmeal with her. She said it HAS to be cooked with salt, or the flavor isn't right. Some Scots even put salt into it once it is placed in front of them, along with a bit of butter. But what we Yanks do to oatmeal is improper - brown sugar, jam, etc. It just is not a proper thing to do!

The point of our chip demonstration and these two salty tales is that salt brings flavor to food.

So, one of the things Jesus was saying was that those of us who claim his name should add flavor to the world wherever we live, work, and play—we, too, should make the world taste better. A salty faith is full of justice, mercy, love, and compassion. A salty church reaches out to its surrounding community. We'll do just that this morning as we bless SOU students and faculty. We'll be salty once again at the October Fest as we invite our neighbors to "Feiern Sie den Herbst!" (That is - celebrate fall!). We'll welcome fellow Presbyterians from all over Oregon November 1-2, demonstrating Christ's call to hospitality. Jesus wants us to be salty - to bring a new flavor into a bland, cold, uncaring world.

Many people are on a low-salt or no-salt diet for dietary reasons. Is anyone in the congregation on a low or no-salt diet? Too much salt in a diet can lead to all kinds of problems - hypertension, high blood pressure, heart attacks, etc. Sometimes, for individuals, a salty diet is the last thing they need. But Jesus' words today are meant for the world. The world has been on a low-salt diet for a while now, and there is not a lot of comfort, mercy, purity, peace, and hope out there these days. That is especially evident as we draw closer to the presidential election. So, in this case, an increase in salt is a prescription that can bring flavor to the world and save the world's life.

A second characteristic of salt is that it keeps food from spoiling. It is a preservative. Salt has been used for thousands of years to preserve food. So then, according to Jesus, Christians are to be preservers of life, from birth to death into eternity. We should preserve life by advocating and demonstrating Christ's love and justice. Life spoils and begins to decay when some people have too much power and others have too little, especially when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. By working to overcome these disparities, Christians arrest the decay. We preserve life by pointing out those disparities and working to overcome them.

When we feed others through the Little Free Pantry, host a community meal on Thanksgiving and Easter by Southern Oregon Jobs for Justice, build a home for families who have been couch surfing through Habitat for Humanity, host a shelter for the unhoused as we have done in the past, volunteer our time to serve on the board of OHRA-Options for Housing, Resources and Assistance,  give out food cards through our deacon fund, or give to local and global agencies who help others in need through our mission budget, we are preserving life.

These salty, preserving actions give us a glimpse of what God intended for this life - a life of justice, mercy, and hope.

The third thing that is true about salt is that a little bit can go a long way. Paula often complains that I put too much salt on popcorn. You don't need a lot of salt to make a difference in the taste of things. Consider that Jesus began his ministry with just a bit of salt - 12 disciples. Those disciples eventually lost their saltiness and turned away from Jesus one by one, until at his arrest and crucifixion, only he was left - one grain of salt which neither pain nor suffering nor even death could destroy. With his resurrection, he began re-seasoning the world. First, the disciples were re-seasoned and became salt, spreading Jesus' teachings throughout the Holy Land. And through them, others were seasoned with the salt of Christ. A little bit of salty faith can make a difference.

Now, let us move on to the second part of the salt saying. "But if salt has lost its flavor, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by others." Some say salt cannot lose flavor, and sodium chloride (NaCl) will always taste like salt. That may be true of modern-day salt, but theologian and historian James M Freeman says, "Salt produced by the evaporation of seawater in hot countries is sometimes said to lose its saline properties. The same result is sometimes seen in impure rock salt that has long been exposed to the air. When such is the case, can nothing be done with it but to throw it out into the highway, where people and beasts trample it down." (Manners & Customs of the Bible by James M. Freeman, page 335)

So, in some cases, we disciples can lose our flavor. Our faith can be less salty. How do we lose our saltiness? We lose our saltiness when we lack connection to a worshiping body, to other people of faith. We lose our saltiness when we don't act on our faith and make a difference in the world. We lose our saltiness when we don't study scripture or pray consistently. We lose our saltiness when we do not fellowship with other Christians, when we "Get out of the habit" of attending church.

In time, we lose our flavor and blend in with the rest of the world, and our faith in Christ becomes lite salt or salt substitute. What good is it to be salt and lose its flavor? What good is having faith in God but doing nothing with it? Don't let that happen to you. Keep on being seasoned by your church's worship, learning, prayer, fellowship, service, and study. Season the world with your saltiness for life. Season the earth to advocate for what is right, honorable, and just!

Next comes Jesus' second important saying. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to God in heaven."

 Light is good and is used to create the image of God throughout scripture. "The people that have walked in darkness have seen a great light: They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." "God is light, and in God is no darkness at all." (Isaiah 9:2, 1 John 1:5). We cannot find our way without light; we cannot see God or our neighbor without light.

Jesus calls us to bring light into the darkness, to be lights that turn away the shadows. What does it mean to be light to the world? We can be light to others in many different ways. Perhaps you are like a lighthouse shining for others who have lost their way. Or you are a night light, offering comfort and security to those who are afraid. Or perhaps you are a security light that comes on at night to reveal what is happening in the dark, bringing God's justice where needed. Or maybe you are like the light Paula and I experienced in Iceland and Scotland - the sun. Even at night, the sun still provided light in both countries, affecting everyone. With the sun shining at night, people's behaviors and habits changed.

What kind of light are you? How does it shine before others? We are called to shine our lights in whatever form they are, faithfully shine in the darkness around us. We are called to share God's hope, love, mercy, and justice with a dark, hopeless, loveless, merciless, and unjust world. 

In conclusion, Rev. Carols E. Wilton wrote, "Notice Jesus doesn't say, "Go out and 'be' the light of the world." He uses the present tense: "You 'are' the light of the world." It's as though he's saying, "Like it or not, you already are light—the same thing with salt. You are the salt of the earth... The creator ‑ God has placed within you a fire, a yearning for righteousness, a chance to show our faith in what we do and what we say, in how we treat others....That fire can be a beacon for others, pointing the way to God. The salt can be the spice of life, bringing flavor to a bland world."