Being Salty—Isaiah 58: 1-12; Matthew 5: 13-16
In my high school Spanish class, we had to do a food project, and all make different Spanish, Hispanic, or Latin American inspired foods for class. A good friend of mine decided to make flan. Now flan is a very sweet baked custard with an amazing dark caramel sauce poured all over it. It’s sweet. It’s delicious. It’s one of my favorite deserts, and the whole class was looking forward to it, and now I bet you all are hungry. My friend brought to class this large-sized flan beautifully baked and covered in delicious caramel.
But as we all eagerly started digging into the flan with our spoons, it only took one bite to realize something was very, very, horribly wrong. It turns out that she had goofed. My friend was a bit disposed to having “oopsies.” And here, instead of one- and one-half cups of sugar, she had put one- and one-half cups of salt. It was wretched. I hope she at least got an A for effort.
Jesus tells the multitudes, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” Why do we add salt to food? Long ago I learned that it could draw out the flavor. Salt isn’t like other spices. Curry, paprika, chili powder, these all give a very distinct flavor to food—they carry their own taste and flavor profile. But salt isn’t designed to be a stand-alone flavor. It’s used to draw out the best flavors of the food you are eating. It was also used to preserve foods in ancient days, so that foods didn’t spoil so quickly.
This comparison is very purposefully made by Jesus. We are the salt of the earth. We are meant to draw out the best from others in this world. When someone comes to a church or gathers with others who live their lives for Jesus, it is meant to be a healing, encouraging, and life-giving experience. Salt draws out the best of the food it is added to. We are added into this world, and the Bible says stay in the world but don’t be all about the world, and as we live in this world, we are meant to draw out the best faith, the best holiness, the best love and care in this world.
Christians should set the example of how you practice faith. And then we should encourage others practice this wisdom too—gentleness, love, mercy, living in hope, living in joy. A friend of mine talked about visiting a church several years ago. He said he walked into this place filled with people looking tired, irritated, and miserable. I said, “What did you do?” He replied, “I wasn’t sure whether I got there for worship or a funeral, so I just left quietly. No one even noticed.” Being salty requires us to mean it when we say that God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.
Jesus didn’t just stop at asking them to be salty people, though. He also added, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden…a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.” Just like we are meant to draw out the best of faith in others, we are meant to also shine the light of Christ’s love in this world.
Jesus gives them a good working analogy. The most pointless thing to do in life is to light a lamp in a dark room then cover it over plunging yourself back into the same problematic darkness. That light of a lamp, that light of Christ is meant to be seen and shared, so that it can warm the coldness and emptiness often found in the world around us. I’ve heard over and over that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is one of the best kept secrets.
While that is a nice little statement, it’s a very bad way for us to live. I won’t say sinful because I was abrupt enough last week, that I have to behave this week. But Jesus tells us so plainly not to hide that light, never to keep the secret of faith, hope, and God’s redeeming love. One of the best places to find this light of Christ is at our camp, Camp Christian. Now, I was not in Georgia, so instead I went to Baptist Camp, which left me with a lasting legacy of needing therapy.
Camp Christian, though, has turned out dozens of pastors, hundreds of church leaders, and tens of thousands of children who found their faith in that rural, rustic place where God spoke to them. God still speaks in this world. God’s Word is spoken through us when we pray over a person, when we speak life-giving and reassuring words to them, when we comfort and remind them of our love, and when we mercifully forgive after they do us and themselves wrong.
That kind of thing brings out the best in those around us. That kind of living in this world brings a bright and shining light that stops a growing crime rate, helps impoverished families, and transforms a world Christians are only far too ready to be over and done with. The problem is this; Jesus said we, the Christians, are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and you and I are meant to live and work in this world.
Isaiah tells the story of a people and faith community that had lost its way. They went to the Temple. They prayed. They acted as if they wanted God in their midst. They even fasted. But their worship had lost its savor. Their light was hidden. The lives they lived did not reflect the faith they claimed, and God saw right through the fakeness. Numbers 32:23, the second part, says, “Be sure, your sins will find you out.” God knew their hearts, how little they cared, and how the person they showed in the Temple was not the true life they lived, and their sins had found them out as Isaiah shows.
Instead, we must be salt and light. Now, we don’t have to go and add a whole cup and a half of salt to our lives. Jesus told us to be the salt of the earth, but that doesn’t mean you should be salty. Jesus told us to be the light of the world, but that doesn’t mean go out and be those obnoxiously bright and blinding headlights. Live in a way that it inspires others to find something amazing, loving, and holy in your life and your walk on earth with God.
Let me wrap up with a final example. Yesterday at the regional meeting here at the church, a lady named Paula did the food. She was a long-time member of Healing Experience Ministries, which met here at the church, before it closed. Now, Paula is my buddy, I love her so much, and if I ate her food daily, I’d be pushing 1,000 pounds. I told her that I might have to have some surgery on my heart soon. She stopped right there in the hallway, one arm full of food, popped her other hand right over my chest and prayed up a storm over me, then walked right off before I could even gather myself to say, “Amen.”
She had the love and faith to stop and pray over me right then and there. And she also had the confidence that she didn’t have to ask God twice, for she believed that God heard her faith and her heart. If I were honest with you, sometimes even I as a pastor can’t muster up faith like that. It takes an unbelievable amount of wisdom and trust. Jesus said to his Disciples, then and now, “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.” None of that is done here, in these four walls. Go out from here into this world and let God’s love in you be the grace and hope this world needs.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/477855357896167