Matthew 5:13-20

Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

The Law and the Prophets

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,^[a] not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks^[b] one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Our passage this morning comes on the heels of the sermon on the mount.  The beatitudes simply mean blessing.  It has an implication if you have an ethos, or a characteristic, that points towards inclusive and welcoming love of self, others, and God…then you are blessed.  That inclusive and welcoming love flows from the dynamic of God’s being in us, and flowing through us.  The characteristics or ethos are like the flavors that we give off as we are transformed, converted, changed through our awareness and relationship with God. Flavors such as salt. The sermon title this morning is “salty” …so, I’m going to encourage us today to be a salty congregation!  Which, after a few weeks of getting to know many of you, we certainly are salty aren’t we?

And, what’s the purpose of salt?  Anyone?  It’s a preservative when you put it on something…it keeps things like meat from rotting away.  The ancients used it because they didn’t have refrigeration and it kept their meat from spoiling. 

I grew up on country ham in KY.  I still love it.  I was so excited to find a sandwich that changed my life a few years ago while visiting friends in the UK.  A simple “toastie” which is British farm bread toasted, splattered with melted butter and what the Brits call “bacon”, which is really just country ham.  The saltiness of the butter and ham is fantastic.  It’s simple, but rich with flavor.  

Now, salt on its own, not on anything, is a mineral…doesn’t do anything.  But, when applied to meat or something else, it preserves it and gives it flavor.  Here’s the kicker though, eventually, if that salty food isn’t consumed or used for something good…it can eventually lose its saltiness.  And salt without flavor or no longer useful as a preservative, it’s no good…throw it out.  

Now, God doesn’t give up on us, God doesn’t discard us…that’s not God’s character.  God’s characteristic or ethos, or salt if you will, is intense fidelity, commitment, loyalty, and faith in us.  But God does want us to be the salt of the earth, God wants us to have, and be, flavor in life,  and if we aren’t willing to be salt, then God will work in other ways.  For us to be salt, we must be willing to practice loving ourselves authentically and deeply and giving ourselves away in order to let the salt emerge within us, salt that the world hopes for the church to be…and needs it to be.

We must let the salt, the spice of God penetrate deep into our lives, into the recesses and pores of our very being.  That requires first a recognition that we cannot live this life in our egos.  Ego can be defined by how we view our self worth or self esteem.  It is a mechanism formed early in life to help us navigate life.  For our egos to move beyond self worth or self esteem to self love, we  need to allow God’s salt in our lives to open us up, to the deepest parts of who we are.  We need this salty God, and we need salty, authentic, community with one another as we pour out that salt..to be saltshakers if you will…  We cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps either and make changes…we must recognize our need for conversion and that we can’t foster conversion or change while feeding our egos.  We have to empty ourselves in order to be filled with salt and then to be saltshakers.  Sometimes, though, we have to hang for a while in the storage room!  

At some point in our lives, we are disrupted and given the opportunity to be brave and begin to allow our true selves emerge and have the possibility of living our lives out of that true self rather than our ego, letting our egos become subservient if you will to our authentic selves. 

Jesus also reminds us also in this passage that as we are being salty, that we are allowing God’s light shine in and through us.  Friends, let it flow and be a light into the world!!!  Don’t hide it, let light do its thing as it shows up in the darkness, illuminating goodness in the midst of the uncertainty of the darkness.

In a beautiful and fascinating way, I’ve seen so many of you have an honest approach at trying do this in the church in the short time I have been here.  We not only have to let the work of God’s Presence emerge within each one of us, but also in our collective lives as a congregation.   Personally, over the years, I’ve had to let go of my vision of the church, and I think many of you are as well.  In that space, again, we become a bit vulnerable, allowing trust and relationship become the salt of that work as we let go.  This is an important part of our journey together, in letting go and listening intently, we can hear God’s unique vision for this church.

When we begin that process of letting go…and starting out is the hardest part, we begin to see God’s expansive love work its way into our lives, like salt into meat.  It preserves us and it gives us a good taste in lives.  We begin to practice being salt by loving each other…as well as our neighbors.  We find ourselves being peacemakers, practicing justice, standing up for those on the margins, being merciful and graceful, as we live into the commitment and bonds of friendship with ourselves, within community, as God’s salt in us does it’s work.  

Jesus talks about the law in the passage this morning, remember that Jesus fulfills the law by being the embodiment of the law as a person…the characteristics/ethos of the law in right relationship is Jesus.  And our relationship with Jesus, which brings out our true selves, means that we are also called to apply Jesus righteousness, which we possess, in our relationships with others…which leads to being light in a dark world, speaking up for the oppressed, the marginalized, the refugee.

Living in Christ means moving towards a higher level of consciousness, of awareness…. going beyond a literal observance of laws and rituals to a radical openness to relationship with God and others that is very much fluid and  requires faithfulness, trust, and even risk and marked by radical love and becoming salt that permeates into the lives others, preserving life, and giving it some spice!  So, friends, let’s keep on being salt and light!!!  And let’s pour that salt out and shed that light around us!!  Let’s stay salty and, to quote the great theologian of our time, Taylor Swift, let’s shake it out!  Let’s be saltshakers, amen?