You Are

We begin today’s passage fresh on the heels and even the culmination of last week’s Beatitudes. Jesus is blessing the crowds. Who makes up the crowds again? Well there are the disciples but then there is a larger crowd of all those that were brought forth to Jesus as he was healing sicknesses of every kind: be it mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual. These are the unclean, the untouchable, the forgotten. I don’t want us to lose sight of who is sitting around Jesus as we hear him proclaim “you are the salt of the earth” and “you are the light of the world.”

Salt and Light: two things that we perhaps recognize most when they are missing. Why salt? Sometimes I wish Jesus had said You are coffee and light. You are a full night’s sleep and light. That sounds dreamy. You are sugar and light. I can handle that. But salt?

Maybe you have said it once or twice or heard the phrase ring out around the table, “pass the salt.” If you were to sit at a table with my dad, you would observe a small a small salt shower over his plate. He’s one of those who salts the food before he ever tastes it because he claims “I can’t taste it without the salt.”

I can hardly think of anything I’ve made that didn’t have to have salt, and you know it when it is left out. A couple of days ago I was making lunch and tried to make some pasta. My husband comes by, takes a taste and says “ugh, you need salt.” In other words, without salt, it’s just bland. Tasteless. Nobody is winning a cooking competition without salt. Nobody is asking for seconds with that dish.

But Jesus says you are salt of the earth. He is talking to the whole crowd, you plural. And he is broadening the scope. Not just salt of Galilee. Salt of the earth! In the ancient world, salt had great value and significance. It purified, seasoned, and preserved. It was used in worship (either sprinkled or spread onto sacrifices). Newborn children were rubbed with it. And covenants were made with it. This is mentioned in Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5.

Under the Roman Empire, salt was still very valuable. There were salt mines, and salt was referred to as “white gold.” Since it was so valuable, sometimes Roman soldiers were paid in allowances of salt called a salarium. The Latin root sal is where we get our English word “salary” from.

So when Jesus says “you are salt,” he is saying you are of great value. Not you will be.....but you are. These crowds, many of whom had lived in a space outside the realm of blessing were now hearing this Jewish man tell them that they were of great value. Not only that, but that they had purpose on the earth.

Leonard Sweet says “salt really isn’t a spice. It isn’t a condiment. It is a mineral that when added to food brings out the flavor or essence of all the other ingredients.” We don’t salt food to taste salt. We salt our food to allow the flavor of whatever it is we are eating to come forth. In other words, salt exists not for itself, but for that which it is applied to. Jesus is saying you are the salt of the earth. As you have recieved healing and freedom and restoration, go forth and flavor the world with it. Now you bring out the flavor of my love and my grace and my mercy and my goodness.

I wonder today if you have people who are salt of the earth to you, people who flavor your life with their faithfulness. People who are genuine and authentic, who love you deeply, who make you laugh, but who also will convict you. People who know the power of God to heal and transform and redeem and who when they are with you begin to rub off on you. The flavor of their spirit enhances your own.

Like my dad said, “we can’t taste it without the salt. We are meant to flavor the world with the goodness of God.But sometimes we get distracted. We get down. We get worried. We get afraid. And we start flavoring everything with our opinions and our fears and our petty differences and doomsday fears. We flavor life with trivial pursuits and our latest agenda, with deeply-held grudges and hardened hearts. And before we know it, life is bland and we are out of salt.

That is why we are continually called together and then sent back out into the world. Every week we need the Holy Spirit to blow through us and then we head out again to flavor the world with our witness.

And our light. Jesus says “you are light.” Again sharing a precious commodity and telling the crowd “you are this.” Interesting that he compares them to a city on a hill as he is sitting with the crowd on a hillside or mountain. Once again the idea is that light serves a purpose beyond itself, to illuminate that which is around it.

One of the reasons I love the Christmas Eve service we share together is because we take the light of the Christ candle and we fill the room with light all from this one flame. And no one candle is brighter than the others. And after filling the room with light, the Christ candle is still just as bright. Light is meant to give of itself.

Two days before Christmas last year in upper state New York, there was a dangerous blizzard that left at least 40 dead. In the town of Cheektowaga, they saw upwards of 4 feet of snow. A 27-year old named Jay got stuck.He could barely see his hand in front of him but managed to make it to a local school and broke in. Rather than just staying put, he went back out into the blizzard trudging up and down the street knocking on car windows. He made multiple trips getting others into the school, finally getting 24 people total. He then broke into the nurses office for blankets and the kitchen for some food. Over the couple of days, these 24 people celebrated Christmas in the shelter of the school over peanut butter crackers. When the authorities arrived, they found a note left by Jay saying he was sorry for breaking in, but he had to do it so they would survive. Wouldn’t you know it these 24 strangers bonded together and are already planning a reunion together in the spring.

When the video footage was released, one said “it was remarkable. I saw people taking care of people.”

In the same storm, a local McDonald’s served as a shelter for customers who were stuck.

Another man opened up his home to a tour bus of 10 South Koreans. When asked about it, he said “you don’t think about it. You just do.”

People taking care of people. Opening our doors. Sharing shelter. Loving extravagantly. Passing the salt and turning on the light. You don’t think about it. You just do.

You are salt of the earth. You are light of the world.

So go forth and shine this week. Go forth and flavor the world with the love of God. Pass the salt and turn on the light.