YOU are the salt of the earth

There was a mother mouse who decided to teach her children about the world. So she gathered all of her little mice and set out for a walk. They walked down the hall and turned to the right. Then they went down the hall and took another right. And suddenly they found themselves in front of the family cat dozing in the sunlight.

The mother mouse was scared. But she didn't want to give in to her fright. So she signaled to the children to be very quiet and to follow as she began to tip toe quietly and slowly past the sleeping cat. Just as she was about to get past the cat, the cat's eyes popped open and raised its paw.

The little mice were petrified. What would their mother do? Well, just as the cat's paw started to come down, that mother mouse looked the cat right in the eye and started barking like a dog. And do you know what? The cat was so startled and frightened that it jumped up and ran away! The mother mouse, wiped her brow, shook a little and then turned to her little mice and said, "Children, I hope you learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes it's good to know a second language!"

It's the same way with us. It's good to know a second language. Salt and light are the language of God; the language of Grace; the language of hope and love. And when this language is translated into action it becomes the most beautiful language ever spoken. We're called to be salt and light and to speak the language of God as we live our faith. We're called to live the Word.

-Billy D. Strayhorn, The Salt and Light Brigade

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Living the Word is the urging that we hear in Matthew’s Gospel today. And we hear that calling through very carefully chosen examples.

First, Jesus speaks to the disciples about salt; declaring that you, Christ’s followers, are the salt of the earth. He does not say you are the coal of the earth, or the sugar of the earth, or the wheat of the earth, no. Jesus says you are the salt of the earth.

So why salt? What were its uses? What would this image have inspired for the disciples 2,000 years ago? There were three primary uses for salt.

First, salt seasons, it gives flavor. I find salt to be a very curious substance in our cooking. When we’re baking, a little bit of salt will reduce bitterness while enhancing sweet, sour and savory flavors. That little bit of salt added to dessert recipes actually helps make the dessert taste sweeter. On the flip side of that coin, a larger amount of salt actually reduces sweetness and further enhances savory umami flavors. When it comes to flavoring, salt is versatile. It has uses in nearly all forms of cooking.

So too, as Christ’s disciples, we are called to be versatile in how we flavor the world around us based on the needs around us. Salt, simply thrown at a problem, will likely not create good results. But when carefully measured and engaged properly, salt can enhance new flavors within community. Salt can actually help create community. When baking bread, it is salt that causes the gluten to bind together—it is the salt that allows bread to be bread instead of a broken mess.

Second, salt purifies. Certain salts are used to create safe, clean drinking water. A little bit of iodine mixed into water will actually latch on to foreign particles dragging them down to the bottom of the cup. In the ancient world that Jesus lived in, salt was used for purification in another way as well. Salt was required in every sacrifice that was burned on the altar.

And, according to , after a baby was born the midwife would cut and tie the umbilical cord, wash the child, and then rub the child in oil and salt before swaddling the little one in strips of cloth.

This was done to clean and then protect the child from impurities—both disease and demonic. Even still today, if you watch TV shows or movies that deal with the supernatural you might see someone using salt to purify a house or create barriers from evil by putting the salt in front of doorways, windows, or creating a salt circle.

For the disciples and for us, this is a call in Matthew toward purity by continuing to teach and attempt to live out the law of the Torah. We’ll talk a bit more about that later. But suffice it to say for now that in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ teachings of the law was not that the law is bad and needs to be done away with. But rather that the law was designed by God to enhance life in our living together with one another much as salt enhances flavor in food.

Third, salt preserves. Most bacteria is simply unable to live in the presence of high concentrations of salt. Meat and vegetables that would normally go bad in just a few days can be made to last for months. During the sailing age of the 1700 and 1800s, we have records of ships who spent 100+ days at sea between ports, relying purely on barrels filled with salted pork and beef for their journeys.

In the ancient world, that ability of salt to make foods endure was also used symbolically as gifts between kingdoms to demonstration friendships and alliances that would endure against the harshness of the world. Salt was a sign of covenant that could not be broken.

So too Christ tells his followers that we are the salt of the earth that we are that which creates endurance not just for meat but for the whole of creation. It’s important to recognize here, though, that Jesus isn’t telling his disciples to -be- preserved in salt… but rather that we ARE the salt which is that sign of God’s covenant to the world. We ARE that which carries on the Good News from one generation to the next, helping the Good News to endure into the ages to come.

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Salt not for its own sake

And that brings us to another point about salt. You see, salt is not salt for itself. Salt is for the sake of that which it has been placed in and around and upon. Salt is to be used for the seasoning, the purifying, and the preserving of other things… not of itself.

Just as light is not light for itself… but rather it is valued for that which it illumines for others around it.

And both light and salt are only useful when they are being put to use. A light hidden underneath a basket makes little sense. But a light placed on a table where all can see it and where its light can illumine the darkest of corners brings peace and comfort to those around it. A light, no matter how bright it might be, is only as good as how it is used.

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In the Gospel of Matthew, people are made up of their deeds. Thus, salt is only worth its salt when it is being used to season, purify, and preserve. Light only illumines when it is allowed to shine forth.

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It is that idea of us as Christ’s disciples being put to use and being engaged in the world that Jesus is trying to convey to us. In verse 17 we hear Jesus speaking, perhaps bit cryptically, hat he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

In other words, Jesus isn’t doing away with the Law… he’s not taking the Old Testament and throwing it out and saying it’s worthless now. Instead, we hear that the Law still has purpose even after Christ has come.

You might be thinking to yourself, but we have grace because of Christ… our sins are forgiven, we have the promise of eternal life! And this is true. Christ fulfills the Law on our behalf… he forgives our sins, he takes our failings and makes our lives perfection before God. And alongside this truth, Matthew’s Gospel makes the claim that even as Jesus saves us from our sin, that he also calls us to continue to seek to follow the Law that is meant for life.

Why? Because the Law, ultimately, is not about being self-righteous before God. The law t is about seeking to be in righteous relationship with God and with one another. Christ takes care of our relationship with God on the cross—and then he calls us to live with an eye toward our relationships with one another. Being intentional in how we work to care for those around us. To do good deeds and good works in the world.

It’s tempting to hear this as works righteousness… that we are still attempting to earn favor with God in some manner. But this is not the case.

Trilling, a modern Catholic theologian wrote, “The good works are simply the light that has penetrated life and been realized there. They are truth become tangible, faith become life. They are not something apart from faith… [but through our faith, our good works] are always discharging like an active volcano.”

Through the Gospel of Matthew and then later in Paul’s letters we hear that we are both saved and called at once. Christ saves us from eternal damnation. And Christ calls into action. “You are the light of the world” is a truth in who we are and claim that must be made real in deeds. Not for our sake… not for the sake of the salt or for the sake of the light… but for the sake of the world.

But sometimes that’s a rather overwhelming thing to hear.

In his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Martin Luther talks of pitying those poor fishermen that Christ first called salt of the earth. The Messiah was asking a great deal of those early disciples to be salt for the whole world. To seek to lay hold of and salt everything that is human kind upon earth… it was a lot… it still is a lot. It’s tempting to look at all of the hunger, all of the poverty and disease, all of the injustice of the world and say that it is simply too much to take on… or that we are simply too tired, or too small, or too… whatever it might be.

Martin Luther talks about that very same challenge for the church 500 years ago. People saw the task of caring for the world as being too great to the point that they said, “Let the Devil salt the world for me.” In other words… I give up. It’s too much to bear. I’ve already done my part.

But Luther says that we can be joyful and defiant in our confidence that when we are in trouble… when we feel overwhelmed by the needs of the world or feel tempted to turn in on our own needs and ignore the needs of the world around us, when the devil himself is ready for us to break, when we are ready to throw in the towel… we hear the words of Christ that we are indeed that salt of the earth. And though we might not have confidence in ourselves, we can have confidence in Christ’s word.

And ultimately, through that joyful word of Christ shining on our hearts, we learn that second language of being salt and light in the world. We live out the call of Christ in word and deed, not only speaking a second language of grace and hope and love but by becoming part of God’s covenant of grace and hope and love to the world.

You are the salt of the earth, called to be instigators of flavor, purifiers of injustices, and preservers of God’s truth. You are the light of the world, called to simply be… to live as a reminder of God’s promise fulfilled in and through you.

Remember always that you have received the gift of God’s grace, be also encouraged to live the call that goes with it like a volcano of good works that can’t help but bubble forth.