Year A Epiphany V Matthew 5:13-20

In my experience, most folks like chocolate chip cookies, and perhaps the best liked ones are the ones we bake at home. The smell fills the house and we can hardly wait for our first bite. Sometimes, for health reasons, we cut out ingredients - like the salt, and if you tend to do that, here’s something you might find interesting.

Did you know that cutting out the salt completely from a recipe will mean the cake or cookie won't taste as sweet? Also, there is such a small amount of salt in baked goods and most home cooking, cutting it out won't remove that much sodium from our diet. And if the flavours aren't as satisfying, we could end up eating more. Bottom line, salt in cooking is not such a bad thing. In fact, salt makes chocolate sweeter.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”

Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation of last week’s. Jesus didn’t just stop at the Beatitudes, He kept on teaching. In today’s Gospel reading, He has chosen an image that would have held a lot of meaning for His listeners. We, hearing it today, think we too understand. Salt is something you sprinkle lightly on food to enhance the flavour – but not too much salt, as we’ve learned that can be bad for your health. That, however, is not what sprang to the minds of the disciples as they listened to Jesus. What might they have been thinking?

Salt has an interesting history. In ancient times, animals wore paths to salt licks; men followed; trails became roads, and settlements grew beside them. When the human menu shifted from salt-rich game to cereals, more salt was needed to supplement the diet. But the underground deposits were beyond reach, and the salt sprinkled over the surface was insufficient. Scarcity kept the mineral precious. As civilization spread, salt became one of the world’s principal trading commodities.

Not only did salt serve to flavor and preserve food, it made a good antiseptic, which is why the Roman word for these salubrious crystals (sal) is a first cousin to Salus, the goddess of health. Of all the roads that led to Rome, one of the busiest was the Via Salaria, the salt route. But that was long ago. Did Jesus actually choose a metaphor that has become outdated today?

Today, salt is an ingredient we tend to shy away from, because we recognize certain health risks associated with it. Even potato chip companies now proudly present, among their various flavours, chips that are reduced sodium, some percentage less salty than the regular kind. On a dietary level, our society, for those who are concerned about health issues, has become low sodium. And this, at first, makes Jesus’ analogy seem somehow less applicable to our lives today.

But there’s another level, other than dietary, on which we can see a great reduction over the last several decades. As people “streamline” their living, get healthy, get with the societal program, they cut out what they think isn’t really necessary- like extra salt. But in a greed and power fueled culture, other things become unnecessary - like, Sunday worship, or time for prayer, or the doing of good works, maintaining a loving and forgiving nature, being faithful.

As this happens, suddenly, nothing in life seems as satisfying as it once did. We try to accumulate more wealth, more power, more things we feel offer us security and pleasure, but none seem to bring the stability, the happiness, the satisfaction we are seeking. As we see congregations diminishing, faith being abandoned, and violence and crime rising, we might say we are currently living in a spiritually “low-sodium society”.

You are the salt of the earth. Now it begins to make better sense.

The sad thing is, this problem, the tendency of human nature to drift toward the worldly staples for security, and abandon what becomes thought of as the unnecessary spirituality of faith, was around in Jesus’ day just as it is in ours. Our Lord knew His example would always be relevant, would always apply to the present, no matter in what decade or century or millennium His followers live. He knew, He knows, that it applies to us right now, this day. So, salt (that’s you), listen and respond to what Jesus has to say.

And be aware, Jesus doesn’t say, “You will someday be the salt of the earth,” or “Continue to work at becoming the salt of the earth”. He says, “You are, the salt of the earth.” This is a spiritual reality. For Jesus, we disciples are indeed already the salt of the earth; it is a state of being that is already in place. Evelyn Underhill once said that spirituality is more about reminding and remembering than learning something new. We are this salt, the salt of the earth.

In the dullest and darkest of days we who walk in the Kingdom are the ones who, by our joy, return the sweetness to each day. And when we do this, as we spread Jesus love, we light up the darkness – not just by the work we do but by the way in which we do it. It is our centeredness in Jesus that turns the head of the weary or woebegone and makes them smile, helps them throw off the heavy burned of living in the world, of simply being human.

Salt, in a dish, is not just salty, but since it is such a fundamental flavor it highlights all the others. In a word, we followers of Jesus are meant to enhance the world, to draw out the flavors of all the world, all existence, everything! We do this through our words of gentleness, concern, sensitivity to others, kindness, and consideration. We do this through our actions of love, of caring, of support, of assistance. Jesus calls us to this.

And He tells His disciples and us, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Let us pray:

Lord, help us to serve with love, according to our gifts, so that we will be salt of the earth and Your light in the world. May we preserve in our faith and shine brightly as your children. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.