Salty and Shiny (Sermon based upon Matthew 5:13-16)

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.

Last week, we read the first part of the Sermon on the Mount and discovered Jesus had some wonderful news for his new community of disciples. He declared them blessed. In other words, God had gifted them with many things that would go on to serve them in powerful ways. Yet we understood that they would have heard the Beatitudes as an echo from God’s promise to Abraham: blessed are you…so that you may bless others. Jesus goes on in today’s scripture to drive this point home.

The good news, or Gospel, continues as Jesus tells his faithful community that they indeed have already been given everything they need in order for this promise to be fulfilled. What they do with those things, however, is totally up to them. What Jesus expects of them seems simple enough. He expects them to be Salty, Shiny Christians. But what in the world does that really mean?

“You are the salt of the earth…” Notice Jesus doesn’t say you “could” be salt, or you “should” be salt. They already are salt. In this age of heart disease we may struggle to understand this opening metaphor because we have been taught that salt is bad for us. In Jesus’ day, however, salt was a valuable and coveted commodity. Salt wasn’t just about adding flavor to food, it was also an essential preservative in the days before refrigeration. It was used to purify, especially to purify meat and remove blood, which was important to the Jewish dietary laws that prohibited the consumption of blood.

"You are salt," Jesus says. "You are valuable. You have purpose and meaning. If, however, you lose your saltiness…"

Have you ever known salt to lose its flavor? We don’t have to be a chemist to know that is impossible, right? Salt, Sodium Chloride, cannot be anything other than salt. The only way for salt to not be salty is if it is applied poorly. What would that look like?

1. If it is diluted it will be less salty.

2. If it is carelessly thrown about it can be blown away or dispersed

with no useful intent.

3. If it is blended with so many other spices it can be overwhelmed

and indiscernible. It will still be salt but it will be useless if applied poorly.

Can salt lose its flavor? No way. Can a Christian lose their saltiness? Absolutely. How?

1. We lose our saltiness when we dilute our faith. When we water down the Gospel so much that it no longer holds power and meaning in the world. We know we are doing this when our witness resembles the world more than it resembles our Christ.

2. We lose our saltiness when we aren’t intentional about our faith. When we just throw around Christian platitudes without deep, thoughtful, theologically sound purpose. We know we are doing this when our faith only informs a few areas of life but doesn’t have hold in all areas of our life.

3.  We lose our saltiness when we decide salt isn’t enough. We want to be more exotic. We want to be the cumin of the world instead. We might begin to blend other beliefs and ideologies in with our Christian faith and give it equal or heavier weight. We know we are doing this when we mesh our Christian faith with other beliefs in such a way as we see no difference in the two. One example of how easy this is for any of us is when we can no longer separate our faith from our patriotism. Patriotism is a wonderful thing, there is no sin in being patriotic. Where we get into trouble is when we mesh our patriotism with our faith in God in such ways that we can no longer separate the two. It is then too easy to get confused or misguided in what is of God and what is of Caesar.  We need to be cautious or we will have overwhelmed our saltiness. When we apply our saltiness poorly we end up with water-down, disturbingly thin, mixed-up theology that is all but useless to Christ’s purpose in the world.

Jesus goes on to echo the promise to our ancestor Abraham when he declares, “You are the light of the world.” Remember, in Genesis, this is why God blesses Abraham and his descendants, so that through their blessing they will become a light to all the nations of the world. ALL families of the earth, God says, will see God’s light through God’s people.  

We are salt and we are light, not for our own benefit but so that others might be able to taste and see that the Lord is good. We are salt and light because others are supposed to see our faith, how we live, how we carry ourselves, and be so drawn to our witness that they see God’s glory in us and thus are drawn to God through us. The light is our witness so why hide it under a bushel basket so that it would no longer be of any good? Why would you not put the light on a stand so all would benefit?

Can a light be hidden under a bushel basket? We don’t use bushel baskets much any more but we sure can find other ways to hide our light from the world. It is far easier than we like to imagine to cast just enough shadow that God’s light is too dim for the world to notice and to be attracted. If you don’t believe me try asking someone who doesn’t go to church why they don’t go and I bet their answer will reveal God’s light hidden behind some barrier of faith.

Maybe we can find some comfort in the fact that Jesus knew faithfulness was going to be hard, that’s why he warned his disciples of the dangers. He knew that he was sending them out to be salt in a world that prefers honey. (1943, Besser). He knew he was sending them out to be light in a world that prefers shadow. He also knew, however, that they carried with them all they would need to succeed.

Folks, in today’s polarized world we must be more vigilant than ever in remaining Salty and Shiny Christians. God had given us the tools to do so, the blessing to do so, and a purpose to do so. The only way for us to mess it up is to apply those blessings poorly.