SALT & LIGHT

Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20 

5th Sunday after Epiphany,  February 5, 2023

The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams

Welcome to Episode 2 of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. 

In Episode 1 last Sunday we heard seminarian Breck Cogswell proclaim “that the God whom we worship has a preferential option for the poor, that wherever humanity draws a line of who is in and who is out, who is worthy and who is not, Jesus always approaches that line to be with exactly the people humanity has cast out. Jesus runs to the margins, to those who have been downtrodden, abused, and hurt by the privileged, the rich, and those in power.” 

My hunch is that Jesus speaks to both groups in the beatitudes. He declares blessed all persons who are poor in spirit, grieving, humiliated, hungering and thirsting for justice, persecuted, verbally abused and lied about. All these folk are truly beloved of God and worthy of respect. Blessed too are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers — those who use whatever power and privilege they have to bless others. It is a sad fact that the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers are all too likely to find themselves marginalized alongside the hurting people they try to help.

Today in Episode 2, Jesus goes deeper to show us how all folk are not only blessed, beloved and worthy of respect, but how all are inherently capable of making a positive difference. 

Jesus begins by declaring, “You are the salt of the earth.” You — all of you — are the salt of the earth. Note that Jesus is not saying you could be, or should be, or will be one day the salt of the earth. No. Jesus says all of you are right now the salt of the earth. 

Human beings are indeed salty — 0.4% of our body weight consists of sodium chloride. Salt is an essential ingredient that helps our bodies conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax our muscles, and maintain a proper balance of water and minerals. But I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant.

Throughout history humans have used salt to flavor food — herba salata a dish of salted greens was a Roman favorite. Fish, meats, and vegetables were preserved by drying and salting, or pickling in brine to preserve them for later use. Salt was used to purify, disinfect, and heal. It was a valuable commodity and a unit of exchange. Roman soldiers received a ration of salt called a salarium as part of their pay. Because salt does not decay, it came to be a symbol of permanence and loyalty, used in temple sacrifices, and covenant ceremonies. To share bread and salt was and is in many parts of the world a sign of friendship. 

Not only are we literally salty but we are like salt in that we have the capacity to flavor and season, preserve, purify, and heal the places we live and work, play and worship. We have the capacity to make a positive difference for family members, coworkers, friends and acquaintances, and the wider community. This is good news for all of us, especially when we feel battered and bruised, sick and sorry, helpless and hopeless. In those moments Jesus says in spite of all that you are blessed, beloved, worthy and yes capable — you are the salt of the earth. 

The sentence “You are the salt of the earth” had a history long before Jesus in reference to the Israelites forced into exile by the Assyrians 800 years earlier. Scattered throughout the vast Assyrian Empire, the exiles never returned. They were lost to history, and are remembered by Jews as being scattered throughout the world, unknown even to themselves in every culture and on every continent. Jewish faith understands these hidden Jews to have remembered (even without knowing it) the basic moral practices of Torah, and as such they are like salt, seasoning, preserving, purifying and healing the world, making it a gentler and kinder place for all. Even hidden, a little salt goes a long way.  

Because salt is a powerful and enduring compound, Jesus includes a warning that reads literally “but if salt has become foolish, how can it become salty again?”

The translators of our Bibles, failing to recognize that Jesus is speaking symbolically assume that Jesus misspoke and meant to say “if it has lost its its taste.” Jesus, like other ancient people, knew quite well that salt does not lose its flavor or degrade over time. So let’s stick with the metaphor. In the Bible people who are labeled “fools” are not goofy or awkward, they are ethically and morally corrupt, governed by extreme egotism and selfishness. Think of the rich fool who built bigger and bigger barns to store his goods only to die as soon as the barns were built. In the Bible the opposite of foolishness is wisdom. It was too late for the rich fool to wise up, and use his goods to bless others. 

Jesus warns us that our ‘saltiness’ — our capacity to make a difference in the world is greater than we imagine — and needs to be exercised wisely and with care. Our calling is to do good not evil, to heal not hurt, to bring life not death to our families and friends, neighbors and communities.  

Jesus follows this up with a set of sayings about light and being seen. You — all of you — are the light of the world. Like a city built on a hill your light cannot be hidden. You are meant to shine, to enlighten the world around you, and to be seen doing so. Or as one commentator puts it, “You are the light.  You cannot pretend that you are not.  Everyone will see what you do.” Do we try to hog the spotlight foolishly? Do we shine wisely, using our skills, strengths, time and resources to do good? Do we shine prophetically,  revealing what is wrong and needs to change for all to flourish?

Jesus concludes that his mission is to fulfill the law and the prophets. As followers of Jesus we are called to the same mission. What is that mission? As expressed by the prophet Isaiah, our mission is to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts, share our food with the hungry, invite the homeless into our home, put clothes on the shivering ill-clad, be available to our own families (Isaiah 58:6-7, The Message).

The good news of the Sermon on the Mount, episodes 1 and 2, is that all of us are blessed and beloved regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. All of us are salt with the ability to add flavor, purify, heal, and preserve every community we are part of — home, school, workplace, church, neighborhood. All of us are light shining in the world. We are seen, so we need to pay attention to what we do and why we do it.

Please pray with me:

Good and Gracious God, guide us to use our time and resources, our strengths and abilities wisely. Help us live together as salty seasoning, bringing out what is good and true and beautiful in one another, revealing the varied and exciting flavors of different cultures and peoples, healing and cleansing all that is wounded and stained. Give us the courage to live ablaze with light, revealing the truth of systems and situations, bringing the colors of those around us into vibrant life, warming the hearts of all we meet with compassion and love. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.