Jesus said his disciples were to be “salt and light.” I’m not ready to part with the salt metaphor yet, for salt has properties beyond giving and catalyzing flavor. Salt can also act as a preservative, and was used for centuries before refrigeration came along to keep meat from spoiling. (How effectively, I don’t know, but if that's how we got bacon…)
As we are “salt for the earth,” we participate in this ministry of preserving life in systems – and people – that are decaying. We bring freshness, we bring flavor, we boost systems – and people – to be fruitful beyond what they thought possible. We hold life.
Where around you do you see a system or a person in need of preservation? Certainly we have to work to preserve healthy democracies, our values of freedom and welcome, diversity and unity, protection for the vulnerable and equal rights and responsibilities for the many. In the church realm, we need continually to infuse the “old, old story” into our worship and missional life, not to preserve institutional structures, but to uphold fidelity to Jesus as Lord. Where else are we called to preserve what is essential, while being open to innovation and fresh ideas?
Salt also has another property: it facilitates water retention in the bloodstream. Too much salt can create unhealthy and unwanted effects, but just speaking metaphorically, how might we as “salt of the earth” help our communities to retain water – the living water which Jesus said wells up within us continually to eternal life? (John 4).
Where do you see thirst for spiritual life, for purpose and meaning, for connection to God and other people? Where are systems - churches, non-profits, families - running on empty? How might we as salt create little pools of water in a dry landscape, rivers in the desert, as the prophets foretold?
In the prophet Ezekiel’s great vision of a river flowing from the center of the temple out to arid places, fresh water renewing the stagnant waters so that a diversity of fish and fruit trees thrive, there is an interesting verse about that restored sea: “But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt.” (Ezekiel 47:11) Salt flats are part of a healthy wetland.
Salt is essential to balance in our bloodstream. It is essential to balance in our natural environment. And we as salt are essential to bringing the Life of God to every system, every person, every place, so that all might be whole, and "the whole earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14)
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