I just preached this yesterday at Open Heart United Methodist Church in Rapid City, SD - the church which my wife and I attend. As you will see it is a sermon based on the lectionary readings but also based on a sermon I preached nearly 25 years ago.
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:5-11; Matthew 5:13-16
This sermon has some history to it. I first preached a version of it in the fall of 1997 at Zion United Methodist Church in Grand Forks, ND several months after our historic flood. That spring the Red River crested at 54.35 feet, 26 feet above flood stage. 3.5 million sandbags as well as clay and gravel were used to fight the flood. 90 percent of Grand Forks and 100 percent of East Grand Forks was evacuated. 60,000 tons of flood debris were hauled to the Grand Forks landfill. My family was fortunate as the parsonage was located in one of the few neighborhoods that didn’t have flooding, but the church building had 6 feet of water in our basement and approximately 75 percent of our church families had been flooded.
We received all kinds of donated stuff after the flood. Much of what we received was helpful but some of it was crazy. For example, we received two large bales of what we thought were cleaning rags -- reasonable and needed. However, when one of the bales was torn into, it was discovered that the rags were actually long, narrow strips of cloth cut for making rag rugs. Maybe most mysterious of all was a large truck-load of salt - margarita salt, kosher salt, snack salt, table salt. After trying to get rid of it all summer long we still had almost an entire pallet in our basement.
I was down in the church basement staring at the pallet when -- like a flash of blue lightning -- I was inspired to preach about salt and get rid of it by giving it away as a hands-on sermon illustration. I put labels on about 200 of the salt containers on which were printed the first part of Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth …” placed them in the pews and that Sunday, after my sermon, the folks took their containers home. Unfortunately, even with all that, we were still left with almost 800 containers. SHOW THE CONTAINER.
It is a mystery why anyone would send a truck load of salt to a disaster area. It is equally a mystery as to what exactly Jesus had in mind when he made this statement.
Salt had as many uses in Jesus’ day as it does now and we who are on this side of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount have ventured all kinds of guesses as to what Jesus had in mind concerning comparing salt to those who were listening to him that day. Probably, more mysterious, did Jesus intend for us, in our day, to make some kind of personal connection with salt?
For example, salt is used as a preservative. Could it be that the presence of Jesus’ followers in this world slows down the decay and disease of a sin-infested world?
Salt is used as a disinfectant. Maybe Jesus’ followers are to be bring health and healing to the wounds of this world and its people.
Salt is used as a seasoning, making food taste better. Maybe Jesus is saying that Christianity is to be to life as salt is to food, lending flavor to life.
Salt is valuable or at least it was. The Greeks called salt divine. The Romans had a jingle of sorts that said, “There is nothing more useful than sun and salt.” Salt was used to pay the wages of the Roman soldiers. The word “salary” comes from the word “salt.” We use the phrase “salt of the earth” as one of the greatest compliments we can make of an individual, stressing their worth and usefulness. Jesus could be stressing the value of his followers contributing to the goodness and integrity of the world.
Salt is used as a de-icing agent. Here’s a stretch. Maybe one of the tasks of Jesus’ followers is to melt the hard hearts of men and women who have turned away from God and their fellow human beings.
Salt was connected with purity. The Romans said that salt was the purest of all things because of its connection to the sun and the sea. So then, if the Christian is to be the salt of the earth he or she must be an example of purity. The Christian sets the standard for the world instead of the world setting the standard for the Christian individual.
Salt was an important part of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Reference is made in the book of Numbers to the “salt of the covenant.” Many of the offerings given to the Lord were to be sprinkled with salt as a sign of the covenant between God and the people. Is it possible that Jesus was saying his followers must be a living sign to this world of the loving relationship of God to its people?
Just before preaching this sermon the first time I was taking a respite at my seminary in Kentucky. I was doing research in the library when I discovered another use for salt I had not heard of before. In Jesus’ time, and since, salt has been used as a fertilizer. In fact, British farmers did just that during the Second World War when other fertilizers were in short supply.
That makes a lot of sense, especially as Jesus used it in the phrase “salt of the earth.” Jesus may have been saying that his followers are to be the fertilizer that nurtures and furthers the growth of God’s kingdom in this world.
Did you know that back in the Bible times and I’m sure at other times as well when one group of people conquered another group of people they would sow salt into the soil of the conquered people so that nothing would grow - thereby punishing them through starvation? Jesus never intended for his followers to use their salt as a weapon. And yet, too often throughout church history … even today … maybe even us … we stand back judging, criticizing, maybe even punishing, those whom with whom we disagree or we deem as sinners, instead enhancing and encouraging and nurturing.
Actually, it is really not that important to know exactly what Jesus had in mind as we make sense of this verse. We can make the same sorts of application whether we are talking about fertilizer, flavoring, preservatives or de-icer.
First of all, it is important to notice that Jesus did not say, “you should be the salt of the earth” or “I would like you to try to be the salt of the earth.” He simply stated, “You are the salt of the earth.” He can say that because it doesn’t have anything to do with who we are by ourselves or what we are able to do in our own strength but it has everything to do with whom we belong to -- the One who dwells within us. Because we are connected to Jesus -- because the spirit of Christ is in us -- we are salt to this earth because Jesus is “The Salt of the World.”
We also know that salt really has no inherent value in itself. It is not an end in itself. The value of salt lies in the impact it has on those things it permeates. Some of us enjoy salty food. Or we might even use salt to mask the flavor of something we don’t enjoy eating. I’ve eaten many a pea with a lot of extra salt. But usually we don’t eat salt by itself. We don’t enjoy salt for it’s own taste. We use it to enhance the true taste of the food we are salting.
In fact, about the only time we mention salt is when something needs more salt or it has been salted too much. Salt is for the meal, not meal for the salt. We don't say, "I like a little meat with my salt." When salt is doing its job it is unnoticeable.
The same principle is used when referring to salt as a fertilizer. If there is not enough salt in the soil it does no good. If there is too much salt in the soil it is deadly. If there is just enough salt in the soil it does not draw attention to itself but it exists only for the betterment of the plants it is fertilizing.
Jesus did not say we are the “honey” of the world or we are the “sugar” of the world. Honey or sugar draws people to itself. Salt doesn’t do that. Salt is a catalyst. Salt enhances. Salt permeates. We are not the honey of the world in order to draw attention to ourselves. We are the salt of the earth to cause this world to be drawn to Jesus.
We know that salt needs to be scattered. Have you ever eaten a piece of cake or a bowl of soup and come across a lump of salt not mixed in properly? Can you imagine what would happen to the soil if the salt were not scattered but left in chunks?
Many years ago now, in the main auditorium of Annual Conference in Mitchell, SD, a big poster hung across the front wall. On it was written a message in big letters -- “United Methodist pastors are like manure. If they are spread around they do a lot of good but pile them all together in one place and they begin to stink.”
The message couldn’t be argued with. The ministry of the ordained doesn’t happen when they are gathered. It happens when they are scattered.
It is true for all of us as God’s people. Our primary calling is not to gather here on Sunday mornings. Our primary calling, reinforced and fed and nurtured here on Sunday mornings, is to go out - to scatter - to permeate our environment with the presence of Jesus Christ.
We live in a day when the church is classified as irrelevant. Much of that is our own fault. We have failed to see ourselves as salt, failing to be scattered, failing to permeate, failing to allow ourselves to make a difference in our environment. As Jesus pronounced his followers as the “salt of the earth” he tempered it with these words. “If the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Jesus has no other plan. Jesus is counting on us. Let’s pass the salt.