PASS THE SALT
A meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “Salt is good.” (Luke 14:34)
First
Second Reading Philemon 1-21
We’ve extended the reading a bit this morning to include this very pithy statement from Jesus about salt. It seems to capture the essence of what he’s been talking about, leaving family if they get in the way of following him, making sure people take into consideration the consequences of discipleship before they commit themselves, in other words counting the cost of obedience to him as their Lord and Savior, something many of us have forgotten these days or take for granted.
A cute story is told about an honest man being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly the light turns yellow just in front of him. He does the right thing and stops at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman hits the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she misses her chance to get through the intersection with him.
As she is still in mid-rant, she hears a tap on her window and looks up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer orders her to exit her car with her hands up. He takes her to the police station where she is searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approaches the cell and opens the door. She is escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer is waiting with her personal effects.
He says, “I’m very sorry for the mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, making all those obscene gestures at the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate, the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper sticker and the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”
Jesus
expects no such hypocrisy from those who’ll follow him and salt is a timely
metaphor. “In his book Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
tracks the history of salt as a mineral often more valuable to humans than
gold. From the ancient Chinese, who may
have gathered salt as early as 6000 B.C. to biblical times and beyond salt has
been a staple for every human culture.
In the first century world of Jesus, for example, salt was so valuable
that it was even used like cash currency.
The Roman soldiers who marched all over the empire were often paid in
salt, and the Latin word for salt (sal) became the basis for the word ‘salary’
and eventually morphed into the word ‘soldier.’
It’s also the origin of the expression, ‘He’s worth his salt’ or ‘earning
his salt.’”(From Homiletics Online, “Is There Salt in Your Shaker,”
Salt was no stranger to the Israelites either. In Leviticus we hear of the “covenant of salt” as a sign of the preservation of the covenant between God and God’s people. (Lev. 2:13, cf. Numbers 18:19) Ezekiel mentions how salt was rubbed on new born children, perhaps to dry their skin and protect them from evil. (Ezekiel 16:1-5). So the crowds following Jesus that day would know whence he came when he used the metaphor salt.
Salt was
also different in those days from the sanitized version we get in our shakers
today. Most salt then was gathered by
evaporation of either sea water or brine from salt wells or salt lakes, such as
the
Which is exactly what Jesus is trying to instill in those who would follow him, he wants them to have some redeeming value in everything that they do. If they’re going to be more concerned with family than him they won’t have much redeeming value to him. If they’re not going to count the cost of their commitment before they act than they won’t have much redeeming value for him. Or, like the woman in our story, if they’re going to display all the slogans of discipleship than act like crazy people with their neighbor than they’re not going to have much redeeming value for him.
The Spirit of the Risen Christ looks you right in your eyes this morning and tells you that “you’re the salt of the earth.” Now you can take that admission as a compliment, a command or a challenge. However, I’m afraid that if you take it as a compliment you’ll be no better than the woman in our story. You’ll be content with all of the trappings of being a “Christian,” but when it comes to forgiving your neighbor or promoting peace you can’t be bothered.
If you take it as a command I’m afraid you’ll be like those in crowd following Jesus. They were eager to get started, but he warned them to consider the cost before they got too involved. The flip side of that is the fact that many people don’t like to be commanded to do anything. They like to be asked; some like to be begged. Many want to be appreciated for all that they do. Jesus wasn’t making any promises other than those who would follow might have to lay down their lives for him.
The best approach would be to take Jesus’ affirmation as a challenge. A challenge affirms that you have what it takes to be a disciple, while at the same time anticipating that it’s not going to be easy. All the adventure shows that are such a hit on television these days capitalize on that fact. They aim at putting people in situations that will test their capacity to survive, use all of their faculties and ultimately bring them to the brink of either moving on to the next adventure or admitting defeat. Jesus would not harbor defeat as an alternative and that was why he was adamant on them considering the cost of discipleship. After all, when you’re told you’re the salt of the earth, why would you want to end up tasting like chalk?
Thanks be to God,
Amen