Salt and Light

This coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson contains two very basic elements of human existence: salt and light. I do not have to go too far in my train of thought about these two substances to recognize that I would not be here without them. Salt serves to preserve food, to liven up meals, to clean cast iron (along with some water), to make water boil quicker, and probably much more that I am not thinking of at this very moment. Light is so important to human existence that we quite often associate its absence with non-existence! So we can quickly understand why Jesus would think it critical for salt to maintain its flavor and for light to remain visible, but what does it really mean?

 

Salt does not easily lose its flavor. In fact, some scientists maintain that NaCl (sodium-chloride or salt) will taste the same until it reacts chemically with another substance. Light is such a strong force that darkness has no ability to endarken it. That is light shines into the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it. So why worry about salt becoming un-salty? Why fret over light being hidden? Well, because salt does interact with other compounds. Light does get snuffed out. And, Jesus saw that even the beautiful, salty, light-filled cores of his followers could and would be tainted by other elements of this world.

At our cores we are salt and light. Within all of us the element of Christ flickers; however, we can so easily get caught up in out-flavoring or out-shining others. We can fall into the most human instinct of thinking that it is us who makes our light shine or our lives taste good. We mistake our place for God’s own. 

God through our ancestors gave to us laws that were so helpful to live in community, so that we could taste and see that life is good! While Jesus came to amplify God’s love to its loudest levels, this teacher from Nazareth was not doing something wholly different from his prophetic forbearers. He came to fulfill not to destroy what already was. God came to earth in Jesus to preserve and make more abundantly known what was, not to tear it down to do something different. Jesus took the themes of forgiveness, love, acceptance, hospitality, healing, righteousness, integrity, grace, and more and he brought them into his own age. These themes were present in the law of his people. Then, he fulfilled those laws, so that we might experience not the letter of those laws, but the grace of God within them.

We have the same opportunity today. We are called to be salt and light, like Jesus’ first disciples. Jesus asks us to co-create with him. The law has not faded away and while Jesus fulfills the law that action is one that started long ago and comes even into the present. We are called to fulfill with Christ the eternal law, which are those themes that lead to wholeness and oneness with God, neighbor, and creation. This sounds lovely, but the trouble comes when we believe that our way is the only way. We must maintain our saltiness and our light, but not at the expense of trampling on others or snuffing them out. Do not lose your saltiness, nor hide yourself now, but let us together find ways to bring our spices together and let us shine all the brighter as a constellation of lights. You are salt and you are light, let us taste and see that the Lord made us good.