Salt and Light

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, oh Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

You are Salt.
You are Light.

Jesus sometimes says some weird stuff.
And Jesus often says stuff that have pretty serious consequences.

This is one of them.
You are Salt.
You are light.

The stakes are high.
Seriously—like life and death.
Because Salt and Light are necessary, universal, indispensable elements of human
life.
Salt and Light are what preserve life--
What make life possible--

And Salt and Light is YOU.

Salt and Light are everywhere.
Our bodies have salt--
Tears, blood, sweat—they’re all salty.

Without salt our hearts would not beat.
Our blood would not flow.
Our muscles would not work.
Life needs salt.

And Salt is also precious.
In Roman times, salt was used as money--
To actually pay workers.
In fact, the word “salary” comes from the latin word “Salarium” which means
“Salt.”

You know the saying, “A person not worth his or her salt?”
A person not worth salt, is not worthy of getting paid--
A person not worth salt is basically useless.

And Salt also Preserves--
It keeps food from getting spoiled.

Its preservation keeps what is old like new.

And we can’t forget that Salt brings out flavor--
And if Christ had a flavor—you know it would be love.
Salt—brings out the flavor of love into the world.
Salt—brings Christ into the world.

You are Salt.

And what about light?
Just like salt—light is necessary for life.
Without light—we couldn’t see.
We would lose our senses.
We would be lost in darkness.

Without light from the sun
We would perish in cold darkness.
Plants would not grow.
There would be no food to sustain life.

Light allows Christ to be visible--
Allows Christ to be seen in the world.

You are light.

Salt and Life are necessary for life.

And YOU are salt and light.
This is wonderful news.
But also a great responsibility.

As Salt and Light--
We are meant to be sustainers of life--
To provide to the world what is necessary for life--
We are to be God’s Preserving, purifying, and illuminating force in the world.
This is who we are.
This is who God made us to be.

And this is who we are every day.
Not just on Sunday’s

Not just during Church.
But Salt and Light—every day.

Because salt and light are used by every human being, every single day.
Without Salt and Light—every day--
There would only be death.

You are Salt and Light--
YOU are LIFE.

But you also have to BE and SHOW what you are--
Jesus is calling us to BE and SHOW that we are light--
That we are salt--
That we are life.

We have to show it--
Through our words, and through our actions we must show what we are.
Being Salt—Being light—being a DISCIPLE is about more than just believing.
It’s about doing. It’s about BEING.
It’s about being visible light--

It’s about being salty flesh.

This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “A city built on a hill cannot be
hid.”
And this is what I love about St. John’s and its ministry.
We’re not just a church building.
We’re a downtown food pantry:
And a downtown thrift store.
We’re trying to be visible—out in the open—bringing salt and life for everyone to
see and taste.

We cannot hide the light that we are--
Because then in the darkness, Christ could not be seen.
We cannot hide the salt that we are--
Because then the preservation of life in Christ could not be felt.
And the flavor of life’s goodness could not be tasted.

These are big consequences.
This is a big responsibility.

God has given us the gift of life--

God has made us light--
God has made us salt--

So let us go out into the world: to be and show what we are.

Amen.