Be the Salt

Matthew 5:13-20.

In ancient times salt was a commonly used seasoning. It’s preservative powers made it an absolute necessity for life and equivalent to essential life giving forces.* In our Gospel text for today, Jesus calls us to be salt for the earth. He calls us to be the seasoning for our communities and our world.

I believe that our being this salt that Jesus refers to begins with our gathering around Word and sacrament. Being the preservative for the world, to which we as Christians are called to change, requires Christ to be alive in our lives. Through the sacraments, we are both washed and fed by Jesus himself. Through the spoken Word, we hear that nothing can come between us and the love of God. This good news empowers us to go into the world that we might be the hands of God, working love and tolerance in all places, especially where it is needed most. God calls each of us, from a foundation of Word and sacrament, to permeate the cracks and crevices of an unseasoned world and witness to such a world the reality of Jesus’ love through our words and actions.

I’ve always liked that old saying that goes; “bloom where you are planted.” I believe that God calls us to be where we are in our lives and in our vocations for a specific purpose. We are workers in industry; we are workers in all of life’s vocations. We are retirees, parents, men, women, and children. We are called to be what we are and where we are so that we might be the much needed salt for that particular situation in which we may find ourselves. We, my friends, are the children of God! God places us in all walks of life that we might be the seasoning for those around us and that we might be that salt that is so essential to truly live. Our world today needs the love of Jesus! It needs to be reminded over and over again that our God is a God of love and compassion and who is more faithful to us than we are of Him. May you go into the world empowered by Word and sacrament. May you work to be the hands of God in our broken world; may you strive to be the salt of the earth.

Peace,
Pastor Bill

*Harpers Bible dictionary, pg. 893

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Pastor Bill was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served in the United States Navy for 11 years. He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Rowan University and went on to earn his Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Pastor Bill took the call for St. Matthias Lutheran in January of 2001.

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