Salty

 ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Matthew 5:13

This morning I began reading through the Sermon on the Mount. Something interesting I never noticed before (mainly because I was sectioning off the Sermon the Mount) is that in the Gospel of Matthew, we don't learn much about Jesus' childhood. It's in the other Gospels we read in detail the birth story, Jesus being found in the synagogue with wisdom beyond his years, even Mary cherishing these things in her heart. Matthew, being written to a Jewish audience, describes Jesus' geneology (including women and Gentiles and Moabites - Oh My!). Matthew also describes the historical scene, naming cruel leaders; it also notes the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. But all we know about Jesus prior to his picking disciples and healing mass quanities of people is that he is born, exoduses to and from Egypt, and is baptised. Once all of this is completed in 4 chapters, we dive into the Sermon... If Matthew was the only Gospel we had, this Sermon would lay out of us (and for the audience) who Jesus is, his "core values", and his philosophy.

This is how Matthew chooses to make us familiar with the Savior. Jesus is always flipping things upside-down, including the wealth of religious tradition, education, and self-righteousness.

Did you know too much salt raises blood pressure? When I was in a very stressful church job in Florida, at age 25, I started experiencing chest pains. I knew it was stress related. I went to the doctor and described my pain. He told me three things: I had arthritis in my sternum. I had high blood pressure. I was under much too much stress. He suggested three things: Lose weight. Reduce salt intake. Reduce stress levels.

Is it possible in the church today, in America, we need to raise her "blood pressure"? Is it possible that the reason our churches are dying is a lack of saltiness? But what struck me this morning is this:

Salt cannot regain saltiness once it has lost it's flavor.

Uh oh. "It will be trampled underfoot as worthless."

We don't resemble the Sermon on the Mount. We are so casual with our faith. It is our life-blood so long as it doesn't actually require us to take up a cross and carry it, or be crucified on it. It's our obligation. Our caste-system. Can we ever go from being Pharisees to being poor-in-spirit? Or will our system of politics and opression force us to remain within the boundaries of religious "law"?