Salt Sandwich

Jesus calls us to be salt and light.

Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

Mark 9:50 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

Luke 14:34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Colossians 4:6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

What do you think it means? It's a strange metaphor and I've heard many sermons about the meaning. Jesus, what did you mean when you asked us to be salt?

Me, I like watching people. And I have noticed one thing: everybody likes a little salt.

A little salt. Not the whole shaker. No matter how hungry you are, no matter how much you like the sparkle salt adds to food, nobody orders a salt sandwich. Nobody eats the whole shaker.

Also, folks grab the salt shaker and do their own sprinkling. The salt doesn't jump out of the shaker without an invitation.

So let's go with the metaphor, and apply the salt lesson to our Christian walk.

First of all, we gotta be out in it. Out with the tax collectors and prostitutes. Out with the gays and the democrats. Out where the food is, where the salt is needed and wanted. Where people need Jesus, where they are hurting and lonely.

Second, we need to sprinkle ourselves, not lumpy and heavy like a big ole salt sandwich. What if the hungry folks in my life feel judged and not loved. Then all I've done was serve them a salt sandwich. Yuck.

And we gotta be who we are, and not pretend to be sugar or crack or even sweet-and-low. Be salt. God made you just that way. Sodium and chloride.

So sprinkle yourself around and love somebody. Be salt for Jesus. And if you see me out there, be sure to sprinkle some of yourself my way. I need love and salt every day.