EmmDev 2018-03-15 [Lent2018] Saltiness

Saltiness

"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.      (Matthew5:13 )

There is a problem with regard to Jesus' metaphor of salt. Salt, or NaCl - Sodium Chloride as we learnt in high school chemistry, is actually very stable as a chemical. It isn't easily broken down - It doesn't lose its saltiness. So what did Jesus mean?

Salt in Palestine came from the area of the Dead Sea - there were a lot of other mineral impurities that made their way into salt - notably gypsum, which in crystalline form looked like salt but was tasteless hence flavourless salt!

So truth remains truth and grace remains grace, but it can be diluted by substitutes and look-alikes. The Gospel - our faith and relationship with Christ as our Saviour and Lord is the saltiness of our lives. But when too many other tasteless elements enter our lives, we lose saltiness.

The Greek word for losing saltiness (moorainen) also means become foolish.

Makes you think, doesn't it ????

Lent is all about sifting out the "gypsum" in our lives and retaining the "salt". Salt preserves, brings out flavour, creates thirst and purifies.

We easily fill our lives up with lots of things. Lots of them are like gyspum - looks ok but bring no flavour, preservation, purity or thirst. To be the opposite of foolish (losing saltiness) we have to filter out the gypsum.

Lent thought for today: What gypsum can you filter out today so that your life can be a little saltier?