Introduction:

Kay Arthur tells this story:

It was December, almost Christmas. The airport was jammed. Our flight had been delayed and there I stood with no place to sit down. I stood at the window, watching the bright lights decorate the darkness of the night. Blue, red, yellow. My heart was full. I was on my way to Augusta to speak and it was all because of Him. My eyes went from the lights on the runway to the heavens above, as in my heart I communed with my Father. I was awed by His love. I thought of Jesus, born to die that I who was dead might have life - a life I longed for but never really knew existed. Oh, how He had changed me.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind me. "Oh Christ! That's not the way it was...."

An arrow pierced my heart! Where did that come from? I turned. He was easy to identify because he continued to use the Lord's name in vain. There he stood, a handsome man, about in his late thirties, well dressed, in all probability an executive or a salesman. I turned back to the window. I didn't want to hear what he was saying. It hurt.

But I could hear nothing else. The pressure within me continued to mount. I knew that God wanted me to speak to the man. But how? What would I say? How should I approach him? I stalled for time and composure. My heart was thumping rapidly and when it does that and I have to talk, my voice gets high and trembly.

Finally I walked over, smiled and said, "Excuse me. I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. I know this is presumptuous, but may I ask you a question? Are you going to celebrate Christmas this year?"

"Yes..."

"Do you know what Christmas is all about?"

From there I shared Christ and the gravity of taking God's name in vain. His response was interesting. He wanted to talk, to apologize, and to listen.

Salt and light, that's what we are supposed to be - and if we're not, what then? Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it become salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:13,14) Salt and light - two metaphors - following a series of "blesseds." Their purpose is highly significant. Suddenly we see our reason for being. We have worth. We are needed. Our lives can count. The amount of salt makes a difference, doesn't it? We know because we measure it when we use it. Therefore, each one of us makes a difference to our world! Others aren't enough- you're needed!

Commenting on this verse, William Barclay wrote: When Jesus said this, he provided men with an expression which has become the greatest compliment that can be paid to any man. When we wish to stress someone's worth and usefulness, we say of him, People like that are like the salt of the earth."

Perhaps you have been asked, "Are you worth your salt?" That is a question whose historical roots go back about 2000 years when Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt. Greeks called salt divine. The Romans said, "There is nothing more useful than sun and salt."

Today, as we think about these words of Jesus - calling us the salt of the earth, let's consider some qualities of salt - as we ask ourselves, "How Salty Am I?"

Qualities of Salt

I. Purity

While the salt of 2000 years ago was not as refined as it is today, and was found in varying degrees of purity, purity was a quality for which it was known. Perhaps its white crystals made the connection easy. The Romans said that salt was the purest of al things because it came from the purest of all things, the sun and the sea. For this reason salt was one of the early sacrifices to the gods. In our society moral standards slip lower and lower.

In calling us salt, Jesus is reinforcing the sixth beatitude, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. How much of an example of purity are you?

Another quality of salt is as a preservative.

II. Preservative

For many, many years salt has been among the most common preservative. Certainly there are many other chemicals used for this purpose today, but salt is still used.

Plutarch has an interesting way of expressing how salt was used to keep things from going bad and rotting. He says that meat is a dead body and part of a dead body, and will, if left to itself, go bad; but salt preserves it and keeps it fresh, and is therefore like a new soul inserted into a dead body. So then salt preserves from corruption.

With this in mind, what do you think Jesus is saying about you and me being the salt of the earth? Do we have a preservative influence on society, and on the people around us? Does our godly presence defeat corruption?

Related to this preservative quality is a healing, cleansing, antiseptic aspect of salt for us to demonstrate in our lives, too.

Another quality of salt, and the last one I want us to think about this morning is how it makes food more palatable.

III. Palatability

My wife sighed when I told her of the final point in my outline. She often does when I use big words, but I don't think this one is uncommon. I am speaking of that quality of giving flavor to the food we eat. Much food is made more tasty and appetizing with salt, even though perhaps some of us should use a little less for health reasons.

I will probably never forget one of the most unpalatable meals I have ever eaten. This was food that probably had tasty potential hours earlier, but the vegetables had the entire flavor cooked out of them. I salted and peppered the vegetable stew so that I could eat it, but Pastor Bob and I were terribly embarrassed to have 20 junior high kids throw away the food, especially since we were eating in a mission. The food at that particular mission has been very well prepared, very palatable in recent years, and some of us in Adel have shared with that mission in a number of projects that included good tasty food.

Do you and I as Christians add palatability, flavor, to life? We should indeed. However, many have the impression that Christianity takes the flavor from life.

After Constantine had made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Julian complained, "Have you looked at these Christians closely? Hollow eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted all; they brood their lives away, unspurred by ambition; the sun shines for them, but they do not see it; the earth offers them its fullness, but they desire it not; all their desire is to renounce and to suffer that they may come to die."

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers."

Robert Louis Stevenson once entered into his diary, as if he was recording an extraordinary phenomenon, "I have been to church today, and am not depressed."

How sad it is that people have such a view of Christianity. Could it be possible that some here today think Christianity is depressing? Recall that these words calling Christians the salt of the earth follow the be happy attitudes, the secrets of happiness. Yet, as we examined these words of Jesus we have come to realize that they are hard sayings. For me, however, that which brings me most joy is not by accomplishing that which is easy, but with God's help, doing those difficult things He calls me to do.

We who live in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ are to share the joy He brings to us in a society filled with unfulfilled, unhappy people. We are to add palatability to life as salt does to many foods.

Conclusion

What if we are not salty?

What if we do not live pure lives?

What if we do not live as preservatives?

What if we do not live adding palatability to life?

What if we are useless? Then we are not fulfilling our purpose as Christians and we are on our way to disaster - tasteless..good for nothing...trampled under foot.

The early church made very strange use of this text. In the Synagogue, among the Jews, there was a custom that, if a Jew became an apostate and then returned to the faith, before he was received back into the Synagogue, he must in penitence lie across the door of the Synagogue and invite people to trample upon him as they entered. In certain places the Christian Church took over that custom, and a Christian who had been ejected by discipline from the Church, was compelled, before he was received back, to lie at the door of the Church and to invite people as they enter, "Trample upon me who am the salt which has lost its savour."

If this old custom were practiced in the church of Jesus Christ today, would it motivate you to ask, "How Salty Am I?"

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