Salt and Light
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Salt is an amazing substance.
It was used to preserve food before refrigeration. I recently watched a documentary about a smoke-house in Galloway, Scotland that I had driven past many times on the way to Northern Ireland. They put the sides of salmon on great piles of salt to draw out moisture and start the preservation process.
It adds or brings out flavour in food. In low concentrations it reduces bitterness, bringing out sweetness and in higher concentrations it enhances the umami taste sensation.
It also has some anti-bacterial/anti-septic properties. We use it to get rid of mouth ulcers for instance!
As Christians we preserve society – I just did the Alpha Course “How do we resist evil?” session last weekend. In the talk they mention people like Salisbury and Wilberforce who were very salty in preserving society, bringing about changes that pushed back societal evils like slavery and animal cruelty among many other things.
We add flavour! The joy of the Lord is evident as we bring the fragrance and aroma of Christ – to some out and about that’s the smell of life but it is a stench to others.
As we share the gospel, Jesus gets rid of the infection of sin in people’s lives!
There’s a big difference between table salt, which is pretty refined and sea salt, which contains impurities (that make it more useful for cooking). That’s the kind of salt Jesus is talking about – that can lose its’ saltiness and be left with just the impurities. We will only be salty in society if we stay close to Jesus and empowered to holiness.
We are also the light of the world.
Jesus has made us beacons of light in the darkness around. The apostle Paul described us as stars that shine in the darkness (Phil 2:15). You don’t hide a light under a bowl or switch it off – it doesn’t get rid of the darkness.
Many of us keep quiet about our faith through fear or not knowing what to say or how to start a conversation.
Starting in August, we will be adding the Take a Step course to our Sunday livestream services. I had the idea for a simple course as part of my role on the Everyone a witness team.
The idea of Take a step is like the “Couch potato to 5k” programmes that get people off their sofas and step by step aim to get them jogging 5k in 30 mins. Over 8 weeks of 5 min videos, there will be a new step each week – smile, identify your men and women of peace, pray for someone and so on. . If you want to get ahead you can watch it the Wednesday before each week by signing up. We have got a great line up of inspirational men and women doing each video, so it’s going to be an amazing adventure.
The challenge will be to take that step each week – I’m praying for a bigger Alpha course as a result!