Preserve, Shine

 Preserve! Shine!

 

You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world — like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.

MATTHEW 5:13-15

 

You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.

MARK 9:50

 

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

PHILIPPIANS 2:15

 

When we say, “Pass the salt” at the dinner table, it’s because we want to sprinkle some on our food to enhance the flavour. But in Jesus’ day, long before refrigerators, salt was used not just to season food but to preserve it. By calling us salt, Jesus was saying that we are part of his ministry of preservation, part of his plan to keep people from spoiling in a decaying world. As Christians, we are to promote healing and wholeness in a culture that is going bad without God.

Jesus also called us light, saying that we are part of his work of piercing through the darkness in a world that often does not want God. We are to shine the light on truth and show people how to find their way home to God. We are to be living examples of the difference Jesus makes in people’s lives.

Our ability to preserve and shine is dependent on our connection to the source of true light and true saltiness, Jesus. On our own we cannot save or sustain anything, but Jesus has drawn us into the task he is already doing. His work has become our work. That goal begins to define not only what we do but who we are. When we are salt and light, we get to play a part in God’s plan to redeem this dark and decaying world.