"Salt"

Good morning. There we go. User error. Sorry about that. It's good to see you all here this morning

as we gather together on the Lord's Day to worship Him. It's a little hot and muggy.

I do want to remind you, if you are feeling overwhelmed, there is a meeting room downstairs

that has the service live streamed and has air conditioning. So if you need that, don't feel any shame in getting up and moving down there.

The delay is probably enough that if you move quickly, you won't miss anything at all.

So salt has many uses. I put it on my broccoli and my chicken to bring out its flavor or on my caramel chocolate ice cream sundae

to make it salted caramel chocolate, which is really yummy, right?

Some of us might use salt to throw over our shoulders for good luck.

Many of us eat food that is salted for preservation.

In the winter, if it snows, we throw it on our paths to melt ice, or at least we used to before they created those chemical pellets that work better.

But it's one of the uses.

It can be used to kill weeds in your garden or on your path when they're growing up between the bricks.

Salt has many uses.

In the ancient world, salt was so precious that it was actually used as a form of currency.

And so the phrase that we have in English today,

he's not worth his salt, actually comes from the fact that he's not worth what we're paying him.

Because salt was used to pay workers at times.

Why am I talking about salt?

Well, because Jesus talked about salt.

In our passage this morning, if you've been here for the summer,

you know we've been preaching through the Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And if you want to turn there now, it's page 759 in your pew Bible.

We've been going slowly through the first 12 verses, verse by verse.

The Beatitudes, as we explored what it meant to live in the kingdom of God,

and what it would look like in our personal character.

And as we transition into the fall, we're going to keep going.

We're going to do the rest of the Sermon on the Mount through the end of chapter 7.

Again, it will probably extend beyond Christmas.

We're not going to take it one verse at a time exactly, although today we are.

But typically, we're going to let Jesus' words break up our passage from one topic to the next.

So the passages will get a little bit longer as we go.

And again, if you're new here and you have,

what is God doing or what is Jesus doing in this sermon?

Well, if you go back to chapter 4, Matthew says this,

and he, that is Jesus, went throughout all Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom

and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

So it said, Matthew says, Jesus is going around preaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

And what we then have is a teaching section that helps fill in what is it that he was teaching.

He was teaching about the nature of God's kingdom.

That is, what does it look like when God rules and reigns,

whether it's in a person's heart or in a society or a community,

what does it look like for God's kingdom to come?

And this is really good news that he's preaching.

It's a gospel that is good news of the question.

The question I want us to be asking as we go through this passage all fall is,

how is it that God calls us to live distinctively as Christians in God's kingdom?

What are the ways that he wants us to understand and live distinct from the kingdoms of this world

and the worldviews of this world?

How is it that he calls us to be set apart, distinct in the way that we live?

And so this brings us to chapter 5, verse 13, which will be our passage today on salt.

But I'm just going to read the context.

So I'm going to start in verse 2 of chapter 5 for our reading.

So let me read through this, and then after I pray, we'll take a look particularly at verse 13.

So let's read God's word.

As he opened his mouth and taught them, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you.

Blessed are you.

When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,

rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand,

and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others,

so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

So this is God's Word.

Let's pray for His help as we look at it today.

Lord, help us this morning.

Lord, I pray for Your help, that You would help me to speak as I ought with clarity,

and Lord, with truth.

Spirit, help me this morning,

and help us as a congregation to sit under Your Word,

to receive this Word,

to allow Your Spirit to work it into our hearts and into our lives.

Lord, use this Word this morning

so that we might love You more,

so that we might obey You more,

so that we might know You more.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So in some ways, verse 13 is very straightforward.

It's a very simple image.

It's a very straightforward idea.

But I think there's a lot of richness to it.

So we're going to try to tease out some of the implications and meanings of it this morning.

We're going to ask three questions of the text.

The first is, what does it mean that we are the salt of the earth?

The second one is, why does Jesus warn us about losing our distinctive saltiness?

And the third question is,

how does the gospel shape and fuel that distinctive saltiness?

So, what does it mean?

Why does He warn us?

And how does the gospel interact with this idea of distinctive saltiness?

So, that's our question.

The first one then,

what does it mean that we are the salt of the earth?

Jesus, in this context, has gathered His disciples,

and His crowd is listening,

and He looks at them and He says,

you are the salt of the earth.

Now, this is a metaphor, right?

But what does it point to?

Now, biblically, if we teased out salt in the way it's used in other places,

it's used sometimes for, as an image of destruction or judgment.

Sometimes it's used, particularly in the Old Testament temple,

as purification,

as it was a part of offering in the temple.

Certainly, preservation is one of the ways that we see it used as well.

But the fourth one is the one that I actually think is most in view in this passage today,

and that is flavor.

Now, flavor feels kind of weak,

but I think it's actually the idea,

and one of the reasons I think that is because of the second half of the verse, right?

You are the salt of the earth,

but if the salt has lost its taste,

its other versions,

loses its saltiness,

lost its flavor in the New King James,

has become tasteless in the New American Standard.

So, this idea is pretty,

and it's a really interesting word.

Sorry, word nerdery for a little bit.

When you look at this in its original,

what it actually says is,

it has become foolish.

If your salt has become foolish,

which clearly was an idiom in the day,

but I think the idea is,

and one of the ideas is that rabbis often used salt as an image for wisdom,

and so Jesus is making a really cool play on words here.

But what he's saying is that if we lose our essential nature,

becoming foolish is somehow being separate from who we were,

who we are meant to be biblically, right?

So, this idea of flavor,

we are meant to have the flavor of God and His kingdom in our lives.

This is what it means that we are meant to be the salt of the earth,

that you and I bring as followers of Jesus,

a distinctive taste of God's kingdom to the world that we live in.

And it's a flavor, it's an aroma,

it's a taste of something better,

of a kingdom that, as C.S. Lewis says,

a kingdom we've never been to,

a music that we've never quite heard,

a story that we're meant to bring this flavor to the world

that is enticing, that is inviting,

that at times may be challenging or confronting to the world,

but we're meant to bring the flavor of the kingdom of God.

But you may ask,

okay, that sounds nice.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, starting with,

it means we live out the Beatitudes.

In the context, this comes right after Jesus has just said,

this is what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God, right?

Poor in spirit,

mourning,

meek,

hungering and thirsting for righteousness,

merciful,

pure in heart,

peacemaking,

persecuted for righteousness' sake.

If we want to think through,

what does it mean to be the salt of the earth?

Let's start here.

We look at this and we think,

when we live in the kingdom of God,

when God rules and reigns in our hearts,

these things are characteristic,

or should be characteristic,

of us.

When we live this way,

it allows us to be the salt we are meant to be.

And we'll see that this doesn't just look backwards in the Sermon on the Mount

to say saltiness looks like this.

Looking ahead to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount,

I'm not going to preach the whole thing today,

but what is it?

It means that we have a morality that is heart-centered

and not merely skin deep.

It means we have a heart of costly service

and humility before others.

It means we have a single-minded devotion

to God who is the King of our kingdom.

And it means we have a radical devotion to Jesus

and following Him

in sacrificial love for those around us.

We'll see all of those themes played out

in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

So Jesus gives us these character qualities.

And listen, if you're not sure what that looked like,

put Trinity on your podcast list

and listen to the sermons from earlier this summer.

And then keep coming back.

And throughout the rest of the fall,

we'll get a picture fuller and fuller

of what it means to have this salt.

I do want to make sure I say this too.

Like when we talk about having a flavor or aroma,

we always think of this as a positive thing typically.

Oh, I love the taste of fresh-cooked bread

when we make bread at home.

You know, I love that aroma.

But we need to recognize that the aroma

isn't always pleasant to everyone, right?

Verses 10 through 12, right before this,

have told us that when we pursue righteousness,

that is right living in the kingdom of God,

at times we will get persecution and rejection for it.

It will provoke reviling and hatred

from those who hate God and who despise His kingdom.

All right, so that's still conceptual.

You're still saying, okay, Matt, what does this look like?

I could, we could be here all day

with me trying to paint a portrait.

But let me give you a few ideas.

When I was in high school, before I was a Christian,

there were a couple of my friends in high school

who were Christians.

And I knew that they went to some meeting somewhere

on Wednesday nights and it was exciting

and I didn't want to go.

But they went.

But what I saw in my relationships

is that they were faithful

and they were trustworthy

and they were humble

and they were joyful

and they were grounded in a way that I wasn't.

And they talked about Jesus

being the source of all their lives.

And they weren't perfect

and they made mistakes

and all sorts of things.

But there was a picture there.

I experienced in my interactions with them

something.

And I thought, whatever it is,

I can taste something that I want more of.

It was part of how God brought me to Christ.

And I think they were living out the verse

that we looked at earlier in Colossians

where they were ready to pray for an open door

to share about their faith

and then that they were going to live their lives

with their speech seasoned with salt

that is seasoned with the flavor of the gospel.

Even if it's not the whole gospel told all at once,

they could plant seeds

and give invitations for people to talk more

about what's most meaningful

and what do we do when we fail

and where is there forgiveness

and what does it mean to love

and all these things lead us to the gospel.

And that's what happened to me.

So that's one kind of saltiness

that I've experienced in the world.

There are also people

who are doing salty things in their workplace.

Some of you remember Lydia Dugdale

who was a member here for a while

who's now a professor down at Columbia.

She's written a book called

The Lost Art of Dying.

And it's a beautiful book

that's engaging with the question

of how do we as a culture

think about dying

from a Christian perspective.

And some of you are academics in here.

Some of you are scholars.

Some of you are going to go on

and have opportunities to write books

and to teach others.

How can you bring your Christian worldview

and integrate it into your subjects

so that you can bring a saltiness

to your job

and to your thinking

and to your worldview?

Sometimes saltiness

simply means faithfulness

to obey God

in unusual,

in circumstances

where everyone else

is doing something different.

I remember working in campus ministry

and I discipled a guy

who was on the lacrosse team.

And if you don't know anything

about lacrosse teams,

they're not always

the most savory guys on campus.

Or maybe they're super savory

in all the ways

you don't want them to be.

They can be a bit rough and tumble

and a bit of the party crowd.

And he had a girlfriend

who really wanted to sleep with him.

And he kept saying,

no, I don't feel like that's right.

That's not what God wants me to do.

And he kept saying no.

And the grief that he got

from his teammates on this,

like they would make bets every week,

like maybe this is the weekend,

he's going to not do it.

And he didn't do it

by condemning them

or telling them

they're all terrible people.

He didn't do it

by separating himself out

and saying,

if you're going to be like that,

I'm not going to be part of this team.

But he just humbly,

steadfastly lived out a calling

to follow Jesus

in that particular way.

There are lots of other ways

this might look.

Think about the value of hospitality.

We're actually going to do

a Sunday school on it

later this fall.

Hospitality is a lost art

in our culture today.

People are moving fast

and they think of their home

as a private space

and you don't invite people in

and it's weird

to go to each other's houses.

But Christian hospitality

is such a beautiful way

of connecting

and loving people.

How do we be salty

by inviting our neighbors,

our friends,

our co-workers,

our classmates

into our homes,

into our worlds?

William Wilberforce

is another example

who spent his whole lifetime

in politics.

53 years in total.

No, actually,

45 years in politics.

27 of them

to get to the point

where his bill

to abolish slavery

actually passed.

Let me rephrase that.

To abolish the slave trade

in England passed.

And then another

26 years,

if my math is right,

before Britain

actually outlawed slavery

in the country.

he spent his whole life

being salt

in trying to change

the societal values

through the laws

of the land,

bringing the hope

and the light

of the kingdom

to the British Empire.

And again,

many of us live

mundane lives

and we may not

change the world.

Some of you might.

Some of you might go on

to have those opportunities.

Will you maintain

your saltiness?

So I hope

that's a little bit

of a picture.

And our saltiness

can be in all sorts

of things.

How we parent

and how we care

for our aging parents.

How we engage

in political discourse

with one another.

How we engage

with the PTA

in our school district.

How we deal

with gossip

in our workplace.

How we love

our elderly neighbors

and single parents

among us.

And so on and so on.

I could continue

to lay out

different contexts

and different ways

in which we need

to think about

how are we being

distinctively Christian,

which means we need

to study God's Word,

think about how it applies

to all of these contexts,

and then living

faithfully in that.

Being a foretaste

of the kingdom of God.

And people will see it

and they'll know it.

John has a great

bunch of friends

that he knows

at the gym.

And they have

great conversations

with him

because they taste

the kingdom of God

in him,

I believe.

And they see something

in the way

that he loves them

and listens to them

and engages

with their questions

that they're hungry for

and they want more.

And they don't even

necessarily know

they want God.

They might,

but they're there.

Jesus says,

you are the salt

of the earth.

This is definitional.

If you are in God's kingdom,

you are the salt

of the earth.

It is also an invitation

and a calling.

Be the salt

of the earth

in the world.

Jesus then goes on

and he warns us.

He warns us

about losing this.

Right?

And we've talked

about this idea

that you are

the salt of the earth,

but if the salt

become,

this might be

a more literal translation,

but if the salt

might become foolish,

in what way

can it be salty?

That is,

if it loses

its fundamental essence,

then it's no longer salt

and it can't do

what salt does.

Now,

some of you

are chemistry majors here

and you're thinking,

okay,

so NACL

is a stable compound

and it doesn't degrade.

Salt doesn't actually

become unsalty.

It can't happen.

So,

first of all,

in the first century,

a lot of salt

that was used

wasn't actually

mined salt

that was that stable,

but it was often

evaporated salt,

say,

from the reeds

on the sides

of the Dead Sea

and the evaporated salt

would be mixed

with other minerals

and things

and so it could

degrade over time.

So,

this is one thought

that some people have,

but others just have,

it might just be

worth saying,

don't push the imagery

too far.

Jesus isn't talking

about chemistry.

He's using an idiom

of a particular substance

that everybody knows,

but he says,

if salt is no longer salty,

then what good is it?

It's not good.

It's not worth anything.

If you put non-salty salt

on your food,

your food still tastes

like whatever it did

before you put the salt on.

If you try to use it

to preserve your food,

it's not going to work.

When salt loses

its distinctive character,

it becomes useless.

And he says,

all you can do

is throw it on the path

and trample it

under your feet

because that's really,

that's all it could do.

Maybe try to keep

the dust down a little bit,

like gravel.

But it's not worth anything.

Jesus says,

in reality,

this is a danger.

You might lose this.

You could lose this.

How might that happen?

Well, I want to point out

two ways in which I think

we lose our saltiness,

our distinctiveness

in the world.

The first one is

by becoming

just like the world.

This is a proverbial

frog in the kettle, right?

You put a frog

in a cold kettle

and you turn up the heat

and the frog

will stay in the kettle happily

and it will boil to death,

right?

Because it doesn't know

that it's becoming affected

by the environment around it.

So, we live in the world

and we often become

just like it.

There are some terrible examples

of this from the past.

The church at times

has supported slavery

and using,

owning people.

The church has at times

done things like

ban interracial marriage.

These were morals of the day,

commonly assumed

among the culture

and the church

swallowed it wholesale,

much to our shame.

There are other ways

in which we can

lose our saltiness.

Theologically,

we lose our saltiness.

If you read the history

of the 1800s

and 19th century,

you look at theology,

the importing of

enlightenment principles

into the work

of theology

led some

or many

to believe

that a scientific process

and a scientific worldview

and even a naturalistic

scientific worldview

was the right

and proper

and dominant way

to think about things.

And so,

they went back

to the Bible

and they said,

well,

God can't do miracles

because that's not

the way the world works.

that's a very broad brush.

John could give you

all the details.

But it was one of the

outworkings was

that this naturalistic worldview

then grew to such a point

where churches were just saying,

well,

God can't do miracles

because that's not the way

the world works.

Much to our shame

and to our laws.

Here's the third example.

Enculturation and missions.

Right?

God has called us

to take the good news

of the gospel

to the ends of the earth

and to all peoples

everywhere.

But He didn't call us

to take coats and ties

or organs.

Those are cultural expressions

of Christianity.

But you go to

equatorial countries

around the world

and the Western church

has exported

certain things

that have nothing

to do with the gospel.

They've exported culture

instead.

And in doing so,

they've become,

they've embraced

the world around them

that said,

we need to,

in the 19th century

missional view,

we need to civilize

people who haven't,

haven't yet embraced

Western European culture.

Much to our shame.

So we need to recognize

the danger is real.

Where are the pressure points

we feel today?

What are the ways

in which we might become

like the world

and not even be aware of it?

Well, here's an idea.

How about radical individualism?

Let me ask you

some diagnostic questions.

Do you plan your schedule

around your community

or around your own

life goals?

Do you value

group success

over individual achievements?

Do you value

gathering as God's people

more than your own

personal plans

for spiritual growth?

I think radical individualism

has the danger

of undermining

and destroying

the church

that God

and we often

just absorb it

and just think

this is normal

when it's not.

I promise you

we won't talk about

this every week

but good heavens

the church's engagement

with politics

right now

is a mess

and we have become

like the world

in anger

and attacking

lacking humility

in the way

that Christians

have engaged

in political discourse

and listen

I'm not saying

that there's something

there is good

we'll talk about that

there's good

in engaging

in political discourse

but we must do it

distinctively

as Christians

and here's my guess

there are probably

some people

who are doing it

but they never

make the headlines

because it's not

splashy

and it's not

it's not controversial

because they're working

humbly

and carefully

and lovingly

and persistently

and faithfully

but friends

we need to consider

how on a

large scale

organizationally

and on a small scale

individually

can we engage

with others

about politics

in a way

that's going to have

the aroma of Christ

can we

can we feel

like Jesus

to others

when we're talking

about

elections

policies

principles

principles

I think

there's also

a danger

today

of us

losing

a distinctly

Christian

sexual ethic

again

I don't want

to beat

this horse

over

but we need

to recognize

how much

assumptions

about

sexuality

how we work

why we work

it is seen

as the right

and good

human flourishing

for people

to be sexually

active

in whatever way

they want to

that is what

our culture

says

and the Bible

says something

very different

the Bible

says

that

sexuality

was given

as a gift

with a very

particular purpose

in a very

particular context

and yet

the church

in a

misguided

attempt

to love

everybody

without

regard

is starting

to say

well maybe

we don't

actually have

to hold

to those

things

some of you

are college

students

you know

what your

friends think

you know

and it's

very tempting

to say

well maybe

it's not

such a big

deal

but do you

see in doing

that we

lose the

distinctiveness

we lose

our ability

to be salty

when we do

these things

those are a

couple of

examples of

where we

might lose

it

we could

probably

think of

a bunch

of others

how we

view

marriage

parenting

family

how we

deal with

money

there are

so many

ways

so many

areas

of our

lives

where we

can lose

our

Christian

distinctiveness

by becoming

like the

world

I think

there's a

second way

and I need

to be careful

in how I

say this

but I'm

going to go

here

because I

think it's

worth saying

the other

way we

lose our

Christian

distinctiveness

is by

being distinct

but not

Christian

in what

we are

and by

that I

mean we

become

distinctive

for the

wrong

things

when people

look at us

and what

they think

about us

and what

they see

in us

is not

the kingdom

and the

gospel

but something

else

there are

some

historical

examples

monasticism

is an

interesting

way of

saying

hey we're

going to

be distinct

from the

world

we're going

to withdraw

and live

within our

own

insular

community

and interact

only

tangentially

with the

outside world

right

and what

did they

become known

for

celibacy

tonsures

burlap

sacks

it seems

you know

it's

so that's

one historical

another historical

example

and again

I want to be

careful here

because you

can be a

real follower

of Jesus

but maybe

lose your

saltiness

by becoming

a monk

the other

example I'm

going to

use is

the Amish

and because

the Amish

I think

there can be

true believers

within the

Amish community

I'm not

judging their

spiritual

but what

are they

known for

the way

they dress

they don't

drive cars

they don't

use electricity

they want

to separate

themselves

from the

world

in a

particular

way that

seems very

culture bound

and that's

what they're

known for

and again

we want

to say

what are

what are

we

if we're

distinctive

for things

that aren't

about the

kingdom

and about

Jesus

don't we

also lose

our

distinctiveness

then we

just

to be blunt

we just

become weird

we just

become odd

maybe we

like

revel in

our

distinctive

otherness

because we

see the

evils in

the society

we have

but if

we're not

distinctive

about the

kingdom

the things

of the

kingdom

then we

also lose

our

saltiness

Christians

can become

distinctive

about

diet plans

and money

management

and

what movies

we watch

and don't

watch

we can be

distinctive

about all

sorts of

and listen

there are

great

opportunities

for us

to think

Christianly

about all

of those

things

right

none of

those things

are bad

topics

for us

to think

Christianly

about

but we

want to

make sure

that when

people

meet us

our

distinctiveness

is

characterized

by

and points

to

the thing

that we're

meant to be

most

distinctive

about

and that

is the

gospel

for

ultimately

our

distinctiveness

is that

we are

no longer

ours

but we

have been

bought

by a

price

that we

were dead

in our

sins

and trespasses

and God

has made

us alive

with him

in Christ

the

distinctiveness

is that

we

now

live

and engage

in the

world

because of

the message

of the

gospel

that God

has come

to us

to rescue

us

from sin

and the

condemnation

we deserve

that by

his life

death

and resurrection

Jesus

has freed

us

from

sin

so that

we can

know

God

unlike

other

religions

it is

that

not

our

works

that

save

us

but

it is

his

freely

given

grace

that we

receive

by

faith

this

is the

good news

of the

gospel

and God

calls us

to repent

of our

life

in the

world

and to

come

into

his

kingdom

and be

a citizen

of his

kingdom

and a

child

of the

one

true

God

having

together

Christ

as the

head

of us

our

community

to

follow

him

living

as

members

of the

kingdom

and this

is the

thing

that should

be most

distinct

about us

and this

distinctness

shows itself

in different

ways

it's

distinct

because

we know

we're

sinners

so

we can

say

I'm

sorry

and ask

for

forgiveness

we know

we're

saved by

grace

so

we don't

have to

be

self

righteous

about

what

we do

we're

distinct

because

we know

we deserve

judgment

so we

don't

look at

ourselves

as better

than others

around us

but instead

we are

people who

know

we've

received

mercy

and that

gives us

great joy

and mercy

for the

people

around us

we're

distinct

because

we know

a savior

who did

not count

his glory

with God

something to

be

held

on to

but

who

humbled

himself

and

showed

his glory

through

his

humility

and his

sacrifice

and his

death

and so

we follow

him

in the way

that we

love

others

in that

way

one of

the most

fundamental

things

that I

think

is

we

in his

kingdom

know

that the

world

is not

about us

anymore

it's

about

him

and so

everything

is changed

everything

is reoriented

about

knowing

and loving

and following

Jesus

this is

the distinct

thing

and when

we love

and trust

in

and obey

and delight

in Jesus

this

distinctiveness

will be

seen

and we

will be

the salt

of the

earth

let's

pray

together

oh

Lord

we pray

as we

have

reflected

on this

simple

passage

and on

its

challenging

content

Lord

search our

hearts

we pray

show us

if there

are ways

in which

we have

become

too much

like the

world

or become

distinctive

in ways

that we

ought not

and Lord

help us

to become

distinctive

in increasing

measure

by returning

to

the core

of our

faith

the person

of Jesus

and his

work of

salvation

for us

Lord I

pray this

would be

true for

me

I pray

it would

be true

for us

as a

community

at

Trinity

I pray

it would

be true

for your

church

throughout

the world

pray this

in Jesus

name

amen

to

you

you

you

you