Lenten Feast Day

Lenten Feast Day

Sunday, March 26, 2017

You are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty again.
Matthew 5:13

Until just a few years ago, I did not understand this verse. Salt is salt, and salt is salty. How can salt still be salt, and not be salty? It seemed impossible to me. Then we went to China, and I did most of our cooking. Of course, I needed salt.

When I bought it, I thought it looked different than what I bought at home, but then, most everything looked different there than here! Not only was it not packaged with a little girl spilling salt as she walked under her umbrella, it was not packaged at all! I asked for salt, and they put this rusty looking coarse stuff in my container. They looked at me in disbelief as I questioned their salt, and assured me it was salt indeed!

I tasted. Yes, maybe. Sort of salty. I salted the beans. Nothing. I salted again. Nothing. And again. Finally a faintly familiar saltiness appeared. Then I knew what Jesus was talking about. Salt can become unsalty! It looked a little like salt and tasted slightly salty, but it had really lost its quality!

Jesus, in the Matthew text is telling his disciples about being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. He doesn’t want them to be a little salty. He wants them to be so salty that they will make others thirsty for living water. I’ve decided I want to be as salty as a country ham! So salty that people will go away wanting more and more of the only thing that will ever satisfy! Living water!

Prayer: Father, only you can make our lives salty. Keep us so carefully involved in our study of your Word that you can keep us seasoned well. Amen.

And He Set His Face toward Jerusalem. . . .

A Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2007,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator