I asked the question “Do you know the only place salt is absolutely useless?” The answer of course was, “In the salt shaker!” Jesus says of his followers, the ones with the beatitude attitude, that they are the “salt of the earth”. Salt does a lot of things. It preserves, it melts (important to us in Canada), it adds flavour. In short wherever salt is, it makes a difference!
Years ago my soul was stirred by the book “Out of the Salt Shaker” by Rebecca Pippert. She cogently urged the Church to ‘get out’ and engage the world. She exegeted the “Great Commission” for me and her other readers. She urged us out of our stained-glass shakers and into the world.
We are created to be difference makers. Some have the opportunity to make a difference on a grand scale but all share this same vocation. I was very touched as I saw a church gathering after the events in Charlottesville. Where earlier men raised burning torches and spewed venomous chants, this group’s members held tiny candles and sang sweetly “This Little Light of Mine”. They were distinctively salty!
Each of us has a little light. Each of us has a small corner. If we are not making a difference there is something wrong. Have we lost our saltiness? That is a dire but not hopeless position. The call then is to repent and return. We return to the acknowledgement of the lordship of Jesus. We return to the character of Christ described in those Beatitudes. In doing so we return to ‘saltiness’.
Without our distinctive saltiness we cannot be ‘Kingdom difference makers’. If salt loses its saltiness what is it good for? Only to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
I’m afraid the saltiness is quickly leeching from the “evangelical” church in North America. I say this as a long time tribe member. The endorsement and continuing defense of a serial philanderer and misogynist left this group without the moral standing to make any declarations about the right expression of sexuality in our culture. Through a type of moral gymnastics this group has twisted itself beyond recognition. It is fast losing saltiness and the consequence is that it is also losing its power to make a difference.
How ironic that moves designed to empower the ‘party’ to make positive changes disempowers it. This grab for earthly control is un-Christ-like. It does not fit the Sermon on the Mount, and ultimately will prove counterproductive.
For ‘my tribe’ to regain its saltiness and again make a distinctive difference in the world, we must return to Christ taught values and repent of wayward grab for worldly power. It is not too late and the consequences of continuing down this road are dire indeed!
Reed Fleming 