GOOD SALT

 

Do you like to put salt on your food? A lot of people do. That’s why in homes and restaurants you find salt and pepper shakers on the table. In fact, when you go to the store to find this product, you look for Table Salt.

Did you know that salt made a lot of people rich? When we were in Germany for vacation, our guide told us that salt was known as white gold because it was once more valuable than real gold. Because people did not have refrigerators, they used salt to preserve food. There’s even a city named after salt – Salzburg.

I mention salt today because at the end of our Gospel (Luke 14:34-45), Jesus said, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.” What does Jesus mean by that?

Jesus was telling his followers that just as salt adds flavor to food, their faith adds something to the world. As Christians, we add a lot to the world. We remind people how God wants us to live by keeping His commandments. We show people how to pray by teaching them the Lord’s Prayer. We bring people to meet other followers of Jesus by bringing them to church. We love people by imitating Jesus’ love.

If we are not in the world living God’s commandments, praying as Jesus taught us, gathering with other believers at church, or loving as Jesus did, then we have lost our taste. And if we lose our taste, well, what good are we?

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.