A pinch of salt

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill."        Matthew 5: 13, 14 The Message

Jesus gathered a group of only 12 disciples to learn from him, in his short public ministry on earth which lasted only 3 years. It seems that after thousands of years of Old Testament history, God intervenes personally in a way that is, humanly speaking, insignificant. One human being to change the world? With a team of only 12? Born at a time with no rapid way of spreading his message? Why didn't God wait until Twitter had been invented?

Jesus often tells stories about the impact of small things- salt, yeast or mustard seeds. As he begins his Sermon on the Mount, he explains why it doesn't matter whether millions of people hear and heed his words, or only a handful- what matters is the effect that a few grains of truth, of courage, or kindness, of humility, or compassion can have. We often see the opposite dynamic at work- how anger or bitterness can infect a life, and lead to ever-increasing pain and tragedy. Or how fear and mistrust can spread through a community and poison a whole neighbourhood, city or even nation. In the first century, salt was used not just as a flavouring but as a preservative, to stop things turning bad. Jesus encourages us to listen to his words, to act on them and to believe that this will begin to change the world around us.