Salt

I owe this thought to Mike Krause.... I almost always owe my thoughts to someone else, but this thought can be clearly and directly traced to his message at The Meeting House. One line of Jesus' metaphor has the power to inspire a novel....
In the days of Jesus much of the regular, day to day salt was from the Dead Sea. It was impure, laced with gypsum. The people kept the salt in a pile in their backyards. Salt dissolved in the rain -- not so much the gypsum. As the pile of salt grew old and, if no new salt was added, the pile was a worthless pile of gypsum. The people then took the mineral and spread it on their walkways and roads -- as it was an excellent hardening substance.
The perfect metaphor.
The metaphor of people losing their salt is a poignant reminder. Unused, without being replenished, that which makes us filled with flavour, becomes tasteless and flat.
I read the stories in the Gospels and remember that the people who challenged Jesus were the men and women who had the most education, training and leadership experience in the church. They were men who had been given authority to teach. These men also made judgements on people's day to day lives. Yet they had been left out in the rain too long and the saltiness of their relationship with God and their love for God had been washed out, leaving behind the rules and regulations they so loved. And the rules and regulations were powerless to change hearts and lives.