Salt and Light

"You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses is taste, how can its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men!" Probably considered the most important sermon of all time is the Sermon on the Mount. After Jesus opens his sermon with the "Happy are those..." statements he goes directly into talking about salt and light. A surface reading of this passage will get you no further than thinking that Jesus wants us to "flavor" the world around us, after all, what does salt do if not give flavor to food? But if we will understand the context in which his listeners understood these words, a whole new meaning can emerge.
Most if not all of the listeners present that day relied heavily upon salt not only for flavoring food but for preserving it as well...But salt had another use for the people in the Near East. In order to have heat for cooking and light for seeing, they had to burn fuel. What did they use? Ray Vander Laan has spoken on this issue and what I've learned from him is that most people used either olive oil or more popularly, animal droppings. What our ancient forefathers learned was that if they mixed salt with the animal droppings, their fuel would burn hotter and it would burn longer.
I don't know the last time you went to the store, bought salt, got home and put it on some food and thought, "hmmm this salt has lost its saltness!" Doesn't happen. Salt cannot lose its properties by staying on the shelf too long. However, salt can lose its chemical properties in the fire. After these fuels mixed with salt were burned 8 or 10 or however many times, their properties were compromised and the salt not longer served its purpose.
NOW what are the implications of Jesus' words? How about, you are the salt of the earth therefore I expect you to mix with the dung of this world, good, bad and in between. Burn with a passion for loving God while loving/igniting other people. But BEWARE. In so doing do NOT lose your effectiveness, do not lose your purpose, do not take on the properties of the world because if you do, you are no longer of any use to God. The only thing you will be good for is to be thrown out and trampled on by people.
There is an old axiom which says, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." I say, phooey! You can make a horse, dog, elephant or anything else drink for that matter...if you give him enough salt! Are you salt?
Shalom