Is Your Faith Story About Being Salt or About Being Salty?
Matthew 5: 13-17
I’ve met a few Christians who find the validity of their faith in the practice of grievance. They seem to be salty because their worldview no longer dominates public discourse. The Christian Church does not dictate the practices, values, and mores of this society and they are ticked off and salty about it.
Today, some of these believers join a grievance-based faith with the strange bedfellow of grievance-based political ideology. Together, they go about the work of naming common enemies while endangering their own lives and planet earth. These very salty believers seem not able to discern that their political bedfellow’s aim is wealth and not their religious perspective. Perhaps both seek to sustain power and wealth.
I’ve met a few Christians who are salty because justice and freedom are slow to arrive, and hard-fought gains are sometimes lost. They are salty and upset because the deliverance from evil that they seek seems so elusive and unreliable. The rock of their salvation, the faith that sustains life, is simply overwhelmed, and they are salty and bitter.
I find that Christianity is neither defined nor validated by salty self-focused righteous indignation. Rather, the Spirit of Christ is found in the power of humility. To be light and salt in this world one must be grounded and be refreshed by the indwelling living Christ. I long for a relationship with Christ that replenishes my soul and fits me for the good hard work that heals the land and draws others toward the faith.
As I strive to move into the world from my center, a place of authenticity and a place of peace, perhaps Christ is glorified in me.
James Edward McJunkin Jr.
January 2022