Saltshaker Ghetto.

One of the descriptors used by Jesus to describe us Christians is "salt": as in, "You are the salt of the earth" (see Matthew 5:13). This past Sunday, Pastor Sam warned us of the danger of living our lives as if we were grains of salt which never leave the salt-shaker.

Oh, friends, the problem still exists as it has for decades, if not centuries. What problem? The problem of people coming into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, then living the rest of their lives as if no one else should be won into the kingdom. It's like they say, 'I've got mine: I don't care if you get saved or not, at least I know where I stand'.

How is something salted? Well, the salt has to leave the salt-shaker and be deposited onto, or into, the thing that needs to be salted. That's you, who have gotten so comfortable going from your house to your car to that same church pew, then back to your car and back home, never touching the world; never showing the love of Christ to a co-worker or to the guy that's always hanging out on your block; never using your Spirit-given influence in order to change the world.

Let's recap a few things that Pastor Sam shared:

-Salt is always in the minority.
-When salt is present, everyone knows it.

Those of you who are cooks know that, in virtually every recipe that includes salt, you don't use much salt. But, that tiny bit of salt is critically important in creating a successfully executed dish.

-Salt, in ancient Palestine, was the means of preservation.
-Not every crystallized substance is NaCl.

Pastor Sam reminded us of the Dead Sea as a body of water with no outlet, a place where salts routinely could be found on the shore. The true salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), was used as a preservative in a time when there was no such thing as refrigeration. But contaminated salt was not a viable substitute for NaCl.

And the warning, from God through Pastor Sam to us, is that we need to check ourselves and make sure that we are authentically Christian: not based on how we look or even our presence in church, but based on God's assessment of us.

So, are you out of the saltshaker? And are you really NaCl?

Perhaps that's a good place to pause for today, and a good thing for us to pray about. Tomorrow we'll consider the second metaphor that Jesus referred to in this passage.