We are the Church! We are the salt of the earth!

“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is then good for nothing, but is thrown out and trampled foot.” Matt 5:13

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you restore its saltiness? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another” Mark 9:49-50

Jesus asks the question “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”  In truth, salt is salty because it is salt.  Salt isn’t sweet, nor is it bitter, it is salt because of the nature of what it is.

We are by God’s design and from the very core of our being, intended to reflect the glory of God in everything we do. As the refiner’s fire of the Holy Spirit works within us, we become the salt that we are intended to be.

Just as no one uses one grain of salt expecting it to be effective, we too are not meant to be only one grain of salt in the world.  Jesus concludes this brief parable by stating, “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” The salt, then, is not just one person but a collective that functions together. The church, when it strives to pursue God and display His glory, profoundly impacts the world through us.  We are the Church and like salt, we provide flavor and life to whomever we touch and in whatever we do. We preserve the integrity of the that which we proclaim, Jesus Christ has died, Jesus Christ is risen, Jesus Christ will come again.  

“So that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him – though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being” Acts: 17: 27-28

Jesus invites us to live in God’s presence in all ways and at all times. His invitation is explicit in his teaching and in his whole life living in God’s presence. Indeed, His life is a model for us.

From The Cowley Magazine, I recently met in spirit Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1614-1691). As a soldier in the 30 Years war, he suffered a near-fatal injury. He was left crippled and in chronic pain the rest of his life. He became a monk and a cook in the Carmelite monastery in Paris. What is extraordinary about Br. Lawrence is he lived the whole of his life in the presence of God. It was transparent to everyone who knew him, to everyone who came to him for solace and prayer that he practiced living in the presence of God.
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The practice of living in the presence of God is an existential way of living arrived at from a conscious and constant inner awareness that we live in God’s presence. It is really a matter of conscious love: God’s love for us and our love in response.
We are given the gift of life. We say in our creed The Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life. We worship God Emmanuel, God is with us, in all times and in all places.
Each breath we take, each heart beat is a reminder that God is present, loves us, is active within us and around us, sustaining and blessing our lives. Practice becoming actively conscious of living in the presence of God as you inhale and exhale.