We don’t get to pick and choose what we follow and what we don’t. We don’t get to pick who we show grace to and who we won’t. We are called to be salt of the earth, light of the world, in all things, through all things, to all God’s people, for all God’s people. And be open to where the Spirit is moving in and among us.
February 8, 2026
“Can its Saltiness be Restored?”
Matthew 5:13-20
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Matthew 5: 13-20
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them.
I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Can Its Saltiness be Restored? Mat 5:13-20
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet.”
Let me start out by saying…That this is the good news. In fact, all things which Jesus is saying in this text is the good news for us as the people of God. Even in the section right before this one, where Jesus talks about blessings for the poor in spirit and for those that mourn, all of it is the good news. It is the Gospel message-laid out for us. And no matter how hard it is for us to take in, for us to wrap our minds around, no matter how hard it may be for us to live it out as part of the Body of Christ, all of what Jesus shares in this text is the Gospel message for us as the people of God. Yes, even that part about salt losing its saltiness and being trampled underneath people’s feet, even that is the Good News for us as the people of God. Sure, it is not tied up in pretty ribbons or bows. Nor does it make us feel comfortable. But it is in fact good news for us as people of faith.
You see, what Jesus is saying in this text is not something new. Jesus didn’t come up with the concepts of being the salt of the Earth and the Light of the World all by himself. They were and are part of the liturgy of his faith tradition. These images are found in the prophets of the Old Testament. What Jesus is doing is speaking out of a faith tradition which goes back thousands of years. Because in some shape or fashion, from Genesis to Revelation, in our sacred story as people of faith, there is a call to be in community, to be a community which welcomes all of God’s people. From Genesis to Revelation, there is a call for the people of God to be in relationship with one another, to be in relationship with those society has deemed as “other”. From Genesis to Revelation, there is a call for the people of God to take our faith seriously, to not let our faith be something we adhere to for just an hour on Sunday morning. It is something that infuses everything we say, something which infuses everything we do. It shapes our decisions. It shapes our actions. It shapes our worldview. It shapes our understanding of what it means to be in relationship with others. When Jesus shares these words with his disciples, he is reminding them that faith is not something we do. Rather it is something we are.
Now that being said…I will also be the first to admit that all of it can be overwhelming. After all, the stuff that Matthew is laying out before us is not the me and Jesus, friends forever, kind of stuff we like to hear, that we would rather hear, that we like to pretend is really the essence of the Good News. Nor is it the stuff which allows us to plead ignorance when it comes down to recognizing, to naming all the hurt and brokenness in our world. And it is certainly not the stuff which allows us to stay in our comfort zones while continuing the us versus them larger narrative the world tells us to believe and support.
And I will also say the irony or should I say the timing of this particular sermon is not missed by me. After a week of Christian nationalism rearing its ugly head, from racist social media posts to images of people constantly being profiled because of the color of their skin. The irony or should I say timing of this particular sermon is not missed by me. After all, we are in the Season of Epiphany, a season which calls us to be open to what the Light of God is revealing to us as we move deeper into our call as Jesus’ disciples. And it seems to be revealing that we are being called to allow our essence, the light and Love of God, to be more evident in all we do and say in a time such as this when hate and harmful narratives are trying to take over.
So with all that being said, how do we do that…how do we, those of us sitting in the pews, those who know that the Gospel message calls us to live in ways that are counter-cultural to the larger world narrative of greed and power, how do we live more into our core essence of God’s love and light? In other words, how do we practice what we preach?
First thing is knowing and naming that what Matthew lays out before us are uncomfortable Truths, truths which Jesus preached, truths which Jesus taught, again truths which Jesus gave to us to empower us to become the people God created and calls us to be…people of love, people of grace, people of mercy and yes, people of justice as well.
For us as people of faith, these things are the starting point for our faith conversations. The very things which Jesus says in this text, they are not requirements. They are not commands. They are words of commission for us as Jesus’ disciples. They speak into being what we already know. We are already Salt of the Earth. We are already the Light of the World.
Naming these things, embracing these things are the starting points for us on this journey of transformation. They are ways for us to become the people God calls us to be. They are ways to prevent the Gospel message from becoming something it was never intended to be…which is a message which supports systems of oppression, a message which embraces the powers that be, a message which never connects us to God’s Beloved Community in our midst here and now.
The very things Jesus says in this text invite us to begin imagining a different world, not only for us but for all of God’s children as well. They are not ways to point out how we have failed in our mission as people of faith. Rather they are words to inspire us to not settle for anything less than the Beloved Community of God fully realized here on Earth, here and now for all of God’s people, just as Jesus promised.
Or let me say it this way… This week, I dropped off the hygiene kits and period packs that we put together last week in worship. And yesterday, at a track meet, a fellow Woodford parent, thanked our church for doing that. I told her we didn’t do it for recognition. We did it because it was needed in our community. We did it as a way to honor the humanity so many others often ignore. And then she said this statement, a statement which broke my heart and reminded me we still have work to do. She simply said, well, not many churches would have done what you all did.
This statement brought me back to our text this morning. It reminded me that when Jesus said he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it, he was reminding his disciples, he was reminding us that we don’t get to pick and choose what Scriptures we follow and which ones we ignore. Either it is all sacred text or none of it is. Now please don’t hear me say that we ignore context, study, word origins and a whole bunch of other stuff which shapes our understanding of the text. I’m not saying that at all. What I am saying is that we don’t get to disregard the texts which make us uncomfortable, the texts which call us to love our enemies, the texts which call us to welcome the stranger in our midst, the texts which tell us all are created in the image of God, the texts which are known as the greatest commandment, the one which calls us to love our God with all our heart, mind, body and soul AND to love our neighbor as ourself. As people of faith, as disciples of Christ Jesus, we don’t get to pick and choose what we follow and what we don’t. We don’t get to pick who we show grace to and who we won’t. We don’t get to follow only the texts which support our politics or worldviews. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be salt of the earth, light of the world, in all things, through all things, to all God’s people, for all God’s people, meaning that in this Season of revealing, we have learned who we are. We have learned whose we are. And now as ones who have accepted the call to follow Jesus, it is time to discover what difference this makes for/in our lives and the community around us. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, February 8, 2026 – Can Its Saltiness be Restored? Mat 5:13-20.
Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.
Listen to the podcast.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.