Salt of the earth!
James Cathcart
June 07, 2026
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Matthew 5: 13 (NIV-UK)
13 ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
Jesus calls us to be salt! How are we bringing taste and flavour, colour and vibrancy to our homes and streets, places of work, study and worship?
Salt and light are powerful — just a little goes a long way. Jesus is inviting us to make a big difference in the world but this transformation is brought about through small simple actions. A flickering light, a sprinkle of salt — that completely changes the environment.
When we choose compassion, kindness, inclusion, care, and selflessness in everyday gestures, words and actions — we are being the salt and light exactly where it is needed.
One of the roles of salt in our diet is to give us sodium, an electrolyte, essential for our nervous systems to send information around our bodies — making our organs and everything work together. We only need a small amount, too much is bad for us, but a little salt found naturally in a varied, healthy diet helps our nerves function and the whole system hang together.
When we act and stand with the powerless we are being the electrolytes running through our society helping the signals to get though. In our world many parts of our shared body are suffering, and as Christians we can help bring people back to our common humanity — helping the signals get through from the deprived to the wealthy, between the young and the old, from the marginalised to the mainstream.
You can see from our politics, religion, culture and technology — that we are a dehydrated society. We have been sweating it out through conflict, Covid, credit crunches, climate change, cost of living and more. We have been strenuously exercising for decades and we can feel it in the social fabric, the social contract. The signals aren’t getting through, we are separate and suspicious. We need to replenish our electrolytes. Perhaps our heart is in the right place but our kidneys are shot to bits! The world needs us to be salt and light!
Prayer:
Call us to be a pinch here
and a glimmer there
just what and when we are needed
to replenish the body politic.
Amen.
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