Salt of the Streets

Winter is here in Central Pennsylvania… well sort of, anyway.  We got our first winter storm, snow, ice, freezing rain… but then it’s now 50 degrees outside… the snow is all melting, but my driveway is icy, so I still need to use the salt to break it up, and hopefully, melt away the remaining ice.  
​
On Monday I spent most of the day shoveling, scraping, and putting a ton of salt on the sidewalks of my house and the church.  When the weather gets unsuitable for people to walk, I want to make sure nobody accidentally falls due to some ice that was on the sidewalk.  So, I spent Monday morning, going up and down, spreading salt on the sidewalks and making sure those icy patches get treated.  

Ironically, doesn’t God instruct us to sow seeds of the gospel in our community? Starting in Luke 8 verse 4 Jesus talks about seeds falling on the road, rocks, and good soil.  The seeds falling on rock never took root, and the seeds falling on the road get eaten up by birds, and the seeds that fell on good soil took root and has the best possible to grow into plants and produce fruit.  The seed represents the word of God, and well… the sower, would be us, the spreaders of the Gospel.  That is, we are the ones continue the mission of Jesus Christ to announce the good news to our corner of the world.  We are not the ones that makes the seed grows, that is God’s job.  We are not the one who determine that the environment is considered to be road, rock, or soil.  All we do is spread the seeds.  The rest is in God’s hands.
But… wintertime… there isn’t much of spreading seeds, but its all about spreading salt when the weather wants to turn against us.  And well maybe spreading salt is just like spreading seeds as well.  The gospel is about salting our streets in order to give safe passage to all when the weather gets stormy, slippery, icy, and just dangerous.  Because sometimes the roads we walk on are dangerous, the roads can cause us to slip and fall.  So God gives us salt, and that salt is who we are… to bring safe passage to all through gospel telling, that is, storytelling of the goodness and love of God.  

As God can make any seed grow, God can also transform any slippery dangerous road in safe passage that leads to righteousness.  God only needs us to spread the salt so that others make walk upright and have safe passages that hopefully lead to the peace of God.  

It’s Christmas time, it’s wintertime.  It’s busy, it’s stressful, it’s dark, it’s cold, it’s snowy, and it’s slippery.  But it is also a time to spread hope, peace, joy, and love to all people we may encounter.  Make sure that what we say and do reflect the Gospel of Christ that is given to us.  We may not be able to plant seeds, well we could, but probably won’t see those seeds grow until springtime.  But at least we can be salt… which normally is to be the good taste in our food… on in the context of wintertime outside in central Pennsylvania, salt is the tool for safe passages to all.  

I wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I hope we all prepare Christmas through the guidance of the Advent season.  It is all about hope, peace, joy, and love.  These are the gifts that God gives us.  

---