Salt of the Earth - It's Not Your Money

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus tells us “You are the salt of the earth..you are the light of the world.

This is great! I love my salt, especially if it is Tony Cachere’s Creole Seasoning! Down in New Awlins where the blues was born – a quick side-shout to Frankie Adams and Lou Welsh who wrote Mardi Gras Mambo that made that line famous, down here anyway – Here in south Louisiana, that’s how we do it. We season everything! I sprinkle Tony’s on everything from pastas to popcorn. Fr Nile brings Tony’s with him everywhere he travels. And poo-ya, it’s hot. It lights up the dish, y’all.

But seriously, How do you season your world? How do you bring light to your environments? Jesus goes on to tell us, “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” So – how do you shine your light?

Many of us view our faith-life as private. We are uncomfortable sharing our faith or giving our testimony. We cite passages like Matthew 6:1-4 about not letting our right hand know what our left hand is doing so that our almsgiving is secret. What are we to do?

We are to first acknowledge that God is the source of all we are and all we have. He owns everything. And so everything we have are gifts to us from God. In overwhelming gratitude, we give back to God. We praise and we give. In other words, we shine our light. We do this by supporting the mission of the church with our Time, Talent, and Treasure, helping the poor and most vulnerable amongst us with clothing, housing, food, and education. We season our environments and the larger community when we help young women with the support they need to choose life.

When we shine our lights by putting God first, others see the good we do and it influences them to want to do good, too, bringing them into a closer relationship with God. Isn’t that what’s most important?

How does your giving and the way you live bring light into the community?