Meditation on Matthew 5:13

From a post I wrote for Trinity Episcopal Church, May 10, 2022

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste; how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

Matthew 5:13

Ah, the Beatitudes. There is something about my personality that loves a good list - a list to achieve and check off as one completes them and the Beatitudes are one of the best lists in the Bible. Alex and I chose this as our primary reading at our wedding and out of all the weddings I’ve attended, we were unique in this choice. But we insisted on the Beatitudes and a Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote that said something like “in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind.” At our wedding, there wasn’t much about romantic love or the voice of turtle doves. It was serious stuff about serious obligations. In hindsight, we may have taken our earnestness a little too far. It was a celebration of marriage after all.

Our wedding was also unique to most in that my father-in-law is an Episcopal priest and offered the homily. I pulled up his sermon from that day to see what wisdom he offered. It was a lot more mercy-filled than our reading selections. He observed that Alex and I were “here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. And because [we]’ve each got some Louisiana bayou water in our bloodstreams, [we]’re here to be the cayenne and the filé that brings out the God-flavors of this earth, too.”

But what does this mean? Samin Nosrat says in her chapter on Salt in the wonderful cookbook, Salt Fat Acid Heat, that the “primary role that salt plays in cooking is to amplify the flavor…Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient. Learn to use it well, and your food will taste good.”

I think now, with the hard-earned wisdom that 17 years of life and marriage imparts, what Jesus and my priestly father-in-law were trying to say was something along the lines of: use these Beatitudes as guidelines, yes. For when achieved they will reflect the Kingdom of God on earth. But earth is imperfect and has a long way to go so, in the meantime, live into who I made you to be, your own essence. Do this in partnership, bringing out the best (i.e. Godliness) in each and you will flavor whatever you do - work, community, friendship, parenting - with the essence of God as well.

I’m not sure we always achieve this aim, but we keep striving. And as Samin Nosrat and all other great cooks would say, there will be messes and fallen souffles and burned rouxs but keep at it. And there will be masterpieces, God-flavored masterpieces, as well.