Thought for Today
Exodus 16:31 The house of Israel called it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Matthew 5:13 "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.
John 19:29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.
You can divide the world into 2 groups based on the familiar phrase, “What’s for dinner?” One group wants to know how the meat and potatoes will be fixed. The other group wants to know what is for dessert. The 2 groups are separated and distinct; however, they can amicably coexist within the same household. Greta and I have been married a long time.
“The human gustatory system is capable of detecting five distinct, chemically-triggered sensations: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Each taste serves a biological purpose, often signaling the presence of different types of compounds in food.” (scienceinshights.org)
Doctors, nutritionists, biologists and sociologists can explain the mechanics of taste and the evolutionary development of taste; they can tell us that sweet indicates the presence of sugar and that sugar is a source of basic energy to fuel our bodies. Saltiness indicates some type of chloride, the most common for us being sodium chloride. We know that salt is one fo the necessary electrolytes required by our bodies. Evolution and natural selection suggest that human development was closely linked to the availability of theses nutrients and that we are genetically coded to prefer salty and sweet foods.
Historians can tell us that human societies developed in areas where these basic nutrients could be obtained or cultivated. Fertile land close to sources of fresh water allowed the cultivation of crops that would provide the desired nutrients. Some of the earliest human societies developed in the fertile crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and along the banks of the Nile.
The Bible tells us that the Israelites who fled Egypt into the Sinai desert were provided the requisite nourishment by God in the form of manna and the meat of birds. The Bible does not give us any clue as to why God set the whole system up this way. Why do we even have a sense of taste relative to things we ingest? I’m sure I don’t even want to know or think about the sense of some people’s taste in fashion!
Many Christian engineers and scientists have long pondered Jesus’ words about salt losing its saltiness. I’ve never heard any explanation of how salt can lose its saltiness. It is surely possible to strip out the chloride in a lab. All that would remain would be the element to which that chloride had been bonded, sodium, potassium or some other element. Hopefully, none of you will try to find out what elemental potassium might taste like.
As we age, some of us are told (sometimes repeatedly) by our doctors to limit our intake of foods of one or another specific taste group. The most common limitations are on things that taste sweet or things that taste salty. Excess sugars beyond those required to fuel our bodies are stored as fats. Excess consumption of salt raises our sodium levels beyond safe limits. Neither are good for our overall health.
I’m fairly certain that the authors of the scriptures were not using words like salt or sweet in any nutritional sense. Even an engineer can understand metaphors and their use in illuminating concepts and ideas. The most literal-minded among us can understand sweet and salty as metaphors for the basic and desirable aspects of life and of human behaviors.
Jesus was not referring to the levels of sodium in our blood when he called us “the salt of the earth.” Jesus was speaking about faith and our relationship with our Creator God. Can that sort of ‘saltiness’ lose its saltiness? Obviously! Can our lives lose our sense of God, our sense of purpose, our understanding of the command to love our neighbor? We only need to look at the world around us to find ‘saltless’ lives. How can their saltiness be restored? “Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Of course, I’m still left with 2 questions. What’s for supper? And, where do chili peppers stand in the whole system?
Stay safe, be the salt of the earth, trust God,
Pastor Ray