My children used to groan dramatically when I tried to be hip and use street slang. Now my grandchildren have joined them.  But I still think I can hang with them.  Do you know what it means when someone is described as being “pretty salty” …as in, “Better stay out of her way – she’s pretty salty!”?

In street lingo, it means that person is really, really angry about something.

Here’s some older street talk – expressions we don’t use much anymore: “She’s worth her salt” and  “I’m going to salt something away for a rainy day.”  Those idioms better connect us to Jesus’ familiar words recorded in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth.”

In the ancient world salt was a valuable commodity, even used as a medium of exchange.  Our English word salary is derived from the Latin word salarium, which was the payment to a Roman soldier to buy salt (L. sals) . . . or “salt money.”  So, when someone was judged as “not worth his salt” it meant that he wasn’t earning his salary!

Why was salt so valuable?  We first think of salt as a seasoning for food; so Eugene Peterson’s rendering: “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”  Yes, our world, made bland by sin, certainly needs salt-seasoning.  But in an ancient world without refrigeration, salt was even more important as a preservative for food; and it was and is a first-line cleansing and healing agent (think saline solution).

To heal, to preserve, to season . . . do you hear a call to mission?

Go Deep:

Colossians 4:5-6 urges us to “Be wise in the way we act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” What would a salt-seasoned, full-of-grace conversation sound like with a skeptical or angry (“salty!”) or hurting neighbor, co-worker or fellow student?

—
Pastor Dave