28 February 2019

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Ecclesiasticus 5:1-10

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Mark 9:41-50

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Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another.

Not many people know this but Saint Martha – patron saint of all who toil in the kitchen – was my confirmation saint. There is a lot to learn about God in the culinary arts. For instance — pickled cucumbers. Most of us take them for granted. Why bother with making them when Vlasic retails them for $3.99/jar? But if you did that, you would miss out on one of the great joys of eating. I learned how to salt and pickle fresh cucumbers from my mother. She would cut out the soft, delicate hearts, treat the firm outer flesh to an exfoliating salt scrub, then leave the cucumbers to ‘leak’ their excess moisture, before storing them in a bath of salt, vinegar and sugar. Pickled cucumbers were a mainstay in our house, adorning pan-fried pork cutlets, garnishing minced beef noodles, elevating fatty hunks of roast. I snacked on them by the handfuls. But it is only as an adult, through the filter of Scripture, that I have come to appreciate the lowly, pickled cucumber as more than instant gastronomic gratification.

In the Old Testament, the ‘Covenant of Salt’ (Num 18:19) was the covenant that God made with the tribe of Moses’ brother, Aaron, when He set them apart as priests of the Holy Sanctuary. The Hebrews at the time were an unenlightened, ungrateful people, incapable of approaching the Holy Sanctuary without being struck down by death and pestilence. Aaron’s family was the go-between, a line of priests set apart for serving God. Salt was used to consecrate all of the offerings in the Sanctuary. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he did away with all that and allowed us believers to return to God, to be His consecrated people. By God’s grace, we have been ‘salted’ and granted citizenship in His new kingdom. For our part, we are told to ‘keep salt in yourselves’ (Mark 9:50), to maintain a leanness of spirit, to not clutter ourselves with the distractions of wealth, power and fruitless desires (Sir 5:1-8). God wants us to remember why we have been consecrated.

There is much Scriptural wisdom in the culinary arts. Fresh off its vine, the cucumber might look glorious for a few days, but would end up rotting worthlessly at the bottom of our refrigerator drawer, if we did not bother to salt and pickle it. By losing some of its unwanted water weight, the pickled cucumber is transformed into something purer, leaner, crisper – and a great deal more enduring. The same can be said for us. We could all benefit from a little spiritual ‘salting’, an exfoliation of all the unnecessary distractions that drag us down. That which emerges is very likely to be leaner, purer and more spiritually pleasing to God.

(Today’s Oxygen by Sharon Soo)

Prayer: We pray for God’s grace when we endure the struggles that serve to ‘salt’ our souls, so that we might be pleasing in His eyes.

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for His infinite grace and mercy, that while we were unenlightened, ungrateful sinners, God sent His Son to die for our sins and grant us citizenship in His everlasting kingdom.