"When It Rains It Pours."
Isaiah 58:1-12, Matthew 5:13-20
2026-02-08 Trinity Presbyterian Church, Pensacola, FL
So, it's 5am on a Saturday. Regular crowd shuffles in. You Billy Joel fans will remember that one. I woke up super early a couple of Saturdays ago to write sermons, because that's how much overtime I put in for you. Football stars are out at 5am Saturday running sprints on an empty field. Me? I'm at home, drinking coffee, laptop on lap top, Bible in one hand, phone in the other, thinking about Jesus, and scrolling through Instagram, as one does. And boom! Right there, on my feed, that morning, the Holy Spirit sends me BOTH a T-shirt ad -- AND a sermon illustration – in one. Praise Jesus and Jeff Zuckerberg.
"Insta" – that's what we cool kids call it – "Insta" shows me a big ad for a T-shirt with the Morton Salt girl on it. Because Insta knows (a) I wear shirts, and (b) I'm working on a sermon where Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth." Coincidence? Or the meme of God?
The shirt's the classic Morton Salt Girl. She's got her umbrella. Cute yellow dress and matching shoes. Wind is blowing. It's raining. She's strolling along. Mona Lisa smile. Completely oblivious to the weather. She's got this Sam's Club barrel of salt under her arm. Must have weighed 20 pounds. At the store. But now, the lid's come open. Spilling a trail of salt behind as the girl, walks, alone, in the rain. Where is she going? Maybe your house. Maybe it's Door Dash. She's going to get a very bad review.
"Salt barrel empty. Zero stars. Requesting refund."
And her boss texts her. "Hey Yellow Dress Girl. What did you do with the salt? Where did it go?" Angry face emoji.
And reality dawning, the girl writes back, "My car broke down. I started walking. I was humming that Billy Joel song. I guess I just got lost in the sublime reward of doing my job. Delivering food. In the rain. To strangers. Who don't tip."
And her boss texts back, "Setting up a meeting with HR."
Now Salt Girl's lovely day is a washout. Tough luck, babe. You know what they say,
"When it rains, it pours."
So, this sad drama is unfolding in my brain. And remember, I've been up since like, 4:30. I'm pretty inattentive before the third cup of coffee. I look back at the phone. I reread the T-shirt, more carefully. Around the girl it says, "Stay Salty." "It melts ICE." With ICE in capital letters.
And I go, "Ohhhh. I get it now. It's unlike the woke liberal extremists to be so subtle."
Jesus tells us we are the "salt of the earth."
But we may want to think twice about being salty. Because even with Jesus – especially with Jesus – "When it rains, it pours."
--
"You are the salt of the earth."
Why salt?
Probably because we all know: salt makes everything better. French fries. Margaritas.
Salt is good. Unless the kid at the theater dumps way too much of it on your popcorn. Then, you've just got a bucket of salt. And I'll still eat it. If they squirt enough of that greasy butter fluid on it, it's OK.
Some of us are on salt-restricted diets. You know the rule, "If it tastes good, spit it out." Salt comes with disclaimers.
Don't use salt if you're allergic to salt. Salt can lead to high blood pressure, water retention, heart disease, kidney disease, stomach cancer, stroke, and death. Short-term effects include bloating, thirst, and swelling in hands or feet. If you experience these, stop using salt and start praying to Jesus. Ask your pastor if salt is right for you.
If you read just Matthew 5:13 being the salt of the earth sounds tasty. But if you read it in context, read all the fine print – far enough to see how the story ends – and I strongly encourage you to do so – you'll find out too much salt can be bad for you. Deadly. Jesus found out being salty can get people mad at you. Get your church mad at you. Get your friends denying they know you. Get your family thinking you're crazy. Sometimes it can even get your government mad at you. Being TOO salty can get you arrested. Crucified.
So, yes, be the salt of the earth. But, also remember: Salt is… complicated. Too much can kill you. Too little and you're bland. If the salt has lost its saltiness, it's pretty much good for nothing.
So many warnings. So much to consider.
When it rains, it pours.
--
Jesus's own people, his own religious hierarchy, his own occupying Roman government with very limited religious freedom – got tired pretty quick of this small-town, traveling preacher rubbing salt in the wounds they cut in their people.
"Hey Preacher: Don't get political." Someone should have told Jesus. Because immediately – IMMEDIATELY after he tells his people to be the salt of the earth ("Yay!), he gets very salty with the higher ups. (Uh-oh.)
"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Oh, ouch! Say we who (like this preacher) specialize in being so darn nice. Don't get mad, grow an ulcer.
Back in Jesus's day, the scribes and the Pharisees -- the Temple elite -- were in tight cahoots with the Roman government. The government allowed them wealthy lifestyles and well-salted meals while the other 99% got the dry bones. Unless you were part of the Temple-Bro 1% it was a messed up system. Everyone knew it was messed up. Maybe they just pretended not to notice.
Jesus noticed. Jesus spoke up. (We read a prime example today.) Jesus got political. He hung out with the wrong people. Ate supper with sinners. Gathered crowds in the thousands. Five, six thousand at a time. Simply by showing up, being present, by simply speaking truth, Jesus got political.
Jesus was too salty for his own good. Someone should have warned him.
--
When I was interviewing here at Trinity, the search committee asked me if I got political in my sermons. I said, "It's not my job to tell you how to vote; it's my job to tell you what Jesus said." I'm kinda proud of that one. Sometimes you surprise yourself with things that sound smarter than you or your kids expect.
Churches tell their preachers, "Don't get political." I say, good. I don't want to get political. Nobody wants to get political. Even politicians don't want to get political. It's why they're always on the golf course. Trading insiders. Flying to islands.
"You are the salt of the earth." It's what Jesus said. "Stay salty, y'all." Paraphrasing. Did he expect it to become political? When Jesus told us to be the salt of the earth, was he thinking, "Man, I hope someday they put this on a T-shirt" ?
Chemically, the shirt is right: salt does melt ice. That's why up north they put all that salt on the roads. Keeps you from sliding – off the pavement – over the river -- through the woods – off the cliff – screaming all the way. In the right amounts, used properly, sodium chloride can save your life. But salt always comes with a warning, always comes with an element of danger. And that's not political. It's the truth.
And here's the thing about Jesus and the truth: When Jesus reigns, as in, when King Jesus reigns with power and might, when Jesus reigns, truth pours.
--
My personal truth is that I've become something of a traveling rabbi myself. As I get closer to retirement – and if I have one complaint it's that everybody assumes I've already retired. I mean, do I look old enough to be retired? Don't answer that. Despite what you see on the news, it's still a sin to lie. I love being an Interim Pastor. And I love Trinity. People ask me, "How's it going in Pensacola?" And I say, "These people are the salt of the earth." Some of you are extra salty. And I love you best.
As your PNC continues its pastor hunt, you need to know. You need to remember. Trinity is the kind of church preachers will gladly push other preachers into traffic to get to. Like your mama said: "Just be yourself, dear." You might be coming up dry now, but rains will come.
If you think about it, ALL pastors are interim. Some of us just stay longer. 25, 26 years. Eventually, we all retire. Move to Azalea Trace. (Can I get an "Amen" from our Azalea Tracers?) Maybe I'll get a teardrop trailer and start a church on the beach. Go out strumming my six-string on the front porch swing. Searchin' for my 401K.
Like old soldiers and Aaron Rodgers, old preachers never really retire. And young preachers never shut up. That was the problem with Jesus: Too young to be retired and to ornery to be silenced. They nailed him to a cross, hung him up to die, buried him in the ground. And he Keeps. Coming. Back. Jesus never quits.
Love never stays retired. Truth is always truth. Salt is always salt.
These days, the earth desperately, desperately needs more salt. The nation, the world, is so dry, so tasteless, so intentionally unkind. So willfully cruel. Churches keep closing, but prisons are booming. The world desperately, desperately needs Jesus's salty people to stand up and speak the truth. Just like Jesus did. We need love. We need truth. Let it rain, let it pour. As Amos 5:24 says, "But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Let it rain. Let it pour. And let it soak us to the bone.
--
I think about that girl in the yellow dress and matching shoes. Like a poor preacher, her delivery wasn't good. But she did leave a trail of blessedly good salt behind her.
When you watch little kids in the rain, half the time, they'll lose the umbrella. They'll kick off their pretty shoes. They'll splash in the puddles with bare feet and muddy toes. They'll laugh. They'll dance.
Meanwhile, what do we grown-ups do? We curse the weather. We pull down our hoods. Wrap our coats tight. We protect ourselves from the elements. We try so hard to preserve what we're carrying. Cover it. Hide it. Keep it. Every single grain of the package. Of us.
Jesus never said to save the salt. Jesus said to be the salt. To be the trail of good stuff left behind. So when we move on, and we all will, so when we move on, our kids can have reason to smile, reason to laugh at the puddles.
--
When it rains it pours. These days, it's pouring pretty hard out there. It's hard to dance in this rain. None of us are able to save the whole world. But we can surely spice up our corner of it. We can season this life with the love, the joy, the care of Jesus, Our Lord, Our Savior,
Our Source
of Salt.
[eos]
