When the Puritans first arrived in America, they saw themselves acting out the exodus story, with America as the new Promised Land. John Winthrop, one of the early governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, referred to the colony as “the city on the hill” which would be a beacon to the rest of the world of what Christianity, when rightfully practiced and purified of Catholicism, hence the name Puritans, would look like. When they were choosing the location for a new state house, they choose the tallest hill in Boston, called Beacon Hill, and had the dome of the building clad in copper by none other than Paul Revere, so that it would reflect the sunlight and be seen as the light on the hill. This idea of being the city on the hill has been a recurrent theme in American politics and American religion, and it is found not just here in today’s passage from the Sermon on the Mount, but is part of Jewish tradition as well.
In Isaiah, God says, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” (42:6-7) As part of the covenant between Israel and God, God has set them up as a light to the nations. Of course part of that covenantal also involved salt, as we are told in Leviticus in the instructions given regarding offerings, that salt was to be given with every offering, and in the instructions given to Aaron, Moses’ brother about what offerings he and the other priests are to receive, they are told that they are to receive what the Lord gives them that it “is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and your descendants.”
Salt played a critical role in the ancient world. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and as a remnant of that practice our word salary comes from the root word for salt. To indicate fellowship or friendship it would be said that you had shared salt with someone. It sounds sort of dirty doesn’t it? But what it meant was that you had dined together, and were willing to share salt with that person, and since salt was valuable that indicated that you had a relationship that was more than just mere acquaintance.
