Epiphany calls us not to be an undercover Christians who blend in with everyone and everything in the world. We are called to be a testimony, a revelation, a blessedness, a shiny salty disciples. The Beatitudes, beyond happy attitudes or institutional and inclusive correctness rearranges honour, power, and privilege. The Beatitudes presuppose faith about Gospel of Jesus, and  according to Matthew, it provides the very core of our Christian tradition and exhortation to prevent putrefaction. Jesus looked at the crowds, and said to them, ‘Blessed are you,’ and to each of them, he said, ‘You are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world.’ You in the Greek is plural you as believers are salt. Martin Atkins explained that, ‘taken together, salt and light give two complementary pictures of Christian witness and mission. Salt affects what it touches, light affects a much broader area.’  As believers, the choice and promise to be a blessedness empowers us to be distinctive as salt and light so as to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them’ in preparation for the ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’ The challenge is that one can fail to be a blessing just like Adam and Israel of Old, just as salt can loose its saltiness and become useless, and just as a light can be hidden under a basket and have no effect.’ The danger in our familiarity with the Beatitudes is when the call to be a blessedness, a epiphany, a revelation, and testimony about Jesus becomes compromised.

Beyond its future significance, Beatitude people reflects the Epiphany, the day to day and ultimate revelation, testimony, ‘nature of Jesus’ mission and characters (Matt 5:3,10). Epiphany reveals God’s good future and salty disciples are called to practice here and now the habits of life which will find their goal and fulfilment in that future. Epiphany as salty attitudes reveals and calls us as Jesus’ disciples ‘to live at the intersection of the cross and the resurrection, the in-between of this present age and the one to come.’

Epiphany as salty attitudes calls us to look and see things through the eyes of Jesus and this could upset the status quo. It points to Christ-like vision with potential for healing and revival that we miss in the world. Today, so many things attacks the Christian faith and even, the name of Jesus. The church may find itself no longer as true salt and light because of compromise. Epiphany as salty revelations points to Christ-like vision and testimony that helps us to see that there is something deeper, ‘a light that can be rekindled, a salt that will not lose it flavour, a blessedness that has the power to push into every negative situation and bring about newness, possibility, a way beyond the wounds.’ Epiphany is a lifetime call of living the beatitudes, looking at the world with an eternal set of eyes day after day, year after year with the potential to help us overcome the flesh.

A missional way of looking at Epiphany as salty attitudes of Christians is to speak and stand for the Gospel as Jesus’ updating, renewing and restating many themes of the Bible. Beatitudinal acts and statement are very costly and sacrificial, and Gavin Ashenden provides us an example of a blessed revelation, salty responsibility, and testimony about God’s ONLY Son, Jesus Christ. The Rev Gavin Ashenden until recently was one of the 33 special chaplains to The Queen.  To Ashenden, Jesus did not died for the institution but for the world. He resisted the worldliness, inclusive correctness by opting out of the institution so as to speak according to Martin Atkins to ‘a world Jesus died to save.’ He resigned from the Royal Household over a service earlier in January 2017 to mark the feast of Epihany at St Mary’s Episcopal in Glasgow where there was a reading of a passage from the Koran which said that Jesus was not the son of God.

Salt preserves the truth from error hence, speaking out the truth about Jesus resonates with Ashenden statement that he has a salty responsibility, a ‘duty to defend Christianity’ because there is always the possibility and the probability that the Truth of the Gospel can be distorted. As those who professes faith in Jesus Christ, Christians are to be the Gospel and moral preservative of our world, society, and the church. Martin Luther once said, ‘bishops and successful clergy are the smartest of people, for they preach in a calculated manner in order to keep themselves out of trouble by refusing to salt the sins of their people and press for genuine repentance.’ Ashenden may not be successful using the lens of Luther. He resigned after publicly criticising the cathedral in Kelvinbridge for allowing a Koran reading during holy Eucharist ‘whose main intention is to celebrate Christ the word made flesh come into the world.’ According to him, ‘there are things we should not tolerate because they are destructive, … I don’t accept the rather feeble accusation that intolerance is a bad thing.’  Ashenden salty revelation is that the denigration of Jesus in Christian worship would be called ‘blasphemy’ by some.  The Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, the Most Rev David Chillingworth affirmed Ashenden action saying that ‘the Scottish Episcopal Church would review the work of St Mary’s. According to the bishop, the church was ‘deeply distressed at the offence which has been caused.’

Epiphany as salty attitudes calls us to make a choice and change just as Ashenden made a choice between the “important honour” of continuing in the role of royal chaplain, and having the ability to speak out on matters he felt strongly about. For Ashenden to act as a salt, he made a choice of a platform beyond an important honorary position of Chaplain to The Queen. According to him, ‘I am fairly clear in my own mind that my duty to my conscience, to my order, to my understanding of Christianity and my vocation is that I am supposed to be speaking out in the public space on behalf of the Christ I serve.’

The salty act of Gavin Ashenden affirms the teaching and promise of the New Testament about Jesus Christ as the GOD’S ONLY SON sent to deliver us from the bondage and yoke of sin. The act of Gavin not only console the afflicted, the persecuted, it speaks and encourages true revival, renewal and the power in Jesus’ name. The act and stand of Gavin beyond great institutional consolation and correctness points to the call of the church as light and salt in such a time of mourning for the global spiritual, democratic decay and church decline. Beatitude as a way of Jesus’ cross is a call to radical evangelism especially when people twist and distort the name of Jesus in order to fit our quest for inclusiveness. Ashenden’s saltiness points to Jesus’ identity. Ashenden knows and claims his distinctive identity in Jesus and bearing in mind that salt differs from the soil it fertilizes, he put his distinctive salty identity in Jesus into action to make an eternal difference. Ashenden choose reality in Jesus over royal and institutional appearances, living out his identity as salt and light, a commitments to and understandings of Jesus’ identity in God. Ashenden is worth his salt. Do you worth your salt? Are you saying Lord, Lord, Lord, and live not like prophets but like Pharisees and Romans? In our post-truth culture, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be genuinely Jesus-like and keep your job. Ashenden provides us a salty reflection to make a Jesus-like impact. Remember, salt does not exist for itself – Pass the salt.