Thought for Today

Genesis 49:18 I wait for your salvation, O LORD.  

Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  

Luke 19:9 Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.  

Acts 4:11 This Jesus is 'the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.' 12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved."  

Salvation – (Lat. salvatio, from salvare, “to save”) God’s activities in bringing humans into a right relationship with God and with one another through Jesus Christ. They are saved from the consequences of their sin and given eternal life. Biblical images for salvation vary widely. (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 247)

That verse above from Luke is part of the lectionary reading for this coming Sunday. It will be the central theme of my sermon. This morning, as I went through my morning rituals, I realized that salvation is a common, familiar word for Christians (or certainly should be), but it is a topic we rarely dwell on deeply. I’m sure that I have preached on it before . . . but, I do not remember when.

The idea of salvation, of being brought into a right relationship with God, underlies everything in Christianity. Our faith is literally oriented around God’s agency for bringing us back into the fold, Jesus, the Christ. In fact, the name Christ is from the Greek χριστός (christos), meaning the Anointed One (The Analytical Greek Lexicon, Harold K. Moulton, pg. 439) Our salvation is the task, the office for which Jesus was anointed.

For me, among the foundational verses for our faith and for our understanding of our faith are John 3:16-17. If you’re not familiar with that passage, take a minute and go read it. John answers for me the first question that comes to my mind in any consideration of my salvation, “WHY?” Why does God seek to return me into that right relationship with God? John centers the entire question in love.

When I volunteered with the chaplain’s office in a hospital during my seminary years and afterward, one of the most requested passages patients asked for was, “Romans 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is critical that Christians understand, none of this is our idea, our invention or even accomplished through our initiative, beyond our acceptance of God’s gift. Read Ephesians 2:8. Paul understood. Read that definition of salvation above, it begins with “God’s activities in bringing humans into a right relationship with God.”

Paul, in Romans and in the Epistle to the Ephesians, understands that it is all a reflection of God’s love. John offers us the truth that it all is the result of God’s love. God’s love for God’s Creation; God’s love for God’s creatures.

No matter that an ancestor ate the fruit of the tree of good and evil. No matter that a spouse lamely offered the excuse he had been told to do so. No matter all of their descendants who did evil in the eyes of the LORD. No matter the mess we have collectively made of the Garden of Eden. No matter it all, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I may not remember preaching much about salvation. I do remember repeatedly preaching about God’s love. Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians who were deeply divided, “1 Corinthians 13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” We just need to remember that and act like proper recipients of the love of the Creator of all Creation. We need to live lives reflecting God’s love. We need to ensure that love always abides.

Stay safe, live like God loves you, trust God,

Pastor Ray