Tuesday 12 May 2009

More from "Who Will Be Saved" by William Willimon.

Look up 'salvation' in the concordance and you will find a wide array of images. Luke-Acts uses the word 'salvation' rather frequently, Matthew and Mark almost never, though we ought not to make too much of that. All of the Gospels may be fairly read as stories about the rich, peculiar nature of salvation in Jesus Christ. Salvation is a claim about God. God's self-assigned task is "working salvation in the earth" (Ps. 74:12). God is addressed as "God of our salvation" (Ps. 65:5). For some, salvation is rescue, deliverance, and victory. For others, it is healing, wholeness, completion, and rest. Isaiah speaks of salvation as a great economic reversal in which God gives a free banquet for the poor (Isaiah 55). Whatever salvation means, its meaning must be too rich for any single definition.

We already have too many voices out there trying to define salvation in one way or another without letting any other way be heard. It is why more and more people look at the church will skeptical eyes. We have let ourselves become "control-freaks" when it comes to talking about salvation and quite honestly, I find that to be idolatrous. Needing to control salvation - jeez that's scary. And yet, such control sells in the marketplace. Salvation becomes like a commodity that can be given out to some but not all or recalled! Strange way to talk about our God. What is salvation? Is it okay to say "all of the above" and then enter into a faithful discussion about what that all means? How is it that the church is so eager to take possession of the task of defining what God claims? Maybe we need to listen more to what we are being told of God's claims through the stories of the one we say is God With Us - Jesus. We might then have our eyes and ears opened and find ourselves speaking words of loving kindness that heals and liberates and rescues and feeds and completes all of God's people.

Connection: Don't every be shy about telling yourself that God claims you and will always claim you. It does help shape the character of the day and our part in the saving journey we are invited to enter.

Come, Creating God. Come and remind us to walk with you and to remember how you have promised to be our guide and shepherd and teacher. For when we hear your promises, our lives are made new and whole. Amen.