Friday 14 August 2009

Today there is a bit of a connection made between Israel and "all" who are saved.
NOTE: Next week in addition to the weekday devotions, I will attempt to offer comments from this blog site in regard to the actions and images of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Something new for me to do....but these are important days.

Christian salvation is thus inextricably linked to the story of Israel's salvation. "All Israel will be saved," says Paul (Romans 11:26), repeating what Israel had always believed. But now Paul expands "all" to include even Gentiles. It is not that Christian salvation supersedes Israel's salvation but rather that Israel's story could now be a story for others as well. We Gentiles had, in an amazing act of God, been engrafted into the promises of God to Israel. What Israel expected from their beloved Torah, Jewish and Gentile Christians in the first centuries after Jesus' death and resurrection claimed to have experienced in Jesus. Paul makes the astounding claim that Jesus Christ saves people that nobody thought could be saved.

The "all" is expanded. We must always remember that. In the amazing story of Jesus, the "all" is expanded...forever...and ever. It never stops. There is always an "all" that we do not want to consider as part of the "all" that is us. And yet, imagine how ticked off the Jews were when this bunch of mixed-race folk started claiming to be a part of the promise and the life within the promise that had been reserved for Israel alone. Pretty bold! I find this interesting in the week prior to the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly in which there will be many voices trying to say that "all" does not mean and cannot mean "all." There will be all kinds of reason as to why the church cannot be open with no conditions to "all." Then again...there will be other voices attempting to keep promise alive and salvation as expansive and powerful as the one we call Lord of All.

Connection: I can only keep reconsidering this reality of "all" that is the banner word of the Reign of God in which we say we abide both now and forever. One little word really does have power within the dynamics of the day.

Hold us again, O God. Hold us and teach us and carry us within your ever-expanding Reign that we will become a sign of the fullness of your love and grace. Amen.