Salvation!

the traffic noise, the dogs barking, the children playing, the neighbors arguing, our beloved's sweet endearments, the temptations to do wrong, the encouragements to do better, ...all sorts of things: general sounds, and then more specifically, words, words, all kinds of words.

The Bible indicates that God is all about speech:

-- The Father addresses the Son, in the Spirit., as we remembered on Trinity Sunday.

--And God said...and it was so., as Genesis begins

--In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, as the Gospel of John begins.

--For I heard and received from the Lord, what I have also spoken and handed on to you, writes Paul to the Corinthians.

And what is the content of this particular speech to which Paul refers?

We use a church-word for it ...salvation.

Now when we hear that word, the usual reaction is that we're talking about the end of this life, and the fullness of heavenly life.

That is certainly a part of it, but when the Bible is talking about salvation it means that we begin to share in God's life here and now so that we might continue to do so forever.

Salvation isn't just a destination; it is a vocation, a way of living which begins right now!

Salvation is about us being swept up into participation in the mystery of God who is Christ Jesus.

Another way of saying it is that we are not only talking about Final Judgment, but also about the daily, the continual judgment that God makes, and in light of that action, the judgments that we are also called upon to make.

We decide what we are going to do and how we are going to live because of what God has already decided to do and say about us and to us and for us.

This builds upon the way in which the word salvation is used in Scripture.

God's self-assigned task is “working salvation in the earth” according to the Psalmist. [Ps.74:12]

God can be addressed as “the God of our salvation,” again according to the Psalmist. [Ps 65:5]

“For the Lord God is my strength and my might, he has become my salvation,” says the prophet Isaiah. [Is 12:2]

Remember when the angel visits Joseph in a dream and tells him to go ahead with the wedding to Mary:

“She will bear a son and you will name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [Mt.1:21]

Yes, Jesus and Joshua and related names mean “God saves”.

When Jesus is welcomed into Jerusalem, people shout “Hosanna”, from the Hebrew words which mean “Save us we pray.”

In troubled times, people of the Bible realize their limited resources and call upon the Lord, “God saves.”

And it comes to its focus in the Lord Jesus.

As the Christmas hymn says:

“...the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” [LBW#41.1]

He is “the mighty Savior for us” who will “give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high.” as Zechariah sings in expectation of Jesus' coming. [Luke 1:69,77]

On various of the medieval churches along the Camino Santiago, the tympanum, the semicircular panel above the main door, often was filled with fine stone carvings that told a story.

Frequently that story was of salvation, in which death and hell was represented by a monstrous mouth toward which persons were being drawn.

In the more evangelical situations, the figure of Jesus was not seated as an implacable judge in the tympanum, but was instead was sending an angel to reach down and rescue the persons from the great danger of that mouth of death.

That is Gospel Good News to those who passed under that tympanum into the church over the centuries; here is pictured the story of salvation each time the foe tries to swallow us.

It happens not just once; it is the struggle of everyday life.

We're not doing as well as we would like to pretend.

We don't have the whole world in our hands;

we cannot manufacture our own hope, for it evaporates in the heat of current events.

On the international scene, China may steal our technology and give it to some tin-pot dictator to shoot rockets at us.

On the personal level, a friend may betray a confidence, or behave thoughtlessly, or maliciously, and relationships are damaged.

Or a red light may be run, and lives may be lost.

No, we're not able to manufacture our own salvation apart from God.

Why do we keep trying to do that?

We are living in a time of great anxiousness these days.

Instead of coming together and hearing the good news of salvation, that is, what God has already decided about us, which then forms the basis for us to decide what we are going to do and how we are going to live...

people are staying away from this and many other congregations in droves and putting their trust in something or someone other than Christ Jesus.

It is mystifying and tragic.

What are the choices for other things or persons to trust:

--a fresh politician?

--the latest missile?

--a new technology?

--a job that you think is secure?

--a stock market manipulation?

--a private hoard of gold or silver?

--freeze-dried food that will last 20years on the shelf.

--your own gas well

--a doctor in your immediate family?

--or the anesthesia of simply sitting in front of the TV.

--we can keep on adding to the list....

We may make use of some of those things, but salvation is in none of them.

Every one of them will bring disappointment to anyone who puts ultimate trust in them.

About the time that Jesus was born, an inscription was placed throughout the Roman colonies proclaiming the euangelion (gospel in Greek) to the captive peoples that “Augustus Caesar has been sent to us as savior.”

So now we know that when our Gospel writers announce the coming of Jesus, and call him Lord and Savior, at the same time it also has political implications in direct opposition to the prevailing Roman rule.

“Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!”, Paul urges the Corinthians.

Pay attention to this good news of Jesus now, not just for its ultimate outcome, but for what it means for living right now as well.

It is a different kind of salvation than that offered by any political arrangement or scientific inquiry.

It is about choice...not ours, but God's!

We live in the knowledge that God has decided to be God for us in Christ Jesus.

He announced it generally in the heading to the Ten Commandments: I am the Lord your God....

He announced it personally at our Holy Baptism: ...we give you thanks that you have freed your sons and daughters from the power of sin and for raising them up to new life through the gospel ….

How can we be ho-hum about this?

That verse from Psalm 118 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ….Do we only use it on Easter Sunday, or other times of celebration?

What about times when things are not going so well?

That verse puts forth a different kind of power for us on a difficult day, reminding us that the measure of the day belongs to God and not to us.

It is a good day because it is God's day before it is our day.

That little change in perspective is a profound shift in attitude!

So then when we come to sing the hymn as we will in a moment, we do so with boldness and delight.

God the Omnipotent is not a tentative sort of text, but a bold and forthright statement.

The prayer of its final line, Give us peace in our time, O Lord, is not sung with a whimper but with confidence that God will do as he says; he will save, he will establish the true kind of peace, where things are in their proper relationship with him and with each other.

Just as when he commanded wind and wave Peace, be still!, his kingdom is beginning to break in whenever we follow his command and gather at his table.

Salvation isn't just a destination; it is a vocation, something we hear that becomes a way of living beginning right now!

Something wonderful happens here; something wonderful happens as we move on from here, because of being here.

With joy we'll call it salvation. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.