Salvation and Reparations (38)
Lectionary, Year C, Proper 26
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 19:1-10
Our mission statement claims we are here for the purpose of transforming the world. All too often, churches are guilty of accepting words like that while resisting actual change. We say we want to follow Jesus, because we know that is the right and appropriate answer. Then when it gets down to brass tacks, we respond as though Jesus’ directions were too invasive, too difficult, asking far too much of us than is acceptable. It’s one thing to consider Jesus as a babe in a manger, a man on a cross, or even risen from the dead. It is quite another to entertain that his words and teachings should actually transform our lives and accepted modes of being. Has salvation truly come upon our lives? Are we being transformed?
Before we get too far, perhaps we should pause to determine what the New Testament actually means by salvation. We have cultural notions that salvation is little more than getting a ticket to heaven upon death. The Greek and Hebrew words behind the term, however, have a much broader range of meaning. To be saved is to be healed. To be saved is to be rescued. To be saved is to be redeemed, delivered, restored, preserved, kept safe, or set free. My college Greek professor liked to say, ‘‘Words don’t have meaning, they have usage.’’ The most basic usage of the term is to make whole. Salvation is God putting our lives on track, enabling us to become who we were created to be. It includes notions of heaven, but it is so much more than that. Salvation is a process with real-world implications in the reality we currently inhabit. In Wesleyan terms, it is a journey of sanctification, in which our lives are transformed after the character of Christ Jesus.
Perhaps some of you grew up hearing salvation referred to in terms of ‘‘The Four Spiritual Laws’’ or the ‘‘Romans Road to Salvation.’’ Some may have heard such presentations that would boil down the gospe ...
Lectionary, Year C, Proper 26
Christopher B. Harbin
Luke 19:1-10
Our mission statement claims we are here for the purpose of transforming the world. All too often, churches are guilty of accepting words like that while resisting actual change. We say we want to follow Jesus, because we know that is the right and appropriate answer. Then when it gets down to brass tacks, we respond as though Jesus’ directions were too invasive, too difficult, asking far too much of us than is acceptable. It’s one thing to consider Jesus as a babe in a manger, a man on a cross, or even risen from the dead. It is quite another to entertain that his words and teachings should actually transform our lives and accepted modes of being. Has salvation truly come upon our lives? Are we being transformed?
Before we get too far, perhaps we should pause to determine what the New Testament actually means by salvation. We have cultural notions that salvation is little more than getting a ticket to heaven upon death. The Greek and Hebrew words behind the term, however, have a much broader range of meaning. To be saved is to be healed. To be saved is to be rescued. To be saved is to be redeemed, delivered, restored, preserved, kept safe, or set free. My college Greek professor liked to say, ‘‘Words don’t have meaning, they have usage.’’ The most basic usage of the term is to make whole. Salvation is God putting our lives on track, enabling us to become who we were created to be. It includes notions of heaven, but it is so much more than that. Salvation is a process with real-world implications in the reality we currently inhabit. In Wesleyan terms, it is a journey of sanctification, in which our lives are transformed after the character of Christ Jesus.
Perhaps some of you grew up hearing salvation referred to in terms of ‘‘The Four Spiritual Laws’’ or the ‘‘Romans Road to Salvation.’’ Some may have heard such presentations that would boil down the gospe ...
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