Friday, March 6, 2015

Some More Salvation!

Over the course of two discussions we put together something of a list of what we understand "salvation" to be.  The list has included:
--being saved/delivered
--a better life after death
--"safety net" that is always there
--never ending love
--release from the fear of death (a profound comfort!)
--peace
--grace, gift
--tender mercy
--love to share with others
--seeing others with the eyes of mercy
--that which frees us to fully become ourselves
-- realizing God's network of life and our place in it!

We discussed being "saved from sin."  We talked about "sin" as manifestations of distance--separation from God's will, from each other (ruptures of human relationship and oneness), from parts of ourselves.
Salvation, then, can be:
--deliverance from loneliness and isolation
--liberation from all that would imprison us
--becoming "touchable" (including touching the neglected and exiled parts of ourselves)
--being tended to
--the experience of  being loved (we are never separated from God's love)
--the "breathing of fresh air"
   having our invigorated lives and relationships be the breath of fresh air!
--communion with God who exists beyond every "ending,"  and whose realm is greater than all of our perceptions. Here we are speaking of God's eternal nature.
What else would you add?

In revisiting the meaning of the verb sozo, "to save," we explored further how salvation is a healing power, one manifested not only in the future but in the "here-and-now."   All of Jesus' saving actions were in the present-tense, even as they offered promise for transformed living in the future.
Hearkening back to Old Testament, we were reminded that in the Hebrew Scriptures salvation is communal more than individual.  God's people are delivered, not just individual persons.  How is the salvation we realize through Jesus communal and "in-common?"

No comments:

Post a Comment