What is Salvation - Luke 23

What is Salvation

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 23:33-43, Psalm 46, Jeremiah 23:1-6

Opening prayer

Its Pie Sunday and I hope you get to enjoy a favorite slice (maybe al little taste of heaven) today! 

It is also Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) Sunday so Happy Reign of Christ Sunday!

What does that mean? What does the reign of Christ look like and why do we say that?

Why is it so remarkable and touching that Jesus, who is hanging on a cross - bleeding, beaten and brutalized, says to a fellow also hanging on a cross that “you will be with me in paradise”?  

How is that reign, that power so transcending that a church rises to meet this and nations have knelt before Christ?

How quickly we, in our broken society and world, forget this powered turn instead to violence.

Salvation is what we come to church to find, but what is salvation anyway and why do we seek it? 

What in our lives is so deprived that we find something from some teachings, some person, some good spirit, passed down to us from so long ago?

This isnt some aloof concept that one cannot measure, because it is something that we know and feel our hearts and in our souls.  

This isn’t a cup of grace will keep the doctor away, but it is a measure of what we can do today (and everyday) to make this world be the place that we want it to be - not just for myself but those around me, even for those I don’t necessarily agree. 

This is grace that spills over dams and breaks locks to bring life to people who desperately need a way beyond the violence and hate the consumes our world. 

This, Beloved, is the love and grace that is freely given yet is for us to demonstrate that and to be that in our world.  When we do this, this, that is lacking in our world, will suddenly have fulfillment because that is the power and the reign of Christ.

Why because the power of Christ, the realm, isn’t adorned by fanciful robes and ornate crowns or the pageantry that we see in places like the UK. As beautiful as those ceremonies are, the kind of righteous power that Christ is one that saves individually and collectively.  This power touches our souls and lifts our hearts to be more than just the solitary person inside.

Thus, the reign is here to save - to bring salvation. Salvation is deliverance and redemption - the redemption that started Luke’s Gospel. That is deliverance from all that binds us to sin. That is something you and I desperately needs and something we don’t get on our own. That is why we come to God and Jesus, our shepherd, who teaches how to get there.

Yet salvation is a practice at the same time because we know we fail and we fail more often than we would like to admit. Yet each time we recognize that is a chance a possibility to turn back, to repent and feel the forgiveness and redemption lead us and be us into exuberance.  

That is almost as exuberant as watching Ukraine liberating Kherson, but it is more. It is life itself and breaking the chains of sin, worry and brokenness. This is the excitement that finds possibility even in the midst of worst calamity. This is the door opening to sober vision and living. This is a door - the gate that is Jesus - open for you this day, this hour and every hour.

This Beloved, is the practice of you and me being in the community and sharing that vision and those possibilities because God’s work is not just for us but all God’s children.  So share the sandwich, the burrito, and the smile. Give clothes, tools to work and learn, and toys for the kids because all children need to be able to imagine the possibilities that are around us.

We don’t do this because it is cute or just because Tony said so.  We do it because we know what it is like to be without or to witness the world of struggle in front of us.  We recognize that our struggle is not just our own, but a collective struggle.  Thus, we offer of ourselves, our tithes, and our material - to give others and our community - our church, a chance to find salvation, deliverance and redemption as well.

Then Beloved, our world will truly be the vision and reign of Christ because we do the work and we lift people. We lift hearts and feel our own hearts lifted - we feel the gifts of Christ. Through Christ, we are more than our sin and we are more than burdens. We walk with the blessings , the forgiveness of hearts, and the love poured out to all of us.

That, Beloved, is..

Thanks be to God.