Immanuel
Lutheran Church Weekly Devotion
Monday 10 December 2012
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NRSV Isaiah
12:2-3 Surely God is my salvation; I
will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my
might; he has become my salvation. 3 With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
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Salvation - is a word used by the Church quite a bit, after all,
it is our mission to tell people about salvation. In the study of theology
there is even a special branch of theological study called soteriology - the study of the doctrine of salvation. So
how well have we done our job as the Church? How would you define salvation;
what does it mean to you? I asked my congregation to ponder this question
during my sermon. I had a father of a young man, who is a 6th
grader, tell me his son’s response: salvation means to be rescued. This works
for me. But what are we rescued from and what are we rescued for? Martin Luther
said salvation means we are rescued from sin, death and the devil. This is one
side of the equation, but what are we rescued for? We have to be rescued for something otherwise why be
rescued at all?
Sin does take its toll on us. Because of sin we are in need of
rescue, so our lives can be salvaged. We are like a ship, we are at the helm
and we have ignored the charts telling us about the reef; we have turned away
from the advise of our pilot who warns us to be careful of the danger of
obstacles ahead; we have been clueless regarding the weather and the impending
storm breaking around us; we and we alone are responsible for running our ship
up on the reef and wrecking the ship. We are on the reef and we can’t get off.
Jesus is in charge of this salvage operation, Jesus will rescue us. Why would
Jesus do this? Jesus sees the value in us, even though we are a shipwreck.
Jesus gives his life to rescuing, restoring and salvaging us. Jesus wants us to
reach the safe harbor, safe from storm and strife, where we will know peace,
the peace that passes all human understanding. That safe harbor is timeless
reunion and restoration with God. Through Jesus, we are able to be rescued and
experience this divine fellowship with our creator, because God loves us.
Right now our life is on the reef, the wind and waves batter us;
we are in peril of breaking up. We seek to be rescued from our destruction and
have our lives salvaged so we can experience this love of God and be secure in
our relationship with God. Jesus is our salvation, Jesus rescues us and will
pilot us to God’s peaceful and loving harbor. We wait for the one who will come
rescue us and save us from destruction.
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We pray: We have turned
from You, O Lord; we face destruction. Only through Your Son, Jesus can we be
rescued, saved from destruction and renew our relationship with You. Help us to
wait and watch, and be ready. In Your Holy Name we pray. Amen.
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