Friday, 10th Week of Ordinary Time

Acts 13:13-25

“Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.” (Acts 13:23)

This is the first and only time in Acts that Paul describes Jesus as “Savior.” Of course, around here, that word gets thrown around a lot. Is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior, by whom your sins are forgiven? Is salvation about your getting right with God? That’s not at all what Paul is saying here, to his Jewish brothers in the synagogue.

These faithful children of the nation of Israel weren’t as interested in personal salvation as they were in the fulfillment of God’s promises to all the people of Israel—that all the nations would be blessed as Abraham was to be blessed—that the people brought out of Egypt by Moses would bring salvation to all the kingdoms of Earth—that David’s kingdom would always be that secure base from which salvation and blessing would flow throughout the world.

God’s promises were to one people, one nation, and ultimately to all peoples and all nations. Salvation is not personal. It is communal. Certainly, repentance and forgiveness is an essential part of that process, and that was the ministry of John the Baptist. But John was merely the forerunner of “Great David’s greater son.” Paul and Barnabas were saying to their brothers: God’s promise has been fulfilled; so stop waiting for God to save you all here in this little synagogue, and get out there and save the Gentiles.

So, salvation for you and me starts at Christ Church. Through the Eucharist on Sunday, we are nourished with Jesus himself, and reconnected each other as hands and feet of Jesus’s mystical body. Through our prayer and study, we teach and encourage each other in the faith. And so, strengthened and renewed, we reach out to those whom Jesus saves through us. And the new perspectives brought by new members helps us “established” Episcopalians to grow in our own salvation.

The theme of the almost concluded General Convention is “Ubuntu,” an African word meaning that who I am is a result of my relationship with you. In other words, I am who I am because of you, and you are who you are because of me. In church-speak, it means that I am not “saved,” without you, and you are not “saved” without me. Thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ, no one is saved alone.