"And Mary said, 'My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.' "

 

         Last week I had a conversation with Dick Fehlberg about their recent trip to Arches National Park in Southern Utah. Kathy and I had been there a few years ago, and it is a remarkable place. You can drive through the park and see formations of red rock, on a grand scale. Dick said two things that stuck with me. One was that he had only one word to describe what he saw, and that was "Majesty." The other was that when you are present in such a place you want to take a picture, you want to capture what you are seeing. And so you try your best to frame something. Then, later when you look at the picture, you say, "No, that is not what it was like."

         There is one area called "Park Avenue" which is amazing. You can take a walk of about one mile through this area, which can remind you somewhat of walking on Park Avenue in Manhattan, or in any of the urban canyons of New York City. So I took that walk when we were there. You walk along a wide, flat and smooth rock surface, which appears almost as if it had been paved. Then next to the flat area are sheer red rock walls, rising hundreds of feet in the air. And on the top of the walls are remarkable formations of rock, towers against the sky. The experience is one of lifting your eyes as you stand on the floor, and the feeling is one of amazement, of majesty, of feeling very small.

         We are going to attempt to speak about salvation during Advent. In five messages, or snapshots, we will try to grasp its meaning, and experience its majesty and power. Salvation is so great, so enormous, so majestic, that there is no way I can describe it. We can only pray that the Holy Spirit will touch us with a true experience of salvation.

         Today we will look at salvation by using the image of walking through the Park Avenue rock formation at Arches National Park. In talking of salvation, we will be looking at a group of three words: save, savior and salvation. The Greek words help us understand they are closely connected:

sozo – save

soter – savior

soteria – salvation

         We begin by examining the broad and level ground floor. What does salvation mean in is simplest, most practical and original terms? The Hebrew words that lie behind this word group originally meant "to deliver," "to be broad" and "to become spacious." The idea is that of a wide and spacious place. Like the floor of a canyon, it is the opposite of a confined area; a jail, a trap, a fenced-in place of slavery. So God saved Israel from slavery in Egypt, he brought them out of their prison and placed them in a spacious and fertile land. God is the Savior of Israel. He saves them into a life of prosperity and well-being.

         In the Gospels, Jesus saves people from disease, from demon possession, from fear. Jesus heals the whole person and leads them to faith in Him. This is the ground floor of salvation. Jesus is our healer, our deliverer from bondage, the one who rescues us from death.

         From the ground floor, we look up at the surrounding cliffs, the soaring walls of salvation. This is salvation understood as the forgiveness of sin and the new life in Christ.

         Our son David has run in a half-marathon race held just outside of the Arches Park each March. He says he loves that race because it takes place on a road that runs along a river at the foot of some of these soaring, sheer red rock walls. In the direct, midday sunlight the rock is a kind of dull red. But in the morning, when the race is run, the rising sun turns the walls vivid shades of red; it is astonishingly beautiful in the morning light.

         So forgiveness of sin is central to salvation. This is the great beauty of salvation, where the experience of grace washes our sin and guilt, and we come out of deadness into a new life in Christ that causes us to weep for joy. This is when we sing:

"When I survey the wondrous cross,

On which the prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride."

This is the beauty of the Savior, the experience of saving grace, amazing grace.

         W.L. Lane writes, "Salvation is completely beyond the sphere of human possibilities; every attempt to enter the Kingdom of God on the basis on achievement or merit is futile." You can no more earn God's salvation than you can scale the sheer rock cliffs. Forgiveness is a gift. It is grace. Cleansing from sin is what the Savior brings to us. Salvation leads to reconciliation with God, to a new life in Christ. This is the center of our freedom.

         Finally we strain to look up to the tops of the walls, to the rock formations set against the sky. It is too vast, too far to really see clearly, and yet we can see it. The third part of salvation is the victory over death, eternal life in God's kingdom, the new creation. The Old Testament prophets somehow were able to see this from their distant vantage point. They wrote of salvation at the end of history, of a new act of creation, a new people of God, a new heaven and earth. This is our hope, realized in its first part through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So Paul writes, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

         II Timothy 1:10: "This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

So our salvation in Christ has a future. The greater part is yet to come.

         We gather now at the table, invited by Christ to experience grace, to taste of our salvation. At the table, in the broken bread, and cup poured out, we are reminded of the cost of salvation. The cross.

Also, here we receive news of the will of God to save us. We come in humility, recognizing our smallness in the canyons of salvation. We come to receive forgiveness and help in the time of our need.

         At the table we are also aware of the love of God; of abundant, overwhelming, majestic grace. And in that amazing grace we surrender our pride. We do not come to this table in our own strength.

         At the table we are invited to lift our heads, to look up and see the salvation of God. We come to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We come to celebrate the Holy Spirit poured out generously upon us. We come to embrace our hope of life eternal.

         Majesty.

         Amen.