God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace! – Ephesians 2:4-5

As a theologian (which means, simply, “a person who thinks about God”) one of my favorite words is “salvation.”

And this morning I get to talk about salvation with the group of teens who make up this year’s confirmation class here at HMPC.

For me salvation is a word that has grown in meaning and in richness and in depth over the years I have been thinking about it. Not just thinking but experiencing, living into – participating in what God is up to.

When I was a fourteen-year-old back in 1970 salvation was presented to me as the following question, “Have you been saved?” If the answer was “no” or “I don’t know,” then I was going to need to get that taken care of in order to avoid hell and go to heaven.

So much more…

Since then I have come to understand salvation more as something I am invited to participate in, to be a part of. Salvation means joining in with what God is doing, participating in God’s initiatives of grace, mercy, love, healing, justice and more.

Jesus has already saved me, and something that amazing requires my grateful response. My opportunity is to live into my salvation and be an active part of God’s plans.

I hope I can do a good job of communicating to these young people just how wonderful and fulfilling, and what a privilege it is to live in partnership with God.

When we make the affirmation, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior,” we are doing more than saying we count on Jesus, we are also promising God that Jesus can count on us.

Today, more than ever, those of us who profess Jesus as Lord need to lean into what we have been saved for. Hold on tight to Jesus, and live into his life-changing initiatives of mercy and grace – DEREK

We are doing more than saying we count on Jesus, we are also promising God that Jesus can count on us.