“For my eyes have seen your salvation...” Luke 2:30
Today is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
What does seeing salvation look like?
God’s saving activity can be understood as occurring in the past, present, and future.
As a consequence of the past – the coming-into-the-world of Jesus – we have been saved from that which separates us from God. We have experienced a fundamental shift in identity - from enemies of God to sons of God – and nature - from sinful to holy.
As a consequence of the future – Jesus’ return – we shall be saved from the consequences of separation from God. We shall experience a fundamental shift in environment – from broken world to world made whole – and self – from broken to whole.
But in the present we are being saved. We are experiencing salvation by degrees from those things that we are in need of saving from. It looks like justice for the widow and mercy for the orphan and asylum for the alien and setting captives free and meeting the needs of the poor and tenderly binding-together the broken heart and feeding the hungry and healing the sick and delivering the demonised from torment and raising the dead and proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, breaking-in, right now.
And it starts somewhere. And it starts small – though it is intended to grow vigorously.
And it needs someone to step up and name it for what it is, and for what it is going to become.
So, what does seeing salvation look like where I find myself today? What does seeing salvation look like where you find yourself today?
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