THE CUP OF SALVATION

Psalm 116

                Have you ever known, or known of, someone who was on a certain road to death and then by one action was delivered from death?  Can you imagine the roller coaster of emotions they experienced?  I have seen a TV story of a man whose heart was about to stop because of irreversible damage and then he received a heart transplant.  The report showed two families meeting for the first time.  I saw the mixture of sorrow and joy on a mother’s face as she listened through a stethoscope to the steady heartbeat of her deceased son inside another person’s chest.  And I watched as the recipient hugged and thanked the family with great, joyful gratitude for the gift of life that he had received.

                Those same emotions are also seen in Psalm 116 where the psalmist, standing before the congregation, testifies emotionally of being encompassed by the “snares of death” and facing the “terrors of the grave.” His language is strong and emotional as he describes how he faced what looked like certain death.  But then he says, “I called upon the Lord saying, ‘save my life, O Lord” (v 4).  And he heard me and “delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling” (v 8).  Then the psalmist asked, “what can I do out of gratitude to Yahweh, in return for all his kindness to me?” (v 12).

                Immediately, he says, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.  I will give back to Yahweh what I promised, in front of all his people” (Vss 13-14, N.T. Wright translation in Paul for Everyone, 2 Corinthians, 48).

                As redeemed and resurrection people who have been saved from eternal death, how can we express our gratitude?  We too can take the cup of salvation that represents how Jesus Christ has given us the gift of life, and we can give back to the Lord through the stewardship of our talents and treasure what we vowed in our baptism to give him.  So let us take the cup of salvation and fulfill our vows to the Lord.

THE ROYAL WEDDING FEAST

A communion meditation for May 6, 2018

                A big royal wedding is coming. Do you have your invitation and have you figured out what you will wear? No?  Oh, you probably think I am referring to Harry and Meghan who are soon to be married.  No, I refer to a much bigger, more significant wedding. One that you definitly are invited to and for which your wedding attire is already set. We read about it in Rev. 19:6-9. John writes:

Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”  Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’”

                John uses his imagery freely enough to allow the church to be both the bride and the guests invited to the wedding party.  “Hallelujah!”  Its party time; its exciting, joyful because the bridegroom has come.

                In contrast to this great joy there is a very sad picture in Rev. 3. It’s the picture of a church closed to the presence of the Lord.  John shows us the Lord, the bridegroom, standing alone at the closed door of the church and saying, “Look! I’m standing here, knocking at the door. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into them and eat with them, and they with me.” N.T. Wright says “no early Christian could have heard those words without thinking of the regular meal, the bread-breaking, at which Jesus would come powerfully and personally to give himself to his people. Such meals anticipate the final messianic banquet. They are advance ‘comings’ of the one who will one day come fully and forever” (Revelation for Everyone, 36-40). 

                We are at one of those “advanced comings” now.  Someday the Lord will come again and there will be a great party – a messianic banquet – a royal wedding feast.  And we are all invited.  In the meantime, he comes to us now in the Lord’s Supper, as a foretaste of that great banquet that is to come.  Have we opened the door to him? If we have he has promised to come in and eat with us now.