Continuing the nine thesis of how we experience salvation in the ordinary life of the church.
Seventh, in a culture that threatens to abandon its children to poor education, poor health and unstable families, the church offers a source of strength for family bonds and the news that all children are loved and valued. Even when the biological bonds are broken in our society, the church provides a new definition of family that offers a renewed sense of belonging. Recall Jesus’ definition of family in Mark 3:31-35. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Eighth, in a culture that treats the elderly as worn out pieces of society’s all-important machine, the church proclaims that each person has gifts from God which are essential to the upbuilding of the community of faith. It may be instructive to the Christian community to recall that Abraham and Sarah didn’t begin their journey of faith until they were quite old and the critical birth by which the people of God was perpetuated didn’t occur, according to Scripture’s own testimony, until by worldly standards Sara was too old to have children. And in the New Testament, according to Luke 2:22-38 it was two elderly people in the temple who recognized Jesus for who he truely was. “At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Ninth, in a culture that daily discovers the complexity of moral decision-making, the church offers a community in which people might explore all the issues which trouble them in the light of the Gospel of grace and forgiveness. Saved from the need to be right, this belongs to God, we are liberated to learn from each other the glimpses that each of us have of the truth. Our loyalty is not to a particular truth but to the God who truly has the knowledge of good and evil.
