Thursday, May 9 at 7 p.m. the whole community is invited to gather for prayer at the Mountain Lakes Presbyterian Church at 3292 Highway 83. Together we will join hearts and minds in a spirit of prayer for our community, our churches, our nation and the world. Together we will pray for healing and wholeness in every facet of life.
In biblical Greek, the word that is translated as “healing and wholeness” can also be translated as “salvation.” The noun is soteria, the verb is sozo. For me, studying biblical words and their multiple translations into English has opened up such a rich depth of meaning in the scripture. For instance, until I began studying the words and how they are used in our sacred text, I had not realized how often the richness of biblical words had been collapsed and reduced to a singular narrowly-defined notion in English, particularly in the modern world where the desire was to keep drilling down to find “the right” way (as if there were only one).
You don’t have to take my word for it. I highly recommend that you do your own research so that you can experience the blessed journey of discovery.
Back to salvation. In Greek the word is very broad and includes the well-being of the whole person. It includes deliverance from one’s enemies, healing — body, mind, spirit — redemption, forgiveness, wholeness, and rescue from danger.
When people are at odds with one another, when they’ve hurt one another, salvation comes in the form of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is relational salvation.
When people are up against the wall, have lost their employment, experience financial insecurity, etc., salvation comes in the form of hope, direction and specific needs being addressed —food, housing, employment. This is salvation as rescue, care and deliverance.
Too much of Christianity in the last five centuries or so has reduced salvation to whatever it is we think happens when we die. We’ve lost the beautiful complexities, the wondrous layers of what God is actually doing right here and now to bring salvation to whole households, whole communities and whole groups of people.
God is always up to wondrous things right in our very midst to bring about the fullness of salvation, the full spectrum of healing and wholeness in all people, places and times. We are called to pay attention to what God is up to and participate. What is God doing to feed our hungry neighbors? What is God doing to befriend our lonely seniors and elders? What is God doing to restore the dignity and respect of people who are out of work? Let’s be part of these movements of the Spirit toward healing and wholeness.
The call to prayer for Thursday, May 9 is to invite us anew into commitment to be part of what God is doing right here and now to bring healing and wholeness into our lives, our churches, our communities, our nation and throughout the world.
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