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PASTOR RUDY/ SOUL MINING/ DECEMBER 15 2023

One blaring characteristic trait of mine is that I don’t hide my feelings very well. One look at my face and you know exactly how I am doing! Nobody will ever confuse me as being, “The Great Pretender.” I not only wear my heart on my sleeve, I also display quite publicly a few more bumper stickers of adjectives across the rest of my body. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I am a walking billboard of about a million more!

When I was about six or seven years old, my family spend the day up at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. During the day we would go swimming and as evening came, we would go to the amusement park on the other side of the water called Bertrand’s Island. One summer night I had an experience with fright and fear there that I will never forget. I used one of my ride tickets to board what was advertised as, “You Drive It Boats!” I must have missed the part that tried to define the fact that I would be driving and this wasn’t just a sit back and go along with the flow type of happening. When I realized what I had gotten myself into, I pressed the gas pedal so hard that I literally jumped the rope that kept the boats at bay. Before you know it, I was heading towards the middle of the lake and I was terrified. I immediately got up and began to scream at the top of my lungs, “Help Me! Help Me!” My siblings are cracking up at their older brother now acting like an idiot but I was in over my head and I was not about to tackle this obstacle on my own. I wanted a rescuer and I needed them now! What I got was a teenage lifeguard who was forced to swim into the water and come out to my boat and let’s just say, she was angry for me getting her wet. She climbed in with me, glared with eyes of fire and scolded me to sit down and shut up. She drove the little dingy back to safety and I was never so glad to get back on dry ground. Everyone was laughing at me and even my parents were visibly embarrassed, but I was not playing around because I needed somebody to save me and even though she did it with a grudge the size of the giant roller coaster overshadowing us, I was no longer in any danger.

The name Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua. It comes from the personal name for God in Hebrew, Yahweh, and the word for “to save” or “to deliver,” yasha. Yeshua therefore means “God saves,” “God delivers,” or “God helps.” Jesus’s name points to his role and the primary reason for Christmas!

Luke 2:10-11

“I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

The herald angel assigned by God pronounced that night on a Bethlehem hillside good news of a “Grand Opening” that should have been a sold out event! A new Hero was being birthed in the city known as “The House of Bread.” Someone who could truly provide us with a hope and a future no matter what tyranny of government hijacked the political thrones of earth. There was a new Kid in town and He was going to do more than just clean up Dodge City. This King of Kings was going to transform we human beings from the inside out. We who had been full of sin and shame would now become containers of grace. But the royal birth of God’s only Son tiptoed quietly by with a silent thud while the rest of the world slept. How could this be? Where was everyone? Why weren’t the streets filled with celebration? People who celebrate so many empty occurrences that are deficient of any substantial substance missed this one and botched it good.

What does it really mean to call Jesus, the Savior? Why do we need a Savior? What do we need saving from? How does Jesus save us? The salvation Jesus offers all humankind is far more expansive and expensive than simply cheap forgiveness and a ticket to get yourself a, “Get Out of Hell Free” card. Salvation is a biblical term used about 150 times in the New Testament alone, and one that Christians of all shapes, ages and sizes use in hymns and worship songs!

The Hebrew word “Yasha” and the Greek word is “sozo,” both of which can be translated in their various forms as saves or saved but they can also be translated as delivered, rescued, or helped. We find the word “saved” is used to define the remedy for physical healing, the redemption to forever forgiveness via a regenerated heart, the rescuing from one’s enemies who long to destroy us and being removed just in time to escape safely from disasters. Earlier, I used it of what an angry teenage girl did for me that night in the middle of a dark lake. I was in a predicament that I was not able to get out of in one piece on my own. If I was ever to taste real peace again, I needed someone on the outside to venture into my mess and get me to shore safely.      

Christians have not just been rescued from their past misdemeanors. The beauty of Christmas is that Jesus was willing to leave the confines of Heaven where He was worshipped and adored and come to a planet that would eventually nail him to a cross out of hatred and jealousy. If you think that you can’t make everyone happy and get frustrated by it, our Lord was perfect in every way and yet was still despised and rejected. The darkness will always scorn the Light because when God flips the switch of grace and mercy and brightens up the interior of our souls, sin can’t hide in the closets anymore.  The good news of Jesus is not that we’re sinners, but that He’s our Savior. In both the Old and the New Testaments, the words most commonly translated as sin in Hebrew, “hata,” and in Greek, “hamartia,” means to “miss the mark.” For us to escape drowning in the sea of our own mishaps, we would have to hit the bullseye and split the arrow not just once as Errol Flynn did in Robin Hood. But we would have to bat 1000 and accomplish this feat every single time. This morning when I jammed my little toe into the chair before me, I said a bad word that was far from holy. The moment we go off the course of traveling the narrow way, we jump the rope and now need a rescuer! You can be quiet if you want to, but I make no apology for yelling, “Help! Help!” at the top of my lungs. 

When the Christmas angel got on the midnight microphone in that little town of Bethlehem, he was making it clear that this special bulletin was for everybody. It wasn’t for just a certain race, or class of clientele, it was for all of us. The rich and poor. The highly educated and the blue collar force. Those who went to church and those who slept in. Christmas teaches us clearly that the heart of God is always tuned to hear the cries of the lost. The goal of God is to restore us back to where we belong! We were created not for fear but for faith. We were destined to live in community with the Lord and one another. There was never supposed to be outsiders until some decided to jump the rope and wander beyond the borders of life and everlasting love.

All of us are outcasts, for every single one of us has sinned and has fallen from grace and we will drown in our own muck if we don’t humble ourselves and admit that we can’t do this on our own. Like that summer night in Bertrand’s Island, I didn’t care what anyone else thought. I just wanted to be safe again. When Jesus came, He didn’t come with a chip on His shoulder for having to enter into the inconvenience of where I was. Jesus loved me enough to go the distance and unlike the lifeguard, when He got to where I was, He held me close and promised that I would never be alone again. Who doesn’t need a love like that? Maybe this Christmas is the perfect time for a rescue!

And whoever calls upon the Name of the Lord- will be saved!