We are Kept Safe

The title for this Sunday's service/sermon is tricky.  We are Kept Safe.  What does that mean?  Plenty of Christians in the world today do not worship in safety. We are just as subject to car accidents, cancer and violence as anyone else.

Where did I come up with "We are Kept Safe"?  I'll confess it took me a minute to remember.  But then ... Noah.  One of the earliest Scriptural connections made between Old Testament narrative and baptism was the story of Noah and the flood.  In I Peter we read:

"God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also -- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. Is saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who had gone into heaven and is at God's right hand."

From earliest days, we understand Scripture's story (in Cliff Notes version) as this: God wills to save us.

Noah. Abraham. The people of Israel & the Red Sea.  And, at last, on this Palm Sunday, Jesus wills to enter into the coming holy and horror-filled week in order that we might be saved.

In baptism, as I said last week, "We receive the end at the beginning."  We receive an assurance of God's salvation -- resurrection to eternal life -- as we are barely setting about our earthly, temporal lives.  Knowing the end means there isn't a chapter we face between here and there that can overwhelm or overcome God's moving us toward His good will and His good purposes.  This is what we confess in the first question & answer of the Heidelberg Catechism when we say:

"Not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.  In fact, all things must work together for my salvation."

This is also what we confess when we sing this song (as we will this coming Sunday):