The Rev’d Lucy Nguyen
Sunday 23 August 2026, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 51:1-6, Ps 138, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20
Theologian John Van de Laar writes of this morning’s readings that they each in their own way offer us a new encounter with God’s salvation. (Lectionary Resources: Proper 16A from Sacredise “john@sacredise.com”). His comments prompted me to explore salvation for this morning. In part because, in this past week, I had the opportunity to revisit salvation as offered to us in Mary’s Magnificat. Each time we read it for a weekday service I delved deeper into my own being regarding this notion of salvation in a Christian context to not only be personal and but also very corporate.
Salvation is to be lived out as a daily reality, rather than, as one writer puts it: “a future promise of evacuation”. Salvation strikes me as one of “those” words which we may use a lot or not at all and in either case – we may not know what we really mean by it or what another person may mean by it.
From the dictionary: SALVATION: Is the preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss: “they try to sell it to us as economic salvation”. A source or means of being saved from harm, ruin, or loss: “his only salvation was to outfly the enemy”. Theology: deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ: “the Christian gospel of salvation for all humankind”
Interestingly, while the word in its “generic” definition is noted in two ways: corporate and individual; the theological definition leaves the work for us to do, to understand salvation as both personal and corporate.
A quick reminder of my working definition of sin – is anything which turns us away from God’s love, God’s call to love.
During this past week I did also have the good fortune to use Fr Jim’s sermon as a springboard for my reflections on the Magnificat and how the story of Mary was indeed both a personal testament and corporate experience. “Thank you Jim.”
Mary offered her personal yes to God and then acknowledged the yes, she offered for public change by giving birth to the Jesus the Christ.
Today our readings again speak of salvation both personal and corporate.
Isaiah 51:1-6 – Focuses on looking to the rock from which you were hewn, remembering God’s enduring salvation, and letting justice go forth
Romans 12:1-8 – Paul calls for presenting your body as a living sacrifice, renewing your mind, and using your unique spiritual gifts as part of the body of Christ.
Matthew 16:13-20 – Centers on confessing Jesus as the Christ and understanding the foundation of the body we call church.
The invitation is for us this morning to consider how we respond to the notion of salvation offered to us and to the world through Jesus.
I suggest in any such consideration –
we need to know our own personal story of salvation –
why does believing in God, /in Jesus/ in the Holy Spirit
(yes, pick a Triune favourite, if that’s helpful)
make a difference in you, in your life …? How did it come about?
And we need to get our hearts and mind around and engaged in the realisation that such belief also has a corporate call of being in the world.
Or perhaps for you, it’s in reverse – you have a sense of the corporate calling to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world but that sense of salvation (love) for yourself falls a bit short in the believing.
Or in fact you may just be wondering, who can even tell the difference of what I think about salvation and what difference is it to them?
Well, I’ll share what I mean, and I believe, there are consequences, the world can tell the difference.
In basic and broad terms which apply to me too though if you don’t think this is for you, it may help you support others as they ponder questions of believing and being.
Living a non-integrated life of Christian faith ie not having a sense of salvation both personal and corporate can mean our daily actions and values do not match our stated beliefs of Gospel Values and people will find us disingenuous.
Or perhaps, we keep our faith hidden at work or school, so no one feels upset and in doing so we hide our Christ light under a bushel. And perhaps there is no evidence that our faith changes how we live. Perhaps by omission on our part when sharing with others.
Or perhaps we make the same selfish choices as people who do not believe. We talk about love and grace but act harsh or mean to others. We are not kind or peace bearers, instead we are prideful and angry.
We treat our faith like a boring rule book instead of a living hope. There’s a sense of boredom around us. A faith with no power or passion looks dead and grey to the outside world. Or vice versa we push our faith on others not actually trusting the Spirit to do what the Spirit does and it becomes all about ourselves, and people walk away.
Salvation of Christian faith is the personal, inward trust in God, while simultaneously living into the corporate, outward life shared with the global church. We need both and the balance will shift throughout our lives. They live in tandem within us. We must see ourselves as both recipients of God’s salvation and agents of it. We are brought into relationship with God through Christ in order to offer ourselves to serve in the church and the world according to our gifting. Salvation is not to be seen primarily in terms of “going to heaven when we die”. Salvation is NOT just a future hope.
Indeed, salvation must always be understood in the light of God’s purpose in the world: the gospels’ call for – JUSTICE, EQUALITY, PEACE AND CARE OF CREATION. Our purpose is to help people discover heaven in their lives now and to come. And we start with the Gospel imperatives: to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, cloth the naked, to love God, love others, and love oneself.
Yes, personal faith and corporate faith will weave together uniquely for every believer. Very much our life journey is about finding that mix for ourselves, the combination of quiet time and community life which fits your personal calling. Balancing personal and corporate faith requires intentional habits.
Thankfully, our Anglican tradition offers a distinct model for this alignment. Instead of viewing private prayer and church community as competing duties, Anglican spirituality treats them as “a single, breathing ecosystem”. Achieving this balance is less about strict time management and more about understanding how the two spheres feed each other.
Let corporate worship inform your language. Use the songs, scriptures, and structured prayers from your Sunday services to anchor your personal weekly reflections. Bring your private intercessions to community life. Pay attention to the burdens, joys, and needs shared by church members, and carry those specific names into your quiet time. Schedule both intentionally. Set realistic boundaries, to allow for daily prayer alongside a manageable commitment to community gatherings.
Protect yourself against isolation and burnout. If personal prayer feels lonely or dry, lean heavily on the faith of the community. If community life feels overwhelming, pull back into quiet, solitary prayer.
Our Anglican tradition is uniquely built around solving this tension. Its foundational identity is the via media (the middle way), which deliberately holds seemingly opposite realities in creative tension.
We who are many are one body – let us be a fulsome body defined in Christ’s love for us and all the world. Salvation now and to come.