WHAT IS YOUR CONCEPT OF SALVATION?
(Preached on Sunday, October 14, 2007)
Then he said to him, AGet up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.@ -Luke 17:19 (The Message)
What is your concept of salvation?
That was one of the questions I received several months ago when we had AAsk the Pastor@ Sunday. It was a question I did not see that morning and so I did not take a stab at answering it. It wasn=t until I went back to the office after worship and was looking through the questions on the cards that I had not had time to answer that I came across this question. AWhat is your concept of salvation?@ My first reaction upon seeing the question was thankfulness that I had not read it during worship and attempted an answer. It is one of those deep questions, too important to offer an off-the-cuff answer that is superficial and shallow. As I read it I also realized that I was not sure how I would have answered it. I knew that my thinking on this question had changed dramatically over the years, but I wasn=t sure off the top of my head just what my answer was at that moment. So, I put the question aside on my desk, but in a place where I would continue to see it. I knew that I wanted to answer this question, for myself as much as for whomever wrote it down on that 3x5 card.
Growing up in the Baptist Church, salvation was a pretty clear concept. It was all about getting to heaven and staying out of hell, all of which related to a future reality after this life. Almost all of the sermons I listened to growing up eventually got around to some form of the question of AAre you saved? Where will you spend eternity? If you died tonight, do you know for sure that you will go to heaven?@
Coupled with this concern for my eternal after-life location, was the understanding that Jesus was my Savior, he was the one who would save me from hell, and how and why that was. The reasoning went something like this: I was a sinner, actually, all human beings are sinners. My sin separated me from God. In fact, my sin so marred me that God could not even bear to look at me, because all God saw was my sin. But Jesus had come to earth, lived a perfect life, without sin, and then had died on the cross. He did not deserve to die, so through his death he took the punishment for my sin, and he took on himself all the burden and disfigurement of my sin. That is why he experienced abandonment from God, because at that moment God could not bear to look at Jesus because he had taken on the sin of all humanity and God had to turn away from him. Then, Jesus covered me with his blood, washing away the stain of my sin, so that now, when God looks at me, God does not see my sin, but the cleansing blood of Jesus. That saves me.
By accepting that truth, by believing in Jesus as Savior, by turning my life over to him, I am saved and I will go to heaven and avoid hell.
That is what I once believed. There are large segments of Christianity that still understand salvation in that way.
But it no longer works for me. For me, that view of salvation seems very abusive. It seems abusive of God, painting God as either sadistic, or capricious, or very angry. It seems to depict God as vengeful, spiteful, and all-too-human by holding a grudge. It also seems abusive of me, intending to frighten me, or guilt-trip me, into a response. Very manipulative. It does not seem to be a healthy view of God, creation, humanity, or life and much too much I have witnessed it as leading people into very unhealthy living, filled with fear, with suspicion, and with a pessimistic approach to life in this world. It seems a very unhappy way to live.
So, what is my concept of salvation? If that is what I used to believe and no longer believe, how do I understand salvation today? The story from Luke is a great illustration of my understanding of salvation. This is a healing story. Jesus encounters 10 lepers, outcasts from society, and he heals them. There is a good reason there are so many stories of Jesus healing people in the gospels. It has to do with the Greek word Asoteria.@
In the gospel stories, soteria is the word for Asalvation.@ But in the common Greek of Jesus= day, Asoteria@ actually had two meanings: rescue and good health. Depending on the context in which it was used, it could refer to your good health, or to a rescue from something or someone. Over the centuries it appears that Christians have focused on the rescue aspect of salvation. But I believe a very strong case can be made for the earliest followers understanding it more in terms of the healing aspect of salvation.
Over and over again in the gospels, when Jesus heals someone he does so by pronouncing them Asaved.@ He did this not because he had some magical power, but because he understood the holistic nature of illness. As modern science and medicine have reclaimed, salvation, healing, must be about the whole person. If you are ill, are dis-eased, it affects not only your bodily well-being, but also your emotional health, spiritual health, and your social health.
This is especially clear in our story of the ten lepers. Due to their bodily illness they were outcasts from society, unable to have relationships with anyone other than those who also had leprosy. They were considered Aunclean@ and not fit, not capable, of having a relationship with God or healthy people. Thus they were separated from the normal practices of their faith and from the normal means of human support.
All this stands out in stark relief for the lepers. But it is also true for us today. When I am sick, I don=t feel like relating to any other human being and I am not usually a very good person, but I become gruff, snappy, self-centered. When I am sick, I also don=t think much about God, and my emotions usually grow raw and tender very easily. When I am sick, my whole being is sick, not just my body.
In John=s gospel Jesus says AI came that they might have life.@ His healing of people are signs of that possibility. Not just in the future, but right here, right now. I like the way Frederick Buechner puts it: AYou do not love God so that, tit for tat, he will then save you. To love God is to be saved. To love anybody is a significant step along the way. You do not love God and live for him so you will go to Heaven. Whichever side of the grave you happen to be talking about, to love God and live for him is Heaven.@
This is the life Jesus came to bring to all people: wholeness of bodies, emotions, spirits, and relationships. The result is wholeness of living, fullness of life. This is health. This is salvation. Salvation is not a magical cure, but is a way of living that transforms us from illness to health and wholeness in every aspect of our lives. It is not something we achieve on our own. It is a gift God bestows upon us, just like the gift of life itself. It is a gift we experience through the Holy Spirit, and through each other, our companions on the journey.
That is why the Church has always said there is no salvation outside of the church. Because, as Jesus sent the ten lepers to the priests to show themselves to be healed, and thus to be properly reintegrated into the faith community, so does our healing, our salvation, have a social component that is vital. The church is a therapeutic community. As the body of Christ, healing is present and flows out to others.
In church we turn from the dis-ease of being ego-centered towards the perfection and beauty and unconditional love of God. In church we stop listening to the negativity and futility of the world around us and affirm our place in the Divine purpose. In church we turn from the debilitating sense of failure and sin, to the healing forgiveness of God in Christ. When we are feeling insignificant or useless, in church we are affirmed again that we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ. In times of joy we celebrate each others success, in times of sorrow as a church we share each others grief, and help put lives together again. When we are physically ill, we support each other in prayer, ask for healing, and give whatever practical assistance we can. We seek the health of the whole person. Should we become filled with resentment towards another, it is in church that we are asked to discharge the pain through being merciful, by praying even for our enemies. From church we go out to serve others who are not of the faith. Barriers of race, sex, class, culture, skin color, age do not exist for us.
The salvation of Jesus certainly includes what happens to us when we die, but its main focus is on the quality of life we live now. If we attain health, salvation, here and now, the future will hold no anxiety for us.
Other than the story of the healing of the 10 lepers, the story in the front of the worship folder of the humpback whale is the best expression of my concept of salvation. It is a parable of salvation, of our need for rescue, which can only be affected by the caring efforts of those around us. It is a story of restoration to wholeness, to health, by a community. It is a story of healing, salvation, across barriers and boundaries of other-ness and separateness. Rather than recite it to you, I printed it there so you might take it with you and read it, reflect on it, meditate with it, and allow it to lead you to reflect on your own concept of salvation. As we have been talking about sharing our church, sharing our faith, with people we meet in the world around us, it is important for us to be clear about our own understanding of salvation. Everyone is looking for wholeness of life, health, and abundant living. Let us embrace our own healing so we can invite others to discover the healing salvation of Jesus for themselves.