3rd Sunday of Advent, First Cong.UCC, Rock Springs, WY

What Is Salvation?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
3rd Sunday of Advent
First Cong UCC, Rock Springs, WY 12/13/09
Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18

This past Tuesday was one of those rare occasions where my whole day literally spanned the whole spectrum of what a minister does. My first meeting was with a group of colleagues, a meeting designed to give support to one another as professionals; my next meeting was with a couple wanting to get married; then I met with a family who had lost their family member with a sudden death and we discussed what the memorial service would entail as well as doing some grief counseling; my last meeting of the day centered around the excitement of a baptism.
In general, most of those meetings were dealing with exciting and joyous events within one’s life. But there was also the reminder that life is not always exciting and fun, but at times filled with pain, loss, grief and feelings of aloneness. Even though these people’s lives ran the full range of life’s experiences, the one basic theme that connected all four meetings centered on the “spiritual” needs of each person I visited with that day.
Today we are in the third week of Advent, a time that we focus on preparation and of anticipation of the coming of Christ. The first Sunday of Advent tended to focus on the return of Christ, and depending on whether your belief structure lends itself to a physical return of Jesus or if your belief system leads you to think in terms of a more metaphorical meaning of “His second coming”, we spent that Sunday taking a look at what that might mean to us. Last week we started to focus on preparation of our Spirit with the coming of Christ. This week we continue more fully on the discussion of ‘where’ we are at in our Spiritual journey.
In recent weeks I have begun to develop a working relationship with the local funeral homes. Vase in particular is starting to ask me to help with services for families that do not have an active relationship with any of the local churches and the reason comes not just from my skill and sensitivity but because of my believe of what is and isn’t appropriate conduct at a memorial service; and this code of conduct comes from my theological understanding; or through my interpretation of what Jesus was teaching during his life.
The short version of my theology is that going to church does not speak to “Ones Salvation”. If you haven’t already figured it out from previous sermons, I do not believe that going to Worship services means you are or are not a religious person. I grew up hearing every Sunday morning, “Steven, just because you go to church doesn’t mean you have any more faith than the person who doesn’t go.” And that is so very, very true. Now I have very definite reason’s on why “we should come to Worship” on a regular basis, but it has nothing to do with whether I am a good person verses being a bad person, or whether my faith in God is stronger because I attend church over the person who doesn’t attend church. For far too many centuries the Christian community has been presenting the idea of “what salvation” is in nothing more than a “Fire Insurance Policy”.
One of Jesus’ starting assumptions, as I understand his teachings, is that every person is a spiritual being. As a spiritual being, we have a natural desire to connect with others on a spiritual level. So what does that mean? Well, that is where the issue of language and the short coming of language can come into play. For when we deal with language we tend to deal on the level of “intellectualism” and that isn’t where “Spirituality” lives. Spirituality lives in the home of “feelings”, or another way of saying it, spirituality lives in the heart. When we deal with our spiritual nature we do not want to use the “I think” type of language, but rather we would use “I feel” type of phrases as a way of expressing what we wish to convey. This in itself becomes very scary for those of us who do not like to dwell in the world of “feelings” as this opens us to being vulnerable, which for the most part we are taught from an early age, to be on guard so that we are not injured emotionally. Men more so than women have a more difficult time in expressing emotions; men are suppose to be the warriors, the protectors and so at an early age they are taught to put their “feelings” safely into a box somewhere deep within us as part of the process to being strong. Jesus would say “Hog wash” to this type of training of our young people! For it is in our heart that we find our “humanity”.
So, how do I then as a minister, approach a family who does not have religious ties, in their time of deep grief over the loss of their family member? How do I approach developing a service when the family tells me that the deceased was not a religious person and they too are not particularly interested in dealing with a “religiously” based service? For one of the purposes of a funeral is to provide comfort for the survivors in knowing that the person who has died, spirit, will live on in peace. One of the basic Christian premises is that of life after death, and that one’s spirit will either exist in peace, which we call Heaven or will not exist in peace but rather eternal torment, which we have labeled “hell.”
I suppose when we ask that question, what we are really asking is, “How as a religious leader, do you stay true to this premise?” As I mentioned earlier, it is based on how you understand the teachings of Jesus. If your understanding of “Salvation” is based on some grouping of words that basically boil down to something like this: “I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal savior and that he is the son of God and I believe that through his death and resurrection I will have life everlasting only if I believe in his saving grace.” Then as a minister, you might have a very difficult time in dealing with a funeral of a non-religious person.
Being a staunch believer in the teachings of Jesus, I find that I can approach these families with deep compassion and love because they are a part of the family of God. When I visit with a family in their time of grieving from the death of their beloved family member, I speak to them in terms of not a funeral or even a memorial service, but rather as a time where we will “celebrate” this loved ones life. The reason I call it a celebration is, because as children of God, we as “spiritual” beings, experience the love of God on a variety of levels. What I hear when I am told that someone isn’t a religious person doesn’t mean that they are not devoid of this spiritual relationship, nor doesn’t mean that that individual hasn’t developed a strong spiritual believe system. It doesn’t mean that the person how has died, hasn’t experienced “salvation.” What it is telling me is that they did not engage, at the level church goers would recognize, as having a practicing religious belief system.
When someone tells me that they are “spiritual” but not religious, what I am hearing is not something lacking in this persons spiritual development, but rather an indictment toward the church. It means that the church has failed to speak in a language of that individual; a language that would encourage that person to come and feel a part of a faith community. For those of us who were raised in the church, we understand the language, we love the hymns that we sing, the prayers that we pray; but for someone who has not grown up in the church or was raised in the church but left; our language is foreign to them, and our hymns make no emotional connections either rhythmically or with their words. In other words, the way in which we conduct a Worship Service generally doesn’t connect or engage people who have little to no church memory. It’s not that people do not turn away from the church, but rather, it is the church that is not reaching out to those not here and communicate in a way that they hear what we wish to share with them.
In today’s Gospel, we read where John is accusing those who were coming out to be baptized of being vipers! Eugene Peterson puts it this way, “You brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snake skins is going to deflect God’s judgment? It’s your life that must change, not your skin. And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as ‘father’. Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”
The reader’s digest of what John is say is this. It’s not the words that we speak that is where our salvation comes from. We are not saved by calling ourselves Christian; we are not saved because we go to church; we are not saved because we have been baptized. John is telling us that we are saved because of what is in our heart! There we go again talking about that place where “feelings” live at! Our salvation doesn’t come from “religious” activities; it comes through “relationships”; relationship with God and relationship with others.
For those of us who only deal with life on the “intellectual” level, I am not sure if we will really understand the concept of “salvation”. The relationship with God is no different that our relationships with those that we love, be it our partner, our children, our friends. These relationships can only exist and deepen with ongoing contact. That is one of the reason’s I give for coming to church. It is in coming together that we build these relationships; it is by coming into community that we foster and deepen our “feelings”, of finding a sacred space where we can open our heart and become vulnerable so we can feel the Holy Spirit within us and among us.
To John, as with Jesus, salvation is experienced by what we do with our lives. It is found in how we enter act with others, not just our friends and families but with strangers. Do we give to those in need, not just in food or in money, but do we give of ourselves? The battle cry of “Social Justice” just isn’t in providing equality or giving voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Social justice extends to how much of ourselves do we give to those in need. Martin Luther King had it so very right in his vision of equality. For it went far beyond equality of blacks being equal with whites, it is the vision that God has for his children; for we shall find our salvation when we all understand and live in true community, where there is no thought of do you “belong” because of your skin color, or because of your educational level, or because of your family connections, or of your religious beliefs; but because we all understand that every human being is one of God’s children, that we are all truly brothers and sisters and we are all equal in the love of God. This is the massage that Christ came to deliver to us; this is the message that Christ was killed for speaking. This is the message that I want us to hear as we prepare for Christmas: The message is that of Love, of community, of being open to growing into God’s understanding; that we all belong and all are welcomed. Or as this weeks fortune cookie said: Don’t judge a work of Art by it’s flaws!” Amen