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Sunday, January 30, 2011

WHO WILL BE SAVED?

A Sermon based upon Psalm 15
By Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Epiphany 4, January 30th, 2011

The story goes that a Catholic dies and goes to heaven.  When he gets there, the attendant says, welcome, you'll be in room 21, but be very quiet when you walk past room 8.

A Pentecostal dies and goes to heaven, and the attendant greets him and says, welcome, you'll be in room 22, but be very quiet when you walk past room 8.

A Methodist dies and goes to heaven and the attendant greets her and says, welcome, you'll be in room 23, but be very quiet when you walk past room 8.

The three of them happen to meet, and they're all wondering about room 8 when they see the attendant walk by.  They grab him, he asks them how they're doing, and they say, oh, we're all very happy here, but we were wondering about room 8 and why we had to be so quiet when we went past it.

The attendant says, oh, those are the Baptists, they think they're the only ones here.

This joke has been told in other forms, but the meaning is always the same.  It refers to religious people who think they have some “special” revelation of who is right and who is wrong; who will be saved and who will be lost.  

I tell this joke about Baptists, since I can joke about myself, but the truth is, we are not the only ones who have thought ourselves to be right about salvation.   The Mormons often think they are the right ones.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses are also very determined to believe they are the true 144,000 who will be saved.  The Catholics, the Orthodox and Episcopal believers have all, at one time of another believed the same thing, though some are smarter than that today.  

If you study American history you’ll notice that before the constitution was written and adopted in September of 1787, which is basically a secular document, America were divided religiously, with several differing visions of the what was perceived to be the perfect religion; some were Anglican, others were Quaker, there were Puritan, and there were also large group of Baptists in Rhode Island.  The Anglicans put Baptist in jail in Virginia.  The Puritan’s put people of differing views in Stocks or ran them out of town or burned them as Witches.   The Baptist in Rhode Island believed in Freedom of Religion for all, but as they became established in the south, many of them developed the idea of a belief we call “Landmarkism”, which taught that only Baptists are “true” and right form of church.

Some of this attitude “holier than thou” attitude still remains in some forms, especially here in the south.  Last week, the new Governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley, who is a Deacon at First Baptist Church in Tucaloosa, Ala., made an interesting statement when he was speaking during an observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church in Montgomery.  He said that “people who have not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior are not Jesus’ brothers and sisters.”   The next day Bentley was confronted about his comment and immediately apologized.   He reversed and revised his opinion to say that “people who have not accepted Jesus as their personal savior can be  his own brothers and sisters.” 

We are used to this sort of “double talk” from politicians.    We also know the pressure put on people today to be “politically correct.  But the question of who is “in” and “who” is out still remains.  


It is a real question.  In its early forms, both Jews and early Christians believed they were the “right ones” who had the “true” message of salvation and other religions or faiths were “out” of God’s inner circle.  Jews, Christians, Mormons, Muslims and most all religions have, in some form or another, believed that some are “lost” and others are “saved” and has some way of treating some people as “insiders” brothers and sisters, while it treats other people as “outsiders” or “lost” without the true message of salvation.  We know from religious history that Roman Catholics, who had the power of Rome and the Papacy, used to burn people at the stake who did not agree with them.  Today, mainstream Islam, not just radical Islam calls all the rest of us who are not Muslim, “Infidels” and it requires that we be converted too.  And of course, there are still many Baptists who think they are the only ones who are going to heaven.   

All this talk about who is “in” and who is “out” is controversial in our politically correct climate, but what we must also realize is that it is also very biblical.  The Bible, from the first opening lines, shows Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden, losing their chance at eternal life.   We also see in the Bible how Esau was “hated”, but Jacob was loved as the chosen son to carry the blessing.   In a broader way, Israel was chosen to be the people of God as God’s favored people, while the Canaanites and their practices of religion were rejected.  And, finally, in the New Testament, we also see how Christians professed “neither is there salvation in any other, whereby there no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby people can be saved.”  (Acts 4:12). In other words, the Christian faith is a very exclusive faith, affirming only Jesus as the “way, truth, and life”, and also saying that “no one comes to the Father, but through him.”  (John 14:6).   It is the same kind of attitude of exclusion which lead the Catholic church once to say, “There is no salvation, outside of the church.”   The Catholic Church once said that because they truly believed that they were the true and only inheritor of the way of Jesus.

I don’t know about you, but I have a problem with going that far, declaring that there is no salvation outside of the church.   I understand what it means, that salvation does not work into our lives without being together with the people of God, but I still think such language does not tell the whole story.   The Bible says that “where two or three are together in my name, there I am in their midst” (Hebrews 10:25).   That’s also part of the story.  Another part of the story is that such talk is simply not humble enough.  This is the main problem I have with the Governor’s talk and most of our own attempts to draw the line of who is saved and who is not saved.  If you are going to draw the line, you have to draw it the very narrow way that Jesus did and few of us dare to do that.   Let me give you some examples of how Jesus drew the line. 

Do you recall in Matthew 7: 21-23; where Jesus drew the line of faith, even tighter and narrower than most of us draw it, when he said:  “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in you name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’  Then I will declare to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”  

In another place, we can read even stronger, more exclusivist language from Jesus when his own family came to challenge his teaching ministry.  We read in Matthew 12, verse 46:  “While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him.   Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You."  But He answered and said to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"
 49 And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! 50 "For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother." (Mat 12:46-1 NKJ).  

Talk about drawing a line; when you put your own family “out” of who is doing God’s will, you’re getting on the edge, aren’t you? 

But there is an even harder and more difficult text than any of these, where Jesus not only puts those who don’t do God’s will out of the circle, or those, or those who are against God’s will out of the circle, but in this text, Jesus shows his own personal “Jewish” prejudice which, at least temporarily, puts all Gentiles (which means us, too) out of the circle of God’s work of Salvation.   You remember this difficult text don’t you?  Turn to Matthew 15 and read it for yourself: Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
 22 And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed."
 23 But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out after us."
 24 But He answered and said, "I WAS NOT SENT EXCEPT TO THE LOST SHEEP OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL."
 25 Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"
 26 But He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."
 27 And she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."
 28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour. (Mat 15:21-28 NKJ).

 For me, what is so striking in this text is first that a woman comes crying for “mercy”, but Jesus (He), does not answer her; “not a word” was his answer the text says (vs. 23).  At first glance, Jesus gives her nothing but a cold shoulder.  Then, as she returns once more, complaining to his disciples, they come to Jesus asking him to “Send her away!,”  Jesus gives another cold, very calculated answer: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (vs. 24).   What this means is that, in this moment, according to Jesus, God’s salvation club had a sign on the door which read “Jews only.”   How does that make your feel?   These words still make me shiver.    But keep reading.  Now, we see that again, the woman doesn’t give up.  Scripture tells us that she bows down and worships Jesus, saying to him: “Lord, help me!”   Now, in strongest language possible, Jesus answers, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs!”  (vs. 26).   The newer translations soften Jesus’ language to “little dogs”, but the truth is a “dog” is a still a “dog” whether it is a puppy or full grown.   The whole episode is to remind usof another text in Matthew where Jesus says: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. (Mat 7:6 NKJ).    The point here is that Jesus is serious.  Jesus is very exclusivist.  He is more exclusivist than the governor in Alabama.  He does not include everybody in the kingdom, nor did he even see us in the plans of God in this moment.   

But then, we read next how something suddenly changes Jesus mind.  Do you see it?  Some impresses Jesus so great that his view of “Gentiles” changes.   Now, this Jesus, who as we say was “dead set” on ignoring this woman and leaving her out of God’s purposes, and was intent on leaving her an “outsider” and “foreigner” rather than an “insider” and “neighbor”, suddenly has a change of heart.  What was it that changed Jesus’ mind?   You don’t have to guess.  The text tells us: Jesus himself says to the woman, “Woman, great is your faith!”   It was faith that changed everything.  It was faith that included this woman into the mind and plan of God.  It was faith that moved her from being an outsider to being an insider.  It was faith that turned her from a “dog” into a “child” of God.  It was faith that allowed her to participate in the “miraculous” healing power of God’s coming kingdom.

This is still true.   Faith is what makes any of us people “insiders” to the will and purposes of God.    But this being true, how do we take these very “exclusive” words of Jesus and how do we apply them to us, and to those around us who do not “believe” and have “faith” as we have faith?  What does it mean to say that some are “saved” and others are “lost”?  How can we know where the lines are drawn for salvation in Jesus Christ?

Here is where our Psalm for today comes in.   Psalm 15 raises the same question among the Jews, long before it was even a Christian question about Jesus.  In our text today, David raises that very important of all questions:  “LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? (Psa 15:1 NKJ).  

But before we can understand David’s own answer in this Psalm, we need to see how this question relates to a question as the disciples once put to Jesus.   Do you remember the text in Matthew 19:16?  That text tells us the story of a of man who came to Jesus asking him, “Good teacher, what good thing can I do to have eternal life?”   Of course, in the story Jesus scolds the man for calling him “good”, claiming that there is no one who is truly “good”, but God.   But then Jesus gives his first answer about eternal life.   He says to him, the same kind of thing David answers in Psalm 15.  If you want to have eternal life and the life of God, then “keep the commandments.”  Isn’t that what the Psalmist is also answering when he says that it is the person who dwells with God “walks uprightly”, “works righteousness” and speaks the “truth in his heart” without hurting his “neighbor”   (Psalm 15:3).  This is how David and Jesus described the one who gets to abide in God’s “Tabernacle” and live on God’s “holy hill.”  In other words, the core the method of salvation is the way you live:  if you want to live with God, then, your life has to match your lips.   And when you are resolved to live the kind of life God requires, then you will also have eternal life that only God can give.

So, now this young man should be clear about this, right?   He has been told by Jesus what it means by Moses, David and now Jesus also, to be “included” by God in his salvation.   Just keep the commandments!  Right!

Wrong!   The young guy still does not feel saved.  He still feels like he is “lacking something” else that he must do in order to have eternal life.  What is that “one thing” he lacked?  Jesus tells him, that if he truly wants to know what it means to be “saved”, or as Jesus puts, “if he wants to be perfect”, then he must “sell everything”, give it to the poor, and then you’ll have “treasure in heaven”, and then with all that you can follow me without any hindrance at all.   Are you ready to do this, in order to be saved?   Will give up and sell everything to the poor?  Will you sell out for “treasure in heaven”, not for “treasure on earth?”  Will you follow Jesus, not just in word, but will you follow him every day, all the way?

Of course, with this, the man gets back into his Porche and drives away very disappointed.   He is disappointed because he cannot do what it takes to have eternal life.   He really can’t.   And guess what?  You can’t either.  At least that’s what the disciples understand.   When the disciples saw that this man had great possession and could do what it would take to have eternal life, they  turn to Jesus and ask most important question of all.  It is not the question of who’s in or who’s out, who’s saved or who’s lost, but it’s the even deeper, more pressing question:  “Who then can be saved?” 

So, now we have finally come to the right question; the one we should be asking.   The right question is not who’s in or who’s out, who’s saved or who’s lost.  None of us can answer that question.  We are not God.  We don’t know God’s mind.  We know God’s heart, but we still can’t read God’s mind.   Who will be lost and who will be saved is a question we can’t answer.  It is much better to ask the real question:  “Who then can be saved, at all?”  If God is keeping score, do any of us have a chance at salvation?   When we realize what it takes to be in God’s tabernacle, what it takes to dwell on his holy hill, are we able to fulfill it?   Most of us, when we look at our lives, know that we can only walk away sorrowfully from what we should be, but are not.   We need something more than commandments to save us.   We need something more than “works of righteousness”.   Yes, we need to keep God’s commandments, to do God’s will, and to live a holy and righteous life, but that ‘s not the whole picture.   The whole picture points to our consistent inability to live out God’s commands.  This is why we need salvation in the first place.  We need salvation because we can’t rescue ourselves.  If salvation depends upon what we’ve done, or what we can or can’t do, then we will all end up “going away sorrowfully”.

So, now, let’s listen to how Jesus answers the disciple’s question: Who then can be saved?  Can a person who lives in this world learn to let go and cast his whole salvation, not on his own works and riches, but can a person who is lost in their own efforts of salvation find the salvation that only God can give?  In other words, “How can any of us be saved?”  Jesus’ answer is this:  “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible?”  (Matt. 19:26). 

Jesus knows that the only way any of us are saved is because of what God does.  Salvation is never finally about what we have done, but it is about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.   And God did not do this while he was waiting on us to be “good”, but he did this knowing full well that we “were sinners”:  “While we were sinners,” the Scripture says, “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Get this clear:  Jesus does not die for good people, but he dies for sinners, for the ungodly, and for the people who rejected him altogether.  In God’s love, God does not want to be alone so he does  the work of salvation “for us” and in our behalf.

Will Willimon, a Methodist Bishop from Alabama, tells of a couple who came to their pastor telling about the trouble they’d been having with their son.   “Our son has been putting us through hell,” she said.  “Didn’t even know where he was for months until last night.  My husband and I were eating dinner, and suddenly, without warning, he brusts through the front door and begins cursing us, demanding money, refusing to join us at the table.  After an ugly scene, he stormed down the hall and slammed the door to his room.”  (It’s sad what parents are sometimes forced to endure from their children.)

“Well, my husband gets up,” she recalls, “and goes over to the kitchen, pours himself a drink, turns on the T.V., and slumps down in his chair.  That’s how he handles these moments.  I walked down the hall and said, ‘Son, can we talk?  I just want to talk.’   I could hear him curse me from inside his bedroom.  I tried to open the door, but it was locked.”

“So I went into the garage, got a big hammer, walked back in, stood before my son’s bedroom door, drew back, and with only one blow was able to knock the doorknob clean off the door.  Took about a third of the door with it.  Then I lunged at my surprised-looking-son, grabbed him around the throat, and said, “I’m not going to put up with this (crap) any more.  (She used another word).  You are better than this!  I gave birth to you, went into labor for you, and I’m not giving you away!”

“I really think something important happened for us last night.  I think he heard me.  We’re on a new track,” she said.  (From "Who Will Be Saved?" by William H. Willimon, Nashville, Abingdon Press, p. 67).

I believe God’s effort to save us is something like that.   God is willing to break down any door or wall to get through to us.   Because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, the impossible has become possible.  The question is no longer ‘who will be saved’, or ‘who can be saved’, but the question is now this: Will you let God save you? 
Now is the acceptable time! 
Today is the day of salvation! (2 Corinthians 6.2)
Amen. 

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