Of all of the sermons in this series, this is the one that has caused me the greatest difficulty. I think it is because over the years my theology, my system of beliefs has become less, rather than more organized. I used to think I had it all laid out in a neat, linear fashion … that you went from point A to B to C to D in order. It all tied together. My belief system looked like a skein of wool that had been neatly rolled. It's not like that anymore … life has intervened. Great tragedy, great joy … wonderful events, terrible things … they have all gotten rolled into the skein of wool that is my theology and it now looks more like a tangled mess, frayed and knotted, spilling out from the tote bag that is supposed to be containing it. Or it is like the kitchen junk drawer … how many of you have such a drawer? That place where everything seems to end up … widely unrelated things … I looked in my kitchen junk drawer: it has batteries, rubber bands, scissors, rulers, a few old keys, a box of crayons, playing cards, a bottle of lemon scented bubbles, glow sticks, nail clippers, and much more. Things that don't really belong in the same category. So goes my theological system – more questions than answers, and in many cases simultaneous beliefs that even contradict each other.

It helps knowing that through the ages Christianity has had much to discuss on the doctrine of salvation. That surprised me a bit – of all the theological issues we debate, that was one I felt the Christian church was fairly clear on from the get go … and that it was me who had the questions. Not so … even now Christianity doesn't have one clear definition of salvation and how you get there. Let me first take you on a fast tour through the ages: Biblically we hear Jesus, in the synoptic gospels, talking about good works and adopting a life of simplicity; in John's gospel it is belief in Jesus; for Paul it is belief in the resurrection; and in other places it is the act of baptism that saves. The earliest Christians had several ideas about salvation: the Jewish Christians still held to the temple sacrifice system and following the Torah; the Gnostic Christians felt that Jesus had come to impart special knowledge to save humanity; the Pauline Christians felt that good works, baptism were necessary to attain salvation. Today we remain unclear about the path of salvation – depending on your flavor of Christianity you might range from seeing the only pathway to God as being through Jesus Christ … to good works as your pathway … to feeling that God calls everyone in different ways. You are all sitting here worshiping together this morning … in some ways we represent a theological junk drawer every time God's people get together.

Dictionary.com defines salvation as follows:

1. the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc.
2. the state of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.
3. a source, cause, or means of being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc.
4. deliverance from the power and penalty of sin; redemption.

No matter how we think we get to salvation, I like starting at what it is about – in salvation we are rescued, find protection, delivered. The power of our sins is released and we find the power to do good. We find salvation language in the Psalms that speak of God sheltering us in God's hands; lifting us up on eagle's wings, walking with us even in the valley of the shadow of death. Our desire for salvation is the desire to know that there is something bigger than, something more than the incongruity of the world … a world that certainly needs rescuing. Not only do we want to make sense of our individual suffering … we want to find answers to the craziness of the world. Another school shooting was reported this week, yet another was reported as being thwarted. And yet other such incidents went unreported in national news. What is going on that this has become an almost common occurrence? Our desire for salvation is both very personal, and at the same time corporate.

How do we get there? Again, Christian history has almost as many answers as there are denominations. My personal starting point is in Paul's letters. First in Philippians:

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

And then in I Corinthians:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. (I Corinthians 13:11)

In his sermon on the Philippians text John Wesley talks about working out our salvation:

But what are the steps which the Scripture directs us to take, in the working out of our own salvation? The Prophet Isaiah gives us a general answer, touching the first steps which we are to take: "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." If ever you desire that God should work in you that faith whereof cometh both present and eternal salvation, by the grace already given, fly from all sin as from the face of a serpent; carefully avoid every evil word and work; yea, abstain from all appearance of evil. And "learn to do well:" Be zealous of good works, of works of piety, as well as works of mercy; family prayer, and crying to God in secret. Fast in secret, and "your Father which seeth in secret, he will reward you openly." "Search the Scriptures:" Hear them in public, read them in private, and meditate therein. At every opportunity, be a partaker of the Lord's Supper. "Do this in remembrance of him: and he will meet you at his own table. Let your conversation be with the children of God; and see that it "be in grace, seasoned with salt." As ye have time, do good unto all men; to their souls and to their bodies. And herein "be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." It then only remains that ye deny yourselves and take up your cross daily. Deny yourselves every pleasure which does not prepare you for taking pleasure in God, and willingly embrace every means of drawing near to God, though it be a cross, though it be grievous to flesh and blood. Thus when you have redemption in the blood of Christ, you will "go on to perfection;" till "walking in the light as he is in the light," you are enabled to testify, that "he is faithful and just," not only to "forgive" your "sins," but to "cleanse" you from all unrighteousness." (Global Ministries, John Wesley )

I am drawn by Paul's text because it leaves room for my questions … I have found my story, my path to salvation in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In his example I have the path for my own living set out. It is a story that I want to share with others, so that in the words of scripture, "they too might have life and have it abundantly." And yet, in my theological junk drawer is the question of exclusivity. Some of Christianity teaches that Jesus is the only way. What does that mean for my charming third grade friend who reads the Koran in Arabic for his mosque and can count to ten in Korean pig Latin? Do we as Christians have the only story of God's salvation? In the end, those are questions that I leave for God, remembering that Paul's wisdom tells me it is my own salvation I need to be working on … enabling me to do God's will and works … looking for the day when my adulthood is complete and I will no longer see through a mirror dimly, but see God face to face.

Go back to the 2007 Sermons page.
Go back to the UMC Red Bank home page.