Saved for What?
Psalm 51; Gal. 5:1; 13-14
Rev. Laura J. Collins
March 16, 2003
In the mid-1980s apartheid was alive and well in South Africa and across this country, on college campuses and at corporate meetings, protests were underway to encourage divestment from business in South Africa until the political situation changed. American churches were also making decisions about their own investments. In the United Methodist Church, many clergy had been calling for divestment, but some of the denomination's agencies would not comply.
One clergy group met on a summer retreat and shared their sense of failure and discouragement in regard to one non-compliant agency. They sensed that it was not the individuals responsible for making these decisions who were the problem, but that these men and women were being blocked by ungodly spirits which were larger than them: spirits of fear, intimidation, greed, and arrogance. So the gathered group decided to hold a social exorcism.
They spent time in discernment about the problems facing them and the spirits at work in their denomination. They confessed their personal complicity in the evils they witnessed in the world. They shared Scripture and the bread and cup and then, in a liturgy of prayer spoke solemn words of casting out spirits:
"Spirits of fear and intimidation, in the name of Jesus Christ, we order you to depart from this agency and go to Jesus Christ."
They continued with prayers for renewal and support for the members of the agency and finally concluded the service feeling personally exhausted. In the next few weeks some surprising things occurred. The leader of the agency unexpectedly resigned. At the next meeting a perceptible change in attitude occurred and within a few months the agency began making changes that brought it more into line with the denomination's anti-apartheid stance.
As with any prayers for healing, one can't point to clear cause and effect. But in the logic of the spirit, it makes sense that the changes occurred in response to the sincere and careful prayers.(1)
When we think about salvation, scenarios like the one I've just shared are not always what come to mind. But maybe they should be. Because what, exactly, are we being saved for?
"For freedom, Christ has set us free."
Last week I asked the question, what are we being saved from? And in that topic I suggested that our primary concern was not what happened in the next life, but in this one. The same can be said when we think about what we're being saved for.
If the answer to what we're being saved from is hell, then the answer to what we're being saved for is heaven. And while one can certainly find Biblical support for an eschatological interpretation of salvation -- (huh? That just's a fancy word for what happens at the end of time) -- reading the gospels doesn't lead me to believe that this was Jesus' main concern.
As Jesus walked around healing and teaching he said things like, "Your faith has saved you." Not, "Your faith will save you," in the future tense. The examples he used for salvation were very here and now -- a loaf of bread given to a friend, a coin found, physical health restored.
Even in the great parable of the end times in Matthew 25, when the sheep are separated from the goats, those who "enter into life" are those who have taken care of the least all along the way. The sense is that what happens at the end is the continuation of what was happening on earth. Those who "entered life" on earth, "entered life" after it as well.
So, saved for what?
In Presbyterian lingo we have a nice little phrase, "saved to serve." Besides being concise and having good alliteration, I like this phrase because it reminds us that the point is not simply self-preservation, but rather self-fulfillment in the sense of finding one's purpose and living it out. We are not saved from sin just so that we can sleep well at night. We're saved from sin so that we can go about the business of life -- of generous and kind and compassionate life. We are saved from our least generous, least kind, least compassionate self precisely so that the more loving person can emerge.
I think this is what most annoys me about people who knock on my door concerned with my salvation. It is not their interruption of my life or intrusion into my home that I mind so much. I frankly appreciate their audacity. But it is the sense in which I am being persuaded that taking care of my own self for the next life should be my primary concern. It is, in fact, a very selfish approach. Why should I care what happens to me? Shouldn't I rather be willing to risk hell for myself if it would help the world?
John Wesley, who started Methodism, once said that, "Christianity is essentially a social religion and to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it."(2) Here's another preacher's take:
Christian theology is neither no-fault nor full-fault. We do wrong, but we do not do wrong all alone. We live in a web of creation that binds us to all other beings. If we want to be saved, then we had better figure out how to do it together, since none of us can resign from this web of relationship. (3)
Often, however, we prefer to feel really awful about what we've done than to actually do anything differently. "Chronic guilt is the price we're willing to pay in order to avoid change." (4)
Sin, then, gives us hope, because it serves as "the fire alarm that wakes us up to the possibility of true repentance." (5) Sin gives us the reminder to move toward salvation. It's the death notice that reminds us to live our lives.
Salvation is about living life. Living life in fullness or wholeness or shalom, which always means in compassion and justice. Salvation is an "outbreak of health in a sin-sick world." (6)
Think for a moment about the story I began with today. The health that was of immediate concern was the health of a church agency. The clergy praying for the agency didn't identify the members of it as evil, but as people caught in a web of sin, larger than themselves. The healing prayers were for the agency itself and then for the individuals in it. And the larger concern that brought attention to the health of this particular agency was how it was responding to the health of the world. The unwillingness to take a risk for the health of South Africa was an indication that the agency itself was not healthy. So in praying for the nation of South Africa, the Methodist clergy were led to pray for their own church and in praying for their own church, to pray for the individuals working in it.
Salvation cannot occur without all the pieces coming together. We see this in family systems -- someone who is trying to get healthy in a sick family system will have lots of trouble staying healthy unless something in the system itself shifts. Salvation doesn't occur in a vacuum.
We are praying now for our nation, on the brink of war. We are praying for the members of the military whose lives are on the line. We are praying for the people of Iraq who now live under the double threat of Saddam Hussein and the United States. We are praying for our leadership and their leadership. So when I think about my own salvation, it is not simply my petty sins that I worry about, but my web of relationship with a sin-sick world. My salvation is tied up with the salvation of the Iraqi people. My salvation connects me to George Bush and Saddam Hussein.
"For freedom, Christ has set us free."
What am I saved for? For freedom. And not just my own freedom, but the freedom of the world. "Don't use your freedom for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
We are saved to serve. The more aware I become of my own soul's need for healing, the better ready I am to be a healing presence in the world.
We are saved to love. The more deeply I acknowledge the presence of the Loving Creator Spirit in my life, the better I can love you.
And then, I can say with the Psalmist:
"Deliver me ... O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance."
(1) Tilda Norberg and Robert Webber. Stretch Out Your Hand: Exploring Healing Prayer. (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1990), pp. 76-77. (Back to text)
(2) Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, eds. Resources for Preaching and Worship -- Year B. (Westminster John Knox Press) p. 125. (Back to text)
(3) Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 2000) p. 59. (Back to text)
(4) Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 2000) p. 66. (Back to text)
(5) Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 2000) p. 67. (Back to text)
(6) Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. (Cambridge: Cowley Publications, 2000) p. 82. (Back to text)
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