This Week’s Sermon – Time in the Wilderness

Hi everyone! Here is this Sunday’s sermon. As we move into Lent we begin to walk with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem, which, in Luke’s Gospel, starts in the wilderness. I hope God speaks to you through these words.

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 SCRIPTURE
 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’^“

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
   ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

SERMON

“Time in the Wilderness”
Luke 4:1-13
Feb. 22, 2007

You probably don’t know this, but during my first week here at CCC, I almost quit.

I believe it was my third day on the job. I had just gotten my office situated: framed seminary degree on the wall, the pens neatly arranged in a mug on my desk, my new Bible taken out of its shrink wrap and placed on a shelf close at hand. I mean, I was ready for this ministry thing!

And then the phone rang. Wow, a phone call to me, a minister! I answered, “Community Christian Church, this is Kory.”

On the other end was a lady who was distraught over her teenage daughter. The daughter had been acting extremely rebellious lately, staying out until the morning hours, and basically wreaking havoc on the family. As I listened, I secretly began wondering what page this was on in my Intro. to Pastoral Counseling textbook, and if the phone cord would reach far enough across the room so I could grab it before she stopped talking.

After about four minutes of venting, the woman paused and said, “So, what do I do?” Remembering my training, I didn’t try to offer any quick solutions or patronizing advice; like my professor said, empathize and be honest. In my best pastor voice I said, “Gosh, that’s a tough situation you’re in. I wish I had an easy answer for you.” There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then a very perturbed voice said, “Well, that’s just not good enough!”

Obviously, this woman hadn’t taken the same Pastoral Counseling class I did, because she was suppose to thank me for my honesty and then tell the congregation what a wonderful listener I was. As I sat in the very uncomfortable silence following that comment, I wondered if I hadn’t somehow misheard God when He called me; maybe what God actually said was that I was supposed to work with plaster. I began wondering if Home Depot was hiring.

I think Jesus can relate to the rough start of my ministry. Luke tells us that Jesus goes to the
Jordan River and is baptized, which marks the beginning of his ministry, and then immediately is led into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting and an encounter with Satan. No meet-and-greets, no potluck socials or newsletter articles. At his baptism, Jesus heard a voice say, “This is my son.” And now, in the wilderness, he hears, “If you are the son of God.” Just like my situation, Jesus is being forced to question his identity.

But it’s not only Jesus’ identity that’s at stake; it’s the whole identity of the Jewish people. The people listening and reading this story when it first circulated would have heard in it many parallels to an earlier story. After Moses freed the Israelites, they spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness. In fact, Jesus responds to Satan with quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, which chronicles part of that journey.

But this temptation story calls to mind an even earlier tale, in which Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted some of God’s other children. These two weren’t as strong as Jesus, and gave into the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit. Jesus isn’t just fighting for his own identity; he has a chance to undo what was done in the Garden of Eden, to break Satan’s sinful hold on humanity. If he can say no to temptation.

Now, it’s not really fair, because we know the end of the story, but if we try to listen to it like we don’t know what’s going to happen, we have reason to doubt whether Jesus will be strong enough. After all, he hasn’t done any miracles or healed anyone yet. Plus, he’s been fasting for forty days. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I’m hungry, I’m vulnerable. If I go shopping on an empty stomach, I easily succumb to all kinds of temptations. I’ll get home and Leigh will say, “Do we really need four bags of potato chips and three cartons of Rocky Road ice cream?” What can I say, I was hungry!

So Satan strikes at Jesus when he is most vulnerable. Isn’t that the way temptation works? It’s when we’re at our weakest, our most exposed, that temptation will try to lure us. Like Mae West said, “I generally avoid temptation, unless I can’t resist it.” It’s hard to resist it when you’re hungry, or lonely, or unhappy.

So Jesus is faced with a series of three tests from Satan. This text is the answer for anyone who questions Jesus’ humanity. Was Jesus really human? This passage tells us that, like any human being, Jesus faced temptation. That means temptation is not a sin. It’s not wrong to be tempted, only to give into it. We don’t think of Martin Luther as a great comedian, but he once said, “You can’t help it if a bird flies over your head, but you don’t need to let it make a nest in your hair.” Temptation is not sin, but it is the wakeup call that tells us sin is lurking close.

In all three of these temptations, Satan tries to get Jesus to act independently of God. First, he tempts him to turn a stone into bread. Now, for a man who hadn’t eaten in 40 days, that had to be a tough one to resist. I mean, if I go a couple of hours without food, I’m scouring the snack cabinet at our house. But forty days? Making one loaf of bread doesn’t seem like that big a deal, does it? It makes sense that God would want His son to eat, right?

Isn’t it easy to rationalize our way into giving in? It’s only a small thing, no one will know, I’ll put an extra $20 in the offering plate on Sunday to make up for it. We do this, don’t we? We start out arguing with the temptation, ready to show it who’s boss, but we often end up playing with the idea until it becomes too attractive to resist. If we engage Satan in a debate, we’ll always lose. You’re not going to persuade Satan to change his ways, but he sure can persuade you if you give him the chance. When we rationalize, we begin to tell ourselves rational lies.

For the second temptation, Satan offers to give Jesus authority over all the world if Jesus will bow down and worship him. What Satan is playing on here is the human inclination for ambition. It’s the desire to get ahead, to climb the ladder. The problem is that ambition often requires us to worship something or someone along the way other than God. Is it possible to be a Godly person and still get ahead? Probably. But for a Godly person, getting ahead isn’t the goal; pleasing God is. There is no goal in life so noble that it is worth abandoning God along the way.

For the third temptation, Satan actually uses scripture to try and convince Jesus. Twice Jesus has answered Satan with scripture, so Satan becomes more devious. It’s important that we realize not every use of scripture has pure and noble intentions. The Bible can be misused for ungodly purposes just as well as it is used by Godly people. That’s why being familiar with the Bible is so important. Otherwise, we’re tempted to believe anything someone says if it’s followed by chapter and verse numbers.

Satan tries to make Jesus test God so that God could demonstrate the faithfulness of his promises. This is a hard one for us to avoid. Without even thinking, we’ll try to coerce God into a “show me” position. We pray for something to happen, and the unspoken part of the prayer is, “If this doesn’t happen, God, you’ve failed me.” And when God doesn’t pass the test we’ve set up for Him, we feel like God has abandoned us. Yes, anything is possible with God. But as Jesus reminds us, we don’t get the luxury of dictating which impossible thing it is that God has to do.

So Jesus survives all three temptations. How would you have done? I’d probably be eating bread and bowing down to Satan while I was falling off the temple. Like Rita Mae Brown said, “Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.” But Jesus doesn’t give in, even though he was at his most human. Just think what would have happened if he did. His mission on earth – to die for our sins and give us eternal life – would have been lost.

Jesus didn’t give in because he knew his mission; he knew his identity. He knew what God created him to do, and he measured everything he did against that mission. His purpose was to glorify God, and giving into those temptations would not help him fulfill his purpose. Jesus will make a miraculous amount of bread, but it was to feed others, not himself. Jesus will have authority over the kingdoms of the world, but that authority will come through much pain and suffering and obedience. And God will rescue Jesus, but not until three days after he is crucified and buried. All of these things will be fulfilled, but it will be because Jesus is dependent on God, not acting independently of Him.

What is your mission? What is your purpose? What is your identity? Let me try to help you answer that. You are a child of God, and you were created for the purpose of bringing God glory and helping to make his kingdom real here on earth. That is what you were created for. You’re going to be tempted to say and do all kinds of things that have nothing to do with that purpose. You’ll be tempted to say, “Look at me!” instead of, “Look at God.” You’ll be tempted to do your own thing instead of doing God’s thing. You’ll be tempted to forget your identity and to forego your faithfulness. But because of what Jesus did in the wilderness, you have the power to resist those temptations.

We have entered the season of Lent, which is – hmm, what do you know? – 40 days long. My prayer is that, during this time, you are hungry for God’s word and presence in your life, and that you remember who you are: you are God’s child. Every time you are tempted to do something that won’t help you fulfill your mission, that won’t bring God glory and advance his kingdom here on earth, remember who you are, who you are dependent on, and who you are called to be.

QUESTIONS

1- What food do you find the most tempting, especially if you’re trying to eat well?

2- Have you ever fallen into the trap of putting God to the test? What happened?

3- What does this scripture say to you about facing temptation?

Made for a Mission

I wrote this article shortly after the General Board approved our new Mission Statement. It’s a powerful statement, and I believe it’s important that we continue to keep it in front of us as we do God’s work.

We are called to…
  Welcome people into a loving and caring church family;
  Equip people with a Christ-centered faith that works in real life;
  Share God’s love for us through compassionate service to others.
We are called to be Community…Christian…Church.

Our new mission statement is one of the best I’ve ever read, and I commend the Long Range Planning Committee for their hard work in making it a reality. It captures who we are, and who we are called to be.

In fact, that’s the first line: “We are called to be…” That call comes from God, and we’ve heard it in the Bible, in our prayers, and from each other. The “welcome…equip…share” of the mission statement aren’t simply things we’d like to do or feel we should be doing. We feel as if God has called us to do these things, which gives them added importance in our life together.

First, we are called to “welcome people into a loving and caring church family.” The key word is hospitality. Hospitality means not only how we welcome others, but also how we continue to treat one another after that welcoming. A lot of churches are great at welcoming people in, but then ignore the person in order to welcome the next one. We are called not only to welcome people in, but also to help them become a part of our loving and caring church family. Our hospitality doesn’t end when the visitor becomes a frequent visitor or a member; our love and care for them, and for each other, should extend indefinitely.

Next, we are called to “equip people with a Christ-centered faith that works in real life.” That challenges us to not be a pie-in-the-sky church, but to help each other work through the daily struggles that go with faith. We do that through our worship, through Bible studies, and through our encouragement of each other. We are called to help each other keep the faith from Monday through Saturday, as we apply our Sunday faith to the rest of our lives in order to remain faithful servants.

Lastly, we are called to “share God’s love for us through compassionate service to others.” We are the blessed recipients of God’s wondrous love for us, and there’s no way we can contain it all. It overflows in us, so we are called to share our abundance with others. We do this so that everyone we come in contact with will know of God’s love for them. We are truly God’s hands and feet in this world, and it is our job to make God’s compassion know through our actions.

We are called to be a community full of love. We are called to be Christians whose lives are guided by their faith. We are called to be a church, the embodiment of God’s love in this world. We are called to be Community…Christian…Church. May God bless and strengthen us as we strive to fulfill this mission.

What Should I Call You?

The other day I was meeting with a new family in the church, and they asked me, “What should we call you?” I’ve been called a lot of names in my life; some of them can even be reprinted in a family forum. In my vocation, I’ve been called everything from “Father” to “Rabbi”. I’m still waiting to hear “May I speak to Shaman Kory?”

When I first came to CCC, I was asked if I would rather be called a pastor or a minister. You may not think there’s any difference between the two; for a long time, I didn’t. But through my training I’ve come to learn that there’s a significant difference, which is why I prefer to be called a pastor.

The reason I don’t prefer the title “minister” is because that’s not my title to have. At my home church in Jeffersonville, in their Sunday bulletin, they list the staff this way: “Pastor – Bruce Barkhauer; Ministers – All our members.” If a minister is one who does ministry, then every person who sets foot in our church is a minister, or at least a potential one. Yes, I’m a minister, but so are you.

For too long now, the idea of ministry has been confined within the church walls. It’s time to break down those walls and let ministry be reclaimed by the ministers – all of you! Each and every one of you are involved in a ministry. Some serve within the church – leading or working on committees, singing in the choir, providing refreshments for Coffee Fellowship, etc. Every single person who serves in the church is vital.

Many more of you serve outside the church: in your neighborhood, in your job, even in your own family. “Doing ministry” does not require seminary training and a black robe; it simply requires a desire to serve others, to put God and others first.

A woman who was a local church member once took some time out of her day to feed a homeless person and help him find temporary shelter. When she saw her pastor, she complained, “I think ministers should do something about the homeless!” And the pastor responded, “It sounds to me like a minister did!”

I know so many of you are involved in wonderful civic and service organizations, giving countless hours to serving others. What I’m encouraging you to do is to see that work as a ministry, and to claim it as such. Helping kids cross the street to school is a ministry; working with Riverside Foundation is a ministry; coaching a youth sports team is a ministry. We are all first and foremost Christians, and what we do outside the church is an extensive of who we are called to be inside the church.

You are a minister. You do ministry. You may not consider this to be true, but I’ve seen you in action, and I know it is. The church needs you. The world needs you. I’m proud to be one of the pastors for such a wonderful, dedicated group of ministers.

Christianity’s Dirty Words – “Heaven”

Welcome to a new week, everyone! I hope yours is off to a good start, despite the snow. I like it when the snow is powdery and easy to shovel! Here’s this week’s sermon, the last in the sermon series on “Christianity’s Dirty Words.” I hope it is a blessing to you.

SCRIPTURE – Rev. 21:1-4

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  

 SERMON

Christianity’s Dirty Words
#6 – “Heaven”
Feb. 11, 2007

“Sesame Street” has a game where they show four pictures and then ask you to figure out which one doesn’t fit. They’ll show an apple, a banana, an orange, and a platypus, then sing, “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong…” By the way, it’s the platypus.

You may think that song applies to our dirty word today. We finish up our sermon series called “Christianity’s Dirty Words,” in which we’ve been looking at words from our vocabulary of faith whose biblical meanings have been corrupted by the world. Sin, suffering, obedience…Heaven?

I’ll buy the fact that “Heaven” may not be a dirty word, but is easily the most misused and misunderstood. That’s not for lack for trying. It’s been the subject of movies like “What Dreams May Come,” countless TV shows, like the recent 2-hour Barbara Walters special, and it’s even become a mild expletive, like when the cartoon cat Snagglepuss would exclaim, “Heavens to Mergatroid!”

Before we can begin to understand the biblical idea of Heaven, we must agree to this disclaimer: we’re embarking on a dead-end journey. There’s simply no way we can understand what Heaven is truly like. Imagine trying to describe to an unborn baby, who has only known the inside of its mother’s womb, what life on the outside is like. How do you do it? Where do you start? That’s what it’s like for us to try and describe Heaven. Paul tells the Corinthians, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” It’s simply beyond our comprehension.

So what do we do when we can’t understand something? We try to put it in human terms. We do this with God all the time. It’s called anthropomorphizing. We give God eyes and ears, we talk about God being a He or a She, we speak of God holding us close or reaching out to us. We use our human terms to try and describe the indescribable. It’s not necessarily a wrong thing to do, but we run the risk of trivializing that which we are trying to understand.

Heaven is a perfect example of this. I think there are three ways in which we have misrepresented the biblical understanding of Heaven, and which we must be willing to discard if we’re going to come close to comprehending it. The first faulty description of Heaven is geographical. We talk about Heaven as a place “up there somewhere,” a physical destination where people with wings sit on clouds. This understanding was contested by Yuri Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut and first man in space who said, “I flew into space, but I did not see God there.” Our increasingly sophisticated technology has helped us understand the scope of our universe in such a way that a Heaven “up there” doesn’t hold water anymore. It may be helpful for us to think of it that way – after all, the “up there” concept of Heaven also provides a welcoming contrast to what’s in the other direction – but the Bible simply doesn’t give us a physical location.

A second way we’ve misrepresented Heaven is that we think of it chronologically. We understand eternal life only from the dimension of time. It’s a question I hear a lot: “Eternity: what am I going to do with all that time?” This was captured by Gary Larson in one of his Far Side cartoons. It shows a guy with angel wings and a bored expression sitting on cloud, thinking, “I wish I’d brought a magazine.”

That probably describes the predominant worldview of Heaven. Streets of gold, angels with wings and harps, people sitting on clouds, forever…and ever…and ever. Pastor Dan Schaeffer made this very honest comment about his view of Heaven. He said, “I was more grateful about not going to Hell than I was thrilled by the hope of Heaven. It was like finding out you didn’t have to get your gums scraped after all; instead, you got to watch paint dry. It seemed a choice between eternal punishment and eternal boredom.”

So we try to describe Heaven geographically and chronologically. The final way we’ve misrepresented Heaven is that we’ve come to understand it selfishly. We’ve come to think that Heaven exists purely for our own pleasure, a reward for being good here on Earth. Heaven is like the ultimate retirement village; it’s an eternal weekend in Palm Springs. When we get to Heaven, St. Peter stamps our hand and we’re turned loose in this divine amusement park where we can eat Krispy Kremes and Reese’s Cups all day and still maintain our svelte physique. Our mistake is thinking that Heaven is about us.

The writers of the Bible, while still human, had divine inspiration in describing Heaven, which may mean their representation has more truth to it than our modern ones. In the book of Revelation, John writes about getting taken up into Heaven, where he sees God on his throne, surrounded by four living creatures. John says, “Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.’”

If Heaven is a place, then John says it is a place of worship. Revelation says that Heaven is basically an eternal worship service. Now, before you roll your eyes, remember this: in Heaven, everything that we know on earth to be imperfect will be perfected. On earth we can only know imperfect joy, imperfect health, even imperfect love. But in Heaven, everything will be perfect, and our worship will be perfect worship, which could mean that everyone sings on key, the sound system always works, and no one ever drops a communion tray. Whatever our heavenly worship is like, we do know this: we were created for God, and we fulfill our highest purpose when we are worshipping our Creator. In Heaven, we will do what we were created to do.

The Bible also addresses the issue of the chronology of Heaven. We can only think in terms of time, but we have to remember that God is timeless. In the very beginning of Genesis, when God creates light and separates the light from the darkness, God is in essence creating a way for humans to mark time – days and nights. But God existed before time was made. A good friend once described it this way: We watch a movie from beginning to end, but God can see the whole movie at once. Heaven isn’t necessarily a place, or a length of time, but a way of being, a way of existing eternally in perfect relationship with God.

Finally, we are told that Heaven is not about our wants and needs. That doesn’t mean that we won’t enjoy it; after all, it is the closest we will ever get to God. But Heaven is about what God wants, and what God wants more than anything, is for us to be with Him.

How do you feel when you return from a long trip and walk in the door of your house? Those familiar sights, that favorite scent, those same clothes still piled on the stairway. Is there a truer axiom than, “It’s always good to come home”? When we die, through our faith in Jesus Christ, we don’t leave home; we go home, to be with our loved ones who have gone before us, and with our Creator. In John’s gospel Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” That doesn’t mean when we die we’ll get a Victorian with a two-car garage or a Tudor with a nice deck on the back. Jesus isn’t saying we’ll get our dream house; he’s saying we’ll be home.

As comfortable as we may get here on earth, we must remember that this is not our home. We are only travelers passing through, as Paul reminds us in Philippians when he says, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

When we go home, we will be made perfect. Did you hear what Paul said? Our lowly bodies will be transformed so they are like Christ’s glorious body.” Do you know what that means? Adios, Alka Seltzer. Take a hike, Tylenol. So long, Zoloft. Later, Lipitor. We can even bid good riddance to Rogaine!

One of the most awesome promises Heaven holds for us is the perfection of our bodies. Alzheimer’s won’t have the last word. Cancer won’t have the last word. Heart disease and birth defects and brain tumors won’t have the last word. God will have the last word. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” I doubt any of us want to die, but what the Bible promises is that we need not fear death, because it is not the end of our lives, only the end of everything that has made life hard to live.

Paul reminds us to “fix our eyes on what is unseen, because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” In other words, we are called to live with the promise of Heaven always on our minds, and letting those promises guide how we live each day. C.S. Lewis said, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most about the next one.” As we look forward to the day when we will go home, may we do our part to live out the prayer: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.”

QUESTIONS

1 – Can you describe a moment when or a place where you experience “Heaven on earth”?

2 – How would describe Heaven to someone not familiar with the concept?

3 – What, if anything, has God said to you through this sermon series?

So Here I Am…

I was laying in the hospital bed on Friday, March 2, 2000. It was late in the evening, because I can remember how dark and somber the room felt. It was just my mom and me in the room; the steady flow of visitors throughout the day had ebbed. My last visitor had been the worst. It was the doctor. He came by to show me what my MRI had revealed: I had several lesions in my brain that meant there was a good chance I had multiple sclerosis.

I didn’t know what that meant, or what it would mean for the future, so with my mom there, I cried and prayed, “God, what does this mean? What do I do?” And when I opened my eyes, there stood Rick Ross. Now, I imagine most people in Rick’s position would have quickly assessed the situation and politely excused himself. It was obvious I was in a lot of distress, and the last thing I wanted was a visitor. But Rick stayed.

You see, Rick was used to distress and hospital rooms. Only two months earlier, he had lost his wife Linda to pneumonia. She was a sweet lady, only in her 40s, and beloved by the church. Rick had shown incredible strength during the whole ordeal, and managed to be an inspiration and comfort to us when we were supposed to be doing that for him.

So there Rick stood, hands in his jacket pockets, watching me cling to my mother and cry. I tried to gather myself as best as possible and but on my hospitality face, but Rick didn’t care. He simply said, “God sent me.”

“Did you know,” he continued, “that Linda was in the room right next to this one before she died? I pulled into the parking lot tonight, and I didn’t think I’d be able to come in. But God told me to; He said I had to see you. So I came in the hospital. But when I got on the elevator, I couldn’t bring myself to push the button for this floor, for Linda’s floor. But I had to. And then I saw your room, and I saw her room, and I knew I couldn’t walk into a hospital room again. But God told me it would be OK. So here I am.”

Indeed, there he was. I didn’t know what kind of journey I was facing in my life, but I couldn’t imagine it being any more difficult than the journey Rick had just made to see me. I remembered my prayer, “God, what do I do?” And I remembered Rick’s words, “God told me it would be OK. So here I am.” In the midst of my darkness, only a few days after Ash Wednesday, Rick had brought a glimpse of Easter into my hospital room.

He didn’t cure me of MS. He didn’t promise me that life would be a cakewalk. He didn’t promise me I wouldn’t be debilitated in some way. He only told me that it would be OK. So here I am.

Christianity’s Dirty Words – “Salvation”

Greetings everyone! I would appreciate prayers for my poor computer, which decided to stop working last week. Maybe it got too cold! I also want you to know I’m available to all Bears fans for counseling. Here is this week’s sermon; as always, I look forward to hearing what you think!

SCRIPTURE – Ephesians 2:1-10

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

SERMON

Today’s sermon is a bookend to last week’s sermon on sin. To understand the word “salvation” and its meaning in the context of faith, we first have to understand the concept of sin. Salvation only makes sense if we understand what we’re being saved from.

But that understanding doesn’t always come easily, because the word “salvation,” or more accurately, the idea of “being saved,” have taken on a life of their own in our culture. “Being saved” has become something like a check of your spiritual I.D. to make sure you’re worthy of being allowed in the club.

When I was young, I remember visiting a church in my hometown that had a “holy roller” reputation. I was playing on the playground before church started when a boy came up to me asked said, “Have you been saved?” Now, I had never heard this question before, so I assumed he was referring to some form of danger that lurked on the playground, maybe a pit of quicksand or a charge rhino or something. So I looked around and said, “Saved from what?” And he paused for a second, and said, “Hmm. I don’t know. I just know it’s important.” Yes it is important to be saved, but it’s just as important to know what we’re being saved from.

I would guess the understanding of the word “salvation” in our culture is not great, but the concept is very popular. I believe one of the greatest hungers of our society is a desire to be saved from the empty promises of this world. People look for salvation in therapists’ offices and self-help books and TV talk shows. Webster’s defines salvation as “the act of saving or protecting from harm, risk, loss, destruction, etc.” People are looking for anything that will protect them from the risks of living life, so they seek salvation.

But that’s not the word that gets used. In fact, the word “salvation” isn’t spoken much outside church at all. Like the word “sin,” “salvation” is a word mostly used by insiders. We Disciples of Christ tend to shy away from salvation language; we don’t talk about “being saved.” But we believe in it nonetheless. Do we know what we mean when we talk about salvation? What does it mean to be saved? What does it look like?

Like the boy who approached me on the playground, many people talk about being saved as if it is a one-time event. You’re unsaved, and then – boom! – you’re saved. It’s like the metal detectors at airports. We need salvation detectors at our church doors. When someone steps through and the alarm goes off, we hand them a Bible and say, “Sir, would you please step back and read the Gospel of Luke?”

There is an example in the Bible that supports this view of a one-time salvation event. Paul is converted in an instant on the road to Damascus. The problem is that Paul’s experience has been lifted up as the norm for conversions. Unsaved – boom! – saved. But that is only one example of salvation in the Bible, and we need to look at the whole body of God’s work before defining what salvation means.

The Bible talks about salvation in three ways. The first way is in the past tense. Paul says in Romans 8, “For this hope we were saved.” Through Christ’s death on the cross, all those we believe in him were saved. The danger of this viewpoint, of course, is that we view salvation only in the past tense, we may think that everything’s already done and we therefore can live our lives however we want. “I’m already saved, what does it matter if I beat up a Colts fan?” Salvation in the past tense doesn’t mean we don’t have some present responsibilities as believers. Paul tells the Corinthians, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful you don’t fall!” In other words, just because you’re saved doesn’t mean you’re free to check your common sense and good judgment at the door. A person whose heart has been changed by salvation will always reflect that salvation in the way they live their lives and the choices they make. They will reflect the spirit of God that now dwells within them by virtue of their salvation.

The Bible also talks about salvation in the future tense, pointing toward that time when Christ will come again. Paul says until that moment, we wait eagerly for our adoption as children of God. Salvation has occurred through Jesus Christ, and will be fully realized when God’s kingdom comes here on earth. The problem with this view is that if people believe their ultimate salvation is yet to come, they begin to wonder what they need to do to ensure that. I call it the “Jesus is coming – look busy!” syndrome. There was a man in the Bible who fell prey to this way of thinking. He was a rich man who felt he had done everything Jesus wanted him to do. He was a good man, upstanding citizen, solid believer. To ensure his eternal salvation, he asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life? The downfall of this man was his emphasis is on the word “do.” As soon as we start believing there’s something we can do to earn salvation – the technical term is works-righteousness – we’ve lost sight of the Christ’s work on the cross. Salvation is abandoning the misconception that you are rejected because of your bad behavior or accepted because of your goodness.

But some people think of salvation as a trophy rather than a gift, something to be earned once they have enough gold stars on their spiritual chore chart. Others equate joining the church with salvation; if we put ourselves around other believers, salvation will rub off on us. I heard a very disturbing statistic last week at a conference: 60% of church attenders have unconverted hearts. Sixty percent of people in church have not done the one thing needed to be saved. That one thing is stated by Peter in his great sermon on the day of Pentecost. He says simply, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How can 60% of churchgoers, people who presumably listen to the gospel every week, not accept this free gift God offers? What is keeping them from accepted Christ as their Savior?

So the Bible talks about salvation in the past tense and in the future tense. The third and most intriguing way the Bible talks about salvation is in the present tense. Paul, who obviously talked a lot about salvation, says this to the church in Corinth: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” “Are being saved,” he says. In another passage he tells the Corinthians not to lose heart, because “though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

This present tense understanding of salvation is most powerful, because it helps us better understand what is being saved. The primary way we interpret salvation is that, because of Christ’s death on the cross, we are saved from the penalty of our sins. John Stott said that the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. By dying on the cross, Jesus saved us from the paying the price for our sinfulness and cleared the way for us to go to Heaven.

But if we put a period at the end our definition there, we miss the point. As Phillip Gulley and James Mulholland note in their book, “If Grace Is True,” “Salvation is more than a ticket to Heaven. It is more than a Get Out of Hell Free card. It is more than just eternal life. Salvation is being freed of every obstacle to intimacy with God.” That’s the present tense of salvation. It’s not just the one-and-done deal of forgiving our sins; it’s not just the future hope of getting into Heaven. We are being saved day by day so that we can be in relationship with God. And that requires us every day to die to our sinful self and rise as a child of God.

We tend to focus so much on what we are saved from that we forget what we are saved for. Although our culture doesn’t use the word “salvation” much, it uses another word with the same root: “Salvage.” Webster’s defines “salvage” as “to save for further use.” There’s a show on the Discovery Channel called “Dirty Jobs.” Have you seen this? The host, Mike Rowe, goes around doing the some of the most disgusting jobs imaginable, like, and I quote, “salmon carcass counter, owl vomit collector, and volcanic mud bath mixer.” On one show, Mike joined a couple of guys whose job it was to suit up in scuba gear and go to local golf courses. They would dive into all the ponds and retrieve the golf balls. I noticed a few of them had the initials “KW” written on them. They would then clean off the golf balls and resell them.

In working with us, God has a dirty job. Do you agree? God’s work is salvage work. God has to dip his hand into the mess and muck of our lives to salvage our souls. God dipped his son into this world so he could do salvage work on the cross. If we only think we are saved from something, we’re missing the salvage work of Christ.

We are also saved for something. We are saved to be God’s children on this earth. We are saved to continue God’s salvage work in the lives of others. We are saved to be God’s witnesses, to be the embodiment of God’s love to others. Being saved from sin is wonderful, but being saved for God’s work is even better. I get asked occasionally, “How can I know that I’m saved?” I believe that this is the evidence of salvation: because you have received this free gift from God, your life no longer revolves around yourself, but around God’s presence and work in your life, and your gratitude is expressed in giving your life to God for God’s use.

We have been saved. We will be saved. And every day we are being saved, saved from the destructiveness of sin and saved for God’s salvage work. I’ll ask you the question I was once asked: Are you saved? Have you said, “Jesus, I accept you as my Savior, and in return I give you my life”? If you are, the God bless you. If not, if you are one of the 60%, come see me, I’d love to hear your story. I believe I have a wonderful gift to offer you, a gift that fills the hunger you feel deep down inside. It’s an amazing gift, actually. And the best part? It’s free.

QUESTIONS

1 – Have you ever had a negative experience with the word “salvation” or the concept of “being saved?”

2 – Do you resonate more with the past, present, or future tense of “salvation?”

3 – What is one kind of work that you believe God has “salvaged’ you to do?