Words of Wonder: Salvation

Sermon

I’ll bet you didn’t expect a sermon on salvation to begin with a reference to the old TV show Gilligan’s Island, but here you are.

For those of us who grew up watching Gilligan’s Island every week, we remember the deserted island somewhere in the Pacific, with the Skipper; Gilligan; millionaires Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III; the sexy movie star, Ginger; the brilliant Professor; and the wholesome Mary Ann from Kansas. The seven castaways had been strangers, but their tour boat was lost at sea in a hurricane. The entire arc of the show was their striving to get back to civilization. A recurring plot was that sometimes, an individual would have an opportunity to be saved, but their plans would be foiled. And the underlying moral was that they were stuck, because they were thinking only of themselves and not saving the whole group of seven.

Biblically speaking, salvation doesn’t happen for the individual, but for the community. Salvation isn’t about “me.” It’s about “we.”

Whenever salvation has been emphasized as getting into heaven or not, we have moved into a religion of requirements. Our faith then becomes religion of a narrow few, deciding who is in and who is out. The Reverend Jim Petersen noted that all the jokes about St. Peter at Heaven’s Gate were focused on keeping people from entering heaven. But, meanwhile, Jesus was busy with a shovel, digging holes and pulling everyone through.

Some have found their way to Westminster after escaping from a church where the emphasis was on individual salvation. There were judgments about who is included and who is excluded. We can see the problems with that view: hypocrisy and a blind eye to this-world problems. But there may be problems in our thinking, too. It has been said that white, progressive Christians really don’t believe we need saving. I’ve been wondering how true that is.

The more easily we’ve had opportunities come to us in life, the more we may be inclined to believe that we’ve made it all on our own. Living with privilege can blind us to our need for God and our deep connection to all others. We can have the illusion that somehow our prosperity, our advantages, or our education shelter us from pain. But suffering is often our teacher. Over the past two years of dealing with the pandemic, the fraying of democracy, and the treacherous path of more and more polarized communities and families, I wonder if even the most privileged have, in moments, inwardly cried out, “SAVE US, LORD!” Our yearning for salvation, in the here and now, is much closer to a Biblical understanding of salvation.

In the Bible, salvation is about shalom: wholeness that connotes not just an absence of war but peace as the wholeness of all living in peace and justice. Salvation is not about “me” but about “we.” Our salvation is collective. But each of us may have a different view of the urgency of what needs saving. For you, what does salvation look like? What yearning have you for healing and wholeness?

I guess that most of us right now think immediately of the need of saving lives in Ukraine. Recently, my twenty-year-old son mentioned his fears of there being a World War III and a new draft which would include him. Right now, for me personally, salvation is my sons’ surviving and thriving. Salvation is wholeness and health for all my loved ones, including you, our congregation. Salvation is peace in Ukraine and in the world. It’s living in a society that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of race or gender or orientation but celebrates all. Salvation is our unity in addressing climate change and in addressing and repairing the root causes of poverty and homelessness.

If you’ve ever been asked “Are you saved?”, there was an underlying concern about your plans for the afterlife. The Bible doesn’t deny an afterlife, but it doesn’t focus on it, either. I have been with people at the end of life and led many memorial services. I do believe that life doesn’t end when our bodies perish. But I don’t claim to know just what does and will happen. I believe in heaven, but I don’t focus on it.

In Hebrew the word for salvation is associated with rescue from danger in this life, like the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. In Greek, it is the word for “it made you well,” so that salvation is meant in physical terms. We read in all the Gospels of Jesus’ ministry of healing. The healing happens not only in the curing of illness or harm but also in the healing that restores community. The lepers are healed physically, but there is a parallel restoration that happens when the hated Samaritan is lifted up as a model for faith.

In English, the word “salvation” comes from the same root as the word “salve,” a healing balm. In its broadest sense, salvation means becoming whole and being healed. So today our scriptures show ways in which God brings wholeness and healing. Salvation is liberation. And Jesus is the one who makes us whole.

Presbyterians and Reformation theology teach us that only God’s grace saves us. God created us; dreams for us of a restored, whole creation; and continually offers healing. Salvation comes from God, but it involves our response. Archbishop Desmond Tutu (quoting Augustine) said, “God without us will not; as we without God cannot.”

God brings wholeness, but we must respond for the salvation to happen. The Israelites were moved to flee from their homes in Egypt. Like refugees in a war, they hastily grabbed what they could carry with them and followed Moses into the desert. Though they grumbled when frightened and hungry, ultimately, their trust was in God who led them into new life.

Another story of salvation came to mind this week. It was the Alfred Hitchcock movie Lifeboat. This film was made in 1944. After a sea battle between an Allied Forces ship and a German U-boat, both sink. Several British and American civilians and service people are stranded in one big lifeboat in the middle of the North Atlantic. This includes a glamorous journalist, a hotheaded engineer, an industrialist, and a radioman. These survivors rescue another man from the water, who turns out to be a Nazi from the U-boat. The survivors argue about whether to let him stay on the boat but soon realize that he may be the only one who is able to steer them to land. The separate individuals needed to come together to defeat a common enemy. Though they all bicker, they get past their differences and disorganization to stay alive.

Friends, we are in one big lifeboat, aren’t we, one big planet Earth lifeboat.

We are threatened with extinction by severe climate change, war, and nuclear arms. In our lifeboat are the masked and unmasked, the vaccinated and unvaccinated, Republican, Democrat, independent. In our boat is European, North American, Ukrainian, and Russian. In our lifeboat are the young and the old and those of us in between. The salvation of “we” will come as we embody the power and compassion of Christ. Wholeness and peace is God’s dream for us, and the power to make it real is ours. But it takes our willing and open hearts, and our commitment to truth and mercy, to live.

Did you know that today is designated Mr. Rogers’ Day? Please, wave your hand if you ever learned something helpful from Mr. Rogers. In closing I want to share a quote from him:

“The connections we make in the course of a life—maybe that’s what heaven is.”—Fred Rogers

Maybe this is our salvation. . .

There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole. . .

There is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sin sick soul. . .