The Rev. Margaret Watson
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Isaiah 28:14-22 | Psalm 46 | Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-29 | Luke 22:24-30
Lord, will only a few be saved? The Gospel is rampant with questions of salvation. How will I be saved, Lord? When will I be saved? What must I do, Lord, to be saved? This question in particular, how many Lord? Only a few? - it reminds me of when I was a curator for a museum. We were taught about objects, - what they were made of, how they were made and when and who. We went looking for objects to put in the museum collection. Believe me only a very few things of all those things we looked at made it into the collection. And once a month we opened the doors to the public and people would bring in their objects and have the curators tell them what they were. Most of the time we had to tell the folks that those things their great-great grandmother gave them were actually made in 1925. This Gospel also reminds me of the athletes at the Olympics, turned and tested and slowed down on the television. Over and over again these athletes are judged on their skill and workmanship. And which one of us can see the difference of one-thousandth of a second, much less the presumed dolphin-kick that happened in that turn in the pool? Did you see it in real time? I didn't. Is this how it will be for us when we get to the pearly gates? Will we be turned over, upside down, looked at for a maker's mark, our materials tested and examined? Will we pass the muster? Is that what this Gospel is about? Is that the good news of Jesus?
I say that kind of refining judgment is important, but it is the way of the world. It is not a Gospel judgment. These last few weeks we have been hearing of Gospel judgments and the Day of the Lord's coming. How can we, in light of the Good News of Jesus, reconcile this reading - which is about exclusion, or so it seems, about standing on the outside and not being recognized. "Lord, don't you remember me?" How can we reconcile this story of judgment with what we know about our Lord and Savior?
Let's put it in the context of the other readings, the healings for example. Does Jesus say, `Okay, here are the rules? What I want you to do is to accomplish these rules and come back in three years and we will talk about healing you.' The lepers - did Jesus give them a bar to hurdle and then say, `come back when you learn to hurdle it and we will talk about healing?' Or out on the mountains in the plains did Jesus say, `You should have brought your own lunch.' No, that is not it at all! The Gospel tells us that Jesus heals and then says any number of things like, "shh, don't tell" or, "go to the Temple and make sure the priests know you're clean," or, "come follow me." Did Jesus, in feeding the thousands say, `I only have this much and no more?' NO! They picked up in abundance what was left over. So how do we reconcile this Gospel reading with the events that we know about - the events that Jesus lived into in the good news?
One of the things that I am reminded of is Jesus going into the temple, angry, turning over the tables saying, "No, not this way. Don't you get it?" Because Jesus was offering us a new covenant. He did not say, "Go heal thyself," but said, "Come and be healed." He did not say, "Go out and attain a righteous standard of living," but said, "Come, follow me." So what is going on in this Gospel?
Well, if we know that Jesus acted in anger and sometimes frustration when he was dealing with the disciples, could we be listening to some Jesus wit here? "Go ahead and try to make it through the narrow door. Go ahead, try. You can try all you want to, and there will be others that you thought were outside that will get into the gates of heaven before you. Go ahead, try. But I am offering you something new." It is that Gospel topsy-turvy world where all of our assumptions are turned inside out and upside down. The Gospel, the Good News is that we are saved first, and then invited to respond. We are healed first, and then invited to respond. We are cured of our diseases, of mind and body and limb first, and then invited to participate. Our Lord feeds us first every week and our lord heals us, every day, and then invites us to respond. The truth of the story is we cannot save ourselves. We cannot, try as we might, we cannot save ourselves. We are saved only in, by and through Jesus. We are saved only in the cross and resurrection. We can try and try to enter that narrow door but we will not make it. If we try to save ourselves we will find ourselves on the outside looking in and wondering what happened.
Look at it this way. Look at it as a great theological sentence. God- spoke- the- word. The subject is the Father; God the verb is the Holy Spirit, the mover and the shaker. The Word is our Lord and savior. We are all embedded in The Word already by baptism. We do not have to panic. We have nothing to fear. Salvation is already ours. We participate in that word that was spoken at creation and our job is to turn great theological sentence and get the whole object looking back at the subject, God, looking back at the one who spoke The Word. This is our job: Love, reconciliation, revelation. Our job is not judgment or exclusion because we have nothing to fear. In fact it will be folks like you and me at the pearly gates with those who think they are dejected and rejected at the gate weeping, it will be our job to offer them comfort and reconciliation, to show them the other door, the new covenant, the new way in Jesus. How are we to do that? How will you respond? What is the Holy Spirit urging you to do? Just remember one thing in whatever it is that you do, it is not about us. We are saved. It is about our Father in heaven and the coming of his Kingdom and all that we can do to reveal his Kingdom come in the world. There is not much more to say or do because The Word has been spoken and was spoken from the very beginning and salvation has already been accomplished in the cross and resurrection. And we participate in that Word, now and always.
Amen.