Tag: Salvation

The Gospel in a Capsule

From time to time, people ask me which verse of the Bible is the most important. Any answer to that question is a personal value judgment. That said, I usually tell them that, in my opinion, the greatest verse in the Bible is the magnificent affirmation by St. John, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“That statement,” said Martin Luther, “is the Gospel in a capsule.” A perceptive theologian once pointed out that if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed and every page of scripture obliterated, if one Christian could remember that one verse, the most basic premise of our faith would survive. John 3:16 is the very heart of the Christian message.

This well-known verse is set in the context of a clandestine meeting between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. As John tells the story of their meeting, it is obvious that Nicodemus has come to Jesus to discuss the process of salvation. Jesus talks to this leader about the miracle of rebirth, the mystery of the Holy Spirit, and the meaning of Baptism. At the end of their conversation, Jesus sums up the whole meaning of who he is and what his mission is in one simple statement about God’s universal love, humanity's response, and the promise of life eternal.

God’s Universal Love

Here as in most places in the sacred texts, the writer is not referring simply to the planet earth, but to the entire universe. God loves all of it! Love Divine was the motivation in the heart of God from the beginning. God’s universal love always goes the greatest lengths to find expression.

In Jesus Christ, God says to God’s universe, “I love you.” The only fitting response is for us to spend our lives finding ways to say, “I love you too.” God is constantly searching for us, calling to us, wooing us into that relationship that heals what is broken and unwell – that makes us whole.

Humanity’s search for God is the basic premise of most of the world's religions. Judaism and Christianity are exceptions. Both Testaments are the long record of God’s search for humanity – a quest that is grounded in God’s love. Listen carefully: Jesus does not say, “For humanity so loved God.” He says, “For God so loved the world.” That is the basic premise upon which the Gospel is built. It all begins with the love of God.

The Extent of God’s Love

When the New Testament uses the term Son of God to explain the impact of Jesus upon the human situation, the words are chosen very carefully. In the ancient mind, a Son was the extension of his father’s personality. He was part and parcel of his father’s personhood. Thus, when the Bible identifies Jesus as the Son of God, it is portraying Jesus as a projection of God. Jesus is not just a representative of God, he is an expression of God’s very being. God’s gift of the Son is the gift of God’s own life.

A seminary professor made the case that in reading the Prologue to John’s Gospel, one could substitute “Gift” for “Word” so that it reads, “In the beginning was the Gift…and the Gift was with God and the Gift was God.” His point was that from the beginning of time God has been giving God’s self and Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of that divine self-giving.

God’s Promise of Life Eternal

The first Christian teachings about eternal life were based on the thought of St. Paul. Paul believed that death was a sort of sleep and that we shall be resurrected when Christ returns. For example: “I would not have you ignorant of those who have fallen asleep” (I Thessalonians 4:13) and “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” (I Corinthians 15:51). There is one occasion in the writings attributed to Paul in which he looks at resurrection in terms other than in the future. In it, he speaks of how in our union with Christ, God “made us alive with Christ…and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:5, 6).

In this exception, Paul is more like St. John, who looks at eternal life as a NOW experience. Eternal life is not just a quantity of existence, but a quality as well. Those who comprehend the depth of God’s love and receive the gift of God’s Son by the response of faith (believing) are already participating in eternal life here and now. In fact, the term eternal life is synonymous with abundant life, Kingdom of God, and Kingdom of Heaven – the central theme of Jesus’ mission.

Eternal life is a life in which we are constantly learning to love as God loved, through radical self-giving. Jesus taught that whenever we love like that, his joy is in us and our joy is complete. “Love one another,” says Jesus, “just as I have loved you.”

HERE is a beautiful rendition of John Stainer's famous anthem on this verse by the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

March 8, 2018
Confessing Our Faith

The forty days of Lent are set aside for Christian people to prepare for the feast of the Lord’s resurrection. In the early Church, candidates for Baptism were instructed in the Christian faith during this season and prepared for their Baptism early on Easter morning. The already Baptized use this time to remember their own Baptism and prepare for a renewal of their vows.

A good way to begin our preparation is to take a careful look at the faith we profess. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul lays the foundation for the view of salvation based on this faith.

The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, "No one who believes in him will be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." – Romans 10:8b-13

St. Paul begins by saying that Jesus has put an end to legalism. And who would know better than Paul what a legalistic kind of faith was all about? He believed that radical obedience to God’s Law was the requirement for salvation and for a right relationship with the all-holy God. He looked upon God as a celestial creditor, God’s chosen people as debtors, and everybody else as sub-human and outside of God’s concern.

Then, his encounter with Love Divine on the Damascus Road changed all of that. His faith was transformed from trust in his own goodness to trust in the goodness of God. The new faith Paul describes is born not of works but of faith. Our salvation is in being loved by God. Jesus came to tell us that, show us that, and put an end to legalism.

So, St. Paul says that the essence of this faith is the claim that Jesus is the Sovereign of our lives. That means that we can approach the cares and concerns of daily life out of the strength of his love. Even when all else fails, he will never let us go. That is the promise of our Baptism! We are “marked as Christ’s own for ever.”

Jesus is not a good man who once upon a time was martyred for his convictions. He triumphed over the two forces that cause us the greatest anxiety – sin and death. He is a living sovereign who is near to us in our journey through this world and into the next.

Finally, Paul stresses that Jesus is not our private possession. He is everybody’s Sovereign. This is a testimony to the inclusiveness and universality of God’s salvation. This way of faith is not exclusively for one race, or group, or political movement. It is for everyone. If you and I believe that, we can be saved from arrogance, pride, prejudice, judgmentalism, and self-righteousness. To know that the One who rules my life and loves me also loves others transforms the way I see and treat others.

There is an old story about a vagabond who fell ill in Lombardy centuries ago. He sought the aid of doctors. After they diagnosed his malady, one of them said in Latin, “Let us try an experiment with this worthless creature.” Then, to their amazement, from the sick man lying in rags came this question, also in Latin: “Will you call him a worthless creature for whom Christ died?”

Jesus Christ is everybody’s Sovereign!

So, as we begin our Lenten journey, let us examine the faith we confess. Let us reclaim the belief that Jesus came to replace a legalistic relationship with God with one based upon Love Divine freely and generously lavished upon us and all sorts and conditions of people. Let us search for new ways to confess this faith with our lips and in our lives.

I'll see you in Church!

February 11, 2016
Sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole ~ July 19, 2015

The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

Listen to the Sermon for July 19, 2015

Read the Sermon for July 19, 2015

July 19, 2015
Divine Ironies

Sunday’s reading from the Hebrew scriptures (Exodus 1:8-2:10) recounts the story of the birth and rescue of Moses. Consider some ironies that emerge from that story.

The very river in which Moses was to be drowned bore him to safety.

Whenever God is at work in our life, the instruments of our undoing can be transformed into the means of our salvation. That theme is repeated in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And look at what God did with the cross!

Moses realized later in his life that he had been spared (drawn out) for a purpose – to draw out others and lead them to freedom in the land God had promised to their ancestors.

Does God do this only for very special leaders? Certainly. However, each of us has survived the waters of baptism and been drawn out so that we can fulfill a divine purpose. We have been drawn out to be a kingdom of priests and God has a special role for each of us.

There is no pursuit in life more important than finding out what God wants to do with you!

Moses grew up in the court of the one who sought to kill him.

How ironic that the princess should bring a son of the Israelites whom the king had ordered killed right into the palace and name him “son.”

How ironic that Jesus should survive a similar slaughter shortly after his birth, by being taken into Egypt by his parents, and become the savior of the world, the Son of God.

How ironic that you and I manage to grow up under the very nose of so many forces that threaten to retard our growth or enslave us. It would be so easy to never grow up, like Peter Pan. By the grace of God, we can and do grow up in spite of external and internal forces that suggest that life would be better if we remained immature.

When we believe in God and the self God has given a home in our bodies, we just have to grow up, regardless of whatever forces conspire to keep us from growing up, because not to grow is to die.

The will of God was at work in Moses’ life in spite of the will of Pharaoh.

Things could have turned out differently for Moses. But God’s will for his life was stronger than Pharaoh’s or anybody’s.

The story of the Exodus makes it clear that Moses was the instrument of the divine will. It was God who made the escape of the Hebrews from their Egyptian captors possible.

On their journey, whenever Moses or the Hebrews attempted to assert their own wills over God’s will, things did not go well and their progress toward the Promised Land was impeded.

God’s will is strong for us too. We have to seek it daily over and above our own will. Like Jacob, we must struggle in prayer as we seek to blend our wills with God’s.

It is ironic how God delivered Moses, how Moses delivered God’s people, and how God is able to deliver us so that we may grow and blend our wills with the divine will in spite of all sorts of forces around us. That irony makes it all the more wonderful because it is a sign to us that God is still at work, doing more with us than we can do with ourselves.

August 18, 2011