Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
August 31, 2003

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

As most of you know, wars have been fought over the question of whether our salvation requires us to do anything. Literally. In Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries countless thousands, if not millions, of people died in wars that were, nominally at least, fought over whether salvation required "works,"-the Catholic position-or whether it was "sola gratia," by grace alone-the Protestant position. Of course, those wars were also about power and control of people and territory. All wars are. Still, Christianity (Western Christianity at least-the Orthodox are far less hung up on this question) has long seen the central issue of the faith as having to do with salvation understood as the fate of our eternal souls after death; and it has seen the central issue about salvation as being whether we can and must earn our way into heaven by good works or whether that attempt is both futile and unnecessary-futile because we can’t possibly be good enough and unnecessary because salvation comes from God’s grace along and not because we have earned it.

Today, in theory at least, that issue isn’t as central to the faith as it used to be. A few years ago the Roman Catholic Church and the world’s major Lutheran churches reached an accord on the issue that put that dispute behind them. To some of us, it looks like Rome conceded that Martin Luther was right all along, although of course Rome doesn’t see it that way. In any event, Western Christianity no longer fights over this issue the way it used to. We’ve got plenty of other things that keep us busy fighting with each other. I guess we don’t need that one any more.

Still, issues remain on this subject. They remain right here in our own congregation. As some of you know, especially those of you who faithfully attend the Sunday morning adult education series, I believe that our salvation is established once and for all, for all creation, by God and not by us, in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe with the Apostle Paul (at least in his better moments) that God has effected our salvation through grace alone. We don’t have to a single thing to earn it. It is there as a given, as a free and unmerited gift of God.

And yet I know that at least some of you have a problem with my position. At least one of you has told me that my position seems to mean that it doesn’t matter how we live, that anything goes, that if what I say is true people have no incentive to live decent, moral lives. After all, if we are saved no matter how we live, why not just let ‘er rip, throw off all moral constraints, and live lives of unrestrained selfish hedonism? I assume that if one of you has said this to me, many more of you will have the same question. Well, I think I have an answer to that very legitimate concern. It may be one that satisfied no one but me, but I’m going to try this morning to explain it to you any way, in the hope that it may mean something to some of you.

The simple answer is that once you know that God has saved you, you want to do what is right simply because it is right. That really is the answer; and yet it is an answer that most of us get to, if we get to it all, only after a long spiritual journey. So let’s see if there is another, perhaps more helpful way to look at it. First of all, we have to ask what we mean when we say that we are "saved," one technical theological term you may have heard if "justified," by grace. To me it means that God has taken the initiative, in and through Jesus Christ, to set our relationship with God right. It means that as far as God is concerned, everything is square between us. Yes, we sin, and God doesn’t like it; but by grace God forgives us and wipes the slate clean. Yes, much of the time we experience a great separation from God, but by grace God crosses that gap between us and heals the separation. Seen from God’s side, our salvation by grace means that God forgives, accepts, and loves us no matter what. That’s what St. Paul meant, I think, when he wrote those wonderful words I use every week as the words of assurance. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s what salvation looks like from God’s side. It looks like complete and total reconciliation and forgiveness. We can’t and don’t have to do anything to earn it. Christian scripture is, I think, pretty clear on that point. Yet there are all of those other passages that talk about works. Christian scripture is full of directives and admonitions to live in certain ways. There are even passages (quite a few, actually) that seem to say that our salvation does depend on how we live. Certainly it’s easy to read the Gospel of Matthew that way. And the Letter of James, from which our Christian scripture lesson came this morning seems so strongly to say that our salvation depends on works that Martin Luther actually wanted to drum it out of the Bible. In the passage we heard this morning the author (who almost certainly was not the Apostle James) says: "Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves...," because doers of the word "will be blessed in their doing." In the passage in the lectionary for next Sunday, which I may or may not use next Sunday, the author is even more explicit. There he says: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?....[F]aith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." James 2:14, 17. We just said that faith, by grace, can save us. So what are we to make of these passages that tell us we must also live and act in certain ways?

Well, remember that when I said that salvation by grace looks like forgiveness and reconciliation, I said that that’s what it looks like from God’s side. We have to ask, however, what it looks like from our side. From our side it can look very different. On our side, the mere intellectual affirmation that we are saved by God’s grace can leave us still feeling awfully empty. In my experience at least, just saying the words doesn’t do much for us. We’re still left with what Ron Rolheiser, a Catholic writer on spirituality, calls the "holy longing," When we merely hear the word, or merely say it, we still have that hole in our soul that isn’t filled until we do something to make the word real in our lives. Until we do that, the word just sits there, sounding all very well and good but not doing anything for us or anybody else. That’s what James means, I think, in next week’s lectionary passage that says faith without works is dead. If we don’t do anything with the word, as James puts it if we do not become "doers of the word," nothing happens. Oh, something has happened on the cosmic scale. God has saved us; but nothing much happens in the here and now, in this life, which, after all, is the only life we have in this world.

So, with all due respect to Martin Luther, I disagree with him that James should be drummed out of the canon. He’s right. If we want to know the great blessings of God’s salvation in this life and not merely in whatever life awaits us beyond the grave, we must become doers of the word. Living the word brings it alive. Living the word brings us alive. Indeed, friends, be doers of the faith.

Well, OK. But what does that mean? It seems that every time I ask that question in a sermon the answer I must immediately give is: Well, it means lots of things. And doing the word certainly does mean lots of things. James apparently had a fairly precise, narrow meaning in mind. He meant do good works for others. Our passage this morning says: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: "to care for orphans and widows in their distress...." In Biblical language, "orphans and widows" is shorthand for "those in need." Doing the word means caring for those in need. James is certainly right about that. Let me suggest however, that caring for those in need is only one aspect of doing the word. Doing the word also includes living an active spiritual life of worship and prayer. It means living with personal integrity in ways that are true to ourselves and to the moral teachings of the word. And I suppose it means many other things as well.

So, what’s my answer to the objection to my belief in universal salvation that it leaves us with no incentive to live decent lives? My answer is that for those who are doers of the word, the question doesn’t come up, except perhaps in an academic sense. I think that’s true even for those of you who ask the question, for you are already doers of the word. When we know that God has saved us, we live decent, moral lives first of all because we know that that’s what God wants of us. And we do the word because only doing the word brings the faith, brings the love of Jesus Christ, alive in our lives. We have come here to hear the word. That is right and good. Now, let’s bring that word alive in our lives and in the world. Let’s go do it.