Personal Salvation is Bad Theology

I went to a lot of baseball games when I was a kid. The San Diego Padres 

were my home team. For the most part they were a lousy team. Oh I did see them win a few times, but I certainly could never count on it. But, there were two things that I could count on when I went to see the Padres play – the KGB Chicken whose wild antics were funny enough to make even the most depressed fan laugh. And the man in left field holding a sign that read 3:16. I didn’t know about 3:16 and as a kid, I didn’t care. The chicken was much more interesting.

I realized I was gay in high school, and I knew it wasn’t a phase. So when a councilor told me UC Santa Cruz was the most socially progressive college in California, I didn’t bother to apply anywhere else. When I arrived at Santa Cruz, I thought I had stepped into the Beatific Vision. There were lesbians, hippies, men who wore skirts, environmental freaks, street musicians – a heavenly host of misfits. It was if I had been born again and received into a new creation with unconditional love where anybody could be received, just as they are. Then one day a letter came in the mail.

Dear Jackie,  

It's your Aunt Ann in Delaware writing at 4:00 in the morning. I can't sleep because I love you so much, and since your mom told me about your homosexuality I've just wanted to call you and tell you how much God loves you too.

Now Jackie, I know you have always been your own person, and a good person, but the life that God has in store for you is far greater than anything you could ever imagine. God loves you so much "that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) By accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior you will be forgiven your sins, saved and born again to eternal life...

 There in the letter, in parentheses, was John 3:16. I doubt Aunt Ann and the man at the Padres’ game were in collusion, but I do think they both believed with all their might that I was a sinner and was doomed to perish in the life to come: they both believed I needed to be saved. 
Let me get right to the point – in my opinion, individual salvation is bad theology. Being saved and born again has become a mere task on the Fundamentalists’ To-Do list:

• Pay the mortgage
• Get flu shot
• Send birthday card to mom
• Check balance of 401K
• Accept Jesus as personal lord and savior.

Okay, I’m good to go.

Well, this theology works for those who are comfortable and benefiting from the established political and economic systems. Individual salvation doesn’t require us to look beyond ourselves. When the issue is personal salvation, the common good is extraneous. I simply believe in Jesus and nothing else needs to change. The single mother trying to feed three hungry children and that homeless man on the corner with the chronic cough – if they would invite Jesus into their lives they would understand that matters of the flesh, pale in comparison to the promise of eternal life in the life to come.

The literal reading of John 3:16 has become the rationalization for a set of religious beliefs that exclude and oppress individuals with differing sexualities, gender identities, spiritual practices, economic brackets, basically anything that might contradict the laws of a very narrow band of Christianity.

The Doctrine of Justification is an age-old debate of faith versus works. In his letter to the Ephesians, and all over his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that we are saved by the grace of God, through our faith alone. I think there’s more to it than that. I will stand by James and argue until the day I die that faith without works is dead. But let’s face it, it is easier to confess faith than to put that faith into action – in other words, easier said than done. If we put the emphasis on justification through faith alone we can leave the good deeds to the Catholic workers. When doctrine is built around handpicked scripture, it’s inconvenient to examine its context. John 3:16 is the single the most quoted verse in the bible; we can’t afford to misunderstand it – one could say, our lives depend on it.

So let’s look back a few verses. In our Gospel reading this morning, we know Jesus is having a conversation with Nicodemus. Remember, Nicodemus - a leader in his Jewish community - sneaks across town in the dark of night and secretly tells Jesus, We know you are a teacher who has come from God. Jesus says, you are right, and if you want to see God’s kingdom you must be born from above. This is confusing to Nicodemus and he asks, How can an adult be born again? Is it even possible to crawl back into the womb and be reborn? Jesus patiently explains the difference between being born of flesh and being born from above by water and spirit. Nicodemus, still totally confused, throws up his arms, How can that be? And Jesus finally loses his patience, Nicodemus, you’re a teacher of Israel, how can you be so dang literal? You know me, you’ve heard me talk, isn’t it obvious that metaphors are my favorite literary technique?

Then Jesus figures out what he must say in order for Nicodemus to understand – He recalls the story of Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness. Nicodemus knows his heritage, he knows the Hebrew Scriptures. He knows what his ancestors endured in the wilderness and how, as a community, they struggled with God. Nicodemus knows that the salvation God promised in his covenant with Moses was a salvation for the whole of Israel, not just Moses, but salvation for the entire community. Recalling the story that had been told generation after generation, Jesus began again, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted. Nicodemus got it. He understood what Jesus was saying: Jesus was inviting Nicodemus to keep sacred the tradition and collective memory of his people and at the same time, be open to a new way of being with God.

Jesus continued, 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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Since it would be impossible for Nicodemus to separate his personal identity from the collective identity of the Jewish people - Jesus is talking about salvation and eternal life for everybody. Jesus’ promise of life is so inclusive, so absolute, that it isn’t even necessary to look up at the bronze serpent to be saved. Being reborn in the way that Jesus suggests brings immediate transformation. It’s not something that happens in the life to come and it’s not something that happens outside of community as a literal reading of John 3:16 might suggest.

Lest you think I have left the Doctrine of Justification back in the desert, let me assure you I haven’t. When, by the grace of God, we are reborn and made alive together in Christ, our hearts and eyes are opened anew. When we are born from above by water and spirit, our propensity for individualism washes away.

The question, Am I saved? is no longer valid because we are unable to separate our personal salvation from the salvation of the rest of creation - a delicate interwoven network where humanity is only one piece of the natural order. With new eyes we see the suffering of those around us and we are moved to respond to the woman with three hungry children – she is our mother. When we see the people in Nicaragua plagued without access to clean water, it is our family dying of thirst and water born disease, our heart aches and we help them build wells. When we are born from above by water and spirit, we are so thoroughly transformed that like it or not, we won’t be able to stop ourselves from doing good works. Your suffering is my suffering. The world’s hunger is our hunger. Creation’s brokenness is the brokenness of humanity. And we are moved to do all that we can to bring peace and justice and healing to our planet.

Good works are simply what we do when we give our gratitude arms and legs. But it is not the works that will save us: good works are the result of our salvation. My sisters and brothers, Paul got this one right:

For by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not our own doing;

it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Amen.

Lent IV Year B John 3:16