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Perhaps part of this fascination with keeping Elvis "alive"
is our universal human concern about what happens beyond death,
not only for him but for us. After all, there is something
innate in us that insists that this life is not all there is.
Thus, people are concerned about the fate of souls...especially
their own. They buy books on life after death. They watch talk
shows that might offer insight. They come to churches,
synagogues, temples and mosques because, in some sense this issue
may be said to be the ultimate concern of all religion. There is
a theological word for it...salvation. In a very real sense, our
Bible is a book of salvation from beginning to end.
It is surely a Christian concern. There is a well-worn
story of a parishioner who dozed off to sleep during the morning
service. "Will all who want to go to heaven please stand?" the
minister asked. All stood, except old sleeping Jasper. "Well,
will all who want to go to the other place stand?" asked the
preacher. At that moment someone dropped a hymnbook. Quickly,
Jasper jumped to his feet and stood sheepishly facing the pastor.
He mumbled confusedly for a moment, and said, "Well, preacher, I
don't know what we're votin' for, but it looks like you and I are
the only ones for it."(2)
Another minister was preaching and in his sermon asked "Who
wants to go to heaven?" Everyone held up their hands except one
young boy. "Son, don't you want to go to heaven when you die?"
"Yes sir, when I die, but I thought you was gettin' up a load to
go now."(3)
That is probably the attitude of most of us. Most
Christians DO figure that when we die we go to heaven to be with
the Lord, even if we are not ready to make the trip tomorrow.
That is salvation. After all, from earliest Sunday School we
learned that JESUS SAVES! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved."(4) We are SAVED by grace through our faith
in Jesus. "Are you saved?" is still the question of the TV
preachers and tent-meeting evangelists. Salvation. It is our
destiny...something Christians can count on as surely as the sun
coming up in the morning and the moon at night. Case closed!
But the words from our lesson bring us up short. Over these
past weeks, our summer study has been considering this equipment
which God provides us in our quest for spiritual excellence...the
armor of God - the Belt of Truth, GOD's truth that God loves this
world and sent Jesus Christ to redeem it. Then the Breastplate
of Righteousness, GOD's righteousness, the promise of a
relationship with this world God loves that will never falter.
On to the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace, GOD's peace, the peace
that passes understanding, the peace that a child feels snuggled
up to Mommy or Daddy in the midst of a midnight storm. Last
week, the Shield of Faithfulness, GOD's faithfulness, that
guarantees God's love and care even when we are miserably
UNfaithful. But now we are told to put on the Helmet of
Salvation, and the question quickly comes, "Why? Have we not
already said salvation is a done deal for all of us who trust
Jesus?"
Perhaps we should look more closely at what SALVATION is.
The first thing to note is that the word comes from a Latin root,
salus, that has nothing specifically to do with life after death.
It means HEALTH or WHOLENESS, very similar in meaning to the
Hebrew word shalom which folks over-simplify in translation as
PEACE because it too carries the idea of WHOLENESS.
If, as we said a moment ago, the ultimate concern of our
Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is salvation, a quick trip
through those sacred pages should offer even more light. Look
back to the story of creation. In the beginning everything was
good. But Adam and Eve sinned - they ate the forbidden fruit
from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They decided to
think for themselves - no God was needed to separate right from
wrong, order from chaos, provide wholeness...salvation. But they
were mistaken. This was the way Israelite mothers and fathers
explained to their children why so much was wrong with the world.
Human arrogance upset God's good order, and the Ghengis Kahns and
Hitlers and Sadaam Husseins of this world have offered stark and
tragic testimony to that ever since.
But the ancient Hebrews believed more. They knew that God
would not leave the world in disarray, nor would God leave the
covenant people to fend for themselves. When the Psalmist
declares, "The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation" (Ps. 118:14) as we read earlier, he is affirming that
God delivers the people from all sorts of disasters - slavery in
Egypt, wars with the Canaanites, bondage in Babylon. Indeed, one
of the great heroes of ancient Israel, the one who led the people
into the promised land, was named Yeshua, Joshua, the Hebrew word
for salvation. There is little or no concern with life after
death in the Old Testament. Salvation is here-and-now...
protection from enemies, a restoration of order.
By the time we get to the New Testament, we find another
powerful personality named "Salvation"...Yeshua, which Greek
turns into Iesus...Jesus. Do you remember the announcement of
his coming? The angel told Joseph, "You shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall SAVE his people from their sins."(5) In fact,
there were all sorts of little boys being born around the time of
Christ whose Jewish Moms and Dads named them Jesus in the hope
that their son would be the promised Messiah, the Deliverer, the
salvation of Israel from the bondage of Rome...the one who would
restore God's good order. Life after death was still no issue.
As Jesus began his ministry, something new became apparent.
The salvation he was offering was much more than political
deliverance for the chosen people. He said himself that he had
come "to preach good news to the poor...proclaim release to the
captives...[restore] sight to the blind..."(6), "to seek and to
save the lost."(7) To the woman he healed of a hemorrhage, the
blind man who could now see, the leper who had been cleansed, he
said, "Your faith has SAVED you." Salvation was not a promise of
pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye, but a restoration of order in the
here and now.
Of course, Jesus encountered a problem, one that went back
to the difficulties in Eden. The religious folk of his day were
THINKERS. They knew good from evil, order from chaos, saved from
lost. Good and order and salvation was obedience to the Law.
Good and order and salvation was condemning sinners. Good and
order and salvation would come in overthrowing Rome. Evil was
anyone who disagreed. Get rid of him. Crucify him!
As you know, they did that. THINKERS that they were, they
THOUGHT they were restoring order...saving things. But God
intervened and, in a preliminary way on that first Easter
morning, saved and restored DIVINE order, the order that had been
lost back in the Garden of Eden.
By the time we come to the end of the Bible, the book of
Revelation, we find more clearly than anywhere else that
salvation...restoring order...goes beyond this life. In its
complicated but beautifully poetic way, Revelation affirms to the
early church, people who were in danger for their very lives
because of their commitment to Christ, that God will deliver,
will SAVE, God's people and will make creation good again: no
more hunger, no more thirst, no more tears, no more death.
Salvation.
The Christian message is that you and I are not capable of
restoring things to their original good condition. Only God can
do that, and that process has already begun - God sent Jesus. As
the Gospel writer has it, "For God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be SAVED."(8) Salvation is something much more than a promise of
pie-in-the-sky for believers. It is nothing less than making a
sick creation healthy and whole again.
Our problem is that we are trapped between two worlds. God
has already proclaimed salvation, God's restoration of order, in
the death and resurrection of Christ. But we still live in a
chaotic and disordered existence - there are still hunger and
thirst, still tears, still death. We are caught between the
already and the not yet. We do not know what to think.
There is an old Rabbinic tale that brings the point home.(9)
"One day, outside the Garden, Eve met her old friend the serpent.
`Good morning,' said the serpent, `Nice skirt you've got on. How
are you doing?'
`It's kind of you to ask,' Eve said. `Actually, not so
well.'
`Ah, yes,' said the serpent, `aftereffects of the fruit. It
does taste rather sour.'
`But how can I get back inside the garden?' Eve asked.
`Good question,' said the serpent. `For me it's easy, of
course: I just burrow under the hedge. But I'll give you a hint.
Go back the way you came.'"
The point? Adam and Eve do not go back because they do not
THINK they can. They THINK themselves into all sorts of
problems. Aftereffects of the fruit, the Rabbi says.
Perhaps this is why Paul chose the metaphor of the helmet
for salvation. It protects a foolish head, a head that, like the
one back in the Garden of Eden, THINKS too much. Yes, we think
wacky things - Elvis is alive and well and living in Pine Hall,
as one caller to a local TV station said the other night. But we
think dangerous things as well - we are convinced we know good
and evil. We look at our lives and know they are not all they
could or should be. We think that neither we nor the world is
worthy of salvation. But God says NO.
Suddenly we begin to see a progression in this armor of God
we have been studying. The Belt of Truth, GOD's truth - God
loves this world and sent Jesus - Yeshua - to SAVE it. The
Breastplate of Righteousness, GOD's righteousness, the promise
that God's loving relationship with this world will never falter.
The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace, GOD's peace, the peace that
comes when we feel secure in that relationship. The Shield of
Faithfulness, GOD's faithfulness, that guarantees divine love and
care even when we are miserably UNfaithful. Now this Helmet of
Salvation that says stop thinking so much - do not worry about
the ultimate outcome for yourself or this world; that is already
taken care of.
What the Helmet of Salvation provides is a chance for us to
genuinely pursue spiritual excellence. We can be about our
business of proclaiming God's love and care for the world...in
word and deed...without being sidetracked by worrying over God's
love and care for us.
During the first part of the construction of the Golden Gate
Bridge in San Francisco, no safety devices were used, and 23 men
fell to their deaths. For the last part of the project though, a
large net which cost $100,000 was employed. At least 10 men fell
into it and were saved. But an interesting sidelight is the fact
that 25% more work was accomplished when the men were assured of
their safety.(10)
Some of you have heard me tell that, during my seminary
days, I took an evening elective course that was roundly avoided
because most thought it would be too difficult - a study of the
book of James in Greek taught by one of our best but most
demanding professors. On our first night in class, he looked
around at the half-dozen of us in the room who had signed up -
all good students who would be diligent in our work - and said,
"You all have A's. Now let's get to work." We were free to
proceed with our task without having to think or worry about a
grade. He had given us a student version of the Helmet of
Salvation.
Years ago, the evangelist Sam Jones used to have what he
called "Quittin' Meetings" during his revivals. He gave folks
the opportunity to confess their sins and repent. People said
they would quit swearing, drinking, smoking, gossiping. He asked
one woman what she planned to quit and she replied, "I ain't been
doin' nothin' and I'm sure gonna quit that."(11)
Yes, we are caught between the already and the not yet. We
think about the fate of this world, watch TV shows about life
after death, worry about salvation, and even maintain abnormal
fascination with dead celebrities. Aftereffects of the fruit.
But the glorious message of the Gospel is that we need not worry.
God has begun to restore order to Eden in the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. And all who put their trust in him
have A's...a Helmet of Salvation. Now we can get to work.
Let us pray.
Lord, we confess that we worry too much and that we are
often paralyzed in our action because of it. Help us to trust,
to be confident of your promise of love for us and all the world
as shown in Jesus. For we pray it in his name. Amen!
1. http://pages.prodigy.com/NJ/zvqj45a/zvqj45a.html 2. Clyde Murdock, A Treasury of Humor, (Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan Publishing, 1967), p. 35 3. ibid., p. 45 4. Acts 16:31 5. Matthew 1:21 6. Luke 4:18 7. Luke 19:10 8. John 3:17 9. Stephen Mitchell in Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible, David
Rosenberg, Ed., (New York, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1987), p. 391 10. Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, (Rockville, MD, Assurance Publishers, 1979), pp. 1192 11. ibid., p. 1230-1231
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