My post last week “Of Being Saved” got a record response either directly on the blog site or via private e-mail. One astute observer noted that what I had to say must have “touched a nerve, ” so I thought I would expound on the topic again this week. Let me first reiterate that salvation has to do chiefly with the human community and not with the individual, which renders the phrase, “Jesus my personal savior”, incomprehensible. The notion of “personal” salvation is a relatively modern term….modernity being an era in which self interest has become the rubric under which we live. It is my observation that the theology of personal salvation begets exclusivity and judgmentalism: the notion that unless one believes as I believe, or the way my particular group believes… unless one knows the Jesus that I know, then one’s faith is erroneous.
Let me say again that faith is not an adherence to a set of Dogmatics or an assent to a particular belief system….faith is a sense of connection to a larger whole, a sense of relevancy and purpose, that moves us into the practice of God-likeness, the practice of the good…The writer of the Gospel of John calls it, “laying down ones’ life…faith is not static but on the move. Faith is “acting as if”, as one responder put it….acting as if this way of the Christ, this way of compassion and mercy and justice…this way of raising up those who are beset by the indignities of our world….this way of nonviolence….this way of raising the dead of our world to life….Faith is acting as if this gospel vision, this promise of God’s imminent egalitarian kingdom is true. Belief evolves, as it ever has, and as it ever will. There is no such thing as an in stone doctrine other than to practice the way of Christ which is in a very intimate and mystical way to “know” Christ. When one “accepts” Jesus as our evangelical culture likes to put it, they best be prepared to know what they are getting into. Jesus is not a personal genie who capriciously grants wishes to some and not to others…but Jesus is the archetype of a way of life…not only the lens through whom we see God…but also the lens through whom God sees us…the true humanity…humanity that recognizes ourselves as one organism. (indeed we evolved from the same source…we are in fact all related on this planet, chemically, genetically) And if one organism…it follows that until all are saved then the whole of us are not saved.
Therefore God’s project of salvation has to do with the whole of humanity, and I don’t mean our going out into the world as the faithful to huckster a belief system….the saved are the ones in this world who live in “well being” (in freedom and with food and water and shelter and amid nonviolence and in a relatively just community, and empowered with agency, that is, empowered to make change happen) As I mentioned before the word salvation in scripture is a socio-economic and political term….so under that rubric, in today’s world at least two thirds of our world are the unsaved…those are the ones who live without a sense of well being, who live in abasement and fear, and ill health, lacking basic necessities to which all are entitled…Those are the ones to whom we are sent…we the raised body of Christ, the people of the Way….the people who “act as if.” We go into the world as agents of change…changing the structures of our society that would disadvantage or disenfranchise the least of us. Therefore, for example, the work of salvation has everything to do with our engaging the health-care debate….the efficacy of our schools….the intractable troubles in our prison system… the immigration debate….not to mention the structures of power that belie the dignity of the human community around the planet.
God’s gracious commonweal….God’s gracious favor is for all….and the work of salvation is to share that favor with our neighbor….Salvation is nothing short of a socio-economic reordering of our common life on this planet in which power, well being and agency at the top of the socio-economic, and political pyramid is shared with the whole of humanity….Read the Magnificat in Luke, and you will hear the vital, the radical song of Salvation .
You wrote:
“In today’s world at least two thirds of our world are the unsaved…those are the ones who live without a sense of well being, who live in abasement and fear, and ill health, lacking basic necessities to which all are entitled…Those are the ones to whom we are sent…we the raised body of Christ, the people of the Way….the people who ‘act as if.’”
I might not know much about writing, but I think that’s pretty good, especially the “we the raised body of Christ.”
I am the one who originally asked the questions regarding the beliefs of the Episcopal Church USA. Might I assume from your answers that all churches in the ECUSA hold to these same beliefs? As I mentioned before, it has been 30 years since I attended your church, so I am genuinely interested in what beliefs the Episcopal Church has in 2012.
Dear Sir,
In considering your response, it was good and right to return to the source from which we claim to learn of Christ, the Scriptures. At least this practice will save us from the tyranny of unsubstantiated personal opinion and drive us to a common text from which to postulate. (Otherwise, the opinion of one person about God is necessarily every bit as valid as that of the next person, which is absurd; you acknowledge this point practically and unequivocally in your disparagement of the “evangelical” view of salvation). As one returns, then, to the biblical texts, numerous items in your response struck a profoundly discordant note with the canon of Scripture. To marshal just a few:
“There is no such thing as an in stone doctrine other than to practice the way of Christ which is in a very intimate and mystical way to ‘know’ Christ.”
Yet without correct doctrine — based on the finished work of Jesus Christ in space, time and history — we who profess him as Redeemer would be utter fools! St Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 15:16-19, which frequently is read at burials. If St Paul is lying in that text, then the minister would be more than foolish: he would be culpable for seeking to mislead grieving souls.
You also wrote, “And if one organism…it follows that until all are saved then the whole of us are not saved.”
Evidently, Jesus — so named by God, in good Hebraic fashion, because the purpose of his earthly life was “to save his people from their sins” (St Matthew 1:21) — had a different thought on this topic. His words in St Matthew 7:21-23 hardly square with universal salvation.
And last, “God’s gracious favor is for all.”
Again, it seems Jesus either was unaware of (!) or implicitly rejected this assertion. Consider his words in St Matthew 25:41: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'”
The chief comfort of the disciple of Jesus Christ is that the Savior has “delivered (him) from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). May Christ’s beloved Bride also be saved from the baseless, autocratic opinions of those who call themselves shepherds of God’s flock (Ezekiel 34:1-10).
I thought that today’s Poem of the Day from The Writer’s Almanac would be an appropriate addition to this discussion.
Eagle Poem
by Joy Harjo
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
“Eagle Poem” by Joy Harjo, from In Mad Love and War. © Wesleyan University Press, 1990. Reprinted with permission.
In response to one of the replies to Jim’s post:
First, the author chose passages from Scripture that seem to support Jesus as the only way to salvation and eternal judgment for those who do not believe that. If God intended for this to be true, then God must be very confused indeed. For if we believe that God created everything on earth, this would mean that God also created every religion on earth, and since every religion in one way or another claims to be a path to salvation, then God has created multiple paths to salvation. So either God is confused, or God is capricious and merciless to offer peoples of the earth false paths to salvation only to condemn them in the end for their choice. Perhaps another way to look at is this: God is gracious to offer multiple ways for people to find and express salvation.
Second, Jesus in other passages clearly indicates that he does not judge and therefore his followers should not judge. The stories of the woman caught in adultery or the Samaritan woman at the well, both from John’s Gospel, illustrate this. The problem with interpreting literally the passages about judgment from Matthew is that this invites the Christian to place himself in the position of judge. And with judgment comes condemnation and with condemnation comes exclusivity and with exclusivity comes all forms of violence, physical as well as psychological and emotional. We have seen this throughout history: the Spanish Inquisition, the burning of Servetus by Calvinists at Geneva, the execution of both Catholics and Protestants by the Church of England, and the list goes on. Jesus speaks more often about compassion than he does about judgment.
Third, Episcopalians do theology by using scripture, tradition, and reason. This means for us that theology is speculative and open to re-interpretation. We are neither a dogmatic church, nor do we believe in the doctrine of sola scriptura. Clearly, the Episcopal way of doing theology is not for everyone, otherwise everyone the world over would be Episcopalian, and God probably won’t allow this because it would involve coordinating too many covered dish suppers. The best way to understand Episcopal theology is to observe two things: our liturgy and our service to others. Prayer shapes our belief. Our service to the world as living sacraments of God’s love shapes our prayer. We believe that salvation, whatever that means, is found in all of that.
This is in response to both Mr. Rolison’s comment and Ms. McClain’s question: The Episcopal Church has never relied on a uniform doctrine. We don’t have a dogmatic magisterium handed down by a patriarchal hierarchy. Not only is there not a uniformity of belief in the Episcopal Church nationwide, but you could ask several All Saints members what they believed on a multitude of theological issues and you would most likely get a wide range of answers….Does that mean that “anything goes?” Certainly not…We take imaginative and critical interpretation of scripture most seriously, informed by study and scholarly theological inquiry. We also hold that the way (the aesthetic) of prayer and worship is formative as well….to quote Keats, that “beauty is truth”…Learning in the walk of faith is essential, which is referred to in Proverbs and in the Gospels as “maturing”….but still the life of faith is about discovery first and foremost….that there is continually new revelation….thank God. I’ll stop here and refer you to the poem posted by Dr. Gray and the post by Pete Wilson….I can’t offer a more incisive response. Their posts leave very little else to say. Thanks for your comments.
The “Eagle Poem” might as well have been written by atheist or a practicioner of any pagan religion. There is nothing in it that distinguishes it as Christian, Judeo-Christian, or even as belonging to the Abramic family of religions. I don’t find much with which to agree in the original posting either, except that the “Magnificat” is a call to Salvation and Repentance uttered by Mary as a result of her realization that the Messiah had arrived in flesh and blood. Nothing mystical or undefined here at all, nothing speculative or open to re-interpretation; it is Mary’s matter-of-fact witness to the tangible reality of God’s unique (only) Salvation in time and space.
“My soul doth magnify the Lord : and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded : the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth : all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath magnified me : and holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him : throughout all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm : he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat : and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things : and the rich he hath sent empty away. He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel : as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed for ever.”
As to the claim that the Episcopal Church has no a “uniform doctrine”, nothing could be farther from the truth. I dare say that no Christian denomination has a more uniform plan that Episcopalians (Anglicans). It’s called the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1662 and containing Creeds, Articles of Religion, an Ordinal, and Liturgies that provide not only a detailed prescription for how to be saved, but also for how to live as a Christian, personally and in the body of the Church.
Note as to Mr. Hudson’s post: the Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1549. The 1662 edition was the last revision in the Church of England. Just a comment or two: Yes, we do have a prescribed means of worship, but not without great flexibility and leeway. The 1979 edition (U.S. Episcopal Church) is meant to embrace the vast diversity of theologies in the church. The standing liturgical commission of the General Convention has also apporoved supplemental rites for general use. These supplements incorporate post-feminist and inclusive language; so our means of worship though still very similar across the church are evolving, and are more and more reflective of different theologies that exist in the broader church. The longer the Book of Common Prayer has evolved, the less uniform it has become. In other words, as all so-called doctine is concerned, including scripture, even the way we worship is open to continued interpretation and artful speculation.
Your use of the term “pagan” is unfortunate. Do we discard all poetry as heretical if such poetry is not as you say Judeo/Christian….what of Keats, Byron, Yeats, Rilke? beauty informs. Back to the topic: We Christians were once called pagans. Indeed all of the religions of the world are a confluence of diverse spiritualities across cultural boundaries…many religious anthropologists consider Christianity to have its roots not only in Judaism, but in Greek philosophy, Zoroastrianism, the cult of Mithras, and the cult of Isis, among others. So be careful slinging a term around upon which you haven’t done your homework. Thanks for the post.
Jim Flowers said:
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You have used the word evolved a lot with regard to beliefs and I’m assuming Scripture. I would ask you to consider these verses:
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life (Revelation 22:18,19).
I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
For I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6).
Dear Mr Flowers,
Thank you for your post; I agree with you: Mr Barton would have been better served theologically to leave off the word “pagan.” He instead should have substituted the word “reprobate” for “pagan.”
Yours,
Joseph Rolison
Not sure if this has been mentioned so far, but it seems the bumper sticker proclaiming, “If you want Peace, work for Justice” might be relevant here – just substitute the word, ‘Salvation’ for ‘Peace’.