Readings (click here for full text of the readings):
   Isaiah 28:14-22; Psalm 46; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-29; Luke 13:22-30

I.       We’re in the middle of a tough patch

A.  Rains every day

B.  Politics is acting like politics

1.    One side attacks the other

2.    And then when the other side retaliates, the first side plays innocent and accuses them of playing politics

C.  Lectionary

1.    Two weeks ago: the Lord will return unexpectedly and take many of us by surprise

2.    Last week: Jesus came to divide families

3.    Today: Salvation is like a narrow door, which few will enter through

D.  That very sobering gospel reading not only divides Christians from everybody else, it also divides Christians against each other

1.    Liberal Christians try not to think about it very much

2.    And Conservative Christians think about it a lot, and probably wonder whether so-called “liberal” Christians will squeeze through the door

II.    Growing up

A.  This question of who’s saved and who isn’t has always been a big concern for me

B.  I became a Christian when I was 12, with the help of my wonderful 6^th grade teacher

1.    She used an approach called “Evangelism Explosion”

2.    Focuses on 2 questions

a)    If you were to die tonight, are you sure you would go to heaven?

b)    If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He asked you why He should let you into His heaven, what would you say?

C.  And in case someone is tempted to blow off those questions – not important or not applicable – you’re supposed to remind them about the verses we read this morning

“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many … will try to enter and not be able.”

1.    So not only did I become a Christian, I also became focused on what it took to be saved

2.    And every night, for a lot of years, before I went to sleep, I’d recite a couple of verses from Romans that said if you believe that Jesus is Lord and proclaim that out loud, then you’ll be saved

3.    Check both off – I was OK

D.  But what I didn’t realize was that I had come to view faith as a method of salvation

1.    Why did I believe in God?

a)    Lots of reasons: because God loved me, because it was the right thing to do

b)    Most of all: because I needed to in order to avoid the fiery damnation of hell

2.    In other words, I was being nice to God because I wanted something from Him

a)    Kind of like a kid being nice to his parents as his birthday or Christmas approaches

b)    It was a selfish love, although I didn’t see that then

III.  This stuff may sound a little foreign to you all

A.  Other, more conservative churches talk about salvation all the time

1.    But we polite Episcopalians don’t

a)    It risks seeming judgmental

b)    It risks excluding some people, which isn’t very polite

2.    And, anyway, we’re not so sure about this narrow door stuff, anyway

a)    We’re more apt to quote verses from John, where Jesus says

Do not yet your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I got to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

B.  So which is it?

1.    Narrow door, or many dwelling places?

IV.3 points

A.  Jesus tells us what we needed to hear

1.    Some people get worked up over the fact that Jesus seems to say some things that contradict some of the other things He said

2.    What they have to realize is that Jesus wasn’t always proclaiming eternal truth

3.    Most of the time He was talking to individual people or small groups, and telling them what they needed to hear

a)    It’s kind of like me telling Catie that she should never walk across the street without holding my hand

b)    Telling her that makes me a good father

c)     Telling anybody else that would make me a little scary

4.    So what do we need to hear?

a)    We probably need to hear the stuff we’d prefer not to think about, that makes us uncomfortable

b)    Because much as we like all that talk about many dwelling places for everybody in heaven, Jesus also said that

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.

c)     The more conservative folks could probably benefit from thinking more about the many dwelling places, because that would challenge their assumptions

d)    And we need to think more about narrow doors and the frightfully difficult path of discipleship we’re called to walk, because that will challenge our assumptions

B.  “Who’s in/who’s out” is not the issue

1.    This isn’t the most important thing in the world

2.    Some folks seem to think that the only question that needs to be answered is “Are you saved?”

a)    If you aren’t, then you need to be.

b)    If you are, then don’t mess up in between now and when you die.

3.    But there are two big problems with that view

a)    First, it turns loving God into some kind of ticket to heaven

(1)  And if I were God, I wouldn’t want somebody to love me – or say they loved me – just to save their own skins

(2)  That doesn’t sound like love to me

(3)  I’d even go so far as to say that if we love God because that’ll save us, then we don’t love God at all

(a)    We just love ourselves, and will do anything and say anything in order to save our own skins

b)    The second big problem is that it puts everything off into the future

(1)  Our only focus is on heaven, and who’s in and who’s out

(2)  The world around us doesn’t matter

(3)  But how does that square with what Jesus said?

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

C.  Finally, it’s not up to us

1.    All this talk about the narrow door can lead us to take concrete steps to assure our salvation, which isn’t a bad thing

2.    What is a bad thing, though, is if we fall into the trap of believing that God has to save us because of something we did

3.    Now you might be thinking to yourself,

We left all that ‘salvation by works’ stuff behind us back at the Reformation.  We know you can’t earn your way into heaven by doing things.  You have to have faith.

4.    But sometimes I think we turn faith into a kind of works

a)    We look through the Bible for what it takes to be saved, and we do it

b)    We say the right things

c)     We check off all the requirements, like I did when I was a kid

Yes, I believe. Therefore, I’m saved.

5.    But what have to remember is that credo of the Reformation wasn’t “salvation by faith.” It was “salvation by grace through faith.”

a)    That might seem like a trivial distinction, but it’s actually incredibly important

(1)  We don’t earn salvation by believing the right things

(2)  God is under no obligation to do anything

(3)  It’s out of God’s infinite generosity that He offers us salvation, through His grace

b)    Think of it this way

(1)  Faith isn’t a ticket or some kind of secret password to the heavenly banquet

(a)    Where if you don’t have it then the doors are locked and you’re out of luck

(2)  The banquet is already being served

(a)    The table is set

(b)   The wine is poured

(c)    And the doors are open for everyone to enter, by the grace of God

(d)   Faith is what leads us there

(e)   Faith is how we know where to go, and when to show up

V.   Still left with the narrow door or the many dwelling places

A.  In the end, there seem to be two kinds of people

1.    The folks who talk a lot about the narrow door

a)    But have no doubt whatsoever that they’ll be among the few to make it through

2.    And the folks who don’t talk about it all

a)    Trust that they’ll slide in along with pretty much everybody else

b)    Ignore all the judgmental, exclusive, divisive words that Jesus said

B.  The solution?

1.    When it comes to other people, we should think a lot about the many dwelling places

a)    It’ll keep us from being judgmental

b)    It’ll ensure that we think about other people better than ourselves

2.    When it comes to ourselves, we should spend most of our time thinking about the narrow door

a)    We should approach our salvation with “fear and trembling” (St. Paul)

b)    We should realize that it’s only by the grace of God that any of us are saved

c)     And we should throw ourselves upon the mercy of God, every day

C.  When I was a kid, each night I verified my faith and slept comfortably in the knowledge that God was obligated to let me into heaven

1.    I was sure of it

2.    Now, truth be told, I’m not as sure

3.    That may seem like a startling thing for a priest to say

4.    But what I’m really saying is that I’ve finally realized that God doesn’t have to do anything

5.    And what I trust in now isn’t my “correct” faith, but rather in God’s mercy

a)    Sure, God can do anything

b)    But He is a loving God, and I trust in His mercy

D.  So if I were to die tonight, and God were to ask me why He should let me into His heaven?

1.    First of all, I don’t think God will ask me that

a)    I think He’ll wrap His big arms around me – around all of us – and say, “Welcome home”

2.    But if He did ask me that, I’d just say

Because I’m a sinner, and there’s no way I’m getting in on my own.

Have mercy on me, O God, for you are a loving God, and your wayward child needs you.

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