Saved!



Gate Pa – Easter 4 (Good Shepherd Sunday) 2014
Readings:
First Reading:           Acts 2:42-47                                   
Psalm:                       23
Second Reading:       1 Peter 2:19-25                                                 
Gospel:                      John 10:1-10                                                 

What I want to say:
I want to explore how we understand salvation, and how our understanding then affects how we see God, ourselves, Christ, Church and mission. I want to offer one way of understanding that using Augustine and Julian of Norwich, and then use that to explore some of Acts, with a side look at God as mother.

What I want to happen:
People to feel free to embrace a wider array of understanding of all of the above and to know they still fit within the wide stream of Christian thought and belief.

The Sermon

       1.       Introduction:

34 years ago Bob Dylan released Saved – album unashamedly proclaimed Christian faith
great song
remember mid 80’s going concert Mt Smart rocking to it all stoned people around me
song comes out particular understanding what being saved means
understanding sometimes/often understood as only Christian understanding
reality is that there are a number of understandings which go back to the early church.
As I read todays readings and some commentaries
                thought about our understanding of salvation shapes how read passages like todays
                certainly how read next week’s gospel
like we put on these glasses
they shape
                how read bible
shapes how understand God
shapes how we see ourselves
shapes understanding Christ
and what it is we think we are here to do.
despite all that
I suspect that many of us don’t think about much at all
don’t give a lot of attention to “what is it we understand by being saved?”
what is salvation?
what being saved from and for?
what want to do today spent a little bit of time wondering
what on earth does that mean to be saved?

      2.       Saved for eternal life

we can say - saved means gaining eternal life
                life with God
think if asked most you
                after die – future
                heaven - somewhere else
colours everything
God  is loving – up to point
God is holy, righteous, judge
see ourselves as sinful
                stone cold dead – Bob Dylan describes it
our sins keep us out heaven
Jesus death paid price of those sins
resurrection allows us live again
all which means we will get in to this eternal life
if we believe right things and say right prayers
               
what then implications of this theology for
how see God?
How see ourselves
How see Christ?
how we read bible?
What we are on about as church?

       3.       Saved – for now

Older understandings salvation
find them in John’s Gospel
find them writing early writers – Augustine, Athanasius
Find them in writing Julian Norwich – who remembered Thursday – calendar saints
eternal life is life with God
now
here
salvation is in the here and now

        4.       St. Augustine

St Augustine of Hippo (not be confused Augustine sent by Pope Gregory to Britain 200 later)
wrote – we had forgotten who God is
                who are – those made image God
                forgotten how to live people made in image of God
For Augustine Jesus came remind us
show us
came as God among us
we might be reminded who God is
                who we are as ones made image God
                                made in image one meet person Jesus
                                (by we mean all humanity)
                how we are live as those made in image God
In Jesus we find God
invited rediscover character of God
                people mixes with
                how interacts with them
                what teaches
                what he does – restoring community
in Jesus meet God in whom there is only love (Julian Norwich would say)
What this understanding do to
how see God?
How see ourselves
How see Christ?
how we read bible?
What we are on about as church?
being saved is not something about future
about how see ourselves now,
                people made in image God who we meet in person of Jesus
restoring God’s community in here and now

      5.       Acts

not a lot written about early church by non church people
some references to James Just – brother Jesus the messiah
James of Acts
brother Jesus
Head of church (not Peter)
he was renowned as holy and devout
zealous God
champion for poor
take off the eternal life is in future glasses
offered glimpses in Acts in particular
                group took Jesus message about “new” way conceiving society very seriously
message stood firmly in tradition of prophets
king David – shepherd of God’s people
sought live that out
in way all treated as made image of God
who loves all
draws all in
freely forgives and seeks life for now
lived in way all had enough, and none had too much
salvation was to live out this life now
in way others invited to join.
For these the kingdom of God is now, and in will be fully realised in the future

      6.       The Questions

two years ago suggested three questions we constantly need to reflect on
our answers to these will shape our understanding who we are as people God on this place
understanding of what we are doing here
those three questions are
                whose are we
                who are we
                what is ours to do.
how we understand salvation shape how answer all these
how answer these 3 questions also shape how understand salvation
we need to think about and talk about how we understand salvation
invite you turn neighbour and reflect on what just said
                what stood out
                what new
                what disagree with
                what next?



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