Savior

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Mark 10:17-22

I promised you a little more about being “saved” or Jesus as “savior.”  So here we go.

As I mentioned last time, often when we think of “Jesus Saves,” we think of eternal life and heaven, we think of being saved from eternal damnation and hell.

If you’ve read much of my writing or heard very many of my sermons, you know that I’m not much for the idea of using fear to make believers.  I don’t think fear tactics work, I don’t think they make true followers of Christ.  

So you may be deducing that I don’t really feel like this saving from hell is what Jesus was really here to do.  I don’t think dying on the cross to save us was his main purpose either.

Oh, I do think Jesus came to save, to save us from ourselves, to save us from a lifeless life, from death… a life of death, a life of fear.  

I’m of the mind that Jesus came to teach us how to LIVE.  How to LOVE.  How to appreciate the life we have and to fully live it.

The last several years, I’ve been really curious about Celtic Spirituality, Celtic Christianity, the Celtic way of life.  It’s so fascinating to me and I’ve really felt drawn to it.

I love the idea of incorporating nature into my faith life.  I love the idea that God is in everything and everything is in God.  That everything is holy.  

We’ve had some beautiful mornings and evenings here where I live this week, and I’ve found myself sitting in the beauty of creation, being present, listening to the bird song, the wind singing through the trees, watching the trees dance to the chorus and I couldn’t help but think how blessed I am to witness all of this worship and be invited to join in it.  I loved looking up seeing the stars twinkling offering light in the darkness, and more worship.

I think Jesus came to share this way of thinking with us.  He came to remind us of the sacredness of all things – every moment, every being, every thing!

God created it and it’s sacred, it’s holy.

In the scripture above, Jesus is reminding the man that it’s how we live our life that matters.  It’s what we do here with our blessings that matters.  

He said, live your life well, helping others and follow me!  

If we follow him, we are living in this manner, and if we aren’t living in this manner – serving others, helping others, lifting one another up and loving one another – then are we really following Jesus and his teachings?  Are we really living life to the fullest of its intent?

Again, during this season of Lent I’m working on getting more outside of myself by sharing of my time with others – whether it’s phone calls, lunches, dinners, outings, cards – I’m working on living more in community.  Part of that are these reflections as well.

Diana Butler Bass said, and I’m paraphrasing here, Jesus didn’t just save us on the cross he worked to save us his whole life. “Salvation … is about living beyond fear.”  

It’s about living in the here and now rather than constantly worrying about being saved from hell.  It’s about following Jesus and his teachings as we LIVE rather than just trying to get to heaven.

Several years ago, I preached a sermon series entitled, “Bless to Me”.  It was probably one of my favorites and I wrote a few “Bless to US” prayers and I’d like to share one now.

Bless, dear God, each person reading this.
May they feel your love in this reflection and throughout the day.
May it fill them to overflowing and
May they share that love wholeheartedly.

Amen.

Until next time,
♥️ Sherri