What if the goal of being rescued wasn't to save you from the burning building, but to put you in the arms of the Firefighter?
If you are my age and you grew up in the Church, particularly the Pentecostal version, you were given a fair dose of fear. The fire. The brimstone, whatever that is. The full burning in hell scenario. Visions of Cold War Nuclear Holocaust and the Rapture swirled together to give an overwhelming anxiety and great incentive to "Be Saved". We always knew what we were being save "From", but no sense of who we were being saved "To". We got a full dose of Lake of Fire in the sermon and then limp Felt Board Jesus in Sunday School, and there wasn't much of a connection between the two. If you gave your heart to Jesus, he would keep you from Hell...but the happy guy in Sunday School class didn't seem up to the challenge. As most of us got older, the fear subsided and we had no real vision of Jesus, we just knew that we weren't supposed to be doing bad stuff. All that was left was an arbitrary guilt. And then that guilt turned into resentment.
The Goal of the Church was and is, to save people. But in the history of "The Church" most of what we remember are the screw ups...how we as the church got it wrong. God Bless 'em, they meant well. But anytime we lead with anything other than the magnificence of Jesus, we are going to fall short...regardless of what the conversion stats say. I mean, what's the point of being saved if there is nothing more than that act. It's great in the moment, but long term, it is not enough. I think about a scene in a movie or book and there is a man on the edge of a bridge about to commit suicide. Maybe the sensitive protagonist talks him out of it, or Superman catches him as he falls. That man is saved. But if something doesn't change for him, eventually he's just going to find a bigger bridge.
Some of us knew we were in a burning building. Some of us lit the match. Sin is the cause and the effect of the burning building. It is both the personal action of the person in peril and also the very circumstances that make the destruction possible. Some folks were born into the burning building. Some folks are standing just out side of it. In the Christian community, the testimony of someone being rescued from certain self induced destruction can be one of the most powerful examples of what it means to be saved. Knowing that you are facing life and death and all hope of you having the ability to save yourself is exhausted and then somehow, Jesus saves. If you are a believer, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you are a skeptic, this probably sounds like a bumper sticker. I wish I could change that. But that's my story, a bumper sticker. I was lost, then I was found. I was dead, now I'm alive. I was quietly burning inside my own destruction. I quietly whispered a half hearted plea into my chest. Jesus quietly took me by the hand and led me out. The better story is not the burning building, but Jesus continuing to offer his hand even when I let go. He is leading me. And when I let him, it is marvelous, the most precious thing to experience. We talk a lot in the church about being saved, being talked off the ledge, pulled from the river and rescued from the building as it collapses. I suppose it makes for a better headline, easier to digest in a church service. But the bigger and better story is Jesus. He rescues us not that we can just be safe, but exactly so that we can be with him. And if skeptics aren't able to get a sense of Jesus' Love from you, then 30 minutes of describing how hot the fire is is NOT going to do the job. Being safe is good, being with Jesus is better.
1 Corinthians 1:
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Self Destruction is not a problem for everyone. Not everyone is in the arson game. Some folks are in pretty good shape, strong and capable. They stand out side the burning building and they can't understand any of it. Why would someone start a fire? Why would they go into the fire? Why don't they come out of the fire? Now, certainly, the person in the building KNOWS they need saved. That doesn't always happen. They can't always accept it and they may perish under the flames of their own matches. But these folks on the outside have no sense that they need to be saved. They are slowly consuming the carbon monoxide to their own doom. They may perish never understanding what all the fuss was about. We have to be able show people the magnificence of a savior who would come into the wretched fire of these lives, giving up himself to make a way for all of us to be with him forever. If we cannot demonstrate the beauty of Christ, then no amount of hellfire is going to make sense. They need to be saved, just like everyone who has ever lived. But the whole point of being saved is to be with Jesus. Heaven is only Heaven because Jesus is there...He is the prize! He is worthy. And we get to be a part of his rescue mission. As others look at Christian who are active in the care of this world and it's people, I pray that our lives are so full of Jesus that we cannot help but attract others...make 'em say "Huh, wonder what that's all about?"
Jesus Birth is God taking on flesh and walking into the burning building and feeling the very real pain of sin. His Death means that he takes our place in the destruction that we might be saved. His Resurrection means that he walks out of death. He has saved us TO something, to life with him. And why wouldn't we want to be with a God that would do all of this for us!
Amen
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