Pentecost 12

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 12
PROPER: 16 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 23,1998

TEXT: Luke 13:22-30 - Someone asked him: "Lord will only a few be saved?" . . . . . . He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many I tell you will to enter and will not be able."

Paraphase from Eugene Peterson's, The Message (The New Testament in Contemporary Language) - The way to life - to God! - is vigorous and requires your total attention.

ISSUE: Salvation is about our being with God and in God's Kingdom. It does not come from family ancestry, magic formulas, or good hard works, which earn our way. It is indeed a wonderful gift of God's love. Yet Jesus also teaches that it is a matter of personal yearning and the putting on of the ways and teachings, the attitudes of Jesus Christ. It is claiming our sonship and comraderie with Jesus Christ.
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A man comes to Jesus and raises the issue of salvation. "Master," he says, "Will only a few be saved?" In Jesus' time there were two schools of thought on the issue of salvation. There was a common belief among the Palestinian Judeans (according to the Misnah 200 AD, a collection of rabbinic laws) that all Israelites had a share in the the world of God to come. The other school of thought was taught by the Pharisees that only a few, a small remnant would get into the coming world of God. ( Apocrapha 2 Esdras 7:45f - 51 As you say, only a few people are righteous, but there are large numbers of wicked people.) Pharisees were strict and intent upon rules and regulations which was thought to make thier relationship with God special, to the exclusion of the impure people of the land.
Actually both schools of thought in their own way were inclusive in terms of their seeing themselves as "chosen" or unique in the eyes of God. Palestinian Judeans were a group that excluded Gentiles, and the Pharisees even more exclusive than that, declaring themselves as special among the impure common people of the land.
Being part of an inside group was very important in Jesus' time. I've often remarked about how important families were. You were born into your family establishing your membership. It's ointeresting to note that you were also considered to be part of the same family, if you shared the same wet nurse or shared the same blood relatives in some way. If you did not have a strong family support group, of which you were an insider, you were in big trouble. In that world there were other groups to which you might belong in which you established friendships and business relationships. These close groups - today we might call them especially in some churches "cliques" - were established through eating together, or "Table Fellowship." A bonding took place at meals that confirmed friendships and strangers were integrated into community through the sharing of a common meal. Thus, to eat with someone was to claim a relationship.
Jesus does not answer the man's question in terms of whether or not a few or many for that matter will be saved. Jesus raises another issue. The door to the Kingdom is narrow. Some people may well be excluded. It's hard for us to get a handle on this, as Jesus has already claimed in Luke's gospel account that the Kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large and bountiful bush. The kingdom is like the minimal amount of yeast that causes the loaf to rise. (Luke 13:18-21) Thus, the kingdom of God is large and spacious, open and welcoming, available. It is the gift of God's bountiful grace. Yet there are those who may well find themselves locked out. There comes a time of reckoning. It's meaning is similar to the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. Five of them get locked out, and the Master says he does not know who they are. What's going on here? Again Jesus declares in this passage that some will be locked out.
Those who are locked out will begin to argue, "We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets." They are laying claim to the culture of the time. They are claiming their right to enter by the old traditional standards of belong. They ate with him. They were, therefore, in partnership with him. They may even argue that by virtue of their being family, that is fellow Israelites then they have an immediate claim on Christ's kingdom and fellowship. But here again, you have Jesus daring to confront, reverse, and challenge the traditional culture. To be included in the Kingdom of God is not a matter of ancestral and family privilege, and ceremonial activities like eating meals together. To be included in the Kingdom of God is a matter of personal radical change of life, a repentance. For those who maintain the old status quo, they will be excluded from the Kingdom. They will not be known, or seen to be, because of their refusal to change, as those who belong to the genuine family of God. For the early church it was not merely a matter of knowing Jesus, eating with him, listening to his word. It was a matter of being transformed and changed into a new likeness. It was a matter of putting on Christ.
Remember the parable of the Wedding Feast, when the one man who is invited is thrown out. He had failed to put on the approopriate wedding garment. People often want the bounty and beauty of the Kingdom, but fail to have a deep respect for the abundant grace that comes that changes them. It seems that for Jesus, the Kingdom of God was not a reward. The Kingdom of God, and our place in it was a matter of being the people God wants us to be. To be in the Kingdom is to be a person of God, a reflection of Jesus Christ. And when we are not that, then God does not identify us as his own, as citizens of his Kingdom.
Let's look at what some of the ideas we have today about being worthy of or citizens of the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately many people think of being in God's Kingdom as merely a matter of magic formulas. We get baptized with water, and are therefore "zapped" into being a Christian. We want to get our baby baptized so it will be in the Kingdom and not go to hell. This magic approach sees no value, and recognizes no value in growing up to know Jesus as Lord, and how to shape our lives in his image and way of life.
There is the cultural or ancestral belief, much like that of the Judeans, that we are saved and the people of God by virtue of our heritage or ancestry. My grandfather built this church . . . . My aunt was the organist in this church for fifty years . . . I grew up in this community . . . . therefore we deserve all the rights and privileges and have a claim on the Kingdom of God. A friend of mine frequently makes the statement, "God has no grandchildren." God calls upon each one of us for our own personal relationship with Him.
Of course, the claim is made that we deserve the Kingdom of God by virtue of our good deeds. I taught Sunday School for years. I used to be an acolyte. I lived by and kept all the commandments. Therefore I am righteous and worthy of being in the Kingdom. Have you ever noticed that religious people, and people who make a claim upon being right, and righteous are sometimes very evil people. Tragically some very religious people destroy their lives and families through alcoholism and the refusal to go for treatment. Who are the people making and detonating bombs in city streets, clinics, and embassies that cripple, maim, and murder. It is often done by people who believe that they are right, and make a special claim of the righteousness of their cause. Sometimes we religious people can be very manipulative and unkind and unChristlike in our efforts to proclaim our righteousness and to make our claim on the Kingdom of God.
It is interesting to me that our time in history is presently very concerned about salvation. Consider some of the big and popular movies of recent years. Many of them about who's going to get saved. "Titanic" was one. "Deep Impact" another. "Armeggedon." "Saving Private Ryan," certainly a good but dreadfully intense film." Underlying these films may be a deeper concern and fear about subtle atomic weaponry and biological weapons in evil hands. What saves and assures us we are going to be with and deleivered by God. Will some other ship or philosophy and fad in the night come in time be our salvation from our pride and arrogance when we are sinking? Will our science save us from the things in space and the things out of our control, be the ultimate salvation. Shall a remant be saved when a few of the heartiest are sent to another planet to begin life over, when our own old planet reaches its time of demise? Who will be saved, many or few. How does one get in to God's saving grace in an often hostile world?
A bystander asked Jesus how many people would be saved? Jesus does not answer that question. He can only say that we persist to enter the Kingdom of God. We seek, we knock. We ask. We search for the narrow door. It is our life's vigorous ambition. It is a matter of wanting to be all that God would have us to be. To be people like Christ who love and forgive, who have compassion and mercy. It is people who sacrifice and give away their own lives for others. It is in embracing Jesus that we find the Kingdom. Magic rituals, ancestors, trying to earn it is not the way. It is a personal embracing of the Jesus as the way, the truth, the life, that leads into the mansion, to the kingdom with many rooms, where we know God and God knows us as his own children in the image of Jesus Christ. Put your mind on your life with God. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase:

A bystander said, "Master, will only a few be saved?"
He said, "Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life - to God! - is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you'll sit down to God's salvation banquet just because you've been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you're going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you'll find the door locked and the Master saying, 'Sorry, you're not on my guest list.'
"You'll protest, 'But we've known you all our lives!' only to be interrupted with his abrupt, 'Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don't know the first thing about me.'
"That's when you'll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You'll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God's kingdom. You'll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God's kingcom. And all the time you'll be outside looking in - and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last."

"The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary Language" by Eugene H. Peterson, Navpress Publishing Group, Colorado Springs, CO., 1993