Well, not exactly, not quite everyone, I don’t think. Sadly, not everyone will be saved when eternity’s push comes to shove, I’m afraid, though I’m not God and able to say for sure. But I do believe for sure that those who say with their lips, “Jesus is Lord,” after believing it absolutely in their hearts, will be.

 

And that’s good news, I guess, for us who not only say the words but also are fully convinced they are true. We believe, truly believe, in God the creator Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, God’s only son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; that he descended into hell; that three days later he rose from the dead, and that he ascended into heaven to sit on the right hand of God the Father.

 

We also believe that one day he, Jesus, will come back from heaven to judge among the living and the dead. We believe it. We also believe there’s a Holy Ghost; one holy and universal church; a fellowship of the saints, forgiveness of sins…for all who ask; a bodily resurrection of some sort; and life that will be everlasting, never-ending, eternal. We believe.

 

That’s good. We will be saved. But what of those of us who reserve the right to be a little skeptical, or to have our tongues in our cheeks a little when we stand and say the words of faith? What of us? And what of those who have never heard of Jesus and never will and will never get the chance? It seems unfair to me that those who have never had the chance to hear the good news will be penalized somehow for their ignorance.

 

And what of those of us who have been raised on the idea of a balanced universe? If there’s good in it, there’s also evil, but only just as much and no more. It keeps things balanced that way. Justice is a matter of balance. Life is a matter of balance. There are winners and losers in all of life. That’s just how things work. What of those of us who just can’t fathom the idea of a universal salvation that is even for those who haven’t spent one whit of energy to earn it?

 

That is a deeply troubling idea for some folks, you know. The late John Updike, who struggled with issues of faith in many of his novels, in one of his later books, In the Beauty of the Lilies, the principle character is a minister, a Presbyterian, of all things, who gradually loses his faith…and his grip. (Why couldn’t Updike have made him a Lutheran…or a Methodist?) If you read the book and remember, there’s a wonderful scene in which the Rev. Mr. Wilmot makes a hospital call on Mr. Orr, who is a pious old fundamentalist who claims to be very much at peace with the way he’s worked things out over the years. If God’s made His elections at the beginning of time, then He’s helpless to change things, old Mr. Orr says to the increasingly agitated Rev. Mr. Wilmot.

 

“(God) can’t keep changing His mind,” Mr. Orr says. “I guess that’s something he can’t do. Well in a few days I’m going to know what His mind was and is. I’d promise to tell you from the other side, but I’m no Spiritualist. There’s this side, and then there’s the other. Just like there’s saved and not saved. You take counsel with your self, Reverend Wilmot, and see if you can’t think a bit more kindly of damnation. To tell a man he can’t be damned has logical consequences you haven’t taken into account. (Mr. Orr had just asked Rev. Wilmot what he thought the old man’s chances were to be among the eternally damned, and Rev. Wilmot had equivocated.) There have to be losers, or there can’t be winners. That’s what the Bible tells us…”

 

A few years ago, a member of the church I was serving at the time, a guy for whom I had great affection and respected and found to be quite wise about most things, told me of a conversation he’d had with another member of the church who claimed to be put off and pretty troubled by all the talk he was hearing around the church about God’s love for all creation, all things, all beings, all people, and that he and his wife were considering leaving the congregation, which they had done fairly recently. It was too bad, and I wish I had had the opportunity to preach this sermon to them before they left.

 

But my friend, who, remember, I said is a very wise man, said, sometimes when people have spent so many years and so much energy trying to be good, they have a hard time hearing the suggestion that the folks who haven’t tried nearly as hard are maybe going to be OK too.

 

Well, I wish those folks were here today. I really do… because in addition to what they perceived to be a streak of universal salvation theology in me, I’d like them to hear me also say that in the end not everybody’s going to get saved. Not quite everybody. Paul didn’t mean everybody. Maybe Joel the Prophet whom Paul is quoting here did, but St. Paul didn’t. Rather what Paul said was, “Those who say Jesus is Lord with their lips, and also believe it in their hearts, they will be saved.”

 

Now notice he doesn’t say anything – nor even imply anything – about the fate of folks who have never heard about Jesus and have never had the opportunity to respond to what they have heard by saying Jesus is Lord. Nor does Paul or any biblical writer ever say that Jesus is the only path to God or God’s salvation. And probably that’s because, for Paul, it was a no-brainer. It’s how some of us have interpreted Paul and the other biblical writers that has made the biblical witnesses into exclusivists, I’m pretty sure. Paul doesn’t talk about the fate of people who have never heard of Jesus, or of the fate of tens of thousands of children who dye in the West African deserts without ever having confessed him as Lord. For Paul it was a no-brainer and should be for us as well. Of course, the Lord our God loves them as well. And in the end their fate will be as eternal and as glorious as anybody’s.

 

But for those who do hear the good news of Jesus, but then reject it, their fate is damnation, I guess, but by their own hand. It’s not what you say. It’s what you believe and do after you’ve heard. Just saying the words that we’ll all say in a minute won’t do it ever. But believing them and then coming to this table in response to what you believe will do it, for always, forever, for eternity. It’s God’s love that is universal. That’s an absolute guarantee. Whether we accept it when we hear about it, is a whole ‘nuther thing, however.

 

What’s your response going to be when the gift is offered? Will you come to the table? I urge you to take what’s on the table this morning and believe in what it means…because it’s yours…with no strings attached.

 

Let us pray.

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