BEING SAVED
INTRODUCTION
What to preach on….
I’m sitting in the doctor’s office this morning with a
small missalette. I read the readings - said my regular prayer, “Lord, help me to come up with
something helpful for someone today.” Then I asked my regular next question:
“What to preach on?”
I stopped at the words, “Being saved….” in today’s first
reading from 1 Corinthians 15: 1-8 -
today’s first reading for the Feast of Philip and James - May 3rd.
QUESTIONS
Then I asked a question, “What does that feel like?”
Then I asked, “What are some situations when I have been
saved? What are some situations, when
people feel saved?”
Then I sat there in the doctor’s office and pondered
saved situations. They were a bit behind
schedule ….
BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL
Two nights ago I
went into our common room or living room and Father William is standing there
with the TV remote. The TV screen is
loaded with a big written message. Basically it’s broken. I look down at the
Comcast Box or some other box there and I notice the blue light is not on. I go over and push one button and the blue
light goes on and the TV goes on - and it’s fixed.
William might have said, “You’re a savior.” I was. There is another TV in what we call the
African Room. That’s where the TV that Father Pat Flynn used to use is. That TV
is broken. I tried to fix it. No luck.
There’s another TV up on the third floor in a guest room, but we have a
guest priest from Arizona this week - so I fixed our regular TV by pushing one
button.
That’s one small example of being a savior.
MORE
Last fall, I get a flat tire on Route 301 Eastern Shore
coming back from my sister Mary . I don’t have my Triple A card in my wallet. I
am on the shoulder of the road. I don’t
have a cell phone. A state trooper almost immediately stops and asks what my
problem is.
I say, “Flat tire?”
He asks, “Do you have a spare?”
He has my tire changed in 10 minutes.
I say, “Thank you.”
He says, “The way I think of it, I see everyone on the
road as a member of my family, and if they are stuck, I’m ready to help.”
He was a savior.
I think of when I
was a kid. We’d go to Rye Beach
and one of us or a few of us would run out of tickets for the rides.
Then one kid takes out an Andrew Jackson and says, “Let’s
get more tickets.”
Then the kid says, “I have this uncle - who always slips
us some money sneakily whenever he sees us going somewhere. My uncle would
always say, ‘I always hated it as a kid to run out of money.’”
Down through the years I have seen lots of Uncles and
Aunts - who were just like that. I have
tried to be that kind of a person, but not enough.
BEING SAVED
So part of being saved brings up that other S word. No
not that one - but it could be that one.
Stuck - being stuck.
Let me look at the big stuck.
Down deep - every human being - consciously - and
semi-consciously - or unconsciously - worries about dying - and being in some
deep dark ditch or grave - in the underworld of the hereafter - lost - scared -
unknowing what’s next - or if there is a next - 4 flat tires in the soul - no
ticket to nowhere - and filled with “uh oh” tears along with fear predominating.
Stuck….
That’s stuck.
If there is any message in the gospels from Jesus - it’s right here - Jesus says, “I’ll come
looking for you when you feel stuck.”
I love Luke 15!
Just scream out from your depths, “Baa - Baa - Baa!” as a lost sheep and the
Good Shepherd will appear.
Just “Hmm, Hmn - I’m like a lost coin over here under the
bed - or in the corner or in a crack in the floor.”
Or just crawl back home and I’m be waiting with open
arms.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
Isn’t that what Jesus says in today’s gospel from John
14: 6-14, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
Jesus will show us the way to the light.
CONCLUSION
P.S. Matthew 25: 31-6 gives us the password, the secret
way to sneak in the back door.
When you see someone hungry, hurting, stuck, or whatever form they have taken, help them.
