Will They Be Saved?
27th Sunday After Pentecost, Off Lectionary ~ Genesis 21:9-11
Rev. F. Elizabeth Givens
Kenwood UMC ~ November 16, 2008
It was the first day of February, 2003. By then Space Shuttle flights had become routine, something we might notice on the news but not usually a huge deal. Until….until the space shuttle Columbia disentigrated upon reentry over Texas killing all seven crew members aboard. Many of us remember the search for debris, the investigation of why the tragedy happened, the focus on the insulating foam which had peeled off during lift off and punctured a hole in one of Columbia’s wings.
But do you remember the crew? And do you remember that the group of heroes was incredibly religiously diverse? We might be most familiar with the faith of the Baptist, the Roman Catholic, the charismatic Christian, and the Episcopalian who died on that tragic day. But did you know about Ilan Ramon, the son of a Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an Israeli astronaut on the mission, and now a hero in Judaism? Or Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-American who grew up in a household with Sikh and Hindu influences, and attended Hindu temples in the San Francisco area. Or Laurel Clark, a practicing Unitarian Universalist, who wrote in an e-mail to her mother on that shuttle flight “Whenever I do get to look out, it is glorious. Even the stars have a special brightness.”[1]
All seven faithful people died on that ill-fated day. All were hailed as heroes, scientists and astronauts who had followed their dreams and all done great things for the advancement of humankind. And their story brings home what can be a sticky question for us as Christians. Were they all saved? Or to put it another way, are they in heaven?
I often have people come to me asking that question on a more personal level, as they have a close friend or family member of another faith whom they care about deeply, but wonder whether they will be in heaven or be saved. It is a very personal question and one which can be very troubling for us as Christians.
I want to begin by talking about what it means to be saved. Salvation, for us as Christians, is what Jesus has done for us by covering our sins and dying on the cross. What we are offered in salvation is a right relationship with God—no matter how badly we’ve messed up, we can have our relationship with God restored. That is the offer of salvation. But in order to receive it, we have to do something. We have to have faith.
So, for us as Christians, salvation is the gift made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we receive through faith. But does that mean that someone who does not know Christ and who does not have faith in him cannot have salvation and receive the gift of eternal life in heaven with God?
There are three common answers to that question. The first answer is, no, someone who does not know Jesus cannot be saved. That is a view called exclusivism.
Another opposite view is a universalist view, which says that God will love and save everyone, no matter what.
For me, and what I understand about God, both of these views are somehow incomplete and not helpful. I am grateful to my colleague Adam Hamilton, pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas for some of the writing he has done on this subject over the last few years for helping me clarify what I think about this.
I have to start with what I know about God. The Bible teaches us that God is love. That’s the most important way we understand and explain God. And characteristics of God which are a close second to love are justice and mercy. And it seems to me that a God of love and mercy would not exclude good, faithful people from salvation. It also seems to me that a God of justice would not extend salvation to a completely unrepentant sinner—for example, Hitler.
So I believe when we wrestle with this question, we have to look at these charasteristics of God—love, justice and mercy. And then we have to ask ourselves—is there any place in Scripture where it seems that God reaches beyond those who believe in Jesus to extend love and mercy and justice?
And the answer is yes. This story from the Old Testament which we shared today is one of the most powerful of those instances. God has promised Abraham that all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him. All the nations of the earth.
And then Abraham and his wife Sarah have trouble conceiving, and his first child is Ishmael, born to Hagar, one of the couple’s slaves. A few years later, Abraham and Sarah miraculously conceive, and have Isaac. Isaac and Ishmael play together as brothers….until Sarah has a fit of jealously and insists that Abraham send them out into the wilderness to fend for themselves. This scripture reports that Abraham struggles with the decision, but does as Sarah asks only after being reassured by God that Hagar and her son will be cared for by him. And as they go into the wilderness, there is a remarkable story of God saving them from starvation, and promising Hagar that he would make a great nation of her son. This would ultimately be the nation of Islam.
Here we get the clear message that God’s love is for all nations and all people. Not just the descendants of Isaac, but also the descendents of Ishmael. That message is reinforced in the New Testament when Jesus extends his message beyond the Jewish people to include non-Jews, or Gentiles. The clear and consistent message is, God loves those who are faithful—not just Jews, not just Abraham’s children through Ishmael, but ALL who are faithful.
And I think that brings us to a place of understanding. Salvation, as we understand it, comes through Christ. But salvation can also come to those who are faithful believers in other traditions. There are Muslims who have a much better prayer life than I do, and Hindus who are more faithful in serving the poor. And they have never had a chance or opportunity or persuasive means to receive Christ as their savior. But I believe that our God, the God of Abraham, and the God of Jesus Christ, is big enough for that to happen. In the words of Billy Graham in a Newsweek interview, “It would be foolish for me to speculate on who will be there and who will not….The love of God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think he loves the whole world no matter what label they have.”[2]
Our hymn of response is about how we have received out salvation—following Jesus. Our prayer is that however salvation comes, those who are faithful will never turn back from a way of life which is holy.
[1]“Seven-Heroes,Seven- Faiths,” http://www.beliefnet.com/News/2003/02/Seven-Heroes-Seven-Faiths.aspx?p=1
[2] Adam Hamilton, “Will There Be Hindus in Heaven?” in Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, Nashville, Abingdon, 2008; p.111.
