Let’s talk salvation. I realize Pope Francis suggested about
a month ago that even atheists could be saved based on good works. I am sure
this was very bad news for many atheists. Francis was suggesting that it is not
simply believing the right thing or saying the right words that get you saved,
but it is also how you live. It is a works thing and if you are a good person
you will not be automatically condemned.
Now the Vatican is back-peddling a bit to the relief of
atheists around the world.
Such a statement and response brings to question what we
want salvation to mean. Note that I have said that it focuses on what we want
salvation to mean, not what salvation means – that is the work of theologians
locked away in their towers slaving at their typewriters. What is it with the
afterlife? I wonder why it is so important that we have a vision of a heaven
where everyone we live with here will be with us there. How will that be
different from what we are dealing with now? There are some people that I may
not want to be with in “heaven” for various reasons. Some of those reasons is
because I just don’t like some people; they annoy me. Can you imagine a place
where everyone in your neighborhood is with you in heaven forever? Now you know
Mr. Applesmith will always be in his home letting his lawn grow beyond what is appropriate
and blasting Zydeco music at all odd hours. That is a hell that you will not be
able to escape. How is that heaven?
All kidding aside, or some kidding aside, why is it that we
want salvation to be about what happens on the other side of death? It may be
because the great beyond scares us so much that we want to know that after we
die we will be ok. Well, we will be ok, but we will still be dead, so that is a
kind of bummer. It may be because it is easier to offer something for the
“after” of life instead of something for the “now” of life.
What if salvation was for the living in the here and now? I
know that many have addressed this topic (Rob Bell, the theologian rock band
The Existentialists, Paul Tillich, and others), but I think it is something
that we can give more time and attention to. It is a much more difficult
message to offer to say that we can be saved in the here and now. It is easier
to preach that if you believe the right things and you say the right words and
you go through the right gestures then you will be assured a brand new home
with golden toilets after you die. That is easier to preach because there is
nothing to say that I am wrong, there is a noticeable absence of evidence and
hence the joy of faith.
Yet how does salvation express itself today, here and now?
How does my life change today because I am saved?
If Christianity, or any other religion, does not offer
something substantial that can change our lives (i.e. save us) today, in the
here and now, that why should be bother with faith at all? How are we saved in
the now?
You may say that knowing your final trip to the stars is all
set (i.e. afterlife) can have a major impact on how you live now and I am sure
that there is some level of truth to such an idea, but I think there is more.
It would be great if Christianity gave us super powers and that was how we were
saved, but that is not what happens. What happens is that we claim an absurd
assurance about who God is and our relationship with God that has an impact not
only with our lives but in the story of creation and all humanity. It is an
assurance that God is concerned about creation and humanity. It is an assurance
that we will never be abandoned by God no matter how messed up we may think we
are. It is an assurance that our lives do have worth and value no matter how
valueless they may seem to us on the surface.
Now I am just waxing rhetorically, yet I hope you begin to
get my point. I don’t believe that we need to push Christianity as a faith that
promises you will get where you want to go, but more as a faith that promises
that God is with you wherever you are. Let those implications set in.
So this means that yes, atheists can be saved if they want
to be, but they will not be forced. Atheists can find the assurance of the
presence of God in their midst if they want, but without Christ I believe it is
darn near impossible to do. It also means that there is not some fiery pit of
hell waiting to burn all those who do not say the right words or perform the
proper rituals. In my view, living without that absurd assurance of God is a
hell all on its own, we don’t need to add to it.
Meet Jesus and find salvation now, don’t worry about later.
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