Sunday Message
February 29, 2004
Robert D Bohnsack
Text: Romans 10:8b-13

Lent has arrived. Lent the church season of preparation, repentance, and renewal has arrived. Lent the forty days, excluding the six Sundays, prior to Easter Sunday, has arrived. Lent the time the colors in the church change to the royal purple has arrived.

We can also tell it is Lent because all the stores have been decked out in Lenten decorations for the last four weeks. Our favorite radio station promises to play Lent music every day. Of course we have all made out our list for what we want the Easter bunny to bring us. We are also looking forward to going to each other's homes for bowls of hot lentil soup, the perfect Lent food. I know the jokes can sometimes be "relentless."

This year the movie marquees are telling us it is Lent. Mel Gibson's, "The Passion," is putting the story of Christ's suffering and crucifixion in newspaper columns, TV talk shows, and radio call-in shows. Everybody has an opinion. You could easily read an article or review of this movie for the forty days of Lent for the next forty years. Much has been written and said, and much will be written and said. I have not seen this movie yet, but in the midst of all the hype, reviews, personal testimonies, praises, and criticisms, I must remind myself that this is only a movie. Movies can be very influential, but in the end it is still just a movie. This movie will not rewrite the accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we find in our four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This movie will not bring about salvation, or save somebody. God, Christ, and the Holy Spring bring salvation. We are saved because God chose to save us. We have faith because God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It is a movie created and produced by human beings. It is a movie created by human beings who are just as sinful as we are. It is a movie created by human beings who need Lent as much as we do. They need, just as we need a time of preparation, repentance, and renewal. They need to approach the cross of the resurrected and living Jesus Christ on Easter morning with a prepared heart and mind.

When I was in high school and college I had the best summer job ever. I was a lifeguard. I was paid to sit in the lifeguard chair and scan the water, and look for struggling swimmers. I had many tools at my disposal. I had the ever important Acme Trumpeter whistle, and the requisite pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. It was my job to keep the swimming area safe. In addition to my whistle and sunglasses, I had other lifesaving tools at my disposal. I had rescue tubes, ring buoys, reaching poles, a first aid kit, and a backboard. I was ready for any aquatic emergency.

Sometimes I would have complete strangers ask me, "so have you ever saved anybody?" Save somebody? Of course I have saved people. I just saved a group of five seven year-olds from falling and skinning their knees on the concrete when I yelled at them for running. I saved a whole bunch of people yesterday when I picked up a bunch of trash in the picnic grounds. My presence alone saves people. I knew that the person really wanted to know if I had ever dove into to the water to save a drowning person. Had I ever performed a chin level-off and switched to a chest carry so I could swim in a drowning person to the shore. Had I ever dragged that person up onto the beach and begun performing CPR until the paramedics arrived. My ego had trouble answering that person with a truthful "no." No, I had never dove into the water and saved a struggling Julia Roberts or joined David Hasselhoff in a rescue involving thirty lifeguards and 175 drowning persons. The closest I ever came was the couple of times I helped a few scared young children who had wandered into water that was too deep. No, I have never saved anybody as a part of a dramatic rescue.

As a minister I am sometimes asked if I have ever saved anybody. In that context they are not asking about whether I ever dove into the water and pulled somebody out and performed CPR. They are asking whether I ever led somebody to Jesus Christ and did something to assure their salvation. My answer has and always will be, "no." Jesus Christ saves. Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected. I do believe that I have been and will be used by God as a tool to introduce people to Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings. I believe that you, the people of the church, have been and will be used by God as a tool to introduce people to Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings.

In my lifeguard days we had a saying, "Reach, Throw, Row, Go." When performing a rescue you first wanted to reach for the person with your arm or leg. Then you might extend a pole or a rescue tube. Secondly, you would want to throw. You could throw a ring buoy, or some other flotation device. Thirdly, you would row the lifeguard boat to the person. That did not work so well in the pool though. Finally, you would go in the water and get the person. This presented the greatest danger to the rescuer. If you got out to a drowning person they might drown you.

Jesus Christ is always reaching, throwing, rowing, and going for us. He is extending the grace and love of God to everybody. Paul reminds us that there is "no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him." There is no distinction between American, Iraqi, German, and Chilean. Christ is the same Lord for Presbyterian, Roman Catholics, Southern Baptist, United Methodists, and all people of faith. Christ is the same Lord for those who liked "The Passion" and those who did not.

Paul puts it very plainly, "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." In verse four of the tenth chapter of Romans Paul also reminds us that Christ is the end of law. Our confession does not need to be in a certified form approved by the certification committee of the church. It does not have to happen on the fifth Sunday of Lent. It does not have to be heard by eight witnesses.

Our confession that Jesus is Lord may be a confession that only you and God hear. It may be a very public confession in front of your friends and family. God does not value one confession over another. God took the initiative to save us. God took the initiative to send his only Son to live, die, and be resurrected for our salvation. God sent the Holy Spirit to give us faith. "Confessing Jesus is Lord" is our response to God's love. God is doing all the work.

People of God, confess and let God do the work of salvation. During this Lent let God create in you a clean heart, let God renew a right spirit within you, know that the Holy Spirit will not be taken from you.

During the Sundays in Lent we, the people of this church, will be confessing that Jesus is Lord every Sunday using the Apostles' Creed. Please stand and join me in proclaiming what we believe.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen