Salvation - the carrot and the stick vs. the love

The Carrot and the Stick

I was raised in the Baptist church.  I have never understood the screaming and yelling and threatening with hell that goes on every Sunday morning from a Baptist pulpit.  Have you ever made a decision about something important in your life based solely on your emotions?  That's what you are doing when you make a profession of faith under duress. 

And then there's the reward system.  If you walk down the aisle, take the preacher's hand and make a public profession of faith, you get to go walk on streets of gold and wear fine clothes and live in a big fine mansion that God has prepared for you.  I actually heard an evangelist say that.  And he was serious!  Really people!!!  Jesus was poor.   He barely had clothes to wear.  He lived on the graciousness of his followers.  Why in the world would you make a decision as important as your salvation based on whether you get a mansion or not??

Belief in Jesus is not about the reward.  It's not about the threat.  It's about believing that God used a woman to bring a baby into this world who grew up to be a man who then died to save us from our own sorry sins.  That is faith. 

The second part of believing in Jesus is to follow Jesus' teachings.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  He said those were the two most important things to do.  Look at the way he lived his life.  He cared for people.  He cured the sick, fed the hungry, and hung on a cross so we could be forgiven of our sins.  That is love.

And yet, every day in the news, we hear of "Christian" denominations ostracizing different groups of people because they are different.  Women can't be ordained.  Gays can't come to church.  Do you really think Jesus is worried about whether a woman puts on a clerical collar or who your gay neighbor loves?  I don't think he cares one iota.   God made everything on this earth.  God is perfect.  He doesn't make mistakes.  Women aren't inferior.  Gays aren't going to hell because of who they love.

I am an Episcopalian.  Have been since 1987.  When I kneel on Sunday to pray the confession, I'm saying real words.  I am confessing that I know I'm not perfect and I have sinned.  I've done things and left things undone.  I haven't loved my neighbor.  I am truly sorry and I humbly repent.  The humbling of yourself and the forgiveness that comes after that is the reward.  How happier we are when we humble ourselves before the Lord and admit our weaknesses and ask for help.  The very act of asking is a profession of faith.  It implies belief that we will be forgiven of our sins.  We can be forgiven every day.  The goal is to work every day to become more and more like Jesus.  We will never get there, ever.  But if we confess our sins every day and get up and try again, that is love.

Personally, I'd much rather have the honest to God love than the carrot and the stick.  None of us knows what is on the other side.  But I believe there is love waiting on us like we have never experienced.  Not streets of gold or silk clothes.  Just honest to God acceptance and love.  

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever.  Amen.