“He puts the stray sheep on his shoulder carries it back home.”
(Luke 15:5-6)
“Lord, will only a few be saved?”
August 22, 2010, 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 12:5-7; 11 Luke 13:22-30
Second reading from Hebrews
(Luke 15:5-6)
“Lord, will only a few be saved?”
August 22, 2010, 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 12:5-7; 11 Luke 13:22-30
Second reading from Hebrews
Brothers and sisters, have you forgotten the encouraging words which God speaks to you as His children?
Second reading from Hebrews
My son, do not get angry when the Lord disciplines you, and do not be discouraged when He reproves you. For whom the Lord loves He reproves, and whom He favors He chastises.[1]
Therefore, endure your sufferings as being a father’s punishment. For your sufferings show that God is treating you as His sons. At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain. Later, however, discipline brings forth the fruit of righteousness.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
Thanks be to God
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as He went and making His way to Jerusalem. Someone asked Him, “Sir, will only a few people be saved?” Jesus replied, “The door to heaven is narrow, so work hard to get in. For I tell you when the head of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. Then you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will reply, ‘I do not know you!’ And you will answer, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Then He will say to you, ‘I do not know you!’ What great wailing and gnashing of teeth there will be when you will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, while you stand outside. People will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. Then those who are now last will be first, and those who are now first will be last.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Like pages off the calendar
Introduction
Like pages off the calendar
Here it is the fourth Sunday of August already and the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time. Many of the kids are back to school. The fruits of the harvest will soon be gathered into bins against the long winter ahead. Soon leaves of brown will come tumbling down like pages off the calendar. By late August, time always seems to go into high gear and start rushing headlong to Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which will be here before we know it. This is the time of the year when we feel `a sense of passage,’ and a kind of melancholy sets in on some of us.
Few will be saved
A staunch religious blogger complains about preachers “who go so far as to say that those, who are sincere in whatever beliefs they hold, will be saved. Such preachers,” he says, “are in effect saying that the door which opens to heaven is very wide, while Jesus tells us that it is very narrow. I believe Jesus, and not those preachers.”
Another staunch religious blogger complains,
People don’t want to be reminded of the hard sayings in the Bible. Those of us who claim that the door which opens to heaven is narrow are labeled as “narrow minded.” That’s OK; we’re in good company: Jesus Himself said, “Narrow is the door that opens to heaven.” Like it or not, only a few will be saved! Whether or not we think this makes God a failure, whether or not that makes us sad and upsets us, isn't really important. If the Bible says it, that settles it. (That reminds us of an old bumper sticker which some Bible people proudly sported: “God said it! I believe it! That settles it!”)
`In good company’
Surprisingly, those who blog in such a vein seem to be in good company. In Romans St. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah: "Though the sons of Israel be as numerous as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved. For quickly and decisively will the Lord execute sentence upon the earth.” (Rom. 9:27; Is. 10: 22f)
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604) writes equally gloomily: “Behold how many are gathered here for today's feast-day. We fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few of us shall be numbered in that chosen company of the elect? -- In the late 1870s Charles Taze Russell (founder of the Jehovah Witnesses,) gloomily limited the number of those saved to 144,000, because the book of Revelation speaks of 144,000 people “who had the seal of God on their foreheads, and who washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:1-14) 144,000 human beings is but a drop of water in the whole sea of humanity.
Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604) writes equally gloomily: “Behold how many are gathered here for today's feast-day. We fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few of us shall be numbered in that chosen company of the elect? -- In the late 1870s Charles Taze Russell (founder of the Jehovah Witnesses,) gloomily limited the number of those saved to 144,000, because the book of Revelation speaks of 144,000 people “who had the seal of God on their foreheads, and who washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:1-14) 144,000 human beings is but a drop of water in the whole sea of humanity.
All will be saved
Universalism (a religious movement which affirms that all will be saved) was a reaction to the gloomy view that only a few will be saved. In his autobiography, John Murray, an Englishman who migrated to the New World in 1770, recounts a conversation he had one day with a gloomy Calvinistic preacher.
He told me that he traveled nine miles on foot every Saturday to preach. I asked him, “How many people does your congregation contain?” “About a hundred,” he replied. “How many of them do you suppose are predestined to everlasting life? “I cannot tell,” he replied. “Do you believe fifty are predestined?” “Oh no, not even twenty.”“Ten perhaps?” “Yes, maybe ten.” “Do you think the non-elect can do anything to get themselves out of this terrible situation that heaven has decreed for them?” “Oh no,” he replied, “they might as well try to pull the stars out of the heavens.” “And do you think your preaching can assist them?” “Certainly not. Every one of my sermons will simply sink them deeper and deeper into hell.” So, then, you walk nine miles every Saturday to sink ninety persons out of a hundred deeper and deeper into never-ending misery!
Universalism: a reaction
Reacting to the gloomy preacher Murray went to the opposite end of the spectrum: in the place of an extremely severe and arbitrary God he chose an extremely merciful and forgiving One. To the question will only a few be saved Murray answered, “Everyone will be saved! Nobody will be damned!” That’s called Universalism, and for its proof Universalists quote various Scripture texts like,
Then Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:31-32)
For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being. For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (I Cor. 15:22) Etc. Etc.
Many will be saved
Between the gloomy blogger's contention that "Few will be saved!" and the very optimistic stance of Universalists' that "All will be saved!" there stands a blessed middle ground: "Many will be saved!" If one of Jesus' sayings seems to say rather explicitly that only a few are saved (as today's gospel does,) and if many of His other sayings seem to affirm that many, indeed, will be saved, then Jesus' many sayings should trump His one difficult saying. Fr. Andrew Greeley writes,
This is a chilling gospel. It sounds like Jesus is tired and in a bad mood and probably fed up with people asking him such a silly question like will only a few be saved on the last day. If the people had heeded all that Jesus had told them about his Father in heaven, they would have known that God is nothing but forgiveness and love, and they wouldn’t have been asking such a silly question like “Will only a few are saved?”
A theme of Jesus’ preaching
What, in fact, does Jesus tell the people about His Father in heaven? He tells the people a salvation parable: A sheep-herder has ninety-nine sheep and one of them goes astray, and he goes in search of the one lost sheep. When he finally finds the bleating animal, he throws it over his shoulders, carries it back home and calls in his neighbors to celebrate with him, because “there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who have no need of repentance.”(Lk 15:1-7) That’s what Jesus told the people, and it should have assured them that many more than just a few will be saved.
Again, Jesus tells the people a salvation parable: One day a son grabs his inheritance and goes off to a foreign land. There he squanders his money on wine and women, and is finally reduced to hiring himself out to a farmer who sends him off to feed his pigs. He finally comes to his senses, makes his way back to his father’s house and is welcomed home with open arms. (Lk 15:11-32) That, again, is what Jesus told the people, and it should have assured them that many more than just a few will be saved.
Again, Jesus tells the people a salvation parable: One day a son grabs his inheritance and goes off to a foreign land. There he squanders his money on wine and women, and is finally reduced to hiring himself out to a farmer who sends him off to feed his pigs. He finally comes to his senses, makes his way back to his father’s house and is welcomed home with open arms. (Lk 15:11-32) That, again, is what Jesus told the people, and it should have assured them that many more than just a few will be saved.
Few will be saved?
“Few will be saved!” Is that seemingly gloomy saying of Jesus trumped by His many other hope-filled sayings?
“Few will be saved!” Do these words of staunch bloggers and gloomy preachers reflect a very strange psychological need in some people to limit the number of the saved to just a very few? Do they feel that such a gloomy stance, in some very strange way, will merit for them a place among the few who will be saved? At the end of the day, does that stance smack a bit of self-righteousness?
“Few will be saved!” Is that a fear-tactic used by preachers who want to make and keep people religious? At the end of the day, the fear-tactic approach to salvation raises a profound question: Is it possible to make and keep people religious, when the hell factor has been taken out of the equation, or at least greatly removed to the background? Which is better: religion which thrives on fear, or is inspired by love?
In reaction to staunch bloggers and gloomy preachers who have a very strange need that the majority of people be not saved, the Universalists shout back, “Everyone will be saved!” Is Universalism a reaction to unimaginative preachers who need hell to make and keep people religious?
“Few will be saved!” Do these words of staunch bloggers and gloomy preachers reflect a very strange psychological need in some people to limit the number of the saved to just a very few? Do they feel that such a gloomy stance, in some very strange way, will merit for them a place among the few who will be saved? At the end of the day, does that stance smack a bit of self-righteousness?
“Few will be saved!” Is that a fear-tactic used by preachers who want to make and keep people religious? At the end of the day, the fear-tactic approach to salvation raises a profound question: Is it possible to make and keep people religious, when the hell factor has been taken out of the equation, or at least greatly removed to the background? Which is better: religion which thrives on fear, or is inspired by love?
In reaction to staunch bloggers and gloomy preachers who have a very strange need that the majority of people be not saved, the Universalists shout back, “Everyone will be saved!” Is Universalism a reaction to unimaginative preachers who need hell to make and keep people religious?
Conclusion
A stray sheep found
Scripture seems to say few will be saved. Scripture also seems to say many will be saved. For some, Scripture even says everyone will be saved. At the end of the day, you can use Scripture to prove anything you want to prove. Those, who have a strange psychological need that only a few be saved, line up the Scripture texts which prove their point.
On the other hand, those who have a great personal need that many be saved, because they’re well-aware of their own sinfulness, line up the Scripture texts which prove their point. Deeply aware that they’re sinners, they find great hope and consolation in Jesus’ salvation parables. They light up when they hear the story of a prodigal son who’s welcomed back home by a loving father. They’re given hope when they hear story about a stray sheep found by a worried shepherd, and carried back home on his shoulders.
[1] Proverbs 3:11ff.
On the other hand, those who have a great personal need that many be saved, because they’re well-aware of their own sinfulness, line up the Scripture texts which prove their point. Deeply aware that they’re sinners, they find great hope and consolation in Jesus’ salvation parables. They light up when they hear the story of a prodigal son who’s welcomed back home by a loving father. They’re given hope when they hear story about a stray sheep found by a worried shepherd, and carried back home on his shoulders.
[1] Proverbs 3:11ff.
