Television is a marvelous thing. I remember a child being
mesmerized by cowboys and Indians, and their sidekicks: dogs, horses, female
friends, and jeeps. Television has never stopped being something amazing and
almost necessary for me because I learn things from programs it presents, from forensics
to religion to history to travel to places I’ve never been or will ever see for
myself.
I was watching a program on the travels of the apostles
after Pentecost. One of the stories that they presented was the story that
appears in Acts 8:26-39 that we know as Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip was following the instructions of an
angel to travel along a particular road. He came across a foreign man sitting in
a chariot reading a scroll. Philip went to the man and asked if he understood what
he was reading, which happened to be the book of Isaiah. The man, a eunuch and
a high official of the Queen of Ethiopia, said that he was unable to do so
because how could he understand unless someone taught him. Philip proceeded to
talk to the Ethiopian, explaining that when Isaiah referred to the Messiah, he
was speaking of a man named Jesus. As they walked along, talking of Jesus, the
eunuch expressed a desire to be baptized. He and Philip went into a nearby body
of water, and Philip baptized him. Philip was taken away by the Spirit to
another land, and the eunuch proceeded on his journey home.
Something about this program got me thinking. The script had
the eunuch utter the words, “I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God,” and
that served as his profession of faith. The book of Acts reports instead that
the Ethiopian remarked that there was some water and asked what prevented him
from being baptized. That made me wonder
about whether or not Philip had required a profession of faith, and what is sufficient
for us to be baptized now?
In the church of my youth, each service would be geared
towards the last few minutes when the preacher would come down from the pulpit
and stand in the center of the aisle as we sang a hymn, usually “Just As I Am.”
Between each verse, the preacher would urge us to open our hearts to Jesus and
accept him as our “Personal Savior.” The calling would go on for several
minutes before he started the next verse. After the second verse, there would
be another pause and encouragement to come forward. The third, fourth, fifth, and even sixth
verse followed the same pattern.
He reminded us of our sinfulness and how Jesus
had come to save us, but we needed to accept that and be baptized for it to
become a reality. Becoming a Christian could only be accomplished by publicly
accepting Jesus as a “Personal Savior.” Then, several weeks later, I was immersed
in the baptistry at the front of the church at a Sunday night service. I did what was required, got dunked as a
sinner, and walked back up the baptistry steps, soaking wet and able to
proclaim that I was now a Christian. I was saved from my sins and with a hotline
to God to ask forgiveness for any fault, great or small, that I might commit in
the future, something like a “Get out of jail free” card.
What came to my attention through the television program was
the simplicity of the affirmation of faith the eunuch pronounced. There was no
personal savior involved; it was an acceptance that Jesus was the Son of God,
and that was all that was necessary to believe. Perhaps the writer of Acts didn’t
feel a specific affirmation of faith was required. The formula for such
professions would come later as the church grew, and the times became more
perilous. Still, the Ethiopian’s statement caught my attention and made me do
some thinking.
At this stage of my life, I have pretty much rejected the
idea of a personal savior. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I can say
the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed without crossing my fingers more than once at
a phrase or two. I can identify fundamental (as opposed to Fundamental)
Christian beliefs, recite things like the Beatitudes and a number of the
Psalms. I can retell the stories and parables, and explain them with some
understanding, but I can’t claim Jesus is purely my personal savior.
I believe that when we say that Jesus came to take away the
sins of the world, he didn’t only come for a few people, like his disciples and
his followers that came with him on his journeys. He came not only for the
Jews, but also the Samaritans, even the Romans, and, as time went on, for the
Gentiles who encompassed everybody who was not Jewish. To me, that is a much more
significant and more powerful belief than merely claiming a personal savior.
Either Jesus came to take away the sins of all the world, or he didn’t come to
take away the sins of any. That phrase, “the sins of the world,” makes all the
difference to me.
I believe that Jesus Christ was, is, and will always be the
son of God. His mission on earth was to teach us how to live in relationship
with God and with each other. I would say that that is my statement of faith
and the reason I am a Christian.
Each of us has to come to our own statement of faith. As I contemplate
my particular statement of faith this coming week, I will be looking deeper to
see where I am in relation to that statement of faith, and where I can find God
as well as Jesus in it. Give it a try yourself. Make a statement that embodies
your belief, not necessarily using the language of the church but rather the
language of the heart. See where it takes you.
No comments:
Post a Comment