ARE YOU SAVED?

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON JANUARY 22, 2006

Mark 1:17 “Jesus said to them, ‘follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

Yes, that is how it happened. They just got up and followed him. It is an experience not unknown even today. People do have instant conversions - or suddenly turn their lives around. Perhaps many of us can remember significant moments in our lives when we turned to Christ, or renewed our faith?

My significant event was at age 20. Now it can be a boring sermon when the preacher talks about himself - but this needs a little background. I was raised Anglican, so I may be called a cradle Episcopalian. My family did not worship on Sundays - like most Anglicans in Australia! But I was sent to Sunday school and presented for confirmation at age 11. Despite the lack of my parental discipline in my Christian education I always had an awareness and love of God, and never doubted his presence in my life.

As soon as I left high school I started to go to church. And to my delight I discovered an Anglocatholic church near by. This was an entirely new experience, and I started enjoying the beauties of traditional Anglocatholic worship. Furthermore I discovered that the Church was not just a religious club, but a spiritual mother, established by none other than the Lord Jesus himself.

At age 20 I started a job as an accountant. And my boss was Plymouth Brethren. His faith seemed exclusive and judgmental - and I knew as an Anglican I was to be pitied!

Then one day driving me to a work location he asked me that fateful question: “Are you saved?” Well of course I was saved - but Anglicans in Australia didn’t talk like that. It was not polite conversation to ask someone if they were saved. I was both intimidated and insulted. Intimated, because he was so sure of himself and of me, and insulted, because he had no idea of my faith. I was also a little annoyed. I belonged to the Church, and loved its glorious worship - and he had abandoned both for a pale imitation lacking joy.

So on that day I made a Billy Graham type decision. I did not say yes, I am saved. Nor did I get up immediately like Peter and Andrew to follow Jesus. For in fact I was already doing that. But I decided to know why being a churchman was better. And I wanted to know what was this Catholic faith that we professed Sunday by Sunday in St. Paul’s Church. I loved High Mass and all the ceremonies - but like most Anglicans I could not give an account of the hope that was within me, as St. Peter says in his first Epistle Chapter 3. So I started to attend the daily Mass at 7:00 am. On my way home from work I popped into church to pray and to adore Jesus present in the mysterious tabernacle on the High Altar.

I found that my prayer life blossomed but I wanted to know more and so I started to read. I devoured anything to do with the Anglocatholic tradition. And I was rejoicing that as an Anglican I could also be 100% Catholic.

I gave thanks that in the church’s wisdom every sense was used in worship: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Every genuflection became not just an acknowledgement of the Incarnation but a connection between me and Jesus. An action which defied convention and personal pride. My mind could not contain all the truth and beauty I assimilated every Sunday at 9:30 am in that church. Nor the excitement of belonging to the church Jesus founded, and which had been doing this for 2,000 years.

I mentioned in the beginning boring sermons. Since those days there have been 2 types of

sermons I find boring. The first is the call to conversion. The preacher in those sermons

no doubt thinks he is Jesus calling the first apostles! There may be the odd occasion when

such a sermon is appropriate. And I will never tire of throwing you challenges. Such a

sermon I believe is an insult to your intelligence. Most of you have been following Jesus

for a long time. Perhaps like me you have always loved God and grown steadily in your

faith since childhood. Some of you may have rediscovered your faith, or the practice of

it, through some particular event or experience. It is always wonderful when a person

discovers a church like this and feels they have finally arrived home.

The second sermon I find boring is quite the opposite. It’s the one that says we are saved. Its focus is on ourselves as God’s chosen, elect people. We are the fortunate ones! Heaven is ours on a plate - unlike all the other unfortunate people. This type of sermon is manifest in the saying: “love God and do what you like”. If you are God’s chosen you can do anything you like. Unfortunately love God and do what you like seems to be the Episcopal saying these days! This is also an insult to your intelligence, and to the reality that we are humans who occasionally slip. To do what you like is not necessarily right, in fact when I do what I like it may just be wrong. Certainly self-centered and self-indulgent. We cannot pretend that following Jesus is easy, or soft, or means that we can do what we like as long as we love God. Following Jesus is hard work It involves discipline - and we will slip.

Look at the man first called by Jesus in today’s gospel, St. Peter. Remember the mistakes he made, the crazy things he said and did on the spur of the moment? Remember on that first Maundy Thursday when it came to the crunch he denied even knowing Jesus - as we may do. Not in speech, but often we deny Jesus by the things we do not say. Peter had to be the first one Jesus called because Jesus wanted to give us an example. That we might know that Jesus calls us because of who we are, and despite who we are.

So today, as we reflect on the calling of those first apostles, let us give thanks that the church is not for the perfect, and that the banquet of the Lamb is for everyone. For through the banquet of the Lamb here we are prepared to be ready one day for the banquet of the Lamb in heaven.