SOZO - Saved
February 23, 2025Pastor Patrick presented today's message, "SOZO - Saved." A video of today's message is here on YouTube.
Patrick pointed out that being saved is only the first of three steps into wholeness (sozo). Likewise, the saving of the Israelites from Egypt was but step one. If God's only motivation was to save the Israelites, a genuine question of chauvinism would apply. Why did he not free all the other oppressed, enslaved peoples all over the globe? Because freeing the Israelites was not the end game. The end game was to teach the Israelites how to follow God's ways AND to share that with the world. Interestingly, Christians have done far more to spread the word of God around the globe than Jews have, and it's the Jewish mission. This is not a condemnation, just a fact. Given the history of antisemitism throughout the ages, I can see why Jews might choose to "keep their heads down."
I wonder if wholeness, when we get to that in this series, will include a notion of doing what God wants us to do and taking knowledge of Him to the world.
The notion of being "born into the line of fire" was interesting. This is clearly a Torah/Jewish notion, in metaphorical form. The Torah makes it painfully clear that we "come out" flawed, that we have a capacity to do evil as easily as good. The Torah is rife with dysfunction and badness. But all for the purpose of teaching us something about our nature and how to overcome the bad intentions. The Torah refers to a Yetzer HaTov and a Yetzer HaRa, an urge to do good and an urge to do bad/evil. Another way to put it... the fight is within ourselves, each of ourselves. We must work on our own self to follow the good urges and avoid the bad urges. To put it one other way, our line of fire, our battlefield, is within each of us.
Patrick's mention of saved "out of" something and "in to" something else reminded me, however tangentially, of the Christian notion of being removed (saved?) from the old covenant, "the law," and enjoined into a new covenant, grace. Some would use the words legalism and antinomianism to describe the two conditions. Legalism, of course, is following the letter of the law. I think the Torah's worth is often dismissed by referring to it as the law. The word Torah more closely means "teachings" than "laws." The latter word, antinomianism, is a new one to me, but does describe an issue I've had with grace. Antinomianism is the doctrine or belief that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral, and that salvation is attained solely through faith and the gift of divine grace. Does grace really mean we can keep on sinning without recourse? I think that's the impression one could get. Of course, the truth is somewhere in the middle, a balance between the two. As James Henley Thornwell put it, "The natural vibration of the mind is from the extreme of legalism to that of licentiousness [antinomianism], and nothing but the grace of God can fix it in the proper medium of Divine truth. The Gospel, like Jesus, is crucified between two thieves — Legalists of all sorts on the one hand and Antinomians on the other; the former robbing the Savior of the glory of his work for us, and the other robbing him of the glory of his work within us."
Repentance is a big deal in the Torah and in Jewish life. Patrick mentioned this when discussing three steps to salvation: 1. make the move (change/repent), 2. let Him lead, and 3. commit. One of the Jewish requirements of repenting is to not repeat the same sinful act when presented with the same circumstances as the first time. It's a requirement for forgiveness. There's a great book about offering forgiveness, or not, called The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal. The question "has the sinner repented, or even had a chance to repent" is included.
After thought... The last paragraph above speaks of making a move, changing, repenting. This reminds me of Dennis Prager mentioning that Groundhog Day is one of his favorite movies. He says it's about redemption and repentance. And here's his summary, "you can't move on until you stop doing what's wrong."
Bonus
Cleanliness is Next to Godliness; So Is Beauty
Prager discusses this a bit in The Rational Bible: Numbers pp. 84-86.Commonly heard are statements like, "God doesn't care what I wear to church," or "all that money spent on a beautiful church could have bought food for the poor," and the like.
Pictured at right is the 14th Century Cathedral in Reims, France. Its history goes back to the 5th Century. (I took the photo in 2019.)
In Numbers 8:4-7, God makes it clear that both beauty and cleanliness are important. "This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold—from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses. The Lord said to Moses: 'Take the Levites from among all the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. And so, they will purify themselves.'"
Per Prager, "Presumably, those who say, 'God doesn't care what I wear to church,' would also say, 'God doesn't care what the Tabernacle lampstand is made of.' But, as the verse above makes clear, He does care."
1. Beauty has an impact on people. Even non-Catholics are impressed by the Sistine Chapel and crazy-beautiful cathedrals.
2. Poor Latin Americans have expressed their desire to keep their beautiful places of worship. They're a source of pride and uplift in a world of poverty.
3. Even the seemingly outrageous amounts of money spent to create these magnificent buildings would not last long taking care of the poor.
Beauty and cleanliness bring us closer to God and make clearer the separation between humans and animals.
Bonus2
Love, Guaranteed (Movie)
Just for fun...
That's the title of a fun rom-com 2020 movie, Love, Guaranteed. It's pretty cute, pretty funny. Here's the description: "To save her small law firm, earnest lawyer Susan takes a high-paying case from Nick, a charming new client who wants to sue a dating website that guarantees love. But as the case heats up, so do Susan and Nick's feelings for each other."
And one of the best laughs shows up at the end in the credits of all places. See the image just below:
So true! Of course, some of these are even funnier (truer) with kids.