Jesus Isn't Anyone's Personal Savior

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets
May 19, 2024
Pentecost, Year B
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:25-35, 37
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

“When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together…All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

They were all sorts of different people, a large, disparate group of people from all different backgrounds, different cultures, different norms and ways of life. They were gathered together already, and the Holy Spirit united them even further.

That was Jesus’ prayer for his disciples fulfilled, that they would be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Remember, that God, by God’s very nature, is a community of relationship, three persons bound together so perfectly in love that they are one. When Jesus prayed that we would be one as God is one, Jesus was praying that we would live into the image of God in which we were made. 

We are made for community, for loving and supportive relationships. So, when Jesus formed the Church, Jesus formed us as a community of people, a bunch of different and odd collection of people who were made one with one another through the Holy Spirit. 

What that means, among other things, is there is no such thing as a solitary Christian. 

We hear a lot about personal salvation, but that’s not really a thing. Jesus isn’t anyone’s personal savior. Jesus is our savior, all of our savior. We have a challenge in understanding this partly because the people who translate the Bible into English mostly seem not to be from Texas. What I mean by that is, they don’t use the word “y’all.” 

Most of the time, when Jesus said, “you,” he was actually saying y’all. It’s a plural form of you that he used. In our passage today, Jesus said, “[The Advocate will come], whom I will send to y’all…” In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are y’all when people revile y’all and persecute y’all and utter all kinds of evil against y’all falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for y’all’s reward is great in heaven.”

Jesus does talk about God repaying each one of us according to our individual deeds. What each person does, really does matter. At the same time, salvation is not a solitary affair because the kingdom of God dwells in community.

How are we doing as a community? How do we each act towards others? Last week, there was a man sitting on the sidewalk as cars were driving quickly by. Another man was worried about him and wanted him to be safe. “Get up! Get up!” He shouted. “Stop sitting there! What are you doing? Get up!” Well, the guy got up, but he thought he was being attacked. I asked what was going on and found out that the guy who was shouting was just concerned for him, so I suggested that next time, he kneel down and gently ask the guy to get up for his safety. He realized how his shouting seemed like an attack, rather than a help, and he apologized. The two went away good with each other instead of at odds. The kingdom of God was the result, rather than two people angry at each other. Our individual actions help bring about or break apart community.

What each one of us does matters, not for our individual salvation, but for all of our salvation. Jesus formed the Church not to make a bunch of individuals personally saved, but to save a bunch of individuals by making us one.

This is the church, and I don’t mean a location. I don’t mean a building. This is Jesus’ gathering of his disciples. Not all who are here may be disciples of Jesus, and all are welcome here, even if not a disciple of Jesus, and this gathering of people is Jesus’ church.

That means we have some ways of life we follow so that we may be one. When we’re here gathered for worship, we follow the way of love and respect. This time and gathering for prayer and worship is meant to be a time of peace and unity. We’re not here as a bunch of individuals out for ourselves. We’re here as the church, made one by the Holy Spirit. 

Then, we carry that unity with us as we go. We continue to pray for the Holy Spirit to make us one. Unity and community is what we are made for and a big part of how we are healed through Jesus. 

A big challenge we find with our brothers and sisters experiencing homelessness is the lack of supportive community. Life on the streets is tough, and even once someone gets an apartment through The Way Home housing programs, life can be tough due to isolation. Imagine living on the streets with a group of people who have become your friends, and then you have an apartment, which is great, but it’s also over an hour bus ride from everyone and everything you know. You no longer have any community, a difficult time getting a job due to transportation issues, and so you have a roof over your head, but you are an island, isolated and alone. 

We see this with some, not all, but some of our parishioners who get housed. Saved from the streets, but saved in isolation, and that isolation simply doesn’t work. Like with Jesus, personal salvation isn’t really a thing. 

Being saved from God who is angry at us for breaking rules isn’t really what Christianity is about. When we sin, we do things that isolate ourselves. We hurt others and push them away. We care about ourselves to the exclusion of others, climbing ladders and leaving others beneath us. We isolate in addiction, desperately trying to cope with the problems in our lives and in our world, and we are left, once again, alone, even if surrounded by people. 

Loneliness and isolation are hells from which Jesus saves us. His prayer for us was that we would be one, just as he and the Father are one. Then, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to continue to form us as one. As disparate people from all over with different cultures and backgrounds were formed into one body at the birth of the church, so are we continually being formed as one body through the same Holy Spirit. Such is our salvation, no longer individuals tossed to and fro by the changes and chances of this life. We are made one body to live together in unity, raising each other up when we fall, and living not only for our sakes alone but for Jesus who died for us and rose again, whose body we have become.