If anyone was going to write a book entitled Who will Be Saved?, you almost knew it had to be Will Willimon. My only disappointment was the good Bishop didn't provide a definitive list of names. Believe me, the first thing I did was to flip through the pages looking to see if I was one of the chosen. Alas, there are no names; there is no list. But there is in this little book a wealth of insight into what it means for Christians to speak of salvation, and more importantly what it means to live as saved people. Here's a little taste:
Most Christians think of salvation as related exclusively to the afterlife. Salvation is when we die and go to heaven. To be sure, Scripture is concerned with you eternal fate. What has been obscured is Scripture's stress on salvation as invitation to share in a particular God's life here, now, so that we might do so forever. Salvation isn't just a destination; it is our vocation. Salvation isn't just a question of who is saved and who is damned, who will get to heaven and how, but also how we are swept up into participation into the mystery of God who is Jesus Christ (3).
If salvation for you has always meant an escape from this life, if it has always been "pie in the sky by and by," if it's never been clear to you what salvation has to do with how you live day to day, then check out Who Will Be Saved? I once heard a scholar poke fun at William Willimon telling him he'd never had a thought that he didn't publish. I think that's a good thing for the church.
1 comment:
Where does Willimon weigh in on N.T. Wright's concept of "life after life after death"? Heaven is not the end state or goal; it's just a holding pattern.
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