Sermon for Sunday, September 14, 2025 || Proper 19C || 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

Today we’re going to talk about sin and salvation. We’re going to talk specifically about two ways of looking at salvation, one which is more helpful for our lives of faith than the other. I’ll get to these two ways in a minute, but first I want to talk about Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and scribes in this morning’s Gospel reading.

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Luke Chapter 15 contains three parables all about being lost and found: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. Jesus shares these three parables after the Pharisees accuse him of something they see as totally disqualifying of a purported holy person. Luke tells us, “All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”

If the Gospel story were playing out today, I can imagine the Pharisees writing this accusation on social media. They think it is a scathing takedown. Influencers and trolls will pile on, whipping up an online frenzy until Jesus is forced off the internet due to the scale of abuse! But that’s not what happens. Rather, Jesus “likes” the post. “What a great slogan,” he replies. “Thanks, Pharisees!” Then Jesus gets his graphics department on the horn, and soon Jesus’ disciples are selling T-shirts that say, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!” Thousands of his followers buy the merch, and the disciples donate the proceeds to World Central Kitchen.

What an incredible encapsulation of Jesus’ mission: This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. In Jesus’ day, “sinner” was a particular designation that had to do with certain roles, behaviors, and circumstances, a designation that could be wiped away with the correct sacrifices. In our day, the word “sinner” has a less precise definition; rather, “sinner” is one of those words with all kinds of baggage. If you grew up gay in the church, you might have heard the phrase, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” This was supposedly a merciful response to LGBTQ+ identity, except that it still called such identity sinful. If you grew up in a certain brand of conservative church, you might have been told that your original sin condemned you to hellfire but for the payment of Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. If you grew up Episcopalian, you probably didn’t hear that, but I doubt you heard much of a coherent understanding of sin and salvation at all.

So for the rest of this sermon, let’s dig into these two concepts, remembering that we, too, are some of the sinners that Jesus welcomes to the table. The Book of Common Prayer defines “sin” as “the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.” Sin is distortion of relationship. Sin takes a relationship and contorts it through abuse of power or lack of mutuality until the relationship is death-dealing instead of life-giving. Sin warps our priorities and our morals until we conform to the broken systems of the world instead of the loving and liberating way of God. We are guilty of sin on an individual level when we fail to honor life-giving relationships. And we are guilty of sin on a societal level when we are complicit in the suicidal machinery of the world that promotes violence, many and varied disparities, overconsumption, and environmental degradation.

Every one of us is guilty of complicity in the big sins of the world, which is why we confess our sin every Sunday. We do so as a way to signal to God our willingness to become part of solutions, even as we remain mired in problems. Yet, our guiltiness is not the end of the story, not by a long shot.

And this is where salvation enters the story. There are multiple ways the Christian Church – across its various ideologies – speaks about salvation. The two we’re going to discuss briefly each respond to our guiltiness due to sin. The first, and less helpful way, sees salvation as a “saving from.” I mentioned this idea earlier: Jesus’ death on the cross paying for our sin and thus saving us from the fires of hell. This narrow understanding of salvation stimulates a fear-based faith, prompting individuals both to look beyond this world to their own afterlife and also to coerce others to join their group, lest they be condemned to hell.

This way of thinking about salvation – being “saved from” something bad – does not ignite my theological imagination. It’s too transactional, for one thing, and there’s not much evidence for it in the books of the Bible.

The other way to think about salvation does ignite my theological imagination. This more helpful way sees salvation as “saving for,” rather than “saving from.” In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus saves us for a particular purpose, for the mission of God. In today’s reading from Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, the writer reflects this understanding of salvation: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost.”

And why does Paul think Jesus saved him? He continues: “But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” Paul sees the roadmap of salvation in his transformation from a man of violence to a man of grace and good news. Paul is an example for those who would believe in Jesus. Jesus saved him for this purpose.

My questions for you today are these: For what purpose did Jesus save you? How does living in the light of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection change you for the better? What mission is God calling you to take up as a sinner continually being redeemed and sanctified? In your prayer this week, reflect on these questions with God. Listen for the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing you toward the mission that your salvation grants you God-given gifts to claim.

You might look out over a world spiraling into darkness, disparity, division, and despair, and you might decide that such forces have won and there’s no point in standing against them. Such hopelessness is a symptom of sin, a symptom that allows the big sins of the world to grow even bigger. When we feel hopeless due to the state of the world, our faith invites us to remember a particular day in the distant past when Jesus, unwilling to abandon the sinners he came to save, marched willingly to his death. That day felt hopeless too. But that day was not the end of the story. The power of the resurrection transforms despair into the new fire of faith.

Yes, we are all sinners. And yes, Jesus welcomes us to his table. When we come to the table today and fall to our knees with empty hands outstretched, remember the saying that is “sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” As I place the Body of Christ in your hands, as you bring the presence of Christ into you to nourish and empower you, ask God what God is saving you for. And then listen with the ears of your heart for how God invites you to make a difference in this world.