by Brian Walsh
(a sermon on Romans 10, preached at Wine Before Breakfast, January 29, 2013)
That neon light always caught my eye.
Every time I rode by on the Keele Street bus, I’d glance East down St. Clair and look at it.
If it was malfunctioning, I knew.
And it was a sign that held for me both attraction and repulsion.
Or maybe I should say that it both resonated deeply within me,
and made me uneasy, maybe even scared me.
The sign told me that there were folks behind that sign
who knew something that I had just come to know deeply in my own life,
and yet I had a hunch that I would nonetheless feel uncomfortable if I were to walk into that building.
The sign proclaimed one strong message in bright neon lights
for everyone in that rough, meat packers, working class neighbourhood to see:
JESUS SAVES
Undoubtedly a text like Romans 10 would have come easily off the tongue of the folks in that church:
“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.”
“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I was sixteen years old and had during that momentous year of my life decided to follow Jesus. And the language that was used for that transformation in my life was that I was “saved.” Read the rest of this entry »
