What Must I Do?

Texts: Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

The story is told of a young keen and rather zealous new Christian getting onto the tube in London, and finding himself in a compartment with only one other traveller. The other traveller was a grave looking man, a businessman, probably, for he was dressed in a suit, a dark overcoat and a bowler hat, and was reading The Financial Times.

The young man's zeal for the Lord could not be contained. He leant forward, pushed the man's newspaper to one side and said, "Excuse me sir, but I have an important question for you. Are you saved?" The businessman looked at him for a moment, then replied, "Fortunately for you, young man, I am."

That is a good example of how not to go about sharing our faith with others, and few of us Anglicans are likely to make that mistake. Our mistake is more likely to involve not being willing or able to discuss our faith with someone who asks us to. That won't do either. There is a very important little text hidden away in 1 Peter 3:15: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

So my question this morning, picking up on this gospel reading is this. If someone – a family member, say, or a close friend, or (as happened to me once in my former existence) a colleague at work – were to ask you, "What must I do to be saved?" would you be able and willing to answer? I must confess that when it happened to me, I wasn't able to say anything that made sense to me, let alone to my inquiring colleague. She had asked me why she needed a Saviour – what did she need saving from? It's not the sort of question Parliamentary Counsel often asked each other, and I was defeated by it.

As I came to think about this question this week, I found a curious thing. I've been in full-time ministry now for about 17 years. During that time I can recall a number of people raising this question in respect of other people – my nephew asked me where my own father (his grandfather) had gone after he died. I can remember at least three people asking me about the eternal destination of their pets – always a tricky one as the object of the inquiry is the sort of dog I don't want on earth let alone in heaven.

But as far as I can remember, only one person has ever asked me as a priest about eternal life for herself. So perhaps we might like to start there. What do we believe for ourselves? When we have an answer to that question, perhaps we are on the way to being able to give an answer to anyone who asks us about salvation for them or their loved ones.

So let's have a look at today's readings. And let me say right away that I don't find the Old Testament lesson of tremendous use. It's link to the gospel reading is tenuous, to say the least. Perhaps the best I can draw from it is that we are not left in the dark. God has revealed his will for us and to us. We do not have to search the heavens or the earth to discover it: the word of God, says the author, is very near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it.

Hmm. Is it that simple? There is one other thing in this passage that worries me even more. Not only are we assured that the word of God is within our reach (which, of course, is true), but the author also tells us that "it is not too difficult" for us. Well, if that's true, where's the problem? As my colleague asked me, what do we need a Saviour for or from?

Perhaps we should step back a moment and ask what we mean by salvation or eternal life. Again, if someone asks that it would be a fair enough question, wouldn't it? But what would our answer be? Well, St Paul, as always, is a reliable guide. Salvation is something about being in right relationship with God. God's purpose from the beginning has been to create a universe to receive his love and to love him in response. We have only to look around us – and in us – to know that all has not gone smoothly. Something has gone wrong in our relationship with God.

To use one of St Paul's favourite terms, "reconciliation" was required. And so we find in today's marvellous hymn of praise in his Letter to the Colossians the following description of Christ's role in salvation. St Paul says this: For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

What a huge amount there is in just those two verses – 39 words! If you want to know about the Christian understanding of salvation, start there. (And, incidentally, if you are looking for biblical grounds for the Doctrine of the Incarnation, start here, too.) What was going on in the Christ event? Our answer is that in Christ God was reconciling the whole of creation to himself – restoring the relationship between himself and his creation. God was doing for us something that we could not do for ourselves.

But why can't we do it for ourselves? If we know what is required of us – if it is within our reach – and if it is not too difficult for us, as the author of the Book of Deuteronomy claims, why can't we do it?

Which gets us to the Gospel reading. If anyone should be able to save himself it ought to be an expert in the Law. Yet that is precisely who comes to Jesus and asks that all-important question, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Personally, I don't think we need to get too hung up on how he actually phrased the question. He could as easily have asked, 'what must I do to be saved?' So let this guy stand in for our hypothetical family member, friend or colleague who asks us a question of this kind, and see what we can learn from the way Jesus answers him.

And if we do that slowly and carefully, we will find some surprises. We know that at a later stage Jesus is going to tell one of his most famous and beloved parables. We know it and love it as the story of the Good Samaritan. It has passed into our language. We often refer to people who have gone out of their way to help others as 'good Samaritans'. I've heard the expression used more than once in the Mucking In programmes. And because we know and love the story our tendency is to jump straight to it, and overlook the fact that Jesus uses it to answer the lawyer's supplementary question, not his primary question. His primary question, remember, is not, 'who is my neighbour?' - but 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

And Jesus' answer is – or ought to be – a bit of a shocker to us; because, in effect, Jesus says that what the man must do to inherit eternal life is to obey the law. He doesn't say, believe in me, or follow me, or start going to church more often. He says, obey the law. And in some respects, that is what we are exhorted to do every Sunday when we are using today's liturgy. Turn back for a moment to page 406 of the Prayer Book and there it is. The Minister says, 'Hear the teaching of Christ', and reads the summary of the Law. That is exactly the summary that the lawyer recites to Jesus in this encounter. And what is Jesus' response? 'You have answered correctly,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.'

And here we are faced with an interesting little paradox. The lawyer, knowing the law, and (presumably) doing his best to keep the law, clearly believes that there must be more to eternal life than that; otherwise, what is the point of his question? On the other hand, Jesus, whom we think of as the embodiment of love and grace seems to be saying, no, there is nothing more to it than that. Keep the law and you will inherit eternal life.

It is when the lawyer tries to get into the detail that Jesus hits him with the story of the Good Samaritan. And, in a way, he hits us with it, too. Because the temptation for us is to take this story as meaning that we inherit eternal life through doing good deeds to those in need. In other words, we are back to a gospel of works, not grace. So we have a conundrum again. And in each case it is the same question: if we inherit eternal life by obeying the law, or if we inherit eternal life by being a good neighbour to all in need, where does Christ fit in? What is Eater all about?

Here's one clue before I finish. I think the key is St Paul's idea of reconciliation. What does that state of reconciliation between God and his creation look like? What does it involve? How does it come about in practice? How are we involved in it?

Could it not be that the law describes this state of reconciliation? That good neighbourliness towards all others describes this state of reconciliation, which can also be described as this state of salvation or eternal life? If we want to participate in it, to inherit it as the lawyer put it, then we should seek to shape our lives in that way.

And there's the rub. Despite what the author of Deuteronomy says, it is not easy. In fact, it is impossible for us to do it in our own strength. If your family member, friend or colleague believes he or she can do it, let him or her try for a month. And be ready when the month is up to speak about the saving grace of Christ and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. He or she might be ready to listen by then.

Just don't bother to try it with a stranger on a train.