Who will be saved?

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Romans 10. 1 - 13

Sitting in the waiting room as the driver for my husband at a routine appointment at the crack of dawn yesterday morning, I was very aware of the diversity in the room; all the people gathered there for the same reason... a less than pleasant procedure facing a bit of the unknown. It was such a beautiful collection of people, and I wondered what they were thinking. Would they like to pray? to talk? or just to be left alone? It reminded me of another time when I wondered about everyone in the room.

As a young girl, I was invited to go to a youth weekend with the Orange Avenue Baptist Church, and my mother quickly packed my bags and said "Have fun." Off I went, oblivious to what I was walking into. The first night we all gathered in an auditorium, sang some beautiful songs, including "You'll never walk alone." I was completely pulled in with that song, and clearly have never forgotten it. But I was not prepared for what happened next. It seemed like the core of my existence was challenged.

Baptized as an infant in the Episcopal church and confirmed at age 10 in the Church of England, I had gone to church nearly every Sunday of my life. My family worshiped at St. Margaret's church in Hibernia, Florida every Sunday, a small chapel where Episcopalians had worshiped since it was built in 1878, and it was a place I felt peace and comfort in those days as a confused teen. And yet...after listening to this beautiful song, someone on the stage called out for people to come up if they wanted to turn their lives over to Jesus and be saved. and I wondered what it meant to be saved? Somehow I slipped out of the auditorium and found a pay phone and made a collect call to my mother and asked her that very question. As I recall, her response was "you have been baptized so you are already saved." The people in the auditorium did not take that for an answer, but somehow I avoided going up on the stage. That experience launched my search for a deeper understanding of God .

This passage from Paul's letter to the Romans, written by Paul and his scribe Tertius in the late 50's, makes it very clear to the people of Rome that righteousness comes through Christ and is for all of humankind. As it says at the end of the reading above, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. "Saved how?" you might say. There are as many ways to be saved as there are people in the world, I have come to realize. Someone at a bible study told me once that I had to know the date and time I was saved for it to be real...I also slipped out of that room gingerly.

Thinking back to the waiting room, there was no distinction between us all...male and female alike, God created us. And we all have our own understanding of God and God's salvation is for us all whenever we call on him.

Thanks be to God, none of us will ever walk alone!