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Field Notes From A Religion-Less Christian

March 1, 2022

What Good is a Lifeguard Who Drowns? 

(Just What is Salvation Anyway?)

Often enough when someone reflecting on life’s tough circumstances attempts to make sense of just how it could be that God is making good of it or how it is simply that God is anywhere in sight, the conclusion is not that God is or could be fixing anything about the concern but that the redemption of it all is that “God is with us.” And why not, since what popularly and easily comes to mind is Matthew’s Gospel moniker for who it is that is born in that divine birth narrative is none other than “Emmanuel,” which the author even spells out for us as meaning “God with us” as if we dare not miss the point. 

But that has always struck me as a kind of “misery loves company” solution to the problem of pain: no real solution at all, just a lot of hand holding as the ship sinks. 

But then again, for years now I have contended that the best illustration for how it is that Jesus saves anything is not as a lifeguard who swims out to the flailing person drowning in the water and hauls them back to shore in the nick of time, but rather as that same lifeguard swimming out, yes, but instead of hauling you in tells you to be calm because she is with you now and will be drowning with you as you sink and then wraps her arms around you so there is no mistaking that you are not alone, and verily dies right there with you.

The value of this illustration of salvation is that there is not fix by a knight in shining armor just as in life when there is too often no cure or when the bombs fall on the innocent. The “dying lifeguard’ illustrates most baldly how divine salvation really works – everybody drowns, but not everybody gets the actual promise that everything is alright that comes with the companion of the Company, the Standard of Life, God. So we are back to what Steven Paulson (Luther’s Outlaw God, Vols.1-3) lifts up as Martin Luther’s breakthrough distinction and identification of God being both “unpreached” (silent and lurking, waiting for us to get our act together before blessing) and “preached” (loudly and in plain sight telling us there is no need to get our act together because we are not loved because we are lovely but rather we are lovely because we are loved).  Everybody drowns, but some get only the Demand from the lifeguard that is folded arms standing on the shore glaring at us because we are such poor swimmers and can’t remember our swimming lessons, while others get the Promise from the lifeguard who tells us all is well and all will be well forever as she dies right along with us. Salvation as healing, not cure. 

So, what, have I now talked myself back into accepting that the “God is with us” sermon does the trick and is not just a religious platitude to numb the pain? I think so, in the end.

But you see the thing about the “God is with us” answer to pain that bothers me, I think, is that it can be used as a cover for a lack of personal or corporate responsibility in the face of injustice and evil. An excuse for a dereliction of duty. Rather than throw yourself at the problem, work to be the solution, one acquiesces and relies on God to clean up the mess. Rather than even trying to swim, one simply lets the waters roll while thinking the Lifeguard will take care of things (when we dive into the Diatribe of Erasmus and Luther’s Bondage of the Will (1525) we find that this in fact is Erasmus’ key objection to Luther’s insistence that free will is a fiction: if we cannot or need not obey the commandments of God for perfection and unity with God what becomes of morality? Won’t we all just slough off and let things go to pot?).

Well, now we see there is a Lifeguard. But she will not take care of circumstances but will only take care of you [or more correctly put, so as to remember we are but dust (timely, as tomorrow March 2 is Ash Wednesday!) and not to exclude the wonders of flora and fauna), will only take care of all creation]. You and I need to take care of circumstances. And won’t you and I do this please before the whole place goes up in flames – or better, before we all drown in the rising seas?

But if and when we don’t remember our swimming lessons just as when we do, the truth of the matter is that the Lifeguard is there with us and swims or drowns with us whether we have tried to swim or not. There is no earning this lifeline. It is gracefully, mercifully, there. 

But how will we know this if the Lifeguard doesn’t swim out to us and tell us our death will be in her death? How will we know if we only see a Lifeguard standing on the shore shaming us?

Aha, there she is, the Preacher, the one who declares, the one who announces the Promise. There is a reason that the Augsburg Confession’s (the 1530 Reformers statement on just what is good news about the Good News) Fifth Article specifying the need and divine gift of the Office of Ministry, comes immediately following the Fourth Article that is the center of it all – Jesus Christ as good news for mere mortals. Somebody must embody the Promise and deliver it. We must be told. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10). We will not believe it on our own. We will instead only see the “unpreached” Lifeguard on the shore staring at us, and my goodness, that is not a pretty death. 

So, am I back to accepting that “God is with us” is good soteriology? I guess I am. I am just aware that for the sake of the planet and neighbor it would be better if we all went down swinging (swimming?!) instead of dumb or inebriated. Everybody still gets the Promise, whether I like it or not. But if we all did the justice thing we’d have a better chance of living longer in the Promise rather than dying sooner in the Promise. 

So, there you have it. Emmanuel!