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We are preaching on James again today. Last week, Kate led us into this book by talking about righteousness. The question that I have for us today is about the soul, and how one saves someone’s soul. That is the very last sentence in the book of James, imploring us to be people who save souls.
The complication here is that we’re Episcopalians, which means we don’t meddle in other people’s affairs. We’re not up in their chops, making judgments about their sins, and seeking to save them from hell. We make our judgment behind their backs, much safer… NO! Don’t do that…That’s for another sermon.
Today I would like to give an outline for how we go about saving souls, and I want to do so by using a real-world example that some of us knew, and many of us have heard about. She is a character like the Queen of Heaven in C. S. Lewis’s book The Great Divorce. If you haven’t read it, I strongly encourage you to. I know Jon Robert’s C. S. Lewis minyan Thursday morning at 8:30 has read it.
The scene appears in Chapter 12. There is a grand procession in heaven, where a woman appears, surrounded by a majestic entourage of bright spirits. She is walking as though she were a queen. The protagonist asks: “Who is she?” To which the narrator explains: “She is not anyone famous on earth, she was an ordinary person who lived a life full of love and kindness. In heaven, the humble are exalted!”
When I first arrived at Epiphany 2008, I was sitting in my office one December day. As I looked out the window, I saw a woman drive her Subaru into the parking lot. Back then it was surrounded by a big fence. She got out, shut the gate, and proceeded to open the hatch. Out piled I don’t know how many dogs. It was like watching clowns pile out of a Mini-Cooper. They surrounded her like an entourage of bright spirits.
This happened the next day, and the day after that. Around an hour and half before Epiphany School let out. Finally, I went and introduced myself. Her name was Ruth, and she brought her canine wards there to exercise. She owned an animal care service called Grandma’s Critter Care.
The first thing that ran through my mind was: “Well, if she’s running a business on our property we should charge her rent.” That was some sound soul-saving thinking.
But I was still new enough to be smart enough to ask someone about this. I think Jenny Cummings was the one who said: “Oh that’s Ruth Dalton, she is an institutional fixture around here. I’d probably not charge her.” Good advice. Instead, got to know her. I’d take my little dog Mickey out to the cage, and let him run with the big dogs.
Dogs have a way of bringing people together. I learned she was a Christian and a person of prayer. We occasionally prayed together. We prayed for her when she had cancer. We prayed for her son when he had cancer. We prayed for me. We prayed for the church. When her son died, we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for his eternal presence with God.
Ruth was a Christian, a person of faith, who believed in eternal life, and the goodness of human souls. Ruth was a saver of souls, and we can be as well.
Now, you’re wondering, what does that even mean to be a saver of souls? Well, it is a small thing that does a big thing. It happens in the moment when someone is reminded how much they are loved by God. And in this way, for an eternal moment, the release valve of love, that connects our souls to God is opened and love flows. To save a soul is to be like a plumber, turning the spigot of God’s love wide open flooding someone with a moment of eternity.
How does this happen? Ruth shows us. There are four things that allowed Ruth to be coronated a Queen of Heaven. She was accessible, conversational, faithful, and prayerful. Every single day she walked a particular route. People saw her. She was out and about. She was in the community. She was there year in and year out, a fixture; present, and available.
And she was known. People who walk dogs are known. You can go up and talk to them about dogs. Dogs are an invitation to conversation. What kind of dog is that? What is your favorite dog? But what starts with: I like your dog, leads to the deeper engagement, and that is not because dog is God spelled backwards.
Ruth was available because she was consistent, present, and had an open invitation to conversation through the brightness of her dogs. And when you engaged her, Ruth would listen. She was curious. She found out where I moved from. She found out about my family and what concerned me.
And there was mutuality in the conversation. Everyone she met was like her, a beloved child of God, and, as such, it seemed reasonable, if not natural for her to share her faith. Not towards the end of conversion, but as the framework through which she engaged the world.
And what she’d say is: I’ll pray for you. It was her plumbers prybar to tap the valve of a soul, to loosen the spigot so, the love of God could flow. Hers was one pattern through which to save souls. It begins with being accessible, which means living a very patterned, predictable life. It means being engaged and quick to have a conversation and make connection.
Then there is faith; faith that you are just where God wants you to be, and with the person that God wants you to be with. It’s comfort with sharing your faith, knowing that everybody has some sort of faith, and yours has to do with Jesus. And finally, there is prayer, which is the prybar that open souls to the love of God.
Do you know how I know Ruth was a soul saver? By her fruit! A few weeks ago, 80-year-old Ruth pulled over to the side of the road, on Harrison and MLK, with a hatchback full of dogs. She pulled over to do what she did every day, her daily devotionals. After she’d prayer she would usually send out a text message to people in her chain sharing words of wisdom, joy, and thanksgiving.
As she was praying a fool knocked on the window probably asked her to get out of the car…somehow a fight ensued, as he tried to steal her car with dogs still in it. Ruth battled him like the Queen of Heaven. I love that. She wasn’t afraid. Love knows no fear. She loved those dogs.
A plumber passed by (honestly) saw the melee and jumped in. Another person opened the trunk, and the dogs jumped free. The bad guy finally got into the car, and as he sped away, he ran over Ruth. Neighbors came to her rescue, but it was too late.
I heard about this right way because when a soul saver jumps into eternity, news travels fast. Even if they are not famous, especially if they’re not famous. Because Ruth was accessible, conversational, faithful, and prayerful people instantly missed her. So, a parade was planned in her honor. They met at Harrison and Madison, the place of Ruth’s ascension into eternity, and walked to Madison Park in remembrance of her. Lots of people turned out including the Mayor, Chief of Police, City Council Members, the City Attorney…
As they walked to the park, they carried a sign that read: “I want to be like Ruth.” And I wondered: Did they know that the sign they carried read: “I want to be a follower of Jesus,” because that is why Ruth was the person they wanted to be like. She was a person of faith, a practicing Christian. There is a way to “Be Like Ruth,” a well-worn path, 2000 years old.
I was asked to do an opening prayer at the gathering. And in it, I reminded people that the bad thing is never the last thing, and that they were all loved by God; and that Ruth was a soul-saver who reminded us of this reality. And at the AMEN, a chorus of bright spirits sung through the barking of the dogs.
The city officials then spoke. And it still remains true, even in our culture today, even in the city of Seattle, when faced with the unknowable, or the unreasonable, or the mysterious, Christianity offers us a way of talking about what we don’t know how to talk about. As my Junior Warden, who was there, said: “The only person who didn’t quote the Bible was the priest.”
Jad Baaklini, our communications Director, said it was the most Christian event he had ever attended in Seattle (outside of church).
Ruth had this kind of impact because she saved souls, and she saved souls because it was what she did because she was a Christian. She did this by being accessible, conversational, faithful, and prayerful.
Ruth touched so many lives, by being this way: she engaged souls, she prayed for souls, she tapped souls into the water line of God’s infinite love, to share in an eternal moment with a neighbor.
And YOU can save souls as well by being accessible, conversational, faithful, and prayerful. Take a moment to remind someone how much they are loved by God. Turn the release valve that is attached to their souls, and for an eternal moment, they will be surrounded by the bright spirits…and, for a moment, they will be like Ruth.