Saved by the Bell

Today's sermon was headed in the wrong direction about the time the bells rang signalling a planned moment of silence in honor of our military vets. When I say that we were headed in the wrong direction, I mean to say we were getting a heavy dose of "don't worry about scriptures so much" because of the examples of Jesus and Job in today' readings. According to Charlie, Job was superior to his friends because Job could see beyond a scriptural interpretation of his woes and was still able to love the God of his salvation. Jesus took on the Sadducees who challenged him with the hypothetical woman (the black widow) married to seven brothers each in turn and who would be her husband in heaven. According to Charlie, Jesus looked beyond a literal interpretation of scripture. Did anyone else hear the unspoken words, "Forget all that Bible stuff and look for God in the here and now?" Totally ignored was the fact that in order to answer the Sadducee's puzzle, Jesus referenced scripture in a way that might make the liberal minded cringe. He went all the way back to Abraham for God's sake, and he brought in the other Jewish forefathers to boot. Imagine, preaching about the God of our fathers in a sermon today. Also ignored was Paul's letter to the Corinthians in which we heard Paul urge them to "stand firm" to the words and traditions he had taught.
I rather doubt that we would have worked our way back to the "three legged stool" of scripture, tradition, and reason if the bells had not interrupted the sermon. So if anyone asks you this week if you've been saved, tell them that you were saved by the bell.