Sermon for Sunday, January 29, 2006WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE OTHER RELIGIONS?4th in a series on Questions from the Street byRev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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Scripture: John 10:11-16
I am beginning this question of other religions this morning with an assumption that almost everybody is religious in the sense that almost everyone worships something—gives their heart to something, organizes their life around something or someone to find meaning and significance and worth. Sometimes what people worship or focus on is their work. Sometimes we worship another person—a loved one or even a celebrity. Sometimes people worship a sports team. We saw some of that football worship two weeks ago when there were newspaper articles about people who were not just fans but fanatics about both the Steelers and the Broncos, people who decorated their homes in their team colors. I also have read about people who when they die, want to be buried in team colors and in a casket with team colors on it. I read about one wife who is a Steeler fan whose husband is a Bronco fan, and the outcome of the game decided which of them would sleep on the couch for a couple of nights following the game. I also read a few weeks ago an incident at a Philadelphia Eagles game where right in the middle of the game a fan ran on the field to scatter there his recently deceased mother’s ashes because she was such a fan that she requested that her ashes be scattered on the field during a game!! Most people worship something; put something at the center of their lives that they hope will give meaning and fulfillment or direction. Sometimes the object of worship is themselves and their own pleasure and that religion might be called hedonism. The comic Judy Tenuta also noticed this religious interest and freedom when she said she has started her own religion; she calls it Judyism! Over human history the search for meaning and for a higher power than just us has taken many, many forms. There was a great diversity of religious expression during the time the Bible was written and especially during the time of Jesus, and in his life and ministry one of the reasons that many people were so receptive to him was that there was a strong religious hunger. The apostle Paul notes that spiritual interest in his one visit to Athens in his second missionary journey when he speaks to the Greeks who are gathered to hear him and says in the book of Acts that he has been walking around the city and has noticed the depth of religious curiosity by how many altars and statues he sees dedicated to various gods and goddesses. Then he says he has also noted an altar dedicated to an unknown God and that is what he wants to talk with the Athenians about. In our world there is a great diversity of religious expression. Of the six billion people on our planet, two billion of them identify themselves as Christians, 1.3 billion identify themselves as Muslims, 900 million are Hindus, and 360 million are Buddhists. We usually think of the influence of Judaism being very great and it is because it is so influential on both Christianity and Islam, but, in numbers, there are only 14 million Jews in the world. Those numbers of all five religions all add up to 4.5 billion people—about 75% of the total population of the world. The figures are from a new book by The Rev Adam Hamilton which I consulted for this sermon and which we have several copies of on our bookshelves. You might also want to know about the religious demographics in our own country and they might surprise you. According to Diana Eck who teaches at Harvard, in the last 35 years we have become the most religiously diverse nation in the world. Right now in our country, there are six million Muslims-more Muslims than Episcopalians and Presbyterians combined. There are four million Buddhist Americans—more Buddhists than either Presbyterians or Episcopalians. And there are about one million Hindus. What do we make of this variety of expression? Is there only one religion that is valid? Is there only one truth? We said last week that most of us have an image of God that is way too small. Is God at work in all of these religions? Does it matter which religious framework we use to make sense of the world? I mentioned the new book by Adam Hamilton, senior
minister at the Adam lists in his book three ways to approach a conversation about other religions and these are listed in your study guide. The first approach is one of pluralism that says that one faith is just as valid as another and they are all equally valid paths to the same goal so it does not matter what you worship or what you believe as long as you are sincere or committed. The second approach is one of exclusivism that says there is only one valid religion and it is my religion and all others are false and the people who practice them are doomed to hell. Incidentally, this is the posture of all fundamentalist religions whether they are fundamentalist Muslims or fundamentalist Christians; both those fundamentalisms have much in common. The middle approach between the extremes of “anything goes” and “we have all the truth” is the posture of inclusivism that Adam Hamilton characterizes this way: While we believe that Jesus is the definitive revelation of God, God is still actively working in the world through other expressions as well and has not “written off” any persons of other faiths who are actively seeking God. (pp. 25-26 in “Christianity and World Religions”) To give you a bit more data before we look at how God might be at work even in the Bible through some other religions besides Judaism and Christianity, let me quote a point or two from the book that 500 of us read and discussed last January, “The Heart of Christianity” by Dr. Marcus Borg. In a random survey done in our country in 2002, to the question, “Should Christians seek to convert people of other faiths or leave them alone, 22% said “convert” and 71% said “leave them alone”. To the statement “All religions have some element of truth, 78% said “yes”. To the statement “My religion is the only true religion.” Only 17% said “yes”. Keeping in mind that recent “person on the street” survey, let’s look at how, even in the Bible, God is actively at work not only in and through Jews and Christians but in other religions as well. Adam Hamilton reminds us that when we read the Christmas story just a few weeks ago, we learned of some astrologers who came bearing gifts to the Christ child—gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those people were astrologers, “wise men” from the east, which has given rise to the joke that if they had been “wise women” from the east they would not have brought such impractical gifts but would have brought packages of disposable diapers and would have stayed to cook a meal and to clean up the stable. The Greek word for these visitors is Magoi; they were probably followers of the Zoroastrian faith that in the first century was very popular and depended on reading wisdom from the stars. They might have even been priests of the Zoroastrian religion. Think about this. The Bible says that among the first visitors to the new born prince of peace are priests from another “pagan” religion whom God is sending and through whom God seems to be at work. Does this expand your picture of God beyond being only the God of Christians and Jews?? There are other stories in the Bible where God is at work in or is very concerned about people who are not religious in the way we are religious. One of the most famous ones is the marvelous story of Jonah that is not at all about a big fish (there is no mention of a whale in the Bible story—just a big fish). The story of Jonah is really a story about prejudice and narrow mindedness and where is the prejudice and narrow mindedness coming from? It is coming from the “hero” – Jonah! Do you remember where God is sending Jonah to be a
prophet and to invite people to repent? The great city of Do you remember any other stories in the Bible about God being bigger than even the Jewish or Christian religions? In the story of Abraham, the father of the Israelites, before Abraham is the father of Isaac and then Jewish people—Abraham’s first son is Ishmael who is the ancestor of the Arab people and the Muslim people. God is bigger than just our own religious expressions
through our Christian faith. There is even in the book of Isaiah a reference
to another “pagan” leader whom God utilizes in God’s work of setting One more biblical reference about how God is not just confined to Jesus or to Christianity. We heard the readings from the Gospel of John where Jesus characterizes himself as the good shepherd who cares for all of his sheep and who also has other sheep that are not yet here and who he is concerned about to bring them here. What do you think that means? The very least it means is that we cannot think we have a monopoly on God and that if someone is different from us, that they are doomed. Jesus says he has people other than us who he is calling who will be with us also. I encourage you if you want to know more about the other major religions of the world to pick up a copy of Adam Hamilton’s book or pull together a group of other people for a study of that book; the book is designed to be used as a study group resource and has a study guide to accompany it. Let me end with two other points. Dr. Howard Clinebell
who taught at the United Methodist seminary in Healthy religion builds bridges and not barriers. There is another list that is shorter from the apostle Paul in Galatians 3: the fruits of life lived in God’s spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. And there is even a shorter test of the health of a faith from Jesus in Luke 6: be compassionate just as God is compassionate. I believe God is bigger than any one expression of faith. But the reason I am an enthusiastic follower of Jesus is that I see in the life and example and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ all of those positive healthy qualities at work. And I believe you will see that too when you become more familiar with Jesus. Most of us do not really know Jesus well; most of us still have a third grade stereotype of gentle Jesus, meek and mild and do not understand his full humanity and how he embodied that compassion and justice and courage and grace so completely. I said last week I am a passionate follower of Christ and
I am working to let him be Lord of all of my life and my attitudes and my
deeds. I am following in a heritage that has been handed down from me in my
family for the past 150 years since my grandmother on my mother’s side became
a Christian at an old Methodist tent revival in But as I look at other religions and see the tendency in at least one religion to withdraw and disengage from the pain of the world and also see such beliefs as reincarnation I am even more consciously a follower of Christ. I believe that it is in him that we see God’s heart and God’s character better than anywhere else—and God’s hopes and dreams for our life. And I also see so many people who are organizing their lives around little “gods” that they hope will give fulfillment and meaning—even their favorite sports teams—and I want us to offer us something more lasting and more vital than the little things that we can get caught up in. If you are with me on any of this I invite you to keep doing with me what the disciple named Andrew kept on doing also—inviting others to come and take a look at Christ for themselves and see if in him they also can see the way to life in all its fullness! |
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