Sermon Library
“ The Future Of Faith: Will We Ever Get Along?”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
September 19, 2010
Service Theme: Pentecost XVII
Source: Galatians 3: 23 – 29
Pentecost XVII September 19, 2010
The Future Of Faith: Will We Ever Get Along?
Galatians 3: 23 – 29
The Catholics and a Jew
David Segal is the new Rabbi of our Jewish Congregation. I have enjoyed meeting and talking with David and his Cantor wife Rollin. He just gave his first Rosh Hashana sermon last week and included me in his blog site which had a copy of the sermon. I thought it was very good, especially his opening illustration. I would like to share it with you. He used this story to talk about change. It can have a number of implications. The future of faith, my theme this morning, is also about change.
Once upon a time, a Jewish man moved into a Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday, the Catholics got irritated because, while they had to eat fish due to church law, the Jew would be outside barbecuing steaks. The Catholics were envious of the Jew. So the Catholics worked on the Jew to convert him. Finally, by threats and pleading, they succeeded. They took the Jew to a priest who sprinkled holy water on the Jew and intoned: “Born a Jew – raised a Jew – now a Catholic.” The Catholics were ecstatic. No more delicious but maddening smells on Friday evening. Now he would have to settle for fish just like them selves. But the next Friday evening, the scent of barbecue again permeated thorough the neighborhood. The Catholics all rushed to the Jew’s house to remind him of his new dietary restrictions. They found him standing over the barbeque grill cooking steaks. He was sprinkling water on the meat, saying: “Born a cow – raised a cow – now a fish.”
Like I said, there can be a number of lessons we can derive from this story. One may be that you can’t change the spots of a Leopard, whether you are a Jew or a fish. Is that a saying? Another might be that one’s religion has a great deal with where and when you were born. Think of this for a moment. Our religious persuasion is really not so much about a conscious decision based on reason and faith, but on our cultural influences based on when and where we are born. Any of us here today could just as well have been born a Hindu, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Moslem. And still another message is that a little holy water does not change a person. There are those who believe that conversion can be immediate and automatic. While others believe that such conversion or change can only really happen over time and experience.
Jewish Followers of Jesus
There were a number of Jewish people who made a change in their lives after meeting Jesus personally, listening to his words of wisdom, and making a conscious and long term decision to follow his teachings. These Jews were following Jesus as a Jewish teacher and did not see themselves as becoming any less Jewish. They remained Jewish and simultaneously followers of Jesus. Many scholars suggest, if not claim, that Jesus did not come to necessarily start a new religion, but to give life to an old religion. I am aware of the controversial nature of this statement. Yet, it is far from a new statement. Jesus has always been controversial, from his birth to his death to billions of beliefs about him. What we can all agree on is that Jesus was most engaging and spoke about the coming of God’s kingdom.
When Jesus began to preach that this God of the Jews was also the God of all people including Gentiles and other outcasts, then new life for the Gentiles began to emerge. The separation of Jewish followers of the way and Gentile followers of the way was a slow process, but distinctions began to emerge. According to Professor Bart Ehrman of Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina, whose class we have been attending every Wednesday for the past 25 weeks, there were many different interpretations of the life of Jesus in the first and second centuries. Furthermore, these different understandings became most controversial and debatable during the first two centuries. There has never been a one and only understanding of Jesus.
Jesus Made a Difference
What is important is that Jesus made a most significant difference. People at the time of and before his crucifixion had become enamored with his radical and refreshing teachings. Jesus was making a major difference before his crucifixion. Jesus influence was initially not based on virgin birth or resurrection, but upon his life and his teachings. I think this is important to know. Given all the theories about Jesus, he, nevertheless, became a new leader of a new perspective which eventually changed the world.
Constantine
When Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE, he became Emperor of the entire Roman Empire. And because he had a vision before the battle which promised him victory if he fought under the sign of the cross, he declared Christianity to now be the official religion of the Empire. In a brief moment Christians went from persecution to privilege. Constantine then created the council of Nicaea asking all the Bishops to decide what was the one and only Christian belief in the midst of a myriad of beliefs and presuppositions. He also organized the church in the same hierarchical order as the Roman Government and hence the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The Bishop of Rome became the leading Bishop which eventually turned into being a Pope. Then the Roman church filled in the names of other early Christian leaders to create an apostolic succession beginning with St. Peter as the first Pope. This would give a created authority for the Pope as one appointed by Christ himself. The question many scholars ask today, is that what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of God’s kingdom on earth?
Harvey Cox of Harvard states that Constantine the Great exerted an influence on Christianity second only to that of Jesus. I wonder if Cox even means more than the Apostle Paul. Cox also states that Constantine, not Jesus, was the dominant figure at Nicaea, and it’s hardly surprising that almost all the bishops, to the emperor’s satisfaction, arrived at a nearly unanimous decision in his favor. Those who did not, such as Arius, were exiled to a remote province.
Global Variations
A variety of Christian perspectives continued, however, although it was underground and at risk. Scholars are beginning to unearth these writings today and many are very early perspectives such as the gospel of Thomas. Christianity is still under scrutiny today as it always has been. We are still wondering about the nature and purpose of Jesus. Today, it could even be considered more intense because our world is getting smaller and as it continues to shrink our need for tolerance and respect becomes greater. Constantine is no longer the head of Rome, nor the church. I know what Jesus main point was then and I believe still applies today. It is to love God and our neighbor as ourself. Today our neighbor is not just Jewish or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant.
Harvey Cox Summary
Harvey Cox makes this significant observation about the future of faith. Christianity began as a loose gaggle of Jews, soon joined by Gentiles, who were trying to follow Jesus by continuing his life work, best stated in the prayer he taught his friends, that God’s reign of peace and justice, his “Kingdom,” should “come on earth as it is in heaven.” But Jesus never met a Hindu, a Buddhist, or a Muslim. He left no clear precedent for how to live with people of other religions. Consequently, the question of what the current rebirth of faith means for relations among these different pathways requires some original thinking. But as the new century begins we face a curious paradox. It is the best of times and the worst of times. On the one hand, there are more organizations, conferences, and seminars devoted to interreligious dialogue than at any time in previous history. However, we also live with terrifying animosity between – and within – religions. Hindus and Muslims slaughter each other on the Indian subcontinent. Ultra-Orthodox Jews and radical Muslims aggravate rivalries in Israel and Palestine with claims that Yahweh or Allah has given them the land.
Maybe these two contradictory trends have a common explanation: we can no longer avoid each other. There was a time when most of the adherents of any religion could live their whole lives in blissful ignorance even of the existence of any other one. Now all that is changed. Due not only to tides of immigration, but also to jet travel, the Internet, and films, the dispersion of religions all over the globe now makes us all each other’s neighborhood, an honest assessment of relations we can no longer avoid dealing with the “religious other.” (p. 130)
Interfaith and Intrafaith
Harvey Cox goes on to talk about the need for interfaith understanding which is the necessity of dialogue and respect among different faith traditions and intrafaith understanding which is the necessity of dialogue and respect among conservatives and liberals within one’s own faith. Cox gives a certain credence to the role of the Pope today as well as credence to many evangelicals who appear to be moving to a level of openness unlike their stance during the moral majority days of Jerry Falwell. He even talks about the time he invited Falwell to Harvard for a forum.
The Pope in England
As we speak the Pope has just visited England after 473 years of separation. I would like to think this is progress even though I happened to tap into the BBC website which had asked Englanders what they thought of the Pope’s visit. There must have been a thousand comments on the BBC blog site and it appeared, glancing over about 20 of them at random, that they did not think much of anything about his visit to their country. It was inconsequential to them while some were blatantly hostile over various issues with the Pope or the Catholic religion.
Transforming the Inner Landscape
This past Friday and Saturday I attended part of a seminar entitled Transforming the Inner Landscape hosted by Tara Sheahan and Luann Robinson Hull. It featured Father Thomas Keating, a Christian, Anandagiri, a Hindu, and Geshe Lobsang Negi. It was wonderful to sense the deep respect they had for each other and the search for commonality. This is also true with all the Spiritual Paths seminars we have hosted at the Chapel and Santa Barbara. Father Keating is a catholic theologian known around the world and happens to be our neighbor only 30 minutes away. If Father Keating would be elected Pope, our world would change. Father Keating stated, “No one religion can reflect the totality of reality, but together we can gain a greater picture of the whole. It is about going beyond belief systems. We can continue to learn the oneness of the human being. It is not enough to just tolerate other religions and people, we must love them. Without this nothing is going to happen. This is what Jesus said. If the Spirit is working in one religion, can it not be working in other religions as well? Let God happen in all the religions. After all, we are one very, very tiny planet. We need each other. Religion is not the end of the journey, but only the beginning.”
I would like to think that this is most significant for the future of faith – all of our faiths. For me as a Christian or follower of the ways of Jesus, it is not about minimizing Jesus, but maximizing the role of Jesus. I think of Jesus as being even bigger than just Christianity. It is about discovering the real Jesus and going beyond Constantine’s constraints. It is about freedom, freedom of spirit and freedom of faith. Amen.
Gregg Anderson
Aspen Chapel
http://www.aspenchapel.org