Jesus among other religions – Christianity Sunday, February 11, 2007 – Rev. David Tinney Text: John 3:16-21 Theme: Jesus for me is the necessary and essential sacrifice that keeps me from believing that my deeds will be sufficient for salvation and that my creed is more than an assent to some spiritual principles. Last week I preached on Judaism and told a couple terrible jokes and at the end of the service one of the members and I am not going to mention the name came up with an Old Testament joke that was even worse than the ones I told. So I had to share it with you. You all know the story of Abraham and how old he and Sarah were when God came calling. They had their son Isaac when they were in their nineties and the story goes that Abraham turns to his son one day and says that he would like to upgrade his computer (by the way for all of you with looks of puzzlement, this is not a true story). Isaac being much more computer savvy warns his elderly father that it might not be the best thing to do. “Papa,” he says, “your computer is old and you will need more memory.” Abraham responded, “Oh don’t worry son God will supply the RAM.” For the past several weeks you and I have been studying the major faiths of the world and I hope you have a greater understanding of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. Today we will look at our own faith and our understanding of Jesus and then next week we will look at the issue of Fundamentalism, which needs to almost be treated as a religion of its own. In the first sermon that addressed the number of religions in the world, we learned that since the beginning of history humankind has been searching for the meaning of life, death, suffering, sin, creation, order, and law. We also discovered there are many answers and many different approaches or theologies. Even though there are huge differences in these theologies there are two essential truths in all five faiths. Truth One – humankind did not invent God as some philosophers and atheists might contend. Every one of the major world faiths believes that God transcends humankind and we are not his or her creator. Truth Two – humankind has created and continues to create systems of beliefs, known as religions and theologies, to explain God and our relationship to the divine. Not all systems are valid. Not all approaches are right. The good news is that we are free to choose which system or set of beliefs draws us closer to the Divine and our neighbor. As I presented each religion I tried to address how each religion dealt with our vertical and horizontal relationships, the nature of creation, order and law, the reason and nature of suffering, the purpose of life, what happens at death, our human condition, the different means of salvation, and how each religion reflected the culture in which they were birthed. Hinduism still reflects the fact that it emerged out of a diverse culture tied to the geography of Mother India. You can see this in the wide variety of “manifestations” they worship of the divine and of the reverence for certain rivers or mountains. Likewise Judaism reflects the powerful concept of being a “chosen people” living among pagan tribes. You cannot separate Jewish history from Jewish theology because it shows up in the concepts of covenant, the Promised Land, and the Messiah. I hope you took something away from each sermon and each religion added at least one concept or one new truth that might help you on your spiritual journey. For me Hinduism reminded me of the sacredness of all life. When I preached about Buddhism I was struck by the fact that it is the only religion of the major five that has never had a war fought in its name. I was impressed by the rich techniques of prayer and meditation and the desire to be the best we can be. I was impressed with Ali-Salaam and his presentation of Islam. You could tell he has a deep desire to teach obedience to Allah and to live under Allah’s rules. I heard his rejection of the gods of culture – money, technology, greed, power, etc – and a turn to our Creator with complete focus and obedience. Last week we learned about Judaism and that the Law is intended to be difficult to live under but it reveals not only our faith in God but God’s faith in us. It is intended to bring about repentance so that we live with our sisters and brothers in mercy, justice, peace, and compassion. With all these good truths from other religions one might ask was this sermon series dangerous? Was I worried about losing believers to other faiths? I have not been worried. First of all we are all in journey and the roads we chose go in different directions at different times in our lives. I would rather have someone in active journey and exploring another faith than stagnant and claiming belief in Christianity. I believe spiritual journey is about moving closer to God – not being stagnant. I also believe the truths that we celebrate in our Christian theology can hold their own against any other truth and when the gospel is taught properly it contains the news that people are desperate to hear. So why are we Christians? What is so appealing about our religion? Let me respond to this question by first addressing our understanding of God. We have studied religions where God is impersonal, aloof, and unapproachable. That has never been my understanding of God. Christ told us we were to pray we are to address the Ultimate in the most intimate of terms – “Abba” or “daddy.” As Christians, we believe this intimate heavenly parent keeps calling us into a closer and closer relationship and wants us to grow into the image of perfection that was there at our conception. Last week I described the Jewish belief that God breathed into us a soul at the moment of birth. I am glad we inherited this concept of soul in our theology because I believe that each of us have a bit of divinity within us. This is why I believe so strongly in the possibility of redemption for all people, and why I am so strongly against the death penalty and against war of any kind. When I feed the hungry or visit the marginalized I see the Christ within them and I understand more deeply my connection to all people. One of my favorite scriptures in the entire Bible comes from Psalm 42 where the poet of old writes about the deep calling to deep. The depth of God calls to the depth of our souls and pulls at us to come closer. The Bible from cover to cover is a story of God wooing humankind and humankind running away. God created us for relationship – not because God is incomplete without us but because we are incomplete without God. We all yearn for what I call the “God piece” to the puzzle that makes each of us whole. Each of us experience an emptiness, a longing, a hole that needs to be filled but too often we fill it with the wrong things – like possessions, power, prestige, etc. We find peace when we find our piece of God. God not only created us for relationship but also created a set of rules or as I said last week an operating system that would protect us from each other and from ourselves. Quite honestly I think the rules are there more for the latter than the former. As much as we dislike hearing it, we are sinners and we are constantly falling short of the God’s design for our lives. We all know what we are capable of doing and how much we need rules to guide us. Pure love is great but without rules and boundaries humankind will abuse it or take it for granted. Boundaries and rules are necessary but too often they become gods in and of themselves. In last week’s sermon on Judaism I talked about the relationship between deed and creed or works and faith. All religions contain a formula of salvation that is based on some combination of deed and creed. Some religions stress works, some knowledge, some karma, some law, and some grace. American cultural religion, which I would set apart from Christianity, would believe that if you do good works you will go to heaven. Deeds trump creed. But there is a problem with this deed-trumping-creed theology. A salvation based on deeds necessitates a cosmic statistician who is keeping score. God moves from loving parent to cold scorekeeper. Not only does God change roles but we change as well. As we try to be our best we end up revealing our worst. We become competitive, prideful, self absorbed, and judgmental. We count points, we keep score, we compare our works against those of others, we make more rules, we make it harder for people to get their heavenly rewards, we set up roadblocks and create more challenges, and we do good deeds for others not because we love them or want to serve them but because we want to get to heaven. Deed over creed does not work but neither does creed over deed. This approach can also bring out the worst in us. We all know those who are arrogant enough to tell us exactly which creeds are necessary for salvation, or what words need to be repeated, or what feelings need to be felt. We have all been around those people who state that unless you know the exact moment you were saved then you are not properly saved. But then there are those who “are saved” by confession and proclamation and don’t show it in the way they live their lives. If creed trumped deed then one would expect that “born again Christians” would have fewer divorces, fewer crimes, fewer reports of domestic violence, and fewer problems within the family. But the statistics don’t support that. All religions get to this crucial question of deed-versus-creed, faith-versus-works salvation and they construct theologies that try to make sense of this delicate balance. Christianity takes a different approach than all the others. God enters the equation and destroys the formulas. There are times I feel like God must have said, “Well the covenant didn’t work, the Law didn’t work, the prophets didn’t work, so I am going to try something entirely new. I am not getting humankind’s attention from the outside so I will become human.” That is exactly what happened in Jesus Christ. God became human and dwelt among us, feeling our joy and our sorrow, understanding our struggles as well as our victories. But most of all God came to interrupt the old formulas of salvation and present a new one. Remember the text from this morning? “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Our God loves each of us so much that God offers the greatest gift in all of history – God’s son. Jesus Christ is the exclamation point on a love affair that has been stalled in history. We are told that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish. This is faith here. Some would say that this is creed-trumping-deed theology but this is more than mere mental assent to some theological concepts. This is radical life transforming surrender. Ultimately deed is inextricably embedded in belief. The wondrous part of this gift of Jesus is that it is gift. It is grace or unmerited love and it represents the greatest force on earth. Grace destroys the need for competition, for exclusivity, for making rules to keep people out, and formulas to let certain people in. Grace unravels any notion of muscular morality and makes God’s love open to all people no matter where they are in their spiritual journey. It shatters pride, egotism, and arrogance. It takes God out of theological boxes our own making, with all the formulas of control that we would like to impose upon our Creator’s love and sets that love free. Grace gives us new life and new direction and the sustaining power to keep traveling ever closer to our Creator. It is the mysterious deep of our Divine Parent calling to the void in each child yearning to be filled and satisfied. Grace is the greatest transforming power in the universe. Christianity is a religion of grace or as the Jewish rabbi was quoted as saying last week, “Christianity is a religion of love and Judaism is a religion of law.” Such a statement makes Christianity seem “law lite.” I can see it advertised now in the middle of the Super Bowl. Choose Christianity it has all the flavor of the original but 50% fewer laws. To this point all the other religions of the world, especially Judaism, emphasized rules and laws and as we have seen it really didn’t change humankind’s relationship with God or with neighbor. So Jesus tries another approach. Instead of making more laws he suggested two – love the Lord your God with all of your heart, strength, mind, and soul and your neighbor as yourself. Instead of adding to an already long list of obligations, Jesus said we do what we do out of gratitude. Instead of laws that are preventative measures such as famous ten “thou shall nots…” Jesus raised the bar so that we might examine our hearts and said, “you have heard it said in the past but I now say you should forgive, or you should look for the log in your own eye, or you should love your enemies. It is true, Christianity is not about conforming to the law it is about something far deeper and far more transformational. It is about the transformation of the heart. The reason that Christianity is a religion of grace and love is that these two things are the only forces in the world that can penetrate our sin locked hearts and heal and transform them. But here is the kicker, here is the final act that seals the deal for me – and hopefully for you. Just so we know that God is intently serious about this offer of love, relationship, forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation God does one more history-changing act. God takes the weight of every one of our sins, pays the price for our rebellion, and suffers and dies so that we might understand the lengths and depths he is willing to go for our hearts. Those nails that were pounded into the cross nearly two thousand years ago still penetrate the sins we commit today so that God might have your heart, and your heart, and your heart, and my heart. Christianity is the only religion that offers heart-transforming relationship and it is only possible because God gave and continues to offer the gift of salvation through grace. Jesus among other religions - Christianity Page 1