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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Tag Archives: Religious pluralism

Different Roads

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

compassion, Dalai Lama, faith traditions, gospels, Jesus, Marcus Borg, Religious pluralism, salvation, spirituality

63880_456334967737818_2081127342_nOn Facebook recently I posted this quote from the Dalai Lama and commented that I wish more Christians believed this about people of other faith traditions. I agree with something Bishop John Shelby Spong said: “God is not a Christian. God is not a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist. I honor my tradition. I walk through my tradition. But I don’t believe my tradition defines God. It only points me to God.”

After posting the above photo a friend commented, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6). This friend considers this a definitive statement with no ambiguity. Another Facebook friend, my niece Kaitlynn, agreed that “God speaks very clearly through scripture and specifically in John 14:6 about how to be reconciled and receive salvation.” She didn’t see any other way to interpret that verse.

Facebook is many things, but perhaps it is not the best place to carry on a theological dialogue! However, because I want my Facebook friends (and relatives) to know that I respect and care about them, I offered the following response:

For me following Jesus is about trying to see the world through his eyes of mercy and relating to others with compassion more than it is about adhering to a particular set of beliefs. I believe in Jesus – it’s just that I don’t think my belief saves me. Christians often confuse faith and a faithful life with belief. I think of faith as trust in God. To confess “Jesus saves” is to acknowledge that we are not saved by a creed, a set of spiritual laws, or a particular view of scripture. We enter salvation by placing our ultimate trust in the Source of our life and Ground of our being. Nor are we saved so that we can personally enjoy a happy eternal future. Our lives are saved from meaninglessness and self-centeredness and saved for the purpose of living for God and loving the world that God loves.

The early Christian movement of the first few centuries was all about taking care of one another, showing radical hospitality to strangers, and being a countercultural witness of the power of God. God is much bigger than the Bible, and Jesus’ message of salvation goes way beyond individual concerns to address the whole of God’s creation and all the systems that we take for granted that have nothing whatsoever in common with God’s kingdom or Jesus’ way.

The gospels are human documents written decades after Jesus’ death expressing how particular evangelists understood Jesus. The gospels are not verbatim transcripts of historical events so much as they are stories of how the pre-Easter Jesus changed peoples’ lives and how the post-Easter Jesus continued to reveal the nature of God’s power in the world – the power of self-giving love and unconditional acceptance. They are meant to point us to the God of Jesus, the God in Jesus. The goal of the evangelists was to have their hearers receive the good news and permit God’s grace and power to transform their lives, and through them to transform their world.

The gospel of John includes many “I am” statements on the lips of Jesus. Jesus claims to be true bread, a gate, a good shepherd, the vine, and the light of the world, and I affirm by faith the truth in these claims. But they are metaphors, not statements of literal fact. In many ways they speak of a mystical relationship that exists through faith, which itself is a gift from God, lest anyone should boast.

So … I choose to see the Christ of the gospels as someone whose love embraces the whole of humanity and all of creation, and that choice moves me beyond self-interest in my own personal future to seek to embrace the whole world that is loved by God.

In this religiously pluralistic world, where people of many traditions seek the sacred and long to know God, I am helped by something New Testament scholar Marcus Borg wrote in his book The Heart of Christianity: “To say ‘Jesus is the only way’ is also the language of devotion. It is the language of gratitude and love. It is like language used by lovers, as when we say to our beloved, ‘You’re the most beautiful person in the world.’ Literally? Most beautiful? Really? Such language is the poetry of devotion and the hyperbole of the heart, but it is not doctrine. . . . [He concludes,] We can sing our love songs to Jesus with wild abandon without needing to demean other religions.”

Again, I respect those who don’t share my views, and I in no way question your faith or devotion to Jesus. I too seek to follow Jesus in my life, and my spiritual path has led me to see the meaning of faith in a different light. I trust we can still be friends.

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

Look Who God Let In

09 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections, Sermon portions

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Book of James, faith, God's grace, God's Realm, Inclusive church, love of neighbor, open doors, Religious pluralism, welcoming

Photo: http://mattandjojang.wordpress.com

The New Testament book of James reminds us that we do well if we fulfill scripture’s royal law, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (2:8). Our neighbor is not only the person next door, but the one we haven’t yet bothered to get to know, the one of a different socioeconomic class, the one of another religious or cultural perspective. Our neighbors are increasingly diverse. As Diana Eck reminds us in relation to our own Constitution, “We the people” in our religiously pluralistic society includes the Muslim, the Buddhist, and the Hindu.

“If you show partiality,” James warns, “you commit sin” (2:9). The command to love our neighbors challenges us at the core of who Christ calls us to be. It challenges us to be inclusive in our welcoming. It challenges us to widen the scope of the ones we call our neighbors. It challenges us to live the gospel values of hospitality, compassion and grace.

When it comes to the church and who is in and who is out I am always stunned by God’s graciousness.

People I cannot relate to, God lets in.

People I don’t understand, God lets in.

People whose life decisions I can’t embrace, God lets in.

People who are stubborn or opinionated or worse, God lets in.

People who are not like me – fine, upstanding sinner that I am – God lets in.

God lets in all kinds of people. It’s the church that sometimes closes the door in the face of the hurting, the addicted, the self-righteous, the poor, the sojourner, or the different.

I favor the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church.

I am constrained by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to accept those whom God accepts.

As a follower of Christ I believe in my heart that God accepts me and loves me as I am.

God’s grace is so unfathomable that you and I experience it even when the people around us know we don’t deserve it.

God’s love comes to us even when we know ourselves to be unlovable.

I have felt the assurance of God’s forgiveness and grace in my life. How can I deny it to other sinners?

The doors to God’s grace open wide to a vast array of imperfect people. How can I close a door that God opens?

As another pastor is quoted as saying, “I am so glad that God wants people who sin and struggle with sin to come to church, because as Pastor, I would hate to be excluded from the church I serve in.”

God’s kingdom is an alternative Realm where the least, the last, and the lost are God’s most urgent concern. How these neighbors are treated is a sign of how well the church understands God’s purposes.

A wonderfully inclusive welcome statement at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community in Daytona Beach generated a lot of buzz on the Internet recently. It reads:

“We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, y no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying new-borns, skinny as a rail, or could afford to lose a few pounds.

“We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like our pastor who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re ‘just browsing,’ just woke up, or just got out of jail. We don’t care if you’re more Catholic than the Pope, or haven’t been in church since little Joey’s baptism.

“We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, and junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems or you’re down in the dumps or if you don’t like ‘organized religion,’ we’ve been there too.

“If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell, or because grandma is in town and wanted to go to church.

“We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts … and you!”

Again I ask, if God opens a door to my neighbors, who am I to close it?

Words (c) 2012 Mark Lloyd Richardson

 

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