Last year, an evangelical pastor named Rob Bell published a book that became rather controversial. The name of the book is Love Wins.
I say it was controversial; in fact, some even accused it of being heretical. So naturally, I had to go out and purchase the book and read it. After all, they accused Jesus of being a heretic, too.
Chapter one begins with a story about an incident that took place at an art show which was being hosted at Bell’s church. The theme of the art show was peacemaking…
“One woman included in her work a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, which a number of people found compelling.
“But not everyone.
“Someone attached a piece of paper to it. On the piece of paper was written: ‘Reality check: He’s in hell.’”
Rob Bells response to this is:
“Really? Gandhi’s in hell? Somebody knows this? Without a doubt?”
Why? Because Gandhi never prayed the Jesus prayer? Is the recitation of a simple three-sentence prayer really more important to God than a lifetime of living the way Jesus taught, even though one never acknowledged Jesus as Lord and Savior?
Some Christians say yes.
I once attended the funeral of a teenage boy who was struck and killed by a car as he walked along a country road at night. That funeral was one of the worst experiences of my life.
The pastor who presided over the funeral did a decent job given the difficult circumstances. I don’t think I could have done any better.
When it came time to invite others to speak, however, a man stepped up to the microphone and told us that he was the boy’s grandfather, and that he was also a pastor. He said that his grandson was a good kid – kind, compassionate, a friend to all.
The grandfather then said that he had had several talks with his grandson over the years, and that he had tried to get his grandson to pray the Jesus prayer, the salvation prayer as some call it, the three sentence prayer of confessing that one is a sinner and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The grandfather went on to say that he never did get to hear his grandson pray that prayer and that he didn’t know if his grandson ever prayed it in private. But he said that he did know what Romans 10:9 says, that only those who confess with their lips that Jesus is Lord will be saved.
He finished by saying, “I don’t know where my grandson is today. I never heard him make that confession, so I don’t know if he’s in heaven or if he’s in hell.”
Can you imagine? By the time he was finished, I thought there was going to be a brawl right there in the funeral home chapel. I felt sorry for the young pastor officiating, sitting there behind the pulpit, racking his brain for anything he might of have learned in seminary that would be of help in this situation, and coming up empty.
And yes, I confess that I did offer up a small prayer of thanks to God that it was him up there, and not me.
But it does raise the question: Is faith in Jesus the only way to salvation, as that grandfather claimed? Or is salvation available to people of other religions, or to those who have not yet found religion?
(And let’s not even talk about the different ideas of what salvation means…)
Romans 10:9 is not the only scripture that seems to imply that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus. Acts 4:12 speaks of Jesus, and says “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
Also, there’s John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
These are popular verses among conservative Christians, who insist that Christianity is the one true religion.
Bixby Knolls Christian Church, meanwhile, has a long history of interfaith involvement and dialogue, and is a member congregation of the South Coast Interfaith Council. It’s obvious that this congregation has, over the years, recognized the validity of religions other than Christianity.
I don’t know if these things were discussed theologically at some point, if verses like the ones we just read were studied and compared to other verses that might suggest an alternative way of looking at things … or if these verses were simply ignored in favor of what felt right.
But there are, in fact, some good, biblically backed reasons to practice a more open and inclusive sort of faith.
Jesus, we know, was a Jew. Jesus worshiped at the temple, read the Jewish scriptures, and observed Jewish celebrations, so it makes sense that a Jewish scholar could help us understand Jesus better.
And, Jesus was seen as the Jewish messiah.
So naturally, many believed that, in order to be a follower of Jesus, one had to be a Jew.
But we also know that Jesus was open to associating and even praising people who were not Jews. We know about the good Samaritan, of course. And we just heard a story about two non-Jewish Greeks who wanted to see Jesus.
These Greeks went to Philip – probably because Philip is a Greek name – and Philip conferred with Andrew, the other disciples with a Greek name. Then Philip and Andrew went together to tell Jesus.
And what did Jesus do? He started talking about his crucifixion, and about how a grain of wheat must die in order to multiply and bear much fruit.
Then everyone listening to Jesus had a strange mystical experience in which they heard a voice from heaven; and then Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”
All people.
Yesterday at Chapman University’s Founders’ Day, Amy-Jill Levine pointed out that the prophet Isaiah said that God’s temple is a house of prayer for all people. In the temple in Jerusalem, there was even an area called the Court of Gentiles, a place where non-Jews were welcome to gather and worship God. Without being pressured to convert.
When Jesus overturned the tables in the temple, he quoted Isaiah, saying “My Father’s house is a house of prayer for all people.” So it seems that one of the things Jesus was upset about was that those who were selling goods were keeping folks out of the temple. They were being exclusionist.
The truth is that, throughout scripture, there is a movement, a progression; and by definition, progressives like progression. It is a progression from exclusivity to inclusivity; a progression from local & provincial to global and universal; a progression (particularly in the New Testament) from Jerusalem (symbolizing one religion) to the ends of the earth (symbolizing all people, all nations, all faiths).
Much of the New Testament describes disputes and disagreements among the early Christians. Chief among those disagreements was the debate over whether non-Jews could be a part of the Christian movement, or whether they had to first convert to Judaism. Guided by the Spirit, the conclusion they reached was that one did not have to be a Jew, that the way of Jesus was actually bigger than any one religion.
But what about those verses that say that salvation comes through no one else but Jesus, that he is the only way to God?
In his book Speaking Christian, Marcus Borg spends a chapter answering that question. Borg has spent his life studying scripture, and his conclusion is that these verses show the language of love.
In the same way, I could say that my wife is the most beautiful person in the world. For me, that statement is true…. And my kids are the greatest kids in the world. These things are true for me. I believe in the truth of these statements.
But when I say them, you don’t get upset, you don’t get offended that I’ve just insulted the beauty of your spouse or the greatness of your children, because you recognize it as the language of love, the language of devotion.
Not too long ago, a friend of mine wrote on facebook, “Happy birthday to the best Dad out there.” Now, I could have looked at that statement and protested, “It’s not my Dad’s birthday!” (Because my Dad is the greatest.)
Instead, I recognized this as the language of love. It’s not meant to be exclusionary. It’s simply an expression of one’s devotion.
A person could say that Bixby Knolls Christian Church is the best church in Long Beach. No, better yet: Bixby Knolls Christian Church is the best church in the world! Do you believe that?
That’s a statement of love and devotion for our congregation. It’s not meant to be offensive to other congregations. It’s not meant to deny their validity or their goodness. It’s just an expression of love and devotion.
Jesus is the way. There is no other way for me. If I want to see God, I look at Jesus. Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer, Jesus shines brighter than all the angels heaven can boast. I believe this with all my heart.
But at the same time, I know that “God desires everyone to be saved,” as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4. God so loves the world that he sent Jesus, and Jesus spent a lot of time telling people how to live – love God, love your neighbor, take care of the poor, work for peace – and not a whole lot of time telling people what doctrine they should believe.
A lot of churches today have got that backward. They emphasize doctrine over right living. In theological language, they emphasize orthodoxy – right thinking – over orthopraxy – right living. And of course, right thinking means thinking like they do.
But Jesus emphasized right living. Indeed, he seemed to get impatient when asked about right thinking. Another thing Amy-Jill Levine mentioned this weekend at Chapman was the story Jesus told about the sheep and the goats: those who live right by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison – they will get to sit at the right hand of the Father. They have done good things for the least of these, and so have served Jesus. But those who did not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit those in prison, those will be sent away. They did not do good things for the least of these, and so have not served Jesus.
Jesus ends this story by saying that not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but only those who do the will of the Father. Those who say the right creeds or subscribe to the right doctrine will not be saved, but only those who practice right living.
Last night, I watched Brethren Christian High School’s excellent production of Godspell, and was reminded of another, similar story. A father calls sends his two sons out in the field to work. The first son says, “OK, Dad!” and off he goes, but on his way he changes his mind and decides not to do the work his father sent him out to do. The second son says, “I don’t feel like working today,” and heads out to have some fun, but then he changes his mind and goes out to the field after all. “Which of these two brothers,” Jesus asked, “Did the will of the father?”
Jesus is far more concerned with how people live than in the things they say, the creeds they recite, the beliefs they claim. And I personally think God is quite happy with the life Gandhi lived. Did Gandhi not do the will of the father?
Jesus never tired of teaching people the right way of living: to love others as yourself; to not hoard riches for yourself, but to share with those in need; to work for justice and equality; to care for those who are sick, those who are oppressed, those who have had their rights denied; to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,… these are the things that mattered to Jesus.
And because these things are what mattered to Jesus, I know that these are the things that matter most to God. And all those who do God’s work are a part of God’s family. Even if they don’t think of God the same way I do.
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