The New Reformation in an Age of Religious Pluralism

Sept. 11, 2005 Crestwood UCC

By Pastor Marcia Sietstra

This morning I want to introduce a subject that will undoubtedly form the basis for many future sermons. My thesis is this—that we are in the midst of a new reformation, one every bit as crucial to Christianity as the famous Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century. This summer I made the decision to preach on this subject, convinced that it is time, after15 years of watching this movement gain credibility among theologians, Biblical scholars, and preachers.

For those of you who have not studied church history—that’s OK, I’ll explain what I mean by a reformation—let me just say that the last big reformation started when Martin Luther and later John Calvin and other reformers, "protested" the Roman Catholic Church and began interpreting scripture very differently in the 1500’s. Their protesting led to the "protesting" churches, i.e. Protestant churches being formed, eventually leading to denominations such as Lutheran, Presbyterians, Baptist, Anglican, United Methodist, Episcopalians, the UCC, and many many more. Most of us consider that major shift in Christian thinking to be a healthy reformation, a reform that needed to happen within Christianity.

Today’s reformation, already underway, is equally momentous, and I think equally necessary. It will lead to changes in Christian thinking as profound as the changes that occurred 400 years ago. So I want to begin to answer 2 questions today: 1) What’s causing this reformation? and 2) What is changing?

Those of you who are regulars here at Crestwood have heard me talk about some tremendous advances in the late 20^th century, in the area of Bible interpretation, especially since the discovery of the ancient fragments of scripture at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945 and the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. These ancient manuscripts, hidden in the desert for centuries, prove that competing versions of scripture were circulating in the decades following Jesus’ death. They confirm what many scholars have suspected for centuries—that since the moment Jesus died, people have not agreed on how to explain him or his message.

No wonder there were arguments about what should be let into the New Testament when it was put together by church leaders. There were strong differences of opinion. Scholars have long observed that even the gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—each have their own bias in telling the Jesus story. As ancient texts are compared and better research methods are used, we recognize the need to separate out the authentic words of Jesus from the words that the biblical writers "put into Jesus’ mouth" as they, in a very human fashion, tried to explain him. Indeed, many Christian scholars today are working to uncover the religion OF Jesus from scriptures that build a religion ABOUT him.

If, for example, we look at what Jesus said and did instead of what Paul and others said about him in much of the New Testament, we discover that Jesus was not concerned with how people defined him, as human/divine, savior or not. We discover a Jesus who taught that we are judged not by what we say we believe, but how we treat each other, especially how we treat the least among us (vs. 40).

If we look to the words of Jesus that the gospel writers agree on, to the core words of Jesus that appear consistently across the gospels, we discover a Jesus who welcomed all, the poor, the powerless, the oppressed, the mistaken, and turned no one away. We discover a Jesus who said the kingdom of God is already present wherever peace and compassion are practiced.

Now there have always been Christians who glimpsed this Jesus of radical inclusion, and even went so far as to say that people might follow this "way of Jesus" apart from ever knowing him. Barely a hundred years after Jesus, church leader Justin Martyr suggested that the way of Jesus could be revealed through others, not only Jesus. Thomas Acquinas, one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time, said that the God made known in Jesus Christ was perceived in certain non-Christian philosophies, such as the Old Testament Hebrew prophets who knew this God Jesus talked about, centuries BEFORE Jesus ever lived.

Friends, this is a central feature of the new reformation taking place in Christianity—Christians are letting go of the idea that only Christians can know God and be faithful. In a prophetic sermon preached before 5,000 people at Chautauqua this summer, Rev. Dr. Joseph Hough, president of Union Seminary in New York, told us that the reformation underway will move us toward genuine respect and even reverence for other paths to God, paths that share Jesus’ way of being in the world—the way of compassion. He said, "It is a weak faith that does not trust God to be working everywhere for the redemption of the world and its people. To have seen the face of God in Jesus Christ does not make it necessary for us to deny that another has seen God in another face at another place or time."

For too long, Jews, Christians and Muslims have each been guilty of calling each other’s religions inferior. Karl Barth recognized the goodness in some other religions, yet he said that other faiths, even if they share Jesus’ emphasis on compassion and peace, are only "lesser lights." Paul Tillich called righteous people of other faiths "Christians incognito;" Karl Rahner called faithful people who were not overtly Christian "anonymous Christians." Each recognized that Jesus’ way could be lived within other religions, but treated those other faiths as inferior. When we concede "some good" in other religions, maybe insofar as they help people practice charity, while insisting that a certain set of beliefs ABOUT Jesus are the "only way" to God, that is not genuine respect for other religions. And who are we to set such limits on God’s revelation?

The challenge for Christians today is to fully embrace the Way of Jesus—the way of compassion and peace for all our neighbors—but to do so in a way that respects all our neighbors’ paths to God, while at the same time affirming that Jesus is our window to God.

This new reformation is built on better methods of biblical interpretation that dig down beneath its human biases to uncover the God Jesus pointed to. It will require that we no longer make of the Bible an idol—that we recognize its human component as well as its divine inspiration. It will require better understanding of church history and how the religion OF Jesus was turned into a religion ABOUT Jesus. It will change not only how we see other religions, but also how we practice our own.

This new reformation will help heal a world deeply divided over religion. Today is September 11, and who can forget the attack by religious extremists that changed our world. Religion has been a terrific force throughout history, and still today religious exclusivism and extremism makes the world more dangerous. Like the Muslims and Jews, we Christians have religious extremists too—dangerous fundamentalists who claim to know God’s mind, who claim God’s exclusive favor, and who dare call for violence to impose their religious views on the world. Two weeks ago Pat Robertson, a well-known American televangelist, on the air called for the assassination of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Rev. Robertson possesses an arrogance that assumes his particular version of his particular religion, i.e. Christianity, has a right to impose its belief system by any means, even violence. We have not moved so far from the Crusades of the Middle Ages, when the pope sent Christian soldiers to slaughter whole villages of Muslim men, women and children until the blood ran in the streets. They claimed to follow Jesus; they did not follow the religion OF Jesus, but a religion ABOUT Jesus. It is time for this new reformation; indeed, the world desperately needs it.

I invite you to take part in it, by attending church regularly, so that you keep learning what Biblical scholarship teaches us today. I invite you to attend Adult Forum at 9 am on Sundays, so you keep growing in your understanding of how to live a God-centered life. I invite you to our Theological Issues group that meets once a month on Sunday afternoon. That group is beginning a new book entitled Jesus Against Christianity: Reclaiming the Missing Jesus, and it helps explain the new Jesus scholarship. I recommend it to you.

In closing—Christianity has been changing ever since Jesus walked this earth. We now know this to be true. Church teachings changed; the creeds changed. Teachings once considered sacred are no longer. Even we change our own thinking; ideas we thought absolute truth 30 years ago, we have had to let go of. Just as we no longer believe the Crusades were a good idea, one day, Christians will look back and realize that claiming exclusive rights to God’s favor and revelation were not appropriate either. Today, as we begin another church year together, let us commit to journey together, asking questions and always seeking new and better ways of being God’s people. Amen.