Back to Sermon Index Christianity and World Religions: Christianity November 12, 2006 Today we end our series of sermons on Christianity and World Religions. We have taken the last 6 weeks to look at the Questions people ask about Religion...and to look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. Each of these faiths has some in common, but the truth is that you can not say that they all believe the same thing and that we are all going to the same place, or even that we all worship the same God. At the beginning of this series I quoted a study from Baylor University that said that 95% of people believe in God, but that they don't believe in the same God. Taking thousands of responses, the researchers were able to categorize the people's beliefs into four different views of God. They used two delineating factors: 1) how involved in the world and in individual lives is their god. Some believe that God is deeply personal and involved in the events of not only the world but individual people. Others believe that God is a great cosmic force that is either too holy or too busy to take concern with this one planet, much less an individual. 2) The second factor is how angry God is. Some believe that God is angry, full of judgment and vengeance...punishing sin. Others believe that God is loving and kind, seeking to care for us as a parent cares for their children. So, the Baylor study was able to break the belief in God into four different views of God: A God who is angry at the world and who is active in the world: Authoritarian God. A God who is angry at the world, but who is not involved in the world: Critical God. This God is watching from afar, and is angry at the sinfulness of humanity. The third view is that of a God who is not involved in the world and who is not particularly angry either: this is the Distant God. And finally, there are those who believe that God is both active in the world and cares for humanity. This is the Benevolent God. While the study showed a disappointing percentage of people in Christian Churches who believe in one of these Gods other than the one Jesus taught, I don't think it is a stretch to see the great religions of the world in the framework of these four different views of God. The Hindu faith teaches of a God who is distant, and critical of the events of the world. The World is Maya, and the world is a place of suffering. The hope is that after lifetimes of purification and devotion, one might be lifted from this world and become one with God. Buddhism as taught by Siddhartha Gautama believes in the Distant God. Buddha's last words were reported to be "if there is a god, he will not help you". This world is a place of suffering, and nirvana literally means to be extinguished...the candle of your soul is finally at rest when it is joined with the great nothingness of the beyond. Islam teaches that God is not our Father, but our Judge. The two main tenants of the faith are that God is one and Muhammad is his prophet, and that a Day of Judgment is coming. Finally, there is the Christian faith. We have used the questions: Who is God, Who are we, and how are we saved as a means of looking at the other faiths and we apply them now to our own: Who is God. Jesus spoke of God as ABBA, which is more personal than Father, it is more like Dad, or Pop. Some say it is best translated as Daddy. Jesus teaches us that God knows us better than we know ourselves...that he sees the sparrow fall and knows the number of hairs on our heads. God is the one who loves, who searches and who saves. God So Loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. This view had been in the Old Testament: In Psalm 8 the psalmist sees the broad expanse of the Milky Way and wonders aloud: what is man that thou should think of him, or the children of men that you would even consider them? Yet you have made us a little lower than the angels. Or Psalm 139: "how precious are your thoughts of me, o Lord, How vast is the sum of them. If I were to count them they would outnumber the gains of sand." Who are We? We are made in the image of God. There is a spark of God's spirit within each of us. We are capable of great creativity, generosity, and beauty. But that image is marred by our selfishness and sinfulness. We are capable of terrible selfishness, hatred and evil. History shows this to be true, and we are not getting better and better as the generations roll on. No, we all sin and fall short of the glory God intended for us. God has given us freedom of choice, and God honors that choices even when it breaks his heart. But God has not left us in our sinfulness to somehow climb the ladder to heaven through our good works, acts of charity, or absolute devotion. It would be impossible to do so. But God loves us, and seeks to save us when we can not save ourselves. Out of his great mercy and amazing love, God has sent his son Jesus. Jesus is the good news, he is the gospel, he is the salvation of the world. Not what he taught or even what he did, but he himself. Jesus came to save the people from their sin. Who Jesus is is the critical question of the Christian faith. Christians do not believe that Jesus was a good man, a moral teacher or an example for us to follow. We believe that he was the Son of God...God come to be among us. The great religions of the world all focus on how we, through great acts, concentration or knowledge can climb the ladder to God and heaven. The Christian faith is the opposite, it is God reaching all the way down to where we are. God becoming one of us. The Gospel of Matthew and Luke begin with the story of Christmas...Jesus is to be the savior of the World, the Christ/messiah of God. He is Emmanuel, God is with us. Jesus taught that he and the Father are one, and that if you have seen him, you have seen God. And the early church clearly believed and taught that Jesus was God among us: Paul's letter to the Philippians he records for us an early Christian hymn: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the vary nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!" And his letter to Colossians which was read for us earlier: That Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things." This is reflected in the beginning of John's Gospel: in the Beginning was the word, and the word was with God and Was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as the only begotten son of the Father, full of Grace and truth. The early church confirmed these believes in its creeds: the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed both speak of Jesus as "the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and our Salvation he came down from heaven.... C. S. Lewis, in his important book, Mere Christianity, speaks of the question of Who Jesus is as the criticial question of the Christian Faith. Lewis looks at the question logically and comes up with three possible choices: Jesus clearly claimed to be God among us. He either was or he wasn't. If he wasn't, he either knew he wasn't and was lying, Or he did not know he wasn't and he was mistaken...or delusional. Lewis says that there are three choices: 1. Jesus is a liar who seeks to deceive and who tragically died for his deception. 2. Jesus is a lunatic, who is mistaken about being divine and who is completely delusional. His actions and his teachings do not seem to be those of someone who is completely out of touch with reality... 3. That Jesus is who he said he is, and therefore we must make him Lord of our lives. That is how we are saved. What does it mean to be a Christian? How are we saved? It is not about gaining some secret knowledge through revelation or hours of meditation. It is not about following a set of rules and seeking to earn God's favor by acts of charity or devotion. It is not about how good you are or how much you give or how holy you might become. It is about God. About Jesus. We are saved by Grace through faith, it is the gift of God, not a result of works lest anyone should boast....(Ephesians 2:8-9) God, being rich in mercy and abundant in Grace, has saved us in Jesus. John writes in his Gospel why he wrote it: these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name. (John 20:40) God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who so ever...who so ever, believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) To be a Christian is to be in Christ, to believe into him. The process can be sudden and stunning, or it can be gradual and peaceful. But in the end, it means that we have accepted for ourselves what Jesus did for us...what we could not do for ourselves. I am reminded of the first steps of AA. They are similar and instructive. First you must realize that you are an alcoholic, and that you are powerless on your own to do anything about it...that you are helpless to overcome it alone. And to surrender yourself to God (higher power). We must admit that we are sinners. We like to rationalize and say that we are not that bad...we are certainly better than many, maybe better than most. But deep in our hearts we know that we are not all that we could be...we all have done things that we know we should not have done, and not done things that we know that we should. WE all fall short of the glory of God. We must confess that we can not save ourselves. We are not justified by acts of compassion, contrition or devotion. I must surrender myself to Jesus...the one who loves me and demonstrated the depth of that love by being willing to die a horrible, tortured death rather than turn aside from our salvation. We are saved by Grace...we don't earn it or deserve it. It is based solely and completely on his love for us. Grace. Some will ask, if God so loves us, why must we do anything? There are those who believe that all are saved. But God loves us enough and respects us to give us free will. God loves us and desires that we love him...and love requires freedom of choice. For love is a choice first. To be a Christian is to live in Jesus' love and grace. To have said yes to his gift of salvation and to seek to live and learn more of him. The living out of that faith in the world is where most Christian differences come to the fore. It is not so much that we believe different things at our core, but that the practice of that faith differs. We differ in our human expressions of worship, in our expressions of how the church should be organized and run, on the role of Clergy and the church's leadership...but the core remains the same. I believe that is because of communion. Jesus gave his disciples...us...a simple act to remember who he is, why he came, and what he did for us. The one Body...given for us, the cup of the new covenant for the forgiveness of sin...take, eat, remember. This is the core of our faith. Karl Barth, the great theologian and professor, was once asked what the most profound theological teaching he had ever heard...and after a moment he replied simply: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible Tells me so....Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus Loves me, Yes, Jesus loves ME, for the Bible tells me so." That is the heart of our faith. Jesus the Christ, Savior of the world and savior of one such as me. And to Back to Sermon Index