Title: We Are Linked
Scripture: John 20:19-31
4/18/04 Second Sunday of Easter, Yr. C
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
After reading the testimony of the Disciple Thomas, I recalled the testimony of a group another group of people on Sunday, March 1, 1891 when Richmond Beach Congregational Church became a reality.
Prior to that day, there had been a Sunday school of some fifty people that the Reverend O.L Fowler of Edmonds had gathered that met in a grove during the summer and in the upper story of a Richmond Beach store building during the fall.
I am awed by the reality that the faith which was triggered in the disciple Thomas and others, on that first Easter, is connected to the faith triggered in those that started this wonderful congregation, a faith that continues to be the core of our life together.
We are linked, generation to generation, by a Love that can not be locked away in a cold tomb or behind the doors of an upper room. We are linked by a Love that will not let us go.
The peace that the Risen Jesus gave to his frightened disciples, is the peace that can move across our own fears and help us learn what it is to follow a God of new life. In other words - it can be our salvation, as it was theirs.
There was a time - and in some circles it is still true - when it was thought that belief in Jesus Christ was the only way towards salvation. An idea that was good news to some, and quite troubling to others.
I am humbled and grateful for my spiritual path as a Christian, and that joy comes home to me most often at Easter, and I am delighted to share this good news. But I am not comfortable with teaching anyone that it is the only path.
You have heard me speak of a book I am currently reading called The Heart of Christianity, by Marcus Borg. It is a rich and wonderful book and it is giving me much food for thought. I so value Borg's ability to lift up and celebrate the gift of Christianity at a time when many people are embarrassed to proclaim themselves a Christian for fear of being lumped in with the religious right. While I also appreciate his ability to proclaim the Christian path in such a way that did not disregard the reality and the beauty of religious pluralism in our nation.
With the incredible publicity that Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of Christ, has received, I was struck by the way in which we promote something Christian as if it is the dominate belief system of our country.
Allow me to share some statistics with you from Borg's book that he got from a book by Diana Eck, a professor at Harvard called A New Religious America. It really brings into view the reality of our changing America.
There are approximately six million Muslim Americans. There are as many Muslim Americans as Presbyterians and Episcopalians combined, two of the historically most influential Protestant denominations. There are, or soon will be, about as many Muslim Americans as Jewish Americans.
There are four million Buddhist Americans. Though the majority are recent immigrants and their American-born children, many are American converts to Buddhism. There are more Buddhists in the United States than either Presbyterians or Episcopalians.
In lesser numbers, there are about a million Hindus in the United States (about as many as the United Church of Christ or the Christian Church - Disciples of Christ). There are about 300,00 Sikhs.
Religious diversity is not confined to major metropolitan areas. People of religions other than Christianity or Judaism are found in regional cities and rural areas as well.
According to Diana Eck, “the key event that sparked this change was the Immigration Act of 1965, which opened up immigration to people from nations outside of Europe. The result was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, and to a lesser extend Africa. Most of these brought religions with them other than Christianity and Judaism. Together with their children born in the U.S. since 1965, they have made religious pluralism a fact of life for us today.”
Many of us now have co-workers, neighbors, friends or friends of our children, from other religions. There are better chances for conversations to take place, even opportunities to share in one another's diverse worship experiences. I like to believe that what was perhaps an unexpected difficulty of the Immigration Act of 1965, has become less threatening due to the proximity of our lives.
There was another poll that Borg shared from Eck in his book that confirms this possibility. These statistics are from 2002.
The poll also included questions designed to measure the acceptance of religious pluralism:
Should Christians seek to convert people of other faiths or leave them alone? 22 percent said “convert”, and 71 percent said “leave them alone”.
To the statement “All religions have elements of truth,” 78 percent said yes.
To the statement “My religion is the only true religion,” only 17 percent said yes.
Religious pluralism is an opportunity to broaden our understanding of God's ways in the world and it can provide an opportunity for us to understand our Christian path even better. In the studying I have done and conversations I have had about other religions, my sense of the sacred is usually enriched and I am amazed by how the words or rituals may be very different but the intent of seeking and experiencing the sacred, is often the same.
Our Christian season of Easter can remind us of our connections to those very first witnesses of the Risen Christ, the founders of this church and to all others across the world that follow the way of Christ. Yet perhaps the Love and Peace that is the ultimate good news of Easter, may ultimately connect us to yet even more people whose spiritual metaphors or stories are quite different from our own.
As we celebrate this wonderful season of new life and hope, I close with some of the thoughts that have spoken to me the most in the chapter on religious pluralism in Borg's book: …LiLive within the Christian tradition as a sacrament of the sacred. Christianity is a mediator of God - of the absolute - of the holy, but it is not THE absolute mediator. Religions are means of ultimate transformation. They all help transform a person from an old way of being into a new way of being. Each religion is a massive and magnificent sacrament of the sacred, a finite means of mediating the sacred, a “treasure in earthen vessels.”
When a Christian seeker asked the Dalai Lama whether she should become a Buddhist, his response was: “No, become more deeply Christian; live more deeply into your own tradition.” Amen to that!