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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
20 April 2008Acts 17 / Jn 14“The Exclusive Kingdom”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
"Exclusive" used to be a compliment. If you lived in an exclusive neighborhood, your home would be large and beautiful, and your fellow residents would be successful. If you belonged to an exclusive country club, you could be sure that your children would be playing with refined and well-behaved friends.
Today, though, the term doesn't have the positive flavor it once had. We are aware that an exclusive organization keeps out those who are not members. And we know that people have sometimes been excluded from clubs and neighborhoods simply because of their skin color or their ethnic origin.
Still, in some areas of life, we need to draw distinctions. There are some organizations that can only be open to a few.
Just the best baseball players can be allowed into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame would hold no honor if any professional player could vote himself in.
Only persons who are honest, intelligent, and physically fit can be permitted to join the police force. Our streets wouldn't be safe if the department let any person who wanted to wear a uniform.
The problem of exclusiveness can be particularly difficult, though, in the area of religion. Take, as an example, the Gospel lesson for today.
In the Lesson, Jesus describes his "father's house" and tells his disciples he will "prepare a place" for them in one of the "many dwelling places" that the house contains. Then Christ says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me."
In context, these verses have been interpreted to mean that only Christians get to Heaven. The Father's House seems to be located in a restricted neighborhood; only Christians are admitted through the pearly gates.
In fact, the exclusiveness of this passage seems so offensive to some commentators that they challenge the legitimacy of Christianity. They claim that a truly loving God wouldn't keep people out of Heaven just because they hadn't joined a particular church. So the whole Christian Gospel must be false.
As it happens, in today's first lesson, we can see an early example of the controversy caused by Christian claims about Jesus. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Christ's followers had been preaching their message that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. As a result, many Jews were leaving their synagogues to follow the new faith.
Not surprisingly, the synagogue leaders weren't pleased! They didn't like to lose members of their congregations, and they certainly didn't want to be told that they were excluded from the true religion.
I have thought a lot about this problem because it's one of the central issues of our time. I think in some ways it's unavoidable. When you believe something, you necessarily hold that your faith is true. As a result, you necessarily imply that any alternative philosophy that disagrees with you is less true.
On a mundane level, you can't consider the Yankees to be the best baseball team and at the same time also claim that the Boston Red Sox are the best. You have to choose between the two teams. And you have to accept that you'll cause offense if you're in Boston and you cheer for the Yankees.
Whenever we have a belief about anything, we will necessarily disagree with people who don't share that belief. Thus, it's logical that if we hold the view that Christ is the way, the truth and the life, there will be people who lack this belief and challenge our religion!
So, we Christians will have to live with exclusiveness and the conflict that goes with it. We can still try to make unbelievers feel welcome in the church, and we have no reason to be arrogant about our faith. But still, we can't hide the convictions that have brought us to church in the first place.
At the same time, however, there are means of softening the hard edges of the traditional Gospel. It's possible, I think, to interpret the Bible teaching that "no one comes to the Father" except through Christ by saying that Christ shares in all truth.
And that includes whatever is true in other faiths. Those who find spiritual value in, say, Hinduism might be finding the same religious wisdom that we find in Christ.
Now to Hindus, it could then seem like we're saying they are "really Christians!" They obviously aren't — and we aren't Hindus, either. Choosing one religion necessarily excludes another.
But the idea that there is only one truth can be seen in a positive light. It is comforting and supremely inclusive to say there is one truth — that is why the passage from St. John's Gospel is read at funerals when worshippers most need to be reminded that their loved one has been accepted into the Eternal.
And this Lesson suggests another comforting and inclusive thought. Jesus says that in Heaven, there are many "dwelling places." Other translations say that there are "many rooms" in Heaven; the King James Version speaks of "many mansions."
Now, I recognize that this is a stretch of interpretation, but perhaps this image suggests that, after death, there will be eternal resting places for members of different faiths. In Heaven, the contradictions of this life will get sorted out. In the fullness of time, we are all led to one way, one truth and one life.
This doesn't mean that everyone gets an eternal reward. We can't be sure that there are "rooms" in heaven for believers in the ancient religions that required human sacrifice. Nor do I imagine there will be heavenly rewards for committed Nazis.
However generous we want to be, the Gospel text reminds us that we can never be entirely inclusive. If some beliefs are true, other beliefs are false.
So there has to be a balance between openness and conviction. We Anglicans traditionally have taken credit for what we call our "comprehensiveness." We allowed different interpretations of Christianity, "Anglo-Catholic" and "Broad Church" and "Evangelical."
But, as our Presiding Bishop has been reminding us, we are obliged to denounce such evils as poverty and injustice. They aren't part of the Way of the Risen Christ.
So, even though we pride ourselves on our tolerance, there will be times when we have to be exclusive.
We may offend people along the way. For the very "Way" we are "along" requires some non-negotiable truths and certain patterns of life.
This degree of exclusiveness doesn't make us into fanatics. Nor does it make our church into a cult. Nor do we pretend to pronounce God's judgment on every "way" to truth that is different from ours.
We don't, in other words, say: "Our way — or the highway!" But we do say that life in Christ's way is fruitful and joyous for us.
In the end, we may leave some people on their own paths, hoping that God will lead them to one of the many rooms of Heaven and asking God's help as we try to follow where he is leading us.
In the words of the prayer we offered earlier:
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life. Amen.