Acts 10:9-15, 27-28, 34-39a Laura Robinson Des Moines, IA July 30, 2017 What do I really believe about other religions?? Will you all please pray with me? Creator God, I pray that you who desire so deeply to know your creation, will be present with us this morning, in this place. I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts will be acceptable to you, for you are our strength and our most constant redeemer. Amen. It s fitting to me that this is the final week in our what do I really believe series. Because what I really believe about other religions is most deeply informed by what I really believe about God and the Christian faith. First of all, I believe that God, the Creator of this world, is a persistent God who wants to be present to each of us and all of creation. I believe God is so persistent that she is present and speaking all over the world, at every moment, in many different languages and cultures in ways I cannot possibly begin to imagine. Our friend from Cuba, Reinier Menendez perhaps put it best at the end of the Wednesday morning Bible Study, when he said I believe God is a mystery. And I am sooo comfortable believing God is a mystery. God is truly a mystery. I don t think any of us can know God fully. God is far too great, and I am far too human to know God completely. But what I do know about God, I know from Christianity. I believe Christianity is a religion of relationship. This is perhaps most explicitly expressed in the Doctrine of the Trinity. Our God Creator, Christ & Spirit is innately relational. And as followers of this God we too should seek life-affirming and mutually dependent relationships with all of God s creation. This is why we do church, after all! Our faith grows strongest when we are part of a community that can walk with us on the ups and downs of our faith journey. Contrary to what American culture might tell us, I do not believe we are placed on this planet to
pursue individual success however we choose to define it. I believe we are placed on this planet to know, to love, and to be in relationship with the rest of God s creation no matter their religion, or lack thereof. I believe these relationships are important, because I believe there is truth to be learned about our mysterious God from other religions and there is truth to share about God from Christianity. As Christians, we are called to share the Good news of Jesus Christ AND we are called to be in loving, respectful and authentic dialogue with others. One of my preaching professors at Candler, Dr. Tom Long, shared a story with the class on one of our first days of Preaching 501. He had been invited to preach at an interfaith conference hosted by a local Atlanta church. During one of the meals, he started to chat with a Rabbi who had also been invited to the conference. The rabbi told him about a dialogue session that had taken place earlier in the day. Apparently, the Christians, who were hosting the conference, started out the session by assuring their Jewish guests that they wouldn t bring up Jesus they didn t want to make anyone uncomfortable, after all. The Rabbi looked at Tom askance and said, Goodness if the Christians weren t going to bring up Jesus, I will! Someone has to stick up for the guy! And that s just it. As Christians, I believe we re called to share the message of Jesus Christ. Not share it by force, or with violence, hostility or condemnation, but to share it as Jesus did, with love, humility and presence. Not to share some watered down version of Christianity that tries to focus on what we have in common with other religions, but to share the full richness of our faith, while making room for others to share the full richness of theirs. Now, I grew up in Seattle, in the United Church of Christ, in Plymouth United Church of Christ, in fact. In the communities, I was raised in I have heard once that people of other religions were headed for hell. I never once heard that our church had a monopoly on God, or that our community had all the answers. Quite the opposite, in fact. I heard that it was okay to question God, our faith, and our tradition. I also heard about the harmful ways that absolute religious truth has been yielded throughout history, and the terrible acts that have been committed in the name of Christianity. And much of what I absorbed about Christianity came from the culture outside the church, not actually from the church itself. It was only in my journey back to the church and my years in seminary that I became more fully aware of and then proud of the Good News proclaimed by our Christian faith. Do you all know this?? Our faith contains a crazy, astounding message of wonderful, hard to believe news! God became human in order to be in a relationship with us! God became human to break the bonds of oppression that bind us all. This is craziness that demands to be shared! And I believe one important part of sharing this message is to be in honest, loving dialogue with members of other religions, where my contribution of the Christian faith, is one of many contributions.
Brian Mclaren calls this position of faith, a strong-benevolent Christianity. A Christianity that is strong in belief and yet generous and hospitable in its interactions with others. A Christianity that is open-minded enough to trust that God is at work in many places we have never been and in people we have never known even as we simultaneously trust in our own religious expression not as superior to any other, but as important, because it is our own. I trust that the God who is at once a mystery and made known to me through Jesus is doing many things in the world that I am not aware of. It s often up to me to simply open my eyes to the ways God is already at work in the world. In our text today, we hear Peter, that most talked-about disciple of Jesus, bringing the Good News of Christ to an unexpected place because of God. In chapter 10 of the Book of Acts, God is doing a pretty astonishing new thing. This passage marks the opening of the mission to the Gentiles. Cornelius, who goes unnamed in our excerpts, is the other main character in this story. Cornelius is a Roman Gentile, a centurion in the Italian cohort, no less. Cornelius is also a faithful follower of God the Jewish God. We are told in the first verses of Chapter 10 that his is deeply devout, he gives alms generously, and prays constantly to God. And one afternoon, he has a vision, in which an angel of God appears to him and says his faith in God has been answered. The angel tells Cornelius to send for the Apostle Peter so he can hear the Good news Peter has witnessed. Meanwhile, we find the Jewish Apostle Peter over on a rooftop in Joppa, receiving his own vision from God. God s vision to Peter challenges Peter s beliefs about what is clean and unclean because God is doing a new thing. God is moving in a new way that breaks down the barriers between Jew and Gentile. After his vision, Peter meets the men Cornelius has sent and returns with them to Cornelius household. Going into a gentile home, and breaking bread with Gentiles goes against all of Peter s Jewish traditions. But he goes because God is up to something new. As the chapter concludes, we hear Peter s message of Good News. God shows no partiality between Jew and Gentile. God is present and available to all who desire to know God more fully. God does a new thing. Peter wasn t asking for it, Peter wasn t looking for it, but Peter was open to it and Peter was ready to share the Good News of Jesus. And sometimes that s all it takes. There are two things I really want you to take away from the text this morning. First off, God prompts Peter to go where he NEVER would have chosen to go himself. Peter, a Jewish disciple, who follows Jewish law, would not have chosen to visit the
house of a Gentile to spread the message of the Gospel. But God sent Peter to Cornelius. God sends us to people who are outside of our community. God sends us into relationship with the other and tells us that we are never to put up walls by calling someone unclean or unworthy of God s love. The other important thing I want you to remember from this text is about Cornelius and his household. Now, this is important, because for much of history, the Christian relationship with the other has been tied to conversion and the saving of souls. And I think it s really easy to read this text as a directive to spread Christianity to all the corners of the world, to all people by whatever means necessary. But remember Cornelius and his household already worshipped the Jewish God. God sent a vision to Cornelius, which sets this whole story in motion. Peter did not show up in Cornelius household unbidden. And when Peter did show up, God was already present there. This is not a store of forced conversion rather it is a story of the opening of Peter s eyes about where God is present and who God is present with. When we walk into the world with an open and curious heart, more often than not, I believe we will find God waiting for us ready to teach us something new that can transform our whole way of thinking. Peter and Cornelius are both fundamentally changed by their interaction with one another. They are transformed by God s work in them and through them. And that for me is the end all be all, of what God is calling us to do in the world. God is calling us to cross the dividing lines that humanity is constantly creating and be present to one another. God is calling us into relationship with one another, to be truly honest with each other, to treat one another with respect and dignity, and to hold one another with compassion and love. This past spring, during my final semester at Candler, I took a course on a Jewish- Christian-Muslim dialogue. One aspect of our class was a series of dialogue dinners coordinated between our class and other participants from a nearby synagogue and mosque. Each dinner, which rotated locations, was an exercise in hospitality and generosity. Every meal was planned according to Halal guidelines, so that it would respect both Jewish and Muslim dietary practices. And because we were students, all the participants from the Synagogue and Mosque were prepared to answer every one of our questions we were repeatedly told not question was off the table. Questions ranged from personal experiences of God, to the roles of women in each religion, to opinions on last year s Super Bowl. There was laughter and there were many hugs. No one attempted to convert anyone else the only goal was relationship. At the end of each meal, Facebook requests were sent, phone numbers were swapped, and coffee dates were arranged. At the final dinner, someone from the synagogue set up a Facebook group, so the conversations could continue.
In those conversations, I believe God was at work. I believe God was present in these moments of dialogue and laughter, smiling down on her Beloved creation, as we tried to get to know one another better. So, what is it that I truly believe about other religions? I believe I m not expert. And I believe I m supposed to extend the hand of friendship to them and be in dialogue with members of other religions. Mutual, respectful, authentic dialogue, where I m ready to share honestly about my religion and faith, and I am open to learning about others. I believe this work of entering into new relationships builds trust, love and hope, which is just the kind of work that our world deeply, deeply needs today. As Christians we are called to love and serve others we start this important work by being in an authentic relationship. Authentic relationships are hard to nurture if in the back of my mind, I m busy cataloging the ways I m right and you re wrong. Authentic relationship is hard to nurture when I m more preoccupied with where you re headed after death than with your lived experiences on our shared planet. And perhaps most importantly, authentic relationship is not at all nurtured by attempting to turn you into me. Authentic relationship is nurtured by listening. By compassionate and interested dialogue. By sharing what s important to me, and listening to what s important to you. By being amazed by all we have in common and delighted in all of our differences. I believe God s glory is fully present in the diversity of creation. And I believe God wants us to be in loving relationship with one another. I believe that s why Jesus walked among us 2,000 years ago to show us how different this world could be if we refused to segregate ourselves into hostile us vs. them identity groups. In a time when our world and so much of creation is hurting, the Christian call to be in loving communion with one another should be louder than ever. We need people of faith to stand together for the environment, for healthcare, for human rights, and for peace. We need voices of faith that are unified and strengthened by our diversity. We need a movement that has room for the wisdom of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed. I believe if Jesus were alive today, he would sit down across the table to eat and talk with the leaders of all the world s religions. Why should we do any differently? I believe if we break bread with one another if we listen our experiences and our faiths we will discover that God is present in our very communion with one another. And I think these relationships just might have the potential to transform our lives and the world itself. God is the Creator of All. And God is a glorious mystery. And here in this room, many of us claim identity in a religion that is founded on relationship relationship in God, relationship in humanity, relationship in creation.
So let us be in relationship. Let us be loving neighbors, let us be partners in dialogue and in mission, and let us all be committed to a vision of justice, love and peace reigning freely on earth. Amen. Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 4126 Ingersoll Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50312 Phone: (515) 255-3149 Fax: (515) 255-8667 lrobinson@plymouthchurch.com