Sermon, January 27, 2002
3 Epiphany, Year A
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sermon, January 27, 2002
3 Epiphany, Year A
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gospel – Matthew 4:12-23 The call of the first disciples
Epistle – 1st Corinthians 1:10-17 Divisions in the church
Even if you didn’t know that the words were from Christian scripture, it might not be difficult to guess that the topic is religion when you hear the following passage from today’s epistle reading: "It has been reported to me... that there are quarrels among you."
Religious quarrels are the stuff of the newspaper front page. They are the stuff of the editorial pages as well. For weeks our neighbors at the Northwest Arkansas Times had dueling religious editorials. On Wednesdays the managing editor Lucas Roebuck would weigh in with certainty and absolute truth from his perspective as a fundamentalist evangelical Christian who interprets the Bible literally. The next day editorial page editor Don Michael a member of the mainstream Disciple of Christ Church would hoist the fundamentalists on his petard of reason and moderation. Alas for those of us who are entertained by such things, Lucas Roebuck, the fundamentalist, has left the newspaper in order to run for the state legislature.
In all three lessons today there is a background of religious differences. There is the open conflict between the various parties of the young Christian church in Corinth: "I belong to Paul," "I belong to Apollos," "I belong to Cephas," "I belong to Christ." In the Hebrew scripture lesson there is the seething war between Amos the critical outsider and the comfortable prophets of the establishment. And in the gospel, there is regional and class division within the geography of the passage: the rigid separatists of Nazareth, the Gentile influenced liberalism of Jesus’ new home Capernaum, and the traditional powers of Jerusalem looking over their shoulder at the odd things going on up north in Galilee. And just below the surface we might wonder what John the Baptist is thinking. He is under arrest; his disciples like Andrew continue to leave his community to join Jesus; and there is no sign of his hoped for winnowing fork and fire that will burn the wrongdoers like chaff.
Is the nature of religious truth such that it must inevitably lead to conflict and anathemas? After all, to cite Lucas Roebuck, if you have the truth, then it must be necessary that all other interpretations are false. If Jesus is God’s Son the Messiah, then other religions are false and wrong and therefore dangerous. According to his logic, we are in a religious war, and God can only be on one side.
I disagree. His God is too small. His Messiah is too exclusive. There is another way.
I worship Jesus the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. I believe that before time and forever God has been pouring out the Divine Life into very matter of creation. The Holy Spirit of God was immanent within creation from the beginning, and became enfleshed, but not exhausted in Jesus. For me, the Spirit of Christ is present everywhere at all times. Wherever there is an ounce of truth, goodness or beauty – there is what we call the Spirit of Christ. Wherever there is any wisdom, compassion or freedom – there is what we call the Spirit of Christ. Wherever people respond with faith, hope or love – they are breathing what we call the Spirit of Christ. Wherever people connect with the infinite depths of the Mystery of God – there is the dazzling darkness of the mystical Spirit of Christ that we believe in.
So, I am convinced that you do not have to believe in Jesus to follow him. I know lots of people who are more faithful to the Spirit of Christ than I am, and yet who do not believe in Jesus as their savior as I do. They experience and honor the infinite creative divine mystery. They may call it the "Buddha-nature" or the "Shekhinah" or "Shakti" or "Tao" or "Ch’i" or "Great Spirit" or have no name whatsoever. I know people who honor what I call the Incarnation of God by their reverence for the mysterious spirit of the earth and for the holiness of humanity.
And it’s strange. I’m often much more comfortable with people who use entirely different names to speak of the mysterious loving energy I call Father, Son and Holy Spirit, than I am with some of my own brother and sister Christians who use our holy words to condemn, divide, judge and even curse. When we see the ravages that religious division has wreaked upon our planet’s history, it is impossible to condemn the skeptic who has given up religion and instead is nourished by "the beauty of nature, the mystery of music, the creativity of fresh thinking, the intimacies of personal relationships, and the courage with which [humans] have faced difficult times." (Jay McDaniel, Living from the Center, p. 27) When St. Paul says that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" there is no implied Christian monopoly over such divine indwelling. (Gal. 5:22f)
It seems to me that there is a great fraternity of large hearted people who are able to recognize the web of spiritual interconnectedness between spiritual traditions and religious systems. They approach each other with openness, eager to learn from one another, while moving deeper and growing within the inheritance of their own tradition. They are not alike, but they are kin. And they recognize that God is greater than any particular human religion or revelation. Their respect for the mystery of the ultimate humbles their claims. They can be peacemakers.
In such a Spirit, divisions are opportunities for new understanding. We are invited to see the Divine through other windows than our own.
Every human being is a Child of God. Everyone is created in the image and likeness of God. It is our job to repent and to recognize that the kingdom of God has indeed come very near. It is our calling to recognize the deeper unity that Paul urges upon the divided Corinthians. It is our job to fish for people. To search beneath the surface into the mystery below our vision, and to discover the teeming divine life that surrounds and supports us.
Look below the quarrels that divide religious people. Patiently wait and watch. Then set your hooks into whatever expression of wisdom, compassion and freedom; of truth, goodness and beauty; of faith, hope and love may be present. Let the perfect love of God cast out the fear of the stranger or the different. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those who are religious were known no more as quarrelers, but rather as peacemakers.