September 5, 2004
By Jack Price

Psalm 81 begins with these words:

¹ Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

² Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.

³ Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal  

  day.

Ancient Israel celebrated its New Year’s Festival around the autumnal equinox and this psalm may well have reflected that celebration.  Yahweh was annually and symbolically reinstated as King of Israel with the human king acting as surrogate.  The psalmist recalls, and begs people to remember, God’s actions in their history.  It was God who gave them freedom from slavery in Egypt, led them in exodus through the wilderness, and brought them to the Promised Land.  The message is that Yahweh is not the god of their temple cult system.  God is the living God, who tells the people:

¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. 

¹⁶ I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

Today’s worship is full of gospel music.  These songs are different than biblical psalms, though both are songs and both represent expressions of deep religious faith.  Gospel songs express Christian faith.  They reflect the sounds and thoughts of a particular time and place, though their appeal extends beyond that time and place.

My experience with gospel music goes back to wh en I was fourteen years old.  My father, a career military chaplain, was on a tour of duty in Vietnam.  From a brief “R and R” in Taiwan, he sent us a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a collection of newly dubbed tapes.  We had never had any machine like this before and enjoyed the music immensely.  We also were able to exchange “audio letters” that help ease the loneliness.

Among these tapes from Tapei was a recording featuring gospel music.  These included Tennessee Ernie Ford, Anita Bryant, and a number of gospel quartets.  I really liked the music!  The songs expressed the heart of faith.  Much like today’s “praise songs,” they were heart songs connecting listeners to deep feelings about religious faith.  They also were able to connect to the religious tradition in a meaningful way. 

This music reflects places in the heart.  Just as particular scents take us back to places, times, and precious memories, these songs are audio images that strike a deep and resonant chord.  This is true even when the sound is not “our sound” and the words not “our language.”  We can find common threads that allow us to embrace and enjoy them, at least a little.

Christianity is my sound and language.  My life has been nurtured by the stories and ideas of the Christian faith.  They are deeply embedded in my mind, as though between the very cells of my body.  I love the Christian church.

Growing up, I began seeking connections between the ideas and experiences of my life and the ideas and experiences of my faith.  As that faith understanding has developed, I am aware of my deep belief that “the Lord our God is one.”  I am also aware of gaining a deep respect for the pathway I walk and also for the pathways others walk.

This is last of this summer’s “By Request” sermons, with topics suggested by you, the congregation of Crossroads Church.  This topic is the question:  What about Christianity and other religions?  Let’s begin with:  What about Christianity?

Our current house church Bible study and discussion has led to the question, “What are you seeking that you are looking for in religion/spirituality?  Is it meaning for life?  Is it healing or hope?  Is it the affirmation of inner, unique, and most authentic self?  The Christian faith offers these:  a sense of meaning, healing, hope, and an affirmation of the self as God’s creation.  Other faiths also offer these for their practitioners, be they Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist.

            Christianity has nurtured and taught me.  It has given me tools for spiritual growth and experiences of the Spirit.  The Christian community gives me support to continue my faith journey.  Christianity is a good choice for religious faith.  It is my choice.  It bears the name of the one who revealed the nature of God through his humanity; the one who is a present reality with us, to transform, guide, comfort, and inspire us.

When it comes to comparing religious traditions, too often people are looking to be on the right side, choosing the best religion.  That’s a tough call.  That is a contest between religious systems.  Which one really represents God?  Which one really has the power?  Which one can impose its will on its culture and over other religions.

A prophetic word to Christianity today is that our religion is not co-equal with God.  There cannot be equal allegiance to both religion and God.  No religious tradition can put itself in the position of God without becoming a false god.  No religion is the only pathway to experience God.  The God we worship is far beyond the limitations of any human system.  The Christian religion developed out of the teachings and of Jesus and his followers.  The tradition continues to nurture the faith of many.  It also continues to be a barrier to many seeking God.  Any religion is a potential pathway to experience God, but not because of the religion.  It is because God is along pathway and God waits at the end of the journey.

The writer of the New Testament epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the essential nature of Christianity.  In its final chapter (13: 1-8, 15-16), the writer encourages his readers to “Let mutual love continue”.  Essential Christianity bears the fruit of faith through freedom to do deeds of love and justice.  The fruit of faith includes love for fellow believers and the desire to seek the very best for each other.  It includes “hospitality to strangers” because Jesus always urged hospitality.  It includes empathy with the suffering as though you were in their place – those in prison and those suffering torture.  The meaning of compassion is the “have passion with”. 

The fruit of faith is the have passion with the plight of those who are suffering.  It includes keeping sacred the covenant of committed relationship.  Such a covenant reflects God’s relationship with people.  One wonders what were the first-century issues that prompted this statement to be included?  Certainly, many Christians expected the imminent return of Jesus.  As a result, some betrayed their marriage vows by cheating on their partners.  Others betrayed their marriage vows by withholding physical and emotional intimacy.  What are our twenty-first century issues?  They are certainly reflected in high divorce rates, an increase in single-parent households, a certain loss of intimacy, and a tendency by some to betray their commitment in an effort to seek personal fulfillment.

The fruit of faith includes a need to keep life free from the love of money; to not be imprisoned by stuff, ideas, or dreams, and to use freedom to choose worthy priorities.  It includes the desire and need to pray for leaders and to pray for the church.  We are reminded that leaders, to the extent they are worthy of imitation, should be imitated.  The Christian faith is clearest when lived out in a human life.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today & forever.”   It is included at this point of the text because Jesus is the human revelation of God who is eternal and eternally life-giving.  Christ is always the same though never stagnant.  The risen Christ reveals the living God and this is not an excuse for the church to never change and never grow.  In summary, then, the heart of Christian faith is to praise God, do good, and share what you have.

Essential Christianity is to experience the holy.  It is personal transformation reflected in the ability to love, do justice, and show mercy.  Essential Christianity is social transformation reflected in the ability to bring about social change for love, justice, and mercy. 

            Followers of other religious traditions are challenged to find the essential truth of their faith.  Jesus called all people to himself as the expression of God’s nature in terms with which people can connect.  He did not call all people to himself in order to practice a particular religion.  Jesus’ resurrection means nothing less than the Cosmic (risen) Christ is available to all people regardless of their names, their cultures, their theological understandings, or even their religions.  We have erred by making the risen Christ a captive of the Christian religion.  He is much, much bigger than that.

            Christ is risen and goes before us into Galilee, Galilee of city and suburb, of baseball diamond and corn field, and of Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian places of worship.  Christ is risen indeed and comes to all people.  As Christians, let us rejoice that we are called by his name and rejoice that we can call his name by faith.  Let us also confess that our efforts and best intentions to share Jesus often create a roadblock to others’ acceptance.  Let us pray for God to free us embrace the truth of freedom through the risen Christ, and to recognize Christ’s presence in other people of faith, whatever the name.  Let us move toward a theological watershed when our beliefs reflect that faith that the risen Christ is indeed the cosmic Christ, beyond any limits we place.  Let us look toward the time when all people of faith acknowledge and worship God through Christ in all the fullness of that truth.

            May the songs and mediations of our mouths and hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our rock and redeemer.  In the worship of you, satisfy our deepest needs and fill our deepest hunger.  Open wide our mouths and let us receive honey from the rock.