Pasadena Presbyterian Church Sermon Text
October 10, 2004

"The Saving Faith of Religious Foreigners"  

Preached by The Rev. Dr. Barbara Anderson

Scripture:  Jeremiah 19:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19

The Old Testament lesson today, from the prophet Jeremiah, is one of the favorite scripture passages of Dr. Dean Thompson, former pastor at PPC and now president of Louisville Seminary.  It formed an important pillar of his pastorate here for over 10 years, particularly in verse 7,  "Seek the welfare of the city, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."  Pasadena Presbyterian Church continues to be deeply committed to the welfare of the city where our ministry is centered.  We pray and work for its welfare in many ways.

This is also one of my favorite Bible passages, particularly beginning with verse 4: Thus says the Lord to all the exiles whom I have sent to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and rear children.  Live side-by-side in peace.  Seek the welfare of their city, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

This became one of my favorite scriptures on a hot, humid afternoon the second Tuesday of September, 1982.  That's when I stood before 100 ministers and another 100 elders to be examined for ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in an unairconditioned sanctuary in Troy, Ohio.  During these so-called ordination trials, any question is allowed regarding the person's theology, knowledge of church history, understanding of the sacraments and personal practices.  Back then, many people were still opposed to women's ordination, but were constitutionally forbidden from using gender as the reason to vote against us.  They had to find something in our theology that was unorthodox enough to prevent our ordination.

So when a minister rose to ask me the following question, I knew clearly what was at stake.  "If you were pastor of a local church," he asked, "and a group of Hindus bought property down the street to build a temple, would you take the traditional Christian response?  Would you burn the idols and run the pagans out of town?"  Once the collective gasp died away, I think all 200 people held their breath.

I quickly prayed for help.  These words of Jeremiah 29: 4-7 came to me like a ray of divine inspiration.  I cherish them to this day.  "There are many traditional responses," I said.  "I would take the response of the prophet Jeremiah, who said that we should build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children, and live side-by-side."  Feeling strong, I continued, "Those who know God through other faith traditions see a part of God we do not see.  We need to listen to and learn from them.  Whenever we think we know everything there is to know about God, we are guilty of the sin of idolatry." 

Hindus did build a temple in that minister's community of Beavercreek, Ohio within the year and some years ago, my mother, a dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian, took Church Women United there for a tour.   I understand it was the most well-attended program of the year for Church Women United.

Our world and nation have changed dramatically in the 22 years since I was asked that question.  A gleaming mosque with minarets rises from the cornfields outside Toledo.  A Cambodian Buddhist temple and monastery with a hint of a Southeast Asian roof line is set in the farmlands south of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  And the Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, once fought by neighbors, is now considered so beautiful that "temple view" real estate is highly coveted.  Our neighbors wear Sikh turbans and Muslim head scarves.  We close offices for Yom Kippur.  I've seen a street vendor in Altadena kneel for prayer facing Mecca.

Make no mistake: in the past 30 years, as conservative Christianity has become more publicly vocal, something else of enormous importance has happened.  The United States has become the most religiously diverse nation on earth, as Diana Eck from Harvard makes clear in her book, "A New Religious America."  Within the next five years, there will be more Muslims in the United States than Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Jews. (1)  As we go to our homes, our workplaces, our doctors and our groceries, we encounter more different religious traditions than I can even name.

The questions of how we live together and how we treat each other also underlie the political landscape this fall, as we head into elections when even the major candidates are careful to recognize the difference between fanatics and faithful adherents in every religious tradition.  These question simmer in our communities and laws.  Because of the magnitude of possible devastation and our opportunities to know each other face-to-face, it is critically important that we reflect on these questions biblically, theologically, prayerfully and thoughtfully. 

Jeremiah told the Israelites, who were an extremely nationalistic people, that they should live side-by-side respectfully with people of another culture and religion and, more than that, they should pray for good and prosperity to come to the non-Jews with whom they were living in Babylon. 

Of the 10 people whom Jesus healed in Luke 17: 11-19, the only one who came back to him, filled with gratitude and faith, was a Samaritan - a foreigner, an outsider, someone whom Jews considered to be of different race and religion.  That's the man to whom Jesus says, "Your faith has saved you."  He uses the word for salvation, not the word for healed.  The only person who had faith enough to see God's hand at work in his healing was someone of a different religious tradition. 

As I said to Miami Presbytery 22 years ago, there are a variety of responses to religious diversity.  God is depending on us to choose wisely the responses that enhance life on this planet, not death and destruction.

In his book, "When Religion Becomes Evil," a former classmate from Harvard Divinity School, Charles Kimball, writes:

"Religion is arguably the most powerful and pervasive force on earth.  Throughout history religious ideas and commitments have inspired individuals and communities of faith to transcend narrow self-interest in pursuit of higher values and truths.  The record of history shows that noble acts of love, self-sacrifice, and service to others are frequently rooted in deeply held religious world views.  At the same time, history clearly shows that religion has often been linked directly to the worst examples of human behavior.  It is somewhat trite, but nevertheless sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history." (2)

Some argue today that religion itself, is the problem.  Don't conflicting truth claims inevitably lead to conflict?  Evidence why people might think this are as close as our television set and daily newspaper. 

Yes, religion is part of the problem when it becomes distorted. And no, religion is not the problem, for within the religious traditions that have stood the test of time we find life-affirming faith that has sustained and provided meaning for millions over the centuries. 

In daily conversation, most people tend to think and talk about their own religion in terms of its ideals.  At the same time, often unconsciously, they often characterize other religious systems in terms of poorly understood teachings and the visibly flawed behavior of adherents.  Every one of us speaks and acts in ways that contrary to the ideals of our Christian faith.  That's why we confess our sin each week.  We would not want others to define the ideals of our Christian our faith by our action that are contrary to Christ, any more than we ought to define the faith of other traditions by the flawed actions of their faithful who also, like us, fall short of the ideal.

Despite distinctive characteristics and conflicting truth claims, religious traditions function in similar ways and even share some foundational teachings.  All religious traditions, for example, mark key stages in the human life cycle and provide social organization for their followers.  They also offer an analysis of the human predicament, and outline a path toward the desired goal. 

Identifying common characteristics among religions is not the same as saying all religions are the same.  Clearly they are not.  In fact, any one religion is not the same from one century to the next, or one country to the next, or even from one side of the street to the next. 

If all religions are not the same, it is also true that not all religious world views are equally valid.  They are not all just different paths up the same mountain.  Value judgements do need to be made between and within each of our religious traditions.  These value judgements center on the core values of faith, hope, love and gratitude.

We often think of our religion as a roadmap that tells us how to find our way in the world and in our life.  If we were to take a satellite picture of the Earth at the time of Jesus and now, they would look very similar.  But if we were to take a road map of ancient Palestine and use it to find our way around, it would be almost useless. 

Building on this insight, Kimball suggests that what we need instead of a roadmap, is a compass.  On the compass of each enduring religious tradition, God or the transcendent is true north.  In case you've forgotten what you learned in science class, there is a difference between true north and geographical north. The needle of a compass points to magnetic north, not geographical north.  Depending on where you are on earth, there can be several degrees of variation.  You might say that our religious needles point in the right direction, but we must be careful lest we assume the needle on our particular compass points directly to the sum total of the reality of God. (2)  

Faith, hope, love, and gratitude are the guiding principles on the spiritual compass that point us towards true North, towards the true God.  These do so for all enduring religions, as well.  Faith, hope and love are the values lifted up by the Apostle Paul, you remember, in I Corinthians 13. They are a compass available to all of us.

If we return to the Lukan story we read today, we see this compass in action.  Those with leprosy came to Jesus in the hope that he would see their need, respond with compassion, and heal them.  They had faith to follow his command and head off to the priest for a blessing, even before the healing began.  And they experienced the love of God as Jesus saw their need and responded compassionately even to outcasts, to a Samaritan, to a religious foreigner.

What is most striking to me about this healing story, however, is that only one of the people healed was grateful enough to return to Jesus, praising God and returning thanks.  And that one person was not who we expected it to be.  It was a religious foreigner.  Were the others so caught up in getting what they wanted that they failed to see God's hand in it?  Only the religious foreigner recognized that the proper response to others' kindness and God's grace is not the presumption that we deserve it, but untainted gratitude and pure praise of God's saving mercy. 

According to the Gospel of Luke, in modeling the faithful approach to God's mercies, the racial and religious foreigner becomes for us an instrument of grace and a window into God.  The love of God in Jesus saved the Samaritan, and the Samaritan continued to be a Samaritan. I am convinced that it is possible to be a person of faith with integrity a Christian, a Hindu, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist and at the same time recognize that one's own experience of God does not exhaust all the possibilities.

In the words of Jeremiah, then, let us build houses, plant gardens and rear generations who will know that in the welfare of the city we share with our religious brothers and sisters is our own welfare, as well. Amen.

(1) Diana Eck, "A New Religious America: How A 'Christian Country' Has Become The World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation," Harper San Francisco, 2001

(2) Charles Kimball, "When Religion Becomes Evil," Harper San Francisco, 2002

(c) Copyright 2004 by Barbara A. Anderson.  All rights reserved.  Permission granted for non-profit use with attribution.