Faith Seeking Understanding
Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 14:1-14
on April 20, 2008 at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston
On Teacher Appreciation Sunday we celebrate faith seeking understanding. Our teachers give us the courage to ask Jesus questions even as Thomas and Philip question him on our text today. They want to know the way to the place where Jesus is going and so do we. We want to know the way to those mansions Jesus has prepared for us in heaven. It is not easy to find our way today. Our postmodern world presents us with many ways. What was heralded as the way to heaven in our younger days may no longer be under consideration in this time of exponential change. He we are, worshiping God in a Christian church on Sunday morning and studying Eastern religions on Sunday nights. Ours faith seeks understanding.
My own spiritual journey has never strayed from the Christian path. Even so, it was Autobiography of a Yogi by a Hindu teacher, Paramanhansa Yogananda, that led me to one of the greatest spiritual practices I ever found. In the pages of that book I discovered God leading me toward a practice of meditation. Yogananda practiced meditation from an early age and led a remarkable life as a Hindu teacher who eventually made the journey from India to America. His journey was just the opposite of many young people in the 1960s and 70s who were making a journey from America to India. George Harrison of Beatle's fame picked up a sitar and served as the pied piper that led young people into an interfaith dialogue the Eastern religions. We Americans are still making that journey today.
My personal search for a meditation practice led to attend a Buddhist study group with a friend. There I was directed to explore a Christian form of meditation called centering prayer. I attended a workshop and started the practice of centering prayer. Thomas Keating started what became known as centering prayer as a response to his own interfaith dialog. Teenagers would stop by his monastery seeking to learn a Christian form of meditation and Keating, who was in charge of the monastery, had no practice to offer them. So Keating entered into an interfaith dialog with a near by Buddhist monastery and learned about their practice of meditation. He took what he learned there and what he knew from the medieval spiritual masters of the Christian religion, St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. He studied the Desert Fathers of the Christian tradition and reclaimed the practice of centering prayer. Centering prayer arose from an interfaith dialog between Christianity and Buddism.
We are not the first people to seek understanding. The Hindus have been seeking understanding not for centuries but for millenniums. Back in the Middle Ages, when Western Christians still believed the earth was just thousands of years old, Indian astronomers declared life began precisely 1 billion, 955 million, 818 thousand and 501 years ago. The Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Ghita is thousands of years old. Henry David Thoreau said, "One sentence of the Bhagavad Ghita is worth the state of Massachusetts many times over." America is a melting pot nation of religious seekers from every tongue, tribe and nation. Our constitution guarantees us freedom of religion and that is one of the factors that attracts people to move here.
Christian theology teaches we may know God through general revelation and specific revelation. We may experience God through nature as we enjoy beautiful days such as we enjoyed this week in Houston. But nature may also bring destruction as did Hurricane Katrina. General revelation leaves us feeling ambivalent toward God. Specific revelation gives us a clearer view of the nature of God. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the clearest image of God humans will ever see. Jesus himself taught that truth. Jesus' disciple, Philip, challenged Jesus to reveal God. Jesus was not insulted when Philip questioned him. Jesus shows hospitality toward Phililp's question. Jesus told Philip, "I am the way to the Father." Philip didn't understand the incarnation of Jesus was the ultimate revelation of God. Yet this is what Jesus claimed for himself. It is through Jesus Christ that Christians have access to God. This is what distinguishes Christians from other world religions. We seek understanding of God and find that understanding most completely in Jesus Christ.
What makes us unique among religions is our faith in Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus is the unique and sufficient revelation of God. Jesus is Lord and Savior. We believe Jesus Christ is our path to salvation. We do not anticipate or desire a merger between the Presbyterian Church (USA) and any other religion. Our Christian faith in the God revealed in the Bible and our desire to live like Jesus requires us to engage in dialog with people from other religions.
We are not the first Christians to be in dialog with other religions. The Apostolic Fathers are a small collection of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century. These authors were leaders in the early church. The apostolic fathers include Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. The label "Apostolic Fathers" has been used since the 17th century to emphasize that these authors were of the generation that had personal contact with the twelve apostles. The Apostolic Fathers have advice to offer as we seek to live as Christians in a religiously diverse city and nation.
First, the Apostolic Fathers encourage us to remain humbly and peaceably in Christ's church. Do not get angry and leave the church. Neither should we get so curious about other religions that we leave the church. We are free to seek understanding of other religions but this should not cause us to leave Christ's church. The church is the faith nest from which we venture out into the world and to which we return for nourishment.
Second, the Apostolic Fathers would counsel us to look to our Christian faith hoping for our salvation and for the salvation of all Christians. God's salvation is available to us now, during this lifetime on earth. We experience God's realm within us through centering prayer and other spiritual disciplines. We also believe in life after death and we want to spend our next life in heaven rather than in low places. Jesus said, "I will prepare a place for you in heaven." We look to Christ for salvation.
Third, pray for mercy for all sinners. We are not out just to take care of ourselves. We seek the common good of all people so we pray for God's mercy on all people. As Calvin put it: "We are saved to serve." Our goal is not to save our own hide. Our goal is to serve others in Christ's name. While we believe Christ is the only way to salvation for us and for all Christians, we do not know whether God has made other arrangements for others. Jesus himself said, "I have sheep you know not of." Therefore, we may leave certain matters, such as the eternal salvation of people of other religions, in the very capable hands of Almighty God.
Finally, and this may be the hardest one, put up with everyone and everything in charity. Kaballah describes love as chesed. Chesed is symbolized by the right arm. We use our right arm to reach out in love to people of all religions. We use our left arm, our might, to hold other religions away from stealing our peace and joy in Jesus. This balance between the discipline of pushing away and drawing closer symbolizes the balance we are to maintain in an interfaith dialog.
Spiritual teachers are very important people in all religions including our own. Paramanhansa Yogananda, Thomas Keating, Father Abraham and the Apostolic Fathers are all spiritual teachers. We are thankful for all they have taught us. We are especially grateful for the spiritual teachers of this congregation including Abel DeSouza and all the others mentioned this morning. Let's thank our teachers, encourage them, and pray for them. Jesus himself was called "Rabbi" which means "Teacher." Jesus welcomed Philip's questions. Spiritual teachers welcome questions. May God grant us the courage to ask questions and the humility to hear the answers, even when the answers are not the ones we want to hear.
