Encountering (Others’) Faith

We know that Canada is filled with many cultures. Manitoba was already a multicultural province long before the present surge of migrants entered. Consider the presence of reserves – not just First Nations and Metis reserves, but an East Reserve for Mennonites (where I live in Steinbach), and a French Reserve for towns like St. Pierre and Ste. Anne, and a Ukrainian Reserve for towns like Tolstoi and Sarto.

It is no accident that one of Winnipeg’s most beloved festivals is Folkorama, celebrating the multiplicity of cultures in our city and province. From Filipinos to Scottish immigrants, from the Indians playing cricket in Assiniboine Park to what one authority called “the most secular Jewish community in Canada”, diversity is in our lifeblood.

Ironically, the first time I ever visited Winnipeg was in 1990 for Mennonite World Conference. Southern Manitoba has a well-deserved reputation as a Mennonite enclave; but Steinbach and Winkler have their own mosques now, and Winnipeg has more gurdwaras than it does Hindu Temples – many Sikhs as part of the Indian diaspora in this part of the world. We may still be the bible belt in Canada, but we also have a remarkable array of cultures and faiths.

In this context, how do we relate to our neighbours, often people of no specific religion or of a religion quite different from our own Christian faith? That is the question I want to consider for the next few minutes.

Ethnocentrism

The natural response to people of other cultures and religions is one of suspicion. We are naturally ethnocentric, just as babies begin life as naturally egocentric. We know our group, and we assume that the way we do things is natural and right. Others, therefore, are unnatural and wrong.

You see this ethnocentrism all over the place. For example, China calls itself “the middle kingdom”, meaning that China is the centre of the earth. And Toronto thinks that it is the centre of the earth! Or look at a world map. If you look at a map made in Australia or Japan, you will not find North and South America at the centre; Australia and Asia are in the middle.

North Americans are of course as ethnocentric as anyone else. Consider our neighbours to the south. I heard a lecture broadcast on NPR some 15 years ago in which the speaker considered the meaning of the American Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …”

He observed that the first question Americans faced when they became a country was, “Does all men include Black men?” They ended up fighting a civil war before they agreed that it does. Then they asked, “Does all men include women?” After much debating and protesting, they finally agreed that women are people too in 1919. (We beat them in Canada, but only by a year!) The speaker then went on to the current question, “Does all men mean all men everywhere, or does it mean only all Americans are created equal?” That question our American neighbours have not yet settled. Events at their border with Mexico this past week reinforce the sense that some Americans see themselves as better than the rest of humankind.

If you think that ethnocentrism is an American problem, try calling a Canadian an American. His/her response will leave you in no doubt that we also are focused on our identity as Canadians. Ethnocentrism is the natural human response to people of other faiths and other religions!

In this context, then, we turn to the Scriptures that we read this morning.

John 14

We referred last Sunday to Jesus’ teaching his disciples after the last supper. He assured them that they – and all who place their trust in him – will enter God’s presence both here and in eternity. Jesus said that he is the way, truth, and life, not just for his disciples but for all people.

In the verses we read this morning, Jesus promised his disciples the presence and help of his Holy Spirit. He knew that they would embark on a long and difficult journey from their ethnocentric identity as God’s Chosen People, the Jews, to God’s People drawn from every nation under heaven. They would need his presence and power to transition from an exclusive group who kept outsiders at bay to an inclusive church who welcomed everyone.

Acts 17

The account of Paul speaking to the philosophers in Athens is just one example of this shift. Consider Paul’s own experience. He began his life as a Pharisee, one set apart to defend the Mosaic Law, Torah, from all attacks and especially from outsiders. When the new sect of Christ-followers came on the scene, he was vigorous in his attacks on them. Then he met Jesus, the crucified and risen Jesus, on the road to Damascus. As he pursued Jesus’ disciples to kill or imprison them, Jesus met him in a blinding encounter and transformed his life.

Paul still called himself a Pharisee. The name means one who is set apart by God for a purpose, but the purpose had changed. He retained deep appreciation for Torah and God’s grace in giving Torah to the Jews, but his core commitment had shifted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He summarizes the gospel in a remarkable passage in 1 Corinthians 15:

³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 

If you want a summary of the gospel, there it is! Jesus Christ crucified and risen. That is what Paul now lived for.

A critical element of this gospel is that Jesus lived and died and rose for all people. There are no outsiders. God’s grace is freely available to all people of every class, ethnicity, and gender. In place of the ethnocentrism that flows so easily from the human heart, Jesus calls everyone to eternal life, life with God. As Paul puts it elsewhere, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Sometimes we think of Paul as one who introduced all kinds of rules and guilt into Jesus’ wonderful gospel of freedom. In fact, Jesus is the one who said, “Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 14). Paul was (in the words of scholar F.F. Bruce) “the apostle of the heart set free.”

Accordingly, wherever he went, Paul preached the gospel to Jews and to Gentiles. Normally, he entered the synagogue and preached the gospel and then went out into the streets and kept on preaching the gospel. When he got to Athens, he was waiting for the rest of his team to join him. He became aware of the cultural and religious life of Athens, which was a centre of philosophy. If you wanted to know what was on the cutting edge of religious and philosophical thinking, you went to Athens and listened to the latest and best minds of that day debating what was true.

This impression of Athens is behind the way that Paul preached there – reasoning with both Jews and Gentiles and anyone else who happened to be there. They were only too happy to have a leader from this new sect of Judaism tell them what this new way was all about. Paul went about his task with relish, quoting from their own best poets and philosophers to talk about the religious practices in which they were engaged. One has the impression that people listened with interest as long as he moved in familiar territory, but then he used their ideas as a foundation to talk about Jesus. He pivoted to the story of Jesus and told how he had been killed and raised from the dead. Talk about the resurrection divided his hearers. Some scoffed, and some wanted to hear more.

What Does This Tell Us?

I assume that we agree we should share our faith with people around us. Paul’s example can help us in our own context. Athens was also highly multi-cultural and multi-religious. The philosophers of Athens would have said that they were well qualified to tell people which of these competing faiths was worth taking seriously. Paul and his companions could well have felt intimidated, but they went into the marketplace and shared what they believed. What can we learn from them?

1) Note that Paul began by making connections. He quoted authorities within the philosophers’ schools of study. He paid attention to the public monuments and rituals that he saw all around him. He did not start by saying condemning them. He started by looking for points of connections and building relationships. Donald Smith (in Creating Understanding) notes that communication always begins with building relationships.

We have a skewed idea in our culture that we are faced with only two ways to relate to people of other faiths. Either we think we must set out to convert them, or we think that we should be careful to say nothing about Jesus. I know what both options feel like. I remember the first world religions class I took to a mosque. It was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the Muslim preacher of the morning made it his goal to convert my class. He preached at us as hard as he could, inviting us us to leave the confusion of Christianity behind and become Muslims. My class was insulted! They wondered what he thought he was doing! I said to them, “Some of you want to become missionaries. It’s good for you to know what it feels like!”

Or another example: Last week a woman and her daughter were going door to door in our neighbourhood, witnessing to whoever would answer the door. I am sympathetic to their message, but I didn’t know them! I kept the conversation as short as I reasonably could.

Paul shows us how to build relationships. He preaches the gospel clearly, but first he gets to know his audience. Given how many people like to hide their beliefs in our context, it makes sense that we begin by building relationships. We get to know people around us. We don’t act like we think we know what is best for them or try to explain their experience. Rather, we listen and discover. As we get to know each other, we find opportunities to share our lives, including our faith.

2) An important part of Paul’s practice of making connections was the way that he could quote poets and philosophers that his audience knew. He had studied them. He had learned from them. We can do the same.

Consider the indigenous population of Canada. We regularly hear land acknowledgements, and we admit that we live together on treaty land. Such statements are important. They help us to frame our relationships, recognizing the importance of the other. But we must go further. Listen to First Nations people you know. Learn their stories and their view of reality. Learn to think and speak within their categories. As we do so, we discover ways that God’s revelation is already present within indigenous cultures.

As we get to know our neighbours, we discover what their lives are about and what they believe about reality. Like Paul, we keep listening for ways that God was in India or the Philippines or China or Nigeria before the Christian Church showed up. One missions thinker calls this acting like a treasure-seeker. We search for the truth of the gospel already present in every culture and every faith, before Christians arrive.

3) We could say much more, but we come to a close. Finally, Paul was unapologetic when it came to speaking the gospel. We want to be sensitive and relevant. We want to be understanding and avoid insulting people. As a result, sometimes we are so careful that we say nothing about the reality of Jesus in our lives. Paul was not so quiet!

He knew that talking about the resurrection was going to split the crowd, but the resurrection of Jesus was his reason for living! We also can speak naturally about Jesus’ place in our lives. Not like the Muslim imam from Fort Wayne whom I described; not like some Christians I have known who just can’t wait to ask if you know for sure that you’re going to heaven; not in a pushy or violent way – we can share who Jesus is in our lives. Can you tell your story? Do so! Wait until you’ve earned the right to speak. Show a real and genuine interest in the other person. And when the time is right, you can tell how you have met Jesus in your own life.

I started with ethnocentrism. If you act like you and people like you are the centre of the world, don’t be surprised if others don’t listen to you. But if you really do accept everyone around you as another person also made in God’s image, if you are really open to the people around you, I  believe you will find they are also open to you.

In the whole process, remember that it is God’s Spirit who draws us and all people to God. We rest in the work of the Holy Spirit, “for in him we live, and move, and have our being.”

Texts

Acts 17: 22-31

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ ‘The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.”

²⁹ ‘Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’

John 14: 15-21

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ ‘If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.’

Grace Bible Church

14 May 2023