"Surprised by God’s New Way"
Scripture Readings:  Micah 6:1-8, Acts 9:1-20
Rev. Robert Inhoff
Sermon on Sunday, April 25, 2004

Surprises come in all sizes, shapes and circumstances.   We all remember those special Christmas memories as children.  Certainly I never expected to meet the woman I would marry when I went to a Christmas caroling party at church some 37 years ago. 

Surprises can bring us great joy.  They can also bring great heartache.  They can come in the best of times; they also can come at our deepest and darkest moments of discouragement and despair.

The surprises, however, that I would like for us to focus on for a few moments this morning are those that catch us at moments when we may feel that we have life all figured out; when we may feel most confident that we finally understand God’s will.   If you personally find it hard to identify with moments like that, you can certainly flip through the channels on TV or the pages of the morning paper and find many who exude that supreme confidence in proclaiming THE TRUTH about God.

We meet such a person in our scripture this morning.  A young student of the law, focused, disciplined and devout in his beliefs.  Saul was a Pharisee.  In chapter 7 of the Book of Acts we read that Saul was present, indeed held the coats of those who stoned to death the early Christian, Stephen. 

That became a turning point in the early church, known then as THE WAY.  Persecution of Christians became widespread, and Saul was one of the central figures – hunting down Christians and throwing them into jail.  Those Christians blasphemed God and challenged all that was sacred within Saul’s faith tradition.  For Saul– to honor God and to protect the faith – he could do no less than to rid the towns of these infidels

Armed with papers of introduction from the High-Priest, Saul was making his way from Jerusalem to Damascus –some 120 miles – ready to purge the Damascus synagogues of any of these followers of THE WAY.    He was on a roll – defending the faith and courageously following the will of God.

Until – that is – he encountered that blinding light on the road.  Falling to the ground he heard the voice of Jesus: “Why do you persecute me?”  Saul was temporarily blinded by that light.  Taken into the city by his companions, Saul rested and slowly began to recover.  A visitor named Ananias came to Saul.  As they talked, Saul began to integrate all that had happened.  From that dramatic encounter, Saul emerged a totally changed person – even with a new name – Paul - and now a passionate ambassador for Jesus – who went on to become known as the greatest of the apostles to the Gentiles.

Here is a classic, best known story of a religious leader – absolutely convinced and passionate about the absolute rightness of his cause – empowered by that passion and certainty – to viciously attack those followers of THE WAY.  Saul was focused – he was driven – serving GOD – until in that blinding experience he encountered the word of the Lord – “Saul, you’re going the wrong way!”  Saul was absolutely surprised by God’s new way.

Unfortunately, this is not the only story in the history of the Church where its leaders got going in the opposite direction of God’s new way.  History’s pages are filled with stories of conflict and struggle, even death.  Let’s look for a few moments at just three.

Galileo

I have always been intrigued by the story of Galileo Galilei – an Italian physicist and astronomer who lived from the mid 1500’s until 1642.  Embracing and improving the newly developed telescope, Galileo began exploring the skies with great interest.  His work led him to conclude that the work of Copernicus was correct – in that the earth was not the center of the universe – and that the earth revolved around the sun.  Galileo’s enthusiastic writings directly contradicted the teaching of the Church – that the earth was the center of the universe.  In 1616 Galileo was admonished by the church to stop writing about his theories.  In the same year the writings of Copernicus were banned – some 63 years after his death.

 

The Church’s fear was that this new understanding of the fundamental order of nature was a challenge to its teaching and authority.  Galileo, on the other hand, believed that one should adapt and adjust our understanding of scriptures to embrace the new teachings of science.   He is quoted:  I do not feel obliged to believe that the same god who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

 

Galileo continued to work – delicately balancing the excitement of his new discoveries with the pressures of the Inquisition of the Holy Church.  After publishing a book in 1632 he was summoned to Rome the following year.  There he was convicted of heresy – not so much for his scientific discoveries as his bold forays into the realm of theology and biblical interpretation – in direct conflict with church authorities.

 

Galileo – perhaps because of his popularity – lived out his sentence under house arrest until his death in 1642.  350 years later Pope John Paul II in a speech acknowledged that the theological advisors to the church had erred in the case of Galileo.

Roger Williams

In 1631, two years before Galileo’s conviction on charges of heresy, thousands of miles across the ocean a Cambridge educated pastor arrived in the new Massachusetts Bay Colony to preach the word of God.  Roger Williams first served the church in Salem – then south to Plymouth – and then back to Salem – always – it seemed – at odds with the rigid theology and practice of the Puritans. Among other contentious issues – Williams challenged the right of the King of England to grant a charter to the Colonists – saying that the land belonged not to the King, but to the Indians! He was also accused of spreading "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions" that questioned the Church.

 

Within five years Williams was “dismissed” from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Not wanting to return to England, he headed south west to the area now known as Rhode Island where the Narragansett Indians befriended him though the harsh winter months.   Subsequently – he purchased land from the Indians and settled at a place he called Providence.  There he founded the first Baptist church in America and was instrumental in creating a colony that became a safe haven of religious liberty.  Indeed by 1658 the first Jewish settlement in America was established in Rhode Island.

 

Others were also banished from Massachusetts for their non-conforming religious beliefs and fled to Rhode Island.  Among them were Anne Hutchinson and her friend Mary Dyer.  Dyer later became a Quaker and returned to Massachusetts to visit Quaker friends who had been jailed.  At a Massachusetts trial in 1660, Dyer refused to recant her Quaker beliefs and also refused to leave Massachusetts.  She chose to stand firm in her witness to her faith and was sentenced to death by hanging on the Boston Common on June 1, 1660.

 

Again – leaders of the church – sincere, Bible-believing, devout people – persuaded absolutely in the truth and rightness of their beliefs – indeed feeling compelled to defend the faith – led to such a tragic outcome.  If only they could travel in time and see the statue of Mary Dyer that now stands in the statehouse in Boston – or the statues of Roger Williams in Rhode Island.  God’s new ways break through our most arrogant moments of spiritual pride.  Unfortunately, so often it comes with a tragic human toll.

Jefferson Davis

To look at a third story we skip ahead 190 years to 1850 to the floor of the US Senate.  The speaker is a Senator from Mississippi – Jefferson Davis.  The subject is slavery in the new territories.  Listen to these words:  It is enough for me elsewhere to know that [slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God, that it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations; that it has existed in all ages; has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.

 

Davis was absolutely convinced in the rightness of his position – based solidly on an abundance of scripture and practice.  He continued in that confidence even as he became the President of the Confederacy.  And yet again God’s will was moving in new ways – and slowly moving our country to take one more important step to realizing a land in which all are created equal and share in the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Why is it that when we experience new discoveries in nature – be it our view of the universe – or evolution - or the atom – that some fear that our faith will be shaken to its core?

 

Why is it when we struggle to stake out our own religious ground against great odds – we can be so threatened by others who see the path to God by a different route? 

 

How can we be sure that we don’t become so comfortable in our scriptural interpretation justifying our own cultural and economic values – that we fail to see God’s new, surprising way?

 

Charles Kimball, in a wonderful book, When Religion Becomes Evil, states: The need for fixed stars, for certainty in the midst of our tenuous lives on a dangerously unpredictable planet, is real and understandable.  Religious leaders who can package and deliver absolute truths find receptive audiences. . . . The rise in various forms of fundamentalism around the world is connected to the desire for clarity and guidance in a rapidly changing world.  He goes on to say: It is much easier to know the truth than to seek it.  But religious life is a journey through which we learn, unlearn, change and grow.  (Kimball, pp 67-68)

So where do I go with this? 

1)      I remind myself that history so clearly teaches many of us that knowing absolute truth absolutely is beyond our human capacity.  Be very wary of those who teach otherwise,

2)      To my first statement, there will be those who will reply: “If you don’t believe in truth – then it doesn’t matter what you believe.”  To that I say balderdash!  Paul says it a little more nicely: “For now we see in a mirror dimly – but then face to face.”  We can know and love the God of Truth even if we can’t fully, absolutely know God’s Truth.

3)      A corollary to these points affirms the prime importance of the guarantee and protection of religious liberty.  Given the temptation to escape into the false promise of absolute truth, we must stand firm in our country’s great first amendment clauses on religious liberty – both the ban on state establishment – and the ban on the prohibition of free exercise.  (As an aside, in our letter to our state legislators on the topic of a constitutional ban on gay marriages, Ruth and I made the point that we believe that such a ban would be a clear violation of the first amendment free exercise clause for churches such as ours.  Marriage is primarily a sacred religious rite, not just a civil event.) 
There is one nagging problem with this issue of religious liberty.  If we cherish it for ourselves – then we need to be willing to zealously assure it – even for those we find most spiritually discomforting. 

4)      Finally – we need to acknowledge that our precious religious liberty is very fragile.  Walter Shurden describes it as four fragile freedoms: “Soul Freedom, Church Freedom, Religious Freedom and Bible Freedom.”   There are many who don’t see the need.  There are even more who happily trade religious liberty for the simple assurances and solid comfort of absolute truth.  Religious liberty is at risk – not only in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, but right here in our country – and right here in Minnesota.

The challenge for those who share our perspective is to overcome the natural inclination to embrace a “live and let live” stance.  It seems contradictory to say that we respect religious liberty for ourselves as well as others – and then to challenge the beliefs and practices of others – albeit at the point where they seek to destroy that which is so important to us – or to impose their religious truths upon us.  And yet – if the fragile religious liberty principal is to survive – in our denomination and in our country – how can I/we remain silent?

The prophet Micah reminds us of what truly is important in the Lord’s eyes:

The Lord has told us what is good.  What he requires of us is to do what is just, to show constant love and to live in humble fellowship with our God. (6:8)

That phrase “humble fellowship” is one that I need to remember.  How often it has - and continues to be - missing.

Kimball, in When Religion Becomes Evil closes his book with these words:  As people of faith look toward the future – in the Middle East and in their own communities – we would all do well to focus on the twofold mandate to love God and to love our neighbor.  The Qur’an provides a wise word that celebrates our diversity even as it guides us on the journey of faith, in which our vision and understanding of ultimate truth remain limited: “If God had so willed, He would have created you one community, but [He has not done so] that He may test you in what He has given you; so compete with one another in good works.  To God you shall all return and He will tell you the truth about that which you have been disputing. 
(Qur’an 5:48) (Kimball p. 213)

May it be so.

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