“CHRISTIANITY
AND BUDDHISM”
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Reading: Mt
5:38-48 |
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Thank you to Jonathan for sharing with us yesterday and
today.
We are most grateful to you.
A lot of people have said how much they appreciate the
opportunity
to focus on other faiths and their relationship with Christianity.
But let me be very open and honest -
one or two people do ask Why?
Should Christianity be talking to other faiths?
What have they to teach us?
Isn’t Christ all that we need?
I am also aware that for some of our Korean members,
relations between Buddhism and the Gospel can cause tension and stress
within individual communities and families,
and this is not necessarily easy territory.
Maybe I need to begin on a note of personal testimony
which I hope may offer a little reassurance
to any of you who feel unsure of this enterprise.
If you were to ask me what gives meaning to my life -
How do I make sense of suffering and death and the power of evil in the world,
then I would point you to figure of Christ and the Gospel – and say
“There is my window on God
and I would not change it for any other way of seeing.
Because of my frailty and sin I may still see as in a mirror dimly,
but that is a mirror which is more precious to me
than all the world can give –
more precious than 30, nay 30 million pieces of silver….
And if you were to ask me –
Can you recommend a way to find love and peace and truth and justice?
I would point you unerringly to the figure of Christ
for I know no better guide…
But still I wish to speak and reflect and meditate
with those who look for the eternal truths in other ways.
Paul writes to the Corinthian Church (1 Cor 2:1-5)
that he is determined to come amongst them preaching only Christ Crucified –
relying not on human wisdom but God’s power.
But this is the same Paul who immediately before his travel to Corinth
is found in Athens on Mars Hill debating with the philosophers
about the identity of their “unknown God” (Acts 17:23).
To know Christ and to speak with those who seek
spiritual truth and nourishment elsewhere
are not incompatible.
They are all parts of our spiritual journey.
In our reading today, Jesus reminds us that
God sends sun and rain on all his children –
good and bad, like us or unlike us.
Is it for us, his followers
to shun and ignore and fail to take seriously all God’s children?
Do we dare to be more sparing with our love and attention than God himself?
In fact on more than one occasion Christ himself
holds up those of other faiths as models -
Who was it on the road to Jericho (Lk 10:25-37)
who was offered to us as an example of godly living?
Was it the priest or the Levite – no it was the Samaritan,
the one way outside orthodox Jewish credal
acceptability,
who is offered as a model – go thou and do likewise.
The Christian Scriptures offer many insights,
some apparently contradictory.
And I am aware that there are texts in our Scriptures
which appear to strike a much less conciliatory note.
Jn 14:6 “No one comes to the Father but by me” is
often quoted.
Maybe we need to pursue that verse over coffee and longer –
In these conversations we need to hold individual texts
in the context of the whole of Scripture.
If God is indeed the God of love
(far more loving and forgiving that the most loving of human fathers),
can we understand the Scripture to say that that love is to be denied
to countless millions of Chinese and Tibetans and others
who have not heard the Gospel?
To say this may be to take the most obvious interpretation of one key verse,
but does it not drive a coach and horses
through the central tenet of a Cross shaped faith –
the centrality of loving sacrificial acceptance by a gracious God?
I have taken nearly all my time
in laying the foundations for a dialogue with Buddhism,
and left no time for the discussion itself.
Maybe there will be future occasions – I hope so.
But I hope I have said enough to place in Biblical context
just three thoughts I would wish to offer to you Jonathan today –
1. Thank you for
coming and for sharing something
of the gentle thoughtful wisdom of your tradition.
We greet you (in our tradition) as a child of God
and thus as a brother loved by God –
and we offer you our love and welcome.
2. We believe
that God has been at work in this world
before any religions were formulated –
since the Spirit of God first settled on the chaotic waters of creation
at the beginning of time.
And as such we believe that we may find the things of God everywhere –
and for what you bring us we thank you.
We are all learning the way –
and I hope we can learn from your tradition
- things about
prayer and meditation;
(Perhaps Methodists might learn
how to pray in postures
more conducive to meditation and
prayer
than our traditional “Protestant
Shampoo Crouch”!)
- that during Lent your tradition can help us reflect
on true renunciation,
about finding the still small
voice in the ever present moment,
and much more.
3. And if, as I
must, I would secretly (or not so secretly)
like to share more with you of what it means to me
to lose my burdens at the foot of the cross
and join in the resurrection joy of Easter Day –
well that is said in no sense (I hope) of arrogance or hostility,
but is simply my way of responding in kind to your gift to us.
And so Jonathan, we continue to gaze intently as on a
mirror dimly, –
and (as Christian theology would put it)
we look to our final awaking in heaven,
when we may all find that the shadows are finally dispersed
in the glorious light of God’s eternal presence.
ORDER OF SERVICE
10.30 a.m. Morning Worship led
by Andrew Sails
with Jonathan Marshall (Director of the Plymouth
Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity)
Hymn 258 “Jesu thou
joy of loving hearts”
(during
this hymn a bag of coins will be placed at the foot of the cross, symbolising the
money paid to Judas to betray Christ)
Prayer
All Age Ministry
Hymn SOF 54 – “Brother, sister, let me serve you”
The
Peace
[Young people
leave for their own sessions]
Reading
Matthew 5:38-48
Choir Anthem: “Cantique de Jean
Racine” – Faure
“Living Faith: Buddhism and
Christianity” - Jonathan Marshall
Hymn 776
“Make me a channel of your peace”
Sermon: Andrew Sails – “Christianity and
Buddhism”
Hymn
230 “There’s
a wideness of God’s mercy”
Offertory
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 267 “Love Divine”
Korean Blessing
English Blessing
Organ: “Theme and Variations” – Hendrik Andriessen