“No one comes to the father but by me… -
UNIVERSALISM AND John 14:6”
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A sermon preached at the Reading: |
“No one comes to the Father, but by me” (John
14:6)
So - are followers of non-Christian faiths saved or
not?
Historically the Church’s answer has been clear -
you cannot be saved unless you accept Jesus as your Lord.
The Council of Florence in 1442
stated:
“The …Church firmly … proclaims that …
neither heathen nor Jew nor unbeliever
nor schismatic will have a share in eternal life,
but is rather condemned to the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels
unless he joins [the true Church] before his death”
And if 15th century Florentine Catholicism
seems a bit remote,
here are the words of the Congress of World Mission in Chicago in 1960 -
“In the years since the [2nd
World] war,
more than a billion souls have passed into eternity,
and more than half of these went to the torment of hell fire
without even hearing of Jesus Christ, who he was,
or why he died on the cross of Calvary.”
[quoted in John Hick, “God has many names” p.49]
Do you believe that?
I don’t.
We live in
a world in which the vast majority of people
(well over 95%) follow one particular religion
because of the accident of birth.
You may be a practising or a nominal member of your faith group -
but if you are born of Buddhist parents in a Sri Lankan village,
you are very very likely to be a Buddhist;
if you are born of Muslim parents in a Pakistani village,
you are likewise likely to be a Muslim.
What then
are we saying about all those people
born into non-Christian families and societies -
many never ever having met a Christian?
Did God bring them into this world simply as a prelude
to almost certain eternal damnation
because they had never accepted Christ as their saviour?
And if we
were to say that, what would we be saying about our God?
If God allows even one child (never mind half a billion)
to go to eternal damnation for their failure to accept Christ,
is that the act of a God of love?
But our text says: “No one comes to the Father but by me”?
When you
read one specific verse of scripture,
you have to see it in the wider context.
And yes - on the simplest reading,
our text denies salvation to non-Christians -
but over against verses such as this we have to place all those verses
which speak of the immense, fathomless and immeasurable love of God,
a love which sees a sparrow fall and counts every hair on our head
and goes even to a cross to save us.
We have to understand our text in a way which does justice
to all those other passages so rightly dear to our hearts.
Hanging
from the cross he says
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they
do”.
If Christ’s loves covers even those who crucified him,
will he not also surely love and save millions of men, women and children
who have just happened by historical circumstance
to have been born in places and times when they never heard of Jesus?
In reading Scripture we have to deal with apparent
inconsistencies -
interpreting passages in terms of each other
in such a way to do justice to the whole of scripture and our experience.
What weight should we give to the precise words of this
particular text?
It comes of course from John’s Gospel -
probably written about 60 years after the Resurrection.
John’s Gospel is very different from the three other, earlier Gospels.
Jesus consistently recognises and discussed his own Divinity
and his relationship with the Father
in a way you don’t find in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
This has led the majority of modern scholars to believe
that the precise words attributed to Jesus in John’s Gospel
reflect the beliefs of John’s Church about Jesus,
but not necessarily the actual words of Jesus himself.
If you accept that
(and I recognize that some will find this an easier idea than others)
then the words of Jesus in John remain of profound importance,
but they no longer carry the same weight
as would a verbatim record of Jesus’ actual words.
I realize I am leaving big issues
in my wake here
(it’s a good job we serve coffee afterwards for conversation!) -
but back to the main issue.
How do we understand the place of non Christian religions in salvation
history?
That is a huge question for one
sermon - but in a very small nutshell,
there are three ways of approaching the salvation of non Christians.
For those into such things, the technical terms are
Exclusivism, Inclusivism
and Pluralism.
The traditional teaching of the
Church has been exclusivist.
Those outside faith in Christ are excluded from salvation, damned.
If, like me, you find that that goes against the grain of scripture and your
experience,
then you have two other choices.
You can take an Inclusivist
approach.
This says that all can or will be ultimately saved through Christ,
though many may not be aware of this
or show any outward acceptance of the Christian way in this life.
Some will come to God through conscious acceptance of Christ -
others may meet and follow Christ without even realising it -
they are anonymous Christians, following Christ unknowingly,
until finally they recognize him for who he is after death.
So ultimately (in heaven if not on earth)
they will find God through Christ.
Though never accepting Christian faith in this life,
they will still ultimately come to the Father by the Son.
Others will want to go further than this and take a Pluralist view.
A pluralist simply says that God is at work in all religions.
In Christian thought, we talk of the eternal Word of God, the Logos,
made flesh in Christ.
The pluralist suggests that the eternal Word can and has made himself known
in other ways as well as through Christ.
John Hick, sums it up like this:
“The life of Jesus was one point
at which the Logos -
that is God-in-relation-to-man - has acted;
and it is the only point that savingly concerns the
Christian;
but we are not called upon, nor are we entitled to,
make the negative assertion that the Logos has not acted,
and is not acting, anywhere else in human life.”
[John Hick, “God has
many names” p.75]
Now we will doubtless have many
different views on many of these matters.
I’ve not had time here to explore in any detail a lot of big issues -
and some of you may want to continue the discussion over coffee -
But in all our conversation and theologizing,
I hope we never underestimate the immense love of God for all his children.
We’ve all got to hammer out what
we believe
by reading scripture in the light of pour own Christian experience.
So let me finish today on a very personal
note.
I hope that what I say now will be relevant to our specific
theme today
of the relationships of the faiths
- but I hope it will go beyond that,
and say something to any here today who are in need or trouble. -
So if you are outside the community of faith right now,
or if you feel your self excluded from God’s love for any reason -
(because of your sin or doubt)
or if perhaps you are reflecting on your death or the death of a loved one -
fearful about the eternal destiny of those close to you -
Let me offer you my testimony.
I believe that Jesus Christ is my
Lord and Saviour -
that he died on the cross to save me from my sins -
that in spite of all my failings and unworthiness,
his love was and is strong and deep enough to welcome me home -
the unworthy sheep out on the moor when 99 were safely gathered in,
the one for whom my Lord would not rest until he had me home -
the returning prodigal welcomed with open arms by a Father
whose heart threatened to break just for me of all people -
this is my faith - this is my God -
this is not only what I preach but why I preach -
that without which I would have nothing worth saying.
It’s why I’m a Christian and always will be a Christian -
And then I look at all God’s children out there -
the faithful and the unfaithful, the saints and the sinners,
the Christians and the non Christians -
and I just say this - if God’s love is wide and deep enough for me -
then surely, it just has to be
wide enough for all God’s children!
Order of Service
Sunday 21
April 2008 10.30 am
Holy Communion led by Rev Andrew Sails
Rhapsody
in D♭ major: Herbert Howells
Organ Sonata in C minor (slow movement): Herbert Howells
Hymn 19 “With
gladness we worship”
Prayers
Bible Reading: John
14:1-6, 27
Hymn 8 “How shall I sing that majesty”
Sermon “No one comes to the Father but by me
- Universalism and John 14:6”
Hymn 230 “There’s a wideness in God’s Mercy”
Prayers of Intercession
The Lord’s Prayer
The Peace
Minister: The peace of the Lord be with you
People: And also with you
[The people greet each other in the name of
Christ]
[members
of Young Church join the rest of the congregation]
The Offertory
Hymn
764 “Christ from whom
all blessings flow”
Thanksgiving
Minister: The
Lord be with you.
People: And
also with you.
Minister: Lift
up your hearts.
People: We
lift them to the Lord.
Minister: Let
us give thanks to God.
People: It
is right to give our thanks and praise.
Minister: Living God, we give
you thanks and praise to you;
creator and lover of all humanity.
Even when we turned away from you, you never rejected us.
You spoke words of mercy and love through the prophets;
promising to swallow up death forever and to host a banquet for all people;
a feast of life-giving sustenance.
And so, with all the company of heaven and earth we praise your holy name
singing:
People (sing) Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord;
holy is the Lord God
almighty!
Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord;
holy is the Lord God
almighty!
Who was, and is, and is
to come!
Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord!
Minister: Holy God, this meal which we share today is
indeed the celebration that death has been defeated.
We celebrate how your Son gave
his very life for us that we might have life eternal.
When he was at supper with his
friends, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread
and gave you thanks; he broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Take this, all of you and eat it. This
is my body, given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me.”
When supper was ended, he took the cup and gave you thanks, gave it to them,
and said: “Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for everyone, so
that your sins might be forgiven.
Do this in remembrance of me.
God
of all power, breathe your Holy Spirit upon us,
and upon these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be for us the life of
Christ
and that we may make that life visible through our faithful witness to
him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen
The Sharing of Bread and Wine
All who wish are
invited to come forward to receive bread and wine.
Please come forward to the rail when the steward beckons your row.
Chorale Prelude on the hymn
“St Cross” by Hubert Parry
People: God of truth, we have seen with our eyes,
and touched with our hands, the bread of life.
Strengthen
our faith, that we may grow in love for you,
and for each other;
through Jesus Christ our
Risen Lord. Amen.
Hymn 36 “God is love”
Blessing
Paean: Herbert Howells