“Is
Defending Our Beliefs A Mistake?” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – April 17,
2016 Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm 1:1-3; John 10:22-39
Today, we are going to consider if our beliefs interfere with our
ability to keep an open mind.
Are we receptive to new ideas? Now
and then, we need to examine the
storyline of our faith that we are using to define our values and
that govern our decision-making.
Every generation has had to adjust to living in a world of
rapidly accelerating changes.
People can easily get emotionally and spiritually lost.
If we look over our shoulders to our youth, all of us can see how
once cherished beliefs have changed in the face of overwhelming evidence
that they are no longer valid.
This has occurred in every phase of medicine, astronomy,
agriculture and psychology. No
area of life has remained untouched by massive advancements and new
discoveries. There was a time when the
sun and the moon were gods.
Religions in ancient Egypt grew up around these deities.
Who was it that decided that the
sun, moon and planets were gods?
People made those decisions by observing that it was the sun that
caused crops to grow. The moon appeared to be born as an
infant sliver until it grew
to its full potential. Then, it slowly died until the sky no longer had
the moon. Then the moon's
cycle began anew. The idea of birth, death and resurrection came from
people who gave meaning to these occurrences. In Jesus' day, God was
defined by the Jews as a deity that was highly involved in the unfolding
of their nation's history.
God did so from the invisible realm of
Heaven. This belief remains
in the minds of many people in our generation.
Last Sunday we sang the chorus
of a hymn that said, "When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing
that will be." Where is
Heaven?
Jesus challenged this belief by
teaching what was absurd and repugnant to the Jewish people,
particularly their religious rulers. Our lesson opens with people surrounding Jesus as he walked
through the Temple grounds.
Some people in the crowd asked him, "How long are you going to keep us
in suspense? Tell us the
truth, are you the Messiah?"
Jesus' response was so different from what they had been trained
to believe, that their emotions erupted with anger to the point where
they picked up rocks to stone him to death.
Jesus had been teaching that God does not dwell in a place called Heaven, rather God dwells within each person. He told them that their beliefs gave them spiritual blindness. (Matthew 23:16) The people that surrounded Jesus that day had clearly seen the miraculous things that he could do. They had listened to his message to love others which included their enemies. Jesus told them, "What you have seen me do is evidence that the spirit of God dwells within me." The beliefs of his listeners ignited
a firestorm of protest. They
picked up stones and said, "We are not going to kill you because of the
good things you do. You
must die because you are just an ordinary man pretending to be God!
That is blasphemy!"
(John 10:33) Jesus narrowly
escaped being killed that day. (John 10:39)
Today, people who violently disagree with their pastor can
politely get up and leave the church if they wish. People tend to hold on to what has sustained them in the past.
We have taught ourselves to believe that
God's Will is unfolding all
around us in ways we cannot see. This
is true, but we often go further. Being
God's Will has been assigned to almost anything and everything.
Does God tell us these things, or do we come to our own ideas
about God's nature just like the early Egyptians?
It is interesting how the
Will of God changes as our understanding expands. Most of the gigantic cathedrals were built throughout Europe
during the twelfth century.
Have we ever wondered why no more of
them were built after that time?
The Church and State had become one, and together they ruled
European societies with an iron
fist. The twelfth century was the period of
the Inquisition.
The College of Cardinals
at the Vatican told people what to think, what God thinks, how much
money would be required from them and how each person should
properly relate to God. The
church became involved in determining the nature of personal
relationships. All
marriages were approved and arranged by the Church and families.
Individuals that "fell in love," who could not live without each other,
had their wish granted.
Both were sentenced to death.
No one experienced spiritual freedom.
Only the powerful clergy could supply
the correct interpretation of
The Scriptures.
People were taught to
believe that what they were experiencing was the
Will of God.
If people became disagreeable, the Church threatened them with
eternal death in Hell. One wonders how the teachings of a humble carpenter ever
survived. There was no
accent on loving others.
The clergy had developed very few of the characteristics of Jesus.
He set the example of serving others by washing the feet of the
disciples prior to their last supper together.
(John 13:13-17) What
happened to such a remembrance? Christianity, as prescribed by the Papal authorities, was no
longer working. Few cathedrals were planned after this challenging
period where fear reigned over love.
Qualities like generosity, mutual respect, kindness, and
compassion were not as visible.
In our day, we have learned that life was never intended to be a matter
of bowing and scraping before
a deity. Authentic
living is a wondrous adventure of faith and trust. Jesus was teaching that everything that people needed to live a
happy and joy-filled life was already inside of them. It does not take
any exclusive
religious beliefs to follow
our dreams, to use our imaginations and develop our sense of wonder.
Beliefs can prevent risk-taking and leaps-of-faith, the very
responses that contribute to our confidence in facing our futures
without fear. Jesus told the unhappy listeners in our lesson, "It is written in
your own Law that God said, "You are gods." (John 10:34).
Jesus went on to say, "In order for you to know once and for all,
God is within me and I am in God."
(John 10:38)
Jesus invited people to become
like him by allowing their spirits to move away from obedience to the
Laws of Moses to freely practicing their love of others from their sheer
desire to do so. We have entered a
period in history where the Church has lost much of its power and we are
spiritually free to make our own decisions and develop our own
attitudes. Many of us have
done that. We are no longer
afraid that God will punish us because the
storyline of our faith has
somehow become flawed. People all over the
planet have gone wild with their freedom.
Unfortunately, that practice has often been translated into
surrendering to impulses that sabotage the quality of their lives.
Little pockets of people in the Middle East have reverted to
savagery in the name of their religion. One small verse in our lesson today provides wise guidance on how
to enjoy our new found freedom. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my
voice; I know them, and they follow me." An ancient Hindu text found in the
Katha Upanishad says this, When you begin to
walk on the path of your individual desires, it is like walking on
a razor's edge. You can
easily fall by the wayside if you take your eyes off of the noble
horizon toward which you walk. Jesus taught the
same thing, "The path to
enlightened living is narrow and the way to stay on that path is
hard to find and there are very few people who succeed." (Matthew 7:14) A young man wanted to play professional football since he began
dreaming about his future.
He had the skills to play the sport well and everyone encouraged him to
follow his dream, particularly his coaches. That day arrived and
eventually he found his way to the Washington Redskins.
The goal he had dreamed about
for most of his life had miraculously happened.
This past Tuesday, he was suspended indefinitely from the
team because he repeatedly tested positive for substance abuse.
When people begin to think, "What a good boy am I" and they
develop the swagger that too
often comes to people who achieve material successes, their energy flow
has shifted back on themselves.
If they pray or do not pray, the message they radiate to others
is the same: "Thank you, God, for all my blessings that I have received.
I can take it from here."
THIS BELIEF is the game changer
that becomes one of the ways that cause people to lose their way. We stay on the path as long as we are serving others. Just
because all of us have divine
qualities, does not mean that we understand how to use them in the
same spirit that Jesus taught. It takes a willingness to give up our
self-serving attitudes.
(Matthew 20:16) Jesus died because he
dared to teach this truth.
It was blasphemy to
many listeners! What
inspired them to want to kill Jesus were their own beliefs.
Our beliefs need to set us free to serve others, to light-up our
world through the spirit by which we live and to give hope to those that
still cannot see. God is
our greatest cheerleader. One of the most essential lessons to learn in life is that God
allows change to mold and shape our lives.
We are the ones,
however, that must spin the
meaning of life's events so that our attitudes about them serve our
ability to grow up emotionally.
Nothing becomes a wrong
direction if it teaches us a valuable lesson that our beliefs
prevented us from seeing. Doors close so that others may open. Chapters end so that others can begin. Mistakes can become a venue for discovering new destinations. Jobs end so that we can find other places to be of service. When we hold firmly to the sense of God's presence in our lives, that alone will produce confidence, optimism and give guidance to our life's adventures. We will never lose our way when we are loving and serving others just as we find them. |