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our youth, all of us can see how once cherished beliefs have changed in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are no longer valid.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.