Reverand Knight's Sermon on Christianity and Other Religions from 1-21-08

http://www.gbgm-umc.org/miumc/sermons/1-21-08Christians_and_Other_Religions.pdf

I published this link to a sermon by our pastor as we move into discussions next Sunday on the next section of our book about religious tolerance. I thought it was an interesting read based on our discussions last week. Also, I really like it when sermons get posted because sometimes I have to be shushing when I should be listening during the actual delivery.

I'd love to see Leslie Ann continue to post her sermons! If you would also like her to begin again, please let her know.

Is the Church Judgemental and Dismissive of other faith?s?

Primary Texts: John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:5

General Theme: There is a perception by many outside of the church that Christianity makes arrogant judgments on all other religions as being wrong but them and doesn’t value or respect those of other faiths. Is this correct?


1. Responding to Global Faiths (If We Believe There Is Salvation Only through Jesus)

• The importance of having a basic understanding of the development of world faiths and understand how they developed.

 

discuss some of the prophecies about Jesus stemming back to Genesis (the garden of Eden) and Isaiah 53, which were fulfilled in his birth and death.

Madonna (actress, not mother of Jesus) quote : “I go to synagogue. I study Hinduism. All paths lead to God.” Is this true?

• There is some truth in most religions at a base level, but the higher you go in learning the specifics about them, the more contrasts and extreme differences you see in them in major foundational issues.

2. What This Means to the Church

• We must have an apologetic for the Bible: why we trust it and what makes it stand out as trustworthy among other religious writings. Why? Because the Bible is the source of our basic beliefs and doctrines.

• We must live Jesus-like lives so we represent him well—compassionate and humble, holding to truth, but without an attitude of superiority or arrogance. We need to listen to other peoples’ beliefs both to respect them and to understand why they believe what they do.

Interesting Post

http://exchristian.net/testimonies/2009/05/bible-is-no-longer-worthy-of-my-faith.html#comment-10248792

I came across this post on someone's blog about how they were searching and came to a fundementalist church and then "lost their faith" because of historical inaccuracies in the bible. The author makes most of the points in his blog that our Sunday School book covers.

The comments section is a little rough so I wouldn't recommend you reading what other people think unless you are up for some profanity!

See you on Sunday

Is the Church Homophobic?

General Theme: There is a perception by many outside of the church that the church is homophobic and does not demonstrate the love of Jesus toward the homosexual community. If we hold a conservative theological position on the practice of homosexuality, then we must:
• Know from the Scriptures why we believe what we do (and be able to respond to the recent alternative viewpoints of the Scriptures about the practice of homosexuality
• Determine if we are subtly (or not so subtly) not loving the homosexual community as Jesus would

Primary Texts

Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13;
Romans 1:26–27;
1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10

Introduction

• This is another topic that causes a lot of tension within the church on several levels. Issues include not only the question of practicing homosexuality but how homosexuality and homosexuals are addressed in and by the church; celibate homosexuals; and the covenant of marriage.

Overall, the church has historically not acted too Jesus-like about this issue.

• Several things to avoid:

—Oversimplifying the theology and Scriptures about homosexuality and not being ready to intelligently and lovingly explain from Scripture what we believe or don’t believe.

—Forgetting that we are talking about people who are created in God’s image and who he deeply loves

—Putting homosexuality in a category that is unhealthily focused on more than other sins

—Not understanding that this is a very complex issue and how we address it as a church is critically important

1. Homosexuality and the Bible

• Scriptures should be our starting place: what they say or don’t say about homosexuality


2. What Did Jesus Say about Homosexuality?

• Overview of Jesus’ teaching on marriage. Though Jesus never spoke of homosexuality per se, what he consistently did was give the positive example of man and woman in marriage. For someone who was breaking taboos, Jesus never tried to break a taboo of homosexual practice.

• Overview of the entire biblical narrative and view of sexual relationships and marriage. Throughout the entire Bible there are no positive examples of homosexual practice being endorsed or approved of by God.

• The actual biology of man and woman is a case for original intent of sexual design.

3. Some Critical Questions to Highlight

• Do people “choose” to be gay? We must understand that people really don’t “choose” to have same-sex attraction. We choose what we do with that attraction. But it is incorrect to make a general statement and say people choose to be gay.

• Can you be homosexual and a Christian? There are many Christians who have same-sex attraction—that in itself is not the sin.

4. How Should the Church Respond?

• Ask someone to share: If possible, ask a Christian who has same-sex attraction but not practicing homosexuality to share at this point of the teaching, or perhaps someone who was formerly practicing homosexuality.

• By evaluating our attitudes, words, and personal jokes we may make—and repenting if we have been callous or unloving toward homosexuals

• By evaluating whether our church is a safe place where a person who has same-sex attraction feels they can talk to someone about it. Is the church prepared to direct people to those who can adequately counsel and walk with someone who has same-sex attraction? (See Karen’s comments in the book They Like Jesus but Not the Church, pages 157–159).

Is the Church Male-Dominated and Does it Oppress Women?

Here are the notes for the next section of the discussion from They Like Jesus but Not the Church


Primary Texts: 1 Corinthians 14:34–35; 1 Timothy 2:11–15

General Theme: There is a perception by many outside of the church that the church is male-dominated and restricts women’s roles. Whatever viewpoint on the role of women in ministry we may have as a church, it is important to be able to articulate why we believe what we do and know how to respond to some of the key Scripture verses in question.

Introduction

• This is a topic that causes a lot of tension within the church because of the strong opinions people have about the issue.

• Illustration: Personal illustrations of where this issue surfaces in the church today

• Is what we just heard on this video true? In our church? In other churches? Do we know how to respond to the questions and criticisms raised in the video, questions being asked not only by females but males within our emerging culture. (Even if your church does empower and honor women, you need to be ready to address these theological questions.)

1. Women in the Church

• Imagine a scenario where an educated, young professional female who is just beginning to get interested in church and Jesus opens a Bible and reads:
1 Corinthians 14:34–35

1 Timothy 2:11–15
At surface glance these passages seem to indicate that:
(1) a woman should not say anything in church, only men can
(2) that a woman cannot teach the Bible to men in any way
(3) that a woman is only saved through childbearing.
How do we respond to these passages and how would you answer the questions that an educated, young professional female would have about the verses as she reads them?

• There are two primary views that the church has developed on how to view these passages and the role of women in the church:
Egalitarian—Define and teach the basic ways egalitarians would look at these specific verses and why they hold the position they do.

Complementarian—Define and teach the basic ways complementarians would look at these specific verses and why they hold the position they do.

• There are strengths and weaknesses to each theological position and often there are variations of each position within many churches. So resolving issues may not be as “cut and dried” as we would like.

• We need to honor and respect godly, Spirit-filled pastors, scholars, and people who hold differing views on the role of women in ministry than the one we as a specific church hold. Do, however, state the position your church has about the role of women, so that people are clear about it.

• Galatians 3:28—Teach the specific way this verse applies in the church today and how we view and treat one another.

2. How Our Churches Can Respect and Honor Women

• We want to be modeling our hearts and actions after the life of Jesus.

• Take time to teach directly from Scripture some of the ways Jesus broke taboos and honored women. (See page 50 in the They Like Jesus but Not the Church Participant’s Guide.)

• By asking ourselves as a church how are we honoring and respecting females (give specific examples of how, no matter what your theological position is).

• By asking ourselves as individuals how we are honoring and respecting females (give some specific examples of how this impacts our personal lives and attitudes).

• Recap the Bubble diagram and the Bridge illustration, showing the slides of each, as a reminder that we need to be Christians “out in the world” (John 17:15), so people learn that most churches do not oppress and devalue the contribution of females. As with other misperceptions about Christianity and the church, people hold them because they haven’t experienced churches and Christians who teach and live otherwise.

They Like Jesus but Not the Church

http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Use/Lead/The+Like+Jesus+promo+and+sermon.htm?QueryStringSite=Zondervan

Vince mentioned in the class last week that I had sent him some interesting on-line resources for our discussions on "They Like Jesus, But Not the Church".

Next week's discussion will pick up the discussion on the topic of "Is the Negative, Judgemental, and Political"?

From class we learned that there are 5 common perceptions outlined in the book about Christianity and the Church - the church is judgmental, negative, and politically motivated; the church is homophobic; the church is male dominated and oppresses women; Christians arrogantly think they’re right and all other religions are wrong; Christians are fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.

Here are some points from the author's on-line sermon

1. Should Christians Point Out the Sin of Others and Make Judgments?

This statement of Jesus occurs in his Sermon on the Mount in which he takes to task the hypocritical religious leaders of his day (see, for example, Matthew 6:2, 5, 16). These men judged others with a critical heart and condescending spirit, based on their own opinions and wrong motivations. Jesus tells his hearers—and us—that judging someone like this without caring for the person is wrong. Judging someone by human standards (outward appearances) and opinions instead of by the Scriptures is wrong. Only God truly knows what’s in someone’s heart. Jesus says that our hearts should be broken and filled with humility whenever making any judgment on another, because we are all guilty of something.
However, Scripture notes many examples of calling out sin in other Christians. In 1 Corinthians 5:4–5, for example, we see the apostle Paul taking a public stand on the issue of immorality within the Corinthian church. In Galatians 2:11, we see him correcting Peter personally about a certain teaching. And he instructs Timothy to take a stand against false teaching in the church in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3–7). The apostle John also makes a similar warning (2 John 8–11).
But we have biblical guidelines for this type of “judging.” Jesus himself instructed believers about correcting other believers when they are in intentional sin (Matthew 18:15–17). Galatians 6:1–5 offers additional guidance on confronting sin, with the goal of restoring the person. The Scriptures teach that church leaders should be open to correction (1 Timothy 5:19–20) and that friends should sharpen one another with corrective criticism (Proverbs 27:6, 17).
Bottom line, Jesus taught that we should not rush to judge others without knowing their hearts, nor should we judge with an arrogant or condemning spirit. Jesus did not say to ignore sin (“anything goes”), but he (and other writers of Scripture) gave instruction on how to lovingly confront it. How we do it makes all the difference.

2. Correct Approaches of Approaching Another Christian Who May Be in Sin
• Matthew 18:15–17—Correct ways for one Christian to correct another Christian = the motive is love and restoration. One-on-one to another believer or two before taking the situation to the church community.
• Galatians 6:1–2—Correct ways of restoring another Christian when they sin = the motive is love and restoration

3. Should Christians Point Out the Sins in Other People Outside the Church?
The apostle Paul taught the Corinthian church that there is a difference between judging Christians and judging those outside the church. Read 1 Corinthians 5:12–13. Who does it say should judge those outside the church? Who does it say should judge those inside the church? What is the difference between the two?
Very clearly here the Scriptures say we have no right to judge those outside the church. Too often Christians spend time judging these people and their actions, when the Scriptures teach that right belongs to God alone. We often unrealistically expect non-Christians to act and be like Christians, then judge them if they don’t live up to our personal expectations. It’s only to be expected that non-Christians, without the instruction of Scripture or the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have some unique values and act differently than we do.
Some brief words about “organized religion” and “politically motivated”
• Being organized is not a bad thing. Our bodies are organized, our families have organized responsibilities to care for each other. Helping the poor and marginalized needs organized effort. So being organized as a faith is not a bad thing. But it can become negative if it becomes a stranglehold and the organization crushes life and relationships and creates an unhealthy hierarchy.
• Politicians have used Christians and their hot buttons to sway votes. So it is understandable why people can assume there are political agendas in churches and among Christians. But Jesus was not Republican or Democratic. So we must separate the subtle trap of seeing Christianity as a political party.