"Sorting out the voices" May 17

Sorting out the voices

RUMC

May 17, 2009

I John 4

 

You may have heard the saying “you can only believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.”  In today’s media and internet culture I wonder if that is a little optimistic? 

You have been pretty lucky here.  I hope and believe that for the most part the things you have heard here have been true because you seem to have a history of fine Godly preachers and teachers.   But these are not the only voices you hear. You are exposed to hundreds of messages a day.  It is estimated that the average American is exposed 240 commercial messages a day of one kind or another.  In addition, the average person is exposed to another 200 opinion messages a day.

These 4-500 voices per day just scream at us don’t they? Sometimes it is as if they are screaming right in our ear.  Shouting to the top of their lungs “LISTEN TO ME”  “PAY ATTENTION TO ME.” To make matters worse all of these voices seem to scream at us at the same time.  Some days are just a cacophony of disharmonious voices competing for our attention.

Don’t feel too sorry for yourself though.  Apparently we are not that different from the first century readers to whom John was writing.  John starts this 4th chapter of the book of First John by saying that many “false prophets” have gone into the world.  John mostly battled a group of teachers called the Gnostics.  He describes the criteria or measuring stick to be used in differentiating between Gnostic doctrine and true doctrine, “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”  Though that is a good measuring stick, I haven’t had to debate a Gnostic for a long time.  So let’s come at this passage from just a little different direction.

 

Just as John dealt primarily with Gnosticism, I think there is a single voice that echoes above others today.  One of the most persistent voices in our own culture is the voice of universalist tolerance.  In religion that voice says all religions contain truth.   It is a type of universalism that says many roads lead to heaven.  It is political correctness that spills into the church saying “we can’t step on anyone’s toes.”  It is individualism that spilling over into spirituality saying no matter what we believe “I’m OK and you’re OK.”  It is a kind of "laissez-faire" religion that says “to each his own.” 

This message is so pervasive in our world that I saw it described by at least 5 different names, including omnidoxy, hetrodoxy , polydoxy and multidoxy.

. . .  Let’s see, John 14:6 say I am A way, A truth and A life?  There are many ways to the father besides me?  NO- “I am THE way- THE truth and THE life- NO ONE comes to the father except by me.”

Did Jesus say there are many entrance ramps that lead to life eternal?  NO, he said “the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it.” (Mtt 7:14)

Finally Jesus says "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”   Matthew 7:15. 

Both john and Jesus agree- there is only one truth.  If there is only one truth then everything else is false, a lie or a deception. Every other voice we hear is false, a lie, or deception. And it is our job as disciples to be able to sort them out. Which brings us back to John’s first measuring stick. “Does it acknowledge or reflect or proclaim Christ?”

On the surface that seems like a pretty simple question but this is a very complex world and the voices scream at us from every direction, every waking moment of every day of our lives.  So let me break that down a little for you.

 

As John and I both said, the first measuring stick is the asking does it line up with the Jesus we see in the Bible. I just told you if we take the “all roads lead to heaven” teaching and set it beside the historical Jesus when he says “no one comes to the Father except by me” both cannot be true. “All religions lead to God or all roads lead to heaven” therefore cannot be a true statement.  It is that simple. Bring on the next doctrine.    Let me warn you, though.  They are not all that simple- sometimes our issues and decision are much more complex, and obviously if you don’t know the Bible you are kind of stuck here.  So get to know your Bible inside as well as out- it is the first measuring stick we use in making faith decisions.  “Does the doctrine, idea or decision fit with the faith, teachings and life of the Jesus we know from the Bible?”

 

Second, does it fit with the Jesus of tradition?  Does it reflect the God I learned about in Sunday school and sermons, from my parents and grandma?  Does it fit with the Jesus we read about in the upper room and the Jesus that Harold Selby taught and lived? 

When we apply this question to our example “Do all roads lead to heaven?”  The tradition clearly says “NO.”

One of the traditional songs I remember singing in Sunday School and Bible School, though I find it mildly offensive today because it is so judgmental, is “One door and only one and yet its sides are two.  I’m on the inside on which side are you?”  The message is clear. There is no alternative road.  There is no omnidoxy or pluradoxy or whatever word you use for it.    Not all roads, all beliefs, all traditions, all churches or all religions are created equally.  Saints have died in defense of this fundamental position and no message we hear today can change that.

 

When examining true and false teaching, the first two questions are. . . . Does that fit with the Jesus you met in Sunday school, and does it fit with the Jesus you know from the Bible? 

 

The Third criteria we can use to make decisions is “does this teaching or the sermon or the idea fit with the Jesus who saved you from sin.”  Does it fit with the Jesus who walks with you and talks with you?  Does it fit with the Jesus you know personally - the one who saved you from your sin and lives in your heart each and every day? Does it fit with the “What Would Jesus Do bracelets” we all wore a few years back? 

This is a much more personal criterion than the first two.  The first two about the Bible and Tradition are pretty objective.  This one can vary some from person to person, within the bounds of that Biblical and traditional truth. Honest, intelligent people disagree about this sometimes, but as United Methodists that is OK.

Does the Jesus you know and with whom you live open the door to all beliefs and perspectives and practices?  Maybe he does.  You have to decide that.  I look at the Jesus of my experience and see a Jesus who loves me desperately.  A Jesus who will go to any lengths to bring me into relationship with God, but also a Jesus who says that there is only one way to really know God.  I have to ask “How could I know God if I didn’t have Jesus’ life and example to follow?  How could I know God if I couldn’t see him in his son Jesus Christ?  How could I know the depth of God’s love for me outside of the most extreme act of love which was offering his son on the cross in order to overcome the barrier of my sin and bring me into relationship with him?”

I don’t know about your experience but mine says- I can’t imagine coming to God outside of Jesus.  Though I would not limit God’s love by saying God couldn’t save someone who travels a different road, I would not doubt that in the unfathomable depths of God’s love for people, it just might be possible to come to salvation without Jesus Christ- but I myself can’t imagine it.  I can’t even imagine how they would get there.  So my experience has to say “no” not all roads are equal.  Not all roads lead to God.

 

The final criterion in our spiritual discernment is reason.  Does it make Sense with the Jesus you know?  God gave us heads and brains for a reason. 

Think carefully for a minute.  Do you think it is likely that God would send his only son to die on a cross if there were so many other routes to God?  Do you think if there were 100, 50, 10, 5 or even one other way to get to heaven, that God would have made that kind of sacrifice?  It doesn’t make any sense to me. 

Now that is not a definitive reason to reject the possibility that there may be many different roads to God or heaven, but along with the testimony of the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of tradition, and the Jesus of our experience the fact that it “just wouldn’t make sense” is kind of the last straw in the analysis of this doctrine.

 

We live in a world where some of the many voices we hear are true and some are not.  Some voices speak truth, others do not.  How in the world do we sort out which voices are trustworthy and which are not? 

The United Methodist Church holds that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, is lived in personal experience, and is confirmed by reason: Scripture, tradition, experience and reason.  Do those measuring sticks sound familiar to you?  They might because they are pretty fundamental to United Methodist thought:  Scripture, tradition, reason and experience.

 

With so many voices screaming in our ears every day we have to be able to measure them and sort them out quickly and efficiently.  These four criteria for spiritual truth are both easy and memorable.  They are themselves proven by the test of time having their grounding in the methods of our founder John Wesley.

Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.  Whether you decision is one of doctrine, morals, ethics, or political positioning these for fundamental principles provide the guidelines you need to make faithful and truth filled decisions.  They provide all the guidance you need to hear among the hundreds of voices in your head right now- the voice of truth.