2
Christian Identity in a
Multi-Faith World
Can there be peace among
passionately faithful people?
6
humor
anti-humor
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road, or
did the road move beneath the chicken?
Sir Isaac Newton: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest.
Chickens in motion tend to cross the road.
A nun: It was a habit.
Hamlet: That is not the question.
John Donne: It crosseth for thee.
Colonel Sanders: Did I miss one?
Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
(2 answers)
What is the chicken’s deepest dream?
Why did the Texas chicken cross the road?
Why did the chicken go to the seance?
Can you imagine Jesus, Moses, the Buddha,
and Mohammed walking together ...
If they could cross the road together, might it
be possible for us to follow them?
Starting Point:
We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.
We have the only way.
STRONGYou are going to hell.
HOSTILE
We are God’s chosen.
You worship false gods.
resistance is futile.
you will be assimilated - or
We already know how to do 2
things quite well:
1. how to have a strong Christian
identity that is hostile toward
people of other religions.
2. how to have a weak Christian
identity that is tolerant (benign)
toward people of other religions.
it doesn’t matter what you believe.
all religions are the same.
all roads lead to god.
only sincerity matters.
doctrines divide.
weak-benign
keep religion private.
We haven’t yet learned ...
to have a strong Christian identity
that is benevolent
toward other religions.
Because I Follow Jesus, I love you.
I move toward “the other.”
I break down walls of hostility.
i stand with you in solidarity.
you are made in God’s image.
strongbenevolent
i am your servant.
I practice human-kindness.
A Popular
Misconception:
Our religious differences
keep us apart.
Actuality:
It is not our religious
differences that keep us apart,
but rather one thing we all
hold in common:
Actuality:
We build strong religious
identities through hostility
toward the other.
Give people a common enemy, and you will
give them a common identity. Deprive them
of an enemy and you will deprive them of
the crutch by which they know who they are.
- James Alison
Hostility has had survival value
...
but it may now
threaten our survival.
"Historically, the amity, or goodwill, within the
group has often depended on enmity, or hatred,
between groups. But when you get to the global
level, that won't work... That cannot be the
dynamic that holds the planet together... But
what would be unprecedented is to have this
kind of solidarity and moral cohesion at a global
level that did not depend on the hatred of other
groups of people."
(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic Of Human
Destiny, quoted in Evolutionaries: Unlocking The
Spiritual And Cultural Potential In Science's
Greatest Idea, by Carter Phipps)
Can Christians today build a new
kind of identity ... based on
hospitality and solidarity, not
hostility, to the other?
strongbenevolent
Five Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional
5. Spiritual
Must doctrinal differences
always divide us?
From Follow the Sacredness, by Jonathan Haidt
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/forget-the-money-follow-the-sacredness/
Despite what you might have learned in
Economics 101, people aren’t always
selfish. In politics, they’re more often
groupish. When people feel that a group
they value — be it racial, religious, regional
or ideological — is under attack, they rally
to its defense, even at some cost to
themselves. We evolved to be tribal, and
politics is a competition among coalitions
of tribes.
... The key to understanding tribal behavior is
not money, it’s sacredness. The great trick that
humans developed at some point in the last few
hundred thousand years is the ability to circle
around a tree, rock, ancestor, flag, book or god,
and then treat that thing as sacred. People who
worship the same idol can trust one another,
work as a team and prevail over less cohesive
groups. So if you want to understand politics,
and especially our divisive culture wars, you
must follow the sacredness.
“Sacred groupishness” often makes a
“centering idol” out of a list of doctrines.
Doctrines provide a loyalty test ...
helping us test others for membership in
our safe group.
Doctrine is not simply about “truth” - it’s
about loyalty, safety, security, and
groupishness.
But doctrine can have another meaning ...
another purpose:
Doctrine can mean
“a healing teaching.”
What might happen if we took a
second look at our core
doctrines - not as centering
idols, but as
healing teachings?
healing teachings
intended to bind together what
has been torn and broken
(re-ligion)?
The Healing Teaching of
Creation
The Healing Teaching of
Original Sin
The Healing Teaching of
Election
(or chosen-ness)
The Healing Teaching of
Incarnation
The Healing Teaching of
the Deity of Christ
The Healing Teaching of
the Holy Spirit
The Healing Teaching of
the Trinity
The Healing Teaching of
Inspiration of Scripture
how will our liturgies of
hostility be transformed
...
into liturgies of harmony?
new identity?
peace-making?
Five Challenges
1. Historical
2. Doctrinal
3. Liturgical
4. Missional
5. Spiritual
52+ short chapters
Can be read aloud in 10-12 minutes
Cover the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation
A comprehensive biblical lectionary
Follows the general contour of traditional church year
- Pre-Advent - Hebrew Scriptures
- Advent - transition to Jesus
- Epiphany - life of Jesus
-Lent - Sermon on Mount
- Passion Week - passion
- Easter - church as community of resurrection
- Pentecost - Epistles/Revelation
Present a coherent reading of the biblical narrative(s)
- An evolving view of God
- And evolving view of humanity
- Focused on creation and new creation
- Outside of traditional atonement categories
Plus ...
6 discussion questions for each chapter
5 Guidelines for Learning Circles
- Participation
- Honor
- Silence
- Understanding
- Brevity
Introductory Liturgy
Eucharistic Liturgy
My hopes:
1. Churches can use it for a season or whole year
- Breaks routine, provides liturgical innovation
- Provides framework for Revised Common
Lectionary
- Provides space for invitation, outreach
- Frees pastoral time for other activities for a year
2. Families, small groups, classes, campus groups,
senior living groups, summer camps, prison groups,
spiritual directors, etc., can use the book as a curriculum
or catechism.
3. Spontaneous learning circles can form - and become
affiliated as “satellites” or partners with existing
congregations.
4. Individuals can use it for their own orientation and
A
Are
you
ready
to
cross
the
road?
www.brianmclaren.net
there are liturgies that foment
hostility and reinforce hostility...
can we imagine liturgies that
inspire kindness?
The very act of gathering for worship
can be “groupish” ritual
of affirming
“us-ness”
versus
“them-ness.”
The Songs We Sing
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
- Ms. Cecil Alexander (1848)
Each little flower that opens,/ Each little bird that sings,/
He made their glowing colors./ He made their tiny wings.
The purple headed mountains,/ The river running by,/ The
sunset and the morning/ That brightens up the sky.
The cold wind in the winter,/ The pleasant summer sun,/
The ripe fruits in the garden,/ He made them every one.
The tall trees in the greenwood,/The meadows where we
play,/ The rushes by the water,/ To gather every day.
He gave us eyes to see them,/ And lips that we might tell/
How great is God Almighty,/ Who has made all things
well.
All things bright and beautiful,/ All creatures great and
small,/ All things wise and wonderful:/ The Lord God
made them all.
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to
war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal master, leads against the
foe;
Forward into battle see his banners go!
-Sabine Baring-Gould
•
France, 1847
•
Placide Clappeau, a French wine merchant,
mayor of the French town Roquemaure,
writes a poem.
Adolphe Adam sets it to music.
Later the song is translated into English by
John S. Dwight –
It is said to have been the first music ever
broadcast over radio.
•
•
•
• O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
• It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
• Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
• Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
• A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
• For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
• Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
• O night divine, O night when Christ was
born!
• O night, O holy night, O night divine!
• Truly He taught us to love one another;
• His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
• Chains shall He break for the slave is our
brother
• And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
•
• Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
• Let all within us praise His holy Name!
• Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
• His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
• His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
• 1847
The Sermons We Preach
The Sermons We Preach
- Who is scapegoated/condemned?
- What virtues are aspired to?
- What vices are condemned?
- What Scriptures are emphasized?
- What subjects are avoided?
And vice versa?
The Rituals We Practice
Baptism: A ritual of cleansing
Clean - unclean
Acceptance - revulsion
Us - them
Clean, still water
Certified Gatekeepers
Meanwhile in the
wilderness:
The Essenes
- Hyper-clearn
-Hyper-puritan
- Isolated communes
- Multiple daily baptisms
What would it mean for John ...
- to leave his father’s priestly work
- to leave the Temple
- to leave Jerusalem
- to avoid the Essenes
- and to baptize ...
in the Jordan River?
- in public
- in running water
- in an “undeveloped”
setting
- with a message, not of
cleanliness, but ...
rethinking, reformulation, repentance?
What does it mean for
Jesus to accept John’s
baptism?
What would it
mean for the
Spirit in the form
of a dove to
descend upon
Jesus?
And what would it mean
for Jesus’ disciples to
expand John’s “guerrilla
theatre” around the
world?
Baptism - not into a
new “hyper-clean”
religion - but into
Christ, a new
humanity, a new
kingdom, a new way
of life?
Peter, Acts 10:
“God has shown me I
should never call
anyone impure or
unclean.”
“I now realize ... God
does not show
favoritism.”
Baptism into this new way of being human ...
Born again ...
Given a new identity ...
In the flowing river ...
In solidarity with everyone everywhere.
In Christ ... (164:6)
neither Jew nor Greek ...
male nor female ...
slave nor free ...
In Christ ...
neither Jew nor Greek ...
male nor female ...
slave nor free ...
Christian nor nonChristian?
Us or them?
The Eucharist
Altar of Sacrifice ... to
appease a hostile God?
or
Table of Fellowship ... to
celebrate a reconciling God?
• A table of elitism and exclusion ...
• or a feast of grace and reconciliation?
We don’t need to offer a sacred gift to
appease a hostile God ...
Rather, a gracious God offers a sacred
gift of love to us ...
so that we will be reconciled to God
and to one another.
Meal of unity ...
Meal of solidarity ...
Meal of one-anotherness