Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

© 2020, Dr. Tamilio

Religion is a strange, universal phenomenon.  Throughout history, it has given people hope in times of doubt, fear, and grief.  It has helped explained the origins of life and the vastness of the cosmos.  It has also been the source of conflict, intolerance, and even war.  Many religious people feel as if there is only one true God.  All others are in error and need to be enlightened to the truth.  If they don’t see the light, then maybe the rack or the threat of the sword would help.  In some respects, religion may be one of the greatest (and one of the most troublesome) phenomena ever.

Let’s be clear: I am not saying anything negative about God.  Religion is a human construct: it is a system of beliefs and practices that human beings construct to understand God.  God is much bigger than any religion.  God cannot be contained by what we do, nor can he be forfeited by what we do not do.  God exists beyond whatever institution we build to try to understand the sacred.

Still, throughout history, every era is filled with believers in God or gods.  Even today, we have the world’s major religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and a host of minor ones (Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Unification, Baha’ism, and Sikhism).  Although most religions are monotheistic, some are polytheistic — and some do not even focus on God or gods per se.

What are we to make of all this?  I often wonder if the universality of religious beliefs proves the existence of God.  There must be some truth to the existence of God if multitudes across time and space believe in him.

Over time, religion has become a sort of competition.  If one religious is right, then the others must be wrong, no?  Two teams do not win the Super Bowl or the World Series.  Only one does.  If Jesus is the Son of God, God incarnate, “the way and the truth and the life,” as he himself says, and “No one comes to the Father except through” him, then he is either right or he isn’t (John 14:6).  If he isn’t, then we can engage in all kinds of interfaith discussions.  If he is right, then the conversation is basically over.  Jesus is the way.  All other religions are virtually in error, no?

Some call this exclusivism, which is the opposite of pluralism and quite different from inclusivism.  We’ve talked about these three terms before.  As a quick review, Christian exclusivists believe that they have cornered the market on the truth.  Christ is the only way to God.  Period.  Everyone else is condemned to Hell.  A pluralist maintains that each religion is its own legitimate way to God.  It is sort of like the different paths up the same mountain theory.  They all end up at the summit, but they get there in different ways.  In between these two models is inclusivism.  Inclusivists believe that other religions are legitimate ways to God in themselves, but somehow Jesus is at work in those religions, whether the followers of those faiths realize it or not.  The Catholic theologian Karl Rahner came up with the term “anonymous Christians” to describe such people of other faiths.

So, what do you do as a Christian who believes that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, but you do not think that those outside the faith are necessarily condemned to Hell?  Some people have never heard about Jesus what about them?  And what about people who are faithful to other religions and lead Christ-like lives?  Think of people like Gandhi.  Do we honestly believe that he wasn’t saved?  Let’s look at what the text of the day has to say.

In his Letter to the Romans, Paul spends a great deal of time reconciling how both Christians and Jews can be in relationship with the same God.  At the core of his theology, is that Jesus expands the circle of God’s covenant to include the Gentile world.  Paul, as you know, was a Jew who persecuted Christians before he saw the light: literally.  Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, which brought about his conversion.  The majority of the New Testament was either written by Paul or was attributed to him.  Listen to the beginning of the passage we read for today:

I ask, then, has God rejected his people?  By no means!  I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

One of the key words here may be “foreknew.”  That word calls to mind the opening of Jeremiah, in which the prophet captures God’s words: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  God knew us before we were born — when we were in the womb!

This claim signifies many things, among them is this: before we could even respond to God in faith, before we were even in possession of consciousness, God knew us.  He knit our limbs together and blessed us.  Before we uttered our first cry, God said, “I know you and I have set you apart for a purpose.”

So where are we going with all this?  I think it means that unless we totally reject God’s invitation to live in fellowship with him, then we are “in” — meaning that we are part of God’s expansive, inclusive covenant.  I agree with what Father Matthew Weber says about this.  He writes, “There are no qualifications on [the word] ‘world’ for God’s love is all-encompassing, embracing all peoples in His Son Jesus.  He is Lord of all nations.”[1]  Weber then cites the first verse of Psalm 24: “The world and all that is in it belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live on it are his.”

In the end, it’s not for us to judge who is saved and who isn’t, which religion is correct and which ones are erroneous.  To do so is the height of idolatry — it is to put ourselves in God’s seat and to assume his power.  Our job is to follow what we believe is the truth and to share it with others — not to water it down or to compromise its message for fear of offending or excluding others.  But our job is not to act as if we are Heaven’s gatekeepers.

In the second part of today’s brief reading from Romans, Paul speaks of God’s mercy.  Maybe that’s enough for us to hold onto when thinking about the relationship between Christians and people of other faiths.  God is merciful to all creation.  Shouldn’t we be the same — especially with those who worship and believe differently than we do?  Mercy, love, kindness — all gifts of the Spirit that we are to embody and exhibit.  Leave the sorting out to God.  If you’re going to be a Christian, focus on that — and be the best one you can.  As my favorite poet says, “For us, there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business.”[2]  Amen.

[1] Matthew Weber, “God’s Love is All-Encompassing, Embracing All Peoples,” taken from Catholic Star Herald (online), August 24, 2017.

[2] T.S. Eliot, “East Coker” (Part V) from Four Quartets.