The Spirit Blows Where it Will: Even to Sheep From Another Fold
When my daughter was in the sixth grade I brought her with me to the arctic village of Anaktuvuk Pass. The church in Anaktuvuk Pass needed a new pastor and I was flying there to help them begin the process for finding one. I thought it would be a great experience for my daughter to see and experience another part of Alaska and a bit of the way of life that goes with living in that place.
My daughter loved it. She attended school for that week and therefore met a lot of new friends very quickly. She learned to play aku-aku (a game about making people smile), Norwegian Baseball, and probably a number of games I never heard about. As a father I was overjoyed to recognize in her a joy that I share: the joy of going to new places, meeting new people and learning new things.
Dorothy (Dodo) Hopson, the clerk of session at the church also befriended us, and made sure we got a sampling of the local foods. Our favorite was masu root, a wild vegetable that grows in the tundra and tastes much like a rather fibrous sweet potato. “Don’t harvest this yourself,” Dodo warned. “There is another plant that looks a lot like it, but is poisonous. Wait until someone can take you out and show you the difference.”
Masu Root
The spiritual life is something like the masu root. There are a number of spiritual paths that might look good, but really are not. It is important to be able to discern good paths from dangerous paths. Presbyterians have never claimed to have the only correct way of finding the Christ, although we have always believed that ours was an important voice within the whole Christian chorus. We have always claimed that it is important to listen for the voice of the Lord as it is spoken freshly today through scripture and through engaging the living God in the current issues of life. Indeed, we believe that human sin will always corrupt the church (including presbyterians!), as well as government, economics and individuals. Wee must therefore always be engaged with God’s work of reforming ourselves, our churches, and even our societies.
So this leads me to ask: if all Christian paths are not as equally valid as all other Christian paths, then are all Christian paths truly better than all non-Christian paths? Is it possible, and even probable, for the Christ, who loves all and is for all, to help Muslims to hear the voice of the Lord, or Jews or Buddhists, or people from the many other religions?
Christians have long quoted the Bible for insisting that the proclamation of Jesus as Lord is essential for salvation (see Romans 10:9). In the Bible even Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through me (John 14:6).” For this reason generations of Christians have worked hard at defining who is “in” and who is “out,” as if human beings have the power for determining eternal salvation.
Yet, other scripture passages raise a different standard for judging true spiritual paths and false ones. “You will know them by their fruits,” says Jesus (Matthew 7:16). The apostle Paul also picks up on this theme:
…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25).
The New Testament again and again calls on the faithful to recognize that some religious paths simply do not lead to the spiritual fruit that God intends from the tree of faith—even if the unfruitful people (i.e., the constitutionally angry, joyless, conflict-oriented, impatient, etc.) claim Christianity.
Taking this a step further, many authors have noted that Jesus ministry consistently broadened the circle of salvation, including more and more people within the category of saved than previous generations expected (more on that in future writings). Because of this movement toward including more and more within the saved it is significant to look at another saying of Jesus.
In the Gospel of John Jesus speaks about the saved as being like sheep responding to their shepherd. They hear and recognize their shepherd’s voice, and follow where their shepherd leads. We are to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing and listen for the true shepherd.
Then Jesus goes on in the Sheep and Shepherd passage of John to say this:
I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd ( John 10:15).
Jesus calls us to recognize that the Christ is also for other sheep in other folds. There are other people listening for the Christ’s voice, who are not listening for a Christian or a Jewish religion.
Two points I want to make today. First, within the Christian religion there are better namings of the Christ-path and worse namings. We will need to explore this in more detail sometime later, but our Scripture already hints at it in speaking of “knowing them by their fruit.” This is not merit-based salvation, but rather a helpful guide in discerning spiritual paths. Again, more on this at a later date.
Second, there is clearly a wideness in God’s love, seeking to save us all from the dangers of false paths (false namings of true spirituality). C.S. Lewis, a rather orthodox Christian, famously depicts what I am talking about in the last of his Narnia books, The Last Battle. In it a warrior serving Tash, the false god, is brought for final judgement before Aslan, the Christ figure in the book. When Aslan asks this soldier to describe Tash, the description is not of the vengeful Tash we have seen throughout the book, but of the loving Aslan. Aslan looks at this soldier with great love and declares that though the soldier was serving him by another name, the soldier’s heart knew down deep the true God he served, even if he got the name wrong. It is what is in our hearts that matter. In the story, Aslan (the God figure) rejoiced in this soldier, and declared his salvation forever.
In this series of meditations I have consistently made the point that there is a cosmic nature to the Christ, and that the Christ’s presence must therefore be recognized in and through all things.. The Christ was made manifest in the man, Jesus. Yet, not all who say “Lord, Lord,” are really following the Christ. Only those who follow God’s way, which is the way of love (Matt. 7:21).
What then, do we mean when we speak of salvation? If Jesus’ way is the true way (remember Jesus saying “I am the way” in John 14:6?) what are the marks (a good naming) we can trust for for following this way?
There is much for later writing
My daughter loved it. She attended school for that week and therefore met a lot of new friends very quickly. She learned to play aku-aku (a game about making people smile), Norwegian Baseball, and probably a number of games I never heard about. As a father I was overjoyed to recognize in her a joy that I share: the joy of going to new places, meeting new people and learning new things.
Dorothy (Dodo) Hopson, the clerk of session at the church also befriended us, and made sure we got a sampling of the local foods. Our favorite was masu root, a wild vegetable that grows in the tundra and tastes much like a rather fibrous sweet potato. “Don’t harvest this yourself,” Dodo warned. “There is another plant that looks a lot like it, but is poisonous. Wait until someone can take you out and show you the difference.”
The spiritual life is something like the masu root. There are a number of spiritual paths that might look good, but really are not. It is important to be able to discern good paths from dangerous paths. Presbyterians have never claimed to have the only correct way of finding the Christ, although we have always believed that ours was an important voice within the whole Christian chorus. We have always claimed that it is important to listen for the voice of the Lord as it is spoken freshly today through scripture and through engaging the living God in the current issues of life. Indeed, we believe that human sin will always corrupt the church (including presbyterians!), as well as government, economics and individuals. Wee must therefore always be engaged with God’s work of reforming ourselves, our churches, and even our societies.
So this leads me to ask: if all Christian paths are not as equally valid as all other Christian paths, then are all Christian paths truly better than all non-Christian paths? Is it possible, and even probable, for the Christ, who loves all and is for all, to help Muslims to hear the voice of the Lord, or Jews or Buddhists, or people from the many other religions?
Christians have long quoted the Bible for insisting that the proclamation of Jesus as Lord is essential for salvation (see Romans 10:9). In the Bible even Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through me (John 14:6).” For this reason generations of Christians have worked hard at defining who is “in” and who is “out,” as if human beings have the power for determining eternal salvation.
Yet, other scripture passages raise a different standard for judging true spiritual paths and false ones. “You will know them by their fruits,” says Jesus (Matthew 7:16). The apostle Paul also picks up on this theme:
…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25).
The New Testament again and again calls on the faithful to recognize that some religious paths simply do not lead to the spiritual fruit that God intends from the tree of faith—even if the unfruitful people (i.e., the constitutionally angry, joyless, conflict-oriented, impatient, etc.) claim Christianity.
Taking this a step further, many authors have noted that Jesus ministry consistently broadened the circle of salvation, including more and more people within the category of saved than previous generations expected (more on that in future writings). Because of this movement toward including more and more within the saved it is significant to look at another saying of Jesus.
In the Gospel of John Jesus speaks about the saved as being like sheep responding to their shepherd. They hear and recognize their shepherd’s voice, and follow where their shepherd leads. We are to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing and listen for the true shepherd.
Then Jesus goes on in the Sheep and Shepherd passage of John to say this:
I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd ( John 10:15).
Jesus calls us to recognize that the Christ is also for other sheep in other folds. There are other people listening for the Christ’s voice, who are not listening for a Christian or a Jewish religion.
Two points I want to make today. First, within the Christian religion there are better namings of the Christ-path and worse namings. We will need to explore this in more detail sometime later, but our Scripture already hints at it in speaking of “knowing them by their fruit.” This is not merit-based salvation, but rather a helpful guide in discerning spiritual paths. Again, more on this at a later date.
Second, there is clearly a wideness in God’s love, seeking to save us all from the dangers of false paths (false namings of true spirituality). C.S. Lewis, a rather orthodox Christian, famously depicts what I am talking about in the last of his Narnia books, The Last Battle. In it a warrior serving Tash, the false god, is brought for final judgement before Aslan, the Christ figure in the book. When Aslan asks this soldier to describe Tash, the description is not of the vengeful Tash we have seen throughout the book, but of the loving Aslan. Aslan looks at this soldier with great love and declares that though the soldier was serving him by another name, the soldier’s heart knew down deep the true God he served, even if he got the name wrong. It is what is in our hearts that matter. In the story, Aslan (the God figure) rejoiced in this soldier, and declared his salvation forever.
In this series of meditations I have consistently made the point that there is a cosmic nature to the Christ, and that the Christ’s presence must therefore be recognized in and through all things.. The Christ was made manifest in the man, Jesus. Yet, not all who say “Lord, Lord,” are really following the Christ. Only those who follow God’s way, which is the way of love (Matt. 7:21).
What then, do we mean when we speak of salvation? If Jesus’ way is the true way (remember Jesus saying “I am the way” in John 14:6?) what are the marks (a good naming) we can trust for for following this way?
There is much for later writing
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