Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

June 24, 2007

In Paul’s letter to the Church in Galatia, he wrote these words:

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

For you are all one in Christ. If only we could live that out.

It seems more and more in the conversations going on in the Christian Church, we find a list of "beliefs" that one must adhere to in order to be classified as a "REAL" Christian.

I often find these lists of beliefs troubling. Do we really think that we can know the full nature of God?

We cannot contain God as God really is in words or ideas. This doesn't mean we give up on trying to know God, however. And, within the limits of our humanity, aided by divine revelation, we can gain some knowledge of God. But it is always incomplete knowledge. Whenever we say, "This is God," we need to add, "But God is more than this."

Does this mean we embrace an "anything goes" perspective? I don't think so. If you want to know what Episcopalians believe, worship in an Episcopal Church. It's all there in the liturgy. When we offer our praise and thanksgivings to God, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, we are attempting to express, in our own finite and limited way, using time-tested forms and customs, the way we have found to build a closer relationship with the living God.

However, our ushers do not administer entrance exams at the door. I do not test those who come to the altar before offering the sacrament. When the world wants to know who we are, and who God is, our response is "Come and see."

If we like it or not, the religious landscape of the world has shifted. Christianity is no longer The Main Event. We have become simply another booth at the fair. Such a shift requires that we rethink how we present our faith.


The area in which I live grows a lot of blueberries. Imagine going to a farmer's market, approaching a booth offering blueberries, and being told that before you can make a purchase, you must state without reservation that these are the best berries, and in fact the only REAL berries. Further, you must renounce all previous berry purchases, and believe in the stated formulary and history regarding the creation of these berries, which is included in the 25 page booklet that the vendor thrusts in your face. I don't know about you, but I know I would avoid such a booth in future trips. It's not the pedigree of berries that interests me. The question on my mind was "Do they taste good?" ...Taste and see...

I think of some of our children who come forward to receive communion. Do we insist that they hold the “right beliefs,” even when their intellectual development does not allow them to deal with such complex ideas? No, we don’t. They know something is going on that is important to everyone else. And they know that it has something to do with God. That is enough. Yes, we need to offer a fuller understanding as they grow older. And we’ll do that, through our Christian Education programs.

In the end, I don’t think when I get to heaven that God is going to ask me much about what I believed. But I would imagine there will be quite a few questions about what I did, or did not do. It is through our actions that we express what we believe. And I think excluding someone from the body of Christ because they don’t live up to our expectations is a wrong action. When we do that, we are standing in the doorway of the kingdom, blocking the way for others.

But how can we have unity if there is no common belief? Yes, there are some things that we have to agree on. We do have some core doctrines. There are some points on which we have to come to some kind of agreement, or it will be impossible for us to act in the name of Christ.

Our Gospel lesson points us towards one of these core doctrines. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, "The Messiah of God." The Hebrew word mashah is translated into messiah, which means anointed. Christ is the Greek word christos which also means 'anointed.' For the first time in Luke's gospel, Jesus is proclaimed Messiah. Peter said that Jesus is anointed king and comes to free people and establish the kingdom of God.

This is important. It’s not enough to understand Jesus to be just another prophet, or a wise teacher, or a good man. And here’s why it is important:

We believe that Jesus is the manifestation of the divine; that Jesus is God incarnate. The reason this is important is that Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Messiah, represents the bridge between heaven and earth. God is no longer a distant deity. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. God has entered our world. God is among us.

This keeps us from falling into the common human error of thinking we can save ourselves. We can’t. We’re broken and we can’t fix ourselves. We need a savior. We need a God with skin on. And that is who Jesus Christ is for us.

That is our foundation. Our believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the word made flesh and moving among us, is the glue that holds all Christians together.

Do I think it matters how a person comes to this belief? No. It could be through the experience of God in their lives. It could be from hearing the scriptures. It could be from the example of God’s love that they have seen through Christians in action. There are many ways to encounter the risen Christ. And, since we all start at a different point, the way we express our beliefs are going to be different.

In essentials, unity
In nonessentials, diversity
In all things, charity.

Let us not consider our diversity of beliefs as a problem. Instead, let us celebrate this diversity, giving thanks to God who is revealed to us in so many ways, and so allowing all people to see and respond to God’s gift of grace. Let us be one in Christ Jesus.