I was recently involved in a short thread on Facebook that ultimately lead to the ever-debated question (if I may paraphrase) of, "What religion is 'right'?" As many continue to work this out in their own way, I just wanted to offer the following transcription from a sermon given by Bruxy Cavey of
The Meeting House almost 5 years ago that I think describes a great way of reformatting this question in a way that may help some find what I also believe to be the right place to land.
Why am I typing this out? So you can read it and process it, and because it's good stuff and helps me to digest and learn things better. Will you make a "faith decision" based on this? Probably not. Should you? No. Are all world views represented? No. But it's a
great principle to consider as you work through your questions. And obviously Bruxy is a Christian. He is here describing one process he clearly went through on his journey to become a Christ follower. If you'd like to listen to the audio, which I also recommend, click
HERE and scroll down to the 2007 sermon series entitled "Cruciformity" (from April 2007) and listen to the first sermon in the series. What I've transcribed below picks up about 28 minutes into the sermon. So in Bruxy's words...
"Let me just talk to those of you who are maybe at the starting point in all of this and saying, 'Alright you're talking about fully giving my life over to following the way of Jesus... becoming a disciple of Jesus. I don't even know if Jesus is the guy I want to follow, like, I'm just checking things out... why Jesus?'
"Maybe that's where you are or maybe that's where some of your friends are at, and that's one of those questions they raise for you. Often people will raise that question in the form of 'Why the Christian religion versus other religions?...What makes Christianity true and all other religions false?!' A commonly asked question. When people ask you that question, one of the ways I think you can and should respond is to help re-orient the focus of the question. [I was] just having a conversation with someone this week who's attending [The Meeting House], probably here this morning, and we had a great conversation...someone who is not committed to Christ, but is attending regularly to investigate, and asks that great question, 'What makes Christianity true and not other religions?' And what I was able to say to her as we kind of fleshed this out was to say, 'Actually nothing makes Christianity true... nothing makes it better than any other religion...it's not better than any other religion. Let's list all the religions that are out there and then clear the deck (whoosh!)... Let's get 'em out of the way. Let's not play the game of "Christianity's Better Than Any Other Religion" because it really isn't. It has a lousy track record. Who want's that?
"So we clear the deck and then flesh the question out a little, say, 'Let's dig a little deeper with the question itself.' Instead of asking the question, 'What makes Christianity better than 'any other religion?'' let's say why Jesus, as opposed to the founder or prophet or revealer of 'any other religion?' Because we're talking about the genesis of every world view or of every faith. Now, as you can see this in your notes (see image below), my suggestion is that we stop trying to decide which religion to follow, but instead which founder or leader or revealer of truth is worthy of your allegiance.
"So, we look at Moses --- wonderful lawgiver, brings structure for a people. But even embedded within the story of Moses is the promise that this is incomplete. Deuteronomy 18 has the promise that another prophet that's similar, but different, to Moses is still needed to come --- another revealer of truth is still needed to come, who will flesh this out more [and] take it to the next level. And then throughout the rest of the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are prophecies of that one who is coming who will lead us into the fulfillment of the Torah that Moses brought; [lead us] into the new covenant. Moses is great... just incomplete. And that's what the Old Testament itself says.
"When we look instead of Hinduism, we look at Krishna --- now, it's hard to pin down any one particular founder for Hinduism, but Krishna would be top of the list if you had to pick one. Krishna is that manifestation of the divine who appears to Arjuna --- Arjuna is a warrior and he's about to go into battle, and as Arjuna is about to go into battle he notices the tribe they're gonna fight against contains some of his family members... some of his cousins and uncles are facing him on the battlefield. And he walks away and he says, 'I can't kill my own family just because our clans have decided to go to war.' And Krishna appears to him and teaches him the way of dharma, teaches him the way of karma, and of castes, and says, 'Arjuna, you have been born into the warrior caste. This is your calling. This is what you must do. It's your dharma. You are not called to think it through. You are not called to be personal in this, there's nothing personal. This is your destiny. This is what you were born to do, because you were born into this caste. And so what you must learn is an emotional detachment from what is your destiny. Now go and kill. Kill your family, kill the clan. It's what you're called to do.'
"And I say no! I cannot follow the way of Krishna. I cannot follow this commitment to the separation of personal responsibility. It has led to sooo much suffering through the caste system around the world. So I say 'No' to Krishna. I know many wonderful Hindus. They're wonderful, I would say, in spite of --- not because of --- the teaching of Krishna.
"Mohammed --- I think a step up from Krishna. That's not saying much. Mohammed --- fierce monotheism. Some great teaching, but Mohammed still leaves the door open to violence as a methodology to advance an earthly cause. Mohammed on a couple of occasions leads preemptive strikes --- leads preemptive warfare against those who he perceives may be a threat to his people. And it leaves the door open for that theology that says, 'You can launch an attack against someone you perceive to be an enemy and call it self-defense.' And I say, 'No... I'm sorry Mohammed, you have not modeled for me a way of peace and reconciliation that obviously this world needs.'
"We look at the Buddha... [Bruxy reflects on his somewhat Buddha-esque body type and quietly repeats...] We look at the Buddha. I like the Buddha! He's a happy guy! But a couple of problems... first of all, we just don't know if he even existed. The earliest --- as I've said before --- the earliest historical records we have of anyone called the Buddha or anyone that points back to [him] were written 500 years after... [interrupting himself]... the first documents we have written about the Buddha are written around the first century --- about the same time as our gospels are written about Jesus. Except our gospels are written just a few decades after the fact. Buddha lived about 500 years earlier, yet the first written records we have are written about the same time as our New Testament. And so after 500 years we just don't know if there actually was a person, or it's not just historically as valid as something written within decades of the actual events. Even if there was a historical person, what the writings about the Buddha teach is that he also practiced a kind of --- now, he rejected the way of warfare (of Krishna), thankfully --- but he still isolated himself from relationship to say it is about personal pursuit of enlightenment. So [much so] that he, for years, left his wife and newborn son in order to pursue personal enlightenment. Finally obtained it, which is wonderful, but that isolationist mentality of detachment from all things, including family relationships, is again something that I don't think -- if practiced with passion --- makes this world a better place to live.
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| Bruxy Cavey |
"When you compare the founders of faith... Jesus shines. As one who comes to teach the radical love of God --- that the universe, the ultimate force behind everything that is... is love... and is bent towards you, passionately committed to who you are, wanting to engage you relationally. And along with that comes, through Christ, a very passionate challenge to any religious systemitization of this relationship, any religious hypocrisy. He comes and he invites people into that personal connection with the divine. Rather than just comparing religions, compare people, and see God revealed in Christ. Uniquely attractive.
"And so the apostle Paul says this... in Galatians 4:19, 'My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you...' [Bruxy then paraphrases...] [Paul] says, 'You're children, and I feel like I'm also (along with the Holy Spirit) in the pains of childbirth because I want to see Christ fully formed in you.' He uses an embryonic analogy --- 'Jesus is in you, in embryo form, and I want him to develop and grow inside you! I want his heart, his mind, his attitude, his presence to not just be an embryonic form, but to fully develop inside you.'
"This is my heart. It's not just mechanically following a guy from 2000 years ago; but having an ongoing internal communion and connection with him. This is Paul's prayer for those Christians he was mentoring, that he was discipling, and it's my prayer for us as a community." ~ Bruxy Cavey
Pretty good stuff, I'd say. Hope you found reading this (or listening to it) was worth your while. God bless you as you seek truth. I believe it's in Jesus.
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."
~ Jesus of Nazareth | John 14:6 ~
