3 Easter B

St. James Marion

As a whole, we Americans struggle with our faith. We wrestle with it, trying to make sense of how our faith impacts our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. George Barna, the founder of a research group dedicated to studying the role of faith and culture along with actual beliefs and behavior, recently said

“Most Americans, even those who say they are Christian, have doubts about the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural world. Hollywood has made evil accessible and tame, making Satan and demons less worrisome than the Bible suggests they really are. It’s hard for achievement-driven, self-reliant, independent people to believe that their lives can be impacted by unseen forces. At the same time, through sheer force of repetition, many Americans intellectually accept some ideas – such as the fact that you either side with God or Satan, there’s no in-between – that do not get translated into practice.”

Barna also noted that Christians tend to be open to co-existence with other faiths. “Most people understand that America’s religious life is diverse,” . . . . “A majority of Christians are generally open to maintaining relationships with people of other faiths, and most are not predisposed to judging people of different faiths, such as Mormons or Wiccans. But that open-mindedness is sometimes due to their limited knowledge about the principles of their own faith and ignorance about other faiths as it is to a purposeful acceptance of other faiths.”
(http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/260-most-american-christians-do-not-believe-that-satan-or-the-holy-spirit-exis_

In surveying self-described Christians last year, The Barna Group found that 78% of these Christians believed in a God who is the “all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who rules the world today.” The remainder of these Christians, nearly a quarter of those surveyed, had other understandings of God, ideas inconsistent with the Bible (ibid).

When asked about the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ, nearly 40% didn’t agree with this, believing that Jesus sinned during his life on earth. This is also inconsistent with historical and biblical teaching (ibid).

And this brings me to what is called the “Scandal of Particularity.” The scandal of particularity is basically the scandal of Jesus, the “difficulty of regarding one single individual man as being the savior of all men” (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scandal_of_particularity). It’s the problem of the uniqueness, divinity, and perfection of Jesus. The scandal is over the cornerstone that Peter talks about in our Acts lesson, the cornerstone that is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks according to Paul (1 Cor 1:23)—and to much of our world. Jesus who is the cornerstone, foundation, and centerpiece of our faith, Jesus who declares that he himself is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus who says he is the only way to the Father.

In a world that is increasingly secular, increasingly pluralistic and syncretistic, we Christians are accused of being narrow minded and politically incorrect when we insist that Jesus is the Savior, the only savior, for us and for the whole world.

In one of the commentaries, I read this week, published a dozen years ago, there was “remarkable true story about Harvard Divinity School.” Now I would think that a divinity school, a seminary, is supposed to teach Christian religion and theology. For example, the degree I received a year ago is a Masters of Divinity. Anyway, the story is a about a woman student at Harvard Divinity School who found that one of her professors was an agnostic, and subsequently

She inquired about the range of theological diversity on the seminary campus. “Anything goes,” came the reply. [The woman] pursued the point. “You mean no belief or absence of belief would keep one from being hired to teach theology?” “Only one,” came the clarification,” the refusal to endorse women’s ordination.” (Burge, Gary. The NIV Application Commentary: Letters of John, Zondervan. P. 60.)

Harvard Divinity School may have a different answer today. Another Christian group may have another answer: perhaps it’s the inerrancy of Scripture, or even certain beliefs about the 2nd coming.

But I think Peter and Luke and John the evangelist would disagree, that what is central to Christian faith is, well, Christ.

And that’s what I see when I considered today’s lessons.

In Acts, any time that Peter speaks, he speaks of Jesus. Today he is defending his actions before the spiritual leaders of the day regarding the physical healing of a man who had been lame since birth. Peter firmly declares that this was not of his own doing, but that the man was in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Jesus whom they had crucified, Jesus who is the stone that was rejected and has become the cornerstone. And Peter declares that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” The scandal of particularity. There is salvation in no one else but Jesus.
Luke tells us of one of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, and emphasizes his physicality. While the disciples were afraid, and thought that they were seeing a ghost, Jesus brings peace, and invites them to look at his hands and feet. He invites them to touch him and see, “for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus in a physical but transformed body who ate fish. Ghosts and spiritual beings don’t eat fish. They don’t eat, period. Jesus explained to them from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day. In the name of Jesus, repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be proclaimed to all nations. And the disciples were witnesses—eyewitnesses—of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. The scandal of particularity. Jesus was and is the Messiah, the Christ, the Promised One.

In his opening comments to a troubled church, John lays the foundation of his theology, and the foundation of the church. The Greek grammar is fairly complex, and a more literal reading might be:

“What was from the beginning: what we have heard; what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands touched—concerning the word of life—and the life appeared and we have seen and testify, and announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us; what we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.”

John’s thought and discourse finds its center in the reality of Jesus’ personhood. Jesus, the Word, who was from the beginning, entered time and space and took up residence on earth. Jesus was a man they had heard and seen and beheld and touched. As John graphically announced in his gospel that “we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). This is the scandal of particularity; the scandal of the incarnation, God became a man. Jesus Christ entered time and space, and is a definitive revelation. This is, perhaps, the lowest common denominator for Christians. Jesus who actually lived and died and was resurrected.

And we can still see, touch, and hear Jesus today. Not in the flesh, of course, but in our Christian experience. It’s not just agreeing to a set of doctrines, but there’s a sense where discipleship is personal. Through our baptisms, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives in us and makes himself known, and we have fellowship with the Father and the Son as well as with other Christians. The foundation of healthy Christian community and fellowship are true experiences of Jesus. “The authenticity of our faith is . . . linked to the vitality of Jesus’ life within us. If Jesus is a doctrine, our testimony will be hollow. If Jesus is a person, our testimony will be potent” (Ibid, 62).

The scandal of particularity is the scandal of Jesus Christ, Jesus who is not just words, but is the Word, living in us, so that we might proclaim that there salvation in no one else, and there is no other name by which we must be saved. Amen.