Thank be to God that I am able at last to come to FCC after an absence of seven consecutive Sundays. It feels good to sit on a chair to deliver the sermon this morning. Tradition says that when the Holy Father sits on the papal throne he delivers infallible truth. Wikipedia our online encyclopedia defines the Latin phrase “ex cathedra” in Roman Catholic theology, as literally "from the throne.” It refers to teaching by the pope that is considered to be infallible. I must quickly admit that I am a fallen creature, spiritually fallible and physically as well. .

It is good to be here. May I thank you all for your concern and prayers, visits and love,  food and flowers to cheer me up. After my fall which God allowed to happen, I can yet believe in miracles. God is a divine miracle worker. God works in a mysterious way wonders to perform spiritually and physically. We of course want instant healing but the process often takes time. God heals directly in ways that we cannot comprehend and generally with the assistance of other healers. Jo my Osteopath is a human miracle worker too cooperating with God in the healing ministry. He has been comforting and reassuring. Eileena has given me those relaxing massage moments to bear the pain and discomfort. My wife and Susan have added on responsibilites as nurse, valet and chauffeur. I was touched by Esther/Heng Lee who has a rare day off last Wednesday and had afternoon tea with me.  Ivy Cheong who heard that I was preaching today was so thoughtful that she brought me my lunch.Thank you all.

Now I have to switch the mood and preach the sermon that was assigned to me by the Council on Community Life according to this specific paragraph: “While as Christians we firmly believe that God's decisive revelation of the Godself was in and through Jesus Christ, we strongly value the contributions to a life of faith, of religious ideas apart from our own. We recognize that in the inter-related context of our contemporary lives, inter-religious cooperation is no longer an option but a necessity.”

It comes from the Final Declaration of  The Participants In The Symposium On Spiritual Resources Of The Religions For Peace (Rome, 16-18 January 2003), The Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

This statement sets out clearly that as Christians we make the claim that God reveals Godself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who lived among us at a certain historical period. We state that we value the religious ideas of other faith communities which arose from other parts of the world and at different times in history. We affirm that we live in a inter-connected globalised world and that cooperation is a necessity for our very survival on this spaceship Earth.

For the Roman Catholic Church itself to make this statement in 2003 is a quantum leap of faith forward as we read Church history. This Church rose in prominence and dominance on the heels of the great Roman Empire. She once claimed supremacy – no one is saved except those within Mother Church. Then later she qualified and regard the Protestants as “separated brethren.”  Now she recognizes that other than Christian communities have religious ideas which are of value and we can learn from them. We can see the arms of the Church opening out to embrace others who are different. This does not mean that all religions are the same and we to accept every religious idea from any faith community. It is a call to dialogue and to know not only our own faith but that of other religions as well. It is an admission that we do not have the monopoly of religious truth. We believe in the Spirit of the Living God who continues to work with in the world and reveal Godself to all whom God has created. We do not have absolute truth, sinful and fallen as we all are. Only God has absolute truth.

Such an idea for most of us is too hard to understand and to digest. We are not used to this way of thinking about our Christian faith. We must be reading a different Bible. Just as there are those clobber passages seemingly about homosexuality in the Bible there are clobber passages related to other religions.

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Jesus was reported to have said in the John’s Gospel 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”

These are literary expressions of the followers of Jesus who have chosen Christ and naturally will make the truth claim that this is the one and only way to salvation. We must note that followers of other religious leaders make the same exclusive claim about their religion too. They too claim that theirs is the one true way.

The teaching is direct and unambiguous and regards other religions as in error and even their teaching not as revealed truth from God but works of man or even of Satan. This teaching was enshrined and institutionalized in the Roman Catholic Church “Outside the Church no salvation.” The early Church Fathers of the Church from Ignatius in 110 to St. Augustine who lived in 354 till 430 preached the same message. Pope Boniface VIII who died in 985 declared:

“We are required by faith to believe and hold that there is one holy, catholic and apostolic Church; we firmly believe it and unreservedly profess it; outside it there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.” This exclusivism while being modified by the Catholic Church prevails in its ancient form in conservative and fundamentalist Protestant churches in Singapore even today.

Let me share with you what happened recently. Some of you may have read about the Common Engagement Programme launched by PM Lee about a month ago. He called together 1,700 religious and community leaders and urged them to engage one another across racial and religious boundaries. He wanted the people not just to live in splendid isolation form one another within their different faith communities and racial ghettoes, not just in co-existence and show tolerance for one another but to engage in community life together in our multi-religious society. We are to support one another in times of crisis like terrorism and build a network of trust and harmony among our different communities.

Subsequently three Muslim organizations in cooperation with Islamic Religious Council of Singapore or MUIS which is appointed by the President of Singapore decided to call together all the religious leaders for an important meeting. When they found out that I was housebound they even wanted to send a car to take me to the Hotel for the meeting. The Protestant church leaders in the Council of Churches were invited. The Anglican Archbishop explained privately to the President of MUIS that they cannot participate in the public inter-faith dialogue. They are comfortable only with private discussion with him. The organizers have asked me for the real reasons of their non participation. When I went to the meeting I found that Susan and I were seated as the only two members of the Protestant Church. The Catholics sent two priests and about a dozen laypeople. The leaders of other religions were represented. We went ahead yesterday with the formation of a Task Force to develop inter-faith understanding and support the Common Engagement Programme. The Protestant leadership will be approached again and their non participation will be noted. Such is the present state of Protestant Churches and their understanding or lack of it about inter-faith relations. We continue to live in Christian compounds and separated ourselves from relationships with other faith communities. There theological orientation shaped their attitudes.

Just a few days ago Rev Kang Ho Soon sent me some reading material since I was housebound. Among it is a photocopy of an article in a well –known evangelical magazine “Christianity Today.” The title of the article is “A Wind that Swirls Everywhere.” It is about Dr Amos Yong born in Malaysia and left when he was ten years old with his parents who are Assemblies of God pastors. He studied in the United States with a Ph.D. from Boston University. His Pentecostal credentials are impeccable and he is recognized even at the young age of 40 as a leading scholar even outside his own Church. He has engaged in formal dialogue with Buddhists and other religious groups.

Apart from being born in Malaysia and doctoral studies from the same Boston University I thought I had nothing much in common with him theologically until I read the article.  Let me share some of his thoughts related to our topic this morning.

The writer of the article began, “At the time when Pentecostals are stereotyped as insular and anti-intellectual, Amos Yong seem like a fresh wind.

His scholarly studies challenged him to confront the very sectarian and exclusive form of Christian self-understanding. Yong wrote: “If it was possible that those whom I considered before as outside the pale of Christianity (e.g., Catholics, Orthodox, even Lutherans) did indeed have a saving relationship with God, what about others also categorized as pagan, heathen, or non-Christian.” He asked the question. “Is it possible that the Holy Spirit is active not only among Christians of all denominations but also among believers of non-Christian world religions?” For the past three years he has written a book on this theological issue. His central thesis is that the Spirit of God is universally active in creation and new creation. Consequently he believes “the religions of the world, like everything else that exists, are providentially sustained by the Spirit of God for divine purposes.”

The article ended by saying “Yong is proving to be a cutting-edge Pentecostal scholar, whose non-Western perspective is offering fresh ways of looking at old theological problems”

I will be trying to get his books and learn from what I thought was a stranger to me. As a Pentecostalist he emphasizes the Holy Spirit, recognizes God the Creator, and affirms the Spirit swirls everywhere in all of God’s creation among all people.

What do we in FCC in developing community make out of this for many of you have Pentecostal roots? We openly rejected by churches of that tradition find a haven in FCC. which claims to be an inclusive and affirming Church. Does our inclusiveness remain in the area of human sexuality so that we include both straight and gays in our community as contrasted with all the other churches here. What about the racial issue and the gender issue. Then have this morning to consider even the religion issue. How inclusive do we intend to be. Jesus in His engagement with people was certainly inclusive.

I was encouraged to read Jerry’s letter to the Forum recently about the Malay community. The editor realized its value and gave it prominence. Jerry as a non-Malay indirectly identified as gay spoke up for the Malay Muslim community. He admired the Malay community-bonding as reflected in the Kampong spirit of caring for one another. His closest female friend wears a tudung. Jerry ended his letter by calling us to engage with the closely-knit Malay Muslim community and learn from them.

The Muslims have a strong sense of ummah, community which cuts across racial lines. The Buddhist emphasize more on practical faith in the life of compassion, detachment, and mindfulness Confucian and Taoist focus on the principle of harmony and in particular with nature is crucial for human survival. These are some of the religious ideas that we need to explore further along with our own Christian teaching of love.

This is the challenge to learn from other religions as we build up this community life in FCC in our multi-religious society of Singapore.  In learning from the stranger in our midst in matters of religious faith we open ourselves mutually to change in beliefs and practices which we have never questioned and taken for granted. It is the attitude of learning and not teaching as if we have all the truth and the stranger has many errors. In this process we may come to understand our faith more clearly and become better Christians ourselves. God’s love is universal and not only for particular followers of Christ. We have to love our neighbour who is a stranger and not people like us. We have to respect his or her difference and otherness and therefore accept diversity and become more inclusive.

We are concerned not only with religious truth which is our continuing search as we seek understanding of God’s ways and purposes for humankind. It is not so much the doctrine about Christ that we believe in but also life together in Christ. We are to engage in the mission and ministry that Jesus has shown us. We have to be concerned with the problems facing our community life. There are problems of discrimination, injustice, violence, terrorism and environment degradation. There are conflicts to resolve arising from our living together. We are to apply our different religious beliefs upon the real life situation where there is suffering and conflict and promote peace with justice. Are we convinced that there is no peace in our community and in the nations unless there is dialogue and cooperation among the religions. Learning from strangers is no longer an option but a necessity in our multi-religious society.

I will end with the Biblical teaching of inclusiveness to complement that of our exclusive truth claims which I quoted earlier.  

You will remember the story of  Peter a Jew had a vision calling him to engage with Cornelius a Roman Centurion and how the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles;

Acts 10:28 And he (Peter) said to them “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.”

Acts 10:34  And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Let us pray:

God of all Creation and of all sentient beings. You have sustained, guided and revealed to people across human history. Humankind has caught glimpses of the truth about life and meaning of existence. In awe and reverence different people have bowed down to acknowledge and worshipped you and followed different spiritual paths.

We thank you for the revelation of your Godself in the person of Jesus Christ who lived and died among us and to whom we confess as Lord and Savior. We claim that Jesus is present with us in the power and presence of the Resurrected Christ.

Remind us again that You have not left yourself without a witness in all the nations your Spirit dwells within different faith communities.  Enable us to acknowledge that you were present from the beginning of time among them as it is with our own community of faith that confess Christ.

Teach us again that we should not call any man, woman or child common or unclean. Your love embraces all people. Help us to perceive that you show no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears you and does what is right is acceptable to you, May we learn to meet and engage the strangers at the gate and learn from one another. May all our spiritual lives be enriched as seek to draw closer to you.

In Christ name we pray. AMEN.