Isaiah 11:1-9

After some initial reservations about dealing with the controversial topics of this new sermon series, it was decided that we take the risk and tackle them head-on. The title is Christian Jeopardy. Apparently, we place ourselves in jeopardy when we discuss the issues like religions, sex, suffering, creation, and end time. There is a hesitancy to volunteer to preach and I was tasked to this dangerous situation of kicking-off the series by dealing with Christian Faith and Other Religions. But this happens to be in line with my interest and involvement in inter-faith relations and dialogue.

My sermon has already been encapsulated in the letter I wrote to the Straits Times forum which appeared online a week after I sent it in Friday before last. This is a sensitive matter and the editor must have sought clearance from the higher authorities before the green light to publish was flashed. One of the purpose of my writing was to support the Government’s call for inter-faith dialogue. This morning I have the opportunity to expand it for your consideration.
Far too long Christians had been conditioned to believe that Christianity occupies a special place in the universe of religions and that we were privileged by God to be members of the New Covenant. But earlier at the beginning of the Christian movement there was the conflict between the Jewish followers of Jesus and other Jewish leaders during the first century CE. The minority Jesus movement found itself in conflict with a dominant rabbinic group. From the side of the rabbinic movement, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, it was the Torah that formed the basis for Jewish identity. For the Jesus movement, it was hope in the imminent return of the crucified and resurrected Jesus. The parties to the conflict were framing divergent views. It is very important to remember that this was a conflict between Jewish worshipers of Yahweh.

Christians themselves after the successful mission to the Gentiles then displaced the people of the Old Covenant – the Jews, the Chosen People, the Twelve tribes of Israel. Adam and Even may even be regarded by some of us to be the first Jews. Instead of the nation of the Jews which was covenanted to be a blessing to the nations around them, we are commissioned now to be a blessing to the Gentiles and the whole world. This is the narrow tunnel vision of Christianity continuing and fulfilling the Jewish law and teaching. Then we come to the time when Islam appeared in history recognizing the tradition of the Jewish patriarchs like Moses and Abraham and the Christian prophet Jesus but believe that Mohamed is the final and true prophet and came to correct that which is false and wrong in the Jewish and Christian tradition. God who sent the patriarchs and prophets of old sent Prophet Mohamed with the revelation of the true teaching.

It was not difficult for the Jewish and Christian faith to contrast and distance themselves from the emperor worship, tribal cults, Roman and Greek gods and goddesses which were regarded as pagan and secular. People in the Biblical times did not encounter Islam which came later and other historic faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism which originated earlier and unknown to those who wrote the Biblical books. The Biblical tradition did not address relationships with other historic religions except the pagan religions like the worship of Baal and Roman emperors who existed alongside them at that time.

When we examine the early Christian missionary movement we notice the linkage with the maritime or naval power and their military prowess in creating empires around the world. Linked with the power of the State from the days of Constantine in the Roman Empire, the Christian faith was planted in the nations they annexed and the colonies they established. We read about gunboat diplomacy and the close ties between Western colonization and expansion with the Western missionary movement. With the support of Christian states they tried to supplant the local religions with Christianity and was successful particularly in the Philippines but with less success in other parts of Asia. The Christian students with a great deal of idealism around the beginning of the last century had the battle cry: Evangelization of the world in this generation. A number of generations have passed by and the whole world is still far from becoming Christian.

Campus Crusade for Christ just last week gathered 16,000 evangelical students from 127 countries in Busan, South Korea for CCC’s largest global student missions conference. Following CCC’s motto – "Win the Campus Today, Win the World Tomorrow" – the international campus organization is looking to convert the entire world. Completing the Great Commission or the global mission is the unavoidable deduction from the universal lordship of Christ," The updated rallying cry is "Complete the Mission."

Love Singapore movement launched decades ago initially was a campaign to love Singapore to the extent that we are to convert all Singaporeans to the Christian faith. The original plan was to knock on every door and distribute tracts in public places and hold public prayer and evangelistic services. It included prayer walk to claim the territory for Christ with groups gathering outside temples and mosques to exorcise the evil spirits. This set a reaction and the government quietly restricted such aggressive evangelistic efforts felt to be offensive to people of other faiths.

Over a hundreds of years of Christian global mission with thousands of missionaries and millions of dollars and with the support of so-called "Christian" empires like Dutch, Portuguese, British and American we have not succeeded in completing the Great Commission. It is highly unlikely that the present American empire builders will realise its goal.

David Barrett in compiling the religious statistics of the census of the religious communities in the world gave these numbers in 2000. Christian 33%, Muslim 23%, Hindus 14%, Buddhism 5%, Sikhs 0.4%, Taoists & Traditional Chinese religion 0.3 %, Jews 0.2%. All the other religions have 0.1% and under.

Take the Census of Population in Singapore 2000. Out of the number of 3.26 million people the adherents of the different religions are: Buddhism 43%, Christianity 15%, Islam 15%, Taoism 9%, Hinduism 4%, No Religion 15%.

It is not expected that there will be significant shifts in this profile of religions in Singapore and for that matter in the world in the future. This is the harsh reality that we face. Christians have to live with people of other faiths in this globalized world. We cannot remain in our religious ghettoes and pretend that other religions do not matter or even do not exist. We stay within our religious closets and refuse to come out and engage. As gay Christians we cannot afford to move out of our sexuality closets and confine ourselves to the Christian closet
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Due to the threat of terrorism and the current clash between those who justify their violent acts from Islam and Christian teaching there is the urgency to work for good relationships among people of faith. There are hot spots in the world in which the conflict is raging and potential conflagration will erupt in other areas. It is not the clash between Islam and Christianity as religions or civilizations but a clash between conflicting political and economic interests who use religion to justify their confrontation with one another. Our government here is very concerned with global terrorism. It has initiated a Common Engagement Programme to bring religious leaders at all levels to come together to know one another even though they are not eager to participate in interfaith dialogue. The Deputy Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs who happens to be a member of the Fairfield Methodist Church invited me to a fruitful private discussion over lunch on inter-faith relations recently.

It was last week that we have a full page news report of the Asia-Europe Interfaith Dialogue in Nanjing with official delegates from 40 countries including Singapore. Within it is the analysis of the Singapore situation on interfaith relations. The title of the report is suggestive: "Inter-faith dialogue: All talk and no walk?"

You may have missed the interesting but accurate observation made about inter-faith dialogue in Singapore. I quote: "In Singapore, sources say that some Christian leaders are not keen to join the non-government Inter-Religious Organisation, one of the oldest inter-faith bodies here." My fellow member of IRO, Buddhist monk Seck Kwang Phing observed that the resistance come from other leaders from other faiths who do not want to interact with others for they believe it would be a betrayal of their faith. The question is asked whether participating in inter-faith dialogue is a compromise of one’s spiritual integrity.

The government is aware that Christian leaders are not eager to engage in inter-faith activities. While Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist leaders have sponsored public inter-faith programmes, the Christian leaders have yet to organize a public inter-faith activity. I am very much alone as a non-Roman Catholic Christian and do not really represent the leaders of Protestant churches who are noticeable with their absence. On the contrary they condemn me for betrayal of the Christian teaching on inter-faith relations along with my support of homosexuality. It looks like I am a born loser.

Recognizing this wall that was erected between Christianity and other faiths in Singapore the government has taken the right approach to go to the grass-roots. Effort is being made to connect every religious leader through the Inter-Confidence Circles (IRCC) in all the 84 constituencies. They have targeted to bring all the 1400 religious leaders in the country into the network. Even though the religious leaders at the top may not be keen, they cannot prevent the religious leaders at the grassroots level to interact with one another as they say "regardless of how they feel about inter-faith issues."

The hope is that Singapore can develop into an inter-faith hub and this is the pronouncement of Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Foreign Minister George Yeo.

We are in a multi-religious society in which Christianity is a minority faith either in Singapore and in the world. Unfortunately we tend to think that we are the only important and true religion and can dismiss the validity of other faiths. This has promoted the attitude of Christian triumphalism and engendered the spirit of Christian arrogance and intolerance in relationship to other historic and ancient faiths. The time has come for us to be humble and honest and undergo a process of self-examination and self-understanding of our faith as we move out of Biblical history and culture and into the contemporary world scene.

We are not the only ones who claim the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ who is worthy of our worship. The founder of Buddhism, Gautama is believed by some school of Buddhism to be a human being who has attained nirvana and oneness with the Divine being. Buddha is worshipped and to whom prayer is addressed. Buddhalogy and Christology development is similar for Buddha is thought of to be the incarnation of a pre-existent Buddha like Christ as the incarnation of God.

We cannot claim we are the oldest although some will want to trace our connection even to Adam and Eve. When we look at the timeline of the religions, Christianity as such is but 2000 years old. Hinduism began in 2000 BCE, Judaism in 1500 BCE, Jainism 599 BCE, Taoism 580 BCE, Buddhism 563 BCE, Confucianism 551 BCE, then only comes Christianity followed by Shintoism 100 CE and Sikhism 1469 CE. Christianity is a young kid in the block of ancient religious faiths.

We are not the only religion that claims to have sacred writings or revealed texts. Christians have the Bible and Muslims have their Quran. Both will claim that it is the revealed truth and in fact Muslims view the Quran as literally true and written in Arabic and revealed to the Prophet through dreams. The Quran is more highly venerated by Orthodox Muslims than the Bible has ever been by Christians. The word of God was communicated to Prophet Mohamed in the Arabic language through a series of dreams It is the word of God incarnate in human language.
There is a general and common assumption that in order to be Christian, a person must believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and that Christianity is superior to all other religions. We are not the only one who claim to be exclusive. When we consider exclusivism of the Christian faith, others also make similar exclusive claims.

Like most other monotheistic faiths, Islam views itself as the only true path for following the will of Allah (God) and going to Jannah (Paradise, Heaven). Muslims consider the monotheistic faiths that precededed it, Judaism and Christianity, to have been corrupted but valid in its original form. (Qur’an, Sura 5, verse 44 and verses 46-7, verse 69). Nevertheless, Muslims hold that for someone to worship any other gods or deities (shirk (polytheism)) is a sin that will lead to eternal separation from Allah (God). This particularly applies to Christians believing in the Trinity (Sura 5, verses 72-74)

The parallel teaching in the Christian Scripture is that salvation and the avoidance of an eternal punishment in hell is available only to Christians:

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me.

John 11: 25-26: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."

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."

The historic Roman Catholic Church in its early history acting on these exclusive sayings decreed that there is no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church and so as Protestants we were excluded from salvation. It was much later that they changed their dogmatic teaching and treated other Christians as separated brethren and willing to enter into dialogue with people of other faiths.

Yet today there are conservative and fundamentalist Christians who will deny salvation to the Roman Catholic Christians and to those who are not born again or believe in what they have defined the fundamentals of faith. These very religious people with commitment read their Bibles and focus on the exclusive claims for the Christianity. However, others discover in the Bible a God whose love is inclusive, a love that is universal reaches to all people of different religious traditions.

The world political scene is centered on Christian-Muslim conflict that has resulted in terrorism and war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The religious scene is one of competition and controversy.

Sultan Abubakar, speaking at a meeting of northern Nigerian emirs Monday, had expressed concern over increased Christian evangelism in the country and urged a Muslim group to step-up evangelism including through the use of media technology. The sultan is the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s 70 million Muslims and is also the president general of the Muslim group Jama’atu Nasil Islam (JNI). However, the sultan is not a religious leader himself, but rather acts as a representative of the region’s Muslims on important issues.

Christian leader Dogo, in his response to the Sultan’s statement said:" For the sultan to say they will counter Christian missionary activities in this country is unfortunate… But this is a clarion call for all our evangelists to put more efforts to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ,"

Nigeria is near equally divided between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north, with followers of both faiths living where the other religion is dominant. Sectarian violence between Muslim and Christians has long been a problem in Nigeria. Despite Abubakar’s statement, political leaders at the meeting of northern emirs have called for inter-religious dialogue.

The exclusive sayings of the New Testament and the Quran when literally interpreted will mean opposing and competing claims. The exclusive sayings are similar to the clobber passages in the sacred writings concerning homosexuality. When each religion makes exclusive claims there is no place for inter-faith relations and dialogue. To do so would certainly be a betrayal of faith and unable to consider the other religion as false. For the sake of truth then we have to distance from that which is false and displace it altogether. It is a waste of time and energy when we have closed our minds to one another and believe that God is at work in one’s own community and that the Evil One or Satan holds sway in the other. When we do not participate in inter-faith activities we reflect that view.

How then do we understand such exclusive sayings. In our self-understanding we need to avoid such exclusive attitudes and make a great paradigm shift away from this narrow interpretation of our faith.

We should regard these exclusive sayings as language of faith and truth-claims that we make. Otherwise we have competing and contrasting truth. One is wrong and both cannot be right. But when we choose one particular religion it is proper for us to make a truth-claim in the language of faith and recognize and respect the other people who make a different choice to make their different truth-claim. The reason we call ourselves Christian or Muslim is because we believe that it is the best for us and we are on the right path of religious living. This is our faith.

It is a claim in the like that of an email message that my five year old grand-daughter made just last Friday. She typed this message: this is sydney yap . hi por por .i love you your the best your the2 best kong kong love sydney

At this tender age of five Sydney in her limited experience knows only the paternal and maternal grand parents and it is not difficult for her to say that Hee Choo and I are the best in the whole wide world. This is what the language of faith is and we should view such exclusive sayings in that light.

The reality of the religious situation and the nature of the community which has people of different faiths in many nations in the world today compel us to build a community that understands one another’s faith and respect differences. When we enter into dialogue we each must bear witness to our own faith. Each is expected to come with an open mind and inquiring attitude and desire to learn from one another. This is an acknowledgement that as human beings on this planet earth we do not a monopoly of truth or possess the absolute truth and that one’s way is the only true and correct way to salvation. We recognize that there are other ways to God and which is the true way is for God to judge. Meanwhile we make the claim that the way which we have chosen is the way for us to live by and hopefully we have made the right choice. Others are free to make their choices. We are to learn from one another in our common quest for faith and work together to meet human need.

I believe that God is working everywhere and with people of different persuasions to redeem the world. I believe that God is at work changing the hearts and transforming the minds of people and challenging them to engage with one another in works of compassion and deeds of peace with justice. The spirit of God is present and working. God is fully at work to redeem the world wherever there are faithful people of various religious traditions who live with compassion toward other people, who live responsibly toward the world, and who enhance the human community.

In a multi-religious society in which we are in there is no alternative but to engage with people of other faiths respecting the differences but co-operating with one another to build such a human and humane community of peace and goodwill among all of God’s people.