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The Manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles A sermon for Epiphany In world of many faiths, how can Jesus be universal and unique?
Jesus is baptised. Jesus is here revealed to be more than just another person being baptised. The dove and the voice make Jesus clearly to be- a great deal more. The Epiphany season of the church’s year, beginning with the Magi or the Wise Men, is about Jesus being manifest- being revealed for all. The Magi represent a range of cultures: the star, that is astrology speaks of the human spiritual search: so Jesus is manifest (=Epiphany) as the goal of all our searching. But how does this work? Not so much how does it work for us as individuals; how can Jesus be manifest for all nations- when there are other world faiths too? How- in this day and age can we say Jesus is universally relevant? More still, how can we claim that Jesus is unique? First- the claim that Jesus is for all- universally- the answer to everyone’s search. One or two of us may feel less comfortable about that. What about people of other faiths? And mightn’t this sort of claim just stir up further conflict or even terrorism at a time of tension? It is very hard to avoid the emphasis in the New Testament that Jesus is for all nations. At the end of St Matthew’s gospel the disciples are bidden ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’. (Matthew 28.19). And in the epistles and Revelation there is a strong emphasis that his Lordship, unlike the Roman Emperor’s, is for the whole universe and all time. But as often, its not what we say, but how we say it. Mahatma Gandhi was horrified at how the actions of many Christians denied the faith they stood for. Without formally becoming a Christian, inwardly, he took on many of the attitudes of Christian faith. We need to be humble about where we and our churches drastically fail to live up to our beliefs: we need to be ready to learn from those who perhaps are closer to Jesus than we are- but without their quite realising it. Can any Christian sit in judgement over what is going on in the heart of a humble Muslim (muslim means ‘submitted person’) if that Muslim sincerely seeks and believes in a God of love (rather than violence)? And- strange to say- though Muslims struggle with the idea that Jesus is the only Son- the perfect projection of God down into humanity- and though they might disagree with our claim that Jesus is for everyone: they want freedom for their faith; and they repeatedly say that we should be more explicit about ours. Yes, they say, we should be more explicit, even about those aspects of our faith with which they disagree. In other words they would rather we were honest about the universal claims we make for Jesus. Our Muslim brothers and sisters say that they would rather we speak out, and that then there is open, friendly dialogue. Incidentally- from the hospital chapel where my wife works, to Christian churches in parts of the middle east, there is quite a trend of muslims simply calling in in a friendly way at churches, to see what goes on- to see if they can pray where Christians pray. So we are not to be perturbed if anyone tries to tell us that we are wrong or destructive to mention the Epiphany; to say that Jesus is manifest for everybody. With his universality goes his uniqueness. Again there may be some who want to say that this aspect of our faith is not politically correct. By ‘politically correct’ I mean that there is a fear or a reality that someone, somewhere will be deeply offended if we say that Jesus is superior to other gods, teachers or prophets. Two points need to be made: they are not in my view contradictory. First, yes, the Christian faith says Jesus is unique, there is no other way to the Father: no other human in all time has the full divinity in him. Jesus is indeed prior to Abraham, and Moses; Jesus we believe is superior to Buddha, Mohammed, and all Hindu incarnations of deity. Superior, but let us not forget his humility and vulnerability. Secondly, however, the church in its actual religious practice is not superior to other faiths. Time and again people of other faiths outshine Christians; time and again Christian institutions, like all other institutions, fail. What we are saying indeed- is that Jesus IS high over all. What we are NOT, definitely NOT saying is that we and our religion are best. Which sadly IS exactly what the US recently, and Britain in its colonial history HAS actually said or seemed to say, that is, that ‘we and our religion are best’. This is quite wrong, and God will punish us for it, as indeed he did his Ancient People, Israel. And as the history of Israel shows, God will not allow human religious institutions to continue unpurged. Constantly we fail to listen to him. Our ways of worshipping, are inevitably, flawed. He calls us to constant improvement. He calls us, the church the people of Christ made Manifest-
a. to have the courage to proclaim him as Lord. This means that as we go forward into 2006
* confident in who Jesus is,
For only, if we are prepared to relinquish selfish patterns, can his universality and his uniqueness be sensitively and relevantly made known. Especially in Western Europe and the United States, our outward forms and many of our inner attitudes -may need to die off- so that the true, universal and unique Jesus may continue his Epiphany. |
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