Last week I spoke of the need for solid moral ground in our culture of relativism.  If everyone’s truth is subjectively true for them, then we have no basis to judge between the exclusive and the inclusive.  The idea that truth is subjective and contextual enables those who make exclusive and absolute truth claims.  Thus, I argued, we need grounding from which to claim the value of inclusive love and justice.  The ground on which we stand is Jesus Christ. 

The problem in making a strong stand on the special revelation of truth through Jesus Christ is that it has too often been connected in history with the fear and oppression of the truth in science, other cultures and religions.  John Cobb notes:

We are afraid to speak of our faith for fear it will be interpreted as a depreciation of the value of other non-Christian people and their viewpoints.  We lose clarity and conviction about our own message, and wonder whether or not we really have good news.  Our message becomes lukewarm.

How can we be saved at once both from our present lukewarmness and from the negative relations to other traditions that too often accompanied our past fervor?  The answer is authentic faith in Christ.  But since faith in Christ was just the cause of our previous condemnation of those who did not affirm Christ, we have to think through afresh who Christ is.”

Or, to take it back a step further, what is the source of our knowledge of Christ and God, and of all things in relation to God?  In theology, these questions fall under the category of revelation.  How is God or truth revealed to us?  Revelation means “unveiling” or “disclosure.”

When Howard Perdue preached he spoke of the gift-like quality in much of our experience of knowing.  Our minds are actively thinking and perceiving, yet there is also a sense of receptiveness, as knowledge and truth previously unknown reveals itself.  New knowledge, especially important or life changing or saving knowledge feels like a gift. 

There is both an objective and subjective perception and reception of knowledge. New knowledge does not just change our picture of the world, adding another ingredient to some objective photograph, it changes how we view and use our mind.  It is as if God were pealing back or unveiling another part of ourselves for us to see, use and be. 

This is the same for math and science and art as it is for theology, the same for a Buddhist monk as a Christian.  St. Anslem said, “All truth is God’s truth.”  We might add, all paths to the truth are paved by God, or the journey of truth is the journey to God.  Different languages and cultures start from different places and move through different terrain.  Not all people, cultures, theories and doctrines are equally true, but to the degree that they are, to the degree that they enable human beings to prosper and live in harmony with each other and creation, they are inspired by God.

This week as we were discussing the memorial service for our Don Worth, Ardyce gave me a paper of Don’s on faith and science.  Don, with a PhD in physics from Yale, saw no conflict between faith and science.  His faith inspired him to be a scientist, and his science inspired his faith in God.  Don loved Psalm 19, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaim his handiwork.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth.”

The more the natural world speaks to us, the more we listen, the more we know about God.  The theory of evolution, developed from propositions on observation of creation, while far from a complete and flawless picture of the development of life, is a tool through which we see God’s glorious handiwork. As faithful Christians we don’t want to hide from its truth, we want it to be further developed, unveiled and revealed.

While I am a firm believer in the importance of the cross to our understanding and experience of God and God’s revelation and salvation, I have to admit that I often dislike seeing a cross in nature.  For instance, I was walking through the Sierra on a path and came upon a place where someone decided to nail two branches together and set it up with rocks.  I assume it was an enthusiastic youth group member or two.  I am glad they were enthusiastic about Jesus and his saving grace.  But I also had the sense that the handiwork of God was being edited by human beings.  The beauty of the place had already busted me wide open to the majesty and grace of God, and at best the cross was redundant.  At worst, nature is Christ, and unable to recognize the truth and grace as God has placed it before us, we break it and drive a nail into it.  Why did my fellow backpacking Christians not recognize this?

The revelation of truth we speak of in theology is not just any truth, but pivotal, life saving knowledge.  H. Richard Neihbur, the brother of Reinhold whom I quote all the time, speaks of the event of revelation as like a “luminous sentence” that we come across in a difficult book, “from which we can go forward and backward and so attain to some understanding of the whole.” (Migliore, Daniel. Faith Seeking Understanding, Eerdmans, 1992).  We do believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s luminous sentence in the book of life.

Christian theologians speak of general and special revelation.  Often special revelation has been used to refer to the special saving knowledge and experience of Christ, and general revelation is the other knowledge, for instance from Creation in Psalm 19, or science or Hinduism.  So some of God’s truth is found in nature and culture and religion, but the saving act of Christ is special and unique.

I have a problem with such a simple dichotomy that serves its owners sense of superiority so well.  I would say that the sacrificial love and grace of Jesus is uniquely powerful in its ability to transform and save human lives and communicate who God is for us.  I would also say that the love and grace of God is complete in Jesus Christ.  However, I would not say that the love and grace of God are limited to the person of Jesus Christ. 

The Jewish Christians in Rome were convinced that God would only reveal His truth in a certain way, that is, in connection with the covenant with Abraham and the Law of Moses.  Paul confirms that whether or not someone knows the law of God as passed down by the Israelites, they will still be judged.  What he is saying is that sin is sin whether we have been told it is sin or not.  For instance, murder, lying, and stealing are wrong whether or not anyone has told you they violate the Ten Commandments.

“It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous, but the doers of the law.”  So it is not enough to say we are the people, who have received the law, or we are the keepers of Christ, we must be livers of the law and livers of Christ. 

Paul goes on: “When Gentiles who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that they have the law written on their hearts.”  So when a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan or an agnostic is filled with grace and treats others with grace, when they work with sacrificial love for peace and justice, they are more of a Christian than the one who puts a cross on his car and goes to church, yet nevertheless fails to live a grace filled life.

There is then nothing about the word Jesus or the object of the cross that saves.  It is the experience of the sacrificial love and grace embodied in Jesus on the cross that saves.  Moreover, we may say that wherever sacrificial love and grace are found and experienced, the same Spirit of God, which was in Christ, is present, alive and speaking God’s Word.

This possibility, the limitless possibility of ways through which God may speak to us means that we must keep an open mind and heart.  If the Gospel shows us anything it is that God will show up in the most unlikely places and persons.  God remains mysterious and unknown, even as we experience a life saving personal relationship with Her.

Third World theologians and feminists have thrown a twist into the subject of revelation.  Whereas in North America and Europe theologians have concerned themselves with how we know and how we explain what we know in a logical manner, with intelligibility and credibility of belief, Latin American, African and feminist theologians have pointed out like Paul, that God’s revelation is found not just in how and what we think, but in how it is applied. 

Moreover, the thought of God’s revelation of right thinking does not precede being and acting.  We worship, and find ourselves worshipping before we answer the question, what is worship?  I do not hear God’s word on death and dying by sitting in my office in front of the computer, but by sitting with the family as the doctor says, “This is the beginning of the end.” We do not understand the reality and importance of the feminist face and voice of God until we live, work and struggle in relationship with grace filled, compassionate, intelligent women as they work to move out of hiding and find their voice. It is then that we hear the words of the Bible saying that God is like a mother bear, ready and able to protect Her young.  We do not understand the meaning of God’s liberating acts in the Exodus story first through theology, but by working for the liberation of oppressed people. “God is first contemplated when we do God’s will,” says Gutierrez, only after do we think about God.  To use familiar categories: contemplation and practice together make up a first act; theologizing is a second act.” (Gutierrez, On Job, Orbis, 1985) 

What Gutierrez and Paul, I believe, are saying, is that we are led by the Spirit of God to act before knowledge, and in the process of our action, our thought is developed. It is not by saying “Jesus saves” that we are saved and speak the truth of God, it is by living Jesus.  If, in our effort to do so we fall short, it is there that we experience God’s saving grace. The disciples were drawn to Jesus by who he was.  They saw him heal the sick and love the outcast, feed the hungry and preach good news to the poor.  This is why they followed him.  It was after that, after living with him and experiencing his amazing love and grace that they then asked, who is this man? It was only after people witnessed and experienced his loving acts that they started to wonder whether this could be the one the prophets called the Messiah. Regardless of when Jesus himself made the connection between his ministry and the sacrificial theology of Hebrew Scripture, it was only after he hung on the cross, saying father forgive them for they know not what they do, that he was understood as the sacrificial lamb that would take away sins and show God’s grace.  It was after he broke bread with them and called them by name that they recognized the resurrected Jesus.  It is his life, death and resurrection that are the luminous sentence, not the doctrine about him.

From the beginning of time God’s truth has been revealed. In every time and every place God’s truth is revealed.  It is in living that we discover how this biblical, Christian truth is played out. We then apply thought and words to it so that it makes sense in our time and place.

To make it plain: Being a good Christian is not about knowing the right words or doctrine, or displaying the certain symbols.  It is not about being smart, it is not important that you understand all of this sermon, or for me, that I make it understandable for you.  The most important part is that we dedicate our lives to love and grace to the glory of God, knowing that God has already done that for us.  We experience God’s truth, God’s love and grace and forgiveness through Jesus, and that is why we call this, the Good News of Jesus Christ.