Of the One Faith

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This past Sunday afternoon I was asked to participate in the Religious Freedom walk sponsored by the Springhill avenue Temple. There were seven clergy there representing four world religions. Each of us were asked to speak briefly regarding our respective takes on the chosen theme: loving our neighbor. There were two Catholic priests, one a Jesuit, the other a parish priest, the priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, a rabbi, a Muslim imam, three Buddhist monks, and me, the sole representative of the so-called Protestant Christian tradition.

Each person spoke about their own tradition’s admonition to love their neighbor, to live for the sake of each other, to recognize the need of our neighbor as if the need were our own. It was as if we were all of one faith only. I didn’t disagree with anything anyone said, because what they were all saying implicitly is that the religious life is not about belief system, but practice. In the practice of the good we are all brothers and sisters, all in solidarity for the good of the whole.

The experience that afternoon caused me to grieve over Christianity’s penchant to exclusivity over the centuries….right belief , orthodoxy, at all costs…believe what we tell you to believe, or you’re not in, but out…Many lives have been wrecked because of making right belief the standard of faithfulness…that is making doctrine an idol…and it is quite the easy way out of our spiritual responsibility to bring God’s commonweal to bear in our own day…just believe and all will be well…I’ve outgrown that….It is our enlightened doing the faith that brings God’s goodness in earth….our enlightened doing that saves.

When it came my turn to speak, I named the reality that we, all the world’s people are really (certainly in the eyes of God I think) one faith…I think God is utterly confused by our arbitrary divisions…I addressed the assembly as “people of the one faith.” Because we are all people who act “as if.” We are all people who act as if the universal vision of compassion, mercy, equality and justice is true. No dogmatic divisions can stand against the practice of goodness. That is what Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha, the prophets of Israel modeled for us…the good and right way to live as a people, so that we are indeed one as God would have it….a way to live which then teaches us what to believe….belief being the artful and ever changing interpretations and articulations of the practice of the faith.

We walked the campus of Springhill college on a crisp beautiful day…One people whose pledge is to love our neighbor…that loving neighbor is to love God and ourselves….It is on this simple but profound promise that the lives of all on earth are made one, contingent each to each, belief systems notwithstanding…one body…one faith…one hope for us all.

7 Comments

  1. This might be the best one yet. Amen, brother!

  3. Pardon, I was referring to John 14:6-14, not just 9-14.

  4. EJ, Good question. Medieval and modern Christianity have used these lines to argue for Christianity being an exclusive sect ( the Gospel of John has been used for antisemitic doctrine and persecution as well) But the text is arguing quite the opposite. The text speaks of Jesus as “way.” A way of life which for the writers of this gospel is a life of ‘befriending.” the Greek word philios is ubiquitus in this gospel. We tend to translate it as brotherly love, but the word acurately translated means to “befriend”; which still again is a weak English translation…It means to utterly live for the other…The metaphor for John is the washing of feet…the utter bending to the other…sacrifice the modus operandi of such a life…The crucifixion of course the culminating event…that our very lives are offered for the good of the whole.

    The way of Jesus is an invitation not to a personal belief sytem…but a way of life marked by age old Torah truth…loving kindness, doing justice, and walking humbly…a practice extolled by all world religions….For sake of the argument lets call this way, the “Jesus principle”…a principle of just living all over the world…The late 20th century theologian Karl Rahner (Roman Catholic) went so far as to say that one who practices this manner of life is an “anonymous Christian.” That’s a little presumptive perhaps (a muslim or Hindu or Jew might not so much want to be so named)…but a devout Buddhist on the other hand might rightly speak of us Christians as anonymous Buddhists….So I’m saying that it is practice that makes us spiritual beings…belief comes in its own time, and is culturally contexted…hence another reason for our sad divisions (and certainly in John there are troublesome ethnic considerations, as there are in Paul and the Acts). The bottom line for me is that Jesus is indeed the true way…a way that has many other names in earth…a way that will ultimately make us all friends, each to each… Hope this helps. Thanks for weighing in. JF

  5. Amen, and Amen. It fascinates me how we concentrate so much on the 2% that separates us theologically, instead of rejoice in the 98% that unites us. Is it really reasonable to assert that one particular subset – more likely a subset of a subset – of one denomination of one belief system is THE right answer and all others must be incorrect?

    Though I was baptized and confirmed as an Episcopalian and after college have returned to the Episcopal church – I identify myself as a Christian practicing my faith within this particular congregation. I feel perfectly comfortable practicing my faith within other Christian and non-Christian faith communities as there is so much we share.

    And as you said, it is how we live out our faith that matters in this world.

    1. Rick, Can you tell us where that figure, i.e., 2%, comes from; that is, can you provide a reference? Thanks. Ray

      1. Also, Rick, what specific topics do you feel are included in that 2% – the Virgin birth? Christ as God’s only Son? Personal salvation? the Holy Spirit?
        Thanks.
        Ray

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