Omaha 2 doctrinal

We are increasingly faced with a choice , I believe, not between kindness and hostility, but between kindness and

nonexistence. (p. 12)

Us.

Them.

Us.

Them.

Neighbor?

Enemy?

Us.

Them.

Neighbor?

Hostility? Hospitality?Different? Same?

Enemy?

Can there be peace among passionately faithful people?

Starting Point:

We already know how to do 2 things quite well:

We already know how to do 2 things quite well:

1. how to have a strong Christian identity that is hostile toward people of other religions.

STRONG-HOSTILE

We have the only way.

You are going to hell.

We are God’s chosen.

You worship false gods.

resistance is futile.

you will be assimilated - or eliminated.

We already know how to do 2 things quite well:

1. how to have a strong Christian identity that is hostile toward people of other religions.

2. how to have a weak Christian identity that is tolerant (benign) toward people of other religions.

weak-benign

it doesn’t matter what you believe.

all religions are the same.

all roads lead to god.

only sincerity matters.

doctrines divide.

keep religion private.

We haven’t yet learned ...

to have a strong Christian identity

that is benevolent

toward other religions.

strong-benevolent

Because I Follow Jesus, I love you.

I move toward “the other.”

I break down walls of hostility.

i stand with you in solidarity.

you are made in God’s image.

i am your servant.

I practice human-kindness.

A Popular Misconception:

Our religious differences keep us apart.

Actuality:It is not our religious

differences that keep us apart, but rather one thing we all hold in common:

Actuality:We build strong religious

identities through hostility toward the other.

Give people a common enemy, and you will

give them a common identity. Deprive them

of an enemy and you will deprive them of

the crutch by which they know who they are.

- James Alison

"Historically, the amity, or goodwill, within the group has often depended on enmity, or hatred, between groups. But when you get to the global level, that won't work... That cannot be the dynamic that holds the planet together... But what would be unprecedented is to have this kind of solidarity and moral cohesion at a global level that did not depend on the hatred of other groups of people."

(Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic Of Human Destiny, quoted in Evolutionaries: Unlocking The

Spiritual And Cultural Potential In Science's Greatest Idea, by Carter Phipps)

Can Christians today build a new kind of identity ... based on hospitality and solidarity, not hostility, to the other?

strong-benevolent

But how?

Four Challenges

1. Historical

3. Liturgical

4. Missional

Four Challenges

1. Historical

2. Doctrinal

3. Liturgical

4. Missional

Must doctrinal differences always divide us?

Doctrine can mean “loyalty test”

- our tribal paint, tattoos, feathers, and accent that

distinguish “safe us” from “dangerous them.”

But doctrine can have another meaning ... another purpose:

Doctrine can mean

“a healing teaching.”

What might happen if we took a second look at our

core doctrines - not as hostile identity markers,

but ashealing teachings?

healing teachingsintended to bind together

what has been torn and broken

(re-ligion)?

The Healing Teaching of Creation

We are all connected.

The Healing Teaching of Original Sin

Tree of Life (good) - life as creatures

Tree of Knowledge (good and evil) -

life as gods

The Healing Teaching of Election (or chosen-ness)

uniquely blessedto be a blessing:us for all of us

The Healing Teaching of Incarnation

God joined with human flesh ...

all humanity taken up into God insolidarity

The Healing Teaching of the Deity of Christ

Not “Jesus is like God”

but“God is like Jesus”

The Healing Teaching of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost Sermon (Paul Nuechterlein)

For me, another clear sign of hope comes through the irony of God raising up a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ who was a Hindu and remained a Hindu. I'm talking about Mahatma Gandhi, who said this, among many other things, about Jesus:

Jesus expressed, as no other could, the spirit and will of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognize him as the Son of God. And because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendency to which I have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world, to all races and people...

We might ask, So why didn't Gandhi simply convert to Christianity? But I think the better Pentecost question would be, Why should he have to convert? Why should he have to change religions? Why should he have to play into religion into the negative ways that bring division? Did Jesus come to offer us a new religion to add to our ways of dividing into differing cultures and languages -- the Tower of Babel reality? Or did he come to help each of us within our own religions and cultures to find the one true God of unity? I think that Pentecost shows us the latter. We can welcome, as many Christians are coming to do, the diversity of religious practices that help lead to the experience of our oneness in God. Christians are learning from Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and indigenous religions the effective religious practices of how to become closer to the God of Jesus Christ. That's the Pentecost pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all peoples, so that their experience of oneness transcends their many languages and cultures.

Finally, the greatest sign of hope to me is how Gandhi helped deepen our understanding of the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate. He had his own name for it in Sanskrit: Satyagraha, he called it, which translates as Truth Force. Satyagraha moved him and many millions of people over the last century to learn Jesus' way to peace through loving, nonviolent resistance to evil. Like Jesus on the cross, in this way to peace we risk taking that old way of sin, righteousness, and judgment on ourselves in order to reveal its futility, its wrongness, and offering instead God's way of grace and forgiveness. Pentecost is Satyagraha poured out on us so that we may bring peace to our lives as family members, co-workers, neighbors, citizens, and, yes, as both Jesus and Gandhi compelled us to do, as children of God -- all of humanity, children of God. Amen

Rev. Paul J. Nuechterlein

Delivered at Prince of Peace Lutheran, Portage, MI, May 27, 2012

The Healing Teaching of the Trinity

diversity without domination

plurality without subordination

Fatherness that honors son-ness in equality (& ends patriarchy)

Son-ness that honors fatherness without rivalry (& ends patricide)

Fatherness and son-ness that uphold Spiritness without homogeneity (ending absolutism)

A God who generates the next generation of God!

The Healing Teaching of Inspiration of

Scripture

“Manifold witness”The plurality of truth

Unity around key questions - arguments over best

answers

Expanding the Dialogue

Differences within and amongIncommensurabilityComplementarity

Point-CounterpointScholars & Mystics

Four Challenges

1. Historical

2. Doctrinal

3. Liturgical

4. Missional

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