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There are many books that deal with what other faiths believe and how to argue yourself against them. We call this apologetics and apologetics are helpful to a point. Terry Muck wrote Those Other Religions In Your Neighborhood not to be an apologetic but to be a practical guide for living as a Christian in a multi-faith world. There are many other faiths and according to Muck as much as 10% of the US population believes in a non-Christian religion. This means you know someone who has a different faith! Recently other faiths have grown radically in America and although our faith “diversity” lags behind many other countries the church is wondering what to do. It also means that Christians will soon have to figure out, “How do I relate to a boss who is Hindu?” or “Is it okay for our children to play with the Buddhist children down the street?” and “If I invite an Islamic friend to worship, should I go to her prayer service?” Muck seeks to answer these kinds of questions by proposing several different relational approaches to adherents of other faiths. He does not discuss specific religious beliefs but rather a universal approach to loving people who believe differently. This is a far cry from a call to argue and debate - discussion and dialog will take us much farther in today’s society. Most importantly he shows how we can love our neighbors even when they believe differently than us and this is the best apologetic still.

Caleb won’t stop pushing Bailey’s pink and purple stroller around the house. He’s only one, but it bugs me. Not that he’s pushing a “girl’s toy” but that now at 14 months, 16 days, he still will not walk by himself. It’s not that he can’t but rather he won’t. Today while pushing the stroller around the house he got it stuck under the coffee table and stuck on a shoe (something he could have walked over). He can stand, he can walk. He even has the strength and balance to to lift the stroller off the ground and turn it around. He doesn’t need the stroller! But, he won’t let it go, even when I pick him up, he’ll lift it into the air - holding on for comfort. He thinks he needs the stroller to walk, but it only holds him back. It gets stuck on everything. A pink stroller is what is stopping him from walking!
My son is not alone, my daughter didn’t want to walk without the safety of holding our hands. Even adults don’t want to let go. How often do we hold onto things that bump into life, knock things over, hold us back? Children hold on to their parents faith, even when it comes broken, saddled with racism, or hatred. People hold on to ministers as a substitute for a relationship with Christ and when they leave their faith fails. Many hold on to perfectionism as an excuse for not trying. If we can’t be perfect in our faith, let’s just stop trying, at least for today.
We walk around our life with strollers, out of place, awkward, but at least we feel secure. We have addictions, habits, grudges we nurse, judgment we pass all so we can escape our own inability to walk alone. How much hurt we cause when we run others over, how much slower we go getting stuck all along the way?!?
Your stroller, Caleb’s stroller, my stroller, all as absurd as the other. All holding us back, all keeping us from walking the way we were meant to walk. Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” Let us put the stroller down and start to walk away…even if its slowly.

I have switched my sermon audio over to a different server to eliminate being directed off this site and the confusion of navigating through advertisement. Now you can access sermon audio in one of two ways either select the sermon you want in the player to the right or right click on the sermon title under “Sermons and Articles” select “Save Link As” and save it to your computer. The sermons also have been reduced in size to expedite download times and streaming capabilities.

This Sunday is the third Sunday in Advent and celebrates the love of God while inspiring us to love each other. I recently received this quote by C. S. Lewis and thought that it was so profound that I would share it.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intake, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly save from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
- C.S Lewis
The Four Loves

John Howard Yoder first made waves with this book in 1972, this revised edition published in 1994 offers little new material from the original. He has simply attempted to update the survey of thought regarding the political ethics which are derived from the teachings of Christ. This lack of new material does not date or diminish from this work in anyway, in many ways it is even more controversial to religious political conservatives today.
Yoder explains and builds up an ethic for individuals and nations that spring out of the teachings of Christ as found in the Gospels. He uses the Gospels as the primary lens by which the rest of the New Testament and Church history are to be viewed. I believe that this is the right approach (although some of his conclusions venture onto shaky ground). You wouldn’t go to the Old Testament first reading the minor prophets and then using them to interpret the Torah! Nor should we start with the epistles (major or “minor”) and read them back onto the teachings of Jesus. Christ came first, he is the foundation, chief-cornerstone, therefore everything we believe should start with what he taught. Yoder does venture into the epistles and early church but only after constructing a solid ethical framework in the Gospels. Particularly helpful was chapter 10 which deals with capital punishment and Paul’s teaching in Romans 13. Yoder’s interpretation of “he who bears the sword” is both viable and consistent with the rest of the biblical witness.
This challenge to an ethic of “radical subordination” by Yoder is a strong confrontation to the modern religious conservative in America. It speaks of turning the other cheek, giving to the poor, saving life, living in peace, all in a very revolutionary way. Perhaps this is why it was less controversial in the 70’s!
This ethic centers on peace (pacificism) and social justice (care for the poor and stranger). These two thoughts are a far cry from the conservative religious leaders of our day. Where many evangelical leaders and ministers are calling for war, torture of terrorists and a cut of aid to those in need. According to them this is consistent with their religious convictions, it might be but I’m having a hard time finding that in the teachings of Christ.

Archbishop Romero understood James 4:14b-15 which says, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’” Romero was a very reluctant leader in a largely ignored chapter of history, but his mark that he left in El Salvador, Latin America and in all Liberation Theology is indelible. Perhaps the reason for his effectiveness was the quiet surrender by which he lived his life. He understood that God alone is our source of strength, and that victory comes only to those who have admitted defeat.