Hard teaching 5 - What about people who don't believe?

This time, I am tackling a collection of questions that all mention the same basic problem. The problem is that Christianity implies that, left to ourselves, the human race is in deep trouble, and that God has devised a rescue plan. But if we don't opt for the rescue plan, or never get a chance to get on board, we remain in the proverbial.

Here are the questions.

Christian doctrine tells us that we are saved by faith – what about those who never hear about Jesus, or indeed the many who do not accept him?

I absolutely believe in Jesus and my Father God; my husband and children don’t. How do I accept the fact that I will one day be with the Lord and they won’t?

Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Here's the painful question put very clearly. What about those who don't hear, or don't accept? What about my family members who don't believe? If Jesus says he is the only way to God, what about everyone else?

We live in an inclusive, tolerant age. The thought that Christianity might be exclusive worries us to death. So what are we to think?

Christians have adopted one of three different answers to this question. 

Some say, "It's clear and obvious, you read the Bible and it tells you that the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus. If you don't have that faith, you aren't saved. End of."

Others take the opposite extreme: "God is a God of love. He will never reject anybody. Ultimately, he will find a way of saving everybody."

There is a middle ground position as well, which basically says: "We don't know what people's eternal fate will be. That's up to God. All we can do is trust in his mercy."

This is very much a live question. Recently the Religious Right in America got all hot and bothered about a book called Love Wins by Rob Bell. They accused him of being a universalist - which is basically position 2 above. But the accusations took on something of the nature of a witch hunt. 

The trouble with the extreme views on both sides is that they end up protecting themselves by turning strident, and end up sounding and acting very unlike the Jesus they claim to be following. Something's wrong there. 

So - for me, the right thing to think either has to be one where I'm aligned with people who act in ways I'm ashamed of, or the woolly, sitting on the fence "We don't really know" middle ground position. I'm uncomfortable wherever I sit. 

So my response is to retreat from having a dogmatic, certain view into stories and nuances. We have Jesus' words on the subject; what we don't have is his tone of voice. He said "No one comes to the Father except through me," but how did he say it?

This may not work on the page, but did he say it like this:

No one comes to the Father except through me

or did he say it like this:

No one comes to the Father except through me

Do you see the difference?

In the first one, Jesus is like a doorman at a night club. He will keep you out, unless you satisfy his conditions. In the second, he's not judging anyone who comes in. He saying in effect, "I'm the one who opens the door to the Father for you. You may not recognise me, but it's only through me that that door will ever be opened. It's only through me that you will ever find yourself in the presence of God."

Experts tell us that only 10% of our communication is verbal. On this issue, I'm putting my faith in the 90%.

Hard Teaching 4: Jesus's appearances after death

The full question I was asked was this:

What was going on when Jesus appeared after death? Could heaven be on earth?

I want to try and answer this from two points of view. First of all, from the disciples' point of view, and then from Jesus' standpoint.

So what did the disciples think was going on?

Well first of all, they thought that they'd lost. Jesus had been defeated. This is going out on penalties, being relegated, watching your team go into administration, and having the Olympics awarded to another country all on the same day. It doesn't get any worse than this.

You don't start following the Messiah, expecting him to end up dead on a cross.

So the last thing, and I do mean the very very last thing any of them expected, was to see Jesus again. Maybe this accounts for the fact that they didn't recognise him at first. Or if they did, they thought he was a ghost. On the resurrection front, their expectations were so far below ground level they were bumping against the Earth's core. For them, nothing could be less likely to happen than for Jesus to come strolling in with a grin on his face, saying "Surprise!"

Have I laboured the point enough? So when Mary met him at the tomb, when Cleopas and friend walked with him to Emmaus, when Peter saw him in secret, and when they all (except Thomas) had him gatecrash their evening meal, they weren't looking for him, or hoping for him to appear. At least, not alive.

May thought he was the gardener, Cleopas thought he must have been a stranger to Jerusalem, since he pretended not to know what had happened, the ten in the upper room thought ... I don't know what. It took time and effort on Jesus' part to convince them that he was back from the dead.

But there's also something mysterious about him. They can touch him, yet somehow he's reluctant for them to do so. He "appears," even though the doors are locked. Even when they look at him, sometimes they can't seem to focus on his face properly. He's different somehow.

Now, what about it from Jesus' point of view? Sometimes I imagine the Incarnation as a diver, where Jesus forces himself below the surface of the water into a world that, strictly speaking, is alien to him. When he dies, it's as if he "pops out" back into the air of heaven, and has to take a deep breath and force himself back into earthly existence for a few minutes in order to speak to his friends.

If you've ever read "Water Bugs and Dragonflies," perhaps you'll know what I mean. In this little story, the larvae of dragonflies, who live under water, are confused when some of their number disappear from their sight. They haven't died, they've become dragonflies, new and beautiful creatures that no longer belong in the watery world.

The Bible tells us that if we trust in Jesus, we will eventually have resurrection bodies, which surpass the glory of our earthly bodies to a similar extent. What if Jesus after his resurrection, now clothed in his resurrection body, was holding his breath as it were, and diving back under the surface of the water to speak to us again?

A little bit of heaven, come to earth. Just for a while.

Hard Teaching 3 - Give up all that you have

"Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

This is the climax of a little story in Mark's gospel where an earnest young man with a privileged background is unable to go further along the path of righteousness than he has already travelled, and leaves Jesus, crestfallen.

Jesus follows up this encounter by warning his disciples that it is harder for someone rich to enter God's kingdom than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The disciples are like, "Woh! Who's ever going to get in then?" Peter says that he's left everything behind already, and Jesus implies that he's made the grade.

Read the passage, if you haven't already, and tell me if that's the way it strikes you.

If you're agreeing with me so far, then let me tell you, we're both wrong.This story is not about doing something so hard, so remarkable, that God will be pleased with us and let us into heaven. Really, it's not.

How do I know? Because there's plenty elsewhere in the Bible that tells us that this isn't how it works. We're fooled by the question the young man asks: "What must I do...?" Truth is, we can't do anything to deserve the gift of eternal life, God offers it to us without strings attached.

So there we are. Let me say it very simply. You don't need to give up all you have to get into heaven.

But wait a minute, didn't Jesus say, "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." (Matthew 5:40) I remember reading that passage once, then answering the door to a homeless man who looked at what I was wearing and said "That's a nice jumper, can I have it?"

I stared at him for a minute, then went upstairs, got an old jumper out of my drawer and gave him that instead.

Did I do the right thing?

Hard Teaching 2 - Practical or Spiritual?

How important is the spiritual side of the Christian faith? I love the practical application of “love thy neighbour” and the parables, but struggle with the Holy Spirit.

I'm working my way through a list of questions compiled by my congregation. There are some fine questions here, and replying to them in a helpful way is going to be really challenging. I probably won't do more than scratch the surface with any of them.

That is particularly true with today's question. I could say, somewhat dismissively, that the "spiritual side" is everything. Without it, Christians aren't Christians at all, they're social workers, or volunteers, or campaigners. But my guess is that the questioner knows that - what he or she is really asking is more about should Christians be focussed inwards, or outwards.

Time for a beef. I love contemporary worship. I love big bands, crowds of people with their hands in the air, worshipping God heart, soul, mind, body and strength. But I don't love many contemporary songs. I prefer stuff from the 80's and 90's. Ok so I'm old, I know that, but few of the songs being written right now seem to have much substance. They are all about me and how God makes me feel. (I can't believe I'm writing this - I am so turning into my Dad!)  Singing them anywhere other than in a big crowd makes my toes curl. 

Come to an ordinary small church, where there aren't any gifted musicians, and perhaps the only instrument available is an organ, and these songs sound ridiculous. What you need is something with a bit of doctrine to it. Something that declares the truth about who God is, or what we need to do for him in the world.

So I'm impatient with too much soppy soul-searching, and keen to have an attitude that encourages me to go out and make a difference. 

I too struggle with the Holy Spirit. I struggle with the fact that God wants all of me. He wants my love, not just my obedience. He wants my attention, not just my service. He wants to fill me with his Spirit until I leak glory from every orifice. (Sorry about that metaphor - perhaps it wasn't the best). 

And I can't do that just by being a decent chap. I can only do it by being so soaked in the presence of God that he literally drips off me wherever I walk. That way, my work for God, my volunteering, my campaigning, won't be either strident or self-seeking, instead it will be natural, filled with grace, and a real blessing to others.

I want to be like that. I really do. But without the Holy Spirit, I haven't a hope.