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Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 It was the summer of '63, and I was beginning my travels in Europe. My intention was to eventually travel around the world. I bought an Italian scooter in London and was now on my way to Cambridge. While in Cambridge I bought a copy of Sir James Frazier's The Golden Bough, which I read avidly. Frazier introduced me to a world of sacred groves and gods and goddesses, myths and legends and stories of demi-gods and spirits lingering behind every tree and rock and on every hillside. He collected pages of popular fables and argued plausibly that religion grew out of a superstitious attitude towards nature. The next stage beyond religion, the final stage, he argued, was a scientific understanding of the world and how it functions. Frazier's book seemed to me to be a very plausible explanation of the religious experience, and I was enthralled. It is certainly true when one is young and impressionable, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And it was seductively dangerous for me because I thought I was truly open-minded. Like many students of the 60's, I questioned the Christian tradition that I grew up with, experimented with a religious cult, and completely misunderstood the idea of freedom. All the while that I was thinking I was educating myself in a broad sense, it never dawned on me to think more deeply and honestly about life. I also did not want to go to the heart of the matter because the 'far country' was too enticing. In truth, I was skating on thin ice. Not until I arrived at L'Abri was I challenged to examine more radically the ideas that I had cobbled together. In hindsight, I can now see that I was locked in a worldview that I did not even understand. It was like I was shut up in a room and then the lights were turned off. I had not even heard of the word 'worldview,' yet a certain way of thinking about the world was shaping my whole life. Schaeffer was absolutely right when he spoke of how a worldview can slip silently into our thinking like a fog seeping into a room through the cracks in a doorway. Or we unthinkingly adopt a worldview like we catch the measles. It is in the very air we breathe. At some moment in my life I walked into a room that became more and more dark, and soon I was lost in total confusion. Imprisoned, I was unable to see or understand the glory of a larger story that dispels the darkness. A virtually unchallenged politically correct understanding of religious pluralism is in the air we breathe today. Like Pied Piper summoning all the children of the town, many people today are being led unaware into captivity. All religions are social constructs, we are told, with a distinctive language, symbols and texts. There is no universal story that is true for all people. Religions are simply different ways that men and women try to make some sense out of the world. If we do not follow the faith of the community into which we were born, we choose another belief much like we ask for our favorite ice cream. It is merely what we prefer or like. This type of thinking is another way of skating on thin ice. But that is not like it is at all in the real world. At our conference on religious pluralism in February we wanted to challenge people to think more clearly about these issues. A plurality of religious beliefs existing side by side is nothing new. The lst century was awash in religious beliefs, some native to the Roman Empire, but many introduced from far-flung provinces and even distant India. There is no cult of Isis and Osiris in Rochester today, and I haven't met a Druid in my lifetime. I am sure that no one in Rochester practices the Mithraic cult with its initiation practice of being baptized in the blood of an ox slaughtered over one's head, and no one is compelled by the state to worship President Bush. Rochester, though, is as diverse as the lst century Mediterranean world. There are two Muslim mosques in Rochester, a Buddhist temple is being planned, and Hindu philosophy and new age ideas surface when hot topics like healing and prayer, the environment, feminist theology and ecumenicity are discussed. Recently one of the local churches hosted a Jesus seminar. The upshot is that Jesus was a mere man. By casting different colored ballots according to criteria that accords with their rationalistic worldview, they vote on the authenticity of Jesus' words, and not surprisingly, conclude that in the gospels Jesus said very little that is authentic. This is closer to the postmodern mindset and explains what is different today about religious pluralism. Truth is what we make it to be. We do not have to square beliefs with reality. This is another way to skate on thin ice, and at some point the ice will crack. Paul wrote in his letter to the Christians in Rome that his contemporaries were putting their own spin on truth and god. The reason he gave for their evasive maneuver was that they were suppressing the truth about God clearly revealed in creation. Paul concludes that all their efforts will only result in folly and silliness. In disavowing God, they will in the end irrationally worship the creation instead of the creator. Determined to walk proudly in the dark, they are not able, as the prophet Isaiah mockingly wrote, to discern truth from falsehood. Perhaps one of the first things to highlight is that both the Old and New Testaments place a profound emphasis on history. For most people history is a rather boring subject and many feel like they have been buried under an Everest of facts and dates that doesn't seem to make much sense. But the Bible glories in history, and specifically God's revelation in history in word and deed. Because certain events really did happen, God could say again and again to his covenant people "You saw, you heard" Because God was the maker of heaven and earth and was powerfully sovereign over his creation, history did not repeat itself endlessly like the Greeks believed. From the biblical perspective history was going somewhere and that somewhere was in the hands of God. This particular emphasis of the Bible is unique in the ancient world. All the other world religions have either a mythological or speculative foundation. For a Hindu it really makes no difference whether or not Jesus ever lived. What he taught is the really important thing. But the Bible begs to differ and affirms that history makes all the difference in the world. When God acts in history to redeem a people, the angels look down in amazement. God is not indifferent to his creation. He is not the God of the deist, who only begins all things and then steps aside and watches from a distance. Only the people of the book would revel in the proclamation "Immanuel," God with us. History and our redemption are important to God. God not only speaks and acts in history, which is cause for joyous celebration, but even more amazingly God promises to dwell with his people. Now Moses understood that God's promise to go with his people was an absolute necessity if the covenant community was to be distinct from "all the other people on the face of the earth." [Ex 6] So he pleads with God, and God graciously answers. To know God in a covenant relationship, therefore, is not only to stand in awe of him, it is also the source of deepest delight and never-ending gratitude and thanksgiving and praise. I would like to think that one of the reasons for the joy and thanksgiving that characterized so many of the annual feasts in the OT came not only from an understanding that God had freed them from being literally slaves to Pharaoh, but that they were also rejoicing in the freedom of the truth about God. They were redeemed to be fully human and enjoy the good gifts of God. Abraham was certainly aware of the many gods of Mesopotamia for he was called out of a pagan society. The Israelites who came out of Egypt were aware of the many gods of Egypt for they had been enslaved in Egypt for 450 years. Later in the land of Canaan the people of God were warned of the gods of Canaan and Phoenicia and their detestable practices. What an insufferable burden to have to appease a multiplicity of gods! Which god should I appease? Which god have I offended? To whom shall I pray and petition? Will the gods be pleased? Moreover, do they really care for me after all? Where in all the confusion can I turn? How can I be sure that the gods I worship will not be taken captive, like the chief deities carted off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar? And the questions go on and on. Abraham and the children of God were free not to bow down to idols of wood and stone like their ancestors in Ur, free not to sacrifice their children to appease some angry Caananite god, free not to bring their daughters to serve as temple prostitutes because the living God had communicated his will and good purposes to them. They were called in truth to "glorify god and enjoy him forever." The religion of just one people in the ancient world was not rooted in mythology or speculation. And that was the people of Yahweh. The Biblical teaching that God alone is the creator and is sovereign over history, that he alone is both transcendent and immanent and stands apart from his creation and yet can speak and act into his creation, is found nowhere else except in the scriptures. I believe that there is only one explanation for this unique understanding of God. God truly did reveal himself in time and space. The shema in Deuteronomy 6 is unlike any other description of God. "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one." Or one could also translate the Hebrew, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is God alone." There is no other god, and he is worthy of all of our praises. In a few days we will be celebrating Easter and the glorious resurrection of Jesus from the grave. We will joyously greet one another after the service with the refrain so dear to his church, "He is risen indeed!" The Word of God incarnate has broken the bonds of death. He now reigns in glory. And he will come again to bring justice to earth and roll back the curse. In "the death of death in the death of Christ," to use the Puritan John Owen's famous phrase, Jesus the Messiah has begun the work of making all things new. With Paul we rejoice in the sure knowledge that God "gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." And we therefore want to stand firm, as Paul would exhort all of us to "give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Forever and ever, world without end, by His grace, Larry ............................................................................................................................ Prayer
.................................................................................... For future contacts and lectures at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Jock has organized this outreach and we have all been encouraged by the response. We would also like to see more contacts with them Carlton College, also located in Northfield. .................................................................................... For our annual member's meeting this year in Huemoz from April 17-23. Nancy and Alison have decided not to travel to the meetings this year. .................................................................................... For Jock as he will be speaking at a school of worldviews in Romania from April 29-May 6. .................................................................................... This year we will have a longer summer term. Pray for strength and wisdom. Also for Karen Alston who will be helping three weeks this summer. .................................................................................... For the finances as we would like to tackle some larger projects. It looks like we might have to put a new roof on part of the main house, and the house will probably need to be repainted soon. There is also the possibility of making a circle drive to ease the traffic flow, as sometimes on Friday evenings we might have 20-25 cars parked in the driveway and on the lawn. .................................................................................... Remember to pray for Edith who is planning a visit to Rochester for two weeks the end of May. She will be seeing many friends and getting another checkup at the Mayo Clinic. .................................................................................... For the Saint Louis L'Abri Retreat this summer, August 16-31. .................................................................................... For the Toronto L'Abri Conference, August 8-12. Click here for more information. .................................................................................... Please Note: Our new e-mail address is now rochester@labri.org .................................................................................... Our new phone and fax number for the office is (507) 536-0108 .................................................................................... If you are moving, or have moved recently, please send us your correct postal address. We had a wonderful conference in February on religious pluralism, and we are thankful to God for making the whole event so memorable. While some people had to cancel because of a last minute snowstorm, we still had over 650 attend from every part of the country. The plenary speakers and others who lead the many workshops all helped us focus on religious pluralism and its implications for today. Many of those attending told us how helpful these conferences are, and that they are eagerly looking forward to next year's conference. One couple who came from Iowa for their first L'Abri conference ever, and who brought other couples from their church, said that the Rochester conference was like a hidden jewel. That aptly captures the beauty and significance o f our weekend together. ............................................................................................................................ Rochester
Conference 2003 |
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