The Most (In)Tolerant Belief on Earth
Bible Passage:
Rom. 10:9-13
Pastor:
Pastor Mike
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Sermon Date:
2011-05-28
In a recent Simpsons episode, Maude Flanders, Homer Simpson’s religious neighbor, once said, “I’ve been away at Bible camp, learning to be more judgmental!” Kind of shows you what the writers feel about Christianity, doesn’t it? “Tolerant” probably isn’t the first adjective the world would choose for the Christian Church. Maybe that’s why we’ve seen a push within the church to rebrand itself. Some people paste a “co-exist” bumper sticker on their cars, a plea for all religions to tolerate one another. Others write books on acceptance, like the best-selling Christian pastor who says Buddhists, atheists, Muslims, and everyone else can still make it to heaven even if they die without faith in Christ. Christian churches are struggling to define their stance on what they can tolerate and what they cannot, whom to include and whom to exclude.
But what does Christ say? What do those who follow his teachings say about these issues? Today we get to see for ourselves. God led a 1st century pastor and apostle named Paul to write a letter to the church at Rome, a place of religious diversity. Let’s study God’s Word together from Romans 10, starting with verse 9…
“9 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Does that sound discriminatory? Actually, Christianity is radically tolerant. Paul did not discriminate with the message of Jesus Christ. Paul was Jewish, but when he met non-Jewish people, he told them about Jesus. Paul was male, but when he met women, he told them about Jesus. Paul had a squeaky-clean moral upbringing, but when he met the black sheep of broken families, he told them about Jesus. Paul was from Tarsus, in Turkey, but when he met other nationalities, he told them about Jesus. “There is no difference. Anyone. Everyone. All people. God wants to include all of you. He wants you all to be saved!”
Isn’t that a stunning thought? Listen to every word of this sentence: God…wants…you…to be saved. You! That’s what God himself wants! It makes God happy to include you. The UW might exclude you because of your transcript, but God wants to include you. The company might exclude you because of your age or experience, but God wants to include you. A woman might exclude you because of your lack of charm (or your unibrow…), but God wants to include you. You family might exclude you because you shamed them with your choices, but God wants to include you. A landlord might exclude you because of your financial issues, but God wants to include you. The other kids might exclude you for a thousand petty reasons, but God wants to include you. Your father might have excluded you when he walked out on your family, but God the Father wants to include you. “God so loved the world [that includes you!] that he gave his only Son.” Jesus died and rose again so you could be included in the greatest family, the family of God, with the greatest Father, God himself, in the greatest place, heaven, with the greatest peace, unending perfection. Anyone, al, everyone, there is no difference. Paul makes no exclusions on God’s love. And neither do we.
I’ll never forget the bitterly cold night I was driving home from Pedro’s on East Wash. and saw a woman, hunched over and freezing. I thought she was stranded, so I stopped and asked, “Do you need a ride?” She jumped in my Saturn, introduced herself, and before we hit highway 51, she got down to business. Do you know what I mean? There I was, a pastor, with a prostitute sitting shotgun. Well, Jesus hung out with prostitutes, didn’t he? After she propositioned me, I told her I was married and wouldn’t be giving her any business. But I still would give her a ride home. So we drove and talked about our kids and their favorite cartoons. Then I got down to my business. I invited her to church for Christmas. She seemed interested. And just before I dropped her off, I dropped the news—“If you come, you’ll get to hear me preach. I’m a pastor.” You should have seen her face. She stared at the dashboard and mumbled, “I really know how to pick ‘em.” Do you see what I’m getting at? God’s invitation to believe and be saved is all-inclusive. It’s for the “good” and the “bad”, for the pastor and for the prostitute.
Every person you see today is someone God wants to include. The guy working at McDonald’s. The homeless man on the corner. The girl bagging your groceries. Your new step-dad. The people waiting trial. The prostitute on E. Washington. The new, loud tenants in your apartment. Jesus came for them, lived for them, died for them, rose for them, forgave them, and now pursues them because they are part of God’s all-inclusive package of salvation. As Christians, you can be like Paul and tolerate—no, embrace!—any race, nationality, gender, or moral history.
Paul’s words here are full of inclusive good news…but did you notice something as we read it? Were there words that jumped out at you and said, “But! Wait! Don’t skip this!” Did this same inclusive section of God’s Word strike you as radically exclusive, too?
“9If 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You can be male or female, black or white, Jew or Gentile, citizen or immigrant, behind bars or walking free, single or married, together or divorced, convicted or acquitted, but you can’t believe just anything. You can BE anything, but you can’t just BELIEVE anything. The text does not say, “If you believe something in your heart. Anyone who trusts in someone. Everyone who calls on the name of whatever.” No, God is more exclusive than that. He does not tolerate faith in anything. He says very clearly, “If you don’t believe Jesus is Lord and Jesus rose from the dead and Jesus takes away your sin and shame, you cannot be saved.”
In January, I toured Israel and visited a modern-day reconstruction of a 1st century town. There were replicas of ancient tombs, olive trees, a watchtower, a synagogue, and a model home. But what I remember most was the sheep pen. A simple fence, made of broken-off branches encircled an open area for sheep to spend the night. There was no gate or door; just a 4-foot gap between the ends of the fence. Our guide explained how a shepherd would bring his sheep in for the night and then sit in that gap. The shepherd became the gate, the only way to get in or out of the pen. There were no emergency exits or side doors. There was only one way in and that was through the shepherd.
Jesus once said, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep…whoever enters through me will be saved.” There’s only one gate. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” There’s only one way. Jesus said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life…Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.” There is only one Savior.
But why? Why do we have to be so exclusive? Why did Jesus have to be so intolerant of other philosophies? Because tolerance is not more important than truth. That’s why we don’t want our doctors to be tolerant. We don’t want the doctor to throw a dart at all the alleged cures for our diseases. Some of them might hurt us. We only want medicine that truly works. That’s why we don’t want tolerant pilots. “Attention, passengers, I know the runway is right below us, but I’d like to try landing in Lake Monona today. So sit back and enjoy the flight.” No! We want pilots to be extremely exclusive because our lives are at stake. So why do you think Paul and Jesus were so exclusive about how to be saved? Because our very eternal lives are at stake!
I just met a pastor who spoke to 150 kids at a gathering on religious diversity. A local Muslim and Hindu joined him on stage and told the kids a little bit about their respective faiths. All three of them brought up the name of Jesus. “We believe in Jesus,” the Muslim said. “He is a great prophet.” “You can believe in Jesus,” the Hindu responded, “he can be one of your gods in our faith.” Then the pastor stood up. “Kids, here’s what makes Christianity different. In these religions, you reach up to God and rescue yourself. It depends on your prayers, your good deeds, your mystic chanting—it depends on you. But in Christianity God reaches down and rescues you. We believe God looked down and said, ‘I love them all so much, I will save them with my Son.’ That Son was Jesus Christ. He came down to earth to save us.” Looking to his left, the pastor asked the Muslim, “You guys don’t believe that, do you?” He shook his head. Turning to his right, the pastor asked the Hindu, “You guys don’t believe that, do you?” He shook his head. The pastor faced the audience of eager high schoolers and said, “That’s the difference. In their faiths, you have to save yourself. In ours, God saves you.”
Christians are intolerant because to be tolerant would damn people! And we love them too much to smile while they try to save themselves and fail. We need a salvation that is all God’s work and not ours. And we have it in Jesus Christ. We have peace because he loved the world so much he gave up his life. We have joy because he is with us on our most moral days and our most immoral ones. We have rest because we don’t have to constantly fear, “Have I done enough?” Instead, we can walk past our Good Shepherd, the one who laid down his life for us, and sit down in the shade of his cross and breathe.
Friends, that leaves us with a mission: To humbly and passionately reach out to include the excluded. I say humbly because Christians are no better than anyone else. We don’t say that enough, but it is true. I couldn’t name ten sins of the Muslim guys I know. I can name ten thousand of my own. We do not reach out as morally superior people. We are just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
I say “passionately” because I’ve read the rest of Romans. When Paul wrote these exclusive words, was he smug? No, the opposite. When he thought of the Jews who were rejecting Jesus, this is what he wrote, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers…the people of Israel…They pursued righteousness not by faith but as if it were by works…My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved…If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in [included in God’s family], for God is able to graft them in again.”
God, give us the heart of Paul. Give us hearts that ache for the lost. Give us souls that shudder at the thought of hell and burst at the thought of heaven. Give us mouths that plead, “Oh, please, please, listen to this message. Let me tell you why your works aren’t good enough. Let me tell you why Jesus is good enough. Let me explain why this message, this gift, this generous God, this cross, this resurrection is infinitely better. I won’t tolerate sitting here and doing nothing. Listen to this sermon. Come to this service. Check out this small group. Talk about this with me. God wants to include you…and I do, too.” Amen.
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