941 The Alameda Berkeley, CA 94707CHRISTIANITY - A WAY
Sermon preached on October 25, 1964
Christianity has not always been called "Christianity." Christ never called it that. The twelve apostles did not give it that name. For at least fifteen years after Christ's death, it was called something else.
The first mission church outside of Palestine was established at Antioch. The non-Christian populace at Antioch noticed that the one word "Christos" was always on the lips of these disciples; so they gave the name "Christians" to the little group. We read in Acts: "And the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch."
Paul spoke of Christianity as a "way." We read that Paul went to Damascus "to find any of this way that he might bring them to Jerusalem." At Ephesus; "When divers spoke evil of that way, he departed from them." At Jerusalem, when Paul defended himself on the stairs of the castle, he said: "I persecuted this way unto death; binding and delivering into prison both men and women."
Before Felix he confessed, "That after the way which they call heresy, so I worship the God of my fathers." And Felix, "having more perfect knowledge of that way, deferred the people."
Then, Christianity was a way. Now it is a religion, an organization, a creed, a ritual, a denomination. There is a significant difference between the simpler "way" of early Christianity and the elaborate Christianity of today. Let us consider that difference.
First, Christianity was not a new religion but a way of using all religion. "I came not to destroy" existing religion, said Jesus, "but to fulfill." Jesus, himself, remained a Jew. He went to the synagogue, "as his custom was." Jesus never turned his back on his religion. He did not try to dissuade the Jews from following the faith of their fathers. The most sublime thought in the Bible is the fatherhood of God. Jesus would never want to covert his neighbors from that.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has given us an opportunity to know better the spiritual setting in which Christianity developed. Christ's message was given as the fulfillment of what had already been revealed.
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, " saith the Lord, we read in Isaiah. Jesus thought that was part of his mission. He certainly preached the importance of Micah's message: "What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God?"
He interpreted the law more fully and clearly, emphasizing certain ethical teaching of the prophets:
"The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Deuteronomy 6:5)
And from Leviticus:
"Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself."
But especially important for the "Way" was the insistence of Jesus that the gospel should be proclaimed to all the world, for "in every nation those who live righteously are acceptable to Him," a truth we, in this church, have tried to show in our "Procession of Torchbearers."
Christianity among the early Christians was a way of life - not primarily a matter of theology, doctrine, creed, and ritual. Unity and mutual love were important in the early church. They were a community sharing material things, as well as their knowledge of life, and participation in a spiritual fellowship.
Christianity was not a new life but a way of developing life. "Ye must be born again" is one of the most often misinterpreted verses in the Bible. According to psychologists we are constantly being re-born. They say that "we come into the world little, self-centered, pre-occupied animals. As we grow up, if we are loved and guided, we respond and relate ourselves to others - to family, church, and the community - until we are re-born to feel the pulse of humanity." Notable examples of such "New Born" people are Gandhi, Schweitzer, and Abraham Lincoln.
The reason for the great interest Jesus showed in health and healing was that he realized how large a share health plays in happiness and the life abundant. He was the "Great Physician." In our own scientific age doctors are experimenting in cures for cancer, leukemia, and other dread diseases. Of Sir William Osler, the famous physician, one of his biographers said: "You see him on a sub-zero winter day taking off his overcoat and handing it to a starving beggar: you see him spending hours at the bedside of a dying stranger and reading to him from the 43rd chapter of Isaiah; you see him in a city square taking pity upon an exhausted woman and her baby and sending them on to a hospital at his expense. There was only one word that people could use to describe this gifted man with his great, loving heart - the word 'Christ-like.'"
Christianity in the early days was a way of taking the knowledge that men have and using it for good rather than evil. It must be so again.
Tolstoy, the great Russian writer, suggested that among all peoples religion swerves from its original purpose, diverges more and more from that purpose, and finally petrifies into fixed forms until its influence becomes less and less. Such a cycle for religion then would be: first, a deep devotion, then a drab duty, then disillusionment, and finally the discard. Have we passed through that dangerous cycle of duty, disillusionment, and indifference?
I think that we can keep our religion in the deep devotion stage by organizing and making effective a movement which promotes the ideals which we hold. The Christian ideal is still to follow the "Way" of Jesus.
Christianity is not another world but a way to use this world so that it moves toward peace and prosperity for every member of God's family here on earth. In the old days of the Coliseum, Christianity was spread because of the way the Christians could die. In this new day it should be because of the way Christians live, working together, helping one another, building for our ideals. The church of today must venture, must experiment. It must do. Some years ago Dr. William H.P. Faunce, then president of Brown University, won a prize for his definition of Christianity:
"What is Christianity? In the home it is kindness; in business, it is honesty; in society, it is courtesy; in work, it is thoroughness; in play, it is fairness; toward the fortunate, it is congratulation; toward the unfortunate, it is pity; toward the weak, it is help; toward the wicked, it is resistance; toward the strong, it is trust; toward the penitent, it is forgiveness; toward God, it is reverence and love."
So Christianity is a Way - not a new religion but a way of using all religions; not a new system of knowledge, but a way of using all knowledge; not a new world, but a way of using this world for good.