Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 

Every where I go lately it seems that people are talking about religious pluralism.  I read newspaper and magazine articles about it; hear it discussed at community forums; and I hear it discussed right here at the Christ Church coffee hour.  Simply put, the question is, How in this day and age, can all of the world’s religions get along?  Perhaps once upon a time the question wasn’t so pressing.  By and large different religions lived in different geographic areas.  The Christians were in Europe; the Muslims were in the Middle East and Asia Minor; the Jews, to Christian’s everlasting shame, were segregated into ghettos; the Hindus were in India; the Buddhists were in China; and the Shinto were in Japan.  Even Christianity in Western Europe was divided; the Protestants were in the north and the Catholics were in the south.  This is an oversimplification, of course, but there is some truth to it and problems tended to occur along the boarders where faiths bumped up against each other.  But now we live all mixed up together.  This is certainly true of the United States, which has always been religiously diverse, and now it is true in other parts of the world as well.  The question of pluralism is an especially vexing question for Christians whose sacred Scriptures say that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father but through him.  And whose Scriptures say, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  How can we live with other religions and at the same time be true to our beliefs?  It seems to me that there are two common responses.
 The first common response is the good old use of force.  When we meet people whose religious beliefs are different than ours, we try to force them to believe what we believe.  This happens in all religions, of course, but, I think, is a particular danger in religions such as Islam and Christianity which have a missionary impulse.  It can even happen within a religion, as one group tries to force its beliefs or practices on another.  The other day The New York Times reported that one of the doctors who tried to blow up the airport in Glasgow tried to force his extremist beliefs on his Muslim roommate.  The doctor’s roommate did not did not pray five times a day and played a guitar.  So the doctor’s response was to put on a DVD of a terrorist beheading a hostage and to warn his roommate that a similar fate awaited him if he did not become more devout .  Of course, Christians, too, are famous for forcing their views on other Christians, as the long and tortured history of Protestant and Catholic relations makes abundantly clear.  So, the first common response to an encounter with people of a different faith is to force them to change their minds.
 The second common response to encountering people of another faith is to deny our own beliefs.  This is the temptation to minimize or deny our differences and to say that all religions are the same.  Presumably there are good reasons we are all Christians.  And there are unique features of the Christian faith that have captured our hearts and minds.  Of course we are not alone in this.  Every religion has unique belief and truth claims which have captured the hearts and minds of its adherents.  We do ourselves and others no favors if we pretend that these differences don’t exist or don’t matter.
 The two most common ways of dealing with people of another faith are to force our beliefs on them or to deny our own beliefs.  But there is a third way and that is the way Jesus commands in today’s Gospel lesson.  Today we hear Jesus send out seventy missionaries to prepare the way for him in Samaria.  This is a difficult assignment.  The situation is so dangerous that Jesus tells them not to greet anyone on the open road.  As you know, Jews and Samaritans did not like or trust one another.  The Samaritans lived in the northern part of Israel and followed their own religious traditions.  They used only the first five books of the Bible as their Scripture and had their own temple on Mt. Gerizim, shunning the Jerusalem temple.  Jews and Samaritans saw each other as heretics .  As you can imagine, in this hostile environment, the Jewish messengers Jesus sends to proclaim that Kingdom of God might be tempted either to force or soft pedal their message.  But that is not what Jesus says to do.
 Jesus sends his messengers to heal the sick and proclaim the Kingdom of God.  The missionaries are to proclaim the Gospel and do good, but not to force their views on anyone.  Notice the tone of reciprocity .  The disciples are to offer their peace to those they meet.  It their greeting of peace is received and returned then the disciples are to stay and proclaim the Kingdom of God.  If their peace is rejected, then the disciples are not to deny their beliefs or force their beliefs, they are simply to move on.  Even if the disciples are rejected, Jesus encourages them not to be discouraged, he says, “’Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’”  That is Jesus’ way: To proclaim the Gospel with all its power and then let people decide.  The Gospel is a gift, not something to be forced down people’s throats.  God respects free will and so should we. Amen.

Notes:  

1. Victoria Burnett and Alissa J. Rubin, “Doctor Accused in Glasgow Attack Described as Loner Angry About the Iraq War,” New York Times, 15 July 2007.
2. The Oxford Companion to the Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 672.
3. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1991), 167.