Dr. Rodney Plunket

        John Jay was born in New York City on December 12, 1745.  He graduated from King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1764.  Early in the American Revolution, Jay was appointed to the New York Committee of Correspondence, the Continental Congress, & the New York Provincial Congress.  He helped draft a constitution for New York & served as the state’s chief justice until 1779.  He was President of the Continental Congress in 1778-79, and became the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1789.  He was also one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers.  The Federalist Papers were written to explain the benefits of the American Constitution before that document was adopted.  John Jay wrote the second issue of that series of papers in 1787.  I want to read to you a few lines from that second installment of The Federalist Papers.  He says of America that

Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people––a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs . . . .

He goes on to refer to the people of America as “a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties” (John Jay, The Federalist No. 2, October 31, 1787).

A contemporary writer notes that “Jay’s description was only very roughly true of America in 1787.”[1]  One thing, however, is for sure; Jay’s description is no longer even “roughly true.”  Kenneth Prewitt, a social scientist and former head of the Census Bureau, says, “We’re on our way to becoming a country literally made up of every nation in the world.”[2]

But one aspect of America’s growing diversity is especially relevant for the Church.  It is that religious diversity may be even more pronounced in America than ethnic or racial diversity.  Just a couple of months ago, Diana L. Eck’s book, A New Religious America, was released.  Eck is on the faculty of Harvard University and for several years has been doing something that the U.S. census does not do.  She and her students have been doing research for the purpose of quantifying America’s religious diversity.  That research leads her to state that “[t]he United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world” (pluralism.org/publications).  A review of that book says, “While race has been the dominant American social issue in the past century, religious diversity in our civil and neighborly lives is emerging, mostly unseen, as the great challenge of the twenty-first century” (pluralism.org/publications).

And this religious diversity is certainly a reality in the state of Texas.  Please listen to a few lines from Diana L. Eck’s 1993 article, “The Challenge of Pluralism.”

One of the cities we have studied is Houston.  The remarkable fact about Houston is not its Texas glitter, its NASA space-age image, or its huge Southern Baptist churches, but its substantial Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu populations.  Houston is the only city in the country with a compre­hensive Islamic plan for the zones and neighborhoods of the city.  The Islamic Society of Greater Houston has divided the city into eight zones, with a main mosque and satellite mosques in the various regions of this sprawling city.  The southwest zone has dedicated a new mosque, which is the showpiece of Islamic Houston, accommodating 900 for Friday prayers.  Not all the mosques in Houston are part of the I.S.G.H. regional plan, for there are about two dozen mosques in all––Sunni, Shi’a, Ismaili, African-American.  Over 10,000 Muslims crowd into the George Brown Convention center for prayers on the Id festival days.  In 1970 there were fewer than 1000 Muslims in Houston; today there are estimated to be 60,000.

The Buddhist population of Houston is almost as large, with an esti­mated 50,000 Buddhists and 19 Buddhist temples at last count, nine of them Vietnamese.  There are 14 Hindu temples and organizations including the spectacular Meenakshi Temple in the southern suburb of Pearland.  The Hindu population of Houston is estimated to be 40,000, with an annual summer camp sponsored by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and a city-wide celebration of the birthday of Krishna in the George Brown Convention Center attracting 6,000 to 10,000 people.

Many people wonder if America can handle all of the diversity that is becoming possibly our nation’s most distinguishing feature.  Will unity become impossible as we become even more racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse?

There is no doubt that America’s pluralism is causing a strain.  A statement from Alan Neely in the April 1998 volume of the journal, Currents in Theology and Mission, reveals some of that strain.

Recently a news director for National Public Radio wrote, “In America, it is more and more evident each year that diversity has replaced unity as the underlying assumption of our national culture.”  What he labeled as “an underlying assumption” is, however, frequently portrayed in more graphic, disturbing terms as “culture wars” or to use Time magazine’s more vivid metaphor, “America’s Holy War.”  In either case, it should be clear to any perceptive observer in this country today that encounters between peoples who share neither a common culture, religion, or identity often engender anxiety and fear and result in misunderstandings, conflicts, and even violence.[3]/

Will America become impossible to govern because of its diversity; will the United States of America die a noisy death brought on by the sheer weight of pluralism?  Or will this diversity generate a new golden age of creativity and growth––a national golden age that serves to call our world to renounce racism, ethnic hatred, and religious violence in the most comprehensive way ever?  I know the outcome that I prefer.

But the outcome for our nation should not be what the people of God most concern ourselves with as we analyze our nation’s pluralism.  We are a people not of this world.  Our American citizenship is temporary.  Our heavenly one is eternal.  We are a people who look for a kingdom with the living God at its center, a kingdom that will never fragment, a kingdom that welcomes everyone and unites everyone through only one common denominator––faith in Jesus Christ.

So when we look at our nation’s growing pluralism, we can’t believe it.  We can’t believe that God has brought the mission field to our front door.

But coming to see our national pluralism as a great opportunity is not the only thing that must happen within us.  There are at least two temptations that can cause us to negate the opportunity that pluralism provides.  One temptation is to have such a negative attitude toward the beliefs of others that we are rendered evangelistically sterile.  If some fall into that trap, they will try to convert our new neighbors by methods that denigrate and offend.  The negative approach of others will be less abrasive but will still treat our new neighbors with an air of condescension and pride that keeps the gospel from ever being heard.  Great mis­sionaries seek with sensitivity and humility to understand the cultures and beliefs of other people as they seek to share the gospel of Jesus.  Great missionaries see the strengths possessed by other cultures, and they affirm those strengths.  We all know that the Golden Rule teaches us to treat others the way we would like them to treat us.  And we know how we want others to present new ideas to us.  We want them to be patient and humble, loving and kind.  We want them to try to understand how we think.  We want them to respect our perspective.  We should treat others whose religious beliefs are different from ours in that same way.  And we should remember that most of the really harsh words of judgment in the Bible are directed toward those on the inside of the faith who are smugly confident of their standing before God.  As Leslie Newbigin, the great missionary and church­man who died in 1998, said, “It is not the brambles growing around the vine that are to be pulled up and burned but the branches of the vine which do not bear fruit.”[4]  On the other hand, Jesus’ attitude to the lost can be appropriately summed up by His invitation in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

The second temptation which can serve to negate the opportunity God pro­vides through pluralism is to decide that the differences do not matter, I’m okay and everyone else is okay too, all religions lead to God.  There is much that people of other religious faiths can teach us.  In fact, they often wake us up to important elements within our own faith that we have been unwilling to take seriously.  For example, it is not uncommon for interaction with people of other faiths to force us to see the sinful hold that materialism has over our lives.  But Jesus, God’s very own Son in whom the fullness of deity dwells, has come to earth and has died that we might have abundant life forever.  And Jesus’ death so perfectly satisfied the will of God that God raised Him from the dead and He now sits at God’s right hand and intercedes for those who put their faith in Him.  That fact is so splendid and so transcends every other religious reality that to keep it to ourselves is impossible.  We may bide our time.  We may prayerfully seek wisdom relative to when and how.  But we must share the wonder of our Christ.  We must bring the lost into the redemptive presence of the living God through the saving power of Jesus Christ.  With humility and wonder and joy we must declare Jesus’ words that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Our second Scripture Reading was from 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.  Near the end of that reading, the apostle Paul says that he has “become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.”  He also says that he does that “for the sake of the gospel.”

Can we “become all things to all people, that [we] might by all means save some”?  Can we do that “for the sake of the Gospel”?  Can we receive with love those peoples who are bringing profound change to our national culture?  Can we be used to bring our new neighbors to Jesus?  Can we cross every dividing line within our nation for the purpose of uniting more and more people under the banner of Christ Jesus our Lord?

I read recently of two women in Durham, NC.  They were pianists, but one had lost her right hand in an accident, and the other had lost her left.  They both were brokenhearted because they felt certain that they would never again experience the great joy of their lives again.  But a third woman heard what had happened, and she brought the two of them together.  Together they can again create beautiful music.  One of those women is black; the other is white.  They call themselves, “Ebony and Ivory.”[5]

Sisters and brothers, we are all missing something.  We are all handicapped.  We are all broken.  Sin has damaged us all.  But when we come together in Christ, He makes of us one body.  And when that body is made up of people of every ethnic origin, every color, every race, every tribe, and every tongue then we show to the world the incredible power of Jesus Christ to overcome every barrier by the power of His Word, by the power of His Spirit, by the power of His God.

Let’s reach this pluralistic world for Jesus.  Let’s take the gospel to the lost world at our front door.  Let’s seek and save the lost because that is our commission.

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