Winning Ways: Agents for Peace in a Diverse World

"COEXIST"

That's one of Austin's favorite bumper stickers, using the symbols of the world's major religions to spell the word. The Muslim crescent moon, for example, becomes the "C," the Star of David serves as the "X" and the cross stands in for the "T."

The decal preaches the conviction that no one religion can corner the market on truth. "You have your way of perceiving God and I have my way," the sticker seems to say. "We're all just taking different paths up the same mountain, so I'll see you at the top."

That's why this Sunday's study is one of the most important in our "Explore God" series. We'll seek to answer the question, "Is Christianity too narrow?"

The concern behind the question is how to be charitable in our diverse world. Won't a belief that Jesus is the only way to God only lead to ill will in our schools, workplaces, and communities?

But within the Christian message are resources that can make its followers agents for peace on earth. I can think of three.

Common Grace: We know there are basic values self-evident to everyone, not just Bible readers. So, we can work together with people of other faiths--and no faith--to build decent communities.

Saving Grace: The gospel teaches that our salvation comes by grace alone. God drew us to himself not because of our nationality or our ethnicity or our moral self-discipline. It wasn’t that we were smarter or had a greater moral sensitivity. It’s all of grace. So we can relate to others who don’t get it because there was a time when we didn’t get it.

The Example of Jesus: At the very heart of the Christian story is a man who died for his enemies, praying for their forgiveness. Reflection on this can only lead to a radically different way of dealing with those who are different from us.

So the gospel message, even with its exclusive claims about Jesus, has the resources to make believers agents for peace. Sadly, Christians don't always put these resources into practice in their relationships in the world. But the more we understand the gospel we believe, the more we can communicate the exclusive claims of Jesus in a manner that builds relationships, even with those who don’t accept our claims.

Join us this Sunday at 10 to dig deeper into this topic!

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