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Introduction to Christianity

Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson's Remarks at Celebration of Abraham  

As the overarching themes of Judaism can be named, as Rabbi Julie has said, while “standing on one foot” I want to suggest, in an Introduction to Christianity, that Christianity can be “seen in three sticks.”  More on that in a moment! 

First, some background.  The Christian church grew out of Jewish roots as Jesus himself was a first century Jew, a descendent of Abraham and Sarah.  The movement that became Christianity began as a discovery that Jesus embodied God’s coming in history.  The Gospel writer John speaks of this in perhaps the most well known of Christian scriptures: “For God so loved the world that God gave...”  And what God gave was God’s own self. 

We share the book of Genesis with Judaism.  In the beginning God created and said “let there be light.”  John’s Gospel models after Genesis, saying, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  God spoke and this speech, this voice, this address became flesh in Jesus.  Jesus is God’s Word for us to see and taste and touch.   

There’s a central dialogue Christians say to each other. (I’ve asked a few to demonstrate) “He is risen!” “He is risen, indeed!”  Christians could say this to each other every day.  Few of us do, but we could.  For St. Paul , our hope rests in this confession.  The early Christians changed from worshipping on Saturday to worshipping on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.  We call this Easter.  It’s like a game of chess where it looks like checkmate and the game is over.  But regardless of what it looks like, God always has one more move.  This one more move is grace. 

Every time Christians worship it is a celebration of grace – a celebration of God’s free gift of responding to death with life; to despair with hope; to darkness with light.  Out of endless options, God chooses life.  This is grace.

Yet grace honors human freedom.  We can kill and hate and God will not treat us like puppets.  God does not take away our freedom no matter how much suffering or grief we cause. But neither will God give up God’s freedom.  And God’s freedom is the freedom of grace. God is free to surprise us with newness we don’t expect; free to change hearts and inspire new lives; free to bring a new day and to create new communities of peace. 

Rooted in the Jewish hope of a God at work in history, Christianity sees flesh on God’s activity in the world.  We see God embodied in actions and advocacies done by people like you on behalf of the world.  As St. Theresa of Avila stated years ago, “God has no feet on earth but yours; no hands to do God’s work but yours.”  Or as Martin Luther more gruffly states, “We have a hairy God” – a God involved and invested in this world, through humble human people, through the power of the Spirit. 

But most clearly, Christians see God’s presence embodied in the person and work of Jesus.  Jesus loved the people on the margins.  He reached out to those with leprosy and advocated for those without power.  He held beloved those seen as unworthy of love.  Jesus saw everyone as worthy of love because he saw all as created by God who is love.  

At our celebrations of worship we remember that before Jesus died he “took bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body for you.  Be my body in the world.”  He took a cup and said, “this is the way of life – self-giving love.  Continue this love in the world.”  Rather than save himself, Jesus gave himself.  Self-giving isn’t self-denigration.  One can’t give self until one has a self to give.  The way of the cross is not a defeat.  It is a free, powerful gift of self for the other. This is the meaning of the cross.

Christians don’t always live the way of the cross.  We don’t always succeed at loving as we’ve been loved, because it asks of us our very lives.  As T. S. Eliot writes, “It asks for nothing less than everything.”  However inadequately we live it, we acknowledge with St. Francis that, “It is in giving that we receive.  It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.  It is in dying that we are born.” 

I told you that Christianity can be pictured with three sticks.  First of all, the three sticks can form a cross, the central symbol of the Christian faith.  By forming a triangle, these sticks can also help us picture the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Creator; Redeemer and Life-giving Spirit.  The Trinity is One God in three relations – like I am at once a daughter, a wife, and a mother.  I am one person but I relate in three ways.  God shows three faces: Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. 

We celebrate this Trinity in the Church Year.  Rather than going from January to December, the Church Year shapes us around the life, death and resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Spirit.  The shape of Christ’s life is the shape of our lives.  This too can be shown with three sticks.  As Jesus died and is raised, so do we die daily to sin and are raised up to new life by the Spirit – setting us free to be servants of others.  Two sticks can form a V with the third stick stretching outward from the rising.  This is what baptism claims.  We die and rise so that we might live a new life for the good of all.  

In the end it is all about love.  It is love that sent Jesus, love that raised Jesus, love that frees us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  If we stretch our imaginations – we can see that love too can be depicted with three sticks.  If we make an L (for love) and overlay it with a +, the cross propels us outward.  Christians stand at the foot of the cross knowing we love because God first loved us.  We are propelled outward from the foot of the cross by this love. Perhaps this is our common calling: to love our neighbors as ourselves.