What is a sect? For the Jewish authorities immediately after Pentecost, the infant church was certainly one - a group of people claiming to hold the truth, claiming that their way was The Way, and threatening the structures of Organized Religion. One of Peter's early sermons, when the fire of the Spirit was still fresh upon him, declared about Jesus: "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
It was not long before the church itself was having difficulties with sects. Had Jesus asked his followers to be inclusive ("Whoever is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:40) or exclusive ("Whoever is not with me is against me" (Matt 12:30))? At Corinth, the church had splintered into parties, each following one thread of the gospel message: Paul's party, Apollos', Peter's, Christ's. Paul in reprimanding them reminds them of the wider view: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." (1 Cor 3:5).
But when a group deliberately refused to work with others in the church, the answer was to reject them. "Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed." (1 Cor 16:22) "I have turned Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme." (1 Tim 1:20) "Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching." (2 John 10)
We know that there were many such splinter groups in the early centuries of the Church's life. The Gospel had spread like wildfire, and it took time for experienced Christians to take positions of leadership. Some groups merely fitted Jesus into their own preconceived religious thinking. Among these were the Gnostics, whom Richard referred to last month. They believed that matter was evil and that only secret wisdom and a totally ascetic life could lead to purity and enlightenment. With a few exceptions, these splinter groups died out or decayed.
At the Reformation, the problem arose again, this time because some people felt that Organized Religion itself had strayed too far from the Gospel which Jesus had proclaimed. The structure of society made it easier to found separate churches. These often sought to correct some doctrine which their members felt was wrong. In a tolerant age like ours, we are more ready to listen to what other churches are saying. And in a secular age like ours, we are more ready to see what the churches have in common than what separates them.
Ecumenism only goes so far, though. We think of some groups as pernicious - the Moonies, for example, or the Scientologists - and of others as deluded, like the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witness, or just cranky, like the Unitarians or the Christian Scientists. And what of other religions - Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, for example?
In an increasingly secular world, we have much in common with believers in other religions. This is especially so with those whom our Muslim friends call "People of the Book", for Islam, Judaism and Christianity share many teachings and traditions. Peter's insistence that it is only in Jesus' name that we are saved must be set beside Paul's interpretation of Joel's prophecy that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," whether Jew or Gentile.
We should not ignore our differences - one big problem is what salvation actually means to Christians, to Jews and to Muslims. Where we are going and where we have come from has a lot of implications for how we are to get there. If we are going along different ways, we may end up in different places! (For there may be more than one heaven and more than one hell - look at 2 Cor 12:2!) We must enlist the help of God's Holy Spirit, who will enable us to listen to people with different views, and even to people of different faiths. The Holy Spirit calls us to dialogue - to talk and to listen.
At this time of Pentecost, it is good to remind ourselves that the gift of the Holy Spirit was not just on that Sunday, seven weeks after the Resurrection. The Spirit spoke through the Jewish prophets, and the Quran, too, claims that the Spirit, even if only a part of God's creation, is a source of revelation, as well as the source of life. The Spirit lives today, enabling us to bear fruits of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." These are gifts for us all, whether Jew, Christian or Muslim! Let us build them up together.
HD