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Sometimes a familiar scriptural text begs for our attention. We may have read this text many times. We may have heard Sunday morning sermons based on it. We may have pondered the text in a Bible study group. But this time, a word, or phrase, or sentence from the text jumps out at us.

Today, in a familiar text from John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold." Jesus is speaking about others who are part of the church, but who do not belong to this particular tradition of the church. Often we have been under the illusion that the early church was uniform and alike in all places. So many, then, call us get back to that so-called first-century unity as a way of overcoming the divisions of the church in our time.

But, the New Testament indicates that early on there were a variety of church traditions and practices. Paul struggles with some Christians who want to incorporate his churches into their own. The writings of Timothy and Titus have a take on Christian faith that varies from Paul's; and even the gospels suggest that they come from different Christian traditions, having their own unique understanding of Jesus and the faith. The various forms and traditions of the church presented in the New Testament ought to deliver us from thinking that the early church had none of the divisions and conflicts known in later centuries.

The Dominance Of Exclusivism

In spite of this, the sense in the oneness of the church was lost in the turbulence of denominationalism. Before radio and television, one form of popular entertainment was public debates on some Christian doctrine of teaching. It might be announced that a debate would take place in the local church on the topic: "Do the Baptists or the Presbyterians have the correct understanding of predestination?" People came out of deep religious interest, or perhaps because there was nothing more exciting to do. They went to the debate because it was entertaining and stimulating hearing two protagonists join battle with words. No one would venture out to such a gathering today, but in a day with no mass media, debates provided some relief from the tedium of life. Those arguments over the supposed "one true church" reflected in their correct teaching, fed a larger exclusivism that has gone unchallenged until the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Exclusivism's insistence on the one true church means that there is no salvation outside the church. All other non-Christian religious traditions are declared false. They may be seen as harmless and false, or dangerous and false. Either way they provide no saving grace to anyone who remains in those traditions.

Kenneth Scott LaTourette called the nineteenth century, "the great missionary expansion of the church." That century launched Christian missionaries out to far places in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Rim, and South America, often dominated by the "one true faith" exclusivism. They believed that they were saving souls in this life and for eternity. Along the way they organized churches and schools, created hospitals, started labor unions, encouraged women and minorities to assert their rights, and tangled with those holding political and economic power. Granted, the missionaries pressed down upon their converts their own western ways. They arrogantly and sometimes coercively destroyed much of the indigenous culture of the people to whom they took their gospel; but the missionary courage and heroism, and their reduction of much suffering among their converts is an inspiring tale, in spite of such arrogance and insensitivity.

Few of the missionaries broke with the "one true faith" tradition that drove them out to these faraway parts. They seldom considered that there might be saving grace in the many other religious traditions where they lived and worked. If they read our text, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold," they did not think that it might have a larger meaning, that Christ affirms that God's saving grace is known in other religious traditions.

Contemporary Resistance To This Possibility

A mainstream pastor and wife were visiting their daughter and her family. They were going with their daughter, her husband, and her family to worship on Sunday mornings. The congregation was medium-sized and very active. The hymns were salvation hymns, and the preaching was a tight expository effort. The church is part of a support system for missionary couples and families, who have gone to many parts of the world, just like the nineteenth-century missionary folks. They are loving, gracious, and caring people. Those of the congregation, the furloughed missionaries, the pastor and his wife have met, all exhibit a warm and attractive faith and commitment. But they have not conceded anything on the salvation issue -- there is no present or eternal salvation other than that offered in Jesus Christ.

Now we may have abused our text and pushed it far beyond its original intention. The exclusionists may be right and we may be wrong. If so, it ought to drive us to humility. Oliver Cromwell once said something that should be painted on the walls of any church and carved into the pulpit -- "I beseech you by the bowels of Christ that ye may be wrong." The church and the larger religious community could use a little of Cromwell from time to time.

Alice in her "Wonderland" confesses that she believes six impossible things before breakfast. The exclusivist wants an impossible doctrine that God has been working with humanity only through Jesus Christ. We could guess that if the critical thinking taught in the public schools continues, exclusivist understanding of any sort -- science, history, sociology, or religion will be doomed. The exclusivists see this threat and have created not only a "one true church -- one true faith" congregation, but also their Christian school, Bible colleges, and homeschooling. All these are designed to ward off any break in their exclusivist position.

Christ Is Bigger Than Jesus

We rightly call Jesus "the Christ." In him -- his words, his deeds, and his prevailing influence -- God is working out God's loving purpose. "Christ" is the name for this loving purpose of God. Jesus was filled with this Christ reality, but Jesus did not exhaust it. He simply participated in it by his humble openness. The Apostle Paul was getting at this when he quoted an early Christian hymn in his letter to the Philippians:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death -- even death on a cross.
-- Philippians 2:5-8


Paul says Jesus opened himself to the Christ graciousness of God that exists everywhere, not just in one instance as much traditional Christian teaching asserts. In spite of the dominance of the exclusivist doctrines over the long history of the church, there are hints here and there in scripture of a wider view. Paul's quote in Philippians is one. The voice of Jesus, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold," is another hint. William Barclay, a popular translator of the New Testament, which many of us use in study groups or personal devotions, wrote an article that caused great controversy in his church, the Church of Scotland. Barclay wrote that he was a universalist -- meaning he believed that all people are going to be saved by the grace of God, the Christ, as God's loving purpose.

Things are beginning to change in the church. Voices like Barclay's are offering new thoughts about traditional beliefs. Yes, we call Jesus, "the Christ." But "Christ" is larger than Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Jesus represented the reality of God's loving purpose. But that loving purpose is working everywhere and has been present to all persons in all times, then and now. What an exciting quest to have the opportunity today to discover in what ways "the Christ" has been working in all the great religions of our time -- in Hinduism, in Islam, in Buddhism, in Judaism, in Sikism and Jainism, in Ba'Hai, as well as in our own Christianity. Christ is within but much bigger than Jesus.