How
often have I wished I didn’t have to talk with a sales rep? Not yesterday. Victoria and her assistant (I made up
Victoria’s name) found me even though they tried to come in through the wrong
door. Victoria’s father is a Hindu
priest and her mother converted to Hinduism from Christianity. As the Lord opened the way for us to discuss
religion, I fumbled about for a while trying to make it reasonable for a
bright, charming, educated, lovely, young woman see that she should at least
give Christianity a good look before she walked away from it. Later I wondered how our conversation would
have turned if I was her uncle or professor rather than a potential customer
for her company. Perhaps not any better
or worse but I know how I would have proceeded.
I would have explained to her as our great friend C.S. Lewis has noted
that there really are only two strands of religion in the world and every other
one is merely a warping of one or the other.
Hinduism is the first strand but not in terms of time or priority, only
as it comes around for discussion. With
Hinduism, there are many, many gods and goddesses all with their own distinct
personalities and corruptions. Some are
wickedly good and others are deceptively bad.
They weave in and out of rightness and selfishness and moral depravity. The universe is built upon the foundation of
justice only and every bit of badness gets squeezed out of the soul until there
is nothing left to it…even if it takes thousands of reincarnations to get it
done.
Christianity
is the second strand but not in terms of time or priority. There is only one Christian God who is
perfectly moral and full of kindness and love.
The universe is built upon the foundations of righteousness and mercy
and badness is not whipped out of us by our own suffering; it is wooed out of
us by the suffering of God who loves us.
We live not to die and live and die and live until we dissolve but we
live to live and to know the God who loves us like a bride in a love marriage
that always boils with rising heat and desire.
Suffering does come to us as a result of badness we do but it is God
Himself who suffers the pain our badness set in motion. Rather than paying us back for what we have
done, God is paid back for what we have done.
Whipped and beaten and broken by the people He came to rescue from
eternal death, He died with the sins of us all buried in His own body. And then, only then Jesus Christ, God in flesh
and blood rose from the dead, eternally our only way to eternal life. It is with this God, this God who is Father,
Son and Holy Spirit that we find our way and make it home, always alive, always
the one who is beloved and known and never oblivion.
The
truth is I might even now be botching it trying to get the truth squared away
for my friend. In the end, it really
boils down to this one verse. For God so loved the world that He gave His
one of a kind Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have
eternal life. I hope Victoria finds
it. She at least got to the right door.
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