Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: Why this sermon on Character

Voices of Faith: Why did Gandhi say, ‘If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian?’

Voices of Faith: Why did Gandhi say, ‘If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian?’

By LAMA CHUCK STANFORD and ARVIND KHETIA

Special to The Star

By continuing to use this site, you give your consent to our use of cookies for analytics, personalization and ads.

Lama Chuck Stanford, Rime Buddhist Center: To fully understand this quote, it is important to know the backstory from where it came.

While Gandhi was a practicing Hindu, Christianity intrigued him.

In his reading of the Gospels, Gandhi was impressed by Jesus whom Christians worshipped and followed.

He wanted to know more about this Jesus that Christians referred to as “the Christ, the Messiah.”

The Rev. Pattison tells the following story: One Sunday morning Gandhi decided that he would visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta.

Upon seeking entrance to the church sanctuary, he was stopped at the door by the ushers.

He was told he was not welcome, nor would he be permitted to attend this particular church as it was for high-caste Indians and whites only.

He was neither high caste, nor was he white.

Because of the rejection, the Mahatma turned his back on Christianity.

With this act, Gandhi rejected the Christian faith, never again to consider the claims of Christ.

He was turned off by the sin of segregation that was practiced by the church.

It was due to this experience that Gandhi later declared, “I’d be a Christian if it were not for the Christians.’”

In Buddhism there is a saying, “Don’t confuse the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.”

This means the finger pointing at the moon teaches us that although someone points to the moon to show us the truth of its luminosity, the finger pointing is not the moon itself.

Likewise, the practitioner of a religion doesn’t always practice the religion the way it was originally taught.

Arvind Khetia, Hindu and an engineer: Mahatma Gandhi was one of the great spiritual and political leaders, who made an enormous contribution to the moral resources of humankind.

In his autobiography, Gandhi writes that, “…morality is the basis of things and that truth is the substance of all morality.”

He believed that, “A virtue achieves its potential only in its application and it ceases to have any use if it serves no purpose in daily life.”

So, for Gandhi, it was imperative that spiritual truths are lived in one’s daily life.

In his autobiography, Gandhi writes that, “…morality is the basis of things and that truth is the substance of all morality.”

He believed that, “A virtue achieves its potential only in its application and it ceases to have any use if it serves no purpose in daily life.”

So, for Gandhi, it was imperative that spiritual truths are lived in one’s daily life.

That is exactly what Gandhi did.

He made the Bhagavad Gita his spiritual guide and implemented its teachings, emphasizing the passionate search for truth (Satyagraha), a profound reverence for all life (nonviolence), and the ideal of nonattachment (his material possessions were minimal).

Gandhi also studied the Bible and the Qur’an.

He was moved by Jesus Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount.”

During Gandhi’s prayer meetings he read from scripture of different faiths as he had reverence for all religions.

Thus, Gandhi exemplified his own words, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

So, the answer lies in our asking a sincere question: Are we really living the spiritual truths in our daily lives to bring about positive change in the world rife with violence, economic disparity, animosity between faiths and environmental degradation?

Link: As a church we need to be desirable, which can only happen if each member of our church draws closer to Christ.

“The more we represent God in character, the more our church will be desirable”.

The opposite is also true.

This is why this sermon is on Character and the building of it.

In every decision and action you make, builds either 1 of 2 things, Good character or bad character.

Slavery to sin

If man was spiritually free there would be no need of redemption; but the slavery to sin is real.

It is not an illusion but the common fact about every human being.

Sin is a great deceiver.

It holds before us endless pleasures but fails to tell of the price or consequence of following its attractions.

In Genesis 3 the awful reality of sin is shown to us.

Then in the next chapter we see the effects of sin as a man kills his brother.

By the time we get to Genesis 6 sin’s dominance is seen in every human being: ‘every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time’ (v.

5).

In the New Testament the power of sin comes to its terrible climax when men kill the Son of God.

From then on, the New Testament spells out sin’s consequences in frightening clarity in passages like Romans 1:18–32.

In Romans 7 Paul puts into words the experience of every man and woman: ‘We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

I do not understand what I do.

For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do’ (vv.

14–15).

It is from this bondage that Jesus came to redeem us.

In that short summary we can see that there is a building process that occurs.

The building of sin which amounts to the death of God.

God then redeems mankind (those who believe in him) and then hopes to build mankind up....to once again be in his image (Gen 1)

Under Adam to now under Christ.

Link: We are either building (Christ) character or (Babylon) chaos.

Link: We are either building character or (Babylon) chaos.

What is Character?

Dictionary - the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

In other words; character is who you are.

It represents not only you but who you are subject to.

Billy Graham - When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

Link: In other words; character is who you are.

It represents not only you but who you are subject to.

Illustration: Me before vs Me now I use to drink, fight, be angry very short temper and use to want to fight anyone and everyone.

I had not respect for not many people.

I am far from perfect, but if you knew me then and now you would call it a miracle.

Lost friends because my character stunk, I made friends, even brothers and sisters in christ because my character had been worked on by the master.

Link: Character is desirable…the more we strive for good character the more people will see the goodness of God.

How do you then identify Character?

In what way is character seen?

Character comes out in words

The good news is good character knows no boundaries, too.

Good character is exemplified every day and too often goes unnoticed.

Media attention gets attracted to the obvious places too often.

Character can be seen in our words.

(fruit)

Matthew 12:36

and those who display it,

Character stems and begins from the heart.

But character is more than visual.

Character is engraved within us.

The engraving isn’t always planned and clean.

The word “character” comes from the Greek kharakter that means “engraved mark.”

The character trace goes back to another definition of “to scrape or scratch.”

For me, the combination of engrave, scrape, and scratch fit well with what character really means.

Here are my thoughts on why:

Engrave – An active art of determining what builds our character – honesty, courage, and the like.

Scrape – Learning from the challenges that come our way (or those we create) and then proving what we learned by doing much better than before.

Scratch – The act of working our way back when we fall down and gaining strength of integrity from what we experience.

Character is all the good traits we think it is.

However, character is much more.

Character is a verb, demonstrated in what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.

Character is also how we recover.

Who’s character?

Christ character

1)  Compassionate