I so appreciate what Gandhi once said,

"All religions are true and all religions have some error in them."

In other words, we need not be afraid of listening to others, of being open to other ways of experiencing God.

Once, many years ago, I led a weekend workshop on the use of multi-media for a group of very conservative pastors. After it was all over, I was given my honorarium and thanked. The leader was especially grateful, he told me, that I hadn’t asked them to pray with me. It was against their tenets to pray with people who don’t agree exactly with them.

Wow.

How’s that for fear?

Following Jesus is to be led into a life that has a whole different set of priorities. In this new life, the weak and poor are cherished, the last become first, the rich give their money away, the enemies are loved, the neighbors are forgiven. To follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is not to exclude other sheep but to search for them. It is to reach out in kindness and compassion that they, too, might discover a God who yearns for their presence.

Such an attitude resurrects us from the deadly thinking that has Christians convinced that they are better than others, more loved by God than others, deadly thinking that is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

To follow Jesus is to be led into a way of living that embraces all of creation, that loves all people, that celebrates diversity and welcomes new ideas.

It is, quite clearly, to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.