Found Wanting

I had a brand new experience yesterday.  Interestingly it came while I was doing a totally ordinary thing, studying scriptures along with others.  Scriptures, history books, literature and textbooks in seminars and discussion groups have always been part of my life. The new experience this time?  It was but a look.  Several of us, I think, recipients of a look of kindness, perhaps compassion, and slight bewilderment. The occasion was a local Interfaith group I have recently joined, a retirement involvement probably similar to others of my age; many of us looking for camaraderie; engineers, accountants, business cronies, academics, preachers (yes me too!) meeting with one another to 'speak of many things' (Gossip? No! 😏).  So here I am now, in an interfaith group of community 'religious', those involved in the practice and dissemination of spiritual knowledge and/or pastoral encounters in all local faith communities - ie. interfaith plain and simple.

This post is not at all about the pros and cons, errors and waywardness of differing Christian liberal ecumenical or evangelical groups, comparing of Muslim versus Sikh, along with Buddhist, Baha'i, Unitarians, Indigenous, complete with political assessments (read red neck or liberal) etc. etc.  No, this is a local gathering of kind, pastoral, friendly neighbors.  Those of you who have read my considerable posts about neighbors, neighborhood sidewalks and stretches, corona experiences, etc. know why I might be attracted to a group of this nature, especially if it has a friendship base - certainly more enjoyable than church politics, local or otherwise.

So, yesterday as we were reading about Jesus from the Qu'ran, from the Bible, and from Book of Mormon, the conversation goes to the seasonal.  We are at the end of Lent and about to enter Holy Week. What is more timely than the death, the crucifixion of Jesus?  This is basic to us Christians but not so much to our Muslim friends who do not believe that the prophet Jesus (pbuh sic) should be relegated to the defeat of death!  Aware of this distinct difference between Muslims and Christians, we Christians kind of contextualized and one of my fellow believers gave a good statement about importance of the resurrection.  Thank you Deacon Bob! There we were, quite engaged with one another and also aware of varying emphases among Christians and others beholden. Eventually, however, it boiled down (thanks to Dalton our excellent discussion facilitator) to our understanding of God - God, Almighty God, Jahweh, I Am, Allah who art Thou?  At this point I recognized what I discerned to be 'the look' on the faces of our Muslim friends.  Perhaps they had become uncomfortable with sub topics like Cross, Resurrection, etc. and then us slipping into Trinity discussion.  How un-Muslim, how un-interfaith.  How can we (dare we) do that without offending the One God, the Almighty - now broken up into a trinitarian three and then split into varying denominational or other understandings, etc!  Wow, anybody who has taken some Church History classes knows what this is all about.  In their minds this was probably a waste of time, Christians babbling on about their complicated godhead. They graciously indulged us.

For purpose of this post I hasten to add, I totally believe in the full-on suffering, betrayal, death AND resurrection of Jesus!  If in doubt read my last year's blog post, "Holy Week Battle", April 7, 2020. [Also wonderful testimony to resurrection in latest issue of Canadian Mennonite, "I have seen the Lord," Emily Summach, Vol 25, no.6]  In fact it is this conviction which leads me to ever new relationships with many people of other religious and/or cultural backgrounds.  It is also this my experience of God through Jesus which leads me to the insight about the baffled look in the eyes of my fellow clergy, the Imams. 

We need to learn new ways of talking about God.  Incarnation (God among us, John 1:14), our standard go-to theological assertion, probably needs more experiential reflection.  Something of late especially in North American Christianity has been found wanting.  As the world repopulates and cultures intermingle and if we believe in One God, as do the three Abrahamic religions as well as many Indigenous, our language will change. These Imams are pastors, teachers, most of them educated counselors with strong family values, peacemakers, etc. AND they believe in the revelations which came to Muhammed (pbuh) as recorded in Quran.  In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. (1.1). ....  and O followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a son (4.171).  Their understanding of our God Allah as a bearer of children is offensive, as is concept of Trinity.

So, this year, as I emerge out of Lent and enter Holy Week I am compelled to think less of the soteriology of salvation, and more on the example of Jesus as he accepted both the adoration (Palm Sunday) and the betrayal (Good Friday) and indeed also the resurrection empty tomb (He is not here among our theories and explanations).  Somehow, even as I reflect on the passionate commitment to One God, and One God Alone, my experience of Jesus the way the truth and the Life (John 14:6) leads me to much respect and a new appreciation of those who will not be distracted by our many theological articulations and holy wars and preferences and church denominations.