Given these statistics, we, as Christians, need discernment over how we share about Christ and engage in as positive a way as we can in a context where awareness of the variety of religions is widespread.
I have a few thoughts on this as the weekday Lectionary centres on Abraham as father of faith. He is so for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the so-called Abrahamic faiths. In today’s reading from Genesis 21 we see the protection of Hagar’s son Ishmael seen as father of Muslims parallel to Sarah’s son Isaac revered especially by Jews and Christians. God promises Abram I will bless you and make your name great. So he has, as Paul says Abraham is the father of us all. His faith is in the same God we put faith in who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Romans 4:17
Our Old Testament reading reminds us both of our Jewish roots and our links with Islam. Earlier this year the great theologian Hans Kung died at a good age just short of his century. In his later years he was involved in inter faith dialogue and this must be one of his most quoted sayings: ‘There’ll be no peace in the world without peace between religions and no peace between religions without understanding between religions’.
Earlier this week I posted on Facebook one of my ‘Fifty Walks from Haywards Heath’, a circular from St Wilfrid’s to The Ascension via the Mosque. I did so among other reasons to help put the Mosque on the map. It's sad that many people in our town don’t even know where the Mosque is!
In John chapter 14, verse 6 Christ said: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me’ and in Chapter 18 v38; ‘Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.’
If everyone believed that life would be simpler and I wouldn’t be speaking as I am this morning! Putting it in a more challenging way to you and I, the existence of other religions is proof of our failure to meet with Jesus at a deep level and become the heart to heart draw we’re meant to be through his magnetic love.
What though of those who’re drawn elsewhere? We see distortions of Christ’s truth in faiths and also approximations.
Saying yes to Jesus does not mean saying ‘no’ to everything about other faiths. It can mean saying ‘yes, but…’ or rather ‘yes, and…’ to other faiths, which is a far more engaging and reasonable attitude…. I say ‘yes’ to what Muslims say about God’s majesty because sometimes Christians seem to domesticate God and forget his awesome nature. At the same time, I differ with Muslims about how we gain salvation, because I believe Jesus is God’s salvation gift and more than a prophet.
Other faiths can wake us up to aspects of Christian truth that can get forgotten, like the awesome nature of God in Christ. When I visited our Mosque for Friday Prayers I was struck by seeing so many bowing down physically to God, especially as kneeling in Church seems to happen less.
‘There’ll be no peace in the world without peace between religions and no peace between religions without understanding between religions’ (Hans Kung). Bowing down to God is something all three Abrahamic religions, Jewish, Christian and Muslim have in common. Our God is an awesome God - may he build peace in the world through better worship and mutual understanding across faiths.
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