From Hebrew BIble to New Testament to Koran

When I responded to the Huffington Post article in my last blog post, there was a tug at the back of my skull.  The very thing that I was writing against in connecting prophetic predictions of Mohammed in the New Testament is exactly what the Christian faith has done with prophetic predictions from the Hebrew Bible.  Christianity draws upon Judaism for its place in the world.  It does so with a long list of chapters and verses from what we call the Old Testament-the Hebrew Bible-the Tanakh.

I believe my rabbinic and Jewish colleagues in ministry and faith would react very much the way I did were I to express my views on how I believe the Tanakh and the New Testament are one book, gathered around the person and work of Jesus.  And I would respect them for their skepticism and for any annoyance they feel toward the presumption of Christianity in this regard.

Because Christianity wobbles between two poles in regards to Judaism.  On one extreme, we feel that we 'complete' the Jewish faith because of the person and work of Jesus.  On another extreme, we feel we correct the work of the Jewish faith because of the recasting of the faith by the person and work of Jesus.  We will even grant the honor to our Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus himself, was Jewish, as was the entire first generation of what has become the 'church'.

And maybe we could, as a religion, in good conscience, have that conversation, if our religious history was not so bloody in regards to our Jewish brothers and sisters. 

A few years ago, my friend and I were traveling in England when we came to the City of York.  There is a site in York that is forever seared in my memory, Clifford's Tower.  On that site, in 1190, the majority of the Jewish population in York committed suicide rather than die at the hands of the Christian community or undergo the malicious indignity of forced conversion.  One hundred and fifty died there, wives and children killed by their husbands and fathers before their fathers killed themselves by setting fire to the Keep.

Up till that moment, this smug young Christian knew the story of the Jewish suicides at Masada, the Jewish defenders keeping themselves from the torture that awaited at the hands of the Romans.  But the Romans were barbaric, look what they did to Jesus.  Sure, but Christians are also barbaric.  Don't let anyone ever tell you different.  There are words like 'pogrom' and 'Holocaust' that have their origins in the barbarity of a Christianity Jesus would not recognize.

And while my forebears in the faith were causing the deaths of Jews in England, we were killing Muslims in the Middle East in the name of God while on Crusade.

I do not delve into the history of my faith looking to bring condemnation or seeking absolution.  I delve to celebrate the miracle that is today.  From my perspective, it is a miracle that Jesus continues to use the Christian faith, despite its history, despite its current lack of perfection.

There is the real potential for an end game now.  The Earth needs us to dig deep into who we are as people of faith, to transcend our wars, our histories, our differences.  We are united in our humanity, united in love, in caring.  It is to that future that I believe we must work.

Scripture Readings for the Week of May 8, 2016

Our Scripture on Sunday includes Nehemiah 8:1-12, when Ezra reads the law once again to the people of Israel once they have returned from the Babylonian Exile.  The daily readings this week take us up to that story. 

This week, read the backstory to the Scriptures we shared from Nehemiah this Sunday.  For "extra credit", read on to the end of the book.

Mon. May 9: Neh. 1 and 2

Tue. May 10: Neh. 3

Wed. May 11: Neh. 4

Thu. May 12: Neh. 5

Fri. May 13: Neh. 6

Sat. May 14: Neh. 7

YES, the Time Has Come for Christians and Muslims to Make Peace!

The following link was circulated to members of our local clergy association.  As I enjoy and appreciate the Huffington Post as a source of information and given the intriguing title, I read the article with interest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-mevorach/did-jesus-predict-muhammad_b_9762934.html?ir=Religion%3F

I am in total, one hundred percent agreement with the first two paragraphs.  Every Christian and Muslim in the world needs to pay attention to what is being expressed.

“The time has come for Christians and Muslims to make peace between our communities. Christians and Muslims already make up more than half of the global population, and these numbers are expected to grow in the coming decades; according to the Pew Research Center, by 2050, two thirds of humanity, some 5.7 billion people, will be either Christian or Muslim.



Our planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence between these two communities. The challenges we face as a global human family are profound: ongoing warfare and nuclear proliferation, global poverty and economic inequality, climate change and ecological degradation. How will humanity handle these crises and others if our two largest religious communities are embroiled in constant conflict, if misunderstanding defines our relationship? As contemporary theologian Hans Kung has argued for decades, there will be no peace between our nations without peace between our religions. Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other. “



That is so well said and it needs to be spoken over and over and over again.    



As I read the article, I was struck by the memory of pictures I have seen from the end of the Second World War.  Somewhere in conquered Nazi Germany, troops from the Soviet Union and the United States met, shaking hands, and exchanging cigarettes.  For me, those images are even more iconic than the cover shot on Life magazine of the sailor kissing the nurse in Time Square on V-J Day.  They are not iconic for what was, but for what could have been, no, SHOULD have been.  Although the Cold War started too soon after those pictures were taken, the possibilities they represented cannot be understated.



What SHOULD be, must be, truly accomplished is a similar meeting of Christianity and Islam.  It is critical for the survival of the planet.  We share one God, whom we Christians call ‘our Father who art in Heaven’, and, if I understand correctly, our Muslim brothers and sisters Allah, may His name be ever praised. 



“Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other…”  Unfortunately, I do not see what Ian Mevorach describes as the way to see this done. 



As a pastor, trained as an academic, I do not believe that we can draw from the Christian bible that Mohammed is to succeed Jesus.  Mine is an outsider’s view of Islam, but I believe that Islam accepts a line of prophets, including Jesus of the Christian tradition, that concludes with Mohammed as Allah’s final and greatest prophet. 



I do not agree that references to the ‘spirit of Truth’ in the Johannine portions of the New Testament or the ‘prophet’ in the book of Deuteronomy refer forward to Mohammed.  I think that makes assumptions about a progression of religion that does justice neither to Christianity nor Islam.  But that is an argument for the Academy.



What I do believe is that we are brothers, the quarreling sons of our father Abraham, and the time has come to stop quarreling.  The threats to the very created order of our planet make our religious quarrels pale by comparison.  To those of either faith who would claim that it is more important to prepare to stand before God in the next life, I would challenge them with the question of how God will judge us for what we have done with the gifts God has given to us here?



How then can we move on a path of greater understanding and cooperation? 



To that question, I am happy to return to John.  In John 13: 34-35, Jesus says “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another…By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NRSV).  This is the message that I proclaim to all my brothers and sisters of the Christian faith-in all its broad stripes, in all its various denominations, in all its streams of interpretation-this is the message that we must lead with.



I know that there are brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith who will stand with us, responding with like teachings of Allah from the Koran.  It is there, in that commonality of purpose and understanding of the things of faith, that we can reach out and embrace in the name of Allah, in the name of God.



When Capitalists and Communists shook hands in 1945, to celebrate their common cause in defeating Fascism, the peace did not last long.  They gathered under what is arguably the greatest unifying principle of history, an alliance against a common enemy.  What Christianity and Islam have to accomplish is far more enduring.  Instead of the catalyst of a common enemy to defeat, we must instead reach from the very core of our respective faiths.  From that core, we must draw forth an alliance based on love, love for one another and a love for where we live.  Then, I believe, we can properly care for our Earth.