Tuesday, March 29, 2016

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Questions Muslims Ask Christians

Several years ago, the Presbyterian magazine, Presbyterians Today,  published an article by Mitali Perkins discussing five questions which often arise in conversation with Muslim friends. This article has been the resource for the following discussion.  Today, as we seek effective dialogue with Muslims, it is helpful to understand some key differences between Islam and Christianity, as well as what we share in common.

Let's start by identifying some shared beliefs.  Christians, Muslims and Jews value prayer, worship, fasting and tithing, but shun the worship of idols. All three faiths honor and remember Adam, Noah and Moses.  Members of all three faiths believe they are descendants of Abraham, the patriarch of all three religions ---- Jews through the line of Isaac, and Muslims through the line of Ishmael.  Interestingly, Christians and Jews are recognized within the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, as "people of the Book." Muslims even honor Jesus as a great prophet and believe that he will return to earth. 

What are some key differences between Muslims and Christians?

1.) What is believed about the Bible?

For Muslims, God's full revelation came in their holy book, the Qur'an, a code of laws, rules and regulations given by Allah to govern life and society.  As Christians, we too submit ourselves to a holy book.  We believe that the Old and New Testaments are the word of God with the power to change lives.

But, Christians believe that God's full revelation came in Jesus.  The Bible's purpose is to lead us into intimate relationship with God.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible portrays the God of the universe seeking relationship with us and longing for us to cultivate peace in our relationships with one another.

Christians, therefore, use Scripture within the context of relationships ---- we read and interpret the Bible in communion with God through the Holy Spirit and in communion with one another through the church.

2.) Do Christians worship one God or three?

Many Muslims mistakenly believe that our Trinity includes God, Jesus and Mary.  Others cite the Christian belief in the Trinity as another example of polytheism.  How, then can we talk to one another about God as a single discrete entity?

However, Christianity, like Islam and Judaism is monotheistic.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in substance.  We worship a God whose very being is an intimate relationship ---- a relationship so closely knit between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that one can conceive of God only as one.

The Qur'an describes our relationship with God in terms of master and slave, but at the same time describes Allah as merciful and compassionate to humans.  Christians can affirm this view of God because our Scriptures also describe God as a merciful, compassionate master.

3.) Why do Christians believe that Jesus suffered and died on the cross?

Jesus (or Isa) holds a high place in Islam as a great prophet.  The Qur'an also teaches that Isa did miracles and even calls Jesus the "Word from God" and "Messiah."  But that is where similarities end, because the Muslim holy book claims that Jesus was never killed. God is sovereign, the Qur'an teaches, and therefore God could not allow Jesus, the great prophet to die such a violent death.

Because Muslims don't share the Christian belief in original sin, Muslims wonder why we even need the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  But, from a Christian point of view, Jesus' pain and death on the cross provide us with the greatest gain in the world.  Jesus' humanity and suffering communicate the extraordinary lengths to which our Creator has gone to lavish extravagant love upon sinful humanity.

4.) Why don't Christians obey the teachings of Muhammad?

Christians believe that Muhammad's teachings contain some truth, but they are not part of our biblical tradition.  Muslims believe that in his teachings Muhammad corrected texts in the Bible.

The prevailing view in Islam is that everything Muhammad said and did was inspired.  The Qur'an claims that Muhammad is God's decisive seal of prophethood, the last and final messenger to humanity.

But while Muslims venerate and imitate their prophet, they stop short of worshiping him or regarding him as divine.  Here, at least, we find some common ground.

5.) If salvation is a gift of God's grace, why do Christians believe they must do good works?

Muslims and Christians share a linear view of history, a belief in heaven and hell and a belief in judgment, individual death and the resurrection of the body.  In Islam, those whose good deeds outweigh their bad will attain salvation.  Those whose bad deeds outweigh their good deeds will abide in hell.  It is love for Allah that motivates the faithful Muslim to keep striving for good.  Paramount among the good deeds to which Muslims aspire are the Five Pillars of Islam: Confession of faith, prayer, tithing, fasting and pilgrimage.

While Islam calls men and women to submit to God's law, Christianity understands that Jesus has already fulfilled God's law on behalf of the world.  Muslims submit to God's law with the passionate belief that their actions are working to bring in the reign of God. Christians believe that God's kingdom has already come.  Christ already accomplished the ultimate reign of God, and therefore we work as hopeful heirs of his promised kingdom.

To Muslims, the Christian emphasis on grace could be seen as a pretext for personal and societal lawlessness.  If God has already forgiven our evil behavior, what is the price for breaking God's law?  History exposes countless examples of people who claimed to follow Jesus and yet were perpetrators of evil.  On the other hand, the Islamic emphasis on submission to God's law could be interpreted as unforgiving legalism from a Christian perspective.  A hopeful outcome of Muslim/Christian conversation, then, would be the movement of a Muslim friend toward grace and a Christian friend toward obedience.
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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your spiritual growth this spring.
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Monday, March 21, 2016

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Easter Reminds Us How Jesus Revolutionized Our View of Humankind



Because the Easter story has been told so often, it is easy even for Christians to forget how revolutionary was Jesus' birth, life and death.  The idea that God would become human and dwell among us, in circumstances both humble and humiliating, shattered previous assumptions.  It was through this story of divine involvement that much of today's humanistic tradition was born.

For most Christians, the incarnation ---- the belief that God, in the person of Jesus, walked in our midst, is a tipping point in human history.  The incarnation's most common theological take-away may be the doctrine of redemption:  the belief that salvation is made possible by the sinless life and atoning death of Jesus.

The incarnation also reveals that the divine principle governing the universe is a radical commitment to the dignity and worth of every person, since we are all created in the divine image.

But, just as basic is the notion that we have value because God values us.  So, similarly gold has value not because there is something about gold that is intrinsically of great worth, but because someone values it.  Likewise, human beings have worth because we are valued by God, who took on flesh, entered our world, and shared our experiences ---- love, joy, compassion and intimate friendships; anger, sorrow, suffering and tears.  For Christians, God is not distant or detached.  God is involved with us, which elevates the human experience.  In human history, God's intervention laid the groundwork for today's ideas of individual dignity and inalienable rights.

Indeed, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (blessed are the poor in spirit and pure in heart, the meek and the merciful), his touching of lepers, and his association with outcasts and sinners, were all acts and values contrary to the conventional wisdom of those times. Such behavior on the part of Jesus was fundamentally at odds with the way the Greek and Roman worlds viewed life, where social status was everything.

It was Jesus and Christianity that introduced the notion that human beings were of
fundamentally identical value ---- that men and women were equal in dignity.  This was an unprecedented idea at the time, and one to which our world owes its entire democratic inheritance.

Thus, Christianity placed charity at the center of its spiritual life in a way that had not been seen before.  It raised the care of widows, orphans, the sick, the imprisoned, and the poor to the level of high religious obligations.  Christianity would later play a key role in ending slavery and segregation.  Today Christians are taking the lead against human trafficking. Also, Christians maintain countless hospitals, hospices and orphanages around the world. What Jesus started, still shapes our diverse values toward humankind.  So, people today should not assume that compassion for the poor and the marginalized, is natural and universal.

There is one other dimension of Easter.  Easter helps those of us of the Christian faith to avoid turning God into an abstract set of principles.  Accounts of how Jesus interacted in this messy, complicated, broken world, through actions that stunned the people of his time, allow us to learn compassion in ways that never would happen by being handed a moral rule book.

For one thing, rule books can't shed tears or express love; human beings do.  Seeing how Jesus dealt with the religious authorities of his day (often harshly) and the sinners and outcasts of his day (often tenderly and respectfully) adds texture and subtlety to human relationships that we could never gain otherwise.

Unfortunately, Christians have often fallen short of what followers of Jesus are called to be. We have seen this in the Crusades, religious wars and bigotry.  To this day, many professing Christians embody the antithesis of Grace.

As we think about Easter this year, bring to mind that it celebrates God's incarnation among humankind and the lasting revolution it caused through Jesus in human relationships. We are part of a great drama that God has chosen to be participating in, not in the role of a conquering king, but as a suffering servant.  Not with the intention to condemn the world but to redeem it.  He saw the inestimable worth of human life, regardless of social status, wealth and worldly achievements, intelligence or national origin.  So should we!

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These words are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, seeking to encourage your spiritual growth this spring.
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Thursday, March 17, 2016

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Has Church Social Outreach Replaced Traditional Scriptural Grounding and Bible Knowledge?



In the twentieth century, American Christians seemed divided between the liberal mainline churches that stressed caring for others and social outreach, and the fundamentalist churches that emphasized personal salvation through Bible-study-based faith.  

Should the Christian follow traditional evangelism, which took pains to save people's souls, even if it did nothing about the systems locking them into debilitating poverty?  But to some, the price for emphasizing the caring for others and doing social outreach would be the weakening of one's sound Scriptural grounding and knowledge, and thus the lessening of one's zeal for saving souls.  On the other hand, in the world then and now, we see so much poverty and painful need, all around us.  Can we really turn a blind eye? Today, how can we possibly go in both directions at once?

Some have argued that Christians should only do social outreach and caring for others as a means to the end of advancing the faith.  That is, we should do mercy and social outreach only because it helps us bring people to faith in Christ.  But, this does not seem to fit in with Jesus' charge not to give to needy people only to get something in return (Luke 6:32 - 35). "Doing" social outreach can indeed draw people to listen to the message of the Gospel, but to consider that deeds of mercy and caring are identical to Gospel proclamation is not correct.

So, perhaps there is more than one technique for obtaining Scripture grounding.  Traditionally, it was done by "preaching" Scripture, paraphrasing Bible stories and otherwise teaching Scripture by word of mouth.

But, sometimes people's ears are "closed" to such words.  Either they do not believe the words, or they can't muster the desire to live by them.  Sometimes instead, what really moves and excites people is real-life examples that exemplify the Scripture teachings ---- actions taken in everyday life that are selfless efforts to help other human beings.  Think about the Good Samaritan parable!  We quote that story to this day, even though not a word of Scripture was reported to have been said!

Let's look for a link between Bible study and the example we project as practicing Christians, as mirrored in our actions toward others.

Imagine an eloquent Christian preacher who every Sunday delivers compelling sermons. But one of his parishioners learns that the minister verbally abuses and browbeats his wife daily.  After the parishioner discovers this, for him the sermons are completely unpersuasive.  Are you surprised?  The preacher's deeds contradict his words, and so the preacher's words have no power.

Imagine instead, a new minister whose public oratory is quite mediocre.  However, as time goes on, the parishioners come to see that he is a man of sterling character, wisdom, humility and love.

Soon, because of the quality of his life, his church members find that they are hanging on every word of his preaching.  His deeds and behavior support his words.

Deeds of mercy and caring should be done out of love, not simply as a rote means to the end of social outreach.  And yet, at the same time there is no better way for Christians to lay a foundation for the Scriptural understanding and belief than by doing social outreach.
Why?  I suggest that active social outreach as a helpful antidote to our natural tendency to think first about serving ourselves, about which Scripture has plenty to say!

Deeds of mercy and caring  can take many forms.  One can serve in a soup kitchen for the homeless, visit and encourage hospital patients, collect used clothing for the poor or bring meals to the handicapped.  Or it can be as simple as helping a neighbor with their children's educational needs, or with finding a job, or helping them learn English as a second language.

If we wish to share our faith with needy people, and we do nothing about the painful conditions in which they live (whether they be rich or poor), we fail to really show Christ's beauty.  But we must find a balance between seeking Scriptural understanding and belief, and "doing" social outreach.  We must not separate these two things from each other.  The problem is that both goals use up a person's available time.  How do each of us intentionally find the proper personal balance?
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What Will It Cost Me To Ask For Help?

My friend recently bought a house.  One feature that he and his wife especially liked was the back yard.  It was enclosed by a fence, seven feet high, and on three sides, giving them a good deal of privacy.  But there was one problem.  Several sections of the fence had been blown down during a recent winter storm.  Each fence section was too long and heavy for the couple to re-install themselves.  If they were to ask their neighbor to help them, it would probably take only a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon to complete the repairs.  But they had never met their neighbor.  Would they actually ask the neighbor for help?

What's The Problem?

Requesting assistance from friends, neighbors or colleagues at work, is something many people have trouble doing.  In a society largely based on solving our problems ourselves, we are taught from an early age to take pride in being self-reliant.  Just go to any bookstore or library and browse the voluminous self-help section!

There are many reasons people fear requesting assistance.  Some people just do not want to appear weak, needy or incompetent.  For them there is a tendency to feel that asking for help shows some kind of deficiency.  That, if we let down our guard, we'll get hurt.  Or, that revealing the fact that one doesn't know how to do a particular thing, will be used against us. The danger, however, is that stalling can cause the situation grow from a problem into a crisis.

Another fear is that if we ask for help, we are surrendering all control, and the person you ask to help you may take over the entire project.  Sometimes we fear that if we ask for help, we'll get more help than we want or need.  If we present the need to the wrong person, we might be stuck in a hovering, patronizing relationship.  Like asking for help to walk across a stream, and the helper wants to build you a boat!

There is also the fear of what someone is going to ask in return.  No one likes to feel indebted, and asking someone else to come to our aid can shift a relationship's power balance.  Most of us prefer the situation to be reciprocal ---- "I will help you on this piece of work, if you help me with something I am trying to do."  "I will pick your child from school; can you have mine over for a play date next week?"

One reason asking for help is difficult is that most people have never been taught how to ask properly.  So, we do it badly, sometimes using guilt, coercion or even blackmail.  We solicit pity when we want assistance.  We ask the wrong person.  We have felt humiliated asking in the past, so we fear doing it in the future.  Be straightforward.  Ask in specific terms, but do not micromanage.  Make the request in person and in private.  Pick up on clues ---- is that an enthusiastic "yes" or a reluctant one?  Say thanks when the agreement is struck, when the need is met, and when you next see the person who helped you.

Is There Any Other Source Of Help?

There is one more place to ask for help ---- ask God.  It is easy, but for some people it is the hardest "ask" for them to remember.  Go back through the previous paragraphs.  The same issues apply when asking God for help, with one big exception.  God does not require us to reciprocate by doing some task for him, for his help.  Ours is a God of unconditional love.  He just wants us to believe in Him, to trust Him, and to love Him.

For what problems do we ask God's help?  Surely we do not ask his help for fixing our back yard fence.  But, we should ask God often to strengthen us for choosing the "right path." We need to ask God frequently to guide us in following His will, and to strengthen us for averting the temptation to simply do our own will.  We need God's help to endure when it seems our troubles are endless.  There are so many other times one can think of when we should remember to freely ask God for help ---- we just need to do it.  We can do it very simply ---- through prayer.

Philip Yancey has written a useful book on prayer, entitled: Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference?   Yancey  says that God invites us to ask plainly for what we need.  Yancey tells us that we will not be scolded any more than a child who climbs into her parent's lap and presents a Christmas wish list.

All too often we crowd out prayer because in alternative activities we see tangible results. With prayer much of the benefit takes place within us and behind the scenes, beneath the level of conscious awareness, and in ways difficult to measure.  But the very process of "wasting time" with God can actually change us on the inside.  Essentially, any therapeutic value from Christian prayer comes as a spiritual "boost", not the accomplishment of some concrete goal.  Perhaps we may often need the help of both God and some willing human person.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Family Feuds



Why do family feuds go on and on until everyone is dead ---- or gets too old and too tired to fight?  The reason is simple: no two families ever weigh pain on the same scale.  The pain a person causes me always feels heavier to me than it feels to the person who caused it.  The pain I inflict on you always feels worse to you than it feels to me.

I had a chance to observe a family feud first hand, a few years ago.  My Aunt Sarah from Alabama was planning a Christmas dinner for local family members.  She was now living near us in Western New York State.  She invited even distant cousins, but did not invite my family, even though my mother was the sister of Aunt Sarah's husband.  Being omitted from the guest list really hurt our feelings.  All we could think of was that we did not have as much social standing as the invited family members, and Aunt Sarah was trying to protect her own social standing.  In my small family circle ("the uninvited"), should we forgive Aunt Sarah, or should we act out our true feelings, and retaliate

SATAN'S  ADVICE:  
There is a lot to be said for not forgiving people who have done us wrong.  Why should people who upset our lives, leaving us bleeding in their wake, expect us to forgive everything and act as if nothing went wrong?  Is forgiving in reality a religious trick to seduce hurting people into putting up with wrongs they do not deserve?  Remember that we are talking about forgiving things that we feel are insufferable.  We are not talking about the petty slights that we all inevitably suffer.  We are talking about forgiving people who have wronged us deeply and unfairly.  If forgiving leaves the victim exposed and encourages the wrongdoer to hurt again, why forgive?!

When we urge people to forgive, we are asking them to suffer twice.  First, they suffer the wrong of another person's assault.  They were ripped off.  Betrayed.  Left out in the cold.  Now, must they suffer a second injury and swallow the insult to boot?  They are stuck with the hurt ----- then, must they also bless the person who hurt them?

ANOTHER  ANSWER:
Suppose we try to deny the hurt we feel.  If we are too afraid of our own pain to permit ourselves to feel it fully, we do not need to deal with the issue of forgiveness.  For practical purposes, there is no hurt to forgive.  But, what shoves us into crisis is when we realize the fact that we have been treated unfairly by someone ---- someone who did not have to do it. We can begin to forgive only when we refuse the soft-soaped temptation of toning down the wrong that was laid on us.  Forgiving is only for people who are being honest about the wretched fact of unfair pain.  Forgiving is not for everyone.

But, suppose one refuses to settle for the past (with its remembered hurt), and you also refuse to forgive.  Is there another option?  Maybe revenge?

Vengeance is a passion to get even.  It is a hot desire to give back as much pain as someone gave you.  An eye for an eye!  The problem with revenge is that it never gets what it wants ---- it never evens the score.  Vengeance always takes both the injured and the injurer on an escalator of pain.  The escalator never stops, never lets anyone off as long as parity is demanded.

If you hurt me and I retaliate in kind, I may think that I have given you only what you deserve, no more.  But you will feel it as a hurt that is too great for you to accept.  Your passion for fairness will force you to retaliate against me, harder this time.  Then it will be my turn.  And will it ever stop?

Forgiveness is not the alternative to revenge simply because it is soft and gentle.  It is a viable alternative because it is the only creative route to less unfairness.  So says Professor Lewis B. Smedes, a former professor of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, in his book Forgive and Forget.

Forgiveness has creative power to move us away from a past moment of pain, says Prof. Smedes.  It can unshackle us from an endless chain of pain-related reactions, and create a new situation in which both the wrongdoer and the wronged can begin in a new way.

Smedes says it well:

          "Forgiveness offers a chance at reconciliation.  It is an opportunity
           for a life together instead of death together.  Forgiveness is a miracle
           of the will that moves away a heavy hindrance to fellowship, a miracle
           that will be fulfilled when the two estranged people come together in as
           fair a new relationship as is possible at the time and in those circum-
           stances."

Forgiveness begins midstream in the flow of unfairness, and starts a new movement toward another fairness.  An imperfect fairness, to be sure, but better at least than an endless perpetuation of the old unfairness.  It breaks the grip that past wrong and pain have on our minds, and frees us for whatever fairer future lies amid the unknown potential of our tomorrows.

There is no guarantee.  But, forgiving is the only door open to possibility.  Do you see any opportunities for reconciliation with someone who has hurt you in the past?  This might be the most amazing gift you could give to yourself!
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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to some personal spiritual growth this Spring.
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