Here's the reflection that I shared earlier today as part of the
Midday Meditation Services for Holy Week at
Billericay Methodist Church, Western Road. These are reflective 45 minute services
throughout Holy week to help with reflection on the life, ministry, and death of
Jesus as we look towards a promised
resurrection, with carefully chosen choral
music:
The Annual Lent Lecture given here, at Western Road, earlier in Lent was entitled:
‘The Bible and People of Other Faiths: A Personal and Theological Journey’ and was given by
Dr Elizabeth Harris, honorary Senior Research Fellow within the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham, UK. Elizabeth gave helpful and fascinating insights into understandings of people of other faiths within the Bible and our readings today provide an opportunity to revisit that same theme and its relevance to the events of Holy Week.
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ (
Isaiah 49: 6)
These are words originally spoken to the People of Israel, as the servant of God, but then understood by the Church as applying to Jesus, who fulfilled the task originally given by God to Israel. Although the Israelites were God’s chosen people, they were not to keep God to themselves. God’s intent in making Israel his chosen people was that they should be a light to the nations so all people would be God’s people. When Jesus speaks of himself as the light of the world, he is saying that he is acting as Israel, as God’s servant, by bring the light of life to all people everywhere.
We see Jesus acting on this basis in our Gospel reading too:
among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They … said … ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ … Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (
John 12: 20-22)
It is when people of other faiths and other cultures come and ask to see Jesus that Jesus knows it is time for him to be glorified through the crucifixion and resurrection. It is for this reason that, once filled with Jesus’ Spirit, the apostles, including St Paul, take the message of Jesus, in word and act, to all the nations of the then known world. As St Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:
we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (
1 Corinthians 1: 23 & 24)
Although there is considerable debate in the early Church about the Gospel being preached among the Gentiles, it becomes increasingly clear that the love of Jesus cannot be contained solely within the Jewish church and must be shared and spread more widely among the Gentile peoples too.
The Old Testament scholar
Walter Brueggemann has helpfully spoken of two strands of theology to be found in the Old Testament; a core testimony and a counter testimony. The core testimony is supportive of the institutions of the day, whether the Judges or the Kings, and sees Israel as a beacon of light in an embattled world surrounded by hostile, unbelieving nations. The counter testimony is in large part the voice of those who do not have power – the Israelites, themselves, when slaves or in exile, those who are oppressed by the wealthy and powerful, those who are foreigners and migrants, and those who are people of other nations and other faiths. When Jesus enters our world as one of us, he does so as someone who is part of the counter testimony and through him the counter testimony is seen to be the testimony which embodies the nature of God most fully.
As a testimony which is counter to the testimony that claims God for the Israelites alone, the counter testimony is an inclusive testimony. In relation to people of other faiths, this means that the counter testimony sees all people as God’s people. We see this specifically and surprisingly expressed by a number of the prophets.
In
Amos 9.7-8, the prophet says:
“Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor
and the Arameans from Kir?
Here, there is no mention of the Israelites as God’s special people, instead all people are God’s people and it is noted that the Philistines and Arameans had their own Exoduses, as did the People of Israel when they were freed from slavery in Egypt. Later in the same chapter Amos speaks of all the nations that bear God’s name, not just one (
Amos 9. 12).
Malachi prophesies of those who will see God’s plans with their own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’ (
Malachi 1. 11) Isaiah gives the greatest and clearest vision of a harmonious kingdom embracing all nations where there is peace between all peoples and all creatures. In I
saiah 19. 23 -25, we read of this vision specifically in relation to Assyria, Egypt and Israel:
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
Similarly, Jesus says that: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (
John 10. 16). In his teaching, he specifically teaches, through the Parable of the Good Samaritan (who is a person of another faith), that we should receive from our neighbours who follow other faiths (
Luke 10. 25-37).
That is what we see St Paul doing when he preaches at the Areopagus in Athens. There, he specifically visits the range of worship places in Athens, compliments the people on their faith, begins his sermon with reference to one of the altars and quotes from their poets (
Acts 17. 16-34).
In a report called
Embassy, Hospitality & Dialogue prepared by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali for the 1998 Lambeth Conference, Bishop Nazir-Ali takes us across similar ground. He notes that Amos declares that God has a purpose for and acts within the history of the various nations, both far and near and that the language of the Exodus from Egypt is used to describe God's "saving plan" for these peoples (Amos 9:7). Also, that Malachi speaks of the ways in which God is recognised and worshipped, however inadequately, among the nations. In some cases, in ways that are worthier than the worship of Israel itself (Malachi 1:11).
In both Isaiah 19 and in the so-called Apocalypse of Isaiah (Chapters 24-27) there is a reference to a blessed community of nations. God's blessing no longer applies solely to Israel, the other nations are also blessed. Israel is the primary recipient of this blessing and also God's instrument in extending it to others, but there is also anticipation of a future which belongs to God.
The universalism of the New Testament arises out of the response to the Gospel by the poor, the marginalised and the foreigners. We are told that the common people (ochlos) heard Jesus gladly (Mark 12:37). He keeps company with the sinners and outcasts of society (Matthew 9:10-13). Foreigners respond positively to the words and works of Jesus (Matthew 8:1-13, Mark 7:24-30, Luke 17:11-19, John 12:20-21). This is confirmed in the experience of the Early Church which is alerted to its world-wide mission by the response of those either on the margins of the synagogue or outside it altogether (Acts 13:44-48).
Jesus’ encounters with Gentiles were encounters with people of other faiths and by studying these encounters we can explore Jesus’ approach to those of other faiths. Jesus crossed cultural and religious boundaries in order to speak with those such as the Samaritan woman. In Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan, it is the person from another faith (the Samaritan) who is a good neighbour to the person from God’s chosen people.
Paul had a multi-cultural upbringing. He was born and grew up in Tarsus in Cicilia (Acts 21: 39), a city noted for its Stoic philosophers. From other sources it seems likely that Paul’s parents were carried off as prisoners of war from the Judean town of Gischala to Tarsus. Presumably enslaved to a Roman, they were freed and granted Roman citizenship which was then also passed to Paul. In Tarsus Paul would probably have had an education in Greek culture before going to Jerusalem at about the age of 12 to study under the famous rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22: 3). In his ministry, Paul visited the worship places of other faiths (Acts 17: 23), quoted from the writings of other faiths (Acts 17: 28; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12), and used rhetorical approaches learnt from Greek oratory.
Both Scripture and our experience provide criteria that God is working in the cultures and histories of all people. In different ways, people respond to this divine impulse and the Bible, as the inspired record of God's saving acts, provides us with a means of discerning how God has been working in the history, the culture and the spirituality of a particular people. Awareness of the divine need not be confined to the structures of institutional religion. Indeed, it may not be found there at all! It can be a very private affair and sometimes it may be found in counter-religious movements which set out to affirm human dignity and equality and which challenge oppressive social institutions.
As was the case when Elizabeth Harris spoke to us, this review of Biblical passages that relate to relationships with those of other faiths seeks to show that there are a range of possible ways to understand and relate to our neighbours of other faiths. In relation to Holy Week and Easter, we are reminded that Jesus’s purpose in going through the cross to resurrection, was with all peoples of all faiths in mind and that his vision was that of the peaceable kingdom in which all peoples live together in peace with one another, with God and with creation. However we understand our relationship with those of other faiths, may we make that our prayer, now and always:
God of unity, whose Son said, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd. You love our human family and every work of your hands: As children of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims, together with other believers and all persons of good will, we thank you for having given us Abraham, a distinguished son of this noble and beloved country, to be our common father in faith. We ask you, the God of our father Abraham and our God, to grant us a strong faith, a faith that abounds in good works, a faith that opens our hearts to you and to all our brothers and sisters; and a boundless hope capable of discerning in every situation your fidelity to your promises. Make each of us a witness of your loving care for all, particularly refugees and the displaced, widows and orphans, the poor and the infirm. Open our hearts to mutual forgiveness and in this way make us instruments of reconciliation, builders of a more just and fraternal society. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
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