+ Is there a way to make compassion the fruit of our lives together and let the Holy One sort out the
rest as the Qu'ran suggests?+ Can we learn to trust beyond our very real differences and walk towards peace knowing that we all pray to the same God?
+ Will Americans come to grips with the fact that 14 million Arabic speaking sisters and brothers in Christ pray to Allah every day?
+ What do we do in the face of jihadists who are filled with fear and hatred?
Our diverse small group of 14 listened to one another carefully, read our assignments thoroughly and wondered about next steps on the road to compassion.
Two groups working from very different places come to mind in the work of finding common ground in compassion:
+ First is The Com
mon Word, a group of Muslim scholars inviting Christians into greater knowledge and conversation (check it out: http://www.acommonword.com/index.php?lang=en) This is an experiment born of Islam reaching out to Christians and begins to answer the question that many - including some of us tonight - still ask: where are the voices of reason and tolerance amidst the fear and violence?+ Second is the work of Karen Armstrong's Compassion Project - an interfaith project (check it out: http://charterforcompassion.org/) - that seeks to restore compassion as the core of our faith commitment rather than just intellectual constructs. The Compassion Project recognizes our doctrinal and theological differences - and respects them - but seeks to find common ground in activity that heals rather than wounds.
My old mentor - and homiletics professor, Jim Forbes - left Riverside Church a few years back to devote more time to the work of compassion and interfaith work (and less time to the bullshit of church politics.) One of my favorite portions of scripture puts it like this:
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid...
I think that is what brother Forbes is getting after as he brings to a close this sermon to young preachers in the Christian tradition - but it cuts across every line or division when he asks: what time is it, y'all?
credit: chris rames @ http://www.chrisranes.com/apocalypse/index.html
1 comment:
We must build those bridges to the moderates of other faiths--it can be done and it has been done and is being done.
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