Spring Break
Get to know your religious neighbors
Exposing yourself to other faiths can strengthen your own
By: The Rev. Kyle Walker
Issue date: 9/9/08 Section: News
Speaking for other people is a dangerous pursuit, but not nearly as dangerous as trying to speak for God. My job is to study scripture and make my best effort at faithfully interpreting it for students. However, I do not claim to know the incomprehensible mind of God on all matters. As preachers, we are not all-knowing and never will be.
Before I was ordained, I was examined through an extemporaneous question-and-answer process about my Christian beliefs. I'll never forget the gentleman who stood up and asked me, "Mr. Walker, let's say you have a woman who just started coming to your church and she is married to a member of another faith. How do you instruct her about her husband's salvation?"
Well, my answer then is still my answer now. I have no trouble sharing with people the truth I have found in knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. However, I do not claim to know the mind of God about the status of anyone's salvation, whether they are Christian or not. My job description, as stated in Matthew 28:19 and Matthew 22:36-40, is to love God, love everyone, even strangers and enemies, and tell them about the experience of Jesus Christ in my life. The rest is in God's hands. Needless to say, not everyone liked that answer, nor do some today.
I am a Christian because Jesus has taken my heart and changed it. The change is one from self-centeredness to one of love. More often than not, Christians try to create a religion centered on ourselves, much like the lawyers of Jesus' day. We must remember that Jesus' first priority is not for us to have good fire insurance from hell, but for us to love in the manner in which he did. This is no watered-down Christianity. Rather, it is the essence and hard truth of what Jesus wanted us to know and how he wanted us to live. In Matthew 22:40, Jesus said, "All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." In other words, everything else is commentary.
Several years ago, I began to make friends with people outside the Christian bubble I've lived in all my life. And, yes, I'm afraid there truly is a Christian bubble. These friends are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and even atheist/agnostic, or perhaps Christians I formerly didn't associate with much. What I have learned is that I very much misunderstood their beliefs and they misunderstood mine. My Jewish friends have taught me what it means to show hospitality to strangers and love God in the most trying of circumstances. My Muslim friends have shown me that they are no more all terrorists bent on destroying us than all Christians were murderous during the Crusades. Atheists/agnostics teach me how an unwillingness to dialogue beyond biblical prooftexting only leads to a picture of Christians as anti-reason, anti-knowledge and anti-science. We must "First take the log out of our own eye, [before taking] the speck out of our neighbor's eye" (Matthew 7:5) and open ourselves up to relationships with those who believe differently than we do.
Get to know your neighbors of other faiths. As you do, I pray you find what I have found in listening to and embracing others who are different. Rather than being weakened in your faith by the challenge, I believe you will be called to strengthen your own faith and live it at the deepest level of your life.
Before I was ordained, I was examined through an extemporaneous question-and-answer process about my Christian beliefs. I'll never forget the gentleman who stood up and asked me, "Mr. Walker, let's say you have a woman who just started coming to your church and she is married to a member of another faith. How do you instruct her about her husband's salvation?"
Well, my answer then is still my answer now. I have no trouble sharing with people the truth I have found in knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. However, I do not claim to know the mind of God about the status of anyone's salvation, whether they are Christian or not. My job description, as stated in Matthew 28:19 and Matthew 22:36-40, is to love God, love everyone, even strangers and enemies, and tell them about the experience of Jesus Christ in my life. The rest is in God's hands. Needless to say, not everyone liked that answer, nor do some today.
I am a Christian because Jesus has taken my heart and changed it. The change is one from self-centeredness to one of love. More often than not, Christians try to create a religion centered on ourselves, much like the lawyers of Jesus' day. We must remember that Jesus' first priority is not for us to have good fire insurance from hell, but for us to love in the manner in which he did. This is no watered-down Christianity. Rather, it is the essence and hard truth of what Jesus wanted us to know and how he wanted us to live. In Matthew 22:40, Jesus said, "All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." In other words, everything else is commentary.
Several years ago, I began to make friends with people outside the Christian bubble I've lived in all my life. And, yes, I'm afraid there truly is a Christian bubble. These friends are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and even atheist/agnostic, or perhaps Christians I formerly didn't associate with much. What I have learned is that I very much misunderstood their beliefs and they misunderstood mine. My Jewish friends have taught me what it means to show hospitality to strangers and love God in the most trying of circumstances. My Muslim friends have shown me that they are no more all terrorists bent on destroying us than all Christians were murderous during the Crusades. Atheists/agnostics teach me how an unwillingness to dialogue beyond biblical prooftexting only leads to a picture of Christians as anti-reason, anti-knowledge and anti-science. We must "First take the log out of our own eye, [before taking] the speck out of our neighbor's eye" (Matthew 7:5) and open ourselves up to relationships with those who believe differently than we do.
Get to know your neighbors of other faiths. As you do, I pray you find what I have found in listening to and embracing others who are different. Rather than being weakened in your faith by the challenge, I believe you will be called to strengthen your own faith and live it at the deepest level of your life.
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