I’ve been invited by Covenant pastor, Chris Brueninger, to join him with a regional religious leaders group to pursue inter-religious dialogue. More opportunities like this are increasingly coming into my orbit. In a way, this is what I engage in each time I step into a mosque. I grin sometimes when I know I’m being “evangelized.” Fair game. It is fun and I’m trying to figure out the protocol and how best to do the exchange.
It takes time to get beyond the stage of what I like to call the “divine beauty contest.” My goal clearly is to move beyond putting our best foot forward and getting to issues of substance. An important criteria all along this path, however, is to be a trustworthy conversation partner. I’m not going to set up straw men in the other religions only to tear them down. I’m not going to denigrate the other religious practice in order to win points. I am going to make every effort to sustain a friendship as far as is possible. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” [Heb. 12:14].
A point of clarity might help at this point. I’m not trying to change a Muslims’ religion [aka: culture] anymore than I tried to make good Protestants out of Catholics in our Bible studies in Mexico. I do seek to bear a clear witness to Jesus. It is important to get the words of the Gospel correct but I must be careful that they are heard and understood in the Muslim context, not just articulated from my western evangelical perspective. Also, my grasp of the Kingdom of God, my understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ is not perfect. Out of a learning posture among Muslims, I gain new insight as I read scripture with the eyes of Muslims. I see stuff that I did not see before. God is sovereign, not me, nor my understanding of God and the message of the Gospel.
Every time I engage Muslims I come away with a deeper sense of how much we share, how easy it is to talk about spiritual things, and also I experience a fresh clarity concerning the Gospel. The encounter whittles away at my own warped versions of the Good News, helps peel away my own cultural accretions that have attached themselves to the simple message of Jesus. This is important work, not just because I am called to do it, but because the mission of the church is what keeps the Gospel alive, fresh, and unencumbered. So our work involves listening and hearing as much as in telling. It is discerning where God is already present and active among Muslims, helping shape their experience of God. Ditto back in the church when I share with them the story of God’s active work among Muslims. In some way it is making important distinctions between the Gospel and our respective cultures. On both sides. Feels similar to the dynamics I read about in chapter 15 of Acts when the Jerusalem Council was deliberating on these kinds of issues. I have the wild privilege of being at that intersection.
