The Disciple’s Way Graves Chapel
The Collect for the 5th Sunday of
Easter
Almighty God, whom truly to know is
everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the
way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the
way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.
The Gospel for today:
John 13:31-35
At the last supper, when Judas
had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God
has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also
glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with
you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so
now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another."
Our
nation has now suffered another dreadful terrorist attack, this time
perpetrated by young men who were both home-grown and Islamic extremists. We ask why and how this could happen,
and there are no good answers. We wonder how any religion could condone the
murder and mutilation of innocent people, including young children. Our government will respond to this
event as it must. But how do we
respond? How can we process yet another national tragedy?
It
is worth remembering at such a time that the three great world religions of
Middle Eastern origin all trace their roots to the city of Jerusalem and, in
essence, all worship one God. On that most basic level, Christians, Jews, and
Muslims are blood relatives. As
Christians, we know we share our faith history with Jews; our Old Testament is
Hebrew scripture and contains the law, history and literature of the Jewish
people. Jesus himself was a Jew, and the first Christians were all Jews who
came to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Saviour of His
people.
So
how do Muslims fit into this family history? The Father of the Hebrew people was Abraham, and we remember
that Abraham proved his faithful obedience to God when he nearly sacrificed his
only son Isaac. As you recall, God
intervened and stayed Abraham’s hand, providing a ram instead for the
sacrifice. Isaac would go on to be the father of Jacob and Esau, and through
Jacob, renamed Israel, the entire genealogy of the Jews is traced.
But
think again. Isaac was not Abraham’s only son, although it can be said he was
Abraham’s only legitimate son. When Sarah, Abraham’s aging wife, believed she
would not be able to bear a son for her husband, she gave her servant woman
Hagar to her husband, who fathered Ishmael with her. According to Genesis, Ishmael was about thirteen years old
and beloved by his father Abraham when Sarah finally gave birth to Isaac. Jealous of Ishmael’s relationship with
his father, Sarah insisted that Isaac had to be designated the only rightful
and legitimate heir of Abraham. Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent
away. And Abraham did indeed send
them out into the desert, where an angel intervened and saved their lives,
telling Hagar, “Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where
he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make
a great nation of him.” Those
verses are from Genesis 21:17-18. There it is, in Hebrew scripture, the place
where God sends an angel to say that a great nation of people would descend
from Ishmael. Arab Muslims would tell you that they are that great
nation. They consider Ishmael to be the direct ancestor of the Prophet Muhammed.
There
is a long history of reasons why these members of the same family—Jews,
Christians, and Muslims—have often become alienated from one another. I won’t go into that sad history now.
It is also equally true that there are many places in the world where people of
the three faiths live in peaceful harmony. As with the Boston Marathon bombing,
it is usually the extremists of any
one of these religions who want to impose their version of their faith on
everyone around them.
That
is as true of Christians as it is of Muslims. Adolph Hitler called himself a
Christian when he massacred 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro
Baptist Church persecutes his fellow Americans, among them many Christians,
when he brings members of his church to picket funerals. Rev. Phelps even
planned to picket funerals of the children killed in December’s Sandy Hook
school shooting. He calls himself a Christian pastor? He is a religious
extremist. His way of hateful vengeance is not the Lord’s way.
In
1993, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, a milestone agreement between the
Jews and the Palestinians paving the way for potential peace in the troubled
state of Israel. Yitzhak Rabin of
Israel and Yasser Arafat shook hands on the agreement, and the two men were
awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994. There was hope at last for Jews and Muslim Palestinians to
broker a peaceful settlement of their long conflict. Then, in 1995, before the
peace could be finalized, a radical Jewish extremist who opposed the Oslo
accord assassinated Rabin.
As
Christians, if we but look at the words of the founder of our faith, Jesus
Christ, we will see that the way of hatred and violence, the way of extremists,
is not His way. Nor did Christ ever suggest that we respond to such hatred in
kind. He told us to love our
enemies and to turn the other cheek.
Jesus, as we are reminded in today’s collect, called himself “the way,
the truth, and the life.” The way
of Jesus is fundamentally the way of love, mercy, and forgiveness. In a world
beset by war and cruelty, by terrorist attacks, that way may seem to be a
difficult way. (Boy, is it hard to turn the other cheek!) Sometimes it can be difficult to love
our own family members, but love them we must. We may certainly find it impossible to love the young men who
perpetrated the bombings in Boston, but we can work at holding back our hatred
of them and of Muslims in general. Their extreme position in no way represents
all American Muslims. If nothing else, we can begin the healing between Christians
and Muslims by working toward better mutual understanding.
As
we strive to live in love, as Christ loved us, it is important to remember that
His is not a way of weakness.
Turning the other cheek takes great courage, and God’s immense power is best demonstrated
in love. As Jesus prepared his
disciples for his imminent death, he said, “I give you a new commandment, that
you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one
another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love
for one another.”
We
demonstrate to a troubled world that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ in
this one way: by our love.
AMEN.
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