 |
 |
|
|
A sermon delivered on September 9, 2007, by
Rev. Eugene C. Buie, DMin.
Jeremiah 14:25-33
Luke 18:1-12
In our text from the Book of Jeremiah, the Spirit of God sends Jeremiah to the house of a potter. Jeremiah finds the potter shaping a pot that soon collapses in his hands. The potter doesn’t throw the ruined pot away, however, but begins again to shape it into another pot. A lesson for us this morning lies in the process followed by the potter, because metaphorically the potter is God and God’s people are represented by the clay. As a people who tend to collapse into ruin as we are being shaped, it is helpful if we understand this process.
To begin with, the potter must find clay suitable for his craft, because not all clay lends itself to the process of being shaped. When found, he gathers this clay from the ground and brings it to his shop. There, he begins to work the clay by adding moisture, folding it into itself, squeezing it, pounding it, and finally forcefully throwing it repeatedly against a table top until it is compacted into a more or less round shape.
Then the potter throws the ball of clay on to the center of a slowly spinning wheel and begins to shape it with his hands. As the clay spins within his grasp, the potter shapes the clay, pressing down on the center of the mass with his thumbs and raising the sides with his fingers to form a pot. As the sides of the pot are raised higher, the clay becomes thinner and the pot begins to take shape. It is at this point that the true skill of the potter’s hands comes into play. If there is a weakness or flaw in the clay, however, the sides of the pot will collapse. When this happens, the potter must take the clay and begin again, adding moisture, folding the clay into itself, squeezing and pounding it, and finally forcefully throwing it repeatedly against a table top in an effort to once again eliminate weaknesses and flaws from the clay mass. If the potter is successful, he soon will shape the formless clay into a beautiful and functional pot.
Critical to the success of the potter and his creation are (1) the balance of pressures applied to the clay mass as it is shaped by the potter’s hands and (2) the condition of the clay itself. The potter works with the clay as he finds it. He forcefully strengthens the clay by working it, so that the clay can withstand the shaping process. The clay must yield to the potter’s hands and thereafter retain the shape given it. This metaphorical image can be comforting to God’s people even as we endure the pressures that shape us to God’s will. We are assured that, if we collapse into ruin, God will not abandon us but will begin again to shape us. Otherwise, the world today can be a very frightening place.
Presures That Shape Us
As I continue to ponder the noise of war and peace movements heard these days, I am aware of an uneasy confusion among Christians concerning Islam and radical Islamic terrorism. This confusion seems to resolve itself into the three basic questions, “Who is God?,” “How does God work in the world?,” and, “What does God expect of us?” There is a vast difference between a God who accepts failure with the patience and forbearance to begin again and a God who brings destruction upon those who do not submit to the divine will.
As a people whom God, “the Potter,” has chosen and shapes within our limitations, we naturally hunger to know more about the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of our lives. Also as people of the information age, we naturally gather as much divine data as we can. Not all of the information we receive regarding God, however, is helpful in our quest. Sometimes, in a world still in the grasp of powers opposed to the coming kingdom of God into our hearts, we receive conflicting and confusing information.[1]
I am referring to people who say things like, “We all worship the same God, so why can’t we just get along?” Or, from those who are not sure about the “God” part, we hear, “Aren’t we all monotheists?” Then there is the observation, “Muslims, Christians, and Jews are all God’s children; so why do we hate one another?” Recently, a Christian bishop proposed that Christians begin to call the Judeo-Christian God by the name of “Allah.” Even the president of our nation is quoted as saying, “Muslims and Christians worship the same God,” which is probably more politically motivated than theologically informed. Nevertheless, his statement reflects a certain understanding among many Christians: the Judeo-Christian God, YAHWEH, is the same as the Muslim God, Allah.
As we approach another anniversary of September 11, 2001, we find that Christians have been struggling with these same questions for six years, unable to accept the Islamic hatred of Jews, Christians, and America in general. Assuming that Jews, Christians, and Muslims may share common religious roots, we find that all three traditions have said, at one time or another, the other two have badly misunderstood God. So, what are we to make of it? Do we, in fact, all worship the same God? Do we all share a common heritage that makes us “family,” albeit a dysfunctional family? Or, is there a crucial distinction to be made with regard to “who God is” and what that means to all of us?
Professor Bernard Lewis, a Middle East historian, consultant and writer, has observed that there is a part of Islam that sees the West in general, and the United States in particular, as its ancient and irreconcilable enemy…a serious obstacle to the restoration of Allah’s rule and law and to Islam’s ultimate universal triumph over the world’s civilizations. For these Islamists, he continues, there is no way but war to the death in fulfillment of what they see as the commandments of their faith. There are others, of course, who are committed Muslims seeking to join the West in reaching toward a freer and better world. But Lewis warns, we would be wise not to confuse one with the other.
Perhaps we first should acknowledge that the Islamists who rage at us, hate us, and seek to kill us do not think of us as family. We are to them infidels and unbelievers to be converted to Islam or destroyed. It may be safe to say, therefore, that this idea of a shared religious heritage originated only among Western Christians and not among Muslims. We are the ones, and the only ones, thinking in terms of a religiously rooted family, all children of God, who should love one another. So, if this is true, why don’t all Muslims, Jews, and Christians believe and accept it?
Secondly, the socio-political aspects of this issue are so integrated into our current polarized thinking in this country, it may be impossible to sort it out with any degree of success. Why bother to sort it out? We bother because our confusion and our conflicts over ideologies and political points of view, plus the anxieties arising from these things, are causing us to forget the formative stories of our faith and our beliefs. Deep animosities have arisen within our society and our churches over the current war in Iraq. Some are against the war, while others think it necessary and unavoidable for our own well-being. Both sides are claiming God is on their side.
Whenever I hear people saying, “God is on my side,” I instinctively want to ask, “Why?,” regardless of what “side” that is. What have any of us done that would cause God to be altogether on our side, when no one is altogether on God’s side? Perhaps, it might be better if we all were trying to be on God’s side and work harder at learning “who God is.” On one hand, if we keep the known attributes of God abstract enough, such as, God is omnipotent, loving and just, then perhaps we could say Jews, Christians, and Muslims are talking about the same God.
On the other hand, however, that is like saying I am Caucasian, male, and Protestant. You still don’t really know who I am, and with such generalities we don’t know who God is either.
Once we get down to the scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the conflicting stories they tell about God, the claim that these stories are describing the same God seem simplistic and naïve. Torah, the basic scriptures of the Jewish people, begins with stories of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In time, Jacob became known as Israel. The descendents of Israel’s twelve sons became known as the children of Israel, a people God freed from slavery in Egypt through that mighty act of God called the Exodus. These are stories about a particular people chosen by YAHWEH God to be his people and receive his revelation.
We may presume there may have been stories about the God of Abraham, Ishmael and his sons, but we don’t have those stories or know for certain they ever existed. What we are told throughout the First Testament is that God, known as YAHWEH to Israel, chose particular sons of Abraham who would carry the heritage of divine revelation. Isaac was chosen over Ishmael and Jacob (Israel) over Esau before Jacob and his brothers migrated to Egypt as the children of Israel. Some speculate that the Arab nations came from Ishmael’s descendents, but it’s just as likely the Arab nations could have come from Esau’s descendents. In fact, the descendents of Ishmael and Esau intermingled with the indigenous pagan peoples of the Middle East. Their stories disappeared along with their awareness of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
What we actually know is there is no mention of Abraham’s God among these indigenous pagan people from the time of Ishmael and Esau, around 1700 BC, until 622 AD when the Prophet Muhammad proclaimed the name of Allah in Medina. It was a vast silent period of more than 23 centuries. Thus, when Muhammad wrote the Qur’an, there were no traditional stories from which he could draw a history of his faith. There was no heritage of divine revelation. There was only the prophet’s word. On the other hand, during this vast silent period for Islam, a detailed history of YAHWEH God’s revelation to Israel and Judah came into being, recorded as the Hebrew Scriptures, plus the further revelations of YAHWEH God called the Gospels of Christ and the Epistles of the Apostles of Christ.
Based on these Judeo-Christian testaments, we could say that Christians and Jews worship the same YAHWEH God because we share the same scriptures, at least from the Christian point of view. Nevertheless, where Christians believe Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Jews generally reject the claim that Jesus is God’s Messiah, thereby rejecting the revelation of “who God is” that Jesus represents. In the fullest sense, therefore, it could be said that Jews and Christians do not have the same understanding of God, even though most would agree their God is the same. But, in contrast, Jews and Christians share very little with Muslims. Muslim thought from the Qur’an about the Judeo-Christian Bible ranges from guarded respect to strong condemnation.
The Qur’an has angry passages about Jews and Christians who refuse to accept (1) the claim it is the final, complete fulfillment and correction of the Bible as well as (2) the claim that Muhammad brought the final, complete fulfillment and correction of all revelation concerning YAHWEH God, renamed Allah. Islam tells different and conflicting stories about Abraham. Even to call Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all monotheistic gains no traction with Muslims. The Qur’an condemns any notion that God would have a son or that God could suffer. Consequently, the cross of Christ has no place in Islamic thought. So, back to our question: “Do Muslims, Jews, and Christians worship the same God?”
We Christians need the Jews and their scriptures. We believe that, by the amazing grace of YAHWEH God, through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we “gentiles” are redeemed and adopted into the family of God. We are set free from bondage to sin and death. We look to the Hebrew Scriptures as the foundation, the prerequisite, and the primary witness to our faith in Jesus as the Christ. Yes, we worship the same God, even though our understandings of how YAHWEH God works in the world differ somewhat, at least for the time being.
But I must confess that I cannot reconcile YAHWEH God revealed to us through Jesus Christ with the one called Allah, as presented by the Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an. It is wrong to soften and sugar-coat our differences with Islam for many reasons. But first among these reasons is Jesus reveals YAHWEH God as “God with us” and “Savior of the world.” The “Father” of Jesus Christ is remarkably different from much of what is said in the Qur’an about Allah. If Muhammad is a prophet of the true God, as all Muslims think him to be, then Muhammad’s God seems not at all like the God Jesus taught us to call “Father.” Additionally, Christianity and Islam have very different ways of defining and obtaining love, peace, and justice. So different, if fact, that it is almost like we are worshiping different Gods….and, so it seems we are.
Let us not be confused by those who deny Jesus Christ while saying Allah is the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are not the same. Rather, let us remain faithful to the revelation we have received through Jesus Christ and share the good news of God’s love and salvation we have received. Amen.
_______________________
1 Here, we draw a distinction between the Judeo-Christian God who redeems society and culture by changing the human heart and one that commands followers to bring the world of human beings into submission by force and violence.