Children
of Abraham
Richard L. Shafer[1]
We continue our exploration
of spirituality in this month when Christians begin their spiritual journey
with Jesus in the desert, preparing for the mystery of the resurrection at
Easter. As we ready ourselves for Lent,
we are hoping to purify ourselves, to receive the grace offered by God in
Jesus. Christians begin their desert
journey with ashes, a sign of public penance, borrowed from the Hebrew
tradition, and developed through the first millennium in the Roman church.[2] .
Recall from last month that
one’s spiritual journey can be described in stages of purification,
transformation and union with God.
During purification, cleansing one’s inner “life” allows a person to
move beyond inner “concerns” to focus on loving God and one’s neighbor. Basically, one loses desires to possess or to
know, emptying oneself as Jesus did, “making himself nothing” (Philippians
2:5-7). Jesus began his preaching life
with 40 days in the desert, symbolic of purgation. Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad went into the
mountains to meditate before being given the first recitations of the
Qur’an. The goal here is to be rid of “me”
and to be open to “Thee.” So it is that
now Christians celebrate Jesus’ time to be open to God. In other words, we seek and find the inner
peace that allows God’s love (God as
love) to come through.
God as Love. Yes, I was taught as a Lutheran teenager that
“God is love” and I find that message repeated in my UMC too. Is the “God is Love” message shared among the
three faiths? Here’s an Old Testament
reference: “Return to the LORD, your
God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”[3]
In Islam, “God is the light
of heavens and the earth.”[4] “God’s love is explicitly mentioned in
fifteen surahs (chapters) of the
Qur’an.”[5] Like Christians, Sufi mystics have called
God: guide, protector, creator, friend,
beloved. Many poems and writings by
Muslims refer to God as “Beloved.”
”….the essential nature of
divinity is substantive mercy.”[6] Seeking peace, we look instinctively for that
mercy which comes from God. In Islam and World Peace: Explanations of a Sufi', Bawa
Muhaiyaddeen makes this clear: “For those of us who have faith in God alone, there is
only one teaching. Whatever religion we belong to, whether it be Hinduism,
Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, and whatever prayers we say,
what is it that we are really searching for? Only one thing--that treasure
which is God.”[7]
Jesus clarified this for
Christians: “Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and all your soul and all your mind…Love your neighbor as
yourself.”[8] The point here is this: If we focus on God, on loving God, and living
out that love, we are less likely to be tempted by unnecessary wants, and more
likely to find God.
We do whatever we can to purify ourselves, to purge the “me” stuff of our day-to-day struggles. We seek the God who is love, by expressing and living out the love we have for God. Finding God, finding the love, we are transformed.
[1] This is one
of a series of occasional columns in which the author, raised in the Christian
tradition, searches for common ground and common history among the teachings,
beliefs and practices of the Abrahamic faiths -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism
[2] http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jul1996/Wiseman.asp#F1
[3] Read from the Prophet Joel 2:13, New International Version
[4] Qur’an 24:35
[5]
George, Timothy: IS THE FATHER OF JESUS
THE GOD OF MUHAMMAD? Zondervan Press,
[6] Jaoudi, p. 3
[7] http://www.bmf.org/iswp/peace-found.html