Some years ago I was invited to meet with an adult continuing education class at a Jewish Temple to teach the group about how Christians understand and celebrate weekly worship. I was good friends with the Rabbis of this Temple and felt honored by their invitation. When I stood in front of the class, sitting in front of me was an elderly group of men and women, many wearing the numerical tattoo on their forearm from their days in the Concentration Camps in Germany. Before we started, one of these men stood and addressed me in these words: “Pastor Paul, before you begin we need to know if you are one of these pastors who believes that we Jews are condemned to hell because we have not accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.” Without hesitation I responded in these words: “No, I do not view you as condemned to hell. I cannot judge you nor can I ever understand your relationship with God because I hardly understand my own relationship with God. I believe we both love the same God. I know that Jesus Himself was an observant Jew, and I know that Jesus instructed us clearly not to judge others. You and I are sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God. I do know that the God I love created you and lives within you and gives you life every day. I also know Jesus Christ and speak to Him every day.
I love Him and pray for His mercy and love each day. And I love you all too.” When I concluded my words the elderly gentleman welcomed me to speak about Christian worship.
I also want to make one additional observation: When I entered the Temple, as I had done numerous previous times for other meetings and events, a heavily armed guard dressed in military camouflage stood at the entry doors. He held an automatic weapon and stood next to a clipboard on which was written my name and drivers license number. When he verified my identity he unlocked the door and let me enter. He said this to me: “We Jews live in fear of a single person who can blow up our Temple or shoot and kill many of us. We are hated by so many people. This security is an obligation we take very seriously.”
Dear friends, eventually all people of faith must decide how we will think about and respond to people of other (and no) faiths. Otherwise we will be left at the mercy of our worst impulses and upbringings when push comes to shove and our fears will deaden us to the best teachings of our religions. I believe that my deepest desire is that you become the best Christian, the best Jew, the best Muslim, the best person you can be. In the name of God, the Most Gracious God, the Most Merciful God of all, I pray for you to come to know the One God who created and saved the world.
I remember meeting a Buddhist Monk in the great Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon Burma who was reading a Christian book written by Thomas Merton. When I asked him how a Buddhist Monk in Burma could come to read one of the great contemporary Christian spiritual writers, he responded: “We all see the same God. Some see his face and others see his back.”
May we all be open to the Holy Spirit who is present in ways we can never see or understand. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye” Matthew 7:1-5.
“Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or a sister or judges their brothers or sisters, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor” James 4:11-12?
“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” Romans 14:1-13…
“When they kept on questioning Jesus, He straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her’” John 8:7.
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