How Do We Work Together?
Christ the King Sunday Year A-Off Lectionary ~ Romans 8:18, 28
Kenwood UMC ~ November 23, 2008
On Wednesday I flew down to Atlanta to participate in a research project which my seminary is conducting. I flew down and back that day, and got into Richmond about 11:15 Wednesday evening.
Now, I would not say that I am a frequent flyer—but I usually fly a couple of times a year, often enough to be familiar with airport security procedures and know to wear slip on shoes and not take the bottle of water through security.
There’s a common experience that we all share when flying, and no matter how long ago you flew, I think you are going to identify with this moment. The flight ends, you’ve landed and taxied to the gate, the fasten seat belt sign has gone off, and all of the sudden everyone on the plane is filled with the same feeling—this flight is over, and it is time to get off the plane.
Now what you’ve got in this situation is a lot of people, one very narrow aisle, and one door. And even though we are all strangers, and some of us are on our way home and some are not, some are here for business an some for pleasure, at that moment we all share one goal that we have to work together to accomplish—getting off that airplane.
And what you see is people letting one another out into the aisle, people helping each other with carry on baggage stowed in overhead compartments, people telling the flight attendants thank you—people working together.
It grieves me that people who do not know one another can work together to get off an airplane, but not to relieve poverty, care for the sick and dying, or feed the hungry. These are the sufferings of the present age which Paul speaks of in Romans.
And if we, as a global community, or even as the county of Hanover or city of Richmond are going to accomplish any of those things—which I think Jesus would want us to work toward–we are going to have to set aside our differences and work together. And often one of the things which gets in the way of working together is a fear or resistance to working with people of other faiths.
We’ve spent the last couple of weeks talking about the reality of living in a world of multiple faiths, and finding evidence in Scripture that this has always been a reality for God’s people. We’ve discovered that God created the entire world and called it good, that God has promised that all nations of the world will be blessed. And those promises of scripture indicate that we need to work together with people of other faiths.
But friends, we do a lousy job of it much of the time. Just in the last 2 weeks in Henrico County we’ve seen an example of our failure. The Muslim community wanted to develop a mosque on an undeveloped area of property in Northside. Zoning had to be changed in order to do it. Recent zoning changes of a similar nature had been granted to Episcopal and Catholic congregations. When the Muslim community met resistance from the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, the interfaith community came out in force. Protestant and Catholic clergy and laity, Jewish rabbis and laypeople all wrote letters and petitioned the supervisors to let the Muslim community build. But the rezoning failed, 3-2.
Why? We could all speculate. But I suspect that it has to do with the extraordinary difficulty we have as a society in working together with people of different faiths.
Paul says “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
Do we love God? Can we honestly believe that Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs love God? If we do and if we can, then we also have to believe that when we work together on the goals we have in common, we will work together for good.
To do that we have to set aside a need to prosteletyze or convert people of another faith to our faith. And I think that’s OK. You see, I am far more worried about the faith life of the hundreds of thousands of non-practicing people out there than I am worried about the faith life of a practicing Muslim. We will still have plenty of work to do sharing out faith in other areas. For this area—work with people of other faiths—we don’t need to worry about conversions—just conversations.
In order to work together we also have to set aside our fear, and that is very important in a post 9-11 world where we have been conditioned to fear. Are there radical Muslims out there? Sure. But so are there radical Christians. Remember the Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, also responsible for abortion clinic bombings in Kansas? Or Randy Weaver who sequestered his family at Ruby Ridge? I don’t know of a faith out there that does not have some radical element.
But those radical segments of faith are so small that we cannot afford to label all people of faith by that example. What we also cannot afford to do, given the desperate situation of our world, is build walls that isolate us from one another. We must work together.
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
Bono, the leader of the rock band U2, has also been a leader in global efforts against poverty and AIDS in Africa. In 2006 he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., a gathering of people of all faiths hosted by members of Congress. He gave a stirring speech about the need for all faiths and all nations to work together to address issues of AIDS and poverty in Africa. Here, in part, is what he said,
“…whatever thoughts you have about God, who God is or if God exists—most will agree that if there is a God, God has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.
I mean God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill…I hope so. He may well be with us in all manner of controversial stuff…maybe, maybe not. But the one things on which we can all agree, among all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and the poor.”[1]
I am clear, as a Christian, when I read scripture, that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to reaching the poor among us. And I am also clear that if we are to do it, we will have to work together—regardless of the faith we practice, all faiths with a heart for the poor can work together. We can work together for justice, for mercy and for peace. And I believe that when we do that, if makes God’s heart very, very glad.
[1] Bono, “On the Move”, 2006. A Speech given at the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C., February 2006.
