We’ve come a long way from the days when it was normal for people of one faith community to automatically view the members of another as strange and threatening but sadly far too much of it still remains and even flourishes as we have seen in recent years in relation to the attitude of some Christians towards Muslims. That spills over into the relationship between wider cultural communities as we are seeing with the rise in anti-semitism too and other expressions of racism. There are many different reasons for such antagonism and it’s not my thought to try to analyse all of it as that’s an almost impossible task. I find it helpful to think of an image and a question that seems relevant to the way in which we engage in dialogue and the way in which people could be educated to meet with one another. It’s a thought drawn from the practice of Receptive Ecumenism in the Church.
When we approach one another what do we expect the other to be carrying in their hands, a gift or a sword? Are we about to receive something that can enrich us and are they expecting to gain the same benefit from meeting us? Or do we fear we are about to engage in a sword fight with each trying to gain the advantage and strike a wounding or even fatal blow, constantly on the defensive?
The fault lines that we have seen all too painfully exposed in the US election suggest that the second attitude is far more dominant than we might wish or indeed than it should be. It’s not going to be resolved overnight.
Inter-faith week also provides the opportunity to celebrate the fact that not only are many people good at receiving the gifts from one another but that there are many who, sometimes at great risk, are able to respond to the sword being waved in their face by continuing to hold out gift. There have been moving examples of the Muslim community in places where they have suffered attacks doing just that by examples of invitations to hospitality rather than the defensive building of walls.
As a Christian I find it unhelpful that there is so much imagery around the idea of Christian discipleship that employs the language of armour, swords and battles. There is still a tribal sense of us and them that this feeds into; of constantly being threatened and under attack. The downward spiral this threatens to take us on needs to be reversed into an upwards spiral towards more mutual respect and understanding that eventually might become the norm for all society.
In a matter of weeks the churches will mark the visit of the wise men who come bearing their gifts for the baby Jesus. It’s worth remembering that these were not Jews but members of another faith group, Zoroastrians, who, the story tells us, were guided there by God and then returned to their own land afterwards. This is not a story of conversion but one of mutual respect between two communities and the giving and receiving of gifts.
It makes me think.
Thinking Aloud 