Yann Martel wrote a fascinating book a few years ago titled Life of Pi.The main character, a young teen aged boy by the name of Piscine, growing up in India explores beyond his Hindu roots and becomes a Christian.Then one day he walks by the Mosque, sees the cool spaces within, men kneeling in prayer, and he goes in.Within a short time he becomes a Muslim.All of this was held secret from his secular parents until, one day the whole family is out for a walk along the Bay of Bengal.By chance, the priest, the imam, and the Hindu pandit all see him with his family and converge to talk with him and introduce themselves to his parents.Yann puts the scene this way:
After the “Hellos” and the “Good days”, there was an awkward silence.The priest broke it when he said, with pride in his voice, “Piscine is a good Christian boy.I hope to see him join our choir soon.”
My parents, the pandit and the imam looked surprised.
“You must be mistaken.He’s a good Muslim boy.He comes without fail to Friday prayer, and his knowledge of the Holy Qur’an is coming along nicely.”So said the imam.
My parents, the priest and the pandit looked incredulous.
The pandit spoke.“You’re both wrong.He’s a good Hindu boy.I see him all the time at the temple coming for darshan and performing puja.”
My parents, the imam and the priest looked astounded.
“There is no mistake,” said the priest.“I know this boy.His is Piscine Patel and he’s a Christian.”
“I know him too, and I tell you he’s a Muslim,” asserted the Imam.
“Nonsense!” cried the pandit.“Piscine was born a Hindu, lives a Hindu and will die a Hindu!”
The three wise men stared at each other, breathless and disbelieving.
Lord, avert their eyes from me, I whispered in my soul.
Young Piscine didn’t see the full conflict of being a member of three different religions at the same time until this moment.The adults in the story and the rest of us know that religion is one of those things polite people don’t talk about at dinner, and we know that that taking sides and skirmishing is not just reserved for World Cup fans.
Here in Saint Cloud we know the problems that our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters have faced at the hands of some Christians… at the hands of systems not quite prepared for their culture… at the hands of ignorance and fear.Randy’s work (and AnnElise’s with the youth groups) in creating dialogues with Muslims here in our church on our common values seeking justice, and speaking against the fear-based inflammatory language of some Christians makes me proud to be associated with them and this church.
So how do we relate to other religions, and stay true to ourselves, and seek the truth?
This is nothing new of course, as our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures indicates.The foreign commander Naaman, suffering from leprosy, is urged to seek healing in Israel by a Hebrew slave girl.After some political scramblings, he finds himself offended by Elisha who doesn’t even come out of his house to meet him and tells him via messenger that the river Jordan is where he should wash and be cleansed.He came all that way… when he had perfectly good rivers back home!
One way of approaching people of other religions is to try to convince them that your religion is right—the only—the true.This is often as successful as keeping your dog calm during the 4th of July fireworks.
Another temptation, when confronting other authentic religious traditions, is to strip down our own belief system (and others’) to its barest essentials in order to find what we can agree upon.Some believe that if we strip away all the historic and culturally specific details (the rituals and particularities) and concentrate on the universal standards of reason and morality—then we will be able to unify humanity.If Jews, Christians, and Muslims would simply jettison the “tribal” moorings of their theologies, then real cooperation and peaceful co-existence could be achieved,[2] they believe.
This story of Naaman, however, offers us another avenue toward getting along.The young slave girl gives us a model for encountering others.She’s been kidnapped or enslaved by these foreigners—dragged off into another land, religion, and culture.Yet she remains strong—embedded in her religious tradition.The wider culture is neutral or hostile to her faithfulness… still he persists in seeing herself as a Hebrew and practicing her faith.She then taps into her tradition for the compassionate treatment of, what is to her, an outsider.We can take from this the stance that, as the wider culture becomes less and less supportive of our religious practices—cold, or even hostile toward it, we can remain firmly rooted in our beliefs, our practices, our tradition as Christians, and operate from that strength in the world in compassionate ways.This nameless slave girl shows us our stance; involved in a culture, but true to her inner self and faith.
The other model for us is Naaman himself.While at first he was upset and insulted that he had to go elsewhere for help, he did the inner spiritual work of surrender—humility—seeking truth and help wherever it is found.It took a lot of courage on his part to think outside his religious, political, and cultural framework.
Diana Eck is a United Methodist scholar at Harvard University. She’s written about religions encountering God and each other, and most helpful is her encouragement in these dialogues to, as she put it, “stay at the table.” Most of the time when we say we are “inclusive” of other people and perspectives what we really mean is that we will fully welcome you…include you, if you assent to our way of thinking and believing.This, she says, is not genuine inclusivity.In place of that, she offers the image of “staying at the table” with those who are different.Staying long enough to really listen, understand deeply, and perhaps we transformed by the encounter.When we do this, we find what she calls “holy envy”—the reverent sense of awe at another’s sacred tradition, an “appreciative love one has towards the mysteries of another faith.”[3]It doesn’t mean we have to convert, or buy into the whole package.It simply means to be transformed (however slightly) by the encounter with another tradition.Naaman stayed at the table with this slave girl and unseen prophet in a distant land long enough to experience “holy envy” and to be transformed.Jesus encouraged his followers to stay at the table where they were planted.They came back transformed and empowered.
The final thing we can learn from this story is that God doesn’t show up in the vacuous impersonal generalities of moral truths and universal standards of reason that are stripped of historical and cultural attachments—but rather, deeply within them…in the messy, concrete world of people and places, slaves and rivers, cultures and religions.God works in this text through what is culturally specific… foreign…strange.This incarnational method is how God works—flesh and blood, time and space, waters and rivers, bread and cup…people who compassionately embody the sacred.
So as we dialogue with those of other traditions, let us remember this nameless slave girl, who remained steadfast in a culture hostile to her religion, who brought forth the best her tradition had to offer…healing and hope.Likewise, we should not water down our beliefs or practices in relating to others, but should with humility, faith and courage bring forth the best it has to give. Trust that the mystery of God is beyond our imaginings and will sort through the differences—we don’t have to be the final judge of it all. As Christians we bring the best—the Gospel—to the table and it has transformed the world and continues to.As United Methodist Christians, we bring forward to others (Christian or not) perhaps the gifts of the quadrilateral (discerning God’s will and our practice by paying attention to Scripture, but also Reason/Logic, our Tradition, and our Christian experience).We bring forward the gift of Wesley’s insistence that we need to balance personal holiness with social holiness.What we bring forward to the dialogue and into the wider society depends upon the context—what would you value in your religious tradition and bring forward to the table?
Young Piscine didn’t see the problem with being a Muslim, a Hindu, and a Christian at the same time and perhaps he could pull it off.But those who have studied the world’s religions most thoroughly (namely Houston Smith and Joseph Campbell) suggest that one should choose one religious path and delve into it deeply, and allow the practices to do their transformative work in our souls.
All of us here have stayed at Jesus’ table long enough to taste some transformation—tasted enough—to know we want more of that.This relationship is the path of Christian spiritual formation.May we be faithful to Christ’s compassion, openness, love, and justice on our journeys and at our own tables.Amen.
