Tony Richie: Consultation on American Evangelicals and Islam

Antipas Harris: How Can Christians and Muslims Relate?

I am grateful that my friend who participated in the Consultation, pastor-scholar Tony Richie, invited me to attend the public forum on Friday, August 25. This forum was appropriately titled, “Learning to Engage our Muslim Neighbors.” The diverse panel was made up of Rick Love, Marion Larson, Richard Mouw, John Azumah, Michal Muelenberg, and facilitated by Cory Willson.

Recently, the leadership at my church has been thinking about how hope, humility, and hospitality can be a profound way of expressing how we follow Jesus. Therefore, when Marion Larson used similar language to speak about stances to take as we approach conflict and welcome strangers, I was all ears. Three ideas she mentioned were Receptive Humility, Reflective Commitment, and Imaginative Empathy.

Part of Receptive Humility is being willing to receive gifts and hospitality. In my experience, this ability to graciously receive is something our Muslim neighbors understand much better than I do. We value being a good host, do we value being a good guest?

Having a Reflective Commitment is making a decision to be teachable, to intentionally reflect that I don’t have it all figured out and that I have much to learn. All of us need to be humble enough to recognize we are wrong about some things. I always want to be willing to let God surprise me.

Furthermore, the Church must advocate for both justice and mercy. Biblical justice and mercy are relational terms that speak to what it means to care and advocate for others in need.

The sermon focused on three key points:

1. What it means to be in a place of the in-between. Between Jerusalem and Jericho is historically a dangerous place. In the story, this location represents uncertainty, frustration, as well as threats of danger and failure. In Jesus’ story, being on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho represents being in-between where you came from and where you are going.

We never know what will happen in the place of the in-between; but we know that there is a God of justice and mercy who is God not only of where we were and where we are going but also God of the in-between.

2. What it means to take risks. The priest and the Levite saw a man in need and failed to help him. To help the man was risky. What would people say if they knew the priest and the Levite were helping a cast-a-way who was half dead along the road? Would they lose their jobs at the Temple?

We must take a risk to help someone in need. Taking a risk is not a reckless move but rather relentless move to do what is right in spite of what might happen to us!

3. What it means to have mercy. Mercy is not merely acknowledging that there is a problem or showing pity on problems. Mercy is active. Mercy does something about the problem.

Jesus credits the Samaritan for his willingness to have mercy on a man in need. Yet, the Samaritan’s mercy was not mere pity. His mercy went beyond a hand out, a kind word, and good wishes. The Samaritan’s mercy extended to the man a hand up.

Being more concerned about the damaged human being, the Samaritan man offered relationship with a broken man, whom he did not know!

People need to know that God’s people are advocates of justice and mercy. We are people who love God as well as “other” people.

Let’s be a neighbor (as Jesus defines the neighbor) to “the other;” the “other” is the one who is not like you – whatever “not like you” means to you.

Share Christ’s love and may our neighbors see Jesus as a result of our merciful witness!

Because of Jesus,

Dr. Antipas

Monday, November 14, 2016

As a graduate of Berklee College of Music and a bi-vocational pastor who makes the bulk of his living as a professional musician, I was intrigued to read Jeffrey Keuss’s exploration of popular music and how it relates to the theological loci of faith, hope and love. Keuss is a professor and Associate Dean in the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University. What initially strikes the reader is the author’s engaging prose, which draws the reader in with a sharp wit, perceptive insight and an unassuming intelligence. Keuss is clearly a sharp-minded theologian, yet he manages to produce a work that is indeed rich in theological insight, but also entirely accessible to the layman.

The basic premise of the book is that there is much that can be learned from the world of popular music as it pertains to our search for meaning and existence. The author argues that what many of us search for and yearn to experience through church, worship and community, others search for through popular music. Keuss writes, “our neighbor is not only listening to the music that many Christians listen to but also listening for the very things that animate the hearts and the minds of those sitting in the pews on a Sunday morning” (p5&6). Keuss describes these musical soul-searchers and songwriters as “sonic mystics”, an apt name that tips its hat to the medieval Christian mystics who sought divine encounters and communion with the living God.