I used to lead a large regional interfaith organization in Southwestern Connecticut. Now I live in Southern Maryland, and was asked by the President of my county's Board of Commissioners to help establish an interfaith commission here – that is about to get off the ground. God has a sense of humor, I guess – I was never much interested in interfaith work, being more focused on helping Christians become more connected to Christ, and much more aware of what he actually taught and did.
Yet I have discovered that people of other faith traditions often recognize the power of Jesus, and live according to the values of the Kingdom, even if they don’t acknowledge him as the Son of God. Evidently this is not a new phenomenon:
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”
That’s a far cry from “whoever is not for us is against us,” which is the kind of rhetoric you hear from those who claim that “Christianity is under attack in this country." Jesus makes a radically open statement here – that those who honor him, even if they have not made the choice (or been offered the choice…) to follow him as Lord, are to be honored as allies and co-laborers.
I have a Muslim friend with a powerful ministry of healing prayer. That challenge me at first – I think of Christ as the one who heals. And maybe He is healing through the prayers of this very faithful, very humble, very devout Muslim. I have a Jewish friend who loves to worship Jesus. I have Sikh friends steeped in peaceful anti-violence work, and Baha’I friends who offer hospitality beyond measure. I know countless people who claim no faith or religious affiliation whatsoever doing amazing work to restore people and communities and generously give of their resources. In a time when highly visible Christians in our country vocally support hatred, racism, misogyny, discrimination, violence, xenophobia and a bias against the poor, we need to look beyond labels to words and actions.
I am not saying there is no distinction between religious traditions – I don’t subscribe to the “all religions are the same” view. As a committed follower of Christ, I believe he is Lord, Messiah, Redeemer, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and I seek to introduce people in my life to this Lord who is the source of peace, power, presence and purpose for me. Yet I also affirm the goodness and love present in many of the world’s religious traditions – and that perhaps God is bigger than the categories in which we try to contain him. Big enough even to work through people who don’t know Jesus as Lord, but work in his name.
Who do you know like that? How can you support their work? If people are to see something of value in the Way of following Christ, it’ll be because we park our judgmentalism and start celebrating love wherever we find it.
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