Sermon for November 13th (Islam)

                This is our second week comparing Christianity to other faiths and today we turn our attention to the 2^nd most popular religion worldwide: Islam.  I recently read a book called, “World Religions and Cults 101: A Guide to Spiritual Beliefs” and in this book, right before it talks about Islam, I thought there was a very insightful paragraph.  It says it so well that I thought I’d just quote it for you, “We don’t know about you (obviously), but the continuing military tension and conflict in the Middle East never weighed heavily on us.  It was halfway around the world, and we were not directly-or even remotely-involved.  We knew that part of the problem involved land disputes, but the differences between the Jews and the Muslims appeared to be at the heart of it.  We knew a little bit about Judaism, but far less about the Islamic faith.  Our lack of knowledge didn’t bother us because we weren’t even curious about Islam.’

                But then the events of September 11, 2001, got our attention.  Along with most other Americans, we suddenly had an urgent desire to find out as much as we could about Muslims.  We heard reports out of Afghanistan that Americans were the targets of a holy war.  Militant Muslims referred to us (Americans) as infidels who must be wiped off the face of the earth in accordance with the teachings of Muhammad.  Other Muslims, however, proclaimed that Islam was a religion of peace and that terrorist attacks were the work of Islamic fundamentalists who were perverting the true teachings of the Muslim faith.  We think you’ll be surprised to find out what Islam is all about.  We were.” 

                Isn’t that remarkably on target?  It sure pegged me.  September 11^th was the day when my interest in the Islamic faith started because before that, just like most everyone else in America, I didn’t give Muslims a second thought.  I think it’s important to mention this is because our view of Islam is very tied into our feelings about what happened that day 10 years ago.  The questions we ask each other or read about in the news are mostly related to the issue of war, jihad and suicide bombings.  The thing is, today’s message isn’t really going to focus on those topics though I will touch on them briefly at the end; instead, I want you to see where your Christian faith is similar and different from Islam.  That way, you can begin to form your own opinions about the events happening around the world.  And more importantly that even that, I pray that if you ever come in contact with a Muslim, perhaps, after hearing today’s message, you might have a respectful and fruitful conversation about what it means to believe in God. 

                Just like last week, I’d like to begin with some history.  You might be surprised to know that of all the major religions today, Islam is the youngest—starting only in the 7^th century.  It’s founder was a man named Muhammed who grew up without a father or mother and was eventually raised by an uncle.  This is an important point to make: just like Christians refer to Jesus’ humble beginnings, born in a stable to a carpenter and his wife, Muslims point out that Muhammed was not the kind of man one would expect to start a religion.  He was a poor and illiterate orphan. 

                As the story goes, he was 40 years old before he received the first of what would be many visions from God through the angel Gabriel.  It seemed that God wanted the world to know two things: that there was only one true God and that any form of idolatry was an abomination.  Since Muhammed couldn’t read or write, he recited his revelations to people around him who became his disciples and wrote down what he said down.  These multiple visions and revelations that his disciples wrote down became known as the Qur’an. 

                Muhammed lived in a village called Mecca, but as his following grew larger, he was persecuted by the inhabitants there and was forced to escape to a town called Medina.  It seems that the people was Mecca didn’t much like being told to live a moral life and get rid of all their other gods and serve only one.  Over the next decade, through both fighting and diplomacy, Muhammed defeated the people of Mecca and, eventually, led his armies to take over most of the Arab world. In one book I read called, “The World’s Religions” by Huston Smith, it said, “But for their defeat by Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours (France) in 733, the entire Western world might today be Muslim.  I mention this because it shows how quickly this very young religion grew and became strong.  In America, we did not have a noticeable Islamic presence until the mid to late 1800’s and it is believed that the very first US mosque (or Islamic place of worship) was built not far from where we are today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1934. 

                Finally, since these terms are often used in the news, I think you should know the difference between a Sunni and a Shi’ite.  When Muhammed died in 630, he didn’t leave a successor and so people at the time had a different opinion of who should be in charge of Islam.  Shi’ites believe that leaders must have Muhammed’s bloodline and should be both religious and political leaders.  Shi’ites make up only 20% of all Muslims and are the dominant force in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon.  Sunnis believe that religious leaders don’t have to have the same bloodline as Muhammed and think that religion and national politics ought to be kept separate.  Sunnis control countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and make up 80% of all Muslim people. 

(Break)

So now that we’ve had a little history lesson on Islam, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of what our faiths agree on and don’t agree on.  Probably the single most important topic to discuss today, and we’ll come back to this again and again I’m sure, is the question: do Christians and Muslims pray to the same God?  While this is a complicated question, I don’t believe it is a complicated answer.  No.  No, we don’t pray to the same God.  Now, I’d like to show you how we get to that answer.

                First off, as many of you probably already know, in Islam, God’s name is Allah and that is his only name.  Allah means “the God” or “the one and only God.”  Now you might say, well what’s in a name?  In German, you say God as “Gott”, in Spanish, “Dios”, in Arabic, “Allah”.  True.  In fact, in Hebrew, the word for God is very close to Allah, sounding something like “Elah”.  When I was in school, a very popular name was Jennifer.  We had Jennifer F. and Jennifer M. and Jennifer W. and so on and so on.  They were named the same, but they were all very, very different in personality.  They all treated me different too.  One of them never spoke to me, I had a crush on another and the third one had a crush on me.  Same name, but three different people.

                Allah is the Arabic name for God, but his personality, according to a Muslim is very different from the Christian God.  For example, if I were to choose one verse, only one verse, in the whole Bible that showed the biggest difference between Islam and Christianity it would be John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  For a Christian, this verse says exactly who God is.  For a Muslim, this says exactly what God is NOT- is NOT.    

                In the Qur’an God is seen as a God of awe, of power and of judgment.  He is NOT primarily a God of love.  According to that religion 101 book I mentioned at the beginning it points out that “Allah of the Qur’an only loves those he deems to be good; the God of the Bibles loves all of humanity, none of whom are basically good.”  The thing is that, in Islam, you would never have a personal relationship with God.  God doesn’t love people as a father or a mother and he certainly doesn’t have a son.  So, whatever name you want to call God, the Christian God is very, very different from a Muslim’s God.

But where did this concept come from anyway?  That Muslims and Christians are praying to the same God?  Well, it has to do with our common heritage and our common scriptures.  In the book of Genesis, Christians and Muslims have the same story until chapter 22 and that’s when things change dramatically.  If you remember, Abraham and Sarah were promised a child so that Abraham would have as many decendents as the stars in heaven.  But, as they were getting older, they got impatient and Sarah convinced her husband to get the servant girl, Hagar, pregnant, so that he’d have a son.  This son was named Ishmael.  Later on, the son of the promise, Isaac, was born to Abraham and Sarah just as God had promised.  Isaac is the father of the Jews and Ishmael is the father of the Muslims.  So, up until Genesis chapter 22, you have the same story as a Muslim, but after that, everything changes.  For example, in the Islamic faith, Ishmael is the one that is “almost” sacrificed by his father Abraham, not Isaac. 

Islam has four sacred texts: The Torah (that’s the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), the Psalms of David, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and, finally, the Qur’an.  If you lost count, that’s three out of four texts that we agree on.  However, Muslims argue that our Bible has been misinterpreted and is corrupted (this is the same argument we talked about last week from the LDS church).  Therefore, whenever there is a difference of opinion, the Qur’an gets the final authority for a Muslim(much like the Book of Mormon is the final authority for the Latter Day Saints). 

It is important that you realize how special the Qur’an is to a Muslim person.  The Qur’an is a miracle.  Muhammed, an illiterate person, recited to others the words in this book and, yet, they are so true and wonderful it seems impossible without God’s hand at work.  Just as we talk about Jesus Christ being God in the flesh—the Word made flesh, you wouldn’t be far off to think of the Qur’an as being God in the pages of a book-the Word made readable you might say.  That’s why you don’t set the Qur’an on the floor, or put it in the bathroom and you certainly don’t burn them even if you do have something political to say.  Christians think that it is important to translate the Bible into all languages of fulfill our Christ’s mission, but Muslims believe the Qur’an is only truly the revelation of God if it is written in Arabic.  Why?  Because they believe God speaks Arabic.  Therefore, the Qur’an is in God’s native language and that is part of what gives it it’s power. 

What about Jesus?  Islam respects Jesus as a prophet and believes that he was both sinless and born of the virgin Mary just like Christians.  However, Muslims do NOT believe that Jesus was truly God.  Remember, there is only ONE God and, therefore, Jesus cannot be God.  Muslims consider Christians to be polytheistic with our understanding of the Trinity—that we believe in three gods.  They believe that we have made Jesus into just another god.  They don’t believe he died on the cross (so he couldn’t have been raised from the dead either).  They certainly don’t believe that salvation comes through Jesus.  That concept, as Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians, that Jesus Christ was God and that he was crucified is complete and utter absurdity to a Muslim.  They think we can’t count: one does not equal three and three does not equal one.  Saint Paul, however, never argues any differently.  He says it is absurd, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

What about salvation?  Just like Christians, Muslims believe that there will be a judgment day where we will all be held accountable for the good and bad things we have done in this world.  But, unlike Christians, there is no such thing as being saved through faith in Jesus Christ.  Everyone, and that means everyone, will be weighed on a scale of absolute justice.  According to Islam, there are two angels that record everything you have done on this earth both good and bad.  If your good deeds outweigh your bad, you go to heaven.  If not, you go to hell.  There is only one loophole in this, if you are a Muslim and live out your faith, you can avoid judgment when dying in defense of your faith or when you die in a “holy war.”

In Islam, there are 5 pillars, or categories, that good deeds fall into.  The first one is to recite the Creed in Arabic confessing your faith.  The English translation of this creed is, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammed is his messenger.”  Second is to pray the prayers five times a day.  You say them at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, after sunset and at night.  You can say them anywhere but you must be facing East towards Mecca.  On Fridays, Muslims join together at Mosques to pray their prayers together. 

The third pillar is to give the alms: 2.5% of your income to the poor.  Fourth is the start the fast.  This concerns the holiday of Ramadan where you only eat after sunset and before dawn.  Throughout the day you stay away from food, drink and other forms of pleasure.  Finally, the fifth pillar is to make the pilgrimage once in your lifetime to Mecca, where God started everything with Muhammed the prophet.  I wish that I had more time to talk about these 5 pillars, but here is why I brought them out at all.  It’s important to understand, once again, that you have a lot in common with a Muslim.  You also are called on to confess your faith, to pray and to give.  You may even fast for religious reasons if you like.  But, for a Muslim, these are not things you do by choice, they are expectations.  Islam explains exactly what you must do to be saved.  They would argue that Christianity is full of ideas while Islam gives direction so that you can know where you stand before God. 

                Before we end, I’d like to address one final point of misunderstanding I often hear with regard to Islam.  I’ve often heard, or read, that Islam means “submission” or peace.  This is often mentioned in response to those that argue that it is a religion of violence.  Which is true?  I think that the only way to explain this is theologically.  It is true that Islam means “submission” or “peace”, but it is referring to submission to God or having the peace the comes from submitting to the will of God.  It does not necessarily mean submission to others or peace with others.  This goes back to the difference of who we believe God is, what He is like. 

When a Christian hears that Islam is a religion of submission to God, we think, “Oh, sure, and since “God is love” according to 1^st John, any Muslim that would act violently must not be representative of true Islam.  I can’t agree.  Theologically, it seems very obvious that a Muslim can both submit to a God of justice and be at peace with him while simultaneously hurt others if those other people have done something wrong.  This is why it can be true that good, loving and peaceful Muslim people can sometimes support violence against America, because America, acting in its own interests, has sometimes hurt Arabic people.  I cannot defend the choices these people have made, but I hope that this might give you some insight into how two seemingly contradictory statements can both be true.  It is a religion of peace that can at times encourage violence.  This stems, I believe, from a very different understanding of who God is compared to the Christian God.

                In conclusion, Islam and Christianity share a lot of common heritage.  We respect similar heroes of the faith (Noah, Abraham, John the Baptist, Jesus).  We even have the same scriptures for the most part, except for the Qur’an.  This can certainly give you a place to start a conversation with someone in the Muslim faith.  Unfortunately, it will be very easy to start arguing about doctrines such as Jesus’ divinity and the Trinity.  Christians and Muslims have been doing so for centuries. 

But there is hope I believe and it can truly come from you.  Again and again, in the Bible, God is a God of love, of mercy, of compassion and of kindness.  While you may find it hard to talk about Jesus in the beginning, start with the love God has for his people.  His compassion for Adam and Eve after their sin.  He saving Noah and his family.  God saving the town of Ninevah when Jonah was sent and the people repented.  Perhaps, if a Muslim person can hear the truth of God’s love, they can believe that God might have sent Jesus not just as another lawgiver with the golden rule, but as a Savior.  Finally, in your dealings with Muslims, please remember the words of Saint Peter, “In your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect.”  Amen.