Here is my message from Sunday. The text was
Philippians 3:4-7 and
Mark 1:1-8:
At one of the churches I served in Boston, the clergy association
held an interfaith Thanksgiving service that brought together nearly all of the
church and synagogues. While there was not a mosque in the town, the next town
to the south did have the Islamic center for western Boston, and so as it came
up to be our turn to host the event, I said that we would do it, on the
condition that we also invite the Islamic community to participate. But, of
course it wasn’t just that easy. After September 11, as the community, which
had lost several citizens in the planes, sought to put together an interfaith
service, someone else had recommended that the Islamic community be invited,
and it was said that that would never happen in this town. Much of the opposition,
although not all of it, came from one of the two rabbis, who was an Israeli and
had lost several family members in terrorist attacks, and I understood his
position and was completely sympathetic to his position. Additionally, we had
to answer the question of whether it was justified to destroy and break the
community we had established in order to widen the circle. Did the ends justify
those means?
Eventually, we had one of the other protestant pastors, who
had a closer and longer relationship with the rabbis, talk with them and both
of them, to their inordinate credit, agreed that not only would they agree to
the invitation, but they would still participate as well. When the day of the
service finally arrived, we weren’t really sure what was going to happen, but
the rabbi walked up to the representatives from the Islamic center and he put
out his hand, remember when we could do that, and he said to them “shalom
Aleichem” which is Hebrew for peace be with you, and those greeted replied “Aleichem
shalom”, which is unto you peace. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, “If
it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” And I
think in that moment, we broadened peace and community just a little bit. Shalom
Aleichem.
