How are you with surprises… with unexpected
schedule changes?
The king of the universe is – as I continue to
discover – a God of surprises.
Living into God’s surprises is a way that our Lord
shapes me. Of course, I try not to live
and work merely day to day or from one detour to the next. Personally, I prefer the security of a life route
marked – as it were - by no GPS[1]
surprises with the cruise control on and no traffic jams! But the Lord is training me otherwise. I need to be learning, I believe, that
surprises are not necessarily negative as in, “Why did this have to happen now,
just as things were…?”
Alex Tovar had asked that I relate my testimony
surrounding a recent surprising incident at Duke University regarding the Azhan
– commonly known as the Muslim call to prayer.
But I need to give you a glimpse of what had been occurring previously.
About four years ago partly in response to
President Doug’s encouragement to “take ministry to the next level”,
my
teammate Dan & I agreed to become more intentional in outreach with Muslim
students. Frankly, this prompting took
each of us by surprise. After all,
Chinese were and continue to be very responsive personally and
spiritually. Nevertheless, we began
praying and looking for opportunities to serve and befriend students from
Islamic backgrounds. Well, the Lord has
been answering our prayers for increased boldness and open doors, along with
surprises!
·
Dan and I
began to meet, serve and interact with students from Turkey – a small group of
whom were in the same academic program. Then
we invited the Turkish community to share their culture during one of our
monthly Saturday Supper events. Soon
afterward several of them began meeting Dan and me for weekly readings in one
another’s Scriptures. Picture us huddled
over Bibles or portions of the Quran only a few feet from where our friends had
just concluded Friday prayers. And the
chaplain to the Muslim community walks by, glances over knowingly and waves his
greeting! Realize that he is the same
one who had approached me previously with a surprising request that I find
someone willing to meet a Turkish scholar, who wanted to learn about
Christianity.
·
We hung out
with those young men – Dan leading the way in camping, fishing together and
sharing breakfasts.
Last week
we each visited most of them in Ankara while on our way to this gathering.
·
I should add
the delightful surprise to meet a semi-retired couple introduced to us by
Derrah Jackson. They are veterans in
ministry with Muslims and jumped right in after moving to Durham about two
years ago. Praise the Lord for their
initiative and energy, especially in hosting an area a wide prayer gathering
monthly. With them we have thought to
implement “Meetings for Better Understanding”, but the right timing has not yet
been identified.
·
Meanwhile, we
have been paying attention to other opportunities to engage with those who
self-identify as Muslim. For me
personally that has meant hanging out regularly with and enjoying, for example,
men from Kazakhstan, Turkey and Iran.
Oh, but I have so much to learn and be shaped for the task of serving as
Christ’s ambassador in these relationships![2]
I am reminded often of the twin realities of 2
Corinthians 4: We have this treasure – the light of the knowledge of God
shining in our hearts – in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power
– the capability of truly serving our Lord’s purposes - is from God and not
from us. In fact, it is not at all
unusual to feel very clay-like, brittle, unattractive, unsuccessful and common. So, surprises or not, we aim, sometimes
haltingly or clay-like – to serve those higher purposes among Muslim students.
The incident in question came as a surprise to us
and to the larger Duke University population.
We believe, however, that our King was not surprised by the
incident. After all, it was in response
to His prompting that we found ourselves on the roadway of Muslim outreach in
the first place!
I need not delve into how that surprise surfaced,
the diverse reactions to the approval, then the decision immediately afterward
to rescind permission to allow an occasional amplified Ahzan from the Chapel’s
bell tower,
or the current conversation about the role of the Chapel. We
have always sought to nurture with the Chapel and other Duke staff a right
relationship of cooperation – none of it forced – and are grateful for their
support of us and of ISI. This
particular incident did prompt us to pray and uphold the staff particularly while
they were “taking much heat” from their decision making. Furthermore, we want to understand and
appreciate rightly their advocacy of inter-religious understanding and their intention
that the chapel be a place of hospitality.
This surprising series of incidents have also prompted us to review our
practice of hospitality[3]
as well as what we understand Biblically to be “sacred space”[4].
At the very minimum the
controversy has propelled us and, we trust many of our community volunteers, to
greater prayer and outreach on behalf of the Muslim community.
The incident did not prevent Dan and me from accepting
an invitation to meet the new Muslim chaplain and his bride during a home
reception in their honor. Though we
admitted to feeling “out of our depth”, i.e. surprised and uncomfortable, being
about the only non-Muslims in a packed setting of about 50 students, we also
experienced several substantive conversations.
One more, dare I say final, surprise? Since late fall we have been introduced to
and seen a larger than ever number of Hindu-background students in our circle
of activity!
What now? Well, creatively & prayerfully
strategizing for the area outreach continue.
I expect that surprises will keep coming too – I need more practice with
them. Recently, for example, the assistant director of the Center for Muslim
Life asked if we would mind for her to forward announcements from our weekly
list serve to the students in the Center.
(Does it surprise you that we don’t mind?)
I invite you now to stand and speak aloud or
quietly what the Lord prompts you to pray on behalf of Muslims. No need to take turns; let’s pray “Korean
style” for a few minutes, after which I will close the time.
Lord of
the universe, King of our lives, rescue we pray those living in the darkness of
submission to the Islamic path. Bring them into the kingdom of the Son whom you
love, the kingdom of light, in Jesus’ name.
National Staff Conference, June 2015
[1] God Planned Surprises?
[2] I often ask myself
while reflecting on a Scripture portion, “How would my Muslim friend hear this
text?”
[3] For example,
insure that halal meat is available at Saturday Suppers; or, consider setting
aside space for Muslim salat/prayers during TRUE Leadership events.
[4] Consider the
comments of Dr. Richard Hays - respected New Testament scholar, member of the
Duke Chapel congregation and currently Dean of Duke Divinity School; or, on a
different note, the recently published item in Duke Magazine, Summer issue.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing this! Very interesting story/thoughts. Yes, halal meals and space for prayers! And "Korean style prayer" - that's a new one for me.
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