Monday, August 27, 2018

“A Christian Response to Islam,” Gen. 22.15–18, July ‘18



1.        Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word today as we continue our sermon series on, “A Christian Response to World Religions” is taken from Genesis 22:15-18 (read text).  It’s entitled, “A Christian Response to Islam,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.       Abraham is the father of our faith. Through Baptism into Christ and faith in him, we Christians are children of Abraham (Gal 3:26–29).  But, it may surprise you to learn that not only Jewish people, but also Muslims consider Abraham to be their father too. Muslims see in our text from Genesis 22 the great example of obedience to which God calls all people. The word “Islam” means “submission.” Abraham submitted to whatever God would demand. Muslims strive to surrender their entire lives to their God, Allah. “Allah” is Arabic for “God.” Islam is the name of the religion, while an adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.
3.       Several years ago, when the NBA playoffs were between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets, the player easily voted the Most Valuable Player of the series was Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem is a devout Muslim from Nigeria. During the playoffs he exhibited the Muslim spirit of submission. At the conclusion of the playoff series while all the other players were milling around the court, celebrating, hugging, and shouting, Hakeem sat on the bench just resting, smiling, and watching. Whatever God wills, we are to receive obediently.
4.       It’s hard for us Westerners to appreciate this spirit. We strive and struggle and argue with God. We identify with Abraham as he argued with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. We take Job or Peter or the psalmists as our examples. God wants us to approach him honestly and openly—also when we are angry and upset with him. We don’t see God as distant and demanding, but as near and giving. Through Christ, who is God in human flesh, we know God as our forgiving Father, not as a far-off tyrant. God loves us even in our weakness and failings and doubts. Jesus died on the cross for all our sins and weaknesses. They are all completely forgiven, just as surely as Christ is risen from the dead.
5.       Some of these Christian beliefs are considered heresy by Muslims. They consider Jesus to be a prophet, but one prophet among many, and certainly not God in human flesh—an idea they reject. They believe the greatest prophet was Muhammad (A.D. 570–632), the founder of their faith. Like Jewish people, Muslims stress the belief in one God. They may consider Christians to believe in three gods because they misunderstand the doctrine of the Trinity. Their holy book, the Quran, emphatically states that Jesus did not die on the cross, and they do not believe he rose from the dead either.  But, probably the most important difference is that while Christians have the assurance of God’s forgiveness based on Christ’s sacrifice for us, in Islam there is no specific reason for Allah to be forgiving. Muslims believe Allah is compassionate, but for their hope of eternal life, they must point to their works, rather than to salvation by grace alone.
6.       Islam is an attractive religion to many people because of its simplicity and clarity. The central theme of obedience is challenging. Sinful human nature is such that people believe they can please God if they try hard enough.  The practical expectations of Islam are only five. The five expectations are called the “five pillars of Islam.” One must profess the simple declaration that “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” Muhammad is the illiterate merchant, Muslims believe, through whom God transmitted to earth their scriptures, the holy, eternal Quran.
7.       The Quran is the Muslim equivalent of the incarnation. We believe that the second person of the Trinity, the Son, became man, lived the only perfect life of obedience, and paid the price for the world’s sin by his death on the cross. They believe that the Quran was eternally in heaven as God’s written word and will. Then the angel Gabriel gave to Muhammad the eternal words. Muhammad couldn’t write, so he transmitted the words orally. The Quran was not put into a written form until about 20 years after Muhammad’s death.
8.       This simple profession of faith in God, and in Muhammad as his prophet, is the first expectation of a Muslim. The second pillar is prayer. Once again, the prayer expectations are very simple and clear. Devout Muslims will pray at the appointed hours of prayer, five times daily. They will kneel, face toward Mecca, and recite the appointed prayers of obedience.  On their special day of prayer, Friday, they are to go to the mosque, their worship building, to pray. Christians in Muslim countries, therefore, usually will worship also on Fridays, since that is the national day off.
9.       The third pillar is fasting, especially during the month of Ramadan, usually in late spring. As with our season of Lent and with our Lenten fast, it precedes their great event. For us, of course, Lent precedes the day of victory: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on Easter. For the Muslims, the fast precedes the day they commemorate the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. For the 30 days of Ramadan, Muslims are expected to fast from dawn to dusk. After dusk they can eat and drink to their heart’s content. At dawn, they start to fast again. Devout Muslims will not even take water during the fast. They are to do at least one act of charity each day and—by their own effort—remove all evil thoughts from their mind. They are to learn obedience and self-control. When the month ends, of course, there is feasting and praise in worship of Allah.
10.   The fourth pillar is almsgiving. They give 2.5 percent of their income monthly to the poor. The fifth is the “hajj,” or pilgrimage to Mecca. If one is financially and physically able, one is expected, at least once in one’s lifetime, to join the millions of Muslims who gather in Mecca during the month of “hajj.” At this event in Saudi Arabia we periodically hear of hundreds being trampled to death. Muslims believe, however, that anyone who dies on a “hajj” will automatically go to heaven. 
11.   Here is another difference between Christianity and Islam, a point where we can make our witness. Muslims believe that God is the absolute sovereign, and he determines all things. We can’t know his will. We can only accept it obediently. This is true, according to their belief, also in regard to heaven. No one can know whether he or she will be saved. Besides the hajji, only a soldier killed in a holy war to defend the faith is promised eternal life. Muslims can only hope that their lives have been good enough so that God will be pleased and grant them life in heaven.
12.   We, on the other hand, know our salvation is sure. We are saved by grace alone, through faith in Christ (Eph 2:8–9). This is a gift of God that we celebrate in Christ. Salvation doesn’t come through our attempts to do good works or purify our thoughts. God doesn’t want us to try to save ourselves. He wants us to trust in his mercy in Christ—and through his Holy Spirit he gives us that trust, so that we have confidence and peace in Christ. God knows we could never achieve his holy will. In love, the Father sent his Son to carry out his will perfectly. Jesus fulfilled God’s Law completely and in our place. As that sinless Lamb of God, he willingly made the perfect sacrifice for sin. In that way Jesus earned forgiveness for all people.
13.   When we worship, we don’t lift our hands in fearful appeal. We lift our hands in joyful celebration. That is the Good News God wants us to proclaim to all people. God’s will is that everyone “be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). God’s solution is not hidden or foreboding. It is Good News. It is freeing and joyful and is to be broadcast to the world.
14.   Muslims are admirable people in many ways. We sometimes stereotype them because of political conflicts on the world stage, particularly in the Middle East. The strikingly different clothing, customs, and language of Arab Muslims, for example, may lead us to think that their values are totally different from ours. Yet, the fact is that we have much in common with them in our social values. Muslims strongly oppose abortion, pornography, premarital sex, and drug and alcohol abuse. In Muslim countries these things are crimes. Religion provides the values, and the State carries them out. They don’t try to keep religion out of government laws and practices.
15.   Sometimes Muslim national life may go to what we view as an extreme, death to any Muslim who converts to Christianity; death to a woman caught in adultery; or the amputation of the hand of a thief. In America, however, we often go to the opposite extreme of allowing nearly every kind of sin and blasphemy to be practiced openly and shamelessly in the name of free choice and free speech. Often our criminals are quickly turned loose on society again with no change in them. God, the church, and Christian morality are ridiculed in our media.
16.   Our Muslim friends remind us that we can never have morality without religion. Over the last 30 years in this nation, we’ve experimented with destroying many accepted standards of right and wrong. The result has been family breakdown, drive-by shootings, rampant crime and violence. The famous historian of our times, Will Durant, has observed: “There is no significant example in history . . . of a society maintaining a moral life without the aid of religion.” Or, as Chuck Colson has written (Jubilee, June 1994, p. 7): “We don’t have to bang anyone on the head with the Bible, but just present the facts. Statistics show that Christian marriages are stronger, that kids raised in the church are more likely to resist sex and drugs, that crime recedes when spiritual values are ascendant.”
17.   Martin Luther observed in the 16th century that much could be learned from the administration of Muslim society. We have much to give them also. Most importantly, we have the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to proclaim. Christianity and Islam both trace their roots to the same OT. Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, and respect Christians as “people of the Book.” The door to the Muslim world is open. Christ died and rose for them just as surely as he did for us. He wants them to know his love and receive his salvation. May the love of God overcome our fears and differences so that we speak with Muslims about the world’s only Savior.  Amen.


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