Sermons

October 22, 2006

Islamic Jesus

The Rev. Rob McCann
Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church

More and more we are realizing that we live in an inter-faith, inter-cultural world that can widen our perspectives and challenge our predispositions.

The very fact that we are exposed to variations on a number of religious themes makes us review what we have always taken for granted.

For example -

Take the seminal text of Judaism that touches all monotheistic religions ? namely, the sacrifice by Abraham of his son, Isaac.

That story has always had a disturbing element in it. The very theme seems impossible to comprehend ? that of hearing the voice of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his child ? as a sign of faith and dependence.

It bothered me so much that I asked for a session with Cantor David Unterman of Temple Isaiah, Oakland, to talk to me about it. It was out of that meeting that the idea came to invite him to my former parish to give the Lenten Series on the Book of Genesis.

I thought - it's one thing to hear how Christians interpret that particular text ? it might be quite different to hear how the original text was understood.

Then add the Islamic revision of the story. In that story Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, the half-brother of Isaac.

For Christians the passage from Genesis is interpreted as a prophetic prototype of Jesus, the Son, who offered his life on the cross.

This brings us into what might be called the "permutation of scripture" - whereby each faith, and sometimes within each faith, a different interpretation occurs about "who what and why."

Even in the early first century Jesus was presented differently in the Book of Thomas than in what we refer to as the canonical Gospels. Part of the reason is: that the writings of Paul and the Gospels came out of different communities, at different times and often were shaped by what was an imperative of the time - for example - was the passage written before or after the destruction of the temple - that perspective can shape the response.

There are many snapshots of Jesus, despite the fact that there was only one historic one.

As someone once said, upon viewing the variations ? it is probably easier to find Jesus in your heart than to find him in the many passages of the past.

Remarkably, there are many references to Jesus in the Qu?ran where he is venerated but, not surprisingly, conformed to Islamic theology.

There is no trinity, of course. There is no god but God.

Jesus was certainly esteemed by Mohammed. However, in Islam, Jesus was not crucified; nor did he die for our sins. Jesus in this interpretation was all about the mystery Jesus came to reveal about God, rather than his personal messiahship.

Jesus was absorbed, not resurrected. The Virgin birth and the place for Mary as Mother, however, is held in high esteem.

Here are some short references to hear the sound of Islam giving us Jesus? teaching -

"Be in the middle, but walk to the side."

Sermons

October 22, 2006

Islamic Jesus

The Rev. Rob McCann Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church

The Rev. Rob McCann
Interim Rector, St, Matthew's Episcopal Church