We must listen to our prophets

I finally come to the actual reading of the text of Jeremiah. And I am stunned by the wording of his call. I will quote from the NRSV:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations

 

And the King James Version:

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah felt that he was a child being given a huge task. But we find that he was sustained by the writings of the prophets who had gone before him.

I wonder what the Jews of to-day take to heart from their sacred writings...or the Christians...or the Islamists. All are under the banner of Abraham. All have the Ten Commandments. We all have the same prophets up until Jesus. We must all eventually listen to our prophets.

I wondered about the Islam attitude to Christian Science. Interestingly, most of the information listed about this I found in the Christian Science Sentinel and The Christian Science Monitor. The Sentinel of May 14, 2001 records an interview with Al-Haaj Ghazi Y. Khankan. He gives very full answers to the questions raised, a couple of which are:

·         “What attitude makes peace?”

·         “Tell us about the Muslim view of Jerusalem.”

·         “How do Muslims feel about Christians and Jews?”

·         “Do you feel Westerners understand Islam?”

I asked myself what is different about the Islamic attitude to Jesus. I found that a very satisfactory site to find answers to this question and others is christiancentury.org. The following excerpts are from a May 2017 interview of Zeki Saritoprak. It is really something. I feel it can enlighten us all about Islam:

·         According to Islam, Jesus always speaks the truth. The question is how we understand it.

·         Beyond believing Jesus is one of the five elite messengers of God, Muslims believe that Jesus will return to bring justice to the world. Muslim theologians call this “the descent of Jesus” to earth. This eschatological return of Jesus is unique among the prophets of God.

The following was gleaned from a different web site which included information about the Ten Commandments:

·         These commandments are among the core teachings of Judaism and Christianity that are taught to children at an early age, and all of them are included within the teachings of Islam. Some believe these commands go back as far as the seven laws of Noah, peace and blessings be upon him.

·         As such, these commandments can be the basis of interfaith dialogue and mutually-beneficial cooperation between Muslims, Jews, and Christians. They are the “common word” for which we can all come together in agreement.

·         These common teachings can be distilled into two main principles: love for Allah and love for our neighbors. In other words, we should respect the rights of Allah by holding sound beliefs and performing acts of worship in the best manner, and we should respect the rights of people by treating them in the way we would love to be treated. All of the divine revelations throughout history are founded upon these two principles.

Isn’t it good that when a person is mentioned, a blessing is included? As in “...Noah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

My conclusion after all that is that none of the three religions is practised perfectly. Each has its own sects and offshoots and interpretations and traditions, which adulterate the original teaching.

I wrote this in my Quarterly (Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons) on Sunday at church: “We should no more fear the zealots of Islam than those of Christianity or Judaism.” And, as students of Christian Science, we will find that all are blessed children of God, having the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus. 

Joyce Voysey

(Phil. 2: 5 -- "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.")