Connected by Faith

A week ago Friday I attended a performance of the Knitting Pilgrim, created by actor and knitter Kirk Dunn.

It’s a multidisciplinary one-man show that combines personal storytelling, image projection, and three huge, knitted panels that look like stained glass windows, to explore the connection amongst the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The play recounts Kirk’s fifteen-year artistic and spiritual journey of hand-knitting the ambitious project and looks at why people struggle to get along today, the meaning of art, the hell of grant-writing and the power of love to overcome major obstacles (and minor mishaps). https://www.kirkdunn.com/

He started it after 9/11 and wondering what he could do to counteract the backlash against the Muslim community that he was hearing, and to counter the misinformation he was hearing. As the son and grandson of Presbyterian Ministers, along with being a creative knitter, he was drawn to stained glass windows.

(Photo from his Facebook page)

It was an astounding show! Three HUGE knitted panels that looked like stained-glass windows; I think they must have been about 5 x 8 feet each! After the show, we were encouraged to go up and talk with Kirk and get close to the panels and touch them! Each panel told some of the story of that particular tradition. So, for those of you who need a refresher, Abraham is considered to be the spiritual ancestor of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abraham made the first covenant with God…

As it is written in Genesis 12: Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And further in Genesis 15:  12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Before Abram and Sarai had Isaac in their old age, which fulfilled the covenant, Abram fathered Ishmael by Sarai’s maid Hagar. However, Hagar and Ishmael were cast out of the community and left in the desert. However, they survived and Ishamel is widely considered to be the ancestor of Muhammad, the founder of the Islamic faith.

And of course, for us, as Christians, according to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. Matthews outlines the lineage and then concludes with this line, ¹⁷ So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,^[i] fourteen generations.

So with the ancient connections between the three religions made clear, I’m going to focus on one part of the Islamic panel. This star… and I freely admit that Kirk made this clear in his presentation. But really, it’s reflective of the three Abrahamic faiths.

1.  Profession of Faith – The belief that “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God” is central to Islam.

The Qur’an says this, “Everyone’s God-given human dignity must be respected, regardless of his or her faith, race, ethnic origin, gender, or social status (ref. Qur’an, 17:70). Because everyone is created by God Almighty, the Maker of all, humans must treat one another with full honor, respect, and loving-kindness. https://catstevens.com/think/spiritual-domain/the-final-messenger-muhammad/

Orthodox Jewish people, or at least men, recite the Shema each morning and evening; it is the central affirmation of Judaism. The prayer expresses belief in the singularity of God, that is, in God’s oneness and incomparability. https://www.brandeis.edu/jewish-experience/holidays-religious-traditions/2022/may/shema-explained-kimelman.html#:~:text=May%202%2C%202022,or%20Ma’ariv)%20services.

We also have a profession of faith… our parents make it for us at our baptism if we are baptized as infants or children, we make it as teens or adults, when we confirm or affirm that profession… and we profess it here most weeks with the words of A New Creed: We are not alone…

2. Prayer – Muslims pray facing Mecca five times a day: at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and after dark. Prayer includes a recitation of the opening chapter (sura) of the Qur’an, and is sometimes performed on a small rug or mat used expressly for this purpose.

Jews are supposed to pray three times a day; morning, afternoon, and evening. The Jewish prayer book (it’s called a siddur) has special services set down for this. Praying regularly enables a person to get better at building their relationship with God.

Now, outside of religious communities, I don’t know of many people who set aside regular times for prayer? Where we stop what we are doing and intentionally connect with God. Regardless, prayer however we practice it, remains a central part of Christianity as well.

3. Alms – In accordance with Islamic law, Muslims donate a fixed portion of their income to community members in need.

Jews believe that their personal wealth is on loan from God so they should give to charity in order to bring justice to the poor. Tzedekah means that charity is an obligation rather than a choice.

Tikkun olam is related to the idea of repairing the world… contributing to social justice, act in a morally good way so as to improve life on Earth, which includes obeying the mitzvot given by God. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zfwr97h/revision/4#:~:text=Jews%20believe%20that%20their%20personal,obligation%20rather%20than%20a%20choice.

Loving your neighbour as yourself… this is from Leviticus, not usually my favourite book of the Bible!

Or from Deuteronomy 15: 7 “If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. 8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.

Remember, the Jewish scriptures were the only Holy Scriptures Jesus had. You may remember this well-known parable from Luke 10: ²⁵ An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.^[j] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

²⁶ Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 

²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” 

²⁸ And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 

³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Today, our almsgiving through church, is most often through Mission & Service, those stories we hear about from the wider church, or the wider world.

4. Fasting – During the daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, all healthy adult Muslims are required to abstain from food and drink. Through this temporary deprivation, they renew their awareness of and gratitude for everything God has provided in their lives—including the Qur’an, which was first revealed during this month. During Ramadan they share the hunger and thirst of the needy as a reminder of the religious duty to help those less fortunate.

I think as our Muslim population has increased over the last 20 years, we have become more conscious of this.

For Jewish people, there are six days in a year when observant Jews fast. Two “Major Fasts” call for a fast from sundown on the day before to sundown on the day itself, and four “Minor Fasts” call for a fast from sunrise to sundown. The best known of these six fast days is the “Day of Atonement,” Yom Kippur, observed by many Jews, even those who do not observe other fasts. 

Christians, at least in North America, are not much into fasting. They may ‘give up’ something for Lent, but rarely fast. As least the ones I know. Or they may fast on Good Friday.

In Lent, one of the purposes behind fasting was so that you had more money to give to the poor.

5. Pilgrimage – Every Muslim whose health and finances permit it must make at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca.

The Hebrew Bible instructs all Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year: in spring for Passover, in summer for Shavuout, known as “feast of weeks” which commemorates the revelation of the Torah on Mt. Sinai to the Jewish people and in the fall for Sukkot. Sukkot, which is a small hut. Jews live, eat and sometimes even sleep in the booth during Sukkot, commemorating the time the Israelites spent in the wild — in huts of their own — after being freed from slavery in Egypt.

Christians starts making pilgrimages in the fourth century to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and his first followers. As political unrest arose through religious wars and Jerusalem was off limits, labyrinths were laid in some of the cathedrals as a method of pilgrimage. Here’s a famous one at the cathedral in Chartre, France, it dates from 1205.

Google Photo

We are not instructed to make pilgrimage, although many of us do. In fact, in October, I will realize a lifelong dream and make my own pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Italicized portions taken from https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-of-the-islamic-world/unit-one/the-five-pillars-of-islam#:~:text=Muslims%20pray%20facing%20Mecca%20five,purpose%20(see%20image%2024).

So, that was a lot wasn’t it! But it’s it wonderful to see how much connects us rather than how much divides us. All of these have been very apparent this past week in Nova Scotia… as so much of the province dealt with wildfires and evacuations. The care that people demonstrated by offering homes, food, blankets, clothing, rescuing animals… volunteer firefighters, firefighters from other provinces and the USA.  All of this by people of all faiths and of no faith… because we are all drawn together by our common humanity.

1. Profession of Faith
2. Prayer
3. Alms
4. Fasting
5. Pilgrimage

We are all in this together. Thanks be to God for that which bind us together. Amen. 

Genesis 12
Genesis 15
Leviticus
Deuteronomy 15: 7-8
Matthew 1: 1-13
Luke 10: 25-37
Qur’an
June 4, 2023 – SJUC