Currents in Theology and Mission

January/February 2015 Volume 42 Number 1

Mark W. Th omsen: Remembering the Missiologist and the Man

CURRENTS in Th eology and Mission

currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 1 1/21/15 12:44 PM Currents in Theology and Mission Published by Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in cooperation with Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary Wartburg Theological Seminary Editors: Kathleen D. Billman, S.D. Giere, Craig L. Nessan Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Wartburg Theological Seminary [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Assistant Editor: Ann Rezny [email protected] Copy Editor: Connie Sletto Editor of Preaching Helps: Barbara K. Lundblad Editors of Book Reviews: Ralph W. Klein (Old Testament) Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (773-256-0773) [email protected] Craig L. Nessan (history, theology, ethics and ministry) Wartburg Theological Seminary (563-589-0207) [email protected] Troy M. Troftgruben (New Testament) Wartburg Theological Seminary (563-589-0303) [email protected] Circulation Office: 773-256-0751 [email protected]

Editorial Board: Michael Aune (PLTS), James Erdman (WTS), Robert Kugler (PLTS), Kristine Stache (WTS), Vítor Westhelle (LSTC). CURRENTS IN THEOLOGY AND MISSION (ISSN: 0098-2113) is published bimonthly (every other month), February, April, June, August, October, December. Annual subscription rate: $24.00 in the U.S.A., $28.00 elsewhere. Two-year rate: $44.00 in the U.S.A., $52.00 elsewhere. Three-year rate: $60.00 in the U.S.A., $72.00 elsewhere. Many back issues are available for $5.00, postage included. Published by Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a nonprofit organization, 1100 East 55th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60615, to which all business correspondence is to be addressed. Printed in U.S.A. CURRENTS is indexed in ATLA Religion Database, Elenchus, IZBW, NTA, OTA, Religion Index I (formerly IRPL), Religious and Theological Abstracts, and Theologische Literaturzeitung. MICROFORM AVAILABILITY: 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm, 105mm microfiche, and article copies are available through NA Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 998, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Unless otherwise noted scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and used by permission. All rights reserved.

currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 2 1/21/15 12:44 PM Contents

Mark W. Thomsen: Remembering the Missiologist and the Man David D. Grafton 3 Mark Thomsen and God’s Cruciformed Mission Bonnie Jensen 5 Christology in a Pluralistic World Paul Jersild 8 A Theologian of the Cross Michael T. Shelley 16 A Visionary for Christian Mission in the Middle East Harold Vogelaar 23 Cosmic Crucified or One Ultimate Reality? On Becoming a Committed Pluralist Carol Schersten LaHurd 30 A Century of Christian-Muslim Dialogues Across the Globe Nelly van Doorn-Harder 38 Jesus, Words from the Cross, and Ways to Explain: The Cry of Dereliction between Arabic-Christian Apology and Mark W. Thomsen Mark N. Swanson 42 Christian Ministry within a Religiously Plural America: The Importance of Christian-Muslim Relations within Theological Education David D. Grafton 50 Book Reviews 59

Preaching Helps Engaging the Texts—Welcome to the New Editor of Preaching Helps! Barbara K. Lundblad 67 Fifth Sunday in Lent–Seventh Sunday of Easter Karyn L. Wiseman, Brad Froslee 69

currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 1 1/21/15 12:44 PM From the editors Dear Currents Subscriber: For several months the editorial team of Currents in Theology and Mission has been discussing an exciting new possibility related to the future of Currents. We have come to the decision that the time is right for Currents to become a fully online, open access journal. While this means that beginning in 2016 Currents no longer will appear as a printed journal, it also offers many advantages. The journal will become free of charge for our loyal subscribers, while at the same time opening up the contents of our established publication to a whole new world of readers across the globe. Moreover, this new mode of delivery makes the production of Currents financially sustainable in an unprecedented way. We send you this letter because we want to give our readers ample notice of the change that will take place a year from now. We especially thank you, our loyal readers over the years, for subscribing to Currents and ask your continued support and readership as we move to our new format in 2016. We pledge to you our continued commitment to deliver a quality theological journal in support of the ministry and mission of the church as it responds to the ever-changing signs of the times. This new opportunity expands the outreach of Currents in Theology and Missionin exciting ways. Open access means that anyone, anywhere in the world, will be able to become readers and students of our journal. We will continue to publish Currents in its print format through 2015, in order to give our readers ample time to be informed about how to access the journal in the future and to honor subscriptions already purchased. We gladly will accept one-year subscriptions for 2015, but urge our readers not to extend their subscriptions beyond 2015. If there is any money to be refunded, we certainly will do this upon request, even while allowing readers the opportunity to contribute any remaining amount to support the future of Currents. Starting in 2016 we will publish the journal quarterly (four issues per year) in January, April, July, and October. The Currents staff, including Barbara Lundblad, the new editor of Preaching Helps, is working to ensure that the lectionary-based preaching commentaries (together with the other articles on timely issues facing the church) will appear well in advance of when readers may desire to use these particular resources. During 2015 we will begin to shift into this new schedule by publishing five issues in 2015 before moving to four issues per year in 2016. In future issues we will provide readers ample information about how to easily access Currents in its new online format. In the meantime, we look forward to your continued readership and support as we move into the future together.

Kathleen D. Billman, S.D. Giere, Craig L. Nessan

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January 20, 2015, marks the one-year commemoration of the death of Mark W. Thomsen, Lutheran professor, theologian, administrator, missiologist, pastor, husband, father, grandfather, and friend. Thus, it is fitting that this edition of Currents in Theology and Mission has been commissioned to reflect on the life and work of Mark Thomsen, and his impact on the church. To this end, the collection of articles in this volume review Thomsen’s theological views, his role as Executive Director of the American Lutheran Church’s (ALC) Division for World Mission and Inter-Church Cooperation and the Global Mission unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and as teacher of interfaith dialogue at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Bonnie Jensen, the former Executive Director of the ELCA Division for Global Mission (1996–2004), begins this edition with the sermon she preached for Thomsen’s funeral on February 15, 2014, at Hope Lutheran Church, Wautoma, Wisconsin. Paul T. Jersild, a longtime colleague and friend, reviews Mark Thomsen’s theology, shaped by his missionary calling and deep engagement with people of other faiths. Jersild notes that for Thomsen, Jesus Christ as the man for others and ultimately the Cosmic Crucified is the embodiment of God’s suffering love which embraces human history and indeed all of creation. Michael T. Shelley follows this with a reflection on Thomsen as a theologian of the cross. Here, Shelley notes that Thomsen believed that the cross could be explained as “costly grace and merciful justice.” The next three articles in this volume recall Thomsen’s impact as both administrator and teacher of the church. Harold Vogelaar recalls Thomsen’s role in his focus on Islam, and the development of ALC, Lutheran Church in America (LCA), and ELCA mission in the Middle East from the 1970s to the 1990s. Vogelaar notes the influence and impact of Thomsen on the role of the ELCA in the Middle East. Carol Schersten LaHurd reviews her work with Thomsen at the ELCA’s annual missionary conferences and study programs, and in LSTC’s Religions in Dialogue course. It was Thomsen’s vision for a global mission shaped by the cross of Christ that was deeply respectful of diverse religious traditions that influenced the author’s journey to religious pluralism. LaHurd also includes reflections from Thomsen’s former interfaith interlocutor’s Sevan Ross and Ghulam-Haider Aasi. In the next article, Nelly van Doorn-Harder recalls her journey from the Netherlands; to Cairo, Egypt; to Minnesota; to Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and back to the United States, where

currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 3 1/21/15 12:44 PM she engaged in interfaith living and dialogue. She notes the important interfaith work done in collaboration with several Christian and Muslim institutions that have engaged and encouraged positive interfaith encounter in Indonesia. The final two articles demonstrate Thomsen’s ongoing influence on the Lu- theran church through two authors directly impacted by his “Focus on Islam” in global mission. Mark N. Swanson examines the Lutheran paradox of the hidden/revealed God from the “cry of dereliction” from the cross. Here he connects Thomsen’s central themes with his own work in the corpus of Christian Arabic theological literature. Finally, David D. Grafton provides theological, sociological, and pastoral rationale for engaging in conversation with Muslims as vital to ministerial training not only for those interested in a global mission, but also for those serving within the North American context. All of the authors of this issue of Currents in Theology and Missionhave demonstrated, through their articles here or in private correspondence, how deeply Mark W. Thomsen had touched them or impacted their work. Faced with the responsibilities of guiding a church into global mission, Thomsen was committed to articulate faithfulness to the Cosmic Crucified, and how such faith should be reflected through activities, ministries, and commitments in a world often ruled by empires, guided by power, and human systems of oppression. We hope that this collection will stimulate further theological reflection and activity in the name of the one whom Thomsen calls the “suffering with us God.”

David D. Grafton Guest Editor

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Bonnie Jensen Former Executive Director of the Division for Global Mission, ELCA “In Memory” preached at the Worship Celebration on February 15, 2014, at Hope Lutheran Church, Wautoma, Wisconsin.

Mark Thomsen was a football star at Dana dreamer. He was a radical. College, a wing back who scored 93 points Mark lived with relentless energy, in his sophomore year. What a glorious and so his death shocks us. Those of his year! In the first game of his junior year, generation expected he would outlive us. he broke his leg and was out for the sea- Former Bishop of the American Lutheran son. Back for the first game in his senior Church, David Preus, wrote, “Mark’s year, he broke his collarbone! Again, he vitality was such that one did not think was out for the season. Obviously, Mark’s of death and Mark at the same time.” life was bound to be more than football, Mary Lou willingly followed her own and Mary Lou was not destined to be a calling as she and Mark boarded the cargo coach’s wife. Mark came to believe God ship to Nigeria in 1957. It was an era of was calling him in a new direction. This great historical change. Five centuries of call to Mark came, not in glory, but in European colonialism were giving way to disappointment: broken bones, and the the birth of new nations around the world death of his personal dreams. Mark’s life including Nigeria in 1960. The dominance had already been marked by suffering and of the Western missionary movement was tragedy at the age of 10 when his young giving way to organizing independent mother died. It is not surprising then that national churches with their own leaders the cross of Jesus and God’s presence in including the Lutheran Church of Christ suffering and death came to take center in Nigeria in 1956. place in his life and his evolving vision Mark was plunged into teaching and of God’s cruciformed mission. This vision training Nigerian pastors. He continued culminated with his book in 2004, The that endeavor throughout his professional Cruciformed Christ: A 21st-Century Mis- life: equipping church leaders for mission siology of the Cross. in their own countries. He also taught our Mark was a follower of Jesus: marked church to get out of the driver’s seat and by the cross. His early experiences surely share mission mutually, interdependently. made him a compassionate man who Mark led with a vision to transform our listened, and who felt deep sympathy for colonial behaviors into mission in the way people burdened with troubles and suf- of the cross, in the way of the crucified fering. He was complicated, yet humble. Jesus. This manifested itself in his book, He was brilliant, even intimidating. He The Word and Way of the Cross in 1993. was tenderhearted, combative, generous, When Mark taught new missionaries aggressive, and courageous. He was a going abroad, he would challenge them:

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6 “Can you be an effective missionary today To those preparing for conversations with and also carry a United States passport? Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus, Mark Can you work effectively among people in would ask, “Can you empty yourself of another country when you come from this your presuppositions about their faith? rich powerful nation that stations armies Can you listen and encounter the beauty around the world? Or, when you come and truth in their religious faith and expe- into a young developing church from a riences of God. Can you be present with rich influential church like the ELCA?” them in the mind and manner of Jesus?” Then, he would turn to Phil 2:5–8. Mark was first of all a teacher and

Let the same mind be in you that was theologian. He spent over half his public in Christ Jesus, who though he was in ministry teaching in schools. He was the form of God, did not regard equality beloved and admired from Nigeria to with God as something to be exploited; Chicago. As a mission executive, Mark but emptied himself, taking the form led as teacher and thinker throughout the of a slave, and became obedient to the church, teaching thousands on campuses, point of death—even death on a cross. at Global Mission Events, in conventions, and in congregations. Mark also sought He would continue: “Jesus emptied him- out dozens of missionaries and interna- self of all claims to equality with God, tional students, and secured funding for humbled himself, and became obedient advanced degrees so that they could teach. even to the point of death. Can you take Some are present with us today. up your cross, lose your own life, and follow The Rev. Dr. Paul Wee, a colleague Jesus? Can you empty yourself of the power who served with The Lutheran World of nation, money, and education, and walk Federation leader, wrote, “Mark put a whole new face on the global mission enterprise…When few were talking about the rise of Islam, Mark was already produc- e recognized ing materials to help the church respond to this new challenge.” that God’s As an administrator, he was a change H agent. Mark often told a story to challenge cruciformed mission us about a church convention in San Diego where he sat on the speaker’s platform needs the gifts and next to the Ethiopian guest, Pastor Francis Stephanos. As they sat looking out over perspectives of all the the audience, Pastor Francis leaned over to Mark, “Where are the black people? It people of God. looks like you haven’t been doing your mission work very well in your own country.” Mark never stood still for long. Tradi- tionally, the world mission staff was almost humbly with people in the way of Jesus?” exclusively former missionaries who were To church members going on mission trips, white, male, and clergy. He employed an he would ask, “Can you walk softly in that increasingly diverse staff with growing distant place? Can you travel and visit in numbers of women and people of color. the manner of the Cruciformed Christ?” One person Mark sought out was Dr.

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7 Belletech Deressa, who grew up as a poor God who brings down the mighty from girl in western Ethiopia. In the Division their thrones and exalts those of low degree. for Global Mission, she set priorities and Mark spent his public ministry oversaw millions of dollars designated for within the structure of the church. Yet hunger and development programs every he passionately believed the mission of year. Mark took many risks with people the church is what happens in the daily and it changed the way mission happened. lives and work of each member. It is the He recognized that God’s cruciformed mis- priesthood of believers, where 99 percent sion needs the gifts and perspectives of all of priests spend 98 percent of their time the people of God. Former ELCA Bishop outside the church building. For eight Herbert W. Chilstrom has written about years at St. Peter in Dubuque, Mark was Mark’s management of the Global Mission out of the church office with the priests unit: “In the early days of the life of the in the community: at their jobs, in their ELCA I had many things to worry about, homes, at school, in the hospital. When many issues over which to lose some sleep they gathered at church, Mark knew them but the Division for Global Mission was all very well, their failure and successes, not one of them. I knew that important their disappointments and secrets. part of the church was in good hands.” One member, Larry Croghan, a high Mark was impatient with injustice. school basketball coach, reflected, “It al- Mark often told of a visit ELCA leaders ways seemed that when I listened to Mark, made to the Zimbabwe countryside to his sermon had a personal connection to observe the church’s response to a horrific my life.” Mark, the pastor, often said his drought. For a whole day they saw hungry, role on Sunday was like being a coach, thirsty people, dying in feeding camps gathering the players in the huddle, and set up on the parched earth. When they then sending them back into the game for returned to the city, they drove by a golf the rest of the week. The fallen football star course. Mark trembled with emotion when had not left the game after all. He taught he said, “The golf course was covered with and coached all his life. lush green grass, and the sprinklers were On Mark’s last Sunday at St. Peter, a on! It was absurd after what we’d seen.” visitor at the service observed, “The affec- The cruciformed mission of God demands tion for Mark filled the sanctuary. The love water, food, and justice for everyone. for him was deeply felt. I’ve never seen so Mark was a strategic organizer. When many grown men crying in church.” we were challenged by Lutherans in South So here we are today, crying again be- Africa and Namibia to join the movement cause we have lost Mark William Thomsen. against South Africa’s apartheid system, He was a dear, dear man and a powerful Mark led the Global Mission unit, other coach in our lives, a cruciformed servant church units, seminaries, colleges and con- of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark touched us gregations of the church to get involved. with his abundant, infectious faith in the Every district of the church organized a goodness and love of God. He would be committee. The Women of the ELCA of moved by our sadness today and remind southern Wisconsin created such a stir that us that, when we cry, the God of Jesus when a South African newspaper published cries with us. Today we remember Mark a list of subversive organizations, the list in gratitude, and entrust him into the included “Wisconsin Lutheran Women.” arms of the merciful Mystery of the whole Cruciformed mission believes in a merciful universe.

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Paul Jersild Professor Emeritus of Theology and Ethics at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary: Lenoir-Rhyne University, Columbia, S.C.

This opportunity to commemorate Mark members of the seminary faculty.2 Trin- W. Thomsen gives me particular pleasure ity graduates typically resisted the kind for several reasons. The first is because of of strict orthodoxy that was often found a long friendship that began during our among their peers in other Lutheran student days at Dana College in Blair, churches. Nebraska, where we were roommates. We both attended Trinity Theological Semi- Early Christology nary of the United Evangelical Lutheran Most of Thomsen’s theological works have Church (UELC), which moved to the focused on Christology. Jesus Christ is at campus of Wartburg Seminary in 1956. the center of the Christian faith, a truth From there we went our separate ways that has loomed all the more importantly within the ministry of the church, but to him in light of his work on the mission always managed to stay in touch. field and continuing relations with adher- Second, both of our fathers were ents of other world religions, both on a pastors in the UELC, the church of personal and professional basis. He was a Danish heritage that merged with much theologian who could admirably represent larger German and Norwegian churches his church as a leader in its global outreach, in 1960 to form The American Lutheran emphasizing the centrality of Jesus Christ Church. That common background gave while also stressing the inclusive nature us a religious heritage that was cherished of the church’s message. His adherence by both of us during the course of our to the gospel was expressed in ways that certainly placed him within the church’s ministries. Our childhood church was orthodox tradition, while avoiding the marked by a deep piety rooted in the In- exclusive claims that have marked much ner Mission movement in Denmark, but of orthodox theology. This characteristic it was characterized by a reserve typical of 1 of his theology was apparent from his the Danish people. One’s faith was not earliest publications. “worn on one’s sleeve,” but it had a distinc- In his article, “The Lordship of Jesus tive emotional element. It was marked by and Secular Theology,” Thomsen addresses an earnestness that tended to focus more the Christology of Paul van Buren, one of on the character of one’s life than on the the secular theologians emerging in the orthodoxy of one’s beliefs. We both saw 1960s who was associated at least indirectly that spirit in the theologies of professors C. B. Larsen and T. I. Jensen, prominent 2. Both served as professors of systematic theology at Trinity Seminary. 1. The Inner Mission began in 1853 as Theodor Ingval Jensen served as the Dean a pietistic movement advocating small-group of Trinity Seminary from 1946–56, and the devotions and lay preaching. President from 1956–61.

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9 with the “death of God” phenomenon.3 article, “The Lordship of Jesus and Theo- In his book, The Secular Meaning of the logical Pluralism,”6 Thomsen compares Gospel: Based on an Analysis of Its Language, van Buren’s position with that of Schubert van Buren avowed the lordship of Jesus Ogden in Christ without Myth: A Study apart from faith in God, a position that Based on the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann, was challenged by Langdon Gilkey in his concluding that Ogden’s Christology is Naming the Whirlwind: The Renewal of preferable to the empirical thinking of van God-Language.4 Gilkey claimed that secu- Buren.7 In contrast to both Bultmann and lar theology is self-contradictory when it van Buren, Ogden affirms the “objective” affirms the lordship of Christ because that reality of a God-revealing event in Jesus, in confession assumes faith in God. Without whom one actually confronts “the eternal that faith, secular theology relinquishes Existence or Thou in whom all truth is any claim to be a Christian theology. Van grounded.”8 Buren, in contrast, argued that the picture In this article Thomsen also considers of Jesus conveyed in the Gospel records, the Christology of the German theologian “the man for others” who is driven by the Wolfhart Pannenberg.9 A distinctive fea- spirit of agape, has the power to grasp and ture of Pannenberg’s Christology is his claim any contemporary person. Thomsen insistence on a historical ground for faith agreed, saying that the man Jesus, because in Jesus, which he finds in the resurrec- of what we know about his life as depicted tion. He argues that both philosophical in the Gospels, can be experienced as Lord. assumptions and historical facts demand “To be loved and to love, to be accepted recognition that death was not able to and to accept, to be forgiven and to for- hold Jesus. Without this objective, histori- give are of value in and of themselves… cal basis, Pannenberg maintains that we I am convinced with van Buren that it is could not recognize the Lordship of Jesus. in the story of Jesus that the Christian is Thomsen concludes that while he respects grasped….”5 Pannenberg’s argument and ultimately I believe this openness to what many agrees with his conclusions, he finds it of us in the 1960s and 1970s regarded as impossible to approach the Lordship of a questionable Christology reflects the Christ from this perspective. Can one influence of Herbert Braun, under whom commit one’s life for time and eternity Thomsen studied during his doctoral pro- upon the basis of “a neutral, nonvalue fact gram at Northwestern University. While which at its very best is only highly prob- this openness characterizes the inclusive- ness of his theology, it does not signify 6. Mark W. Thomsen, “The Lordship total agreement with van Buren. In another of Jesus and Theological Pluralism,” Dialog 11 (Spring, 1972), 125–132. Hereafter cited 3. Mark W. Thomsen, “The Lordship as “Pluralism.” of Jesus and Secular Theology,” Religion in 7. Schubert Ogden, Christ without Life 41 (Autumn, 1972), 374–383. Myth: A Study Based on the Theology of Rudolf 4. See Paul van Buren, The Secular Bultmann (New York: Harper and Brothers, Meaning of the Gospel: Based on an Analysis of 1961). Its Language (New York: Macmillan, 1963) 8. Christ without Myth, 163 as cited in and Langdon Gilkey, Naming the Whirlwind: “Pluralism,” 127. The Renewal of God-Language (Indianapolis: 9. Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus – God Bobbs-Merrill, 1969). and Man (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 5. Op. cit., 376. 1968).

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10 able and possibly only the most adequate conquers death. The resurrection becomes interpretation of a series of events”?10 God’s cry from the beyond that death is Thomsen finds the insights of van not the last word…that love is in reality Buren and Ogden more persuasive, grounded in the Eternal.”14 experiencing with van Buren “the self- authenticating claim and power of grace or The person of Christ love (agape)” in the story of Jesus, and being Christology has been traditionally divided convinced with Ogden “that the claim of into the person and work of Jesus Christ. grace experienced in the story of Jesus is Thomsen’s Christology concentrates on grounded in the Eternal Thou – in God.”11 the work of Christ rather than focusing While Pannenberg regards this approach as on the issues posed by the fourth- and unacceptable, a mere grounding of faith in fifth-century Trinitarian and Christologi- faith itself, Thomsen makes a valid point cal controversies. When he refers to that in a quote from Paul Tillich: “Exactly what subject, it is always in light of what was can faith guarantee? The inevitable answer happening in the life of Jesus without at- is that faith can guarantee only its own tempting to spell out the implications of foundation, namely, the appearance of that those events for the person of Jesus. For reality which has created the faith.”12 It is example, he writes: “…the fact that it precisely the experience of the believer in was Jesus of Nazareth who was raised also the encounter with Jesus, which leads to indicates that this particular life, message, faith in the resurrected Christ. and death are to be identified with the These early articles on the lordship of unique, decisive, and final activity of God. Christ reflect a primary feature of Thom- He is in some way uniquely the Son of sen’s Christology that carries throughout God, a mystery which we cannot possibly his writing. It is the impact of Jesus’ life that comprehend.”15 This last sentence would is decisive: “In and through his story I find indicate that probing into the nature of myself grasped by the self-authenticating Christ is less than fruitful, attempting to claim and power of grace or love (Agape). intrude on what has to remain as mystery. The New Testament does portray Jesus It is the nature of what was happening in as the man of grace; the man for others; his life that makes Jesus who he is, which the man free to love; the man driven by leads me to believe that for Thomsen the compassion, care, and concern; the man meaning of the incarnation is expressed for whom life was a gift to be shared.”13 in his words that characterize Jesus as Only after experiencing these dimensions the “concretization” of the suffering love of the Lordship of Jesus does the Easter of God. event bring a new and more comprehensive Thus the direction of Thomsen’s message, that this Jesus of Nazareth “was Christology is not one that begins with incredibly affirmed by the power which who Jesus is in terms of his humanity and divinity in order to validate or understand 10. “Pluralism,” 130. what was happening in his life, essentially 11. Ibid., 130, 131. a philosophical enterprise. Rather, it is 12. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, being grasped by his life, his ministry vol. II (Chicago: University of Chicago and teaching, his crucifixion and resur- Press, 1957), 114 as cited in “Pluralism,” 131, note 36. 14. Ibid., 132. 13. “Pluralism,” 130. 15. Ibid.

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11 rection that form the basis for coming to new confessions of the Christian faith.”16 conclusions about who he is. Faith sees in Thomsen elaborates on this assertion him the “final activity” of God. To know by noting that there is already a variety of Jesus is to encounter the “Eternal Thou,” Christological formulations to be found the Ultimate Mystery of life. That finality in the New Testament, and that “what was understood in historical terms within is essential to the Christian faith is not the Jewish context, but with the transition particular Trinitarian statements, but the into the Gentile world and the Hellenistic integral relationship between the story of tradition, the paradigm shifted from a Jesus and the story of God.”17 He main- historical to a metaphysical context. Here tains this conviction in an article where there is no way of understanding ultimate he specifically addresses the Christology 18 truth in terms of historical fulfillment of of Nicaea. He argues that the faith ar- prophetic promises. In a cultural world ticulated in the Nicene Creed can be just where Aristotle’s God was far removed as adequately expressed with symbols and from history, change, and mortality, the concepts that reflect a different time and issue was now whether the divine Being culture. In fact, no one set of concepts could be identified with human flesh, an can claim superiority or an absolute status “incarnation.” for all time. Every Christology reflects its This metaphysical world shaped the cultural milieu and thus brings a relative fourth century debate leading to the for- character to its conceptual language. mulations of the Nicene Creed. Followers While this is a truth widely recognized in a postmodern age, Thomsen is understand- of Athanasius maintained the fullness of ably dubious about whether it has been divinity in Jesus against the followers of integrated into the thinking of the church. Arius, whose mythological view of tran- From the early chapters of the Book scendence placed the origin of Jesus in of Acts, he lifts up a Christology of the a realm that was closer to the earth, an Spirit as an example of an alternative “extended” version of divinity, so to speak, option to the language of Nicaea. While not really embodying the true and ultimate the Nicene Creed presents an ontological God. Within that philosophical context, view of the meaning of Jesus, speaking of the Athanasian position, says Thomsen, an incarnation which brings the second was rightly affirmed as orthodox. However, person of the Trinity—the pre-existent he does not see the fourth century world Son—down to earth, a Spirit Christology of metaphysics as carrying an absolute or conveys the meaning of Jesus within a final version of the church’s Christology. historical-teleological framework, claim- Amidst the many and various ways in ing a divinely bestowed finality to his life which the meaning of Jesus Christ has been as the long-expected Messiah. “Thus in articulated, Thomsen concludes that two non-incarnational terms, the primitive points are critical: “1) The finality of Jesus church proclaimed that God was uniquely Christ is to be maintained in our confession and mission. Jesus Christ the crucified and 16. Mark W. Thomsen, Jesus, the risen servant is the incarnation of God’s Word, and the Way of the Cross (Minneapolis: presence and action in the world. 2) We Lutheran University Press, 2008), 129. are also aware…that this confession has 17. Jesus, 140. taken many forms within the history and 18. Mark W. Thomsen, “A Christology the traditions of the church. Again and of the Spirit and the Nicene Creed,” Dialog again new situations and contexts call forth 16 (Spring, 1977), 135–138.

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12 present and decisively active in Jesus who ded in its theology. That language, while had been designated ‘the Christ.’ This no longer maintaining the dominance it meant that Jesus was to the primitive once had, still makes it necessary to speak church that one in whom was to be found of Jesus as divine—God incarnate. But the ultimate meaning of life and history, the emphasis for Thomsen properly lies for in and through him God himself was in the question, “Where, or in whom, do personally present and decisively active we find the unique, decisive and ultimate within history.”19 Thus Thomsen moves presence of God and His action?” This is “from below” rather than “from above,” the primary question, while the secondary from the man Jesus to the confession that question is, “How do we, as Christians, ac- “God was in Christ…” (2 Cor 5:19). count for the fact that we believe that Jesus is the answer to that ultimate question?”20 To that secondary but still “extremely significant question,” Thomsen beckons he crucifixion the non-believer to “come and see.” now assumed Jesus, “the Cosmic T Crucified” an altogether new The expression in Thomsen’s Christology that particularly captures the meaning meaning that has of Jesus is “the Cosmic Crucified.” Cru- cifixion was a horrendously violent and challenged the revolting way to execute the victim—a death reserved for traitors and criminals. believing community Seeing Jesus on a cross profoundly challenged the hope among his followers that in every time and he would prove to be the Messiah, leaving them deeply disoriented and depressed. place to articulate, The events that followed were totally unexpected and overwhelming, leading proclaim, and above them to the awesome cry, “He lives!” For Thomsen historical investigation of itself all to live out in their cannot establish what was understood to be a resurrection. What we do know is own lives. that his disciples were overcome with a tangible sense of his presence, imbuing them with the conviction that out of While preferring Spirit language to death had come new life. This experience that of the Nicene Creed, Thomsen still drove home their conviction that God was sees the necessity of affirming what he truly at work in the remarkable ministry calls a “fusion of ontological ultimacy of Jesus; he was indeed the Christ. The with historical-teleological finality” in the crucifixion now assumed an altogether church’s confession. The Western church new meaning that has challenged the is a child of the Greek tradition, with believing community in every time and ontological categories still deeply embed-

19. “Christology,” 136–137. 20. Ibid., 136.

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13 place to articulate, proclaim, and above Thomsen’s view of the cross reveals all to live out in their own lives. an acute sense of the pain and suffering In Thomsen’s description of Jesus as that runs throughout human history the Cosmic Crucified, we see a rich theol- and, indeed, the whole of creation. The ogy of the cross that emphasizes the para- mission of God, centering in the violent doxical nature of the Christian message. In death of Jesus, brings a “suffering-with- the crucifixion, faith sees a vulnerable, suf- us presence” that would transform our fering God whose sacrificial love embraces lives by struggling with us against the the sinner. At the same time, a distinctive powers of darkness. It is the struggle of feature in Thomsen’s understanding of the a passionate love that does not crush our cross is the way he enlarges its meaning apathy and resistance with irresistible well beyond the human story, bringing omnipotence, but persuasively draws us its message of transformative, suffering out of our brokenness. “Only vulnerable love into every corner of the universe. The love authentically transforms life. Ultimate crucified Christ is the key to grasping the truth is crucified truth. Jesus as crucified nature of the whole creation. The cosmos truth calls us into participation in crucified itself can now be seen in light of the suf- truth.”24 This vulnerability and weakness fering love of God that is “concretized” in is strikingly present not only in the cross the cross. “Every galaxy, every child, every itself but in the whole life and ministry of creature, every electron, move within the Jesus. Thus, both his life and his message compassion of God who ‘weeps’ in the concerning the kingdom of God are revo- midst of suffering and ‘sings’ in the midst lutionary, turning things upside down, as of creation’s joys.”21 An empirical mindset far as human expectations are concerned. would certainly question the meaning of a In addressing the crucifixion as claim that the suffering love of God perme- atonement, Thomsen finds support in ates the universe, from distant galaxies to the works of Kazo Kitamori and Jurgen our evolving planet. Thomsen’s response Moltmann.25 Both of these theologians is that a Trinitarian faith “believes that the identify the cross with the suffering of God, cross of the Cosmic Crucified lies within a view that receives particular emphasis in the heart of God and therefore the heart Thomsen’s Christology. He is critical of of the universe.”22 This is not an empirical those atonement theories going back to description, but a metaphorical, faith- Anselm that have pitted a God jealous of his based affirmation of a redemptive power honor, or a wrathful, justice-demanding in all of creation whose full meaning awaits God against the God of love personified the final consummation. Thomsen sees this in Jesus.26 On the contrary, atonement universal character of God’s “saving Logos” centers in the suffering love of God, which in a number of Pauline letters and early bears our brokenness and has the power to theologians, citing Justin Martyr, Clement reconcile and transform a wayward world. of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine.23 Because “Jesus’ cross is also God’s cross,”

21. Jesus, 129. 24. Jesus, 129. 22. Ibid., 54. 25. Kazo Kitamori, The Theology of the 23. See Christ Crucified: A 21st- Pain of God (Richmond: John Knox Press, Century Missiology of the Cross (Minneapolis: 1965); Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God Lutheran University Press, 2004), 36–37, (New York: Harper and Row, 1974). and 116, notes 39 and 40. 26. Christ Crucified,21–23.

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14 the crucifixion reveals that the God of stances of history. Thomsen is convinced our faith is a vulnerable, suffering God, that this reframing of an earlier theology a loving God who can truly transform us of the cross not only brings new life to it, from within. This does not mean, however, but also enables it to be “more faithful to that there is no place for the wrath of God. the full biblical tradition.”28 In terms of its divine purpose, Thomsen The implications of our recognizing sees God’s wrath as a servant of his love, the universal, all-embracing nature of holding us responsible and making clear the love of God concretized in Christ are the destructive nature of our sinfulness. profound, not least in the way the church Thus, there is conflict and struggle for relates to those of other faiths. It requires the hearts of human beings, a reality that a self-critical consciousness that does not leads Thomsen to look favorably on Gustaf allow the church to identify itself with Aulen’s Christus Victor motif as well as the any given nation or culture, a situation works of liberation theologians that bring that inevitably prejudices the church’s im- a compelling witness to the transforming, age in the world. Nor can the church be liberating power of the gospel.27 authentic as the body of Christ if it claims as its own possession an Ultimate Truth, Jesus Christ and interfaith which actually transcends the church. relations That posture is the besetting sin of an imperial Christendom whose theology Living now in the shrunken, global vil- claims sovereignty over the gospel itself. It lage of the twenty-first century, Thomsen turns the church away from its mission as forcefully lifts up the church’s imperative to a servant community, the consequences of proclaim the universal and unconditional which are all the more severe in a pluralistic love of God in Christ Jesus. The church’s world where we are rubbing shoulders with history has too often betrayed a desire to people of many different faith traditions. restrict and control the good news, defin- In the twenty-first century, the imperative ing and confining salvation within the is all the more urgent that the church comfortable limits of the church. This is a embody the ministry of Jesus, living out betrayal not only of the church’s mission, its mission as a serving and reconciling but also of the gospel itself. Thomsen roots community. the universal character of the church’s The good news conveyed by the gospel in a Lutheran theology of the Cosmic Crucified is all too often reduced cross, acknowledging that the sixteenth- to the expectation of a heavenly reward if century tradition must be “stretched” in one believes in Jesus. For Thomsen, that order to enable its effective dialogue with view limits and even disavows the breadth the ecumenical and interfaith currents of and depth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and our time. I believe this “stretching” can be the freedom of the Spirit of God at work seen in the broader vision that Thomsen in the world. To be sure, the good news brings to the cross of Christ, giving it a of cross and resurrection does address our cosmic, universal dimension that speaks to mortality, bestowing hope that reaches the “global village” in which we live. This beyond the grave. But for Thomsen, the is not doing violence to the tradition; its message of the cross turns our attention validity is affirmed in its capacity to be to the realities of this world, where God interpreted anew in the changing circum- 28. Christ Crucified,11–12. See Jesus, 27. Jesus, 26–29. 45–47.

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15 is in solidarity with us in the pain and both centers on the core of the gospel and suffering that mark the human story. We gives an appropriate freedom and flexibility are not alone in the ongoing struggle with to the mission of the church. Thomsen the forces of evil that often appear to be laments the fact that Lutherans have not overwhelming. As a former missionary, he always claimed that freedom. The concern is convinced that a universal understanding to keep and maintain an orthodox theology of the saving, reconciling love of God gives has too often threatened to imprison them renewed vigor to the evangelistic mission in the past. As a Lutheran theologian and of the church. The urgency in proclaiming pastor, Thomsen loved his church enough the gospel message lies in the profoundly to challenge it where he recognized the good news it bears, that of a gracious God need of doing so. That made his contribu- whose love embraces the world rather than tion to the life and mission of his church the means of saving the fortunate believer all the more significant. from eternal judgment.29 This positive I close by quoting two sentences he message is the “most authentic way to ar- wrote (note the added emphasis he gives ticulate the gospel” among people of other them with italics) that express this spirit faiths. It also brings the imperative that an of critical devotion to the church and its authentic witness to the gospel on the part mission: “It is essential to recognize that of the faith community will demonstrate only a church with the capacity for cultural the life of discipleship, following Christ change and adaptability has the potential by participating in the quest for justice, for being a faithful instrument of the Missio reconciliation, and peace. Dei. It is only when a theological tradition forms a foundation rather than a fortress Conclusion that it can speak to a post-Christian and 31 A statement of the British historian, pluralistic century.” The life and work Herbert Butterfield, was particularly of Mark Thomsen has been a persuasive meaningful to Thomsen and he often witness to the truth of this statement. cited it: “Hold to Christ and for the rest be totally uncommitted.”30 This conviction and History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), 146 as cited in Christ Crucified, 16. 29. Jesus, 10. 31. Christ Crucified,17. Thomsen’s 30. Herbert Butterfield, Christianity emphasis.

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Michael T. Shelley Director, A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

In the fall of 1983, I was a young pastor their countries of service and to serve as serving in Cairo, Egypt. A year before, I resources for the church in the United had completed a two-and-a-half year term States. My interest in doctoral studies as the part-time pastor of the Heliopolis coalesced with Thomsen’s interest in train- Community Church, an international, ing what he grandly called a new order of interdenominational church located in the “Lutheran Jesuits.”3 With the support of Heliopolis section of Cairo, there to pro- the ALC’s DWMIC, I spent three and a vide a church home for English-speaking half years in England doing doctoral work expatriates. I was now in my second year at the University of Birmingham through of full-time Arabic language study, and the Centre for the Study of Islam and beginning to contemplate how I could Christian-Muslim Relations of the Selly arrange to do doctoral work in Islamic Oak Colleges. I returned to Cairo in the studies afterward. spring of 1988, and in my remaining Since 1982, Mark Thomsen had been fifteen years there continued to receive the Executive Director of the American 1 Thomsen’s support and encouragement Lutheran Church’s (ALC) Division for for the various tasks I undertook,4 even World Mission and Inter-Church Coop- after he retired in 1996. This support and eration (DWMIC), which had sent me encouragement continued after I returned and my wife, Joanne, to Cairo in 1979. to the United States in 2003, since which A former missionary in northern Nige- ria, Thomsen “was firmly committed to time I have been at the Lutheran School of a Lutheran agenda of coming to terms Theology at Chicago. I am deeply indebted with Islam, socially, theologically, and to Mark Thomsen. missiologically.”2 From the beginning of his work with the ALC’s DWMIC, he Thomsen’s vision of God was thinking about developing a cadre No one could rightly accuse Mark Thom- of missionaries who would engage in the sen of having a small understanding of advanced study of various world religions, God. He wrote and spoke of “the Cosmic including Islam, which would equip them Abba,” “the Cosmic Mother,” “the Uni- for constructive interfaith engagement in versal Abba,” “the Abba of the Universe,”

1. One of the three bodies that joined 3. Ibid., 228. together to form the Evangelical Lutheran 4. During this period, I served as pastor Church in America (ELCA), which came of St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo for into being on January 1, 1988. ten years (1988–1998) and for five years as 2. David D. Grafton, Piety, Politics, and the coordinator of graduate studies at the Power: Lutherans Encountering Islam in the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo Middle East (Eugene: Pickwick, 2009), 226. (1998–2003).

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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17 “the Cosmic Other,”5 “the Heart of the tions for Christian-Muslim Dialog.”14 He universe,”6 “the Cosmic Weaver,”7 “the subsequently elaborated further on this Cosmic Vulnerable Companion,”8 “the theme in two books: Christ Crucified: A 21st- Heart of the galaxies,”9 and the “God of Century Missiology of the Cross,15 and Jesus, the galaxies.”10 However, his majestic vision of Word, and the Way of the Cross: An Engagement God was firmly rooted in a very particular with Muslims, Buddhists, and Other Peoples event: the death of Jesus of Nazareth on of Faith.16 In these publications, his chief a cross in first-century Jerusalem, whom concern was to draw out the implications of Thomsen called “the Cosmic Crucified”11 the cross for Christian mission, which he did and “the crucified Truth.”12 with a rigor and boldness second to none. As As Martin Luther “used the expression David D. Grafton has noted, “Throughout ‘theologian of the cross,’ instead of ‘theology his tenure with the ALC and the ELCA, of the cross,’ indicating his preference for Thomsen worked to develop a missiology theology done from the point of view or for the church based upon a theology of perspective of the cross, as a disposition, the cross, where to be a disciple of the God rather than theology about the cross,”13 so who reveals himself in the crucified Christ 17 Mark Thomsen was a theologian of the is to enter into a ‘cruciform’ mission.” The cross. In particular, he reflected extensively remainder of this brief essay focuses upon on the significance of the cross for Christian Thomsen’s contribution to this theme. mission. One of his early efforts of putting 14. Mark Thomsen, “The Mission and his thoughts into writing was an essay he Witness of the Church Within a Muslim composed for a task force comprised of eight Community,” in God and Jesus: Theologi- scholars he convened under the auspices of cal Reflections for Christian-Muslim Dialog the ALC’s DWMIC who reflected on the (Minneapolis: The Division for World Mis- topic “God and Jesus: Theological Reflec- sion and Inter-Church Cooperation of the American Lutheran Church, 1986), 80–94. 5. See, for instance, Mark Thomsen, 15. For publication details, see note 6. Jesus, the Word, and the Way of the Cross 16. For publication details, see note 5. (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2008), 12–15. 17. Grafton, Piety, 228. From Thom- sen’s own hand on this, see, for instance, 6. See, for instance, Mark Thomsen, Jesus, 22–25. It should be noted that for Christ Crucified: A 21st-Century Missiology of Thomsen the resurrection faith lies behind the Cross (Minneapolis: Lutheran University the theology of the cross found in his writ- Press, 2004), 33, 36, 38. ings, but his focus was on the significance 7. See, for instance, Ibid., 43. of the cross for Christian faith and mission 8. See, for instance, Ibid., 84. (see Christ Crucified, 120, fn 139), which he believed has too often been neglected to the 9. See, for instance, Ibid., 85. detriment of Christian mission. In his theol- 10. See, for instance, Ibid., 104. ogy, the cross and resurrection are a tandem. 11. See, for instance, Jesus, 38–55, For instance, he wrote: “The resurrection passim. faith proclaims that Jesus Crucified is the one who is raised from the dead, sits at the 12. See, for instance, Christ Crucified, right hand of God, and the one to whom the 32. future belongs. The resurrection announces 13. Vítor Westhelle, The Scandalous that, contrary to human expectations, God: The Use and Abuse of the Cross (Min- Christ’s way of the cross is God’s way in the neapolis: Fortress Press, 2006), 113. world” (Christ, 76).

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18 Cruciform mission value of life, life that is worth living and even dying for.”22 I believe Mark Thomsen would have agreed This is a corrective to the way Chris- with the words of the nineteenth-century tian mission has been conducted at times Cuban writer and nationalist hero José in the past, and even yet today, particularly Martí, who used to say, “Sometimes the 18 by western missionaries. It is rooted in best way to say something is to do it.” an understanding of God that is often Thus, for Thomsen it was important for counter-cultural, not least for American Christians not only to reflect upon and Christians. speak about the significance of the cross, but also to live and witness to the gospel The God manifest in Jesus crucified has in ways shaped by the cross. Christians are nothing in common with numerous called to participate in the missio dei, and as portraits of God created within our culture. The God of Jesus cannot be the cross of Jesus is “the primary symbol of 19 identified with the God who blesses the the mission of God,” their participation United States or any nation’s security must be formed by what they believe God or military power. The God of Jesus was doing through Jesus crucified. has nothing in common with any God …of primary significance is the fact who promises financial reward, physical that the messengers proclaiming the comfort, or a life without struggle for gospel be understood as participants in God’s people. The God of Jesus chal- the mission of God incarnate in Jesus lenges, critiques, and judges all forms crucified. Not only our message must of power and imperialism—cultural, be formed and informed by the cross, economic, racial, or political. In con- but our style and form of presence in trast to the demons and divinities of the world must be formed by the cross.20 invincibility worshiped and celebrated by American culture, the God of Jesus This mission takes the totality of human is essentially marked by vulnerability, life seriously, because the concretization of by an infinite capacity to share and bear God’s mission in Jesus’ life and ministry, the cumulative weight of human pain and epitomized by the vulnerability of and suffering. This is God concretized God’s love in Jesus crucified, reveals that in Jesus crucified and risen, the Cos- God intends all of life to be transformed.21 mic Crucified. This is the God who takes the form of outstretched, open, A spirit of self-giving love defines cruciform spike-pierced hands, the God who is mission, which is persistent and willingly embodied in a half-naked human figure vulnerable even unto death. It “affirms washing fishermen’s feet, the God who that life and the transformation of life, like a mother hen scurries about cluck- not suffering and death, are the ultimate ing, gathering chicks under her wings purposes of God,” and it celebrates “the in order to absorb the threat of death in her own body, the God who like a 18. Quoted in Westhelle, The Scandal- mother in childbirth gasps and cries to ous God, 119. bring forth a new creation.23 19. Christ Crucified, 10. In the same book, he similarly calls the cross “the Indeed, Thomsen argued, the most au- primary key for interpreting the whole of thentic voices of Christian mission may Christian thought and praxis” (22). 20. Jesus, 23–24. 22. Christ Crucified, 21. 21. Ibid., 26, 37–38. 23. Jesus, 41.

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19 be found elsewhere—in Africa, Asia, and cannot be done from a distance. It calls Latin America, or within marginalized us to be a suffering-with-us people who communities in Europe and the United follow the lead of the suffering-with-us States.24 God. Second, it means participating Thomsen held unabashedly that “in the messianic struggle for life in the God’s “love concretized in crucified love” midst of death.”28 This involves being a provides the norm for understanding how continuing prophetic voice that is salt and God works not simply on planet earth light in the world, crosses exclusionary but throughout the universe. This love boundaries with a view to insuring that all “permeates and embraces creation…. may participate fully in the new creation God is not and never will be other than inaugurated by Christ, and is passionately cosmic love identified in crucified love.”25 concerned for the whole creation. Third, God’s unconditional, persevering, and discipleship in cruciform mission is a “call costly love—manifest throughout history to vulnerability.”29 It strives to conform to but revealed most clearly in the crucified the vulnerable, self-giving love manifest Jesus—must be the motivating and shap- in Jesus crucified. It does not collaborate ing force at the center of Christian mis- with military and socio-economic forces sion. The followers of Jesus are “called to to accomplish its purposes and protect its costly mission discipleship to be a serving, achievements. sacrificing, suffering church in order that the gospel of the Cosmic Crucified might Dialogue and witness as light, leaven and salt permeate every How did Mark Thomsen understand dimension of human life and history.”26 cruciform mission in relation to people of Discipleship in mission, which con- other religious communities? He asserted forms to Jesus crucified, unfolds in three that there are “normative affirmations” ways. First, as God incarnate in Jesus re- Christians are to make about Jesus, which veals God’s solidarity with human broken- “center in the fact that it is the self-giving, ness and pain, so Christian participation unconditionally loving, vulnerable cruci- in the mission of God means “passionate fied Jesus who concretizes the Kingdom involvement in human suffering.”27 It of God,” while also affirming “that it is precisely the crucified servant of God and 24. Christ Crucified, 92. Prince of Peace who transcends cultural 30 25. Jesus, 64. He states it similarly in and historical relativity.” Yet, he cau- at least two places in Crucified Christ: 1) tioned, this is not to assert “that the present “An authentic theology of the cross trusts transformation and the eternal destiny that God’s ‘crucified Truth’—incarnate and of every person depends upon meeting concretized in Jesus—flows from the heart of this Jesus through the preaching of the the universe and is universally present. God gospel within history or being recognized can be trusted to be none other than the members of our Christian institutions.”31 life-affirming, all-embracing, all-forgiving, vulnerable love heard, seen and touched in In interfaith dialogue and witness, the crucified one (I John 1:1-2)” (10); 2) “From the perspective of this writer, there is 28. Ibid., 75–81. no God other than the God embodied and 29. Ibid., 81–83. identified in the Crucified” (52). 30. Ibid., 91. See also, Christ Crucified, 26. Jesus, 68. 76, 82–86. 27. Ibid., 73–75. 31. Christ Crucified, 85.

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20 Christians will speak about God’s entry cluding within other faith traditions and into human life in Jesus Christ through communities, and that there is much to be whom God manifested unconditional and appreciated and affirmed within them, he transforming love. Thomsen highlighted was not an advocate for religious relativism. several implications this has for interfaith He asserted: engagement. First, every person has infinite it is a total acceptance of Jesus’ unique- worth, and one way to value that is to ness and Lordship by the Jesus move- listen to people of other religious comment that will enable the Christian munities and care about them, even if community to make a creative contribu- they do not embrace the gospel message. tion to the transformation of humanity Second, Christians in dialogue and witness and will also enable Christians to enter will conform to the Cosmic Crucified, into genuine dialogue and community empowered by the Spirit to be conformed with peoples of other faiths. Only when to the self-giving, vulnerable love of God. the power of creative, life-transforming, Third, Christians will assume that the persistent, persevering and vulnerable suffering-with-us God is already present love, embodied in the crucified Jesus, and in solidarity with the people of other becomes normative for the Christian religious communities, so they too will community’s proclamation and praxis strive to be present and in solidarity with will the church begin to be a transform- them in their hopes, joys, struggles, and ing agent within the human community pain. Fourth, dialogue and witness, which and a dialogical partner with the full conforms to Jesus crucified, will be rooted human family. Only then will the Jesus in God’s struggle with those powers that movement authentically proclaim the would distort and destroy God’s creation, life-transforming power of Christ as will participate in the divine struggle for the crucified Truth.33 justice and peace, and will be ready to collaborate with people of other religious The church’s mission must not be limited communities in this struggle. Finally, theo- to specialists or clergy. Thomsen pas- logical dialogue, including the discussion sionately claimed that it must involve the of similarities and differences in religious whole church; it is part of the calling or convictions and practices, should not vocation in daily life of every Christian. take place in abstract isolation but within It was his conviction that, “If the future broader conversations about the meaning, belongs to the priesthood of all believers, joys, challenges, and shared struggles of the clergy and the gathered community will life. For Christians, such interfaith engage- have their opportunity to find their own ment is an occasion for both dialogue and unique role in the mission of God.”34 This witness. They will seek clarity from and includes Christian mission as engagement deeper understanding of their interfaith with peoples of other faiths. partners, being ready to listen, learn, and affirm in a spirit of respect, but will also Christian-Muslim dialogue be ready to discuss their own deeply held religious convictions.32 In his writing about cruciform mission, While Thomsen believed that God Thomsen gave particular attention to is at work throughout the creation, in- interfaith engagement with Muslims and

32. Jesus, 91–98. See also, Christ Cruci- 33. Christ Crucified, 76. fied, 76–82. 34. Ibid., 15.

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21 Buddhists.35 With respect to Muslims, for Christians is charged with so many he was, of course, arguing on the basis noble ideas of self-sacrifice and God’s of an understanding of God at work in love and concern for man, only calls Jesus that Muslims find objectionable. the loathsome notions of injustice and They highly revere Jesus as one of God’s treachery to the mind of a Muslim prophets, but do not accept that he died on traditionalist.38 a cross, let alone how Christians interpret that death.36 For Muslims, there is real hu- Seyyid Hossein Nasr39 claims that, while man failure for which humans, not God, other Christian doctrines that have been are ultimately responsible. Furthermore, an issue between Christians and Muslims, to say that God caused Jesus’ death for such as the Trinity or the divine nature of some divine purpose is tantamount to Christ, may be understood metaphysically attributing an injustice to God. Consider, in such a way as to harmonize the Muslim for instance, these words from the late and Christian perspectives, the crucifixion Mohamed al-Nowaihi.37 of Jesus is “the one irreducible ‘fact’ separat- Man is born of a neutral nature with a ing Christianity and Islam, a fact which is in reality placed there providentially to completely clean slate, and is capable 40 of both good and evil. He is given both prevent a mingling of the two religions.” 41 rational power and divine guidance Finally, the late Fazlur Rahman saw through the prophets to induce him to Christianity’s emphasis upon sacrificial choose the good and forsake the bad, love as a significant weakness: “But such but it is his duty to make the choice. religious ideologies as have put their whole He alone is responsible and answerable emphasis on God’s love and self-sacrifice for his error if he errs. Every individual for the sake of His children have done little carries only his own burden of deeds service to the moral maturity of man.”42 and misdeeds and has himself to expiate In his view, the Christian emphasis upon his sins. Briefly, then, the cross, which costly love leads to human irresponsibil- ity. When is humanity, he asks, supposed 35. See especially, Jesus, 99–128. For a number of years, he was one of the 38. Mohamed al-Nowaihi, “The Reli- professors in a course offered at the Lu- gion of Islam: A Presentation to Christians,” theran School of Theology at Chicago titled, International Review of Mission 65 (April “Religions in Dialogue: Buddhism, Islam, 1976): 217. and Christianity,” and team-taught by a Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian. 39. Born in Iran, he is University Pro- fessor of Islamic Studies at George Washing- 36. Occasionally (it is impossible to ton University. quantify), one may find a Muslim who will accept that Jesus died on a cross. I recall, for 40. Seyyid Hossein Nasr, Islamic Life instance, a class session on Islamic Christol- and Thought (London: George Allen and ogy I attended during my doctoral studies Unwin, 1981), 209–210. in England. Our Muslim professor, Hasan 41. Born in what is today Pakistan, Askari, said to the class, “I can accept that he was at the time of his death in 1988 the Jesus died on a cross.” Then, after a brief Harold H. Swift Distinguished Service Pro- pause, he added, “But I can’t accept the fessor of Islamic Thought at the University Christian interpretations of that death.” of Chicago. 37. Prior to his death in 1981, he was 42. Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes Professor of Arabic Language and Literature of the Qur’ãn (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca of the American University in Cairo. Islamica, 1989), 9.

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22 to come of age, stop being treated like vitality and freshness of that love, so the children, and be held responsible? Christian church must learn to return Mark Thomsen was acutely aware that to the place at which its faith was born, Christian convictions about the crucifixion in order to remember the despair of the of Jesus are problematic for Muslims.43 It cross and the joy of the resurrection seems he was not preoccupied with try- and recapture once more the sense of ing to provide Muslims with apologetic wonder and excitement which underlies explanations demonstrating that Jesus the Christian faith. And if we have lost actually died on a cross. However, he did that sense of wonder, perhaps it is time see Christian-Muslim dialogue as an op- to return to that cross, there to learn the story of God’s dealings with us all portunity for Christians and Muslims to over again.46 discuss their respective understandings of God’s costly grace and merciful justice.44 Mark Thomsen persistently returned to Such dialogue is also a place for conversa- the cross, and endeavored to make it tion about the Christian conviction that the foundation for his understanding of Jesus crucified is the incarnation of the and discourse about God and Christian suffering-with-us God.45 participation in the mission of God. He Alister McGrath, who also has re- argued his case cogently and persuasively. flected extensively upon the cross, has He occupied positions as a college and written: seminary professor, and executive direc- To be a theologian of the cross is to tor of the ALC’s and the ELCA’s global recognize that we are simply not au- mission units, that allowed him to impact thorized to base responsible Christian the thinking of many other people both discussion of God or ourselves upon within the United States and globally. It anything other than the crucified and was a task in which he took much delight risen Christ, and to exalt in and won- and pursued with deep conviction and der at the astonishing and liberating passion. In this writer’s view, he made a understanding of God which results. significant contribution as a theologian Just as two lovers may return to the place at which their love was born, in of the cross to the way Christians think order to recapture both the memories about and engage in mission. which that place holds and the original

43. See, for instance, Jesus, 7, 100, 107–109. 46. Alister McGrath, The Mystery of the 44. Jesus, 100–102, 107–109. Cross, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 45. Ibid., 102–107. 190.

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Harold Vogelaar Professor Emeritus of World Religions and Interfaith Dialogue The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

I was sad when we heard of Mark’s illness Sunni and Shi’i Muslims entered my radar and subsequent death, but also full of joy screen. I had no choice but to breathe the and gratitude for the life he lived and the ecumenical and interfaith air all around us. gifts he shared. He had an abundant and This suited me perfectly for my new “Lu- infectious faith in the goodness of God, theran” assignment, which began in 1972.1 in the wideness of God’s mercy and love. We had been told by David Vikner, I first met Mark in 1981 and was eager to Fred Neudoerffer,2 and others that we were share the vision that I, and others from the not to establish any new Lutheran program Lutheran Church in America (LCA), had or institution in the Middle East. “The days framed as the foundation of our work in for doing that are over,” they said. They the Middle East. We saw our mission as wanted us, first and foremost, to observe threefold: to work ecumenically, to encour- who was there, to meet the people and age the work of existing Christian institu- learn what they were doing, to study the tions so as not to establish new ones, and how and why of “their” ministries, and if to build trust with local people. Through they had any needs they were willing to collaboration, confidence-building, and share with us. Most importantly, we were patience, we would be able to erect bridges to look for signs of God at work in and across which the good news of the gospel through their lives and activities as they could be shared. related to Muslims. Then and only then, were we to determine if there was a place Early LCA work in the or way for us to be of service, or rather to Middle East be with them in serving their communities. Working ecumenically was not part of my Therefore, we set out visiting as many upbringing in Iowa, where the only diver- Christian and Muslim communities as we sity was between Reformed and Christian Reformed churches. Fortunately, when I 1. For further information on Vogelaar’s life and ministry, see Jan Boden, left home and went off to college and then “Following Jesus: Harold Vogelaar’s Faithful seminary at New Brunswick Theological Journey,” LTSC Epistle 36:1 (Winter 2006), Seminary, New Jersey, my horizons broad- 9–11. ened and love for ecumenism developed. 2. David Vikner served as the LCA’s Before going overseas in 1963, we spent five Director of the Division for World Mission months in training at Stony Point, N.Y., and Ecumenism from 1974–1982. Fred a thoroughly ecumenical venture. Once Neudoerffer served as the Middle East and overseas in the Arabian Gulf, Catholics, South Asia Area Program director of the Orthodox, many kinds of Protestants, LCA from 1969–1984.

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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24 could, drinking lots of tea, and listening second coming of Christ. It was easy for to many stories. Whenever possible we many western Christians, including some brought people together and encouraged Lutherans, to fall into that mindset. The them to share and listen to each other. stunning victory of Israel over the Arab Eventually our team, living in the occupied states in 1967 seemed to have set the stage West Bank and in Egypt, found our way not just for greater sympathy for Jews but into positions of teaching in local schools antipathy towards Arab Muslims. Many and universities, engaging in archeologi- thought it was not the time for patient cal work, serving as nurse practitioners, love towards such people. pastors of expatriate churches, adminis- Undaunted, Neudoerffer arranged trators of ministries, and refugee work. I for teams of twelve to fifteen, mostly personally taught for fifteen years in the Lutherans, living in majority Muslim Evangelical Theological Seminary of the countries to come to Cairo for month-long Presbyterian Synod of the Nile. seminars. For several years in the 1970s When Neudoerffer cautioned his we hosted church leaders from Africa colleagues at the LCA offices that this and Asia, as far away as the Philippines venture into sustained Christian-Muslim and Indonesia. With the help of Coptic engagement in the Middle East would scholars the seminars focused on Egypt require patience, persistence, endurance, and the Bible for two weeks, and then and even travail, he knew well their need on Islam and Christian-Muslim relations for measurable markers to keep the venture for two weeks. For several of these events, alive and funded by American congrega- Dr. Wilhem Bijlefeld from the Duncan tions.3 This call to be persistent and patient Black Macdonald Center for the Study while engaging Muslims was not seen by of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations all in the LCA as a worthy venture at the at Hartford Seminary joined us. These time. Many were willing to support ongo- were wonderful occasions where church ing work in India, Indonesia, and parts leaders from different countries met, of Africa but were skeptical about the lived, studied, and worshiped together. Middle East. Historically Germans and They each shared stories from their own Scandinavians had church connections contexts. Good seeds were sown during there, and a few Missouri Synod personnel these seminars, seeds that eventually bore were in Lebanon, but none from the LCA.4 fruit for the kingdom. This general reluctance was encouraged, if not brought on, by Christian Zionists, The beginning of ELCA who loudly proclaimed their support for mission in the Middle East the state of Israel as a precursor for the It was against this background that my first meeting with Mark Thomsen took 3. One of the most difficult “travails” place in 1981. I remember feeling a was the murder of Dr. Al Glock by an unknown assailant near his home on the little anxious. After all, the LCA and the West Bank in 1992. American Lutheran Church (ALC) were moving toward merger, and eventually he 4. The LCMS began a radio ministry in Beirut in 1950. They developed a might be the person in charge of Global sustained presence with the arrival of the Mission. I had no idea how much he Rev. Dennis and Ellen Hilgendorf in 1962 knew of our LCA venture, warmed to and the Rev. John and Kathryn Stelling in it, or whether he would fully support it. 1963. While specifics of our meeting are vague,

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25 the images that linger convey warmth and Clearly, I had found in Mark a kindred camaraderie. What I remember clearly spirit. Under Mark’s leadership, the vision was his reference to Nikos Kazantzakis for mission in the Middle East that had novel, The Last Temptation of Christ,and the image of Jesus being hung out to die in “the dust and the wind.” For him this was not a sign of whether God loves us, is presence, but rather how far God’s amazing love will maturity, and go to save a lost and broken world. Mark H was passionate that the church not wrap itself in the robes of piety, power, and self- creativity in interpreting preservation all to avoid the costly path of love to which Christ calls us. It was this the Christian tradition passionate love for Christ, and the way of the cross as a path to be walked, that stood definitely helped to out so clearly that day. Looking back, the illumine the landscape, fear and trepidation I initially felt was soon found to be unwarranted. to deepen our level of I then learned that Mark had become involved in Christian-Muslim relation- discourse, and give rise ships while serving with the ALC at The Theological College of Northern Nigeria to bonds of friendship from 1957-1966. He was fortunate to be present in Africa when the first creative and trust that continue initiatives were being made to transform Christian-Muslim struggles into genuine to inspire. engagements of friendship and cooperation. Nigeria became the early center of that initiative in 1960 when the Islam in been carefully nurtured within the LCA Africa project was located there. Dr. Wil- was affirmed, strengthened, and made hem Bijlefeld was called as the first Director more inclusive. Mark provided a fresh burst of this center. Soon after Mark was called of energy to Lutheran engagement with as the Executive Director of the division Muslims and, in addition to administrative for World Mission of the ALC in 1981. skills, brought several special gifts. He made Christian-Muslim relations a First, Mark brought with him the priority of the division’s work. Because of disciplines of theology and missiology, two their African connections, he invited Dr. areas of expertise sorely needed to engage Bijlefeld to lead a theological discussion the Muslim community. Anyone involved 5 dealing with Christian-Muslim dialogue. in Muslim-Christian dialogue knows how often questions of theological import 5. The result of this initiative was God and Jesus: Theological reflections for Christian- rise to the surface. With Mark’s help, we Muslim Dialog (Minneapolis: Division became much more adept and sensitive to for World Mission and Inter-Church the gravity of such struggles. His presence, Cooperation, American Lutheran Church, maturity, and creativity in interpreting 1986). the Christian tradition definitely helped

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26 to illumine the landscape, to deepen our rents of thought. He publicly affirmed level of discourse, and give rise to bonds the inclusion of women into all stations of friendship and trust that continue to of ministry, the protection for women inspire. to control their own reproductive rights, Second, while Mark had deep appre- and the inclusion of all regardless of race ciation for the history, depth, and richness or sexual orientation. In all these issues, of church tradition, he never seemed fet- he showed himself a gifted theologian completely committed to God’s mission in the world. He was a strong defender of the weak, and an ardent proponent e had a for freedom, justice, and human dignity wonderful for all. Mark demonstrated his commit- H ment to the least among us, especially by championing the rights of the Palestinians. way of taking the He demonstrated courage by speaking his mind on this issue.6 Following his retire- core of our Christian ment at the ELCA, we were team teaching a course at LSTC on “Palestine-Israel: beliefs and values and Towards Understanding the Conflict.” In preparing for our third year of teaching pouring them into this course, we were approached by several new wineskins that Jewish community leaders, who in the presence of LSTC’s president said that we are more pliable. should be careful about the resource people we used, as some were not acceptable to the Jewish community. We assured them that in presenting the Israeli side we would tered by it. Keen to preserve the best of be open to any suggestions they had, but our heritage, he resisted letting the past as for the Palestinians we would make our completely dominate and control us. He own choices as to whom we deemed ap- came to believe that the best and most propriate. To his credit, our president sided effective way to master the dynamics of with us, saying that academic freedom was continuity while sailing on stormy seas of foundational to seminary instruction. change, was not to make sure everything was done just according to “tradition,” A courageous proponent of but to search for and to do the right thing dialogue for our time. He had a wonderful way of taking the core of our Christian beliefs If Mark never shied from allowing current and values and pouring them into new events to challenge, sharpen, and even wineskins that are more pliable. We saw this in the way he read and 6. See “A Word of Truth on Behalf of the Palestinian Marginalized interpreted scripture. He learned to not and Dispossessed: Root Causes of only love and care for family and friends, the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” the disabled and differently abled, but to (ChristianZionism.org, 2006), http://www. embrace and affirm what some were, at christianzionism.org/Article/Thomsen01.pdf that time, calling risky and aberrant cur- [accessed 1 September 2014].

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27 reshape his theological thinking, it was I saw Mark’s dedication to dialogue il- in missiology and interfaith relations that lustrated by the fact that the annual Global he was tireless in seeking new and creative Mission and missionary training events ways to discern and welcome the gifts that usually included sessions on Christian- people of all faiths bring to the table. In Muslim relations. For many of these the ’60s and ’70s, there was lively debate presentations Muslims were invited as full about the wisdom of the term “dialogue” participants. It was my good fortune to take when speaking about mission. Conversion part in over twenty such events through the not Conversation was the preferred term. years, often with the help of Dr. Ghulam Discontinuity not Continuity was consid- Haider Aasi, a trusted friend and colleague. ered by many the correct way to respond One year Mark invited Dr. Rif’at Hassan, to new converts. There was a fear that any a well-known Pakistani feminist leader and continuity with bygone practices, such as scholar to make several presentations. The the way one dressed, the food one ate, the interaction was challenging and creative. names one used, etc., could weaken one’s This desire to do things in concert with newfound faith. Gradually, however, the Muslims carried over into his courses understanding of dialogue deepened to on Islam and interfaith dialogue at the mean not just the opposite of monologue, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago but rather dialogue, where two or more (LSTC). At the seminary, Mark joined us people engage in significant conversation in insisting that adherents of each faith, be as they think through [dia] issues, and in it Judaism, Buddhism, or Islam, be pres- this process share a Word [logos] precious ent as presenters of their own tradition. to them. When the focus shifted as to how Looking back, I cannot imagine a better the concrete principles and commitments way. While some may question the broad of that word actually shaped one’s life and embrace of Mark’s love and his theological thinking, the emphasis on conversion and scriptural positions to support it, none lessened. Not that conversions stopped. can question the depth of his sincerity, his They did not and must not. However, the passion, and his commitment to follow pressure was lifted to produce converts as a sign of success. the path of Christ, to walk in the way of Mark was a strong proponent of such the cross. forms of dialogue. He wanted others to understand that this kind of engagement The radical path of with Muslims, Buddhists, and others forgiveness should not be seen as something ancillary Mark firmly believed that to walk in the to the Christian faith, an interesting tactic, way of Jesus is to walk a non-violent path. or venture when funds are plentiful but He did not believe that Jesus would ever expendable when funds run low. To be in ask his disciples to use violence or raw heartfelt conversation with others about force. Mark said that to suggest that Jesus faith issues, allowing one’s own faith to was a Zealot, as Reza Aslan does in his challenge and test that of others, and to book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of be challenged and tested by others, was a Nazareth, is pure nonsense. He liked to deeply fulfilling form of Christian witness. It was, he believed, a style of Christian God’s Grace: Christian Perspectives and living rooted in the biblical story itself.7 Values for Interfaith Relations,” Currents in Theology and Mission 40, no 2 (April 2013), 7. See his, “Expanding the Scope of 85–94.

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28 say that after Jesus’ resurrection, he never but rather with the dove in both hands. He once suggested his disciples should now thought for a moment, and then replied, “I seek vengeance against those who had could, but in that case it would have to be rejected and crucified him. In a private a picture of Jesus the Son of Mary. Do you conversation Mark said, “In this Jesus know why?” he queried. “Well if you or I way of compassion, all humanity, even tried it, very soon someone would steal the our enemies, are embraced by the love and dove. Then they would take everything we forgiveness of God.” Dr. Ghulam Haider have and finally, [gesturing with his hand Aasi always reminds me that this universal to his neck] they would take our lives. We graciousness of God is a theme that can be would lose everything here.” “However,” found in the Qur’an. He points to Surah he continued, “we would gain everything 6.12 and 54 and to Surah 7.156, [where up there.” He pointed toward heaven. “On the Qur’an says, that “God has written the other hand,” he said, “if we held the upon Godself to be merciful,” a mercy sword in both hands now, we might gain that extends to all things]. everything here, but would lose everything Mark often referred to an incident up there.” Again, he gestured towards that happened to my first wife, Neva, and heaven. “So, it’s better,” he assured us, “to me one day in the Nile Delta. Here is the hold the dove in one hand and the sword way I described it years ago: in the other, that way we would have the It happened, when we were living in best of both worlds.” Egypt, that a student of my wife invited It was an interesting solution to the us to visit his home in the Nile Delta. We vexing question of how to balance peace gladly accepted this gracious invitation. and justice with power. He had high respect Once there, he showed us his amazing for the person and teachings of Jesus, but potato field. He then welcomed us into also real skepticism as to whether those his modest home. In one corner of a room, teachings were practical in our kind of were some rolled up papers and when asked world. Yes, Jesus could do it, but not us! what they were he said, “Some drawings. Mark and I often pondered how to Just a few sketches I’ve made.” When form a meaningful response to such a chal- asked if we could see, he picked up one to lenge. We knew that many Muslims shared unroll. It was the picture of a young man. in this admiration. We wondered why He was dressed in a galabiyya, kufiyyaand Muhammad thought only Jesus could live aqqal, like a typical Saudi Arab. In one without the sword. How much of the Jesus hand, stretching foreword was a dove. In story did he really know, and was he aware the other, raised high above, was a long that Jesus himself faced persecution, was sword. It was barely visible, but there it crucified, died, and was buried? What were was. Stereotypical images of duplicity, of his thoughts on Jesus’ resurrection? Or, did swords and violence came to mind. When he say what he did because he had never asked what he intended to convey by the seen or heard of anyone other than Jesus picture he said, “As Muslims we must al- who walked Jesus’ path? In other words, ways offer peace first, but if that’s rejected, the incident opened up a whole range of we need the sword to defend ourselves.” I issues that begged for exploration. Mark thought to myself. “That sounds almost and I agreed that to bear a faithful wit- American.” ness to Muslim friends, Christians would We then asked Muhammad whether have to demonstrate by their lives that he could paint the picture without a sword, Muhammad was both right and wrong.

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29 Yes, only Jesus could walk the way of the component as an integral part of its cur- cross perfectly; but as his followers, we are riculum. It has become an ideal place for called to walk it with him. With divine people of all faiths to develop bonds of help, great patience, abounding love, and mutual friendship, understanding, trust, a life that is truly Christ centered, it can cooperation, and appreciation.9 and has been done. The early dream of Neudoerffer, Vikner and others continues to live on. It A ministry of reconciliation bears fruit; much needed fruit, one might Mark and I shared many precious times add, seeing how bleak the landscape ap- together in different places, often con- pears today. The scene in the Middle East versing on themes relating to Christian, and in much of the Muslim world is as Muslim, and Jewish relationships. Mark grim today as it was in 1972. If patience loved to meet in mosques, large and small, was needed then, more patience is needed often in little dusty, dingy rooms sitting now. At the time of this writing, war rages on rugs on the floor with imams and in Gaza and is again ravaging the lives of sheikhs. Mark was a longtime friend and mostly women and children. true colleague. I will always be grateful The good news is that many Christians that, when the Reformed Church ended with whom we have worked in the Middle a nearly forty-year relationship, Mark East remain where they are, steadfast and encouraged the ELCA to stand with me, firm in their faith and their commitment and to continue their support. I know that to the ministry of reconciliation. As one my marriage to Pisamai, a Muslima from of them said, our task is to turn “enemies” Bangkok, did not make this decision easy. into friends, not friends into enemies. Nevertheless, he insisted. As a result, the These Christians always have been, and ELCA remained steadfast in their com- remain, the true emissaries of Christ to mitment. I now believe that God blessed Arab Muslims and Israeli Jews. Our chal- that decision and as a result many good lenge and privilege was and is to work things happened. among them, with them, and for them. One of those many good things was For the One who lifts people up, offering the establishment at LSTC of a Center of new life, is graciously present in their lives. Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace To be sure, the times are grim, but seen and Justice, and a Chair in Christian- through the eyes of faith and faithfulness, Muslim Studies and Interfaith Dialogue. full of hope. Both of these are fully funded through Sad at Mark’s passing? Yes. Nev- endowments.8 Through its programs of ertheless, glad, grateful, and inspired education and engagement, and because by the remembrance of his life, min- of the dedicated people who serve the istry, vision, and patience. He gave Center, a Christian witness remains strong. and continues to give in full measure. The Center offers a unique opportunity for the seminary to have an interfaith

8. Supported by donations from Jerry and Karen Kolschowsky. 9. See http://centers.lstc.edu/ccme/.

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Carol Schersten LaHurd Auxiliary Faculty and Educational Outreach Consultant for A Center of Christian- Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Twenty-one years ago, Mark Thomsen that graduate scholarships were available invited me to be a presenter at the ELCA’s to international leaders and teachers, and annual summer Islamic study program that every new ELCA missionary called for missionaries. Thus, began a friendship into Muslim contexts would be prepared and collaboration that included my service to engage Muslims in those new contexts. on the Board of the Evangelical Lutheran The missionary preparation took place in Church in America’s Division for Global graduate study programs, where many Mission (ELCA/DGM), and culminated earned advanced degrees in Islamic Stud- with my teaching the Religions in Dialogue ies, and through annual summer Islamic course, developed in the 1990s at the study programs at LSTC and Carthage Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In both (LSTC) by Dr. Yoshiro Ishida, Chao Than, 1993 and 1994, Thomsen invited me to and Harold Vogelaar, and then continued present a segment on women and family by Vogelaar and Mark Thomsen. During issues in Islam. Not only did those experi- these past two decades my own response ences begin my long-term involvement with to religious pluralism has been influenced DGM, they also introduced me to Harold by Thomsen’s vision for global mission, a Vogelaar, and his colleague, the Muslim vision both shaped by the cross of Christ, scholar Ghulam-Haider Aasi, who in 2007 and deeply respectful of the diverse cultures became my co-teacher. and religious traditions he encountered. In 1997, I began a six-year term as a member of the Board of the ELCA’s Divi- Mark Thomsen, global sion for Global Mission. Mark Thomsen mission, and interreligious had clearly influenced the direction of the ELCA as the denomination engaged Islamic formation contexts through many global partnerships. From 1957 to 1966 Mark Thomsen served Thomsen’s respect for religious others, as an American Lutheran Church (ALC) including Muslims, became apparent as missionary in Nigeria, where he developed I worked with fellow board members and a way of interacting with Muslims in the Associate Executive Director, the late Nigeria that influenced his later guidance Will Herzfeld, to craft the Division’s lan- of the global mission, first in the ALC guage about the theology of interreligious (1982–1987), and then in the newly formed engagement in global mission work. Both ELCA (1988–1996). Thomsen ensured Thomsen and Herzfeld helped shape

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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31 the ELCA’s 1999 planning document, might be strengthened even when they Global Mission in the Twenty-first Century. do not embrace the other person’s faith. Subsequent executive directors, Bonnie Within these relationships, Christians Jensen and Rafael Malpica Padilla, have have the privilege of witnessing to Jesus maintained the approach summed up in Christ as God’s ultimate and life-giving 2 the section “Goal 1 - Program Objectives,” word for the universe. which reads in part: Engaging Thomsen’s Share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who acknowledge no faith, Christology and vision for people of living faiths, adherents of interreligious relations various ideologies, and those who have Being part of the ELCA’s global mission become inactive in or have abandoned efforts to shape such dialogical engagement their Christian faith.…Build relation- has been one of the key elements in my ships of respect, listening, understanding own continuing project of being a Lutheran and sharing of faith with Muslims.… professor of biblical studies and Islam who Build relationships of respect, listen- seeks to learn from people of other religious ing, understanding and witness with Hindus, Buddhists, Confucianists and traditions and of no religious affiliation. other faith traditions in Asia as well as Even before I began teaching LSTC’s Reli- among modern secularists.1 gions in Dialogue course, Thomsen invited me to critique and review the manuscript The concept of “witness in dialogue” is not that became his 2003 book, Christ Crucified: unique to the ELCA, but what is significant A Missiology of the Cross for the Twenty-First and formative for me, is the conviction Century. I was honored to contribute this that such dialogue includes the potential review for the book’s promotion: “Christ for transformation among all who interact. Crucified presents the insightful and inci- Illustrative are these points on the dialogical sive perspective of a person who has direct nature of God’s mission in Global Mission experience with global mission, interfaith in the Twenty-first Century: relations, and the theology of religious pluralism. Thomsen’s cross-based missiology is In a world of religious pluralism, the a welcome theological guide for Christians Christian community is called to wit- who wish to be in a relationship of witness, ness to the God made known in Jesus dialogue and service with the neighbor who Christ…. Christians around the world is also religious other.” live in daily contact with people of diverse My most intensive encounter with faiths. The mission of God calls Chris- Thomsen’s Christology and vision for tians to develop relationships and enter interreligious relations, however, has been into mutual conversations with these teaching his book, Jesus, The Word, and people…. Christians will respect others and allow them to speak for themselves The Way of the Cross: An Engagement With in interpreting the meaning of their reli- Muslims, Buddhists, and Other Peoples of gious faith….Christians will be open to Faith. Between 2007 and 2012, I co-led being changed—to expect that their faith the LSTC seminar Religions in Dialogue with Dr. Ghulam-Haider Aasi, and Zen 1. Global Mission in the Twenty-first Buddhist leader Sevan Ross. Forecasting the Century: A Vision of Evangelical Faithfulness seminar’s dialogical atmosphere is this email in God’s Mission (Chicago: ELCA, 1999), 25–26. 2. Ibid., 10–11.

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32 I received from Thomsen, as I prepared to from Thomsen an ethic of servanthood teach the course for the first time: rooted in God as taking flesh in creation It has been fun to be a participant in and Jesus as suffering servant, an ethic that this class. Participants have been honest replaces pride with humility and sacrifice and there has been real integrity in com- for the good of others. munications and relationships. There Although our Protestant, Catholic, and has also been humor and passion and Muslim students have differed on their ac- I believe that has been the strength of ceptance of Thomsen’s ideas over the years, the class. Perspectives may be different, most have appreciated the distinctions values may be shared, debates and jokes he has helped us to see. For example, his may be part of the discussion, academics chapter on “Engaging Buddhist Peoples” are always part of the mix; however, we opens with an excellent analysis of the are always close friends. Hope you have points of contact between Buddhist no- a great experience. tions of dukkha (suffering) and Christian understandings of sin as “centering one’s In the seminar we read and discussed ex- life in self.”4 This section also contains a cerpts from two of Thomsen’s works: Christ very helpful comparison of the notions of Crucified and Jesus, the Word, and the Way 3 salvation in Christianity, success in Islam, of the Cross. As my Muslim and Buddhist and enlightenment in Buddhism. colleagues and our students considered In addition to the very valuable insights Thomsen’s concepts and arguments, I too into the Christian faith Thomsen has given pondered what was most helpful and what our seminar students, his work has also was most challenging. Our occasional raised questions about interactions between Unitarian Universalist students under- committed Christians and religious others, standably resisted presentation of Christian specifically Muslims and Buddhists. His truth claims as normative and sometimes chapter on “Engaging Muslim Peoples” perceived Thomsen’s work to have that prompted us to contemplate whether tendency, at least in subtle, underlying “merciful justice” and “sacrificial love” ways. On the other hand, final papers by characterize the central ways God deals with several Lutheran students expressed ap- humankind in Islam and Christianity—and preciation for Thomsen’s theology of the whether justice and grace are the best lenses cross and in so doing revealed what they through which to compare Muslim and had gained from reading Jesus, the Word, Christian views of God. Thomsen’s discus- and the Way of the Cross. One summarized sion of how Muslims and Christians view the importance of the crucified Christ as the unity and oneness of God includes what the basis for all Christian theology, and as a for me is his most challenging assertion: message of vulnerability leading Christians “Christians affirm the same unity within to love and serve rather than to dominate. the reality of God; however; they see the Too often in the centuries after Constan- one God through the window of Jesus the tine and especially in the West, organized 5 Christianity has exerted power and force Cosmic Crucified.” A close analysis of over vulnerability. A second student learned Thomsen’s Christology is not the goal for this brief essay. But my personal grappling 3. Jesus, the Word, and the Way of the Cross: An Engagement with Muslims, Bud- 4. Thomsen, The Word, and the Way of dhists, and Other Peoples of Faith (Minneapo- the Cross, 113. lis: Lutheran University Press, 2008). 5. Ibid., 107.

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33 with the seemingly exclusive nature of this and Christians cannot talk without a God claim is one of the clearest examples of how category; Buddhists cannot talk without teaching in Mark’s shadow has moved me a human category.” But of course this along the path toward committed pluralism. distinction goes beyond language to ontol- ogy, and to what one knows, or believes, On becoming a committed about the nature of ultimate reality. Until pluralist I taught Religions in Dialogue, most of my encounters with religious others had invited Just a few years after accepting Mark me to expand my notions of monothe- Thomsen’s invitation to introduce outgo- ism. Over the years, the words from our ing missionaries to my understandings of brilliant and humble Buddhist colleague women and family issues in Islam, I spent have challenged me to think deeply about my 1996 sabbatical year, and at least the what is “really real” and how my Christian next decade, researching the many Chris- understanding of a creating and suffering tian theologies of religious pluralism. I not God fits into that reality. only read such scholars as Alan Race, Paul For the privilege of such rich inter- Knitter, and S. Mark Heim, I met most of religious teaching moments I am indebted them at meetings of the American Academy to Mark Thomsen, who years ago gave me of Religion and at the 2002 International the opportunities of working with ELCA Scholars’ Jewish-Christian-Muslims Trial- missionaries, LSTC students, and Buddhist ogue conference in Skopje, Macedonia. My and Muslim co-teachers. With those stu- Religions in Dialogue students and I have dents and colleagues, I have grappled with welcomed Thomsen’s clear summary of the various Christian theological models these approaches in Jesus, the Word, and the 6 for engaging interreligious others, models Way of the Cross. Thomsen’s brief outline of effectively summarized and critiqued in his own inclusivist orientation does begin to Thomsen’s appendix to his 2008 Jesus, the raise the difficulties of imposing Christian Word, and the Way of the Cross. Thomsen’s theological categories on the larger question analysis of the limitations of such models of how to combine one’s own faith com- has contributed to my own preference for mitments with an appreciation for others’ developing an “orientation for traveling ways to God and/or ultimate reality. But with religious others” more than a position as one of our Unitarian students put it, on religious pluralism.7 “We UU kids are sick of being ‘saved’ by More challenging has been the pro- others in our seminary classes.” To that my cess of developing my own alternative to Buddhist colleague, Sevan Ross, quickly Thomsen’s “Cosmic Crucified” for teaching replied, “There is no dialogue unless we about the Christian way to God and/or see the other’s way of life as legitimate.” We for sharing the good news. Team-teaching cannot assume a common vocabulary. Sevan with a Buddhist and a Muslim, and being concluded with a short sentence that has in lifelong friendships, especially with also been an important part of my journey faithful Jews and Muslims, have made toward committed pluralism, “We need to me aware both of the barriers created by bring our own unknowing to dialogue.” Christian terminology and of the need to In our seminar the following year, my Muslim colleague Dr. Aasi further high- 7. See Lahurd, “Holding Together the lighted the problem of language: “Muslims Gospel and Interfaith Relations in a Lifelong Journey, Currents in Theology and Mission 6. Ibid., 145–151. 32:4 (August 2005), 248.

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34 articulate honestly why I personally come new and broader interreligious vocabulary, to “ultimate reality” through the grace of insights, and practices will build on Mark a God who suffers with and reconciles all Thomsen’s legacy and lead to new ways of creation. for being both committed Christian and A few years ago, The Christian Century existential pluralist. published a print and online conversation titled “The Gospel in Seven Words.”8 Reflections from our Entries included Martin E. Marty’s Buddhist and Muslim “God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow,” Walter Brueggemann’s “Is- colleagues rael’s God’s bodied love continues world- Sevan Ross has headed the Chicago Zen making,” and Beverly Roberts Gaventa’s Center in Evanston, Illinois, and now “In Christ, God’s yes defeats our no.” I serves the Zen Buddhist community in shared a dozen or so more examples with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For many years, our LSTC students and invited them to he co-taught LSTC’s Religions in Dialogue develop their own “gospel in seven words seminar with Harold Vogelaar, Mark Thom- or less.” Having reflected on Matt 1:22–23 sen, Ghulam-Haider Aasi, and me. Dr. Aasi and Acts 1:6–11, I offered my own ab- is currently Adjunct Visiting Professor of breviated gospel in terms I hoped could Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at be a bridge at least to other monotheists LSTC and has been team-teaching courses and an invitation to shared action in the there since 1990. He has taught also at world: “God is with us; get busy!” Catholic Theological Union, and has been And that brings me to my final lesson Associate Professor of Islam and History of from Mark Thomsen. His approach can Religions at the American Islamic College broaden interreligious engagement beyond in Chicago. theological dialogue to shared praxis and friendship. Thus, despite my developing Reflections from Ghulam- discomfort with some of the theological cat- Haider Aasi egories we tend to use in these discussions, About thirty years ago in the fall of 1984, Dr. Thomsen’s practice of mission offers a way Harold S. Vogelaar, a staunch and longtime to overcome them. Some of his key statements in Jesus, the Word, and the Way of the missionary, while visiting LSTC called on Cross suggest a willingness to move beyond us at the American Islamic College (AIC) the particular Christian lenses for mission: in Chicago to start a Christian-Muslim “Centering in God will mean centering in Dialogue at the institutional level. The God’s human family,” and “Many biblical AIC had then just started its own academic passages indicate that the culminating feast undergraduate program. In fall of 1983 and banquet will be much more inclusive I arrived there as Assistant Professor of than some Christians might expect.”9 It is Islam and History of Religions. This was my hope that my own ongoing search for the heyday of Christian-Muslim dialogue, in particular in the United States, and the 8. David Heim, “The Gospel in Seven adherents of both traditions were search- Words,” The Christian Century (23 August ing for respectful ways to share views of 2012) (http://www.christiancentury.org/ar- their faith traditions through dialogue and ticle/2012-08/gospel-seven-words) (accessed mutual understanding. 27 October 2015). Dr. Vogelaar’s subsequent visit and 9. Thomsen, 119 and 125, respectively. proposal to start the Christian-Muslim

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35 dialogue by engaging willing Muslim and A very remarkable difference in Christian religious institutions in the Chi- Thomsen’s approach to Islam, however, cago Metro area led indirectly to formation was that he always respected and took of the Conference for Improved Christian seriously Muslim scholars’ understanding Muslim Relations, held from 1985 to of the Qur’an and Islam, rather than ar- 1999, and the Council for the Parliament rogating to himself to interpret the Qur’an of World’s Religions, from 1988 onward. and Islamic sources. Like all great Christian His efforts also fostered a great cooperation theologians and missionaries who engage between the AIC and LSTC that continues themselves in dialogue with Islam, in the to this day. Qura’nic call for pure and pristine Tawhid, In 1988, I was asked to team-teach a and in the Qur’an’s sharp critique of the course on Religions in Dialogue, first led church’s doctrine of the Trinity, Thomsen by Dr. Yoshiro Ishida at LSTC. The course also resorted to paradoxical formulas in his had begun with Buddhism and Christianity, apologetic theological response to Islam.11 and then Islam was added. When in 1990 As the comprehension of the Trinity for any Dr. Vogelaar joined the LSTC faculty as reflective Muslim is a “stumbling block,” Professor of Islam and Christian Muslim to use the Christian term, for Thomsen relations, I was asked to teach such courses comprehending the Qura’nic view of a with him. merciful and just God had proven the I cannot recall exactly when and where “stumbling block.” However, one thing I first met our kind and generous colleague, that distinguished Thomsen from many the late Rev. Dr. Mark Thomsen. But by a Christian missionary was his attitude of early 1990, when he would arrange an- utter humility and his frank acknowledge- nual summer Islam study seminars for the ment of how the early church had developed ELCA’s overseas missionaries, he would its dogmas in the historical context and in lead a Bible study on selected themes and response to the challenges of Greco-Roman always assigned me to present Qura’nic ideologies and mythos. He would not shy texts and commentary on the same themes away or be dismissive of Christianity’s to highlight the strong similarities and failure throughout history to practice its distinctive features and emphases of both faith ideals of offering the other cheek and scriptures. During his leadership in DGM loving the enemy. Thomsen was a strong of the ELCA, there would hardly be any critic of the church’s misuse of the cross workshop session or discussion on Islam as the symbol of power and principalities, and Christian-Muslim relations to which and of exploitation of the cross as a tool for I would not be invited along with Dr. the Crusades, colonization, the Holocaust, Vogelaar. anti-Semitism, slavery, and current urges I cannot say how much Dr. Thomsen toward imperialistic designs and the war had developed his understanding of the on terror by the West. He was ever critical Qur’an and Islam from the teachings and of those missionaries who, more often than prolific apologetic works of late Anglican not, served as agents of Westernization and Bishop Dr. Kenneth Cragg, but one surely cannot miss Cragg’s deep influence on The Call of the Minaret (Oxford: OneWorld Harold Vogelaar and many other missionar- Pub., 2000), Jesus and the Muslim (London: ies who have been engaged in Christian- George Allen and Unwin, 1985), and Mu- Muslim dialogue.10 hammad and the Christian (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1984). 10. See for example Kenneth Cragg, 11. See, for example Q 4:171.

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36 colonization. He would challenge them to They believe in God and the Last Day and carry their cross and wash the feet of the enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid marginalized and serve the deprived and the doing of what is wrong and vie with one destitute. For him, mission was a life of another in doing good works, and these are witness to faith in the “Cosmic Crucified” among the righteous” (Q 3:113–14). and to finding the grace of God in suffering. In his later years, when taking care Reflections from Sevan of his granddaughter, who never stood Ross or walked due to illness, Thomsen would I had the honor of teaching with Mark pray for those who suffer. He would ask at LSTC for over ten years. I shared with how anyone could appropriate the grace him one specific arc—the course LSTC or salvation of God for himself or for his calls Religions in Dialogue. A professor faith community at the expense of God’s from LSTC, a Muslim professor, and a universal grace. If my memory does not Buddhist teacher all shared the teaching fail me, he titled the Global Mission Event duties. So already, we come to the first rule one year as “Dare to carry the Cross!” to of “engagement” action: put everyone in remind all missionaries that their vocation the same room, equal time, equal footing. is to serve those who are suffering. Right up front there is the recognition that I have never seen him as distraught and these traditions have all spread widely and frustrated as when his grandson was called have provided spiritual guidance over a very to join the American army in Iraq. Being long time to millions of people. a faithful and conscientious Christian, Rule number two: do not set the Thomsen had all along spoken against the other tradition’s representative up simply to so-called war against terror. Yet, when he provide some straw man argument. I was found his own grandson as a soldier on the very concerned when Mark called me out ground, he would always pray for all the of the blue many years ago and asked me victims of war and for the veterans who to substitute for the Buddhist teacher who were thrust into war. He strongly believed had then been his partner in the course. I in nonviolent, just, and peaceful solutions still remember hanging up the phone after for all conflicts. His role in encouraging the saying that I could step in and saying to ELCA to be vocal against the occupation someone who lived at the temple, “Well, of Palestine and to engage with Christian- this here might be a big mistake.” Muslim relations based on justice and peace, But after the first three-hour class I with due and proper understanding of the felt at home. He let me speak. He gave issues involved and standing always for the me enough time to dig down under the truth, was exemplified by his own life and terminology, the ritual, the culture, and practice. the assumptions. When I drove home I did I personally found him a graceful and not have to pull straw out of my head. And upright Christian. He was offered the award I knew that I was engaging with someone of “Upright Person of Ahl-al-Kitab,” by the who was so steeped in his own tradition, Islamic Foundation North in Libertyville, and so comfortable in his own skin, that Illinois. These verses translate: “But they he was willing to, and indeed expecting to, are not all alike; among the followers of go deeper in any encounter with the other earlier revelations there are upright people tradition. This was new to me, in all my who recite God’s messages throughout the experience in encounters with Christians. night, and prostrate themselves before God. It was natural somehow. Not of the head,

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37 but of the heart. So how, I wondered, did said, “Ok, Sevan, what do you have for us this man get to this point? about original sin?” Of course, in Buddhism I think we can say that life can be lived per se sin doesn’t really exist as a concept either vertically or horizontally. When one and original sin is even further out in the lives life horizontally one has many experi- Oort cloud,12 but I pointed out that our ences but often these are shallower experi- problem as humans is that we know what ences. We can even say that horizontal living to do but we cannot ever bring ourselves to is the result of looking for “experiences” in- actually do it. When I finished Mark put stead of experiencing what you have found his pencil down and he said to the class, where you are. If life is lived vertically, one “THIS is what I mean by original sin.” may have somewhat fewer experiences, but What he did in that moment was pull those experiences may really touch one at back from any position wrapped around a very deep level. We might say even that a concept and bound within any of our many shallow experiences do not change three traditions. Instead, he created a bridge us much. But deep ones both change and connecting all three traditions, built of our root us. Rooted trees grow high and strong, common understanding of the human provide shade and comfort. Shallow roots condition. And embedded in his declaration give way to floods. was his invitation to others to feel free to Going deeply into one’s tradition—so find whatever terminology may be needed deeply that one is neither threatened by at any given time to communicate. another tradition, nor feels that one ab- Mark well understood that all the solutely must hold sway somehow in any terminology, the historical and cultural encounter with that other tradition—this is encrustations, not to mention current social not in any way a product of some “vision” and psychological memes only serve to so of encountering or engaging the “other.” engage what we call in Zen “the thinking This is what I would call “fundamental mind.” And in so doing, the thinking mind action.” We Zen Buddhists might refer to occupies itself full bore with definitions, it as “Doing what first must be done.” One vocabulary, concepts, and the like, while must DO this. It is not an idea. Go deep. the heart goes wanting. Mark brought a Then you can talk with someone else in Big Heart to the encounter. But this is the comfort, without a plan. We might make last rule in engaging another tradition: go this Mark Thomsen’s rule number three. past the language. People are people. And Now that we are deeply rooted and when someone expresses what is in your comfortable in our own ground, we will own heart, no matter the words, hear only be better able to feel for ourselves how the with the heart. That is what my friend Mark “other” might engage their own spiritual Thomsen taught me. I prefer to think that practice. But, there is yet another subtle but Mark never had some “vision” for “encoun- real barrier to be overcome. It is the natural tering” Buddhism. He led with his heart product of our ever-productive discursive into every discussion. I literally could feel mind. Language. the love. Teaching from deep love, absent One night in teaching the Religions in a scheme. Sound familiar? Dialogue course we got on the subject of original sin. Dr. Aasi and Mark held forth 12. The “Oort Cloud” is a body of in turn about original sin. And then Mark small icy bodies, which are orbitng the sun smiled his broad and knowing smile and at the furthest reaches of the solar system.

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Nelly van Doorn-Harder Professor of Islamic Studies, Wake Forest University

A multi-religious presence: regularly spoke or preached in mosques. Over the years, the number of Indonesian the United States scholars, teachers, and students at the AAR Since returning from Indonesia in 1999, I has increased steadily. Their research find- have regularly attended the annual meetings presented in panels across the confer- ing of the American Academy of Religion ence was of keen interest to colleagues in (AAR). Since my experience at schools in the North America. United States was limited to one semester As we were discussing our current work as a guest lecturer at Luther Seminary in St. in progress, all related to issues of interfaith Paul, Minnesota, it seemed that this would dialogue and peacemaking, it dawned on me be a good place to gain deeper understand- that in some indirect way, Mark Thomsen’s ing of the “ins and outs” of being a teacher vision about the Lutheran-Muslim dialogue and scholar of Islamic Studies in North had contributed to the steady upswing of America. On average 9,000 professors, Indonesian speakers at AAR. It was during students, religious leaders and interested his tenure as Executive Director of the ELCA laypersons, authors and publishers flock to Division for Global Mission (DGM) that the annual event that provides opportunities to learn about anything and everything sometime in the early 1990s the idea had to do with the study of religion. With so arisen to send teachers and other profes- many scholars and presentations, the AAR sionals to countries with substantial Muslim conference is an exhausting event, where populations such as Madagascar, Tanzania, one can spend the day running between Senegal, Cameroon, and Indonesia. My conference hotels from panel to panel and husband Paul and I ended up teaching in meeting to meeting. Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the country with the It was during one of the AAR meet- largest Muslim population on earth. Part ings held in Chicago that it struck me how of my job there would be to help create a change reveals itself in the most unexpected program for the study of religion at Duta corners of life, and how fast change moves Wacana Christian University (UKDW). once a certain group of people agrees on Over the years, this program has become a its necessity. After one day worthy of a feeder for the Center for Religious and Cross- workout in the gym, I schlepped myself to cultural Studies (CRCS), and the Indonesian a restaurant to join a group of Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) at colleagues. Most of them were Muslims at Indonesia’s most prestigious State University, various stages in their career, from an MA Gadjah Mada. It was these two programs that student to a full professor. Many of them had sent the Indonesian Muslim colleagues were also active as religious leaders and to the AAR meetings.

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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39 Interfaith service: Egypt Andrew’s. We were eventually married at St. Andrew’s and moved to Minnesota, Before making the United States my new where in the early morning of Saturday, home, I had taught at UKDW in Yogya- February 29, 1992, the phone rang. It was karta, Indonesia, from 1993–1999. Prior someone from DGM asking if we would be to this, I had also worked as the coordina- interested in moving to Indonesia to begin tor of the refugee project connected to teaching at the theology department of a the inter-denominational, international Christian university. After putting down congregation of Saint Andrew’s United the phone, we pulled out an atlas to see Church and the Anglican All Saints Ca- where Yogyakarta was. We decided that thedral in Cairo, Egypt, from 1986–1990. we should seriously consider this offer, but One day at St. Andrew’s, Pastor Michael began to worry about having to learn a new Shelley mentioned in passing that his boss, language. the executive director of ELCA’s DGM was coming to visit our refugee project in Learning and living Cairo. At that time, those words were just alphabet soup to me. Pastor Shelley and I interfaith: Yogyakarta worked at St. Andrew’s Church in Cairo We had not expected Duta Wacana Uni- where I was the coordinator of the refugee versity to be quite ready for our presence. work. Hailing from the Netherlands, I We were more or less prepared to spend a had no idea about church structures in the year of observing and learning. However, United States, but somehow I picked up reality quickly overtook us. Paul had to that Dr. Thomsen had spent several years prepare for the largest cohort of Lutheran in Nigeria and that upon returning home students the university ever received. Hail- he had started to act on some innovative, ing from Sumatra, many of them chose to even radical ideas, about Muslim-Christian study in the interdenominational school at engagement. It was only natural then that Yogyakarta, while waiting for an internal this big boss should visit our refugee work conflict in their own church, the Huria since many of our clients were Christians Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP), or Batak and Muslims from countries in the Horn Christian Church, to be solved. Being the of Africa. only Lutheran teacher on hand, Paul had A few weeks later, I found myself ac- to hit the ground running. companying Mark to a restaurant where we Around that same time, Duta Wacana’s were going to have lunch. While trying our Professor of Islam, Dr. Djaka Soetapa, was very best not to be hit by cars in the chaotic elected the University’s president. Indonesia Cairo traffic, he fired off what seemed to had only two Protestant scholars of Islam be dozens of questions about our refugee and since the second one was teaching in work and how I had become qualified to Jakarta, I had to take over Dr. Soetapa’s be its coordinator. He was soft-spoken and classes. This baptism by fire turned out to unassuming, yet had an inspiring presence have many advantages. Since I was now that was hard to forget. The year must have the only person designated to be “in the been 1988 or 1989, and I had no idea that know” about Islam, students posed their one day I would be part of Mark’s vision many questions about its history, culture, and plans for “a hundred-years” of ELCA beliefs, and tradition to me. Having lived dialogue with Muslims. in Egypt did not make me a specialist on A few months later, an ELCA intern, Indonesian Islam, of course, so I solicited Paul Harder, came to Cairo to work at St. help from colleagues at the Islamic State

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40 University, the Universitas Islam Negeri met regularly to discuss the unending list (UIN). Their Muslim students also had of topics related to religion. The formats for many questions about Christianity, and so such meetings ranged from small discussion we decided to swap instructors; someone groups to large international conferences. In from UIN speaking to my students, while 1991, a colleague whom we had met in the I or one of the UKDW colleagues would Netherlands on our way from Egypt to the speak to their classes. United States, Sumartana had just launched Indonesia seemed ready for these types an interfaith institute called Interfidei. Inter- of activities. A visionary teacher at the Is- fidei’s goals were to encourage and develop lamic State University who also served as a pluralistic religious thinking through Minister of Religion, Professor Mukti Ali dialogue, to stimulate a dynamic network (1923–2004), had translated his experience of dialogue and interreligious cooperation, of studying under the supervision of the and to encourage religious transformation great scholar of religion Wilfred Cantwell as a solution to humanitarian issues faced Smith at McGill University in Canada,1 by the society. Every week the institute held into a program for the Comparative Study discussions on a variety of topics, from the of Religion at the Indonesian Islamic State economic woes in Indonesia to Saint Mary Universities and Institutes. While everyone in Islam and Christianity. Interfideiwas the agreed on the importance of such studies in place to be, not in the least because meet- a multi-religious environment, the human ings always ended with a buffet packed resources to give this vision hands and feet with Indonesian delicacies! The institute were sorely lacking.2 As a result, universities also addressed questions that were on the that were training the future leaders and forefront of everyone’s mind at that time: scholars of Islam had begun to encourage how to counter radical Muslim ideas. I could their students to focus on interreligious not have found a better environment to learn topics for their MA and PhD studies. about Islam and interfaith living than here. An array of projects that studied “how Having to jump into teaching about to be Muslim” in a religiously plural society Islam in Indonesia without a safety net was had made Yogyakarta into one of the most the reason I sought help from the Muslim vibrant scenes of new interpretations of colleagues at the Islamic State University. the Qur’an, and its related religious texts. They were interested in linking up with Students, teachers, and religious leaders classes of Christian students. What followed were seven years filled with exciting and 1. Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916– fruitful interfaith learning and activities. 2000) founded the Institute for Islamic Stud- Groups of students from each university ies at McGill University, and also taught at would visit mosques or churches, celebrate Harvard Divinity School. He was influential feasts together, and create reading groups to in Comparative Religions. See his The Mean- study topics, such as Abraham in the Bible ing and End of Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress and Qur’an. At one point, we organized a Press, 1962), and Toward a World Theology: Faith and the Comparative History of Religion series of seminars discussing the “five pil- (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1981). lars” of Islam from a Muslim and Christian perspective. The excitement was palpable 2. Indonesia officially recognizes seven religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestant- and ultimately attracted students to the ism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, MA program at UKDW. This program was and since September 2014 the Baha’i faith specifically geared towards pastors working as well. in religiously plural environments. UKDW

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41 was an inter-denominational school, so stu- volved in interfaith engagement since 1993, dents hailed from across the archipelago of for one-fifth of Mark Thomsen’s time line Indonesia. Through that program, we aimed of “one hundred years.” Back in the United to train a new generation of Christian teach- States, Paul went on to do graduate studies ers and scholars of Islam. Upon returning on the Lutheran denomination of Indone- to their own contexts, each of them would sia, the HKBP. He eventually returned as a face very different circumstances. Thus, Fulbright Scholar and as a guest teacher at it made sense to allow them to focus on the Lutheran Seminary in Sumatra. the interfaith questions that arose in their I could not but apply the valuable own dioceses. Many of our students faced lessons about living in a religiously plural extreme violence when after the fall of the society learned in Yogyakarta. Just like my Suharto regime in 1998–1999 sectarian Indonesian colleagues, I have become a strife broke out across Indonesia. Yet, they scholar-activist, and continue to be involved applied the theories and practice of their in all types of interfaith activities, regularly interfaith studies, keeping the channels of returning to Indonesia to teach, to be part communication open between the mem- of workshops, and to visit the many friends bers of their churches and the Muslim made during our time there. Professor Ro- population. By 1999, things had quieted land Miller, who worked for many years in down in Indonesia but there was much India, and wrote the blueprint for sending work left to do. Lutheran professionals across the globe In 2000, the Center for Religious to engage with Muslims, always insisted and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) was on the importance of “friendship.”4 Mark launched. It was and is a unique program Thomsen’s vision made it possible for us to in the Muslim world where students of make many new and unexpected friends in different faiths learn together and are Indonesia, some of whom I now meet here taught by teachers from multi-religious in the United States at the annual AAR backgrounds. The three main sponsors conference. of the project are the Gadjah Mada State I do not think that we ever thanked University, UKDW, and the Islamic State Mark Thomsen for the hard work he did University. According to its website, the on our behalf. Nevertheless, I am sure that goal of the program is to provide MA de- he feels our gratitude as it moves around grees for students who “ask what each of the universe. us can learn from other religious believers that add to our own spiritual insight and heritage, to seek deeper understanding of each other, and to work together for a just and peaceful future.”3 In 2006, the ICRS 4. See Roland Miller, Muslim Friends: program was added as a venue to the PhD Their Faith and Feeling: An Introduction degree in Religious Studies. to Islam (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1996). Miller served as academic Two decades… dean and professor of Islamic Studies and World Religions at the University of Regina, We left Indonesia in 1999 for Valparaiso Saskatchewan, Canada from 1976–1993. University. Paul and I have now been in- In 1992, he was charged by the ELCA to develop a proposal for a “Focus on Islam.” He founded the Islamic Studies program at 3. ICRS http://crcs.ugm.ac.id/profile Luther Seminary, which he directed from (accessed 26 October 2014). 1993–1999.

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Mark N. Swanson Harold S. Vogelaar Professor of Christian-Muslim Studies and Interfaith Relations, Associate Director of Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Mark Thomsen was never one to shy In the second Christian century, the away from paradoxical expressions. His apologist Melito of Sardis could declare: favorite title for Christ was “the Cosmic 1 He was…carried in the womb by Mary, Crucified” —which presents a puzzle, on and clothed with his Father; treading the face of it. How can one be “cosmic” the earth and filling heaven…; wanting in any meaningful sense while nailed to food…, and not ceasing to nourish the a cross? But that is precisely the ques- world….He stood before Pilate, and sat tion that Thomsen wanted his readers with the Father; he was fastened to the and hearers to ponder as they prepared tree, and held the universe.3 to proclaim good news among the nations. Of course, a love of paradoxical Thomsen’s love of paradoxical expressions expressions is by no means a new thing does not stop with “the Cosmic Cruci- in Christian tradition. One could argue fied.” The Cosmic Crucified reveals the that “the Cosmic Crucified” is present, (Almighty?) God who is vulnerable, who if not in quite such epigrammatic form, suffers with us.4 And with regard to the in a famous passage in the letter to the Colossians: the one “in whom all things Yale University Press, 1985), chapter 5, “The hold together” is the one who was “mak- Cosmic Christ.” ing peace through the blood of his cross” 3. Melito of Sardis, Fragment 14; ed. (Col 1:15–21, a passage that has often and trans. Stuart George Hall, Melito of inspired talk of “the Cosmic Christ”).2 Sardis: On Pascha and Fragments (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), 81–82. Emphasis 1. Thomsen’s 1993 book, The Word and added. the Way of the Cross: Christian Witness among 4. The vulnerability of God is a key Muslim and Buddhist People (Chicago: theme in Thomsen’s writing. See Mark W. DGM/ELCA, 1993), is dedicated “To all Thomsen, Christ Crucified: A 21st-Century who witness to Jesus, the Cosmic Crucified.” Missiology of the Cross (Minneapolis: Luther- 2. See, for example, Jaroslav Pelikan, an University Press, 2004), 19–38, or idem, Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in the Jesus, the Word, and the Way of the Cross: An History of Culture (New Haven and London: Engagement with Muslims, Buddhists, and

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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43 terrifying word from the cross normally suffering is not appropriate to the divine.”6 known as the “cry of dereliction”—“My What is striking to me in Thomsen’s God, my God, why have you forsaken work is that he always strove in the first me?”—Thomsen’s commentary is as place to be a faithful witness, clinging to follows: “God was hidden as one who striking formulations of the hiddenness chooses not to be ‘God’.”5 In the pres- and vulnerability of God made known ent short essay, I will focus on this cry of in Christ, without any attempt to tone dereliction and a few of its lesser-known them down in order to make them easier commentators, in an attempt to highlight for “other peoples of faith” to hear. At the some features of Mark Thomsen’s witness same time, he never backed away from the and missionary engagement. engagement with these “other peoples of These two sides of a single voca- faith,” but actively sought it for himself, tion—the witness and the missionary for those who looked to him for leadership, engagement—can sit in a certain tension and for his denomination as a whole. with one another. On the one hand, we The examples that follow are taken knew in Mark Thomsen the witness to from the Arabic Christian theological the Cosmic Crucified who delighted in heritage, a vast corpus of material that unapologetically paradoxical language Mark Thomsen encouraged and enabled that presents the mystery of incarnation me to study when I was a relatively young and redemption in its most radical form. LCA/ELCA missionary to the Middle On the other hand, we knew him as the East in the 1980s and early 1990s.7 These missionary called to offer an explanation Arabic-speaking authors lived in contexts (apologia) for the hope that was in him in which Christians were called to bear (1 Pet 3:15) in encounters with people witness to and to explain their faith in of other faiths, Muslims and Buddhists in an intellectual and spiritual environment particular. Both the witness and the mis- shaped decisively by the Arabic language sionary are on full display in his writings, of the Qur’an and the faith and practices especially Jesus, the Word, and the Way of of Muslims. As a kind of case study in the Cross. Now, unapologetic witness and witness and apology (and in tribute to credible explanation are both Christian Mark Thomsen, who wanted to bring duties, but they can work at cross purposes: these medieval voices into a contemporary the witness may be unintelligible; the conversation), let us take a look at what explanation may fail as faithful theology. a few of them had to say about Jesus’ cry Thomsen himself recognized the tension from the cross: “My God, my God, why and the difficulty this created, especially have you forsaken me?” with regard to the Christian-Muslim encounter: “the God revealed and known through Jesus, the Cosmic Crucified, is not acceptable to most Muslims with whom we 6. Ibid., 55. wish to engage. For most Sunni Muslims, 7. I will always remember Mark Thom- sen with gratitude for his encouragement Other Peoples of Faith (Minneapolis: Lu- and, through the Division for Global Mis- theran University Press, 2008), 26–55. sion of the ELCA, material support of my 5. Thomsen, Jesus, the Word, and the doctoral studies at the Pontifical Institute for Way of the Cross, 42. Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) in Rome.

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44 Witness and apology in 1. al-Jāmiʿ wujūh al-īmān (“The Arabic Gatherer of the Aspects of the Faith”) The history of debate about Christ’s cry One early example comes from a late ninth- of dereliction in the Arabic Christian- century compilation called al-Jāmiʿ wujūh Muslim conversation begins almost as al-īmān or “The Gatherer of the Aspects of early as that conversation itself. For the the Faith.” We do not know the name of Muslims’ scripture, the Qurʾan, Jesus is a its Chalcedonian author/editor. Chapter prophet and apostle of God, a member of 17 of this compilation consists of a series a company that reaches its culmination in of answers to thirty-three questions about the mission of the apostle Muḥammad, the the Gospels, the eleventh of which has to “seal of the prophets.” Jesus is therefore a do specifically with Christ’s word, “My revered figure but he isnot the Son of God, God, my God, why have you forsaken not divine, not one of a Trinity; to make me?”10 The author begins his answer by such claims is a reprehensible confusion. recounting the Fall of humanity into sin For many Muslim controversialists, the and idolatry, to which God responded cry of dereliction, along with Jesus’ agony by “sending to them his Son, born from and prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, among them from his maidservant.” He provided biblical evidence for their convic- then illustrates the work of Christ with a tion that Jesus was merely human (and little parable: not divine); furthermore, such accounts showed them that, even according to the A son was born to a king from his maidservant. The birth, nourishment, Gospels’ own witness, Jesus was averse to and growth of the king’s son took place his death by crucifixion (rather than freely 8 at [the home of] his mother, among his accepting it). maternal uncles. As a result, Christian theologians who wrote in Arabic had to address themselves The people of the kingdom rebelled to the question of Christ’s agony in the [against the king] and refused obedience Garden and his cry of dereliction from for a long period of time. There was no the cross, attempting to give them in- one among them who dared to seek the king’s good pleasure for himself and for terpretations consistent with their claim others, because of their offences and that Christ was the truly divine (as well rebellion against him. But the king’s as truly human) Son of God who freely underwent crucifixion for the sake of the texts mentioned below can now be found in: redemption of humankind. These attempts David Thomas et al. (eds.), Christian-Muslim took a variety of forms.9 Relations: A Bibliographical History (Leiden: Brill, 2009–). 8. For the ninth-century convert to 10. Manuscript British Library (BL), Islam ʿAlī al-Ṭabarī, for example, the cry Oriental 4950, folios 102b–103b. The trans- of dereliction refutes the claim that “Christ lations below are Mark Swanson’s. For an in- is the eternal creator;” from his Refutation troduction to Chapter 17 as well as its 11th of the Christians, ed. I.A. Khalifé and W. question, see Sidney H. Griffith, “Arguing Kutsch, “al-Radd ʿala-n-Naṣārā de ʿAlī aṭ- from Scripture: The Bible in the Christian/ Ṭabarī,” Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph Muslim Encounter in the Middle Ages,” 36, fasc. 4 (1959): 115–148, here 124, lines in Scripture and Pluralism, ed. Thomas J. 11–12. Heffernan and Thomas E. Burman (Leiden: 9. Bibliography for all the authors and Brill, 2005), 29–58, here 47–56.

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45 son, who had been born among them, on behalf of others.13 It was not Christ had pity on them and showed them who experienced abandonment; rather, mercy. He acquired a worn-out garment it was sinful humanity that had been from those of the peasants, and put it abandoned to its error. Christ acts in on over his vesture. Then he came to solidarity with suffering human beings, the king, entered into his presence, and indeed, suffers with human beings—but said: “O my Lord, how long will you there is still a slight reserve in the “com-” avert your face from me?” And he made of the Crucified’s compassion. Christ is intercession and entreaty with him on “with” people in their humanity, but not 11 behalf of [the people]. in their estrangement.14

The author now immediately applies this 2. Ḥabīb Abū Rāʾiṭah, Fī parable to the work of Christ. l-tajassud (“On the Incarnation”) Because the people were abandoned, Another ninth-century Christian apolo- their souls [trapped] in their error, gist in the Arabic language was a Syrian and because they had no possibility, Orthodox theologian named Ḥabīb Abū no intellect to guide them to entreat- Rāʾiṭah, who hailed from the town of ing and imploring their Creator for his Tikrīt in Iraq.15 In his treatise “On the good pleasure towards them, therefore Incarnation,”16 Ḥabīb responded to a Christ our Lord became a human be- number of questions that were typically ing. He was a servant in all the ways raised by Muslim questioners. These in- that servants serve their lords, and in cluded a question about Christ who had his humanity pronounced on behalf of “appealed for help (istaghātha) and sought humankind what was required of them. rescue from death” (where istaghātha is And he said, “My God, my God, why shorthand for the cry of dereliction). Ḥabīb have you deserted me?” He did not say that on his own behalf, but on behalf 13. The author goes on to point to of the people who had been abandoned examples in the psalms where David speaks in their error.12 the words—but speaks them on behalf of Christ. There are aspects of this understanding 14. It is worth pointing out that such of Christ’s words from the cross of which an interpretation is common in the Western Mark Thomsen would have approved. Christian tradition, at least for the first mil- Christ is the incarnate Son of God who lennium; see Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21–28: is in solidarity with sinful human beings, A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: identifying with them and accomplishing Fortress Press, 2005), 545–546. for them what they are unable to accom- 15. Tikrīt is now part of Iraq’s Sunni plish for themselves. So far, so good. And heartland and is known as the hometown of yet, the author preserves some distance Saddam Hussein, but in the ninth century between Christ and the rest of humankind: it was an ecclesiastical center for the Syrian Orthodox Church. Christ speaks on their behalf—but not on his own behalf. And so, the “cry of derelic- 16. See Sandra Tonies Keating, tion” is not really a cry of dereliction at all, Defending the “People of Truth” in the Early Islamic Period: The Christian Apologies of Abū but rather a cry that makes representation Rāʾiṭah (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 217–297, here 284–295 (§§73–84). The translations given 11. BL or. 4950, ff. 102b–103a. here are Mark Swanson’s from the Arabic 12. Ibid., f. 103a. text.

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46 begins with a standard Christian argument: lims’ dilemma-question is constructed in Christ’s agony and fear “is a verification of such a way as to take advantage of this his Incarnation.”17 So far, so good. assumption: it seeks to force Christians But then Ḥabīb’s argument takes what to choose between two conclusions— for us today is a disturbing turn: not only either that Christ was too weak to resist did Christ’s cry from the cross verify the re- crucifixion and was not God, or that the ality of the Incarnation, it also “established Jews deserved reward rather than guilt his argument against Satan and against for crucifying Christ—neither of which the Jews who carried out his crucifixion Christians would be willing to concede. 18 and death.” Reading a little further into In his response, Ḥabīb does nothing the text, we discover that this is part of a to challenge this basic framework, but response to a dilemma-question that was rather works within it and responds to regularly used by Muslim controversialists: the questioner with what is, in itself, an “[Christ’s] crucifixion and death: did he interesting grammatical move. A noun like undergo it willingly or unwillingly?”19 For “crucifixion”21 is, in fact, ambiguous: it can many this seemed to be a knock-down refer to Jesus’ crucifiers’ act of crucifying argument, for if a Christian responded him, as well as Jesus’ experience of being “Unwillingly,” then Christ was clearly crucified not divine. But if a Christian responded . The two can be judged in differ- “Willingly,” then it could be said that his ent ways. On the one hand, Jesus freely crucifiers had simply fulfilled Christ’s will, accepted being crucified, since “by it he and therefore not only had no guilt, but saved the world and delivered them from 22 were deserving of reward! We see clearly the error that held sway over them.” On in the background to this the unexamined the other hand, at the same time, Jesus dis- and unquestioned Christian assumption approved of his crucifiers’ act of crucifying that “the Jews” were to blame for and him—his cry from the cross is evidence of guilty of the death of Christ.20 The Mus- that. Here, Jesus’ cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” is not so much 17. al-taḥqīq li-taʾannusihi, where a cry of dereliction as a cry of aversion to taʾannus literally means “becoming-human.” what his crucifiers had done—in order Ibid., 284 (§73). to establish their guilt. In the end, Ḥabīb 18. Ibid. had responded to a polemical sally with 19. Ibid., 288 (§77). The dilemma- anti-Jewish presuppositions in a way that question is very common in ninth-century simply magnified those presuppositions. Christian-Muslim controversy, but the underlying problematic appears much earlier in the history of the church. For example, see Bernard Blumenkranz, Die Judenpredigt Augustins (Basel: von Helbing & Lichten- hahn, 1946), 190 (in a section titled “The on to say “they did not kill him nor did they Responsibility for the Crucifixion”) in refer- crucify him” (Q 4:157). ence to Augustine. 21. Ṣalb, which is a verbal noun (re- 20. Note that the Muslim polemicists lated to ṣalīb, “cross”); Ḥabīb also mentions were taking advantage of a Christian as- another verbal noun, qatl, “killing.” sumption. The Qur’an criticizes those who 22. Keating, Defending the “People of boasted of having killed “the Messiah, Jesus, Truth,” (288–295); the quotation is at p. son of Mary, God’s apostle,” but then goes 290 (§79).

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47 3. Al-Makīn Jirjis ibn al-ʿAmīd, and said: “The prophecy spoken by al-Ḥāwī (“The Compiler”) the Holy Spirit upon the tongue of It is something of a relief to turn to another your king and prophet David—the text: a passage that I recently stumbled prophecy which begins ‘My God, my across in an Arabic-language theological/ God, why have you forsaken me?’—has ecclesiastical encyclopedia known as al- been fulfilled.” Ḥāwī (“The Compiler”). It is composed If the matter were not so, then we would by a fourteenth-century Coptic priest, be compelled to say that Christ (to physician, and civil servant named Jirjis whom be glory!) called to his Father for (George). At a certain point in his career, help in escaping from the cross, and that Jirjis retired from the world, became a he asked him why he had abandoned monk, and eventually (in the 1390s) him, and what was the reason that ne- produced his massive compilation.23 cessitated his abandonment. But that is laughable discourse—no devil believes Jirjis’s chapter on the crucifixion this, let alone the believers and those (Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 1) begins with who are acquainted with Christian an essay written especially for Christians ways of expression! [Christ’s] saying who did not fully grasp the benefits that 24 “Why have you forsaken me” while flow from the Cross of Christ. In the on the cross cannot be understood as course of that essay, Jirjis presented a sec- a cry for aid to his Father, which could tion on the benefits of the cross for various be understood under the aspect of a categories of people—including the Jews.25 request for information: “Why is this, They benefited in that the crucifixion was and why have you forsaken me, and a fulfillment of Scripture, in particular, of what necessitated this event?” These Psalm 22. Here, we find the lines “they are all expressions of someone who is pierced my hands and feet” (verse 16b, ignorant of the reason for what is hap- LXX) and “they divide my clothes among pening to him. But, he (to whom be themselves/and for my clothing they cast glory!) is exalted above such fairy-tales! lots” (verse 18). Of whom was the Prophet That [cry, “My God, my God, why David speaking here? Clearly, Jirjis says, have you forsaken me”] is nothing but not of any past prophet, but rather of the an allusion addressed to the Jews so expected Messiah, who would be crucified that they might recall what was said in and deliver his body to the death of the this Psalm, and to teach them that the fulfillment of the prophecies had arrived cross. And then he goes on: and taken place, so that no further end When [Jesus] was crucified of his own was to be awaited.27 wise will, he raised26 his voice to the people that was drowning in ignorance In other words, according to Jirjis, Christ was not talking about himself or his experi- 23. An edition of this was published in ence from the cross. Indeed, it is nearly Egypt by a monk of the Muḥarraq Monas- blasphemy to think that Christ could ask tery, The Theological Encyclopedia known as the question “Why?” as one who honestly al-Ḥāwī of Ibn al-Makīn [in Arabic], 4 vols. (Cairo: Dayr al-Muḥarraq, 1999–2001). did not know the answer; not even the devils are that stupid! Therefore, the cry 24. Ibid., vol. 1, 304–322. of dereliction is not a cry of dereliction 25. Ibid., 316–318. at all, but rather an act of giving a bibli- 26. Changing one letter to correct aʿlana to aʿlā.; ibid., 317, line 15. 27. Ibid., 317–318.

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48 cal reference. It is as if Jesus were saying: its parable, was interceding on behalf of “Remember the Psalm that begins, ‘My others who experienced dereliction, but God, my God, why have you forsaken not for himself. me.’ Look it up! Read it! Then you will understand what is happening here, that The way of the cross the scriptures are being fulfilled.” Mark Thomsen chose a way other than that of apologetic explanation. He confessed Confession and “the Cosmic Crucified,” the one in whom explanation “God was hidden as one who chooses not These brief samples of Arabic Christian to be ‘God’,” and allowed those state- discourse may be enough to give an idea of ments to stand without explanations that the difficulty of speaking about Christ’s cry might soften their paradoxical character from the cross in an environment in which by putting some distance between God Christians were continually challenged to and suffering. But Thomsen did not leave defend their confession of Christ as Lord matters at that. Instead of formulating and God. There is certainly an element of explanations for Christ crucified (like those confession in all these samples: their au- Arabic theologians above), Thomsen called thors insist that Christ’s cry from the cross for conforming lives to Christ crucified. is part and parcel of the divine economy The truth of the confession of the Cosmic of the Incarnation for the salvation of Crucified is not to be found in analyses, humankind. But, the simple confession but in lives lived in faithful conformity that the one who cried out from the cross to Christ. The “word of the cross” must was the Incarnate Son/Word of God come inform and lead to the “way of the cross.” to save the world was not enough in their And at this point, Thomsen in fact environment; some sort of explanation comes close to many of the medieval seemed to be called for. Ḥabīb found an Christian theologians who wrote from explanation by exploiting a dilemma- within the Islamic world, in the Arabic question regularly asked by Muslims—and language. They regularly insisted that a managed to use the cry of dereliction to critical witness to the truth of Christian- affirm and sharpen one of that question’s ity is the lives of its adherents. In a study presuppositions, namely, that the Jews of a number of ninth-century theologians, were to be held guilty for Jesus’ death. including Ḥabīb, I once wrote as follows: Jirjis and the author of al-Jāmiʿ did not The Christian life, they remind us, has latch on to some already existing piece of a particular shape: not of reliance on Islamic discourse in this way. However, violence, but of turning the other cheek; they seem to have decided that acceptable not the pursuit of wealth and status, explanations for Christ’s cry within the but of self-giving and contentment; Islamic environment needed to keep God not of license, but of discipline of the appetites; not of zeal for tribe, but of on the one hand, and the experience of 28 dereliction on the other, separate. And, they embrace of all nations. found explanations that fit the bill. Jirjis’ 28. Mark N. Swanson, “Apology or its Christ was giving information, not actually Evasion? Some Ninth-Century Arabic Chris- asking “Why?” of the Father (a possibility tian Texts on Discerning the True Religion,” at which he simply scoffs). Rather, Christ in Christian Theology and Islam, ed. Michael was always in perfect control. The Christ Root and James J. Buckley (Eugene, Ore,: of al-Jāmiʿ, like the disguised prince in Cascade Books, 2014), 45–63, here 63.

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49 Several centuries later, the monk Jirjis of the cross, except that with victory and added his witness—throughout his en- triumph he would have possession of his cyclopedia, but also in his essay on the enemy.”30 But the monk Jirjis has nothing benefits of the cross. After speaking about like this. For him, the sign of the cross gives the benefits of the cross for all people, power over the Devil—and, through the for the Jews (of which we read a snippet reminder of Christ’s self-giving, patience above), and for the Christians, he returns and strength to endure through persecu- to a general benefit: the power of the sign tions, even “to the extent of the shedding of the cross.29 When I first encountered of blood.”31 Here, the benefit of the cross this passage, I remember pausing with is strength for a cruciform life. some apprehension. I did not know what In the end, for the medieval theo- to expect next. So often in Christian his- logians presented here and for Mark W. tory, the “power of the sign of the cross” Thomsen, the most effective demonstra- has been explained in military terms, in tion of the power of the cross does not keeping with the story of Constantine’s consist in words, whether paradoxical or vision of the cross with the legend: “In plausible, but in lives transformed. this, conquer”! This interpretation had staying power, even in unlikeliest of places. For example, an Arabic debate text set 30. Wafik Nasri (trans.), The Caliph in the court of the great Abbasid caliph th al-Maʾmūn has a Christian bishop make and the Bishop. A 9 Century Muslim-Chris- tian Debate: Al-Maʾmūn and Abū Qurrah the claim that “no king departs to battle (Beirut: CEDRAC, Université Saint Joseph, his enemy [taking] with him the emblem 2008), 215, verset 377, translation slightly adjusted. 29. al-Ḥāwī, vol. 1, 320–322. 31. al-Ḥāwī, vol. 1, 320–321.

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David D. Grafton Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia

Sitting at a desk in Dakar, Senegal, after Almost thirty years later, we might reflect having spent the day with ELCA mis- again on Christian witness to Muslims, sionaries who live and work in a Muslim- this time not in the Sahel of West Africa, majority country, Mark Thomsen reflected but in the environs of North America. on why the ELCA has a presence in that Thomsen’s interest in re-defining global country and what form of mission their mission for the ELCA back in the nineties witness takes. is still an important project for a church Christian mission among Muslim that has latched onto an important but people is carried out for the sake of vague theological and missiological mantra reinterpreting for Muslims the Chris- as a “missional church.”2 In this article tian understanding of the gospel. As we would like to explore the impetus for Christians we feel compelled to share such an encounter with Muslims not “over that our Trinitarian language, in con- there” in some far-off place where the trast to tritheism, is spoken in order to maintain our witness to the unity 2. Thomsen was the driving force of God. Our incarnational language, behind a “Focus on Islam” in the ELCA rather than shirk (associating partners that grew from his previous commitments with God, for Muslims the greatest sin), in the American Lutheran Church (ALC). affirms that Jesus is truly human and He organized and edited God and Jesus: not some ethereal phantom or ghostly Theological reflections for Christian-Muslim Dialog spear. Further, our incarnational lan- (Minneapolis: DWMIC: ALC, 1986) and then developed the ELCA guage witnesses to our conviction that “Commitments for Mission in the 1990s” we have encountered the Word of God found in Mark W. Thomsen, The Word and in the total person and mission of Jesus the Way of the Cross: Christian Witness Among 1 and not just in his prophetic message. Muslim and Buddhist People (Chicago: Division for Global Mission, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 1993), 14–19, 1. Mark W. Thomsen, “Christian 111–125. See also David D. Grafton, Piety, Mission within the Muslim World,” Word Politics and Power: Lutherans Encountering & World vol. XVI, No. 2 (Spring 1996), Islam in the Middle East (Eugene, Ore.: 196–197. Pickwick Publications, 2009), 225–230.

Currents in Theology and Mission 42:1 (January/February 2015)

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51 church can send missionaries who cross Jews in American settings; hence, we will geographical and cultural boundaries but limit ourself to the Christian-Muslim “here” in the midst of our own communi- encounter. ties, congregations and families. It is not possible to undertake Christian ministry Questions about Islam in North America today without recogni- A pastor walks into a church committee tion of, encounter with, and sensitivity to, meeting and is handed a hard copy of an a wider variety of non-Christian religious email chain by a member with the heading, traditions; Islam being one of the most Muslims demand shar‘ia” and says, “Pastor important. The 1980s and 1990s produced we must do something!” a handful of theologians and ecclesiastical While innocently shaking hands with leaders who were attentive to interfaith parishioners after a rather benign Sunday dialogue or encounter with a variety of morning service, one member bluntly asks, different religious traditions “over there.” “Pastor, is Allah the same as the God of However, the training of leaders today Jesus Christ?” requires an approach to ministry that rec- In meeting an Imam from the mosque ognizes the reality of persons of other faiths across town for the first time he asks flat not only in the communities in which we out, “Please explain to me how the Trinity live, but the ministries in which we work, is nothing less than the worship of Three and the families to which we belong. Gods?” The 2010 U.S. presidential election Each one of these scenarios was a real highlighted the dramatic demographic event. Many leaders in the church have changes within the United States, prompt- certainly experienced similar encounters. ing many pundits to note with “concern” Responses to these questions require the growth of Latino voters, the Black some knowledge, skill, and sensitivity. caucus, and the rise of Arab-American They entail more than simply an arming blocs. Long before this election, however, of oneself with apologetic arguments Harvard Professor Diana Eck’s research or retreating into defensive retorts that on the New Religious America brought smack of racism, ethnocentrism, or even to light the amazing ethnic and religious hate speech. To be able to respond to the diversity already then fully present within the citizenry of the United States.3 While dramatically changing social and religious it might be tempting to relegate the dynamics in our communities and fami- topic of religious pluralism to an elective lies; rostered leaders, seminarians, and lay course in seminary for those who are of church leaders need to be able to witness like-minded interfaith specialists, the real- to the loving crucified God “molded by humility, vulnerability, and servanthood,” ity is that all of our ethnic and religious 4 diversity is experienced within reach of a as Thomsen has said. typical middle-class, Anglo Lutheran con- When there is so much for a church gregation. Others will certainly be more leader to do, or for a seminarian to learn qualified to comment on the ministerial and experience, why take up their time encounter with Buddhists, Hindus, or with what for some may seem at best as an interesting hobby or elective topic, or 3. Diana Eck, A New Religious America: at worst may be seen as a liberal agenda How a “Christian country” has now become that demonstrates the abandonment of the the world’s most religiously diverse nation (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2001). 4. Thomsen, 196.

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52 universal claims of the gospel? There are specific only to Muslims, but the agnostics three important aspects of why the study and atheists of our society as well. Their of Christian-Muslim relations is vital for questions and critiques are well worth our ministry today: theological, sociological, consideration. Two examples will suffice. and pastoral. The Trinity and the Theological divinity of Jesus Islam is one of the major world religions to Surah Nisa‘ of the Qur’an records this: have appeared after Christianity. Because of this, Islam has posed particular theo- People of the Book, do not go to excess in logical problems for the church. As one your religion, and do not say anything prominent missionary among Muslims about God except the truth: the Messiah, had agonized often, how could God allow a Jesus, son of Mary, was nothing more than a messenger of God, His word, directed significant portion of the human commu- to Mary, a spirit from Him. So, believe nity who had heard the name Jesus refuse in God and His messengers and do not to accept his salvific role and allow them 5 speak of a ‘Trinity’—stop [this], that is to thrive? This is complicated by the fact better for you—God is only one God, He that the Qur’an does explicitly recognize is far above having a son (4:171 [Abdel Christians and has an important place for Haleem trans.]). Jesus, albeit from within its own theological convictions. Christ’s identity is based This passage directly critiques the Chris- upon the “Prophetology” of the Islamic 6 tian claim of the Trinity. The theological scriptural and theological tradition. In problem for Muslims is that Christians addition, the Qur’an explicitly contests the have claimed more about God than either crucifixion of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus, God or his Prophet ‘Isa ever intended. and the Trinity. It is important, then, to un- The underlying Islamic concern is for derstand these Islamic claims not only for upholding the Unity of God (tawhid); that reasons of reactive defense or to engage in there is only one God and that this God proselytization, but because they are chal- is sovereign above all else. The Christian lenging and thought-provoking questions profession of the Trinity seems to subvert in their own right. These questions may the sovereignty and unity of God. help us be more effective witnesses to the Since the seventh century, Christians crucified Christ in whom we profess faith have been attempting to convince Muslims in and of themselves. When we talk about that we do believe in only one God and Perichoresis, Begotteness, Personhood, and not three gods (Tritheism). One Muslim Procession publicly in our communities, scholar who was unconvinced by Christian do we actually know what we mean? The scriptural and theological arguments for Islamic critiques of the Divinity of Jesus and the Doctrine of the Trinity are not the Trinity was Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111). In a treatise that has been attrib- 5. See W.H.T. Gairdner, The Reproach uted to him, Al-radd al-jamil li-ilahiyyat of Islam (London: Church Missionary ‘Isa bi-sarihal-injil [A Fitting Refutation Society, 1909 2d ed., rev.), 4–5. of the Divinity of Jesus], al-Ghazali uses 6. See Sidney H. Griffith, The Church the “High Priestly” prayer of Jesus in John in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and 17 as his starting point. He asks several Muslims in the World of Islam. (Princeton, important questions about this text. N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008). Al-Ghazali points out that if we are

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53 to take the priestly prayer of Jesus literally The point here is that Muslim scholars that he is one [wahda] with the Father, have taken seriously Christian claims of the then why do Christians not accept that Trinity and divinity of Jesus. They do not the disciples are ontologically one with understand how Christians can make such Jesus as He is one with the Father in the assertions, and provide very logical argu- same manner? Did not Jesus pray that ments in response to our paradoxical claims the disciples would be one with him as about God. While these critiques have he was with the Father (17:21)? If the often been the source of inter-communal Son is of the same essence as the Father hostility, in this author’s view such critiques then logically are not the disciples of the are good opportunities for us to think same essence [dhat] as Jesus and therefore clearly about our own beliefs. What bet- a part of the Trinity? Naturally, al-Ghazali ter way is there than to teach seminarians is pointing out the absurdity of this claim. and public leaders of the church about the He argues that Jesus’ words of “oneness” major doctrines of the faith, than by posing should logically be taken metaphorically these clear living Islamic critiques? When and not in any ontological manner.7 asked by Muslim interlocutors about the Another critique of the Christian Trinity and divinity of Jesus, it simply will claim of the divinity of Jesus (and by not do for missional leaders to shrug their extension of the Trinity) comes from Sura shoulders and say, “It is a divine mystery.” Ikhlas: Muslims will not accept this, nor will the Say: God is One, the eternal God. He agnostic, atheist, and unchurched folk in begot none, nor was He begotten. None our communities who do not understand is equal to Him (112:1–14 [Abdel such orthodox Christian claims either. Haleem trans.]) These challenges provide opportunities to think about issues about how the gospel While Muslims do believe that Jesus was is articulated and heard in our pluralist born from a virgin (3:35-62; 19:22–36), America. Such discussions, internal and this event does not prove Jesus’ divinity, external, are good teaching moments for but rather points back to the fact that God us to better reflect on our own faith as as the Creator can create out of nothing well as be more articulate, not only with as God wills [kun wa faya kun] (19:35). Muslims but even ourselves. This is what In fact, Muslims have often responded to Mark Thomsen did so well. Christian arguments of divinity that if the birth of Jesus, who was born of a woman Sociological but with no earthly Father, is indicative of The second aspect of the importance of his divinity, then what of Adam? He was engaging Christian-Muslim relations as born neither of an earthly Father nor of an part of the theological education of future earthly Mother. Then logically, Adam would leaders in North America is sociological. be even more divine than Jesus would. Here Diana Eck’s work, A New Religious America, is extremely helpful. While some 7. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Al-radd parishioners might claim never to have met al-jamil li-ilahiyyat ‘Isa bi-sarihal-injil (Paris: Leroux, 1939), 7–8. Further helpful a Muslim (and I have had several make responses to this issue can be found in Mark such a claim), the reality is that most of N. Swanson, “The Trinity in Christian- our ministries and parishes of the church Muslim Conversation,” Dialog: A Journal of encounter Muslim Americans and their Theology46, no. 3 (Fall 2005), 256–263. communities in their own great diversity:

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54 be they African-American Muslims, “Im- those of German descent, know all too migrant” Muslims, or Anglo converts; be well what happens when whole groups they doctors, lawyers, engineers, or politi- of people are labeled by a society as a cians. Muslim organizations, mosques or danger or a threat. Many congregational communities are part of American civil members have told stories at coffee hours society, from Indiana to San Francisco, about relatives and friends who stayed St. Paul to South Beach and they might back in Nazi Germany or those who could be important partners for the common not get out. The strong commitments to good in communities. Jewish-Lutheran relationships in North Because the current atmosphere of American have grown not only from Islamophobia continues to look upon all our own communal guilt over Luther’s Muslims as a threat or at least a potential anti-Semitic tracts, but also from our threat to Western society (and to American repentance of the reality of ghastly human values in particular) it is vitally important sin. While incomparable to the horrors of that public leaders take clear stands against the Holocaust, a generation before World prejudice, racism, hate crimes, and fear that War II German Americans felt the brunt will ultimately lead to scapegoating whole of harsh accusations of being un-American communities.8 A powerful example of just in violent anti-German crackdowns after such courageous acts occurred in 2013, the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917. when Rabbis for Human Rights—North Germans were charged with being spies America and Sojourners in New York City, for the Kaiser and being “un-American.”10 publicly demonstrated against the anti- With these experiences in our own past, Islam posters organized by Pam Geller what will a congregation do when an that appeared on the New York subway African-American store front mosque a 9 system. In October 2014 the Religious half mile from the church is vandalized by Leaders Council of Philadelphia, an inter- graffiti sprayed over its façade? What about faith forum of over 30 different religious the Pakistani immigrant mosque that has communities in the Philadelphia metro area its windows blown out one night by an published a unified statement denouncing angry drunk man? How will the missional the hate speech of such public ads. leader respond? Unfortunately, Lutherans, especially A recent study by the Virginia Theo- logical Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, 8. The term “Islamophobia” was coined engaged in a survey of 4,000 Episcopal by the British organization Runnymede Trust in its 2000 study, The Future of church clergy and 1,700 of its own VTS Multi-Ethnic Britain: The Parekh Report alumni about their personal and com- (London: Profile Books Ltd., 2000) (http:// munal engagement with Islam and other www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and- faiths.11 The research demonstrated two publications/projects/past-projects/meb/ report.html) [accessed June 13, 2014). See 10. See David D. Grafton, “German also The Muslim Public Affairs Council, Lutherans and Assimilation: Lessons in the Islamophobia (www.mpac.org/issues/ Current Atmosphere of Islamophobia,” The islamophobia.php) [accessed June 13, 2014]. Journal of Lutheran Ethics (May/June 2011) 9. http://www.huffingtonpost. [http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/ com/2013/01/09/anti-muslim-ads-new- Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/ york-city-subway-american-freedom- Issues/May-June-2011/German-Lutherans- defense-initiative_n_2438881.html and-Assimilation.aspx#_ednref1]. (accessed 18 February 2014). 11. See David T. Gortner, Katherien

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55 primary reasons why their Episcopal last twenty years.14 If we compare this with church leaders and alumni participated the demographics of the ELCA, which in relationships with other religious is still predominantly Anglo and middle communities, or provided educational op- class, we can easily speculate that ELCA portunities about other religious traditions congregations will be located in areas that for their congregations. The first reason are very far removed (geographically and was the leader’s previous educational op- economically) from a mosque or Islamic portunities with other religions. Ninety center. Unless a congregation is intentional percent of those who offered educational about engaging with a Muslim community, forums on another religious tradition in which is usually racially, ethnically, and their congregations “had previous educa- culturally different from its own origins, tion in that religion” in their training. there is a very slim chance that any form The report states: “an Episcopal church of education or relationship will hap- leader’s education in other faiths is almost a pen. Given that the largest single ethnic pre-requisite for education in our parishes community of U.S. Muslims is African- about other religions.”12 American, we must also acknowledge that The second reason was proximity. racial tensions and sensitivities are part The VTS study found that most Episcopal of the Christian-Muslim relationship in church leaders engaged in some form of in- America. Because the majority of Ameri- terreligious education with other religious cans still share negative feelings and views institutions that were within five miles about Muslims, these perceptions will not from their own congregations. However, change, but will be exacerbated with the 65 percent of the Episcopal congregations ongoing problems in the Middle East and 15 in the survey were more than five miles central Asia. away from the local mosque, negatively Church leaders involved in any social affecting interaction.13 In other words, if ministry organization or those within there was not a mosque in close proximity, Word and Service ministries have, and un- the congregation would not engage with doubtedly will, engage American Muslim a mosque or Islamic center. This poses a communities as participants, co-sponsors, number of challenges for the ELCA. or supporters of their particular social min- If we look at the 2011 Pew Research istries. Those who serve in congregations Study on Muslims in America, we note or Word and Sacrament ministries have, that many American Muslims are either and undoubtedly will, engage Muslim African-American or immigrants from communities as part of civic associations. How will public leaders navigate these South Asia who have migrated to the U.S. for reasons of economic livelihood in the 14. The Pew Research Center, Muslims in America: Middle Class and Wood, and J. Barney Hawkins IV, “Faithful Mostly Mainstream (2007), 13 (http:// Christians, Faithful Neighbors: How do www.pewresearch.org/2007/05/22/ Episcopal parishes relate to other faiths muslim-americans-middle-class-and-mostly- – especially Islam?” Virginia Theological mainstream/) (accessed June 16, 2014). Seminary Journal (December 2013): 57–66. The authors indicate a near 20 percent 15. Abu Dhabi Gallup Center, response rate from alumni (59). Religious Perceptions in America: With an In-Depth Analysis of U.S. Attitudes Towards 12. Ibid., 61. Muslims and Islam (Dubai, United Arab 13. Ibid., 60. Emirates: Gallup, Inc., 2009), 8.

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56 interfaith relationships within the civic that American Muslims are NOT inter- space? These interactions are not just theo- ested in the well-being of their own local logical and spiritual matters. It is not only communities and undermining American about seeking esoteric interfaith dialogue, values. Pastoral encounters with local whatever form that may be. Rather, these Muslim communities are an important relationships will more than likely be sustainable response to such assumptions, intercultural, interethnic, interracial, and and provide opportunities for a robust across economic gaps. How will missional civil society, what Putnam and Campbell leaders help their own communities engage call “bridging.”18 those who are very different, not only for the sake of proclaiming the gospel, but also Pastoral living out the gospel in “humility, vulner- As important as the theological and so- ability, and servanthood”? The best chance ciological aspects of Christian-Muslim for any positive interaction will be from relations are, the third is the most practi- those leaders that have engaged in some cal. In her book ‘Til Faith Do Us Part: form of previous intercultural, interfaith How Interfaith Marriage is Transforming educational opportunities.16 America, Naomi Schaeffer Riley notes that Of course, some will ask about in 1988 15 percent of U.S. homes were Muslim extremists, such as those being composed of spouses from different faith recruited by jihadist groups. How are traditions. In 2006, the percentage rose to we to guard against potential violence? 25 percent. Riley comments that according Certainly, extremist religious violence to the American Religious Identification should be addressed in our society like Survey of 2001 that “27 percent of Jews, any other violent crime. (Lutherans have 23 percent of Catholics, 39 percent of Bud- always been good at recognizing the first dhists, 18 percent of Baptists, 21 percent use of the law as necessary for civil order.) of Muslims and 12 percent of Mormons While the New York City police secret were then married to a spouse with a dif- surveillance program of Muslims resulted ferent religious identification.”19 Contrary in a prominent debate about the violation to previously accepted assumptions that of civil rights (and certainly there are oth- most people marry within communal and ers), most Muslim communities around religious boundaries, Riley remarks that ac- the country are actively involved with law cording to the National Study of Youth and enforcement at some level in subverting Religion that less than 25 percent of those crime.17 Islamophobia, however, assumes Post February 24, 2012, http://www. 16. The ELCA Multicultural Ministries huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/muslims- Handbook, Talking as Christians Cross- rally-nypd-mosque-surveillance_n_1321363. Culturally (http://resources.elca.org/ html ) (accessed June 16, 2014). Evangelism-Talk_Together_as_Christians_ 18. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Cross-Culturally.html) provides helpful Campbell, American Grace: How Religion guidelines for engaging other communities Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & of different ethnic, racial, and economic Schuster, 2010), 526–534. backgrounds and can be used for interfaith 19. Naomi Schaefer Riley, ‘Til Faith engagement as well. Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is 17. For example see Jaweed Kaleem, Transforming America (New York: Oxford “Muslims Rally In Support Of NYPD University Press, 2013), 6. See also http:// Mosque Surveillance Program,” Huffington www.youthandreligion.org/.

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57 in the 18–23 age bracket believe that “it’s front of the local mosque. Whom do you important to marry someone of the same contact? faith.”20 Once our son or daughter marries People of other faiths are engaged in a Muslim, it is no longer about “them.” relationships with members of our con- Because of the multi-faith, multi- gregations and ministries on any number ethnic shape of American society, our of levels. They may be compatriots and church leaders will face pastoral ques- partners working on any number of causes tions from parishioners, co-workers, or within our local communities, or they may clients in social ministry organizations. be the targets of hate speech, racism, or These interfaith encounters within our violence. While our rostered leaders may own families or communities do not only respond to these events “by the seat of entail theological or sociological issues, but their pants,” how much better would it be practical ones relating to the daily life, such if our missional leaders had been prepared as; “Pastor, my daughter is in love with a to respond to such interfaith encounters Muslim. What do I do?” “Pastor, there are grounded in the loving crucified God a few people waiting for a homeless meal “molded by humility, vulnerability, and who want to know if we can provide halal servanthood”? food.” What will you do if a child in your Conclusion Sunday school brings their friend, Ahmad Looking back over his years as the Direc- who is an unaccompanied minor to vaca- tor of DGM, Mark Thomsen reflected on tion Bible school? How will Ahmed be Christian-Muslim relationships in Senegal welcomed or treated? You are asked to offer and the role of the ELCA mission there. a table prayer at an Iftar of a member of Almost thirty years later his thinking is as your congregation who is in an interfaith vital for us as ever. The ideas and lessons family. Will you pray in the name of the that he gleaned from those who have Triune God? The local hospital calls and crossed geographic and cultural boundar- indicates that there is a Muslim woman ies “over there” are as valid for a missional who has requested prayers before her im- church in North America that locates pending death. In the accepted practice itself in a multicultural, multiethnic, and policies of hospital chaplaincies, what multiracial, and multi-religious nation manner of prayer will you offer at her “here.” We hope that our public leaders death? God forbid, there is a shooting in would have had the opportunity to think through thoughtful responses that might 20. Naomi Schaefer Riley, “Interfaith reflect the presence of the crucified Christ marriages are rising fast, but they’re failing long before they actually face such events fast too,” The Washington Post Sunday, June and questions. What form and shape will 6, 2010, (http://www.washingtonpost. “cruciformed” and faithful ministry take com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/ in such an interfaith American context? AR2010060402011.html) ][accessed 26 February 2014]. See http://www. youthandreligion.org/.

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59 minorities, women, and the Israeli-Palestin- Book Reviews ian conflict (310–311). One might wonder why Winkler has chosen to put these two individuals into dialogue with one another. These scholars never Contemporary Muslim and Christian Re- met, nor did they ever engage each other’s sponse to Religious Plurality. By Lewis works. Pannenberg himself never wrote spe- E. Winkler. Wipf & Stock, 2011. ISBN: cifically about Christian-Muslim relations. 978-1-6089-9742-8. ix and 350 pages. Furthermore, the book wanders through a Paper. $39.00. variety of theological topics. More focus—to produce a tighter work—would have been Lewis Winkler, a lecturer in Theology, Church helpful. Nevertheless, this book is a creative History, and Ethics at the East Asia School reflection on two important Christian and of Theology in Singapore, has produced an Muslim thinkers. imaginative work on Christian-Muslim dia- Winkler is not interested in engaging in logue. Building upon the oft-quoted saying Christian-Muslim dialogue merely to rush to of Hans Kung, “No peace among the nations the least common denominator in order to without peace among the religions,” Winkler agree upon a doctrine of God, or so that com- puts forward an opportunity to help Chris- munities might simply “play nice.” Rather, tians and Muslims think outside the box and through his own Christian evangelical com- engage in fresh thinking. Winkler commenc- mitments, he argues that open and honest es his project within the framework of “reli- dialogue about theological matters provides gious pluralism,” that is, the reality of various opportunities for communal engagement faith traditions, each making its own truth that might strengthen the civic good. This claims, to “encourage more democratically certainly is a perspective that should be ap- free, morally just, and religious plural human plauded and supported. communities” (10). He follows this with a review of a historical and thematic survey of David D. Grafton twentieth and twenty-first century Christian- The Lutheran Theological Seminary Muslim dialogue in Chapter Two. at Philadelphia The heart of Winkler’s exploration are Chapters Three through Five. Here he elu- cidates the theology of the Christian theolo- Can Only One Religion be True? Paul gian, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and the Muslim Knitter and Harold Netland in scholar, Abdulaziz Sachedina. Pannenberg’s Dialogue. Edited by Robert B. Stewart. Trinitarian theology is explored primar- Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013. ily through his work in Toward a Theology ISBN: 978-0-8006-9928-4. 272 pages. of Nature. Sachedina’s thinking is reviewed Paper. $24.00. through a close reading of The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism. Ultimately, Winkler Can Only One Religion be True? The ques- concludes that through Sachedina’s under- tion appears to be rhetorical. Whether or not standing of the Islamic concept of fitra, and this question expects an answer, readers are Pannenberg’s notion of “prolepsis” there is alerted that a rather limited perspective for affirmation of God’s good work through hu- the discussion of pluralism has been set in manity (230–231). The final two chapters place. Rendering the dialogue to an either/ of the book seek to apply Winkler’s hopeful, or framework will easily force readers to take but critical, notions of interfaith dialogue, as sides on the issue. gleaned by both Pannenberg and Sachedina, What do we expect from a dialogue be- to traditional Christian and Muslim doc- tween a Catholic (known as a mutualist) and trines, as well to several important sociologi- an evangelical (in a liberal stream)? Yes, more cal issues, such as the treatment of religious labels are found throughout the book. There

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60 is just no way to know if these labels achieve nies of lay people from two Pacific Northwest mutual respect and greater mutual under- congregations, Root shows that they imply a standing. When it comes to the uniqueness “realism” with respect to God: God is active of Christianity, the evangelical circles put in molding their faith journeys. For Root, much emphasis on the idea of salvation. It ministry then is at the intersection of where gives an impression that the debate is re- God meets people’s needs. He articulates a duced to soul-saving; whereas, this idea of “Christopraxis practical theology of the cross” salvation is not necessarily the focus of other that honors Jesus’ continued ministry and sees religions’ attention. The discourse of differ- ministry as helping people discern how God is ence constructed for the theology of religions working in their lives. The key for deciphering unfortunately divides groups into “us” and God’s role in people’s lives is the doctrine of “them.” If the discussion of religion is rested justification by faith, for which Root appeals upon the discourse of difference, a dialogue to the contemporary German theologian, on culture and pluralism will only be com- Eberhard Jüngel. Jüngel’s approach to jus- paring apples to oranges. The disposition of tification by faith teaches us to honor God’s dialogue remains egotistical. To craft effective work with people as relational, personal, and dialogue, Stewart and his cohorts may want embodied. God’s justifying work reorients to acknowledge that dialogue is not an end in believers such that they can serve as Christ in itself. Dialogue is a way of living that sets out their congregations and communities. Root for a genuine exploration of truth. It requires maintains that people need to nurture a criti- courage to turn challenges into opportunities cal awareness with respect to their experiences; for faith transformation. they need to acknowledge that believers can be One should not, however, deny Stew- misguided about their experiences with God. art’s editorial skills of compiling the materials Hence, they need to be vigilant with discern- in a concise manner. The book is a collec- ing whether and how God is working with tion of papers presented at the Greer-Heard them. This book is helpful for working pas- Point-Counterpoint Forum in Faith and Cul- tors, counselors, and judicatories because it is ture, including a transcript of the dialogue sensitive to “hands-on” ministry. In my view, between Paul Knitter and Harold Netland. the book would be enhanced if it were also It provides basic concepts to the field of reli- to acknowledge that God’s work is embodied gious pluralism and theology of religions. precisely as word and sacrament. But in general Root acknowledges that human experience Man Hei, Yip with God is discerned best within the primary The Lutheran Theological Seminary narratives of the scriptures and the gospel. at Philadelphia Mark Mattes Grand View University Christopraxis: A Practical Theology of the Cross. By Andrew Root. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014. ISBN; 978-1-4514-7815- Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Com- 0. xvi and 311 pages. Paper. $39.00. parative Study of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. By Chris- This book is a study in “practical theology,” a topher B. Hays. Louisville: Westminster discipline that seeks to connect theology with John Knox, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-6642- church practice. This book is unique in that 3701-1. xxvi and 425 pages. Paper. $45. it counters secular trends in the discipline. In opposition to voices that focus solely on the Serious readers of the Old Testament have contributions of the social sciences to practi- long used compendia of Ancient Near East- cal theology, Root seeks to honor “evangelical ern writings, such as ANET and COS, to experience,” in which people claim that God learn more about the Bible’s world and cul- is active in their lives. Based on the testimo- ture. In general, however, those collections

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61 leave readers on their own to figure things The Political Aims of Jesus.By Douglas E. out, often a daunting task. Oakman. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, Hays presents modern translations of a 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8006-3847-4 . xiii smaller number of ancient texts but provides and 192 pages. Paper. $26.00. interpretations of these texts and how they are similar to or different from their biblical This volume by Douglas Oakman, professor parallels. The discussion of each text ends with of religion at Pacific Lutheran University, fo- reflection questions (often quite challenging) cuses on the “political Jesus”—the historical and a bibliography for further reading. peasant theologian who engaged the power He identifies four goals of his book: to arrangements and economic realities of Pal- make intelligent comparison between biblical estine in his day. Oakman views this work and Ancient Near Eastern texts possible; to give as an act of recovery since later Gospel lay- a wider view of the texts themselves (discussions ers interpret Jesus after his death as the risen of genre or the meaning of the whole text when Christ who will return as the eschatological a text has been excerpted); to provide starting Son of Man, not primarily as the peasant fig- points for analysis and comparison; and to open ure concerned with economical and political up avenues for motivated readers to explore fur- transformation and restoration. ther. The author does not take a strong ideologi- Oakman develops his tightly argued cal stance so that users who use critical methods thesis in six chapters. In the opening chapter of Bible study and those who do not can both he revisits the eighteenth-century scholar Rei- profit from this book. marus who pictured Jesus as a worldly Messiah The twenty-five major categories of docu- with political aims that were interpreted quite ments are arranged according to the Penta- differently by his later disciples. By sketching teuch, Former Prophets, Latter Prophets, and interpretations down to the present, Oakman Writings. They include familiar texts like the shows how subsequent interpreters (includ- Babylonian creation and flood stories, the Code ing Albert Schweitzer) largely ignored Rei- of Hammurabi, and ancient treaties/covenants, marus’ political emphasis, casting Jesus rather but also parallels to prophetic symbolic actions in eschatological and spiritual terms. Since and oracles against foreign nations, prayers, 1980, however, scholars active in the current hymns, and laments. Photographs of eight Near quest for the historical Jesus with their focus Eastern images that enhance our understanding on archaeological evidence as well as primary of the Bible are included as well. Some texts, of literary sources (e.g., Josephus, Roman and course, have opposite readings of history, such New Testament writings) and with their use as Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem in 701 as of social theory and models have elucidated reported in his royal annals and the quite oppo- more clearly “Jesus’ first-century, Palestinian site outcome of that battle in the Bible. I would context, and in terms that are consonant with have been a bit more forthright about the con- Israelite traditions” (16). Growing awareness tradiction between these texts, but the approach on that context, Oakman suggests, demands of Hays will keep the discussion going, and he taking Jesus’ political agenda seriously. concedes that this event remains subject to criti- In chapter two, David Christian’s social- cal judgment and that readers need to wrestle scientific model of “agrarian civilizations” is with such texts and clarify methods and presup- adopted as most useful in interpreting first- positions. century Palestine. These were societies based This will be a wonderful textbook, but on agriculture in which patronage of the elite it will also benefit all readers who want to go in the state-urbanized areas (cities) controlled deeper into the meaning of the Old Testa- peasant labor and surpluses by tributes and ment in its ancient context. taxes. He places Jesus and his political action squarely within the Galilean peasant class, a Ralph W. Klein class both necessary to and exploited by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago ruling elite.

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62 Chapter three discusses the changes a worldly and world-engaged peasant artisan” in power arrangements within Palestine (132). Whether or not there is such discon- and more narrowly within Galilee under tinuity between Jesus and the later interpre- the “aristocratic politics” of Herod Antipas, tation in the New Testament, the emerging which fostered social stratification, control picture of a Jesus engaged with the economic of land and peasants by use of taxes, warfare, and political realities of his time and place is and conscripted labor, and improvements in needed in our own day. A spiritualized Jesus infrastructure benefiting the elite, not peas- will not do. ants. In that context, Oakman views Jesus as a peasant theologian who employs “King- James L. Bailey dom of God” as his fundamental political Wartburg Seminary metaphor and brokers this present power of God to subvert political arrangements and to provide social restoration through healing. Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnog- Chapter four employs the metaphors “tables” raphy. Edited by Pete Ward. Grand of the bankers and the “table” of Jesus to sig- Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. ISBN: 978-0- nal Jesus’ opposition to “mammon” as repre- 8028-6726-1. viii and 254 pages. Paper. senting the economic politics of the Roman $36.93. Herodian world, primarily in his advocating by actions and words cancellation of debts for In this edited volume, twelve scholars offer the desperately poor. This verbal and enacted diverse perspectives on ecclesiology and eth- opposition led to Jesus’ crucifixion as a lēstēs nography as methods for theology. These dis- (common thief and rebel). tinct voices are not edited into uniformity, but Oakman concludes with two chapters— stand in contrast, conflict, and lively dialogue chapter five representing his explanation of with one another. The layout of this book en- the layers of interpretations after Jesus’ death acts its purpose: the first section proposes, in that rendered Jesus in apocalyptic terms and four differing voices, that ecclesiology needs eventually as the cosmic savior, and chapter qualitative research practices. Then the book six summarizing his overall argument. opens to a wider community, and eight schol- Scholars versed in the current quest will ars, employing various types and degrees of benefit most from this book. Other readers, empirical research, contribute to the conversa- unless they are aware of the tedious work tion on ecclesiology and ethnography. done by scholars to isolate the earlier layers However, the purpose of the book is not of the Gospel tradition might get lost in the finished on the last page; instead, the book argument’s details. Oakman builds much of depends on its readers becoming that ever- his case on this recovery of the earliest version widening community of conversation part- of the Q document as representing the most ners. Since the authors claim that, “ecclesiol- accurate portrayal of the historical Jesus. ogy arises from a theological situatedness in Near the end of the book, the author states the church,” (Ward, 3) there is an insistence candidly, “Jesus was not accurately portrayed that you—the people of the church—have by his later followers. His ‘message’ was a privileged access to ecclesiology and theology. worldly engaged politics of resistance. His Therefore, it is the lay people, the pastors, followers transformed that message after his and the teachers of this church who are ide- death into something that Jesus himself prob- ally positioned to enact the work of ethnog- ably would have rejected” (131). Was there raphy within their own communities. so great a disconnect between the pre-Easter The use of the term “ethnography” as a and post-Easter Jesus as Oakman concludes? general term for empirical research could be His portrayal of Jesus is minimalistic—a misleading for the reader who either expects non-Messianic figure who did not speak in this book to contain ethnographies or takes apocalyptic terms. Rather, for him, “Jesus was this book’s contents to define ethnography.

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63 Instead of descriptive work based on indi- an alternative language to Nazi speech. The viduals’ lived experiences, this book, while included sermons exemplify these markers of it does admirably employ empirical data, the Confessing Church. remains largely normative and theoretical. Each sermon Stroud presents lifts up However, the reason behind the use of the one way to preach as one opposed to an op- term is good: these authors have noticed that pressive state in a particular context. Some re- for too long, theologians have verbalized sup- spond to the atrocities of Aktion T4, the gov- port for the use of empirical research, yet, ernmental program of euthanasia for those most religious scholars do their research pri- deemed unproductive, and thus unworthy, marily, if not exclusively, apart from the peo- members of society. Others, given the Sun- ple impacted by their research. The brilliant day after Kristallnacht, condemn the demoli- impulse of this book is to enact a conversation of Jewish life by Nazis. Still others reveal tion that embodies research that gets closer to how preachers responded to the invasion of people than theories ever do—through listen- Poland and the turn against the U.S.S.R. At ing, and accompanying, and breaking bread. each turn, we see how pastors sought to edify congregations in the midst of a context hos- Jan Rippentrop tile to Christianity. Further, each speaks with Emory University a unique prophetic voice that seeks God’s reign rather than the rule of a false Führer. Readers will not only find powerful ex- Preaching in Hitler’s Shadow: Sermons of amples of gospel proclamation, but will see Resistance in the Third Reich. Edited how the sermon may faithfully confront sys- by Dean G. Stroud. Grand Rapids: tems of oppression in the political and social Eerdmans, 2013. ISBN: 978-0-8028- realm. 6902-9, xii and 203 pages. Paper. Andrew Tucker $20.00. Christ Lutheran Church, Radford, Va.

This impressive collection details how preachers responded to the rise of National Social and Economic Life in Second Socialism in Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Stroud’s Temple Judea. By Samuel L. Adams. compendium includes sermons from famous Louisville: Westminster John Knox, Confessing Church leaders, such as Bonhoef- 2014. ISBN: 978-0-6642-3703-5. xiii fer and Barth, as well as the works of other- and 252 pages. Paper. $35.00. wise ordinary pastors who ministered in an extraordinary time. The task Adams accepted is a difficult and Stroud’s introduction details the histori- crucial one: how do we understand the social cal context in which the Third Reich arose, and economic realities in Judea, from about as well as how “German Christians”—a theo- 530 B.C.E. to the destruction of the Second logical movement within Germany commit- Temple (dedicated in 516 B.C.E., remodeled ted to Hitler’s cause—recast Christian theol- and expanded by King Herod, and destroyed ogy in terms palatable for Nazis. In particular, by the Romans in 70 C.E.). During these Stroud explores the ways in which Nazis uti- six centuries Judea fell under the following lized a particular vocabulary to exert control imperial powers: the Persians, Alexander on the German Volk, as well as disempower the Great, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and other guiding narratives, particularly those the Romans. The only exception to imperial of Christianity. Woven within this discus- domination was the century during which sion, Stroud depicts the rise of the Confess- the Maccabees and their successors ruled. ing Church as an orthodox response to the Adams arranges his results in five chap- German Christians, a theological subversion ters: family life and marriage, the status of of National Socialism, and a movement with women and children, work and financial

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64 exchanges, taxation and the role of the state, tax farmer himself often became extraordi- and the ethics of wealth and poverty in wis- narily wealthy. dom literature and apocalyptic. His principal Adams writes clearly and engagingly, sources are the Bible, including the Apocry- and provides helpful summaries at the end of pha and Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, the El- every chapter. Given the importance of these ephantine archive (fifth century), the Zeno centuries for the development of early Juda- Papyri (third century), the Dead Sea Scrolls, ism, the life of Jesus, and the realities of the and archaeology. The biblical evidence is very early church, it is hard to overestimate the im- helpful, but of course social and economic portance of these social and economic factors. information is often incidental to the biblical Alas, there is still much that we do not know. authors’ agendas. Family life was patrilocal (the wife Ralph W. Klein moved into the husband’s household) and patrilineal (inheritance passed from father to son). Originally the husband paid a bride The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostal- price to the wife’s father, but eventually a ism. Edited by Cecil M. Robeck Jr. and dowry system developed, with payments Amos Yong. (Cambridge Companions from the wife’s family to the husband’s fam- to Religion). New York: Cambridge ily. In addition to theological issues, there University Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0- were also financial consequences to inter- 5211-8838-8. 356 pages. Paper. $29.99. marriage with outsiders, with a potential of net loss of financial resources. Adams notes The Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has the significant roles played by women in dramatically spread across the globe in the subsistence farming and also in cultic mat- last few decades. Scholarly interest in the his- ters. Children in ancient times were treated tory, theologies, and practices of the Pente- as small-scale adults, quite different from the costals has increased as well. The publication freedom granted them in modern society. of more than 300 monographs and journal Daughters faced more limited options than essays every year in the last decade reflects this sons. Both wives and female children were in heightened interest. Pastors and seminarians vulnerable positions. interested in the study of Pentecostalism no Agriculture was tenuous employment. longer need to flip through hundreds of titles. By the time grain was set aside for next year’s Cecil M. Robeck Jr. and Amos Yong, profes- planting and for taxes to foreign countries, sors at Fuller Theological Seminary, have col- there was less than one-third that could be lected fifteen essays written by experts in the consumed. Coinage developed during the Sec- field in this Cambridge Companion. These ond Temple period, and interest on loans was essays analyze the history of Pentecostalism, very high. Creditors were often free to change its various expressions around the world, and the terms of a loan at any time. Usury was various ways to study the tradition. high. Two of the upwardly mobile vocations The book is divided into three parts. were those of the scribe and the priestly class. The first section traces the multiple origins Throughout this study the financial crisis re- of modern Pentecostalism and analyzes its ported in Nehemiah 5 plays a major role. globalization. It introduces various historio- The tax system under the various em- graphical proposals, examines the growth of pires was very onerous. Nehemiah declined Charismatic tradition within the “mainline” to take the taxes contributed to previous churches, and identifies its recent expressions. governors, but he was in no position to re- The second section explores the expressions duce the taxes granted by the Persians. Under of Pentecostalism in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Ptolemies and the Romans, local Judean the Americas. While underlining the hetero- citizens engaged in tax farming, making sure geneity of this transnational movement, the that the imperial powers, local governors, and authors subtly and skillfully identify its con- the priestly class were adequately funded. The necting threads and themes. Considering

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65 cases from around the world, the final sec- his most recent sources on existential mean- tion demonstrates how Pentecostalism can be ing strategies. His chief theological source studied through various disciplinary lenses, for existential theology is Paul Tillich, chiefly such as sociology, theology, and cultural an- backed by Alfred Adler and Erich Fromm. thropology. The reader could easily think that Ritten- This Cambridge Companion provides house is repristinating the theology of the a clear and comprehensive introduction to 1950s. However, the hinge of Rittenhouse’s the Pentecostal tradition. Written by seven- argument occurs in Chapter 5, where he teen respected experts, the book brings voices cites Tim Kasser’s work in psychology (from and cases from around the globe. It is com- 2004), which demonstrates that people prehensive in investigating Pentecostal beliefs “primed with thoughts of death, guilt, or and practices. It analyzes Pentecostalism’s meaninglessness are more likely to display history and present, approaching the subject consumeristic values and desires” (147). from multiple disciplines. This book is a use- The question of existence did not die ful introduction and reference tool to pastors with Paul Tillich. Rittenhouse sees Tillich’s and seminarians interested in understanding theology as a starting point for theological at- Pentecostalism. tempts to counter consumerism with Chris- tianity. Within the confines of the argument James Elisha Taneti Rittenhouse is spot on, although for the sake Campbell University of his argument he can narrow definitions, sometimes to absurdity. For example, he re- jects postmodern opposition to consumer- Shopping for Meaningful Lives: The ism because his definition of “postmodern” Religious Motives of Consumerism. is “consumerist.” Therefore any postmodern By Bruce P. Rittenhouse. Eugene, Ore.: opposition is logically incoherent. Nonethe- Cascade Books, 2013. ISBN: 978-1- less Rittenhouse does make a powerful case 6203-2114-0. xii and 211 pages. Paper. for an existential Christian opposition to $25.00. consumerism.

Rittenhouse argues that consumerism is an Timothy Andrew Leitzke existential meaning strategy, and therefore Tree of Life Lutheran Church, Odessa, Delaware has been misunderstood by every major attempt to confront it. If the church is to counter consumerism, it must propose a Christian How to Get Your Sermon Heard: Preach- existential meaning strategy. ing to Win Minds and Hearts. By Wil- Rittenhouse identifies five types of liam Hethcock. Sewanee, Tenn.: Plateau theories about consumerism’s cause: greed, Books, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-9814-7954- status signaling, manipulation by advertising, 5, 330 pages. Paper. $25.00. “imaginative hedonism” (the consumer imagining what she could do with a commodity), Hethcock’s How to Get Your Sermon Heard and “parental concern” (competition over re- provides a valuable contribution to the homi- sources required to meet perceived needs of letical conversation. While this may first ap- children). Rittenhouse evaluates these with pear as a textbook for introductory preachers, empirical data, such as savings rates among the most experienced homiletician will find U.S. adults, the reported happiness of U.S. valuable content within. Americans, and changes in employment sta- Hethcock begins with an approach to tus and income. Rittenhouse finds that the preaching that always originates with the Bi- data do not justify any of the five types of ble. Scriptural interpretation is vital for Het- theories, but they do support his theory of hcock’s method, for, in his eyes, Christian ser- consumerism as existential life strategy. mons must arise from the Christian scriptures. Rittenhouse does not make enough of Yet, he also demands deep attention to context.

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66 Thus his Four Step Method: exegesis of the text, evaluation of the human condition Briefly Noted in the textual context, evaluation of the human condition in the present context, and proclamation of the word to the present context. Hethcock guides the reader to begin In Saving Karl Barth: Hans Urs von with the text, consider the text’s authorship Balthasar’s Preoccupation (Minneapolis: and audience, and then consider the preach- Fortress, $49.00), Stephen Long presents the er’s particular location in order to develop a unlikely friendship between mid-twentieth- proclamation that remains biblically faithful century theologians Karl Barth (Reformed) and yet contextually compelling. and Hans Urs von Balthasar (Roman Cath- Next, Hethcock launches into a number olic) with the intent of reigniting current of particular preaching tasks, whether textual ecumenical dialogue between Protestants and or situational. He provides salient advice on Roman Catholics. Long shows that through- how to preach on complex books like Revela- out his career von Balthasar took Barth’s doc- tion and the Gospel of John, as well as how to trine of God and the divine attributes with approach the Old Testament as a whole. He the utmost seriousness, largely because he saw also provides helpful advice for the contexts Barth offering a portrait of God as beauty— of marriages and funerals. the most important divine attribute for von Hethcock discusses two vital points Balthasar. Von Balthasar found that Barth’s in this book that contribute significantly to work on Anselm paralleled his own apprecia- the field. First, he devotes an entire chapter tion for the “analogy of being,” which argues to the role of imagination in preaching. He for the inter-relatedness of creatures based on provides examples and compels preachers to their desire for the Creator. Highly techni- utilize their own imaginations—not only in cal, this book is most fitting for Barth or von exegetical interpretation but in sermonic pre- Balthasar scholars. sentation. Mark Mattes Perhaps equally important is Hethcock’s reaffirmation of narrative preaching, some- Preaching and the Personal. Edited by J. times called the “New Homiletic.” In short, Dwayne Howell. Cambridge: Lutter- he suggests that the most effective sermons worth, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-6109-7826- utilize a captivating plot that fittingly com- 2, xii and 158 pages. Paper. $20.00. municates the word to the people gathered. For a valuable refresher or a first time This collection offers a valuable resource for introduction, How to Get Your Sermon Heard those wondering how to faithfully manage offers a fantastic resource for all preachers the personal dimension of preaching God’s wishing to hone their craft. word. The text includes papers originally given at the annual gathering of the Society Andrew Tucker for Biblical Literature. Each author explores a different perspective of personal engagement, including aspects of performance, testimony, memory, gender, and culture. Some look at the appearance of personal dynamics in biblical texts, particularly John’s gospel and Leviticus. While readers will likely find some chapters more relevant to their particular context, the offerings of each author deserve consideration for how we, as personal beings, engage in the practice of preaching.

Andrew Tucker

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Fifth Sunday in Lent –Seventh Sunday of Easter

Engaging the Texts—Welcome to the New Editor of Preaching Helps!

Note: On behalf of the whole Currents editorial staff, I am delighted to welcome Barbara K. Lundblad as the new editor of Preaching Helps. We introduced her more formally in the last issue, in eager expectation of the first publication of Preaching Helps under her leadership. That time has now come! As she introduces herself and expresses gratitude to the authors who have written the commentaries for this issue, we express gratitude for her leadership and for her own lively commentaries on several lectionary texts in the pages below. We trust that you will find them deeply engaging and helpful as you encounter the texts in relationship to your own lives and contexts of ministry. Kathleen Billman

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This is my first issue as editor of Preaching Helps and I am honored to begin this work with all of you. I say “with all of you” because preaching is never a solitary task but one done in the company of colleagues and congregants. Also I will be looking for writers for future issues of Currents and I’m happy to receive your recommenda- tions. We know there are many preaching resources available in print and online. What we try to do in Currents is offer brief comments that are accessible and easy to take along wherever you are working on a sermon. Long-time readers may notice that I have changed the name of the first section of Preaching Helps to “Engaging the Texts” rather than “First Reading.” The former title seemed confusing since that is also the name of the first lectionary reading and whenever possible, writers will comment on all three readings and sometimes the Psalm as well. I recently retired from Union Theological Seminary in New York City where I taught preaching for seventeen years. Before that I served as a parish pastor in northern Manhattan and as campus pastor at two New York City colleges. In spring 2015 I will teach preaching at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. I am grateful to Karyn Wiseman and Brad Froslee for accepting my invitation to write during a very busy time at the end of the semester and the beginning of Advent. The Rev. Dr. Karyn L. Wiseman is Associate Professor of Homiletics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. An Elder in the United Methodist Church, she pastored congregations in Kansas and New Jersey for fifteen years. She received a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Drew University with a concentration in preaching. Her most recent book, I Refuse to Preach a Boring Sermon: Engaging 21st Century Listeners, was published in 2013 by Pilgrim Press.

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The Rev. Brad Froslee serves as pastor with the people at Calvary Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis. Brad grew up on a farm near Vining, Minnesota, and studied at St. Olaf College and Harvard Divinity School. He has a passion for preaching and worship, community connection, and grace as a springboard to action. God bless your preaching and your listening as we move into the holiest season of the church year.

Barbara K. Lundblad Editor, Preaching Helps

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69 Fifth Sunday in Lent those sins. He is pleading with God for March 22, 2015 forgiveness and the second chance that Jeremiah 31:31–34 comes from the cleansing of one’s trans- Psalm 51:1–12 gressions through salvation. In golfing, a Hebrews 5:5–10 player can get a “do-over” by claiming a John 12:20–33 “Mulligan.” Receiving a “do-over” in life is a profoundly important moment. We Engaging the Texts all are sinful and are in need of a “Mul- Jeremiah: Covenant language is an impor- ligan.” We receive this through the love tant part of the Hebrew Bible. Readers and grace of God. We receive this through of the entire story in this testament learn the power of the salvific acts of Jesus. of moments when the covenant was lived We receive it by naming our sinfulness faithfully and moments when the people and being repentant for that sinfulness. of God betrayed the covenant and failed Claiming that forgiveness is a vital step. to live into it. This is much like what we continue to do today. Gospel: In this reading, individuals who “Covenant,” as detailed in the Bible, are not part of the Jewish community is defined as the agreement between God come to see and hear Jesus. They have and the ancient Israelites, in which God come because they seek him. They had, promised to protect them if they kept like many during those days, heard of his the law and were faithful.1 The covenant teaching and healing. For all we know, between God and God’s people is one that they might have been friends with Philip. gets played out throughout the history of The grain of wheat needing to die in order both Jews and Christians. The covenant to flourish is an element of nature that that has been prophesied in chapters 30 many would have been very familiar with. and 31 of Jeremiah is now detailed in a This reading also alludes to the reality of more explicit nature. Unlike previous Jesus’ own life that will be played out over covenants, which have been displayed the next few weeks through the readings on stones, this covenant will be written during Holy Week. The allusions to his on people’s hearts. This is a profound coming death are clear, but there is an image for preaching. Knowing that God’s homage to the baptism and transfigura- promises are not simply a contract written tion of Jesus as well. When a voice from out in legal terms, but are carefully and heaven proclaims the glory of the Son, consciously written onto our hearts can we are once again reminded of the past be a transformative reality for those who glorification and the glorification to come. hear this message of grace. Helping listeners hear the difference between “contract” Pastoral Reflections and “covenant” would be important. Preaching throughout the season of Lent can be incredibly enriching and powerful. Psalm: In this text we read of David’s We live in a culture that is profoundly confession of sins and his repentance for image-rich and the texts during Lent are image-rich as well. We think and 1. http://dictionary.reference.com/ remember through images. Preaching browse/covenant (Accessed November 30, sermons that are centered on images 2014). and use descriptive language can bring

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70 listeners into our preaching in important are obviously links between these images, ways. Utilizing the power of these images but the preacher has to make choices. as a preacher can add rich dimensions What do your people in your pews need to the preaching moment and provide to hear? How can you best relate those entry points for those in our communi- images to them—through story, poetry, ties of faith. or images? Be aware of the contextual In the Gospel text, as well as the bap- needs of your people and craft a sermon tism and transfiguration stories alluded that addresses their needs. to in the imagery of the text, and in the Karyn Wiseman covenant language of the Jeremiah text, we see and hear God “naming and claiming” God’s beloved. One of the most blessed Palm and Passion Sunday moments in pastoral ministry, for me, is March 29, 2015 to baptize someone. Naming that person Isaiah 50:4–9a as a “Child of God,” claiming them for Psalm 118:1–2, 19–29 and within the community of faith, and Philippians 2:5–11 placing the water on their head is a signifi- Mark 11:1–11 (Palms) cant moment for the initiate, their family, Mark 14:1–15:47 (Passion) and for the congregation. But for me it is also a profound and spiritual moment. Engaging the Texts The joy of being God’s representative in Isaiah: The clarity of trust in this third these events has brought me to tears. The Servant’s Song, despite dealing with dif- first baptism I ever performed was of two ficulty, is a testimony to faithfulness that teenagers who came to faith through our few of us can exhibit. The phrase “morning youth ministry program. We all cried by morning” reminds me of the lyrics of throughout the baptism. These young the hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” people had names, histories, and families, but being publically claimed as children Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy of God for the first time was a powerful faithfulness! event for us all. These ritual experiences Morning by morning new mercies I see; are special. The readings today once again All I have needed Thy hand hath take us to the claiming of God’s beloved. provided— Being beloved by God can lead us to a Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto transformed life. me!2 Stepping into the pulpit on this fifth Sunday of Lent, the images and threads The promise of God’s persistent love each of covenant, repentance, and claiming are and every day is one that has potential to quite powerful. But these diverse threads bring comfort despite all we face in our can feel disjointed and can lead to a ser- daily lives. We may not always feel that mon that is focused on too many different love, but it is there nonetheless. ideas. Discerning the primary focus is one of the most important steps preachers can take in helping their listeners engage the 2. https://www.hymnal.net/en/ sermon. So pick one theme, one image, hymn/h/19 (Accessed on December 10, and one main thing. Let it shine. There 2014).

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71 Palms text (Mark 11): Jesus rides into Je- from experiencing Holy Week services.3 rusalem as David or Solomon might have For this reason and others, engaging this entered the city to shouts and praise, but Gospel text as Mark has written it becomes this strange king is on the back of a lowly vitally important. colt. This is an image that most people in the congregation are familiar with. The Pastoral Reflections allusion to the humble entry depicted Preaching on Palm/Passion Sunday can in Zech 9:9 is evident. The people along be an issue for the preacher. There are so the road were chanting Psalm slogans many rich texts and vivid images from celebrating the entry of a king, but this which to choose that the task can become leader is to be different from what anyone overwhelming. Knowing the focus of your expected. message, whether palms, passion, or some combination of the two, is imperative. Passion text (Mark 14 and 15): The story There are a number of reasons to of Jesus on the way to the cross is a read and incorporate both the palm and multi-faceted look at a week’s worth of passion texts. The reality is that some events and encounters: an anointing, a people will not attend all of the Holy Week meal with friends, a trial and the cross services planned for your community of itself. The opening image is of Jesus faith. Providing an opportunity for them being anointed by an unnamed woman to hear both sets of texts before they re- with very expensive ointment. The ex- turn for Easter Sunday is very important. travagance of this act portrays—for the However, simply reading all of the texts reader and the listener—the ability for for this week can feel daunting, let alone us all to be extraordinarily extravagant preaching a sermon with so many foci for in our love for and care of others. Jesus the day. proclaims that this woman’s story will be The preacher has to make a deci- remembered forever. What a phenomenal sion. Is the reading and hearing of the witness of grace. The move from Bethany Gospel narratives with a very brief mes- into Jerusalem was dictated by Jewish law sage enough in your context? Is there an as the Passover meal had to be consumed expectation that you preach on all of the within that city. texts? Or is it possible in your community During the meal, the disciples are of faith to read all of the texts, preach told of the upcoming betrayal of Jesus by a sermon of typical length, and know one of his most trusted companions. Judas when church is over—it’s over—without was not predestined to betray Jesus. He complaint if it “runs over”? Know your made his own choice and we, too, make context as you begin this week’s preaching our own choices in life—some good and preparation and lean into that. some bad. As the week progresses, we Themes for this Sunday could include see more intense scenes in the Garden the image of journey. The journey through of Gethsemane, the arrest, and the trial. these texts is a complicated one, as is the All of these events bring us to the final journey that Jesus takes through this final acts of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Many people today know more about 3. http://www.gbod.org/resources/ this story from movies like The Passion of palms-or-passion (Accessed on December Christ and The DaVinci Codethan they do 2, 2014).

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72 week of his life. Another possibility is the meal. The communal nature of the meal, use of juxtaposition between the crowd especially for families not large enough shouting “Hosanna” at the beginning of to have a lamb on their own, sets up this the week and the crowd shouting “Crucify” week’s readings with the theme of holy later in the week. One might also use the meals. The lamb is an important part relationship between bitter and sweet as of the meal, not just because it is on the a way to talk about the highs and lows of menu, but because it is the lamb’s blood the week’s events by using the meal images that is to be sprinkled over the door to in the texts. mark Jewish homes to protect their first- We can all too easily identify with born sons from the angel of the Lord. The those who might be labeled as fickle in gift of deliverance and protection of the their choices as depicted in these readings, Jews was a gracious act by God and the both the crowds and the disciples. But it yearly Passover meal was to be honored as is important to hear the presence of God a reminder of this grace. and God’s faithful acts in the life, suffering, death, and coming resurrection of 1 Corinthians: The words in this text may Jesus. God is active and evident in these be some of the most familiar in all of the narratives. Jesus is not a helpless victim in New Testament, particularly to those all of this. He is the protagonist. He an- who have grown up in the church. These nounces his death and interacts with the words, profoundly echoed in our Eucha- Jewish and Roman characters in the story.4 ristic liturgies, guide us to the table of our Seeing God, in the person of Jesus, acting Lord. The words are so well known that decisively in his own drama is something many could and probably do recite them important to note for our listeners. We, internally along with the presider when too, must be active participants in our own they are spoken from the table. Regardless journeys of faith. And, like Jesus, we are of how your tradition understands Eucha- not alone on this trek. ristic theology, this act of remembrance of Karyn Wiseman the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal liturgical act that connects all who partake with the saints eternal and Maundy Thursday the gathered community. The words are April 2, 2015 powerful, but the physical act of eating Exodus 12:1–4 and drinking is profoundly important. Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 Gospel: The narrative of Jesus’ Last Supper John 13:1–17, 31b–35 with the disciples has been depicted by some of the most famous artists in history. Engaging the Texts This meal is one of the key moments of Exodus: The Exodus passage includes the disciples’ collective experiences. We part of the instructions for the Passover are reminded in John’s text that they were gathered for a meal, but in the midst of 4. Mary Margaret Pazdan. “Pas- it they received an astonishing blessing sion Narratives” in The New Interpreter’s when Jesus washes their feet. In this act Handbook of Preaching. (Nashville, Tenn.: we witness the humanity, humility, and Abingdon Press, 2008), 94. love of Jesus. He rises from the table to

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73 wash the disciples’ feet and in that one connect the meals in the texts with our moment we are reminded of how we are most ordinary daily meals. Jesus is present to serve and sacrifice for others. But, like in these meals, too. Peter, we want to turn the table and wash The other primary image from the texts the feet of Jesus instead. is Jesus’ washing of the feet of the disciples. Love is the final piece of this reading. Many people are incredibly uncomfort- Jesus has first modeled servant love, but able with the act of foot washing—and then he speaks emphatically that the new I’m among them! Feet are body parts that commandment he brings is to love one many of us hide within socks and shoes. another. In doing so people show their When a foot-washing ritual is suggested, discipleship to him. This is the crux of we’re the ones who hang back and hope no the Gospel narrative. one notices that we never came forward. Allowing another person to touch our feet is Pastoral Reflections bad enough, but to be subjected to someone Babette’s Feast is one of my all-time favorite washing our feet is too much. Hearing about movies. The film is about a young French Jesus doing this is a powerful reality. Jesus woman who comes to work for two Danish knew what was coming. He announced, sisters in a small village. Babette wins the “The hour has come to depart,” so he was lottery and chooses to use her winnings to clearly aware of all that was to come (v. 1). cook an extravagant feast for the sisters and And in the midst of dealing with his own their friends. What follows is an amazing feelings, he stopped to serve the ones who visual feast of cooking and eating. The followed him. reserved Danish guests do not want to Helping your listeners pause in the enjoy the meal, but the extraordinary feast midst of their own lives to serve others is impossible to ignore and they succumb in every way possible would be a signifi- to the astonishing magnificence of the cant message to deliver from the pulpit. meal. Likewise, the meals in this week’s Helping your community of faith live texts, the Passover and the Last Supper, out their faith with a servant attitude and are meals that have lasting and profound participate in vital, physical, and humble importance for both Jewish and Christian service sometimes requires concrete communities. examples of ways to do that. Providing Meal metaphors invite connections to these concretizations from the life of the peoples’ lives. Family and friends gathering community, from the wider context of around a meal are almost commonplace our world and your church, and from the in many cultural contexts. We gather for individual lives of your people will go a meals for holidays, birthday celebrations, long way to help them live into this call. special occasions, and for other reasons. Living faithfully and loving fully is what Meals in my family are loud and exhila- this new commandment is all about. rating. They can be joyous and at times Karyn Wiseman complicated. But we always look forward to them. Utilizing the meal metaphor of the readings for this day is not only easy, given the threads of connection between the various texts, it is expected. And that is absolutely the right thing to do. We also

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74 Good Friday from John’s gospel. Evidently the garden April 3, 2015 where Jesus was arrested was a place that Isaiah 52:13–53:12 the disciples had visited before with Jesus, as Psalm 22 Judas knows the place well. This familiarity Hebrews 10:16–25 is striking. Using a familiar place to betray John 18:1–19:42 (or Mark 14:1–15:47) a friend and leader is frightening. Who among us has not encountered betrayal of Engaging the Texts one kind or another? But this is another The Isaiah text is the fourth “Servant layer of betrayal. Song” in the book of Isaiah, usually John’s gospel is extremely helpful called the Suffering Servant text. In this in bringing the reader into the physical text we sense the patterns of sinfulness, realities of Jesus’ suffering and death. redemption, judgment, and grace that are Many scholars describe Christ’s death as part of the story of the Hebrew people taking less time than was typical of oth- in the Old Testament. This text is about ers who were crucified signifying that he the long-awaited Messiah, but it is not willingly gave up his life on the cross.5 specifically about the person of Jesus of The crown of thorns, the nailing of his Nazareth. Preaching the gospel into this body to the wood, and the piercing of his text does not do justice to the Hebrew side are vivid reminders of the suffering narrative, but it is still hard not to “hear” he endured. This fact taken into proper Jesus as we read the text. Attend with perspective means more to the listener integrity to the realities of the context of even in the modern era. this passage in its time and place. The suffering servant of God is lifted Pastoral Reflections up in this text. The song expresses a num- Good Friday is one of the most profound ber of differing realities: he is exalted, he and sobering moments in the cycle of sacrificially cleanses, his words will not be the Christian year. Being given the op- honored, and he will give himself over to portunity to preach on this holy day is pain and sickness. The powerful reality both a privilege and an honor. On this is that this chosen servant of God will most solemn day, preaching means telling bear our pain and sickness—willingly. the story. For many who are part of the The servant will suffer for our sins and church, Good Friday is one of the days we will be healed. Whatever your theory of the liturgical calendar that holds the of atonement, this is the crux of the pas- most meaning. In the midst of this service sage—the assurance that our sins will be they feel both the depths of despair and removed and our pain and sickness will be the heightened awareness of what is to healed. At the end, this passage also states come. For others, for whom being present emphatically that the servant will triumph in this service of darkness and death may over death (53:10–12). However, it is the be new or problematic, the feelings may self-giving nature of the servant that is so be raw and uncertain. Preaching needs to powerful for most readers and listeners. be sensitive to the emotional range that may well be present in the room. Gospel: The Gospel passage for Good Friday includes the betrayal, arrest, and trial of 5. Accordance Bible Software com- Jesus as well as the crucifixion narrative mentary on John 18:1–19:42.

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75 We live in a world of such pain and Easter Sunday suffering. People are killed by rampant April 5, 2015 gun violence. Black and brown lives are Acts 10:34–43 or Isaiah 25:6–9 relegated to a “less than” status far too Psalm 118:1–2, 14–34 often. Women are paid less and forced 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 to hear others denigrate their bodies and Mark 16:1–8 choices. Relating to the suffering in these texts can help our listeners connect to the Engaging the Texts pain and suffering of Jesus, which can be All four Gospels along with the Gospel of pivotal to hearing the message. Often we Thomas and the Gospel of Mary include feel distance between Jesus and our own women as the first witnesses of the empty lives. This is a moment when our own tomb. The presence of the women “is experiences and the suffering of others a non-negotiable part of tradition…”6 can lead our congregation members into While the names and the number of the story in a more personal manner. women vary, Mary Magdalene is always Preaching on these very familiar there. Three women are featured in Mark’s texts can be both a blessing and a curse. account. These three women were remem- Acknowledging that many know these bered by name at the cross (15:40) and texts quite well and will come with as- two of them saw the place where Jesus sumptions and understandings of their was buried (15:47). own will be key. You as the preacher have Mark’s resurrection story seems the opportunity to speak something new rushed—like the first verse of his gospel. and intriguing into this situation. Con- “The beginning of the good news of Jesus necting the garden images of the Hebrew Christ, the Son of God.” There isn’t even a creation story and the garden of Jesus’ verb! Mark’s resurrection story ends with the arrest might be an important image for word gar—“for.” That ending feels unfinished you to develop. Perhaps the relationship and it didn’t take long for others to add a between the suffering servant and the shorter ending, then a longer ending! But suffering Christ is your leading motif. Mark’s original ending wasn’t haphazard but One of the questions about preach- very well planned. The grammar and syntax ing on Good Friday is how to end the of Mark 16:8 show a carefully constructed sermon and service. Leaving people verse in two parallel parts: with the discomfort of loss and death The finalgar creates an especially is a powerful way to send them into the abrupt ending to the gospel. However, emotional reality of Holy Saturday and the author has artfully shortened the then to Easter Sunday. The final piece of clauses to wind the syntax down toward this passage is the placing of the body of the gar. The two halves of v. 8a each Jesus in the tomb by a secret disciple, Jo- have six words in Greek; the two halves seph of Arimethea, and Nicodemus. This of v. 8b wind down to four words, loving act seals the story and leaves off in then two….7 a world without a Savior. The hope and promise is that Jesus will be resurrected, 6. Joan L. Mitchell, Beyond Fear and but for now he is gone and we have to Silence: A Feminist-Literary Reading of Mark sit in that darkness. (New York: Continuum, 2001), 39. Karyn Wiseman 7. Ibid., 15.

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76 Mark created an unfinished ending. He’s headed for Galilee. We can be quite sure pointing beyond this story and wants the of that because some time after this, they reader to move beyond the story, too. That must have said something to somebody. little word gar isn’t a mistake, but a word They headed for home. Something hap- that leaves readers on the edge of their pened to them in Galilee as it had hap- chairs, tipping forward. New Testament pened before. Oh, we can argue that they scholar Joan Mitchell sees the women’s went out believing because they had seen silence as an intentional strategy in Mark, the tomb empty. But what sort of evidence opening a space for the reader to respond: is that? The empty tomb could only be The women’s concluding silence creates the source of endless speculation, never generative potential space…in which the source of faith. These women went to readers and hearers can respond. The Galilee and Jesus met them there. How? empty tomb and the fear and silence What did he look like? What did he say? of the last disciple characters surviv- Mark tells us none of these things. But it ing in the narrative bring the readers was more than the memory of an empty and hearers to their own thresholds of tomb that broke their silence. Here’s faith, to the limit of words to speak another question: Why would anybody the unspeakable, to the limit of story remember the testimony of these three to make the absent One convincingly women? There was no reason under the present, and to the limit of human sun to remember those whose voices experience to trust Who or What is had absolutely no authority. Their testi- beyond death.8 mony was next to worthless in verifying anything, let alone resurrection. Only Pastoral Reflections something deeper than terror could break We are closer to these three women their silence. It happened in Galilee. It than to any other resurrection story. They always does. didn’t see Jesus (at least not in this story). For Galilee is the place Jesus is We haven’t seen Jesus either. The empty going—ahead of us, just as Jesus went tomb proved nothing except that Jesus ahead of them. Easter morning moves was gone. Let these women be afraid us out of the graveyard toward Galilee, and perhaps we will allow ourselves to the place Jesus has promised to meet us. be afraid also. We always want more evidence than we But there was something else. “Gali- have. If we are honest, we, too, are filled lee.” That’s what the man in white said: with terror and amazement. “Who will “Go back to Galilee.” The young man had roll the stone away for us?” is not an old been quite specific. “Go, tell his disciples question. Who will roll away the stone and Peter that he is going ahead of you of doubt? How will we know this Easter to Galilee; there you will see him, just as gospel is true? What will finally assure us he told you.” But the women fled, filled that this good news is not preposterous? with terror and amazement. They said We stand today with these three nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. women. They didn’t know the answers And that’s where Mark’s story ends. either. But they headed toward Galilee. Now the text doesn’t say it, but they They knew without saying a word that this was the direction faith was taking them. As 8. Ibid., 114. pastor/novelist Frederick Buechner said,

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77 “We want to know who Jesus is before pened–it was simply a utopian vision of we follow him, and that is understand- the early church; however, this text is fol- able enough except that the truth of the lowed by two stories that make the picture matter is that it is only by first following quite real. Barnabas was commended for him that we can begin to find out who selling his field and laying the money at he is.”9 the apostles’ feet. Ananias and Sapphira Barbara Lundblad also sold a field, kept some money for themselves, and fell dead at the apostles’ feet. Sounds pretty serious! Second Sunday of Easter This Sunday begins five weeks of April 12, 2015 reading through 1 John. The letter begins Acts 4:32–35 with images of light and life from the Psalm 133 prologue of John’s gospel. Some listen- 1 John 1:1–2:2 ers will hear familiar words from the John 20:19–31 liturgy: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in Engaging the Texts us….” You might preach a series of five Thomas always comes on the Sunday sermons on 1 John or help people come after Easter whether we’re in Year A, B, to a deeper understanding of liturgical or C. Lectionary planners knew this story language rooted in scripture. needed to be heard every year, but before Or, you might turn to Thomas even we get to Thomas, a quick look at the if you have preached on this text many other readings. times. There’s a problem at the beginning: Acts 4 is seldom quoted by defend- “the doors of the house…were locked for ers of capitalism! In the Acts community fear of the Jews.” Remind listeners that “no one claimed private ownership of any everyone inside that room was Jewish! You possession, but everything they owned might change the public reading to say was held in common” (4:32). Of course, “fear of the authorities.” It’s important to Luke was not describing Rome or the acknowledge that anti-Jewish animosity United States, but a community of Jesus’ leaked back into John’s gospel from a later followers centuries ago. We hear echoes of time. This is important on these Sundays Acts 2:42–47 at the end of the Pentecost after Easter when there is no reading from chapter. There, too, the believers had all the Old Testament (except for the Psalm). things in common, sold possessions and We don’t want people to think we have distributed to those in need. A significant given up the Old Testament after Jesus’ difference in Acts 4 is the heightened role resurrection. Jesus appears inside the of the apostles. Those who sold posses- locked room without knocking. His body sions are called to lay the proceeds “at has been transformed in some mysterious the apostles’ feet.” The apostles will then way, but still bears the wounds of cruci- distribute goods to those in need. Some fixion. It is the wounded Christ who says, have argued that this sharing never hap- “Peace be with you.” Jesus had promised the disciples peace when he sat at table 9. Frederick Buechner, The Mag- with them for the last time (14:27). He nificent Defeat(New York: Seabury Press, had also promised them the gift of the 1966), 98. Holy Spirit (14:16–17, 25–26; 15:7–15).

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78 Now Jesus was breathing that Spirit and earlier parts of John’s gospel (e.g., Ni- that peace into them. Past promises are codemus in John 3, characteristics of now present. the Spirit/Advocate in John 14 and 15). But where was Thomas? Why didn’t • “Peace be with you”—how can we help he feel the need to be in hiding? No ex- people experience deeper meaning in planation is given but there is no reason passing the peace during worship? to think that Thomas ran away. It was What word of peace do you long to Thomas who said he was willing to die hear? with Jesus (11:16). It was Thomas who asked Jesus to show him the way (14:5). • What does it mean to retain or forgive Jesus meets Thomas at the point of his sins? Is this a word only for ordained need: “Put your finger in the nail prints pastors? and place your hand in my side.” It isn’t • The significance of Jesus’ wounds: if clear if Thomas actually does this but we don’t see the wounds, we won’t he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” see Jesus. Where do we see wounds in Then Jesus speaks words that aren’t re- our own lives and in the larger world? ally for Thomas at all. Jesus is looking This can be a very personal sermon or a over Thomas’ shoulder, looking at the more public consideration of the tragic preacher and the congregation, giving us a wounds of racism in the United States. benediction: “Blessed are those who have • “Do not doubt, but believe”—Can not seen and yet have come to believe.” there be faith without doubt? What does it mean to believe in spite of doubt? Pastoral Reflections If you have preached on Thomas too many People feel a special kinship with Thomas. times, you may decide to preach on Acts 4. A lifetime of preaching and listening can- What would it mean if our congregations not exhaust this friendship. were shaped by this communal sharing? Barbara Lundblad As noted above, Luke isn’t talking about the economy of a whole society and yet if Jesus’ followers were shaped by this Third Sunday of Easter communal ethic they could be a catalyst April 19, 2015 for the common good beyond the church. Acts 3:12–19 How can people help one another with Psalm 4 difficult economic decisions? “Household 1 John 3:1–7 Economics” is an especially helpful chap- Luke 24:36b–48 ter in the book Practicing Our Faith, edited by Dorothy Bass. Pentecost ends too soon Engaging the Texts if we don’t connect the outpouring of the The hallelujahs are quieting down, the Spirit with the transformed life believers trumpets are in their cases, and the flowers are called to share with one another. have been sent to homebound members— John 20 offers an abundance of or are slowly wilting as the custodian (or themes. Here are glimpses of a few—but pastor) tries to remember to water them. you cannot choose them all: By this third Sunday of Easter much in • The connections between Spirit and the congregation seems to be returning breath/wind with many clues from to status quo. It is precisely in this time

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79 that the texts for today add significant and again of the turning and returning to power. There is another shaking up of the God. The Psalm offers a deeply embodied people…turning and returning. turning to God in prayer and awareness It may be helpful to remind people that God is present and engaged. The of Jesus’ path to the cross which winds Second Reading invites people to hear through the temple. It was in the temple the promise of being lifted up as beloved that Jesus challenged the practices of the children of God and turned and oriented day. Jesus took vendors, religious leaders, to what this means for the future. and well-established practices to task. Je- Finally, the Gospel is a powerful sus turned over the tables, turned people Easter story of journey, relationship, and from the temple (driving them out), and promise. Very likely many of us have turned several in authority against him. preached on the concepts of road/journey, This week we re-turn to the temple conversation/testimony, communion/ with Peter and John. These two Jesus- breaking of bread. Today, coupled with following-Jewish-disciples are practicing the other texts, there is an opportunity their faith and engaging in religious ritual to reflect on turning to encounter the and worship. At the temple Peter and wounded Jesus in our midst and being John encounter a man born lame who turned to joy and proclamation. turns to them for alms. Peter announces Just as Peter and John return to the that they have neither gold nor silver to temple and live and witness to new life give (an interesting note of not bringing in Jesus; just as the epistle writer turns money after Jesus drove money changers people in orientation to living as beloved from the place); rather, Peter holds out the children of God; just as the Gospel les- promise of life and healing in the name son—after two disciples returned from of Jesus the Nazarene (an announcement Emmaus—portrays the disciples being that likely made many uncomfortable). reoriented from fear to promise, there Then Peter grabs the man—“seizing” or is a wide sense of new life in turning to “arresting” him in the Greek—and makes the Holy. him stand. What does it mean for people who In the wake of Easter what does it are returning to church this third Sunday mean to take a “broken,” longing, hurt- of Easter to hear and proclaim the life and ing person waiting at the Beautiful Gate promise of Jesus? How are they seized of the Most High and to turn his gaze, and changed at the beautiful sanctuary arrest him (taking him by the arm), and doors? How is God embodied for them make him stand? The juxtaposition is in in story and breaking of the bread? The contrast to Jesus who Peter says was con- Easter story continues to turn and reorient demned and died. This man is lifted up us in our living and being. We are now and given life—all in the promise of God gifted in our re-turning to tell the story made known in Jesus. Peter now uses this (to witness and proclaim) to others. testimony to call all people to repent (be turned), to be seized by the promise made Pastoral Reflections known through the prophets, through Prior to my tenure at Calvary Lutheran ancestors in faith, and now Jesus—and in Minneapolis, the congregation remod- to be raised up (called to stand). eled the worship space. The communion In the texts that follow we hear again table came down to the main floor and

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80 the community created a space for part of Fourth Sunday of Easter the congregation to be seated in a circle April 26, 2015 or semi-circle. There is a gift in finding Acts 4:5–12 ways to restructure the worship space and Psalm 23 to invite people to hear the texts while 1 John 3:16–24 looking at one another. This is an oppor- John 10:11–18 tunity to really look at who has shown up and reflect on how God is telling a story Engaging the Texts of turning their gaze, seizing their arms, Wrapped in the texts for this week are and lifting them up in new life. words of restoration and healing. In the Today may also be an opportunity to first reading we encounter Peter “filled by teach people how to give their own testi- the Holy Spirit” giving testimony about mony. When we hear the words of Peter a man who is now in good health on ac- or experience the disciples being lifted up as witnesses, how are we equipped to count of the name of Jesus the Nazarene. share this story? How do we talk about Through Jesus new life is made known. the ways that God has oriented us? How The Second Lesson calls the follow- we have been turned or re-turned to God? ers of Jesus to live God’s love and to lay During the Easter season with broken down their lives for others; to give of their bread at Emmaus and Jesus sharing a meal abundance (the goods of the world) for of fish on the beach, it can be powerful the sake of their brothers and sisters in to do a “communion procession.” Many need. The lesson calls the community of us have experienced a Gospel proces- into the on-going witness of restoration. sion, but what does it mean to take the The Gospel frames restoration in the bread and cup out into the middle of life and laying down of life by the good the congregation and say the words of shepherd. This language speaks to the institution in the midst of the assembly? agrarian context and familiar image of This offers another way to see new life shepherd; it hearkens back to images of for the lame, the hurting, the longing. It David (of the keepers of God’s people). offers a deep and abiding promise of Jesus In this season of Easter, the concepts being seen today in our very presence as of healing and restoration are powerful. the meal is shared. It invites us to return Invite the community to reflect on what to the places from which we have come it means to hear of one who gives his very and to be witnesses of the en-fleshed life life to heal and restore the world and her and promise of God. people. What does it mean to understand The urban congregation I serve values God’s abundance and restoration being hearing and seeing the word challenge and poured out? How are we engaged in the change them. They long to see how the on-going work of God’s love and healing? word is calling them to deeper authentic The texts provide wonderful reflec- relationship. Today’s lessons accomplish tion on the power of God that is embodied both. Our hearts and minds, our journeys by Jesus. There is opportunity to celebrate and stories, are turned again to God who God’s Spirit dwelling or coming to life in seizes us from the life that has been and the people. lifts us high—through the cross—to walk The preacher may want to lift up tes- and live again. timony (Peter), God’s enduring promise Brad Froslee (Psalm), Jesus’ love for the people and

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81 through the people (1 John), the witness My guess is that as we hear the story of of the shepherd—tied to care of com- the good shepherd this may be an image munity and expanding promise (John). that resounds for a number of adults in Framing all of these is the salvific vision our congregation who either were that and action of God. The witness of Jesus person or were cared for by that person. now emboldens us to live and proclaim Many will be able to name how this person the restoration of life, relationship, and showed love or faith to them—people care for others. who gave of their life for others. It is also important to explore other Pastoral Reflections vocations akin to shepherd/care giver. Growing up on a farm and raising sheep Is there a school custodian who greets with 4-H, I love the ability to connect with all of the kids by name as they come to Jesus as the shepherd who gives his life for school, who cleans up after them, who the sheep. As a teenager I made treks to makes sure kids, teachers, and staff have our sheep barn every one to four hours everything they need? Is there a city bus during the night in the midst of lambing driver who knows the people at each stop, season. I also recall stories of my grandfa- who asks them about their day, who waits ther who spent time in the 1920s helping an extra minute to make sure someone with sheep in the hills and mountains of isn’t missed at their regular stop? Is there the Dakotas and Wyoming—watching a beautician or nurses’ aide in the area out for coyotes, mindful of cold weather, hospital or nursing home who goes out alert to dangers in the terrain. of the way to relate to the people who are The reality, however, is that the vast there, to ask about their hurts and pains, majority of people in church are far re- who gets to know people’s families and moved from the reality of shepherds (other gives people that extra effort? than perhaps a romanticized version), and The shepherds today may look very most are removed from agricultural life. different from the shepherds of 2,000 How can we take the richness and power years ago. Yet, there is a deep relationship, of these passages and bring them to bear a care for the other, a willingness to give on life in most of our congregations today? of oneself. There is a richness in thinking Some ideas that come to mind: how people today live out their lives and In our congregation there are a reveal love, healing, and promise. number of women (many now in their Grounded in the promise of Jesus’ 60s–90s) who might be described as restoring individuals, community, and neighborhood moms. Many of these the cosmos, the on-going witness is one women were stay-at-home moms who of following in his ways. There is an cared for their own children and were image Luther uses of each person being the safe place for kids in the area. They a “little christ.” Today we might invite monitored the neighborhood for dan- each person to be a “little shepherd.” In gers, they put Band-Aids on numerous experiencing the one who lays down all “boo-boos,” they put dinner on the table he has (ego, clothing, family—even last always expecting that they may have breath) for the sake of others, how are two to twenty more show up, they raced the followers of the Good Shepherd now around town to schools and doctors’ of- invited to give of themselves for the sake fices—and occasionally the police station. of others and the world? No matter age,

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82 gender, race, sexuality, class, status—or foreigners who do not share their religion! even vocation—the call of the shepherd Surely not by welcoming eunuchs who will who lays down his life now lays claim to have no children to pass on the faith! But our living, dying, and very being. If your God’s promise comes precisely to these community is one that provides oppor- two groups. The promise to eunuchs is tunities for healing services or testimony particularly striking: “I will give, in my during worship, this is a day that naturally house and within my walls, a monument opens up these possibilities. and a name better than sons and daughters” Brad Froslee (Isa 56:5). What an unexpected promise to those who would never have children to carry on their names! The Hebrew for Fifth Sunday of Easter a monument and a name is yad vashem, May 3, 2015 the name of the holocaust memorial in Acts 8:26–40 Jerusalem. Those who perished will be Psalm 22:25–31 remembered even if they died childless 1 John 4:7–21 with no one to recall their names. John 15:1–8 Isaiah 56 is the framework for the story in Acts. Luke is especially fond Engaging the Texts of Isaiah 40–66. Here in Acts 8 Isaiah’s This is a day to consider making a change promise to foreigners and eunuchs is in the appointed readings. Throughout embodied in one person—an Ethiopian the Easter season the First Reading is eunuch. Philip and the eunuch rode along always from Acts, with no reading from together as Philip interpreted words from the Old Testament except for the Psalm. Isaiah 53 about the one who was like a While there are good reasons to hear sheep led to slaughter, humiliated and Acts after Easter, there is a sense of loss denied justice. Perhaps they kept unroll- in not hearing readings from the Old ing the scroll until they came to chapter Testament—as though those texts no 56. Imagine the Ethiopian eunuch’s joy longer matter after Jesus rose from the as he heard God’s wonderful promise dead. On this Sunday it is especially especially for him. meaningful to hear Isaiah 56 alongside What about the gospel? There’s Acts 8; thus, the readings for this Sunday plenty of good news in both Isaiah and would be as follows: Acts. John 15 is also good news—even with images of judgment for those who First Reading Isaiah 56:1–8 fail to bear fruit. In one of his many “I Second Reading Acts 8:26–40 am” statements in John, Jesus chooses the image of vine and branches to show the Psalm and Gospel readings would remain close relationship between himself and his as appointed. disciples. We hear this text after Easter but Isaiah 56 speaks of two groups of Jesus was speaking at the Passover table, his people who have been excluded from last meal with the disciples before he was God’s chosen people: foreigners and eu- crucified. Over and over Jesus emphasizes nuchs. This was a surprising promise to the word “abide,” a very important word exiles returning from Babylon. How will since he would soon be leaving them. they maintain their unique relationship with God? Surely not by mingling with

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83 Pastoral Reflections there. Philip was interpreting the Isaiah I encourage preachers to focus on Acts 8 text—not because the Ethiopian eunuch alongside Isaiah 56. Both texts heard on couldn’t read, but because he didn’t yet the same day are rich with possibilities for understand the fullness of the story. preaching. The sermon can point to the Without a witness beyond the text, Philip many surprises in the Acts story. At the could not have seen Jesus in the text. We beginning the narrator tells us this is “a can help people who worry that we have wilderness road” (literally “a desert road,” given up the Bible when we help them erene). Tuck that away for later. We don’t see that the words written down invite talk much about eunuchs and if we do, we us to see more than the words written are probably embarrassed. Some people down! The final surprise comes when are born eunuchs, others are castrated the eunuch shouts, “Look, here is water!” (as the castrati boy sopranos castrated to Remember: this is a desert road—there keep their high voices). We don’t know shouldn’t be any water! Then he asks, about this eunuch’s past, but we do know “What is to prevent me from being bap- about his present. He is a very powerful tized?” Some might shout “Everything!” person, in charge of the queen’s treasury, You’re a foreigner. You’re a sexual misfit. well-educated, reading from his own You haven’t been to catechism class. But scroll in his own chariot. He has gone to here is water. Sometimes God makes a Jerusalem to worship. Was he allowed in river where there hasn’t been one before. the assembly of the Lord (see Deut 5:23)? Barbara Lundblad Had he been humiliated like the person in Isaiah? For many years churches have excluded and humiliated people seen as Sixth Sunday of Easter sexually different. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people may have gained May 10, 2015 respect in many professions, but Christian Acts 10:44–48 churches still named them unfit to serve in Psalm 98 the assembly of the Lord. We don’t have to 1 John 5:1–6 claim that the Ethiopian eunuch was gay John 15:9–17 or transgender to see that he would have been considered sexually “other.” How can Engaging the Texts we say to those who have been excluded: Krister Stendahl once told a group of You have been given a place within God’s Lutheran pastors in New York City, house, a monument and a name? “Don’t preach on love if it’s not in the Another surprise in this story is how text.” Well, this Sunday, love is in the Philip answers the eunuch’s question, texts! Love is explicit in John’s gospel “About whom does the prophet say this, as well as 1 John. It’s not hard to hear a about himself or about someone else?” call to love extravagantly in Acts 10 even Starting with the Isaiah text, Philip though “love” is not in the text. That story “proclaimed to him the good news about at the end of Acts 10 will be more fully Jesus.” But Jesus was not in the text! We understood when set within the whole believe that the Spirit anointed Philip chapter. Last Sunday we heard the story of and Luke the evangelist to “see” Jesus the Ethiopian eunuch baptized on a desert in Isaiah even though Jesus’ name isn’t road. Today the story focuses on someone

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84 very different from the Ethiopian eunuch. Pastoral Reflections Cornelius is not a foreigner, but leader I remember a Peanuts cartoon I saw years of a regiment of 100 Roman soldiers. He ago. Lucy proclaims in exasperation: “I is an insider in the culture even as the love mankind. It’s people I can’t stand!” Ethiopian eunuch was an outsider. He is How do we preach on a word as slippery a Gentile who is respected by the Jewish as “love”? I love my dog. I love ice cream. I community. Most of Acts 10 describes love my parents. I love music. I love God. Peter’s strange dream in which a sheet Knowing that there are three different comes down from heaven bearing all sorts Greek words for “love” may not be very of animals, many of them considered helpful. The same Greek word is used in unclean. “I’ve never eaten anything that this text for God’s love for Jesus, Jesus’ is profane!” Peter protests. Later he comes love for the disciples and Jesus’ command to see that the dream was about far more to love one another—all forms of agape. than food: “I truly understand that God This command to love one another shows no partiality” (10:34). After Peter’s came before Jesus began his last lecture. little sermon something shocking hap- He had just washed the disciples’ feet pens: the Holy Spirit falls on Cornelius’ when he said: “I give you a new com- household—even though they weren’t mandment that you love one another. circumcised or baptized. Connecting this Just as I have loved you, you also should story to the other readings, Peter and those love one another” (13:34). Did Jesus who came with him were being called to mean since I have loved you or because I more expansive acts of love. have loved you? What if Jesus meant in In the second reading from the last the way that I have loved you, you also chapter of 1 John, love and obedience should love one another? are intertwined. How do we love God? What does Jesus’ love look like in By keeping the commandments. This John’s gospel? In John 4, Jesus talks with makes love more than a squishy feeling a Samaritan woman at the well. She’s a and gives love content that is shaped by different gender, different ethnic group, God’s justice. As Cornel West often says, different religious tradition. This is a “Justice is what love looks like in public.” reaching-beyond-boundaries kind of love. John 15 emphasizes this same con- Four chapters later, Jesus bends down to nection between love and commandment. be with a woman accused of adultery. Her So what is the commandment? The accusers have the written law on their side, commandment is to love one another! It but Jesus does not condemn her. This is a often happens in the book of John that people-before-rules kind of love. In chapter we feel like we’re going in circles, getting 9 Jesus heals a man born blind and refuses a bit dizzy. Jesus repeats the command to to accept the conventional wisdom that love one another so often that we get the this man or his parents must have sinned. sense he really means it! This chapter is This is a love that challenges accepted norms. part of Jesus’ “farewell discourse” to his We can’t stop at every chapter, but there disciples—like a professor being asked: are many clues along the way that show What would you say if you knew this us how Jesus loved. At the Passover meal, were your last lecture? Perhaps by the time just before Jesus’ love command, we see a John was writing this gospel, love for one bending-down kind of love. At the end of another had become more difficult. his life, Jesus looked down from the cross

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85 and saw his mother and the disciple whom come near”—and it was quite clear Jesus he loved standing beside her. “Woman, didn’t mean a nation-state. After telling here is your son,” Jesus said. And to his the disciples they cannot know the time, disciple, “Here is your mother.” This is a we hear one of the biggest little words in family-creating kind of love where water scripture: “But.” That word usually marks is thicker than blood. an important shift, an alternative way of When love is shaped by God’s com- thinking. Here, that little word changes mandments this love can’t be whatever we the focus from speculative time to present- make up. How do we reach across bound- tense time. The focus also shifts away from aries to love people whose race is different Jesus to the disciples: “But you will receive from our own? How is that love shaped power when the Holy Spirit has come upon by God’s call for justice? Sometimes John’s you; and you will be my witnesses” (italics gospel can seem other-worldly, but this is added). Don’t spend your time trying to the gospel that shocked the philosophers: discern God’s mind; rather, believe that “And the Word (logos) became flesh and you are called to carry on the ministry of lived among us…” (1:14a). How can Jesus, empowered by the same Holy Spirit loving one another take on flesh? It’s not that anointed him back in Luke 4. optional: Jesus commanded us to love. The Gospel reading from Luke 24 Barbara Lundblad also tells the ascension story with a slightly different emphasis. In this ending to the resurrection story, Jesus “opened their Ascension Day minds to understand the scriptures.” He May 14, 2015 had done the same thing as he walked Acts 1:1–11 with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Psalm 47 Would they have recognized Jesus in the Ephesians 1:15–23 breaking of bread if they hadn’t heard him Luke 24:44–53 open the scriptures? Part of the disciples’ call is to continue this work, opening the Engaging the Texts scriptures. That call has been passed down Ascension Day always falls on the fortieth through a long chain of disciples to you day of Easter. The timing is based on Acts and me. 1:3 which tells us that the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples “during forty Pastoral Reflections days and speaking about the kingdom of Here’s a silly question: “Why do you stand God.” Congregations that do not have looking up toward heaven?” Wouldn’t Ascension Day services often move the YOU stand looking up toward heaven commemoration to the following Sun- if you had seen Jesus rising up? There day. Whether Thursday or Sunday, the was another time when two men in daz- Acts account is too important to miss. zling clothes appeared to the women at The disciples’ question is urgent: “Lord, the empty tomb. “Why do you look for is this the time when you will restore the the living among the dead?” they asked kingdom to Israel?” The question indicates the women. Their question must have that the disciples are still confused about seemed absurd for the women had not Jesus’ mission. Throughout his life, Jesus come looking for the living, but to pay kept saying, “The kingdom of God has respects to the dead.

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86 Jesus doesn’t seem to be where he’s many things wrong. Perhaps you have supposed to be. He was not in the tomb, friends who say, “Show me a church where but risen and gone to Galilee. In today’s ministers aren’t self-serving, where people story, Jesus was no longer on earth, but aren’t hypocritical, where love is genuine, risen beyond human sight. We might and I’ll join that church.” Maybe you have begin to believe that to be with Jesus said that yourself. We will have to wait a means to be somewhere other than where long time for this perfect church. Such a we are now. We, too, are left wondering. church takes up no space on this earth. There’s a wonderful woodcut of At the end of this Ascension Day Jesus’ ascension by Albrecht Durer. If service, invite people to look at each you look closely at the picture—not up other—across the aisle, behind and in in the clouds, but on the ground—you front. Ask people to keep their eyes open can see footprints on the earth. Durer as you pray the prayer from Ephesians: “I has carefully outlined Jesus’ footprints have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus down on the level where the disciples and your love toward all the saints, and for are standing with their mouths open. this reason I do not cease to give thanks Perhaps the artist was simply imagining for you as I remember you in my prayers.” a detail that isn’t in the text. Or perhaps, Go in peace. Jesus is here with us. he is asking us the question, “Why do Thanks be to God! you stand looking up into heaven?” The Barbara Lundblad witness we have received is not “What goes up must come down.” Rather it is this: “The one who went up is still around.” Seventh Sunday of Easter Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a deep sense of Christ’s footprints on the earth. “The body May 17, 2015 of Christ takes up space on the earth,” Acts 1:15–17, 21–26 he wrote in Cost of Discipleship. That is, Psalm 1 we do not have to leave this earth to be 1 John 5:9–13 with Christ, but Christ continues to be John 17:6–19 present to us in the power of the Spirit. Bonhoeffer goes on, “A truth, a doctrine, Engaging the Texts or a religion need no space for themselves. If you are marking today as Ascension They are disembodied entities...that is all. Sunday, see previous comments on those But the incarnate Christ needs not only texts. If you held Ascension Day services ears or hearts, but living people who will on Thursday, the focus today will be texts follow him.” The body of Christ takes up for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The first space on the earth. reading from Acts takes up the story after The Ephesians text says it boldly: Jesus’ ascension. In Luke’s understanding, “And [God]…has made [Christ] the head the disciples represent a restored and over all things for the church which is his renewed Israel; thus, it is critical that body, the fullness of him who fills all in there be twelve disciples corresponding to all.” Sometimes, it’s still easier to keep the twelve tribes. Judas must be replaced looking up there or out there or some- and his replacement must be someone where other than where we are—especially who has accompanied the disciples from if we think of the church as the body of Jesus’ baptism until his ascension. How Christ. We see so many blemishes, so that is possible is a mystery because

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87 the disciples were not called until after come to believe through their word. Then Jesus’ baptism. The two who qualify are shouldn’t we get rid of denominations? not known anywhere beyond this text: Some church growth workshops recom- Joseph called Barsabbas, also known as mend deleting denominational names all Justus, and Matthias. It may seem a rather together. I understand the reasoning: if arbitrary process to make the choice by you grew up as a Methodist you might casting lots, but there are many references never walk in the door of a church called to casting lots to make decisions in the “Lutheran.” And if you’ve never been Old Testament. Jonah 1:7–8 is probably inside a church, you have no idea what the most familiar. The lot fell to Matthias “Lutheran” is. Get rid of those denomina- and the circle of twelve was now complete, tions—let’s all be the one Christian family awaiting the promised gift of the Holy Jesus prayed for. Spirit that follows immediately in Acts 2. Well, there’s a problem. Jesus prayed Today completes the readings from that they might all be one, not the same. 1 John that began the Sunday after Eas- Jesus didn’t even pray that they would all ter. Themes in this portion reflect the agree. Denominations can be seen as signs theology of John’s gospel: “If we receive of human brokenness, but denominations human testimony, the testimony of God can also be gifts—if we remember that is greater; for this is the testimony of God our oneness is in Jesus Christ. Denomi- that he has testified to his Son.” With that national names are adjectives rather than reading in our ears we turn to the gospel. nouns. There are Lutheran Christians and John 17 is often called Jesus’ high Roman Catholic Christians, Presbyterian priestly prayer. This prayer concludes a Christians and AME Zion Christians lengthy time around the Passover table that and many more (even though we use began with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. shorthand and turn the adjectives into That image of Jesus bending down needs to nouns!) be remembered as we listen to Jesus’ prayer Non-denominational churches may in which he seems to be very exalted. be appealing, but they can also be decep- “Holy Father, protect them in your tive. It is surely possible to be prideful in name that you have given me, so that saying, “I’m a Lutheran.” I once wore a they may be one, as we are one.” While little charm on my watch with the Luther Jesus is praying to his Father, this is a very rose on one side and “I am a Lutheran” on motherly, tender prayer. Jesus’ prayer isn’t the reverse. Perhaps this was, in case of an only in the past. The verse that follows accident, someone would call a Lutheran today’s reading goes on: “I do not pray for pastor! It is also possible to be prideful these only, but also for those who come about having no denominational name. to believe in me through their word, that “Our church in non-denominational,” a they may all be one...” Jesus is praying woman told me some years ago when she also for us. We are over-hearing a great stopped in to invite me to a neighborhood pastoral prayer. Each section ends with a Bible study. She gave me a little book silent “Lord, in your mercy” and the whole titled Christianity Can Be Profitable. It was church responds, “Hear our prayer.” about making money and it was written by her minister. Technically, she was right: Pastoral Reflections her church was “non-denominational.” That they may be one—this is Jesus’ prayer But we could also say it was a very small for the twelve disciples and for all who denomination defined by one minister

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88 and those who followed his teachings. Denominations can be seen as gifts and reminders of the larger, global family that is Christ’s Church. When I say I’m a Lutheran Christian I am mindful that there are others with different adjectives who name the name of Jesus. It is possible to worship in a thousand different tongues and rhythms, to raise our arms in ecstatic praise or sit quietly barely moving an eyebrow. It is all right to drink wine or grape juice from a common cup or a little glass. It is all right to use a green hymnal or a red one or none at all! Our oneness is not in these human constructions or constitutions, not in popes or councils. When we forget the source of our oneness, Jesus is still praying for us. Barbara Lundblad

currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 88 1/21/15 12:44 PM currentsJanuary-February2015.indd 89 1/21/15 12:44 PM Currents in Theology and Mission Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Non Profit Org. 1100 East 55th St. U. S. Postage Chicago, IL 60615 PAID Permit No. 38 Wheeling, IL 60090

Websites Ann Fritschel (Wartburg Theological Seminary): Rural Ministry produced by http://www.ruralministry.com professors at S.D. Giere (Wartburg Theological Seminary): the seminaries Orienting the Ear to the Gospel publishing www.withearstohear.org. Currents Ralph W. Klein (LSTC): Old Testament Studies http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/ Gary Pence (PLTS): Healing Religion’s Harm http://healingreligion.com The LSTC Rare Books Collection http://collections.lstc.edu/gruber/

Please contact us by phone or email ([email protected]), or send Change of your corrected mailing label or a photocopy, or any change-of- address form, to Currents in Theology and Mission, 1100 East address? 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615, phone 773-256-0751, or fax 773-256-0782 (specify Currents). Whether you write or call, please include the five-digit code at the top left of your address label for our reference. Thank you.

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