Relics, Religion, and Jesus

Today was a day of 'rest.' A sabbath of sorts. After an intense week of preparation to leave, and fairly intense first three days of teaching and preaching, leading classes and worshiping, meeting people and becoming acclimated in our new context, today was ours to do as we pleased. So we went to the site of the ancient city of Perga, where the Apostle Paul landed during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:13). The picture above is of me standing in front of what is left of what is believed to be the first church built in Perga. Seeing that relic brought to the surface feelings I have from time to time of sadness, and even confusion, over the near-complete eradication of a Christian presence in this land with such a deep and rich Biblical history. What happened to the enduring presence and power of the church, against which even the gates of hell will not prevail?

I think of how embedded the Islamic faith and culture is here, and has been in some parts of the Middle East for well over a century...while Christianity, in some places, did not even last a century (at least in terms of the prevailing religion). This, of course, is a very complex subject about which volumes has been written, but for me, it just felt sad...and caused me to wonder where else will we see only relics of a faith that once was - Europe? North America? I found myself reflecting on how the kingdom of God works and what are the signs of its presence? And, most to the point, how does our presence here in Turkey fit into what God is doing and how he wants to show love to Muslims?

At one point, right near the end of the Teen parenting class on Saturday night, I felt led to share how I believed that the principles of Active Parenting (teaching Courage, Responsibility and Cooperation in the context of unmistakeable love and affirmation) maximize the likelihood that our children will grow up and embrace our values as their own (without rebelling against us) and choose our faith as their own (without rejecting it). I talked about how parents, regardless of their faith, share this hope, and then illustrated it with an example from my own life and children. Knowing there were Muslims in the class, I spoke of this embrace of my faith my children in terms of "receiving the love of God in their lives" and "choosing to love and follow Jesus" - both of which are concepts that would not be offensive to a Muslim. It was a choice of words that I had not put any advance thought to, but words that felt right for the context...and actually what I felt was most accurate and true about their lives.

I mention that because I finished reading a book today that I had begun reading earlier: Muslims, Christians, and Jesus. It seemed to validate my instincts. Written by Carl Medearis, it is a plea for us to make the issue in evangelism Jesus, and not "Christianity," and that the best way to reach Muslims is to talk about Jesus - to point them to him and encourage them to seek him, and to trust that the more they get to know Jesus, the more they will be drawn to him...love him...and follow him. That's my VERY brief and simple summary of a wonderful book that gets at the heart of what our faith really is all about, and what we should want first and most for anyone. It is very similar to the idea that we don't really need to turn Jews into Christians - we just need to help them accept Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah and follow him. Hence the presence of many Messianic Synagogues. Why not see Muslims in a similar way, as people who possess a shared Biblical history with Jews and Christians, but have failed to fully understand the truth about Jesus?The hope is that by embracing the truth about Jesus, they will choose to follow him in ways that won't necessarily require them to reject all elements of their own religious and cultural heritage. This is no way suggests there are profound differences between Islam and Christianity; it simply seeks to turn and start the discussion with the most powerfully shared thing we have in common: Jesus. The book is inspiring, thought-provoking, encouraging and challenging.

Faithfully,

Charlie