Drinking Well from Other’s Wells
Reading Sacred Texts – Four Invitations
Address by Bradley Jersak at the "Peace through the Reconcilation of Our Holy Books" interfaith conference on 9-11.
By Bradley Jersak
Your Excellencies, Sisters and Brothers in God’s expansive family,
Grace and Peace,
Today I would like to express my gratitude for our common commitment to peacemaking and to share four brief reflections about reading one another’s sacred texts with openness, respect, and wonder. I was personally raised in a tradition of religious certitude where we were all too convinced that our provincial faith and our particular way of reading our Scriptures defined the sealed boundaries of truth. Regardless of whether what I share in this paper resonates with others, I sincerely hope that you will hear my good-faith repentance for the narrowness I am still overcoming.
In my attempts to drink well from the wells of other Holy Books, I’ve developed four invitations that I will briefly clarify and illustrate. My sense is that reading well includes the following:
- I invite us to read well from each other’s Scriptures with open hearts, attentive to points of connection.
- I invite us to read well from each other’s Scriptures, seeing them as unique songs to the One True God.
- I invite us to consider how others read their own Scriptures.
- I invite us to consider how others read our Scriptures.
I. I invite us to read well from each other’s Scriptures, with open hearts, attentive to points of connection.
Of course, this is first of all an invitation to read each other’s Scriptures. Many people of faith have neglected to read their own texts, much less those of other faiths. Perhaps we were taught to be afraid to read outside our tradition, or worse, presumed to scour other Holy Books for ammunition against them. I believe we’re invited to do better, reading the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Scriptures with open hearts, attentive to points of connection.
In the Christian text, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul of Tarsus finds himself addressing Stoic philosophers at the Parthenon in Athens. Seeking to make his message heard, he comes prepared to establish common ground with his pagan audience. He says, “As one of your own poets said,” [or “one of their own prophets,” he says elsewhere], then cites two different hymns to Zeus.
Now Paul did NOT see their prophets as his prophets, nor did he regard their vision of Zeus as his God, BUT crucially, he read them with an open heart, attentive to points of connection. From their sacred texts, Paul affirms what any of us here might agree to: (i) that we are ALL God’s offspring, children of one and the same Creator, and (ii) that in Him, we ALL live and move and have our being. Who knew that Paul would make this central Christian confession from a pagan mythological song?
Similarly, not every Jew would recognize Jesus of Nazareth as one of their prophets, just as not every Christian would recognize Muhammad (Peace Be Unto Him) as one of our prophets, just as not every Muslim would recognize Paul of Tarsus (of blessed memory) as one of their prophets. But LIKE Paul, could we not read each other’s prophets through their Scriptures, attentive to points of connection?
II. I invite us to read each other’s Scriptures well, seeing them as unique songs to the One True God.
ONCE we become willing to read each other’s Scriptures, we will of course notice the divergence. In fact, even within my Bible, I see a polyphonic message that, while harmonious, is certainly not sung in unison. But rather than seeing our diversity as a point of conflict or cause for exclusion, might we instead think of our Holy Books—at the very least—as each faith’s UNIQUE SONG about the One True God? Perhaps then we could acknowledge the following points:
- No, others’ Sacred Song is not necessarily MY song.
- No, others’ Sacred Song is not necessarily how I would sing about God.
- BUT, I can read and honour any sacred song sung to “One Universal Creator God,” as it spurs me to a deeper devotion, a more rigorous obedience, and a more open-hearted love that erases barriers of hostility that divide us.
Truth be told, I was moved to find this concept of
- worshiping the one True Creator God
- across multiple faiths,
- amid diverse songs of devotion,
- by a diverse choir of prophetic song-birds,
- where? In the Sikh Scriptures - the Guru Granth Sahib
As a Christian peacemaker living in a city that is 35% Sikh, is it not my responsibility to know their Sacred Song and rejoice in its many points of resonance?
As a Christian worshiper, I can say, “As one of their own prophets says,”
The Compassionate Lord is Merciful to the meek,
the ocean of peace; He fills all hearts.
He sees, hears, and is always with me…
He is the Creator, the Cause of causes, the Cherisher of the world.
Everything is Yours; You are my God, O my Lord and Master,
Merciful to the meek, O my Beloved, ocean of peace.
—Shri Guru Granth Sahib
As a Christian worshiper, I am inspired to pray from the Jewish Psalter,
He made his ways known to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love…
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for He knows how we are formed,
He remembers that we are dust.
—Psalm 103:8
As a Christian worshiper, I am inspired to pray the Al-Fatiha from the Quran,
In the name of God, the Merciful-to-all, the Mercy Giver:
Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds,
The Merciful-to-all, the Mercy Giver,
Master of the Day of Judgment.
As a Christian worshiper, I am inspired by those sacred prayers to excel in my own faith because of yours.
III. I invite us to consider how others read their own Scriptures.
Reading others’ Scriptures well means noting how each faith tradition interprets its own Holy Books. It’s not fair to impose my interpretive biases on your texts without reference to how each source tradition hears, prays, and lives them themselves.
Before anti-Semitism so badly infected the church, early Christians patterned their approach to the Torah after the Jewish Rabbi, Philo of Alexandria. Philo summoned Torah readers to interpret their text in a manner “worthy of God.” Before even opening the scrolls, he insisted on the premise that God is good, and he warned against literalist readings that would blaspheme God’s character.
Ironically, Christians often assume that Jewish rabbis read the Torah as rigid religious literalists, legalists, and moralists while somehow Christianity had arrived at the true Spirit of the Law. My experience is just the opposite. Christian readings of the Jewish Scriptures suffer from a neglect of consulting ancient and contemporary rabbis for their layered and nuanced discoveries.
I recall puzzling over the Jewish tradition of Abraham’s test of faith in the binding of Isaac. Christians commonly appropriated the imagery of the ram, identifying it with the Protestant doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
But is that the true meaning of the Isaac incident? I had my doubts and wondered how Jewish scholars read their own story.
Listening to a BBC radio skeptic interviewing Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory was instructive:
John Humphrys: Why would a merciful God have done to Abraham what he did to Abraham—faced him with that agonizing dilemma, “Sacrifice your child if you believe in me”? Why would God have faced a human being with that wicked choice?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: We know that child sacrifice was incredibly widespread in the ancient world; we know that from every kind of archaeological evidence. Child sacrifice—which is referred to many times in the Hebrew Bible as the most abominable of all acts—was the kind of thing you expected a god to ask of you. It’s what gods regularly asked from their devotees.
The essence of the story of Abraham is that at the critical moment, God says “Stop—I am not that kind of god!” … He was teaching him, “I did that just so you should learn exactly what would happen if you don’t listen carefully.” So God slammed on the brakes; it was the most effective way of all of history.[1]
Rabbi Sacks’ response resonates with me, partly because I find it satisfying, but also because it makes more sense for me to wade into the Jewish Scriptures with a Jewish guide.
I invite us all to read well by learning how each faith tradition reads, prays, and lives from its own Holy Books.
II. I invite us to hear how other faiths read our Scriptures.
Finally, I invite us to hear how other faiths read our own Scriptures, open to gifts amid their insights. One of my great joys is team-teaching the Beatitudes of Jesus with my dear friend, Safi Kaskas. Many of my students at the Institute for Religion, Peace & Justice (IRPJ.org) have never previously met a Muslim, so when Safi opens up the Sermon on the Mount to them, they are delighted when he shares insightful parallels between the Gospels and the Qur’an.
Citing the seventh Beatitude,[2] Safi says,
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:4).
Peacemakers are those special individuals who care enough to strive for peace…
Among our Christian brothers and sisters, the primary conflict they will think about is what they call the alienation of human beings from God and they consider that Jesus's main mission was to reconcile us back to God…
A true understanding of Jesus’ teachings will turn every true Jesus-follower into a peacemaker.
He continues,
Muslims see the main conflict as one of submitting and seeking harmony with God’s will… Islam’s religious text, the Qur’an, references the importance of peaceful living and coexistence for the entire human community….
Islam’s religious text, the Qur'an, references the importance of peaceful living and coexistence for the entire human community:
“Enlightenment has now come to you from God and a clear Book. (5:15) Through it, God guides those who follow what pleases Him to ways of peace and by His permission, He will bring them out from the darkness of ignorance into enlightenment and will guide them to a straight path” (Q 5:16).
A Muslim who understands his/her faith will always be a peacemaker.
I’m grateful for Safi, for his insights into the Gospel teachings of Jesus, and their parallels within his Holy Book. His example as a peacemaker and his hospitality to me has transformed us from strangers into brothers.
And to all of you, People of God, I am humbled that you would allow me to share my perspective today. I am gratified to participate in your generous peacemaking work.
[1] “Humphrys in Search of God” with Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mbkm5
[2] Safi Kaskas, “A Muslim Reflection on the Beatitudes,” Clarion Journal (July 2019).
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