In 1961 Temple Beth Zion, one of Buffalo’s oldest and largest synagogues, burned to the ground. The congregation of Westminster Presbyterian Church, where my family and I worshiped, immediately opened the doors of the church to the members of the Temple for worship and meetings. It was almost five years before the Temple was rebuilt, and throughout that time Westminster served both congregations.
In the early 1990s the favor was returned when the people of Westminster worshiped in the sanctuary of the Temple while Westminster’s facilities underwent major renovations. As they shared space, the two congregations learned about one another: they learned about their histories, their practices, and their beliefs. They learned that they had far more in common than they had differences that set them apart.
Those experiences have been on my mind these past few weeks as we have witnessed so much anger directed at members of the Muslim community. A community center that also will have a place for worshiping the God of Abraham is told it is unwelcome. A man who claims to be a minister of God and a disciple of Jesus Christ threatens to burn the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
If a neighboring synagogue burned to the ground, would we open our doors to the congregation? If a neighboring mosque burned to the ground, would we open our doors to that congregation? Muslims, Christians, and Jews: we worship the same God.
Christian history is filled with many shameful episodes of bigotry, prejudice, and even violence directed at the “different”. Intolerance is inevitably built on a foundation of ignorance. But the more we learn about other people and other communities, the more we realize, like the two congregations in Buffalo, we have in common.
Frederick Buechner has written that the very essence of any religion must be “compassion – that capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside another’s skin, knowing that there can never really be peace and joy for any until there is peace and joy finally for all.”
The apostle Paul reminds us that Christ calls us to the ministry of reconciliation grounded in love. And, as Paul so famously teaches, “love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” If we learn this lesson, then we’ll know we are called to stand at the door with Christ, our arms stretched out in welcome – to all.
Grace & peace
Pastor Skip
