Embracing the other

There is a TV show on channel seven I have recently become hooked on called ‘Lost’. The storyline is based around an airliner on route from Sydney to LA, which crashed on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean stranding the survivors with no hope of rescue. One of the things I find most fascinating about this captivating and very involved series is that the survivors of the plane crash soon discover that they are not alone on the island.
As the story unfolds there is great suspicion, fear and uncertainty about who these ‘others’ are. They even call them ‘the others’. Even before they get a glimpse of who these ‘others’ might be, they are fearful, defensive and suspect the worst in an encounter with the others. They, the survivors we the audience are supposed to identify with, begin to mistrust each other and turn on one another as fear levels reach it’s climax.
I get continually frustrated at the stars of the show thinking, if only they changed their attitude or approach to the others they may get a different response. They may even enter into a constructive dialogue. They I wonder about ‘the others’. They must be experiencing the exact same fear and suspicion.
I occasionally attend inter-faith gatherings where the intention is to meet for constructive dialogue about that which is foreign to us. Last week I attended a lunch where a Muslim woman came to share her faith story with a group of us Christians from various different Christian traditions. Talk about a gutsy move! So what are we doing listening to a Muslim’s faith story you ask? My best response is we’re doing just that – listening! It was a dialogue and as you do at these kind of things you always get those in the group who come with an agenda of fear of the other for whatever reason and become unhelpful voices in the conversation. There was one Christian there who seemed to come with the sole agenda of trapping this poor woman. His aggression was embarrassing and I thought to myself, ‘is this the Christian thing to do?’ A Christian friend of mine once said, ‘God gave me one mouth and two ears so I can do less talking and more listening.’ I also wondered in that moment who the ‘other’ really was. Was it the Muslim, was it the aggressor, was it me? I soon can to realize that I should never assume at I myself am excluded from otherness.
At the end of the afternoon I was profoundly moved by a moment that is like an image burned into my mind. One of our Christian leaders in thanking the Muslim woman for sharing with us physically embraced her with a hug. Having being deeply moved by that act of Christian love I have since continued to ponder what this means.
Jesus has called us to embrace the other in all contexts. I concluded from this experience that I cannot possibly embrace the other unless I am completely sold out to my own faith tradition. It is only then that we can sit down and discover and appreciate our differences. I’m not suggesting for a minute that I am to embrace the beliefs or traditions of the other but simply to suspend judgement and fear and embrace the other with the love and grace that can only come through Jesus.
Many conflicts in our world today would not be conflicts if we who call ourselves Christian could embrace this simple act. The conflict in the Middle East is a classic example of fear reaching boiling point. Quotes from world leaders of the 20th century following WW1 & WW2 will tell you that there are no winners in a war, everyone loses. Fighting for peace is an oxymoron, you would think that we would learn from our past but we haven’t.
Sojourners magazine this week said, ‘military muscle is always too hedonistic and narcissistic to listen to the voice of reason and history’. They also quoted a short story of a modern day Good Samaritan story at a mega scale. The story tells of Christians in Lebanon leading humanitarian aid embracing and caring for those war affected people who would otherwise be labelled as ‘the others’.
Embracing the other is the simplest yet most profound act of a Christian in today’s climate. It is infact the only road to peace. It is what Jesus has called his followers to do.

Shalom
Mark

P.S. Check out the Social Justice Network Blog for the full quote from Sojourners