Month: June 2024

We are soon to have an election, and many people are pressing that it should be about policies and not personalities. I think that Jesus would agree with that.

His preaching was not about himself, [He claimed no title save the that of ‘the son of man’] but about what He had learnt of God in the overwhelming experience He had after His baptism. He had come to repent to God of His sin and found to His astonishment that God spoke to Him saying ‘You are my dearly beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Unconditional love seeks reconciliation rather than repentance. His knowledge of God was turned on its head.

He became aware that this was true not just for Him, but for everybody. He set out to demonstrate that to those who had not had the experience that He’d had, and especially to those whose experience rather was that they were told that God judged them negatively, and that society excluded them. 

The risen Jesus called His followers to continue His mission, which was not primarily about Himself but about God’s unconditional love for all, and especially for those who felt themselves to be unworthy & excluded. For Jesus, God’s policies were more important than His personality.

First posted in http://contemporaryspirituality.blog

I recently travelled to Morocco to visit my daughter who lives in Casablanca. Six years ago she converted to Islam, and has settled amazingly well into her spiritual home. In our family we’ve always known her as Kate – a spirited, not always easy human being to live with! She has changed her name to Maryam Kate, and with that change of name has come an amazing transformation. Maryam means ‘beloved’ – which she is; it also carries a sense of ‘rebellious’ – which she was, and I guess can still be, but in a much nicer and kinder way!

Anyway, during my stay we set out to visit a local souk, and passed one of Maryam’s neighbourhood mosques just as the muezzin was calling the faithful to midday prayer. “Do you mind if I go and pray, Dad?” No, of course not. Look, there’s a chair there by the gate; I’ll wait here for you. “Thanks. I’ll just check it’s OK with the caretaker.” A conversation ensues in Dārija, the local form of Arabic spoken in Morocco. Maryam has managed to learn it well enough to understand and be understood most of the time! “He says no, you must come in Dad! Follow him; he’ll look after you. I’ll go to the Sisters’ entrance.”

I duly follow this upright gentleman dressed in grey kaftan and topi. His smile is warm and welcoming. He offers me a bag for my sandals, and shows me where to put them. I assume he will sit me unobtrusively at the back. But no, he beckons me towards a chair at the far edge of the vast hall, picks it up and beckons me forward. He places it at the far end of the front row, invites me to sit on it, and bows slightly and graciously.

As I sit in silent prayer to my God other men come alongside me, either spreading their prayer mat before them, or taking a few tissues from the boxes provided on which to rest their heads when prostrating. I am aware that I find the rhythm of their prayer calming and helpful: standing, bowing, kneeling, prostrating – with the barely audible murmur of words learnt by heart at madrasa.

I am also aware that I am completely comfortable in that space, where I am drawn close to holiness. I find it an utterly authentic, spiritual experience praying – albeit in a different way – alongside these devoted men. And I find it impossible to believe we are praying to different Gods.

If there is one true God, then there can surely be only one true God. As we Christians say, ‘Hallelujah!’, and as Muslims say, ‘Alhamdullilah!’