Pastor’s Corner

 

Travel to foreign cultures always fascinates me because I am given the opportunity to see what forms religion takes in other countries.  While escorting our daughter Rachel to Kenya in May, we had the chance to visit Dubai where the majority voice is Islam.  I use “voice” quite deliberately since it is impossible to miss the voices of the imams as they chant the call to prayer five times per day.  Our friends had three mosques in their neighborhood, so we had stereophonic sound and then some!

Because the only proper language for worship in Islam is Arabic, there is a natural limitation for what is understood.  As with the Roman Catholic Church of old and its use of Latin, there is the need to learn a foreign language with Islam or be left out of the worship life.  We traveled on to Kenya where the country is 60% Christian.  What was the language of worship?  English and a host of other national and tribal languages.  It is clear with the Pentecost story in Acts 2 that Christianity believes that the Holy Spirit chose to give the gospel to all nations through the “miracle of hearing” about Jesus in their native tongue.  There is no need to learn a foreign language.

What is needed in Christianity is an openness to hear–like Peter proclaimed in Acts 2–about the rebellion of God’s people as well as the miracle of faith granted through repentance and the acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit’s mysterious work in the life of the Church.  This openness is achieved through prayer.  Karl Barth–a Swiss theologian who died in 1968–wrote this prayer which I offer as a model prayer for us all.

“O Lord, our God! Make us free to believe!  Give us the true, honest and active faith in thee and in thy truth!  Give it to many!  Give it to all people!  Give it to the peoples and their governments, to the rich and to the poor, to the healthy and to the sick, to the prisoners and to those who think they are free, to the old and to the young, to the joyful and to the sorrowful, to the heavy-laden and to the light-minded!  There is no one who does not stand in need of faith, no one to whom the promise of faith is denied.  Tell all our people, ourselves included, that thou art their merciful God and Father and ours!  This we ask thee in the name of Jesus Christ who commanded us to pray: “Our Father….”

A blessed Pentecost (June12th) to you!  May the Holy Spirit increase your faith!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Philip Nesvig