You are blessed, lucky and privileged, aren’t you? If for no other reason (And there are many!), you have email! Now getting the Muslim Connect email might feel unlucky and the number of unread emails in your inbox might make you feel cursed! Even so, I stand by my statement: You are privileged. Me, too.
Our privilege allows, among others, this perk: We can squawk about people and institutions more powerful than ourselves. We could share the situation of our sisters and brothers on the planet who choose to keep their mouths shut and their heads down in hopes they might fill and not lose them tomorrow. But for whatever reason God has blessed us with the freedom to say with the bold humility of Jesus, “No more, not now, and you’re wrong.”
As Paul admonished, “All things are permissible, but all things are not profitable.”
Might it, however, be profitable for some of us to sometimes poke the bear of apathy, anxiety and antagonism regarding Muslims? Spoiler alert: Oh yeah, big time.
I want to encourage you to bring Jesus’s love for Muslims before your church and your tribe.
Ramadan (March 22 to April 20) provides a timely excuse for asking! Would your church show this beautiful four minute video? Or maybe this shorter, but far less beautiful one? Would they do it on Easter, our biggest Sunday of the year? Saying to all the visitors, “In this room, we think the Resurrection goes for those guys too!”
After the Easter service, many of us will gather for a feast with family and friends. If you get appointed to give the blessing and you’re feeling feisty, slip in a little prayer for fasting Muslims. Maybe volunteer ahead time to bring dessert and bless your people with baklava! (Arguably, baklava is less like poking the bear and more like scratching his back right up between the shoulders where it feels soooo good!)
And remember, the trick with all bear poking, which I clearly have not mastered, is to not fancy yourself superior to the bear you’re poking!
Wanna give it a go? Watch this video for five bear poking ideas (and a bonus) with varying degrees of difficulty and consequences!