The Day of Wrath and the Gift of Friendship: Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Talk Tough Topics with Muslims
BY JOHN ROBINSON
John Robinson (a pseudonym) works with Cru in the Pacific Northwest.
We started a conversation at an event during freshman orientation week. The initial point of connection was that we had the same pair of glasses. As I got to know David, I was intrigued by the fact that he had just moved to Portland from the Middle East. After chatting a little bit, I told him I’d love to talk more and we scheduled a time to meet the following day.
As I got to know David and learned more about his family, culture and Muslim religion, I was excited. I’d had friendships with a couple other Muslims previously and loved the opportunity to talk about our faiths. While asking David about what kind of music he listened to, I was shocked to hear him say Gregorian Chant! This seemed liked an opportunity for a deeper faith conversation, so I asked him the name of one of his favorite songs. Since I don’t know Latin, I told him we should look up the lyrics and see what they mean. I felt pretty proud of myself, finding something that he was already into and using it as a means of being able to transition the conversation to spiritual things.
David and I already had so much in common...in contrast to the common Portlander, there was already such a shared base of agreement.
My pride quickly turned to discomfort as we began reading the lyrics together from my phone.
“That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
shall heaven and earth in ashes lay,
as David and the Sybil say.
What horror must invade the mind
when the approaching Judge shall find
and sift the deeds of all mankind!”
I suppose if I had taken any Latin I would have known that the song “Dies Irae” meant “Day of Wrath.” In Portland as I look to develop relationships with students from various spiritual backgrounds, the wrath of God isn’t my typical go-to topic for transitioning to spiritual things. I sat there reading these lyrics with David, falling from the great heights of confidence in my evangelistic skills to awkwardly initiating our spiritual conversation with themes of God’s wrath, sin, judgment. To my surprise, these themes didn’t make David uncomfortable at all. As a Muslim, he was completely on board with the reality of God’s sovereign judgment and wrath.
Why was I so uncomfortable with starting the conversation with these themes? Perhaps it was because so many people in Portland resist the ideas of sin, judgment and God’s wrath. But David and I already had so much in common. We shared many values and believed many similar things about God. Particularly in contrast to the common Portlander, there was already such a shared base of agreement.
Some conversations were easy; some more challenging. But we valued each other’s perspective, desired relationship and were comfortable sharing what we believed and listening to each other.
Our conversation continued and as we shared what we believed about God and judgment, similarities and differences began to arise. Most evangelistic conversations in Portland start from a place with little common ground in spiritual beliefs, so this conversation was such a delight. David and I both believe in the existence of God, sin, God’s judgement and that God has revealed himself through holy writings. What a great starting point!
I asked David if he would be interested in meeting regularly to read the Bible and Quran together, to learn more about what each of us believe and what our holy books say. He was in! We began meeting weekly, initially without much of an agenda. We would read some of our favorite passages and ask each other questions about them. As characters, stories and themes came up (i.e., Moses, Abraham, David, Jesus, sin, forgiveness, heaven/hell), we would read stories from the Bible and Quran to explore the perspectives they offered. Some weeks one of us would have a passage or topic we wanted to discuss. Other weeks we would just figure it out on the spot. Some conversations were easy; some more challenging. But we valued each other’s perspective, desired relationship and were comfortable sharing what we believed (and listening to the other). As we explored the similarities and contrasts of each book, the beauty, uniqueness and glory of God’s grace to us through Christ was wonderfully on display.
It was such a gift to get to know David better, read our holy books together to explore similarities and differences, introduce him to my family, bring him to church with us and connect him to Christian community on campus.
I know many times we can allow our bias, assumptions, or even personal insecurities to keep us from developing relationships with Muslims. But perhaps there is more common ground than initially assumed and perhaps there is a beautiful relationship waiting. I am so thankful for the depth of this relationship that developed, highlighted by David calling me his “bruncle,” which was a combination of “brother” and “uncle.” Maybe there is someone out there waiting for you to become their bruncle!