BLESS THE OTHER

I was talking to a good pastor friend who told me recently that there was going to be a Mosque built in his town. he was horrified by this and even more so when he received a visit from the Iman who asked him to bless the Mosque. My pastor friend was outraged by this request and emphatically turned it down. He told me that no way was he going to go and bless the Mosque.
I asked him why not? I went on to say that it would be good to bless the people who will attend the Mosque. I was simply suggesting that it's on God's heart to bless, to want the best for every human being on this planet. So as a follower of Jesus we may also want to bless, to love those who may be different from ourselves.

I read an article in January/February's edition of Third Way magazine http://www.thirdwaymagazine.co.uk/ entitled Pillars of Faith, where the journalist recounted an amazing story from Egypt. On Christmas Eve a church in Alexandria was bombed by Islamic extremists killing twenty-five people. The Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed El Sawy called on his fellow Muslims to act as protecting shields outside churches as Mass was celebrated. The campaign was backed by a journalist who created a symbol of a crescent and a cross combined as a sign of unity between the two communities.
Thousands responded to the call. 'I'm here to tell all my coptic brothers that Muslims and Christians are an inseparable pillar of Egypt's texture' said one attendee. 'Copts have to know that we will share any pains or threats they go through'.

The article testifies to authentic brotherhood, when one is prepared to share the pains or threats of the other. In this case we see the demonstration of the love of God seen in the other, the Muslim.
Here, the Muslim is compelled to bless his Christian brothers.
That completely blows away our Western Christian caricature of our Muslim brother.
Yes the other becomes our (br)other when we reach out to him in love.

May God grant us the grace to bless,
for the sake of His Kingdom.