The Evangelical Moment

June 3, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

I feel unprepared and humbled and honored, and I’m at a loss where to begin. A young man came to my office door asking to see me. I am used to strangers coming, almost always asking for money, or food. In a nutshell, this young man was a Muslim, asking to learn more about Christian faith and about Jesus.

He is foreign born, in this country on a brief visa, but engaged to be married to a citizen of the U.S. whom he met in his home country. She is a Christian, and out of a life-long curiosity about Jesus, and respect for her, he wanted to know more —much more— about Christian teaching. An important factor is that he is not entirely free to express his curiosity about Jesus openly, not within the home of friends where he is living, and not among his own people at home.

After my first insecurity about teaching someone subsided a bit, I expressed my respect for his great faith tradition. He too was respectful, knowing that so much is gained when all people listen to the faith experiences of others.

But where to begin with the story of Jesus? We have some common ground, because Jesus is a figure spoken of in the Qur’an. How to explain that for Christians Jesus is not merely a prophet, but the presence of God incarnate. How does one explain what “incarnate” means to someone whose entire faith tradition rejects that?

He made it easier for me by asking, “How did Jesus die?” Somehow this led to explaining revelation and grace, and to the highest story of our spiritual awakening, the parable of the prodigal son. I explained the basic contents of the New Testament — not written with a single voice as if verbally revealed from heaven, as the Muslim scriptures are believed to be, but the testimony of many Christians over a period of several generations, through which God’s voice speaks.

I called to mind the meager explanation of what is written, what is explained in the New Testament, from John’s Gospel (20:30–31): “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

So I found myself struggling with what is best and most essential from the Bible to tell to someone who has scarcely had a chance to look inside its covers without enormous scorn from others. So much of the Bible is profound beyond words, and so much is trivial or downright embarrassing to read as an outside would read it. So much is completely opaque — occupying the best scholarly minds for a lifetime to make heads or tails of it. Where are the parts which are transparent, clear as crystal, and allow the reader to glimpse what is of greatest value, or to be digest that which is spiritually most nourishing?

I found myself on the desert road with Philip the deacon, approaching the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch. (Acts 8:26–40) “Do you understand what you are reading, he asked, about the passage from Isaiah which was in his hands.

“How can I unless I have someone to guide me?”

And so beginning with the ver passage of scripture the eunuch had been reading, Philip began to tell him the story of Jesus.

Now I am praying for this stranger/new friend, and for his fiancé, hoping that the Holy Spirit finds me worthy as a vehicle for God’s message. Would I be happy to convert this man to Christ? Yes.

But is that my role and place? No.

We come from places in this world very far apart. We come from different cultures, economic classes; we have different native languages; our life circumstances and sexuality and experiences completely differ.

I don’t know if I am qualified to teach such an important student. I have more misgivings than there are verses in the Bible and the Qur’an combined. Yet it now looks possible I may become this man’s teacher. I only hope that I can provide what God decides to grant to him.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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