Thoughts and reflections from the book Tea With Hezbollah

2/12/2010Words, Ideas from someone trying to figure out how to Love your neighbor…I have lots of books in unpacked boxes, on my night table by my bed, on our coffee table -- but I admit that a lot of them go unread. When I was working on my Masters Degree that was all I did was read, and when I graduated I was just tired. But that is changing. I think for the past couple years I have been really selective of what I invest my time in. Most of my taste has turned toward fiction and the books I do read, I admit I just enjoy getting lost in the story. It’s mindless escapism. One author that I do read now is Ted Dekker. I have read several of his works now. Usually they are these fantasy, thriller, mystical novels that create a modern twist to the “good vs. evil” classic theme. Some of you might read his books and think that his writing is too far out there, but you have to understand a little bit about his perspective. He grew up in Indonesia, where his parents were missionaries working with cannibalistic people groups. His childhood was worlds apart from mine. He is a world traveler and his work is pretty well known. He is on the New York Times Bestselling list; his books have been turned to the big screen. He is known in different genres, including the “Christian market.” I got to meet him once, when I told him my name he started talking about Pearl Jam and their song “Jeremy.” My thought was “hey this guy listens to Pearl Jam, that’s cool, even if the song is about a kid blowing his brains out in front of his classroom for revenge.” Anyway it is interesting the things you talk about with strangers, especially those that are famous to some degree.Anyway, so I am reading his recent book Tea with Hezbollah: Sitting at The Enemies Table Our Journey Through the Middle East. This is based on a journey he and a couple of friends took through the middle east a few years ago. Their goal was to have candid discussions with influential Muslim leaders on what their take about Jesus’ greatest teaching [“love your neighbor as yourself, love you enemies”(Matt 5:43-48, Lk 6:27-36, Matt 22:37-40)] and the story of the good Samaritan (Lk 10:30ff). They traveled through Saudi Arabia, Beirut, southern Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Jerusalem. They sat down with Osama Bin Laden’s brothers, talked to high ranking officials of the Hezbollah and others. Pieced throughout the book are unedited transcripts of the word-for-word discussions they had with some of these leaders. Interwoven is this modern day tale of the attitude/idea of a “good Samaritan.” The book is also filled with bits of history of the political and religious struggles throughout the years in that area. There is no agenda, but only to allow the reader to experience what they did when they asked the questions: “What is the greatest misunderstandings of our country (the U.S.)? If you had one thing to say to Jews and Christians, what would it be? In your worldview, do you have to be a Muslim to go to heaven? One of Jesus’ greatest commandment was that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. What is your opinion of this teaching?” Thus giving the reader freedom to come to their own conclusions. I am about halfway finished with it but wanted to go ahead and note a couple of things that I am observing. You might not agree with me, and that’s okay. I certainly have my own opinions, and over the years some of those have changed. However, I think we harm ourselves if we refuse to listen to people. For myself I personally believe that what the Bible says is truth, the only truth. Some take it as a just a good book with good teaching. They view Jesus as a good prophet, like many Muslims believe. So when I read stuff, I will always to some degree compare it to scripture to see how it stands up. Which brings me to my first point of observation from this book.Labels:In the book there is the subtle theme going about how we label others. Listen to this:“A Christian in many American circles, for example, means ‘right-wing, gun toting fanatic who hates Democrats.’ As such, a pacifist Democrat who called himself a Christian in those circles would be lying … To most in this world, American is Christian, just as to most Americans being Arab means being Muslim. Both labels have only limited usefulness. I have been called a Christian writer, but I’m not a right wing, gun-toting fanatic who hates Democrats, not by a long shot. So am I a Christian? Yes and no—it depends on what Christian means to you. The same could be said of Carl. But labels are almost impossible to shed.” (p23)A lot of people grow up, go to school, graduate college, get a job, get married and never really leave the boundaries of their home, culture or social group. Good or Bad, they (we) are shaped by our culture, family, geographical surroundings, etc. We are all guilty of using labels to define people, including ourselves. Ted is right in the light that labels are almost impossible to shed. In 1996, I spent my summer in Colorado. It was about the same time that Forrest Gump the movie was out. I remember one day at a youth group event this kid heard my southern accent and yelled out “Forrest!” It was funny so all summer long that was my nick name, it helped me connect to them. But it is funny how media had shaped this persons mind to associate anyone with a southern accent with the likes of the character Forrest Gump. Thank God, not all southerners are “Forrest Gump.” Since 9/11 I am afraid that too many of us label all Arabs “terrorists.” The truth is not all are, but we label them that way, look at them suspiciously, and live in fear they are going to bomb our school or something. The word/label “Christian” has over the years come to be associated with many things that I am not. Yes I am a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ, but do I call myself a Christian? Over the Christmas holiday we were in Omaha with my in-laws. One night I was watching a documentary on some cable channel about the modern day Ku Klux Klan and White Supremacists groups. Every one of them called themselves “Christian” while proudly burning crosses and wearing symbols of hatred (the swastika). So by that definition, no I am not a Christian and no I too am not a “right-wing, gun toting fanatic who hates Democrats”. Labels can actually be barriers for us to truly build relationships and community with one another. They are barriers for people to get to know me and vice versa. Labels can hinder us from Jesus’ commandments to love. Labels can predispose fears on us to where we are afraid to follow after Jesus’ heart and love our enemies (which is another label in itself, what is our enemy).Love:Another observation is about love. What does it mean to love your neighbor, or love your enemies? I have already provided scripture references above to Jesus’ teachings on this. You might want to review it, it is pretty revolutionary teaching. In the book they are continually asking key Muslim leaders questions about Jesus teaching on love your neighbors, loving your enemies. Something I learned about Muslim culture in this book was the fact that so many of them actually read and revered Jesus and his teachings as this great man, great prophet. They unfortunately do not see him as the Way, Truth and Life, the only way to God. But surprisingly some of them had views on loving your neighbor similar to mine and others who are trying to follow after Christ’s commandments. Listen to this, it comes from their discussion with Sheik Nabil Qaouk a Hezbollah leader in south Lebanon. Granted, this guy is a Muslim fighting what he feels is a justified war against Israel for the sake of defending his own country. But Ted asked him: Jesus’ greatest teaching was that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. How do you recommend we love each other as he taught?“Love has many stages. The highest level is when you cannot decide whether to love or not love because there is no room for hatred. The love of your neighbors comes naturally in response to obeying Jesus and God. Loving the neighbor is proof that your heart is full of love. When we say neighbors, we mean all of humanity. All people are brothers because we all come from God.” (p128)I’m sorry did I hear correctly did a “Muslim” “America’s” “enemy” just say the love of your neighbors comes naturally in response to obeying Jesus and God? Is it possible to not have any room for hatred in you heart? I don’t know but I want to try to know. What I am saying is that I agree with this man’s words, that if we obey Jesus and God, loving our neighbors is a natural response. You can read throughout the whole bible and yes there are times of war, destruction, famines, death, blood, murder, etc. But from beginning to end is a story about a Creator (God) who loves his creation (you and me) so much that he gave his Son Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we can have unbroken fellowship with him and have His love inside our hearts and lives. What I have discovered is that loving God is the most fulfilling relationship I have ever had. I would not know how or be able to love my wife and family the way I should if I did not love Christ first. I would not even begin to hope I could love someone who hates me enough to kill me or harm me without the Love of God in my heart. I would not even have the mindset or desire to meet someone and try to show them love, kindness, compassion, mercy, hope and friendship without the Love of God in my life.This book yes, I can see where it would be labeled as counter culture to American ways. Some of you read the first few lines of this and saw the title and probably stopped right there and have starting assuming some unhealthy labels toward me. Maybe the CIA and Homeland Security is monitoring my computer right now as I post this online because of key words like Muslim, Hezbollah, which will get me stripped searched and interrogated next week when I fly to Atlanta for a few days. I hope not. But what I like about this book is that for years myself and others have been on this path to truly follow after Christ. Here is a guy that is doing some serious research on the subject. What I am finding is that even within my own “church culture,” some of the things, because of our own labels and traditions, make this teaching of Christ look extremely revolutionary. And if we see it as counter culture we immediately label it wrong. But how is trying to figure out how to truly Love God and Others wrong?I have lived by choice, kind of, in 4 different states over the past 10 years. I currently live in the suburbs of Chicago. I go walking through my neighborhood and observe and meet people. There are those that don’t have the same color skin or speak English. In fact you can hear Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Polish, and Korean in my neighborhood. Within these groups are many cultural traditions, practices, beliefs. But if I am truly going to figure out how to love these people, love my neighbors, even love those who might choose to be my enemy, one thing is that I have got to drop the labels. And I can’t assume that if someone is Muslim that they hate all white, blonde-haired (lesser these days), blue-eyed “Christian Americans,” and that he is someone to be afraid of. If that is the case, I will never take the love of Christ less than 10 yards from my doorstep.I hope that if you are still reading this and that I have not bored you too much with this short mini paper. I just woke up this morning and decided to put some thoughts down and felt that it was a good time to share them. Some other interesting things that I have enjoyed reading in this book are the views some Muslims have of American politics and media. Or the idea “can a Muslim be a Christian too?” These are some other points that I think that I could sit down and have some common points of agreement on, but I will save that for your to read it for yourself and see what they say. You might agree, you might not. I don’t agree with everything I read either, unless Jesus wrote it.I will end with a list of “Labels” I would not mind being known as:One who loves God with all my heart, soul, mind and body.One who loves his family more than he loves himself.One who loves his neighbors.One who loves those who choose to hate me.One who had the courage to obey Jesus.One who has no fears, except to only fear God Almighty.J. G.