Resurrection

Thus said the Lord God to these bones: “I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live again. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with flesh, and form skin over you. And I will put breath into you, and you shall live again. And you shall know that I am the Lord!”

(Ezekiel 37:5-6)

Tziporah:

Jewish prophecies of resurrection express the unimaginable power of God to give life to the lifeless.  In the traditional liturgy, when we praise God for gevurah, strength, we refer to God’s unique capability to make the dead rise. Because many Jews believe that the messiah’s arrival will herald the resurrection of the dead and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, they are buried in Israel to be present at the propitious moment. Some Jews argue against organ donation, because they believe it is critical that their bodies be buried intact to be resurrected.  I can’t agree with this idea, though; if God can raise me from death, can’t God endow me with a new kidney? Unlike God, humans do not have the power to resurrect the dead, but we are capable of saving lives. The rabbis considered pikuach nefesh, preserving life, to be the highest principle, and they legislated that Jews exercise this power—even when it conflicts with the observance of the Sabbath or dietary laws, and even if it means breaking one’s fast on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.  I imagine that Christianity and Islam, like Judaism, have multiple views of organ donation. Could you please share your thoughts?

Grace:

It will not surprise you, Tziporah, that these words of the prophet Ezekiel are often contemplated by Christians in preparation for Easter, since Christians see this prophecy as fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus and its eternal witness to the unimaginable power of God to give life to the lifeless. Indeed, Resurrection is at the heart of the Christian faith.  In worship liturgies that include the Nicene Creed, Christians affirm, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The resurrected body, however, is understood to be a spiritual body, fully recognizable, but not flesh and bones as is the physical body that returns to dust. Organ donation, then, is not verboten in most Christian practice and may even be encouraged as a way of passing along the gift of life when one’s earthly body is too compromised to continue—a definite act of faith.

Yasmina:

Tziporah, the majority of scholars in Islam agree that it is permissible to donate organs based on the general rule that “necessities permit the prohibited,”[1] and because the ultimate goal is the preservation of life. This view is supported by verses in the Quran. On the other hand, scholars who disagree with the practice state that organ donation compromises the special honor given to man’s body, whether dead or alive. From these two views, one can see that the notion of resurrection, although a fundamental Islamic belief, is not linked to the issue of organ donation.  The justification for this separation is based on several Quranic verses, which reaffirm the immeasurable and infinite power of God. One example reads, “Does man imagine that We are not capable of reassembling his decayed bones? We are able even to restore his fingers to their previous state.” (al-Qiyamah 75:3-4) I personally admire the generosity of individuals who act in utter selflessness and who, when faced with such challenging choices, give new meaning to the word “sharing.”

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[1] Al-darurat tubih al-mahzurat

Forgiveness

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  (The Gospel of Luke 23:34)

Grace:

In “The Lord’s Prayer,” Christians beseech God daily to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  How difficult, for any human being, is the second part of this petition, especially when the trespass is betrayal, when hurt turns so naturally into anger and perhaps even desire for revenge.  On Good Friday of this Holy Week in Christianity, I will be compelled to gaze upon the Mystery of humility in the face of humiliation and the redemptive Grace of sacrificial love. Many Christians will speak of “Atonement” in the sacrifice of Jesus’ life for love of all humanity; I will meditate on the “at ONE ment” that I believe happens when persons of all faiths humble themselves before God in the midst of heinous crimes, horrid persecutions, and hideous curses, to pray through the heartbreaking agony that only God’s love can heal: “Father, forgive.”

Tziporah:

Before I read your reflection, Grace, my mind wandered from the verse in Luke to events unfolding around the country.  The words, “for they know not what they do,” while spoken genuinely and recorded in this passage, can seem like an attempt to excuse the many wrongs we commit.  Claiming the consequences of our behavior to be unintended, we humans hurt each other in unforgiveable ways.  I think that one reason human beings struggle with forgiveness is that we often hurt each other wittingly and willfully.  While God’s forgiveness extends to our unintentional sins—because only God knows what true repentance lies within our hearts—our intentional trespasses against one another must be acknowledged, and we must reconcile with each other before we can find forgiveness.  In Jewish tradition, we pray for God’s forgiveness on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when we are “at one” with God.  But we are only able to atone if we are already at one with each other.

Yasmina:

Like Christians, Muslims seek God’s forgiveness for their faults and weaknesses every day, during and after prayer, and strive to reach a complete state of purification during the month of Ramadan and the period of the Hajj. A Muslim also seeks to emulate the example of the Prophet Muhammad [Peace and Blessings be upon Him], who embodied the teachings of the Quran. In the following verses, the Quran describes forgiveness as an honorable response to hurtful actions, while allowing for the uniqueness of people and recognizing that not every individual is actually capable of reaching this status:

“And not equal are the good deed and the bad. Repel [evil] by that [deed] which is better; and thereupon the one whom between you and him is enmity [will become] as though he was a devoted friend. But none is granted it except those who are patient, and none is granted it except one having a great portion [of good]. And if there comes to you from Satan an evil suggestion, then seek refuge in God. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing.”(al Fussilat 41:34-36)

To me, although adopting this attitude of forgiveness can be challenging, it helps me focus on overcoming tests as a way of purifying my own heart and soul.

Journeys

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. 

I am the LORD your God.”

(Numbers 15:41)

Yaira:

This verse appears at the very end of the Sh’ma, the prayer that observant Jews recite twice a day. One of the central stories of the Jewish people is the Exodus from Egypt—the move from slavery to freedom—and, on one level, the story preserves a collective memory. On another level, though, we can understand it as a metaphor for other kinds of liberating transformations. The Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, can also be translated as “narrow straits.” The move from Mitzrayim to liberation mirrors my move into Judaism—from a narrow place in which I had all but given up on finding religious grounding, to the liberating gift of a tradition that offers me deep sustenance and a clearer relationship with God than I had previously thought possible. It is as though I passed through a narrow channel into a vast expanse of possibility. In this verse, God is doing the speaking and acting, in order that God may be known and in relationship with people. On its own, this is such a beautiful statement about the love and deep partnership between people and God. As a metaphor for my personal journey, the idea that God brought me out of narrow places in order to be known and in relationship evokes waves of wonder, joy, gratitude, and amazement—making it difficult, sometimes, to get those last few words of the Sh'ma out of my mouth.

Amanda:

Yaira’s comment about God ‘delivering’ her through her personal spiritual journey reminded me of my own ongoing journey along the ‘straight path’ of Islam to reclaim my purpose as a created human. In Islam we are taught that the inherent state of all creation is that of a muslim, literally, one who submits to God. The natural world exists in this state; babies are born in this state of submission. However, due to cultural and other profane influences, humans deviate from this state during our lifetimes. The purpose of Islam is to create a path on which we strive to reclaim our innate state of being—our natural state of submission to the Creator. It is not a forced existence with spiritual hoops to leap through, but a way of being fully human. In this verse, I noticed that the delivery of the Israelites from slavery was for a specific purpose. Speaking to the newly delivered Israelites, God says that He “brought you out of Egypt to be your God.” So, their freedom from subjugation to the Egyptians was replaced by freedom to serve God. This is our natural state—our “muslimness.” One final thought: when we pray for deliverance from the things that are oppressing us, we need to consider that true freedom does not mean lack of submission, but rather submission to our true purpose. As Bob Dylan so famously said, “You gotta serve somebody.”

LeeAnne:

Like Yaira and Amanda, I came to my current faith tradition as an adult. I was raised in an agnostic household and spent my childhood and young adulthood searching—yearning—for something that I could not define. I found a spiritual home in Christianity, and with it, a sense of freedom from doubt and fear. When I hear the words “I am the Lord your God,” I think of God’s enduring love for all people, God’s mercy, and God’s deliverance. I also think of God calling us to be better people as we attempt to live according to the promise of our being made in God’s image. Amanda’s articulation of the inherent state of creation in Islam is a nice parallel to the Christian concept of grace. It is through faith that we access the power of grace to do what God requires of us, which is “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) We respond to “the Lord our God” by seeing ourselves bound in duty, love, and gratitude to keep all of God’s commandments.

 

Meet Guest Bloggers Yaira, Amanda & LeeAnne on the About Us page!