God Hears Prayer Letters

The word “unprecedented” is being applied frequently and very appropriately to our current situation as the world confronts COVID-19. However, I found myself wondering if there was such a word as “precedented ”. There is, and I believe it also applies.

“For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)

This verse caught my attention as I read Isaiah’s great prophetic chapter on the crucifixion. Feeling I would be writing about His intercession, I began looking for photos. I’ve used images of Jesus on the cross at times. This time, I couldn’t bear to expose His nakedness and suffering – even though that’s how it was.

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pe 1:2).

In northern Israel at the foot of Mt Hermon, there is an archaeological site named Banias. Its cliffs are full of niches for idols; and the natural rock terrace below once held temples, including the Temple of Pan, a Greek god who was half goat, half man. A spring that now seeps through the rocks once gushed from a subterranean source thought to be the Gate of the Underworld.

When my family was returning to Canada after living in East Africa for 2 years, I decided to reduce our luggage in a very Canadian way – having a garage sale! We had no garage, but there was a tiny empty guard hut in front of our building that could display our meagre supply of items. I wanted it to be fun for the neighborhood kids who, for a shilling or two, would be able to buy some little toy they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

When I was born again into the Kingdom of God at age 34, I first experienced the clear conviction of sin that revealed to me to a God I didn’t know – except that He was calling me into relationship. In an instant, I became a new creation (2 Co 5:17), and that launched me into a process of no longer conforming to the world’s pattern but being transformed by the renewing of my mind (Ro 12:2). I was a child of the rebellious ‘60s and had to repent (turn) from that mindset and learn instead about the nature of the King and the rights He had over my life, now that I’d received Him as Savior and Lord. I had to enact new vocabulary (e.g. submission, holiness, consecration), discover who I am in the Kingdom (e.g. an overcomer, a king and priest, an ambassador) and figure out how to fit and function with my specific gifts and assignments in this new community (Ro 12:3-21). Almost four decades later, I’m still “in process”!

Recently I heard a Muslim scholar speak on the history and place of the Qur’an in Muslim life. Her view is that Muslims were cut off from authentic Islamic culture by European colonization of Muslim lands (including “all the lands around the Mediterranean”). Colonization, she says, robbed Muslim women of their significant roles in society and turned lively faith-based centres of higher learning and civic life into bureaucratic institutions. Asked what she considered to be Islam’s unique expressions in North America, she cited its adaptation to multiculturalism and that Muslims have embraced community responsibility to indigenous Canadians for implementing Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations. She added that indigenous Canadians and Muslims share the experience of being colonized.

Shakespeare’s tragic heroine Juliet, prohibited from associating with Romeo because of his family’s name, protests, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. But the name Montagu was infamous among the Capulets. There was both history and destiny in that name.

One day years ago, I was waiting at a bus stop to go to a prayer meeting for Muslims. I noticed some unusual clouds and took out my notebook to draw them, thinking they looked like shin, the Hebrew letter meaning “name”. Jews often use Hashem (“the Name”) when referring to God, whose personal name YHWH they don’t pronounce. A man waiting for the bus asked to see my drawing. He said, “If you turn that upside down, it spells Allah, the Arabic word for God.” (both letters have 3 upward strokes. I see Father, Son and Holy Spirit there.)

Anyone close to Iranians or following the news is aware of the grief and anger many are currently experiencing over the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines Flt 752, the Iranian government’s initial denial of responsibility, their mishandling of the investigation and their cruelty in manipulating the victims’ families. An Iranian immigrant to Canada interviewed on CBC radio was deeply thankful for PM Trudeau’s sincere expressions of sorrow compared to Iranian leaders’ lack of concern or sincere apology to their own people. At one of the memorials, I heard speakers, uncertain about where their deceased loved ones might be, wistfully hoping they could someday be reunited. Others have heard Iranians say, “I can’t be Muslim anymore” and ask to learn about Jesus. There is much openness to gathering together in Christian contexts to receive comfort and hope.

Genesis 1:2 uses Hebrew words tohu wa-bohu, “formless and void,” to describe the earth into which God spoke Creation. It may also denote a state of chaos, disorder, utter confusion and commotion. The only other biblical use, Isaiah 34:11, concerns God’s judgment upon Edom. I’ve been thinking of this word in relation to the Middle East.