Humanity is naturally separated by language, geography, culture, race, existential narratives and many other cultural accents that make us uniquely different. We are divided ideologically, politically, racially, by class, belief, faith and theology. Each group and sub-group has its own ways of expressions and customs. But unfortunately, in one way or another, each group and sub-group claims that its ways and thoughts are uniquely more significant than everything and everyone else in creation.
This is human nature where the familiar becomes the norm, and our norms becomes the vehicle by which we evaluate everything and everyone else. For example, in Christianity, Jesus is the way and there is no other way. In Islam, there is no god but God, and Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the Messenger of God. Historically, Judaism believes that there is only one God who has established a covenant, or special agreement with those of the faith (or traditions). Buddhism believes that life is one of suffering, and that meditation, spiritual and physical labor, and good behavior are the ways to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana and to overcome. In general, Hinduism believes that there are four goals in human life — kama, the pursuit of pleasure; artha, the pursuit of material success; dharma, leading a just and good life; and moksha, enlightenment, which frees a person from suffering and unites the individual soul with Brahman.
There are many other cultural-religious understandings in the course of human thinking and they all grapple with the meaning of life, how to effectively live life, and how to live righteously in the human community. Each cultural-religious perspective emerges out of geography and context that frames language, perspective and understandings.
I was born within a Christian context in Baltimore, Maryland, and the people around me related to Jesus. If I was born in another context the language I would use would be quite different. I might be calling God Allah, Adonai, Krishna or by some other name. We are all creatures of our environment, the familiar and the norms that are established because of familiarity. We each are reticent to venture beyond those concepts or cultural-religious expressions that are familiar because they give us comfort, like comfort foods.
Previous Coverage
The abuse of religion to foster extremism is a universal phenomenonPolitically speaking, American democracy is not the only legitimate form of governance in the world. But the narrative in the U.S. is that it is the best system, therefore more superior than any other system and begs us to transplant that system throughout the world by the barrel of a gun or economic sanctions. This is what people in the U.S. know, but it is not the only way or the best way. The struggle of democracies against other forms of governance, and racial and ethnic groups above and greater than other groups, defines much of the tensions we experience in this world.
There are nation-states claiming superiority over other nation-states, and the lust to be more important and special than anything and anyone else diminishes the significance of other people and their expressions of life. Humanity is engaged in a web of competition that seeks to advance one group, one claim, one religion and one perspective at the expense of all others. Humanity exhausts and destroys itself in competing claims of superiority and rightness.
One day I placed a giant jigsaw puzzle on the table. As I fanned the puzzle out on the table I was overwhelmed by the number of pieces. I realized that each piece was part of the overall picture. The 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle was a collage of shapes and sizes that felt impossible to assemble. It was overwhelming and confusing, yet there was the knowledge that each piece belonged to another piece. What is required to finish this overwhelming puzzle is belief that it fits together, and that the creator of the puzzle had in mind a beautiful picture or scene.
And when it was all brought together it reflected the creation that the creator of the puzzle intended. It required, however, a belief, patience and trust that each piece was part of the whole. I had to believe and trust that all of the pieces were there and necessary for the puzzle to be understood, appreciated and completed. And, I must have patience to see how each part fit the other piece. This is how a jigsaw puzzle is assembled and completed.
After the puzzle is done with every different piece fitted together then we are able to see the colors, the design and the overall picture. But one piece does not disclose the beauty, and one piece is not the entire picture. One piece is only one piece, but when fitted to another piece, the entire picture begins to emerge and can be understood and appreciated. This is the way of truths in life, religion, race and ethnicity. One piece does not tell the entire story, and is not the complete picture. But each piece of the puzzle contains elements of the completed picture of truth, design and beauty.
The jigsaw creator is quite like the Creator of heaven, earth and the universe. Yet each element, each part, allows the other to function making up the completeness of the whole. Yet each part is only part and not the whole. The Creator, like the creator of a jigsaw puzzle, has designed each piece as functioning towards the whole. In the world around us, oxygen is not the entirety of life, but without it life does not exist. Plants cannot grow without sun and water, and air cannot be cleansed without vegetation. Pollinators pollinate plants so that they can bloom and produce fruits. The earth is held in the sun’s orbit, and without the sun the earth would cease as the earth, and all of the other planets would float off into the expanse we call space.
Everything has been created as a part of creation, and each dependent upon the other to complete the picture. Each part, each element has a role and function and when put together, one piece to the other the whole beautiful picture emerges. This is the genius of a puzzle, and in the puzzle of existence, one can deduce, that the Creator of this puzzle called existence everything, including our differences, are part of the overall design that when brought together creates the picture that the Creator intended.
We live in a world where there is Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and many other truths placed by humans in contention with one another. Using the jigsaw puzzle analogy we understand that the parts are parts of the whole. The whole cannot become complete when a piece is missing, and each piece has designed within it a dependency upon the other in order for the beauty of Creation to emerge. The completion of the puzzle or Creation cannot happen if one piece is missing.
The pieces are created by the Creator to make things complete. The earth without the sun, or without gravity, water, and oxygen renders the earth incomplete, and yet each element is needed for completion and yet the absence of one renders the creative project incomplete. The pieces together make earth, and without one of the pieces creation become deficient. Likewise, each faith, each belief system, each religion is a piece of the completion of the Creator (God), and without one piece the Creation is incomplete.
If this is true, then it takes us far beyond interfaith dialogue and tolerance. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, one piece is dependent upon the other and each has different edges, contours and colors being complete to itself. Yet each is incomplete towards the whole while separate from the other pieces. If this rationale is true, then Christianity is incomplete without Islam, or Judaism, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Jainism and so forth. Each comes out of a culture, a geography, a language system, and a narrative. Each contains elements of the whole but by itself is not whole without the adjoining pieces. The Creator created parts of the whole, but the parts are not the whole for only the parts together makes for the creation intended by the Creator.
This is why there are common themes throughout the religions and faiths of the world. The differences, and the assertions of being peculiar, are the construction of human beings and not the Creator. If we are to take this conceptualization seriously it takes us beyond tolerance, or the shaky truths that are present in interfaith dialogue. If this is true then it causes us, no matter our religion or cultural expressions, to seek out the other, and begin to understand how the other fits onto us and our beliefs. We must appreciate the different contours and designs of the other, and fit it to ourselves in order for the beauty of creation to emerge.
Thank you Rev. Hagler.
Greetings from Aleita Hass-Holcombe, Corvallis, Oregon. We once served together on the Witness for Peace Board quite a few years ago….and I enjoyed attending one Sunday with my husband Alan at Plymouth UCC.
Peace to You!