Asking the Clergy: What's the message you want others to know about your faith?
The Very Rev. Christopher D. Hofer, The Rev. William McBride and Rabbi Mendel Teldon Credit: Interfaith Community Religious Education Program (Wm. McBride)/Kerry M. Brady / Interfaith Community Religious Education Program / Tom Keller
We live on a multicultural island, enriched by religious traditions brought here from all corners of the world. However, although we may live side-by-side with people of other faiths, assumptions can be made about what others believe. This week’s clergy discuss the unifying philosophy behind their belief system.
The Very Rev. Christopher D. Hofer
Rector, The Church of St. Jude (Episcopal), Wantagh
A song I learned when I was 6 was: “It’s about love, love, love, (repeat). Cause God loves us we love each other, Father, Mother, sister, brother. Everyone sing and shout, cause, That’s what it’s all about love” (lyrics by Herbert Brokering). If there was ever a song that sums up Christian faith, it is Brokering’s song about love.
As a follower of Jesus, I see this message of love in his teachings such as, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39). Also, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . . For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” (Matthew 5:44, 46).
There is no ambiguity. We are to love everyone (even the unlovable) because everyone is created in the image of God. The presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, Michael B. Curry, summed this up by saying, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God!”
At St. Jude we uphold this through word and action. Being a no-judgment church, we welcome and affirm all of God’s children, no questions asked. We share that love through our outreach efforts at our mission center. Finally, we accept people for who they are, not for who society thinks they should be. Now that’s love.
The Very Rev. Christopher D. Hofer, Rector, The Church of St. Jude (Episcopal), Wantagh Credit: Kerry M. Brady
The Rev. William McBride
Religious director, Interfaith Community Religious Education Program, Brookville Multifaith Campus
Our mission is to listen. When Christ was asked about the greatest commandment, he responded with the Hebrew word “shema,” meaning “Listen!” He went on to say, quoting the Torah, “Listen O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord in One.” The final word in Hebrew, echad, has been said to mean that God is a loving, unifying force.
When we listen carefully, we discover God’s love in surprising places. A scene at the center of the Gospel of Luke emphasizes this point. In the story popularly known as “The Prodigal Son,” the first thing that the father does when the son approaches is to “look with compassion.” It’s the look, according to Bishop Kenneth Utener, that serves as the most important teaching point of this story, which is now often titled, “The Merciful Parent.”
The Rev. William McBride, religious director, Interfaith Community Religious Education Program, Brookville Multifaith Campus Credit: Interfaith Community Religious Education Program
Pope Francis appealed to this aspect of faith with his famous quote, “Who am I to judge?” In clarifying his remarks, the pope went out of his way to emphasize that “mercy is doctrine. It is the first attribute of God.” This look of compassion is rooted in listening from the innermost part of one’s being. Compassion is a patience with and a passion for things to come together in a way they ought to be brought together.
Rabbi Mendel Teldon
Chabad of Mid-Suffolk, Commack
The image many of us have of God is an old guy with a beard sitting on a throne looking down at Earth and watching us. Not very involved but more like a lifeguard overseeing the beach. That God can come across cold, distant. And what happens when he looks away?
For some it is a bit more like driving a remote-control car. God stands from afar but is still controlling the outcome. But what happens if the battery runs out or the radio waves don’t reach that far?
Rabbi Mendel Teldon, Chabad of Mid-Suffolk, Cormack Credit: Tom Keller
A more spiritual perspective would be to see God as a puppeteer using a marionette. Up close and personal and intimately involved in every detail. Pulling the strings to make sure things work out the way he decides they should.
But then comes a deeper truth. The entire world is really God wearing really professional body paint. When we see a rock or photosynthesis or a white blood cell, it is really God himself. When the tree falls on our car, when a womb opens up and a child comes out or when we are notified that we just lost our job: It is all equally God himself, just with different amounts of paint. In his kindness, he covered up his intensity allowing us to get close. So that we can go about our day without be overwhelmed by his power. There are parts of himself that he left unpainted and when we see those parts, we get really excited and spiritually uplifted.
Our purpose in this world is to wash off the rest of the paint and reveal the true identity of the person underneath.
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