I have met many people of the Buddhist, Jewish, and Muslim faiths, and one of the singular differences that I have noticed is that other religions do not have songs.  They do not sing in their worship services, and they do not have joyous songs of faith, as we do.

When I was growing up, of course, we had all of the traditional hymns, the ones I know and love, which will bring me to tears sometimes in church, but, when I was a teenager, we even had a rock song “Jesus is just all right with me!”  It was on all of the radio stations I knew of.

Today, we have all sorts of Christian music, all the way to Christian rock!  What other religion has such expressions of faith?  None!

Jesus is just all right with me! Jesus is just all right, whoa, yeah!

Our God is an Awesome God!

The Lord leads us in interesting ways… a few months back, there was a meet-up of Southerners here in New York City, and I met a lovely woman from Texas, who friended me on Facebook.  From time to time, we exchange notes, and, when I recommended my church to her, when she was looking for a church, the conversation got kind of interesting.

I like a traditional service with traditional hymns, the Lord’s Prayer, and beautiful music.  I have problems with churches which do not include the Lord’s Prayer in their services.  I also like singing the Doxology…

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above, ye Heavenly Host! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

This is one of the songs that I sing when I wake up in the morning, either before, or after, I remind myself that

“This is a day the Lord has made! Rejoice, and be glad in it!

Right now, I have to work all day on Sunday, so I cannot go to the lovely traditional service at my church (Calvary Baptist Church, in New York City, in Manhattan).  I like the pastor at my church, however, so I go to the evening service after I get off work.

I don’t like the evening service at my church because it is “contemporary”, but there is one song they sing fairly often that runs in my head:

“Our God is a living God. He reigns from Heaven above. He fills us with his Love. Our God is a living God.”

(this song starts running in my head when the Muslims start acting up in my classes, telling me who is a good Muslim and who is not, and I have to tell them that, here in the U.S., we have freedom of religion, so those people can choose their own way to honor Allah.)

Recently, I have been working with a young Jewish man who is an “ex-Hasid” (his term – this  young man came up to me and explained his situation on his first day in my class.  Hasidism is a very strict, repressive Jewish sect, which operates on what most of us would consider very old-fashioned principles — the one I know of most is “arranged marriage”, but there are many other rules which most of us would consider outlandish) who is working on integrating himself into the general society… he tries new “abominations” every week.  Last week *he ate bacon*!!!, and, on the Sabbath, he went to a disco!  It might sound silly, but this fellow has been telling me about the repressive rules in the Hasidic community in which he grew up — he is being really daring!  I like him not only because he explained his situation to me, allowing me to help him better, but also because he helps me when I need the definitive word on Jewish holidays, and also when I have Russian Jewish immigrants who are confused (older Russian Jews, who grew up in the Soviet Union, were not allowed to express their faith or worship openly, and, as a result, many of them only know they are Jewish, but have no real idea what that is really all .about).

This young man is a rabbi (he was educated as a rabbi) who has chosen not to be a rabbi and, further, has chosen not to be a part of the community into which he was born. (Imagine how it would be for you, if you had grown up in a closed community, and felt driven to renounce that – such a renouncement generally brings ostracism from family and friends).

Last week, I suggested that he try going to a Reformed Jewish congregation service, because I think it would be good for him to at least go to services, and maybe Reformed will help him see how American Judaism can work (I imagine it will be very very different from what he grew up with — I’m thinking maybe similar to the distance between fundamentalist Baptist and Unitarian).

This missionary stuff sure turns out weird sometimes.

My God is a wondrous God.  He works in mysterious ways.  It is always interesting if you stop to look at it.