REFLECTION 25TH AUGUST 2024 

“The Road that brings you here!” 

By Rev Dr Fei Taule’ale’ausumai 

I was sitting on a long haul flight and I had the back row of seats all to myself so I could stretch out, lie down and enjoy my space.  Eight hours into the flight a Muslim cleric comes over and sits in one of my aisle seats so now I have share my row.  Not long after that a few more Muslim men dressed in their white Thobe robe and Taqiyah cap also joined him at the back of the plane.  It was pre-9/11 days so I was not worried or fazed.  They had come to do their prayers in the plane gully as there was space to kneel and bow down.  I majored in World Religions under the master himself Prof. Albert Moore so I understood what they were doing and I respected that.  Post 9/11 I believe my views would not change if that happened again.  People scaremongering in the days after 9/11 everyone wearing a turban or hijab were judged and accused of being an extremist, people confused anyone different as a terrorist.   

Our Gospel reading from John 6:65 says, “This is why I told you that no one can  come to me unless the Father has enabled them”.  It is similar to the verse “I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me”.  John 14:6.  These two verses are very exclusive that the only way to God is through Jesus.  When we look at the many faiths in our world today it suggests that Christianity is the one way and truth.  So what happens to everyone else who is not a Christian?  What of Allah, Yahweh, the other two Abrahamic faiths?   

Micah 6:8 says what does God require of us “To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God”  The word humbly, humility does not mean lauding it over others with superiority and exclusiveness.  The term ‘Interfaith Dialogue’ refers to the positive and cooperative interaction between people of different religions, faiths or spiritual beliefs, with the aim of promoting understanding between different religions to increase acceptance and tolerance.  That’s where we are called to be.  Interfaith dialogue also promotes peace and harmony. Bringing people of different faiths together, it can help to build bridges between communities and to promote peaceful coexistence. It can also help to prevent conflict and violence by promoting understanding and respect for different beliefs and cultures. 

What is the golden rule of interfaith?  The Golden Rule says something like, “treat others as you would want to be treated.” This rule is not only found in the major religions, but also in schools of thought and philosophies throughout the world and across all time periods.  

What does the Quran say about interfaith dialogue?   Quran encourages interfaith dialogue with the verse, “Invite all to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and engage with them in ways that are best and most gracious”  

During the Helen Clark era, I had the privilege of being the Christian representatives on 3 Interfaith Asia Pacific dialogues, the first one was at Waitangi up north, the second was at Phenom Peng in Cambodia and the third was in Perth.  When National gained power these international Interfaith dialogues stopped.   

Some fundamentalist Christians read certain Biblical passages as texts of exclusiveness, limiting truth to the Christian tradition alone. For example, they would point to Biblical verses such as “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh to the Father but through me,” (John 14:6) and “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Other Christians insist that such passages must be understood as statements of deep personal faith, but not prescriptions for the exclusivity of Christian truth. They might argue that the message of Christ often holds up the stranger, the person of another religious community, as a possible exemplar of faith—for example, the Roman centurion, the good Samaritan, and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Jesus taught that hospitality toward the neighbour and stranger lies at the heart of true faith. 

Some of our families may not be interfaith but I know for some of us they are definitely inter-Christian, meaning varying degrees of theological difference and faith expression and experience.  I often wondered how my faith family could have such a diversity of theology within it.  But at the best of times having all begun at the same place and same faith journey until we all moved away from home and went our separate ways we have grown to appreciate the different places we are all in theologically.  Some of my dear colleagues are right wing evangelicals but when I was in Auckland we met for lunch every Tuesday and we shared our hurts and our pains,  we supported one another regardless of where we were at in our faith journey’s and theological perspectives.  Its about love, peace, tolerance and humility.   

It has been great listening to the different stories of many of you at Exploring Faith and what brought you here to SAOTT.  Our dear Valerie Rhodes liked our welcome statement, wherever you are, whatever, you believe, whatever you do not believe you are welcome here.  And I know that that statement has brought many of you here as well.   

Let me tell you a little bit of what brought me here, I may have already shared this with some you.  A Pacific Island woman at a Progressive Inclusive Rainbow church.  Might be a bit of an oxymoron to many and I know a few questioned my makeup perhaps not being a right fit for this church.  “Pacific Islanders are known for their conservatism”  and that question was asked of me on the Saturday afternoon in the hall before I preached to the call.  I agreed also with this statement.  And that is precisely why I didn’t fit it in some Pacific churches because I am not conservative and I wanted to find a place where I could be free to think freely, to be myself and share my faith, theology with like minded people.  Everyday is a growth experience for me, I’m learning new things from you as I’m sure you are also learning new things from me.  We are on this journey, this road on the Terrace together.   

Robert Frost (1874-1963) poem The Road Not Taken  is probably one of the most famous and celebrated American poems. The poem depicts the agony of a decision making and the rewards of forging your own path. The subject of the poem is faced with a decision of taking the “safe” route that others have taken before or breaking new ground. He says that he took the “road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” He finds that making original and independent choices makes life rewarding. 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference 

Colin Gibson’s song which we have just sung called “when the road runs out and the sign posts end”,  I was at a workshop where Colin retells the story of how he was driving along the road and the road suddenly ran out.  He had absolutely no idea where he was and there were no sign posts.  So this song emerged as a result, whether he wrote it there in his lostness or something he wrote when he was safely home I’m not sure.  But in his book “Knowing the Song” which you gifted me at my induction he says the dominant image of the lyric is that of a journey into the unknown, a version of the Way.  The known way, the road with its defined course and road signs, is left behind and the singers voyage out onto the unknown and uncharted oceanic waters of the future.   

Each verse addresses a different member of the Trinity: the God of Abraham; the dolphin Christ (an image derived both from the Orphic soul journey on the back of a dolphin and from the many dolphin legends that haunt our coastlines.  Tuhirangi who guided Kupe the legendary Maori explorer who first reached New Zealand, Opo, Moku and Pelorus Jack among them; and finally the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Helper, imaged as the spirit bird hovering overhead, in the composer’s mind the giant Northern Royal Albatross – sacred to Maori- which circles the planet and uniquely nests on Taiaroa Head at the tip of the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin.  The refrain honours God as the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end and ‘our hope for heaven and earth’.   

Actually I inadvertently place the song before my reflection but we were supposed to sing this after my reflection but never mind you get my drift.   

Every road that we have trod is different and cannot necessary be compared to the person sitting next to you in the same row.  We respect one another’s different and diverse journey’s without imposing our way and our belief onto them.  Your journey this is the road that brought you here.  When we live with integrity we live with Peace and Harmony and this is one of the many roads that lead to the divine.  Amen.   

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service