My address at the NCC Community Iftar

I was a stranger

Rev. Eric Doolittle, College Chaplain

Presentation at North Central College Community Iftar

May 29, 2017

Good evening! On behalf of North Central College, I'm honor and proud to welcome you to our first community Ramadan dinner. I welcome you on behalf of President Troy Hammond, our Board of Trustees, the Central for Global Studies, our Office of Student Affairs, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Office of Ministry and Service. It warms my heart to see so many of our students, faculty, staff, and community members gather for this momentous occasion. I want to personally thank Lynn Pries and the Naperville Interfaith Leaders Association and Shoaib Khadri from the Islamic Center of Naperville for believing in or students enough to sponsor this dinner. I want to especially thank Esra Tasdalan and the leadership of our Muslim Student Association for all their hard work in coordinating this wonderful celebration. But as we get started, I do have a question for my friend Youssef Mekawy, who helped launch the MSA as a student organization and spearheaded this dinner.

Youssef, we've worked together for three years now. You know me pretty well. Why am I here? Don't get me wrong, I'm deeply honored to have been asked to speak tonight. But I don't know anything about Ramadan or about an iftar dinner. I mean, I know the basics - no food or drink from first light to sunset for a month. But I've never observed that fast. I obviously don't miss many meals. I didn't know what an iftar was until a few years ago. I've never been to an iftar. Why am I speaking to this group of professors, scholars, and practicing Muslims?

The only thing I might claim any knowledge in amongst this crowd is how to practice hospitality. I'm not an expert, though, but hospitality is something I try to make part of my life every day. I practice hospitality because I believe it is central to being a Christian. You cannot follow the teachings of Jesus and not be welcoming, especially to those in need. Since deep down I'm a preacher, I once again found myself looking for wisdom from scripture. In the Christian Bible, Saint Paul writes to the early church reminding them, “Do not forget to practice hospitality to strangers, because is so doing, some have entertained angels unaware.” I love that phrase - “some have entertained angels unaware.” The teaching references the story from the Hebrew bible where Abraham welcomes three strangers into his home by the Oak of Mamre. The strangers are in fact God's messengers, in the language of the Christian Bible, they are angels. Angelos is the Greek word for messenger. Saint Paul is reminding us that when we practice hospitality - true welcome and openness to the stranger - we encounter the divine. When we welcome strangers, we invite the divine into our presence.

I take the Bible's teachings on welcome and hospitality quite literally in my role as chaplain here at North Central College. I spend a great deal of time in conversation over lunch, coffee, and burritos because something special happens when we gather at the table and share a meal. That maybe pizza on a retreat, matza at our annual Passover Seder, bread around the altar table for communion, coffee with a student in crisis, or sharing a few dates and water to start a new tradition for our Cardinal family. Yes, we gather because we are friendly and caring, but we also gather because we have been commanded to love our neighbor.

This weekend, we had powerful reminder of how radical the simple act of hospitality can seem. In Portland, two teenage girls - one Muslim in a headscarf and her friend- were being attacked with anti-muslim slurs and physical intimidation. People nearby intervened and stood up for the women, even physically blocking the attacker. Then this sick man, a known white supremacist, pulled out a knife and starting stabbing those who would defend their neighbors. At the end of the chaos two of the defending men were dead and a third is still recovering in the hospital.

We need to hear the names of those who would stand up for the rights of their neighbors. Rick Best was a retired Army veteran and city employee. He had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a citizen, he had stood for public office as a county commissioner.  What better way to honor the true duty of a soldier than to willingly lie down his life for another citizen. To defend liberty and true American values in the face of evil. On Memorial Day, how shocking it is to honor a soldier killed by an extremist terrorist on American soil. His death left four children fatherless, and robs his community of a good man and leader.

The young poet who is still recovering is Micah Fletcher. Yesterday, he wrote "This is what we must do for one another. We must live for one another. We must fight for one another." I hope we hear more of his story as time goes on. For us gathered tonight though, I want to focus on the second person murdered in the attack.

Taliesin Namkai-Meche was a recent college graduate. While at Reed College, he took an intro to Islam class to strive towards understanding. His professor Kambiz Ghanea-Bassiri said that he stood out in particular for his desire to understand how other people see the world. GhaneaBassiri also said that he was a considerate student who always tried to support his classmates. Likewise, in their remembrance, his family said, "In his final act of bravery, he held true to what he always believed is the way forward...We ask that in honor of his memory, we use this tragedy as an opportunity for reflection and change." Amazing words of hope in the midst of grief. Talesin's final words are reported by another Samaritan who held him as he died,  to be, “Tell them, I want everybody to know, I want everybody on the train to know, I love them.” Truer words could never be spoken. True love, Jesus taught, is to lay down your life for our friends. Talesin was willing to put those words into action.

Sadly, we now live in a time where hospitality is foreign and loving our neighbor seems strange. My wise friend Dorothy Pleas, the Director of Multicultural Affairs at NCC, posed this question, "Why is it a radical concept to treat all people decently?" Why is it so hard to show respect and love? Why do we continue to fear and hate and kill?

Ladies and gentleman, there are people around the world who object to this dinner. People full of suspicion and hate who think we should be building walls instead of bridges and dropping bombs instead of breaking bread. People who wrap themselves in false versions of fragile faith woven from strands of fear and lies. People who will view us with suspicion because we practice hospitality and welcome and love. And as this past week's headlines shows, people in Egypt, and Manchester, and Portland and too many places in between are even willing to kill just because someone is different.  It breaks my heart to think of my Christian brothers and sisters who cannot understand how to welcome the stranger and love their neighbor. It breaks my heart not just for the  wonderful people they aren’t getting to meet. It breaks my heart that their hearts are too timid to trust that God is bigger what their small world.

So what can we do? How do we continue to practice hospitality in a hostile world? By not just building bridges, but by being bridges. I don't expect any of us to be asked to die to show love for our neighbor and the stranger. But we can specifically look for ways to live. Raise your hand is you have someone in your life that would be suspicious of this gathering tonight? Look around. We are all eager for a way to build community and connection not just between those gathered, but back to our friends, family, and community. Why don’t we commit tonight to take the next step? Don't wait for the next Open Mosque Day or community banquet to be a bridge of understanding and love. Invite someone here to your home to meet your reluctant acquaintances. Be like Abraham and invite a stranger home and into your community. Be the bridge between two worlds wary of one another. And maybe, just maybe, God will come into your home as well.

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart for being here tonight. God willing, we will see you all again next year, and also all throughout the year in between. To our Muslim finds, Ramadan mubarak, and may you all be blessed tonight.