My mind was spinning with excitement as I read Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World by Bob Roberts Jr. Bob clearly understood the unique challenges of living out one’s faith in a post-9/11, interconnected, pluralistic world. I had found a soulmate – someone serious about following Jesus and someone who at the same time understood the tectonic communicational shifts impacting our world.

In an increasingly polarized and uncivil world, Both-And: Living the Christ-Centered Life in an Either-Or World by Rich Nathan and Insoo Kim is a breath of fresh air. No, actually it's a hurricane of robust theology, pastoral wisdom, and prophetic insight.

Social distancing is a major problem these days. We seem more polarized, more ready to place the "other" in the dark camp on the opposite side of an issue, political viewpoint AND religious belief. Just last week I saw a simple encounter in the grocery store parking lot escalate to an altercation where strangers were yelling at each other and demonstrating with hand gestures. While not all people resort to this level of immaturity in our interactions with others, it seems to be happening more. And I think it has infected our inter-religious engagement as well.

A couple weeks ago I received an unexpected email. It was an invitation to a local interfaith meeting. Apparently this group wanted to plan their meetings and events for the next twelve months, and somehow they had acquired my email address. "Well," I thought, "why not show up to this meeting of people I don’t know and see if a little light of Jesus could be injected into it?"

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we rejoice in proclaiming the Prince of Peace. Yet at times the centrality of peace as a theme at Christmas can feel distant from the world we live in. From armed conflict to family strife to internal turmoil, no matter how much we may love peace it can feel like just a far off ideal. In a recent sermon about the Prince of Peace, Pastor Steve Grusendorf of Princeton Alliance Church in New Jersey provides a very helpful introduction to how Jesus bridges this gap.

My friend Dr. Babar is a Pakistani physician and a leader in the local mosque. We were working together to organize a “Pakistani Peace Feast” at which we planned to get Christians and Muslims in the same room, sharing a meal around the same table, and talking about Pakistan.“Martin,” Babar said over the phone, “the US State Department has eight Pakistani journalists visiting Louisville this week. Should we invite them to the Peace Feast?”

I want to be a man of peace. That’s my goal. I believe that is what we are called to by Christ. It is needed today in our world perhaps more than ever, across all relationships and communities. Muslims and Christians need that in each other when we interact. That’s what I look for when I visit a mosque. I seem to be finding them a lot these days, by the way. I hope that’s what Muslims see in us.

“I think forgiveness is related to what Jesus said: ‘If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones’ (Luke 16:10 NLT). I always focus on forgiving little things, every single day. Because of this, I think I was able to forgive the big thing.

When Muslims and Christians - even nice Muslims and Christians - spend time together, we are actively overcoming a very powerful tension that reaches beyond language or culture. A tension with a volatile potential to end in violence, prejudice, hate, and fear.