Where is God? Engaging a Religiously Charged, Post-Secular World‪.‬

All immigrants take with them something that is part of the "old" world from which they came. What they take with them may not be what they would have wanted to be at the core of who they become in the new context. Similarly, what they may have wished to take with them to form the core of who they become, because it forms the core of who they are, may not really get taken along on the journey. The new context has a decisive shaping role in what they become. This is a fascinating and complex process that applies to what we might bring with us in our theological journey. New contexts present new and different challenges. We are now in a post-11 September 2001 context with its multifaceted challenges. In that light, as I reflect on the topic, "Where is God? Engaging a religiously charged, post-secular world," three scenes from my past in Guyana come to mind. Not too long after my wife, May, and I arrived in Guyana, from graduate study in Scotland, in early September 1980, I had a conversation with one of my father's closest friends who was a Muslim. Uncle Gafoor lived directly across from Redeemer Lutheran Church, where I had grown up and where in about three weeks I was to be ordained and installed as pastor. He had known all the previous pastors--all Lutheran missionaries from the ULCA/LCA-- and had an opinion about the ability of each to relate to the multireligious, racially mixed community. In our conversation he asked me about my return to live and work in Guyana, which was experiencing difficult times on several fronts. As we talked about my work as pastor, Uncle Gafoor said to me, "Son, I pray that God the Almighty will bless you and your wife...." How should a Lutheran Christian understand this bl essing from a Muslim?