Over the last few weeks I have been
reading a lot about the resurgence of anti-Semitism. An anonymous caller to a
German rabbi threatened to kill 30 Jews in the city of Frankfurt, and swastikas
were painted on Jewish shops in Italy. America is not immune. Last week
swastikas and the word “Hamas” were spray-painted on a Florida synagogue.
In the second reading today, Paul
writes, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I
could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of
my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to
them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according
to the flesh, comes the Messiah.” When Paul says, “my own people,” he is
talking about the Jewish people.
“…to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of
the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from
them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah.” That’s quite a legacy.
One of my favorite trick questions
for my New Testament students was this: “Was Paul a Christian?” Think about it. Of
course, Paul was a follower of Jesus, but he never says, “I am a Christian” or
refers to himself as a Christian. That’s because the word “Christian” was
invented during Paul’s lifetime.
Paul lived in that period between
the death and resurrection of Jesus and the emergence of Christianity as a
religion distinct and different from the Jewish faith. Remember that wherever
Paul traveled – Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, and so on – he went first to the
synagogues, because Paul understood the gospel to be good news for Jews first
and foremost. Only after he got kicked out of the synagogues (and Paul always
got kicked out of the synagogues) did he proclaim the gospel to non-Jews.
Paul had a profound understanding of
himself as a Jew. If we jump two chapters ahead in his letter to the Romans, we
find Paul saying this: “I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a
member of the tribe of Benjamin.” (Rom. 11.1b) More than likely all the writers
of the New Testament were Jews. If you read through the book of Acts, you will
find that the earliest Christians continued to worship in the Temple in
Jerusalem and in synagogues. The New Testament also shows us that
Jesus was an observant Jew. According to the gospels, it was Jesus’ custom to
go to the synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath. (Luke 4.16) Matthew tells us that Jesus
miraculously produced a shekel to pay the temple tax. (Matthew 17.27) And Luke
also says that Jesus began his public ministry by reading and commenting on the
book of the Prophet Isaiah when he was called to the bema or pulpit of
the synagogue in Nazareth. (Luke 4.16)
But from the very beginning the followers of Jesus fit uneasily in
congregations with their fellow Jews and a separation was inevitable. Jesus’
followers believed that the resurrection of the just (which all Jews believed
would take place at the end of days when God judged the world) had begun with
the resurrection of Jesus; the followers of Jesus believed that he was the
instrument through whom God would judge the world; Jesus’ followers believed
that the God revealed to Israel through Torah had revealed himself more fully
in Jesus; gradually, this belief in God’s revelation in and through Jesus
evolved into the doctrine of the Incarnation, the conviction that God was not
just revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus but that Israel’s
God was fully present in Jesus, that to see, hear and touch Jesus was to see,
hear, and touch the God of Sinai. And above all, the followers of Jesus were
convinced that the Messiah predicted by the prophets had come to his own and
had been rejected.
The synagogues in which Jesus’
followers worshiped were uneasy with the presence of Jesus’ followers. To
distinguish Jesus’ followers from other Jews, the synagogue liturgy was
modified to include prayers which Jesus’ followers could not in good conscience
say. So by the end of the first century, the church and synagogue went their
separate ways.
By and large, Episcopalians and Jews
have been good neighbors to each other. Congregation Ner Tamid in Henderson met
in our building for a time.
One of my favorite examples of
Jewish-Episcopalian cooperation is in the small town of Demopolis, Alabama.
Temple B’nai Jeshurun is just across the street from Trinity Episcopal Church,
and for years the church and synagogue had a happy relationship, often having joint
social functions and working together on projects for the community. Then the
day came where there were too few Jews to support the synagogue, and the
president of the congregation took the temple’s keys to the rector of Trinity.
Handing the keys to the priest, the president of Temple B’nai Jeshurun asked
that the people of the Episcopal Church maintain the synagogue until there was
once again a Jewish presence in Demopolis. Today the sign in front of the
synagogue reads, “Temple B’nai Jeshurun – maintained by Trinity Episcopal
Church.”
Sadly, though, the story of the
Christian church and the Jewish people has often been one of suspicion and even
violence.
About three hundred years after the
crucifixion and resurrection, Christianity had the good (or perhaps bad)
fortune to become the “official” faith of the Roman empire. Suddenly, the
followers of One who said his kingdom was not of this world and who forgave
those who crucified him had the power to persecute and even put others to
death, a power they exercised far too often against Jesus’ own people, the
Jews. The church’s liturgy came to include prayers for the conversion of the
Jews. One of the holiest days of the church’s year – Good Friday – became a day
of persecution and violence against the Jewish people.
The last country in Europe to
abolish legal restrictions against Jews was Italy. Prior to that, Roman Jews
suffered all kinds of indignities. Roman Jews were required to live in a tiny
neighborhood, so close to the Tiber River that it was frequently flooded. One
pope even required Jews to wear distinctive yellow hats
Some trace the roots of Christian
anti-Semitism to the New Testament itself, and there is some support for this.
The oldest gospel, the gospel of Mark, tells us that the “chief priests and
scribes” brought Jesus to Pilate to be crucified. (Mark 15.1, 3, and 10)
However, John’s gospel (which was written twenty or thirty years later) says
that “the Jews” brought Jesus to Pilate. (John 19.12)
I want to be perfectly clear: I
believe that God is fully and perfectly revealed in Jesus, that God was and is
uniquely present in Jesus of Nazareth. But we can believe in the uniqueness and
completeness of the revelation of God in Christ without believing that God no
longer reveals Himself to Israel in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.
Christians must never forget their
debt to Israel:
· The faith of Israel was the
first to join righteousness with piety. Israel’s God demanded not only ritual
and sacrifice but also the just and ethical treatment of widows and orphans,
the poor and physically afflicted.
· Israel gave the world the
Torah with its incomparably lyrical and powerful tales of creation, fall, and
flood. These stories continue to inform our relationship with God and with one
another.
· Israel gave the world Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the other prophets. Their scathing denunciations of
irresponsible wealth and callous power still thunder against tyranny and greed.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., employed the rhetoric of the prophets to bring
down the structures of discrimination.
· Israel gave the world and
still gives the world the example of fierce loyalty and faith in the face of
unimaginable persecution. Not even the Holocaust could destroy the faith of
Sinai.
· And above all, Christians
must give thanks to Israel for giving us Jesus Christ, a Jew, nurtured in a
Jewish home and synagogue, steeped in the scriptures of Judaism.
But what of the future? Some would
have us believe that the faith of Israel will one day wither away or that those
who hold the faith of Israel and do not put their faith in Jesus of Nazareth
have no place in God’s eternal kingdom or are condemned to punishment in the
next life, but that is not my belief.
Today’s second reading is from the 9th
chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians in ancient Rome. If we jump two
chapters ahead to chapter 11, we hear Paul saying these words: “I ask, then,
has God rejected his people? By no means!... God has not rejected his people…”
(Rom. 11.1 and 2)
Two thousand years ago, Jews
excluded the followers of Jesus from the synagogue, but from then until now,
the church has had the upper hand and has exacted a bitter price from the
Jewish people. It may be, however, that we are entering an age in which neither
the synagogue nor the church will be in a position to dictate to the other, a
secular age in which all faiths have a precarious place in the public square.
It may be that we are entering a time in which church and synagogue must make
common cause against those who would mock and despise all religion.
The story of Jacob wrestling with
the angel in our first reading today is a good parable for the relationship
between Jews and Christians. Christians and Jews have been wrestling with each
other for 2000 years. We have injured each other in this wrestling match. But
it is in wrestling with each other that we both learn who we are, find
ourselves blessed, and see the face of God.
We do no favor to the synagogue nor
to ourselves to trim and modify our belief to avoid offense. We should confess
firmly and clearly our faith in the crucified and risen Lord. Israel should
just as firmly and clearly confess its Sh’ma: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God, the Lord is one…” We owe each other the respect and courtesy first to
listen attentively and then to disagree politely but firmly. But Christians and
Jews are a part of a two thousand year old conversation, often a rancorous
argument, but a dialogue nonetheless. I cannot speak for the Jews, but I know
that our side of the argument would be profoundly impoverished without the
contribution that Israel has made and still makes. We are better Christians for
listening to what Israel has said and still says. So I say, Todah rabbah.
Thank you very much indeed.
