“We are the relatives who just won’t go away,” observed
Rabbi Gary Greenbaum, as he wryly summed up the ongoing challenges of
Jewish-Christian relations. I have just
concluded a two-day conference of the Christian Leadership Initiative, the
program I have been a part of since our study last July in Jerusalem.
The theme
for this CLI alumni study retreat has been “Difficult Conversations: Making
Space for Productive Jewish-Christian Dialogue about the Holy Land.” Held at the American Jewish University in Los
Angeles, CA, this time of studying texts, hearing lectures, and offering
reflection has been rich and provocative.
My head is full of constructive ideas about ways Christians and Jews can
engage the best ways toward peace and the meaning and the future of Israel as a
Jewish state. Of course, the concern for
justice for Palestinians always accompanies such discourse.
Many
American Christians live with oblivion about their Jewish roots, and thus do
not understand the protracted “sibling rivalry” with our biblical kinfolk. At times we read the virulent New Testament
passages about “the Jews” with unquestioning confidence, forgetting that they
reflect an epoch of rancorous conflict between the elder and younger Abrahamic
expressions of faith. Descriptive rather
than prescriptive, they do not articulate how Christians are to regard Jews for
all time.
Christian
writings over many centuries display a theology that contends that the
scattering of Jews after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE is due to their
sinfulness in rejecting and crucifying Jesus.
Further, Christians have interpreted Scripture as teaching
supersessionism, i.e., the church has replaced Israel as the people of God. A careful reading of the Pauline texts,
however, argues that Gentiles have been included in God’s salvific purpose, and
Jewish covenant has not been abrogated.
As we enter
the Lenten season, a fruitful expression of spiritual discernment for many
Christians would be to examine personal convictions and feelings about the
historic people of God. Often our
reading of the Hebrew Bible renders it little more than a foil to illumine how
much greater is our expression of faith in God through Jesus Christ.
Many of the
liturgies of this season in the Christian calendar, especially those we read
during Holy Week, render a defaming portrait of first century Jews. I believe we must interrogate these freighted
texts, written at a time when mutually destructive fragmentation was
occurring.
Over the past
seventy years, there has been a maturation in Jewish-Christian dialogue as
bridges of trust have been painstakingly built.
A growing consciousness of the destructiveness of anti-Semitic attitudes
is encouraging, but hard theological work remains. It is easier to pontificate about the
“solution” to the protracted conflict in the Holy Land than it is to do the
reflective theological work that would move Christians to a deeper appreciation
of our participation in God’s inclusive covenant of grace. We still can learn to be family.
Molly T.
Marshall
Central
is a formative, creative, and progressive seminary. To learn more about
our values and commitments, please visit our website at www.cbts.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment