"My heritage is beautiful to me."
Psalm 16:6b
Today, I'm thankful that The United Methodist Church chooses to honor our Jewish heritage.
Since the celebration of Passover begins at sundown today, I thought it might be helpful to write about our relationship during Holy Week.
Some expressions of Christianity have often ranged into anti-Semitism in their theology. One of the most dramatic was in 1980 when Rev. Bailey Smith, pastor at First Baptist in Del City and newly elected chair of the Southern Baptist Convention remarked that God doesn't hear the prayer of Jews.
His claim was based on the fact that God wouldn't be able to hear the prayer of one who disavowed Jesus as the Messiah. He later backed up his claim using John 14:6 where Jesus claims, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Smith was unapologetically a literalist in his biblical interpretation.
When you don't interpret utilizing the overall mission of Jesus or how Jesus treated those on the outside, the Christian faith can often seem hypocritical or judgmental.
Fortunately, United Methodist doctrine is more nuanced as shared by our statement in the United Methodist Book of Resolutions entitled, "United Methodist Guiding Principles for Christian-Jewish Relations."
This statement acknowledges the difficulties of evangelizing while respecting people of differing traditions. It is especially difficult since our religion emerged out of Judaism and started as a subset of it.
Our resolution calls us "to learn about the faith of one another and to build bridges of understanding."
I began to learn more about the Jewish community in college as the Jewish Student Association met at the OSU Wesley Foundation where I was the resident custodian my final two years of school. They made arrangements to hold a Seder meal in our building which was my first encounter with this Passover tradition.
In order for them to prepare it in our kitchen, they gave it a thorough scrubbing to ensure a kosher meal. As the custodian, this was perfectly fine by me!
They were gracious in inviting any of the United Methodist students to attend. I recognize this hospitality today as I imagine that it would be nice just to celebrate with your own people without having to explain everything to outsiders. As a person in the dominant culture, at the time, it didn't occur to me that we wouldn't necessarily be a welcome addition for all those there!
It was a fascinating retelling using the different foods as mnemonic devices of how the Jewish people were led by God through Moses out of bondage and into freedom. For instance, bitter herbs were used to remind the participants of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt.
I feel that it is important for Christians to be guests at a Jewish Passover rather than re-creating one primarily for the Christian community where they reside. When Christians are in charge, it feels more like playing at the Passover. Of course, we also don't want to be spiritual tourists who try out experiences for our own self-interest. The key for me would be the relationships established. We are honored to participate with our friends so that we might grow closer in loving our neighbors. We have a greater understanding of them and thus, of ourselves. This is more likely to keep us from proclaiming that Jesus doesn't hear the prayers of our Jewish neighbors.
As we move through Holy Week, what differences of religious tradition have you encountered? Some might be within the Christian faith and some might be outside it. There is a significance in how Jesus conducted the Passover meal. John's Gospel tells us that Jesus preceded the meal by washing the feet of those who followed him. How might we bring this humility to our religious conversations with the people we meet?
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| I remember a lot of wine being drunk at the Seder. While drinking four glasses is also representative, they told us that we didn't have to drain each glass. I think this was the only time alcohol was served in the Wesley Foundation! |
Photo by Suzie Tremmel via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license
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