The Unified Body
Sunday, October 29, 2006
I am pleased to announce that The Unified Body is now online. I'm not talking about the blog that you're reading right now; I'm talking about the booklet that started it all.
Nearly a year ago, my mother and I sat down to discuss the idea of putting online the small booklet she had written almost ten years ago. The booklet, a mere 24 pages, was what I have now dubbed "the thesis of her faith." In it, my mother uses scripture after scripture to explain the truth of Messianic Judaism that was revealed to her through a Ruach-filled study of the Word:
...ONE BODY of Messianic Jews and Spiritual Messianic Jews (gentiles) where the balance of Old and New Covenants exist, where the Lord's Feasts are celebrated, and where faith is practiced according to scripture rather than according to ideas of men.To my mother, who was never one to toy with the truth, the olive tree connection spoken of in Romans 9-11 sounded so simple, so easy. Yet, to the world, especially to the majority of the believing community (in both the Church and the Messianic sphere) that olive tree continues to prove the hardest to grow.
I hopped online and did some research into the Messianic movement and the believing community, to see if The Unified Body would prove to be as timely a read today as it did in 1997. Months spent following Messianic chat forums, often membered largely by those who consider themselves within the framework of the Messianic "mainstream," showed me that the community had been sitting in spin cycle for the past ten years and was slowly wringing itself dry. Not only was there no interest in the message, there was no groundwork, no foundation to even build upon for dialogue. So many of these people, the majority of them in their 20s, didn't have a solid understanding of what being a Messianic Jew meant. How could they even begin to understand the unity of the body when they didn't fully comprehend the tri-unity of Adonai?
I Googled some more. Months of researched turned up a number of Messianic spinoffs, ranging from Rabbinic Messianic sects to groups that practice variants of replacement theology. In my crash-course on the Messianic movement, I quickly learned that the Messianic world has as many "denominations" as mainstream Christianity. Although they all share a belief in Yeshua as the Messiah, the un-Biblical theology and religious practices of these groups often proves as divisive as their Christian counterparts. I would often walk away from these websites feeling confused and disinterested- and I am a believer! G-d forbid what an outsider would think of this mess!
Yet, my research did not prove fruitless. I clicked into a handful of congregational websites, ministries, and individual blogs (a number of which are linked on this site) that encouraged me to pursue the work of putting The Unified Body online. Here were solid believers, both Jew and gentile, seeking to understand and live out their faith in Yeshua the Messiah in accordance with His will and teachings. These were the few who had escaped the real "spirit of religiosity" that is running rampant throughout the body of believers, dividing and conquering along the way. These few congregations, organizations, and people not only understood Rav Shaul's teaching in Romans 9-11, they sought to live the olive tree connection in their halacha with HaShem. This was my audience, these people and the millions like them who Google "Yeshua" on a daily basis, only to be left blinded and frustrated by the doctrines of men in their search for HaShem. These are the people with "eyes to see and ears to hear" and they deserve to have something to call on for education, and especially for encouragement.
Yeshua instructed, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt. 11:29-30) Yeshua's use of the term "yoke," as a metaphor for halacha mirrors the prophet's use of the same term in Jeremiah 5:5 "...I will go to the prominent men, and I will speak to them; for they know the way of Adonai and the rulings of their G-d." But these had completely broken the yoke and torn the harness off.
In searching out scriptures for this entry, I was amused to find that just before Yeshua declared his halacha to be easy, He praised His Father for concealing these things from the sophisticated and educated and revealing them to ordinary folks. (Matt.11:25) The Unified Body may be the vision my mother, a humble housewife and former nurse, received from the Word, but she did not author it. It is a gift that began in the beginning, that has been made free to "all who have ears to hear," and who love HaShem with "all their heart, soul, mind, and strength." The teachings of Yeshua, His prophets and His talmidim are not a complex set of dicta crafted and controlled by the "prominent men," rather, the word is very close to you, in your mouth, even in your heart; therefore, you can do it! (D'varim 30:14)
Therefore, since, truly, "nothing is new under the sun," I both bless and charge you who read The Unified Body with the words of Rav Shaul:
Proclaim the Word! Be on hand with it whether the time seems right or not. Convict, censure and exhort with unfailing patience and with teaching.May you be strengthened in the reading of The Unified Body. May it encourage you in your halacha with HaShem and in your search for Yeshua. Most of all, I pray that it will act as yet another signpost to the kehilat of believers that, through the ultimate atoning sacrifice of Yeshua, we are all one, just as Adonai is Echad.
For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear. Yes, they will stop listening to the truth, but will turn aside to follow myths.
But you, remain steady in every situation, endure suffering, do the work that a proclaimer of the Good News should, and do everything your service to G-d requires. [II Timothy 4:1-5]
For it was by one Spirit that we were all immersed into one body, whether Jews or gentiles, slaves or free; and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
I Corinthians 12:13
Kol Tuv
Messianic Judaism, Judaism, Christianity, Yeshua, Jesus, Rav Shaul, grafted in, religion
posted by Shoshana @ 9:20 PM
