Where is Our Wilberforce?
Saturday, February 24, 2007
This afternoon, I was afforded the opportunity to catch Amazing Grace, the story of British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce, who successfully championed a bill outlawing the slave trade in the early 1800s. As a young man, Wilberforce experienced a spiritual awakening, and considered leaving politics for the church before he was convinced by friend and future Prime Minister William Pitt to gauge his moral compass towards spearheading the issue of abolition. Wilberforce committed himself, heart, soul, and strength, to outlawing slavery, a commitment that resulted in ulceritive colitis so painful that he relied on large quantities of laudnum, a potentially deadly painkiller, just to function in daily life.
Where is our William Wilberforce? Where is the Wilberforce of the Jewish people? Where is the Wilberforce of the Messianic Movement? I have yet to meet one person who would commit themselves to the pains of death in order to inspire our movement to seek out and meet realistic goals. 75% of Israelis are in favor of joining the European Union, which would require the State of Israel to give up its Jewish religious and ethnic identity. We can poo-poo this action, but do we really have the right? What are we as Messianic Jews doing to support Israel? Writing a check? Remembering the name in our prayers? Wow. Big deal. Do you even have the ability to identify with Israel, the knowledge to understand what it means to be all alone in the world, the courageous determination to turn your tube of lipstick into a bullet and fire it into the face of the enemy who is bent on your anhiliation?
I recently received a mass-mailing from the International Messianic Jewish Alliance, informing me that they have taken over the publication of The Messianic Times. In the letter, Executive Director Paul Liberman writes, "[The Messianic Times] will remain independent in its contents, but linked to us economically and in other ways. We both try to take a global and non-partisan position." The IMJA is Presided over by Joel Chernoff, who also acts as the General Secretary of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America. The IMJA also claims a relationship with a number of sister organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. Can we assume that these organizations share the same opinions regarding global, non-partisan persectives?
Let's be clear, here: The soul of our people is on the chopping block, bound and gagged with a knife to her throat, waiting for G-d to shout, "STOP!" and provide the sacrifical lamb to take her place. We, the ones who have faith in that Sacrificial Lamb, are too busy figuring out "Who's a Jew" and "What's a Jew" to even be bothered defending our own Jewish people, our own Jewish land!
Tell me: If a true Jew is one whose heart is right with G-d, then who are you to even begin to claim to know how to identify a Jew? What, you think you're so special because your parents called themselves Jews, because you daven three times a day, because you don't eat pork in public? Is that it? Do all these things give you the authority to put a label on another person, to decide who they are and what their subsequent role is in life in relation to yours? Who are you to play G-d when there is work to be done! Yeshua didn't preach, "The hour is late and the workers are few, so you'd better figure out which ones are in and which ones are out." The GATHERING is our job; the winnowing belongs to HIM.
We are a pathetic people. It does not surprise me that our scriptures are filled with detailed accounts of G-d's wrath set loose upon us. We have not changed. In nearly 3,000 years, we have not changed. We are still the same prideful, deceitful, self-involved, easily-led-astray creatures despite the piety we claim through our faith in Messiah. We begin by preaching to seek the good in others and end up judging one another instead. I am tired of fruitlessness in our movement; I would rather we be the tree Yeshua condemned to death than to remain sitting here, in the presence of the Son, bearing no fruit.
How long will it be until we raise our voices, until we put our plows to the ground, until we take that step out of the pathetic and into the prophetic? I refuse to stand by and watch as the faithful are ripped to shreds and the wanton whore our soul to our enemies in fear and self-loathing. I will not stand idly by and accept destruction. My generation will not be another one condemned to Babylon, or to the Pale, or to Warsaw or Auschwitz; I refuse to let that happen to my people. I refuse to hand over my G-d given identity to the wills and whims of men who claim to be both my enemy and my friend. I will not waste my time judging nor being judged.
Nor will I waste my time with defeatist logic that argues against my support of my people and my land out of an offense to my pride. How many in our movement refuse to consider aliyah because of the difficulties facing believing Jews in the land of Israel? Still, how many more have hardened their hearts to our land because they are refused entry, and some of their bretheren stand persecuted in the land for their beliefs? SO WHAT? Did the talmidim turn their backs on their nation and their people because they faced the threat of persecution? How weak are we in Spirit that our souls seek consolation in the flesh? To those who make these ridiculous arguments, I must ask: Do you know Messiah, or do you just claim an affiliation for the eternal perks?
Where are our William Wilberforces? Where are our Devorahs, our Joshuas, our Gideons, our Davids? Where are the Messianic Jews who are willing to stand up as a united Army of G-d and defend all that is holy and true in the face of an evil that seeks to destroy us? Is everyone just sitting around, waiting for G-d to do their bidding? If so, then take up space in someone else's waiting room, in the pews of the churches that are sorely lacking in members and crumbling to the ground in self-destruct. Our G-d is a G-d of action and responsibility, not ambivalence and sloth. We did not become a people by saying, "Uh, well, my supervisor is unavailable at the moment; may I take a message?"
It took William Wilberforce nearly an entire lifetime, lived mostly in gruling pain, to see his goal accomplished. Are you willing? Are you willing to see our movement grow, to see Messianic Jews take on real issues facing the Jewish people, to take ownership in the land, and to unite with all believers in Adonai as one in the name of Israel? Or are you just in it for the kitsch?
You're either in, or out. There is no in-between.
Labels: Amazing Grace, IMJA, Israel, Jewish Identity, Jewishness, Judaism, Messianic Judaism, Messianic Times, MJAA, UMJC
posted by Shoshana @ 6:16 PM
2 Comments:
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At 4:48 PM,
said...
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I think one reason why many of us in the Messianic movement feel weak about Israel may have its roots in a type of apathy. Unlike for example the mainstream or the secular Jewish communities, us Messianics have fewer shoulders to lean upon when it gets rough. When I became Messianic and began to walk in the Torah, it was almost as though there was an immediate alienation from most of society in the thin line of truth I was straddling between Judaism and Yeshua/Netzarim within it, and the incredibly false perception society had of a discrepancy between the two. The fact that there's a Messianic congregation in my town helps, but still...we have no public representation. Every famous person that is the least bit sympathetic to MJ, every Messianic article or commentary on Scripture, every other Torah-observant Messianic themselves, as a matter of fact, felt like a diamond in the rough.
Muslims don't like us. Christians don't like us (if "legalism" can be defined by obedience to G-d, then call me one any day). Rabbinic Jews and Karaites (saying nothing of Nehemia Gordon!) don't like us. Israel doesn't like us. Athiests and agnostics don't like us. The Anti-Defamation League won't represent us. Mainstream Jewish organizations are constantly making lashon hara against us. The list goes on and on.
I am with the State of Israel's existence 100%. When I look at the various events that have occured in Israel's short history like the Formation, Intafadas, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, retaking of the Old City, and others, it all looks downright prophetic. Yes, many in our movement are scared to be strong about it. Imagine, Messianics in large city rallies for Israel, possibly alongside mainstream Jews that will look down upon them and say, "Look, they are trying to missionize the Israelis by trying to look like us". It may be sad how on-the-money I probably am about it. -
At 8:17 AM,
Shoshana said...
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With full understanding and sympathy to the Messianic "plight" you mention above, I will reiterate:
Nor will I waste my time with defeatist logic that argues against my support of my people and my land out of an offense to my pride. How many in our movement refuse to consider aliyah because of the difficulties facing believing Jews in the land of Israel? Still, how many more have hardened their hearts to our land because they are refused entry, and some of their bretheren stand persecuted in the land for their beliefs? SO WHAT? Did the talmidim turn their backs on their nation and their people because they faced the threat of persecution? How weak are we in Spirit that our souls seek consolation in the flesh? To those who make these ridiculous arguments, I must ask: Do you know Messiah, or do you just claim an affiliation for the eternal perks?
Check your Bible. No one has ever liked or favored the Jews who have faith in Yeshua. Yet, the talmidim spoke out anyway; Yeshua spoke out anyway, despite not having the favor of the ruling class, and what happened? The people responded!! We cannot apply defeatist logic to the faith that says "Those who hope in Adonai will renew their strength" [Isaiah 40:31] and "with G-d, all things are possible"? We are a faith that combats suffering with the knowledge that HaShem's power is infinite and the trust of the righteous is effective!
Did Kefa say, "Oh, Yeshua, but no one likes me!" ? Did Rav Shaul say, "Forget these people with their cruel arguments against me; I'm going on a cruise!" ? No. They persevered and stood up for what was right despite the opposition from without and within.
Tell me, when the members of the believing community stand before His Holy Throne at the final judgement, and He asks us to account for the actions and inactions of our own lives, will the community be comfortable saying, "But HaShem, they didn't like me"? Tell me, when He responds, "Do you fear men, or do you fear Me?" what will the community say then?
We must never forget that we are a nation that started with one single, solitary soul who was willing to go out, despite the world. Unless and until we are willing to be as brave as Avraham, we are not worthy of the title "Israel".
