The Book: The Unified Body | The Blog: Am Echad | |

 

"It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in human beings; better to take refuge in Adonai than to put one's trust in princes." -Tehilah 118:8-9



Rethinking Christianity & Living Rabbinic Judaism
Tuesday, October 07, 2008

My reading list never ends. Currently, 2 books popped into my sphere:

Provocative Faith by Matthew Paul Turner
Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

I just finished the former and started the latter. I find it interesting that these young ministers are calling for a cultural re-think of faith in Messiah. What especially drew me to Bell's book were his uses of Jewish Biblical terms: tassels (tzitzit), Torah, and Shalom. I'm looking forward to seeing how he correlates these elements of Jewishness with his redefinition of Christian culture.

Essentially, what I'm sensing from this literature is a desire for a more living, vital faith. It's as if these young men know G-d and want to live their faith in Messiah, but they know that traditional Christian church culture isn't the way to do it. They want a practice that is less religious and more lifestyle-oriented, and they want it to be real and relevant to the way Messiah lived when He walked on earth. Is this a trend towards Biblical Judaism? I can only report on what I see, and when I see young people questioning church practices using Jewish terminology, I can't help but wonder about the direction of the culture of faith in Yeshua/Jesus with more than a little anticipation.

In the meantime, I've also completed Mark Kinzer's paper, Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Three Years Later. In comparison to the two texts mentioned above, it seems that Kinzer's thinking is just as regressive as Turner's and Bell's is agressive.

Firstly, to compare the three texts is somewhat difficult, given that Turner and Bell wrote for a broad audience of everyday readers while Kinzer's work is penned for the realms of the Messianic and Christian academic elite. While Turner's and Bell's books contain clear, solid argumentation backed up by real life examples and scriptural citation, Kinzer's work is laden with language and argumentation fed by quotes of fellow academics and completely lacking in any Biblical citation whatsoever. The tone and style of these pieces clearly indicates their intended audiences, which causes me to question the motives behind Kinzer's work in particular. After all, if the radical cultural changes he proposes are so right-on for the movement as a whole, why not bring them to the people of the movement in a pallatable fashion? Why hide these assertions among the upper-echelons through the careful (and often confusing) use of academic language?

Secondly, while Turner and Bell question the structure and methodology of contemporary Christianity, Kinzer uses the structure and function of the contemporary Christian church as the basis for a historical analysis of the relationship between Judaism, the Jewish people, and the Christian church/faith. In true postmodern fashion, Kinzer ignores the facts and implications of 2,000 years of history and instead uses today as the launching point for the future of the Messianic movement. Can we really wipe away 2,000 years of history and start fresh when we all still wear the scars of our past?

Thirdly, while Turner and Bell are seeking to redefine their faith-identity through the Word of G-d, Kinzer is relying on the man-made authority structures inherent within the Christian Church and Rabbinic Judaism to develop a Messianic identity. Turner and Bell are seeking to break down religious structures that inhibit believers from walking in their faith, while Kinzer relies on the very same man-made structures to redefine a halacha with Yeshua.

This year, I attended Rosh haShanah services at my local Reconstructionist Temple. Why? Honestly, my boss offered me his ticket and the time off from work. Appreciative and always up for a cultural experience and a chance to interact with my fellow Jews, I took him up on the offer. Three and a half hours of solid liturgy later I sat on a hard wooden pew and felt as if my jaw were going to fall off. Despite the admirable levels of commitment exhibited by the packed house, it took all I had to retain the deep sense of joy I have in being a Jew.

Despite the incredible number of times the word Yeshua was prayed in the liturgy, Yeshua was not invited into that room. It was as if someone threw a wedding but the groom never showed up. And, honestly, I wasn't even meaning to be Biblical in my analogy; there is just no other metaphor to explain the sheer sadness of it all. There was the bride, waiting and waiting, not realizing that in all her preparation for the biggest day of her life, she'd forgotten to do the one most important thing of all: Say 'Yes' to his proposal. There she was, playing bride the way little girls play house or play dolls. All decked out, she rehearsed the part with the same mix of joy and sadness inherent in any teenage girl's dream; that spark of hope damped by that twinge of reality. It was sad. It was creepy. It was weird. Three and a half hours of liturgy recited by a cantor, mumbled by an audience as familiar with Hebrew as they are with Chinese.

Afterwards, we all walked down to the river to cast our sins into the waters. At first, I realized that I hadn't brought any bread and secretly rejoiced in the irony that Yeshua had already washed my sins away. Then, one of the ladies came up to me with a slice and a smile. I returned the wish for a good yontif and took the bread with a nod of thanks. Tearing it up, I joined my people in casting off the sins of Israel into the mayim chayim. It reminded me more of feeding the birds than anything else.

Messianic services are filled with joy. We dance. We sing. We play tambourines and a host of other instruments. We wave tabrets, flags, banners. We wear talits. The ceremony of worship is all color and light, shouts and singing, clapping and dancing. The most movement I got in this service was davvening lightly during the two 5-minute periods of silent prayer and reflection.

Have you ever truly thanked G-d for knowing Yeshua? I have. I did it a lot this Rosh haShanah. I'm still doing it. Thank G-d, I know Yeshua. Thank G-d I'm not the bride left wondering. Thank G-d I'm not relying on day-old bread to take my sins away.

No one is more important in my life than Yeshua. Not many people understand that, including believers. So many believers get to the point where Yeshua becomes so familiar that they respond to His Name like robots receiving a computer prompt. The leader says "Praise Messiah!" and the congregants respond, "Amen!" when they're really thinking, "Is it time to eat yet?" or "I have to go walk the dog!"

Try attending a Rabbinic service. I guarantee you, your Messiah will take on a whole new place in your life and your way of thinking. Once you know what it is like to live the difference, you will love Him more than ever.

Baruch haShem, Yeshua.

Have an easy fast...

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

posted by Shoshana @ 9:07 PM




We're in the FORWARD: Does that mean we're Jews now?
Monday, August 20, 2007

That's it. We've made it to the big time:

Messianic Jews Find Fertile Ground in the Bible Belt
Jewish Daily Forward June 13, 2007

Quotes of Note:
“There is a pragmatic, serious interest in that part of Christianity that continues to believe in proselytizing to promote messianic Judaism,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “So they’ve come up with this gimmick: If you can establish that you can be both [Christian and Jewish], then why not accept Jesus and be Jewish?”

“You can’t be both,” Foxman added. “That’s nonsense.”
You can't be both for the Jewish people and against them, either, can you, Abe? I love the way Jewish organizations haul out Abe Foxman to comment on the nature of religious Jewish identity, as if he has any authority whatsoever to comment on matters of Jewish spirituality or identity. Foxman, the supporter of such radically Jewish ideas as gay rights, Marc Rich, and Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gush Katif, is as authoritative a source on Jewish identity as George Soros is on politics. Can any Jew take seriously the opinions of a man who claims to chair the fight against antisemitism while justifying Hamas's use of the Holocaust as a teaching tool, "to make it easier for the Israelis to recognize the suffering of the Palestinians"?

What's truly interesting about the article is how the Forward, a non-Messianic paper, allowed itself to become a forum for the continuing discussion on Messianic identity triggered by the publication of Mark Kinzer's Postmissionary Messianic Judaism thesis. Somehow, I can't help but marvel at the PR machine behind Kinzer-- whether it is housed in the Hashivenu quarters or in the UMJC as a whole, I do not know, but they will receive my applause nonetheless. I disagree with Kinzer's theories completely, but his marketing strategy is fantastic.
"We really feel that in order for messianic Judaism to be legitimate… we have to be deeply connected with the Jewish world and to see other forms of Judaism as having their value in the overall scheme of God’s purposes for the world," [Hashivenu board member Richard] Nichol said. He added, "That’s a little different than some people who would call themselves messianic Jews, who really view themselves as principally connected to the world of the church and somewhat more incidentally view themselves as somewhat Jewish."
Kudos to Nichol: He boiled down in a concise statement the Kinzer theory most reviewers have danced around for months. In doing so, he draws attention to an important point, one that is, perhaps, the crux of the issue at hand: In seeking to define a Messianic Jewish identity, Kinzer's crew literally bastardizes the current Messianic movement by putting Rabbinic Judaism at odds with Evangelical Christianity. In doing so, they take what is a Biblical identity and hand it over to the parentage of thousands of years of human doctrine that began with the Maccabees on one side and Constantine on the other. It is as if, to the Kinzer faction, Messianic Judaism is nothing more than a child who has grown up, learned of his adoption, and is now seeking out evidence of his parentage by placing inquiries of his identity into the hands of any distant relative he can find instead of returning to the Registrar's office and checking the books for facts.

"Postmissionary Messianic Judaism" is another fad that won't last very long. It's popularity, however, does raise some important points about Messianic identity, namely, where it is sourced, how it is identified and, subsequently, how it is allied and expressed. And if these are accepted as rhetorical questions, the Messianic community had better watch out, lest there be nothing left to argue about in the coming generation.






Labels: , , ,

posted by Shoshana @ 5:50 PM