From Hebrew BIble to New Testament to Koran

When I responded to the Huffington Post article in my last blog post, there was a tug at the back of my skull.  The very thing that I was writing against in connecting prophetic predictions of Mohammed in the New Testament is exactly what the Christian faith has done with prophetic predictions from the Hebrew Bible.  Christianity draws upon Judaism for its place in the world.  It does so with a long list of chapters and verses from what we call the Old Testament-the Hebrew Bible-the Tanakh.

I believe my rabbinic and Jewish colleagues in ministry and faith would react very much the way I did were I to express my views on how I believe the Tanakh and the New Testament are one book, gathered around the person and work of Jesus.  And I would respect them for their skepticism and for any annoyance they feel toward the presumption of Christianity in this regard.

Because Christianity wobbles between two poles in regards to Judaism.  On one extreme, we feel that we 'complete' the Jewish faith because of the person and work of Jesus.  On another extreme, we feel we correct the work of the Jewish faith because of the recasting of the faith by the person and work of Jesus.  We will even grant the honor to our Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus himself, was Jewish, as was the entire first generation of what has become the 'church'.

And maybe we could, as a religion, in good conscience, have that conversation, if our religious history was not so bloody in regards to our Jewish brothers and sisters. 

A few years ago, my friend and I were traveling in England when we came to the City of York.  There is a site in York that is forever seared in my memory, Clifford's Tower.  On that site, in 1190, the majority of the Jewish population in York committed suicide rather than die at the hands of the Christian community or undergo the malicious indignity of forced conversion.  One hundred and fifty died there, wives and children killed by their husbands and fathers before their fathers killed themselves by setting fire to the Keep.

Up till that moment, this smug young Christian knew the story of the Jewish suicides at Masada, the Jewish defenders keeping themselves from the torture that awaited at the hands of the Romans.  But the Romans were barbaric, look what they did to Jesus.  Sure, but Christians are also barbaric.  Don't let anyone ever tell you different.  There are words like 'pogrom' and 'Holocaust' that have their origins in the barbarity of a Christianity Jesus would not recognize.

And while my forebears in the faith were causing the deaths of Jews in England, we were killing Muslims in the Middle East in the name of God while on Crusade.

I do not delve into the history of my faith looking to bring condemnation or seeking absolution.  I delve to celebrate the miracle that is today.  From my perspective, it is a miracle that Jesus continues to use the Christian faith, despite its history, despite its current lack of perfection.

There is the real potential for an end game now.  The Earth needs us to dig deep into who we are as people of faith, to transcend our wars, our histories, our differences.  We are united in our humanity, united in love, in caring.  It is to that future that I believe we must work.

Scripture Readings for the Week of May 8, 2016

Our Scripture on Sunday includes Nehemiah 8:1-12, when Ezra reads the law once again to the people of Israel once they have returned from the Babylonian Exile.  The daily readings this week take us up to that story. 

This week, read the backstory to the Scriptures we shared from Nehemiah this Sunday.  For "extra credit", read on to the end of the book.

Mon. May 9: Neh. 1 and 2

Tue. May 10: Neh. 3

Wed. May 11: Neh. 4

Thu. May 12: Neh. 5

Fri. May 13: Neh. 6

Sat. May 14: Neh. 7

YES, the Time Has Come for Christians and Muslims to Make Peace!

The following link was circulated to members of our local clergy association.  As I enjoy and appreciate the Huffington Post as a source of information and given the intriguing title, I read the article with interest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-mevorach/did-jesus-predict-muhammad_b_9762934.html?ir=Religion%3F

I am in total, one hundred percent agreement with the first two paragraphs.  Every Christian and Muslim in the world needs to pay attention to what is being expressed.

“The time has come for Christians and Muslims to make peace between our communities. Christians and Muslims already make up more than half of the global population, and these numbers are expected to grow in the coming decades; according to the Pew Research Center, by 2050, two thirds of humanity, some 5.7 billion people, will be either Christian or Muslim.



Our planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence between these two communities. The challenges we face as a global human family are profound: ongoing warfare and nuclear proliferation, global poverty and economic inequality, climate change and ecological degradation. How will humanity handle these crises and others if our two largest religious communities are embroiled in constant conflict, if misunderstanding defines our relationship? As contemporary theologian Hans Kung has argued for decades, there will be no peace between our nations without peace between our religions. Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other. “



That is so well said and it needs to be spoken over and over and over again.    



As I read the article, I was struck by the memory of pictures I have seen from the end of the Second World War.  Somewhere in conquered Nazi Germany, troops from the Soviet Union and the United States met, shaking hands, and exchanging cigarettes.  For me, those images are even more iconic than the cover shot on Life magazine of the sailor kissing the nurse in Time Square on V-J Day.  They are not iconic for what was, but for what could have been, no, SHOULD have been.  Although the Cold War started too soon after those pictures were taken, the possibilities they represented cannot be understated.



What SHOULD be, must be, truly accomplished is a similar meeting of Christianity and Islam.  It is critical for the survival of the planet.  We share one God, whom we Christians call ‘our Father who art in Heaven’, and, if I understand correctly, our Muslim brothers and sisters Allah, may His name be ever praised. 



“Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other…”  Unfortunately, I do not see what Ian Mevorach describes as the way to see this done. 



As a pastor, trained as an academic, I do not believe that we can draw from the Christian bible that Mohammed is to succeed Jesus.  Mine is an outsider’s view of Islam, but I believe that Islam accepts a line of prophets, including Jesus of the Christian tradition, that concludes with Mohammed as Allah’s final and greatest prophet. 



I do not agree that references to the ‘spirit of Truth’ in the Johannine portions of the New Testament or the ‘prophet’ in the book of Deuteronomy refer forward to Mohammed.  I think that makes assumptions about a progression of religion that does justice neither to Christianity nor Islam.  But that is an argument for the Academy.



What I do believe is that we are brothers, the quarreling sons of our father Abraham, and the time has come to stop quarreling.  The threats to the very created order of our planet make our religious quarrels pale by comparison.  To those of either faith who would claim that it is more important to prepare to stand before God in the next life, I would challenge them with the question of how God will judge us for what we have done with the gifts God has given to us here?



How then can we move on a path of greater understanding and cooperation? 



To that question, I am happy to return to John.  In John 13: 34-35, Jesus says “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another…By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NRSV).  This is the message that I proclaim to all my brothers and sisters of the Christian faith-in all its broad stripes, in all its various denominations, in all its streams of interpretation-this is the message that we must lead with.



I know that there are brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith who will stand with us, responding with like teachings of Allah from the Koran.  It is there, in that commonality of purpose and understanding of the things of faith, that we can reach out and embrace in the name of Allah, in the name of God.



When Capitalists and Communists shook hands in 1945, to celebrate their common cause in defeating Fascism, the peace did not last long.  They gathered under what is arguably the greatest unifying principle of history, an alliance against a common enemy.  What Christianity and Islam have to accomplish is far more enduring.  Instead of the catalyst of a common enemy to defeat, we must instead reach from the very core of our respective faiths.  From that core, we must draw forth an alliance based on love, love for one another and a love for where we live.  Then, I believe, we can properly care for our Earth. 

"Bearing With One Another", some further Biblical readings

Verses to Ponder-Interactions with One Another

Monday-Apr. 11: Colossians 3: 12-18  The central passage for the next few weeks of how we achieve peace amongst ourselves.

Tuesday-Apr. 12: Galatians 6: 1-5 Herein Paul extends the Mission, bearing one another’s burdens, not just with one another.

Wednesday-Apr. 13: Psalm 55: 16-23 David shares with us the early promise that we do not carry the burdens, but cast them upon God.

Thursday-Apr. 14: Matthew 24:1-14 Here we consider the flip side, how to fall away in the End Times will cause us to hate one another. 

Friday-Apr. 15: 1 Corinthians 9:1-14 Paul here begins his discourse on Christian freedom.

Saturday-Apr. 16: 1 Corinthians 9: 15-23 Continuing this discourse, Paul speaks to us of how we might curtail our freedoms to carry the burdens of our brothers and sisters in faith.

What Does the Bible Have to Say on the Lord's Supper?

Verses to Ponder-The Lord’s Supper.

Monday-Apr. 4: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34  These are the earliest written words we have about the Lord’s Supper.  Paul’s letters are considered the earliest written parts of the New Testament.

Tuesday-Apr. 5: Exodus 12:1-13  The Command for the Passover meal that Jesus shared as the Last Supper.

Wednesday-Apr. 6: Exodus 12:21-29  These verse command why the Passover is to remembered every year, down to the time of our Lord Jesus and until today in the Jewish faith.

Thursday-Apr. 7: John 13:1-20  In John’s Gospel, the story of the washing of the disciple’s feet is told.  It would happen before the meal, and many churches mark this occasion during their Maundy Thursday services. 

Friday-Apr. 8: Matthew 26:17-30  This is the Institution of the Lord’s Supper as recorded in the first of the Gospels.

Saturday-Apr. 9: Rev. 19:1-10  Jesus said he would not partake again until he and his disciples were in his Father’s kingdom.  This might be that meal.

Jesus Did All The Work for Our Salvation

Isaiah 53: 1-12

This is known as the song of the Suffering Servant.  We share this passage at the conclusion of our Tenebrae service on Good Friday, a prophecy from centuries before of Jesus being sent to us.  We share it on this day without.  This one, full day without Jesus.  Unlike a full three days as we might think of it today, in the gospel, the days of death and the day of resurrection are counted among the three.
 
Something that repeats itself time and time again throughout the gospels are how Jesus fulfills expectations, prophecies,  and echoes from the Old Testament.  From being the First Born of God, paralleling the Tenth Plague in ancient Egypt, through this passage which points at Jesus, to echoing Psalm 34:20 that no bones of Jesus would be broken on the cross.

It speaks to the fulfillment of an ultimate plan.  Jesus is the final step in a series that began after creation.  In each generation, God would renew his covenant with the people, we, the people, would fall down yet again, until the moment when it was no longer left to our devices.  In Jesus, all the work comes from God. 

As we celebrate Easter tomorrow morning, keep that in mind.  Jesus has done all the work that needs to be done for us to be right with God.  From there, we are invited to live lives that show our gratitude to the Savior who sacrificed His life on our behalf. 

The Last Supper: Jesus' body and Jesus' blood

Preparing for the Readings for March 24, 2016, Maundy Thursday

This reading is about Jesus' final Passover meal, the celebration of the Angel of Death passing over the firstborn of the Israelites back in the time of Egypt.  However, by the end of all this, that Angel of Death is going to claim the firstborn of God.

Mark 14:12-16  How irritating is it to be present for a conversation where everything seems to require inside knowledge?  For example, the boyfriend who is spending Christmas with his fiancé's family, people he’s gone off to the family abode in Vermont to see, for the first time.  The stories, the family rituals, the shorthand that goes on between people who have grown up together, how irritating can it be to the new person trying to break into the crowd?

These verses are the same way.  They assume two bases of knowledge.  One includes the practices of Passover as outlined in the laws of Moses, from Exodus 12-13 if you would like to read up on it.  But that is only half the story.  To truly ‘get it’, we’d need an understanding of how the traditions of Passover are carried out centuries after the original law was given, adapted to Jesus’ time with the use of the upper room.

It does not mean that these verses are useless to us, not by any means.  But it does mean that we need to recognize that this practice of the Lord’s Supper will be as different for us as Jesus and his disciples coming to our church to participate in the Lord’s Supper for Maundy Thursday services.

Mark 14: 17-21  We know who the traitor is.  He went to the authorities in yesterday’s reading.  Most people, even unfamiliar with the bible, still understand the metaphor that a Judas is a traitor.  But put yourself in their shoes, Jesus and his top twelve, taking in the Passover meal, when they are told one of their own, right there, is going to sell out the Savior.

Mark 14: 22-25  The Last Supper, an adaptation of the Passover meal, the Seder, for use by the Christian church all through our history.  And here it is done in three verses.  The Last Supper, the Eucharist, the Mass, Holy Communion, plain old communion, all names for this meal where Jesus talks of his broken body and spilled blood.  It is a metaphor for him hanging on the cross, spear stabbed into his side.