HELLO!

On Tuesday night at 7 pm, after the Shrove Tuesday Pancake meal has ended (430-6 pm), our winter faith study “Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others” will gather in the Sams Room. It is our third session, we read two chapters per session, this week: chapters five and six. There is no expectation for participants to read the book. I will summarize the chapters at the beginning of each session and then give those who have read the chapters opportunity to add what I may have overlooked. After these summaries the conversation is open to all comments and questions.

In these two chapters we hear Brown Taylor speak of Judaism and what strangers can teach us. We begin with what might be the most bizarre and tragic element about Jewish-Christian relations, how a religion founded on a Palestinian Jew, who died a Jew, became a religion that carried out the most anti-Jewish violence and hatred known in history. Stop and let that sink in. By the time John’s Gospel was written (the latest of the four) anti-Jewish sentiment had already infected the early church. John’s Gospel includes many texts used by those who hate Jews to justify their racism. It’s why most mainline churches today, in Holy Week, will add the word “some” when John’s Gospel points fingers at Jews. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, he did not restore Jerusalem, rebuild the Temple or usher in an age of peace (some Christians believe Jesus will do these things, when he returns).

Brown Taylor’s Holy Envy is triggered by the ways Jews set themselves apart by their practices, a reminder of their relationship to God and each other. These practices include dietary rules, seasonal gatherings and a prohibition to do anything on the Sabbath but to be present to God. She also points out how Jews ask potential converts to reconsider their decision three times before they can go through with their initiation into the faith. Given the long history of antisemitism, one can see this caution for an act of mercy and compassion. But it also reinforced the notion that being a Jew means living a challenging life, something Brown Taylor points out Christians often overlook, how we forget “take up your cross” and focus instead on “what has God done for me lately?”

In chapter six the focus is on the stranger, and how often, in the Older Testament and the Newer one, the stranger is the catalyst and incarnation of God’s wisdom truth and hope. Brown Taylor contrasts this openness to the stranger with triumphalist hymns and theology which speak of “every knee will bow” and “onward Christian soldiers”, as if the stranger has nothing to teach us and can only be redeemed by becoming one of us. Contrast this with the Canaanite woman who challenged Jesus, the Samaritan leper who shows us true gratitude, and the Roman solider who revealed to Jesus more faith than he had seen before. Brown Taylor contrasts the view of the stranger in John’s Gospel, on one hand “no one comes to the Father except through me” and “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold”. She ends with, “I can only walk one way at a time, but that does not prevent me from believing that other people might be walking their ways with equal devotion and good will”.

Recently I watched this short five-minute video, given by the Mayor of New York City and a practicing Muslim. He focuses on “Welcome the Stranger”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoU9Img_B40

Peace, Kevin

PS The question I will be asking all participants, at the beginning of our session is, “Share one meaningful experience you had with a stranger.”