Jesus among other religions – Judaism Sunday, February 4, 2007 – Rev. David Tinney Texts: Exodus 12: 1-3 and Deut. 6:1-7 Theme: Judaism is more about deed than creed and can withstand the criticism of being a religion of law and not love. I have to confess that I prepared for this sermon in a very different way than any of the others. I went to see “Fiddler on the Roof” and sat in the very front row and got carried away into Jewish culture, language, and even theology. I learned about TRADITIONS that have held Jewish culture together for centuries, about how to celebrate life, and how to confront God and laugh at or with God. Sadly I also learned about the persecution of our Jewish sisters and brothers that seems to continue even into our time. I learned so much I might even surprise you with an impromptu rendition of “If I were a rich man…” Actually you don’t need that kind of persecution. Of all the religions that we will study in this sermon series Judaism is the most familiar to most of us – and why not? We share the same old stories, we honor some of the same old heroes and heroines, we value some of the same sacred texts, and we worship the same God. One would think that the closeness we share should enhance our relationship but I think it has done just the opposite. Too many Christians still hold Jews responsible for the death of Christ, they look down upon them for being “incomplete Christians”, and there are still many Christian groups that condone persecution and hatred of Jews. Christians for the most part have not reached out to our Old Testament cousins and as a result we have missed out in discovering a religion that is rich in ritual, tradition, and theology. “Judaism is not just a religion that teaches [people] how to relate to God. It’s a way of life this is meant to make [people] wiser, happier, and better. It touches on almost every imaginable topic: how to raise children; how to develop to our fullest potential; how to love others and how to be worthy of being loved; and how to find contentment and peace of mind.”1 Some call it a way of life, others a religion of law, still others a moral guide that dictates what you wear, how you groom, and even what you eat. It is a religion that goes back 4,000 years ago and is still vibrant today. Mark Twain once said that all things in life are mortal except the Jew. All kingdoms of the world have come and gone, governments have risen and fallen, all other forces have passed away but Jews remain forever.”2 In so many ways that is true. Judaism and Christianity began four millennia ago with the most unlikely of characters. God called to Abram and Sarai, Mesopotamian nomads in the tail end of life, and said if you follow me to the land which I will give to you I will make of you a great nation. As Christians we celebrate the journey of faith and the miracle of God’s provision but the Jews understand Abram, or Abraham, for something more. In the Midrash, which is a body of Rabbinic literature consisting of commentary, legends, and inspired reflection on biblical texts, Abraham makes a startling discovery. While walking away from his home in Ur he sees a beautiful palace and realizes that the structure did not just suddenly exist that it had to be carefully planned and workers had to spend hours in its construction. Perhaps because of his earlier conversation with God he then contemplates how earth was created and deduces it didn’t just happen but had to be planned and created. He concludes that God created the universe so God pre-existed life. This may not sound revolutionary but for this time and in a culture used to explaining creation with stories of giant monsters or gods cut in half in battle, this represented a groundbreaking idea. As Abraham’s people and offspring tell the story of their God they begin with the words, “In the beginning God created…” They would acknowledge that God created and ordered life out of nothing. But there is more to the story as it is acted out in Genesis and Exodus. We understand that God not only created the universe but he also created humankind in his image and wanted a relationship. The Jews contend that God chose the family of Abraham as his own and made a covenant with them. God would increase their numbers, give them land to live on, and would bless them to be a blessing to the rest of the nations IF they kept his rules. This is key to understanding Judaism. God demanded that his laws be obeyed. Before I talk about the laws let me address the concept of being a “chosen people.” In the “Fiddler on the Roof” Tevye gets a little tired of all the challenges he and his people are facing and says something to the effect of, “Hey God, I know we are the chosen people but if this is what it means to be chosen then why don’t you chose someone else?” Most Jews today do not feel that the label “chosen” means they are ethnically superior but they have are the ones doing the choosing. God has given every person a set of laws and those who “choose” to live under them will be blessed. So instead of being chosen people Jews today might more accurately say they were “choosing people.”3 So what exactly are they choosing? As God’s relationship with humankind and more specifically Abraham’s offspring continued to mature God continued to reveal the hidden operating system that would govern his creation. This past week Microsoft announced the release of Vista the latest and greatest operating system. I have no idea what new features this new system has and I am not ready to move over to it yet, but what I do know is that Vista would not work on the computer I had ten years ago. It is too advanced and the computer too slow. In many ways the same is true with God releasing new rules or new operating systems to humankind. God released or revealed what we were capable of understanding. The big release came to Moses in the form of the Ten Commandments. The Decalogue, as many theologians call it, was God’s remedy for a sin sick world. Or as one Jewish comedian once said, “When Moses asked God what to do with all the sinning Israelites, God responded by saying, ‘Take these two tablets and call me in the morning.’” The Ten Commandments represented another revolutionary shift in moral and ethical law. Ten rules, when properly obeyed would keep Israel and all other believers properly focused on God, family, and neighbor. But more rules and laws came as the conversation between God and Moses and God and subsequent rabbis continued and are written down in the Levitical Code and in the Talmud, an oral tradition about the law that was later written into 63 volumes. The law grew to 613 rules or mitzvah that govern how people are to treat others, God, and their own bodies. These commandments place a high priority on helping others, and treating each other with mercy, compassion, truth, and justice. “Christianity has long claimed that the difference between it and Judaism is that Christianity is a religion of love and Judaism is a religion of law. Some felt the comparison was meant to put Judaism in a less favorable light. Jews, however accept this analysis not as a criticism but rather as a compliment. For Jews, a religion that stresses God’s love even for those who continue to sin too readily takes for granted that man and woman can’t be better. It emphasizes humankind’s great faith in God but diminishes God’s faith in humankind. A God of law forces people to recognize that their blessings impose obligations, that privileges carry responsibilities, and that obeying rules is the rent we pay for the gift of being allowed to live here on earth. Because there is a God, because we were created in His image, and because we relate to others, we have a responsibility to be true to God, to ourselves, and to our fellow humans. It is a God of law who teaches us how to live up to these responsibilities because, after all, responsibility is nothing less that our response to God’s ability.”4 Judaism is more about works than faith or as one writer put it, “Judaism is more deed than creed.”5 This begs the question about how Jews deal with sin and if there is an afterlife. Most Jews believe that at the end of life there is a time of accounting before God. It is like taking the ultimate final exam. The good news is that we know all the questions that are going to be asked. The bad news is that we know all the questions that are going to be asked and have had plenty of time to prepare so there will be no excuses. The questions deal with how we have obeyed the laws and how we have treated God, our neighbor, and our own bodies. This is one of the big dividing points between Christianity and Judaism for we believe that no matter how hard we try, no matter how many laws we keep, we still fall short and we need Jesus to atone for our sins and make us right again. But in Judaism it is more about deed than creed. They would contend the Law is tough and makes stringent demands upon us but because God has demonstrated his belief in us and we can do it. In Judaism belief goes both ways. We believe in God and God believes in us that we can live according to the rules.6 So what happens at death? Do Jews believe in a heaven and hell? According to Jewish theology every person has a soul that is separate from the body. The soul is what defines each person and is the very essence of the Divinity that was breathed into us at the time of our birth. It is constantly within us drawing us closer to the image of what God wants each of us to be. As Rabbi Moses ben Nachmen said 800 years ago, “Every person carries within them a little bit of God.”7 At death the soul separates from the body. According to the Midrash, which is a collection of legends, stories and interpretations of the Bible, it was believed in early days that when someone sneezed the soul escaped through the very orifice that the soul entered. That is why when people sneeze we say, “God bless you,” or “Gesundheit.” The Midrash says that as Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, grew old he asked God for more time to prepare for his death. So instead of losing one’s soul in a sneeze God waited for the final moment of life and then called it back.8 Jews do believe in heaven and hell but don’t spend a lot of energy describing it. The after life is an after thought and Jews prefer to concentrate their attention on how they live there lives NOW. They believe that when people die they have the moment of accountability and then the soul is sent to hell, which is merely an estrangement from God, for a period of purification. The period of purification is influenced by the actions the person took while living but also the prayers that are being spoken by those left behind. When Jews die there is a year long period of mourning and ritual and for eleven months the ones left behind are supposed to repeat the “kaddish” every day. This helps purify the person’s soul so it can move out of hell. The longest period of purification is one year, which matches the time of mourning. On Yom Kipper and Rosh Hashanah the names of the dead are written into the Book of Life. The next question might be how do Jews atone for their sins? We Christians believe that is done through the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord, but what happens to the Jews who used to believe that sins were atoned through the sacrifice of animals in the Temple. According to Phil Gerson, a Jewish teacher at the Temple B’nai Torah, the biggest event in Jewish history was the destruction of the second Temple in 70AD. It not only forced Jews out of their holy city and into the world around the Mediterranean Sea but it also took away their place of sacrifice. Phil said that scholars had to reinterpret the law and there was a major shift from sacrifice to prayer and from atonement through the blood of an animal to atonement through repentance. Many Jews feel that Christians confess their sins and because of grace don’t do much to change their behavior. But Jews are encouraged to examine their lives daily and to repent and change their behavior. On Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, which is really ten days long, Jewish law insists that each person approach all those they have offended or mistreated and ask for forgiveness. This is the time for reconciliation with even the most bitter of enemies and points to future God intends of peace and justice. What about the Messiah? Do Jews recognize Jesus? Yes, they recognize Jesus as a great prophet, or a great rabbi, or even as the great teller of parables, but not as the Son of God and not as the Messiah that was expected. Jews are intensely monotheistic do not believe as Christians do that God became human and died for our sins. They do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Judaism, like Christianity, is very fractured and there are Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews, Reformed Jews, Hasidic Jews, Reconstructionist Jews, and even secular Jews. The more conservative and traditional Jews still await the messiah in the form of a person. That person will be someone who will restore Israel, destroy the Islamic Dome of the Rock and will rebuild the Temple and the Nation of Israel. But most Jews believe in a messianic vision where God’s intended kingdom of peace, justice, and mercy will reign. They believe that it will not come through one person but through all Jews, when each person decides to live into the call that God placed upon them to be the “light to the world.” There is so much more I could talk about this morning. The religion that gave birth to our faith is rich in tradition, ritual, and theology that we should really explore in the future. If there is one thing that I hope you take away from this sermon and your new understanding of Judaism it is their belief that NOW is the time to act justly, NOW is the time to serve our neighbor, NOW is the time to obey the laws that God intended for us. Reliance on grace, without repentance, without obedience, without intentionality can turn to enabling. I am not about to do away with the gospel of grace but we could learn from our Jewish sisters and brothers some lessons on obedience and action. 1 Rabbi Benjamin Blech, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Judaism,” Penquin Group Publishers, NY, NY 2003, p. XXI. 2 Blech, pXXI 3 Blech, 43 4 Blech, p45-6 5 Richard M. Joel, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Judaism,” Penquin Group Publishers, NY, NY 2003, Foreward 6 Blech, p46 7 Blech, p24 8 Blech, p216 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Judaism Page 1