Super Apostles
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Christians and Jews
I was thinking about the lectionary reading this past week, Acts 44-52. I always get a little nervous about having passages read in my church which can be used as fodder for anti-Semitism – not just that which manifests itself in horrible and demonic ways (like Nazism), but those forms which manifest in more serene ways. A classic example would be the ill feeling or confusion by many Christians about why Jews do not convert when “it is so obvious” that Jesus is the messiah.
The story Sunday takes place in tone of the many Antiochs of the Middle East. In the back story, Paul and Barnabas have preached in the local synagogue. They proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah. They preached that he had been murdered but God raised him from the dead. They taught this was the sign. God backed up Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, because surely God would not have raised a man from the dead who lied about such a thing. But in the end, the Jews in Antioch decided not to go with the whole Jesus thing. 
In response, Paul walked out onto the street, found the local market, picked a nice piece of real estate for himself, and preached to anyone who would listen to him there.
And while in Antioch, Paul did extremely well. He preached and preached, and more and more people began to show up. And on this particular Sabbath in the story Sunday, it says the “whole city showed up”. The “whole city”! Now, that is probably a slight exaggeration, but it is definitely a sign that there were a whole bunch of people showing up to see what this new teaching was all about.
There were some who were curious. There were some who were believers. There were people who were probably there to make fun. And, according to Acts, there were the same Jewish leaders who were uninterested in Paul’s message earlier. These leaders, we are told, begin to spread venom against Paul and Barnabas.
Paul and Barnabas are quick to react. They tell the leaders of the synagogue that the Jews were the first recipients of the Word of God. And now, according the word of God himself, the gospel about Jesus Christ is being preached to all the non-Jews, the Gentiles. And they quote Isaiah 49:6 to back themselves up.
And then two things happen, we are told. First, the non-Jews who where present love and cherish God more. They adore that God is for everyone and for all, even them. The other thing that happens is that the Jewish leaders present that day become more embittered, eventually get the authorities of the town to kick Paul and Barnabas out of town.
Passages in the New Testament which talk about the Jews rejecting Jesus have been fodder for a million anti-Semites in the history of the Church. It has been used to fuel medieval ghettoes, Russian gulags, the Nazi holocaust, modern hate crimes, and much more.
When it comes to such passages, it is worth reminding ourselves as Christians what is really going on. Two Jews, Paul and Barnabas, go to Antioch. They preach at a Jewish synagogue. They preach Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, raised from the dead by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the Jewish patriarchs). Some Jews encourage them to keep preaching and but other Jews tell them to get lost. They then preach in the street this message of a Jewish God and His Jewish messiah. Consequently, the Jews of that town tell them to get lost. Not all towns, just that town. And what is more, probably not the Jews in that town that had encouraged them to keep preaching.
This is not an anti-Semitic story. This is a story about a disagreement between a bunch of Jews, some who think Jesus was the Jewish messiah of the Jewish God, some who do not think so, and still others who do not know and want to hear more.
It would be wrong (and has been wrong) for Christians to walk away from such passages thinking we read a story in our churches about how all the Jews are evil and Christ-haters. We did not. We read a story about honest and pious believers with a genuine disagreement about what God is doing in the world.
And for what it is worth, we Christians and Jews have been in the same place for 2000 years now. We have a disagreement about the Jewish God and a Jewish rabbi, born to a Jewish mother, who kept Jewish torah (and practiced the Jewish mitzvot very much along the lines of the other Jewish rabbi Shammai), and who may or may not have been the Jewish messiah.
Turning Jews into two-cent Christ-murderers accomplishes nothing, furthers no dialogue, and dehumanizes those who share the same flesh as our Lord and Savior. We ought – as Christians – to be in a state of repentance every day for the sins of our brethren against our Jewish neighbors and fellow worshippers.
Benedict’s War
There have been quite a few newspaper articles in the last few days about the expected show down between Pope Benedict and the reigning liberation theology of Latin America. The pope is coming to Brazil, in part to confront the issues of the declining membership in the Roman Catholic Church there, but also just to make an appearance as the new pastor of the almost half billion members of his flock who reside there.
It is possible that all this chatter is much ado about nothing. Honestly, there is nothing the press likes more than blood and conflict. What they loved second best is the anticipation of blood and conflict, even if there is no chance it will come. It sells copy and newspapers are businesses.
Benedict had a run in back in the 1980s with leaders of the liberation approach to Christianity in Latin America. He criticized their quasi-Marxist reading of Christianity. However, that was some time ago and he has been quite on this issue for some time. Furthermore, he became very much the protege of John Paul II, and his predecessor became increasingly supportive of many causes of liberation theology while still remaining an opponent on some very central issues.
Benedict might not care when he is there. He might think that liberation theology is old news. Or, he may very well believe that there are more important issues to be dealt with. I hope it is the latter, but I will settle for the former.
The truth is, Benedict will loose all credibility with myself and many other Christians if he goes after the liberationists in Latin America during his trip there. Firstly, he will look like the school bully. It is one thing when a highly placed cardinal goes pushing around people in base communities and working among the poorest of the poor. But is becomes down right sinister when the pope comes to town and makes the little people littler.
If Benedict goes after the liberation theology folks in Brazil and the rest of Latin America, his holiness will have don nothing but picked on a bunch of people who spent their whole working life following the poor Christ of Galilee, given themselves to those the Lord called “least of these”, engaged their world to make it better and more livable for all people, have spread a message of the humanity of Jesus and his concern for all people, have lived the divinity of the Son of God in his allegiance to those people that no one has allegiance to, have lived with the poorest of the poor (some of them in spite of their doctorates and high profile connections with the rich and powerful), and encourage all good Catholics to do likewise.
Benedict better not go after these people. They are WAAAAYYY out of his league.
