May 1, 2008 -- Feast of the Ascension Coinciding with the Community's Holocaust Observance

Last night, the community of the greater Morgantown area gathered at St. Paul for a community remembrance of the Holocaust. Below is an excerpt of the reflection I gave.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Brian

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Today, we have a couple interesting juxtapositions. We, people of many faiths, gather here to remember the atrocities brought about by Christians against the Jewish people. We gather in a building that bears the name of Martin Luther who helped pave the way for the Shoah through his later writings, particularly calling for the burning of their synagogues, razing of their houses, and ultimately driving them out of the country. It was this tract, On the Jews and Their Lies, which was displayed at rallies by the Nationalist Socialists in the 1920’s and 30’s. Of course, this hatred against the Jews did not start with Luther. After all in the church in Wittenberg where Luther preached, there stands on the side a relief carving of the expulsion of Jews from the town, and this carving pre-dates Luther’s time there by about 200 years.

This ugly and horrible legacy that belongs to Christians must be faced. While few Christians alive today may bear any direct guilt from the actions of the Shoah, we all certainly bear some shame. That the Christian message might be so badly twisted and perverted as to seek the extermination of any group of people, let alone Jewish people, stands as a terrible reminder of the sinfulness and brokenness of those of us who claim to be disciples of Jesus.

We have just heard the theologian Karl Barth, where he wrote, “No, we must strictly consider that Jesus Christ, in whom we believe, whom we Christians out of the heathen call our Savior and praise as the consummator of God’s work on our behalf—He was of necessity a Jew. We cannot be blind to this fact; it belongs to the concrete reality of God’s work and of his revelation.” This writing leads to the other interesting juxtaposition which is about God’s revelation.

Today is the Feast of the Ascension, the fortieth day after Easter, when Christians celebrate Jesus’ return to the Father, where his humanity is delivered into the very life of God, where Jesus reigns, not only as the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, but also as that human being who walked the earth as a particular man from Nazareth, who as Barth reminds us, is by necessity a Jew. The one whom Christians claim suffered, died and rose, is the one who takes his Jewish identity, bearing the promise of the one true God, into heaven to reign, where his suffering is meant be a source of strength to all who suffer for suffering is now known at the very heart of God. But absurdity rules the day, when Christians, who have jettisoned Jesus’ Jewish identity, would cause one more Jew to suffer, not realizing (or worse ignoring) that for our theology, this identity is essential.