Talk Five: Never Again
Jesus’ family were devout Jews. Jesus and his first followers were all observant Jews. The person credited in the Church with leading the Church in reaching out to non-Jews was the most observant Jew of all. The writings the Church used as the basis for understanding their Lord, faith, and mission were all Jewish. Our Bibles, as Christians, are predominantly made up of the Hebrew Scriptures, and even that part of it that we don’t share with the Jewish people was written by Jews.
We can understand there having been arguments between Christians and Jews as there always are in any family. You would think, however, that, with such a background, it would have been impossible and inconceivable the Church could turn on people, simply because they were Jews. Nevertheless, the unthinkable happened.
The story of the parting of the ways between Jew and Christian is a complicated one and more nuanced than it is often presented as being. At the beginning, some Jews didn’t like Christians any more than some Christians liked Jews. But this sort of mutual dislike is hardly a new phenomenon. The systematic persecution of a people, however, solely because of their religion and ethnicity, and the attribution to them of crimes more imagined than real, is something else altogether.
This hatred of the Jewish people, and hatred is not too strong a word, was to be exploited in the twentieth century by the Nazis and was to reach its awful climax in the Holocaust. This was an unprecedented event in which, tragically, many Christians at the time were complicit.
Six million lives were lost in the Holocaust. As if that were not bad enough, also lost was a culture that was rich and which had much to offer a world that, in the mid-20th century, was entering a new age. The music I have played during these talks was composed by Gideon Klein, a Czech Jewish composer. He was sent to the Terezin concentration camp where he continued to compose until he was sent, first to Auschwitz, and then to the Fürstengrube labour camp where he died in 1945.
Many do not believe that anything like the Holocaust could ever happen again. That, however, is not good enough. It must never happen again. And yet, despite all we know, antisemitism is still with us. It is in the headlines every day. It may be taking on new forms and disguises, but it is the same evil. This time Christians must stand with the Jewish people against the antisemites and not with the antisemites against the Jews.
On my recent visit to Yad Vashem, I had the privilege of spending time with Jewish friends there studying more about the Holocaust and its causes. While there, I wrote to Christian friends about what I was learning. One of my Christian friends wrote an email back asking me if I had thought of being circumcised. He meant that if this was how I felt, why didn’t I become a Jew.
I am a committed and convinced Christian. I am a follower of Jesus whose message I believe is good news both for Jews and for all who will hear and respond in faith to it. I am, however, deeply ashamed of the indifference of many in the Church to the suffering of the Jewish people, both past and present, suffering that we Christians must bear some of the responsibility for causing.
[Music:
Gideon Klein, Madrigal 1 pour soprano, Alto, Ténor and basse]
Christians too are children of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob are our ancestors. The Lord we worship and follow is of the tribe of Judah, the son of David; a Jewish child of a Jewish mother. We call him by a Jewish title, Christ, the Messiah. The privilege of belonging to the people of God is ours. Nevertheless, as St Paul wrote, the gifts and calling of God to his ancient people, the Jews, are irrevocable.
May God grant then to those of us who are Christians not to be proud or arrogant, but grateful to God for his mercy. And may all of us, as we remember the Holocaust, commit to making sure that it really will be ‘never again’.
Jesus’ family were devout Jews. Jesus and his first followers were all observant Jews. The person credited in the Church with leading the Church in reaching out to non-Jews was the most observant Jew of all. The writings the Church used as the basis for understanding their Lord, faith, and mission were all Jewish. Our Bibles, as Christians, are predominantly made up of the Hebrew Scriptures, and even that part of it that we don’t share with the Jewish people was written by Jews.
We can understand there having been arguments between Christians and Jews as there always are in any family. You would think, however, that, with such a background, it would have been impossible and inconceivable the Church could turn on people, simply because they were Jews. Nevertheless, the unthinkable happened.
The story of the parting of the ways between Jew and Christian is a complicated one and more nuanced than it is often presented as being. At the beginning, some Jews didn’t like Christians any more than some Christians liked Jews. But this sort of mutual dislike is hardly a new phenomenon. The systematic persecution of a people, however, solely because of their religion and ethnicity, and the attribution to them of crimes more imagined than real, is something else altogether.
This hatred of the Jewish people, and hatred is not too strong a word, was to be exploited in the twentieth century by the Nazis and was to reach its awful climax in the Holocaust. This was an unprecedented event in which, tragically, many Christians at the time were complicit.
Six million lives were lost in the Holocaust. As if that were not bad enough, also lost was a culture that was rich and which had much to offer a world that, in the mid-20th century, was entering a new age. The music I have played during these talks was composed by Gideon Klein, a Czech Jewish composer. He was sent to the Terezin concentration camp where he continued to compose until he was sent, first to Auschwitz, and then to the Fürstengrube labour camp where he died in 1945.
Many do not believe that anything like the Holocaust could ever happen again. That, however, is not good enough. It must never happen again. And yet, despite all we know, antisemitism is still with us. It is in the headlines every day. It may be taking on new forms and disguises, but it is the same evil. This time Christians must stand with the Jewish people against the antisemites and not with the antisemites against the Jews.
On my recent visit to Yad Vashem, I had the privilege of spending time with Jewish friends there studying more about the Holocaust and its causes. While there, I wrote to Christian friends about what I was learning. One of my Christian friends wrote an email back asking me if I had thought of being circumcised. He meant that if this was how I felt, why didn’t I become a Jew.
I am a committed and convinced Christian. I am a follower of Jesus whose message I believe is good news both for Jews and for all who will hear and respond in faith to it. I am, however, deeply ashamed of the indifference of many in the Church to the suffering of the Jewish people, both past and present, suffering that we Christians must bear some of the responsibility for causing.
[Music:
Gideon Klein, Madrigal 1 pour soprano, Alto, Ténor and basse]
Christians too are children of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob are our ancestors. The Lord we worship and follow is of the tribe of Judah, the son of David; a Jewish child of a Jewish mother. We call him by a Jewish title, Christ, the Messiah. The privilege of belonging to the people of God is ours. Nevertheless, as St Paul wrote, the gifts and calling of God to his ancient people, the Jews, are irrevocable.
May God grant then to those of us who are Christians not to be proud or arrogant, but grateful to God for his mercy. And may all of us, as we remember the Holocaust, commit to making sure that it really will be ‘never again’.
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