“The State of the Union”
No not THAT Union. Though we might talk about that.
Today I am reflecting on the Union between the Christian and the Jewish Traditions. A Union that has been historically difficult, but today seeks a lasting, if fragile peace. As Post-Modern Christians in a city like Baltimore we may not think much about Anti-Semitism and the need for a union or covenant between Christians and Jews, but there is a lot that remains to be done and a lot we can learn from how peace has been achieved.
But first some of our own history. In our Anglican tradition, England was the First European Nation to seek to expel all Jewish residents in 1290. The founding document of Anglicanism after Rome, the 39 articles, counts as ‘accursed’ (Article XVIII) the Jewish people. It wasn’t till 1890 that Jews were allowed to be full participants in Public Life in England. During and After World War II, only 10,000 Jews were allowed into the United Kingdom and they made it illegal for Jews to migrate to then British controlled Palestine (now Israel). We certainly have not been good neighbors. Nor have we held up to our end of the covenant as ‘children grafted on to the branch’ as Paul describes us in Romans 11.
Yet today I am grateful to have good relationships with my colleagues in the Jewish Tradition. Episcopalians and Anglicans the world over participate fully and whole heartedly in inter-faith dialogue programs be they academic (like the ICJS in Towson) or Liturgical or Missional. By and large as a tradition, we recognize that we were in the wrong for almost a millennia, we recognize that the Jewish people do have a place in the land of Israel and a place in society the world over. Most importantly we recognize that we are co-inheritors of a story. Of God’s story. And though we may not tell it the same way we believe that the promise of God’s love and the promise of Salvation offered to us by our Lord is offered to both of us without preconditions.
But we still have a lot of work to do. I confess rarely do I think twice about scheduling a Saturday community event even though it is the Sabbath and many of our neighbors will be forced to make choices between their faith and their community to attend. I don’t always check the Jewish or Islamic religious calendars either. And as a tradition we still have a lot of harmful stereotypes around Jewish people that we have not fully examined or processed. We still have work to do. But there is trust to do that work.
I share about the state of that Union because it may help us consider the current state of our Union.
The President gave his customary address to a joint house of Congress and I confess I did not watch. Maybe for the first time in my life. I have read the speech, and I continue to stay involved in civic life, but it was a sad moment for me and maybe for you. Not because of the content or the rancor, or the tearing up of pages, but because of the lack of trust.
Their is no trust left in our union. Democrats don’t trust Republicans. Republicans don’t trust democrats. A lot of people don’t trust the government. And increasingly we don’t trust each other. We need to know whose side you are on. What team you play for. Whether you are trustworthy.
It took a World War and a Holocaust for the Christian world to recognize how much damage we had done to our Jewish brothers and sisters. 6 million Jewish people. Millions more of other backgrounds. And now, 70 or 80 years later, that trust is just now returning. And is fragile. Consider how much anti-semitism there is in the world. Consider how casually people you know will say things like ‘Well Israel shouldn’t exist.’ Or ‘What do the Jews need protection for anyway?’ We have trust. But it takes work.
But in our Union? Our bigger Union? We have very little trust. In the Gospel this week we are challenged to be light to the world. And when we shine a light, we know we see the shadows more clearly too. We can’t pretend that those shadows aren’t there. We can’t pretend that Trump will go away and suddenly we will like each other again. We have got to work to make it happen. To create trust. To build bridges. To forge relationships.
Because the alternative is very, very Dark.