Sermons at St. John’s Presbyterian Church

Nationalism, American Christians and Israel  

 Transcribed from the sermon preached August 17, 2008

 The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor 

office@stjohns.presbychurch.net    http://www.stjohns.presbychurch.net

Scripture Readings: Matthew15: 21-28, Isaiah 56:1-8, Matthew 15:10-28

This week was an unusual one for me in two ways.  First, it is only once every four years that I get to watch the Olympics.  And since the main events have come on so late, and I am a late night person, I have watched my share.  I loved the four by 100 meter freestyle relay when the Jason Lezak ripped the gold away from the French.  And the men’s team gymnastics when our team, thought to be out of it snuck in for the bronze.  And the women’s all around when Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson went head to head with the Chinese to pull out Gold and Silver.  And of course, Michael Phelps surpassing my old hero, Mark Spitz with eight gold medals.  Wow, I love sport, and I can’t help but be proud of my country’s team.  My kids keep getting angry at me for yelling at the TV.  But I loved the opening ceremonies too, perhaps my favorite ever, the natural beauty and grace of Chinese culture with its Buddhist influence.  But it is interesting to note, too, that people of all faiths along with atheists are susceptible to nationalism, and social and environmental injustice. 

We are both blessed and cursed with national and religious pride.

          Even as I watched the Olympics on TV, I spent some time this week writing an op ed piece to give to our bay area newspapers against Proposition 8, the attempt by popular vote to overturn the court ruling permitting marriage for same sex couples.  I am talking of nationalism and our relationship with Judaism and Israel today, not marriage, but in my research of religious struggles over changes in law, I broke out one of my seminary history texts which, for some unknown reason, never made the New York Times best seller list:  Lester K. Little’s Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe. 

By the twelfth century, as the economies of Europe transitioned from barter to mercantile, money lending became common practice.  Money lending was one of those social changes, like the Internet, that grows faster than our understanding and ability to deal with it.  With little initial control, rampant abuse and injustices occurred, the poor suffered, spurring a backlash from compassionate faithful.  Referring back to scriptural warnings against money lending, laws were passed prohibiting it.

          But already an integral part of European economies, kings and other elites had to find ways around the prohibition.  The solution: since Jews were already lost because of their faith, or lack of faith in Jesus, permit Jews to lend money.  This was a mixed blessing for Jews.  It gave them a strong foothold in a very lucrative business, with all the blessing money can buy, privilege, education, nutrition, the envy of their neighbors etc., aiding them onto a quite different track than most other stereotyped and marginalized minorities.  Just as many pot smokers have suddenly come up with ailments, which help them through the loophole of legalized medical marijuana, so many “Christian” businessmen “converted” to Judaism, hoping to keep or establish a legal foothold in finance.

          True Jews always formed a tiny minority of the people involved with money lending, but the chief burden of Jews in the commercial revolution was to bear the burden of Christian guilt for participation in activities not yet deemed morally worthy of Christians.  In other words Jews were set up in finance and then judged to be sinful and attacked for doing their jobs. This is not to say that there were not some Jewish lenders who practiced unjust lending practices, just that unjust Jewish lenders were only a small piece of a much bigger puzzle.  (Little. P.56)

          And it wasn’t long before Christian ethics began to catch up with the times and moved from blanket prohibition to ask, may there be just criteria under which a good Christian could faithfully lend money?  Money lending was legalized for Christians once again.  As you might imagine, this would signal bad times for Jews. Accusing Jews of unjust and sinful lending practices became a convenient way for Christians to take back the business of finance.  It wasn’t long before this stereotyping and accusation built up into a full-blown pogrom against all Jews, moneylenders or not.

          I bring it up because as we look at these Christian passages from scripture which accuse certain Jews of a stubborn lack of faith in Jesus and exclusive nationalism, I can’t help but look at modern Israel for contemporary analogy, tempted to vent righteous anger toward their fifty some years of creeping colonialism and apartheid practices against Palestinians.  We should at least keep in mind some seventeen hundred years of Christian dominance and our tendency to find Jews as convenient scapegoats.

          The modern state of Israel gave the Allies of Europe a trusted military foothold in the oil rich Middle East, justified by the righteous cause of finding a home for a people without a country.  Now we are embarrassed and in a quagmire because our attempt to right a wrong has gone wrong. The one we oppressed has become an oppressor. Our puppet has a mind of its own.  Or, more accurately, while a majority wants peace, frightened by a history of weakness and friends who quickly become enemies, they have promised never to forget.  So, the country’s strings are pulled by a very strong minority, both Socialist and fundamentalist, who want dibbs on a bigger piece of land than we intended for them.  We are upset that they are not happy with the scraps we have so mercifully given them. 

We on the progressive Christian left love the cause of the little guy.  We denounce predatory lending practices, fought against Hitler, hid Jews in homes and cheered on our leaders to help establish a home in Israel.  We declared sanctuary for refugees from El Salvador or Guatemala.  We cringe in despair and anger when Palestinian farmers are cut off from their land and watch their homes destroyed, and we wonder why the powerful can’t at least toss them a few scraps from their table.  We see Palestinian faith and tenacity in the face of adversity and oppression, and we ask the Lord with them to show mercy. 

We wonder why it is so hard for the Palestinian cause to get good press or a voice in Washington and blame it on Jewish influence or just too few faithful Christians and Jews willing to speak up. 

Matthew is writing to a Jewish Christian audience who is worried about Jesus’ popularity among Gentiles, and he puts conventional wisdom in Jesus’ mouth: It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.  Yes, Lord, the Canaanite and Palestinian woman say, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 

As we remember this story of the Canaanite woman, we might think, Our Lord, at least, showed mercy. Our Lord… It is the “our” that is the problem, not the Lord.

As Christians grow larger than Judaism the dangerous exclusive God steps up to take the place of dangerous exclusive nationalistic religion. But for better and worse, we are two branches of the same tree: Our land, our Lord.   Paul tries to warn gentile Christians of this: that we shouldn’t get arrogant about our faith, and act as if our God was our God alone.  “…You, a wild branch, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree.  Remember, it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.

We humans have the tendency to define ourselves over and against the other, in one way or the other; as nations or people of a certain faith, or even people of a certain city like Berkeley.  This gives hope and strength to the weak, but also tends to make us, especially when we have power, blind to our own sin and injustice.  For acts on behalf of a nation or religion feel like they are unselfish, since we are acting for a cause greater than our self.  It makes the weak feel like a part of a cause more powerful than themselves and it make the powerful feel less selfish since they are acting not only for themselves but on behalf of others.  Our sense of unselfishness hides what might be the selfish motives of the nation or faith, which serves us.  Even the righteous acts of individuals may serve the unrighteous acts of a society.  As we have seen, the righteous acts and words of Jesus, have served the unrighteous acts of the Church after Christianity gained more power than Judaism.  Christ is crucified again in the inquisition, but this time by Christians.

So I am throwing out my guess for when there will be a settlement in Israel.  If history is our guide, when the Middle East runs out of oil, or the United States comes up with an alternative fuel source, the impermeable American support of Israel at all costs will begin to wane, and Jews in Israel and throughout the world including the United States, will once again run the danger of being the object of self righteous Christian scorn, not just from progressives, but especially from Christian fundamentalists, precisely those who are now “Christian Zionists.”

I see three true Christian responses then and now:  First, and I have to admit my own weakness: Christ like radical non-violence.  Any attempt to justify violence by Christians is always an extrapolation away from the way of Jesus Christ and toward those who crucified him.  Non-violent love is a renunciation of exclusivity of all kinds, even the exclusivity of inclusivity with power. 

Our second response to the problem of the exclusivity of nationalism and religion in general, and our current problems in the Middle East and Israel and Palestine today and tomorrow, is to not judge anyone on what their perceived cleanliness (Class) or what they put on their head or back, or in their mouth (culture or religion), but by what comes out as words and actions.  More than once I have heard Christians judge Muslims or Jews for what they wear or what they eat, or criticized them or others for being too clean or not clean enough.  It is the judgment, not the level of cleanliness that is the problem.

Third, we can take the log out of our own eye before we take the speck out of our neighbor.  It is understandable within the church’s political process, but a travesty from God’s point of view, that our General Assembly could pass a resolution on Israel more easily than a resolution on the war in Iraq.  We need to be pushing ourselves toward sustainable living, sustainable fuel, to the end of our government’s reactionary use of military violence, toward justice and equality for Native Americans and other racial ethnic minorities, even as we continue to work for freedom and tolerance in Muslim countries, and a just and lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.  

In other words, we are the Canaanite woman.  Whether we are in need of food or not, we are in need of the Lord’s mercy.  For we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  We are to come before the Lord with persistence yes, but always with humility too.  We are not to be the one’s trying to send others away.  But on our knees we ask, Lord have mercy.  And God will say, “Your faith is great!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”