Psalm 72:1-7,10-14
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12
St Christopher's Episcopal Church
Kailua, HI
+In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
There has been a major spike in incidents, crimes, and attacks motivated by anti-Semitism over the past few years. In the United States there were nearly two-thousand recorded anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 alone, and this is a major increase from the 700 recorded attacks in 2016. New York state saw nearly a dozen separate incidents over the course of Chanukah this year. Anti-Semitic crimes have also become more frequent all throughout the world as well. Even Hawaii is not wholly removed from this as a person suspected of vandalizing a Beverly Hills Synagogue was arrested in Kona on December 18. During the Feast of the Epiphany we as Christians should contemplate the meaning of the Gentile Nations paying homage to the God of Israel. As Isaiah says, “Nations shall come to God’s light, and kings to the brightness of his dawn.” We should meditate on the Christians origins from Judaism to better respond to anti-Semitism in our communities.
These past four years have seen an increase in violence against not only our Jewish neighbours. Incidents against black and brown communities have increased, incidents against migrants have increased, incidents against Muslims have increased, and incidents against LGBTQIA people have increased. It seems as if the world is becoming a more violent and dark place. The Church must not only condemn such violence, it must also be a vehicle of reconciliation between communities and a shield for the most vulnerable who face such violence. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry often has called for the Episcopal Church to be a place for people to walk in the path of love with one another.
In our response however we sometimes seek to collapse all forms of prejudicial violence into very simple language—all violence against marginal communities is wrong and needs to be condemned and there is little to no difference between the kinds of violence that different communities experience—hate it just hate. This is overly simplistic and sometimes blinds us to reality. Though all acts of violence are tragedies and require response, hate manifests itself in different ways and different forms for different communities. We must be cognizant of the particularities of the violence and how Christianity has influenced or created these different kinds of violence. Anti-Semitism is a unique problem for Christianity however because it is a virus that continues to mutate within the Church over the course of centuries and millennia and prevents us from fully engaging with and embracing our Jewish neighbours.
The history of Judaism and Christianity is a messy one. Jesus was an observant Jew who lived in Roman Judea and Galilee. Christianity is borne out of Judaism, but the when, where, and why Christianity and Judaism drifted apart is debated by scholars. In places like ancient Syria, Iraq, and Iran, Christian writers were complaining of Christians maintaining Jewish practices and customs as late as the 700s. Can we call these people Christian? Jewish? I do not know. Though Christianity was borne out of Judaism, both Judaism and Christianity continued to grow, change, and influence each other throughout history. The relationship is never a one-way street. The diverse Judaisms of today are different from the diverse Judaisms of antiquity, and yet there are threads of continuity across the millennia. The New Testament, and especially the Gospels, reflect the messiness of Christian origins within Judaism.
The Gospel of Matthew is the messiest of the Gospels in this regard, and the arrival of the Wise Men from the East is emblematic of that messiness. When the Gospel of Matthew was written in the late first and early second century, there was no Christianity. Such a distinction between Judaism and Christianity did not exist. The various Jewish communities in the ancient world were in disarray due to the Roman Empire destroying Jerusalem and its Temple of God in the year 70. Different factions and groups were left to pick up the pieces left by the loss of the Temple. One such faction were the communities of Jews who believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah for the Jewish people. The Gospel of Matthew was written to show how Jesus fulfills that role as a new Moses and a new David, Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king of the Jewish people.
The prophets, particularly Isaiah, are employed by the Jewish author to show how the coming of Jesus ushers in the messianic age for the Jewish people. The magi, magi being the Greek name for the Zoroastrian priests of ancient Iran, pay homage to the Messiah or Christ. They give him the gold of a king, the frankincense of a priest, and the myrrh of a prophet who will die for speaking the truth.However, just as this story highlights the Jewishness of Jesus, it is quick to condemn Jews who do not accept that Jesus is the Messiah. Herod and all of Jerusalem is frightened by the coming of the gentile magi to pay homage to the Messiah. It is Herod’s jealousy over Jesus’ claim to kingship over the Jewish nation that leads to his slaughtering of the children in Bethlehem which follows the arrival of the magi. However, such discordance between Jewish factions is not uncommon in Matthew.
The Gospel of Matthew contains a line that Christians have used to justify their violence against Jews throughout history. During Jesus trial in Matthew 27:25 “the people as a whole answered [regarding condemning Jesus], ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’”. Later generations of Christians believed their violence towards Jews was justified because of stories like that of Herod or the crucifixion—they accuse the Jews of being Christ-killers and say they deserve the violence as a form of human enacted divine retribution.
This is an extreme form of anti-Semitism, but it is congruent with many other kinds of anti-Semitism. It has emerged in many ways and at different times throughout history, but none of it has any place in the Church. However, it is the legacy we have inherited. We as the Gentile nations have been called to the God of Israel through Jesus Christ, but we must not forget that there are communities and people with whom God has formed a covenant with that has never been revoked. Our fore-bearers and ancestors have often deliberately overlooked the unique relationship Jews and Christians have with each other. Such ignorance has led to the horrors of the Inquisition, pogroms, and Holocaust. God will always deliver his people when they cry in distress, but the Church should not be the cause of that distress. Instead, we must cognizant of our common heritage with Judaism, learn how our traditions have grown, changed, and affected each other, and extend a hand of friendship and fellowship with our Jewish neighbors as one family of God.
We as Christians are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our Baptismal Covenant commands us to “strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” Just as we stand against all forms of violence and discrimination in the world, we must stand against violence against our Jewish neighbors. In a world which seems so keen on repeating the mistakes of the past. We can build a better world where God’s light can shine brightly.
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Amen
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