My very best friend, Casey, is a member of a local Baptist church. Her church is similar to mine, known to be a VERY liberal Baptist church, holding very loosely to the "Baptist traditions" and holding more tightly to the Life of Christ and his example set for us. The other day she invited me to an Interfaith Shabbat service held at a Reformed Jewish temple. There was to be the service, followed by a Shabbat dinner, followed by a panel discussion between Rabbi David Stern and Reverend George Mason, the leaders of the two congregations. I thought it sounded interesting (and Mozz is out of town), so I went.
I have never been to a Jewish temple. I don't know much about Judaism in general. Until tonight, I don't really think I understood the difference between Orthodox Jews and Reformed Jews. Tonight's experience was completely eye-opening to me. Here is some of what I learned and my thoughts on them.
Shabbat Service: This is a special service celebrating the gift of the Sabbath. Back in Egypt, when the Jews were slaves, they were not allowed to observe the Sabbath, thus the Exodus from Egypt was especially joyful to not just enjoy the freedom of oppression, but to finally enjoy a weekly day of rest. Even when the Christian movement started, the Jews were considered "lazy" for not working a full week like most of the Greeks did and were persecuted for this tradition.
Tonight's experience was a true worship service with lots of singing in Hebrew, mostly songs of thanksgiving and encouragement. I had a very tiny, older Jewish lady standing next to me, smiling, and singing at the top of her voice, clapping. She wore a hot pink sweater and her name was Myra. She was kind enough to lend her service book to share with me. It had each verse and blessing written in English on the left so we could understand what was being said and sung. As a guest, I couldn't sing in Hebrew, but a lot of the words sounded like "lalalala". At one point, as we clapped along, she whispered to me, "If you don't know the words, but feel moved to join us, just sing 'lalalala'." I giggled and did exactly as she said. I lala-ed my songs and had a lovely time! I made me wonder if the very song I was singing was one that Jesus sang when he celebrated Shabbat. It made me imagine Jesus clapping and dancing and singing with his apostles and having a jolly time. It made me look at Jesus as a man that LIVED, in spite of knowing He was soon to die for the world. And, as silly as it sounds, it dawned on me...Jesus probably celebrated Hanukkah! He got 12 days of celebration in a month, that not even JW kids get today in 12 years of their lives! It made me sad, but again, it made me realize that Jesus LIVED! The total opposite of JWs.
I was disappointed when the service was over. I wasn't ready to stop clapping and lala-ing. The service really did prepare my heart for a thankful prayer and mentality before dinner.
Dinner: It was not a traditional Shabbat dinner as this was a Reformed Jewish congregation. For Orthodox Jews, you cannot cook on Shabbat, so a slow-cooked meat stew and challah is traditional fare. We did have the challah, which we blessed and then experienced "breaking of the bread". But instead of the meat stew, we had lovely roast chicken, fresh green beans, salad, and baby red potatoes with tea. Being gluten-intolerant, I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to eat much, if anything. I was happy to see that I could eat a full meal very safely! And it was wonderful!
Our Host(esses): The people at our table were about our age and a ton of fun! We discussed differences in our religions and realized we all had many misunderstandings about what the other believed in. They thought, as Baptists, we handled snakes and did faith healing. We explained those are Pentecostals and NOTHING like traditional Baptists, let alone Liberal Baptists. We thought you had to have your Bar and Bat Mitzvah at the age of 13. But that's not actually true. That's the traditional and most common age, but you can actually do it later, if the family and Rabbi decide to put it off for whatever reason. There is not hard and fast rule, at least for Reformed Jews. We learned that Reformed Jews LOVE to eat and drink and party! Just like Liberal Baptists. Ha! Give us a reason for dinner and a bottle of wine and we're there!
The Panel Discussion: Rabbi Stern and Reverend Mason have been friends for many years and it showed. They were kind, respectful, funny, and serious all through the discussion. There was a lady reading questions directed towards the men, which they both got to answer.
"What are your feelings about what's going on in the nation of Israel? How do you see this resolving?"
"How do you release the tension between your beliefs that clearly state the other has no salvation?"
"What is your viewpoint about the Islamic nation and Mohammed?"
"How do you bridge the gap between religion and science?"
Serious discussions, dealt with courage, honesty and tempered with MUCH respect and kindness. I was truly impressed!
I left tonight a better person. I left realizing how much we ALLOW to get in our way of building community. I left with a sense of hope that, ALL of these different beliefs that usually cause chasms, can one day, even today, be bridged. I left realizing there are Christians out there that are extremely intelligent, loving, accepting and truly LIVE like Christ would want them to live - not judgemental, accusatory, and preaching Armageddon or hellfire. I left feeling proud that the church my best friend chooses to attend, is a church that embraces those values and has passion to spread it to other people, and not just spread doctrine. Such a big difference!
My eyes and heart have been opened tonight. And I truly am grateful. A thankful heart has a way of giving one release...freedom from a sense of oppression or loss. I think that's the whole point of Shabbat.
It makes me understand all the more one of my favorite scriptures:
Philippians 4:6, 7: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
If you've gotten this far...thank you for letting me share.
Andi