Congregation Shema Yisrael

I read a news story published by World Net Daily last November that took me by surprise. A group of Christians had been visiting San Francisco’s Castro District for several nights, praying for the people there (The Castro is known as a primarily “gay district” in San Francisco). It was a peaceful encounter and, according to one of the Christian women in the group, “People would come stand with us and join us…We got to pray for some people.”

All that ended one night when a group of “hundreds” of gay men “rushed out of the bars and swarmed (the) group of Christians…and some even threatened to kill the worshippers.”. What happened? During the confrontation, one of the gay men asked “Why are you here?” to which the leader of the Christian group replied, “We’re here to worship God, and we’re here because we love you.”

You can read the World Net Daily story by clicking the link I provided in the first paragraph of this post, but ultimately, the encounter turned so violent that the San Francisco Police had to escort the Christian group out of the area for their own safety. The Christian group said they weren’t there to preach or condemn gays or to evangelize them. Their only goal was to pray, to sing, and to worship God. Why was there such a strong and violent response to these believers? Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop 8, crystallized the rationale, or at least some of it, when he told San Francisco’s KTVU Channel 2, “They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk, and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech, which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood.” But did that have to include a physical attack and death threats?

I came across an archived blog post by Rabbi Jason Miller of Congregation T’chiyah in Oak Park, Michigan, published in August of 2004. Rabbi Miller was expressing his concern about an “…international effort targeting Jews and Judaism” that was going to occur in the metro Detroit and Ann Arbor area the following September. That effort, from Rabbi Miller’s point of view, was generated by Jews for Jesus to convert Jews to Christianity.

Ironically, Jews for Jesus wasn’t involved at all but rather, a Messianic group called Congregation Shema Yisrael in Michigan’s Bloomfield Township, headed by “Rabbi” Loren Jacobs (I put the word “Rabbi” in quotes because I believe, with rare exception, that almost no one in leadership in the Messianic movement has the qualifications of a Rabbi, either by modern or ancient standards). Congregation Shema Yisrael (no relationship with our congregation in Boise) and “supportive Christian congregations” were planning a three-week event designed to show Jewish people that “believing in Jesus is the most Jewish thing a Jewish person can do.”

Rabbi Miller said he was devising a strategy with the University of Michigan Hillel group to “combat” the campaign, since the apparent “targets” of “Jews for Jesus” would likely be Jewish university students. Part of the strategy would be to disseminate a tract called 7 Answers for Jews for Jesus which is an “anti-Evangelism” document designed to establish why Jews don’t recognize Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah. Sounds like everyone was getting ready to go to war. Is that how we are supposed to share the Good News?

Why am I saying all this? Am I trying to stir up trouble between the Messianic and traditional Christian communities and the gays and Jews? No, not at all. I am trying to illustrate how we are sometimes perceived by those very people we want to share our Messiah with. In our efforts and our passion to share the Good News with the rest of the world including our gay and Jewish neighbors, we have an excellent grasp of our own point of view, but we can have a terrible understanding of how our “audience” sees us.

Let me put it another way. You are a traditional Christian. A group from a local Mosque comes to your house and, standing on the sidewalk, begins to pray for you in the hopes you’ll “see the light” and become a Muslim. How about this? You are a Messianic believer who views the Bible from a Hebraic perspective and does not believe that there is any dissonance between the Law (Torah) of Moses and the Grace of Christ (the Messiah). A group from the Evangelical church down the block comes to your house and, standing on the sidewalk, begins to pray and sing in the hopes that you’ll abandon your “cult” and accept the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Under those circumstances, how would you feel about this intrusion into your private life?

How about an example closer to your real life experience? You are a traditional Christian, Messianic believer, or just about anyone else. You are at home and your doorbell rings. When you open the door, you are confronted with several missionaries from the local Mormon church or from the Jehovah’s Witnesses, wanting to share their version of the “Good News” with you. What’s your first reaction?

OK, maybe you don’t threaten anyone with violence or start constructing a campaign to “combat” these efforts “against” you, but you’ll have to admit that you’d probably feel pretty uncomfortable. In the latter example, you most likely find a way to politely but firmly tell your visitors that you have no desire to hear their message and quickly close your front door. But why not listen? Given any of these examples, why not keep an open mind, invite the group into your home, and hear what they have to say? Maybe it will be valuable. Maybe it’ll be important. Maybe it’ll even change your life. Why not?

Because nobody likes to hear someone tell them that their lifestyle or faith is wrong. Even with the best of intentions by the speaker, the receiver of this news gets the message that there’s something wrong with them, their feelings, their thoughts, their beliefs, how they live…when in fact, they don’t experience there’s any sort of problem in their lives at all. The gays in the Castro probably didn’t think there’s a problem with being gay. They did have a problem with what they see as discrimination because they, unlike all straight couples, were just denied the “right” to marry under the law in California. The Jews in Michigan don’t think there’s anything wrong with them being Jewish and not worshiping Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. They’re still waiting for the first coming of the Messiah and don’t want to be converted to Christianity. Becoming “Messianic” is not a comforting thought for them, since Messianics are far more traditionally Christian than they ever will be Jewish (wearing Kippot and Tallitim aside). Jews see the Messianic movement as “Jews for Jesus” or, just another Christian group but thinly cloaked with Jewish trappings.

So, am I saying that we should never share our faith out of fear of at least offending someone or perhaps from inspiring them to want to hit us? No. I am saying that we should choose carefully the circumstances under which we share our faith. Yes, in the United States of America, citizens have free speech rights and can legally stand on a public street corner and sing and pray for the people around them. But will that really reach anyone in a way that will make them want to listen? In fact, can you or I as human beings “make” anyone listen to the Good News at all?

Passover is coming up soon. I suppose I could go to one of my local non-Messianic synagogues after having paid for a seat, and during the service, start sharing the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah to the people around me. Guess how many people would want to stop what they are doing to listen? Does anyone want to take bets on how many seconds would elapse before I was politely and firmly escorted to the door and told not to return? What would it be like for you to have someone interrupt one of your services and start sharing a faith with you that was (at least apparently) opposed to your worship of God?

Only God can soften someone’s heart. Heck, we can’t even soften our own hearts. In Ezekiel 36:26, God says “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Yes, we have a responsibility to share our faith with anyone who is willing to listen, but that’s the key. People have to be willing. Yes, we provide the opportunity to hear the news, but God provides the willing ears and the hearts of flesh. Thumping people over the head with a Bible won’t transmit the Good News; it’ll just give them a bump on their head and make them less likely to listen to you, or to the next person of God who comes sharing their faith.

We have the opportunity to sanctify or desecrate the name of God by how we live our lives in everything we do. We sanctify His name when we lead honest and humble lives that show honor towards God and respect for our neighbors. We desecrate His name when we treat God casually and when we honor ourselves and hold our lives as superior to our neighbors. When we “preach” to the unwilling, regardless of our intention, we present ourselves as “holier than thou” to our neighbors. Only when God makes them ready, will they be willing and able to listen. If we force the issue out of our personal desires, no matter how pure our motives, we inadvertently desecrate His name and push people away from salvation rather than guiding them towards the Messiah.

The next time God gives you the opportunity to share your faith, make sure it’s God’s doing and not just your idea. We’re here to do His will, not our own.