Scripture Readings:  Deuteronomy 6:4-12; Amos 5:18-24; Matthew 4:12-18

            At the 2004 General Assembly, the biannual national governing meeting for the Presbyterian Church (USA), a resolution was approved to selectively divest church portfolios from companies making a profit from war and the expansion of settlements in the occupied territory in Israel and Palestine.  In Presbyterian fashion, this is slow business.  A committee will research the issue and report back to the next General Assembly in the summer of 2006.

            While the dollar amount that would be divested is relatively small, the statement has drawn attention.  In particular the actions of the assembly have drawn well publicized criticism from many in the Jewish Community.  I feel the important and legitimate complaints are threefold.  First, regardless of whether or not it is time for action on Israel and Palestine, the particular action of a boycott has a history with Jews which needs to be taken into consideration.  Second, there is a sentence in the resolution which is poorly worded and I think needs to be modified. While the resolution acknowledges and condemns sources of violence on all sides, and condemns suicide bombing, it says that the Occupation has proven to be at the root of evil acts committed against innocent people on both sides of the conflict.

Jews point out that the conflict in the region is more complex than what is implied in such a statement.  Moreover, any hint toward accusing Jews of being "the root of evil" stirs up horribly well founded historical threats and fears.

            Thirdly, when an action such as a boycott is justified using the word "root" at the same meeting that also fails to cease funding of a new church aimed at converting Jews to Christianity, it look like the Presbyterian Church has either made a historically ignorant mistake, or revealed an underlying or rising current of anti-Semitism.  There are many other countries doing bad things.  Why single out Israel?

            Either way, it is quite appropriate that our Jewish brothers and sisters take note and respond.  I believe it is also appropriate that I respond.  I plan to do several things this morning.  It will take about half an hour’s time.

            I begin with a qualification of what I say.  Second, I want to set this conversation within a historical context.  It would be possible to assume we know this history, but what it teaches us is to not make assumptions.  Never forget.  Then I will make an application of our scripture, adjusting our theology in light of the Holocaust, and finally I will comment on a Christian response to contemporary Israel and Palestine.

I must admit that there are few subjects I feel less qualified to speak on than Israel and Palestine.  If you are looking for an expert opinion you have not found it today.  But it will come as no surprise that I address a subject for which I am scarcely qualified to speak.  For on a weekly basis I take on the task of delivering a word from the mysterious, sovereign, Holy Creator of butterflies, galaxies, dolphins and black holes.  It remains a personal struggle to accept this call and not spend time looking for and creating excuses like Moses, and even, running in the opposite direction.  But as so often is the case, God showed up on my Sabbath Monday.  While floating in my liquid sanctuary, Jonah’s friend paid me a visit.  A breaching, spewing grey whale spit me back to the humble task of speaking to this small eclectic family in Berkeley.

            I thank you for your prayers and support, I thank you for listening to me.  Hopefully what I say reflects that I have listened some as well.

            In sum, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved, how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed."

                       Jewish Christian relations will forever be influenced by the History of Nazi Germany. As told by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, "On April 1, 1933, the Nazis carried out the first nationwide, planned action against Jews: a boycott targeting Jewish businesses and professionals. The boycott was both a reprisal and an act of revenge against (atrocity stories) that German and foreign Jews, assisted by foreign journalists, were allegedly circulating in the international press to damage Nazi Germany's reputation. The Star of David was painted in yellow and black across thousands of doors and windows, with accompanying anti-Semitic slogans. Signs were posted saying ‘Don't Buy from Jews’ and ‘The Jews Are Our Misfortune.’ Throughout Germany, acts of violence against individual Jews and Jewish property occurred; the police intervened only rarely.

            "Although the national boycott operation, organized by local Nazi party chiefs, lasted only one day and was ignored by many individual Germans who continued to shop in Jewish-owned stores, it marked  the beginning of a nationwide campaign by the Nazi party against the entire German Jewish population."

            Before it was over, the Nazi regime murdered six million Jews and many other, including Poles, gypsies, Soviet POW’s, homosexuals, disabled people and dissidents.  Systematic murder was carried out at multiple death camps.  Auschwitz was the largest Nazi death camp.  1.1million people died there.  It was liberated by the advancing Soviet army on the 27^th of January, 1945 – sixty years ago Thursday.

            Each of our banners in the back of the church represents one of our historical confessions, statements of what we believe.  One of those banners represents the Barmen Declaration.  The Barmen Declaration was written shortly after the Nazis took power to affirm that Hitler was not the head of the Church, Jesus Christ is.  We acknowledge the great heroism of many in the Confessing Church in Germany who stood against the Nazis.  And there were many in the church who protected Jews and actively fought or worked against the Nazis.  We hope and pray our Christian integrity would be so strong.  Our banner has an empty cross standing over the Nazi swastika which is burning in Hell.  Christ the Jew was crucified in Auschwitz, and yet the power and evil of the Nazi regime and their racist god has fallen, and Christ the Jew has risen.

            But the emphasis on Christ the Jew is not Barmen’s, and even as we acknowledge the courage and faith of our Confessing Church, we must also admit that Barmen failed to denounce the anti-Semitism of Hitler and the Third Reich.  Making the claim that Jesus is the One Word of God enabled the Church to down grade Hitler’s authority, but it did nothing to address the problems that come from claims that Christ is the one and only source of Salvation.  Namely, it has been too easy to claim that since we hold Christ then we hold the truth; and if we hold the truth then we are right and everyone else is wrong.  We speak for God.  They should listen to us and we have no need to listen to them.

            But as we see in our scripture passages today, this is very dangerous thinking, and contrary to the Word of God we meet through the person of Jesus Christ.  To understand the New Testament or Christian scripture we must also understand the Hebrew scripture.  A great example is found here in the birth narrative of Jesus.

            Matthew was writing primarily to a Jewish audience, and he used motifs that were familiar from the Hebrew scripture.  Just before this morning’s passage we see the Magi, pagan astrologers and dream interpreters from the East, pinpoint the meaning of the star while Herod’s priests fail to do so.  Bob Coote reminds "The original Magus in scripture is Balaam was summoned by the king of Moab to curse Israel.  Instead of cursing Israel, God caused Moab to bless."  However, in Matthew’s story Herod is the counterpart of the king of Moab, but the Magi foil the king’s plan in the tradition of Balaam and come to bless Jesus.

            Hopefully, you also remember the story of Daniel, the Judean who could interpret the dreams and read the writing on the wall for the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.  In that story the Magi could not interpret correctly, while the Judean Daniel could. In Matthew’s story the situation is reversed.  The magi, writes Coote, "thought of by those who studied scripture as heathen, pinpoint the significance of the star…Those who pride themselves in Scripture are so narrow in their understanding of where and how God is at work in the world as to be spiritually blind."

            Next Matthew brings in the imagery of the escape from pharaoh and exodus from Egypt.  As the Hebrew population grew, Pharaoh felt threatened and ordered that every Hebrew boy be slaughtered.  Matthew throws another twist into his story.  Instead of the murder of the Israelite babies being at the hands of the Egyptian king, it is the King of Judah who orders the evil deed.  And instead of having to flee from danger in Egypt, this time the danger comes from the hands of Herod in Israel, and the new baby king flees to Egypt for safety.  "In the imagery of Matthew’s drama of persecution in Palestine and escape into Egypt," writes Coote, "Jesus lives in his own story a reversal of the history of the Israelite people, pointing to a redemption of pagan peoples."

            So what can we take from this story today?  We could, I suppose, make a claim that it was not just the terrible Herod and his cronies who lost their way, but generalize to claim that "all Jews are spiritually blind," and that they deserve to suffer for the suffering they inflicted on the son of God.  Historically, this interpretation has been made.  Paul, in II Corinthians 3:14-16 paints a picture of a veil over the face of the Jews so they could not see what they ought to have seen.  In the passion window of the Cathedral of Chartres (built between 1215 and 1240), the devil shoots an arrow into the eye of the Synagogue.  The result says Anton Wessels "is a condition of permanent blindness in the place of the veil which could at least be removed!"

            Our interpretation must be different if we remember that both Jesus and Matthew consider themselves Jews.  They are criticizing not all people but a few powerful and unjust leaders.  This is something the prophets had done for a millennia within Israel.

            The point is this: It is easy to be blinded by arrogance and power.  It is easy to get comfortable and complacent within our own blessing.  Just about the time we assume we have the blessing, we have the truth, then the truth of God breaks into the world in a new way, through a new people.  Too easily, a Herod can become king of a nation or people blessed by God. Too easily, the oppressed become the oppressor.  God can speak through a people thought to be outside of God’s Kingdom.

            Too easily we have become Herod.  The horror of the holocaust ought to have created a reevaluation of the Christian faith and theology.  For it was Christians who took on the role of Herod and Pharaoh, and Jews who had to run and hide their children.  Once we realize this sin, others sins of history come to light.

            Just as so called Christian soldiers sung Christmas carols at Auschwitz we learn that a ship used to transport slaves to America was named the "Good Ship Jesus."  We find that "evangelization" of the Americas wiped out some 80 million Native Americans and that over 12 million people were stolen from the African continent and shipped to America.  Two million more did not survive the passage. Christians have been Herod.  Christians have been Pharaoh.  The followers of the one unjustly condemned and crucified, have themselves become the oppressor, the judge and executioner.

            Bartolome de las Casas, Jesuit priest railing against the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors and their treatment of the indigenous, non-Christian peoples wrote.  "I have seen Jesus Christ, our God, scourged, devastated, not once but a million times."

            Gustavo Gutierrez reminds us that both Hebrew and Christian scripture shows a God who is not isolated and contained by one particular people in one particular time, or stuck up in the clouds of heaven, but who is found over and over with those who are marginalized, with the poor and oppressed wherever and whoever they may be.

            "The terrible holocaust of millions of Jews is an inescapable challenge to the Christian conscience and an inexcusable reproach to the silence of many Christians in the face of that dreadful event.  We must therefore ask: How can we talk about God without referring to our age? …For us Latin Americans the question is not precisely "How are we to do theology after Auschwitz?" …Our task here is to find the words with which to talk about God in the midst of the starvation of millions, the humiliation of races regarded as inferior, discrimination against women, especially women who are poor, systematic social injustice.., those who simply "disappear"…What we must deal with is not the past but, unfortunately, a cruel present and a dark tunnel with no apparent end."

            We can be Pharaoh, we can be Herod today.  If we are to learn from the holocaust it is not that we have discriminated against one people at one point in history, but so many people over and over again.

And so my friends, I know that the conflict in Palestine did not start in 1948, and there must have been many displaced by the creation of Modern Israel.  And regardless of whether or not the 1968 war was started unjustly or if Israeli intelligence really did preempt a planned attack against them, I support a sovereign and strong Israel.  But the ongoing act of confiscating and occupying land since 1968 is unjust.  And the continued growth of settlements and the imprisonment of Palestinian villages via the security wall will only further outrage the world community.  Out of respect for oppressed Jews we ought to speak out and take a stand for oppressed Palestinians.  Withdrawal from the settlements and quit confiscating land beyond the United Nations confirmed border and I will not only support your right to protect yourself, I will be willing to send my nation’s army, my sons, to help protect you.

            I had to think about it, but I really mean it.  I have never said I would be willing to send my sons to war in my life. But there are some things worse than death, and Christians standing by or initiating another holocaust against Jews would be one of them.  Never again!

            But we ought not stand by and support everything Israel does.  I support a temporary, selective boycott to send a statement that we do not approve nor support continued confiscation of Palestinian land and the violence that goes with it.  Perhaps it is inevitable that any act that calls into question current Israeli government policy runs the risk of being accused of being anti-Semitic.  But this is not anti-Semitic, it is anti-injustice and both pro-Israel pro-Palestine.  I am glad that some of our Jewish brothers and sisters are supporting Presbyterian selective divestment, and peace and justice in Palestine and Israel in general.  I expect more of my Jewish American friends to start putting more pressure on Israel to change their unjust policy.

            But here is the catch.  I wish the Presbyterian Church had the courage to address our own government’s violence and injustice.  If we want to criticize Israel for preemptive acts of violence then we ought to check ourselves.  America, the little nation of religious exiles has become Rome. Have we forgotten that God brought us out of Egypt?   Cesar, Pharaoh and Herod have become our President, and children are dying at the hands of our soldiers.  It is time to boycott the U.S. government.  Pray for relative success in the elections today in Iraq.  And then let’s pray we can get out of there.  I would not willingly permit my boys to go there and fight. 

            Take the log out of your own eye, Jesus said, before you take the speck out of your neighbor.  It is not that Israel or the United States have a corner on violence and injustice.  Far from it.  Clearly there are nations more evil than us. Yes, there are suicide bombers targeting and killing children.  Yes, this is sick and wrong and they deserve to be stopped and punished.

But it is precisely because of our commitment and love for Israel and the United States that we should be critical of them.  Who did the prophets of Israel criticize?  Anyone who claims there are now fewer enemies of the United States since we have killed 10,000 Iraqi citizens is crazy.  We are creating enemies, not peace.

Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord, you American Christians waiting on the second coming.  That day will be darkness, not light.  It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear.