Support for Messianic congregation affirmed, but debate over Jewish-Presbyterian relations continues

“This may be the most deeply theological issue before this Assembly” and is one that cuts “to the very core of who we are as Christians,” Joseph Small of the PC(USA)’s Office of Theology and Worship told the committee.

To some, this is a test of the Presbyterian heart for spreading the gospel ­ of whether, deep down, Presbyterians value evangelism as much as ecumenism.

“The Scriptures tell us Jesus declared himself to be the Messiah and the son of God to Jewish audiences,” David Horner, pastor of Bethany church in Mendenhall, Pa., told the committee during an open hearing. “If we are not willing to tell Jews and all other people that Jesus is the Messiah and the son of God, then we are dishonoring the death of our Lord and we are not worthy to be called by his name.”

But Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly and pastor of Bradley Hills church in Bethesda, Md. ­ a congregation that for 38 years has shared what she calls “sacred space” with a Jewish congregation ­ told the committee that the PC(USA) needs to have a vital conversation about “how do we joyfully proclaim our faith as Christians” in a pluralistic world.

Andrews, who hosted an off-the-record conversation between Presbyterian and Jewish leaders in February about Avodat Yisrael, said that during that consultation a rabbi looked at a photograph of Andrew Sparks, the pastor of Avodat Yisrael, holding up the Torah scrolls, and told her, “that picture was so incredibly painful,” and that Jews understand what Avodat Yisrael is doing to be “a desecration of the holiest rituals and objects of their faith,” just as if a rabbi had picked up the communion elements and consecrated them.

The General Assembly Committee on Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations did vote Tuesday to direct some of PC(USA)’s national staff members to “reexamine and strengthen the relationship between Christians and Jews” and to consider the implications of that for evangelism and new church development ­ essentially, to study the wisdom and repercussions of creating Messianic congregations and evangelizing Jews.

But the committee, by a margin of 31-14, voted down a proposal to suspend funding of any new Messianic congregations until the General Assembly considers the study and comes up with a policy regarding Jewish evangelization.

The issue before the Assembly, brought in an overture from Hudson River Presbytery, does not specifically address Avodat Yisrael and does not threaten the funding of that congregation, now in its second year as a new church development. But the commissioners had plenty of questions about exactly what’s happening there.

Frank Baldwin, the stated clerk for Philadelphia Presbytery, told the committee that the presbytery voted three times on whether to support Avodat Yisrael ­ once to approving funding and twice defeating attempts to rescind that funding ­ and that Avodat Yisrael had followed the standard procedures used in the PC(USA) to obtain financial support at the presbytery, synod and General Assembly levels. The presbytery also has named an administrative commission ­ a fair-minded group, Baldwin said ­ to oversee the congregation and to assure what’s being offered there is “basically a service of Christian worship” and that there’s no misrepresentation of what kind of congregation Avodat Yisrael is.

Some commissioners who voted not to suspend PC(USA) funding of Messianic congregations probably did not want to set a precedent that could be questionable ­ to say that new church development money wouldn’t be given for a particular group, said George Wilkes, a committee member and executive presbyter of Foothills Presbytery. Philadelphia presbytery has had some kind of outreach ministry to Jews for decades before establishing Avodat Yisrael. And some commissioners were probably also saying “trust the process” the PC(USA) has created for establishing and evaluating new church developments, Wilkes said.

But along with the procedural concerns came significant theological ones.

“This is really the cutting edge of theology and polity here, friends,” Baldwin said. And he added: “There are legitimate issues being raised.”

Among those issues are these.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND THE JEWS

The New Testament descriptions of the early church show it to be a church of both Jews and Gentiles who came to faith in Jesus Christ ­ and one of the early struggles was over whether Gentiles who came to faith should be required to adopt Jewish law and customs in order to be Christian, Small said. Christianity, he said, is “a branch grafted onto the root of Judaism.”

And John Calvin, one the leading inspirations of the Reformed tradition, made it clear “there were not two covenants” ­ that God did not make a covenant with Jews that was replaced by a covenant with Christians ­ but there was “one covenant of grace, only one,” through which God embraced both the Christians and Jews, Small said. So the relations of Christians and Jews isn’t just part of a larger interfaith question ­ it’s an utterly unique and enduring question, he said.

When Christians deal with Jews, “we should start with humility,” said Bill Harter, a pastor from Chambersburg, Pa., and the overture advocate from Carlisle Presbytery, one of three presbyteries concurring with Hudson River on this overture. “Our first approach to Jews should be on our knees,” seeking forgiveness for the persecution of Jews by Christians over the course of 1900 years.

In 1987, the General Assembly approved a study paper, “A Theological Understanding of the Relationship Between Christians and Jews,” which said in part: “We affirm that the reign of God is attested both by the continuing existence of the Jewish people and by the church’s proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, when speaking with Jews about matters of faith, we must always acknowledge that Jews are already in a covenantal relationship with God.”

WHAT IS A MESSIANIC CONGREGATION?

Some commissioners indicated they weren’t exactly sure what a Messianic congregation is. What kind of worship happens there? What is the intent? Is it a church or a synagogue?

Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal, who is executive director of the National Council of Synagogues, an alliance of Reform and Conservative synagogues, came to the committee meeting and listened to all of the discussion ­ he was the rabbi who called himself “bitterly disappointed” ­ and said in an interview that most Jews would be confused about those questions too.

According to Chuck Denison, who works with new church development for the PC(USA), the ministry of Avodat Yisrael is targeted at three groups: people in mixed Jewish-Christian marriages; those who’ve converted from Judaism to Christianity; and spiritual seekers.

Some of the worship is conducted in Hebrew; worship services are held on Saturday mornings and men wear yarmulkes. Avodat Yisrael celebrates the major Jewish holidays. The pastor, Andrew Sparks, is an ordained PC(USA) minister who was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity.

Some Jewish leaders ask whether Messianic congregations are “inherently deceptive” and whether they undermine the integrity of both the Jewish and Christian traditions, said Jay Rock, coordinator of the PC(USA)’s Interfaith Relations Office.

“This church masquerades as a synagogue ­ to wit, the Hebrew name, the use of Jewish symbols such as the Torah, our most sacred symbol,” Rosenthal said. “To expropriate Jewish sacred symbols such as the Torah is an affront and an abomination, and insults the Jewish people just as we would insult our Christian friends if we were to expropriate their symbols in synagogue worship.”

Avodat Yisrael’s Web site describes it as a “blended and inclusive community” (not calling it either a synagogue or a church) where the worship services “strike a balance between broader Jewish worship traditions and our congregation’s religious convictions.” People who come there, including non-practicing and non-religious Jews, can explore an understanding of God “without losing Jewish identity or giving up cherished and meaningful traditions,” the website states. For intermarried couples, “the Jewish spouse does not have to give up their traditions and heritage as they would in a typical Gentile-oriented church. The Christian spouse does not have to give up Jesus as they would in a traditional synagogue.”

Scott Bohr is pastor of Church on the Mall, a congregation that’s located in a shopping mall in the suburbs northwest of Philadelphia (“it’s a regular church,” Bohr says, “it’s just attached to a mall”) and which rents space to Avodat Yisrael.

The furniture at Church on the Mall is moveable, but when Avodat Yisrael worships, the communion table and the baptismal font are always in the sanctuary ­ that’s something his congregation requires, Bohr said.

A 15-foot cross is typically removed, because “their cultural identity sees the cross as offensive in some ways,” Bohr said. But there are banners with crosses still hanging, he said, and depictions of Jesus.

Avodat Yisrael has not yet baptized anyone, Bohr said. But the congregation does celebrate communion, although it’s done after worship, “for those people who are already believers in Jesus as Messiah,” he said. “They don’t want to have people feel uncomfortable by sitting there” during communion if they don’t want to participate.

That blending of elements makes some people uncomfortable.

Messianic congregations “approach Jews as though they were doing something Jewish, when in fact we are doing something quite Christian,” Nancy DeVries, a college chaplain, said during the open hearing. “I believe that evangelism should be good, it should be honest, it should be respectful of who people are.”

Rosenthal said “Messianic Judaism is not Judaism, it’s a Christian attempt to muddy the waters . . . in an attempt to win a few souls.”

WHAT IS A JEW?

One of the questions involved, Denison said, is whether being Jewish is an ethnic or a religious identity ­ an important question in trying to determine whether Messianic congregations are more attempts at conversion or congregations that simply try to incorporate elements of the Jewish culture in the same way that an outreach to Ghanaians might use music and language familiar to Africans.

“What is a Jew?” Denison asked the committee. “Mostly it’s both. It’s a religion, it’s a legacy, it’s a culture, it’s an ethnic identity.”

For those who’ve converted from Judaism to Christianity, “ethnically and culturally they’ll always be Jewish,” Denison said, referring to a friend who “still thinks like a Jew and lives like a Jew.”

But Rosenthal said plainly: “Once a Jew accepts Jesus as the Messiah and the son of God, he or she has crossed the line irrevocably” and is no longer a Jew. “He can eat bagels and lox the rest of his life. He can listen to Yiddish songs the rest of his life. He is no longer a Jew,” and “it is absolutely inappropriate for Christians to define Jewish identity.”

SHOULD CHRISTIANS EVANGELIZE JEWS?

And is creating a new church development that draws from the Jewish tradition any different from starting a congregation for other immigrant or racial and ethnic groups?

Every evangelistic effort in history has borrowed symbols from the local culture, from the Mayans to the Scandinavians, said Jon West, a committee member and minister from Los Ranchos Presbytery. “Evangelism is essentially making Christ alive in a culture that does not know Christ.”

Bernie Adeney, a committee member and missionary advisory delegate from Indonesia, argued that this is a worldwide issue. “Christians in Bali make Balinese Hindus very angry by using Balinese symbols within their churches,” he said. But Balinese Christians do so want to express their faith through the symbols of the Balinese culture, Adeney said.

That’s happening with immigrant groups to the United States too. Doug Wilson, of the PC(USA)’s Office of Evangelism, said that over the past two years, about 60 percent of the denomination’s new church developments have involved particular immigrant or racial-ethnic groups ­ from Brazilian immigrants and Hispanics to Sudanese. Many of them use music, language and rituals that are familiar to them. And when they seek support from the denomination, they follow a set procedure and “they’re all responded to exactly the same way,” Wilson said.

Adeney said “it’s unfair to send a national, very vivid message” that the PC(USA) will support ministry to all those groups, but not to Jews. Denying funding for Jewish outreach “seems to me an awful lot like racism,” said Matt LeVan, a youth advisory delegate from Scioto Valley.

John Sheldon, a pastor from Ocean City, N.J., asked during the public hearing: “Why are we embarrassed to talk to Jewish people about Jesus?”

And Dave Bleivik, general presbyter of Washington Presbytery, said during the hearing: “I can see the headlines now in The Layman,” if the funding were suspended. “PC(USA) no longer believes that Jews need to come to Jesus Christ.”

Even at Avodat Yisrael, however, “they don’t directly evangelize Jews,” said Bohr, whose congregation provides the Messianic congregation space. Avodat Yisrael doesn’t tell people, “We want you to come and meet Jesus,” Bohr said.

Southern Baptists, in their evangelistic campaign targeting Jews, said, “If we don’t try to convert the Jews it’s discriminatory, it’s racist, it’s anti-Semetic,” Rosenthal said. “I don’t want to be impolite, but that’s absolute nonsense. I understand evangelism. It means to proclaim the good news of Jesus to all people. That’s perfectly proper … To evangelize means to tell what you believe and why.”

But “to proselytize mean you’re trying to capture their souls.” And Rosenthal warns that history has shown that the one who tries to take your soul “is apt to take your body in the process.”

Bohr, of Church on the Mall, can say firsthand how deep the emotions over all this run. Someone upset about the Messianic congregation defecated in the prayer room of his church, leaving a note explaining why they’d done it, Bohr said.

And his congregation of about 100 “is wondering why this is such a big deal,” Bohr said. People from his church say, “If they want to worship, let them worship … We believe the gospel is for everybody or it is for nobody.”