The Reason

In some religions the purpose of life is to perfect oneself and become more Godly, a noble objective to be achieved through spiritual pursuits such as faith, prayer, charity, and abstinence. For Judaism the purpose of life is the healing of the world. Man is invited as a junior partner in creation to assist God in purging the world of evil, indifference, and injustice and imbuing it with compassion and loving-kindness...

The L'Chaim Society, the educational outreach organization I founded at Oxford University in 1988, has been one of the few Jewish organizations in the world with a high proportion of non-Jewish members. Every Friday when I served as Rabbi at Oxford, of the hundred or so students who joined us for the weekly Sabbath meal, more than a third were non-Jews. They came not to convert to Judaism...but rather to grasp a spiritual framework that is all about the celebration of life, that glories in human warmth, and that teaches that God is loving, comforting, and approachable.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
From the Preface of his book
Judaism for Everyone: Renewing Your Life Through The Vibrant Lessons Of The Jewish Faith

I titled this blog post "The Reason" but more accurately, it should be called "My Reason". I just started reading Rabbi Boteach's book (he's written many) and, while thoroughly enjoying it so far, realized as I was reading the above-quoted portion of the book's Preface, that this is why, at least partly, that I became involved in Messianic worship in the first place. Non-Jews who enter "the movement", particularly if they are identified as "One Law", tend to be assigned a rather uncomplementary and stereotypical definition. One Law Gentiles are believed to hate the Christian church, seeing it as apostate. They also are accused of being disrespectful of Judaism and rather crude in both misappropriating many Jewish practices, such as Shabbat rest, praying in Hebrew, and wearing a kippah and tallit, while at the same time dismissing, out of hand, the cherished concepts and instructions found in the Oral Law. For that reason, many Gentiles in the movement are considered by the Jewish population of Messianic Judaism as insincere, insular, and hypocrtical.

I will admit to having met my fair share of Gentile One Law adherents who shall we say, have rather "unusual" theological beliefs and who tend to become quickly put off when you disagree with what they assume to be the self-evident practices outlined for Jews and Gentiles in the Torah. There are more than a few people who join One Law or some form of Messianic Judaism out of a need to be "right" and make everyone else "wrong". There are many congregations where the leader has taken such a vocation in order to enhance his ego and reputation as some sort of "Prophet" who possesses a secret understanding of the Bible in order to elicit what I call the "Wow Factor!" out of his audience. If I'm being lumped together with this group, it's no wonder I've gotten some less-than-polite responses in the Messiniac blogosphere (though this seems to be changing).

To be fair, I have also met many Gentile believers who are indeed sincerely seeking to serve God in an authentic manner and to extend love to their fellow human beings, regardless of background or faith. They see Messianic Judaism and/or One Law as the doorway to a clearer and more purely Hebraic understanding of the Word of God, the men who, under the guidance of the Spirit, wrote it, and the original context in which the scriptures came into being.

What motivates a Gentile who may seemingly appear perfectly happy in a Sunday-keeping church setting to "jump ship" and join a movement where validity and fellowship with wider Christianity and/or Judaism is spotty at best and non-existant at worst? Do we want to feel cut off from those we feel kinship with through God and Yeshua (Jesus)?

If you will again read the quote from Rabbi Boteach I posted at the top of this article, you may come to understand the answer. It is possible to not hate and in fact, to love the church and its many members who are devoted to Christ, and still feel like something's missing. I sometimes think that, for at least a few of us, God flips on some switch inside of us and activates a search program that starts us looking for something modern Evangelical Christianity doesn't offer. Up until recently, I thought I was looking for a window into the past and the practice of the first century church, but I don't believe so now. It's not even a straightforward connection to modern Judaism as such or a desire to be Jewish that I've been seeking, but rather I have been trying to link to something God built into the faith and practices of his chosen, treasured people that God also designed for the rest of us. This is the reason that so many non-Jews attended Rabbi Boteach's outreach class at Oxford. It's the reason, as my wife observes, that so many non-Jews attend the Chabad Rabbi's classes in my local area.

God created a template for a holy and fulfilling lifestyle that fills a certain hole we each have within our spirits. While the church has done a good job in sustaining at least a portion of that lifestyle, which is why so many people have abandoned a secular life for a Christian one, there is more understanding and more blessings to be had. It's even why, on occasion, a Christian person from this walk of life or that, will come to my congregation, participate in one or more of the classes, and find something that is both completely new to them and completely familiar. I don't say this to pad my own reputation or to remove anything from Rabbi Boteach or larger Judaism, but rather to glorify God and His many and varied ways of bringing us closer to Him.

There are those of us who are associated with the Messianic movement as identified by one label or another, who are attracted to this walk, not for the sake of anger, disillusionment, or the need to feed our egos, but because we are trying to find the source of a "homing signal" God seems to have set off within us. While, for reasons I have previously stated, I don't believe I would fit back into a Christian church setting, I have to admit, there are times when it was far more easy to blend in within the church than it ever has been in my current walk.

As many times as I have wanted to put it all down, walk away from Messianic worship, and never look back, something keeps me rooted and driven (if one can be both at the same time). I can't identify what it is in an objective sense and have to believe the "something" is God.

There are both a number of advantages and some disadvantages to what I am doing right now, and while I've resolved most of my issues for the time being, there are one or two that remain outstanding and without an answer. But until I get a clear message from God that I need to be doing something else, here I'll stay, to participate in the celebration of life, that glories in human warmth, and that teaches that God is loving, comforting, and approachable.