Dr. Mark S Kinzer from his paper
Postmissionary Messianic Judaism, Three Years Later (2008)
Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series
Ovadia posted this in the comments section of the blog post Why Bilateral Ecclesiology Will Matter and I finally gave it a read. It's all part of what I now am calling my Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series. You can read What Do We Call a Wandering Christian and the two most recent blog articles I posted before this one to get the context. Reading the other blogs I link off to, including their comments will help immensely, if you haven't been part of the conversation up to this point. Yes, it is a lot of reading.
I'm sure you recognized the title of this blog post as a nod to John Gray's famous and much parodied book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (which I've never read) about improving communication and getting what you want in your relationships. The idea is that you have two human beings who are fundamentally different from one another who just happen to be sharing a home, a bed, sex, children, money, and everything else...yet they think and feel about all these things in extremely different ways. They practically speak different languages. What do to?
I've come to see Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles, Christians, whatever) in the Messianic movement in more or less the same way. My rather brief encounter with the wife of our local Chabad Rabbi showed me just how different an Orthodox Jewish woman could view and react to me and how "alien" I felt in response. No, she meant no harm and I understand that her behavior was completely driven by cultural and religious norms, but it did highlight the differences Messianic Judaism and Bilateral Ecclesiology (BI) have been trying to beat into my head with a blunt instrument for the past six months or so.
Oh, so that's what you meant (light dawns on "Marblehead").
I wrote my previous blog post out of frustration and a certain amount of despair, but I've had a chance to "sleep on it" and am feeling much better now, thank you very much.
Having read Dr. Kinzer's 2008 paper, which I reference above, the specific quote I used presents the core of our current discussion and the puzzle we are (or at least I am) trying to solve.
What is the relationship between Gentiles and Jews in the Messianic movement supposed to look like? As of 2008, Dr. Kinzer didn't know. He says he never wrote his original book with the idea that he was going to describe "the practical structure of a bilateral ekklesia", so perhaps my bridge building attempts have been in vain.
I previously likened the "bridge building project" as being designed to span a two-mile wide chasm but in practicality, requiring a bridge linking San Francisco and Hawaii. Now I'm considering the gulf to be more "interplanetary" so any "fellowship" will have to be conducted (metaphorically speaking) via radio or rocketship. If our two planets exist in separate solar systems in different parts of the galaxy, then we'll require fictional assistance in the form of "sub-space radio", "warp drive", or a transpacial wormhole.
Point being, this bridge building job just got a whole lot harder.
While structure remains a problem, Dr. Kinzer says the following is of vital importance:
It seems clear from the Apostolic Writings that one of the crucial functions of this ritual is to be an expression and instrument of unity (1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 11:17-32). It is also clear that the Apostles viewed the partaking of food at the same table (in contexts which likely included a eucharistic dimension) as a primary sign of the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile in one community (Galatians 2:11-14). Thus, any adequate structural and communal embodiment of bilateral ecclesiology will need to provide contexts where members of the Jewish and Gentile wings of the one ekklesia can gather together to celebrate HaZikkaron as one two-fold body.Ovadia suggested a practical application based on my Boychiks in the Hood metaphor:
Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians can be "ekklesia" together without necessarily being part of the same congregations. We should worship jointly, feast for Yeshua's sake jointly, participate in tikkun olam jointly, study jointly. But jointly. Not as an blob of amorphous Jew-Gentile, but as Jews and Gentiles, each confident in their own God-given identity, together. In your metaphor, the two neighborhoods should come together regularly to throw block parties, and keep those friendships.That requires some working out of community standards for food at the very least and perhaps a mutually agreed upon worship structure (siddurim, hymnals, or both?) as well.
Of course, Dr. Kinzer is talking about establishing and maintaining relationships primarily with people who are affiliated with a traditional Christian church, not those of us who are part of what Derek Leman calls Judaically-informed Christian congregations (AKA One Law groups). To be fair, Derek is suggesting a third alternative for Gentiles in "the movement" who would not be entirely welcome in a traditional Messianic Jewish venue (that is, a traditional synagogue service for Messianic Jews) nor be comfortable returning to a traditional church setting. His viewpoint is controversial as he readily acknowledges, but he is trying to see to the needs of people like me, who are not accounted for in Kinzer's model.
If we accept as a given that Jews in the Messianic movement require a traditional Jewish worship setting that allows them to maintain an observant lifestyle, has a strong affiliation to the covenant and Israel, and provides potential linkage to a larger Judaism, then assuming that the linkage also travels in the direction of the Christian world by virtue of a common worship of the Jewish Messiah, we need to start working on the currently non-existent "practical structure of a bilateral ekklesia".
I used to be a pretty big science fiction fan and as a kid in the 1960s, I watched a lot of hokey TV shows. One of them was the Irwin Allen "classic" (I say that tongue-in-cheek) The Time Tunnel. This was a secret Government project designed to create a point-to-point link between the present and any other moment in time. Of course, it got broken, sending two American scientists across the time-line and stranding them in one cornball version of a historical event after another on a weekly basis. Nostalgia makes the show for me a fond memory and in the current context, it becomes a persistent image.
Or are we waiting for the finger of God to start writing on our world...or in our hearts?
19 comments:
James, you got it wrong - Jews are from Jewpiter, don't you know!
"we need to start working on the currently non-existent "practical structure of a bilateral ekklesia"."
James, that's almost impossible to do in a Protestant world of thousands of individual denominations, churches and splinter groups, many of whom are fiercely independent and some of whom can't stand each others' guts. It could be possible, as Kinzer notes in his paper, for a Catholic Church, with its top down authority whose rules are respected among all of the diverse groups under its umbrella.
So, it comes down to individual groups of believers or even single individuals extending their hand of fellowship across the religious isle.
James, you got it wrong - Jews are from Jewpiter, don't you know!
Ha ha. As Mork used to day, "Earth humor" (Oy).
So, it comes down to individual groups of believers or even single individuals extending their hand of fellowship across the religious isle.
I can live with that. I wasn't necessarily talking about a mass "love in" between all Jews and all Christians everywhere. That's actually part of my issue with BI. It can't fulfill its mandate on a large scale for the very reasons you mention.
However, we can start with one person at a time or one congregation at a time. Ironically, the best "target group" is also the one which feels the most "threatened" by the BI proposal: Gentiles who are already involved in the Messianic movement.
I have an idea of how to depict this on my blog, but it'll take just a little while to express.
"Ironically, the best "target group" is also the one which feels the most "threatened" by the BI proposal: Gentiles who are already involved in the Messianic movement."
Yes and No. Yes - because some, like you, are not unflinching ideologues and are more open to discuss things. No - because many more are quite antagonistic & vitriolic about the whole BI thing.
Some, like Two-House groups who make and really believe their ridiculous claims that they are the actual flesh and blood lost Israelites, may be beyond reach. Their stance is: how can Israelites (Jews) demand separation from other "Isrealites" (Lost Tribes)? (Never mind that they themselves are segregated into their own Two-House associations and congregations, have their own conferences, etc.)
Want to see the "Bilateral Ecclesiology" conversation as a drawing? Have a look at Mike, Morrie, and the Fence.
Well, not quite...
Here is something else Kinzer wrote:
In his book PMMJ on page 178 Kinzer quotes David Noel Freedman, in which Freedman describes the Ekklesia as consisting "in practice" as two distinct groups, one Jewish and the other Gentile. He describes the "Jewish Christian community" as a "halfway house with conduits to both sides serving as a meeting place and mediator, communication center and a symbol of the community to which both enterprises belonged." (p.178).
On page 179 Kinzer writes: "Freedman sees this 'two-house theory' as "a provisional solution to an immediate problem.' In historical terms it certainly was provosional in the sesnse that it did not last. But should we see it as provisional in the sense that it should not have lasted? IF IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO SAFEGARD AND UPHOLD AN ONGOING JEWISH EXISTENCE WITHIN THE EKKLESIA, THEN BE MAY BE THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP THE EKKLESIA FROM SCHISM. IN THAT CASE IT SHOULD BE REGARDED AS NORMATIVE RATHER THAN PROVISIONAL. (p.179 emphasis mine).
If this is not a call for separation, then I don't know what is.
James be careful, don't fall for smoke and mirrors.
"If this is not a call for separation, then I don't know what is."
Spoken by a man who has alienated himself from and antagonistic to both the Messianic Jewish and Gentile Christian communities, all the while chastising and calling "separatists" those who are actually practicing unity by actually supporting and fellowshipping (as Kinzer, Derek, me, etc. actually do on a regular basis), in love and understanding, with both said groups.
Dan, the obvious hypocrisy is simply laughable - but I hope that you'll have a nice New Year's anyway:)
Gene,
I have to admire your consistency. You always try to kill the messenger when you have no answers...
"Gene, I have to admire your consistency."
Thanks, Dan.
The specific focus of this blog post (or series of blog posts) is to acknowledge that there is a distance that exists between at least some Jews in the Messianic movement, and Gentiles in the same movement. It also acknowledges that, although challenges exist, we can attempt to make a bridge or tunnel linking the two worlds.
To be fair though, Jewish believers like Dan and Judah (and perhaps others) don't believe that distance exists, at least not as far as they're concerned.
What that leaves us with is at least two different Jewish Messianic groups and their different perspectives about how to relate to Gentiles. To acknowledge all the things that BE requires will take a lot of work on both sides of "the fence". For Jewish Messianics who are not BE, not so much effort is required.
If there is a single requirement for Jewish and Gentile interactions from the Messiah's point of view, we probably won't know what that is until he returns.
James,
Of course I believe that distance exists. But I also believe that BE does it outmost to enlarge the divide.
Scriptures do not mandate a distance.
James,
"If, for instance, the Jews in MJ don't believe that Gentiles should keep even "kosher-style" (a la Leviticus 11), how could we share a meal?"
The non-Jews could forego some of the freedom they have to eat (basically) whatever they want in order to share a meal with and support the calling of the Jews. These are both desires that BE encourages. BE does not support non-Jews who observe Sinaitic Law out of a misguided sense of being Israelites who are obligated or expected to.
"If we occasionally have worship together, do we use two different siddurim (or should Gentiles use hymnals)?"
There's nothing wrong (even in the most traditional circles) with Jewish people augmenting the liturgical prayer to which they are obligated with instrumental worship (except on Shabbat) or spontaneous intimate prayer. Messianic Jews and Gentiles could sing songs together, share the eucharist together, and pray together. The Siddur only "covers" the services of Shacharit, Minchah, Ma'ariv, and Musaf, it doesn't say anything to inform what additional worship or outside of that structure would look like.
"How does Passover work when the non-Jews were never slaves in Egypt and were never redeemed from the house of bondage?"
Non-Jews have been made part of the story of God's redemptive action in the world through Yeshua, but non-Jews are not obligated to hold Seders, abstain from chametz, or observe the particulars. Non-Jews come watch their Jewish friends observe the holiday and celebrate with them.
I think a lot of your worries about BE's "separation" may come from a lack of understanding of the norms of Gentile interaction with observant Jews and Judaism (Messianic issues aside). It's really not so restrictive as you might think.
*Non-Jews come could watch their Jewish friends observe the holiday and celebrate with them. No Jew need ever worry about finding a trusty non-Jew to buy their chametz during Passover again.
The non-Jews could forego some of the freedom they have to eat (basically) whatever they want in order to share a meal with and support the calling of the Jews. These are both desires that BE encourages. BE does not support non-Jews who observe Sinaitic Law out of a misguided sense of being Israelites who are obligated or expected to.
The solution here, as far as "food observance" and other "observances" might be as simple as this.
I think a lot of your worries about BE's "separation" may come from a lack of understanding of the norms of Gentile interaction with observant Jews and Judaism (Messianic issues aside). It's really not so restrictive as you might think.
My comments about worshiping with siddurim vs. hymnals and Gentiles at Passover with Jews are in response, not to a perceived over restrictiveness of Judaism, but an attempt to explore the restrictiveness of BE.
Prior to me being Messianic or even "generic" Christian, I was invited to several Passover seders by different Jewish friends, so I know Judaism can allow non-Jews to partake in certain celebrations and events. During that same time period, I was also invited to attend the bat mitzvah of a friend's daughter.
All I'm trying to understand and explore are the "connection points" between our two worlds. That is, the conduits that allow us to communicate and to share each other's experiences. Additionally, we should have some "common" experiences as disciples of the Jewish Messiah and worshipers of God.
James,
Since the underlining desire of MJ and BE is to become a part of mainstream Judaism, all your suggestions are just a pipe dream. They are following a plan which is to put Yeshua on the back burner, and get rid of the Gentiles, then the road is open for them to become a part of Judaism.
Don't be so naive.
"They are following a plan which is to put Yeshua on the back burner, and get rid of the Gentiles, then the road is open for them to become a part of Judaism."
Dan, I don't want to use any bad words to describe how I feel about what you said above. However, you should stop and then you should ask yourself one simple question - what's the point? If I, or Kinzer, or whoever really wanted to put Yeshua on the back burner [and leave behind all the Messianic and wannabe mishegas], as you continue to slander on and on incessantly, why would we not just become your regular Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform Jews and call it a day?
On the other hand, I don't really see a point arguing with you about this anymore. Fruitless.
Since the underlining desire of MJ and BE is to become a part of mainstream Judaism, all your suggestions are just a pipe dream. They are following a plan which is to put Yeshua on the back burner, and get rid of the Gentiles, then the road is open for them to become a part of Judaism.
Don't be so naive.
I'd rather think of myself as "proceeding hopefully" rather than being naive Dan, but I suppose only time will tell.
If the BE supporters in Messianic Judaism are embracing the "Messianic" part of the label, then by definition they cannot get rid of Yeshua or the Gentiles. Yeshua specifically requires the inclusion of Gentiles into "the movement" without Gentiles having to convert to Judaism. Like it or not, we're here to stay, at least as far as God is concerned (human plans may vary, however).
If, as you say, MJ wants to lose the Gentiles and Yeshua and achieve the goal of being another sect of Judaism, such as Orthodox or Reform, in the end, how would "Messianic" Judaism be any different than any other Judaism? The Jews in BE/MJ might as well, as Gene pointed out, simply let themselves be absorbed into mainstream Jewish synagogues. End of story. That would however, leave out those few Gentiles who specifically converted to Messianic Judaism, as they'd never be recognized as Jews, even in liberal Reform groups.
On the other hand, if BE/MJ does aspire to embrace both the "Messianic" and the "Judaism" aspects of that label to the fullest degree, something else must happen.
Exactly what, I don't know yet in any detail (and frankly, I don't believe that organizations like the MJTI know, either). Perhaps the relationship between Gentiles, both in "the movement" and within mainstream Christianity to BE/MJ groups will always be a "work in progress", at least until the Messiah returns and tells us where we're all messing up.
I did not say "get rid of Yeshua," I said "put Yeshua on the back burner." Big difference......
My bad, but it's still the same problem. At what point do BE Jewish congregations draw the line between themselves and non-Messianic forms of Judaism? There's a huge effort to draw distinctions between Messianic Jews and Gentiles in the movement, but the very fact of a Jew worshiping Jesus (Yeshua) draws an automatic distinction between Messianic Jews and all other Jews. How is that expressed?
How is that expressed?"
Not in the "here and now" of everyday's life. Only in platonic thoughts. it can be expressed in fantasy, not in reality.
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