The Same God, but Can We Worship in the Same Room?
Christians have almost universally believed that they worship the God of Israel. The most notable exception would be Marcion back in the 2nd century. Marcion taught that the Creator God depicted in the Hebrew Bible was somebody else, not the God who sent Jesus. Christians eventually decided they wanted more continuity with the Hebrew Bible than provided by Marcion’s approach and repudiated it.
Jews haven’t always believed they worship the same God as Christians. Within Judaism, this is something which has developed over time. For centuries after the immergance of Christianity, Judaism made no distinction between Christians and heathens. At the end ot the 2nd century the Mishna [avoda zara 1.1] proscribes,
“Three days prior to the festivals of the Gentiles it is forbidden to conduct business with them, to loan articles to them, to borrow articles from them, to loan money to them or borrow money from them, to repay them or to be repaid by them.” לפני אידיהן שלגוים שלשה ימים אסור לשאת ולתת עמהן, להשאילו ולשאול מהן, להוותן וללוות מהן, לפרען ולפרע מהן.
The reasoning behind this prohibition is that during the up-coming festival non-Jews would thank their gods for the benefits they’d accrued by commercial transaction with Jews. Jews would be implicated in idolatry.
For similar considerations the Babylonian Talmud [synhedrin 63b] forbids business partnerships with non-Jews.
“Said Abba Shmuel, A man is forbidden to enter association with an alien, lest he be required an oath, and he swear the oath in the name of his foreign god. The Torah has said, “It shall not be heard in your mouth” [Exodus 23:13].” דאמר אבוה דשמואל: אסור לאדם שיעשה שותפות עם הנכרי, שמא יתחייב לו שבועה, ונשבע בעבודה זרה שלו. והתורה אמרה "לא ישמע על פיך."
The Talmud here prohibits a Jew even from indirectly causing a non-Jew to take an oath in the name of a foreign god.
During the Middle Ages these prohibitions were relaxed. Jewish law implicitly recognized Christians are not heathen of the sort who once populated the biblical world or the Roman world. The Tosefot, the medieaval additions to the Babylonian Talmud, have a highly creative take on this particular prohibition. The author here is Rabbenu Tam, who lived in France during the 12th century.
“Nonetheless in this age they all take oaths by their saints to whom they don’t ascribe divinity. And despite what they mention along with their saints is God’s name and their intention is to something else — in any case it is not the name of a false god. Furthermore, their thought is to the Creator of heaven. And despite their associating the name of Heaven with something else, we don’t find it violates the prohibition of indirectly causing others to enter association.” כל מקום בזמן הזה כולן נשבעין בקדשים שלהן ואין תופסין בהם אלהות. ואף על פי שמה שמזכירין עמהם שם שמים וכוונתם לדבר אחר ― מכל מקום אין זה שם עבודה זרה. גם דעתם לעושה שמים. ואף על פי שמשתפין שם שמים ודבר אחר, לא אשכחן דאסיר לגרום לאחרים לשתף.
Rabbenu Tam has wiggled out of the Talmud’s prohibition by preserving the wording and switching the subject. The operative word is “association.” The Talmud is talking about Jews entering association with non-Jews, that is, the formation of business partnerships. Rabbenu Tam is talking about other beings which non-Jews associate with God when they swear oaths. Rabbenu Tam has come up with a new criterion for judging whether Jews can legally engage in business with Christians: It now depends on what’s going on inside the Christian’s head! Rabbenu Tam decides that even though Christians do associate Jesus, Mary, and the saints with God, for them this is not exactly idolatry. God did not make a direct covenant with Christians like he made with Israel at Sinai, so Christians are permitted an indirect relationship to God. Although Jews would be guilty of idolatry if they approached God through intermediaries, for Christians it’s OK. Jews can form commercial partnerships with Christians, even if the said partnership may give ocassion for the Christian partner to swear an oath in God’s name, which undoubtedly will mention intermediaties forbidden to Jews. In other words, Rabbenu Tam applies a double standard.
From a Christian standpoint, Rabbenu Tam’s double standard is demeaning. Christians cannot accept that because we come to God by way of mediation we’re somehow less near him than his Jewish worshipers. From a Christian standpoint, since God has provided us with a mediator, mediation is the appropriate way for us to come before him. But if theologically unsatisfactory, Rabbenu Tam’s interpretation of the Talmud recognized a new sort of human unknown in biblical law; non-Jews who aren’t Gentiles.
During the Middle Ages Judaism’s begrudging acceptance of Christianity was legal rather than theological. It was more implicit than explict. Toward the end of the Middle Ages however, Jewish teachers begin to openly discuss the possible place of Christianity and Islam in the plan of salvation. I’d like to provide an example. This too is pegged on an interpretation of the Mishna. The relevant passage is in tractate avot [4:11]
“Rabbi Yochanan the sandalmaker says, ‘Any assembly for the sake of Heaven, its end is to be established. But that which is not for the sake of Heaven, in the end shall not be established.’”רבי יוחנן הסנדלר אומר: כל כנסייה שהיא לשם שמים, סופה להתקיים; ושאינה לשם שמים, אין סופה להתקיים.
The concept is that not all disputes are of equal value. There are disputes and there are disputes. Disputes which are merely matters of ego, personality conflict, and vested interests are distined to fade into insignificance. But when both parties are defending legitimate concerns and both parties have truth on their side, disputes can be of lasting significance. The Mishna terms these disputes for the sake of Heaven, that is, disputes for the sake of God. During the 18th century Rabbi Jacob Emden [Seder Olam Rabba 33-35; Sefer HaShimush 15-17] applied this passage in the Mishna to Christianity.
“Any assembly for the sake of Heaven, its end is to be established. Their assembly is also for the sake of Heaven, to make godliness known amongst the nations, to speak of him in distant lands; they have accepted virtually all of the Commandments pertaining to the descendants of Noah, aside from many fine practices which they have endorsed and accepted.”
Rabbi Emden has used the ambiguity of the Hebrew language to make a clever pun. The term knisiya כנסייה which I’ve translated “assembly” in the Mishna also happens to be the Hebrew word for “church.” Rabbi Emden is saying the church is like a legitimate faction between different schools of Jewish thought. The church will endure because the church too is for the sake of Heaven. While he doesn’t consider Christianity an option for Jews, he doesn’t deny its validity. For Rabbi Emden Christianity is part of God’s plan to bring the nations of the world in obedience to his worship. Rabbi Emden’s evaluation of Christianity is much more positive than that of any previous Jewish thinker.
This doesn’t mean that since the time of Rabbi Emden all Jews regard Christianity in such a positive light. But the consensus today both among Jewish and Christian scholars is that, for all our many differnces, we actually do worship the same God. Not all Jews, of course, necessarily agree.
We need to address the question of what might have ever led Jews and Christians to suppose they didn’t worship the same God. Lurking behind the mutually exclusive self-definitions of Jews and Christians today is disassociation. Rather than quibbling over fine distinctions, which weren’t clear-cut even within their own community, it was more effective for Jews to simply claim they didn’t worship the same God as Christians. Later Jewish experience as a minority within majority Christian civilization, Christian dominance, and Christian persecution, reinforced Jewish disassociation from Christians.
Getting back to my title: The same God, but can we worship in the same room? Why would anybody want Jews and Christians to worship in the same room? What would be the possible advantages? For longer than anybody can remember Jews and Christians have happily been separate.
If Jesus were with us today, would he still worship in synagogue or would Jesus feel more comfortable today in church? Were he with us today, Jesus would face an ugly choice which, thank Goodness, he didn’t have to face during his lifetime. Would Jesus worship with his Jewish brothers and sisters or would Jesus worship with his Christian disciples? Should people living today have to make such a choice?
Here at Beth Shalom Seventh-day Adventist we feel the modern dilemna between church and synagogue is cruel, particularly for inter-faith families. Nobody should be forced to choose between mother’s spiritual heritage and father’s spiritual heritiage. Nobody should be forced to choose either Jesus’ bothers and sisters or Jesus’ disciples.
We feel Christians should be familiar with synagogue worship and comfortable in synagogue just as Jesus was. We feel Jews should be at home among Jesus’ Christian disciples, just as Jews and Gentiles once fellowshipped together back in apostolic times. The current arrangement, where God’s children are virtual strangers in separate compartments is sheer disobedience.
As Seventh-day Adventists we feel we have a stake both in the welfare of the church and in the welfare of the synagogue. Our understanding of the endtime remnant is that it will be comprised of God’s loyal worshipers drawn both from the persecuted descendents of Mother Israel and from those having the testimony of Jesus [Revelation 12:17]. This leads me to think that during the initial stages of the endtime remnant’s immergence it may well include Jews who don’t yet worship Jesus. By the same token, during its formation the endtime remnant might also include Christians who aren’t yet 100% commandment-observant. The most important qualification for inclusion in the remnant would seem to be uncompromising loyalty to the Creator in the face of the seductive worship of the Beast from the Sea and the persecution of the Beast from the Land.
Strangely enough, both Jews and Christians believe God will someday bring us together in adoration of the one true God. As the traditional alenu prayer has it, God’s oneness will come to full expression in the unity of his children: “The L-rd will be one and his name will be one” [Zechariah 14:9]. That is the Jewish hope and that is the Christian hope. We merely disagree over the timing. Christians believe the barrier between Jews and non-Jews began to come down already in apostolic times. Jews believe the barrier will only come down in the far distant future, when the knowldge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Regardless of the timing, both Jews and Christians view the current arrangement as a temporary expedient, an anomoly not really in harmony with God’s ultimate purpose.
From the Christian perpective, the mystery, unknown in previous ages but revealed by the Holy Spirit to the apostles and prophets in the 1st century, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the children of Abraham and Sara, who belong to the same body as Israel, and partake of God’s promise in Jesus through the proclamation of the good news. The Apostle Paul writes in the Epistle to the Ephesians [3:6]
“The Gentiles are joint heirs, and joint members of the body, and joint partakers of the promise of Yeshua Massiach through the good news.”
In the same Epistle [3:10] the fellowship of this mystery is being demonstrated to the principalities and powers in heavenly places in the congregation. The Epistle speaks of the reconciliation between Jew and Gentile in the congregation as the prototype of the reconciliation Jesus brings the whole world. The schism today between Jews and Jesus-confessing Gentiles calls Jesus’ reconciling power into question. If Jesus cannot pull this off, Jesus is an inadequate savior.
From the perspective of Seventh-day Adventist Christians, joining the Jewish people in spreading the joy of Torah obedience is an integral part of our mission task. Obedience to the commandments of God is a key component of our own self-identity. Rubbing shoulders with another vibrant Shabbat-worshiping community should strengthen the Jewish aspiration that someday all God’s children will “serve him with one shoulder” [Zephaniah 3:9]. This aspiration may be closer to realization than we’ve imagined. While we wouldn’t wish to ignore the good things the church and the synagogue have each developed during our time apart, we believe God is leading Jews and Christians to once again share our walk with him. We believe God is already calling certain special people to have one foot in church and the other foot in synagogue. At Beth Shalom Seventh-day Adventist we believe the challenge of joint Jewish/Christian worship is worth the risk.
Now what do we mean by “joint worship?” Perhaps some may understand “joint worship” by the sort of interfaith services conducted at school graduations, at state funerals or on Thanksgiving Day. We give equal time to a rabbi, to a priest, to a pastor, and to an iman. They each affirm the beauty of one another’s tradition and pray a few vague generalities calculated not to offend anybody in the audience. The trouble with this sort of “joint worship” is that it is so watered-down it isn’t authentic. It doesn’t represent anybody. No faith community prays according to the least common denominator. When actual worshippers come before God they are far more specific. What they tell God accords with their own belief system and their own experience. American civil religion is not what I mean by “joint worship.”
Perhaps some may understand “joint worship” as worship in the biblical sense. If we understand worship in the biblical sense of avoda “work in the service of God,” then indeed Jews and Christians are capable of joint worship. The church and synagogue don’t necessarily need to have the same order of service; we don’t need to pray the same words, but we can relieve suffering together, we can feed the hungry together, we can cloth the naked together, we can strive for justice together, we can be our brother’s and sister’s keeper together. In that sense of avoda, Jews and Christians can certainly worship together. In fact, it’s easier for us to work together in God’s service during the six days of labor than on the seventh day. I believe this sort of joint worship would be a magnificant beginning. It deserves doing over and over again until it becomes second nature.
But when I asked, “Can we worship in the same room?” I had something more in mind. I meant Jews coming before God without soft-pedaling their identity side by side with Christians coming before God without soft-pedaling their identity. I meant Jews and Christians sharing the same prayers, sharing the same Scriptures, listening to the same messages of encouragement, celebrating the events of salvation history together, sharing their personal hopes and fears before their Father in heaven. I meant Jews and Christians sharing their heritage with one another without anyone urging mine is better than yours. A tall order.
Jews and Christians do have a great deal in common. That is not the problem. The trick is how Jews can worship as Jews and how Christians can worship as Christians in the same room. For Jews and Christians to be authentically themselves they cannot skip over their unique experience with God. Even if these unique experiences are objectionable others, they’re what make us who we are. What’s the sense of praying if we’re going to ignore what God has done for us? We cannot pray as generic children of Adam and Eve. We were not only created; we have been redeemed! Jews come before this God as children of Abraham and Sara redeemed from servitude. Christians come before this God as brothers and sisters of Jesus, called by him to serve the God of Israel. Neither Jews nor Christians can step outside our election and call: that is how we got inside God’s family in the first place. For the sake of not offending Christians, Jews cannot omit God’s election of Israel at Sinai. For the sake of not offending Jews, Christians cannot omit Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Unlike interfaith worship, we can’t bracket our differences. In prayer we have to be ourselves. Otherwise our prayers are empty.
As a kingdom of priests and a holy nation Jews have certain responsibilities before God which Christians don’t share. Jews have the ongoing practice of obedience which has grown up around the written Torah, its discussion, and ramifications. Christians don’t participate in this aspect of Torah. Israel has been elected to be the vanguard of the redeemed on the group plan. The sign of this non-voluntary election is infant male circumcision. Christians have been called into the redeemed family on an individual basis. The sign of this voluntary response is adult immersion. God has commanded each of us to do certain things which he hasn’t commanded the other to do.
It’s for this reason most Jewish and Christian leaders have asserted that this ideal of worshipping the same God in the same room is unattainable. The practical obstacles are insurmountable.
I beg to differ. Actually, it is quite common for people to acknowledge different responsibilities before God and still worship in the same room. We’re all used to adults and children, guests and regulars, seekers and initiates, speakers and listeners having different levels of involvement in worship. We don’t expect every worshiper to do exactly the same thing. But every worshiper is blessed.
It’s not impossible for Christians to accommodate Jewish obedience, for Christians to adopt certain Jewish worship forms. In fact Christians are already used to doing so. Whenever Christians pray Scripture they adjust to non-Christian forms. After all, the Book of Psalms is full of prayers which fail to mention the name of Jesus, yet no Christian would suggest the prayers in the Psalms are somehow inadequite or defective. Christians are quite prepared to pray the Psalms even through they’re not addressed to Jesus. The model prayer which Jesus taught his disciples is similarly not addressed to Jesus and nowhere mentions his name, yet Christians who habitually address their own personal prayers to Jesus are perfectly content to pray “Our Father, who art in heaven,” word-for-word, with no “in Jesus name” tacked onto the end. So while address to the triune God or to Jesus is normal for Christian prayer, it isn’t essential in every circumstance. We can have prayer not addressed to Jesus, which is still Christian prayer. This is just one example of possible adjustment to the the needs of other worshipers without forfeiting content.
Admittedly it’s more difficult for Jews to affirm the distinctives of the Christian story that make Christians Christian. Jews don’t participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. By definition, anybody who participates in the death and resurrection of Jesus is already Christian. Nevertheless, even here, Jews can affirm that the God of Israel has called Christians to serve him through Jesus. If that sounds far-fetched, there are Orthodox Jewish rabbis who are prepared to say as much.
Just as Christians are happy to attend a bar mitzva in synagogue without worrying why they can’t have a bar mitzva of their own, women are happy to attend a brit mila without worrying why they can’t be circumcised too, Jews should be happy to witness a Christian immersion or a footwashing ritual without feeling left out. We all attend funerals without worrying when we’ll get our turn! Sometimes worship celebrates the experience of our brothers and sisters, not our own personal experience. We can live with that.
To sumarize, in joint Jewish/Christian worship we want to afford Jewish persons the opportunity to fellowship with Christians without feeling pressured to become someone they’re not. We want to expose Jewish persons to a more subjective religious experience; we want Jewish persons to enjoy Christian-style intimacy with God; we want Jewish persons to enjoy their own inner Jesus like so many other Americans. On the other hand, we want to affirm the validity of Israel’s election and mission task on behalf of the world. And we want to respect the traditions, covenant way of life, and communal institutions that have fostored Jewish survival.
In our hearts we’d sincerely wish for every one of our Jewish brothers and sisters to become Seventh-day Adventist Christians just like us, but in our heads we realize that wouldn’t be in our best interest. We realize that without Israel’s continued witness to God’s faithfulness our Christian witness would lack credibility. We realize if Israel went extinct, the God of Israel might be rendered irrelevant. We don’t want to depopulate the Jewish community or weaken it in any manner, shape or form. So we may have to content ourselves with limited numbers of Jewish converts. It's not a current problem, to say the least.
Our aims might seem to be at cross purposes. But then God’s plan of redemption hasn’t played out yet. We have reason to believe the plan hinges on Jews and non-Jews cooperating and serving God together in a way the world hasn’t yet seen. As a faith community, our Seventh-day Adventist experience is that sometimes we have to go forward in faith even when we haven’t worked out the details. God knows the details.
I’d like to challenge you to further cooperaton with a passage from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Romans 15:7-9
“Therefore accept one another, just as Mashiach accepted you to the glory of God. For I say that Mashiach became a servant of the circumcision for the sake of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.”
Let’s become a reason to give God glory.
