Worldly Wisdom and Foolish Grace. Barbara Carnegie Campbell

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      Almost a year later, two amazing experiences brought us even closer together. First of all, Rabbi Zaslow, the Interim Rabbi of P’nai Or at that time, offered to teach a class based on his soon to be published book, Roots and Branches. One night each week for six weeks, over sixty people from P’nai Or, St. Mark and other churches in the area, came together in an over-crowded fellowship hall at St. Mark to study with Rabbi David. I took on the assignment from Rabbi David to prime our discussions each week with some of the sticky issues that complicated our Christian/Jewish dialogue.

      In this class, Christians and Jews alike began to understand Jesus as a spiritual seeker who had been immersed in the study of Torah. Torah is also called the Pentateuch (from the Greek, penta, for five) and refers to the first five books in the Elder Testament which are attributed to Moses. Jesus had been taught the words of Torah since he was a young boy. Most of the words, images and stories that Jesus used in his teachings were learned from Torah. The justice and healing that Jesus worked to create during his lifetime was the justice and healing that he had learned from Torah and had heard the Elder Testament prophets declare to be God’s will.

      Not long after our shared class, during our Wednesday night choir practice preceding Good Friday, I looked down into the sanctuary from the choir loft and saw that P’nai Or’s set up person was preparing the sanctuary for their Friday Shabbat service. St. Mark also planned to be in the sanctuary at the same time for our Good Friday worship that night. I had forgotten to remind P’nai Or of our Good Friday worship service!

      The following morning, I called Rabbi David. He immediately came into the church where we recognized that we had little time to get word out about a change of venue for either group. After considering whether we could simply find separate places in the building for each group to meet, we began wondering if it would be possible to create an experience of worship that would connect spiritually with Christians (who were mourning the crucifixion and death of Jesus) and Jews (who had been blamed for the death of Jesus by Christians for nearly 2,000 years). We knew full well that such a thing had probably never been attempted before but decided we should do what we both felt called by the Spirit to do.

      I knew that first of all I had to remove the First Century CE anti-Semitic editorial polemics from the Passion Story of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion that attempted to blame “the chief priests, all the elders, and the people;” and subsequently “all Jews” for the death of Jesus. Some of those anti-Semitic texts are: Matt 26:3–5; 27:1–2, 20–22, 24–25; Mark 14:1–2; 15:1, 6–15, and Luke 22:3–6, 66–71, 23:1–5, 13–23.

      As I began to re-translate the offensive words of the Passion Story into phrases that perhaps better reflected the truth of what happened, Rabbi David walked back and forth from my office to the sanctuary where he had continued to pray about whether such an interfaith Good Friday/Passover experience was even possible. When I read him the texts I had revised, he asked me, “Can you do that?” My response was, “It’s been retranslated and revised for two thousand years!”

      We decided to create a fairly traditional Christian Good Friday worship experience with the P’nai Or congregation being invited to stand with us in our time of mourning with their prayers and worship. We began, however, as the Jewish Shabbat begins every Friday evening, by lighting the two Shabbat candles. Then, as Christians traditionally observe on Maundy Thursday, we observed Communion remembering that the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples was also the last Passover Seder meal that Jesus shared with his Jewish followers.

      Rabbi David prayed the traditional Passover Seder prayers behind the communion table with his arms outstretched and his head covered with his prayer shawl. When his prayers ended and I had offered the traditional Christian words used before communion, Christians came forward to receive the bread and dip it into the common cup of grape juice. Some of the Jews, when invited, also came forward a bit cautiously and tore off a piece of bread from the same loaf and took a small cup of juice from a tray on the table which represented the traditional last cup shared at their annual Seder meal.

      Our Jewish brothers and sisters later prayed their ancient Prayer for the Martyrs as the Christians stood around the communion table and lit candles in memory of Jesus. We sang Christian and Jewish songs celebrating the martyrs and mourning the crucifixion of Jesus. We ended with a recitation of Psalm 23 by a ten-year-old girl; a psalm that is read at both Good Friday services and Jewish memorials.

      As the service concluded, the Christians left mourning the death of Jesus at the hands of those Romans and Judeans in power who feared his message and popularity. St. Markers left in silence, walking behind the still-burning Christ Candle that I carried out of the darkened sanctuary.

      Seven Tenebrae candles had shared the communion table that evening with the two Shabbat candles. The Tenebrae candles had been extinguished one by one following each lesson telling the story of Jesus’ death. As St. Markers and P’nai Or members came out mingled together into the foyer some turned around and looked back into the dark sanctuary and saw only the two Sabbath candles still burning, candles which represent, in the Jewish tradition, the kingdom of God still to come in fullness to the world.

      The Jews left the sanctuary that night mourning the death of one of their great Judean teachers and prophets. Thousands of other Judeans had also died on crosses that hung on the roads leading in and out of Jerusalem during those years; thousands of others had been crucified, like Jesus, suspected of acts of sedition against Rome. It was clear to all of us that there was a serendipitous, holy spirit present that Good Friday Shabbat evening that embraced, comforted and led each of us to new depths of faith.

      As Christians typically do after Good Friday services, members of St. Mark left the foyer directly that evening into the parking lot, to drive or walk home silently in the darkness of the night. As Jews do every Friday night after their Shabbat service, the Jewish congregation walked into our fellowship hall for refreshment and conversation. I had gone into my office to disrobe when a member of P’nai Or appeared at my door inviting me to join them in the fellowship hall. When I entered the hall everyone was sitting silently, which was highly unusual for this typically talkative group.

      Rabbi David began playing his guitar and P’nai Or joined in singing to me. The memory of that moment still brings tears. I can only tell you a few of the words of their song: “Be not afraid. He walks beside you always . . .” When I asked member of P’nai Or, after the singing, how the worship experience had been for them, they shared feelings like, “You gave us back Rabbi Jesus!” “I finally understand what Easter means,” and “I no longer feel angry or blamed for his death.”

      Our relationship with P’nai Or drew us into even greater interfaith connections in our community. I joined people of many faiths on the Interfaith Council of Greater Portland, an organization formed in Portland, Oregon by three spiritual leaders from Abraham’s tent following 9/11.

      Rizwan Mosque, not far from St. Mark, is the oldest mosque in Portland and a bit like our missing triplet. Ahmadiyya Muslims, Jewish Renewal Congregations, and More Light Presbyterians are progressive faith communities equally rejected by some traditional members of their own faith traditions.

      In 2013, leaders from Rizwan Ahmadiyya Islamic Mosque, P’nai Or, and St Mark decided to plan together for an Abraham’s Tent Summer Day Camp for children and youth from our three faith communities. We coordinated and directed the week-long, all day camp jointly for two summers until St. Mark had to give up its building due to financial difficulties. We discovered amazing similarities between our three traditions and within our three sacred texts. One of our day camp adult leaders described the Interfaith Summer Camp experience as an opportunity to build peace in our community:

      In this day and age we find ourselves deeply interconnected through technology. A ten-year-old can connect with anyone around the world with a computer and СКАЧАТЬ