FESTIVAL
OF COMMUNITY, Shavuot 5766 &nbs=
p;
Russ Resnik
Rabbi Hillel said, "Do =
not
separate yourself from the community." (Pirke Avot 2:4)
In a day of
unrestrained consumerism, how do we know that our faith is true,
and not just one more religious option among many? The classic Jewish answe=
r to
this question is that our faith is founded not on private revelation or
mystical insight, but on an event witnessed by the entire Jewish people.
Shavuot celebrates this event, the revelation of Torah upon Mount
Sinai. It is therefore the festival of revelation, and also the
festival of community. The community of Israel is shaped by the encou=
nter
at Sinai, and it keeps alive this encounter for all the generations to foll=
ow.
Shavuot, therefore, is the appropriate culmination of our communal prayers
among UMJC congregations.
In the same way,=
the
worshipers at Shavuot in Jerus=
alem
after Messiah's resurrection witnessed an undeniable, communal revelation of
the presence of God through the outpouring of the Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh. Here was =
evidence
for the claim that Yeshua was the promised Messiah, as Peter explained, &qu=
ot;God
raised up this Yeshua! And we are all witnesses =
of it!
Moreover, he has been exalted to the right hand of God; has received from t=
he
Father what He promised, namely the Ruach HaKodesh; and has poured out this gift, which you are=
both
seeing and hearing… Therefore let the whole house of Israel know beyond doubt that=
God
has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Yeshua whom you executed on a
stake!" (Acts 2:32-33, 36)
On
Shavuot, both at Sinai and in =
Jerusalem,
God reveals himself to a multitude and forms a community. And both encounte=
rs
form the basis for a continued community life that sustains the revelation.=
The
encounter at Mount Sinai includes the gi=
ft of
Torah, a document that will become the foundation for Jewish communal life
through the generations. After the events of the post-resurrection Shavuot,=
the
Book of Acts pictures a community that has remained a model for New Covenant
life down to our day.
They continued
faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking br=
ead,
and in the prayers. Everyone was filled with awe, and many miracles and sig=
ns
took place through the emissaries. All those trusting in Yeshua stayed toge=
ther
and had everything in common; in fact, they sold their property and possess=
ions
and distributed the proceeds to all who were in need. Continuing faithfully=
and
with singleness of purpose to meet in the Temple
courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their =
food
in joy and simplicity of heart, praising God and having the respect of all =
the
people. And day after day the Lord kept adding to them those who were being
saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
The community in=
the
book of Acts embodies the message that the powers of the age to come had
already arrived in the person of Messiah. His very life was available to all
through the Spirit, and now they could share that abundant supply with each
other, overcoming the traditional barriers of greed, fear, suspicion.<=
/o:p>
The first century
community itself provided the strongest evidence for the claims of Messiah,=
and
it may be so today as well. We have been praying together for the past seven
weeks for unity and renewal throughout the Messianic Jewish community
throughout the world, in Israel
and wherever we dwell. The result will be a community that displays the jus=
tice
and shalom that we preach. Still, we must consider three major barriers to =
true
community—isolation, injustice, and ill will:
Isolation<=
/p>
The post-Shavuot
community in Acts continued to meet in the temple courts, and to dwell with=
in
the house of Israel<=
/st1:place>.
We cannot build genuine community isolated from the larger Jewish community=
, or
from the wider Christian community with which we are united through faith in
Yeshua as Lord and Messiah. Thus, we overcome communal isolation, but we ne=
ed
to overcome individual isolation as well. Our consumerist age is characteri=
zed
by busyness, whether with work or entertainment.
Schwartz phones =
his
rabbi and says, "I know tonight is Kol Nidre
[the opening service of Yom Kippur]. I know how important Yom Kippur is to
Judaism. But rabbi, I'm a lifelong Yankees fan and the playoffs start this =
very
night. As a die-hard fan, I have got to watch the game on TV." The rabbi gently responds, "T=
hat's
what VCR's are for." Shocked but happy, Schwartz says, "You mean I
can get someone to tape the service for me!?" Like Schwartz, we become preoccupi=
ed
with gadgets and distractions. Such
busyness reinforces our isolation. In contrast, the post-Shavuot community =
had
time for each other, time for God, time to be community.<=
/p>
Injustice<=
/p>
Notice in Acts t=
he
emphasis on breaking bread and eating together. Why? It's not just because
they're Jewish! First-century Israel
was an agrarian economy. Food was the symbol for all the resources of this
world. By sharing their food, the believers overcame the barriers of
selfishness and greed and practiced simple justice and peace.
Before his
resurrection, Yeshua had already set the pattern. "Whatever city you
enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal
the sick there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God
has come near to you'" (Luke 10: 8-9). The disciples were to model the
presence of the kingdom, not only through healing and proclamation, but also
through the sharing of provisions and shelter. For our congregations to be
communities, people need to see fair distribution of resources—not so=
me
form of primitive communism, but a sense of God's abundance, a fair process=
of
accountability, fair decision-making, and participation in congregational l=
ife
that is open to all.
Ill will
Abraham Lincoln's
second inaugural address, given as the Union
was about to defeat the Confederacy after years of horrific warfare, includ=
ed
the words, "With malice toward none…" Malice is harboring i=
ll
will toward others for real or imagined wrongs. We can only imagine what
Lincoln might have done to bring healing to the nation, had he lived to ser=
ve
out his term as President, but we know that he was remarkably free of malic=
e.
Five years before
becoming President, Lincoln
was hired to be part of a team of attorneys in a major lawsuit. When Lincoln arrived i=
n town,
the head lawyer, George Harding, recognized him immediately: "A tall, =
rawly boned, ungainly backwoodsman, with coarse ill-f=
itting
clothing, his trousers hardly reaching his ankles, holding in his hands a b=
lue
cotton umbrella with a ball at the end of it. I can still see distinctly th=
at
umbrella with Lincoln
standing there with it." Harding had also brought on the hot-shot atto=
rney
Edwin M. Stanton and the two completely snubbed their provincial colleague.=
Lincoln overheard Stanton
say to Harding: "Where did that long-armed creature come from, and what
can he expect to do in this case?" In the election of 1860, the
increasingly prominent Stanton backed the
Democrat Breckinridge, and continued to ridicule Lincoln. But after the election and the
outbreak of the Civil War, Lincoln looked =
for
the most capable candidate for Secretary of War, and appointed Stanton, launching a productive four-ye=
ar
partnership. Lincoln
overcame ill will in his own life before he preached malice toward none to =
the
nation. Interpersonal problems are inevitable in life together, and how we =
deal
with them will either build or destroy community. Largeness of spirit and
forgiveness are not required only of leaders, but of all of us.<=
/span>
At Shavuot, both=
at
Sinai and in Jerusalem,
God revealed himself to a multitude and formed a community. And he gave the
community the task of keeping this revelation alive. Each one has a part in
building community; indeed, that is what community is. As we mark Shavuot t=
his
year, let's leave behind isolation, injustice, and ill will in our lives and
congregations and celebrate a festival of community.
Hag Sameach!