Greenfield Recorder – Faith Matters: A Passover Pastor: Exposing False Theology Used to Justify Anti-Semitism

This weekend the Jews celebrate the festival of Passover. Passover began last Monday at sunset and ends next Tuesday at sunset. Passover and Easter usually coincide on the calendar. However, this is a Jewish leap year. The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle. To maintain the seasonality of the Jewish festivals, an extra month must be added to certain years to compensate for the fact that the lunar year is 11 days shorter than the solar year. This is why Easter and Passover are weeks apart this year.

However, this separation gives me the opportunity to accept a very gracious invitation from a friend to participate in her Passover Seder, to join her family and friends in the intimacy of her home in witnessing God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. When Passover and Easter have similar dates on the calendar, the responsibilities of Holy Week make it almost impossible for me to accept such an invitation. Because this article must be submitted to the Recorder a week in advance, I cannot share my experiences of the evening of April 22, but I can share some of the backstory.

The Sunderland Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, is a member of the Sunderland Human Rights Task Force, which formed in response to the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. These are those tough souls at the intersection of Routes 47 and 116 in Sunderland every Monday morning.

A subgroup of the Task Force was created to address the dramatically increasing cases of anti-Semitism in the United States, up 140% this year. Sunderland Church was keen to take an active part in planning and presenting such a programme, and we are proud to be a co-sponsor. The church also voted to purchase an outdoor banner that reads, “Churches for Peace in the Middle East.” Both the Task Force and the Church recognize that there is a distinction between supporting or opposing Israeli government policies at a given time, and continuously opposing anti-Semitism.

Here I speak for myself. I feel obliged to combat anti-Semitism because, as a church pastor, as an ordained representative of the church, I am ashamed of the historical role of the church and Christianity in the persecution of Jews. I have long been naive about the systemic Christian attacks on Jews and Judaism.

For me, Lent is the holiest time of the year. Jesus’ willingness to accept the crucifixion remains for me the ultimate testimony of God’s unspeakable love for all people. I saw only the good and holy in it. Then I was confronted with Marc Chagall’s painting, ‘White Crucifixion’. Until then, I never realized that Lent and Good Friday were terrifying prospects for Jewish communities throughout the centuries, times when violent anti-Semitism would be fomented and condoned by the church’s theology and preaching, and also that the Jewish Jesus, who lives at the center of my faith, suffered every anti-Semitic insult and attack.

Then last summer I visited the Lenox Library and bought James Carroll’s “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews,” his own story of uncovering the scandalous history of institutional Christian anti-Semitism. Almost as soon as Christians had power, it was used against the Jews. And unfortunately, some of this was justified by gospel passages. I understand the exegesis behind John 8:44 and Matthew 27:25, but in purposeful isolation they are harmful texts that have been co-opted to justify generational bigotry.

An unbiased reading of the story of Jesus is that he was executed by the powerful. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write about competing processions to Jerusalem on what is now known as Palm Sunday. In a well-orchestrated march, Roman governor Pontius Pilate entered the city from the west, leading imperial cavalry and soldiers representing the empire’s violent might, while a spontaneous peasant protest led Jesus into Jerusalem from the east, with Jesus choosing symbols of peace. (Matthew 21:5 // Zechariah 9:9-10).

It was the powerful who executed Jesus. These are often the enemies of Jesus’ ministry, his care and compassion for all people, especially the powerless. However, it was much more appropriate to blame the Jews from the time the New Testament was written, through the centuries, and up to the present day.

I will attend the Passover Seder and share in the powerful message of God’s deliverance, and share it with people whose faith is as valid and holy as it ever was. My faith does not trump their faith. I, as the pastor of this local church, will stand alongside a local rabbi as we together welcome guests to the Sunderland Church Chapel for the anti-Semitism discussion. I hope that these small acts will join those of others to help right the wrongs of the past and present that have misrepresented the Christian ideals of broad and loving acceptance and welcome, and that they have challenged the false theology that has been used to justify anti-Semitism in Jesus. ‘ name. I do this not just out of anti-anti-Semitism, but because my Christian faith expects this.

The First Congregational Church of Sunderland, United Church of Christ, has been serving our local communities since 1717. The church’s website is www.scc1717.wordpress.com. Our Facebook page can be found under First Congregational Church of Sunderland. The church’s phone number is 413-665-7987. If you would like to reach Rev. Randy Calvo, please email him at [email protected]. Sunday worship begins at 11:00 am. Plans for the anti-Semitism discussion in the church chapel and the later exhibition in the Sunderland Library have not yet been finalised. Please check in for updates. Our thanks go to the Harold Grinspoon Foundation for their generous financial support of these efforts.