JEEEESUS CHRIST !?@#?!?!?#

OK, so I have tried to be good and use the white bread Greek method of referring to the guy about whom the New Testament was written – Jesus Christ.

I can’t keep using this name to refer to Him for several reasons:

1) Jesus is some Greek bastardization of Yeshua or Yehoshua. Since his name would have been spoken and written in Hebrew and/or Aramaic, anything we come up with will be a transliterated approximation anyway, but anything is better than Jesus. Some have suggested that the name Jesus (particularly as Hispanics pronounce it) is related to the God Zeus. Be that as it may, I want to call Him something approximating what His friends called Him and they most assuredly did not call Him Jesus.

2) Christ is an anglicization of Christos which refers to one who is anointed. As I understand it, the Greeks anointed all kinds of people including wrestlers, temple prostitutes, etc. The Hebrew term Mashiach, from which we get the anglicized word Messiah, refers to a very special and unique Anointed One. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any confusion in my own mind or anyone else’s about who I am referring to when I talk about the Anointed One

3) I don’t know how it happened but when I drop something heavy on my toes I am often heard to exclaim Jeeesus Christ!!! I suppose the commonplace quality of that name has lent itself to being used for all kinds of inappropriate reasons. The Hebrews probably used their prohibition of uttering the Name of The Ancient of Days for the purpose of not letting God’s name become common and used for all kinds of common purposes. Fortunately, the majestic sounding name Yeshua Ha Mashiach has never become a part of common parlance and is thus nicely preserved for discussing The Son of Man.

4) While the Greeks achieved some remarkable things in this world, I think their language and world view are ill suited to discussing a first century, Hebrew speaking Jew from Israel. I think language affects understanding and perception profoundly and, while I love Greek flavor in my food, I much prefer a Hebrew savor to my Bible.

5) Hebrew is much more lyrical than Greek. The patterns and rhythms of Hebrew words are just inherently more beautiful. A songwriter I met who wrote most of his songs in Hebrew told me that he read Hebrew and melodies revealed themselves. If you listen to his melodies, (Shabbat Menucha is a good one to listen to) you will be astonished at their beauty.

6) Discussions can be had with Jewish people regarding Mashiach without having to argue about Jesus. Jews generally acknowledge that a Mashiach is to come and it is not really necessary to argue about whether he has been here before. Back when I used to think I was supposed to talk to my Jewish friends about Jesus, a good Jewish friend said to me:

When The Messiah comes I am going to ask him if he has been here before. If he says yes then you win. If he says no then I win.

One of the things I like best about this story is that it captures the fact that, in large measure, our desire to convert is about winning a personal victory. I have decided to try to win victories for the King of The Universe instead.

In the final analysis the name Yeshua Ha Mashiach has so much more power and poetry to it than Jesus Christ. I hope using it from now on won't be too confusing.

Messianic Judaism by Carol Harris-Shapiro

So I have been meaning to buy this book for a couple years and finally got around to it. I have just started reading it and it seems like a remarkably even handed book on a subject Jewish people tend to get a little crazy about.

The first glaring generalization I see is on page 15 when the author says that "Messianic believers consider it their special calling to convert Jews." I will concede that many do but, back when I was a Messianic Jew (or as Rabbi Harris-Shapiro would have called me a Messianic Gentile), I early on decided that conversion was the Almighty's business. I wanted to encourage Jews to embrace what God called them to be - a light to the Nations (Goyim).

At that time, back in the beginning of the decade, I found First Fruits of Zion to take a similar view. Their main focus was converting Christians. Rabbi Harris Shapiro apparently was not aware of FFOZ because I do not see them sited in the index. I must add that FFOZ appears to have changed their perspective considerably during the past few years and they may have recently adopted a more "missionary position", if you know what I mean.

While this general tendency on the part of Messianics to try and convert Jews is what seems to enrage Jews most, Rabbi Harris Shapiro notes an interesting sentiment as she spent several years among congregants in a Messianic congregation:

When their altar calls went by with nary a response, I was pleased. When a new person of Jewish birth "came to the Lord", I grieved. Clearly there were times when I would have liked to change their minds and "bring them back to the fold," much as they were trying to do with me. (12)

I respect her honesty and hope that Jewish people can see this and realize that this desire to convert is universal even if misguided. I also hope they can relax their bunker mentality and know that the Almighty will bring them to the place he wants them with or without missionary efforts by Christians.

I note the recent conversion of a Hollywood star from Catholicism to Judaism with joy. Not because of my dim view of Catholicism or because of my unnatural affinity for Judaism, but because this person is seeking intimacy with the King of The Universe and apparently isn't concerned about the politics of her religious choices as much as the desire for relationship with the divine.

I think what flavor you are is less important than that you have flavor. People joining religions in order to have a safe pigeon hole to hide in don't seem to be doing God or anyone else any favors.

As I savor this book (she appears to have ferreted out some great sources regarding the first couple of centuries of strong Jewish flavor to "The Church" - one of my favorite subjects) I will probably use this forum to review and reflect on this work.

Rabbi, if your are out there, you have a free pass to come out to the Rockies and have a vacation as long as you are willing to eat drink and discuss the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Disavowal of Google's Jews for Jesus Ads!!!

Whilst sitting in rapt admiration of this beautiful blog I noticed that the Google Adsense Advertisement appearing at the top was peddling Jews For Jesus.

I was aghast! My beautiful little blog schilling for an organization with which I want no affiliation.

I now face a moral dilemma. Do I continue to let Google post ads on my site (that will probably generate only enough revenue to buy a latte once a year) hoping that their algorithms get smart enough to know that JFJ and this blog are completely antithetical, or do I take the moral high road and kick Google off the site?

I think I am leaning towards hoping people don''t see it and associate it with The Gourd or that they see this article and ignore the ads.

I guess if I get flamed about JFJ it will at least offer a place to start a conversation.

Evangelicals Converting Jews?

NPR today reports the influx of evangelical Christians to Israel during Sukkot and the nervousness of Israeli's who like the tourist income but don't like the implications of the conversion plans most evangelicals subscribe to.

Personally I find the whole thing funny. If the Creator of the Universe wants the Jews to be something besides Jews I suspect it will happen. Evangelical plotting is more a sign of hubris than anything - "Lets us Christians do God's heavy lifting for him." If they're from Texas like the yahoo's shown above, they probably think they can do it better and faster than God as well.

Likewise the Jewish fears of disappearing due to the conversion tactics of Christians is ridiculous. If the Almighty intends for there to be Jews until the end of time then there will be. I think they should spend more time reflecting on the role that God has defined for them and less time worrying what a bunch of preoccupied evangelicals are up to.

When I am king (Ha) I will use all my powers of persuasion to get the evangelicals and Jews to sit down, break some bread and crack open a few good bottles of wine and dialog on the roles that are pretty clearly defined in the Torah for them. If we could just do what we're asked instead of informing The Great One that we know better, life would be so easy.

Come to think of it I might try using the same logic on my teenagers.