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Dear Friends in Christ and Partners in Ministry, During the Lent and Easter seasons, many of our readings are from the Fourth Gospel, commonly called, “John.” In those lessons, the writer refers again and again to “the Jews,” often in an unflattering manner. We all know that Jesus, the disciples, and almost everyone they interacted with were all Jews. The Fourth Gospel reflects social conditions in the time and place it was written, nearly a century after Easter. You may recall that St. Paul wrote of stopping at the local synagogue whenever he visited a new town. By the time John was written, however, both Jews and Christians were “circling the wagons” in the face of persecution, which meant defining clearly who was an insider and who was an outsider. Christian Jews were not welcome at synagogues. There was no trust between the two groups that had grown out of the destruction of the Temple and Temple-centered Judaism around 70 CE. Jesus was crucified by the Romans as a seditionist, but the gospel narratives – especially John – make it seem as if it were the Jewish people who were responsible for his crucifixion. Unfortunately, the portrayal of “the Jews” in John has been used to reinforce and justify antisemitic bigotry throughout the centuries. Taking John at face value, Luther himself ranted against Jews, and his writings have further inflamed that bigotry. In the previous century, the German Nazis used both John and Luther’s writings to justify the genocide of more than 6 million Jewish people. Today, Christian nationalists in our country continue to use both Luther’s writings and John to support their antisemitic bigotry.
In 1999, the ELCA issued a declaration of apology to the Jewish people. It was revised and reaffirmed in 2021. You can read it here. I don’t preach often enough to focus an entire sermon on the issue of “the Jews” in John, and it would be irresponsible to read those lessons again and again in worship without addressing the issue. Instead, I have chosen to address the issue here, and to substitute other words in the reading of the lessons. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Lenten blessings, Pr. Pamela Griffith Pond, Interim Pastor
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