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CENTRAL
CONNECTICUT STATE COLLEGE
JERUSALEM: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVEGood afternoon. I am grateful for the invitation to share my perspective on the significance of the City of Jerusalem to the Christian faith. I am especially gratefully, for this is something that previous to this invitation I haven’t given much thought, so it has been a stimulating and challenging exercise for me, as I hope it will be for you. We all look at life through different lenses, and sometimes, just like a person walking around in the dark with his sunglasses on, wondering why it’s so dark, we all sometimes forget that our view of reality is filtered, maybe sometimes even distorted by whatever those lenses might be. So, Hazza, you should be commended for this exercise, requiring each of us to examine not only the City of Jerusalem, but also the lenses, by which we perceive that reality, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. I need to say that what I share with you today is my own perspective. I do not portend to speak for all of Christendom, for if there is a difference between our Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives, so it also is within Christendom. Indeed, I think it’s safe to say that if you were to ask 10 different people representing 10 different Christian denominations the question about the significance of Jerusalem to our Christian faith, you would end up with 20 different opinions. So, today I do not speak for Roman Catholics or Greek Orthodox, the Lutherans or the Anglicans, or a variety of other denominations, each of which has a presence, maybe even a stake in the City of Jerusalem today, and neither do I speak for the Congregational church, in which there are as many different opinions about this as there are on many other issues. Speaking for myself – and I’m going to say this right here at the outset so there can be no confusion -- the City of Jerusalem itself has very little significance. Historically, architecturally, culturally, archeologically, politically I find it a fascinating and sometimes a troubling place to visit, but with regard to my Christian faith, it has no centrality, no significance. It has no more theological importance; it is no more sacred than New York City, Johannesburg, South Africa, Indianapolis, Indiana or Old Lyme, Connecticut. Now, that may seem a fairly outrageous statement and may strike you as somewhat strange, maybe even ludicrous given all the history that Christians have in that place. Walk around the ancient walls of that city, and chances are you will see some reminder of our Christian heritage. There is of course the Via Dolorosa and the Stations of the Cross, the route through the cobbled streets of Jerusalem that Jesus would have walked on the way to the Crucifixion. This and this alone is enough for thousands of Christian pilgrims to visit the City of Jerusalem every year. But also, as evidence against my argument, one might mention the Church of the Holy Sepulcher – the place historically associated with both the crucifixion and the burial of Jesus. In this church, there are 6 different Christian altars -- Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic, Armenian Orthodox and Ethiopian, each one fiercely defending its own sacred space. Because of the conflicts that sometimes have taken place, if any one of them is perceived to be more in control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher than the others, do you know whom it is that actually holds the keys to the door of the church? For his impartiality, a Muslim is chosen to be the keeper of the keys. Given all the places associated with the Christian faith – the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley, the Garden of Gethsemane and the passionate grip that Christians and Christian churches have on these places, how can I possibly suggest that the city of Jerusalem is insignificant to the Christian faith? Furthermore, one might say, what about the Crusades? If Jerusalem was or is “insignificant”, why the tremendous investment of time and blood in defending that city against the so-called “infidels?” When I visit Jerusalem, which I now do on a yearly basis, sometimes I stay in a place called The Knight’s Palace, situated inside the ancient city, between New Gate and Jaffa Gate. It is owned by the Latin Patriarchate, and it is called “The Knights Palace” because part of it was built by the Crusaders. Whenever I’m there, I say a prayer, asking forgiveness for the brutality and bigotry of my Crusader ancestors, remembering how in their diaries, many of them bragged about “standing knee deep in Muslim blood in the streets of Jerusalem.” So, today, I ask forgiveness of my Muslim brothers and sisters. Likewise, we need to be reminded of the centuries, indeed millennia of anti-Jewish bigotry for which the Christian church has been responsible, and Jerusalem has been right there at the center of that disease. With Judaism itself being blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus, there were years, when Christians were in possession of the City of Jerusalem, that Jews were not allowed in the city. This Christian anti-Semitism, like an insidious malignancy spread from there throughout the world, resulting ultimately in the holocaust itself. So, whenever I’m in Jerusalem, I try to remember this painful part of my Christian heritage, and so today I ask forgiveness of my Jewish brothers and sisters as well. So, maybe it’s only wishful thinking when I speak of Jerusalem’s “insignificance.” Maybe if all 3 of our Abrahamic faiths had less of a stranglehold on the city of Jerusalem, maybe we would have less of a stranglehold on each other. A sense of entitlement has done terrible things to the human family. Indeed, even within Christianity today, there is what is called “Christian Zionism”, and it is a notion propagated by such people as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. If you were to ask them this same question, they would say that Jerusalem is absolutely significant to our Christian faith, and they would argue that for the second coming of Christ to take place, all the land of Promise, from the Mediterranean to the far side of the River Jordan, from the Trees of Lebanon all the way down to Aquba will have to be restored to the people of Israel. It’s not that these Christian Zionists care at all about Jews and Judaism, it’s just that from their perspective this is the precondition for the Second-Coming of Christ. So, with this theology, Jerusalem is of absolute significance, apocalyptic importance. But not for me. Fortunately, Christianity, like each of our religious traditions, is not monolithic, and even though I may not be in the majority, I’d like to share with you why the City of Jerusalem, for me, does not have the same significance as it might for others. To clarify what I mean, I’d like to share with you 4 illustrations – a fairly recent movie entitled “Kingdom of Heaven”, 2 hymns from our church’s hymn book, a poem by William Blake, and the names of the some of the towns here in New England. The movie, “Kingdom of Heaven” is a terribly violent movie, but so were the Crusades themselves. In order to drive the so-called “infidels” out of the Holy Lands, droves of Christian crusaders came down from Europe for this purpose, and in this movie, just when there is about to be a cataclysmic battle with the overwhelming forces of Saladin, the hero of this movie peacefully turns to keys of Jerusalem over to Saladin, and he does so because he has come to the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven does not have geographical coordinates, that the Temple of God is not in Jerusalem, but rather in the Temple of the Human Spirit, and once he came to that realization, or perhaps I should say, “revelation”, Jerusalem was no longer so important. Now, there is much about this movie that is fictional, but there is something about this that resonates with the teachings of Jesus, the founder of our faith. Jesus and most of the disciples were from the Northern communities of Galilee. From my perspective, Jesus was a Jew – through and through – and as such he was in the great prophetic tradition of Judaism. So, when he decided to go to Jerusalem – the center of religious and political authority – he was following in the great tradition of Amos who took leave of his sycamore trees to remind the people of Judah that what was really important was not all the sacrificial offerings in the Temple but rather the building of a good and decent society that would be characterized by justice. So, when the disciples were acting like tourists, gawking at the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, we find a rather cavalier Jesus, saying, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” But remember, Jesus was a Jew, and in this instance, he wasn’t saying anything that many of the prophets hadn’t already said before him, namely that the Spirit of God is not in a building in Jerusalem, but rather in the temple of the human spirit and our capacity to establish communities of justice and kindness, wherever we may be. St. Paul would late complete this idea by saying, “you are the Temple of God.” My second illustration has to do with the language, the poetry of a couple of our Congregational Hymns, and you might be comforted to know that I will not be singing these hymns, but listen to the language of these hymns, and see for yourself what they have to say about Jerusalem. The first is entitled, “Jerusalem the Golden.” Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice oppressed. I know not, O I know
not, What joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, What bliss
beyond compare They stand, those halls of Zion, All jubilant with song, And
bright with many an angel, And all the martyr throng. O sweet and blessed country, the home of God’s elect! O sweet and blessed country, That eager hearts expect! Jesus, in mercy bring us to that dear land of rest, Who art, with God the Father, And Spirit, ever blest! As you can see, the author of this hymn, has appropriated – my Jewish friends might say “misappropriated” – the story of the Israelites and their quest for the “land of milk and honey”, but “Jerusalem the golden” is not an actual place, they would say, but rather the celestial city envisioned by John in the Book of Revelation, the place, the heavenly place where God and Humanity would be in perfect harmony. This is referred to as the “New Jerusalem”. So, you see, for this “brand” of Christianity, the actual city of Jerusalem is not what is significant; what is significant is the “New Jerusalem”, far beyond this earthly realm. For many Christians, and especially for Christians of the first century, those who suffered terribly from poverty and persecution, you can see why for them this remythologizing of Jerusalem, this repositioning of the “Kingdom of Heaven” in some celestial order would have been of some comfort. My theology, however, is much more at home in a very different vision of where the “holy city” is, and it’s suggested by yet another hymn, entitled, “O Holy City, Seen of John”: O holy city, seen of John, where Christ, the Lamb, doth reign, Within whose four-square walls shall come No night, nor need, Nor pain, And where the tears are wiped from eyes That shall not weep again, O shame to us who rest content, While lust and greed for gain In street and shop and tenement Wring gold from human pain, And bitter lips in blind despair Cry, “Christ hath died in vain!” Give us, O God, the strength to build The city that hath stood Too long a dream, whose laws are love, Whose ways Are brotherhood, And where the sun that shineth is God’s grace for human good. Do you see what is happening here? The New Jerusalem is taken out of the supernal, celestial heights, and is now a Vision, an architectural rendering of how all of our cities should be. The Land of Promise, the Land of Milk and Honey, at first a geographical location on the far side of the River Jordan, and then in Christian mythology a heavenly place far removed from this earthly realm, is now brought back to earth as a vision not only for the city of Jerusalem in the Middle East, but also a vision for how each of our communities should be: Give us, O God, the strength to build The city that hath stood Too
long a dream, whose laws are love, I hope you notice that there’s now a change in voice, now no longer the passive voice. Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem is now no longer something that happens to us, something bestowed upon us, something with which we are rewarded, but something we build, using all of our God-given abilities. This is sometimes referred to as Christian Humanism, and this is a theology in which I do feel at home. Yet another illustration of this is a poem by William Blake. Blake lived during the time of the Industrial Revolution in England and he witnessed not only the desecration of the earth by what he called “the dark satanic mills” (made so vivid by the movie series, “The Lord of the Rings”), but also he saw the damage, the poverty, the injustices that unbridled greed can inflict on the human community. And so, in this poem he says, I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand (and for Blake we must remember that the “sword” was both a pen and a paintbrush) Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green and pleasant Land. Once again, we see Jerusalem, not as an actual place, situated in the Middle East, but rather as an Idealized City, a Vision of how all of our communities should be. For my fourth illustration, I would ask you to explore something of my own Congregational heritage. South of here, and a little to the west is a town called, “New Canaan.” Maybe due East of here is another community by the name of “Hebron.” There’s also not too far away such towns as Jericho and Salem and Bethlehem. Over in Rhode Island, directly opposite a town by the name of Galilee, there’s a small town by the name of Jerusalem, population 800. Now, why do you suppose the Pilgrims and the Puritans – my Congregational ancestors – why did they name their communities after these biblical places? Once again, they appropriated, some might say misappropriated that ancient story of the Israelites. The woodlands of New England were the New Promised Land. They were God’s elect, and they would demonstrate to the rest of the world what it meant to be a “light unto the nations.” Before they disembarked from the Arbella, their leader John Winthrop told them that they would be like a “city set upon a hill. The eyes of all people shall be upon you. You must abridge yourself of your superfluities for the supply of other’s necessities.” In other words, each and every community would be a living manifestation of that New Jerusalem; each and every community would be a city of Shalom. It was a noble experiment, to be sure, but of course you don’t need to know too much about the early history of our country, to know how quickly they betrayed that vision. Rather quickly, the Mohegans and the other indigenous tribes, like the Canaanites and the Jebusites before them, were victimized by “manifest destiny”, a theological excuse for ethnic cleansing. And in Salem, Massachusetts, a place that was envisioned to be a community of Shalom, as the name “Salem”, would seem to suggest, women were persecuted and hung as witches. Nevertheless, despite our many failures, that’s what Jerusalem is from my perspective, a Vision of what all of our communities should endeavor to be, places of justice, places of peace, places where the celestial and the terrestrial, divinity and humanity finally come together, leading one perhaps to say, “I shall not cease from mental fight, till I have built Jerusalem in New Britain, Connecticut.” Now, in closing, I would like to say that there could be one way in which the City of Jerusalem today could have profound significance for me as a Christian. I think we all need what I call “parables of hope”, living examples of how God intended Creation to be, and if the City of Jerusalem could become a City of Shalom, if it could become a place that finally overcomes the tribalism and the violence and the sibling rivalry and bigotry that tragically have been so much a part of the story of the family of Abraham, if the City of Jerusalem could become an international city, a place where Jews and Christians and Muslims live in peace with one another, a living, breathing example of what all of our communities should be, that would be wonderfully significant. Thank you for listening.
David W. GoodSenior Minister First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, CT
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