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Previous Posts

• Hashivenu Core Principle #5 - On Rabbinic Tradition


• Hashivenu Core Principle #6 - On Human Decency


• Hashivenu Core Principle #7 - On Maturation


• Toward a New Paradigm of Messianic Jewish Outreach


• When Calamity Strikes - A Sermon on Exodus 1-5


• Ray Charles, Ken Medema, God and Me


• Is it "Glory Hallelujah" or Is It "Kitchie Kitchie...


• Why I Need to Davven - Part Two


• Joseph, The Big Picture and The Problem of Suffering


• Back up and Running

Hashivenu Core Principle #4 - On the Jewish People

Hashivenu is an educational foundation established in 1997 by myself and a group of friends. This is the fourth of seven core principles which help to define those commitments we most deeply hold in common.

Hashivenu Core Principle #4 states: The Jewish people are "us," not "them."

Like a boat that had drifted from its moorings, we were not cognizant of what was happening to us until a key event, conversation, or combination of factors jolted us awake to the realization that we were farther from our Jewish moorings than we had realized.

For most of us, experience in evangelical contexts taught us to look at Jews only as people to whom we ought to witness. For us, the subtext of every family gathering became "How can I bring the subject up?" and the objective in our relationships with Jewish family, friends and acquaintances became "How can I witness to them without their closing the door on the Gospel and on me?" As important as these issues are, we realize now how wrong it was for these evangelistic concerns to be the sole axis of measurement of relationship with other Jews, even our own family members. We became church-culture chameleons, adept at blending in, showing that even though we were Jews, "we weren't like the other Jews": we were real Christians, too. More often than we were prepared to admit, though, we felt ourselves uneasy strangers in a strange land of potluck suppers, hallelujahs, and obligatory right-wing politics. But we had been taught, "You can't go back to what you were. This sense of distance from the Jewish people, Jewish ways, and from family is the cost of discipleship, the cross you are called to gladly bear. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad." One day we discovered that we had become habituated to speaking of the Jewish community in third person. We awoke with a start.

Now we know we can go home again. In fact, we must go home again for, truly, there is no place like home. And home for Jews is Jewish life. No doubt, we will have to remodel that home a bit to properly accommodate Yeshua, our Messiah, but better to remodel our own home than to be a permanent guest at someone else's address.

We dare to believe that among the many mansions prepared for Yeshua's people, some have mezuzot on the doors. We dare to believe that by rediscovering and reclaiming our own identity as Jews, we will be better brothers and sisters to Gentiles who love our Messiah. In all aspects of life, we want to live in a Jewish neighborhood socially, culturally, conceptually so that we and our children and our children's children will not only call Yeshua Lord but also call the Jewish people "our people" and Jewish life "home."

posted by Stuart Dauermann @ 9:48 PM   0 comments

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