Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/religion-2/page/27/)
Like Trayvon Martin, my son died at 17. From the agony, I learned that οur healing intention must be for others and the world, not just for ourselves, or it can never be deeply resolving. Witness Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton. Fulton has much to teach us all.
God’s future comes to the church, not from best-laid plans, but from dialogue with the help we need; not from anxious arrangements with our fears, or our budgets, but from conversations with soul friends. Healing, after all, is not getting what we thought we wanted. Healing is receiving our own experience of God. That is how it worked for Naaman.
Traditionally, the weeks after the ninth of Av, which is the traditional dark day of Jewish history commemorating the destruction of the temple, are considered weeks of hope, the weeks of being comforted. We frequently speak of hope. Hope seems one of the more lofty spiritual aspirations of mankind, but we must continue to redefine the question of hope toward what end?
Israeli archaeologists have recently discovered artifacts that give us a vivid sense of how destructive and merciless extremism of any sort and an eagerness for war can be. Reflecting on The Three Weeks, for those Jews who are not inclined to mourn the destruction of the two Temples, is there any reason to mourn? I have been thinking about this question the past couple weeks in light of the archaeological discoveries.
The racial inequality that thrives in the United States today is prevalent not only in the African American community but also other minority groups. Perhaps more than any other minority, American Muslims identify with the travesty of a trail that just ended. Trayvon Martin was black, but could easily have been Muslim. Exchange the hoodie for a hijab or a beard, and the parallels in stereotyping become quickly obvious.
The acquittal by jury of George Zimmerman who shot and murdered the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin was emblematic of the consistent racism and double standard used in the treatment of minority groups or those deemed “Other” in the U.S. and around the world. What can Judaism teach us about our response? What would a Love Rebellion look like in the face of this racialized violence?
The realms of acceptable debate in Jewish-Christian interfaith relations seem securely locked down, confined to domestic issues and the sharing of religious practice. Any challenge by Christians or Jews to the status quo on Israel is considered out of bounds. So what’s happened and what can be done to establish an honest interfaith conversation that doesn’t fall apart as soon as Israel or Palestine gets mentioned?
The stories you have heard this morning are master/disciple stories. They tell of the moment of decision to leave everything and go. These stories are about you and me. If they were merely about the old heroes, we’d find them only behind glass in libraries. But they are here because they are about that moment of decision for possibility in the crisis you are facing. The door of the eternal is here: the infinite in a moment. Or not.
Since April, a growing number of North Carolinians have gathered at North Carolina’s General Assembly to collectively petition an extreme legislature whose daily decisions are attacking the general welfare. We have called these gatherings “Moral Mondays,” and an awakening of hope led by people of faith has been at the heart of them. On this Monday, dozens of doctors, nurses, school teachers and environmental activists led the crowd of over 4,000 people. This is the statement made by a public school teacher before she was arrested.
This week my heart experienced incredible joy and deep sadness about the Supreme Court decisions. I am so thankful to God for the historic Supreme Court decisions on DOMA and Prop 8. But the Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act felt like a punch in my stomach. Race still matters. And as people of faith, we are going to have to keep testifying to congressional leaders, rising up, and saying “not on our watch.” Human beings, inspired by the still speaking Word of God, need to teach, preach, blog, tweet and testify about the need for a just world. Together, we honor our stories and work to write new ones.