Although the immediate threat to synagogues in New Jersey has been mitigated because the FBI was able to learn the source of the threat, a man with radical extremist hate views, we still need to consider how such hate originates. To be sure, there are certain Gospel references to “the Jews” as standing in opposition to Jesus that some scholars cite as the origin of anti-Semitism.
Just as the Romans persecuted Christians, when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, conversions were not always so peaceful. When any religion thinks it has a corner on truth with a capital “T,” the result is usually intolerance of any person or group that does not necessarily agree with the true believers.
None of us can claim that what we believe is always and completely correct. Our search for the presence of God in our lives should always be a lesson in humility. Growing in faith is not necessarily acquiring beliefs like a set of facts, but trusting that God is with us as we strive to be faithful and that the presence of God is always with us.
Prayer for the Day
Searching for your Presence in our lives, O God,
We are beset by conflicting beliefs regarding your call;
Grant that we may not only grow in faith, but in humility
For we know how little we actually do know.
Help us to find your gifts of faith and trust so we may more fully
Reflect the life of the One who points the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith
- Paul Tillich, American theologian (1896-1965)
We do not have thousands of years to unlearn the wrong patterns that were established over thousands of years. The exponential speedup of these cumulative patterns of destruction means we have to learn both new patterns and to put them into practice on a global scale within the next generation.
- Rosemary Radford Ruether, American theologian (1936-2022)
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child with its mother,
I am like the weaned child that is within me.
Psalm 131: 1-2