The old joke goes when a child runs to his or her mother, saying, “Mommy, mommy, I learned today that Jesus was a Jew.” Her response is, “That’s okay, darling, I’m sure that God is a good (name your denomination – Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Catholic, whatever). Most societies have trouble accepting any subculture that does not conform to the majority culture. Anti-Semitism is one result; anti-immigrant fervor is another.
The results of anti-Semitism are reflected in Scripture. The Book of Esther is a good example. Proposing genocide, Haman says to the king, “There is a certain people…” Hanukah, a festival of Jewish freedom, begins next Sunday and ends right after our celebration of Christmas.
The two are usually not that close, but both celebrations are about freedom: from ear, from hate, from excluding those who are different. In this season of joy, we are called to speak against conspiratorial theories and to open ourselves to accepting all as children of God, no matter their religion.
Prayer for the Day
We call you by many names and worship you in many ways,
But we know that you are God, the Holy One, Creator of all we see;
You are our Rock and present in our lives no matter what,
For you are both our beginning and our end.
Grant, O God, that we find you in all peoples and faiths,
For we know we see but a shadow of who you are.
In the name of the One who shows us the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We in the United States should be all the more thankful for the freedom and religious tolerance we enjoy. And we should always remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, in hopes we stay vigilant from such inhumanity now and in the future.
- Charlie Dent, former Republican Congressman, Pennsylvania
Here we have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that we will never again have a repetition of religious bigotry as we have had in our past. There is no room for thata kind of foolishness here.
- Harry S. Truman, President (1884-1972)
The Lord loves those who hate evil and guards the lives of the faithful;
God rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Light dawns for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.
Psalm 97: 10-12.