I feel like stopping watching the news but I cannot because I live in the world and need to know what’s happening in it. The world seems to be mad at the moment.
I’m writing this after the shocking news of the attack on the synagogue in Manchester on Thursday which happened on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, a day of reflection, confession, and seeking forgiveness from both God and others. The day's main observances consist of fasting and abstaining from physical comforts, attending extended prayer services (usually at synagogue ) It is a day for goal-setting, and intentions for the year ahead.
To have such an action on such a holy day hits at the heart of identity. It says you aren’t me, I’m threatened by you so I will lash out. I don’t know you but I’ve heard about you through the opinions of others or in the press or on social media so I’ve decided I don’t like you.
Surely, hatred, antisemitism and racism have no place in our society. Those facing increasing violence and hostility on the basis of their race, faith or where they are from need us as Christians, following Christ who came to break down walls that divide us, to stand alongside them.
Paul puts it this way: For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle way of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace.
(Ephesians 2:14-15)
By His death on the cross, Jesus broke down the barriers. The physical curtain in the Temple was split from top to bottom, but He also broke down other barriers that divided people.
The Message explains it this way: He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped (Ephesians 2:15)
Sadly this time of people feeling threatened by another not like them is hitting the headlines but there is another narrative. There are people and groups who have talked together and find unity in their diversity. Coffee morning on a Thursday at Allhallowgate is full most weeks of interesting people. This week I was glad to chat with some Roman Catholic ladies from Lancashire. They go to church in Nelson at the only joint Roman Catholic and Methodist Church in the country. There are things that the two denominations don’t agree on but they told me most of what happens is done together happily.
Let us pray urgently for respect and communication to come back where it’s gone missing. And let us pray this week that there be peace on earth. And let us celebrate difference. And let us thank God we are not all the same!
Joanne Cox-Darling the Superintendent of the Manchester Circuit has written a helpful piece on the Methodist website about understanding.
She says “it will begin, as the holiest day of Yom Kippur (the festival of repentance) reminds me – with my own confession - that I too have been complicit through my ignorance and apathy. I cannot now escape from the knowledge that I haven’t been paying enough attention, or listening deeply enough to what I have been shown and told.
It will begin by naming antisemitism within communities, learning how to see it, challenge it, and to speaking it out.
It will begin with rebuilding friendships with Jewish neighbours; intentionally reaching out to ensure they and their families are safe. In time we will find brave spaces to continue to hear the lived experiences of the Jewish communities in Crumpsall, Manchester, Britain, and beyond.
And it will begin around tables with broken bread and shared wine, retelling sacred stories of God’s faithfulness to God’s people within the broken and corrupt systems of the world.
Because with terrorism on our doorstep once again, we have no choice but to pay closer attention.”
The newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday morning that “hatred and racism of any kind cannot be allowed to tear us apart.” If Christ is our peace we need to work harder to break down walls not build more.
