The UMJC is all about congregations, Messianic Jewish congregations in particular. But over the years “Messianic Jewish,” as well as the more generic “Messianic,” has come to be applied to all different kinds of congregations. I don’t want to get into who deserves the label and who doesn’t. Rather, I’m interested in congregations, or communities, that can be called messianic not as a religious brand, but as a description of their values and priorities. Messianic Judaism should not only be about this or that style of worship or way of interpreting Scripture, but more about the values and power of Messiah within the Jewish space of our congregations—the Judaism of Messianic presence, as I called it in my 9/14/09 blog.

Messianic presence implies the presence and activity of the Ruach, the Spirit of God, among us. The first blog in this series, covering the first part of the seven-fold vision for the near future, was on “Ruach renewal in Jewish space,” so in a way we’ve come full circle, but now I’m emphasizing the presence of Messiah through his ethos, the values and practices that Yeshua brings into a community when we are open to him (and ultimately open to his Spirit). I’ll focus on two inter-related aspects of this ethos.

The first aspect reflects two of our UMJC core values: “Deference and respect are key elements in our fellowship” (Core Value 1); and “We recognize that all people are made in the image of God and therefore will endeavor to treat them with respect” (Core Value 5).

One way we show respect is by validating the views of others. The founding objectives of the UMJC include, “To provide a forum for the discussion of issues relevant to Messianic Judaism and Messianic Jewish Congregations.” We are supposed to discuss our insights and convictions together, and even argue for them with passion. Otherwise we not only neglect part of our mandate in the UMJC, but we form a religious community that is flavorless and irrelevant—or that is seething with behind-the-scenes discussions in which we talk about each other instead of to each other. Indeed, if impassioned debate isn’t a Jewish value, I don’t know what is. But we need to go beyond that to debate with respect and deference for each other, to realize we are debating with family and that in the end it is Yeshua himself, not our various convictions and insights, that constitutes Truth (with a deliberate capital T).

Invalidating, instead of validating, the views of others destroys “the discussion of issues relevant to Messianic Judaism” and anything else, really, by drawing up a rigid position and refusing to learn from anyone on the other side of it. It works by caricaturing their position, so that we can dismantle it more readily, instead of trying to understand it before responding at all. Invalidating means questioning the motives, the character, the intellect, the education of the other. Sometimes we take this approach because we think we are defending the truth, but it serves our comfortable sense of being right far more than it serves the truth.

I read a book last year entitled, “You Don’t Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right.” The author, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, notes that in the religious world, as in the political world, we tend to establish our rightness by invalidating the position of the other. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t have to argue for my position or practices by demanding that you see and do things the same way I do. If we are careful to respect and validate those with whom we disagree, we create a whole different, and rare, kind of community, which is exactly what we’re called to do, especially as those who claim the example of Messiah Yeshua and the power of the Ruach.

A second aspect of the Jewish ethos of Yeshua that should be part of our congregational life is concern for the disadvantaged, poor, and oppressed. I am writing this a few days after the horrific January 12 earthquake in Haiti. Governments and non-governmental agencies are rushing in to do what they can, and agencies representing Messiah are right in the thick of it, which they should be. Such efforts are not an addendum to following Messiah, but essential to it. Significantly, Jewish agencies are involved in Haiti as well, although there is virtually no Jewish population there. Redemptive action in the world—tikkun olam in Jewish terms—is a dominant value in the Jewish world, and it's a make-it-or-break-it quality of congregations that claim to represent both Yeshua and Jewishness.

In the Messianic Jewish community we sometimes suffer from short-sightedness on this issue, which may arise from our deep connection with mid-century American fundamentalism. This connection is not all bad by any means, as it includes a high regard for Scripture and a firm stand on the centrality of Yeshua. But there’s also the idea that the only reason for sticking around in this world after you’ve found Messiah is to help others find him too. I’ve heard more than one preacher dismiss social action by observing that we are surely in the end times and soon to be whisked off to our heavenly home, so why polish the brass on a sinking ship? Now, I believe in outreach and our need to stir up new passion for it (see number 2 in this series), but I also believe that our biblical assignment includes much more. Part of our assignment, which is probably part of more effective outreach too, is to be involved in tikkun olam, which isn’t going to make everything right, because only the return of Messiah will do that, but is our responsibility nonetheless.

In our recent Webinar on “Creating Spiritual Homes for the New American Jew,” Monique Brumbach suggested three aspects of tikkun olam that can be part of the program for a Messianic Jewish congregation:

Charity: Food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, assistance to battered women, environmental stewardship, and of course the sort of help being extended to the people of Haiti right now.

Advocacy for the Jewish people: support for Israel, Messianic aliyah, Holocaust survivors, the elderly, etc.

Advocacy for the Other: victims of genocide, refugees, immigrants, religious minorities, etc.

Monique is a younger Messianic Jew and I believe she speaks for her generation when she highlights the importance of such involvement among us. This is a big part of what younger people are looking for in our community.

People long to see congregations that are messianic not as a religious brand, but as a description of values and priorities that reflect Messiah himself. The two aspects I’ve covered, deferential respect at home and redemptive action in the world, are interrelated because they both recognize the biblical truth of human beings created as bearers of the divine image, a truth established in the very first chapter of Genesis. As we continue to embody these values, or rather as we expand our embodiment of these values, our communities will touch many more lives in the years to come.