Wouldn’t He?

By: Rev. Dr. Beverly Bingle
May 23, 2021

This coming Monday marks six years 

since Pope Francis issued Laudato Si’, 

the encyclical on care for our planet, 

and we find ourselves wondering, with Ezekiel, 

if the dry bones of our church, our democracy, 

our coronavirus lives, our sick planet, 

can survive. 

Can WE come to life again? 

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As Christians, we do well to remember 

that Jesus was a faithful Jew, 

and that his message called his fellow Jews 

to take God’s law to heart. 

Among other things, 

that law called for a jubilee year every 50 years, 

when debts were canceled and slaves set free. 

Pentecost, celebrated on the 50th day after Passover, 

marked the return of justice to the world. 

Everyone and everything was set right again. 

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But everything is NOT set right in OUR world on this Pentecost day. 

A global pandemic of hate headlines the evening news: 

the “major” wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ethiopia’s Tigray; the “minor” wars in Myanmar, Somalia, Kenya, 

Iraq, Boko Haram, Syria;

the “conflicts” and “skirmishes,” the ongoing “war on terror.” 

And now there’s renewed fighting between Israel and Palestine, 

a fight that’s been going on since 1948. 

Along with that we hear about all the hate in our country—

conservatives versus liberals, 

Democrats versus Republicans versus Independents, 

city versus suburb versus country, 

north versus south versus east versus west, 

white versus black, versus Hispanic, versus Asian. 

In the middle of all that hate and conflict in our world, 

today we hear the gospel story of that Sunday evening 

when the disciples hunker down in fear in a locked room. 

Jesus comes to them saying, “Peace be with you.” 

He tells them that, as God sent him, so WE are sent. 

Then he BREATHES on them. 

The word for BREATHES 

is used just one other time in the whole Bible—

in the Book of Genesis, 

when God BREATHES life into the first human being. 

Tragically, John’s story about Jesus’ commissioning the disciples 

to carry the message of peace to the ends of the earth carries within it the seed of antisemitism 

that still plagues us today: 

John says that the doors were locked 

“FOR FEAR OF THE JEWS.” 

He was writing 70 to 80 years after the fact, 

to a Gentile audience that did not know 

Pharisees from Sadducees 

or Judeans from Galileans, 

so he lumped them all together, calling them “THE JEWS.” 

It was no longer Judas who handed Jesus over, 

no longer the Jewish priesthood that opposed him, 

no longer the Roman soldiers who crucified him. 

It was THE JEWS.  

Scapegoating the Jews to protect themselves from the Romans 

led to centuries of persecution. 

We learned about it in school—

the history of the Crusades, often presented as good works 

to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels. 

And it’s still going on. 

We saw it clearly in the attacks 

on Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 election. 

We saw it when Dr. Amy Acton’s home 

was targeted by antisemitic protesters. 

We’ve seen it right here in our town. 

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Whenever Jesus saw the leaders of his own religion 

fail to embrace the word of God, he called them out, 

called them to repent and believe the good news. 

If he had been a Christian during the Crusades, 

wouldn’t he have spoken up—

and probably been burned at the stake as a heretic? 

If he were a Christian among us today, 

would he not be standing on a corner 

with a “Black Lives Matter” sign? 

Would he not be reaching a helping hand 

across the southern border?

That’s exactly what each of you has been caught doing 

with US together, the Lake Erie Advocates, 

with Pax Christi, with ABLE, the League of Women Voters,

Kay Lasante Clinic, Padua Center, with our own Tree Toledo. 

You drive your neighbor to the doctor, babysit a grandchild, 

donate to help the hungry and the homeless, 

reach out a hand to help a stranger across the street. 

As Paul writes to the Corinthians: 

each of you has different gifts, 

each one renders different service, 

each is asked to do different works… 

each of you is called by the ONE God, 

ALL in the same Spirit, ONE body in Christ. 

Today there’s a lot of hurt, a lot of injustice, a lot of pain, 

so YOU step up, asking God to send out the Spirit 

to help YOU renew the face of the earth.

Thanks be to God for you!