Comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld once said the life of an actor is as follows:
- Who’s Jerry Seinfeld?
- Get me Jerry Seinfeld!
- Get me a young Jerry Seinfeld.
- Who’s Jerry Seinfeld?
Sometimes, religion feels like this, too, as theologies come and go, like ebbing tides of the ocean. They come in, they rise in popularity, someone opposes them and they lose popularity, they are forgotten or their adherents are otherwise isolated.
Some days, my faith walk with God feels like this.
Sometimes, I think we’re in a religious merry-go-‘round that never ends.
- What is the Torah?
- I love the Torah!
- There’s something wrong with practicing the Torah.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What’s Hebrew Roots?
- I love Hebrew Roots!
- There’s something wrong with Hebrew roots.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What’s Messianic Judaism?
- I love Messianic Judaism!
- There’s something wrong with Messianic Judaism.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What’s mysticism?
- I love mysticism!
- There’s something wrong with mysticism.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What is One Law?
- I love One Law!
- There’s something wrong with One Law.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What is Two Law?
- I love Two Law!
- There’s something wrong with Two Law.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What’s the Oral Torah?
- I love the Oral Torah!
- There’s something wrong with the Oral Torah.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What do you mean, throwing off the traditions?
- I love throwing off the traditions!
- There’s something wrong with throwing off the traditions.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
- What are the traditions?
- I love the traditions!
- There’s something wrong with practicing the traditions.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
MIA
- What is Two House?
- I love Two House!
- There’s something wrong with Two House.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
MJAA/UMJC/MJTI
- What is One Faith, Two Expressions?
- I love One Faith, Two Expressions!
- There’s something wrong with One Faith, Two Expressions.
- Let’s get back to where we were.
That’s a few of the recent ones that come to mind. I could also add roles of gentiles in the Messianic movement, Judaism itself, Jewish identity, gentiles and the Torah, the role of Torah for humanity, the role of women in our faith, charismatic elements of Christianity, moves of the Spirit, creationism and numerous other theological bombs.
In the process, there’s lots of passive-aggressive insulting going on, as people insinuate the other side is dumb, uneducated, missing the boat, not led by the Spirit, misinterpreting the Scriptures, heretical, not being authentic, or what have you.
Are we making progress? It sure doesn’t feel like it sometimes. What’s more depressing yet is we are repeating some of the same theological battles of the last few thousand years.
While I take comfort in pragmatism, I’m nonetheless winded, tired of the theological merry-go-‘round I’ve witnessed over the last 5 years.
I am looking forward to the time when the Kingdom of God is established on earth and all the questions and ambiguities are sorted out for us. Until that time, maybe I’d best look past theological nuances and focus on the common ground of Yeshua as our rock.
(Yeshua, come quickly! I’m getting tired of all this mess down here!)
p.s. Hat tip to Osherove’s blog, which inspired the format of this post.
p.p.s. This post is not about FFOZ’s recent theological shift (hi Boaz, Aaron and folks) – rather, it was written several weeks ago and scheduled for posting today. Coincidentally, it does reflect some of my recent internal conflictions regarding FFOZ’s stance shift.