Where can we have the needed debates?

Arguments are the foundation of a healthy and vigorous society. In some circles, arguments are considered in poor taste and disruptive. I believe our needed debates should be disruptive, and poor taste that may arise should be accepted as a part of the exercise. A carefully ordered society is one step away from an oppressive society.

This commitment to debate and argument is part and parcel to my religious faith. From my perspective, Christianity was meant to be an ongoing argument with differing opinions welcomed. It is central to my understanding of the writings of the Old Testament and essential to my understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus.

Jesus from Nazareth was an opinionated interpreter of Torah, the Law of God. He disagreed vehemently with those who controlled the religious and civil establishment of his own day. He regularly appeared at synagogue meetings in all the rural communities of northern Palestine. He always came with an opinion and was eager to engage in debates, primarily about wealth and power.

There is a great misunderstanding about synagogue meetings. The casual reader of the Gospels makes very wrong assumptions. They assume that the synagogue was a building that was built for purposes of worship and prayers. In making that assumption, they miss the dynamics of the teachings of Jesus. Synagogues were not buildings. Archaeologists have done a more thorough job of excavating the ancient cities of Palestine than any other area in the entire world. Archaeologists have not found a single foundation of a building from the first century CE that can be identified as a synagogue, a place of gathering for prayer and worship.

Our best scholarship affirms the idea that Jesus regularly appeared at public gatherings where he engaged all comers in debate about wealth, power and the Kingdom of God. Consensus of scholars is that synagogue referred to the gathering of the people rather than a building. After scholars established that synagogue was not a building, they then asked, “Where were the gatherings?” The first speculation was that the gatherings were in homes. This idea was discarded. The homes of a small town such as Nazareth were very small. People of wealth who would have had larger rooms lived in the cities. Today’s best understanding is that synagogue gatherings took place in open-air areas near the entrance to a village.

There is no record or evidence that synagogue meetings were for worship or prayer. They were gatherings at which the leaders of a community came and argued the meaning of Torah. The recurring issues that Jesus discussed were wealth and power. The Old Testament law made it plain that God was the owner of all the land and that wealth was to be redistributed on a regular schedule. The experience of Jesus’ fellow citizens of Nazareth was in direct conflict with Torah, the Law of God. At the time Jesus lived and taught, the land in the area was owned and controlled by wealthy men who treated those who worked the farms as slaves.

The parables of Jesus and his teachings must be understood as attacks on those who held wealth and power. When Jesus made his fateful journey to Jerusalem, he was arrested and charged with insurrection. He was clearly guilty in the eyes of those who held power. In first century CE government, the wealthy and the religious establishment worked hand-in-hand. To challenge one part of the system was to challenge the entire system. From a power and control perspective, Jesus and his followers never had a chance. The power brokers killed him, and his followers dispersed.

In modern America, our situation is quite different. We have declared that religion and politics are to be kept separated. That separation is not without tension. Issues of justice and equity are primary concerns of government. Religious people must not stay out of the debate. Followers of Jesus simply cannot in good conscience stay out of the public square of argument. Twice here in Alaska I have been involved in lawsuits against public entities. One was against the government itself. Both cases ended up before the Alaska Supreme Court. My colleagues and I were successful in both cases. I became involved in both cases out of religious conviction and motivation. Unlike Jesus, I carried on my protests and actions without fear of physical reprisal from any adversary.

Jesus had a very effective tool for his work for justice and the Kingdom of God. The tool was the synagogue gathering. The synagogue gathering was not controlled by either the religious or government hierarchies. The gatherings were not contained by walls or a roof. The purpose of the gatherings was focused. The meetings were about understanding Torah. I suspect that many synagogue meetings were dull and uninteresting, but not when Jesus was present.

Sometimes I feel our church buildings and the discussions that take place within them are a handicap to a healthy society. The conversations — and sometimes arguments — that take place are contained by the buildings themselves. The words that are spoken are dull, uninteresting and irrelevant to the world outside.

Every community has important concerns that need to be publicly debated and argued. Where can we have our synagogue meetings?

The Rev. Howard Bess is an American Baptist minister who lives in retirement in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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