Weekly Bracha 21

This week in the Messianic blogosphere:

• Is Messianic Judaism A Judaism? –If a Messianic congregation has lots of gentiles in it, is it still a Judaism? Are they Messianic Jewish? Are they Christian? And why are we so anxious to be accepted by the Jewish world?
  

• Jesus, the Land and Christian Thinking Today – The New Testament doesn’t have a theology about the land of Israel. Therefore, neither should Jesus’ followers. Hooray, now we can be anti-Israel and feel Jesus-Good about it. The usual gang of Messianic characters (Leman, Shlomovich, Weissman, etc.) jump into the comments alongside several anti-Israel Christians and others.

• Messianic Jew interviewed on prime time Israeli TV – (UPDATE: read the English transcript) Messianic Jew Asher Intrater, a leader of Messianic Jews near Jerusalem, was interviewed on prime time Israeli television. (Anti-missionaries tried to prevent this through lobbying, government venues, and media outlets, but failed. Needless to say, Yad L’achim and friends are very upset about this.)

   
  
• Shavuot Ramblings – Tim reflects on the upcoming biblical feast of Shavuot, and draws parallels between Samuel, David, and Yeshua.
  
  

• Why do I read Midrash, Part 2 – Carl Kinbar explains:
  

  My work in midrash is part of an emerging Messianic Jewish project that seeks to deal in depth with these difficult textual and communal issues “performing a tikkun, a repair of what has been broken.” Like archeologists digging and sifting on their site, I find fragments here and there, slowly getting a feel for the site. I see how these pieces might fit together. Slowly, a picture—or parts of a picture—starts to emerge. Gaps become evident and cry out to be filled.

• Do-It-Yourself Ascension Day – Celebrating Yom HaAliya – the day of (Yeshua’s) ascension:

  Yom HaAliya is a great time to gather with friends to celebrate the ascension of Yeshua who rose like a wholly burnt offering into the sky ten days before Shavuot.

  
  

• Rabbi Shmuley Pitches Shabbos to the Pope! – How should the Catholic Church defuse its sex scandal? Celebrate shabbat, says Rabbi Shmuley to Pope Benedict.

Podcasts

• Pastoral Epistles Study – John McKee finishes his engaged study of the first chapter of 1 Timothy, in which he discusses the famous doxology therein which seems to describe Messiah as the eternal King and only God.
  

• Yeshua and the Sower Parable – Derek Leman on the coming Kingdom of God, it’s partial application, and how this failed people’s expectation of a sudden and immediate kingdom.

Enjoy!