This past Sunday, a bunch of people on bicycles gathered in Philadelphia to ride from restaurant to restaurant – all owned by Jews – to promote a boycott in support, they claimed, of the Palestinian people. What these hard-working restaurant owners have to do with what is happening in the Middle East is a mystery to me – to connect the two is just another form of antisemitism. The riders did not expect what they got; they were surrounded by many more people protesting their idiotic protest. Lines 2 hours long at each location in support of these establishments. The bike riders – all masked like the KKK and ICE – cut the protest short, afraid for their lives. The restaurant owners were glad for the support but also let the people know that future reservations would be appreciated.
The next night – last night – people all over the world gathered together for Kristalnacht, the night of broken glass. In Reading, PA, we were hosted once again by Christ Episcopal Church in their newly renovated and amazingly beautiful sanctuary. People of all religions – and of no religion – gathered to remember and weep and hope for something different. And in the same way that Rosa Park’s refusal to change her seat on the bus didn’t start the Civil Rights Movement, Kristalnacht was not the beginning of Nazi aggression against Jews in Germany. Hatred towards Judaism has existed for thousands of years. Like the ancient Chinese practice of a thousand little cuts, they have been tortured and attacked wherever they have tried to live. Why? The excuses are many, but the reasons do not exist. There is no making sense of hate.
For those of us who do not succumb to hate, it seems incomprehensible that it can exist in so many forms. We have all experienced things that might lead us to say we hate someone, but anger and fear take a long time to fester before they become so violent that they morph into hatred. Hate doesn’t care if you have a family – it doesn’t care if you work hard or have had personal tragedy. Hate is there as an excuse to hurt others, and the excuses are many, but there are no real reasons for it. We can point to history or harms that might lead us to seek vengeance, but these are just excuses. We have all had reasons to burn with rage over an injury we have received, but Jesus knew the difference between anger that is expressed cathartically and anger that turns into hatred that is murderous. There is no place for hate in the world I live in, because hate only burns things down – just like it did on Kristalnacht.
Prayer – Holy God, we know that each one of us has the capacity to hate, so we pray that Your Spirit might help us resolve, rather than live out, our anger. Give us peace, we pray. Amen.
Today’s art is “One Spring” by Karl Bodek and Kurt Conrad Löw (1941). They were interred at the Gurs Camp in Southern France.