Skeletons

John  21:15-19

Yesterday my daughter Megan discovered the skeleton in the Lutheran closet. She sent me a text with this link from Wikipedia – Martin Luther’s On the Jews and Their Lies. Wittenberg, 1543.

Underneath was her comment – “Well shit. I didn’t know about this.”

I understand and share her disappointment.

In 1543, three years before his death, Martin Luther wrote a pamphlet titled “On the Jews and Their Lies.” In it, Luther vented his rage against those Jews who would not convert to Christianity. As you can discover if you visit the Wikipedia page, Luther urged Christians to take seven specific actions against the Jews including –

burning down Jewish synagogues and schools; refusing to let Jews own houses among Christians; and forbidding rabbis from preaching.

He wrote that Jews should either be expelled from Christian lands or forced into labor. He also said that Christians “are not at fault in slaying them.”

You can imagine the devastating and lasting damage this did to the Jewish people in Luther’s day and beyond. The Nazis had a heyday with Luther’s pamphlet, often quoting from it to persuade God-fearing Germans that it was acceptable to be anti-Semitic. It’s not difficult, as some have done, to draw a line from its publication to the Holocaust.

What’s so puzzling about Luther’s behavior is his complete turnaround from urging tolerance of the Jewish people.

In 1519 he wrote against the doctrine of the “Servitude of the Jews” arguing –

“Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. … What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them – that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?”

And in his 1523 essay “That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew,” Luther wrote –

“When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are … If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them … by the law of Christian love.”

So, what happened to cause this change in attitude?

Many excuses have been offered, such as he was old and ill, or merely reflecting the spirit of his times. Luther biographer Roland Bainton (among others) has pointed out that Luther’s animus was directed at the Jewish faith, not the Jewish people. He was not anti-Semitic, but anti-Judaic.

None of these explanations are really satisfying. I can’t say definitively where his intolerance came from. In the end there is no defense for his bigotry. Period.

The Lutheran Churches, at least some branches, have issued formal apologies to the Jewish people. In its 1998 statement, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria said that the Lutheran Church “has to disassociate itself from every expression of anti-Judaism in Lutheran theology.”

But, as Megan texted, “I keep seeing the phrase that the church has ‘disassociated’ itself from this legacy and that is wrong. It’s good that the church apologized, but I never knew about it, and I find that alarming. We’ve got to own up continuously to that unfortunate part of our legacy and use it to teach.”

I agree. We must remember so that it can never happen again. As nice as it would be, you can’t fix a problem by ignoring it or pretending it no longer matters. Historical events cast long shadows. Not dealing with them only makes things worse in the end.

Lutherans aren’t the only ones with skeletons in their closets. Dealing with issues by ignoring them should sound familiar to Americans. It’s what we’ve tried to do with our “Founding Sins:” the attempted obliteration of one race and the enslavement of another. We are where we are today because we haven’t dealt honestly with our past. If we want to move forward into the future together then we need to deal decisively with these issues today. Amidst all the turmoil and discomfort, we have an opportunity to finally change our world for the better.

All of this puts me in mind of Jesus’ encounter with Peter after the resurrection. When Jesus was arrested Peter failed him…miserably. Not once. Not twice. Three times. You can imagine Peter’s trepidation in speaking with the risen Jesus.

Jesus could have ignored what happened, brushed it aside and moved on. But, Jesus was building a church and he needed it to be built on a strong foundation. So, instead of ignoring Peter’s ‘sin,’ he confronted it. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. After every reply of “yes Lord, you know that I love you,” Jesus asked Peter to take care of his followers (sheep). These three affirmations echo Peter’s three denials. I’m sure this wasn’t lost on Peter.

There are people who share my skin color who believe that things will be fine if we would just stop talking about race. No. Sorry. That’s just not the case. We need to be honest with ourselves, recognize our part in the systemic racism that infests our country, and work together to put an end to it.

We all have skeletons rattling around in our closets. Wouldn’t it be great if that rattling sound came from skeletons shaking in fear of losing their power?

God be with you. Stay well.