GlocalNet

Last week I was invited to speak in Washington DC at Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding.  It was a blast.  I got to hang out with one of my hero’s - Ray Bakke - and a lot of other people as well.  Dennis Bakke, his brother was there along with my good friend from Bethlehem - Sami Awad, Len Rogers, Greg Khalil and Todd Deathrage, lots of friends.  I got to hear Stephen Sizer for the first time and he’s a brain! 

One of the people that blew me away the most was M J Rosenthal.  He is Jewish and worked for years for AIPEC - the large Jewish lobbyist group.  His insights, both as a Jew and as someone having worked as a Washington and AIPEC insider were just incredible. 

If you were to ask me what is the greatest gift the Jews have given the world – I’d say Moses, the Torah, Abraham, even Jesus because as my friend Ron Heifitz says, “He was one of our boys.”  But according to MJ that’s not it - it would be the Jewish Diaspora.  How could that be?  When he said that, it caught my attention and I wondered, where in the world is he going with this?  This is a Jew who is pro-Israeli, having fought politically for the survival of the nation-state of Israel, how could he say such a thing?

Easy - he began to list all the Jewish scientist, businessmen, Nobel Prize winners, politicians, writers, and it goes on and on and on.  I saw what he was saying.  It was powerful.  The people who have made the core of their existence have forgotten the most important things about what it is to be Jewish and how they have been a blessing to the world.  It made me think of Abraham’s promise from God, “. . . and through you all nations will be blessed.”  So, what if God localized them as a people to give them nationhood for a period - make massive deposits in them - and then spread them out around the world to make it a better place.  This is too brilliant when you think about it - it would be the kind of thing God would do. 

As a follower of Jesus, this also makes sense because Jesus fulfilled all the law and all the prophets in the Old Testament.  He embodies a kingdom of the heart - not of brick and mortar - dust and topography.  It makes sense theologically - every tongue, every tribe, every nation - becoming as one under the Lordship of Christ.  In kingdom theology - this fits as well - reconciling men and all things to Jesus.  Truly, his temple is in our hearts - and it is an eternal kingdom. 

If this is all there is to this life then the Jews should forget all of this and fight only for land.  But if the writers of the Old Testament were right and as David, “they searched for a city not of this world” and if heaven is real, and God is real, and there is going to one day be people gathered and worshipping before God in a heavenly Jerusalem where Jews and Gentiles alike gather before the one God - wow - then lets get on with that kingdom here and now.