Stone relief, 1250-60. Naumburg Cathedral
The kiss of Judas, Peter cuts off Malchus's ear
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 During the Summer of 1994, a number of local Christian clergy approached
the Institute seeking an educational forum in which they might
wrestle with biblical passages they were finding increasingly
more difficult to preach. In response to this request, the Institute
consulted with several local rabbis and Christian clergy. The
fruit of this collaborative work is a new program initiative.
The Preaching Colloquium is a clergy education program whose primary
focus is on Christian preaching and the liturgical use of sacred
scriptures. In part, the Colloquium addresses the centuries-old
problem that an uncritical reading of the Gospels all too often
leads to negative descriptions of the Jewish people and a diminished
understanding of the continuing vitality of Judaism. During the
last three decades, a growing body of scholarship has emerged
which offers a new and more comprehensive awareness of the complex
relationship that existed between rabbinic Judaism and nascent
Christianity in the tumultuous decades of first and early second
century Common Era Palestine. The Colloquium seeks to make Christian
clergy more keenly aware of this scholarship and to assist them
as they try to preach the core Christian narrative in ways that
do not enshrine distorted perceptions of Judaism and the Jewish
people.
With the support and cooperation of the Baltimore Chapter of the
American Jewish Committee, the ICJS will offer the Preaching Colloquium
semiannually: once, prior to the season of Lent/Easter, and once,
just before the Advent/Christmas season.
On February 21, 1995, Woodbrook Baptist Church and Pastor John
Roberts were host to the first meeting of the Preaching Colloquium.
Designed primarily to assist Christian clergy prepare their congregations
for Lent and Easter, A Lenten Afternoon brought together thirty-five
priests, ministers, and pastoral associates, along with several
local rabbis and religious educators, for an afternoon of study,
discussion, and exchange of ideas. The first session focused on
the Lectionary readings for the 5th Sunday in Lent. Small group
text study was followed by input sessions by Rabbi Daniel Lehmann,
Principal of the Beth Tfiloh Upper School, and The Rev. Roger
Gench, Pastor of Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, Bolton Hill.
The second session focused on Peter and Judas, two pivotal gospel
characters who play central roles in the Gospel readings of Holy
Week and Easter. The Institute asked three long-time associates
to write meditations (a kind of "Christian Midrash") on each of
these characters at specific moments in the Passion account. The
Rev. Carl Edwards, Rector of Immanuel Episcopal Church, the Rev.
John Roberts, Pastor of Woodbrook Baptist Church, and Mr. Peter
Culman, Managing Director of Center Stage, offered dramatic readings
of their original and creative works. An animated discussion followed.
With permission of the authors, we have reproduced on the following
pages one each of their texts. Although reading them is no substitute
for their power as proclaimed word, we anticipate that they will,
nevertheless, convey something of the experience. |