Rabbi Jonathan Roos, senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Washington D.C., delivers his sermon “Get In The Boat: A Post-October 7th Theology of Relationships” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
Once upon a time, a famous evangelist was coming to a new town. He was well known for healing people in body and spirit. As his crew was setting things up, the man saw a boy and asked him to show him to the post office.
When they got there the evangelist said, “Come to the service tonight. Bring your family and sit in the VIP section, receive the gift of the kingdom and I will show you the way to God.” The boy looked him up and down and said, “I don’t think you can show me the way to God if you can’t even find the post office.”
Rabbi Jonathan Roos said, “I don’t know if I can show you the way to God, but I do believe that God is available. We are going to do ‘Drash,’ (midrash) this week. We will study the text and turn it like a kaleidoscope. The rabbis taught that when we study the text, the Shekinah — the presence of God — sits with us.”
Roos preached at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning ecumenical worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title was “Get in the Boat: A Post-October 7th Theology of Relationships,” and the scripture readings were Leviticus 19: 15-18 and John 6: 16-21.
For Roos, one of the most joyous Jewish festivals is Simchat Torah, which celebrates the joy of reading the whole Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy in a year, and then starting over again with Genesis. Simchat Torah marks the end of the holy days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succoth.
“We march the Torah scrolls around the synagogue, we dance with Torah,” Roos said. “I loved this as a child because we would dance with the Torah and then get candy apples. It was the best day.”
He continued: “Or it was; sadly now it is the worst: Oct. 7, 2023. The last time so many Jews were killed, raped and kidnapped in a single event was in the Holocaust.
“There is a war that has lasted since then and we are torn apart,” Roos continued. “Our level of fear is at its highest. We have been shocked to see the praise for Hamas from people we respected.”
He noted that some people welcomed Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States last week, while some have disavowed him and protested. The community is on the verge of schism. The survivors of the music festival pledged to not stop dancing.
“I am not sure I can dance on Simchat Torah, but we will connect with God and our ancestors and we will never stop ‘drashing.’ It will take a little chutzpah, but we can share a QR code as well as texts,” Roos said. “My mentor Sam Stahl calls this ‘spiritual utilitarianism,’ that wisdom comes from many places.”
Roos started the week’s midrash in verse 17 of Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. The disciples left Jesus behind after the feeding of the 5,000. The disciples leave without Jesus. Why?
“It is instructive that they leave after cleaning up the leftovers,” Roos said. “But the mob is coming after Jesus to make him their king. So Jesus takes refuge on a high mountain.”
Why didn’t the disciples stop to ask Jesus, “Are you OK?” They left without him, but why were they terrified when they saw him coming across the lake?
“Jesus said, ‘Be cool, I’m not mad,’ and he comforts them. That is so Jesus of him,” Roos said. He described Jesus’ action as giving the disciples a gentle opening for repentance, to return to the status quo ante.
For some people, Oct. 7 represents a dramatic elevation of “long-simmering outrage against the Israeli occupation.” For others, it was a time of grief that must be recognized. Roos described a meeting with fellow rabbis from Israel who did hundreds of funerals at once. Another colleague found she could not sing the Kaddish because she could not sing the celebratory words and melody.
“About 25 years ago I got a pamphlet about what to do and say about grief,” Roos said. “You can’t fix grief — you have to honor grief and be available to listen. You have to reassure people, especially children, that they did nothing to cause the death.”
He continued, “What is shocking about Oct. 7 is that people blamed the victims. People need to grieve, and not every moment is a teaching moment or a protest moment.”
When Jesus approached the disciples in the boat, all he said was, “It is I.” Roos noted that in the Gospel of Matthew, walking on water is a sign of divinity — and in Matthew, the disciples call Jesus “Lord.” In the Gospel of John there is no mention of “Lord” or of divinity.
Roos reminded the congregation of the seven “I am” statements in the Gospel of John: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6); I am the good shepherd (John 10:11-18); I am the bread of life (John 6:35-59); I am the Light of the World: (John 8:12); I am the gate for the sheep (John 10:7); I am the door (John 10:7); and I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:1-35).
“That is how God introduced himself in Exodus 3, when Moses sees the burning bush,” said Roos. “When Moses asks who should he tell the Israelites who sent him, God says ‘It is I.’ What a mind-blowing connection.”
The bush had probably always been burning, but it only became divine because Moses saw that it was burning; he could see. In the same way, the disciples could see Jesus as divine when they were in a state to actually see Jesus.
To be able to see “requires awareness of God,” Roos said. “Each person should know and have awareness of God. In John’s Gospel, walking on water is the first time the disciples can see. In a chapter all about Jesus doing miracles, he opts out of a miracle to save the boat.”
In Matthew’s Gospel, Peter gets out of the boat briefly to walk on water. John could opt for several story lines, Roos said — levitate the boat like a Jedi, split the sea, or just get into the boat.
He noted a point of disagreement between the New Revised Standard Version translation used in the service and the King James and New International versions. In those two versions Jesus gets into the boat; in the New Revised Standard the boat gets to shore before Jesus gets in.
When Jesus gets into the boat, he relieves the fear-stricken, floundering, in-it-beyond-their-skills Jewish fishermen. He sits, just sits, then they get to shore.
“We all have to get in the boat,” Roos said. “There is no miracle to fix Oct. 7, no miracle to save the children bombed by Hezbollah (on Saturday). It is much easier to keep going rather than get in the boat, but we have politics to share and rebukes to share.”
Roos promised that during this week, the congregation will take this text and turn it like a kaleidoscope. “I will not show the way to God, but together we will be blessed. The study of Torah leads to anything and everything. May we have peace.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, presided. The prelude was “Fugue in C Minor, BWV 537,” by Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Rees Taylor Roberts on the Massey Memorial Organ. Rabbi Samuel Stahl read the scripture from Leviticus and Sutton read the scripture from the Gospel of John. The Chautauqua Choir sang “Silent Devotion and Response,” by Ernest Block, in Hebrew. The choir was under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organ, and accompanied by Roberts on the Massey Organ. The offertory anthem, sung by the Chautauqua Choir, was “Dear Lord and Father,” music by C. Hubert H. Parry, arranged by H. A. Chambers and words by John Greenleaf Whittier. Stafford directed and Roberts accompanied the choir. The postlude was “Postlude in D Minor,” by Charles Villiers Stanford, played by Roberts. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Harold F. Reed Sr. Chaplaincy.
