“The prophet is the [person] who can hold both God and [humanity], in one thought, at one in all times… which means whatever I do to one I do to God. When I hurt a human being, I injure God.” –Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

One way to resist the co-opting of Christ into a consumer self-help trinket by those selling false salvations (which seek to helps us sleep sound through the destruction of God’s good creation, as if the resurrection never happened) is to be immersed in the prophetic Jewishness of Jesus, The Holy One’s nonviolent Messiah. There are many modern day Marcionite heresies of both fundamentalist and liberals that seek to kidnap Christ from his prophetic Jewishness making the Hebrew Scriptures a stranger to many Christians.

Martin Buber once wrote, “From my youth onwards I have found in Jesus my great brother.” For me, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel has been such a “great brother” who has immersed me in the waters of the prophetic Judaism. I offer this clip and this link as an intro to Heschel. A man whose life makes clear the the earth-affirming, justice-seeking, Hebraic mysticism that marked the life of prophets’ love for God expressed in love of neighbour. It is this prophetic witness that comprises the notes that make the symphony of Jesus’ life sing. And the song? The wondrous, nonviolent transfiguration of all things.