What’s your score?
Sydney, Australia
Introduction
L’shana tovah to you as we begin 5784 and ponder the subject of scorekeeping and Rosh Hashanah.
Backstory
When I was a kid back in the United States, along with some other children in the neighbourhood, I put on some stage plays, sometimes even written for Jewish holidays like Passover or Hanukkah. And our parents came along to watch our early evening performances and gave us kind, and probably forced, applause. We children felt good about our writing, our editing, and of course, the shows themselves.
At school, we often had to make speeches about the weather or about a subject we had studied in science class. Sometimes it was practice for a debate that was scheduled. But nothing in school or in the neighbourhood prepared me for my Bar Mitzvah. That day, almost 60 years ago is forever engraved on my mind and let me tell you it was scary.
My Bar Mitzvah
I don’t think I had ever been so nervous. My mouth was terribly dry, yet the palms of my hands were puddled with sweat. I had studied intensely for a whole year to prepare me for these next few hours. Would I stumble over the Hebrew I had studied so carefully? Would I remember my speech, the only part of my bar mitzvah I was to present in English? I was about to become a “son of the commandment” through the ceremony that initiates a 13-year-old boy into the religious life of the Jewish community! I would be responsible to obey the Torah and all its accompanying codes of oral tradition. Quite a heavy responsibility for one who, in many ways, was still a child. The rabbi called me forward to lead the shacharit, the morning service. I faced a frightening sea of faces.
I imagined each person with a clipboard, waiting to evaluate my performance and turn in a score to some panel of judges. Not that there were any such clipboards or judges, but I was greatly concerned with doing well to please and impress everyone who had come to hear me.
Latecomers trickled in and the large sanctuary was filling up quickly. Reassuring smiles of friends and relatives helped. Even my Spanish teacher from school was there, along with the third-baseman for the Kansas City Athletics. It was time to start. After a few minutes of canting the familiar melodies, my nervousness dissolved.
After the almost-three-hour service, I chanted the final prayers, the musaf for the Sabbath. Then it was over, and I sat down.
Afterwards, there was plenty of food and drink and merry-making. People congratulated me and wished me great success in the future. I felt good. It was over and I had done well; I could relax and enjoy being the guest of honour.
Do you ever feel that way, as well? That part about being judged? Do you think people are judging you and giving you a low score for whatever reason? Every day on the television news we hear of people going to court for some crime committed against others, for driving badly or for starting a fire. These people go to court and must give testimony and hope the judge pardons them or at least gives them a lighter sentence. They stand before the judge who decided their fate and these people have no control over their circumstance.
God as King on Rosh Hashanah
You know on Rosh Hashanah that we Jews acknowledge God as the king of our lives. We eat challah which is round, signifying the crown of a king. We recite prayers that ask for forgiveness because we believe that as king he has power like a judge to forgive us. Here’s the problem; most of us think of God like a sports judge, like an Olympic judge giving our athlete a lower score in the swimming pool, or a diver, on the floor exercises or skating on ice to a musical score by Tchaikovsky. No matter what we do, and no matter how excellent our performance, if the judges say we score only 7.3 instead of 9.5, then we will lose in the competition.
There is no further evaluation; there is no appeal to a higher authority. When the Olympic judge decides a number, that’s the number. Yes, there are others involved, as no single judge determines the ranking of an athlete, but together the judges decide.
On Rosh Hashanah we begin the 10 days. These 10 days according to our tradition, give us another year of life, or not. We are written in the Book of Life, or we are not written in the book. And that’s similar to getting a one-year extension of living, breathing, existing on planet earth. That’s all the rabbis teach us. The Book of Life, in their view, is about living until next Rosh Hashanah. Nothing longer lasting than that. It all seems so random.
Especially since we are talking about being judged rightly.
Another king on forgiveness
Elvis Presley, the American known as the King of Rock and Roll, wrote a song called “Evening Prayer” in which he asked God for forgiveness.
“If I have wounded any souls today;
If I have caused one's foot to go astray;
If I have walked in an unwilful way;
Dear Lord, forgive.
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee.
Forgive my secret sins I do not see.
Oh, guide, watch over me and my keeper be.
Dear Lord, amen!”
Maybe you have asked God to forgive you for a particular sin or maybe a group of sins. If so, in this season of repentance and making right with others, do you think God heard you? On what basis do you have the confidence that God is listening? What if he is as cavalier as the Olympic judges? What if he doesn’t forgive you?
Another king on forgiveness
Let’s consider the greatest king of the Jewish people, King David from 3,000 years ago. According to the Scriptures, he was a man ‘after God’s heart.’ That phrase means that David and God were in good relationship with each other, that David knew the Lord personally. And that is a good reference point for this question.
Listen to these words from Psalm 130.
Psa. 130:1 “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.
Psa. 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
And in His word do I hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than the watchmen for the morning;
Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the LORD;
For with the LORD there is lovingkindness,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.”
King David knew that God was well able to ‘mark iniquities’ and if he did, then none of us would stand. Certainly King David would not survive. David’s prayer, like Elvis’ prayer is based on God, not on us. David was a good man, but he failed many times in family situations, committing murder and adultery. He knew his own sins. We know his sins because they are recorded in the Bible. On what basis is David praying for forgiveness? On the basis of God’s character, not because David deserves anything.
For us in 2023
I share this information with you today to encourage you. Some of you, especially those from Russia/ Ukraine, were raised without religious hope. You were taught
“O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!”
Партия Ленина - сила народная
Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!
Here in Australia, in Sydney, in 2023, what is the strength of the people? What is the great hope of our lives, of our family, for us today? It’s wrapped up in King David’s words from 3,000 years ago. If we come boasting in our national strength, or our political party’s strength; if we think we deserve to have an easy life or 20 more years of living, if our life in Sydney is dependent on us and our behaviours, we will not make it well.
There is one hope we as Jews have had, from the earliest days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even to these days. Our hope is in God, as David said, “O Israel, hope in the LORD; for with the LORD there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption and He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
Hope that is an anchor
When you hear the word ‘hope’ you might be less confident. You might use the same word when you buy a lottery ticket. “I hope I win!” But you don’t win. Or you might hope that your sports team wins in the Grand Final. You might hope the train or the bus comes very quickly. You might hope that you get a job that pays you very well. In each of those hopes, you have lived long enough to know that that hope will not pay off. In that case, you are using the word more like a ‘wish’. But that’s not how King David used the word. And it’s clarified in the Brit Hadasha by the writer of Hebrews.
Heb. 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast.”
What is hope there? It’s the assurance that God is listening. He hears us. He delivers us. He saves us.
Now don’t get me wrong. Every year people who have hope die. The rabbis get this one wrong. The Book of Life is not about surviving another 365 days. The Book of Life (Revelation 3.5) is one in which our names can be written for a forever future. How are we written there? Only if we trust in Yeshua, Jesus, to forgive us our sins, known and unknown, and receive him as Lord and Saviour of our lives. This hope is not whimsical or capricious. It is not an annually renewable contract. This hope is an anchor. An anchor that stabilizes even the largest of ships, that prevents it being lost, a guarantee of a better future. Our hope is fixed if we believe and trust in Yeshua to forgive us and fill us with his life and his Spirit.
Invitation
Do you want that experience? Have you the hope that is an anchor of your soul? Do you want the forgiveness of all your sins, past, present, and future? There is only one way to be sure of that. There is only one way to have your name written in the Book of Life. By believing in Yeshua. Faith is the victory; faith is the hope of all mankind. Faith in the One who died for our sins and who alone can save us.
If you want to be written in the Book of Eternal Life, pray with me just now. Pray this prayer and ask Messiah Yeshua to give you eternal life.
Father, in Yeshua’s name, I admit that my sins are great. I’m sorry for all the wrong I have done. I have not loved you with my whole heart. I have not loved my neighbour as myself. I’m truly sorry and I humbly repent. Please forgive me and make me born again. Today. Just now. I receive Yeshua as my Saviour; he alone can save me. He alone can make me to start over, to begin again, even on this day. The first day of the Jewish year, I receive Yeshua. Amen.
Let us know
If you have just prayed that prayer, for the first time in your life, if you have just now received Messiah Yeshua as Saviour and as your Lord, please let me know, and tell me, won’t you? We confess him publicly and we gain the comfort of being with others who believe this as well. We have a family with whom to walk. A forgiven family. A loving family.
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