The arrangement and selection of the following material is optional. Pauses can be included for silent prayer, reflection, confession, extempore prayer, music, scriptures, psalms, hymns, etc. The following text was used for the Repentance Service on Yom HaShoah at the Jerusalem 2001 Convention: Changing the Future by Confronting the Past.
Prelude
All sing
In deep distress we cry to God,
Contrite and broken-hearted.
Oh, may He graciously respond
And father-like us pardon.
All of our sinful thoughts and ways
May He remove and cast away,
Forgiving our transgressions.
For You, O Lord, do not delight
To see the wicked perish,
Rather that they may find true life,
By turning in repentance.
Keep us from dying in our sins,
Help us to turn to You instead,
Your gift of grace receiving.
Though we have sinned most flagrantly,
God's holy heart offending,
His mercies our crimes far exceed,
Grace over wrath prevailing.
To Him alone we look for grace
Throughout our earthly pilgrimage,
Trust and hope never failing.
Aus tiefer Not laßt uns zu Gott
Michael Weiße, ca. 1488–1534
Word of Introduction
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Eternal Father, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we come before You as representatives of various nations and Christian traditions on this occasion as, united in spirit with Christians around the world, we commemorate two thousand years of Christianity. Following the example of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel, who confessed their sins and the sins of their fathers at crucial times in their nation's history, we want to begin this new millennium with a public confession of sin before God and the Jewish people here in Jerusalem, where the Church began.
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Hear our prayer, O Lord;
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give ear to our supplications!
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In Your faithfulness answer us. Enter not into judgment with us; for no one living is righteous before You. See Psalm 143:1-2
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
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Early in the Bible the story of Cain and Abel is recorded. Out of jealousy Cain murdered his brother Abel. But then God challenged him, ‘Where is Abel your brother?'
Today God is challenging us, ‘Where is Israel your brother? Where is he?' In response to our reply — ‘I do not know: am I my brother's keeper?' — God would point to Auschwitz, where the smoking chimneys stood.
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He would point to Babi Yar, site of one of the most infamous massacres in World War II.
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He would point to Evian-les-Bains, where in 1938 the nations of the world discussed the fate of the European Jews only to abandon them to their plight.
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He would point to those countries in the free world which virtually closed their doors to Jews fleeing persecution, so that vast numbers perished in the gas chambers.
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He would challenge us, whatever our nationality, asking, ‘Where was your Christian conscience?'
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In the Christian Era hundreds of thousands of Jews have been cruelly slaughtered, often directly at the hands of professing Christians, often indirectly due to the influence of anti-Judaic theology and teaching. Over six million Jews were murdered in the twentieth century alone. And God is saying to us, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground' (Genesis 4:10).
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Each one of us is his brother's keeper.
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Lord, we cannot expect any blessing for our nation and church until we have confessed before You our personal sins and the sins of our Christian forefathers. – Let us hear the words of the prophet Isaiah:
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The Lord's arm is not so short that he cannot save nor his ear too dull to hear; it is your iniquities that raise a barrier between you and your God, because of your sins he has hidden his face so that he does not hear you. Your hands are stained with blood.
Isaiah 59:1-3 neb
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Lord, we confess that our hands are stained with blood.
Instrumental music
Remembering
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On the night the synagogues burned in Germany in 1938, the words of Psalm 74 were horrifically fulfilled.
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The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
They said in their hearts, ‘Let us destroy them altogether.'
They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
Psalm 74:3,8 nkjv
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As the horrors of the Holocaust unfolded, who, regardless of nationality, heeded God's warning?
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You should not have gloated over … your brother … the people of Judah … You should not have looted his goods in the day of his calamity.
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You should not have stood at the parting of the ways to cut off his fugitives; you should not have delivered up his survivors in the day of distress.
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The day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you, your deeds shall return on your own head. Obadiah 12–15
We Deplore
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In 1942 as the Jewish poet Aychenrand was fleeing the Nazis, he was asked at the Swiss border how old he was. ‘I'm two thousand years old,' he replied.
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In the sight of God a thousand years are but yesterday. See Psalm 90:4
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In deep shame we deplore the atrocities committed during the Middle Ages, as the Crusaders en route to the Holy Land attacked thriving Jewish communities in Europe, looting and killing as they went.
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We deplore
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the burning alive of the Jewish population in Jerusalem's synagogue by Crusaders singing hymns and brandishing their Crusader crosses in the false belief that they were avenging the death of Christ.
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We deplore
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the horrific persecution during the Black Death, when thousands of Jews suffered an agonizing death.
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We deplore
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the practice of segregating Jews, herding them into ghettos and forcing them to wear the badge of shame — a forerunner of the Yellow Star.
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We deplore
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the forcing of Jews to undergo baptism as an alternative to exile or death.
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We deplore
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the false accusations of ritual murder, desecration of the host, and conspiracy, costing thousands of innocent Jewish lives.
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We deplore
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the cruelties and injustices of the Spanish Inquisition, which consigned thousands of Jews, coerced into baptism, to be burned at the stake for continuing any Jewish practices.
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We deplore
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the pogroms, sometimes occurring on Christian holidays like Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.
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We deplore
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the prejudices shaped by theology and by Christian teaching and preaching, causing many of us, or our parents and grandparents, either to give tacit consent to the persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust or to remain indifferent to their plight. Very few Christians helped their Jewish brothers and sisters in the hour of their greatest need.
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Lord, have mercy
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and forgive us our guilt towards Your chosen people Israel.
The Root that Supprts You
The Root That Supports You
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Although the Word of God says of His chosen people, the Jews, 'they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers', love has not been characteristic of Christianity's attitude towards the Jewish people these past two thousand years.
See Romans 11:28
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Lord, we confess our lack of love. Forgive us, we pray.
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As Christians we have not remembered what the Bible says:
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Do not boast over the branches … Remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you … Do not become proud, but stand in awe.
Romans 11:18,20
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Lord, we confess our spiritual arrogance. Forgive us, we pray.
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As Christians we are guilty of attempting to steal Israel's birthright by claiming that we, the Christian Church, have replaced Israel, that we are the New Israel, and that the covenant belongs exclusively to us. This we have done in complete disregard of Holy Scripture, which declares concerning Israel:
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They are God's people; he made them his sons and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them und gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises; they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. Romans 9:4–5 gnb
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Lord, we confess our covetousness. Forgive us, we pray.
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Flawed theology led our forefathers to persecute the Jews in the erroneous belief that they were assisting You and avenging the death of Jesus, although Your Word says that all people, both Jew and Gentile, were responsible for His death.
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‘The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed' — for truly in this city there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Acts 4:26-27
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Lord, we confess our blindness. Forgive us, we pray.
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We acknowledge with grief the inflammatory and untrue statements of esteemed church fathers and later of the Reformer Martin Luther, which helped pave the way for the Holocaust. We confess with shame the pride and envy that spawned such statements. Our own scriptures state unequivocally: 'God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.'
Romans 11:2
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Lord, we confess our slandering. Forgive us, we pray.
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We confess that we have misused Holy Scripture by appropriating all the promises of blessing and leaving Israel with the judgments.
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Lord, we confess our misuse of Scripture. Forgive us, we pray.
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As a family of nations we have generally presumed to sit in judgment upon Israel, failing to acknowledge her unique role as God's chosen people and her God-given destiny to be a vessel of blessing for the whole world. This we have done in spite of Your warning:
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I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land.
Joel 3:2
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Lord, we confess our presumptuousness. Forgive us, we pray.
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Lord, have mercy
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and forgive us our guilt towards Your chosen people Israel.
Instrumental music
Address
The Suffering Servant
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Over the centuries the chosen people of God came to resemble the suffering Servant of God in Isaiah 53: despised, rejected, acquainted with grief. In the messianic psalms we can hear the anguished cry of the Jewish people, which reached a climax during the Holocaust:
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So many troubles have fallen on me
that I am close to death.
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I am abandoned among the dead;
I am like the slain lying in their graves,
those you have forgotten completely,
who are beyond your help.
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The waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying;
my throat is parched.
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More in number than the hairs of my head
are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack me with lies.
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The insults of those who insult thee have fallen on me.
Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none;
and for comforters, but I found none.
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They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
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My days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
Because of my loud groaning
my bones cleave to my flesh.
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My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Psalm 88:3,5 gnb; 69:1–4,9,20–21; 102:3,5; 22:1
Instrumental music
The Pain of God
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Nearly half a century ago Mother Basilea Schlink wrote:
Can we Germans really continue to walk under the open sky of our fatherland, in daytime in the sunshine and at night beneath the stars, enjoying it all without feelings of shame? Must we not always remember that … under that same sky, in the midst of our people, gigantic flames ascended from the burning bodies of millions of people day and night? Were not these flames like a cry of desperation and a raised finger of accusation? Indeed, having witnessed these crimes, the sun ought to veil its face, and the stars refuse to shine.
But it was not only the sun, the stars and the heavens; the heart of God the Father had to witness it all. What unimaginable pain it must have caused Him when He looked down and saw the horrors of the concentration camps, all those desperate people, who were His creatures, children of His and members of His beloved chosen people! Israel, My Chosen People
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We read in Zechariah:
He who touches you [Israel] touches the apple of his [God's] eye. Zechariah 2:8
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and in Isaiah:
In all their affliction he was afflicted. Isaiah 63:9
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Let us listen to the words of Jesus:
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Anything you did not do for one of these, however humble, you did not do for me … When I was hungry you gave me nothing to eat, when thirsty nothing to drink; when I was a stranger you gave me no home, when naked you did not clothe me; when I was ill and in prison you did not come to my help.
Matthew 25:45, 42–43 NEB
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Again, to quote Mother Basilea:
Where was the good Samaritan when the Jews fell among the robbers? Where was the Christian Church, which is supposed to follow his example? Apart from the odd Christian here and there who secretly sheltered Jews in his home or helped them in other ways, the Christians in general failed in the hour of Israel's greatest need. It became evident that the Christian Church was not like Jesus nor a true disciple of His. Instead of acting like the good Samaritan, it passed by on the other side …
There is only one thing we can do now: cast ourselves down at the Father's feet like the prodigal son and confess, ‘I am no longer worthy to be called your son' (Luke 15:21). We have not even dimly reflected the nature of God our Father, the essence of which is merciful love. This attribute His people has not found in us. Israel, My Chosen People
All sing
The pain, oh, the pain and deep anguish
Within the heart of God,
The pain brought on by my sinning,
For nothing so grieves the Lord.
With tears God's heart is overflowing.
He weeps for love of us.
To see us sinners repenting
Would comfort the heart of God.
Oh, that I could fathom the pain of God,
His boundless agony!
It's love that makes Him so suffer,
In grief over sinners weep.
O Schmerz, o Schmerz meines Gottes
M. Basilea Schlink
Instrumental music
Act of Repentance
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For 2000 years God has been grieving over our attitude towards our elder brother Israel. By our actions we have shown ourselves to be foes of His Word and of His redemptive purposes. Everything we know about God comes to us through Israel. Jesus Himself said, ‘Salvation is from the Jews' (John 4:22).
In opposing the Jewish people, we have opposed God.
Although we cannot undo centuries of evil, nor restore the dead to life, we can at least acknowledge our failure and resolve to mend our ways. As we now renounce antisemitism, past and present, we pledge ourselves to work against all antisemitism in the future.
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As a corporate act of repentance you are invited to stand and join in the reading of the Confession, making the words your own. May this declaration be a testimony before the visible and invisible world, affirming what we have already signed in preparation of this event. The delegates representing some of the nations with us today will now come forward as a symbolic gesture.
Confession
In deep shame and contrition
we come before the almighty and merciful God
to confess the crimes and injustices perpetrated against the Jewish people
down through the centuries,
for which the Christian Church bears heavy responsibility.
We confess that we and our Christian forefathers
often showed prejudice and antagonism
towards our elder brother Israel,
instead of loving God's chosen people.
Throughout the centuries
the Jewish people have been defamed by Christians as murderers of God;
and to this day the teaching persists
that God has finished with His covenant people Israel,
despite the clear evidence of Scripture to the contrary.
God's people have been accused of well-poisoning and ritual murder,
as well as being humiliated, deprived of their rights,
held in contempt and persecuted.
The horrific murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust —
the climax of a long history of flagrant injustice —
hangs over us like a dark cloud to this day.
We therefore repent and plead with Almighty God
that He might have mercy upon us and forgive us
for what we and our forefathers have done
to His chosen people.
We pledge ourselves to work tirelessly against antisemitism
in all its forms and to make every effort
to ensure that respect and consideration will be shown
on the part of the Church of Jesus Christ towards the Jewish people
in the light of God's everlasting covenant with them.
We seek God's blessing upon His covenant people
in Israel and worldwide,
above all in the countries from which we come. Amen.
Presentation of the Declaration
Instrumental music
Have Mercy on Me, O God
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In the words of Psalm 51 we confess our guilt and the guilt of our Christian forefathers. It is against the holy God, the God of Israel, that we have sinned.
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Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in thy sight.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation.
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We do not present our supplications before You on the ground of our righteousness, but on the ground of Your great mercy. See Daniel 9:18
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This is the Word of the Lord:
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Isaiah 1:18
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In our own scriptures we are reminded:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
Instrumental music
The Shepherd of Israel
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Let us pray.
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Heavenly Father, we ask You:
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help us to catch something of Your heart for Israel, whom You have chosen to be Yours, because You loved them and because through them You wanted to bring salvation to the whole world.
See Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Genesis 12:3
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Heavenly Father, we ask You:
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comfort Your people Israel as much as we have grieved and hurt them.
Choir sings in German
I will show him mercy.
Is not Ephraim My dear son,
the child in whom I delight?
I will remember all that I have promised Ephraim.
My heart is filled with tenderness towards him. See Jeremiah 31:20
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Whereas we and our forefathers failed to discern Your saving purposes concerning Israel, even actively resisting them, we now pray for the fulfilment of Your prophecies concerning Your people.
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Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60:3
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Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favour of the Lord. Zechariah 8:22
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At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you together; yea, I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes. Zephaniah 3:20
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With the psalmist let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
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As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people both now and for evermore. Psalm 125:2 NIV
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He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
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The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand …
The Lord will keep you from all evil …
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore. Psalm 121:4–8
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Lord God, Heavenly Father, You have been a Shepherd to Your people in all their afflictions down through the ages.
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The archers fiercely attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him sorely; yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel). Genesis 49:23–24
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You have been true to Your word:
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As a shepherd seeks out his flock … so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will … gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 34:12–13
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For all the struggles facing our Jewish brothers and sisters, we call upon You as the Shepherd of Israel in the words of Psalm 23:
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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I fear no evil;
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psalm 23
The God of Abraham Praise
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In the following hymn we affirm our faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the One who was, and is, and is to be.
All sing
The God of Abr'am praise,
All praisèd be His name,
Who was, and is, and is to be,
For aye the same!
The one eternal God,
Ere aught that now appears;
The First, the Last: beyond all thought
His timeless years!
He hath eternal life
Implanted in the soul;
His love shall be our strength and stay
While ages roll.
Praise to the living God!
All praisèd be His name,
Who was, and is, and is to be,
For aye the same!
His Spirit floweth free,
High surging where it will:
In prophet's word He spoke of old,
He speaketh still.
Established is His law,
And changeless it shall stand,
Deep writ upon the human heart,
On sea or land.
Traditional Hebrew melody
Words: Daniel ben Judah Dayyan,
tr. Max Landsberg and Newton Mann, 1885
The Aaronic Blessing
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We now invoke the ancient blessing that God gave Moses for His people Israel:
The Lord bless you and keep you:
The Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious to you:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Numbers 6:24–26
