11/4
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| Samantha's note... |
OK. So Teddy’s in Queens picking up floor materials for Martin. Steve is on a conference call planning a last minute phone call blitz and get out the vote campaign for Obama in Pennsylvania. I may be on my own here to get ready for church.
Steve takes a break and comes down to help finish the set up. When I stop in Dunkin’ Donuts, I encounter several of my San Francisco runner friends from yesterday. They are wearing their official Marathon t-shirts. And some funky short skirts over their shorts. They tell me there’s an amazing DIY marathon happening in Central Park. The drive is completely filled with runners , they say. They finished one loop around. But some of their group is going to do four plus loops and a complete marathon, like the first New York Marathon back in 1970.
Andre is here, which raises my spirits.
There are three visitors....a couple and an older woman. Turns out she’s the man’s mother from Jersey. With no light or heat, so they've brought her into the city for the duration. And so they’re worshipping with us, instead of Jersey.
We begin with the classic For All the Saints...
There’s much to reflect on today.
This is what would have been Marathon Sunday. I came to the church yesterday afternoon. There was the usual crowd at Barney’s. And twelve people on our steps. San Francisco marathoners. They said “don’t hate us.” ......And I said, No problem. I’ve run it myself. it’s a lifetime experience. But just not the right time...
And my visitor friend says, I couldn’t disagree with you more...they can play basketball and football. Why not do something that can bring the city together?
There’s so much more I could say. Like I remember how we played our soccer games then ran the Marathon after 9-11. But this is different. That was an act of defiance against the powers of death. The runners who came from all over came as an act of intentional solidarity. Plus 9-11, despite it’s horrors, was localized. Sandy has created devastation across 5 boroughs and a tristate area. Plus there’s the whole issue of diversion of resources. How do you invade the numbing devastation of Staten Island to start a race? Run past miles' long gas lines in Brooklyn? How many homes without light do the generators along Central Park West represent? This would not be solidarity or defiance. Just gross insensitivity. Would not bring us together. If I lost my home, I couldn’t really say, well,at least we got the marathon in. All I say out loud is, Well, it became controversial.... a lot of people very upset...
I’ve been been searching for the right music for today. There’s lots of great music from New Orleans. From Katrina. But we can’t really use those...That is their own unique tragedy and deserves its own integrity.
I thought about the great John Mc Cutcheon song, Hallelujah, the great storm is over...but you can’t really say that, not as long trauma continues for so many...the storm is not over..
So I’m drawn to Paul Simon’s Coast..with it’s images of an injured coast, a family...seeking shelter, uncertain negotiable evening meals, falling stars and even gathering to praise a soul’s returning to the earth....
It’s refrain goes:
This is a lonely life
Sorrows everywhere you turn
And that is worth something
When you think about it
That is worth some money
After the final verse it changes to:
This is the only life
Now that is worth something if you think about it
That is worth some money
And I thought of How can I keep from singing...
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I’m clinging,
Since love is lord of heaven and earth, how can i keep from singing...
Yes....
and that fits...
In our gospel lesson (Mark 12: 28-34), Jesus is on the spot again...although this time I believe his questioner is on the level..asking straight up...it’s part of tradition What is the greatest commandment?
And Jesus answers with the shema, the root prayer of Judaism, prayed every night before going to sleep, chanted in every service...
Shema yisroel, adonai elohenu, adonai ehad...
Hear, O Israel, The lord your God is one...
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul...(that’s ALL of you. and the second, like unto it...is you shall love your neighbor as yourselves
(now that is worth some money...)
We try and make it complicated, but it’s so not...It is simple and all connected:
Love God, love yourself, love your neighbor.... can’t do one without the others...
There’s lots to sort out here....what is a natural disaster? Well the storm is natural...the disaster? More complicated. Most of our disasters are the result of policy decisions. Weather is nature, much of disaster human made...After a series of devastating floods during my time in Tulsa, changes were made in the city’s development policy, finally recognizing as one friend said, that water runs down hill... global warming, destruction of wetlands, all choices...don’t talk to me about acts of God until we take responsibility for what’s ours.. if we defy certain basic realities, sooner or later there’s a price...
But as we sort that all out, in the meantime, there is work to do....work to do that has to do with neighbors...so let us be about it...
So even though it’s intimidating to sing with Andre around, I do an acapella How can I keep from singing... as we collect today’s offering which includes clean clothing and blankets and toiletries...
And our communion is in solidarity with those devastated by the storm. And our acclamation, Jesus Christ has died, Jesus Christ has risen, Jesus Christ will come again some day...is sung to the tune of We shall overcome...
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| Packing crew |
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| survival packs |
Following worship, we head up to Mc Alpin Hall to sort and pack and prepare all we have collected. Martin’s daughter and his mother Luli join us...Lily is the rock star of this operation having hustled brand new blankets, organizing the sorting and labelling. She’s also designed survival packs with toiletries and new, warm socks...Samantha has designed a card to go in each pack with a note from the church...to make it slightly less anonymous..First aid kits, home medical and personal sanitary supplies from the National Nurses Union free clinic are added to the collection. The work goes on all afternoon...
After the performance of You Will Make a Difference, Teddy will move the bags and boxes to the chapel. Ready to go tomorrow to the collection center.
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