12/22
Charles and I go outside with ladders to hang Priska’s
Christmas Eve posters in our outside display boxes. There is a certain
Keystone Cops aspect to the effort but we get the job done.
Pat O wants me to come to meet with the Roto Rooter people
and look at their screen. They have lowered a camera down the pipes to reveal
major blockage. A giant roach and its family have set up
housekeeping over one of the blockages. They have tried serious water blasting,
enough to rip a man in half, but haven't managed to break through. They’ve got
a plan. But Yaro, Jerry’s Ukrainian crew chief, feels his crew can do the job
just as well. Now it’s negotiations to see who will do the job.
Dion is in the neighborhood and drops in just to say hello,
and it’s good to have him there, just for his positive spirit in a tense time.
Getting very close to Christmas.
12/23
Pat K is in to put in major time decorating and getting us
all ready for Christmas.
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| Pat Klein decorating |
Pat O tells me we’ve decided to close out the work of the
Roto Rooter people and move ahead with Jerry’s crew.
A group is in looking to rent space for a children’s
program.
Geoffrey is in every day, sleeping in the back of the
sanctuary.
Marc S is working through details on our sound needs for
Christmas Eve.
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| Rehearsing the Sky Singers |
Carman has gathered his Sky Singers. My son Micah is ready on bass. Jeremy has joined us
as well. Rehearsals for Christmas Eve are underway. Just as I thought
everything was well inn hand , things seem to be spinning out of control. Olivia
can’t locate a cello. Neither can I.
I’ve been looking forward all day to a quiet dinner with a
close friend. Carman’s rehearsal is running late. It finally ends. I’m racing
to get to my dinner. Imagining candle light and a shared bottle of wine. Carman
calls. He’s left his bag in my office. I have to go back. Turns out the bag was
in the sanctuary after all. I now have to grab a cab. When I go to text my
friend that I will be late, I realize
that I never hit send on my text to confirm to dinner. Knowing what that will
mean, I almost lose it. Almost burst into tears.
12/24
Even on Christmas Eve, our reconstruction project continues.
Pat O carefully supervising.
The fire alarm people keep calling at all hours. There’s a
break in our system somewhere. We’ve got fore alarm people and phone company
people allover the place.
A woman is in looking for her glasses. Yes we have them. Being able to see is a good thing.
Our friends at New York Hair have sent over fresh flowers
again.
Yesterday, Charles went across the street to look for a
tree, but the best offer he got was for a discount on the $90 tree. This calls
for a personal visit. The Quebecois tree people are old friends. The one with
the dreadlocks tells me he actually came in to our concert for the homeless
awhile. And heard my group. He offers me their biggest tree on the lot, as a
gift. And will even bring it over personally, making my day easier. When I need
it to be. He’s looking forward to heading home at 3am or so after they break
down their operation.
And Gary Greengrass has provided our annual Christmas
breakfast of pastrami salmon and sable. A traditional Upper West Side Jewish
breakfast.
Time is running short. Anxiety running high. Time to meet my
friend from the missed last night dinner in between her services for a glass of
wine and a Christmas toast then on to my service.
Leila and I place the luminarias
on the steps bringing a taste of New Mexico to the Upper West Side. The rain is letting up. The Christmas Eve
crowd is beginning to arrive. Olivia
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| Olivia and Carman |
comes in and I give her a hug. Never could
find her a cello but she’s here anyways. That’s the spirit of the place.
Home Band member Esther
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| Esther and family |
has brought her family here instead
of where they regularly go. Singing together means a lot.
Soon enough the service begins. I feel a bit scattered.
After year on the edge of survival, last year was magical. There’s a similar
turn out this year. Somehow, I’ve got to adjust to the fact that we’re moving
on. It is a new day.
Carman has his three new carols, one about Three Kings based
on an ancient text. A Happy Birthday Jesus with a universal appeal. And an Alleluia from his Mass for the 21st
Century.
So what word do I have to bring to this Christmas Eve?
My
first and last words tonight are wand will be Do not be afraid…
It
has been difficult, stressful and worrying times. Mourning and protest and more
mourning. Fear and anger and more fear. A day of drunks in Santa suits crossing
paths with chanting protestors…
I
heard someone say this week, it’s not Christmas as usual… Yes, but…
maybe it is never Christmas as usual. We
have lived through Christmas in the wake
of hurricanes, in the aftermath of 9-11, in the midst of war…Christmas always
comes in the midst of….and that is
the point…
The
prophet Isaiah says:
The
people who walked in darkness …..
have seen a great
light;
and we have been walking in darkness….
those who lived in a land of deep darkness
— and we don’t need statistics to know that for
many this is a land of darkness and for some
its gotten darker…
4 For
the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across
their shoulders,
the rod of their
oppressor,
you have broken as
on the day of Midian.
5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the
garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as
fuel for the fire.
The prophecy comes as if it has
already been accomplished..
6 For a child has been
born for us,
a son given to
us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is
named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
7 His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be
endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish
and uphold it
with
justice and with righteousness
from this time
onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
The story is familiar…an unmarried young woman…pregnant…in a
culture where that could be fatal…engaged to a working man…living in an
occupied country…born where? In a
stable, among shepherds…
1.
Who were the shepherds? In their day, they
were the only people who lived outside the walls of the city. Even farmers
lived inside. They were suspect when
they came into town. Ritually unclean. Literally outsiders. No more nostalgic,
romantic David as shepherd image. Jesus referring to himself as the Good
Shepherd was a statement filled with irony.
2.
So where did God come to visit? Who was the
announcement made to?
a.
Not at city hall
b.
Not at the cathedral, or any other church
The announcement came to shepherds….
c.
Shepherds were othered…
d.
When they came into town, they would be profiled, stopped and frisked by those
in charge of public safety
e.
The angels were announcing Shepherds lives matter…
So I ask….where are the angels tonight in New York City?
The child is sent as a sign…
but a sign of what? A sign of a world where
black lives matter, where blue lives matter, where all lives matter…
Do not be afraid….
Lots of people are afraid…black people,parents in this
congregation, even mayors, fear for the loves of their children…and now
police,already afraid in communities alien to them fear retributive
violence… that explains the hunkering
down war-like attitude of the police…
The shepherds were startled. Sometimes I wonder, what would
it take to startle us?
But I want to make this personal as well…this is not just
about our society…it’s about you…and me…where in your life do you feel walled
out? Vulnerable? Or afraid?
The message of the incarnation is that the divine is born in
human form….the most vulnerable…that
the divine, the sacred, the holy …is
revealed in the most vulnerable of humanity…and in the most vulnerable part of ourselves….we need to feel the divine
inside of us and see it in the faces of others to the point that others are not
othered….
I am not ignoring the necessity of systemic analysis and
strategic response…BUT…on this night what we celebrate is incarnation, Immanuel..….EACH life sacred…including yours…that is what
is born in us tonight…
And for this we give
thanks….
As I delivered those words, finally I felt centered. Home.
Centered. And as we lit our Christmas candles, I said that it wasn’t as of the
world was dark and then Jesus came and presto changeo light came. The light was…and
always has been here. Since creation. And the exodus liberation. And the
prophets who spoke out against empire. And the subversive Gospel of Jesus. Sometime
it gets dim, or hard to see. But the light is always there…so take your light out into
the streets and let it shine..that is wht we we are here…
Jeremy led us into an outrageous rockin Joy to the World.
And Christmas arrived at last.
Merry Christmas to all….
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| Andre Solomon-Glover, Jessica Crandall, Carman Moore and Pastor Bob Brashear |
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