8/24
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| Witnesses: Stephen, Hugo, Arcadia, Lilly, Stephen, Samantha |
The empty days of late August. And we gather for worship. Our
4th in the series on godwrestling.
Good to see Russ back again. And Stephen W. And Rachel, who
always lifts my spirits. We use Lead on
Oh King Eternal as a musical reflection. And our main scripture this
morning is Exodus 1: 8-2:10, which we do
as a reader’s theatre, different voices, different parts. The story of a new
pharaoh who knew not Joseph, the quasi genocidal project against male children
and the rescue of baby Moses.
This time I do more talk at the beginning than I usually do.
Much on my mind and heart.
Talk about wrestling…There’s the continuing siege of Gaza.
The murder of loosie salesman Eric Garner. The protest march on Staten Island.
Michael Brown, shot down in Ferguson.
We’ve now added to our common language, I can’t breathe... (Garner) and Hands up, Don’t shoot…(Brown). Foley's brutal beheading by ISIS. Feels
like a world aflame.
Did you notice that last Monday on Monday Night Football the
Washington Redskins secondary entered the field with their hands up? Did you notice that
our friend Osagyefo Sekou was sent to Ferguson as a representative of the
Fellowship of Reconciliation? (http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/19/pastor_in_ferguson_police_crackdown_i)
He commented that in Ferguson he needed
a gas mask more than his clergy collar. Turns out Brother Sekou grew up
around there and graduated from Ferguson high school.
Our PCUSA officials released a statement that urged prayer
and calm…..my son Micah saw this on my
Facebook and commented …seriously?....Micah’s
point was what is called for is not calm,
but a loud cry of outrage....
So we turn to our story…
First…how did we get into this situation?
* Jacob settled where he
wanted, not where God wanted…setting
it all in motion. He chose the security of a gated community over the
wilderness where reliance on God is the only security.
* Joseph, sold away by his brothers, put his fate in the hands of pharaoh, not God.
Served the pharaoh. Manipulated a food crisis to rob the people of their
property, enslaved the country, the lower class Egyptians as well as the
Hebrews.
* The new Pharaoh manipulated up resentment against and fear of the
Israelites to distract from his culpability. It’s an old common story…lower
class whites encouraged to blame the blacks, not those who control the economy.
Lower class whites blaming immigrants. Jews driven out of one country serving
the rulers of a new country until the people arise. An old story.
Now…a new pharaoh…who did
not know Joseph…arises ….(and even if
he did know Joseph, his strategy could have been the same…)
The message is simple: when
you buy into the empire you are lost…
There is also the reality of the more powerful fearing the
larger population, Pharaoh afraid of Hebrew demographics, Israel fearing being outnumbered by Palestinians…
There is new scholarship suggesting that revolutionary war was
not just about self determination but also about slavery…That the British
Empire was preparing to end slavery and the colonial economy was dependent on
slavery and so the drive for separation…the roots of today’s trauma run very
deep….
The story of baby Moses and the bulrushes has a sense of Bible story nostalgia.., a gentle glow of memory. It’s easy to
forget that underneath this story is a genocidal plan…
Again, familiar…Gaza,(shooting fish in a barrel, as one of
us says…),mass incarceration, drug laws, (remember again our West-Park
overture, the disproportionate rate of stops, arrests, incarceration…with about
12% of the population blacks are 65% of drug arrests and 75% of incarcerations…)
and now with these shootings, is there
any wonder African-Americans feel like there’s an outright war on black
youth…(Deacon James, shakes his head. Remembers serving his country in Korea. Why? he asks, Just
why? You pay your debt. Why do you lose your vote forever? Seems like a
plan… )No wonder they call it the new
Jim Crow…
And so our midwives, Shiphrah and Puah had to wrestle. Note
they get names. Actual names. How would they respond to their commands? Would
they risk their own security for their people? They resisted where they were….did
what they could where they could. With cleverness they outsmarted pharaoh.
And so Moses is pulled out of the water…(in Cairo they’ll
show you exactly where…) Thus setting
in motion a new story…..
So for us?.... A world on flame. A time of reckoning… a time
for us to discern what we can do where we are…
The church cannot just look outside and speak a prophetic
word. We must look inside. As last summer’s General Assembly showed, as our struggles
over lgbtq inclusion are resolved, the real struggle over race and class will
begin to emerge. We in New York City Presbytery have already been wresting with
that for awhile now.
What we can, where we can…that’s what we must discern…
Arcadia is moved just by the death of so many children.
Others by the inequity of power in Gaza. Or the newly militarized police forces
across the US…
We struggle. We wrestle. What we can, as we can, where we
can…
Today for our prayer preparation, Jeremy and I do Amazing
Grace Hank Williams style. To the tune of So Lonesome I could cry…As his musical
offering, Jeremy sings his original Walk with me on the winding road....a song
written for a mother who lost a child. In honor of mothers and lost children.
Anna meets with the session to announce her interest in officially joining the church. She's dressed up for the occasion. And we are happy that she is ready to commit.
*
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| aftermath |
The service ends. And then it’s time. Last week the
West-Park Angels softball team did the ALS ice bucket challenge and then challenged me. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10204276568972543&set=vb.1177956430&type=2&theater) So this is my time. I know about the push back. Wasted water. Shallow analysis.
Viral video. All that. But I also have read the comments of ALS survivors and
families and know that thee has been 5.5 million raised as opposed to 32000
during this time last year. So I’m down. I go to the steps, make my challenge.
To Gale Brewer. Presbyterian colleagues, clergy colleagues. And from Samantha’s
suggestion, Amanda in Oregon. People gather around. Including people in Barney
Greengrass brunch line. I raise the bucket, feel the ice and water pour over. Catch
my breath…and laugh….
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| the challenge |
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