11/30
 |
| Robin Rhodes, Bob Brashear, Angela Lamb, Olivia Harris |
40/60 is here, ready to rehearse. They’ve come
from Boston and Washington to reunite here at West-Park. Jeremy M arrives soon
after.
There are quite a few visitors. One an old man
I never do get to meet. There’s a woman who raises her hand in praise. I’ll be
watching her for reactions. Turns out the parents of 40/60 have also all
travelled here from different places to be here for the service and afternoon
concert.
Pat and Larry are here early to decorate again
and Pat has brought the three purple and one white candles for the Advent
wreath.
We’ve got to cover Ferguson and Advent
today. We begin with O COME, O COME EMMANUEL. Jeremy explains that
it’s from the 12th Century. And I add that the third verse, the one
about war ceasing and filling the whole world with peace was written by Henry Sloane Coffin,
father of William, former Yale Chaplain during my time there and Riverside
pastor, at the start of World War I.
I’ve written my own words for the
LIGHTING of THE ADVENT CANDLE:
One: Our brothers and sisters are not yet free. Like captives
and exiles in their own land, they mourn the loss of children with inconsolable
grief.
All: We light this candle in solidarity. We light this candle to
light the path from lament to hope. To the day of true emancipation when all
will live in freedom.
We begin our scriptures with ISAIAH
64: 1-9 and follow with 40/60’s first
MUSICAL REFLECTION. Jeremy has
written a sung response for
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19:
O come Lord, come; restore and save us now. After MARK 13: 24-37, we go into When the saints come marchin’ in with
its apocalyptic language.
And then I begin my REFLECTION. It’s been a hard week. What you might call a kairos moment…where our normal chronos
is interrupted…a week where the heavens are torn open…(Isaiah 64:1) There was the verdict in
Ferguson. Then people exploded. Fires blazed. In New York City, tunnels, bridges,
highways shut down. Shopping malls across the country. While protests in
Ferguson have been building for weeks, there were spontaneous outcries across
the country…
Friday was the traditional start for the shopping season, Black Friday. But another cry went up: Black
lives matter…If you saw Nicholas Kristof’s op ed this morning in the Times,(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-when-whites-just-dont-get-it-part-5.html) you got some insight into the emotions of the time:
Black men are 21 times more likely to be killed than white
men
Imprison higher percentage of our black population of than apartheid South Africa.
There is now greater income disparity in than in 1970 South Africa at the peak of apartheid
As the children of Israel lifted up their lament from their
Babylonian exile, it easy to understand
how our black citizens might feel abandoned…in captivity…
O come Emmanuel we sang…lonely
exile, captivity..it has been said
that what is happening now is not a renewal of the civil rights movement but a movement for the emancipation of
oppressed….
Every Advent is three at the same time:
Historic, as in the birth of Jesus
Existential, as we move towards this season’s celebration of
Christmas, the incarnation, God coming
to be present in human flesh, in
the midst of humanity
And future…the Second coming, or the day of emancipation, of
liberation, of the coming of the beloved
community.
It is our challenge to move from our lament to hope.
That Jim Wallis quote again, to be able to believe in spite of the evidence and the courage to
make the evidence change.
Archbishop Tutu at the peak of apartheid affirming we have
already won
Martin Luther King, Jr. saying that the arc of history is
long but it bends towards justice
The liberatory power of black worship that created zones of
liberation in the midst of slavery and oppression giving sustaining power for the long struggle
for true emancipation.
It is our work as followers of Jesus to create those
outposts of the kindom, those liberated zones where people can taste and see
and experience the freedom, the victory that is to come. That is the journey we
invite you on in as we begin this season. I’m not even sure I know what all
that means but it begins with a commitment to go there. And that we journey
together.
We need a coming. We await a coming. Not for a new one to
come. But to find Emmanuel already in our midst. On the other side of our lament, hope…
As I concluded, before 40/60 played again, I asked Olivia to
speak about how they experience the sharing
of their music as reflection on what is going on around us. And she
explained her feeling of anger and frustration as she marched in Boston and the moving of music through their
instruments. The non-didactic,
expression of lament and hope.
Before our prayers, we sang as 40/60 played, from Isaiah
64:8:
Change my heart O God, make it ever true Change my
heart O God, may I be like you. You are the potter, I am the
clay Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.
Then I had
John R and Dion bring our ceramic baptism cover from Occupy days. I showed it’s
words of peace. And the crack. How its creator (Sheryl Jaffe) had said we were about healing
the cracks in the world. And how I later learned of the Japanese tradition of always
needing an imperfection as a reminder of life’s (and our) imperfection.
Our final
song is Ella’s Song by ()
Berniece Johnson Reagon. It is frightening how fitting the words are to what is happening today:
Refrain:
We who believe in freedom cannot rest We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
Verses
Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons Is as important as the killing of White men, White mothers’ sons And that which touches we most is that I had a chance to work with people Passing on to others that which was passed on to me To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail And if I can shed some light as they carry us through the gale The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on Is when the reins are in the hand of the young who dare to run against the storm Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot I come to realize That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survive I’m a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard At time I can be quite difficult, I’ll bow to no man’s word
In the honor of powerful grassroots organizer Ella Josephine Baker, 1903-1986.
I go off to have brunch with my boys and return for 40/60’s concert. The gym is full of supportive friends and family and they give us an afternoon of passionate, inventive and intense music including a musical interpretation of Ulam’s Spiral, the revelatory graphic representation of the correlation of prime numbers. By their teacher David Mc Bride.
Ulam's Spiral
It was warm enough today that people were eating brunch at the outdoor café tables. The late afternoon sun washes through as the music fills the room.
A good end to the day….
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