Bobby Thompson, And Breugel ( after Lydia Millet)

6/23

Breugel's Triumph of Death

Last week, I attended a reading by Lydia Millet

Lydia Millet

from her new book, Fight No More. My good friend artist Heide Hatry organized an after party. My contribution was a reflection inspired by "Bird-Head Monster" from Fight No More...followed by my Apple Tree Blues....here is the reflection.....

I was a child. Can't remember how old I was. Or if I could read. I was home alone. I found a magazine. One I liked because the pages were large. And brightly colored. Worlds I felt I could step into. Live in.

But this time was different. I had no way to understand what I was seeing. Skeletons. Corpses. Demons. Pain and anguish. I was transfixed. Terrified. Traumatized. I could not look away. And I felt I could walk into this painting. This world. And be surrounded by skeletons. Corpses.Demons. I would remember this painting for a very long time.

You know when you're watching a cable tv show and an announcement contains an "advisory: portions of the following program may be too intense for younger viewers?" Like that.

Parenthetical note: When I read Lydia Millet's story, I was convinced the painting I had seen long ago in Life Magazine was "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymous Bosch, the inspiration for her story. But I know now it was "The Triumph of Death"

"Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch

by Peter Brueghel, the Elder.

This memory would come back   to me the first time I read Don Delillo's Underworld. The preface is set on a cold, raw fall day in upper Manhattan. At the Polo Grounds. The New York Giants are playing the Brooklyn Dodgers to determine who will meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. 

In a box on the first base side are four men. Restaurateur Toots Shoor. Frank Sinatra. Jackie Gleason. And FBI Director J Edgar Hoover. As the game winds to its dramatic conclusion, in the bottom of the ninth, Bobby Thompson hits a home run, the shot heard round the world. And hoarse voiced, sore throated Russ Hodges shouts The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. The Giants win the pennant. I do not believe it. The Giants win the pennant. 

And from the upper reaches of the Polo Grounds grandstand, a shower of confetti begins to stream. A cascade of torn and shredded paper. And one large piece lands on J Edgar's arm. And when he looks at what has landed there, everything else in the stadium fades away. Disappears. A second page lands. He holds them together. Stares. He is transfixed. He feels every emotion that young boy felt. And knowing J Edgar, something deeper. Darker.  Desperate. We know he would later commission a copy of the painting. To study. To live with. To live in.

I think of this as I read Lydia's words.

But there's one thing more. On an old dusty slide carousel there is a picture of my not yet 30 years old father. Holding his child. The boy is wearing an oversized felt 1951 New York Giants hat. In honor of Bobby Thompson.  His first baseball cap. 

Today when I wear my vintage New York Giants reproduction, I think of my father. And Bobby Thompson. And Peter Breughel. The Elder.

So you want a king?

6/10

preparing for worship at Good Shepherd-Faith 

Today, back to Good Shepherd Faith.  As I arrive, my friend elder John Gingrich is rehearsing "Ride On King Jesus," since I decided to talk about kings today, based on 1 Samuel 8. So what about kings?

Elder John rehearsws

I'm fascinated by the American fascination with royalty.  I was in Pittsburgh this summer and along with my aunt and her husband spent hours watching the royal marriage between Harry and Meghan. Of course I was rewarded with Bishop Curry's beautiful and powerful sermon, but I wondered why this seemed so captivating for so any of us. The MSNBC reporters kept finding Americans on the  crowd who had spent lots of dollars just to be there. And the question remained....why?

Is there some kind of leftover connection to the place and culture we came from? Some lingering romance around royalty?  In a Disney kind of way? There's not many monarchs left these days. England...and maybe Wakanda?

I remember Ruth Gordon in Harold and Maude speaking of kings and kingdoms saying.."I don't miss the kingdoms, but ohhh the kings..."

Anyways, that's what attracted me to this passage today.

The people of Israel had had a pretty good thing going. A collection, confederation of tribes with judges to resolve issue between them and provide guidance. A pretty horizontal life.

But they wanted to be like everyone else. They wanted a king. God gave Samuel a pretty clear word to give to the people about what that might men..

“These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. 16He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

But they won't listen and they wind up with Saul.  And the next thing you know, there'll be David. Obviously God's words were written after they had become .a kingdom.  A knowing explanation of what they got.

A word about the Bible. Wes Howard-Brook in his Come Out My People argues that there are two theologies in the Bible.  Not Christianity and Judaism, but the theology of covenant and creation and the theology of empire. That both are there and are in constant tension. Did you realize, for example, that the first five books . were written around the time of Solomon? Creating a mythic history for an emerging kingdom?  That the two books of Samuel were among the first to be written? (Really wasn't much written before then)..So we get not only the royal propaganda but the critique as well. The writers who longed for the days of the judges.

We get such a critique in Joel Baden's The historical David: the real life of an invented hero. We get a David who is somewhere between Tony Soprano and one of the Lannisters on Game of of Thrones. 

Kings.  They wanted a king.

We Presbyterians aren't much on kings.  Being anti-monarchical is in our system. (And some clergy would tell you anti-clerical as well..) We don't much like kings. Or bishops. It's at the core of our theology. We forget that that's a principle difference between us and Episcopalians, Lutherans and even Methodists.  It's rooted in the reformed perspective of the basic flawed nature of humanity. That plus our theology of stewardship of the world around us gave us a working theology for civic involvement. Thus we get John WItherspoon's name on the Declaration of Independence. And always a disproportionate number of congresspeople. (And amazingly well thought and well spoken basketball coaches like Steve Kerr...)

A couple of weeks ago I was in Chile with the  Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Chile, which broke away from the Presbyterian Church of Chile in 1973. That name is meaningful. It's the whole Johanine notion of in the world, not of the world. They courageously broke away from a church they thought was actively collaborating with Pinochet. Like our ancestors who separated over slavery.  And like the Confessing Church, the too wrote a Credo that affirms Christ as the ultimate authority over our lives. When I asked them the greatest gift that our tradition had to  offer they said democracy. And they are not far off. It can be argued that our polity was the strongest influence on the emerging US system of government.

The Occupy Wall Street occupiers who stayed at West Park were surprised to learn about the horizontal nature of Presbyterianism.

It's not the best of days for democracy. Recent studies are finding millenials...around the globe...less and less interested in democracy, One could make the case that we're in a pretty precarious position ourselves. And have been heading that way for a while.

I love the fact that its a  Presbyterian minister from Union Seminary, Liz Theoharris, who along with William Barber is one of the leaders of the Poor Peoples Campaign seeking to bring a restored moral perspective to our public discourse. This of course, was to be Martin Luther King, Jr's focus had he lived. Fifty years after the assassination of MLK...and Bobby Kennedy...perhaps is good time to pick up that mantle again.

If underneath all this you detect a (not too) subtle critique of certain monarchical trends of a certain politician, well.....it's the Presbyterian  in me...

We can appreciate and enjoy royal weddings. But we don't need kings.The one thing that  is clear to me is that it will be increasingly important to affirm that the principle authority in our lives is Jesus Christ and to him do we give the authority in our lives. I'm often amazed how at certain times, that simple theological affirmation can have profound political implications. .

May God grant us the wisdom and courage for living in our own day

Amen




 First Reading 1 Samuel 8:4-11 (12-15) 16-20 (11:14-15)

8:4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” 6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, 7and the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. 9Now then, listen to their voice; only — you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

10So Samuel reported all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. 11He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. 16He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. 17He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

19But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, 20so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

11:14Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.” 15So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed offerings of well-being before the Lord, and there Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly.



Gospel Mark 3:20-35

20... and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Here Am I

6/3

Beverley Church

Eugene has been working for hours on the feast he is preparing for the congregation that has welcomed him. He has used the fallen branches form the last heavy storm as fuel for his fire. Cut the chicken into little pieces. Prepared the sausages. Marinated his meet. His barbecue will be a gift. 

Eugene at work

After reading the scriptures, from First Samuel and Mark, I share my reflection: 

Today, again, the verses from First Samuel are one of my favorite passages. I read that passage, The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread and I say, yeah, tell me about it. It feels so true...but is it? All I have to do is think about Rev. William Barber and his partner, our Presbyterian sister, Liz Theoharris, and their leadership of the Poor Peoples' Campaign, and I think, maybe not. Maybe the word of the Lord is not rare, maybe it's becoming more present, more here, and we just need  to pay attention. They are trying to bring a new (renewed?) moral perspective to our life together as a society. 

What our Samuel  story is about is the call of Samuel, his call to ministry, to witness. It took 3 times for Samuel to figure out it was the Lord who was speaking to him and not Eli. And is answer is, Here I am. When Eli finally figures out what is going on, he tells him to say, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And in the end we are told, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

So I'm thinking about this and trying to figure out what it means. At the  least, it means being ready to answer when you hear the call. And I guess being alert enough to hear the call when it comes. 

I think of  the hymn, Here I am Lord...

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

That is Samuel's song. 

I spent last week in Chile working with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Chile. (Even that title has meaning, as in in the world, not of the world...)Back in 1973, their country had been taken over by a military junta under General Pinochet. They began to feel that some of their Presbyterian  leaders were not only not resisting but were actively collaborating with the junta. So a significant portion of the church decided to leave the denomination  and create a new church. 

They also drafted a creed that defines them as a church. And here's the important point to remember...they aren't radicals...they are in many ways very traditional evangelical Presbyterians. But their declaration that their obedience was first and foremost to  Jesus Christ had profound political implications, even as it did for the Confessing Church under Nazi Germany. Sometimes simply seeking to be faithful can take courage.

Yesterday I was in Greensboro, North Carolina. Do you know the names  Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond. And what happened in Greensboro? On February1, 1960 four college students from North Carolina  A&T went to the Woolworths store.

The Greensboro Four

Bought some school supplies. Then sat down at the lunch counter. And ordered coffee. What happened next was not the first but was the most influential sit in inspiring a whole wave of sit ins. At the end of an exhibit featuring the history of the civil rights movement, there's giant mural made of the  faces of people engaged in the civil rights struggle. There are several blank  spaces. Those are reserved for you. For me. For us. For our faces. The point they make, from Rosa Parks on, individuals do make a difference. What one person does, what you do...or don't do...makes a difference...

Where the sit-ins began

What happens to us when we hear God's voice calling in the night? Do we hear God's voice calling in the night? 

We each have our individual calling. Each of us has our unique ministry that no one else can do. Can we say here am I ? Can we help our brothers and sisters answer their calls?

Here am I....

After the sermon, we share our communion. And then go downstairs for our feast. Even though Eugene has brought all the tables up and out, it is too cold and windy so we will eat downstairs. There are sodas from the Republic of Georgia on the table. And salads of cucumbers and tomatoes (without leaves, Irina the musician says...) Someone has made fresh banana pudding. It is truly a feast. 

sharing a feast and breaking bread together

As we wait for the meet to arrive, I ask how people came to this church.  A lot of it has to do with proximity. Family.  People have come from American south. And Guyana. And now Russia. Pastors are remembered fondly yet with each's departure, members have left. Like so many small churches, there is sadness over what has been lost. Community members no longer here.  And yet, this faithful remnant steadfastly keeps their tradition of breaking bread together after worship. I am happy to be part of that. 



First Reading 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

1Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

19As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.



Second Lesson 2 Corinthians 4:5-12

5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.