Neighbors

 7/14

The installation of Rev. Kwansong Jeong at HaKnesiah

This Sunday I'm at Good Shepherd- Faith Church in the midst of Lincoln Center. The last remaining non-Lincoln Center/Juilliard Building. Here's my reflection for the day...

So how many of you were affected by the power, outage last night? Another transformer issue. (The last time Con-Ed announced a transformer issue, some people actually thought robots were marching into Queens...No...Con-Ed said transformers...This explains a lot about where we are today...)I keep trying to find a theological connection with today’s gospel but so far haven’t been able to find one. If, one comes to you let me know...(through the magic of technological communication, a friend in Tulsa told me that 65000 others were affected.) With the subways crowded, the buses were jammed completely beyond capacity..

Asked what teh greatest commandment is, a young man replies You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.

28 And Jesus said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

But the young man doesn't want to leave it there...

29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 30 Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii,[b] gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37 He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

So there’s this story we’ve heard since nice our youth. What new sense can make of it. Clearly the key question edition is who is my neighbor.

First of all they are the people who live in my apartment building. On long summer nights they bring their lawn chairs and coolers and share food, music and maybe politics.  

Or the Yemenites who run the corner deli. They say hospitality is our culture. So be a good neighbor and be there for us and neighbor we’ll be there for you too.The morning the President announced his plan to exclude and deport people from countries like Yemen, the front of the store was covered with signs saying don’t fear and we’ve got your back and we love you.

Attorneys created signs for the shop that said  “what to do if ICE comes." Now that’s a neighborhood. (Even as today The President's ICE agents spread out in their raids.....)

I watched the Netflix series "When they see us” about the Central Park 5. How instructive it was to be reminded of how far we’ve got to go in dealing with racism in this country. I remember how angry I felt when I heard that story. I was a Central Park runner too. It was people like me who got stirred  up by Donald Trump’s full page ad in the New York Times. Everything about that story stirred up my worst fears.  You know what, he’s still doing that. Those boys probably ran right past my building on their way into the Park. I say boys because then they were. They were even interrogated for as long as 30 hours,  with no sleep,  no food, no attorneys. It took years and a random meeting for the actual rapist to be discovered. To this day the NYPD and the president still need to say they they were guilty of something. Yes, we have a long ways to go.

I’m just back from Central America. Where  the so-called caravans develop. To learn why people are leaving . Not only there but all over the World, its a global problem.

The pattern becomes clear. Agribusiness plus the degradation of the environment makes susbsistence  farming impossible. More and more people fell to the cities where there are no jobs no government infrastructure to speak of and everything  controlled by gangs or drug cartels. Those who want to take care of their families and leave are among the most responsible and courageous in the region. I also met with people who had lived here, in theUS, for decades who had been deported back to places they never knew with a language they could barely speak. There is poignancy in their gathering together to celebrate an American thanksgiving.. on this side of the world we are all Americans. Neighbors. 

I could keep  on expanding the circle of neighborliness but am pretty sure the idea is getting across. 

When I think of neighbors I can’t help but think of Fred Rogers. He was a Presbyterian minister who somehow convinced a Presbyterian committee on ministry that hosting a children’s TV show was a valid ordainable ministry. In those days, we actually had a Presbyterian Church that would validate the media ministries of Fred Rogers and that amazingly creative Dennis Benson. For over three decades Mr. Rogers demonstrated that for him, the clearest understanding of Gods kingdom is a neighborhood.  But maybe the point is not are you my neighbor but Won't you be my neighbor?

His song went:

It's a neighborly day in this beautywood
A neighborly day for a beauty
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you

So let's make the most of this beautiful day
Since we're together, we might as well say
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?

Won't you please
Won't you please
Please won't you be my neighbor?

When I was a teenager and young adult I made fun of Mr.Rogers. I had to mature in order to see the profound nature of his work. He talked to children about everything from divorce to assasination. When controversy arose over allowing blacks in public pools, he brought out a wading pool and invited his black mail carrier to join him in cooling their feet together. 

For Mr.Rogers, neighbor was a verb.

Notice that for Jesus the question was not who is my neighbor but who proved to be neighbor. The tall steeple preacher, the televangelist and the presbytery moderator all passed by on the other, with legitimate reasons of course.

Only the undocumented Muslim deli worker took the time to intervene and see what could be done.  That’s the one who proved neighbor.

May we as well. 

So let's make the most of this beautiful day. Since were here together 

We might as well say  would you be mine, could you be mine won’t you be my neighbor. 

Let those with ears to hear....

                                                       ****

Later in the day I will meet GSF Elders John Gingrich and Chris Kim and we'll head out to Bayside Queens to join in the installation service for Pastor Kwansong Jeong at Ha Knesiah Presbyterian Church. Elder Kim will preside over the service and I will serve the communion. Anyone going onto the altar will remove their shoes.There's a line of slippers there. Communion is served by men formal wear and bow ties and I as celebrant have to wear white gloves as well. 

This has been a long time coming. The struggles in the church have been bitter. Involving charges and countercharges and law suits and fist fights , vandalized cars and the police being called all playing out like an ecclesiastical soap opera in the Korean language press. "We Koreans are the Italians of Asia" an elder once told me. Passions about church run deep. The day I arrived to preside over the vote as to whether to install Pastor Jeong I arrived to two police cars waiting in the lot, just in case. Hopefully this installation has resolved something and a step towards a new beginning can ev made. 

4th of July weekend Sunday 2019

7/7

Happy birthday Geraldine

My friend from Oklahoma and I exit the subway and take the half-mile walk to Beverley Church, passing by the Victorian style houses in this neighborhood named for the London setting for Peter Pan. We note the gardens, the houses that remind me of my hometown south of Pittsburgh and the ceramic workshop, Mexican bakery and Bengladeshi Halal restaurant that show the neighborhood in midst of change. A man notices our interest and offers us a fsbo (for sale by owner deal) before he goes to an agency. Only 1.7 million for the whole house. As is. Well, not today.

This day is also special because it is Geraldine's birthday. Evgeny and Geraldine are having tea as we arrive and Evgeny, always the genial host, offers to get us tea as well. Soon enough it is time for the service. 

ready for reflection

So here's what I had to say:

We are at the end of a long holiday weekend. One where we remember and honor the best of what our nation is supposed to be. The  ideals that seek to inform the best of who we are....So important these days with what  is swirling around us....

The controversy around migration became visibly real for me as I spent two weeks in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the beginning places of the so-called caravans. World wide there are more people on the road than ever before...

I'm wondering what's been on your mind, this holiday weekend. What your joys, concerns are. Your families.

The gospel passage this week is a tough one.  Lots of edges and corners and twists and turns and places to get lost.  

Let me start with some free association...    

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. These are the emissaries of the kingdom, LDS (apparently we can't say Mormon anymore) missionaries.  The freedom riders going to the south for  voters registration, Presbyterian missionaries across the world bringing ministries of health and education and social justice...

2He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. 
Life is hard for the small churches like this...God asks of us nothing beyond our best.  And yet we feel so small....and what is it, after all, what is God asking us to  do ? And what is the harvest?

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. So are the migrants who are coming from Central America. And North Africa....and...dangers at every turn....from bandits to coyotes to rushing waters and burning deserts and border guards at every turn...so that's how  we're being sent out?

4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. We are sent out to be completely vulnerable and dependent on the people to whom we are sent...

.5Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 
You never lose anything by offering your peace. If it's not accepted it comes back to you.

8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; Accept hospitality

9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' 
Jesus wants us to be about his ministry of healing ....proclaiming the kingdom, the kindom of God
.....and here's the best news of all....
10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
 
This means you don't have to keep beating your head against the wall.....there comes a time to move on....

16"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

When we truly serve in his name and his spirit, he will be there there for us, with us.....and in us... 

17The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" 18He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

With every healing, every curing, every restored relationship in reconciliation, every restored substance abuse addict, every child reunited with its  parents, every act for social justice, every victory of the people, even small ones, every true act of grace....Satan falls from heaven....

In dangerous circumstances, God will keep us safe. God joins us in the victory that has already been won. 


And especially in what we do, we are not to glory. Not to seek credit or honors or Facebook likes. Our glory is that we do them because that is what  we do. Because that is what it means to follow Jesus.


Amen

As always we share communion. And today sing Happy Birthday to Geraldine. Then go downstairs for more sharing, including a cake.

We leave for the long subway ride to Marcus Garvey Park where we will meet with the Ecclesia congregation of homeless people.

                                                       ****

When we arrive at the Drummers Circle, it's very quiet. Seems the volunteers bringing food didn't know where to bring it and randomly gave it away. There's no bringing people together for our circle of worship if there's no food to share. We'll share the last few lunch bags and that's it for today. Time for a slow walk back through Harlem/ 

                                                     ****

The day will end helping to set up the beds and serve the dinner for the women at homeless shelter at Saint Paul and St.Andrew Methodist Church (SPSA) where West Park worshipped for 3 years. the church continues in this volunteer work here. Apart form the usual sandwiches or pizza, Kate always serves a full meal.

dinner is ready

"Everyone deserves Sunday dinner," she says. And her 4th of July special includes salmon, ribs and fried chicken, rice, potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob and strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream on poundcake for a truly All-American dinner. 

No better way to spend the 4th of July.

kitchen volunteers

Central America: Random Notes

7/10

Guatemala Highlands

Central America random notes:

. The ubiquitous tuk- tuks, scrambling around the border control area in El Salvador, where are they  ferrying people from and to?

. There are armed guards in every public space in Honduras. And El Salvador. And Guatemala. With automatic weapons.

. Men don’t wear shorts. Women don’t either.

. Camionetas individually painted like works of folk art. Bearing the name of wife. Or girlfriend. Saint or Pentecostal exhortation.

. Tiendas, bodegas, barberias, casas de belleza, ferreterias with names like Rey del Mundo, Corazon de Caridad, Reina del Cielo....


. Futbol Copa de Oro on every tv.

. During the civil wars and deaths quad days I ran 5 miles a day every day. A bit crazy but...Today we are confined to patrolled bounds of our hotels, dorms....todays lawless chaos more dangerous than yesterday’s wars.

. Honduras accepts dollars as well as its own currency. Guatemala only Quetzaltes. El Salvador has just given in and made the US dollar its official  currency. Pocketsful of Sacajaweas and Susan B’s ...so that’s where they all went....

US dollar coins in El Salvador

. US fast food triumphant everywhere...Mc Donald’s. Burger King. Dunkin’ Donuts. Pizza Hut. Honduras’ homegrown Pizza House has a pretty good knock off of Pizza Hut logo. Oh, and donuts are donas.

. Honduran food has the baleada with convoluted story of a woman tortilla seller who got shot, as in, I'll buy from the shot one. And rice and beans, gallos pintos in Nicaragua, painted roosters, are casimientos, or married ones,  in Honduras.

. Morning juices are high fructose concoctions. The real stuff is all exported.

. Leaving Tegucigalpa....miles and miles of bananas....they called them banana republics for a reason....then the miles of sugar cane...,in Guatemala cornfields crawl up hill sides and hold on for dear life...,

. “Auto hotels” are everywhere along the highways . A place for that illicit triste. Or maybe there’s just no privacy and everyone deserves a little romance...

. In the highlands, Guatemalan men and women in traditional dress. Including skirts for men. 

Guatemalan women

Man in traditional dress

. The two monuments we see in Guatemala we see are a warrior chief who resisted the colonizers and the statue migrant. A story without words dances between these statues.

. At an overlook high in the mountains, in a market filled with folk crafts, a New York Yankee hat for sale. 

2nd row up, Yankee hat for sale

. Many of the people I have spoken to were not even alive the last time I was here.

. Stunning how in the midst of poverty one can always see the breathtaking beauty of Gods creation. Despite our efforts to destroy it, it is

in the highlands of Guatemala

still there......

Hands to the plow

6/30

Good Shepherd Faith ready for worship

On the Sunday on which the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising was celebrated in our city, I came to Good Shepherd Faith to lead the service. Here were my refections:

There’s been a lot on my mind this week. I’m just back from two weeks in Central America, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. And when Jesus says “Foxes have holes, and birds of he air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” I could do a whole sermon just on that. But I chose this passage because last Saturday I was in a music festival  on Governors island and after my own set, I sat in with an Appalachian band and their last number was “Gospel Plow”....

Ready to preach...rainbow stole....


Mary wore three links of chain

Every link was Jesus' name

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Mary, Mark, Luke and John

All these prophets are dead and gone

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Well, I've never been to Heaven

But I've been told streets up there

Are lined with gold

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

So I had to preach on this...

It’s about Jesus saying once you start out, there just ain’t no turning back...can’t be going back to take care of business, can’t be making farewells, just hand to the plow, hold on.....

I was in the Village twice this week for music. And every time I went, the energy was building for today’s global celebration of 50 years of Stonewall, a rebellion that reverberated across the globe.

In the religious world, the Stonewall story is a Presbyterian story. It started in 1978 when the General Assembly in San Diego voted to prohibit ordination of “avowed and practicing homosexuals”....no one then knew it would take until 2011 to finally open the doors to acknowledge ministries that god had already called into being. That’s 33 years... the whole life of Jesus ....that’s a lot of years with hands on the plow...

And I’m proud that the church Stonewall moment took place at my old church West Park in September 1978 when the Session at West Park approved the historic More Light statement. It’s valuable to hear it again...

In harmony with the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, West-Park Church affirms the civil rights of all person. Further, in keeping with our General Assembly’s guidelines, this community of faith welcomes as members homosexual persons who both seek and have found Christ’s love.

This local congregation will not select one particular element from a person’s total humanity as a basis for denying full participation and service in the body of Christ. Nor will this community of faith condemn or judge our brothers and sisters who declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and promise discipleship to Him. We affirm that in meeting each other in Christian love. God’s spirit frees us all to live and grow, liberated from the oppression invoked upon us by ourselves and others.

Within this context, West-Park Presbyterian Church reaches out to Christian and non-Christian homosexual persons with a ministry of support, caring and openness—a ministry in which the creative, liberating power of the Holy Spirit rules and guides." [5]

The name More Light came from the farewell words of Pastor John Robinson to the pilgrims as they set sail on the Mayflower on 1646:

...if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it, as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministry. For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word.

In the 1850s George Rawson would write a hymn with these words:

...We limit not the truth of God to our poor reach of mind --

By notions of our day and sect -- crude, partial, and confined

That universe, how much unknown! that ocean unexplored

For God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Eternal God, Incarnate Word, Spirit of flame and dove,

enlarge, expand all living souls to comprehend your love;

and help us all to seek your will with wiser powers conferred

O God, grant yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

..... so what began with the session of West Park birthed the More Light movement that jumped across denominational lines and inspired movements in all mainline denominations.

33 years. And still, villages turn him away....even this summer our Methodist brothers and sisters failed again to step into freedom and even took a step back. Countries in Africa, inspired by North American missionaries, pass draconian laws against lgbtq people. In Central America among those seeking their way  north are lgbtq people who suffer the worst of repressive measures putting their very lives in danger as we raise walls higher both literally and figuratively to keep them out.

And today, our country seems to be moving backward even as acceptance become more and more normative, banning trans people from the military, not allowing our embassies to fly rainbow flags this week and on and on...

Hands to the plow my brothers and sisters..

and of course it wasn’t just west park, it was pastors and members in small churches just like this one all across the country who kept tower hands to the plow and held on even through the darkest hours.

Things do and can change. Today in the Village the Evelyn Davidson memorial water table will again be in operation..who remembers its origins? In the gospel of Matthew (10:42) Jesus says “and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. That was the verse that inspired an act of witness by Evelyn Davidson, wife of my preceding pastor, Bob Davidson. Around 1982, she felt that the gay community had been so rejected and hurt by the church that there had to be a counter witness.  So she came up with setting up a water table and distributing cool cups of water --in Jesus name—every Pride march day. It would be in  front of First Presbyterian at 5th and 12th along the parade route. At first, First Pres was resistant. Then Presbytery Executive George Todd had an office there and rigged up a hose on the top floor in his bathroom and dragged it all the way down and through the church the outside to fill up the cups. By the next year, the church became an active participant. And today the table is a fully owned project of First Presbyterian.

People are marching. There is much to celebrate. As of 2014 the PCUSA recognizes same gender marriages. But still so far to go. Keep your hand on the plow....hold on!

In our conversation, people were interested in the parts of the Gospel we hadn't spoken of. Like the not burying the father, letting the dead bury the dead. Which could take years.  Despite its hyperbolic language, the sense is clear, we can't be stuck on what is dead. We need to move forward.  And don't look back.

Outside the sun was shining. A good day to celebrate....

Luke 9: 51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”[a] 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then[b] they went on to another village.Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”