Chile 4: images

10/29

La Plaza Italia

Looking back over the last several days, these images come to mind...

Thursday

The counterintuitive activity of a city trying to get back to normal and sustaining massive protests simultaneously.

Walking past La Plaza Italia and seeing the sky filled with dancing kites, a sign of  the buoyancy that could be felt in the streets that morning.

In contrast, walking down Merced and seeing banks and retail shops covering over all windows with boards.

Seeing my first bandaged protesters. Word is response is much rougher in the barrios populares. When I asked one of the hostal workers what happens if you're   caught out after curfew she said, " Here they arrest you. In the poor neighborhoods, they shoot..."

When the 10 PM curfew defiance begins, seeing hostal workers head outside to join the cacerolazas, pot banging.

Friday

An interfaith prayer service held in the mission garden of the historic Iglesia de San Francisco. cacerolazo) and a young rabbi. The rabbi chose as his text the Genesis story of Cain and Abel. We must be our brother's keeper. Then echoing the indigenous representative who had sung the 23rd psalm in Mapuche, he sang the same Psalm in Hebrew. Then we went to the streets for the benediction.

Interfaith service

On a bright sunny day, an oasis of beauty and peace. A fully interfaith service with Franciscans, a Lutheran Bishop, Methodist, Buddhist, Ba'Hai, indigenous Mapuche ( the bells accompanying her prayer strangely reminsicent of cacerolazo),  and a young rabbi. The rabbi chose as his text the Genesis story of Cain and AbelWe must be our brother's keeper. .Then echoing the indigenous representative who had sung the 23rd psalm in Mapuche, he sang the same Psalm in Hebrew. Then we went to the streets for the benediction.

Benediction

Mapuche faith leader

We are at music, not at war

A social  media call went out and drew four full choirs and others to the lawn  in front of La Casa de Previsio de la Defensa Nacional. After a run through, the singers moved into the street. El Derecho a Vivir en Paz, the last notes ringing....

street concert

As close as they could get to the barricaded La Moneda (Presidential Palace) blocks away. The giant Chilean flag waving. For the next hour, in deep and rich four part harmony, the songs of Victor Jara filled the street, ending with

...es el canto universal, cadena que hara triunfar, el derecho de vivir en paz....

A video circulates of a curfew courtyard...silence...then a solo woman's voice singing Te Recuerdo Amanda....silence... then applause ringing from the  surrounding buildings...

And Friday night at least 1.2 million came to the Plaza.
And Friday night at least 1.2 million came to the Plaza.

Saturday

The Communidad Teologica Evangelista de Chile celebrates its 55th anniversary. The guest preacher is former professor Hans de Wit. In clear and precise words, he reminds us that calls for theological education to be a pedagogy of resistance and for the church to make an option, not just for the poor, but for all vulnerables. And reminds us that Jesus was a refugee....

Professor Omar Mendoza,

Rector Danie Gody of CTE

who served as a translator for the pastoral ministry and migration program, speaks of having been overwhelmed last night. He had fought against Pinochet. "It brought tears to me, " he said, "Over a million people...I never thought I'd see that again. There is hope..."

At the celebration on the rooftop following the service, people gather round an elder from Vallenar and his guitar. Soon Violeta Parra's "Gracias a la Vida" flows over the wall, to the streets.

Gracias a la vida

La lucha sigue...

Chile: What the Presbyterian News had to say....

Growing gap between rich and poor cited as reason

by Kathy Melvin | Presbyterian News Service

The equestrian statue of Manuel Baquedano in La Plaza Italia in Santiago, Chile, was covered with protesters this week. (Photo by Robert Brashear)

LOUISVILLE — Chile, considered one of the most stable countries in South America, erupted into violence this week and the Rev. Dr. Robert Brashear got an up-close view and an experience he wasn’t expecting.

Brashear, a retired minister and seminary professor from New York City, was in Chile at the invitation of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission partners the Theological Community of Chile (CTE) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Chile to lead a series of workshops on urban ministry and the challenges of migration. Understanding the unique dynamics of urban ministry and the realities of the global migration crisis are new areas of discernment and reflection for the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s partners in Chile.

Everything was going well. Brashear felt good after two successful workshops in Santiago and Concepcion, where the participants looked at current global migration realities and engaged in biblical study and theological reflection.

And then, he said, everything took an unexpected turn.

“We knew that protests were taking place in Santiago ever a proposed raise in the metro rates,” he said. It began with simple fare evasion. Graffiti read: “Evade, don’t pay, struggling in a new way.”

Returning to Concepcion from a post-conference visit to the beach with his local hosts, they began receiving texts about “solidarity actions” in Concepcion — and in all other major cities, as it turned out.

“We returned to closed streets and the smell of burning rubber and tear gas,” he said.

Dennis Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for South America who has been working closely with global partners in Chile, said the rise in metro rates was just the tipping point.

“The key issue is the rapidly-growing gap between rich and poor, and the sense on the part of the people that all social programs are motivated by charity, not by being inherent rights of all citizens,” he said.

In response to the protests, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew.

That same night, Presbyterians Daniel Godoy, Rector of CTE, and Jorge Cardenas, President of the Council of Historic and Protestant Churches, joined with their colleague Raquel Riquelme from the Methodist Seminary to issue a pastoral letter inspired by Isaiah 32: 16-18 and Romans 14:17. The letter reviews the historic circumstances leading up to the uprising and ends with a dramatic call:

“It is time to take the discomfort and the causes of the violence, and address in an emergency the real problems of the people, from the lack of water for the use of the people, their few animals and crops in impoverished areas, while others have it in large quantities, to a pension system that has failed wildly. The problem is no longer solved with more water, gas, and threats of use of force.

 “It is time for the government, parliament, and institutions, across the board, all sectors with leadership responsibility, to assume that responsibility and manage the situation, with some simple and immediate measures of relief for the affected population, and not indulge in  speeches that blame only ‘the other’ without self-criticism, and to assume the task of building justice from which peace will emerge.”

Simultaneously, CTE faculty member Cecilia Castillo joined with other ecumenical leaders in forming a network “For Life and Dignity” that became a communication vehicle for connecting people through social media to share information and develop common strategies.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Brashear

“On Sunday morning, we walked to the Lutheran church for services where I preached,” Brashear said. Smells of fire and tear gas were in the air. There was broken glass and burned- out buildings. Pastor Luis Alvarez, who had lived in exile for 18 years, welcomed Brashear.

“As I went out, soldiers and tanks were on every street corner. That

night I experienced tear gas for the first time since the 1969 Moratorium March in Washington, D.C.,” Brashear said.

By Tuesday, airports were shut down, stranding as many as 5,000 people. Brashear boarded a bus back to Santiago.

“On the way to the station, long lines wrapped around the one open grocery store,” he said. It was a six-hour ride back to Santiago. The hotel was running out of food. Only sandwiches were left.

By Wednesday, Brashear said streets were jammed. Protesters were drumming, chanting, singing and dancing. Mimes, clowns and a brass band joined the protest.

“The heroic equestrian statue of Manuel Baquedano in La Plaza Italia was covered with people,” he said. “A bus of indigenous people — heroic symbols of Chilean resistance to tyranny — arrived to applause. Everyone was young, like my own millennial sons. There was also tear gas and water cannons. “

Faith leaders issued an open letter based on a prayer for the restoration of God’s favor:

“For he will speak peace to his people… lest they return to madness … justice and peace have kissed. Truth will sprout from the Earth, and righteousness will look from heaven.” (Psalm 85: 8,10-11)

While confessing a share in the complicity that has created injustice, and agreeing that unity must be restored, the faith leaders made this call to Chilean leaders:

“… the only way to achieve this unity will be through sincere gestures of empathy with the feelings and emotions that engulf the citizenry. It will not be possible to restore public order and governance without restoring trust, and for this it is necessary that your government, and all other political sectors, make credible gestures of assuming responsibility and asking forgiveness for their inability to discern the depth of citizen indignation …”

Brashear said it appeared the fare increase (since abandoned) was just the proverbial last straw. Chileans share some of the same concerns as Americans — especially the growing gap between rich and poor, the cost of living, minimum wage, privatized education, health care, student debt and consumer debt.

“On the way back to my hotel, muchachos in black were hurling stones that clattered off the tanks,” he said. “There was more tear gas. Volunteers offered me a mask and a lemon.

Later, at my hotel, I was on my way to have dinner with my friend, longtime Presbyterian pastor Fred Milligan of the English-speaking Santiago Community Church. But volunteer médicos were pulling gassed people into the hotel lobby. Two asthmatics were suffering. I offered my inhaler. There were army trucks outside. The air was thick with gas. No one’s going anywhere. Lentils had been found. There would be soup.”

The government has announced some concessions.

Of Chile’s 16 regions, about half remained under an emergency decree this week. Some were under military curfew — the first, other than for natural disasters, that’s been imposed since the country returned to democracy in 1990 following a bloody 17-year dictatorship, according to CBS news.

Cardenas issued a second pastoral letter:

“As Christians, called to weep with the one who cries and stand beside the one who suffers, the spirit of the Lord constrains us to accompany and to grieve with all those affected without distinguishing between them, and to seek true acts of justice, equity, and reconciliation.”

 He concludes:

“It is time for greatness, for willingness to change, for generosity and solidarity. It is time for government, parliament, civil society, as well as the churches, across the board, all sectors that have responsibility for social leadership, and that model customs and values, to assume our responsibility in the task of building justice from which peace will emerge, and to involve ourselves all in making promises a reality. In our case, it judges the truth, the sincerity and the seriousness of our faith.”

The situation remains fluid. PC(USA) ministry partners ask for prayers.

Chile notes 3: la lucha sigue

10/22

Italia Square

Damn. Tear gas round three. This is getting old. Saw my first water cannons. But I'm dry. 

Another day of what they call manifestaciones in Spanish.  The morning is quiet. Could pass for normal. Even the hostal artesania shop is open. Although a friend sent a video of a shootout in front of the US Embassy. An attempted carjacking led to the US guards racing in guns blazing. Colleagues in the group Por vida y dignidad (for Life and Dignity) are planning an action for this afternoon.  An ecumenical group of faith leaders is planning on going to the President’s office at La Moneda and presenting him with a carta abierta, an open letter.(Still trying to get the text…) I’m thinking of going. The metro is obviously closed.  Bus? Leaving soon from Plaza Italia. Uber? Looks cheap. Walk? Over a mile. Well….

Once outside, seeing the line of olive green vehicles and people filling the street, it’s walk or nothing. As I near the Plaza Italia, streets impassable. Thousands and thousands of young people filling the plaza, overwhelming the heroic equestrian statue of Manuel Banquedano, who reformed the military and did not seek political power.

No military in the streets

A rare true patriot. Bouncing in rhythm. Chanting. Singing. A bus arrives with indigenous people. Cheers. Down the street gas. A young woman and friend get my attention …caballero…and offer me a surgical mask sprayed with water. It helps. White coated young media volunteers.

medical volunteers

A marching brass band in the center of bouncing bodies.There’s that buoyant spirit I remember from Occupy Wall Street. With bodies, barricades and fires its a stand off between army and people in city center. They are all younger than me. 

a proposal

I get a posting that two of the  Vida y dignidad people will be given audience with the president. I am far away but start to walk that direction. That’s when I see the water cannons. I walk for awhile past burned out bus stops and parks. Not sure where I’m headed. Talk to my son from Berlin. (Millenial) He disagrees that young people don’t know. Dad, he says, they haven’t experienced it, but they know. Of course they know. And given what they see as this future, it’s worth the risk.  The issues are embarrassingly American. Health care. Student debt. Consumer debt. Cost of living. Minimum wage. The one percent. Corruption. We know. We know. Still the tanks have chilling effect on older people. My son knows young people can only sustain this stand off so long. Tomorrow is the real test. A huelga general, general strike, has been called. If the workers stay home, new ball game.I’ve received a document from a broad based coalition,”Pais de paz: Estrategia para un Nuevo Pacto Social” (“Country of Peace: a strategy for a new social pact..” Looks like they’ve bene working on this for awhile. Waiting.It’s time. I walk a little further. 

You get a few blocks away, it’s like New York City on protest day. A major protest goes on and just a few blocks away life goes on. Like normal. Or maybe not.  All the banks are closed. Most retail shops. Restaurants mainly are open. I stop for a hot dog. "German style.”  And a pineapple lemonade. I’m tempted to try a “Brooklyn” but I’m full. This stand would go over well in New York, I think. Mini markets sell their wares from behind metal gates. As 4 o’clock nears, restaurants begin to roll up the sidewalk.  No one’s sure how this is supposed to work. It’s been a long time. 

Time to walk back. Down one side street, muchachos en negro…and masks and hoodies…are prying up rocks and pelting a tank with stones. This can’t end well. A rock hits my shoulder, unintended. I walk out of the line of fire into, damn, tear gas again. Bright flames fill the street.

fire in the street

Volunteers came to me with a wet bandana and fresh lemon to bite into. Why does that work? Don’t know but it does.

thanks, guys....

One cafe has a sign, “Best prepare for war. Best do so with coffee!” Their window invokes freedom for Palestine.

coffee shop poster

They’ve clearly been doing this awhile. 

Last time I had tear gas was in the streets of DC in 1969 at the Moratorium Against the War gathering. The next May, it was National Guard on the downtown rooftops of my college town. The night after Kent State. When I learned that peace and love doesn’t always stop bullets.  As I looked up singing a protest song, I thought, damn they’re here for me. 

There are mimes and clowns and a bonfire in the center of Avenida Vicuna Mckenzie. Almost back to my hostal. I bite my lemon.            

                                                              ****           

Just saw a post: 'The difference between 1973 and now? Now everyone has cameras in their pockets. 
The miners have agreed to join the strike.                                    

Chile notes 2: Perspectives

10/21

graffiti everywhere....

When the word first came about protests, my one friend looked very worried. I trust her perspective because she is in many ways the most worldly of my church related friends, having worked many secular jobs including several years in guest relations at a casino. She has a good feel for the street. There is so much just under the surface, just waiting to explode, she said. And it did. 

On our way back from the beach, a friend in the administration of the Theological Community asks what the text for my Sunday sermon is. I tell him Luke 18: 1-8, the persistent woman. He says I think that has much to say about what is going on right now…The people as the widow, the government as the judge.  When he sees me off at the Concepcion bus station, he tells me that he usually is in the streets for every protest. But not this time. Too much random violence. The broken windows, looting. Five people died in a fire set in a clothing manufacturing plant. Some people believe the army is allowing a certain amount of vandalism and looting  so that people will support the army control to bring order back. Some even suspect the government of placing provocateurs to start the looting. And some say it’s just the too long repressed hopes of the underclass as the rich get richer. And my life experience tells me probably all three are true.

Grocery stores have been looted. Emptied. On my way from the bus station I saw a line two blocks long. People waiting for one remaining store to open. The hostal is running out of food.

The Lutheran pastor has a tired and sad look on his face.

with Pastor Luis Alvarez

He says we need to think of ourselves  not only as the widow, but also the judge. How have we denied or delayed justice to others? What is our responsibility? He has a keen analysis of how economic democracy has not kept up with political democracy. Turns out he is a native born Chilean who was arrested, escaped and spent 18 years in exile in Argentina. He sees the young people in the streets. The armored military vehicles. Do we have to go through this again? He wonders. He shares his head. They just don’t know, they just don’t know…

This can’t all be spontaneous. There must be some planning somewhere. But who? Is there an end game?

Sun streams in through the hostal windows.  Traffic moving in the street.  It could be almost normal. We’ll see what the afternoon brings. 

Chile notes 1

10/21

In the patio of Hostal Rio Amazonas in barrio Providencia, Santiago, Chile.  More or less quiet at the moment. Mostly songs and chants. Earlier, as I sat in the patio, the sounds of rhythmic drumming, pots and pans. The inevitable “el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido” and a new one for me, “Pineira…escuchar…venimos pa’ luchar…”  (“Listen Pineira, we’re coming to fight..”) The sounds of  tear gas being shot. And actual gun shots. And sirens. And helicopters…So frustrating wanting to be in the streets, but after yesterday….

My seminary classes in Santiago and Concepcion had gone really well

My seminar in Concepcion

...then on Saturday after our final session,

Class in Concepcion

we went to a fishing village. The mid-southern Chilean coast is like northern California, north of San Francisco. Had a wonderful grilled salmon on aa chilly spring afternoon by the sea. Empandas filled with the fresh crabs I’d seen in mounds in the market.

fresh seafood here....

Families played on the beach, wrapped up against the cool breeze. Smells of salt air and grilled fish filling my nose. A beautiful afternoon.

On the way back, text messages began. Protests in solidarity with Santiago. 

We had to leave the car and walk as downtown was shut down. There were burning tires and tear gas everywhere. I stayed in my hotel. The smells of burning rubber and tear gas replacing the salt air and fresh fish.

fire in the street 

Sunday morning, we had to walk to the church where I was preaching. The smell of tires and tear gas hung in the air. Broken shop windows, looted stores. Only 8 people made it to the Lutheran Church. (My sermon is posted on facebook). 

We had to go out to the countryside to find a restaurant...a campesino parrillada...ie, barbecue....of every part, btw...and then back to my hostal where I felt trapped. I went out to see what's going on. and got caught with two tear gas cannisters. Funny story....one of my hosts saw me on tv getting tear gassed! they all flipped out and sent out a search party. By the time they found me, I was back in my hotel. 

Because the airports are closed, I had to take a bus from Concepcion back to Santiago. Many fires in the street. We had to abandon the taxi and drag my bag about a half a mile. Greeted at the door with a fresh lemon for tear gas.  

The irony is…of my projected fall travel, (street noise arising again..) of travel to Central America, the US-Mexican border, the was to be the easy trip.

My first days here, I kept struggling with how non-latin, ordered, Chile felt. Clean, orderly. Like if this is the culture, no wonder Pinochet had a popular base. First world feeling. I visited the Museo de Memoria,

a wall of photographs of los desaaparacidos

learning the story of the coupe and the long journey back to democracy. They bring school children here. They want the story to be told. Saw the cobblestones with names of disappeared. Learned that despite a commitment to not only Truth and Justice but also Reparations, 40 years later  mothers in Chile, like their sisters in Argentina, still await an answer to “Donde estan?”

I remind myself that this place is the the land of Violeta Parra and Pablo Neruda (saw his wife’s house at least)

the home of Pablo Neruda's wife

and Victor Jara.

Victor Jara

El Museo de Violeta Parra

Violeta Parra

truly explored the intersection of the divine and holy. So much passion, now, just right below the surface.

In Santiago and Concepcion, I spent three days each exploring with theological students issues on the theme of migration and urban ministry, what are the realities? What Biblical and theological resources do we have and what then do we do? All night classes. Second career students. Working students. Passionate for learning. A model we will need more and more in the states. Many of the students are socially progressive, even radical, Pentecostals.I will need to reflect on this….In talking about migrants, it is clear that Chile has within its collective memory the experience of exile. The capacity to understand what it means to be driven out of one’s country. A place of connection with new migrants.  I’ve seen the Peruvians waiting for day labor, the Venezuelans in the park and the Haitians near the Central Train Station. Chileans should know. 

The sound of chants. Now helicopters again. 

My colleague tells me that although the trigger issue was the Metro fare increase, there was been a growing discontent ready to explode. Although democracy has returned, neoliberal economics have continued to define the reality of the country. Pineira’s so called oasis has left many Chileans behind. Come disparity grow to, well, embarrassingly, US levels. As Nancy McLean points out in her definitive Democracy in Chains, Chile was the testing grounds for the political economic model now seeking to permanently reshape the US. The changes made in the Pinochet era will take decades to reverse. And thus the streets burst into flame. 

It is quiet now. Only scattered pots and pans. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

And still she persisted

10/20

with Pastor Luis Alvarez of Iglesia Evangelical Luterana de Concepcion

Dean Carlos Caamano of the Evangelical Theological Community, with whom I have been working this week, comes to walk me to worship at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Concepcion where I will be preaching. We will be walking because the city is under martial law and curfew since yesterday and it's the best way to travel.  The minute I step outside, the acrid lingering smell of street fires and tear gas hang in the air. Some fires still smoulder. Businesses have been burned, empty shells being boarded up. Store windows broken. Grocery stores looted. I'm trying to take this all in. 

We reach the church. A small Lutheran church a with a 1960's look about it. The first church building went down with one of a repeating cycle of earthquakes. It's the only Lutheran Church left in Chile to still have a German language service. Pastor Luis, a warm and burley man is the last who speaks it. A young woman who will help with interpretation arrives. Attendance will be small this morning, given the tension in the downtown streets.

I know what is happening will have to come out in my sermon. Here is my reflection, delivered first in Spanish:

Gospel Luke 18:1-8

1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" 6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

                                            ****

It was a beautiful afternoon, maybe not the sunniest ...or warmest...good people make it beautiful. And good food helps. At one of the good seafood restaurants in the fishing village of Cocholgue. The smell of salt air and grilled  fresh salmon. Empanadas filled with fresh crab meat from the mounds of crabs I saw in the market. Down on the beach, families wrapped against the cool wind enjoying the day. This was my Saturday.

On the drive back, there are texts concerning solidarity actions in Concepcion in support of the protests in Santiago. We can't get near my hotel and have to walk the last several blocks the smell of salmon and salt air in my nose replaced by burning rubber. As we near the hotel, a crowd of young people comes running our way followed by a cloud of tear gas. Soon they are back, with masks and bags of lemons. The rhythmic drumming on pots and pans and street signs and scaffolding pipes continues. Everything is shut down. I am going nowhere. This is my Saturday.

In the car earlier, my colleague asked me what my text for the day was. Luke 18: 1-8, I reply, the persistent woman. "Ah," he said, "I think that this story has much to do with the situation in our country today..."

Another colleague says, "there is so much just below the surface, waiting to explode..."

I think of a quote I saw on a mural outside the Violeta Parra museum: "El jurmentico jamas cumplidico es el causamiento del descontentico" (Victor Jara) A promise delayed is the cause of discontent. 

Theology always lives within a context. And we do our theological reflection within a context. SO today, this is our context as we enter the scripture of Luke. 

This has always been one of my favorite passages. I once knew a judge like that. In the Oklahoma parlance of my day, he was known as a "hanging judge..." When he was appointed to my urban ministry board, I protested. His pastor said, "I think you might be surprised.." And I was. He told me that he had had a near fatal heart attack. And while he lay in recovery, he had a thought that he had been putting the wrong people behind bars. And wanted tp make up for it. So he helped create the first alternatives to incarceration program in the state of Oklahoma. It wasn't a persistent woman who had turned him around, but a wake up call from God.  More of the judge later.

At the center of the story seems to be a widow who ultimately gets justice just by persistence, by wearing the judge down. I can't read this story today without thinking of Elizabeth Warren, the US Senator and presidential candidate. 

During a hearing on Donald Trump's appointment of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, Senator Warren attempted to read a letter by Coretta Scott King , (Martin Luther King, Jr's widow)into the record. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had her rebuked, silenced and removed with these words: “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Senator Warren read the King letter outside the chamber and the words "Nevertheless, she persisted”  became a rallying cry for women across the country. Today, Senator Warren is one of the leading candidates for the Democratic party nomination. "Nevertheless, she persisted.” Could well be said of our widow.   And we've got a neat call to persistence.

And Jesus assuring us that our God is better than this judge. But Jesus seems to enjoy turning over thoughts as much as tax collectors' tables. He says, the real question is, the only question is "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

It's been said that when we hear a parable, we are all the characters in the story. Can we see ourselves as the widow, endlessly calling for justice and not receiving it? Mothers in this country have been waiting for 40 years for an answer to the question Donde estan? And still no answer. The people in the streets are calling out for promises unfulfilled.

But can we also see ourselves as the judge? Who is seeking an answer from us? Who are we denying? Or in what way do we participate in that denial? 

I believe that Jesus knows that the answer does not always com when we want it. Justice does not always come on demand, "we will quickly receive it?" Well, not always. 

Look at Jesus' last question. Jesus is calling us to a practice of faith, to a practice of hope. And understand, faith is not optimism. Things are not getting better every day is every way. 

On days like this, with the smell of burning tires and tear gas the sound of drumming and sirens, we are called to hope. In the words of Jim Wallis, of Sojourners, hope is the capacity to believe despite the evidence and to work to make the evidence change. Because we know who holds the future. 

When the son of man comes again, will he find faith on earth? The answer to Jesus' question belongs to you and I. Let us persist in our demands. Let us persist in faith. Let us persist in hope.

                                                                           ****

In the conversation that follows, the Pastor suggests that we need to reflect on when we are the judge. That we bear responsibilty for delay of justice as well. The small gathering appreciates that the sermon responded to the crisis around them. A sermon must always come in context, I said. And this is ours today. 

We stand in the narthex and share the leftover consecrated communion wine. A fine tawny port, by the way. Reminding me of my days at St. Paul's Episcopal in New Haven. 

We'll have to go out of town a ways to find a place to eat.  It will be a campesino style parillada, grill house. I'm still trying to put all this happening around me together.

Yom Kippur 5780

10/9/19

with my friend Rabbi Steve Blane

On a cold rainy day, I make  my way to the Bitter End for Congregation Sim Shalom's Yom Kippur service with my good friend,  Rabbi Steve Blane. His usually on-line congregation gathers once a year during the High Holy Days to be together in person for a service filled with jazz-oriented music. And the warm and generous spirit of my friend Steve.

I'm thinking about the retimes I've performed here..the honor of being booked at this Village icon. Before the service, I look at the mural behind the bar of famous people who have performed here. And see that Bill Cosby's been put "behind bars." Just desserts, for the former Jello spokesman.

Soon the Yom Kippur band will begin to play and we are underway.  (The video of the whole service can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=sim%20shalom%20yom%20kippur&epa=SEARCH_BOX) Soon enough, it was time for my sermon. This is what I had to say....

the Sim Shalom Yom Kippur band

Cosby behind bars

So this is Yom Kippur 5780. The days of awe are all but done. I hope  that this  has been a good time for you of refection, of getting your  life into perspective, of taking the opportunity to start anew. Even as arbitrary  and constructed a s a new year is, even in  a religion, hey, always take the chance for a fresh start, or even do over.

The goal here today is to feel ourselves at one....at one with God..and that would  seem to include each other as well? And as we're learning, it includes  even creation itself. At-one-ment.

But it also has this sense of atonement...as in atoning, as in confessing ...and paying for your sins. Which means confessing...an owning up to..a facing of.  And of asking for forgiveness. As a Christian pastor, I feel we have a lot to learn from my Jewish brothers and sisters about forgiveness. As one in need of forgiveness, the  Jewish tradition teaches that you can't ask God to forgive what was done to another  human. You must seek it from that person. And also that you can't forgive what wasn't done to you. 

One of our most sacred  practices as Christians is the sharing of communion, of bread and wine as a moment of being "At one with"...We used to have a rule that if you had anything against another person, or someone against you, you had to  leave the altar and not come back until you resolved it. 

What of we tried that here?  Like on Rosh Ha Shanah, Rabbi Blane said during these next 8 days, if you've got something you need to repair with someone, one way or another, go deal with it and don't come back  next week if you haven't finished it yet. So think about that a minute.  And if you need to go take care of something, we'll wait for you, right Rabbi Steve? 

Okay...the other part of forgiveness...when you have something against someone else. Forgiveness is something we ultimately do for ourselves..it's a letting go. To stop letting someone who has hurt you define who you are by your hurt. To move beyond victimhood. As a friend of mine once said, forgiveness is giving up for all time the hope for a better past. 

Now notice, I'm not talking about reconciliation. Forgiveness is not letting bygones be bygones, it's letting go. About letting you live more freely. It does nothing to make the relationship better. That takes a process of naming and claiming and listening and working through and then slowly rebuilding. As a friend once said, no reconciliation without reconstruction. 
That takes work.

I have to shift here a moment and talk about one of my favorite Bible characters...Jonah. Rabbi Steve tells me he's traditionally on the agenda for Yom Kippur in the afternoon. I wonder why?

Jonah is of course a prophet. But there's something unique about him. And it's not the whale. He is, as far as I can recollect, the only Biblical prophet sent to another country, another people.  In Heschel's classic understanding of a prophet, a prophet came from a people to speak to that people motivated above all by love. 

God didn't want Jonah to speak to his own people, regardless of how much they might have needed it. He was told to go to Nineveh, one of the  enemies of the people Israel. And to  let them have it. And Jonah's like, uh, no... I want nothing to do with those Gentile pagan enemies of my people.

And so he tries to run away and you  know what happens next. He gets out of the whale (or big fish) and God gives him a second chance and off to Nineveh he goes. 

(Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah “shayneet” – a second time. That tells us that God is a God of “shayneets” – renewed opportunities! (Remember that phrase!) When we admit our mistakes, often God will forgive us and allow us to try again. That’s very good news, isn’t it? I’ve needed more than a few “shayneets,” and even some “sh’leesheets” – third times, and on occasion some additional times beyond that! So, just maybe, sometimes we ought to be willing to give others a second chance, too?)

So away he goes. Preaches. And whoa! They actually  And  Jonah is like no way. What's the point of being a prophet if the bad guys get away with it! God has to give him a lesson with a broom tree for him to get it.

So what am I saying?
Sometimes we need second chances.
Sometimes we need to offer second chances.
(Getting heavier..) And I believe that in our days ahead, God is going to call us to our own Ninevehs to talk to people we don't want to talk to and accept the fact that they may even change their mind and we'd have to not be able to dislike them anymore. Are we ready for that possibility?

I really do believe that if we're going to  get through this moment, it's going to take something like that Jonah journey.

Anyways, think about that this afternoon while you're fasting. May your fast go well. And L'shanah tovah. 


Steve and I sing his song, "Spark" and then with the blowing of the shofar, the service is ended

all of us....

Faith Enough

10/5

Sunday morning Beverly Road

Walking up Beverly Road to church for World Communion Sunday.  After we read Psalm 133: 1-5, I start to sing 'By the Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M. And everyone starts to sing along!I realize we all were young then, when it first came out....we read the Gospel, and then its time for my reflection....

                                                                  Rivers of Babylon

So today is World Wide Communion Sunday. I want you to think about that. This morning, when we share the bread and cup, we will be doing so with brothers and sisters all around the world. All around the world. 

I'm jut back from Central America. Just got back last night. My spirit and soul still trying to catch up with my body. It's not easy. Part of me is still back down there in Nicaragua.  And Costa Rica. But today when we share our communion, I'll be sharing it with my brothers and sisters down there. And the people I spent the week with...Tracey in Managua and Chris in San Jose and Dennis in Phoenix and Linda in Chicago and Leslie in California and Douglass in Mississippi and Matt in North Carolina and Caroline in New Jersey...who are you sharing communion with this morning? Where are they? Bring their faces to your mind when we do that this morning. And my friend Chris with the troubled Korean congregation out in Bayside and my Guyana friends in Ozone Park...Presbyterian friends throughout this city...and around the world..they are all here with us...

Our gospel this morning raises an interesting question...and makes two good points. 

The question is this...how much faith is enough? The apostles want more...makes me wonder how much faith do you have? How much do I have? What does it feel like? Is it enough? How much do you need?

Jesus' answer is interesting. Jesus says all you need to have is that of a mustard seed and it is enough. Enough. Listen to what he is saying. There's no degrees of faith. You either have or you don't.  If you've even got a mustard seed's worth, that's enough.  Let's think about that. If you've got even a tiny little fingers worth, God can work with that. Mountains will be moved.

I first went to Nicaragua 40 years ago. The people  had just overthrown a vicious dictator. A new world seemed possible. Everything seemed possible. And we rejoiced in their faith and in what they had accomplished and we wanted to believe in their revolution. Like they were responsible to make my dream real.  

We went back because one of my elders who was part of that revolution asked us to. To see and hear and witness and come back and share. After 40 years, what do they have? A greatly divided country where neighbors can't speak to neighbors. Some still believe  in the government. No matter what it does. Others look at the corruption. And the violence. And the people who have left home and say "no more!" (Any of that sound familiar?)

And the President who has unleashed the troops on students has become an "apostle" of a neo-Pentecostal preacher. And his followers say he is doing God's will. I always felt they needed some presbyterian skepticism. That our tradition says that no party, no movement, no politician can ever be the full expression of the full will of God. All will  fall short. All will need to be held accountable and brought to critique. Remember that.That's who we are. 

I look at the and feel their tiredness and their weariness as they ask, "How many times do we have to live through this? How many times can we do this? Do I have the courage, the strength, to do this again? And I admire their courage...their strength their faith...and know if there is even a mustard seed's strength, they will win. 

But also perhaps remember, be careful what you put your faith in. Because the message is clear. Nothing human will ever fulfill all we expect it to.

But as he always does, Jesus has another point to make as well...all that business about slaves...what it comes down to is this...we want to raise up children...and each  other...to do what is right...not because of any potential reward, but because it is what we are supposed to do. 

The little french town of Le Chambon sur Lignon..during World War II..a Protestant town...our French cousins as it were...each family saved one Jewish family ...when they were invited to be honored, they declined. It was nothing special, only what they were supposed to be. When asked how they  could do it, pastor Trocme pointed to the inscription above the church door that said, "Little children, love one another" then said, "How could I see that every Sunday and not respond?" Just doing what we're supposed to do. 

Are we developing so that we can do what's right when the chips are down just because it's who we are? Can Beverley church be that?

Let's keep that in our minds this morning as we take our communion...amen...

After the  service is breaking of bread...this Sunday, Jamaican jerk chicken...I've still got a very full day ahead...

Back to Beverly

Gospel Luke 17:5-10

5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

7"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? 8Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have