11/27
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| Thanksgiving |
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| supporting Black business |
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| every day |
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| just observing |
I’m finishing a walk in Morningside Park when I hear a voice over a bull horn. I walk out to see what’s going on. A small procession is marching up Columbus. They turn at 110 and stop at Miss Mamie’s Spoonbread. They are honoring Black owned businesses. Chanting “Support Black business, not just Black Friday, but every day.” There are almost as many “security people”..may white women…on bikes as there are marchers. And an equal number of motorcycle cops at the end of the street observing. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so named because businesses have so many sales they go in the black. People who drive there in the middle of the night to be there when the shops opened. My own family always made it the official opening of the Christmas shopping season with a trip to the big suburban South Hills Village Mall and lunch at Ernie’s Deli. Malls were these wondrous places. Suburban “main streets” as a minister friend of mine called them. But not his year. Black Friday promotions stretched out for weeks. Numbers way down. Same prices online. Still some hardy souls venture out. The marchers head down 110th. I head home.
Tonight my friend Steve asked me to preach his Thanksgiving Shabbat sermon, Here’s what I had to say:
Happy Thanksgiving! And this was truly a Thanksgiving like no others. Wednesday night before, we would gather at friends who live right above 77th street where they blow up the parade balloons and go out on the balcony and see Snoopy and company come to life. Not this year. No balloon blow up.A minimalist wisp of a parade. And a party on ZOOM. Our usual big family gathering turned into my core four and phone calls to my quarantined mom and an extended family ZOOM. Which can seem like a TV show if you’re back from the screen a bit. Like Hollywood Squares or Laugh In.
Last year, when you gathered together, in your wildest dreams could you imagine a Thanksgiving like this? Unimaginably different. But one thing isn’t different ….we have much to be thankful for. Even in this craziest of years, with Covid 19 and marches and an election that is …or isn’t? Finally over, we have so much to be thankful for. And gratitude is where it begins.
One year in a two week period, I lost my job and my father died on the day of my sister’s wedding rehearsal. When the dust settled, I fell into a depression. Felt totally alone. And then a friend said, when you wake up in the morning, think of all the things you have to be thankful for. And then I realized, I had my family. A roof over my head. Food to eat. Friends. I was not alone at all. Nahum Ward-Lev in his book on the prophets recommends before you go to sleep, look back over the day to think of all that happened that you are thankful for. Theologian Walter Breuggeman says “Resistance begins with gratitude (doxology).”
When I was first trained to be a consultant to churches, they taught us how to do “needs assessments.” The problem is, when you do that in small churches, the list of needs grows so big, the people get overwhelmed and want to give up. So we decided to flip that and begin with assets assessment, What do you already have? What can you do with what you already have? That becomes a very different conversation. Gratitude is where it begins.
The Torah portion for this Shabbat is Vayetzei. It’s a long look at Jacob’s journey to get wives and children and his dealings with a very wily father named Laban. But at the very beginning is the first of Jacob’s dreams. It’s the ladder dream, with a ladder between earth and heaven and angels going up and down. So what’s going on here? Some commentators have said that Jacob himself is the ladder. That we are the ladders that connect heaven and earth. That makes us different from other living things. And Jacob has a powerful revelation: “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” He realized that where he was standing was holy ground.
Look down at your feet a minute. See where they are. Right now, at this very moment, you are standing on holy ground. How often did we not realize that the Lord is in this place?And where we are is Holy because the Holy One is there…and that, in spite of everything, is worth being thankful for.
A vaccine may be right around the corner, but this isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. And hard times of various sorts will be with us for the foreseeable future. But we can get through this. Together. And it begins with gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving!
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder[a] set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him[b] and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed[c] in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
I open up the door to the virtual open mic. Welcome a newcomer who has given up refusing to perform virtually who is tired of waiting to perform live again. Slowly our companerismo gathers. Sings out songs. Tells our stories. And parts again.
Shabbat shalom.
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