12/6
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| Barawine on Malcolm X |
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| 125th Street |
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| selling trees |
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| State Office Building Tree |
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| outdoor heat lamps |
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| ATLAH's latest |
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| new shelters |
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| home communion |
Cold wet day. Still walk to the Farmers Market. And a long walk through Harlem. The streets decorated for Christmas. The tree sale stands. New outdoor shelter for restaurants looking hard to distinguish from cabins. Covidwise, are they really any different from being inside only colder? Other restaurants installing outdoor heat lamps. And a giant tree at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building. And the latest declaration from ATLAH Church. Somehow they remind me of a Giuliani election hearing witness. Christmas in. Harlem.
12/6
This morning preaching for the Beverley Congregation of Brooklyn. Here’s what I had to say:
A lot has happened since last we were together. That long awaited election finally came …and is finally over…well, pretty much…We’ve had a new spike with the virus. And I have to tell you..it’s been hard. I’ve lost three people I cared about in the last three weeks. And that has left me feeling sad…and angry. Sad at the loss. And angry that it is all so unnecessary. We have government officials in Washington, DC throwing holiday parties with hundreds of unmasked guests. And somehow public health and common sense have become political issues. It is simply crazy. That vaccine can’t come soon enough. We’ve been through Thanksgiving and now we’re all trying to figure out Christmas. It’s a holiday season like no other we’ve ever experienced. And last week, Advent began.
In normal times, there’s hustle and bustle and packed stores and streets events to go to and music everywhere. And church was where we would come to find peace and quiet and time to reflect. A place of refuge. A sanctuary. Now we don’t have a place. Not a place to decorate and to sit in and to be together. But we still have a space…a space in time, This hour on Sunday mornings to hear each others’ voices and to see each other in our minds’ eyes and to gather what we need to make it through another week in coronavirusworld. We are preparing ourselves fo celebrate the incarnation, the indwelling, God’s decision to come be with us in human form. To be present in our midst.
The comic book superheroes like Batman and Superman and Black Panther all come to us with what they call “origin stories.” How they came to be who they are. In the Bible, we get our “super hero” origin story. And each one is different. Matthew and Luke give us “magic baby”stories, Luke with shepherds and Matthew with wise kings. We mash them all together but each story is unique. John brings us a cosmic Christ who swoops down from heaven like Kal-El from krypton to stay for awhile before returning. SO what does Mark give us? Now this is hard, really hard, but I want you to imagine for a moment that the Gospel of Mark was the only story of Jesus you had. NO virgin birth. No shepherds or sheep or wisemen or camels or genealogies or carpenter fathers or that dramatic Radio City Music Hall final scene with live animals processing down the aisles.
All the icons of Christmas we have come to know and love that define Christmas. Just Mark.
What does Mark give us? Mark is crisp and clean and everything happens “suddenly. I’ve seen the whole gospel performed twice as a monologue...it takes about an hour and a half to recite. And, well, it’s subversive from the start, the very first sentence is loaded…The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.[a]. Now that sounds like Bible talk to us, but in those days, around 70 CE, people would hear it differently. The word 'gospel’ or “good news” was used for proclamations about Roman victories. The word Christ is not a last name. It means “anointed” one, like conquering generals in their laurel wreaths. And that phrase, “son of God,” was applied to the Roman emperor. For Mark it is not a biological or genealogical expression, it is an honorific expression describing one who is obedient to God.
Written in the time of open revolt against Roman rule, any Roman finding Mark would see this as seditious literature. It is an announcement that for those who love God, the emperor is an illegitimate authority, military victories are “fake news.” We are to be introduced to a conquering hero whose victory story ends in a cross.
But first, there’s my favorite character, John the Baptist, introduced as the forerunner, a messenger like the one described in Isaiah. Words you can’t read without hearing Handel and his messiah or even Godspell. (They’re part of it now, they can’t be unheard.) And here comes John. In other gospels, he is the son of Zecahriah, a high priest of the temple, a tall steeple preacher’s son the son of an AME Bishop. Who like a sixties hippie or radical leaves the city and goes out to the country and starts growing his hair. Actually, in John’s appearance and diet he is made to call to mind Eijah, the forerunner, the one who comes before the Messiah or Messianic redemption. And he even says so. And he’s also like an Old Testament nazarite who takes a special vow to avoid alcohol and not cut his hair.Like Samson. Like you can almost see him in his camels skins and leather and dusty dreadlocks.
And what is he doing? He is preaching “repentance for sins.” His baptism is like the flowing healing waters of the Jewish mikvah. He is in his own way, saying our hierarchy, religious establishment, is so corrupt, that the only thing left is to go out to the wilderness, where we as a people were born, and get reborn, start all over again. And since he’s rooted in Isaiah, it's just not individua sin but corporate sin, rebellious turning from the ways of God that weakens a society so the that can fall apart and be taken into exile. Certainly we’ve seen parts of our own establishment churches (and megachurches) get so caught up with power structures this they are inseparable. If we take Mark’s announcement seriously, no matter who wins the election no matter who is in charge, we are called to hold them accountable because no leader, no political party can ever be the expression of the full will of God. And our ultimate loyalty must always lie elsewhere. Where? The gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God.
And so here comes Jesus. Like a mystery man from out of nowhere. In Mark’s Gospel, he will be revealed to us as each page is turned. He appears like someone who has heard reports of John and has to find out for himself. No back story. In the other gospels, they are cousins. But here, no relationship. And if you read closely, John doesn’t even recognize Jesus.
SO what does this mean for us this Advent? Mark was writing for a community under the heel of the Roman Empire. And likening it to being in Babylonian exile. Like we sing every Advent, “O come o Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the son of man appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel."
Many times in these last over almost 9 months, we have felt in exile. Confined to our homes, cut off from friends and families and people we love. My mom in her assisted care facility completely isolated. I haven’t seen my grandchildren in over a year. Captive Israel indeed! So into this captivity, this exile we are inviting Emmanuel, God with us, to come to us, to be with us. The thing is, he’s been here with is all alogn, He’s never not been with us. My challenge to you is to meet the Jesus of Mark like one with no back story, as if it's all new. What would that be like, to meet Jesus again, for the first time? John calls us to prepare, to make straight a pathway. And that pathway leads straight to our hearts. Let us open them, and prepare to welcome him in again, like we never have before. Prepare ye the way of the Lord and Come Emmanuel!
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| home communion |
We once again share our communion, each in our own homes.
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In the back and forth dance between the city and its schools, tomorrow two of my family are going back to live teaching. In our weekly analytic/philosophical discussion of Covid, I share that I still have the antibodies.
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