One final word on the Academy Awards: movies as text

 4/25

Morningside Park

On the one hand, this may have been the least watched and least entertaining Academy Awards ever. In a truly inscrutable programming  decision, especially given a predicted low viewer interest and number of people who simply didn’t see the films, it was decided to forego most of the award clips that would have at least given people a taste of what they had missed and possibly  inspire later watching. Instead we were treated to “stories” about how nominees discovered the movies and interminable acceptance speeches. It was like a televised podcast. 

On the other had , this was probably the most socially conscious Oscars yet in terms of diversity of nominees and presenters, commentary on our social context and most importantly the content of the films. #Oscarssowhite no more. One could easily put together several discussion/ reflection groups on the days’ vital issues from these films. 

In a year in which George Floyd’s murder was there for all to see (perhaps that was the  most important video of the year) and so many more, and Black Lives Matter and systemic racism rose to national awareness, there’s more than enough films for a series. 

Judas  and the Black Messiah  reminded us of the FBI orchestrated murder of  rising organizer Fred Hamprton of the Black Panthers who at age 21 managed to pull together gang leaders, Latinos and Appalachian whites into a multiethnic force for change.  That is ultimately made him dangerous 

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom based in August Wilson’s play, showed clearly the theft of black creativity and music by the white corporate music establishment and wha that dod to Back artists. The US vs. Billie Holiday revealed obsession with and unchecked pursuit of Ms. Holiday, again by the FBI, for her song Strange Fruit, about lynching. And what  her concern  for racial justice would cost her.

Short film “Two Distant Strangers brought a young Black man caught in a groundhog day - like loop being killed by the dome white cop every day. (Also caught in the same ,loop.) That film ended with a scrolling of all the recent Black  lives lost to police violence, too many to remember. Say their names…

“One night in Miami” brings us Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X on the night of All’s accent to Heavyweight  boxing champ debating the best means towards achieving justice for Black Americans, Of course Ali would have his title stripped and profession then away for five years and Malcom X would have his lifer take away by the same forces that would later remove Fred Hampton. 

From the same era, we find the  Trial  of the Chicago 7 which showed what happened to white activists who were against the  Vietnam War. The film also shows Panther leader Bobby Seale bound and gagged in the court room. Though after the events of the film, Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman word ultimately take his own life. 

If you consider these films, (along with MLK/FBI), it becomes clear that our own country, no less than any totalitarian country, treats any dissent that threatens to be effective as not tolerable and potentially a capital offense.  We need to seriously reflect on that reality and any young person involved in “revolution” needs to know this history, 

Other issues are wrestled with as well. For example:

Short film animated film winner, If Anything Happens I Love You, our pandemic of gun. violence. Even during Oscar week, too many mass shootings to keep track of.

Shirt live action film the Present, where we see the ongoing humiliation and harassment that is the daily experience of Palestinians at the hands of Israelis

White Eye, the plight of African immigrants in Israel

Don’t Split takes us inside the movement for democracy in Hong Kong.

Colette is a retrospective  look at the Holocaust and international film Quo Vadis Aida? the Balkan genocide at Srebinica. 

A Promising Young Woman is a very clever and exceptionally written Me Too era revenge fantasy against white male priviilege.

Hillbilly Elegy the impact of opioid addiction on poor white America and even  best film winner Nomadland if  you look closely enough deals with the disintegration  and dispossession or working class America.

No Oscars in my memory have had such a wide range of issues portrayed dramatically and that could be used by churchman and  other study or discussion groups.

Cynics snark about the “woke” Oscars. Friends complain about the general darkness of films. But what we’re seeing is like  what we saw in  of the films  of the mid seventies reflecting the global upheavals of the late sixties that lasted until American Graffitti ushers in a good times’ era of backlash. 

Our films, no less than newspapers, social media and other popular cuilure reflect our times. Impending environmental catastrophe with ever more violent and catastrophic  weather events , the rise of authoritarian governments across the world  and the radical impact of Trump on the culture and governance of the United States, and now near apocalyptic global pandemic  mark us and affect our collective psyche.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Our films are yet one more text worthy of study and reflection and  can be a value resource for developing our  strategies of resistance. 

How we respond will define  who we are and what our future will be. 

Dzieci's " A Passion According to Matthew..."

4/25

Dzieic's "A Passion...."

 Passion plays have a long tradition in western Christian culture as a way of teaching the Gospel story via dramatic presentation. There is of course the Oberammergau Passion in Germany and the American one in Spearfish, South Dakota and countless others with their own local traditions.  And of course Sarah Ruhl’s “Passion Play” which gives historic and contemporary perspective to the tradition.

My annual Lent/Eastertide tradition has included New York City based Theatre Dzieici’s “A Passion according to Matthew,”originally created on commission  for the  Abbey of Regina Laudis  nuns  in Betlehem, Connecticutt in 2012. Dzieci’s “Passion” has become an annual seasonal presence in New York City. During my last years at West Park, our annual "Palms to Passion” service became the Dzieci Passion with costumed company players distributing palms on the street outside the church.

Profoundly moving of and to itself, Dzieci’s Passion appears to be  the Nazi era Warsaw ghetto, the company dressed as Eastern European Jews. The text appears as a Torah scroll and is filled with Hebrew…"Yeshua” for Jesus, “Talmudim” for disciples, etc. Jewish liturgical music flows throughout the play.  This poses no issue for most Christian audiences, but for those who are veterans of the Jewish-Christian dialogue experience, there is an immediate shock and reaction to what can feel like cultural misappropriation.

Until one takes a closer look.

Dzieci works within the Grotowski theatre tradition which works seriously with archetype, ritual and deep meaning revealing the universal through the distinct particular. With a profound commitment to “service” and social justice. What do we find in Dzieci’s Passion?

As we watch the scroll of Matthew being unrolled within a community setting, hidden away out of sight of their oppressors, one senses that a deeply treasured story is about to be shared, a story to encourage and strengthen the community in a moment of existential fear.  It is almost as if this story of a Jewish rebel seized and tortured by an oppressive occupying power had remained a hidden Jewish story never captured by an Empire’s religion. In this way, the passion is returned to its original Jewish roots, 

The choice of Matthew is also significant as Raymond Brown and other noted New Testament scholars have noticed that the author of Matthew has structured and grounded his gospel in the Torah with Jesus echoing the journey of Moses and the people Israel.  So too, Dzieici’s adaptation of Matthew restores some of its inherent Jewishness.

Throughout the performance, the Tallis (prayer shawl) used to signify Jesus passes from cast member to cast member symbolizing how we all male, female, young old, all…are the betrayed one, the crucified one. And likewise, we all are the betrayers, judges, executioners. (Which is actually a theological perspective of the reformed Christian tradition as well..)  By making this an experience an explicitly threatened Jewish community in a very particular place, this passion  thus opens its story up for all oppressed communities in any time and place. Dzieci’s Passion creates a place in history, space and time, brings us thoroughly inside of it and thereby makes the  story meaningful in any place and time. 

This year’s Passion was filmed at Hudson Valley’s Boughton Place and is available on demand one more week at  https://dziecitheatre.ticketspice.com/a-passion-on-demand.

Living in coronavirusworld 262: Second Week in Easter

 4/14

Harlem Meer

Second week of Easter. I wear a Brooklyn shirt and hat in honor of the 74th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the Major League Baseball color barrier. Last night in the Inspired Word  Showcase and Open Mic I sang a song reflecting on spring and our tentatively easing our way back into the open again as vaccines and testing take hold. In Canada, a new curfew has been imposed. My family in Germany  reports that   trying to live up to the European Union’s collective decision related to vaccine purchase has left them behind as the other countries made their own  deals. Fears about Astrazeneca and clotting have taken it off the market even though the percentages are minuscule.  And now Johnson and Johnson too. And a new shut down is announced. Here in the US we seem to be relatively well off. 

Ducks on the pond

tribute

tulips

Tulips are in bloom. Ducks returning to Morningside  Park. Votive candles mark where a body was found.

I can actually visit meet my mother in her assisted care facility now. Carefully checked and monitored of course.   At our Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association meeting, Doug  from Minneapolis reports a tense city as yet another police shooting dearth of a Black man has occurred and a verdict in the George Floyd murder trial awaits.  Another in the   never ending skein of school shootings has taken place. The Major League All Star baseball game ha been moved out of Atlanta due ti Georgia's efforts to suppress Black votes. Some 35000 asylum approved immigrants wait on the other side of the border for President Biden to sign an order raising the cap and the Republicans and FOX want is to believe we’ve lost control of the border and Tucker Carlson has all but said white people are in danger of being replaced. That’s where we are.

Our gospel readings have bene filled with traumatized disciples demanding proof of this risen Jesus. And even in his resurrected passing through walls form, his body still bears the marks of his crucifixion.  And by this they know him. 

He meets some on a journey to Emmaus. Others journey to Jerusalem. And the will go even farther. We are on journey of our own. And to where? 

What is gone is gone  and won't come again

What will be is not yet seen,

We are living somewhere in between. 

It’s been year.

And we’re still here.

We are here. 

On this journey there will be false starts. Wrong turns. The GPS will say recalculating. Cul de sacs and dead ends, interstates, blue highways and stuck in traffic. But we are going, 

Fredrick Büechner has said If you want to know who you really are as distinct from who you think you are, keep an eye on where your feet take you.

We are going, 

(Thanks to Roger Gench for some of these ideas and images…) 

Lving in Coronavirusworld 261: One step out....

 4/4

Easter

4/2

Good Friday.  In keeping with the darkest day of the Christian year, the temperature drops down below 30 degrees. I go to the barber shop. My Easter shave. Which I didn’t do last year because the lockdown didn’t feel like Easter. So it’s been a year and a week since I’ve been fully shaved. 

My barber is still hurting. Many of his customers have never come back, still gone from the Upper East Side.  I lie back and enjoy the shave.  Tell him it’s one of the three best things a man can experience. He laughs.

Outside again, my face feels especially  cold.  When I see myself in the mirror, I’m not sure how I feel. This will take some getting used to. 

125th Street

I make the trip to buy everything I will need for Easter dinner I will cook for my family.  On 125th Street, they are selling full face sunglass face shield, the latest covid accessory. 

Forced back inside for Friday afternoon drinks. 

4/3

Back at the Stadium

Holy Saturday. Warms up a little in the sun.  Meet my son on the subway platform to go to Yankee Stadium.  It will be your fist visit there since September 2019, 19 months  ago. Scalpers are asking extra tickets  and it’s like dude, it’s all digital…another industry victim to Covid. To get in, you must show an ID, proof of vaccination or negative test, digital ticket and temperature check. Our club is pretty empty. No one behind the bar and no draft beer. (I’ve never figured that one out yet…). The Stadium is at 20 percent capacity and ticket prices doubled to compensate.  Every other row is roped off and 4 seats between every pod. Weird but comfortable.  We sit in the bleachers  to catch the sun. The only semi crowded section is the right field bleachers where the “Creatures” are out in force again.  Good to hear them do the “roll call” of the lineup at the beginning of the game.   And...the Yankees win…..

A long night of cooking and cleaning, getting my dinner ready. I even dye some eggs with onion skins, the old school way. It feels good to be hosting my family.

4/4

Easter.  And we are still virtual for church. My West Park friends were forbidden to have an Easter lunch at the church. That saddens me. I meet my friends from Beverley in Brooklyn via conference call yet again. We had hoped…and yet…

I’ve only got an hour after church to get ready for my family. We connect with my family in Berlin where something like chaos strangely continues to reign. We are all feeling worn out. We hear of then Croatian traditions of making a nest for the Easter bunny who will leave toys for the children. My grandson will leave children’s under wear, socks and other thoughtful items for the Bunny. (Which must the make their way to another family…) My grandson will rise early and make an Easter breakfast of hard boiled eggs and chocolate for his sister.

My mother will be allowed out of her assisted care facility and to my sister’s for an outdoor oj the porch socially distanced core family Easter dinner. Rules followed, she will not need to quarantine on return. Nevertheless, compared to last year….it's better...

The Easter table...

Yes I’m actually with my family sharing food. Not alone on ZOOM.  That is good. But we are not resurrected. We’ve taken one step out of the tombs and are awkwardly stepping out, blinking our eyes in the sun as we come.  It is Easter, 2021.

My sermon:

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is risen indeed!  Happy Easter!

I think this is the first time since I have retired that I have been able to begin and end a Lenten journey with the same community. On March 7th, we began Lent together and today that journey comes to an end.  If you are like me, there were certain Lenten intentions that went the way of many New Year’s resolutions. But perhaps something came out of your Lenten experience, something that can be celebrated this morning.

Today we come to our celebration fo Easter with a sense of a new incomplete and still uncertain future. We need no more proof of this than that we are still gathered here on phone. A year ago the man who was then our President said he expected “full churches on Easter.” Well, we know how that turned out. 

We know of death, Over half a million of us, including  friends and loved ones gone. We know what it is like to be shut in weeks on end in lockdown and quarantine. And for elderly people like my mom in her assisted care facility, that lockdown has been like a tomb.

But with the coming of this spring, with vaccinations spreading, there is a growing sense of hope. Like little buds of flowers, we begin to stick our heads out to see what’s going on out there. This year, my mom can actually go to my sister’s house for Easter dinner. Last year, I cooked a meal for myself to share on a ZOOM gathering with family.  Today I am hosting my family for dinner. We  have a taste, the beginnings of resurrection.

Who was the first to go to the tomb?  Mary, of course. The men had all turned and run away during that endless afternoon of execution on that hillside. The women remained. The men left out of disappointment. Let down that the revolution had not come. That he had not been  the one. 

It’s Mary who comes, out of a love that had no expectations but to be, Mary who comes to do the acts of love a loved one deserves upon their death. As always, women take care of business. And Mary is shocked to find the stone rolled away.

Who does she go to? Peter, the one Jesus had chosen to be the “rock” upon which his community would be built. So quick and impetuous to proclaim undying commitment and so quick to deny any relationship to Jesus at all. Somehow she knows he will still care. ( I believe it’s that very flawed humanity of Peter, imperfect but loving still that led Jesus to choose Peter. He knew Peter, like even the best of us, would screw up but still keep loving..) And who else? The disciple “Jesus loved.” The one who lay his head upon Jesus’ breast during the last supper. The one to whom Jesus commended his mother from the cross. Obviously someone very close and very special.  A relationship of which we know next to nothing. Except this…Jesus needed not just to be worshipped. Jesus, like any of us, needed to be loved.

 A lot goes on in and around  that tomb.   But I want to focus on that last scene with Mary.  First she mistakes Jesus as the gardener..What does that tell us?  That there was nothing special about Jesus’ resurrection appearance. He didn’t glow our have a halo. He wasn’t even wearing a brand new Easter suit. He looked like a common, ordinary working person in overalls, like a gardener.

She only knows it’s him when he speaks her voice, calls her by name, “Mary.” And then she knows. When someone we know calls our name, it sounds like no other voice can.  When she hears the sound of his voice, she knows.  We all have people in our life that when they say our name, we hear it like no other and know exactly who its is. 

She wants to hold on to him, but she can’t. He’s got to move forward and so does she. We want to hold on to those we haver lost, and even though they stay with us, we have to let go, we have to move on. Like we have to move out of the grave of lockdown and back out into the world, and back into the world..

But as we go…see this…much of what we see in the resurrection story has to do with love and intimacy… our need for that. It starts with a savior who like his love for Peter, loves us in all our imperfections, Knows we are the ones to entrust his church to,  And like Mary, he knows us like no other can and says our name in a way that we know he knows us through and through.  In the days ahead, friends listen for that voice, listen for that voice. 

But more…these will be wonderful days as we make our way out again. Wonder-full days. Let is not forget the things we have learned during our year of lockdown, our year of Lent. We are going to need each other.  Especially as a church we are going to have to love one another and offer that love to any of our community who feel isolated, lonely or afraid. 

At the end of the day, that is what conquers the grave., That is what love is all about. The love that goes on, the love that goes on.

Yes, these will be uncertain times. But we have taken one step out of the grave. More to come. And we are going together.  And we are going with Jesus.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[b] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

1. John 20:11 Gk lacks to look
2. John 20:16 That is, Aramaic

Living in cornavirusworld 260: Holy Thursday

4/1

Better Together

 Holy Thursday. Opening Day for baseball. April Fools’ Day. And the 26th anniversary of my first day of work in New York City. An interesting convergence of events. Strange and perhaps portentous that I began my lat two jobs on April 1st 10 years apart.

I watch my hometown Pirates play at a chilly Wrigley Field and win the game while rehearsing for Mike Geffner’s (Virtual) Inspired Word show. For Opening Day, I’m working on Dylan’s “Catfish,” a classic blues about the great Catfish Hunter of years gone by. 

And reflect on Holy Thursday.  As a  child, it was the beginning of my least favorite part of the church year. A Maundy Thursday night communion. Endless Good Friday “Seven Last Words” service. By the time we get to Easter, so weighed down with church, hard to feel joy. There was of course the year when I joined the  church. Maundy was always the first communion of that year’s Communicants Class. Later theological refinement in our tradition now allows communion for children, thus  ending that rite of passage. 

In New York City, there was a quiet, simple meal and candlelit communion at Good Shepherd Faith. When that ended, we began holding our own services at West Park. Which introduced foot washing to the community.

Those services were remembered when we discussed the Last Supper at our Monday night Bible Study focusing on the story in the 13th chapter of John. 

That act stands out to people. Jesus’ humbling himself and washing others’ feet not as a host,  but as a servant. Peter’s impulsive promise which he of course will break. The intimacy of that act. I remember the first time I did that, with a student of mine at the University of Bridgeport. At his Seventh Day Adventist church service. Which precedes communion every Saturday. Men and women in two separate rooms. Washing each other’s feet. It was hard for me to do. So intimate.  And so it was at West Park. 

At Good Shepherd Faith, they did hands. Because in this culture, our feet are covered but our hands touch subway poles, bus straps, all kinds of public places. But there is just something about feet. 

It is a demonstration. Jesus wants us to do as he has done. What is that relevance in 2021? In the last year we have had an ever heightened awareness of dominance and privilege and oppression in this country. Genocide of the native population. The control and destruction of Black lives through the institution  of chattel slavery. Exclusion of Chinese (after they built the transcontinental  railroad), detention of Japanese Americans and on and on. Georgia passes a voter suppression act seemingly aimed at African-Ameircans. A born again Christian guns down Asian women as symbols of temptation he can’t resist.  It goes on and on.  And we can only respond with humility.    

As I look at my task of heading a New York City Presbytery working group on dismantling systemic racism, the image of Last Supper Jesus tells me the only way we of privilege can move forward is with utmost humility. And that as Jesus gave up privilege, so must we. Concretely up to and including reparations. Our Holy Thursday can only be meaningful if we can see ourselves in that servant role in real terms in the world around us. That’s the only way to make the Lenten repentance emphasis that draws to conclusion in these days meaningful and real. 

Jesus said,  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Let it be so….

true repentance