West Park and landmarking...

 NPR covers West Park....

https://www.wnyc.org/story/historic-upper-west-side-church-faces-demolition/

Ever since it was built in the late 19th century, West Park Presbyterian Church has been at the center of progressive and radical politics, including the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement and nuclear disarmament. It was here in the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, that God's Love We Deliver was born.

The Upper West Side building was landmarked in 2010, but the red sandstone structure -- “one of the best examples of a Romanesque Revival style religious structure in New York City," according to preservationists -- is crumbling. Church officials say repairs would cost $50 million, which means it could be torn down to make way for a high-rise.

“Essentially what's happened is that the congregation of the West Park Presbyterian Church has in fact run out of money by attempting to keep up this landmark building,” said Roger Leaf, a trustee of the Presbytery of New York City, who serves as chair of the West Park Administrative Commission, the governing body of the church.

But elected officials, community residents and artists are vigorously pushing back, saying the church is too important to be demolished. 

Jackie Robinson Day

 4/13

Honoring Jackie

Today as we meet I am wearing a jersey in honor of the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. Since 2004, April 15th has not only been “tax day” but Jackie Robinson day as well.  In 2004, Jackie’s number was retired throughout baseball with only players like the Red Sox Mo Vaughn and the Yankees Mariano Rivera “grandfathered” permission to continue wearing  it until retirement. 

In 2009, for the first time every player in the Major Leagues for number 42 in the games of that day, a practice now institutionalized.  This year to mark the 75th anniversary, the number 42 on the back of all jerseys will be in Dodger blue.

Today’s hat is the 1947 Dodger style. The shirt, UniWatch blog’d tribute with Dodger style script and number.  So hats off to Jackie Robinson and on for the 1947 Dodgers who he played for. 

Easter 2022

 4/17

Croatian Easter Eggs...all natural dyes

It's a sunny cool late afternoon when I preach an Easter sermon to my friends at Beverley Church, Brooklyn back in the US. Here's what I had to say:

Greetings  to you from Berlin where I finally arrived after a long and arduous journey made all the more difficult by continuing Covid protocols. A Holy Saturday spent in Madrid along the way. And waking up this morning to find my grandchildren excitedly opening gifts left for them by the Easter Bunny.  Following my daughter-in-law’s Croatian tradition, they make a nest for the Bunny filed with flowers and eggs that have been colored with onion skins and beets and leaves and turmeric..reds, blues, purple, yellow. Deep down, it’s all about new life, how spring rolls round again…despite all, even in the darkest time. It comes again. While we celebrate new life, our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are doing their best to resist the power of death and hold on to the life they have. 

And so we turn again, as we do every year to the story of Easter, our Christian “origin” story if you like. Easter is what makes Jesus Jesus.  As Marcus Borg said, Without Easter there would be no Jesus.  He’d just be another one of the many first century Jews who  lost their  life resisting  the empire. 

We usually read the story from the Gospel of John. So this year I thought it would be fun to look at in Luke.  What do we find there ?

The women come to take care of Jesus. Note ..all the men, all the men, took off at the crucifixion. Only the women stayed to the end.  The men out of some  combination of disappointment and fear were gone. They’re like well, that certainly didn’t work out.. According to John they even went back to their old work of fishing. But not the women.

These women, like so many before and after, don’t worry about those things, they put their heads down and take care of business.And the business to take care of is taking care of the body of someone they had  loved, someone who was a friend.  And so they go.

Imagine how they feel to find the stone rolled away, the body gone! While they are trying to figure this out, two must be, angels, appear. And  they are terrified!. Mark actually ends his gospel  there…they, the women,  were afraid..and the two angels? They say the most important words, do not look for the living among the dead….and then  the women  remember everything he had told them. And they go to tell the disciples, the eleven (no more Judas) and the rest.

And what do our courageous men do? They  refuse to believe the women.  Say it’s just an idle tale. ( The Biblical Greek is actually more colorful…) Remember, in those days, women were not even allowed to be witnesses in court cases, because, you know, women….

The last scene of course, involves Peter. I love Peter, the guy with no impulse control, the guy with the big words, big statements, we’ll always follow you, all the way to the end…who winds up denying three times, scared to death, who me? Never knew the guy…But on the other hand, not worried about guilt, not worried about shame, he goes to see, he runs to go see…and comes away amazed…

So much more to come…but what to do with what we’ve got?

Don’t look for the living among the dead…Easter means  they came to believe Jesus was alive.  Get this….there’s no external way to prove it, right? No cell phone cameras on him as he gets up and walks away or whatever it as that happened. No instagram posts .  No tik tok posts by the women. No articles in the local press about empty tombs and the disappearance of the body of an executed rabble rouser. The external world did not know and did not care. 

I am going to go further and say that we know, not believe, we know this is true and truth is not bound by and is always so much more than facts. So how do we know this is true?  At the simplest level, we know this is true because we are here and we too are witnesses. 

Do not look for the living smog the dead.

Many cultures have their own way of measuring time…like for our Jewish friends celebrating Passover it’s 5782.  For our Muslim friends celebrating Ramadan it is year 1443 AG, Anno Hegirae. And back in February the Asian year 4719 began.  And yet the whole world measures time by this man. It’s what we used to call Anno Domini.  Remember BC and AD? Well now it’s CE, the Common Era.  So time itself testifies that Jesus is not to be found among the dead.

So what does that mean for us?

We know the power of death is strong. We have lived through two years of the pandemic now. Almost a million deaths in the US and almost 6 million world wide and it is still not over.  My trip to Germany to visit my grandchildren was bounded and defined by shifting covid rules that almost kept from getting there. Nearly all of us have loved ones who have died during this pandemic. It may have permanently changed the way we live. 

And if that were not enough, we have our awareness of the senseless war going on in Ukraine.  I get evert angry with people trying to explain how we git here, trying to figure out whose fault this war is. It’s like I told my boys…history is always more complex than we think it is. There are no clean hands here. Especially ours.  But wrong is still wrong.  Invading another country is wrong. Bombing theatre, schools, and even maternity wards is WRONG. But how to stop it? That’s another issue.

The point is …we know too much of death.  It is always around us.  The death of loved ones.  The end of relationships. A job. A home. And the worst of all…spiritual death …when we have lost the passion, the desire, even the  will to live. 

And it is all too easy to give in to , to hold on to death. Resurrection takes courage. Stepping into, accepting, embracing resurrection, not after you die, but now…that takes courage. 

One of my favorite folksingers is the late Canadian Stan Rogers. He wrote  a song about a sunken ship and the efforts of the sailors who love her to bring it back. Listen to the words of its final verse…

Rise again, rise again; though your heart it be broken

And life about to end

No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend

Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again

Rise again, rise again; though your heart it be broken

And life about to end

No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend

Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again

                                                            Mary Ellen Carter

Don’t look for the living among the dead. Because Easter. Jesus lives and because he still lives he calls us to risk resurrection. To risk living. Holding on to death is easy.  Be brave enough to risk your resurrection.

Alleluia. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia. 

Luke 24: 1-12

1But on he first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8Then they remembered his words, 9and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Opening Day 2022

 

4/6

Opening Day

THE AMERICAN FLAG

In today’s meeting,  I wear my Yankees hat and logo t-shirt to honor opening day coming up tomorrow.  This hat is my  current favorite because it has the flag of Nicaragua on the side. And I struggle with that country's ongoing    suffering…..following are my reflections on this opening day…

Opening Day

with my Bosox fan John

After a day of rain, the sun is out, shining and warm for opening day in the Bronx. Yankees and Red Sox. What could be better.

the Ukraianian flag waves...

Right there, right beside the American flag, just a little lower, the now familiar blue and yellow flag of Ukraine. A ten year old girl in folkloric dress stands at home plate and sings the Ukrainian national anthem, with minor keys of yearning, so much more poignant now. Because. It is moving.  And we all feel for a moment as if we were actually involved somehow. Actually doing something instead of the helpless feeling of knowing that daily innocent people are dying in theatres, schools and even hospitals. Maternity wards. And we live with this knowledge as it goes on. 

I love the blue and yellow flag, waving above us.

Ringing the roof of Yankee stadium are the pennants of all Major League teams, arranged by league and division and their current standings.  I often ponder how these flags are rearranged and who does it. As right as flying the Ukrainian flag is, I want more.  Fill the flag poles.

I want to see the red and gold flag of Tigray province undergoing genocide by Eritrea. I want to see the Arab Liberation flag of Yemen being daily assaulted and relentlessly bombed by US supplied Saudi Arabia. The liberation flag of Palestine, still occupied after 74 years of unending naqba, catastrophe. The flag of Western Sahara, occupied  by Morocco. The blue and white stars and stripes of  Ambazonia under the heel of the francophone Cameroonians. 

How about the flags of democratically elected governments overthrown with American arms and support? The flags of Gautemala, of Iran, of Chile. Of countries invaded for no good reason?  Raise the  flag of Iraq. 

Raise them all , Fill the sky…ladies and gentlemen, please rise and take off your hats…..

Opening day....

Palm Sunday 2022

4/10

Palms on the street

palms for all

On a beautiful Sunday morning, I go to my favorite Venezuelan cafe  to start my day with coffee and the Times. The owner/artist has added one of his wood portraits of Frida Kahlo.  The I make my way to Lincoln Center to lead Palm Sunday services for the Good Shepherd Faith congregation.  There's more of a mix of Korean and English speaking members this time around and I've given my friend Chris enough time to translate my sermon into Korean.   The ushers have cut the palms and there are plenty for everyone.  Here's what I had to say......  

Frida

Palm Sunday.  Childhood memories. Full church.Waving palms. Not sure I knew what jt meant, but it felt good. Opening  the door to what felt like a long week of church going. The Maundy Thursday communion service.  That three hour long Good Friday Seven Last Words service.  And finally two services on Sunday. By the time I got to Easter, I always felt  like I’d had so much church, it was hard to feel the joy except that it was over. 

Which is good background to look at church history a little. For centuries, that was the pattern, I would add that in my church, Maundy Thursday was when the Communicants Class would officially join the church and take communion for the first time after a year’s preparation.  For our Catholic neighbors, there would be the Saturday Easter Vigil with baptisms. That was the pattern. 

Then sometime in the 1970’s, the folks who made up the Common Lectionary began to become concerned that far too many people were going straight from the triumphant entry of Palm Sunday to the victorious joy of Easter Sunday without experiencing the Holy Week journey.  And so this Sunday became designated Palm/Passion Sunday with the reading of both the Palm Sunday passage and the entire Passion story.  Now that’s a tall order for any Sunday.

I must say that I arrived in my  ministry here in time to catch the tail  end of the Upper West Side Presbyterian joint practice  of a Lenten School at West Park, the beautiful Maundy Thursday simple candle lit  meal and communion here at Good Shepherd faith with its quiet  and warmth, and the three hour Seven Last Words Good Friday service at Rutgers. I can say that I actually got to preach each of those seven words twice. Sadly, one by one, these all came to an end.

SO here we are on this Sunday and this year. So relax…we are only going to do Palm Sunday, not the whole Passion. You are responsible for your own Holy Week.  And we begin with a procession. 

I learned something this year that I never knew before.  Reading the book, the Last Week, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, which systematically looks at each successive day of the last week of Jesus’s life in Jerusalem, I learned that there was another procession that day. 

It seems that the season of the Passover week, with so many pilgrims coming to Jerusalem and celebrating a festival of liberation, was seen as a potentially dangerous time by the occupying Roman Empire. So every year, the Roman governor, would enter Jerusalem to be the presence of the Empire in the city for that week. A reminder of who was in  charge.  So on this day, as Jesus is entering the city through one gate, Pilate is entering through another. 

It is very possible that Jesus chose this day deliberately as a counter procession, a demonstration,  to challenge the authority of the Empire. It’s interesting that since the time  of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperors were called “son of God,” “savior” and “bringer of peace on earth.” Augustus even claimed that Apollo was his father, his mother simply the vessel for bearing the child of God. So…Pilate’s entry was not only about political oppression but a theological affront to the Jewish people as well. Jesus’ entry was ultimately a proclamation that there is no God but God. 

The Jerusalem of Jesus day was under what we call a domination system. The three parts of which are political oppression, economic exploitation and religious legitimation.  Thus the Romans installed Herod as an ethnarc, one of the subject Jewish people to rule on their behalf.  And it was the job of the Temple to collaborate with the empire in areas like  taxes and a kind of money laundering and a bit of religious cover. And so it always is in occupations from 1940’s occupied France to 1950’s Iran to 1970’s Vietnam to …well it goes on. And I can actually understand how the temple authorities might actually have thought they were helping to protect their people, even as they personally benefited from their collaboration..

It’s interesting that in the Luke version of Palm Sunday, there are actually no palms, and no Hosannas. Luke wants to make very clear that we’ve got a very different kind of king here and a very different  kind of kingdom being celebrated here. So he leaves out the signs and language of empire. 

Two very different processions. Two very different kingdoms.

Jesus’ message is always not about him, but about the kingdom, the reign of God he represents. We are always to look beyond Jesus to God.

Every sermon needs  to teach and to reach. That was pretty much the teach part.  And now to reach. In the language of Jesus’ time, the word believe was not so much about giving assent to some ideas.  It was more about trust and commitment. Whose word do you trust? What is the authority in your life?  What are you willing to commit yourself to?

And that question is a very serious question. For Jesus, his procession was a symbolic denial of the power of the Empire and that would lead to his arrest and execution. For the only crime for which Rome would use the cross was denial of the authority of imperial Rome.

So here’s the point…if we want to call ourselves Christians, then we are called to be disciples.  To be a disciple.  Go with me here. Genuine discipleship means  to follow Jesus.  All the way. We must follow him on his way.  And that way leads to Jerusalem and that leads to confrontation. And ultimately death.  AND resurrection. 

That is the theme of Lent.  And Holy Week.  And all of Christian life. To be wiling  to follow Jesus all the way.

So the question is …which procession are you in?  The procession of Pilate …of the power, glory and violence of the empire? Or the procession of Jesus, of the proclamation of the kingdom, the kindom of God?

Let those with ears to hear, hear…

Ta'u sings...and waves....

One of my favorite singers here is the former NFL football player now opera singer with a burgeoning career, Ta'u Pap'ua.  He sings the Battle Hymn of the Republic bringing new meaning to the words as related to Palm Sunday, waving his palm as he sings, his truth is marching on....

hot cross buns

On my way home, I stop at the Silver Moon bakery for the their traditional hot cross buns. 

And as I walk home down Adam Clayton Powell, the good people of  First Corinthian Baptist are passing out palms on the street. The line stretched down the street. It's Palm Sunday.....

Luke 19: 28-40

28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it'" 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34They said, "The Lord needs it." 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying,

"Blessed is the king

who comes in the name of the Lord!  (Ps. 118:26)

Peace in heaven,

and glory in the highest heaven!"

39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." 40He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

For Holy Week Reflection 2: The Last Week by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan

 For Holy Week Reflections 2: The Last Week by Marcus J.Borg and John Dominic Crossan

My second recommendation for Holy Week is The Last Week: The Day by Day Account of Jesus’ Final Week in Jerusalem by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan which is exactly what it says it is. In this book from 2007, the authors of The Heart of Christianity and The Historical Jesus, and Jesus Seminar members bring their systematic critical Biblical analysis to Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem. 

Beginning with the "triumphant entry"  known as Palm Sunday and ending with Easter, each day is explored for its theological meaning.  For them, “Palm Sunday” itself opens the door to Holy Week and contains with it the essential content of Jesus’ mission.

It was startling to read of another triumphant entry into Jerusalem that day, through another gate, of course. The authors posit  that it was the Roman Governor Pilate’s custom to be present in Jerusalem during the pilgrim festival of Passover, a season with great potential for civil disruption by an occupied people.   And that his entrance would  have been one week before. 

From this perspective, Jesus’ entry was a carefully staged and planned counter procession with enough street theater to criticize the empire. Interestingly, the record shows that beginning with Augustus, the emperor was known also as son of God, savior, bringer of peace on earth, titles we have come to associate with Jesus. The occupying empire was thus  not only a political affront but a theological one as well to the Jewish people and their religion.

The authors describe the the domination system that was the context of Jesus’ witness. A system that used political power, economic exploitation and, especially significant for Jesus, religious legitimation to maintain dominance over an occupied people.

Such a system required collaborators on the Jewish side to make it work. Thus Herod serves as “ethnarc,” or ethnic ruler serving in thrall to the Roman Empire and the Temple authorities help to enforce the system and provide religious cover for their own people's oppression. One can always find contemporary examples of  this system.  In all fairness, some collaborators can be perceived as actually seeking to mediate between their people and the empire, keeping them safe. But it becomes clear why for Jesus, the Temple establishment becomes the focus of his witness,

The authors  argue that in those days in the religion of the Jewish people, belief was not about giving assent to theological propositions but about trust and commitment.  That Jesus never wanted the focus to be on him as an individual but on the countercultural alternative kingdom of God over against the kingdom of the empire. Thus he would be executed for the capital crime of encouraging refusal to accept the authority of the empire.  

With this understanding it becomes clear that for Borg and Crossan to claim the name Christian is to commit to following Jesus which leads to Jerusalem which leads to confrontation with the powers which leads to death and ultimately resurrection.  To follow him is to commit to the whole journey.

So for our Holy Week we can contemplate these two processions and their implications for us. And ultimately ask ourselves, which procession are we in?

Well worth it.

 For Holy Week Reflection:  1. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, I wanted to share two books that I have found helpful as resources for Holy Week reflection from two very different directions. 

The first is last year’s novel, Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen. Set in late 1971 and into 1972, it is the story of the Hillebrand family.  Russ, the father, is a disaffected  associate pastor at a liberal suburban Reformed church. We will get to know all five members of the family as they struggle with issues of faith, failure, forgiveness and redemption.

While I am generally not wanting to get into books some 600 pages long, it is a tribute to Franzen’s writing style and plotting of his narrative that I would finish one section and want to dive right into the next.  This is in part because he introduces us to each character one long chapter at a time looking at the events of the same days of the week before Christmas from five different perspectives. Your attitude  towards the characters shifts and changes as you enter into each character and you realize soon enough that you’ve got a lot of pages to turn to see what happens next.

The book’s title, Crossroads, has several meanings. At the base, it is the name of the church’s youth group led by a charismatic young seminary intern. Anyone who lived through those 1970’s youth groups will immediately feel at home and perhaps even painfully so, in this one.  Events in and around the youth group provide the substance o 4th novels narrative.

Crossroads also refers to the traditional Delta  blues song by Robert Johnson and the  legend of how Johnson meets the devil at the crossroads and sells his soul to the devil in exchange for the power to sing the blues. Pastor Hillebrand is a blues aficionado and resents the Cream’s appropriation of the song.

Finally, each of the characters  is at one level or another at a crossroads moment of their life with critical decisions to make. And at this crossroads, they, each in their way, have to deal with the cross and its implications for their lives.

Franzen structures his book liturgically. The beginning, the set up of the book is called Christmas. The critical dramatic moments and resolution, even redemption, such as it is, occur in the second section entitled Easter.

By locating his story in a church in the Reformed tradition, Johnson can explore the theological concept, frequently misunderstood, of total depravity. Best understood as we are all imperfect. All come up short. Sinners all. (Truth be told, in the world of fiction, nobody does the better than Marilynne Robinson,) All in need of moving past guilt to forgiveness, to redemption. 

While I didn’t necessarily love all the characters, their struggles are familiar.   The social and cultural Vietnam era milieu in which the book is set was my coming of age time, and one might argue, an American coming of age time, and so especially resonant for me.

For a fiction based Lenten reflection, Crossroads works well.  A good read. 

Purple is for Lent

 3/30

for Lent....

Today it’s just purple for Lent. Purple a color of reflection, of repentance. Also of royalty.  The color of the robe put on Jesus by the soldiers to mock him. The t-shirt is from the 2020 Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly.  It was supposed to have been in Baltimore but the COVID pandemic forced the denomination to hold its first “virtual” GA. Its theme was “From Lament to Hope.” Why purple? If you’re looking for Baltimore colors, you’ve got the Orioles black and orange and the Maryland flag with black and gold and red and white and then you’re left with the NFL Baltimore Ravens purple and black. So the purple is clearly from the Ravens. Beyond their traditional toughness and the fact that they are rivals of my hometown Steelers, you’ve got to love a team named for an Edgar Allen Poe poem.  (He once lived in my neighborhood, across the street from one of my church's predecessor congregations.)  Intriguingly, the PCUSA is keeping the same theme for the year’s hybrid Assembly, with committees meeting  in the Louisville, Kentucky national office and plenaries on ZOOM. Perhaps keeping the same theme reflects the fact that we’re still struggling with the pandemic. The time between assemblies feel like a blur. Much business just postponed to this Assembly.  And now on top of that, there’s a war to worry about. Our lament continues.  Hope ahead.