Seventh Sunday in Easter: ...that they may be one...

 5/29

Memorial Day Weekend at Good Shepherd-Faith

On this holiday weekend, I am live and in person  at Good Shepherd Faith Church near Lincoln Center,  At GSF, covid is still an issue .  People are masked and sitting socially distant. My friend Chris who was going to translate my sermon into Korean for me has now been hit by Covid and will not be with me. In fact, the congregation is nearly all Korean today.  I will depend on the Spirit for getting us through...here's what I had to say.....

It’s good to be with you on this Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer.  And this seventh Sunday in Easter, our seven week journey through Eastertide almost complete and Pentecost Sunday, just over the horizon next Sunday. It’s good to  be here.

It’s been a hard week. Not sure why it hit me so hard this time. I mean, according to the Washington Post there’s been 229  school shootings since Colombine.  185 people killed, 369 injured.  Over 311,000 children have experienced mass shootings at their schools. But still….something about Uvalde really got to me. 19 elementary school students.  19 elementary school students. Two young teachers. One’s husband dies of a heart attack when he heard the news. The New York Times printed all their pictures. And their stories. To remind us of the uniqueness of each, that each was a person with a present and a future, a future taken away, not to  be lived. 

And despite our outcries, our thoughts and prayers, these shootings have become an accepted, almost expected part of our life.  Guns are now the largest cause of death for children according to the CDC. In 2020, over 4500 alone..  

Just a week to so ago I was angry over another domestic terrorist shooting  in Buffalo.  

Through all of this, our politicians seem powerless to do anything to stop the madness. The particularly American form of madness  that almost declares occasional massacres of children is an acceptable  price to pay for our freedom to carry automatic weapons around.

As George Carlin once said, as long as you’re in the womb, we’ll keep you safe, but once you’re out, you’re by God on your own. 

So here we are. We’ve had these last seven weeks to reflect on the life of the risen Jesus with us.  And now a few weeks getting prepared for his physical absence.  Already, Thursday was Ascension Day, what we used to, remembering the Girls Scouts, jokingly refer to as Fly Up Day. And might I add  parenthetically that I found  it interesting  that in modern secular European societies like Denmark and Germany, Ascension Day, or in German, Himmelfahrt, heaven journey….is  still a national  holiday.

But our lesson today, from. John 20: 17-26, actually comes from Jesus’ farewell discourse at the last supper. He has just predicted his betrayal.  And now, in language that is almost hard to follow, that sounds strangely like 

I am he as you are he as you are me

And we are all together

I am the egg man

They are the egg men

I am the walrus

(Goo goo g’joob)

Jesus prepares us for his leaving. It’s part of his prayer for his disciples. At the very center is the desire that we all may be one. Glory comes back again. And although he has previously said, Where I am going, you cannot go, this time he prays that the disciples may be with him where he is….where the love of God flows through Jesus to the disciples and through them to the world….

As we look at this, here on the cusp of  Pentecost, Jesus takes us into three time zones at the same time:  

*the past, where he is the preexistent “Word” of John 1

• the present, where the historical Jesus is breaking bread  with his closest friends, the disciples
• And the future, where he will abide with the community that seeks to follow him, namely US

His deepest and most passionate desire for us is UNITY.  So strange and ironic when nothing can be further from the world we live in now. Since the Civil War, this country has never been more painfully divided. Our world is once again broken into camps. We had been living in one world, but not now.

Jesus is calling us into the deepest experience of unity, dwelling in the very heart of God. It is something mysterious…and powerful…

That’s what he wants from his followers…like Paul and Silas in prison, remember?  Like the motto of the United Church of Christ, that all may be one….But yet, is it even possible? How can we Christians preach reconciliation when even the church itself has no unity?  Even those who have the name Presbyterian are broken into different fragments. And oh how I yearned over orthodox Easter that Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians would stop killing one another…

For years the PCUSA tried to be a “big tent” but ultimately, the center would not hold. LGBTQ inclusion was too much for some. The tension between ecclesiastical unity and prophetic witness was too much.

But Jesus’ demand remains. To be part of Christ is to be ONE. In agreement or not.  And in that there is Glory. In Hebrew the word is k’vod, or heavy…glory is as we used to say, heavy…and in Greek it’s doxa, openness, judgment, honor in reputation….there is glory in oneness…

A note…in this passage, Jesus uses the word Father six times..this is about intimacy, relationship, not gender…

But still….oneness?  My senior year s Yale, I was part of an urban core program. 12 of us had inner city church jobs. We would meet for 4 hours every Monday. One hour of a “case study” form our work. One hour of a reflection paper on a reading. One hour of group process. And one hour of worship. At the beginning of the year, there were several in the group I just didn’t like. Found them annoying. At best. But every week I had to pray for them. Yes, specifically. And by the end of the year, you know what, well, I still didn’t like them…but I had come to love them…

So …who can you not be one with? Can you imagine praying  for them?

Jesus wants us  to be with him where he is. Getting there may take you places you don’t want to go. Places of anger, torture, even death…but that’s where we get to the glory..

Look….Jesus has a bottom line  here. In Christianity, there are no lone rangers. We can only do this with each other. It is a basic understanding…we are in this together..

And it works like this…we see God through Christ and the world sees Jesus through his followers…we reveal Christ and through him, God, to the world. 

I sometimes fall into wandering down the quora rabbit hole..,not even sure where that comes  from…but often my feed deals with arguments between Christian believers and atheists. Invariably, atheists have come to that perspective through their experiences with believers…

It’s pretty simple…like the song says, they’ll know we are Christians by our love…or not…I came that they might be one …let those with ears to hear, hear….Amen

Gospel John 17:20-26

20"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

...And now to honor those men and women who are serving...

 5/25

Camo 

Today as we meet we are midway between “Armed Forces Day” and Memorial Day.  To be honest, I can’t remember Armed Forces Day growing up. It only seems to have come to my attention in  a really backwards kind of way. 

From 2008 tp 2019, Major League Baseball would “honor the men and  women serving our country” on Memorial Day Weekend by wearing camouflage hats and some years even uniforms with proceeds of sales going to veterans.

Finally someone pointed out that Memorial Day was to remember those who had died  in  military service and had nothing to do with currently  serving  troops. Its origins go back to 1868 and a proclamation by John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic to “decorate” the graves of those who had fallen in the Civil War and the sho it was first known as Decoration Day.  (Southerners argue that the idea was stolen from Confederate Memorial  Day.)  At any rate, that was the beginning. In 1970 it was  established  as a Monday holiday as another of our 3 day weekend specials. 

Armed  Forces Day, on the other  hand, goes back to President Harry S. Truman combining the days of all five services  into one day of commemoration in 1950 on  the third Saturday  of May. It has remained relatively unnoticed until MLB decided to no longer wear came on Memorial  Day and shifted to the lesser known Armed Forces  Weekend instead.  So now for the third weekend of May , come  Camo hats on top of all teams.

"Dress Up Soldier"

My hat is the 2021 Pittsburgh Pirates  official Armed Forces Weekend Hat.  Every team wears the same hat  with their regular uniforms which leads to some very jarring aesthetic  combinations. Its was actually better the years they went to camo uniforms as well.   My shirt is from the Uni Watch blog, dedicated to  the careful study of athletic aesthetics, especially uniforms. On the back name plate, are  the words Dress Up Soldier to critique the appropriation of came by non-military people as if that actually honors those on active duty.

My Quaker cousin objects to my use of camo and I generally agree.  Though coming from Pittsburgh, camo has more various uses including deer  hunting and the colors worn by the United Mine Workers Union in protests, My oldest son grew up. identifying camo with minrs. So I’m okay with a a few days of camo wear each year.

As for Memorial Day, it was for my family a day of remembrance. My dad would ‘decorate’ the grave of his father. No one does that anymore. But my sister made a trip to our old hometown to decorate my father’s grave. It wa a great weekend fo 4th reopening of our swimming pool and barbecue go the back yard.  Though the New York City beaches are opening this weekend, I really miss the cookout and the burgers and dogs and beans.  

As for honoring  those serving in the military, first we should have some kind  of mandatory national service so that  everyone of us shares  in the responsibility. And second, we should never  send them to pointless wars of empire protection. Bring them home, that’s the way to honor them.

I do have nothing  but the most profound respect for those veterans who  are honored I the ballparks for what they have given.  So today, hats off to veterans and hats on for  those who serve….

Buffalo. And again.

 5/18

After the Tree of Life shooting

Today I feel like not wearing a hat at all, I  don’t want to take a hat off to anyone because I am angry.  Angry because yet one again a hate filled white supremacist has opened fire and deliberately murdered people in the name of defending against the “great replacement.” In Buffalo, New York, that same sick confluence has come together again. The sickness of white anxiety fueled by Tucker Carlson’s preppy no longer even thinly veiled racist fear mongering, Republicans both true believers and those who are are afraid to confront them allowing the crazy theories to become accepted  mainstream opinion and our total inability to deal rationally with guns has now led to 10 dead human beings at the Topps Friendly Market in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

And Congress refuses to accept the reality that the vast majority of domestic terrorist acts (67% last year, over 80% this…)are committed by right wing white people of various sorts.  There is simply no equivalence.

Stronger than hate

So today I am wearing the shirt from my hometown of Pittsburgh, from the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting 4 years ago when 11 worshippers were murdered.  “…Stronger than hate…” it reads.  It’s a touchingly typical Pittsburgh graphic.  Starting with what was the US Steel logo that has become the beloved Steelers symbol and changing  one of the arched hypocycloids (crescent diamond shape) into a  Mogan David, Jewish star. On my mug, all the hypocycloids have become Jewish stars. How many communities must stand in solidarity with one another? Do I really believe the implied love is stronger than hate?

I finally selected my Fellowship of Reconciliation from the International Peace Bureau World Peace Congress in Barcelona last October, an amazing gathering of people from around the world, former heads of state, scholars, and just plain folks, gathering to explore roads to peace that take into account the intersectionality of economy, militarism, environmental justice, and resulting world refugee crisis. 

In 1915, AJ Muste, Jane Addams and 66 pacifists gathered to declare an international movement against violence. Socialist Norman Thomas became  the first director, once convinced they were serious.  Over the years they have protested war, organized freedom rides to the American south and  organized to stop gun violence  and even risking the disapprobation that comes with supporting the Boycott, Divestment and  Sanctions (BDS)  movement to bring justice for Palestine. 

In a world where the murderous violence and hatred continues unchecked, the faithful witness of groups like FOR are one of the few glimmers of hope.

And today I am angry. 

Stanley Cup reflections one and two....

 5/4

The original Penguin

Today I am wearing the original “ice blue” of the Pittsburgh Penguins in honor of their opening round win in the Stanley Cup playoffs……a triple overtime victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in one of the all time epic games. 

a fiercer Penguin

Take a look at that vintage t-shirt.  That original penguin was very cute with his smile, rounded belly and trailing  scarf. Just one year later, the scarf is gone, the belly raised to broad shoulders and a raided eyebrow shoes intensity and he’s no longer smiling. 

This marks the Penguins 16th straight trip to the playoffs…unprecedented. In the city, they’re second only to the Steelers.  Their five Stanley Cup titles are the most of any US based team since the era of the “Original Six” (decades long original NHL.)

IN 1979, after the Steelers won the Super Bowl and the Pirates the World Series, the Pens changed their colors to black and gold, in a show of city solidarity. The  "ice blue" has reappeared now and then as a throwback. 

Even though the NHL is the “whitest” of our big four sports, it is also the most accessible. Players lived in our neighborhood and the Pens practiced at our local rink. Every kid had to learn to skate. By Stanley Cup tradition, every player on the winning tram gets to take the Cup home for one day. So before making its way to Canada, Russia or the Czech Republic, it shows up in local kindergartens and Eat’n’ Park diners. 

So today’s hats off …and on…to the  Pittsburgh Penguins.

5/11

Hoping for Cup winning mojo

Today we are staying on the Penguins theme.  As we meet, the Penguins are ups 3 to 1 in the best of seven series with a chance to close tonight in game five. I’m wearing a black hat and  a t-shirt celebrating the 2017 cup victory hoping to bring extra mojo.

When the Pens went to black and gold, the Boston Bruins, an original six team, protested. But since an earlier version of the NHL included a team called the Pirates wearing black and gold, the colors were grandfathered in.

I’ve got a virtual background of a jersey celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the NHL and  25th season for the Pens. Which means I’ve had this jersey  lying around for 29 (or 30?) years.

But here’s the real story. Saturday was my youngest son’s birthday. In our family’s Pittsburgh years, the Penguins of Mario Lemieux had an amazing run. Two straight Stanley Cups heading for a third. Which is when our son was born. We waited until the Penguins had defeated the New York Islanders 3-2 before heading to the hospital.  So to honor his  birthday, I give him the jersey and an original ice blue hat. Sadly, the Isles would win the series and there would be no  Threepeat.

So remembering  the night my son was born, hat’s off …and on…to the Penguins …and Happy Birthday Dan, now let's  finish it!

birthday jersey

Third Sunday in Easter: Breakfast on the Beach

 5/1

Community Garden tulips

On the first of May, the Third Sunday in Easter, I preached for my friends at Beverley Church of Brooklyn. Here's what I had to say:

So here we are. It’s the 3rd Sunday in Easter,  We’re officially six weeks into spring now.  The sun is out, but it’s still cool. But we’ve been through the cherry blossom season and  now the  tulips are out in full force brightening our day with their cheerful array of color.

89th Street Community Garden

The Five Boro Bike Tour is streaming up Adam Clayton Powell, Jr Boulevard about 6.5 miles in.  And workers all over the world are celebrating May Day, which actually ironically commemorates the Haymarket uprising in Chicago in a country that shifted Labor Day to September out of fear of communism.

Dr. Fauci has announced that we are no longer in  pandemic mode and have now entered intro the endemic stage but people we know are still getting covid. Masks are no longer “required” but well, you know? Looks like we’ll have to figure out how to live with covid. And the Ukrainian people are still under siege but are holding on with courage and determination. 

It’s the third Sunday in Easter.  And today we’ve got another of my favorite resurrection  stories…the one I call  breakfast on the beach, Now remember…Jesus has already appeared twice to these guys appearing out of nowhere through locked doors, showing the marks of his resurrection still visible on his resurrected body, And still, still, they are not yet ready to believe. 

They are so not ready that six of them, half of the original disciples, have decided to go back to their old line of work, go back to fishing. As if to say well, that certainly  didn’t work out, let’s  just  act like it never happened. 

They’ve been out all night with no luck. Jesus is there on the beach. He calls out to them to put the nets out  on the other side and what do you know, the nets are bursting. The one that Jesus loved, (still not sure about  that) says it’s the Lord…and Peter, the one with no impulse control, puts his clothes back on and jumps in to the water to swim to shore.

Now stop right there. This has never made sense to me.  If you’re going to swim, I’d think you’d want to be naked. Take your clothes off. And Peter puts his on. But then someone suggested this to me. Peter was always the one to make big bold  promises, like I will never leave you, I’ll be with you to the end, only to deny Jesus three times in the end. This is important.  Think how he must have felt. How ashamed he must  have felt.  How resistant to believing the resurrection he is that he’s gone back to his old work. Fishing. And then he sees Jesus on the beach.. He feels the shame. He’s like Adam in the garden when he realizes he is naked. So he puts his clothes in before jumping in.  The one who once couldn’t handle walking on water doesn’t want to have Jesus see him naked.  But even though he is ashamed, he still goes….

And now back to Jesus.  And I love this part. He’s on the beach.  He’s got a charcoal grill fired up.  And there’s fish on the grill. Stop there.  Close your eyes…see that. But feel it and smell it too, Feel the morning sea breeze on your face. Feel the breeze coming off the water to you. (Well, actually it’s lake water…)  Smell the charcoal. And the smell of fish on the grill.  Take that in. Let that surround you.

Okay.  When they get to shore with their  amazing catch, (and don’t even ask ..no one’s sure about what the number 153 is all about.) And Jesus says, “Come, have breakfast…” and they knew it was him.

John Shelby Spong, former Episcopal  Bishop of Newark, believed that this  was the first resurrection experience. That the disciples had gone back to their old work and as they sat on the beach, breaking bread, sharing food, like they had done with him,  so many times, (remember the bread and fishes story, feeding 5000 and more?) They looked at each other and knew, just knew, that he was with them, not dead, alive in them and would always be there. And so they share their breakfast of fish and bread.

Then there’s this mazing exchange with Peter.  Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him,  And three times Peter says of course I love you. With each response Jesus says, feed my sheep and then tend my lambs and then feed my sheep.

Three questions…three affirmations to follow three denials. 

But did you know that in Biblical Greek, the conversation comes off a bit differently?  The first time Jesus uses the word agape, do you love me with self-sacrificing full out love? And Peter responds, with filios, which is to say, I am your friend. Second time, Jesus uses agape again.  And Peter uses filios again.  I love you as a friend. Finally, the third time, Jesus uses filios as well, and Peter says You know I am your friend. And when Jesus says feed my sheep, he is saying that’s love enough. 

Traditionally, scholars have used this as a way to oh, make Peter not look so good. Jesus is asking for self-sacrificing love and all Peter can offer is friendship, as if  this is a fault.  

I’ve known this story and preached  on this story for over 45 years. And this time I saw something I never saw before. Like I said, Peter was the guy with no impulse control. The one who will alway make the big bold statement, the grand sweeping promises.  But not this time. This time, for the first time in all his exchanges with Jesus, Peter does not over promise. He is honest and clear about what he can do. And can’t do. He has come to understand his own limits.  And I am convinced that it is because of that, the he has finally come to understand what he  can and can’t do that Jesus makes him the rock on which the church will stand. He can finally be trusted. Then Jesus more or less tells him how his days will end. 

Okay, so what’s in this for us? I think the bottom line is something like this. That like Peter, we become most helpful when we can finally accept ourselves as we are. Know our limits. Understand what we can and can’t do That  we won’t promise to do what we won’t do.   And once we have done that , we are finally prepared and ready to feed his sheep, tend his lambs, feed his sheep.  

Jesus’ last words to Peter are Follow me. Not believe in me, follow me. Any of you out there who have trouble with believing, don’t worry about that. Just put your feet on the path and follow.  The rest will follow. And for those out there who say you love Jesus, that in itself is as empty as an immature Peter promise. If you love Jesus, know what the content of your love is.  Know what the capacity of your love is. Know what you are capable of. Know what you can and can’t do and then by God do it.  Feed the sheep. Tend the lambs. Feed the sheep.  Let those with ears to hear, hear. 

Amen

After I preach, I sing my version of 'O Good Shepherd, feed my sheep..

John 21: 1-19

1After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 6He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

The Nets went out in four....

4/27

Brooklyn Nets (Basquiat version)

 I had hoped the Nets run would last longer but they lost last night and went out in four to the Celtics. I’d wanted to rep the Nets mid-playoff but the predicted preseason favorite juggernaut evaporated along the way. COVID, injuries, Kyrie Irving’s no-vax exile and my favorite James Harden jumping ship all played a role.

I shared with my friends the intriguing Nets history, itself a sort of socio-cultural parable.  They started as an original American Basketball Association start-up playing as the New Jersey Americans in the Teaneck Armory which would later become a Mecca for indoor soccer and many nights with my boys’ travel team. 

From there they travelled to Uniondale, Long Island for the brief honeymoon of Nassau County for sports with the expansion New York Islanders, indoor soccer New York Arrows and newly renamed New York Nets on the scene. Named to go along with the Mets who played at Shea, the  She and Hempstead based football Jets, World Team Tennis in Queens  Sets and the whimsical appropriation Off Track Betting New York Bets. Only the Islanders, recently returned from Brooklyn, remain an Island team.

In Uniondale, the Nets would reach the pinnacle with the one and only Julius Irving, Dr.J. More than anyone, Dr.J made the ABA with red, white and blue ball, soul swagger and three point baskets a threat to the NBA forcing a merger.  The NBA would get the Nets, Dr.J and the 3 pointer.  But the Knicks demanded compensation for the Nets invasion of their territory and the Nets had to part with the Dr. to pay their way in. The Knicks, in a classic dumb move, turned down the offer of the Dr. who ultimately would wind up in Philadelphia. 

Dr.J era Nets hat

The Nets would wind up back inNew Jersey at the next envisioned suburban sports  Mecca, a reclaimed Jersey swampland called the Meadow Lands. The Brendan Byrne Arena would draw the expansion NHL hockey Devils and NBA Nets.  A newly built Giants Stadium would draw the NFL New York Football Giants and eventually the Jets as well. A harness race track completed the scene along with  a never realized Xanadu entertainment complex.

The Nets drew NBA fans from the city who couldn’t afford the scarce Knicks tickets. The team rose to its peak with two consecutive NBA finals runs with  Jason Kidd led teams but no title. The Byrne Arena would lose its appeal and the Devils decamped for the new Prudential Center in downtown Newark where the Nets visited for one year on the way to Brooklyn.  Newark could have been a fine urban  place for the Nets. But despite Mayor Cory Booker;s efforts, there was no tuning back.

So the Nets came to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Traded in their red, white and blue (originally the Americans, right?) for Brooklyn hipster  black and white. Russian oligarch money tried the “super team” approach, but it hasn’t worked yet. Maybe next year the stalwart  Kevin Durant and quicksilver Kyrie Irving can finally work the magic. 

Ironically, the Nets now play precisely where Walter O’Malley wanted the Dodgers to play before Robert Moses drove him all the way to LA. The old Ebbetts Field flag pole now graces the plaza in front of the Barclays. And who but  the Nets could have Basquiat inspired uniforms?  So hats off …and on…for the Brooklyn Nets.