Thankfulness

11/26 

Farmers Market

My good friend Rabbi Steve Blane and I have a tradition of sahrign a Thanksgivign service together.  Here is this year's reflection

 Good shabbes chaverim…we’re here on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A day that has come to be known by the strange designation “Black Friday.” I understand the connection with businesses going into the black, but it’s still weird… I do remember that as a kid, this day marked the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Do you remember when the stores waited until then to open their magical holiday window displays? I remember how my family would head to Pittsburgh’s South Hills Village Mall to start our Christmas shopping. And of course to the Jewish deli for hot pastrami or Reubens for lunch. Now we see the decorations go up the day after Halloween. Now Pittsburgh turns on the lights in early November and calls it “Sparkle Season” so as to be really inclusive, guess.

 Which leads me to what else is big this weekend. We’re right on the cusp of the first night of Hannukah which falls on the same Sunday as Christians begin Advent, that four week time of reflection and spiritual preparation leading up to Christmas…our sibling celebrations of glowing, growing LIGHT in the darkness. BUT…I’m not ready to let go of Thanksgiving yet…I’ve got leftovers! And warm memories of my family together yesterday. 

Did you know this is the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving? The pilgrims were celebrating the fact that they had a successful enough harvest with enough laid away to get through the coming New England winter. Thanks to the Wappanaog Native Americans who had taught them how to grow corn and squash and harvest clams and fish and cranberries. (A decision they regret to this day!) By the way…we always associate orange and brown with Thanksgiving. For turkeys and pumpkins I guess. But orange now has a deeper meaning..it’s the color chosen by Native Americans to commemorate those who were forced into “Indian schools,” begun in Canada and now into the US. How they came together in that first Thanksgiving is more complicated than the story we tell but we’ll just leave it with the celebration tonight. My wife had grown up believing that Thanksgiving was started to give thanks to the Indians. She was really excited to share Thanksgiving with the family of the retired chief of the Pawnee Nation  our first Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. 

 So Thanksgiving is giving thanks. And that’s important. Walter Breuggeman, a Christian theologian ,says “Doxology is the beginning of resistance.” And Abraham Joshua Heschel said “It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” Above all else, giving thanks is an affirmation that we are not alone. On the Upper West Side, the West Side Campaign Against Hunger just gave out over 1000 turkeys. Here in Harlem, where I live, neighbors in my building gave out 50 turkey dinners. The Harlem Lounge threw its doors open from noon to 4 for free dinners for all.

 But I want to get personal. In 1993, I lost my job…and my father…all in two weeks. I soon fell into depression feeling I was all alone. But a wise friend took me aside and said, “Look, you’ve got a roof over your head. You’ve got a family, friends and people who love you who will stand by you, not let you down. Start your day by giving thanks. It will get better from there.” And he was right, I did that. And no longer felt alone. And was soon on my way back. 

 Nahum Ward Lev in his book on the Hebrew prophets, talks about the spiritual discipline of giving thanks. He recommends every night before you go to sleep, remembering all that happened over the course off the day for which you are thankful…especially what wasn’t expected. Whether it’s first thing in the morning, last thing at night or better both, it helps keep us grounded. Going. Thankfulness for all we have is a way of being, a way of living. Rabbi Heschel also said, “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” 

 The song I sang tonight was written in England in 1864. It came to the US in the depths of the Civil War. Somehow while the world seemed to be falling apart, people wanted to believe that there was still much to be thankful for. 

 God of all, to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise…

1 For the beauty of the earth, 
for the glory of the skies, 
for the love which from our birth 
over and around us lies. 

Refrain: 
God of all to you we raise 
this, our hymn of grateful praise. 

2 For the wonder of each hour 
of the day and of the night, 
hill and vale and tree and flower, 
sun and moon and stars of light, [Refrain ]

3 For the joy of human love, 
brother, sister, parent, child, 
friends on earth, and friends above, 
for all gentle thoughts and mild, [Refrain] 

4 For yourself, best gift divine, 
to the world so freely given, 
agent of God's grand design: 
peace on earth and joy in heaven. [Refrain]

The sixth Sunday in Easter: Abide in Love

5/6 

On the way to church Sunday along Beverly Road

Back to Beverley for the first  Sunday in May....

SO finally, it feels  like spring...we're now six Sundays into our Easter journey....a journey I am so happy that we began together...a 50 day exploration of what it's like having the risen one, the living Christ, back and present  with us once again. As we get closer and closer to how we're going to have to go on without his physical presence  with us, Jesus keeps bringing the message closer and closer to the bottom line.   And for Jesus, the bottom line is LOVE, that we LOVE one another.

Hear that.  It's not about your theology, what doctrine you adhere to, what church you belong to or even what religion you follow. Do you love? That's all Jesus wants to know....

But it's not enough to speak of love...we have to do it....and we have to figure out what that means...I remember when our Presbyterian General Assembly many years ago in Hartford, Connecticut.  It's theme was Love So Amazing ( from the old hymn  When I survey the wondrous cross...) I remember the representative  from the Presbyterian Church in Cuba, Miriam Ofelia  Ortega, said No me tengo interes en amor increible, yo prefiero  amor eficaz...by which she was saying  I prefer love effective...or like that hymn based on a Native American song, in the chorus it says, They'll know we are Christians by our love.

Now that puts a little catch in things...it's kind of  like this...if someone came in here this morning, for the first time, unannounced...would they know we were Christians by  our love? What would that look like? Feel like? 

He wants us to love each other as he has loved us. And at the center of that love is laying down one's life for one's friends, exactly what he did for us.  And he tells us we are his friends...Think about that for a second...the usual and expected relationship between a human and a divinity would be that of master and servant...but Jesus wants us as friends...like, you know, What a friend we have in Jesus. We can live without lovers...some of us do that for years. But I can't imagine living without friends...

He chooses us...not the other way around...and it's all to the end that we love one another..

I find it very interesting....and very sad...how we act and treat each other sometimes...some of the meanest,nastiest fights I have seen anywhere have been in churches...I was asked by Presbytery to help resolve some problems in a church. And it's like they want the problems to be unsolvable. I said to them we're watching pictures of Presidents Kim and Moon holding hands and you're telling us this can't be taken care of? 

When planning a funeral yesterday, and this happens all the time, I heard of family members who might not come because they hadn't spoken in years. How crazy is it that we can pray for peace between Israel and Palestine and a brother and sister don't speak for years? If there's someone you haven't spoken to for years, speak to them!

Love. It's about love. And it's not a just a warm and fuzzy emotion.  It's Gandhi, inspired by Jesus developing satyagraha, soul force. And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired by Gandhi and following Jesus, who brings it back to us again. 

I spent a whole day last week in a training session for non-violent direct action as part of the Poor Peoples Campaign. It's named for the campaign Dr. King was planning when he was taken from us. Organized by Dr. William Barber from North Carolina, the Moral Mondays Campaign. I believe that the only kind of mass based movement that has any possibility of succeeding has to be one motivated by love and carried out with non-violent means. 

Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us that a prophet must come from a people and speak to that people and must be motivated by love. That was the beauty and power of Dr.King's work...he acted as if our country were capable of better, could be better, was not hopelessly evil by nature. Dr. King believed in us.  Just as Jesus believes in us and expects us to do better. 

That is the love he calls us to and wants us to abide in. And here's the truly amazing thing...so that our joy can be complete...I have learned that the two most important spiritual qualities , the  two most radical qualities, are hope and joy. And man, joy seems hard to come by some times.  If you want to know what joy looks like, remember the joy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu...in the face of the most outrageous oppression of apartheid, he smiled with joy because he knew whose he was and in whose hands lay the future. He knew he had already won. I am convinced that it was that power that finally defeated apartheid. 

(“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.” ― Ernesto Che Guevara · )

Loving one another is both the easiest and hardest of commandments.
Couldn't Jesus  just ask us to believe three unbelievable things? 
Or say so many hail mary's or our fathers?
Or fast for 40 days? 
Or stand on our head or...

NO. Just love one another. Even as he has loved you.  And abide in that love. 

As always we shared our prayers with each other, This week including a disappeared child. We shared communion. We greeted a man in the Navy whose mother lives nearby and who drops in when he's in town. There were grandchildren. It was another Sunday in the season of Easter.

Beverly Road

First Reading Acts 10:44-48

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47“Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.


Gospel John 15:9-17

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

In the waning days of summer....

8/21

It’s the waning days of August. The last part of vacation. Last week was my annual beach time with my clergy colleagues. I love beach time, the rhythm of the days. I wish I could take a whole week. Or more. So I’m thinking about rest.

What do you think of when you think of sabbath? It’s clearly important. In Abraham Joshua Heschel’s classic, it’s  built into the framework of the universe.  It breaks the relentless march of time. We need time to remember:  i.e., put ourselves back together. Like when a painter steps back from their work to review the canvas. 

For Walter Breuggeman, sabbath is resistance. A protest against the commodification of everything. It’s also about  equality. All people, including servants, and animals, get a sabbath. (Although there was a tradition, not Biblical, of hiring a Sabbath goy). 

NO business is to be done. (That would mean NO meetings….they break the  spirit of Sabbath…and no L’shan hara…NO speaking ill of another, that too,  breaks the spirit…

Rest. Clergy need another day for our sabbath. But…there’s a problem. Part of the concept of sabbath is it’s communal in nature. 

What do you remember as a child? “Blue laws”…all the businesses closed. A big  dinner after church. Then quiet time. Until supper. I could feel that rhythm of quiet all around me.

Being in Israel on Sabbath, you can feel it.(Conversely it’s strange waking up on a Sunday and finding rush hour traffic and the beginning of the work week..)

It’s a struggle to preserve even Sunday morning in a multicultural world. (For my kids in this neighborhood, soccer and  little league baseball took place on alternating days. I was lucky in my 15 years as coach…got lots of “favors” to keep church time free for my games. (When I was in Oklahoma, I played FIFA soccer. We won division 4. Then 3. BUT…Division 2 played at 11 AM on Sundays. I was moved when my team voted to stay in Division 3 so I could still play.

Obviously the Bible takes it seriously. For Breuggeman.it’s the  center  of the commandments. A bridge between those before,which relate to God, and those after, which relate to to neighbors. In our Bible Study, breaking the Sabbath demanded capital punishment. 

That’s why the people are so upset with Jesus. But then he uses the traditions around animals to make a point. It’s about Settingfree…unbinding…not healing or curing but setting free…Sabbath as liberation….

What in our life needs to be set free?  (Last week Jesus was  in a straight place, stressed…)

His response’ like a Pittsburgh parishioner once told me, was to Set principle aside and do what’s right…

 

Thanks Leila!

So what is sabbath to you?

We spoke of our memories, of quiet times, family times. And how hard it is for us now…the bigger issue of course, is Jesus call to be set free from the world of commodification, set free to live….

Luke 13:10-17

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” ¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” ¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? ¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” ¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.