Advent 1: Signs

12/2

The table is ready

Makes me feel good, coming into the sanctuary, seeing it all ready for worship. The work we did yesterday--Teddy, Jay, Stephen-- worth it. Appears that Sanctuary has added festive wreaths to the mix. And Teddy has a pot of hot mulled cider simmering...

I couldn’t find our traditional brass Advent wreath yesterday so I brought my blue ceramic one from home, made years ago by Latvian potter Valda from Pittsburgh. It was a special commission. I gave her the idea one Christmas. A longtime friend of my late Uncle Leon, she would host an annual open house with Latvian cookies and mulled wine while in the living  room you could see her tree decorated, in the Latvian tradition with real candles. Every year she would terrify her guests when she lit the candles. It’s OK, she’d say, I have a bucket of water nearby...

So I also brought the communion set she made for me. Not doing any good at home. It’s a risk, I know. Things have a disturbing way of disappearing around here, even from locked rooms. 

I should have known. We did all that work yesterday getting Rachelle’s stuff ready to be  moved out. The desk guy at Capital Hall said he hadn’t seen her in days. So of course, today, right before worship, she shows up. I can see the looks on Stephen and Teddy’s faces, their hearts sinking. 

And of course, right before worship, she’s all worked up. 

Why didn’t you tell me? 

We’ve been telling you for months.

How am I going to help people, I don’t know where anything is..

It’s all very neatly packed up.

Well.they’ve messed everything up, I knew where every item was...and some of my best things, my pretty things, my beautiful things, I showed the young lady, they’re gone pastor, they’re gone, what am I going to do?

Rachelle, Rachelle, I can’t have this conversation now.

I see the congregation gathering. She will be in there, opening boxes, rummaging through things...Rachelle, please wait until after the service,please...

I look out and see Tracy and her partner Su Young and I smile. Soon her two sisters will arrive as well. And there will be another visitor, a young woman, dragged in, it will turn out, by Rachelle.

We begin with O Come, O Come, Emmanuel... and I have Teddy light the first Advent candle. 

We say our prayers, read our scriptures. And then, with Marc’s help, Something’s coming from West Side Story comes over the sound system. 

Could be!  Who knows?  There's something due any day;  I will know right away,  Soon as it shows.  It may come cannonballing down through the sky,  Gleam in its eye,  Bright as a rose!  Who knows?  It's only just out of reach,  Down the block, on a beach,  Under a tree.  I got a feeling there's a miracle due,  Gonna come true,  Coming to me!  Could it be? Yes, it could.  Something's coming, something good,  If I can wait!  Something's coming, I don't know what it is,  But it is  Gonna be great!  With a click, with a shock,  Phone'll jingle, door'll knock,  Open the latch!  Something's coming, don't know when, but it's soon;  Catch the moon,  One-handed catch!  Around the corner,  Or whistling down the river,  Come on, deliver  To me!  Will it be? Yes, it will.  Maybe just by holding still,  It'll be there!  Come on, something, come on in, don't be shy,  Meet a guy,  Pull up a chair!  The air is humming,  And something great is coming!  Who knows?  It's only just out of reach,  Down the block, on a beach,  Maybe tonight . . .  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7sRdRrm_w

So why did I do that? It’s Advent....and something’s....coming...something’s coming...and like 

Tony in West Side Story.....we are filled with anticipation. And not even sure what it is we are waiting for. Just that something’s coming...

Every year, we go through three Advents at the same time. First of all, we’re waiting, getting ready for this year’s  Christmas that is coming...but we also remember all the Christmases of our lives. And even  more....we’re getting ready for Jesus. His return. The coming of his kindom, his reign, his beloved community. 

We experience time chronologically but also in cycles. So every year when I see the decorations go up, I have a sinking feeling. Another year coming to an end, another year of so much left undone...where am I, where are we, on our journey? All in the hustle and bustle and stress of a holiday season. 

So we need Advent. To carve out some time. Some space in time, out of time, to prepare...to get ready...

Our Luke passage (21: 25-36) is all about signs and portents...People are always looking for that...and it’s not like we don’t see them...Any age, any time is filled with its own apocalyptic images. Enough to prove the end is near. In Bible study, we learned that the devastating earthquake in Pompeii informed some of Mark’s apocalyptic imagery.

(I shared the story of the man in Far Rockaway....the wall of water, the screaming car alarms, electric wires hitting the water, wading through floating garbage...almost losing his daughter in law...)

It doesn’t get any more apocalyptic than that...

We lit our first candle today for the Prophets..those who help us discern the times. Strikes me that today, scientists are our prophets now...They are trying to get us to see that actions have consequences....put too much carbon emission in the air, you get global warming...destroy the wetlands, you get catastrophic flooding...actions have consequences...

Like I said the first weekend after Sandy, don’t talk about natural disasters...the hurricane was weather...the disaster human made...a direct result of our policy decisions.

The call of the gospel  is to not  give in to our fears...and I always note that the worries of this world are right up there with dissipation and drunkenness...as someone said, worrying is like praying for what you don’t want.... you almost draw it to you....

And I want us also to see that the  redemption  spoken of by the prophet (Jeremiah 33: 14-16) is collective, not individual...like they said at Midland Beach in Staten Island, the problem here is individualization of crisis...

Signs...We see signs......I tell them of the story of the Occupiers and police on Staten Island....the wariness, slowly beginning to work together daily...the growing mutual respect...to see the Occupy signs and NYPD/FDNY signs side by side...that’s somewhere between hell freezing over and Jesus coming again...signs of the coming world we’re supposed to live into...signs of the alternative reality we’re called to live in now....

That’s what I have, this first Sunday in Advent...signs....

a candle for Stephen Festa

we remember

Before we gather for communion, we stop to commemorate World AIDS day. I remind the church of the deep history of the AIDS crisis at West-Park. I recall the creation of God’s Love We Deliver meals on wheels program for people with AIDS. I point to the Tiffany window restored in honor of and dedicated to Stephen Festa in 1987. And light a candle by his plaque. And we light candles in memory of those we have lost. And invite their spirits, and the spirits of all who came before us in this place to join us in our communion. 

As I lift up the bread, I recall that food justice is at every level....production, distribution, consumption...and think of all the hands involved in our loaf of bread, from seeds to store... and how grapes too must go through that process...and that in the end, it is we who are transformed into the bread of life, the risen body, to be leaven, to bring ferment to our world.  

As the people come forward for communion, I hear Tracy as she comes to Hope, a little unsure what to do...I’ve never dome this before...she says... 

We sing Come thou long expected Jesus and gather around the table. And I read the day’s Epistle lesson as a benediction:

⁹How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? ¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. ¹³And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 

And we sing our amens, return to Teddy’s hot mulled cider.

Stephen invites the Sanctuary NYC folks to share in our AIDS memorial candles.  Later, I’ll look and see that they did and that  all the candles are lit and glowing...

The young woman who was visiting comes forward. Tells me that she was dragged in by Rachelle. That she was raised Catholic, with serious issues with church. And that she didn’t know it could be this way.  I like the intimacy, the caring of your community she says...And I thank her for her presence. 

Ramon is preparing for his ballet. He came in as we left yesterday. Didn’t hear Jeremy when he called. Jeremy had to come down to the Gate to borrow keys. A package of bacalao in his hands. It’s a long story , he said....

Tracy and her sisters

I take a picture of Tracy and her sisters. You’re like an Asian, she said,always taking pictures...

Rachelle renews her assault. Her high pitched, staccato words like a dentist’s drill boring into my head. Later she will set up a display on the steps. Tired, I finally say, if it bothers Sanctuary, they can deal with it.

She sees me going up Amsterdam and follows. Telling me her medical miracle, living with scleroderma. (I told her I knew the story)And of her miraculous rescue from a car accident and the cop who called her an angel. She tells me an angel of mercy. She says I am an angel, too. .This is going on too long. I a exhausted. Remember the first West-Park rule. Remember...don’t try and have rational conversations with irrational people...

A day with Occupy Sandy, part 1: Far Rockway

11/28

Today I break my rule again about on the steps, in or near West Park because of the need for people to understand the effects of Hurricane Sandy. 

Although West-Park has been packing emergency survival packages for Hurricane Sandy relief, I needed to see with my own eyes what is going on. Decided to spend the day with friends from Occupy Faith as we went to check out Occupy Sandy operations.

We began at St. Luke and St. Matthews Church in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, the headquarters of Occupy Sandy. On the fence was a typical Occupy style sign, Mutual Aid, Not Charity..inside, I was staggered by the sheer volume of supplies that had been gathered. The feel of the place was like something between St. Paul’s Chapel after ground Zero and Zucotti Park. I wondered if they still held services here and Father Michael assured me that they did. The sanctuary fills and empties ever day when a squadron of UPS trucks arrives to move supplies to where they need to go (For a time lapse video go to: .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSYd2-d1r7g ) Occupy’s social media network drawing the supplies in and directing them to where they are needed with carefully coordinated efficiency.

We pile into a van and are led by Juan Carlos of Occupy Faith to our first stop in Far Rockaway. We’re off Seagirt Boulevard near the bungalows section of Far Rockaway visiting a Latino Pentecostal Church meeting in a house with a large tent beside. Pastor Rene Morales meets us, makes us welcome. 

Luke Nephew is an organizer building church coalitions. He tells us that there is a critical need for emergency housing. People have returned to homes they should not be in. There is no place else to go,no shelters in the nearby community. FEMA maintains that the New York City Office of Emergency Management is the missing link. 

There are no shelters here because no power. Not electrical, or heat. But there is a need to build community power as well. The suspicion is that it is politically deliberate not to provide temporary shelter. The city would prefer to see these people leave, bulldoze the bungalows and rebuild with beach condos for a more affluent population. As he’s talking, I see a repeat as to how city officials in New Orleans used Katrina to level the sturdy brick public housing projects.  

Pastor Rene, speaking of his congregation and his neighbors,  says that there are special problems for people without papers. There is a desperate need for food, pampers, place to stay

Juan Carlos Reyes reports that  St.Jacobi Lutheran church, one of the original hubs,is phasing out. The success of Occupy Sandy has been developing out of relationships on the ground. relationships with churches first developed during Occupy and now serving as connections with local communities.  

He describes both the generosity and power of young people. But already there are issues of young people worn out....The question has to be asked, what is the long term vision? Nevertheless,amazing donations continue to come in. For example, someone has just donated a boat large enough for hundreds of people.  Actually, more  a ship. Right now, it’s docked  in Red Hook. What will they do with it? House people? Ship supplies? Remains to be seen. Right now there is a big need for trained mold remediation teams.

The human infrastructure of the Occupy Sandy operation was set up in set up in two  days by a core group of 20-30 people. The church of St.Luke's/St. Matthews now known affectionately known as 520. 9It;s street number.

Father George, an Episcopal priest, says that  what we are seeing reveals the failures of the system.

Rev. Michael Ray Matthews is a national PICO (people Improving Communities through Organizing)working with clergy. They are hard at work on the ground seeking to organize Far Rockaway.Stephanie Goode, another Pico organzier is with him. I recall the good work done in New Orleans after Katrina and the lead organizer, Wesley Woo. TheY smile, knowing Wesley well. He’s trained a generation of organizers.  

Joseph Mc Kellar is with  Queens Congregations Organized for Change, the Queens PICO organization, representing 32 congregations. Over 50 clergy recently gathered at St. Mary's Queen of the Sea to assess the situation. There is a great need for a critical mass of electricians and plumbers. This community has a large population of domestic workers who lost their jobs working in homes that are no longer there. Because they are undocumented, they do not qualify for unemployment relief. 

There are also insurance company issues. Job creation issues. There needs to be  clean up and rebuild job creation, especially for local people. People feel left behind by the city.23000 out of 39000 houses are still without power. Compared to only a little more than  700 in the rest of the city. And again, 

temporary housing. Policy issues. And again,long term issues.Our friends from the National Nurses Union have already done 44000 mental health consults.

Louis, a natural Latin community leader shares his reflections. 

There are serious issues with the bungalows--insurance payments takes up to 4-5 months. People are scared of shelters far removed from their homes, if they cold even get there. The bungalows from 24th to 32nd off Seagirt Boulevard are ripe for predatory redevelopment. 

Voices around the table agree. The process is condemn, seize, redevelop. There is also a burgeoning public health crisis due to the condition of the homes people won’t leave. Some say that more than public health, it’s actually a moral crisis--how can the city ignore this? Allow this to continue? 

There is no light here.Only one generator per block. The people need to come together. To make sure that they keep the message united and the same.What’s called for is solidarity and power.

As we prepare to move on, Bishop George Packard says to me, I want to tell you how much I have admired your 

congregation over the years. You, the church, have been the very model of Christian social action.

We head down into the bungalows. Once built as little summer cottages for vacationing city people, they now have been (more winterized and become homes for the working poor. Like I said, ripe for predatory development. 

Louis shows us his street. Describes a nightmare night. His brother told him to leave, but it didn’t look so bad. The ocean is coming here, he told him. And it did. Next time he came out, the water was chest deep. He described a scene like something out of a Wachowski brothers apocalyptic move. Car alarms going off all up and down the street until drowned by the incoming sea. Power lines breaking and flailing around like electric snakes, slashing the water with showers of sparks and flashes until all light went out into a darkness that returns every night. 

Forcing his  way through the water, garbage cans bobbing on the water. Watching his daughter in law go down and then his son pulling her out, putting her on his shoulders for the rest of their walk to higher ground. As he tells the story, the look in his eyes is one of disbelief, horror. 

Louis and Bishop Georage

There will be a town hall meeting this weekend to agree on goals, strategies and tactics. Easy to imagine getting some donated trailers and just taking over that gaping vacant lot in the middle of the neighborhood, just moving the trailers in. Something must be done.

As we make our way out of Far Rockaway, out Atlantic Avenue then along the water, past Howard Beach, Broad Channel,names connected with racial tension and violence in recent years, we can observe the changing and shifting dynamics of the hurricane. Who got wiped out, who didn’t. Who’s got light and heat, who doesn’t. Like I said,we must stop talking abut natural disasters. The hurricane was weather. The disaster was created by policy decisions by human beings.

Riding along the coast, I recall my tours of post-Karina New Orleans. The day reminds me of my experiences in third world countries working for the church in the 1980’s. How we’d load into vans and visit local people on the ground, learning  of their struggles, their resistance. Only this is my own city. Places as foreign to me as Central America or the Middle East. But it is my city....

When is the triumphant entry?

1/19

Katrine and Marie come back to visit again. When they thought it was all or nothing and had a sense of how expensive it might be to do all, they decided nothing was better. But something about the building kept calling them back. Maybe something  smaller? A way to begin? Let’s say we’re open.....

Visiting with Teddy before he leaves for his Sandy clean up job. It's back breaking labor with people’s soaked and sodden belongings. As we talk, Anna walks by with puppy, making a joke or two but mainly good humored teasing.

RL apologizes for missing Catherine’s concert. Unavoidable home commitments. Which I understand. Wants to check out dates in December for possible open mike/showcase events. And I’m wondering if he cold get me a lineup of entertainment for the crafts fair if Amanda can’t be here. 

Two burly private  investigators come in looking for me. Looking for Heather. Parents trying to find her and their grandchildren. I haven’t seen her in months.  She only lived here a very short while. W made it clear immediately that this was not a place for she and her children. Would see her time and again. Was connected to DJ Dan. There was the Child Protective Services inquiry. The time to see me wanting to turn her life around, seeking my prayers...Kids generally seemed OK. I heard Brooklyn,  heard squats, but....I don’t know...

A man from Euclid Hall has a long story and needs a Metro Card and I’ve got one for one. Not enough for the time put into the story.

People from a film academy came to check out the building. Wish Jamie were here. I have to start the group on my own. And one of the guests feels a little too aggressive and assertive and I’m too stressed for that.  I’m thankful when she arrives. 

John H and I are reviewing our experiences of the Dzieci Makbet. He’d seen it before, larger venue, larger cast....more impassioned, he felt. But we’re more interested in exploring how do these experiences begin to build towards  community? Toward a church?  How would it be differentiated from what Jane and Sanctuary do? From John’s perspective, it requires an intentional and in depth exploration of Christian scriptures, their origins, meaning today....We are in complete agreement, although I know we may have some radical differences in assumptions regarding the scriptures...And this is not the time to get into that. But he’s right in terms of creating a center for a community to gather around. 

I see Dave and Donna coming in and going out. Where did I see them last? Was it the cafeteria at Whole Foods? Or?  What are they up to? They’re gone before I’m able to ask....

The Center Board meets. John H, Ted, Mim, Hope....concerned about finances. Concerned about the negotiations with Noche. Is there a back up plan? Is there? Ted in his position knows of all kinds of short term needs of arts groups...even just to dry things out....in the wake of Sandy. Can we be involved in that? Why can’t Space Works get it together around that? What do we need to, how do we follow up with Jane round our last meeting? I’m surprised to find out we’re not getting the crafts fair this year. All ted’s stuff in Red Hook storage was lost. Communications an issue too. So we need to schedule a full meeting asap.

Jamie is taking another group around.

I need to assemble a complete set of keys for Jamie and Danielle and myself. Looks like Rachelle has snuck a cart into the sanctuary again. I need to get one person around here connected with a psychiatrist and a residential program because that’s the only way they can move forward. Need to find out from someone else exactly what their story is. Whatever it is is OK, but what is it? Need to reclaim one  of Marc’s closets for Martin and repurpose another room. Need better communications.  Need to clean up the front, the office, need another dumpster..need to know exactly what renovation would cost....how much money we owe....need to finish this contract....need...need to put up a big piece of brown paper so i can put in front of my eyes everything I need to do.... need... a sense of chaos is closing in...

The St.Agnes guys are here but Teddy is at work and Danielle not around...Jamie sends them off on a project.

On the steps, I find Gary with a bottle. Man, you know you can’t do that...

Just takin’ a break, just waitin’ for the next bus, just....

You now the rules...

All right, all right...the next bus...

I need to get out for awhile.

When I come back after making dinner at home, Gary is still on the steps.

Gary, you told  me next bus...that was hours ago....

Ah, they beat the shit out of me, stole my phone...

He seems drunk. Who Gary, who? 

Can’t make out what he says.

Where’s your friend Anthony? Doesn’t he take care of you?

He looks at me. Like he’s not sure. Help me up, OK? 

I know his legs don’t work so well. I help him up. Off the steps. Onto the sidewalk. 

Thank you pastor. Thank you for everything. 

Back inside, Anna, Hope, Marsha, John R and I gather around the table in the sanctuary in its warm evening light. I’m exhausted but we open our Bibles, head into Mark 11. A lot of the passages we’ve been studying have also been part of our Sunday morning lectionary. But not this. It’s a Holy Week theme...Jesus’ (so-called) triumphal entry...But Maybe since Advent is about Jesus coming again, maybe this is not a bad passage to look at in this season. Although as we will come to find out, it’s neither all that triumphant and not really the entry. John R points out as he reads that Bethpage and Bethany are like Long Island place names.  I tell him that I was at a church in Newtown, Queens last weekend that went back to 1672. The whole history of English dissenters welcomed to the New Amsterdam colony....the openness of the Dutch...How that all changed when the British took over. But yes, Long Island founders were devout....

Those names are important too....Bethany: house of the poor, and Bethphage:

House of unripened figs. 

What do we find:

• Jesus entry is powerful contradictory street theatre, trappings of triumphant entries like the Maccabees, or the Sikari but his followers are unarmed, only with palm branches
• Palm branches  also called for in Zechariah for the one who brings peace
• Like a king’s entry, but on a colt of a donkey, the ride of a poor man
• Marsha points out an unridden colt would never have known another master
• People shouting hosanna!, save now!...also associated with sukkot and the waving of branches...
• The people lay down coats and branches...all they have

This could be a band of resistance fighters ready to go in and try to take the city. But when he comes in, Jesus enter s the temple....and...and..looks around and leaves...looks around and leaves...nothing happened...all that build up and....nothing...

He goes back to Bethany (house of the poor.)

Then there’s this incident with the fig tree. (Bethphage.) Symbol of the fruitfulnesss of life. Symbol of the good man. The righteous man. Symbol of the nation.  And as it is fruitless, Jesus curses it. 

That fig tree is not the people, it is the socio-religio-politcal system symbolized by the temple that must go. Our side winning is not enough. Restoration of the Davidic kingdom is not his project. The whole thing has got to go. It’s an Occupy Wall Street moment. Not this. Not that. The whole thing. Everything. 

So our conversation goes a lot of places. Anna wants to know why it has taken so long. Is that really what the church wanted? I respond that in my tradition, the church as a human institution will inevitably be imperfect if not corruptible if not ultimately sinful. Becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire set a certain course. Like the missionary movement that accompanied American imperialism in the late 19th Century. 

And Marsha sees connections to a theology of community organizing where whoever is in power must be held accountable. And we talk again of Tutu, and King and the history of Black Theology that can celebrate victory already won even while slavery or apartheid  continues. Or a village like le Chambon in France where every family saved a Jewish family.  What does it take to raise children so that they will respond like that? And our predecessors at West-Park who were inspired to choose as their slogan, Not by might, nor by power....from Zechariah 4:6. How do that happen? Setting in motion a  line that continues down to today. 

But I think back to what Jesus is trying to say. The this, not that, a transcultural, transnational class based community that is spirit led and driven....non-ideological but political as an expression of the spiritual commitment....what would it take to create such a community? What would living in it feel like?

The morning we shared together

11/18

Teddy tells me  Sean as gone through another round of amputations. He’s making him a care package....

Come into the church to find Anna on the floor with puppy...Now  that’s disconcerting. She tells me it’s her back. And has brought me some kind of digital device I don’t understand as she launches into anther very wordy explanation. 

Two very neat looking men enter into the church. Their shirts say FEMA. As Anna hears who they are, she says loudly, make sure they show you id. And hearing her, they do. Tell me they’re canvassing the neighborhood. Checking to see if we suffered any damage. If any of our people suffered any damage. I tell them we’re OK, except for some roof tiles. And that we’ve been making survival packages. They leave me with a poster about how to get aid. As they’re leaving, Anna says, if anything’s missing, remember what they looked like....write it down...

I remember during the rebuild in New Orleans when people joked that FEMA stood for Find Every Mexican Available...or Federal Experts My Ass....I’m not hearing criticism post Sandy.

So I know Teddy is working a clean up job. Seven and Jay are on Schatzie the Butcher’s pre-Thanksgiving crunch time crew. Hope has called in and said that after the canvassing, her knee is in pain and she’s gone back home. I decide not to worry. To ask John to help me create a circle of chairs so we can be close and intimate with one another. 

We begin with some Taize chants.Our prayers.Hugo lifts up the people of Palestine and Israel. And we read our scriptures:  I Samuel 1: 4-20, 1 Samuel 2: 1-10, Hebrews 10: 11-25 and Mark 13: 1-8. Each brings some reflection...

• 1Samuel 1: 4-20...In a day when we hear so much about Biblical marriage, does anyone even understand  what that is? In Biblical times, marriage had to do with chattel with property, and contracts. But here something different is going on. Elkanah is married to Penninah, who has given him sons. But his heart belongs to Hannah, who is barren. This is a relationship of love.....
• When Hannah is praying, Eli the priest assume she’s drunk....like the crowd assumes the apostles are drunk at Pentecost
• Hannah’s song in 2:1-10 is like the Magnificat, Mary’s song...Just like the stores put up their Christmas decorations right after Halloween, here we have an Advent preview....
• Hannah’s line for... not by might does one prevail.....is like the West-Park motto verse from Zechariah 4:6, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts....
• From Hebrews... And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds....I wonder what it would be like to provoke one another to love and good deeds.. and yes, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some......OK, what does that say to us? 

So I’m wondering...what’s my lead this morning? There’s an important day coming up on Tuesday 11/20...It marks the 50th anniversary of the official end of the US military blockade of  Cuba in 1962...The final end of the Cuban missile crisis I ask how many remember..Jamie remembers having to practice hiding under her desk in school. Nirka was actually living in Cuba, expecting an American invasion at anytime. Arcadia had just arrived in the US from Nicaragua. I remember what it was like to live in the sense of inevitability that  the unimaginable was about to happen. Unreal and hyper real at the same time. Our 8th grade mountain trip was cancelled. The I remember us breathing a collective sigh of relief in church that Sunday when the announcement was made from U Thant at the UN that an agreement had been reached. President Kennedy had chosen to believe the one of two contradictory messages that indicated a chance for avoiding nuclear war. And Premier Kruschev as well had to want to avoid unleashing Armageddon. So we agreed not to invade, They agreed t remove the missiles. Privately we agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. And then on November 20th, the blockade ended.

Then there was what happened in Presbytery yesterday. Our issue here is not liberal vs. conservative, like in other Presbyteries,eg, Pittsburgh. It is about large (white) and rich vs. smaller and people of color....Manhattan vs. boroughs ... And in the attitude about who should dominate and control it does mirror our current national politics....There is this ever disappearing sense of the  common good...

So we need to go deeper. In Mark we find what’s called the Little Apocalypse. A key question is when was it written? While scholarship has tended to say post-70, after the fall.  But Ched Meyer, in Binding the Strongman,  says it was written between 68-70, in the midst of struggle, before the fall....Israel had lived through some mini victories...but now the Romans were  taking it all  back. And guerrilla resistance groups were being organized and mobilized.

So the disciples are dazzled by beauty of temple...it was their national icon. And Jesus wants them to look beyond nationalism, to recognize that it had been built by Herod, a ruler chosen by the Romans to rule on their behalf, with slave labor...He wants to make clear that the issue is not if we could only get rid of Rome..His reference to those who bring false Messiahs include the guerrilla groups...and maybe even  the Essenes....and the Temple itself represents a power that must, will be, brought down. 

Wes Howard-Brook is a teacher at Seattle University. His new book, Come Out my People. argues that there are two theologies in the Bible, Empire and Creation and that the tension between them flows through the whole bible.

Do we need a king? Hannah’s song shows clearly the  signs of that tension. Both king and messiah, liberator, are subjects. 

We need to remember who we are. Just because Obama has been  reelected, that is not our answer. It never was, even the first time around. 

What we’re being called to is an entirely new way of life...

*Right or left not the point

* The cross is the point...not as martyrdom, not as self-sacrifice....but as radical commitment to stay faithful, resolute, regardless the cause

* As giving, as love...

* As centered in community

• As truly caring about one another.... a community where there is nothing hidden..where we are willing to work our issues out in community...

What would we be willing to give, to do, to be, to build such a community? Be such a community?  To have that be our legacy? 

We finished our service. Shared cake together that Marsha had brought. Thanked each other for the morning we shared together.