Worship with Ecclesia in Marcus Garvey Park

4/29

Dr. Brashear and Father Clyde

On the 5th Sunday if April, a mild spring day, I came to lead worship  for the Ecclesia congregation in Marcus Garvey Park.  Ecclesia worships outside every Sunday in three parks around the city. The word is broken, Eucharist celebrated and then a meal served on the altar on which communion was shared. The service begins with my friend Father Clyde consecrating the ground with holy water as he does every Sunday.

Consecrating the ground

Hymns are sung, the gospel read. Then it's time for my sermon:

You ever encounter those  people  who  want to know if you are saved? You  see them on the street, on the subway, any public place. And I'll be honest..sometimes it can worry you, right? Do I believe the  right thing? Am I going to get into heaven? How could God possibly love me? It's easy to feel that way.

I'd like to share two words of "Good News" with you today.  First from the First letter of John. (This was a really important verse to me...) When I was young and wanted to get married, I was in love and going to marry a young Jewish woman. I was a little worried about this and asked a minister friend about this.  And his response was these words:

Love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God
and...God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  

So I want to make sure you heard that and got that straight...if you can love, if you love, you are born of God and know God and you abide in God and God abides in you...it's that simple. It's not about what ideas you believe or with what words. Or what church you belong to or even what religion. The bottom line is  love....

As for worthiness, that story  in Acts  of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is one of my favorites.  Now on the one hand, he was doing pretty well. He was a court official. In charge of the  whole treasury of the Ethiopian queen. He came to Jerusalem to "worship", so he was already looking for something. 

BUT from Philip's perspective, the guy had 3 strikes against him already.  First, he was not a Jew. Not only that , but he was a eunuch. Which meant under their law, he was permanently unclean....like being gay or trans today in the eyes of some church people, and to top it off, he was BLACK. So when he asks Philip sincerely if he can be baptized, Philip's got to cross some boundaries.. And he does. And the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized and becomes the first non-Jewish Christian.  And the whole thing is so amazing, Philip is blown away. So blown away, he wakes up the next day in Azotus. (Which always sounded like one of those New Jersey towns to me like Paramus or Bogota or...)

Anyways, the point is...there are no bounds to God's welcome and embrace. It's about one thing and one thing only...LOVE...

When we come to the sharing of bread and cup, we all, ALL of us are invited to share in this holy meal together. As brothers and sisters. Fully welcomed. Fully accepted. And fully loved. As together we share in ....and become...the body of the risen Christ.

After the eucharist is celebrated and we have our prayers and sing more hymns and pass the peace, the service is over. Oh, there were prayers for the recently fired House Chaplain Father Conroy and Paul Ryan who fired him. The homeless people thought it might have something to do with them. It's time to share a meal (provided by my friends from West End Presbyterian).

sharing another meal

Then again, maybe sharing the meal is a continuation of the service. 

One by one the people go off in different directions...

the peace of the Lord be with you...

Amen
First Reading Acts 8:26-40

26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: 
     “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, 
          and like a lamb silent before its shearer, 
               so he does not open his mouth. 
33  In his humiliation justice was denied him. 
          Who can describe his generation? 
               For his life is taken away from the earth.” 
34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” [37And Phillip said,“If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.


Second Reading 1 John 4:7-21

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

The fifth Sunday in Easter: a bag of white asparagus

5/6

Chris is there as I arrive, like a watchman. When I go inside, Rachelle is there. Her hat would have been very appropriate at yesterday’s Kentucky Derby. She’s got an ovestuffed shopping cart with her. I look at Chris with a wordless question. She just wanted to keep it here for awhile. It’s all going out right now, he says.

She looks at me, I have recieved so many donations. There is one man with cancer I am helping....People are so kind... Her cart looks like the SUV carts the homeless people around here have and I am beginning to believe that the donations and charitable works stories are ways of maintaining dignity.

There’s enough people here so I  begin the service  right at 11. No Amy. No Andre. An old favorite, Praise ye the lord the almighty the king of creation...Today’s psalm of praise is the end of 22. I talk about the fact that the beginning is My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? the words of Jesus on the cross. Which ends with may your hearts live forever and ....a people yet unborn...and then next is the beautiful 23rd, ...the Lord is my shepeherd...., we had last week. 

So as always, lots going on. Last night was Cinco de mayo. Not such a big day in Mexico, but like St. Patrick’s Day, a national day of pride for Mexicans in the US. And it was Pete Seeger’s birthday. Talk about hearts that live forever... And Friday was the 42nd Anniversary of Kent State. That’s an important date. When my dream of peace and love can change eveything met reality. My young occupier friends need to know about this. It’s about what happens when the guns come out. I remember playing at a rally in the little Ohio town where I went to school. Looking up at the roofs and seeing national guardsmen with guns and knowing they were there for me. And my friend who came back that night. He’d dropped out of our private school and gone back home to go to Kent State. He looked across the line and saw classmates, friends with guns. The National guardsmen, just scared kids like himself. He wanted to write it as a Shakespearean tragedy. You have to know about that. 

The Acts passage inspired one on my favorite sermons, that is, one of mine. I usually don’t give them names, but this one i called  Waking Up At Azotus. That always sounded  like one of those Jersey towns, like somewhere between Paramus and Bogota..

It’s a classic story of inclusion..Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The guy, even though he was a highly placed servant, had three strikes agianst him. First, he was black, then he was a gentile. And then he was a eunuch. But he was interested in the God of Israel.  (There is a long tradition of Ethiopian Judaism and Christianity. The Ark of the covneant is rumored to be there. Goes back to Solomon and Sheba..) Philip knows the eunuch was ineligible, unclean, etc....

But the Holy Spirit put Philip there.And when the Ethopian heard all that Philip had to say and saw water, he asked, what is to prevent me from being baptized?  And Philip has his More Light moment...learns, grows, does something he would neer have expected...and he baptizes the man.

Then, he’s snatched up by the holy spirit and wakes up somehow  in Azotus...that’s what happens when you go to  some new and unexpected place....

I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to go there. That the lgbt inclusion analogy was so overdone, that we were past all that. But last week the Methodists voted again to reject...my friend Pastor K said that because of all the iternational delegates it was not likely to change soon. We have to accept the fact that there is sometimes a  conflict between global sensitivity, multiculturalism and inclusion and progressive Chrisitanity...

Are there other eunuchs today being excluded? And the congregation speaks up...the homeless, undocumented workers, the mentally ill, people who struggle with chemical dependency...we’re still trying to wake up in Azotus. 

The epistle, 1 John,  is also about inclusion:  everyone who loves is born of God and knows God...Once when I was a young associate pastor in Tulsa, I asked an older colleague about interfaith marriage. About marrying a Jewish woman. And his answer was this passage. She loves, he said, she knows God...And my heart told me this is true....

God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them...

There’s not a whole lot more to say about that...it’s the bottom line. 

But I have to talk about this...Perfect love casts out fear.....but the opposite is equally true. Fear can cast out even pefect love.  Fear is behind most of the hurts we cause one another. I read recently about how someone in Queens tried to start a Yugoslav restaurant and bar. But all the old memories came back, of how neghbors turned away from each other. teachers turned on students. Others looked the other way. Like people turned away from their Jewish neighbors during World War II. When the flashing of partisan hand signals and salutes began to be commonplace, it was time to close the bar.

Fear keeps us from giving and recieving the love we deserve, the love we need. One of my daily prayers is God grant me love strong enough to conquer my fears and big enough to share...

There is a final word today:  Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters...

That’s it.

When the time comes for Eucharist, I have Arcadia read the gospel in Spanish, the one where Jesus talks about vines and branches, and I say that anyone who loves is welcome to this table.  And one by one they come.

As I look around our closing circle, the woman from Sydney, Australia is back and has brought a friend. There’s a young man from Alabama. I wonder what he thought of my sermon. It later turns out he had come to Don’s Disenchanted...  and when I tell him Don’s a congregant, he lights up and says his partner works with Don. And my sermon made him feel welcome. As did Anna and Puppy.

Happy Birthday Jamie

Chris and Runi

Around the table

Teddy, Nirka, Marsha

We gather in the Session room. We sing Happy Birthday to Jamie M.  This is our last chance to sit with our friends from the coop. Talk about what this experience has been like. Arcadia has brought cake. Little Chris stays for cake but leaves beforehe has to speak. This is very hard on him. Runi doesn’t say much, but I remember our Occupyopoly conversation. For Jason, this has been his church home. Raised in the south, he tithes. Henry found a home. Chris found a way to believe in other people again, and to believe in himself. He’d come for a day and couldn’t leave. And called for Runi to join him. Steve remembers hearing me speak to the  OWS spokes council that night with passion and compassion, anger and love and decided he had to be here, to try and make it work. The hardest work he’d ever done. And most rewarding. And frustratng.But in the end, worth it. And Teddy talks about finding his way back to church again, feeling welcomed and part of the community, those great times when everybody worked together.

For the West-Park folks, Arcadia talks about how warm it made her feel to find people makimg meals here, welcoming each other back at end of every day. A feeling of home. That people had made this their home. And Marsha says plainly and clearly, we couldn’t have made it without you.  And for me, they taught me to look at my own prejudices. And they helped me. Some were like children. And some true friends. Part of who we are. Part of us. 

I tell them that we bless them on their travels and wherever they will go. And that they will always be welcome here.

The Session meets to review the strategies that emerged from Wednesday and Thursday nights. Our backs are gainst the wall. But there is hope. 

On the table we find a mysterious  bag filled with boxes of white asparagus. No one know knows where it came from.