Reflections on the the 70th anniversary of bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

8/2

Normally,. I like to focus on just one of the morning's passages, but this Sunday, I can’t resist spending time with David in  2 SAMUEL 11:26-12:13A.  It’s the marvelous story where the prophet Nathan engages his king, David, asking with a parable about a man and  his beloved lamb and a rich man who seizes it. When David responds. As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; ⁶he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. Nathan thunders You are the man!....David realizes the  wrong he has done, but there will be a heavy price to pay. For generations.

This was written either during the time of monarchy expressing  a distrust of kings or critique or written during the  exile looking back as of this kind of kingly behavior were the cause of the exile. …for certain it is part of the deuteronomic history arc…and is written more to critique the situation current when it was written than an intention to record FACTS.

The parable is rooted in tribal law…it was permissible to slaughter a neighbor’s livestock when rules of hospitality made it absolutely necessary…but not permissible if you had livestock yourself and if the animal were a personal pet….

The word used to describe David’s action, IE,  take is used repeatedly in 1Samuel8: 11-18 used as verb when king is subject…it always refers to a ruler's abuse of power

In  the Septuagint, the lamb is to be restored 7 fold, as per Proverbs 6;31.

 Nathan, speaking further to David, says Your master’s house, your  better master’s daughters were turned over to you. (Entry into a harem was one way of claiming power, to be greater, more potent than the one you are replacing,) His point was that God had given David all the women he could want but he wanted one who belonged to someone else…

For this, a sword would be come : His sons Amnon, Absalom and Adonijhah will all die by the sword.

David is told to put away your sin: put it off…David won’t die, but someone else will, the innocent unborn child. (I wonder about connections here with early Christian theology..?)

And of course I am Remembering Ray Swartzbach, my pastor at Westminster, College of Wooster when I was there   and Bill Coffin, Jr. when I was at Yale. The passage sounds so so much more dramatic with the King James version, Thou art the man…For Swartzbach, this was a parable for Vietnam, for Coffin, Central America. That’s what empire does, it takes what it wants.

Two things I will say about David…he does have a residual sense of right and wrong….also on the personal side, this is a dramatic story of what happens when lust, desire, obsession takes over…and everything else is secondary….when desire replaces awareness of God…also…and I’ve found this true…whenever you hear yourself saying I’d sell my soul for….that’s usually what it will cost you….

Our PSALM 51:1-12 in most Bibles is tied to David after the Bathsheba incident. It's what we sing to begin every Lenten season: Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within my soul…Later we find ⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. I wonder if we can say that in today’s environment of black lives matter?

Our SECOND READING  EPHESIANS 4:1-16.

¹I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. ⁸Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."PSALM68:18 God receives gifts…) ⁹(When it says, "He ascended", what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry,(DIAKONIA--serving) for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. (THE BASIC MISSION OF CHURCH) ¹⁴ must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.

There is no specific incident being referred to here as is usual…but is directed to gentiles,,,so that they can be socialized into new reality, a new community 

My question for you is What is your gift, how are you using it? I get some pretty cool answers mainly related to serving….the answers are relational…

The question for us as a church is, Are we equipping the saints?  Are we building up the body? The result of which will be UNITY…

Can we speak the truth in love to one another? Now that takes real discernment…I’ve often heard it used as an excuse to hurt…

ALL of us together are needed to make ONE body….building itself up in love. And that we will celebrate when we share our communion together.

And that we do.

Yumi Tanaka, TK and Pastor Brashear

TK has been upstairs in Mc Alpin setting up for the afternoon film screening. Yumi Tanaka of the New York Peace Film Festival introduces the film from Oliver Stone’s Showtime series, The Untold Story of US history.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Stone%27s_Untold_History_of_the_United_States The film pretty much gives the lie to the idea that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to get the Japanese to surrender. (The invasion of the Red Army into Manchuria had sealed that outcome..) As a quarter of a million innocent non-combatant victims perished, it seems more than anything a demonstration conducted to put fear into the hearts of the Soviets. Show them what we are capable of.

welcome to the exhibition

My father always believed Harry Truman kept him from going to Japan. This would be very painful for him to accept. (My son Daniel in Dublin wonders what we never talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) TK has as always, put together a fine program  rich in its depth. Paule Saviano’s photo exhibit of survivors is presented again. (https://vimeo.com/15844700) and installation artist Natsuko also grace our building. I’m glad that we could continue to be part of this event even in a small way. 70 years since we unleashed this terror.

Looking up mat a Natsuko installation

Natsuko installation

Later, after our volunteer night at the homeless shelter, I see Anna on the steps. Haven’t seen her in a while. Good to catch up. She’s what Jane Jacobs calls eyes on the street, one of those people necessary for communities to survive . As she watches, she looks, she listens. And that is a gift….

May peace and justice be with us....

Another West-Park moment

8/18

Another August Sunday. Anna here to greet me when I arrive. And of course, puppy.

Today we start with Isaiah (5:1-7). I explain that Isaiah was a court prophet. One of the kings’ advisors. From an educated and literate background. Amos, Hosea and Micah were all working class or peasant prophets. Isaiah wrote towards a reformed monarchy, what a king should be. Which is why so many of his poetic passages later get connected to Jesus as a king, a messiah. For the others, they saw the monarchy itself as needing to be done away with and a return to the previous confederacy of peasants and tribes. Both Isaiah and Micah have the same passage about swords into plowshares, but what surrounds the passages is radically different. Micah sees everyone now sitting under their own vine and fig tree, a more radical social vision than Isaiah’s. (Look beyond the specific passage to see, eg through the end of Micah Chapter 4....)

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

—Isaiah 2:4[2]

Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

—Joel 3:10[3]

And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.Micah 4:3[4]

The final words about bloodshed (...he expected justice, but saw blooodshed..5: 7) are hard to take as we see Egypt collapsing into violence. And I remember my anger after the film Paradise Now, the other night.. the humiliation of the Palestinians....The prophet’s words, sadly,still truth...

Hebrews brings us back to faith again...(11:29-12;2) repeating the history of the children of Israel. I recall Arlo Guthrie;s added verse to the traditional O Mary don’t you weep...

Moses was the first to get the notion that

the  world is safer with the army in the ocean

Pharoah’s  army got drounded, O Mary don’t you weep....

Paul’s descriptions of what befalls the faithful are good descriptions of what befell the early martyrs during and after Paul...(11:35-37)

 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented--of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

But we really want to focus on the ..great cloud of witnesses...that surrounds us. So we take time to talk about our cloud of witnesses. Not surprising that many speak of their parents. Family, friends. Stephen mentions his first boss. And I talk about Ray Swartzbach, my college chaplain, who in every way showed me what a minister was supposed to be. 

Finally we talk about Luke. (12:49-56). Is this the Jesus we know bringing fire? That same old song again, 

God gave Noah the rainbow sign no more water, the fire next time...Pharoah’s army got drounded, O Mary don’t you weep...

And not bringing peace,but division (12:51) I recall that in Matthew 10:34, Jesus actually says not peace, but a sword...what’s going on? Well, at minimum, it’s simply an accurate description of what happens when radical discipleship is required. I remembered my experiences in Nicaragua, how each of the Chamorro children published a newspaper, each ideologically different, each claiming to follow in their journalist murdered father’s path. The family dinners I attended where several rounds of angry walk outs sand returns would take place.

And the final words about being able to predict weather (12:56) but not being able to interpret the present time. As Dylan would said, You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...which led to the Weathermen break off from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and then ultimately to the Weather Underground as the ’70’s got crazy.  Which way is the wind blowing today?

Today I sing, How can I keep from singing? A capella. An old Irish or Scottish song. And add the verse Robeson added during the Mc Carthy HUAC red scare days:

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
And hear their death-knell ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near,
How can I keep from singing?
In prison cell and dungeon vile
Our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends by shame are undefiled,
How can I keep from singing?

That's the version that has made its way from Seeger on to Springsteen and Mc Cutchen...

                                                                                 Springsteen's version

After services, the session meets. A lot on its agenda:
* preparing for our meeting tomorrow night with Presbytery

• Reviewing where we are in the development of  term sheet
• Reviewing our history and seeking to develop an effective strategy to engage the candidates...
• And what our policy should be about the steps.

We decide to withhold final decisions on several of these until next Sunday. 

                           * * * * 

I’m at Whole Foods when I get the call from Stan. ...Uh, the toilet in the bathroom near RL’s studio is geysering, water flowing all over the place..running down the stairs...so I immediately call Marc. Then I get a call form Sarah Z, our old friend (who developed our branding, who produced our 100th anniversary, who rode Jamie and I to Teddy’s funeral, who...) She’s here watching. She’s headed to the basement to turn off the main valve. And Marc turns off a valve in the boiler room workshop....

By the time, I get there, the water’s off, but water continues to drip through the celling and the stairs are slick. Stan want so to know of the audience can exit down the backstairs so Marc and I go make sure we’ve got lights all up and down and remove anything that could block the way. And then we grab the mops for  solid hour of mopping and squeezing. Not the night I expected. 

When I see people exiting put the back way, I know the play is over, so I bring Marc upstairs for a drink and some food. It’s the least he deserves. Always there when needed, never says  a word, just does it. I see Sarah at the party. She loved the play. And was glad she could lend a hand. We both laugh, Another West-Park moment.

I’ll get RL on this tomorrow morning. He’ll know what to do.... 

Thou art the man

8/5

Reflection on 86th Street by Gidon Lowenthall

Steven is practicing the piano as I arrive. Teddy has everything ready. Hope arrives soon after.  It's August. Lots of folks away.  But Anna and Puppy are back.

The story in 2 Samuel (11:26-12:13a) is  one of my favorites. Last week, we had part one, where David sees Bathsheba, takes her, she winds up pregnant and he brings her husband Uriah home to try and create a cover,but being a faithful soldier, Uriah won't sleep in his bed and stays outside so David has him sent to  the frontlines so that he will be killed. This week is part two, the dramatic conclusion.     It's great drama. In the 1951 movie  Gregory Peck played  and Susan Hayward Bathsheba. Who would it be today?

I like this passage because of a sermon I heard my freshman year of college by Ray Swartzbach. Ray was one of the pioneers of Presbyterian urban ministry working in Cincinnati, riot torn Detroit, Cleveland. He decided to give his family a break and spend four years at the College of Wooster in bucolic Wayne County, Ohio. I can still hear his voice thunder as he spoke Nathan's words to David:  Thou art the man. (Sounds so much more dramatic in the King James version.)

In Ray's sermon, Nathan's story of the rich man who had everything taking the little lamb from the poor man who had nothing else was a parable for what the US was doing in  Vietnam. It was the fall of 1967 and opposition to the war had not yet become universal. That sermon kept me in church. Probably one reason why I decided being a minister would be a good job for me.  Years later at Yale, I would hear William Sloane Coffin, Jr. preach a very similar sermon on that text. It's parabolic value remains sadly relevant in  describing how the world we live in works.

Wes Howard-Brook in his recent book, Come Out My People, says that the whole Bible has an ongoing tension between two religions, that of  Empire vs. that of Creation. The people wanted a King, the david story shows what can happen. The tension is clear.

One of my colleagues in my clergy study group saw a connection between this story and the current War on Women where even basic hard won rights arfe being called into question.As the story goes on, Bathsheba is not even named, she becomes the wife of Uriah..And when Nathan says that David's wives will be taken sexually by his enemies, the focus is on the loss of honor by David, not the trauma of the women made victim to sexual violence.

What's also evident here is the sense  of entitlement that comes with position, power and privilege. Taking Bathsheba  would seem reasonable to David.  Just his due.  

Then there is the issue of collateral damage...who else gets hurt in what way? Act and cover up. Joab,  front  who gave the order that sent Uriah to the front was also a victim...I keep thinking of that janitor at Penn State. And all the others who participated in covering up the actions of Jerry Sandusky out of fear for their jobs or just not wanting to embarrass the university for ten years as the innocent victims continued to be preyed upon. 

And then forgiveness and consequences. David will be sustained through all, God will stay with him,  but he has set in motion countless consequences he will have to endure...strife within his family, violence to his wives: shame  and loss of  honor...

David hears Nathan.  He hangs his head, says I have sinned against the Lord. But wait... anyone else? I have always appreciated that in the Jewish High Holy Day sequence, the yearly journey to atonement, you can’t ask God to forgive what you did to someone else...

Our Psalm this morning is read every year on Ash Wednesday, to begin Lent. Was Psalm 51 David's  prayer after hearing Nathan? Against you alone have I sinned only makes sense in that a sin against any human being is a sin against God. To hurt another person is to hurt God. 

It goes on. I will go to court this week with one of our members. She has managed to support herself, keep a job, pay her rent for over thirty years. Signing a paper opened the door for a greed driven landlord to get her rent stabilization removed and begin eviction proceedings. Not only that, they're seeking years worth of the difference between the rent she paid and market rate. PLUS attorney's fees.  She will not only be homeless but financially ruined.  All to further enrich an already rich landlord. The rich man taking the little lamb again. I look at the landlord's attorney and think, how do you sleep at night? Do you not know what you are doing? If only Nathan could appear in court.....

What do we take for ourselves? We begin with  honesty, facing squarely our reality. Then, as in twelve step groups, we must make amends. And then begin again

And then, as in David's story, face the reality that some things broken remain broken...

It begins with speaking the truth in love...(Ephesians 4: 1-16)...having the courage to be open and honest with each other.  It's not easy, believe me, I know. 

We need each other....The word religion in Latin comes from the same root as ligaments. It has the sense  knitting together that which has been broken, fractured...We do that in community....as we seek to be together the body of Christ.

Later, as we begin to gather for communion, a table of inclusion, I reflect on the Olympics. As I read in Sports Illustrated,  The first world record of the Games went to South Korea's Im Dong-hyun, an archer who's legally blind. Natalia Partyka of Poland, a table tennis player with no right hand, joined Oscar Pistorius, the prosthetically fitted "blade runner" from South Africa, as someone who would not be waiting for the Paralympics, thank you very much.

In a gesture of national healing, Japanese athletes arrived in London with medals already in hand-beribboned discs, hewed by children from driftwood left by the 2011 tsunami. The support greeting Megan Rapinoe after her recent announcement that she's gay had the U.S. midfielder playing some of the most exuberant soccer of her career. And no hijab could have concealed the womanhood of Malaysia's Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi, who competed in the 10-meter air rifle while eight months pregnant. I have two hearts, she said after placing 34th of 56, so maybe I am stronger.

Perhaps the church can learn from the example of the Olympics. That is the kind of inclusive community we are seeking to create. That is what we celebrate at this table. Let all who will come be welcome.

We share our bread and cup using the glassware I brought back from the Pittsburgh General Assembly. Symbolically joining our little community with the Presbyterians who had gathered from around the country. 

We gather around the table. Say our Alleluias and Amen. 

Our worship has ended. The service will continue. 

Robert L. Brashearu