What I said at the opening of the Maitreya Loving Kindness Toiur

10/17

Pastor Brashear at the Maitrya Loving Kindness Tour

It is a joy and honor to be with you here this evening for this exhibit and tour, this night, dedicated to loving kindness.

It is pretty generally known that in my tradition, when Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he responded, 

 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment ^. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

But I have two other passages I would like to share with you this evening. The first is one that is extremely important to me in my own life:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

This tells us first of all that justice and mercy are inextricable from one another, They must always go together. And as Thomas Aquinas reminded us, mercy without justice is powerless but justice without mercy is cruelty. We must always hold the two together.

The walking humbly is also an essential  part. As we understand ourselves as creatures, part of creation, we can only be humble. It leads to what Jonathan Edwards called benevolence to all being. And as we walk humbly in relation to creation, justice and mercy are easier expressions of that humility.

Finally, another bottom line verse from the first letter of John 4:7:

 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

For all of us, the ultimate truth is behind a door. Occasionally that door opens and we get glimpses, but we see is only that and nothing more. We use our own languages to describe what we have seen and build our institutional structures based on that language.

The error is when we mistake our expressions of what we have seen as the whole and exclusive truth, superior to others. The fact of the matter is, we need to share with one another our own particular insights in order to even begin to come closer to the whole vision. And as we are human, it will always be partial.

So we must walk humbly with one another and out of that humility learn to love one another.

The deepest purpose of this tour and this evening is the opportunity to further the experience, the reality of loving kindness in the world we share.

And for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you this evening, and in this experience, I am profoundly thankful.

...the people already have the answer within them....

10/17

The sleeping man on the steps continues his circle between the steps and the sidewalk. This is becoming a group project. We’ve gone through this ritual 3 times now.

Anna and Eddie and his fiance are in. We are making progress in finding them a permanent home.

ETHEL has returned and I’m comforted to hear the sounds of their music coming down from the balcony again. 

Neighbor Jen comes in with 5 pounds of candy for Halloween.

A woman psychiatrist who once attended Union Seminary is looking for office space.

Volunteer Richard from Brooklyn in from his weekly gig folding brochures. 

Jason Harris is here to debrief our shared experience at the Princeton Sant’Egidio poverty and peacemaking conference (http://www.princeton.edu/religiouslife/find-a-religious-home/interfaith/poverty-and-peacemaking/) and how it relates to what Jason is up to in Staten Island. He continues to work at the grassroots level on the Eric Garner choking by police death in Staten Island. Garner’s death now eclipsed by Michael Brown and Ferguson.

Jason is exasperated by the professional activists and the idea that the solution is better training for police, more recreational activities for kids or even prosecution of the responsible officers. He sees police violence as just the most visible expression of deep seeded and systemic racism. Reflected in unemployment, incarceration, health issues. And it’s impossible to attack all that at once. He remembers the Sant’Egidio representative who asked pointedly why we didn’t examine the violence created by corporations and the violence of inequity.

On the one hand, Jason almost is overwhelmed by the width and breadth of the situation. On the other, he keeps having conversations. Fact is, unless you believe BA is truly bringing the worldwide revolution, there is no easy answer. I remember my mentor Philip. How he said that if God wants something to be done in the world, it is already being done. How it was his role as a bureaucrat to find it and get resources to where it is happening.

By extension, there are places where the new reality (like the new church) is already being created. Little places like Word Up Bookshop in Washington Heights where a pop up bookshop turned into storefront turned into a full fledged bookshop, performance space, community center or center of community.( http://wordupbooks.wordpress.com/) I suggest Jason go check it out.

And I recall how the Presbyterian LGBTQ activists after two defeats, set aside didactic, adversarial debates and committed themselves to 1000 conversations and at the end of those conversations, finally won. Maybe what Jason needs is 1000 conversations. 

And I think about Freire and education for critical consciousness. Working with people to become the subjects of their own history. And that at some level, the answer will arise out of those conversations because the people already have the answer within them. That’s about as far as we got today.

I’ve got to roll because I’ve got to get to the Tibet House to speak at the opening ceremonies of the Maitreya Loving Kindness Tour and exhibit of Buddhist relics.( http://www.maitreyarelictour.com/) Thought only Catholics did that. On my way…

                                ****

Back from the Buddhists. Happy that my friend Beppe joined me there. And Dion too. And of course, TK.

Time for Open Mic. RL’s under the weather so Pat O is MC and it’s another full night.

Pat opens the night. Followed by Kieran.

Kieran

And then a new spoken word artist, Poez,

Poez

who accompanies himself on piano. He apparently has had quite a career as a poet/performing artist.(http://poetry.about.com/od/poets/a/poez.htm) Then follows another solid set by Nick. And then Joel calls Rabbi Steve up to accompany him on his journey. 

Steve Blane and Mandola Joe

Steve, who has a new CD out, (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/kill-me-nice/id922254095) surprises us with a ukulele set followed by Pigeon Shit, which moves from a deliberately crude beginning to poignancy. Young Jeremy from the burbs of Westchester continues his recreation  of early Dylan and finishes with an original. 

Jeremy

Next up, another spoken word/rapper, Bryant Rogers,

Bryant Rogers

(who can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8rxYYN7bmk). Bryant had given Joel a serious high five after his set. Poez had been into his iPhone, but as Joel hit his stride, set it down, entranced. (http://bryantrogers.blogspot.com/)

Mandola Joe, back again. David S, another solid. I do two originals, then bring back A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall again. I intend to wrestle that one down until I’ve got it. 

Victoire

Victoire

had her first real full set in the Village last Wednesday. After her originals, she brings us Dylan’s Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door…She’s got another set November 1st. David L grows in confidence and Miriam

Miriam

gives us a traditional, an original and a cover with a throughline about being seen. 

RL has come in, still alive, we see. Does a set. Then steps down as Pat O leads us into RL’s closer, Stay Awhile. I go up to join Pay and then RL himself steps.

Outside, Mandola Joe is enamored of the weather. Maybe next week we need to focus on songs about fall.