Living in coronavirusworld 220: Matthew 25 Church

 12/1

House across from Morningside

The beginning of our virtual Presbytery meeting is taken up with  more than usual technical hassles getting people into the room and connected. So it is. But once underway, it picks up its own flow and goes smoothly apart form the random interruptions that come from  people not muting themselves sometimes at awkward, annoying and even amusing moments. 

There is no denying the impact of Covid on the life of Presbytery. Even before Covid, membership had fallen by 9%. Only 70% of congregations were paying per capita. Since Covid, only 40% have paid their per capita, reflecting the congregations’ own financial crisis due to loss of income.  

Some congregations have handled the crisis well, however, making creative use of streaming worship services and events. Covenant Congregation, for example, has become a truly international congregation that now has a 2AM Bible Study to accommodate cross ocean participants. 

Our special guest is Rick Ufford-Chase, up until recently Co-Director of Stony Point Conference Center. Rick shares his reflections on the future church. He tells how they had come up with the Matthew 25 initiative that is now gaining traction in the church. Of the  three periscopes that make up the chapter, he’s most drawn to the third,  the judgment of the nations. It calls us to both stand with those who are marginalized, excluded and oppressed and also to introspection as well. Very specifically he sees the church called to:

* nurture vital congregations

* dismantle systemic racism 

* bring an end to poverty

He has come to see the second pericope as badly misunderstood. Christians in Latin America helped him to see that far from a parable about the Kingdom of God, the parable is actually an accurate description of who multinational corporations are. When it speaks of the third slave as being afraid, the slave was afraid of becoming like the master. Jesus came to bring about new rules. We must ask ourselves what are we called to do? What is our capacity? And do what we can do in a way that would be pleasing to God.We must use our power and privilege when called upon by people who are at risk on their behalf. And the church’s mission, to be legitimate, must take seriously and act concretely towards reparations. Nothing else is valid.

Santa

Snowmen

Mike Geffner’s Inspired Word  World (virtual) open mic grows by leaps and bounds every week. The schedule falls two hours behind and somehow I get flustered and forget words to my own songs. That is embarrassing and upsetting.Over and over again this world demands  patience. 

Living in coronavirusworld 209: Jesus drops the mic

 11/14

...to the least of these....

FDNY on the case

Last night’s “tornado” winds knocked down three panels from the scaffolding at West Park Church. The Fire Department was called out 

Tonight our Bible Study tackles Matthew 25: 31-46. The  parable of the sheep and goats. Or Jesus mic drop moment. On first hearing, Marsha responds, Well that pretty well sums it up. Michael calls it a universal message. Russ says it’s all about Love your neighbor as yourself. And that in the end, we are all sheep and goats. Dion talks about a hand up, not a hand out and that it reminds him that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. And I remember Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.” 

After weeks of parabolic puzzling parables, this week Jesus just makes it plain. There’s a number of things worth noting:

* This passage appears only in Matthew, no other gospel parallel

* This is the only place in the gospels where Jesus actually says what can land you in hell. And it’s not being gay. Nor not claiming Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. It’s simpler than that. Those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those In prison get in. Those who did not do not. That’s it.

* Those who did these things did them not for reward or to receive gratitude but just because that’s what you do.

This reading is for Christ the King Sunday, or  Reign of Christ Sunday.  The crowning of the church year. The doorway to Advent. One of two holy days (Trinity is the other) that celebrate a theological concept not a moment in Jesus’ life. And Jesus as “king”,or ruler, is defined as the Son of Man, the human one. He is in every one of the least of these. That is who is the authority in our lives. The least of these is Jesus.

Matthew, whose whole gospel is rooted in retelling the Old Testament, draws his imagery from Ezekiel and Daniel. Speaking to a community that has just lost its temple and been routed by Rome, he reaches back to a prophet who spoke to his people in the Babylonian exile (Ezekiel) and from one (Daniel) who spoke to a people in the second century BCE under the cultural heel of the Seleucid Greeks. It was not an “ethnic cleansing” but cultural submission that was imposed. With the collaboration of Temple leadership.  The time commemorated in the Jewish celebration of Hanukah,

And the message of the Old Testament prophets was it was failure to care for society’s most vulnerable that tore the social fabric and allowed outside forces to enter in and take over. God doesn't send punishment down form above, we create it ourselves.

Note too that it is nations (ethne) being judged, not individuals. We bear responsibility as congregations communities and yes, nations. And those who do the right  thing can be Christians, Muslims. Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Jains, socialists, communists or non-believers. And this is not a final exam. It’s existential, the choices we make as individuals and collectively every day. 

As we ponder our national direction in a divided nation awaiting a Presidential recognition of electoral reality, we look for the White House within us. And how we raise our children and create communities that know what to do. And not do, Marsha laughs about her friend who says, “You can’t do that, you’re a Presbyterian.”

Dion says the essence is Love. And God is love and that’s it. He tells the story of the starfish. ( You know you can’t save them all. Well, I saved this one…). And it’s about seeing one another. Something I learned from Marsha. And maybe for the church, it’s not about growing  bigger but better. Smaller committed communities who know what to do because it is their very raison d’aitre. Their reason to be. 

11/17

The  young man behind the counter at Bean & Barley recognizes me, remembers me from Caffeine where I planned my week every Monday until Covid shut it down for good. Now he’s back at work serving coffee in the neighborhood. It’s true at Monkey Cup and Cantina and the deli and anywhere I go once week. They know me. See me. Are ready with my order. Servers know their customers, even once a week ones. It helps tie together a neighborhood, A community.  Something  we need in coronavirus world as the numbers spike again and we wonder what to do next as we wait for a vaccine. And new, responsible leadership. As you did not do it for the least of these….

Matthew 25:31-46

New Revised Standard Version

The Judgment of the Nations

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[a] you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”