Hands to the plow

6/30

Good Shepherd Faith ready for worship

On the Sunday on which the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising was celebrated in our city, I came to Good Shepherd Faith to lead the service. Here were my refections:

There’s been a lot on my mind this week. I’m just back from two weeks in Central America, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. And when Jesus says “Foxes have holes, and birds of he air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” I could do a whole sermon just on that. But I chose this passage because last Saturday I was in a music festival  on Governors island and after my own set, I sat in with an Appalachian band and their last number was “Gospel Plow”....

Ready to preach...rainbow stole....


Mary wore three links of chain

Every link was Jesus' name

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Mary, Mark, Luke and John

All these prophets are dead and gone

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Well, I've never been to Heaven

But I've been told streets up there

Are lined with gold

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

So I had to preach on this...

It’s about Jesus saying once you start out, there just ain’t no turning back...can’t be going back to take care of business, can’t be making farewells, just hand to the plow, hold on.....

I was in the Village twice this week for music. And every time I went, the energy was building for today’s global celebration of 50 years of Stonewall, a rebellion that reverberated across the globe.

In the religious world, the Stonewall story is a Presbyterian story. It started in 1978 when the General Assembly in San Diego voted to prohibit ordination of “avowed and practicing homosexuals”....no one then knew it would take until 2011 to finally open the doors to acknowledge ministries that god had already called into being. That’s 33 years... the whole life of Jesus ....that’s a lot of years with hands on the plow...

And I’m proud that the church Stonewall moment took place at my old church West Park in September 1978 when the Session at West Park approved the historic More Light statement. It’s valuable to hear it again...

In harmony with the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, West-Park Church affirms the civil rights of all person. Further, in keeping with our General Assembly’s guidelines, this community of faith welcomes as members homosexual persons who both seek and have found Christ’s love.

This local congregation will not select one particular element from a person’s total humanity as a basis for denying full participation and service in the body of Christ. Nor will this community of faith condemn or judge our brothers and sisters who declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and promise discipleship to Him. We affirm that in meeting each other in Christian love. God’s spirit frees us all to live and grow, liberated from the oppression invoked upon us by ourselves and others.

Within this context, West-Park Presbyterian Church reaches out to Christian and non-Christian homosexual persons with a ministry of support, caring and openness—a ministry in which the creative, liberating power of the Holy Spirit rules and guides." [5]

The name More Light came from the farewell words of Pastor John Robinson to the pilgrims as they set sail on the Mayflower on 1646:

...if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it, as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministry. For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word.

In the 1850s George Rawson would write a hymn with these words:

...We limit not the truth of God to our poor reach of mind --

By notions of our day and sect -- crude, partial, and confined

That universe, how much unknown! that ocean unexplored

For God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Eternal God, Incarnate Word, Spirit of flame and dove,

enlarge, expand all living souls to comprehend your love;

and help us all to seek your will with wiser powers conferred

O God, grant yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

..... so what began with the session of West Park birthed the More Light movement that jumped across denominational lines and inspired movements in all mainline denominations.

33 years. And still, villages turn him away....even this summer our Methodist brothers and sisters failed again to step into freedom and even took a step back. Countries in Africa, inspired by North American missionaries, pass draconian laws against lgbtq people. In Central America among those seeking their way  north are lgbtq people who suffer the worst of repressive measures putting their very lives in danger as we raise walls higher both literally and figuratively to keep them out.

And today, our country seems to be moving backward even as acceptance become more and more normative, banning trans people from the military, not allowing our embassies to fly rainbow flags this week and on and on...

Hands to the plow my brothers and sisters..

and of course it wasn’t just west park, it was pastors and members in small churches just like this one all across the country who kept tower hands to the plow and held on even through the darkest hours.

Things do and can change. Today in the Village the Evelyn Davidson memorial water table will again be in operation..who remembers its origins? In the gospel of Matthew (10:42) Jesus says “and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. That was the verse that inspired an act of witness by Evelyn Davidson, wife of my preceding pastor, Bob Davidson. Around 1982, she felt that the gay community had been so rejected and hurt by the church that there had to be a counter witness.  So she came up with setting up a water table and distributing cool cups of water --in Jesus name—every Pride march day. It would be in  front of First Presbyterian at 5th and 12th along the parade route. At first, First Pres was resistant. Then Presbytery Executive George Todd had an office there and rigged up a hose on the top floor in his bathroom and dragged it all the way down and through the church the outside to fill up the cups. By the next year, the church became an active participant. And today the table is a fully owned project of First Presbyterian.

People are marching. There is much to celebrate. As of 2014 the PCUSA recognizes same gender marriages. But still so far to go. Keep your hand on the plow....hold on!

In our conversation, people were interested in the parts of the Gospel we hadn't spoken of. Like the not burying the father, letting the dead bury the dead. Which could take years.  Despite its hyperbolic language, the sense is clear, we can't be stuck on what is dead. We need to move forward.  And don't look back.

Outside the sun was shining. A good day to celebrate....

Luke 9: 51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”[a] 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then[b] they went on to another village.Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”