Yom Kippur 5780

10/9/19

with my friend Rabbi Steve Blane

On a cold rainy day, I make  my way to the Bitter End for Congregation Sim Shalom's Yom Kippur service with my good friend,  Rabbi Steve Blane. His usually on-line congregation gathers once a year during the High Holy Days to be together in person for a service filled with jazz-oriented music. And the warm and generous spirit of my friend Steve.

I'm thinking about the retimes I've performed here..the honor of being booked at this Village icon. Before the service, I look at the mural behind the bar of famous people who have performed here. And see that Bill Cosby's been put "behind bars." Just desserts, for the former Jello spokesman.

Soon the Yom Kippur band will begin to play and we are underway.  (The video of the whole service can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=sim%20shalom%20yom%20kippur&epa=SEARCH_BOX) Soon enough, it was time for my sermon. This is what I had to say....

the Sim Shalom Yom Kippur band

Cosby behind bars

So this is Yom Kippur 5780. The days of awe are all but done. I hope  that this  has been a good time for you of refection, of getting your  life into perspective, of taking the opportunity to start anew. Even as arbitrary  and constructed a s a new year is, even in  a religion, hey, always take the chance for a fresh start, or even do over.

The goal here today is to feel ourselves at one....at one with God..and that would  seem to include each other as well? And as we're learning, it includes  even creation itself. At-one-ment.

But it also has this sense of atonement...as in atoning, as in confessing ...and paying for your sins. Which means confessing...an owning up to..a facing of.  And of asking for forgiveness. As a Christian pastor, I feel we have a lot to learn from my Jewish brothers and sisters about forgiveness. As one in need of forgiveness, the  Jewish tradition teaches that you can't ask God to forgive what was done to another  human. You must seek it from that person. And also that you can't forgive what wasn't done to you. 

One of our most sacred  practices as Christians is the sharing of communion, of bread and wine as a moment of being "At one with"...We used to have a rule that if you had anything against another person, or someone against you, you had to  leave the altar and not come back until you resolved it. 

What of we tried that here?  Like on Rosh Ha Shanah, Rabbi Blane said during these next 8 days, if you've got something you need to repair with someone, one way or another, go deal with it and don't come back  next week if you haven't finished it yet. So think about that a minute.  And if you need to go take care of something, we'll wait for you, right Rabbi Steve? 

Okay...the other part of forgiveness...when you have something against someone else. Forgiveness is something we ultimately do for ourselves..it's a letting go. To stop letting someone who has hurt you define who you are by your hurt. To move beyond victimhood. As a friend of mine once said, forgiveness is giving up for all time the hope for a better past. 

Now notice, I'm not talking about reconciliation. Forgiveness is not letting bygones be bygones, it's letting go. About letting you live more freely. It does nothing to make the relationship better. That takes a process of naming and claiming and listening and working through and then slowly rebuilding. As a friend once said, no reconciliation without reconstruction. 
That takes work.

I have to shift here a moment and talk about one of my favorite Bible characters...Jonah. Rabbi Steve tells me he's traditionally on the agenda for Yom Kippur in the afternoon. I wonder why?

Jonah is of course a prophet. But there's something unique about him. And it's not the whale. He is, as far as I can recollect, the only Biblical prophet sent to another country, another people.  In Heschel's classic understanding of a prophet, a prophet came from a people to speak to that people motivated above all by love. 

God didn't want Jonah to speak to his own people, regardless of how much they might have needed it. He was told to go to Nineveh, one of the  enemies of the people Israel. And to  let them have it. And Jonah's like, uh, no... I want nothing to do with those Gentile pagan enemies of my people.

And so he tries to run away and you  know what happens next. He gets out of the whale (or big fish) and God gives him a second chance and off to Nineveh he goes. 

(Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah “shayneet” – a second time. That tells us that God is a God of “shayneets” – renewed opportunities! (Remember that phrase!) When we admit our mistakes, often God will forgive us and allow us to try again. That’s very good news, isn’t it? I’ve needed more than a few “shayneets,” and even some “sh’leesheets” – third times, and on occasion some additional times beyond that! So, just maybe, sometimes we ought to be willing to give others a second chance, too?)

So away he goes. Preaches. And whoa! They actually  And  Jonah is like no way. What's the point of being a prophet if the bad guys get away with it! God has to give him a lesson with a broom tree for him to get it.

So what am I saying?
Sometimes we need second chances.
Sometimes we need to offer second chances.
(Getting heavier..) And I believe that in our days ahead, God is going to call us to our own Ninevehs to talk to people we don't want to talk to and accept the fact that they may even change their mind and we'd have to not be able to dislike them anymore. Are we ready for that possibility?

I really do believe that if we're going to  get through this moment, it's going to take something like that Jonah journey.

Anyways, think about that this afternoon while you're fasting. May your fast go well. And L'shanah tovah. 


Steve and I sing his song, "Spark" and then with the blowing of the shofar, the service is ended

all of us....