Thanksgiving Sunday

11/24/19

Thanksgiving service

Nestled in the shadows of 66th Street, Good Shepherd-Faith Church is the last non-Lincoln Center or Juilliard building on the block. On land originally bought from the Park Presbyterian Church for $1, the church is a center of faith and culture. And for decades has carried on a spirited adventure in multicultural faith practice by conducting worship services in English at 10 AM and Korean at noon. Communion is celebrated in a joint bilingual service on the first Sunday of every month at 11. Through ups and downs over the years, a  stalwart community has kept the adventure going and today holds another annual tradition, a joint service of Thanksgiving followed by a meal that will find everything from turkey to kimchi on the table. 

The service will include long term black, white and Korean members ...and me as guest preacher. Internationally touring operatic tenor- and former NFL defensive end- Tao Papua will sing with the joint choir

Joint choir

and solo on a stirring Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Tao’s solo

Some prayers and readings will be in both languages simultaneously and some translated sequentially. My friend Chris Kim will translate my prayers and sermon into Korean- a first for me!

Elder Chris Kim

  And afterwards my friend Elder John Gingrich will present me with a farewell photo of Mariano Rivera which looks up to our seats...as we share a satisfying fellowship meal..

..Here is my sermon, or “prompting”...as they say here....

So here we are. It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And as always, there is turmoil around us. We've got the daily drama of the impeachment hearings. The big Democrat debate Wednesday night. There's exciting things happening all over the world...there's been uprisings in Chile, China, (Hong Kong), Bolivia, Baghdad and Beirut....and yesterday our friends at South Side Presbyterian Church in Tucson celebrated the fact that Scott Warren was found innocent on all charges after being arrested for giving water to people in the desert. The jury ruled that humanitarian aid is never illegal. 

And here we are at the weekend right before Thanksgiving. At our Presbytery Council meeting last week, the question was asked, what's your favorite part of the holiday season? A substantial number of our members answered "Thanksgiving."  I know that's true for me. For reasons too many to go into, Christmas always brought a degree of anxiety for me. (Maybe I was just worried about where I wound up on Santa's list..) But Thanksgiving...the warmth of gathered family, just to be together with no other agenda...and my favorite menu of the year. Something about turkey and stuffing and gravy just makes me happy...

(One year when I knew I was going to a vegetarian Thanksgiving, I seriously considered getting in line at First Corinthian Baptist next door...just for the turkey...)

I was in Central America again recently and recalled the year nuns in El Salvador made us an "American" thanksgiving....and in Salvador I met with a group of returned deportees ...many who had lived in the US for 20 years or more...the ministry working with them decided what they needed, wanted most was an 'American Thanksgiving"...

My prayer is that most of us can avoid political discussions at our tables...

Which brings me to..it's Christ the King Sunday...(or Reign of Christ)..it's the crowning moment of the church year, one of those passage Sundays that lead us from one liturgical season to the next, from the long green season of "Ordinary time" to the penitential purple of Advent. One of the rare "holy days" that celebrate an idea, or a theological affirmation, not a moment in Jesus or the church's life...

In fact, it's not that old a holy day.  Less than a century. In a time not unlike ours, Pope Pius XI, concerned with the rise of fascism and secularism, sent out an encyclical that said:

"When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony."

I'm going to repeat that last part..".real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony."  Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Our gospel lesson is actually Zechariah's blessing of his son John, the one we know as John the Baptist.  Announcing the already accomplished victory of a savior not yet born!

That's so fitting for where we are today...we are beginning to prepare for the journey to the celebration of the coming of a savior who is already here...

That's the thing about this Christian journey...there's always this "...already and not yet..." thing going on. We await Christ's final coming, final "triumph,"  while celebrating the fact that the victory has already been won. 

I always remember the radiant smile of archbishop Desmond Tutu, even in the darkest days of apartheid. He would smile and say, "We have already won...the other side just hasn't realized it yet.."

Likewise, in the midst of our own context, in the midst of however you want to define our day, whatever issues you want to lift up, in the midst of everything, we are called upon to proclaim the victory already won..

This raises for me two questions I'd like to leave you with (thanks to Jill Duffield of the Presbyterian Outlook..)

First, How do we in the church capitulate to worldly power(s) rather than to God's?  I learned in Chile that in 1973, part of the Presbyterian Church believed that the church leadership was actually cooperating with the dictator..so they left the Presbyterian Church of Chile and created the Presbyterian Church in Chile...one word can mean a lot..like in the world, not of the world..

(Like our own church split over slavery...)

Second...If you honestly assess your life, what has power over you? How might your life look different if Christ was truly in charge?

I will leave you to ponder that.

There is much to be thankful for. May your day be one of gratitude, peace and joy. May this church be place of respite during the busyness of the season to come. 

Jesus reigns.

Amen

Ready for worship...

First Reading Jeremiah 23:1-6

1Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. 3Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.

5The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

Gospel Luke 1:68-79

68"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. 69He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, 70as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 72Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us 74that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 78By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Second Reading Colossians 1:11-20

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.