For there is still a vision

11/3

"Cena" by Violeta Parra

On Marathon Sunday I make my way through subway delays and waves of runners surging through the streets for worship at Beverly Presbyterian Church. It's a crisp autumn Sunday morning.....

So…lots going on this weekend. Hopefully, we all turned our clocks back and enjoyed an extra hour of sleep. It’s Marathon Sunday with streets blocked off and thousands of runners passing through our streets and neighborhoods. (Hard to believe I was once one of them…once you have done that, through all five boroughs, you feel the city will always be a part if you..) For the church, this weekend we remember all the saints, all those who have come before us, so great a “cloud of witnesses” as they say.

It’s hard for me not to preach on the Luke passage. The story of Zaccheus has always been an important one  me. My grandfather Scott was not  a tall man, shorter than me. But he was tall in faith. A grocer by trade, he was an active lay member of his church. Sang solos. And led Bible studies. I remember his "Beulah Land." A few years ago, I found among family papers a reflection he had written, entitled “the Runt”. As a man of short stature, my grandfather identified with Zaccheus. As a businessman too. He had written a very poignant reflection on the Zaccheus story.

But  todayI am mainly drawn to the Habbakuk reading.  There’s a lot we still don’t know about Habbakuk…. Even the meaning of his name. But his book is filled with power still the same. Information in the text seems to place it in the late 6th Century BCE. We know that Habbakuk was a prophet. And the liturgical nature of his book suggests he may have been a temple prophet. Temple prophets are described in 1 Chronicles 25:1 as using lyres, harps and cymbals. Some feel that this is echoed in Habakkuk 3:19b, and that Habakkuk may have been a Levite and singer in the Temple.^[3].  , you might even say he was a singer-songwriter folksinger. He is very aware of the injustice of his own country and the way in which economic inequity and injustice is a form of violence that rends the fabric of a nation and makes it vulnerable. And the incoming invasion of the Babylonian empire imminent and inevitable. Exile is on its way.

We need to pay close attention to Habbakuk. His prophetic insight and vision  a gift to us. I am just back from Chile. My teaching experience got cut short by current reality. If you haven’t noticed in the news, Chile has been in turmoil these last few weeks. Chile is the perfect society for Presbyterians. Decency and order rule the day. It started out with something very small… fare increase for the subway system. Only about 4 cents US. But it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Students jumped the turnstyles. The president overreacted. The fine for fare evasion rose to $660 in a country where over half the people make less this $500 a month. People rose up in anger and a state  emergency was called, the country put under martial  law and a curfew imposed. The army called to the streets for the first time since 1973. Noone had anticipated this. Soon the streets of every city were filled with people. 

Habbakuk’s description of his society recognized that inequity itself is a form of violence. The issues that confront them should be familiar to us. Privatization. Income inequality. (Chile’s is the worst in the hemisphere, ours the worst it’s been since before the stock market crash of 1929. Student debt. Consumer debt. Cost of living. Minimum wage. Health care. Education.Pensions. People falling out of the middle class. A deep divide between people and their understanding as to how society should run. Long lasting “open wounds” that never heal. You can name them yourself. All these. And more. 

Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

And in all this God seems distant and far away.

So what does Habakuk do? He declares that he will “…stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint.”…

And how does God respond? 

Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come.

Yes. We are called upon to write the vision….and write it so plain and large that even the 65000 marathon runners running through our streets can read it plain and clear.  Maybe Habbakuk sings it, like the Chilean folksinger Victor Jara

Victor Para

sang it years ago….

our song

is fire of pure love,

it's a dovecote dove,

olive from an olive grove.

It is the universal song

chain that will triumph,

the right to live in peace

And even though he was executed 46 years ago, his music was present in every demonstration, never more alive. As Christians we should understand that … executed, but never more alive….

We have our prophet/singers too….Robeson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Odetta…Bernice Johnson Reagon…

At this moment in the world ….voices are rising up all around us, “writing the vision, making it plain..” …in Chile, in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Baghdad, Beirut, Hong Kong, and yes, even here…

So what are we called to do? 

* To have a vision…inspired by our faith…shaped by our scriptures, our prophets, …can we forget the “ Beloved Community” of Dr. King? And above all our Savior….the vision that we are all NEIGHBORS called to stewardship of our world and each other…we need to be able to see that vision, feel it and speak it and live it…even when its accomplishment tarries…to wait with patience like Archbishop Tutu with the joyous smile on his face because he knew the victory is already won, whether the other side knows it or not…

If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. …

And the righteous shall live why their faith…

That’s worth an Alleluia…

As we gather round this table today, let us summon the cloud of witnesses…all who come before ….in this place, and other places, other times…let us summon the faces of brothers and sisters around the world who make visions plain…who wait with patience…remember...this is a marathon, not a sprint...because we know who holds the future…and we know who holds our future…do not despair…God is in our midst.,…And walks with us … as Jesus walks with us as brother, companion, friend and savior. 

In the name of Jesus 
Amen

I hurry my way out to catch an Uber for my next assignment at First Chinese Presbyterian Church.  Serious mistake. the marathon has closed off too many streets....I arrive at the Chinatown church just as everyone is leaving.....

Reformation Day to Halloween 2016

10/30

Check out today’s bulletin cover…..

The Dakota Pipeline protests continue. This is probably the most important protest of recent years as Native Americas protest a pipeline drill into their scared land. They are indigenous people. ( I’m waiting of someone to tell them to “ Go back where you came from…”) They say they are "Protectors" not"protestors" I have to ask,would we run a pipeline through Arlington Cemetery?

This makes the Chief Wahoo hats worn by the Cleveland Indians all the worse..

Chief Wahoo

Cleveland may win…My friend Bruce Reyes Chow has been wearing a “Caucasians” shirt….

Thus we are "Caucasians"





















                                                                    

Last week I was in St. Louis visiting with colleagues. Some of the wounds of the Ferguson uprising still visible. The Pastor of 3rd Presbyterian Church kept church open to serve meals to the kids….because the schools were closed…and fro some children, their only meals came at school.

Yesterday here ended the two days long Transformation Festival…It’s theme was Leaving victimhood behind…One of the speakers was from the wounded warrior project…for soldiers returning from deployment …how tragic it is how abandoned some of our veterans have felt.

I tell my seminary students…we always do theology in a context..this is mine this week….what is yours?

Today is Reformation Sunday. This weekend begins the 500th anniversary celebration of the beginning of the reformation. Martin Luther  never intended to start a new religion or even a new denomination. (Can you imagine living in a time where there was just ONE church?)

Do you remember what set him off? The sale of indulgences…to pay for St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. (What a great fundraising scheme…to pay to take years off purgatory. That’s what started it. Like pulling on  loose thread, this eventually led him to question the whole system. Led him ultimately to“priesthood of all believers.” In our tradition, our equal ordinations. It’s why I am primarily a teacher and not a priest. A facilitator not a mediator. I am an administrator of sacraments, not a consecrator. What began there had broad political impact as well…Marilynne Robinson argued that Calvin’s reformed theology led to the  Enlightenment and humanism. 

Tomorrow is Halloween…the night before All Saints and then  All Souls days.…Luther chose the day deliberately. Because we are all “saints” and “souls…”

Last week we spoke of  a vision. Habbakuk spoke of “Writing the vision and making it plain so that even runner can read it..” Like bill boards along the highway.  What is the vision we seek to write?  We need to write?

I am more and more convinced that in a challenging and confusing time…at the end of empire…we are called to a radical  Christianity. I don’t mean that in a political sense, though there are certainly political implications. I mean that like Luther, we seek to go to the root and for us that root is Jesus. That more than anything we need to seek a radical obedience to the way of Christ and live that out in a community that works to help each other figure out what that means. To seek to be a Zaccheus who goes out to see Jesus and gets seen himself. To make Jesus the ultimate authority in everything we do. 

That’s how I see it on Reformation Day 2016. 

(And Happy Halloween!!!!)

                                                                         ****

In honor of Luther, we sing together A Mighty Fortress...

                                                                          ****

Halloweeen another perfect, beautiful day...a day for walking through the park..for debriefing the Transformation Festival  with Carman and Lotte ... then to West-Park where Leila and Pat have transformed the church...for the next four hours we greet a steady stream of trick or treaters..amazed at the cleverness of some costumes, like the two man Mr. Softee ice cream truck...Leila, Pat, Larry, Dion, David, Marsha and finally Russ all do their part...we did this well...

on the steps

Greeting the neighbors

Thanks Pat and Larry

Selfie

Add caption

friends

Marsha looking Wagnerian

Mr.Softee

First Reading Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

1The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? 3Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous-therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

vd

1I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 2Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 3For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 4Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

Gospel Luke 19:1-10

1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." 9Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."