Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend 2017: Where is Jesus?

1/15

It was the Sunday before the inauguration. And we gathered to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And reflect on where we are …now.

All the music of the day was chosen for special reasons….we opened with “Jesus the Light of the World…” continuing our Epiphany theme of light..and getting it…and sang Siyahamba…We are marching in the light of God…a South African freedom song that was late taken up by the More Light movement for full inclusion in church life  by the LGBTQ community..a movement that was birthed at West-Park in 1978…the religious Stonewall, you might say…Precious Lord, take my hand was Dr.King’s favorite song, the one that brought the confirm in times of doubt and fear .the uncertainty of our  time moved me to sing Blowin in the Wind, a song I would sing the next day at the annual Upper West Side Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. peace walk at Pastor Heidi’s invitation..and of course we called with the Civil Rights Movement’s We Shall Overcome…

And this was my reflection…

This is the Second Sunday in Epiphany…a season of Light…a season of “getting it”…as we continue ti hold our breath in our journey into the unknown…and the weekend of celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, JR…

In our gospel lesson, somehow we’re still with Jesus where we left him last week, on the banks of the Jordan with John…and this time it’s from the perspective of the Gospel of John…and John too has seen the dove of the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus.

Ultimately, in seeking what Jesus is up to, the people ask him where he’s staying, he responds come and see…and it’s not so much asking where he is but what he does and who he is and by doing so we will discover where we are…

And where is he staying?  I’m convinced that  these days, we’re going  to find him a lot in the streets…

Last Friday, the Micah Institute (and others) walked together to deliver a letter. We walked with Mama Bah, the mother of a murdered child. The Micah Faith Table calls on US Attorney Preet Bharara to launch a full investigation into his case and fully prosecute all officers who killed her son Mohamed Bah, an African  Muslim son of our city in Septemer 2012…three years ago…It was profoundly moving to see Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu and  Christian clergy all together…with my neighbor Imam Konate, the spiritual leader of the mosque where Mohammad worshipped…later. he told us emotionally how moved Mama Bah was by the solidarity of so many. She felt a dam in her heart had broken open. “Come and see’’’ says Jesus…

We’ve got macro concerns and micro ones as we  move forward…macro-wise, there was recently a full page ad in the New York Times  calling us to  “Stop Trump” before he is inaugurated…calling on 1000’s…or more.. to come to Washington,DC to block the streets, etc…and of course the women’s march that will take place January 20th…these are macro actions…

We need to be concerned with the micro as well…local issues  and actions that are definable, achievable, measurable and verifiable …(the DAM-V test of organizers..)

Tomorrow is our annual Upper West Side Martin Luther King, Jr.  walk for peace and justice organized by our clergy and Westsiders for Peace and Justice…

Our march

this year the action is very specific….support for West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing’s proposed expansion of affordable housing at West 108th street…

WSFSSH founder Rev. Laura Jervis

We support affordable housing

.280 units…(20% of our seniors live in poverty, in Manhattan Valley alone 2000 of them are  on a  waiting  list for affordable housing …with a seven year wait..)The plan to use  three garages owned by the city has caused a community uproar..…come and see

And our friends from the National Movement Against Sweat Shops  and Justice will be Served…are organizing to pass a statewide SWEAT bill to stop wage theft…from the most vulnerable of our neighbors, immigrant workers from Mexico, China and French west Africa…come and see…

Frequently at these services, we read from Dr. King’s I have a dream speech. But this year i want to read from Dr. King’s 

Letter from the Birmingham jail….1963…

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were

deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas

and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians

entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and

"outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than

man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated."

They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often

the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average

community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the

early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no

meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright

disgust.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour

Yesterday, our Session met with Rick Ufford-Chase

Meeting with Rick

…..we dreamed of creating a congregation committed to:

,,,each other

…radical (and disciplined) reading of scripture

…worship (deep sharing)

…and taking action together…

of this you will be hearing more..come and see…

Jesus is here..

Thank you (again) Leila!

Can you be persistent enough?

10/16

Pete....was persistent

I knew that judge. Judge Raymond H. Graham. Back in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Known as a  “hanging judge”. Pretty much neither feared God nor had respect for people. I was director of the Presbyterian Urban Ministry Council. Each church got to assign a representative to our board. Judge Graham was assigned by his congregation.I called the pastor. He said I’d be surprised. When I interviewed him, Judge Graham told me he’d had a heart attack. While he was in the hospital, he realized that he’ d been putting the wrong people in jail. And felt he had a chance  to make up for it. Together we created Oklahoma’s first alternatives to incarceration program.  (He’d brought along an old friend, Baker Davis,  who said I came to jeer and stayed to cheer…we had many a meeting at the Judge’s poker table over fine single malt and a slight haze of smoke.)

And now, the week…

John Oliver asks us to look up, way, way up there, way up in the sky, beyond the clouds, beyond the stars……way up there is rock bottom he tells us…And I am frightened by news from the Trump rallies…that if he loses, he will declare the  results illegitimate…what would that unleash?

On the one hand, i am  encouraged by some developments in the evangelical community….last week Liberty College students protested their President Jerry  Falwell’s continued  support for Trump…BUT….why only now?  Why not when he threatened 

Muslims? Mexicans? This is Not just about SEX…

Back to the parable…

Who are we in this parable?  How we answer that  question makes a world of difference. Basically, its about patience, persistence. But the issue is, who is telling whom to be patient? Jill Duffield, of Presbyterian Outlook, reminds us that on so many issues, we are simply not in a position to tell others to be patient. 

As Martin Luther King, Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" noted: "For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'wait" has almost always meant 'never.'"

She goes on to say: That’s my concern with preaching these texts this week. That we will preach "don't lose heart" without an antiphonal cry of "How long O, Lord?" I fear that I would be tempted to proclaim "pray always," without also walking with the widow to the judge's bench.

In a1963 forum, a history professor asked about James Baldwin about his critique of liberals. Baldwin replied that, with some exceptions, "Liberals have the proper attitude with no real convictions." He had observed, he said, that, "when the chips are down," they "don't come through." I wonder if that couldn't be a critique of the church, too. I suspect the backlash against "thoughts and prayers" is grounded in this very reality.  We need more than thoughts and prayers…we need righteous action.

We need patience to continue work on what we won’t see accomplished  in our lifetime….to be persistent….to keep going back over and over again…the one  good thing Donald Trump said about Hillary in the last debate was….She doesn’t give up…she’s not a quitter..

That’s issue one.

Issue number two is…what do you know by heart?  Remember that in school? Learning the pledge to the allegiance? The Lord’s prayer?  Jeremiah is asking us what we know by heart…his challenge is for us to  know God’s law so well it shapes who we are and that who we are is visible embodiment of it…ou lives being then lesson text.  

As we talk about what we know, there are the expected replies…Lord’s prayer, Psalm 23, the rosary…Hail Mary, full of grace…then Rachel recites a beautiful poem about October..

Back to Baldwin fro a minute…do we come through? What difference does it make?

Thanks Leila....

Jill Duffield challenges us with these questions: 

1. When we say we will pray for someone or about something, do we? What difference does it make if we do or don't follow through on our promise to pray?

2. When have you lost heart? Were you able to find your heart again? If so, how?

3. How do we balance faithful patience with faithful action? When have you been persistent in seeking justice?

May God grant us persistence…….may God help us to encourage each other when we lose heart…persistence….until justice comes…

First Reading Jeremiah 31:27-34

27The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 28And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. 29In those days they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 30But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

31The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 119:97-104

97Oh, how I love your law!

It is my meditation all day long.

98Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,

for it is always with me.

99I have more understanding than all my teachers,

for your decrees are my meditation.

100I understand more than the aged,

for I keep your precepts.

101I hold back my feet from every evil way,

in order to keep your word.

102I do not turn away from your ordinances,

for you have taught me.

103How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

104Through your precepts I get understanding;

therefore I hate every false way.

Second Reading 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: 2proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. 3For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 5As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Gospel Luke 18:1-8

1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' 4For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" 6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend: Once to Every one and nation

1/18

Pat O, Marsha and I working in a budget. But in looking at expenses, there are too many unknowns. We need to have a conversation with Nan, and our new bookkeeper, Monica.

While we are meeting, a contingent of young Koreans are walking through the building, checking it out. They’re congregants of Pastor An.

AT 2 o’clock, I join my Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association friends from around the country in a goto meeting. Always amazes me to see all of our faces on the screen together when we can be as far away as Hawaii. PHEWA, despite all its work among networks in areas like Domestic violence and Disabilities and Mental Illness, Criminal Justice, Health, AIDS, is always right on the edge. Like almost every group I’m involved with. I swear it’s not me!

It takes me hours to work through Martin Luther King, Jr’s Selma to Montgomery How long? Not long…speech. Not nearly as well known as I have a dream or the mountaintop speech. I’m impressed with the word usage, the art of the speech. How it uses the Bible, well known hymns and spirituals. Courageous challenge to the status quo. Comfortable for some, unbearable for most.                                                                

 Not easy, but I manage to turn it into a liturgy. With music. It’s late when I leave.

1/19/15

Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday. Two visitors from the Korean congregation are with us today. We begin with the old movement song, Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around…then read 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 where  Samuel hear the word of God calling him to be a prophet and doesn’t understand it at first. God calls him three times before Eli is able to convince him that it is indeed God calling. And recall that Martin didn’t want to be a prophet. That he wanted to be an intellectual, a scholar, an academic. Saw his tradition as something he need to rise above until in his loneliest hour he found its deep spiritual strength to sustain him.

And them we read the entirety of the How long, not long.. speech.( http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/our_god_is_marching_on/) And wherever Dr. King quotes from a hymn or song, we sing it.

We ain’t goin’ let nobody turn us around

Lift every voice and sing

We have come over a way

That with tears hath been watered.

We have come treading our paths

Through the blood of the slaughtered.

Out of the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam

Of our bright star is cast.

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho,

Up to the walls of Jericho they marched, spear in hand.

Go blow them ramhorns, Joshua cried,

‘Cause the battle am in my hand.

Once to every man  and nation
Truth forever on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.

And finally, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which gives the speech it’s other name. Our God is marching on. …
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; (Speak, sir)
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!
Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

The power of those words still ring achingly present and true today.  We feel them as we enter into our prayers. At the end of the service, we sing Ain’t gonna let nobody….one more time,a and then, before a final Amen, We Shall Overcome.

Of everything we sang today, only Lift every voice…and We shall overcome have made it into the new Presbyterian Hymnal.  We shall overcome is a new addition, Lift every voice ….had made it into the 1990 hymnal.

What I’m especially taken by is the absence of  Once to Every Man and Nation and the Battle Hymn, which both had been historic mainstays in the older hymnals. Reflecting on this. Regarding Once…, James Russell Lowell wrote these words in 1854 (the same year one of West Park’s predecessors, Park Church, built its chapel on 84^th street).  The tune we use was written in 1890, one year after the new sanctuary was built. Lowell wrote his passionate, apocalyptic words in protest to the US war against Mexico. And I remember both my college minister Ray Swartzbach and my Yale Chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Jr. using the hymn in anti-Vietnam war sermons. This is a kairos moment. You, we, have to decide.

The Battle Hymn, with its words lifted from the apocalyptic vision of Revelation 19, was written by abolitionist and suffragette  Julia Ward Howe in 1861. Once again, Howe viewed the moment as a decisive one with justice and truth hanging in the balance. She set it to an old camp song (also a tribute to radical abolitionist John Brown, who her husband Samuel secretly supported financially). It was intended to bolster the union troops.

O why were these powerful paens to justice banished? I suspect it happened as a misplaced understanding of  what  peacemaking in the church means. That is, militancy was confused  for militarism. Both songs have a martial air and a dramatic, apocalyptic, non-compromising use of language. The modern institutional church peace peacemaking project has often seen confrontation itself as problematic.

It is  hard to remember that the Presbyterian Church once filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of fundamentalist John Brown University. (No relation. At all.) and religious freedom and also provided defense funds for Angela Davis, an open communist. I can’t imagine that happening today. The only echo in a blunted time was last summer’s close vote to divest from 3 companies for their support of Israeli occupation of the West Bank. (Not insignificant.)

The taming of the hymnbook parallels the efforts to tame Dr.King, turn him into, in the word of Russ, a teddy bear. The Selma story shows just the opposite. King’s non-violence was a tactic to heighten tension, not reduce  it, not reduce it; until the basic demands were met. Active non-violence of the  movement drew violent response  to it, part of the tactic, to expose the brutality of those who  administer control and force a nation to face a cognitive dissonance between their stated values and their lived reality. And King’s action forced that dissonance to be resolved in favor of extending greater justice.  His use of non-violence was not only moral but strategic.

Thus we can not allow King’s memorialization to be used to avoid strong, even divisive action in this kairos moment. The young leaders of this movement  call for reclaiming Dr. King.

We people of faith need to play a supportive role. We will not be leaders this time. Our time has  passed. But we can be responsible. And responsive. And  advice when asked and when  it will be taken. We like Dr. King, can be militant without being militaristic. And perhaps sing and exegete some old songs while we’re at it. In this, another kairos moment.

Once to everyone an nation comes a moment to decide…..

More of the pieces

1/14

Come to church after talking through our Martin Luther King, Jr. march for this year. What the messaging  will be. Some are urging us to urge the community to move on, not create more divisions. Suggest out progressive mayor and his police commissioner are the best opportunity in years to make things better and that these things take time. Cultural change is not easy…Others believe that our community needs to hear a clear and distinct word. And what is that word? An earlier meeting at breakfast about a Harlem march showed that we’re still looking  for a demand as simple and clear as the voting rights  act was for Dr. King. We don’t have that yet.

Pat O checking out the daily developments on the reconstruction project.

An odd couple wanders in. And back out again. Only seeking a rest room.

1/15

Jed C represents a new food justice project called Farmigo. In short, an online farmer’s market. We had tried a farmers' market before, but had trouble bringing it back. There are also CSAs (community supported agriculture) projects in the neighborhood that bring fresh food direct from the farmers. But these require an upfront membership, the buying of shares and a volunteer  infrastructure of pledged hours and a fairly labor intensive distribution process. Jed’s project allows you to order only what you want48 hours in advance and get only what you want individually bagged. All you have to do is pick it up in a two hour window once a week. Sounds pretty good to me. We’d need an organizer. And we’d get 10% of all sales as a distribution site. I’d definitely like to do this. (http://www.farmigo.com/). Seems like a good follow up to our previous food justice effort. 

Pat O helps me get the agenda for the center meeting ready and we start again on our weekly check in on our to do list.

Jeremy and I take a look at what we want to do for Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday service. And I’m developing a plan for an epiphany season of enlighten. I do enjoy working with him. With this the 50^th anniversary year of the Selma to Montgomery march and the movie Selma now out, instead of the I have a dream speech, this year we’ll do the speech at the end of the Selma march, How long? Not long…(http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/our_god_is_marching_on/)

As the Center is gathering, Jeremy G, Lloyd and one other Open Choir member join us and share both what the choir has been doing and what the next public conversation will be. Following up on the performance and the sacred conversation, but adding the issue of community building to the mix.  Which as Jeremy says, is something that I urged them to. I'd like the Center to be listed as a partner. Some people begin to see that West-Park has already become a place where ideas are nurtured and turned into reality, especially in the  arts. (Dream.Real. Hard .as we say...)We need to make our resume concrete and explicit and figure out how to get the word out..

As always, the pieces are there….