Remembering Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

 1/18

Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

I wanted to have this week’s theme for hats on(off)  to reflect Martin Luther King Jr’s commemoration theme.  I first looked at how the NFL teams in last weekend’s playoffs wore pullover hats declaring JUSTICE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY. 

Steelers Cap

(I had tried to get a Steelers one but they were sold out…). I then related how MLK day has long been a special day for the NBA  with special day games and uniforms.  The Memphis Grizzlies, e.g. had a jersey with a font inspired by the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis whee King delivers his last speech. 

Grizzlies "I am a man" jersey

And the Atlanta Hawks have a jersey bearing Kings’ MLK initials. 

Hawks MLK jersey

Having none of these  available, I decided to honor Buck O’Neil and the Kansas City Monarchs of Negro League baseball fame. The Monarchs were the longest lasting Negro league team stretching from 1920-1965. They rosters included such legendary players as Satchel Paige snd Ernie Banks.  They were Jackie Robinson’s last team before the Dodgers and the Yankees’ first Black player, Elston Howard, had been a Monarch. In fact, following integration, the Monarchs were the  single greatest conduit from the Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball. And of course, the Monarchs were Buck O’ Neil’s team.

O’Neil spent his entire playing career with the Monarchs from  1938-1955. He would then go on to be baseball’s first Black coach with the Chicago Cubs and later serve the Cubs as  the first MLB Black scout. He was responsible for bringing Ernie (Let’s play two, Mr.Cub) Banks to the team from the Monarchs.

 On July 17, 2006, At age 94, Buck signed a one day contract with the independent American Association Kansas City (Kansas) T-Bones in an effort to be the oldest player to appear in a professional baseball game. He led off, drew an intentional walk and then “retired.” Later that year, following  his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  And in 2021, finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was instrumental in  the creation of Kansas City’s Negro  League Museum .

The T-Bones have now been renamed the Kansas City Monarchs in honor of the original Monarchs, 

Today’s hat’s off to the Kansas City Monarchs. The hat (on) is a 1945 Monarch hat (Jackie Robinson’s year) paired with a Buck O’Neill number 22 Monarch jersey. 

Living in Coronavirusworld 241: One day closer

 

1/17

What we need

Our ZOOM meeting with my mother in her assisted care facility is filled with tech issues. My mom's been left with only "speaker view" so she can't understand why people keep disappearing. Explaining is not easy. The transcript would be an entertaining slice of Coronavirusworld life one act.  My niece, a middle school principle in Ohio, says "So now you know what it's like trying. to teach these days."

The Gate has added outdoor heaters, like more and more restaurants every day. But heated tables are in high demand so my friend and I are luck to get an unheated table at the corner. Where the wind whips around. I stick with Jameson's but she goes with a hot toddy. And a shepherd's pie for me  to keep warm. We can make it just about an hour in this weather.  When I go in to pay the bill, owner Paul is happy for our loyalty. Shots are shared.

1/18

Coffee, pastry and Sunday Times at my favorite Venezuelan cafe. But the wind keeps rustling my paper and cooling my coffee so its a short visit. 

As our family gathers for its weekly international ZOOM meeting, we all struggle to come to terms with our current covid reality. Two of us here in New York, teachers, are scheduled for vaccines. My son in Berlin is especially confounded as the country that seemed to have it all under control and was seemingly a model response now seems to be completely at a loss as to what to do as numbers pass New York City and percentages near American levels and a new lockdown in effect.  Teachers have all but given up.

waiting for the vaccine

First day of vaccinations at Wadleigh High School across the street from me. People lined up around the block. Like the voting lines. 

Late afternoon, as the sun goes down, we walk to the Israeli cafe for coffee. There is some anxiety around the lack of ventilation in the outdoor seating area. So we don't stay long. We walk in the dark to Central Park to see if the floating tree in the Harlem Meer is still lighted. The tree is still there. But now dark.

1/19

Martin Luther King, Jr. day

Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Tonight we cancel our Bible Study because the New York City Presbytery is holding a (virtual) Rosa Parks/Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration service. Music from a Black church in Harlem and a Korean church on Queens, A preacher from Detroit. The sharing of communion, each in our own place.  On this King day, in this year, on the cusp of the exit of a disgraced President and the inauguration of a new one, there is a special resonance to the vision of a Beloved Community. Dr.King's radical vision needs to be reclaimed from the effort to take the hard economic analysis out of his witness. He was ready to take on, to name, the predatory consuming nature of capitalism. Beyond identity politics, the progressive political constituency needs to bring the class issue back into focus in the years ahead.

1/20

Donald Trump's last day in office. We are on the verge of the change. My friend Steve comes up for coffee. We sit in the cafe's patio and review these last 4 years. Wondering how we can begin to overcome the gaps between two countries. There is a growing awareness that significant portions of our religious communities sold their souls in support of a nativist authoritarian politics. Both orthodox Judaism and evangelical Christianity have much to answer for. 

I spend three hours trying to find an appointment for a vaccination, all to no avail.

The President elect hosts a ceremony with 400 lights to commemorate the now more than 400,000 deaths from Covid. Repeat that number...400,000 fellow citizens, fellow Americans. Dead. More than World War II. The lights glow next to the reflecting pool. On into the darkness. 

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?"

Tranfiguration vision

3/2

Need to get Joe and La Toya moving on but as they look ready to leave, I notice lots of papers and a big patch of what looks like spaghetti sauce. Joe sees me looking at him and says, that’s not me, I didn’t do it. And I say You don’t understand, I can’t be dealing with this. I don’t care who did it, I’m going to have to close the steps.

I didn’t dooo it, he says, more emphatically.

I shake my head and head to the basement for a bucket of water and a mop. I’ve got little enough time but have to mop the steps. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Keith talking with Joe. I say, Good morning Keith, but he doesn’t respond, knowing he’s banned. So I sweep up all the stray papers and then hit the mop. As I’m heading back to the basement, Jeremy arrives ready to rehearse. I remain calm .

Two young Asian women walk in. Is there a service? they ask. Soon, I say.

This is Transfiguration Sunday. Our lessons are  Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 99, 2 Peter 1:16-21 and Matthew 17: 1-9. We spend most of our time on Matthew. This is one of those gateway Sundays you pass through to get from one liturgical season to the next. Like how Christ the King Sunday is the crowning of the year before we start all over again with Advent. Epiphany begins with a burst of light, a star shining in the darkness, and ends in one final blast. Like the grand finale of a Macy’s 4^th of July fireworks show on the Hudson. We should have candles all over the place. Epiphany is a moment  of getting it in an instant. Transfiguration is vision, a shimmering image, a  revelation.

There is Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. We notice the similarity in detail to Moses on the mountain. And that Moses represents the law and Elijah the prophets.  Jesus comes as fullfillment of both. Or as witness to both.  And all three have, well, let’s say different ends. Moses dies, but his grave is hidden so as to not  become a shrine. Elijah is carried away on a flaming chariot. And Jesus, well, we know that story. It’s one season away.

Elijah’s go a special role. He has a seat at all special occasions like Passover and brisses. He can seemingly appear when needed for a special miracle, unseen yet present. And he’s the forerunner for the Messiah.

And then there’s the disciples like Peter. The one with no impulse control. Ready to build three booths. Wanting to make this one shining moment of March madness last. Mostly we talk about mountain top experiences. We pause to share a few. Some at work, some exceptional, some more ordinary. Mine, well, it was Christmas at West-Park. But you can never stay there. You’ve got to go back down, back to every day life. Where things  are not always quite so clear. Don’t shine so much. Wrestle with the ordinary. 

The voice of God breaks through again, just like at his baptism. This is my son, my beloved….

It was after all, a vision. Someone says, and you’re never absolutely sure you saw what you saw. And how visions lead us forward.  And Jesus says, Tell no one…Why? His job's not done yet, someone says. And someone else, he doesn’t want people to follow him because he's spectacular, because he shines. 

Mountaintops. Like Moses who looked out over the promised land, knowing he’d never go there. Or Martin Luther King, Jr.’s prescient vision before his assassination…I have been to the mountaintop…I might not get there with you…mine eyes of seen the glory, visions like that And those lines fromJulia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic to which he was referring,

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free; While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

The transfiguration so fully in King’s vision.

May this vision sustains us through the 40 days of Lent. And longer. Our journey has miles to go.

We finish with the Lord’s Supper, Deacon John R serving.

We make our circle. And take time to visit with our two young Korean women, here to audition for Mannes. We share with them our prayers that they might do their best. And then set about cleaning up.

The Session meets. Post mortem for another plan gone awry. But with a strong sense of what we have. We’re ready to move forward regardless. Get the work underway, reclaiming our space, improving it. Bringing more life to it. Have to keep that vision before us, of how what we are can lead to what we can be.

Different local, same union: Interfaith is not a strategy, it's a way of life

1/17

Large bundles of cardboard boxes flattened and bound with string. Some open, torn, laid flat in the north doorway. Did someone come here seeking shelter? In this 20 degree weather? And was taken by the police to St. Luke’s? Sometimes I feel like an urban version of a tracker, looking at clues to see what might have taken place while I was gone. What I’d see if there was a video camera recording 24/7.

Today, Steven is returning with more of his Woodshed Collective members. And John is bringing a director friend. It’s late afternoon and gathering dark as I lead the tour, beginning in the scariest part, the basement. As we go up and down back staircases to surprise arrivals in different rooms, the theatre folks have the delight of kids in a haunted house or on a scavenger hunt.  As we look at the semi-ruins of the chapel, one member says, “you’d normally have to pay a lot of money to get something to look like this.” We finish the tour. They will continue  to thjnk about “immersive possibilities.” John says to his director, “what could you do with a place like this?” She says, “What couldn’t you do.”

Earlier today I joined in  our annual neighborhood Martin Luther King, Jr Day march for peace. This year’s theme is “economic justice.”  Including a call for support of a bill to provide paid sick leave for city employees. As we march the streets , with police escort, going in and out of five houses of worship, pausing at each for a reflection, a song, an act, we weave a reality throughout the neighborhood. This  is a perfect example of what Bill Tripp spoke of in his presentation on Ritual Space. We have turned our neighborhood into living, breathing ritual space.

Walking from Holy Name to 2nd Presbyterian, I’m  joined by an older woman. She says to me, “I know you, you don’t know me,” her nam e is Ulla. She’s one of  the amazing group of septuagenarian/octogenarian committed members of Peace Action. She speaks of her many years of activity at West-Park. Wants to know if we’re finally saved from being torn down. So I have to slowly explain the realities  of landmarking.  She talks  about having  come to the Crafts Fair/Music Festival, how much it meant to her to be back inside after all these years. How beautiful and alive  it looked. She asks where the money will come from to fix things. And I say, “people just like you’." And she laughs. And then  I  say, seriously. And describe our step by step process.  

At the next stop, I’m disturbed when the pastor, after describing what an inclusive and multicultural place the school at her church was,  asks us to conclude  by singing “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, bearers of the cross.” Well bearers instead of soldiers certainly demilitarizes the old hymn. But doesn’t make it inclusive.

Out on the street, I join my friend Father Duffel,and Lutheran pastors Elise and Heidi. Good solid organizers all. Leaders in working for rights for homeless and for their issues. They share my concerns about inclusiveness. At the Franciscan church, the friar spoke of the God we call God, Allah, Adonai, Dios....Our Presbyterian hosts were Christocentric. That can’t feel welcoming when what you’ve come to attend is an interfaith witness.

I thought back to Thursday night’s event again. The imam calling us to King’s vision of ecumenicity. Rabbi Potasnik of the New York City Board of Rabbis said that we were in  “different locals, but all part if the same union.” Later, I spoke with my friend Rabbi Michael Feinberg of The Religion Labor coalition.  He shared with me his disappointment with certain leaders of this event. “I’m used to people who live interfaith as a way of life. Not see it as a strategic tactic. When they had a preservice ‘prayer huddle,’ I thought of joining in just to be there, but it felt like it wasn’t for me. I’m getting too old for this...”

Elise speaks of how one of our rabbi colleagues finds much of what we do not inclusive. FatherJohn and Pastor Heidi are in agreement. I talk about last Thursday and say, “interfaith is not a strategy, it’s a way of life.” We agree we have to make that more understood. On King Day, 2011, we should be further along than this. 

They want to know  about what we’re up to. Elise came to our Crafts Fair/Music Festival and was very moved to see life coming again. I talk about how we’re not looking for a real estate deal anymore, that it’s a new process. Hard for some to understand. How we tried to rebuild for rebirth but now know we must be reborn to rebuild.

I watch the line  of people winding its way through the streets connecting  our houses  of worship. The kind of ritual space Bill Tripp described for us goes beyond any particular tradition, is by its very nature inclusive. The immersive theatre experience being imagined by Woodshed, how it works, is yet another expression of Ritual Space.  That's the vision of the  Centre we are seeking to bring into being. A place for artists, activists, companion travelers of all kinds. This can be  our part of the emerging Beloved Community we can take responsibility to build.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday 2011: We shall overcome someday

1/16

This is the Sunday we commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Jim and Holly are the first to arrive to help set up, as usual. Then our musicians. Juan has brought a small space heater. There’s  Philip and then Amy.  As cold as it is, I joke that later that afternoon, over 60,000 people will sit outside in colder weather watching  a football game. (Of course a few beers help.)

During the time with children, Deacon Pat asks what would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. think of today? She recalled her pride, her tears when Obama was elected. There has been change, but...

That indeed is the question before us today.  

There is much on my mind as I think about that question:

*  The shock waves that continue to flow out from the shooting in Tucson. How the President's words reminded us of the HOPE he inspired as he ran his campaign. Would these words touch anybody, change anybody not already committed to civility in the public arena?  I wrestle with the current level of divisiveness, our continuing  fascination with guns. And how we deal with the mentally ill. And the fact that families of victims and accused need support and prayer.

• Our clergy meeting in Wednesday when we talked about the new shelter for 200 men.  The city’s need to find shelter for burgeoning numbers of homeless. The new profit opportunity for the illegal hotel owners to sign shelter contracts with the city. Yes, shelter is needed in this cold. But what we really need are permanent affordable housing apartments to better weave the fabric of our community. 

Hope asks: so if they’re paying $100 a night for shelter, why not let the men stay there permanently? Have enough services available to help the residents  transition back to work? Back to neighborhood life? Wouldn’t that make sense?

• And i ‘m thinking about the city wide rally for the Living Wage we went to Thursday night at Convent Avenue Baptist Church.  Reminding us that Dr. KIng’s last mission was to join the fight  for a living wage for sanitation workers in Memphis. The statistics are disturbing: the citywide unemployment rate is 9.1% and the unemployment rate for people of color is three times that, around 28%. Only 2.3% of city contracts go to companies owned by people of color.  And worst of all, 30% of the children in this city live in poverty.  What would Dr. KIng say?

What’s being asked for is pretty small:  $10 an hour with benefits, $11.50 without. As I overheard at the bar at Gabriela’s while waiting for my take out pollo con mole poblano, “In New York City you have to be middle class just to be poor.” And its inappropriate for a billionaire mayor to talk about letting  the market decide when these companies receive subsidies  from city taxes. Certainly the Los Angeles experience seems to show that employment actually increases with a living wage, not decrease it.

In the words of Dr. James Forbes, Pastor Emeritus of the Riverside Church and Director of the Healing  of the Nations Foundation, we have to learn how to tangibilitize our  values. From the verb tangibilitate : to  make tangible, real, concrete our values.

* And it was one year ago that the Landmarks Commission voted to designate West-Park as a landmark. The commissoner said he would do “everything in his power.” That was a year ago. Councilmember Brewer said that she could  and would raise $20 million. Subcommittee Chair Landner was convinced help would come. Committee Chair Comrie promised we would  “be all right.” That was eight months ago. So what do we do now? What do we have  to do to make our story public? Hold these offocials accountable? 

* And two wars that seem to go on with n en din sight wit mainly children  the poor and people of color dying. 

Dr. King had,as spoken by the prophet Isaiah, a mouth “like a sharp sword.” We need like he did, that experience of precision, disappointment, failure that comes with the prophetic call. The feeling that all our work has been in vain. Dr. King knew depression a swell. How do we move beyond that? 

Part of it comes in understanding that Isaiah makes clear that this call is universal, not just for “Jacob” and certainly not just for Christians. Imam Talib reminded us that Dr. King called us to set aside our prejudices and join together in a truly ecumenical movement, in sense of worldwide household. That means full acceptance of all, even those whose experiences lead them to question or reject faith, all who join together in good will. To that we have the challenge of being  universal without being unitarian. To maintain the uniqueness of our witness even as we reject triumphalism. 

The Psalmist speaks from a place of depression as well. Many of us have been there. Even Dr. King. What doe it mean to sing a new song? What is new? Are we ready to embrace it? Brave enough to sing it?  God gave us “an open ear.”  To hear what? The voice of God? The voice of those around us? Is there a difference? Yes, Dr. King was rooted in the African-American Christian experience, but he grew to a universal vision.

On Saturday, I saw the movie “Red Shirley.” His interviews with his 100 year old aunt, a refugee from Poland who became a union organizer in the garment workers Union. How as a Yiddish speaker she had to speak to Italians. How today its Latinos and African-Americans but still the same union. She was at the theatre in person after the movie. Spoke of  her sadness at the passing of the day when society, young people had a shared sense of social right and wrong. What realities were simply unacceptable. What does it take to live a life of commitment? To raise our children so they will have that innate sense?

I show the congregation my bracelet. the one with basta! on it. I say, 'Basta de que? Basta de todo...de guerra, injusticio, politicos que dice muco y hace nada....si, basta de todo...enough of it all..."

When asked where he was staying, Jesus told his disciples “come and see.” Yes, come and see. He is staying with the immigrants, the mournng in Arizona, the unemployed, the children in poverty...he is staying there....Walter Breuggeman said that the “Jesus event”shows God “eagerly invested” in the world. We are inheritors not of certainty, but a continuing struggle to know God and follow Jesus and to seek to understand what that might mean.  How our seemingly small witness can move from ineffectiveness to global impact. We are called to a deep openess to what might happen. 

We cannot live in 1968 or any other era or time than our own. We must resist the appropriation of Martin Luther King, Jr for any self-serving purpose, the ritualization, the holidayzation of the day. We must begin  by being ultimately present in this moment with everything we have. 

That’s what we talked about.  Philip sang “How Great Thou Art,” recalling the Thursday night service. P____came to the candle, praying for her case. We spoke of the next day’s march. of the week ahead. And held hands as we  sang our Halle, halle, halle, hallelujah and “We shall overcome...” with everything that lies ahead, inside and outside our doors...

Deep in our hearts, we do believe, that we shall overcome some day.