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| Harlem |
The International Sanctuary work group meets.
- the informal walk across at Roxham Road has been shut down. But refugees keep coming.
- in Arizona, the border is still completely shut down. The No Mas Muertos camps are well staffed. People coming through the most dangerous part of the border. People who are found are immediately processed and expelled. To protect itself from Americans, Mexico has closed the US-Mexico from their side.
- there is a new House Resolution 2407 linking US aid to Israel to treatment of detained Palestinian children. Kids tried in military courts.
-connection between US and Israeli police brutality…training, equipment…
- Covid 19 growing in Juarez. Women badly hit. 80% of asylum seekers sleeping outside of overpopulated shelter system. 43000 expelled since March.
- US immigration is shutting down offices in Canada. Lack of funding. Renewal of visas, work permits postponed. Arizon'a Scott Warren who defied the US government to give aid and was arrested to receive Fellowship of Reconciliation peacemaker award (and No Mas Muertos…)
- Intersectionality of US and EU racism
- “Accompaniment" programs in Palestine, Colombia, Kurdistan, Lesbos all shut down
- COVID. Migration. Black Lives Matter. A global crisis.
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Our Bible Study focuses on Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23. The “ sower” parable. Found in all the gospels. And quotes in Thomas. “Let those who have ears to hear, listen…” my college chaplain always ended his fiery sermons with those words. It’s interesting that temptations include both wealth and worry. (…the cares of the world…worry is its own reward, it keeps us from doing anything. The parable has been used used by evangelical church planters, a phrase I find annoying. And can lead to judging people for not being the right kind of soil. But we realize….the emphasis is really on the sower, not the soil. The sower sows haphazardly, extravagantly, even promiscuously. And has no agency in what finally comes up. (We do note that the seed the birds ate at least benefited them. ) But we keep sowing.
Jesus has three points here:
- Evil is real
- Persisting is hard
- Temptation to capitulate is unyielding.
- Cynicism, like the thorns, chokes out life. And we remember that as Sharon Welch said, cynicism is the prerogative of the privileged.
Despair is always tempting.
Much is beyond our control….keep sowing. And listening, even harder than sowing.
I recall that my first mentor, Ray Swartzbach, always used to say that the job of the church is not committees and programs. It’s equipping people to live the gospel life all week long at work and with family. And to do that we have to care for one another. And we have to hear each other, see each other, in order to do that.
Three questions:
- How much agency do we have over our own soil?
- How do we saw in our daily lives?
- What kind of soil are we?
Keep sowing.
Dice rolling. Barbecuing. Music . Partying on the corner goes on and on. For a moment, I think it’s a protest. Shouts. Loud voices. Police come. Talk sternly with amplified voices. And the go….When I finally check outside, everyone is gone….
10
Keep sowing.
Gospel Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!”
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
