Living in coronavirusworld 129: We have enough

8/2

Home communion

Up early to finish a sermon and get ready for two back to back services. While finishing the sermon, I realize I need to put together a worship service for West Park as well. Soon enough, I’m meeting the West Park congregation via ZOOM.

Here’s my sermon for the day:

So baseball season finally started last week. With no one in the stands and piped in crowd noise.  Before all the first games, all the players took a knee. There was a large black ribbon that all players on both teams held. And a statement, written by one of my favorite players, Andrew McCutchen read by Morgan Freeman:

“In order to achieve or affect a change and lead a new canvas of optimism, empathy must lead the charge. This moment signifies our charge, our brotherhood, our unity. Equality and unity cannot be until there is empathy. Today and every day we come together as brothers, as equals, all with the same goal to level the playing field. To change the injustices, equality is not just a word, it’s our right. Today we stand as men from 25 nations on six continents. Today we are one.”

That phrase…Equality and unity cannot be until there is empathy. ….leads me to where I want to go today…it starts with compassion…

And at first, I’m thinking about Jesus. His older cousin, John, the Baptist, the one who had baptized him, the one who had called him out into ministry, that wild, passionate voice, has just been executed by Herod. All he wants to do is get away. Take a moment to gather his thoughts and emotions.  But word gets out and the crowd follows him. When he looks out at them, he feel compassion and takes the time to “heal their sick.”

But that of course is not the end of it. You know this story, it’s one of my favorites, the “feeding of the 5000”…it’s in all 4 gospels…The disciples want Jesus to send the people away. And Jesus says, “No, you give them something to eat..” And our know what they say…” We’ve only got 5 loaves and 2 fish”..

So Jesus gives thanks,  breaks bread, as we will do later this morning…and they start to pass it around and there’s 12 baskets left over.

What happened? The story doesn’t say. It’s up to us to figure out. Some say it’s just a miracle, like turning water  into wine. Other say that most people had borough something along and when the baskets started passing, they were moved to open up and share what they had brought. Notice…that what Jesus did was not about doing  something to show his power, it was to feed people. Respond to their hunger with compassion. Like Leila said last Monday at Bible study, food is real.

And the point is, there was enough. God has given us enough. We have enough resources to feed everyone.  Then miracle here is one of distribution, not production. We are currently paying farmers not to raise crops and  in some cases destroy what has already been produced. In a world with so much food insecurity, that is crazy. (It’s as crazy as some congress people believing that $600 a week makes people not want to work..)  We have enough.

I was talking to Dion about what I’ve learned in working with churches. Don’t start with needs assessments, you always get overwhelmed. Hey we need food for 5000 people! Start with what you have…we’ve got 5 loves, 2 fishes….I remember Wavy Gravy at Woodstock…”what we’ve got in mind is breakfast in bed for 400000 people…” And they did it.

I saw yesterday day my first "open refrigerator.” They’re popping up all over the city. “Take food…leave food…be well…stay safe…take what you need, leave what you don’t…comida gratis…and this one was filled with fresh fruits and vegetables…

It’s easy to say we’re small, we don’t have much, it’s too overhwhelming…but what do we have? We have a committed group of people who have kept a church alive essentially on their own with little outside help… not a bad place to begin..what else do we have?

Jesus says “you give them something to eat…”

And I still feel bad that Jesus still hasn’t had time to rest….

You give them something to eat..

Let those with  ears to hear, hear…

After the sermon, thinking of Jesus’ still unfulfilled desire to get away and rest, I share my song “Rest awhile” 

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We spend some time talking about what we do have. the contributions that each have made.  There are words of thanks and appreciation.

Before prayers, Don who has spent most of his last work years in China, shares his anguish over current US relations with China. What we could be learning from one another during this pandemic. Instead we have a President who keeps talking about the "China Virus."

And then share  my first at home communion of the day.  All too soon I am on the telephone with the Beverley congregation from Brooklyn for their service. And my second home communion.

These services are more demanding than in person and  by 1:30, I’ve worked 5 hours without a break. 

Live at Bar 9

I take a walk, read the paper and then go to be a featured performer as part of Bar 9’s “Summer Series.” My first performance in front of real, live people in 41/2 months. At a place I played regularly on Sunday nights but now in this makeshift outdoor cafe on the sidewalk and parking lane cleared for construction. I’m amazed at how nervous I feel not being in front  of a screen. I’m dropping lyrics, but then when it’s your own music, they don’t know, just recover and keep going. In the end, my “Open Mic Lament”, which I first played here, wins the day. I even have a request for a download card. And one of the servers remembers me from BC days. (Before Corona.) I made it through. One step back. But I'm beginning to think there is no “back,”  just a new place ahead we don’t know yet until we get there, creating it as we go. 

Meanwhile, we’re collecting word of mouth rumors as to where real live music might be happening. The word passes, from one to another. 

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

living in cornavirusworld 123: We have enough

7/27

House of Prayer for all people

Tonight our Bible Study group study group takes on the feeding of the 5000, Matthew version. (Matthew 14: 13-21). It’s one of the few stories to be found in all four gospels. And Matthew is the only one with  twin feeding stories, in 15: 32-39, feeding 4000. When the story opens, Jesus is emotionally exhausted. He has just received word that John the Baptist has been executed. He just wants to get way.  But they find where he is and follow anyways.  Seeing them he is filled with compassion, (or as Andew McCutchen called it, empathy) that turns him back to the people with healing. And it is compassion that will push him to respond to the matter of actual physical hunger. We will find here echoes of prophet’s healing stories like Elijah (1 Kings 17: 8-16) and Elisha (2 Kings 4: 42-44). And in his bruchas, thanksgivings, foreshadowings of the last supper. 

The disciples want him to send the people away. But he says NO, you give them something to eat. And therein begins the story of how five loaves and two fish feed 5000 men and...more... women and children. There is no intention here for Jesus of an attention gaining miracle. It is simply to see hungry people fed. As Leila said, food is real. And there is enough. And leftovers. Enough for 12 baskets. (Hmmm….one for each tribe!  In the 4000 story, there are 7, perhaps a reference to gentiles.) The miracle here is not of production but distribution. Nothing is said about the how…you can pick your theory form the divine miracle, etc. to the hidden food argument. The point is …they were fed. There was enough. 

We have enough, There is bounty enough in the world to feed the world. We pay farmers to destroy food and not grow food to artificially boost price supports. That’s crazy. The disciples start with a needs assessment, Jesu responds with a capacities assessment. 

Refugee camps are filled with turned away people.

Prisons are teeming with Covid 19

Far too many of us are alone

Where do we find compassion?

When have  we been desperate for food, healing, love, compassion?  

When do we long to escape, just get in the boat and row away?

Jesus moves towards that which is most daunting. What do we have that can feed? Heal? 

ready for home opener

As someone says, you have to use what you’ve got to get what you need. We like Jesus, when it is as daunting as it is now, must move towards. Faced with an overwhelming situation, all we can do is do what  we can. But that means having to realize what we do have and use it. With wisdom and compassion.

I’m sorry Jesus never got that rest he was looking for. Marsha was struck by the phrase a lonely place. We know that place. 

When Bible study is over. I check in on my Pirates’ home opener. I dress for the  occasion.  So weird to see an empty stadium with piped in crowd noises. That’s all I will say of that.

You give them something to eat

8/6/17

Rendall Church

Today is the first of  my four August Sundays that I will spend as the guest preacher at Rendall Memorial Presbyterian Church  in Harlem, about a mile or so north of where I live.

Today's preacher

Although I have heard that they are growing again and beginning to attract young people, today’s congregation is mostly older people. Everyone in attendance is African-American save for the music director, his wife, and of course me.

There are a number of unique touches, like all the women elders of the church wearing white. Including, of course, hats. And gloves. I am moved watching the ice of the tall, dignified elderly elder who brings the offering and makes his prayer eyes looking heavenward as the plate is extended to me. And the women coming forward with a wash basin for a hand washing ceremony before handling the communion elements…something I’ve never seen before. 

The Rendall Sanctuary

After the  reading of scripture, Matthew 14: 13-21, this was my reflection:

Good morning. We are Into that last third of summer. When it gets quiet around here. Lots of folks gone. August. If you’re like me and really haven’t gotten away, you feel like you want to. And today we find Jesus wanting to get away. It’s all in one of those so familiar Bible stories, the feeding of the 5000. I’m certain I could ask anyone of you to tell the  story and we’d get a pretty good rendition.

The table ready for communion

SO let’s take a closer look.  I said that Jesus wanted to get away….do you remember why? He has just received the news that his cousin John the Baptist has been killed. This following on the heels of being rejected after preaching in his home town of Nazareth.  Let that sink in a minute.  Try and imagine what he must be feeling….to see the faces of the people he’d grown up with turned against him…unable to do any works there because they couldn't believe  in him..and then to get word that his cousin has been put to death by Herod the King.  Is he wondering what might lie ahead for himself?  Is he dejected? Depressed? Questioning?  This is not a summer vacation break he’s looking for here….Let’s feel that with Jesus for a moment…

SO he wants to get away….to a deserted place…but what happens?  People follow him….Lots of people…and what happens?  He could go, man, can’t they leave me alone for just a little while? He could feel annoyed, exhausted, like he’s got nothing left.  But as he looks at them, he sees their need and he is filled with compassion. In the King James Version, it says he was moved in his bowells, ie moved in the deepest part of his guts…and he cured their sick. Maybe when he looked at them, he saw in the what he was feeling. maybe seeing their pain, their seeking, drew him out of his own sense of desolation….and his power returns…looking beyond himself his power returns…

As it gets late, his disciples come to him with a very reasonable, practical idea. Send them away so that hey can buy food for themselves…a very good idea…

BUT…not for Jesus …They need not go away he says….. you give them something to eat…

Just note that…when the practical solution people say, send them away, Jesus says bring them near….to the chorus of voices all around us saying about so many people send them away….Jesus says NO…bring them closer…

But that second part is equally  important …you give them something to eat…

To which  we get the expected reply…we don’t have enough resources….just five loaves…and two fish….and hear this carefully….Jesus says Bring them to me….

and he blesses them and they pass them around and there are 12 baskets of leftovers (one for each disciple to take home, I guess…)

How often are we tempted to send people away because we just don’t have enough? Jesus says you give the something to eat…he doesn’t want to hear about how  little we have…he doesn’t want to hear about scarcity….he says Y’all have enough to do something…

as individuals

as a church

as a city 

as a country

we have enough…….

A few thoughts…when i was learning to do community ministry, i was taught how to do needs assessments….remember those?  Until someone realized that as long as that’s where we focus our energy we will always be depressed and defeated…because we will never have enough…and we will always be looking  for the answer to come from outside…so instead we started to think about beginning  with capacities assessments…what do we already have? what can we do with what we’ve already got?

But here’s the thing…he says …bring them to me…we’ve got to offer what we have up to him for HIS use for it to work…that’s when miracle making happens …when we offer up what we already have to him for his use…

People have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what happened here…

Some say, Jesus used his powers to multiply those loaves  and fishes, created more food  out of thin air

Others say he knew the disciples had more food stashed away or that in starting to pass food around , people would open up and share what they had brought…..it’s all interesting but in the end doesn't matter…

The real miracle here is not production, the real miracle  is one of distribution….perhaps the real miracle is in the  sharing

We hear a lot thee days about the deserving poor…like  there’s undeserving poor? Like If you can’t afford health care, it’s your own fault…about deserving immigrants vs non deserving….send them away….the chorus says…NO says Jesus let them stay…and YOU give them something to eat…

I recently heard a Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber, ask what would happen if we knew our church only had 5 years to live? That we no longer had to worry about survival?  Would we give it all away? Risk wildly in love and extravagant generosity? Live without fear? His point is that if we lived that way NOW, we wouldn’t have to worry abut survival because people would be so attracted to who we are…

Let’s review what we’ve got here…

1. See in others what we feel in ourselves…look with compassion
2. Don’t send then away, bring them near
3. Take what God has already given us and offer it up to Jesus for HIS work…and then
4. Watch the miracle happen

I have heard that you all have had a bit of a miracle yourselves…that you have taken what God has has given you and offered it up…that’s what I’ve heard…and that God is blessing  this church community…if that’s right, don’t stop NOW!

And let us as well be bold enough to call our city and nation to moral accountability…and show our neighbors what righteous living in Jesus name is all about..

Jesus said…you give them something to eat…

and let those with ears to hear, hear….

After the sermon, we end our service with the sharing of communion, in the old passing of plates and mini cups style. Holding each element until all have been served and taking it together. We sing our final hymns. Maker final prayers. Say our farewells. And go out into the Harlem streets.