GRACE...according to the measure of Christ's gift.

8/5

With Elder Geraldine after worship

On a hot and sweltering August day, I made my way to Beverley Church...

Here was my reflection on the day....

It's getting to be that time of year.  August. A very quiet time of year.  The streets are somehow emptier. Most summer camp experiences are winding down. And any one who can leave town has left town leaving things quieter for the rest of us. It's always a good time to be here. There's still Shakespeare in the Park. (Actually lots of parks!) And Lincoln Center out of Doors. Our summer lasts longer than others. I went to visit my brother in Toledo and they've started fall sports practices because their school year begins in about two weeks. So we hold on to summer just a little longer.

It seems like some pretty important communications come from prisons. Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from a  Birmingham Jail is one of his best known and most important writings. Nelson Mandela sent messages from behind the walls of Robbens Island that sustained his people together in hope. My good friend Peter Heltzel found himself behind bars in Albany this spring during the Poor Peoples' campaign. I've been in a few times myself buy never long enough write a letter.

So if you are wondering, Ephesians is one of Paul's prison letters.
It was during this time that Paul sat in Rome undergoing his first Roman imprisonment (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1), making Ephesians one of the four epistles commonly known as the Prison Epistles. The others are Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

So he is in prison, writing to Ephesus. I also need to tell you that Paul is usually writing to a church is at a point of crisis with specific answers for specific problems. And when he doesn't, like in this letter, he is seeking to build up the body for when crisis will come.

Maybe that's kind of like where you are.  I mean as I know you, you do have some big picture issues to deal with. But you are not at a crisis point.

(So you know that old story about how if you've got a frog in a pot of water and up the temperature 1' at a time, he won't jump and will boil because each increase is so small? Not dealing with why you'd want to do that in the first place, but.... I have a friend who thinks that's where we are as a nation. One day, one degree at a time.  He wants to write a song about feeling like a frog in the water....)
So what's Paul got to say? Or what if this  was Paul's letter to Beverly Church?

4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

My sense is that you all do  bear with one another pretty well...but you might want to answer that for yourself...unity of spirit, bond  of peace...Believe me sometimes it is easier said than done...I have seen churches where people choose up sides over the smallest of things. Next thing you know, people are fighting and saying bad things about each other....somehow thinking that they can continue to serve God while they do that?

We celebrate communion today. We used to have a part of our service where  we declared that if anyone has something against anyone in the community, you were asked to go and not come back until it was taken care of. Could  you do that today?


4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

I love this part.... 7 But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 

So this is where I remind you that each of you has a ministry that is given to you at our baptism, not your ordination...we are, as Luther said,  a priesthood of all believers...

And what are these?

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
for what purpose?

12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

that is the purpose...the building up of the body...
which of these are you? How do you live that out?


13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; 14 so that we may no longer be children, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.

Paul wants us to be mature in faith....not bounced around by every new thing that comes around...

Now you all seem to me to be mature Christians...you have all been here awhile...you're not going anywhere...BUT...IF you have in this room, right today, apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ....what might you be able to do with all of that?

I know how  frustrating it is to have lost what you've lost...but what if you walked in here today and saw what you have? What more might you become?

Can you begin to  imagine?

GRACE...according to the measure of Christ's gift...what is the nature of his gift to us right now? 

That is my question for you today.

We share communion. And Geraldine introduces a prospective new member which would be cause for celebration. And our worship comes to an end for today....

Outside, the sun...and the heat....summer ...is waiting....

A gift. Passing on the mantle. The religious Stonewall

6/30

On the way to church, I  get a text from Stephen. He and Cara will be late to church. So I will be on my own to set up. Depressing.

But when I arrive, I find Sergeant Keith and los Rodriguez and the lost boy all still there. There seems to have been some kind of rapprochement between Keith and the others. So we talk. 

I learn my lost boy’s name is Rob. He wants help to get it together. They all join in to help me get it together for this morning. Keith and Joe help roll the heavy baptismal font to the center of the sanctuary. Rob sweeps the steps and takes out the garbage. Soon we’ll be ready for worship. 

I learn that Keith believes either Dick Cheyney or Texas governor Rick Perry should be President. Well, all right, then. I understand where’s he’s coming from. He talks to me bout the appropriate display of the American flag in the sanctuary. 

Sheryl Jaffe

My congregants are beginning to arrive. And soon Sheryl arrives as well. She has come down from Massachusetts with a very special gift. A new cover for our baptismal font that went missing during the peek of the #OWS days. OWS promised it’s replacement. Sheryl, an #OWS mom, made it happen. Almost a year and a half later. 

on the wheel

We begin with Desmond Tutu’s Goodness is stronger than evil, kindness is stronger than hate...in honor of Nelson Mandela.

After we read the story  of  the Elijah being carried away, we sing Swing  Low, Sweet Chariot. 

And today we do our Psalm 77 People’s mic style as we recall #OWS.

ready for glazing

As my sermon begins, I note that there’s lots to talk about today:

*We are ordaining and installing officers

* It's LGBT pride Sunday

• And we are receiving a gift that brings an end to a story

To help us reflect on these things, what do our scriptures tell us?

First we have Elijah (2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14) passing on the mantle ( that's where that expression comes from) And he's carried away by chariots....without really being dead. Which is why in the Jewish tradition, he always  still seems to be around. Or just around the corner. There’s always an empty chair for him. At a bris. (Circumcision celebration.) Or at Passover. And he seems to appear at moments and bring small miracles. 

When we ordain and  install new people, we are passing on the mantle. Just like when Elijah passed it on to Elisha who  struck the Jordan and parted the waters. Perhaps the best biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., was Parting the Waters, not referring to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses,

Moses parting the water by Angelo Romano

but to this parting of the Jordan by means of Elijah’s mantle. King picking u the mantle of Moses, the mantle of Elijah and parting the waters.  And now  the mantle is being passed on. To us. 

Today we join our  hearts with the people of South Africa...and all around the world... as they pray for Nelson Mandela. We celebrate his life and witness among us.  A beacon of a tireless fight for justice and peace and relentless in the pursuit of reconciliation.

In Luke (9: 51-62), we find Jesus setting his  face to Jerusalem. Being clear and single minded as to where he was going and why. He asks those near him to follow me, and many respond, I will follow you without really understanding what that means. We need to know exactly what that means before making promises. 

His comments about the birds of the air and foxes gives  us an image  of a homeless savior. One whose  home is the journey itself. 

The key here is a single minded focus. There can be no distractions. When one asked to follow asks to first bury his father,sounds reasonable but Jesus responds that the dead should bury the dead. On reflection, it’s not really clear just how long the father would live....it comes down to let me wait until...I get my new job, I get my degree, my children are raised .There is no waiting until...if you want to follow, you must follow now. What’s dead must be left for dead...what was is not what will be. ideas, theologies, forms, all....let the dead bury the dead. 

No, it  must be now.

We just can’t say we 'll wait until our deal is done...we need to do it now.

As we ordain and install new leaders today, we are passing  on the mantle. And to symbolize that, we will use these More Light stoles. They were originally symbols of resistance. Originally stoles were only for ordained clergy. But during the years when ordination was denied to LGBTQ elders and deacons as well, people from the More Light movement from across the country knitted stoles for use at General Assemblies (Presbyterian legislative meetings) to symbolize those whose ministries were denied. Finally, in July 2011, 33 years later, the ban was lifted. Now these stoles symbolize welcome, acceptance, the power of the ordination of elders and deacons. The power of the people. To those who are being ordained today, this mantle is passed to you....

                                              Whoopi Goldberg sings I Will Follow Him

As we pass our collection plates, I play I will follow him from Sister Act. (And does anyone remember Little Peggy March?)

And then I invite Sheryl to come forward to explain her offering, her gift. Her son Dan was one of the  first Occupiers to come  to West-Park. His time here was not always easy. in fact, sometimes deeply troubled. But Dan’s inherent goodness was always evident, even at the most difficult  moments.And he persevered. And we all rejoiced when he went home, set his face to his own Jerusalem and wound up a chef again. We celebrate the fact that he is now a chef in Colorado. 

Stephen, Sheryl and Bob

Sheryl shows the cover it took months to create. The size itself was a challenge. Then a crack appeared and she had to reglaze and seal it. But I thought, she said, that’s what you do,  fix the cracks in the world, the cracked lives...Sheryl has brought an end to a story. Her new creation joined to the florid late Victoriana of the original Tiffany font. She even echoed its water lily/lotus theme, a symbol that transcends Christianity for rebirth. In the inside of her cover, the words for peace from many languages are transcribed. And in tiny letters, right under Shalom, OWS 2012 is inscribed. The time that OWS lived here will always be remembered. Sadly this part of the story will not spread through Murdochland and beyond  the way the disappearance did.

Stephen responds that it was the church’s response to that incident that drew him close. The compassion. Clear speaking, but compassion. The vision of a permanent reminder of #OWS presence. How that led to a journey to his ordination today. And of Marsha thanking OWS the morning amends were made. Money for the missing computer paid back. You took responsibility, even though you didn’t have to, she said.  The people who wrecked the economy never did. You paid us back. The banks never did. We thank you...  

And so as we receive the cover, we give thanks, sing our doxology. Remember as Breuggeman said, resistance begins in doxology.

OWS 2012

Soon it is the moment to ordain and install our new officers. I explain how in our tradition, all ordinations are equal. As Stephen and Don are ordained to be ruling elders, so I serve as a teaching elder. And John is ordained to a ministry of compassion, justice and service. More Light stoles are placed on the shoulders of each. Passing on the mantle. 

Following the ancient tradition, all the way back to Elijah and the  company of prophets, all in the congregation who are ordained lay their hands on our new ordinands. And the the mantle is passed on. 

Ordained deacons and elders

After in singing Siyahamba, a song of South African resistance that became an important song for the More Light Movement, 

We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God..we go to the chapel.

There we gather to refine the language of the our resolution to sell our manse. To build a sense of stability. It has been a good day together. Much to give thanks for. To celebrate.

More Light Stoles

     

                                                               * * * * 

I’m getting ready to leave to head downtown with Presbyterian Welcome,  to serve water at the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table, named for the wife of Bob, the former pastor of West-Park. Her idea...to give a cup of cool water in Jesus’ name to hot marchers in the Pride parade.  But I hear Pastor Jane say the word Lot, and I realize she’s preaching about Sodom and Gomorrah. So I look in. She sees me and says isn’t that right pastor  Bob? And I say yes.

Many of her Sanctuary NYC people have chosen to be here instead of at the Pride parade. Rainbow colored balloons mark the day. She’s preaching about how the sin at Sodom wasn’t about same sex love but abuse of the stranger.The crowd’s desire to rape the strangers (angels) has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with domination, she says.  She goes on to bring out the often forgotten part when  Lot offers up his virgin daughters to the crowd instead. (No, I don’t get it either...)

She speaks of the importance of acknowledging your shadow, naming it, incorporating its power. How that applies to some of the more outre displays and activities of pride weekend. Taking that part of you that wants to remain hidden and transforming it, using its power to be who you are called to be. At the conclusion of her sermon, she asks me to photograph them in a Pride Sunday portrait. After all have named  their personal quality  to be claimed and transformed. 

And then I speak. How I was on my way out when I heard a word and had to stay. I remembered my friend Howard Warren.Founder of Presbyterian ACT UP. How he stood up to the Presbyterian power elite and accused the the executive director, and thereby the whole Church, of the sin of sodomy. That is refusing to welcome, accept and honor the stranger.  And then I explained  how this very place was the birthplace of the  More Light movement. A movement that  has spread across the country and across all denominations. How this place was, in reality, the religious Stonewall. So it’s good to be here on Pride Sunday. It all began here.

I join them for their final songs. Glad I stayed. Proud to have passed on the mantle of the religious Stonewall prophets.

                                        * * * * 

Finishing up work. Late at night. Marc says it’s time to get the garbage out. Can’t the people  who live here do it? I remind him that no one lives here anymore.  And so we go down together Take the garbage out together. The day is over.