Palm Sunday: A Passion

3/20

The Restoration Ministries Palm Sunday service is in full swing as I arrive at the church.  They are an African-American LGBTQ Pentecostal progressive congregation, a combination of words you don’t often see. And I do mean full swing…. (There's a film crew doing a documentary about them...)

Upstairs in McAlpin, Theatre Dzieci is deep into their workshop preceding their annual production of A Passion here at West-Park. (http://dziecitheatre.org/) . I notice that my friend Pastor Jeanie and four of her volunteer crew are participating in the workshop. Dresden, one of her young volunteers, will join the cast in their performance at worship.

They’ve been here since Friday continuing their work in restoring  our chapel.

working on the chapel

They’re officially part of a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team from Sacramento presbytery that has stopped here on their way to do continued Sandy relief in Jersey. And also part of a new worshipping community Jeanie began a year ago whose one word mission statement is simply that: mission. Sandy relief, Alaska, Nicaragua…It’s an exciting model. Without a building to worry about.   This year my session has worked side by side with Jeanie’s group, and provided and shared in meals.

I’ve known her for over 30 years. Back when I was a rising young star in the church and she was a Princeton student with a limitless future. Needless to say, things didn’t necessarily work out the way either of us expected. The +/- ratio still in the balance.  But we’ve been faithful in ministry and friendship all these years. And she always brings a bright and hopeful and inviting presence to everything she does. And her spiritual authority with her group is clear. I admire,appreciate and respect her ministry, and who she is, in a very deep way.

Downstairs, Dzieci cast members are silently greeting people arriving for the service and passing out palms. The Passion will soon begin. Their telling of the story reaches into its deep archetypal roots with typical Grotowski emphasis on ritual and movement. They find the universal in the specifics of ancient text and Hebraic melody and the shadows of the Warsaw ghetto in their dress. While in the tradition of medieval passion plays (and Sarah Ruhl’s remarkable 2010 Passion Play..) their work is meta and post-modern and ancient all at the same time.

Most moving is the way the white prayer shawl that designates Jesus throughout the play is passed from character to character so that all are Jesus, all Pilate and Caiaphas, and all Judas. All victims. All perpetrators. Crucifiers and crucified. We are all sheep. And all goats. All wheat. All chaff.  The TRUTH of the Passion penetrates deeply into us. 

Pastor Jean Shaw and Dzieci's Matt Mitler

The Dzieci cast of A Passion

After the play is over, an impromptu potluck lunch is quickly organized by Jeanie and her team. Sacramento volunteers, West Park congregants and Dzieci company. We symbolically shared bread and cup together during the Passion. And now we break bread together in the most common—and sacred—of ways. Companions. Companeros.  Community.

Shared grace before a shared meal

As we leave, the Korean In2Church service is underway. Some 300. Most all no older than 30.  A place of community for them.

Holy Week has begun.

It was a beautiful Sunday

3/29

Sabrina, Stephen, Jamie, Brandon, Camille and Pastor Brashear

The winter seems to be passing. At last. Palms cover the steps of West-Park. (And in the sharing of palms we share the commemoration of Christ’s passion with our friends from Advent Lutheran and their pastor Elise.) People who look like they’ve wandered in from a mid-European shtetl or even the Warsaw ghetto are on the steps, saying shalom, passing out palms to those who enter, those who pass by.

Inside, once again, our friends from Theatre Dzieci will lead us through an experience of Matthew’s Passion in what has become an annual tradition. As the scroll is unwrapped and the strains of hinay ma tov umanayim begin to unfold, it has the feel of a story passed on within a community. A story of and in community. We are reminded of course that the story began as a Jewish story, but through the lens of the particular we view the universal. Thus the Yeshua character is not only a community member remembered and loved but a universal figure of  redemptive (we hope) suffering. The feeling  that this story has been told over and over again affirms a sense of redemption without being explicit.

The Passion

On a deeper level, the shifting of characters is a classic expression of reformed theology. We are all the maschiach. And we are all the betrayer Judas. The impulsive and cowardly Peter. The empire collaborating religious establishment and the closest of friends. As in any good parable, we are all the characters. Who can live through the most profound losses and still go on, even with an undetermined future. The gathered community exits the sanctuary with an affirming sense of hope. The sanctuary is hushed and silent.

Theatre Dzieci

But this Palm/Passion Sunday is different. For there is something to celebrate as well. The baptism of Brandon Manuel Ayala, son of  Jamie and Camille Padilla Ayala. Grandson of Luis and Alma.  This is our first baptism in three years and this marks five generations of this family in our church. Luis was one of the rocks who led our return from exile. Good to see him back.

Elder Samantha presents Brandon for baptism. Deacon Stephen and Sabrina are the godparents. Jeremy leads us into the ceremony with take me to the water. And later Baptized in water, to the tune of Morning has broken. The right questions are asked. And answered. Dion and Deacon John hold the Occupy Font. I will bless the water and add in drops of the Jordan River water Pastor Alistair brought back to us from his Holy Land trip. Brandon will screw up his brow and look at me quizzically as I touch his head with water. The people applaud. We gather in a circle. Sing Amen. Which little Xavier loves. And wish each other peace. It’s been a beautiful Sunday.

                                                       * * * *

The Koreans are coming in soon. They had  a big gathering Friday night. This morning one of the counter guys at Greengrass said, What was happening Friday night? Saw lots of our people…

Palm Sunday: A Passion Play

3/24

Palm Sunday.  

Dzieci is there rehearsing their Passion Play as I arrive. Cara has arrived, ready to get the steps clean and ready. And ready to pass out palms.

Cara and palms

Anna ready to hustle the crowds. I’m feeling anxious.

People begin arriving in the darkened sanctuary. Only a simple communion table in front. The cast is dressed like Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. We gather in the back of the sanctuary and enter in procession, with palms, chanting Hosanna, hosanna in the highest. 

I introduce the service. Read the the triumphal entry into Jerusalem as it is in Matthew. Then there is silence. 

Then the Dzieci, from different corners of the church, come together  singing Hinay ma tov u manayim, chevet achim gan yahad. (How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony.) The gather around the table with a Torah like scroll. One cast member is given a white prayer shawl, begins as the character of Yeshua (Jesus). First comes the anointing by Mary with oil. Then the betrayal by Yehuda (Judas).  

Then the talmudim (disciples) gather around the table to celebrate pesach (Passover, the Last Supper). Echoes of da Vinci. By now the shawl has been passed to another actor, a young woman, who takes over as Yeshua. All characters will trade parts throughout the play. 

Yeshua uses the traditional Hebrew prayers for blessing the bread, Baruch ata adonoai, elohenu melech ha olam, ha motzi lehem min haaretz (Blessed are you Adonai our creator, who brings forth bread from the earth) and wine, Baruch ata adonai, elohenu melech ha olam, boray pri ha gafen...(Blessed are you Adonai our creator, who brings forth the fruit of the vine..) and the bread and wine are passed through the congregation. The passion continues through the Garden, the betrayal, arrest, trial and ultimately crucifixion. Roles constantly shifting. Until Yeshua is taken down from the cross, cradled Pieta like by a woman. 

Then the scroll is rolled up again and the cast recesses, singing Hinay ma tov once again. There is profound silence in the sanctuary. Then applause. 

It was a moving performance ritual. The table, the only set. On the front is carved Do this in remembrance of me. And so it was. The Warsaw Ghetto setting opened up a metatext. The passing of the prayer shawl and shifting parts had what one person  called an everyman experience. That is, all were Jesus. And all betrayers. We are all both. Contain both. And so the experienced  truth of the story reaches down to the archetypal depths.

As my friend Beppe said, It was the most soulful Passion rite I have experienced in a church.…this time, for the first time, I was moved to tears. It was delightfully unassuming and powerful.

We meet, as always, to update where we are. As always, somewhere between solution and abyss.  

Outside, Cara and I see two actors, just finished lunch.  We sing on the way out because we come to the passion knowing the resurrection already has happened. And I bring up the everyman angle. And the other actor says, ...and we crucify the Christ inside ourselves...and I say, It’s so easy for us  to believe that everyone deserves forgiveness but ourselves...

The Dzieci Passion Play cast

Palms to Passion Sunday 2012

4/1

There are some days that start as if the universe has stripped a gear. Like you are out of sync with the cosmos in some way. Or maybe it’s just April Fools’ Day.  85Copy’s closed when I go to get the bulletins. There’s no one around when I first get to the church. Wesley and Antonia are still on the steps and it’s after 10:30. Later, Rafael will help me move them, Andre looking on, shaking his head. I think thet're incapable of following the guidelines you've set up, he says.  I’ve left my cell phone at home and Dan has left for church already so I’ll have to cab home and back to get it. People are waiting and ready When I get back, Amy has just arrived. 

The service is a little shaky gettig underway. It’s an adaptation oif a sevice  Katherine and I came up with years ago in which the liturgy moves with Jesus through  Holy Week with Stephen Mitchell’s telling of the Gospel as its text.

We read of the triumphant entry, singing Hosanna.  I remember other times, processing around the sanctuary following Greg Beyer with the berimbau. Jed Distler’s amazing creation with Katherine of the Great Round Dance of the Cross. When in the narrative Jesus prays, we pray. When they sing a psalm, we sing a psalm (118) When he breaks bread with his friends, we break bread. 

When we reach the time of  reflection, I’m starting to feel more at ease. I ask everyone to raise their palms, wave them. I ask them  I ask what it feels like to be on a march? At a rally?  For Stephen, there’s the excitement of the crowd, the chanting. For Hope, the feeling of togetherness. And for Rafael, who works security,  the stress that comes from having  to watch everything. That’s what the front end of this was all about. Palm Sunday was not a religious event. It’s not like Jesus said well next week is Easter so we need something to kick off the week....maybe something special for the children....

Check this out....Palm Sunday was primarily a political event.....what were the issues?

• The Roman Empire occupying their country, back when occupy was only a negative word.
• Taxation without representation, money going to support the Empire
• Support of local leaders for the empire, the ethnarchs, the Herods, who ruled over their own people on behalf of the Romans.  

The event itself was many things...symbolically a mocking of a Roman victory parade, with #OWS cutting humor style. Imagine signs, chants, down with the empire, Rome go home..Some were hoping it was the start of the revolution...and Jesus was the guy who was going to be the leader...there bits of evidence  here and there in the Gospel that seem to indicate an underground movement with coded signs, this man with a colt, that one carrying a water jug... 

OK...so why do we do it this way? How did Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday get mashed together? Palm Sunday used to stand on its own, then you woud have to go through a long week of church services. As more and moe people stopped doing that, those who set the liturgical calendar wanted to make sure that we don’t just jump from one high to another. Palm Sunday straight to Easter. Pablo Richard, a theologian from Costa Rica, says that his problem with North American  Chirstiansis that they  want to jump too quickly to the happy ending.  We need  to remind peopl that to get to Easter, you have to pass thru Good Friday, that there is  no resurection without crucixion .... so we jam it all up into one day, two liturgies, one of the Palms, one of the Passion. Can’t we have just one day to  enjoy the feeling that we might win? 

In the middle we find the story of the woman who shows uo and anoints Jesus’ head  with costly  oil. Though not named, from medieval pop culture to Jesus Christ Superstar she’s ben associated with  Mary Magdalene . The hardcore ideologues complain. Jesus is clear that the poor will be with us always. Not that they should be, but given human nature, they will be. There will always be ample opportunity to care for them. But Jesus will not be with us long. What she brings is extravagant loving....and that is to be honored...

Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters

said Dylan..long before #ows. When did Jesus get that he  wasn’t  going to be the new Che Guevara? Last Thursday night, here, Cornel West said that  No one should want to be a leader, leader’s get killed...instead we should be lovers...who love the people relentlessly...

People aren’t necesarily ready for that kind of leadership. look how fast people get pulled dowh by their own..Jesus gets himself betrayed by one of his own. And yet he embraces the moment and goes with it. 

This week is a journey ..open yourself to it...pass through the valley..see what might be on the other side..We finish with these words from the Gospel of Thomas:

The disciples of Jesus said to him, "When is the kingdom going to come?" Jesus said, "It is not by being waited for that it is going to come. They are not going to say, 'Here it is' or 'There it is," Rather, the kingdom is spread out over the earth, and people do not see it."

Jesus said, “I stood at rest in the midst of the world. And to them I was shown forth incarnate. I found them all intoxicated. And I found none of them thirsty. And my soul ached for the children of humankind, for in their hearts, they do not see. Empty did they enter the world, and again empty they seek to leave the world. Now they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will have a change of heart.

This week as we gather in our circle there are no Alleluias, just a simple Amen. 

Hope and Ana teaching Sunday School. The Session meets to review the events of the week, discuss Melissa's proposal.


We leave palms on the steps. Across the course of the aftrnoon, they are all taken. 

The Thirteen Grandmothers

Late in the afternoon, I come back for  Jane’s showing of For the Next Seven Generations. It’s a film produced and directed  by Carol Hart (Sesame Street, Free to be You and Me...) about the 13 indigenous grandmothers who have come together to pray for peace, pray for the earth. The scenes shot at El Santuario de Chimayo bring me back to that special place where, as they say, the veil is thin. Two grandmothers form the Mohawk nation, Iroqouis Confederacy, sing native songs of blessing. 

Wesley has been listening. Now that’s interesting, he says.