World Communion Sunday: Here's to Life

10/7

Today is World Communion Sunday.

I’m very happy to see Andre when I walk into the church. I say, O my God...and he replies, No, O my Andre.......

Luisa has brought white roses in honor of her officially joining the church. A young woman walks in, sits and waits, leaves. Wish our people could get here on time. 

Today’s Gospel passage, Mark 10: 2-16, is a tough one. So let’s get right to it. It’s the  kind of passage that  makes you go whoa....it sounds pretty straight and clear..This passage is why Catholics don’t allow divorce...A couple of weeks ago I met a bride’s father who after 25 years, had his marriage to a Muslim woman annulled. Like it never happened. And also why for years a Presbyterian minister couldn’t be divorced...And why still in my lifetime you couldn’t be divorced and be President.

But which one of hasn’t been touched by divorce? A friend? Family member? Ourselves? 

So let’s go deeper...Jesus says Moses’ laws were given  to help us...because of our hardness of heart, our imperfection...but looking deeper, we see that Moses’ law applied only to  men...but Jesus extends the right to divorce to women as well. 

I’ve also learned over the years that the language from weddings, the death til us part......stays true regardless, more than you might think...Even after legal divorce,something underneath, a connection remains. 

We need to remember, love defining marriage is NEW in our cultures.....We can ask of course what is oneness, that is what does it mean for two people to become one......at it’s heart is the idea that it’s better to not be alone...

(Let me also add parenthetically that I’ve been impressed that young people planning their weddings now are asking for the language of two people, not a man and a woman...marriage equality is becoming a core value even for straight couples....)

The Jesus I know understands our fallibility. Over and over again, Jesus helped people get on with their life, seek forgiveness and forgive...pick up the pieces and go on..That is why in our tradition, marriage is a covenant, not a sacrament. We believe that two people marry each other, not the minister. My role is that of facilitator, not mediator between people and God. We fallible human beings marry each other and do our best to make it work....

It’s also part of this discussion that we break covenants, God doesn’t. Jesus

overturns patriarchal relationships, elevates the bottom...women have the same rights and responsibilities as men,...In his day, this was revolutionary....it is about greater equality...radical hospitality..and protecting women from economic vulnerability from abandonment..

And think about this....Not one marriage in the Bible meets the standard of what people call Biblical marriage...It’s not meant to be a political football or a means by which we judge others...not with the Jesus we know. 

Remember...it was the woman at the well, who had five husbands, who becomes the first evangelist....

And underlying all this is Jesus reference  to children and vulnerability again...we have to see this passage in that context...

So what does this have to do with world wide  communion? Across the whole world, we are a gathering of sinners...for us, there is no possibility to judge....ever....

Psalm 26...with it’s self-righteousness is what my colleague Chris at Broadway Church calls a psalm of arrogance...(could it be the psalm of Job?) The fact is, as opposed to the psalm, Jesus always sits with the worthless....and is always  in the company of evildoers....

That’s what following Jesus means....here and around the world....

Luisa and Glen (with Harry and Tony)

Following the reflection, we joyfully welcome Glen and Luisa to our fellowship. 

Blessings for Toto, Tony and Harry

As is our tradition, people have brought breads from their traditions to share...John R Spanish crackers, Don Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels...(like arms folded in prayer, originally made for Lent....), Marsha cornbread from Texas. And I bring a round challah, egg bread, in honor of the Jewish New Year, round like the circle of years and time. We gather around the table to share bread and cup. Something happened...Jamie says for the first time, it felt consecrated.  And afterwards, in honor of St. Francis day, I bless three beloved pet dogs who have joined us today.

Andre at the piano

Andre finishes our service by sitting at the piano and playing his signature song, his mission statement, the song he sang for us that first Sunday after 9-11, Here’s to Life:

No complaints and no regrets
I still believe in chasing dreams and placing bets
For I have learn that all you give is all you get
So give it all you’ve got
I had my share, I drank my fill
And even though I’m satisfied,
I’m hungry still.
To see what’s down another road beyond the hill
And do it all again

So here’s to life,
And all the joy it brings.
Yes, here’s to life
And dreamers and their dreams

Funny, funny how the time just flies
How love can go from warm and those to sad goodbyes
And leave you with the memories you memorize
To keep your winters warm
How love can turn from warm hellos to sad goodbyes
And leave you with the memories you’ve memorized
To keep your winters warm.

There’s no yes in yesterday
And who knows what tomorrow brings or takes away
As long as I’m still in the game I want to play
For laughs, for life, for love.
So here’s to life and all the joy it brings
Yes, here’s to life
And dreamers and their dreams
May all your storms be weathered
And all that’s good get better

Here’s to life, here’s to love, here’s to you.
May all your storms be weathered
And all that’s good get better
Here’s to life, here’s to love, here’s to you.

May all your storms be weathered
And all that’s good get better
Here’s to life, here’s to love, here’s to you. 

At first we are quiet, then, applause...and we head upstairs to share our breads and the rice and beans and empanadas brought by Luisa....We are together. And we feel blessed. That is communion...

World communion and a tag sale

10/2

It’s World Communion Sunday. I am excited to discover that for the first time in over a month I can climb up and unlock the door. I feel like something has been returmed to me.  I go out to the steps and pick up papers  and butts and other detritus  for the first time in weeks.  I’m not yet up to moving furniture around, however. Ana is first to arrive and I ask her to watch things while I go and pick up the bulletins.

I also pick up some grape juice and then go to Barney Greengrass for bread. No round challas left,  only a round pumpernickel. As I’m checking out, Gary says to me, Reverend, if you need anything,we’ll be open tomorrow. And even if you don’t need anything, we’ll still be open anyways. 

Back inside, our guest for today, Ryan Smith of the Presbyterian United Nations ministry  has arrived and under Ana’s direction is moving the table to the front. Candles are placed. We have to send out for mathces. John has arrived. I try not to get anxious as people slowly are gathering.  And there are guests. I’m glad that Andre and Amy are both here.

As we are gathering Hope brings word that yesterday, one of the Saigon Grill protestors was attacked by someone inside. We’re going to need to get a group to visit the precinct. And it seemsthat somehow police helped provoke the situation on the Brooklyn Bridge with the Occupy Wall Street protestors that led to the arrest of over 700 people, including press. Again, the Times is virtually silent while the Post splashes it all over the front cover with the headline The S*#t hits the Span with a full picture. 

We finish the reading of scriptures,  incuding the Exodus version of  the Ten Commandments and Jesus' strange parable of the ungrateful (to say the least) tenants. Definitley not one of the kingdom of heaven is like this parables.  Then I introuduce Ryan who talks of his work in promoting global discipleship through peacemaking. His job is interpreting and advocating for international policy as articulated by the PC(USA) General Assembly.( I find it  ironic that there is a PCUSA General Assembly, A UN General Assembly and the Wall Street Occupiers call their daily discenmnet and decision making meeting the General Assembly.)

Ryan works with Ecumenical Women and Israel-Palestine issues and recently anti-human trafficking. He also speaks of the slavery footprint website that has started to raise conscuousnees as to how things we use get produced.  We share with him our work with the coalition seeking to build a sweatshop free Upper Westside. Of the coalition between the Chinese and Mexican workers. (Take the  slavery survey at http://slaveryfootprint.org/ )

Ryan and Bob

During the offertory, Andre singing, He’s Got the WholeWorld in His Hands, people bring their breads to the table. There is  Puerto Rican, Cuban, Italian and best of all, Marsha’s homemade Texas cornbread muffins.  As we prepare to share communion, I talk about my week, the song smiths of P & G’s, the actors of Woodshed, the communities of mutual respect and apprecaition they created, the encouragement of each other to risk more, to grow, with your freinds beside and behind you. And I asked what it would take for our church to feel like that. That’s a big part of what sharing communion with each other is all about. As Zwingli said, it is not bread and wine that is transformed into  the Body of Chirst, but we oursleves, together. We become the body of the  Risen One. 

We sing our amens, make our greetings. P____ is still concerned about me, but also anxious to talk to Ryan. 

The  congregation meets with Sarah who has brought Ben Valentine, one of the artists of the upcoming Telling the Truth gallery installation scheduled for McAlpin Hall.  He wants to work with us, have an ongoing dialogue, not just install a show, have a party and leave.  

Sarah, Ben and Marsha 

The Session meets to work on our boiler strategy and other parish concerns. Sarah and Danielle want to come to clarity about what exactly do we want Woodshed to leave. Already, they are going room to room, marking and pricing things, preparing for the tag sale. I look to see what’s mine/ours. Then head to the Firehouse to watch part of the Steeler game with Andrea. 

We come back at 3 and join Katheirne for a walk through the building. She has been surprised to find things of hers she hadn’t seen in years which had become part of the set. Like the Buddhist meditation chair her mother had given her and a raised ceramic Eucharistic bread plate. They eye some deco furniture, and  a floor lamp tucked away in a corner. 

Some actors have come to claim part of their apartments. Jocelyn has brought her leg braces to sell, which go pretty quickly. Bought by teenage boys. I’m not going think about that for very long. Andrea says it’s overwhelming seeing the level of delapidation as the building begins to return to itself. It’s a bit painful seeing the Parisian apartment building that existed just last night beginning to disapper. People are walking around eying, buying, various   intriguing items. Actors wander around, look for awhile, perhaps share a hug, a see you soon, then one by one go off. Katherine has left her items with Teddy for John H to pick up tomorrow. Andrea has left.

I take today’s communion cups, one made by John H with the church on the outside and people on the inside, and one by Andrea’s mother Pat, downstairs to wash and clean before I leave.