Living in coronavirusworld 248: impeachmnets, demons, vaccinations and and polar bears

 2/13

"Mommy what's a carbon footprint?"

The week of the impeachment trial. Watching the videos of the invasion of the capital are a stunning reminder of just how serious that was. Republicans with all their efforts at false equivalence seem to forget that the Black Lives protests did not try to disrupt our political process or overthrow the government. Nor seek to “hang” or kidnap politicians. And there is the matter of seven ;ives lost.With or without Trump we are in a very perilous place. 

Wednesday

Our Underground group is wrestling with how much of what’s going on right now is connected to Christianity.  There’s no denying that a major component of current right wing activity is Christian Nationalism. Our Old Testament scholar believe the problem is that many self-proclaimed Christians don’t know their Bible. Our friend Steve P says they know it says “love your neighbor” but they have decided that don’t want to. And we agree that sadly, nobody is reasoning their way to their moral conclusions. 

We debate to what extent this is an inherent theological problem of Christianity. I say that only Christianity makes an exclusive claim for “salvation” or right living. Steve P argues that Muslim shave ben just as bad. 

It’s an argument worth continued exploration. I need to do more research to compare to the crusades, the age and doctrine of discovery and so much more….continue out have a major impact on current policies.

Thursday

Our Thursday morning group conversation group, organized by Palestinian theology center Sabeel,  is struggling with the meaning  of casting out demons in the context of Palestine. It is brought up that if we cast out demons, we must not demonize   the people who have been possessed. And that we have to look inside of ourselves and our own communities, internal as well as external.   We have to get Jesus onto our agenda. Another friend says that casting out demons  is casting out excuses and that Palestinians have been haunted by excuses.  

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polar bears

puppy

For two days I have been following my artist friend Heide’s  project to sculpt polar bears out of snow. Both to inspire joy but also to raise concerns about global warming. I’m impressed by how the neighborhood has respected he sculptures and just let them be….   Last night the added a puppy as well. 

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My time for my second vaccination shot. At first I”m feeling all right but then by night I’m shover with chills and a sick headache and aching again. A predictable but un welcome out come for someone who has previously had Covid. I literally spend all of  Friday in bed.  Only emerging for open mic. But….now that’s over.      

and a real live dog as well....

                                       

Living in Coronavirusworld 247: Transfiguration

 2/8

the snow remains....

Tonight our Bible study turns to Mark 9:2-9, the lectionary gospel for Transfiguration Sunday. This is one of those “gateway” holy days, like Christ the King and Trinity Sunday, that lead us from one season to the next. In this case from Epiphany to Lent. The season that began with the shining star of Bethlehem ends with one final blast of light. 

(We find the same story in Matthew 17: 1-8 and Luke 9: 28-36.)

Our story begins six days after Jesus’ first prediction of his passion. With him are Peter, James and John, his inner circle. Perhaps his “rock,” his brother and the “disciple Jesus loved.” They turn up together often in Mark, eventually in Gethsemane.

One o the issues here is the essence of transfiguration as opposed to transformation. It’s a word we don’t use often. One example is in Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!

While God is marching on.

Her sense of an apocalyptic moment in the US Civil War, especially as relates to the abolition of slavery. 

In the Roman and Orthodox traditions, the Transfiguration occurs on August 6th, the day of the incineration of Hiroshima in one blinding flash of light that literally vaporized people. What does transfigured mean in the light of that light?

Jesus’ clothes became “dazzling white,”  something that occurs again in the Easter scene where the young man in the empty tomb is dressed in “dazzling white.” (16:5)

Jesus is seen with Moses and Elijah. Peter, impulsive as always, wants to build three booths. (Like the booths of the Sukkot holiday.) The three dimples were “terrified,” ie, awestruck. (Again, echoed in the Easter story where the worm left and said nothing because they were afraid, filled with terror and amazement. A voice is heard, echoing the voice at Jesus’ baptism declaring “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Only this time the voice is directed not to Jesus, but to the disciples…listen to him…And Jesus again tells them to “tell no one…”

This has been for them a mountain top experience. And naturally they want to stay. But Jesus makes it clear you can’t stay, you have  to go back down and continue the journey, continue the work. 

What can we say about transfigured versus transformed? Transformed

Is change that takes place inwardly, from the inside out. Transfigured is a change that is external, a change on how we se and understand what is in front  of us.

What do the disciples see and understand on this mountaintop? Moses had the fire of the burning bush that was not consumed. Elijah had the fire of his  contest with the priests of Baal where God ignites his water soaked offering. Moses represents the law, Elijah the prophets. Moses’ grave is hidden.Elijah taken from earth by a flaming chariot. 

Amy Jill Levine has pointed out that in addition to their mysterious deaths, both were also rejected in their time. Thus we see in these two the content and direction of Jesus ministry. 

Matthew 22: 38-40

38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[a] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Amy Jill Levine has pointed out that in addition to their mysterious deaths, both were also rejected I theft time. This we see in these two the content and direction of Jesus ministry.  

We think of our own mountaintop experiences…a birth of a child, participating in a transcendent performance, seeing a breathtaking vista. These experiences can never last. We need to be inspired, informed snd nourished by them and then back to business. 

We remember once agin that once John Dominic Crossan was asked if he prayed. He was silent for moment and said, "I study. And when I study, I feel close to God.”

So let’s paise and enjoy this light before beginning our Lenten journey. And as we return to our witness and our work, we might well contemplate what the significance of Transfiguration is in this year in the light of our ongoing struggle with covid, the beginning of vaccinations, and the second impeachment of (former) President Donald J. Trump.  

Living in coronavirusworld 240: Shabbat and Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.

1/15

My friend Rabbi Steve asked me to preach his shabbat service the Friday night before the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's what I had to say:

So this is the shabbat before our annual commemoration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And this year, this shabbat finds us midway between impeachment and inauguration. The start of 2021 has not been, well, exactly smooth. (The other day I was walking in Central Park beside the Harlem Meer. I saw a goose land on the wet ice and its webbed feet immediately started scrambling and he was flapping his wings, trying to find balance and I thought, dude, I feel you…)

It’s interesting that tonight’s Torah portion is Va-ay-rah…"God appeared"…Exodus 6:2-9: 35.  It’s your basic passover story. With Moses singing that spiritual ‘Let my people go” and all these plagues coming. Believe me….we know from plagues. And like the Israelites were in oppressive exile in Egypt, we have been in “internal” exile oppressed by a virus that has walled in our life, taken loved ones from us and separated us one from another. If anyone thinks this is a hoax, I lost three close friends in three weeks last year.  Thing is, in the Bible God sent those plagues. And in no way do I believe God sends this plague. But I will say this, I believe that if we work in partnership with God, good can come out of even the worst of times. Which is where we come back to Dr. King.

What made up Dr. King’s witness?

* First, his witness was faith rooted. His faith inspired him, sustained him and gave him a language. His was the voice of “Let my people go.” And his Black church tradition had a long time connection to the Jewish tradition because his faith community saw in the origin story of the Jewish people, their “passover” from slavery to freedom, a story that could inspire  their own journey to freedom. In his “I have a dream" speech,  he quoted the prophet Amos’ stirring words, “let justice flow down like water and righteousness like an overflowing stream.” 

* That connection meant Dr.King’s movement was inclusive, interracial and interfaith because that was his vision of a beloved community. One of his closest supporters was Abraham Joshua Heschel who said of marching with Dr.King, “I felt like my feet were praying.”

* Third, and this is very important, Dr. King’s witness was an American witness. It is so ironic. We all know how J.Edgar Hoover used the FBI resources against Dr.King because he believed he was a dangerous subversive. The fact is, no one believed in America more than Dr.King. Dr.King took America at its word, that it truly wanted to be what it said in its founding documents and sacred songs. Of course, the events of last summer and the attention brought by Black Lives Matter has reminded us that much was wrong from the very start. But the thing is, ideas, ideals have more power, more truth than the flawed human beings who create them.  Dr. King created that cognitive dissonance between what we said and what was and asked us, which is it? And the arc of history bent just a little more towards justice, 

One more thing…Dr.King had come to realize that it’s more than prejudice, that the economic situation needs to change as well.  And that is equally true for Americans of all colors.

SO what does this say to us on this shabbat, January 15, 2021?

* We need to reclaim the tradition of the prophets as an important part of our heritage…understanding as Heschel said that a prophet comes from a people and speaks to a people and the primary motive of a prophet must always be love..too many people who criticize think  that somehow  they are separate from what they criticize…we are in this together…the US is us...

* We need to renew our belief in America. In  what is best about who we have been, who we are and who we can yet be, ever striving to bring our reality closer to our ideals.

And finally this…this has been the most divisive time in our country’s life that I have lived through. We have to find our way past the division. I think of these words of Dr.King as my closing:

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Shabbat shalom.