One last look at the Bread of Life...

8/21 

a chocolate castle

In Pittsburgh for family concerns. Staying at a hotel in Canonsburg.  Home of the one and only Sarris Chocolates, located between newly name Frank Sarris Avenue and Bobby Vinton drive.  On Sunday I preach at Oakdale Presbyterian, where 26 years after I served there I still have a home., And one last time explore the Bread of Life.....

Well, a lot has happened since last I was here. I spent ten days in Berlin with my grandchildren. The last time I saw my granddaughter, she was only 8 months old. And now, she is 2/34 years old. Believe me at that age, a lot happens in a little one’s life…like she’s a real person now!…yet another one of those many costs of covid that just doesn’t seem to go away. 

 There was supposed to be a big “welcome back” concert this week in New York City to celebrate the “return to the city" and the “return to normal”…and the reality is, we are nowhere near there. Starting September 13th, there’s a mandatory vaccination for indoor public spaces. Wondering how we’re going to enforce that at our church. Nah, nowhere near normal… 

Speaking of that concert, I was feeling bad that I was going to be missing Paul Simon’s return to Central Park and Bruce Springsteen!…some of my friends actually saw the unannounced dress rehearsal sound check on Friday…but when I saw the notice of the two hour thunder and lightning storm that cancelled the event, I was happy I was sitting in Heinz Field watching the Steelers win. And when I read about Hurricane Henri landing today, hey, I’m, much better off with you…. 

And poor Haiti has guan been devastated by a hurricane and the scenes from Afghanistan, like deja vu all over again…(I read in a new history book about Pittsburgh that we sent a disproportionately large number of young men to Vietnam than nearly any other city…and now 20 years in Afghanistan and …and…

So we’re talking about bread (again) today, When you think of bread, what comes to mind? I think of the dark dense bread my son goes out to get every morning at the bakery on his street in Berlin. And the smell of the bakery my grandfather took me to when I was a little kid. Or the Irish soda bread with caraway seeds and raisins I used to bake on St. Patrick's day. Or cornbread and chili or barbecue. Or the sourdough bread some of us started making during covid. Our basic sustenance…like in the Lord’s prayer, give us this day our daily bread…what comes to your mind? 

Jesus is talking about “living bread”…and he’s talking about himself. And using hard, harsh, graphic language. And yes, deliberately offensive language. Eat my body, drink my blood… It’s hard on the disciples., "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” they say. And Jesus responds that the flesh is useless.. Let’s stop there a second…

Jesus was fully human, flesh and blood…he’s not saying our bodies are no good…what he is saying  that we are never going to get there with our own wits….we can’t think our way there..(although last week in the NY Times Ross Douthat thinks you can…) When I was applying for seminary, my local Presbytery, Washington, was quite upset that I was accepted to Yale. They said that Yale was the kind of place you could goo to saved and come back un..but in my case, the exact opposite was true.,..I had to get to the end of my mind, the end of my reason, before I could give in and open myself to Jesus. … 

Jesus is very clear when he says “…no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” That’s the root of our Reformed Presbyterian faith right there. Even our capacity to “make a decision for Christ,” as they say, is a function of God’s grace…which means you can never, ever judge another. I had someone who was alcoholic, living on the streets tell me about all the time he’d been through rehab and how many times he’d given his heart to Jesus and that it never worked. I looked at his tears. No way I could say, well you just have to try harder or judge his character. We just don’t know…all I could do is reassure him that Jesus loves him and is with him just as he is… 

We even get into some deep stuff about Judas...Talk about mysteries..John tells us that For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. …so why did her choose him? Was this part if God’s plan” If so, was it really betrayal? See what I mean? 

So …back to bread…yes..his language is hard…so hard it seems like everyone but the original 12 leave. They’re done. Makes me wonder…is there anything we do in our faith that is offensive to broader society? Should we be? But more poignantly, we know, this church knows, what it feels like to have people leave us. (Even though there are times we, yes even pastors screw up royally and need critical clarification…but  not angry accusations or defensive denial or walk. aways……every division, every loss hurts, no way around it… 

So what is he trying to say with this hard language? Look I had a Catholic friend who emotionally freaked out at her first communion over the idea that the bread and wine really becomes Jesus. But it’s a Catholic writer, Raymond Brown who says that it means taking all of Jesus in, all of him…so he will abide in us as we abide in him… When he says these eating and drinking words…and eating is literally chomping and chewing, he is saying take him in so that we feel what he feels and walks where he walks …yees even if it leads to the cross…because it is in eating that bread and embarking on that journey that true life in all its fullness is found…and even in small little churches, that’s where our strength is found… 

As we take communion today let is remember that the great Protestant reformer Zwingli said that it is not the bread and wine that is transformed but we who participate in it, in our drinking and eating we, together, become, yes actually become the living body of our risen Lord Jesus..and he will abide with us as we abide with him…let those with ears to hear, hear...  Amen 

Later I will share this sermon with my friends from Beverly Church. On Thursday, my friends from Sabeel in Jerusalem will reflect on this passage. They are celebrating the release of a young woman from their community arrested in an Israeli round up of protesting students. Former Presbyterian Church USA Moderator Fahed reminds us that we are called to preach the Gospel of Peace in the contest of Empire. Naim Ateek reminds us that it is a misconception to think of Allah as the Muslim God.  It is just the Arabic word for God. And there is only one....

Gospel John 6:56-69 

"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." 59He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" 61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." 66Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" 68Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

Living in cornavirusworld 251: Lenten days

2/17

BEARS

In our underground discussion, we begin considering that at it’s roots, the anti-government ideology of the Republican Party is inherently anti-black. Following the 1963 March on Washington and the Civil Right Act of 1964, Government was perceived as imposing unwanted Black people on us.  For example, public swimming pools built during the New Deal Works Process Administration were filled with concrete and shut down rather than open for Black people. Government has come to be seen as that power that robs you of your wealth snd gives city to someone else who does not deserve it. Amazingly, since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, no Democrat has won the majority of white votes. 

2/18

Our Sabeel study group is reacting on fasting. All major religions observe fasting as a discipline in one way or another. Each has it unique practices, in Christianity, for example, Roman Catholics fast from meat while Orthodox meat and dairy both. (And most Protestants don’t fast at all.)

Lent becomes an opportunity to reflect on our mortality. That is especially important in our continued life in Coronsvirusworld. In the United States now over half a million people have died. Half a million. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…

The tradition includes both alms and prayer, and both are essential. Our giving is not so  much giving as giving back. And fasting must be connected to justice. For example while Israel, for one, is proud of vaccinating half its population, some 130 countries still have no access to the anti-covid Vaccine. 

2/19

The cold continues to linger as the snow is into its third week with us. A brutal storm has swept through the south and southwest hitting Texas particularly hard. Thousands and thousands without heat or light or even water. Conservative ideologues seize the opportunity to blame green energy, like wind mills, even though the real reason is having gone off the grid and let their infrastructure languish. Senator Ted Cruz, who passionately goes wherever the wind blows, cluelessly heads to Mexico for a vacation as his state suffers than blames his trip on his daughters. Clueless. And shameless. 

Late afternoon in the Gate. At 25% capacity but the warmth’s the candles, feels cozy and a relief. I order fish and chips to remind me of the season of “fish fries” back home.

2/20

For Sonko, in whim our hope lis...

in support of Sonko

against injustice

Decide it’s too cold for the farmer’s market today. I’ll just stay in. Usual all too brief family ZOOM with my mom at her assisted care facility. As always, there are ZOOMfails for more than one person. There are demonstrators outside the Senegalese consulate decrying political violence and repression and in support of Ousmane Sonko. We’re all talking about vaccinations. And despite all, Zoom does allow us to gather from Berlin, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Pittsburgh and New York all at the same time. Late in the afternoon, meet a friend for a drink at my neighborhood place. 

2/21

fixing the bears

wnbctv

with the children

smiles shared

Almost a year now. These months of Covid have been wearing on us. The isolation has pushed elderly into dementia. And younger people into severe depression. After becoming depressed myself, I decide to to head to the park to visit my friend’s polar bear snow sculptures. Over 15 now last the Central Park 86th Street entrance. And to my pleasant purpose, she is there, working on the bears and being interviewed by a TV news reporter. A crowd is there as always. Little children want their photos taken. I continue to be amazed how this spontaneous moment of inspiration has turned into an engaging creative happening, an event, something brightening the lingering cold, winter and covid. Even in the crowd, there are smiles to exchange. 

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.  

                                           ****

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. 

                                         ****           

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: Holding on

 1/14

Harlem Meer

Tulsa Ice Oilers

This morning I’m wearing a hat and sweater form the 1933 Tulsa Ice Oilers hockey team. Mainly in recognition of Tulsa as a treasure house of Art Deco. Because the oil barons who built the city wanted the best and most up to  to date. Including the Boston Avenue Church, the Radio City Music Hall of churches. (For real.)

It’s hard to realize that only one week ago was the siege of the capitol. One of the collateral damage stories is of the sequestered congress people stuck together in a small room with Republicans refusing to wear masks. And now several colleagues have tested positive for Covid. It’s criminal. Like unprotected sex with undisclosed AIDS. These people should be removed from office. We are now in the 10th month of coronavirusworld. 

We speak of many things:

*the “zero vs, the infinite” as in rioters transferring “power” to Trump…they think they are superior than they know that the are not..

* Watching the siege on the capitol, we’re all called to self-examination, asking when we may have felt  the same, even acted the same. Discernment is truly important. When I say it seems to me that many there who "truly believe…,”  Steve P stops me because “true belief” is not a valid category in the conversation. “Blind faith..”is not a valid reason for action. Are there no villains, but a lot of victims? 

* Symbolic vs. instrumental values. 

* Is it about me forever, or loving your neighbors, even enemies?

Steve P thinks we need to remind those Christians who so passionately follow Trump that they have forgotten their religion, That they have entered into a space where disagreement is self-excommunication.  We debate to what extent Christian language and imagery still shapes the American narrative. Dre maintains that for many millennials, that’s over. I noted that in my experience with Occupy, even though they were militantly anti-religious, Christian imagery still filled their poetry and songs. And I also argue that there is something archetypal about the Jesus story that transcends culture. 

We all are filled with uncertainty as to what happens next.

                                                                                         ****

In reflecting on the year ahead, the leadership of New York City Presbytery must deal with the loss of over 600 members last year, including over 500 from just two “tall steeple” Manhattan churches. And currently with 87 sanctuaries, some 30 churches have no pastoral leadership. On the other hand, attendance for many of the virtual services outnumbers previous live ones.

1/15

Our Sabeel conversation focuses on Baptism. Our vows to participate in fellowship, communion and breaking bread. And to resist evil and proclaim the good news, loving neighbor and pursuing justice, and peace. Which we commit to “with God’s help.” Omar want to know if it’s more than “signs in a restaurant,” do we really take it seriously, is there Christian accountability?

I speak of the need to beyond the traditional idea of baptism as a kind of “spiritual inoculation” to keep babies out of limbo and more of a community commitment. We cannot live the Christian life without community. 

It is pointed out that in our tradition, new members are baptized as part of the Easter vigil, symbolizing that as Christians we share in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

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on Harlem Meer

Walking through Central Park, I see a goose land on the wet ice of the Harlem Meer, his webbed feet skittering and wings flappier as he tries to find equilibrium. I look t tom and say, “Yeah, that’s what stating this year feels like…”

In Morningside Park, I see no life. No ducks,. No geese. No turtles. Like Holden Caulfield (in Catcher in the Rye) I wonder where they go. 

Along 118th street, anti-trump signs remain.

anti-Trumo signs

no Black vax

The ATLAH church encouraging Black people NOT to take the vaccine .”Remember Tuskegee” The evil use of black prisoners for medical research haunts us still…

a tree remains

Christmas trees remain in the parks.                                In normal years I find lingering Christmas decorations annoying, at least. Not this year. I never really felt fully embraced by Christmas this year. Just like everything seems to exist in a hazy place somewhere between virtual and real.I still feel comforted by those lights. I can hold on a little longer. 

Living in Coronavirusworld 233: Nunc Dimittis and another view from Palestine

 

12/21

Harelm Meer

The winter solstice. The darkest day of the year. From here on out it gets a little more light every day. And it’s officially winter.

Tonight we look at the  last infancy story in the gospels, Luke 2:22-40. And the 3rd day of Christmas.  Traditionally known as the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Found only in Luke.  Had we read 21, we would have read of the circumcision of  Jesus. Years ago, I remember the Met had an exhibit, Art Treasures of the Vatican. It contained a  very ornate reliquary for the icon of Jesus’ circumcision, the only part of him he left behind. 

The ceremony being described is the redemption of the first born. Since the story of Abraham and Isaac, the first born male child, the one who breaks the womb, must be redeemed by a sacrifice. Traditionally a sheep or lamb. But poorer families like Joseph and Mary could substitute two pigeons or turtle doves.  This ultimately leads to a discussion of God sacrificing God’s only son to redeem the world for its sins and a whole hard conversation about substitutionary atonement which is built on a theological structure and logic I’ve never been able to accept. As in, Jesus died for our sins.   ( Marsha males reference to z scent debate in the New York Times ver what eg minimum belief required to be a Christian are. )

Joseph and Mary take Jesus to the  Temple and encounter two elderly people. One is Simeon, whose credentials are that he is  righteous and devout. He has been waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” namely its liberation and independence. He is guided by the spirit to recognize that this child is the one and responds with his first oracle, known as the nunc dimittis: now let your servant depart in peace. His purpose is to praise God and declare God’s saving power.In the logic of Isaiah 49:6, namely that Israel’s glory  is to be a light to the nations. 

His second oracle is that this one comes for the “rising  and falling “ of the nation. Foreseen in  the conflict between God’s avowing purpose, God’s liberation project and human opposition.That here will eb resistance Ean rejection. And Mary’s side will be pierce with a sword. (As her son ultimately is) She will have to live through his rejection, suffering and execution.

The other elderly person is Anna, said to be from the tribe of Asher. She is a widow and a woman prophet. Luke is unique in his frequent paring of male and female witnesses. She too I looking for th redemption of the people, their liberation. (How odd that he parents let the child be taken up by these  strangers, old and hanging out in the Temple….…)

It is important for Luke to show that they had fulfill all the law before departing. This is  the last if Jesus’ infancy. Next wile the brief story of him in the Temple, his only childhood story, on the cup of his bar mitzvah. Thus the story begins and ends with the law. 

The “falling and rising” can also seen as an “all or nothing” situation. 

Luke does a very neat circle of (H)Anna being Samuel’s mother and giving Mary the words to her song, Anna being John the Baptist’s mother and now another Anna is a prophet. 

One message is that God’s love is not limited status, gender or geography. More important, these two elderly people see not the present but the certain future an san now “depart” the earth. How do we see with their eyes? We can see the beginning and have to imagine it’s completion. As it always is . As Dr. King said, the arc of history maybe long, but it bends towards justice. We need to keep that vision  in our eyer as we  take up the struggle in our own days.          

12/22

Today I join again with our friends from Sabeel in Jerusalem in an Advent Bible study with Naim Ateek. We are discussing the Annunciation passage in Luke. Elizabeth will bring John the Baptist, the miracle child. And Mary will bing the Messiah. Mary embodies total obedience, trusting and surrendering to God. It raises the question, are we also bearers of God? Do w know the who do the impossible? Can we be partners with God? God needs us to be instruments of God’s peace.

Naim points out that the angel describes the Messiah’s work in parochial terms, exclusive to Israelites,  while Mary’ s song will extend to all poor lowly, excluded and marginalized.  Quoting Ephesias 3:6 and Galatians 3: 26-29, God’s purpose begins with one group but extends in love for all the world. 

A question so raised as to why Mary’s doubt is tolerated but Zechariah’s not. (He was struck speechless until he recognized Jesus as Messiah.) Niim suggest that because eZechiah was a priest , he should have known better. And that trained theologian and scholars may bit be ion ot mystery. 

Why Mary? A sign of God’s special love for the simple, the lowly, the poor, the oppressed. Women in the group see this as well as a call to lift the role of women un teh vvvv                   church. 

As we contemplate the coming celebration of Christmas, it is necessary to look at the existential reality of Bethlehem. Today, 4400 Palestinians are underway detention by Israelis, including 41 women and 170 children. And due to Covid, in Bethlehem where income depends on tourism, especially this time of year, over 7000 Palestinians out of work. We can only truly understnsd the reality if Christmas if we undersea dht reality of Bethlehem. 

AS we are engaged in our discussion, rh Israeli sure court is hearing 15 challenges of the 2018 “Law of the Nation State” which reserves national rights in Israel to Jesus only. Paslesreinass and Druze this fin themselves excluded form citizens’ rights. Critics maintain that the amounts to apartheid in all but name.                                                        

The stones cry out

 10/24

The day ends with a showing in  another in our Palestine Film series: The Stones Cry Out                          ( http://www.thestonescryoutmovie.com/) directed by Yasmine Pirni, now of Italy.  It is the often ignored story of Palestinian Christians.

I remember my friend Naim Ateek, founder and director of Sabeel and former Canon of St. George’s in Jerusalem.  (http://www.sabeel.org/) Naim would always say, I am an Israeli and not a Jew, I am an Arab and not a Muslim, I am a Palestinian and not a terrorist.  And to the question so often asked in the US, When did your family become Christian? Naim would respond, At Pentecost.

Ms. Pirni’s film tells the story of the world’s oldest Christian community.  And the devastating effects of the Israeli occupation that have come to threaten its very existence as more and more emigrate out of the country.

Bob, Valerie Pirni, Russ

We are honored to have the first US screening of this film. The saddest part of this story is that of  the support of conservative US Christians for Israel, the so-called Christian Embassy and Christian  Zionists who follow in the British colonial  tradition that sees the return of the Jews to Israel as a precursor to the second coming of Jesus. It is tragic that the early liberal Christian theology of penitent accompaniment and solidarity has been transcended by a conservative theology that sees the Jews as functional players in a triumphalist narrative, not as fellow human beings of intrinsic worth for that reason alone. They come to see the holy stones of history, not the living stones of the people who live there.  And the Palestinian Christians become problematic as their reality does not fit into the narrative. And this is the force, like the aging Cuban exile community in Miami, that drives US policy in the region and allows the occupation to continue. 

There is much work to do.

He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out. (Luke 19:40 NRSV)