PRIDE 2016

6/26

Celebrating PRIDE 2016

Today we are gathered on PRIDE SUNDAY. This year more than ever…it I san important day to celebrate as celebration becomes an act of resistance against the forces of hate, fear and violence.

Last night, I went to a concert and celebration event at the Brooklyn Commons Café…a gathering of the young queer community…white, black ,latino/a and Palestinian…beyond categories…as our epistle lesson said last week, there is”Neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female..” I’ll never hear those words the same way again. There were poets, singers, performance artists, telling their stories…filled with anger, rage,resolution….and  fierce love..and finally my friend Stephanie Ryan Johnstone (https://lovesongsfortherestofus.com/)…and the  choir…the second song was  by our friend Osagyefo Sekou (https://mic.com/articles/135635/rev-sekou-the-holy-ghost-s-new-album-the-revolution-has-come-is-true-healing-music#.EqFoUbueB)…about violence done to a trans woman of color...Ryan is bringing back an old tradition…that of churches, unions, communities…singing together…in harmony …and unity.

(I’m thinking a concert with Brother Sekou and his Holy Ghost Band, and Ryan  and their choir..that’s what we should be doing in our sanctuary..) The Commons became that night  church…safe space for being together, singing together, and shouting at God…the same one we claim to represent…

Rick Ufford-Chase has written in his  new book: Faithful Resistance: Gospel visions for the church in a time of empire…(http://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/2016/06/faithful-resistance-gospel-visions-for.html)

“As for the kind of community I want to be part of, I am interested in creating a community where those who have been rejected in every other space can come and feel safe…”  ad to that I say amen..

In Portland, I was inspired by watching on C-Span the resistance video feed of  the Democrat sit in…led old saint John Lewis…WOW…Hillary should have dropped by…I mean Elizabeth Warren brought donuts..BUT…then my Plaestinian friend 

Linda Sarsour, and another  lesbian friend reminded me  that …most massacres in this country have been committed by people NOT on the list…Orlando was NOT about terrorists…(but Oklahoma City was, did we call Timothy Mc Veigh a radical Christian terrorist?) .stop the gaming, just ban the damn assault weapons already…

In our gospel, Luke says: "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

What does that mean to you?  Once we get started down the Jesus path, the way, there can be no turning back. ( The Wile E. Coyote moment, someone says…like Paul walking on the water to Jesus until he realizes what he’s doing..and then starts to sink…all too often we take ten leap of faith and then stop and crash before we reach the other side…Lot’s wife tuyrns back, becomes a pillar of salt…like Bib Dylan said, Press on…)

                                                        ****

So a few words about the Presbyterian 222^nd General Assembly:

The action that started with our Session and our friends across town at Jan Hus, calling for an apology to the lgbtq community for years of exclusion, of gGod-given ministries denied, Apology?  well, not quite…we couldn’t quite get there…it still seems that ”Sorry is the hardest word..”

And related to migration and the statement of Sanctuary principles our international work group, facilitated by Russ, ha sbeen working on? Yes…unanimously…

An effort to join the Methodists in leaving the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice was turned back. (Although we white pro-choice people wtil have to deal with the legacy of Margaret Sanger’s racist eugenics philosophy that informed her work on contraception..)

The Belhar Confession from apartheid era South Africa has now become an official creed of the Presbyterian Church. (https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/belhar.pdf)

We have written a new, more pointed statement on Israel-Palestine (but voted no no on a call to boycott of Hewlitt-Packard..)..and we continue to support two states still…

Re. fossil fuel? Shall we divest? Well, no not yet…but we will double down on engagement, yes.

We made a radical new declaration on communion, that  will no longer be restricted to those who are baptized..(simply all who are faithful…)

We passed a statement of concern for the lives of Black males (but amended it to read black people..)

There is HOPE. We are finding our way into a new day..this year the rejectionist right wing didn't even have a booth…now that the cultural wars are being settled, we have BIGGER questions to face, of race and class, big vs. small, privilege and power…

For the first time we elected two co-moderators, both  women, one black, and  one white

We have elected our first African-American  stated clerk, our highest office…a nd J.Herbert Nelson comes as a prophet, not a lawyer..

Yes….

HOPE

                                             ****

It was great to have our music man Jeremy Mage

Jeremy sings his song

back again from Switzerland. A new father! Jeremy played one of his new songs…and helped us rock some old ones….

Welcome back Jeremy!

Don’t look back? Well, sometimes there’s value on knowing where you came from. And so I shared stoles from the shower of stoles that for years were not by volunteers from around the country to be worn at GA’s as a sign of protest.

From the "Shower of Stoles" project

In a movement that began here at West-Park in 1978 with the More Light Statement.  The religious Stonewall, as it were…1

I lift up the t-shirt from the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table,

Add caption

named for the wife of our former pastor who called for a direct  and concrete witness to the lgbtq community that not all churches rejected our bothers and sisters by passing out “a cup of cool water in Jesus’ name”…

And we end our service by singing together, We are a fiercely loving people, and we are singing  for our lives…

[1] In harmony with the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, West-Park Church affirms the civil rights of all person. Further, in keeping with our General Assembly’s guidelines, this community of faith welcomes as members homosexual persons who both seek and have found Christ’s love.

This local congregation will not select one particular element from a person’s total humanity as a basis for denying full participation and service in the body of Christ. Nor will this community of faith condemn or judge our brothers and sisters who declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and promise discipleship to Him. We affirm that in meeting each other in Christian love. God’s spirit frees us all to live and grow, liberated from the oppression invoked upon us by ourselves and others.

Within this context, West-Park Presbyterian Church reaches out to Christian and non-Christian homosexual persons with a ministry of support, caring and openness—a ministry in which the creative, liberating power of the Holy Spirit rules and guides.

¹Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

⁶Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." ¹⁰He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." ¹¹As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. ¹²Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

¹³He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

¹I cry aloud to God,

aloud to God, that he may hear me.

²In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;

in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;

my soul refuses to be comforted.

¹¹I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD;

I will remember your wonders of old.

¹²I will meditate on all your work,

and muse on your mighty deeds.

¹³Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is so great as our God?

¹⁴You are the God who works wonders;

you have displayed your might among the peoples.

¹⁵With your strong arm you redeemed your people,

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

¹⁶When the waters saw you, O God,

when the waters saw you, they were afraid;

the very deep trembled.

¹⁷The clouds poured out water;

the skies thundered;

your arrows flashed on every side.

¹⁸The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;

your lightnings lit up the world;

the earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹Your way was through the sea,

your path, through the mighty waters;

yet your footprints were unseen.

²⁰You led your people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Second Reading Galatians 5:1, 13-25

¹For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Gospel Luke 9:51-62

⁵¹When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" ⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶Then they went on to another village.

⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." ⁵⁹To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." ⁶⁰But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." ⁶¹Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." ⁶²Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Movement music: a recording session

7/21

Singing songs of liberation

                                                       Samuel L. Jackson



A long and beautiful day. Jeremy is producing an album for the Peace Poets, urban young adults from the Bronx who have been the soundtrack of the Black Lives Matter movement. Their most well known song, I Can’t Breathe….became the song for the Samuel L. Jackson challenge,  and no, he didn’t create it, Luke Nephew did.

We’ve got an eclectic group for the recording session, Poets, special friends, the entire Siegelbaum family (parents with a history of Nicaraguan solidarity), Jeremy’s father and his partner, special guest Stephanie Johnstone of Love Songs for the Rest of Us (http://lovesongsfortherestofus.com/). Oh. And me. 

Luke and Jeremy get ready

We gather in the top floor gym, where ETHEL once recorded. It’s got that kind of studio acoustic. Jeremy sets up the mics and we begin to learn the songs, one by one. 

Luke teaches a song

We start with The Voice of My Great Grand Daughter, a song that started with the Climate March last fall.; 


(KEY: F#, TEMPO: 79)



THE PEOPLE GONNA RISE LIKE

THE WATER

WE GONNA FACE THIS CRISIS NOW

I HEAR THE VOICE OF MY GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER

SINGING SHUT THIS SYSTEM DOWN!



I’m fascinated by Jeremy’s process, the way he’ll record different arrangements of people at different times. A core group in front, secondary singers in back. Over and over multiple times. The real work will be in his editing.

Jeremy conducts

Then the song we all know, ) I CAN’T BREATHE.

HOOK:

I STILL HEAR MY BROTHER CRYING: I CAN’T BREATHE

SO NOW I’M IN THIS STRUGGLE SINGING: I CAN’T LEAVE

WE CALLING OUT THE VIOLENCE OF THESE RACIST POLICE

AND WE AIN’T GONNA STOP – TIL OUR PEOPLE ARE FREE (2x)

The Liberation – of All

Black Women Leading– the Call

The change we making is about to be born

HOOK

BRIDGE:

Ain’t Nobody Free, Til Everybody Free!

-Sing that!-

Ain’t Nobody Free, Till Everybody Free!

So if you know that Black Lives Matter

People Sing it with me… HOOK

The songs we sing include :

OUR LIBERATION (F, 85), RIGHT ON TIME / BLM (F, 85), HOW CAN WE NOT REBEL?, a song about mass incarceration,(F, 117) SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE (C minor, 88) and finally, WHY I WAS MADE (F, 80).

Luke introduced each song. And here’s what he had to say about the spirit and purpose of the music:

The goal is to record songs that have been used in the streets and will be used in the streets in the struggle for Justice and Collective Liberation. We want to do a version of each song that can be taught and shared for other people to use. We want to use the power of the group to build the song and arrive together at the power and beauty of the most precious voice in the world: The People’s Voice. It is also our goal to enter into the feeling of these songs the same way we do instinctually when we take the streets and sacrifice our safely out of love for the people. This music is made to dissolve our fear and reveal the transformative power of our love. Lets enter into that. Let’s sing with the spirits of those locked up, those mourning, those loving, those hoping, those dying, those who have passed and the many more who have not yet arrived. Yes.

Double checking lyrics

And that’s what happens as we work on each song. They’re part song, part chant. A new from fit to the day taking the place of the old Pete Seeger songs that sustained generations of people in the struggle. It’s music that emerged from streets, easily memorized, simple, but with hip hop ethos, hip hop attitude. Usually unison but with occasionally room for gospel harmonies.

It comes from the people who are making this movement. We can accompany. We can march and sing along. Even add a harmony here and there. But in the end, then music, like the movement, is theirs.

LYRICS

OUR LIBERATION – Key: F, Tempo: 85

(Slow and Powerful)

MY LIBERATION

IS YOUR LIBERATION

AND YOUR LIBERATION

IS MY LIBERATION

LET ME HEAR THE PEOPLE SAY:

LET’S GET FREE,

LET’S GET FREE


RIGHT ON TIME

KEY: F TEMPO 85



FROM THE BRONX TO THE BAY AND

YOU KNOW WE NOT PLAYING

WE STAMPING OUT HATE

RIGHT ON TIME



THAT GOOD BLACK MAGIC

YOU KNOW WE BE ABOUT IT

SINGING BLACK LIVES MATTER

WE RIGHT ON TIME!


HOW CAN WE NOT REBEL?

Key: F Tempo: 117



MY BROTHER(SISTER)IS LOCKED IN A CELL, SO TELL ME HOW CAN WE

NOT REBEL?

AS LONG AS THESE PRISONS EXIST

WE’RE GONNA BE HERE TO RESIST!


THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE (Cm, 88)



THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US

THESE GUNS CAN’T STOP US


WE GUIDED BY THE SPIRITS OF THE ONES WE LOVE

NO GUN GONNA STOP US NOW



(COPS, JAILS, LIES)



8. WHY I WAS MADE (F, 80)



I AM NOT AFRAID

I AM NOT AFRAID

I WOULD DIE FOR LIBERATION


CUZ I KNOW WHY I WAS MADE

Seventh Sunday in Easter, Rising:Unbroken Circle

5/17

Andre, Stephanoie, Bob and Jillian

It’s the seventh, and last Sunday in Easter.  It’s AIDS WALK Sunday. Streets filed with marching people. Outside the Amsterdam Street festival is in full swing, inflated play spaces right outside our front doors. This will be a crazy day. Our them e today is Rising 6:  Unbroken Circle. One last time we will begin with  singing our Alleluias. Our first song will be the much maligned Kum Ba Yah. I’ll explain it’s intriguing trans-Atlantic journey back and forth between the US and Africa until Pete Seeger brings it back in it's African form. It deserves better than it’s current image as a camp fire song. 

Our first lesson this morning  is from Acts 1: 15-17, 21-26, the meeting to replace Judas. Following the First Psalm, we sing We shall not be moved. And then a brief reading from John 17: 10-14.

. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost… 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 

Our reflection begins and ends with music from our guests Stephanie Johnstone and Jillian Buckley. Songs from their new project, Love Songs for the rest of Us. (http://lovesongsfortherestofus.com/)

Stephanie and Jillian sing with us

Our theme this morning is the unbroken circle. We begin with the story about replacing Judas. He’s a character that has continued to capture out imaginations from Jesus Christ Super Star to the recently discovered gospel of Judas where Jesus needs someone very special to play this role and determines only Judas is strong enough to fulfill it. At its base is the need to need to keep the circle complete…

I’ve said many to me here form my experience in Oklahoma that my Native American friends always said that once a circle had been created it would always remain.  Our circle once made always remains…

The question has meaning for us. We have  lost numbers…how do we replace the people who have left? How do we complete our circle? Our situation is not dissimilar to main line   Christianity  as a whole, although  some congregations are doing quite well and will continue to do so. So how do we?

But reflecting on Stephanie’s project took me to a deeper place…how we have kept people out of the circle..

At the recent Rock Stars and Prophets celebration at Stony Point, a gathering of the people who worked and fought  all these years for LGBTQ inclusion in the church, I couldn’t help but think of   all those lost years, of rejection, of excluding….of my friend and fellow Yale student Chris, his ordination kept on ice for nearly 35 years…lost in our  celebration of inclusion, now won, is some kind of amends, an apology,

Young people today are  so  much cooler…In the Black Lives Matter movement self named  queer leadership is on the front of the struggle arm in arm with everyone else, It's a new day. 

Here’s what Jesus had to say:

10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost… 13But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 


Hear those words:
protect them…
guarded them…
not one lost…

If, as we have through this season, we are looking for Jesus, then we must look  at the edges, the margins, the outside of the circle…let us welcome him and join in his work of guarding, protecting…so we might be one…

Stephanie and Jillian share another song with us. And we pray. And receive the offering. An we conclude with Will the circle be unbroken? As I have adapted it. 

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
In the joyous days of childhood
Oft they told of wondrous love
Pointed to the loving Saviour;
Now they dwell with Him above.
(Chorus)
You remember songs of heaven
Which you sang with childish voice.
Do you sing new songs of freedom
And with loving hearts rejoice?
(Chorus)
Once we gather in our circle
That circle shall remain
We will be one in spirit
Until we’re home again.
 (Chorus)


After we sing our Amens, we share peace with one another. Tome to walk outside, explore the life of the street fair filling our street. 

Awakening 3: the second Sunday in Advent, Comfort Ye

12/7

We’re going to try it differently this week.  Our guest artist Stephanie Johnstone will participate with us during our regular service. Her choir will join us during worship. They will join us during the service, do their special music and then we’ll all conclude together.  Our theme for this week’s Awakening is : Comfort my people

We begin our service with the words of  O COME, O COME EMMANUEL as rewritten by Barbara Lundblad.

                                                                                                                                               

 O come, O come, Immanuel                                                       

And Melt ev’ry weapon crafted for war

Bring peace upon the earth for evermore

Rejoice, rejoice! Take heart and do not fear,

God’s chosen one, Immanuel, draws near.

 O come green shoot of Jesse, free

Your people from despair and apathy

Forge justice for the poor and meek

Grant safety for the young ones and the weak.

Rejoice, rejoice! Take heart and do not fear,

God’s chosen one, Immanuel, draws near.

As we light the Advent candle this week, again, our words fit the events of the week:

One: Our brothers and sisters are not yet free. Like captives and exiles in their own land, they mourn the loss of children with inconsolable grief.

All: We light this candle in solidarity. We light this candle to light the path from lament to hope. To the day of true emancipation when all will live in freedom.

One: Words like ‘Ferguson”, names like Michael Brown, Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, I can’t breathe make our days, resound in our nights. Bridges, highways, subways close. There is pain that goes beyond words, and the unbelievable that is only all too believable.

All: In such a world, the prophet cries Comfort, comfort my people…prepare the way …a new day is coming…a new day will come….

Our first lesson is from the prophet Isaiah:

¹   Comfort, O comfort my people, 
          says your God. 
²   Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, 
          and cry to her 
     that she has served her term, 
          that her penalty is paid, 
     that she has received from the Lord”s hand 
          double for all her sins.

³   A voice cries out: 
     “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, 
          make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
⁴   Every valley shall be lifted up, 
          and every mountain and hill be made low; 
     the uneven ground shall become level, 
          and the rough places a plain. 
⁵   Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, 
          and all people shall see it together, 
          for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

⁶   A voice says, “Cry out!” 
          And I said, “What shall I cry?” 
     All people are grass, 
          their constancy is like the flower of the field. 
⁷   The grass withers, the flower fades, 
          when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; 
          surely the people are grass. 

⁸   The grass withers, the flower fades; 
          but the word of our God will stand forever. 
⁹   Get you up to a high mountain, 
          O Zion, herald of good tidings; 
     lift up your voice with strength, 
          O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, 
          lift it up, do not fear; 
     say to the cities of Judah, 
          “Here is your God!” 
¹⁰  See, the Lord GOD comes with might, 
          and his arm rules for him; 
     his reward is with him, 
          and his recompense before him. 
¹¹  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; 
          he will gather the lambs in his arms, 
     and carry them in his bosom, 
          and gently lead the mother sheep.

Jeremy follows the prophetic words with  I Can See Clearly Now by Jimmy Cliff.

And Jeremy had written an new setting for a response to Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13:

O come Lord, come; restore and save us now.

The Gospel reading is Mark 1: 1-8:

¹The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

²As it is written in he prophet Isaiah, 
     “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, 
          who will prepare your way; 
³   the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 
          ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, 
          make his paths straight,’” 
⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

And these are my reflections:

It’s been yet another  painful and difficult week. We are supposed to have a word of Comfort this week….comfort my people……There is in the scripture a sense that the people were somehow responsible for what had happened to them and that is now over…their penalty has been paid. It’s an idea not appropriate to the experience of those so in need of comfort at this time. But more it is the suffering of the innocent.

We can’t help but hear these words, Comfort ye in the clear voice of Handel’s Messiah…They were the inspiration for a project of the same name, a project begun here 20 years ago when the brightest lights of the Metropolitan and City Operas would come together in a concert to benefit the homeless.

The message of the prophets was always consistent, it was always failure to do justice that destroyed and weakened a society from the inside making defeat and exile inevitable wrought from forces from the outside.…but now this exiled people gets to come home…

What are the images we are presented with?  In the desert,  a highway….a straight road…no more detours, no curves, no delays, no roadblocks …a straight path…

Mountains laid low, valleys lifted up…if you think about it, these are images of restitution, of setting things straight, of  evening things out… of ending disparity and inequity.

I’m thinking….people need comfort after this week…but not soothing words…maybe in order to get the road cleared for real progress , to build a straight highway, we need a season of blocking roads, highways, bridges …of stopping business as usual….maybe that’s what it takes…

After the Ferguson decision, our PCUSA denominational leaders asked for calm and prayer…my son emailed me, Seriously?

A voice cries in the wilderness….cries out…not whispers, murmurs or soothing tones…cries out…

The work of comfort is the work of lifting up the valleys, taking down the mountains…dealing with the realities of mass incarceration and income inequity….

An inequality greater than South Africa at the peak of apartheit….

The very first words of the gospel of Mark…are subversive…the word evangelion, gospel before this time always announced Roman military victories…another triumph of the empire…to say that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ was an act of rebellion…an act of sedition…an announcement that an alternative order was coming into being …

That is how we give comfort…both by engaging in the struggle that is outside….highways, valleys, and all….and by building communities that become visible signs of a new order….

We are called to make that announcement…to be the voice that cries…that stops business as usual…and seek to build an outpost of a new kingdom, a new kindom, a liberated space that already exists as it comforts us and sustains us in the continuing struggle…

We make our prayers, singing: Healer of our every ill., light of each tomorrow,Give us peace beyond our fear and hope beyond our sorrow.

And for our offertory, Jeremy plays Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. Every little thing gonna be all right…

And then sing the doxology to the tune of O Come, O come, Emmanuel. Then we share a EUCHARIST. Stephanie’s choir members joining us.  And then they share their performance. The first song an extended piece where we all join in, Stephanie  and  Jeremy leading us.

Jeremy and Stephanie lead us

Their second piece shows clearly Stephanie’s theatre training as an extended parable of two women speaks to the realities of our day, spoken word story over a chorus.

We end with a reprise of last week’s CLOSING SONG: Ella’s Song, still as painfully accurate as the day it was first sung:

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons

That which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail
And if I can but shed some light as they carry us through the gale

The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny

Struggling myself don't mean a whole lot, I've come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives

I'm a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard
At times I can be quite difficult, I'll bow to no man's word

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Our closing circle

The Movement Against Mass Incarceration  has called a meeting to discuss plans for a week of expressing rage over the Eric Garner decision.  Stephanie and her choir are in the gym recording so the group begins to gather in the sanctuary. They’ve reserved Mc Alpin , Hall expecting maybe 50-75 people. When I come back from my break, the room is completely filled, with people lining the stairs up and down. Leila and I scramble around opening up new rooms for break out groups. I haven’t seen anything like this since Occupy was here. Over 200 people have answered the call. Something new is happening...