Living in coronavirusworld 264: the in between

 May 9

blooming trees

what was this?

Cold and rainy Mothers Day.  More people in Penn Station since before..... And in the train.  And at Hamilton Station.  Homeless scattered and sleeping throughout Penn Station, And on the streets outside. And nearby, Throughout the city. Record numbers. I’ve lost count. 

My whole family gathers together at my sisters for the first time since Christmas 2019.  We feel like we need  a Christmas tree and an Easter egg hunt, a years’ worth of holidays to make up. 

Last week I played live music in an Irish pub in Long Island City with glass partitions between every table. And Saturday in a bar with a full house of full tables. And no partitions. But wear your mask to the restroom.

live music

At a Yankee Stadium, there’s a tent for vaccinations. Get a shot and a free ticket.. You need a photo ID and mobile ticket, negative test result or tax proof and a temperature check to get in. Supposedly 10,000 tickets sold but maybe 2-3000 there. People still insecure. Even with empty rows in front and back of you. They’re talking about next month having vaccinated and unvaccinated sections. 

Germany still under lockdown. A new surge in Ontario, Canadian border still closed. The Blue Jays start their season in Dunedin, Florida and are now moving to Buffalo so the Bisons are playing in Trenton.

Funeral pyres burn round the round the clock in India. Brazil too is overwhelmed. In Jerusalem, the final pushing of Palestinians out of the East Jerusalem  Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is underway and protesters amid Ramadan crowds at Al Aqsa on the Temple Mount are met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Shepherds in the south Hebron hills are driven out of their grazing grounds. 

With doors reopening, life returning in so many ways, our mood should be lightening. Like summer. My mom’s facility let me take her out in her wheel chair and we walk around the lake in the sun stopping to smell the the blooming  trees. It feels good. 

There were at least 10 mass shootings last weekend, 194 in 18 weeks.  Like the homeless, we’ve stopped counting. Yet another pandemic. 

every vote must count

blooms

I want to feel relieved, to open up to flourish again, as they call it.  But across the country Republican legislatures are launching the worst voter suppression laws since the post Reconstruction Jim Crow days. Seeking revenge against black voters for the defeat of Trump.  They say  they have to restore confidence in the voters the it was only the election result lies that sowed lack of confidence in the first place. Arizona puts a recount of already four times audited election results in the hands if a company called Cyber Ninjas looking for bamboo ballots from China.  On Fredrick Douglas Boulevard, marchers invoke the name of John  Lewis  and demand an end to suppression. 

Loyalty to the deposed Don in his Mar a Lago Elba remains the Republican litmus test as they prepare to drive out Liz Cheney, a true conservative, from her leadership position for the unforgivable sin of refusing to support a lie.

This undercurrent reminds  me that there is the reality like the 45% of Chileans still preferring Pinochet three decades after the return to democracy. That reality is still there, not even under the surface. 

A year ago, I cherished each day of spring as it passed. Marked subtle daily changes and embraced the quiet and sound of birds. Even on the midst of Central Park medical emergency field tents.  I could  imagine  a healed earth. 

Today the days rush by, melting one into the other and it's May  already and I continue to, as they say, languish. So far from flourishing.

I wrote in a song:

Like buds waiting to bloom

We ease our heads back into the open

What’s gone is gone, won’t come again

What will be is not yet seen

We are living  somewhere in between

It’s been a year

And we are here.

This is what it’s like. In the in between.

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.