Faith Enough

10/5

Sunday morning Beverly Road

Walking up Beverly Road to church for World Communion Sunday.  After we read Psalm 133: 1-5, I start to sing 'By the Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M. And everyone starts to sing along!I realize we all were young then, when it first came out....we read the Gospel, and then its time for my reflection....

                                                                  Rivers of Babylon

So today is World Wide Communion Sunday. I want you to think about that. This morning, when we share the bread and cup, we will be doing so with brothers and sisters all around the world. All around the world. 

I'm jut back from Central America. Just got back last night. My spirit and soul still trying to catch up with my body. It's not easy. Part of me is still back down there in Nicaragua.  And Costa Rica. But today when we share our communion, I'll be sharing it with my brothers and sisters down there. And the people I spent the week with...Tracey in Managua and Chris in San Jose and Dennis in Phoenix and Linda in Chicago and Leslie in California and Douglass in Mississippi and Matt in North Carolina and Caroline in New Jersey...who are you sharing communion with this morning? Where are they? Bring their faces to your mind when we do that this morning. And my friend Chris with the troubled Korean congregation out in Bayside and my Guyana friends in Ozone Park...Presbyterian friends throughout this city...and around the world..they are all here with us...

Our gospel this morning raises an interesting question...and makes two good points. 

The question is this...how much faith is enough? The apostles want more...makes me wonder how much faith do you have? How much do I have? What does it feel like? Is it enough? How much do you need?

Jesus' answer is interesting. Jesus says all you need to have is that of a mustard seed and it is enough. Enough. Listen to what he is saying. There's no degrees of faith. You either have or you don't.  If you've even got a mustard seed's worth, that's enough.  Let's think about that. If you've got even a tiny little fingers worth, God can work with that. Mountains will be moved.

I first went to Nicaragua 40 years ago. The people  had just overthrown a vicious dictator. A new world seemed possible. Everything seemed possible. And we rejoiced in their faith and in what they had accomplished and we wanted to believe in their revolution. Like they were responsible to make my dream real.  

We went back because one of my elders who was part of that revolution asked us to. To see and hear and witness and come back and share. After 40 years, what do they have? A greatly divided country where neighbors can't speak to neighbors. Some still believe  in the government. No matter what it does. Others look at the corruption. And the violence. And the people who have left home and say "no more!" (Any of that sound familiar?)

And the President who has unleashed the troops on students has become an "apostle" of a neo-Pentecostal preacher. And his followers say he is doing God's will. I always felt they needed some presbyterian skepticism. That our tradition says that no party, no movement, no politician can ever be the full expression of the full will of God. All will  fall short. All will need to be held accountable and brought to critique. Remember that.That's who we are. 

I look at the and feel their tiredness and their weariness as they ask, "How many times do we have to live through this? How many times can we do this? Do I have the courage, the strength, to do this again? And I admire their courage...their strength their faith...and know if there is even a mustard seed's strength, they will win. 

But also perhaps remember, be careful what you put your faith in. Because the message is clear. Nothing human will ever fulfill all we expect it to.

But as he always does, Jesus has another point to make as well...all that business about slaves...what it comes down to is this...we want to raise up children...and each  other...to do what is right...not because of any potential reward, but because it is what we are supposed to do. 

The little french town of Le Chambon sur Lignon..during World War II..a Protestant town...our French cousins as it were...each family saved one Jewish family ...when they were invited to be honored, they declined. It was nothing special, only what they were supposed to be. When asked how they  could do it, pastor Trocme pointed to the inscription above the church door that said, "Little children, love one another" then said, "How could I see that every Sunday and not respond?" Just doing what we're supposed to do. 

Are we developing so that we can do what's right when the chips are down just because it's who we are? Can Beverley church be that?

Let's keep that in our minds this morning as we take our communion...amen...

After the  service is breaking of bread...this Sunday, Jamaican jerk chicken...I've still got a very full day ahead...

Back to Beverly

Gospel Luke 17:5-10

5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

7"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? 8Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have 

Test question

10/7

Welcome Evgeny

Today is a very special day in the life of Beverley Church. For the first time in many years, they are welcoming a new member. Evgeny came first as a handyman but was attracted to the fellowship and has decided to become a member. And this is an occasion for celebration!

But first, my reflection for the day....

It's good to be back, and as always, there's a lot going on. Today is Worldwide Communion Sunday which means when we break bread together later today that we will doing so at the same time with brothers and sisters all around the globe. That's a powerful thought...to be part of a worldwide family of followers of Christ with a loaf that symbolizes one true loaf and  a cup that is our common shared cup. 

We also have another holiday weekend. Columbus Day Weekend to be exact. We've travelled a long way from when I was a kid and we were taught in school" in fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue....":
* He never actually set foot on this continent.
* Turns out he was not a very nice guy, to say the least
* This was not in fact India and the people who lived here were not Indians but they've been stuck with that ever since 
* Though this week I saw the "Israel Unite in Christ" people out on Lexington and 116th and following up on one of their fliers discovered that on subsequent voyages that  Columbus actually did think  he had discovered the "12 lost tribes of Israel"

Israel Unite in Christ

* And Columbus' discovery would eventually lead to a genocide of native peoples in this hemisphere..
* Last year when I was in Argentina, there was an alternative celebration held in a recently discovered historic black neighborhood featuring indigenous people and their music and dance 

Anti-Columbus Day celebration, Parana, Argentina

Not "discovered"

* But in Central America when I was there, the day was celebrated as "el encuentro...el dia de la raza.." The vast majority of Central American peasants are mestizo...mixed native and European a direct result of Columbus' visit...
SO it is complicated.....and Italians are none too happy about all of this..

And we've lived though a very rough and divisive week...like which week isn't?  Where it seems like the Republicans wanted Kavanagh approved just out of spite and we wind up with a President mocking a woman who had been abused. A shameful action in what has been a shameless administration. It is depressing....

So what's happening with Jesus this week? Looks like he's being examined by hostile conservatives determined to make him look bad. With test questions...

Starting with a question about divorce. And his answer is hard....
 "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

It is for this reason the Catholic church has never allowed divorce. And for most of our history our own Presbyterian church wouldn't accept a divorced pastor. Nor our country a divorced President. It was really seen as wrong...But what was Jesus really saying? If you look closely, the way the divorce has worked was that a man could get a certificate of divorce for his wife. She would have no recourse or defense. A man...and not a woman. And if a woman wanted out and the man disagreed, he could hold her in bondage forever. 

And in Jesus' society, divorced women were the most vulnerable, as vulnerable as widows.  Jesus' hard line here is not standing up for an institution, marriage, it's standing up for vulnerable women.  You don't have to ask where he would be. He'd be side by side with Christine Blasey Ford...and every woman who's ever been abused. That's what this verse means and what Jesus means.

Therefore it makes perfect sense that the next topic to come up for Jesus in this passage is children..because his disciples are discouraging their presence. In his society, children were only slightly less vulnerable than women. But beyond their vulnerability, there's something else about them....the way they receive the kingdom...and when I try to understand this, I think of my grandson, y'all know what I'm talking about....the way he looks at the world....that sense of awe and wonder like a very special gift is   being opened just for him.  That's how Jesus wants us to receive the kingdom...not like a careful rule book, not as a disciplinary measure...but as a truly awesome beautiful reality. 

How do you think Jesus feels bout this? Last week the NewYork Times reported:
In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas.

Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases.

Friends ...this is our country...this is our government...Jesus is in those tents with those children....

Take a look at the Jesus we meet today under hostile questions meant to test him. He takes us away from debates about  doctrine or rules to compassion for the vulnerable...and if he is with them, he is surely here with us...

Let us allow him to show us where and how we need to be. And live in the confidence that  he will be with us as we respond...

Following the sermon, we officially welcome Evgeny as a member of the church.  It turns out that even though he had grown up in the Soviet Union, his grandmother had secretly had him baptized. We go through the reaffirmation of baptism liturgy and welcome him as a member, including the laying on of hands. Following communion, Evgeny goes downstairs to finish preparations for the celebratory feast he has prepared. And for a final benediction, I she these words from Lutheran Pastor Anna Blaedel:

blessed are you who are raging. 
blessed are you who are mourning. 
blessed are you who feel numb. 
blessed are you who feel sick. and tired. and sick and tired.
blessed are you who refuse to turn away.
blessed are you who need to turn away. 
blessed are you who keep breathing deep. 
blessed are you who are tending to your own needs. blessed are you who are tending to the needs of another.
blessed are you who have been calling. 
blessed are you who have been organizing.
blessed are you who have been testifying. 
blessed are you who have been hearing. 
blessed are you who have been resisting.
blessed are you who feel broken open beyond repair. blessed are you who are raw beyond words.
blessed are you who are working hotlines and crisis care centers and bearing witness to the forces of violence and trauma unleashed and unloosed. 
blessed are you who are marching. 
blessed are you who are weeping.
blessed are you who preach and know that divinity resides in despised, abused, violated flesh. 
blessed are you who know deep in your bones that you are good. and beautiful. and beloved. and sacred. and worthy. and believed. and held. and capable of healing.
beyond your wildest imagination. 
blessed are you who remind others they are good. and beautiful. and beloved. and sacred. and worthy. and believed. and held. and capable of healing beyond their wildest imagination.
blessed are we when we dare to dream of a world without sexual violence, without white supremacy, without misogyny, without police brutality, without anti-trans and anti-queer violence.
blessed are we when we stay tender. 
blessed are we when we stay fierce. 
blessed are we when we dare to imagine repair, and transformation. 
blessed are we when we labor together to make it so.

Then we go downstairs to celebrate with a classic Russian feast including just a touch of коньяк. It has been a very beautiful day.

Celebrating

Welcome Evgeny

2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

He's got the whole world

10/5

Arrive a the church to find Joe and the gang still on the steps. Tell them I’m opening the  door soon. Rob the white guy back. Wondering what’s up. Tells me that he’s now in a place  in Yonkers. And working temp. But with the government shutdown, his case his case is stuck somewhere between Manhattan and Westchester. Him and how many others? He’s here to visit with his family. Offers to sweep up, but by the time I get back with broom and pan, he’s gone.

This week’s surprise is RL’s friend Thatcher and his wife have come to join us for worship.  His turn to usher up in Westshester and he’s decided to come here instead. Turns out Marsha and his wife are connected to the same workplace, Seniorbridge. 

I start us with It’s me, it’s me, it’s me oh Lord, standin’ in the need of prayer...

Point out that Jerry Garcia and the Wildwood Boys sang this as a sacred song at Jerry’s wedding.

We start out with Lamentations. (1: 1-7, 3: 19-26) How lonely sits the city that was once full of people....Pittsburgh in the  ’80’s, Detroit now? I point out that this is the exile the prophets have been talking about for weeks now. I mention that every summer our Jewish neighbors commemorate Tish’a’bav, the destruction of the first temple. And the readings are the book of Lamentations. The people have all gone, been taken, away.

The thought of my homelessness is wormwood and gall....

It is likely our night at the shelter.  That tonight is our night to serve at the homeless shelter. For those of us who serve there, it is revelatory. Many have jobs. Children. But still can’t get housing. And I think of Rob. Stuck in a government shutdown. Wormwood and gall....

But it is more than that. God’s mercies are...new every morning...

Psalm 139 is another of the greatest hits Psalms. Exile again. The opening lines

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion.

Became well known through Bob Marley and the Wailers. in Jamaica, Babylon was America, the forces of colonialism. I remembered hearing it sung by Lebanese civil war exiles in Cyprus. A longing to go home.

For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?

Or as Marley sang, how can we sing King Alphas song in a strange land?

But the psalm ends in  one of the strangest, most violent passages in the Bible:

Happy the one who takes and dashes
Your little ones against the rock!

Bashing children’s heads against the rock? Whoa I remember Walter Wink reflecting on this one time. Many of us sensitive types would ban this verse  from the Bible.This psalm clearly not written from the triumphal time of David. Wink asked us to reflect on the feelings of an exiled people. A captive people. An occupied people. These are feelings of anger coming  from a sense of hopelessness. Of humiliation. Of dignity take away. We have to acknowledge those feelings. Give them up to to God. Or else we become suicide bombers. Psalms like this encourage us to share with God exactly what we feel. So that it can go somewhere else.

When the psalm is done, I pick up my guitar and do my own version of Marley’s Rivers of Babylon...a few more times and I might actually get this reggae thing...

With 2 Timothy 1: 1-14. Not a letter to a church for a particular reason.Not a letter of general moral exhortation. But a letter to a particualr person. And the references to two very specific people, Lois and Eunice...in the end, that’s what it is about. Specific people. With names.Relationships. that’s where the  holy lives. And we go around the circle and each name one who made us who we are. and as always, the answers are heavy on moms and dads.

Finally the Gospel. (Luke 17: 5-10)Increase our faith.You can’t increase faith.You either have it or not. Even the tiniest grain as the capacity to grow. Even the tiniest bit of faith is faith. The last part of the passage verges on the incomprehensible. But the first pat is clear. You either have it or you don’t.

it’s worldwide communion Sunday. We share our places of origin. our roots. Havana. China. Scots-Irish. French. German. Japanese-cabresan Italian. Texas. And I identify the stoles on the communion table: Mayan. Guatemalan. African kinte cloth. Palestinian embroidery from Jerusalem. More Light stoles of protest, now welcome to be worn by our servers, this week John R and Nirka as we share our bread and cup.From the Latvian potter Valda. from Pittsburgh. 

In honor of St. Francis and maybe the new pope,I bless all the dogs present today. Five of them! Including regulars puppy and Tony. And I let myself be awed by interspecies connection, understanding. Relationship. Something holy there. 

 sing l watch soccer from italy with Beppe. then  the Bucs vs. St.Louis from Pittsburgh. And end at my serbian friend Milica’s gallery. The artist s Itlaian. From Sardinia like beppe. The dancer Asian. 

World wide communion Sunday. He’s got the whole world......