Living in coronavirusworld 171: We are getting by

 

9/20

9th Avenue Sunday night

It was supposed to be my first visit to a New York City church since the virus took over.  It was to be a memorial service for a stalwart couple who had kept the church going. Who died one week apart of Covid19. When I started out, I discovered the A train had derailed so I had to get an Uber all the way out to Ozone Park. Looking forward to being with this congregation of Indians from Trinidad and the West Indies. While waiting for the church to open, I find a Polish deli left over from the days when this section was filled with immigrants from Poland. As the church remains locked, I discover I have gotten the day wrong, It was yesterday, My reopening experience will have  to wait.

Russ leads the worship service for West Park focusing on Matthew 18: 21-35. He includes Malvina Reynolds classic “It isn’t nice” and a clip  from Lewis CK about fairness. 

                                                Malvina Reynolds "It isn't nice"
(“The only reason you ever look into the otther person’s pot is to make sure they’ve  got enough…”), well and me, playing Dylan’s “The Times They are a Changin’” He tries to move the conversation beyond one of fairness towards God’s reversal of status, but it's hard. People are interested in the  transformation that has to take place to get there. No matter what time you start to work, everybody’s got to have a living wage. That’s how it is in God’s kingdom. Not easy to get there.

We celebrate Rosh Ha Shana with my son in Brooklyn.  With raisin bread challah French toast from the round loaf I bought at the farmers’ market and bacon. Joined by our son in Berlin where life has all but returned to normal.

Turns out to be my best night yet at Bar 9. All it tales is one person listening to lift me up. Then more are. Somebody’s shooting a video. People ask where to get my music. Name other songs they wanted to hear. The air feels like September. Like fall. I wonder how many more nights we can do this. We have to enjoy every one.  As I walk up the street, I see people together, drinking, singing. “…Tiny dancer…” along with the singer at the piano. Lights sparkle and dance on 9th Avenue. We are getting by.

Living in. coronavirusworld 170: L'Shana tovah

 

9/18

All is one

A day so much out of the house….coffee with a friend whose sister died. A well known author. Long family debates about what they could do in the midst of Covid. Had to make a decision fast. Just direct family members, graveside.  A local Episcopal priest, sensitive to the needs of the family. And it was over. The  public memorial that would have been  so meaningful to so many couldn’t happen.  I will tell her that when this is over, it would still be appropriate. The months have  been hard on my friend. Months without seeing …or touching…her grandchildren. I know what that feels like. Finally over. For her.  The disorienting brokenness of time and how hard it is to maintain your sense of identity in isolation, alienated from your regular sense of order. Taking its toll.

Dinner with another friend. As the sun sets, it’s getting that feeling of fall in the air. Unmistakably.  We haven’t seen each other in six months. She is a pastor on the staff of a tall steeple church. No stopping live streaming any time soon. Even with their resources, health concerns are paramount. No reopening until sometime next year. We have other friends we need to reconnect with. Another friend left after 20 years to return to Scotland. In the midst of covid. We never got to say goodbye.  He had been kind of the glue for the  clergy in the  neighborhood. Called us together for study. And social events. And sometimes  even action. It was a completely unofficial role. But he filled it.  Since he’s gone, no one has taken his place.  Which makes it so hard to respond to something like the current homeless in hotels controversy in the upper westside as an organized faith community.  Oh, and this was her first August in over a decade to be in the city and not Europe. 

Sahbbat shalom

Tonight is Rosh Ha Shana. The Jewish New Year. This was my post:

To my chaverim....L'shanah tovah....if ever there was a time we needed a fresh start, this would be it...let this be a beginning and may we make the most of it...

A friend posted this message:

RBG 

RIP

According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah, which began tonight, is a tzaddik, a person of great righteousness. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.

That word, tzaddik, truly defines Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died today. May she rest in power. 

Her loss is great. Especially knowing that the Republicans will do everything in their power to push through a nominee before the election. Even given that Senator McConnell proudly refused to allow  President Obama’s nominee to even be presented and heard. ‘Let the people decide” he said then. Now he says, the people decided. Hey, one more struggle in a year of struggle.

9/19

The year of coronavirus (Farmers' Market art) 

Stop the dying (Farmers' Market art)

The trip to the farmer’s market yields fresh apples and a round raisin challah for Rosh Ha Shana. And a bottle of artisanal rye. Masks in place, as always.

Going to the Times Square neighborhood to see my first live concert in six months. A new music chamber group.  In a rehearsal studio. Masks required. Only ten audience members allowed. 

On the subway ride there, for the first time in six months, the “show time” B-Boys are back using subway racks and polls for intricate daring athletic gymnastic hip hop dance moves. They ask several of us to move  for room for their show.  I regret how ambivalent I feel about all this. On the one hand, they present another small step on the road back to normalcy. On the other, I enjoyed the quiet spaced out rides these last several months. A reminder of the daily human hum and throb we accept as normal. ‘I miss the quiet,”: she said.

The street speaks

To get into the concert, I have to have a beam shined on my forehead to take my temperature. Have to remove my hat. A Siri-like voice responds “temperature normal” and I enter. I have missed these musician friends. Obviously most of their audience is still  online. The concert is “This is the winter of our discotheque.” Mixing together Shakespeare, disco, chamber and covid. It’s oaky to raise  your mask for a vodka.

I linger in Times Square on the way home. Amazed at how many people are out. Street performers are back. And the annoying cartoon characters who try to get you to take their picture fo r$20. My annoyance argues with my awareness that most of these characters are immigrants doing their best just to get by. I have not seen the Naked Cowboy or las desnudas yet, however. Who is here? Why? Certainly not tourists. Not with 31 states still on the quarantine list. Probably a pretty fair share of Bridge and Tunnel people. Other than the street performers, nothing's going on. No Broadway shows, no music scene to speak of.  Maybe just some city people happy to get out. Happy to recreate something that brings back a memory of a different time. The performers, the characters, desperately need the money. 

Living in coronavirusworld 169: Like time out of joint

 

9/16

.....and still matter....

Pittsburgh

In recognition  of the opening of the NFL season, I wear a hat from my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers but the shirt I wear was a design created after the Tree of Life shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 18, in 2018. ( I’m still somewhat annoyed that local congregation Romemu has used it as  part of their branding. Something about it to me  is just not appropriationable.)

Romemu sign

I like that all but one Steeler had  the name of Antwon Rose, Jr., a Pittsburgh  teenage victim of police shooting, on the backs of their helmets. But anything the NFL does related to justice without Colin Kaepernick  remains hollow. 

We are discussing a  New Yorker  article on Christianity’s White Supremacy Problem by Michael  Luo. We  remain curious as to the evangelicals’ continued support for Trump.  It seems to be about power. Facing the reality that whites will soon be in the minority in this country. That Charlottesville chant: “You will not replace us.”  The article begins by recounting how Fredrick Douglass thought his owner would act better after his conversion..  In fact, he became harder in his ways, feeling theologically justified.  We continue to love with that legacy.

Joel recalls the infamous obedience experiment where participants are commanded to inflict pain on a subject. How quickly most agree. 

Denial keeps white privilege in place.

We also speak of tribalism and identity....Again. We asked ourselves how important is our identity as being Christian?  As a way in, a way to, or a way through?

Steve P  divides people into mature and not mature as to their understanding of their place in the world, openness to others.

I remember a book a family friend recommended to me one time. A novel called “The Scheme of things.”  The premise is that there is the way things are (the ultimate truth, which we can never fully know) and the scheme of things, the framework we choose to organize our life, be it Christianity or Marxism or “the market” or…We all choose a "scheme." The problem comes when we mistake our chosen scheme for the way things are. 

Addiction (in the broadest sense) leads to calcification leads to idolatry. 

The Malik EL Shabazz African market is open again...

Market is open

My friends open another season of their Glooey Zoomy Show creating a community of artistic exploration (and even whimsy) in the midst of pandemic. Which, sadly, continues. 

9/17

Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man

Yankee protest

My 5K today takes me though Harlem into the South Bronx. Along the way, I pass memorial to Ralph Ellison, author of the iconic novel Invisible Man.  I arrive at Yankee Stadium too late to see the protest from earlier in the day with neighbors demanding the Yankees pay a fair share, while so may small businesses that are codependent on the Yankees…bars, restaurants, apparel and memorabilia stores, etc .....are going bankrupt in the pandemic. 

Speaking of time....

I meet my friend Beppe at the Gate for my personal celebration of Halfway to St.Patrick’s day. That was the day everything shut down leaving bar windows in an eerie state of decorated suspended animation. The uncelebrated St.Patrick’s Day decorations stayed up for weeks, if not months, leaving a definite post-apocalyptic vibe. It has been six months. So I order my Jameson’s on the rocks and a Guinness.  We reflect on six months. Beppe talks abut the feeling of being unmoored. Of time feeling out of joint. Was it truly summer? The last six months like one long extended Covid season. Other than cooler air, what will be fall? One day flows into the next and it all kind of mushes together. It’s 8:30. Still around 70’ out. I am savoring the Guinness. 

Review: Sanctuary....., by Heidi B. Neumark

Sanctuary: Being Christian in the Wake of Trump, by Heidi B. Neumark  (Eerdmans)

Sanctuary.....

Heidi Neumark is a mother. Grandmother.  Daughter. Wife. Organizer. Mentor. Theologian. Author. Storyteller.  Pastor….  All of these are present in Heidi’s new book, Sanctuary:  being Christian in the wake of Trump. More than any, it is the voice of the pastor that stays with us after spending a liturgical year, moving through the seasons with the Trinity Lutheran congregation. And their pastor. (I was somewhat surprised at her choice to begin the book with Christmas and end with Advent, the beginning of the church year.  When I finished the book, I understood. That is where we are.) Using the term “Sanctuary” in its current usage as a holy place of refuge, primarily for refugee migrants, Heidi used the word as well as a metaphor for the the broadest and most basic call in what it means to be a Christian congregation.

Each chapter begins with an actual quote from the President. Then instead of engaging in rhetorical or didactic debate we are shown, not told, through concrete examples, stories, of what an alternative reality looks like. What an authentic community of faith in practice looks like. What lived faith looks like.  As a pastor, Heidi understands that one of her responsibilities is the ongoing exegesis of the daily lives of the people of God.  Her theology is expressed not in systematic development, but emerging from the stories of the  lives of her community 

This has been one of the best gifts of Heidi Neumark as an author. In Breathing Space: A spiritual journey in the South Bronx, we come to understand how mysticism and old school community organizing work together. And in Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets,Memory and Faith we learn through her discovery of her own family’s Jewish roots of  the darkness of the long history of Christian anti-semitism and the deep connections between the sibling descendants of the ancient faith of Israel. In .Sanctuary…, we learn how a small but widely (and wildly) diverse Christian community can be a counter cultural community of resistance challenging  the status quo just by its existence, its presence. We see the social exegesis and theology expressed in liturgy and celebration, learned through the experience and reflection. The social witness of the church emerges out of and is an expression of its ministry, not ideology.

Perhaps most powerful statement comes in her critique of the Lutheran project,  Golden Rule 2020, intended to increase civility in the US through "understanding." Heidi says: 

"To my mind we desperately need to overcome injustice and to relieve suffering-- even though doing so might lead to increasing polarization. When the Trump Administration has held nearly seventy thousand children in detention facilities, civility is not what's called for."

One comes away from “Sanctuary..” with respect and appreciation not only for the pastor, but also for the people of the congregation. For their willingness to grow and stretch and love more, honoring cultures and traditions but being brave enough to go beyond them into uncharted territory as well. Certainly the historic church in its current form is in crisis. The model as it is cannot long survive. Certainly, many well endowed tall steeples will survive as examples of “Church Classic, ” but many of our mainline smaller church will just be gone.  If there is a future for congregational ministry, I suspect it’s going to look a lot like this, the Trinity we encounter in Sanctuary……

Thank you Heidi Neumark for your contribution to our understanding  of  urban pastoral ministry.

Living in coronavirusworld 168 : It continues to shape our lives

9/15

a gathering of turtles

 The biggest issue facing the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and. Housing right now is the ongoing controversy over people who were homeless taken from covid dangerous overcrowded shelters and placed in unused boutique hotels in the traditionally liberal elite Upper West Side. Aggressive backlash from entitled neighbors, even when countered by good hearted groups like Open Heart UWS, bolstered by hiring a former deputy mayor as their attack dog attorney, was enough to push a lame duck vanishing mayor into declaring their removal. This unfortunately meant setting off a domino effect, forcing people with disabilities from housing specially designed for them and then scattering them throughout the boroughs disrupting others’ lives. Thankfully, the Legal Aid Society stepped in. The exodus was halted. To date, 40 persons have been removed for the Lucerne Hotel and 240 still remain. Even though homeless advocates have raised owe $200000 to provide services for the hotel residents, the city will be spending over $100000 to litigate to get them out. This is happening when there was a record nearly 70000 homeless persons in New York City. And now there are already 14000 pending evictions in the system with another flood to come in 4-5 months. Yet another crisis brought on by the virus. We’ve got to try and rally a scattered faith community to try and bring more support for the hotel residents and their advocates over against those who just want then out. Sometimes in a crisis, in this city, we don’t take care of each other. 

New York City Presbytery, the governing body for Presbyterians in the city, is wrestling with the pressure for churches to reopen. To allow those renters to reenter because so many depend on the rental income for survival. Presbytery only has 40% of the income it did a year ago, Staff cuts would seem to be imminent, but those who would be most likely to be terminated are the BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) employees. Personnel committee recommends status quo, even without sufficient funds. The next Presbytery meeting is set to be all virtual. All on ZOOM. But the Black Presbyterian Caucus maintains this will disenfranchise people of color and low income persons who are less likely to be computer owners or tach savvy. That makes for the longest debate of the evening, We know from experience that phones just don't provide an adequate participatory experience , voting is not possible in ZOOM with a dial in phone. So many issues and conflict of values to sort this one out. Eventually, we decide that we  will seek to secure smart phones for those without computers and teach them how to use them. Easier said than done. 

 Taco Tuesday. The owner of Cantina tells me already 10 percent of restaurants have permanently closed. Even with limited capacity reopening scheduled for September 29, it still looks like 40% of our owners will go out of business. Two exhausting ZOOM meetings and even my dinner, all controlled or impacted by the virus. It continues to shape our lives.We step towards normal, but it’s way beyond what we can see.

Living in coronavirusworld 167: A living wage

 

9/14

A bird house on 115th Street 

Our International Sanctuary work group gathers. After an assault by 4 Blackhawk helicopters, an armored personnel carrier and 50-60 agents rushing in, 30 asylum seekers detained and expelled and 7 pacifist medical volunteers taken into custody at the No Mas Muertos emergency  medical facility just north of the US-Mexico border, the volunteers are back at work, the work of saving lives continues.  These days, anyone crossing the border is immediately deported. Returned to Mexico only to cross back again.  A deadly game cat and moue continues. Never allowed to apply for the internationally recognized right to asylum. A “civil initiative” has begun recording testimonies of asylum seekers at the Holocaust Museum and the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The aim is “safe asylum”, an international right , on both sides of the border. 

On our northern border, Canada still has no interest in opening  up to crossing from the US. Attempted border crossings slow to a trickle. 

This is the  month for the US to set its annual immigration caps. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, so valuable for its work in Juarez, and so many other places, has filed suit to open doors.

German protestants  have succeeded in getting four boats onto the Mediterranean but are still blocked on the EU borders like Italy. Our German  colleagues are working to gain welcome for the stranded refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, but still without success.

Trinidad, a short 40 miles  from Venezuela, has become a new locos of refugee seekers. The Pope has honored the Catholic workers in Trinidad. Rohinga refugees from Myanmar have begun arriving there as well as Myanamar soldiers defect and report orders to kill all, women and children included.

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation has testified in Geneva before the Inernational Human Rights Commission regarding systematic violation of Black Americans’ rights in the US. 

It’s easy to get so caught up in our daily madness in the US and miss what’s going on in the the world around  us, a world in crisis. 

                                                                                                    ****

Tonight we are studying Matthew 20: 1-16, the parable of the  laborers in the field. You know the one where the manager keeps going back and hiring  people all day long and everybody gets paid the same regardless what time they started and some workers who worked all day  are upset at the  perceived unfairness  of it all and the message ends with the  last shall be first. It follows the story of the rich young ruler. (Master, what  must I do…..?) Leila reacts to the unfairness, Marsha hears echoes of “from each according to their ability to each according to their need…” We discover that the denarius paid as a wage was equivalent to what it would take to feed a peasant family for one day, in other words, a living wage. For everyone. None left out one street. There is simply no denying the social policy implications of Jesus’ parable. He is ultimately proclaiming for his  kindom, a relational ethic, not a transactional ethic. 

The parable has a sense of familiarity to me. I saw in Santiago, Chile the  Venezuelans gathering in the plaza early in the morning for day labor jobs. In Tulsa, I  remember the Mexican farm laborers gathering downtown hiring for a day’s work, waiting for the farm trucks to stop by to pick workers. Prior  to the virus, our Micah Faith Table had been  working  in building support for a real living wage, as in $20 an hour instead of $15. It strikes me that we can pay a football player, Patrick Mahomes,  $50 million dollars per year for 10 years and complain that $20 an  hour will somehow wreck the economy. Money has no  meaning and means everything. (Mahomes hourly wage? Approximately $26000.)

It seems we are called on to create community that practice relational ethics within the community, an as if kindom community, while working for public polices that allow people to simply live. And with dignity.

Its the first football game for my hem town Steelers. I go to the grocery store fully prepared. A guy passes, Stops. Says "I like  your hat. And shirt, Oh, and shopping bag. Damn, even socks! Good luck tonight!”

..

Living in coronavirusworld 166: It would look something like this

 9/12

Hope for Harlem

I look out on Saturday modeming to see that First Corinthian Baptist has filled the entire block with tabes and bags. Filled with school supplies of all kinds. Food, both prepared and groceries. Household products of all kind, It’s a daylong project called “Hope for Harlem.” That’s what FCBC does. They make hope concrete and consistent. All the time. That’s what being the urban church in the global city is all about. 

125th Street kiosk

Little Afrrica

Loving the open air street festival  that 125th is, especially oh Saturdays. Vendors of all kinds. “Black Lives Matter” merch ubiquitous.  The African  women vendors with favors and African foods line 116th, the heart of Little Africa.

The streets are blocked off as part of the city’s “open streets” program. We meet where we had planned on 116 and Fredrick Douglass. But every restaurant has its own DJ and competing sounds are blasting into  the street. We get our food at the Jamaican seafood place and retreat to the north end of  Morningside Park. Sharing food. And conversation. “ I miss the quiet” she says. I do too. The sound of birds in Central Park…

9/13

Play an “oldie,” ‘Just as I am” in a Sunday morning service led by Dion that focuses on forgiveness. Great that Amberley, who used to visit from Toronto, now joins us regularly on ZOOM.

Our family gathers for its weekly visit. We’re talking about the northwest, social unrest, armed groups, some shooting. Fire fed orange skies. City streets filled with smoke, Populations evacuated. My oldest son in Berlin says, ‘I don’t know if there is a God. But if there was, and that God wanted to get our attention, I think it would look a lot like this…”  My friends in Portland living in the midst of apocalypse. 

Gov. David Patterson

At Bar 9, I do my set with no “unforced errors.” Even without my harmony singer. She shows a little later. We see someone who looks like Fred Armisen from Saturday Night Live. Which would  not be a surprise since SNLfolks hang out here. My friend remembers how Armisen played former New York  Governor David Patterson on the show. She asks the host if that is indeed Fred Armisen, "No", he says , "that’s they Governor.” So we had David Patterson as Fred Armisen as David Patterson. 

Dan Smith will teach you guitar

The Governor heard it through the Grapevine 

The Governor is there as special guest of living legend Dan Smith.  Mr. Smith is a quintessential New York City story. Over 20 years his self made flyers with his face and “Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar”. Have been seen in delis, bodegas, laundromats. Kiosks. He has made his way into the city’s collector consciousness. Tonight Bar 9 is celebrating (unofficially) Dan Smith Night. Free t-shirts for performers! The Governor tells how he found the flyer and his wife insisted he call.  Dan Smith changed my life, says the Governor.  Then we get to hear the Governor back up Dan on “Stand by Me” and take the lead on “I heard it through the grapevine.’ I love New York City.  Even in coronavirusworld.