Living in Coronavirusworld 229: Third Sunday in Advent, view from Palestine

 

12/15

                                                             Harlem Meer floating tree                                                                                                                                                                          

Today I join in the Advent prayer and Bible from the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem (https://sabeel.org/) led by my friend Naim Ateek. I have known Naim for 35 year now. He is the father of Palestinian Liberation Theology and has endured much criticism and accusations of antisemitism for his critiques of Israel as a colonial power oppressing the Palestinians and his non-violent activism including theological support of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement. With his sense of humor, he introduces himself as an Israeli, but not a Jew; an Arab but not a Muslim and a Palestinian and not a terrorist.

Today we are studying the John the Baptist appearance in John1:6-8 and 19-28. He stresses the humility of John, And his call to “make straight the path of the Lord.” (v.23) He says to do this, we’ve got to confront all that is crooked. And in the Palestinian context, so much is crooked beginning with the occupation by Israel. There is crookedness in how the land was taken in the first place and crookedness in the continuing illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, house seizures and demolitions and the contain drive to normalize the occupation through trying to make the territories part of the state of Israel and have it recognized. (Which only the United States would do, despite almost universal condemnation.) And crookedness in the ongoing perversion of legal strategies designed to displace and disempower Palestinians. And crookedness in the business dealings that entice the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabiaand Morocco and other Arab states to abandon solidarity with Palestine in pursuit of closer economic ties with Israel. As the Roman Empire occupied and oppressed Palestine in Jesus’ day, so does Israel today. All this crookedness must be made straight. 

Turning to 1 Thessalonians 5: 17-24, he  sees Christians as having three obligations: to rejoice in the Lord, to pray without ceasing and t give thanks in all circumstances. He stresses that means in all circumstances, not for all circumstances.All circumstances are not God’s will, but we can work with God as partners in all things and be thankful for God’s solidarity with us. We are also to test everything, in a accordance to following the path of Jesus, the path of straightening the crooked, and ante abstain form all evil, which includes exploitation. This is the  context in which we can understand sin, not just in individual shortcomings, but in collective, corporate, societal actions that create, sustain and support, even if only through silent acquiescence, exploitation, crookedness.

In classic Liberation Theology practice, the leader's reflection is followed by group reflection. The group is made up of men and women form Palestine and also the wider world, the US, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom. A Palestinian woman says that the Palestinian voice has been crying out in the wilderness, and like on ZOOM, has been muted. Like the people yearning for ransom, release in the Advent hymn, ‘O come, O Come Emmanuel,” Palestinians mourn as captives, in lonely exile in theor own land. There is nothing romantic about the “little town of Bethlehem” in the day. As in Advent we look to the coming of a savior, a liberator, as we celebrate God with us, in our midst, from th wilderness comes the word that the savior will come to shepherds and ordinary people. Our celebration honors a savior who was given to the world by Palestine. And especially we in western Christendom, in the heart of the Empire, are called on to test everything we hear and are told against this one whose coming we celebrate, whom we seek to follow. 

It’s good to be with friends from the Holy Land and be called to remember what has been all but forgotten by the  world. 

                                                                                                        ****

My walk leads me through Central Park, after dark. The Harlem Meer tree has been detached from the community building and is floating on the water. 

and still do...

A local coffee shop has built winter shelter but has not forgotten the cry  for justice from last summer. 

When I stop in my local Cantina for my Tuesday tacos, I commiserate with the manager over the shut down of in-house dining. Business is way off. He remodels me that the last tome went though the, people you drift up for the Park for a drink and some food. No one I sou drifting now. People aren’t stopping in, stopping  by for takeout. No one’s sure how long this will last. Survival is not certain. Outside things are spooky quiet. And cold. 

Living in coronavirusworld 228: There will be an answer

 

12/14

Together apart

Well, at least one good thing about the Covid spike…no Santacon this year.

Walking the streets of Harlem, all is quiet and deserted. In all the the tiny plastic houses, which seem to be a gift from Stella Artois beer, there’s only two tables with people at them, both at Silvana. 

Today the Electoral College made it official, Joe Biden is the next President.  Never before did this pro forma exercise draw breathless coverage from Wolf Blitzer and CNN. Now we’re one step closer to an inevitable  January inauguration. But somehow I fear more shenanigans are in store.

This is the context for our Bible Study tonight as the lectionary shifts into  a more thematic Christmas mode. Specifically, Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. (Luke 1: 26-38.) Russ requests that we extend the reading through 55 so we get the Magnificat as well.

Marsha loves the simplicity of the story. Russ the simplicity of a story of a young woman. Michael is awed that a woman with no social standing, no great lineage would be chosen for such a role. And AmberLee, as always, come in at an angle and sees connections with a Marvel comics origin story with Venom, Brock and Anna.  And I tell her that that’s pretty much the way people in the first century heard these stories, like Marvel Comics superheroes. 

Here then birth of Jesus is foretold. The angel greets Mary with the words “Hail Mary” which would  find their way into football parlance in the 20’s through Notre Dame, although ironically it was a Presbyterian player who convinced the  team that they needed to pray. And now the phrase has not only football specific meaning but broader metaphoric use, like in Trump’s legal maneuvers. Gabriel’s announcement echoes his earlier announcement to Anna about her old age miracle  pregnancy keeping up a common Biblical trope, e.g. Sarah. From elderly barren women getting pregnant to a pregnant virgin is just one more leap. 

This  visit takes place in Nazareth, backwater town of no importance. In Galilee, not Judea. To a woman who is a virgin. (People make much of the fact that the Isaiah passage 7:14 literally says “", but no matter because she has “known no man.” (34) Thus sending the Roman Church on an ever winding doctrinal goose chase of immaculate conception and perpetual virginity. When the point is about youth and holiness and how anything is possible with God, not about biology. (Strange that in Matthew the angel appears only to Joseph. In Luke, Mary’s situation is fait a compli. And Jesus’ royal lineage is argued through Joseph, 2:4, even though he was not apparently involved.) Let miracles be miracles, wonder be wonder. 

And her child will bring a kingdom without end, fulfilling promises in 2 Samuel 7:16, Isaiah 9:7 and Daniel 7:14. 

Mary’s response to “how can this be?”(34) Is “Let it be.”(35)  (More of that later.)

She is much ‘perplexed’ and has much to “ponder.” But in the end accepts. 

Much can be made of what is left out, the gaps between her title and her test, the question and the answer, the vision and certainty. 

That yes doesn’t come easy. It will  open the door to scandal, ostracization and potential death by stoning. “God’s favor” is not necessarily evident. She doesn’t know the future. That will end with the special child’s crucifixion as an insurrectionist. She only knows enough to take the first step. 

I do note that virgin birth stories are common in many cultures and traditions, including  Krishna, Bacchus, Hercules and even Quetzelcote. Something very basic to humanity is at work here. 

The visit to Elizabeth takes place in the 6th month of her pregnancy, At Mary’s revelation, her yet to be born John “leaps” for joy. Compared to Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah the Temple priest, living in a fancy Jerusalem suburb, Mary is a poor relation. Mary’s triumphant song, the Magnificat, is a riff on Hannah’s song in I Samuel 2:1-10, a song of great reversal, pulling the mighty down form their thrones, filling the hungry, sending the rich empty away. And she sings it as if it has already been accomplished. The already and not yetness of the Gospel. Desmond Tutu’s “we have already won…” long before apartheit officially fell. It is real and concrete. I remember hearing a woman who had just learned to read in the Sandinista literacy campaign read this passage in a street mass in Managua. And then say, “I saw this happen in my life.” (How much more tragic the betrayal of the revolution by Ortega.)   It goes deep, Luke alway speaks of “the poor” the “hungry,” no Matthean nuanced spirtualizing, It speaks to those who Franz Fanon spoke of as the wretched of  the earth. 

Mary’s consent, and the essence of the Magnificat, will become the Lennon-McCartney classic, “Let It be.”

“…..And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree

There will be an answer, let it be

For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, let it be”

There will be an answer. Let it be. Yes. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

                                                                              Let it be

Living in cornavirsuworld 227: See you in a couple of weeks....

 

12/12

86th Street windowwdtttc           

Moat of the college football games I wan to watch have been cancelled. The season continues to stagger along to its conclusion, in the south they even have fans in the stands. Some teams and many players have just decided to end the seasons.

I make my weekly visit to the farmers market, stopping for fresh baked cookies and a cup of rich Colombian coffee. 

We get together for a ZOOM with my mother in her assisted care facility. The isolation of elderly in this renewed lockdown is very difficult but residents of these facilities are still dying at disproportionate rates. It’s hard explaining to her that we’re all dealing with this, each in our own way. 

I go on a long walk in search of soufganiyot, the traditional Channukah jelly donuts. Which leads me to the iconic Upper West Side Barney Greengrass. They’ve built a large outdoor facility. I ask the owner Gary if he’s prepared for the new crackdown on indoor dining. He gestures around, “I never opened,” he said, “I knew this was going to happen.” And I quickly see it’s true. On my walk, it’s clear that this is the most muted of holiday seasons. A wall mural in Harlem proclaims Stella Artois’ beer’ support of outdoor dining.

Watch Steve McQueen’s first episode in his “Small Axe series. “Mangrove”tells the story of A London restaurant that quickly became a gathering place for the British West Indies and Jamaican community. Set in 1968, it's revelatory to me to see what was going on on London while the “revolution” pored into the streets of American cities. The main focus is the trial of nine parsons of the constantly harassed restaurant arrested for fomenting a riot in a protest against police violence. The struggle of the accused ot maintain solidarity in the face of threaten jail time and the temptations of plea bargains is profoundly moving as a community acts to establish that they belong. When one long suffering friend of the Mangrove owner decides he’s going home, the owner looks around and says, “This is home.”

12/13

Monkey Cup Tree

Warm enough for coffee and he Sunday Times at my favorite Venezuelan coffee shop. Decorated for Christmas.

Stella mural

Since it looks like the last warm day for awhile, I decide to do one last virtual race, the San Francisco Marathon (virtual) 5k making a course along the edges of Central Park.x                                 

My family gathers for its weekly ZOOM meeting. My Berlin son feel very alone as the rest of his family ah gone to Croatia, the schools are closed a week early and everything in Berlin shut down. He is increasingly convinced that no one really knows what they’re doing . That the scene in Sasha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” move where Borat swings an iron skillet at the wall trying to kill Covid viruses is a pretty accurate image of what we’re doing. As the sun sets, one of us lights Channukah candles and we in Harlem, Brooklyn and Berlin sing the traditional songs, remembering  when we were all together. And wondering when that can be again. All curious as to the when and who of vaccines. 

I stop by my neighborhood pub for one last drink. They are at capacity inside, so I take my drink and chips and salsa outside. It's starting to get cool as I talk to my mom. I go in to pay my bill. The manager smiles and says, “See you in a couple of weeks. Months?" He shrugs his shoulders. She’s his head. Laughs.

My friends Hot Glue & The Gun stream their "Christmas Spectacular"bringing back many of their "guest stars." Somehow in this pandemic they created the perfect vehicle for their performance.  Including a regular coterie of regularly animated inanimate objects. At the end of the day, it was a successfully creative project to create community in this time of separation. Blessings, friends. 

(https://www.facebook.com/hotglueandthegun/videos/20935572747654)

. 

Living in Coronaviriusworld 226: Happy Hanukah

12/10

Mt.Zion Baptist Church Harlem

First day of Hannukah. Soon most of the day catching up with what I couldn’t get done yesterday. Meet my friend Rabbi Steve at the Double Dutch Coffee Shop. The weather has warmed up so we can sit outside. We get closer and closer to a transition in national leadership but the continued efforts of the President to overturn the results plus the continued support he receives from Republican elected officials gives one pause. Especially given the militant …and armed…support of his followers. Election officials in swing states have found themselves threatened. And millions of people will continue to believe the election was actually rigged somehow. Even the President’s superspreader Hanukah parties become opportunities to insist he is still the legitimate President. And we now begin to reap the Covid harvest sewn by all those who insisted on traveling and celebrating a “normal” Thanksgiving.  There does seem to be real hope, however that vaccine distribution is imminent. 

little plastic eating houses

more creative solutions

Little mini plastic  houses continue to sprout all over Harlem. It’s like someone got an exclusive contract for the neighborhood. Big enough for one table only. Others create their own winter shelters.It remains to be seen how this will all work out. 

As I walk, I see more and more businesses permanently shuttered. While congress remains deadlocked for a solution. I’m concerned because my neighborhood pub, Bean and Barley has bene coxed for three days. That can’t be good. 

I consider traveling to Brooklyn to perform outside…"we’ve got heaters!”…but the hour plus subway ride is more than I want. 

As the day comes to an end, I realize I have had completely ZOOMless day. A much needed break.

12/11

Another  day catching up. 

Chanukah shabbat

Late in the afternoon, I stop to meet friends at the Gate. RL, who has been homebound, is actually dancing...without his cane, as he is amazed to discover. My friends and I sit outside, enjoying the mild weather. So comfortable for December.  We spend sometime hanging out with friends indoors. Almost normal, says my friend, except for no one allowed  at the bar. All decorated up for Christmas. Last chance to enjoy the space before the indoor dining ban clams down again. Sigh.

Open Mic is slow to start due to uncooperative tech issues and that accursed spinning beach ball of death waiting for something to happen. The early part of our evening taken up with our friend Mark who died last week. Another Covid victim of societal negligence. Been trying to find where his music might be because it deserves to be heard. Despite his skills as writer and a singer, he’s left a small footprint on the platforms. Always close to making it. But not quite. I learn more and more about that all the time. How common that is.  How many good people right on the periphery. While we are singing our songs, the new breaks that the Supreme Court has summarily rejected what the President had called “the big one” that was going to set aside the lector results. 

This year we need those Hannukah lights shining through the darkness. W need to cleanse our temple and restore what has been most important to us. Our democracy, flawed as it is, needs restoration.

Monday comes the electoral college. A step at a time.

Living in cornavirusworld 225: Connections. Relationships. Converations.

 12/8

Deep fall in Central Park

Participate in my friend Dre’s “Twenty Human Questions” project. He’s ultimately trying to find places where real conversation might take place. Some examples are: Three most important issues? Climate change and caring  for creation. Income inequality. Systemic racism. We also talk about the necessity of respecting each person’s dignity. And that failure  to do so is often at the root of violence. I wondered what kind of answers he might get at a bar in Staten Island. Dre has picked up one of the basic building blocks of organizing,  namely intentional conversation. 

Central Park foliage

schoolyard sculpture

tiny plastic houses

Take a walk through Central Park. Notice the deep fall look to the foliage. On 111th I notice for the first time a strange set of sculptures in the school yard. Small plastic houses are starting to appear in front of restaurant around the neighborhood. Like each table will have its own tiny house. 

I join my friend Russ in a ZOOM conversation called “Drinking Religiously.” It’s normally held at the 4 Saints Brewery in Asheboro, North Carolina. Started  and hosted by the duo who do the podcast entitled “A Jew and a Christian walk into a Bar….Mitzvah.” A fascinating show which explores theology and detailed reviews of cigars. I met them at the annual Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, North Carolina in the Smokies.  Said to be a combination of Burning Man and church camp. Thanks to ZOOM their virtual table can extend from Carolina all the way to California. In light of new Covid spikes, we’re talking a lot about breath. And God breathing into our lives. And how we can’t take breath for granted. One of the simplest things I’ve begun to become very aware of as I deal with late onset asthma. Every breath we take has the presence of the Holy Spirit. For which we must be thankful. (https://charlesandchris.net/)

I’m back at Moe Geffner’s “Inspired Word” virtual open mic after my failure last week. I had to come back and try again. I start with “You’ve got to  hide your love away,” sounds a little like my take on Dylan doing Lennon doing Dylan. In recognition of the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination. One of the two or three artists who most affected my life. (

                                                                       "....Hide Your Love Away..."
 

then follow with my own song that I blanked on last week. And I do it. Redemption. 

                                                                        " Get Over You" 

12/9

Day starts off bad as I oversleep and miss the weekly Undergound ZOOM. And nothing goes well the rest of the day. Including lost items and falling into a health insurance rabbit hole. At some point I just have to accept it as one of those days when you just fall out of sync with the cosmos. And I realize that the cumulative effect of three deaths in three weeks is getting to me. And the depression, the sense of hopelessness takes over. So much harder to keep at bay in this never ending coronaviruswolrd. Thankfully I can accept this for myself and come back tomorrow.

Our Presbyterian Health Education and  Welfare Association continues its work of reconstructing itself. In the last month, we’ve seen three long time progressive groups go under. Part of this is generational….we who create these groups are getting older. Hell, we’re senior citizens. PHEWA is one of the few still standing and challenged by the need to pass the torch on. The fact that so may of us are on various front lines and deeply impacted by the virus keeps us going. And needed. W need to invite friends from those networks that have ended to feel welcome under our tent. Connections Relationships.Conversations.  That’s the bottomline. 

Living in coronavirusworld 224: from the inside out

 12/7

pop up tests

West Park

Cold day.  On my walk. I see a pop up cover testing site in response to the spike in numbers.  Down at 86th and Amsterdam, new scaffolding is going up at West Park to replace what came down in the hurricane.  

John 1: 6-8,19-28

Tonight in Bible Study, we’re looking at the Gospel reading for the third Sunday in Advent. Usually known as “Joy” Sunday. Or Mary’s Sunday. The pink candle Sunday. And usually the Sunday when we read Mary’s militant magnificat. But the actual reading for this Sunday in Year 3 is John’s version of John the Baptist. A second visit in two weeks. Why? What’s up with that? The Magnificat is only an alternate. The John reading doesn’t; seem to have much socio-political punch and pretty much leaves me cold. I’d just as soon go to the Magnificat. But for that very reason I want to go with John. The pericope is cut to leave out all John’s cosmic Christ prologue, we’ll get to that on January 1. Some commenters believe that was originally a separate  poem anyways. All we’re left with is John.  Clearly based on Mark 1, which we studied last week, it becomes John’s own creation.  This is the most developed testimony of John about the Christ in the gospels. 

Luke is the only other Gospel to include Messianic expectations of John. The Messiah being the anointed king expected at the end of time. (His repeated denial seem to indicate that even in the time of John's writing, this was still an issue.)When John uses the word Jews, (19) he is referring to religious authorities, most likely Pharisees. But that word usage will create havoc and suffering for Jewish people for millennia. The Levites were Temple assistants, liturgical aids, administrators, musicians, guards, singers, etc. I explain that indeed the names rooted in Levi, eg Levy, Levine, etc., came from the tribe of Levi. Names like Cohen, Kahane, etc. come from the priestly class. Ultra Orthodox Jews believe that when the Temple is restored, people with these names need be ready to take on the assigned tasks. Ignoring how immigration officials at Ellis Island randomly assigned those names to Jewish immigrants for decades.  The question they bring to John is who are you, really?

Is he Elijah? Expected to return at the end?  Or a prophet like Moses?  He denied this  and quotes Isaiah 40: 3, he is the voice crying in the wilderness. The one they seek is “among you” but you don’t know him, referencing the prologue’s "..but the world knew him not..” He says the one who comes after me will be greater than me because he was before me, referencing the prologue's eternal Christ again. Amber Lee immediately gets that this is an early Trinitarian formulation.  That  if Jesus is divine, he had to be there from the beginning and if God is one, then Jesus and God are one and so eternally. This  all takes place on the east bank of the Jordan, in what today we call Jordan. And I describe how Jordan has its own set of holy places on the rive bank in parallel to Israel, most notably Jesus’ baptism place. 

So what is significant about all of this? First, in contrast to a certain contemporary President we endure, John is adamant that this is not about him. He is only the Messenger. The message matters, not him. And while the other readings today explicitly speak of liberation and deliverance (Luke 1:46b-55, Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 and Psalm 126), John sees his job as preparing the people for restoration. The one who comes will baptize with the Holy Spirit, the people will be changed from the inside out. And that inside work is important. As much as Psalm 126 calls us to rebuild cities, we need to rebuild broken hearts, broken relationships and broken spirits. We are called to deal both with the external and internal. As much as we are to work for peace and justice, we are also to work for compassion and connection, it’s both/and.  Which I need to hear. I’m always suspicious of the internal focus as taking way form the external. A place to get lost. But the older I get, the more I recognize the importance of the internal. 

Certainly laws shape behavior and attitudes often follow behavior but the current division in our country shows the limitations of that strategy. Certainly the current President has shown how easy it is to organize unchanged hearts. 

We are called to make the path straight. We do that through living as citizens of God’s reign. When we touch people with love and through our actions, we have made straight the path and prepare the way for people to open their hearts to God’s transforming presence. 

I came to see that preparing the way is every bit a concrete justice work as the Magnificat.

(Thanks to Jon van de Laar, a Methodist pastor in South Africa for his thoughts on this passage.)

                                                     ****

Because we are living in coronavirusworld, we gather on ZOOM to remember our friend Rachel. We share out stories about this woman who, as one person put it, was old New York, when a nurse could  own a townhouse on Central Park and there were annual bloc parties.  We celebrated her attitude of grace toward life, never judging, accepting. Understanding  how complicated life could be. Anyhow important love is and passion, wherever, however they come.Welcoming any in need of a place to stay. I recalled how when she hit 90, she decided she could smoke again and how our communion was a Nat Sherman special cigarette from the tobacconist and a shot of single malt scotch on ice. And how I came to enjoy the Westminster Kennel Dog show with her, something I never would have done otherwise. And her profound sadness when her daughter died of bipolar and depression. So many stories. She was a woman in full. I said the final prayers. We had a toast, appropriately. And said farewell. 

Living in coronavirusworld 223: Advent 3

 

12/6

Barawine on Malcolm X

125th Street

selling trees

State Office Building Tree

outdoor heat lamps

ATLAH's latest

new shelters

home communion

Cold wet day. Still walk to  the Farmers Market. And a long walk through Harlem. The streets decorated for Christmas. The tree sale stands. New outdoor shelter for restaurants looking hard to distinguish from cabins. Covidwise, are they really any different from being inside only colder? Other restaurants installing outdoor heat lamps.  And a giant tree at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building.  And the latest declaration from ATLAH Church. Somehow they remind me of a Giuliani election hearing witness. Christmas in. Harlem.

12/6

This morning preaching for the Beverley Congregation of Brooklyn.  Here’s what I had to say:

A lot has happened since last we were together. That long awaited election finally came …and is finally over…well, pretty much…We’ve had  a new spike with the virus. And I have to tell you..it’s been hard. I’ve lost three people I cared about in the last three weeks. And that has left me feeling sad…and angry.  Sad at the loss. And angry that it is all so unnecessary. We have government officials in Washington, DC throwing holiday parties with hundreds of unmasked guests. And somehow public health and common sense have become political issues. It is simply crazy.  That vaccine can’t come soon enough. We’ve been through Thanksgiving and now we’re all trying to figure out Christmas. It’s a holiday season like no other we’ve ever experienced. And last week, Advent began. 

In normal times, there’s hustle and bustle and packed stores and streets events to go to and music everywhere. And church was where we would come to find peace and quiet and time to reflect. A place of refuge. A sanctuary. Now we don’t have a place. Not a place to decorate and to sit in and to be together. But we still have a space…a space in time, This hour on Sunday mornings to hear each others’ voices and to see each other in our minds’ eyes and to gather what we need to make it through another week in coronavirusworld.  We are preparing ourselves fo celebrate the incarnation, the indwelling, God’s decision to come be with us in human form. To be present in our midst.

The comic book superheroes like Batman and Superman and Black Panther all come to us with what they call “origin stories.”  How they came to be who they are. In the Bible, we get our “super hero” origin story. And each one is different. Matthew and Luke give us “magic baby”stories, Luke with shepherds and Matthew with wise kings. We mash them all together but each story is unique. John brings us a cosmic Christ who swoops down from heaven like Kal-El from krypton to stay for awhile before returning. SO what does Mark give us?  Now this is hard, really hard, but I want you to imagine for a moment that the Gospel of Mark was the only story of Jesus you had. NO virgin birth. No shepherds or sheep or wisemen or camels or genealogies or carpenter fathers or that dramatic Radio City Music Hall final scene with live animals processing down the aisles.

All the icons of Christmas we have come to know and love that define Christmas. Just Mark. 

What does Mark give us? Mark is crisp and clean and everything happens “suddenly. I’ve seen the whole gospel performed twice as a monologue...it takes about an hour and a half to recite. And, well, it’s subversive from the start, the very first sentence is loaded…The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.[a]. Now that sounds like Bible talk to us, but in those days, around 70 CE, people would hear it differently. The word 'gospel’ or “good news” was used for proclamations about Roman victories. The word Christ is not a last name. It means “anointed” one, like conquering generals in their laurel wreaths. And that phrase, “son of God,” was applied to the Roman emperor. For Mark it is not a biological or genealogical expression, it is an honorific expression describing one who is obedient to God. 

Written in the time of open revolt against Roman rule, any Roman finding Mark would see this as seditious literature. It is an announcement that for those who love God, the emperor is an illegitimate authority, military victories are “fake news.” We are to be  introduced to a conquering hero whose victory story ends in a cross. 

But first, there’s my favorite character, John the Baptist, introduced as the forerunner, a messenger like the one described in Isaiah. Words you can’t read without hearing Handel and his messiah or even Godspell. (They’re part of it now, they can’t be unheard.) And here comes John.  In other gospels, he is the son of Zecahriah, a high priest of the temple, a tall steeple preacher’s son the son  of an AME Bishop. Who like a sixties hippie or radical leaves the city and goes out to the country and starts growing his hair. Actually, in John’s appearance and diet he is made to call to mind Eijah, the forerunner, the one who comes before the Messiah or Messianic redemption.  And he  even says so. And he’s also like an Old Testament nazarite who takes a special vow to avoid alcohol and not cut his hair.Like Samson. Like you can almost see him in his camels skins and leather and dusty dreadlocks. 

And what is he doing? He is preaching “repentance for sins.”  His baptism is like the flowing healing waters of the Jewish mikvah.  He is in his own way, saying our hierarchy, religious establishment, is so corrupt, that the only thing left  is to go out to the wilderness, where we as a people were born, and  get reborn, start all  over again.  And since he’s rooted in Isaiah, it's just not individua sin but corporate sin, rebellious turning from the ways of God that weakens a society so the that can  fall apart and be taken into exile. Certainly we’ve seen parts of our own establishment churches (and megachurches) get so caught up with power structures this they are inseparable. If we take Mark’s announcement seriously, no matter who wins the election no matter who is in charge, we are called to hold them accountable because no leader, no political party can ever be the expression of the full will of God. And our ultimate loyalty must always lie elsewhere. Where? The gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God. 

And so here comes Jesus. Like a mystery man from out of nowhere. In Mark’s Gospel, he will be revealed to us as each page is turned. He appears like someone  who has heard reports of John and has to find out for himself.  No back story. In the other gospels, they are cousins. But here, no relationship. And if you read closely, John doesn’t even recognize Jesus. 

SO what does this mean for us this Advent? Mark was writing for a community under the heel of the Roman Empire. And likening it to being in Babylonian exile. Like we sing every Advent, “O come o Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the son of man appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel." 

Many times in these last over almost 9 months, we have felt  in exile. Confined to our homes, cut off from friends and families and people we love. My mom in her assisted care facility completely isolated. I haven’t seen my grandchildren in over a year. Captive Israel indeed!  So into this captivity, this exile we are inviting Emmanuel, God with us, to come to us, to be with us. The thing is, he’s been here with is all alogn, He’s never not been  with us. My challenge to you is to meet the Jesus of Mark  like one with no back story, as if it's all new. What would that be like, to meet Jesus again, for the first time? John calls us to prepare, to make straight a pathway. And that pathway leads straight to our hearts. Let us open them, and prepare to welcome him in again, like we never have before.  Prepare ye the way of the Lord and Come Emmanuel!

home communion

We once again share our communion, each in our own homes. 

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In the back and forth dance between the city and its schools, tomorrow two of my family are going back to live teaching. In our weekly analytic/philosophical discussion of Covid, I share that I still have the antibodies.