Yesterday was January 6th...Epiphany. Celebrating the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. And now with broader connotations of sudden deep insight, like a light comes on and all of a sudden you “get it.” The events of yesterday in Washington ,DC were certainly a manifestation and a revelation. If there was any question at all, yesterday’s events revealed the naked reality of the Trump movement as it invaded the Capital building, disrupted the work of congress and vandalized private spaces. Maybe some sycophantic Congress people had their own epiphany and “got it,”but have yet to own their own complicity in this assault on democracy. Some persisted deep into the night with their perversion of democratic process. The work got done. Biden’s day will officially come. But some things can’t be undone. Or unseen. Like American flags, confederate flags, Trump flags and Jesus banners waving over the insurrection. It’s goingto take an extended Epiphany season to bring light to this darkness.
1/7
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, turns out you haven’t. Which is a nicer way to say, unfuckingbelievable, but then, maybe all too...
Our morning conversation group met. We talked about the Georgia election. The opportunities that opens up. My friend Steve walked up town and we had coffee in the backyard garden of the cafe. For him, it was a miracle. All we have to do is get through the electoral college count today with minimal annoyance. The vice-president having remembered that he swore “before God” to defend the constitution. Though we have clearly different theologies, the Vice President does take the God business seriously.
So I go home and turn on CNN and in the middle of the Arizona objection, things get weird. Windows being smashed in. Senators and representatives ordered to the floor. Guns drawn. People chanting USAUSAUSA! Waving American flags, and Trump flags and Confederate flags and a large banner proclaiming “Jesus”. What? Some guy’s got a sign that says “no foreskin no peace”. Maga hats and qanon t’s. People scaling walls. It’s like a Hieronumous Bosch vision of the capital. I keep looking at faces. Knowing that many sincerely believe the country has been stolen and Is going down the drain. There’s the guy sitting in Pence’s chair. The guy standing at the podium declaring Trump won. The guy who invaded speaker Pelosi’s office and put his feet on her desk. Stole her mail. I look at faces. I want to understand.
I see it and I don’t believe it. What we’ve feared is happening. At his command.
I can’t watch anymore. I have to go for a walk. One block up the street, I see a naked black man. What? Like an NFL running back he hunches his shoulders, moves across the street like he’s breaking through the line. Two police cars scream in. I see him, back bent over, arms pulled back, kneeling, cuffed. I can’t help but be reminded of images of slave markets.
I’m sure this was just a matter of mental illness or some substance issue. It is completely unrelated to what’s going on in DC. But because one follows the other, they link in my mind and free association dances between the capital and a naked man on a Harlem street. All I feel is a world unhinged that won’t come together. All I can do is keep walking. Sirens here, sirens there. Keep walking. It’s the12th day of Christmas. Epiphany. Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.
A computer breakdown has silenced the blog for awhile...I’ll begin again on IPad until we get a new laptop! Here’s reflections on the second Sunday in Christmas:
The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life,[a] and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,[e] who is close to the Father’s heart,[f] who has made him known.
So happy 10th day of Christmas, happy 2nd Sunday in Christmas and of course Happy New Year to you. We are at the beginning of a new year and if ever there was a time we needed a new beginning, this is it. Of course as a friend of mine says, just because the calendar year changes doesn’t make everything ok, but let’s claim this as a chance to start over.
As each of the gospels has a it’s own Christmas story, this is John’s. Of a Christ who has always been and who now comes to earth to be with us. And fitting for a month of new beginnings, John uses beautiful poetry to take us back to the very beginning, Genesis1. And how does God bring the world being? He speaks it being. Gods word brings it all into being.
At the beginning, God separates light from darkness. And let me say both are important. And like Isaiah says, (9:2, 42:6-7, 60:1-3)”...the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light”, “...the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. “ And in so many ways, we have been walking in darkness. These have been long dark months. But the darkness has not overcome it.
So God’s word becomes flesh. I want you see a progression here, first the children of Israel believed God lived in the traveling ark. And then in the Temple. And then in Jesus day,there were those who believed God lives in God’s word and anywhere God’s word is God is. And now John announces, John reveals that Gods lives in our very midst!
If the prologue tells us the essence of the gospels, v.12 tells us what it means to be a disciple...
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Roger Gench has pointed out that in the original Greek, whenever John talks about “belief” it’s a verb, not a noun. So those who believe into Jesus have been given power. A lot of Christians have trouble with that word. Think it negative. Actually, in Spanish, eg, it simply means to be able to. Our problem is not power but people who exert power over others. What we are given by Jesus is power with. To be able to do...together. Hear that.
It says “ no one has seen God.” But like Moses, we see God by where God has been and when we see Jesus, we see God. Now go with me here...today when we take communion, we take Jesus into ourselves. We want him to abide in us as we abide in him. When we see Jesus we see grace, compassion and most of all love. It’s not something to feel, it’s something we do. And we want to love so people can see God in us, an see the Christ that lives in us.
As we rush to leave behind what was a very bad year, not soon enough gone, let us pause for a moment before letting it all go. Even as we mourn our very real losses, Let’s remember what we learned about ourselves and others. Let’s give thanks for all the dedication, determination and creativity that sprang forth. And most of all, let give thanks for all the people and all the ways that they helped pull us through, who pull us through every day. We see God by where God has been. And God has been, and is,here...
It’s a big mistake waiting until Christmas Eve day to do your grocery shopping. I get to the market, walk in, pick up my basket and realize I don’t have my wallet. By the time I go home and turn around and come back, the line to get in goes all the way up the block and around the corner. And inside, the check out line snakes through several departments. After I get my groceries, I go across the street to Double Dutch to sit in one of the tiny plastic houses for a coffee and croissant.
The US Mail seems to have been overwhelmed by people who can’t see others in person mailing everything. One order I paid for “expedited shipping” has yet to arrive a month later. It was too be 2-3 days. Other Christmas items have not arrived.
I meet a friend for a Christmas Eve drink only to find the Gate is closed. We walk the street to another place that has erected a series of small tents with ground level heaters. It’s warm enough withoutthe heaters today.
I have one last thought of getting a Christmas tree and then realize the stand up the street from me is already sold out, packed up and gone., On reflection, I realize that the pop-up urban forest I look forward to every year, where you walk block after block of tree lined streets, air filled with the aromatic smells of pine, balsam and fir. It appears the day after Thanksgiving and is gone by early Christmas morning. There were standsaround this year, but not likebefore. Thestand across the street from the church never appeared. And then I understand, all those trees and their sellers came from French Canada, Quebec. The US-Canada border is closed. Our only trees this year were from Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The forest and les Quebecois who came with it, another victim of Covid. I have to think about the impact of that.
we light our candles
West Park tree
and Merry Christmas to all....
Due to covid, there was no service planned at West Park. But at Bible Study, we knew we had to do something since there had been a service there every year since 1889.So we gathered on the steps. We sang O Come All Ye Faithful. I reminded them that it was also the 110th Christmas of West Park. And my personal 25th. We read the Lucan birth narrative. (2: 1-20)Talk about how the darkest day is past, but still dark days to come. Our need to be light for one another. Thinking about the people of Bethlehem on this night. We light candles. Sing Silent Night. Have a long Christmas prayer and then sing Joy to the World. We go inside the church. Share Marsha’s empanadas and cookies and some wine. Feeling the presence of God in our midst. Covid and all. For this year, this Christmas Eve, it was perfect.
12/25
our feast
No extended family. No large gatherings. Just the “core four” of us at our boys apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Spent the morning cooking..an apple pie, cranberry marshmallow salad, Nate and his mom made cookies, Dan a roast and cheesy potatoes. For us, a feast. For this year, this Christmas, perfect.
We end the night with the new Disney film “Soul” about embracing life in every moment, Well, more complicate than that, but..
The President golfs in Florida, relief package left unsigned. Unemployed benefits for millions due to end. A car bomb goes off in Nashville for unknown reasons. We are all creating our own Christmases.2020.
As our underground gathers, I’m taken by the fact that our friend Norm, venerated and erstwhile Old Testament scholar,is wearing what is classically known as an ugly Sweater, complete with Christmas lights, at least a few of which still do light. I’m wearing a red and green Yankees hat, the only time I will ever wear a baseball cap that has not been part of an on-field game hat. (Well, about 90-95% true.) And a Uni Watch (The Obsessive Study of Athletic Aesthetics) ugly sweater sweatshirt. (Uni-watch.com)
Norm starts with a tribute to his friend John (Jack)Elliott, who just died. Another cofounder with Norm of the Center and Library for the Study ofBible and Social Justice at Stony Point Center. (CLPJ.org) Jack’s groundbreaking work was the study of 1Peter, argues that the community of scattered“Stangers, pilgrims…” was in fact the 1st Century Christian Community of Asia Minor pushed to the margins of society in his book “Home for the Homeless.” Part of our work is organizing strangers. Jack by the way, led the efforts to organize the faculty at San Franciso University.
Russ is talking about the one true Christmas Miracle, the Christmas Truce of 1914, as celebrated in the film Joyeux Noel and John McCutchen’s song, “Christmas in the Trenches.” When soldiers from both sides met in no-man’s land and refused to fight for one day, played soccer and shared songs and candy, brandy and tobacco. Of course those who participated were punished by their superiors. More disturbingly, SteveP talks about how it only took one more world war for white people to agree they weren’t going to kill each other anymore. And indeed, the wars of battle lines with their codes and rituals are no more. Most of recent wars have beenthose of imperial powers against colored peoples of thecolonized world. Christmas truces can’t happen in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. It’s different.
Norm asks us to consider first violence as opposed to second violence., As drawn as we are to pacifism and non-violence, who do we deal with the challenge of Franz Fanon and his arguments in “theWretched of the earth” that violence may be necessary to restore dignity. Norm talks of the Haitian Revolution of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the first successful anti-colonial revolution of Black people. And how Haiti has suffered since. Even evangelical Haitians say that God punished Haiti for selling its soul to the devil.
We talk about Dre’s difficulties in getting people to join him in his “ Patterson Beautiful” project. And we talk of the issue of getting acceptance of the importanceof the vaccine in Black neighborhoods, given the horrendous history of Black Americans and the medical researchestablishment with its horrendous imposed scientific experiments , etc. There is every reason to be suspicious. And yet this community disproportionately suffers from the virus. Someone says we need a “supply line of love.”
Lastly we talk about where songs from. Both Joel and I agree that they tend to organically appear. But then there’s the issue of writing as craft, and how hard that is for me. Until Steve P reminds me that as pastors, we wrote a song a week called sermons, And I realize he’s right. And how it’s only when you have put in hours of hard work that theHoly Spirit can enter and take you to surprising new places. Sometime you don’t find them until3am the night before your 11 am service. And we talk about boredom. And dead ends, And what to do with this dead end of a year. We’ve done a lot of hard work. Time for the Holy Spirit to step in.
The winter solstice. The darkest day of the year. From here on out it gets a little more light every day. And it’s officially winter.
Tonight we look at thelast infancy story in the gospels, Luke 2:22-40. And the 3rd day of Christmas.Traditionally known as the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Found only in Luke.Had we read 21, we would have read of the circumcision ofJesus. Years ago, I remember the Met had an exhibit, Art Treasures of the Vatican. It contained avery ornate reliquary for the icon of Jesus’ circumcision, the only part of him he left behind.
The ceremony being described is the redemption of the first born. Since the story of Abraham and Isaac, the first born male child, the one who breaks the womb, must be redeemed by a sacrifice. Traditionally a sheep or lamb. But poorer families like Joseph and Mary could substitute two pigeons or turtle doves.This ultimately leads to a discussion of God sacrificing God’s only son to redeem the world for its sins and a whole hard conversation about substitutionary atonement which is built on a theological structure and logic I’ve never been able to accept. As in, Jesus died for our sins. ( Marsha males reference to z scent debate in the New York Times ver what eg minimum belief required to be a Christian are. )
Joseph and Mary take Jesus to theTemple and encounter two elderly people. One is Simeon, whose credentials are that he isrighteous and devout. He has been waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” namely its liberation and independence. He is guided by the spirit to recognize that this child is the one and responds with his first oracle, known as the nunc dimittis: now let your servant depart in peace. His purpose is to praise God and declare God’s saving power.In the logic of Isaiah 49:6, namely that Israel’s gloryis to be a light to the nations.
His second oracle is that this one comes for the “risingand falling “ of the nation. Foreseen inthe conflict between God’s avowing purpose, God’s liberation project and human opposition.That here will eb resistance Ean rejection. And Mary’s side will be pierce with a sword. (As her son ultimately is) She will have to live through his rejection, suffering and execution.
The other elderly person is Anna, said to be from the tribe of Asher. She is a widow and a woman prophet. Luke is unique in his frequent paring of male and female witnesses. She too I looking for th redemption of the people, their liberation. (How odd that he parents let the child be taken up by thesestrangers, old and hanging out in the Temple….…)
It is important for Luke to show that they had fulfill all the law before departing. This isthe last if Jesus’ infancy. Next wile the brief story of him in the Temple, his only childhood story, on the cup of his bar mitzvah. Thus the story begins and ends with the law.
The “falling and rising” can also seen as an “all or nothing” situation.
Luke does a very neat circle of (H)Anna being Samuel’s mother and giving Mary the words to her song, Anna being John the Baptist’s mother and now another Anna is a prophet.
One message is that God’s love is not limited status, gender or geography. More important, these two elderly people see not the present but the certain future an san now “depart” the earth. How do we see with their eyes? We can see the beginning and have to imagine it’s completion. As it always is . As Dr. King said, the arc of history maybe long, but it bends towards justice. We need to keep that visionin our eyer as wetake up the struggle in our own days.
12/22
Today I join again with our friends from Sabeel in Jerusalem in an Advent Bible study with Naim Ateek. We are discussing the Annunciation passage in Luke. Elizabeth will bring John the Baptist, the miracle child. And Mary will bing the Messiah. Mary embodies total obedience, trusting and surrendering to God. It raises the question, are we also bearers of God? Do w know the who do the impossible? Can we be partners with God? God needs us to be instruments of God’s peace.
Naim points out that the angel describes the Messiah’s work in parochial terms, exclusive to Israelites,while Mary’ s song will extend to all poor lowly, excluded and marginalized.Quoting Ephesias 3:6 and Galatians 3: 26-29, God’s purpose begins with one group but extends in love for all the world.
A question so raised as to why Mary’s doubt is tolerated but Zechariah’s not. (He was struck speechless until he recognized Jesus as Messiah.) Niim suggest that because eZechiah was a priest , he should have known better. And that trained theologian and scholars may bit be ion ot mystery.
Why Mary? A sign of God’s special love for the simple, the lowly, the poor, the oppressed. Women in the group see this as well as a call to lift the role of women un teh vvvv church.
As we contemplate the coming celebration of Christmas, it is necessary to look at the existential reality of Bethlehem. Today, 4400 Palestinians are underway detention by Israelis, including 41 women and 170 children. And due to Covid, in Bethlehem where income depends on tourism, especially this time of year, over 7000 Palestinians out of work. We can only truly understnsd the reality if Christmas if we undersea dht reality of Bethlehem.
AS we are engaged in our discussion, rh Israeli sure court is hearing 15 challenges of the 2018 “Law of the Nation State” which reserves national rights in Israel to Jesus only. Paslesreinass and Druze this fin themselves excluded form citizens’ rights. Critics maintain that the amounts to apartheid in all but name.
I stop in to the West Park worship service because my friend Russ is leading it. Right in the middle of his sharing a video of John McCutchen’s moving song, “Christmas in the Trenches,” about the Christmas Truceof 1917, I experience my first ZOOM bomb as a crude penis appears on the screen followed by the word “fuck” and then scribbling all over as demonic cackling fills the sound. Amazed at how violated you feel. It takes a few minutes to straighten all thatout. You just can’thave ZOOM meetings without a waiting room.
"Christmas in the Trenches"
Leading a Christmas service for my Beverley friends this morning.Here’s what I had to say:
Luke 1: 26-38
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Here we are…the final Sunday of Advent. Our journey is almost at an end. Just 4 more days until Christmas Eve in the most strange of Christmas seasons.As I've walked the city streets, everything seems subdued, toned down, quiet. There are still lights, the midtown shop windows, but it all seems, you know? The parties we’d normally be going to aren’t happening. The extended family visits also curtailed. We’re all shopping on line and the mail is slower than ever.We all wonder what’s up with this virus even as the vaccine begins to make its way around.
Can you see in your mind’s eye the inside of Beverley Church? Decorated for Christmas? And we walk down the stairs and see what Eugene’s been up to and share in the food we all have brought and enjoy the transforming decorations and fellowship with one another? That’s where we see each other today….in our mind’s eye.
Try to see in yourmind’s eye a young woman. All we know when she enters the scene is that she is nobody famous. Who lives in a town, not a city, just a town, a non important town, Nazareth in the upstate region of Galilee. (As Nathanel says in John ,”Can anything good come out of Galilee?”) Tradition tells us she’s a teenager. Luke tells us she’s a virgin. And out of nowhere, an angel appears! And says “Greetings!” But this is where I like the King Jame version better…where the angel says
Hail Mary!
I’m sure Gabriel never imagined he’d become famous in football which didn’t even exist then…Of coursethat started at Notre Dame, but get this, it was a Presbyterian player who suggested they pray!He tells her Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Which coming out of nowhere would shake anyone up…can you see thelook on her face? Luke tells us she was “perplexed” and “pondering”…but it gets better..she’s going to “conceive” and “have a son.” Let that sink in..The angel goes on. But I’m sure Mary is still struggling with that pregnant part. Because her first words are, “How can this be, since I am a virgin' ….and for anyone who wants to bring up the fact that in her Hebrew of Isaiah that informs this passage, the word is just young woman, Mary makes it clear. He literal words in Greek are.. " I have never known a man”…which is to say, “ I have never had sex..”And Gabriel tells her ““The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” Okay then, how does thework?And earlier he had said, 2He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” That’s a lot to take in.
And if you’re Mary, what do you think? Well, maybe the first thing you think is, hmmm, most favored? Here I am engaged to a good man from a good family, yeah, he hasn’t done so well, but he’s a good man. And I’m going to be an unmarried pregnant woman? In this town? At best I’ll be a scandalized woman and maybe even taken out and stoned…doesn’t sound so blessed to me..
And the angel’s not done. Her cousin Elizabeth, an old woman, is now six months pregnant. Elizabeth is married to Zechariah, a priest in theTemple. They live in the fancy suburb of Judah just north of Jerusalem. Think Associate Pastor of 5th Avenue or Madison Avenue Presbyterian living in oh, say, Chappaqua. So that makes Mary the poor relative. Elizabeth’s late in life pregnancy os like that of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.SO making barren women pregnant is a standard Biblical event…a virgin is just one step beyond. Did you know around the world how common that Is ? Found at least 10 famous virgin births including Krishna, Bacchus, Hercules and down in Mexico, Quetzalcotel.The Muslims say, if God could created humans out of nothing, hey with a woman you’re halfway there!
Bottom line: with God, anything is possible.
So how long does Mary ponder? How along was she perplexed? Did she hesitate? She says, resolutely, , “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
So Mary goes off to visit her cousin, and when she arrives, the baby leaps in her cousin’s womb, Elizabeth confirms for Mary what the angel has told her and Mary sings this amazing song:
46b My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
It’s amazing because the baby isn’t even born yet and she sings as if all these things have already been accomplished. Like Desmond Tutu saying long before apartheit fell, We have already won. The others just haven’t figured it out yet. It’s that knowing, deep inside, at the heart of creation, that it is God’s will that the lowly will be lifted up, the hungry filled. (Mary’s song is a riff on Hannah’ song (1 Samuel 2: 1-10), the mother of Samuel.) It is the already and not yet.
In Nicaragua, in the 1980’s, I heard a woman who had just learned to read in their literacy campaign read this passage and then say that this had come true in her lifetime.
When I was growing up, we were taught that all this Mary business the Catholics do is at best idolatrous. But through my life I’ve come to understand that this song is the reason poor people around the earth venerate Mary as one of them and proof that God wants their concrete life circumstances changed now, not just in the sweet by and by.If you come to thinkabout it, this is what Jesus was talking about in his sermon on the mount, the Beatitudes.
Hear this :Gabriel’s message to Mary and Mary’s song are at the very center of the meaning of the child who’s birth we will celebrate next Friday. This is the why and what of who this child, this Jesus is….
And see this…Mary’s been givenlimited information….it’s heavy, yes, but limited. She says yes to the risk of what many happen to her and without any idea of what will come next. And no idea that this most beloved son ofhers will wind up executed by the imperial Roman oppressors as an insurrectionist, condemned by the religious leaders, abandoned by his friends. In spite of all she does not know, Mary says , Let it be, to me according to thy word.
We have lived through dark days. And they are not over yet. It will take courage to keep walking with one another to the other side.
So here’s the point…just as the angel had a message for Mary, God has a message for us…this Christmas, there is something waiting to be born inside of us. God has something ready to be born in each and every one of us. What we need is to have the courage, like Mary, to say, Here am I…let it be to me according to thy word. And more…if God has something to be born inside each of us, God has something to be born inside your community, inside Beverley Church. I can’t tell you what it is. You just have to listen together and let it be.
Remember …Nothing is impossible for God.
On last word, just like Mary riffed on Hannah’s sing, Paul McCartney and the Beatles riffed on Mary’s song. The words of Let it Be come straight from Luke. NO matter howdark the days, there will be an answer, Let it Be.
****
our concert
In the late afternoon, my friend Steve and I do a virtual holiday concert. Last year at this time we did a pop up concert at the Bethesda fountain in Central Park. Drew a crowd of a 100 or so.Sang harmonies.Not this years. Solos on ZOOM and a team up on White Christmas. Hopefully brought some cheer in the darkest days of this pandemic.
The last day of Hanukah.And one week until Christmas. In the freezing cold, I walk from Harlem to the Upper West Side. Walking down 86th Street, I see dancing Chanukah lights projected on the sidewalk.As I walk down Amsterdam, I see that while Harlem may be quiet, the Upper West Side is jumping. The bars whereyoung adults hang out, that is their outside tables, are pretty full. Several restaurants are also full outside, even in this weather. Some have overhead or street level heaters. I meet a friend at our regular place, the Gate.Which has neither. Hot toddies help. And hot chicken wings.
the Gate's Christmas tree
For awhile I’m excited that New Yorkers are not letting 30 degree weather shut them down. We talk about great outdoor winter experiences in Oslo and Amsterdam. But after an hour, I’m beginning to feel it, especially my feet wet from street cornerslush puddles now way too cold. Time to head home and host the Open Mic. The digital gremlins are at work again, but I open upmy iPad and it works. Our last Open Mic of the year.
Today it was revealed that a top Trump health adviser basically argued we should let people get infected and die so as to achieve herd immunity. Sort of the human sacrifice strategy. Our current death totals are a 9-11 every 24 hours.
12/19
ready for Christmas at the Farmer's Market
Freezing cold, but the Farmer’s Market is still happening. Even though some booths have had to change their usual place because of piled snow,most have shown up. The last two days, I’ve switched from glasses to contacts, tired of my glasses constantly fogging over when wearing my mask and unable to see. So I’m happy to see everything in the market clearly. Since it’s the last market before Christmas, I’m also looking for presents. I get some preserves from upstateand fresh honey gathered from rooftop hives in Harlem. I like that. Before heading home, I sit on a bench surrounded by snow with a fresh bakedcinnamon bun and a Colombian coffee.
we made latkes
To our family Channukah gathering, I bring fresh apple cider and apple pear saucefrom an upstate farm for the latkes.We’ve made them old school style by hand grating potatoes and also the OreIda home fries hack style. While waiting for the lakes to get done, we talk with my mom on ZOOM, back from one more visit to the hospital emergency room from another fall from her chair. Covid will keep her isolated over Christmas. We enjoy our brunch, as it extends into early evening.
On my way hime, I notice two small, lonelytables open outside my neighborhood pub. I decide to stop by. The manager is happy to see me. No tiny plastic houses here. Seems Stella Artois didn’t want togo south of 116th Street. Representatives of the citycame by to strictly enforce the mayor’s latest constantly changing decrees. One block up the street, every table is full inthe Harlem Tavern’s heated, enclosed “outdoor” beer garden. For managers like my friend it all seems random and arbitrary. We all acknowledge the peril of this time. But the overall policy never seems consistent or even coherent. And some beloved businesses may not make it.Many already gone.We’ve known this for some time. As congress bickers and squabbles over what kind of relief package to offer. I tell my friend I’m just stopping by, not hungry having just hada great meal. He shakers his head, says not toworry about the mandatory food sales requirements for buyinga drink. Besides, he says, if I share a shot with you, you’re not buying anything…So he brings out a whiskey bottle, pours two shot. We drink a toast to better days.
