"Rest Awhile"

7/19

Remembering Dan

I returned to Pittsburgh for the memorial service of a friend who died of Covid, the virus that led to this service being delayed by some 8 months. The little Oakdale Church was filled to capacity for my friend Dan’s service, maybe 2-250 people or more. And an equal number streamed through after the service to pay their respects.

The service reflected the impact this good man had in the  community in which he grew up and in which he remained. A father, husband, grandfather, teacher, musician and more. There was music from the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition, and traditional Christian music form the Americana tradition and from John Prine, another Covid casualty. And many heartfelt  testimonies.

Later in the afternoon, the family hosted a celebration at their old barn complete with barbecue, beer and a steady flow of music by people of all ages. Goo people. Solid people. With roots in the farms and mines and mills that filled this area. They believe in work lek they believe in Jesus but work his so much harder now.  This is the ethos I grew up with. This is where I feel “home.”

Reflecting on the  turnout to remember my friend Dan, I recall what Oz said to the Tin Man, “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others”

On Sunday, I preached at the Oakdale Church.  Here’s what I had to say…

Sermon

7/18

Text: MARK 6: 30-34, 53-56

Good morning.  First …historic note..since March 1st 2020 until today, the only place I have preached a live in person sermon is right here at Oakdale Presbyterian Church, last August. The very special hand made mask I received is on the collage inside my cd from last year. So it’s good to be back. 

A lot has happened since last we’ve been together. We’re opening up again.  And seem to have covid on the run. At least in places that have gone in for vaccinations. And I’m here this weekend because our brother, our companion, our friend, Dan Hanczar died from Covid. Listen …for what it’s worth, last fall I lost three friends in two weeks,  two of them guys more or  less my own age. Believe me, I have NO time for anyone  who says this is a hoax or who wants to  politicize personal responsibility  and public health. 

Oh…And we’ve got a new President!….and the Pirates may be in last place, but somehow they manage to come back from 6 down in the last two innings and win!  (That’s why we watch!)

We have lived through a year of Coronavirus world and we are still here. Oakdale Church is still here. You are still here.  Let yourselves feel that.

Now what’s up with Jesus today? 

I have to say this is one of my favorite passages…it’s perfect for summer time, vacation time, it’s the inspiration for a song I wrote for a friend’s memorial.  It’s a passage I’ve preached  on at least a dozen times in my years as a pastor.

What’s going on?

Jesus is greeting his disciples. They have come back from the journey he sent them on preaching repentance.  He knows they need a break. They need to come away and go  to a “lonely place,” a place where they can be away for awhile and catch their breath.  

And, I might add, they need to mourn the loss of their friend John the Baptist.

This is important because it recognizes that Jesus wants us to care for  ourselves. Just like he wants us to shake the dust off our feet  and leave when we are not received, not beating your head again the wall, he wants us to know when we need to take a break and catch our breath if we’re going to be any good to ourselves let alone anyone else. 

But here’s what happens..somehow word gets out and a big crowd gathers before they even get there.  And here’s what I love …Jesus could look at this crowd and say, “Oh man, all I wanted is just one day, just one day…is that too much to ask? Oh man…” But he doesn’t.  He looks on them with compassion because they seem like sheep without a shepherd. SO he begins to respond to their needs. 

This has been a rough time…NPR, in a story entitled “The Great Resignation” recently reported on the number of people who after a year of Covid are leaving their jobs. Questioning  when, how and for whom thy work.  Worn out deacons and elders and even pastors leaving their churches and people, in what we might call the great reassessment, leaving their marriages.  It’s been a hard year, and everyone of us knows that. 

Maybe we need to take minute and ask ourselves what we have left.  Or what we need to leave. 

And Jesus gets it.  We have permission to care for ourselves..BUT..human need is so great…only getting greater..as one commentator said, now even the wildness is congested with human need. Every time I go into Penn Station, I immediately encounter 2 to 3 people, as the kids say, buggin’…cursing God, the government, the cosmos  in mainly incoherent fits of rage… 

Listen…Jesus is not here to make us feel better. Jesus is here to welcome us into the kingdom, the kindom and get us living in it now…

Let’s think about compassion a minute. That great Kentucky poet Wendell Berry has said our system is an economy of the one night stand….consumption without responsibility let alone relationship…

In Jesus ‘ day,  extension of compassion under Roman Imperial Rule…was revolutionary action…compassion has concrete content in the real world…

For years, a voluntary medical tent in the US side of the border provided emergency help to people found in the most dangerous,  life threatening part of the Sonora desert.. The US Border Patrol had a working agreement not to arrest anyone receiving medical treatment. Until a new regime raided the medical facility and arrested those receiving aid and those offering it.  New border personnel made a point to empty plastic water bottles despite a prestatehood Arizona tradition that forbade denying people water in the desert.  Volunteer medical worker Scott Warren was arrested for  water. Thankfully an Arizona court found him not guilty. And with a change, border guards are now working with medical volunteers again. 

All I’m saying is compassion, simple compassion, can be seen to have content  beyond  its simple  humane reality.

So what do I want you to take away today?

One, Jesus wants you to care for yourself. Figure out what that means. Rest awhile.  One time I preached this sermon wanting to make a point about God. I asked the kids, who never takes a vacation, intending to answer it with God. And one kid answers, “My Dad.” No good. I learned  that lesson much too late. This  been a hard stretch.

Two…acknowledge that this has been a hard year for everyone., And so treat each other with compassion. 

I flat out love the the billboard banner that Dan's kids had made for their mother's birthday…”TAKE LOVING CARE OF EACH OTHER…” Do that friends and we'll keep  Dan near…

And oh yeah, Thank God for Music. Amen.

My friends, let those  with ears to hear, hear…REST AWHILE……

AMEN

                                              " Rest Awhile" 

July 4th reflections

 7/4

Guerilla fireworks

My words for Beverley Church, July 4th, 2021

So here we are again. And of what do we preach on this, the 4th of July 2021?  Our reopening continues. Friday night I played at our church’s open mic for the first time since March 13th of last year. The room was packed with people I hadn’t seen since then and people I had only met on our virtual open mic shows. (For the record, since April 15, 2020, I hosted and produced 61 virtual open mics for West Park. Today will mark the 15th virtual sermon and communion service I’ve conducted for Beverley Church.) You can now go to Yankee Stadium and get in without showing your vaccination card. The craft distillers can once again offer free tastings at our neighborhood farmers’ market. But you still have to wear masks on the buses and subway. An many shops. Some people feel safe, others don’t. Yesterday I took my collection of covid related t-shirts…the Pittsburgh Pirate pirate wearing a mask, the Grateful Distancing Stay at Home Tour of 2020, the “Vote” t-shirt with the words “This darkness must give,” the grateful dead logo skull wearing a mask with the words “We will survive, we will get by..” To a thrift store. A good friend said I should have saved them for historic value. But I never want to wear them again…..

covidworld

A year ago, it was a strange 4th of July. No city wide fireworks. But my neighborhood was booming every night for weeks. Til the wee hours of the morning…Car alarms going off all night. Perhaps it was pent up energy from locked down people. Perhaps it was because the police feeling angry and hurt in the wake of steady streams of Black Lives Matter protests and criticism of police violence against Black people basically decided, if it ain’t murder, you’re on your own. And we were still neck deep in the chaos and tension of a presidency like we had never seen before. 

I thought of the words  of that great hymn, “O beautiful…” that my pastor and friend William Sloane Coffin, Jr so loved:

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

This year, we are nowhere near out of the wilderness. So much still unresolved. So much division with both sides totally unable to understand the other, especially in the community of those who call themselves Christians! Followers of Jesus…even vaccination is politicized and divisive…

So what is God’s word for us today? 

We find Jesus teaching, preaching at his hime church. And the people just can’t get it. They say:

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

Notice how they describe him…son of Mary…no mention of Joseph. They knew him as a carpenter. Joseph must have been gone a long time. He never appears after Jesus the boy is found teaching in the temple. As the oldest, perhaps it’s fallen to him to keep the family business going, take care of his mother. And siblings. He’s 30 years old and never married. That alone would make him suspect. And perhaps rumors about his parentage still linger on.  This oddball kid couldn’t possibly have anything to say. And so they reject him.       

And Jesus responds that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country.  And the clincher…he could do no deeds of power there. 

I spent my first 10 years of ministry  in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Most church people …and others…were excited to see what this new kid from Yale might have to offer. I felt I could do anything I dreamed of.  My next work was in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa. Long story short, I could do no works of power there.       

Jesus had to had to hit the  road and recruit his team. People who did not know him.  And get them ready for their road trip. Only the barest of necessities: a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 

They would be completely dependent on, like Blanche DuBois put it, “the kindness of strangers,” the hospitality of those they did not know. And he gives them practical advice as well,   8 "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." 

Don’t keep beating your head against the wall where you are not welcome…shake the dust off your feet and move on….    One of the commentators I read said, there must be a lot of dust filled doorways around here…even churches…  

And what are the results?    

They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Mark this…these inexperienced disciples were able to do more on the road than Jesus was in his hometown. 

SO what’s the takeaway here?

First, Jesus is not going to be able to help you if you don’t want to be helped. And he sure can’t help you if you don’t believe he can. 

BUT, if we work with him, if we allow him to be our partner, all kinds of things are possible. 

In the marches last year, I could hear people chant, this is what democracy looks like.

The message of what we do needs to say clearly….this is what community looks like, This is what love looks like. This is what following Jesus looks like. And like St.Francis said, use words only when necessary. 

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son? Isn’t this Beverly Church, that little church on the corner of Beverley Road and East 8th? Well, yes it is….

That’s what we need to be about, this 4th of July 2021 in this painfully divided yet still beautiful country. The beauty and power of Dr. King’s message and witness was that he believed in what this country said about itself and believed it could be that. That’s what we need to be about in our day and time. 

Let those with ears to hear, hear.

And a happy 4th of July to you my friends….

Mark 6: 1-13

1He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Living in coronavirus world 266: Work in progress

6/27

worth a try...

 It’s a work I’m progress, this rendering the world…

We just passed the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Three months (officially) of summer left, but the days already getting shorter.

Make Music New York

Greenwich Village

Every year on June 21st is Make Music New York Day with live concerts going on all over the city. Last year, in the midst if the pandemic, I did a “window” concert right here on 115th. This year, my friend Steve and I perform in a pocket garden on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village around the corner from the  Bitter End. The retired volunteers running the garden are form out generation so we give then a generous dose of ’70’s covers. There’s a certain serenity to this space filled with blossoming flowers in the midst of the Village. 

                                               *****

the last Lockdown

Grateful Distancing Stay at Home Tour 2020

t

Thursday is my last “Lockdown Showcase.” I’ve done 10 now, although this is the first of this year.  Called it the Grateful Distancing Stay at Home Tour of 2020. We had a get out the vote show, This darkness has got to give.., and my overall commitment, we will get by, we will survive.  A true all star gathering of friends, some live.  Numbers are down, I try not to feel unloved. More and more I believe we are just done with virtual life. Happy to have shared this night with my friends. 

                                               *****

Citi Field. Phillies-Yankees. That increasingly rare “single admission” doubleheader, only virtue of  covid rules,  seven inning games. I watch as Phillies Aaron Nola quietly strikes out 10 batters in a row, tying Tom Seaver’s 50 year old record.

at the ball game

In front of me are about two dozen young adult Korean American families with their children. I’m guessing as I overhear conversations all second generation at least. Several guys are wearing hats and jerseys from a softball (?) team, the Saints. With the little kids, shared food, it’s a warm scene. I wish I were part of it. 

Here’s the thing..in these days of anti-Asian violence, here are these Americans. Born and raised in Queens.  Ball players. Queens inflection. Mets fans. Americans. For as screwed up as we are, this too is who we are, a people of peoples from all over the  world. At home. Here. On this baseball sunny afternoon, this feels good.

                                                  

                                                                            ****

Last year Mike and Ariela married in the midst of the pandemic, A year later, they gather their friends on a roof top under the bridge in Williamsburg to celebrate. Some guests  are still anxious:  but have you had both vaccinations? .....Slowly finding our  way forward…

                                                    ****

on the ferry

playing with Nick

playing with Lizzie and Steve

Take the ferry across to Governors’ Island for the annual Porch Stomp Festival. Last year, they postponed the festival until October. Everyone on the island had to be masked. Every performer with a special bandana. This year, masks on the ferry but it’s all but normal on the island. Everyone’s talking about what we’ve lived through. Where we’re headed. I’m just happy to be playing with friends. In the middle of may last set, a cloudburst arrives. We play through, a mini Woodstock moment. 

Step by step we are coming out…

On the first Sunday of June

 6/6

Art, Morningside Park

On the first  Sunday of June, this was my reflection for the Beverley congregation...

The sun is out. It’s warm. Like turtles in the parks, we’re easing our heads up out of the water, bit by bit, ready to feel those sun rays.  I’m sitting in the ballpark again, making plans for summer travel. At my mothers’  assisted care facility, I can take her outside and wheel her around the little lake. More and more of us are vaccinated.  Who knows? Some day we might actually be able to meet in person again for church. 

Since we’ve last met together, we have passed the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.  And just last week, the 100th anniversary of an event that happened in a city I once served in for 10 years.The Tulsa Race Massacre. Meanwhile all cross the country, legislatures seem to be doing all they can to bring back voter suppression. The situation with homeless people in our city seems to be getting worse. And city elections are coming by  again. 

So what’s Jesus  up to this week? He’s healing people, doing exorcisms, and drawing such big crowds there’s no time to even eat. Even his family seems to think he’s gone too far so that they want him to "tone it down.” People are saying he’s crazy. Religious authorities have come down from Jerusalem to discredit him, saying he’s casting out demons by the power of Satan. 

Let’s stop a second. Last month, May, was mental health awareness month. In Jesus day, people understood mental illness to be “demon possession.” (In some respects, that’s not that far off.) Their claim that Jesus is doing this through the power of Satan makes Jesus just about as angry as he gets. First, he uses logic. “How could I use the power of Satan to drive  out Satan”? Logically, only the power of the Holy Spirit could drive out an evil Spirit. And that’s where he gets really angry…their calling the Holy Spirit the spirit of evil is not only illogical, but blasphemous and to Jesus, the only unforgivable sin. (At least in this chapter..)

This is where another quote comes in…

4If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

These are the words Lincoln used to describe the United States on the eve of the Civil War. The kind division he saw was probably inevitable given that the whole economy and culture of the South (and let’s admit it, the riches of the north) was built on the backs of enslaved human beings. Human beings treated as property.  There is ultimately no compromise between the idea that some human beings can be owned and used as property and the belief that all human beings are inherently to be free people. There is no middle ground. The fact is the whole system of chattel slavery only worked if those enslaved were not viewed as fully human. Any kindness or generosity simply a form of humane treatment of animals. 

I might even suggest that at the end of the day, that original sin if you wish, informs the divisions we have today as resistance to the teaching of race theory grows. 

There are other ways we are and will be divided. Now when you go the game, the stadium is divided between vaccinated and un..There are bars in this city you can’t enter unless you are vaccinated. Laws banning trans athletes are being passed. Our divisions may be as deep as they were during the Civil War. Or the beginning of the Vietnam War. 

The challenge of the next few years will be how do we even begin to understand one another? We can’t even agree on what the meaning of words are. And this divide may be greatest between those of us who clam the name of Jesus as savior. I don’t have an answer for that

(Certainly the apostle Paul gave our Southern Presbyterian ancestors more than enough quotes to support their belief in slavery.)

But back to Jesus and his family. Note that he’s inside the house  and they’re out. You can’t blame his mother for being annoyed, always having a crowd of people you don’t know  hanging around. They have to send word into him to get his attention.  

His response  can seem very harsh. Who is my mother? My brothers and sisters? Then he waves his arm around pointing to his followers and says these are they. 

For people my age, that brings up memories of what it was like during the early years of Vietnam. While cleaning out my mom’s house, my sister found an 8 page letter I had written my family explaining why I had to go to Washington, DC to protest even after they had expressed their displeasure. Those were hard days.

(Let’s be honest…Jesus’ words about family can last be used manipulatively by cults and others.. …)

We understand that we have families by birth and families of choice. New York City, because of its nature, may have a disproportionately large number of families  of choice, because of the numbers of people who come here because they need to get away to be who they truly are. We can over romanticize our birth families. Some are more complex and some just outright toxic or dangerous. 

True happiness may be when your birth family and your family of choice fit together, one the extension of the other. And that’s especially true of Church families.

Jesus makes clear that his ministry is to be about forgiveness of sins, even blasphemy.  That may actually have a lot to do with what heals people. The one person most of us have difficulty forgiving is ourselves;

Recently, the HBO series “Mare of East Town” captured the imagination of a wide audience. It’s a wonderful picture of a small Delaware County (Pennsylvania) town where everyone seems to be related and all kinds of serious family issues exist. A terrible murder of a young woman has taken place and its resolution leaves a deep mark on several families. 

Months later, the whole community is in church. The young deacon who was himself accused of the crime is back after a leave. In his return sermon, he says how good it is that we are all here together after what we have been through.  But not everyone is here. Perhaps we don’t believe they deserve to be here. Perhaps they  don’t believe it themselves. But it’s not our job to determine that. We can’t really know that. All we can do is love them.

Forgiveness may be the most important word in our sermon today,. Maybe that helps heal madness. Maybe they helps heal divisions. Maybe that helps to  heal us. 

Amen

Mark 3: 20-35

. and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

31Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” 33And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”