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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Advent again: Rachel continues to weep


12/3
Much activity in preparation for a visit this week that could change everything. Including a conversation with Martin.
Stephen has picked up the posters for Dzieci’s upcoming Fools’ Mass and also our whole December preview and has installed them in the windows. 
Joseph Conrad
Robert Louis Stevenson
Teddy takes me to the Dead Poet for a birthday drink. If I can name a dead poet with the same date, it’s free. I go with Joseph Conrad....more a novelist that poet, but it counts. And a bonus for knowing this was the day that Robert Louis Stevenson died. Barely 44. 
Sitting there, I remember that it was just a year ago that I was here for my birthday with Amanda. It was within days of our 100th Anniversary Celebration,100+.  Feels like it was two or three years ago at this point. How far have we come since then?
Sorry to have missed Dan J and his mom, in town for another court date. My letter on his behalf seemed to help. They’ll be back letter in the month. Seeing him back as the man I knew he is, working, responsible...it’s a victory. Teddy ready to let their past issues go.  
Tonight’s Bible study is on the birth narrative in Matthew. As if it were the only record of Jesus’ birth we had. 
  • The beginning of the book, with it’s genealogy (genesis) sets us up for what will follow. A new genesis, a new beginning, a parallel journey through the history of the people of Israel. 
  • Out of these 14 generations, only 4 women: 
    • Tamar, a prostitute who saved Israelite soldiers who were hiding
    • Rahab, the harlot who was married to Hosea
    • Ruth, the Moabite woman who stayed loyal to Naomi, uncovered Boaz feet in the middle of the night and thus won him as her husband...saving the line of David...
    • The wife of Uriah, IE, Bathsheba, for whose love David would set up her husband for death to save his own honor
    • And then finally Mary, wife of Joseph, mother of Jesus

  • All these four before Mary were Gentiles. All were engaged in some kind of outre sexual activity.(Could we discuss the Biblical image of marriage again? Please?) Through these were the people saved, their narrative continued. 
  • So we’re being told that Mary’s story will challenge convention.
  • In Matthew, it’s more Joseph’s story than Mary’s. he is the only real human actor here, making choices, moving the story. Won't happen without has acting. 
    • He was righteous, IE, Torah(law) abiding. Putting Mary out, even quietly, would eventually subject her to stoning. His taking her for a wife saves her. Did this story get told to Jesus? Was this in his mind as he saved the woman taken in adultery from stoning? His own mother saved by grace?
    • He is instructed by dreams, just like that other Joseph in the Old Testament. 
  • The magi were Persian court officials, ambassadors, emissaries from another empire with which  Israel had collaborated to return from Babylonian exile.
  • An unsuccessful revolt had been led by Bar Kochba, son of the star. A failed messiah. Jesus, messiah, will be born under a star. 
  • Herod, knowing his own illegitimacy as king, will be threatened by one who can lay claim to prophetic legitimacy, even if the prophets were referring to something else...like Cyrus of Persia?
  • Just as Joseph went to Israel and then all his people, this Joseph takes this holy family into Egypt. Jesus is living again the  his people’s narrative.
    • I recall my visit to Egypt. The folk tales of the Egyptian Copts, descended from be first Christians, the descendants of the pharoanic peoples. Their own  stories, places of pilgrimage. Jesus’ home in Cairo just a few blocks from where Moses was pulled out of the Nile. 
  • Herod’s fear leads him to massacre a region’s worth of little boys under 2. The Holy Innocents, the first martyrs.  Did knowing this story influence Jesus? 
  • And so do threatened fearful tyrants always treat the innocents. Rachel never ceases weeping for her children at Ramah. There is still no consolation. Syria, Palestine, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Africa.... Rachel weeps. 
  • Matthew foreshadows the  whole gospel story line  in the infancy narrative. 
  • So we know....even though this story is rooted in our deepest history, our most passionate longings, it will take us somewhere we never expected. 
It’s been a good night, the feeling of the closeness of God as we study. Advent again.
(Bible study informed by Raymond Brown, Wes Howard-Brook, Jose Saramago)

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Advent 1: Signs


12/2

The table is ready


Makes me feel good, coming into the sanctuary, seeing it all ready for worship. The work we did yesterday--Teddy, Jay, Stephen-- worth it. Appears that Sanctuary has added festive wreaths to the mix. And Teddy has a pot of hot mulled cider simmering...

I couldn’t find our traditional brass Advent wreath yesterday so I brought my blue ceramic one from home, made years ago by Latvian potter Valda from Pittsburgh. It was a special commission. I gave her the idea one Christmas. A longtime friend of my late Uncle Leon, she would host an annual open house with Latvian cookies and mulled wine while in the living  room you could see her tree decorated, in the Latvian tradition with real candles. Every year she would terrify her guests when she lit the candles. It’s OK, she’d say, I have a bucket of water nearby...

So I also brought the communion set she made for me. Not doing any good at home. It’s a risk, I know. Things have a disturbing way of disappearing around here, even from locked rooms. 

I should have known. We did all that work yesterday getting Rachelle’s stuff ready to be  moved out. The desk guy at Capital Hall said he hadn’t seen her in days. So of course, today, right before worship, she shows up. I can see the looks on Stephen and Teddy’s faces, their hearts sinking. 

And of course, right before worship, she’s all worked up. 
Why didn’t you tell me? 
We’ve been telling you for months.
How am I going to help people, I don’t know where anything is..
It’s all very neatly packed up.
Well.they’ve messed everything up, I knew where every item was...and some of my best things, my pretty things, my beautiful things, I showed the young lady, they’re gone pastor, they’re gone, what am I going to do?
Rachelle, Rachelle, I can’t have this conversation now.

I see the congregation gathering. She will be in there, opening boxes, rummaging through things...Rachelle, please wait until after the service,please...

I look out and see Tracy and her partner Su Young and I smile. Soon her two sisters will arrive as well. And there will be another visitor, a young woman, dragged in, it will turn out, by Rachelle.

We begin with O Come, O Come, Emmanuel... and I have Teddy light the first Advent candle. 

We say our prayers, read our scriptures. And then, with Marc’s help, Something’s coming from West Side Story comes over the sound system. 

Could be! 
Who knows? 
There's something due any day; 
I will know right away, 
Soon as it shows. 
It may come cannonballing down through the sky, 
Gleam in its eye, 
Bright as a rose! 

Who knows? 
It's only just out of reach, 
Down the block, on a beach, 
Under a tree. 
I got a feeling there's a miracle due, 
Gonna come true, 
Coming to me! 

Could it be? Yes, it could. 
Something's coming, something good, 
If I can wait! 
Something's coming, I don't know what it is, 
But it is 
Gonna be great! 

With a click, with a shock, 
Phone'll jingle, door'll knock, 
Open the latch! 
Something's coming, don't know when, but it's soon; 
Catch the moon, 
One-handed catch! 

Around the corner, 
Or whistling down the river, 
Come on, deliver 
To me! 
Will it be? Yes, it will. 
Maybe just by holding still, 
It'll be there! 

Come on, something, come on in, don't be shy, 
Meet a guy, 
Pull up a chair! 
The air is humming, 
And something great is coming! 
Who knows? 
It's only just out of reach, 
Down the block, on a beach, 

So why did I do that? It’s Advent....and something’s....coming...something’s coming...and like 
Tony in West Side Story.....we are filled with anticipation. And not even sure what it is we are waiting for. Just that something’s coming...

Every year, we go through three Advents at the same time. First of all, we’re waiting, getting ready for this year’s  Christmas that is coming...but we also remember all the Christmases of our lives. And even  more....we’re getting ready for Jesus. His return. The coming of his kindom, his reign, his beloved community. 

We experience time chronologically but also in cycles. So every year when I see the decorations go up, I have a sinking feeling. Another year coming to an end, another year of so much left undone...where am I, where are we, on our journey? All in the hustle and bustle and stress of a holiday season. 

So we need Advent. To carve out some time. Some space in time, out of time, to prepare...to get ready...

Our Luke passage (21: 25-36) is all about signs and portents...People are always looking for that...and it’s not like we don’t see them...Any age, any time is filled with its own apocalyptic images. Enough to prove the end is near. In Bible study, we learned that the devastating earthquake in Pompeii informed some of Mark’s apocalyptic imagery.

(I shared the story of the man in Far Rockaway....the wall of water, the screaming car alarms, electric wires hitting the water, wading through floating garbage...almost losing his daughter in law...)

It doesn’t get any more apocalyptic than that...

We lit our first candle today for the Prophets..those who help us discern the times. Strikes me that today, scientists are our prophets now...They are trying to get us to see that actions have consequences....put too much carbon emission in the air, you get global warming...destroy the wetlands, you get catastrophic flooding...actions have consequences...

Like I said the first weekend after Sandy, don’t talk about natural disasters...the hurricane was weather...the disaster human made...a direct result of our policy decisions.

The call of the gospel  is to not  give in to our fears...and I always note that the worries of this world are right up there with dissipation and drunkenness...as someone said, worrying is like praying for what you don’t want.... you almost draw it to you....

And I want us also to see that the  redemption  spoken of by the prophet (Jeremiah 33: 14-16) is collective, not individual...like they said at Midland Beach in Staten Island, the problem here is individualization of crisis...

Signs...We see signs......I tell them of the story of the Occupiers and police on Staten Island....the wariness, slowly beginning to work together daily...the growing mutual respect...to see the Occupy signs and NYPD/FDNY signs side by side...that’s somewhere between hell freezing over and Jesus coming again...signs of the coming world we’re supposed to live into...signs of the alternative reality we’re called to live in now....

That’s what I have, this first Sunday in Advent...signs....

a candle for Stephen Festa
we remember
Before we gather for communion, we stop to commemorate World AIDS day. I remind the church of the deep history of the AIDS crisis at West-Park. I recall the creation of God’s Love We Deliver meals on wheels program for people with AIDS. I point to the Tiffany window restored in honor of and dedicated to Stephen Festa in 1987. And light a candle by his plaque. And we light candles in memory of those we have lost. And invite their spirits, and the spirits of all who came before us in this place to join us in our communion. 

As I lift up the bread, I recall that food justice is at every level....production, distribution, consumption...and think of all the hands involved in our loaf of bread, from seeds to store... and how grapes too must go through that process...and that in the end, it is we who are transformed into the bread of life, the risen body, to be leaven, to bring ferment to our world.  

As the people come forward for communion, I hear Tracy as she comes to Hope, a little unsure what to do...I’ve never dome this before...she says... 

We sing Come thou long expected Jesus and gather around the table. And I read the day’s Epistle lesson as a benediction:

9How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? 10Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. 12And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. 13And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 
And we sing our amens, return to Teddy’s hot mulled cider.
Stephen invites the Sanctuary NYC folks to share in our AIDS memorial candles.  Later, I’ll look and see that they did and that  all the candles are lit and glowing...
The young woman who was visiting comes forward. Tells me that she was dragged in by Rachelle. That she was raised Catholic, with serious issues with church. And that she didn’t know it could be this way I like the intimacy, the caring of your community she says...And I thank her for her presence. 
Ramon is preparing for his ballet. He came in as we left yesterday. Didn’t hear Jeremy when he called. Jeremy had to come down to the Gate to borrow keys. A package of bacalao in his hands. It’s a long story , he said....
Tracy and her sisters
I take a picture of Tracy and her sisters. You’re like an Asian, she said,always taking pictures...

Rachelle renews her assault. Her high pitched, staccato words like a dentist’s drill boring into my head. Later she will set up a display on the steps. Tired, I finally say, if it bothers Sanctuary, they can deal with it.
She sees me going up Amsterdam and follows. Telling me her medical miracle, living with scleroderma. (I told her I knew the story)And of her miraculous rescue from a car accident and the cop who called her an angel. She tells me an angel of mercy. She says I am an angel, too. .This is going on too long. I a exhausted. Remember the first West-Park rule. Remember...don’t try and have rational conversations with irrational people...

Monday, December 3, 2012

Three days: And yes, it is now December


11/29

Stephen and I spending time together working on pr for upcoming events in December. 

Someone I know from the neighborhood is sitting on the steps, calling in bets for tonight’s college basketball games. 

11/30

Telling Martin about my visits to Far Rockaway and Staten Island. Make a passing reference to Third World. He asks like  where? And I say Central America, the Middle East...’80’s...He wants to know more so we set up a time to talk tomorrow. 

Danielle wrapping up the week, figuring out which bills to pay..

Marty’s out. Sometime I have to ask him what his best spot is. 
Say Reverend...your boys, are they good athletes, good ball players?
Well, were. Pretty much grown. Don’t play so much ball anymore. Well, you know, pick up.
Well, I’m happy. Notre Dame is number 1. First time since 1988. Loved Notre Dame ever since I was a kid. Y’know, Kavanagh, they accused him of illegal recruiting of players. Never proved anything though. Now he wasn’t the President. Notre Dame doesn’t have a President, it has a chancellor. It’s like in England, they don’t have a treasurer, they have a chancellor of the exchequer...
Good word, that, Marty...exchequer...
So during the time of George Washington, who was the most powerful man? 
I don’t know, who?
He was a Jew...Haim Solomon...he financed the revolution...Washington wouldn’t have won without him.
I’ll have to look him up.
Where? New York Public Library?
Don’t do that anymore, Marty...and I wave my IPhone. And he waves back, dismissively. 
They wanted to make Washington king. But he said President was enough.
Haim Solomon, financier of the revolution
Or maybe chancellor? and he laughs. I need to get back to work. And as I’m going back to my office, I look back and say, Hey Marty, go Fighting Irish. 

I’m talking with Stephen when Marc comes on, says, Hiho Steverino...which leads to a long discussion of Louie Nye and the Steve Allen televsion show (probably my Dad’s favorite...)Allen the epitome of late ’50’s cool.  Ans from there morphing into discussion of recording techniques. Marc working on several West-Park projects as well as taping my Sunday sermons..

This day is over. And so is November.

12/1

Four loaves of French bread and a bag of clothes.

I’ve gathered Stephen, Teddy, Jay. Got to get ready for tomorrow. Need to find purple cloth for Advent. Candles. Advent wreath. Prepare a space for an AIDS moment of memory. Make sure that all trash is out and everything  clean. Send Teddy for cider to make mulled cider tomorrow. Send Jay to buy ink for a printer to print up flyers. 

The big jib is to deal with Rachelle’s stuff which has crept back into the sanctuary and is dangerously jammed into a hallway.We’ve told her over and over and over again.Set dates and not held her to then. And then she disappears.

I go around the corner to Capital Hall. As I enter the door, I see a big picture of Edward Green. If you see this man, call security, it says. I ask about Rachelle. They haven’t seen her in days. I go back to the church and tell Stephen and Jay t get it ready to be put out. 

Eric a musician/artist from the neighborhood is just back fro Berlin. Saw our doors open. Lived here for years, never as them open...(that again...)looking for a place to work...

On my way to find candles, run inti RL who has need of a wheelchair for a project. He’s going to meet Teddy in the chapel to see if it is the necessary size. When I get back, it’s just right. Teddy and RL take off.

Martin comes in for a 5 minute review of my history. The church solidarity work, human rights activities. I try to explain that between then and now, it’s a seamless line...just like West-Park.

Get a text from Teddy. He and RL heading for the Gate.  Maybe there’s time....



Sunday, December 2, 2012

Occupy Sandy, Part 2: Midland Beach




11/28

Midland Beach, Staten Island. This section of the city has had the highest concentrated death toll. Up and down every block we see the houses with yellow tags-- and the words enter at own risk without spelling out specifically the  mold problem. So people are moving back, even without light, heat or safety. 

Comfort Cafe and Free Store


Inside the Comfort Cafe, we meet first with the parish priest,Father Diaz, a native of the Philippines. He tells me that 95% of his  parishioners have lost their homes. There are rumors, repeat rumors, of dozens of undocumented bodies in a makeshift morgue. Headed to Potters' Field.  People afraid to report  missing loved ones do to fear of  of deportation. 

Never thought I’d see signs for a NYPD/FDNY Comfort Cafe side by side on a fence with sign for Occupy Sandy Free Store. Here’s what happened: soon after the dust settled from the hurricane, Occupiers George and Amin-- who it turns out had been part of the #OWS encampment at West-Park, arrived at Midland Beach. Wisely went to the local parish priest, Father Diaz.  Told him they were here to help. Got the use of the empty CCD education building across the street. Set up their free store. Put out the word through the Occupy Sandy Social Media Network.  Within 24 hours, food, clothing, supplies were pouring in.

Amin and George
A week or so later, the police and fire guys said that they’d like to open up a cafe. Said they had issues with Occupy. Wanted them gone. Father Diaz and other local clergy said, They’ve been here from the start. This is not about politics, it’s about helping people. They’re staying. Deal with it. So after agreeing to meet every day at 1 PM to check in, they began to work with each other. Warily, but side by side.

So now here are  Red Cross working with Occupy  and retired police and firefighters cooking and serving people. Cooking on charcoal grills and Coleman stoves. While we were there, there was some tension with the Red Cross. They’re trying to get the site designation changed from  emergency recovery to reconstruction. That would mean they could leave. 

The retired police speak up...Wait a minute..you want to leave?  These Occupy guys got here before you. They work 15-18 hours a day. They’re not going anywhere. You’re telling us that you’re leaving and they’re staying?


There is no heat or power in the rectory. (Took me back to the old days at West-Park....but at least we had lights.) There is a rumor that Cardinal Dolan is coming December 8th, but still  unconfirmed. 

Occupy Sandy is building a tool library. Looking for power tools. Saws, crowbars, sledge hammers, nail guns.....


There are mold related problems everywhere.
The Red Cross says that because this mold is mixed with saltwater, bleach doesn't work.
 Turns out after putting out a call for people to donate bleach, it doesn’t work with mold mixed with salt water. (We didn’t know that from Katrina?
 Some of these houses will NEVER be inhabited again.


We are four weeks into this crisis  and information regarding mold is still not out. Why?

At this point, the biggest need is for volunteers to be involved in canvassing--spreading the  word about mold and finding out people’s needs.Occupy Sandy’s long term goal is to develop community ownership of the processes that have begun.

Another related action I am  just beginning to understand is the debt strike campaign, when this many of us are in debt crisis,  change must come.

This is a neighborhood of white  homeowners, Russian immigrant homeowners and Latino tenants. it is mainly a working class, middle class neighborhood with a long  identity as a  community of firefighters, police, first responders-- 
  
There are language and cultural barriers with the Russian and Eastern European immigrants. In the community, many didn't leave, despite the warnings. They are currently experiencing trauma. Some left and came back. Others stayed throughout. Already there is a growing division between those who saw water (as they say) and those who were not there.   

It can’t be said enough...mold is serious public health crisis.....there is a need for educational materials,for one on one engagements in Russian, Spanish and English. No one has figured out how todeal with sewage mixed with saltwater. And once again, there is no temporary housing. 

Jessica is  from the make the road program. She works primarily with Latinos and immigrants, mainly undocumented. People who are ineligible for services....They are organizing clinics to deal with stress and trauma,especially the stress of  mothers who feel they are having to hold everyone together.
Many Latinos have already moved out because they have no homes left and have no place to go. And the local jobs they worked in are gone. 

There is this need for educating,for  signage, for...The reality is,  most people can't afford to leave. They are unable to  move out of emergency status. The conversation goes to the thought that it’s time for churches to go back to old school leadership....our churches and ministers  have to assert local leadership beyond the Red Cross. 

Sully talks with us
Sully, a retired cop from the Emerald Society, tells us that the lights only came back last week. There are bungalows here too. But overall,he says,  it feels like the old west. Only the strong survive. And even more, there seems to be dividing line between north and south shore of Staten Island. Just like a typical third world country.

The visiting nurses have set up here now, too.

Susan, from the north shore says that there has been  lots of response but it has been  uncoordinated.
     
Finally Amin says, maybe they don't need money-- maybe they need radical solutions. This disaster is hardest on low lying communities of invisible people.One of the cops says, we're paying the load for this....as taxpayers, and we get nothing back..One of the Occupy Sandy volunteers  says that the issue on the Island is one of the individualizing of crisis, no sense of common good...

Story: Sully and the other police were on the case of the two Occupiers related to 9-11. They weren’t hear, they didn’t know...

Little George speaks up. I was eleven years old when 9-11 happened. I watched  it on TV. I felt I would do anything to help New York City. And now  I have the opportunity to stand side by side with you and work together. I feel its an honor to work with you...And Sully and the cops were silenced. 

And the cops see people they don’t understand willing to work to exhaustion to help the community where the live. Their home. This  is the brilliance of this stage of #OWS. They are getting embedded in communities. Working side by side with real people, seeing police and fire personnel as people,not ideological symbols. And they have proven they can deliver. As they sit together and discuss their shared experiences, questions get raised.   So why are we still in the dark? New opportunities  for reflective dialogue emerge. . Once again proving the main point of organizoing: relationships, everything is relationships.

Bishop George Packard is a good man. He was the first to go over the fence in an effort o get Trinity Wall Street engaged. He was ready to challenge his fellow Episcopal church over their liberal persona and massive 1% ownership in lower Manhattan.  It only unerscoes that moving forward, the liberals are more dangeroue than the conservatives. 

Bishop Packard is referred to as the people’s Bishop.  It’s not because  of any ideological commitment, it's because that’s who he is. A purple heart army veteran, chaplain and then head of all chaplains.  He has been there. As opposed to some of our colleagues who speak and analyze well and may even get arrested, but don’t deal with #OWS at the street level, don’t really know any occupiers, or have not been with the hurricane victims.  George has been there. he is there.  He always wears his chaplain's baseball hat and his magenta bishop's rabat. 

He’s also has a  sixth sense with veterans.  He seems to  know who they are. He went to the beleaguered Red Cross worker,  I see you’re a veteran....your vets for vets badge. where did you serve? A conversation ensues. George ends the conversation with a sincere thank you. 

Portajohns in liturgical colors
As we pass the portajohns in green and purple, I share a liturgical joke with him, so we're moving for ordinary time to advent johns, eh? And he laughs. 

For a m  think of the national guards we saw deployed in Far Rockaway. In their camos, their humvees, cradling M 16’s. Blocking off access to parts of of the town.  Residents are angry...put down your guns and pick up a shovel. 

In the corner, the Christmas tree is glimmering with lights. Darkness is nearing. In the background  the voice of Bing Crosby singing,  I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.  




Table discussion: Father Diaz, second from right