Melissa came to visit

9/1

Melissa, Matt and the girls came to visit

Today my longtime friend and colleague Melissa , her husband Matt and two children are in the city for a visit. When I first knew her, she was a student at Louisville Seminary and an intern with our Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association. I’ve known her through her student days,  her call to ministry and ordination to a small salt of the earth people church in Cairo, Michigan. And then from her subsequent call to a sizable Presbyterian classic church in city edge Rochester, New York. Where I preached her installation service.

We’ve been together through many Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assemblies seeking to defend the denomination’s traditional pro-choice position on abortion from the annual assaults and efforts to turn it back. As PHEWA’s liaison to the ever changing names and configurations of the (now)Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, I sought to be supportive of her in her role as an official voting board member.

We suffered through the biennial staff blood lettings including the year we lost our PHEWA Executive Director. And I supported her as she fought to achieve something approaching fully inclusive decision making process with sufficient information, engaged debate, etc to honor our polity and tradition. And finally, as she fought to get a fair shake for Stony Point and the shared vision of Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase.

And we spent many long hours over bourbon barrel beers talking about the church we loved and its future. Pretty much deciding the church we knew was gone. That many congregations would carry on into the future as if nothing had changed, but the historic institution was pretty much in the postlude and something new waiting to be born. Already being born at the grass roots level. She pushed me and pushed me to stay at West-Park and bring it back to life and to be part of that birthing.

And let’s not forget baseball games, Tigers and Bats…

(Oh …and she’s also co-author of a book, The Girlfriends' Clergy Companion: Surviving and Thriving in Ministry Paperback, along with  Marianne J. Grano , Amy Morgan , and  Amanda Adams Riley.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Girlfriends-Clergy-Companion-Surviving/dp/1566994187 )

It’s been five years since she has been here. In looking around, she can see so much that has changed, finally. The restored ceilings and walls, the fresh paint, the brightness of the first floor.  I tell her all about this summer’s Antigona. And I give her girls angelitos painted by Angelo Romano. I have to remember sometimes, yes, a lot has changed.

Don’t give up, she says, it’s happening..

The binding of Isaac, September 2015

8/30

Broken ribs and all, I’m here tonight for another adventure in Genesis, tonight ready to tackle the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22. Russ and Marsha and Steve are here too. We all know the basics, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and at the last minute substitutes a ram. But what do we find in this chilling story?

God says lekh-lha, just like in God’s first command to Abraham to go. But in the command to sacrifice?  The rabbis in their midrash made much over the fact that Hebrew verb form implies a please, seemingly giving Abraham an out. Abraham, who late in life, miraculously has been given a son who will be the father of multitudes, the one who negotiated with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, does not even raise a question to this request that would wipe out his promise.

In the midrash there is this intensification.

Which son?

Your only son.

I have two sons.

The one you love.

I love both my sons.

Even Isaac.

So what does this mean? What is the story’s purpose? Steve believes that this is a story that makes it clear that as opposed to other cultures, YHWH’s people will NOT sacrifice children. I recall another commentator who believes that the test was for Isaac to say NO and he failed.

I’ve always struggled with what kind of God would roll like this. And how this relates to the substitutionary atonement theory that says because we are born into some kind of original sin, God demands blood sacrifice and offers up his own son on our behalf. Nothing about that appeals to me in any way whatsoever.

Wes Howard-Brook maintains that the basic point here is that our children should be brought up to trust completely in God and no one/thing/god else. And then he goes on to note that Abraham never speaks to Sarah or Isaac again. Isogetically suggesting that this family could never be the same after this experience. What would/could Abraham say to Sarah? How did this experience scar Isaac?

I point out that in the Koran, it’s up for debate which son is bound. But tradition has come down on the side of Ismail. And in the Koran, there’s no substitute ram, it’s just over. Not done.

Having analyzed the story from every linguistic, theological, literary and ideological perspective, I want to return to the story itself and allow it to move us on its own terms. A story that inspired Kierkegaard to write Fear and trembling…and Leonard Cohen to write  the Story of Isaac..  We look at his words:

The door it opened slowly,
My father he came in,
I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
His blue eyes they were shining
And his voice was very cold.
He said, "I've had a vision
And you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
And his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
The lake a lady's mirror,
We stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
And he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
But it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
He looked once behind his shoulder,
He knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchets blunt and bloody,
You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
"just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
Man of peace or man of war,
The peacock spreads his fan.

And the existential power of Cohen’s telling  grabs us. Steve has it on his IPhone, so we silently listen.

In the context of the Vietnam war, the message was clear. Eagle or vulture? (The US, can’t tell.) The comparison of awe-filled, hard to understand sacred reality and wanton sacrifice of children.  The shimmering quality of these words:

You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word. 

We have and we continue to sacrifice children. In war. And we barely notice anymore without a draft. It’s all other people’s children. Children who enter the military to escape the ghetto.My son's football friend Jaquan made it back. Others not so lucky.  A separate warrior class that we honor with camouflage sports uniforms  and tributes but don’t think about on a daily basis. Not like when my small mill town sent its young men to Vietnam then finally raised its voice in a collective voice when they help coming back broke if at all. Or the children in poverty without homes or food. Or the mass incarceration children. Or children murdered by police. We continue to sacrifice our children.

Leonard Cohen’s song is timeless and haunting. Steve has found it on his  iPhone. We sit in silence and listen. And deeper than theology, we hear truth.

How far is what people see from who we really are?

8/30

A little after church fellowship

It is a struggle getting to church. Trying to avoid at all costs a cough or sneeze either of which result in serious pain. Very happy to see the smiling face of Dion walking down the street to help me out. I won’t be alone. Walk up Amsterdam to go into Barney Greengrass and pick up an iced coffee. The steps are a mess. One of the sisters is there with all their worldlies.  And there’s a sleeping figure in a wheel chair. After I look closer, I know it can’t be Sean because he has one leg while Sean has none. Forgive me for saying this, but my first feeling is,the way I feel right now,  I’m leaving this for the Koreans to deal with.

Soon enough Leila and Pat K have arrived as well . And John R has arrived for one more Sunday of music. So we will have church. Back in the Sanctuary for the first time since Antigona.

I discover hitting high notes hurts as well. The congregation will need to take charge of its own singing.

Much on my mind today.

It’s the 60^th anniversary of the death of Emmet Till…lynched at age 14. And it is the 10^th anniversary of Katrina.

So what’s at stake today in our scriptures? Jesus is in conflict with the Pharisees again. Much to do about hand washing. We know all about hand washing. Sanitizers are everywhere. We carry mini-sanitizers in our purses and pockets. We worry about germs. Think about even one subway pole on a hot summer day…I remember Good Shepherd Faith’s Maundy Thursday hand washing  ritual in place of foot washing.  So much more in tune with our present urban reality. Some of us won’t shake hands. Prefer fist bumps. Some churches have stopped praticing intinction. (The way we do communion…)We take our shoes off at peoples’ doors. But sanitation is not what is being discussed here. It’s ritual purity. Holiness.

We don’t talk much or think much about that. But what are our holiness codes? The unwritten rules of NYC liberal upper west side culture? Our equivalent of handwashing? What boxes do we check off?  Political correctness? Do we carry righteous bags to Whole Foods?

More importantly, how do we define unclean? As the Presbyterian Outlook asked this week, more than who hasn’t washed their hands, the question is  who would we not want to bold our hands? Or our children’s? And what do we do with that information?

Jesus, in language more graphic than our NRSV, says that it’s what comes out from us that matters more than what comes into us and that it is the content of our heart that determines that.

James has his word to say as well.

We should be….quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger …(and we might add slow to hit the send/post/tweet button… email and social media, the devil’s tool….)

We are to be doers….not just hearers… of the WORD. how to say that and not sound obvious or didactic? Again he gets specific…. to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world….

Who are our widows and orphans? What does it really mean to care for them?  And how do we remain unstained by the world?

James compares us to those who look in a mirror and then forget what they see…although I’m not so sure that’s us…I feel for many of us, we look in the mirror and struggle…and wonder how we measure up…I don’t detect much selfrightouesness when I look out here at our gathered community…

But it does get to the question  I posed earlier in the week…what do others see when they see us? If Christian or righteous or holy were defined by what others see in us, what would that definition be? And I believe that the honest answer would be something mixed, good and bad…ultimately human…

So how far is what people see from who we really are? And as we sit here today, are there 3 things you could do to narrow the gap? I think one of the greatest compliments paid is when someone says he/she is who the appear to be…authentic.

(Later my friend Pastor Steve will call me out on that one..Donald Trump is authentic, he will say, but is that enough? Where do values, community values, fit in? What good is it if you’re authentic….and a jerk?...And I will respond by recalling how when my son Nate went to Seattle U, a Jesuit school, they said to us parents that their goal was not that their students be  Catholics or even Christian but that they be authentic…in the context of a community committed to building a more just, humane and sustainable world.. and Steve nodded, we agreed…authentic is not enough…)

Doers of the word…another anniversary…50 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the southern Presbyterian conference center Montreat…his visit made some traditional southern Presbyterians nervous, if not outright offended. I’m pleased that this week over 1000 people gathered at Montreat to talk about “the unfinished agenda”….and I enjoyed the steady stream of tweets I received …and the wrestling going on…certainly to be righteous today requires us to seriously wrestle with the unfinished agenda, the racial divide in our country…

And last Wednesday there was an eclectic gathering in my neighborhood… at First Corinthian Baptist Church… speakers included Christian Cornell West and communist Carl Dix, ….parents of children who have died by police violence and activists and Baptists …all trying to make a plan to raise a voice that cannot be ignored..and our own Presbyterian friend Stephen who ‘s with us this morning boldly declared that God is angriest when we’re told to wake up and we roll over….(well, that was my version..pretty close, Steve?)

I actually find myself thinking of Michael Jackson…yes, really, do you remember this?

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

Amen….

And when I ask John to play something for our offertory, John immediately responds with, of course, the man jn the mirror…

Later, as we lift up our prayers, my son Dan asks for prayers for his high school friend Kyle Jean-Baptiste.  The first African-American and youngest actor to star as the lead Jean Vajean in les Miz on Broadway, in rehearsals for the Color Purple, dead at 21. Fell off the fires escape athios mother’s in Brooklyn. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/theater/mourning-kyle-jean-baptiste-les-miserables-actor-who-plunged-to-his-death.html)

There was a cool young couple fresh from California. Set to move to Grteenpoint. I share my experiences of Greenpoint with them, the confluence of old Polish and young and hip, Café Edna and my singer-songwriter-dancer friend, truly one of a kind, Liana.

Session meets to discuss a proposal for rental of our sanctuary on Sunday mornings. Are we ready to make that move? Jamie has visions of how sacred the chapel could be. If it were reserved for sacred use only.  And there will be budget issues to face,  not only practical but philosophical. Missional, to use a term I generally don’t like.

The meeting ends as the pain begins to set in once more. I’ve made it through.

and one with Dion....

EPISTLE JAMES 1:17-27

¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

¹⁹You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; ²⁰for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. ²¹Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. ²³For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. ²⁵But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing.

²⁶If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

GOSPEL MARK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) ⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?"⁶He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; ⁷in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."

²¹"For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."