Identity in the Global City

4/6

Bahia Blanca, Argentina

(Prepared for Paginas Valdenses)



In reflecting on the formation of identity in global city, let's first set the context for our conversation. Urban areas are marked by high population density and infrastructure of built environment. For the  first time  in the   history of humanity, the majority of the world's people live in urban areas. (According to the United Nations Population Division,In 2014, 3.9 out of 7 billion.)  As we consider urban communities around the world, we find a number of commonalities. These include:
* The collapse of sustainable rural life and internal migration of people from the countryside to the city
* The impact of global migration resulting in the greatest number of people in motion from one place to another  in history, what artist and filmmaker AI Wei Wei has described as the "human flow." Every urban area is struggling to deal with the inflow of people from other countries. And there is a growing recognition that there is no true distinction between political and economic refugees as political decisions drive the economic realities that make life unsustainable.
* The continuing and expanding income disparity gulf between the super  rich and everyone else.
* The urbanization of former suburbs and rural areas closing the gaps between urban centers and creating extended urban ares with multiple often unrelated governments.( EG, the string of communities along the shores of the Rio Plate leading to the sea.) 

There are also some disparities between the global north and the global south. In the north, the phenomenon of gentrification has become a major factor. Whereas in the 1960's there was abandonment of cities in the "white flight" era, there is now a return of wealth to formerly depressed urban areas resulting in forcing up costs of housing and driving out those who have been living there for decades. This reality is just beginning to take place in cities in the global south.

On the other hand, the global south has the phenomenon of "shanty towns" on the margins of cities where migrants form rural areas are constructing new communities. I once saw a colonia of 20000 people being constructed almost over night in Juarez, Mexico. Again, something similar, though less dramatic, is occurring in the urban communities along the Rio Plate. 

In this  context, people in urban areas seek to build community and maintain a sense of identity. This leads to two contrasting tendencies. One is a creation (or recreation) of former communities or enclaves, within larger communities. In New York City, the Borough of Queens is made up of ethnic enclaves from around the world. There are, for example, neighborhoods where all the signs are in Korean and no English heard on the street. This is not that different than the historic "Chinatowns" of South American Cities. People from one distinct community will establish themselves together in a new community, recreating their community of origin in diaspora.  So many people from Puebla live in the Upper West Side of Manhattan that a consulate, Casa Puebla, has been established there. In the global South, this is particularly true of indigenous enclaves within broader communities.

.The opposite of this is a form of integration in which one claims an identity as part of the city over against the broader nation, for example. in cities like Berlin and New York City, one more quickly identifies as a Berliner  or New Yorker before any identification as German or American. The global city is much more able to allow for multiple identities to coexist than "national" identities. Thus the current debate over what it means to be part of a nation taking place across the globe. 

Within the global city, people may locate their identities through ethnic associations, unions, passionate support of a particular football team and of course, churches. The challenge for the church is as to whether it will simply be a container for preserving the markers of where people have come from or actively serve as a catalyst in the process of creative integration. Both of these are important. The profound beauty of cities comes from the new creations of art and culture and even food that comes from the encounter of diverse communities. Our churches have a call to embrace and facilitate that process as partners with our creator in the ongoing work of creation.

Remembering Sonia

  3/26                                                                              

Remembering Sonia

I am walking out the door of 303 East 8th street. Where we gather to share our songs. In the name, spirit and we hope, ethos ("shut up and sing the song") of its founder, Jack Hardy.  Never a megastar himself, but mentor to a generation of singer-songwriters. That's where I was.

I notice colored chalk marks on the sidewalk outside the door. My first thought is neighborhood children in this newly family friendly East Village. But I look closer. It is a name. "Sonia Wisotsky. Age 17. Russia. Died in the Triangle Shirt Waist fire March 25, 1911." (Two doors down is the name of Golda Shput, age 19. Also from Russia.)

She worked 52 hours a week. Nine hours on weekdays, seven on Saturday. For 7-12 dollars a week.  The fire broke out at the end of the Saturday work day. The exit doors were locked, by the sweatshop owners, to prevent any unwarranted 'breaks" by the workers. Or "theft", they said. By the time it was over, 146 people were dead. All but 23 women. Most of them teen agers. The youngest 14, the oldest 45. The owners escaped to the roof. And the man with the key just went home.

On the way up Avenue B, I'm thinking about Sonia, this Russian immigrant teenage Jewish girl. What floor did she live on? Was she thin, or zaftig? Was there a brightness to her or did she seem tired and worn? Did she speak English? Did she have a boyfriend? Did they dance? Did she sing? To herself on the way to work or at her sewing machine? Did she ever write a song?

And was she one of the ones who feeling trapped, jumped to her death from the windows? Bodies tearing through the firemen's nets?  Did she fall through the open elevator door down the shaft to where the weight of bodies prevented the elevator from rising one more time? Or simply died in the smoke and fire?

In various ways those flames still burn.

The East Village once teemed with working class immigrants. Having passed through various stages of urban evolution, it's fast gentrifying. A high rise "luxury" condo just a few blocks north of 8th street. But immigrants still come. Sweatshops still oppress. And owners still find ways to lock doors, even if metaphorically.

Sonia will be buried  in Mount Richmond Cemetery on Staten Island. Along with 21 of her coworkers, courtesy of the Hebrew Free Burial Association.

Walking up Avenue B, I see Sonia exit the door. Go down the three steps. Wait for her friend Golda. Together on this gray, cold and raw day, they will make the twenty minute walk down St. Mark's to the factory. Maybe sharing gossip. Or sharing plans for their day off tomorrow. Or maybe just in silence.

Third Sunday in Lent: What did I do to deserve this?

3/24/19

Ready for Eucharist in Marcus Garvey Park

It's officially spring now. Ona sunny mild afternoon I make my way to Marcus Garvey Park where the Sunday afternoon Ecclesia Congregation is gathering. Along with volunteers from Riverside Church and the Interfaith Center. There's anew  friend from the Dominican Republic. And old friends. And new. This was my reflection: 

I can't tell you how many times as a Pastor I have had someone, often from a hospital bed, say to me " I just don't know what I have done Pastor, that God would cause me to suffer like this."It's a common question. I think that behind that question is a desire to have everything make sense, even if it means having to be guilty of something you can't figure out. Somehow that idea is easier to live with than the thought that what happens is random.

People come to Jesus with a report of a political atrocity committed by Pilate, mixing the blood of some Galileans with "their sacrifices." And the other "news of the day" includes a non-political disaster of the Siloam tower falling on people. He takes the opportunity to challenge the idea that what happens in this life has anything to do with how much of a sinner you are. He's pretty clear...there's no connection. I used to have a friend that would say, "Time wounds all heels"....if only it were true.

And the reverse of that is equally true. We live in a time when there is a popular idea called the Prosperity Gospel. The idea is if you believe the right thing, God will bless you. Or worse, that if you have material wealth, it must mean that God has blessed you and  you deserve it and if you don't have material wealth, it's your own fault, a sign of your own sinfulness. The whole language of the world being divided into "makers and takers" is just a variant of that idea.

Jesus is very clear about that..."NO, I tell you...."

But he uses this to go another direction, to talk about repentance. We are three weeks deep in the season of Lent, in the midst of our 40 day journey of reflection in preparation for Easter. A time when we are called upon to think about our lives, to think about what might need changing. To think about what we might need to change in order to become the person Jesus has created us to be. To repent, turn around, go a new direction.

SO he tells us a story about a fig tree that is barren. The gardener asks for one  more year to tend it, care for it, fertilize it and see what might happen. 

I guess there's a few ideas here...one is that not all doors are always open. Ultimately we do have to decide. But the truth is, it is never up to us to pass that judgment on another. That privilege is God's alone. 

They say that in any parable, we are ALL the characters...so...we are the man who is fed up with the tree...how often do we feel that way about someone else? Or ourselves?  And certainly we can be the fig tree, in need of another chance, one more opportunity to turn things around. Of course, Jesus is the gardener. But as part of the living  body of the risen Christ, we too are called to participate in creating those opportunities for others, even those who people have given up on. I suspect that at the end of the year, this gardener might say again, "OK, give me  just one more year..."

Maybe one more thought. It takes manure to fertilize. I'm wondering if there might be something in,  well, the crap of our lives that can be used to help us grow to be fruitful, you know, even helpful to others, like I can see what you're going through, I've been there, maybe I can help...like that.

May  be with you in journey to repentance and new life. May we be with one another. In the name of this gardener, this Jesus, Amen.

During prayers, many concerns are lifted up about missing friends. People continue to arrive. On foot. And in wheel chair. Eucharist is shared, one by one. 

And then we share the meal prepared by Riverside. And the circle begins to disperse. As we walk out fo the park, using the portable altar, Father Clyde sees one of the missing friends and immediately goes over to her. And we share our left over sandwiches with  her and her friends.... 



                                                                        ****

Luke 13: 1-9
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 8He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Transfigured

3/3/19

Eugene got out the good China

Back in New York City.....cold morning walk to Beverley. Snow on the ground. On the edge of Lent. Today's reflection....

 A week ago, I left New York City at 7:30 AM...it was 40' and steady cold rain. At 12 noon I was at a ball park in Florida in 80' sunny weather. Late yesterday afternoon, it was 80' and sunny when I got to the airport and when I landed here...well, you know...

Its a little hard keeping up with the changes. A couple of days ago, in Florida,  I forgot what month it was. .Felt like spring was over already.

Time. Seasons. The cycles by which we pass through a year.  Our liturgy of time, we might say. And I've always been fascinated by the church year.  It begins in Advent, preparing for Christmas. Goes through Christmastide and passes into Epiphany, then Lent, then Easter, then the long season of Pentecost til we've arrived at Advent once again.

There are some special gateway days that open a door to a new season like Reign  of Christ  Sunday (Christ the King) into Advent or today, Transfiguration Sunday, the Sunday that opens the door to Lent...


We've been in the season of light...of epiphany, the season of light...so we need one more burst of light before we enter into the quiet, darker season of Lent...

So what's going on in this story? What does it mean for us? Today?

SO Jesus goes up the mountain, to pray, with his 3 man crew, his besties,  Peter, James and John...and all of a sudden  they see Jesus transfigured....interesting word...not just changed ... that would be transformed...but changed into something more special, more beautiful, more spiritual, more holy....

...and he's with Moses and Elijah..for us like a Biblical Abraham, Martin and John..and the imagery recalls Moses trip up the mountain to bring us back the law..so he's there...but also Elijah...if Moses is the law, Elijah is the prophets ...Jesus' job description is to bring the two of the together...to fulfill ALL of scripture...to embody BOTH...
...and it was sooo beautiful Peter didn't want to leave...He wants to build 3 booths..  I love Peter, like no impulse control whatsoever..can you blame him? Have you ever had your own mountain  top experience? You just don't want it to end...Hey, it was no mountaintop, but I didn't want to leave Florida..just build me a booth on the beach...

And then that voice appears again...that voice from the Baptism..this is my son, my beloved, do what he tells you to..and then, there is ONLY Jesus....and they head back down...and IMMEDIATELY Jesus has to confront the power of evil ...you just can't stay on the mountaintop..Now that he's got his job description, it's time to get to work..and all they see is Jesus because he now, like I said, embodies it all...

And what does any of that mean for us?
Well, we could use a blast of light, that's for sure....I don't need to tell you these are troubling times, disturbing times...it feels like it's late and getting darker everyday...and so we need to be transfigured ourselves ... to look up and see only Jesus shining on and be transfigured ourselves..

nice as it feels, we can't stay in the church...we've got to get back to the world....

and?  the other place I remember transfigured from is from Juliet Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

...In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom
That transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy,
Let us die to make men free;
While God is marching on.....

Written in the dark days of the civil war...she is says that Jesus has a glory that transfigures US...I would change one word...

As He died to make men holy,
Let us LIVE to make all free;

That helps me understand how we make transfiguration real...

I mentioned Abraham, Martin and John at the beginning...each of them was transfigured...
Lincoln had to  see ending slavery not as a political problem to be solved but as a moral calling to which he was responsible...(ultimately this is what saved him from his bouts of melancholia, what we  now call depression..)

All Martin King wanted to do was be a scholar...he figured there were a lot of black preachers...he wanted to be respected for his intellect...well, God had other plans...

And John? Like Abraham before him he had to see the Civil Rights movement as not representing a political problem but a moral calling...it would take Lyndon Johnson to finish the job..even at the consequence  ending the support of the south for Democrats for at least a generation..

We have to, like the voice says, Listen to Jesus, do what he says...listen for the work that is our work and be about doing it..

and that's good reflection material for Lent...

what is my calling? what so yours? how can we help each other?
That's transfiguration..






Like the old song says....
Shine on me, yes shine on me...shine on me, shine on me, let the light of the light house shine  . on me..

We share our communion, Make our prayers. In the social hall, Eugene has set out the good china. Geraldine tells me the story of the beloved pastor Kissoon, immigrant from the Indies, who gave over 20 years of his life to the church. Most of them "unofficial" while Presbytery's gatekeepers struggled over his status. Sometimes institutions just have to recognize what God had already done....

                                                                        ****


First Reading Exodus 34:29-35

29Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.



Gospel Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" — not knowing what he said. 34While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" 36When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

37On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not." 41Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." 42While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

 

Some Oscar after thoughts.....

2/25

Just a few Oscars afterthoughts. I will leave to others, or another time, the discussion about the Best Picture Award or other critical analysis of what this year's nominations had to say about how we are now. I want to comment on two things : one, this year's collection of short live-action films, and two, a few words about Vice.

The short films are always kind of the poor cousins at the Oscars, this year threatened with exile to commercial time, rescued back to live tv at the last minute.  My good friend Beppe and I always look forward with eager anticipation to our annual visit to the Independent Film Center a week or two before the Oscars to see the shorts. This year's visit was like no other. 

There's usually a variety of movies including at least one with a quirky point of view that comes in at an angle and whisks you away, with a laugh, or knowing nod. This year's collection was relentless and unforgiving in its constant, unrelieved tension. The audience left looking dazed. ('Abused," Beppe said.) 

With one exception, the theme could have been bad things done by and to boys. And with one exception, redemption was hard to find. Two were from French Canada, and on each  from Spain, Ireland and the US.

The opener, Madre (Mother) from Spain, impresses you at first with the way the story develops almost entirely through phone calls. The horror rises as  woman tries to locate her son lost on a beach with a dying cell phone. And it never ends....you are left with the worst possibilities still possible. I through up my hands in frustration as it ended.

Fauve, from Canada, shows the day's explorations of two boys gone tragically bad. Only a final poetic image gives a sense of transcendent beauty amidst the tragedy.  

Also from Canada, Marguerite, a film about a woman dying from kidney failure and her attendant The subtext is how our attitudes about same gender love affairs has grown and evolved. Its end is affecting, moving, a touch of beauty in the midst of tragedy. It was my favorite for its belief in the possibility of grace and beauty in the midst of a depressing season.

The most difficult  to handle is an Irish film, Detained, about the youngest boys (10 years old) to ever be convicted of murder. In what was known as the James Bolger case in which a two year old boy is brutally tortured and then killed for no reason. It certainly draws into question the concept of the innocence of children. I suppose it's valuable and helps us to ponder   how these things can be done by fellow human beings. As a grandfather of two beautiful young grandchildren, it was simply too disturbing for me. And I continue to be haunted  by it. Knowing that the victim's parents objected only heightens my sense of being upset by/with this film. 

Finally, the film that did win,Skin, is a bitter O Henryesque parable on race/perception of color in the US and what we are teaching our children. Despite its capacity to capture the nuance in most lives, eg, a vicious racist can also  be a loving engaged father, it's still a difficult film to watch.

On the one hand, there is high quality in these films. On the other hand, I'm trying to understand what they are saying  about where we are. The theologian Rubem Alves has made it clear that if all we offer are images of suffering, it does not inspire people , it deadens them. If we want people to rise up and fight for a better world, we need to create images of beauty so that the  can become imagined and then  real. 

                                   * * * *

Vice is a fine well made  film with the quirky perspective I missed  in the  short films needed to make a real life horror story easier to absorb. Like Michael Moore with a touch of Garcia Marquez. Not to mention the acting virtuosity of Christian Bale (even physically transformed) and Sam Rockwell. In the end, this film is vitally important right now. 

The reality of life in the Trump presidency has been so overwhelming as to have obscured everything that came before. George Bush, Jr can be a buddy to Bill Clinton and do his painting and be the guy you'd like to have a beer with and we forget the  (literally) horrendous crimes against humanity committed during his administration. The calculated use of the tragedy of 9-11 to justify a war in Iraq at the expense of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives was nothing short of criminal. Not to mention smaller tragedies like costing Colin Powell his integrity. 

We are reminded that Dick Cheney was the architect of all of that. And there is the final tragedy of watching Cheney take the one place in his life where he maintained his decency, his protection of his daughter  Mary from public political strategic homophobia, and tacitly gave the nod to his daughter Liz when she threw her sister under the bus in her own campaign for her father's former seat. 

It's important not to forget this history as we seek to change our present reality. What we're up against is deeper, and more insidious than one bad president, even as we descend ever lower. 

Vice is more than worth a look.

Blessed are...

2/17

Ready for worship

Today I'm back at Good Shepherd Faith. The choir is rehearsing a medley of spirituals as I arrive. The service begins. And after scriptures, my reflection, or "prompting,' as they call it. 

February is the shortest month of the year...but this years' lectionary selections have been kind of a greatest hits collection  with passages like the  First Corinthians 13 "Love Passage" and today's passage from the Beatitudes as Luke presented them.

Let's start by saying Luke and Matthew tell the same story in different ways. Matthew's puts it "on . the mount" while Luke has it "on the plain"...when you go to the actual site at Capernaum, they explain it very easily. There's a hill that leads down to the sea. Either Jesus was on top and the  people below or vice versa. Doesn't matter. What does matter is what he says.

Well, there's a difference  there too. Matthew likes a little nuance, like poor "in spirit" and "hunger and thirst for righteousness."  Luke keeps it simple and straight, and lefty preacher that I am, I prefer that....the poor, the hungry...no nuance...and Luke is not satisfied to leave it with blessings...he adds the curses...but more of that later.

A friend of mine once pointed out that in Luke, Jesus is addressing the crowd...and in Matthew, for most of the passage he's addressing the disciples about the crowd, speaking of them in the 3rd person. It only turns to the 2nd, directly to the disciples, when it gets to what will happen to them...

 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Luke introduces us  to the sermon with a lot of action, healing and exorcisms, people coming from very specific places, like Judea and Jerusalem  in Israel and Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon...

let's see who gets blessed in Luke..

* the poor
* the hungry
* those who weep
* people who are hated, reviled and defamed

that would pretty much qualify as qualify as good news...radical good news...

But let me be clear...we need to resist any efforts to romanticize....there's nothing good about any of these...if you ask most people who are poor what want, the first answer would be, not to  be poor...
hungry people want fed...and  after 24 years here, I still don't know how to respond to those "excuse me ladies and gentlemen....." moments on the subway.

And as for weeping, don't get me started... Friday night, I had to do a funeral for a 31 year old man, with mental illness, who committed suicide. His sister had lost her husband to suicide 10 years ago. His niece says that if God is  trying to teach them something, he should stop doing the same thing over and over because it isn't working.

And I have to explain, like my friend Father Duffell from Blessed Sacrament says, sometimes God is surprised. But God's tears flow with ours and God is there waiting with open arms. I am usually lifted by funerals ...but after Friday I only felt sad. And angry.  After  hearing how much the young man meant to all these people, a friend said to me, "if everyone loved him so much, why isn't he still here?" For me, the fact that the answer is because he couldn't feel it...only left me feeling angry.

What's up with all of this? In the exact center of Leviticus, of all the Law, is the command to love neighbor as self. At the very center of the Torah is the Jubilee...every 50 years was to be a social reset button...all debts forgiven, slaves set free, property returned to the original owner...at the very center of the Hebrew Bible is the idea that no person, family or group should ever have to be permanently  dependent on the largesse of society for survival. 

There is no proof that it ever actually happened..some scholars believe that Jesus's self understood mission was to make the Jubilee real....and that this is behind the beatitudes...

Jesus' woes are also specific...(and "woe" was literally the sound of lost souls in gehenna....Jesus is literally saying "damn you" or "go to hell"....note the this this is one of the few times Jesus contemplates anyone sent to hell.. )


24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25"Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

"Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

26"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets..

We could just read those and go"mic drop"

What then are we to do?

Latin American theologian Pablo Richard says we North American Christians don't understand power...that if we simply walk away from ours, the world doesn't get better, an evil person will add it to theirs...

We must use what we have, in Presbyterian terms, to contribute to the decent and orderly transfer of power to those  who are excluded..

A freind once pointed out that the Spanish word for Blessed in Spanish"...bienaventurado.." has the sense of "well adventured") to it.

What can we do as individuals? Well one thing for sure, vote...it does make a dfference in real peoples' lives...But as a community? to make the jubilee real? Or even one step closer?

May your adventures go well...

As we talk about this, one person asks "what does blessed mean?"
One person suggests "presence, God's presence"
Another something like grace, something undeserved that you receive. And how we sometimes need to both ask for what we need and also offer to others before they ask. And the bottom line importance of gratitude as not only the response to to but beginning of blessing...

Soon enough, the service is over and I am on my way to a winter wedding in Central Park....

                                                                ****

Later in the day, I would preach essentially the same sermon to the Ecclesia congregation of homeless people in Marcus Garvey Park. Police surveillance has been keeping people away. Today we've got two Josephs...one from Arkansas, the other  from a shelter in theBronx who still follows Judaism. Both with intricate, involved, and somewhat exotic, theological theories. And again, being there for one another seems to be the most important expression of blessing...

                                                               ****
At Good Shepherd Faith, I used Paul Simon's "Blessed are.."

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit.
Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows.
Blessed are the sat upon, Spat upon, Ratted on,
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
I got no place to go,
I've walked around Soho for the last night or so.
Ah, but it doesn't matter, no.

Blessed is the land and the kingdom.
Blessed is the man whose soul belongs to.
Blessed are the meth drinkers, Pot sellers, Illusion dwellers.
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
My words trickle down, like a wound
That I have no intention to heal.

Blessed are the stained glass, window pane glass.
Blessed is the church service makes me nervous
Blessed are the penny rookers, Cheap hookers, Groovy lookers.
O Lord, Why have you forsaken me?
I have tended my own garden
Much too long.

Songwriters: Paul Simon

Gospel Luke 6:17-26

17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

21"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

22"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

24"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

25"Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

"Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

26"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Love is....

2/3

Beverly...the sun is back...

The deep freeze seems to be breaking up. There's sun...and warmth on the air today as I walk up Beverly towards church...Today we're talking about love....



                                                                          ****

In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love

At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.
Che

All you need is love. Beatles

Seems  like everybody's got something to say about love. . Just like the Christmas decorations go up the day after Halloween, the Valentine's Day hearts and cupids start going up right after Christmas. And we're now 3 days into February, the month of love...

Paul said some hard things, some confusing things and (forgive me) some just out and out things that just don't make sense. But if one time he got things right, it was First Corinthians 13. One of the all time greatest hits. Just like almost every funeral I do, people request the 23rd Psalm, almost every wedding requests 1 Corinthians 13.

(Although for awhile in the 70's, I got this from Tom Robbins: “Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet.”)

You could just about read  1 Corinthians 13 and drop the mic, no further words required. But I made the trip all the way out here, so I should say a few more things.

1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Paul begins by describing how even the most  poetic words ring hollow and untrue without love. Even seemingly righteous religious acts without love are meaningless.

Listen to these next again...

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

These are not necessarily easy. Patience, especially. And insisting on your own way. That  not rejoicing in wrong doing covers a wide area. Like revenge. Or checking our happiness when we see another's sadness. Rejoicing in truth? How we need to hear that these days. And for all the competing claims about truth, remember this, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life...if you're struggling to know what's true, one question is does it sound like it's of Jesus? And there's your answer...that informs all that follows as well...

Three looks...first interpersonal. Times like Valentine's day can be hard for those of us who don't have a current partner. It can be as painful as mother's day is for some. At one point in my single years, I had finally come to a moment of peace when I considered that friends can get you through tines of no lovers better than lovers through times of no friends. Every relationship with love is a gift of God never to be taken for granted and to be received as a grace.

As far as our corporate life goes, that's pretty simple. We sing this song:  "...and they'll know we are Christians by our love..." So you always have to ask the question do they? If you pull back the camera a bit, what do you see? Here?

One of my biggest learnings I had in seminary came through my urban ministry core group. There were 12 of us, We would meet every Monday for 3-4 hours. Part of that time was prayer.  We had to pray for each other. Let me be honest...there were people at the beginning of that class that I just plain did't like. That I found annoying, irritating. At the end of the term, there were still some I didn't like, but after a semester of praying for them, I had come to love them.

We live in difficult times. I remind myself daily that there are still children in cages in the desert. Old prejudices and nemeses have been unleashed. 

I can only say this, our only answer is love. And it will take strong love to turn back the hate that has been loosed.

One who understood this was Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. And as I said on his birthday, we must resist any efforts to tame Dr.King. 

Listen to these words..

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

and this was the basis of his beloved community, a dream still unfulfilled.


What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
.King

At the end of the day, Just love is the only thing that is going to get us through this tough place of black and white.  Just meaning simple and only. But also just, as in justice.

Michael Eric Dyson's new book, What Truth Sounds Like, tells the story of how Bobby Kennedy changed from seeing the reality of black people as a political problem to be finessed and began to understand it as a personal moral imperative. (Much like Lincoln and slavery  before him...) It began by allowing himself to listen.

So it's Valentine's month. And also black history month. Can we make LOVE part of black history month?

8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Let those with ears to hear, hear....and love.
Amen

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We share our prayers.Break bread together. Then go downstairs for a shared meal. Outside, the sun feels good...

"Seasons of Love"

                                                     "All You Need is Love"

I Corinthians 1: 1-13

1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

"Seasons of Love"

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles
In laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died
It's time now to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love
Remember the love
Remember the love
Measure in love
Measure, measure your life in love
Seasons of love
Seasons of love