"Oil and Water" --- a play by Robert Chafe

This afternoon an audience was mezmerized by Halifax Neptune's Theatre production of "Oil and Water."  A true tale is spun of a black man, Lanier Phillips, who was aboard the US Truxtun when it was shipwrecked off Newfoundland in 1942.  Fearing that it was Iceland the two blackmen on the boat were ordered below deck as the ship was cast onto the craggy rocks --- blackmen were prohibited in Iceland.  Lanier did not go below, wishing to take a chance above deck rather than in the belly of the ship.  He awoke to two women cleaning the oil off of him, confused he struggled, not knowing if they were friend or foe --- definitely fearing foe.
The one women kept rubbing and rubbing and rubbing.  "Maam, the colour doesn't come off."  The men who had washed ashore were covered in oil from the ship that was wrecked.  The black cleaned off the other men with a lot of washing and rubbing.
The little town of St. Lawrence had never seen anyone that had dark skin.

The women, when realizing there was not oil, only skin.... she looked...she touched, "It is beautiful!"

The climax of the play is that racism is taught.  Those in St. Lawrenece town knew nothing of the world Lanier was only too familiar with. Interspersed were vinettes of 1974 when Boston was integrating blacks and whites in the public school system --- Lanier's daughter was part of the first school.  She was angry, scared, and demonized all white people.  Lanier finally showed her a photo from his two days in Newfoundland --- two days of being treated as everyone else, a somebody --- everyone in the photo, black and white, were smiling.  He carried the photo in his breast pocket to remind himself that there was hope ---- that someone saw him as beautiful.
Those words carried with Lanier through his life encouraged him to be an advocate in race relations, lecturing, and working for human rights across the US.

I wonder, what phrases or actions do we give that become words of hope in others, words or pictures that might last decades.  I only  pray that I am given wisdom to share the nuggets of hope that someone so desperately needs, so that they may become passionate advocates ---- for the healing of the world. 

Epiphany 4A -sermon: Micah 6: 1-8

Epiphany 4A

It is “Saturday Night at the Movies” on TV Ontario.  My family gathers around our black and white TV to be swept away to another time.  My favourite old movies were those that included dancing, waltzing to be specific. 

The scene began with the orchestra setting their bows on the strings ready to play Strauss or Tchaikovsky: the bass played a solid note with the violas following with two quicker higher notes, then the rest of the orchestra would fill in the melody movements over top.

Dancers would take to the floor of a grand ball room: a man offering his hand to a lady dressed in satin long satin gloves, puffy dresses, and beautiful jewellery. They would walk onto the dance floor, position themselves, pause...then move starting on the solid bass note, moving in a circular motion around the floor.  The other couples also danced in a circular motion around the ballroom.  The camera would pan up so the movie goer would see the whole floor of dancers moving as one around the room; no one bumping into each other, or going the wrong direction, moving as a unit...getting faster and faster as the orchestra worked through the variations of the theme.  Breathtaking.

I remember lots of waltzing in the movies. Everyone knew how to waltz: the rich, the poor, young, and old, urbanites and cowpokes.

It is “Sunday Morning at the Church”.  We gather around the black and white words printed in scripture to be swept away to another time.  My favourite old passages are those that include prophecy, memorable prophecy to be specific.

The scene begins with the Lord ready to speak at the heavenly court; a divine lawsuit is about to be underway.  The Lord speaks a solid bass note with the prophet replying with two quicker words; the Lord speaks another solid bass note with two quicker verses directed at a spokesperson for the community; then bottom note moves to the prophet Micah whose bass note is a bold solid question to the people, followed by two supporting questions...

And then comes the drawing together of the variations presented in the waltz:  do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.  _DAdada, DAdada_ DA dada_ do justice, love kindness, walk humbly ....

The characters in the dance presented are of great importance.

Micah, in his judgemental tone, addresses his disdain towards Jerusalem and its religious leaders, whom he sees as corrupt and pretensious. Whereas the supposed Holy City holds to the kingship of David and speaks of religious traditions upholding Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who are mentioned over and over again in scripture, as in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, most of the characters mentioned by Micah are not mentioned in religious rituals and in scripture not outside of the initial telling of their stories.

Moses – if one remembers was a murder, as an outlaw he goes to look after his father-in-law’s sheep, he stutters such that he won’t go to pharaoh without Aaron as a sidekick

Aaron- is a religious leader before a permanent temple is built.  He, along with his sister Miriam, find fault with Moses when he marries a Cushite wife

Miriam – a woman, leads the people in song, she had saved Moses by placing him in a basket among the reeds

King Balaak who is Moabite (not of the people) who conscribes Balaam to use his gifts to curse their enemies; where in travelling Balaam is unable to see the angel of the Lord, beats his donkey, and in the end blesses people at God’s behest.

Shittim to Gilgal represent ancient Israelite religious centres set up in a place of landlessness on the edge of the Jordan River, in Joshua it is from these sites that the people of Israel move across the Jordan to be a settled people.

Micah is expressing the inclusiveness of the Lord’s requirements.  His list of historical memories is to signify all people --- there is no excuse for not participating in the Lord’s request.  It is not just for the people of Jerusalem and the priests of the time.  The Lord’s request is to priests without temples, those who stutter, women, people who curse or beat their donkeys, for people of other nations, for the landless and the soon to be settled, nobodys and everybodys.

I return to the waltz.  For the movie scene to be epic, it requires a room of people --- a variety of people --- to dance in couples in the midst of a whole bunch of other couples; moving together in circular motion at the same speed, in the same direction, with the same purpose, all contributing to the overall ballroom waltz experience.  All it would take is one couple to start jiving or to stand still, or to walk away and the whole dance floor would be interrupted  --- tripping over each other, stopping the movement, chaos in-suing.

Micah is saying that everyone has a place, everyone has been given a direction, there are no excuses: everyone is to participate in what God is doing in the world --- the requirement is to dance: justice, kindness, humility.

This past week folk legend Pete Seeger passed away; 94 years of age. The newspaper recalled an interview with him following the Manhattan Occupy Movement march of 2011.  He walked in the front line of the march.  He told the Associated Press,  “Be wary of great leaders. Hope that there are many, many small leaders.”  The words of the Lord, put into the mouth of Micah, centuries later repeated by Seeger.

Pete is a good example of waltzing in the fulfillment of the word’s of the Lord; the fulfillment of God’s vision and promises.  He was an example to many generations of North Americans, instructing people how to effect change through song and determination.

He was a simple man with a banjo, who with this gift was a history-sifting singer, and an  ever-so-gentle rabble-rouser.  His waltzing voiced discontent of Hitler, the Vietnam war, nuclear power; the waltz advocated civil rights and environmental cleanup.  The waltz was danced to his tunes:  If I had a Hammer.  Turn, Turn, Turn. Where Have all the flowers Gone.

Change, he believed and lived, was not in the hands of great leaders, but danced by many, many small leaders.  Anybody –nobodies, everybodies - can be small leaders.

Hearing a waltz transports me back to the days of watching black and white movies. I enter the dreams I use to have of me --- decked in satin gloves, with a dark green velvet dress with satin panels, hair wrapped up with pearl hairpins --- my partner would take my hand, we would take our spot on the dance floor, pause – and then waltz _DA dada, DA dada, DA dada_ as the variations would move along we would move faster and faster, as other dancers filled the floor contentment would spread, energy would rise, and the experience was exhilarating -epic.  And when it was done, as exhausted as one might have felt, you wanted to do it all over again.

Is that not what the Lord requires of us?  Is that not what the words of Micah are calling us to this morning? A way of waltzing through life?  --- do justice, love kindness, walk humbly: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly --- as all of us join the orchestra, dancing in a myriad of variations, the Spirit in our midst conducting the scene in the grand ballroom of life, we actively participate in God’s waltz.  I extend a preverbial satin gloved hand, inviting you to dance with me for the contentment of ourselves, for the healing of the community, for the energy of the world, for the experience of and the fulfillment of God’s vision, God’s reign come. Exhilarating –epic!

Confessions of a Pastor

The month of January has brought with it a new arrival to the parish where I serve --- the congregation has a Vicar (student intern).  The Vicar will be here for a whole year.  It is a wonderful opportunity for the parish and the community.
This said, the supervisor ---that's me--- has had to do a bit of journelling, feeling everything but the kitchen sink:  apprehension, questioning ability, wondering what to pass on, jealous, privileged, excited, creative ideas galour...
Intersting today, the Vicar preached for the first time in this setting.  I was nervous as a mother, wanting everything to go great.  The Vicar is a good preacher. 
This experience is already teaching me more about myself and stretching me.  I particularly apprectiate the difference of cadence, the new word patterns and gestures, the possibility of what will happen to me, to us, to the community.
Thanks be to God for a journey just begun.

It is a very snowy day on the East Coast.  It is like the kind of storm one remembers from childhood, where school is cancelled, nothing is open (well things will be closing), and mom and dad want you to stay home so you are safe.  It is the kind of day where one makes homemade turkey soup and bread -already in process in my kitchen.  It's the kind of day when there is no apology needed for curling up with a good book under the light of the final days of the Christmas tree.
Before finding a book, I looked over FB and found this post.  It is a good read for a day like today.  Take a moment and ponder the words:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-unappreciated-pastor/hello-my-name-is-church_b_4124322.html

http://www.nytimes.com/news/the-lives-they-lived/2013/12/21/joy-johnson/
This is for everyone who wonders if there is hope for them.  Take Joy's story as your inspiration for 2014!  She is awesome: competitive with herself, a marathoner, and a Lutheran to boot.
To all of your dreams....

It was a snowy day here in Halifax.  14 came to service.  Here is the sermon.

Advent 3A-2013

2 minutes of not starting the sermon

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old girl in her cart.

As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss. The mother said quietly, 

“Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don’t be upset. It won’t be long.”

Soon they came to the candy aisle, and the little girl began to shout for candy. And when told she couldn't have any, began to cry. The mother said, 

“There, there, Monica, only two more aisles to go, and then we’ll be checking out.”

When they got to the check-out stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased. The mother patiently said, 

“Monica, we’ll be through this checkout stand in 5 minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap.”

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her.

“I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica,” he said.
Whereupon the mother said, 

“I’m Monica . . . my little girl’s name is Tammy.” 

 The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

Chinese bamboo is crop demanding, producing patience.  The first year a seed is nurtured and watered; it doesn’t grow even an inch.  The second growing season the seed is nurtured, watered, fertilized; and again it doesn’t grow even an inch.  Year three the seed is cared for and again it doesn’t grow even an inch.  The fourth year, the same outcome.  Then in the fifth year an amazing thing happens, the bamboo shoots from the earth and grows to 80 ft. in height; all in one year!  What really happens is that the seed grows a system underground where the farmer cannot see it; roots spread far and wide, growing a foundation to support the upward growth of the stalks for years to come. 

The farmer is patient over the seed, until it sprouts in abundance.

You also must be patient.  Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

How many of you were agitated waiting for the sermon to start?  You were patient enough not to call out and ask what-on-earth I was up to; patient enough not to get up and walk out; patient enough not to talk with your neighbour.  Where you patient enough not to reposition yourself, cough, play with your hands, or reread the bulletin?

Patience.  In the four verse reading from James this morning, we heard reference to patience four times.

Patience is often described or thought of as a passive personality trait; with the feeling that if one only had patience, life would somehow be easier, or at least not as frustrating.  The verb used by James is one that means not only patience but “to wait with patience.”  To wait with patience is not like a child waiting for Christmas, for when Christmas comes the event does not really change anything; the child just has more stuff. However, waiting with patience is like the farmer, who patiently is waiting “over” something (the seed) until a significant change happens (growth all over the place). 

How many of you would like to be more patient?

Robbie MacKenzie a youth pastor in Tennesee, commented on a blog that the two top reasons for impatience are that one: we are selfish and secondly, we are limited in seeing the big picture. 

Selfish –means that we seek instant gratification, instant everything: whether it is instant mashed potatoes, answers via our Smart phones,   or relationships requiring little effort.  We don’t have time to wait for seeds to grow.  We want what we want when we want it. 

Limited in seeing the big picture, is that our lives get muddled up in day to day tasks, things we think are important; our eyes are done, focused, and concentrated...but if we looked up, towards the horizon, what a different view.  Yesterday’s newspaper had a story that is a fitting example: the story is told of a geologist who was doing research on the Arctic glacier, he measured the distance to the edge of the glacier from a set point.  At the set point he built a cairn out of rock and buried a bottle with the data he collected.  This bottle has just been found by geologists from Quebec.  They re-measured the distance, added a note to the note, and reburied the bottle, requesting that those who find the bottle send the data to the address given.  In 1959 the geologist expected, in a time before global warming was even thought about, that the ice was significantly changing.  He would wait patiently for someone else to contact him in years to come with the new data. 

Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged.  See, the Judge is standing at the doors!

James gives an example to guide us as to how to be patient. Imagine the big picture, if everyone, or even just a few us seriously practiced to not grumble against one another; to practice setting our hearts toward being mature and continue growing; in this exercise we would learn patience. 

There was once a very, very big mountain where there were lots of trees and bushes. It was also the home of a group of humans that lived in caves dug out of the mountain rock. In fact, there were two families there. One lived in a grey-coloured cave, the other in a greenish cave (which was due to the type of rock). Naturally, they were known as the Greys and the Greens.

The Greys had a father, a mother and a fourteen-year-old son called Peter, while the Greens had a father, a mother, a four-year-old boy and a wise old grandfather.

The two families sometimes ate together, when they would talk about the mountain trees and how to fell them to obtain the wood with which to make fire and heat. One time, Peter felt he was ready to join the conversation. The wise grandfather listened intently to the young man, because Peter believed that the trees were there to be felled, and that it didn’t matter if they were replanted or not because they took so long to grow back.

Once Peter had given his opinion, the wise grandfather told him this: “Nature is patient, and we humans must be patient too,” and he proposed a challenge: “I’m going to shave all my hair off, and we shall see what nature does to maintain the balance on my head. Come and see me in a month.”

Young Peter couldn’t understand what on earth the grandfather meant by this, and went home none the wiser.

The wise grandfather from the Greens waited exactly one month inside the cave for Peter to come. He knew that all he needed was patience for his hair to grow back, and to teach the boy a lesson.

At the end of the month, Peter entered the Green cave and was surprised to see the grandfather with a full head of hair again. But he understood the grandfather’s message, and said: “Thank you, Grandfather Green, I’ve learned a lot from you. You have taught me two things: the first is that we must look after our natural resources in order to continue using them, for example by replanting the trees we have cut down. The second is that I must be more patient with nature and try to learn from it.

To become patient is to not grumble at others, to listen to wisdom of those who are becoming patient, and to continue to learn, and thus grow.

As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

A colleague shared online, that they were talking with a woman who was facing circumstances of terrible hardship. She was telling of a friend who had encouraged her significantly.  The colleague was keenly interested to know what the friend had done to minister to her. "What helped me the most," she recalled, "was that he reminded me with assurance that these circumstances will come to an end. It looks so dark and unending now; I needed to be told that it would not last forever."

That is what James is encouraging the readers of his letter with, his persecuted readers are being encouraged with the hope of Christ's return and so helped them choose a stance of patience.  Isaiah’s poetry, Mary’s magnificat song, do the same thing.  When heard the words expand one’s view to a wider vision, turning one from selfish thoughts to the possibility of significant change and growth: waiting in patience.

Jacques Ellul is a cultural analyst who specifically speaks about the dehumanizing function of money. In both capitalism and socialism he says that money functions as measuring value and worth. Under this principle what happens in the world is that lives are lived from a bases of having to have something rather than being something.  For those who have seen the movie “The Iron Lady”, based on remembrances of Margaret Thatcher, the film has her declare more than once that people and politicians especially, care more about having than being.

We are asked by James to BE patient, not have patience, but to be patient.

Monica who was in the supermarket with her little girl was on her way to being patient.  Every time she spoke over the situation in which she was in, she did not grumble about her little girl’s tantrums; she spoke words to change her vision; she spoke words to invite herself to mature, to wait with patience for the seed to grow, to endure, and in the end she became patience; wisdom; significantly changed.

Go not seeking to have patience but rather to be patient; waiting with patience for Lord, for a time beyond what we can see when God will surprise and whelm with the fulfillment of the big picture.  

 

Advent 1A -sermon.

I’ll have a blue Christmas without you
I’ll be so blue just thinking about you
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree
Won’t be the same dear, if you're not here with me

And when those blue snowflakes start falling
That's when those blue memories start calling
You’ll be doin’ all right, with your Christmas of white
But I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas.                 

(You’ll be doin’ all right, with your Christmas of white
But I'll have a blue, blue blue blue Christmas.)

                 

Most of you will recognize this Billy Hayes, Jay Johnson country song; popularized for the rock-in-roll world by Elvis Presley.  It is a tale of unrequited love during the holidays.

The season of Advent has a lot of similarities to country music.  It has been said that a good country song includes: a broken relationship, a well-loved old pickup truck, and a faithful dog –all sung to a lamenting sort of tune that in the end somehow has spoken to the soul and healed the heart.  Country music, now in its 6^th generation of artists is American grown beginning at the turn of the last century in the South, amidst rural living peoples who combined Western music with African folk music.  Each generation has recreated the old songs, wrote new ones, changing the style to address social ills and blue hearts and souls of their time.

The season of Advent is a season, that when observed well includes: recognizing and grieving broken relationships, well-loved passages of scripture especially from Isaiah, and a faithful God – all sung to lamenting tunes of Advent hymns that in the end somehow speak to the soul and heal the heart.  Christian liturgical tradition, now in its umpteenth generation, is an ancient practice preserved in communities around the world. Each generation recreates the old songs, writes new ones, changing the style, applying the Word, to address social ills and blue hearts and souls of their time; our time.

When you look around this worship place you will notice it is blue, and it will remain this way throughout Advent.  It is about the church, this community and other Lutheran brothers and sisters across this country, standing in the world and offering a place where people can come undecorated, with no expectations upon them, and with a tenure created giving permission to sit and breath; to decompress and if necessary to cry.

Every year, a little earlier, Christmas begins to creep into the stores.  People start earlier to parcel things up in pretty paper, to cover stuff with tinsel, and to wrap objects in lights.  Have you ever considered that there is a correlation between chaos, sadness, mental health, and ultimate lack of control in society, with an earlier start to attempt to cover the gloom with “happy?” 

Isn’t that what the world is so skilled at doing?  Covering up –whether its wrinkles, saying we’re fine, we’re doing alright, showing we’re put together at work when home is falling apart, looking happy when we are anything but happy.

Advent is a season not of happy per say, although it may contain happy:  it is a season of coming and hope.

People, you, are invited to come and be yourself.  The hustle and bustle to Christmas is full of lies, the truth is here.  You are invited to come and be yourself.  This is physically the darkest time of the year; the earth around us dies.  It is a time of year that emotions match the lack of light and the cooling of the weather.  It is a time when people face a looming “happy” celebration, and feel the need to be happy, when in reality they may be anything but.  This time of year many are grieving a loss of job, a loss of friend or family member; the feeling of loneliness or inadequacy rises; stress, addictions, and expectations of others are compounded; some feel a sickness of the pervasive consumer machine.  Christmas is not what we are told it will be and unfortunately we are asked to buy in to it.  But not here.

 Here we are invited to sit in the darkness, to lay bare our hearts, to lament with our souls, and to grieve the visions we have of a world that is not what it could be.  Here we acknowledge the chaos in which we live.

As we allow ourselves to wait in darkness, our hearts and souls slow down enough that they wade through the fake tinsel and the festive junk of the world, so we can hear and see and anticipate God’s coming –and that fills one with hope.  Blue is the colour of Advent.  Research has shown that blue is a colour that evokes psychological calm and relaxation to counter chaos and agitation.  It is a colour that opens the flow of communication and broadens perspective when learning new information.  It helps create a sense of peace and solitude.  The very colour paints the season with a vision of what the world is to be.

In this place as we open ourselves to be vulnerable, to be blue, the words and images of the season will flood our beings and produce hope. 

“...In the days to come...the Lord’s house shall be established...many people shall come and say, ‘come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.’...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning-hooks”....

Ingest these words of hope and these words of blessing: “...Peace be within your walls...Peace be within you.”

What is expected of us at this time of year? 

Take a look at the blue art produced last week.  You were invited to paint chaos and to paint “how you feel.” Through movement -blue blobs of paint, turned to chaos on canvas, and then for the artist a sense of release, of accomplishment, and a movement towards hope.  The idea is that movement and feeling continues to vibrate around us, each of us being awakened by the feelings of another; we are opened to a slightly different variation of the same tune.  This art is the country music of this season.  It is rural, grass roots, hits the heart of the matter, and allows us to sit in its midst and calls us to wait in the tension.

The works are busy and simple at the same time, calling us to  wake from sleep...to keep awake...and deeper calling us to an attitude that says “let us walk in the light of the Lord...Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.”

We can do this only if we sit and wait for Christ’s coming, with open hearts, souls laid bare, vulnerable –quiet-so that light can fill us from the inside out.

As we share the lament of our hearts, we take a moment to pause and pray, to set aside Advent as a gift to ourselves so that we may be filled to be Christ’s in the world.  The prayer comes to us from Ted Loder, a United Methodist pastor, world-renown preacher, and writer.  This prayer is from his book, Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle:

O God of all seasons and senses,

 grant us the sense of your timing to submit gracefully and rejoice quietly in the turn of the seasons.

In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of endings;
children growing, friends leaving, loved ones dying,
grieving over,
grudges over,
blaming over,
excuses over.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—
in the fullness of your time.

O God, grant us the sense of your timing.   Amen.