The Unexpected Kingdom

A Reflection on Mt. 29:13:31- 13:52
The Rev. Este Gardner Cantor

I went on a pilgrimage recently, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that I had an experience of the Kingdom of Heaven in the most unexpected of places.

The destination of the pilgrimage was supposed to be the gigantic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where one would expect to have a revelation. But my first unlikely glimpse of the Kingdom was in the huge and dilapidated Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on 86th and Broadway. I stayed there for 8 days with my fellow priest, Father Richard, the other adult chaperone, Gay Johnson, and 7 of our wonderful high school youth.

There is no denying the fact that the church was a daunting place to live. We shared a shower with the homeless shelter, and after my first look, I attacked the stall with a long brush and some Comet and strove to make it look clean. But for all my scrubbing, this was not really possible. There was also a considerable population of mice in that church. We took to adopting the habits of wilderness campers who hang their packs high in the trees to keep them from the bears. We hung our bags from the wall lamps to keep them from the mice. Our youth group was housed in two fine rooms the first night- until a huge youth group took over one of our rooms, and then, later in the week, a third youth group was welcomed in, and even our plan B space became endangered.

There were always meetings going on in our room when we wanted to be there to rest. We soon learned that obtaining a set schedule for these meetings was not possible. When we wanted to use the kitchen, we would often find it occupied by some darn program feeding the homeless. It was an amazing experience to be there, but it certainly was uncomfortable. We actually considered leaving at one point, and then one of our youth pointed out to us we were on a pilgrimage, not a vacation.

I slowly began to realize that this dilapidated church we were camping in resembled nothing so much as the radically welcoming branches of the transformed mustard seed.

This church runs a women’s shelter. They host a food pantry, run by former clients, who are now happily employed there. The church sends out hundreds of Meals on Wheels packages every day. They have a mothers and babies group. They have a martial arts class for youth. They have a tutoring program. They have music classes in the sanctuary. The night we arrived there was a huge and joyous Indian flavored rock concert in progress, also in the sanctuary. They have a beautiful theatrical stage on the 2nd floor, which was used by no fewer than six theater groups. They have dozens of 12 step programs going all the time, and they often happened in the room we were staying in! The church houses a very large and rather famous radical synagogue, B’nai Jesurun. It also houses a Presbyterian church whose usual space was being renovated. During the Sunday service on Gay Pride Day all of the marchers were welcomed to the center of the church, and everyone laid hands on them to bless them on their march. They used inclusive language in every prayer- God was never a “he.”

Everyone was welcomed in- even us- even the mice. It seemed that no bird would be turned away from building a nest in this great tree, and if a place could be said to have a great heart, this one sure did.

It seemed to me that the blessing and the curse of being part of this great teeming Kingdom was the same thing- we were automatically part of the hospitality because we were given hospitality. We had to accept that our nest was just one of hundreds, and not the center of the tree. And after a while we found that even if we were bumped out of our room there was always somewhere for us to perch, and we found some rather lovely places. We could always camp on the cool and quiet balcony of the vast sanctuary, sometimes hearing the beautiful strains of music from some of our neighboring birds. It did feel a little like heaven up there.

The Kingdom of Heaven popped up unexpectedly again for me in quite another place- this time after the planned part of the pilgrimage was over.

My husband joined me after the pilgrims went home, and after a few days in New York, we decided to go to Washington DC to see the fireworks on the 4th of July. I had lived in Washington for many years, so I called an old boyfriend of mine, Art Grosman, who still lives there, and I asked if we could stay with him. He was delighted to offer us a room at the big brownstone he shares with his girlfriend. I hadn’t seen him in 20 years, but he hadn’t changed a bit. Long ago, when we were both professional hippies, we had crossed Canada together in our VW van, resplendent with tie-dyed curtains. When I saw him on this recent visit, he still had all the photos from that trip, which included the many and sometimes motley hitch-hikers we picked up along the way.

I left this man because he was always doing exactly what he had done for those hitch-hikers and for my husband and me. He was always inviting anyone and everyone to stay- every derelict old friend of his was welcome at the table. Art’s particular call was providing services for free that usually cost something. He started the Washington Free Press. He started the Washington Free clinic, and when he got together with his girlfriend, they housed the Washington Free School. I now realize that I had to leave him because my heart was not big enough. But I got to know his girlfriend Marty for the first time on this trip, and realized that this time he had found someone whose heart was big enough. Before he met her, Marty had already adopted two kids whose parents had been institutionalized. Nobody else wanted these kids. Then, once they got together, they spent the next 20 years, taking in emergency foster kids- kids whose parents were in prison, or on crack, or just not there. Some of these kids stayed for 10 years or more. During this time they managed to have two of their own biological kids as well.

Art is a Jewish atheist (like all my friends were in Washington), and so I was surprised to see an obituary tacked up on his wall for Kenneth Taylor, the man who started the huge Christian publishing house, Tyndale Press. Kenneth Taylor created “The Living Bible” which I have on my shelf because my grandfather gave it to me. This was an early attempt to put the bible into understandable English. I was told that this titan of the Christian publishing business was Marty’s father. He used to read the bible to his children every night and explain what it meant. One time Marty said, ”Well, if that’s what they mean, why don’t they just say it?” This was the catalyst for the creation of "The Living Bible.”

Art and Marty never married during their 30 year old courtship, and this was hard on Marty’s father. But I understand that before he died, he came to realize that Art and Marty were married in the eyes of God. And I hope he realized that contrary to appearances, the words of the bible he had read his daughter all those years had not fallen on deaf ears. Married or not, Marty and Art were doing the work of the Kingdom of Heaven-- taking in the homeless orphans, providing for the poor, opening their house to everyone who needed it- even me and my husband.

Being part of this bustling kingdom must not have been easy. I’m sure there were hardships for their birth children, navigating between so many little sheltered birds, and probably difficulties among the many foster children. And surely there were stresses between the two parents. But they too, apparently recognized that they were on a pilgrimage, not a vacation.

This led me to consider that life is, or should be a lot more like a pilgrimage than a vacation. And if we believe what Jesus tells us, that the Kingdom of God is at hand, maybe that Kingdom isn’t supposed to be entirely comfortable either. Or maybe in the Kingdom of Heaven we are transformed in a way that changes the meaning of being comfortable all together. How comfortable is the wolf when she lies down with the lamb? And if the lamb is comfortable, it is in a way we can’t yet fathom.

I read that if we wanted to have every human being on earth enjoy the lifestyle of an affluent North American, we would need four planet earths. I wonder if the bustling and rich kingdom of our New York City Methodist church, or the loving chaos of Art and Marty’s house could be microcosms of what life might be if we evened out the score on a global basis. It might not be comfortable in our own present terms, but it just might be our introduction into the Kingdom of Heaven.

I believe that in the Kingdom of Heaven, we all get enfolded in the great green branches spawned from that tiny mustard seed, we all glory in the abundance of unconditional love. And, if we can bear it, we get to bring out our treasures, both old and new, and scatter them out from our comfortable households throughout the whole of the Kingdom.

Amen.

The Undefended Heart

The Rev. Este Gardner Cantor
Reflection on John 12:22-33 and Jeremiah 31:31-34

Archbishop Desmond Tutu points out that Jesus did not say “I draw SOME people to myself." He said, "I will draw ALL people to myself.” And the most ancient texts are even more radically inclusive- they say, “I will draw all THINGS to myself.”

What strikes me about this passage, as with so much of what Jesus said is the radical inclusivity, the radical abundance, and the radical love that is illuminated, even with the approaching darkness.

The introduction of the Greeks at the very beginning clues us into the idea of universality- of an abundance of nationalities, of ethnicities. Then Jesus speaks of the grain of sand that dies, but then bears much fruit- in fact has to die in order to bear an abundance of fruit.

Jesus speaks of those who love their lives losing them- a frightening comment on the face of it. But it could be that those of us who hang on too desperately to our life as we need to see it (and I preach to myself here) may not end up with the kind of abundance we most want. Like us, the crowd in the story never seems to get what Jesus is talking about. Like us, they sometimes hear God speaking and all they perceive are storm warnings. But even in a storm, there can be abundance. In fact I have just recently heard it said that life is not about waiting for a storm to pass- it is about learning to dance in the rain.

The things that I hear over and over again from Jesus, the things that stand out either because they are said so often, or because they are so revolutionary and impossible, are all expressions of divine abundance: abundance of love, of inclusivity and of courage:

Love your enemy
Let go of your possessions
And do not be afraid.

“Do not be afraid,” said mostly by angels or by Jesus, appears in scripture 365 times- perhaps once for every day of the year. So Jesus must have meant it we have to work this practice every day of our lives- have this faith on a daily basis- do not be afraid, no matter what.

In this terrifying time of economic insecurity I have had the twin traumatic experiences of losing my job, (and I am very sorry to be leaving you) and my daughter preparing for college, and so, potentially leaving me. And then a tragedy occurred that made my misfortunes seem like nothing. Someone I knew lost her child. Suddenly I realized that I had been living in riotous abundance- paradise, really, possessing a literal embarrassment of riches, without even noticing it. It also made me realize with a shock how fragile, how precious, and how terrifyingly unpredictatable life really is. I absorbed some of the shock myself and was initially plunged into fear. I learned the meaning of “pray without ceasing” and I saw at very close vantage point Job’s whirlwind.

I spent as much time as I could with my friend, and to my astonishment I saw grace and healing even in what I considered to be the very worse possible thing. Her community embraced her, she was not alone with the bearing of her cross, floods of love came her way, not just from her community but from her daughter’s sweet friends as well. I saw the beginning of healing, the beginning of resurrection.

And yet my friend’s loss struck me in the heart- removed my denial that something like that could ever happen even to someone I knew, let alone to me. In our passage today the human Jesus tells us, “Now my soul is troubled.” He apparently is fearful because he forsees his own death, and perhaps tempted to say what he did say in the Gospel of Luke “Take this cup from my lips.” But Jesus is steadfast and heaven answers him that he made the right decision, that his Father’s name will be glorified. The fearful moment seems to pass.

It is somehow comforting to have an incarnated God who is sometimes fearful, sometimes in pain and grief and even rage. Jesus cries tears of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, he weeps at the death of his friend Lazareth, he explodes into a violent rage at the money changers in the temple. And yet he somehow returns to faith, to love, to an awareness of God’s abundance. Even at the threat of death, even through death itself.

In the Old and New Testaments, there is a constant reminder that God’s abundance, God’s grace is limitless, and is there is for all people- therefore there really is enough for everyone, in spite of our fears. I have heard this described as God’s “more-than-enoughness.”

We are now moving to the end of Lent, and we are asked by Christ to mimic the ridiculous abundance of the anointing woman- to have such over-flowing abundant love that we wash each other’s feet- doing the work of a slave, as Jesus the master did. Jesus models the abundance he sees in God his father, described in the scripture he knew so well. In Genesis, God makes his covenant, when he places the rainbow in the sky, not with humans only, but with all creation.

God Blesses Abraham and Sarah so that they will bless all nations.

And when the Pharoah finally lets the Hebrews slaves go, they start on their way across the wilderness, with “A mixed multitude and very many animals, both flocks and herds.” So it follows that the covenant at Sanai was not given only to the Jews, but to all people- to the whole “mixed multitude” of humanity. To ALL of us, God extravagantly declared, “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

With the birth of Jesus, it was the foreigners, the non-Jewish Magi who found the Christ child- the abundance of revelation was not only given to the chosen people even in this treasured nativity story of ours. They brought valuable gifts, like the nard ointment the woman poured so recklessly on Jesus’ head, like the spices brought by the women at the tomb to lavish on what they thought was their dead master.

In the Revelation to John, he speaks of “a great multitude that no one could count, of every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the Lamb.”

And in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I will draw ALL people to myself.” This is Jesus of the undefended heart- the mind of Christ that St. Paul urged us to attempt. Jesus always accepted, always loved “all people.” The undefended heart knows no fear, knows no limitation, and excludes no one. Jesus’ impossible but persistent teaching is that we love abundantly-fearlessly- even our enemies. That we have nothing to be afraid of, because abundant life is all around us in the abundant love of God. As the Buddhist/Christian poet and holy man Thick Nat Hahn has said “The winds of grace are always blowing- you have only to put up your sails.”

It may not look like the abundant life we thought we should have. It may sound like thunder and look like crucifixion. It may scare the daylights out of us. But Jesus said “I will always be with you”- this is the meaning of Emmanuel- “God with us.”

Jesus would have known well the beautiful passage from Jeremiah about the new covenant. This is one of my very favorite passages in the whole bible. How can we think the Old Testament is Old when it contains the New Covenant?

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."

We have the rainbow covenant in Genesis and the covenant at Sinai revealed to be for all people- surely this promise is as well: Surely the law will be written in all of our hearts. Surely the struggle can end- straining to know the law, know the Lord, know the answers to everything. Surely this promise holds abundantly for all people- that we will know God without fear, and know that even in all circumstances, even in the very worst circumstances, even in our pain and in our fear, that we are deeply and abundantly forgiven, and deeply and abundantly loved, and that God is with us.

Then we can feel, beating in our breast, the undefended heart, the heart that has opened up and let go of fear where God can and will write her law.

The Cosmic Freedom Walk

To my myriad readers, I offer apologies that I have not posted for so long... Since I took on a second job,(the below described AEMCH) I feel I have had little time to breathe.

HOWEVER, in the first week of December I was blessed to attend the CREDO clergy retreat, and I did get quite an eye-opening break.

I realized that I wanted to incorporate more of my background in the arts (theater and filmmaking) into my work. No sooner had I returned than an opportunity to do just that presented itself.

I had already signed up to be on the design team for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend youth Nightwatch at Grace Cathedral, when I had a thought. Here it was the celebration of MLK coming one day before the inauguration of the first African American president in our history- I thought we should do something BIG! SO I recalled the event that Bishop Marc brought us 2 years ago- the Cosmic Walk. This is a walk around a spiraled rope set on the ground, with votive candle set to mark great landmarks of evolution, beginning with the big bang, right up to the present day.

SO I thought- let's do a history of civil rights and the struggle for freedom leading up to the election of Barack Obama! I didn't have a name for it, but when I went to our next meeting, Deacon Carolyn Bolton came up with the name the Cosmic Freedom Walk.

After struggling with WHERE TO BEGIN I decided to begin with the birth of Sojourner Truth. It was designed as multi-media extraviganza, with Jim Freidrich as our VJ (video disjockey, projecting images and film clips of the struggle) and Bertie Pearson and DJ, weaving in songs of the movement, and other great songs like "Strange Fruit."

The Cosmic Freedom Walk began with a gospel song of creation, sung by Eloise Carey, a wonderful gospel singer from Shiloe church in Oakland. Then she read a wonderful poem of creation by James Weldon Johnson, tossing out a beach ball with planet earth painted on it and spraying the air with glitter for the stars, and squirting the youth with water for the creation of the oceans.

Then we transitioned into the long walk of freedom. I began the story, Carolyn Bolton continued, followed by Clinton Williams and finally Will Scott. At each great marking of history, the youth lighted a candle- for the birth of Sojourner Truth, the life of Frederick Douglass, the emancipation proclamation, the right of women to vote, the stone wall riot, etc. THE WHOLE text follows.


The Cosmic Freedom Walk

SILENCE and DARKNESS
Then singing- low and sweet.
still in darkness, a woman’s voice singing
And God stepped out on space,
And looked around and said,
"I'm lonely --
I'll make me a world."

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
The large candle is lit, Image of CREATION comes up on screen
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, "That's good!"
Then God reached out and took hold of the light,
Actor lifts up the large candle
And God rolled the light around
Until the sun was made;
And God set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
Lift the candle high
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball

And flung it against the darkness,
Toss smaller ball into crowd
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Handful of glitter is thrown out, some head of speaker
Then down between
The darkness and the light
God hurled the world;
Toss out ball of Earth from Space
And God said, "That's good!"
Then God stepped down –
Gesture to candle at right hand
And the sun was on God’s right hand,
And the moon was on God’s left;
The stars were clustered about God’s head,
Glitter is sprinkled on Actor’s head
And the earth was under God’s feet.
And God walked, and where God trod
God’s footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then God stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
Actor steps to edge of labyrinth
And spat out the seven seas;
Sound effect spitting, volunteer squirts water on youth
God’s eyes batted, and the lightnings flashed;
God clapped, and the thunders rolled;
Loud clap
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.
Youth aspurging continues
Then God raised a hand and waved it
Over the sea and over the land,
And God said, "Bring forth! Bring forth!"
And quicker than God could drop that hand.
Youth act out surrounding the labyrinth playing the…
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, "That's good!"
Youth all quiet- sit down
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that God had made.
God looked at the sun,
And God looked at the moon,
And God looked at the little stars;
God looked on the whole world
With all its living things,
And God said, "I'm lonely still."

Then God sat down
On the side of a hill to think;
By a deep, wide river God sat down;
Head in hand,
And God thought and thought,
Till God thought, "I'll make me some folk!"

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
A boy and a girl come forward and lie down in the labyrinth
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
God kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over 2 lumps of clay
Pick up each of their hands and “mold” them
Shaping them in God’s own image;

Then into that clay God blew the breath of life,
And they became two living souls.
Youth sit up and look around
Amen. Amen.

Youth stay there and wait to light the first 2 candles.
1. ESTE

So God created the world and it was good. And the people were free.
2) SLAVERY MONTAGE

But unfortunately, one of the first things people did with this freedom was to enslave others. This is the story of the freedom that was denied many people. This is the story of the struggle for that freedom- the exodus from slavery, and the promise of a dream.

But the world of slavery lasted a long time. Here is an eye-witness description of a slave ship unloading it’s grief-stricken cargo in 1620:

“But what heart could be so hard as not to be pierced with piteous feeling to see that company? For some kept their heads low and their faces bathed in tears…crying out loudly… others struck their faces with the palms of their hands, throwing themselves full length on the ground and made their lamentations in the manner of a dirge. Then those who had charge of the captives…began to separate fathers from sons, husbands from wives, brothers from brothers. And you who are so busy in making that division of the captives, look with pity upon such misery, see how they cling to one another so that you can hardly separate them.”

3) SOJOURNER TRUTH
Into a world of slavery, a girl child was born one day in 1797. Her people were from Africa, and she was born of slaves. Her name was Isabella Baumfree, but she came to be known as Sojourner Truth.
She was sold when she was nine years old, for $100.00 along with a herd of sheep. She was cruelly abused by her new owners, and when she was grown, she ran away with her youngest daughter, and was given refuge by a Quaker couple.
During this time, Isabella had a life-changing religious experience -- becoming "overwhelmed with the greatness of the Divine presence" and inspired to preach. She quickly became known as a remarkable preacher whose influence, people said, "was miraculous."
She worked with the abolishionist William Llyoyd Garrison and the great activist Frederick Douglass, and was an early activist for women’s rights .In 1854, at the Ohio Woman's Rights Covention in Akron, Ohio, she gave her most famous speech -- with the legendary phrase, “Ain’t I a Woman?” At 6 feet tall and strong as steel, some doubted this:
YOUTH READS QUOTE #1
"That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ain't I a woman? ... I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me -- and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well -- and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most all sold off to slavery and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me -- and ain't I woman?". .
Let’s light a candle for Sojourner Truth
The life of Sojourner Truth spanned over many landmark events:
4) ABRAHAM LINCOLN

In February 1809 Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky. He was to become a great president, and the one with the distinction of setting the slaves free after the great and tragic Civil War.
YOUTH READS QUOTE #2
“Whenever I heard someone speak out in support of slavery, I have a strong desire to see it tried on him personally.”
Let’s light a candle for Abraham Lincoln.

5) WOMAN ABOLITIONISTS
In 1848- the first American Women's Rights Convention takes place in Seneca Falls, New York. Two powerful anti-slavery workers were there: Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Along with Susan B. Anthony, these women began to use the same power they had found to try to free the slaves in removing the shackles from their own hands.
In1850 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book revealed the cruelty visited on the slaves and humanized them as no other work had done. Abraham Lincoln later welcomed her into the White House saying, “Here comes the little lady who started the Civil War!”

[REPRISE ABRAHAM LINCOLN]
In November,1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected President. On the 20th of December, South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.
In 1861- The Civil war begins
In 1863- President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on New Year's Day. The slaves in some states are free at last.
6) EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION MONTAGE -
* SCREEN DARK
Lets Light a candle for Freedom



In 1865- Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude in all states
Booker T.Washington, the great African American author and teacher, observed this scene as a child:

YOUTH READS QUOTE #3
“As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see. “
On the April 9th 1965, General Robert E. Lee surrenders to the General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Courthouse, Virginia, ending the Civil War.
in 1866- The Ku Klux Klan, a white terrorist group, is founded in Nashville, Tennessee.

Black men are legally granted the right to vote on February 3, 1870- fifty years before the vote is granted to women.

7) KKK AND LYNCH MOB
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, the number of lynchings of black men rose drastically. Between 1889 and 1918, 3,224 people are murdered as the result of lynchings. The lynchings were so common and the value of black life so cheap that families would actually take a picnic to the hangings and watch with their children.
Let’s light a candle for sll those who died from these terrible acts.

SCREEN DARK
In the middle of this massive brutality against her people, Sojourner Truth quietly made her last exodus and passed away, on November 26,1883.

8) W.E.B. DU BOIS
By 1909 Black Americans were beginning to organize to fight back against the cruelties of the day. W.E.B. Du Bois, the brilliant civil rights activist and writer, founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Among its early crusades is a movement for anti-lynching legislation. Using graphic leaflets, the NAACP highlights the thousands lynchings in the early years of the twentieth century, exposing their horror and condemning authorities for failing to investigate them.
Light a candle for W.E.B. Dubois
* SCREEN DARK

In 1920, during World War I, women finally earned the right to vote. After courageously submitting to harassment, forced feedings during their protest fasts, and prison, the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Attempting to build on this victory, in 1923, the Equal Rights Amendment, calling for equal pay for women is first proposed. After 86 years, it is still not part of the U.S. Constitution.
Amazingly, as early as 1924 there was some stirring for the civil rights of gay Americans. The Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes the country's earliest known gay rights organization.
Lets light a candle for human rights for everyone

2. (CAROLYN BOLTON READS)

9) MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
On the 15th of January 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta. No other figure looms as large in the story of freedom and civil rights. He was the Moses that his people had been waiting for to lead them on their Exodus out of slavery. His mother was a school teacher and his father was a minister, and they and instilled strong principles of social justice and morality in their son. All his life he was influenced by the teachings of Jesus and the Old Testament prophets.
YOUTH READS QUOTE #4

“Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation. …the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of women and men.”- Martin Luther King Jr.
Let’s light a candle for Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1938, a singer becomes a symbol for the dream of equality…

10) MARIAN ANDERSON CLIP
Eleanor Roosevelt publicly resigned from the DAR over this incident, but neither she nor her husband the President publicly speak out against the laws which segregated schools and public restaurants and institutions of all kinds.
Let’s light a candle for Marian Anderson.
* SCREEN DARK

In 1941 the United States enter WW II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

11) JAPANESE DETENTION
On May 3, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt issues Civilian Exclusion Order 34, which states that all persons of Japanese ancestry – even American citizens-- are to be removed from Military Area No. 1 and placed in internment camps. Many of them remain in the camps until 1946.
August 1945: 140,000 die in Hiroshima. On August 9th, 80,000 die in Nagasaki.
Let us light a candle for the innocent victims of Hiroshima/Nagasaki

* SCREEN DARK
In - July 1948,President Truman orders the desegregation of the Armed Forces. But Truman's order is not implemented until after the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950. The process of desegregating the Army is not "complete" until 1954, at which point no unit is more than 50% black.

13) SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
In June 1949 the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir writes The Second Sex. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major work of feminist literature. In it she argues that women throughout history have been defined as the "other" sex, an aberration from the "normal" male sex. Women reading her book were startled to recognize themselves in De Beauvoir’s portrait of a wife, quoted from Marie Le Hardouin’s “La Voile Noir” (The Black Veil).
YOUTH READS QUOTE #5

"We lived in misery. I put my eyes out mending his clothes. Sickness threatened our only child with death. But a gentle, crucified smile was on my lips, and in my eyes was that expression of silent courage which I have never been able to bear the sight of in real life without disgust."

The book began the stirrings that would explode into the women’s movement of the 1970’s.

Let’s light a candle for Simone de Beauvoir
* SCREEN DARK

On May 17, 1954, The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, all agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice.

14) EMMETT TILL
In Aug. 1955 fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement.

Let's light a candle for Emmett Till

15) ROSA PARKS

In a carefully orchestrated act of civil disobedience on Dec 1, 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, who worked closely with Dr. King, refuses to give up her seat at the front of the “colored section” of a bus to a white passenger. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which lasts until buses are desegregated a year later, a great early victory for the civil rights movement.

Let’s light a candle for Rosa Parks
Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas was to begin the 1957 school year desegregated. Nine black students are blocked by a mob of 1,000 town people from entering the school on orders of Governor Oryal Faubus. President Eisenhower sends in federal troops and the National Guard on behalf of the students who become known as the “Little Rock Nine.”
Light a candle for the courage the Little Rock Nine

16) FREEDOM RIDERS
Over the spring and summer of 1961, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white.
Light a candle for the freedom riders.
17) JAMES MEREDITH
In 1962 James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.

18) BAYARD RUSTIN
In the planning for the up-coming March on Washington, of August 1963, one of Martin Luther Kings closest advisors was Bayard Rustin. He was a civil rights activist, who mostly worked behind the scenes because he was gay. He counseled Martin Luther King, on the techniques of non-violent resistance drawing on his Quaker roots and his early associations with W.E.B Dubois and James Weldon Johnson who were frequent guests in his childhood home. Rustin became an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career; however, his sexual orientation was the reason for attacks from many governmental as well as interest groups throughout his career..
A year before his death in 1987, Rustin said:

YOUTH READS QUOTE #6
"Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian."
He died on August 24, 1987, having seen great strides in the cause of gay rights that he worked for as hard as he worked for civil rights for all people.
Let's light a candle for Bayard Rustin

On Aug 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led the famous March on Washington. In spite of worries that violence would erupt, civil rights organizers proceeded with this historic event that would come to symbolize the civil rights movement. Here, Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial:
READER PAUSE FOR CLIP
19) VIDEO CLIP: DREAM SPEECH MONTAGE WITH MUSIC, FOLLOWED BY BIRMINGHAM BOMBING
AS PICTURES OF GIRLS APPEAR, READ THE FOLLOWING WITH THE APPROPRIATE PICTURE

• Denise McNair , eleven years old,
• Cynthia Diane Wesley , fourteen years old
• Carole Rosamond Robertson, fourteen years old
• Addie Mae Collins, fourteen years old

Let’s light a candle for these innocent children
* SCREEN DARK
This tragedy galvanized the civil rights movement.

3. CLINTON WILLIAMS READS)
On Civil Rights, President John F. Kennedy believed in the moral correctness of integration. JFK was prepared to use the power of the federal government to uphold the law, as he did when he sent troops to protect the admittance of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi, and later to more peacefully force integration at the University of Alabama.
On Nov 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas Texas beside his wife. John F. Kennedy believed deeply in justice for all races, and in his short tenure, was a champion for civil rights.
Let’s light a candle for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

20) FREEDOM WORKERS
1964 was the summer known as “Freedom Summer.” The Council of Federated Organizations began a campaign to register as many black voters as possible. On June 21: James E. Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three Mississippi Freedom Summer workers, who had just completed a training on how to help blacks register to vote, are murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. The murders cause a national uproar, and paved the way for President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act.

Let’s light a candle for the freedom workers
READER PAUSE FOR CLIP

21) FREEDOM SONG MONTAGE and “EYES ON THE PRIZE” LOGO
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed by President Johnson on July 2, 1964. In his first address to Congress and the nation as President, Johnson called for the passing of the civil rights bill as a monument to the fallen Kennedy. The act makes it illegal to discriminate in employment and illegal to segregate public facilities.

22) MALCOLM X
On Feb. 21, 1965 Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.

Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. He adopted the last name “X” because his African name had been lost to history and he did not want to keep the name of his ancestor’s master. He was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans

While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam.

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X made the pilgrimage to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in Harlem, in New York City.


YOUTH READS QUOTE # 7

“You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.”

Let’s light a candle for Malcolm X
In March of 1965 a march begins to Montgomery from Selma Alabama in support of voting rights for blacks.

READER PAUSE FOR CLIP
23) PETTIS BRIDGE CLIP
What came to be called “Bloody Sunday” became the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.

On August 10, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for blacks to register to vote. Literacy
Tests and taxes at the polls were made illegal.

24) JONATHAN DANIELS
In June of that same year, a young, white Episcopal seminarian named Jonathan Daniels wrote to his home church in New Hampshire about working for civil rights in Alabama:

"Our life [down here] is filled with ambiguity, and we are beginning to see as we never saw before that we are truly in the world and yet ultimately not of it. For through the bramble bush of doubt and fear... we are groping our way to the realization that above all else, we are called to be saints."

Two months later, Jonathan and three fellow activists were walking into a small town grocery to buy some cold drinks on a hot August afternoon. Two of them were white, two were black. The store owner met them at the door, pointing a shotgun at 16-year-old Ruby Sales and screaming about "niggers" on his property. Jonathan pushed Ruby to the ground and shielded her with his body as the man pulled the trigger. Jonathan died, but Ruby lived. Martin Luther King would later call this "one of the most heroic Christian deeds of which I have heard..."
Let’s light a candle for Jonathon Daniels.

25) WOMEN’S LIB CLIP
In 1966 the National Organization for Women is founded. Betty Freidan co-founded the U.S. National Organization for Women with 27 other people, co-authoring the founding platform with the first Black Episcopal woman priest, Pauli Murray.

In 1963 she wrote “The Feminine Mystique,” a bestseller, which some people suggest was the impetus for the second wave of feminism, (the first being the suffragettes in 1918) and significantly spurred the women's movement.

Let’s light a candle for Betty Freidan and freedom for women
* SCREEN DARK

1966- The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Calif.

June 12 , 1967: In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws.

On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave the last speech of his life.
PAUSE FOR CLIP
26) MLK SPEECH CLIP
The next day, he was gunned down on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Let’s light a candle for Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a strong weapon in the continuing fight against discrimination.

27) CESAR CHAVEZ
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. His work led to great advances for union laborers in wages and working conditions.

Later in life, education became César's focus. The walls of his office in Keene, California were lined with hundreds of books ranging in subject from philosophy, and economics, to biographies of Gandhi and the Kennedys. He was a vegan. Influenced by Ghandi, one of his most dramatic acts was a 25 day fast in 1969 to protest deplorable conditions for farm workers.

He died after several days of a protest fast in 1993, and was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton after his death.
Let’s light a candle for Ceasar Chavez
* SCREEN DARK

4. (WILL SCOT READS)
28) GAY LIBERATION/ HARVEY MILK
In 1969 The Stonewall riots transform the gay rights movement from one limited to a small number of activists into a widespread protest for equal rights and acceptance. Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fight back during a police raid on June 27, sparking three days of riots. This was the first instance in American history when gays and lesbians fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted homosexuals, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the modern gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

Let’s light a candle for the courageous demonstrators of Stonewall

In 1973, reflecting a growing consciousness of the normalcy of gay life the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders

Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not early interests of Milk's; he did not feel the need to be open about his homosexuality or participate in civic matters until his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s, when he was about 40 years old. Milk served 11 months in office as city supervisor in 1977 and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city.

On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned and wanted his job back. Despite his short career in politics, Milk has become an icon in San Francisco and a martyr for gay rights.

YOUTH READS QUOTE #9

"Without hope, not only gays, but those who are blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors -- the 'us's' -- without hope the 'us's' give up. I know that you can't live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you have got to give them hope." - Harvey Milk, "Hope Speech."

Let’s light a candle for Harvey Milk.

* SCREEN DARK

In the early 1980's AIDS began to devastate the gay population in many American cities. The first AIDS cases in the United States were reported in 1981, but the illness was not referred to as "AIDS" until 1982. Because of continuing prejudice, the education and research that was so desperately needed from the government to fight the crisis was tragically meager and fatally slow.
Let's light a candle to those we lost tin the AIDS epidemic.
Even in the midst of this devastation of the gay community, there was an awakening of consciousness. In 1982, Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
In 1989, Denmark became the first country to legalize same-sex partnerships. And Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and France followed suit.

29) HIP HOP VIDEO
A new expression of black culture, Hip Hop music, began in the Bronx, in New York City in the 1970s, born of Jamaican and African roots. It was initially popular among African Americans and Latino Americans, but is now embraced by many cultures.
By 1979, hip hop had began to enter the American mainstream. It also began its spread across the world. The lyrics had often been political, possibly inspired by the early rap poem, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scot-Heron in 1970. By the late 1980’s Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back became surprisingly successful, even though its tone was militant and confrontational.
In the 1990s, a form called gangsta rap became a major part of American music, causing a lot of controversy over lyrics which seemed to promote violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny. Continuing into the year 2000, Hip hop was a staple of popular music charts. Male rappers like Dead Prez now use the form as a vehicle for protest songs, as in the social justice influenced Dead Prez song Hip Hop.
And some feminist rappers like Queen Latifah use politically conscious lyrics, as in the anti-mysogyny Queen Latifah song, “Unity:”



YOUTH READS QUOTE # 10
“Instinct leads me to another flow, every time I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or ho, tryin to make a sister feel low You know all of that got to go. Now everybody know there’s exceptions to this rule, no don’t be getting’ mad when we’re playin’- its cool But don’t you be callin’ out my name, I’ll bring wrath to those who disrespect me like a dame- who you callin a bitch?”
Let’s light a candle for Queen Latifa and the Hip Hop generation

* SCREEN DARK
In 1993, the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is instituted for the U.S. military, permitting gays to serve in the military but banning homosexual activity. President Clinton's original intention to revoke the prohibition against gays in the military was met with stiff opposition; this compromise has led to the discharge of thousands of men and women in the armed forces.

30) SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
In 2000, Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. The law states that these “couples would be entitled to the same benefits, privileges, and responsibilities as spouses.” It stops short of referring to same-sex unions as marriage, which the state defines as heterosexual.

In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country legalizing same-sex marriages
Let’s light a candle for equal rights for all marriages

31) CORETTA SCOTT KING
On January 30, 2006, Coretta Scott King dies of a stroke at age 78. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. was an author and courageous activist, and alongside her husband, Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Scott King's most prominent role may have been in the years after her husband's 1968 assassination; following Dr. King's death, Mrs. King was responsible for finding a new leader of the civil rights movement; when others turned down the leadership position, Mrs. King took on the mantle of leadership herself, remaining a vital and powerful voice in American politics until her death in 2006.
Let's light a candle for Correta Scott King

[REPRISE EMMETT TILL (FX) 45/7]
In February 2007 Emmett Till's 1955 murder case, reopened by the Department of Justice in 2004, is officially closed. The two confessed murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were dead of cancer by 1994, and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue further convictions.

32) HILLARY
In 2008 Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fight a long battle for the Democratic nomination for President. The fight is extraordinary, since to the amazement of many, the two front runners are a white woman and a black man. Barack Obama wins the nomination, and later names Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Referring to the 17 million supporters who voted for her to be the nominee, Clinton said,
YOUTH READS QUOTE #11

“We may not have crashed through the glass ceiling of the presidency, but there are about 17 million cracks in that ceiling now.”

Let’s light a candle for Hilary Clinton
On Nov 4, 2008 Barack Hussein Obama is elected 44th President of the United States of America.

In an historic speech on race during the election, Obama said,
YOUTH READS QUOTE # 12
“We have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism. We can tackle race as a spectacle… we can do that. Or at this moment, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind. Not this time.”

PAUSE FOR CLIP
33) OBAMA MONTAGE
Lets light a candle for Barack Obama, and celebrate the dream!
Everyone starts singing Aint gonna let nobody Turn Me ‘Round

The Hungry Ten Thousand

A Children's Homily on Matthew 14:13-21 The Feeding of the Five Thousand
Godly Play style

First we’ll put down a place for the story to happen. This is a wild and a far-away place!

(Spread out the round green circle)

Once there was someone who just loved to feed people.

Sometimes he fed them with words, sometimes he fed them with love, many times he healed them of sicknes, and sometimes he fed them with food!

Now this man was someone who said such wonderful things, and did such amazing things that people followed him wherever he went. His name, as you may have guessed, was Jesus.

(Lift up the Jesus figure)

One time many many people had followed Jesus all the way to a far away, wild place. This was a place with no food in the neighborhood. In fact, this was a place with no neighborhood! But still the people wanted to stay with Jesus.

(Put a few figures on the green circle)

Thwo of Jesus’ frinds were concerned and they said to him,

(Lift up two “friends”)

“Teacher.” (this is what they sometimes called him) There is no food here, this is a far away wild place and it’s getting dark. Don’t you think you should send the people away so they can buy food for themselves and their families? (there were children there too)

The man who loved to feed people said, “They don’t have to go away- YOU give them something to eat.”

His friends were very surprised by this. They said,

(Lift up empty hands, then get loaf of bread and the two fish)

“We have nothing to eat- nothing at all! Jesus looked at them and then they said, “Well, we DO have a little- five loaves and two fish- but that’s only enough for us!”

(Place bread and fish on the green circle)

Jesus said to them, “Bring them here to me.”

(Hold bread and fish and lift them and put them back down on the circle)

Then he told the crowd to sit down in that wild place, and he took all the loaves and both of the fish and he looked up to heaven and he blessed them and broke them, and he gave them all to his friends and his friends gave them to all the people.

(Take basket of goldfish crackers and give three goldfish to each child)

Everyone was able to eat and everybody was all full when they finished.

And the most amazing thing was that after everyone had eaten, still there were twelve baskets full of broken bread.

(Show the basket full of goldfish)

Now on that day, whoever counted the people forgot to count the women and children. So we only know that there were five thousand men.

(Make the sign of the five fingers)

But if they had counted women and children too, there might have been 10,000 people

(Make the sign of ten fingers)

or even more who were all fed all they wanted with more left over on that wonderful day.

Now I wonder what was your favorite part of the story?
I wonder what was the most important art f the story?
I wonder who you were in the story?

What is an AEMCH?

AEMCH (pronounced "EMSH"- almost rhymes with "mensh") is a made-up word that stands for “An Episcopal Ministry to Convalescent Hospitals.” It is a thing of beauty and I am delighted to be their new coordinating chaplain.

AEMCH was started at my old parish, All Souls Episcopal, 27 years ago by the tireless and faithful Rev. Arlinda Cosby and the then rector, Rev. Bill Clancy. The idea was simply to support and encourage parishes to have thriving ministries to their local convalescent hospitals, including holding services there and bringing the Eucharist to individuals. Arlinda began to preach to congregations and to hold training forums for this ministry.

My first impression of AEMCH was when Arlinda came on her yearly visit to preach at All Souls and urge us on to the Jesus-like task of caring for and visiting those elders in the convalescent hospitals who might not otherwise get a visitor at all. Spurred on by her message I started doing this wonderful work and just couldn’t stop.

My favorite place to go was Kayakameena Nursing Home not far from my home in Berkeley. It is not the most upscale of these establishments, but All Souls had a great ministry going (still does!) and it was always fun. The venerable Rev. Bill Fay is always the presider at the once-a-month Sunday afternoon services, preaching the good word and leading the hymns. I began to fill in for him when he went on vacation, and I always marveled at the amount of joy we apparently brought for so little effort.

Marsha Thomas-Cooke, a wonderful jazz vocalist began to come with us to Kaykameena and she always delighted us with her voice and also kept us on key for the hymns.

For a very long time I would visit a woman who used to go to All Souls Church, Helen Stanley. Her moods would run the gamut from cheery to desolate. “I’m going today, Este,” she would tell me, looking worn and exhausted. “This is the day I will see Jesus!”

Then I would see her the next week and she would be calm and cheerful. When I would ask her what I could do for her, or if I could bring her anything, she invariably would say, “Just stay a while and hold my hand.” Helen must have had a strong spiritual effect on her two sons, because one was a rabbi and one was a Catholic priest. For the record, it was the rabbi who kept in touch with her and visited her far more. I was there one time when he was visiting Helen with his wife, and I never saw Helen happier.

When Helen died several years ago I went to her funeral and discovered a different side to Helen than I had ever known. There was a time when she left her two young sons to go to California for some reason I didn’t understand. Maybe they both turned to God for consolation, or maybe her leaving gave them room to seek such different paths. But by time I met her they were reconciled and she was all sweetness, softness and gratitude.

There is something about a person (not always but often) when they reach an advanced age that does seem grace-filled. Sometimes I think that when you are born you have just left the presence of God and when you die you return, so that as a middle aged person you are about as far from God as you are going to get age-wise. So it behooves us to be with children and elders to pick up a little grace by association.

A few weeks ago I went to Kayakameena again and Bill Fay celebrated and preached. The All Souls contingent was 7 strong joined by two Franciscan brothers and myself with my husband and 14 year old daughter. There were 25 residents in attendance at the service and they sang with amazing gusto.

In my most recent visit to another convalescent home, The Redwoods, in Mill Valley, I met with a woman who is 109 years old. She was not ambulatory, but she was sharp and she was funny. In fact in may be her sense of humor that has kept her going for so long. She reminded me (not for the first time) of her age and I said, “Camille- you are doing great!”

“What do you mean I’m doin’ great?” She yelled. “I’m lyin’ here like a wart on a pickle!” We shared the Eucharist and she reflected that she often thought about God when she woke up at night.

“Being spiritual comes in real handy when you’re an old bag like me!” she said.

Ask me about AEMCH when you see me, or better yet, do yourself a favor and come visit with us for the most painless and rewarding Jesus-in-the-world work you’re ever likely to do!

Come Unto Me...

Sunday July 6, 2008
Church of Our Saviour Children’s Homily

We have such a beautiful Gospel passage to read today- one of my favorites of all time. Jesus says something like, “Come to me all you who are weary and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. I will lift your burdens.”

What is a burden? A burden is something that is too heavy to carry alone. If it was not too heavy to carry alone, it would not be a burden. It would just be something to carry.

We all have burdens… Maybe you have had a burden sometime. Have you ever picked up a bag of groceries and realized- Whoa! That is too heavy for me! Or maybe you have had a different kind of burden. Maybe you have had a burden in your heart- a great burden of sadness, or of loneliness, or a burden of scaredness. Or maybe you had something in your heart that just did not feel good at all. And these feelings make your heart feel heavy.

Well, I want to tell you that I just got back from a trip that taught me a lot about people who act like Jesus and lift people’s burdens in the world. I went on a trip with Father Richard and Gay Johnson all the way to New York City with our wonderful teenagers, and almost everywhere we went, we saw the lifting of burdens. At the amazing church where we lived, they reached out their arms to the whole city and said “Come to me” and they lifted the burden of hunger from the people who came to get free food from their pantry. They lifted the burden of homelessness from those who slept in their shelter. And for people who could not come to the church to get food because they were to elderly or sick, the church brought food to them! They tutored lots of children and they hosted a synagogue and a Presbyterian church and had dozens of meetings for people struggling with bad habits.

But one of the most touching stories about the lifting of burdens happened right in the middle of our week. We took a boat to a very famous island- Ellis Island. This is an island that long ago, thousands of people would come to, to lift their burdens of not having a safe country to live in. They wanted to live in our country where it was safer and where they would have a chance for a life without the burden of fear and hunger. And as we approached that island we saw the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty held up her torch high as if to say, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I remembered a poem about Lady Liberty that goes “Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free.” And I thought, “What do you know- here it is almost the 4th of July and Lady Liberty is acting like Jesus! You never know where Jesus is going to turn up!”

Well, during this trip I felt a little burdened myself sometimes. I felt burdened with homesickness and loneliness and tiredness. And what lifted my burden was to see our amazing teenagers helping each other, comforting each other and lifting each other’s burdens. And they not only pitched in to feed the hungry poor, but they also pitched in to feed the hungry us. I had four of the best meals of my life cooked by these wonderful teenagers and then miraculously, the kitchen was beautifully cleaned with no effort whatsoever by any adult!

Well, I thought about the wonderful church we stayed in and all the burdens they lifted, I thought about the beautiful cathedral we stayed in and how they were reaching out to Africa to take care of orphans there and lift their burdens, I thought of the Statue of Liberty and I thought about the amazing teenagers on our pilgrimage. And I thought I had never seen so many people acting like Jesus out in the world.

So if you do have a burden in your heart of loneliness or scaredness or sadness, you might reach out to a brother or sister or your mom or dad or someone else you trust. And you just might feel that burden lifting, because Jesus comes in all shapes and sizes in this world.

Amen.