23 July 2012

Rest & Re-Creation


Mark 6: 30-44, 53-56

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost/ 22nd July 201

Jesus was a busy man.  The demands on his time, enormous.  The burden of his call, overwhelming.  The disciples, too, were busy, because Jesus was busy.  The demands on their time were enormous, because they were with Jesus. The burden of their respective calls appeared overwhelming, called and sent by their teacher and Lord to serve the kingdom of God. At this juncture in Mark’s Gospel we have the returning of the twelve.  Earlier in chapter 6, Jesus summoned the twelve disciples, meaning students, gave them authority, and then begins to call them apostles – meaning people sent.  He commissioned them and sent them off to proclaim God’s good news.  He told them, “take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.”  And he sent them out to a world both hostile and open to their message.  He sent them out to be agents of healing and salvation, to announce the realm of God.

            Here in verse 30, the apostles have returned, gathered around Jesus to give him a full report, telling him “all that they had done and taught.”  Then, almost breaking them off in mid-sentence, he says to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”  “For they were coming and going,” Mark tells us, “and they had no leisure even to eat.” So that’s what they do. They leave for a deserted place.  But it wasn’t deserted enough because soon onlookers noticed where they were going and a whole crowd surrounds them. This becomes the scene for the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  As Jesus approached the great crowd, he had esplagxnisthe, the Greek word for compassion, splagnizomai, which means to be moved in the pit of one’s stomach, to have deep empathy for another.  Jesus had compassion for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd.  And so Jesus is back at work and so are the twelve.

            Scholars have long noted that Mark’s Gospel, the shortest of the four, is a fast-paced narrative of frenetic activity.  One of Mark’s favorite words is “immediately,” used 28 times in the Gospel, a word that marks time, speeds up time, moves the story along.  And Jesus is busy, very busy, once he receives his call.  And if you note the flow of Jesus’ activity, full days of ministry and service are followed by times to pray, to pull away, to rest.  Even after the feeding Jesus goes off to pray (Mark 6:46). His ministry flows in a graceful rhythm of work and rest and work and rest and work. 

            And so I’m struck that Jesus – fully committed to his call, tireless in his efforts, no slacker he – never forgets to take time to rest. And he makes sure that his disciples never forget this.  He is their good shepherd too and wants to make sure they get the rest that they need.  “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mark 6:31).  For they were “coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mark 6:31).  Rest is required right in the middle of their work.  Rest is required in order for them to do their work.

            When we think of “rest” the notion of Sabbath and Sabbath rest are not far away.  We first discover the importance of Sabbath in the creation story.  In the Decalogue, Moses tells us that the Sabbath is set apart and holy.  On the seventh day, God rested (Exodus 20:8).  Throughout the summer in worship, we’ve been lifting up the themes of creation and creativity.  Inspired by liturgical panels consisting of artwork made by members back in May, each piece reminds us of the creative spark endowed in each of us. The marvelous variety of images reflects the wild diversity of God’s people and the seemingly limitless reaches of our imaginations.  God’s love is bursting forth into creation and the power of that love never stops.  God is busy. The source of all there is.  The source of our lives.  If the pulsating out-flowing of God’s energy would ever cease, we, too, would cease.  For we are creations of the Divine imagination in whom “we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)”

            The panels depict aspects of the first creation story in Genesis 1.  Creation and creative expressions are, obviously, activities that require enormous energy, effort, work, and struggle.  Built into the creation story, however, is something that (I believe) is not reflected in any of the panels, a part of creation that was not rendered artistically for us, something is missing – Sabbath rest.  Maybe because we often think of God resting, of Sabbath, as something apart from the actual act of creation, something that comes after, certainly related to, but disconnected from the rest.  We often think the creation of humanity as the culmination of the creation account.  After all that effort, we imagine, God takes a break.  On the Sabbath, we assume, nothing happens.  How does one draw nothing?

            Here’s a different view.  The case could be made that the culmination of creation was not the creation of humanity, but the creation of the Sabbath.  That all the effort of the six days was in order for God to rest on the Sabbath with us and then take delight in, enjoy the goodness of creation with us.[1]  Rest is built into the Sabbath and the Sabbath is built into the Creation.  The Sabbath then is connected to the ongoing creative activity of God.  It’s not something extra, added on. This means that whenever the Sabbath rest is separated from the frenetic six days of activity, of doing, there’s a sense in which the Creator is rejected.  When we deny Sabbath rest as part of God’s good creation, we are, in effect, rejecting the Creator and, at the same time, doing violence to the creation and to ourselves as creatures.  In other words, we were created to rest and to enjoy a Sabbath rest with God.  If the Creator relishes the importance of rest in order to be a good Creator, then we as the result of the Creator’s love are called to relish the importance of rest so that we, too, might be creative.

            And so Jesus lovingly urges his disciples to rest, he urges them to stop, compels them to get away from it all.  He tells them to play.  He tells them to get something to eat.  “Come away,” literally “Come! You yourselves,” I mean you.  He wants to get their attention.  You – I mean, you:  stop.  The Greek here means to cease, to rest, to rest in order to gain strength.  Rest is a means to an end, not the end itself.  The word was used to command soldiers to rest so that they could be better soldiers. It was also used to describe land that is allowed to rest so that the land can yield a harvest.  That’s what Jesus is calling them toward.  Rest is essential for the health of the soldier and the land; it’s essential for a vital life; and it’s no less essential for people called to do the work of God.  Jesus shows us here that our ability to rest directly impacts our ability to be creative, productive, and useful.  We could say rest and re-creation go hand-in-hand. 

            Now, we all know in our guts that this is true.  We do.  But we also know there’s a lot in our lives that tries to separate activity from Sabbath rest, that tries to put a wedge between activity and rest, where we privilege activity over rest.  As the Franciscan priest and writer Richard Rohr notes, Western and American culture alike, we’ve all “imbibed the culture of unrest so deeply.”[2]  We’ve all “drunk the Kool-Aid.”  We’ve been doing it for centuries.  We have this suspicion around rest or resting too long.  You know the sayings:  “Idle brains are the devil’s workhouses.” (This dates back to 1732)  “Idle hands are the devil’s tool.” (1808)  “An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.” “The devil finds work (or mischief) for idle hands to do.”  The Protestant work ethic has been entwined with the capitalist spirit to yield a way of life that might look religious and successful, but it’s not necessarily the Gospel, and it’s not liberating.  Instead, hard work is blessed, celebrated.  People take enormous pride in the number of vacations days they don’t use, the amount they can accrue.  They see it as a badge of honor.  Mostly men do this (but not exclusively so).  We equate not working with laziness. And who wants to be called lazy?  We view activity as a virtue; idleness is of the devil.  We equate rest with doing nothing and having nothing to do leaves you open to all kind of trouble or mischief.

            Our relation to time also fuels our suspicion of rest.  We’re obsessed with time, but we don’t think there’s ever enough.  We are the most technologically advanced civilization the world has ever known, with technology at our fingertips designed to help us have more time to do the things we want to do.  And we still don’t have enough time.  We’re so busy and worry about getting everything done in time. There’s not enough time to rest.  We’re fearful of wasting time.  Some say rest is a luxury they can’t afford.  Time is money.  Time spent without activity, time spent idle, time spent doing nothing looks wasteful – it looks un-American.  But it might actually be Gospel.  Maybe, then, we need to waste time; maybe we need to be prodigal with it, as God is with time.  We have all the time in the world, so why not spend it?

            Our suspicion toward rest is reinforced by the perception that we have to keep busy because that’s what’s expected of us as modern people.  Tim Kreider, writing recently in The New York Times called this “the ‘busy’ trap.”[3]  “If you live in America in the 21st century,” he writes, “you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are.  It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy” “Crazy busy.”  It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint.”   Many of us are guilty of this.  I know I am. We might be complaining, but it can be used as a boast.   “Notice,” he observes, “it isn’t generally speaking people pulling back-to-back shifts in the ICU [at the hospital] or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired.  Exhausted. Dead on their feet.  It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed…they’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.”  Even our children are busy these days, overbooked, over scheduled.  They are learning it from us.  And what they are learning, Kreider suggests – and I would agree – is that “busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.”  When we are busy we don’t have to stop and look at ourselves or at our neighbors or at the needs of the world, we don’t have to look at the things that need tending to in our souls.  We can immerse ourselves in activity – even religious work, church work, make it look "holy" – and think that that’s okay.  But it’s not.

            With compassion toward us Jesus invites us to step away, to rest, to recharge.  Go ahead, be bold, go ahead – be idle!  Go ahead – risk idleness!  Do nothing!  Play! See what happens.  Kreider assures us that “idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets.  The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration – it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.”

            That’s what Jesus said.  That’s what God said long ago.  Sabbath, rest, idleness – the “necessary condition” for getting any thing done.  So stop. Rest. Rest in God.  Fall into the everlasting arms of God – fall and allow yourself to be held, resting in God’s compassion, knowing he provides for our every need.  Rest.  For only then can we be creative and be of service in recreating the world in God’s image. 

            It’s one thing to hear someone talk about rest in a sermon and another to actually rest. So here’s an opportunity for you to rest in the Lord, here and now.  You can use this guided prayer any time, anywhere.  Offer these words of scripture before entering into a period of silence:
                        Be still and know that I am God.
                        Be still and know that I am.
                        Be still and know.
                        Be still.
                        Be….

                                                                                                Amen.


[1] Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991).
[2] Richard Rohr in Following the Mystics Through the Narrow Gate (2010).
[3] Tim Kreider, “The ‘Busy’ Trap,” New York Times, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/

17 July 2012

Faith Dancing


2 Samuel 6: 1-5, 12b-19


Seventh Sunday after Pentecost/ 15th July 2012

Last Sunday, I ended the sermon with reference to a video I saw during worship at the General Assembly in Pittsburgh, shown at East Liberty Presbyterian Church to a congregation of 700 Presbyterians.   It was the latest release by Matt Harding on his site: “Where the hell is Matt?”  His Dance 2012 consists of Matt dancing a funny dance with people – he’s not really a great dancer – in small groups and in enormous crowds, with people all around the world, children, adults, all shapes and sizes and religions and races in a celebration of the human spirit caught up in the dance.  There’s one poignant scene in which he’s dancing with people in wheelchairs.  He’s dancing in Rwanda, Germany; Damascus, Syria (the dancers have their faces blurred to keep them anonymous); Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Gaza, Thailand, North Korea, South Africa, Cairo, Athens, Rome, and even Patterson Park, Baltimore.  Some are dangerous places, impoverished places, places of untold pain and suffering, but also places of joy and happiness.  I’m not exactly sure why it speaks to so many people – I was a wreck watching it.  I’m not sure what’s at the root of the emotions it releases, but it’s profound and uplifting and joyous and it celebrates the thread that binds the human spirit together.  The video is set to music, a song, “Trip the Light,” co-authored by Matt.  By trip he means to turn on the light. Here are the lyrics:

If all the days that come to pass
Are behind these walls
I’ll be left at the end of things
In a world kept small

Travel far from what I know
I’ll be swept away
I need to know
I can be lost and not afraid

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

Remember we’re lost together
Remember we’re the same
We hold the burning rhythm in our hearts
We hold the flame


I’ll find my way home


On the Western wind
To a place that was once my world
Back from where I’ve been

And in the morning light I’ll remember
As the sun will rise
We are all the glowing embers
Of a distant fire

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light.[1]




            I can’t shake free from the images and music of this video.  I’m not exactly sure why.  Perhaps it gives a glimpse of what the human spirit really hungers for; it allows us to soar with hope for the new thing God is doing in our midst.  For the dance continues and nothing can stop it.

            And then just when I thought I was beyond it, here comes the lectionary for this week from 2 Samuel, of David dancing with “all his might” before the ark of God.

            2 Samuel depicts the ascendency of David to the throne of Israel and Judah.  Saul is dead.  Abner, Saul’s general, is dead.  A lot of people are dead – all within the first five chapters.  David is not completely innocent here.  But he’s the one left standing. The Lord’s anointed.  He moves the capital to Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, already a religious center for Israel, now becomes a political and military center.  He brings with him the ark of the covenant, the dwelling place of Yahweh, the holy presence of God, which was entrusted to the Northern tribes.  And so in a great liturgical procession of 30,000, “David and all the people with him set out and went…to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned in the cherubim.” 

            David is leading the way and he’s dancing.  David and all the house of Israel “were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.” Eventually they make their way into the City of David, into Jerusalem, and David is still dancing, “all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.”

            As David makes his way through the city, Michal, Saul’s daughter, David’s wife, looks on and despises him? Why? Maybe she’s resentful toward him for pulling her away from her first husband, Paltiel – this David who demanded that she become his wife.  Maybe she’s resentful that she’s one of David’s wives and not the only one (and be sure to note the Bible’s early configuration of marriage here).  We’re not sure.  Her anger and even hate for him are strong and justified; they become the lens through which she looks out at him and his holy display.  Maybe she thinks he’s a poseur, a fake, she knows his heart, he’s got the 30,000 fooled.  Michal probably knows better than most that David isn’t perfect – and we must not project those expectations upon him.  But it’s kind of sad to see Michal’s resentment toward him getting in the way of the celebration, hindering her ability to worship to God, obstructing her from joining in the dance.

            I think if we’re honest, even if we have two left feet, we want to join in the dance.  But there are things that hinder us from dancing, that prevent us from hearing the music.  Maybe you know what it’s like to be on the edge of a dance floor looking on with desire and maybe jealousy and fear because you know that you want to dance, you know you want to be out there, but you don’t know how (or think you don’t), or you don’t want to embarrass yourself (or your friends), and so you run from the risk and the fun and look on.  We all want to dance.  It’s buried deep in our souls, in our psyches.  Dance is as old as humanity; it’s archetypal. Dance might actually be older than language; it’s preverbal and even subverbal.  It’s part of our collective memories.  When we hear the beating of the drum, something stirs in us.  It’s primal.  Certain rhythms and beats can cause even the most frozen of the chosen Presbyterian tribe to move.  We might not think it’s possible; but it is. With God all things are possible. At the church I served in Mendham, NJ, we had a dance one evening. I remember seeing about fifty Presbyterians lose enough to dance, not only the Electric Slide, but also the Macarena!  That was a sight to behold! It couldn’t get that image out of my head for a while.

            It was the great dance teacher and choreographer Martha Graham (1894-1991), who said, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”[2]  When we dance, something deep is revealed, something deep is released, something deep is set free, something deep that can only be discovered, maybe, in the dance.

            Twice we find David and all of Israel “dancing with all their might.”   I’m struck by the strong, profound connection between worship and dance here, between devotion and dance, between praise and dance. With all his might David gives himself over in praise and celebration, with all his heart, soul, mind, strength, and body he offers himself to God in praise.  There’s such happiness, such joy and delight, such selflessness and unself-consciousness here that he’s free to give himself over to the dance, he’s free to let himself go.  What a marvelous expression or definition of worship.

            The Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983) once said, “I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.”  From what we can glean from this text, no one told David to dance.  He had to dance; it flowed from him.  That’s what worship does – it’s what God wants from our worship.

            I’m struck by this connection between religious experience and emotion.  The religious expression, the depth of love and devotion causes movement.  That’s what an emotion does.  An emotion is energy in motion – e-motion – and that’s what religious experience can and should do within us – move us, cause us to move. 

            Early Judaism knew this.  Dance has always been part of the Jewish tradition.  In the Christian experience, not so much.  In the gospels, Jesus says, 'We piped to you but you did not dance' (Matthew 11:17). In Jesus' parable of the prodigal son there was dancing and rejoicing on the son's return to his home (Luke 15:25).  Even as late at 200 A.D., circle dances were still part of the Christian liturgy. But all that changed when the dance was equated with moral decadence and dance was removed from the liturgy.   John Calvin (1509-1564) and his colleagues and the congregations of the Reformed church did not dance.  There are exceptions in Christian history, of course, think of the Shakers in the 19th century America. 

            In Islam, the mystical Sufis today dance in a whirling dervish of praise around one still point.  In the gnostic text, the Acts of John, we find Jesus saying, “Give heed unto my dancing… Divine Grace is dancing:  Fain would I pipe for you. Dance ye all!”[3]  

            It’s not surprising that Jesus came to be known as the Lord of the Dance.  Sydney Carter (1915-2004), composer of our closing hymn, “I Danced in the Morning” (1963), set to the Shaker tune Simple Gifts, said in connection with this hymn, "I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. …I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus. Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't.” 

            I wonder whether with the absence of dance that we haven’t lost something essential in our worship. 

            We know all the power of dance.  Sometimes we have to go beyond the Church to discover it or reclaim it. Whether it’s a scene from Hairspray or Flashdance or Saturday Night Fever or West Side Story, “Dancing with the Stars,” or watching Fred and Ginger – you have your favorites – you know the beauty and emotion of the movement when we dance, even when we watch people dance.  My parents were wonderful dancers.  I can remember watching them at wedding receptions and parties, effortlessly moving across the dance floor in one fluid, beautiful movement.  We want to participate in it. We want to get caught up in it. Dance is a marvelous metaphor or image for the Christian life, a faith that is dancing.

            Listen to this personal statement or confession of what dance means, what it does, why it matter. As you listen, try to connect it to your own faith, hear it as a metaphor for a dancing faith:

Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. 

I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing...and dancing...and dancing. Until there is only...the dance.

            These are the words of Michael Jackson (1958-2009).

            I can easily imagine David saying something very similar, can’t you? “…touched by something sacred…I felt my spirit soar…creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy…there is only…the dance.” And so we keep on dancing…and dancing…and dancing.  For there is only the dance.



[1]“Trip the Light,” by Alicia Hempke and Matt Harding; Music by Gary Schyman.
[2] See Martha Graham’s autobiography, Blood Memory:  An Autobiography (Doubleday, 1991).
[3] The Acts of John is a gnostic text that dates from the 2nd century AD.  In its account of the Last Supper, there is reference to the Round Dance or Circle Dance of the Cross, initiated by Jesus who says, "Before I am delivered to them, let us sing a hymn to the Father and so go to meet what lies before us.” Directed to form a circle around him, holding hands and dancing, the apostles cry "Amen" to the hymn of Jesus.  Gustav Holst (1875-1934) set the text to music, using his own translation from the Greek, in The Hymn of Jesus (1916). I’m using Holst’s translation here.

10 July 2012

Walking, Running, Soaring in Hope


Isaiah 40: 21-31

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost/ 8th July 2012

Walking, Running, Soaring in Hope.  This was the theme, the text of the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), held in Pittsburgh this past week.  Just less than 900 elected commissioners and advisory delegates from every presbytery came from north, south, east, and west to discern together the mind of Christ for the PC (U.S.A.).

As always, I’m grateful to the Session and the congregation for giving me the time and the financial support to attend the General Assembly as part of my terms of call.  Many years ago I learned that the General Assembly is the best place to see the Presbyterian Church at work; it’s the best place to have a sense of the larger church, the national church, the global witness of the Reformed Church in the world.  I’ve been to so many GA’s that they feel like a family reunion of sorts. And I’m grateful to work with and know extraordinary Presbyterians, teaching elders and ruling elders alike who are passionately committed to the church of Jesus Christ and our unique perspective of the faith as Presbyterians. 

            The Assembly concluded yesterday morning, after going for a very late night/ early morning session, adjourning at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, making for a long Friday that started around 9:30 a.m., working all the way through.  Catonsville Presbyterian Church should be very proud and grateful for the service and witness rendered by David Hutton, one of our elected commissioners from Baltimore Presbytery to GA.  He served on the Mid-Councils Committee, one of the most important committees at this Assembly, considering the future of synods in the denomination and whether we should have non-geographic presbyteries.  I heard through friends working with the committee that David was a rock star. They were grateful for his leadership. After worship this morning, we’ll take some time to provide a very broad overview of what happened this past week.  Most of the reports and a summary of the actions can be found online through the Presbyterian News Service.

“This assembly’s theme, ‘walking, running, soaring into hope’ (Isaiah 40:31) was a fitting description of the assembly in many ways. At one level, the commissioners worked tirelessly…and doing so with much energy and passion. At a deeper level, the deliberations and discernment of this assembly reflect a church that is endeavoring to know how to demonstrate faithfully and effectively the gospel of Jesus Christ in the 21st century.”[1]

Here are some of the highlights:

Worship – “The assembly paused daily in the midst of its business, in the same space, to worship. Each of the preachers used the same text, Mark 2:1-12, chosen by outgoing GA Moderator, Cindy Bolbach. Commissioners and advisory delegates prayed and sang often, using selections from the upcoming new hymnal from the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, Glory to God, which the assembly voted to commend to the church.”

Business – The assembly addressed roughly 800 items of business in the form of overtures, reports, commissioner resolutions and more.

Definition of marriage – The assembly chose not to change the current definition of marriage that is in the PC (USA) constitution, namely, that marriage is a civil contract “between a man and a woman.” Rather, through its action to approve a two-year study, the assembly is inviting the entire church to engage in serious, deliberate conversation on this issue. There was widespread coverage of this decision in both the New York Times and the Washington Post.  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provided the best overview.  Although we don’t have the influence upon American culture as we once did, people still pay attention when the Presbyterian Church acts and speaks on controversial issues.

In the meantime, in places where same-sex marriage is legal teaching elders (pastors) are now in an even greater, tighter bind, caught between honoring the policies of the denomination and caring for gay and lesbian Presbyterians who enter into a covenant of marriage and want to have their pastors bless their relationship.  Presently, do to so would expose a pastor to disciplinary actions by the church.  Some were pushing for the Assembly to offer an Authoritative Interpretation (AI), which would have given protection to pastors and alleviate the crisis of conscience.  Unfortunately, in the end, the Assembly was not willing to consider that, a decision that has already caused considerable pain for some Presbyterians.  The Young Adult Advisory Delegates and the Theological Seminary Advocates both overwhelmingly advised for approving the change. They have voice, but not vote in plenary.  They are the future the church and they provide of glimpse of where the Church is moving.  For some, it’s not happening fast enough and they will leave. 

The Covenant Network of Presbyterians, of which this church is a covenant member, and on whose board I serve, was pushing for an AI and not for a change in the definition of marriage, primarily because we as a denomination are still living into the new ordination standards for gay and lesbian Christians in the PC (USA). My guess is that over the next two years there will be more pastors ignoring the denomination’s policies and officiating at same-gender marriages.

Middle East – The assembly chose not to divest from three companies participating in “non-peaceful pursuits” in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Rather, the assembly voted “to pursue a positive and creative course of action with respect to the current Palestinian/Israeli conflict,” and to “devise a plan of active engagement and projects that will support collaboration among Christians, Jews, and Muslims.” The assembly also approved a boycott on “all Israeli products coming from the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Heidelberg & Belhar — The assembly voted to approve a new translation of the Heidelberg Catechism from the 16th century Protestant Reformation and requested that the Belhar Confession from South Africa, which emerged in response to the end of Apartheid, be add to our Book of Confessions.  Both of these actions will be sent to presbyteries for their ratification.

Mid-Councils – By mid councils, we mean presbyteries and synods.  There was a proposal to remove synods and to allow for non-geographic presbyteries.  The synods remain, but there will be fewer ones with new geographic boundaries.  The assembly rejected the idea of non-geographic presbyteries.  This was a veiled attempt, by some, to organize presbyteries around theological viewpoints, around ideology, instead of geography.  It was soundly rejected. 

1001 Movement – The assembly overwhelmingly supported a movement to create 1001 worshiping communities (www.onethousandone.org). Those communities of faith will perhaps look much different from traditional congregations, but those that are already underway—in coffee shops, shopping malls, even on bicycles—are changing the world and the church for the sake of the gospel. We are in a new world.  If people aren’t coming to worship in the church, then the church has to go to where the people are.

            Depending upon one’s perspective, our commissioners and the church as a whole spent the week walking and running.  But, soaring?  I’m not so sure.  Hopeful? Absolutely.  But soaring?  My sense, as an observer, David might or might not agree, is that this assembly was trying to do no harm, playing it safe, being respectful of those churches and presbyteries that are on edge of leaving, waiting to see what this GA would do.   Depending upon your perspective, it looks like little happened, particularly around the marriage definition.  Two years ago, using parliamentary procedure to block business, the assembly didn’t even want to discuss the question of marriage.  This year, it was the same.  I sat in the committee, I heard the debate – or lack thereof, really.  The assembly was reluctant to have a discussion about giving relief to some pastors.  Again, over the next two years, more and more pastors will be forced to act in violation of what the courts of the church have decided. 

            On Friday evening, my good friend, Jeff Krehbiel, a pastor in DC, Sue Krehbiel’s brother, a commissioner, posted on his Facebook page from his seat in the plenary hall. Surrounded by all kinds of junk food to keep him going, he reached for some Dove chocolate.  Dove chocolates have those wonderful quotes on the inside of the foil wrapper.  He reached for a chocolate, unwrapped the foil, and read the quote.  It said, “Be fearless.”  He wrote, “Really sad when a candy company can be more prophetic than the church.”  Someone else on his page posted, “…like a might turtle so moves the church of God….” 

            Personally speaking, just once I would like to see us lead the way on social justice issues instead of following the culture’s lead.  No wonder we have lost our moral voice in the culture.  How is it that the wider society is becoming more inclusive and loving than the church?  Another friend, Margaret Aymer, an African-American professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, posted on Twitter:  “Remember:  Early incarnations of the Presbyterian Church voted for slavery, against ordination of women, and for segregation.  God wins.”

            “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  So said Dr. King (1929-1968).  We move step, by step, confident, not despairing, knowing that God is at work within us and among us and slowly leading us where we need to go.  In this we soar and hope.

            For me, the highlight of the week was worship last Sunday at East Liberty Presbyterian Church.  Close to 700 gathered in their magnificent Gothic sanctuary, built by the Mellon family.  Randy Bush, the pastor, also on the Covenant Network board, preached.  Brass players from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra offered the prelude; brass and organ lead the congregation is a glorious processional hymn.  I thought I was going to burst with joy and love and gratitude in praise to the God who calls us first to praise, to worship, to celebrate the inexorable grace shown to us in Jesus Christ.  And I thought I would burst with pride, surrounded by all those Presbyterians, in a service of beautiful liturgy.  A new anthem was composed for the occasion.  We had music from Taizé and pieces sung in Kiswahili.  But it was a video that Randy showed prior to the sermon that perhaps moved me the most and brought many of us to tears. 

            It was the latest release of Matt Harding’s dance video “Where in the hell is Matt?” 2012.  The video consists of Matt dancing a funny dance with people – he’s not really a great dancer – in small groups and in enormous crowds with people all around the world, children, adults, all shapes and sizes and religions and races in a celebration of the human spirit caught up in the dance, the dance that moves us all forward toward the life God wants for all of humanity.  There’s one poignant scene in which he’s dancing with people in wheelchairs.  He’s dancing in Kigali, Rwanda; Dresden, Germany; Damascus, Syria (the dancers have their faces blurred to keep them anonymous); Erbil, Iraq; Kabul, Afghanistan; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; the Gaza Strip; Thailand, North Korea, Philippines, South Africa, Cairo, Athens, Rome, and even Patterson Park, Baltimore.  Some are dangerous places, impoverished places, places of untold pain and suffering, but also places of joy and happiness.  I’m not exactly sure why it speaks to so many people – I was a wreck watching it – I’m not sure what’s at the root of the emotions it releases, but it’s profound and uplifting and it celebrates the thread that binds the human spirit together.  The video is set to music, a song, “Trip the Light,” co-authored by Matt.  By trip he means to turn on the light. Here are the lyrics:

If all the days that come to pass
Are behind these walls
I’ll be left at the end of things
In a world kept small

Travel far from what I know
I’ll be swept away
I need to know
I can be lost and not afraid

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

Remember we’re lost together
Remember we’re the same
We hold the burning rhythm in our hearts
We hold the flame

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light

I’ll find my way home
On the Western wind
To a place that was once my world
Back from where I’ve been

And in the morning light I’ll remember
As the sun will rise
We are all the glowing embers
Of a distant fire

We’re gonna trip the light
We’re gonna break the night
And we’ll see with new eyes
When we trip the light[2]

            I wish the entire Assembly could have seen it, the entire Church needs to see it, for the gospel, the good news, is embedded in his message (I’m not sure if he’s a Christian or not, it doesn’t matter), it gives a glimpse of what the human spirit is looking for; it allowed me and others to soar with hope for the new thing God is doing in our midst.  For the dance continues and nothing can stop it. Thanks be to God.



[1]From a Churchwide Pastoral Letter from the 220th General Assembly.  Throughout, I rely on the letter for a succinct overview of business approved by the Assembly.  http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/7/9/churchwide-pastoral-letter-220th-general-assembly/
[2] “Trip the Light,” by Alicia Hempke and Matt Harding; Music by Gary Schyman.