City Called Heaven

The text tells that Friday ends with the burial of Jesus. "[A]s evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body....[, and] he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid. Mark 15:43-27 (edited), NIV And so we wait... The three-day cycle recalling the Passion of Jesus is filled with meaning for the faithful. His last supper and the first communion on the night of Holy Thursday. The overnight legal drama, torture, and judicial murder of Jesus through crucifixion on Friday. Leading to the empty tomb and the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples on Sunday, there are many points to engage with this story. Saturday, that d...

Phyllis Trible was one of the great lights of 20th century Biblical criticism. She, with many others, moved the field to pay attention to marginalized voices in text and tradition. I can think of none whose work has been more influential in this project. Dr. Trible saw, heard, and re-membered these textual women, named or not, who represent uncounted others who are authentically part of God's story in the Bible and in the communities which profess to follow this Word. She grabbed hold of these texts, and would not let go until they blessed her, and others. In the late 1990s I planned to leave my job on Wall Street for Seminary. Phyllis Trible was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Union Theological Seminary, when I discovered that she had announced her retirement before I thought I could reasonably leave my job. So I arranged to take vacation time that semester, taking a each week to travel uptown for a seminar on Genesis 1-11. Ki tov! How good! That class may have been ...

This Christmas Eve, the church holds before it the image of God born among us. The Genesis 1 creation story makes the bold claim that humankind is made in the image of God. This is the occasion of God remaking God's own self in human flesh, as one of us. This is an imaginative leap - for God, for theologians, for all of us. I have been pondering this. Not to ask "how could this be?" But to ask "was ist das?" - what is this? What does it mean? How does it matter? I have found more than a few ways to answer this for myself. One is rooted in the historicity of who this Messiah was. Not an elite. Like 90% of those in his time and place, Jesus was born and lived a subsistence life, on the margins. He was in the form of a servant/slave, so that his Lordship was not one which presses down from on high, but chooses to be with the lowly. In her womb, his mother saw that God wanted to upset the powerful and exalt the lowly. This is a God who speaks to humanity, for we...

Republished from facilitatingchange.us , a blog oriented to those who work with people who choose to abuse. But since there's a lot of abusive behavior in this world, others may find it relevant. This is a time for frank talk about the ascendency of an authoritarian and abusive political culture in the United States of America. While Donald Trump is seen as the point person for this movement, and as President-elect is poised to implement these as U.S. government policy, these ideas are not new, and are not unique to a single leader, political party, demographic group or location. This is not a time for quiet acceptance, private complaints, and trying to ignore, work around, or accommodate to harmful acts and beliefs. Nearly two thousand years ago, the Roman empire dominated Europe and the Mediterranean by military force and oppression. The early Christian movement was by necessity a resistance movement, proclaiming a different kind of rule, governed by a God of mercy, where peo...

Veterans Day meant to recognize and honor those who have served our nation, these United States, through military service. While distinct from Memorial Day, we cannot remember our living veterans without also knowing that their service came with risk. Those who served in combat, close to combat, or in support roles too often know to well the price of making the commitment to their country. We know that our nation has not always used its military well. We also know that the willingness of those who accepted that call is worthy of honor and respect no matter when and where they served. Many bring home from their service more than memories and skills and relationships with their comrades. Trauma and loss is a often a price paid be our service members on behalf of our nation. The loving and respectful attention paid to the fallen ought also to be our attitude towards the living. Since the beginning we have known - or should have known that freedom is not free, but requires sac...

Twenty-three years ago this morning, I heard the sound of a low-flying jet overhead as I awakened. Of course, I had no idea what that sound was to mean for those on board, for those at its painful destination, for the world. Or for the direction my life was to take. Working as a volunteer chaplain with the American Red Cross, St. Paul's Chapel, and the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was a great privilege that extended over the next six years. The attacks, the people, and the stories broke my heart, but they broke it open. I remember the chaos, fear, and uncertainty of that day, The terror from the sheer blue skies, not just from the morning attacks, but from the silence of grounded flights, punctuated by the intermittent scream of fighter jets patrolling unseen overhead. And I remember the faces of the people I met, family members searching for those they loved and lost, those who escaped with their lives, and those who came from every part of the United States and...

Blessed are you, Lord of heaven and earth. In mercy for our fallen world you gave of yourself, your only Son, that all those who believe in him should not perish, but have new and everlasting life. We pray for our nation, and look to you for deliverace from all evil. Let us not despair, nor be deceived that vengeance is a solution. Help us to know that the urge to hurt, to dominate, to destroy is not only evil, but only breeds further ills. In Jesus the Christ, we see and follow your example to heal and not to harm, to accept rather than inflict suffering. We pray for all who run for elected office, especially Joseph and Donald. Watch over and protect those who seek positions of leadership, and all who participate in the political process, that your will for them and for us be done. Heal our nation, and disrupt the plans of all who seek to do violence. Let us instead seek the change of heart and mind that draw us closer to one another and to you, in the name of Jesus, our hope an...

The Star-Spangled Banner famously ends with a question. "O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" It has ever been the question, and is pointedly so now. Some may hear this as a question about the flag: is it still flying? But it is more importantly a question about us, about this nation. Is this land still a home to the free and the courageous? Is this the land where all are equal under the law, where we believe that everyone deserves basic decency, and which is still seeking a more perfect union? The cult of Trump/MAGA, the insurrectionists and those proclaiming retribution, have a very bleak view of our present, and an awful vision for our future. They know how to tear down, but not how to build up. On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, September 18, 1787, Elizabeth Powell asked Benjamin Franklin, "Have we got a republic or a monarchy?" "A republic, if you can keep it....

Reminder Each March 23rd is another reminder a marker of another year you could not teach your students to read a year you could not see your daughters become women a year you could not tell them &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp how you love them, how proud you are of them. Another sorrowful year you could not say that you left them too soon, &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp and did not leave their father soon enough. Another year marking, like a stone in the prairie earth, the silence of coroner, clergy, and community, because "it was too terrible to think about." Another year with the loss too terrible to live with. Yet we do. We live. And we remember you. We remember your mothering care for children, students, &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp and yes, for your husband. We remember your voice, singing "How Great Thou Art" for all to hear. We remember that even this day, you would speak with prophet's voice, &nbsp&nbs...

I was saddened at the news about O.J. Simpson's death. Not so much, really, at his death. That, after all, comes for all of us, and was inevitable. But I saw a short clip on the news, of Mr. Simpson on February 9th denying he was in hospice care ("Hospice? No, I'm not needing any hospice"), and then another of him two days later saying his health was good, and he was just about over his "challenges."* Now maybe he wasn't in hospice. And I know very well the inclination to look on the bright side, especially when the "other side" seems unthinkable. But I also know the cancer of denial, and the fear of being honest, with self and others, about truths we just don't want to face. I am sad that Mr. Simpson avoided, apparently to the end, some of the most important truths about his life. He lived off his greatness as a footbal player, which was certainly true. I remember as a child watching him on the college field, where he was a cut abo...

One of the most personal moments in the Passion story is when “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?“ Mark ( 15:34 ) and Matthew ( 27:46 ), believed to be the earlier written gospels, both cite these as Jesus' only words from the cross. Interpreters of the story have long wondered how to understand this verse. To whom is Jesus speaking? Does this one sentence convey Jesus’ sense of abandonment by God? Or are we to understand this opening verse of Psalm 22 as a means of quoting the entire psalm? Either way, I think, is a good way of hearing Jesus. By most all evidence, God is not coming to the rescue. The end is near, and the end is certain. Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God seems to have been killed by the powers of domination. There will be no conquest for this soon-to-be lifeless Messiah. I can identify with those moments of desolation, where there is no help, no...

My prayers at 9/11 On the morning of September 11, 2001, somewhere between sleeping and wakening, I think I heard a low flying jet above me at 121st Street and Broadway. When I awoke and left my dorm room, Trevor said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I went ahead to my first class of the new semester, on Aggression.*&nbsp I was there when the north tower fell, and the word came that classes were cancelled. Over the next few years, I was exposed to a lot of prayer. I remember the noon chapel service that day, and words of scripture,. And I especially remember John McGuckin in his cassock, standing off to the side in a corner of the chapel with prayerbook in hand, offering a silent witness of prayer while others spoke and sang. When there was no need for blood at St. Luke’s Roosevelt, I went downtown to NYU Chapel, where I had just finished my internship, and arrived just as the priest was leaving after a very hard day. Hassan, our Muslim security guard, graci...

Nineteen years is not that long ago in the grand scheme of things. But a lot has changed in the world. One thing that persists is grief. There are too many more losses. The mourning for 9/11 is not concluded, and more tragedy has come to the world. It is important to remember what has happened. If we do not notice the devastations around us, what will we pay attention to? And if we notice only one tragedy, we are frozen in time, blind, deaf, and numb to the world we live in. Because of the confluence of circumstances, 9/11 is probably the most memorialized single event in history. If you were more than two or three years old and living in the U.S., 9/11 was part of your life. And it was a moment in time where we had the world's sympathy and help. This past Labor Day, Lisa and I visited the Harborview 9/11 Memorial Park in Bayonne. It holds the Tear of Grief memorial, a gift from the Russian people (officially named "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism")....

When you're a boy in growing up in St. Louis, you learn about baseball. My Dad took me to my first baseball game in 1963, at the old Sportman's Park, to see the great Stan Musial play in his last season. I was a little young to understand what was going on, except that it was a Big Deal. Baseball was Important. I missed the 1964 World Series, but by 1966 or '67 I was playing ball myself and was, of course, a Cardinal fan. And what a time that was. In '67 they would win the World Series, and in '68 lose in a dramatic Game 7. It was a solid team, with some of the best players of the day and some for the ages. The '67 team was managed and general managed by future Hall of Famers (Red Schoendiest and Musial). Dal Maxvill, Julian Javier, Mike Shannon, Orlando Cepeda in the infield. Tim McCarver behind the plate. Two Hall of Famers in the starting rotation, Steve Carlton and the great Bob Gibson. Roger Maris and Curt Flood in right and center field. And the thrillin...

A Dictionary of the Bible includes a definition of the "desolating sacrilege" (NRSV; ‘abomination of desolation’, AV and REB in Mark 13: 14; ‘appalling abomination’, NJB). "The phrase is used in Dan. 9: 27 to denote the pagan altar set up in the Jerusalem Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BCE; and in Mark 13: 14 it may refer to the failed attempt by the emperor Caligula to install his statue in the Temple (40 CE) or to an event such as the display of army emblems in the Temple in the war of 66–70 CE. Luke (21: 20) probably has the siege of the city in mind..." ( A Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford Biblical Studies ). How strongly can you say it? How can you communicate the outrage when the life is crushed out of a man on a Minneapolis street, or the perverse claims righteousness is their property, as they bring devastation to a holy place? Imperial power demands that all bow before it. Yet it is illegitimate. The emperor has never had any clothes. The Livin...

You may have been blessed to have Someone, perhaps many Someones, in your life who cared for you, who mentored you, who helped awaken you to the best there is in you. Who opened to you the book of yourself and the book of life. Perhaps they are still with you. Perhaps they have passed in one way or another, and you feel their loss. Luke 24:13-35 - The Walk to (and From) Emmaus .

I have heard a lot of good preaching. This is among the best. As a preacher myself, about the best response you can get it "It spoke to me." It did. Thank you, preacher. The two fit together but don't miss Locked In, but Not Locked Out . Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter, preached by Rev. Lisa Bellan-Boyer. Gospel & "Children's" Sermon Catch & Release

Each of the previous six Good Fridays, a procession of grief and hope has walked with Jesus to sites of violence in Jersey City, remembering how the Passion of Christ connects with our present-day reality. This year we regretfully and wisely do that remembrance at home. Of course, Jesus also remembers, and continues to walk with those who suffer. The first station . He is condemned to death. Eleven days ago, a beloved child of God was killed at Triangle Park. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? &nbsp&nbsp Psalm 22:1 The next station . He falls the first time. Five days ago, a beloved child of God was shot and killed on Ocean Avenue, between Bidwell and Bayview. O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. &nbsp&nbsp Psalm 22:2 The next station . He falls the third time. Four days ago, a beloved child of God was shot and killed in the area of Mart...

Psalm 40 Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany, Year A Today I'd like to focus on a couple of the things which are at the core of who we are as a Church. This psalm is rooted in testimony. The Lord heard my cry, he lifted me out of the mire, established me on solid ground, and gave me the gift of praise. There is a new and glorious song in my mouth. And I want to go tell it on the mountain, I want to tell everyone what God has done for me . Those two words - for me - are so important to our life of faith. For Martin Luther, finally hearing these words in scripture helped him overcome his fears of being unworthy, and believe that God was on his side. God's work and God's love are not an abstract concept of theology - "for me" brings them up close and personal. "For me" takes God's saving action out of the future and makes it immediate, present, here and now. God has been "gooder than good." God has acted on my behalf, delivering...