"Wake Up! Open Your Eyes!"

The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

May 31, 2020

Year A: The Day of Pentecost

Acts 2: 1-21

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

John 20:19-23

“Wake Up! Open Your Eyes!”

            Alleluia! Christ is risen!

            The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

            As I’ve mentioned to you before, one of the unexpected blessings of this time of quarantine has been our three daily prayer services over the phone. It’s been so good to hear many of your voices and a real gift to pray together.

            Since the first service is at 7:30am, each night I’ve set my alarm for 6:00. Since you can’t see me, I don’t have to look totally put together but I also don’t want to sound like I just woke up.

            But, over these past few months of mornings, I’ve never once needed my alarm to wake me up.

            Partly that’s because I’m an early riser by nature.

            And, partly it’s because of one of our cats.

            Each morning, sometime between 4:00 and 5:00, our cat Diego decides that I have slept long enough and it’s now time for me to wake up.

            And, he uses every tool at his disposal to achieve this mission: meowing, jumping on and off the dresser, stepping around the items on my nightstand sometimes “accidentally” knocking stuff to the floor, jumping on my chest, licking my hair.

            Each morning, Diego gives everything he’s got, saying:

            “Wake up!”

            “Wake up”

            “Open your eyes!”

            Today is Pentecost, the day we especially celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit.

            And, as always, we heard two different Pentecost stories.

            There’s the one I just read from the Gospel of John. The way John tells the story, it’s the first Easter Day and the Risen Christ appears to the disciples who had been hiding in fear behind locked doors.

            The Risen Christ offers the frightened and awe-struck disciples peace, and he also breathes the Spirit on them, sending them out into the world to continue his work of teaching and healing and forgiving.

            And then there’s the second Pentecost story that Sue read for us from the Acts of the Apostles.

            It’s fifty days after Easter, ten days after the Ascension, and the disciples are once again in a room, waiting for a sign – a sign that is given in a very big way with wind and tongues like flame and the ability to make themselves understood to people from all over the place – the Spirit drove them out from their room and into the city – they are no longer afraid to share the Good News.

            It was such a sight that at least some people speculated that they must be drunk!

            Hearing these two different Pentecost stories reminds us of a great truth: Pentecost is not just a historical event that we remember once a year.

            No, Pentecost happens all the time – God gives us the Holy Spirit all the time and in so many ways.

            God gives us the Holy Spirit all the time, giving us the gifts of faith and wisdom and courage, and, maybe especially important for us today, the Spirit wakes us up, opens our eyes, and allows us to see things – to see people - as they really are.

Pentecost happens all the time.

For example, on March 18, 1958, the monk and writer Thomas Merton was on a rare trip away from his quiet monastery, running errands in the bustling city of Louisville, Kentucky.

That day, while standing at the busy intersection of Fourth and Walnut, the Holy Spirit breathed on Thomas Merton, woke him up, opened his eyes, allowing him to see things – to see people – as they really are.

Here’s how he described the experience:

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.”

Merton continues,

“And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

That day in 1958 in Louisville was Pentecost for Thomas Merton, when the Holy Spirit opened his eyes, woke him up, to see things – to see people – as they really are.

I was reminded of Merton’s experience because of the protests that have erupted over the past few days in cities across our country, including Louisville, which has been on edge since March when a black woman named Breonna Taylor was killed by police in her home, with, no surprise, the police and Ms. Taylor’s family in total disagreement about how and why this happened.

But, I don’t need to tell you that the protests that are intensifying across the country have been sparked by the brutal and, let’s be honest, not shocking killing of a black man named George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer on a Minneapolis street.

We didn’t want to watch the video but we watched wide-eyed and in horror, as bystanders begged the cops to stop, and as Mr. Floyd gasped the haunting but familiar words, “I can’t breathe…”

Much of the grief and frustration and anger that’s usually bottled up has exploded into these protests, with extra fuel apparently supplied by outside, often white, agitators who like nothing more than starting trouble.

And again, let’s be honest, in many places law enforcement is responding a lot more forcefully to these protests than when white people recently got mad about the stay-at- home orders and put on their camouflage outfits, armed themselves to the teeth, and marched on – and sometimes into – government buildings.

Pentecost happens all the time.

And, especially during these past few days, these past few months, these past few years, the Holy Spirit has been blowing and burning and shaking and pawing at us, using every tool at the Spirit’s disposal to wake us up.

Wake up!

Wake up!

Open your eyes!

Open your eyes and see that we are sisters and brothers. We can’t be alien to each other even if we are strangers.

Open your eyes and see that if one part of the community is in danger, if one part of the community is at risk, if one part of the community is sick, then we are all in danger, all at risk, all of us can get sick.

Open your eyes and see that there is more than enough of God’s blessings for everybody, the problem is a few people have hoarded way too much abundance for themselves, leaving not enough for the rest of us.

Open your eyes and see that character really does matter, our own character and, yes, the character of our leaders.

Open your eyes and see that, as Jesus understood and taught so well, it’s a quick trip from our hearts to our actions, that our hard hearts can produce so much pain and suffering for us and for the people around us.

Open your eyes and see that God has a special love for the poor and the suffering and the vulnerable, for the black men and women crushed under the knee of oppression, the refugee fleeing poverty and oppression, the people who have, in the middle of a pandemic, no choice but to work in stores or factories or warehouses or slaughter houses – the people forced to deliver the mail or drive trucks and buses – God has a special love for them – they matter - not because they’re necessarily better than anybody else, but because they’re poor and suffering and vulnerable and oppressed - and so often they haven't really mattered to us.

Open your eyes and see that – really, really – all of us – the people we like and the people we don’t like – the people whose bodies are brutalized by violence, the people whose faces and souls are twisted by hate – all of us - our true selves are shining like the sun.

Pentecost happens all the time – including right now in our time of trouble.

Wake up!

Wake up!

Open your eyes!

And then, what?

It’s a hard question to answer because the answer is probably a little different for each of us.

But, I’ll say this:

My hope is that the Spirit will inspire us all to pray even harder.

My hope is that we will all do the hard work of looking into our own hard hearts to see our own sins and to ask forgiveness.

My hope is that the Spirit will inspire even more of us to get involved in our communities - with Jersey City Together or to support our Triangle Park Community Center or, at the very least, respond to the census and definitely vote in November.

But, we all have to figure out for ourselves what we can or should do.

Or, we can choose to do nothing.

Because, you know, the Holy Spirit is definitely persistent, but the Holy Spirit always gives us a choice.

It’s like when my cat is doing everything he can think of to wake me up, I can still just roll over, put my head under the pillow, and eventually go back to sleep.

And, the first disciples, they could have just returned to their old lives, maybe sometimes nostalgically thinking back to that big and noisy day in Jerusalem when they were able to make the Good News understood to people from all over the place.

And, Thomas Merton, he could have shaken off his experience in Louisville as some kind of illusion, thinking that, wow, he really had been cooped up in the monastery for way too long and needed to get out more often.

And, in the same way, we know that, although we are definitely wide-awake right now, we can easily put our heads in the sand, go back to our usual routines, eventually drifting back to sleep once again.

It’s happened before.

But, God still gives us the Holy Spirit all the time, giving us the gifts of faith and wisdom and courage, and, the Spirit uses every tool at the Spirit’s disposal to wake us up, calling us to open our eyes, allowing us to see things – to see people - as they really are.

So, maybe, this year in our time of trouble, the best way to celebrate Pentecost is by staying awake and keeping our eyes open.

Amen.

In a Troubled World, the Church is Reborn!

A Note to the Parish:

"In a Troubled World, the Church is Reborn"

May 29, 2020

Dear Friends,

This Sunday we will celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost. In church we will hear the story of the first Pentecost, when the Spirit-filled followers of Jesus finally leave their room, head out to the streets of Jerusalem, and begin sharing the best news of all time - love defeats hate and life conquers death:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, people from all over the place were able to hear this best news ever, and slowly the Good News about Jesus and God's Love began to spread beyond the holy city that was under the brutal hammer of Roman occupation, and out into every corner of the world.

Pentecost is rightly remembered and celebrated as the birth of the Church. But, Pentecost is not just history. Pentecost happens all the time. God gives us the Holy Spirit every day, especially in times of trouble. Jesus continues to be with us, no matter what. And, the Church was not just born once two thousand years ago on a noisy day in Jerusalem. No, the Church is reborn in every age. The Church is reborn in the water of Baptism. The Church is reborn each time we share the Good News with our neighbors. The Church is reborn each time a person hears the call and chooses to follow the Way of Jesus. The Church is reborn each time we work together to meet a need in our community or beyond. The Church is reborn each time we confess our sins and ask forgiveness, and each time we offer forgiveness. And, the Church is reborn each time it faces challenges and renews its trust in God, and its dedication to God's mission.

Our own church has been reborn so many times, hasn't it? We have been reborn in all the ways I just listed and more and, most of all, we were reborn in a spectacular way just a few years ago when two neighboring Episcopal congregations, separated by about five blocks and decades of not-so-great history, heard God's call to join together and create something new and even more beautiful than what had been before.

So, in fact, we're experts at rebirth. And, I'm convinced that, in this moment of suffering and fear, this time of big trouble, our own church, and the whole Church, are once again being reborn.

If you're like me, you haven't yet wrapped your mind around the fact that we will not be able to go back to exactly the way things were before the pandemic. Because there is still so much unknown about the virus - and because none of us can see the future - we don't know what our worship and other gatherings will be like the next time we are able to be together in person, but they will be different in ways that may be hard for us to accept.

But, the good news is our church is already transformed in ways that are wonderful and a blessing to so many. It's Pentecost again! We have left our room! We have been reborn!

Just look around at the work of the Holy Spirit! Many more people are now worshiping with us during the week and on Sundays. Even if we can't see them, we can hear them - we can read their comments - and we can surely feel their presence, praying alongside us. Parishioners are checking in with each other more regularly and more deeply than before, taking the time for long conversations. We've been given the resources to offer some pretty big help to our friends at Garden State Episcopal CDC. Family Promise is providing shelter on Storms Avenue. The Triangle Park Community Center is busier than ever, helping to feed and clothe our neighbors. And Deacon Jill has started a brand-new ministry in Hoboken, gathering goods from those who have and giving them away to those who have not, and we're looking to expand this amazing service to Jersey City.

It's Pentecost again! We have been reborn!

And, it’s not a moment too soon. This past week, we've been once again painfully reminded that the old demons of racism, hatred, violence, and ignorance are on the loose. Although we had made some progress over the course of the last century, it seems that all the ugly fears, resentments, and prejudices have risen to the surface - or, perhaps, have been raised by some for their own cynical purposes. Or, some suggest, maybe progress was always an illusion and now the only difference is that we have cellphones readily available to record at least some of the evil. In any event, there don't really seem to be words to adequately describe what it's like watching a police officer crush the life out of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street, with bystanders begging for the brutality to stop, and the dying Mr. Floyd gasping the heartbreaking and haunting (and familiar) words, "I can't breathe..." And, closer to home, in Central Park, we all saw a white woman quick to use her privilege - and the ever-present racist presumption of black male menace - to escalate a conflict about an unleashed dog into yet another potentially tragic incident.

The killing of George Floyd has set off storms of protest in Minneapolis and elsewhere, as people understandably release long-suppressed grief, frustration and rage, accelerated by some who always enjoy adding fuel to the flames. This sure would be a good time to have leaders of wisdom and compassion. Unfortunately, at the moment, those with the most power obviously have other values and priorities. On the other hand, it wasn’t that long ago that our leaders with the most power sometimes at least aspired to wisdom and compassion. And, if that didn’t make much difference, maybe it’s because our chronic social and economic illnesses are at root a destructive and deadly spiritual disease. We have refused to learn the lessons that God has been trying to get through our hard hearts and thick skulls from the beginning: we are sisters and brothers, created to love God and to love one another.

The Church has been reborn, but the world is still what it is. So, as always, the Holy Spirit must work in and through us, and with all people of goodwill.

I've told you before that I believe with all my heart that, because we are a church of many different kinds of people who love each other, we have been given a special vocation - a call from God to show the world that it is possible for us to recognize and even celebrate differences but to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, before our recent rebirth, people usually had to work pretty hard to somehow find us, tucked away on a side street, hidden behind our old walls and stained glass. But now, look, it's Pentecost again! Physical distancing has been tough but, ironically enough, it means we have left our beautiful room and gone out into the world! And, just like those first disciples on that long-ago noisy day in sorely oppressed Jerusalem, just like Christians throughout the centuries, the Holy Spirit will continue to be with us, no matter what.

So, since we have been reborn, let us go forth into our beautiful but troubled world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Your brother in Christ,

Tom

Abundance of Comfort, Abundance of Power

The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

May 24, 2020

Year A: The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 1:6-14

Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

John 17:1-11

Abundance of Comfort, Abundance of Power

            Alleluia! Christ is risen!

            The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

            It’s the Seventh Sunday of Easter – it’s still Easter, but just barely.

            We have just one more week of Easter to go.

            It’s still Easter but this past week we celebrated another big feast, one that is often overlooked because it always falls on Thursday: the Feast of the Ascension.

So, we’re in this little in-between stretch of days, the time between the Ascension and Pentecost, a time that begins with the disciples once again facing what sure looks like Jesus’ absence - and a time that ends when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit and begin to head out into the world, sharing the best news of all-time:

            Alleluia! Christ is risen!

            The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

            So, we begin with our first lesson, the story of the Ascension as told in the Acts of the Apostles.

            Now, at this point the disciples’ heads must have been spinning.

            Remember, it’s been forty days since the Resurrection, forty days since despair and fear had been transformed into hope and joy, forty days of the Risen Christ appearing, forty days of the disciples just beginning to make sense of the amazing new reality of a world where love conquers hate and life defeats death.

            When it comes to getting used to a new reality, forty days is not a long time at all, right?

            I think it took me about forty days just to get used to doing church over the phone and on Facebook.

            So, the disciples were probably just beginning to get used to their new reality when it is upended yet again!

 Jesus says good-bye again and departs from the mountain, promising that the Holy Spirit will give them power.

            Now, being a kind of glass half-empty person, if I had been with the disciples that day on the mountain I think I’d slide right back into despair and fear. I’d ask the others, “Can you believe we’re going through this again?”

            “Can you believe that Jesus has abandoned us again? How will we survive? What are we going to do now? What happens next?”

            Well, we’re told that the disciples returned to Jerusalem and gathered in their room.

            What are you going to do, right?

            But, instead of worrying and spreading anxiety – which would be my approach and maybe yours - we’re told that the disciples prayed – they constantly devoted themselves to prayer.

            And, not to get ahead of ourselves and spoil next Sunday, we know that for those first disciples in just a few short days the absence of Jesus will be filled with the presence of the Spirit.

Scarcity will be transformed into abundance – abundance of comfort and abundance of power.

            And, what was true two thousand years ago is still true today.

            A couple of months ago when we received word that we wouldn’t be able to worship in person for a while – maybe a long while – my natural glass half-emptiness seemed to drain into just plain emptiness.

            I wondered how in the world we could go forward, how would we be able to stick together, how would we be able to provide for those in need.

            Well, maybe this time I’ll finally learn my lesson, because look what has happened here over these past few months!

            Like the first disciples, our first reaction to what sure felt like absence and scarcity was to gather for prayer – our first response was to pray - to pray maybe more than we had ever prayed before.

            I remember that first Sunday when it was just Sue and me and my phone here in our church that felt so sad and empty, and as I said the words of the service I was asking myself if any of you were out there. I worried that maybe the technology wouldn’t work or you would log off and find something more interesting to do on the internet.

            But that’s not what happened.

And each week, by the end of the day, way more people have watched and prayed with us than when we were meeting in person – people next door and people on the other side of the country.

            I remember the first day I dialed into the conference call prayer service, wondering if anyone else would call in, preparing myself for the possibility that I might just have to pray alone.

            But, that didn’t happen that day and it’s never happened.

            Instead, lots and lots of people call in each day – in fact, sometimes Evening Prayer gets a little raucous and I need to use “teacher voice” to impose some order – lots of people call in, greeting people we know and people we don’t and offering some of the most beautiful prayers I’ve ever heard – prayers for our community, for ourselves, for the sick, for the doctors and nurses, for the people who must work in public to keep us fed and safe and to get us where we need to go – and each day we’ve offered prayers for the dead, including when the heartbreaking losses have touched our community and seemed almost too much for us to bear.

            Abundance of comfort and abundance of power.

            When all of this started, I was afraid that people would drift away from the church but, to my amazement, we are actually attracting new people to our community!

            Last week I had a wonderful phone conversation with someone I’ve never met in person, but she has been calling into our prayer services and worshiping with us here on our Facebook Sunday mornings – I spoke with her because she had contacted me to ask me how she could officially become a member of our church!

            Isn’t that amazing?!?

            Abundance of comfort and abundance of power.

            At the start of this time of pandemic I worried we might not be able to pay our bills and might not be able to help those in need.

            But, so many of you have sacrificed and continued to give to the church. And neighbors and friends have made some incredibly generous donations both to support the church and for us to give away to the hungry – and our skilled Finance Committee has done amazing work navigating us through this crisis and keeping us afloat.

            And, as you know, we have continued to serve some of the poorest among us down in Triangle Park. Just last Saturday we once again broke records at our Saturday food pantry with about 170 people lined up around the block.

            And, in a new twist on abundance, our own Deacon Jill and some helpers have started a new program gathering food and clothing from neighbors in Hoboken who have more than they need and delivering those items to our community center, in a neighborhood where often people don’t have enough.

            Our hope is that we will expand that program here to Jersey City, to the places in our city, including Duncan Avenue and some of the blocks around us, where people are full and are looking for easy and reliable ways to share what they have.

            You’ll be hearing more about this in the weeks to come.

            And then there’s Family Promise which has moved into the Parish House over on Storms Avenue, offering stability, decency, and privacy to our guests who need all of that more – and providing us with an unanticipated way to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.

            Abundance of comfort and abundance of power.

            So, just like the disciples long ago, here we are, and maybe with all we’ve been through our heads are spinning.

It’s in-between time, a time between Ascension and Pentecost, a time between stay at-home and - when we’re ready and not a moment sooner no matter what anybody says - a move to whatever our new normal is going to look like.

            And, just like the first disciples, during this in-between time we have prayed, maybe not constantly, but pretty close.

During this in-between time we have been given so much abundance – abundance of comfort and abundance of power.

We do have at least one advantage over the first disciples – they have to wait a little bit to receive the Holy Spirit but, while we’ll celebrate the Spirit in a big way next week, the truth is the Spirit is already with us – just look at all the abundance!

 Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.