Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I Am Not--Bonnie


3rd Sunday of Advent
John 1:6-8, 19-28
Grace and peace to you from the one who was, who is and who is yet to come
When I was in middle school I had a friend named Bonnie. We looked alike, very much alike,
We had the same skin tone, the same hair color and we even styled our hair the same way; we had the same eye color; we were the same size and had some of the same features. When we were together many people thought we were sisters, some even thought we were twins. When we were together it was all right, but if we were not together it was a little awkward. I would inevitably have a teacher ask, "What do you think about that Bonnie?” or a fellow middle schooler call out in the hall “hey Bonnie!”And I would have to tell them, I’m not Bonnie. I was often caught in a case of mistaken identity.
………
No one mistook Eboo Patel for anyone else. He stood out as an American Muslim from India in the suburbs where he grew up. Although, as a visible minority everyone thought they knew who he was Eboo struggled with his identity. In his book, Acts of Faith, he tells stories of the difficulties of being Muslim and American. He believed the two were not congruent. You were either a good Muslim or a good American. Like many of all religious backgrounds, he was raised in a home that became more and more secular as his parents obtained the American Dream. Trips to the Mosque, as his parent carrers took off, became less and less frequent. Nightly prayers became mixed with stories of being sent to the Y during the summer where he learned Christian songs. 
His father worried that the people at the Young Men’s Christian Association were trying to turn him into a Christian. But his mother was glad that he was learning the values of good Christians and commented that he should also learn the values of good Jews, and good Buddhist… because these values were values that made a good Muslim.
In his days of middle and high school Eboo’s struggle intensified. He rejected most of what it meant to be a Muslim as he excelled in academics. This was his attempt to fit in. Eboo even dated a girl who was Mormon and …. realized that at some point their differences would become an issue. When he went off to college his search for identity continued. This quest took many twist and turns..... not all good....He became interested in the struggle for civil rights around the world and had Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. as his heroes but his studying and experiences awoke a deep rage in him. America, the country of his birth he discovered was full of inequities and hypocrisies! And yet the discovery of rage did not equiate to the discovery of identity.
He began hanging out with those who believed in social justice, and reading about Dorothy Day and the Catholic workers movement. Eboo lived in community, taught in the inner city and even sat in meditation and prayer with Christians. Eventually he realized that these were not his prayers. He begin to define himself as who he was not. I am not a Mormon, not a Christian, not a Jew. Though he held values in common Eboo could proclaim --- this I am not!
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John spends a lot of time in this gospel writers rendition of the story, telling people who he is not. Again we hear the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Christ. We still have not heard of angels or shepherds or trips to Bethlehem. That all has to wait. Again John plays a starring role. Yet, today we get no description of his clothing or diet, but we hear the priests and Levites questioning him.
They want to know who this strange man is who keeps pointing to another event, to another person. They want to know who this mann is who has all these people coming out to the middle of no where to hear him and be baptized. They want to know who he is and what he is talking about. When asked,
“Who are you? He confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him. “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”
No he is not the Messiah, the one who the scripture promises will come to rescue the people. He is not Elijah who was fed by the widow and who was taken up in a chariot to heaven. He is not a prophet. Nothing about him resembles Moses who lead his people out of the wilderness. John has not come to fulfill the law or guide the people. John has come to witness to Jesus.
..........
Eboo Patel discovers who he is and claims his identity as a Muslim -- a Muslim that does not resemble those we hear about in the news. He is not a Muslim like those who seek to destroy everyone that does not believe as they do, Eboo is a Muslim who has made his life’s work....religious pluralism and helping youth to discover their identities whether Muslim, Jew, Christian and to live into those identities as those who want to make an impact in the world for good. He founded the Interfaith Youth Core which, “Builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.” An activist and scholar Eboo Patel knows who he is and wants all who believe, no matter what religious tradition, to be better witnesses of their faith.
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Using the words of Isaiah, John proclaims: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.” John is clear that even though he is not the messiah, not Elijah, not the prophet he has a role in this story. His role, his identity is as witness, one who points to the one who is to come.
This one will come proclaiming liberty to the captives, comfort to those who mourn. He will be the one who will come preaching, teaching, and healing. He will give up his life on a cross, and be raised from the dead for the forgiveness of sins.
John’s role and identity is as witness, as one who points to Jesus the one who gives us reason to rejoice.
................................. 
I would laugh when people called me Bonnie. It used to drive me crazy because it was though my identity had been lost. Today I can say, “No I am not Bonnie.” But I too can claim the identity of one crying out in the wilderness---he wilderness of our lives where there are economic uncertainties, sickness, death and disease, heartbreaking and suffering. I am one who points to the coming light that dispels all darknes and promises that destruction, hardtimes and trouble do not have the last word in our lives but light and life do. Jesus does!
Yes I can claim my identity and as John cries “Make straight the way of the Lord." He cries out for all of us to be witnesses. For us to remember that all of us are Christians because we have heard this good news! Someone has witnessed to us the great things that God has done, can do and will do in the lives of those who believe. And after hearing this good news from the mouth of John, grandmom or our childhood preacher ... all of us are invited to bear this good news, to be witnesses to the light--the light that dispels the darkness.
As the Advent of the Messiah draws near, we tell the story, and we rejoice in all that God has done even while we cry out …. Come Lord Jesus come!




Just Rambling!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

December Expectations

Come thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us;
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art,
Dear desire of ev’ry nation,
Joy of every longing heart.      (LBW, 30)

I remember about twenty six years ago when my son, Jawon, was about six. Christmas was coming and he made a list of all the things he expected. His list included -- GiJoe, HeMan and the Thundercats action figures, Hot Wheels cars and a whole host of other things.

When I saw the list, I panicked. You see, financially -- that year was a particularly bad year for me. I was just getting used to being a single parent. I was saving to buy a car. Money was tight. Yet, here was this child waiting, anticipating, expecting a wonderful Christmas. There was not much I could promise him.  I  promised him a Christmas Tree, that we could decorate together, and a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

Christmas approached and all I had in my pocket after the Christmas decorations and the Christmas dinner was five dollars. On my way home from work, on Christmas Eve I walked into the local  chain drugstore to look for something for my son. I bought Jawon a 12 inch long red and white plastic airplane, that cost $2.99. On Christmas morning, his eyes lit up and to my surprise he loved it. That airplane spurred hours of imaginative play. 

Our lives are so full of uncertainties. Our expectations are not always met.  What we hope for does not always come to past.  Life does not always work the way  in which we would have it work.

Yet, in the midst of our unmet hopes', dreams and wishes come the unexpected. We look to what we are able to do and we do it. We look at not so much what is missing but what we have. On that Christmas day so many years ago, $2.99 is all that was needed. I will always remember that Christmas, especially, the smiles and the laughter of a mother and son that had each other.

In this season, would you look around you and thank God for all that you have -- be it little or much. Please remember, there is one hope, one expectation that is always fulfilled, God’s grace, mercy and love are always available to us -- always present for us, in this season and in every season.

Just rambling.
(This blog was revived from an article written in 2004)


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Just the Beginning of the Story




Grace and peace to you from the one who was, who is and who is yet to come.

Did you realize that Thursday was World AIDS Day? December 1, marks the day every year---the day to commemorate, the day to pray, the day to raise voices in solidarity with those affected and infected by this virus. This year is the 30th Anniversary of the naming of this disease. This year also begins the 'Getting to Zero' Campaign. With more than 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS the goal is that there will be Zero new HIV infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero-AIDS related deaths world wide by 2015.

World AIDS Day is a day that could pass without much notice. But it was noticed this year; Vicar Brian and I drove to Philadelphia to commemorate World AIDS day with a friend. Some of you probably have heard me talk about Rev. Andrena Ingram. She is the pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Germantown and she is living HIV positive.

I met Andrena while I was an intern with Heidi Neumark at Transfiguration in the Bronx. Pastor Ingram has quite a story.....She was abused as a child; served time in the army; she ended up on the streets with a drug habit and a few kids. Life was hard and tragic, but fortunately she found herself in rehab.
There she met Warren and fell in love. Both of them were on the way to recovery and a good life......They get married; she gets pregnant and he finds out he is HIV positive.

She told us the other night that she is so vocal about the fight against HIV and AIDS because Warren was so silent. He was embarrassed, ashamed and afraid to go into a drugstore to pick up the medications that could have, would have prolonged his life. And so --- afraid, and ashamed twenty years ago under the stigma attached to being HIV positive he died with full blown AIDS.

As we open the bible we read all kinds of stories---stories of famines and floods, stories of infidelity and passion, stories of plagues and destruction
stories of people who wondered in the wilderness, who have been exiled,
who have been oppressed, who suffered---those who need, who want, who long for God’s comfort.

Then good news comes!

On the working preacher podcast one of the scholars from Luther Seminary gives this imaginative explanation: The good news consisted of three words. Someone comes running along yelling, “he is risen,” and the people ask “who?” The speaker answers, “Jesus of Nazareth?” They ask, “who is he?” And the first speakers answers, “he is the one born in the manger, the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate, the one who was crucified, died and buried.” They ask, “How’d that happen?” So the gospel writer sets down an  answer, so that people might hear and know. 

He writes: “This is the beginning of the good news..... Just what the people needed to hear, because--well --they needed some good news. Let me draw you a picture. 'In Galilee around 70 CE. There is a war. Upstart Jews are starting to revolt against Rome, and Jerusalem has been taken over. The word is that things in the city are bad. The citizens are of two minds. Some are waiting for God to raise up leaders to move those who don’t think , or believe as they do from the Land. Still others are pushing for  submission to Rome as a road to security and peace. Everyone is afraid, life is unpredictable and the price of olive oil is astronomical.'*

No wonder people gather at the edge of the wilderness to listen to a man dressed in camel’s hair, eating wild locust and honey. They need a word---some hope, so they go see this wild man crying out. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

They have heard this before; these are words of scripture. This is the long promised messenger, who signifies a turn of events, who points to the Messiah.

Mark begins his telling of the story, not with a birth announcement or a discussion of lineage but with a prophet who speaks in the words of prophets of old-- words of Isaiah and Malachi. This gospel writer wants us to know that this story has connections with all the other stories told about the people’s experiences with God.

This prophet, called John the Baptist, also points us to the one the people have been waiting for, the one who will speak mercy, comfort and peace into their suffering, into their oppression, into their sickness, disease, and forgiveness into their lives.

John points to the one who has the power to speak new beginnings in our lives, and invites the people, invites us into repentance, invites us to turn around. And we know: this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the son of God. Even if at first it doesn’t sound like it.

Andrena heard this good news, she became a member of Transfiguration in the Bronx as a result of bringing her son Brezlan to vacation bible school. One day Pastor Neumark and I were knocking on doors in the neighborhood and we knocked on Andrena’s door. She invited us in for conversation.

She would later tell me that I was the first African American woman she had ever seen wearing a collar and she was curious about why I thought I could be a pastor.

Through attendance at Transfiguration, Andrena heard the cry of John to prepare the way of the Lord, the call to repentance and amendment of life. She became more involved in church and by the time I finished my internship, she was studying the bible regularly, she even studied through the Metro New York synod’s Diakonia program and subsequently felt a call to ordained ministry.

She did not have a smooth road toward ordination---many on the candidacy committee wondered ten years ago how she would hold up and in a meeting someone asked her “what if you die?" Wait, isn’t that all of our fates? Of course, with Rev. Heidi Neumark as an advocate she made it through the system and has been ordained for over five years.

Yes she heard the beginning of the good news of Jesus the Christ the Son of God and she knows that story has not yet ended; her story becomes part of God’s story and so does ours! Andrena’s story is added to the biblical story and countless other stories of how this good news has the possibility to change lives. 

This story has the possibility to change lives and compel us to move out into the world witnessing to this good news, taking up a cause and advocating for those who are poor, hungry, hopeless, sick and suffering.

Pastor Ingram’s cause is those infected with the virus that causes AIDS, because she knows that story too. And she would like for us to take up that cause, pausing not just for one day to commemorate but committing to Getting to Zero--Zero new infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS related deaths. She also wants us to tell the good news that Jesus the Christ makes a difference in this cause and in our lives.That’s what she teaches and preaches through words and deeds. 


Because of her experiences she refuses to keep silent!

All of us are not expected to take up this cause or even to be preachers, yet we all are invited to be witnesses to the good news of Jesus the Christ the Son of God -- not just like Andrena but in our own way. We are invited to spread the good news, in our homes, at college, at work, in those areas of life that mean so much to us. Perhaps we are to spread this good news to those we love or maybe to those disenfranchised, or those with low self-esteem,
or young people, or those who are lonely, those who need, want, long for God’s comfort.

And our story, our experience of God’s forgiveness, of God’s love in our lives
becomes for another the beginning of the God news of Jesus the Christ the Son of God.This good news for someone may mean hope, acceptance, love it may give someone for the first time the opportunity to say thank you. 

As we wait for the coming of Christ, let us remember that what God was doing all along in Israel, what God has done through Jesus the Christ is what God is doing in our world today making God’s love visible.

In this Advent Season, may God's love become visible through you...... As we watch and wait with expectancy and cry, come Lord Jesus, come!

Just rambling!



*Paraphrased from Christopher R. Hutson, "Second Sunday of Advent, Mark 1:1-8. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 4 p,44