The Divinity of Difference

It's In Your Hands

2011-02-07T15:18:00.001-05:00

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world."

Anyone who spends any time around the institutional church -- not church in the abstract, but the institution, with its worn-out linoleum and its 19th century hymns and its propensity to trivialize its own gospel and its tendency to make mountains out of molehills (and what is far worse, molehills out of mountains), and its use of its own message of love and redemption to be unlovely and hateful and exclusive -- anyone who knows anything about the institutional church becomes impatient with it and sometimes sick at heart over it.

We want it to be more inclusive, more biblical, more relevant, more Christocentric, more businesslike, friendlier, bigger . . . .
"Maybe the best thing that could happen to the church," Frederick Buechner wrote, "would be for some great tidal wave of history to wash it all away, the church buildings tumbling, the church money all lost, the church bulletins blowing through the air like dead leaves, the differences between preachers and congregations all lost too. Then all we would have left would be each other and Christ, which was all there was in the first place." (The Clown in the Belfry, p. 158).

Like A Bird Up In The Sky

2011-01-13T10:28:00.003-05:00

Paul Vasile, our beloved Minister of Music, reminded me after having attended the New Year's Eve Watch Night Service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, of the song, I Wish I Knew How to be Free.

It became one of the anthems of the Civil Rights movement written by Billy Taylor, jazz pianist and composer who died this past December and was memorialized at the Riverside Church this past Monday. Taylor wrote the song in 1967 for the iconic Nina Simone.

I have been humming it for the past few weeks. It has become in many ways my theme song for the new year -- particularly so in light of the tragedy in Tucson.

Christianity by Choice

2010-09-30T12:15:00.003-04:00

Pastor Alvin Jackson contributed to a report, "Christian by Choice: How Do We Choose Religion?" that was broadcast on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer on September 29.

Park Avenue Youth Chorale

2010-08-29T18:22:00.002-04:00

We are so proud of our Youth Chorale! Here they are rehearsing during their summer music camp held at the church on August 27.

Making a Difference in the Lives of Pakistanis

2010-08-25T14:13:00.002-04:00

How much more can the people of Pakistan handle? We can practically hear them crying out, "How long, O Lord, how long?" The flooding in Pakistan has been absolutely devastating; beyond what anyone anticipated. The scope of the flooding, as illustrated by this video, is incredible, and the damage done by the rising waters will take years-if not decades-from which to recover. Our hearts ache for our sisters and brothers in Pakistan.

As always, Week of Compassion, the relief, refugee and development mission fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, is there -- thanks to you. Your gifts are already at work in Pakistan, channeled through our ecumenical partner organizations, Church World Service and the member agencies of the ACT Alliance, doing all we can to respond to this overwhelming disaster. And we will continue to work non-stop to provide aid to those in need. Our colleagues in the CWS Pakistan/Afghanistan Office have produced this short video highlighting the needs in Pakistan so you might get a closer look at the situation on the ground:

We invite you to continue to help us make a difference in the lives of the people of Pakistan. Please partner with us to make a difference. 100% of your designated gift to Pakistan flood relief will be immediately directed to relief efforts there.

Pakistan faces a desperate situation. Your partnership, your faith, your Courageous Compassion go a long way in helping the healing begin. Thank you so much for your support!

A Call for Discourse

2010-08-18T16:35:00.002-04:00

As religious leaders in the City of New York, we are deeply disturbed at the increasing level of anti-Muslim rhetoric in our city. From it's earliest days, New York has stood for religious freedom; we have always welcomed the immigrant and the stranger into our midst.

Now the mood has changed. We hear hostility and rancor. Some of this comes from nativist elements in other parts of America; they clearly do not understand our New York commitment to welcoming the stranger. Other voices speak of Islam without knowledge or understanding. They identify our neighbors with radical forces seeking to destabilize the community of nations. We deplore the linking of our fellow New Yorkers with these radical elements.

First, we seek to reduce the intensity of discussion. Our City has always been the home of free speech; each of us has the responsibility to speak our thoughts with care and with respect for our neighbors.

Second, we encourage all New Yorkers to learn more about Islam. All of us, community leaders, politicians, teachers, journalists and clergy, know too little about the faith of the more than 770,000 Muslims with whom we live in New York City.

Third, we implore our fellow New Yorkers to respect those in our midst as we expect to be respected. This does not mean that we cannot express alternate views. What it does mean that we speak to our neighbors and about our neighbors with the dignity that they deserve.

Rev. Dr. Alvin Jackson
Senior Pastor
Park Avenue Christian Church

Rabbi Leonard Schoolman
Director
Quest: A Center for Spiritual Inquiry

Celebrating 60/40!

2010-07-20T09:14:00.008-04:00

Last Thursday evening, I celebrated two very significant milestones in my life with you -- my 60th birthday on July 10th (I can't believe that number! I am not feeling that number, but I am grateful.) and the 40th anniversary of my call to ministry.

In 1970, while astudent at Chapman University in Orange, California, I sensed a call to Christian ministry and began my journey. I was ordained in 1976 after completing seminary at Duke University.

We had a fun evening of music, food, stories and embarrassing pictures of me! Two special guests from Tougaloo College -- president Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan and board member Isaac K. Byrd, Jr., were there.

Tougaloo is a very special place for my family. My Dad, along with my mother, were graduates of the Southern Christian Institute that merged with Tougaloo College in 1954. My twin sisters are also graduates of Tougaloo.

My Dad's funeral service was held in the Woodworth Chapel on the campus in 2004. It was in this beautiful little chapel where important meetings and gatherings of the Civil Rights and Women's movements were held. Great icons like Ralph Bunche, Julian Bond, Robert Kennedy, Medger Evers, Joan Baez, Fannie Lou Hammer and Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke here.

Special thanks to all those who made donations -- in honor of my milestones -- to the Clyde Cullen Jackson Scholarship Fund at Tougalee College. I am very proud that we have raised over $20,000.

The Margin of Freedom

2010-07-01T14:07:00.002-04:00

The fourth of July that we celebrate on Sunday is a holiday of massive proportions. We celebrate it with flags and bunting, parades and speeches, family gatherings and cook-outs. We listen to band music and we close the day with a display of fireworks as large as our municipal budgets or private philanthropy will allow.

The only incongruity of our American celebration is the ever increasing popularity of the 1812 overture as the climax of the day. I will never understand why we should use a Russian celebration of a victory over our French allies, unless it is reduced simply to the fact that we Americans like noise no matter who produces it! The more of it, the bigger, the louder, the better!

As I have watched this week's senate hearings on Elena Kagan, a Jewish woman from New York City, nominated by our first African-American president, to be the fourth woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, I was reminded that we have much to celebrate. I was also reminded of something that the great Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall often said: that, though a great document, the constitution has some serious flaws in it.

The constitution was flawed in its inception because it accepted the universal and unacceptable reality of slavery, thus postponing what it would take much blood and many years to address, if nor resolve. Women were not seen as full citizens. The document sacrificed moral principles for self interest. When the founding fathers talked about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in 1787, they did not have in mind a majority of America's citizens. It was only through amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformations that we have come to know the freedom we enjoy today.

So we must remain vigilant to protect our political liberty and national independence and work toward perfecting our union. But liberty can lead to license and our independence to godless arrogance. We, who are a people of faith, understand that in addition to political freedom the soul of humankind cries out for spiritual freedom.

A nation is no better than her people. The mere existence of a charter or a constitution does not make us great. Just having a flag, an army and a navy does not equal excellence. Along with our political freedom we must be spiritually free, free from profane materialism, free from vulgar sensuality, free from childish and psychopathic racism, free from injustice, free from arrogance and contempt for the weak and the powerless.

Haiti: Where to Begin?

2010-06-02T18:50:00.004-04:00

Week of Compassion is the relief, refugee and development mission fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. They seek to equip and empower disciples to alleviate the suffering of others through disaster response, humanitarian aid, sustainable development and the promotion of mission opportunities. Rev. Amy Gopp contributes this powerful report on her recent visit to Haiti to serve and to heal.

What if we could simply wrap our arms around an entire island, and heal all that ails her?

There are no words sometimes. An embrace seems easier -- perhaps even more powerful. No words.

After my first post-earthquake visit to Haiti last week, I am left searching for language to describe what I saw, heard, felt. How to describe a place so desperate, hurting, destroyed--and yet so colorful, vibrant and so downright engaging?

Port au Prince: Tent City. City of angels. City of mass chaos and destruction. City of possibility. But where do we start? How does one pick up a shovel and begin clearing the debris?

I saw the tired and worn hands of Haitians struggling to survive, depending on small shovels, valiantly striving to conquer heaps of rubble so high they rival two and three-story buildings (the ones lucky enough to still stand, thanks to better construction methods).

The Presidential Palace is now backstage to one of the largest urban camps in the world. But who is that man -- blessed to have a job! -- so meticulously mowing its lawn? Green grass against weathered white. The red and blue of the Haitian flag somehow ride the breeze and wave, proud yet pathetic.

Young boys -- and boys will be boys -- long for toys in camps where there are none to be found. Plastic bottle tops double as toys, and for some brief moments under a hot and humid Haitian heat, they amuse. I ask the boys if they go to school and they beam. Favorite subject? Multiplication and division. Go figure.

The latrines, water purification system and tanks, and food we are supplying through Church World Service and the ACT Alliance hardly seem enough. And yet basic needs are met. Even those not affected by the earthquake come to the camps, assured of finding clean water and something to eat, not to mention community.

Abject poverty or natural disaster? A need is a need is a need.

"If we use the earthquake as the basis for long-term sustainable development in Haiti, it could be very good," asserts Pastor Guillometre Herode of the Christian Center for Integrated Development, one of our partner organizations.

Will we make the same mistakes of previous years? Can we love and--at the same time--get out of our own way? How do we hold Haitian hands as they embrace being the agents of their own development?

Behind the plot of CONASPEH's crumbled concrete -- now cleared, thank goodness -- lies a sanctuary of trees and tents. Children leave their tented classrooms to go home to either another tent or to sleep outside on the street for fear of sleeping inside, should there be another quake.

CONASPEH shelters them not only with education but also with compassion. School is in session in this sanctuary of trees and tents; education leads to development. I meet with the committed CONASPEH Committee under the trees, next to the tented classrooms. In a mélange of French, Creole, and English, we pray and process.

Across town -- way across town, in the shanty-town of Carrefour -- a brand new House of Hope also stands proud and beautiful, almost as if in protest to the overwhelming ugliness of some of the worst destruction in the entire city.

Needless to say, homes in the slums were not built to withstand earthquakes.

The House of Hope, our long-time partner, is back up and running, thanks to our generous contributions, and seems to have hardly missed a beat. Hundreds of street children, former gang members, and "restavek" kids (children working as domestic servants) meet to enjoy a hot meal, learn about children's rights and nonviolent conflict resolution, and find creative space to sing and dance in the new building and property. It is a sight to behold!

Port au Prince: City of Possibility. What if we could simply wrap our arms around an entire island, and heal all that ails her?

Funny, as I begrudgingly left the island, it was Haiti that had embraced me. I am--yet again--left without words. I trust that you find yourself in that embrace, too, as we continue to work together to heal and love.

With immeasurable gratitude for your gifts to our response in Haiti,

Amy

The Ordination of Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena-Zayas

2010-05-27T10:26:00.003-04:00

This beautiful service -- held on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010 -- celebrated the ordination of Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena in the Christian ministry. We are blessed to have him (and his wonderful wife, Rev. Dr. Evelyn DeJesus-Cartagena) as part of our ministry team.

Rev. Luis-Alfredo's story is a remarkable one, and I am proud to share it with you now.

Luis-Alfredo was born in the St Luke’s Parish located in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, where he lived with his mother, Carmen Zayas and father, Luis A. Cartagena. He is the youngest of five siblings. He has three sisters (Carmen María Parker, Anita Lorraine Parker, Franscisca Cartagena) and a brother (Thomas Andrew Parker). Luis-Alfredo has five sons - two from previous relationships (Anthony and Emilio-Manuel) and three sons (Radamés, Eliasit and Edilberto) with his beloved wife of twenty-four years, Rev. Dr. Evelyn De Jesús. He also has two lovely daughters-in-law, Fabiola and Leslie, who blessed him with three grandchildren - Byron Israel, Benjamin-Gabriel and Isabelle.

Luis-Alfredo received a certificate in filmmaking in 1969 from the New York School of Photography Film Division. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the independent film collective New York Newsreel where he contributed his talent as a photographer and editor in the making and distribution of social justice documentaries on subjects such as ending the Viet Nam War, Middle East peace, workers rights and prison reform, racial and gender equality, and ending US imperialism.

Upon leaving Newsreel to work as a freelance photographer, Luis-Alfredo’s life was to change significantly. It was during this time that he began to abuse drugs and eventually found himself homeless and surviving on the streets of the Bronx. Tired and desperate one day, he wandered into the drug maintenance program at Lincoln Hospital where he found acquaintances from his film making days from the Young Lord’s Party (YLP) serving as staff. They provided assistance and support, and were instrumental in his beginning the road of recovery. It was then that Luis-Alfredo began to work for YLP’s Committee to Defend the Community located two streets west from the tenement where he was born. He was responsible for assisting community residents to organize rent strikes of slum tenements in the area.

In 1973, Luis-Alfredo received his GED and enrolled at The Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York. He continued his studies at the New School of Social Research concentrating on history and languages. His studies were interrupted when his beloved wife underwent liver transplant surgery. After this hiatus, he enrolled in the Workers Education Center at City College/CUNY where he received his B.A. Magna Cum Laude in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts concentrating in Holocaust History and Comparative Literature.

Upon graduation, he entered New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) where he received a Masters in Divinity and was awarded the seminary’s President’s Award in Ministry. He is in the process of continued study for a Masters in Urban Studies at Queens College/CUNY. Luis-Alfredo has worked for the past 28 years at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, where he is a Senior College Laboratory Technician and Director of the Modern Languages Language Laboratory.

In 2002 Luis-Alfredo was seriously incapacitated when his spine collapsed and doctors’ prognosis was he would be paralyzed from the waist down. After the insertion of a titanium bar to replace the scattered portion of his spine, and through Christ’s miraculous mercy, doctors informed him he would have movement below the waist but would remain in a body brace and require a walker for the remainder of his life. One evening while recuperating at home, his son, Radamés, and daughter-in-law, Fabiola, invited him to attend a three day Encounter with Christ in the mountains of Nyack, NY that was being conducted by Sinai Christian Church of Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was at one Encounter session, in the presence of believers and non-believers, as session leaders prayed and laid hands on him that Christ healed him. From this point forward, Luis-Alfredo wholeheartedly began to search for Christ’s purpose in healing him. Christ called Luis-Alfredo approximately three and a half months later.

Luis-Alfredo then began the study to be a chaplain at United Chaplains State of New York, Inc.; he took these courses on weekends, worked full time, and took college courses on week nights. The focus of his studies, acquisition of knowledge, and talents was in the service of the LORD and the marginalized. Upon graduating as a chaplain along with his wife, Rev. Dr. Evelyn De Jesús-Cartagena, they founded Cappella Prison Ministry (CPM). CPM transformed from a ministry visiting correctional facilities to one that Christ has expanded to the Federal Detention Centers of undocumented people and to the service of homeless individuals abandoned on the streets of New York’s five boroughs.

In 2006, Luis-Alfredo entered New York Theological Seminary (NYTS). In his second year at NYTS, he began to work in Supervised Ministry at the Ecology of Learning (EOL), a research based action center. Under the guidance of its founder, the late Dr. Lowell W. Livezey and under the supervision of its Director of Administration and Development, Ms. Shirvahna Gobin, MPA, Luis-Alfredo was blessed with the opportunity to engage in the work of a network of scholars, seminary students, clergy, and community leaders in metropolitan New York, committed to provide education and events designed to engage, enrich and empower communities of faith, neighborhoods, government and private agencies. It was at one such event that seminary President Dr. Dale T. Irvin introduced him to Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson.

In his final year of Supervised Ministry, Luis-Alfredo accepted the invitation of Pastor Jackson and the congregation of Park Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to serve as a Ministerial Intern. Under the leadership of Pastor Jackson, the spiritual guidance of a team devoted to my care (Melissa Little, Stephen Crumb, and Richard Sturm), the direct supervision of the Rev. Monte Hillis, and the blessings of Christ, he successfully completed the internship. Upon completion of seminary, a call was extended by The Park to serve as Pastoral Associate; he continues to serve in that capacity.

Upon completion of his Masters in Urban Studies, he intends to pursue his PhD in Postcolonial Theological Studies and, with the aid of Christ and the direction of the Holy Spirit, continue to serve and empower the marginalized community and the community of faith, through his educational and ministerial work.

Victims No More

2010-05-07T07:08:00.002-04:00

We live in very difficult and challenging times.

In the last year and a half, we have lived through the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Unemployment has soared. The loss of a job usually means the end of decent health insurance, too.

Foreclosures have become almost normal, as many lose their homes.

Meanwhile hunger and homelessness are ever more pervasive. It seems as if everyday I see more homeless people on the streets of New York City. The number of guests coming to be served in our Saturday Lunch Program have increased significantly.

Our nation is at war in a number of places, most notably Iraq and Afghanistan. Most communities in our country have lost someone or had their loved ones return from war with physical or psychological wounds. We see the names and faces of those in the armed service, some alive, some dead, on the nightly news.

Yet, their extraordinary sacrifice has not yet really made us more secure or given us a sense of peace and calm about the future. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have died from the war's direct violence as well as the breakdown of basic services like clean water and access to health care. In addition to the human toll, many experts believe these wars will end up costing upwards of a trillion dollars.

There seems to be no clear end in sight.

You know all these problems. I could list more, but I don't need to recite them. You are already well acquainted with them.

The worst part, however, is that much of this death-dealing destruction is done in the name of religion. Those who blow themselves up on airplanes or in markets, busy streets, or mosques have a religious vision, as do those who seek vengeance and retribution for such attacks.

Those who preach a gospel of prosperity and blame the jobless and the poor for their plight have a religious vision, as do those who would deny food and healthcare to children.

Both the gospel of John and the book of Revelation were written to people facing difficult and challenging times. The passages we consider this Sunday -- Revelation 21:10-25 and John 5:1-9 -- both remind that we are not mere victims of the times and circumstances in which we live.

We are encouraged in both of these passages to resist complacency and accommodation with the culture and with many of the religious and social practices of our time.

Beautiful Music at The Park

2010-04-22T10:58:00.003-04:00

On Monday night, April 19th, we were proud to host the Clarion Music Society and the New York Collegium in a performance of Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers.

Rather then my recounting the superb performance, I will let the New York Times review speak for me.

We are very happy that so many friends and neighbors have been attending our Arts at The Park offerings. Please visit our concerts listing page and join us soon!

Easter Sunday

2010-04-06T13:15:00.004-04:00

Our Easter Sunday services were spectacular; thank you to all of you who joined us as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.

One of our guests, Cyndi Lee, posted this report on her blog.

Thank you, Cyndi!

Week of Compassion's efforts in Haiti

2010-02-04T13:11:00.003-05:00

Rev. Amy Gopp, executive director of the Disciple's Week of Compassion, reports on our relief efforts in Haiti.

Intrepid Past - Bold Future!

2010-01-08T11:09:00.003-05:00

The following sermon was delivered on January 3, 2010 by guest preacher, the Rev. John Wade Payne.

Today's scripture is Psalm 84, "How dear to me is your dwelling, Yahweh, Sabaoth."

Could there be a more appropriate scripture for this day, this new year? We are between Christmas and Epiphany, both seasons celebrating new births, new possibilities and new discoveries. Epiphany’s legend of the wise and powerful riding through the desert to greet the child Jesus is an apt moment for us to begin a unique and wonderful year: the launching of the bicentennial celebration of our history, the third century of our life together.

What a delight for me to return to this historic pulpit where I served for twenty years on the threshold of a double anniversary: our congregation’s 200th birthday, and this landmark sanctuary's 100th.

As some of you know, I've been given the assignment to research and write a new history of this historic, unique community of faith, one of the oldest in our Disciples of Christ, dating from 1810. I'm almost finished and what fun I’ve had.

I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I have in working on it. I guarantee some surprises. There’s so much to the story -- the ten locations, the scores of pastors, most outstanding committed leaders, at least little short of criminal. The thousands of members: some gentle, some cantankerous, many courageous, some quite famous. The mission: from our neighborhoods to the world.

The programs: drama – oldest off-off-Broadway company around; music: oratorios, organ concerts and deeply spiritual experiences Sunday after Sunday; worship enhancing dance, poetry and the visual arts. On and on the story goes.

So on this first bicentennial Sunday, here is just a taste from 200 years of living out the Psalmist’s prayer: "How dear to me is your dwelling, Yahweh, Sabaoth." Dwelling not only in the more than ten homes of our church but the indwelling of faith in the minds and hearts of our people. I hope I can whet your appetite for our sacred history with the stories of just a few of the amazing folks who in their time blazed a trail leading to what we have become today and surely what our tomorrows will bring.

Many words could describe our history but there’s one that I believe that defines our community as much as any: INTREPID. Intrepid: that means, on the move, the miracle on Park and 85th Street.

Beginning 1810: New York was already a good sized town, although its 80,000 citizens were barely 1% of the city's population today. Washington Irving liked it, but called it “a munificent dung hill.” Henry David Thoreau observed that “the pigs in the street were the most respectable part of the population.”

Down near Battery Park today, which was all there was to New York then, was the little Ebenezer Baptist Church that already had a few practices that we would recognize, for instance, weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper. But all was not well. Some of their members were dissatisfied and began to meet in their homes for discussions that may seem quaint to us but were then hot topics: such as whether or not the old creeds were really scriptural, when exactly was one saved, at confession or was it baptism, or whether John Calvin's doctrine of predestination really did consign some folks to hell no matter how they lived.

After meetings over some months, finally on October 10, 1810 nine folks gathered at the home of William and Sarah Ovington who lived on a dirt road called Greenwich Street which led north out in the country to a village of the same name.
Today their home is submerged somewhere under the construction site number 4 of the new World Trade Center. These nine intrepid Christians pursued their religious freedom, struck out on their own, wrote their charter (a copy hangs in the narthex) and called their new church, probably for the first time since the writing of the New Testament, the Disciples of Christ.

The ups and downs, challenges and controversies, achievements and setbacks of our story are entwined with the life of the city. When the city thrived, so did the congregation. When the city was in trouble, be it recession or in thrall to crookedness of Tammany Hall, the congregation suffered. There were moments when the congregation languished, as happened in the 1970s, with the city nearly bankrupt and our nation’s president all but saying “drop dead, New York,” that by only one vote the church was saved from the fate of hundreds of Manhattan congregations: selling out and dying.

Yet, with God’s help and intrepid faith, we somehow not only survived, but pursued our dream to fulfill our commitment to become a faith filled force for justice, peacemaking and liberating change.

Because of time, I must reluctantly leap over the first fifty fascinating years to the 1860s when an event occurred that had been lost to our history and, thanks to the great god Google, I discovered almost by accident. New York was then a major slave trading center. As has often been claimed, the business of New York is business. And the slave trade was good business. People opposed to slavery were not popular here. Preachers who wanted to keep their jobs were mostly silent about the growing abolitionist movement. And, probably the Disciples of Christ church which had by now moved all the way uptown to West 17th Street was like many others. But its pastor was not. His name, Urban Brewer. Eyebrows were raised when he announced to the public that he would offer a lecture at the Christian Chapel on Sunday evening, January 4, 1863 entitled “The Bible and American Slavery.” A standing only crowd showed up.

Brewers address is 30 pages long. I will only quote the last paragraph. Concluding by referring to Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, he said: “The national executive, inspired by a lofty moral courage, which will make his name immortal, has pronounced an edict for the expulsion of this The National Executive, inspired by a lofty moral monster of iniquity. Shall that edict be sustained by a Christian people? Shall it find an echo in the sanctuary of God, or shall the hand go back on the dial of human progress, and we relapse into the darkness of barbarism?... A great day of wrath has come. The Armageddon of oppression is being fought, and a continent is the battlefield... O! People of God! Arise in the majesty and might of your heaven-given strength, put on the whole armor of truth, and go forth with weapons of celestial temper to meet this boasting adversary. . . When the nation is educated to do justice and love mercy; to give freedom to the oppressed, and to know that God rules in the kingdoms of men, then will that great Arbiter of national destiny cause His face to shine upon us, and the 'garments rolled in blood' will pass away.”

Now, that's preaching!

Afterwards, knowing well the attitude of most of the community and concerned about the response of the elders, Brewer offered his resignation. Within the week he received reply.

“Dear pastor Brewer, It is our earnest desire and firm conviction that principles advocated by you in that address should be widely disseminated throughout the land, being illustrative, as they are, of some of the evils resulting from an “Institution” embracing in its usage the most revolting, wicked, and infamous crimes – the most inhuman and atrocious cruelties – the most heinous and flagrant sins, that ever disgraced, degraded, or debased humanity, or ruined a nation.” They not only retained him as pastor but raised his salary by a full 50% to $1500 a year, which back then, real money.

Surely the people reflected and prayed the Psalmist's words: How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts!

That story and song is repeated time and again. I now must leap another forty years later to the turn of the twentieth century, the church faced one of those controversies that seem to darken every congregation at one time or another. The church had a very popular, charismatic, hip swinging preacher who drew in the crowds, but had had at least one bad habit. Married, but he couldn't keep his hands off the young ladies. There's far more to the story: a church trial which became news from Maine to California, much more than I can tell here, but I promise you a page turner of the account. What I want to share is the story of the very outspoken church member named Elizabeth Grannis who had the turpitude to accuse him publicly of what many others felt but had been silent about. Mrs. Grannis was a prime example of the intrepid, fearless concerned Christian that this congregation is justly respected for. She was a suffragette, a philanthropist and leader in the causes of Christian unity, civil rights and moral justice. At age 11 they wouldn't let her teach Sunday School because she was too young, so she started her own. She found one poor little girl pulling her shabby doll in a match box and two others in a haystack and there was her Sunday School. Later on she showed up annually to register to vote decades before women’s suffrage became law. Each time she stated she had every right and supported her claim from scripture. Quoting Genesis: “And God created man, male and female God created them. Thus, she declared, “I am a female man!” Register me!

A member of this church for over 50 years, she was intrepid in her convictions. The congregation supported abolition in the 1860s but in 1905 many of the folks weren’t ready for integration. Elizabeth Grannis adopted a poor little black girl and brought her to worship every Sunday. She had the audacity to occupy a pew near the front of the church and, I quote the New York Times, ”allowed this pickaninny to set next to her as if she were a Caucasian child.” Some of the folks insisted that if she was going to bring a Negro child with her to at least sit at the rear of the church, so as not to offend southern sensibilities. She absolutely refused. Remember the year: 1905. I can almost hear God singing to her. Hang in there.How dear to me is your dwelling, you Disciples of Christ!

At about the same period in 1899 when the church was located near Carnegie Hall on 56th Street, some church folks who used the services of a nearby Chinese laundry noted that Chinese immigrant children who didn't know English could not go to school. Those intrepid faithful church members had an epiphany moment. And as a result the church established a Chinese Sunday School which soon was copied throughout the region and became the largest in the city with often as many as 100 children. The children and families were introduced to Christianity and learned English taught by more than fifty volunteer teachers. Children flocked to the school with the plea, “Teach us something.” Another kid pleaded, “Without the school, we’d be dead.”

One incident describes a boy who was eager to learn English but said he had no interest in becoming a Christian. When asked to learn the Lord’s Prayer he refused. The teacher agreed but suggested that it contained many English words he would want to learn. The boy dutifully committed it to memory. Later when he moved back to China he wrote back in gratitude and stated that he was teaching the Christian prayer to all of his friends. In all four Christian Churches were established in china as a result of our Chinese Sunday School The school continued through two world wars until 1948. The story is an inspiring account of building hope and success from poverty and despair for more than a thousand children.. “How dear to me is your dwelling place, you Disciples of Christ. Present in our service is Sarah Mook whose family heritage dates back to the school.

On and on it goes. In the second decade of the twentieth century the church moved uptown again to the West Side on 81st Street. The building was completely surrounded by an imposing heavy wrought iron fence. Finis Idleman who had come from Des Moines was the pastor, and the word intrepid fits him perfectly. Soon after he arrived he told the trustees that the fence symbolized self-containment and aloofness out of keeping with an all-embracing Christianity. “Our doors should be open to the world,” he said. The trustees smiled at his enthusiasm, but said that they knew their New York better than he did. Take the barriers down, they argued, and idlers would loiter on the stairways, children might even play there, and soon make the place unsightly. “What of it?” asked Dr. Idleman, a question to which there really was no adequate answer. Time went on and this gentle dispute between the minister and the trustees remained unsettled. At last a time came when the pastor was to go away on vacation. His last word before departing was, “When the gates are down I shall come back.” The gates were promptly removed. How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts!

I must jump another half century. In 1989 two Epiphany wows occurred. The city was again overwhelmed by the homeless. What could we do? Could we help feed them? We invited leaders to help us decide. Representatives of other churches told us it was almost impossible to organize such a program. How well I remember the response of the two Park Avenue members seated in the pastor's study. After talk had gone on for about an hour and every reason was raised why we couldn’t do it, finally everyone became thoughtful and silent. Then one intrepid young man blurted out: “Let's do it!” The Saturday Lunch program began. For the first two years that young man prepared almost every meal. How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts!

One more. That same year, 1989 we were searching for an associate pastor. Scores of excellent applicants were considered, but one stood out. But there was an issue: he was gay, openly gay. The problem was not that the folks on the committee were homophobic, but they were worried. What would happen if we called a gay pastor? There were no other full time openly gay pastors anywhere among the Disciples then. Would parents no longer send their children to our school? Would we lose a flock of members? Long discussions were once again brought to an end by one intrepid individual who cleared the air: “If we find a better candidate, so be it, but let us affirm that an individual’s sexual orientation will not be a factor in our recommendation. Most of you know that story and Allen Harris’ deeply committed, thriving eleven year ministry among us.

So it goes! Today from my vantage point of looking on from my retired perch I see epiphanies everywhere I look. Faith filled intrepid pastors Alvin Jackson and Katherine Kinnamon, faith filled intrepid staff, and faith filled intrepid people. The park, never parked but moving, vital and alive, folks who have kept the faith for 200 years and for more than a 1000 gatherings around Christ’s table of communion.

What is the past but the prelude to the future, the foundation on which we continue building communities of faith, of hope, of justice, and creativity: a great heritage and a promising destiny.

What a year this can be for the intrepid Disciples of the Park. Embrace the possibilities, where with each new day’s dawning God’s people pulse with the music of praise, justice,

Great, Great Joy!

2009-12-28T10:18:00.003-05:00

What a wonderful Advent and Christmas at The Park! I am so very grateful for our staff, elders, deacons, flower guild and many others of you who worked so hard to make this a very beautiful and meaningful Advent and Christmas for all. Special kudos to Katherine Kinnamon, Paul Vasile and our worship team who planned and coordinated the worship services. Three services on Christmas Eve and they were all well attended and absolutely wonderful!

There is new energy and joy in our worship life at The Park. And it is so essential, for it is our worship and praise of God that gives wings to our work for God and for God’s people. I know that some of you have been somewhat concerned and maybe annoyed about the clapping of hands during the Sunday morning worship service. You feel that it is too much noise, that it destroys the dignity and solemnity of the service of worship and it reminds you more of an entertainment event than a worship service. I have heard that from some of you and I am very sensitive to it.

On the other hand, there are others of us and I must confess that I am among them, who see the clapping of hands as simply another expression of our worship and praise of God.

Like many of you here at The Park, I grew up in a small Disciples of Christ congregation where there was a warm loving fellowship and a very quiet and reserved service of worship. We never wanted to be like the Baptists where an occasional “amen” could be heard in the service, nor those “wild” Pentecostals who clapped hands, shouted and danced in the aisles. We prided ourselves in our quiet, reserved and rational approach to religion and worship. But over the years and sometimes to the dismay of my parents and the folks in that little Christian Church on Roosevelt Street in Indianola, Mississippi, I have come to believe that good worship must be both rational and emotional, cerebral and somatic. It must make me think something with my head, but also feel something with my heart and to ultimately to do something with my will.

I have come to believe that worship is giving God “worth-ship.” Giving God value, praise and adoration. And praise is always active, assertive, demonstrative, expressive, open. It is never passive, reserved, restrained, or secretive. It may be audible, vocal, quiet, loud, but it is giving God who is worthy, “worth-ship.” I have come to understand that there is no victory in volume as there is no salvation in silence. To clap your hands or not to clap your hands is really not the question. The only question is have we surrendered hands, head and heart to God? And it is only in the surrender of the totality of who we are to God that we discover the joy and power of worship.

Some of you will always be a little annoyed with the amens and clapping of hands during the service of worship. And others will always be a little anxious about how quiet everything is. That’s ok, just as long as we don’t give up on each other, just as long as we keep on loving each other, respecting each other and being open to the expression of God in that person who is different from you.

Diversity is the greatest gift God has given this congregation, but this gift will challenge and stretch all of us in ways we never thought possible before. Talk to me, let me hear from you and know that whatever you have to say to me, I can handle it and I can’t help but keep on loving you, I hope you feel the same about me.

A dear friend of mine from Memphis, Sonia L. Walker whom I call “Sista Woman” and she calls me ”Brotherman” wrote this poem for me for my birthday as she reflected on our work here at the PARK. And so I share it with you:

“Diversity brings
the delicious
the dirty
the delicate
the derelict
the different
the detoxed
the delightful
the divisions
the darlings
the dammed
the disciples
the despicable
DIVINITY.”

With a Shepherd’s Love,
Alvin Jackson

Hark! The Park Christmas Concert

2009-12-23T12:28:00.004-05:00

This first video is a "highlight reel" of the beautiful voices and magnificent music by the Park Avenue Christian Church choir and instrumental ensembles that inspired us on December 22.

The Park Avenue Youth Chorale.

The Gospel Choir.

The finale, with everyone joining in and singing.

"A Christmas Carol" with Gerald Charles Dickens

2009-12-06T14:38:00.004-05:00

For the past two days, we hosted Gerald Charles Dickens -- the great-great-grandson of author Charles Dickens -- who presented "A Christmas Carol" in our sanctuary.

The performance here at the Park Avenue Christian Church was both meaningful and appropriate -- it was an authentic theatrical experience (presented as it would have been in the mid 1800's), held in an authentic space (our gothic sanctuary is 100 years old), and performed by an authentic Dickens descendant!

Please listen to an interview with Gerald Dickens that was broadcast on WQXR. More photographs and videos will be posted soon.

Elizabeth & Zechariah

2009-12-03T14:03:00.002-05:00

On this second Sunday of Advent, I'd like to tell you the story of an old couple living in the hill country of Judah 2,000 years ago.

His name is Zechariah. Her name is Elizabeth.

They have no children, and that was something of an embarrassment in that time and place. In fact, there was a name for it, a cruel, harsh word: barren, a word used exclusively for childless women.

Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed for years for a child. Not having a child, an heir -- in Zechariah's case, a son to inherit his priestly responsibilities -- was grounds for divorce.

Luke tells us that these are good people. They have stayed together. They love each other. And now, over the years, they have adjusted, accommodated, accepted the status quo. They still say their evening prayers together but by silent, mutual agreement they no longer pray for a child.

But a miracle of miracle happened and an angel came to Zechariah one day and said what angels always say in the Bible:

"Fear not; don't be afraid. Something important, something new and wonderful is about to happen: Elizabeth will conceive. You're going to be a father! Furthermore, God has work for your child to do. Call him John and he will prepare the way for God's own son. And, by the way, he will be the source of great joy and gladness for you."

The sermon this Sunday will be the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the hymn of praise, the
Benedictus, that Zechariah sang:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people. He has raised up a mighty savior for us."

After the birth of John, Zechariah's first words included a little understandable boasting about his son:

"You child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, And you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. . . . The dawn from on high will break upon us."

I invite you to read the hymn of praise -- Luke 1:67-79 -- and join me in celebrating this beautiful hymn.

This Is It!

2009-11-05T13:23:00.000-05:00

A colleague of mine recently shared the story of Mildred.

Mildred was a fine lady. She was 64 years old when the doctors discovered that she had terminal cancer. She was in and out of the hospital several times receiving her treatments, and each time she seemed to be a little weaker than the time before.

Mildred was married to one of the roughest roughnecks in Oklahoma. He was a big, burly man, and one look at him told you that in his younger days, he was the kind of fellow who didn't step aside for any man.

However, around Mildred, he had become quiet and almost gentle. Every time she was hospitalized, Bill practically camped out at the hospital. He would arrive early and stay late.

It was obvious that 42 years of marriage had created a bond, a closeness between the two. Mildred summed it up one day when she said, "Although we were not blessed with children, we were blessed with each other."

Mildred was the religious one in the family. She had grown up going to church and when she wasn't too weak or too nauseated from her treatments, she still made Bill take her to church.

Bill had never been much of a church-goer, but he was willing to take Mildred when she felt up to attending. On one occasion, she said, "The only thing good to come out of my illness is that I'm finally getting Bill to church."

On one of my colleague's visits to see Mildred in the hospital, he began to talk with Bill about making a commitment to Christ and the church.

At first, he said he thought he was wasting his time. Bill's response to his inquiries was often anger. He couldn't understand why Mildred, who had lived such a good life, was having to suffer.

But, little by little, his attitude began to change. One day he looked at my colleague and said, "Robert, there seems to be a lot of rules to follow and a lot of beliefs to comprehend. Can you make it simple? Can you give me a thumbnail sketch that will explain religion in a nutshell?"

My friend thought for a moment. How can you explain the beliefs and the doctrines of our faith concisely? Other than just making a long series of statements, how can anyone possibly deal with the complex and essential doctrines of religion in brief? He could recite one of the creeds, like The Apostles' Creed, and say this is what we believe. As a matter of fact, the early creeds came into existence because people were trying to give a short statement of what was important in religion.

However, he thought the creeds might be a little too much for Bill to digest and understand. So, he said, "Bill, you have asked a very good question. It is a question that people have asked for centuries. In fact, it was a question that was put to Jesus. So, the best response I could give to you is tell you what Jesus said.

He said: "... Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength ... and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Bill must have understood it because a few weeks later, he walked down the aisle of the church, and confessed his faith and was baptized into the faith.

We live in a world that has become complicated in many ways. Times have changed and people have changed. But the response that Jesus gave to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" is still clear and uncomplicated. For Jesus, religion in a nutshell was loving
God with an undivided heart and loving your neighbor as you loved yourself.

Jesus and Success

2009-10-18T20:19:00.000-04:00

In his memoir, "The Good Times," former New York Times correspondent Russell Baker remembers his mother in a way that made me smile.

She has been gone for years, but his mother still roams free in his head and wakes him in the early morning before daybreak.

"If there's one thing I can't stand, Russell, it's a quitter," she says. He protests, "But mother, I'm not a child anymore. I have made something of myself. I'm entitled to sleep late." She responds, "Russell, you've got no more gumption than a bump on a log. Don't you want to amount to something?"

Baker remembers when he was assigned to cover the White House -- as close to heaven as a correspondent could get. At twenty-nine, he was puffed up with pride and went to see his mother, relishing the prospect of her approval and delight. He should have known better.
"Well, Russ," she said, "if you work hard at this White House job you might be able to make something of yourself."

Make something of yourself. 'Amount to something. 'Be a success. What does it mean? How can I achieve it? How can I be a success? Does my faith, my religion have anything to say about it.?

An Obsession with Success

Success is "the biggest American preoccupation." It is our obsession. That's one of the conclusions in a new book on the topic, "Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life" by Laura Nash. Nash is Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Business School.

The biggest misconception about success is that "achieving it will automatically bring satisfaction." It doesn't. "Nothing will be enough and success will never satisfy," Nash concludes.

What success does bring, more often than not, is anxiety -- anxiety that I won't be able to keep up, that I'll lose it all, that something terrible might happen to my business or the market or to me. That kind of anxiety actually stifles creativity.

Nash's extensive research with successful people -- high achievers -- produced some surprising discoveries.

When nearing retirement and asked what they wanted to do next, high-achieving men answered in terms of another achievement: "I'll get really good at golf." Many women high achievers, Nash discovered, responded, "I'll clean my closets, create some order and a space in my life for reflection," an approach that is clearly more healthy.

What Jesus Taught About Success

In the 10th chapter of the gospel of Mark, a new definition of success begins to emerge out of the teachings of Jesus.

I like to think of those teachings in terms of an alternate reality in which followers of Jesus live. He taught his followers to live in the world with a new set of rules, with a new vocabulary, with new definitions for common words.

He called this alternative reality the kingdom of God, and he said it is present on earth when ordinary people, like them -- like us -- -live it out.

Habakkuk's Vision

2009-10-08T10:43:00.004-04:00

"I will stand at my watch post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."
-- Habakkuk 2:1-4, NRSV

In the Old Testament book of Habakkuk, we find a word of encouragement for those who have grown impatient waiting on the promises of God. We find a word of hope for those who, even now, are struggling to make sense of dashed hopes, shattered dreams, and uncertain futures.

There is a word for people who, because of life's uneven journey, find themselves ailing and, therefore, in need of a prescription for hard times. Habakkuk is just what the doctor ordered.

What is going on in the world of this seventh-century prophet that ushers in his own season of waiting?

Habakkuk complains to God about the rampant injustice in Judean society. He asks God how long he would allow the oppression of the weak by the strong among God's own people, and he wonders how long it will be before God steps in and intervenes and changes things.

Finally, God speaks to him of a vision whose fulfillment awaits its appointed time. An appointed time indicates a set time in the future that can neither be rushed nor delayed. An appointed time means God has a fixed and ordered time to move decisively in our lives.

Its arrival and duration are ordered by God and not by us.
God does not even tell Habakkuk the contents of the vision. God simply assures him that it is a trustworthy vision that at the end shall speak and not lie. It is a vision in which Habakkuk can find security, for the one who reveals it is able to back up what it promises.

When you wait on that which God has promised, it is not a lie on which you have fixed your heart. It is not a vain hope that will bear no fruit. It is a promise that will surely come.

The one who makes this promise is none other than God: the Alpha and the Omega; the one who stands above the flux and flow of human history; the God who promises and cannot lie; the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. This God says it will surely come. It is a vision that cannot be denied!

The Blessing of the Animals

2009-10-06T19:02:00.001-04:00

We made many new friends at The Park during our Blessing of the Animals on September 27, 2009. We honored the special relationship between all of God's creatures in a beautiful service.

Who are the "Disciples?"

2009-10-06T14:01:00.002-04:00

This short video, A Movement for Wholeness, is a look at the beliefs and practices of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as told through its members.

The video explains the Church's identity statement and its four priorities of witness and work.

World Communion Sunday - October 4

2009-09-29T20:16:00.001-04:00

October 4th is World Communion Sunday, a yearly reminder that there is a unity, a oneness, given to us in Jesus Christ.

The day reminds us that the Creator’s will for the creation is peace and harmony. And that God is always working in and through even the tragic events of human history to bring about that precious peace.

It is a reminder that the peace of God is God’s hope for all of us, all of God’s children: God’s Muslim and Jewish children, God’s Christian and Buddhist and Hindu children. All creation, the whole world, all people.

This World Communion Sunday is especially significant for those of us in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as we are also celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address.

Campbell was one of the early leaders in our church. The document that he wrote two hundred years ago became a foundational text for the Stone-Campbell Movement.

In that document, Campbell declared:

“The church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one...”

“Division among Christians is a horrid evil, fraught with many evils.”

“The Lord’s Supper is that great ordinance of unity and love.”

Each of these themes — the oneness of the church, the repudiation of division, and the essential place of the Lord’s Supper as an expression of love among all followers of Christ — has marked our life as a community of faith and as a movement for wholeness and unity in the midst of division and fragmentation in our society and world.

No Child Left Behind

2009-09-24T11:41:00.002-04:00

All three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, in one form or another, report that when the disciples wanted to push the children to the side and say that children ought to be seen and not heard, Jesus said, "Oh no, bring the children to me! Let them come front and center here!

"For I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles themself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Pretty hard, harsh words!

The Great German Protest Theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer, who died opposing Hitler's Holocaust, believed that the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children. America flunks Bonheoffer’s test every hour of every day.

So many of our children are lost... growing up wild like weeds in a field or lost on city streets, no knowledge in their heads, no skills in their hands, no faith in their hearts.

You can’t stab them, because they have never been secure. You can’t hate them, because they have never been loved and you can’t killed them, because they have never even been alive! Just children!

As Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund has reminded us...

* Every 10 seconds a child drops out of school
* Every 20 seconds, a child is arrested
* Every 43 seconds a baby is born into poverty
* Every minute, a baby is born without health insurance
* Every 2 minutes, a baby is born at low birth-weight
* Every 11 seconds, a child is reported abused or neglected
* Every 4 minutes, a child is arrested for a drug abuse
* Every 8 minutes, a child is arrested for a violent crime.
* Every 19 minutes a baby dies
* Every 3 hours, a child or youth under 20 is killed by a gun
* Every 5 hours, a child or youth under 20 commits suicide
* Every day, a young person under 25 dies from HIV infection.

But over and over, it seems as if we have ignored the admonition of Jesus, Bonheoffer and Edelman and counted our children out.

Is it because in every age, in every society, in every community, there are those who are considered to be expendable? There are those who are considered to be less than others?

It was the case with children in Jesus’ day. They were considered to be second class citizens. They did not carry the rights that adults carried. They were often abused, oppressed and marginalized. They lived in a culture that was dominated by age and gender - women didn’t count very much either!

Though we live two thousand years later, and we consider ourselves progressive, liberal, enlightened and modern, we are not much different than the people of Jesus’ day.

Our society does not treasure children as we should. We spend more tax dollars for bombs and bullets than we do for bread and books.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday, September 27th at the Park Avenue Christian Church as we embrace children and their families and as we celebrate our first blessing of the animals.

"Is That Your Final Answer?"

2009-09-10T13:25:00.005-04:00

"Final answer?"

That's the question Meredith Vieira is asking you. You're a contestant on the hit show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You're trying to decide whether the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Stockholm or Oslo. You know that Alfred Nobel was Swedish. So you go with Stockholm. But Oslo has a familiar ring to it. You stay with Stockholm. It's your final answer.

You lose. The correct answer is Oslo. The Nobel prizes for Physics, Economics, Chemistry, Medicine and Literature are, in fact, awarded in Stockholm. But not the Peace Prize. It's presented by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of their Majesties the King and Queen of Norway and an invited audience. In Oslo.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire remains a hit show on ABC. And, sensing people's need for greed, other networks have introduced similar shows. We're suffering from millionaire fever, the jackpot syndrome, a something for nothing tendency.

I believe that this something for nothing tendency fuels in part the health care debate that is currently raging in our nation. It may very well mean that some of us will have to pay more in taxes or in direct payments to insure that everyone has care.

Of course, no one likes to pay taxes, but that might be the cost and the test of the character of our country to insure that health care is a basic, fundamental right for everyone and not just a privilege for a few.

It is this millionaire fever, the jackpot syndrome, the something for nothing tendency that leaves us wanting success and greatness without service and sacrifice.

Jesus says, "those who want to save their life will lose it but those who will lose their life for my sake will save it."

Real life is found not in holding on and hoarding, but in giving, in risking, in losing -- it is even in dying that we live.

I don't know about you, but I find myself asking Jesus, "are you sure, is that your final answer?"

Bishop John Shelby Spong

2009-09-03T21:17:00.004-04:00

We are really pleased that Bishop John Shelby Spong will be speaking at The Park Avenue Christian Church on Wednesday, September 16 at 7:30 pm. Bishop Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, was the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001.

A longtime champion of progressive Christianity, Spong is a visionary voice in the religious community, calling people to step beyond boundaries of tribe, prejudice, gender and even religion to create a new humanity.

Please join us as we address the questios of religion in our time. Click here for free tickets and more information about his lecture.

Here are some video excerpts from recent talks.

"If God is the source of life, then the only way to worship God is by living fully."

"Salvation... [is about] enhancing your humanity, rather than rescuing you from it."

Makes Me Wanna Holler

2009-09-03T12:11:00.003-04:00

When Nathan McCall was 10, he played childhood games with neighborhood kids. At 14, the games had changed togang fights, gang bangs and petty theft.
When he graduated from high school, he was a sometime mugger and a father-to-be. And when he was sent to prison at age 20 for armed robbery, he had already shot
a man and gotten involved with drugs.
Why did a smart kid from a caring family go so horribly wrong?
In his unflinchingly honest autobiography, Makes Me Wanna Holler, A Young Black Man in America, McCall looks back on his journey from troubled youth to professional journalist and shows that the easy answers to why kids go wrong -- poverty, terrible home life, lack of education -- do not always apply.
He says in a new preface to the book that "one day not long ago, I spotted
a few familiar faces hanging out at the old haunt, the 7-Eleven. I wheeled
into the parking lot, strode over, and high-fived the guys I knew. Within
moments, I sensed that I was in danger. I felt hostile stares from those
I didn't know. I was frightened by these younger guys, who now controlled
my former turf. I eased back to my car and left, because I knew this:
that if they saw the world as I once did, they believed they had nothing
to lose, including life itself. And it made me wanna holler!"
This is only one of the many conditions of our contemporary life that make me wanna holler. One of those is the lack of universal health care for everyone. Health care
that is accessible, affordable, accountable and inclusive.
I want this Sunday, September 6th, to speak to our moral and theological obligation of providing health care for everyone by using the story of the Syrophoenician women in the gospel of Mark 7:24-37 and from the book of James 2:14-17.

Silver Anniversary of Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, D.D.

2009-05-13T16:56:00.006-04:00

It is my joy and delight to join our ecumenical faith partners at the Temple of Universal Judaism in honoring and celebrating the silver anniversary
of Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor.

Gary is a good friend and trusted colleague whose wise counsel is always sought and valued. He understands that at the end of the day, God raises a different set of questions with us than does the world.

The world often wants to know if we have charisma, but God wants to know if we have character. The world wants to know if we are popular, but God wants to know if we have any principles. The world wants to know if we are successful, but God wants to know if we have rendered any service.

I join the members of the Temple of Universal Judaism in saluting Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, a man of sterling character, high principle and great service.

Happy silver, my friend, and many more.

L’shalom,
Reverend Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson
Senior Pastor

The Point of Easter

2009-05-06T09:53:00.003-04:00

WHAT A GRAND and glorious Easter at The Park! Two worship services and the first one filled to capacity.

I am so very grateful for the dedication of our staff, musicians, singers, elders, deacons, greeters, flower guild and all who made our Easter celebration so memorable.

As I did on the Sunday after Easter, I would like to invite you to reflect for a moment on the meaning and purpose of Easter.

Easter, as they say, is the “Big One.” It’s the ecclesiastical equivalent of Super Bowl Sunday, a subway series in New York City or a return from death of the New York Knicks.

But what’s the point of it all? Is there a point? Is Easter, with all its wonderful celebration, an end in itself, or does it lead somewhere?

Why do we show up every Easter? And those of us who come even after the big celebration on Easter Sunday, why do we come Sunday after Sunday?

What is this faith and God and church business all about, really? What does it mean to belong to a community of faith, to be an Easter people?

THE DISCIPLES GATHERED in a room behind closed doors after the resur-rection, still not understanding it all.

It was there in that room after the big event that Jesus appeared. It then became clearer to them what they were called to be and to do.

Jesus told them why he was there, why they were given the Easter experience. He said, “as the Abba has sent me, so I send you.”(John 20:21)

The point was to get them out of that room. The point was to give them enough peace, enough of his spirit, enough of his life and breadth to get them up and moving again.

The point here, the point of Easter is to get frightened, discouraged people who are very much inclined to stay put, to stay in their comfort zones, to get them up and moving toward the door, toward the streets of the city, toward their homes and families and communities.

That’s the point of Easter – to send us out to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

IN ORDER TO DO THAT, we’ve got to learn how to be with one another and with God.

We have to stay long enough to know each other, to connect with each other, to be real with each other, and to build community with one another.

That may be the biggest challenge we face, particularly for those of us in the mainline church.

We are good at doing important and necessary things, but we must also learn how to be. And the being always comes before the doing. The being informs our doing.

HOWARD THURMAN, the great mystic, pastor and poet, may have been thinking about the real point of Easter when he wrote the following:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Visit our church video channel to see highlights of our Easter Sunday services.

Heschel-King Interfaith Service 2009

2009-01-20T14:20:00.003-05:00

Our 12th Annual Heschel-King Interfaith Service presented Dr. Akbar Ahmed, former High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain, and current Islamic studies professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and American University, with the Heschel-King Award for Interfaith Activism.

Donate to the Park Avenue Christian Church to help produce programs like this one.

Dr. King and Our Calling

2009-01-19T11:24:00.004-05:00

There is a lot of debate between secular activists, Christians and Jews, about what is important to remember on the King Holiday: the preacher or the social issues he raised.

Some churches revel in his faith without much attention to the social transformation that he sought, and which remains unfinished among us.

Some activists and some religious people, who are uncomfortable with his religion for various reasons, focus their celebrations on the work of civil rights, without the faith of MLK.

But one cannot help but note from his sermons and speeches that he talked about his faith a great deal.

And even when he mentioned Jesus, it was in a way that included everyone. There were no litmus tests hidden in his speeches, no things you had to believe before you could enter his faith story, no way you had to be judged before these promises and hopes belonged to you.

King talked about himself as a person trying to do things, with God's help, and he invited all of us to try, too.

It is important to me to remember that MLK was a Baptist preacher from the deep South. This was his incarnation, this was the body of culture and politics and faith and family and song and prayer and food and blackness that were the flesh his voice came from.

While he lived, he stood on those feet, and he transcended all these boundaries and became a citizen of the world - not by becoming an elite world traveler and connoisseur of cultures, but by opening his big black Baptist heart and mind completely, so that no one was alien to him and he was alien to no one - not Jews, nor whites, nor communists, nor Hindus, not northerners, not even haters.

This is our calling as people of God.

Park Avenue Christian Church

Silent Night

2008-12-25T09:06:00.006-05:00

I'd like to share with you this video of the closing hymn at our Christmas Eve service. It is a beautiful, moving rendition of Silent Night, led by our Sanctuary Choir.

Park Avenue Christian Church

Join us for Christmas!

2008-12-16T23:15:00.005-05:00

Katherine Kinnamon, Minister to Visitors and New Members, gives a tour of the preparations for Christmas.

Park Avenue Christian Church

Great Speech Obama, But So What?

2008-04-08T09:58:00.001-04:00

Where were you on April 4, 1968? Well, a few of you here were not even born, and our dear young friends here from the UK, I dare say maybe even some of your parents were not here in ’68. But for those of us, who were around then, do you remember that fateful day, 40 years ago and what you were doing when you heard the news of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on that Memphis balcony? As I shared with some of you this past January, I was 17 years old, at a after school job, Robinson Studio, a photographer’s shop on Front Street in Indianola, Mississippi and one of my co-workers came running into the room announcing that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot in the head and I went numb. I couldn’t believe it. And later that evening, I received the intelligence that Martin King was dead and in the early morning hours of April 5th, 40 years ago, I found myself on the corner of Roosevelt and Hannah Streets just walking and a car full of white youths sped around the corner and one of them yelled out the window, “we got Martin Luther Coon!” And I felt rage, but more than that I felt a whole plethora of emotions that came cascading in on me almost at one time. I felt rage. I felt fear. I felt frustration. I felt anxiety, but more than that I felt alone. I felt all by myself. I felt lonely. I felt deserted, because my advocate had been taken away. I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind, Martin Luther King, Jr. dying on a balcony of hate and prejudice. His head had been opened by a 17 cent bullet of violence and there he lay drowning in his own blood; drowning in the blood of his love; drowning in the blood of his commitment; drowning in the blood of the actualizing of his oratory. And I felt rage. I felt frustration; I felt lonely; I felt deserted because my advocate had been taken away.

Martin King was a voice for the voiceless. I cannot explain it, but he knew how to take all of my feelings of inadequacy. He knew how to take all of my feelings of being Black in America and he could take all of that collage of emotions and wrap it in language and regurgitate it and I could say in union that’s me, that’s what I have been feeling. He was my voice. He could articulate my feelings. When I could scream and nobody would pay me any attention, because who was I just another Black boy from the Delta of Mississippi, yet this Black preacher from the red Clay Hills of Georgia could come to the center stage of life and declare my inner feelings and the whole world listened. He was my voice. But more than my voice, he was my conscience. He made it uncomfortable for everybody. He said when the architects of this great Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; in a real sense they were signing a promissory note that every person has “the unalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given her people of color a bad check and it has come back marked insufficient funds. He was white America’s conscience. He declared in that address at Riverside Church on a time to break the silence and it is amazing how relevant those words are for our time, for substitute Iraq for Vietnam in that speech and it is a warning to us today. He said, “It is not right for you to cross the seas and stand up in an unjust war and declare that God is on your side. God is never on the side of injustice. He declared, “I speak as a child of god and a brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak, he said for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America, who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at homes and death and corruption in Vietnam.”He was white America’s conscience, but more than the conscience of white America. He was the conscience of black America and of all people of color. Because he told Black America that you can no longer sit in comfortable churches on comfortable pews and wear the evidence of your new found prosperity while other folks are suffering in the pit of degradation. But all of us have got to stand up for justice and freedom and go to jail if necessary and even put your life on the line…”rise up O people of God, have done with lesser things. Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the God of the universe.” He pointed out the enemy, those who used dogs and fire hoses and bombed our homes, but he never gave us permission to hate them. He said that’s your enemy, now love them. And when other voices said hate them. Martin said, “Love them, love your enemy, and bless those who curse you. Do good to those who persecute you. And pray for them who despitefully use you. Love is more powerful than hate.”And they killed him and I stood on that street corner in Indianola, Mississippi filled with rage, frustration, emptiness, and loneliness. My conscience had been wiped out. My voice had been taken away. My dreamer had been annihilated. My dream had become a nightmare. I was one angry young black person. But 40 years later here I stand in this pulpit from Mississippi and Memphis in the middle of Manhattan not defeated, destroyed or hopeless. In spite of that tragedy 40 years ago, I’ve still got a voice. I’ve got a dream and I’ve got a conscience. It’s because Martin Luther King, Jr. was not the voice. I found out that all he was was an echo. There was a voice before that voice. Before that voice ever voiced its voice. There was a first voice and the second voice heard the first voice and the second voice echoed the first voice. It was the voice that declared before there was a then or there, when or where, let there be light and there was light. It was the first voice that declared God is love and love is of God. It was the first voice that declared, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. So the enemy didn’t have its day 40 years ago… all the enemy dealt with, was an echo. But the first voice went untouched.
And there are still echoes all around. We are never left without a witness. There are echoes of love and peace; Echoes of hope, healing and reconciliation. One of those echoes, not the only one, but one of them. And I am not making an endorsement today. This is by no means my purpose here. I might be giving myself away slightly, but whoever you are for in the presidential campaign, I hope that you can hear me that it is about more than a candidate or a campaign, but it is about our country and world and the choices we have to make. For we are as Martin King often reminded us “tied together in an inescapable network of mutuality and whatever affects one of us directly, affects all of us indirectly and we must learn to live together as sisters and brothers or we will surely perish together as fools.”

Barack Obama in that speech on race in Philadelphia a few weeks ago extended a powerful challenge to all of us. A challenge that understands how injustice does indeed breed frustration and anger, but that to remain stuck in past anger and present frustration can be counter-productive and even self-destructive. We heard a vision characterized not by incendiary recrimination but by the possibility of changing the realities that have kept us stuck in a racial "stalemate" and a mired in a "cynical" and "static" view of America's painful divides. We heard in that speech from a young black political leader who, can also sympathize with white resentment and frustration over racial politics, and who can see both the anger of a black mentor and the racial stereotypes of a white grandmother as both part of him and part of America. The most honest and compelling speech about race in decades could open the promise of a deeper national conversation about our racial past and future than we have had for some time.
And you know honesty is rare in public political discourse, not because it is in the nature of politicians to be untruthful but because they do not sufficiently trust the American people to believe in their capacity to handle the truth, especially when it is ambiguous and difficult. It is in this way that Obama and his Philadelphia speech stand apart from so much of our public talk. He took the considerable risk of trusting the American people to take his words seriously, to gaze into the tortured history of race in this country, and to move beyond the dividing bitterness of our time with a candor both hopeful and refreshing.

How easy and cowardly it would have been to disown the preaching of his former pastor. As Peter Gomes of the Memorial Church of Harvard University said, “Those of us who preach are flattered to think that someone might believe we would have some influence on the thinking of anybody, let alone on a candidate for the highest office in the land, for most of us are tolerated, patronized, and ignored. Can anyone name the last presidential pastor whose sermonic influence affected policy in the White House? It may surprise many in white America, for whom Martin Luther King, Jr. is the only black preacher of whom they have ever heard, to learn that there are a lot of Jeremiah Wrights out there who week after week give expression to that classic definition of prophetic preaching that is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." After all what would one expect of a black preacher whose Christian name is Jeremiah? The surprise is that there are not more Jeremiah Wrights who, from the view of their own pulpits, indict America for the failure to live into its own heroic vision of all people. To criticize America is not a sin, but it is a sin to mistake America for God, and it is both sin and dereliction of duty to fail to note the difference.

Obama's speech leaves the choice to us. The issue now is whether we will choose not to allow the angry and frustrating past prevent a more fair and hopeful future; or whether we will be forever bound by that past. To the question of whether race will continue to divide and conquer our hopes for a better America, Barack Obama had his answer, "Not this time." Now we each have to answer the question for ourselves. Great speech Obama…Amen, say it, tell it like it is, right on brother, but so what? What can I do? What ought I to do? What must I do?
It is the question of our text as another young leader from another time and place made a great speech; gave a powerful sermon. It is Peter, disciple, follower of Jesus. People were moved by his words. He told it like it was. He told the good people of the city who had gathered that the very one they had rejected was the one whom God had raised up and given a name above every other name. This one you thought you had gotten rid of on April 4, 1968 is bigger, stronger, larger and more powerful in death than he ever was in life! This Jesus you thought you had gotten rid of; God has vindicated and raised him up. You only knocked out an echo, but God is still speaking. And when they heard this they were “cut to the heart.” Their hearts were moved. When they heard what God had done and how God was still speaking, and how there was still hope for them in spite of what they had done and maybe even failed to do, they turned to Peter and the others and started saying, so what? What shall we do? What can we do? What ought we to do? Peter kept on preaching, he didn’t miss a beat, and he said this is what you ought to do: You ought to repent! You ought to repent of the sin of racism. To repent, says John Howard Yoder, is not to feel bad, but to think differently, to come to a new understanding. To repent doesn’t mean to grovel in self-hatred or pious sorrow. When you repent you turn around; you change directions; you choose a different path; you make a radical rupture. And so the first thing we must do as we listen to Obama and Peter and the words of Martin and Malcolm and Mandela and Sister Mary and Mother Theresa and the inner voice in our hearts. The first thing we must do is deeply personal. It is not easy. It is being real. Repentance is between us and God. It requires an internal, spiritual exercise. It isn’t easy. Repenting means no more masks worn, no more pretense, no more keeping up a front. It is coming clean with God; being honest with God and with ourselves, dropping all of our rationalizations and justifications, saying to God from the bottom of our hearts, I am sorry. I know I have not done my best. I’ve let you down more than I care to remember. I have been selfish and self-centered. “It’s not my sister or my brother, but it’s me O God standing in the need of prayer.” That’s repentance, deeply personal. Repentance is coming out of our state of denial. Civil Rights icon, Joseph Lowery said that “in this country we are often guilty of creating a 51st state, the state of denial.” But repentance is coming out of our state of denial, coming clean with God and seeing ourselves as we really are. Nothing much is going to happen until there is a deeply personal response that involves a private examination and a personal determination to change what we have been doing. Peter said in his speech that there has to be repentance, but then he says be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. The first thing we have got to do is deeply personal. But we can’t stop there; we’ve got to do something that is drastically social. The first step is a private examination followed by a personal determination, but the second step is just the opposite. It involves a public demonstration of our personal determination. I can’t just talk the talk; I’ve got to walk the walk. What am I going to do to demonstrate to myself and others that I believe the song that I sing? It starts with a personal determination, but it always ends with a public demonstration. Can we hold that as a framework for our ongoing conversation on race and reconciliation and our mission as a congregation…personal determination, but always a public demonstration?

I want to close this morning with a story that Senator Obama shared in his speech on race about this young, twenty-three white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for his campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her Mom. She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. She did this for a year until her Mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too. Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice. Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition of the common humanity between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not even much. But it is where we start. And if we are willing to make a personal determination followed by a public demonstration, there is always hope. Amen.

Heschel-King Interfaith Service

2008-01-11T19:00:00.000-05:00

The congregations of both the Park Avenue Christian Church and the Temple of Universal Judaism joined together for a service honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his trusted colleague and friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel both fought for civil rights in America and interfaith relations internationally.

The 5th Annual Heschel-King Award for Interfaith Activism was awarded to Rabbi David Saperstein, the head of the Center for Religious Action of Reform Judaism in Washington, DC.

We were treated to readings of the words of Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel, the music of Reggis Harris and Rabbi Jonathan Kligler, and a call to action from Rabbi Saperstein. A special treat was a new musical work, "In Memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." by Karl Jenkins, performed by Laurie Singer on cello and Andrew Adams on the church's magnificent organ.

The congregants, led by Reggie Harris and Rabbi Kligler, ended the service by joining together in a rousing rendition of "We Shall Overcome."

Rabbi Saperstein, Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor of TUJ, and I joined the congregants in the Idleman Parlor for fellowship after the service.

We're looking for leadership, Mr. Bush

2007-12-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them…they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” Isaiah 11:6-9

Among the contrasts of this amazing season, none is more striking, nor more unsettling, than the biblical motif of peace – peace on earth, goodwill among all people, the Prince of Peace, the lion and the lamb together and the reality of the world where every day there is another report of death, destruction, war, terror, fear, insecurity and tribalism. Woody Allen once observed, “on the day the lion and the lamb lie down together, only the lion is going to get back up.” That may be and yet we hope and yearn and search for peace.

Our nation and world are crying out for leadership. Bold, determined, visionary, decisive, imaginative, gracious, generous, a non-anxious presence in our midst is the great need of our time. Leadership not driven by polls or popularity, but by principles. Leadership not based on mere charisma, but character. Leadership not driven by calculations, but by convictions.

And we have a whole host of people who are offering themselves to lead this nation of 300 million. We will elect one of them our President a year from now, but in the meantime we have George W. Bush as the leader of our nation and the free world.

This coming year is an opportunity for Mr. Bush and for us to model a new kind of leadership for the world. I sincerely believe that our President, George W. Bush had something good in mind when he used the phrase “compassionate conservatism” at the beginning of his administration. His father, George H.W. Bush had a similar phrase that he used at the beginning of his administration, “a kinder and gentler nation.” I like it better. It is less loaded with partisan connotations.

I think that was what George W. Bush was trying to get at with his term “compassionate conservatism.” But you know politicians are famous for making these kinds of phrases. They have professional speechwriters who sit around for hours trying to craft these catchy phrases, trying to find some immortal line that will last and last. They want to get elected, but after the election, they generally go with business as usual. Some keep their promises, but most of them forget them altogether.

Before the election there they are out on the farms with the people, milking cows, visiting school yards, chatting with people; on talk shows like Oprah, Jay Leno and David Letterman; in factories wearing over-alls and hard hats; at picnics eating watermelon and drinking beer; in hospitals comforting the sick and athletes who have been hurt on the field; at the train and bus stations shaking hands with the commuters.

It’s so false, and once it’s over you can’t find them on the farms, in the schools, at the factory gates or in the hospitals or at the train stations.

But suppose, however, we were to take Mr. Bush's original ideals seriously and suppose that he could still be moved by the same spirit that moved Isaiah: “the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the goat, the calf and the lion together and a little child leading them.” Maybe the vision of Isaiah that possessed him when he was a candidate for President could possess him again now. After all he has heard these words before. Suppose he could see anew the vision of the cow and the bear feeding together and their young ones lying down together and the lion eating straw like the ox.

And if he could, what ought he to do in his last year in office? For seven years, it has not gone so well. He got us into this war. We have had Katrina and wire taps. He has not been a uniter, but a divider. But we have got to live with him for another year and he is really concerned now about his legacy. What ought he be doing and what should we be doing?

Well, first of all, if he really means to build a compassionate, kinder and gentler nation, he ought to keep on saying it. He ought to get louder and louder with it. He ought to say it here and there and everywhere! He should not whisper it now and then, but let everybody know where he stands.

The police chiefs in Roanoke, Virginia, Long Beach, California, Flint, Michigan, New Haven, Connecticut ought to know that the president wants a compassionate kinder and gentler nation. In Miami, in Maine, in Memphis, in Washington, DC and Washington State we all ought to know that the president wants a compassionate, kinder and gentler nation. All the mayors of our cities, the governors of states, the heads of school systems, the president of banks, the heads of corporations, all the members of congress ought to know that the president goes to bed at night praying for a compassionate, kinder and gentler nation.

He ought to tell the composers to write some music about it. Tell the people who write marching songs for high school bands to write some marching music about a kinder and gentler nation. He ought to tell the congress to change the national anthem and rather than singing about bombs bursting in air, start singing about brotherhood and sisterhood from sea to shining sea… a kinder and a gentler nation!

The playwrights ought to write Broadway musicals about it. Don’t just whisper it in the Rose Garden every now and then, but go on CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN with it… a kinder and gentler nation.

If you mean it, tell everybody! After all Isaiah had a vision and Martin King had a dream and the whole world knows about it. Everybody ought to know about it. If that’s what you want Mr. President, tell it everywhere you go. When you show up…folks will have to say there’s that man… he doesn’t seem to have but one speech!

Let the whole world know…this is what we are doing in America building a compassionate, kinder and gentler nation! We need something to celebrate in this country. My God we need something to celebrate. We are in such a moral slump and stupor. We don’t have any great themes, no great causes. Our young people have nothing to light candles about anymore. They don’t get wax on their fingers anymore. They don’t climb any high hills anymore. What are we doing? Where are we going? Our colleges and universities with academic freedom, free to do whatever they want to do. Free to sing and shout about whatever engrosses the mind, but without anything to celebrate.

But imagine what could happen if Mr. Bush really did devote his final legacy-making year in office building these United States into a compassionate, a kinder and gentler nation. Indigent elderly in their illness would be cared for in clean places with warmth and compassion. Young criminal offenders would be put into the hands of competent guardians and counselors to give them a lasting new beginning in life.

The working poor would be enabled to buy modest apartments and to begin to acquire equity in homes of their own. All little children would be provided patient understanding and creative teaching to illuminate their young minds with imagination and curiosity to grow into compassionate, kinder and gentler adults.

Suppose that Mr. Bush, even as he talks about the doctrine of pre-emptive strikes and the imminent possibility of World War III, really does want to get us out of Iraq. Funds now committed to over-kill would be redirected to the enhancement of life in our small rural communities and in our desperate cities. This compassionate, kinder and gentler nation would divert some of the funds now dedicated to the destruction of the planet to the healing of the nations… clean water for thirsty people in those dry, parched and barren lands so familiar to us.

This nation would build new roads, bridges and power plants for those countries that were drained of their resources by 300 years of occupation by western powers. This nation would support reforestation of mountains and hillsides, burned and charred by tribal wars and depleted by misuse.

As the leader of this compassionate, kinder and gentler nation, Mr. Bush would invite the people of the world who fear us and who suspect us, who distrust us, who hate us... he would invite them to sit down at the table and to study war no more. He would lead the world in beating spears into pruning hooks and swords into plow shares. And that would be a remarkable legacy.

So, Mr. Bush, you are right on time. You have a whole year to make the world a different place a more compassionate place. Just get yourself a megaphone and shout Eureka! I have found it! A compassionate, kinder and gentler nation, a new national slogan. Let school children draw posters about it and put it on our postage stamps…the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them. A compassionate, kinder and gentler nation.

We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do. We’ve got a lot of praying to do. We’ve got a lot of repenting to do. We’ve got a lot of working to do. And Mr. Bush, you need to know that you have a lot of company. You need to know that you are not alone.

You need to know that we too want a compassionate, kinder and gentler nation, non-violence, peace and prosperity at home and abroad. We are with you. We are your allies. We are going to hold you accountable. We haven’t held you accountable for seven years, but we are going to hold you accountable for this last year and what a legacy to leave the world – a compassionate, kinder gentler, nation and world.

What do you say, Mr. President?

Installation and Covenant

2007-10-30T12:08:00.001-04:00

Photographs by Bill Miller.

These pictures are from the Installation service held on October 21, 2007.

What's In A Name?

2007-10-26T08:03:00.000-04:00

Many of you have asked me what do I prefer to be called. I have usually responded with “please feel free to call me Alvin,” but in public settings my preference would be Pastor J or Pastor Jackson.

This no doubt feels awkward and maybe even archaic for some of you here in a small close-knit community like ours, where we greatly value intimacy, familiarity and collegiality. And of course one of the signs of these values is that we are all on a first name basis with each other. It is really one of the attractive and appealing characteristics of our community. I like it as well, but it could also be one of the things that impede our community from becoming the growing thriving multi-cultural community that I think we all desire.

Now I am sure on the surface that sounds preposterous, for how could a little thing like what the minister is called impede our growth? Well, consider this we all come to this community with different experiences and backgrounds.

As a child growing up in the Delta of Mississippi, I never called my minister who served the little church that I grew up in for 54 years by his first name, though he became a very dear, close and personal friend. He was always Elder Harris to me. Even as I delivered the eulogy at his funeral this past October, Tommy Harris remained Elder Harris for me.

I guess one never quite gets over growing up in the 50's and 60's in the days of raw racism, segregation and Jim Crowism where sport was often made of calling older Black people by their first names, even by young white children as a way of disrespecting them and “keeping them in their place.” My father and other professionals like him often used only their initials to keep people from calling them by their first names. In my father’s case it was C.C. I was a teenager before I knew that my father's name was actually Clyde Cullen. That was how tightly it was held!

We certainly shouldn’t let names, titles and positions get in the way of our building the kind of community we all desire here at the PARK. But what I would ask of us is that we would at least have sensitivity to the histories, backgrounds and experiences others bring to our community -- particularly people of color.

But more than putting a salve on the wounds of past slights and rejections, what I am really calling for is not my personal elevation, but the elevation of the office of Pastor. We are all ministers! Every member of this congregation is a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But from among many ministers some are called to serve as Pastors to teach, to lead, to love, to care, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith (Ephesians 4:12a).

So, call me what you will. I will answer to most things. There is an old African proverb that says, “I am now what you call me, but I am what I answer to.” Yes, call me Alvin and I will gladly answer to it, but I want to also be your Pastor.

Welcome

2007-10-25T09:37:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog. I am very excited to be able to share the wisdom of our faith with you, along with some of my own thoughts and experiences.

Reverend Dr. Alvin O'Neal Jackson