West Park Presbyterian Church
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Multicultural Ministry Program (in Spanish)
News and Activities at West Park
Sunday Morning Notes from our Pastor
Sunday Morning Notes from our Multicultural Ministry Director
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The following sermon is from the Sunday following New
Year, on Epiphany Day. It was in
"dialogue" form with Rev. Reginaldo Braga. What follows are
"notes from the dialogue." Epiphany Isaiah 60: 1-6;
Matthew 2: 1-12 1-6-02 I have always loved this Sunday.
In my own family, on January 1st, my Dad began taking the Christmas tree
down, long about the 3rd quarter of
the Rose Bowl. And then, several days later, I would see in the paper and
gain the awareness that there was something called "Russian
Christmas." I loved the ideas that you could stretch the season out a
bit. Then, later as a seminarian, I remembered coming back
from my Christmas vacation to the Episcopal Church where I worked, St. Paul's.
How wonderful it was that there was a candlelight service, after
Christmas on January 6th. As an adult, I always found the time before Christmas
too hurried, too rushed to really experience.
I put in a claim on the twelve days of Christmas as my own Christmastime.
I needed these twelve days to hold onto my spiritual Christmas. I also have my own special memories here.
I remember our own processions. I
remember one in particular where our kings were one
Ayala, one Martinez and Gregorio Wong as our King from the East. Elizabeth, then little Elizabeth Sanchez as Mary.
And my son Nate, in a bathrobe, with that "what am I doing here?" look on his face as a shepherd.
Nate couldn't say "no" to Nirka, who always plans our processions. This has been a way for us
to celebrate the Latino culture that is part of who we are.
+ +
+ + So what do we have here? Camels?
Three kings? Well, if you go
to Radio City Music Hall, yes. But
in the Gospel of Matthew, no. What does Matthew have? From Isaiah, Matthew gets kings and their gifts, gold and
frankincense. Matthew added myrrh. It
was his way of making death present, even at the start.
He went to story of Queen of Sheba, and what she brought to Solomon. He
went to story of another evil king Barak and the prophet Balam (in Numbers) who
had this vision of a star. And
maybe he remembered stories how in 7 BCE Jupiter and Saturn were conjoined and
shone together three times. That's how our Christmas stories came about.
We just did the same thing, took our scriptures, stories heard by ear,
learned by heart, and wove them together in our own way.
As a church that is to be both reformed and reforming, we're still called
on to do that…take what we have seen and heard, our Holy Scriptures…and make
them new, tell the sytproies ion our own way for our own day.
+ + + + And now the most important part of the sermon.
The "so what" part. So what? Nancy Hastings Sehested ( she's
little -b Baptist theologian, preacher and retreat leader from Junaluska, North
Carolina) says that in our Epiphany journey, we go with two sisters .One is
Rachel, her eyes still weeping looking backwards.
The other is Mary, arms filled with the fragile promise of new life,
looking ahead. Our journey must be
made slowly because neither Sister Grief nor Sister Promise can walk too
quickly… I want to leave you this morning with three things… First, Know the difference between being afraid and
fearing the Lord. Herod was afraid,
"and all Jerusalem with him..", it says.
Well, it probably wasn't all Jerusalem but more likely those who were
within his circle of power. Those who figured that was where to be.
Like we're reading about in Kabul, how people drew close to the Taliban,
not because they believed in their vision, but because it looked like the right
side. Like Bob Dylan once sang, ".. you just want to be on the side that's
winning." On the other hand, "fear of the Lord" is awe.
And on this journey, there is no need to be afraid; but there is
every reason to be filled with awe. Second, Insight comes from outside. Some who are most supposed to get it won't and some who are the last we'd think would are the first to. The Magi came from outside the circle. They were Iranians, Zoroastrians (Talk about "gimme that old time religion", that's some "old time religion"…), they were astrologers…(the original astrology network..) and they got it . This story is a direct confrontational
challenge to any last remaining vestiges of ethnocentricity that we may want to
hold on to. We've got to let down barriers of class, clan, ethnicity. Our church
always has to ask, "are we talking to ourselves here?" Perhaps we need
to ask Jews, Muslims others who encounter us…old Upper West Side socialists,
young secular folk…We need to ask them what's it like to meet us? How are we
experienced? And that's also the
importance of visitors. Those who
are here for the first time today and those who have been with us for awhile.
We've got to talk to them. See
what gets reflected back about us. See who they feel we are and what we believe.
Then we'll know where we need to go. Insight comes from outside Finally, The magi went home by another way. We here a lot
of talk about "closure" these days.
Don't be talking about "closure' too soon.
Don't be If
you have to, go downtown and look at the site, or walk down to the New York
Historical Society and view the exhibit, watch the video.
Remember what you realized. Don't
let go of it, let it be buried under by thrown away wrapping paper, discarded
Christmas trees or pages of a calendar that fall day by day. The journey is not easy.
In, "the Journey of the Magi" TS Eliot wrote: "…I
have seen birth and death. But had
thought they were different; this Amen |
Copyright © 2001 West Park Presbyterian Church
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