Spiritus Christi
Father Jim Callan
October 11, 2020
(Isaiah 25:6-10A)
In 1997 Bishop Matthew Clark held a mass at the Cathedral to welcome the LBGTQ community. Some of you were there. He wanted to let them know that the church no longer rejects gay and lesbian, LBGTQ community but on the contrary cherishes them. It was one of the peak moments of Bishop Clark’s ministry in Rochester.
Thirteen hundred people jammed in the cathedral, standing room only and 200 of those 1300 were from our church. There is a gay man from our church that went up to communion and as he was going up to communion he was so emotional, he was crying because he was feeling the pain of rejection all those years and before Bishop Clark gave him communion he wiped the tear off his face and gave him a big hug and of course the man lost it then. Cried even more. But it was a very healing moment. Today in the reading Isaiah has a dream for the world. God will wipe away the tears from every face and God will remove every sign of disgrace.
On year I asked Patty Fields if she would preach on Mother’s Day. She immediately started to cry. She said, “Why did you ask me?” I said, “Because you are a wonderful mother. We talked it over in the staff and everybody said to ask Patty Field, she is a great mother.” Well, then Patty cried even more. She said she would let me know later. The next day Patty called me up. She said, “Of course I’ll preach. But I was crying because all week long I was down on myself. I was kicking myself for how I was as a mother. My children are very challenging and I ask God for a sign that I’m ok as a mother. And then you took me aside and told me I was a great mother.”
God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove every sign of disgrace.
Two weeks ago the Jews celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On one feast of Yom Kippur a woman came to the temple crying and she was holding a little girls and the little girl was crying too. The Rabi said to the little girl, “Why are you crying?” And the girl said because my mother is crying. And that is the idea of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is a day to cry over our mistakes and our failings. Why? Because God, our Mother, is crying too. Crying because people are racially divided. Crying because white supremacists want to kidnap the Governor of Michigan. Crying because forest fires and hurricanes are showing that we are ruining the earth.
Speaking of sadness, the staff had a prayer meeting the other day and were talking about how things are going. I said, “You know I have been so sad all summer. I have been crying.” It all started on May 25th the day that George Floyd was publically lynched in Minnesota. I thought as I watched that and went to the funerals, I thought for sure that we white people would wake up and change things immediately. Instead more and more unarmed black people have been killed by white police.
On vacation I read a great book, Stand Your Ground, by Kelly Brown Douglas. She explained how white people view black people as dangerous and threatening. We are afraid of black people. We whites feel afraid when black people enter what we consider white space. Even if they are asking for help. Like Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old woman who had a car accident. She went to a white man’s house, knocked on the door seeking some help because of the accident and he shot her dead. Because he was afraid of her. Her skin was black and she was violating white space.
Black bodies are always guilty of trespassing into white space. Black members of our staff, like Paul Boutte, have been pulled over in Brighton and Irondequoit for driving while black.
I talk to my neighbor across the street, a black woman in her 60’s. She said three other black women and here went shopping in Lowe’s in Webster. They bought about $800 worth of bathroom furnishings together. As they were leaving, a white person called cops. So they were pulling out of the parking lot and the cop stopped them. Assuming that they had stolen the goods. Well, that was not their crime because they didn’t steal the goods. They had another crime. They were violating white space.
If black people are violating white space, and they seem threatening to us, then white people feel justified in using violence. We can shoot them. We have a “stand your ground” defense to justify it. And we have had a “standing your ground” culture for centuries.
So we continue with the dream of Isaiah. After Isaiah says he’ll wipe away the tears the dream is that: “God will destroy the veil that separates people and keeps people apart.” Going to tear down the curtain that separates people.
That is what we are trying to do in our racial justice work. Trying to break down the walls that keep us apart.
Reverend Myra announced years ago, “Human beings created racism and human beings can illuminate racism. We can do it in twenty years.” After she first announced that, seven people showed up at the first SPARK meeting. Only seven. But today our parishioners are in the headlines for racial justice.
A couple days ago we had Mike Potter’s funeral, the father of Mark, CJ and Kim and Tracy and Eric. And I mentioned at the funeral that Mike told his family the week before he died, “With all the people in the news these days, Myra is the only one who is making any sense.”
Protests and demonstrations are only the on ramp for activism that calls for making policy changes. In our church I am happy to say is working on changing the blue print policing in Rochester. Working on systemic change, not just manicuring. God will destroy the veil that separates people and keeps them apart. God is going to tear up that curtain.
Isaiah continues with this wonderful dream. Not only will God wipe away the tears and remove the veil that separates people but God will provide a banquet of rich food and choice wine for all the people. Not some of the people – all the people in the highways and byways. Jesus picks up on this banquet theme from Isaiah and he says a King throws a party for his son, a wedding banquet. He sends out the invitation but nobody comes. Sends out the second invitation, nobody comes. Third invitation he says to go everyplace, the byways, the highways, bring in anybody. Good and bad, doesn’t matter. We are going to fill up the hall. Jesus says that this is what the reign of God is like. A full banquet of people, good and bad.
The wedding banquet is Jesus’ favorite metaphor. He has a lot of ways to describe his dream but the wedding banquet was his favorite. He is saying to us: If you hand around me, life is a party. Just hang around me and there is room for everybody at the table.
For Jesus the table is not just a place to eat, or for fellowship. It was also a model to reorder society. The table was not for just a select few but for those who were deemed unworthy and those on the margins. His inclusive table where all were welcome was very controversial. Jesus ate with people he wasn’t supposed to eat with. He sat down with prostitutes and tax collectors and lepers and the unclean and the unwashed. He sat down with them all and Jesus invented the sit in. He loved breaking the rules. Sitting with those who were excluded. Being in solidarity with those on the margins.
The famous African-American singer, Marion Anderson, made popular the spiritual: Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Glory hallelujah. Marion Anderson knew what trouble was all about. In 1939 she was intending to perform for an integrated audience at the Daughters of American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. But t the last minute they withdrew the invitation because of her race. Undeterred Anderson scheduled her own open air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with some help from Eleanor Roosevelt and 75,000 people showed up and another million people tuned in on the radio. It was smashing success. Like the spiritual she made famous, for her what started with: Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Ended with: Glory hallelujah.
Shirley Chisholm said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Over the years we have had to bring a lot of folding chairs to the table. Amen!
At the Eucharist we have had to say over and over again the table is not an award for good behavior. This is a place for nourishment, for the weak. The table is not a place for those who are converted; it is a place where conversion happens. The table is not a place of judgment and division, but a place of healing and mercy. The table is not a Catholic table, it’s not a protestant table, it’s not a Jewish table, it’s the Lord’s table. And he invites everybody.
Eileen Hurley visited a young man in jail who returned there for the third time. And the guard said, “You’re not going to see him, are you? Hasn’t he burned all his bridges by now?” And Eileen said, “No. My bridges are not flammable.”
We say at Grace of God Recovery House: God loves you just as much when you are using and drinking as when you are sober.
So the church is not a showcase for saints, it is a hospital for people who are sick. And we have had to bring our folding chairs like Reverend Mary, bring folding chairs to the alter table so that the celebrants won’t be just white males like me but people of all genders and all colors. They are the Ruth Bader Ginsburgs of the church. As Ginsberg said, “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.” So if they don’t give you a place at the table, bring a folding chair.
We have had to bring a folding chair to the work of social justice. To make sure there is a place at the table for everybody. Enough laptops and Internet service for all of our poor kids in the city. Enough voting rights for every American. Enough health care for people of color so that they don’t continue dying disproportionally from Covid 19. Enough communities to welcome immigrants.
I love to go to the Public Market that is near my neighborhood. Sometimes I go there and just walk around with a cup of coffee even if I don’t buy anything. I just love to be there. I see many of you there too. It is such a mixed, inclusive group of people. Urban and suburban, rich and poor, farmers and city folk. People speaking every language. People from all races, immigrants from all the countries. And it is never hectic. People are patient and always laughing. It is a joyful place. I think if Jesus were here today he would say: The reign of God is like the Public Market.
So we need to keep alive his dream. Jesus’ dream. Isaiah’s dream for the world. To wipe every tear from our faces. To destroy the veil that separates people and to provide a rich banquet – not for some of the people – but for all of the people.
Amen.
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