Touching a leper

Statue at the St. Joseph Church on Moloka'i

In the time of rampant Anti-Catholicism among British as well as American Protestants a faithful son of the Scottish Reformation defended publicly a Roman Catholic priest against the slander by the Congregationalist clergyman.

            It happened in 1890. The defender was the author Robert Louise Stevenson. The Roman Catholic Priest was father Damien of Molokai who recently died and the slanderer was Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde, an elite clergy among Congregationalists who was educated at Union as well as Princeton Seminaries.

            In the center was Father Damien’s selfless work in the leper colony on the island of Moloka‘i. When father Damien came to Moloka‘i the afflicted people were more or less dumped in the secluded Kalaupapa peninsula and left there to die. Damien was deeply moved by the plight of those in the quarantine. He gave himself to them, lifted their spirit, organized the community and made sure that the outside word would not forget about people quarantined there.  While caring for those most vulnerable and shunned by the rest of society he himself was infected with the Hansen’s Disease and eventually died of it.

            Damien was accused by Protestants for being self-appointed, headstrong, reckless and dirty (not hygienic enough) friend of the lepers. R.L. Stevenson defended Damien’s intention, his good heart, his selflessness, his faithfulness to God while his squeamish accuser would not set even a foot in the colony. Writing to Damien’s accuser Stevenson also predicted “if (in future the) world at all remember you, on the day when Father Damien of Molokai shall be named Saint, it will be in virtue of one work: your (slanderous) letter.” That is exactly what happened in 2009 when Father Damien was canonized. 

            This Sunday we will see that Damien had a direct and heavenly model in his endeavor of returning dignity to the sick. This Sunday we will rejoice in Jesus who broke quarantine rules and yet also kept them. But he above all transformed and humanized quarantine rules. Join us in worship of Jesus in quarantine.

And here is the open letter by Robert Louise Stevenson.

St.Joseph church built by Father Damien in Moloka'i his statue is standing next to it.

   

What Would Jesus Do with his blood?

I have been a minister in America for almost twenty years and I have studied theology and religion for twice as long. But there are still moments of utter bewilderment over some aspects of American religiosity.
           A lady was captured on camera leaving an evangelical megachurch in the middle of a pandemic. She was clearly flouting quarantine rules. When she was challenged by a reporter about the dangers of infection she asserted emphatically and repetitively that nothing could possibly happen to her, because she was “covered in the blood of Jesus”.
         It gave me a pause. What a unique religious statement! It likely came from some feverish evangelical hymn. Still, what a strange and violent religious image! Some Voodoo (or Santeria) blood rituals come to mind but there is hardly enough blood for sprinkling. The closest religious parallel to being covered in blood could be taurobolium. That was an ancient practice in which initiates were showered with the warm blood of a bull which was sacrificed right above them. This ritual was also supposed to give participants astonishing supranatural powers or protection.
        I know that that lady was not covered by any visible physical blood. She meant it metaphorically and she almost certainly never heard about the ancient rituals. But parallels are uncanny.

Join us this Sunday in worship. We will ask: What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do with his blood in the midst of Pandemic? Join us in worship to reject selfish magical potions, join us to rejoice in true self-giving love.

Hortulanus redivivus (Gardener revived)

Imagine the resurrected Jesus coming to you with a spade or a hoe! That is exactly the image you can find in many medieval paintings, book illuminations and on stain glass windows.

            It goes back to one ephemeral side sentence from the Gospel of John when Mary Magdalene did not recognize the resurrected Jesus and it explains “Supposing him to be the gardener.”

            But it is more than just explaining her mistake, her temporal blindness. It is a beautiful example of early Christian typological exegesis tying together the resurrected Jesus with the story of the Garden of Eden.

            But to me it has an even deeper function. This one sentence connects the Easter message with the beautiful, deep and meaningful ancient mythological tradition of humankind as a caring and gentle gardeners of our beautiful planet.

          This story of hortulanus redivivus will help us celebrate, the second Sunday of Easter, and at the same time Earth Day.

          Let us join our resurrected Lord and recommit ourselves to  cultivating and growing hope in the garden of this beautiful world.
Here is a link for our virtual worship on livestream:
https://livestream.com/rutgerschurchnyc/events/8967087

Hosanna in 2020

Each Palm Sunday we gather on Broadway in front of our commercial building and then we process to our Sanctuary waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna.

            This year I could not find any palms, but I’ve got these lovely tulips at our local bodega (They still carry flowers even now, bless them!). In the midst of this COVID pandemic we need to stay at home. And thus we cannot gather and shout our Hosanna on Broadway and along the 73rd Street. But we have an even stronger reason to shout our Hosannas in our virtual, electronic worship. Because Hosanna in the original Hebrew is not a sound of rejoicing (as often wrongly perceived). It was, and still is, a desperate pleading for help.

            HOŠIAH (הוֹשִׁ֘יעָ֥ה) - is an intensive causative DO SAVE! DO HELP (US) and NA (נָּ֑א) is an enclitic particle indicating intensity or desperation FINALLY, AFTER ALL, (WE) BESIEGE YOU!

              Hosanna is thus a deeply felt request Do help (us), (we) beg (you)!

            And Jesus did exactly that. He came to Jerusalem to help and save and he started with cleansing the Temple: cleaning religion. And that is what we will do this coming Sunday. We will pray HOSANNA - DO SAVE US, WE BEG YOU! And we will let Jesus clean our religion, starting at the center of our faith - our understanding of what Resurrection meant and can mean today. 
Join us in worship this Sunday at our livestream: https://livestream.com/rutgerschurchnyc

Fragrance of divine love

On the south slopes of Mauna Loa, in the place appropriately called Wood Valley is this beautiful old Buddhist Temple surrounded with verdant tropical forest.

            We love to visit this little colorful temple. Once we even stayed there for few days in a room where the Dalai Lama slept several months earlier. We love to visit Marya and Michal, the soft and kind spoken temple keepers. We love to visit it for its unique atmosphere. For me that atmosphere is shaped by a mild yet deep whiff of incense. You can hardly recognize it directly in the air, but every piece of wood breathes out that ages old scent of prayers.

            Indeed, there is something to be said about fragrant worship! For starters it is a subliminal reminder that faith and worship is about more than just intellect. The Bible also takes incense burning for granted in both the Old Testament as well as the New one.

            AIR will be our theme this Sunday, and incense makes air visible and deeply sensual. Join us this Sunday, in this time of fear and anxiety, in a time of pandemic, join us again through our livestreamed video (https://livestream.com/rutgerschurchnyc) to worship with us, seeking together calm and hope.

            And if you want to actively participate, prepare a stick of incense of your choice, or a scented candle or just any candle as we seek reassurance of loving fragrant divine breath.

Eternal Flame

The Ancient Greeks had very special and peculiar customs around fire. (For instance the Olympic flame could be an example with which modern people can be familiar.)  
       Those customs were controlled by a powerful goddess Hestia. She was a divine patroness of family and city hearths. She might be mentioned in hardly any mythology, and thus quite obscure, but she was venerated by every Greek family and city.
        An important part of her veneration was keeping her fire pure and ever-burning. Keeping family and city fires was not a chore it was an important religious duty and important cult. No foreign fire was allowed. And when family was moving or when the city was starting a daughter colony they would take the original fire with them.
       The Biblical ancestors did not venerate Hestia, they did not need to. YHWH/Adonai/the Lord - our God was also closely associated with fire. And the Bible contains a number of hints of similar practices like we know from Greece (or other cultures).
       When Abraham went for his infamous sacrifice in the land of Moria he took not only his son, and a knife, not only wood but also fire from his home (Genesis 21). And later when rough priests tried to introduce some foreign fire to the YHWH cult they were severely and exemplarily punished. (Lev 10)
       This Sunday we will concentrate on the positive aspect of fire in our faith tradition. Join us this Sunday when we discern and rejoice in the miracle and mystery of a divine eternal flame.  

Because of the viral pandemic our worship will be broadcast from our sanctuary over the internet.
And here is the link to our video-streaming webpage: https://livestream.com/rutgerschurchnyc.

March 15 worship bulletin is here while hymns are here.

Divine potter

In Ancient Egypt, one of the oldest deities (as old as five thousand years ago) was a god Khnum (In Egyptian iconography he was portrayed with the head of a ram). Khnum was a patron of the sources of Nile and he also brought the annual floods and with them new clay and thus fertility of the land. But Khnum was also responsible for creating people from the very same clay. He was often depicted shaping humans on the potter’s wheel.

            Why do I mention this ancient Egyptian mytheme? Because it is also present in the Bible and can enrich our faith and inform our life. A number of times we hear about God creating or shaping humans out of clay and breathing into them life (Gen 2:7). Then prophets Isaiah (Isa 45:9) and Jeremiah (Jer 18) assert divine authority over human destiny comparing it to the authority of potter over the clay.

            And even in the New Testament Apostle Paul (2Cor 4:7) will use this same image while writing about us humans as clay pots to which God entrusted safekeeping of the gifts of faith, light and grace.

            I like this pottery image, it connects us with one of the oldest metaphors and with the beginning of our civilization. I love this ancient image because it also reminds us of our connection with earth and all its creatures. 

            This image also goes back to the very roots of the Hebrew language and its vocabulary: the word for earth (as a substance, as clay) - is אֲדָמָה - ADAMAH and it shares the same root with אָדָם - ADAM which is a name of the first human being but also a generic name for all humans.

            In the Hebrew language Adam is phonetically an earthling and thus all of us, humans, are all also earthlings. We are inseparably bound with earth, its soil and all its creatures. This is one of the oldest religious insights, something you might not know about the Bible and something we will embrace and celebrate this upcoming Sunday.