I have been away from our church for the past 2 Sundays. Two
weeks ago, I was away for the ELCA National Youth Gathering in Detroit and last
week was the church exchange with Pr Irving and the community at Prince of
Peace Lutheran Church in Cambria Heights.
Since our Gospel readings are going to be very similar for the next 4 or
5 weeks (Jesus talking about the bread of life metaphor) I am going to talk about and focus on my experiences
in Detroit and in Cambria Heights, this week and next week.
This is actually the second time I am going to talk about my
experiences in Detroit. Due to a series
of decisions and events, which in an amazing way all turned out for the best, I
ended up flying home from Detroit a little early with Ellie and Maria. I got
back to NY on Sunday morning at 7:30 am.
At 7:31 am, Pr Jean from Grace in Forest Hills, who we went to the
gathering with, called me to see if I could lead worship at her church (their
scheduled supply pastor called out with a health emergency). At Grace, I talked about the 23rd
pslam and our experiences in Detroit. That was a big change for me. I am used
to talking about the 23rd pslam as God’s care and presence with us
during difficult days, at times of struggle, extreme loneliness, uncertainty,
at the end of life, or to share God’s comfort with those who mourn. There at Grace, I had a chance to ask what
these words about the Lord being our shepherd mean for us while we are healthy,
strong, able to serve, welcome others and share our faith. Not only is the 23rd psalm a
proclamation of God’s care, it is also an invitation for us to care for each
other.
The Youth Gathering was about care. There was the care
people at the gathering had for each other.
Groups welcoming new friends, individual kids who were there alone with
a parent or pastor and getting bored. There were people walking with and
helping those who were getting sick from the heat and long days, there were
kids caring for worn out leaders and leaders trying to help make the trip
great. One thing I will remember is that
on our first day, I took my phone for a swim in the hotel pool. After my phone
was destroyed, I had to borrow phones from people to find a store to get a new
one, talk to Jennifer and check in with a few people.. Maria and Ellie lent me
their phones when I needed to call Jen, check in with someone or check my
email. I have described our time in
Detroit as exhausting but great. A large part of what made the experience great
was being immersed in a space of care, faith, community and hope.
There was also care for the city of Detroit. For many of us one highlight of the trip, the part that impacted us all the time, was the fact that it was good to be in Detroit, to be in a place where our spending, work and presence mattered. People who lived and worked in Detroit, who were worn out and losing hope in the struggle to bring Detroit back, would stop, honk, pull over and yell “thank you for being here” as we walked on the streets. One of the majors service projects at the gathering was helping a local non-profit clean up a 100 block area. It was a mixed neighborhood (the mix was abandoned houses, empty lots where abandoned houses where knocked down and places people still lived). My conversations with some of the residents in these areas were filled with needs, hope and thankfulness.
We could pretend people had a good attitude and things were
fine, that it was all about cheers and welcome. I could talk about the Art
Museum, which was incredible and the new parking lot covered with 10 stories of
murals and a great view of the city. The truth is that Detroit is not a
positive city in good shape with some plucky people ready to pull themselves up
by their bootstraps. There are abandoned skyscrapers all over the downtown
area. It is one of the most violent and dangerous cities in the United States.
They have lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, there is very little tax base and
almost a million of the 1.7 million residents of the city have left. The street
lights are not on at night since the city cannot pay its electric bill and they
are so far behind on the water bill, there are actual rumors of a shut off.
Most of the speakers at the gathering did not pretend things were okay either. They spoke about real, difficult truths with faith, During the mass gatherings, when all 30,000 or so Lutherans got together at Ford field (the stadium for the Detroit lions football team) to listen to bands, speakers and bishops, things were not positive, neat and easy. One ELCA staff person talked very publically about her very private struggles with divorce, depression and mental illness as she invited everyone there to get help if they needed it. One Pastor talked about the feelings and events after a young black man who was a vital part of his church with a bright future, was killed by a neighbor for no real reason other than being black. One pastor serving in NYC talked about the aftermath of Sandy in the Rockaways, where many poor people struggled alone with little or no help from anywhere. One speaker talked about that awful list of inequalities between the very rich, poor, and very poor and encouraged us to do something about it (one of my favorite points she made was that anyone, especially young people could do things that mattered. Her example was that the titanic, which sank on its first voyage, was built by the best professional engineers and boatbuilders in the world while Noah’s ark, which survived the great flood, was built by amateurs). Each of these conversations confronted the dark and ugly parts of our church, society and world with the light of God and the command to love one another. The idea was as people of faith together, we could rise up.
Personally, one of the most profound experiences for me was
part of a booth at the cobo center (this convention center was set up with 100s
of displays and things to do). There was
an area put together by the ELCA group that advocates for and works with the
disabled. Part of the area was something
called disabled dodgeball. Each player
was randomly assigned a disability. There was a wheelchair, crutches, googles
to experience being blind, and headphones to experience deafness. Once these items were taken, everyone else
had allergies to certain colors and could only touch one color ball (there were
10 balls, 2 of each color). I ended up being allergic to everything except red.
My first thought was that, that’s not a real problem, this will be easy. Of
course a minute into the game, it turns out the red balls were not getting
used. They were just sitting there on the other side of the court and I had
nothing to do. Im not sure if the other team was intimated by my great throwing
strength or if it was random, but I just stood around for most of the game
doing nothing while everyone looked on and wondered why I was doing nothing. Towards
the end I started to break the rules and run across the line to get the red
balls (a highly risky strategy for which I should have been disqualified). My
disability, being allergic to anything but red, meant I could not
participate.
At this time I am going to invite Maria and Ellie up to share
some of their experiences.
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