Note: This is an adaptation of the Earth Day sermon I did on April 23, 2017. I remember years ago, in those dark days following the 2016 election, I took part in a rally for science. One speaker talked of how he became interested in science after waking up with a colossal hangover and turning on the TV to the show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. He quoted Tyson saying the cool thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.
sUbteXt
Thursday, April 22, 2021
Happy Earth Day to You
Note: This is an adaptation of the Earth Day sermon I did on April 23, 2017. I remember years ago, in those dark days following the 2016 election, I took part in a rally for science. One speaker talked of how he became interested in science after waking up with a colossal hangover and turning on the TV to the show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. He quoted Tyson saying the cool thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
The Beginning of Justice
I remember living in Long Beach, CA in March 1991, when four Los Angeles white police officers brutally attacked an unarmed black man after apprehending him following a police chase. That police routinely used excessive force on black and brown people, regardless of why they were being stopped; sometimes being stopped for frivolous reasons is nothing new.
Remember, the first police forces were organized to capture runaway Africans who had been enslaved by wealthy white landowners in the South, well before the organization in Boston that history books falsely claim was the first police department. Many of the lynchings of black men in the South were given tacit approval and support by police, if not actual involvement in planning them.
Indeed, it should be no surprise
to discover how many police officers from different departments were part of
the coup in January of this year, the
largest display of white supremacist muscle-flexing in decades.
But that March in 1991,
something was different. As four white cops brutally beat King, someone filmed it. George Holliday filmed the beating and sent it to local news station KTLA.
When I saw the coverage and the ensuing outrage felt around the world I felt a sort of vicious victoriousness. That’s it! I thought fiercely. Finally, there’s evidence! They’ll have to convict now. Even LAPD Chief Daryl Gates said his officers had used excessive force.
I should have known better,
and I would have known better if my skin were darker-hued. The defense had the trial moved to pre-dominantly Simi
Valley, a city that was a gated community. There three officers were acquitted, and the charges dropped against the 4th.
Living so close to where
this brutal crime of injustice took place, I felt the rage and despair being channeled
through protests, riots, and fiery demands for police reform. Buildings were burning, people were in the street.
Martin Luther King’s words rang true: A riot is the language of the unheard.
Evidence, it appears, has
nothing to do in convicting white police officers or self-appointed vigilantes
In fact, according to an organization called Mapping PoliceViolence, in 2015 police killed 104 unarmed Black people. Of those,
only 13 of those cases resulted in charges being filed. Four of those cases
ended in a mistrial or dropped charges.
In four of the cases in which
there were convictions, none of the sentences exceeded four years, and some
served as little as three months or were allowed to serve their time in jail
just on the weekends.
Today,
after 10 hours in deliberation, the jury delivered their decision: guilty on all
three counts of second-degree
unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter; the most serious charge carries up to 40 years in prison. When I heard the news, I spontaneously burst into tears.
I can’t even imagine how it feels to be someone from the BIPOC
communities, how it feels for George Floyd’s family, for the families of all
who have had loved ones murdered at the hands of the police who did not receive
justice.
Thirty years after Rodney King was denied justice, despite concrete evidence of abuse, justice for George Floyd has, at least, been initiated; it has not yet been served. Chauviin won’t
be sentenced until June; he will remain in police custody until then. The severity of his sentence will be an indication of how seriously our country is willing to take such egegregious acts of violence on unarmed members of our communities.
Beyond this specific case, justice still waits to be served. Since the murder
of George Floyd last May, Mapping Police Violence has cited 181 deaths ofAfrican Americans at the hands of police, including unarmed 20-year-old Daunte
Wright shot and killed in Minneapolis while Chauvin’s trial was ongoing.
There is cause to celebrate today’s verdict; over 400 hundred years
after Africans were stolen from their homes and enslaved by white colonists,
justice has been initiated. Yet the fact that there will be global celebrations for a single verdict tells us the problem remains; there is still so much more work
to do.
There need to be sweeping police reforms across the nation, police
oversight committees established to independently investigate incidences of
police brutality; there needs to be a federal commission that addresses the
cumulative crimes about the BIPOC communities and establishes ways to seek
conciliation. For more information, I invite you to check out Truth and Conciliation, sign the pledge, decide to be a part of the solution rather than the
problem.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Feast of Epiphany, Part II: The Losers
Yesterday dawned bright, full of hope, historic moments, forward movement. After I left the inspiring edifices to freedom and social justice, I went to visit a friend (outside, socially distanced) whom I had not seen in several years. While we were talking on her balcony, my phone buzzed insistently several times, alerting to me to incoming text messages. Of course, they were messages from friends and family, congregants asking where I was and had I seen the madness?
And then I opened the news app on my phone and saw the horror
with my own eyes. Fresh from the possibilities of justice, of Beloved Community
seen in the Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Park, and the Martin Luther
King, Jr Center for Non-Violent Social Change, gladdened by comments on my
video and photos of those places by others who had been there and had been
equally inspired, I now saw the center of our government, the seat of the
sacred trust of democracy breached by domestic terrorists, white supremacists,
QAnon kool aid drinkers who had the audacity to literally break into the
Capitol of our nation in a dangerous, adult-sized imitation of schoolyard
bullies who didn’t get the lunch money this time they were used to shaking down
other kids for.
Many others more eloquent and with better social analysis
than I have already written on this, but I could not ignore what is happening
in our nation, what happened yesterday, and what we can do to move on.
You have seen the footage: the speech by Trump at the white
supremacist rally where he sounded like a football coach at half-time telling
his team they need to get out there and show them who’s boss. Encouraging the brainwashed
minions of his narcissistic ego to march to the Capitol, spewing forth the worn
out lies about how the election was stolen.
You saw the footage of the illegally armed domestic terrorists
literally breaching the Capitol, a feat that has only happened once before in
the history of our nation, in 1814, by the British who then sacked and burned
the place down. The photos of armed white terrorists breaking into offices, desecrating
the chambers of Congress with their filthy confederate flags, many wearing
t-shirts that boldly proclaimed: Civil War January 6, 2021. This was not an
impulsive moment, a crowd who was taken over by their own rhetoric; this was a
clearly planned, methodical event that had been openly discussed in hate group
online forums for weeks.
Equally plain was the scion of white privilege rearing its ugly head; asserting its right to commit acts of
treason without being tear-gassed, sprayed with rubber bullets, or shot in the back. The demeanor of the police was appalling videos showing capitol officers literally opening the barriers to let the terrorists in, taking selfies with seditionists, helping a white supremacist navigate the stairs. This in stark contrast to the aggressive, violent approach taken during the peaceful protests in the summer against citizens who had gathered to denounce the murder of George Floyd and proclaim this truth, which should be self-evident but is lost in the haze of white supremacy: that Black Lives Matter. If the protesters at the BLM events had tried to storm the capitol, there would be a bloodbath and a sea of black and brown bodies shot down.
And when finally, the white domestic terrorists had been
escorted out of the Capitol building, after incendiary devices had been found
and safely detonated, Congress reconvened with determination to complete the
task on the agenda of the day: to certify the electoral votes for President Joe
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Many Republicans who had said in
advance they were going to challenge the votes, changed their minds, but not
all. Oh no. Even with such stark evidence of what happens when you fuel the
outrageous lies of a narcissistic bully for political gain, when they bottle-feed
conspiracy theories, they themselves don’t really believe in, Republicans still
stood to challenge the legality of the votes, still vomited forth the already debunked
narrative that the election was rigged.
For what gain? There was no chance in hell even before the carnage that they would approve these challenges. It was only more self-serving, self-aggrandizing
posturing by political leaders who have become so drunk on the power they had
in the trump regime that they can no longer think rationally or act truthfully.
For the past four years, Trump has lied, bullied, cheated, blackmailed,
and harangued to get his way. He has never once acted with a shred of dignity,
grace, nor has he ever risen to the solemnity of the office he lost by popular
vote four years ago. And his simpering sycophants have been right there with
him, like the Emperor’s tailors, whispering flattery into his ears, publicly
proclaiming what a grand and glorious new set of clothes he wore, denying the
flaccid nakedness of his depravity.
That this act of treason happened is appalling, but not
surprising. It has been building to this inevitable outcome for the past four
years.
And what I find sad is that Trump, even after all the misuses
of his office and the 26,000 plus documented lies he told, and the shameful
ways he has behaved, could have still left with a little dignity. He could have
conceded, shook Joe Biden’s hand, and helped create a peaceful, orderly
transition. He could have done that. Except for the fact that his narcissism is
too deeply entrenched into his personality.
Instead, he ordered his sycophant-in-chief- Rudy Giuliani to hold a press
conference alleging fraud. He himself called a press conference to allege
fraud. He tried to get his Vice President to illegally change the election
results. He incited treason.
So, this is how he leaves: his lawyer, with hair dye running
down his face, and himself sitting behind a tiny desk, as if trying to look
bigger than he is and all we see is the facade of the past four years running down
the face of our nation, and a tiny man behind a tiny desk; a pathetic, soul less loser.
It’s interesting, I thought, that this happened on
the Feast of Epiphany. In the Christian story, it incensed Herod when the magi
didn't vote the way he wanted them to, they didn't give him Divine Love on a
platter for him to destroy, so he murders innocent children. Fitting.
At the end of this day, we have beauty and the best of
democracy in action and we have destruction and the worst of human behavior on display.
And every day, we get to be the magi. We get to choose. Will we continue down the path of privilege and power, of blissful ignorance to the peril of our kin of color and other disenfranchised folx? Or will we, transformed by possibility, choose to go another way, a harder way to be sure, a way that demands the same accountability of ourselves that we are now demanding of our leaders, a way in which we will surely stub our toes and stumble? Yes, we will stumble, but we can be confident that on this path companions will surround us, all of us seeking Beloved Community, each of us pledging to help one another up and to keep on going.
This is the path Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. chose. This is the path I choose, remembering that in the furthest depths of despair, the eternal flame of freedom and justice shines brightly; we are its keepers, now. Let it burn.
Feast of Epiphany, Part I: The Winners
I’ve been awake since 215 AM ET, unable to keep from checking the news, reading what others are already saying about the seditious act of rebellion instigated by the outgoing president, egged on by House and Senate Republicans who were threatening to contest the results of the Electoral College—a mere formality, attesting to the greatness of democracy in past elections—and put into action by clueless but faithful citizens turned traitors, inspired by Trump’s rambling address to the rally which included calling on them to advance on the Capitol, implying he would be by their side.
Tuesday afternoon, I drove into the city of Atlanta, GA. On the third leg of my car Camino, I was eager
to be once again in the “room where it happened.” The runoff race for the two Georgia
senate seats would be a historic event. If the two Democratic contenders won,
it would be the first time in 20 years Georgians has sent a Democrat to the Senate
and the first time they had voted in a Black senator. Georgia is one of
the original colonies, entering the Union in 1788 and they have taken part in
every presidential election except for 1864; they had seceded from the Union,
joining their ranks with the confederacy. Could it be that, finally, over 155
years after that seditious war, would they make history?
I went to bed on Tuesday night still unsure of how the race would go; it was awfully close. I awoke yesterday to the news that Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock had claimed victory, and it was only a matter of time before Jon Ossoff joined him in the winner’s circle. Elated, I drove to Auburn Avenue, the historic center of African American life, social justice activism, and education from the 1920s through the
1970s. It is the home to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Sr. was the third pastor of that grand church, founded in 1886. He served that church from 1931 to 1975, Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up there. In 1960, he became the co-pastor with his father, until his assassination in 1968.
And of course, now Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock presides as the
senior pastor.
I wanted to be in that sacred place where history and hope now join hands in the wake of the historic vote
where the Dreamer and this most recent iteration of the Dream Come True mingles in the very air.
As I walked around, admiring the historic Ebenezer Baptist
Church where both Rev. Kings served and marveling at the newer building across
the street where Rev. Warnock holds forth, tears sprung to my eyes. I was so
moved by the dedication of the Georgians, by Stacey Abrams who single-handedly, I
believe, flipped the state to progress, by the countless volunteers, including
from my congregation in Colorado Springs, who wrote postcards, sent texts, and
made phone calls to Georgian voters encouraging them to vote.
Ironically, while I was there, both a
Japanese media company and Telemundo interviewed me on what my hopes were with this election
result. I said that with a Democrat-controlled House, Senate, and Presidency,
we can begin the work of repairing the breaches, of undoing the four years of
madness that has been the Trump regime. I said we can rejoin the Paris Accord,
regulate industries, and save our public lands. I said, “A ‘triple blue’ is not
a win for the Democrats; it’s a win for us all. We want to give the best health
care available to Republicans, we want to ensure equal rights for the Republicans.
With Democrats in power, everyone wins, because it’s not about power to the
party, it’s about truly living into a government of the people, by the people,
for the people.”
I met two volunteers who had come from California and from Massachusetts
to do canvassing and election day oversight. And I met a couple from Atlanta
who had also wanted to be in the sacred space to celebrate this great day.
And I left after a couple of hours, happy, hopeful, grateful
for how democracy works. It’s fitting, I thought, that today is January 6th,
the Feast of the Epiphany in the Christian tradition. Commemorating when the
magi, traditionally three men of color finally found their way to the toddler
Jesus, after a long and arduous journey, bringing gifts to this manifestation
of Love being the path, rather than power.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Ode to 2020
Ode to 2020
What words could pen and
art combined inscribe
That would this past year
perfectly describe?
How can I write in fourteen
simple lines
The tragedy and lessons
of these times?
The year began with innocence
and ease
But ignorance betrayed us
to disease.
With growing dread we
watched the numbers rise
Of illness, unemployment,
and demise.
Yet no pandemic has the
final say
Nor evil fool’s tyranny hold
sway.
The votes were cast; the
final tally’s clear:
So let this be the lesson
of this year:
There’s only one way we
can rise above:
The antidote is gratitude
and love.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!
Much love,
Nori
Friday, November 20, 2020
What Would Love Do?
We are living in unprecedented times. Not only has the
COVID-19 pandemic refused to go silently into that good night, but we are now
living in some liminal time in which an election has decided who the next
President of the United States will be, while the current president refuses to
concede the election, continues to hamper—if not downright halt—efforts for a
peaceful transition of power.
We are on the razor’s edge, poised between anarchy and the
beginning of the healing of our nation. Muddying the waters further is the fact
that the election wasn’t a Blue Wave tsunami signaling the end not only of this
current regime but of the systemic issues that landed him in the White Office
to begin with.
It was a victory, to be sure, of a socio-political ideal of
greater equity, inclusion, protection for our lands and water and air, but it
wasn’t a mandate. And even as we celebrate a record number of voter turnout
with President-elect Joe Biden winning more votes than any other candidate in
history, we also have to contend with the fact that Trump won the most votes
for a defeated candidate. As I drove across the nation following the election,
it was striking how many homes and businesses are still proudly flying flags
supporting Trump.
While I am celebrating the change in administration and
looking forward to the future with hope I have been missing for the past four
years, I am also left with the question of how we can use this singular moment
in time to bring about the beginning of true healing in our nation. The healing
of our nation begins not with ousting Trump from office; it begins not with
jeering “Hah! Crawl back beneath the rock whence you came,” to his ardent
base.
It begins with telling the truth about ourselves; about how
we’ve used the narrative of progressive values to turn away from our own
complicity in not denying privilege and power. The healing of the nation begins
with recognizing that the wound is vast and deep; it was thrust into the heart
of this nation at its birth and has been festering ever since.
In her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, Isabel
Wilkerson says we can say we didn’t do it. We didn’t own slaves; we didn’t
fight for the confederacy; it’s not our fault. But, she says, being citizens of
the United States is like being the heirs of an ancient, crumbling house. The
foundation wasn’t laid properly; the plaster and lathe is not adequate to keep
the house warm; there are cracks in the walls and bulges in the ceilings.
It’s not enough to say, It’s not my fault; I didn’t build
it. If we want to continue to claim this house, we have to be responsible for
the repairs and the upkeep of it. If we want to create a home where we can live
safely and comfortably, we have to make it safe and comfortable for all. Until
we do this, all we’ve done this election is to cover up the gaping wound with a
“flesh colored” band aid.
One question I’ve been pondering over the past several days
since the election was decided for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is how can we
not only reclaim a political landscape that sees the moral arc of the universe
bending toward justice but also how can we reach out to the 70+ million people
who voted to maintain instead the downward spiral of our nation into moral and
ethical decay? We ignore those voters at our peril, paving the way for an
ongoing pendulum of values being favored every four years.
The people still waving Trump flags and crying voter fraud
are not just an anonymous part of the census of our nation; they are our
families and friends, our neighbors and the person who bags our groceries. Just
as it was immoral and inaccurate for the current regime to paint entire
communities in colors of intolerance, bigotry and otherness, it is wrong for us
to do the same to those who may have voted differently from us.
As I wonder what path leads to peace and wholeness for our
nation, I am drawn to a question I’ve been pondering for my personal
life.
What would love do?
During my recent travels, I’ve had plenty of road time to
think about the paths I’ve taken in my own life that have led to where I am
now, physically, emotionally, relationally. I’ve been thinking of times I’ve
had knee-jerk reactions to the choices or limitations life has placed before
me. I have been remembering times when I acted out of fear, of not wanting to
seem vulnerable, of defensiveness. I imagine that many of the people waving
Trump flags alongside signs that read “pray for our nation” are also responding
from those same places: fear of their world changing in ways that seem
threatening to them; watching others from marginalized groups suddenly being
afforded the rights they’ve had all along, making them feel vulnerable.
Privilege and power are powerful aphrodisiacs; it's hard to imagine life
without them.
How do we respond to our families and friends, neighbors and
co-workers now?
What would love do?
How would love listen?
Not that we need to mollycoddle racists; it is to wonder
aloud how can love open their eyes to a wider vista than the narrow one they’ve
been myopically clinging to, the one that makes them feel important? How can
love show them that the more diverse we are, the stronger we are; the more
people invited to the table of justice, the more food there is for all?
This much I know is true: ignoring their fears and
vulnerabilities amid our euphoria will not bring healing; calling them the new
snowflakes and jeering at them is not the way forward. They will still be there
at the mid-term elections, and in four years, with more anger and angst and
fear than ever.
The coming months will be challenging for us all. One thing
this election has taught us is that a vote is a voice singing a single note in
the anthem of this nation, but unless that note is sustained, supported by
others who join in so we can all take a breath when needed, the song soon
dies. The past four years we have been subject to discordant voices
that have been blaring over the loudspeaker of our nation, creating a cacophony
of distorted notes and chords. It’s our turn to conduct the choir now. We must
keep singing songs of joy, inclusion, diversity, hope. We must keep singing in
such a compelling way that others will change their tune, join in. We must use
love as the tuning fork to make sure our notes are clear and strong, that we
are singing in the key of Life.
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Hang in There, World
This past weekend, I returned to Lawrence, KS. It was my Sunday off, and I was glad to be able to celebrate the 60th birthday of my sister, Lori. I pulled up stakes from outside of Lexington, KY where Rubi, Wham! and I had camped the past couple of nights and drove back to Kansas, where this trip began.
I had preached on November 1 from the Eldridge Hotel in
Lawrence. It had been a stronghold of the Free State movement when Lawrence had
been settled in 1854 by a band of anti-slavery folks determined to halt the
evil stain of slavery from spreading to their territory from their neighbor to
the east, Missouri, which was a pro-slavery state.
It had not been easy; that period in the history of Kansas
was known as bloody Kansas, a min Civil War fought long before the one that
would shake our nation to its core. On that Sunday, November 1, I preached from
the lobby of the Eldridge Hotel, which had been burned down by pro-slavery
forces less than a year after it was built. The owner, Colonel Eldridge, vowed
to rebuild it and add a story to it every time it was burned down.
I spoke then of how our nation was in a similar battle as the
settlers of Lawrence, and indeed of the whole state of Kansas had been then: a
battle for the soul of our nation. I spoke not knowing what the election would
determine that Tuesday.
Of course, it turned out to be a much longer wait than
Tuesday for the results to be known. Yet, it seems as if reason, inclusion,
unity has prevailed, though not with a mandate. A record number of citizens voted
in this past election, meaning a record number of people cast their vote for
the Biden-Harris ticket, and a record number of people cast their vote for the
Trump-Pence regime.
It was with great joy I preached the following Sunday,
November 8, from the Black Lives Matter Plaza, just outside the White House. Before
the election, unscalable walls had been erected around the White House but as I
mentioned in my sermon on that Sunday, you cannot put unscalable walls around
justice; justice belongs to the people.
What a jubilant day that was!
Still, along with the heartening news that a majority of the voters of this
nation had voted for inclusion, diversity, our planet, came more unsettling
news about the pandemic this current regime has done nothing to halt.
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached these shores, the Trump
administration did nothing to halt it, offered no scientific or medical
intervention, left the states to muddle through on their own. It took 100 days
for the number of cases in the United States to reach one million. In just the
past week, we went from 10 million to 11 million. Cases are surging around the
nation, as medical experts feared, and this regime ignored.
In our own state, cases are have risen in alarming numbers
and Governor Polis, while stopping short of issuing another mandatory shelter
in place, is urging Coloradans to stay put in November, to not travel for the
holidays. California and Texas, both places next on my itinerary, have reached
their own deadly hallmark of having more than a million cases in their states.
California has issued travel quarantines; Texas has not.
In this midst of this, and in midst of my ambitious itinerary
for my Car Camino, I made the difficult decision to cut my travel short. It
seems irresponsible for me to continue my travels amid such growing numbers and
against the directions of my own governor.
So, I arrived home yesterday and plan to stay put through at
least the middle of December, if not the first of the year. I can do all the
rationalizing I want about how I’m traveling alone and am being careful, but
the reality is that I also do interact with people on my trips: family,
friends, colleagues, strangers. I cannot in good conscience continue my Car Camino
while the COVID numbers surge.
I do plan to hit the open road again, hopefully after the
first of the year, hopefully as cases decline. I will need to carefully
strategize how I interact with others and what risk reduction measures I am
taking to be safe, myself, and to keep others safe.
I am saddened by this decision but feel it is in the best interests
of public health and safety, as well as my own. We share a common world; the
desires of an individual should never take priority over the safety of us all.
Again, as soon as its safer for me to take All Souls on the road, I will, even as I fervently hope and look to the day when we can all gather safely, joyously together in our own dear corner of the world at 730 N Tejon St.