Mosaic of Faith
Mark 16:7-8
Sermon delivered Sunday, May 17, 2009
by Rev. Patricia Pearce and Rev. Nicole Diroff
I'll be reading from the 16th chapter of Mark. Just a couple of verses: 7 and 8. This is the instruction that was given to the women who came to the tomb that morning.
" 'But go, tell his disciples and Peter that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."
{prayer}
So the line that stuck with me from that text was the part where it says "tell the disciples to go back to Galilee" and there they will encounter the risen Christ. It's interesting for a couple of reasons. One is it invites the disciples to go back and begin the story again, where it began. To go back to that land of Galilee in the hinterlands, away from the center of power, to re-enact the story that Jesus initiated. Something else that interests me about that is that it seems the disciples did not obey that command. They stayed in Jerusalem. In Luke's Gospel, they aren't told to go back to Galilee; in Matthew and Mark, they are.
But the question that it leaves with me is: where is our Galilee? This command was for the disciples to return to their home country, to the communities where they had grown up and lived and worked – to go back to that place with new eyes, with a new understanding, the understanding that comes from this journey that they had been on that culminated with the experience of resurrection. To go back into their communities with a resurrection understanding and to invite the transformation that the risen Christ promises, to invite that to come forth in the places where they lived and worked, and in the relationships that they had.
So, for us, as a community, how is it that we return to Galilee? Return to the neighborhoods and the communities and the relationships that we have? And invite and invoke a resurrection spirit, and encounter the surprising presence of a risen Christ?
Last week, Vanessa talked with us about our partnership with the community of Las Anonas. Now that's a Galilee place, is it not? Away from the center of power, away from Jerusalem, out onto the boundaries, the borders, the margins – that's where you will encounter resurrection. Not in Jerusalem. Not in the center of power, but out on the margins where things are always happening under the radar of the power structure.
Today, we're going to be looking at another Galilee connection that we have. And this has to do – I don't know how many of the Tabernacle people know the role that we played in helping get the Interfaith Center of Philadelphia going. But in the fall of 2001 we had a book study group. We read Walter Wink's book, The Powers That Be. A wonderful book. I recommend it. And we had planned to have this book study – we planned it over the summer – and it just so happened that September 11th happened that fall. So we went ahead with our Bible study. And in the course of that Bible study and given the historical context in which we found ourselves suddenly and unexpectedly, we all thought about: What are we being called to do in this moment, in this time? Given what we have been reading and studying: How do we live into this time in which we find ourselves? And some members of that group – Vic, and John Rice – really felt like it is time for us to be building interfaith relationships. Because people could see the dangers of the divisions that were beginning to happen along the boundaries of faith traditions.
And so we set up here at Tabernacle an interfaith reconciliation group, and we dialogued for a couple of years, I think it was Vic, wasn't it? And that helped plant the seed for the beginning of an organization here in Philadelphia: the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia. And Abby Stamelman Hocky, who is the executive director of the Interfaith Center, was a member of that original reconciliation group. And it so happens that one of our members works for the Interfaith Center: Nicole Diroff. We are going to watch a DVD that shows something of the work of the Interfaith Center, and you'll see, here in the DVD, Dick Fernandez who is another one of our members and who was the founding chairperson of the board of the Interfaith Center.
So we are going to watch this, and Nicole is going to speak briefly about the work that she does with the center.
Hi, I'm Nicole. I've been a member here officially two years, and have been worshipping here maybe, like, four or five, or something like that, and I've had the opportunity to work for this amazing organization, the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia. In fact, I have been installed there. The service was at this church, and it's kind of polity-wise, institution-wise through this church. So I thank you for the story, and the history of this Center, and the way in which this community was involved in that, and the current ways in which you continue to support me, being there and doing that work.
So, I thought I'd reflect for just a couple of minutes on the title of this video, and how it relates to the vision and purpose of the Interfaith Center. The title is: Mosaic of Faith, Vision of Hope.
The first part: Mosaic of Faith.
Well, the official mission and purpose of the Interfaith Center is this: "To advance mutual trust, understanding, and cooperation among faith communities, in order to work together for the common good of the region." The Interfaith Center is not about saying we're all the same. Rather, the Interfaith Center is about honoring uniqueness within community. So, in mosaic terms, I think it's about individual tiles being honored, and when you step back there's this amazing and beautiful thing. But those tiles aren't smudged into each other, and they're not all the same. They're unique.
The Interfaith Center is not about creating some universal religion. The Interfaith Center is about the journey of encounter with others that brings a deeper understanding to one's own identity and tradition. So, in mosaic terms, I think this is about when tiles take on a kind of increased beauty because they are in the context of others. Where you can appreciate a deep blue because it's next to a deep green.
A story. One of our mentors with our youth program is a school psychologist. She's a mentor from an Episcopal church out on the Main Line, and she said – this was her first year participating in our youth program – and she turned to me, just recently, and she said, 'You know, I wanted to do this at the beginning of the year, because in my job I was realizing there are more and more Jewish folks and Muslim folks who are in my sphere of work, and I just didn't really know much about them. So I felt like I should really do this program and get to know more about my Jewish and Muslim neighbors." And she said, "But you know what? As I've gone through this year, I've realized it's not about learning any sort of facts about the Jewish religion or the Muslim religion. Going through this program, it's about finding a new way of living in the world. It's a way of living in the world where you're curious, before you make any sort of judgments. And it's a way of living in the world where you ask questions, and where you live vulnerably and honestly."
So I said, "Yes! You can say it (Just like I say it in the video) You all can say it better than I can say it." So I quote her all the time now.
The second part of the title: Vision of Hope
Just for a couple of moments, I was reflecting about a few things I've learned through doing this work. In this work I've learned to appreciate mystery. I've learned that not understanding, but being open to the question, can lead to deep wisdom. In this work, I've learned to believe in beauty. I've learned that a willingness to be surprised has allowed me to find holy beauty in the most unexpected places. In this work, I have seen transformation. Transformation of myself, of teenagers, of religious leaders, of communities.
A story that demonstrates some of that: I have the opportunity to be a part of the National Council of Church Interfaith Relations Commission – which is a really long thing, but it means I get to hang out twice a year with other people from the Christian denominations around the country who are thinking about interfaith relations, and how to do it best. We recently had a meeting out in Arizona. And, you know, we did a lot of business and meeting stuff, but in the evening we got to do something fun. And that something fun was going to an outdoor space where, when we got there, the first thing we needed to do was take off our shoes. And we went into this space, and there were lines of cushions on the floor, and we sat in rows. We sat in lines. We joined about 300 other people in doing this. We sat barefooted on the floor. And the Sikh community served us dinner. So, as each course came through, you kind of turned to a different person you were sitting next to, and started a new conversation, finding out who they were, why they were there. And it was in Arizona so of course the weather was very nice, but there was this breeze, I remember, just flowing through that space the whole evening. It was something of the Spirit. It was a place where I found common values among a faith tradition that was not my own. Values of humility, taking our shoes off. Value of service, people coming through and serving us before they ate. They ate, like, 'way at the end, after everybody else had been served. So even though I found similarities, this was an absolutely unique experience where I got to appreciate someone very different than myself.
All of this, for me, is good news.
Peace.
Shalom.
Tabernacle provided the 501C3 umbrella to get the Interfaith Center established, and we continue to support them through some of our Mission budget.
The Acts reading that we read today, which is the lectionary text about the Spirit coming upon even the Gentiles, was a scandalous moment. I like to think of this as the Scandal of the Spirit. It wasn't until after people had been filled with the Holy Spirit that Peter was like, "Oh, we'd better baptize these people!" They weren't officially Christians, when we think about the way that we order church life, and establish our boundaries. And I believe that just as the circumcised were challenged to understand that others could participate in this covenant, so too are we Christians, in our day, challenged to move beyond our tribal mentalities, and understand that the Spirit – and I think of the Spirit as that ecstatic experience of union with the All, with ultimate reality – that experience can be shared by anyone. And that the Divine Spirit does not abide by our boundaries, but will flow where it will and to whom it will.
Let us be in a moment of silent reflection and thanksgiving.
© 2009 by Patricia Pearce and Nicole Diroff
