This morning we welcomed the Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager to the pulpit. Laura will start as our new Senior Associate Minister on March 20th. Following the service a special congregational meeting unanimously affirmed Laura in this new position.
Mark 2:1-12
Candidating Sermon
What Countries Shall We Sing Into?
The year was 1952 and Paul Robeson, the 20th century human rights activist and American singer and was making history –some say trouble–once again.
Hiring a flatbed truck and the best loudspeakers, Robeson sang into Canada. His voice making a way out of no way across the barriers set up to silence him.
A crowd of 40,000 showed up on this spring morning to hear Robeson’s deep, bass voice soar for peace and justice. He told his audience,
I stand here and sing today under great stress because I dare, as do you — all of you, to fight for peace and for a decent life for all men, women and children”.[1]
Robeson’s US Passport was revoked making it illegal for him to travel and perform beyond American borders.
It was the early 50’s and the height of the McCarthy Era, that painful period in our nation’s history with the start of the Cold War and fear of Communism. It was also the height of racism, violence and segregation under the Jim Crow laws (which as you know made it legal racial segregation in all public places and schools…)
Like other artists, teachers, laborers, and ordinary folks, Robison was labeled a Communist.
The son of a former slave and minister,
Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers University and Columbia Law School and later graced stages all over the world from Broadway to Berlin. Called a “citizen of the world” and with many trips to the USSR to visit friends and perform, Robeson threatened the powers that be.
But on this Spring morning in May, Robeson found a way to open the roof of injustice in spite of the obstacles.
He sang a way out of no way!
One can also imagine the waiting crowds gathered around Jesus on that ancient day in our biblical miracle story. as they turned to one another: “We have never seen anything like this!” (v.12)
As our scripture from the gospel of Mark unfolds (this miracle story has versions in all four of the gospels)
Jesus is pictured at home and preaching the word his ministry in full swing. (In the Mark tradition, of course, likes to fill in all the details and highlight who it is that truly held Authority!)
The front door was blocked so
some neighbors carried a man on a stretcher
Paralyzed by trauma, illness, by doubts or stereotypes
we don’t know,
but this band of brothers and sisters
made a way out of no way.
In the heat of a desert day,
their movements of courage and compassion crossed all arbitrary limits…
climbing up
digging their way through the mud with bare hands
lowering this wounded soul to the feet of Jesus.
Finding a way out of no way…
Not one of these unnamed characters turned away
And said, “ too crowded here, Let’s try tomorrow!”
They knew what the authority to care asked of them…
While the naysayers and grumblers complained,
Jesus saw these “God-Carriers” and the vulnerable ones before him:
“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go.” (v.11)
Healing unfolds in the midst of community…Looking more carefully into this text, I wonder when the healing actually began?
Perhaps the healing moment was prompted when the neighbors were no longer bystanders but stood up, determined to carry this wounded warrior to Jesus,
Perhaps the healing deepened as the roof was lifted off and witnesses started to notice a faith that has no bounds.
Maybe the paralyzed child of God found his or her own voice again, after being seen, finally seen
Seen by a love that carries us through the darkest of times,
Across the most impenetrable of boundaries.
My friends,
Jesus certainly healed someone that day
Just as those unnamed helpers claimed their power and participated in making a difference, too.
I wonder at that kind of generosity
About the the deeper healing of the heart, mind and soul
we are called to as disciples
As neighbors
As the unnamed “God-Carriers” (as Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes the human person)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu says,
“Each single one of us is said to be of infinite worth… each one of us is a god carrier, each one of us god’s (co-partner). Can you imagine if we really believed that?”[2]
Healing happens in profound ways when we carry one another-
And also when we let ourselves be carried for a while, too.
When we witness to the hard stuff and the hopeful days as we dare to be disciples for one another and the newcomer, the invisible and the lost.
Imagine a church like that!
As you all well know, sometimes it means getting our hands dirty
it means being changed, wildly imaginative and often, transformed ourselves.
What draws me to today’s gospel narrative is
What draws me to the courage of that unsung American hero, Paul Robeson, and
what draws me once again to this place of grace, this Congregational Meetinghouse on the corner of Lyme and Ferry.
Its each of you showing up when there’s a need for a home for families from Puerto Rico, Syria and Rwanda as well as, the undocumented person in our midst.
Its each of you making breakfast and helping out on a Saturday morning as the Shoreline food pantry opens its doors.
Its each of you traveling to Green Grass, Palestine and Haiti in ever widening circles of belonging and befriending.
It’s you, the young people of this congregation, feeding the homeless and learning their names during a Midnight Run to Manhattan on a cold winter night.
When God calls, we lift each other up, finding ingenious “ways out of no way”
That’s the kind of church community I want to call home! THIS is the place!
I close with a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, favorite Palestinian- American poet.
“Paul Robeson stood
on the northern border
of the USA and sang into Canada…
His voice left the USA when his body was not allowed to cross that line.
Remind us again, brave friend.
What countries may we sing into?
What lines should we all be crossing?
What songs travel toward us from far away
to deepen our days?” [3]
May it be so my friends as we travel on together.
Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager
First Congregational Church of Old Lyme
[1] Paul Robeson, Here I Stand (Beacon Press, 1958)
[2] Interview with Krista Tippett, https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/desmond-tutu-i-am-god-carrier
Tutu tells a story of his days serving a church in Soweto during apartheid. He would teach his black community when they were demeaned to say, “I am a God Carrier, I am God’s Partner!”
[3] Naomi Shabib Nye, You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2005)