Being a Link in the Chain

May 8, 2022 • Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Psalm 23, Hebrews 11, excerpts
Martha Chapman, guest preacher

[You can view the full worship video recording at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQw-qSRlo

That Scripture reading from Hebrews was a WHOLE lotta names of people who did stuff, or who didn’t do stuff…“by faith.” A bunch of them were generations in the same family.  Happy Mother’s Day - y’all. Here’s to messy, inter-generational, chosen & cherished or biological family!  Here at The Church of the Village, and indeed in all faith communities - we create a ‘chosen family.’ So - on Mother’s Day when we honor all mothering, here’s to family.  

Back to our reading – where someone thought those messy, family stories were important enough to write down - not just once in the Old Testament but as a reminder again in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The Bible is full of stories, a lot of them about families. Stories are important. Stories tell us where we came from and help us remember the past. Stories help us imagine the future.  Stories lure us from what is into what could be. 

Here is part of my story: I was born in Germany when my dad was a student there. My dad was born in California and my mom in Michigan. My grandparents were born in the US, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. My great-grandparents came from all those places plus Scotland, England and probably more places I don’t know about. I have a sea of ancestors behind me as part of my story. 

Thinking about myself this way, I feel like I am the “point” of a triangle, with that sea of ancestors behind me, with all their strengths and weaknesses, all the stories I know and the stories I don’t. 

We - each of us - are the culmination of generations and generations of those who came before us. We – each of us – have a sea of ancestors at our backs.

Here’s more of my story: I got married, then got divorced which was one of the most awful things I ever went through. It felt like being ‘surrounded by the shadows of Death’ like we heard in Psalm 23… and it wasn’t even a ‘bad’ divorce. But that divorce changed me, and made space for getting married to Paul. The end of one thing made room for the beginning of something else. Something better. 

We - each of us - have many coming togethers and breaking aparts in our past… marriages & divorces, if you will. Endings and beginnings. 

Here is part of the story of our Beloved Community: The Church Of The Village was created in 2005 when 3 Greenwich Village Methodist communities joined. Each of those communities was small and struggling, and decided they’d be better able to face the future together. These 3 communities were The Washington Square United Methodist Church, The Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist Church, and The Church of all Nations. Each of those communities ended, as they “got married,” and by doing so, began something new.  Us.  

Washington Square, which I joined in the mid-1990’s, was created around 1860 when some previous Methodist communities “got married” - although coincidentally one of those communities had begun by “getting divorced” from another Methodist movement. Did I mention that families are messy? Washington Square served local immigrant families at the end of the 19th century and was purportedly a station on the Underground Railroad. Last week we heard from Rev. Finley Schaef, pastor there from 1966-1970, when it was known as the “Peace Church,” started the Harvey Milk School as a school for gay teens, counseled thousands of women on abortion services BEFORE Roe v. Wade, and sheltered conscientous objectors to the Vietnam War.  There is a plaque that reads “Honoring Those who refused to serve in Vietnam” down in the Chapel in this building, from that time in that building. Paul and I were married in that building in 2001 - one of the last to do so before the building was sold. And - that community shrank as the city changed around it, failing to care for its building until the repairs needed were so extreme that pieces of mortar were literally falling onto the sidewalk. I helped to pack things up and move out of that building …and again it felt like being “surrounded by the shadows of Death.” But that death - that ending - made room for our ‘beginning’ as Church of the Village. 

Metropolitan-Duane UMC had similar stories. The name alone tells you it was the merger of 2 communities.  A downtown Duane St. Church closed and merged with Metropolitan Church up here in Greenwich Village. Residential neighborhoods had moved uptown - so the churches serving them needed to move too. More recent history - PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, was founded in this building in the 1970’s; you can go outside and read the plaque about that on 7th Ave. And - Metropolitan-Duane mis-used its parsonage apartment in a near-by building years back, which resulted in losing said apartment which meant subsequent generations of the community (us) have to pay to house our pastors - an expense which is one tiny piece of the financial challenges we face. So - The Metropolitan-Duane church “ended” - but that ending made room for our ‘beginning’ as Church of the Village. 

Church of all Nations - the 3rd community which helped to create The Church of the Village, began as a social justice outreach center for recent immigrants on Houston St. in 1904.  2 locations later as a Spanish-speaking community in the 1970’s, they moved into a leased building on St. Marks Place which, in the messy “family history” and as one of life’s little jokes in NYC, had formerly been home to a German-speaking Lutheran congregation. And - in that leased building with no real estate equity, that community dwindled until it was essentially all one biological family resistant to change. None of those members are still part of The Church of the Village. We tried valiantly, when joining together in 2005, to be a multilingual congregation. We failed. Some of that felt like being surrounded by the shadows of Death. So - The Church of All Nations also “ended” - but that ending made room for our ‘beginning’ as Church of the Village. 

There have been countless “marriages and divorces” and successes and failures in our congregation’s history. Since the beginning of Methodism in Manhattan, communities have begun and ended, buildings have come and gone and congregations have joined and separated. Our denomination of Methodism was itself born as a break-away religion from the Anglican Church.  John and Charles Wesley, our founders who immigrated from England in the 1700’s, were ‘divorcing’ from the Church of England. Methodism both in the United States and globally has joined together and broken apart and changed again and again and again.  The “United Methodist” description of our current denomination title tells you we ‘united’ from something else.  But that is another story that is for another day. Messy family history. 

I believe that in all these “marriages and divorces,” in our personal families and in our church family, we are links in a chain. We are one point in a story, each of us with a ‘sea of ancestors’ at our backs that stretches behind us, and the future that stretches out ahead. We are standing at OUR point in the story…and we are different from what came before and from what is to come. 

Here’s another piece of my story - I love to read science fiction.  When done well, science fiction stories can give you new perspectives about how life can be.  A favorite author of mine is Octavia Butler, who broke new ground just by writing science fiction at all as a Black woman who would probably identify today as gender-fluid.  Some of her novels center around a post-apocalyptic society in which a young Black woman, without really meaning to, founds a new religion based on change.  The mantra from this faith-system, which we heard Erich read earlier, is: 

All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you. 
The only lasting truth is Change. God Is Change.

I take comfort in that.  God is Change. 

Our city, nation and world MUST change if we are to survive the climate crisis, not to mention toxic politics and the lack of economic and social justice. On each of these fronts, it is our responsibility to act towards what we think will create the best future we can vision. Not acting… not changing… is an irresponsible choice and will create harm. That harm will change things too. So - no matter what we do, or don’t do, things WILL change, whether we want them to or not. 

Our church, both this congregation and the greater Methodist church, currently face changes. In addition to what Pastor Jeff said earlier today about lawsuits facing our congregation, the greater Methodist denomination is at the crux of another long-brewing change centered around either granting full inclusion – with access to sacraments like marriage and to jobs which administer those sacraments like being a pastor – or continuing to exclude from those rights and sacraments and jobs the Children of God who identify as LGBTQIA and who worship God in Methodist communities.  This coming change is yet another of the many ‘marriages and divorces’ of Methodism. 

It can be quite terrifying to think about all of these changes. I frequently find myself overwhelmed and sometimes in danger of feeling despair about some kinds of change, and hopeful about others. 

Here’s an idea that helps me when I feel despair, or am unsure what to do or not do. It’s expressed in this quote from Rabbi Tarfon, a Jewish priest who lived around 70 AD: 

"It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it either."

Rabbi Tarfon further teaches: 

“Do not be arrogant; do not think that you alone can finish the job. Trust in your children and generations yet unborn to take up the task. Know that you are part of the living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world and carried on this mission for four thousand years in an unbroken covenant.”

A living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world and carried on a mission.

That is what is behind us all, is it not - this ‘sea of ancestors?’ 

Each of us in our personal lives and as part of this beloved community - we are the current “link in the living chain” and we are part of creating what’s next, by our actions or by our inactions. 

A Native American philosophy from Iroquois and other tribal nations is stated succinctly by Métis/Cree Elder Kerrie Moore: 

“Our Elders have always said, “What we do today will affect the next seven generations.” Repetitive traumas that happened to our ancestors, as many as seven generations before, can be passed down to our children.”

This is quite a legacy and a responsibility to ponder: ‘What we do today will affect the next seven generations.’  What do we do with this idea? Personally… as a church… globally…? 

As we try to act (or not act) “by faith” like all those generations in Hebrews… as we try to think ahead for the next seven generations … as we try to heal from harms that happened up to seven generations in the past … we must embrace how our actions - or our inactions - resonate, and face that we will change.  We must ‘own’ the change - because it’s happening whether we want it or not. 

Each of those 3 communities that came before us was willing to change - to end being what they were, in order to be part of something new: us!  And what they created, The Church of the Village, is a special place indeed.  In conversation with member Katherine Hickey this week, she said that we are “a true community - not just church as a building.”  And then she said: “If The Church of the Village met in a parking lot - it would still be such a strong community of faith!”  And that sums it up for me - our community IS a living chain of people … who happened to have used buildings. The “true community” - that living chain of people -  is what matters. 

So as this “true community” …as our link in the living chain… it is our job to not be arrogant, and think that we alone can finish the job… it is our job to know that it’s not our responsibility to finish the work - AND to know that we are not free to desist. We are NOT FREE to desist. We must act. 

And in order to act “by faith” as a true community, we need to know stories of those who came before use - those who did things, or didn’t do things, “by faith.” Cain and Abel. Sarah and Abraham. Jacob and Rebecca. Washington Square and Metropolitan-Duane. 

I don’t know what will happen as we collectively work to respond to the climate crisis.  I don’t know what will happen in the next elections. I don’t know what will happen with the upcoming change in Methodism regarding the rights of God’ Children who are LGBTQIA.  I don’t know what will happen for our community with the lawsuits Pastor Jeff mentioned today. 

But I do know that it is our job to mindfully and intentionally be a link in the living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world and carried on God’s mission for thousands of years. 

It is our job to be a People who know that even as we are surrounded by the shadows of Death, we will not fear… because God is with us, and: 

“God will spread a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and anoint our heads with oil – our cup will overflow! Only goodness and love will follow us for all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in your house, Adonai, for days without end.”

A People who trust - ‘by faith’ - sometimes with all kinds of doubts mixed in - that God is luring us toward creating blessings seven generations ahead and that God will help us heal the harms from seven generations behind, AND that this will guide our actions (or our inactions) if we let it. 

It is our job to be a people who know that 

All that we touch we Change. All that we Change Changes us. 
The only lasting truth is Change. God Is Change.

A People who know that the end of the old is the only way to make space for the beginning of the new. 

Let us mindfully and intentionally know that all we touch, we change, friends, and let us mindfully and intentionally allow all we touch to change us. Let us mindfully and intentionally BE our ‘link’ in the living chain of people who have dreamed, worked for a better world, and carried on mission for thousands of years.  

It is our turn.  
It is our turn. 

 Amen.

Copyright © 2022 by Martha Chapman
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