THE PANDEMIC REQUIRES THE RESURRECTION OF COMMUNITIES OF FAITH

That is the resurrection we seek. Easter should not mark the resurrection of the U.S. dollar as the President blasphemes, Easter must be a resurrection of the Kingdom of God among us – “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am with them.”

 The Sun rises on another Sunday morning – and our church from which we have gained so much strength, in which we have witnessed so many miracles – is empty. Yet we are preoccupied – occupied - by the pandemic that is traversing the world – county by county – and our own communities – neighborhood by neighborhood…;We are on Lockdown..

As I look at the empty pews in the darkened church lights, I try to remember what we were doing before the pandemic came, consuming our thoughts, imprisoning our purposes.

In the midst of this empty church – strangely suspended – is our own march to Jerusalem, the movement we are called to grow, in the midst of a people, in the midst of a nation at a time of cataclysmic decision. We had persevered through the first three years of the Trump administration, defended our families as best we could and gathered the forces around the demand that all of the children had a right to a family.

 on this journey – now strangely suspended – were our own personal and family and community battles.

It is as if our day to day struggle, the work of our minds and the struggle of our spirit, so that we don’t know where to search for the river of the spirit, the march of faith, that had sustained us, that we rely on had disappeared.

We ask ourselves: what should we be about?

Let The True Church Rise Up!

First, remember that we are the church of Jesus Christ. The church of the living word is a living church – not confined to temples or big buildings or mosques. Recall the Gospel lesson of the feeding of the five thousand. Five thousand were gathered together to experience the word of Jesus, the word of liberation, the word of a living faith that binds together the people of God, especially those who have been marginalized and set aside by the rich and powerful.

That five thousand were a LVIING CHURCH! They were praying together and healing together and be renewed in the Holy Spirit together. They were connected to God and to each other, as a people of God.

When the disciples determined that the crowd should be sent away because, they the disciples, did not have enough to feed them – and who feared that the cost of feeding them with leave them broke – Jesus asked, “What food do you have?”

They responded, “Two fishes and five loaves of bread – only.” Jesus told them to gather the people in groups of fifty and “Feed the people.”

Seeing the disciples hare what they have, and organized together, the people also shared what they had with each other and “through the miracle of sharing” through the “Miracle of the Living church”, all were fed and twelve baskets were left over!

Today we are asked to look out for each other by keeping our physical distance from each other and at the same time sharing our spiritual space with each other.

We have always been part of a living church – a church that sprang from the ministry of families fighting together and young people standing together in service and resistance. Our faith has always bound us together even when we were separated. Our faith bound us together even when ICE separated us across borders. We share the word of Jesus – that is the bread of life we share.

Let us remember the journey Jesus has been leading us on since the transfiguration – since he spoke with his ancestors and began his march on Jerusalem. He spoke out against the hypocrisy of status – of those who asserted that they were better than others because of their citizenship status or the color of their skin. He warned us not to impose those prejudices of status among us.

Then Jesus struck out against the hypocrisy of wealth – telling the rich man that just obeying the law was not enough but that his salvation would come if he gave away his wealth to the poor and followed Jesus. 

As we face this worldwide crisis, the lessons of Jesus ring in our ears. Trump is still sending ICE agents into our community, enforcing inhuman and unjust status, instead of health workers. In fact, the U.S. is behind in confronting this crisis because it has not been testing and has not been preparing hospital beds and equipment for what is to come. Why? Because Trump was primarily concerned with the stock market, with wealth – with conserving the wealth of the U.S. and tried to get everyone to ignore the threat to human life. He called the pandemic “a hoax” of the democrats and the media, aimed at depressing his great accomplishments in the economy.

In truth, the U.S. is in bad shape because we do not have a strong public health infrastructure. The government at all leels did not prepare what the scientists told us was coming. The U.S. is also in bad shape economically because Trump has used the government tools to stimulate the economy in times of plenty – instead of saving them for times of difficulty.

So, we are in for a difficult period both medically and economically. It is a time we need especially to lift up the word of Jesus, the bread of life. We must continue to resist the poison of status and the poison of wealth. We must also continue the march with Jesus on Jerusalem, the march to renew the faith and unity of our people!

Remember now, as we approach Easter, that Jesus confronts the hypocrisy of religion. He is preparing the disciples and the people for his assault on the temple in Jerusalem.

The hypocrisy of religion has hit this nation hard. It has used the Christian church to put “Satan” in command - to put six, six, six on the foreheads of white Christians. It has worked to keep the people silent, imposing the demon of silence on our people. Its corruption has been a “faith killer” for a whole generation of people at a time when they most needed faith.

We should not make the mistake of generations of the institutional church – both Christian and Muslim. Too often there has been a move made to split and form a new denomination – new denominations doomed to make the same mistakes of those it split for, creating a new elite, new plans for temple building, now associations to form collaboration with oppressive governments.

Instead, let us renew the church as Jesus taught, as Jesus prepared a diaspora people to renew the church – to organize communities of faith and resistance, living by the word, connected by faith and by annual journey through the word but not placed in any heirarchy.

The challenge we face today, with buildings of worship closed, is to let the true church, the living church, the church of the living word of Jesus – rise up. Let the church be the church Jesus called it to be. Let the real Christians Please Stand up!

The way of Jesus is leading us to unity and to the restoration of faith- to be a force, a living church, to bring us through the pandemic and through the nation’s decision time – and through each of our own individual battles.

And yet the church is empty and the people are on lock down. How do we stay on track?

Remember when the disciples were in the boat crossing the lake to Gerosene. Jesus was in the back of the boat asleep. Suddenly a giant wave rose up above their heads. They screamed out for Jesus to wake up and save them. Jesus rose slowly and stepped to the front of the boat. Holding up his hand, he calmed the wave. Then he turned and spoke to the disciples, “You of so little faith, why didn’t you calm the wave yourself?”

The Pandemic is the giant wave that confronts us. Let us gather our faith so that we can continue our journey, the journey on which Jesus is leading us.

We have been blessed in our ministry because the Lord has always prepared us for the challenges we must meet. We were moved to open our little church in Humboldt Park which was perfectly situated for the national attention of Elvira’s sanctuary, binging the sanctuary movement to life throughout the nation.

In the last few years, we began the youth health service corps, expanding to 21 schools, developing a cadre of young students ready to fight the 20 year death gap in our community. From the five plus one to get 20 program grew Healthy Hood with a reach of thousands of health conscious young people.

The Lord prepared us to mobilize our forces to defend our families! At the same time, the pandemic has laid bare the evil of the Trump movement. A few weeks into a sporadic movement of social distancing, the President announced that “It was time to reopen the nation.” He suggested that the nation should be opened by Easter – at which time the churches should be filled!

Prayer and Share Groups

Let us prepare for Easter, for the Resurrection – not for the Resurrection of the U.S. Dollar, but for the resurrection of faith communities! Gather your family in prayer each day. Let each person express their fears and anxieties, their prayers and spiritual victories over. Discuss the challenges of survival and determine the best plan you can to keep social distance, to meet the specific health needs of each and to meet the challenges of food and shelter – and care for the children and the elderly.

Now take what you have gathered in your family and gather your own family of families. Reach out to other families and especially to some individuals who might be isolated. Include them in daily prayers and weekly discussion of needs. PREPAE TO SHARE! Government checks will not reach many of us who do not exist as citizens. If we share, there will always be enough food, enough shelter – and more than enough love for the children. This is your church now: organize it, commit to it, share faith and love and whatever you have.

Just as we have to confront the demon that controls the White House, we have to struggle with our own demons. In our Bible Study, we read the scripture about the Good Samaritan, how the priest and the politician passed by the wounded man by the roadside but the immigrant stopped to take care of him. We need to be Good Samaritans TO SURVIVE! That means we have to fight the demons that make us selfish.

In truth, in our prayer and share groups we are going to have to help many get over the loss of loved ones. There may not be wakes at funeral homes and gatherings at cemetaries – instead, we must face death as Jesus did, with the assurance that no one is lost to us through our faith.

We gather strength from each other – and we must be committed to organizing our prayer and share groups. Yet each person bears the responsibility to contribute strength. Many are spending time alone. Do not be afraid of solitude for a moment alone is a moment to seek the Creator who is always with you, the ancestors who have given life to you, the children who are already alive in your present.

By Easter, by the Day of Resurrection, we should be like the 5,000, organized in groups of fifties – not meeting together but sharing on our phones and online – uniting to survive and to keep the joy of life alive among us! Jesus prepared us when he said, “Wherever two or three or gathered in my name I am with them.”

The next generation, those between 15 and 30, have a very special role to play. On the one hand, for now anyway, they may remain healthy but could be the carriers of the virus and so must isolate to protect others. Still, this next generation, the ones we call the Descendants of the Diasporas, have the technological tools to organize and connect the prayer and share groups – and to move our groups towards demanding justice.

In our ministry, we will continue to do everything to advocate for those who are feeling the injustice of this pandemic – for those still locked in County Jail or in immigration detention, for those being forced to work in non-essential jobs that are unsafe. We will continue to advocate for all to have access to the government’s economic response to the pandemic – to unemployment benefits and other grants that are hard to get for many of us, especially for the undocumented.

As we organize, in each of our families, in each of our family of families, as the dynamic network of health conscious and life conscious young people strengthens social distancing and volunteers to meet the needs of the community – know that we are also organizing for the decision this nation will make about its future next fall. Our eyes are still on the prize and we will establish the right to family for eight million young people and stop the tyranny of deportations and family separation, of criminalization and mass incarceration – and now more than ever, the right to healthcare of every single human being!.

The President is choosing the economy, the creation of wealth, over the lives of millions of people! We have been prepared for this fight – and we will make it!

Stay on the road to Jerusalem to the cross – and to the resurrection! When you pray, pray for all of us! When you open your hearts to God, open your hearts to each other.

Do not be afraid of what lays before us: the challenge to the planet, the pandemic virus, the year of political decision in the nation – neither the challenges each of us face as we fight to keep our families together and find a path for the next generation, as we work to withstand the temptations and pitfalls of individualism, consumerism, and addiction, as we face those who would criminalize and demonize us – and we walk step by step calling out and defeating the many faces of the demon that keeps us silent….

For the Lord is with us and we are already forming again the miracle of the Living Church!

Scriptures for Study

Luke 10: 25-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Matthew 7:25-34 Do Not Worry

Matthew 8: 23-27 Jesus Calms the Storm

Luke 9:10-17 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

Luke 16:13 No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 18:20  For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”