Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 29, 2011
Lessons designated by the Common Lectionary include: Acts 17:22-31, Psalm 66:8-20, I Peter 3:13-22 and John 14:15-21.
“Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord” (I Peter 3:13-15a). “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
As I read the words of our lections assigned for this week, I was reminded of the great souls I have known during the course of my ministry. They were the ones not intimidated by difficult jobs in places where fear might well be justified and where success as the world knows it was unlikely. I think of Bill and Helen Webber and Norman and Peg Eddy in particular who spent their lives in East Harlem and became pioneers in contemporary urban ministry. Over sixty years ago, they formed what was named as the East Harlem Protestant Parish, located in the city blocks around 96th to 106th streets in Manhattan.
I first met them on August 28, 1963 as members of the United Church of Christ gathered for the March on Washington, D.C. The bus ride to our nation’s capital was filled with songs that buoyed us up and encouraged our hopes with lyrics like “We Shall Overcome, We Shall Not be Moved.” Then gathered at Lincoln Memorial we listened to the remarkable and historic words of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech. But soon I was back in the comfortable suburban setting of my congregation on Long Island while many of my companions returned to the harsh poverty of an urban ghetto.
The words of our lections reflect the truth that was lived out in the lives of the Webber’s and the Eddy’s. They focused on the needs of a church community that also faced the dangers that can beset minorities. There were also realities of poverty and crime and the inevitable issues that all humans face of suffering and death. In all such life situations, our Gospel and Epistle lections affirm the power, faithfulness and presence of God. They have enabled generations of church communities to persevere in life with hope, trusting the future while remaining faithful to the purposes of God.
I was reminded of the East Harlem Protestant Parish and its ministry in reading a book written by the Webber’s son, Tom, entitled “Flying Over 96th Street”. He describes his own experience as a child growing to adulthood in East Harlem. While attending a prestigious preparatory school several miles distant from his home, his companions were the sons and daughters of the New York’s wealthy. Then bus and subway took him back to a place where he was the only white kid on the neighborhood basketball court. His book is a marvelous testimony to his appreciation of the friends he made in East Harlem and his own growth as a human being.
Over the years as a pastor and then as a coordinator of urban ministry in the New York City area for the United Church of Christ, I was a very minor participant, more of an observer to the creative efforts of people like the Webbers and Eddy’s to foster a more healthy community. For a while the emphasis was to provide tenements with adequate heating through efficient boilers, or to lobby government in efforts to prevent high rise apartments in already congested areas. But with all the problems and dangers they lived with every day, there were also the blessings that came with community, with the faithful who shared in reading programs for the young, and choir practice, and church suppers and worship that inspired hope and the courage to continue.
I was struck by the words of I Peter, “if you suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed by God.” I can recall Bill Webber speaking at a forum at the Garden City Community Church on Long Island where I was the pastor, and sharing his experience in East Harlem. After decades of effort to make life better for his community, it was obvious to him that the quality of life had actually lessened. Life was harder in East Harlem at the conclusion of the East Harlem Protestant Parish’s life than it was at its beginning.
Yet what a blessing and what a witness those people made! If ever a text was “right on” it is this one, telling us that doing right is always a blessing. And that those who love Jesus and whose lives are instructed by him, will be loved by God.
Ralph Ahlberg
