January 23, 2012
The Intense Feeling of Hospitality
On January 16, The Park and its interfaith partner, Congregation Da'at Elohim, hosted the 15th annual Heschel-King Interfaith Service, a tribute to the friendship and work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That evening, we honored the leaders and volunteers of the Saturday Community Lunch Program, a program that has been held in our Fellowship Hall every Saturday for the past 22 years.
Rev. Luis-Alfredo Cartagena's sermon equally honored Rabbi Heschel, Dr. King, and these selfless community members. His tribute follows.
The intense feeling of hospitality among the Jewish people is reflected throughout the Bible and the Talmud. A graphic description of Abraham’s hospitality and kindness to strangers is to be found in Genesis 18:1-8, where we read,
“When he raised his eyes he saw three strangers standing at a distance from him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent door to meet them, and bowed down to the earth and said: “My lords, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought that you may wash your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree. Since you have come to your servant, I will bring you a little food that you may refresh yourselves; then you may go on.”
Just as Abraham so many decades ago, we, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, each Saturday at The Park offer through our Saturday Community Lunch Program radical hospitality to the people of New York. We do so, not as an ecumenical or interfaith endeavor, but as participants of a Beloved Community.
As a teenager in the 1960s I didn't pay much attention to Martin Luther King, Jr. My social change activities unfolded in the inner city of the Peoples’ Republic of The Bronx. I identified more with Malcolm X than with Martin King. Despite my Catholic upbringing, like most Black Power activists, I viewed King's notions of nonviolence and Beloved Community as impractical, naïve, sentimental, dangerous and even fatal for people like me.
The older brothers of many of my friends, and, as the Vietnam conflict continued, my friends, were being drafted and deployed to South East Asia. Most of whom returned in body bags. As a result, a Polish Rabbi named Abraham Joshua Heschel emerged in my life and spoke to my heart. Listening to him at protest rallies, in interviews, and learning of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and his relationship with Dr. King made me reflect that possibly a synthesis of my Black Power militancy with King's vision of the Beloved Community and Heschel’s Passion for the Prophet might just be conceivable.
Tonight we gather in this space as a Beloved Community to recognize the ministries and honor the lives of these two great prophets of the Twentieth Century. We are also here to acknowledge the service and labor of love that continues after twenty-three years to emanate cooperatively from this place and to express our heartfelt gratitude to the congregations of each of our partners, Park Avenue United Methodist Church, Manhattan Church of Christ, St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic Church, Congregation Da'at Elohim, the Temple of Universal Judaism and of course Park Avenue Christian Church. I would also like to express gratitude to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies for its continued funding, but more so for its essential support through the service of Ms. Kim Lerner, a social worker, that as of this past Thanksgiving has been assisting, each Saturday, any of our guests or volunteers who request her services.
For me, prophecy is not merely some historic fact or the telling of the future. For me, as I believe it was for Heschel and King, it is a living reality. It is present-day inspiration that inaugurates new eras of spiritual excitement. The spirit of the biblical prophets and the influence they gained in their nation give the Old Testament its incomparable power and has inspired women and men through the centuries. They were the moving force of their nation, as were Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel in our nation, our world, our time and our lives.
This is why we must not be content simply feeding the hungry, but commit to search for solutions to rid the root causes of their hunger. The ignoring of the poor and the weak has been institutionalized over the past few decades and the socialization of evil is prevalent throughout our fragile planet. War, hunger, injustice, racism and the ever increasing gap between the haves and have not’s seem the rule rather than its exception.
Rabbi Heschel informed us, “Above all, the Prophets remind us of the moral state of a people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” So it is in our time. That is why in the 1,196 Saturdays we have opened this space, our hearts and our lives to the less fortunate, each and every volunteer has been transformed into a modern-day prophet.
The 11,610 meals this Beloved Community served our brothers and sisters of the New York community in 2011 portrays a sharp difference from the information we find in newspapers, online, and throughout the media. They show an uninviting world full of iniquity, injustice, and idolatry. Nevertheless, God needs women and men to act with mercy and righteousness, we as citizens of this Beloved Community must remember that God’s needs cannot be achieved solely in Mosques, Temples, Synagogues or Churches. We are faithful to our Creator’s needs only if we bring them to the streets and highways of our world. We all need to learn and teach that justice is neither simply a traditional custom, nor a human value. Justice is rather the vehicle that moves us into communion with our God.
That’s why when Peggy, Henry, Camille, Neal prepare meals, these men and women are prophesying. When the late Evelyn Tesdell, with shaking hands, would serve our guests, she was not just inspiring sister Esther -- his elderly lady was prophesying. When Mandy, Gerald, Bonnie, the pre-teens and teens from Xavier, Loyola, the Lower Eastside Prep School’s Leo’s Club, and Youth Services Opportunity Program, assist in preparing and serving guests, these good people are prophesying.
When Marilyn and Ebony play Motown music so volunteers and guests sing and sway, this brother and sister is prophesying. Or when Reverends Jennifer and Gavin invite their neighbor to come in to play Christmas music on the piano, all three are prophesying. When David carves over a dozen turkeys each month, this brother is prophesying.
When Arthur or students from The Borough of Manhattan Community College, Baruch, St. John’s, Hunter, NY Law School, NYU, the Golden Key Honor Society setup Fellowship Hall, these young people are prophesying. When James and Timothy put away tables and chairs at the end of a Saturday, these brothers are prophesying. When Ima Jean washes pots and pans, or Carol serves tea and coffee, these sisters are prophesying. When Ellen, Steve and the rest of the Christian Life Community serve, they are prophesying.
When Vanessa brings a young girl from Little Sisters’, they are prophesying. When Lynn Meyer and three generations of her family serve on Christmas Eve, this family is prophesying. When little Brandon serves apples or chips under the tender eyes of his mom and others, that little boy is prophesying. When Ruthie, Lisa, Bruce and Patti, Young Duk Pak, Medadie, Su Yen, or the many others I can’t name tonight, participate in the Saturday Community Lunch Program, they are one and all prophesying.
Why are they all prophesying? In the words of Rev. King they have decided to walk in the light of creative altruism instead of the darkness of destructive selfishness. How are they going about it? In Rabbi Heschel words, “All it takes is one person…and another...and another… and another…to start a movement.” What are they prophesying? Each and every man, woman, teenager and child is prophesying the Kingdom of God on earth. Come alone, or bring a loved one or friend for all are welcomed to prophesize at our Beloved Community.