The Edgewater Community Religious Association will host its annual Thanksgiving service at 3 pm on Sunday, November 19 at the Ismaili Center, 6259 N. Broadway Ave. .  It will feature speakers, music, and sacred readings from various faiths represented in our community.  There will be a reception to follow.

​At the service, we will also be collecting canned goods to benefit Care for Real, the Edgewater food pantry.

By Dr. Peggy Griffin

​The newly formed NSBC Outreach Ministry organized the October 28th panel discussion on the “Liberating Church”. The idea spiraled from the 2018 Martin Luther King Weekend Teach-In. Dr. Nancy Bedford from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary was our guest theologian.  Pastor Rony Reyes and Lupe, a member of the Hispanic congregation, were the other panelists.  Pastor Michael Ware was the panel moderator, and Pastor Kathryn Ray was the translator.

The evocative discussion followed a luncheon that had a selection of delightful tastes from several Spanish speaking countries around the world.  The food and table discussions helped tune the ears of listeners to grasp meaningful content coming from the in-depth panel dialogue.  This physical nourishment was preceded by spiritual sustenance in the sermon of Pastor Michael in the morning service.  He reminded us that “It is not what we have, but what we share.” The total worship experience on that day involved sharing substance, ideas, sentiments, and action strategies.

One could sense the desperation of the travelers on the bridge between the borders of Guatemala and Mexico as Pastor Rony explained that he too had crossed that bridge.  He shared some history that built a case for the advantage of admitting the Caravan travelers    into the United States.  He spoke of “the law of proximity” in which human nature compels individuals to seek the closest and most convenient way to escape from oppression.  Lupe confirmed his statements as she shared her own story of finding refuge in the United States.  She made the situation real for us.  She emphasized the fact that people are coming with willing hands to work and make positive contributions to this country and to society at large. 

Dr. Bedford stated that “God is no respecter of borders.”  Peripheries and confines are constructions that are usually centered around aspirations for power and economic gain. She gave us the charge to put out truth narratives by collecting and disseminating testimonies of history.  Christian education includes presenting history in the proper perspective and reaching beyond borders.

The panel discussion was more than informative.  The question & answer period revealed that participants were ready to act on the ideas triggered during the discussion.  From the outcome of this event, members of North Shore Baptist church can watch for some positive new initiatives.  Several members signed up for the formation of an Immigration Task Force.  The Outreach Ministry is working on ways to collect and publicize the rich narratives in the congregations.  We have renewed inspiration in planning for our 2019 MLK Teach-in.

Pastor Michael began the panel discussion with reference to a triune plan for action that emerged in the Adventures in Learning Sermon Talk Back. These actions are: 1. Write to legislators to advocate desired changes. 2. Watch our words. Use “us” language rather than words that cause division.  3. Use the power of the vote to bring positive change.

Days have passed since the discussion of the Habits of a Liberating Church in Community, but the spirit and desire for action are rising from incubation.

Caravan Counseling, a resource ministry of NSBC, is offering an open, quiet place available to the community for those who desire to sit, reflect, be centered, pray, or meditate during Election Day. All are welcome!
  
The meditation space will be available on Tuesday, November 6th, with drop-in times from 10am-8pm in Nambu Chapel, across from the polling area. 

The church address is:

North Shore Baptist Church
5244 N. Lakewood Ave
Chicago, IL 60640

By Rev. Kathryn Ray

"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today."... Zacchaeus stood up and said to the LORD, "Look, LORD! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham." -from Luke 19

​Public benefits offices are among the most hellish devised by human hands.  These are the places you go to apply for food assistance, Medicaid, or financial assistance with housing and utilities. Where you wait for four to six hours under harsh fluorescent lighting in hard plastic chairs, surrounded by dozens of other people who are stressed and in pain, all to spend five minutes with someone who may or may not understand exactly what services you are requesting. 
 
On my most recent visit, a security guard stood up in front of the dozens of people who had come to line up an hour, two hours before the office opened. He told us:
 
“Listen, I know you have problems and you’re suffering. I’m not here to hear your story. I really hope you get better, but I don’t care.  I’m just here to take your names to send you upstairs as quickly as possible.”
 
As appalling as that may sound, I couldn’t fault him.   These employees have to work at this place day after day. They are constantly faced with desperation, pain, and deep need.  They don’t have near the resources they require to actually meet those needs.  So they find ways to protect themselves, both logistically and emotionally.  We all do this. We all find ways to steel our hearts in the face of deep need.
 
It makes me wonder: What if, instead of sending my tax dollars to the government to allocate to those in need, I put it aside and kept it. And I was told, we’re sending people who need assistance with food and medicine to you.  You decide how to apportion the money. You decide who gets what.  How would I do it?  How would I manage, both logistically and  emotionally?
 
I ask, because this is the situation in which Zacchaeus is now in.
 
It’s easy to see this story as a kind of Christmas Carol.  Zacchaeus is the Scrooge whose heart has opened, “fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions.” He buys Christmas dinner. Everybody rejoices, and God bless us everyone.
 
That’s not how it’s going to work. 
 
Zacchaeus is opening his door to a world of hurt and need that goes farther and deeper than even his abundant financial resources can meet.   He has committed to giving half his possessions to the poor.  Jericho is a city, and there are lots of people in need there.   How does he choose whom to help? How much does each person get?  
 
What happens when they come back the next day?
 
What happens when- God forbid- they are not grateful for what they are getting from this wealthy man who has cheated people for so many years?
 
Zacchaeus is opening a public benefits office, of which he is the sole proprietor.  God help him.
 
But of course, that’s the point. He’s doing this because God helped him. He has, more literally than any of us, found Jesus.  He wanted to see who Jesus was, and now he has.  He has been converted and convicted.
 
Father Gustavo Gutierrez, the Latin American priest who galvanized the liberation theology movement, calls conversion a starting place, a break with the life lived up to that point.[1] Note that, according to this definition, conversion is not primarily a change of religious identity.  Rather, it is the beginning of a new spiritual journey.
 
For a prime example of someone who was truly converted, Father Gutierrez looks to Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who just last week was being canonized as a Catholic saint.  Romero was already a believer and a Christian leader.  His conversion to the cause of Christ happened when he got woke to the realities of the people that he was called to minister to.  He was torn out of an upper-class, academic world in which he was quite comfortable and placed in a new world, the world of the poor.
 
That world was described by a member of our Hispanic congregation at last week’s service for lamentation and healing in the wake of the Laquan McDonald case.  She said, “We were jailed, we were put in dungeons where, supposedly, we had disappeared.  And our only commitment was to work for our people.”
 
Romero’s conversion moved him to speak out, like the biblical prophets before him, against the systems that crushed the poor into the ground.  This kind of authentic conversion is not something that happens in a single moment, once and for all.  Father Gutierrez reminds us this. Rather, it is ongoing process.  A process that includes stumbling blocks and temptations to turn back.
 
If Zacchaeus is to truly commit himself to the poor at the level he proposes, he will not be able to simply give money to those in need and turn away again. Once he opens his door to that flood of need, it cannot easily be shut. He will have to attend deeply to the stories and the hurts of the people.  He will listen to them, he will know them, and he will be changed.  Father Gutierrez gives that kind of relationship a name. He calls it solidarity. 
 
Zacchaeus will doubt. He will not know the way forward.  If he does it right, he will, sometimes, be taken advantage of.  And his heart will be broken again and again.
 
He will not be enough.  He will eventually fail and burn out.  He will have to steel himself, guard his heart, like the workers in that public benefits office.
 
Unless he finds a community to do it with him.  That, my friends, is #whyIgivetoNSBC. Our giving of ourselves interweaves us in relationship with one another. It draws us together into a deeper commitment, a solidarity with one another and with the world around us.
 
Together, as a church, we can truly face our continual need for conversion.  We can stay strong as we continually open our hearts to the needs of those around us. We can stay creative as we ask together how we might commit ourselves anew to the task of solidarity with those in need in pain.
 
Siblings, on this road of solidarity that we walk together, we will struggle, we will feel doubt and fear, and our hearts will be broken again and again.    
 
But through it all, the Spirit of God goes with us. She holds us up through the love and support that we give one another. As we love each other with loyalty and forgiveness, as we share joys and heartaches, and care for each other in times of need.
 
That is the mandate of our church covenant, which you can find in your bulletin today. It is a holy promise to walk with one another in and with those around us in the way of Christ, on the road of solidarity.
 
Together, may we follow Zacchaeus in giving deeply of ourselves, and in so doing, follow in the footsteps of Jesus. 


[1] In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, ed. Michal Griffina and Jennie Weiss Block (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2013), p. 71.

By Rev. Kathryn Ray

Sunday morning coffee hour has always felt to me like a great act of weaving in and out between different worlds.  There is a constant vaivén, the swaying back and forth between English and Spanish, interspersed with what few words of Karen I know that are always received with grace.  It is a moving in and out of worlds, mediated both by language and by physical space. This person gets a hug; another gets a handshake; another, a kiss on the cheek.

I’ll never forget the moment when I was coming up from Hispanic worship and ran into Cecilia Poenyunt.  As I had been kissing people on the cheek all morning, I moved in towards her face, until an alarm went off in my brain shouting “ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!” At the last second, I extended my hand for a handshake. What is a warm greeting for one is an intrusion into the physical space of another.  This place never fails to keep me on my toes.   

This story has always embodied an essential component of my experience at NSBC.  With every encounter with another individual at this church, I find a sacred space that I must enter on its own terms.  I greet other people on a daily basis without a second thought. This church demands that I be intentional about my greetings.  That intentionality reminds me of the beauty and holiness of the act: the welcoming and the being welcomed, the joyful heralding of a shared space.
With each encounter with another, I move not only between worlds, but between stories.  For each of us, there is a story behind our arrival in this church, and more stories unfold with each passing week, each passing coffee hour.  What is your story?  What brings you into this space, and what happens for you while you are here?

As we enter pledge campaign season, we will be thinking about how much money we pledge to donate to the church in 2019. As we think about money, I also want us to think about stories. What stories that accompany each gift you make to the church? Starting October 4, there will be a display in the Wilbur Warner Welcome Center entitled “Why I Give to NSBC.”  I invite you to use one of the large Post-Its provided to share your story.  If you are on social media, I also invite you to post your stories, photos, and reflections online using the hashtag #whyIgivetoNSBC. 
​
To share my story: I give to the church, in part, because of this absurd and beautiful moment when I was stopped up short transitioning between cultural spaces during coffee hour. 

On Sunday, November 4, the entire church will gather to worship in all four languages at 10:30 am in the sanctuary. Pastor Michael Ware, the new pastor of the English language congregation, will be preaching. After worship, a light lunch will be provided.