To Heal the World

Rev. Kathleen Bortner

October 7, 2007

It's dark. We walk fast and talk faster. At 5 am 3 days a week Helen and I walk 2 miles at the local high school. Lynn, my husband, says he can tell the exercise is working because he sees the muscle definition in my jaw.

After one of my particularly pungent rants Helen said to me...it reminds me of that time in the desert when the Israelites were mad at God...reread that spot in Exodus. We went on to other things but I looked up what she referred to- Exodus 14: the Israelites cry out to Moses..."weren't there enough graves in Egypt. You had to bring us to the desert to die?"

There are any number of ways to end up in a grave in York...suicide by cop, selling oregano as marijuana or at the hands of a "loved one" in domestic violence.

Headlines scream, neighbors organize. What is going on in our communities ? An officer came in one day after a 15 year old stabbed his mother's boyfriend "Kate, what are these kids doing? What's going on in my town!?"

What indeed is happening to our children, what are they thinking? When a class of our High Schoolers were asked how many murders there are in the City in a year they answered 150-500. The truth is a five yr average of 5. We're having a bad year now with 8 so far.

On any given day the daily incident report breaks down to 30-40 incidents: 21-Property/vehicle related...9.6 Interpersonal (harassment, Domestic, QOL quality of life, Juvenile)...2.5 Substance, PWI, DUI....1.8 Robbery.

You may have heard of the recent report about iPods being the cause of a spike in youth robberies up from 11% to 21%. Complex social factors aside the ubiquitous iPod offers availability & opportunity. But let us not discount the complex social forces: We are a nation at war...Soldiers are trained to shoot by video and those same games are marketed to children.

The economy is uncertain with institutions we used to think trustworthy crumbling to scandal and financial malfeasance almost daily. More scandal among government officials. Politicians who use anything from homosexuality to a more sinister xenophobia to galvanize public emotion and harness votes.

Add rapidly changing demographics to our entrepreneurial culture- it was inevitable we'd see the marketing of Fear. There is a multimillion dollar industry with a vested interest in keeping anxiety at a fever pitch. (see the Lancaster newspaper headlines)

How do we- my colleague Wayne, neighborhood Development Coord & Youth Liaison, my Commander, Lt. Gene, in York remain at it? I'll tell you. Living in it provides a more complete picture than the headlines and sound bites. We experience day by day the full range of people who build their lives in our 5 square miles of real estate.

People like John Danner, who at the age of 70 opened a funeral home, to offer dignified funerals to anyone who needed them. Whether they could pay or not. Indigent, drug dealers, undocumented migrants. He buried babies for free. Losing a child is bad enough. And we attended John's funeral last month.

We walk in the Youth Unity March with 1000 children and their teachers remembering Officer Henry Schaad and Lillie Belle Allen, both 21, murdered in the civil rights violence of 1969, determined to never repeat that history.

The first Tuesday in August for the last 24 years we travel around our neighborhoods as 200 blocks celebrate NNO just by "neighboring" one another. Calls for police service drop 30-50 % that evening as 95% of our residents prove positive activity displaces negative activity.

We visit elders in homes they've occupied for 40 years while they host yet another block meeting to make sure new younger neighbors continue to defy the thugs who would run them out.

On days I don't have an ounce of strength left I visit Joanne. Comfortably retired, she has worked as a neighborhood mobilizer in the roughest areas of York for over 10 years. Single, Black, raising a 12 yr old grandson, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a year ago. What did she do? Got a part time job in the police substation in her area. She loves the people, goes door to door, empowers them and gives them hope. Joanne gives me hope.

Tikkun Olum, "to heal the world". A Jewish obligation to live in a healing way. I sometimes wonder if creating new programs and projects isn't a distraction from simply being with people. Weaving connection.

This year I began visiting the churches of our ten police chaplains, one a month in turn. We have 10, black, white, Hispanic, all evangelical Christian. At Friendship Baptist I step into room vibrating with the familiar "What a Friend We have in Jesus". Looking around, I am surprised to discover 10 people I know; our work brings us together. They have two ministers, Melvin Baber and Pastor Harvey. Both shared with the City as Chaplains. My dear friend, Stephanie is Director of the York City Human Relations Committee. At Abundant Life Ministries her pastor is also President of the Black Ministers Association. We spent Palm Sunday together singing with the Mothers of the church.

Participating in worship with someone I mostly work with during the week changes everything. The space which holds our relationship enlarges, gets deeper, like walking together away from the shallow end of the pool. We know things about one another we didn't know before.

They now know that I can't clap and sing at the same time but I do know the words to most of the hymns they sing, and we have taken Communion together. They know a representative of City Government took the time to be with them. They also know I'm a Unitarian Universalist. In every church I have been blessed , prayed over, thanked and once anointed.

Shortly after my rant to Helen, still feeling quite discouraged, I visit Primero Iglesia Assembly of God led by Chaplain Israel Gonzales. Walking into a stream of Spanish prayer and song I don't understand one word but the presence of powerful spirit is all around me. I am in the midst of the very community from whom our most recent-4 in one week-shooting victims (and shooters) have come. I watch a group of young people swagger in, displaying chains & tattoos, but obviously dressed for church. Israel moves into the pews, shakes hands and greets each one personally. Then he came to the microphone. Everyone opens their Bible, all in Spanish, but I find the right place. Exodus 14: Israel lifts up a different portion of the text this morning- God's reply to the Israelites 'Why are you crying to me...Start moving!' "Even in the wilderness", Israel exhorts, "there is a plan for your life."

In that foreign place, parsed out to me in translation, at NY gang member turned minister brought me full circle to the message of courage I needed to hear. In his community of fervent believers I was bathed in the Balm of Gilead, challenged by a spirit of resistance and faith. I found healing that morning. And Hope.

My faith impels me to make a difference in the world and the only tool I have is myself. Putting myself to the task means literally being in the world, with people. Since my job with the Police Dept. is so clearly about hurt and healing it makes sense I would spend time where the people of the community find comfort and solace...their own places of worship. There is only one Jewish Temple in York but in 100s of churches, mosques and congregations people are practicing Tikkun Olum. In hundreds of ways they are healing the world.

What else can we do? Close the gap technology creates...walk along with someone instead of pointing the way...resist techno-isolation. Write a note on paper, lick a stamp, walk to the mailbox and talk to someone on the way back.. Teach your children to write notes. When you ask some one how they are, stop for a count of ten, look into their eyes and wait for their answer. Ask a neighbor or coworker if you can come along to worship with them. Bring your experience back to your UUCY Circle Group or Committee or RE class. Attend an event planned and run by someone else. Make yourself a stranger in your own community. Depend upon the generosity of people who don't look like you. Taste the sweet water of hospitality from another's well. Share that with someone at coffee hour next Sunday.

As a Unitarian Universalist I know that the source of all life is Holy and available to and for each of us. I also know few traditionally religious people have any idea what the UUs on S. George St. (on Rosetree Rd) do or say or believe. The depth of our ignorance about one another is the measure of the fractures which weaken our community.

But perhaps the most important thing I've learned in these experiences, a gift I know is waiting here in Media for you, too, is how very many people are working to heal the world. I am not alone, mine is not the only ache or sweat or prayer. The people of The Beloved Community are all around us. When we lay eyes on each other we see kindled between us the hope and grace we both need to go back into the world for another week.

As it Ever Shall Be.............Amen

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