Our Blog

Mark 5:1-20

⁵They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes.^* 2And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ³He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain;⁴for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. ⁶When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; ⁷and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ ⁸For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ ⁹Then Jesus^* asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ ¹⁰He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; ¹²and the unclean spirits^* begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ ¹³So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

¹⁴ The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. ¹⁶Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. ¹⁷Then they began to beg Jesus^* to leave their neighbourhood. ¹⁸As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹But Jesus^* refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ ²⁰And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

I recently went vegan, so this passage was interesting. I feel like little piggies got a bad biblical wrap (and in the Torah..and Koran).These little piggies never made it to market. Also, I recently started a trolley ghost tour company in Brooklyn, and we talk a little about exorcisms. So much came up for me in this reading. On the surface, the vegan thing popped up and the thought "of course the ghost tour guy gets the passage loosely describing some sort of exorcism". But something else came up, too. The Legion, referred to in this passage, to me, are the mentally ill, the forgotten, the lost. Or anyone in shackles both literal and figurative. The spirit and the man. And today, like in the time of Gerasenes, they are treated like animals. And perhaps our treatment of animals on this planet can be seen a transference (in the psychological sense) of how we treat those deemed weaker than us. We possess them. Because we can. 

I read a statistic recently that "human activity" has caused more than half of the documented species on the planet to go extinct in the past 50 years. It makes me think that we're collectively experiencing this crescendo of human experience, and none of us can hit the pause button so as to enjoy it, because it's overwhelming. Perhaps not even enjoyable. 

This season of Lent offers up a number of particularly complex paradoxes. We’re experiencing a moment where we’ve created a world of such incredible abundance. We're able to provide unprecedented basic needs to every living soul on earth. Yet, we might be killing the planet. We have achieved this heightened level of individual expression, independence, and convenience through technology. Yet we seem collectively crippled under the tangled weight of power structures and the few people that wield them. We keep advancing medicine and our smartest scientists postulate that death will be the last human disease that we will need to cure. Yet we’re in throes of a global pandemic and we’ve entrusted our health to a greed riddled and broken system shielded by corrupt governance. Proverbial shackles.

So perhaps what’s old is new again. Another paradox. Those pigs belonged to the rulers. Let them take your burden. Yes, they’ll die. But go into town and tell them why they did. And how. And for what purpose. And let it not be in vain. Jesus, the master of paradox. In the midst of this pandemic (of which I will not name, because it’s all we see on our various screens all day), may we have the hope and clarity of mind to cast our modern Legion of disease and inequality into the metaphorical deserved pigs, and let them take a turn at carrying our burden and counting their losses. 

And maybe eat less piggies!

Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ ³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Oh, how many times have I wished to be taken away from the crowded madness around me! From the demands of children, family and work; from today’s near constant attack on the environment, justice, and democracy; and from the voices inside myself judging my efforts and dampening my dreams. Please, Jesus, take me to the other side for just a little while and let me leave these crowds behind!

Reading this scripture, though, I was reminded of a moment when I yearned for the crowds, not the relief, and was unexpectedly taken to the other side.

At the time, I was younger and feeling very alone in NYC. My loneliness had grown so large and feverish that I did everything I could to avoid being by myself. On this day, I had joined a hiking meet-up group, looking forward to being in the woods (my happy place) and having some company. The group was extremely large, though, and the banter of 50+ people quickly drowned out the voice of nature. To make matters worse, the leader was a poor fit for the role: He disparaged slower hikers, reminding everyone of his need to catch a 3pm train back to Manhattan, and he failed to mark the turns. Our large group quickly splintered into several smaller groups based on pace. And though I was in the middle group, I was concerned that the slow group (including a woman who’d somehow lost the sole of her boot) would not be able to catch up and find their way. Thinking that I knew mine, I turned back to guide them.

But I made a wrong turn. At once, I had no idea where I was. I’d lost the group in front of me and behind. I had no cell service, and I was utterly alone.  I began to panic.

Then, I stopped! Sitting on a rock, I pulled out my lunch and breathed. I decided not to think for a while. A deer walked into the clearing and gazed at me. The light shimmered through the foliage like a waterfall. The leaves swirled lazily down to the ground. In that holy moment, it seemed that God was right there with me.

When I rose to leave, still not knowing how I’d get out of the woods, astonishingly, I immediately ran into the woman with the broken boot and her friend. The friend had managed to telephone her mother – who’d contacted the state police, and we were ‘rescued’ in minutes.

In the poetic irony of that day (seeking a crowd, finding God in solitude; trying to save someone with a broken sole who ended up saving me…), it was if God was saying to me, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’ 

God’s ways are bigger and more glorious than we can imagine. Let us be still and allow Him to be with us.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way  and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46

Dear Sisters & Brothers in Christ,

We are in the midst of rapid change, a lot of uncertainty and heightened fear.  With the common good in mind, and for the foreseeable future, we will be conducting church virtually. There will be no church gatherings in the church, and all of our small groups and prayer groups will be conducted virtually as well, including choir. Choir members will be hearing from Saya in the next day about virtual rehearsals.  Small group members will be hearing from their small group leader directly about virtual meetings. 

We will live stream through Facebook Live from the Church of the Holy Apostles FB page with a link from the homepage of our website www.holyapostlesbrooklyn.com .  The weekly bulletin will be posted on our website homepage as well so that we can all follow along - hymns will be included!  

Our Schedule is as follows:
9:15am: This Little Light
10am: Sunday Liturgy

PLEASE NOTE: We have moved up This Little Light to 9:15.

There will be questions over the coming weeks about Easter. We are taking this week to week and will be in regular touch with you. We ask you to be in touch with us as well and with each other. Make a commitment to be in touch with one or two people from church each week, checking in on them. Isolation is a real risk in the coming weeks - if you need someone's contact information, please email us. Our strength as a community is shown forth how we care and love each other, especially in times like these. We cannot forget that Jesus told us to love our neighbors and to help others the best we can.  

We will be together in person again soon friends.  And in the meantime, join us at 9:15 or 10am Sunday through Facebook live. Carve that time out for yourself and your spiritual well-being. 

We remain steadfast and faithful in the midst of chaos and fear.  God is our refuge.

A parting piece of advice - none of us will regret being too cautious.  Please be cautious.

Do not hesitate to reach out to us and request a prayer or a call. Click here if you have a prayer request. 

If you do not have Facebook, but would like to participate on Sunday, please email us and we will help you set it up.  As long as you have a computer, smartphone or iPad,  you will be able to set up Facebook.

In peace with love,

The Mothers