We Are a Crew

On Pentecost we always hear the story of the disciples who were gathered together in Jerusalem waiting “to receive power from the Holy Spirit” as Jesus promised them (in Acts 1:8). As the story goes, the Spirit blew into the room dramatically as a great wind and tongues of fire, bringing courage and daring to continue the reform movement Jesus began.

Today I’d like to focus on what happens shortly after this transcendent experience. In Acts. 2:42-46 we hear that the once fearful disciples, now motivated by awe, created a community that lived together, broke bread together, studied together in the Temple (notice they haven’t given up their Jewish roots) and some even sold their property and shared their funds with the community.

They were no longer a ragtag group of hideaways; they were a team with a mission and a function. They were a crew. And that team, or crew, growing day by day, worked together for justice, peace and love.

Consider what makes a good team or crew: cooperation, respect, care for one another, a shared vision or purpose, communication, listening, accepting the diverse gifts and skills of the group, encouraging one another.

This coming together reminded me of the crew of the spacecraft, Artemis II. At the beginning of April, the Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years, was watched by a fascinated world. The day after their return to earth, they spoke at a press conference, their words emotional and unpolished. Still filled with the awe of what they had just experienced, Astronaut Christina Koch said this:

What struck me wasn’t necessarily just tiny Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe.

A crew is a group of people that is in it all the time no matter what, that is stroking together every minute with the same purpose, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other, that gives grace, that holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs, and a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked. I know I haven’t learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there is one new thing I know. And that is: Planet Earth, you are a crew.

Or, at least, in my humble opinion, we SHOULD be a crew. All of the people in this world need to be rowing together, cheering each other on, working for the good of all – including the very Earth herself.

The book, No One Left Alone, is about Roxbury Presbyterian Church near Boston, and a program they started called “Can We Talk…” Roxbury Presbyterian is a black church, located in the heart of a black neighborhood, and was at one time led by a black female pastor, Liz Walker, the author of the book. In her first couple of years at the church, Pastor Liz quickly discovered that the people of the church and the community, carried a very heavy load of trauma – gun violence, murders, gangs, racism, homelessness, addiction and more.

She wrote: “To be Black in America is to be particularly susceptible to the unique grief of racial trauma: ongoing exposure to the often extreme and violent reality of cultural and systemic oppression, wounds that are passed down from one generation to the next.”

As a way to address the constant pain they saw and experienced, a team of people created a program that would enable people to speak their stories, support one another without judgment, and slowly loosen the “suffocating grip of psychological trauma” on the families, and neighborhood. And at each meeting, the organizing crew made sure that this was a safe space where everyone was seen and reached out to, so no one felt overlooked.

There are many stories in the book but let me share one that struck me because it was a different kind of trauma. Ernie was a middle-aged man who joined the Can We Talk… community early on. He had some stuttering issues that made him anxious and self-conscious. Ernie was a quiet man with a gentle face and a hesitant smile. Like many people, Ernie sat quiet for several months, just listening to others before gathering the courage to speak himself. When he finally got up to speak, he quickly apologized and sat right back down. It was a few more months before he tried again. Each time he’d start to talk, he’d stutter and try to start again. Sometimes he got so frustrated that he just left.

Ernie’s struggle to tell his story was his story.  Ernie’s trauma was not being seen or heard in the world. Over time, Ernie would share stories about his day-to-day struggles with public transportation, his neighbors, and the rising cost of living. The more he shared the more the community learned about a man navigating a world that doesn’t take the time to see him, let alone listen to him. Sometimes people treated him as if his stutter reflected his intellect, or people made fun of him, or made offensive remarks. But Ernie dismissed them. He didn’t feel sorry for himself or want to be pitied. He just wanted to be heard.

And this beautiful crew of Can We Talk… provided a safe community where he could be loved and heard and supported.

The Spirit blows in amazing ways that often have nothing to do with church. Jim Wallis, in his book On God’s Side, tells a story about his 9-year-old son’s baseball team that was having a rough spring. They lost the first few opening games of the season, and now in this particular game his team was already down 5-0. Things didn’t look good.

Then the unexpected happened. Somehow the team came alive. Perhaps all of their practice and preparation was finally paying off. Best of all, the turn around happened in the bottom half of their team order, with their weakest hitters. Two kids got on base with walks, and then their least experienced player came up to bat. Stefan had never played baseball, had international parents, and really didn’t have a clue. But somehow, he hit the ball, and it went into the outfield. Two runs were scored and Stefan was on second base. Being from a polite British Commonwealth culture, he began to walk over to the shortstop and second baseman and shake their hands! “Stefan,” Jim shouted, “You have to stay on the base!” “Oh,” he said, “I’ve never been here before.”

Inspired, other kids who had never gotten hits before were suddenly connecting with the ball. Then the best hitters started to hit, and the team came back to win the game 11-6. They gave Stefan the team ball. Then in a long team meeting afterward, the kids couldn’t stop telling each other what they had learned. “We didn’t give up and came back!” “Our rally started with the bottom of the order.” “Sometimes you get what you need from unexpected places.” “We all just kept cheering for one another.” “Everybody helped us with today.” Finally, the star player said, “This just goes to show you, you can’t ever give up on hope. We always have to keep on hoping no matter what.”

On that day, Wallis said, they became a team, a crew. Challenged, but continuing to do their best, not giving up, supporting each other, bonding through inspiration and shared hope, they went on to do really well for the rest of the season.

Sacred Journeys, is a crew inspired by the Divine Presence in, around and among us, to tend to one another and, as much as is possible, to our community and the world around us. It’s important to remember that: we are a crew! It doesn’t mean we won’t disagree sometimes, or be annoyed with each other sometimes, or just not “get” each other sometimes (I’m sure the original followers of Jesus, the astronauts, the baseball team, and the crew driving the Can We Talk… program all had their moments). But we have something that transcends all of that. We have a shared vision of a transcending, unconditional Love that guides our actions and words, that calls us to reach out to the lost, lonely and disenfranchised. May we have the same boldness and tenacity that the original disciples had to make this world a better place.

Love & Light!

Kaye