Streams of Mercy
One of my special memories of Christmas 2018 will be the experience of sharing “A Bold New Love: Christmas Eve with Middle Collegiate Church.” The CBS Television Network broadcast the special service, featuring four choirs, two dance companies and a spoken-word artist. Nationally-recognized theologian Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis serves as senior minister for the 1,200 –member congregation, which is located in Manhattan’s East Village. Founded by Dutch immigrants in 1628, Middle is co-affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Reformed Church in America. “New Yorkers say Middle Church looks like the subway at rush hour but feels like home; when I stand on the pulpit and look out at our congregation, to me it looks like heaven,” says Dr. Lewis.
“We are seniors and toddlers, children and teens. We are multiracial families and single folk. Millennials and boomers are our largest demographic. We are Black, White, Asian and Latinx. We are gay, straight, bisexual and transgender. We are a Christian church that believes there is more than one path to God. Therefore, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists join Christians of many stripes in our worship and educational events, and in our work for justice.”
“At the center of the Christmas story is hope…hope which comes to us in the form of a vulnerable, poor baby. A child, not a king, changes the world. God appears to us as a marginalized, Afro- Semitic, Jewish child from Nazareth in Palestine. A child who grows up to teach us to welcome the stranger. How would our world be different if we loved our neighbors as ourselves?” asks Dr. Lewis.
“In our country that is deeply divided around race and religion, Middle Collegiate Church is a rare place where blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans worship together. Also Christian, Jewish, atheist, and Buddhist worshippers are drawn to the congregation because of its legendary music and commitment to the poor, the LGBTQIA+ community, and addressing race relations in our nation. On Christmas Eve, this congregation gives us a picture of unity and hope…We hope this CBS program draws people to our way of being Christian: “Love. Period.”
For me personally, this service in many ways “completed” the message I shared at our recent Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. It is this “bold, new love” that will “bless the spaces between us.” I believe this is the love Jesus teaches and calls us to live out together with our brothers and sisters on God’s good earth. “Love. Period.” That’s the message of Christmas – a bold new love that blesses the spaces between us!
Giving thanks for the beauty of a fresh, new Christmas message, the wonder of God’s love for all people, and those streams of mercy, never ceasing. In this new year, let us open ourselves to that “bold, new love” and so love one another.
Praying a blessed new year for all,
Elizabeth