a free universalist christian missional community, 5920 N. Owasso Ave., Turley, OK 74126
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Soon it will be the season of Christmas. Already though its
spirit of surprising love, abundance, peace, joy, and hope have been felt here
in our area. Thanks for letting us share them with you. Our wish is that these
reports bring you as much goodwill as you all have brought to us.
We call this area of North Tulsa and Turley at this time of
year especially a "new Nazareth." Scriptures report that people
believed that the village of Nazareth had such a bad reputation that
"nothing good could come from it." At the time 2000 years ago,
Nazareth was little known and little regarded. Just a few miles away stood the
bigger, shining new city of Sepphoris, a kind of suburban sprawl built by and
for the economy of the Roman Empire, taking up land that had sustained the
poor, displacing people. Nazareth was even moreso then a place for the left
out, the left behind, the decidedly uncool people. And yet, today, so few have
ever heard of Sepphoris, while Nazareth, well Nazareth is known the world over
for the good that came from it, and that keeps coming.
The New Nazareth: All you have to do, anytime there is a
story about any sort of crime, and in fact a story even about any sort of new
development or plans or groundbreaking, here on the northside of Tulsa, is to
go to the Tulsa World online and read the comments left by people to the story.
The refrain is the same; people get what they deserve because they are there,
meaning here, and if they were smart they would leave, and no one would ever or
should ever move there, and nothing good will last because our neighbors won't
let it, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the lack of resources and the
history of segregation and neglect and decisions made by people who leave
elsewhere breaking apart the social communities, it is all about people making
bad choices they and their children even should be punished for. We hear this
all the time from people who have grown up and spent many adult years in the
Tulsa area without ever coming to this area, and how afraid they are when they
do, and how others warn them not to. It is not that we don't have struggles and
problems of crime, and bad choices so often driven by so many addictions, and
lord knows it is so much easier to get people to respond based on fear of
something or someone than to get them to respond out of a desire and belief
that they can make this part of the world, and their lives, better.
And yet, just a few days ago, we held a party here, threw
open our doors for anyone to come, had no security guards, and had no idea how
many would come celebrate Christmas with our small group; the past few years in
our old community center space just a half mile north of us now, we had had a
good time with about 20-30 people from the area, most of whom we knew. But this
year, in our new and still emerging community center space, without still being
able to afford much attractive signage on the outside to let people know what
this big building is being used for, our Christmas Party had some 125 people, a
majority of whom hadn't been here before, or only for our Halloween Party when
we had 300 people show up, and no security guards then either, and no violence
then either. We fed people with Christmas tamales and pizza from businesses
right here, and from what we and another church provided; we brought and got
gifts to hand out and in a fishes and loaves moment kept finding gifts to give
out to all the children who came; and we sang as a community christmas songs
and hymns, these voices of people who hadn't sung together before, and might
not have another opportunity to sing with others this season.
And yet, here in the new Nazareth, at that party, a little
girl said, to no one in particular, as she was moved by the spirit of the
moment of community, "This is the best night of my life." Think about
that. It was both a moment of great wonder; like an angel proclaiming in a
night full of danger and oppression and isolation "Be Not Afraid for I
bring you great tidings..." And it was heart breaking too. She had not had
this experience before, so many people gathering in peace, joy, hope, and love.
She probably, if she is like so many we live with here, a few in her family and
perhaps estranged from other family, so no extended family expereinces, no
church expereince, no means to go outside the area much if at all; the lights
of Christmas, the excess and abundance of Christmas, the story of Christmas
itself, mostly comes to her through the screen of a television, which both
connects her to a greater world and accentuates her own isolation and
disconnect from it. Her family has had to choose between keeping utilities on
and having food and having gifts; we make it just a bit more bearable by
helping with the food and gifts so they can spend on the utilities, though
skimping on all of it.
And yet, here we were all for her, celebrating, blessing our
meal and running out of it and getting more of it and all saying Amen, and
people making connections for the first time, and hearing about all we have
been doing and will be doing, people impromptu volunteering to help us at the
food pantry this past week even as they come to get their own food in what has
been our busiest ever week; we have run out of turkeys from the food bank and
have had to purchase more on our own to meet the need; and this week in another
amazing event the children in our neighborhood school, Horace Greeley
Elementary School, who are all on free lunch programs themselves, they and
their families filled up 15 boxes of food in the month of Nov. and Dec. and on
the last day of school contributed it to our food pantry, which many of them
use. And yet that night, and this month has all been very ordinary; it has
taken so little effort, really, on our part; so few people have created it; no
one has been stressed out or worried about its outcome; no one has tried to
control it and shut it down out of fear of what might happen, or what might not
happen, not have enough, or get this or that wrong.
And yet, though most of our commercial and public district
is dark at night even in this season, we have lighted up our building, and we
have even lighted up the historic memorial arch and evergreen tree in the
courtyard of Cherokee School that has been closed since we finished our summer
daily free lunch there. These few lights are what that little girl sees though
with her own eyes, not through a screen, and I believe they mean more than all
the bright lights on the other side of town, because they are here where she
lives.
And yet, I like to think of what has been experienced here
in the past few weeks (including the worship and discussions and movies and
common meals we have on a regular basis in the missional community gatherings
and with our Advent Vespers too) all as a truly living nativity scene. Not one
that has people dressing up to look like the manger scene, as wonderful as
those are; Not a pageant either; but a truly living embodied nativity scene,
for at our Christmas Party, at our overflowing food pantry experiences, at the
Greeley school food drive for us, Christ was born again.
That is what Christmas is about, especially here; it is
about creating "And yet" moments, an "And yet" world. The
world was ruled in terror; the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept
growing in number and kept getting poorer with fewer places to turn to for
help; the land was being used up; the religious authorities were becoming
servants of the Empire; technology was improving and the spirits of people were
declining; the prophets were getting their heads cut off and more were jailed,
more silenced, more made refugees. And yet, a baby was born...at the same time,
then as now, that babies thousand times over in numbers die, are killed, and
yet a baby was born...and in that fragile, vulnerable particular event, is all
of divinity and eternity, the spark of possibility that not only is another
world possible, but in that birth another world has been started, all in order
to remind us that it is such abandoned, fragile, vulnerable, and very ordinary
particular people and places and events that we are to go in search of the
Sacred.
"This is the best night of my life." I hope,
truly, that our Christmas Party, our place, ourselves, all become a fading
memory for that little girl here. I hope another world embraces her and she has
so many other better best nights of her life that this one will be lost to her.
I hope that other world happens right here too, and that she is nurtured here
and able to grow and give back to others all right here, instead of having to
flee to Sepphoris. Mostly, I hope we are able to continue creating such
nativity events for others like her in many more ways, places, and times around
our community here. For all that, go to www.turleyok.blogspot.com and
read all we have done and are doing through our community foundation work; this
letter has been about the spiritual center that is the hub for all the spokes
of the other work, though you can at the link above easily make a donation and
be a part of our community here where such a little amount makes such a big
difference.
Finally, here is some of the news of the ways we gather:
Saturday, Dec. 24, 5 pm join us at the Turley United
Methodist Church for a Christmas Eve candlelight service, at 6050 N. Johnstown
Ave. across from our Welcome Table KitchenGardenPark and Orchard.
Sunday, Dec. 25, 9:30 am join us for Christmas Morning
Worship of our own Lessons and Carols and Communion Service and Meal here at
5920 N. Owasso Ave. We will take a break from our Justice for the Poor video
series and resume it on Jan. 1.
Thursday, Dec. 29, 6:30 pm the neighborhood safety meeting
his held here.
Saturday Dec. 31 beginning at 9 pm we will have a New Years
Eve Watch Party here, games, watching the movie Ghandi to bring in a new year
of peace and resistance to Empire, with refreshments, black eyed peas and more.
Sunday, Jan. 1 New Years Day worship, 9:30 am to 1 pm our
usual gathering for video series from Sojourners, communion and meal and
service.
Thursday, Jan. 5, our Future of Turley planning group here
at 3:30 pm, and at 5:30 pm at O'Brien Park, 6147 N. Birmingham Ave., we will
join the Advisory Board to welcome at a reception our new activities director
there.
More to come in the New Years Letter....till then, live
justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God, and pay attention to the many
ways Christ is being born in, among, and beyond you, remembering that
Christmastide begins, not ends, Dec. 25 so keep it in your heart, share it and
celebrate it throughout the 12 days; to help in that go visit www.uuchristian.org
and go to the Christmas links there on the home page, and keep checking back
for the gifts of Christmas there; and pause to reflect on how Christmas is not
your birthday (even those of you born on Dec. 25 lol) but is the birthday of
the one whose wish list is to bring good news to the poor.
blessings, and thanks again,
Ron Robinson
