Take the A Train - Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You must take the A Train. Don’t miss it. It’s the quickest way to get to where you are going – it’s the fast way to Heaven.The A Train is the Way. The way of joyful, loving service. It’s a way of life, of living. It’s a wedding banquet. Dressed up in your finery. Beads and heels. White shirts. Your dancing shoes on. The A Train is coming, its going to stop here in Claremont. It’s headed for Sugar Hill, that sweet sweet place where its all happening. Sugar Hill, the place of the Heavenly Banquet, that place where the Saints in Light are already swinging to the sound of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Ella Fitgerald and Miles Davis.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Father, Our Father, the Holy One is overflowing with good pleasure. Rejoicing, playing, singing dancing moving – that is what God does, and that is what God wants to give us. Not just any pleasure – God wants to give us GOOD pleasure. The pure delight of being awake to our world, and to each other. Like a child’s wide open eyes when the band sets up and begins to play. Like a child wiggling when the drums and the cymbals call out the beat. Like a child’s biggest beaming smile at the person sitting right behind, who may be a young heart with a wiggling body adorned with white hair.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don’t get distracted by the annoying small stuff. Don’t get distracted by things you cannot do anything about. Don’t get so overwhelmed by the anxiety of the times, so depressed by the misery of the world that you put yourself to sleep with the narcotics of our time – hours of mindless TV, the false glamour of gambling, kegs of beer, or any of the millions of ways we can find to shut off our hearts and brains. If you are asleep you will miss this Train. If you miss this train it will take you a lot longer to get to where you are going.
Jesus reminds us that the Main thing is the Main Thing. The Main thing – Jesus calls us to pay attention and to keep the doors well oiled, ready to open. The Main thing is to live the kingdom life here and now: feeding the hungry, comforting and healing and encouraging the sick, weeping with those who weep and laughing with those who laugh. The Main Thing since before the time of Isaiah: seek justice, rescue the orphan, plead for the widow. The Main thing is to hold on to the knowledge we are God’s beloved children, and called to be Loving Servants of the world God holds so tenderly in the palm of his hand. The Main thing is to be ready to answer the door to whoever is knocking, ready to share the feast that bursts out of our refrigerators.
And did you hear the Beatitude in the Gospel today? Blessed are they that the Master finds with their aprons on, getting on with the work of loving the world. Whole and Holy, and deeply happy. Blessed.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give YOU the kingdom. AMEN
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"TAKE THE `A` TRAIN"by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and Joya Sherrill
You must take the `A` train to go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem.
If you miss the `A` train you`ll find you`ve missed the quickest way to Harlem.
Hurry, get on, now it`s coming. Listen to those rails a thrumming.
All board! Get on the `A` train. Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
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