Leaving Montego Bay

Don’t think I got a chance to write yesterday, which is too bad because it was awesome.  We got up early and went to Good News CME Church.  We had worship with Rev. Cosmo Grant as the Worship Leader, and Presiding Elder Elroy Ewart doing most of the Prayers.  Rev. Jacqueline Yates of Tennessee read the Scripture, which came from 1Kings 18:18-21. I had the rare privilege of hearing Bishop Othal Hawthorne Lakey, the 44^th Bishop of the CME Church, preach.  He preached from 1 Kings 18:38, and his topic was “Setting the Church on Fire: And then the Fire of the Lord Fell.”  He started out by telling us that the key was "then," and would continue to build his sermon to illustrate that.  There was, he said, a tendency for people to put the emphasis on the fire in when preaching about this passage, but it's important to understand WHY the fire fell, which is why the stress was on the "then."  

In this passage, Israel was having a crisis of faith.  The question they were pondering was "who is really God?"  He talked about the voting process and different types of voting, but how when the prophets set up this contest to see who was God, only one vote mattered – God’s vote.  And God expressed God’s vote with the fire.  He talked about the Fire of God and about setting things on fire.  As he entered his proclamation phase, I found myself paying more attention to his mechanics than the message (no disrespect; he’d set it up quite well, he’s a preacher extraordinaire, and I was just watching his preaching style.  I had received the message.)  Anyway, when I came to, he was talking about his father and his older brother and how it was the older brother’s task to fire up a kerosene heater to heat their home on cold mornings.  The brother used to get up in the morning and gather the materials for the fire while everyone was cold.  The father finally told him to prepare the night before:  get the kerosene, get the newspapers, get the kindling (or tinder), and then in the morning, all that needed to be done was to strike a match.  

And this is when he tied it all together.  Remember, he said the operative word was "then,"  In the same way that his brother could quickly get a fire going WHEN things were in order, similarly, he said, when the church is in order:  when the officers are in order, when the altar is in order, when the pews are in order, when the officers are in order, when hearts are in order, when the Pastor is prayed up and in order – when everything has been properly set up, THEN the man or woman of God can come in and Strike a Match and Set God’s House on Fire!!!  He advised us to put or keep our houses in order so that we might be able to go out into the world, strike a match, and set our churches on fire.

At least, that’s what I remember.  We took group photos.  I gave the missionary who runs the Pauline B. Grant School, some of the bracelets I’d brought over.  After the photo, I tried handing them out to the kids, but they came upon me in a mighty way.  The most interesting part of this, for me, was a little boy who wanted some.  I was trying to pick out boy colors for him, and think I gave him black, gold and green.  He asked if he could please have a pink one.  And I sorta realized that I was in the islands where colors, even pastel colors or vibrant bright colors, are not restricted to women.  I asked for help distributing the bracelets, and a woman offered to help me.  I asked her to give any leftover bracelets to the missionary sister, but I don’t know if there were any left.  When I walked away, kids were getting several at a time, and adults were lining up for them.  During afternoon worship, I saw people of all ages wearing them.  It wasn’t a lot, but I know young folks like those things, and I like to think that spread a little joy.  Maybe one day when I have money, I’ll get a bunch made that say “JESUS SAVES” on one side and “THE CME CHURCH IN JAMAICA” on the other side.

We finished with worship, and returned to the hotel.  I tried uploading my dolphin video, but it never did.  By the time I post this blog, of course, I will probably have uploaded it.  I spent nearly all the break playing on my computer, and with half an hour left before dinner, showered and changed into jeans and a Council polo shirt (gotta represent the Council!).  We had dinner at a place called Jack Spratt, a touristy place nearby.  I chose the Escoveitch fish, and while the service was amicable and the portions were HUGE (I ordered a small, so was surprised when a whole fish came to me.  Mr. White(?, the Jamaican man who accompanied Gary our driver on all our journeys) explained that the small or large referred to the SIZE of the fish.  What I got was a small fish.  I ate as much as I cared to, but left enough for at least a whole complete meal. When I found myself looking at the remains of the fish and wondering about the state of its dental health, it dawned on me that, while I am an omnivore, I don’t need to be reminded of the fact that I’m choosing to eat another living creature.  The Escoveitch fish was a bit disappointing.  We were served some at the hotel that was DELICIOUS:  it was dried or seasoned, and covered with onions, peppers, pickles, and some scotch bonnets or some very hot peppers.  This was a fried whole fish covered with onions and peppers, just like the steamed fish was covered in onions and peppers.  There was nothing hot nor particularly tasty about it.

But the meal was good because of the fellowship.  I had a very interesting chat with Bishop Lakey about preachers in Full Connection in the CME Church who are not called to Pastor.  He had a very interesting idea – he explained to me the meaning of “supernumerary,” a status in our Zion, a term I missed on one of the exams I took (that’s like the only question I missed), and one that never made sense to me.  I couldn’t find it in the dictionary, and couldn’t process it, which is why it didn’t make sense.  It is a status assigned to people who are not able to serve, either due to sickness or some other extenuating circumstance, but who are not candidates for retiring from the ministry.  Bishop Lakey explained that the term “supernumerary” comes from the Latin super numerari, or “above (or over) the number.”  In the days of the Roman Legion, when a legion of soldiers was 1,000 or whatever it was, there were super numerari soldiers, extra,  or “above the number” soldiers, who were available to serve should one of the  regular number get wounded or killed or captured or whatever.  These were the additional, available soldiers who could serve.  Bishop Lakey thought it might be a good idea to broaden our definition of supernumerary preachers to include people like this.  That would, of course, include people like me – called to the itinerancy, but not necessarily called to the Pastorate.  This cadre of Itinerant preachers would have a broad and varied skillset, and be willing and able to assist the church by offering their gifts and graces as needed.  This was part of a conversation that started when Bishop Lakey asked what I’d like  to ask him.  Given his latest work, I asked him how he thought the CME Church was going to address the issue of sex and sexuality.  We talked about all the other factors that come into play when we read our Bible – how we want to take some parts of it literally but not others.  I shared with him my thoughts on the work of the brother at GTS, “Their Own Receive Them Not,” His thesis appears to be that black people have always been presented as sexualized in American culture.  This is in stark contrast to the pseudo-Victorian values often reflected in Christian teaching and praxis, so African Americans, in a search for respectability, have rejected anything appearing overtly sexual, and vehemently rejected anything that appears to be sexually abberant or deviant.  Bishop Lakey didn’t agree with this assessment;  he thought that the homophobia so prevalent in African American culture is a byproduct of the fact that, in America, one of the few places a black male’s masculinity is not challenged is in the bedroom.  We had quite an interesting discussion, and I still have hope for my church.  It’s not going to be an easy process, but I believe our Zion will grow and prosper.

I’m at the airport now. It’s 1:10, and my plane that was supposed to have departed at 12:41 has just arrived at the gate.  So we’ll be a little delayed.  Which is fine...

We got up this morning at I don’t know – 4 or 5 am?  Had to have the bag outside by 5, had to be at the bus by 6 or 6:15.  I slept most of the way into Montego Bay.  We stopped at some little market (like the African Market on 116^th, like the groves of vendors you find in any big city in the world), and I decided that I would spend $20.00.  I got a dozen keychains for $7.00, and two T-shirts for $1100 Jamaican, which I call $11.00.  I had about $150 or $175 Jamaican left, so I got what I wanted in the price range I wanted.  We all got to the airport, and I got checked in through Delta and then went with the group and walked through with Debbie, the lady from the Jamaican Tourist Board.  I left the group as they went to gate 2 and I headed to Gate 16.  On the way, I dropped about $100 more – I got a couple of cartons of cigarettes (yes, I know, I’m peddling death).  I’m opposed to cigarettes, but have a staffmember who smokes.  The price here for one carton is less than the price she’d pay in the States for three packs.  So I’m going to either give her this carton or sell it to her at cost, and then I’m going to make a profit on the other carton.  I think.  I have mixed emotions, as I feel selling cigarettes is somewhere between selling drugs and selling guns, but if they’re going to do it anyway…. And then I bought my staff some instant coffee in addition to the ground coffee in my luggage. I also bought myself a pound of Jamaican coffee in an espresso grind, which should last me for a while.  Finally, I bought myself a bottle of scotch bonnet hot sauce.  I saw a lot of stuff here that I see on the Caribbean aisles in the grocery stores, but I’ve never seen this particular hot sauce. 

One disappointment of the day was that I finally decided I’d have a pattie.  I walked all the way back to the food court, to the deli where patties are sold, only to find out they had none.  I did have some pretzels, but the outrageous prices here discourage you from buying stuff.  Back to the coffee thing: I said I’d seen this coffee in Dolphin Cove for $31.00.  I didn’t know if it was 8 oz or 16 oz.  I paid $8.00 for an 8 oz one in the grocery store.  Today in the airport, I saw the 8 oz for 12 or 15 dollars, and saw the 16 oz for $26.00.  So Dolphin Cove was even more expensive than the airport (although I was shopping in duty free).  Despite the outrageously overpriced items that cater to the tourists’ delight to be in Jamaica, and despite the fact that it's a fairly typical country that operates on a tourist economy, I have had a delightful time here, and am looking forward to my next visit.

Pictures related to this blog are located here: