Month: October 2024

Regardless of one’s stage in life, certain dates are remembered. A child’s birthday, a couple’s first date, the birthday of a beloved pet, perhaps the date you were offered your dream job, and, of course, wedding anniversaries! For most of us, those landmark dates also include the date a loved one passed from this life to the next. While birthdays are typically observed in a group with much festivity, dates such as a spouse, parent, or child’s passing are typically observed with some solitary reflection. I have lived long enough to now observe many such dates –my brother and mother, numerous choir members, and countless beloved members of BMPC. Even with the passage of time, these observances are difficult.

With this coming Sunday’s observance of All Saints Day, the BMPC congregation and friends in the community will be given the privilege of coming together as a very large family to remember our loved ones, especially those who have left this earth during the past year. During this most moving service of the year, the choir will offer one of the most beautiful choral works of the 20th century, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. Composed in 1947, Duruflé’s setting is perhaps the most moving of all settings of the Requiem. It has none of the bombast of Verdi’s or Berlioz’s settings. Like Fauré’s setting, this is a Requiem filled with peace and hope. Unique to Duruflé, he based much of the material in his Requiem on Gregorian chant and the Gregorian Mass for the Dead.

Duruflé’s masterpiece, presented along with Dr. Norfleet’s sermon, the Lord’s Supper, the reading of the names of those members who have died this past year, and the tolling of the carillon, will demonstrate the church at work as an agent of comfort and peace, and a powerful witness to Christ’s Resurrection.

Through the years, I’ve been blessed by friendships with several clergy mentors, from whom I have learned many of those churchy things that don’t get taught in seminary. Among them, the best teacher for stewardship was the late K.C. Ptomey, who chose autumn as the season to retire so he could preach through yet another Stewardship Season at his beloved Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Nearing the end of a long and distinguished career in ministry, K.C. enjoyed being plain-spoken and honest about the need for his congregation to support the church with their financial resources.

After 41 annual pledge drives and more than a few capital campaigns, K.C. said, “I’ve seen everything… house-to-house calls, letters, telephone campaigns, challenges to tithe, banners, posters, fancy stationery, charts, graphs, movies, skits, Bible studies, potluck suppers, lunches, breakfasts, dessert parties, efforts to impart guilt, promises of eternal bliss, threats of hell-fire and damnation. I’ve seen it all. I’ve done it all.”

K.C said, “But what a lifetime of ministry has finally taught me is that generosity simply comes out of people who have experienced the love of God,

the unmerited grace and goodness of the living God, which is something we can never earn, which is always out of proportion to what we deserve. Awareness, deep awareness of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God, is the only thing I know of that can elicit abounding generosity. Guilt, slick stewardship messages, and charts won’t do it. But awareness, deep awareness, of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God – that will do it.”

I invite you to prepare for this coming Sunday’s Stewardship Dedication by considering your awareness of God’s goodness and grace. Take a prayerful inventory of your depth of gratitude for God’s gifts of beauty, of community, and of our church family. Ponder our stewardship theme, Bryn Mawr Gives Light, and think about how the church has been a light for you and how your light has shone through the ministries of BMPC.

Filling out a pledge card and making a regular financial commitment to the church is an act of generosity, an expression of gratitude, and a sign of deep awareness that everything we have of ultimate value is a gift from God. But before you do, I suggest you pause and think about God’s gifts of life and light and then make your commitment out of deep awareness.

“It will be better than Gordon Ramsey’s!” The statement was definitive and expressed a level of confidence I would not usually extend to bulk garlic powder, dried parsley, onion salt, and plain butter. However, with the energy that can only come from 4th and 5th-grade workers, the ingredients combined into what became incredible garlic butter. Similarly, ingredients were layered to create trays of lasagna, and the cookie dough was measured to fill four cookie sheets with neat round balls, just waiting to be baked.

Last Sunday, our children prepared a meal for their neighbors. Over the past few years, we have had the opportunity to build a strong relationship with the Ardmore Food Pantry. We have collected food, students have gone to Saint Mary’s Church to sort and bag, and we have prayed for and talked about the work they are doing to make sure our neighbors have good food to eat. Last week, we stepped into a new dimension of our partnership—making a meal.

While the Ardmore Food Pantry provides groceries for neighbors facing food insecurity, Director Beth Tiewater recognized the compounding hunger for community and respite. On Monday nights, while clients wait, a simple meal is provided. As a church, we’ve committed to help support this emerging ministry by providing one meal a month. Our first two meals were successful. The food was well received, and it was powerful to see people connecting around tables, taking deep breaths at the end of a long day, and sharing a meal together.

Our students are already planning the next meal to serve on November 11. There’s a big push for brownies over cookies and a question: can we find a way to make fried chicken? With each idea shared, with every dish prepped, and with each piece of garlic bread, our students are living out their faith: Loving God and loving neighbor and pouring that love into everything they do.

Here are ways you can help!

Support On-Going Food Collections: In the education building, we focus on one food category a month. This month is canned veggies, beans, and fruit. Our goal is to collect 75 cans.

Help with one of the Meal Preps: Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to volunteer the weeks when Sunday school classes prepare meals.

Come and hear from Beth Tiewater, Director of AFP, on Sunday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. in the Fullerton Room.

Get Ready to Volunteer! Starting in February, this will be an opportunity open to the whole church. Be on the lookout for how to sign up and get involved.

One of my favorite things I get to do here at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian is to join the Deacons’ Helping Hands team as they are stationed in front of the sanctuary to greet and assist folks coming to worship. It is not easy for some to get from the circle drive and navigate their way into the sanctuary to find their pew. The Helping Hands team is there to offer some joyful assistance, and Sunday by Sunday, they get to have brief conversations with some of our older members who are delighted to be coming to worship even with the challenges they face.

Every two years, we honor those who have been members of BMPC for fifty years or more. We will do that this Sunday at a luncheon following the 10 a.m. worship service. There are 183 BMPCers who have been members for five decades or more. Not all of them will be able to attend the luncheon this Sunday, but we celebrate every one of them!

Think about what was happening in 1974, fifty years ago. Our country was in the midst of the Watergate crisis, which resulted in the first U. S. President ever to resign. The last troops who had fought in Vietnam had just recently come home, although the peace treaties would not be finished until 1975. A show called ‘Happy Days’ debuted on television, and we were finding out who ‘the Fonz’ was. ‘The Sting’ won Best Picture that year. The top hit on the radio was ‘The Way We Were’ by Barbra Streisand. In sports, the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup, and Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record.

Bryn Mawr Presbyterian had just finished celebrating its centennial observances. David Watermulder was Senior Pastor, but some of our long-term members had joined when Rex Clements was in service here. These members have been supporting this congregation for more than 2600 Sundays. The two main Presbyterian denominations (the old southern and northern churches) would not even become the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) until 1983. These long-term members remained steadfast even when there were denominational, presbytery, and congregational controversies. There were economic ups and downs along the way. They supported plenty of stewardship and capital campaigns. They maintained and built our extraordinary mission, educational, and music programming by which we are blessed today. Many of them served on multiple committees and/or as officers. Think about how many times they took baptismal vows on behalf of those who were experiencing God’s grace being poured out upon them! They broke bread and shared the cup sacramentally and socially. And here is a great thing – they are still doing it, even if some can only attend virtually instead of in person.

I draw inspiration from these 50-plus-year folks for their faithful dedication. I hope all our members will think about how to live out faithfulness to the ministry of Jesus Christ in this place as we make our stewardship pledges, volunteer for a variety of ministry positions, and try to be an example for those younger ones who will still be here when BMPC celebrates its bi-centennial 49 years from now.

The feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi officially takes place on the 4th of October. Here at BMPC, we observe it on the first Sunday of October. Traditionally, Presbyterians are not in the business of celebrating too many saints. However, BMPC has always had a fondness for Saint Francis, even going so far as to place him in the stained glass of our chapel windows. The image is familiar–a simple man, tonsured, dressed in plain brown robes, and surrounded by animals. This Sunday at 4:00 p.m., dogs, cats, lizards, and more will pass by his window on their way to the Blessing of the Animals on the front lawn of the Education Building. All animals are welcome, though our local groundhogs and garden snakes tend to avoid the crowds. Together, we will praise God and give thanks for the creatures of God’s good earth, but there is more to Saint Francis’ story and more to Sunday’s observations.

The story of Saint Francis includes a moment when he makes peace with a wolf and the town of Gubbio. Legend has it that Francis makes peace by first invoking the name of Jesus and then simply speaking to the wolf, saying, “The whole town is complaining about you, but I want to make peace between you and the people.” Francis promises the wolf that he will be given food so he will never again be hungry, and in turn, “Brother Wolf” promises never to harm another person or animal. The town of Gubbio and the wolf are fundamentally changed. The wolf no longer fears hunger, and the town no longer fears the wolf. They are both freed.

It is not lost on this children’s pastor that while the story’s details change with each telling, the wolf is always called brother. Saint Francis addresses him like a brother in a holy order or a member of one’s family. The wolf is not dangerous or awful, and though he tends to eat the villager’s sheep, the wolf is still Francis’ brother.

The short story models the complex work of peacemaking: clear communication, honoring connections, recognizing the needs of both parties and seeking a shared solution. Unlike Francis, we cannot speak to our animal neighbors and ask the wasps to “move along” or the local squirrels to stop stealing carefully planted bulbs. Our human neighbors might balk if we shout the name of Jesus every time we approach. Even with our less-than-saintly limitations, I wonder if we should be a little more like Francis, willing to walk into the woods and seek peace.

On Sunday, we will hold two celebrations. Yes, there will be the blessing of the animals in the afternoon, but during morning worship, we will observe World Communion Sunday, a tradition that dates back to 1933 in Pittsburgh. This day, first nationally observed in 1940, is a powerful reminder of our connection to God’s people all around the world. Imagine, at the outbreak of World War II, the church paused and called nations at war “brother and sister,” remembering our connections as bread was broken and the cup was shared, an act of peace in the face of war.

Sharing communion and blessing animals are not radical acts, but they are hopeful ones. They are actions that model restoration in the face of so much destruction and sorrow. They are actions that reconnect us to one another and to God’s creation. They are actions that invite us to pause, call each other family, and rest in the promise of belonging and blessing that God extends to all.