Month: March 2025

Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. Psalm 65:8, NRSV

I recently came across a lovely contemporary translation of this verse from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, which reads, “Far and wide they’ll come to a stop, they’ll stare in awe, in wonder. Dawn and dusk take turns calling, ‘Come and worship.'”

I love that! These early spring mornings, I am often outside with the dog at dawn and overwhelmed by the chorus of birds in the trees overhead making such a sound that now I have words to describe it, “Come and worship.” What a glorious way to begin the day in awe and wonder at their joyful praise.

From beginning to end, we cannot separate the revelation of God in holy scripture from the natural world around us. The drama of salvation has a special focus on God’s covenant relationship with humankind, but the scripture adorns that drama with flowers, buds and fruits; with birds and nests and shade trees; with rivers, streams and flowing fountains. Our human spirituality cannot be separated from the natural world around us.

As people of faith, we are called to be faithful stewards of God’s good earth, and we are privileged to have a leading environmental scientist to help us think about that calling in new ways. I am very excited that on Monday, April 7, at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary, we will welcome Michael Mann as our Community Forum speaker. Dr. Mann is Professor and Director of the Center for Science, Sustainability, and Media at the University of Pennsylvania. Not only is he a local expert on the challenges of environmental science and climate change, but he is also a leading international voice whose work offers practical wisdom on how to care for the natural world around us.

Dr. Mann’s message carries a proactive urgency that I hope will draw many of us to this timely Community Forum. Join with your church family and friends from the wider community to welcome his scientific expertise on this critical topic. Our environmental stewardship resonates deeply with our biblical understanding of God’s good purposes for all creation. Our care of the good earth, after all, begins in awe and wonder.

We are all likely aware that beloved Children’s television pioneer Fred Rogers was actually a Presbyterian pastor. Ordained to his television “ministry” in 1963, he was not just a national television personality but also a local celebrity in Presbyterian circles in Pittsburgh, where I grew up. What you may not be aware of is that today, March 20, is Mr. Rogers Day—or technically, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” Day.

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was such a significant soundtrack in the background of my growing up in Pittsburgh that a childhood friend of mine (who himself also became a Presbyterian pastor) used to joke around with me long into our late teens by singing one of Fred’s many songs of affirmation when I was feeling low:

It’s you I like,

It’s not the things you wear,

It’s not the way you do your hair,

But it’s you I like.

The way you are right now,

The way down deep inside you.

Not the things that hide you,

Not your toys,

They’re just beside you.

But it’s you I like.

Every part of you.

Your skin, your eyes, your feelings

Whether old or new.

I hope that you’ll remember,

Even when you’re feeling blue.

That it’s you I like,

It’s you yourself

It’s you.

It’s you I like.

While it strikes all the right cords of nostalgic sentimentality in me to remember Fred Rogers each year in March, it is more important to recognize a day deeply rooted in his incredibly faithful ministry of welcoming and being a neighbor.

This Sunday, as we continue in our Lenten series in the parables, we will reflect on one of the most iconic in all of scripture – The Good Samaritan. It is essential when we read this ancient story of a man left alone and vulnerable, rescued and restored by an outsider, that Jesus told this story in response to a question that we are called to ask every day – Who is my neighbor?

In this particular moment in our community and nation, we need to be asking this question even more intentionally—asking it of ourselves and our local community, our national leaders, our faith leaders, and even the people with whom we disagree.

The most essential element of how we are called to live our Christian faith is not how we care for ourselves or our family but how we care for the most vulnerable in the world—our neighbor.

May we be compelled by Fred Roger’s consistent message of love, compassion, and generosity as we navigate these days.

Of the vast musical repertoire choirs are blessed to sing, sacred British choral works stand as among the most beloved. A quick glance at BMPC’s music library reveals dozens of titles by the likes of Parry, Bainton, Stanford, Britten, Howells, Bairstow, and others. It is worth noting that some of the most positive feedback I receive from the congregation is about this repertoire! For example, Herbert Howells’ “Like as the Hart,” Charles H.H. Parry’s “I Was Glad,” and Edgar Bainton’s “And I Saw a New Heaven” are works that are always praised and appreciated.

We are delighted to present these works, along with some of the most powerful works of the British choral canon, in a concert titled “20th Century British Choral Masterpieces this Sunday, March 16, at 4 p.m. We will join forces with the choir of Church of the Redeemer. An offering will be received to support both choir’s concert tours this summer.

I want to highlight the largest work at Sunday’s concert, Herbert Howells’ astonishing “An English Mass.” Scored for choir, soloists, orchestra, and organ, this work was composed in 1955 for one of the leading musicians of that era, Harold Darke. Howells and Darke shared a particular love for seventeenth-century music. While Howells’ musical language is decidedly neo-Romantic in flavor, his rapport with earlier music is particularly evident in this work. What also comes through is the cathartic nature of much of the writing. You see, in 1938, Howells’ son Michael died of polio at the age of nine. From that moment on, every work he composed was influenced by the profound grief of a parent losing a child.

One moment, in particular, stands out in “An English Mass.” In the movement setting the Creed, Howells takes the text “And I look for the resurrection of the dead” and sets it for a solo soprano. In the sacred British choral tradition, the soprano part was nearly always sung by boy sopranos. At this moment in the Creed, Howells’ grief is temporarily assuaged by the sound of a single treble voice, clearly representing his son, Michael.

This is powerful music and among the most challenging works ever presented by the choir. Sunday’s concert, sung by over 100 singers and 21 orchestral musicians, will surely lift your spirits! I do hope you will attend, along with your friends and family members. Following the concert, enjoy a reception in the court, honoring the choirs and Barbara Berry, the artist of the current gallery show “Rhythm and Light.”

My first act as the Interim Pastor for Youth & Their Families at BMPC was riding the bus down to Montreat Camp & Conference Center for the 2024 summer youth conference. I knew that 15 of the 40 or so young people on the bus were from Bryn Mawr, but I didn’t know which ones. By the end of the week, I had a strong sense not just of which kids on the bus were in my care but of their idiosyncrasies, hopes, and visions for themselves and their world.

These relationships opened up over a week of worship, reflection, recreation, and, most of all, open space for nothing in particular. Our lives – and the lives of the young people in our church – are full, and there is no space for the things of secondary importance, let alone things like “open space for nothing in particular.”

But we have a call–a law, actually–in the Ten Commandments to set aside one day a week for rest and for God. That’s hard to imagine on a weekly basis, but maybe, if we zoom out a little bit, we can picture it annually. Part of our Lenten disciplines is about giving a portion of the year to our relationship with God, but summer can be good for this, too.

This summer, there are great opportunities for the young people in this church to have some space to dedicate more directly to their relationship with God and their relationships with each other. Rising 6th graders through graduated seniors are invited to a mission trip with our partners at CROSS Missions in Charlotte, NC, from July 6-11. They will have the opportunity to learn more about the various facets of urban poverty and begin to address those issues with their work. Rising 7th graders through graduated seniors are invited to camp at Montreat Camp and Conference Center in Montreat, NC, from July 26-August 2.

In both cases, the week will be filled with worship, reflection, recreation, and, best of all, open space for nothing in particular. This is where the relationships grow and develop, with God, with peers, and with caring adults.

I’m looking forward to this time with the youth of this church, and I hope you have an opportunity for open space as well–this Lent and beyond.