Author: The Rev. Dr. Agnes W. Norfleet

Jessica Grose describes herself as a “secular, mildly observant Jew” who covers issues of religion, family, education, and culture as an opinion writer for the New York Times. Despite her almost apologetic religious self-description, her journalistic reporting of American religious life is significant. Anyone who loves the church should know she’s a writer with her finger on the pulse of changing religious trends.

Yesterday, under the banner of “Even Religious People Don’t Trust Religious Institutions,” she wrote about how when their leaders act inappropriately, or even criminally, both secular and religious sometimes try to uphold their public image rather than protecting or seeking justice for those who are harmed. The result is prevailing cynicism about all institutions in American life, particularly among young people. We should take this cynicism seriously, she writes, because it is “contributing to a more disconnected, careless and cruel society.”

More than 500 years ago, the leaders of the Protestant Reformation began to establish a church polity to guard against institutional corruption. Recognizing that individuals are sinful and often guided by self-interest, the Reformers established a form of government in which lay leaders are elected to govern local churches and represent them at regional and denominational governing bodies. In the Presbyterian Church (USA) Ruling Elders have the same authority as Teaching Elders (clergy) in exercising leadership over church governance and spiritual discernment for the whole church.

Our routine Congregational Meetings to elect church officers may seem like simple routine business on the surface. However, what these meetings represent is holding the church accountable to the kind of institutional norms missing in much of our society these days. This is part of our answer to a pervasive cynicism in our culture. Elders are elected to oversee the worship and work of the church with the same authority as pastors in church governance. Deacons are elected as emissaries of compassion to reach out and care for our members and neighbors in need. Trustees are elected to manage the church’s property and finances.

Finally, members of the Nominating Committee are charged with soliciting nominees for next year’s election and assuring they are active members who contribute time, talent, and treasure to the work of the church. There is no set amount of giving that counts as “treasure,” just a demonstrated financial commitment to stewardship. Our elected leaders must also have criminal background checks and undergo training for our Child and Youth Protection and Anti-Harassment Policies.

Our elections at Congregational Meetings, you see, are anything but routine. Our form of church government is a battle against cynicism, the assurance that we hold one another accountable and that we engage our increasingly “disconnected, careless, and cruel society” by electing leaders committed to further the justice, righteousness, peace, mercy, and love of God in the community and world.

I look forward to seeing you in worship and at the Congregational Meeting on Sunday. .

I’ve had more than a few people tell me that Advent has flown by fast, and they can hardly believe it’s almost Christmas. It is true that this year the calendar gave us the shortest Advent season possible, but it always feels a bit rushed in this last week before Christmas, doesn’t it?

Company’s coming, there’s baking to do, gifts to purchase and wrap, the house to decorate, and all the rest can add up to a frenetic feeling. At the church, we’ve been proofreading and printing a seemingly countless number of bulletins for multiple services. Deacons are delivering poinsettias, and the Care Team is following up on urgent pastoral concerns. The musicians and pastors are making special preparations, and behind-the-scenes volunteers are beautifying, baking, and serving alongside many mission partners.

When this joyful season begins to feel more full than joyous, and I feel the need to stop and breathe deeply and find some respite from the hasty preparations, I turn to this favorite Gaelic Blessing.

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

Deep peace of the gentle night to you.

Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.

Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you.

Deep peace of Christ to you.

These words, their rhythmic repetition, and their lovely images from the natural beauty of God’s creation, have the power to center and refocus me on what matters most as we prepare for the rebirth of Christ in our hearts. When the outer world seems to spin in far too much chaos, violence and fear, this Gaelic Blessing reminds me to heed the invitation from the Letter to the Colossians to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”

In her introduction to poet David Whyte’s book entitled Consolations, author Maria Popova says, “Words possess us more than we possess them. They feed on us more than we feed on them.” In this culminating countdown to Christmas, may we be possessed by formative words of deep peace, which seems a fitting way to welcome anew the Word made flesh, whom we have come to call the Prince of Peace.

Gracious God, we celebrate this Thanksgiving Day by rejoicing in the abundance of your many blessings. We are thankful for our nation’s long-ago commitment to setting aside a day of rest dedicated to gratitude. We praise you for your goodness, which makes life meaningful and fills our days with joy. Thank you for the love we share with family and friends, for your claim upon our lives to share our gifts with others, and for your grace, which binds us to one another in community.

As the season shifts from fall into winter, the days are cooler, and the nights are longer; thank you for your light that shines within us and through us as disciples of Christ. We are grateful for the shelter of comfortable homes, for tables overflowing with the food of your good earth, and for the company we share among those we cherish and those whom you beckon us to serve. We give thanks for the church, which brings us together for worship, to raise our voices to the music of the spheres, to enjoy Christian nurture among our congregation, and to reach out in service to those in need.

As we celebrate the uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving, we give thanks for our country’s beauty and wonder, its brave history, and a future of hope and dreams. We ask your guidance among leaders who govern us, our allies with whom we share a common call to justice, and all those who work to ensure basic human needs for your children the world over. May the earliest Thanksgiving meals shared long ago on the shores of this young nation inspire that wonderous peace that comes through cooperation and appreciation of human diversity.

As we feast around bountiful tables, we are mindful of those who do not have enough to eat in our community, in our fair city, and the world. We pray for you to work miracles again of multiplying bread and enlisting us to share it. May our gatherings this day be blessed by your presence so that we may be strengthened to serve you in all we do in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Agnes W. Norfleet

Pastor

Grace and peace to you from God and our Redeemer Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

This has been a difficult election season during a time of great division in our country and community. Our families and church family have been anxious and conflicted. This fall, the church has hosted many gatherings to help us consider and claim our values as Christians and as citizens. Through preaching and prayer in worship, classes, special programming, and a Community Forum focused on political polarization, BMPC has encouraged engagement in political dialogue with those of differing perspectives and voting responsibly according to our Christian values and as Presbyterians who affirm the basic tenet of Reformed theology that “God alone is Lord of the conscience.”

Some in our communion are glad the election is over, are relieved that so many outcomes have swung in the Republicans’ direction, and are ready to embrace whatever a second Donald Trump presidency will bring. Others have been repelled by the first Trump presidency and the January 6th insurrection; the xenophobic, violent, and misogynistic rhetoric and mistruths heard at so many of his rallies; the rollback of women’s agency over healthcare decisions; and fear of what may be over the horizon. These folks have shared they find themselves shocked, grieving, and traumatized.

Whether you are relieved or despondent, you are not alone. Many pundits are out there trying to put this election in historical perspective as we wrestle with its outcomes. Our job as members of the church is to take the long view historically and remember that the community of God’s faithful has almost always existed in a dangerous and fraught political climate. Those little tribes of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants were often defeated and exiled under brutal conditions. The prophets summoned them to hope and trust that God was doing a new thing. The Gospels and Epistles show us how the early church was divided and persecuted by the powerful political forces of the Roman Empire. Followers of Christ were urged to live faithfully against the odds, upheld by God’s justice, faithfulness, goodness, and mercy. In this moment, we are still called to put on the armor of light, to reject the power of evil in the world, and to love God by loving and serving one another and those in need.

Our Book of Common Worship has a prayer for a nation in crisis that reads:

God of ages, in your sight, nations rise and fall and pass through times of peril. Now, when our land is troubled, be near to judge and save. May leaders be led by your wisdom; may they search your will and see it clearly. If we have turned from your way, help us to reverse our ways and repent. Give us your light and your truth to guide us; through Jesus Christ, who reigns over the world.

May this time-honored prayer guide our prayers and actions. As we step into the future together, may we heed the call of the prophet to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God, and the call of Christ to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

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.

The upcoming November election is a critical moment of decision in our national history. The Community Forum, free and open to the public, is an important programmatic offering for our church and community this coming Monday night, September 30, at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary. Dr. Robert Talisse, Philosophy Professor at Vanderbilt University, will address “Our Polarization Problem.”

One of the Presbyterian Church’s founding theological affirmations is unwavering confidence in God’s sovereignty. The living God is the creator of heaven and earth who maintains all things in their being and governs them by divine will, energy, force, and life. As people of God, we are called to exercise our faith in every aspect of our lives and follow Christ into the world to further God’s love, peace, and justice. This is a political calling.

When folks tell us pastors the church should stay out of politics, I always want to say, have you ever read Jesus’ first sermon? The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19) You cannot get any more political than that! We live as disciples of Christ in and for the world.

That does not mean we all agree about political matters. Another tenant of our faith is that “God alone is Lord of the conscience,” and we are free to think differently about political matters. In community, we come together, engage in respective conversations from varying points of view, and together seek to better understand the character of God and how best to address issues pertaining to the common good and get to work for the sake of the gospel. Christians must address morality and justice in political spheres, but it is not the church’s job to endorse a particular party or politician.

I imagine we can all agree that political discourse has become increasingly hostile, causing great social schisms in families, among neighbors, and even within the church. Dr. Talisse argues that democracy is rooted in the idea of equality, writing, “Although democracy often proceeds by a kind of combat, we keep the temperature low by acknowledging that beneath it all, we remain one another’s equals… We owe it to one another to uphold this aspiration.”

Join us for Monday’s Community Forum as we seek to uphold this aspiration. The coming election is hugely consequential. We owe it to one another to consider how we move forward civilly, respectfully, and peaceably without giving up our strong, faith-based opinions about how our politics are connected to our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

During our summertime travels, my family teases me because I talk to strangers. They think it’s quirky, but I consider striking up a conversation with someone unknown a proven strategy. Why not ask a local for his favorite restaurant within walking distance? A willingness to admit you’re a visitor passing through can lead you to an amazing meal, down a trail to an extraordinary vista, or to a historic place of significance you would never have found on your own. Last month, a simple inquiry about finding a good cheese shop in Vermont had our GPS send us down a dirt road along a lovely, wooded creek bed for ten miles! Admittedly, eight miles in, I was beginning to doubt the recommendation, but we arrived to discover both a charming town and the 2023 1st place winner of the American Cheese Society.

Whether you are in Lancaster or Lisbon, I recommend you risk the eyeroll of a family member by conversing with someone you don’t know. However, you don’t need to travel far to have a meaningful interchange of discovery because the very best place to befriend strangers is in church.

Op-ed writer David French asked in his column this week, “What is the most important single thing that you can do to heal the national divide and to improve the social mobility of your struggling neighbors?” At this moment in time, he submitted that endorsing a vote for the right candidate and engaging in activism to raise visibility for a worthy cause might be our first response, but he offered a simpler, more difficult primary answer: make a new friend. We have become a nation of epidemic loneliness, declining connections, diminishing friendships, and rising despair. Through faith and experience, I know that congregational life offers a vital remedy.

The church is a unique community for strangers to become friends. While the news is filled with horrendous stories of violence, conflict, and division, the church leans into the good news of the gospel. The gospel is no panacea for all our ills; indeed, it leads us into risky confrontations with the ways of the world about which we might disagree. But our Christian, Biblical, and Reformed theological traditions help us create a safe place for difficult dialogue, a multigenerational community of support, a space for spiritual growth, and countless opportunities for strangers to become friends.

On Sunday, we celebrate Rally Day with worship together and lunch following. There will be good food, fun activities for children, and ministry display tables offering many avenues for involvement. I encourage you to come, enjoy the fellowship, and introduce yourself to someone you don’t yet know. It might just be the beginning of a vitally significant friendship.

As we launched a search to find an Interim Associate Pastor for Youth and their Families, dare I say that when we became aware that the Reverend Andy Greenhow was moving back to the area, it felt providential.

Many folks at BMPC know Andy from his time at Broad Street Ministries in downtown Philadelphia, where he served as pastor, administrator, educator, and coordinator of the youth groups on mission and summer immersion trips.

For the past eight years, he has served at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary working as Special Projects Manager and more recently in the President’s office as Chief of Staff. His administrative leadership at the seminary also gave him opportunities for pastoral care for students, preaching in chapel and supply preaching in the presbytery, coordinating special trips, and supporting a Lilly Endowment project in Pittsburgh presbytery by coaching congregations in how to reimagine using their sacred spaces.

When Andy’s wife, the Reverend Karen Rohrer, was called to be the Associate Academic Dean at Princeton Theological Seminary, Andy was exploring his opportunities for ministry while we were looking for an experienced interim to work with our youth and their families. An initial conversation with Rachel Pedersen and me led to Andy’s meeting with BMPC’s leaders of the Youth Ministry Council, parents, and youth. A call to this important work was extended and accepted, and the next thing you know, Andy was on a bus with a crowd of BMPC youth heading to the Montreat Youth Conference!

The Session has called a Congregational Meeting for this Sunday to elect the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee for Youth and their Families, who will begin their search in the coming weeks. In the meantime, how grateful we are that God has led us to Andy Greenhow! We are enthusiastic about the experience, gifts, commitment, and joy he brings to the good work of youth ministry at BMPC.

Today’s 80th Anniversary of D-Day began this morning in France with a gathering of world leaders from twenty-five countries, elderly French civilians who remember being freed from German occupation, and veterans more than a hundred years old returned to a place of extraordinary memories. It’s a day to pause and commemorate the largest amphibious invasion in military history, which turned the tide of World War II, began the liberation of occupied Europe, and, within the year, brought an end to the war. For the sake of freedom and democracy, more than ten thousand lost their lives on those Normandy beaches eighty years ago today.

Three days ago, on Monday, June 3, Reformed theologian Jürgen Moltmann died in Germany at 98 years old. Moltmann is widely regarded as one of the most important theologians since World War II. As a teenager he idolized Albert Einstein and had decided to study mathematics at the university in Hamburg but was drafted into military service in 1943 at the age of 16. In a dark German forest, he surrendered to a British soldier and, from 1945-48, was held as a prisoner of war, first in Belgium and then in Scotland. There he was given a copy of the New Testament and Psalms by an American chaplain. He would later write, “I didn’t find Christ, he found me.”

Moltmann returned home at 22 years of age to find his hometown of Hamburg in ruins from the Allied bombings and immediately went to work becoming a theologian. His experiences as a POW helped him begin to forge a theology of hope born of suffering, and through a long career of ecclesiastical and international academic leadership, he became known as the Theologian of Hope.

A year ago, on the occasion of his 97th birthday, he said:

Every morning, I am amazed that I am still here. … To die means to let go. I am preparing myself for this. To die means to give one’s life over to God. I am preparing myself for that, too. The raising to eternal life is my hope in life and in death. The eternal life will also be lived. This is the life of God’s new creation. Death is like a birthday to new life in God’s kingdom. Every morning of every new day that hope gives me new courage to live. But I did not invite you here to ponder things with me but to rejoice with me. Let us toast to life—here and there!

Moltmann relished life, loved the church, and believed that the theology of Christian hope is the most important proclamation the church offers to an uncertain world during uncertain times, such as the ones in which we live. Today calls forth deep gratitude for an important day in history when freedom and democracy proved to be hard-won. And, thank God for theologians like Jürgen Moltmann, who have committed their lives to studying how, in the midst of all the vicissitudes of life and death, God is ever present, helping us have hope.

Some years ago, while pondering the summertime rhythms when folks are going and coming, the pastors decided to create a preaching theme for the season. The faces in the pulpit and pews change from week to week, but a series of sermons on a particular topic would provide a sense of continuity. One year, we polled the congregation and asked what theological themes you would like for the preacher to address. Two summers were spent preaching the Old and New Testament stories we teach our younger children. To our surprise there were texts to which a grownup member would say, “I’ve never heard that Bible story before,” and those summers took on the feeling of Vacation Bible Camp for adults!

The pastors have come to realize that a creative engagement with a summer preaching series allows us to explore significant passages of scripture and themes that don’t always fit into the church’s rhythms of the Fall Stewardship season, Advent, Lent, and Eastertide. While each preacher is free to choose what to preach about, we coordinate the series and work together with our musician colleagues to create a unifying offering of worship.

Earlier this spring, we brainstormed ideas and felt called toward Rachel Pedersen’s suggestion of preaching Biblical texts that feature animals. Now, lest you think this topic might be all light and whimsical, some of the most profound passages of scripture feature a diverse creaturely world. We find God revealed through stories from a serpent in the Garden of Eden to Isaiah’s vision of peace with the wild and tame together as wolf and lamb, calf and lion are led by a little child; from the birth of the Christ child in a stable to an adult Jesus imaging himself a Mother Hen and telling tales about sparrows, camels, and sheep. All the scripture stories of animals help us understand the depth and breadth of God’s desire for human welfare.

This Sunday, I will launch the series with a preamble, if you will, on the Genesis 1 account of creation and follow with a three-week series on the most famous fish story of all time, Jonah (which also includes cattle covered in sackcloth and God’s appointment of a very important worm). Then, the summer series will continue with my good colleagues taking up texts that further reveal the essential goodness of God’s creature-inhabited world.

For the theme’s name, of course, we thank James Herriott for lifting the title for his heartwarming book, All Creatures Great and Small, from the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful. If you are looking for summer reading, the Yorkshire veterinarian’s books would be good companions, or you could enjoy watching his stories play on the recent PBS Masterpiece Theater series. One of Herriot’s more famous lines is, “If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” That must be, at least in part, why the Bible is filled with stories, visions, and revelations that feature animals. This summer, I hope you will join us in delighting in the beauty and profound truths revealed through God’s creaturely engagement with the human family.