Confession and Repair

I have been thinking back quite a bit these days to a trip that several of us took in the fall of 2021. Women from BMPC, as well as other congregations, traveled together to St. John in the Virgin Islands to visit historic National Park sites that were originally sugar cane plantations where human beings had been enslaved. These sites were particularly historic because of their proximity to the British Virgin Islands, where slavery was outlawed almost 30 years before being banned in the US.

Standing on the beach at the former plantation, this group of white and black women stood together, prayed in memory of the men and women who lost their lives in that place, especially those who jumped into the water hoping to swim to freedom, gave thanks for the ways that the world has changed since those days, and asked that each of us might be transformed by the things that we saw and experienced together.

The impetus for the trip was the way that the National Park staff had used their time and energy during the lock downs of the pandemic to both update the interpretation materials for the site that better described the experience of enslaved people in that site, and to add it to the National Park’s Network to Freedom listing identifying sites on the Underground Railroad.

I was moved, all of us were, by the way that the staff talked to us about their responsibility to tell the truth about that place and the ways that telling the stories of the enslaved people there was a small measure of repair to the inhumanity of slavery.

I think of this trip and experience each time I read news of the attempts in these days to remove these kinds of interpretive tools and stories from National Park sites and historic locations around the country.

Many might consider this a political issue outside the realm of our purview as a church or as people of faith. But in most ways, it is deeply connected to our history, present, and future as Christians in the United States. Not just because of the ways that Christianity, the Bible, and the church were used to justify slavery; the fact that Presbyterians more often than not declined to stand up against slavery when it really mattered; and the ways that we have collectively failed to be accountable for the lasting impact of these historical roots in our culture and communities today, but simply because what we believe as Presbyterians about confession and forgiveness.

Each time we gather in worship, we begin our liturgy with an act of confession. Some people find this incredibly off-putting and maybe even tedious. Still, its placement at the start of worship is very intentional, positioned so that every time we hear scripture read and proclaimed, we are reminded of the ways that we and the world are broken and the truth that through Christ, forgiveness and repair are promised and fulfilled. The echoes of our forgiveness still ring in our ears before any part of scripture is spoken.

We practice this act of spiritual repair each week, so that when we step into a broken world, we are not caught off guard or offended by the need for this same kind of liturgy of confession and repair in our community and national life.

As we do that work, may this prayer of forgiveness from Cole Arthur Riley’s book, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human, be a part of each of our comings and goings this summer as we travel the breadth and beauty of this land:

Let your soul receive this rest: God seeks to mend the brokenhearted, provide for the economically oppressed, honor the aging, and protect the vulnerable.

Receive forgiveness for the injustices you’ve participated in and be purged of those that still reside in your own heart.

Find renewal in the divine, that we would welcome healing as it knocks.

That we would reintegrate every part of us that this world has tried to cleave apart, claiming the dignity of our bodies daily.

As you receive this mercy, let it hold you and keep you, that your hope for liberation would be reborn each morning. Amen.

First Class Service

For some of us, summer is a season when we do some traveling. We live in an age when the challenges of travel are quite different from those of earlier generations. I read something that described travel in the Western part of our country during the 18th century. Even when people were traveling by stagecoach, there were different classes based on how much one spent on a ticket. In contrast to airline travel today, the classes of tickets on the stagecoach did not have to do with the size of the seat or the kind of food that was served, but rather with what was expected of the ticket holder in case the stagecoach got into a difficult situation. There were occasional deep mud holes, steep inclines, or other difficulties to be negotiated at one time or another along the way.

There were three types of tickets sold. The first class, which, of course, was the most expensive, entitled the ticket owner to remain in the stagecoach no matter what conditions might be faced. When you got the most expensive ticket, this meant that you were exempt from having to put forth any kind of effort during the trip. A second-class ticket meant that if difficulty arose, you had to get out to lighten the coach, walking alongside it until the difficulty could be resolved. The cheapest ticket – the third-class one – called on the holder to take responsibility for difficulties. This meant they not only had to get out of the coach when there was a problem, but they also had to, alongside the driver, get down in the mud and do whatever had to be done so that the vehicle could either get unstuck or get up the hill. 1 You would not be surprised to know that those who had this category of ticket held the least prestige.

We live in a society that values appearance, status, fame, wealth, power, individualism, materialism, and consumerism. But what Jesus calls upon us to value is counter-cultural when it comes to what is first class, second class, and third class in terms of behavior. The willingness to serve, doing so in a loving fashion, is the greatest of all the values in the Christian hierarchy of understanding. According to Jesus, the true first-class status is not one of exemption or privilege, where we pay the most so we’ll have to do the least. It is, rather, the eager willingness to do whatever a problem situation requires, no matter how menial or seemingly disagreeable, so that we might continue our journey together, assuming, of course, that we are moving in a direction under God’s guidance. This servant willingness represents the highest of all values. One is free to live in this way by the realization that our worth as human beings comes from an act of God and not from our own competitive achievements. Our worth is given to us as a gift, and realizing this in the depths of our being is the great freeing reality which allows us to lovingly serve. Once that gracious truth takes root in the depths of our being, then each one of us, in whatever role we play in the life of this church, can begin to act out what is truly first-class in God’s eyes.

1 From content shared by John Claypool

The Spirit at Work

I have a special memory of working with one of our congregation’s Associate Pastor Nominating Committees. We had met almost weekly for nearly a year soliciting input for the position description, networking, reading seemingly countless applications, holding initial phone conversations, small group Zoom interviews, and full committee interviews to discern God’s leading us to the right candidate. Toward the end of that search that was leading us to our final candidate, one member of the APNC said, “There was a moment in which it seemed like the Holy Spirit just entered the room.”

That’s what every search committee prays for, hopes for, and anticipates – a moment of palpable clarity. A moment in which it seems like the choice is a God thing and not just human intuition, the melding of the mind and heart, the discernment of a call. For this reason, I am fond of reminding committees early in the process that, by their work together, they will become greater than the sum of their parts. In community with one another we open our circle of discernment to make room for the Spirit.

The Congregational Meeting to call our new Associate Pastor for Congregational Care this coming Sunday following the 10 am worship service is the joyful celebration of the Spirit’s work on our midst. The APNC that has been meeting together this last year to find the best candidate for BMPC represented the diversity of our congregation and the constituent ministries. Sometimes we did not fully agree on some aspect of the search process or the fit of a particular candidate. However, when we began to engage our finalist in conversation there was a clear and palpable unanimity of discernment.

At the candidate’s request, we are not posting her name in this column, which appears on our website, to help prevent word getting to her current church before Sunday, when her call is confirmed by us and she can freely share the news of her departure there.

However, by now you should have received the brochure in the mail which fills out the details of her sense of call to ministry, her love for God and the church, and her excitement about joining the pastoral staff at BMPC. Not only does she bring the level of experience and gifts for which we had been looking, but she carries a winsome presence that attracts others into easy conversation about life and faith.

The candidate had planned to be here in person for worship and the Congregational meeting, but unfortunately while on vacation this week she sprained her ankle which prevents her ability to travel to Bryn Mawr. Our Presbyterian polity does not require her to be present when we vote to call her, but I encourage you to read the mailing in anticipation of the meeting so that you can join the APNC and pastoral staff in our excitement that the Spirit has indeed entered the room.

The candidate will announce her departure from her current congregation on July 14, after BMPC acts to call her, so please hold any details in confidence until then.

Prayers for a Transformative Youth Mission Trip

Early this Sunday morning, nine youth and three adults will hit the road for Charlotte, North Carolina, for this year’s youth mission trip with our partners at CROSS Missions. Throughout the week, these young people will have the opportunity to meet people completely different from themselves, serve their neighbors, grow in their own faith, and develop community with one another.

When I think back to my own experiences of mission trips as a young person, I have very little recollection about what good I was able to do for others. I’m sure I painted something or poured some concrete – did I assemble pews at one point? More than any of that, I remember meeting new people from totally different contexts who challenged my past understandings of the world around me.

These trips helped me understand that God’s world was so much bigger than I could imagine. That God had created a world filled with diverse people, with vastly different experiences, in wildly divergent cultures – and that God loved and was in the midst of all of it. Having encountered all of this, I could then imagine something of the love God had for me.

When these youth return from Charlotte, ask them who they met, where they saw God, and what they know now about how God is operating in their own lives as a result. They’ll do good for others, sure, but more than that, they’ll encounter God at the edge of their own understanding of the world God has created. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

Singing for Ukraine

While several folks extended their stay in France, most of us who joined the BMPC Choir Tour to France returned Tuesday evening, tired perhaps from travel but also exhilarated by the experience. There are stories to tell, pictures to share, videos of the choir singing in stunningly beautiful and historic cathedrals, from Aix-en-Provence to Paris, with stops in between for sightseeing, community building, and, of course, amazing meals. Larry and I were privileged to be among the guests who got to tag along with the choir and support them with our presence during their five concerts.

Among the memories, one of the most special was the first concert at Basilique-Sainte-Marie-Madeliene in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, about a 30-minute bus ride from Aix-en-Provence. The small village boasts a memory of Mary Magdalene crossing the Mediterranean on a boat with neither sail nor rudder and miraculously landing there, where she spent the rest of her life living and worshipping in a nearby grotto. The Basilica, dating back to the early 12th century, treasures relics of her body in a lovely chapel there, a destination for the pious who adore Mary Magdalene as the Mother of Mercy and for her taking the Christian faith to Provence in the south of France.

The joy for us in that special place was having dinner with members of the Ukrainian community who had gathered in that region to escape the war, mostly young families with children, and to have their choir join ours for three special choral pieces sung together in their native language. During dinner, some of us heard their stories of how they had to flee their homeland after the Russian invasion, their fears that they may never return, the challenges of raising children in another country, and their hopes that someday peace will come.

It was especially poignant to have that experience at the beginning of a week that included reports of political violence at home, as well as increased devastation in Gaza, Israel, Iran, and Ukraine, a week that ended with the United States dropping massive bombs on Iran. And yet, there we were together in a full church listening to music offered in multiple languages to the glory of God. The concert was a fundraiser to purchase the ambulance you see in the picture for the front lines in Ukraine, providing emergency dental surgeries and care. Needless to say, we gave generously toward this crucial mission toward wellbeing and peace.

Presbyterian pastor and author Eugene Peterson suggested that song is the result of excess energy. He noted, “When we are normal, we talk. When we are dying, we whisper. But when there is more in us than we can contain, we sing.” In a world at war and mounting despair, that special evening of the BMPC choir tour was a beautiful demonstration of uncontainable hope, faith, and joy in being part of God’s beloved community.

5 Day Countdown

The Wednesday before camp begins marks the start of a precarious countdown. It’s the moment we start moving our carefully laid out supplies and begin setting up shop in the Ministries Center.  This Wednesday, we were facing a bit of a conundrum. Looking at the radar, there was a large swath of green heading for us.  In the education building, there were boxes and baskets packed with supplies, giant tissue paper flowers, and a team of volunteers with the singular question, “Can we beat the rain?”

“Of course we can.” Everyone moved into action: boxes that were larger than the volunteers, carts packed a bit beyond their capacity, carefully prepared props, and a pile of tarps all started to make their way across campus. Even when the sky began to spritz, the team didn’t slow down.

On the one hand, Vacation Bible Camp is a week designed for our youngest members and friends to learn more about God and themselves. But camp is also an expression of the church.  It is a multigenerational affair with an 80-year age span. It is a leadership incubator with our youth stepping up to lead and to guide. Camp is an expression of gifts as adults share their expertise and their willingness to learn.  It is an expression of love shared in 1,000 different ways from the materials you collected that will become art projects, gardens, bird feeders, instruments, and more. Camp is love expressed in the time given to preparing materials, and in those who take a week of vacation to serve. Camp is the trust families extend by bringing their children to our care.

I have one last request!  Please keep VBC in your prayers next week:

  • Pray for our 3-year-old campers as they experience camp for the first time.
  • Pray for our Prek-3rd-grade campers as they explore God’s Very Good Creation.
  • Pray for our 4th and 5th graders (and their leaders!!) as they head out into the community to serve.
  • Pray for our youth volunteers as they step into leadership.
  • Pray for our grown-ups as they pour themselves into a high-energy week.
  • Pray that we stay cool, despite the heat.
  • Pray for wonder and awe to shape our time together.
  • Pray that every child has a sense of belonging.
  • Pray for new friendships to grow.
  • Pray that we don’t miss the incredible gift of growing in faith together.

Journey to France

Tomorrow night, 76 BMPC choir members, church members, and community friends will depart for a choir tour to France. This trip, with the largest number of travelers since the 2001 tour to Brazil, will start in the south of France and over the course of a packed week, head north to Paris. The choir will perform in some of the most historically important churches in France, including the church where Mary Magdelene’s remains are purported to be buried and in Paris, St. Sulpice Church, home to one of the most spectacular organs in the world (and the inspiration for many of the sounds in the BMPC organ).

As with previous tours, we look forward to performing for and with locals. In Aix-en-Provence, home to a large Ukrainian community, we will offer a benefit concert to raise funds to purchase an ambulance for Ukraine. That concert will be shared with a local Ukrainian Choir (and yes, your choir will sing three pieces in Ukrainian!)

France is one of the most culturally rich countries in the world. Thus, we look forward to presenting a variety of wonderful choral works by American, German, and French composers. The French especially love African American spirituals, so the choir will perform four of the most celebrated works from that genre.

To help you follow us on our journey, here is an abbreviated itinerary and map:

June 13: en route to Nice, France.
June 14-16: Aix-en-Provence. Joint benefit concert with the Ensemble Avec Ukraine Choir in the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (June 15)
June 17-19: Toulouse. Concert in the Basilique Notre-Dame-la-Daurade in collaboration with organist Philippe Lefebvre, organiste emérité of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. (June 18)
June 20-21: Tours. Concert in the Eglise Notre-Dame-la-Riche (June 21)
June 22-24: Paris. Staff Singers performance as part of La Nuit de l’Orgue at the Eglise Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (June 22). Concert in the Eglise Saint-Sulpice (June 24)

Finally, we invite your prayers for a safe, joy-filled, and impactful journey. Please consider setting aside time each day to lift up our travelers in prayer:
June 13: Bill, Paula, Lauren, Larry, Devon, Carolyn, and Jim
June 14: Dottie, Frank, Susan, Jeffrey, Tony, Paul, and Sharon.
June 15: Mary, Anne, Terry, Deb, Jasper, Elizabeth, and M.J.
June 16: Judy, Tori, Fred, Kay, Mary, Linda, and Misoon.
June 17: Peg, Kara, Peggy, Ron, Mary, and Valerie.
June 18: LuEllyn, Cherie, Christina, Mike, Meg, and Bob.
June 19: Karin, Mary, Chris, Jeff, Clare, and Tracey.
June 20: Oscar, Lauren, Pallavi, Siddhartha, Dianne, and Elizabeth.
June 21: Agnes, Brenda, Bob, Sharyl, and Nicholas.
June 22: Anne, Debi, Gladys, Bill, and Sherri.
June 23: Dolores, Gretchen, Paul, Eric, and Susan.
June 24: Charlotte, Donna, Laura, and Kent.

Celebrating Rebecca Kirkpatrick’s 10th Anniversary at BMPC

Almost exactly ten years ago, the letter that announced the Congregational Meeting to call the Reverend Rebecca Kirkpatrick to join the BMPC pastoral staff described a process that considered 77 individual pastors, ten phone conversations with potential candidates, and four in-person interviews from a strong pool of candidates. The letter concluded with these words from the Associate Pastor Nominating Committee:

We felt called to Rebecca based upon her passion for education and mission, length of large-church experience, and her depth and breadth of mission experience. We believe that she will bring wonderful gifts to BMPC and be a great addition to our pastoral staff… Confident that the guiding power of the Holy Spirit was at work among us, we are sure in our selection of Rebecca to serve as our Associate Pastor for Adult Education and Mission.

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, when we remember God’s powerful and compelling gift of the Holy Spirit to enliven the church for mission. It’s the perfect day to celebrate Rebecca’s ten years of ministry at BMPC. The expectations that were given voice in the joyful announcement of her arrival a decade ago have more than come to fruition. Rebecca has strengthened our local and global mission partner relationships; grounded our adult education offerings in theological and biblical reflection of pertinent issues facing church and culture; and brought creative energy to our worship and programmatic offerings. Her gifts for teaching, preaching, pastoral care, and administration have blessed this church in many and varied ways.

What a joy to celebrate Rebecca’s ministry among us on Pentecost when we give thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving birth to the church and continuing to nurture us for mission to the far ends of the earth! Join us for worship and plan to stay for a special reception in Congregational Hall, where you can greet Rebecca and thank her for sharing her extraordinary gifts with this congregation and community.

A Prayer for Seniors… and the Rest of Us

Post Content

Earlier this spring, I went on a mini-retreat with a group of high schoolers to start considering spirituality in college and beyond. I gave them three questions to wrestle with throughout the day, questions that I think are core to faith development in emerging adulthood.

Who are you?

Who are you in God?

Who are you in community?

It won’t surprise you to learn that their engagement with these questions was thoughtful, engaging, and enlightening, and I’ve been thinking since then that these aren’t just questions for young people going forth into the world. These are good questions for us all to wrestle with as things change in our own lives.

Diagnoses, job changes, deaths of loved ones, relocations, changes in our communities: these are all good times to ask again, “Who am I? Who am I in God? And who am I in community?”

The school year is coming to an end. Seniors are moving on to the next phase of their lives. Their lives are very much in flux, but so are ours. So, during this graduation season, I thought I’d reprise the prayer I offered in worship a few weeks ago, which is adapted from a prayer for leaving home in Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People by Jenifer Gamber and Sharon Ely Pearson. Let this be a prayer of blessing for seniors, and for us, as we all discern who we are in God and in community.

God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and Rachel, you call us to new and sometimes unknown places with the promise of a full life through your grace and mercy.

We pray today for those leaving home for a new place. Empower our bodies, minds, and spirits to receive this new journey, and give us a spirit of anticipation and delight.

Take away all the fear of the unknown, for whatever lies ahead, for you will be with us.

We pray that you sharpen our ears to hear your call. Clear our eyes to see your path. Strengthen our hands to do your service.

Protect us from the perils of this world. Grant us wisdom to make good choices. Fortify our faith to take risks to do your work.

As we leave this familiar place, help us continue to grow in love and service to you.

We make this prayer of many names, in the name of your son, Jesus, who was born, who grew up in a faith community, who left home. Amen.

To-Do Lists

Post Content

I am always grateful when elders and deacons are getting ordained and installed (as recently happened at BMPC), and we all get to hear the vows they take. But there is one question that always brings me up short, because it was also a question for me when I got ordained as a pastor over four decades ago. “Will you in your own life seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love your neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world?” Okay, on my personal to-do list: an oil change for the car – check; cleaning out the gutters on the house – check; and working for the reconciliation of the world – checkmate! It is a good thing to recognize that we, by ourselves, are lacking the capacity to carry out the expansive ministry to which God calls us.

And yet, in spite of all the problems with a model of ministry in which God partners with folks like you and me, and with congregations like ours, God seems to be committed to carrying out ministry within and through regular (and even irregular) disciples of Jesus Christ. I guess a spirit can’t actually be called hard-headed – maybe God is just deeply committed to such a model of ministry. Evidently, God wants to take things to the next level. We sense God’s loving presence now and then, but God desires for us to embody divine love. We have experienced heavenly grace, but God wants us to become a means of grace. We have been touched so often by God’s generosity that we ought to be able to trust in the God who will lead us into the future. This heavenly method, which utilizes human partners, appears to be part of the mission – transforming others while also transforming us in the process.

Such a theology sounds better as an abstract idea than it does in reality, particularly when a very gifted, dedicated, and effective senior pastor has announced her plans to retire at the end of October. I look forward to the opportunity to share gratitude for Agnes’ ministry. However, I do want BMPC folks to understand that, by God’s grace, this congregation, with great continuing lay and staff leadership, along with a broad and profoundly effective ministry currently in place, is very well-positioned for a coming transition. With what I have experienced with God, I am confident that BMPC will not only make it through the transition, but that God will work within and through this congregation during the transition in ways that lead to our spiritual growth.

For the changes that lay ahead, BMPC is going to need a generous dose of the Holy Spirit to empower and unify us as the body of Christ. We’re going to need boldness and commitment. We’re going to need God to help us focus less on our reservations and more on our prayers. If we might be so bold, we might suggest all of that as God’s to-do list. Somehow, I can imagine God going over such a to-do list – check, check, check, checkmate. That doesn’t mean we lose. Somehow, God’s win is our congregation’s win, even when it feels like we are getting closer to losing someone whom God has used so well in our midst. I am confident God will provide the faith and all the other gifts we need for the coming journey. God does better with a to-do list than we do.