BMPC Pastor's Column

Just 144 days or 3,456 hours or ~29,000 episodes of Bluey until the start of this year’s Vacation Bible Camp! Beginning on June 23, our congregation will welcome over 150 children to see God at work, experience belonging, and explore faith in new ways. Each year, we select a theme that weaves together an important value of our congregation, core bible stories that define our faith, and the unique learning needs of our youngest members. This year’s theme explores God’s good creation and our place within it. We will learn about light, water, land, plants, and animals. We will also practice what it means to be caretakers of this beautiful creation.

I can’t fully describe the energy that fills the church when children are joyfully singing, enthusiastically exploring, and carefully considering where God is and how God is speaking today, but I hope each of you has the opportunity to experience it in person. If you would like to learn more about VBC and opportunities to help, please feel free to contact me. We’ll have meetings for new volunteers in the spring. . Volunteers can commit to helping in a number of different ways: (1) preparation, (2) working with a station/rotation, (3) working with a group of students, or (4) working behind the scenes.

Moreover, if you know someone interested in coming to camp as a camper, please register soon! Camp is already filling up! If you have a potential camper, please .

Finally, please keep VBC in your prayers. Pray for the students we will welcome, for the discerning volunteers, and for our church to be a place of safety and welcome for all of God’s Children.

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. .

As we approach this coming weekend and the days ahead, as a nation, we are asked to remember the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As people of faith, and even more importantly as a community of faith, we cherish his legacy and his vision for our world. In particular, we are called to consider the church’s role in helping to move the world and our lives to more closely embody that vision.

I believe that when Dr. King offered this prayer for the church, likely over sixty years ago, he was praying for us.

Lord, We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word,

that challenges us to do more than sing and pray,

but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers

depended on us and not upon you.

Help us to realize that humanity was created

to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.

Help us to walk together,

pray together,

sing together,

and live together

until that day when all God’s children

will rejoice in one common band of humanity

in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

His prayer makes it clear that the church is called to work together on issues of justice and compassion, to recognize all people’s full humanity, and to be an agent of transformation in the world. This Sunday, following worship, you are invited to join us in Congregational Hall to participate in an ongoing discussion about what that actually means in both broad strokes and in the day-to-day work of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

As we continue to live into the Belonging and Inclusion Statement approved by the Session last spring, you are invited to be a part of helping us implement not just that statement’s goals for our community but the vision that Dr. King continues to challenge us with today.

Many years ago, BMPC member Nena Bryans introduced me to Sister Helen David Brancato. Walking into the court to meet them, I saw Nena with a diminutive older woman. The closer I drew, the more I saw that this nun was a force to be reckoned with! From her dancing eyes to her exuberant energy, I was captivated and immediately became a fan!

I am delighted that Sister Helen will offer a solo show in the BMPC gallery from January 12 to March 2. Her exhibit celebrates the courage and strength of women from diverse backgrounds and eras who have lived with passion and compassion. Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic and visionary, faced exile for standing firm in her convictions. Others, like Dorothy Day, dedicated their lives to the poor and welcomed the stranger through the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement. In Brancato’s painting Song Over the Waters, Eve symbolizes all creative women who continue to channel their energy through writing, painting, teaching, healing, and service. Frida Kahlo, known for painting her pain, also captured her hopes and dreams. These women embodied fidelity and endurance, and these portraits honor the many ways they shared their talents and gifts with the world.

One work stands out to me. Inclusive Feast shows a familiar scene to believers: the Last Supper. However, sitting at the head of the table is a woman. Gathered around her is an assembly of diverse peoples. Diverse in age, diverse in color. One guest at the table holds her baby. I saw this work in Sister Helen’s workshop and was struck by the work’s beauty and message that all are welcome to gather together at the table. This is contradictory to the Roman Catholic Church’s policy that only Catholics may receive the sacrament of communion. I looked at Sister Helen and asked, “Wow, the priests must not have been too thrilled with this painting.” She shrugged her shoulders, laughed, and burst out with, “Not so much!”

Sister Helen studied portrait painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and explored various visual art forms at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. A painter, printmaker, and illustrator, she has exhibited professionally in the Philadelphia and New York areas and formerly taught visual arts at Villanova University.

Sister Helen collaborated as an illustrator with Henri Nouwen on Walk with Jesus: Stations of the Cross and with Evelyn Mattern on Why Not Become Fire? Encounters with Women Mystics. One of her most significant accomplishments has been leading an open studio for artists aged six to eighty at the Southwest Enrichment Community Art Center in Philadelphia.

A recipient of an Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship, her work is part of the collections at the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art at Saint Louis University and Villanova University. Sister Helen’s artist statement reflects her deep commitment to her mission:

“My work is bound up with the human condition. I respond to nature peacefully and to human nature with healthy agitation. It is important for me to interact with the lives of the poor. Through painting, I try to bring the depth of my insight into the pain, the strength, and the dignity of my subjects.”

Please join us in the gallery this Sunday, January 12, at 11:15 a.m., where Sister Helen will lead you on a gallery tour and talk.

When a story is told, how a main character is introduced usually allows a reader to gain insight into who that person is. The four gospel accounts in the New Testament each have their own way of introducing Jesus. Two of the accounts start with birth narratives. Luke’s nativity account is beautifully written and is the inspirational piece we usually hear on Christmas Eve. The lowly shepherds are the first visitors who get to see who Jesus is in this account. Matthew has a much briefer birth narrative, but it is quickly followed with a more detailed account of the first visitors that this gospel writer mentions. They are the magi, sometimes referred to as wise men.

One of the hymns about them refers to them as three kings, but even though there are three gifts mentioned that they bring to the Christ child, Matthew doesn’t tell us an actual number of how many folks came looking for the one who had been born as the King of the Jews. To refer to the magi as ‘kings’ is probably misleading. They were likely astrologers, coming from the East, perhaps from Persia. They were certainly Gentiles, which is part of the reason why Matthew includes their story. That God helped them to know of such a significant birth that it would be reflected in the heavens above gives gospel readers a sense of the importance of Jesus’ birth. However, Matthew is interested in making the case that Jesus came not only for people of Jewish heritage but for people throughout the world. You might remember that Matthew is the account that begins with Gentiles being the first beyond the holy family to see the Christ child. Matthew is also the account that ends with Jesus giving the great commission, where Jesus instructs his followers to make disciples of people from all nations. The story of the magi is what gets referred to as ‘Epiphany,’ a Greek word for revelation. Through this story, we grow in our understanding that Jesus’ coming had significance far and wide. It is a big story that begins with a little child.

In our part of the church, Epiphany is observed on January 6, twelve days after Christmas. Some people celebrate the twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day to January 5. In different regions, Epiphany is observed with a king’s cake, placing grass outside for the magi’s camels to eat, or other fun customs. For us, it is a time when we continue to explore the significance of the birth of the world’s most famous poor child. This Sunday, January 5, will be a time when we in worship reflect on this story found in Matthew 2. We will explore how it continues to help us more fully understand the person of Jesus Christ, where we would be wise to direct our gaze, and to whom we should kneel. Those are fitting things to ponder as we enter a new year.

In 2018, I went with a delegation from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to visit our partners at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt. People in Egypt have a different conception of time than we do. There is a strong sense of the imminence of the past in the present. For example, when asked for a brief history of the seminary, people would invariably say something like, “Certainly. Saint Mark came to Egypt in the 1st century…” 2,000 years is as brief as it gets in Egypt!

I returned to Egypt last Christmas with my spouse, mother, and brother. Many of the Christians we met this time around spoke with great pride about how, even before Saint Mark came to Egypt, the holy family found refuge in Egypt shortly after Jesus’ birth. Matthew 2 recounts King Herod’s infuriation at the prophecies he heard from the wise men about the boy Jesus, an infuriation that led to his ordering the murder of all baby boys near Bethlehem. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph waited out this slaughter in Egypt until Joseph had a dream that it was safe to return.

Just as there was a straight line from Saint Mark to the seminary in Cairo, there was a straight line from providing shelter to the holy family in their time of need to extravagant hospitality for Christians traveling far away from home at Christmastime. These ancient stories had an immediacy in their present moment.

We do not have the luxury of monuments millennia old all around us to remind us of our connection to the past. Nevertheless, I hope you feel the immediacy and imminence of the Christmas story in your life this season. I hope you have the chance to see in yourself or someone else those qualities, whatever they are, that led to God becoming incarnate in people just like us. I hope you have the chance to offer hospitality to people in need, like the holy family in Bethlehem. I hope you have the chance to show compassion to those from faraway places seeking refuge, like the holy family in Egypt. I hope you have the chance to outsmart the King Herods of the world, just like the wise men did. I hope the Christmas story is alive in your life this season.

Merry Christmas.

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.

For more than 40 years, BMPC has enjoyed an annual musical event during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. These Sunday afternoon programs have run the gamut from semi-staged operettas to celebrations of the American southwest to performances of “Messiah,” to performances of Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors, “to Lessons and Carols services. This year, we will offer a foretaste of Christmas Eve with a festive Christmas Lessons and Carols service.

Patterned after the celebrated annual services at Kings College Cambridge, this service will feature nine lessons accompanied by singing, either by the Sanctuary Choir or the congregation. The lessons detail the story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus told in nine short Bible readings or lessons from Genesis, the prophetic books, and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns, and choir anthems.

Joining the Sanctuary Choir is the Bryn Mawr Festival Brass and carillonneur Lisa Lonie, who will present a festive prelude before the service.

Sunday’s service is filled with gorgeous choral works, including favorites by John Rutter, John Stainer, G.F. Handel, David Willcocks, and Philip Ledger. Of special note, in anticipation of the choir’s tour to France next summer, Pierre Villette’s stunning “Hymne à la Vierge” will be presented in French! This service presents an opportunity to hear amazing choral music and to lift your voices in praise in several carols accompanied by brass and organ. This is also an opportunity to show gratitude to friends and family by inviting them to join you in what promises to be a deeply stirring service of word and music. A free-will offering will be received to help defray the costs of the service. Please join us this Sunday, December 15, at 4 p.m.

We are just three weeks from once again hosting the Lower Merion Code Blue Shelter in our building for January. Last year was a transformative experience for our neighbors and our congregation as we welcomed men sleeping outside in our community on the coldest winter nights to stay in the church gym. Hosting again this January will continue to shape who we are as a church and as individuals.

Inevitably, the prospect of staying up all night (or even half the night) as a volunteer at our Code Blue shelter can seem exhausting. I can confirm that it is as someone who volunteered multiple shifts last year. I am unsure when “all-nighters” used to be easy for me, but they aren’t anymore. And yet, the benefit of volunteering at the shelter, at least for me, far outweighs the inconvenience of a lost night of sleep.

I have shared before and will share again here the significance of being able to welcome guests into our own church spaces here– both personally and professionally. For too long, our sense of mission and service has been characterized as something we do elsewhere. We gather in the church parking lot to carpool together to a mission partner in Philly. We meet up at the international terminal at the airport to fly off to and connect with our global partners. Yes, we make over 1,300 casseroles in our very own kitchen each year, but almost none of the 100-plus casserole makers who serve faithfully ever get to greet and serve the neighbors who eat them.

Over the past four years, our Mission Council has been intentionally focused on Bryn Mawr, Lower Merion, or even the Main Line as a fertile field for engagement, learning, and service. The creation of this Code Blue shelter was never in our minds when these local mission conversations began, but it has been the catalyst for changing our mission paradigm one overnight shift at a time.

Each of us who volunteer at the shelter takes on an important responsibility. It is a responsibility beyond offering hospitality, food, and shelter to our guests. It is a responsibility beyond assisting guests when necessary to access the assistance available to them through County services. It is a responsibility beyond ensuring the safety and maintenance of our spaces.

The important responsibility that overshadows all of those others is the weight of being the face, the hands, and the feet of our congregation and Jesus Christ for a world in need, to represent to the community who we are and what we value in loving all of our neighbors, to shift the impression that we are one-dimensionally that “big fancy church on Montgomery Ave.”

This vital work transforms who we are as a church, and the weight of this responsibility carried by all those who step up to be a part of this work also changes who we are. It builds new connections among us. It deepens our experience of faith. It strengthens our identity as members not just of this church community but the community at large.

I know that almost all who volunteered at the shelter last winter are planning to do so again this January. But I want to encourage you, if you didn’t have the chance to volunteer last year, to join us at the training this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. in Congregational Hall. At that gathering we will share the details of hosting the shelter, but also share with one another how we were each transformed through this work.

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