BMPC Pastor's Column

A number of years ago, a woman named Sara Miles wrote a memoir called Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. It was about her experience of coming to faith. She had grown up in a family of atheists. But she was a journalist who was by nature curious, so one Sunday morning when she was walking by a church in San Francisco, she went in and sat down to see what was going on in a worship service. It was a church that practiced open communion, and she found herself transformed by receiving the sacrament. She shared her experience saying, “I think what I discovered in that moment when I put the bread in my mouth and was so blown away by the reality of Jesus was that the requirement for faith turned out not to be believing in a doctrine, or knowing how to behave in a church, or being the right kind of person, or being raised correctly, or repeating the rituals. The requirement for faith seemed to be hunger. It was the hunger that I had always had and the willingness to be fed by something I didn’t understand.”

God created us as beings who need to be fed, who have yearnings that emanate from within us that inform us of our need. Our hunger tells us we need physical food. But we also have a hunger to feel connected with others, to be in communion with them because God made us to be relational beings. To have needs is not a bad thing if there is plenty available to meet those needs. When we come to a dinner table with our stomachs already full, we might enjoy just a taste of a delicious dish. But when our hunger is met with something delectable, particularly in the company of those we love, it is fulfilling in more than just the physical sense.

This first Sunday in November is when we observe All Saints’ day. During our 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. worship services, we will, with grateful remembrance, name those from our congregation who have died in the past year. Our once-a-month Evening Worship at 5:00 p.m. that is geared for all ages will focus on the sacrament of communion. During our congregation’s 150th anniversary celebration, we have been aware that we stand on the shoulders of people of faith who preceded us. In a mystical way, we are still in communion with them. In the Apostles’ Creed, we affirm our believe in the communion of saints. That term is not limited just to those who have been beatified by a particular part of the church like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Teresa of Calcutta. We’ve known other people that get referred to as saints because they are so generous with their time and assets or because they are extraordinarily patient around difficult people. But what the word ‘saints’ refers to as used in scripture and in the Apostles’ Creed includes all people throughout time who have been made holy by Christ’s redemptive work. That includes people with plenty of spiritual inadequacies like you and me. It also includes those who have preceded us in earlier generations.

We hunger for bread, for connection with God, and for connection with other people of faith, here and beyond. I want to share with you imagery of the afterlife. I’m not sure of its source. In this image hell is portrayed as people being eternally seated at a great banquet table of sumptuous foods, yet none of them are able to bend their elbows, so they can’t indulge themselves of the tantalizing feast. Heaven is portrayed in much the same way. There is a great banquet table filled with delectable delights. Here too, the people are unable to bend their elbows. Yet because they understand that they can feed each other, the banquet becomes heavenly.

Come this Sunday to have multiple hungers addressed in hopes that the Last Supper becomes the Lasting Supper. And for those whose old-fashioned clocks don’t automatically reset, remember to ‘fall back an hour.’

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. David and Ruth Watermulder Theologian-in-Residence lecture series. The goal at the time was simple. As Dr. Eugene Bay described it in a letter to the Watermulders, the plan was to bring to BMPC on an annual basis, some prominent churchman or churchwoman, who would be in residence for up to a week’s time, teaching, lecturing, and preaching.

Named in honor of the Watermulders and in celebration of their leadership to this congregation and community, the list of those prominent churchmen and churchwomen reads like a retrospective of the most creative and thoughtful biblical and theological minds of the past and current generation. In this anniversary year, we are so grateful to welcome the Rev. Dr. Scott Black Johnston as our Theologian in Residence, adding to the illustrious list of those who have come before.

In his most recent book, Elusive Grace, Dr. Black Johnston begins with the story of a visit that he and fellow Presbyterian pastor Patrick O’Connor made to pray with then President-elect Donald Trump. Both Scott, as the pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church across the street from Trump Tower, and Patrick, as pastor of the Trump family congregation in Queens, felt a calling to reach out in that moment in prayer for our nation moving forward.

To say that the reaction to this act of prayer was “mixed” is an understatement.

Seven years later this is still a moment of high anxiety and conflict in our nation, in our communities and even within some of our own families. That makes the topics of this weekend’s presentations incredibly apt, Fight Like Jesus: How Faith Can Inform Conflict. In his two lectures and Sunday worship, Scott will help us reflect on the wisdom offered to us in scripture for how we experience healthy conflict and how we seek reconciliation.

In Elusive Grace, he writes this on the topic of loving your enemies:

“Sometimes all it takes to lose an enemy is to see a rival as a human, to see them as worth regarding, to see them as bigger than the caricatures our minds have drawn, to see their challenges, to appreciate where they have come from, to listen to their story, all while enjoying a piece of pie together, a delicious slice of grace.

Grace is a game changer. It upends the rules of engagement. It changes us. It changes others. It frees us from everlasting spirals of anger and revenge and opens us to an elusive possibility: peace. Peace with our enemies, and peace within our broken hearts.”

In these days we all are in desperate need of a measure of grace with one another and with ourselves. Come and reflect with us on what that kind of grace looks like for us as a community of believers committed to being engaged in the world around us.

Join us this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. in Congregational Hall, as well as on Sunday in the Sanctuary worship service, and finally again in Congregational Hall at 11:15 a.m. for all our Theologian-In-Residence activities.

The text dates to the seventh century, written originally in Latin, the lingua franca of the western Christianity for centuries. But I stumbled across it recently in our archives, a place in which I have spent an inordinate and unnatural amount of time over this last year in preparation for our 150th anniversary celebrations. You can see it in the photo here. It’s a copy of the worship bulletin from January 7, 1923.

BMPC was commemorating its 50th anniversary as a congregation that year, and a who’s who of the wider church had come to be a part, including the Rev. Dr. Lewis Mudge, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly; the Rev. Dr. John B. Rendall, President of Lincoln University; and the Rev. Dr. Henry B. Master, Secretary of the Board of Ministerial Relief.

But what is striking is not the guest list, impressive as it is. It is the opening hymn the congregation sang, “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation.” We will sing that hymn this Sunday as well, as we continue in our season of anniversary celebration and dedicate our stewardship pledges for 2024.

It seems we have been singing that hymn for quite some time. It leads one to wonder why. What is it about declaring “To this temple, where we call you, come, O Lord of hosts, and stay” that makes us want to sing it in seasons of celebration and reflection? Even as other hymns wax and wane in popularity, some having staying power. The power to cause us to reflect, remember, and rejoice. The power to bless us for future endeavors. The power to pray with boldness, “Hear your people as we pray, and your fullest benediction shed within these walls today.”

The big 150th Anniversary Celebration weekend is now just hours away! We are excited that so many church friends have indicated plans to be here from among our active congregation as well as from afar. Many months ago, out-of-town members received a Save the Date mailing, and former pastors, Lilly residents and staff received a special letter of invitation.

Because I issued the invitation on behalf of the church, I have been privileged to receive notes from those unable to attend but who are cheering us on from a distance. Pastors Kellen Smith, Charles Grant, George Wirth, Sherri Hauser and Rob McClellen, for example, have corresponded with regret that they are unable to be here and with expressions of gratitude for their time serving Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church as treasured years in their ministry.

My immediate predecessor as Pastor and Head of Staff, Wes Avram, sent a lovely note to share with you, which reads in part:

Lynne and I were touched to receive an invitation to join you for this grand celebration of BMPC’s 150th anniversary year. God’s faithfulness to this congregation is long and deep, as is God’s faithfulness to the world through you. We were honored to share a small slice of that long faithfulness with you and continue to hold you and your good ministry in prayer.

Your inspiring commitment to worship and arts, love for education, deep and thoughtful support for global ministry, and sense of responsibility to Reformed and Liberal faith will surely shape your life for generations to come. You have a role. You have a voice. You have a mission. And you have faith in a God who has chosen you for ministry. Please know that Lynne and I are part of a chorus of support for you, your mission, and your leadership.

I’m entering my fifteenth year at Pinnacle Presbyterian in Scottsdale and will be retiring when I turn 65 this coming spring. Lynne has found a strong vocation in high school nursing here in the Valley of the Sun. After graduating from Luther College, our oldest son Andrew took an assignment in Peru with the Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteer program and has followed a number of interests since. He is now embracing life, coaching soccer and pursuing other goals while living on St. Simons Island. After graduating from the Berklee College of Music, our younger son Paul is living and working as a musician in Nashville. You loved and prayed for Andrew and Paul when they were children, and we’re grateful.

Thank God for you, and may God bless the work of this congregation for generations to come,

– Wes Avram

At Saturday’s events and during Sunday worship, we will enjoy the sense of reunion with many special guests and church friends. We also will be mindful of partners in ministry, unable to be with us, who have sojourned through the life of this historic congregation, gifted its ministry with their commitments, and have moved on strengthened by their time among us to serve the larger church in many and various ways. Thank God for the breadth and depth of this congregation’s 150 years reaching into the community, the city and the world in Christian service!

It was far too quiet. And by the time I noticed, the sacrilegious deed was already finished. I had purchased the loaf of bread that I would break the following morning during worship in my small congregation in Kentucky. When I left it unattended in the center of our dining room table, our dog, Sophie, jumped up and took a massive bite out of the yet-to-be-consecrated body of Christ our Lord. Jesus wept.

As frustrated as I became, I also was reminded by my better half that “You always say the Table is for everyone.”

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday in the morning and Blessing of the Animals as part of our multigenerational Evening Worship services. We will celebrate the gift of God’s saving grace for humanity at the Communion Table, and we also will bless our companion animals and give thanks for all creation. I hope you’ll join us for both.

In truth, our prayers of thanks and love for all the cats, dogs, goldfish, and hamsters that bring us so much joy is a small reenactment of the love that God has for us, the sheep of that divine pasture who are quick to run from the safety of the Good Shepherd but who get rescued anyway.

Mary Oliver wrote a poem about her dog that I offer here. I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t exactly how God feels about us, rolling over as we do to be reminded that we are loved, and to hear our names called as we are welcomed back into the safety of Home.

“Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night”

He puts his cheek against mine

and makes small expressive sounds.

And when I’m awake, or awake enough

he turns upside down, his four paws

in the air

and his eyes dark and fervent.

“Tell me you love me,” he says.

“Tell me again.”

Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over

he gets to ask it.

I get to tell.

An essential part of our congregation’s identity is its foundation in mission. From the beginning, members of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church were especially committed to sending and supporting mission workers around the world to teach and heal and share the Gospel. But it in the 1960s, the church significantly expanded its mission paradigm and considered what it would mean to give and work in mission in underserved areas of Philadelphia.

Session records describe an intentional effort on the part of Dr. David Watermulder to be in open and thoughtful conversations with African American clergy from Philadelphia so that the leaders of this church could better understand the ways that our culture and institutions disenfranchised people of color.

This is from the minutes of the Session on April 13, 1964:

Elder Baker recommended for the Personnel Committee that the Department of Outreach and its work be reorganized, with our Minister of Outreach designated to serve specifically as our “City Parish Minister,” whose work will be largely in the city under the supervision of the Director of Urban Work of the Presbytery and the Senior Minister of our Church, and that the total cost of this work be included in the benevolence budget of our church. On motion, the Session voted to make this change.

The Moderator presented the Rev. Bryant George, Assistant Executive Secretary in the Department of Strategy of the Board of National Missions, and Elder Hattersley introduced the Rev. Shelton Waters, Vice President of the Philadelphia Council of Churches and Minister of the First African Church at 42nd and Girard Avenue in West Philadelphia.

The Revs. George and Waters were the invited guests of the Session for a frank and thorough-going consideration of today’s racial problems. At the conclusion of an extended discussion, extreme appreciation was extended to both our guests for coming – as well as for their spirit of helpfulness.

More than 30 years later, BMPC leadership and the Session, inspired by the vision of Dr. Eugene Bay to recommit and reimagine the ways this congregation intentionally engaged in mission in West Philadelphia, launched the “Urban-Suburban Partnership.” This is from the fall of 1997:

As part of its 125th anniversary celebration, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, in all aspects of its life, undertakes a journey in faith with the peoples of West Philadelphia, expecting that our mutual ministry will lead us all to a better place.

Primary Goals:

To reaffirm and build upon BMPC’s longstanding commitment to urban ministry. To develop a fresh way of engaging in urban ministry, which is consonant with the realities of our times. To be a community of faith which grows spiritually as a result of creating authentic partnerships across geographic, racial and socio-economic boundaries.

Rational:

After studying how the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia engages in urban ministry, we see three key themes BMPC needs to accentuate:

Instead of DOING FOR others, we will do everything in partnership WITH them. As a community of faith, we minister to others in a way that enables us to absorb the spiritual lessons offered to us by those we serve. Individually and collectively, we affirm that love freely given expands and grows, but when horded and packaged in material form, it contracts and loses its potency.

In this 150th Anniversary year, we celebrate all the relationships built, lives impacted, communities shaped, and organizations created over the past 25 years because of the commitment, time and funding invested in this partnership.

Organizations birthed out of this program still thrive today. The Other Carpenter, which assisted residents with home repairs, made a significant impact on the lives of homeowners in West Philadelphia. That work continues to be done by Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia because of funding from BMPC.

West Philadelphia Alliance for Children continues to reopen school libraries in West Philadelphia, encouraging literacy and reading for young children and families. The West Philadelphia Children’s Choir, which eventually became Singing City Children’s Choir, carries on the mission to share a love and commitment to the arts for children and families in the West Philadelphia community. The Urban Suburban Book Group continues to thrive today as a living embodiment of the relationships envisioned when this initiative first began.

This Sunday we are privileged to welcome to our pulpit and to our adult education hour the Rev. Eustacia Moffett Marshall, pastor of New River Presbyterian Church in West Philadelphia. New River is a merger of three historical churches in that community: First African, Calvin and Good Shepherd.

As we celebrate not only our 150 years of mission work, but our 25-year commitment to West Philadelphia, we once again rely on our relationships and partnerships to help us understand how God is calling the church at large and our congregation to respond to the concerns as well as the hopes and visions of our fellow Presbyterians in Philadelphia.

Rev. Marshall will share with us the exciting journey that has brought New River to where it is today, as well as their vision for this next moment of ministry in West Philadelphia. As a recipient of a $50,000 150th Anniversary Grant from BMPC this summer, New River is positioned both to help us value and celebrate our past in mission, while also leading us intentionally and faithful into this next moment in urban ministry as a church.

I especially hope that all of you who have given your time and energy to working and building relationships as a part of the Urban Suburban Partnership will come celebrate with us this Sunday, and even more importantly, hear how we are being called in this next moment.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

While I have spent my entire life reading from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, those words from the King James Version were on a bookmark that my grandmother gave me shortly after receiving my third grade Bible so many years ago. I found the words intriguing and a little bit scary: dividing asunder felt almost like a threat!

The Bible bearing my name did not seem particularly dangerous or very sharp. Those rounded onionskin pages were not a high papercut risk, and yet, over time the Word of God carefully marked on each page proved to be quick, powerful, sharp, piercing, and discerning.

That Bible, and the many that followed it, helped me define my values (1 John 4:7-8), helped me understand who I am (Galatians 3:26-29), showed me God’s world and God’s people through new eyes (Psalm 104). It has given me words when I thought everything was lost (Psalm 139:11-12); it taught me about God’s love (Luke 15); and scripture shared a vision of God’s community that gives me hope (Isaiah 2:2-5). Each day I return to familiar and less familiar texts and find God speaking in new ways.

This Sunday our third graders will receive their Bibles. We will begin the long process of learning how to find things within it, how to read through difficult names, where to find the stories of God’s Covenants and the Good News of Jesus, how to read texts from long ago with 21st century eyes. We will learn together just how powerful these words can be. I hope that as we do, our students will begin to find words that shape and form them.

The very first thing we will do together is practice opening our Bibles. I know that our third graders are more than capable of opening a book, but in that silly and sacred act we remember that it is not the book that is holy, but the words within it. It is our reading that makes the Bible so powerful.

Part of our tradition at BMPC is pre-highlighting each Bible with key passages, tiny markers to help them as they begin searching through the pages. These are passages that are central to our faith and passages that are especially meaningful to different members of our community. You can read the list below. What passages would you add? What stories have shaped you? What passages have convicted you and comforted you? What sections of the Bible do you avoid, and which pages are well worn?

I wonder if you would be willing to join our third graders this Sunday and bravely open your own Bible and see what quick, powerful, sharp, piercing, and discerning word you might find.