Dear Friends,

I have Jeremiah on my mind today [Jer 17:7-8]:

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in [God].
  They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
  It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
  It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

This is what it means to have such trust in God that one is able to be a calm and reassuring presence during a time of trial. 

I have spoken with many people this week. There is turmoil and anxiety swirling around in our country, because there is such chaos in the federal government, and it affects all of us in some way or another. It is not my purpose here to detail the many ways in which so many of us feel threatened, but rather to talk about what we are called to do when we feel there is nothing we can do.

Jeremiah spells that out for us. Whatever is happening around us, we can be a calm and non-anxious presence in the midst of it, both for ourselves and for everyone around us. We live in community and our community can do amazing things when its members bring that calm and non-anxious presence into it via trust in God. The community, in turn, brings that presence into the city.

In fact, just one steady hand on the tiller of a boat can get the whole crew to safety in choppy waters. Each one of you has the power to be that steady hand, and this is the time to bring it. That’s what it means to put your confidence in God and to have no worries in a year of drought and never fail to bear fruit. 

Today is Valentine’s Day, so sending you all BIG LOVE,

Pan+

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

I love reading call stories in the Bible and hope you do, too. All of us are called to be something different to fulfill our potential but sometimes figuring out what that is can be very confusing. I’ve had a few different professions and a wide array of interests and passions. All these expressions of who I am contributed to who I am now.

My sisters, however, focused early on being ballet dancers, and never had doubts about that as they grew to adulthood.

As Jesus followers, we are taught that we all have different gifts in the Body of Christ, and our faith walk demands that we ask not only who we want to be when we “grow up,” but also who is God calling us to be and what would God have us do. I have rarely been certain about who God was calling me to be, and I wonder if that has been true for some of you?

I’ve looked for insight my entire life, and often asked other people, “How did you know it was right for you to become a nurse, a teacher, an artist, a _ _ _? But my “How did you know?” queries took on a different character when I returned to the church after a long hiatus late in my life. For the first time, I felt with certainty that God was calling me to change direction and it was scary because I didn’t know what the new direction was. That Holy Spirit can be tricky!

The call of Isaiah to be a prophet is one that can be informative (Isaiah 6:1-8, 9-18). The Holy One calls to Isaiah in a vision: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"

A soon as Isaiah says, “Here I am; send me!” God says to Isaiah, “Go and say to this people [meaning Israel]:

“`Keep listening, but do not comprehend;

keep looking, but do not understand.'

Make the mind of this people dull,

and stop their ears,

and shut their eyes,

so that they may not look with their eyes,

and listen with their ears,

and comprehend with their minds,

and turn and be healed."

Then Isaiah asks, "How long, O Lord?" I can only imagine Isaiah’s horror when God responded:

"Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is utterly desolate;

until the Lord sends everyone far away,

and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

Even if a tenth part remain in it,

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak

whose stump remains standing

when it is felled."

The holy seed is its stump.

You see, sometimes we are called to do something very hard. Sometimes it’s to jump into freezing water to save someone who has fallen into the river. Sometimes it’s to be the bearer of a truly horrifying message. And the story embedded within the call of Isaiah that leaps out at me is that while he was asked to prophesy very bad news, the potential of the felled tree remains in its stump. Note that this is my interpretation, and some scholars will disagree.

Perhaps your call is to do something easy, and perhaps it is to do something difficult like delivering bad news. If God ever calls you to do that, think of Isaiah, and think of physicians who must deliver a heartbreaking diagnosis. Whether you are called to deliver something joyful or something sorrowful, something that seems impossible or something you believe to be trivial, God will always want you to deliver love along with whatever the task, because love is the living water that sustains hope. That seed is present in all of us even when we walk through fire. These are some uncertain times right now, and God is calling each of us to show up for our colleagues, our communities and our families

God is calling each of you to something, so be willing to listen and invite God to speak. I am confident that you will indeed be given a message and a mission.

Love and Light to you all,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

My mind is on the families and friends of the people who perished on Thursday night in a mid-air collision over the Potomac River. Losing someone you love is tough in any circumstance. In a catastrophic accident, it is so shocking and unexpected that it can feel suffocating. Is there any help for that?

The way we respond to a disaster that happens quickly and unexpectedly is different than the way we respond to something that happens slowly. Sometimes the catastrophe unfolds so slowly we become accustomed to it. We can become numb, giving in to acceptance, perhaps even assuming that there is no goodness in the world and no light. 

The history of the universe is filled with catastrophic events that change everything. It doesn’t help people who are grieving to say, “This happened for a reason.” It doesn’t help someone who has made a catastrophic life choice to say, “This is all your own fault.” 

What does help? It’s different for everyone, but one of the most helpful things that anyone can do is choose solidarity with the person who has experienced devastation. Solidarity is love in action—showing up, asking what the person needs, and if they cannot articulate it, just stay present. 

Whether you personally experience a catastrophe, or you are trying to support someone else who experiences it, the path out of the paralysis and hopelessness that it can cause exists. It’s discoverable. 

The process of recovery after a soul-crushing experience or set of experiences might take a long time, but if we engage with it, we will find the path, and perhaps we will remember to mark it for the next person who must find their way through it.

In my experience “survival of the fittest” does not mean what we often think “fitness” means. I think it means that survival depends upon learning from a catastrophe and better preparing to survive the next one. The most crucial part of the process is letting go of the notion that we can “fix” a bad situation. It’s the wrong notion. Instead, I believe that we can transform a catastrophe. 

Sometimes that transformation means discovering the cause of a catastrophe first and then taking measures to prevent it as in the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. But sometimes we cannot waste precious time looking for a cause while people are waiting for us to help them during their time of trial. It is critical to recognize when it’s time to discover cause (NOT BLAME), and when we must instead immediately aid the souls who are traumatized.

It was just a few weeks ago that we read in the gospel of John [1:5] that 

the Light came into the world, and The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. As the Body of Christ, we are now that light. It’s time to shine so that the rest of the world may believe that the darkness will not overcome us. 

What happens to one of us happens to all of us, and in the face of unspeakable catastrophe, it is our job to be that Light. It may mean something different for each one of us, and I invite each one of you to discern how you will be the Light of Christ in a world that sorely needs it. 

Love,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

This has been quite a week, and I confess, I’m tired. And yet—I feel good about what we were able to accomplish with teamwork in a couple of different respects this week, especially with our justice work planning on Monday. I’d also like to call out our awesome finance committee, wonderfully persistent and striving hard to draft a balanced budget (we’re close). I’ll talk more about both examples of terrific teamwork when we have our parish meeting on Sunday following the 10:30AM service.

For now, I want to call your attention to the Epistle reading for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a. Paul tells the Christians at Corinth that though we are one body with Christ, we consist of many members. The members are all different. And yet… we were all made to drink of one Spirit [1 Cor. 12:13].

Now is a time I feel we must all stand strong against any attempts to divide us as church by messaging that we should all be exactly alike. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it [1 Cor.12:26]. We need all of the members of the Body of Christ within our church, and frankly, within our country. Science also tells us that the resiliency of ecosystems depends upon their diversity! 

Your instincts, your Scripture and your church are all in alignment on this. The Body of Christ means all of us, all of our gifts, without regard to gender, race, religion, age, national origin, or any other characteristic that someone might exploit as a reason to sow disunity within the Body of Christ. All systems need diversity to be robust!

My experience of working together with various members of our church and staff to solve problems and keep the church moving along also confirms that the diversity of the gifts of the different people is essential to our health and our impact in Baltimore. 

We have several civil servants and federal contractors among our members who received letters from their administrators this week, forbidding them from continuing any work with respect to diversity, equity and inclusion. As I am still on the list of NASA contractors, I received one of these letters, so I know how morally injurious just looking at such a letter is for a Jesus follower. And this is not all: protections against discrimination in the workplace for federal government contractors that have existed for 60 years were also rolled back this week!

Our community of faith must never forget that If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. This is a time if ever there was one to pay attention to each other in our community, to deal with external pressures that would seek to demoralize and divide us, and to double down on loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love one another the same way. That is how we will stay family during a time of trial.

In love and light,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Friends,

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.    – 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

I first came across this passage from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth when I was about fifteen and wondering who I was and who my future self would be. I was new to the church, and new to the Holy Scriptures, so before that time, everything I knew about God was experiential, and intuitive. When I finally made my way to a church, I was given a J.B. Phillips translation of the New Testament, which I still have. I read the whole thing, cover to cover in one weekend. Knowing nothing about the Bible, I wanted to learn as much as I could as quickly as possible. 

It wasn’t until I got the epistles where someone was talking to the people about who they were in the church that I felt a real connection between the people in that era and my life as a high school student. It was a tough time in my life, because there were great expectations placed upon me, and I constantly feared I could not live up to them. And then on my weekend Bible-reading marathon, I read this: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

This bit of text was a huge comfort to me because it assured me that God would activate gifts in me just as would be the case for everyone, and that the Holy Spirit was manifested in me for the common good. I did not know what to do with my gifts, but I knew they were there, and they were given to me not for my own pleasure but for the common good. 

Since that time decades ago, I continuously ask myself, “What is the common good? Have I used all of my gifts for it? Have I made this day count for the common good?”

We can be so much more than we think we can be when we allow God to use the gifts manifested within us by the Holy Spirit for the common good. The common good is how we all thrive, my friends. We can choose to ignore it or nurture it. Imagine how the world would be if we all made the latter choice? Imagine how our own community would be?

In God’s love and peace,

Pan+

P.S. Please remember to let me know (pan@memorialepiscopal.org) if you are coming to the MLK Day activity BEFORE I go to the grocery store on Sunday afternoon! I want to have enough snackage for all 😇. 

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

I listened to some of the news coverage of former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral while I drove up to the church yesterday. He has always been a hero and a role model of mine because when he lost re-election and felt despondent and rejected by the people, he determined to find another way to do the most good with the rest of his life. I don’t need to recount all of those successes here—you all know how hard he worked to provide peace, shelter, freedom from disease, escape from poverty, and more. You also know that he taught Sunday School as a volunteer until he physically could no longer do so. He knew that compassion and action go together and that this must be taught to each successive generation.

I have often speculated on what it would be like to start a charter school with the foundational charism of chesed, the steadfast and loving kindness of God. Teaching compassion and chesed through stories and dialogue along with the 21st century survival skills we all need is a true call and an urgent need, now more than ever.

Grace and compassion and the drive that motivates someone to do as much good as possible in the “second half of life” as Richard Rohr calls it, is sorely needed, perhaps now more than ever. With a change of national administration more dedicated to tearing institutions down and dividing people over false issues than governing with compassion and an eye to the future, we must not become so discouraged that we become passive. We can all do something. 

We start with our own community. We must be observant. Who is struggling? Who is thriving? If we fall largely into the latter category, how can we elevate the struggling siblings with our love and compassion in action? 

With the fires raging in what used to be my home in Altadena, CA, and the loss of one of my statesman heroes, for just a few minutes yesterday, I felt that darkness and death were winning. As I began to prepare for my Sunday message I read these words from the prophet Isaiah with fresh eyes: 

For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you…   Is. 60:2-4a

Then I remembered, and I hope you will too: ours is a Light that the darkness cannot overcome. We can choose to live into and use that Light for good or we can hide it under a bushel. We can choose who we are until we are welcomed home to eternity, and we have the opportunity to remake that choice with every breath we take. Don’t let the darkness of despair overtake you when there is still work to be done: the work of compassion and chesed in action. 

What does that work look like for Memorial Episcopal Church? I have a vision, and I’ll bet many of you do, too. Please tell me about your vision. We are in the process of developing plans and a budget to fund those plans for 2025. Your vision and your voice are critical as we chart a course forward. You may write to me here: pan@memorialepiscopal.org.

Warmth and love to you all on this chilly day,

Pan+

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

For the final day of the Christmas season, there are three options for the gospel reading. One of those texts will be used this Sunday on the final day of Christmas, the 2nd text will be used when we celebrate the Epiphany on January 12th, and the 3rd text selection I present to you here from Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23:

After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."

I wonder what it was like for Joseph—did they leave immediately? How long did they travel to reach safety in Egypt? How did Joseph support his family once they got there? These are what I consider to be “rabbit hole” questions. They distract me from looking at Joseph and seeing what I can learn from his story.

The narrative that survives is scant, but for me, the important pieces are there: Joseph experienced a visitation by an angel. Again. Remember, we are told earlier in Matthew’s narrative that when Joseph discovered Mary to be pregnant and considered quietly canceling the betrothal an angel told him not to be afraid to marry her—the child was conceived by the holy spirit.

And notice that there is a third visitation by an angel while Joseph slept: the announcement that Herod had died and it was safe to return to Israel. Clearly, Joseph was a man who trusted the counsel of angels.

Would I know the counsel of an angel if I were to receive it? I hope so. Maybe that’s why the angels consistently visited Joseph while he slept, free from other distractions. Consider these lines from the New Zealand Prayer Book Night Prayer (based upon Psalm 127):

It is but lost labour that we haste to rise up early and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety. For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep.

This story of Joseph and his obedience to God’s counsel through angels should prompt us all to ask ourselves whether or not we would recognize God’s counsel delivered through angels and respond to accordingly. It may not always be a matter of life and death, but I believe that God does speak to us even while we sleep. Whether or not we will respond to such counsel is always our choice.

* * *

And now two announcements!

There is snow expected for Monday, so we will postpone the Epiphany party. Fortunately, Epiphany is celebrated for an entire season. We will announce the alternative date and time shortly.

COVID numbers are up post-Christmas travel, so please be mindful, especially if you are a person at risk for complications from respiratory infections. If you feel at all ill, join us on Zoom instead of in person for church.

Don’t forget! Wrestling with the Word (Bible study) begins this Sunday at 9:10 AM in the upper parish hall.

Love to all,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

We live in a dynamic universe. I like to think it is energized by God’s most creative energy: Love. So, I wonder… if this powerful Love is indeed the most creative force in the universe, why would we allow fear to get in the way of living our best lives? Fear has a chilling effect on our ability see a way out of bad situations—to solve problems that seem insurmountable. Fear can prevent us from deeply engaging with Love and living up to our potential as beings created in the image of Love.

Every Sunday, the last thing I say to you before celebrating the sacrament of the Holy Food and Drink is the admonition to walk in Love. I invite you to think about what would happen if we were to follow that advice all the time—to really walk in Love. Who would we be if we could pull that off?

The world around us shows us that there are very few “pure” substances in the universe. Those building blocks we refer to as the chemical elements are in relationship with one another, forming bonds, coming apart and forming new relationships. These relationships each have their own energy! All matter is in motion, and the energy driving that motion can only be explained theoretically by models. Those models are good for more than elevating our scientific understanding of the universe—they also inform our moral understanding of the universe. There are clues everywhere about the behavior of created things—and beings are created things. Our motion drives us into relationships which each have a unique energy, just like the relationships (compounds) of the chemical elements—each relationship having distinctive properties. We were made to live into the potential of relationships with others because we live in Love, and when we walk in Love…we evolve.

If God is Love and God created it all, then the whole thing—all of creation—exists within that magnificent causal energy—Love. The universe resides in Love, and there is nowhere we can go that we are not surrounded by Love. We can choose to draw upon that deep well of Love, and there’s no telling what we can do and who we can be if we choose to cast aside fear and choose love.

So walk in Love, dear ones. Don’t be afraid. We need this Love now as much as we ever have in the history of humankind. God is with you and in you. Walk in Love.

In hope, peace, joy and love,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

John the Baptist knew how to call out the privilege of pedigree.

"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

That type of privilege is something I took note of during my career as a scientist. People who went to the right graduate school got the best post-doctoral fellowships. People who did a prestigious fellowship got hired into the best faculty positions. Those people had the best track record at getting their proposals funded and so on. 

The privilege of pedigree sets us up for moral failure because it separates people early into two tracks, one of which facilitates success and the other making it an obstacle course. The latter path isn’t impossible to traverse, but it’s a tough one. We live in a culture that is ultra transactional. There are gold stars and demerits, and the people who decide what is worthy and what is not often fashion the notions of worth based upon their past experience of what they value as swell as a self-perception of value. Everything is assigned a value, and value becomes an idol.

John the Baptist called out the privilege of pedigree because it was a way of prompting people into the humility that God desires of the righteous. Until a person can let go of “Don’t you know who I am?” pride, that same person cannot face the Creator ready to learn who God is—ready to learn who everyone else is—beloveds of God.

What if we were to assume that everyone has value simply because God made us? What if we formed relationships under the assumption there is joy to be found in loving without justification? Isn’t that what Jesus did? 

At the occasion of a wedding, I always remind the couple at the start of the liturgy that marriage is for the purpose of mutual joy. On more than one occasion I have wished that I had said the same thing at the occasion of a baptism: joining the Body of Christ is for the purpose of mutual joy. To form a relationship because it adds value to one’s life is a little bit backward. To form a relationship because it brings mutual joy is to let go of privilege and the metric of worth, embracing the practice of love without rhyme or reason—love because that is how we were meant to live. That is how we build the foundation of the beloved community. Think outside the box.

In love and joy,

Pan +

The View from Bolton Street

Dear Parish Family,

This Sunday (December 8th) we will already be into the second Sunday of Advent. If feels like I just got here a minute ago and yet it’s been 14 weeks! I will take the opportunity to spend about 15-20 minutes after each service to update you on where we are in the transition process, and I’ll take some questions. If you have more questions than can be addressed at the time, please email or call me. I’d like to hold an all parish meeting early in the New Year, when we can all be together, share a meal and talk to strengthen relationships and begin to do some visioning work for the future.

For those of you who won’t be here this Sunday, here are some highlights that I’ll bring to the brief after-church discussions:

Group norms for a respectful conversation

Outline for the process of a transition time

We now have an excellent internal finance committee. They are looking into the last few years of the finances to see where we are in relationship to where we were. This is to help us craft the first draft of the 2025 budget.

We’ll talk about the status of the pledge campaign.

I will talk about some new policies and procedures that make us compliant with the constitution and canons of the church with regard not only to requirements, but also best practices for good stewardship of one another and of our finances. This includes required training for staff, lay and clergy leadership, and working with children.

I will talk about our Justice and “Repairing the Breach” (my words) ministries. In short, that remains a high priority!

This is not a comprehensive review, so just short highlights. If you want to continue conversation into coffee hour, I’m there for it!

I also want to announce two new things:

Beginning January 5th, we will have weekly adult formation in the Upper Parish Hall between the two services. We have some excellent and inquiring theological minds at Memorial, so let’s dig in each Sunday between 9:15 and ~10:10. This is the best way to include both the Faith@8 folks and the 10:30 folks. We are one church, and I want all people to have an opportunity to engage in theological reflection. I will also ask the Zoom regulars to talk about a day and a time that works for a Zoom formation opportunity. No one will be left out! CHOIR: I see you, and if you want to weigh in on the day and time of the Zoom adult formation, that will provide an opportunity that does not conflict with your rehearsal.

We will hold a program and party to celebrate Epiphany/Three Kings Day on Monday evening January 6th (our liturgical observance of Epiphany will be on Sunday January 12).

Jan 6 will be a potluck supper, and the topic of the program will be Epiphany: The Season of Exploration. What better way to start the new calendar year than with a party? This will be all fun, part mysticism, part science, lots of theology and full of good conversation. I’m learning so much from the Faith@8 folks about what happens when a group of people get inspired by a text and then organically riff on a number of topics, I wish for you all to have that experience.

I realize that this is not my usual weekly pastoral letter, but I wanted to take the opportunity to tell you these things.

To borrow from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, I close by saying, And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. –Phil. 1:11.

In Christ’s love,

Pan