The View from Bolton Street
The View from Bolton Street
Isaiah 50:4
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens--
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
Another week. Another school shooting. Six more victims are in the legacy of inaction in this country when it comes to gun violence. We worship a God who takes on, among other names, that of teacher, and Isaiah reminds us that we are God's students, every day is woken by the words of our heavenly teacher.
Yet six of God's students, God's children, did not wake up today. And despite the painfully obvious fact that the one constant in nearly every school shooting - the use of a gun, not just any gun but a semiautomatic AR-15 style assault rifle - as a culture we go everywhere else looking for blame.
This time, because the shooter attended the school as a young girl and now identifies as a man, it is the trans community. For such a small part of our population they already bear a tremendous burden - to have the blame for mental illness and school shootings put on them is just more hurt on top of, more hurt on top of more hurt.
So let me offer a word to the weary here:
Sin is indeed the cause of the continued, and increasing, trauma of school shootings in this country. But it is not a sin connected to sexual identity or mental illness or who someone is or who they love. Living into the person God called you to be is not SIN, it is HOLINESS. And a community that allows and encourages that transformation is one of GRACE, not shame. Memorial, I pray, will always be such a holy and grace-filled community.
It is the sin spelled out for us in the ten commandments, that we read every Sunday during lent. 'Thou shalt not make for thyself any idol.' And this country has made an idol of guns. In particular, cool-looking guns that make us feel powerful, independent, protected, and superior to everyone else.
Whether it is a golden calf, a warm gun, or an Old Flag -- any totem that we put our trust in over and above God, in place of God, or as a symbol of God, is an idol. Jesus Christ is the only thing that saves us, yesterday, today, and forever. No number of guns in your safe, ammo in your stockpile, or food in your basement will be your salvation. As a culture, and as a country, we have to stop worshipping the false promise that we as individuals can save ourselves or anyone else. I also loved 'Red Dawn' - but it was a movie, and it turns out, Nicaraguan revolutionaries weren't the ones bringing guns to our street, it was Wall Street Corporations. Because the God they really value is not red or blue, but green.
The Good News is, the truly Good News, is that we at Memorial and in the Episcopal Church represent a group of people committed to being a community of love. Where we find safety in the community, not carbon steel plating; where we find hope in the resurrection, not a light trigger pull; and where we share God's love with everyone - no matter who they are, who they love, or how they live.
My only prayer is that more people give up the idols of guns and money and power for the God of peace, justice, and resurrection.
The View from Bolton Street
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you,
and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 37
Okay, but what can God do with empty pews?
It is a harsh reality that many clergies these days feel a bit like Ezekiel, prophesying to half-empty spaces hoping to see the bones of the Church rise up. I can only imagine what it feels like to sit on the other side, wondering where the person on your right and on your left has gone, why it feels so empty in a space that once felt so warm.
As a Christian community we are confronting an outside world that in some ways has moved on from church; living in a secular society skeptical of a religion that purports to tell everyone how to live, that seems to thrive on judgment and division, and that, during the worst of the COVID pandemic shut its doors to people when perhaps they needed God most. Perhaps worst of all, we are confronted with a group of people who love what we do but who simply found other things to do on a Sunday morning. Antagonism and indifference.
If 2020 brought twin pandemics of COVID and white supremacy, the post COVID era has brought on ‘the Great Resignation’ - not just from work but from public life: church, community, politics, even family. More and more of us have decided to just simply be alone. Or perhaps to be ‘online’ - that is to be together, but only in the context of a curated world where we have more control over how we are perceived and understood, and who we interact with, than we ever have to find in real life.
While preachers and pastors have always lamented sermons falling on ‘deaf ears’, now we wonder if they reach any ears at all. Some, perhaps, are simply resigned to it.
They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’
And yet I walk outside and I see lots of people out and about enjoying the seasonable (if mercurial) weather. I walk into Church on Sunday and I see a glut of small kids following Miles to Sunday School, I see people timidly stepping foot in the church for the first time or the first time in a long time looking for meaning. I see people hungry for a call to justice, to action, to community. I see new neighbors and new communities popping up around us. I see energy, and joy, and life.
I see the bones, and I see the new flesh, muscle and sinew and I pray that they can come together.
But the muscles need something to attach to. The sinews and flesh need a frame to fill out. This valley of dry bones needs to be attentive to the work of the spirit and see and connect to what God is offering to us as a community of faith right now and embrace and support it so that it can grow.
Even if that skin has a different hue. Even if those muscles flex in different ways. If the body that forms has different interests, passions, directions.
The Church will always be the Body of Christ at work in the world. The challenge for worshipping communities like Memorial today is that we have to decide if we want to be a part of building up the Body of Christ or to stick with what we have always done. If we want to hoard the gifts and talents and treasures we have, or do we want to turn around and share them with the wider world, not for our glory, or Memorial’s glory, or the Episcopal Church’s glory… but for God’s Glory.
Despite increases in attendance, program and need in the broader community - Stewardship at Memorial, including volunteer hours, financial contributions, and gifts of time and talent, are all declining. Our own great resignation. We can be resigned to this fact. That there is opportunity and potential out there and perhaps we are not the community to do it.
Or we can look at the abundance all around us. Stop worrying about what we don’t have and revel in the joy of what we do. And in so doing find Christ and each other and in that, everything we could possibly need to share with the world.
For when the Lord calls “and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.”
The View from Bolton Street
“Frank Tracy Griswold III (1937-2023) served as the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church from 1998-2006.
Griswold co-chaired the Roman Catholic-Anglican Commission from 1998 to 2003 and made significant contributions to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and to its practical use in the liturgical life of the church. Griswold’s private spiritual practice was deeply informed by the early mothers and fathers of the church, and he championed Eastern traditions of the open-hearted and healing power of God’s love.
Born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Griswold earned a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College and a Master of Arts from Oriel College at the University of Oxford. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1963, and he married his wife, Phoebe Wetzel, in 1965. They raised two daughters in Philadelphia and Chicago, where Griswold was elected as Episcopal bishop in 1987. Griswold practiced a wide ministry of teaching, writing, lecturing, and leading retreats, nationally and internationally. After completing his term as presiding bishop, he served as a visiting professor at seminaries and universities in South Korea, Cuba, and Japan, as well as at the Episcopal Divinity School, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Virginia Theological Seminary and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. Griswold also served as bishop visitor to the Society of St. John the Evangelist.
His books include “Going Home” (Cowley Publications Cloister Book), “Praying our Days: A guide and companion” (Church Publishing Group), “Tracking Down the Holy Ghost: reflections on love and longing” (Church Publishing Group), and, co-authored with the Rev. Mark McIntosh, “Seeds and Faith” and “Harvest of Hope” (Eerdmans).” Resource - The Episcopal Church
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Statement about the passing of Bishop Frank Tracy Griswold.
The View from Bolton Street
Sometimes… we just don’t get it
In this weeks Gospel Jesus has a unique encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In this brief story he divulges to her that he can offer living water to any who ask, knows her whole life story, offers her forgiveness and acceptance into the Kingdom of Heaven, and she, in turn, says she is waiting for the Messiah and when she realizes that Jesus is the one she has been waiting for, she runs to tell everyone she knows.
And the disciples big takeaway was…. You shouldn’t be talking to that woman. You must be delirious. Here, have some food.
Sometimes…we just don’t get it.
We are so fixated on doing the right thing, the safe thing, the correct thing, that we miss the BIG THING that God is doing.
This week, many of our minds at Memorial are on questions of scarcity. Will we have enough. Do we have enough. Can we be enough. It is not unlike the disciples who rush off to find food for Jesus only to come back and find out that he has his own food! They are too busy being frustrated to turn and ask him for this bread of life. Fears of scarcity are completely rational. Normal and part of our human condition.
But we worship a God of Abundance. A God who provided food and water in the desert - even as God’s people complained! A God who sent his son to redeem the world. A God who even now offers us blessing after blessing after blessing even as we turn away, ignore or claim God’s blessings as being of our own design.
Even as you are fretting about your own budgets and accounts and burdens, God is right there, providing exactly what you need.
Sometimes… we just don’t get it.
Fortunately, God gets us. God loves us. And God provides for us.
I have no doubt that as tenuous as our 2023 budget looks - Memorial will be just fine. Not because I have a secret answer to budget woes and falling stock markets, but because I believe in a God who is always right on time. Sometimes we just have to get out of God’s way and prayerfully consider what God would have us do in the moment.
The Vestry and staff will be guided by a very basic principle as we navigate this current budget crisis — does this work we are considering bring us closer to God? And if the answer is yes, then we can move forward; if not, we should take a step back, and ask ourselves how we can better use our resources to the glory of God here in Baltimore.
And if we do that? No matter what the balance sheet says we will be just fine in the end.
The View from Bolton Street
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.
Genesis 12:4
He makes it look so easy. “So Abram went.” Abram/Abraham, this common ancestor the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths all share, represents for all of us the pinnacle of faithfulness. God commands. Abraham does. There are more than a few of you I am sure thinking, if only it were so easy.
The reality of course is that it is not. Not even in the Bible. You see Abraham doesn’t just go when God says go. God didn’t just show up and start ordering Abraham around and he was like, ‘yes God whatever you say God.’ Sometimes in our simplified Christian view we forget that something went before the obedience. The faithfulness. The steadfastness in the face of adversity.
You see God and Abraham had a covenant. We will read it this Sunday. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And God keeps God’s promise. EVEN WHEN ABRAHAM (and all of us) didn’t keep his. That is the way covenants work. We have precious few covenantal relationships in our lives, the bond between parents and children, the covenant between clergy and the Church, and the marriage covenant are a few examples. They aren’t perfect, because we aren’t perfect, but these are relationships where we have a certain set of obligations and commitments to each other that do not depend on the actions of the other side because we trust that the other side is faithful even when we can’t see it.
When I was ordained I submitted to the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church even though I have no idea how those doctrines will change and move over time, because I trust that God is working through the Church even when I don’t see it.
Perhaps then Abraham’s faithfulness - while impressive - is not as shocking. After all he got to have his ancestors be as numerous as the stars in the sky and stretching across every part of the known world. Pretty cool, really.
You know who we should pay attention to? Lot.
“And Lot went with him.”
It is one thing to be faithful because you have an agreement with God. It is quite another thing to be faithful because you trust in someone else’s relationship with God. If Abraham is the first priest/rabbi then Lot is the first congregant. And Lot does suffer, doesn’t he. He trusts! But it is not without loss. And there isn’t nearly as much glory in being Lot, is there.
But I submit that Lot’s life was still better than if he had state behind in Haran. Not because things would get better or worse for him personally socially, or professionally.
But because by following Abraham he gave up everything for the simple joy of getting to know God up close. He didn’t ask what was in it for him, or how long they would be gone, he just went. And his life was profoundly changed.
So to can your life be profoundly changed. So to can you get to know and follow God more closely. Not by doing what I say (heaven forbid!) but by following the life and teaching of our chief priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This season of Lent we are invited back into that covenant relationship. We are invited to walk again the path of Christ. To forsake the commonplace and ordinary for the life of a Christian. Which, if you are doing it right, is seldom boring.
The View from Bolton Street
Forgive or Forget
Ash Wednesday 2023
One of our most powerful qualities as humans is forgetting. It is our ability to forget that helps us get back on the horse when we fall, back on the bike when we crash, back into our job, life, church, and community when we fail, stumble, or make mistakes. We (hopefully) develop muscle memory around the failure, but we are able to create enough mental space from our previous mistakes to make another attempt. This can be a beautiful thing! Think of all the inventors, all the advocates, all the visionaries who struggled at the beginning. If they had not been able to forget the pain of those other failures where would they, or we, be?
Perhaps, then, this is not forgetting at all but forgiving. Forgiving ourselves and trusting that we can learn and do better next time.
The shadow side of this is of course forgetting you ever did anything wrong and proceeding to continue to come back and do the same hurtful and damaging thing over and over and over again.
Many of us have been there as well. On both sides of the equation.
Lent is an opportunity for us to move from forgetting to forgiving. From continuing to hurt ourselves and others, to learning and growing from our mistakes. From walking confidently in our own knowledge to walking humbly in the shadow of our God.
This Ash Wednesday we remind ourselves that we are nothing more than ashes and dust. As Deacon Natalie reminded us on Sunday, “Life is short, and we have little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be swift to love and make haste to be kind.” I hope you take some time to forgive yourself and to seek to practice restoration, healing, and hope this Lent.
The View from Bolton Street
Transfigurations and Transformations
This Sunday we hear the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus is on the mountaintop with Peter and James and John and the total confusion that ensues when Jesus becomes something he is not supposed to be.
The disciples are scared, confused, and ultimately humbled -- deciding that they should just stay here where this amazing thing has just happened! Why go anywhere else?!
Today I am thinking about the need for transfigurations and transformations in West Baltimore. More than 15,000 registered vacant homes in this city, thousands more unregistered, and even more barely livable. Many, many of those are a stone's throw from our front doors.
Honestly, this has been the case for so long that most of us just say, well that is the way it is. This is what Baltimore looks like.
But there are people working to transfigure and transform West Baltimore. This is probably the only time I will link to an article from Apartment Therapy in this space, but this interview with Shelly Halstead, along with photos of the transformation of her own home, is well worth your time. (Design Changemakers 2023: Shelley Halstead Combines Carpentry and Advocacy | Apartment Therapy)
Shelly is a light to all of us. And she has transfigured Etting street into something almost unrecognizable. And it is tempting to leave it there. But she has bigger dreams for her organization and for West Baltimore than a few renovations.
This includes business incubators, access to healthy food, artist and community spaces — all by black women for black women. Truly visionary.
The question for us is how do we go from seeing the small vision to the big vision? How do we go from charity to justice?
Tomorrow you are invited to join us at 10:30 am at Greater Harvest Baptist Church on Saratoga street to join with dozens of congregations from across the city to call for city and state action to support real action on vacant homes and affordable housing in Baltimore.
We have to stop looking for people who defy the odds to make it work, and start changing the odds so everyone has an opportunity. Please plan to join as you are able and wear a BUILD or a Memorial “Jesus Centered - Justice Focused” shirt.
The View from Bolton Street
A Big THANK YOU! to everyone that assisted with Sunday's annual meeting, particularly all the staff and volunteers that worked hard on annual reports and new programs and materials. Special kudos to Candice Willie our parish administrator for herding all the cats and getting the paperwork together for the meeting and the website updated. If you have not read through the annual reports and watched the children's report I hope you will do so very soon. It is well worth your time!
Reparations:
Since we launched the Guy T. Hollyday Justice and Reparations fund, we have raised over $130k and distributed $92,742. Significant beneficiaries have been Building our Nation’s Daughters, Black Women Build, The Diocesan Reparations Fund, Baltimoreans United for Leadership Development, St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church, Kindred Coaches, Dad’s United, and underwriting the Division and Unity History display at the Unity Hall produced by Nanny Jack, Inc.
Worship:
We are in the process of rebuilding our worship post-pandemic. It has of course been hampered by the delay in the renovation work, but also by the continuing shift in who we are and how we gather. While our worship is outlined by the Book of Common Prayer, the blank space in the prayer book offers a lot of space for flexibility. Music, prayers, silence, singing. As we continue to ask what our worship should look like, exploring these blank spaces will be an important part of our worship journey.
Youth:
Over the summer, due to the collaboration between Miles Weeks and Kathleen Capcara, we substantially rejuvenated our youth program with more consistent curriculum, expanding programming to include more ages, and we have begun to see the return of our pre-COVID children and youth programming. I am looking forward to what Miles and other volunteers are able to do in the new year.
Urgent Needs:
As has been our practice over the last few years, Memorial has been very flexible in our ability to reach out and support urgent needs in our community and the wider world. From September 2021 through the middle of 2022, myself and some other dedicated volunteers partnered to provide support and assistance to Afghans fleeing the Taliban regime. All told, we were able to evacuate more than 160 Afghans via air and land to safety, almost all of whom have since made it to the U.S. or European countries where they have received sanctuary. We also worked with a local partner Luminus and Brown Memorial and Beth Am Synagogue to provide for the Afghan families that have settled in Reservoir Hill.
The excitement about the annual meeting and how far we have come in the last year was tempered of course by the sobering financial report. Due to a number of circumstances, including quite a few unpaid 2022 pledges and lower than expected special appeal revenue numbers in 2022, we ended the 2022 year with a large deficit - over $100,000. The good news is many of those missing pledges have been paid up since our meeting Sunday and we are confident there are more to come.
However, there is also a lower than expected number of pledgers making their commitment to 2023. Because of this, the finance committee did not present a budget at the annual meeting. The vestry and I concurred, and we proposed a special meeting for March 5 during which the congregation will consider and vote upon a budget for 2023. On Sunday, members voted to approve the proposal.
In the interim between now and March 5 we will work on bringing in more pledges so that 2023 spending isin line with reasonable revenue projectionss. The good news is that several 2023 pledges have come in since Sunday. The finance committee and staff will work hard over the next few weeks ensuring our 2023 budget is substantive and responsive to our current reality.
Some of you had questions about the temporary budget resolution to carry us through March 5th, so let me offer a few clarifying comments: First, the vestry is the chief fiduciary authority of the parish, and as such have, since November, instituted a "only necessary spending" policy, so any spending between now and March 5th will be mainly to keep the lights on and the staff compensated. Second, we are continuing with the “Memorial Makes Room” work (construction re-started this week!) and don’t anticipate any further delays. Third, our primary focus will continue to be worship and music, youth and justice and reparations. A clearer focus on our core strengths will lead to better budget stability and confidence in the mission of Memorial.
I should also say that while we would never protest increased pledges, the problem is not really about how much you all pledge. You all are exceedingly generous in your support of this place and our average pledge is higher than many other churches. Our principal challenges are two-fold: 1) recovering lost building revenue post COVID, and 2) getting more people in the pews (and additional pledges to support our work). While this may seem daunting I have no doubt that if we trust the spirit and continue to serve God and our community these things will materialize.
I look forward to presenting to you a fuller picture of the budget in March including a 2023 budget that serves our communities’ needs and will not leave us in the same position we have been in at the end of every year -- concerned about a deficit and unsure of the next year's revenue. If you see anyone from the finance committee please tell them thank you for their extraordinary efforts in making this happen.
The View from Bolton Street
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
If there is a better reading to mark our annual meeting, I can’t think of one. After all, what else is required of us but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God?
Such simple statements and yet one could spend a lifetime perfecting them. Justice. Kindness. Humility. Maintaining these in balance, however, is critical to maintaining our relationship with Jesus and with each other. Too much justice without humility and we think we have all the answers, too much kindness without justice and we end up only helping people like us. Too much humility without justice or kindness and we find ourselves the victims of abuse.
In Micah, God is speaking to outcasts, loners, sinners, and said you will be the ones to rebuild this Kingdom. And how will they do it? Through justice, kindness and humility. They didn’t believe it then, and it is quite possible you do not believe it now! It is hard to believe that one little church could make a difference. Especially in a place with problems like Baltimore. And yet if we look back through scripture, history and our own stories - that is where it always starts.
As I am contemplating the joys and challenges of our racial reconciliation journey over the last few years, I want to offer a few reflections on how this passage from Micah can speak into what comes next.
Kindness: Be kind to yourself. Racial reconciliation and reparations work is a new space and an uncomfortable one, especially for white people. We are going to make mistakes as a community and as individuals. When we do, we need to be gentle and forgiving with ourselves so that we can learn from those mistakes.
Humility: Let others lead, but don’t force it. Seek to empower new leaders and new voices who bring different perspectives to the table. Acknowledge your blind spots based on your social location and seek out new voices to fill that space. You don’t have, or have to, have all the answers.
Justice: Remember the work is not about you. It is about us as a collective. There may be times where you feel like you the individual are losing something: status, power, control, or other things. But we as a collective are growing stronger at the same time. Building new bonds of trust, developing new leadership, new identities, new understandings of how God has brought us together. That is justice work.
So friends I hope to see you Sunday ready to do nothing more or less than to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God and with each other.
