Pastors’ Column

This is always a good week to think about our country’s history, amidst the fireworks, cookouts, and national declarations. I suppose it’s in our blood as Presbyterians. Since the beginning of this American experiment, our denomination’s forbearers have always been engaged in the machinations of our self-governance. A courtier in service to King George III once referred to the Revolution as “the Presbyterian rebellion.”

Since announcing that I would be departing BMPC this summer to pursue a Ph.D. in Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary, several people have asked me variations on the same two questions:

1. What is “homiletics”?
2. What do you plan to research?

This morning before our first campers arrived, I took a moment to walk through the gym. Over the past week, our VBC campers have been building a city out of boxes. The tallest building stretches almost a story in height, the smallest building is a shoebox covered in tape, tucked between several other buildings — a house for children to play in. There are a few surprises — pieces of tape stretch between buildings — ziplines that let people move around the city; there is a hospital for fish, a gigantic trampoline, and a home for lost animals.

It’s that time of year when libraries, news organizations, book stores and schools publish lists of recommended “summer reads.” In that same spirit, I wanted to share with the whole church some of the books that our mission committee members have added to their summer reading lists, and the reading that I am doing for the fall. 

According to our Judeo-Christian tradition, each week we are called to celebrate sabbath. When God freed the ancient Hebrews from slavery and gave them the law and promised them land, God commanded a sabbath day to be set aside as holy. Near the top of the list of the Ten Commandments, Exodus reminds us that even God rested on the seventh day of creation after all the work God had done! So too, we are meant to work during the week and set apart a day to rest and devote to God.

During seasons of transition, one of the passages of scripture that many find comforting is from Ecclesiastes 3. I’ve been asked to read it at weddings and funerals, and was once invited by a Confirmation class to use it as the text for the sermon on the day those youth joined the church. Those of a certain age remember its words set to music by Pete Seeger’s “To Everything There Is a Season” with his folk song refrain, Turn, turn, turn, which rose to the top of the music charts when The Byrds recorded it in 1965.