"Welcoming and Inclusive." This phrase serves as the benchmark for many a progressive congregation. Then, Christ Resurrected appears - and offers something more than our welcome: *belonging* ...
Easter Sunday - To Experience Resurrection, We Must Release Our Fear of the Empty
Easter morning is about encountering the empty when anticipating the full. The two Marys in Matthew's gospel account (28:1-10) were bidden by both the angel and the resurrected Jesus to "be not afraid" of that emptiness. As for us? ...
Palm Sunday - The Joy of a Church That Flies Low and Travels Light
Compared with Caesar's militant and massive crowd control for Passover: scholars generally agree that the "very large crowd" greeting Jesus was modest in size. Part of our Palm Sunday-like small church appeal is that we can pivot quickly, experiment, and make bold social justice gestures larger churches with various constituencies may hesitate to make. Enjoy Rev. Chuck Booker's stories of how this is played out!
Making Conscious Contact (Steps 10-12) - March 26
Spirituality can be defined as awareness - that is: making conscious contact. How can we make conscious contact with self, God, and others in a way that creates spiritual space in our busy lives?
"From Apologies to Amends (Steps 8 & 9): Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry?" - March 19
"I apologize." "My bad." "I'm sorry." Too often, these expressions provide easy-outs from the responsibilities and consequences of a compulsive behavior. How can we - broken humans that we are - engage in the spiritual practice of making amends?
March 12 - Steps 6-7: Our Prayer Depends on Us, Our Work Depends on God
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character (discovered in Steps 4 & 5)
Step 7: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
How do we pray as if it all depends on us ... and work as if it all depends on God? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Enjoy this message from Rev. Chuck and 12 Step speaker "Ursula W".
March 5 - Steps 4-5, "Who Do You Trust? From Resentments to Restoration"
Who do you trust to take moral inventory of your life? Elijah apparently trusted no one - which led to him hearing "God" tell him to commit genocide. Following Rev. Chuck's message: we hear from our guest AA speaker Jewel H. of her experience, strength and hope from these steps.
Sunday, February 26 - Steps 1-3, "Let Your Shipwreck Speak"
Part 1 of a 5-part series: "The Twelve Steps: Spiritual Practices from the Church, for the Church." "These are the only genuine ideas: The ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce." - Jose Ortega y Gasset. How have you experienced "shipwreck" in your life? Have have you "bottomed out"? How has that experience given you – and continues to give you -the genuine, spiritual ideas and ways that serve you to this day?
February 12 - Doing Justice: The "R" Word - Rev. Pat Jackson
Reparations. Can be a frightening word. How do scriptures Old Testament and New testify to the importance of making reparations?
February 5 - "We Are the Salt? We Are the Light?"
Yes, we are both - if we can but see that! Join us in keeping a Salt & Light Log - recording a line or two at the end of each day in response to this question: "How may have God worked through me today to help someone else?"
January 29 - The Beatitudes: Bold Blessings"
Matthew 5:1-12. In verses 3-5, Jesus presents us with three unconditional blessings: for the poverty in spirit, mournfulness, and "meekness" (gentle strength) in each of us. Can we find his blessings in those places - so we can accompany others that they might find theirs?
January 22 - "BPC 300: Our Calling Forward"
Jesus frames his Good News message - "the kingdom of God is at hand!" - and calls his first disciples. What can his Good News mean for our congregation, in our 300th year, as we look ahead to a fourth century more participatory, present, and involved in spiritual practices?
January 15 - When Aged and Infant Meet, Part 3 of 3: "From Professional to Presence."
Bethesda (MD) Presbyterian Church - Rev. Chuck Booker, Pastor. Scripture: John 1:35-39. The DC area is heavily "professionalized" - an easy place to become siloed into one's specialty, unmoored from a broader, deeper presence in our world. Jesus' example that puts a premium on presence - "Come and see" where I am staying, he says - stands as a glorious antidote to a life that would be defined by one's profession.
January 8 - "When Aged and Infant Meet, Part 2 of 3: From Performance to Practice"
Matthew 3:13-17. In eschewing a divine performance and insisting he be baptized, Jesus joined the human journey of spiritual practice. Can we likewise move from performance to practice - this 300th anniversary year of our congregation?
New Year's Day - "Simeon & Jesus: Where Aged and Infant Meet"
Luke 2:25-35. Our Bethesda Presbyterian Church turns 300 years old in 2023! How do the wisdom of the ages and a new vision for our fourth century meet and greet and form and inform our future as the resilient congregation we are?
Christmas Eve: "Is There Room in Our Inn?" - Rev. Chuck Booker
Is there a room in our inn this Christmas for Mary – for Joseph – for Jesus? In the midst of our echo chambers and relational circumscriptions? Or in the garishness, the glut, the cultural illusions that pass for Christmas and that confuse our acquisitiveness with God’s abundance? There is Hope - and in that Hope: Joy! Watch - and listen ...
Sunday, December 18 - The Most Powerful Four-Letter Word in the English Language (Besides Love)? Isaiah 7:10-16
The child shall be called Immanuel: God-With-Us. Too often, we settle for God for us. What if we were to engage God with us? This Christmas: What if we were to exchange our petitionary faith for participatory trust?
Sunday, December 4 - "The Giving Stump" (Isaiah 11:1-10)
"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse ..." (Isaiah 11:1a) After our Giving Tree is felled and we have grown old: What Advent hope could our stump provide?
Sunday, November 27 - "A Sanctuary's Vigil" (Isaiah 2:1-5)
In these words of Advent hope, the prophet invites his community - and us - to "see" the "word" in creating a sanctuary for justice. Can we imagine what "sanctuary" does and can mean for our community? Rev. Chuck shares a story how it has already happened here - and how it once happened in another church.
Sunday, November 20 - "Thanksgiving: Enough - Already!"
Scripture: Philippians 4:4-7. Tired of being told to be grateful? Enough already! Well: exactly. As the Apostle Paul shares, God has provided us enough already - though we may not see or feel it.
