The View from Bolton Street

If you spend time with children, you are familiar with the notion of “big feelings!” Young children (and sometimes children of all ages) have trouble managing their emotions sometimes and express them in less than helpful ways. During the Holidays many of us have “big feelings” whether it is because we are grieving, regretting, hurting or hiding. We might need a place to put those emotions, because tantrums aren’t nearly as acceptable as they were when we were little.

So thank you for joining us this evening as we gather to offer up our worries and concerns and hurts and wants this season and ask for a little bit of peace and light this Holiday season.

This service is intended as a moment apart from the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season to help us prepare spiritually and emotionally for the coming of Christ. So that we are able to open our hearts to receive the love of God.

In Christ,

The Rev. Grey Maggiano

The View from Bolton Street

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16

Everything is so busy right now!  It seems like December is just flying by! It will be Christmas before we know it.  And then 2024. And then Lent! And Easter! And…

It is hard to even pause to catch your breath.

So let me ask you a question… are you taking time to rejoice? To rejoice always? 

Because this is what God asks of us. To rejoice always. To pray without ceasing. To give thanks in all circumstances.  And yet…. Often… we are just. Too. Busy. Too stressed. Too angry. 

So as we find ourselves in the midst of the Holiday season lets consider some of the barriers to our rejoicing. What is stopping us? What is stopping you from rejoicing? 

Well  (gestures all around) have you seen (pointing wildly at the world) all of this!?! How can we rejoice with so much pain and hurt in the world? I read about another church suggesting Churches should not light the candle for the second sunday of advent, the Peace candle,  in honor of the war in Gaza.  And you might like that idea because everything seems so important, so immediate, so NOW. That, at least is something we could do. Right? Some action, however anemic, that we could take. 

Let us consider, however, all the other wars that have gone on during Advent. From year 2 to today.  We would be hard pressed to find a period when there was not a war going on, some of which our country was deeply involved in.  Yet we still kept candles lit.  We still prayed for the birth of Christ.  We still found light in our hearts.  We didn’t do this because we were ignoring violence, but in spite of it.  The light is an act of resistance against the terror and fear of this world. As you look around at all the terror in the world today (and it is terrible) from war in Ukraine and Israel to starvation in Afghanistan to deforestation in Brazil and Genocide in the Sudan, look also for the light.  

In the beginning, there was light. And it was Good. And that light continues to shine.  It shone after the floods. It shone ahead and behind of the Israelites as they moved from slavery to the land of promise. It shown around the city of Jericho and on the mornin when they found the empty tomb and in so many other times when things seemed very dark indeed. It shines inside each of us, and it shines out there amidst the peace makers, the tree planters, the life givers, the creators and sustainers of God’s creation.  Look for them. Be them. Share their stories and their work. 

Don’t turn out your light. 

The View from Bolton Street

Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord's hand

double for all her sins.

Isaiah 40:1

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, her penalty has been paid.

When it comes to Israel and Palestine these days, there is not a lot of space for tender words. There is judgment. Anger. Invective. Hate. Mockery. Tears. Pain. But very little tenderness.

Perhaps, to borrow from Otis Redding, we should try a little tenderness.

In this small piece of land live around 7 million Jews, the largest concentration in the world, with the United States not far behind. Those 7 million are European, African, Arab, and Asian. In addition, there are another 2 million or so Arabs of other religious backgrounds in Israel proper, and another 5 million in the West Bank and Gaza. There is a broader population of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and here in the United States who are in some status of exile or self-exile.

Fighting over this piece of land does indeed go back to Biblical times. These words from the prophet Isaiah speak of the pain of the people of Israel being held captive in Babylon and their yearning to return home. It has been variously conquered and colonized by Muslims, Christians, The Ottoman empire and the British. Since the founding of the State of Israel after the Holocaust there have been peaceful times and there have been violent times, and it must be said we are in a very violent time.

I do not write today to try and convince or convict you to take one side or the other in this conflict. I do not write to prove how one side has the superior claim to the land, or the better human rights record, or to prove who has suffered the most.

I also do not write with a grand proposed solution of how this all should work out. You could draw up a hundred different plausible scenarios but the real people involved would have to actually be willing to talk to each other to make any of that happen and right now that is not the case.

I write simply to encourage you, to encourage us as Christians, to try a little tenderness. Have compassion for an occupied people with corrupt leadership. Have compassion for a people who experienced a massive terror attack on civilians, where everyone knows someone who has died, and are now in the midst of a 2 month long hostage crisis. On one side of the fence people feel they have no home because it is no longer safe, on the other side they feel they have no home because it is no longer there. A population who feel it is a miracle they even survived a holocaust, and a people who feel like it will be a miracle if they can survive the night.

People who, on both sides, feel like no one believes them, no one listens to their story.

People who have been so hurt they see their neighbor as their enemy.

Comfort, O comfort my people,

says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that she has served her term,

that her penalty is paid.

There were no simple solutions to the Middle East conflict before October 7th. Things certainly have not gotten simpler since. But one thing we can do is to offer words of comfort. To reach out to people that we care about and listen to their stories. To hear their voices. To share the work of peacebuilders- like the Arava Institute, or Roots, or the Gaza Youth Committee, or the work of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Reaching out in love, especially across barriers of time and distance and difference, will have a much bigger impact than getting angry with people here.

Speak tenderly to those who are hurting right now. Be a bridge not a wall. This is the work that Christ calls us to do.

The View from Bolton Street

“Hurry up and wait!” 

Advent is a season of expectation. Which is a nice way of saying we are just standing around waiting. Waiting for Jesus. Waiting for Christmas. Waiting for the return. 

But it occurs to me that even as we are waiting for the coming of Christ, you all may be waiting for others things as well. 

Waiting to hear back on a job.

Waiting for an answer to a prayer. 

Waiting for peace. 

Waiting for healing. 

Waiting for hope.

Waiting for (fill in your own expectations here). 

And maybe you are a little like me where WAITING is not easy! You’d rather not wait! You want the answer now, the solution now, the present now, the celebration now. 

So perhaps we can consider Advent a season of practice waiting.

After all, we know what comes on the other side. Christmas! And then a whole new liturgical cycle. And because we know, we also know how to prepare, how to wait. 

One weekend you may get your tree. The next weekend you decorate outside. Then inside. Then you bake the cookies, and prep the meal and then you are READY - whatever happens. 

So about that other thing you are waiting for? How can you get ready for that. How can you adjust, modify, shape your life so that you are ready for those changes in your life as well? 

And what about that other big change? That second coming of Christ? 

Well maybe we leave that preparation for another day. 

See you in church! 

The View From Bolton Street

Moses said to all Israel: For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.

Deuteronomy 8:7-8

We gather tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving across this country and honestly it could not come at a better time.  Don’t you feel like there is more tension than usual in the air? Elections, violence, Israel-Gaza, Russia-Ukraine, interests rates rising, businesses closing, and everyone increasingly at each others throats.  Everything seems so….scarce.  

Yet look around at how much we all have!  We live in a land of immense opportunity.  In spite of all the challenges in America people still seek to come here from around the world because we are the land of opportunity.  This is the message that Moses offers to God’s people before they enter the promised land, and one that continues to resonate for us today.  We are incredibly fortunate to have been given so much by God.  Everything we have, our homes, our families, our joys, our jobs, all of the many gifts we have been given however big or small, come from God.  All God asks of us in return, all God ever asked, from that first day, is to share it with our neighbor.  To not be jealous of what others have and to not hold too tightly to the things that are ‘ours’ because they all came from the same place.  

Yet everywhere today we see fights for stuff. For land. For water. For polítical, social, religious power.  And then we see the fights about the fights.  Who did what. Who started it. Who is to blame.  Conflict breeds more conflict.  Violence begets more violence.  

You and I cannot do much about how other people act.  But we can do a little bit to quell violence, to tamp down anger, to serve as a buffer against hostility.  A really important way to do that is to remind yourself first just how blessed you are. Look at all you have! Look around at the people who love you.  Consider the things that bring you joy. That fill you with light, with hope. Begin there. Why? 

Because we are blessed. And we absolutely do not deserve it. 

Which means that those who are suffering, whether they are dealing with addiction in Baltimore, violence in Gaza, or terrorism in Israel, also don’t deserve it! As Children of God they are no better or worse, no closer or farther from the divine than you or I. 

Their situation is not a problem that we can solve. But it is a reality that we can recognize. Humanize. And seek to understand. 

Monica always makes fun of me because she will start telling me about some challenge or frustration and before she is even finished speaking I am ready to jump in with “Well here is what you should do!” It is not unlike the random person posting on twitter - “maybe Israel and Palestine should just each get their own country?”  We always would love for the problem to be simple, to be solvable. 
A few years ago I was part of a group that met with Tal Becker, one of the chief negotiators for many years in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He said something that has always stuck with me, (paraphrasing) “If it was as simple as just divvying up the pie, we could have solved this years ago. The problem is each side will only feel like they are winning when the other side suffers.” 

Sometimes it doesn’t feel enough for us to be happy with what we have.  We want someone else to hurt in the process. And sometimes, in really dark moments, the only thing that we feel will make us happy is for someone else to hurt. 

Which is why this is exactly the perfect time for thanksgiving. 

A time for all of us to step back. To take stock. To recognize how blessed, how truly blessed we are, and to give ourselves permission to believe that that alone is enough. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. 

The View from Bolton Street

Psalm 123

1 To you I lift up my eyes, *
to you enthroned in the heavens.

2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, *
and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

3 So our eyes look to the Lord our God, *
until he show us his mercy.

4 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, *
for we have had more than enough of contempt,

5 Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, *
and of the derision of the proud.

There is a lot of anger out there.  A lot of confusion. A lot of disagreement. Israel and Hamas. Republicans and Democrats. Cars and Bike Lanes.  Where should our attention go? Perhaps we should take the advice of the psalm and direct our eyes (and our hands and our hearts) to God. Not to pull ourselves OUT of the conflict of this world, but rather to give us the strength to engage deeper with those in conflict.  

You see, when we experience conflict in one part of our lives, we are tempted to take and spread that conflict to other aspects of our life and our community.  This phenomenon, called displaced aggression, is very common and yet not always recognized by the one doing it. 

So let me just say that all of us do this! This is why it is so important to be intune with our emotions and feelings so that we catch ourselves before we transfer the anger, frustration and hurt we feel onto others. 

It is why we should look to God.  To share that anger vertically instead of horizontally.  

Maybe this week you too have had more than enough of contempt. Are tired of the scorn of the indolent rich and the derision of the proud?  If so you are in good company. Offer all that frustration up to God, and know that God grieves with you, sits with you, and prays with you, especially in those difficult times.    

The View from Bolton Street

“Five of them were foolish, five of them were wise.”

Matthew 25

What a great stewardship gospel! The foolish bridesmaids – forgetting their oil, not being ready for the coming of the King. So we too, should not be foolish with our resources!

Except, of course, that Jesus time and time again is encouraging and uplifting people to be… foolish with their resources. Mary with the perfume, the multiplication of loaves and fishes, eating and drinking on the sabbath, destroying the fig tree… over and over Jesus reminds us that God’s economy is not the same as Christ’s economy. That the economics of the Kingdom are not the same as the economics of the empire.

So which is it? Responsible, sober, calculated common sense spending? Or just toss it all out there as God’s call us?

Okay, so maybe it is neither of those. Or some combination of the two.

Of course we do need to be careful and responsible with the resources that we have, so that we can best serve God’s Kingdom. That is why we have spent the last year rebuilding our finance team, revising our investments and taking a hard look at both our revenue and spending projections here at Memorial. We have sought outside grants from a number of institutions, right-sized our staffing and our programs, and begun to work hard to activate our space so that we can increase our building revenue.

But we also must ensure that our resources are doing Kingdom work and not Empire work. For this reason we have allowed ERICA to use the Rectory to house an Afghan Family for a small reimbursement, and why we continue to make investments in our reparations work in Baltimore with our time, talent and treasure.

“Rooted in abundance” doesn’t mean – spend like there is no tomorrow – it means we should trust that God has already given us everything we need. And usually that has nothing to do with money! We have an increasing cadre of volunteers and supporters to help with events, outreach and worship. Thanks to our new facilities manager, we are able to better manage repair and maintenance work and enlist volunteers to help with large and small projects around the Church. And our vestry is fully engaged in both the business of Church (the balancing of the books, the payments and debits, and the finances) as well as the business of Church (being Christ’s hands and feet in the world).

And if you are someone who is interested in being a part of either of those activities, please reach out, we could use you!

I hope you will consider joining me at R house in Remington this afternoon at 5:30 pm to further discuss the future of Memorial, or join us at Amy Rial’s home next Saturday the 18th for a similar conversation. We will bring the lamp oil.

The View from Bolton Street

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

1 John 3:1

There is power in a name.  It means something to be recognized. To be seen.  To be heard.  Last night during trick or treating it was beautiful to watch hundreds of little kids yell ‘Miles! Miles! Miles!” at our youth minister as he handed out candy. They didn’t all recognize Miles Weeks, but they did recognize his Miles Morales Halloween costume – a young black child turned superhero in a parallel universe where something like that is possible - because it doesn’t always seem that way in West Baltimore.  

It means something that God knows our name.  This is why we read the names of those we love but see no longer on All Saints Sunday.  The good and the bad, the recently deceased and the gone for many years. We say their names to remind us that God says their names, and that God says our names too.  

You are not alone in this world. 

This is the promise of the resurrection. The promise of Christ on the Cross. Because Jesus became human and dwelt among us we know that God knows who we are, what we are like.  

As a kid I hated when people got my name wrong.  Hated it when they got it wrong on accident and more when they got it wrong on purpose.  I have said “Grey like the color” more than I have said probably any other phrase in my life - including “our father, who art in heaven…”  So imagine my relief when as a young person I stumbled upon this verse from 1st John - “we should be called Children of God.”  Suddenly I had a new name.  A name no one could touch. I was God’s child. 

BUT! And this is a big but… 

So is everyone else.  

That’s right. Everyone else.  You see it is tempting to read this as “The world” is everyone else and I am a child of God.  Or worse, “The world” is everyone I don’t like, and my friends are children of God.  But we need to read “The World” as Paul talks about the world and powers and principalities.  These are spiritual forces of evil beyond our human understanding that seek to divide, destroy and manipulate us.  There is no “us vs. them”, there is no “bad vs. good”, there is no haves and have nots, or oppressor and oppressed, or black vs. white. There is only one category of humans on this planet - children of God.  And thanks be to God we are counted among them.  

Now this does NOT mean that there is no such things as oppression, or evil, or racism, or bad things in the world.  The world is full of those things.  But these things don’t come from God and so they can’t come from the Children of God.  But they do exist - and they tempt us.  To grab power, prosperity and wealth.  To lie and cheat and steal to get what we want from someone else.  We convince ourselves that there is a conspiracy afoot, and this gives us the right to do wrong to another.  

But that is not God’s will. You can call it the devil, or evil, or hell, or whatever words you want to ascribe to those powers and principalities but the effect is the same.  Since the days of Cain and Abel jealousy has attempted to lure us to doing wrong to our siblings in order to take what they have.  

So when we read these names we are reminding ourselves of our collective status as Children of God.  In the same way as when we read the names of those killed by violence in Baltimore, or by Hamas terrorists in Israel, or by Israeli bombs in Gaza.  When we put names to tragedy and loss we remind ourselves that those names belong to God. and that we should mourn their loss, even when it is uncomfortable, especially when it is uncomfortable.  

On this November 1st, feast of All Saints, please know I am also praying your name.  And every other name in our parihs directory - because you too belong to God. 

The View from Bolton Street

“In the competition for pain, no one wins” 

That quote comes from a mother of one of the hostages being held in Gaza. I was particularly struck by it because its a message we need to hear. There is no absence of commentary about the terrible war happening in Israel and Gaza right now; and yet that commentary consistently ignores the individual suffering humans are feeling on both sides of the conflict.

All over social media and public discourse people cry out about the violence - the loss of life - the tragedy. They want to hold someone accountable. They want an easy answer to who is  “the bad guy.” In this it is tempting to get caught up in body counts and numbers. 1400 dead vs 3000 dead. 5000. How many hostages is too many hostages? How many babies really died? How did they die? We also are surrounded by misinformation, disinformation and incomplete information, coming quickly. 

It’s not to say there isn’t a good reason for it. We want to understand and hold those who need to be held accountable. We want an explanation for all this pain and suffering. 

But that mother’s words are true. There is so much pain right now, and those feeling it are not feeling it in comparison to others pain. 

As you hear and read conversations about solidarity, solidarity with Palestinians, with Israelis, with Gaza, with those hurting there and those hurting here, I want you to take a moment to think about what Jesus is calling us to do. We want to be in solidarity with those who feel anguish, fear, pain.

Let me offer some advice around solidarity. Don’t seek to be in solidarity with a government, an institution, a political party, an ideal. No. Instead seek solidarity with the grieving parents.  The husbands and wives missing their spouses. The friends missing  their classmates.  The thousands of people suffering through violence and trauma whether they speak Arabic or Hebrew or both. 

They need your prayers, each and every one of them. And we need to pray for each other as well, that we resist the urge to dehumanize those with whom we don’t agree, whether over the situation happening in the Middle East or the situations we face here. 

They need your solidarity. Your prayers. Your love. 

They need to know that while they may be surrounded by empty chairs and empty tables, they have a great cloud of witnesses supporting them. Who desire real peace, real justice, real change. 

As followers of Jesus, we are called to remember that 

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

At Yad Veshem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel there is a garden dedicated to the sacrifice of the righteous Gentiles (that is non Jews who helped save lives). A monument to solidarity with the Jewish people during the Holocaust. 

None of those memorialized are there for aggressive Facebook posts, or for any things they said. But things they did. They aren’t there for how much they hated the enemy, but for how generous and compassionate they were to those who suffered. They are not there for how many bad people they killed, but for how many humans they saved. 

THAT is solidarity. 

A horrible tragic war is unfolding before us. The casualties are high. They will get higher. As you seek to offer solidarity at this moment, consider the righteous gentile. Consider how you can be a part of supporting the living, saving the innocent, and healing Division.

The View from Bolton Street

More Worth - Less Work

Grace to you and peace.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1st Thessalonians 1:2 

Recently I have had more than a few conversations with folks at Memorial and in other institutions and places that all have a similar resonance: there is so much to do, and I am so tired. Maybe that resonates with you too.  Especially as we begin this Stewardship campaign with the title “Rooted in Abundance”, I wanted to make sure that you all knew one very important thing: 

You are enough.  

I echo Paul’s words from the beginning of his letter to the Thessalonians: I always give thanks to God for all of you, and mention you in my prayers.   We live in a world where we are constantly judged by what we produce.  What we have.  What we make. In God’s Kingdom however, the economics are very different.  Our value, Your value, to the Church is only and exclusively the love you carry in heart, and the meaning you make with your soul.  That’s it. That is the list.  We have all we need right here to be a vibrant, active, and thriving community of faith. It already exists, in our hearts, souls and minds.  You are worth it. You are worthy of God’s love just by being you. 

And yes, I do realize that this is a lesson that I need to remind myself of too.  It is okay to slow down. To do less. To just be.  Because we have so much, just as we are.

There will be a lot of talk over the next few weeks about budgets, and needs, and strategies, and pledges - some necessary for the running of this church and some no doubt expressions of our collective anxiety - but keep in mind that at its root we are talking about the fruit of our collective faith.  What you are able to offer out of love for God and in support of Christ’s mission is exactly what this place needs, no more and no less. 

So I will end this little letter the same way Paul begins his — I I’ve thanks to God for each and everyone one of you at Memorial and I mention you in my prayers, constantly remembering your faithfulness, your joy, and your hope.

See you in Church