Last year some of us tried getting up on a soap box. It was an experiment in changing church-life during a time of cultural change. We are doing it again in 2017 during the entire month of August.

Once upon a time, without public address systems, phone lines, and the internet, we relied on the impact of a skilled orator and a wooden box on a busy downtown intersection. Churches civilized things a bit by designating a special person (clergy) and even a special place (a pulpit). Like the conductor of an orchestra, we read from the shared script (the Bible) and the conductor assures us we interpreted the score (text) as the composer (author) intended.  

Times have changed, however, and our relationships with authority figures have changed. Authority figures held power based on information and special training in interpreting the information. Lawyers interpreted law, doctors interpreted maladies, bankers interpreted numbers, and clergy interpreted sacred texts. But, no longer. We purchase legal forms online. We seek second opinions and alternative medicine. We manage our own retirement accounts. We interpret the Bible on our own and even ask friends to marry and bury us. 

We still need “trained professionals,” mind you.  I certainly want an “expert” to perform my heart surgery, should I ever need it. But, we need something different from these “trained professionals.” We need these trained professionals to convene “communities of interpretation.”  Put another way, we need more soapboxes.

Churches now have a unique opportunity to become “communities of interpretation,” where the Bible and the world can be interpreted as a community, not simply by the “professionals.” In this type of church, soapboxes are brought inside and multiple voices can be heard as an expression of Christian faithfulness. In this setting, it is the hearing of multiple perspectives and living together amid our shared and divergent stories that is the measure of our faith.

It is in this spirit that we offer Soapbox Sundays. Last year we tried this idea for the first time and the response was overwhelmingly positive.

Each Sunday this August will be a Soapbox Sunday. You (yes, you) are encouraged to share for about 5 minutes on a topic and Bible passage of your choice. Share a story from your life, make an argument for something you are passionate about, offer a response to a passage which inspires you or irritates you, or tell us about your long wonderful or harrowing history with the God and church.

Up to four people can sign up to share each Sunday.

A disclaimer: by the end of the month, you will be offended by something someone says or the way they say it. Count on it and welcome it. During these trying times, I can think of few more meaningful things for us to do than to celebrate one another by encountering our uniqueness as individuals in the caring context of our Sunday morning time together. At First Baptist Church, “getting on your soapbox” will be a term of endearment reserved for those willing to get up and get real.

If you are interested in giving a Soapbox Sermon, click the following link and enter your name in the form:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10jiXaMerDNYJd2jMn3DEa8JbZ8_EoyNzcfhXvdX817w/edit?usp=sharing

Sunday June 25, 2017 at 3:00 pm we celebrated the ordination of Amy Clark Feldman. Thank you to everyone who came to share the moment, and congratulations Amy! Share in the celebration by enjoying some pictures from the day and leaving Amy a note in the comments.

by Sean Witty

Looking for more? Starting in June, First Baptist Church in Newton will be kicking off monthly Kaleidoscope Community Nights. These nights are designed to get us together outside of Sunday morning services and help us build relationships, strengthen our community, and have fun! We will meet on the third Friday night of the month, unless otherwise stated, and choose something fun to do from our "kaleidoscope" of opportunities. We might share a meal, watch a movie, go to a play, concert, or a sports event, grab a drink, play a game...the possibilities are endless! Big idea: you don't want to miss this. So if you're single or you're married with kids, if you're in college or if you're in retirement, no matter who you are or where you are on your journey, you're welcome to our Kaleidoscope Community Nights. Come and see... 
 
*Children are welcome and/or childcare will be provided

Blue Ribbon Sunday is now a yearly tradition here at First Baptist Church. ​After 10 AM worship concludes on June 11 we will head onto the church lawn to enjoy Blue Ribbon BBQ and live music. This year we will also be able to browse the work of artists at the Common Cathedral Art Show, because Blue Ribbon Sunday will be supporting the work of the Common Cathedral. They minister to people experiencing homelessness, and their friends.

Common Art is their program which provides space, materials, and support staff to help unhoused and low income individuals develop their artistic abilities. For many, Common Art is a singular chance to express their artistic gifts. For some, art is a professional path that has been interrupted by calamity and homelessness. For others, art is an opportunity to express unheard opinions and truths. For everyone, it is a welcome relief from daily difficulty. As a longtime artist in the program said, "I came for the art... and I stayed for the love." Click here to learn more about the program.

Our Compassion in Action team previously attended worship at the Common Cathedral one Sunday and shared lunch with those present. Here are a few pictures from that day.

"Seeing red" is often associated with anger and aggression, but this Sunday it will be connected to nothing but joy and goodness.

Peggy McLoughlin will join us during our 10 am service this Sunday for one of our Red Chair Conversations. Peggy's yoga classes have been meeting here at First Baptist Church for 20 years. She and Sean will discuss yoga as "body prayer" and teach some simple chair/office yoga that you can use throughout the week. Click here to learn more about her classes.

​This Sunday is also a Red Wagon Sunday. The last Sunday of every month we invite everyone to bring non-perishable food, baby products, hygiene items, and pet supplies to our 10 am worship service. Everything is donated to the Centre Street Food Pantry. Yes, we bring it to them in a red wagon. There is a reason for the name. Click here to see a list of items currently needed.

Are you unsure about Christianity, but just want to learn some practical things about yoga? Please join us. Do you just want to help out those in need? Everyone is welcome, no exceptions.

Do you remember our book drive for More Than Words? We donated around 1,200 books to their cause. Now they are expanding! They were also recently featured in The Boston Globe. Click here to read the story.

​Hello friends,

One of the wonderful things about our interfaith Refugee Immigration Ministry (RIM) cluster is the opportunity to work with – and get to know – people from other faith traditions. We hope to have a series of events where each congregation opens its doors to guests from the other congregations. To that end, on Sunday June 4 at 5:30 PM, all are invited to attend Evensong at Grace Episcopal Church, 76 Eldredge St. in Newton.

A choral Evensong with a choir is one of the most beautiful services in the Episcopalian tradition, and this service will celebrate Pentecost Sunday:

"... suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language."

Please come to Grace Church on Sunday June 4th at 5:30 PM for Choral Evensong. Ask Wendy or Eunice if you have any questions or if you need a ride. 

One last thought. Why, you might ask, were all of the disciples gathered along with people of many languages? The disciples and others were in Jerusalem, celebrating Shavuot  ("The Feast of Weeks"),  the Jewish holiday recognizing the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai. We are all learning from each other.

~Wendy
On behalf of Compassion in Action

Have you seen the announcement about our weekly Sunday study of Shared Stories, Rival Tellings by Robert C. Gregg in the church bulletin, or read about it in our Friday email? Maybe you are learning about it for the first time by reading this post. Well, read about what the group has been up to over the last couple weeks, then come participate yourself Sunday mornings at 9:00 am in the Everts Room downstairs at our church.

Two weeks ago they looked at the the evolution of the story of Sarah and Hagar from early Christian perspectives. The Apostle Paul radically reimagines the story in his letter to Gentile Christians in the churches of Galatia. Trying to contrast the Jerusalem of the early 50’s CE with the heavenly Jerusalem of which he dreamed, Paul turns Hagar, who had been a slave to Abraham and Sarah, as a representative of Judaism, which he viewed as enslaved to the Law of the Torah, even though Hagar was not viewed as a recipient of God’s covenant to the Jews in Genesis. On the other hand, Paul portrays Sarah, whose progeny were recipients of the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis, as free of the Law and associated with the heavenly Jerusalem which the Christians were to inherit. This reinterpretation of the story would have been highly offensive to contemporary Jews.
 
Five to seven years later, when Paul was writing to congregations in Rome that contained both Jewish and Gentile members, he softens his interpretation of the story to make it more palatable to Jewish readers. He does this by making a distinction between the covenant between God and Moses, which calls for adherence to the Law, and the promise made by God to Abraham before the Law had been handed down to Moses. According to Paul, Abraham’s circumcision was a seal of the righteousness that Abraham had acquired by faith in God while he was still uncircumcised. So to Paul, the key to righteousness was not adherence to the Law or participation in the act of circumcision, but the faith one has in Jesus Christ.
 
Last week they followed this up by examining 3rd century Christian theologian Origen’s homily entitled “On the birth of Isaac and the fact that he is weaned.” The translation used is not a direct translation from Origen’s Greek original into English. It is an English translation of a Latin translation by Tyrannius Rufinus of Origen’s Greek original. Tyrannius Rufinus (also known as Rufinus of Aquileia) was a Christian monk and theologian who was born 155 years after Origen. “Translation” is actually too strong a term; the homilies, as recorded in Latin by Rufinus, are only paraphrases of the original homilies. One scholar has charged that “Rufinus sometimes misreads the Greek text because of the haste with which he works and his insufficient mastery of the Greek language, and... he makes additions and alterations in areas of both theology and rhetoric.” But Rufinus was not trying to highjack Origen’s analysis. To the contrary, he was a great admirer and defender of Origen during a time when many believed Origen to be a heretic. Rufinus believed that many of Origen’s writings had been altered by his opponents (Origen himself had complained about this during his lifetime), and was just trying to recapture Origin’s original intent. (Origen was allegedly declared a heretic at the Second Council of Constantinople, but many scholars dispute this.  He is still considered one the Fathers of the early Church, but was never made a saint.)
 
Does this sound interesting? Come learn more and take part in the ensuing conversations by being here at First Baptist Church in Newton (848 Beacon St. in Newton Centre) Sundays at 9:00 am. Then, if you wish, stay and join us for worship every Sunday at 10:00 am.

Hello First Baptist Friends,

Thank you for your generosity and support as we work to assist Massachusetts based asylum seekers to settle in and integrate into our communities. We have an update on our families, our fundraising and volunteer opportunities, and a call for hosting one of our clients.

We're delighted to announce that our Easter - Passover fundraising efforts exceeded our goal of $30,000. We are at $32,000 at last count, and are aware of more donations on the way. This has allowed us to support two clients, I. and her baby daughter from Cameroon, and R. and her toddler daughter from Uganda.

I. is a high school math teacher, fluent in French with good English skills. We are working with her to improve her knowledge of math terminology in English, and to get work authorization. She is very much looking forward to working and becoming self supporting. Stay tuned, as we may be asking for volunteer babysitters who could commit to an afternoon or morning per week this summer in Brookline.

We are happy to say that R. and her daughter have have found a suitable long-term housing arrangement in Worcester. During the short time they were "in our care" we were able to help them reach several milestones, including getting their first library card, clarifying their career path towards nursing, and, of course, finding long-term housing. We’ll miss R. and we wish her great success as she continues her journey. However this does allow us to help another client.

Our cluster is now actively working with Refugee Immigration Ministry (RIM) to identify another family to support. A likely candidate is a young woman from South America, with a three year old, pregnant with her second child. She speaks Spanish, and very little English. If this works out, we’ll be putting out a call for Spanish speaking volunteers to help us with communication. We’ve discovered that the list of candidates is very fluid as the clients we hear about from RIM sometimes find placements with other clusters or agencies while we are considering them.

Finally, given the success of our fund-raising campaign and the enthusiasm of our volunteers, we hope to add support for a third client. To do so, we'd like to find people who are willing to host an individual or family in their home for up to 6 months. RIM has safeguards in place for the host family and for the client beyond the basic requirements for RIM sponsorship (e.g. must have had their case accepted by a lawyer, passed a medical exam, etc.).

If you think you might be interested in hosting someone for up to six months, let us know and we can talk about what is involved in greater detail.

Gratefully,
Wendy on behalf of Compassion in Action Ministry