A crucial part of the legacy of the Reverend Billy Graham was that he would often say hard things that people didn't like. For example, in 1973, he spoke in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the height of racial tension and apartheid, and declared before 60,000 people, "Apartheid is sin." In 1967, as protests, much turmoil, and even riots broke out in the streets of America, Rev. Graham spoke on his The Hour of Decision radio program and condemned the injustice of racism. In 1953, at a crusade in Chattanooga, he told the organizers that he refused to participate if they insisted on segregating the congregation. He personally tore down the ropes dividing the room into a section for whites and a section for blacks. He also took to the local newspaper and wrote a column declaring that the Bible did not teach racial superiority.

For his efforts, hard words, and hard actions, he won the support of some but the condemnation of many others. There is an entire library of recently released FBI files documenting death threats sent to him. They called him a "n--- lover" and many other horrible things, as they threatened to take the life of him, his wife, and his family. Other, more moderate Christians implored him to sidestep the issue and not talk about race at all, especially at the height of tensions in the 1960s. According to William Martin, emeritus professor of religion and public policy at Rice University, in his book A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story, it is clear that at critical times, Rev. Graham took bold stands and said hard things because the Gospel demanded them. Like all human beings, he fell short at times. On the whole, the witness of history is that Billy Graham believed that all shared equally in the image of God, and any church that was comfortable with anything less than full equality was failing to witness to the power of the Gospel.

I think that this legacy was due in part to Rev. Graham's and Dr. King's understanding of their job, spelled out clearly in prophets like Jeremiah. I share Jeremiah 23:16-22:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, "It shall be well with you"; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, "No calamity shall come upon you." For who has stood in the council of the Lord so as to see and to hear his word? Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it? Look, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand it clearly. I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

What does Jeremiah mean here? Context is important. Jeremiah was prophesying the calamity to come upon the people at the hands of the Babylonians if they kept on their present course, making foreign alliances and wrapping themselves up in other countries' political intrigue. Jeremiah said something really unpopular: stop bucking against Babylon, or you will be destroyed. All the other "court" prophets were telling Zedekiah what the king wanted to hear: we can rely on Egypt to counter the strength of Babylon, and we can rule on our own power, free from the yoke of both. The court prophets, in short, were prophets of fluff, sunshine, and rainbows, telling the king and the people what they wanted to hear, all the while using the name of God to justify their claims. Jeremiah was the prophet of bad news, or at least many thought so, because he was calling the people to repent and go another way.

Jeremiah was right. The king and the people kept on a course that led to the Babylonian exile, one of the darkest chapters in Israel's history. Sometimes, no, most of the time, God tells us what we don't want to hear. God's commands, especially at really hard junctures in history, seem like words written by a pen of iron upon our stone hearts (Jeremiah 17:1). But these iron words are given in order to lead us to repentance and, ultimately, to restoration, life, and flourishing.

Let me just be frank: the past two Sundays have been hard, and there are some of you who haven't liked what you have heard. Facing hard words about the need to repent as a church for our contribution of silence over decades while our African-American brothers and sisters have suffered is difficult to hear. Maybe you feel I am being unfair. Maybe your gut reaction is to yell back, "All Lives Matter," rather than tackle head on the reality of what we have seen and heard over the past couple of weeks. Maybe you are upset with me because you feel I've been focusing on this rather than on your definition of the Gospel.

I understand, but I can't be a court prophet. I just can't. I know I can't, because what I've seen and heard over the past couple of weeks has cut me to the heart, and if I don't say something as the pastor of this church, then that leaves only the rocks to cry out (Luke 19:40). If the rocks are all that is left to cry out, then trust me, we're in even deeper trouble than you might imagine.

No, I say these things not to wound but to show and call us all to a season of repentance and reflection, so that we might become the church Jesus wants us to be. Hard words eventually make for soft hearts. Hard words that create soft hearts result in a church where we give visible witness to the glory to come, where all will be one, and all will be well. In fact, I will go so far as to say that any church that hasn't been publicly wrestling with questions of race and faith over the past few weeks has failed a critical demand of the Gospel. You see, the Gospel is the good news that God loved us enough in Jesus Christ to redeem us, God's enemies, and make us one people from every nationality and tongue. To allow our brothers and sisters to suffer in silence is to betray the very ones Christ died to redeem and, thus, to betray Christ.

So, I love you, even if you have hated my hard words. I give them so that we might repent, go the other way, and in the love of Jesus Christ, be new creation.

In Christ,

Pastor Sam

We're blocking off the church parking lot for Family Bike Night on Wednesday, June 24, at 6:00 p.m. Bring your bikes, scooters, tricycles, skateboards, skates, and family, and roll around the parking lot together! You will also want to bring camp chairs, drinks, and snacks for your family. Parents must stay on hand to be in charge of proper distancing measures.

Inventive internet and smartphone scammers continue to target our congregation. Posing as FPC staff, they contact us by email, text, or websites such as Facebook. Some of us have received messages that looked like Pastor Sam's FPC email and asked us to "please reply to this email" to handle a task for him "discreetly." Another scam tells you to buy a gift card for a person or family in need, or for a worthy-sounding ministry. You are instructed to send the gift card codes to the phone number provided. These are scams. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND or take any action. The staff of FPC will NEVER ask you to do such things.

We want you to help build our 2020 Advent Devotional by submitting devotions of no more than 300 words! Your contribution will enhance our time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to share a devotion or have questions, please email Han Ong at [email protected] or Candy Phelps at [email protected] by August 1. If you choose to participate, please submit your devotion to Han by October 1.

As part of our plan to get church functions back to normal, staff are returning to work in the church building on a limited basis. When you need to contact a member of staff, please do so by phone, email, or mail, if you can. We want to limit contact with others for everyone's safety. A later phase of our plan allows for more regular contact within the building, so please stay tuned for future announcements.

During the COVID-19 crisis, we encourage you to give by way of our website or by text or mail. We must hold together, and your continued, faithful giving ensures that we will have the resources to continue our ministries. You can give online by going to our   website  and clicking on "Give" in the upper right corner. You can send your pledge, offering, or special gift by texting (all one word) fpcbristol to 73256. You can also mail your checks directly to the church. Our address is 701 Florida Avenue, Bristol, TN 37620. Thank you, as always, for your generosity.

As we weather the COVID-19 pandemic, we are asking you to spend more time in prayer for our church, our community, our nation, and the world. Pray for our leaders, first responders, frontline workers, and the vulnerable. We also ask that you pray for a swift end to this disease.

Memorials and honoraria are published in the newsletter only after the family has been personally notified by our business office. Today we gratefully acknowledge the following gifts:

In memory of:

Jim Mayden: to the Minister's Discretionary Fund from Roger & Donna Sikorski

Mac McElroy: to the King University Thompson Scholarship Fund from John & Alice Graham

Betty Ottenfeld (Karen Vann's mother): to the Brazil Mission Fund from Roger & Donna Sikorski

Peggy Truman (Linda Welch's mother): to the Minister's Discretionary Fund from Roger & Donna Sikorski

In honor of:

Peggy Hill: to the Church Operating Budget from an anonymous donor

	James Woodman

For Sunday's organ music I have chosen to play All Creatures of Our God and King: Five Meditations for Organ on "Lasst uns erfreuen" by James Woodman. The hymn "All Creatures of Our God and King," written by William H. Draper (1855 -1933), is a paraphrase of the well-known "Canticle of brother sun" by St. Francis of Assisi (1182 -1226). Draper's poem was composed in the same meter as the hymn tune lasst uns erfreuen, and was published paired with that melody in 1919. Since that time, the hymn has enjoyed enormous ecumenical popularity. Today Draper's text is to be found in a variety of altered and adapted forms. (You can read a composite version of his text in our opening hymn.) For the movement titles for the organ work, the composer has chosen to use language that follows the original of St. Francis more closely than it does any version of the Draper poem.

All Creatures of Our God and King was commissioned by James Gowen Hood for the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, in honor of the dedication of the N.P. Mander organ and in memory of Lulu Archer Hood. The concert organist and recording artist Peter Sykes gave the first performance at the dedication of the new organ on May 12, 2000.

Woodman was born in Portland, Maine, in 1957, and educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Princeton University, and New England Conservatory. He was appointed the first Composer-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston, and currently serves as Monastery Organist for the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is frequently sought as a composer of organ and choral works, and his recent commissions have included work for Sykes, Harvard University's Memorial Church, the tricentennial of Green's Farms Congregational Church in Westport, Connecticut, and the 2014 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists.

I'm asking all of you to be in prayer for the Osborne family. Hospice has told Lilly that her remaining time with her mother is short. Please pray for Lilly, Ginny, Annie, Charlotte, Daniel, and Michael as they prepare themselves. We give thanks to God for the life and witness of Virginia, Lilly's mother. / Pastor Sam

Sunday, June 14

9:00 a.m.        Worship, Fellowship Hall & Livestreamed

                          Online Sunday School (following 9:00 service)

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

Tuesday, June 16

10:00 a.m.     Staff Meeting, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.       Finance Comm., Zoom

Church Officers
Class of 2020	Class of 2021	Class of 2022
ELDERS
Nancy Allerton	Ann Abel	Anna L. Booher
Rebecca Beck	Randy Cook	Bruce Gannaway
David Hyde	John Graham	Will Hankins
Jordan Pennington	Katie McInnis	Dottie Havlik
Jerry Poteat	John Vann	Laura Ong
DEACONS
Blake Bassett	Fred Harkleroad	Mike Cleland
Rhonda Comer	Matt Kingsley	Geneva King
Ron Fox	Lisa McClain	George Linke
Brenda Lawson	Drew Rice	Charlie Taylor
Barbara Thompson	Joyce Samuel
TRUSTEES
Peggy Hill	Jack Butterworth	Nancy Cook