Thanks Be To God

This is the time of year when we are filled with thoughts of thanksgiving. We have so many things to be thankful for, so many blessings for which a prayer of gratitude is appropriate.

What are you thankful for? Your family? Your home? Your health? Counting our blessings may prove too formidable a task, but still, naming things we are thankful for is a wonderful exercise to do all year round. Here are just some of the things that are on my list:

I am thankful for my family: for my wife, my sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. I am thankful for wonderful friends, many scattered in far distant lands. I am thankful for good health, my home, for having food and clothing.

I am thankful for the colors of the rainbow, colors created by God to give us beauty. I am thankful for the magnificent colors that come with autumn. I am thankful for the rains that refresh the earth and wash things clean. I am thankful for the squirrels, whose antics seem so amusing this time of year as they prepare themselves for winter.

I am thankful for men and women who have been called to serve: called to serve as firefighters; police officers; utility workers who restore power even in the worst weather; men and women who endure heat, cold, loneliness, and fear as they serve in our military. I am thankful for men and women who serve in hospitals, in every capacity, twenty-fours a day, to care for others.

I am thankful for our church as we close our 140^th year and look to our 141^st year filled with such promise and hope. I am thankful for the wonderful staff I work with each day. I am thankful for our special ministry in the Early Learning Center and the staff and teachers who embrace each child we welcome each day with warmth and love.

I am thankful for the season that lies before us, the season of Advent, a time of watching and waiting. I am thankful for those who have written so many wonderful hymns and carols that help us to focus on the coming of our Lord. I am thankful for the talents of countless artists who have captured that radiant, peace-filled scene of the birth of our Lord in so many ways to bring us the mystery and the hope of God with us.

This is my list today. It may be different tomorrow, and different yet again the day after that. But one thing will remain the same each day: my gratitude to God. The Psalmist said it so many times with good reason, “O give thanks to the Lord.” And so I will, and not just in November, but every day.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

You Want Me To Serve On WHAT Committee?

Twenty years ago I served as co-chair of the annual Stewardship campaign at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo. I was an active member of the church, the third generation of my family to worship there, but I was not at all interested in serving on the Stewardship Committee, much less take the co-chair’s role. The pastor would not take “no” for an answer, however, (and no: we don’t learn that skill at Seminary!) and so I found myself helping to lead the annual campaign.

Six months later, after an effort that we all considered successful, I concluded that God had blessed me richly by calling me to serve on the Stewardship Committee. My eyes had been opened in a way that never would have happened had I not helped with our campaign. Serving on the Stewardship Committee helped me to think about not just what I was giving to the church, but why I was giving, and who was calling me to give.

I realized that I was not making a donation to the church. I wasn’t making a gift. I was simply returning a part of what God had blessed me with. And it wasn’t the Committee that was asking for the pledge, nor was it the Session, nor the minister; it was God who was putting the pledge card in my hand. It was God who calling me to respond. God was gracing me with the opportunity to bring my “first fruits” to his table to do his work.

I think everyone should serve a two-year term on the Stewardship Ministry Team. In fact, I think we should require it of every active member. Your eyes will be opened in ways you might not have thought possible. You’ll develop a better appreciation for where and how we spend our funds on all the ministries we do here at our church. Indeed, you will see how everything we do is ministry. You will see how even painting a door or shoveling the walk is ministry.

In this month of thanksgiving, make sure you thank those who have helped with our Stewardship efforts this year. It was a small core Team led by Elders Mishelle Noble-Blair and Jim Crane. But there were many helping hands. Find them, and then, after you have expressed your gratitude, offer to serve on the Team next year. And don’t be surprised if, at the end of two years, you find that you have been “enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God…”

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

The Light on the Horizon

Pat and I thank you all for your words, your notes, your cards, and your prayers these past few weeks since my mother died. Every word, every thought, every gesture has been a great comfort to us and our hearts are filled with gratitude.

The presence of Mom’s absence has become apparent in countless ways. I have noticed it each afternoon. As her health deteriorated this past year, the late afternoon was usually her best time of the day, so I would telephone her and talk with her while I drove home. I have felt her absence even more acutely on Sunday afternoons. For more than 30 years that was our time to talk, a routine we fell into when I first went off to college and long-distance calls were something done sparingly.

But even as I feel the presence of her absence, I am also filled with a sense of relief: relief that she is beyond the reach of cancer, relief that no pain can touch her, relief that she no longer needs to fear yet another trip to the hospital, relief at knowing that she is at peace, bathed in love in the presence of God.

How blessed we are to have the promise of eternal life in God’s Heavenly Kingdom awaiting us at the end of our journey here on earth. At the end of our mortal lives it is not death that comes for us, but Christ himself. So, as Paul reminds us, “if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

I took comfort in knowing that my mother embraced this promise as she neared the end of her life. She knew where she was going. Her faith gave her the strength and courage to bear her final few months with grace and peace. The twinkle never faded from her eye.

“Death be not proud”, wrote the poet John Donne. “Mighty and dreadful: thou are not so… One short sleep past, we wake eternally, and death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.” This is the promise we take on faith, for it is the promise we have in Jesus Christ.

The absence is real and the grief deeply felt when a loved one dies. Yet even in death there is hope, a ray of light that shimmers over the horizon that reminds us that our lives here are only a prelude for what awaits us: eternal life in the presence of our Lord. Thanks be to God!

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

Happy New Year?

September marks a “New Year” in most churches, as we come back from summer activities and travels. Following Labor Day we will resume our schedule of two worship services (but not till September 16th!), the choir will be back in the chancel, Sunday School will be ready to greet learners of all ages, and the building will buzz seven days a week with activity. I will particularly enjoy the beginning of the new year for our Early Learning Center – weekdays have been much too quiet without the sounds of children talking, giggling, singing, and learning.

Our Session will continue the conversation we began in June about where we believe God is calling us in the years ahead. Our priorities have changed over the past decade since the first thoughts that led to the Vision 2010 program were discussed. We now realize that rather than adding space, we need to put more effort into maintaining and enhancing what we have. Our 30-year-old building needs to look as bright, warm, and welcoming as all the new church buildings that have sprung up all around us over the past few years.

Our Reformed heritage reminds us that we are the “Church Reformed, Yet Always Reforming”. As important as tradition is, change is also an equal partner in our discipleship. The Holy Spirit calls us to changes and leads us, gracing us with the wisdom and courage we need to walk forward boldly and faithfully. Changes come in small ways: fresh paint all around our building, including splashes of welcome color; more graphics, pictures, and helpful information on our website; or new volunteer leaders for our Youth Groups. And changes come in bigger ways as we think about new ministries and missions, or plan for how we can restore the position of Associate Pastor.

One of many changes we made this summer was to update our computer database to help us capture information from Time & Talent surveys that our Stewardship Ministry Team has put together. Our Deacons will be sending you the Time & Talent form for you to fill out and return – right away, please! Our database is vastly improved thanks to the efforts of Ann Curtis and Sarah Slader, so be assured that we will match interests and needs.

Where will God be calling us in the weeks and months ahead? Where will God be calling you to serve in the weeks and months ahead? We have only to “be still” and listen – God will make our paths clear. And as Paul teaches us, whatever we do in word and deed, whatever the path, let us be sure to do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How I'll Spend My Summer

Summer looms: long languid months in which to relax, lie in a hammock, drink lemonade, and listen to the birds in the trees…. Somehow I don’t think that describes what summer will be like for most of us! Summers seem to be as busy as the rest of the year, with travel, vacations, camps for children, and projects to be done around the house.

Still, summer allows us a change of pace, and a chance to focus on different things. This summer will provide me with an opportunity to have some concentrated time on my doctoral work. In September 2004, I began work on my Doctor of Ministry degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. I completed all my required classroom work last summer, leaving me with “just” the dissertation, or what the program calls the “Final Project”.

I spent much of this spring developing and refining my Final Project Proposal, a process that is rather like trying to corral mercury loosed from a thermometer. Papers and responses flowed back and forth between me and the Seminary’s Doctoral Committee over the months, all part of the normal process that every doctoral student goes through. Happily, the Proposal stage is nearing completion, so I can begin work this summer on the Final Project.

My Project will focus on leadership in the church. Every year God calls a new group of women and men to leadership roles in the church as Elders and Deacons. Amazingly, though, there is no training program from the Presbytery, no handbook written by the Synod, no workshop offered by Louisville, no ready resource to help us become better leaders in the church. There are more than 11,000 churches in the Presbyterian Church in this country and it appears that there are 11,000 different ways we go about trying to develop leadership!

What I hope to develop is a program we can use at our church to help officers become more comfortable in their role as leaders as they serve God and this church. Our Book of Order charges our Elders in particular to “exercise leadership…by seeking together to find and represent the will of Christ”. How best to do that is a challenge when we all struggle with discernment, demands on our time, and different interpretations of the word “leadership”.

Of course, we begin our study of leadership by remembering that we are also followers: followers of our Lord Jesus, who is Head of the Church. As we go about our ministry, as long as we “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly…and…do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” we can be confident that we will be both faithful leaders and faithful followers.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Are You Doing?

So: how are you doing? How are you doing as a steward of God’s creation? We had a wonderful Earth Day celebration in April, and we have talked a lot recently about our role as stewards of God’s creation and the responsibility God has given us to look after this creation.

Are you recycling more and throwing out less? Prince William County takes newspapers, magazines, telephone books, catalogues, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, and cans. Go to the county’s website, www.co.prince-william.va.us/default, and click on “Recycling and Trash disposal” and you’ll find all kinds of helpful information, including what to do with old computers, televisions, and other electronic gear, used engine oil, batteries and other goods.

The more we recycle the less we will put in the ground in landfills. Take a drive south out 234 past Hoadly Road and look at the size of the mound of trash at the Prince William County Landfill – that’s all from you and me. The next time you head east on 66, have a look at the large hill that’s on your right at the exit for the Fairfax County Parkway. That’s all trash under there. Your trash and mine.

What else are you doing? Have you begun to go through your house to see where you could replace lightbulbs with the new more energy-efficient bulbs? Are you planning to buy a new refrigerator, washer or dryer? Check to make sure your new appliance has the Energy Star logo. You’ll save money as well as energy.

Our cars pour millions of tons of pollutants into the air each day, even if we don’t see the toxins coming out of tailpipes. If it is time to replace your car, look for a model that gets at least 20% better mileage than your current car. For a helpful website, go to www.autos.yahoo.com/green_center/. You’ll save money at the gas pump and pollute less. Do you plan to keep your car for a while yet? A simple way to use less gas and pollute less is slow down. Yes, simply driving the speed limit will improve your mileage and reduce the amount of pollution you’re putting in the air by more than 10%.

Everything we do has an impact on God’s creation. We are looking for more and more ways to “go green” around the church. Are you looking for ways to live green at home and at work, as well as at church? The world we live in is God’s, not ours. We are God’s stewards, called to care for this earth at church, at home, at work: everywhere, in everything we do so that God “may always rejoice in his works.” So: how are you doing?

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Do We Read the Bible?

I sat in on a Senior High class a few weeks back. I’d been invited in to respond to questions the students had. The questions were excellent: thoughtful, reflective, probing, and faithful. I noticed the questions had a common thread, something that we all struggle with: how are we to read the Bible, and especially, how are we to read difficult passages, those verses that seem not to make sense, or that trouble us?

We find passages that we question in both the Old and New Testaments. For example: “You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two materials.” (Leviticus 19:19) “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” (1 Timothy 2:11). If we were to follow these verses literally, most farmers would be in trouble, most of us would have to buy new wardrobes, and we would lose the majority of our Elders, Deacons, and Teachers. So what do we do?

Our Book of Confessions and Book of Order (together they are the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church USA) provide help and guidance. The Book of Order tells us that the Bible is “by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to us.” We do not refer to the Bible as the “literal” or “inerrant” Word of God, as some other denominations do.

The Confession of 1967 teaches us that the Bible is “to be interpreted in the light of its witness to God’s work of reconciliation in Christ.” Jesus, as the living Word of God, is the lens through which we are to read the Bible. Christ himself knew his Scripture, yet he often taught lessons that seemed to contradict a literal reading of Scripture.

The Bible is not a rule book, with neat aphorisms and guidelines that we can simply list and follow. Rather it is a book of books filled with nuance, subtleties, and many seemingly contradictory statements. We need help as we read the Bible, which is why the first thing we must always do before we read is offer a prayer for illumination, asking for God’s help through the Holy Spirit as we read.

We always have to be mindful of the context, the history, and the literary style of the writer of each book. We also have to be mindful of the fact that translators who have worked with the original Hebrew or Greek texts often have disagreed on how different verses should be translated.

As we read through the Bible, the Spirit calls us to interpret passages in light of God’s mercy, love and reconciling work in Jesus Christ. That means that reading the Bible requires prayer, faithfulness, an open mind, and an expectation that each time we read it we will be transformed, even just a little, to be more Christ-like in what we say, what we do, and how we live our lives.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip