#ItMightWork

Maybe we should call Ibrahim Musa Abdullahi the Good Muslim with the same reverence we give the Good Samaritan.

First things first. The hashtag.  You can read what Wikipedia (so it must be true) has to say, or just trust that a phrase – no spaces allowed – with a hashtag (#) in front of it has the possibility of being the Twenty-first Century version of the shot heard round the world.

During the last couple of weeks we’ve been hearing a lot about a hashtag seen round the world, #BringBackOurGirls. It’s been posted and tweeted by prime ministers and movie stars, worried mothers and, famously, our First Lady. Continue reading →

Mothers are a big deal because they comfort like no others are able to comfort…Mothers can give us a glimpse of God.

We don’t make a big deal about Mother’s Day in our worship services at LPC. We don’t ask anyone to stand and we don’t give out flowers. Some people are disappointed. Please, those of you who are disappointed and those of you who have not thought much about it, read this piece which I think says it well.  Here’s the PDF of The Wide Spectrum of Mothering.

We don’t make a big deal about Mother’s Day in our worship services at LPC, but that does not mean that mothers aren’t a big deal. We live in a world full of pastoral sensitivities about Mother’s Day, but also a world where motherhood, once as non-controversial as apple pie, is one of the many battlefields in the culture wars. Some argue that motherhood as anything less than what is depicted in misty photo on a Hallmark card is a travesty and that Hallmark motherhood is to be protected at all costs. Others depict that same Hallmark picture as representing a patriarchal and oppressive social construct, the sooner done away with the better. Continue reading →

Faith leads to a knowledge of truth that is deeper than fact and to a hope that never disappoints.

The first Sunday in May our Confirmation students will begin to create their faith statements in preparation for their public confession of faith and formal welcome into the membership of the church on the first Sunday in June.  It will be the most important writing they do this year – more important than any term paper or book report, Facebook post or text message.  It may be the most important writing not just of their first fourteen or fifteen years; it may be the most important thing they ever write. Ever. Continue reading →

Yellow lights are not designed as five seconds of grace, they are designed as five seconds of warning.

If you live in or around Langhorne, you probably know about our new traffic lights. They’re at all your favorite intersections. Or soon will be. When the work is done, traffic will flow more freely and we’ll be happy. For now work is not done, and as poles and arms and signals are installed and lane markers are painted, traffic is a mess and we’re not at all happy.

New lights with computerized control panels should control traffic flow a bit better. But our Lenape Indian paths that became Four Lanes End that became the stage coach hub between Philadelphia and Trenton really weren’t designed for SUVs and text-messaging drivers. Things may get a bit better at best. Continue reading →

If the atheists and secular humanists hold their fire, it looks as if this foray into enemy territory will have been a success.

Something amazing happened on April 1.  Foolish by some standards, it was no joke. Late afternoon this past Tuesday, members of our Evangelism Committee engaged in evangelism.  And survived. They did it again Wednesday and plan on the same thing this afternoon and Saturday morning. Returning unwounded, they are reporting great joy and enthusiasm. Who would have thought? Presbyterian and evangelism are concepts that have not mixed well over the years. Continue reading →