Like many people, I have been thinking of the year-ago week that seems so long ago. This past Monday, March 8, marked a full year since I preached from the pulpit at Langhorne Presbyterian Church. I had already announced my July 1 retirement.  Who could have known as we locked the doors after the second service, that March 8, not June 28, would not only be my final Sunday in the pulpit from which I had preached for over twelve years, but also the last time I’d see many members of our congregation.

We did not know many things that second full week of March, 2020. Who could have known?  Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on 60 Minutes March 8, and told us, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”  On Tuesday, March 10, New York Mayor DeBlasio said, “I don’t want to see Broadway go dark if we can avoid it. I want to see if we can strike some kind of balance.” On Thursday, the NBA canceled the remainder of its season and on Friday the NCAA canceled the rest of March madness. No governor had yet issued a stay-at-home order, but news began to spread about school districts canceling classes – but just for a week or two.

What a crazy week, and in recalling it, no fault or blame is implied. It was a crazy week. Continue reading →

Shall we allow democrats in the church?

That is, is democracy appropriate for the church? Presbyterians have been cautious but early in saying yes.

Following talk radio host Rush Limbaugh’s death last month, a Christianity Today podcast dealt with questions of Limbaugh’s influence and impact on Christian radio. I found it fascinating, much more so than I anticipated. Limbaugh’s influence especially on media directed at American Evangelicals was huge. A genre of Christian talk radio, as with so many other forms of talk radio, evolved in the wake of Limbaugh’s success.

I don’t listen to any talk radio (or many podcasts), but those who do say that Christian talk radio has produced its own brash Rush wannabes and also expanded access to some good Christian thinkers and commentators.

I’ve been thinking about something one of the guests on the podcast said. Quoting another writer, she said talk radio has made the discussion of issues in the church more democratic. That seems like a good thing, doesn’t it?  But, really, shall we allow democrats in the church? Continue reading →

I am fortunate to have had only one job I did not like. I was employed as a busboy one summer of my college years and was glad when the three months came to their end. Of course, there is a difference between a job and work. When we talk about the jobs we may have had or now have, we generally mean employment. Work for which we receive pay, monetary compensation. A boss and set hours may or may not be a part of any given job. We may be paid an hourly wage, a salary, or a commission; for the sake of common understanding, we might say a job is what we do to earn money.

Work is something more and something often better than a job. In Genesis 2, the first human is created, among other things, to work and to keep the garden. To be human is to work, a work that is caring and productive. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul, admonishes his friends to do honest work both to provide for self and to provide for others (Ephesians 4:28). In his commentary on Ephesians, John Calvin says such work for the sake of others is part of the love we owe our neighbors.  And where job and work overlap, Calvin recommends we “choose those employments which yield the greatest advantage to (our) neighbors.”

All jobs involve work, but not all work is a job. Continue reading →

Our house is one of six houses on our cul-de-sac, along with two still-empty lots. The street is one of the reasons we chose this lot on which to have our house built. Cul-de-sac dwellers are quick to point out that they are not living on a dead end street. It’s a short street with circular end. We like living on a cul-de-sac, but it turns out that snowplow drivers don’t like cul-de-sacs at all, because they have to figure out what to do with all the snow that accumulates in the circle at the end of the cul-de-sac.

We had a big snow fall earlier this week, and I was out early shoveling the snow from the driveway and sidewalks. That’s when the snowplow turned into the cul-de-sac. On its first pass by the driveway, the plow left a pile of snow blocking the driveway. I get it. It’s the rule of the game. Sometimes the worst part of shoveling show is getting through the mounds of snow the plow leaves on the apron of the driveway. Big slushy clumps.

But it’s the rule of the game, and there was a lot of snow and the plow drivers had already been out all night. So, I kept shoveling and the plow driver kept plowing. After his second pass down the street – and more snow added to the frozen barricade at the end of our driveway – the driver stopped and got out of the plow to survey the scene. He said something about plowing cul-de-sacs being a difficult task, or words to that effect. I think I said something to commiserate with him, and then thanked him for the work he was doing. Continue reading →

If all goes according to plan, I will stand before the (grand) inquisitors this afternoon. That is, rather than simply filling out a change of address form or even something like trading my Pennsylvania driver’s license for an Indiana driver’s license, the Midwest Presbytery must examine me before it will accept my credentials from the Presbytery of the East and welcome me into their ranks. (For you non-Presbyterians, don’t worry we have our own Presbyterian Polity Wikipedia page. It explains all you want to know, and not know, about presbyteries and the like.) Examinations are what we do. It is “shall” language in our Book of Church Order. Before I am made a member of the club I shall be, not could be or might be, but shall be examined as to my views on “theology and sacraments, English Bible, the Book of Order, the history of the Church and the Reformed tradition, and the nature of the office of Teaching Elder.”

I have been among the inquisitors, I don’t know how grand we were, many times, and have been the inquisitee several times over the course of my time in ministry. It’s how we Presbyterians do things, and I think it is a good idea. In fact, the pastors, elders, and deacons in our branch of Presbyterianism also promise to report back if there are any substantial changes in what they say they believe after they have been examined about it. We take our inquisitions seriously.

So, why not just a change of address form? Why not “if you’ve been driving safely in Pennsylvania, welcome to Indiana?” Because, to borrow a popular phrase, ideas have consequences. Theology matters. What we believe determines what we do and who we are. Continue reading →