Weekly Word

Over the past few weeks in worship, we have been offering special prayers for Malalai and Agashirin Safi. I have kept the prayers mostly broad – “God please be with the Safis in this difficult time. . .” – instead of getting into specifics. In truth, because of some legal and personal concerns, we want to shield the Safis by not sharing too much, even though there is plenty more that could be said (and likely will be said when the time is right)….

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in the past several weeks, I’ve been a little out of sorts in worship. I mean, I would like to think that as a “professional” with twenty-five years on the job, that I would be more than up to the challenge of comfortably leading in worship, but in the past several weeks, something has changed….

A few weeks ago, I was getting ready to go out of town and decided that I wanted to take a necktie. And then I thought, “Heck! When was the last time I actually wore a necktie?” You see, on Sundays – the main tie-wearing day for a lot of pastors – I always wear a clerical collar. And the rest of the time, I usually just wear a button-down shirt with no tie. I could wear a tie to the office, but things in our office are a little less formal than some offices.

So, I opened a little-used drawer and went in search of a tie and came across this historical archive of ties that I used to wear. Hidden away among these ties was a tie that I had forgotten – a real historic artifact from the year I was born. . .

I am writing this on Thursday, June 11 – a date that is 197 days before Christmas – but I am excited to say that this morning, at a small gathering of people in our Fellowship Hall, the topic of conversation was all about Christmas….

The word “polity” comes from Greek and Latin words that mean, basically, “form of government or administration of a state.” Just as the United States Constitution outlines the form of government for our nation, the Book of Order outlines the form of government for the church. How does/should the church be governed?

Just as a preview, this is the part of the “Foundations” section that we will be discussing this Sunday….

In recent months, in multiple settings and in multiple conversations, members of our congregation have expressed a desire to spend some time learning more about what it means to be Presbyterian. There are some who are new Presbyterians and simply want to know more. There are others who have been Presbyterians for years and feel they need a refresher. There are others, still, who want to have a kind of spiritual vocabulary that will help them talk about their faith….

A few months ago, one of my “Weekly Word” articles was called “The Flag + The Cross.” In the article, I talked about sitting in a church in which the American flag and the cross were placed, perhaps inadvertently, side by side. I also talked about the meaning – theological and personal – of symbols in the church and how sometimes we might lean more to the personal than the theological when it comes to certain symbols….

This past Monday, I drove down to Princeton, NJ for my 25th Class Reunion at Princeton Theological Seminary. I needed to leave early enough to make it in time for choir practice. Yep. . . choir practice. Now, I didn’t get pulled for speeding, but if I had gotten pulled over, I might have used choir practice as an excuse. You see, there had been a call to former members of the seminary choir for a pick-up choir that would sing at the opening worship service. The Director of Music at Princeton Seminary is a wonderful man named Martin Tel. Martin has been there for decades and was my choir director years ago….