Amazing Children of the Bible Series: Josiah

Meditation on 2 Kings 22 and 23, selected verses

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

August 23, 2026

How is your garden growing, with all this rain? I was away a few weeks and when I came back, my flowers had grown tall and toppled over.

I tried to do a little gardening this week, when the weather was cool and cloudy. That’s my favorite time to garden. Some of my perennial seedlings were outgrowing their pots and ready to get into the ground. I pulled out my garden tools, put on my work clothes, and was all set to plant when I realized that weeds had overtaken my flower beds.

If I wanted to plant, I needed to do some serious weeding, first. I don’t really like weeding. Do any of you like to weed? I like the way the garden looks after I weed. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment. But the process is sweaty, dirty, and tiring.

As I am weeding, I realize that by putting off the task, I have made it more difficult. The roots have had time to grow deep into the soil. Some that I pull break off at the stem and then it’s quite a job to get to the root. That happen to you?

The other thing I realize when I remove the large weeds is they have grown together with the flowers and have begun to rely on each other for stability, though they compete for sun, water, and space. Even when the flower stays in place, it might collapse without the weeds to lean on if I pull too late into the season. I know that I have to add new plants where some of the large weeds were growing or the weeds may return to fill the space.

As I sweat and strain and try not to touch poison ivy, I am reminded how sin can grow in our spiritual lives—and be sneaky like weeds. We don’t realize they have grown such deep roots until we are suddenly faced with a trial or crisis of faith, and they shoot up and threaten to strangle us like unruly grapevines, leaving us struggling with fear and worry, anger and unforgiveness, spiritual weariness and discontent, cynicism and doubt, or sadness and despair. When our spiritual lives are cluttered with and weakened by the weeds of sin, we are more tempted to worship contemporary idols, such as the idol of working and staying busy all day long for us to feel good about ourselves, and the status of achievement and ownership, and the idol of loving our money and possessions too much.

God’s people in ancient times were constantly tempted to adopt the idols of their neighbors especially when they were feeling more vulnerable or insecure, such as in times of fear and anxiety, war and scarcity, sickness and death, barrenness and famine. Powerful idols and gods were still being worshiped in Judah about 300 years after Solomon’s reign, when young Josiah in the 7th century BC became the 16th king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel. He was 8 years old when his 24-year-old father, King Amon, was assassinated just two years into his reign by his own officials and servants in his palace. Amon is most remembered for his idolatrous practices; 2 Kings 21:18-26 says that Amon set up pagan images and “did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father,” who rebuilt the high places that his father, the righteous King Hezekiah, had taken down, erecting altars for Baal, the Canaanite and Phoenician storm and fertility god, and his consort Asherah, a mother and fertility goddess. Asherah represented motherhood, creation, and the sea and was often symbolized by sacred trees or pillars. The people of Israel also worshiped the “starry hosts,” treating the sun, moon, planets, and stars as living gods, praying to the celestial bodies and building altars to them on rooftops, believing that they controlled fate, weather, and harvests.

Josiah’s reign spanned 31 years (from around 640 to 609 BC), during which time he expanded Judah’s borders and initiated major religious reforms—rebuilding and renovating Solomon’s temple, centralizing worship in Jerusalem, and eliminating the worship of foreign gods. This was not easily done, especially since his father’s and grandfather’s reigns had been filled with corruption and idolatry. Josiah was moved to do this after hearing the “Book of the Law,” found in the House of the Lord by the high priest Hilkiah during the renovation project.

Scholars believe that the “Book of the Law” or “Covenant” was probably Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Torah, or at least the core legal parts of it from chapters 12 through 26. Others believe that Hilkiah found the entire Torah, the five books of Moses.

After he removed from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts and burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, he did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem. He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust. He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected and smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. “The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon.”

Then he ordered the people, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord Your God, as it is written in the Book of the Covenant. Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem… 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.”

After all that Josiah did to turn back to God and cleanse the temple and the hearts, minds, and religious traditions of God’s people, the Lord was faithful to forgive them! God is always merciful and gracious, dear friends! God is always ready to forgive us and set our feet on righteous paths. We have new mercies every morning! Great is thy faithfulness!

How is Josiah remembered? Sadly, he died from arrow wounds after fighting Pharaoh Necco II of Egypt in 609 BC in Northern Israel. He is mourned deeply by the people of Judah and the prophet Jeremiah. Second Chronicles 35:25 tells how Jeremiah composed a special funeral song or lament honoring the king’s devotion to God. He is remembered for following the Lord completely, with an undivided heart, like David and not like Josiah’s father, Amon, or grandfather, Manasseh. He is remembered for purging the temple and the land of its idolatry and setting in motion a reformation that included the public celebration of the Passover, which continues to be the most celebrated feast in the Jewish religion. His death marked the close of the final era of spiritual revival before the Babylonian Exile. Finally, he is remembered in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew, where we read in verses 10 and 11, “Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.”

This is my hope, dear sisters and brothers. May you feel stirred by the example of Josiah to study God’s word. May you discover new things about God and yourself through your reading. May you recall the power of the Spirit to cleanse us from sin and transform us through the hearing of God’s word, just as it did for Josiah and Judah many centuries ago.

I urge you this week to consider your spiritual gardens. Are there any sneaky weeds that need pulling? Anything that drains you of your joy and threatens to trip you up along your journey of faith? What good habits will you plant to feed you spiritually, not just this week, but your whole lives through?

I urge you to take a moment right now and be uplifted when you consider the young people in your life watching what you say and do, learning the faith from you! Who are the children, youth, and young adults for whom you are serving as a good spiritual role model? May this wonderful knowledge of your importance to your loved ones’ journeys of faith stir you to turn to the Lord, like Josiah, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses!

Let us pray.

Gracious God, thank you for your mercy for sinners and your faithfulness, always keeping your promises to us. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, when we couldn’t find our way back to you and were lost in sin. Stir us to know you more through your Word, with its power to transform hearts and minds. Thank you for King Josiah, who, as a teenager, listened to your Book of Law and was courageous enough to obey your voice, cleanse the temple, destroy the idols and altars, and share your Law with your people. Draw near to us, Lord, and make us more like your Son as we seek to be faithful role models to the young people you have placed in our lives. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Amazing Children of the Bible Series: Solomon

Meditation on 1 Kings 3:1-15

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Aug. 16, 2026

“The Dream of Solomon”
Late 17th-century Baroque oil painting by Italian master Luca Giordano, housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

I have been away for two weeks on a cruise in the British Isles, ending our journey in Bergen, Norway. The tour took my mom and me to some places that I had visited briefly before—Dublin, Belfast, and Bergen, and to some new places—London, Liverpool, Beaumaris (in Wales), Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

In addition to the castle, cathedral, city, and countryside tours, trips to Neolithic monuments, a puffin safari and Shetland pony experience, we listened to speakers on history and culture, talks on crowns and coronations, the Beatles, the Vikings, and the Loch Ness Monster. We enjoyed evening concerts, with songs from the symphony and the cinema, Broadway shows, and the music of the Beatles, Eric Clapton, ABBA, and more.

What I enjoyed most was the beauty of the sea and sky and the wildlife and landscapes so different from my home. I enjoyed the people that we met on shore and on board and the stories that were shared. I have the feeling that my world has grown a little larger—and that there’s so much more to see and know than I could ever see and know in my lifetime.

 Today, we continue our Amazing Children of the Bible Series with Solomon. And like my trip overseas, the more I find out about Solomon, the more I realize how little I actually know of the man who is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Solomon was either the tenth or the 17th child born to King David, depending on which biblical account you read. He was the second son of Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam as 2 Samuel 11:3 tells us or the fourth son of Bathshua, daughter of Ammiel as 1 Chronicles 3:5 tells us. And Solomon wasn’t his only name. David named him Solomon in 2 Samuel 2:24, but Yahweh’s revelation through Nathan the prophet was that he would be called Jedidiah or “Beloved One of Yahweh.” Solomon is from the Hebrew root, salom or shalom. The promise in 1 Chronicles 22:9 is that “God will give shalom (peace) and quiet to Israel in his days.”[1]

His reign as king over Israel and Judah was about 40 years or the length of a generation (1 Kings 11:42). His reign began around 970 to 960 BC and ended around 930 to 920 BC, when he died and his son, Rehoboam, ascended to the throne at the age of 41. While we don’t know for sure, scholars estimate that Solomon was 15 when he became king (1 Kings 3:7).

How is Solomon remembered? Most of all, for his wisdom. Young Solomon asks God in a dream for wisdom or an “understanding mind” when he ascends to the throne., “And now, O Lord my God,” he says in 1 Kings 3, beginning at verse 7, “you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”

Solomon’s wise reputation has led to his being credited with some of the wisdom literature in the Bible—Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, although he did not write them in the traditional sense. Other writings linked to him include 18 Psalms from the First Century BC that are not included in our Bibles,[2] “The Wisdom of Solomon,” written in Greek by a Hellenized Jew of Alexandria “after that city’s conquest by Rome in 30 BCE,”[3] and “Testament of Solomon,” which is a folktale written somewhere between the First and Sixth Century CE.

Perhaps the most well-known example of his wisdom is from 1 Kings 3:16-28, when two women come to Solomon to settle a dispute over a newborn child. Each claim that the living baby belongs to them and the one who died belongs to the other. The king says, “Bring me a sword…and divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one and half to the other.” The woman whose son is alive is moved by love and compassion for her child. She says, “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly, do not kill him!” The king determines that the one who was prepared to give her son to another, rather than see him killed, is the boy’s true mother. “All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered,” says 1 Kings 3:28, “and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice.”

On another occasion, the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon hearing of his fame and brilliance and wanting to test him with riddles. When she arrives, “she discussed with him all that was on her mind” and was satisfied with his answers. (2 Chronicles 9:1) She gave him 120 talents of gold, and “a very great quantity of spices and precious stones; there were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.” (2 Chronicles 9:9)

Which brings us to something else that Solomon is remembered for: his wealth and the wealth of his United Kingdom, which experienced a kind of Golden Age under his leadership. In 1 Kings 10:14, we read how he collected in tribute in a single year 666 talents or 18,125 kilograms of gold. “He surrounded himself with all the luxuries and grandeur of an Eastern monarch, and his government prospered.”[4] Jesus and his audience were well acquainted with stories of his wealth and abundance of possessions, including fine clothing, as he asks them in Matthew 6:28-29, “And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

Along with his wealth, Solomon is remembered for building the First Temple, although the exact location is unknown. The place of worship, sacrifice, and learning stood until 586 BC, when it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II and the Ne0-Babylonian Empire in the siege of Jerusalem. God’s people were taken into captivity and exiled. The Second Temple would be built around 516 BC after the Persian conquest of Babylon and King Cyrus the Great’s authorization and encouragement of the displaced populations in the region to return to their homelands. The Temple would undergo renovations and expansion under King Herod in 18-20 BCE. One of the enhancements was the building of a colonnade called “Solomon’s Portico,” or “Solomon’s Porch.” The meeting place on the east side of the temple’s outer court was a favorite of Jesus and his disciples, and the early Jerusalem church also met there.

Finally, Solomon was a lover of women and is remembered for his many wives and concubines. Does anyone want to venture a guess at how many? “Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines,” says 1 Kings 11:3. Unfortunately, the women whom Solomon loved, many of whom were from foreign lands, would be his eventual downfall. They are blamed for turning Solomon’s heart in his old age to the worship of idols. Solomon did not love the Lord completely, as his father David had done. God became angry with Solomon, leading to the prophecy that his unified kingdom would be torn apart during the reign of his son.

If you asked me what I learned from Solomon’s story was that even when you have everything or think you do—wealth, wisdom, power, and the adoration and admiration of many people—if you don’t love the Lord completely, you really don’t have anything. And you cannot be pleasing to God.

I am glad to be back from my trip across the Atlantic. There’s no place like home! I will have memories to cherish for years to come, but also the realization that the more I come to know in this world, the more I realize how little I really know at all. But all the experiences that we have and knowledge that we acquire in this world are not what matters for our lives of faith. What matters, dear friends, is not what’s in our minds, but what’s in our hearts—the love of God and neighbor, with God first and foremost.

As the Beatles used to sing, “Love is all you need.”

Let us pray.

God of Wisdom and Mercy, thank you for your steadfast love for your people, even when we fall into bad habits, desiring the things of this world too much, forgetting what’s important as a follower of your Son. Thank you for your many gifts and blessings to us, including the blessing of wisdom and knowing your will for our lives when we reach out to you in prayer and listen for your voice. Forgive us for failing to love you completely and being tempted by the idols of this world. Strengthen us to be faithful to you and Your people all the days of our life and seek to be pleasing to You. Amen.

[1] Tomoo Ishida, “Solomon” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (Si-Z) (NY: Doubleday, 1992), 105-113.

[2] Joseph Trafton, “Psalms of Solomon” in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, 115-117.

[3] David Winston, “Wisdom of Solomon” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 120-127.

[4] “Solomon” in Wikipedia, accessed Aug. 15, 2026 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon.

Amazing Children of the Bible Series: David

Meditation on 1 Samuel 17:12-47

The Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

July 26, 2026

I enjoyed my birthday week—having ice cream, going out to lunch, and going on a two-hour lighthouse cruise with Jim, leaving from Orient Point. I received emails, texts, Facebook messages, cards, and phone calls, including one from my brother. He called to wish me happy birthday and tell me that I am getting old. Does anyone have brothers that tell them stuff like that? Of course, I answered, “Not as old as you!” And he said of our sister, “And I’m not as old as Susan!”

I got to thinking this week that when you pass 60, it’s good to be the youngest in your family. We are actually quite close in age. Steve is about 18 months older than I am. Susan is about 2 and ¾ years older than I am. But because we were so different from one another in appearance and personality as children, I never had a teacher say to me, “Oh, you are Susan’s little sister. Or, oh, you are Steve’s little sister.”

This was not the case with David. Everyone knew him and his brothers and their father Jesse, who lived in Judah and was descended from the tribe of Judah. He was a farmer, a breeder and owner of sheep, a prominent resident in the town of Bethlehem, where David and many generations later, Jesus was born. Jesse was the son of Obed and the grandson of Ruth the Moabite and Boaz, a wealthy landowner in Bethlehem and relative of Ruth’s father-in-law, Elimelech.

David might have been 15 at the time of his battle with Goliath. His brothers (Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah) were at least 20 and older as they fought under King Saul when 20 was the minimum age for enlistment. They also had sisters, Zeruiah and Abigail, (mentioned in 1 Chronicles 2:16) but they don’t show up in this passage.

The armies of Israel and Philistine were entirely made of men at the time. Some women fought for Israel in other battles, however. Deborah, whose story is in Judges 4 and 5, was the only female judge who adjudicated cases from her seat under a palm tree. She led the Israelite army to war against the Canaanites, behaving “like a general, ordering the commander Barak to attack the Canaanite general Sisera’s troops at Kadesh (Judges 4:6-7). Barak says he will only go to war if Deborah goes with him—and she does (Judges 4:9-10, Judges 5:15).[1]

During David’s time, “the kingdom of Philistia (is) a powerful confederation known as the Pentapolis—featuring the five city-states of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath.”[2] The Philistines are an ancient people who settled along the southern coast of Canaan around 1050 BC, occupying part of the Judean Hill Country. They possessed superior arms and military organization, possibly because of their local monopoly on smithing iron (1 Samuel 13:19). Deuteronomy 2:23 and Jeremiah 47:4 say they came from the coasts of Caphtor, which may have been Crete.[3] They are one of the groups of “Sea Peoples” mentioned in Nolan’s film adaptation of The Odyssey.

David is ruddy and handsome, and although he isn’t old enough to enlist, he follows Saul, like his brothers who fight. He goes back and forth each day to Bethlehem from the battle at the Valley of Elah, about 20 miles from Jerusalem today, to feed and tend the sheep. When he is not there, he leaves a “keeper” in charge. His father sends him to check on his brothers and bring them bread to eat and cheese for the commander. His father, concerned about their safety, asks for some “token” of his sons when David comes back.

How do his brothers feel about David coming to check on them? They don’t want him around. His eldest brother Eliab hears him talking to the men about a reward for killing Goliath, and Eliab’s anger is kindled. Who is the eldest sibling in their family? What’s your job? Looking after your younger brothers and sisters. Eliab says, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down just to see the battle.” 

David’s answer is petulant. His, “What have I done now? It was only a question,” makes you think that he is often in trouble with his older brothers. Saul hears what David says about fighting Goliath, and he sends for him. The king says, “You’re just a boy.” Goliath has been training for battle since his youth.

But David tells Saul how he has defended his flock from wild animals. “Your servant has killed both lions and bears,” he says, “and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David reveals his faith, then, to the one who was anointed Israel’s king by the prophet, priest, and judge, Samuel. “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul says to David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”

The Lord wins the battle that day. The “boy” who isn’t big enough or strong enough for the armor and weapons is able to kill the giant with a slingshot and a few small stones, picked from the wadi, or dry riverbed. After the giant comes down, David will cut off his head as proof that he truly is a worthy warrior for Saul.

David is not only a warrior. The shepherd is a man after God’s own heart. He possesses musical gifts, playing a small harp called a lyre and writing many of the psalms.

But David is far from perfect! He is proud and impetuous and brash, arrogant as Israel’s king at 30 years old, 15 years after he kills Goliath. David sees beautiful Bathsheba one day, wants her, and takes her as his own. It doesn’t matter if she wants him—or that she is married. He is devious and deceitful. He attempts to trick her husband Uriah, a soldier in his army, into having sex with her to hide that she is pregnant with David’s child. And David is a murderer. When Uriah refuses, the king sends him to the front to be killed. David will later confess and repent of his sin when the prophet Nathan confronts him. It may have been this time when he writes Psalm 51, which begins, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.”

David will be remembered as the one who unites the 12 tribes of Israel. He captures Jerusalem, brings the ark of the covenant to it, and makes the city both the national and religious capital. In his reign of 40 years, he leads the military to victory over the Philistines, Moabites, and Syrians. He expands Israel’s borders and secures the nation’s sovereignty. While David will not build the Temple in Jerusalem, he drafts the first plans and amasses large quantities of materials needed for the project, including gold and silver. His son, Solomon, will be the one to build it. We will learn more about Solomon later.

I admire David’s courage, as a lad of 15. How was able to speak so confidently to his older brothers and so boldly to the king? But I also know that he did not find his strength in himself. He believed that The Lord, who saved him “from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear” saved him “from the hand of (the) Philistine.”

 As the years pass and he struggles with parenting, as well as his responsibilities as king, he is humbled. Perhaps then he learns to trust the Lord even more. That has been the case for me. Age and life have a way of doing that for us. 

Dear friends, may we, like David, learn to trust, more and more. May we feel the hand of God upon us. May we overcome our fears and do things that others may say we cannot. And may we encourage our sisters and brothers to take risks and try new things, knowing that we are not alone in a task that the Lord has called us to. Let us say to one another, as Saul says to young David with his slingshot, “Go, and may the Lord be with you!”

Let us pray with the words of my favorite psalm of David—Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Amen.

[1] Caryn-Tamber-Rosenau, “Women Warriors,”in The Shalvi Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (June 23, 2021) accessed July 25, 2026 at https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/women-warriors#pid-15732.

[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people, accessed July 25, 2026

[3] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people, accessed July 25, 2026

Samuel

Amazing Children of the Bible Series

Meditation on 1 Samuel 3

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

July 19, 2026

Samuel Dedicated by Hannah at the Temple by Frank W.W. Topham

I was blessed to meet the Rev. Bill Hoffman this week and hear the story of his ministry. Bill is retiring from Montauk Community Church at the end of this month and moving to Wisconsin. He is from Long Island originally, born and raised in Hicksville.

Thirty years ago, before studying for the ministry at Louisville Seminary, he served as a forest ranger in Wisconsin, fighting wildfires for 15 years. In ministry, he served small congregations in upstate New York and Rochester, MN, and worked in prison ministry before returning to Long Island to accept a call to Montauk Community Church in August 2011.

He always had a love for small churches. And Montauk was a place that was near and dear to his heart before he became pastor of the only Protestant church on Montauk. He and his family used to vacation there when Montauk was primarily a fishing village, before the infusion of wealth that has made it a tourist destination. The glue that holds the community together today is still the fishing industry. Montauk is home to the largest commercial and recreational fishing fleet in the state.

Bill says his congregation, though affiliated with the PCUSA, draws people from a variety of religious backgrounds. They have seen themselves as a mission church since they were founded in 1928. Most people who attend are not Presbyterian. Bill has an ecumenical approach to ministry, which goes along with his call to serve small churches in small, tight-knit communities. “You don’t have to stop being what you are when you are here,” he says. You can still be Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist—whatever tradition in which you were raised. The congregation was named a “community” church in the beginning, before it became popular in the 1980s to include the word “community” in church names. The isolation—having to drive through 12 miles of “nothing” before reaching Montauk—helps to bring the community closer and nurture an island mentality, as does the ecumenical Easter sunrise service that he and a Catholic priest host on the beach and the Blessing of the Fleet that he, a priest, and a rabbi have done every June, which includes a memorial service to honor fishermen and women who have died in the previous year.

“Last year,” he said, “there were 22.”

What amazes me about Bill and his call to ministry is not the ecumenical spirit or the love of smaller congregations—which I totally get, because I am a small church pastor myself. What amazes me is that Bill continued his care for the community as a firefighter and EMT, even while serving as a full-time pastor. He says, “If you want to get to know the people of Montauk, go to the firehouse and the docks.”

Samuel had a unique calling to ministry, as well, although he was set apart for ministry before he was even born and never knew any other life except for serving the Lord. His mother, Hannah, had no children for many years. She had prayed for a child when she and her husband, Elkanah, and his other wife, Peninnah, who had many children, went every year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh. Eli and his two sons were priests there. One day, Eli sees Hannah, deeply distressed and moving her lips in a silent prayer, and accuses her of drunkenness. But Hannah says, “Do no regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Then Eli says, automatically, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” And she believes him—that God would give her a child. In due time, she gives birth, and names the boy Samuel, which means “God hears,” for she “asked him of the Lord.”

Hannah doesn’t go with Elkanah and the household the next year or the next when they go to Shiloh to offer the sacrifice. But she promises to bring the child there as soon as he is weaned, “that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and remain there forever.” She would offer him as a Nazirite; his hair would never be cut, and he would never consume anything from a grapevine. When she weans him, probably when he is 3, she brings their animal sacrifice and the child to Eli, saying the Lord answered her petition at Shiloh. “Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

She sings a song that she composes, a song much like Mary’s in the New Testament, and they leave little Samuel and go home to Ramah. That must have been a hard thing to do! And they didn’t know that the sons of Eli were “scoundrels,” who treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt. They stole the raw meat brought for sacrifice to eat for themselves and threatened the servants to take it by force if they didn’t give it to them.

Meanwhile, little Samuel, wearing a priestly gown—a linen ephod that his mother would make for him and bring to him each year—would serve the Lord alongside Eli, ignoring the evil sons, and grow up in the presence of the Lord, as his mother had promised. The Lord “took note” of Hannah’s devotion and faithfulness, and she conceives and bears three more sons and two daughters. 1 Samuel 2:26 describes the growth of the boy much like Jesus is described in the New Testament: “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.” Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people.”

Then a man of God comes to Eli one day and tells him that because of his sons’ behavior, none shall live to old age. God would raise up a faithful priest, he said, who shall do according to what is in God’s heart and mind. That faithful priest is Samuel, who hears the voice of God calling to him at night while he is a boy, lying down near the ark of the Lord. The famous 1st century Jewish historian Josephus says that Samuel is 12 years old at the time.

Samuel serves the Lord as a priest, a nationally recognized prophet or “Seer,” and as a judge, resolving everyday disputes and conflicts amongst the tribes. He is the spiritual leader, “a key figure in keeping the Israelites’ religious heritage and identity alive during Israel’s defeat and occupation by the Philistines.”[1] And he is a military leader, leading the Israelites to victory over the Philistines after 20 years of oppression.

When Samuel grows old and his sons don’t follow in his ways, the elders of Israel come to him and demand that he anoint a king to govern them, like other nations. Samuel warns them what would happen if they had a king to reign over them, but they won’t listen.  

He anoints the first king—Saul—and then, two years later, David, when Saul fails to be a man after God’s own heart. More about David next week!

But when Samuel is a mere boy, hearing the voice of the Lord for the first time and not aware that it IS God until Eli tells him, it is a sign of great things to come. As little Samuel grows up, the Lord is with him and lets “none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba (know) that Samuel (is) a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.”

When I was talking to Bill on Thursday, he reminded me that our callings and fruitfulness in ministry are connected to one another. He credits the interim pastor, the Rev. Anne Stewart Miller, who served for 3 years before him, for doing the hard work of uniting what was a divided congregation. If it hadn’t been for Anne, he says, he would not have been able to pastor Montauk for 15 years.

Samuel would never have been the prophet, priest, judge, military leader, and anointer of Israel’s first kings if it hadn’t been for Eli and his mother, Hannah, who trusted God to grant her prayer for a child, though she had been unable to conceive for many years. Hannah is the one who prepared him for ministry from birth and did the hard work of loving and leaving him—the long, hoped-for child—when he was just 3 years old, to be raised and trained as a priest by Eli in the house of the Lord.

And I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for my family, especially my husband, and my teachers—and for the ministers who served the Smithtown congregation faithfully for hundreds of years before me. And, of course, for the work of the Spirit that continues in the Body of Christ, helping us to become the people God desires us to be.

Today, as we recall the life and ministry of Samuel, and as we recall other amazing children of the Bible in this series, may you be stirred to contemplate your own faith story and renew your commitment to serving Christ with your special gifts, talents, and skills. May you be inspired by others, such as Bill Hoffman, a firefighter, EMT, and small-church Presbyterian minister for 30 years, including 15 in the tight-knit fishing village and tourist destination of Montauk.

May you be inspired to help the children and youth of our community recognize God’s voice, like little Samuel at 12. And may the children and youth be blessed with the understanding that God has a wonderful plan for their lives and that their experiences and relationships nurtured within this congregation are preparing them for what is to come.

May we all remember and be empowered by the knowledge that we are precious and loved by God and God’s people.

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your love, a love that is everlasting and unconditional. Thank you for the ministries of Samuel—priest, prophet, judge, military leader, and anointer of kings—and Bill Hoffman, forest ranger, fire fighter, EMT and small church, ecumenical pastor—and for our ministry here at First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown for 351 years. Thank you that you continue to speak to us and encourage us as we seek to love and serve you and our neighbors. Help us to remember with joy our faith stories and the gifts you have given us to use for your purposes. Strengthen us to nurture our next generation of prophets and evangelists to carry the gospel to this community and beyond. And bless Bill with good health and joy as he makes this transition from full time ministry on Montauk to full time family man in Wisconsin. Bless him and his wife, Valerie, for their love for your people and their faithfulness to your call. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

[1] Birch, Bruce C. (2000). “Samuel” in Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press.

Miriam

Amazing Children of the Bible Series

Meditation on Exodus 1:8-2:10

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

July 12, 2026

It hasn’t yet been two weeks since I returned from our denomination’s 227th General Assembly in Milwaukee. I am still processing much of what happened there. But today, I would like to share about the delightful tribute to Margaret Towner at G.A.

Margaret, who turned 101 in March, was born in Columbia, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up in the Presbyterian Church. Her father was the Rev. Dr. Milton Carsley Towner, who would become a prominent American educator, psychologist, and religious scholar. Her mother was active in the church and supportive of her daughter’s dreams. In Carleton College, Marg majored in pre-med and graduated with a B.A. in 1948.  She had been into photography since a young girl as a hobby but was trained in college by a fellow student who had served as a photographer in the Army. After college, she would work as a medical photographer for the Mayo Clinic until she moved back to Syracuse where her mother was living. There, she used her skills as a photographer with Presbyterian churches. As she became more involved with churches, people began to ask her, “Marg, why don’t you explore ministry?”

So she did. She attended Union Theological Seminary in New York, earning a Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1954. But women were not permitted to serve in full ministry roles until a 1955 decision of General Assembly, which went into effect in 1956. This paved the way for Margaret’s ordination on October 24 of that year by Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery. That day was far from smooth or routine for her and the church. There was confusion, and her mother fielded a flurry of phone calls from the media asking, “Is she going to be the first?”

Eugene Carson Blake, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly at the time, then canvased all the other presbyteries in the U.S. Sure enough, Margaret Towner would be the first woman ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. When the media found out, Life Magazine sent one of most famous photographers in the country, Alfred Eisenstaedt, to cover her ordination. The Allentown church usually gave a black robe to those being ordained as ministers. But they didn’t give Margaret a robe. They gave her a set of encyclopedias. Not having a robe to wear, her mother borrowed one for her from Forster Freeman, probably the shortest minister in the presbytery, Margaret says. It still didn’t fit. The wife of the Allentown pastor and one of the choir members sat down and hemmed it up so she could be dressed and ready for the 8 p.m. ordination service.

The two pastors Margaret had worked with in Allentown did not approve of women’s ordination. She decided to invite them to participate in the service. One was to deliver the sermon and the other to do the prayer before the service when all the elders and ministers gathered. It was there that one of the clergy, Bill McConaughy, gave her a beautiful cross from Iona that she wears to this day.

Those early years as she started out in ministry were difficult. In Allentown, she was permitted in the pulpit only when she gave the benediction at her own service of ordination. She was allowed to pantomime the service during Communion in the overflow auditorium. Meanwhile, she received letters from wives of ministers telling her that the Bible forbids women from preaching and accusing her of taking away the jobs of their husbands.

The persecution went on in other ways when we she was serving First Presbyterian Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan. People would call the church office to ask who was preaching on Sunday. If the secretary said Margaret, they weren’t going to come. “They just didn’t have any idea,” Margaret says, “of what a female can do.”

Today, we began our series of amazing children of the Bible with Miriam. Did you happen notice that she isn’t named in our passage in Exodus when she, with guidance from her mother, saves the life of her baby brother Moses? This isn’t unusual for women and girls in the Bible. They are often mentioned through their relationship with an important male character. In this case, her brother Moses. But she will be named later.

Miriam is probably 7 years old[1] when she is watching over her brother in the Nile, floating in the basket her mother has carefully made and waterproofed. The princess, moved with compassion by the baby’s cries and beauty, and persuaded by Miriam to pay his own Hebrew mother to nurse him, isn’t named, either.  She never will be. But then again, her father, the Pharoah who didn’t know how Joseph had saved Egypt and hated and feared his descendants because they were growing too strong and numerous, isn’t named, as well. Most scholars agree that he is not named because he does not need to be remembered.

Miriam’s mother, another important female character, isn’t named in this passage. We do know her priestly family line, as Exodus begins the story describing Moses’ parents, “Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.” The Levites were an Israelite tribe descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and half-brother to Joseph. They were selected to serve God in the Holy Temple and were different from the other tribes in that they received no land inheritance; they were supported by the tithes of the people. Exodus 6:20 tells us that the mother’s name is Jochebed, and her husband is Amran—and is also her nephew.

You may not realize that Miriam is the first woman to be explicitly called a prophet in the Bible. Not only that. She is the first person to be called a “prophet” in the Bible, too. [2] She is introduced in Exodus 15:20 as “Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister” before she famously leads the Israelite women in song and dance to celebrate the crossing of the Red Sea. She picks up her tambourine and sings her “Song of Miriam”:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously,
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.” (Exodus 15:21)

Like all the people of the Bible, including her brothers, Miriam is very human. All three struggle in their faith and complain to God throughout the wilderness trials. But she remains supportive of Moses until many years have passed—and the land of the promise is nowhere in sight. The straw that breaks the camel’s back is when Moses divorces his longtime wife, Zipporah, and marries a Cushite woman, not a Hebrew. We read in Numbers 12:1-2, “While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman); and they said, ‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it.” Miriam is struck with leprosy, and Aaron cries out to God on her behalf. She is healed in 7 days but, like her brothers, will die before reaching the Land of the Promise. Still, she will be remembered by later prophets to be as important in the mission to save Israel as her two brothers. The Lord speaks through Micah 6:4,  

“I brought you up out of Egypt
    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.
I sent Moses to lead you,
    also Aaron and Miriam.”

Today, as we baptize Luke Andrew, I urge you to remember that it may be a few years before all of Luke’s spiritual gifts are evident. And that he will be very human and won’t have the ability to sit still and remain quiet for some time, yet. But as we nurture him in the faith, teach him about the love and grace of Jesus Christ, and support his family, the Lord will use him to fulfill God’s wonderful plans, perhaps while he is still young like Miriam at age 7. The important thing is to encourage him in all his dreams and never forget that with God, all things are possible.

Margaret’s parents had no idea when their daughter was a teenager, obsessed with photography, that she would become a minister.  Margaret herself had no inkling when she was studying pre-med that God had planned a future that included her serving in ordained ministry. How could they when women’s gifts for ministry were not even recognized by the Church until 1955 when she was 30 years old?

Looking back, Marg remembers one thing that she said years ago that she has often regretted saying. Trying to placate those in the church who were against the ordination of women, she told “Presbyterian Life that ordained women would likely serve as associate pastors, in roles subordinate to men, rather than alone. She faced pushback from the upcoming generation of women to follow in her footsteps.” The statement has come back to haunt her, she says, as the article is still read by students who have sent many unhappy letters, saying, “Hey, look I want to pastor on my own. Maybe that’s not your bag.”[3]

While Marg did start in pastoral roles that were subordinate to men, she was a strong advocate for women receiving equal pay and opportunity. Eventually, her pay equaled that of her two male co-pastors with whom she served a parish of 6 churches in the last 17 years of her ministry. Marg would go on to serve as a role model for women with her leadership roles in the national church, chairing such committees as the Language of God, the Holy Spirit, and Worship and Theology. She would go on to become in 1981 the Vice Moderator of the 193rd General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

When asked how she will be remembered, she prays that others won’t just remember her mistakes, but that they will graciously remember “some of the fun things,” she says with a smile, that “we did together in ministry.” She has become a big believer in the Holy Spirit to lead the Church in ways that the leaders “feel called to go, in whatever ministry they feel called to. And to persevere. Hang in there.”

As we clapped in standing ovation after the tribute, Co-Moderator Tony Larsen at GA in Milwaukee said, “Margaret, we do remember your contributions in ministry. We remember your faithfulness, your courage, your boldness.”

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your Spirit that continues to the lead the Church in surprising ways. Thank you for all the women and girls, such as Miriam and Margaret, who are models for women and men in ministry today. Forgive us for our mistakes, dear Lord, and stir us to have grace for one another and ourselves. Help us to inspire and encourage our next generation, including little Luke Andrew, to be courageous like Miriam and Margaret. To be faithful. To be bold. To believe that with God, all things are possible. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

[1] Nissan Mandel, “The Story of Miriam in the Bible” (Viewed on July 11, 2026) at https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112396/jewish/The-Story-of-Miriam-in-the-Bible.htm

[2] Phyllis Trible, “Miriam: Bible” in Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women’s Archive. Viewed on July 11, 2026 at https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/miriam-bible.

[3] Ed Wicklein, “Margaret Towners Reflects.” Presbyterian Historical Society Blog (1978) Accessed on July 11, 2026 at https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/blogs/historical-society-blog/margaret-towner-reflects

Celebrating Our Country’s 250th Anniversary

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

July 5, 2026

You are not going to hear the story of Miriam today! Lord willing, you will hear all about Miriam next Sunday as I begin my series on Amazing Children of the Bible. On this weekend, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I have been inspired to share a different message with my flock. I hope that’s OK!

It all started when I was on a bus headed to Milwaukee airport on Thursday, having finished my work as a commissioner to the General Assembly. I received a text message from Dawn at the church office. Nicole, one of the organizers of Smithtown’s July 4th celebration at Town Hall, had contacted the church. I was recommended by the mayor and town historian, Richard Smith, to lead the opening and closing prayers. She said the ceremony would last about 20 minutes and that I would also be welcome to speak about the history of our church and the role of faith in the founding of our country.

I said yes.

It was last minute. I wouldn’t have much time to prepare. I was a little tired from my trip. And I knew it was going to be hot standing outside Town Hall. But it was the right thing to do. They didn’t have other clergy for the event, and I knew that praying for peace and unity for our country would be important to fit in on the day of parades, flags, and family barbecues. And I looked forward to telling the story of our patriot pastor, the Reverend Joshua Hartt.

He was born on a farm in Dix Hills in 1738. At 32, he was ordained a minister, and at 36, in 1774, he came to serve the Presbyterian Church in Smithtown. Joshua soon earned a reputation for preaching “fiery sermons against British rule, calling on parishioners to take up arms in the patriot cause.”[1] He said, “He who hath no sword let him sell his garment and buy one.” And “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning shears into spears and let the weak say I am strong.”[2]

One Sunday, he stepped into the pulpit and was fired upon by two British soldiers. Either the soldier was a poor shot or Hartt, an imposing figure of 300 pounds, simply ducked in the nick of time.[3] Hartt was uninjured, but bullet holes were left in the church as a reminder of the danger of speaking out against an unjust government. Hartt would be arrested on several occasions because of his inflammatory preaching, including once when he was placed in chains, thrown in a wagon, and hauled to Provost Prison in New York City. During his imprisonment from May 27 to October 25 in 1777, the 39-year-old “came near to dying from an illness and want of food. A fellow prisoner was the celebrated Colonel Ethan Allen, who had captured Fort Ticonderoga in the early days of the war. Allen attended the ailing Rev. Hartt and by his lively manner and cheerful conversation did much to make his sickness and confinement endurable. One day Ethan Allen knelt at Rev. Hartt’s bedside and prayed for his recovery. Soon after, Rev. Hartt, through the assistance of a Tory friend, was paroled from the prison.”[4]

Hartt wasn’t the only one preaching fiery sermons in Presbyterian churches during the Revolutionary War years. The most famous Presbyterian leading the opposition to the British at the time was the Rev. John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. The prominent Scottish American Presbyterian minister had emigrated in 1768 to serve as president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).[5] He was a fiercely outspoken leader in the Patriot cause that King George III dismissed as a “Presbyterian rebellion.”[6]

George III wasn’t alone in his assessment of the situation. Horace Walpole, earl and youngest son of the first British prime minister, upon hearing that the American colonial possessions of Great Britain had written their Declaration of Independence, he wrote in a letter to a friend, “One has griefs enough of one’s own, without fretting because cousin America has eloped with a Presbyterian parson.”[7] That Presbyterian parson was John Witherspoon.

As Dissenters from the established Church of England, Presbyterians mistrusted British colonial power—and were not afraid to assert a right to religious freedom when it was threatened. Presbyterian influence in the colonies grew in the mid 1700s, shaped by the Great Awakening and an influx of Scottish and Scots Irish immigrants, most of whom were Presbyterian. With words and actions—and sometimes with violence—these religious dissenters challenged colonial rule and felt moved to defy the status quo in the name of God.[8]

Ambrose Serle, secretary to British General Howe in New York City, wrote to the British Secretary of State in 1776 telling him that the American Revolution was ultimately “a religious war.” He said that “the revolt would not and could not be sustained were it not for the Presbyterian ministers who bred it. He lamented the fact that almost every minister in America seemed to double as a politician.”[9]

Many Americans today aren’t aware that the majority of the 56 delegates from the 13 colonies who gathered in Philadelphia in the hot summer of 1776 for the Second Continental Congress were people of faith. Their families came here from Europe for a fresh start, new opportunities, a better life, and, most of all, freedom to live out their faith without fear of persecution. The signers of the Declaration were Deists and Unitarians. They were Roman Catholics. The majority of those who helped shape and then voted for Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence were Anglicans, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians.[10]

The 12 Presbyterians who signed the document were physician Benjamin Rush, James Smith, George Taylor, lawyers James Wilson and Thomas McKean, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, John Hart, Abraham Clark, and Matthew Thornton, although not all of them made it into John Trumball’s famous painting of the presentation of the Declaration to Congress in 1776.[11] “George Duffield of Philadelphia’s Third Presbyterian Church (today’s Old Pine Church, next door to the Presbyterian Historical Society) served as chaplain to the Continental Congress, and patriot pastors (such as Joshua Hartt) supported the war effort from their pulpits in every state. Everyday Presbyterians felt the war’s impact in their communities and houses of worship. British troops occupied Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Savannah. From New England to the Carolinas, Presbyterian churches were seized to quarter troops or damaged by forces loyal to the Crown.”[12]

The Declaration, amended in committee and presented to Congress on July 4, 1776, asserts that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It also asserts that just governments derive their authority and powers from the “consent of the governed.” And that people have the right to change the government when it becomes destructive to these ends and does not provide for their safety and happiness. The document includes references to God the Creator, Provider, and Judge, the source of nature and nature’s laws.[13]

It felt strange to be the only minister at Smithtown’s 4th of July celebration. It felt strange that the local and state leaders sitting on either side of me had not been given permission to speak more than 90 seconds each. I was the guest speaker, the one to share a message after one of Richard Smith’s relatives read the Preamble to the Declaration. Well, it turned out that he read not just the Preamble, but the entire Declaration. People, wilting in the heat and tired of standing, began to disperse.

At the podium, I looked out and saw members of my church, red faced and perspiring in the heat with me, but smiling as they stood on Town Hall’s lawn. Some had found a little patch of shade under a small tree. I felt a surge of confidence and joy. “Today, my friends,” I said, “I am grateful. Grateful for my family and my flock here in Smithtown, with its long history of ministry in this community through times of plenty and times of need and uncertainty. I am grateful to Reverend Hartt and all the brave patriots willing to speak up and act out, though it might mean arrest and imprisonment, injury or loss of life. I am grateful for our town and country that has weathered struggles from within and without.”

By the grace of God, we continue in hope for our future as the United States of America, enjoying our lives and liberties, including our freedom of speech and freedom to live out our faith as God leads us to do. We continue in hope in our pursuit of happiness, dwelling in a land of purple mountains majesties and fruited plains. I encourage all of you, my siblings in Christ, to pray for your nation, just 250 years young, a country larger and more diverse than those who first envisioned our system of government ever imagined. We embrace our freedoms, earned at a cost of those who gave their lives in the American Revolution, the Civil War about a century later, and many more wars and conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries so far. We are still struggling to find unity amid our differences and diversity of cultures, languages, ethnicities, and religions.

We are Deists and Unitarians. Roman Catholics. Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and many other varieties of Protestant faiths. We are also Jewish, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims. We are people not affiliated with any religion at all.

We are ALL children of a God who urges us to love one another and live together in peace.

Will you pray with me?

Holy One, thank you for your grace and the Spirit that continues to dwell with us in this nation that we call home, the United States of America. Thank you for those who labored and struggled and continue to labor and struggle to figure out what it means to live with this new kind of government—250 years young—in a land much larger and more diverse than Richard Smith ever imagined. Strengthen us to pursue peace and unity with one another and neighbors around the globe. Help us to reflect your grace, generosity, and gentleness and walk in the way of righteousness and justice. Heal our divisions. Make us whole. Amen.

[1] “Reverend Joshua Hartt (1738-1829),” Northport Historical Society Museum, accessed July 4, 2026, at https://www.huntingtonny.gov/filestorage/13747/99540/16499/Reverend_Joshua_Hartt.pdf

[2] Richard Mehalick, Church and Community (1675-1975) The Story of The First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, New York, (2010), 65.

[3] J. Richard Mehalick, Church and Community (1675-1975), 66.

[4] J. Richard Mehalick, Church and Community (1675-1975), 66-67.

[5] James Smylie, A Brief History of the Presbyterians (Louisville: Geneva Press, 1996), 57-58.

[6] A Presbyterian Rebellion,” Presbyterian Church, USA (March 15, 2019) accessed on July 4, 2026 at https://pcusa.org/a-presbyterian-rebellion

[7] Glenn A. Moots, “Early America’s Political Pulpit” in Law and Liberty, Dec. 28, 2021, accessed July 4, 2026 at https://lawliberty.org/classic/early-americas-political-pulpit/.

[8] “Presbyterians and the American Revolution” (Louisville:PresbyterianHistorical Society, 2026) accessed July 4, 2026, at https://pcusa.org/historical-society/exhibits/presbyterians-and-american-revolution#1

[9] George Grant, “The Presbyterian Rebellion” (July 2, 2026) accessed on July 4, 2026, at https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/the-presbyterian-rebellion.

[10] Kevin DeYoung, “The Presbyterian Signers of the Declaration of Independence” in Clearly Reformed (May 12, 2026) accessed July 4, 2026 at https://clearlyreformed.org/the-presbyterian-signers-of-the-declaration-of-independence/

[11]James Smylie, American Presbyterians: A Pictorial History, (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1985), 39.

[12] “Presbyterians and the American Revolution” (Louisville:PresbyterianHistorical Society, 2026) accessed July 4, 2026 at https://pcusa.org/historical-society/exhibits/presbyterians-and-american-revolution#1.

[13] James Smylie, American Presbyterians, 60.

Should We Continue in Sin?

Meditation on Romans 5:8 – 6:11

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

June 21, 2026

Magellan Penguin from https://www.penguinsinternational.org/magellanic-penguins/

Tom Michell was taking a walk by the sea, on holiday at Punte Del Este in Uruguay, when he saw the penguins washed up on the sand. It was a dreadful sight, he says in his memoir, The Penguin Lessons: What I Learned from A Remarkable Bird. “Hundreds of oil-drenched penguins lay dead in the sand, from the high-water mark to the sea, and stretching far away along the shore to the north. Dead penguins, covered in thick, cloying, suffocating oil and tar….”

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move. “One valiant bird was alive, a single surviving soul struggling amidst all that death.”

He hesitated. Tom was a single man of 23, an Englishman working as a teacher at a boarding school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was 1976, and the country was in chaos. “Terrorism was rife; murders and kidnappings were everyday events.”  Tom wasn’t thinking about his job or the violence and mayhem that day as he stood on the beach. He saw the penguin and had a surge of hope.

He carefully approached the large bird, maybe 14 pounds—it’s open, red-tongued beak, looking as if it were prepared to attack and jet-black eyes “sparking with anger.” He used wood and fishing net to lift “the furious creature, twisting and turning in its efforts to escape.” He managed to carry it by its feet for the mile or so walk to where he was staying. Before he could begin to clean it, the penguin clamped his beak on Tom’s finger. He yelped in pain and had to attend to the wound before he could begin to pour the dishwashing liquid down the creature’s back and work the soap into his short, stubby feathers.

As he rinsed the thick black goo from his body, the exhausted penguin suddenly lay still. Within moments, the terrified, hostile, and resentful animal became a docile and cooperative partner in the cleanup operation. The transformation occurred as Tom washed off the first of the detergent, as if the bird had suddenly understood that he was not being murdered; he was being saved. After that, he seemed to be a totally different animal, relieved of his affliction.  At the second dose of detergent, “he held his wings out helpfully, so that no part should be missed.” Tom rubbed the soap all over the penguin’s feathers and scraped off the gooey mixture. After each wash “he shook himself like a dog to dry.” When he was finished, he left the bird in the bathtub and walked to the market to buy fish. But then he had a disturbing thought. He had removed all the penguin’s natural oils. If he released him now, he might become “waterlogged, sink, and drown.”

Still determined to set the bird free and return to his normal routine, he rubbed the bird with butter and olive oil and took him to the sea near where he was staying, where there was no sign of oil spill. He took him “to the water’s edge and placed him in the sand, expecting him to rush into the sea and swim away, happy to be free. But he didn’t.” He walked straight back to Tom. Tom would find out years later from a wildlife rehabber that penguins won’t go into the water alone. After repeated attempts to set him free, Tom gave up when he followed him to the road and was nearly hit by a speeding van. Tom ran into the street, scooped him up and discovered he was soaking wet and icy cold, without any waterproofing on his feathers.

“What am I going to do with you?” Tom asked. This was the first of many penguin lessons—don’t go into the ocean alone!—that he and others would learn from the friendly, affectionate bird that had, of all things, the gift of being a good listener.

The penguin came to live on Tom’s terrace at school and took walks with him around the grounds. He named him “Juan Salvador,” which means “God is Gracious” and “Savior.”  The penguinwon the hearts of the students, who took turns feeding him his daily sprats and chose him as their rugby mascot. He won the hearts of the teachers and staff, who came to visit him and share their problems with him. Someone pointed out that he should have been named, “Juan Salvado,” Salvado meaning “Saved.” Thus, he had a new name.

Paul in Romans is trying to tell us about the transformation that has happened in us because of Christ. The love of God has been proven, he says, because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is the God whom Jesus calls Father, who knows us intimately and sees everyone as precious. Jesus in Matthew 10 asks his disciples, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

The one whose trespass brought about humanity’s condemnation, says Paul, is Adam. Not Eve, as some have taught! Only Jesus, fully human and fully God, was able to make the sacrifice that would bring us into right relationship with the Lord and one another. He did it for love.

Paul has evolved in his theology by the time he writes Romans for Gentile and Jewish Christians toward the end of his third missionary journey, perhaps A.D. 57. Douglas Moo writes, “For almost 25 years, Paul has planted churches in the eastern Mediterranean. Now he prepares to bring to Jerusalem a practical fruit of that work, one that he hopes will heal the most serious social-theological rift in the early church–the relationship between Jew and Gentile in the people of God.”[1]

What brings these groups together for Paul in Christ? Baptism. It unites us with Christ in his death and resurrection and with one another as Christ’s Body. We have been raised in the waters of baptism to live as a new people. But here’s the thing. We still sin, even after we are baptized. The good news is that the grace of God is sufficient for all sin. We are forgiven!  Then Paul challenges us, just as we are getting comfortable at the thought of all that grace. “What then are we to say?” he asks. “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? By no means!”

Our being united with Christ and one another in baptism means that we have the power of Christ to rise above the sins that bring us down and trip us up. He tells the Galatians, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” We can’t put on Christ until we take off the old ways of thinking and being—such as holding onto anger and unforgiveness; being cynical or selfish—none of these attitudes fit the new spiritual outfit. This transformation in Christ happens when we live and grow in Christian community, worshiping and serving God and neighbor together.

 Our Elders and Trustees came for a picnic at the manse on Tuesday night. The Deacons will be coming for their picnic in July. Looking around the group, I sensed a peace and comfort with one another that wasn’t as noticeable when I came. Relationships have been strengthened. I believe that we are in the midst of a spiritual transformation. The proof is our increasing love for one another. And we have become a people of hope.  

You know I am going to go back to the penguin—right?

Juan only lived with Tom and the children at the school for 8 short months. A colleague was caring for Juan while Tom was away when the penguin died and was buried in a garden. Tom was inconsolable, especially because he hadn’t been with him when he passed. No more would there be the “telltale patter of feet excitedly running up and down, accompanied by the occasional squawk.” These sounds had become an integral part of his school life, “just as the bells that marked the changing events of the day. Now there would be just a dreadful silence… No more would the boys knock at his door to collect fish; no more the laughter and delight that he brought to so many.”

But it had been a privilege to know and love such a remarkable bird. He knew that he would never be the same. However, no one experienced a more radical transformation through knowing Juan than a student named Diego from Bolivia, who didn’t seem to be good at anything and was often ridiculed. He was homesick, immature, limited in his English, and academically behind. He was small and uncoordinated when it came to rugby. But he loved Juan Salvado and visited him every day.

A few months after Juan came to live with Tom, he arranged for the penguin to go for his first swim in the school pool. He had molted and had new feathers with the natural oils for water protection. Diego and Tom watched the bird in awe as he navigated the pool with speed, skill, and acrobatics.

Diego asked if he could swim with the penguin. He had never seen the boy so animated.  “His eyes were sparkling and he seemed to be truly alive for the first time since (he) had known him.” Tom was worried that Diego might not be able to swim. He was surprised to learn that not only could Diego swim, but he swam magnificently, chasing after the bird, who swam circles around him.  

Over the next few weeks, Diego earned the respect of his peers. His academic skills improved. He appeared to grow three inches. Even his clothes fit him better. And,“when at last the swimming gala was held, the results were as everyone anticipated: he won every race for which he was eligible to enter and broke every (school) record that he was allowed to contest.”

“A child had gone down to the water to swim with a penguin, and shortly afterward, a young man had emerged. There had been a rebirth, a new beginning. The ugly duckling had become a swan; the caterpillar had metamorphosed into a butterfly; the fish had found its way back to the water.

 “Diego had done years of growing up in just a few short minutes, and Juan Salvado, the penguin extraordinaire, had had something to do with it.”

Let us pray.

Holy One, how can we thank you enough for your abundant grace for sinners? How can we thank you enough for your love, shown in the sacrifice of your Son? Help us, dear Lord, to grow up in the faith, live into our baptisms, and never take your grace for granted. Strengthen us to put away our old ways of thinking and being. Help us to be good listeners. Stir us to love one another as you love us and to care for the earth so that all creatures may thrive on land, in the sea, and in the air. And thank you for the animals that you have created, such as the remarkable Magellan penguin named Juan Salvado, the single survivor of an oil spill, who brought delight and transformation to the humans he met. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

[1] Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, 3.

The Harvest Is Plentiful

Meditation on Matthew 9:35–10:8

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

June 14, 2026

A 4-year-old boy in a wheelchair handed me a thank you note last Sunday. His nana had written the words, “Thank you” and “Love, Grayson.” The boy had provided a rainbow of colors with orange, green, purple, and yellow magic markers.

I had visited him at his nana’s a few days after his surgery. It isn’t often that a child in our congregation has surgery, and I felt it was important for me to be there afterward to encourage him. To be the peace of Christ and let him know that his church is praying for him.

I couldn’t go empty handed, so I brought the boy I have known most of his life a bag of small gifts: matchbox firetrucks, dinosaur squirt gun, and some easy games to keep him busy while he wasn’t permitted to put any weight on his leg, even to stand.

During my visit, when there were pauses in conversation, I remembered when I baptized him and his cousin, Diego, Jr. together on September 18, 2022. It was a memorable day for many reasons. That day, both of Debbie’s parents—Karl and Ethel Kraft—with the help of two aides, were able to be in worship, though their health was fragile. They were able to witness their great grandchildren’s baptisms and pray for them. When I held Grayson afterward and smiled down at him, he smiled back at me. It would be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

After my visit to Grayson, he told his nana that Pastor Karen really loves him. She assured him that Pastor Karen loves everyone. Which is true. “No, she really loves me,” he insisted.

I laughed when Debbie told me what he said. And nodded, “Yes, I really do.”

Jesus calls his 12 disciples to labor in God’s harvest in the 9th chapter of Matthew. His calling is stirred by his concern when he goes about the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. He sees the crowds and has “compassion” for them because they are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” “This fulfills the prophecy of Ezekiel 34, when the prophet claims that God will be the people’s shepherd. God will seek the lost, bind up the injured, and feed them with justice. (Ezek. 34:16) It also fulfills the claim that Jesus will be a ruler who shepherds Israel (Matthew 2:6) and implies the ever-present criticism, found throughout Matthew, of the religious leaders who have failed the sheep.”[1]

Jesus turns to his disciples, who have, up to now, watched and listened as he has done all the labor. And he says, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” That’s his call to them to pray and go and care for the crowds. They are the laborers the Lord of the harvest is calling! Go with compassion to do what they have seen and experienced with him. And before they can protest that they couldn’t possibly do what he is asking them to do, he gives them HIS authority, “over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”

He calls all 12, even Judas Iscariot, the one who will betray him. For all are called, though not everyone will respond and obey. It’s a matter of the heart, isn’t it? Some people just don’t care enough.

 These 12 men are no longer merely “disciples,” who sit at the master’s feet, walk, eat, worship, and pray with him, watch and listen to him work. They are now—did you catch this new word that Matthew uses for them? “Apostles.” This is the Greek word apostolos, which means, “one being sent.” But they won’t just be his messengers. Apostolos has a deeper meaning. They have been equipped and commissioned to be his representatives, his ambassadors, as the apostle Paul explains in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 14, if you want to follow along,

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So, Jesus sends them out and tells them they have everything they need, without taking anything with them. No money, extra clothes, or a spare pair of sandals for their feet. Don’t even bother with a staff or bag! This is affirming his Sermon on the Mount earlier in Matthew, when he tells them in chapter 6, beginning at verse 25, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?”

Who will provide for them as they labor? The Lord will provide through strangers they will meet on their journey, who will open their homes to them and feed them in exchange for hearing about the love of God and the Kingdom drawing near.

At the same time, Christ warns them to expect persecution and struggle. There will be danger and betrayal. He is sending them out “like sheep in the midst of wolves.” But they will be strengthened to navigate dangers and difficulties and avoid temptation to sin. They have been equipped to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

You might think it is strange that Jesus sends them out only to the lost sheep of Israel here in chapter 9. But there will come a time when the risen Lord sends them out as apostles to every nation at the end of chapter 28, baptizing, healing, and making more disciples to labor for the Harvest, just as they have done.

Sometimes I think we make the call to labor in the Harvest more difficult and complicated than it has to be. We don’t think we know enough about our faith or the Bible to labor for the Harvest. We don’t always have the confidence we need, when, in reality, our call starts at home in our families and with our neighbors and right here in our church family. Our call is to be faithful this day to be a witness to the people whom the Lord places in our lives. The call is for one day at a time, one person at a time.

Our labor here is to Grayson, Scarlett, Jack, Gemma, Guiliana, and Grace. To Roman and Bronx. To Brynn and Gracie. To Natalie, Craig, and Aiden. To Kiera and Joanna. Danielle and Melanie. To Gie and Ishae, Sara and Alyssa, Logan and Dylan, Ryan and Daniel, Mary and Layla. To all the children, youth and young adults who are with us now. And to those we haven’t yet met, whom the Lord has planned for our future ministry.

Our labor involves taking the time to get to know them, to greet and encourage them in their hopes and dreams. To say, “I believe in you! You can do this!” And to be the peaceful presence of Christ to them and their families when they are in need. What a wonderful work it is—caring for the children, ministering to them with compassion, making sure that they know that they are not sheep without a shepherd, preparing them to be Christ’s ambassadors wherever they may go, including their time away for university, college, or vocational school, for civilian jobs or serving in the military.

But we must also equip them to withstand persecution and struggle. Life in Christ isn’t always easy. We need to model perseverance and to expect danger and betrayal. For they will be “like sheep in the midst of wolves.” Most people they will encounter nowadays are not interested in church, Jesus, the Bible, or any of the things of God. We have to trust the Lord, who has chosen them for God’s important work, to strengthen and guide them by the Spirit to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

The important thing to remember in this work of nurturing our children, youth, and young adults is that we are not alone. We are in this together, just like the first disciples who became his first apostles. He never sent them out alone.

To our new graduates, Dylan, Ryan, and Alyssa, I say, “Your church is always with you, wherever you go. We will hold you in our hearts and prayers and we will be here for you, when you need us.”

 To our church family, I say, “You have what you need to do the labor the Lord has planned, as God’s will is revealed. We have Christ’s authority and the power of love and prayer. For we are urged, as we labor for Him, to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers, as he did with his first disciples, thinking about you and me, who were not even born yet!

Listen! The Lord is speaking to us now when he says, “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

Let us pray.

Lord of the Harvest, thank you for caring for us and for your call on our lives. Thank you for your work of equipping us to do the labor of love for the sake of your Kingdom. Please continue to do that work of spiritual transformation in us so that we may have the confidence we need to equip others, including the children, youth, and young adults in our flock. Bless all who serve in our ministry to children and youth. Thank you that we are not sheep without a shepherd and that you will always be glad to use us for your labor, wherever we may go. Watch over our new graduates, dear Lord, as they embark on a new chapter of their lives. Help them to hold onto their faith, even if they are the only one in the room to be faithful. Strengthen them by your Spirit to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, and to persevere through any dangers, difficulties, or betrayals. May they and our flock hear your Son speaking into their lives when Jesus says, “The Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Amen.

[1] Sonia E. Waters, Connections, Year A, Vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2020), 81.

The Power of Music

Meditation on Acts 16:16-34

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Music Ministry Appreciation Sunday

June 7, 2026

Art by Stushie, used with permission

Who here likes to sing and make music for the Lord?  Music has always been important to me—all my life. And I cannot imagine worship without singing and instrumental music! It just wouldn’t be the same.

Today, as we give thanks for our Music Ministry and show our appreciation to all who labor in this ministry for the Lord and God’s people, it is fitting to consider the importance of music for our worship and our lives of faith. The psalmist, in 96:1, proclaims that singing is for all people and Creation. “O sing to the Lord a new song!” he says. “Sing to the Lord, all the earth!” He cries out in 104:33, “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.”

Ephesians 5:18-19 lifts the singing of psalms and hymns as a means of being filled with the Spirit and a lifestyle change for new believers. “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.” Instruction on living in Christian community is found also in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.”

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus models the power of singing to strengthen and heal in difficult times when he leads his disciples in a hymn at the close of the Last Supper, just before going to the Mount of Olives where he will be betrayed.

Looking back at Church history, though, we discover that by the “late Middle Ages the biblical call to song had become muted. The worshiping congregation did very little singing – only a few responses… With the Reformation, the Church’s attitudes toward singing began to change. Congregational participation increased dramatically.

“Today Martin Luther is probably the best remembered Reformer as a writer of hymn texts and tunes… A Mighty Fortress is one of the best loved among Christians. Luther believed in the importance and power of song in the church. He taught that the praises of the faithful would drive away the devil. He also was convinced that hymns were a great device for teaching doctrine. Lutheran hymnody produced hymns that were at the same time devotional and doctrinal. Think of Ah, Holy Jesus, How Have You Offended or Jesus Priceless Treasure.”

Martin Luther

Zwingli was “probably the best musician among the major Reformers.” But he “believed that music was too powerful and too emotional to be used in Christian worship…. He argued that music would too easily move people away from focusing on the Word and its meaning for them. As a result, in Zurich singing was eliminated from worship in Zwingli’s day. No musical instruments, no choirs and no congregational singing were permitted….”

After Zwingli died on the battlefield in 1531, Heinrich Bullinger succeeded him as minister. He wasn’t set against singing in worship, although he wasn’t in favor of embracing any new musical fads. In 1561, Bullinger wrote the Second Helvetic Confession—Helvetic being Latin for “Swiss,” which is included in our Book of Confessions. In the confession, he writes, “Likewise moderation is to be exercised where singing is used in a meeting for worship. That song which they call the Gregorian Chant has many foolish things in it; hence it is rightly rejected by many of our churches. If there are churches which have a true and proper sermon but no singing, they ought not to be condemned. For all churches do not have the advantage of singing. And it is well known from testimonies of antiquity that the custom of singing is very old in the Eastern Churches whereas it was late when it was at length accepted in the West.”[1]

Zwingli

 Calvin’s views were different from Luther and Zwingli. Although he didn’t believe any musical instruments belonged in worship, he saw congregational singing as a crucial part of the praise of God and of Christian fellowship and gave it a central place in the Genevan service. He saw the songs of the church as truly pleasant and delightful fruits of the Spirit. But like Zwingli, “he feared an excess of emotion in the music of the church (would be) a distraction from the Word. He wanted only unison singing by the congregation. He did not allow choirs, seeing them as too theatrical and as usurping the praises that all God’s people together should be offering to God.” His search for the spiritual led him to the Psalms.[2] Calvin encouraged poets and composers of his time to use their talents to prepare the Psalms for the church’s worship.

John Calvin

Our passage in Acts 16 reveals another power of music—to set us free from what binds us. Paul and Silas are on a missionary journey in Europe. They are in Philippi, where they had met Lydia, a wealthy dealer of purple, gathered with her household and other women for prayer on a riverbank. Her heart is opened to believe when Paul preaches, and she and her household are baptized. She prevails upon Paul and Silas to come and stay in her home.

In the passage that immediately follows the story of Lydia, the two missionaries are going to another place of prayer when they meet a slave girl with a spirit of divination. She follows them and annoys them for many days, until Paul, exasperated, casts the demon out of her. When she is set free from the demon, her owners’ hope of making money from her fortune telling is gone. So they drag Paul and Silas before the authorities and accuse them, not of being followers of Jesus, but of being Jewish and disturbing their city, “advocating for customs that are not lawful” for them, “being Romans, to adopt and observe.” Paul and Silas are stripped, flogged, and thrown in prison, in an “innermost cell” (meaning, no windows). Their feet are fastened in stocks.

What do Paul and Silas do in this desperate situation? They pray and sing hymns to God—as the other prisoners and jailor listen. Around midnight, while they are singing and praying, a violent earthquake opens all the doors and breaks the prisoners’ chains. With the almost certainty of losing all the prisoners, the jailor moves to take his own life. But Paul and Silas don’t leave. Paul calls out to the jailor and stops him from harming himself. The man falls down before them, and, trembling, asks, “What must I do to be saved?”

“Believe,” Paul says, “in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Well, the jailor believes, and brings Paul and Silas home with him, where Paul shares more about Jesus, their wounds are washed, the jailor and his household are baptized, and they all eat together.

Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns to God made all of this happen.

When we were forced to leave our sanctuary and worship in the parish hall for 7 weeks, beginning Maundy Thursday, we were all sad and anxious. We worried about what repairs would be needed, who would do them, and how to fund the project. We worried whether we were doing the right thing, leading our flock out of our beloved place of worship for God knows how long it would take while the repairs were done.

None of us expected the joy and intimacy of our worship in the parish hall. We were so close to one another! I was only a couple of feet from Pablo and the Sanctuary Choir. We could talk back and forth. And we did! The Handbell ringers were right on our level—so near to us that we could hear every note and see every expression on their faces. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, it was if we were being swept up by the music, readings, and prayers! We were truly immersed in the story of our Savior’s last days. And on Easter, it seemed as if an angelic choir had joined our singing.

I think the spiritual blessings that we experienced were because of the healing, strengthening, joy and faith producing power of music. The power to set us free from whatever binds us—including sadness, worry, and anxiety—and draw us nearer to the Lord.

I pray that we will continue to experience the power of music, now that we are back in our worship home. As you leave this space today, may you remember that your songs to the Lord don’t have to end when you step outside the church walls. May you remember that you have been set free in Jesus Christ. May you be filled with the Spirit, “as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.” May you sing to the Lord as long as you live! Sing praise to your God while you have being!

Let us pray.

Loving and Gracious God, thank you for your gift of music and especially the gift of our singing. Thank you for the hymns and songs that have been composed and sung to your glory that we and other congregations today still enjoy in our worship. May you truly be glorified in our songs of praise. May we be healed, strengthened and filled with your joy. Thank you for setting us free in Christ from whatever binds us—all our fears and sadness, all our worries and anxiety. May we be stirred to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to each other, making melody to you in our hearts. And may we sing to you as long as we live, sing praise to you while we have being. In your Son’s name we pray. Amen.

[1] Heinrich Bullinger, The Second Helvetic Confession, in the Book of Confessions: Part 1 of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, USA.

[2] Robert W. Godfrey, “Reforming the Church’s Singing,” Western Seminary California, Feb. 5, 1990, at https://www.wscal.edu/resources/article/reforming-the-churchs-singing/

I Am with You Always

Meditation on Matthew 28:16–20

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2026

Any basketball fans here? Jim and I were watching the San Antonio Spurs play Oklahoma City Thunder last Sunday night. It was game 4 in the Western Conference Finals. He wanted the Spurs to win, but he would have been OK if Oklahoma City won, because they are both young, excellent teams with fabulous players.

I was rooting for the Spurs. Turns out, I wasn’t the only religious woman rooting for them. The cameras zoomed in on four Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco with Spurs jerseys pulled over their habits. They chanted from their seats, “Go, Spurs, go! Go Spurs, go!” Then we saw a video clip of the four sisters from the San Antonio convent courtside before the game, blessing Luke Kornet, who plays center for the Spurs.

He towered over the nuns, even as he leaned down so that they could touch his head and shoulder for the prayer. The video of Kornet’s blessing went viral. The sisters have earned the affectionate nickname of “The Spurs Nuns.”

Sister Celine Lomeli said, in an interview with Good Morning America this week, “It’s nice to know that we can pray for them and they can appreciate us. And that in itself is a blessing to us.” Sister Bernadette Mota added, “I wouldn’t say we’re a lucky charm, but we were happy to bring a lot of joy and faith to the game that night.”

The Spurs beat Thunder on Sunday night 103-82 to even the series at 2-2.

A CBS Evening News journalist (Tony Dokoupil) told Sister Bernadette and Sister Sydney Moss, “People think that living a religious life is a boring life, but it seems like you are disproving that.”

“Religious life is meant to be, especially for us, a life of joy and happiness,” Bernadette says.

“The support that we have for each other, the prayers,” adds Sydney, makes for a “beautiful life.”

Bernadette says they follow sports because it helps them in their mission to the next generation. “When we talk sports with kids,” says Sister Bernadette, “it opens up doors so that we can do a lot more with them… We need to know what they like. Then we can converse with them and introduce them to who we like: Jesus.”

The nuns have captured the attention of more than just their community in San Antonio’s West Side. In addition to Good Morning America, they have been interviewed by Texas Public Radio, EWTN News Nightly, and Sojourners magazine. Sports Illustrated even featured a story about them!

Their love affair with the Spurs “started about 20 years ago,” Sister Bernadette tells Sojourners’ journalist Jenna Burnett on May 15. “We had a couple elder sisters at our provincial house, our retirement house for our sisters who need assisted living. Some of them were born and raised in San Antonio, and anytime there was a game on they would watch it. And they would get very irritated when the game had to be turned off because it was bedtime. These were die-hard Spurs fans, and some of them formed a connection with (former Spurs coach) Gregg Popovich and his wife, who came and visited the convent a couple of times to show their appreciation.” Although the old die-hards have passed away, a new generation of nuns have picked up the baton.

The sisters hadn’t gone to any of San Antonio’s games this year before Sunday night because they couldn’t afford the tickets. Bernadette told Jenna that if they were given tickets, they would go and pray for the team.

 “Playing sports is a way of glorifying God with the gifts that he has given you,” she says. “But as we’re playing, just know that everything you do is a gift from him. And he wants you to find pleasure in the good things that are given to us … When we pray for the Spurs, we’re praying for them to play to the best of their ability, that nobody gets injured, that they have good sportsmanship. We pray for the other team too, but we really want our team to win. [Laughs] We’re not praying for the other team to do bad, just that we do better.”

After the Sojourners’ interview, the Spurs gave the sisters four tickets to Sunday night’s game. I can still see the jersey-clad sisters chanting, “Go, Spurs, go! Go Spurs, go!”

Today, as we baptize Antonella Ruth, it is fitting to study the passage in Matthew called “The Great Commission.” The Great Commission teaches us that baptism is a calling to ministry. But it is good for us to remember that our commission, like the first disciples’, depends on Jesus’ authority and not our own. (Mark Allan Powell, p. 320)

Did you notice that, on the mountain before the commissioning, some of them believed, while others doubted? Jesus commissioned all of them, anyway! The disciples are still people of “little faith” as they were in 6:30, when he told them not to worry; as they were in 8:26, when he calmed the storm; as they were in 14:31, when Peter tried and failed to walk on the water; as they were in 16:8, even after Jesus fed the multitude with a little bread and a couple of fish; and in 17:20, when he told them all they needed was a mustard-seed size of faith to move a mountain. Like us, “they are (and will continue to be) a community in which worship and doubt coexist.”

Other spiritual lessons may be learned from the Great Commission. First, becoming a disciple means being trained in obedience to fulfill the will of the Father and live according to the teachings of Christ. Where do we find these teachings in Matthew? Start with the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in chapter 5. Disciples will be “pure in heart,” “merciful,” and “peacemakers.” “They will be conspicuous in the good works, bringing flavor and light to a world that for some is dull and dark (5:13-16). They will be slow to anger (5:21-25) and reluctant to judge (7:1-5). They will aspire to be faithful in marriage. They will forgive their friends and love their enemies. They will be active in prayer and generous in giving. They will not be anxious (or they will try not to be anxious) (6:25-34) or greedy (6:19-24) but will be people who actively seek the good of others, striving always to treat others as they wish to be treated (7:12). All this (and so much more) is implied by the Great Commission.” (Mark Allan Powell, p. 322)

Second, living as a disciple is an active, intentional life, seeking to go and make Christ’s disciples, being led by the Spirit. There’s nothing passive about it. The first word of the Great Commission is “Go!” For Matthew, making disciples means going out, leaving the place of comfort where they live and were nurtured in faith and obedience to God’s Word. The Great Commission means taking the good news and teachings of Christ to the people, right where they are.

And third, the Great Commission carries with it a promise that is a principal theme of Matthew’s Gospel: the enduring and abiding presence of God in the world. We are not alone! God has been present with the people through the person of Jesus according to the prophesy of 1:23, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, ‘God is with us.’” Jesus remains present in the world through the life and mission of his followers—people who baptize, teach, and make disciples. And Jesus will be with US always—even to the end of the age.

After the four Spurs Nuns went to Sunday night’s game and the blessing went viral, the team gave the Silesian Sisters double the number of tickets for Thursday night’s game. Eight tickets still wouldn’t be enough for all who wanted to go, Bernadette said. She told Good Morning America, “We do not arm wrestle, but we might have to put some names in a little bucket and pull out the names of those who get to go to the game.”

They did get to the game in San Antonio Thursday night, but they didn’t end up going to Game 7 last night—the game that would decide who would advance to face the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. The game was in Oklahoma, and it wasn’t just the expense that held them back. For they were given tickets and an airline had offered to fly them there for free. They didn’t go because it wasn’t part of their ministry calling. Instead, they hosted a community watch party for the game for San Antonio’s West Side.

When I heard that they wouldn’t be going, I marveled at how the young Sister Bernadette, accustomed to the quiet, simple life of the convent, was brave enough to testify to her faith with the media in order to bring more souls to love and follow Christ. She was ready to “GO” and make disciples, as Christ has commissioned her to do.

I ask you, my friends, what the Great Commission means for you and your life? Since your baptism, where have you been led by the Spirit to GO and make disciples? When have you responded in faith? When have your fears and doubts gotten in the way?  What will you do differently today and this week?

Last night, I stayed up late to watch the game with Jim. And I found myself looking for the nuns, even though I knew they wouldn’t be there. They would be busy with God’s work, fulfilling the Great Commission by hosting a watch party in their community—so more hearts and lives may be touched by Jesus.

I looked for them in their team jerseys pulled over their habits, chanting from their seats,

“Go, Spurs, Go! Go, Spurs, Go!”

Let us pray.

Almighty God, thank you for sending your Son, who would model a righteous life and teach us what we need to know, before commissioning us to “Go” and make disciples. Thank you for those who have been faithful to that commission, willing to live intentionally, even sacrificially, to serve Christ, leaving a comfortable existence to reveal your loving, gracious presence to humanity. Thank you for the sisters who have a burden for the next generation in the West Side of San Antonio, a burden that have led them to become Spurs fans and host neighborhood watch parties. Help us to heed your Son’s Great Commission, whatever that means for each of our lives and for our church, and be obedient to Christ’s teachings. Remind us often of the promise of your abiding presence—that you are with us always, even to the end of the age. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.

Practical Resources for Churches

Everyone has a calling. Ours is helping you.

Consider the Birds

Pastor Karen shares thoughts on faith, scripture, and God's love and grace revealed through backyard wildlife.

palmsupco.wordpress.com/

F.O.R. Jesus

Fill up. Overflow. Run over.

Becoming HIS Tapestry

Christian Lifestyle Blogger

Whatever Happens,Rejoice.

The Joy of the Lord is our Strength

Stushie Art

Church bulletin covers and other art by artist Stushie. Unique crayon and digital worship art

The Daily Post

The Art and Craft of Blogging

WordPress.com Blog

News, Tips & Website Tutorials