Guard This Treasure, This Precious Thing

Meditation on 1 Timothy 1:1-14 (MSG)

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

World Communion Sunday: Oct. 5, 2025

Art by Stushie, used with permission

Earlier this week, families with young children received a letter from me. I told them that today, on World Communion Sunday, we would be celebrating Communion early in the service, immediately following a children’s story called, The Greatest Table by Michael Rosen.

I had never thought to do this before—to change the order of the service when we celebrate Communion. For I learned when I was studying to be a Presbyterian pastor that we share the word before we celebrate the sacrament. They are done side by side. This is the usual order of our worship services. However, Presbyterian worship has a great deal of flexibility, particularly when it comes to the order of the parts of the service.

And the problem with waiting to celebrate the sacrament until after we share the word is that the children are no longer in the sanctuary. They are in their Sunday School classes. They always miss the celebration of Communion, and would have, even today on World Communion Sunday, when the emphasis is on the wide welcome of the Lord’s Table, the unity of the Body of Christ, and our sharing in the meal with believers around the globe.

We have been celebrating World Communion Sunday since 1936 throughout the Presbyterian Church. The tradition was started in 1933 by Hugh Thomson Kerr who ministered in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Presbyterian Church. “Dr. Kerr first conceived the notion of World Communion Sunday during his year as moderator of the General Assembly (in 1930),” Dr. Kerr’s youngest son, the Rev. Dr. Donald Craig Kerr, pastor emeritus of the Roland Park Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, told the Presbyterian Outlook some years ago. Donald was sixteen in 1933. It was an “attempt to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity,” he said, in which everyone might receive both inspiration and information, and above all, to know how important the Church of Jesus Christ is, and how each congregation is interconnected one with another.”

World Communion caught on quickly with other denominations around the nation and then across the globe.

So, back to the question of or problem with us always celebrating Communion when the children are out of the room and in their Sunday School classes. When I met last summer with Lori Yastrub, our Faith Formation Ministries elder, and the two Sunday School teachers, Kathy Seymour, and her daughter, Jessica Carbonara, we talked about my desire to invite the children to participate with their families when we partake of the bread and cup.

They told me that some people, especially people who have been in the church for a long time, might question that practice of including young children. Traditionally, some congregations had the children wait until after they were confirmed in their faith, usually when they are teenagers. Maybe this is your experience here?

I thought more about this, and I prayed about it. And, finally, I asked Lori, Kathy, and Jessica, if I could send a letter explaining why the children will be invited, including what we believe as Presbyterians about Communion. At the same time, I assured the parents that if they wanted the children to refrain from eating the bread and drinking the juice, that would be completely up to them. If they felt that the children should be older, then that would be their choice. But I wanted the children to be present when we shared the bread and juice on this day, in the context of the Communion liturgy, just as I want the children to be present with us when we baptize and to participate through the filling of the font, the asking and answering of the questions of the children, and the presentation of the children’s Bible to the parents.

Well, Lori, Kathy, and Jessica thought the letter, story, and invitation to the children to fuller participation in their church’s worship and sacraments were all good things.

This is how I explained what we are doing for today, on World Communion Sunday, with our parents:

“Are they old enough?” you ask. “Isn’t that what they do after they are confirmed?” That might have been the church’s tradition to wait, but the understanding and practice of the sacraments in the PCUSA have changed. In short, we believe that Christ comes down to us as we are raised to him during the sacrament by the Spirit, as Reformer John Calvin taught. Why, then, would we refuse to serve Communion to all who come to the table joyfully and willingly, no matter their age, seeking to know Christ more and be strengthened to serve the Lord as Christ’s Body for the world?

The rest of my message is for all of you who are parents or grandparents or great grandparents, or you have a parent or grandparent who taught you the faith and love of Jesus.

In Paul’s letter to the young man he is discipling as an evangelist and church planter, the apostle tells Timothy, whom he loves as his own son, “to be bold and loving and sensible” with the gifts that God has given him for ministry and to guard the good treasure, the precious thing that is the faith that was passed down to him from his grandmother to his mother and to him.

Paul wasn’t the first person to teach Timothy the faith, just like the pastor or the Sunday School teachers are not the first people to introduce your children to the faith. You are! The first place where Timothy’s faith is learned is in his home. Now Timothy’s father was a “Greek” or a Gentile at the time, and not a Christian, but he allowed his son to be raised in the faith of his Jewish Christian mother and Jewish Christian grandmother.

This is the calling of every Christian parent and grandparent. And if your children have grown up, moved away, gotten married and now have their own children, then your first job is to pray for the faith of your children and grandchildren.

This is what Paul does when is no longer with Timothy; he makes a point to pray for the young missionary, not just daily, but “practically all the time.” And not because he has turned prayer into a work and thinks that the more he prays, the more effective his prayers will be. But because he loves Timothy, and he loves the Lord, and this is what he wants for the young man more than anything, to carry on sharing the gospel and building up the Church when Paul has gone home to be with the Lord.

I hope that you have grace for me, with my doing a few things in worship that may never have been done before, especially when they have to do with my welcoming the children to participate in the Sacraments more. When I was preparing to be a pastor, years ago, I never thought I would be doing this. I am as surprised as you are. But I think the Spirit is leading me.

I just have a feeling, when I am stirred to do such things as send a letter to the young families of our church about welcoming the children in our celebration of Communion, that something important is happening here.

My prayer and I hope this is your prayer, too, is that these children will be the leaders of our Church someday. I can imagine each of them, especially the more talkative ones who obviously have leadership gifts, becoming elders, deacons, trustees, and perhaps even ministers.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?

Dear friends, remember what Paul says to Timothy. Let us do the same. Be bold in using all the gifts for ministry that God has given you. And guard your own faith and love, rooted in Christ, as a treasure, a precious thing.

 Will you pray with me?

Loving God, thank you for the Sacrament of Communion, for your Son’s wide welcome to all people at his table, where we partake of the bread of life and the cup of salvation. Thank you for your Spirit that comes to us in Communion and that comfort, heals, unites, and equips us to take our faith out to love and serve as we leave this place and be Christ’s Body for the world. Thank you for this day when we celebrate our unity as believers around the globe. Lord, we lift up our church and ask for your help as we seek to nurture our next generations in the faith and love, rooted in Christ, a faith that, as the apostle Paul taught young Timothy, is a priceless treasure, a precious thing to be guarded. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Run for Your Life!

Meditation on 1 Timothy 6:6–19

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Sept. 28, 2025

Art by Stushie, used with permission

     I pulled out Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase, The Message, for the reading of Paul’s first letter to Timothy today.

     On this day when we celebrate Christ’s claiming little James Lawrence in the waters of Baptism, and the gifts of the Spirit granting us power to grow in faith and love one another more, I wanted a translation that would be accessible to everyone on their unique walk with God. Eugene really did have a way with words, a talent for making the Scriptures seem as though they were written in modern times and not thousands of years ago.

     Eugene, born in 1932, had studied Semitic languages in his master’s program at Johns Hopkins University. He had fallen in love with Hebrew and Greek while studying at New York Theological Seminary at 235 East 49th Street. When he came back to seminary to teach biblical languages, he couldn’t afford to live off his assistant professor salary, especially since he had met and married his wife, Jan, during his years in Baltimore. So, while he was teaching, he “added another job,” as he describes it in his memoir. The other job happened to be an associate pastor position in the Presbyterian Church in White Plains. He fully expected the position to be temporary. “I thought of it as something of an off-the cuff job,” he writes. “I did it for the money and only for the money, for I had no intention at the time of being a pastor.” He always assumed that he would be a professor.

     After being married for 3 years, becoming a father, and working as a pastor and teaching biblical languages, as well as trying to write his dissertation, he realized that he was called to be a pastor. He abandoned the dissertation writing and accepted a call to plant a new church in the town of Bel Air, MD, which was fast becoming a suburb of Baltimore. He would spend the next 29 years there, and while all his life up into that moment—including growing up with a devout mother who told him Bible stories in plain, everyday language—had prepared him for his future ministry, he had a lot to learn about being a pastor.

   Reading Paul’s letters to Timothy, we can hear from his tone both his confidence in the young man’s abilities and his concern for the challenges Timothy would face in Ephesus with Paul no longer there. He is concerned that the church has been visited by evangelists “introducing fantasy stories and fanciful family trees that digress into silliness,” as Eugene translates, “instead of pulling the people back into the center, deepening faith and obedience.” The whole point, Paul goes on in the beginning of this first letter to Timothy, is “simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God.”

     Paul likens his and Timothy’s work to a fight that must be battled with courage and prayer. Timothy must resist the culture that surrounds him, a culture that is, like today, filled with idols. Ephesus is a wealthy, sophisticated city on the coast of Ionia in what is now present-day Turkey. It was famous for the Temple of Artemis, completed around 550 BC. The city’s many monumental buildings include the Library of Celsus and a theatre that could hold 24,000 spectators.

    From all this wealth and a culture filled with much to tempt and distract, Paul says to Timothy, “Run! Run for your life from all this.” And, “pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to!”

    Earlier in this letter, Paul tells Timothy not to be naïve. Eugene translates, “There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self- absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God.”

    Timothy, who was nurtured in the faith by his Jewish mother, Eunice, and grandmother Lois, would eventually become the first bishop of Ephesus. His calling from the start will include equipping new leaders, especially those with gifts for preaching and teaching, who will take the good news of the Risen Christ throughout the city and beyond.

    As Paul reveals his intimate connection with Timothy, knowing so many of his personal characteristics, I feel more connected to both of these ancient men who loved the Lord.  Timothy struggles with self-confidence and needs the older man’s encouragement. Paul knows this and says in chapter 4, “Don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young” and not to worry about what critics will say. We can tell that Timothy is sensitive, caring, and loyal. He was there for Paul when Paul needed him. The older man writes in his second letter, “You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings—suffering alone with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra…Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ,” he goes on, “is in for a lot of trouble.” What’s more, Timothy may have had some physical challenges. The apostle alludes to the younger man’s health issues in chapter 5, advising Timothy to “Go ahead and drink a little wine…it’s good for your digestion, good medicine for what ails you.”

     It was my joy to baptize little James today and to feel the power of the Spirit in our midst. It was even more meaningful and emotional, perhaps, because it came in the same week that I mark the anniversary of my ordination, on Sept. 25, 2011, and the anniversary of my installation here in Smithtown in 2022. When pastors and elders laid hands on me and prayed during my service of ordination in Renville, Minnesota, 14 years ago, I had no idea how much I would come to love baptism! It’s my favorite thing in worship! And because I have always been a small church pastor, I have never had so many baptisms that I would do them all at once, in groups, on certain days in the church year. I choose to do them one at a time and keep them separated and special unless they are brothers—like Bronx and Roman—or cousins—like Grayson and Diego, Jr.—and the families want them baptized together.

     Like Timothy, I have had wonderful mentors along my life’s journey. And I still have a lot to learn about being a pastor. I continue to be inspired by my siblings in the faith—all of you.

     Like Eugene shares in his memoir, The Pastor, I didn’t grow up wanting to be a pastor. I never really thought about it until I was in my 40s. Eugene wanted to be a professor and I wanted to be a writer, as many of you well know. But I left journalism to go to seminary, assuming that I would return to it, someday. One thing led to another, and my mentors and the Spirit guided me to parish ministry. And here I am!

     I don’t think that I ever met Eugene in person, but I was living in Bel Air near the end of his parish ministry. He had planted a Presbyterian church there, but I wasn’t Presbyterian at the time. He went on to be a professor, after all, of spiritual theology at Regent College in British Columbia. He published 30 books, including his Bible translation, which he worked on throughout the 1990s, finishing in 2002. Eugene went home to be with the Lord in 2018.

     I hear echoes of Paul’s words to Timothy when Eugene ends his memoir with a letter to a young pastor. “Even though we have never met personally,” he writes, “because of my long friendship with your father, I feel we are part of the same family, which, of course, we are. But also companions in finding our way as pastors in this American culture that ‘knew not Joseph’ and doesn’t quite know what to make of us. That makes for lonely work. We need each other.”

     Eugene speaks of the messiness of ministry: “a lot of stumbling around, fumbling the ball, losing my way and then finding it again. It is amazing now that anything came of it…” The two things that preserved the “uniqueness of pastor” for Eugene were worship and family. “I knew in my gut,” he says, that the act of worship with the congregation every week was what kept me centered and that it needed to be guarded vigilantly—nothing could be permitted to dilute or distract from it. And I knew that family provided the only hope I had of staying grounded, faithful, personally relational, in the daily practice of sacrificial love.”

   Dear friends, we also need each other as we continue to embrace the faith in a counter-cultural kind of way. Next weekend, as we celebrate World Communion Sunday in the morning and rededicate ourselves and our 200-year-old sanctuary in the afternoon, we will need one another, even more. As Paul says, “There are difficult times ahead.” Our culture will continue to be materialistic, and religion for many people will be less important than it is today. And as Eugene told the young pastor, ministry is lonely work.

    Paul’s words long ago ring true for us today. “Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble.”

     But there’s one thing we can do, my sisters and brothers. Run, he says.

   “Pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy.

     Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to!

     “Run for your life!”

Let us pray.

Good Shepherd, thank you for the blessing of a baptism and the privilege of experiencing growth in Your Body. We lift up James and all the little ones in our church family and ask that you help us to nurture their faith. Stir us to remain centered on you and not distracted or pressured by the material culture in which we live as we seek to care for the next generations. Stir us to simply love, a love uncontaminated by self-interest, with a life open to God. Lord, the world is going to continue to change in ways we cannot anticipate. Only you, Lord, and your promises will stay the same. Strengthen us to pursue a righteous life—a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy. Stir us to run hard and fast and seize the eternal life. Stir us to run for our life. Amen.

Pray for Everyone

Meditation on 1 Timothy 2:1-7

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Sept. 21, 2025

“Jesus Boat” by  by Munir Alawi

How many of you have ever ridden in a sailboat? How many of you have rowed a boat? It’s a lot of work to row a boat, isn’t it? Which would you rather do? Sail or row? 

I started reading a book by Joan S. Gray this week called, Sailboat Church: Helping Your Church Rethink Its Mission and Practice. Some churches in the presbytery recommended it. I haven’t finished it, yet, but I already feel led to share some of what I read so far.

In the early days of Christianity, a boat was one of the symbols for the church. In Christ’s time, you could row or sail.  The boat symbol that early Christians used was never a rowboat, though. It was always a sailboat. This image was stirred by the second chapter of Acts. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, while the disciples were praying, came like a rush of a violent wind.[1]

“For these early Christians, church was a God-powered, God-led, God-resourced adventure,” Gray writes. “They found they were caught up in something much bigger than themselves. Day by day, hour by hour, they moved as the Holy Spirit led them. They depended on the Spirit to provide what was needed to do God’s work. They knew that God was really in charge of what was happening.”[2]

The difference between sailboat and rowboat churches might not be apparent on the surface, she says. It doesn’t depend upon the size of the church membership or building or bank accounts. It doesn’t depend on the denomination or location. The difference is mindset.

The thinking of the rowboat church is that “God has given us a basic agenda (for example, to make the world a better place, save souls, help the poor, spread”[3] the gospel, and work for peace and justice. These are all good things for the church to do, but the mentality is, “We can do this” or We can’t do this.”[4] The rowboat church “focuses on circumstances, such as the money that it has or can raise, the available volunteers, the charisma and skill of the leaders, and the demographics of the community.”[5] The rowboat church relies on themselves—their own wisdom, strength, and resources. “It’s all about how hard, long, and well people are willing to row.”[6]

 Another sign that a church has forgotten its sails and taken up rowing is the “frantic search for ways to fix perceived problems of both congregation and denominations” and find someone to blame if the “problems” aren’t easily solved. But this is all a form of “lightly disguised works righteousness,” she says. If we rely on ourselves alone for the direction of and success of our ministries, then we have forgotten that we belong to God and “God is the only one who saves.”[7]

 Rowboat churches also tend to have “a mindset of scarcity,” always worrying that there won’t be enough resources (material or human). “If we believe that God has left us alone to do the work of the church by ourselves, we will row,” she says.” Rowing flows from the belief that the church is “essentially a human … institution.”[8]

The question for those desiring to sail rather than row is do we really believe when Ephesians 3:21 assures us, that “through the power at work within us we can do abundantly far more than we could ever ask or imagine?” Do we believe like Mary when the Angel Gabriel responds to her questions, “With God nothing is impossible?”[9]

Let’s hear more about the characteristics of the sailboat church. “Sailors put up and shift the sails and partner with the wind to move the boat.”[10] What believers do in this divine partnership is important. What God does in this partnership is “essential,” such as when Jesus says in John 15:5, “I am the vine and you are the branches… Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Sailboat churches also make nurturing relationships with Jesus Christ the highest priority. They are guided by Scripture, illumined by the Spirit. And they live to sail.

 This is the part that really touches my heart—the living to sail. I had a great uncle who had a houseboat. When we went to visit him, it was always tied up in the marina. We hardly ever went anywhere in that boat. We just sat and rocked. Gray says that marinas around the world are full of sailboats that seldom leave the dock. Just as many churches have beautiful buildings and programs, but they seldom take the church outside the church’s walls and live out what they believe. They forget that “they exist to sail with the winds of the Spirit on the course that God has set out for them in the world.” Each one of us, Gray says, is called by God “into the sailing life.” [11]

There’s at least one other characteristic that divides sailors from rowers. Sailboat churches live by prayer,[12] something Gray emphasizes throughout the book, which ends with a guide to 40 days of prayer for congregations seeking spiritual transformation.

This is a prayer that requires not only speaking but listening for God’s voice. And sometimes it takes a while to hear from God.

Today, I am seeing both you and my IPAD clearly as I share this message. This is happening because a local optician and I have persevered, trying three different sets of glasses over the last 6 months or so that might help me when I am leading worship and for meetings and night driving. I also have prescription sunglasses for daytime driving and prescription reading glasses for using the computer. My vision struggles came about after my cataract surgeries a year ago last summer, when I was left with double vision and the sensation of walking around in a fog.

God has been faithful to respond to my prayers with an answer that was not what we were expecting. I wasn’t expecting that three different pairs of prescription glasses would help me in my vision challenges and the work that I need to do in ministry. I expected that one pair of glasses would be sufficient. And I wasn’t expecting to meet some of the nicest, most caring medical professionals on this journey to wholeness.

    Providentially, Paul also speaks at length about congregational prayer in his letter to young Timothy in our lectionary epistle this week. Friends, we have stumbled upon the longest discussion about prayer in the New Testament!

    Paul emphasizes the congregation’s practice of prayers for everyone. No one is to be excluded from the church’s prayers. In an echo of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus tells his followers to pray for their enemies, he singles out the need for prayer “for kings and all who are in high positions” so that the church may live a “quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” This is long before Christianity became the religion of empire in the 4th century. In Paul’s time, the church is a small, often persecuted minority, and Paul himself is beaten and jailed for his church planting efforts. The congregation is to pray specifically for people to “come to the knowledge of the truth.”

 The apostle expresses the “truth” to Timothy in this way. First, there is one God. This comes from the OT Shema in Deut. 6:4. This One God has a single desire to save everyone and everything. Second, there is one mediator between God and humankind. This dangerous belief rejects “the king’s role as the sole medium of the gods.”[13] Third, Paul affirms Christ’s humanity. God becoming one of us reveals God’s desire to save every one of us. Fourth, Christ gave himself as a “ransom for all.” This would have been meaningful to the people of Ephesus, which had a huge slave population at the time. His mention of payment of a ransom would “evoke images of a ransom price paid to set a slave free….(In effect), Jesus (has) exchanged his life as one human on behalf of every other human.”[14]

   The passage ends with Paul declaring that he is a herald, apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles, something that he never says quite this way in any other place in the New Testament. It has taken years of prayerful discernment, but Paul has found his calling and it’s not—or no longer—a ministry to people of the religion of his childhood.

   As we draw closer to celebrating our long ministry in Smithtown and long history in this centuries’ old building, I believe God is calling us to a season of grateful prayer and discernment.

May we remember, as Paul taught Timothy, to pray for everyone, especially those in high positions of authority. May we come to know Christ more and be transformed. May we let go of fears for scarcity and set sail by the winds of the Spirit for a new, abundant life. May we be granted strength and peace to seek greater involvement in our community and carry Christ’s saving love beyond these 200-year-old walls. May we be stirred to believe that we can do abundantly far more than we could ever ask or imagine with the power of God that lives within us. And with God, nothing is impossible!

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your Son’s saving work for us on the cross, how he willingly served as a ransom payment for all sin, setting all the captives free. Thank you that we belong to you. Thank you for your Spirit’s transforming, guiding presence in our church for hundreds of years and for the faithfulness of the generations who worshiped and served here before us. Stir us to pray, dear Lord, for everyone, including those in high positions. And through our prayers and loving witness in our community, may others come to know Christ and enter the sailing life with us, never being stuck moored to the dock. May we all be stirred to believe that we can do abundantly far more than we could ever ask or imagine with the power of God that lives within us. And with God, nothing is impossible! Amen.

      [1] Joan S. Gray, Sailboat Church, Helping Your Church Rethink Its Mission and Practice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2014), 1.

      [2] Joan S. Gray, Sailboat Church, Helping Your Church Rethink Its Mission and Practice, 1.

      [3] Joan S. Gray, 2.

      [4] Joan S. Gray, 2.

      [5] Joan S. Gray, 2.

     [6] Joan S. Gray, 2.

     [7] Joan S. Gray, 4.

     [8] Joan S. Gray, 5.

     [9] Joan S. Gray, 6.

     [10] Joan S. Gray, 8.

     [11] Joan S. Gray, 13.

     [12] Joan S. Gray, 10.

     [13] Robert Wall, Connections: A Lectionary for Preaching and Worship,Year C, Vol. 3 (Louisville, Westminster John Knox, 2019),329.

     [14] Robert Wall, Connections:Year C, Vol. 3,329.

Lost and Found

Meditation on Luke 15:1-10

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Sept. 14, 2025

Art by Stushie, used with permission

Our young disciples are back in worship! Isn’t it fabulous??

Someone texted me yesterday, “Rally Day. All your special young disciples will return. I’m sure you are excited, and we will have more stories!”

Rally Day means not only the return of Sunday School and our choirs singing and ringing, but also the return of a weekly children’s message or “Time with Young Disciples,” as we call it here. I do have to say that we had quite a few children’s messages for at least two of our children, Scarlett and Grayson, this past summer. That was an extraordinary blessing.

I realize that not every pastor is as excited as I am about children’s messages. One Orlando pastor says he can’t find anything about children’s messages in the Bible; it must be wrong to do them. “It is just a tradition that has no real standing from God’s Word,” he writes. “It’s time to let it go.”[1] Another pastor, who sees benefit in children’s messages, is less confident of his ability to share them. He starts his article, “Please pray for me: I’m going to be preaching three Sundays in three churches the next three months. Intimidated as I am to take to any pulpit, what really scares me is the possibility that one or more of these churches might also request a children’s sermon.”[2]

The children’s sermon as a genre has been around for more than 100 years. It was more common in the beginning when the children were separated from the adults. Ministers in the 19th century published volumes of sermons preached for children’s-only worship services, such as one of the first American missionaries to India, Samuel Nott, Jr., in 1828.[3] The idea was that if you could win the hearts and minds of the children, then they would share their faith with their parents.

Christian education has a long history. In the First Century, education was evangelism through the sharing of personal testimonies. New believers memorized statements of beliefs or creeds when they were baptized. The Roman Church in the Middle Ages, though services and prayers were in Latin and not understood by the common people, used stories, objects, figurines, drama, and artwork, such as stained-glass windows, to teach the faith. Martin Luther in the 16th century, like other reformers, believed Scripture and Christian education should be accessible to all people. His Small Catechism of 1529 was for parents teaching their children at home and for adults to learn the basics of the faith.

At the turn of the 20th century, new understandings of child development led educators to conclude that the catechism and rote memorization alone could not meet the needs of children for religious instruction. John Dewey said in 1897 that the “child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education,”[4] and that education “is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”[5] Relationships are as important as the concepts being taught.

Sunday School had begun as an outreach in England to needy children in the 18th century. It included religious instruction and basic education in literacy and math. Our Female Charitable Society on Oct. 5, 1817, started such a school in the church for needy children in our community with 3 teachers and 38 students, adding four more teachers the following February.

A brief children’s worship service was begun at 10 o’clock in 1898 in our Chapel, which is now the children’s library. After worship, they would form into groups and meet with their teachers in various places in the building, with older kids in the Chapel and younger ones in the pew boxes and balcony until worship began at 11 a.m. In 1950, when the Parish Hall was built, it provided space for children’s Sunday School with moveable partitions. But it was noisy and crowded. In 1963, the Christian Education addition was finished and dedicated.

When the building opened, the community’s children poured through the doors. It was, as the old saying goes, a case of “Build it and they will come.” By the mid to late 1960s, our church claimed the highest Sunday School enrollment in Long Island Presbytery. I am proud of my church that embraced its responsibility to share its gifts and resources and nurture the hope and faith of children, youth, and their parents. The calling and our challenge to remain faithful as our society changes around us continues today.

 We are still learning how to do Christian education from our greatest example, Jesus Christ, the originator of children’s sermons and sermons about children. He scolded the disciples for shooing young mothers with their infants away when they came seeking his blessing. Our Savior held up the youngest children as examples for the rest of his followers, for the Kingdom of Heaven “belongs to such as these.”

When we interpret our gospel lesson in Luke today in light of our Rally Day theme of nurturing the faith community, it is easy to see that every person matters to the Lord. This is a God who cares, a God who perseveres to seek and save what is lost. The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 sheep in the wilderness to go after and save one who has gone astray. This reflects the welcome and inclusivity of God’s love and the lengths the Lord is willing to go—all the way to the cross and the giving of his life—to save us all!

Jesus is telling stories with spiritual lessons to a crowd that includes men, women, and children. These lessons, which come from the daily life in which Christ and his first audience lives, aren’t just for his 12 male followers. Men and women, boys and girls are listening and finding connections.

 Both genders and all ages are shepherds in Jesus’ day and in ancient times. Rachel (who would go on to marry Jacob) in Genesis and Jethro’s daughter Zipporah (who would marry Moses) in Exodus are shepherds caring for their father’s flocks. Every person in this agrarian society would understand the responsibility of a shepherd. The loss of just one would have great impact on not just a family, but the wider community. When the one who is lost is found, it is cause for celebration. The shepherd in Christ’s story calls all his friends and neighbors to say, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep… For there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Today, the woman sweeping her house, searching high and low for the lost coin, grabs my attention. Jesus is reaching out to the women in his audience. Sweeping or vacuuming is something I do almost every day. Every woman or girl in Christ’s audience has held a broom and swept a home, probably every day. Would it be a serious thing to lose one silver coin when the family had just 10? Of course it would! It might mean less food to eat. This would be a loss not just for one family but for the community. This is why the woman, when her diligent and persistent sweeping results in the discovery of the lost coin, calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost’… For there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Today, our congregation is a little different than it was in the 1960s. Our Christian Education building is no longer crowded with students, and we use only two classrooms and a few adult teachers and teen helpers for the program. We are hoping that next year, however, we will be able to divide the group into three classes. We will need a few more faithful teachers and helpers. God will provide!

I am sure that some of our older members may feel as if something has been lost when they look around the sanctuary and don’t see as many young families as there were in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. I don’t see it this way. I know of too many churches that no longer have any Sunday School students. They have given up on Sunday School. May we never allow that to happen here!  

I look forward to the lessons the Lord will lead me to share during the Time with Young Disciples. I look forward to talking with the children about their lives of faith, hearing their voices, and seeing their expressions when I share stories or ask questions they aren’t expecting.

The children, when they come to us, already have faith. They know the Lord, though they might not yet have the words to talk about their faith. Christ, our Lord, has made himself known to each of them. He has claimed them in their baptisms. I firmly believe that children have as much to teach us about faith as we have to teach them.  If you spend time with children in church, you will find that they understand what prayer is, without having to go into complicated explanations. If you ask them if they have any prayer concerns, they are anxious to share them with you.

The children, no matter how many are here, are precious to us and will continue to be a priority in my ministry. In some ways, I think Christian Education or Faith Formation, as we call it now, has improved because the program is more intimate. The teachers and helpers really get to know each of the children by name and personality. They receive more attention not only from those helping in Sunday School, but from the members of the church. We know when they are in church. We notice when they are not. We have truly become a church family.

 I invite you now to celebrate and give thanks with me today on Rally Day, as we recognize the hand of God and the move of the Spirit in our lives and in this place, and as we seek to be faithful and nurture all the generations. Like the shepherd and the woman in Jesus’s stories, I invite you to rejoice with me as we share the stories of our faith community, celebrating our 350th and 200th anniversaries this year, and all that our faithful and loving God has done and will do as we seek God through Word and prayer.

Let us remember that every person matters to the Lord and treat everyone as if they matter to us. Let us remember the shepherd who left 99 to find one and the woman who didn’t stop sweeping until the 10th coin was restored and reach out to the children and youth when they are here and when they are not.  

And let us be diligent in our prayers for their families.

Dear friends, rejoice with me as we consider all that was lost and found.

Let us pray.

Good Shepherd, thank you for your love for us, a love that would lead you to go after the one lost sheep, or sweep away the dust of our lives until you have restored the one lost coin. Thank you for your suffering work on the cross and the promise of salvation that remains the same, though the world around us is ever changing. Thank you for the children and young families and the volunteers who are willing to serve them in Sunday School. Bless them, Lord, and help us, to grow all the generations in spirit and number, to nurture the faith, hope, and love of all the ages, for all the ages. Stir us to treat all people as if they matter to us, for they matter to you. Lead us to pray and rejoice with you, faithful God, as we consider what you have done, all that was lost and found. Amen.

     [1] Nathan Eshelman, “Suffer All The Children: Why a Children’s Sermon?” July 2, 2025, at https://gentlereformation.com/2025/07/02/suffer-the-children-why-a-childrens-sermon/

      [2] Chris Gehrz, “A Brief History of the Children’s Sermon” at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2018/01/brief-history-childrens-sermon/

      [3] Chris Gehrz, “A Brief History of the Children’s Sermon.”

     [4] John Dewey, “My Pedagogic Creed” in School Journal, vol. 54 (January 1897), 77-80.

     [5] John Dewey, “My Pedagogic Creed,” 77-80.

“O Great God”

Meditation in Memory of Harriet McMahon

November 16,1942 – July 23, 2025

The Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Smithtown Cemetery

Sept. 12, 2025

     Not long after I began serving our flock, Harriet’s family contacted the church. They were emptying out the home in Saint James where Harriet had lived for many years with her husband, Harold.

     “Did anyone in the church or community need a table?” they asked.

     By chance, my family and I didn’t have a kitchen table at the time. We were eating in our dining room for all our meals. But I wanted to be able to eat our informal family meals in our kitchen so that we could look out onto our deck and watch the birds and other wildlife in our backyard as we ate. Like Harriet, I am an animal lover.

     I asked about the table. Next thing I knew, I was visiting Harriet’s home and loading up my sedan with wooden chairs, cat pillows, and, of all things, a working fan in the shape of a cat! It still works! We went back later with our SUV and my young adult son, Jacob, to help move the table and small, matching hutch, just the right size for our space.

     I was so happy and grateful for the generosity of Harriet and her family! I still am, every time I see their gift. They told me, when I said this, that Harriet was happy knowing that the new pastor of the church that she loved wanted her table, where she had enjoyed countless meals with her husband and other family and friends over the years. This was even before I met Harriet, for she had already moved into a senior care home.

     After Harold went home to the Lord in 2021, Harriet wanted to continue to live in their home, where perhaps they had lived since their marriage in 1980. But as her health became increasingly fragile, there came a time when she was no longer able to live on her own, even with caregivers coming to help during the day.

     Later, I visited Harriet at the senior living community with June Auer, a longtime friend of Harriet’s from the church. And when I saw the cats on her bedspread, and the many cat knick-knacks and other decorations in her room, I felt like I had already known her for a while. She told me about her last cat and I think she showed me a photo. She missed him, but knew he was doing well in Michigan with her grandson, Kevin. Her cat’s name was Banjo, named for the instrument that Harold played. Patty, Kevin’s mom, tells me that Banjo, a handsome, well-cared for cat, lived to be 21 years old before he passed in January of this year.

     The day that I visited, I learned about Harriet’s love for music, and her amazing gift as a pianist! She talked about playing piano at the senior community where she lived. She even had people singing with her. I am sure it brought back happy memories of Harold, maybe even helped her feel as if Harold was still with her. For the two of them, he with his banjo, used to travel to bring the joy of their music to senior care homes, much like the one where she had just gone to live.

     Harold and Harriet called themselves the “Ivory Strings,” and played not only for nursing homes and family gatherings, but for their church, for parties, and at restaurants. Their material ranged from hymns, such as “How Great Thou Art,” to Dixieland/folk/Americana tunes, such as “O Susanna” and the song, “Secondhand Rose,” written in 1921 for Fanny Brice.

    Her family shared that Harriet had been playing since she taught herself songs on a miniature piano when she was 4. Her parents bought her a full-size piano when she was 10, and she could play just about any song that she heard. She knew the words to 100s of songs!

     Just before she moved to Michigan, June and I visited, again. I hugged her and said a prayer of blessing. I told her, once again, that I was grateful for her gift of the table and chairs and the beautiful matching hutch, just the right size, where I keep my grandmother’s dishes. I showed her photos of my kitchen, with my own orange cat, Liam, naughtily posing on the table, and she smiled. She was sad to leave her church and her friends, and was anxious about the move, but she had had more struggles with her health. She needed more care than the senior living community on Long Island could provide.

    Off she went to Michigan with Patty, about 2 and a half years ago, to a new senior living community with more skilled nursing care and eventually was moved to a memory care unit. The piano that her parents had bought her when she was 10 went with her to Michigan!

    I don’t know if Harriet remembered us as her memory loss progressed. But I am here to assure all who are gathered that Harriet’s church never forgot her. She has remained on our mailing list for our newsletter, One Body, One Spirit: Connecting the Faithful, along with my weekly messages, posted at my blog. We sent her birthday cards and Christmas cards.She has remained on our prayer list.  And whenever there have been updates from Patty that information was shared during our joys and concerns during worship.

     Today, after our service here at Smithtown Cemetery comes to a close, the ladies of the church, led by June, will host a lunch in her honor for her family and church family. It will be a time of sharing food and table fellowship and loving memories of Harriet.

     To be honest, a day didn’t pass that I didn’t think of her—and I’ll tell you why. It wasn’t just because her name was on our prayer list. I had her table, chairs, hutch and cat-shaped fan in my kitchen to remind me daily of the generosity of my faithful, cat-loving, musical friend.

       This is what we believe. With Harriet going home to be in our Lord’s embrace, she has joined with all the saints in the Great Cloud of Witnesses that is now cheering us on as we try to persevere and run the race of faith. This is in a day and age when fewer people feel a strong connection with church and the Triune God of our faith, so it truly is a challenge for we Presbyterians, who have always been seen by the world as a peculiar people. I believe Harriet and Harold, with their unique personalities and gifts, fit right in with us at the little, historic white church over yonder with the clock tower and bell ringing on every hour. Now, though she is no longer physically present, she is more connected with the church that she loved more than ever before. Harriet joined the congregation in 1972 and became ordained and served as a deacon beginning in 1982. She is spiritually present with us now and every time we celebrate Communion at The Lord’s Table and partake of the bread and cup.

   Today, we will comfort one another with the words of David the shepherd boy to Psalm 23 in the King James, especially when we say this part with gratitude for our blessings:

“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 forever.”

The one thing that makes me sad is that we have no one to play music or sing on this day as we give thanks to God for the precious gift of Harriet’s life and lay her to rest beside Harold. If I were to choose a song to sing here at the grave, I would choose, “How Great Thou Art.” Coincidentally, I just learned from Patty a couple of days ago that this was one of her favorite hymns.

The original text to “How Great Thou Art” came from a poem by a Swedish preacher named Carl Boberg. He was inspired to write the words after experiencing the presence of the Lord while visiting a beautiful country estate on the southeast coast of Sweden.


Boberg said of the experience,

It was that time of year when everything seemed to be in its richest colouring; the birds were singing in (the) trees and everywhere. It was very warm; a thunderstorm appeared on the horizon and soon there was thunder and lightning. We had to hurry to shelter. But the storm was soon over, and the clear sky appeared. When I came home, I opened my window toward the sea. There evidently had been a funeral, and the bells were playing the tune of “When eternity’s clock calls my saved soul to its Sabbath rest.”

 That evening, he wrote the song, “O Store Gud,” or “O Great God,” published a few years later in 1886. The poem would be matched with an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first-known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888.

Here is a literal translation of the hymn’s first verse and refrain:

O great God, when I behold that world

You have created with your omnipotent word,

How your wisdom guides the threads of life,

And all beings are fed at your table:

Refrain:

Then my soul bursts forth into praise:

O great God, O great God!

Then my soul bursts forth into praise:

O great God, O great God!

You and I, we look forward to our glad reunion with Harriet and Harold and all the saints, when Jesus returns in glory for His Church or when we join our family and friends who have gone before us to eat from a seat at Christ’s banquet table in the world to come. But if we pause a moment right now and listen with the ears of our hearts, with our soul bursting forth into God’s praise, we can feel the presence of our loved ones with us, here in this place, in the song of the birds and the whisper of a breeze. Harriet and Harold and all our loved ones will remain present with us as long as we hold tightly to our memories and keep on sharing their stories.

 As an old Irish saying goes:

Those we love don’t go away.

They walk beside us every day.

 Unseen, unheard, but always near.

Still loved. Sill missed and very dear.

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal.

Love leaves a memory no one can steal.

Amen.

Being Made Useful to the Lord

Meditation on Philemon

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Sept. 7, 2025

 My mom and I just returned from our cruise, traveling from Norway to The Netherlands. It was amazing at times, especially when we were in the little village of Flam, and we had breathtaking views of the fjords.

We began our journey in Oslo, arriving after an overnight flight from JFK. Oslo is Norway’s capital and largest city, founded at the end of the Viking age in 1040 A.D. first as Anslo. Fire destroyed the city, built from logs, more than a dozen times. After burning down in 1624 during the reign of King Christian IV, a new city was built of stone, with the help of Danish masons. The new city was relocated closer to the fortress and re-named for its king—Christiana. In 1925, it became “Oslo,” a Norwegian word that might mean meadow at the foot of a hill or meadow consecrated to the gods or both.

We had two different bus and walking tours of the city with two different guides—first before the cruise and as a stop in a port along the way during the cruise. Our female guide, whose name I don’t recall, was a retired teacher who went with us to the Ski Museum and Tower, where the world’s oldest skis (thousands of years old!) are on display.

Then we went to the Vigeland Sculpture Park with 200 sculptures of bronze, granite, and cast iron, inside Frogner Park. The park was still beautiful, though it was pouring rain.

Our guide Roger, a teacher in an international school on a gap year, led us to the grounds at the king’s palace. We could walk right up to the gate and have our pictures taken with the guard! He pointed out the Munch museum and the building where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. We admired the architecture of the library and the new opera house. He took us to a scenic overlook, where we could view a new line of 12 tall buildings, each with distinctive architecture, between Central Station and the waterfront called the “bar code.” He pointed out floating salt spas at the waterfront that encourage people in winter to heat up in saunas, then jump in frigid water.

Then we went to a maritime museum, where we saw a man building a replica of a wooden Viking boat. Turns out, Vikings traveled all over the world with these tiny and medium sized wooden boats. New Viking settlements, from the 8th century to the 11th century when the Viking Age ended, are still being discovered and excavated.

What was unexpected to me about the Viking cruise was how they attempted to re-educate us on the Vikings and dispel myths and stereotypes (such as the horns on a Viking helmet. Vikings never had horns on their helmets!) They attempted to rehabilitate their unsavory reputation.

As our guide, Roger, said, matter-of-factly, “Yes, there was the pillaging.”  Chieftains led raids for gold, silver, and other valuables from monasteries and churches. They ransacked Medieval villages. They captured people and sold them as slaves and kept them as wives and concubines. But then they gradually turned their focus to trade—not just food staples, such as grain and dried cod, but luxury items such as textiles, pottery, silks, spices, reindeer antler combs, walrus ivory, and jewelry. They built settlements on shores and became integrated into communities.

We are looking at one of my favorite of Paul’s letters in Scripture—the letter to Philemon. Paul, too, is attempting not only to rehabilitate the unsavory reputation of a runaway slave, but to reconcile a man with his community of faith and two siblings in Christ with each other.

Philemon lived in Colossae, in an area that is now Turkey, roughly a hundred miles inland from Ephesus, also in what is Turkey. The letter to the Colossians was being sent there at the same time as this letter. Philemon had become a Christian after hearing Paul preach.

“Paul had been thrilled with the way Philemon, a man of some means and influence, had responded to the gospel. It had gripped his heart and made him a man of love and generosity. He and his wife, Apphia, and their son, Archippus, had joined Paul in the work of the gospel. They had gone home to Colossae and made their home a place of love and hospitality, where the handful of Christians in the area had begun to meet.”[1]

Philemon, like every other person of wealth and substance in the biblical world, owned slaves. Scholar N.T. Wright says, “To them, this was a natural as owning a car or a television is for people in the Western world today. Indeed, most people would wonder how you could get on without them.”[2] One of Philemon’s slaves had run away, which was a capital offence. Worse, the slave may have taken some money to help him while he was on the run. He had gone to the nearest city—Ephesus—and perhaps when the money ran out, he had met Paul.

 The slave’s name was Onesimus (Own-ee-si-mus). The Greek name means “useful.” Paul is playing with words when he says, “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.” In gratitude to Paul for telling him about Jesus and his love, “he had started to look after Paul in prison, to attend to his needs with a devotion”[3] that he may not have shown to his master. “He and Paul had become friends, brothers in the Lord Jesus, close partners in the gospel.”[4]

I read this letter with mixed feelings. Something in me questions why Paul would send a runaway slave who had accepted the faith and was partnering with him in ministry, caring for him in his time of need, back to his owner. Onesimus may be punished, though his master Philemon is a Christian, because he has broken the law! This week I had a new thought.  What if Onesimus wants to go home to his family and his faith community? What if he is tired of living as an outlaw? Now that he has accepted Christ’s forgiveness and the new life that Christ offers those who believe, what if he wants to be forgiven, reconciled, and restored to right relationship with the people whom he loves? Maybe whatever caused him to run away doesn’t seem like such a terrible offense anymore, not after all he has seen and experienced in the real world and all that he has learned from watching Paul suffer in jail. Maybe he who has received Christ’s forgiveness wants to extend that forgiveness to those who have hurt him.

And what if Paul worries that he may die in prison, for many people did perish in prison, and he wants to be sure that Onesimus is safely returned to his family and Christian community?

I can’t help but think, though, that when he asks Philemon, near the end of his letter, to prepare a guest room for him, he writes as much to encourage Onesimus that they will be together again, as it is to stir Philemon to hope for Paul’s release and remind him of his need for the church’s prayers.

And what of Paul’s promise to pay Philemon whatever Onesimus owes? Wright says that this is a reminder to Philemon of what he owes Paul—his very life! Paul, probably in his 40s or 50s at the time of this writing, “will stand in the place of risk and pain, with arms outstretched towards the slave and his owner…He will close the gap not just between Philemon and Onesimus but between the two sides of the great divide,” Wright says, “that ran through, and in some places still runs through, the life of the world.” This is what Paul is trying to communicate in 2 Corinthians when he says that he has been “entrusted with the gospel of reconciliation.” Like us, Paul is seeking to put his faith into practice and discover what the cross means for our daily lives!

The phrase that touches me the most is when Paul says that he is making his appeal on the basis of love. On the basis of love. As I come to the end of my message today, on this day when we mark the World Day of Prayer for Creation, I urge you to consider the broken relationships in your life. We all have broken relationships in our families and our communities, but also we have broken relationships with the earth. Here on Long Island, we are frustrated with the deer and rabbits eating our trees, shrubs, and gardens. In Flam, where herds of reindeer graze, villagers plant grass and wildflowers on the rocky landscape, so that the animals have food to eat.

I can’t help but marvel at how Norway and The Netherlands are making use of green energy. They are tapping into the power of wind and water; the people are walking and bicycling more and using trains and buses that run on electricity. Gas stations are being converted to battery charging stations because if and when they drive, they are driving electric cars.

At the same time, Norway and The Netherlands and much of Europe these days is secular. Churches are empty or are being used for secular purposes—as libraries, coffee houses, stores, museums, and such. The people, more and more, refuse to identify with any religion at all. Yet they have this strong connection and concern with the earth.

And we, who believe that God made us and all Creation, in this country, don’t necessarily connect our Christian faith with our need to care for and be concerned about the health of our water, soil, forests, animals, and air.

So, what I am trying to say today is that those who are seeking to follow Christ therefore must also accept the great responsibility of which the apostle Paul spoke. We are entrusted with the gospel of reconciliation—reconciliation between God and human beings, reconciliation between human beings with one another, and reconciliation between humanity and all Creation.

What can just one person do, you ask? The problem of brokenness is so big. It’s overwhelming, at times, when I think about it. And then I remember Paul writing this letter to Philemon, seeking to restore what was broken between not just a master and slave but two people now on equal footing and value in the Church—those who have been made siblings by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Though I can’t say for sure, I have to think that if Paul’s letter is included in our Holy Scripture, Onesimus must have gone home to his master and family of faith and experienced welcome and grace. Why else would it be in our Bibles? This letter stirs me to consider how many people over the years have been inspired by the story of Onesimus—those who went astray, but then bravely came home? I believe that many broken relationships, because of the letter to Philemon, were made whole!

This is my hope for my flock. May each of us be open to the Spirit of transformation and be empowered to be instruments of Christ’s peace and healing. May we who have received Christ’s forgiveness learn to graciously extend that forgiveness to others. May we, like Onesimus, be made truly useful to the gospel mission.

I appeal to you, my sisters and brothers, on the basis of love.

Let us pray. Holy One, we give you thanks for this world of natural beauty that we enjoy—that feeds us and sustains our lives. Thank you for the way that you provide for all our needs through the abundant bounty of the land and those who labor in the soil. Forgive us, Lord, when we have forgotten our dependence on your wonderful world and taken for granted that natural resources will always be abundant, without our need to change our consuming habits. Stir our hearts, Lord, to embrace the call to be reconcilers, like the apostle Paul, and be made truly useful to the gospel mission, like Onesimus. May your Spirit empower us to be instruments of Christ’s healing and peace. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.

     [1] N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (KY: Westminster John Knox, enlarged print edition, 2015), 198-199.

     [2] Wright, Paul, the Prison Letters, 199.

     [3] Wright, Paul, the Prison Letters, 199-200.

     [4] Wright, 200.

Run the Race of Faith!

Meditation on Hebrews 11:29-12:2

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverence Dr. Karen Crawford

Aug. 17, 2025

Any golf fans in here? Any golfers? I admit that I don’t know much about the sport. I have never played golf before. Well, only miniature golf.

My husband persuaded me to watch a new American sports comedy TV series called, “Stick.” It is and it isn’t really about golf. It’s about the things that cause us to stumble when all that seems to matter is winning and being rich and famous. It’s about the struggle of relationships, the ups and the downs. It’s about grief and loss and forgiveness and how to rise up from the ashes when you have crashed and burned. It’s about having hope and faith to endure—till the end.

It stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a former professional golfer who is now a golf club salesman and coach. His wife, though she loves him, left him because he started drinking heavily and doing drugs and could no longer work as a professional golfer. You find out later that what stirred him to fall into this deep depression, drinking, and drugs, is that their 4-year-old son died of cancer. He can’t move beyond his grief. He loses the will to really live.

But one day, when Owen is coaching a beginner, he hears what sounds like a professional player swinging and striking balls nearby. He discovers a teenage boy with surprising skill and accuracy. Something stirs in him, when he hasn’t cared about anything for a long time. He approaches the young man, Santi Wheeler, who at first refuses to talk to him and leaves quickly. Turns out, he was there illegally. He works at a grocery store and has been chased off the course before.

Santi had quit playing golf after his father left his mother. You find out that it’s because the young boy, frustrated with his father’s criticism and obsession with Santi being the best, says he doesn’t want to play golf anymore. Santi’s mother, Elena, is still hurt and angry at her husband for leaving them. She is smart, hardworking, and ambitious, but no one in the business world will take her seriously. She manages a small store that sells, of all things, helium party balloons. Then there’s Owen’s best friend, Mitts, his former caddy, who is disgusted with Owen’s bad behavior, including compulsive lying. But Mitts is stuck in his life because he is grieving the loss of his wife. His depression comes out as anger and grouchiness.

All four characters (and another one you will find out about if you watch the series) end up going on the road together, taking Santi on a golf tour in Mitts’ RV that he bought for his wife and him to travel around the country in their retirement—a dream that was never realized.

Along this journey, Santi shows great promise. But his personal struggles and unwillingness to trust Owen after he catches him in a big lie, hold him back. All the characters begin to change from their experiences and as they learn more about each other on the road with Santi. The energy and excitement that Santi’s gift gives them carries them a long distance. But that’s not what takes them to the end. It’s their enduring hope in one another and in the promise of a brighter future. The story, though not overtly religious, is about redemption.

The writer of Hebrews uses the metaphor of a professional athlete running a race when he encourages his persecuted congregation of fledgling Christians to persevere in faith. Run like all the faithful ones in Scripture who, though they are imperfect, are models for us.

Look at this intriguing list of faithful but imperfect people, which begins with the Israelites, who didn’t trust Moses, constantly complained, and weren’t sure that God was still with them in the wilderness. Notice that this list includes both men and women! The author of Hebrews, much like Paul, applauds the gifts of women, when he lists Rahab second, emphasizing that she was a prostitute.

Another one on this long list includes David, whose character was so flawed, I can’t begin to tell you everything he did wrong, all the terrible sins he committed. And yet he was the shepherd boy chosen by God to defeat Goliath and become king, leading Israel as a man “after God’s own heart.”

We serve a gracious God, dear friends! We never have to be afraid to ask the Lord for forgiveness. We can count on God’s mercy. We can trust in God’s love. It almost seems like the Lord specifically chooses flawed people (and the Bible isn’t shy about telling us their flaws!) to accomplish God’s bigger plan to reconcile human beings with God and one another. The Lord chooses people who are going to stumble and fall and, importantly, get up, once more.

All these people, the author of Hebrews insists, are still with us now in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, cheering us on as we keep running what seems sometimes like an endless marathon. This isn’t a sprint! As we run this race, we hold onto the vision of the One who gave his life for us. We covet the image of the finish line, the end, when we will meet the One who “disregarded” the shame of the cross “for the sake of the joy that was set before him.” This joy for Christ is completing the work of our salvation—making peace with God through his own sacrifice.

Today, we have the joy of welcoming new members into our fold: Susan and Bob Buroker. After being invited by one of our families to come to worship, they discerned a call to minister with us, to become part of our family of faith, though we were already brothers and sisters in Christ. The amazing thing to me is how God continues to use us and grow us, though we are flawed like the characters in “Stick.” Sometimes, we can hit a hole in one with our ministry! Other times, it may seem like we just keeping swinging and swinging and missing or hitting the ball into a sand trap. How am I doing with my golf talk? We are Presbyterians, so we don’t make changes without careful deliberation, consideration, and agonizing over details. Am I right? We like everything to be decent and in order. And we like to work in committees, which sometimes take a while to make decisions!

 In fact, we are just like all the other people of faith who have worshiped God in these pews for 200 years. And like the people of faith in the Bible whose heart was to serve the Lord with their lives but they didn’t always get it right. Still, they were loved by God and used for God’s loving purposes.

We are just like the unknown first congregation inspired by the preaching of this unknown first century author of Hebrews, who wanted to make sure that all the people knew Christ as God’s great high priest. This is the only place in the Bible where you will find this imagery of Christ as high priest. And that because of “Christ’s priesthood, followers of Christ have access to God’s mercy and grace.”[1]

Another thing unique to Hebrews is that Jesus is the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” Christ is the source or originator! Christ, whose faith is perfect, has perfected our faith through his priesthood. So we don’t need to pick ourselves by our bootstraps. Trying harder isn’t always the answer. But persevering always is. We ask and trust the Lord to show us God’s will and lead us on. Just think! Even when our faith is flawed or lacking, in Christ, our faith is made perfect.

One thing that stands out to me in this first season of “Stick” is when Santi can’t move beyond his mistakes. I think we all get stuck sometimes. It’s as hard to forgive ourselves as it is to forgive others, sometimes harder. He lets the memory of his failures haunt him and hold him back from being his best self for the rest of the course. Owen gives him advice. He tells him that when he makes mistakes and starts to lose his focus, he always sings Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia.” And that lifts him up.

Santi, when later interviewed about how he keeps going when things go sideways, he tells them that HE sings, “Cecilia,” though he doesn’t really know the song. This will come back later when Santi is struggling on the course. He’s stuck. One by one, starting with the girl who has fallen in love with him, his fans begin to sing in increasing volume,

“Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart.

You’re shaking my confidence daily.

Oh Cecilia, I’m down on my knees,

begging you please to come home.

To come home.”

It’s the Great Cloud of Witnesses cheering him on!

Santi moves beyond the mistakes of the past and goes on to be his best, albeit imperfect self.

Susan and Bob, we thank God that you are willing to run alongside us and all the Great Cloud of Witnesses—the faithful in every time and place. We are excited about your spiritual gifts and hearts to serve. We look forward to getting to know you better, hearing your ideas, and learning from you. We promise to love and support you through our prayers and kindness.

Dear flock, may we never be discouraged through all our ups and downs. This is how it is on this lap of the race. Difficult! May our Savior comfort and strengthen us in times of trial, and in times of grief and loss, and lead us to forgive ourselves and others quickly, never allowing past mistakes to slow us down or make us stumble and fall.

May the Lord lift us up from the ashes if we crash and burn. Our God of second chances. No, third!

May God grant us the kind of hope and faith that endures—till the end.

Let us pray.

Loving God, thank you for all the faithful examples in Hebrews of those who are now in the Great Cloud of Witnesses, cheering us on as we run, each day, the race of faith. Thank you for your mercy and grace—for forgiving us for our past mistakes and helping us to overcome every hurdle. Lift us up, dear Lord, if we stumble and fall. Keep us focused on the promises in your Word and the One who died, but then was risen by you and glorified, so that our faith may be perfected in him. Help us who are imperfect to show love, mercy, and grace to one another so others may come to know our hope for eternity in your Son, through whom we pray. Amen.

     [1] Paul Hooker, Connections: A Lectionary and Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year C Vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2019), 242-243.

Faith: Conviction of Things Not Seen

Meditation on Luke 12: 32-34 and Hebrews 11:1–3, 8–16

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Aug. 10, 2025

Stushie art, with permission

My healing journey continued this week.

I am feeling better than I did a week ago and certainly better than two weeks ago, when I first hurt my back cleaning up my yard. Several of my gardening friends since then admitted that they, too, would have simply moved the heavy branch without thinking anything about it. It’s what we do!

Other people have encouraged me with their own stories of hurt backs and the ups and downs of their healing journeys.

What has been getting me down lately is just how much work and time it takes, not to mention expense, to recover from such an injury. This past week, I had doctor appointments and medical tests and treatments every single day.

On Friday morning, as I prepared to go to yet another visit to the chiropractor, I said to myself, I am done after this week. I am taking a break from all this medical stuff. Next week, I am taking my life back!

So here I am, on Friday, sitting with deep heat and electrical nerve stimulation on my lower back, waiting to see Dr. Amanda. I watch as she cares for two other patients ahead of me. One is a man with CP who arrives in a motorized scooter, plops down in a chair beside me, and relies heavily on his crutches to get to the treatment table. The other is a woman who struggles, after her session, with one hand to put her long brown hair in a ponytail. She is unable to lift the other hand past her shoulder. Dr. Amanda offers to help. The woman smiles and says thank you.

Afterward, the woman walks over to me and sits down in the chair vacated by the man with CP. “Hi, I’m Ruth,” she says. “You know, like the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Bible.”

I nod and say, “I’m Karen.”

She tells me about her illness as tears well up in her eyes. She was paralyzed four years. She spent many days in Stony Brook Hospital. She has MS. The disease also affects her eyes.  She thanks God that she is able to walk again. “He is the One who healed me,” she said. “He is the One.”

Then, one day not too long ago, a friend was driving her to an appointment. A driver crashed into their stopped car from behind. Ruth sustained injuries to her spine. It was a disappointment, a setback. But she had faith that God would help her. She has hope, even now, that God helps her every day.

I thanked her for sharing her story with me and before I could say anything more, Dr. Amanda called me to the table. Later on, I thought more about Ruth’s testimony and I felt convicted of having so little faith for my own healing. And I thought about how the Bible is full of people with faith and even more with doubts and fears.

Take the disciples, for example, those who woke him up in Luke chapter 8, when he was curled up in the back of their boat, having a good sleep through a violent storm. They asked him if he cared that they were perishing? After he calmed the storm with a word, he asked them, “Where is your faith?” The terrified and amazed disciples looked at one another and asked, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”

“Where is your faith?” I could hear Jesus asking me on Friday. And I couldn’t think of what to say.

The unknown author of the letter to the Hebrews has a lot to say about faith, though not quite as much as Paul, who uses the Greek word for faith or trust—pistis—35 times in the letter to the Romans alone. Pistis has an interesting history, my friends. It predates the New Testament and has a kind of “checkered past,” one scholar says, “in the culture of the early church. In Greek mythology, Pistis is one of the spirits who escaped Pandora’s box and fled back to heaven, abandoning humanity. In Luke’s gospel… when Jesus wonders, ‘Will the Son of Man find faith on earth?’ (Luke 18:8), he was speaking to a Hellenistic culture that believed the spirit of Pistis had already left.”[1]

For the disciples to understand and embrace this new idea about faith and trust and cling to it with all their might, they are forced to throw away what they thought and believed about pistis from their own myths and life experiences.  And they and we are encouraged to open our hearts and minds to learn from Hebrews the multifaceted reality of faith, with all its strangeness. Let us dig a little deeper.

To the author of Hebrews, faith is not a doctrine or statement of belief. It is not easy to describe, but it is something that is lived out by God’s people every day. Without it, as we find out in a verse that is omitted from the lectionary reading (11:6), it is impossible to be pleasing to God. At the beginning of chapter 11, the author ties faith with HOPE. Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for.” We cannot have faith without HOPE. This means that we are hoping for things that we don’t yet have or haven’t yet come into being.

We hope for, say, peace on earth and the end of all wars and violence. Do we live in a world where there is peace and no wars or violence? We don’t live in such a world, not yet, but we hope for these things. More than that, we live into these things that we recognize are characteristic of the Kingdom of God that Christ ushered in. We can be peacemakers and lovers in our families, churches, and communities and do our part to work for peace. We do this because we have hope and faith that someday the risen Christ will return in glory to judge the earth and banish evil from his realm. All will be welcome at His banquet table—followers from east, west, north and south will gather there. There will be no suffering or pain. The lamb of God that takes the sin from the world will wipe away all tears. He will say to his followers, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done.”

Faith at the time of the early church is something that gets them in trouble with their neighbors. Faith provokes hostility and ridicule. Where is this Christ who was crucified and yet has saved you from your sins? The church perseveres and holds onto “the conviction of things not seen.” If you have faith for something, that means you haven’t seen it with your own eyes. There is only the testimony of others—the letters and stories people tell about Christ’s ministry on earth, his miracles and promises, the empty tomb and resurrection appearances, and so forth.

By the time the letter to the Hebrews, written around 64 to 69 A.D. when Christians were being persecuted under the Emperor Nero, which began after the Great Fire of Rome, very few of Christ’s followers had actually met Jesus face to face. They are the ones whom Jesus calls blessed in John 20:29, saying to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”

After the writer of Hebrews gives definitions for faith, he does as all good teachers do; he provides examples, going back to Creation. “By faith we understand that the world were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible…” In the chunk missing from our reading today, you will find other earlier examples, but we move to Genesis 12, to the call of Abram, who didn’t know where he was going or the timeline for the journey. He heard God’s voice and believed. His new name, Abraham, meant that he was going to be the Father of many nations. Through his family, all the world would be blessed. His descendants would number the stars and grains of sand by the sea. But, in the end, Sarai gave him only one child—Isaac—in their old age. And that was enough for God’s plan, though Abraham and Sarah saw only a glimpse.

The assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen.

God’s story would continue from generation to generation, and it continues today with us and the Body of Christ in Smithtown, on Long Island, and around the world. The woman that I met at the chiropractor had a strong Spanish accent. If I were to venture a guess, though it makes no difference, I would say she might be Roman Catholic or Pentecostal. She is still my sister, our sister, in Christ. If I hadn’t gone to that particular chiropractor on Friday, I might never have met her. I met never have had the opportunity to hear her testimony and be lifted at a time when I was beginning to lose hope. It was a God thing.

If I hadn’t gone on Friday, I might never have been moved to consider how God’s healing power is still very much alive and well in this place, in Smithtown, in this day and age—and how maybe, just maybe, this is God’s plan for you and me—that we, too, will be healed, on our journeys of faith.

It occurred to me then how it is more difficult to have faith for my own healing than to have faith for someone else’s. This may actually be a problem with many Christians. Why is it so hard for some of us to accept God’s grace, mercy, and blessing, when it’s so much easier to have faith that it’s God’s desire to offer grace, mercy, and blessing to someone else?

This is what I think: deep down, we blame ourselves for our illness or injury, every trial or challenge. We think we must have done something wrong and maybe because it’s all our fault, we deserve it. But that isn’t how God’s love works. We don’t get what we deserve! We are loved unconditionally. No matter what! Each of us has a future, filled with hope.

God who knows us better than we know ourselves knows that we struggle to have faith for our own healing and blessing. That’s just one of the reasons why it is so important for Christians to belong to a church and to actively participate and be in relationship with other Christians. We need other believers, we need our church family, to inspire us with their stories of healing and struggle. We need other people to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to remind us of the One who wasn’t really asleep in the back of the boat, the One who commands the winds and the water, and they obey him.

We need our siblings in Christ to hold us up with their prayers and loving words—when we find ourselves weak and overwhelmed by trials, losses, suffering or grief, when we might hear the Lord inquire of us, like he did the frightened disciples on the Sea of Galilee, “Where is your faith?”

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your steadfast love and faithfulness to us, to every generation. Thank you for the healing stories in the Bible and of our siblings in Christ that give us hope, and the stories of the faithful. Lord, we can’t see your big plan. We only know the little piece that is today, right here, in our own lives. Help us to wait in hope and persevere in pistis, faith. Help us to not just talk about what we believe but to live it out. Help us to be pleasing to you. Forgive us when we are cranky and full of doubts and complaints, rather than trusting in your wisdom, guidance, and provision. Let us recognize your merciful hand in our lives and show mercy. Thank you for Ruth and the rest of the Body of Christ that surrounds us, within and beyond these church walls, ready to support us with their testimonies, prayer and loving words. In the name of our Savior we pray. Amen.

       [1] David E Gray, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 3, ed. by Bartlett and Taylor (KY: Westminster John Knox, 2010), 330.

Too Much Stuff?

Meditation onLuke 12:13-21

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Aug. 3, 2025

Art by Stushie

We had the pleasure of hosting Daniel Davidsen’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor here in our sanctuary yesterday. Quite a few of our church members attended and helped with the reception that followed.

The ceremony included numerous speakers sharing about his wonderful character, his faith and good works, his polite and respectful nature, his heart to serve, his intelligence, and his hard work and sheer grit that led him to accomplish the Eagle Scout rank, an honor that only about 5% of all Scouts will ever earn.

I spoke of his long involvement with his church, since childhood, when he sang in the children’s choir, sang with Christmas carolers to home- and nursing-home-bound. How he wrapped presents for our Adopt an Angel mission to needy children and helped the Flower Guild decorate the sanctuary with poinsettias on Advent and lilies on Easter.

He takes seriously the commitment he made when he confirmed his faith in 2020, making church a priority in his busy life, even now while he is home on summer break from Dartmouth. He serves frequently as our pulpit assistant, using a strong, clear voice and pleasant expression. As you well know, he doesn’t need a microphone! He is mature, friendly, cheerful, sensitive, and caring. He wiped away tears while sharing about the death of a friend, a fellow Scout. I talked about the beautiful, ambitious prayer garden project which will be a blessing to the church and community for many years to come.

What struck me throughout the moving ceremony was Daniel’s response to all that was being said and the numerous certificates that he received, proclaiming his worthiness of the honor. Daniel was overflowing with gratitude and joy. He smiled and said thank you to each person who congratulated him—and there were many people congratulating. He told the crowd that he appreciated each and every one of them for coming and hoped they would stay for the reception.  He credited his scout leaders for being his mentors, saying that without their support, he would never have stayed in scouting for so many years and would never have finished the requirements for the Eagle Scout rank. He thanked his parents, recognizing how their love and support helped him to become the man he is today.

Daniel made a point to thank me several times by email before the event—for my opening prayer, benediction, and the words that I would say about him and the prayer garden project. He thanked me in person yesterday, just before the service started. And he thanked me again afterward.

Later, it occurred to me that gratitude and the joy that often accompanies the spiritual gift of gratitude are what the two men in today’s passage in Luke lacked. It wasn’t just the man who wanted to build bigger barns to store his abundant crops and never have to work again. It was also the man at the beginning who shouted out the request of the Lord—-to tell his brother to share the family inheritance with him. Neither were grateful or joyful in their situations—not the man who felt cheated out of an inheritance or the man who had more wealth and things than he would ever need. And when he died, what would become of them?

The law specifies in Deuteronomy 21:17 and Numbers 27:1-11 and 36:7-9 that the elder brother receive a double portion of the inheritance. In this case, it seems that the younger brother received no inheritance at all. Jesus surprises the crowd with this parable of the rich man, instead of urging a fair division of the wealth, according to the law. The man wasn’t being unreasonable in his request!

The whole point of the parable is to warn the man who simply wants the inheritance that he is due not to become so focused on the wealth that he becomes like the rich man in the parable, who comes to a bad end. But the rich man’s problem isn’t merely greed. His wealth has led him to live as if there is no God. This is the treasure that he lacks—he is not “rich toward God.”

This is what Jesus is warning the man in the crowd and all of us hearing this Scripture: that our lives should not be focused on the wealth and material stuff of this world. Our lives should not be about accumulating more and more. Because where does that lead? We end up wanting more and more, because wealth and things don’t satisfy. The treasure that we all have is our faith, hope, and joy in the God who guides, fills, and equips us throughout the surprising journey that is our lives. And our treasure is our love for God and one another.

Daniel’s Court of Honor yesterday was a special celebration for not just Daniel and his family, but our entire church family. You could feel the love in this room. Friends, it truly takes a village to raise up our children in the Lord.

I received an envelope in the mail this week from Linda Cherney. Inside were belated birthday wishes, which I was happy to receive, especially because I was having a hard day. Actually, I was having a rough week. You see, I hurt my back just before we were going to go on vacation. I tried to pick up a fallen branch in our yard that was too heavy for me. So instead of enjoying the Finger Lakes, I was going to doctors, having scans, and taking medications that I don’t normally need. And I was in pain and frustrated.

Inside the envelope with Linda’s card was another envelope with two handmade cards from her grandsons, Roman and Bronx, revealing their budding faith and comfort and connection with their church and pastor. Roman wrote in pencil, “Dear Pastor Keran” and then “Happy Birthday” on a glowing cross, rays of light emanating from the beams. He signed his card at the bottom, “Love, Roman.” Bronx’s card made me laugh out loud. He drew a church pew with brown magic marker. Sitting side by side on the pew were Roman and Bronx, with their grandmother with yellow pants and a pink shirt in between. Their arms were extended straight out as if they were holding hands, without touching. They each had wide smiles on their faces. Above the pew with Roman, Bronx, and Nana, was a small, smiling figure without legs floating in the air. He had drawn his pastor—me—up in the pulpit!

I was filled with such gratitude and joy that I forgot my pain and frustration for a bit. I could just imagine them sitting at home taking the time to think about me and the church that they love and miss, because Linda has had a long recovery from a fall last May and the family has been unable to attend.

Their cards confirmed to me that we are, dear friends, building treasure in heaven here at First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown and in our homes and families. With the Spirit of Christ empowering and leading us, and God’s word guiding us, we are touching hearts and lives.

Don’t let yourself be discouraged by the difficulties in this world. You and me—with our hope and faith—we are making a difference!

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for the blessing of children and youth and our calling to nurture their faith and reveal your love. We pray that your Spirit will be with Roman and Bronx and all the children of our church who are home or traveling this summer. Help their families as they seek to be faithful to your call on their lives. Lord, give us your gratitude and joy. Keep us from wanting more and more and accumulating more and more, often with the fear that we might not, someday, have enough. Thank you for the reminder of the treasure that we have in you, a treasure that is everlasting and imperishable, a treasure not of this world, a treasure that must be shared with others. In Christ we pray. Amen.

For Daniel Davidsen’s Eagle Scout Honor Court

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

Aug. 2, 2025

It is rare for a pastor to meet in her congregation a young man who possesses the gifts and talents of Daniel Davidsen. It is rarer still to meet a young man whose heart is for serving God and neighbor.

Daniel grew up in our congregation. He sang in our children’s choir and with our Christmas carolers to bring joy to homebound members. He helped wrap presents for needy children in our annual Adopt-an-Angel mission and decorated the church for Advent during our mission-focused Sunday that we call Preparing the Presence.  He has assisted the Flower Guild with arranging poinsettias and lilies in the sanctuary, a job where his height comes in handy.

My first encounter with Daniel was when he came to my first worship and congregational meeting in March 2022. He was smartly dressed in a suit, listening intently to the message, ready to welcome his new pastor, and listening for a word from the Lord for his life. He takes seriously the commitments he made when he confirmed his faith in 2020, making church a priority in his busy life, even now while he is home on summer break from Dartmouth. He serves frequently as our pulpit assistant, using a strong, clear voice and pleasant expression. He doesn’t need a microphone! He is mature, friendly, polite, cheerful, sensitive, and caring. He wiped away tears while sharing about the death of a friend, a fellow Scout.

What I noticed right away about Daniel is that he is always willing to help. When asked, he says yes and does his best, never doing anything halfway. He has cheerfully attended many church and manse Saturday workdays, without complaint. His most recent service for the church and his Eagle project is a prayer garden, built and maintained with the help of family, friends, some Scouts, and the church.

When he approached the Trustees and me about the garden, I couldn’t believe he had come up with this idea without talking with me first, because at the same time I was beginning my doctoral project, which coincidentally, if you believe in coincidences, was about the spirituality of Presbyterians who garden. The plot of ground that was fertile for his garden was an overgrown, weedy kitchen garden that had been neglected for a while.  

But there was extensive sitework that had to be done before the garden could be dug and planted—new fencing, new pavers and poured cement walkway. The rusty iron rail needed a fresh coat of black paint.

What you will see when you visit the space is that it isn’t an ordinary place for a prayer garden. If you sit on the circular iron bench, you will see and hear traffic lined up and passing through the busiest intersection in Smithtown at most times of the day and probably into the night. In this way, the beautiful garden, filled with perennial flowers, shrubs, and ornamental grasses, as well as a birdbath to attract pollinators, is a witness to our community of our love for our Creator God and our spiritual and physical connection to the soil. It is a place of rest and welcome for all visitors and weary passersby, and not just members of our flock. Though it is rarely quiet there, it is a comfortable, inviting place where people can come and talk with God, find peace, and discover the will of the Spirit for their lives.

The congregation, along with some Scouts, dedicated the prayer garden on Aug. 25 with an outdoor worship service. This provided us with yet another opportunity for this somewhat shy group of Presbyterians to shine our light and reach out to the folks driving through the intersection or stuck in traffic with the love, joy, and peace of Christ.

Thank you, Daniel, for your gift to your church and wider community, for the sake of the Lord and God’s children. This is a gift that will keep on giving because gardens, like all living creatures, never stay the same. They will always need our tending, visiting, and appreciating. They grow and change every day and are vulnerable and exposed, like we are, to whatever is happening in the world. May we, also, grow and change every day as we cast our cares on the Spirit that lives in the garden. This same Spirit lives in our hearts and will transform us as God’s people, more and more, for many years to come. Amen.

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