Who Is My Neighbor?

Meditation on Luke 10:25-37

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

July 13, 2025

Something caught my eye in the grass after filling my birdfeeders the other day. Something moved—gave a little jump but didn’t go far.

I assumed it would be one of the bold chipmunks or squirrels, anxious to be the first creature to reach the sunflower and safflower seeds or, the favorite in all seasons—the block of suet hanging from a shepherd’s crook.

And then I saw a swarm of green flies around the creature, and I thought, “Uh oh. Something’s wrong.”

I cautiously drew closer to a lump of black feathers belonging to a baby bird. I saw the red on its belly and realized that it was a robin, too young to leave its nest. I bent down to examine it without touching it and the creature let out a frightened, “Peep! Peep!”

This stirred the memory of a baby robin that dropped to my lawn last year after it was stolen from a nest by a grackle, who was mobbed by other birds. I tried and failed to protect that robin in the grass. It was eventually retaken by the grackle who returned for its prey.

The thought of a baby bird dying on my watch on Thursday, in my yard, just didn’t sit right with me. Human beings are not natural friends of wild birds, even those of us who try to be kind to them. They are wise to be frightened and shy around us. Many more die from injuries by vehicles, pet cats on the loose, and through the loss of habitat due to human activity, including pesticides and fertilizers poisoning their water and food sources, rather than being gobbled up by hungry birds.

I pulled on rubber gloves and, when I gently picked up the bird to lay it in a box, it immediately opened wide its beak in hunger, hoping that I was its parent. I drove with the box next to me on the front seat and the creature peep peeping all the way to Sweetbriar Nature Center.

The rehabber met me at the front desk, quickly examined the robin and said that it looked like it had been pecked. It was missing an eye and had fly eggs under its wings. “I will take it,” she said, and I murmured my thanks as she walked behind a door where I couldn’t follow.

I told the receptionist, then, how our church is a big supporter of the center through our programs, donations, and volunteers. I did a little name dropping. “Peg Holthusen is one of our members,” I said. “She volunteered at Sweetbriar for years.” Marie Smith, the executive director, always remembers her in the letters that we receive thanking us for our donations.

I reached in my wallet and left some money with my business card. It wasn’t a lot. It was all the cash I had with me. I thought about all the supplies that Sweetbriar uses for every injured wild animal’s care. That donation wasn’t going to go far.

But the receptionist smiled widely and told me that I could call to check on the baby bird in a few days. I left the center praying that the bird would live.  

An expert in the law approaches Jesus in our gospel lesson in Luke today, seeking affirmation for the life that he is already leading. I heard once that a lawyer never asks a question in court that he doesn’t already know the answer to and has prepared her or his response. Do we have experts in the law here? Is that correct?

 When the expert asks Jesus the kind of life that he should live as a faithful Jew, so that he may earn his reward and “inherit eternal life,” he already knows the answer is to follow the 10 Commandments, the sum of which is his answer to Jesus’s question, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” This answer comes right out of the Torah: Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18.

 But when the law expert asks, “And who is my neighbor?” he is ready for Jesus to say that the neighbor he is commanded to love lives in his community—they share the same faith, history, culture, food, and language, common ancestry, way of life, and geography.

The story Jesus tells refutes this assumption and challenges us to see beyond the circle of people we know and love and feel comfortable with. It challenges us to become more aware of the moments when we fail to love a neighbor, near or far, and ask the Holy Spirit for help.

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish New Testament scholar, provides wisdom for us who seek to live faithfully today. “The Good Samaritan has been appropriated by politicians and economists, hospitals and cafes,”[1] she says. “Its meaning has been reduced and romanticized to ‘if somebody is having a problem on the side of the road, stop and help.’ But parables are never simple,” and should be taken in their historical context.

“The New Testament’s treatment of lawyers usually is not complimentary… and this instance is no different. The lawyer addresses Jesus as ‘teacher,’ which does not fully encompass who Jesus’ followers believed he was. Not only does the lawyer already know the answer to his question, Levine said, but his question is a bad one. In addition, the lawyer is out to tempt Jesus — the verbs for ‘test’ and ‘tempt’ are the same. In essence, Levine said, the lawyer is in the same role as Satan was when he tempted Jesus in the desert.”[2]

Jesus says the lawyer’s reply to his question is correct. “Do this and you will live,” he says.

“But the lawyer wanted a single action to ensure him eternal life, and Jesus has given him a lifetime of work to do… When the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” what he is really asking is, “Who might I hate?”

In Jesus’s time, people walking the roads were vulnerable to being set upon not by Robin Hood like figures, but by “violent gang members.” The real question, Levine says, is “what do we do with a person who’s dying on the side of the road?”[3] The priest and Levite fail to love their neighbor and break the command of the Jewish Mishnah, which says that “even those in the cleanest, most ritually pure states are obligated to stop and attend to the corpse,” if, in fact, the victim was already dead.

“To go from priest to Levite to the fellow who stops, who was a Samaritan, is like going from Larry to Mo to Osama bin Laden,” Levine says. In Jesus’ historical context, Samaritans are the enemy. “It’s unthinkable,” she says, that there would be a so-called good or compassionate Samaritan.

The love of God and neighbor is a sort of compassion or “love that doesn’t require thought. It bypasses the intellect, and it gets us in the gut…You don’t even have to think about it. Your body, your visceral system, forces you to act.”

At the end of the parable, Jesus asks the man who was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers. The lawyer can’t bring himself to say the word “Samaritan,” so he says, “The one who showed him mercy.” This same Jesus tells his followers in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew that we are called to love our enemies and pray for them.

     Every day, we have opportunities to show grace and mercy—to friends and family and our church family, to people we meet or pass by in our communities, schools, or places of work. The Lord gives us opportunities to witness to God’s love through our acts of compassion.

    I have seen many occasions when our flock is moved to grace and mercy for neighbors near and far. I know that some of you have provided transportation for people to come church or go to the grocery store, or doctor’s appointments. I have watched you share food that you have provided or prepared; eat with someone who is lonely or grieving; bring food for the food pantry; give cookies to a homebound member; or called, visited or written to someone who is sick or injured. I know that you, in your own lives and ministries, are doing even more quietly to help your neighbors in need.

    As Amy-Jill says, we have a lifetime of work to do!

    And every day, we are blessed by the grace and mercy of others. We are blessed so much that we might take these blessings for granted. My prayer is that our eyes are opened to these unexpected acts of mercy and compassion that we receive so that we may be moved to gratitude to God and neighbor.

     And may our hearts and minds be open to opportunities when we may show grace and mercy to others in need, and reveal the mercy of the Lord who says in His Word,

“Do this and you will live.”

Let us pray.

Creator God, open our eyes to your love, mercy, and compassion in this world so that we may be moved to gratitude daily and give you thanks. O Lord, the world is full of creatures sometimes difficult to love, including our own selves, at times. Help us, dear Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to show mercy and compassion to neighbors near and far so that we may truly live and bear witness to the love of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

     [1] Emily Perper, “Levine: Good Samaritan parable teaches compassion for the enemy,”

 The Chautauquan Daily, https://chqdaily.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/levine-good-samaritan-parable-teaches-compassion-for-the-enemy/

     [2] Perper, “Levine,” https://chqdaily.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/levine-good-samaritan-parable-teaches-compassion-for-the-enemy/.

     [3] Perper, “Levine..”

“Then I Will Follow You”

Meditation on 1 Kings 19:15–16, 19–21

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

July 6, 2025

Art by Stushie, used with permission

I met a woman named Vickie yesterday, who shared her faith story. I interviewed her as part of my work on the Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry.  She has applied to serve as pulpit supply, offering her gifts and talents to the 60 or so Presbyterian congregations on Long Island.

 She has served as an elder in her Presbyterian church since 2002. She has served on various committees, such as Children and Adult Education, the Cemetery Committee, Building and Grounds, and Community Outreach. She has had the “privilege of working on and leading Bible Study programs,” she says, Vacation Bible School, Youth Group, Mission Trips, and her church’s first Women’s Retreat. She has served as liturgist and most recently, completed the Presbytery’s preaching class for elders.

There’s more.

She didn’t grow up Presbyterian. She grew up in a family “where you were either a devout Catholic or Jehovah’s Witness.” She remained in both these worlds until adulthood, not usually celebrating Christmas or birthdays, being taught, as a young person, to take her faith out into the world, going door to door, two by two, with her Bible, knocking, waiting, and hoping for someone to welcome them inside.

When she grew to be an adult and struggled in a marriage that wasn’t healthy for her or her children, she came to a fork in the road. She decided to leave her husband. Because of that decision, she was excommunicated from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She would be separated for years from her mother and sisters, who were not permitted to speak with her.

Vickie was on her own, working full time, caring for her children, and longing for spiritual answers to life’s important questions. She came to a moment, she says, of reaching out to God, as she had never done before. She started to pray. And though her life was still a “mess,” she says, the Lord showed her the way. “I finally followed Christ,” she says, “to my home, here in the Presbyterian faith.”

All of us have a testimony to share. Our stories may not be as dramatic as Vickie’s, but they are no less miraculous. One day, we were struggling with doubts. And one day, we began to seek God and believe. We started on a journey of discovery and relationship with the Lord and God’s people.

In our reading in First Kings 19, we hear another dramatic conversion story. Elijah has been a warrior for the Lord. He has fought the pagans in the royal court, including Israel’s Queen Jezebel who persuades the king and much of the nation to worship the Canaanite god Baal, a deity of storms, fertility, and warfare. Elijah has come through a difficult period in the wilderness, fleeing and becoming so weary that he lies down under a broom tree. He asks the Lord to take his life. God instead sends an angel to give him food, water, and encouragement so that he can continue in his work for God.

But the Lord knows that Elijah cannot go on forever as God’s prophet. The Lord sees that Elijah needs a helper, a personal assistant, someone to mentor in the work of a prophet and eventually take his place. The Lord sends Elijah to a rural area, where he sees Elisha plowing a field with a yoke of 12 oxen in front of him. I often wondered why this detail would be shared—about Elisha controlling and guiding 12 oxen in a wooden yoke, all by himself. I think the answer is that this was hard to do! It was hard, hot physical labor, but challenging mentally, as well. If he had 12 oxen, then he was probably plowing a large plot of land, too. This was unusual. Most farmers didn’t have 12 oxen, which were the John Deere tractors of the time. They were lucky to have one or 2.

Imagine you are Elisha, probably a young adult as there is no mention of wife and kids. He’s a good, strong farmer, providing for his parents and extended family.  It is subsistence farming back then. If the crop fails, the people go hungry. Elisha may have been an only child or at least an only son, because when Elijah lays the prophet’s mantle on him, Elisha responds, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” He didn’t have any siblings to bid goodbye or to pass on the work of farming. Elijah immediately regrets his invitation, witnessing Elisha’s emotional response to the call. Elijah says, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

Elisha has already said yes to the call in his heart because he returns to his family, then, and makes difficult decisions that will forever affect their future and his own. There will be no going back home after he singlehandedly slaughters the 12 oxen, not leaving even ONE so that someone else can plow the earth and farm! Then he cooks the flesh of the oxen, using the wood from the yoke for the fire. Both equipment and livestock are now gone. Then he feeds his people—not just his parents, but his community. He eats with them before turning away from home, family, farm, and neighbors to follow Elijah and become his servant.

Talking to Vickie yesterday, I felt lifted and encouraged in my call and remembered how the Lord has been so faithful to me, all my life. But I have to be honest; I don’t enjoy my service to the presbytery as much as I enjoy being shepherd of this flock. My labor for the presbytery is often out of my comfort zone and challenges me to think about my own theology, my own beliefs about God and the church. It forces me to puzzle over 21st century problems that the Early Church never envisioned and worry about the future of the Presbyterian church on Long Island and in our increasingly secular nation.

But then I was so inspired by Vickie and her willingness to learn and grow and be used by God in new ways. The nearly 73-year-old woman never went to college, and now she has taken her first preaching course. She is willing, she says, to become a Jill of all trades.

All of us have a testimony to share and a journey to walk. Your story may not seem as dramatic as Vickie’s, but it’s no less miraculous. Let us share our stories and walk together.

The one thing that really stood out to me in her story is the welcome she received from not just one, but two Presbyterian congregations on Long Island. You, too, have been welcomed and embraced by Presbyterians! (So maybe we aren’t the frozen chosen, after all!) She was never made to feel like a stranger or outsider. She managed to fit right in; she rolled up her sleeves and got busy serving. Now she is seeking to be a leader of the Church that welcomed her and helped her grow in faith, hope, love, and witness. She is willing to pursue the education and training, which is about 5 seminary classes, to be eligible to serve as a Commissioned Ruling Elder, either in her own congregation, assisting her own pastor and serving her own church family, or in a small struggling church in our Presbytery that can no longer afford a full-time minister of word and sacrament.

Vickie shared that about two years ago she had a breakthrough in her journey of faith. She apologized to the Lord for not giving all of herself sooner. She was like Elisha, asking to care for her family first and THEN she would follow the Lord. This is what we all do. We have many good things that we can be doing in this world, and the Lord wants us to care for our families. But sometimes we use good things as an excuse not to do the harder things that the Lord wants us to do. That’s why we need to keep on seeking God in prayer.

When she was 71, though she had served the Lord since she was a young person, she finally surrendered her heart to God. She said, “I am giving you everything that I am.”

May her story inspire you to surrender not in part but the whole of yourself to God. May you be stirred to trust the Lord enough to say, as Vickie says, “Whatever time I have left, I am His. Fully. Completely. Wherever he wants me to go, I will go.”

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy One, we hear your voice calling us to follow your Son, our Savior, the Christ. But we hold back, afraid that offering our lives to your service may be too difficult, too uncomfortable, too much work. We are afraid of rejection by those with whom we would share our faith stories. We are afraid that we are not up to the tasks you are calling us to do and that maybe we lack the strength to follow faithfully, serving your people and our community with our gifts and talents. Thank you for inspiring examples of faith such as Vickie, here in our own presbytery. Bless her, Lord, as she listens for your voice and discerns her particular call. Bless and encourage all of us as we surrender our lives in gratitude, saying, “Wherever you want me to go, I will go.” In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

There Is Love

Meditation on 1 Corinthians 13

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

On the Occasion of the Reaffirmation of Wedding Vows for Nine Couples

June 29, 2025

From the beginning, it was a math problem.

First, it was the timing.

A busy journalist, divorced mother of three little boys, moving into our first home after the divorce, I didn’t have time for meeting men or interest in going on dates. When I met Jim, he was kind of a colleague, a new Presbyterian pastor in York, PA. He followed my newspaper stories and columns, sent me emails, asked me out to dinner, lunch, or coffee. And the answer was always no.

I didn’t have time.

One day, he sent me an email and said that he would wait till I had time for a friend in my life. He wanted to be that friend. He would wait as long as it takes.

When we finally had time to get a cup of coffee, or in my case, a cup of tea—we pulled up to the cat-themed café that Jim had been telling me about—and it was closed. Permanently. We had waited too long.

The second math problem was more difficult to solve. The numbers were not in our favor. Mom sat me down one day and did the math for me. When Jim is this old, I will only be this old.

Jim remembers the day in 1963 that JFK was shot and the day in 1965 when Malcom X was killed. I wasn’t born, yet. I wasn’t old enough for kindergarten when MLK was assassinated or when Jim was protesting the War during his seminary years.

I remember going to see Jim after this conversation with my mom—about the numbers. I remember feeling sad that if we married, it would probably mean that I would eventually be alone, again. That with our differences in age, I would probably outlive him.

 I made him promise me that if we married, he would at least be my husband for 20 years.

He did the math and agreed.

I just realized the other day that in July, after we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary and my birthday, I will be the age he was when we first met.

And there were other important differences, other than the math. He was Presbyterian and Irish. I was neither of those. More importantly, he was a big dog person and I was scared of big dogs. I was a cat person and he hated cats.

But we had some things in common. We both loved the Lord and our faith led us to live intentionally, seeking God’s will for our lives and being ready to obey when we heard God’s voice, no matter how scary God’s will is. Sometimes, God’s will is scary.

Even with the math problems and other obstacles to overcome, including some of our children not being pleased when we got married, there was love.

Chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in our Bibles is often read at weddings. We interpret his instructions as rules for happy marriages, especially verses 4 through 8. “Love is patient; love is kind.” It isn’t “envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.” I have to smile at “Love doesn’t insist on its own way,” because Jim and I both have leadership gifts, and we can be stubborn. Maybe we aren’t alone in this tendency. Is anyone stubborn in your households? Maybe it’s you? It is good to be reminded that love “is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs.” In other words, love not only forgives, it practices forgetting, just as when we sin and ask for God’s forgiveness, as Hebrews 8:12 tells us, along with the prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Micah, the Psalms, Second Corinthians and Romans, the Lord “remembers our sin no more.”

These instructions that Paul—formerly a persecutor of the earliest Christians—wrote thousands of years ago to a young church struggling with divisions and egos in the city of Corinth are meant for all of Christ’s followers—and not just married couples. When he says that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and “Love never ends,” he is lifting up the perfect example of love—the unconditional, everlasting, and sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. Friends, human beings will always fall short of perfect love. We will always fall short. But Christ is still our example for the church and all our relationships with God and neighbor. And the presence of Christ in our hearts and homes is a powerful ingredient for happy, faithful, enduring marriages in every day and age.

The nine couples renewing their vows today were married in different decades and places. Russ and Sue and Tom and Marci were married in the 1960s. Ed and Janet and Ron and Carolyn were both married in 1972. Dave and Joanna, Rob and Linda, and John and Dawn were married in the 1980s. Jon and Elizabeth were married right here in June 2008. And I had the honor of presiding over the wedding of Frances and Terrell last November—in 2024.  Each of these couples have learned that love can endure math problems, family problems, financial problems, health problems—you name it; they have learned how to love. Today, some of them will make vows that they wrote for one another. Others will use the standard Presbyterian vows.

As they say their vows, may we be strengthened in our households and in our church family as we remember that 1 Corinthians 13 applies to the Church, all our brothers and sisters in the Lord. May we make their promise to love and honor one another, giving thanks for what has been and looking forward to all that will be, our prayer for our church family, especially as we celebrate our 350th anniversary this year.

 And when they promise to continue to share the journey of life with one another in faith and in hope, with God’s help, may you claim that promise for yourself, your family, and church family.

As you leave this space and enjoy food and friendship at the wedding reception, may you feel the embrace of God’s love for you.

May we all be encouraged to take our joy, hope, and faith out into a hurting world and practice the forgetting of sins—our own sins and the sins of others, especially those who are close to us.

May we all be stirred to point to Christ and say, “There is love.”

Let us pray.

Loving God, thank you for your Son’s perfect example of love—unconditional, everlasting, and sacrificial, not keeping track of wrongs. Help us to love in this way– forgive and forget—and refrain from our human tendencies to be stubborn and irritable. Forgive us when we fail to imitate your perfect love. Lead us to be patient and endure, as your Spirit, dwelling within us and in our midst, helps us every day. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.

Journeys

Meditation on 1 Kings 19:1-15a

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

June 22, 2025

We gathered at Lori Yastrub’s for our Sunday School picnic yesterday. Lori, our elder for children and youth Faith Formation, and her husband, Steve, have a swimming pool. With yesterday’s warm temperatures, the children so enjoyed the refreshment of the cool water for hours. And we had plenty of good food and fellowship to share.

This annual gathering is important to our ministry. Sunday School, as you know, usually happens inside the classroom. The picnic is an opportunity to laugh, eat, talk, relax, play, and take our faith outside in the world. This barbecue is a celebration of all the learning and growth and all that was accomplished in the previous Sunday School year. It’s meant to be fun! It also helps the children and young families form strong bonds with one another and with their teachers and me. Finally, the picnic reinforces the message that God is with us wherever we go—and we have other Christian friends traveling their journeys of faith beside us. We are not alone.

The broom tree figures prominently in our passage in 1 Kings today. The prophet Elijah is exhausted from doing God’s work. The mighty warrior prophet served the Lord in Northern Israel during the 9th century BCE. He has been fighting spiritual and physical battles for YHWH, armed with a sword. This is a time of relative peace and prosperity for the people of God. But it is also a time of rampant corruption and idolatry at the highest levels of Israel’s government.

Jezebel is perhaps Elijah’s greatest enemy. She was a beautiful Phoenician princess who married Ahab, the king of Israel, and became a powerful queen known for her promotion of the worship of Baal, a Canaanite god, in Israel. Jezebel persuades Ahab to worship this god associated with fertility, rain, and storms. His worship is seen as a direct challenge to YHWH, the God of Israel.[1]

At the beginning of our passage, Jezebel vows to avenge the deaths of the priests of Baal, and Elijah, the soldier who is responsible for them, escapes on foot, alone, to the desert, traveling miles and miles. At his lowest moment, when he feels like he has failed the Lord and is no better than his ancestors who failed to rid his nation of idolatry, he sits down under a broom tree. God is with him in the desert, under the broom tree, just as God will be with him in the quiet stillness or “sound of sheer silence” when eventually he reaches his destination.

The broom tree grows primarily in desert, hilly, and rocky areas in Israel and neighboring lands, where “it is often the only source of shade.”[2] The broom tree is really a bush, growing 2 to 12 feet high. “The twigs bear small leaves and white pea-like fragrant flowers in spring. The roots are long and reach deep for water. The roots were used for charcoal.”[3]

I was surprised to learn that broom trees also grow wild in the United States—in Arizona and Nevada. In these places, “many people consider them a weed and pull them up as quickly as they find them.”[4] Although, when you are in the desert heat, you appreciate any little bit of shade you can find, even a weedy bush that, more often than not, isn’t tall enough to stand under; you have to hunker down beneath it.

The bush is the first sign of God’s compassionate provision for the weary prophet in the desert and God’s desire to strengthen him to continue in his unique calling. After Elijah prays that the end would be near, he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep. Then there are more signs of God’s care for Elijah. The angel of the Lord shows up, touches him to awaken him and tells him to eat. “At his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.’ ”

You see, the Lord always had Elijah’s journey in mind—and knew just what he needed to accomplish God’s work, with every step. The prophet ate and drank, and that little bit of food from the angel gave him the strength for a journey of 40 days and 40 nights. His destination? Horeb, the mountain of God. That’s where the Lord will be revealed to Elijah and the prophet will know, without a doubt, what God desires for him to do. He knows, because God places that desire within him, just as God places desires within us and provides all that we need for the journeys that we will take, journeys that may not take us far from here and journeys that take us a long way from what is comfortable and familiar.

Yesterday at the Sunday School picnic, I thought about the journeys that brought the young families to our church. Some of the children are children and grandchildren of longtime members, some who grew up in our church. Some are children of a new generation of Presbyterians who have come as young adults from other places. Some have attended a few years with their children. Some have just come to visit our church in the last few months. Looking around at the kids jumping off the diving board, floating around on blow up rafts or chatting in small groups at the shallow end by the side of the pool, it struck me how the children have grown in the three years since I came to minister here. Later, I marveled at how much better I know these families—and I know each child by name.

Today, we honor three teens whom I met in my first Confirmation class here and have had the privilege of coming to know them and their parents. They may be graduating from different high schools, but they have a common faith in Jesus Christ and membership in this church. They are part of our family. Today, they receive scholarships from their congregation, which they will use for different colleges and universities and different majors, preparing for different careers. God has a special path chosen for each one.

On their journeys, they will be energized by new experiences. They will enjoy living on their own for the first time, without someone telling them to do their homework or what time to go to bed or worrying about what they are wearing. They will make new friends, visit new places, eat different foods (some they will like, some they won’t) and try new leisure activities. They will also grow weary and discouraged at times, passing through deserts. College is more challenging than high school and requires good organization and time management. Teachers will expect them to be responsible and meet their deadlines for reading and written work, without reminders or warnings. They will pull all-nighters to finish papers they procrastinated about and cram for final exams, only to realize that what they studied wasn’t on the test. They will drink too much caffeine. They will miss their high school friends. They will miss their families. They will be far from home. But whenever they encounter deserts, a broom tree will spring up like a weed, if they are looking for it. They may find rest and peace for body, mind, and soul.

Although we cannot be with them when they go away to college, they take their church family and their Lord in their hearts. They bring with them all their memories from their childhood church experiences, too. May these memories and all that was learned here serve them well as they prepare for the future God has planned. We will continue to remember them in our prayers. We look forward to welcoming them back home on school breaks and when this leg of their journey is over.

May the God of Israel who was faithful to strengthen Elijah on his sacred journey send angels to feed and strengthen Joanna Huang, Andrew Carbonara, and Julianna Landi in their deserts and oases. May they place their trust in the Lord and seek to walk their paths as God directs them. May these three youth and all of us grow in faith, hope, love, and witness so that we may become like the hardy broom trees, springing up like weeds in all the dry places to bring cool refreshment and rest to others.  May we all come to know the desires of God’s heart and may these desires become our own.

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your presence and plan for us and your Spirit that guides us on our sacred journeys. Thank you for the angels who nourish us with faith, hope, and love along the way. Show us your will for us, dear Lord. May we have your heart’s desires. Strengthen us so that we may live in peace and confidence, trusting in your love. But if we get discouraged and weary like Elijah, we pray that you will send a broom tree and food from heaven when we need it. May we become like hardy broom trees, springing up like weeds in all the dry places to be a blessing to others. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.

     [1] Encyclopedia Brittanica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jezebel-queen-of-Israel

      [2] “Flora” in Anchor Bible Dictionary edited by David Noel Freedman (NY: Doubleday, 1992),805.

      [3]  “Flora,” 805.

      [4] Nancy Cushman, “Lessons from the Broom Tree,” July 1, 2019 at https://dscumc.org/blog/2019/07/01/lessons-from-the-broom-tree/

Endurance Produces Character

Meditation on Romans 5:1-5

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

June 15, 2025: Trinity Sunday/Choral Appreciation Sunday

Stushie Art for Trinity Sunday, used with permission

I discovered this week that our congregation has ALWAYS sung hymns.

When we met in our original building on Moriches Road, most hymns were sung as rounds or refrains with the words and the tune led by a member of the congregation.

The first musical instrument that accompanied our singing was played in our present Church building, as far back as 200 years ago, and it was a bass viol. Viols first appeared in Spain and Italy in the mid-to-late 15th century and were most popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods (1600-1750). It looked a little like our modern cellos but had flat rather than curved backs and sloped rather than rounded shoulders. It had c-shaped holes rather than f-shaped holes, and 5 to 7 strings rather than 4 strings.

Our first organ-type instrument was a melodeon. This innovation was resented by some of the older members, says historian Dick Mehalick. “They looked upon it as an evil thing.” A melodeon is a small, button accordion, typically used for playing folk music or dances.

On March 31, 1862, the church purchased a harmonium, an organ operated by a foot pedal that pumps air through the reeds tuned to different pitches. The harmonium came from the Carhart and Needham Company on East 23rd Street in New York City. It cost $380, with a church discount of $70 off the original price. The harmonium was placed in the front of the church on a raised platform by the first pew. This instrument did not please the church, either, so it was exchanged for another organ whose tone was still not very musical, Dick says. We had no staff organists or choir directors in our early years. Volunteers received gifts now and then from members of the congregation.

The Ladies Aid Society came to the rescue. They purchased a larger Mason and Hamlin organ sometime in the late 1800s and assumed the responsibility of paying the organist’s salary. Our present pipe organ was purchased in 1909 for $1,850. It, too, operated by air, “manually pumped through a goat skin bellows by a long-handled lever mechanism. The air supply was motorized in 1916. The organ served us well for many years, “even though with advancing age it would occasionally stick, skip a note, or go off key—to the amusement of the congregation but to the chagrin of the organist and choir director.” In 1973, the congregation voted to refurbish the organ after a long debate over whether we should buy a new one or fix the old. The refurbishing cost $19,750 and all the money was raised through special projects, memorials, and other donations.

In 1981, a two-octave set of handbells was purchased through memorial gifts and dedicated. I am not sure if we had a handbell choir before 1981, but soon we had both a Chancel Handbell Choir, with high school and adult players, and a Westminster Handbell Choir for grades 7, 8, and 9. We also had a sacred dance choir, which was led in 1990 by Ardene Vandermeulen.

The new blue hymnal of 1989 stirred a controversy. It failed to include some familiar hymns, such as Battle Hymn of the Republic, and changed the language of some other familiar hymns to be more inclusive. At the same time, it brought back songs that the 1970 hymnal left out, such as Blessed Assurance and included some new hymns.

Although I have no idea when our congregation formed its first choir, I was able to able to go back as far as Rev. Brown’s tenure to learn some things about the history of our choral singing. In 1968, rehearsals were on Wednesday nights. The Senior Choir rehearsed from 8:30 to 10 p.m. and “anyone with a love of music (was) welcomed to attend.” This choir sang at the 11 o’clock service. The Chapel Choir –7th through 12th graders—rehearsed from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Junior Choir –4th through 6th graders—rehearsed from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. They sang on alternate Sundays at 9 a.m. The handbell choirs would rehearse on Monday nights by 1990. (Today, both our vocal and handbell choirs rehearse on Monday nights and Sunday mornings.) Robert Lawton directed all the choirs from the 1960s until 1991, when he retired. The organist in 1968 was Gloria Sandbeck. Patricia Cook became music director after Mr. Lawton left. She moved in 1997, and John Kenneth took her place. Linda Lingenfelter served as the organist for more than 20 years, retiring in 1996. Susan Laurence, a graduate student from SUNY Stony Brook, served as organist for a year. Linda Lingenfelter returned on a part-time basis, sharing the organist position with Judy Lee until 2000.

Mary Charlene Harris served as our interim choir director in 2000, while Cindi Lehmann served as music director. By 2004, Cindi Russell was serving as director of music, leading all the choirs, while Carol Trump played the organ. Pablo Lavandera, a graduate student at Stony Brook, came to us in February 2005 as a substitute organist. He took on the permanent organist position in December of that year. Dr. Joanna Kaczorowska followed Cindi Russell as music director and choir director from 2008-2011, with Pablo playing organ and piano. When Joanna K. moved on, Pablo, who became Dr. Pablo in May 2009, assumed both positions—music director and organist. Joanna Huang came to serve the church as a volunteer and intern with Pablo around 2019 and was hired as a staff musician and children’s music ministry leader in 2023.

When I arrived to serve as your minister in 2022, I was delighted to learn that our congregation still has a full choir, and all are volunteers. And not only that, we have a handbell choir that rings almost every week from September through June. That is unusual. Having someone play violin with the organ or piano every Sunday is also rare and wonderful.

I have given some thought to why we still have choirs when so many churches are struggling to keep even one. This question is related to the question of how our congregation has survived for 350 years, I believe.

I think it is because we know what’s important—living out our faith, serving the Lord—and that we are willing to work hard to persist as a church. We have hope, so we ENDURE. We bear with one another, through ups and downs, and, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5, we have the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that Christ has given us. This is our strength!

This faith stirs us to let go of perfection as a church and individuals. People have made mistakes over the last three centuries. We are going to make mistakes in the years to come. But we are justified by faith—and that is, the faith of Jesus Christ—and not our good works, charisma, or brilliant decisions. Our salvation is based completely on God’s grace. Our existence as a Church of Jesus Christ is all from God’s grace. That means that all the world around us can dissolve into chaos and mayhem, and we still have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. No one can take our peace with God away from us.

This passage in Romans gives us permission to boast. Here are the things that we can boast about. One is our hope of sharing the glory of God. This is both the promise that we, like Christ, will be resurrected and glorified with him because of his suffering work for us on the cross. But it is also that we share the glory of God to the world through our words and acts of kindness and generosity. We are showing God’s glory. We are revealing the goodness of God when we are good!

The other thing we can boast about is our afflictions! Our suffering! We do this as a church. Our entire church family is invited to share our prayer needs during worship, but the ministry of shared suffering continues through the fellowship hour, choral rehearsals, committee and board meetings, men’s and women’s lunches, phone calls, emails, and letters to one another and more. Whenever two or more Christians come together, we are always safe to share our afflictions with one another. And we do. I am not sure that we actually boast of them, like Paul tells us. But he gives us reason to do this. There is an excellent purpose to our afflictions.

It’s a chain reaction. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This is a hope that is not put to shame, a hope that cannot disappoint us. Because we can trust in one thing—and that’s our God of love and, once again, the love of God poured into each of our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

I thank God for our ministry of music. I am so grateful to all our musicians, including our handbell and vocal choirs, instrumentalists, and our choir director, Dr. Pablo Lavandera. All of you have an important calling. Thank you for sharing your gifts and your commitment to come to worship and labor in many rehearsals, developing your gifts and talents, and for encouraging one another as you walk with the Lord.

I asked Pablo last night, “Why do you think we still have a choir, while other churches are struggling and some of have given up on choirs altogether?” He told me that our choir includes a very committed group of people who have been singing together for many years and want to stay together. “They are a family,” he says. They feel challenged by the music and appreciated by their music director—both as musicians and human beings.

“We are singing for a higher purpose,” he says, “and not to put on a show.” It’s all for the Glory of the Lord.

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy One, we give you glory and thanks for all that you are doing in our church and with each of as individuals. Thank you for your love for us, a love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This love and your grace have strengthened us to continue as your church for centuries. We pray for our blessing on all our musicians, on all who sing and play music in worship. We ask that you keep on building up our faith and strengthen us for many more years of serving you in this place. Remind us that our goal is never personal perfection, but rather to share our hope and your love, to endure and bear with one another in times of suffering and struggle, and to do everything to your glory, in your Triune name. Amen.

Filled with the Spirit

Meditation on Acts 2:1–21

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

Pentecost

June 8, 2025

Art by Stushie, used with permission

        Today, on Pentecost, we recognize the Sunday School students’ enthusiastic participation and give thanks for their families who faithfully brought them to church and nurtured the faith and love of the Lord at home. And we show our appreciation for their teachers, who have served for decades, and for many others who labor behind the scenes and in the classroom for the children’s sake.

    When I consider how the move of the Spirit is evident in our congregation, I don’t have to look further than our ministry with children and youth. We may not have a LARGE program.

But there is a sweet Spirit blowing through our multigenerational church. We are a family! The children and youth are precious to us, and we know we are stronger and more joyful as a congregation when they in our midst!

   In October 2023, we had the opportunity to add to our music ministry for young children. Session approved hiring Joanna Huang as our “children’s music ministry leader” and more formally “church musician,” after years of sharing her musical gifts on the violin with the congregation as a volunteer/intern with Dr. Pablo Lavandera. Creating a position for Joanna and adding her to our music staff happened quickly—in a matter of days, through phone calls and emails with Session. Looking back, I believe that it was the Spirit stirring us to enlarge our ministry. We were convinced that the Lord was leading us to do this specifically because of the gifts that she possesses, including a heart to serve.

When I recommended Joanna for a PEO STAR scholarship last October, I spoke of her maturity, sensitivity, humility, and passion for music. She is creative, conscientious, and hardworking, arriving early to practice. For her Confirmation, she wrote a new verse to a hymn, and we sang it as she played her violin. Her greatest challenge is keeping up with her busy schedule as she is 100% committed to everything she does. Though she is busy, she doesn’t often say no to requests on her time when it comes to serving the church.

When asked to talk about her qualities that I believe will carry her into her future, I said, “She is a peacemaker, team player, and cheerful, gentle leader, with excellent problem-solving skills.” “She sets high standards for herself and is an eager learner, as well as a natural-born teacher…. She enjoys playing with others and encourages them so they can be their best. She is never nervous. Her playing is reliable and predictable, and her manner is always warm and professional.” I added at the end of my letter, “I have never met anyone quite like Joanna in my years of ministry—so trustworthy, giving, cheerful, and hardworking. The fact that we created a position for her on our staff, when we have a tiny staff, speaks volumes about her character and gifts. The church loves her. …We believe in her and want to help make her dreams come true. She’s going to go far in this world, with the right support, and we will miss her so much when she goes away to college. The worship service won’t be the same without her, not just for her music, but for the way her music builds community.”

On the Day of Pentecost, it isn’t the first time the Spirit has come. The Spirit was, in fact,

present at Creation. Genesis 1:1 says, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth,the earth was complete chaos and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”  The Spirit was in the breath that the Lord breathed into the first human being. The Spirit led Moses –appearing as a cloud by day and fire by night—to guide the Israelites on their wilderness journey. John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit and foretold in Luke 3:16-17 how the One who was coming, who was more powerful than he, would baptize with Spirit or wind and fire. When John baptizes Jesus, the Spirit comes down on him like a dove.

On Pentecost, the Spirit comes in a new and powerful way, with a new purpose. This is what Christ had promised, an Advocate, Helper, and Comforter to enable his followers to take his gospel out to the world—first to the Jews from many nations who had gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. Pentakostos, theGreek word for 50th, fell on the 50th day after the presentation of the first sheaf to be reaped of the barley harvest or 50 days from the first Sunday after Passover. The Spirit teaches uneducated men from Galilee, Christ’s first apostles, to communicate the good news of the Risen Christ and His redemption to the Jewish people living in the diaspora, speaking many languages and dialects, and then to the Gentiles—all the nations, every part of the world.

But the Spirit isn’t just a great cosmic translator. The Spirit stirs the disciples to speak the exact words that each hearer needs to hear so they are persuaded to believe. For God knows the hearts and minds of human beings. When the Spirit comes, people are astonished and amazed! Others are cynical and skeptical (which is easy to believe) and accuse the disciples of being drunk. Peter is moved to stand and preach his first sermon to this crowd, and like many seasoned preachers, starts his message with a joke, saying how they couldn’t possibly be drunk because it was only 9 o’clock in the morning.

It’s fascinating to me that the Pentecost lectionary readings pairs the Acts passage with the passage in Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel. The assumption is that when God created the world, people were united in one language. When they fell into sin, they became united for an evil, selfish purpose. They wanted to be as powerful as God. They wanted to be gods. They thought they could reach the heavens if they all worked together in this building project. The Lord saw this and confused their languages so they could no longer understand one another and work together. Then God scattered them so they would live all over the earth and not come together to do any more evil. Of course, they find a way.

When the Spirit comes on Pentecost, it’s a new start for the world. The evil intent in the hearts of human beings is undone by the compassion and mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ. A new, diverse community is created. Any obstacles or divisions of language, culture, skin color, and age; gender, generation, and geography; history, economics, education, and lack thereof, slave or free, are overcome by the Spirit of the Lord on the day the Church is born. And it’s a God thing. This Church is not a human organization. It’s not a denomination. It isn’t Protestant or Catholic. It truly is the Body of Jesus Christ.

When we look at the world around us, we can’t help but see how confused and chaotic it is. Have you noticed that people can be attracted to one another and certain groups for the wrong reasons—looking to attain power, wealth, and glory for themselves? It reminds me of the big Tower builders in Genesis 11.

But I don’t want you to look around and focus on what is wrong. Let us just remember the Church has a different purpose. We who embrace Christ’s forgiveness and calling to follow  are connected by our love for God and one another, our worship and our compassionate service.

Today on Pentecost, let us be reminded that our power doesn’t come from ourselves alone. We can wear ourselves out with all the good that we try to do on our own, but then we aren’t really serving the Lord if we leave the Spirit out. I need the Spirit’s help every day. I need to remember to pray.

Today on Pentecost, we who are powered by the Spirit can be known by our fruits. Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 says the evidence of the Spirit’s work in our lives and our church are easy to see. Look for the presence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control and you will find the Spirit of the Living God. You will find the children of God.

Today on Pentecost, don’t be intimidated and discouraged by big Tower builders, those who hunger for power. Ultimately, big tower builders fail and are frustrated, never satisfied. Christ has already won the victory over sin and death. We don’t have to be afraid. The Spirit has made a permanent home in our hearts. 1 John 4:4 encourages us, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them (the world), because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

Today, on Pentecost, stay focused on Christ and the beloved community. Allow the Spirit that lives in you to lead you step by step. If you want to be energized and inspired, spend more time with children and youth. You know, they have as much to teach us as we have to teach them. After all, we share the same Spirit!

Joanna shares her future goals in an application for a church-sponsored scholarship. “Music has always felt like a conversation,” she says, “one that lets me listen, guide, and connect. As a violinist and pianist, I’ve learned that teaching and performing go hand in hand. This fall, I’ll begin studying violin performance at the University of Michigan, with plans to further my studies in graduate school. My goal is to perform in professional ensembles and later teach at the collegiate level, where I can support and inspire the next generation of musicians. I’ve taught younger students privately and through the Tri-M Music Honor Society, and I help lead music at the First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown each week. Watching children light up when they sing or hear the violin reminds me why I love this work. Moments like a student’s quiet thank-you after Sunday School will always stay with me after I leave for college. They push me to grow not just as a musician, but as a mentor.”

Will you pray with me?

Holy Triune God, thank you for sending your Spirit on Pentecost and for empowering ordinary people, such as the first disciples and us, to form and grow your Church here in Smithtown and beyond. Come, Holy Spirit, once again, so that we may be refreshed, encouraged, and united in your Son’s loving, healing purposes. Then give us courage to go out and speak the right words that will bring Christ’s light and peace and the Spirit of truth to places of darkness, division, and confusion. In the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer we pray. Amen.

“I will not leave you orphaned”

Meditation on John 14:18-27

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

In Memory of Palma Courtney

March 22, 1931 – May 31, 2025

 Palma DiMilia Courtney was born on the second day of spring in 1931 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her parents were Josephine and Angelo, immigrants from southern Italy. These were the days when families were large. Palma was the 8th of nine children—first six boys—John, Joseph, Samuel, and Daniel, and two more who did not survive early childhood—then three girls: Lucy, Palma, and Mildred.  The three girls were always close.

 Though her parents had been Roman Catholic growing up in the old country, Palma and her siblings would be raised Presbyterian, first at Ainsley Street Presbyterian Church in Williamsburg. Palma graduated from Eastern District High School in 1949, where Mel Brooks had graduated five years before.

 After high school, Palma worked for 8 years for MetLife and Chase Manhattan Bank, doing secretarial work and bookkeeping. Then she met Thomas Courtney at a dance. He was Irish Catholic, just 5 months older. He lived in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, which borders Williamsburg, where Palma’s family lived. He had served in the Navy during the Korean War era—3 years and 11 months. And he was old fashioned about some things. Without her knowledge, he asked her dad for Palma’s hand in marriage before he asked Palma to marry him. She was mad about that!

They were married on Feb. 16, 1957, in her Presbyterian Church.  

Palma remained close to her sisters after her marriage. They all married and moved to Oceanside in the 1950s and started having children. Palma settled into a life of full-time wife and mother. Four daughters were born there—Lynn, Claudia, Deborah, and Suzanne. Palma sewed all their clothes on her black Singer sewing machine. They had family vacations. And they attended First Presbyterian Church of Christian Hook Oceanside.

But their life was turned upside down in 1964 with the tragic death of Lynn, Palma and Tom’s first born. The little girl was walking home from school one day and was struck by a vehicle. She was 6 years old! A first grader. The family was devastated. How could this happen? They didn’t want to stay in Oceanside any longer.

Tom, who worked for New York Telephone Company, requested a transfer. He was moved to the Northport office. And the family moved in 1965 to a 3-bedroom, 1-bath rancher on Howell Drive in Smithtown. Everything came together, detail by detail. Soon, they started attending the white Presbyterian Church with the clock tower. The children would all attend Sunday School and Westminster Class and be confirmed. Eileen, their youngest, born in Smithtown in 1967, attended our Village Presbyterian Pre-School. Palma joined a Women’s Circle.

Palma didn’t go back to work until Eileen was in school, and even then, she kept it quiet and part time so she could be home when her children were home. Eileen discovered years later that her mother had been working at the cafeteria at Dogwood Elementary when she was a student there. She also worked for Abraham & Strauss department store at Smith Haven Mall during the Christmas season.

Her family would remain the highest importance to Palma. There were family vacations every summer—to Maine, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Florida. Every weekend, there was a family gathering in Oceanside. There was always a party. They celebrated many birthdays with cake, accordion music, and singing good old songs.

She continued to sew for most of her life, making clothing for her daughters and nieces. She enjoyed making crafts and quilting. Every niece, nephew, and grandchild, and perhaps some of the great grandchildren, have quilts made by Palma.

Her friendships were important to her throughout her life, as well. She stayed close with four or five girlfriends she had known since her school years. They had “girl” weekends in New Jersey. They took weeklong trips by car, plane, and bus, going to New Orleans and cross country to Yellowstone and California. They traveled to the Bahamas, Aruba, and more. She built lasting relationships and made memories to forever treasure.

Eileen shared with me how her mother was strong. Her mother had lived with her and her husband for the last 12 years. She wondered if the tragic loss of her first child, 6-year-old Lynn, made Palma stronger and helped her put into perspective all the other challenges and trials, which were nothing compared to that loss. She remained strong after losing her husband Tom to cancer in 1997. She helped her daughters through many hard things, not just through her encouraging words, but through her gift of wisdom, love, and hope that she was able to help them find solutions to their problems and a way forward when they were discouraged.

The readings today remind us that God is always waiting to be a refuge for us—a place of help and shelter through any storm. God is our home in this world and for all eternity. We have the promise of Christ’s return, our own resurrection with him, and no more suffering or sighing. He will wipe away all our tears.

Christ offers the gift of peace to us, a peace, he tells his first disciples in John, that the world cannot give. This peace comes from knowing and trusting Him, casting our burdens upon him, listening for His voice, following in His footsteps.

And we have power right now through the helper Christ sent long ago, who came on Pentecost—which we celebrate this Sunday in worship. God the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, is with us, living in the heart of every believer, dwelling in our midst when we gather in Christ’s name. We are never alone with any hard thing in this world.

The Spirit will strengthen you with wisdom and courage to do and understand things you never imagined you could do and understand. The Spirit will comfort you and heal your hurts, for this world is full of pain and suffering. You will not escape loss and grief here. The Spirit will help you when you struggle with doubts, and when you struggle to forgive. The Spirit will enable you to labor for peace and reconciliation in your household, extended family, community, and world.

I think of Palma’s daughters and the rest of the large, closeknit family who are grieving a mother, aunt, grandmother, and great grandmother. These are Christ’s words for you and for all of us:

“I will not leave you orphaned. I am coming to you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not let them be afraid.”

Amen.

Enlightened Witnesses

Meditation on Luke 24: 44-53

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford

Ascension of the Lord

June 1, 2025

Any mystery fans here? I like to watch crime dramas on ACORN. Jim and I watch from 9 to 10:30 p.m., if I am home and can stay awake. We just finished the available episodes of The One That Got Away.  What brings me back to these mysteries, again and again, is the interesting and flawed characters, with their complicated relationships and histories, as well as their twisting plots and often surprising endings.

In The One That Got Away, the male detective is sure that the right man is in prison for a murder he solved more than a decade ago. He doesn’t want to reopen the case, nor does his boss, but his ex-partner, a woman to whom he was once engaged, comes back to town when another person has been found killed in the manner of the earlier crime. She wants to reopen the case, look for new evidence, and re-interview all the old witnesses.

The problem is caused by the two witnesses, whose testimony was enough to bring about the original conviction. We learn that the first one was actually coached by the male detective, because he was so sure that the man he had arrested had done the crime. Years later, the first witness is haunted by what he has done. He begins to question what he saw. Maybe it wasn’t really that man driving, after all. He can’t sleep at night.

The other witness was the wife of the convicted murder, whom he abused, along with their foster children. She contacts the police when she is dying years later and says she wants to tell the truth, when, in fact, she tells more lies to try to get her husband released and one of her foster sons framed for the crime that we discover in the end, SPOILER ALERT, she really committed.

Being a witness was important to the biblical writers, old and new testaments. The Bible is full of legal language. I had forgotten that Boaz assembled a group of men to serve as witnesses when he made a covenant regarding Ruth at the gate of the city. In Joshua, chapter 24, he tells the Israelites to be witnesses “against themselves” that they have chosen to serve the LORD. “Yes, we are witnesses,” they say. He tells them to throw away their foreign gods and yield their hearts to the Lord, God of Israel. And the people testify, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”

In the gospels, and at least two of the epistles, a follower of Christ is to be a witness—martureo, in Greek. Martureo is found at least 79 times in the New Testament, most of them in John. The word is both a noun and a verb. It means to be a witness and to bear witness, or “affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that (one) knows because (one) was taught by divine revelation or inspiration.”[1]

Being a witness is important to our faith, too—to those of us who weren’t there at the time. We believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven because we trust the people who were there: the enlightened witnesses. Christ opened their hearts and minds so they could not only remember what they saw accurately and retell the stories but understand the deeper meaning behind what happened for their own lives and hope for all eternity.

The witnesses in Luke—possibly 120 disciples at this point—are led by him to the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles from Jerusalem, to Bethany, a small village of great significance. Bethany was where Mary and Martha had invited him and the 12 to dinner (Luke 10:38-42) and Mary didn’t pull her weight in the kitchen. Bethany was where, in John 11, Jesus wept and raised their brother Lazarus after he had been in the tomb 4 days. Bethany was where Jesus had dinner in the house of Simon the Leper in Matthew 26. A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and annoyed the disciples when she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. Bethany was “on the other side of the Jordan, where John” was baptizing and interrogated by the Pharisees in John 1:28. Bethany was the place where Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey began in Luke 19.

Now Bethany is the place where the body of Christ, risen from the tomb, will leave his final footprint before, as we say in the Nicene Creed from the Church of the 4th century A.D. It is where “He ascended into heaven and is (still) seated at the right hand of the Father” until the time when he will “come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”

How do Christ’s witnesses feel about their new role? They are filled with joy by Christ’s blessing as he is carried into heaven. They are moved to worship him while they are waiting for the Spirit that will clothe them with more power from on high. They are continually in the temple, blessing God!

Here’s what I am wondering. Maybe you are wondering, too.

Why does the Ascension really matter for our faith?

I ask this question because I realized the Ascension isn’t celebrated by every denomination or even every church in our denomination, especially when it doesn’t fall on a Sunday. Jim is at a Presbyterian church today that skipped right over it. This year, the calendar tells us to observe the Ascension on Thursday, May 29. Not many of us came to church that day.

One Massachusetts pastor, Rev. Dr. Mike McGarry, an author of several books on youth ministry, writes how after two decades of youth ministry, he’d recently discovered, much to his dismay, that he’d never taught the youth about the Ascension. He says, “I’d given it very little thought or attention at all.”[2] And I’m sure this is true for quite a few pastors.

The Ascension. MEH.

Mike says the doctrine of the Ascension has become one that “routinely ministers” to him. He says, “For most of my Christian life, I have honestly lived as if Jesus is currently hibernating. I know he was busy between Christmas and Easter, and I believe he will return again as judge and savior. But I have given very little thought to Jesus’ present ministry. He isn’t on sabbatical while the Father and Holy Spirit are at work in the Church today.”[3]

This is what he learned and what I hope you will remember from our message today—so that we may live out the role as Christ’s enlightened witnesses. Three things, really.

  1. The Ascension should give us confidence “that Jesus sees us. He isn’t aloof. He isn’t hibernating until he returns again. Jesus knows and sees what is happening today. He is still leading and caring for his people, especially in the midst of their suffering and persecution.”[4] Mike says, “Teenagers can live with confidence that Jesus isn’t merely watching them, he is watching over them. The presence of Christ is not simply a metaphor. For a generation … marked by loneliness and mental health struggles, the presence of Christ is a significant encouragement.”[5]
  • The Ascension should give us confidence that “Jesus will finish everything that he began. He wasn’t a failed-messiah,” [6] Mike tells the youth. “It’s common for teenagers and young adults to be disillusioned with the world, and to wonder, “If this is what Jesus accomplished, then why bother?” His death and resurrection are “central to his victory over sin and death, but so are his ascension and return. The ascension is a reminder that the victory of the gospel is secure, but it hasn’t yet been fully applied.” Remembering Christ’s ascension “gives teenagers confidence that God’s salvation is still unfolding.”[7]

And finally,

3. The Ascension should give us confidence “in the body. Jesus wasn’t a ghost. His resurrection and ascension were both bodily and physical, and he will return in the same way. Christianity is a physical and bodily religion. We do not merely believe in mindfulness or spirituality but in the goodness of creation and salvation of the body. The gospel leads us into the New Heavens and New Earth, which will be a physical life that is marked by glory and holiness.”[8]

Dear friends, what do you think of your role as witnesses? This is my hope and prayer.

That you are not frightened or intimidated by it. Sometimes, we think of witnessing to people as telling them how to get saved. Please don’t think of it this way. You need to be a witness to the new things that the Lord reveals to you about God and this world, yourself, and your life every time you hear or read Scripture and learn from the Body. You need to tell your story; participate in the making of a new story for the Church of Jesus Christ; and invite others to join in, share their stories, and be witnesses, too.

That you will have joy, like the disciples who were physically present at the Ascension, a joy that will draw you back to worship, continually blessing the Lord.

That the Ascension gives you confidence that Christ sees you and watches over you and isn’t in hibernation until he comes again.

And that you embrace Christ’s forgiveness for yourself and others. And speak and live in such a way that humbly bears witness to the truth, with no regrets, no sleepless nights.

Let us pray.

Holy One, we embrace the role of being your witnesses, those who were not physically present that day to see the events unfold, but who have been enlightened by your Son and trust the witnesses who were there. Thank you for Christ’s Ascension with a blessing, the completion of his exaltation and glorification, and the promise of our resurrection and glorification with him. Empower us to live confidently, knowing we are forgiven, and Christ is with us and watching over us from his seat on your right hand. Keep our hearts and minds open to learning new things in your Word and re-forming the way we think of you, ourselves, one another, your Church, and the world you so love. Grant us your peace, courage, and rest. Amen.

     [1] https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G3140/martureo.htm

      [2] Rev. Dr. Mike McGarry at https://livingtheologically.com/about/.

      [3] McGarry

      [4] McGarry

      [5] McGarry

      [6] McGarry

      [7] McGarry

    [8] McGarry

She Was Listening with Her Heart

Meditation on Acts 16:9-15

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

May 25, 2025

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activities, beginning with a long travel day on Friday to Austin, TX, due to weather-related delays. Jim and I finally arrived at our hotel at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday. Later that day, we attended a worship service for the graduates and their families. Commencement was on Sunday. We journeyed home on Monday.

It was an exhausting weekend, and I was sad that no one else from my class was graduating with me. I didn’t know any of the students. But I am glad that I went. I was reminded of the faithfulness of God and the goodness of God’s people.

My motivation for attending was gratitude. I wanted to say thank you to the director of the program, the Rev. Dr. Sarah Allen, who had just begun her job when I started the program in January 2022. I wanted to say thank you to one of my teachers, Dr. William Greenway, who opened my eyes to the wonder and holiness of God’s Creation—particularly the non-human creatures—and encouraged me to incorporate this love and wonder in new ways in my ministry.

But the person that I wanted to say thank you to the most was my faculty reader and final teacher, Dr. Donghyun Jeong. He encouraged me to follow my heart and do my project—exploring the spirituality of Presbyterian gardeners—the way that I wanted to.  He encouraged me to listen to a variety of voices, including biblical, theological, scientific, and poetic. But the voice he said that should be the loudest in the final written project was to be MY OWN. That was a little intimidating for me. He told me that I was the captain of this ship. He complimented me on my writing style and told me that he knew I could do it.

I approached the project in the way that I felt most comfortable, by telling a story, from the beginning to the end. It became a spiritual memoir, filled with photos of gardens, birds, and the people who shared their stories and gardens with me.

During the oral evaluation right after Easter, he told me that I had inspired him, who was not a gardener, to take his son out into their yard and dig with him, looking for the countless organisms that live under our feet in the soil. His son was grossed out by the bugs, he said, but it was a new, enlightening experience for father and young son, strengthening the connection between two people with God’s soil.

Just before Commencement began, while I was busy learning to line up, Dr. Jeong praised me to my husband. Near the end of commencement, he sang a solo in Korean: Everyone Who Longs for the Boundless Love of God.

He turned and sang the final verse looking at the graduates, catching my eye and holding it, as I sat in the front row. He sang in his native tongue,

“God is always watching over you;

God is watching you with loving eyes;

God is hearing you in all your prayers;

God is listening with tender, loving ears.

God shines light in every dark and fearful place we go

and will answer every little cry that you make,

so wherever you may go follow in God’s holy way

and trust God to take you home.”

We encounter the story of Lydia in Acts 16—a strong woman, business leader in her community, whose ears and heart were open to hear the word of the Lord and respond with enthusiasm. She was a God-fearer, a Gentile who had accepted the God and faith of Israel.

Paul, who led the journey to Philippi after he sees a vision of a Macedonian man pleading for help, brings with him Silas and young Timothy. They join Lydia and other women gathered on the banks of the Gangites or Ganges River on the sabbath “to go through the appointed Jewish service of prayer for the sabbath day.”[1] Why a river, you ask? There probably was no synagogue in this town. This was Paul’s routine when he arrived at a city—to worship in the local synagogue on the sabbath. The Jewish population in Philippi may have been small,[2] and “no number of women could compensate for the absence of even one man necessary to make up the quorum of ten”[3] required for worship.

Here in Acts is the only place we hear of Lydia in the Bible. I was dismayed to read one scholar’s interpretation (Valerie Abrahamsen) that Lydia’s story may be fictitious.[4] I don’t see any evidence for this. Her story would have been circulated in the Christian community in the late first century and beyond. Valerie suggests that her name may have been “adopted by Luke to refer to the region of Lydia in Asia Minor, where Thyatira was located.”[5] I think she may have simply been named for the region where she lived, like Mary Magdalene who was really Mary of Magdala, a fishing and trade city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Mary was born.

“Thyatira, a Macedonian colony in Asia Minor, was known in antiquity for its excellent dye industry.” The purple dye was made “from the juice of the madder root,”[6] which was “still in use for the dying of carpets at the end of the 19th century.”[7] Lydia is a dealer, a seller of the “very precious commodity”[8] of purple goods, which were used “primarily for the clothing of royalty and the wealthy. Inscriptions have been found honoring the city’s guild of dyers, and Luke’s readers,” Valerie says, “may have associated Lydia with such a guild.”[9]

It’s interesting to me that people assume, since there is no husband mentioned, that she is a widow. “Women in Macedonia were noted for their independence…under Roman law (which governed life in the colony) freeborn women with three children and freedwomen with four children were… granted a number of privileges, including the right to undertake legal transactions on their own initiative.”[10]

The important thing to know is that Lydia listened as Paul and his friends spoke. Yes, she was listening to Paul, but she had really come to the river to talk to and listen for God’s voice. And she listens not just with her ears, but with her heart. She is seeking God’s will for her life. She hears the good news of Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah. She acknowledges Jesus as Lord and, in response to her newfound faith and commitment to Christ, is baptized in the River Gangites or Ganges, along with her entire household, which includes children and servants.

Some of the more cynical voices say that she must have compelled her household to be baptized. So, it wasn’t a true believer baptism for them. But what if all the people are responding to the move of the Spirit in this place? What if she is not the only one who experiences conversion? What if Luke is trying to tell us that faith can be spread quickly through individuals and families and through a crowd of women gathered at the river to pray?

Lydia is so excited to hear the good news that Paul, Silas, and Timothy share that day that she urges them to stay at her home. She “prevails upon them.”

Another cynical voice, Gail O’Day, says that “Luke’s treatment of Lydia is self-serving. His ideal women throughout Acts merely provide housing and some economic resources to (male) Christian missionaries and allow men to preserve or assume leadership roles in the community.”[11]

But I don’t see her that way. I see Lydia, who listens with her heart, as a leader not just in the business community, but in the religious community, especially now with her newfound faith in Christ her Savior. Lydia is the first known convert to Christianity in all of Europe.

I believe she is moved by gratitude and a hunger to know Christ more when she invites Paul, Silas, and Timothy to stay with her in her home. And she doesn’t take no for an answer.

Looking back at my own faith journey, which continues on and in some ways has begun again with my Commencement from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary last Sunday, I have to say that listening is the most important act of faith that we can ever do. We listen for God’s voice in Scripture, through prayer, and in the voice of the gathered people in worship and with all the spiritual fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers whom God places in our life. We learn and grow from one another. We are supported and encouraged in the faith by one another.

What comes next for me? I don’t know. For now, I am glad to have finished a challenging program of theological study that required travel to Texas twice a year. I am ready for joy and rest, spending time with my family, and getting to know my flock and the Lord even more. I am ready for whatever the Lord has planned for our future together, dear friends.

May you be encouraged by my story to listen for God’s voice and to listen with all your heart. May you respond eagerly and gratefully when the Lord tells you to go and share your story and God’s love with others. For you know that

“God is always watching over you.

God is watching you with loving eyes;

God is hearing you in all your prayers;

God is listening with tender, loving ears.

God shines light in every dark and fearful place we go

and will answer every little cry that you make…”

And when the Spirit of the Lord comes knocking at your door, I pray you will invite Christ to come in and stay with you and your household. And, like Lydia, that you don’t take no for an answer.

Let us pray.

Holy One, Loving Lord, thank you for always watching over us, with loving eyes and hearing us in all our prayers. Thank you for watching over me, my family and church family, especially in these last three years, while I was going to school in Texas. Lord, teach us to listen for your voice with our hearts, as you listen, with tender, loving ears to all our concerns. Teach us to respond eagerly and gratefully, as did Lydia, and to see your light shining in every dark and fearful place. Lead us to share our stories and your love, knowing the power of the Spirit to use our words to bring others closer to you. May we invite you in to live with us forever in our hearts and homes. In Christ we pray. Amen.

     [1] F.F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 1988), 310.  

     [2] Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 310.  

     [3] Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 310.

     [4] Valerie Abrahamsen in Women in Scripture, edited by Carol Meyers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 2000), 110-111.

     [5] Abrahamsen, Women in Scripture, 111.

     [6] Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 311.

     [7] Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 310.

     [8] Abrahamsen, Women in Scripture, 111.

     [9] Abrahamsen, Women in Scripture, 111.

     [10] Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 311.

     [11] Abrahamsen, Women in Scripture, 111.

“Tabitha, get up!”

Meditation on Acts 9:36-42

Rev. Dr. Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Mother’s Day

May 11, 2025    

                                             

I received the best Mother’s Day present this week! My husband bought me a pitchfork. To be clear, it wasn’t specifically a Mother’s Day present. But I am really excited about it. I’ve always wanted a pitchfork. This one is light and easy to handle, but also sharp and powerful. I’ve already used it to turn my compost pile!

I’ve said this before and I will say it, again. I come from a long line of strong women. But I have to say that I didn’t get the gardening gene from my mom. She doesn’t like working in the yard. She doesn’t even like cut flowers.

My mom may not be a gardener, but she is amazing in other ways. A world traveler. Smart! Funny. Chatty. Never shy. Loves people.

She grew up spending half a year on City Island, NY, and half a year in Daytona Beach, FL. She graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona when she was 16 and went off to study nursing at Boston University. She served her country in the Navy as an R.N. at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Mom met my dad at dinner with friends. He was a little older, a cartographer who had also served in the Navy. He was Jewish, while she had been raised Lutheran. They fell in love and got married by a Justice of the Peace. They had three kids in four years (I’m the youngest), and one day, Dad showed my mom where he wanted to live—a house way out on the country so he could garden. So, even though she was a city girl, they moved to the country. Mom managed to fit into small town life and make plenty of friends, though she was one of only a few women who were college graduates in the town. She played bridge—still plays bridge several days a week—and still keeps up with her old friends, many of them former bridge partners.

As I grew up, she continued to work as a nurse. She worked 3 to 11 shifts at the ER at Montgomery General Hospital, now Medstar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, MD. Dad would feed us hot dogs, tuna fish, or TV dinners and put us to bed while she was still working. She later became a school health nurse. She drove to more than one school to serve students every day, many of them needy. She would change careers when I was in junior high, becoming a real estate agent. She discovered she really liked it and was great at it. Why am I remembering when mom had a mobile phone in the 1970s? It was kept in a big bag in her car.

But mom wasn’t just about her job, though work has always been important to her. She continues to work in her retirement in her 80s, preparing taxes for her neighbors. Mom has always been close to her extended family, visiting and writing cards and letters. She has always loved to cook and was an excellent baker. She can make a pie crust! She and her friend, Eleanor, also a nurse, used to can and freeze all sorts of vegetables and fruits so that we could eat local produce year round.

Mom loved football, too. Still does. My dad didn’t follow sports. She bought a little red, black and white TV of her own in the 1970s, when most households only had one TV, so that she wouldn’t miss a single game of the Washington Redskins. I can still hear her yelling, “Get him! Get him!”’

Mom has sung in church choirs for years. She didn’t have time when she was busy raising three kids and working as a real estate agent. But after she and dad retired and moved back to her native Florida in the early 1990s, she began to sing in church, again. She also learned to paint. The walls of her home are full of her watercolor art, which has been displayed in the community center where she lives and featured in local publications.

Before learning to paint, mom could knit Afghans and sew like anything. I still hear the hum of her sewing machine that she operated with her knee and her hands. She made my sister and me clothes when jumpers and tights were all the thing. I remember getting compliments on a green jumper that I wore to a junior high dance. Mom had made it!

Since my father died, my mom continues to care for people. She volunteers at the nursing home where my dad spent his last months, struggling with Parkinson’s. She brings the residents in wheelchairs to the church service on Sunday mornings.

The strong women in my family have many of the character traits of Tabitha in our reading in Acts today. Tabitha, an Aramaic word that means “Gazelle,” was called Dorcas among the Greek speakers. One translation says, “She spent all her time in the performance of good works and acts of kindness.” After she falls ill and dies, is washed and laid in an upper room, and disciples send for Peter in the nearby town of Lydda, we learn more about her amazing gifts that she shared with her community. Peter is greeted, when he arrives, by all the widows, tearfully showing him the dresses and coats that Dorcas has made.

And Peter, commissioned by the Risen Christ to tend his lambs and feed his sheep, has just healed a man called Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and confined to bed for 8 years. The residents of Lydda and the Plain of Sharon see him healed and “turn to the Lord.”

This time, Peter will raise Tabitha/Dorcas to new life. This scene looks remarkably like when Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter from her deathbed in Mark 5:41. “He says a short sentence in Aramaic, differing only in one letter from Jesus’ words to Jairus’s daughter. Whereas Jesus had said Talitha qum(i)… Peter now says Tabitha qum(i) or “Tabitha, get up.”[1]

She opens her eyes and, seeing Peter, sits up. He helps her to stand and calls in all the widows to present her ALIVE, again. Many come to believe on the Lord because of her healing.

Dear friends, God cares about the bodies of women and the gifts of women. We need only look around this room and share the stories of our flock to know how blessed we are because of the gifts of women. Our cup of blessing runneth over!

My mom and I didn’t always see eye to eye in my teens and twenties. Did I tell you that I come from a long line of women with strong personalities? By the time I was in my 30s, my eyes were opened to her humanity and strengths, more and more, and to my own humanity and weaknesses. God has a way of humbling us, reminding us of the grace that we all have been given and the new mercies that we receive from the Lord every morning. God has a way of helping us, as we age, see our parents and siblings and other relatives as people, with their own struggles and difficulties. And we love them even more.

Dear friends, how could we who are loved unconditionally, we who are the redeemed, withhold love or forgiveness from a family member?

Mom was there when I needed her, so many times. And I am so thankful that my mom is still with us. I know today, especially, many of you are missing your moms, who have already gone home to be with the Lord. Remember that your loved ones are still with us in the Great Cloud of Witnesses. They are here today. They are still cheering you on as you run the race of faith.

In a few moments, we will celebrate our Communion with Christ and one another. As we partake of the bread and cup, remember that we are celebrating with the Great Cloud of Witnesses, all the faithful who have gone before us, who have already finished their race and are with Christ, face to face. May the Lord open our eyes to their everlasting, loving presence with us.

And Mom, if you are listening to this message today on the livestream, I want to say thank you for being my amazing mom! I am so proud of you! I love you!

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for your love for us and your concern for the bodies of women and girls. Your plan for salvation includes using the gifts of all women and girls for ministry—for loving and caring for others in more ways than we can say. Today on Mother’s Day and every day we thank you for our mothers, Lord, who have loved and nurtured us into being the people we are today. We ask that you bless women everywhere, Lord. Let them feel your loving care of their bodies, minds, and souls. Heal the sick and comfort those who are grieving their loved ones. And dear Lord, we lift up families with broken relationships. We pray that you would bring about peace, reconciliation, and healing, just as you gave Peter power to raise Tabitha from the dead. In the name of our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—we pray. Amen.

     [1] F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (Revised), The New International Commentary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 199.

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