Sharing God's Love and Grace

Meditation on James 1:17–27

Pastor Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Aug. 27, 2024

I have begun my interviews for my doctoral project! It is so fun to hear your stories and see your gardens. I am learning a great deal from my fellow gardeners!

The conversation invariably turns to some of our challenges with gardening—and the complicated relationships we have with the wildlife in our communities.

Take the rabbits for example. They are SO cute! Except when they are eating all the new green shoots from the seeds that we have sown in hope. Gardeners are always people of hope.

Other creatures can present challenges to gardeners. Bugs, insects, mold, and fungus! Voles and moles and groundhogs. Rats and chipmunks, squirrels and raccoons, to name a few!  One of our gardeners has relocated a couple of hundred squirrels and a couple of raccoons in humane traps. You have to drive them at least 6 miles away, she says, or they will come back.

Some of the gardeners have complained about deer eating their plants, shrubs, and trees. Fences and wire cages are the norm in my neighborhood if you don’t want them to devour just about everything growing in your yard. But one says she has never seen a deer where she lives, and she has lived there more than 50 years. She knows they are in the community, however, because one deer visited a beauty salon not far from her home.

Sure enough, the owner posted a video of the 2019 visit on Youtube:

Journalist Nick Caloway of CBS News shared the story:

“Walk-ins are welcome at the BeYouTiful salon in Lake Ronkonkoma,” the story begins, “but this isn’t what owner Jenisse Heredia had in mind.

“‘At first, I thought it was a car coming in the window, and when I turned around, I realized it was a deer,’ she said. Heredia can be seen on security camera video giving a customer a haircut Saturday afternoon when the deer crashed through the front window of her shop, sending shards of glass flying. It was a very close call for a woman waiting on the couch. She was kicked by the buck as it jumped over her. The deer spent less than 30 seconds inside, but like a bull in a china shop, a buck can do a number on a hair salon. ‘It was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,’ witness Edward Preuss said. He was getting a haircut as the wild animal came crashing in.”

The owner said she had never seen a deer in the area before. She guesses it “came from some nearby woods and lost its way before plowing into her salon. Most of the mess had already been cleaned up by Sunday afternoon, with a boarded-up window the only sign something went terribly wrong. As it careened out the front door, a hair straightener was tangled around its antlers. ‘Right now it’s on the house,’ the beauty salon owner joked. ‘Actually, my assistant found it, and it’s totaled.’ As for the deer, it was long gone by the time police showed up.”

This day that we mark an ecumenical World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is a good day to consider our relationships—with God and one another, and the nonhuman creatures that live as our neighbors, too!

The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation was started by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the Orthodox Church in 1989. It signals the beginning of the Season of Creation, which also has its roots in the Orthodox Church, and will conclude on the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 4.

The Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church, joined the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2012. The Roman Catholic Church adopted it as a day of prayer in 2015. Today, the list of those participating in this Day of Prayer and Season of Creation has expanded to include numerous denominations and organizations, such as Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, World Council of Churches, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches, of which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a member.

An Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns in the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Jessica Maudlin, writes at the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s website, “It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. Our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth. We rejoice in this opportunity to safeguard our common home and all beings who share it…As people of faith, we are called to lift the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. This is not a hope without action but one embodied in concrete actions of prayer and preaching, service and solidarity.”

The theme for 2024 is “Hope and Act with Creation,” drawn from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25) where he explains what it means to live according to the Spirit,

    “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hopethat the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For inhope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Our reading in James echoes this theme of hope that leads to faithful action, which includes life-giving speech. One of my favorite verses is at the beginning of this passage—that every good and generous act of giving comes from God, is a gift from God. This means that when we are generous with one another and our church, we reveal the generosity of God, who is the Giver. This God is “the Father of Lights,” hinting at the Creation story in Genesis 1:3 and 4, when the Lord said, “Let there be Light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.”

James doesn’t have a high opinion of people who say they are religious, but their lives fail to reveal their faith. James says, “Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

It’s easy to say we love God, we love our neighbors, and we love Creation. We all would agree with that statement. None of us ever wants to hurt anyone or anything or disappoint the Lord. But it’s a lot harder to have our words and actions reveal the love of God for our families, neighbors, friends, and the natural world around us.

The love of God is revealed when we are kind to all creatures, not just when it is convenient for us. We must be intentional with our kindness, and not just have it be random acts when opportunities present themselves. We must pursue kindness and reconciliation, which is a difficult work and a radical thought, in this world. Think about it in our context, in an election year, that kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech are to be pursued, and that this is the true calling of Christ’s followers. We are going against the example of the world, since the garden of Eden, really, when we don’t pursue power or control over the land, and all the people and animals who live in it.

Where does our power come from, that is, the power to pursue our calling, to pursue kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech?  It comes from prayer—and the sacrament of Communion, gathering with the people of God at the Lord’s Table.

In a few moments, I will invite you to come to the Table to celebrate our Communion with one another and our Savior, the Son, through whom all things were made. When we partake of the elements, I urge you to remember that they came from the earth, and all started from seeds. Imagine the bread as grains of wheat, the juice as grapes on the vine. Our sacrament had its beginnings with the soil—the same soil from which God formed the first human being and breathed into him life.

Knowing that the sacrament had its beginnings with the soil, and that we had our beginnings with the soil, how can we not see that every step we take on earth, we are walking on holy ground? In Luke, the risen Lord revealed himself to two of his disciples in the breaking of the bread at their table, after walking with them on the dusty road to Emmaus.

Dear friends, may we see and experience the love and grace of God as we partake of the bread and cup together.

May we see one another as the Lord sees us—as precious children of God. Forgiven, freed, loved, indeed! May the Body (all of us) be refreshed, renewed, reconciled, and re-membered. Healed. May we be reminded that we never walk alone. The Lord who feeds us at his Table goes with us as we leave His church.

May we be strengthened in our faith to nourish all we meet on Bread for the world.

Let us pray!

Lord God of Creation, thank you for caring for us. Thank you for your call to care for your Creation that is groaning in labor pains—all the peoples, animals and plants, land, water, and air. We pray for the healing of the Earth. Help us to love others and your Creation, dear God, as you love us. Empower us, especially in this Season of Creation, to pray daily, and hope and act with Creation, for our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth. Lead us to pursue kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech and to share the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. Let us be doers and not just merely hearers, deceiving ourselves. In Christ we pray. Amen.

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

Aug. 25, 2024

One of our gardeners, Betsy, drove me to meet Sister Mary Lou Buser at her garden ministry in Brentwood a little more than a week ago.  She was an “expert” interview as part of my doctoral research on the spirituality of gardening. I was emailing with Sister Mary Lou and the garden manager, Heather Bolkas, before I realized the connection between Mary Lou and Betsy’s mother, Pat. Pat and Mary Lou are good friends, who have known each other for decades, going back to when Mary Lou lived in an apartment at Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown. Pat and Mary Lou, both master gardeners, were volunteers there working to restore Mrs. Blydenburgh’s garden. Pat was on her way to garden with Mary Lou at Sweetbriar on a September morning in 2001 when she heard on her car radio about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Mary Lou is the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph Garden Ministry. Have you heard of it? The Ministry seeks to “model organic agricultural principles but also to teach children their connection with the earth and to foster a community spirit among adults.” They offer eco-contemplative experiences and embodied prayer in the garden, such as Yoga and Tai Chi for teens and adults and nature courses for children, such as “Hands on Earth Play” and “My Grown-Up and Me in the Big Outdoors” for ages 4-7, and “Soil, Worms and Compost” for the upper grades. What interested me is “The Spirituality of Bread Making,” a retreat for adults in February, in which they go from soil to sacrament, making bread in an outside brick oven from the winter wheat they have grown in the garden.  

I first learned about the ministry when I heard about the sisters’ Thursday morning prayer gatherings in the garden throughout the summer. I reached out for details, and the next thing I knew, I was scheduling a time when Betsy and I could come and hear Heather and Sister Mary Lou’s stories.

As Betsy and I arrive on Aug. 16, a chicken greets us in the yard. The chickens have names such as Cleo, Carol, Boots, and Wheezy.

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness,” Mary Lou quips, “than ask for permission.” A volunteer carrying a bunny interrupts our interview to say that it has escaped its pen. Again. “That happens all the time,” Mary Lou says. “Probably dug a hole.” There are other animals who have found a permanent home with the garden ministry—honeybees for pollination and honey in hives built by a volunteer—and goats over the years—Lamanchas, Nubians, and Nigerian Dwarfs with names such as Austin, Hamilton, Fiona, Elsa, and Eloise. A lady takes them for a walk every night, and they follow her.

The garden property includes twenty-four 4 by 16-foot community garden plots, where neighbors may plant, water, tend, harvest, and consume their own produce and enjoy their own flowers, without paying a fee. They have an annual community picnic at the garden, in which all are invited to bring a “tasty dish” to share. The same families return, year after year.

I can’t explain it, but it feels like we are on Holy Ground. Maybe because of all the love and generosity practiced. Maybe it’s because of all the prayer. Maybe it’s simply because of God’s grace.

“It’s grounding, healing, connecting with the earth,” Heather says. “The embodied work (of the garden) is lifegiving and necessary for survival.” The preschool on the campus, Shepherd’s Gate, offers hands-on nature programs and even a full nature immersion program that connects with the garden ministry. Before the tour following our interview, Heather apologizes for the weeds that have overwhelmed the garden and volunteers this year. Vegetables, picked 7 days a week in season, are offered at what looks like a farm stand, but without price tags or someone minding the counter. A wooden sign above says, “The Sharing Table.” The table has a cooler, donation box, and fresh floral bouquet. The motto is, “Take What You Need/Give What You Can.” “Vegetables served 11,500 meals last year,” Heather says. “Chickens shared 6,000 eggs.”

As we prepare to leave, a calico cat darts out from underneath Betsy’s car. “That’s why they don’t have voles,” Betsy says, and we laugh. Betsy has voles in her garden! Time has passed quickly, and I am sad to leave. My mind circles back to Mary Lou’s humble story.

The ministry started with a love for the earth, cultivated at home. When she was a child, her father planted a Victory Garden during the Second World War. “Dad planted tomato seeds,” she says, “and we watched them come up.” Mary Lou, who has served as a science teacher at Holy Family and a physical therapist, said she was listening to a man named James Hansen in the 1980s talk about global warming. Hansen, with degrees in physics, math, and astronomy, was Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies when he testified to Congress in 1988, advocating action to avoid dangerous climate change.

Mary Lou said to herself, “We better do something about it now.” So, she decided to plant an organic garden. She was aware of how food was grown in “Big Ag,” she said, and that this was a cause of global warming. She thought, “If I could start a little garden, I can make a difference.”

She started with a few tomato plants, peppers, cucumbers, and beans. The garden grew. “I was a little ahead of my time in the 80’s,” she says. “I had two sisters who helped me.” The first plot was 15 by 15 or 20 by 20. They had to put a fence around it, not because of deer, but because of the horses on the property that would get into it. Whatever the garden produced, Mary Lou put on a little table for anyone to take. The garden expanded every year. Chickens came later, and the eggs went on the table, too. People dropped off rabbits no longer wanted after Easter—and the ministry grew to include them, as well.

Mary Lou knew a beekeeper, and one day in church, she asked him to make a beehive for them. Heather came in 2011, offering to help Mary Lou by weeding one hour a day. Her responsibilities and hours grew, too.

But the journey from the first small, garden plot in the 1980s to the thriving garden ministry today was a difficult one. Mary Lou had no encouragement, at first. “The other sisters thought I was crazy,” she says. She worked in the garden in the evenings, after working her day job. “I am glad I started it, and I am glad I stuck with it,” she says. Since she began the gardening ministry, her faith has changed. She has come to know and “believe in a different God,” she says, than when she was growing up. “I can feel God’s presence with me more in a garden (than anywhere else),” she says. “I am glad that I know this God now. God who creates all the time. God who loves.”

Today, following our worship in the sanctuary, we will go to an outdoor sanctuary—out in God’s creation—to dedicate our new prayer garden. The garden is a generous gift of Daniel Davidsen to bless the church for his Eagle Scout Project. It is my hope that this garden will be USED and TENDED by our church and community and not forgotten. There’s nothing sadder than a garden that is neglected. It is my hope that this garden will thrive and grow, for years to come, and will stir our members to plant their own gardens at home and share the produce, as Judy Michon does on the hallway table. It is my hope that the garden, like Sister Mary Lou’s, will be organic—that whatever will be used to care for our prayer garden, will be kind to the earth and healthy for human beings and non-human creatures.

We will ask for God’s blessing on this holy space and on all hands that, with God, will co-create with it. May all who come and spend quiet time on the bench or labor with hands in the soil—planting, weeding, watering, pruning—meet the God of the garden there.

The God who creates all the time. The God who loves.

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy One, God our Gardener, thank you for the gift of this wonderful life on your beautiful earth. Stir us to love your Creation, more and more, and to take better care of it—till it and keep it, as you charged the first human being in your Garden of Eden. We ask a blessing on Sister Mary Lou, Heather, and the garden ministry in Brentwood. Thank you for their example of perseverance. May they touch even more hearts, souls, and lives in years to come, feeding people with produce and prayer. And we ask a blessing on Daniel Davidsen, and our new prayer garden. We give you thanks! May it become a holy space for each of us, a place where we meet you, where faith is strengthened and renewed, where we experience afresh your unconditional love, and are moved to share it with others. In your Son’s name we pray. Amen.

Meditation on Ephesians 4:25—5:2

Pastor Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Aug. 11, 2024

Just got back from my trip to Denver to see my son, Jacob, on Friday night. My plane was delayed. Then we flew through storms that made my flight kind of like an amusement park ride that you wished you had never gone on.

The plane rocked back and forth, back and forth. It bumped up and down, up and down.

I had bought a salad to eat on the plane, but the ride was so uncomfortable, I didn’t bother to take it out of my bag.

A little boy – maybe 2—was taking his first ride on a plane with his family. He was sitting right behind me. It wasn’t the seat I had purchased online, but at the last minute, the flight attendant called me to the desk and asked if I wanted a “comfort row seat.” Jim had put me on the waiting list, without my knowledge.

I said yes. I am sure it was God’s will! There was a lesson to be learned.

Right from the beginning, the boy didn’t want to wear his seatbelt. He told his dad that he couldn’t see out the window if he had his seatbelt on. His dad tried to reason with him. He told him that if he didn’t wear the seatbelt, he might fly out of the plane. (I was smiling at that.)

The fight over the seatbelt went on a bit more, and then the boy started crying out for his mom. If Dad doesn’t say yes, maybe Mom will. Mom and Dad switched seats so Mom could be sitting right beside him. She gave him snacks and toys, comforted and tried to distract him, while he was wearing his seatbelt. He was OK for a while. But this was a 4-hour flight. And it was like an amusement park ride gone bad.

The pilot gets back on the P.A. when we have been in the air for about an hour. He tells us that we will have to remain seated, with seatbelts on, for the entire flight because, and I paraphrase, he was going to do some fancy flying to get around the storms, and we were still going to encounter rough air. The whole time, the passengers remained calm, except for the little boy—scared out of his wits when the plane started bucking like a Bronco.

“Let me out of here! Let me out of here! Let me out of here!” he cries. His mother tries to calm him down from the seat next to him, but there’s no calming him down, this time.

I start to pray– for the parents and the frightened boy. Within moments, she unsnapped the seatbelt and took him into her lap. He stopped crying.

We all sighed with relief. That rule—wearing the seatbelt throughout the flight when there might be rough air—it was made with good reason. It’s a good rule—to keep people safely in their seats, when they might fall if they try to walk around.

That rule was broken so that the higher law of love, kindness, and compassion that the Lord requires of us could be kept. It was God’s grace!

We encounter new rules, new ways for living as Christians in our passage in Ephesians today. This letter—written with long, beautiful Greek sentences and some different vocabulary and language than we find in letters confirmed by scholars to be, without a doubt, written by Paul—may have been written by a later disciple of Paul, strongly influenced by his teachings. Scholars first came to this conclusion doing a close study of the Greek letter in the 1790s. Many believe this to be the case today.

This doesn’t make it any less inspired, any less Holy Scripture! By the middle of the Second Century, Ephesians had a wide circulation, passed from church to church, and was accepted as an official book of the Bible—canonical. The focus is on the Body of Christ—the Church. Three main themes in the letter are: 1. Christ has reconciled all creation to himself and to God; 2. Christ has united people from all nations—Jews and Gentiles—to himself and to one another in his church; and 3. Christians must live as new people. The third one is the message of our passage today—new ways for the beloved children of God and why we should embrace them.

It’s interesting to look at the old ways as a kind of a window into the past. Who were these new Christians, the saints “in Ephesus” as the letter says, who are “faithful in Christ Jesus”? I wish we knew more about them. They may have been Gentile Christians—and this was the assurance they needed that they were as welcome as Jewish Christians and the teaching they needed for what that new way of life would look like, when they weren’t living with the same culturally accepted behaviors and emotions as their unbelieving neighbors.

In the new life, there’s no place for falsehood. Some ancient cultures actually saw lying as a good character trait—if you were a good liar. Now, we must speak the truth with our neighbor. Lying hurts the family of God. Then, a discussion of anger. It’s complicated. Anger can be good and bad for the faithful. “Be angry but do not sin” – so, be angry for the things that would upset the Lord, such as injustice, violence, suffering, and cruelty. But then, those familiar words of wisdom, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Let go of your anger when it’s time to sleep, followed by the warning that if you hold onto your anger, you may be opening yourself to temptation to sin.

The grace and mercy of the Lord is evident with, “Those who steal must give up stealing.” Are those who have committed crimes welcome in the community of faith? Yes, of course, but just like everyone else, they must turn from their sinful ways.

This next part is intriguing to me. The new life in Christ means to continue to work for a living, in ordinary jobs of the time, but let it be good work that we do with our own hands. I can’t imagine the writer saying this to extremely wealthy people, who don’t work for a living, so I can imagine the congregation as being more ordinary people—farmers, tradespeople, craftsmen—who have learned certain skills for their occupations. But the labor now has a new purpose. This is important for us to remember today. We don’t work just so that we have a comfortable life for ourselves and our families but so that we “have something to share with the needy.”

The list of bad behaviors goes on, but now we are getting to the meat of the teaching. He’s building to a climax. “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths,” he says—this is something that has always been a struggle for the people of God. Use your words, he is saying, to bring life to the world. Say “what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” This reminds me of Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

We put away these next behaviors that grieve the Holy Spirit, which sealed us for salvation. Remember—God loved us first and chose us. The Holy Spirit stirred us to accept Christ’s call and faith is a gift. Things to put away now: Verse 31,“bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.”

Finally, this is what our new life in Christ looks like. Verse 32: kindness. Tenderheartedness. “Forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.”  Think about how this would be received by ancient cultures, those who value taking revenge if they or their loved ones are hurt by someone. Even ancient Israel lived “an eye for an eye.”

This has all changed, now in Christ. We have the power by the Holy Spirit to forgive those who have hurt us.

Ephesians 5:1 sums up the teaching. The children of God are called to be “imitators of God, walking in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

About a half hour before my plane landed at JFK, the pilot’s voice came on the P.A. telling us to put away tray tables and electronic devices and pass our trash to the flight attendants without delay, as the conditions were going to be too rough for them to be walking the aisles. They needed to fasten their seat belts, too.

The little boy began to cry, once again, as his parents urged him to follow the directions, for his own safety. He kept insisting that if the plane were landing, then he WOULDN’T need to wear his seatbelt anymore! “We’re landing! We’re landing!” he kept saying, assured he was winning the argument

And I thought about this passage—and how we want to argue with God, when God’s rules  for the new life in the Body of Christ don’t seem to work for us in our given situation. We want to hold onto anger. We want to hold onto unforgiveness. We want the tenderness of God for ourselves, but it’s a lot harder to be the tenderness of God for one another, all the time—to walk in humble, sacrificial love, all the time, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

I didn’t turn around to see the little boy for the next 30 minutes or so because we were being bounced around in ways that I have never experienced on an airplane before. When we finally touched down, I was surprised the whole plane didn’t burst into applause. I was praising God.

I looked behind me when we finally made it to our gate, and I stood to gather my belongings. That’s when I caught the eye of the mother. I smiled at her, and she smiled at me. The little boy, face flushed from crying, was sound asleep in her arms. He was so cute when he was sleeping!

I thought, again, about the love, mercy, and grace God has for sinners like us. For people who try to live by the rules for the new life, who are grateful for all that Christ has done, and yet we fall back into the old ways that are comfortable and easier, especially when we are stressed.

 We cry and yell and resist what God wants us to do—for our own good and for the good of the Body of Christ. And our tenderhearted God never stops loving us. The Spirit never gives up on us.

Let us do the same for one another, loving one another tenderheartedly, forgiving one another. May our words build up and bring life to the world as we imitate our kind and compassionate God, who never stops welcoming us back into the Lord’s embrace.

Will you pray with me?

Holy, merciful, and compassionate God, thank you for your grace for sinners, who struggle to walk in the new ways we are called to walk, now that we are living new, resurrected lives in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the example of our Lord, who gave himself up for us and for the world, a fragrant sacrifice and offering to God. Strengthen us, when we are tempted, to put away all the old bad behaviors that aren’t good for us or for our families, neighbors, and the Body of Christ. Help us to use our words to build up and bring life and so that others see your loving ways in us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Meditation on John 6:24–35

Pastor Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Aug. 4, 2024

I am getting ready to leave town for a few days to see my son in Colorado.

My husband, Jim, will be taking care of my important daily chores while I am away—watering plants and feeding and watering my cat, Liam, and, of course, caring for the birds, the most difficult of all tasks. I probably have 7 or 8 different kinds of feeders that handle a variety of food for different species of birds and other wildlife, including chipmunks and squirrels—suet, seed, and raw peanuts, shelled and in the shell.

In my backyard, there’s something for everyone. All are welcome.

My favorite birds of all? The blue jays. You always know when they are around; they are noisy and a tad bit aggressive. I always think they have leadership qualities. They are also smart, handsome, and fun to watch, with all their playful antics.

We have had a family of blue jays each summer now and have been blessed to watch them grow in all their stages, from fledglings to juveniles to young adults. Every morning, when I go downstairs, the jays are looking in our windows that open to the backyard, as if to say, “Where ARE you? We’re WAITING!” When I walk outside, they flap their wings and make SO much noise, as if they are saying, “Yippee! Breakfast!”

As soon as I sprinkle the shelled peanuts over the sunflower and safflower seed in the trays, they start swooping down, even with me standing there or close by. They stuff three, four, or more shelled peanut halves into their beaks until they can’t close their mouths. Then, they fly off to the trees or dive into the bush beside the feeders to eat them on the ground.

I had a thought yesterday, as I watched them eat, “I wonder what they think of me?” I am definitely a food source for them. They probably see me as the peanut and sunflower seed lady. But I am starting to think there may be something more to our relationship—that isn’t just, “Give us this food, always.”

Sometimes, they watch and follow me around when I am gardening, after they have eaten their fill, and there is still more food in the trays. The youngest blue jays especially seem attached and, well, curious, as if they are wondering, “Whatcha doing?” If I go in the house briefly and leave my gardening tools outside, I have seen them sitting on my deck chairs or on the shepherd’s crooks, looking around, as if they are waiting for me to come back out and play.

Today’s gospel lesson is the beginning of a heated debate with Jesus and the crowd. The people have been following him ever since the miracle feeding of the 5,000 with a couple of bread loaves and some fish. Jesus and his disciples are on a mission to the towns along the western shoreline of the Sea of Galilee for the past two days. The people have tried to force him to be their king, but he manages to escape to the hillside. This time they commandeer a boat to find him on the other side of the sea. “Rabbi, when did you come here?” they ask.

Jesus confronts the motives behind their questions, answering with a double Amen for emphasis! That’s what “very truly” is. Verse 26, he’s saying, “Amen, amen, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” The miracles each reveal an aspect of Jesus’ divine identity, and though they have experienced something miraculous in the multiplication of the bread, says theologian Max Lee, “the crowds have no idea who Jesus truly is.” [1]

Jesus challenges three wrong ideas “held by the crowds that keep them in a state of unbelief.” [2] First, they don’t understand the significance of the multiplication of the bread. Jesus wants them to focus on the spiritual food, which lasts forever, rather than on the actual bread, which is only temporary—fills us one day or for one meal, and then we need more. His scolding of the crowds reminds us of that conversation Jesus has with Peter in Mark 8:33, when Jesus predicts his own death and Peter rebukes him. Jesus says, “You do not have in mind the things of God but only human things.” [3]

Second, the crowd doesn’t understand the works they must do. Is it the works of the Law, required by ever pious Jew? Is it specific works to “trigger the arrival of God’s Kingdom,” [4] perhaps banding together as revolutionaries? No, Jesus says. The one thing they need to do is BELIEVE. V. 29: “The true work of God is to believe in the one whom the Father has sent.” This belief is not just an intellectual activity—I believe in Jesus, some people say, but then go about their lives their own way, not caring about the purposes of God and how Jesus may want them to live. This belief is “an abiding trust in, and allegiance to, Christ. The crowds are shocked that Jesus would ask a total commitment from them, and so they demand” more signs, more evidence to prove his identity as the Messiah before they will believe. [5]

And finally, they misunderstand the source of the manna during the 40 years of wilderness wandering. They think the source is MOSES! Jesus wants them to know that it isn’t Moses who feeds God’s people with bread from heaven. It is the LORD! The other misunderstanding about the manna is that they think it is only food to nourish their physical bodies. In the Jewish tradition of interpretation, the manna is also symbolic of heavenly food—spiritual nourishment. “It is the metaphor for consuming and living out the Torah. By consuming heavenly food and wisdom, that is, by faithfully obeying the Law of Moses, Israel sought to experience eternal life and God’s sustaining presence.” [6]  

In a little while, we will pray the Lord’s Prayer, saying “Give us this day our daily bread.” When we pray this, we aren’t just asking for the Lord to nourish our bodies every day—give us food, always. We are asking for heavenly food, spiritual sustenance for another day in our journeys of faith.

This passage stirs me to think about my relationship with the Lord, and how we, too, can fall into the pattern of just seeking God when we want something or more of something God has given us. OR something we absolutely need, such as healing for ourselves, a member of our family, or church family. We eagerly seek God for healing and provision!  

None of these things are wrong—just as it wasn’t wrong for the people to hunger for more actual bread and seek the source. That’s what we would do, too! What’s wrong is when we forget that our relationship with God in Christ means so much more than the promise of peace in a world to come and provision for our needs in this world.

You and I—we have a hunger for spiritual things. That’s why we are here in worship today! You could have been many other places! But you have come here to meet the Lord and receive God’s love from your pastor and other sisters and brothers in Christ.

Every human being has a longing for spiritual things, without necessarily being aware of it. The Lord God, who breathed into us the breath of life at Creation, has placed a hunger inside of us that only a loving relationship with God can satisfy, a space that only God can fill. As St. Augustine so famously said, “Thou has made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” [7]

While I am not exactly sure about my relationship with the blue jays—am I “peanut lady” or something more?—I have no question in my mind that my cat, Liam, will grieve when I’m not home this week. It isn’t just about food with him.

Jim, who gets up earlier than I do, often goes down to do the chores in what he calls “Liam’s Lair” in the basement. He sets up the food, cleans the box. But Liam waits for me to walk downstairs with him and stroke him until he purrs and rolls on his back in contentment. Then, he will eat a few licks of his canned cat food before taking a few bites of the dry. If I try to go upstairs before he is finished, he grabs me with his paws, hoping I will stay a little longer and spend more time with him.

Every time Liam does this, reaches for me and wants a little more of me, I remember how the Lord is jealous for my time and attention, as well. That I need to SLOW down and make more time for God and me alone. But of course, we are juggling the many tasks and responsibilities of our daily lives, too. Summers are busy!

In a few moments, we will celebrate our spiritual Communion with our Lord and one another. This is an OPEN Communion table, where all are welcome! Only one food—the BREAD OF LIFE that nourishes us to live new lives in Him—will be needed and served.

 This is the time to SLOW down, dear friends, and remember that our faith is not in an institution or religion. It’s not in a building or rituals and traditions, boards and committees.

The foundation and center of our faith is Christ himself, the one whom God sent for love and mercy for the world. He IS the Bread of Life and the only Bread of Life, the one who gives us the food that endures for eternal life.

Our redeemer.

The one who hears our cries and responds.

The one who makes what is broken whole.

The one who longs for us to recognize and enjoy his presence with us, forevermore.

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Bread of Life, feed us, now, with the food that endures for eternal life. While we worry so much about material and temporary things of this world, we are also hungry for you, for spiritual things, for the things of God. Strengthen our commitment to you, dear Lord, so that every day is lived for you, to glorify you, and be a witness of your humble, loving ways. Remind us when we are rushing around foolishly and anxiously that our hearts were restless until we found our rest in you. Thank you for the gift of faith to believe in the works you have done—how you gave yourself on a cross for the sake of the world. Open our eyes to your presence with us when we celebrate Communion today and when we walk with you each day. Amen.

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     [1] Max J. Lee, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, year B, vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021), 209.

     [2] Lee, 209.

     [3] Lee, 210.

     [4] Lee, 210.

     [5] Lee, 210.

     [6] Lee, 210.

     [7] St. Augustine, Confessions, 1, 1.5.

Meditation on John 6:1-15

Pastor Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

July 28, 2024

“A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,

“SITUATION HOPELESS STOP NO ONE WEARS SHOES

“The other writes back triumphantly,

“GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY STOP THEY HAVE NO SHOES.” [1]

This story is from a book called, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. Has anyone heard of this book before? This was required reading for an interim ministry training I attended in Montreat, NC, five or six years ago.

The Zanders write, “To the marketing expert who sees no shoes, all the evidence points to hopelessness. To his colleague, the same conditions point to abundance and possibility. Each scout comes to the scene with his own perspective; each returns telling a different tale. Indeed, all of life comes to us in narrative form; it’s a story we tell.” [2]

So, this is my question. Are you a person who sees the world through a perspective of abundance and possibility? Or are you a person who sees the world through a perspective of scarcity and limitations? In other words, are you a half-full glass kind of person? Or are you a half-empty glass kind of person?

What’s YOUR story? Where did YOU get your perspective? What were your parents’ and grandparents’ stories? Did you grow up in an especially hopeful time or was it a time of anxiety and scarcity? How did that shape who YOU are today?

I was thinking about my grandparents this week who lived through the Great Depression. I found an old photo of Grandma in her 20s in a wedding dress from May 8, 1936. That would make a big difference in how you see the world—the narrative you know and tell for the rest of your life, if you grew up in a family that struggled during a time when many families across the country were struggling.

My mother’s mother used to tell stories of not having money growing up as Norwegian immigrants in a big family, with 11 children, in Pleasantville, NJ, near Atlantic City. But they still had fun, even without much money. They rolled up the living room carpets and danced with their friends to records on the Victrola. If the ice cream man came down the street, they might look under the couch cushions to find a nickel to buy a treat. I always thought that was amazing—that the couch cushions might be a good source for ice cream money. And that ice cream cost only a nickel!

But throughout Grandma’s life, even when she wasn’t poor as an adult, after she married a butcher from City Island, she had a certain narrative or perspective that wasn’t going to change. She was always afraid of scarcity—of not having enough. She was warm and hospitable, generous and kind, giving of herself to friends, neighbors, family, and church family. She was faithful to attend worship, always active in her church, busy with choir and rummage sales. When I was anxious, she would tell me to pray and “trust in the Lord.”

But she was afraid something might happen, and nothing would ever take that anxiety away, even when she was living with my parents in her last years in Florida. She lacked nothing.

Jesus knew his disciples well, just as he knows us well. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives of Christ’s followers in John chapter 6 today. He knew what questions to ask, what buttons to push, to help grow their faith and transform their thinking. In this case, he was testing Philip, asking him a question, though Jesus already knew what he was going to do.

There’s a crisis. A true situation of scarcity exists on the northeastern hillside of the Sea of Galilee, the lowest freshwater lake on earth. This miracle appears in all four gospels. This story was passed down, from anxious generation to generation, community to community, to give them hope, especially in times of real scarcity and need.

A crowd of people has been following Jesus because they see him healing the sick—they see the “signs,” John says. Jesus and his disciples have crossed to the “other side of the Sea” and climb a mountain to get away from the demands of ministry, take a rest from the crowd. The people find Jesus, anyway.

When he looks up and sees the crowd coming toward him, he asks Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”

Notice he doesn’t say, “Where are we going to get the money to buy bread for people to eat?”

Philip, with his math mind, quickly calculates how much money they would need to buy bread for everyone, saying, as if Jesus had asked, “Where are we going to get the money to buy bread for people to eat?” “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” In Greek, this is “200 denarii” not six months’ wages. One denarius is the usual pay for a day’s work as a laborer.  

So Philip—glass half empty or half full? At least he’s thinking about how it could be possible to help all the people in need. Philip knows the compassion and healing power of Christ is real. But, like us, he has the only perspective he knows—and that’s one where they only have a little bit of money to care for all the disciples—a true situation of scarcity, and now they need a lot more money to buy a whole lot of bread to feed a hungry and persistent crowd.

But then there’s Simon Peter’s brother, Andrew. He impresses me! He seems to have a good relationship with children. In a society that ignores children, he notices and befriends a child—speaks with him. The boy shows the former fisherman his five barley loaves and two measly fish—probably enough for a little boy’s lunch, and no more.

What is the child’s perspective? Is he a half empty glass person or half full? He has hope (doesn’t he?) that the little bit of food he has will make a difference. He has that child-like faith that Jesus says all of us need to enter the Kingdom of God. And gentle Andrew honors the boy’s generosity and tells Jesus about this gift. He doesn’t send the boy away.

Then Andrew does what we do when we are afraid to get our hopes up or when reality sets in. Have you ever had your hopes up about something and then realized that it just wasn’t going to happen? “It isn’t possible.” Or maybe that’s just what we tell ourselves to protect our hearts from painful disappointment.

After telling Jesus about the gift, Andrew says, “But what are they among so many people?” He’s having doubts. Suddenly, the boy’s gift isn’t enough. Andrew is, after all, in the “real” world with Philip, measuring the amount of food against the number of people and coming up extremely short.

Jesus then tells the disciples to make the people sit on the grass. This writer knows how to build suspense! What are the disciples thinking when they are telling people to sit on the grass? They have already decided that there’s no way Jesus can feed all those people. But they do it, anyway. They trust Jesus, though the math doesn’t add up, and it doesn’t make sense. They are examples to us, not always, but at this moment in the story.

And what are those people thinking when Jesus’s disciples are telling them to sit on the grass—and not telling them to go home? “Something good is going to happen. But what?” Jesus has given them hope for a miracle, like the signs they have seen when he has healed the sick.

Jesus blesses the bread—gives thanks to God. And then, in John’s account, Jesus himself gives the food to 5,000 people. He doesn’t give it to the disciples to distribute. The food comes directly from Jesus to the hands and mouths of the hungry. When everyone has had enough and are “satisfied,” he asks the disciples to gather up all the leftovers, “so nothing may be lost” or wasted. From the fragments of five barley loaves, after 5,000 people have eaten, the disciples fill 12 baskets. This is the miracle that persuades the crowd, now with full bellies, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” And they want to take Jesus by force and make him their king!

This is the world they know—a world where a king is the only answer, though kings have come and gone and don’t care if they are hungry.

I think of situations in our lives where our own anxiety and thoughts of scarcity hold us back from taking risks or simply living in the peace of the present. I didn’t live through the Great Depression. I have never gone hungry. But, like my Norwegian-American grandmother, I worry sometimes. Maybe it’s just in my nature to do that.

This passage is powerful if we let it challenge the way our minds work. We are like Philip, immediately doing the math, any time we consider doing compassionate ministry. We are like Andrew, hoping for a miracle that begins with a small gift, but then reality sets in or we just talk ourselves out of it. We think it just isn’t possible.

When are we going to let go of anxiety and fear and live faithfully, as Christ is calling all his disciples to do? We live in an anxious age, with 24-hour news telling us we should be worried and fearful. Yes, there are real things to worry about in this world. And yet, the abundant blessings of God surround us. God’s mercy and goodness will follow us all the days of our lives. Like my faithful grandmother, we lack nothing, when we trust in the Lord!

Let us believe in a God who provides more abundantly than we can ever imagine. In Christ, we are new creations. I’m not a half empty glass person. And I’m not glass half full!

Like the psalmist sings, “My cup runneth over!”

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, fill us now to overflowing! Breathe on us, your new Creations. Remove from us all anxiety and fear for scarcity. Transform our thinking. Help us to live in this present moment, trusting your abundance, trusting in the love and embrace of a God who is never going to let us go. Thank you for your provision, sometimes in surprising ways, for our families and church family for many generations. Give us a hunger for spiritual things, a hunger that only Christ our Savior, the Bread of Life, can satisfy. Use us to reveal your mercy, peace, and grace to our anxious world. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.  

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     [1] Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life (NY: Penguin Books, 2000), 9.

     [2] Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility…, 9.

Meditation on Mark 6:1–13

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

July 7, 2024

(art by stushie, used with permission)

I had this funny thought yesterday. What if I had stayed in York, Pennsylvania, and never accepted that first call to ministry in rural Minnesota?

My ministry journey would have been completely changed. I might never have ended up here!

In Minnesota, I was welcomed with open arms. I immediately had a confirmation class of 5 students—all girls. I had so many weddings, as people had been waiting for years for a called pastor to marry them in the church. Babies needed baptizing—more than any of us expected. People wanted and needed pastoral care—and I did many home visits, driving out to the farms and to members in town and the nursing home. I led an ecumenical Bible study at a senior living community.

I served the people with energy, intelligence, imagination and love—just as I had promised to do at my ordination and installation.

If I had stayed in York, PA, where I had raised my three boys, people in the community would have already known me as the religion reporter for the York Daily Record/Sunday News. While I maintained good relationships with my sources, would they have accepted me as a minister, after years in journalism and teaching before that?

But I never had the opportunity to serve as a minister in York, PA. I experienced a kind of rejection from my home presbytery. The EP told me, while I was meeting with the Committee on Preparation for ministry, that I wasn’t going to find a job when I graduated. If I did find one, it would take two years or more, and I would probably have to work another job, too, and I wouldn’t have benefits, which my family needed. Additionally, it was a conservative presbytery based in Lancaster County, where most churches wanted a young, male pastor, preferably with 2 young children, another on the way, and a stay-at-home spouse who could teach Sunday School and make casseroles for potlucks.

When I told her I was ready to accept a full call to a wonderful church in Minnesota, she was angry! She said that I would regret it. To the leader of my first presbytery, I wasn’t good enough.

I never did regret my decision, though I was homesick, at times, and it wasn’t easy.

It was out of our comfort zone, but it was also an adventure.

Jesus is taking risks and stepping out of his comfort zone in our reading in Mark chapter 6, though we wouldn’t normally assume that it would be risky for Jesus to return to his hometown.

This is his first time home with his family since chapter 3, when the crowds are following him around and demanding his healing power so much that he and his disciples cannot even eat! When his family hears what he is doing and how some people are saying, “He has gone out of his mind,” they go “out to restrain him.” When the crowd tells Jesus that his family has come, he famously looks around and says, “Who are my mother and my brothers?…Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

It took a lot of guts for Jesus to come home after that! Now, he is teaching in the synagogue and people are astounded. They take “offense.” The Greek word is skandalizo, which means “to stumble, to take offense.” [1]  They are thinking, “Who cares about what he says and does? He cannot be worthy of respecting or following.” [2]

What is interesting to consider is why his family and community may have been upset with him, other than their unbelief. The reason may be closer to home. Theologian Matthew Skinner says, “When the crowd refers to him without referring to his father, they may be emphasizing that this grown son has left a widowed mother and siblings to fend for themselves while he travels around Galilee leading a movement.” [3]

They identify Jesus by his former occupation—the family business, which he never talks about and never does. We never hear, in the gospels, how Jesus is still working as a carpenter after he begins his public ministry.

“Is not this the carpenter,” they ask now, “the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

Notice they didn’t bother to name his sisters? That always bugs me! But this gives us an even clearer picture of Nazareth, a town of probably 400 in Jesus’s time. Everybody knows everybody, and they never forget one of their own, who has turned his back on his family and hometown.

So, if you haven’t wondered, yet, are you wondering now why Jesus ever went back to Nazareth?

His reaction might help us understand. First, he isn’t surprised. It’s inevitable, he says. “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.” But then he tries to do some of the deeds of power he had been doing for the first five chapters of Mark. He still cares about his community! He hasn’t forgotten them! Their negative reaction hasn’t stolen his compassion for people in need. But he is only able to lay “hands on a few sick people and cure them.”

This does catch him by surprise.  He is “amazed at their unbelief,” which prevents him from healing all the people who are sick and suffering.

This brings us to a key point. Friends, the power of the Spirit works WITH your faith in Christ. Both are needed. Your faith AND the power of the Spirit.

That leads us to another key point—what happens after the rejection? And what should we do, when we are rejected?

Jesus goes out among the villages teaching. He KEEPS going. One rejection doesn’t null and void his anointing from God. Then he calls the 12, regathers them, as if his rejection at Nazareth has taken the wind out of their sails or distracted them. Jesus brings them back, equips them with his authority (exousia! The power of God!) and begins to send them out, two by two, for encouragement, comfort, and support, and to do the ministry he wants them to do.

He doesn’t want them to bring any extra stuff, beyond what is necessary for the mission. Sandals. A staff for walking in rugged areas. No money. No food. No bag with extra supplies. He wants them completely dependent on those who may or may not welcome them into their homes when they come as strangers knocking on doors.

He has already given them an example to follow when he was rejected in his hometown, of all places. The pairs of disciples obey—going out of their comfort zones, without Jesus. They go in his name and proclaim repentance, heal the sick, cast out demons. They go with realistic expectations—knowing that they may not always be welcome and won’t be able to do deeds of power if the people have no faith. And they know that they may be rejected by the people who know them the best.

The Holy Spirit is speaking to us now, motivating us as disciples of Jesus Christ that one failure, one rejection, is only a bump in the road. It’s no cause for alarm! It shouldn’t slow us down, discourage us, or cause us to question our mission—or the loving purposes of God.

The Holy Spirit leads us on, propels us forward, to witness to our faith with Christ’s authority. Exousia!  and equip more disciples, in Jesus’ name.

I am so glad that I said yes to the call to Minnesota—and that would lead me on this path, where I ended up here, with another call to serve people, whom I love!!!!

God is calling you, too, to take a risk and offer all your gifts and talents, for the sake of the Lord and Christ’s Church.

Before I could accept that first call to ministry, I had to leave behind the identities I used to have—some that made me so proud. I loved being the religion reporter for the York Daily Record! I had worked hard as a freelance writer and teacher for two years before that position finally opened.

Maybe you have been pigeon-holed into one kind of service or ministry, something you are good at and have done for a long time or stopped doing because you grew weary of it. Maybe it’s your family and close friends who only see you one way, as Jesus’ family and community only saw him as a carpenter.

Don’t be afraid of rejection by the people who know you, or think they know you, best.

You are capable of much more that what you have ever done. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

Or perhaps it’s you that’s holding you back—because you aren’t ready to let go of a rejection or bad experience that you once had. That’s hard! None of us want to be hurt while we are pouring out our hearts into loving service for the Lord. I can’t make anything in the past go away, but I know the One who can help you forgive—yourself and others—and move on to the new and exciting adventure God has planned for you!

Maybe you lack confidence that what you know, all your skills and abilities, what you have, and all that you are, at this moment, in Jesus Christ, are truly ENOUGH for what the Lord is calling YOU to do.

Will you pray with me?

Holy God, thank you for the example of Jesus and the disciples knowing even in the face of rejection that they were good enough, strong enough, kind enough, and competent enough. Thank you for calling me enough, too. Help us to pay attention to all the prophetic voices around us, even those we think we know best and perhaps might dismiss because we know them. Teach us to notice the gifts for ministry that our brothers and sisters possess—and encourage them to live into their gifts. Build up our faith. Keep us going on adventures and doing the loving, healing acts that you want us to do, with the Spirit’s help. Amen.

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     [1] Matthew L. Skinner, Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching, Year B, Vol. 3 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021), 140-142.

     [2] Matthew L. Skinner, Connections,Year B, Vol. 3, 141.

     [3] Matthew L. Skinner, Connections,Year B, Vol. 3, 141.

Meditation on Matthew 7:24-29

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

June 23, 2024

Sunday School Recognition Day

Some years ago, Robert Fulghum had a best-selling book called, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Does anyone remember that book? I found a list of things he said that he learned. Do you agree with these? Nod if you do.

1. Share everything.
2.  Play fair
3. Don’t hit people.
4.  Put things back where you found them,
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6.  Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
7. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life – learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK. [1]

As I prepared for this day when we recognize the caring labor and inspiration of Sunday School teachers and the faith and growth of our students, I thought about everything I learned in Sunday School as a child, growing up in a Lutheran congregation in Maryland. Yes, all that we learned in kindergarten is important for our lives, but we learned some of those same lessons in Sunday School—and so much more. Here’s some of what I learned in Sunday school:

1. “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know!” We learned this through the singing of the song at our Sunday School opening and through the study of all the gospel stories of Jesus and the good things he did, and how he tried to teach his disciples to be loving like him. We learned about Jesus’ love through the welcome and kindness of all our teachers. I might not remember their names today, but I do remember they were nice.
2. Sunday School tastes good. Snacks and drinks—especially when the weather was warm in our unair-conditioned classrooms—were important to us. Don’t underestimate the power of one cookie or graham cracker on a beverage napkin and a juice box to set a joyful tone for the class.
3. Sunday School is social. It’s about people! We made friends with children older and younger than we were in multiage classrooms, children who didn’t attend the same schools that we did. We only saw them when we went to Sunday School, but we knew each other’s names, sometimes their brothers and sisters, and they were our friends, just the same.
4. Sunday School is fun. We laughed and played games.
5. Sunday School is also school, a place of study. We brought our Bibles to class and learned to read by studying the Old Testament and New Testament. We learned BIG words and some old-fashioned ones we don’t hear anywhere else, such as “begat.” We learned to ask questions about our reading and looked for meaning in the text and application for our lives today.
6. Sunday School is inclusive and not competitive. There are no grades or tests, no pass, no fail. What a relief for some children who struggle with academic tasks! Children of all abilities are accepted and helped in Sunday School.  But there are expectations for behavior. We learned to obey our teachers, listen to one another, and wait to speak in turn, raising our hands, sitting on small chairs at children-size tables or on a large carpet on the floor, coloring our Bible story handouts, and making crafts with scissors and colored paper, cotton balls and popsicle sticks, and, of course, Elmer’s glue all.
7. We learned that God likes it when we pray and listens to our prayers. We learned how to pray, with one person talking at a time, heads bowed, eyes closed, hands folded. We learned The Lord’s Prayer. We learned to say thank you, every time we spoke to God, and especially before snack.

Looking back, I realize now that everything I learned in Sunday School helped to prepare me for ministry! And there was a big gap between Sunday School and seminary; I didn’t begin seminary until I was 40! But the seeds were sown when I was young. Can you imagine this could happen to any of our Sunday School children and youth today? I wonder what God has planned?

I am captivated by the imagery of the wise person in Matthew 7 building a house on solid rock. This passage comes near the end of Christ’s teaching to the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount. This is a great summary of the Christian life!

Jesus says, “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.”

What were some of those teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in Matthew 5? The Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…. Blessed are those who mourn…. Blessed are the meek…. the merciful… the pure in heart…. the peacemakers….. Also, “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world….And do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill.”

In his Sermon, Jesus brought a fresh interpretation to scriptures studied from childhood, beginning, “You have heard that it was said.”

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder,”…But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment….so when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother or sister….”

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also….’” And, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.’”

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up treasures in heaven…”

“No one can serve two masters; no one can serve God and wealth.”  

“Do not worry… .But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things (that we worry about) will be given to us, as well.”

And, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And, “wolves may come in sheep’s clothing, but they are known by their fruits.”

Then we get to today’s scripture, which ties up everything Jesus has taught so far in what editors divided into 3 chapters. “You who listen and live by my teachings are the wise person who has built your house on the rock.”

No matter what happens in your life, friends—rain falls,  floods come, winds blow and beat on your spiritual house—you will NOT fall or fail. You have the strong foundation of your faith in Jesus Christ and your commitment to living out your faith, as the Lord would have you do.

A song from Sunday School popped into my mind when I was studying this scripture this week. It was probably from when my children were in Sunday School. Pablo, can you and the choir help me? Maybe some people in our congregation know it….?

The wise man built his house upon the Rock,
The wise man built his house upon the Rock,
The wise man built his house upon the Rock,
And the rains came tumbling down.
The rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
But the house on the Rock stood firm.

Last Tuesday night, the Session, our Treasurer, and some of the spouses gathered for a picnic at the manse. At one point, I looked around at the people sitting on lawn chairs eating, talking, and laughing, and I thought, “I bet everyone here went to Sunday School.” Just look at their faithfulness! They serve their church, their families, their communities through their professions and volunteering! They may be known by their fruits!”

Friends, while everything we learned in kindergarten has helped us live our lives, everything we learned in Sunday School has helped us live our lives of faith, answering the call to follow Jesus Christ.

And it all started when someone, long ago, welcomed us to a Sunday School class. Maybe we were scared to leave our families in church. But then they smiled at us, shared the words of Jesus and the stories of God, offered us food, drink, and friendship, and taught us, “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.”

Will you pray with me?

Holy One, thank you for your love and for our Sunday School teachers—those who nurture the faith of our young disciples and help build a good foundation for the Christian life. Stir each of us, Lord, to gratitude for those who taught us and all the inspiring lessons that we have learned—all of your words that have made us better people today. Then, embolden us all to be teachers and builders of hope and faith in our next generations. Lead us to bear the fruit of this good foundation we have had, beginning in childhood, and be like the wise person who built their house upon rock. In Christ we pray. Amen.

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     [1] Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things, 15^th Anniversary Edition (Ballantine Books,2004) 1.

Message on Mark 4:26-34

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown

Pastor Karen Crawford

June 16, 2024

I was happy to hear that everything went well with the gifts of children’s clothing and baby wipes and diapers at Smithtown’s homeless shelter while I was away. Thank you to all who gave these gifts for families in need, and to Linda Goodwin and Joanna Marmelstein for organizing this mission outreach and going there to share our gifts.

Then, I saw photos of a little garden yesterday, made possible by our Deacons. They continue to quietly give of themselves to help others, especially children. They have a heart to help children! I told Barbara Ruoff, the moderator, how it touched me to see the green sprouts and pretty petunias popping out of the metal containers on the grass—and to hear of the labor they have been doing.

Barbara told me how the garden came into being.

“The Deacons approved some money for Laurie to buy plants at Borella’s where they give us a discount,” she said. “We also provided some soil. I went to the shelter one afternoon, and the kids and I planted flowers and vegetables in two of the bins. It was so much fun to plant with the kids,” she went on. “At the end of our planting one of the boys, who is about 7 or 8 years old, said, ‘I think when I grow up, I would like to be a gardener!’”

“That’s all I need!” Barbara said. “What a reward!”

Every day, the Lord gives us opportunities to bless others when we scatter and sow seeds of hope and faith. Every day, we make a choice—to participate in our Divine Gardener’s holy labor—or to let the opportunities to grow the Kingdom pass us by.

As I read these two familiar seed parables, the gardener in me says, “Hold on! What is this scattering seed?” No good gardener just scatters seed on the ground, without preparing the soil and carefully covering each one to a specific planting depth. And who is this “someone?” I wonder, who just scatters seed? It is mysterious, indeed. But then it becomes more mysterious when the one who scatters, “would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.”

Jesus really has our attention here, doesn’t he? The story illustrates some ancient agricultural techniques. That is how some crops were planted—by seeds simply being scattered on the ground. Jesus’s first hearers are nodding their heads. They know this. Only, those who are not Christ’s followers don’t know the hidden meaning in the parable. Jesus explains this only to his disciples.

Yes. We know who scatters seeds every day. It’s us. We are working for the Gardener, the Lord of the Harvest. We scatter, with the Spirit’s help, as we interact with friends, neighbors, family, and strangers every day. We have no idea what is happening with the seeds of kindness and goodness that we are spreading and the sharing of God’s word through our actions. Will they take root? We don’t know. We don’t know if the people will receive them or if there will be growth, if they do. That isn’t up to us, just like it wasn’t up to the farmers in Jesus’ time.

 The work of the Kingdom is for all of us—and yet—we don’t know what we are doing, not on a spiritual level. It’s a secret. Only God knows what is happening in the hearts and minds of human beings. We can trust God to use us to be gardeners for the Son.

Of these two parables, the gardener in me connects with the mustard seed story more than the story of the scattered seed. It just grows like a weed, that mustard seed, no matter what the soil. I can hear Jesus telling all of us to be like a weed! Grow to be a tree! You are that tiny seed with great potential Christ has planted—and in your planting and growing, you are also growing the kingdom, you see.

Let’s think for a moment about “opportunity.” That word is on my mind. We often think of opportunity as something we should seize so good things will happen for us—maybe we’ll get rich! One dictionary provides two definitions of opportunity. One is, “A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.” Another is, “a chance for employment or promotion,” such as, “career opportunities in our New York headquarters.” When “opportunity knocks, a chance for success or advancement occurs.”

But what does the Bible say about opportunity? The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:15-20 says this:

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,  always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Opportunity, then, is not to make good things happen for ourselves, but to do what is pleasing to God. We have another chance to be faithful, to do what is right. Jesus, in John 4:35, speaks of the work of the gospel as an opportunity that presents itself every day, to those who have eyes to see. “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” 

I think of this little boy, planting with Barbara; he was so moved by the experience. Her caring ways and loving spirit are what he needed. The act of planting in the soil, watering, and waiting for growth is a beautiful miracle from God. But it wouldn’t have happened if Laurie and Barbara hadn’t taken the opportunity to serve those in need, as passionately as if they were serving the Lord.

On this day when we honor our fathers, I can’t help but remember gifts my father gave me and the example he was for our family. He went home to be with God in August 2019. He was a cartographer, but his hobby was gardening, until his health prevented it. I can picture him now, standing with his watering can, putting water in the saucers underneath his African violets on a white, wheeled plant cart on our porch, so the leaves wouldn’t get wet. I can see him with his foot on a shovel, digging out the sod, widening a bed for flowers or vegetables. I always marveled at his strength when he did that, because I was just a little girl, and I couldn’t dig with a shovel or push a heavy wheelbarrow like he did, with ease. I can see him bending over the miniature roses that he grew, along with perennials and shrubs. He would harvest these little yellow and red flowers with scissors and a smile, bring them inside, and place them in water in tiny vases.

My father sowed seeds of kindness and patience, every time I was with him. He was a great listener. Today, on Father’s Day, I wish that we could be together, once again. I would tell him all about the garden at the manse—the Shasta daisies that have grown as tall as Jim, the echinacea with their purple flowers and strong stalks, both of which were started from seed last year. I am sure he would love the red roses cascading on our front walk and would remind me to remove the spent flowers so the plants will keep blooming. I would tell him about this garden our deacons have helped to plant at the homeless shelter with the children. He would be impressed—especially the part about the small boy who has already decided that one day, given the opportunity, he will be a gardener, too. I wonder who influenced my father; who was his gardening teachers? How did the Lord stir that joy inside of him, a joy that stayed with him all his nearly 85 years—and has been passed onto me?

Dear friends, you are the seeds Christ has planted, right here in good soil. This is the best soil—worship on Sunday morning, with your fellow seedling sisters and brothers in Christ. You are the seeds, scattered and sown. It is a great mystery. God only knows. The Heavenly Father will bring forth the growth in you, if you continue to take every opportunity to do God’s will and seek to be pleasing to the Lord each day.

You have the seeds of God’s Word, hidden deep within you. When you leave here today, you will have opportunities to scatter and sow. Don’t hesitate! Opportunities in God’s economy are for blessing others. Don’t worry about whether your seeds of kindness and generosity will take root. That’s not our job. Just keep on going and sowing and giving of yourself—the person you are now, the person you are becoming. Trust the Lord of the Harvest, who is enabling you to grow and be transformed, more and more.

You aren’t what you were yesterday or even this morning. The Spirit is cultivating a whole new YOU.

So, have you had a hard week? A hard couple of weeks, maybe? I’m with you. It’s been rough. God has always been faithful to us—to me and to you. God always will be!

The presbytery met yesterday in Oceanside. Everyone was assigned to a prayer group and given a prompt for spiritual reflection.  I am going to leave you with these thoughts today.

Picture in your mind a white daisy growing up from the mud. Can you do that right now?  Close your eyes. In your spiritual life, what feels like the “mud”? What is flourishing, like the flower?

Where do you see opportunity…. to bloom?

Let us pray.

Holy One, Loving Gardener, thank you for scattering and sowing us, those whom you created in your image and planted seeds of your Son’s righteousness within us. Thank you for the good soil in which we have been firmly planted, in our families and right here in this church, where our seedling sisters and brothers are gathered. Help us to be that good soil for others, nurturing hope and faith. Stir us to be generous, giving of ourselves and our resources, without fear or worry. Transform and grow us as Your Son’s disciples, a family of God, so that we may never miss an opportunity to scatter and sow seeds of kindness, goodness, and love, so that we may never miss an opportunity to bloom. Amen.

Meditation on Isaiah 6:1–8

Pastor Karen Crawford

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Trinity Sunday/Memorial Day Weekend

May 26, 2024

I can’t remember the moment when I heard God calling me to parish ministry. I don’t think it was just one moment, actually, but rather a gradual illumination, a slow dawning, that this was God’s will for my life.

Looking back at those first years of ministry, I remember many joys and sorrows, highs and lows. Some of the most difficult struggles weren’t the challenges of the wintry climate of Minnesota or my flock, but those that were within myself—when I began to doubt my own abilities and gifts.

The one lesson that the Lord is trying to teach me—and all of us, I believe—is that our feeling of not being worthy or good enough to serve the Lord and God’s people has nothing to do with God’s call and claim on our lives. In fact, I might argue that the feeling of inadequacy almost always goes along with the call. If you aren’t feeling inadequate, then maybe you don’t understand what the Lord is requiring of you.

And if you’re someone who is kind of a perfectionist, then you are always going to feel like you aren’t good enough. Who am I talking to, now, when I talk about perfectionism? You will focus on your flaws and past mistakes and believe that everything in the scheme of things must be fixed and perfect before God can use you. This is, in fact, a sinful way of looking at things because it doesn’t acknowledge Christ’s suffering work that accomplished our forgiveness, once and for all. Our sins have been blotted out—not with a hot coal, but with the One who died on a cross and lives, again. Those with perfectionistic tendences believe that we have something more to do to somehow earn or achieve God’s forgiveness and our worthiness to follow God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Here is my most recent struggle. I’ve shared with some of you that I am still experiencing some blurred vision and headaches after my eye surgeries, particularly when I am reading and writing and working at the computer. A doctor this week told me that the lens implants have become cloudy, something that can happen. The way to correct it is to have another surgery, in three months or so.

This little setback has worked on my confidence—made me become concerned that I would be able to do what I need to do for my class that starts in Austin in about a week.

That’s what I mean about the struggle with self-doubt and fear of failure—and how this is the REAL cause of our hesitation in answering the call to serve the Lord with our lives—devoting ourselves more fully to following Christ. This is what leads us to say, “No, Lord. I’m not the one. I’m not good enough. Don’t send me!”

Are we surprised that Isaiah has an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy in the presence of a Holy God, sitting on a throne, high and lofty, in his vision recorded in chapter 6? The hem of God’s robe filled the whole temple! Seraphs, snake-like creatures with wings, are all around. Isaiah describes them as each having “six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.” And they calling to one another, singing: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’”

The pivots shake with the voices. The house of the Lord is filled with smoke. Isaiah says, “‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” His personal and communal confession makes us wonder if this is just the ordinary inadequacy of sinful human beings in the presence of God–or is there something more going on?

In part, the answer lies in the time in which he lives, “the year that King Uzziah died,” around 738 BCE. This is a pivotal point in Israelite history. “Uzziah’s death marks a transition from political stability to the looming Assyrian crisis. (And) yet it is far more about a change in God’s time,” says biblical scholar Robert A. Ratcliff.  This is a time when the “will of God can be more clearly seen and the presence of God more clearly felt.” [1]

Terrible things are about to happen, right when God’s will and very presence would be revealed to Isaiah, for the sake of God’s children. The Lord is about to do a new thing in the midst of a war, which will lead to the Assyrians’ capture of Samaria, the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 720 BCE, and many of the Israelites being carried off into captivity.

So you are wondering, right now, how then, can we relate to Isaiah’s story, those of us certainly living in difference circumstances, in the 21^st century? We can connect with his call story, because it raises “the daunting question of what it means to be chosen to fulfill God’s purposes.” [2]

For we, too, are chosen. Yes, we are !

 In Scripture, frequently those who receive the call realize its potential to upend their lives” [3] and so they resist. “Jeremiah objects due to his youth and inexperience in public speaking.” Moses pleads with God to send someone else, saying that he has a speech impediment, a stutter, when he is really terrified to return to Egypt, where he is wanted for murder. When God calls Jonah to go and preach to Israelites’ enemies, the Ninevites, Jonah heads in the opposite direction, rather than obey the troubling voice of God.

But after Isaiah’s initial resistance—and the seraph’s touching his mouth with a burning coal, so that his guilt has departed and his sin has been blotted out—Isaiah answers God’s question, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ with an obedient and enthusiastic, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”

Isaiah will have his work cut out for him. The people will not listen to Isaiah’s prophetic word. They will resist God’s claim on their lives and refuse to embrace the Lord’s call to return to their faith and faithfulness. In his lifetime, Isaiah, the one whose name means, “The Lord is my salvation,” and is a descendant of Judah and Tamar, is ridiculed and persecuted, enduring beatings and imprisonment during his 55 to 60-year ministry, which will end in martyrdom. He would never know the importance of his life, ministry, and writings for God’s people in Judaism or for Christianity. You may not realize that “his writings are mentioned more than 400 times in the New Testament, making it the most popular Old Testament book (for Christ’s followers), along with the Psalms.” [4]

I come to the end of my message, and I feel the heavy burden of perfectionism, once again—stirred by Isaiah’s terrified outburst in God’s presence. If Isaiah, God’s prophet, felt inadequate with God’s call on his life, then how can we ordinary, flawed human beings become comfortable, confident, and secure in what the Lord is calling us to do as individuals and as a church of Jesus Christ?

Because we are all called to do our best to develop and use the gifts that God has given us for God’s glory and Kingdom purposes. All of us are ministers—even the youngest child in our church family is called to love and serve God and neighbor and proclaim our hope in Christ through words and acts of kindness. This is what ministry is all about—living our faith.

The answer is surely the Trinity, who makes it possible for us to live into and embrace our callings and be faithful to the One who never expects us to be perfect. Our Creator has made God’s choice! And it’s YOU! And it’s ME! Don’t be like Jonah and run from your call. Remember how his story ends with him spending time in the belly of a whale praying, before coming to himself and vowing to do what God calls him to do.

Be like Isaiah, who was aware of his own sinfulness in the presence of a Holy God, yet still allowed God to use him in a mighty way.

Christ has given us the Spirit to guide and empower us to do even greater works for God the Father than Jesus and his first disciples were able to do. This whole focus on “perfection” in our society, is a distraction from living out the fullest expression of our faith.  

I don’t like to say that it was God’s will that I would struggle a bit with my vision right now. I don’t know what the Lord has planned for me. But I can trust in God’s love. Isaiah says in chapter 55, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

 But maybe this is a pivotal time in my life, when I will realize and feel keenly, through some of these struggles, the power and presence of our loving and gracious God.

So, what are you thinking? What stands in the way of your stepping out of your comfort zone and being more faithful to God’s call?

What will it take for you to let go of your fear and insecurity and say, with Isaiah, “Send me!”

Will you pray with me? Let us pray.

Holy, holy, holy, Three in One! We are fearful and intimidated by your call on our lives, knowing that being faithful and obedient will involve some struggle, but also that we can rely on the strength and guidance of your Spirit, always present with us. Help us now to overcome the temptation to perfectionism anything that stands in the way of our confidently answering your question to Isaiah, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ ‘Here am I; send me!’ In the name of our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—we pray. Amen.

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     [1] Robert A. Ratcliff, “Isaiah 6:1-6” in Connections, Year B, V. 3 (Lousville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2021), 5.

     [2] Ratcliff, 5.

     [3] Ratcliff, 5-6.

     [4] Harold Songer, “Isaiah and the New Testament” in Sage Journals, v. 65, issue 4, December 1968.