The Healing Trees

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Healing Trees” Ezekiel 47:6b-12 and Revelation 22:1-5

The Fortingall yew is the oldest tree in Scotland, and perhaps all of Europe. At 5,000 years old, the tree was already ancient when the Prophet Ezekiel languished in exile in Babylon and Jesus strode out of Galilee and shook things up in the Jerusalem Temple. The tree has long been considered a sacred place. Druids once worshipped beneath its branches. In the seventh century, Colomba sent monks from the Isle of Iona to preach the gospel in its shadow. In the 19th century, Presbyterians built a church there and have been caretaking the tree ever since. If you visit today, you’ll find that the Fortingall yew has been enclosed behind a stone wall for its own protection. Visitors, looking to capitalize on the tree’s longevity and notoriety, like to cut off large branches and pieces of the trunk to carve drinking-cups and other curiosities.

If you are looking to visit old trees closer to home, you could come with me to the Elder Grove in Paul Smiths. The trail is intentionally unmarked. Up a hill, under a power line, and through dense woodland, your boots rattle through inches of leaf litter and debris. The fifty or so Eastern White Pines of the Elder Grove germinated around 1665 when a fire or windstorm cleared the area and allowed the pines to out-compete other trees. Visiting the Elder Grove feels like an otherworldly pilgrimage. To be surrounded by those aging giants is a journey back in time to the virgin wilderness of pre-colonial America. It’s a master class in the epic scale of creation, taught by none other than the great Creator.

In our readings from Ezekiel and Revelation, God spoke through the prophets, revealing future plans for a renewed creation. The new Jerusalem descends from above as God Almighty comes to us. Heaven and earth become one, and all creation is renewed. It’s a return to the primeval paradise of Eden—with trees front and center. Fed by the river of the water of life, the trees bear fruit that will satisfy our deepest hunger and leaves that will bring healing to the nations. People of every ethnicity, speaking every language, representing every country will dwell together in peace and wholeness before the throne of God and the lamb.

It’s a beautiful vision granted to faithful people in times of crisis. When God spoke to the Prophet Ezekiel, he was in Babylon. Once a priest serving in the Jerusalem Temple, Ezekiel accompanied his people into exile. The Promised Land was lost, the Temple destroyed, their best hopes for tomorrow dashed. Similarly, when God spoke to John of Patmos, the seven churches of the Revelation teetered on the brink of extinction. Rejected and expelled by their Jewish kinfolk, persecuted by the Roman Empire, mistrusted by their pagan neighbors, those first Christians sought to hold fast to their faith despite hardship. They needed a Word from God. When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow.

Dendrologists, scientists who study trees, affirm the healing power of trees that was promised by the prophets. Our forests are the great lungs of the earth. While we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, God in God’s infinite wisdom created trees to breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Trees are also natural air filters that absorb pollutants. Every year, US trees remove 17.4 million tons of pollutants from the air. Trees play a crucial role in preventing soil erosion, water pollution, and flooding. A single large tree can lift 100 gallons of water from the ground and discharge it into the air in just one day. Time in the woods has a big impact on our physical and mental well-being, too—reducing stress, lifting mood, and giving our immune system a boost.

Old growth forests, like the remnant of the Elder Grove, have a unique role to play in the help and healing of our world. A single old growth tree with deeply fissured bark, hollow cavities, dead branches, massive crown, and vast subterranean root system may harbor up to 2,300 species—plants, animals, birds, insects, fungi, mosses, lichen, and more. Those old trees play a key role in stemming climate change. They are far superior to second growth forests at storing carbon, sequestering it over centuries in massive trunks, branches, and roots. Old growth stands actually create their own microclimate where shade and cooler temperatures provide refuge for animals and plants in a warming world. The leaves of the trees are, indeed, for healing.

Dendrologists tell us that only one percent of the old growth forests in the eastern US remain. In the west, about five percent persist. Worldwide, only one-third of our virgin forests have escaped logging. Trees may be a renewable resource, but science shows that second-growth forests will take centuries to develop the carbon storage capacity of their elders. Young forests are more vulnerable to invasive pests and disease, like the Hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, and beech-scale insect that plague our Adirondack woods. The science shows that climate change is having a disproportionate effect on our northern forests, with temperatures rising here much faster than the global average. Reduced snow cover, increases in extreme weather, and rising average temperatures are putting our forests at increased risk. The frequency and extent of forest fires have been higher in recent years than in any time in the last 10,000 years. The leaves of the trees may be for healing, but they face unprecedented challenge in a warming world.

When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow. Botanists use the term refugia to describe the little pockets of plants and animals that repopulate areas after big changes in the environment, like after the last ice age when the glaciers receded and remaining animal and plant populations surged to fill new territory. In a warming world, those areas of refugia will be found in places like the Adirondacks, where the northern slopes of mountains and remnants of old growth forests will preserve habitat for threatened ecosystems. The possibility of a healed world on the far side of the climate crisis is right here. Like Ezekiel and John of Patmos, we are in the right place at the right time to speak God’s hopeful vision to the world.

We also have a role to play in safe-guarding and preserving those remnant places from which renewed life will spring to heal the planet. In her book Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, professor, author, and speaker Debra Rienstra teaches that, in an age of climate change, Christians are called to be a refugia. Our churches are to be welcoming places that provide “life giving nourishment,” the spiritual water that can sustain us and allow us to thrive amid change. Together, we can lean into that vision of the Kingdom that God shared with Ezekiel and John the Revelator, the vision of a creation where the waters flow in abundance, the forests thrive, and the world is healed. As we lean into that vision, we can trust that God will be in our midst, working through community and inspiring our dreams. We are called to be a people and place of refuge in a warming world.

What does a refugia church look like? We put on the orange vests and do highway clean-up. We gather to read and reflect in the Earth Care Book Group. We improve the energy footprint of our building. We raise funds and awareness to protect our waterways through the Earth Care Coffee House. We get outdoors with picnics and Sermons on the Trail and paddles. We stand in places like the Elder Grove with awe and gratitude for God the Creator and Jesus Christ through whom all things came into being. Will you be a place of refuge with me?

Earlier this year, we had good news for our old growth forests. It has long been the common belief that perhaps only 50,000 acres of our 6.1-million-acre park have not been logged. But new researched, supported by a $1.3 million study by New York state, suggests that those numbers are wrong. We have more old growth trees, more refugia, than we thought—perhaps as many as 270,000 to 440,000 acres of forest that, like the Elder Grove, are hidden in plain sight. The study documented 500-year-old red spruce and eastern hemlocks, 400-year-old sugar maples and yellow birches, and forests with five species of trees older than 300 years. Much of that old growth remnant is in our backyard, like the woods around Polliwog Pond near Fish Creek Campground. That’s good news for us, our forests, and our efforts to mitigate climate change.

When things seem at their worst, God holds out a hopeful vision to God’s people and invites them to dream of that better tomorrow. Let’s dream together as a people and place of refuge.

Resources

Ella McKendrick. “The Fortingall Yew: A Complete Visitor’s Guide” June 4, 2025. Accessed online at https://ellamckendrick.com/fortingall-yew/

Amy Feiereisel. “Inside the 350-year-old ‘Elder Grove’ of Paul Smiths,” Sept. 1, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/48366/20230901/inside-the-350-year-old-elder-grove-of-paul-smiths

Dalia Kellou, Alexander Nauels, Uta Klönne. “Climate impacts in northern forests” in Climate Analytics, March 21, 2024. Accessed online at https://climateanalytics.org/publications/climate-impacts-in-northern-forests

Mike Lynch. “Study reveals 400K acres of old growth forest, hiding in plain sight” in Adirondack Explorer, March 15, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/environment/natural-history/adirondack-old-growth-forest-in-the-adirondacks-more-than-expected/

Steven Bouma-Prediger. “The Leaves of the Trees Are for the Healing of the Nations,” in Reformed Journal, April 5, 2020.

Debra Rienstra, “Little Pockets: Refugia Basics” in Reformed Journal, August 17, 2019.

Melinda Baker. “Old Growth Forests nd Large Old Trees as Critical Organisms Connecting Ecosystems and Human Health” in Springer Nature, Jan. 5, 2022.

Chad Rimmer, Carol Marples, Pauline Mumia & Johanan Celine Valeriano. “Living Waters: Season of Creation 2026” in Season of Creation, Fall 2026.

Debra Rienstra. Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, Tantor Media, 2022.

Ezekiel 47:6b-12

Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7 As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9 Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes. 10 People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. 11 But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”

Revelation 22:1-5

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4 they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

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Late Comers

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Late Comers” Matthew 20:1-16

Many years ago, before I went to seminary, I was a young adult living in a diverse urban neighborhood. My daily path to work took me past the local 7-11 convenience store. What I remember most about the 7-11 was the crowd of Hispanic men who hung out there every morning—rain or shine, weekends, too! I wondered, didn’t they have anything better to do than stand on the corner and hiss at me as I hurried to catch my train? 

One morning, as I was rushing by, I saw a big contractor’s van pull up to the curb, the kind a house painter or roofer might use. The driver leaned out the window and gestured to a few of the waiting men. They quickly scrambled into the back of the van and away they went. Another morning, as I hurried by, I saw a big pick-up truck stop. The back was full of the plants and tools of the landscaping business. The driver held up his hand to show that he was looking for five workers. Immediately five men vied to climb into the bed of the truck and away it rolled. 

I soon realized that the 7-11 wasn’t so much a hang-out spot as it was a job-seeking spot. There was some unwritten law of the city that told day laborers to show up at the 7-11 because tradesmen of all sorts would stop there, looking for help. I’m guessing that many of the men who waited at the 7-11 were undocumented. I’m also fairly certain that the bosses who hired them paid less than a living wage for very hard work. It was probably also true that those bosses couldn’t find anyone else to do that backbreaking, gritty labor.

Occasionally, I’d find myself rushing past the 7-11 later in the day. I would see a few day laborers still lingering, looking up anxiously as vehicles slowed, still hoping that someone might stop, invite them to hop in, and put them to work. These workers were often old and gray or barely past puberty or physically frail. There were always more men eager for work than there were bosses ready to hire them. It was a whole world of hard physical work and meager wages that I never knew existed. All those day laborers were dependent upon the initiative and generosity of folks who were much more fortunate than they were.

In our gospel lesson today, Jesus described a similar scenario. In Jesus’ time, workers also congregated in the marketplace to seek employment. These were everyday folks who eked out a subsistence living from a garden plot and a goat or two. They depended upon seasonal labor to make ends meet. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a vineyard owner, seeking workers for his vineyard. At the crack of dawn, the vineyard owner recruited a few early risers and agreed to pay them each a denarius, just enough to meet the daily need of a large, poor family. Then, he sent them into the vineyard to work. Again and again throughout the day, the vineyard owner recruited workers, even at the eleventh hour, at 5:00, when the sun was sinking low and the shadows were lengthening, the vineyard owner hired folks waiting for work and promised to pay them what is right.

When quitting time came, the vineyard owner sent his manager to pay the workers, handing him a generous purse and instructing him to make sure the last were paid first. The workers lined up, last hired to first hired, and as the manager went down the line, he reached into the vineyard owner’s purse and fished out a silver denarius, pressing the same wage into each worker’s palm. The lucky one-hour workers couldn’t believe their good fortune, and those hard working twelve-hour-laborers grumbled that those one-hour-slackers shouldn’t receive the same wage. They’d worked harder and longer. They had the blisters, sore backs, and sunburns to prove it. But the vineyard owner would hear none of it. If he chose to be generous with those who were late in coming, why was that of any concern to them?

Jesus tells us that this is the way the kingdom of heaven works. How we feel about this parable has a lot to do with whether we see ourselves as early risers or latecomers. Among Jesus’ critics were scribes, Pharisees, and devout Jews who had been laboring in God’s vineyard—serving the Kingdom of God—all their lives. They looked at the sinners, tax collectors, lepers, and no-account-losers whom Jesus welcomed into the Kingdom. It wasn’t fair that people like that should receive the same divine love and heavenly reward that they expected. I’m not sure whether the story Jesus told eased the tension with his critics or just ruffled more feathers. The outrageous love and mercy of God can be hard to wrap our heads around. Think of Jesus, telling this shocking and uncomfortable story to people who didn’t want to hear it. Think of Jesus, who knew he would one day be brutally killed to reveal God’s limitless love and mercy for us.

Now, here’s what would really ruffle the feathers of Jesus’ critics. This story sounds like it is all about work. Doesn’t it? But it is really all about grace. God loves us—not because we are the hardest workers, keeping every jot and tittle of the Torah, wearing God out with our prayers, and impressing the neighbors with our exceptional piety. Rather, God simply chooses to love us because God is love. Whether we find this truth and come to God at the eleventh hour or we have known our belovedness from the cradle, we are loved and welcomed. There is a place for us in the Kingdom.

The story of the workers in the vineyard sounds less unfair and unsettling when we realize that we are actually all one-hour workers. We are all latecomers who get the whole denarius, who find salvation late in the day, despite our meager efforts. We are the tax collectors and sinners. We are the uppity women. We are the lepers, and gentile outsiders. We all come to the Kingdom of Heaven late in the day, undeserving of the whole denarius.

We have our reasons for that. We waited all day to go to the vineyard, but no one wanted us because we were too old and infirm, too green and inexperienced, too weak and unclean. We didn’t make it to the vineyard on time because we had overwhelming crises at home that needed our undivided attention. We showed up late because we got lost down that wrong road of addiction or compulsion or sin. We almost didn’t make it to the vineyard at all because we were so depressed that we couldn’t pick our heads off the pillow. We rolled into the vineyard at the eleventh hour because we didn’t even know that the vineyard was hiring.

We are the latecomers. How happy we are to learn that we are accepted and welcomed, loved and rewarded! How happy we are that God generously shares without measuring our worth! That crazy vineyard owner gives and gives and gives without counting the cost. Thank you, Lord.

I doubt that the 7-11 in my old neighborhood is still an open-air labor market. Aggressive immigration enforcement has disrupted local economies, especially those employment opportunities that others don’t want, employment opportunities that are hard and gritty and poorly compensated. I’m sure there are bosses out there still in need of workers. I’m sure there are workers, both early risers and latecomers, wondering how they can support families.

I’m sure the vineyard owner hopes that we will one day realize that grace is freely given for all, whether we are early risers or we are those who come to the vineyard at the eleventh hour. Perhaps we will one day move past our ruffled feathers. Perhaps one day we will know that the love and welcome of Jesus are intended for all.

Resources

Karl Jacobson. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 18, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-3

Ira Brent Driggers. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 21, 2008. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-4

Kimberly Wagner. “Commentary on Matthew 20:1-16” in Preaching This Week, March 5, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/laborers-in-the-vineyard-2/commentary-on-matthew-201-16-8

Matthew 20:1-16

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

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The Economy of Grace

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Economy of Grace” Matthew 18:21-35

This week marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11. In lower Manhattan on Friday, family members read aloud the names of the 2,977 people killed in the attack on the twin towers. In that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, National Park Service employees rang bells for each passenger and crew member killed in the crash of Flight 93. At the Pentagon, an American flag was unfurled on the side of the building, marking the spot where the fourth plane crashed.

If we are old enough, we remember where we were on September 11, 2001. I was in seminary, teaching English to international grad students in Chicago. Duane was in the post office at Paul Smiths College. Where were you?

When they heard the news of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Talat Hamdani was teaching English at a Queens Middle School and her husband Saleem was operating his convenience store in Brooklyn. Their oldest son Salman was an EMT and cadet with the New York City Police Department. That morning, Salman was on his way to an internship when he witnessed smoke coming from the Twin Towers. He hurried to the scene to aid victims, using his police and EMT identification to get a ride through the restricted traffic. Salman never came home. Talat and her husband Saleem soon realized that the path to forgiveness would be difficult for them as they contended with both grief at their son’s death and suspicions of neighbors who conflated their Muslim faith with acts of terror.

Jesus knew how very difficult it is to practice forgiveness, so some of his toughest teachings tackle that difficult topic. Today’s lesson is one example. Peter thought he was terribly generous when he offered to forgive his neighbor seven times. Imagine his dismay when Jesus told him to extend the olive branch not seven but seventy-seven times, which basically meant that he should always forgive without limits.

To prove his point, Jesus told an outrageous, exaggerated parable about an unforgiving servant. A slave owed a ridiculous debt to his king—10,000 talents. A talent was the greatest monetary unit in the ancient Near East, a 150-pound weight of silver, worth fifteen years’ wages for a day laborer. The slave in Jesus’ story owed the king 150,000 years’ worth of labor. No one could pay that debt. But when the slave made an impassioned plea that touched the heart of the king, the unthinkable happened. In an act of sudden, undeserved mercy, the king cancelled the debt. 

We expect the forgiven slave to go and do likewise, but when granted the opportunity to forgive a fellow slave a relatively small debt, the hard-hearted scoundrel shocked us with his ruthlessness, seizing his debtor by the throat and throwing him into prison. When a whistleblower got ahold of the royal ear, the king forgot about the mercy and promised the unforgiving servant a life of pain and punishment.

It’s a story of hyperbole—over-the-top exaggeration—a rhetorical strategy used to make a point. As followers of Christ, we are to forgive as we have been forgiven. In God’s limitless love and mercy for us, we are to find the capacity to be merciful to others, even those who have terribly wronged us, who are in our moral debt. Limitless forgiveness—really, Lord?

It’s tempting to write off Jesus’ words as a moral ideal that is beyond our reach, but Jesus knew the hard work of forgiveness. His family accused him of being crazy. His home church in Nazareth tried to kill him. Jesus was betrayed by Judas. Abandoned by the disciples. Denied three times by Peter. Condemned to death by the religious and political authorities. Mocked, taunted, and abused by his neighbors. Brutally scourged, beaten, and executed by those who surrounded him at the last, gambling for his clothes. Still, Jesus had the moral courage to pray even as he was dying, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We aren’t Jesus, rejected and dying on a cross. We may not have lost a beloved one on 9/11. Yet, we all know how it feels to struggle to forgive. We have had to live with the consequences of a loved one’s misconduct. Our parents mistreat or fail us. Our kids reject us. Our friends betray us. Our elected officials disappoint us. We’ve been ripped off. We’ve been done dirty in the workplace. Our anger is righteous. The crimes against us are heinous. Those who have sinned show no remorse. Forgiveness is tough.

In the days following 9/11, the Hamdani family, who lost their son Salman, faced extraordinary scrutiny. Because of the family’s Muslim faith, investigators from the FBI and NYPD began questioning them about Salman. Congressman Gary Ackerman visited the family’s Bayside home and asked about Salman’s motives for becoming a police cadet and which Internet chat rooms he visited. When CIA officials came, they confiscated a college graduation photo of Salman, posing with a fellow student from Afghanistan. Reporters appeared at the family’s home. The New York Post published a story entitled, “Missing or Hiding? — Mystery of NYPD Cadet from Pakistan.” Anonymous “Wanted” posters were distributed featuring Salman’s NYPD cadet photo and the phrase “Hold and detain.” The implications were clear. There were people promoting the notion that, because he was a Muslim, Salman could have somehow been in league with terrorists.

In October 2001, Salman’s remains, medical bag, and identification were found in the wreckage of the North Tower at Ground Zero. His family wasn’t told of this discovery until March 2002 when he was officially cleared of all suspicion. Salman is mentioned in the USA PATRIOT Act, which states, “Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent…” For Salman’s family, forgiveness has been complex. Of course, there was the matter of the terrorists who flew jets into the World Trade Center, but there was also that unreasonable cloud of suspicion, accusation, and prejudice that surrounded them when they were hurting most.

Jesus taught that we cannot be in right relationship with God if we are not in right relationship with others. Each week in worship, we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, “Forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” In God’s Kingdom, there is a great economy of grace. The mercy that is so generously extended to us must be extended by us to others. That doesn’t mean that we allow ourselves to be abused, or pretend that our hurt doesn’t matter, or condone ongoing bad behavior. Instead, forgiveness is a choice. It’s a daily discipline of allowing the past to be the past, and moving forward into God’s future, with our broken hearts and broken lives stitched back together again with the needle and thread of grace. It’s a grace that was made to clear to us long ago on a lonely hilltop outside Jerusalem where an innocent man gave his life to forgive the sins of the world.

When Salman Hamdani’s father died in 2004, his widow Talat said that it was due to a broken heart—he couldn’t live with the death of his son on 9/11 or the painful way the family was treated in the months it took to learn of the recovery of his body. Talat has worked through her grief and hurt through her involvement with Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of those killed on September eleventh. Inspired by the life’s work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they seek to break cycles of violence with nonviolent direct action in the pursuit of justice.

Talat writes, “Salman was a casualty of 9/11 not because he was an EMT, or an NYPD Cadet, or for being a Muslim. He, like the other victims, was a casualty of 9/11 because he was an American and cherished the American values of democracy, liberty and freedom to pursue a faith of his choice. Hence, the best way to honor all the victims of 9/11 is to uphold these American values. We, as a nation, have to unite and overcome the ugly monster of prejudice and ignorance [through] forgiveness and reconciliation. It is imperative for each of us as individuals, as well as a nation.”

We all struggle to forgive, my friends. Yet Jesus asks us to join him in that great economy of grace, to join him on that beautiful, terrible, healing path that nudges our world a little closer to God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom where we, who owe unbearable, unpayable debts, experience undeserved mercy and limitless forgiveness. How many times shall we forgive? Not seven times, but seventy-seven times. May it be so.

Resources

Sharon Otterman. Obscuring a Muslim Name, and an American’s Sacrifice in The New York Times, Jan. 1, 2012. Accessed online at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/nyregion/sept-11-memorial-obscures-a-police-cadets-bravery.html

Talat Hamdani. “My son died as a first responder on 9/11” in CNN: Opinion, Sept. 11, 2013. Accessed online at https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/11/opinion/hamdani-9-11-memory

Peaceful Tomorrows. “Talat Hamdani.” Accessed online at https://www.peacefultomorrows.org/patricio-and-talat

Nicholas J. Schaser, “Commentary on Matthew 18:21-35” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 13, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-24/commentary-on-matthew-1821-35-7

David Lose. “Faith, Forgiveness, and 9-11” in Dear Working Preacher, Sept. 4, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/faith-forgiveness-and-9-11

Karoline Lewis. “A Generous Forgiveness” in Dear Working Preacher, Sept. 7, 2014. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/a-generous-forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

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Truth and Reconciliation

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Truth and Reconciliation” Matthew 18:15-20

Marty hasn’t spoken to his brothers in decades. It all started Thanksgiving of 1980.  The whole family gathered at Marty’s home for dinner. Marty’s wife Lois cooked the most beautiful meal. She made cranberry relish, giblet gravy, and the turkey, roasted to perfection. It’s too bad no one stayed for dinner. 

The trouble started not long after everyone had a few cocktails and the conversation turned to the recent presidential election. Marty the Reagan Republican was delighted that his candidate won. Reagan was sure to get the nation back on the right track, cut off those welfare queens, and teach those Democrats a lesson. 

Marty’s brother Tim cast his ballot for Jimmy Carter. Tim saw Carter as a man of rare principle and goodness. Carter needed another term in office to end partisan politics and turn the economy around.

Marty’s other brother Frank was always a free spirit, so no one was surprised that he voted for the Independent John Anderson. Frank admired Anderson’s suggestion of a fifty cents-a-gallon gas tax to curb consumption and save energy. In fact, Frank was thinking of trading his old Datsun for a bicycle and simply peddling everywhere.

Round and round the conversation went, each brother extolling the virtues of his candidate and deriding the flaws of the opponents. The last straw came when the free-spirited Frank referred to the Great Communicator as Ronnie Raygun and mimed the President-elect shooting everyone who disagreed with his politics.

“Get out!”  Marty yelled, his face red, a vein on his forehead pulsing. Marty marched into the hall, grabbed all the coats from the closet, opened the front door, and threw them out on the lawn. “All of you! Get out now!” 

They did. Speechless, the brothers with their wives and kids piled into their cars and left.  They stopped at a truck stop on the throughway for a disappointing Thanksgiving dinner, while Marty and Lois had leftovers that lasted weeks. Turkey soup, turkey hash, turkey fritters, turkey omelets, turkey casserole. The aging brothers are still alienated.

Jesus knew that relationships could be fraught with this pattern of sin, distance, and disconnection. The lessons of Matthew 18 are devoted to how we are to respond to brokenness and separation. In fact, right before the words of today’s gospel reading, Jesus told his friends the Parable of the Lost Sheep to emphasize the importance of reconciliation. In the parable, the good shepherd placed himself and the ninety-nine other members of his flock at risk to go off in search of the one sheep who was lost in the wilderness. For Jesus, our good shepherd, families and communities cannot be whole until broken relationships are healed and the lost are restored.

That prepares us to hear today’s lesson. Do you remember what Jesus said?  Where there is alienation, we should first address the issue one on one, speaking the truth in love. If we fail, we invite one or two others to join us in our efforts to bridge the divide. If that fails, we seek the aid of the community of faith. If that proves to be unfruitful, we are to treat the lost lamb as a Gentile or a tax collector, which sounds about as low as you can go until we remember that Jesus ate with tax collectors and welcomed Gentiles. Jesus spent much of his ministry focused on these outsiders, so the Lord is telling us to always seek reconciliation. 

Jesus might caution us to be careful about how we put his reconciling process into practice. Jesus, who taught us that our ultimate responsibility is always to love God and love one another, would remind us that our efforts to reconcile must be prompted by love and not by the desire to bring shame, inflict guilt, or prove someone wrong. Only love can help us take responsibility for our feelings and actions and invite others to do the same. Only love can allow us to be vulnerable and direct.  We all know the pain of separation and alienation; yet, Jesus believes that we can make different choices that will bring healing to all that brokenness.

The story I told of Marty’s fateful Thanksgiving of 1980 may sound extreme, but we have all experienced separation and alienation. Perhaps your Marty is the daughter who moved out of state and phones home infrequently since you told her what you really think about her boyfriend. Perhaps your Marty is that valued colleague who stopped speaking to you after you got a promotion and he didn’t. Perhaps your Marty is the parent who refuses to see you since you expressed concern about their drinking. We all know the pain and puzzle of brokenness. We all know how it feels to stand on the far side of an unbridgeable rift, separated from folks whom we have loved and respected. Jesus’ remedy for our broken relationships sounds so simple. Why is it that we have such a hard time putting it into practice?

Dr. Murray Bowen of Georgetown University, one of the leading family therapists of the twentieth century, developed Family Systems Theory to describe the pattern of distance and disconnection that he noticed in the families he counseled.  Bowen believed that families manage tension and anxiety through triangles and distance. I’ll give examples. 

Marty’s brothers Frank and Tim never took that first step that Jesus taught us to take—never returned and confronted Marty about his outrageous behavior, never spoke the truth in love. Instead, they dealt with their anxiety by forming a triangle. They talked with one another instead of talking to Marty. It started at the truck stop, where they ate that disappointing Thanksgiving dinner after Marty tossed them out. Frank turned to Tim and said, “Reagan, Ray gun, r-a-y-g-u-n. It’s funny. Isn’t it?” Tim nodded, “Geeze, you’d think Marty would lighten up. Can you believe that guy?” Frank and Tim felt a lot better, but the triangle they created did nothing to heal the rift with Marty because they didn’t confront him. 

Now an example for distance: If Frank and Tim were masters of the triangle, Marty was the master of distance. Rather than work through his anger with his brothers, Marty opted out of being in relationship altogether. Every year when the Christmas cards come from Tim and Frank, Marty tosses them in the trash. Cut-off. That’s the ultimate expression of distance. That’s the painful reality that Jesus hoped we could avoid.

Professor Bowen, like Jesus, believed that for broken families to find healing, they needed to stop forming triangles or choosing to disconnect. Instead, they needed to learn ways to stay in relationship and communicate directly with one another in times of conflict. Families that failed to develop practices for direct, healthy communication tended to repeat the same patterns of brokenness from generation to generation.

One last example. It shouldn’t surprise us to learn that the father of Marty, Tim, and Frank had been alienated from his siblings, too, over an inheritance dispute. In fact, Marty, Frank, and Tim never met their aunts and uncle. Never knew their cousins. Within families, all that brokenness passes from one generation to another until someone has the awareness and the courage to make some different choices about how they will be in relationship. Lord, have mercy!

Now, here is the good news that Jesus was trying to communicate to his followers. One faithful person who chooses to follow the advice of Jesus, who bravely faces alienation head-on and reaches out in love, can change an entire family. One person with the courage to be honest about sin, pain, grief, and hurt can be the architect of a changed future. One person can restore wholeness to the flock.

We all know how it feels to stand on the far side of the unbridgeable rift, separated from folks whom we have loved and respected. Jesus taught that it doesn’t have to be like that. I’d like to invite us all to think of a personal relationship that is fraught and in need of reconciliation. Who is your Marty?

This week, we could commit to making one loving effort to restore what has long been broken, to find the lost and heal the hurt. We could mail a card or send an e-mail. We could pick up the phone or show up in person with words of truth, vulnerability, and love. If the hurt is very raw and deeply painful, we may only be able to pray about the healing that is needed, or we could seek a coach to help us. Although we may feel powerless to reconcile, we can remember that Jesus is not, and we can assure ourselves that wherever two or more are gathered in his name, he is there. He is with us. We can remember that Jesus would stop at nothing—not even his suffering and death on the cross—to reconcile us to his Father in heaven and to one another. Let’s take just a moment to quietly commit ourselves to finding the lost and healing the hurt. May God grant us the courage and the awareness to make different choices in our relationships…

Perhaps there could even be hope for Marty’s family. After all these years, Tim could call Marty to say that Reagan hadn’t proven to be such a bad President after all. Or, Frank could peddle his bike over to Marty’s door and say, “Brother, I may not appreciate your politics, but I love you and I miss you.” Perhaps Marty could begin to pray for the Lord to help him move past the anger, shame, and embarrassment that have kept him from his brothers for all these years. Who knows? Maybe this Thanksgiving Marty, Frank and Tim will sit down at the table together. Jesus would like that.

Resources:

Roberta M. Gilbert. The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory. Falls Church: Leading Systems Press, 2004.

Ronald W. Richardson. Creating a Healthier Church. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1996.

Richard W. Ward. “Commentary on Matthew 18:15-20” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 10, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20-6

Audrey West. “Commentary on Matthew 18:15-20” in Preaching This Week, Sept. 6, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20

Matthew 18:15-20

15 “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

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Who Me?

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Who Me?” Exodus 3:1-12

God knew the suffering of God’s people. A new leader rose to power. He stirred memories of former greatness and fanned the flames of national pride. He promised a better future and denounced the evil of other nations. He saw enemies everywhere. They practiced other faiths, loved differently, came from other lands, or held differing political convictions. His special police roamed the streets in brown shirts and jack boots. His dogs of war pushed past borders, greedy for new lands. His enemies began to disappear: vanished in the middle of the night, taken from workplaces, snatched off the street. The trains rolled on and the camps filled up, smoke rising against sullen skies. Some fled to avoid catastrophe, leaving everything behind to keep their lives.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. The color of your skin determined the quality of your life. They knew the back of the bus, the wrong side of the tracks, and the third-rate school. They endured the endless cycle of share cropper debt, and the daily humiliations of the maid, the cook, the laundress, the mammy. They had no political representation. They couldn’t vote. Men in white hoods burned crosses on their lawns. Men in speeding cars tossed Molotov cocktails through living room windows. If they forgot where they belonged, they faced jail time, a beating, a lynching.

God knew the suffering of God’s people. Long ago, they fled famine to seek sanctuary and grain from brother Joseph in Egypt. But a new Pharaoh ruled who didn’t know Joseph. A new Pharoah arose who feared God’s people. He saw them as sub-human foreigners, beasts of burden to be exploited and controlled. He oppressed them with forced work. He punished theme with harsh taskmasters. He murdered their boy babies. They ate the bread of suffering and drank the tears of bitter grief.

They escaped over the Alps, braving the heights and the weather in search of sanctuary. They scurried one by one, two by two, sometimes in small families through the streets of the village of Le Chambon. They were desperate and frightened, fleeing certain death for an uncertain future. One cold and snowy evening, Magda Trocmé opened her door to a woman in a thin coat with terribly worn, wet shoes. Magda invited her guest in and put the woman’s shoes in the oven to dry. Later, the smell of smoke alerted them that the worn, wet shoes were ruined. She fed the woman, gave her a bed for the night, and then quietly appealed to neighbors for shoes. Her husband André secured false documents on the black market to safeguard their guest’s travel. In the morning, they sent her south to safety in new shoes.

She worked as a seamstress for affluent white neighbors. One day, she left work, shopped at the local discount drugstore, and boarded a bus for home. She took a seat in the middle of the bus next to a Black man and across from two Black women. She was 42-years-old and the bursitis in her shoulders was acting up. As the bus continued along its regular route, the white-only seats filled up. At the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, several white passengers boarded, but there weren’t enough seats. The driver demanded that Black passengers in the middle rows move. Everyone near Rosa Parks did, but she didn’t. When the police came, she was arrested and charged with breaking state law. Later, she was tried and convicted. She was fined $10, with a further $4 in court fees, equivalent to about $171 today.

God knew the suffering of God’s people, but Moses wasn’t so sure that he wanted to get involved. Long ago, he left Egypt and the Hebrew people far behind. In fact, he fled the Nile delta as a wanted man, having killed an Egyptian taskmaster for abusing an Israelite slave. Moses was born an Israelite and raised as a foundling in Pharaoh’s house, but he felt he didn’t belong anywhere. Now in midlife, he had a good life in a new land. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses could think of every reason to not get involved. He didn’t have a dog in that fight anymore, he wasn’t eloquent, and Pharaoh would never listen to him anyway. But God assured Moses that those excuses didn’t matter because God would be with him. Moses returned to his father-in-law’s camp, packed up his wife Zipporah and the kids, and returned to Egypt.

Rev. Andre Trocmé, his wife Magda, and the residents of the Alpine parish of Le Chambon, France, helped more than 5,000 German refugees during the second World War. They did so despite the Nazi occupation of their nation. They did so despite incredible peril to their own safety and freedom. Perhaps most extraordinary about their actions was their belief that they were utterly ordinary people, practicing the simplest acts of Christian hospitality. Late in life, when Magda was asked why she had hosted that first refugee, she responded, “It was dinner time.”  She opened the door, and before she knew it, the community was caught up in God’s great purpose for their lives.

Rosa Parks’ act of civil disobedience on that Montgomery bus sparked much broader social action by Blacks and progressive whites in her community. It launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Soon after Rosa’s trial, 15,000 Montgomery residents attended a planning meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke and Ralph Abernethy shared the demands of their civil disobedience. It took 381 days, but segregation on Montgomery’s public transportation system eventually ended. Many years later in her autobiography, Rosa Parks wrote that she had refused to yield her seat that day not so much out of a sense of holy purpose as it was from the awareness that she was just plain “tired of giving in.” She played a pivotal role in bending the arc of the moral universe toward God’s justice.

Upon his return to Egypt, Moses went to Pharaoh with God’s demands. Just as Moses had anticipated, Pharaoh did not listen. Ten times, God sent Moses to Pharoah with the bold demand for freedom. Ten times, God sent plagues to soften the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. The Nile turned to blood. Frogs, gnats, and flies swarmed. Pestilence and boils erupted. Hail fell. Locusts destroyed the harvest. Darkness fell across the land. Finally, the firstborn of all Egypt died. When Pharaoh yielded to God’s demand, Moses led the people out of Egypt and on to the holy mountain, where the bush had burned but was not consumed. God blessed Moses and the people with the Law and the promise of a land that would flow with milk and honey. In saying yes to God’s call, Moses served a holy purpose that ended the people’s suffering.

God knows the suffering of God’s people. They dig through the rubble of a city destroyed by earthquake. They thirst for clean water in sub-Saharan Africa. They wait in squalid detention centers to be deported to a land where they once fled death squads. They languish in the corridors of skilled nursing facilities where family never visits. Their civil and voting rights are yet again at risk. They stand in grocery store aisles and wonder how to put enough food on the table to feed their families. God knows the suffering of God’s people.

God calls us to join God’s great work of help and healing, justice and liberation. Some days, all we can do is think of all the reasons that we really cannot commit. We’re too busy. We work too many hours. We have too few financial resources. We are too old or too young. We have a few too many personal problems. We don’t know what the neighbors might think.

This morning, the stories of Le Chambon, Rosa Parks, and Moses remind us that when God calls us, all we need is a heart that will offer hospitality. All we need is a spirit that is sick and tired of giving in. All we need is to trust that God will be with us despite our shortcomings. God knows the suffering of God’s people. So do we. When God calls through the burning bush or the importune neighbor or the overcrowded confines of a city bus or the everyday encounters of our own lives, may we say, “Here I am. Use me.”

Resources

Roger Nam. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15

Kimberly Russaw. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, September 3, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-6

Cameron BR Howard. “Commentary on Exodus 3:1-15” in Preaching This Week, August 30, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-exodus-31-15-7

Philip Hallie. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed. Harper Perennial, 1994.

Rosa Parks, Jim Haskins. My Story. Puffin Books, 1999.

Exodus 3:1-12

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb,[a] the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

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Church Building

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Church Building” Matthew 16:13-20

Every church building has a story.

Westminster Church in Wilmington, Delaware, where I served many years ago, is a big congregation with humble beginnings. It was launched in 1857 as a Mission Sunday School. Its sole purpose was to share the gospel through Christian Education. The school served children and young families who were building homes on the outskirts of the city. Westminster didn’t even officially become a church until almost three decades later in 1886 when a chapel was built to accommodate Sunday worship.

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, where I first heard the call to ministry, traces its roots to 1803. The church is only a couple of blocks from the White House, so you might think political movers and shakers of the day were the ones who got things started. But working-class immigrants founded the church—Scottish stone and brick masons who came to a new land to build the burgeoning capital city.

A few weeks ago, as we celebrated our church’s birthday, we were reminded of our origin story. We were planted as a mission outreach of the Champlain Presbytery in 1890. Our first minister and most of the founding members were relative newcomers to the village. They came from Black Brook and AuSable Forks to try their luck in this little mountain village that was beginning to boom, thanks to the cold air cure for tuberculosis. Most churches have similar humble stories of origin. Whether a congregation has eight members or 800 members, they begin with ordinary people with a passion for Jesus.

In our gospel reading, we heard that Jesus had plans for church building. Jesus and his friends were on the road to Caesarea Philippi, more than twenty miles north of their homes on the shores of Galilee. Caesarea Philippi was a stopping point on a busy trade route between Tyre and Damascus. The city was the capital of King Herod Philip’s tetrarchy—from there, Herod governed the towns of the northern Galilee and Decapolis. Caesarea Philippi was also a center for pagan worship. For centuries, pilgrims had come to the city to offer sacrifices to Pan, the half-man, half-goat god of fertility. More recently, pilgrims had also come to Caesarea Philippi to worship at a new imperial temple, built by Herod the Great to honor the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus—Caesar had been declared a god by the Roman senate.

On their long walk to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and his friends would have been surrounded by merchants in pursuit of trade, farmers seeking an abundant harvest with the help of Pan, and affluent Roman collaborators hoping to curry the emperor’s favor with a generous gift and sacrifice at the imperial temple. Jesus gestured to the diverse travelers around them; then, he asked his friends, “Who do people say that I am?” According to the disciples most people believed that Jesus was a prophet. A prophet like John the Baptist, who lost his head for speaking too much holy truth to Herod. A prophet like Elijah, troubling the corrupt and idolatrous powers that ruled Israel. A prophet like Jeremiah, who spoke words of comfort to people bowed beneath oppression’s load.

Next, Jesus got personal. He asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter spoke up. Ever since Jesus had called Peter away from his boats to fish for people, Peter had seen some things: lepers healed, loaves and fish multiplied, demons cast out, storms stilled. Peter had concluded that Jesus wasn’t a prophet among prophets. No way. There was only one inescapable conclusion, “You are the Messiah,” Peter said, “The Son of the living God.”

Did you notice how Jesus responded to Peter?  Jesus blessed Peter and promised to build a church upon him. I bet the other disciples were a little scandalized at the thought of Peter as the father of a church. In a first century world where you were born into a profession and practiced it all your life, Peter was meant to follow in his father’s footsteps and fish the Sea of Galilee all his days. Peter wasn’t trained as a scribe or a priest. He had never preached a sermon. And the only time that Peter tried to join Jesus in a miracle by climbing out of a boat to walk on water, it hadn’t gone so well. Peter sank like a stone—or a rock—or a man of little faith. Could Jesus really build a church on this man?

Scripture tells us that Jesus did just that. The Acts of the Apostles relate that Peter preached the house down on Pentecost and baptized 3,000 new believers. Peter also worked miracles of healing. He reached out even to the Gentiles, baptizing the Roman centurion Cornelius and his entire household. Tradition says that Peter planted a substantial church in Rome, where he was eventually crucified.

Here’s the thing. Church building wouldn’t just be about Peter. The Book of Revelation, written long after Peter’s martyrdom, says that the church had twelve foundation stones (21:14). Upon each of the apostles, the Lord built communities of faith that were bold to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. That boldest evangelist, the Apostle Paul, told his friends in Ephesus that they were members of God’s household, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus as the cornerstone (2:20).

Church building happens when everyday people worship Jesus as Lord and reach out to their communities with his compassion and love. Think about those hardworking Scottish masons, the ones who brought their Presbyterian roots to a new nation’s capital and founded the New York Avenue Church. Think about those Sunday School teachers in Wilmington, Delaware, who shared the wisdom of scripture with children on the northern edge of a growing city. Think about those seventeen brave souls who chose to plant a church right here in the wilderness of Saranac Lake, before the advent of automobiles, R60 insulation, or those little chemical packets that we use to warm our hands and feet when we’re watching the Winter Carnival Parade.

Jesus is always on the look out for ordinary folks to use in his building projects. The only pre-requisite is the personal understanding that Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. We all know that, don’t we?! 

Now if the thought of church planting or evangelism sends shivers of cold fear down your spine, don’t worry. I don’t think Jesus’ building plans always involve buildings or launching new congregations. After all, a church isn’t really a building. Is it? A church is people who gather to worship Jesus as Lord and then go forth with his compassion and love. So, what might it look like for us to join Jesus in this task of church building?

We could begin like those saints who launched the Westminster Presbyterian Church in 1856. We can focus on Christian Education. In a time when many families have opted out of church, we are blessed to have amazing children who need Sunday School teachers and helpers. We don’t even have to teach every week. We just have to be willing to take a turn a couple of times each year. We can talk to Hilde about being Sunday School teachers and helpers or sign up at the table by the side entrance. Jesus wants to build his church upon us.  Let’s teach our children.

If teaching isn’t your thing, perhaps Jesus could use you to share good news with some of our most vulnerable neighbors. We do that through our excellent initiatives to feed hungry people. Get involved with the Jubilee Garden. Bring a food offering for the Food Pantry. Set aside Two-Cents-a-Meal for the hunger offering. Break out your sneakers and start promoting the October 18th CROP Walk with family, friends, and colleagues. Jesus wants to build his church upon us. Let’s feed the hungry.

If Jesus and I haven’t inspired you to help with Sunday School or feed the hungry, perhaps we can interest you in the ministry of caring. Churches are built up when people care for one another. Caring involves praying for others through weekly joys and concerns. Caring means reaching out with a card, call, or visit when someone is under the weather or going through a time of trial. Caring calls for extending hospitality and signs of welcome—like taking a bouquet of flowers to someone who needs love, hosting Coffee Hour Fellowship, inviting a neighbor to church, or reaching out to an old friend who has fallen away from the life of faith. Jesus wants to build his church upon us.  Let’s care for one another.

Well, my friends, Jesus is looking to build his church. It all starts with ordinary folks who know that Jesus is Lord. It all starts with us. Upon this rock Jesus wants to build his church.

Resources:

Lose, David. “Who Do You Say I Am?” in …in the Meantime, August 2014.  Accessed online at http://www.davidlose.net/2014/08/pentecost-11-a-who-do-you-say-i-am/

Reddish, Mitchell G. “Exegetical Perspective on Matthew 16:13-20” in Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 3. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.

West, Audrey. “Commentary on Matthew 16:13-20” in Preaching This Week, August 16, 2020.  Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4557

Richard Ward. “Commentary on Matthew 16:13-20” in Preaching This Week, August 27, 2023.  Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-matthew-1613-20-6

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Matthew 16:13-20

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

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A Bigger Table

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “A Bigger Table” Matthew 15:10-28

Immigration is a fraught subject in our nation. Since January 2025, agents of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol have made 582,040 immigration arrests. Over the same period, we have deported 590,600 people, sending them to either their countries of origin or third-party countries willing to receive them. 65,770 people are currently in detention centers, awaiting hearings that will determine whether or not they have a place in America.

Across the nation, citizens are in general agreement that we do not want open borders. We definitely do not want foreign criminals roaming our streets and committing violent offenses. But we have also become increasingly alarmed by the ongoing crackdown on immigration. We have been shocked and grieved by the brutal, sometimes lethal, force used in detaining suspects. News of inhumane conditions in detention centers from Delaney Hall in Newark to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma have raised humanitarian concerns for detainees. The reality of who is actually being detained is also making us scratch our heads. Only about a quarter of those taken into custody have criminal records, and even then, these crimes are mostly for infractions like traffic tickets or overstaying visas. Only 5% of those arrested are violent offenders.

It’s easy to think that we are removed from such sad and disturbing events in the North Country, but that isn’t so. News of immigration arrests in the Tri-Lakes have caused us to question, “Who is welcome here?” Seven Indian workers with documents who serve a local restaurant. Laborers doing the hot, hard, poorly paid work of roofing. A well-respected Greek restauranteur with deep roots in the community. A Venezuelan maintenance worker for a local resort who has lost his temporary protected status. These are just some of our neighbors who have faced arrest, detention, and even deportation. While some local residents lament the detention of their neighbors, others troll news stories, leaving hateful, hurtful comments which reflect that immigrants, especially those who run afoul of the immigration process, are not welcome here.

Our lengthy reading from Matthew’s gospel tackles the tough subject of who is welcome in the Kingdom of God and who is a worthy recipient of Jesus’ ministry. First, Jesus sounded impatient and frustrated as he took the Pharisees to task over the tight borders that they wished to draw around God’s mercy and love. If Jesus sounded crabby, who could blame him? His critics among the Pharisees complained about the ritual handwashing practices of his disciples and their gleaning of wheat on the sabbath day. The Pharisees have challenged Jesus for healing and relieving suffering on the sabbath. They have accused him of being in league with Beelzebul, the lord of demons. And, they have condemned Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was clearly fed up when he offered some authoritative guidance on what makes people unclean and who is welcome in God’s Kingdom. Over and against the lines drawn by the Pharisees, Jesus taught that we are defiled not by what we eat or touch—or by the company we keep. Rather, it is what we harbor in our hearts and manifest in our lives that can separate us from God and neighbor, like hate, malice, deceit, theft, fornication, adultery, and even murder.

In the next scene, Jesus encountered a woman who came to him seeking help for her demon-possessed daughter. She was a Gentile, one of the goyim, the nations, who had no part in God’s covenant with the children of Israel. Just one look at her uncovered head, gold earrings, and kohl-lined eyes told Jesus that she was a Canaanite, a rival nation with whom the Israelites had been at odds ever since their ancestors had crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. Her behavior was outrageous, even by Canaanite standards. In a patriarchal world where only women who were prostitutes would publicly speak to a strange man, this woman was scandalously bold, shouting that she needed help, falling at Jesus’ feet, weeping, tugging at the hem of his robe, and pleading her case. No one was surprised when the Lord ignored the woman and the disciples wished to send her away. No one was surprised when Jesus dismissed her, calling her a “dog.” She wanted the impossible. She wanted a seat at the Lord’s table, a seat that was reserved only for the people of Israel.

It was the woman’s witty response to Jesus’ insult that got his attention. “Yes, Lord. I know I am unworthy, but even a dog can feed on crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Don’t you have a crumb for my daughter?” In that moment, Jesus must have thought about the promise of the Prophet Isaiah, who said that one day all the nations would come to God’s holy mountain. Jesus must have thought about those harsh and restrictive lines that his Pharisee opponents wanted to draw around God’s mercy and love. Perhaps he even heard his own words echoing in his ears, saying that our place in God’s Kingdom and our seat at the table is about the content of our hearts. He thought about the Canaanite woman’s heart. She had demonstrated a love that was willing to suffer humiliation and rejection for the sake of her daughter. She had boldly, despite opposition, expressed her heartfelt belief that Jesus was Lord and Jesus could heal, if only he had the will to do so.

Right about then, Jesus changed his mind. If God intended to welcome all nations to the Kingdom, then who was he to keep them out? Jesus praised the woman’s faith and sent her away. At home, she found her child restored to full and vibrant health. Imagine the tears of joy and the bold rejoicing. Imagine the shouts of “Alleluia!”

Who is welcome here? Sylvia Muñoz is the Peruvian wife of an American citizen. She was detained in the San Juan airport while returning from her honeymoon in Puerto Rico. Agents pulled her to the side when they learned she was not an American citizen. She was sent to a detention center. Her husband Bradley didn’t know where she was for a week. She has no criminal record. She came to the US legally. Her visa expired. Is there a place for Sylvia at the table?

The Laya-Caicedo family came to the United States from Venezuela in 2024 to pursue political asylum. The husband worked as a delivery driver. The wife cleaned hotels. Their two children attended school. In January, when the family showed up for a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they were detained. They spent two terrible months in a detention center before being released. When they got home, they found that everything was gone—their apartment, jobs, possessions, savings, and even the family dog. Is there room for them at the table?

Luis Leon is 82 years old. He came to the US thirty-eight years ago after being tortured in his native Chile by the dictator Augusto Pinochet. He was granted political asylum and built a life here, working at a leather manufacturing plant, raising four kids, and eventually retiring. He’s a well-loved neighbor in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In June he lost his wallet, which had his green card in it. At an appointment to get it replaced, he was handcuffed and taken away. His family couldn’t find him for a month until a relative in Chile called to let them know that Luis was now in a hospital in Guatemala, deported there by the US government. Is there room for Luis at the table?

Who has a place at the table? We are at an inflection point in our nation when it comes to discerning who belongs and who does not. Unfortunately, we are saddled with an immigration system that is deeply dysfunctional. Bi-partisan efforts to make meaningful changes in that system have been repeatedly sabotaged and scuttled. Woe to us. Woe to those like Sylvia, Luis, and the Laya-Caicedo family who want a seat at the table.

In reflecting on today’s scripture reading and the big boundaries that the Pharisees wished to place around God, Richard Ward, who taught preaching and worship at Phillips Seminary for a number of years, says, “Fearful tradition-keepers in any age are concerned that interaction with the ‘other’ will pollute and confuse their understanding of who they are.” He suggests that in Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman, the Lord’s “tradition-shaped heart” broke open, allowing the Lord to change his mind and heal her child.

We have some heart-work to do in this country, my friends. Do we have the faith and the courage to do it?

Resources

David J. Bier. “5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions” in Cato at Liberty, November 24, 2025. Accessed online https://www.cato.org/blog/5-ice-detainees-have-violent-convictions-73-no-convictions

Will Craft and Andrew Witherspoon. “By the numbers: the latest ICE and CBP data on arrests, detentions and deportations in the US” in The Guardian, July 20, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/aug/29/trump-immigration-ice-cbp-data

Alexandra Martinez. “Advocates warn of worsening conditions in ICE custody as detainees take extraordinary risks to be heard” in Prism, Feb. 16, 2026. Accessed online at https://prismreports.org/2026/02/16/ice-detainees-detention-centers/

Aaron Marbone. “ICE detains 21 workers in Lake Placid raids” in Adirondack Explorer, June 4, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/communities/ice-immigration-detains-21-workers-in-lake-placid-raids/

Laura Romero. “’Everything gone’: Venezuelan family says they lost their home and jobs after being detained for 2 months” in ABC News, March 9, 2026. Accessed online at https://abcnews.com/US/venezuelan-family-lost-home-jobs-after-detained-2/story?id=130835747

Laura Barrón-López and Doug Adams. “Migrants in U.S. legally and with no criminal history caught up in Trump crackdown” in PBS News, March 28, 2025. Accessed online at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/migrants-in-u-s-legally-and-with-no-criminal-history-caught-up-in-trump-crackdown

Eunyung Lim. “Commentary on Mark 15:10-28” in Preaching This Week, August 16, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20/commentary-on-matthew-1510-20-21-28-7

Richard Ward. “Commentary on Mark 15:10-28” in Preaching This Week, August 20, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20/commentary-on-matthew-1510-20-21-28-6

Carla Works. “Commentary on Mark 15:10-28” in Preaching This Week, August 16, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20/commentary-on-matthew-1510-20-21-28-5

Matthew 15:10-28

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” 12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.

Photo by Niccolu00f2 Chiamori on Pexels.com

From Saranac Lake to Mzuzu — Stories in Celebration of Our 136th Anniversary

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “From Saranac Lake to Mzuzu” Matthew 14:22-33

On Friday evening, July 25, 1890, the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, New York celebrated an organizing service in a brand-new church building. It was so new, in fact, that there were no windows; and instead of pews, the worshippers were seated on simple plank benches. Seventeen people—thirteen women and four men—with the Rev. Richard McCarthy, signed their names to a new leather-bound Session book, below the words, “We the undersigned original members organized as the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, N.Y. subscribe our names as a memorial of the occasion and as a pledge of our Christian fellowship.” 

In celebration of the one hundred and thirty-sixth birthday of the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, today I’ll be sharing stories from the history of our church.

“The White Plague”

Like many institutions in Saranac Lake, the “White Plague” of tuberculosis played a powerful role in shaping our church as people from around the world flocked to our mountain village to seek Dr. Trudeau’s cold air cure.  The lives of a number of our earliest pastors were touched by the disease. Our second minister, Rev. Henry A. Lewis, who served the church from 1893-1894, came to Saranac Lake in the company of his wife who suffered from TB. In 1895, young Rev. Armitage Beardsley came to our church fresh from seminary and promptly contracted tuberculosis.  By July 1897, Beardsley was too ill to moderate the session. In a touching, hand-written note dated Sept. 2, 1897, the young minister resigned. He died within two weeks and the ladies of the church draped the pulpit in black as a memorial. Our fifth, Rev. Dr. Edwin H. Dickinson, also came to town in the company of a sick spouse. Mrs. Dickinson died in the church manse in March of 1903. One of our longest serving ministers, Rev. Hiram Lyon, who served at the height of the TB days from 1927-1937, first came to Saranac Lake in 1925 to cure after his graduation from Union Seminary in NYC.  Lyon’s experience as a patient inspired him to make care and visitation a core component of the church’s ministry.  He was the driving force in the hiring of Miss Christine Burdick, our parish visitor, who made as many as 2,000 visits to TB patients each year from 1928—1932.

Of course, our membership was also profoundly affected by the “White Plague.”  Many TB patients became church members, even if they never set foot on church property. Session minutes of 1897 relate that two elders went to the O’Malley Cottage to receive a Miss Fletcher into church membership. Elders and pastors took communion out to shut-ins. Poor boxes to benefit the “sick poor” were stationed at the rear of the church to help patients in need. Many members worked in the cure industry. Some owned cure cottages. Some drove taxis.  Some were tray boys and girls. Many were health care professionals. 

TB doctors played an important role in governing the church.  The first doctor to affiliate with us was Dr. E.R. Baldwin in 1895, a graduate of Yale, who was one of Dr. Trudeau’s closest colleagues. He was soon followed by Dr. Hugh Kinghorn, a pillar of the church until his death. By 1949, we had six doctors serving as active elders on session: Doctors Kinghorn, Bellaire, Merkel, Mitchell, Woodruff, and White. Dr. Karl Merkel was especially remembered for his “generosity, gruff kindness, and impatience.” He would frequently leave a meeting before it was over if he had morning commitments. One evening, the elders were engrossed in church business during a session meeting when a loud bell rang at 9PM. Dr. Merkel retrieved his alarm clock from under the table, stood up, and “quickly left amid peals of laughter.”

“Women’s Work”

When our church was founded in 1890, American women were thirty years away from having the right to vote, and so it should come as no surprise that women were likewise unable to vote or hold elected office in the church. Yet women were a powerful behind-the-scenes force in shaping our congregation.  They raised money, supported missions, studied the Bible, and cared for the church building and the manse. The Women’s League, organized in the first decade of our church, was charged in 1897 by the Board of Trustees with assuming “care of cleaning and heating the church ‘til further notice.” When US women won the vote in 1920, the church was slow to follow. Instead in 1920, the Trustees’ minutes note, “Ask the ladies to get up some entertainment to help defray our debt.” The same year, the women provided for refinishing of the church floors and prepared food for the annual meeting and dinner at a cost of $0.50 per person.

In 1928, the church finally resolved to elect three women to serve as Trustees of the church, overseeing matters of care for the building. At one of those early meetings, the women Trustees voiced their discontent with the status quo. “It has been brought to my attention,” stated Miss Gertrude Hugo, “that it is not the sexton’s duty to keep the church clean and dusted, but that the women’s organizations had assumed that responsibility. Why should they?”

Our first women elders Gertrude Woodruff and Julia Norton were elected in 1958, twenty-nine years after our denomination had approved the right of women to hold that office.  Perhaps the session was inspired to change by the first ordination of women as Presbyterian pastors in 1957.  Although our first women elders served on session and prepared communion, they were not permitted to serve communion until the 1960’s when Evelyn Outcalt became the first woman to bravely go forth with the bread and the cup.  Evelyn recalled that not everyone was happy. On the first communion Sunday, one female parishioner indignantly said, “I don’t like it!” and refused to accept the plate as Evelyn tried to serve her. I wonder how that woman would feel about a woman in the pulpit nowadays.

“The Church Bell”

You may have noticed the bell that hangs in the tower at the side entrance of the church. The bell was made by Meneely & Company of West Troy, New York (now Watervliet).  Our church bell is inscribed with the words of Mark 16:15, “Go Ye Into the World and Preach the Gospel to Every One.”  It also has a dedicatory inscription, “Presented by Col. Elliott F. Shepard New York City August 18, 1891.”  Col. Shepherd, a New York City publisher, was an early benefactor of the church. 

It is estimated that the bell weighs about 2,000 pounds, a heavy load for our small wooden sanctuary and its elegant original belfry.  For many years, the church bell was rung each Sunday morning at the beginning of worship.  A long rope hung from the belfry down through a hole and onto the open front porch of the church.  In 2010 at our 120th anniversary, older church members still remembered boys out on the “porches” ringing the bell with much enthusiasm on Sunday mornings. 

By 1937, members had begun to express concern about the size of the bell and the stability of the church’s belfry. That year, an architect was hired to inspect the belfry and offer a report to the Trustees. If any further action was taken, it is not recorded in the session minutes. Eight years later in 1945, the belfry was reconstructed to provide better support for the bell. The original belfry was a “two-story,” open structure. The belfry was shortened to one story and the structure was reinforced. 

The weight of the bell continued to compromise the structural integrity of our small wooden sanctuary. Members began to notice that the walls had moved, pushed out of square by the weight of the bell. It was feared that, eventually, the belfry and bell would collapse, crashing down through the roof of the sanctuary. When the porches were enclosed in 1965, it was proposed that the bell be moved to a cement pad on the front lawn of the church. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room. The church needed fourteen more inches of churchyard to satisfy the village code.  In 1967, the bell was removed from the belfry and placed in storage with Maddens. In 1969, the session voted to give Col. Shepard’s bell to North Country Community College where it remained in storage for seven more years.

In 1976, at the initiative of the Presbyterian Women, a plan was enacted to retrieve and house the bell in a wooden tower at the side entrance of the church.  A fund was established in memory of David and Miles (Mickey) Ferree, the late sons of Elder Anna Ferree.  Elder George Schaefer managed the project, and Dick Grebe designed the tower. By October 1977, the project was complete. The tower was dedicated in a service of worship, followed by a reception with cider and donuts. The bell was rung by all.

“Many Missions”

From our earliest years, the church was interested in foreign mission. In 1896, the Women’s Missionary Society was formed by fifty women, each pledging $0.02 a week in mission giving.  By the turn of the century, our Women’s League was supporting Presbyterian Missionaries in India and China. In 1920, the church accepted partial responsibility for the salary of Dr. Winfield Scott Dudgeon, who taught at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad City in northwestern India. The college was founded in 1902 as a joint venture of the Presbyterian Church and the British East India Company. The church’s commitment to Dr. Dudgeon was $1,200 each year, which in today’s world would be about $17,000. That’s no small commitment.

Dr. Dudgeon earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago and married his hometown sweetheart from Iowa—Grace Evans. The two itinerated to India in 1912 where they had two children. Dr. Dudgeon was a botanist. He taught biology at the college and established the first laboratory course in botany in all of India. He was the founder and first president of the Indian Botanical Society. He trained and mentored India’s leading botanist of the 20th century, Pontaman Maheswari. Between 1928 and 1930, Dudgeon served as the acting president of the college.

In a letter to the church from the same period, he described his vision of himself and his colleagues as academics and ambassadors of Christ in Hindu-dominated northwest India, saying, “Surely India needs Christ. Politically where else can unity be found; socially where else can relief be found for the degraded and neglected; individually where else can the burdened soul find relief from sin and its consequences?  I can only say that we are striving to maintain a college at such a high scholastic level that young men will continue to be attracted in large numbers and that when they do come to us, we endeavor to persuade them to take Christ as their Savior.”

Dr. Dudgeon had a scheduled visit to Saranac Lake planned during his sabbatical year in 1932. Sadly, he never had the opportunity to meet the members who had so fervently supported him with prayers and gifts. He died suddenly, shortly after returning to America.  He was forty-five years old.

Our passion for foreign mission persists. Over the past two decades, we have supported the itineration of the Hellers at the Mzuzu Crisis Care Nursery in Malawi, the outreach of Grace Chiumia and Sam Chirwa through the Women of Grace Widow’s Fund, the educational efforts of the Malawi Early Literacy Fund, and the work of Rev. Tyler Holm and Dr. Rochelle Holm to equip pastors for ministry and to improve access to clean water and sanitation in Malawi. Each year, our Christmas gifts to Africa—received for the benefit of the Marion Medical Mission—provide the life-saving gift of clean water to remote villages in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia. Many missions, indeed.

Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, as we celebrate our 136th year of ministry, we remember your steadfast love for us, made known in your Son, Our Lord Jesus. Today we dedicate ourselves anew to the way of Christ, remembering where we have been and anticipating with joy the many years to come; in Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Matthew 14:22-33

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. 25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Wounded and Blessed

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Wounded and Blessed” Genesis 32:22-31

We are wounded.

Olivia was married for three years when she learned that her husband was having an affair with her best friend. She remembered the joy and promise of her wedding day when she stood at the chancel with her maid of honor on one side and her new husband on the other. When she heard news of the infidelity, Olivia didn’t know what hurt more: that the man she loved had broken his vow or that her longtime friend had betrayed their friendship. She feels deeply hurt and deceived. It has scarred her self-worth. It is hard for her to trust.

Terry and Ben love children. They’ve been deeply disappointed by their inability to have them. Years of trying without any success were followed by infertility treatments. Twice they rejoiced when Terry got pregnant, and twice they mourned when they suffered miscarriage. They are tender with one another and have accepted that parenting isn’t for them. But they grieve their loss. Giving up on parenting has left a spiritual void that’s hard to fill.

Aaron enjoyed working for the same company since graduating from college, but a corporate buy-out radically changed his feelings about the job. His new supervisor is verbally abusive and believes in profit at any price. As second-in-command, Aaron runs interference between his co-workers and the boss’s bad behavior. It has him chewing antacids as if they were candy. Aaron feels trapped by the paycheck, working in ways that compromise his true self. He feels lonely and empty.

Jacob was wounded. In our reading from Genesis, Jacob’s midnight wrestling match left him wounded and limping. That injury was only the most recent in a lifetime of struggles and misadventures that led to his solitary stance on the banks of the River Jabbok. First, there was the incidental injustice of being the second-born twin, deprived of the firstborn’s birthright and blessing. He spent all his growing years scheming about that. Then, he realized that the father whom he loved didn’t love him so much. Next, Jacob was duped into working 14 years for his one true love Rachel. Now, his family camp was an endless turmoil of rivalrous wives, concubines, and children, all vying for his affection. Jacob was headed home after more than twenty years in exile. Jacob couldn’t go back because he was alienated from his father-in-law Laban, and he was reluctant to move ahead. His older brother Esau, whom he disliked and feared, was on the way to greet him, accompanied by an entourage of 400 men. The wound that would leave Jacob limping on the riverbank was simply a symbol of a lifetime of broken relationships, abused trust, and less-than-righteous behavior.

We are wounded.  Like Olivia, we have known betrayal and broken trust. Like Terry and Ben, we have known grief, disappointment, and dashed dreams. Like Aaron, we have labored in ways that compromise our values and leave us feeling stressed, fruitless, and alone. Like Jacob, we have been loved too little, we haven’t gotten what we want, we have even behaved in ways that alienate and hurt those closest to us. Every life is touched by wounds that hurt our hearts and compromise our well-being. We may even wonder where God is amid the woundedness. Does God see us? Does God love us? Are we accepted in all our brokenness?

On the banks of the River Jabbok, as the middle-aged Jacob considered the wounds of his past and the inescapability of facing his estranged brother Esau, he discovered that he wasn’t alone. A mysterious stranger appeared and the two began to wrestle. This midnight stranger was every bit as tenacious, strong, and cunning as Jacob—and more. At some point during those hours of dark struggle, Jacob realized that he was grappling with God. Yahweh was in the struggle with him, right alongside him, holding tight, not giving up. Maybe not a rival so much as an ally, a support, a holy help. There was no denying that Jacob was wounded. He had to face it and his disjointed leg wouldn’t let him forget it. Yet Jacob was blessed. Right there, as Jacob looked at his wounded life head on and doubted his future, God was there with blessing and an invitation to grow into a new identity as one who struggles mightily and yet prevails.

When Hebrew scholar Hemchand Gossai reads the story of Jacob’s wrestling match with God, he points out that redemption comes to us in brokenness. It is often when we feel fearful and uncertain, it is often when we acknowledge the wounds that we bear, that we find God. There is room in the household of God for those who are betrayed and find it hard to trust. There is room in the household of God for those who know grief, disappointment, and dashed dreams. There is room in the household of God for those who feel stressed, fruitless, and alone. There is room in the household of God for those who love too little, want too much, and have behaved in ways that hurt and alienate others. There is room in God’s household for Jacob. There is room in God’s household for us. If ever we doubt that truth, we need only remember that we worship a God who chose to be wounded, suffer, and die on a cross—all for us. We are wounded, and yet we are loved, accepted, and blessed.

When we know both our woundedness and our blessedness, we are freed to move on, into the future that God holds ready for us, a future in which we grow into the people whom God created us to be. Priest and author Henri Nouwen taught that in the healing of our wounds, we may find a new path and purpose. Like spinning straw into gold, our awareness and integration of our wounded past may allow us to live as a gift and a blessing to others. For Nouwen, that meant facing the wounds of his childhood, accepting a religious vocation, and writing 42 books, including The Wounded Healer. Henri was passionate about helping and healing others, especially those who lived with developmental and physical disabilities.

Presbyterian prayer warrior, poet, and author Arianne Braithwaite Lehn says that when we give our wounds to God something healing—transformational—happens. In her prayer-poem entitled “When I need God to redeem this painful, sad, hard thing,” Arianne writes directly to God,

“You do not create pain for me to grow

Or cause the heartache of my soul,

But are the expert Shaper of life’s ashes.

Somehow this terrible thing—

When given in earnest to you today

(and many tomorrows from now!)—

Becomes an open channel where

Something amazing will flow…

I’ll begin a new kind of dance,

Letting my limp remind

My soul and world

How broken bodies

Learn exquisite new rhythms.

With you, pain finds a home

In something larger than itself.

And, sacred scars hold haven over

Wounds that will someday bless.”

When we give our wounds to God, there is healing and blessing for our lives, and perhaps even the lives of others.

Olivia got into counseling when her marriage unraveled after the betrayal of her husband and best friend. She learned a lot about herself and she discovered, as she faced her pain, that she has a gift for accompanying others. She earned a Master of Social Work degree and now works in marriage and family counseling.

Although Terry and Ben were unable to have children of their own, they have made a loving and helping difference in the lives of many children. Ben is a mentor to at-risk kids at his local Boys & Girls Club. Terry tutors refugee children in English as a second language, and helps those vulnerable little ones learn to read, write, and speak.

Aaron decided to leave his hostile work environment. He started his own business, beginning as a consultant for the company he left. He now has four employees. Two came from his old workplace. It can be stressful, but Aaron feels it is a good stress as he builds a business in keeping with his ethical principles and creates a supportive workplace where employees thrive.

Our spiritual ancestor Jacob limped forward into the future that God held ready. The next day, when he met the brother whom he had deceived, it was with humility and respect. There were tears and kisses, hugs and peace. Then, Jacob and Esau went their separate ways, both wounded, both blessed.

We are wounded, my friends. And yet, we are blessed. May we give our wounds to God, who is the “expert Shaper of life’s ashes,” and live as a blessing to ourselves and others.

Resources

Matthew Schlimm. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-14

Amy Merrill Willis. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31

Mark S. Smith. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, August 6, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-13

Wil Gafney. “Commentary on Genesis 32:22-31” in Preaching This Week, July 31, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18/commentary-on-genesis-3222-31-2

Arianne Braithwaite Lehn. Ash & Starlight. Chalice Press, 2023.

Henri J.M. Nouwen. The Wounded Healer. Doubleday, 1972.

Diana Raab. “Are You a Wounded Healer” in Psychology Today, Jan. 26, 2022. Accessed online at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-empowerment-diary/202201/are-you-a-wounded-healer

Genesis 32:22-31

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

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Learning Patience

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Learning Patience” Genesis 29:15-28

We live in an increasingly impatient world. Researchers have found that we’ll wait four seconds for a website to load before irritation sets in. By ten seconds, we are clicking our way to the next site. 96% of Americans admit to knowingly consuming hot food or drinks that burn their mouths rather than waiting for things to cool down. When it comes to phone calls, we are willing to be on hold for one minute (or less) before we hang up. We’ve been trained to expect instant everything. Our favorite streaming services roll from one episode right into another. We sigh with impatience when the self-check-out lanes are full at the grocery and we have to deal with the human checker. We like those one-tap purchases and emailed receipts.

Impatience doesn’t feel good. We may feel irritation that blossoms into frustration and even anger. We may feel restless and anxious, worrying about what is next and fearing that we are losing control. Our heart rate, respiration, and perspiration increase. Our blood pressure rises and stomach acid churns. Time changes when we are impatient. Behavioral scientists note that our brains don’t track waiting time like a stopwatch. When we are impatient, the brain stretches seconds into what feels like minutes. We may even act impulsively to absorb our discomfort. That’s why those clever marketers put the candy and cooking magazines at the check-out counter.

Jacob was impatient. Even before he was born, God promised that Jacob would be heir to the covenant, but Jacob wanted all the blessing and he wanted it now. As we’ve heard in past weeks, he duped his brother out of his birthright and deceived his blind father into granting him the patriarch’s blessing. Running for his life from the murderous anger of older twin Esau, Jacob encountered God in a midnight vision of a heavenly ladder and the promise of a blessed future was renewed. Children, wealth land, would all come to Jacob in God’s time. But Jacob didn’t want to wait.

When Jacob arrived at the sanctuary of his Uncle Laban’s camp, he saw his young kinswoman Rachel and decided that she had to be his. He could imagine it all: his return to Canaan with his beautiful bride, the many children who were sure to come, his flocks and influence growing, year after year, in the land that God had promised. There were a couple of problems with Jacob’s eager assumptions. First, although he was kin, Jacob was a penniless nomad who had arrived in Laban’s camp with little more than the shirt on his back and the sandals on his feet. Laban remembered years before when Abraham’s servant had shown up loaded with gold and in search of a bride for Jacob’s father Isaac. Jacob couldn’t pay a bride price and he clearly was not in right relationship with his father who should have been making any wedding arrangements. And then there was longstanding tradition when it came to daughters. The elder wed before the younger. Anything less was an insult to both daughters and family. The wily Laban traded on Jacob’s impatience. In lesser families, a poor neighbor might serve a period of indentured service for a year or two in exchange for marriage. But the impatient Jacob made a rash decision. He committed to serving his future father-in-law for seven years, working with Laban’s flocks in exchange for a bride.

Impatience can change the choices we make. Biologically, our impatience triggers a tug of war within our brains. The pre-frontal cortex, that rational part of our brain, must contend with our limbic system which is all about getting a quick hit of dopamine. When the impulsive, reward-driven part of our brain wins, patience loses. If we are already stressed by busyness, fatigue, or hunger, we are even more likely to make poor decisions and take impulsive shortcuts. Jacob, far from home, trying to fit into a new family, and grabby for all the blessing he could get, was destined to make a bad deal with Laban.

Jacob’s impatience with God didn’t serve him well in the short-term or the long-term. He fulfilled his seven-year indenture, but it didn’t seem to improve his patience. Did you hear what he said to his future father-in-law? I did my time; give me my wife! Maybe that’s why Laban felt justified in tricking Jacob on his wedding night, using what was likely a mixture of alcohol, darkness, and silence to pull the old switcheroo. As tradition demanded, the older daughter Leah was wed before the younger daughter Rachel. Then, Laban exploited Jacob’s impatience and rashness even further, signing him up for another seven-year indenture. Jacob’s initial impatience would launch a lifetime of bitter competition between the sisters who would even drag their slaves Zilpah and Bilhah into a baby-making race that would yield thirteen children in thirteen years.

Oh Jacob, we look at you as an example story about the dangers of impatience and the reluctance to trust in the presence and goodness of God. But we know where you are coming from. We are an impatient people. We are impatient in the workplace. We get angry and rashly quit a job before we find another one. We cut ethical corners or take bad risks for the big payout rather than making slow and steady gains. We are impatient with family and friends. We tend to disconnect and drop out of relationships when the emotional work gets tough. We feel frustrated and critical when our kids don’t measure up to our expectations. We are impatient with ourselves. We expect immediate healing when we have an injury or illness. We feel the impulsive pressure to keep up with the Joneses and spend more than we should. We feel impatient with God. We want the blessing and we want it now. We shake our fist at the heavens when our dreams don’t pan out. Maybe we are not so unlike Jacob after all.

Researchers say that we can boost our ability to be patient. Patience is like a muscle that grows when exercised and flexed. Most essential in building patience is gratitude. Researchers at Northeastern University College of Science have found that simple gratitude exercises, like making time daily to notice the goodness in our lives or keeping a gratitude journal, boosts patience and self-control. When we see the good things in our jobs or families, friendships or life of faith, we value them and are willing to invest our energy and effort in being patient.

Another important tool for building patience is mindfulness. Being present in the moment by noticing to our breath, attending to beauty, or centering ourselves in prayer can reframe our experience and dissipate the frustration and annoyance of impatience. We can “use the wait” to grow in patience by shifting our focus to breath, beauty, or prayer, whether we are standing in line, waiting for problems to resolve on the job, or enduring a rough patch in a marriage.

It is also good to remember that we are less likely to spiral into impatience and rash actions when we take care of ourselves. Getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, having meaningful connections in the community, and spending time in nature have been proven to curb our impatience. All those essential acts of self-care are not only good for us physically; they are good for us emotionally and reap benefits when we are faced with those situations most likely to make us spiral into impatience.

Finally, did you know that you can cultivate patience? It’s true. The more we intentionally practice patience, the more patient we become. This takes time and effort. Try using an affirmation like, “This is temporary and I can tolerate it.” Try waiting 15 minutes before checking your phone. Let the line you are standing in move without switching lanes. Count to ten and take a deep breath before leaning on your horn when those tourists bring traffic to a screeching halt at the T-intersection by NBT Bank. In your daily prayers, ask God to nurture within you the gift of patience. Flexing our patience muscle daily can rewire our brains.  

Jacob would eventually reap the blessing that God had promised. First came the children, then the livestock, and eventually a return to the Promised Land. I’d like to think that somewhere along the way, he found the patience that he so lacked as a younger man. He watched his children being born and felt gratitude for the miracle of life. He used those long hours while watching Laban’s flocks to be mindful of the beauty of sun and shadow on the landscape and the presence of God in the ordinary. He was well cared for by those two wives and two concubines and stopped being so anxious and impatient. He learned to count to ten before yelling at the kids. He breathed into the moment and thanked God for the slow unfolding of goodness in God’s time and in God’s way.

We may live in an increasingly impatient world, but we can choose to be different. May it be so.

Resources

Eric Solomon. “The Death of Patience” in Psychology Today, January 16, 2025. Accessed online at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/story-over-spreadsheet/202501/the-death-of-patience?msockid=02b77a0d2ad563c12b2668682bd2625c.

Editorial Team. “Impatience Psychology: Unraveling the Roots of Restlessness” in NeuroLaunch, September 14, 2024. Accessed online at https://neurolaunch.com/psychology-behind-impatience/

Northeastern University College of Science. “Can gratitude reduce cost impatience?” in Science Daily, March 31, 2014. Accessed online at https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140331100236.htm

Robert E. Puff. “Patience Is a Virtue” in Psychology Today, March 1, 2024. Accessed online at https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/meditation-for-modern-life/202403/patience-is-a-virtue?msockid=02b77a0d2ad563c12b2668682bd2625c

Sarah M. Koenig. “Commentary on Genesis 29:15-28” in Preaching This Week, July 26, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17/commentary-on-genesis-2915-28-7

Valerie Bridgeman. “Commentary on Genesis 29:15-28” in Preaching This Week, July 30, 2023. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17/commentary-on-genesis-2915-28-6

Wil Gafney. “Commentary on Genesis 29:15-28” in Preaching This Week, July 24, 2011. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17/commentary-on-genesis-2915-28-2

Genesis 29:15-28

15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was graceful and beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” 19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. 24 (Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her maid.) 25 When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?” 26 Laban said, “This is not done in our country—giving the younger before the firstborn. 27 Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28 Jacob did so and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

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