Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-16
Elisabeth Kennedy
May 1, 2022
(Audio Only)
Author: npc-laureny
Arm In Arm – Volunteers Needed
Arm in Arm depends on volunteers to help us prepare and distribute bags of groceries through 3,000-4,000 food pantry visits and grocery deliveries per month.
We have been fortunate to have the help of students from The College of New Jersey and Rider University who have been volunteering in our Hudson Street and Hanover Street pantries about 45 hours per week. As they wrap up their semester this month, we will be left with a big gap in our pantries.
Especially now as we are serving at historic levels, averaging more than 4,000 pantry visits and deliveries per month, we need help. We are pro-actively outreaching to current volunteers, faith communities, and other groups with the potential to help us fill this gap and are also promoting a May Volunteer Challenge (below), encouraging individuals to volunteer, take an additional shift, and/or bring a friend with them to volunteer.
Food pantry volunteering 2022 — Signup Sheet
Criminal Justice Series: Chris Hedges on Sat. April 30, 1:00 p.m.
Christian Education Committee Criminal Justice Series: April 30, 2022
Beyond Talking: Challenging New Jersey Mass Incarceration Practices and Policies
New Jersey continues to have the highest rate of racial disparities in its prison population in the country, with Black residents incarcerated at a rate of 12.5 times that of whites, even as the Black incarceration rate is 19% below the national average; more than half of New Jersey’s prison population is Black and, additionally, the state has the 10th highest Latino to white racial disparity in the nation.
In this the fourth and final program in our Criminal Justice Reform Series, our presenter is
Chris Hedges, noted Pulitzer Prize-winning author and prison reform activist. Hedges has worked for a decade teaching writing classes in prisons in New Jersey through a program offered by Princeton University and later Rutgers University. A class that Hedges taught at East Jersey State Prison in 2013 went on to collaborate in the creation of a play titled Caged. Hedges has become a fierce critic of mass incarceration in the United States, and his experience as an educator in New Jersey prisons served as inspiration for his 2021 book: Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison. Available at Labryinth Books and Amazon.
Join the discussion with Chris Hedges this Saturday at 1:00pm on Zoom. Contact Witherspoon St. Presbyterian Church for the Zoom link (email).
Bishop Peter Storey at Nassau – April 21, 6PM
Faithful Witness in a Time of Crisis
We are living through an age of compounding crises, with unrelenting racism, impending climate catastrophe, and the drumbeats of war producing great suffering and anxiety. Amidst these great challenges, Christians in the United States continue to disagree bitterly over the shape of faithful witness in the public square. Join us as Bishop Peter Storey, in conversation with Dr. Heath W. Carter, shares his insights about what the American churches have to learn from the remarkable life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other South African siblings engaged in the struggle for a better nation and world.
Join us in person or on livestream.
Livestream (link)
Co-sponsored by Office of Religious Life, Princeton Presbyterians, Nassau Presbyterian Church
Adult Education – April 24, May 1 & 8
Faith ‘n Technology
From phones to drones; cars to Mars, technology is reshaping, indeed, remaking the worlds we live in. But what can our ancient and analog faith offer such brave new futures? These all-ages classes will plug into the big questions about belief in the digital age. Gather around as we ask, “Should we have Faith in Technology?”
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
April 24 | 9:30am, Assembly Room
From Plato to Instagram: Truly Knowing the Shadows on the Wall
As more of life is spent online, and more knowledge is gained through digital media, how will we know what is true and real? This week explores the power of image, the nature of knowledge, and some ancient wisdom for escaping our computer caves.
May 1 | 9:30am, Assembly Room
Will Robots Pray to Electric Gods?: Machines, Cyborgs, and the Meaning of Humanity
Will organic people become obsolete hardware? This week we turn to questions of artificial intelligence and what it means to be human as we address the dreams and dystopias of robotic futures.
May 8 | 9:30am, Assembly Room
Beauty Great and Nano: The Brilliance of Nature
The heavens declare glory and beauty. But what about the nano scale cosmos below us? Our final session looks to the natural world for inspiration and hope as we contemplate the wonders our technology may achieve.
Mark Edwards is Director of Youth Ministry here at Nassau Presbyterian Church. In his spare time he teaches “Ethics and Technology” at nearby The College of New Jersey.
Refugee Resettlement Update (Mar. 2022)
Thanks to the active support and assistance from church members, much progress has been made in the resettlement of the Afghan family that Nassau is sponsoring.
Over the past month, the family has made significant progress in settling into their new home and beginning their new lives in the Princeton community. As a first step in addressing their transportation needs, the family now owns a car that was generously donated by a Nassau Church member. The oldest son has successfully received his driver’s license, and this will allow him to commute to his new job working in a medical office. The other son has also found employment at a local grocery store. The mother and oldest daughter have been focusing on daily ESL classes, while the other daughters are doing well at their respective schools. Many Nassau volunteers are helping the family with transportation; we anticipate that as additional family members obtain drivers licenses, they will be needing a larger car so the whole family can travel together when necessary. If you are in a position to donate a minivan or other large vehicle, please contact the church office by email.
The family is enjoying social activities organized by Nassau staff and members. Two of the daughters recently enjoyed attending a Super Bowl party with Nassau Youth, while the two brothers had fun at a Princeton University men’s basketball game, which they attended with church members (where they watched Princeton beat Harvard).
Nassau volunteers helped the family engage a local lawyer with experience in immigration issues and they are now working toward getting approval for their father to reunite with the rest of the family in Princeton. The church’s Refugee Resettlement Fund is assisting with a portion of the legal expenses. The resettlement team continues to be deeply grateful for the enthusiastic response to our requests for assistance and asks for your continuing prayers for the family.
Adult Education – Lent ’22 Linked-In Learning Series
Reading Luke Backwards
Some stories are not meant to be read once and in order. Some stories are meant for us to revisit over and over again. The Gospel of Luke is such a story and our yearly journey through Lent provides an ideal opportunity to remember and learn anew the story of Jesus’s cross and resurrection anew, afresh, and perhaps from a different vantage point.
And so we invite you to read the Gospel of Luke backwards this season. In a world turned upside down by pandemics and politics alike, how might we approach Easter if we start at the foot of the cross, at the threshold of the empty tomb? And what if we end the story where it starts, in the arms of Mary? From the end to the beginning, Luke narrates a good news that transforms a ruptured world.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
Eric Barreto is Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, an ordained Baptist minister, and a Nassau parent. He earned a BA in religion from Oklahoma Baptist University, an MDiv from Princeton Seminary, and a PhD in New Testament from Emory University. Prior to coming to Princeton Seminary, he served as associate professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, and also taught as an adjunct professor at the Candler School of Theology and McAfee School of Theology.
March 6 | Luke 23:26-40
An Unjust Death
Lent and Easter invite us into multiple stories of the cross and resurrection. Luke’s account of the cross focuses on Jesus’ innocence and his unjust death at the hands of an empire that saw him as a threat to the order it had established. At the foot of the cross then, we meet a Jesus who stands alongside others unjustly and cruelly executed by the machinations of various empires. Thus, we stand at the foot of the cross grieving what we have seen: an innocent person whose life an empire tries to take but whom God redeems.
March 13 | Luke 20:20-26
Confronting Caesar
In light of Luke’s account of the cross, we can turn afresh to a number of well-known Lukan passages, including Jesus’ famous and often misinterpreted call to “render unto Caesar.” Often, this verse is deployed to encourage us to keep separate the political and the religious. Instead, the story calls us to count carefully what actually belongs to God and how much is left for a Caesar who claims to possess the world. What belongs to God if not everything! And if that’s true, then what is left to give to Caesar?
March 20| Luke 14:15-24
The (Not So) Great Dinner
Luke loves stories about food, about gathering around tables with sinners and righteous alike. Here, Jesus tells a story about what a gathering usually deemed a great dinner, a picture of the feast that awaits us all in paradise. However, the Jesus Luke narrates consistently goes to the margins to find his dinner companions, not as a concession after all his friends have turned down his invitation. That is, this (not so) great dinner teaches us more about what a feast in heaven will not be like.
March 27 | Luke 6:20-26
Blessed Are…
Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain promises nothing less than a reversal of the order of a world that privileges raw power, excessive pride, unrestrained greed by highlighting the poor, the meek, the disinherited as beneficiaries and exemplars of God’s promised reign. Alongside blessing, Jesus also names woe to those who have already received their “consolation.”
April 3 | Luke 4:1-13
Power & Justice: Temptation in the Wilderness
Following on the heels of Jesus’ baptism and a voice from heaven naming him God’s beloved child, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. There, Jesus faces temptation, supported by the Spirit and the belief that God was with him. At the center of the temptation account is Satan’s promise to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, kingdoms Satan now controls. Jesus’ faithful response is an invitation to ponder the shape of power and how we might hone our expectations of God’s good reign.
April 10 | Luke 1:39-56
A Believer, A Prophet
We end where Luke’s narrative begins: with Mary’s faithful consent and her prophetic declaration. Typically, we read about Mary’s choice and her song in the Christmas season. In light of Good Friday’s cross and Easter’s promise of resurrection, how might Mary’s bold belief help us meet Jesus once again? This story will remind us of Mary’s faithful teaching of Jesus, the anguish and grief she must have experienced throughout Jesus’ life, as well as one of the sources of the prophetic and prayerful proclamation of God’s transformative kingdom that marked Jesus’ own ministry.
Lent 2022 Small Groups
Old rhythms and routines are returning in new ways. Small Group fellowship is also adapting to the new normal. This Lent brings a wonderful diversity of topics, leaders, and platforms, all designed to deepen your knowledge, faith, and community. Whether you opt for in-person or virtual groups, the promise that the Holy Spirit is present when two or more are gathered in God’s name remains a constant.
Click on the Small Group Name to read more.
| Start Time |
SUN |
MON |
TUE |
WED |
THU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. | Reading Luke | ||||
| 11 a.m. | |||||
| 12 p.m. | Cradling Abundance | ||||
| 4 p.m. | Art of Faithfulness |
Reading Luke (grades 4-7) |
|||
| 7 p.m. |
Movies – Backwards | Reading Luke | Reading Luke | ||
| Christ is Time | |||||
| 7:30 p.m. | Photographing Lent | Photographing Lent |
Reading Luke Backwards
Linked In Learning Series
Some stories are not meant to be read once and in order. Some stories are meant for us to revisit over and over again. The Gospel of Luke is such a story and our yearly journey through Lent provides an ideal opportunity to remember and learn anew the story of Jesus’s cross and resurrection anew, afresh, and perhaps from a different vantage point.
And so we invite you to read the Gospel of Luke backwards this season. In a world turned upside down by pandemics and politics alike, how might we approach Easter if we start at the foot of the cross, at the threshold of the empty tomb? And what if we end the story where it starts, in the arms of Mary? From the end to the beginning, Luke narrates a Good News that transforms a ruptured world.
Join us each Sunday morning as Eric D. Barreto, Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, leads us (backwards) through the Gospel of Luke, examining not only the Biblical and historical context of Luke’s narrative of Jesus’ life and ministry but also its timely and timeless impact on our lives today. Get linked-in for Lent! Each week small groups will study these Lukan texts from a more personal and contemplative point of view, and Pastor Davis will preach them in worship.
Mondays, February 28 – April 4, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
In-person and outdoors at the home of Corrie Berg in Princeton, NJ.
This group is full
Corrie Berg, is the Director of Educational Ministries and always delighted to talk about Bible stories, whether it’s with grown ups or with children. She finds that she often learns the most by discussing the stories of our faith with the people of our church.
Reading Luke Backwards – just for Kids (4th-8th graders)
Mondays, February 28 – April 4, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
In-person and outdoors at the home of Corrie Berg in Princeton, NJ.
Register Here
Corrie Berg is the Director of Educational Ministries and always delighted to talk about Bible stories, whether it’s with grown ups or with children. She finds that she often learns the most by discussing the stories of our faith with the people of our church.
Tuesdays, March 1 – April 5, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
In-person at the home of Thomas and Trevor in Kingston, NJ.
Register Here
Thomas VanWart and Trevor Thorton have been attending Nassau Church for two years, becoming members just before the pandemic started, and now they are Deacons. Relocating to the area from Kansas City, they are currently building their small homestead in Kingston with a Corgi (Luna), 11 Chickens (Emmy Lou, Queen Elizabeth, Reba, Dolly, Stacey, Fran, Abby, Iris, RBG, Marily Robinson, and Nina), and a growing garden.
Thursdays, March 3 – April 7, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
Mani Pulimood has been worshiping at NPC for a long time, with his wife, Monisha, and two sons, Nikhil and Philip. He enjoys participating in and leading small groups at Nassau. He has authored a book, Spiritual Dimensions – Musings on Life and Faith. One of his favorite ministries is online evangelism (https://twitter.com/ManiPulimood). He also enjoys biking and hiking.
Additional Small Group Options
Art of Faithfulness
Sundays, March 6 – April 10, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
This group is full
This spring the Art of Faithfulness continues! Join us as we look at the creative arts as a pathway to experiencing God’s presence in our lives, individually and collectively. We will explore a variety of creative art forms, including the creativity that God has given each of us, to reflect and discuss how they relate to and express our faith.
Kim Kleasen is a long time member of Nassau and the Adult Choir, is currently on Session and working on our Forward in Faith Together initiatives. During the pandemic she completed a course of study on Spiritual Direction at General Theological Seminary where she deeply explored the connections of our creativity and faith.
Noel Werner is in his 16th year as the Director of Music at Nassau and currently serving as Dean of the Central NJ Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He enjoys discovering the power of music, poetry, and visual arts on our virtual platforms during the pandemic.
Let’s Begin at the End; at the Movies
Sundays, February 27 – April 10, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
This group is full
Throughout art and literature we find stories told by using reverse chronology narratives, telling a story in reverse order of events on a timeline. Cinema plays more than a bit part in that mix. We will look at six films that employ a variation of this ancient storytelling technique while enjoying film classics that begin with Mank, a 2020 film about the making of the 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane. We will conclude the series with a screening of Citizen Kane. On the first Sunday we will talk about ourselves and get to know each other and dip our toes in the reverse chronology story pool. The next six weeks we will see the above films listed in the order shown ahead of our scheduled time together. We will then discuss that week’s movie during our time together.
Movie selections include: Mank; Slumdog Millionaire; Into the Wild; Forrest Gump; Amadeus; Citizen Kane.
Marshall McKnight, a lifelong movie buff, has been a Nassau Church member since 2011. He is a deacon and is active on the Mass Incarceration Task Force. He also serves on the Adult Education and Membership Committees. He was a journalist for seven years and for the last 17 has worked for the State of New Jersey.
Christ is Time
Mondays, February 28 – April 4, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
Get “Barth Smart” as we encounter Mark’s favorite volume in the Church Dogmatics. Addressing our understanding of humanity and temporality, Karl rethinks and arguably solves the meta-question, “What is time?” First-timers and experts are welcome as we gather around this rigorous challenge to mind and heart, church and world, and clock and calendar. Reading is ~40 pages/week.
Mark Edwards joined Nassau as Director of Youth Ministries in September of 2013. He is a lifelong Presbyterian and holds a PhD in Philosophy and Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has taught at Princeton University, The College of New Jersey, and Princeton Theological Seminary. His Christ is Time: The Gospel according to Karl Barth is forthcoming in ‘22. Mark is married to Janine, and they have two great kids, a dog, a cat, seven chickens, and a bunch of bikes.
Cradling Abundance
Tuesdays, March 8 – April 5, 12:00-1:00 pm
Virtual on Zoom
Join friends from Witherspoon Street Presbyterian for conversations on Cradling Abundance: One African Christian’s Story of Empowering Women and Fighting Systemic Poverty by Monique Misenga Ngoie Mukuna & Elsie Tshimunyi McKee. Each week we will take a section of the book and consider specific questions pertaining to the text and spend time reflecting generally as well. We hope participants will invest in friendships with one another and Maman Monique through her writing.
A limited quantity of books will be available for purchase at Laybrinth Books on Nassau Street beginning Thursday, February 17 (ask at the check out counter). These can also be ordered from Amazon, Christianbook.com, or from the publisher InterVarsity Press.
Len Scales is the Part-Time Pastor for Mission & Outreach at Nassau. She and her husband Andrew are in their sixth year serving as the Presbyterian Chaplains at Princeton University and Executive Co-Directors of Princeton Presbyterians of the Westminster Foundation at Princeton.
Elsie McKee retired from teaching history at Princeton Theological Seminary last year. She was born and grew up in Congo, and for many years has supported theological education there. Since 2010 her primary focus has been working with her dear friend Maman Monique; in 2013 Elsie and friends established a small non-profit Woman, Cradle of Abundance, to assist Maman Monique’s ministry.
The Sacred Art of Photography
The theme of Sacred Art of Photograph this spring will be Photographing Lent. Each group will prepare a Lenten photo journal that will consist, in the aggregate, of two photographs each group member produces during the week prior to the group meeting on Zoom.
The stimulus for these photographs will come from various scriptures and Lenten meditations provided daily at Nassau beginning on March 2, Ash Wednesday. You can sign up for this email list here:
Members will present two of their photographs for discussion on the evenings in which the group meets.
Photographing Lent (Tuesdays)
Tuesdays, March 1 – April 5, 7:30-8:30pm
Virtual on Zoom
Photographing Lent (Thursdays)
Thursdays, March 3, 17, 31, and April 14, 21, 28, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
Register Here
Because of the “wonky” schedule, we are asking participants to register by email with Ned Walthall by clicking the box above.
Ned Walthall is a photographer based in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He received his MFA from the Institute of Art and Design at New England College (formerly the New Hampshire Institute of Art). His work has been shown throughout the United States and abroad.
He and his partner, Mari Walthall, are currently at work on a photo book entitled Covid & Faith, in which they explore in some depth the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed individuals’ spiritual practice and beliefs.
Adult Education – February 2022
Welcome back to in-person Adult Education classes! We begin this month with a new series exploring the tenets and teachings of Islam. Come hear four excellent community leaders and scholars share their experiences of and expertise in this dynamic and rich tradition. Join us as we strive to be good neighbors to those in our community and conscientious citizens of the world.
Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.
Current Covid Protocols for Adult Education
Our presenters are fully vaccinated and will comply with our testing protocol for worship leaders. Social distancing will apply in the Assembly Room with seating limited to 40 and masking inside the building will continue.
February 6 | Imam Khalil Abdullah
Islam in Dialogue
In the early years of Islam, the emerging Muslim community endured many challenges. Muhammad the Prophet encouraged his followers to seek refuge in the nearby Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. We’ll look at that pivotal moment in history, which offers lessons on both Islam and living together.
Unfortunately, this session was not recorded.
Khalil Abdullah is the Assistant Dean for Muslim Life in the Office of Religious Life at Princeton University. He works closely with students on campus to support their diverse cultural and spiritual identities while helping to strengthen their religious literacy and mutual respect for others. In addition, Khalil offers pastoral care to students and regularly hosts campus dialogues on various topics related to faith, identity, and meaning.
February 13 | Tehseen Thaver
The Qur’an: Text, Context, and Interpretation
This session will introduce participants to some key features of the Qur’an and its interpretive tradition in Islam. Through some specific examples from the Qur’an itself we will look at ways in which the interpretation of thorny and important matters has transformed over time.
Tehseen Thaver is Assistant Professor of Religion/Islam at Princeton University. She teaches courses on the Qur’an and its interpretation, Sufism and Muslim Ethics, Muslim humanities, Shi‘ism, and religion and culture of Iran. Her research focuses on the multiple forms of Muslims’ engagement with scripture – pre-modern and modern, oral and textual, interpretive and performative.
February 20 | Amaney Jamal
Islam and Muslim Experiences in the U.S. since 9/11
This week’s class in the Engaging Islam series jumps ahead about 1400 years. We move from learning about the historical roots and sacred texts of Islam to the current experiences of Arab Americans living in our country in the two decades following the events of September 11, 2001. Dr. Jamal will discuss the persistent stereotypes surrounding Arab Americans and how a limited understanding of Islamic culture plays a role in anti-immigrant sentiments.
Amaney Jamal is Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics. Jamal’s research and teaching focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, political development and democratization, inequality and economic segregation, Muslim immigration in the United States and Europe, and issues related to gender, race, religion and class. She previously served in numerous leadership roles on campus, including as chair of the Department of Politics Ad-Hoc Committee on Race and Diversity and as a member of the Dean of the Faculty Committee on Diversity. Jamal also directs the Workshop on Arab Political Development and the Bobst-American University of Beirut Collaborative Initiative.
February 27 | Imam Jawad Bayat
A Child of Refugees: Becoming an Afghan-American Muslim
Jawad Bayat was born and raised in New Jersey to parents who sought refuge here during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1981. As he relates his personal story we will discover the inner landscape and tension that many people carry as a result of such major disruption and displacement. Assimilation, isolation, and integration are all part of being Afghan, American, and Muslim.
Imam Jawad Bayat serves as Manager of Pastoral Care and Clinical Pastoral Education for Penn Medicine Princeton Health and Princeton House Behavioral Health. He is a graduate of Hartford International University for Religion and Peace’s (formerly Hartford Seminary) Islamic Chaplaincy program, and is ecclesiastically endorsed by the Islamic Society of North America. Jawad completed his multi-year ACPE educator certification with the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, and became among the first Muslim ACPE certified pastoral care educator’s in its history.
Graphic includes Twelve-Pointed Star-Shaped Tile, attributed to Khargird, Iran, (A.H. 846/ A.D. 1442–43), [Stonepaste; polychrome glaze within black wax resist outlines (cuerda seca technique), 15 7/8 in. x 15 7/8 in. x 1 1/4 in.]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (www.metmuseum.org).
Refugee Resettlement Update (Feb. 2022)
As we reported in Generations in early January, Nassau is serving as the community resettlement sponsor for one of the thousands of families from Afghanistan who fled after its fall to the Taliban. These families have been housed in tents and barracks at Fort Dix and other military bases across the country awaiting the opportunity to start a new life in a welcoming community.
We were very excited in late December to learn of our opportunity to welcome a family with six children into our community. The resettlement team warmly welcomed the family on behalf of Nassau Church when they arrived just days later.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. – Matthew 25:35
Since then, the team has been working with the family as they create a new home and acclimate themselves to their new surroundings. This has included accompanying them on shopping trips, as well as visits to the bank, the library, and doctor appointments. We have also helped them complete the process of enrolling the three youngest children into the local schools. A team of English Language tutors will soon start working with some family members each weekday. The family has been heartened to be able to visit with extended family members who live in the region. We are beginning to work with the family on the immigration process that will allow for the arrival of their father into the United States.
The resettlement team is deeply grateful for the enthusiastic response to our requests for assistance to welcome the family and assist in their resettlement. We have one specific request: we hope members of the congregation will be able to help us find appropriate employment opportunities for the adult children. One of them recently finished medical school and was beginning to work in health care in Afghanistan, while the other has business skills. Please contact the church office if you can help with this.
We ask for your continuing prayers for the family as they establish a new life away from their homeland.
The Refugee Resettlement Team