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Holding It Together

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Colossians 1:15-20
December 14
David A. Davis
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The storyteller Garrison Keillor once wrote of an experience of table grace at a family gathering before a holiday meal. “Uncle Al dinged his glass”, Keillor writes, “and announced that we were going to return thanks now…Then he said, ‘Carl, would you return thanks?’ Uncle Carl stood up and cleared his throat. Uncle Carl was the last person you would ask to pray. For one thing, he prayed longer than anybody else in the church, where prayers tended to cover a lot of theological ground and touch on all the main points of faith. Carl was endless. Scripture said, ‘Pray without ceasing,’ and Carl almost succeeded. He could pray until food got moldy. And what was worse, when Carl came to the part of the prayer where he thanked God for sending God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as a propitiation for our sins, Carl always wept.

“Carl had wept in prayer for many years,” Keiller goes on to tell. “Either he never got over Jesus’ death the way the rest of us had, or else it was just a bad habit he couldn’t stop. He always stood and cried, helpless, his shoulders shaking. He was a sweet man with tidy hair, oiled, with comb tracks in it, a dapper dresser who favored bow ties—a good uncle, and it was painful to sit and listen to him cry.

“He stood, and we stirred in our seats uneasily. I peeked at my fiancée and saw that she had already put a big dab of squash on her plate. She was not accustomed to table grace. I couldn’t imagine she would be ready for Uncle Carl. Carl spoke in a clear voice….thanking God for the food, for each other, for this day, and for sending the only begotten Son, Jesus to die on Calvary’s cross, and he started to sob, such a wrenching sound, his awful weeping, especially because he tried to keep talking about Jesus, and the words would hardly come out. He stopped and blew his nose, and we all, one by one, started to get weepy. My fiancée wept. I cried. We all cried. I don’t think we wept for Jesus as much as from exhaustion.”

Traditions and practices abound when it comes to “returning thanks” in the days ahead. For some, there is the designated prayer person who “returns thanks” every time the family gathers for a holiday meal. Others might practice going around the table for everyone to offer a word of gratitude. Some gatherings might feature a particular unison prayer passed on from generation to generation. Still others might look to sing the doxology or another table grace learned in church school. In the Cook Davis family, returning thanks often sounded like this while holding hands: “God our Father and our Mother, once again, once again, we will ask a blessing, we will ask a blessing. Amen. Amen. Amen. AH!” Other times it was saying the end of Psalm 27 in unison: “Wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage, yay, wait for the Lord.”

Maybe when “returning thanks” in the days ahead, we could all take a page out of Uncle Carl’s prayer. Not necessarily with the length or the weeping or the shaking soldiers. But the part that comes in “returning thanks” to God for the One who holds it all together. Returning thanks to God for God’s only begotten Son. “The image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The Apostle Paul’s words here in Colossians, his soaring words describing Jesus, read like a poem, a prayer, a hymn. “In him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all thing,s and in him all things hold together.”

The Word who was in the beginning. The Word who was with God and was God. The Word without which not one thing came into being. The Word who brings life and the light of all people. That Light, the Light that shines whenever, wherever, darkness seeks to prevail. That Light that the ever-present darkness can never overcome. In and through the Word, the Light, all things hold together. The world came into being through this One Joseph named Jesus because he would save God’s people from their sin. The One Mary magnified with her song and pondered, treasured in her heart. This Word, this Light, this Life creating One, who gives the power for us, for you, and me to become children of God. And that is who we are. “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might have first place in everything.”

The Christ who alone is head of the church. The Great Shepherd of the Sheep, who in the power of the Holy Spirit and by his grace calls the church to be the body of Christ for one another so that together we can be his body in and to and for the world. This cosmic Christ sets before us an open door that no one is able to shut. The One who promises to stand at the door knocking so that we can open the door and eat with him, and he with us. First place in everything. First place in everything. The Alpha and Omega, who is God with us. God for us.  He holds it all together.

The Teacher who transformed the law and embodied the prophets and told parables. The Teacher who blessed the poor and those that mourn, the meek and those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful and the pure in heart and the peacemakers and the persecuted. He holds it all together. The Great Physician who healed the sick and anointed those so tormented.  The Savior who welcomed children and ate with sinners and embraced the broken and touched the dying. The Messiah who chose tax collections instead of the most religious, who turned obligation into a joyful feast, who threatened the powerful and the empire with a vision of the world where the first shall be last and the last first, where power is defined by servanthood and leadership is displayed in an endless concern for the other and divine wisdom is revealed by a cross.

The Suffering Servant who stared down the forces of evil and called out life from death’s tomb and stood up to all who work for destruction, all who yearn to subvert the way of peace. The Son of God was born from Mary’s womb, born in the very flesh that speaks of our mortality. His own flesh scarred forever. His own anguish and suffering seared in the memory of God. He holds it all together. The Balm of Gilead, who, even in death, reached to embrace those who hated him most, plunging the very depth of humanity’s distance from God. The Risen Christ who rose victorious from the grave, the Victor of life, and eternity, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to Godself all things, where on earth or in heaven, by making peace by the blood of his cross.” Yes, he holds it all together.

Returning thanks for the One who holds it all together. The One whose love won’t let you go. Uncle Carl. The Apostle Paul. And the ancient hymn of the church.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

And with fear and trembling stand

Poner nothing early minded,

For with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God descendeth

Our full homage to demand.

Returning thanks with the full homage of our lives. Our lives as a hymn of praise. Thriving yet again on the forgiveness of the Savior and living into the abundant life the Bestower of grace upon grace offers. Tasting of his unconditional, undying love while seeking a depth of relationship with him that redefines life’s purpose. Discovering over and over again that as a child of God created in God’s image, we are called to serve others and bear witness to that divine promise of steadfast mercy and overflowing compassion and everlasting life. Seeing his very face in those who suffer, and the long-silenced, and the unseen. Yearning for his wisdom in understanding and yes, loving and caring for those the world wants us to hate or worse. The total praise of life in his name. Following, listening to, looking to the one who bore in his flesh the fullness of God and basking in the fullness of God’s love revealed in the One who holds it all together.

Returning thanks and never forgetting, always remembering that the Victorious, Risen, Triumphant Christ who holds it all together, holds you and you and you forever the very heart of God.

To God’s Ears

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Isaiah 11:1-9
December 7
David A. Davis
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“Sing of a Savior.” That is our theme for worship this Advent. Each Sunday service is crafted around the anthem being offered by the adult choir. This morning, the choir is singing a setting of Isaiah 11, the text I just offered for your hearing, entitled Dona Nobis Pacem. Grant us Peace. From Isaiah, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him.” Discerning wisdom. Strong counsel. Knowledge that drips with the fear of the Lord. Delight in the worship of God. “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear.” The poor judged with righteousness. Fairness shall abide with the meek. Evil and wickedness upon the earth will be brought to ruin by his word and by his breath. Word and Spirit. Righteousness and faithfulness will surround him. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them.” Cows and bears will graze in the same place. The young animals will curl up together. Even the lion will eat straw. The nursing child, the weaned child, will play with the most dangerous of snakes. “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” 

Reading Isaiah can be like listening to a symphony, a cantata, or a concerto. An attentive audience can hear how a composer works the melody and the harmonies throughout the piece using different instrumental sections. That recurring melody is becoming more and more familiar in the listener’s ear. That’s how it is with Isaiah’s song.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined….
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Great will be his authority,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
-Isaiah 9

 

For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind….
No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime…
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat,
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be….
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain,
says the Lord.

-Isaiah 65

 

Isaiah 9, 11, 65, and of course more. Isaiah’s song. Isaiah’s attentive audience can hear how the prophet works the melody and the harmonies throughout the book. That recurring melody is becoming more and more familiar in the listener’s ear. Of course, for Isaiah and the rest of the Hebrew prophets, it was never about an audience. Prophets don’t look for spectators. They don’t put out the call for religious onlookers. With his kingdom song, Isaiah is calling, creating, shaping, pruning, sending a kingdom people. The tradition labels Isaiah’s song “the peaceable kingdom”. The prophet’s peaceable kingdom song for God’s kingdom people.

Edward Hicks was the early 19th-century Quaker who created the famous paintings of “The Peaceable Kingdom”.  I use the plural because Hicks actually painted more than 60 different versions of  “The Peaceable Kingdom”. Hicks was born in Bucks County, PA. According to art historians, Hicks encountered pushback in his Quaker meeting because of his “worldly indulgence,” which was in conflict with Quaker values. He actually gave up painting and tried to be a farmer, but it didn’t go so well. According to Victoria Emily Jones in an article posted to the website Art and Theology, Hicks struggled with the relationship between his passion for painting and his passion for faith. He opened his painting shop and became a Quaker minister serving a meeting in Newtown.

I have shown you Hicks’s work in a sermon before. But, with Noel Werner selecting the Isaiah passage for this second Sunday of Advent,  I thought coming back to Edward Hicks and his “peaceable kingdoms” was appropriate. What you are looking at is one of Hick’s earlier works now in the Yale University Art Gallery. The child Jesus is prominent there among the animals. To the lower left, Hick’s portrays a group of Quakers marching with a banner that quotes the angel’s pronouncement to the shepherds in Luke: “Peace on earth and goodwill to men.”  Hicks pairs Isaiah’s vision with a worshipful march offering praise and adoration to the birth of the Christ Child, the Prince of Peace.

            This 1834 painting of “The Peaceable Kingdom” resides in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The portrayal is more familiar if not more famous. The eye, of course, is drawn to the three children and the animals, all of whom have no focus to the lower left. Instead of pairing the prophet’s word picture with the angel proclamation of the coming Christ Child, in this painting, Hicks’s pairs Isaiah with a depiction of William Penn and colleagues in a peaceful, maybe even worshipful gathering with indigenous people along the banks of the Delaware River. It would have been members of the Lenape tribe who occupied the land there in Bucks County and the land where we gather this morning. You and I know that the aspirational portrayal of a peaceful gathering with indigenous people along the Delaware River drips with irony and unfulfilled hope. Later in his life, Hicks wrote about his own growing cynicism that the realities of life had destroyed his hope that he would ever see the peaceable kingdom in the here and now. One wonders whether multiple efforts at painting the peaceable kingdom were part of that journey of his. Hicks also wrote that his disappointment only led him to cling to Christ and Christ’s promise more and more.

Perhaps part of the legacy of the work of Edward Hick’s is an affirmation that humanity has never learned the things that make for peace. As Jesus said when he wept over Jerusalem, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace.” (Luke 19:42) Nonetheless, Hicks’s Quaker-influenced theological point should not be tossed away. It is a visual depiction of the prophet’s “already and not yet.” While waiting for that promised glorious kingdom to come, God’s kingdom people are called to point to, work for, shout out, and claim the reign of God now. That sounds like Advent to me. On the one hand, Isaiah’s song is sort of the soundtrack of a lifetime of Christmas Eves. Isaiah’s song played in the pageantry of a Christmas Eve full of carols and hymns and candlelight. But on the other hand, singing the song, singing of a Savior in Advent, offers a different takeaway. It is a vision of Christ’s promised kingdom, casting a light on and transforming humanity’s world so full of darkness. The peacefulness of God’s new creation yet to come spilling into the world, you and I see all around us. The eternal hope of Christ’s glorious kingdom gives perspective to the present reality. Singing Isaiah’s song in Advent comes with some umph, with urgency, even volume, while clinging to Christ and Christ’s promise more and more. Pretty much holding on for dear life and singing Isaiah’s song as a plea, a prayer. Begging Isaiah, your lips to God’s ears, Isaiah! To God’s ears!

Sometimes the song of Isaiah comes right from the scriptures page. Sometimes, in sublime beauty, like the setting of Dona Nobis Pacem, grant us peace. Other times, the vision is communicated with the subtlety of brush strokes and interpretation, art history, and the proclamation of God’s people. Isaiah’s message comes to us in many ways, but now and then, and especially right now, and right then, God’s kingdom people have to shout “your lips to God’s ears”.

The poor bathed in righteousness. The meek showered with fairness. Evil and wickedness plundered. Righteousness. Faithfulness. “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them….They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” And yes, it’s about more than our shout because prophets aren’t interested in an audience who just sit and shout. Prophets aren’t interested in a litany of “thoughts and prayers”.  Prophets aren’t interested in self-absorbed pietists who have concluded that Christ’s promise of salvation is just about their punched ticket to eternity. Prophets call people to do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with their God. Prophets inspire people to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Prophets tell of the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God who stood up in the temple and unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19). Prophets are about pruning, shaping, sending, creating, empowering, inspiring, encouraging, calling, a kingdom people. God’s kingdom people who pray and plea and shout “your lips to God’s ears….Isaiah! ”

People of God, we are clinging to Christ and Christ’s promise more and more.

And we are going to shout, so God can use us.

We’re going to live, so God can use us.

We’re gonna work, so God can use us.

We’re going to pray, so God can use us.

We’re going to sing, so God can use us

To God’s ears

Dona Nobis Pacem.

#MissionMonday – Woman, Cradle of Abundance

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We celebrate the work of Woman, Cradle of Abundance

During Advent, we will be spotlighting some of our amazing partners that you can support through Nassau’s Alternative Gifts Market!

Woman, Cradle of Abundance empowers women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo through microloans, education, health and safety programs, and more. Their work is essential right now as conflict impacts Congo and its people. At the Alternative Gifts Market, you can honor a loved one with a gift to Woman, Cradle of Abundance and make a difference this holiday season.


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2026 Lenten Devotional Writers Needed

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Our annual Lenten Devotional is a meaningful tradition that brings together forty-seven voices from Nassau and our sister congregations at Westminster and Witherspoon Street. Each day during Lent, these reflections reach more than 600 recipients!

Lenten Devotional HeaderSignups are now open, and adults, youth, and children are all warmly invited to participate—and to encourage others who might enjoy offering a word of insight and prayer for our shared 2026 Lenten journey.

Sign Up (link)

More details will be sent out in late December to all contributors.

Quickly

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Revelation 22:1-7, 20-21
November 30
David A. Davis
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He was wrong. He was clearly wrong. John, here in the Apocalypse, to John, he was wrong. There, I said it. John the Revelator was wrong when it came to the “soon” part, the “quickly” part. Revelation 22:20 (KJV): He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” When it came to the Risen, Victorius, Triumphant Christ “coming soon”, John was wrong. As we gather here this morning near the end of the year of our Lord, 2025. It is rather obvious, isn’t it? Amid all of the sensory overload of what John was seeing and hearing, maybe he misheard. Because it becomes apparent to any observer, “quickly” has nothing to do with it when it comes to Jesus’ promised return.

Last week at the memorial service for Audrey Gates, during the homily, I said that any sense of time in the kingdom of heaven must be different. Whatever it is like, I said, I would like to imagine that Audrey’s husband Mosie, who died in December of 2019, has been within the gates of heaven waiting for her. Yes, God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and eternity and the concept of time as we experience it, don’t all go together. Maybe John wasn’t wrong about Jesus coming again quickly. Maybe we just call it a little “loosie goosie” when it comes to time. Quickly-ish.

When our son Ben was very young, there was a season when the words “tomorrow” and “yesterday” were not yet in his vocabulary. It was “next day” and “last day”. “Last day” could have been two, three days ago. “Next day” could be a week or so away. As in Christmas is coming “next day”. Of course, Ben famously said that as long as you still have cake, it’s still your birthday. Ben, something of a philosopher when it comes to time. Maybe we just leave the whole “quickly” thing to theologians and philosophers and quantum physicists. Let them hash it out.

“Are we there yet?” “Are we almost there?” Is there a parent anywhere, in any generation, who has not heard that inquiry coming from the back seat? Is there a parent anywhere, in any generation, who has not fudged a bit when it comes to the answer? “Sure, sweetie, we’re almost there! (with fingers crossed). As I gathered with the Gates family before the service, I stood next to the oldest grandchild, who was trying to encourage his young son, the youngest great-grandchild, when it came to the length of the service. “It won’t be that long, probably about an hour”, he said. Then he added, looking at me, “Right, Pastor Dave?” I looked down and said, “Maybe even 45 minutes”.  I knew that wasn’t true. Five family members were speaking in addition to me. I basically lied to that great-grandson. I was wrong, and I knew I was wrong.  I couldn’t help myself; the ever-present desire of a parent trying to comfort a child when it comes to time. Maybe the Risen, Victorious, Triumphant Christ was showing John some compassion, like a parent who knew “quickly” was a stretch? “Are we almost there, Jesus?”

Regardless, on the face of it, John was wrong. There, I said it. But I am neither the first nor the last to say it. New Testament Scholar Brian Blount said it at the end of his commentary on Revelation published in the New Testament Library series. “In quoting Christ here and elsewhere”, Dr. Blount writes, “and in making his own claims about the nearness of God’s judgment/salvation, John was wrong.” Brian doesn’t stop at the calendar: “Contemporary readers of John’s work are right to consider that his mistake on this critical matter does well imply that he was probably mistaken in other areas of his presentation. His negative presentation of women, his understanding of eternal suffering, and his depictions of God’s authorisation and even execution of extreme acts of violence come immediately to mind.” I have rarely come upon a more liberating sentence when it comes to understanding the authority of scripture.

Dr. Blount’s gift to the reader of Revelation, to the preacher, and to the church is a foundational understanding of how to approach apocalyptic biblical literature. In his introduction to that commentary, Professor Blount argues that the apocalyptic literature of scripture intends to convey a truth about God and the world, a truth that words themselves can simply not convey. That truth is so powerful, so overwhelming that the writers, in this case John, appeal to symbols and codes to bear a weight of meaning that language cannot. Thus, in the Book of Revelation, one reads these complex descriptions and strange puzzle-like narratives and all these weird symbols. “John seems to believe that a person must viscerally feel what cannot be linguistically conveyed,” Blount writes. Of course, what must be felt, is that in a world so full of chaos, suffering, death, and empire-like power run amuck, that the peaceable kingdom of God will ultimately prevail and that God has a future where there is a healing of the nations, and there be no more night and no need of lamp or sun for the people God, “for the Lord God will be their light.”  

What must be felt is that God’s future is the world’s future, is our future. God’s glory. God’s light. God’s presence. God abundantly abounds. Dr. Blount suggests that the light as named by John in Revelation is God’s glory shrouding the city like a fog. God is completely on the loose among God’s people. A future where there is no more sun, no more night, only God’s glory, God’s presence. It is “God with us” on steroids. “God with us” with a bunch of exclamation points behind it. God with us to the nth degree. The Lord will be their light. It is EMMANUEL (with all caps). The Lord will be their light. It is where Advent and the Apocalypse meet. God is on the loose among us forever and ever and ever.

What if “quickly” is less about God’s urgency and more about ours? That’s the conclusion Brian Blount draws when it comes to apocalyptic biblical literature, the Book of Revelation, and John getting the time wrong.  In a way that maybe only Brian Blount can, he concludes his 450-page scholarly commentary on Revelation by bursting into a sermon. “John’s future-oriented visions were intended to impel his hearers and readers into appropriate contemporary action. John appealed to the imminence of God’s intervention not to offer a timeline but to encourage a sense of urgency… In a world where many human and even satanic forces seem to be in control, God and the Lamb reign as Lord. No matter how powerful any country or force becomes, no matter how far the reach of its military, political, and economic empire, God and Lamb reign as Lord…Those who believe in that lordship- despite seeing pretensions to lordship in people and powers…must continue to witness, in word and in action, to the lordship of God and the Lamb. They must do so because the Christ who is Lord, the Christ who is faithful and true, has promised that he is coming….soon.” And you  and I find ourselves echoing John the Revelator’s response, John’s prayer, John’s plea: “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus!”

It’s Advent again, and the world is still so full of chaos with suffering, death, and empire-like power run amok.  Maybe I’m just getting old, but the world always seems to be in chaos at Advent. Here’s the point in my sermon where I would offer a litany of reality, or quote statistics, or cite some article. But you can do it as well as I can. And if it’s not the world’s chaos, there’s always enough of us here in the room whose lives are in turmoil at Advent. And so we sing, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” And we strike an Advent light. Because the truth of the promise is so powerful and so overwhelming that words can’t bear the weight of it. That this world, that you and I, that our future is God’s future. Lighting an Advent candle, it’s so much more than comfort food. It is a bold, defiant, persistent way of saying yes to God and spitting at the world’s darkness. The Advent light. “The Lord will be their light”. The Advent light burns with the affirmation that the kingdom of God shall burst forth in us and our life together, and through us and our life together, to the world. The Advent light and the confidence of God’s future. For every time you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death, until he comes again.

#MissionMonday – Alternative Gifts

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Give a Special Gift this Year

Looking for a meaningful alternative to Cyber Monday stress? Check out the Nassau Alternative Gifts Market every Sunday of Advent in the Assembly Room. You can make a difference and delight a loved one by making a gift in their honor to one of our amazing community partners! Check off your gift list and spread the spirit of the season by supporting those who are working as the hands and feet of Christ in our world.


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Christmas Joy Offering

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Holy God, as we look toward the manger at Christmas, prepare a way in our hearts to receive Christ into the world. May we love your world by showing forth the justice, love and peace only you provide. In Christ’s name, Amen.

This cherished offering strengthens two ministries equally: the Board of Pensions Assistance Program—providing emergency and long-term support for pastors, church workers, and their families—and Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color—forming future leaders with scholarships and leadership development.

Nassau Church will receive this Offering on Sunday, December 21. Can’t be here that day? You can give online anytime.

Christmas Joy Offering (link)

O Lydia!

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Acts 16:11-15
November 23
Lauren J. McFeaters
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Not too many women have ever prevailed upon Paul. 

Not too many women carried the day when Paul was on the loose for the Lord.

Not too many women have ever faced Paul and upped the ante.

But somewhere between a riverside prayer meeting, a conversion, and a festival of baptisms, came the establishment of a church.

 Lydia prevailed.

She prevailed upon Paul and the traveling Apostles to be her guests; and to find a port in the storm.

Before there was Iona or Rajpur; Taizé or Machu Picchu; before there was El Camino de Santiago or Changhua Ching Shan,  followers of Jesus found their way to Lydia’s Home. [i] And it’s not just any home. It’s a thriving compound located in an epicenter of trade and fortune. Lydia has a hefty share of the city’s prosperity. She’s a commercial success: an importer of costly fabrics, a producer of rare textiles.

Eric Barreto describes Lydia as an entrepreneur with vision and initiative. She’s strikingly self-sufficient: bright, creative, industrious. And even though she depends on its adherents to be her customers, she doesn’t bow to the religion of the Empire.

Because in Philippi, it is Caesar who is “lord & god.” There are no synagogues.No places for Jews to worship. Any Jew had to go to the river’s edge, outside the city gates to pray. And it seems that’s where Lydia and her friends went to meet. [ii]

It’s a dangerous walk to the river’s edge when you want to worship God.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy have landed on the shores of Macedonia. It’s the Sabbath and there’s been talk in the streets about the goings-on in Jerusalem, anxious murmurings about a Redeemer who resurrected after being in a guarded tomb; and very quiet instructions about where to find a prayer meeting outside the city gates.

It’s just the thing God’s Chief Apostle wants to hear.Paul is on the loose; on the move, and ready to preach.

And when he does, Paul preaches through lips that only a short time ago had ordered the stoning of Stephen; the annihilation of any Christian; the eradication of any hint of a resurrected Messiah. But now – now Paul speaks and words flow. He speaks as one Converted by the Damascus Road; Altered, Persuaded, Re-Formed. He speaks and acts as one Converted by Christ Jesus. O Paul!

We don’t seem to talk about conversion very often. We don’t readily share about the experiences of God’s unwrapping our hearts and renovating our spirits.

For many of us it’s a private and intimate experience. For some, it happens over the long haul. For some it happens in the blink of an eye,  a dramatic and fully realized moment when we know we will never be the same.

For two of my sisters-in-law, neither one raised in a family of faith, it came because someone invited them to church.

For me, it came when I was a 5-year-old during the Kindergarten Nativity play, like Wee Christmas. I was holding a baby-doll-Jesus in my arms and singing a lullaby and something changed. I have no idea what it was, but there was trust in God, and the trajectory of my life took flight. I was 5-years-old, and I look back and all I can think is, our God is so surprising. O Lauren!

Conversion can seem like a long-gone ancient practice; something that happens for a chosen few; a reward;  an act reserved for those in the early church, or for those headed to ordination.

Anne Lamott says her conversion to Christ did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers.“Everywhere I went,” she says, “I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen:  you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever. So I tried to keep one step ahead of it,slamming the doors of my life.”

“When I went back to church,” she says, “I was so hungover that I couldn’t stand up for the hymns, but it was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time, and I felt like their voices, or something was rocking me, holding me, and I opened up to that feeling – and it washed over me.”

And then Anne Lamott adds this:I hung my head and said . . . ‘I quit.’This was my beautiful moment of conversion.I took a long deep breath and said out loud, ‘All right. You can come in.’” [iii] O, Anne!

That’s what Lydia says, too. Here’s an influential woman who hopes for more, needs more, wonders if there’s more.

And before we picture Lydia as a neat, delicate, elegant, woman who glides through Phillipi offering you a look  at tasteful, luxurious fabrics – She’s not.

 Lydia has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, grit in her hair,  and she’s just spit out a tooth as she rises for another go. [iv]

Lydia’s conversion does not take place in the C-Suite of her Corporate HQ. This is no tidy negotiation for textile distribution and sales.

No.

Lydia’s conversion takes place in the slime of a riverbank  where it’s rough and rocky; swampy and water-logged.  She’s got the smell of sulfur stinging her nostrils and  sludge oozing between her toes.

And in the middle of the mud and muck, she and all who are dear to her are received into Christ’s church; are sealed by the Holy Spirit; and belong to Christ Jesus forever.

And how does Lydia respond?  With tenacious hospitality. She prevails – upon Paul: Not with a sweet plea, not a polite appeal. Heavens no. But with a triumphant and unwavering summons.  

Her home becomes God’s home – for traveling evangelists, refugees, new believers. God’s home for prayer, meals, rest, study.

And because she prevailed – her home becomes the First Church in Europe. O Lydia!

O Paul! O Lauren! O Anne! O Lydia!

O Nassau!

God has converted us. God has put wings on our Mission. We’re not a delicate, sweet, fragile group of converts,  who gently beckon Princetonians to luxuriate in the fabric of our pews.

No.

We’ve got dirt on our face, grit in our hearts, and tenacity in our hospitality, because that’s what it takes to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.

It takes placing people, who can never repay, at the head of the table; at the place of honor.

It takes the smell of sulfur stinging our nostrils to clear our sinuses for truth-telling in the public square, and bridge-building between divisions.

It takes a willingness to have mud oozing between our toes to dive into difficult but faithful conversations, so we may do God’s work for the community & world.

O Nassau!

You are Christ’s church; sealed by the Holy Spirit; belonging to Christ Jesus forever.

I thank you for loving me so deeply; for loving Michael and Josie. 

And that for a time, together, we have, with God’s loving guidance: Mended the broken. Restored the lost. Comforted the grieving. Stitched up the hurt.

Such freedom. Such beauty. Such tenderness.

O Nassau!

[i] Religious communities: Iona, Scotland; Rajpur, West Bengal, India; Taizé, France; Machu Picchu, Peru; El Camino de Santiago, Spain; Changhua Ching Shan, Taiwan.

 

[ii] Eric Barreto. Acts 16:9-15 Commentary. www.workingpreacher.org, May 9, 2010.

 

[iii] Anne Lamott. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. New York: Random House Inc.; 1999.

[iv] Adaptation of a quote from Matthew @CrowsFault.

 

#Mission Monday – Community Pantry

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Supporting Our Neighbors, One Can at a Time

This week as we celebrate Thanksgiving in gratitude, we are mindful that many of our community members and neighbors are experiencing food insecurity. One way Nassau is meeting this need is through our Community Cabinet, located in front of the church on the Elm Dr. side. The Cabinet is available for all with a need.

Contributions are welcome and encouraged! Stop by anytime to add groceries to the cabinet – things like masa harina (corn flour), canned goods, and dry goods are always a good option. And if you are in need of some extra groceries this season, stop by and pick up some items, no questions asked. Jesus calls us to feed the hungry and to gather at table together, in lean times and seasons of plenty. Let’s keep the feast!

Words that Prepare the Way

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Adult Education for Advent 2025

As we “Sing of a Savior” in worship this Advent, our Adult Education series turns to the words that prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming—poems, stories, and devotions that give voice to our waiting and wonder. Each week invites us to listen, speak, and create as we join the chorus of hope that proclaims: the Word is made flesh.

Audio recordings will be posted below each class description.

🎧 Listen On the Go!
Adult Education classes and sermons are now available as podcasts on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Search “Nassau Presbyterian Church”—follow or subscribe to be alerted when new recordings are uploaded.

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November 30 | Thais Carter & Virginia Kerr

Between Promise and Arrival: An Advent Poetry Workshop

Advent invites us to dwell in the tension between promise and fulfillment, waiting and arrival. In this session of Adult Education, we’ll read and discuss poems that echo the spiritual practice of waiting — from poets who find holiness in uncertainty, patience, and hope. Through shared reflection and conversation, together we will look at how poetry can shape our Advent imagination and open us to God’s quiet presence in the meantime.

Thais Carter is the Director for Strategic Initiatives at Princeton Theological Seminary and Associate Director of Iron Sharpening Iron, an executive leadership program serving women across the US and Canada. She serves on the Adult Education Committee for Nassau Presbyterian Church; is the current board president for the Westminster Foundation, the nonprofit that supports Princeton Presbyterians; and is a board member for LitWorld, a nonprofit focused on literacy and social-emotional learning initiatives for children and women. Her love of poetry emerged from her training with the Civic Reflection Initiative and the ways this form of expression enabled meaningful discourse across difference. She cultivates a good mix of high- and low-culture in her life, so you’re as likely to find her at a Marvel movie as you are at a poetry reading — and she would want to talk your ear off about the significance of both. She thrives in low-level chaos with her husband, Heath, and their four boys and two dogs.

Virginia Kerr is a Princeton attorney, a member of Nassau’s Adult Education Committee, and a member of the Steering Committee of Nassau’s Mass Incarceration Task Force. She has loved poetry from a very early age and still has fond memories of her sixth grade teacher’s reading of Millay’s The Ballad of the Harp Weaver. As a volunteer for Nassau’s ABC Prison Literacy, she taught poetry classes at New Jersey State Prison and the Mercer County Correctional Facility. In recent years, she has included poetry in story sessions she facilitated at FCI Fairton for the non-profit People & Stories, Gente y Cuentos. She has a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College, with a minor in English Literature, an M.A. in the Teaching of English from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

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December 7 | Shannon Daley-Harris

The Just Love Story Bible

Meet an author of The Just Love Story Bible, a new children’s Bible inviting families to explore God’s justice and love throughout Scripture. Shannon Daley-Harris will share how this project took shape and how it can help households nurture faith, compassion, and imagination.

The audio for this class is not available at this time.

Shannon Daley-Harris is Associate Dean at Auburn Seminary and a nationally respected leader in children’s faith formation and faith-based advocacy. A child of Nassau Presbyterian Church, Shannon grew up in this congregation, where her parents continue to worship, and where she first developed the commitment to justice, storytelling, and compassionate faith that has characterized her career.

For thirty years, Shannon guided the Children’s Defense Fund’s partnership with congregations and faith communities across the country. In that role, she helped equip churches, clergy, and lay leaders to engage deeply with issues of justice, poverty, children’s rights, and moral public witness. Her work brought together spiritual practices, policy advocacy, and community engagement in ways that have shaped generations of ministry leaders and families.

Shannon is the author of several influential resources for parents, pastors, and congregations. Her books include Hope for the Future: Answering God’s Call to Justice for Our Children (Westminster John Knox Press), a practical and theological guide to nurturing a justice-centered faith in families, and The Just Love Story Bible, a new children’s Bible inviting households to encounter God’s justice and love woven throughout Scripture. She has also written widely in articles, curricula, and devotionals that support faith leaders and caregivers in raising children with compassion, courage, and imagination.

Shannon speaks and teaches nationally, encouraging churches to embrace their role in shaping a more just and hopeful world for all children. She brings to her writing and teaching a unique blend of pastoral sensitivity, deep theological reflection, and decades of hands-on experience walking alongside families and faith communities.

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December 14 | Hanna Reichel

For Such a Time as This: Christian Existence in our Current State of Emergency

How do we live faithfully in an age of rising authoritarianism, spreading politics of cruelty, and the erosion of democratic culture? By reminding ourselves that we are not alone, grounding ourselves spiritually, diving into the resources of our faith tradition, and practicing communal discernment. Neither alarmist nor complacent, Hanna Reichel draws on scripture as well as historical precedents like the Confessing Church’s resistance to Nazi Germany to offer theological framing and practical wisdom for a Christian response to the present moment.

This class was postponed due to the snowstorm. We hope to reschedule with Dr. Reichel soon.

Hanna Reichel is the Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, where they teach and write at the intersection of Christian doctrine, ethics, and public life. An internationally respected scholar, Hanna’s work explores how theology responds to the urgent questions of our time—identity, justice, power, community, and the shape of faithful Christian existence in a complex and often fractured world.

A ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Hanna also serves on the Theology Working Group of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, helping connect global Reformed communities in shared theological reflection and public witness. Their teaching and writing consistently bridge rigorous academic scholarship with the lived realities of Christian communities across cultural, political, and social contexts.

Hanna’s published work spans a wide range of topics, including Christology, theological anthropology, eschatology, the doctrine of God, theological method, and critical epistemologies. Their first book, Theologie als Bekenntnis: Karl Barths kontextuelle Lektüre des Heidelberger Katechismus, reframed Karl Barth as a contextual theologian by examining his sustained engagement with the Heidelberg Catechism. The book received both the Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise and the Ernst Wolf Award, recognizing its contribution to modern theology.

Their second major work, After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology, offered an innovative rethinking of theological method by bringing queer-liberationist thought and design theory into conversation with Reformed systematic theology. Widely noted for its creative and constructive approach, the book has shaped contemporary discussions about what theology can be and do in the public sphere.

Hanna’s newest book, For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional, is their first written for a broader audience beyond the academy. Drawing on Scripture and historical precedents such as the Confessing Church’s resistance to Nazi Germany, the devotional offers spiritual grounding and practical wisdom for Christians seeking to live faithfully amid rising authoritarianism, eroding democratic culture, and the politics of cruelty.

In addition to their books, Hanna is actively involved in current theological dialogues on technology, surveillance, AI, and the ethical challenges of the digital age. Their current projects include Against Humanity, a critical examination of theological understandings of the human being, and Political Theologies of Omniscience, which places contemporary surveillance technologies and artificial intelligence in conversation with historical Christian debates about divine omniscience.

Hanna regularly speaks in academic, ecclesial, and public venues—nationally and internationally—and their work has been featured in outlets such as The Atlantic, Theology Matters, and the Presbyterian Foundation’s Leading Theologically series. Their preaching, teaching, and writing invite Christians to engage the world with courage, clarity, humility, and hope.

 

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December 21 | Maria LoBiondo

Stories of Gratitude and Blessings

As we come to the final days before Christmas, Maria will share tales from the oral tradition that highlight the themes of humility, compassion, and joy found in Mary’s song/prayer in Luke’s gospel, the Magnificat. Come hear tales that reinforce our connections to people around the world and to each other, and offer possibilities for reflection on the deeper meaning of how we welcome the Divine in our lives.


Storyteller Maria LoBiondo delights in sharing the old tales — myths, folk and wonder tales — as well as literary tales with listeners of all ages. She believes these stories create a world of their own as they unfold in the telling, connecting us with previous generations and with each other today. Her engaging style and lively expressions have enchanted listeners for more than 30 years, including congregation members at Nassau Presbyterian, where she has told folk tales, interpretations of Tolstoy’s works, and Henry van Dyke’s classic, “The Other Wise Man.”

Maria’s approach is shaped by the belief that stories—whether ancient or contemporary, simple or profound—carry the power to form us, guide us, and bring us closer to one another and to God. Her Advent storytelling tradition, in particular, has become a beloved part of Nassau’s seasonal rhythm, offering the congregation a chance to enter the mystery and joy of Christ’s coming through the beauty of story.

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