Water Walk for Villages in PartnershipNassau’s first annual water walk fund raiser to support Villages in Partnership, VIP.
Start time: After second service, wear your walking shoes.
We will provide the buckets for carrying water.
To register for the Water Walk visit: vipwwnassau.everydayhero.do
To find out more about Villages in Partnership please visit: villagesinpartnership.org
October Classes
Theologians for These Times (Assembly Room)
Finding Faith in Literature (Music Room)
Inquirer’s Class for Prospective Members (Niles Chapel)
Colossians In-Depth (Maclean House)
Slavery, Presbyterians, and Princeton (special Noon event)
Download the October brochure: October 2018
October 7
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
Theology has ideals of divine perfection. Politics has real world problems. What’s a disciple to do when Christ isn’t on the ballot? Working from both Bonhoeffer’s systematized Ethics and his spontaneous reflections from prison, we’ll address what he might teach us about confronting political and theological compromise.
Mark Edwards joined Nassau as Director of Youth Ministries in September of 2013. He is a lifelong Presbyterian and holds a PhD (Philosophy and Theology, 2013) from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has been an Assistant of Instruction at Princeton University, and is currently an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey. Mark is married to Janine and they have two children.
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
The South African theologian Russel Botman was internationally known for his many contributions to public life – as student leader during the struggle against apartheid, as influential congregational minister, as ecumenical church leader, as academic theologian, as President of the South African Council of Churches, as Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, and as leading voice in tertiary education in Africa. His family participated in the life of this congregation when Botman was a Fellow at The Center of Theological Inquiry. One of the founding figures in what is today known as “public theology,” he received the Kuyper Prize in 2014 for his contributions to public life. This class will focus on how faith informed and inspired Botman’s own life of public service – in his own words, his “project of hope.”
Dirk Smit is the Rimmer and Ruth De Vries Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life at Princeton Theological Seminary. Smit came to Princeton from South Africa, where he taught systematic theology at the universities of Western Cape and Stellenbosch, was involved in ecumenical church activities and contributed to public life with both popular and academic writing.
Unfortunately this class was not recorded.
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
Why in some instances does witnessing to the Kingdom of God lead to the ultimate sacrifice? How does this sacrifice in some cases become a life-giving inspiration for future generations? The life and work of the Spanish-Salvadoran philosopher and theologian Ignacio Ellacuría represents a clear example of this kind of inspiration for a deep commitment to the work of justice, freedom and the liberation from the social and political conditions that inflict suffering and death. Join Francisco Pelaez-Diaz to learn more about this Latin American theologian, who remains unfamiliar to many in the US, and explore together the answers to these questions.
The Rev. Francisco Pelaez-Diaz is a PhD candidate in Religion and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary. Francisco is originally from Mexico and has worked as an ordained pastor among immigrants in a multiethnic/multiracial PC(USA) congregation in Dayton, Ohio. His dissertation –in progress– Is titled “Migration as a Way of the Cross: Ignacio Ellacuría’s Notion of ‘Crucified Peoples’ for Theological Reframing of Central American Migrant Experience.”
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
The subject of a high-profile documentary in 2017, An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story, and dubbed by Religion & Politics as “Washington’s Favorite Theologian, ” Reinhold Niebuhr was respected by the political left and right. A pastor (Evangelical and Reformed Church) before he was a celebrated theologian and foreign policy expert, Niebuhr wrote prolifically about the self, morality, ethics, politics, the public square, justice and so much more. Join us for a conversation about theologian Reinhold Niebuhr’s legacy and its relevance for our times.
Peter Paris is Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics Emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. Paris is a world-renowned scholar, honored most recently by a collection in his honor, Ethics That Matters: African, Caribbean, and African American Sources. While in Princeton he also worked closely with the Princeton University African American Studies Program. He has also been a Visiting Professor in Harvard University Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary (New York), and Trinity Theological College (Legon, Ghana).
Daniel Migliore is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. An ordained Presbyterian minister, whose broad interests include systematic theology, Karl Barth, the Trinity, and Christology. During his career he taught courses on Christology, the doctrine of God, the theology of Karl Barth, Barth’s Church Dogmatics, and an introductory course on the doctrines and practices of Christian faith. His book Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology has been a standard through three editions. Dan is a “clergy member” of Nassau.
9:15 AM
Maclean House
George Hunsinger returns for the 21st year to lead this verse-by-verse examination of Colossians. Bibles are available for use during the class. Find them on the Deacon Desk by the church kitchen. Class meets next door in Maclean House (Garden Entrance).
9:15 a.m.
Music Room
Explore Shakespeare’s relationships with, and use of, the text of sacred scripture. Writing before the publication of the King James Version, he relied for the most part on the so-called Geneva Bible, though he occasionally shows awareness of the Vulgate’s Latin. Rather than turning to scripture as a source of truth or meaning as earlier dramatists did, particularly those who wrote the Mystery Plays to which the young Shakespeare was exposed, we find him treating it almost as a source like any other. He thereby explores the tensions about the authority and significance of scripture that dominated so much of English and European public life in the century after Luther posted his 95 theses.
Rhodri Lewis is Senior Research Scholar in English and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, having recently moved from a Professorship of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He remains an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. His most recent publication is Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness (Princeton UP, 2017), and he is currently at work on two main projects: a short book on Christopher Marlowe, and something much longer on the development of satirical writing between 1500 and 1750.
9:15 a.m.
Music Room
Austen’s final completed novel, Persuasion, published posthumously in 1918, tells the story of spinster Anne Elliot’s second chance at happiness with the same man, Captain Wentworth, she had rejected years before. But marriage is never just marriage in Jane Austen. This hugely satisfying love story is also a tale of spiritual renewal and even bodily rejuvenation, and it imagines, at the same time, a kind of renewal and reform of British social relations. Longing for rebirth, for escape from her autumnal and dimming life, Anne Elliot also enacts an escape from outmoded notions of privilege, class, and marriage.
Deborah Epstein Nord is Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton. A specialist in Victorian literature and culture, her latest books are Gypsies and the British Imagination, 1807-1930 (2006), and, with Maria DiBattista, At Home in the World: Women Writers and Public Life, from Austen to the Present (2017). She is currently working on a project about the relationship between 19th-century fiction and the visual arts.
9:15 a.m.
Music Room
In Paradise Lost John Milton gives an exciting poetic account of the fallen angels, the Creation of humanity (to say nothing of the rest of the universe), and life in Eden before and immediately after the Fall. But to what extent is it Christian, at least in a way that we recognize today? And to what political ends does Milton write? These are some of the abiding questions you will hear addressed in this introduction to Paradise Lost and its milieux.
Russell Leo, originally from Rochester, New York, received his PhD from the Program in Literature at Duke University where he studied Reformation poetics and their impact across seventeenth century Europe. Leo came to Princeton University in 2009, first, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Society of Fellows and, after 2012, as an Assistant Professor in the English Department.
9:15 a.m.
Music Room
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is easily the best-selling and most popular literature series in recent memory. These books are a “portkey” from Harry’s world into the world of the Bible, because they are jampacked with Christian symbols, values, themes, theological ideas and much more. You are invited to put on your spectacles of faith (if they are shaped like Harry’s even better!) and take a look into the wealth of ideas shared in the seven volumes for fans of all ages.
Debbie Hough recently retired as the Director of Christian Education at Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a Harry Potter mini-geek, her favorite character is Professor McGonagall, she’s a Gryffindor and her animagus is a buzzard. And she believes all of this can work together!
9:30 a.m.
Niles Chapel
Come explore the meaning of Christian faith, church membership, and the foundations of the Presbyterian Church(USA). Classes are open to anyone wanting to discover more about our church and are required for those who wish to become church members. Your presence and membership mean everything to us! Contact Lauren McFeaters (, 609-924-0103 x102)
12:15 p.m.
Assembly Room
Examine how Presbyterians addressed slavery in the pre-Civil War period. Contrary to what one might suppose, the institution was not confined solely to the South. Slavery still existed in New Jersey, though with dwindling numbers of people in bondage in the early 1800s. Explore Presbyterian responses to slavery here in Princeton–at the college, the seminary, First Church (predecessor of Nassau), and Witherspoon Strett Church.
Jim Moorhead is professor emeritus of American Church history at Princeton Seminary. He became engaged in research on this topic when he wrote two short essays for the university’s online Princeton and Slavery Project, and when he participated in the task force conducting an historical audit of Princeton Seminary’s relationship with slavery. Jim, his wife Cynthia, and their three children are long-time participants in the life of the Nassau congregation.
Westminster Conservatory RecitalOn Thursday, October 18 at 12:15 p.m. Westminster Conservatory presents “The House of Life,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a song cycle on poetry of Dante Gabriel Rosetti. The performers, Timothy Urban, baritone and Kathy Shanklin, piano are members of the Westminster Conservatory teaching faculty.
On Thursday, November 15 the series will present High Winds, a trio consisting of Katherine McClure, flute; Melissa Bohl, oboe; and Kenneth Ellison, clarinet.
These free recitals are presented by Westminster Conservatory Faculty at 12:15 PM in Niles Chapel, now in their 17th season.
Westminster Conservatory of Music
Saturday, October 20
5:00 PM, Sanctuary
The choirs of Nassau and Witherspoon will join with soloists, brass, and harp to present Alice Parker’s “Melodious Accord: A Concert of Praise” as part of a service of evening prayer and song on October 20, 5:00 PM at Nassau Church. An offering will be taken in support of the Paul Robeson House.
Download the Registration Packet Lake Champion Winter Weekend 2018 Forms Packet (pdf)
Fourteen NPC’ers returned for the 3rd year to middle school camp at NorthBay on the Chesapeake. The trip included tubing, ropes courses, lots of swimming, a camp speaker, and “Cabin Time” discussions led by NPC leaders.
Forty-five NPC’ers returned for our 5th year in a row (6th total) to work on home repair and community outreach with Appalachia Service Project. We were stationed in Sneedville, TN and six teams were employed at four different work sites. In general the yearly ASP trip continues to add a work-team every year, and this year represented the largest trip to date. ASP continues to be a highlight of yearly NPC youth rhythm. There were no accidents or insurance claims despite hot weather, power tools (no nail-guns), ladders, dogs, and ~1500 miles driven.
Nine NPC’ers & three Beyond Malibu guides hiked the Mt. Zion route in British Columbia’s Jervis Inlet. Participants flew in/out of Vancouver and spent the week in the beautiful, rugged, and remote wilderness of the Coast Mountains. This is the 5th mountain trip NPC has done.
Carl Birge, Allison Harmon, and the Edwards family (Mark, Janine, Adeline, & Elias) spent the interim time between trips in Base Camp. Time was spent reading, cooking, working on tree removal, and swimming. NPC youth were supervised by Beyond Malibu staff and the Edwards.
NPC took its first sea kayaking trip, paddling ~95 miles in the Jervis Inlet of coastal B.C.. The group enjoyed seals, purple starfish, bio-luminescent waters, bible studies, quiet-times, and the simplicity of life together amidst pristine nature.
Confirmation Information Meeting: Parents & Students
Sunday September 23rd, 2018 10:15-10:45, Niles Chapel
You are invited to join this year’s Confirmation Program! We’ve had a blast over the past few years and people have enjoyed hanging out with each other, talking through the Christian faith, learning scripture, going on retreat with friends, and deciding what they really believe. Typically done in the 9th grade year, Confirmation is open to any in high school who are interested.
Retreats: We will gather for three Saturday evenings over the course of the year. These times will include meals, conversations, and other fun stuff. We ask that students come prepared with a short written work and the memory passages ready to recite. This helps to ensure that everybody has the information they need to talk and think in deeper and more critical ways regarding their perspective on God, the church, and their faith.
Download the Confirmation 2019 – Registration Packet (pdf).
Mentors: Each confirmand is asked to find a mentor who can join in the retreats, meet independently for ice cream, and help with questions and statements of faith. While this may be an older sibling or aunt or uncle, parents cannot serve as mentors for their own kids since a big part of the confirmation process is gaining an independence of faith.
Lake Champion: The December Senior High Retreat at Lake Champion (this year November 30 – December 2) is a date to put on your calendars now – extended time to ponder, question, and learn – and throw snowballs, jump in a freezing lake, sit around the fireplace with friends…open to all Sr. High students, not only the Confirmation Class.
Important dates: Confirmation Sunday is May 19, 2019 at 10AM (with brunch following). Students will also be expected to participate in the Session Meeting on Thursday, May 16, 7:00-8:30PM.
In years past, those who have gone through the program have been glad they did and we welcome you for the year, and beyond. Join us for the information meeting to learn more.
I’ll see students this Sunday, 9:15AM, for bagels and such as the Sunday morning program kicks off! If you have any questions about any of the programs for youth at Nassau, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Weary and burdened by a daily dose of news that you only wish you could believe was fake? Tired of living in an age when the Kingdom of Heaven seems like someone’s idea of a cruel joke? Not after signing up for a small group, eight of which return this fall, offering myriad opportunities to strengthen your bonds to the fellowship of love and faith that is Nassau Church.
…to the hymns, or contemplate how Christian faith is imagined in dystopian literature. Join a study of the brilliant Frederick Buechner, or attempt to unravel some of the mysteries of John’s gospel. Want a preview of next week’s sermon? We’ve got that! And what better time than now to join others in thinking about the Holy Spirit and the Work of Justice, or a study of Simone Weil’s Gravity & Grace. Finally, Ned Walthall returns with another session on the The Sacred Art of Photography, the medium now central to contemporary art, this time focusing on photography and the parables.
Maybe it’s time to do more than read the paper; maybe it’s time to act. Small Groups at Nassau are in the business of transformation: no one remains unchanged, no one.
Sign up in Fellowship beginning Sunday, September 9, or online after Monday, September 10. Books will be available for purchase in Fellowship on Sunday morning or in the church office during regular business hours.
Groups meet weekly for seven weeks.
The small groups with spaces available are listed below.
Complete catalogue: 2018 Fall Small Groups (pdf)
Mondays, Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Corrie Berg, leader
Berg Home, Princeton
Light lunch (soup & bread) provided
Come read three classics of dystopian literature and learn how Faith is imagined in the future. What role does the church play in these futuristic societies? Are people imprinted with a desire for God even when religion is outlawed? How does our faith influence our view of the individual? We will spend two sessions discussing each book (about 100-150 pages of reading each week). No literature degree required! Come join this casual, welcoming discussion.
Corrie Berg is the Director of Children’s and Family Ministry at Nassau Presbyterian Church. She loves stories (Bible stories, all stories!) and is a life-long reader who believes that great literature helps us understand out own world and ourselves.
Mondays, Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Marshall McKnight, leader
Conference Room, Nassau Presbyterian Church
Join us as we learn, share, pray and laugh with theologian, writer, preacher and faithful servant Fredrick Buechner as our guide. Buechner 101: Essays and Sermons by Frederick Buechner will lead us through a time of sharing that will be memorable and powerful. In the book’s forward, Anne Lamott writes of Buechner, “He writes about listening to your own heart, to the rhythms and narrative of your own life.”
Marshall McKnight, a Nassau Church member since 2011, serves as a deacon and is active on the Mass Incarceration Task Force and the Membership Committee. He was a journalist for seven years and for the last fourteen has worked for the State of New Jersey.
Tuesdays, Oct. 2 to Nov. 13, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
John Parker, leader
Tazelaar Home, Princeton
John’s Gospel contains some of the most thought provoking and poetic language in the Bible. Using the slim but superb N. T. Wright for Everyone Bible Study Guide, come explore the themes of the Gospel of John and its relevance for our lives today.
John Parker is long time member of Nassau Presbyterian Church. He wears many hats, including Elder, Deacon, Sunday School teacher, Youth leader, and Small Group leader. John appreciates Nassau’s Small Groups very much and still marvels that anyone would ask him to lead one. Somehow, with God’s help we all get by.
Wednesdays, Oct. 3 to Nov. 14, 6:30-7:30 a.m.
Dave Davis, leader
Conference Room, Nassau Presbyterian Church
Bring Your Own Breakfast, coffee & tea provided
Join a Bible study on the sermon text for the coming Sunday, examining and probing and drawing relationships with life and mission as followers of Jesus Christ.
Dave Davis has been pastor and head-of-staff at Nassau since the fall of 2000. His PhD in Homiletics from Princeton Theological Seminary focused on preaching as a corporate act and the active role of the listener in the preaching event. He has published two sermon collections, A Kingdom You Can Taste and Lord and Teach Us to Pray.
Wednesdays, Oct. 3 to Nov. 14, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Len Scales, leader
Conference Room, Nassau Presbyterian Church
Prayerfully consider The Brief Statement of Faith and The Belhar Confession, two confessions of the PC(USA). We will also read The Sarasota Statement, a confessional statement written in 2017, and discuss how we are called to affirm our faith in our own contexts.
Len Scales is Chaplain and Executive Co-Director of Princeton Presbyterians of the Westminster Foundation. In 2017 she helped lead the Young Ministry Leader’s Gathering of the Synod of the Northeast on a similar topic. It was a rich time to remember the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s call on the Church to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.”
Wednesdays, Oct. 3 to Nov. 14, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Mark Edwards & Virginia Kerr, leaders
Edwards Home, Kingston
Simone Weil’s radical thinking swept across numerous fronts in theology, politics, philosophy, and in the daily way she cared for others. She has touched those who have sought both justice in human affairs and light in matters of the spirit. Join us in being challenged to live fully and love gratuitously as we reflect upon her life and work.
Mark Edwards joined Nassau as Director of Youth Ministries in September of 2013. He is a lifelong Presbyterian and holds a PhD (Philosophy and Theology, 2013) from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has been an Assistant of Instruction at Princeton University, and is currently an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey. Mark is married to Janine and they have two children.
Virginia Kerr is a Princeton attorney who has been active in Nassau’s criminal justice missions for almost two decades, first with ABC Prison Literacy and currently with the Mass Incarceration Task Force. She has been an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law where she received her J.D. and more recently has taught courses in history at several New Jersey prisons.
Thursdays, Oct. 4 to Nov. 15, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Ned Walthall, leader
Conference Room, Nassau Presbyterian Church
plus 2 optional off-site sessions
In the Gospels, Jesus often used parables to teach. When asked by his disciples why he spoke to them in parables, he talks, among other things, about the paradox of seeing and yet not seeing. “That is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing, they do not see.” (Matthew 13: 13). A great photograph is like a parable: it enables us to see what it immediately reminds us we haven’t seen. We will ask ourselves how a photograph can function as a parable, examine some of Jesus’ parables, and create photographs to illustrate them.
No special skill or equipment is required, but you’ll be asked to think about the photographs you take and share them with the group. In addition to Thursday nights, there will be two optional sessions, including a Saturday in New York.
Ned Walthall has been thinking about and taking photographs for years. He is the geeky guy with the long lens at coffee hour. He is currently a candidate for an MFA in Photography at The New Hampshire Institute of Art. His work can be seen at nwalthall.tumblr.com.
On Thursday, September 20 at 12:15 p.m. the seventeenth season of Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will open with a recital of music for piano, four hands. The performers, Inessa Gleyzerova Shindel and Galina Prilutskaya, are members of the teaching faculty of Westminster Conservatory.
On September 20 the program will comprise two works of Moritz Moszkowski, Nouvelles Danses Espagnoles, op. 65, no. 1 and the “Polonaise” from Polish Folk Dances op. 55; Edward Elgar’s Salut d’amour; Sergei Bortkiewicz’s Russian Tunes and Dances, op. 31; and an arrangement of the traditional Russian melody, Dark Eyes.
On October 18 Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will present Timothy Urban, baritone and Kathy Shanklin, piano performing The House of Life by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, a song cycle on poetry of Dante Gabriel Rosetti.
The recital will take place in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street in Princeton. It is open to the public free of charge.
Westminster Conservatory of Music
Join the New School for Music Study as they open their 2018-19 season with an afternoon of celebrating the master of the lyrical line, Franz Schubert. This recital features solo and chamber works, including the complete set of the famous Op. 90 Impromptus!
The recital will take place in the Sanctuary of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street in Princeton. It is open to the public free of charge.
September Classes
For a look at all the Adult Education offerings in September, download the brochure: Adult Education September 2018
Please note: there will be no Adult Education Classes on September 2
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
What are our sensibilities when it comes to praying? Join me in an informal conversation, where there are no right or wrong answers, and questions are encouraged. We will consider our denomination’s tradition of prayer during worship, and explore the role(s) prayer plays in our congregation’s life together. What about contemporary views, practices and expressions of prayer? If time permits, we will share stories about praying and its impact upon ourselves as well as the world around us.
Ann Schoonover, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PCUSA and currently serves Covenant and Hamilton Square Presbyterian churches. She is developing a regional older adult ministry (ROAM) program involving PCUSA churches in the greater Trenton area. Formerly, Ann served in hospital, behavioral health, hospice and homecare settings as a chaplain. She has obtained certificates from Good Shepherd Mediation program and additional training in spiritual direction from Oasis Ministries. Keenly interested in people, Ann is fulfilled by guiding individuals, families and congregations through change and transition. Before attending seminary, Ann had a first career in labor relations, where she met her husband Tim Brown; they both now serve the PCUSA in various capacities.
Ongoing: September 9 through December 16
George Hunsinger returns for the 21st year to lead this verse-by-verse examination of Colossians. Bibles are available for use during the class. Find them on the Deacon Desk by the church kitchen. Class meets next door in Maclean House (Garden Entrance).
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
How do we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ today? That question has shaped worship and preaching for Presbyterians since the Reformation. In a world filled with plenty of bad news, preachers are listening to the Scriptures to discern what the Spirit is saying to God’s people. Join Andrew Scales as we explore together how preachers craft sermons that speak truth amid our hopes, fears, and needs.
Andrew Scales is a PhD Candidate in Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary. He also serves as a Chaplain and Executive Co-Director of the Princeton Presbyterians campus ministry with his wife, Len Turner Scales. He is currently finishing his dissertation, “’Every Last Christian Takes Part’: Oscar Romero and Remembrance of Disappeared Persons in El Salvador.”
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
The Presbyterian and Reformed practice of weekly corporate confession of sin in worship, and weekly unison reading of a selection from a confession or creed in the PC(USA) Book of Confessions, often garners questions and strong reactions from congregants. Do Reformed people really need creeds and confessional documents? What role could they play in worship and life, and what role do they play?
Dirk Smit is the Rimmer and Ruth De Vries Professor of Reformed Theology and Public Life at Princeton Theological Seminary. He recently came to Princeton from South Africa, with years of experience in Reformed circles and the ecumenical church, including experience with confessional documents and their reception and use in church and public life.
9:15 a.m.
Assembly Room
At each weekly gathering of the church staff, one of our major tasks is the preparation of Sunday worship. Within the four-fold movement of Reformed worship, all of our choices are governed by fidelity to scripture, the pastoral needs of the congregation, commitment to discipleship, and our calling in the world. Come hear Dave Davis and Noel Werner as they describe the creative and prayerful process of shaping the worship life of our church.
Dave Davis has been pastor and head-of-staff at Nassau since the fall of 2000. His PhD in Homiletics from Princeton Theological Seminary focused on preaching as a corporate act and the active role of the listener in the preaching event. He has published two sermon collections, A Kingdom You Can Taste and Lord, Teach Us to Pray.
Noel Werner has been the Director of Music at Nassau Presbyterian Church since 2006. He lectures on occasion at Westminster Choir College and Princeton Theological Seminary, and spearheads many cooperative music endeavors in the community, in addition to directing Nassau’s adult choir, coordinating Nassau’s extensive music program, and staffing the Worship and Arts Committee.
[Unfortunately this class was not recorded.]
Joshua 24:14-28
David A. Davis
August 5, 2018
Jump to audio
This morning I am finishing up our summertime encounter with the Book of Joshua. We started with that story of Rahab and the spies. Then it was the procession of the people of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land after forty years in the wilderness. Last week, it was how just inside the Promised Land that manna from heaven stopped and the people of Israel ate the crops of the land of Canaan. Today we fast-forward to the end of Joshua. Joshua’s last word. His last sermon. When I say last, I mean last. The Bible says that after Joshua gathered all the people of Israel for this sermon, after he spoke these words, after these things, Joshua died. It doesn’t necessarily mean he finished the sermon, said “amen,” and dropped right then and there. But it is, these words, this gathering, it is Joshua’s last act as the leader of the people of Israel.
It was quite a scene. Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summons the elders, the judges, the officers. It was everyone. All of Israel together and as it is recorded, “they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to all the people, ‘thus says the Lord…’” Joshua speaks the word of the Lord and begins with the history of all that God has done. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Esau. Moses Aaron. The flight from Egypt. The long time in the wilderness. The crossing over into the Promised Land. He preaches with the first person pronouns referring to God. “I brought you… I rescued you… I gave you… I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns you had not built, and you live in them. You eat the fruit of the vineyards…that you did not plant.” What comes next, the next word of the Lord from Joshua to the people, what comes next is the “now therefore.”
Now therefore revere the Lord. Now therefore serve the Lord. Now therefore put away the gods your ancestors served beyond the River. Now therefore, choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. That last part is what gets remembered most. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That’s the part that gets memorized and poster-ized and cross-stitch-ized. That’s the part that gets put on the decorative plate that hangs in your grandparent’s house. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
With their response the people make it all sound like such a slam dunk, such a no brainer. “Far be it for us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods.” It is as if they are offended by Joshua’s exhortation, his insinuation. “Oh, how dare you!” We know all what God has done for us. “Of course we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God.” Joshua doesn’t back away. He knows better. You can’t serve the Lord. The Lord is a jealous God. It’s just not that easy. Like Moses before him who said, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God.” Like Elijah after him who said, “How long will you go limping between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him.” Moses. Joshua. Elijah. They knew it wasn’t a slam dunk. As Jesus put it, “No one can two masters; you will either hate the one or love the other, be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
But the people insisted. By now they might have been shouting back. “No! We will serve the Lord!” Then you are witnesses” Joshua said, “you have chosen the Lord. You have chosen to serve the Lord.” “We are witnesses. We got this. We’re good!” “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel,” Joshua pleaded with them. “The Lord our God we will serve and the Lord we will obey.” Joshua made a covenant. Wrote it up in the book of the law of God and set a stone as sign, as a witness, as a reminder of the promises they made that day, a reminder of the promise God had made to them. He gave them a sign of the promise.
Because Joshua, and Moses, and Elijah, and Jesus… and you and I, we all know it’s never that easy. Never that cut and dried. Serving the Lord. That whole thing, that whole encounter, that whole scene at Shechem seems pretty intense to me. It seems a whole lot more intense than a kitschy plaque hanging on the wall. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. It’s a whole lot more intense, a whole lot more compelling, a whole lot more relevant. Especially when you live here beyond the river, like we do. Beyond the river. Not one side of the tracks or another. Not this side or that side of the Jordan River. Beyond the river. Not a GPS location at all, for that matter. But here, everywhere, in a world so full of other gods.
A world so full of mammon and yet so full of need. A world where idols are legion. Idols that the gospel of Christ demands we smash. Here beyond the river where the temptation to slip into greed, and selfishness, and hatred never stops. Where the thirst of other gods crying for your devotion and demanding your attention is never quenched. Where the altars of worship are shaped by self-interest and it is far more common to serve one’s own desire rather than serve the common good. The world here beyond the river. Where we haven’t figured out how to make sure everyone has a place to live but we’ve discovered how to make a gun with a 3D printer. Where we adore young athletes who make unfathomable amounts of money who together with team owners bicker over a million here or a million there while politicians bicker over what is a living, hourly wage for those who work two and three jobs just to squeeze out a living. Where the oldest of conflicts between nations never seem to wane and humanity’s worst ugliness still rises in each new generation.
Choose this day whom you will serve. Yes, it’s never that easy. It has to be a day-to-day discipline. A never-ending challenge here beyond the river. You can’t frame your faith and hang it on the wall. You can’t reduce your faith to some kind of rallying cry; “We will serve. We will serve”. You can’t offer shallow affirmations and nod your head pretending this life of faith is so easy. No, you have to live it, choose it, work at it, every day. All that back and forth at Shechem, the lesson in salvation history, the exhortation with such rhetorical passion, the pushback on the people’s quick affirmation, the covenant, the sign, it was Joshua’s one last effort to let the people know that yes, they had to choose, and yes, they had to choose every day, and that long before their choice, God chose. And God chose them.
So today when you find yourself once again standing waist deep in the muck here beyond the river, know that God has chosen you. Tomorrow, when you feel like you’re being bombarded on all sides by the forces and voices of the gods who will never give up, remember that God is with you. Tuesday, when the very real stress and anxiety from your work, or from the news, or from getting ready to go to school, or just from everything, when it all threatens to overwhelm you, claim once again the promise of God’s peace and let it wash over you. Wednesday, when the temptation to give up, or to not care, or to throw in the towel on this faith journey, on this being a servant of the kingdom, when you are about to succumb to the notion that when doubts are on the rise or discouragement comes, you might as well quit, tell yourself that God’s grace is endless and God’s love never stops. On Thursday, when the crazy pace of life is out of hand and being on the run doesn’t begin to describe it, take a breath, be still, and know that God is God. Come Friday, when this harsh, cold world has a way of reminding you that death never seems to stop, dig deep and draw upon the psalmist’s painting of God’s presence in the darkest valley and Christ’s promise of life in the midst of death. And Saturday, when the weariness or the loneliness or the hopelessness screams back at you from the mirror, hear that voice again, the voice of Joshua, Moses, Elijah, Jesus. And say to yourself, “yeah, they told me I was going to have to choose.” It has to be an everyday thing here beyond the river.
Have you ever driven past Hoagie Haven further down Nassau Street on a Princeton University reunion weekend? It’s quite the line of all those alums wanting a taste of being back to campus. It’s not just Princeton alums either. One day holiday weekend we picked up our young adult kids at the train. In the parking lot we ran into a church family doing the same thing. Ten minutes later both families were parked outside Hoagie Haven because the kids coming home wanted to stop there even before heading home. When I would go home to Pittsburgh, it was Danny’s hoagies and chipped ham from Isley’s. When my wife Cathy went home it was pot roast with noodles and potatoes. All a sign that you were home. Not just a taste. But a smell too. I can still remember the smell of the apartment my parents moved into after they sold the house we grew up in. When I was young they both smoked so that house probably still smells like cigarettes. But the apartment was different. And to be honest, it wasn’t a great smell. It was a mix of mother’s perfume that seemed to get stronger as she got older and the stale air of an apartment on the 6th floor of a high-rise apartment. I never lived there but that smell, it meant I was home. I was with them. They were with me.
Some memories, some reminders, some signs you can smell, you can taste, you can see. Here at this table, taste and see, and smell that the Lord is good. And know that Christ Jesus is with you and will never forsake you. And remember, “this is my body broken for you, my blood poured out… for you.” A sign of God’s promise. Because when you live here beyond the river, you need all the help you can get.
So come, taste and see, and know that you are home. Choose this day whom you will serve. And then choose again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.
Joshua said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
© 2018 Nassau Presbyterian Church
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