Put Lake Champion on your calendar for Friday, December 1, to Sunday, December 3.
Lake Champion Winter Weekend 2014
We will have a Winter Weekend that will warm our hearts for the year to come. Giant Swings, Ice Slides, and a royal Polar Bear Plunge. After a big semester it will be great to cut loose. Fee is $150 per person and includes transportation, lodging, and meals. Scholarships are available. Pick up a copy of the registration form from the literature rack or download it from the website. The registration deadline is Sunday, November 5.
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed Ninety-Five Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, protesting the sale of indulgences. “Here I stand, may God help me, Amen.” Help us celebrate 500 years of reformation by exploring aspects of the reformation and its effect on art and literature.
Sundays, 9:15 a.m, in the Assembly Room unless otherwise noted.
For a look at Adult Education offerings through October, download the brochure: AE Sep-Oct 2017 (pdf).
Art and the Reformation
Holly Borham
October 1
The “image question” was a central one in the Reformation. When Martin Luther and John Calvin critiqued altars, relics, pilgrimages and visual opulence, they struck at the heart of Catholic practice and its system of sacred economy. To what exactly were these reformers objecting, and how did their followers interpret their statements about religious imagery? Did Luther and Calvin free us from superstition, did they unleash ugly, destructive tendencies, or did they invent “art” as we know it today – an aesthetic object which we contemplate, rather than worship? Explore these provocative questions by looking carefully at texts, paintings, prints and sculptures from the sixteenth century in order to evaluate the Reformation’s impact on the arts.
Holly Borham is a PhD candidate in Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Her research examines art commissioned by Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic patrons in Germany at the turn of the seventeenth century.
Ongoing through May 13
In-Depth Bible Study: First Corinthians
George Hunsinger
9:15 AM
Maclean House
George Hunsinger returns for the 21st year to lead this verse-by-verse examination of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. 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).
The 95 Theses – What Are They?
Miles Hopgood
October 8
Come hear about “what started it all,” the document that Martin Luther wrote and attached to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, challenging Catholic doctrine, specifically, the practice of selling ‘indulgences’ to wash away sins. This document started a movement that, ultimately, became the foundation for the Protestant Reformation.
Miles Spencer Hopgood is a PhD Candidate in History & Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary. His current research centers on Martin Luther’s interpretation of the Bible, particularly his engagement with the Old Testament. Further interests include medieval and early modern Jewish-Christian relations as well as the modern ecumenical movement. His dissertation focuses on “How Luther Regards Moses: The Lectures on Deuteronomy.”
Selling the Reformation: Media and the Making of Religious Revolution
Alastair Bellany
October 15
Martin Luther was the first heretic of a new media age — the age of the printing press — and the exploitation of media, both new and old, played a crucial role in the dissemination of Protestant theology and polemic. This class explores two case studies of the role of the media in the early Reformation. The first focuses on the use of (sometimes obscene) printed graphic satire by Lutheran propagandists in Germany. The second explores the 1530’s multimedia campaign mounted by Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, to convince English audiences of the legitimacy of the new royal supremacy over the Church and to defend the regime’s incremental evangelical reforms of religious life and practice.
Alastair Bellany is Professor of History at Rutgers University, and works on the political and cultural history of Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Britain. He is the author most recently of The Murder of King James I, co-written with Thomas Cogswell, and published by Yale University Press.
Children’s Health in Malawi
Mphatso Nguluwe
12:15 p.m., Assembly Room
Bagels and coffee provided
Mphatso Nguluwe, International Peacemaker from Malawi, will offer us a picture of her work for the Presbyterian Church (USA). She has implemented initiatives for increasing the quality of life for children living with HIV and preventing parent-to-child transmission of HIV. She also promotes gender equity and equality for boys and girls, works to prevent child trafficking, and serves as a researcher in community development work.
Mphatso Nguluwe serves as Director of the Livingstonia Synod Aids Programme for the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian. She is a founding member of an initiative aimed at eliminating the cultural practices which put girls at risk of multiple abuses as well as HIV infection. She holds degrees in Midwifery from Queens University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and in Nursing Education, Administration and Community Nursing Science from the Medical University of Southern Africa.
The Reformation Debates: Who? What? Where?
Miles Hopgood
October 22
Explore debates between Martin Luther and John Eck, and their respective allies, to understand just how significant a challenge Martin Luther was posing to contest years of Catholic teaching. Heidelberg, and Leipzig, Germany, set the stage for what proved to be a dramatic series of confrontations of perspective on: 1) law and the gospel, 2) the fallibility of humankind, and 3) Jesus as sole Head of the Church.
Miles Spencer Hopgood is a PhD Candidate in History & Ecumenics at Princeton Theological Seminary. His current research centers on Martin Luther’s interpretation of the Bible, particularly his engagement with the Old Testament. Further interests include medieval and early modern Jewish-Christian relations as well as the modern ecumenical movement. His dissertation focuses on “How Luther Regards Moses: The Lectures on Deuteronomy.”
Reformation Influence on 16th- and 17th-Century Literature
Russ Leo
October 29
Examine the poet George Herbert’s collection The Temple, a magnificent artistic achievement that reveals the impact of the Reformation on English letters. We will pay particular attention to Herbert’s depictions of Christ through which he attempts to unite diverse congregations in an age marked by division and religious war.
Russ 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.
Medical Mission Malawi: Saving Lives with Villages in Partnership
Barbara Edwards
12:15 p.m., Assembly Room
Bagels and coffee provided
Barbara Edwards will speak about her trip to Malawi in May with Villages in Partnership’s medical mission group. Hear how twenty-four Americans worked with local Malawians to create four pop-up medical clinics that served over five thousand people in three days.
Barbara Edwards is a general internist with a private practice at The University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. She is also the Medical
Director of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Community Health Center, which serves over 8000 patients, many uninsured or underinsured. Edwards worked in Liberia, West Africa, in 1988 as a medical student and has always wanted to return to work in Africa. “When Steve Heinzel-Nelson came to speak at Nassau about Villages in Partnership, I knew God was calling me to serve.”
The digital media files posted on the Nassau Presbyterian Church website are copyrighted by the pastors and presenting lecturers. These works are only for personal and educational use through a digital media player on a personal computer or using a personal digital media device (e.g., iPod). These works may not otherwise be archived or re-posted on the Internet, broadcast in any manner, distributed, transcribed or modified in any way without written permission of the presenting lecturer. The user of the audio file holds no license (of any form – expressed or implied) to any of the content of these files. The same applies to any PowerPoint® presentations.
Joanne Yang, a Middlesex county resident since 1960, specializes in landscape painting and calligraphy using the traditional technique of a brush dipped in black ink and colored pigments. Her subject matter includes sweeping landscapes of mountains, trees, rivers, and waterfalls to more serene and intimate paintings of flowers, birds, and fish.
The October art show in the Conference Room begins on October 1 with a chance to meet the artist the following Sunday, October 8, between morning services and at an afternoon reception from 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Joanne provides individual art instruction to both adults and children and conducts art workshops and presentations to schools and local communities. She was a past president of Hsin-Ruey Art Association and is a current member of the Asia Art Society in America and the New Jersey Chinese Culture and Art Association.
“I am the resurrection and I am life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). That’s Jesus talking to Martha after her brother Lazarus had died. Jesus, responding to death and grief with words of resurrection hope. “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10). The words of the psalmist. The psalmist singing, praying, affirming the fullness of God’s presence in life and in death. Psalm 139. An existential piece of poetry that plunges the very the depth of our being, our life in God.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever; and I hold the keys of hell and death” (Revelation). The cosmic, victorious Christ of the Apocalypse to John, the Book of Revelation. A triumphant proclamation of God’s ultimate resurrection power. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I belong—body and soul, in life and death—to my faithful Savoir, Jesus Christ” (Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1, 16th-century). A bold, right out of the gate, here’s where we start, everything else flows from this affirmation of the resurrection promise that defines our life in Christ.
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). The Apostle Paul in that memorable eighth chapter of Romans. A soaring conclusion to those paragraphs of the epistle, paragraphs that include: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the Lord who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the Spirit that dwells in you” and “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?” and “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us.” “I am convinced that neither death, nor life… shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul on the hope, and the promise, and the victory of resurrection life.
And from our text today, the 14th chapter of Romans. “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” Once again, Paul on the eternal promise of life in Christ. Not chapter eight but slipped in here in chapter 14. Like Jesus daring to speak of life in the face of death. Like the psalmist waxing eloquently on the purpose of life and God’s constant presence. Like the Christ of Revelation trumpeting the victory of all victories. Like the theologians of the Reformation pounding the defining stake into the ground. Romans 14:8. “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
In our tradition’s “Book of Common Worship,” the liturgy of the Service in Witness to the Resurrection, the liturgy for a memorial service, for a funeral, it begins with opening sentences of scripture. The notes to the liturgy suggest that the pastor read some or all the verses listed. There are about 20 verses and they read like a “hall of fame” of scripture texts, the greatest hits. Some of those top 20 I’ve already mentioned. You will remember or you can guess some others. “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth… God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear… We believe that Jesus died and rose again; so it will be for those who have died in Christ. God will raise them to be with the Lord forever. Comfort one another with these words.” And right there in the list is “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
At many, many weddings, I have read I Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind..” and many, many times, my first line of the homily has been to say to the congregation and to the couple, “Now you know this has nothing to do with marriage, right?” The point being that Paul is writing about love and community and love in the Body of Christ and love as the greatest of spiritual gifts which means, of course, that it has everything to do with marriage. But I have not, at least so far, I have not stood before a congregation at a memorial service and stopped after reading, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord, so then whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” I’ve never stopped right then said, “Now you know this has nothing to with mourning, grief, and death, right?
Because when you drop the quote from Romans back into context of the 14th chapter, it doesn’t come with profound reflection on humanity’s knowledge of God and therefore the knowledge of ourselves, not some divine pronouncement to the saints of every time and place gathered around the Lamb of God. Paul is writing about the issue of food choices, dietary laws, sabbath keeping, judgment, and self-righteousness. It’s a plea to avoid quarreling over opinions and an exhortation to honor and give thanks to God in the mundane practice of life. It is Paul weighing in, not on death, but on life. Paul writing to the ordinary, the everyday rituals and routines of life. What you eat, when you abstain, whether you observe a day to be holy and when you don’t. How in the rhythms of the day, the waking up and the going to sleep, the goings and comings, how amid life itself, folks in the gathered community of faith are so easily prone to judging one another.
This is not the soaring theological treatise of Romans 8. This isn’t Jesus confronting the heartbreak of death. This isn’t an apocalyptic vision of Christ upon the throne. It’s Paul writing about life, ordinary, everyday life and food and relationships and community. And right smack in the middle of it, he plays the resurrection card. “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”
It’s not about dying, its about living! It’s about a life together infused in absolutely every way with resurrection hope, resurrection promise, resurrection power. It’s not just about shouting, “Christ is risen.” shouting it on Easter morning. It’s about living it long about Wednesday, and praying in the dark of night, and whispering it with your life into the world’s chaos. Christ is risen! It’s not just about standing in the cemetery and hearing, “Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all die, but we will all be changed.” It’s about living in the light of that mystery every day, basking in the promise of eternal life, and passing forward the living, giving, life-sustaining power of God’s love to those around you moment by moment.
It’s not just about singing, “Abide with me… Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes, shine through the gloom and point me to the skies… in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me,” it’s about singing a resurrection song with the forgiveness you sow in your life, and proclaiming the resurrection gospel with how your treat others in your office, and giving a resurrection witness with the unconditional love you can now give back to your father whose health and mind is fading fast. It’s the assurance of God’s resurrection presence you cling to when the loneliness of the first week on campus rises up. It’s that resurrection strength you didn’t know you had that carries you the day after the diagnosis. It’s that grabbing hold of God’s resurrection future as the tears fall down your cheeks as your turn from the font with your baptized infant in arms, as your daughter climbs the steps of the school bus for first grade, as your son almost forgets the hug outside the freshman dorm.
It is the resurrection confidence that calms you at day’s end and lifts you at day’s beginning. It is the resurrection hope that echoes in your ear and beats in your heart when news of missiles and bombs and threats of war rise up again. It is that resurrection rising that you see when cities rebuild, and communities rally and hearts are changed and lives are transformed. It is that incomparable resurrection comfort that can carry you all of your days, every day, that I belong body and soul in death… and in life, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. If we live, we live to Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. Christ is risen!
“So then, each of us will be accountable to God,” Paul writes. Accountable for our judgment and our self-righteousness. Sure. Thank goodness grace abounds. But accountable also for the proclamation and witness to God’s resurrection hope, God’s resurrection promise, and God’s resurrection power in our lives. One theologian notably argued a long time ago that in and through the preached word, Christ rises from dead. Sunday after Sunday when the gospel is proclaimed. I have to tell you that preachers like me, we’re not that good. But you, the witness to the resurrection? It starts with you and in the smallest of ways you could ever imagine.
NorthBay Middle School Week [June 29th-July 3, 2017]:
For the second year in a row, Nassau Middle Schoolers returned for “One Amazing Week” at NorthBay Adventure Camp on the Chesapeake Bay, near North East, MD. The week, run and hosted by Young Life, was a non-stop 4 days with live music, super funny skits and high energy activities such as sailing, a ropes course, swimming, kayaking, gaga ball, dodge ball, & scavenger hunts. Throughout the week the 13 youth and 3 chaperones were challenged by camp speaker Alberto to view our lives as made by God for a relationship with God. Like a glove that is made for a hand, our lives are made to be filled by Christ’s love and guidance. We also heard from fellow teens about their “Real Life” experiences of friends, family, & faith. Through conversations and activities with Mark Edwards, Kelsey Lambright & Austin Vernon, our kids were encouraged to take their faith seriously and to live it out in the community of the church and beyond.
Appalachian Service Project, Trade, TN [July 9-15, 2017]:
For our fourth year in a row (5th total) Nassau joined ASP to repair low-income homes in central Appalachia. This year we were in Trade, Tennessee, near Boone, NC. This trip continues to grow and we brought 39 people in five teams to work on a wide variety of roofs, floors, siding, foundations, and remodels. The Trade Community Center where we stayed proved to be a lovely home for the mild-temperature week and we all enjoyed the simple evening communal life of walks, frisbee, talks, and cards. Through the graciousness of Nassau Missions Committee, giving at Youth Sunday, youth fundraising (Super Bowl Sunday & Communiversity), and a special event hosted by the Wakefields, NPC was able to donate $5000 directly to ASP to help support their material cost, thus enabling more families to have work done on their homes.
Camino de Santiago, Spain [July 22-Aug. 6, 2017]
For the first time a group of twenty from Nassau walked nearly 200 miles along this medieval pilgrimage route in Northern Spain (aka “The Way of St. James”). For 11 consecutive days we walked, lived, ate, and prayed together amidst the beautiful scenery and hospitable culture of Galicia, from Astoria to Santiago. The group matched a slow reading of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount with Taize songs, quiet times, and group conversation to guide our minds and souls as we journeyed from village to village and albergue to albergue. The joys of the trip included the intergenerational nature, the familial elements, the overall simplicity, and the life absorbing task of simply walking together under God’s fine graces. Participants shared their experiences in Nassau Worship on August 27th. Sermons are here: Going Out and Coming In
On Sunday, September 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 on Hinds Plaza, SHUPP, Send HUnger Packing Princeton will hold their annual benefit, Salsa and Salsa. SHUPP is one of the recipients of Nassau’s monthly hunger offering and, during the event, Nassau will be recognized for our support. Please come to join in the fun and provide your support.
“Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ…put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Put on. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Ephesians that Paul writes, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of the Lord’s power. Put on the whole armor of God.” You remember, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And “Put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Put on. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. “Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” That’s I Thessalonians. Put on. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The connotation in Greek has to do with clothing and dressing and wearing… putting something on. Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase The Message, he puts the end of Romans 13:14 this way: “Dress yourselves in Christ and be up and about.” It makes it sound like part of the morning routine. Take a shower. Brush your teeth. Dress yourselves in Christ. Other preachers and devotional writers draw on the image of putting on a uniform or wearing the colors. You put on the armor, you put on Christ, like a member of a team dresses for the game, like an athlete puts on Under Armour, like a member of the military represents and prepares.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. The image in the epistles of the New Testament comes with urgency, an uncommon urgency that seems somewhat lost in the comparison to the morning routine of picking your clothes for the day. In Ephesians, Paul’s exhortation about putting on the whole armor of God is for the purpose of standing firm against the devil. “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). That all sounds far away from the morning paper and a cup of coffee.
In I Thessalonians and here in Romans the urgency is the coming Day of the Lord, the return of Christ, the triumphant coming of the kingdom, the consummation of salvation, the eschaton, the ultimate fulfillment of salvation history, the kingdom ultimately come on earth as it is in heaven. As Paul puts it, “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.” In contrast to Paul’s urgency on spiritual warfare in Ephesians, in contrast to that battle imagery, the urgency in Romans, the urgent response is to the coming day of the Lord. And that response as described by Paul, the response described in Romans, is not to battle; it is to love. Have no obligation other than to love one another. “The one who loves fulfills the law… Love is the fulfilling of the law… Lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” The armor of light is love; loving actions. You know what time it is, Paul exhorts the church in Rome, so live honorably and love. Put on Christ! And do it now.
It would seem to me that the sense of urgency, Paul’s urgency in putting on Christ, is lost on the average 21st -century disciples of Jesus like us. No doubt some traditions, some preachers, some corners of the broader Christian Church give testimony to an experience of the urgency of spiritual warfare. And yes, in some Christian circles the focus on the end times, the rapture, the apocalypse comes with a certain urgency in all the rhetoric, in the teaching, and in the preaching. But even then, one is hard-pressed to ponder a day-to-day urgency for the individual Christian life, an urgency like that reflected in Paul. Here in Romans Paul’s urgency is not going down the path of a kind of revival preacher who wants to know, if Jesus comes back tonight, are you ready? No, Paul’s sense of being ready, responding to the day drawing near, Paul’s urgency is the call to love your neighbor as yourself.
Let me speak only for myself here. I’m not sure the Apostle Paul’s urgency has had much resonance for me in my life of faith. Urgent prayers when people I love and care for are sick or dying or in harm’s way this morning? Sure. An urgent need for God’s guidance in seasons of discernment, or an urgent yearning for God’s peace in moments of turmoil, or an urgent cry for God’s assurance when, as the psalmist says, “the earth should change, the mountains shake, the nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter?” Yes. No doubt. But that kind of day-to-day, first thing in the morning, before you put two feet on the floor you better put on Christ, that kind of guttural, groaning, response to the coming Day of the Lord, that sort of defiantly and intentionally putting on Christ every day, that urgent faith-with-an-attitude start to the day, I’m not so sure. I’m not sure in my 55 years, in my 31 years of ministry, in my 18th year as your pastor, I have felt that kind or urgency. I’m not at all so sure about that kind of urgency in my life of faith. Until now. Until right about now. Until “these days.”
You know what time it is. Hatred. Bigotry. Racism. Homophobia. Antisemitism. All abundant and unveiled. The day may be near but the night isn’t far enough gone. The clear and present darkness abounds. It demands the armor of light. Putting on the armor of light. The nastiness that’s in the wind. The putrid things people are saying. The horrible actions directed at those who are somehow deemed different or less-deserving or just less. Such hatred, such disturbing behavior, it’s not limited to or defined by a “hillbilly elegy,” or some old racist uncle everyone avoids at the family reunion. The sinful growing darkness comes in every generation, in all economic strata, in every demographic, among the powerless and the most powerful. Decency and unity and reconciliation are so far off the rails that people seemed surprised at the goodness of humanity revealed during and after catastrophic hurricanes. It’s a pretty low bar these days when it comes to the common good.
A rabbi stood outside his synagogue on that fateful day of Shabbat in Charlottesville as the congregation gathered for worship. While the crowds and violence and all the police presence were blocks away, the small band of people on the other side of the street shouted threateningly, “Jews will not overtake us.” An Asian American television reporter in Philadelphia, born and raised in this country, was verbally assaulted in a crosswalk in Center City by an aggressive female driver who yelled at her, “This is America. Just go home.” Several high school students in Iowa were dismissed from the high school football team when pictures of them wearing white robes, hoods, and burning a cross showed up on social media. An African American teammate, son of the local mailman, said “I thought they were my friends. I have been in their homes.” You know what time it is.
A group of conservative pastors and theologians issued a widely distributed statement on human sexuality. Clearly it was intentionally timed for the current political climate. It is a hurtful theological assault targeting the LGTBQ community and any of the Christian faith that would dare declare themselves welcoming, affirming, and understanding God’s Spirit at work in all of God’s children. One Baptist seminary president said he signed the document as “an expression of love and concern for those increasingly confused about what God has clarified in holy scripture”. An expression of love? An expression of love that has in just days stoked the fires of discrimination and hate and condemnation and fear. You know what time it is.
Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York City defended the undocumented young people known as the dreamers who know no other country but this one. He said that ending the DACA program and putting all of the young people at risk is “contrary to the spirit of the Bible and of our country, and a turning away from the ideals upon which our beloved country was founded. All of the ‘Dreamers’ who now face such uncertainty and fear, please know that the Catholic Church loves you, welcomes you, and will fight to protect your rights and your dignity.” Loves. Welcomes. Protects. And a former member of the presidential administration responded in an interview that the Catholic Church just needed illegal immigrants to fill their pews and that it was in their economic interest and that priests and bishops should stick to doctrine. You know what time it is.
All of that and more, in just the last few weeks. There is an urgency to “these days.” You and I have to put on Christ with day to day urgency. If you’re anything like me, maybe with an urgency like never before. Have no obligation other than to love one another. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the fulfillment of the law and the fulfillment of the gospel and the fulfillment of scripture and the fulfillment of doctrine and the fulfillment of the Christian life. You know what time it is. Lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Live honorably and love! And put on Christ and do it now.
Put on Christ urgent and new every morning. And be confident that his love moving in and through you will be sufficient for another day, that his love moving in and through you will make a difference in the world, that his love moving in and through you will bring light to the present darkness because this darkness can never overcome His light.
Put on Christ urgent and new every morning so that by his grace you can work on the log in your own eye and lay aside the weight and the sin that clings so closely, so that by his grace you can see the face of Jesus shining back at you in someone who is different, in the stranger, in someone who disagrees with you, in someone everyone else expects you to shun, so that by his grace that strengthens you can speak for the long silenced and embrace someone wounded by another’s words and lift up those being stomped on by evil.
Put on Christ urgent and new every morning, and with the power of His Spirit you can defiantly stare down hatred without fear, you can stick your finger into the bullying puffed up chest of bigotry, and you can rise above the sinfulness of complacency and the temptation not to care. Put on Christ urgent and new every morning so that the vision and promise of his kingdom would so fill you that can’t help but shout louder than those who would pervert the gospel for the sake of prejudice and their own power.
And so that the vision and promise of his kingdom would so inspire you that you can’t stop telling our children of a God whose love will never let them go and a God whose love embraces all and that our embrace, our love absolutely shall be as bold, and broad, and audacious as Christ’s own love. So that the vision and promise of his kingdom would so convince you that your own voice does make difference when the saint’s are called to sing a song of righteousness, and your own light does make a difference when others want to blow it out, and your own act of love makes a difference, because in the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, “goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate, and life is stronger than death.”
Afraid to open the paper this morning? What might you see? A world more out of sync with the Kingdom of Heaven than it was yesterday? One step forward, two steps back? Really? And what was your first clue? And more to the point, what are you going to do about it? Finish breakfast? Head for work?
Offering an opportunity for fellowship and love, small groups return to Nassau in the fall of 2017 with a myriad of offerings, each of which, in its own way, provides you with the opportunity for renewal.
Small groups are not about conforming, they are about transforming — learning something new and meeting that person to whom you say, “Peace be with you,” on Sunday, but don’t really know. They are about binding ourselves together in a community of faith and becoming different people in the process.
Turn off the news for awhile and learn something about some of our country’s most famous champions of children, including Fred Rogers.
Or about how to discover the Holy Spirit in the details of our ordinary lives.
Or about new ways to think about The Letter of James – “Faith without works is dead,” or the Letters to the Philippians or the Colossians.
Maybe it is time to think a little about Dietrich Bonheoffer, maybe more than a little.
Want a preview of Dave’s sermon from Dave himself? We’ve got that, if you are willing to get up early enough.
Ever wonder what the Celts have to do with Christianity? We have got that too.
Or you could join in a conversation about Just Mercy, an amazing memoir by a lawyer who confronted injustice in the South.
Maybe you want to explore the gospel basis for resistance?
Or maybe you just want to learn how to look through the viewfinder of a camera and see the world in a different way.
No one comes away from a small group unchanged. Let’s seek, and act on, hope together.
Sign Up
Sign up in Fellowship beginning Sunday, September 10, or online after Monday, September 11. Books will be available for purchase in Fellowship on Sunday morning or in the church office during regular business hours.
Dan Dorrow and Mani Pulimood, leaders
Pulimood Home, Princeton
Mani Pulimood has been worshiping at Nassau Church for the last 10 years with his wife, Monisha, and two sons, Nikhil and Philip. He has authored a book, Spiritual Dimensions–Musings on Life and Faith. One of his favorite ministries is online evangelism. You can find him on Twitter: @ManiPulimood.
Dan Dorrow is being sponsored by Nassau’s session as a Candidate to become a Teaching Elder in the PCUSA. Searching for his first ordained call, Dan is looking to serve God as a pastor-theologian with special attention to the Bible’s call for justice and helping people living impoverished lives. Dan is married to Joanne Dorrow and is the father of two adult daughters.
Mondays, Oct. 2 to Nov. 13, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Tapping into the NPC Sermon Archive: A “No-Homework” Small Group
Tom Coogan, leader
Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Tom Coogan and his family have been Nassau Church members for 10+ years. Their lives have been greatly enriched by Nassau’s Scripture-based preaching, and how ancient (but eternal) words can be directly related to our daily lives.
Wednesdays, Oct. 4 to Nov. 15, 6:30-7:30 a.m.
Listening Ahead of Time: Preparing for Sunday’s Sermon
Dave Davis, leader
Conference Room
Bring your own breakfast
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.
Marshall McKnight, an NPC member since 2011, currently serves the congregation as a Deacon. He works in Trenton for the State of New Jersey and lives in Princeton Junction. Upon completing an NPC Small Group study of “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander last fall, Marshall McKnight signed up for service with Nassau Presbyterian Church’s Mass Incarceration Task Force. He kept hearing about the book, “Just Mercy” as a highly recommended read.
Thursdays, Oct. 5 to Nov. 30, 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debbie Irving
Len Scales, leader
Conference Room
Bring your own lunch
Note, will not meet Oct. 19, Nov. 9, or Nov. 23
Len Scales is Executive Co-Director for Princeton Presbyterians of the Westminster Foundation along with her husband Andrew. Princeton Presbyterians is a campus ministry supported by Nassau Church. In this role, she serves as an affiliate chaplain at Princeton University and adjunct pastor at Nassau Church. Len and Andrew lead Breaking Bread, a worship service on Sundays at 8PM in Niles Chapel during the academic year.
Thursdays, Oct. 5 to Nov. 15, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Photographing the Psalms: The Sacred Art of Photography III
Ned Walthall, leader
Conference Room
Ned Walthall has been thinking about and taking photographs for years. He is the geeky guy with the long lens at coffee hour. If you see him, say hello. His work can be seen at nwalthall.tumblr.com.
Our hearts go out to all who have been so gravely affected by Hurricane Harvey. Below are a couple ways to help.
Support Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is working to help all affected by Hurricane Harvey. To support the efforts of PDA, Give Now on My Nassau and select the Disaster Relief Fund. All donations go directly to PDA.
See the PDA website to follow the efforts of the National Response Team.
Send Supplies via Hermann Transportation
Hermann Transportation is collecting supplies which they will be trucking to Houston for free. See the list of supplies needed below as well as their collection sites in Central NJ.
You can call Hermann Transportation (800-524-0067) with any questions.
Supplies Needed
[ezcol_1half]Personal supplies
Shampoo and conditioner
Deodorant
Lotion
Tooth brush
Tooth paste
Soap and body wash
Baby wipes
Hand sanitizer
Diapers for children and seniors
Q-tips and cotton balls
Feminine hygiene
Razors and shaving cream
Socks
Formula [/ezcol_1half]
[ezcol_1half_end]Home supplies
Towels
Pillows
Blankets
Bleach
Detergent
Comfort kits
First aid supplies
Medical gloves
Pet food
Water
Gatorade
Other Supplies
Flash lights
Phone chargers
Batteries
School supplies[/ezcol_1half_end]
Drop-Off Sites
Hermann Transportation
11 Distribution Way
Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852
8:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m.
Plainsboro Recreation Building
641 Plainsboro Rd
Plainsboro, NJ 08536
Max Fitness
Four locations
3790 US Hwy 1 North, Monmouth Junction, NJ.
2 JFK Blvd, Somerset, NJ
220 Triangle Road, Suite 233, Hillsborough, NJ
1966 Washington Valley Rd, Martinsville, NJ
5:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
4:00 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Tiger’s Tale Restaurant
1290 US Hwy 206
Skillman, NJ 08558
12:00 – 8:00 p.m.
The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s prompted over 500 years of reform and shaped ministry to God’s people for centuries. Let’s celebrate the past and act in the present.
Sundays, 9:15 a.m, in the Assembly Room unless otherwise noted.
For a look at Adult Education offerings through October, download the brochure: AE Sep-Oct 2017 (pdf).
Young Adults in Ministry: Nassau’s Mission Dollars at Work
Katie McGee and Jonathan Freeman
September 10
Katie and Jonathan have both served God and the church this year as Young Adult Volunteers with the PCUSA. Come and hear their stories about why they chose to do a YAV year, what that meant for their life and work, and how their experience has impacted their plans and their future. The YAV motto is “A lifetime of change” – That’s a lot of promise!
Katie McGee has a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama. She worked as a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance YAV in the Center at Ferncliff Camp, outside of Little Rock, AR. Thailand and an Elephant Nature Park are in her future, but there’s more.
Jonathan Freeman has a degree in Christian Education from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. His YAV site was in Indianapolis, where he focused on interfaith dialogue and service with Habitat for Humanity. He will move one to an internship for the Waddell Fellowship program with the University of Georgia’s Presbyterian Student Center.
Healthcare Headwinds: New Jersey’s Stake in the ACA Fight
Jackie Cornell
September 17
What impact would federal health care changes and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act have on New Jersey’s health, families, state budget and economy? A leader from New Jersey Policy Perspective, which has been on the front lines of the fight to preserve the ACA, will join us to discuss the organization’s analyses of the devastating impact, what New Jersey can do to protect the gains we’ve made, and how you can get involved.
Jackie Cornell, Director of Development & External Affairs, leads NJPP’s fundraising and outreach efforts. Before joining NJPP in August 2017, Jackie served in many leading policy and political roles in New Jersey. She was appointed by President Barack Obama as the regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; has served as Congressman Rush Holt’s political director and outreach director; founded and led New Leaders Council – New Jersey; and has held crucial positions with Obama for America, Organizing for America, New Jersey Citizen Action and Planned Parenthood. She comes to NJPP from the New Jersey Hospital Association, where she worked as the senior director of Federal Relations and Regulatory Affairs.
Passionate about leadership development, Jackie currently serves on the National Programs Committee for the New Leaders Council as well as the on the Advisory Board of the New Jersey chapter. She is also adjunct faculty at The College of New Jersey, teaching courses in women and public policy and feminist advocacy.
Beginning September 17
In-Depth Bible Study: First Corinthians
George Hunsinger
9:15 AM
Maclean House
George Hunsinger returns for the 21st year to lead this verse-by-verse examination of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians.In this epistle the Corinthian congregation wrestles with doctrinal and ethical issues in conversation with their “founding pastor,” Paul, and Paul offers compelling good news in his understanding of the cross the resurrection, worship, and life together in Christian community.
Bibles are available for use during the class. Find them on the Deacon Desk by the church kitchen. New members are always welcome. Class meets next door in Maclean House (Garden Entrance).
George Hunsinger is Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and founder of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
Old Problems for a New Administration
Sandra Matsen
September 24
Come and examine an overview of important and difficult policy decisions awaiting our new Governor and State Legislature in 2018. Join a discussion of these issues and learn where you can find candidate positions to help you make your choice when you vote on November 7.
Sandra Matsen currently serves as the League of Women Voters of New Jersey legislative agent representing the members’ policy interests in Trenton. A member of the League since the early 1980s she has held numerous local and state League positions, serving as president from 1999-2003.
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