Month: May 2019

Honor

On By thallfpcpLeave a comment

When I was eighteen and three weeks out of high school, I went to the Air Force Academy. A bedrock of Academy life was the Honor Code: We will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.

The Academy spent many hours teaching us about the Honor Code. We had regular honor discussions. A typical question might be: “Cadet Smith is in a store and starts to steal something, but at that moment, a clerk walks by, and Cadet Smith never commits the crime. Is Cadet Smith honorable?”

“No, he’s not honorable,” someone would say. “He intended to steal.” About half of my classmates would agree. But the other half would say, “Cadet Smith is honorable. He never stole anything.”

We were all eighteen and hadn’t yet learned the finer points of diplomacy. Our discussions soon turned to shouting matches. After a few “discussions,” we realized no one’s mind was going to change, so we would sit in stony silence, polarized, when questions of honor came up.

Looking back, I wish I had understood the Gospel. The Gospel is the only worldview that doesn’t divide between right and wrong, good and bad, us and them. 

Jesus was in the home of a Pharisee, a religious conservative, when an uninvited guest, a woman of ill repute, crashed the party. She wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

Everyone knew her scandalous life, but only she knew Jesus’ forgiveness.

And so she wept.

This was the reason for her extravagant act of love, which included anointing Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume.

The Gospel worldview says that every single one of us is more evil than we know, yet, at the same time, we are more loved by God than we dare hope.

Jesus knows us right down to the bottom of our hearts; every dishonorable thought and deed. And, at the same time, he loves us to the heavens.

And he’s already forgiven us. All we need to do is accept it.

Here’s what I wish I knew back then: Only the Gospel worldview allows us to look at those with whom we disagree, those who seem totally different from us, and say, “There is someone who’s been forgiven much…like me.”

My classmates all went on to serve their country with honor. Today, we love and respect each other. When we get together, we hug each other, and sometimes we weep.

Witnesses

On By thallfpcpLeave a comment

From: Roger ____  xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.com
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2019 9:27 PM
To: Tom Hall <THall@fpcp.org>
Subject: Some thoughts from the Duquesne Club

Dear Pastor Hall and the people of First Presbyterian Church,

It is one thing to hear a sermon. It is quite another to encounter one without a word spoken.

In Mathew we read the words of Jesus who declares “you are my witnesses.” There is not a lot of optionality in that declaration. The choice to be made is about the quality rather than the reality of our witness.

This week your church lived up to and into its calling as witness. Your open doors provided me with a quiet refuge from the city to think and pray, I saw the safe haven on your steps that you provided for those who live on the margins, your literature unashamedly proclaimed the Gospel of the Risen One. All without speaking a word.

Thank you for serving me this week. I pray that God will grant all and each of you courage, wisdom, mercy, and grace in required portions as you continue to live lives of faithful stewardship.

He is risen indeed.

Roger _____

British Columbia, Canada V5H 4M2

________________________

From: Tom Hall <THall@fpcp.
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2019 8:11 PM
To: Roger______
Subject: RE: Some thoughts from the Duquesne Club

Dear Roger – Thank you so much for sending this along. It is very encouraging. Yes, the Risen Jesus is on the loose here. 

It is not easy to keep church doors open, for lots of reasons that you probably know. And when the doors are open, we become vulnerable. The folks who hang out on the front steps provide lots of challenges, and opportunities to be witnesses.

I’m so glad you found us on your travels. Many folks tell us that the church is a “thin place.”

Blessings on your work and travels. He is risen indeed!

Tom

____________________

From: Roger _____
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2019 10:49 PM
To: Tom Hall <THall@fpcp.org>
Subject: RE: Some thoughts from the Duquesne Club

Dear Pastor Tom,

The day after I sent this note I returned to your beautiful sanctuary to pray. To my right snored a man who may not have known exactly where he was, but I suspect he felt warm and safe. As I left, I met a lady who lives on the ragged edge. She spoke words not found in the lectionary. Yet she stopped at the door, bowed her head and made the sign of the cross as she entered. Perhaps in that place she heard the faint echo of a time when she sang of a Jesus who loved her or was led to that place by a faithful person of prayer whose heart is broken for her.

I get the risks of an urban church. My dad was a pastor of such a church. We had our share of drunks in the back row. They took their place with the better dressed but equally needy tax dodgers, adulterers, gossips, and greedy all assembled to hear the shockingly good news of a God who loves them in the midst of their sin.

I was reminded of the scandal of the Gospel through your church last week and will pray for the protection of those who serve in dangerous surroundings. I will pray that those who find refuge will honor it as a holy place, built for sinners, inhabited by a gracious God who calls us all to come and find rest.

Warmly,

Roger

(Last name and email address deleted to respect the sender’s privacy.)

Say “yes”

On By thallfpcpLeave a comment

My first operational assignment in the Air Force was to Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine. Loring wasn’t the coldest (the flight line didn’t close until the wind chill was 40 below), or the snowiest (184 inches our first year), or the most remote (seven hours north of Boston) bomber base. All those factors combined to make Loring a dreaded assignment. And even in the late 1970s, the B-52s we flew seemed antiquated. The result was that many people quit the Air Force rather than accept orders to Loring. That meant those already there had to stay there well beyond the usual three years. 

But one day, after I’d been there less than three years, I found orders on my desk to a new assignment in reconnaissance airplanes in Omaha. It was a dramatic career change. Instead of the routine of nuclear alert, I’d get to fly all over the world.

Everyone wanted to know how I’d managed to get such a premier job. Long before, I’d put “reconnaissance” on an assignment preference sheet but then forgot all about it. I was as surprised as anyone.

Loring had long been on the base closure list, and soon a personnel team from headquarters arrived to give everyone a new assignment. Amazingly, no one wanted to go to reconnaissance. Even after all their complaining, no one wanted to risk a career change. Everyone preferred to stay with what they knew.

I hadn’t been seeking a new assignment; I just said “yes” when given the chance. Saying “yes” to new opportunities became a habit that led to a life of adventure.

I wonder how often we miss the opportunities God gives us because we prefer to stay with what we know.  

Stonecatcher

On By thallfpcpLeave a comment

“If any one of you is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her.”

It’s one of the most famous things Jesus ever said. 

The religious insiders had brought to Jesus a woman they’d “caught in adultery,” a sin that under Jewish law called for the death penalty. The fact that they had somehow been unable to “catch” the adulterous man was proof enough that they were just using her to trap Jesus.

In one sentence, Jesus confirmed the reality of sin, the judgment sin requires, and the mercy we all need.

This week a Pennsylvania lawmaker filmed himself harassing a woman and her teenage daughters who were praying outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood clinic, then posted the video online. Somehow, in our polarized culture, some people think it’s acceptable to publicly humiliate those they disagree with.

If you divide the world between “us” and “them,” then anyone who isn’t “us” is only getting what they deserve.

But there’s a worldview that doesn’t divide between “us” and “them.” That worldview is captured in Jesus’ words, “If any one of you is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her.”

The Christian faith says no one can stand in the presence of a holy God. We all deserve death. But instead, God has chosen to offer us mercy.

After Jesus made his famous pronouncement, he went back to drawing in the dirt with his finger. One by one, the religious insiders dropped their stones and left until only the woman remained. Incredibly, Jesus had allowed the reality of sin to convict everyone, while sparing everyone public humiliation.

Jesus allowed the humiliation to come down on him.

He caught the stones meant for the woman, the religious insiders, and us.

Pittsburgh Marathon, 2019

On By thallfpcpLeave a comment

This Sunday is the Pittsburgh Marathon. Tens of thousands of runners and visitors from across the country and around the world will be downtown. It’s like no other morning all year.

Our church is right in the middle of it all

A lot of churches are completely blocked by the course on Marathon Sunday. Ours isn’t. You can take the “T” to within half a block of the church. If you drive and can make it to Grant Street, you can park in the Mellon Garage, half a block from the church.

God put our church in the perfect place to be a blessing on Marathon Sunday.

For the last nine years, I’ve been out on the street in front of the church at 5:45 AM on Marathon Sunday, blessing runners. I pray with folks in small groups or one-on-one, or over the loudspeakers to the hundreds of people walking down the street to their corrals.

Many people are nervous about taking on so big a challenge. In those moments before the race, they’re anxious for a higher power. Many runners are Christians who run for God, and many others run for causes that matter to them. Hearing words of blessing, grace, and peace is important.

People I’ve prayed with in years past come up to thank me. It seems that my prayers for a following breeze sometimes are answered.

This year, we’ll again be playing motivational Christian music in front of the church, interspersed with our prayers. Later in the morning (10:45) we’ll hold our worship service outside and preach from our unique outdoor pulpit. God’s Word will be loose out on Sixth Avenue. What a privilege to be the church in the heart of the city.