Salve Amice is one of the few phrases that has stuck with me from High School Latin. It means, simply, “Hello, friend.” Why it stuck we me all these years I can’t say. Perhaps it is because the foundational role friendship has played in my life in shaping me into the person I have, with God’s grace, become. Indeed, I think friendship is a primary means by which we experience God’s grace. It is, in a very real sense, a sacrament. That’s why I’ve chosen it as the name of my blog. During my sabbatical I want to do some thinking about the theology of friendship. After all, in John’s Gospel Jesus reminds the disciples,
“I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” (John 15:15).
One of mentors early on in ministry used a benediction that highlights this verse. I want to leave it with you as I start this blog on the eve before my sabbatical:
Remember that by the goodness of God you were born. Remember that in the mercy of Jesus Christ you have been redeemed. Remember that he walks with you every day to comfort you, to strengthen, and to guide. He promised he would, “Lo, I am with you always.” Remember that while others have called you servants, he has named you friends. In the strength of that mighty friendship, go forth now to serve in God’s gracious name. Amen!
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“Anniversaries & Endings” | Blog #50
August 10, 1986 was a Sunday. I was back in my hometown. Six weeks earlier I had moved south from Princeton, NJ to begin the work of building the Alpharetta Presbyterian New Church Development which would, in time and God’s providence, become the Alpharetta Presbyterian Church. There was a lot to do that busy, hot summer before we began our first worship service. One of the tasks was getting ordained. At that time, the normal practice was to be ordained…
“It Is Good To Be Home” | Blog #49
When I left on the first driving leg of the sabbatical (Atlanta-Montgomery-Selma-Birmingham) I had only 3,400 miles on the car. When I pulled into my driveway having driven home from Morgantown, WV at about 6:30pm this evening, I clocked just over 11,550. It has been a glorious “walk about.” This morning I started out having a delightful breakfast with Blake Brookshire. Mollie and the boys caught a flight yesterday to be with Blake’s family for a vacation in Colorado, while…
“Please Say It’s Not Over” | Blog #48
Leaving Chautauqua was sad. What a week. So glad we were there with a cohort of WPC members who can corroborate and validate our experience. It was remarkable: stimulating, educational, spiritually renewing, relaxing, challenging, artistically inspiring, and topped off with a night filled with laughter…it really is the best medicine. Amy and I were sad to bid the place goodbye. Highlights for us were Fr. Greg Boyle’s preaching in the mornings, Jon Meacham’s Thursday morning lecture, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra,…
“Chautauqua: All That Is Was Billed To Be” | Blog #47
I can’t remember the first time I learned about Chautauqua Institute. It may have been from Rev. George Wirth. George was pastor of the Sewickley Presbyterian Church, north of Pittsburgh, and was often on campus of PTS. I interviewed with him for a position coming out to seminary and knew that he had a summer place in Chautauqua, which I knew was somewhere in upstate New York, but beyond that I didn’t know much. Later, I learned it was the…
“Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Lake” | Blog #46
Tuesday, I decamped the Adirondacks during a gully washer of a rainstorm. By the time I got into Albany it was sunny and warm. Circling the State Capitol looking for a parking spot I cruised past Westminster Presbyterian Church and saw about a handful of senior citizens out front protesting with signs proclaiming, “Black Lives Matter,” “Economic Justice for All,” and “Pro-Choice for Women.” The church is about a block up the street from the Capitol and, providentially, there was…
“Birdsong And Blue Skies” | Blog #45
The little town of North Creek is coming alive as I sit at the table in the side-yard overlooking Main Street, enjoying my first cup of tea, and greeting the morning. Occasionally you can hear a car drive by or a car door slam, but the loudest, most dominant sound is birdsong. It is cool and blue-sky sunny and a gentle breeze is ruffling the leaves on the beautiful flowering plants that ring the yard. These days here have been…
“The Adirondacks” | Blog #44
Nashville is in the 100’s I hear. So sorry! This morning I’m sitting on the front porch of my Air B&B in North Creek, NY perched above Main Street wearing a flannel shirt and drinking a cup of hot tea. It is a cool morning; tourists and locals walk in and out of the bakery/coffee shop across the street while I’m serenaded with birdsong. Being up in the Adirondacks has been everything I had hoped it would be. Amy found…
“Take A Break” | Blog #43
I’m pretty sure that most people in the country have never heard the name Schuyler before the musical Hamilton introduced us to the Schuyler sisters. But having grown up in NE Pennsylvania not that far from the NY Dutch, I knew of Philip Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton’s father-in-law as one of America’s most influential early citizens. His home is just to the east of Saratoga Springs, just on the edge of the Saratoga Battlefield, and it was where the English General Burgoyne,…
“Up In Apple Country” | Blog #42
After picking my car back up in Montclair, NJ I drove back up to Hyde Park, NY to see more of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. When Amy and I were there last Thursday we didn’t have enough time to tour the house, which is something I wanted to do. Visiting the Roosevelt home, Morgan Library, and Vanderbilt Mansion became a powerful counterpoint to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Having recently read about Teddy Roosevelt’s support of Progressive…
“The Big Apple With Amy” | Blog #41
Wow! What a great couple of very full days with Amy in the Big Apple. Last Thursday I left my friend, Rob Thomas’, home in Princeton early to pick Amy up at Newark airport. The plan was to head up to the North Shore of Long Island to visit Teddy Roosevelt’s home, Sagamore Hill, drive through some other sites in the area, and return to New Jersey to have dinner with one of Amy’s friends. Alas, I learned too late…
“Celebrations And Serendipities” | Blog #40
Being back in Bethlehem and traveling the backroads over to Princeton on Monday allowed for both celebrations and serendipities. The serendipitous connections led to celebrations and added to the celebratory connections I already had planned. For instance, I found out an old hs friend living in Boston was in visiting her folks on Sunday and would be leaving Monday morning. So, Lori Fegely Hill came over to where I was staying, and I opened a Gin & Tonic bar for…
“A Friend Loves At All Times…” | Blog #39
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17 This morning was the first time I’ve helped lead worship and preach since sabbatical started two days after Easter. I was at First Presbyterian Church of Clarks Summit, “The Church on the Hill”, to do a dialogue sermon on friendship with my buddy Bill Carter. Bill’s been at FPCCS for more than 30 years and we’ve been close friends ever since meeting on the first…
“Touching All The Bases” | Blog #38
My folks grew up in a section of Wilkes-Barre called “The Heights.” Most of the street names were culled from the ranks of Union Civil War Generals: Grant, Hancock, Sherman, Meade that ran off the main street that ran up the hill from downtown, Northampton. The large high school in the neighborhood also had a nod to the Union; named G.A.R. Memorial it was a tribute to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Veterans Association. At the bottom…
“Decoration Day” | Blog #37
There is a good answer to a pesky biblical question. In John’s Gospel, Nathaniel asks Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The answer, of course, is yes, Jesus! But the last time Donovan preached on the text, I took my phone out and texted him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Yes! Martin Guitars! Nazareth, Pennsylvania is a small town just about 5 miles up the road from where I grew up in Bethlehem. In fact, the…
“Borne On The Wings Of Memory” | Blog #36
Memory is such a powerful force in our lives. It can transport us back in time and place over decades in an instant. It can bring those long dead alive again. It can conjure powerful emotions long buried and make them fresh and tender as if they were brand new. Memory was a gift with me riding shotgun as I drove the neighborhoods and streets of my childhood for a good chunk of the day yesterday. It didn’t hurt that…
“Glad I Remember How To Wear It” | Blog #35
Well, the last three days have been a bit crazy even for me. Friday, I awoke to a beautiful morning, packed, and prepared to leave the hotel I’d been in most of the week. Before departure, I walked a block or so up New Hampshire to a bakery and grabbed a table outside in the sunshine. At 9:30 Kelly McCarthy, Assistant Dean of Development and Alumni Relations for School of International Service, joined me. We had been trying to meet…
“Surprises Just Down The Street” | Blog #34
Wednesday broke sunny and warm, a perfect antidote to Tuesday night’s rain. My first stop of the morning was out at National Presbyterian Church to meet an old Bethlehem friend who teaches at the National Presbyterian Church School. Unfortunately, my friends on the church staff, Donna Marsh and Quinn Fox, are both away. Donna is on her own sabbatical and Quinn, along with his wife Nancy (Chair of The Outreach Foundation Board), is on a tour of the Holy Land…
“Seeing An Old Friend” | Blog #33
It’s been quite a few years since I visited Arlington National Cemetery, but this was the first time I was going to “see” someone I knew. Professor John “Jack” Child, Lt. Col. Ret., was Undergraduate Dean of AU’s School of International Service beginning in January of 1980. When I started in the fall of ’78 we were in-between Deans. Professor Bill Cromwell was acting Dean for the year. I became President of the SIS Undergraduate Cabinet as a sophomore and…
“Back To The Old Stomping Grounds” | Blog #32
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! For the first time in a long while I had trouble getting to sleep, so I woke up late and had a late start to the day. My plan was to stop by Arlington National Cemetery on the way into DC (more on the why later). Instead, I had a leisurely breakfast and read for an hour and a half before heading out. I’m continuing to enjoy Eugene Peterson’s collection of sermons, As…
“Laughter Is The Best Medicine” | Blog #31
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Sometimes being at the right place at the right time makes all the difference. My morning started, unusually, with me NOT being the first in line for a museum opening. One couple were already at the front door of the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library/Museum in Staunton, VA. Gotta give the Ohioans props for beating me to the mark! They told me they wanted to get through the museum because there was going…
“Catching The Spirit” | Blog #30
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Last Thursday, just before heading home, I visited the stunningly beautiful Basilica in St. Louis. What caught my eye was a Pentecost mosaic that reminded me that Pentecost was coming. Indeed, yesterday was the celebration of the Spirit’s outpouring on the church and I hated that I was back on the road for a long drive, rather than being in church. But I was comforted meditating on the Basilica’s mosaic and the…
“A Four-Bagger Day” | Blog #29
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Wednesday made me feel like I hit a home run. I managed to touch four bags before arriving home. What I mean is I was able to visit 4 stops (five, really) in three cities before my head hit the pillow that night. Part of my reason for conceiving the driving trip was to visit certain museums along the way. One that was high on my list was the Mounted Cavalry Museum…
“In The Rearview Mirror” | Blog #28
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! It was sad seeing the majestic, snow-capped Rockies recede into my rearview mirror this morning (Tuesday) as I drove east of Denver in the morning light. Amy & Leah flew home yesterday, and Ben and I caught breakfast with his Rhodes friend and teammate, Alex McTaggert. Ben left with Alex, and I spent the morning back at the Denver Art Museum and went to Coors Field to see the Rockies play the…
“Getting The Band Back Together” | Blog #27
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Ben flew in on Thursday morning and took the train from the airport to Union Station. While he was doing that, Amy, Leah, and I had an amazing breakfast at the ART Hotel and enjoyed the art. We arrived at Union Station just as Ben’s train pulled in. The beautifully restored station evokes train travel at its best. Like St. Louis’s grand train station, it also has a hotel immediately connected to…
“Reunions!” | Blog #26
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Waking to blue skies after two rainy days put me in the mood to get up, get out, and get going. Plus, Wednesday was a big day, filled with reunions. First was a short drive from Pueblo to Colorado Springs to visit with an old friend, Nancy “Nano” Hobbs. When I arrived, she was mucking out the stables in the barn on her property (inside the CS town limit) where young friends…
“Eyes Need Opening” | Blog #25
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Eyes need opening. We live in a time when forces want us not to look critically at parts of our collective past, arguing that since we weren’t living during that period, we are not responsible for what happened. OK, on one level I get that. For many years, I was quick to say that during the “recent unpleasantries” (read Civil War) my people where still fighting for Queen and Country. But that…
“From The Transcendent To The Temporal” | Blog #24
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Sunday morning found me at Crystal Bridges Museum early, double masked and distanced. I had heard about the Walton family’s project when it began, mostly because they were trying to buy all the art that was on the market for inflated prices. One famous piece of art they tried to acquire was Thomas Eakins’ The Gross Clinic, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gross_Clinic). It is an iconic Philadelphia painting of Dr. Samuel Gross conducting a surgery clinic in Jefferson Medical…
“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” | Blog #23
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! The old Yiddish adage means, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” I think I have known the saying forever. There was a lot of Yiddish floating around Bethlehem when I was a boy. Not sure if Pop picked it up, or teachers, or Jewish friends, but it seems most apt when we think we have a plan nailed down. Sure enough, just when you think that something unexpected happens and the carefully crafted…
“Sitting In Limbo” | Blog #22
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Back in my senior year of college I landed a job waiting tables at a new restaurant in NW Washington, DC, called Quigley’s. It was part of new high-end development not far from campus and it had an up-beat vibe that was a cross between Houston’s and Cheers. It also had good music, in abundance. One of the nightly tracks that would be looped was the reggae album, “The Harder They Come”…
“Animal Farm” | Blog #21
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! These have been amazingly fruitful days of reflection at the very edge of Lake Tahoe. Looking out my window above the lake, I am amazed both at its clarity – I can see to the bottom a good way out – and the changing colors throughout the day as the sun walks from the bottom right to the top left of my view. Over the years I’ve collected landscape paintings and the…
“Lord, In Your Mercy…” | Blog #20
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! A cacophony of birds woke me just before 5:00am this morning. My room at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center overlooks Lake Tahoe. When I got in last night after picking up my friends Rod Stone and Bill Hoyle at the Reno airport, the room was warm and stuffy so I slept with the windows open and the blinds up. It’s daybreak as I look out the window, lights off in the room,…
“Forty Years” | Blog #19
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Throughout the Bible the number forty stands out. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt on a forty-year long trek through the desert until they reached the promise land. Forty-years is usually seen as the time it takes for a “new generation.” I don’t often think about “forty-years” but it is much on my mind this morning.…
“Vol Traditions” | Blog #18
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Let’s face it, orange isn’t a particularly flattering color on a big guy. Especially shirts with horizontal stripes. Even so, there is a lot of orange worn in Amy’s family. The youngest of four siblings, Amy and her brother and sisters all went to the University of Tennessee and then three of her nephews, Eric, Andrew, and Thomas, became football managers during their years in Knoxville. Eric and his wife, Tyra, both…
“Birmingham, Baseball, and Blessings” | Blog #17
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Monday morning broke sunny and fine with a breakfast meeting on the agenda. Rev. Kevin Long is the newly installed pastor at Birmingham’s venerable Independent Presbyterian Church. It’s Jane McDow’s home church and I knew it for many years as one of my APC members’ sisters was the long-time DCE. Kevin was called there last fall and I wanted to check in and see how it was going. I first met Kevin…
“Worship The Lord In The Beauty Of Holiness” | Blog #16
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Sunday morning turned out to be wonderful and frustrating. The plan was to worship at Alpharetta Pres at the early service and then drive to First Pres Atlanta to catch the second service so I could visit with the pastor, Rev. Tony Sundermeier and his wife Katie, both Princeton Seminary grads and friends. Unfortunately, APC’s early worship wasn’t at 8:30am (as God intended!) but 9:30, so that wouldn’t work to make both…
“Serendipity And Sheep” | Blog #15
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Saturday broke beautiful and sunny on the lake. It was gloriously cool siting out on the porch sipping hot tea. Anne Mahone had a career as a Delta flight attendant, so the hospitality was impeccable. I hated saying goodbye, but I wanted to spend a little time at a small museum in Taccoa, GA, just 15 miles west of where they are on the lake. One of our WPC members, Ben Folk…
“Can You Go Home Again?” | Blog #14
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Friday morning after I left Jim and Barb’s I headed over to Alpharetta Presbyterian Church. Jim’s friend, Mike, mentioned he’d heard that I was going to be asked to speak during the service on Sunday, which was news to me, so I wanted to see if one of the pastors was there to get clarity. Now it’s important to know that when I leave a church as a pastor, I leave a…
“On The Road Again” | Blog #13
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! After three wonderfully restful days at home, I set out on the road again yesterday (5/5) morning. Needing to be in Alpharetta, GA by 4:30, I took off at 10:30am so it would be a leisurely drive. When I stopped at Manchester to get some water, I realized that I had gotten out of the house without my wallet. Well, that’s a problem. Leah was willing to bring it out to me…
“Make And Mend Days” | Blog #12
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! “Make and mend” is the term Britain’s Royal Navy uses to describe a day when, instead of cruising, the crew would have an “afternoon off” to catch up on boat chores. It is derived from the time of sailing ships when sailors would, occasionally but regularly, be allowed time to “make and mend” their uniforms, carve scrimshaw, or just have some down time. I first learned the phrase when I was taking…
“Travel And Home” | Blog #11
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Saturday was a very (very) long travel day. We awoke around 7:00am and finished packing. Amy went out to buy last minute gifts and to see if she could score a garnet from a jewelry store that had been recommended. Garnet is her birth stone, and it is one of the things Prague is known for. Her outing, for many frustrating reasons, was unsuccessful in the jewel department, but she did manage…
“Mucho, Mucho, Mucha” | Blog #10
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! The day broke clear and sunny. Our plan was to meet Mattie Crenshaw at the subway station near the hotel where she would play tour guide for us for the morning. Pavel suggested we visit a place called Vyšehrad(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vy%C5%A1ehrad) an historic fort south of the city on the east bank of the Vltava River, downriver and opposite from the Prague Castle. Inside the fort are the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul…
“Salve Amice Old And New” | Blog #9
Picture gallery at the bottom of the blog! Yesterday was perhaps the fullest and most satisfying of the whole journey. It didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect and that as we started early (and are traveling ‘early in the season’) there were no crowds. Our guide said that a month from now most of the most popular sights would have been shoulder to shoulder. As it is – and it drives Amy crazy – I generally separate myself from…
“Prague: The City Of Spires” | Blog #8
Prague has filled my imagination for decades. In an earlier post I mentioned growing up with kids of Bohemian, Moravian, and Czech background. My best buddy in HS, Johnny Krupka, traces his roots to a town north of Prague and his great-grandfather came from Prague in the early part of the 20th century as a sculptor and set up a studio in NYC. Johnny traces his own artistic interest back to him. Some of you know of my love of…
“Passau: It’s Good To Be The Prince And The Bishop” | Blog #7
Picture Gallery at the bottom of the Blog! We woke up under the lee of a castle that dates to 1499. The bishop of the diocese of Passau – which included lesser cities like Vienna and Budapest down river – also became the prince, which seems to me to be a little too much for one person to do! I mean, really? When is it ever a good idea to hold both the temporal and spiritual power together? Somewhere I…
“Ghosts Are With Us, Or We Can Learn From History” | Blog #6
Picture Gallery at the bottom of the Blog! Our stop yesterday was Linz, Austria. On one hand, it is a lovely little town on the Danube filled with museums, universities (including Sigmund Freud U where, I suppose, one can learn that “sometimes a cigar is only a cigar”), and heavy industry – like a steel mill. On the other hand, the town, to use the phrase Art Spiegelman uses to describe his father in Maus, “bleeds history.” Famously it was where…
“I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me…” | Blog #5
“I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’” (Ps. 122:1) Yesterday, the first Sunday after Easter, I learned long ago to my surprise, is called in the “non-lectionary calendar” “Cannonball Sunday.” As in, you could fire a cannonball through the sanctuary and not hit anyone. AKA “seminarian Sunday” because for those of us serving churches in seminary it was often the one Sunday we would get to preach. After all, no…
“Palaces, Horses, and Music” | Blog #4
Picture Gallery At End Of Post Yesterday proved to be three separate days packaged into one. We awoke to a day cool, overcast, and threatening rain. The afternoon opened to sun and warmth. The evening brought on rain. I ended up changing into three totally different outfits. It was also a day of walking – 16,000 steps. Not a lot for Ben for whom that is a light jog, but a good stretch for me. The first part of the day was a…
“O Sing To The Lord” | Blog #3
Picture Gallery At End Of Post “O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless [God’s] name; tell of [God’s] salvation from day to day.” (Ps. 96:1-2) I began my morning yesterday with the great “new song” psalm and it traveled with me as a companion throughout the day. Every so often I would find myself whistling and chuckled at how the imperative…
“Bore Da Mr Griffiths!” | Blog #2
Picture Gallery At End Of Post One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about international travel is the opportunity of meeting people you would not have otherwise, and the real possibility of friendship developing. Sometimes it is because of one’s need or vulnerability. Like the time the summer of ’82 when I was backpacking around Europe and landed in Swansea, Wales, late on a Friday afternoon the weekend the National Eisteddfod opened there.[1] I stumbled into the tourist bureau about 4:45 only to…
Sabbatical Adventure Begins! | Blog #1
Picture Gallery At End Of Post Sabbatical Adventure Begins… Well, the adventure of the sabbatical begins. It’s 3:00am Budapest time and I’m up after a solid but short sleep. The glories of Easter with a full church after two years of Pandemic distance was a joy I’ll not long forget. Then a wonderful Easter lunch with Amy’s sister, Jennifer, and her son and daughter-in-law, Andrew and Sara Haag at their lovely East Nashville home with Ben and Leah both home…