Monday, September 22, 2025

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Monday, Sept. 22, 2025

Myles Horton and the Highlander Folk School

1 Corinthians 4:8–13

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! If only you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to humans. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are sensible people in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are naked and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Paul was not one to mince words when writing to churches he had poured blood, sweat and tears into. He had high expectations and did not hide them. This is reflected in his words to the believers in Corinth. He calls out the comfort and self-assurance of some believers in contrast to the suffering and vulnerability that marked the lives of the apostles. Paul reminds the church that the call of Christ is not marked by status or acclaim but by sacrificial service, even when it looks like foolishness to the world.

The idea of power in weakness and wisdom in foolishness was lived out in the life and work of Myles Horton. Born poor in the Appalachian South, Horton rejected the exploitation of workers and the comfort of neutrality. His life’s work, especially through the Highlander Folk School, focused on equipping others to lead. His approach to education and organizing was radical: not telling people what to think but helping them discover their voice and power. This spirit of empowerment led him into the work of the Civil Rights Movement.

Attendees of the Folk School found a method rooted in respect, humility and mutual discovery. Horton reminded them that transformation doesn’t begin with loud declarations but with quiet presence — eating with people, speaking their language, respecting their fears. As one attendee put it, “Go to their homes, eat with them, talk the language they talk … (only) then go into your talk about the vote.” In doing this training and work, they embodied the “fools for Christ” Paul described — mocked by the powerful, yet builders of a just world.

There are those around us in the world who are trying to convince everyone that power and domination are the tools that “win the day.” As followers of God, we are called not to dominate, but to serve. Not to be above others, but beside them. Faithful discipleship requires us to sometimes resist the call of comfort and instead embrace the cross-shaped path of solidarity.

Prayer: God of the lowly and the lifted, thank you for the witness of Paul, Myles Horton and countless others. Teach us to live with humility, to organize with respect, and to speak with courage. May we occasionally be fools in the world’s eyes but faithful in yours. Amen.

The Rev. Todd Davidson is the pastor at Sandston Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. He has worked in and for the church for almost all of his adult life. He enjoys reading, movies, music, any and all sports, and most of all being a dad to Caleb and Isaac.

Mission Yearbook: At Montreat, worshipers place prayers in a river of humility

People in worship at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference saw their written prayers swept away in a river flowing through Anderson Auditorium at Montreat Conference Center.

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Worship & Music brass
Numerous musicians combined to make a joyful noise during worship at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians' Worship & Music Conference. (Photo by Alex Simon)

The river was a long length of fabric, carried in by mostly young dancers who then deposited it on the stage. Later, worshipers placed their prayers for healing atop the river.

Humility was the theme for the service. “Rather than false modesty, the call to clothe ourselves in humility is to realize, demurely, that we are not always the main character in the story,” said conference preacher Dr. Margaret Aymer, vice president for Academic Affairs at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. “Today’s service celebrates God’s gift of healing and wholeness.”

David LaMotte sang “Boots and Gloves,” reflecting on Hurricane Helene and the compassion that followed. The dancers brought in the river while worshipers sang “Shall We Gather at the River.”

Aymer based her sermon on the healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1–19a). She said humility is not humiliation but “an invitation to reorientation, to shifting our perspective and changing our actions so we right-size ourselves in relationship with others and God.” She used a gaming term to illustrate: “You have to be willing to listen to the NPCs,” or non-player characters, who “are a part of the game, but they’re not the main character.”

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Youth and river
Young dancers bring the river to the front of Anderson Auditorium. (Photo by Alex Simon)

In Naaman’s story, two NPCs teach lessons in humility. The first is an enslaved Israelite girl captured by the Arameans and forced to work for Naaman’s wife. “She has no power, no authority, no wealth and no status. She appears once, has one line, and then disappears from our memory,” Aymer said. “She is an NPC, yet the story cannot progress unless Naaman listens to her.”

But Naaman hears only half of what she has to say, namely “cure skin disease” and “Samaria.” He goes to his boss and is sent to the king of Israel. He thus goes as an emissary of a king to a king.

The king of Israel cannot cure Naaman either. The enslaved girl said nothing of a payment, but Naaman — rather than showing humility — brings “an exorbitant show of wealth, a sign he is worthy to be cured,” Aymer said, “as though health and wellness belong only to the affluent.”

Naaman is “flummoxed at the prophet’s flat refusal of payment,” Aymer said. The army commander “sees his cure as a war bounty.” He’s “insulted by a prophet who doesn’t even come to the door to speak to him. Naaman still does not have the humility to imagine a posture not of intimidation, but of intercession; not of forceful demands, but of faith petition.”

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Prayers in the river
A few of the prayers were placed in the river. (Photo by Alex Simon)

It is humility that “offers us a chance to look beyond our own status to see every other person as the embodiment of God,” she said, “to see God’s power at work beyond our own imagining, beyond our wealth to see the benevolence and bounty of God, who gives us far more than we can ask or think,” Aymer said. “When we put on humility, we begin to perceive this God-beloved world more fully. We see God is in control and we are not, that God loves us more fully than we could even imagine.”

Naaman eventually learns to listen to the NPCs again, including his own servants, who “challenge Naaman’s lack of imagination, his unwillingness to put down his power and wealth, his disdain for a river he believes is too ordinary to wash his powerful Syrian body.” The servants “challenge his bravado to not do a task any child could do,” she said. They candidly tell Naaman, “All he said to you was wash and be clean.”

“Friends, we need to listen to those NPCs, the people who cook our meals and clean our rooms. No person is truly an NPC, and we do not always know how God will heal us,” Aymer said. “When we look for heavenly signs, God sends us angels wearing boots and gloves.”

“We may think these divine messengers are NPCs, but the truth is they are the main characters, sent with shawls of humility until we are right-sized, humiliated and able to trust our God once more.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

McKenna Britton, Communications Associate, Mission Communications, Interim Unified Agency 
Analise Brown, Registrar & Administrative Assistant, Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Jesus, open our eyes to see. Open our hearts to respond to the least of these, our brothers and sisters. Amen

Sunday, September 21, 2025

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025

Rachel Henderlite

Luke 16:1–13

When I was little, I was obsessed with “The Borrowers” — a movie about a tiny family living under floorboards who survive by “borrowing” what humans won’t miss. Inspired, I began borrowing from my older sister. One T-shirt here. A sweatshirt there. The scrunchie she just got for Christmas? All fair game — as long as I returned things intact and unnoticed. I told myself I was living out the spirit of “The Borrowers” — taking what was “technically hers” and making it temporarily mine.

I thought I’d grow out of that habit. But the older I get, the more I see adulthood as an extended game of borrowing. A cup of sugar here. A line of credit there. Parenting advice that just went viral? All fair game. So much of adult life is about being someone who can be trusted to borrow — and better yet, to use what’s been borrowed for the good of others. In church language, that’s called “stewarding.”

That question — how to borrow well — also shaped the life of the Rev. Dr. Rachel Henderlite, the first woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church of the United States. Prior to her ordination, she taught at Montreat College, Charlotte Technical High School and Harding High School. After graduating from Yale Divinity School and then being ordained (1965), Henderlite taught at Austin Theological Seminary. Henderlite was the first woman to hold a full-time position at the seminary. She saw teaching as a sacred trust, something passed down and passed on. Through her borrowed gifts, others learned to live — really live — too.

I wonder if that’s what Jesus is getting at in Luke 16, one of his more perplexing parables.

A dishonest manager is about to be fired for taking what was “technically his boss’s” and making it permanently his (read: stealing). But then he repents — stewards what he’s stolen. Somehow, Jesus praises him — not for being right, but for trying to get it right.

Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus this way:

“Be smart in the same way — but for what is right … concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live.”

Prayer:

Faithful God, teach us not to own more, but to borrow wisely. To live not for preservation, but for peace. Amen.

Nikki Zimmermann serves as pastoral resident at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is her first call out of seminary that has been primarily focused on doing life alongside unhoused people in Charlotte.

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025

Margaret Towner

2 Kings 2:1–18

When the prophet Elijah is taken up into heaven, Elisha watches in awe, crying out in grief and wonder. Then, something surprising happens: Elisha picks up Elijah’s fallen mantle. He carries it to the Jordan River, strikes the water as Elijah once did, and crosses over. The prophetic legacy is not simply observed — it is claimed, continued and embodied.

Margaret Towner knows something of this kind of legacy. In 1956, she became the first woman ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s predecessor denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Though many faithful women had long been leading in Christian education, mission, and diaconal ministry, Towner was the first to cross this official threshold. She picked up the mantle.

Yet her journey was not just about a title or a “first.” Towner served congregations in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin. She taught Sunday school, served as a hospital chaplain, faced discrimination, and even changed her own mind on what ordination for women might look like, mentoring other women in the same career path. She became a visible sign that peace — true shalom — requires the full inclusion of all God’s people in the life of the Church.

Her presence broke barriers, but more importantly, she built bridges. She showed that peacemaking is not always loud or combative; sometimes it is as steady as preaching the gospel week after week in word and deed, as quiet as supporting a struggling parishioner, or as bold as standing where you were once told you didn’t belong.

Like Elisha, Towner responded to the call, walking forward into a new chapter of prophetic ministry, paving the way for generations of women to serve God’s people with courage and conviction.

Today, as we discern our own place in the long line of peacemakers, may we look to her story and ask, what mantle lies before us? What river are we called to cross, not alone, but alongside the Spirit who leads and empowers us all?

Prayer: God of the prophets, thank you for those who go before us. Give us courage to pick up the mantle of peace and to walk faithfully in your calling. Amen.

The Rev. Katie Day loves Waffle House and live theater and serves as pastor of Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church in Duluth, Georgia. She shares a home with her husband, Kevin, and their child, Elijah, and everyone answers to the cats, Magnificat and Fatty Pancakes.

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Friday, Sept. 19, 2025

William H. Sheppard

Matthew 5:14–16

When reading this passage, I imagine those listening to Jesus’ words pictured the light emanating from Jerusalem, a city built on a hill whose light can be seen from miles away. The call to be that light amid such darkness can be intimidating for anyone striving to follow Jesus. When feeling inadequate, I try to remember how many it took to shine the light Jesus illustrated. Some built torches while others provided the oil to be lit. Some lit the torch and handed it to another, who placed it on the lampstand so its light could be seen. Then, it is the light that illuminates what was once consumed by darkness. The collaboration necessary to be Christ’s light reminds us that each of us must do our part to participate in the ongoing restorative work with which Christ trusts us.

William H. Sheppard was a Presbyterian pastor and missionary sent to the Congo who played a role in shining Christ’s light. After witnessing the atrocities committed against the Congolese people by Belgium’s King Leopold II, Sheppard wrote a report detailing his experience that was published in the American Presbyterian Congo Mission newsletter. In response, those loyal to King Leopold II sued Sheppard for libel. The ensuing trial not only resulted in Sheppard’s acquittal but also brought international attention to the abuses inflicted on the people of Congo. Eventually, public outcry led to reforms that improved the lives of those who were being oppressed. Even though Sheppard did not single-handedly bring down the oppressive rule of King Leopold II, he played his part in shining Christ’s light into an area of the world that was consumed by darkness.

Christ does not call us to be the light of the world on our own, but rather to participate with those who commit to letting that light shine in this world’s darkness. Some of us will be called to travel abroad to serve people in need of relief. Others may join organizations that offer comfort and aid to the oppressed. Few will be called to use their wealth and influence to encourage our leaders to prioritize those who are most marginalized. Wherever God leads us, our collective work will enable Christ’s light to shine where it’s needed most. Like Sheppard, may we do our part to let that light shine.

Prayer:

Lord, may your Spirit lead me to shine Christ’s light to the world. Give me the wisdom to hear you clearly and the courage to follow you boldly. May your Son’s light shine through my thoughts, words and actions. Amen.

The Rev. Dan Commerford serves as the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, North Carolina. He's been happily married to his wife, Rachel, for 14 years, and together they have two beautiful children, Hannah and Micah. In his free time, Dan loves to play golf and strum the guitar.

Minute for Mission: Evangelism Sunday

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Yees Ku Oo Dancers presented a song of celebration at the conclusion of the service of apologies and responses Oct. 8, 2023, at Kunéix Hídi Northern Light United Church in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Picking up on his previous day’s theme of faith communities and mid councils “seeing beyond the standalone model of being church,” Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall recently told the 540 or so people attending Synod School that he talked to several attendees about how they’re “creatively using God’s resources to be a blessing beyond themselves.”

One church is in the early stages of using its property to build housing needed in the community. Another church makes its commercial kitchen available for small businesses to bake items for sale.

One ministry Schlosser-Hall, deputy executive director of Vision, Innovation and Rebuilding in the Interim Unified Agency, has been following is the Wilmington Kitchen Collective in New Castle Presbytery. The collective began when a congregation partnered with a worshiping community who had connections with food vendors. The collective, which has a long waiting list of culinary entrepreneurs waiting to enter the program, has four goals:

  • Provide low-cost shared kitchen facilities for growing food-based businesses.
  • Increase access to capital and startup grants for entrepreneurs.
  • Increase access to training and business development for entrepreneurs.
  • Build a community of culinary entrepreneurs to support and encourage one another on their journey.

“The business development and economic support is important to us because we have heard over and over again from our entrepreneurs that space is not enough,” the Rev. Chelsea Spyres, the collective’s executive director, said during a 2022 webinar. “To launch and do business well in the startup phase, they need more support and resources,” including micro grants and business development coaching.

“We are not business experts,” Spyres said of Wilmington Kitchen Collective. “But we have a lot of connections in the community. We are more than a kitchen space.”

Schlosser-Hall went over some of the statistics from the PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities that show of the 800 worshiping communities started over the past dozen years, 600 are still providing ministry. “That’s a much higher ratio than most innovation that happens,” he said.

New worshiping communities in the PC(USA) worship in 17 languages. Forty percent are multicultural. Seventy-eight percent of people involved with         worshiping communities are under the age of 55.

“This is happening in your neighborhood,” Schlosser-Hall said. “You are providing the resources and encouragement and engagement.” He said his prayer is that “we keep learning from each other and the synergy becomes infectious.”

However, even with all that imagination and innovation going on, there are places that many of us are not paying attention to, he said: the places where relationships are broken.

“The Church has been a place that caused harm for others. People are at odds with one another, and reconciliation has to happen,” he said. “When shalom is not present, there is distrust and suspicion that often keeps us stuck.”

When Schlosser-Hall was a new presbytery executive, his mentor told him that in the last 10 years of his ministry, 10 nearby congregations had shut down. Each of the closed churches had an instance of sexual misconduct unresolved and unaddressed, Schlosser-Hall said. “The suspicion and mistrust led to the spiral of inability to relate well to the community,” he said, “and the church ended up closing.”

“In our past as a denomination, there have been many ways where our theology and missional practice has harmed others,” and Schlosser-Hall showed this video to help Synod Schoolers understand one such case. The video tells the story of the 225th General Assembly directing an official apology and reparations for the racist manner in which Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau, Alaska, was closed in 1963.

“As we were working with the congregation on what reparative actions they would take to seek to reconcile this, we had to listen closely to what the folks who were experiencing the harm needed from this relationship,” Schlosser-Hall said. “Out of that listening came pages of compelling future-oriented cooperation in ministry. It released imagination that had long been dormant about what we might do next.”

“It’s not about events,” Schlosser-Hall said of the October 2023 apology and reparations. “It’s about relationships.”

Mike Ferguson, editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Tara Brannigan, Financial Administrative Assistant, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency
Kendra Bright, Operations and Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

Let us pray:

Loving God, we want to love as you love. Please make us executors of justice, lovers of strangers, and providers of food, medicine, clothing and shelter. As you give us resources and directions, we will follow your examples. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Study explores how churches navigate safety, security and guns

Together with Dr. David Yamane of Wake Forest University, the Rev. Dr. Katie Day, a PC(USA) pastor, author and retired seminary professor, has been studying how faith communities have worked to protect themselves following mass shootings in places of worship, including at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.

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Marvin Yoder Unsplash
Photo by Marvin Yoder via Unsplash

Day shared some of the research during a “Gun Violence and Christian Ethics” webinar recently put on by the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness. More than 50 people attended.

Dr. Andrew Peterson, OPW’s associate for Peacemaking, welcomed those in attendance and noted the webinar is the second in a series of at least four exploring the intersection of gun violence and Christian ethics. Commissioners to the 225th General Assembly (2022) approved an item identifying 2022–2032 as the Decade to End Gun Violence.

Day, the Charles A. Scheiren Professor Emerita of Church in Society at United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia, noted household gun ownership was up 29% from 1994 to 2023, with at least one gun in nearly half of U.S. homes. From 2019until 2023, about 7.5 million Americans became gun owners, and a survey found that about half of non-gun owners can see themselves owning a gun in the future. About half of those surveyed said they believe guns make them safer. “The irony is more guns do not make us safer,” Day said. “If they did, we’d be the safest place on Earth.”

In 2023, 45,000 Americans died by guns, 2/3 by suicide. “These are not just numbers,” Day said. “They are human beings, loved by God.”

The 225th General Assembly approved a limited fund to help PC(USA) congregations, mid councils, worshiping communities and institutions conduct events to combat gun violence. “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” has a study guide; the documentary itself is set for an update scheduled for next year.

“Faith leaders have had to contemplate this rare but horrific possibility of an active shooter in our houses of worship. It’s not covered in our seminary curricula,” Day said. “Into this vacuum, church security training organizations began to proliferate. Faith leaders have been flocking to them.”

How are congregations making sense of safety and security — theologically and practically — in light of the heightened sense of the threat of gun violence? Day and Yamane were awarded a grant from the Louisville Institute to study how congregations are conceptualizing safety and security.

They conducted research, embedded in several places, participated in national training programs for church security teams, and interviewed clergy and other church leaders in Texas, Philadelphia and North Carolina. “Our study revealed a variety of responses,” Day said. The range of responses ran from flight to fight.

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Rev. Dr. Katie Day
The Rev. Dr. Katie Day

“We found churches who were not concerned. Violence in their sanctuaries was incomprehensible,” Day said. For these churches, the worship space “is a refuge from the world out there. There’s no real theological framework for engaging this changing reality.”

Others told researchers, “We rely on God’s protection.” One pastor told them, “Guns may keep you safe, but only God will save you.”

Some churches said arming was incompatible with following Christ or rabbinic teaching. “Some said locking our church doors [during worship] is incompatible with our sense of hospitality,” Day said.

Many churches have enhanced their security systems. Now more than 40% of faith communities have security cameras, electronic door locks, automatic lighting or alarm systems. “This is expensive technology,” Day said, “and a problem for smaller congregations,” many of which worship in older buildings.

“We need to engage in conversation. We need to get over our fear of offending gun owners, even if they’re big contributors to our congregations,” Day said. She used to ask her seminary students, how many of you own a gun? Many were surprised by how many hands went up. “Then I asked, ‘How many of you have been impacted by gun violence, including suicide?’” Day said. “There was surprise by the numbers of those impacted.”

“That was the beginning of our conversation,” she said. “If we embrace or accommodate the increasing prevalence of guns, we elevate guns to being more important than the victims of gun violence.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Terri Bowman, Customer Service Lead, Hubbard Press, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation) 
Dan Braden, Managing Editor, Publishing, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray:

Gracious Jesus, guide us in this time of challenge and change. Fill us with hope to live boldly into your divinely inspired future. Amen.

Friday, September 19, 2025

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025

William H. Sheppard

Matthew 5:14–16

When reading this passage, I imagine those listening to Jesus’ words pictured the light emanating from Jerusalem, a city built on a hill whose light can be seen from miles away. The call to be that light amid such darkness can be intimidating for anyone striving to follow Jesus. When feeling inadequate, I try to remember how many it took to shine the light Jesus illustrated. Some built torches while others provided the oil to be lit. Some lit the torch and handed it to another, who placed it on the lampstand so its light could be seen. Then, it is the light that illuminates what was once consumed by darkness. The collaboration necessary to be Christ’s light reminds us that each of us must do our part to participate in the ongoing restorative work with which Christ trusts us.

William H. Sheppard was a Presbyterian pastor and missionary sent to the Congo who played a role in shining Christ’s light. After witnessing the atrocities committed against the Congolese people by Belgium’s King Leopold II, Sheppard wrote a report detailing his experience that was published in the American Presbyterian Congo Mission newsletter. In response, those loyal to King Leopold II sued Sheppard for libel. The ensuing trial not only resulted in Sheppard’s acquittal but also brought international attention to the abuses inflicted on the people of Congo. Eventually, public outcry led to reforms that improved the lives of those who were being oppressed. Even though Sheppard did not single-handedly bring down the oppressive rule of King Leopold II, he played his part in shining Christ’s light into an area of the world that was consumed by darkness.

Christ does not call us to be the light of the world on our own, but rather to participate with those who commit to letting that light shine in this world’s darkness. Some of us will be called to travel abroad to serve people in need of relief. Others may join organizations that offer comfort and aid to the oppressed. Few will be called to use their wealth and influence to encourage our leaders to prioritize those who are most marginalized. Wherever God leads us, our collective work will enable Christ’s light to shine where it’s needed most. Like Sheppard, may we do our part to let that light shine.

Prayer:

Lord, may your Spirit lead me to shine Christ’s light to the world. Give me the wisdom to hear you clearly and the courage to follow you boldly. May your Son’s light shine through my thoughts, words and actions. Amen.

The Rev. Dan Commerford serves as the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, North Carolina. He's been happily married to his wife, Rachel, for 14 years, and together they have two beautiful children, Hannah and Micah. In his free time, Dan loves to play golf and strum the guitar.

Mission Yearbook: Choral efforts, African drumming part of conference worship service

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African drumming
The African Drumming Class closed worship  with energy. (Photo by Alex Simon)

During worship service on Tuesday, June 17, choirs sang beautifully. Conferees played their djembe drums with gusto. In between, Dr. Margaret Aymer, the preacher for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference being held for two weeks at Montreat Conference Center, talked to the 650 conferees about putting on clothes of kindness.

The Adult Choir sang Lori McKenna’s “Humble and Kind,” arranged by Ed Lojeski. Among the lyrics: “Go to church ’cause your mama says to/Visit Grandpa every chance that you can/It won’t be wasted time/Always stay humble and kind.”

During an instrumental interlude, choir members walked forward, shaking hands with worshipers and handing them candy, before resuming their anthem.

Young people read from 1 Samuel 25:1–39, the account of Abigail saving David and his renegade army before David became king. From time to time during the reading, a singer would sing the chorus of “Goodness Is Stronger Than Evil.” 

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Adult Choir
The Adult Choir sings Lori McKenna’s “Humble and Kind.” (Photo by Alex Simon).

The ancient hymn writers in the psalms spoke of God’s kindness “bearing a special mark,” Aymer said, and Paul writes to the church in Galatia that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit.

In 1 Samuel 25, David “is in an anxious place. David and his followers are hiding in wild desert places” and he “needs someone to show him God’s grace in a time of fear and grief.” It reminded Aymer of the song “You Will Be Found” from “Dear Evan Hansen”: “Have you ever felt like nobody’s there? Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?”

“David could easily have sung that song, and in truth, so can some of us,” Aymer said. Isolation, peer pressure at school, stress at work, health and home “all leave us hungry for generosity, thirsty for kindness.”

David and his rebel forces could have attacked the vulnerable shepherds and taken over their flocks. Instead, they “protect the vulnerable with benevolence, generosity and kindness. Even as he longed for kindness, David showed kindness to others,” she said. For Nabal — literally, “The Fool” — “kindness is ridiculous,” she said. “Why should he care for refugees fleeing oppression? Nabal the Fool spits in the face of David’s kindness, dismissing David’s men as though they were dirt in his shoe.”

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Dr. Margaret Aymer preaches Tuesday
The sermon Dr. Margaret Aymer preached focused on kindness. (Photo by Alex Simon)

These days, “we have entered an age where kindness is viewed as an expletive by those with an excess of power and wealth,” Aymer said. “Doesn’t the Bible say God helps those who help themselves?” The Bible says no such thing, Aymer pointed out. “It says that God is kind and God’s people are kind, and friends, David tends to be kind. But David is also human, and Nabal the Fool has roused David’s anger.”

Only one person stands between these men and disaster: Abigail the Peacemaker. “Abigail takes of her abundance to feed David and his men. She averts certain disaster upon herself and her husband,” Aymer said. Food isn’t her only gift; she also brings him wisdom. “It is a gift of kindness generously given and gratefully accepted by David, the future king. … She reminds him he belongs to God, and he is anointed to serve God as the leader of God’s people. As God’s anointed, David must choose how he will lead.”

Each of us has the capacity to be Nabal, David and Abigail, Aymer said. “We all have a place we can turn to when we are needing kindness, when our foolishness is too much to bear. Through Christ, we can always return to this table,” she said, gesturing at the Communion table, “where every wanderer will be given sustenance for the journey — where foolish Peter, doubting Thomas and even betraying Judas were welcome.”

It took about 20 people to serve the Lord’s Supper to such a large congregation. Dr. Tom Trenney led the gathering in a powerful call-and-response Great Thanksgiving, with the final glorious “amen” ringing throughout Anderson Auditorium.

The Senior High Choir rendered a gorgeous rendition of Wendell Whalum’s “There Is a Fountain.” Members of the African Drumming class put the exclamation point on yet another engaging Worship & Music Conference service.

Mike Ferguson, editor, Presbyterian News Service, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Margaret Boone, Project Manager, Special Offerings, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)
Shonita Bossier, VP, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Lord, allow us to be wise enough to know we can always learn from each other and to be humble enough to do so. Amen.

Thursday, September 18, 2025

2025 Path of Peace reflections - Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025

Dean and Marianne Lewis

Matthew 5:1–10

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Jesus says in today’s text. Two of our denomination’s peacemakers, Dean and Marianne Lewis, embodied this important “beatitude” of Christ both domestically and internationally. From Dean’s work in the 1960s to integrate schools in the American South to his and Marianne’s work in the 1990s to secure back payments from the Board of Pensions to Cuban pastors who had enrolled in the Board of Pensions before the Cuban Embargo, the couple’s peacemaking work has been an important prophetic witness, both within the church and within American society.

Peacemaking isn’t always marked by tranquility. Lewis was known for his fiery, urgent pursuit of justice, for what David Staniunas of the Presbyterian Historical Society calls an “impatient spirit.” Sometimes, working for peace doesn’t mean telling people to calm down, but rather, it requires stirring people up in pursuit of a just cause. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” as the saying goes. Peacemakers may be those who are out in front, rallying for a cause, imbuing a movement with energy and passion.

Other times, however, peacemakers must seek tranquility to stay the course. Dean’s love of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, was surely a place of retreat and contemplation throughout his life. Peacemakers need to remain centered, too, anchored in their spirituality to be equipped to follow Christ in the world. Every moment doesn’t need to be a battle. Sometimes, peacemaking is leaning into the “peace like a river that attendeth [our] way.”

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” Dean and Marianne Lewis understood this on a vocational level and became peacemakers as they pursued justice throughout their lives. And now, unto ages of ages, they are blessed to be called “children of God.”

Prayer:

Gracious God, thank you for the witness of peacemakers who, by your Spirit, confront the powers of injustice in this world. Give us eyes to see where we can help make peace possible and the courage to pursue peace with faith, hope, and love. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Conference preacher urges love without boundaries

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Adult Chamber Choir sings
The Adult Chamber Choir sings John Foley's "Come to the Water" during worship at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference at Montreat Conference Center. (Photo by Alex Simon)

During Monday, June 16’s worship service devoted to compassion, Dr. Margaret Aymer, the preacher for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference, made short work of the motives of the lawyer and biblical scholar in Luke 10:25–37 who asks Jesus about eternal life and finds out instead just how large his neighborhood is.

Aymer, the vice president for Academic Affairs at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, said this lawyer has a simple strategy: Ask the teacher how one acquires eternal life, “and then, when he makes a heretical error, denounce him in front of his followers,” Aymer said. “This man is a combatant seeking to defeat a rival. Nothing he does is compassionate.”

When he asks Jesus about who his neighbor is, “this is a question in search of a boundary, a limit, a strong, impenetrable wall,” Aymer said. On the one side is neighbors we are obligated to love; on the other is those we can ignore, arrest, imprison — even kill, according to Aymer. “The lawyer asks who can I ignore, hate or even oppress and still obtain eternal life,” she said. “This question resonates in our society today.”

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Dr. Margaret Aymer preaches
Using the Parable of the Good Samaritan as her text, Dr. Margaret Aymer preaches on compassion in Anderson Auditorium. (Photo by Alex Simon)

Jesus responds to the lawyer’s question with a story, a “tale of three” in the way of the Three Little Pigs or the Three Billy Goats Gruff, where the most important character is the third one. “Everyone was listening to see what the third character would do,” Aymer said. The crowd expected it would be an Israelite, “a regular, faithful Jew,” she said. “But Jesus chose a Samaritan, a deeply shocking choice.” He is “a heretic and a political enemy, and Jesus declares this Samaritan not only saw the injured man, but was moved with compassion.”

Aymer noted the ancient Greek word for “compassion,” splagchnon, refers to the body’s bowels or guts, which were considered  the source of human emotions. “To put on compassion was to open yourself to the kind of love you could ‘feel in your guts,’ to allow yourself to be moved viscerally,” she said. This Samaritan is thus “gutsy,” she said. “His gutsy compassion compels him to act.”

His compassion “flows out of him without boundaries, borders or rules,” she said. “The Samaritan’s compassion is so gutsy that he springs into action” when he sees someone made in the image of God in need of help.

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Dr. Margaret Aymer arms out
Dr. Margaret Aymer asked this question during her sermon: “Since you know what God requires, do you have the guts to do it?” (Photo by Alex Simon)

While the lawyer was looking for limits, “Jesus was handing out to everyone welcome T-shirts and banners,” Aymer said. “Jesus calls for mercy in a way that today we still sometimes virulently reject. Jesus upholds the Samaritan’s gutsy compassionate response to the victim of an ambush.”

According to Aymer, the question was never “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  It was this: "Since you know what God requires, do you have the guts to do it?”

“Let us try again to love our neighbors with the gutsy compassion of a traveling Samaritan,” she said, “for Christ has commanded us to go and do likewise. As God’s holy ones, chosen and beloved, let us fill ourselves with compassion.”

Other worship highlights from Monday, June 16, included David LaMotte’s “Here for You,” a song he wrote during the pandemic, then added video shot on his cell phone following Hurricane Helene, including the response to the disaster.

Montreat Conference Center President Richard DuBose also spoke about Helene and the devastation it brought. “You are seeing some things around Montreat that look a little different than they did last summer,” he said. While Anderson Auditorium was “relatively unscathed,” 18 Montreat buildings suffered damage.

“I can tell you, the Presbyterian Church showed up big time, and not just for Montreat,” DuBose said. The PC(USA) response “is evident in MontreatBlack Mountain, Swannanoa and throughout the region. You are a strong church. We are a strong church,” DuBose told the Presbyterians in worship. “If you need any more evidence of that, see me this week. I have a hundred stories to tell you.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Ricky Blade, Customer Service Representative, Constituent Ministry, Interim Unified Agency
Vivian Blade, Program Manager, Unification Management Office, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus Christ, who loves us and serves us. May we serve and love you and each other. Amen.

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