No, this is not a Christmas-themed reflection. Although, be truthful, didn’t the thought of the need of a sweater or extra blanket or curling up near a blazing fire bring you a wee bit of relief from our record summer heat? Me neither. This is, instead, a message about vocation. As we near Labor Day, I thought I might share a few thoughts on the calling of each of us. In fact, the word vocation is Latin meaning “a call or summons.” It is, according to Wikipedia, “an occupation to which a person is specially drawn or for which he or she is suited, trained, or qualified.” Which of these definitions best fits you? A few years ago when I volunteered with Junior Achievement, one of the activities I did with my seventh graders was a vocational grid. On one axis was how much you liked or disliked an activity and on the other axis was whether or not you were good at the activity. I then...

Last week I was in Western Pennsylvania for a family wedding, a place where Presbyterian churches are as numerous as Mexican restaurants in Phoenix. It is the cradle of the Presbyterian religion in the United States and Pittsburgh will host the 220th General Assembly on June 30-July 7. So I thought I might share a bit about our polity — how we govern ourselves. Our hierarchy has four levels- session, presbytery, synod, and general assembly. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has over 11,000 congregations which are organized into 173 presbyteries (district governing bodies) and 16 synods (regional governing bodies). The session is the governing body at the local church level. Ours is comprised of twelve ruling elders and all of the installed pastors. The senior pastor typically moderates the session. Pinnacle is in Grand Canyon Presbytery, a group of 70 Presbyterian churches in...

Here at PPC, the third Sunday in Advent is earmarked for the Children’s Christmas service – whether it’s a Christmas musical, a retelling of the Nativity, with angels, shepherds, and the wise men, or another story relating to Christmas. This year, we’ll be embarking on a new way of telling the story – through the Advent Jesse Tree. This is a tradition that we had in my church in Glenview, Ill., and I wanted to bring it to our children here in Arizona. One of the purposes of the Old Testament is to prepare us for the Messiah – that even though God’s people would not always understand many of the events that happened to them, God’s purpose was to be revealed when Jesus came to earth. The Old Testament is filled with stories that provide history, promises, and prophecies, and they frame the reader for what is to come. The Advent Jesse Tree allows us to journey through these stories, reliving...

Waiting. It's not something people today like to do. Waiting for the turkey to be done... Waiting for guests to arrive.... Waiting for the stores to open on Black Friday... Waiting in traffic, in grocery store lines, for a doctor's appointment. Short, temporary inconveniences. But sometimes waiting is more difficult. Waiting for healing, for grief to lessen, for a relationship to be reconciled. We are a society used to instant access, constant contact, what we want when we want it. We don't like to be told to wait. But that is what God is calling us to do this first week of Advent. Wait. We are preparing for a special event. When an athlete decides to participate in running a marathon, she does not go out and do it immediately. She spends weeks and months preparing her body for the challenge, training it to respond, conditioning it for a variety of potential scenarios and obstacles so she may compete...

I read an article on NPR online this week in which former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “Americans will only lose touch with the freedom-loving, open society we enjoy if we take such counsel of our fears that we change who we are." Powell argues that 10 years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 the thing that we must guard against most is fear. Sept.11, 2001, was my first day of college — a day full of hopes and new beginnings. What started as an ordinary morning of freshman English, quickly dissolved into a day of shock, horror, and sadness. My classmates and I stood paralyzed in front of TV screens. So many people. We live in a world of constant calamity and sadness but on that day we were confronted with a new idea, most of us have never...

I wasn’t alive when President Kennedy was assassinated. I don’t remember the Challenger tragedy (I was three). But I do remember the exact moment I heard about the Twin Towers being struck on Sept. 11, 2001. I was in my first year of undergrad at Northern Arizona University and remember sitting of the floor of my dorm room for hours trying to convince myself that this was some sort of mistake. Though thousands of miles away, it felt as if it was happening in Flagstaff. It was that gut-wrenching, that earthshaking. In a way it was happening in Flagstaff. It was happening everywhere in our nation. Tears and confusion set in. It was what happened next that changed me most though. It was the first time I, as a young adult, saw people really come together. People who never had been to church flocked through the doors and found community with complete strangers and solace from the words of pastors they never valued...

For those of us old enough to remember – Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, were somewhat similar but decidedly different. It was more than just a 60-year difference. It was a difference in attitude and approach. In 1941, the nation banded together and fought a known aggressor. In ’01, we did not seem to band together except out of a fear of flying. Following 1941, we joined in every way possible to save all sorts of things that would be useful in the effort to push back Imperialism and Nazism. Following ’01, we joined together to see who might have something on their person that could be used to bring down an aircraft we might be flying on. Fear seemed to saturate our society rather than a firm resolve to find a rational solution to what was happening. As a matter of fact it was two phone calls from Germany that morning of Sept. 11, that told us to turn on our TV set. The following Saturday, Sue and I were among the first to fly out...