Presbyterians in the Desert

This past weekend I had the opportunity to preach at the installation service of a recent Princeton Seminary graduate, James Klotz, at First Presbyterian Church in Farmington, New Mexico. I met James in January of 2020 when a group of students from Princeton Seminary came to Pinnacle both to perform as a choir, under the direction of Dr. Martin Tel, and to study the Book of Acts with their professor, Dr. Eric Barreto. At that time James was a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible, focusing his dissertation on the 35th chapter of Isaiah, which begins: 

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and shouting.”

James fell in love with Pinnacle Church because we fit so well with the themes he was exploring: the Word of God erupting in a desert place, like miraculously healing streams of water in the desert. James was quite taken with our decor, the cross growing out of the ironwood stump, and the words of Isaiah etched into the glass of our sanctuary doors.

Having been a doctoral student at Princeton Seminary myself, I found an affinity with James. We kept in touch over the last few years, through the pandemic years to this day. I was surprised to receive an email from James on October 10, asking if I’d consider coming to preach at his installation service. Since the Fran Park Center’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land was at that point sure to be canceled, I said, “Yes, I’d love to come preach!” 

Knowing that James’ work focused on the image of “streams in the desert,” and that he wrote a dissertation on Isaiah, I chose to preach from Psalm 23 instead. (He is bound to know far more about Isaiah than I!) And, I chose a passage from Revelation 7 that goes,

 “The Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

I was only able to get started on the sermon before having to drive to New Mexico. I chose to travel north through Flagstaff and onto the Navajo Tribal Lands, to Monument Valley. Along the way I stopped to visit a friend from my days with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, who is Navajo and lives in the small town of Shonto, close to Kayenta. Life in that area, as on most of the reservation, is economically depressed, and my friend, Rodale, runs a small laundromat and convenience store…at the bottom of a canyon, seemingly far away from the outside world. One of the services that his laundromat offers is the opportunity for people to take showers. Most of the homes in that area do not have running water, and so, for $4 they can drive to the laundromat and while they’re doing their laundry take a shower. Water is precious in the desert, not only for life itself, but for essentials like bathing and cleaning. It’s no wonder that water shows up in God-like ways throughout the Bible. Songs of renewal in Isaiah are based in the phenomenon of water “springing up” in the desert. The psalmist sings of God restoring the soul next to streams of living water. The baptizer John called for the renewal of body, mind, and spirit through a cleansing bath. Jesus speaks of himself as “Living Water” to the Samaritan woman at the well. And John the Revealer, speaks of the water flowing from the throne of the Lamb and God that is cleansing and salvation of God’s people. 

Driving across the high plateaus of northern Arizona gave me a lot of fodder for preaching about God’s redemptive love blessing God’s people, like a summer rain in the high desert, renewing the ground, sustaining a people. The sermon fit well in the midst of an installation service. James is a relatively new pastor, and this is his first “call.” He will need a lot of Living Water to help his congregation, through the power of the Spirit, to bring renewal to that Presbyterian Church in the desert. It was a privilege to see how the congregation of First Presbyterian Church, Farmington is recommitting to their ministry and mission. May we ever be mindful how the Spirit of God will bless our own congregation, as we each day recommit to the mission of God’s Spirit, in the high desert, as we pray for our Presbyterian Churches throughout the desert, especially those on the Navajo Tribal Lands.