Steps to Prepare for Worship on Sunday, March 22, 2020

We are taking the following steps to provide for worship this coming Sunday.

1.       1.   An email will go out to all on the Church Family Mailing list that will have three attachments

a.       An Order of Worship for Sunday

b.       A Copy of the Biblical Text for Sunday

c.       A Transcript of the Sermon for Sunday.

2.      2.    There will be a video (if the technology does not doom me) of the worship service, following the Order of Worship, that will be posted to Facebook for Sunday morning.  Pastor Peter will be sharing his Sermon as part of that video link. 

a.       People are invited to Facebook at 10am, or whenever it is convenient on the Lord’s Day, to follow along and worship from our homes.

3.     3.     For people regularly in worship, or who request it, the attachments from the email in preparation for the Lord’s Day will be mailed out.  The aim is to get them ready to go for the Thursday before the coming Sunday.

4.      4.    We ask that donations, tithes, and offerings continue to be offered in response to God’s Word and for the support of the work of the church.  Until we can get a link online, please mail them to:

First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy

45 Market Street

Perth Amboy, NJ  08861

5.       If all goes well, this will be the pattern (with necessary adjustments and improvements) for worship so long as we are worshipping ‘remotely’.

6.       If you have any questions, please email Pastor Peter at pastorpeter@fpcperthamboy.org.

Preparing for Worship: Notes on Prayers of the People.

So consider prayer-especially the Prayers of the People.

There is a lot of content from our Worship Bulletins that we can move online.  One of the most obvious would seem to be the Prayer List.  It is from that list each week that we start in taking time (except on Communion Sunday) to lift our joys and concerns to the Lord.  It is for that reason I am not going to post it online.  That may seem counterintuitive, and you may disagree with my thinking, but here is why.

Prayer, especially intercessory prayer, is one of the highest forms of divine outreach that we have.  It can be so easy to offer to pray for someone.  And I hate to agree with it, but there is truth in the accusation that saying “our thoughts and prayers are with you” is offered all too often as a replacement when we could, to quote the hymn, our tongues and talents employ, to change someone’s circumstances. 

But when we have come to the limit of our capacity, when we are challenged by the things of life over which we have no control, we are not without options.  We have the privilege, we have the responsibility, we have the opportunity to take it to the Lord in prayer.  We have the privilege to come into God’s throne room of grace and lay our prayer request right there at Jesus’ feet.  If we took the time to sit down and realize that the Creator of the Universe is, essentially, at our beck and call-now that is mind blowing.

In the Order of Worship for Sunday, posted online and mailed afterward, there are a number of prayers.  Most are laid out for people to read and absorb as they choose.  There is one that is not.  It is the Prayers of the People.  In the sanctuary, this is the time we open up the floor and each request is taken and offered to God in the moment, with the response “Lord, hear our prayer”. 

This is the moment for you to make these prayers highly personal.  Who needs prayer?  Who can you recall, whose name do you need to write down?  This post is offered ahead of time to give time to consider the people you want to pray for well in time for Sunday, when, remembering on command, can be frustratingly difficult.

If you are worshipping as a family, this is the time to share these names in the family, taking turns to offer the names up to the Lord to ask for God’s intervention.  It is time to remember this most magnificent power that we have access to. 

So during this time, I will not be posting the prayer list.  It is time for each us to list our own prayers, to consider who in our lives is beyond our ability to help, to lift them up with their concerns to the healing power of the Almighty.  Use this time to cast your nets widely that we may lift up those in need in our lives to the power that gives us life and meaning.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Update for Worship Mar. 22, 2020: Church is Closed, Worship Shall be "Remote"

March 18, 2020

As the nursery school located in our facility has been closed for the next two weeks and the move toward remote learning continues, the First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy will be closed this coming Sunday, March 22, 2020.  We shall continue to make this determination on the Wednesday before the coming Lord’s Day.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Continue to come to Facebook and to the blog to see how worship is going to continue on remotely as well.

March 22, 2020 The Fourth Sunday of Lent: Preparation for Worship

For Sunday, March 22, 2020

Sunday will be the Fourth Sunday in Lent.  Let us prepare.  What is inseparable is the faith, the life, and the worship of the Church.  We may come together on Sunday morning in reality or in virtual reality, but the choice to come together is upon us all.

The center of the worship service is the sharing of the Word.  Below you will find the Scripture for this Sunday.  I invite you to read it now, follow the story of the blind man who will be healed by Jesus. 

There are some questions and observations at the end to provoke thought about the reading. 

The Lectionary Reading from the Gospel for this Sunday is as follows:

John 9:1-41
9:1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.

9:2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

9:3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.

9:4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.

9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

9:6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes,

9:7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

9:8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?"

9:9 Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man."

9:10 But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?"

9:11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."

9:12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."

9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.

9:14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

9:15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see."

9:16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided.

9:17 So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet."

9:18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight

9:19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

9:20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

9:21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself."

9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.

9:23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

9:24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner."

9:25 He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

9:26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

9:27 He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?"

9:28 Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

9:29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from."

9:30 The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.

9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.

9:32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.

9:33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

9:34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out.

9:35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

9:36 He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him."

9:37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he."

9:38 He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him.

9:39 Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind."

9:40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?"

9:41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.

Vs. 2: Do you agree with the assessment of the disciples?  They assumed this man was blind because either he or his parents had sinned.

Vs. 6 & 16: Notice Jesus does not simply heal the man, but makes mud that he puts on the blind man’s eyes.  As the story is followed, some of the Pharisees accuse Jesus of not being of the faith because he made the mud, he worked, on the Sabbath.  Other Pharisees claim that only God can perform such signs.  Working on the Sabbath, while it may seem trivial to us, was a very serious charge in that time.  Some of the Pharisees are trying to lay the groundwork for arresting Jesus.

Vs. 7 & 35: Notice that it was not the miracle of the healing that brought the formerly blind man to belief in Jesus.  It required Jesus’ return with the Good News, after the man had been driven out by the Pharisees. 

We Have An Opportunity Now to Live Better in Our God

                So there is this piece of wisdom that leads off the confessional nature of our church.  It asks a question “What is the chief end of man?”  It was written five hundred years ago, during the Reformation, so the language is a little one-sided.  What is interesting though is that this question was actually a part of British law, for a time. 

                Let me pause.  This is how I remember the question.  When I went to double check, the question is a little more involved.  “What is the chief AND HIGHEST end of man?”  Again, male dominant thinking, but that was the time.  Yet it is more.  The question is not simply what is the first thing that is our end, our purpose, but what is the most important!  There is a qualitative and quantitative portion to this question.

                British law (until it was repealed) tells us that “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy him forever.”  Again, we have issues here.  It not only points to one gender, but it imposes gender terms on God.  Welcome to the world of trying to understand our God, who is above gender-who is the creator of gender-in language that is dominated by gender vocabulary.

                To bring this forward into more current language, we would say something like “Humanity’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy God forever.”  I will be honest, it took me a long time to get my mind around that language.  I was raised with an understanding that the male gender terminology was either male or inclusive, depending on context.  For example, “mankind”=everybody.

                It was not until the Lord poked me a few times (that always seems to be the case) and I began to see that this was not the case.  Theologically, in matters of church and belief, in a deliberate attempt to impose hierarchy on the Children of God, male gender terminology was more than just humanity’s attempt to describe God, it was definitive, it was defining God. 

                In the time of the Bible’s writing, this definition was a non-issue.  Women were second-class, at best, property being the better metaphor.  For our current sensibilities, it was wrong, as surely as slavery was wrong, but it was.  That is what Paul writes out of.  That is why we have some extraordinarily misogynist language coming from his letters as well as divinely enlightened statements like “In Jesus there is neither male nor female”.  Paul was a product of his time, yet the Holy Spirit still gave him moments of insight into something greater.    

                It has taken the church nineteen centuries to begin to catch our ecclesiology (our theology of the church) up to this equality assumed among the Children of God. 

                We are at it again.  This time, it is a struggle against the dual nature of gender theory.  This definition divides people into male and female.  For the longest time, this definition assumed biology to be the determining factor.  But we have lived throughout our history with a segment of the population who defied the biological convention.  A typical answer to dealing with individuals who upset our cultural gender conventions was the freak show.  Some proponents of the biological definition of gender norms have proposed that sin itself has invaded the physical body and caused some to fall outside the ‘accepted’ boundaries of what-biologically-makes male and female.  It does not fit our rules, so let us brand a Child of God as physically sin-laden.  God forbid we accept them for who they are.

                Now we live in a time where gender identification is far more fluid.  Let me correct myself, it is fluid in some parts of our culture.  In many places, including much of the Church, the biological conventions reign.  We had a new value-based duality for quite some time when it came to gender.  Heterosexuality was good, homosexuality was evil.  Even that has begun to break down.  Acceptance in the culture is outstripping acceptance in the church, but by God’s grace, the church can confess its sin of exclusion and catch up.

                Where my learning curve has been is in understanding the ever-widening terminology for self-identification among God’s children.  I remember LG, then LGBT, then LGBTQ, and now I have work at it to stay current.  What has been the typical church response, when we respond at all?  Sin, sin, sin, sin…  Historically, that is the usual response of the church for something we don’t fully understand.  We did it to Galileo when he was being all scientific and stuff back in the day.

                What I see here however is a tremendous opportunity for us.  I love the second part of our reason for being.  We are to enjoy God fully and forever.  All God’s children.  And we are all God’s children.  Maybe we are finally at a place where, as we wrestle for language that is going to transcend the boundaries of gender identification, we will find language that can more fully express our understanding of God.

                Because I have to tell you, swapping male pronouns for “God” is something that I do now, but I lose something from my worship experience in translation.  Using ‘God’ instead of ‘Father’ takes a step into the abstract for me.  And I recognize the privilege and dominance that is built into my lineage as a cisgender white male, so I work to stay outside my comfort zone, to work with the abstract.  And I also recognize that I can hide behind “tradition” when using ‘Father’ and male gender terminology in the worship service. 

                But I think we have an opportunity now to revolutionize our language about God.  We are coming to a place where gender language is being replaced but without abstracting who we are as human beings.  Let’s face it, we will always be limited to human vocabulary as we try to describe the divine.  It will never be enough.  But it now has the opportunity to be more. 

                It is going to be a powerful thing to see how the language we use for one another redefines the language we use for God.  It will continue to break down the sin of hierarchy and dominance of humans over humans.  It will bring us closer to understanding what it truly means that we are all God’s Children.  May we who worship the Lord be able, through this, to enjoy God more fully.



Rev. Peter Hofstra

PS-almost forgot.  This brief piece of British law is Question and Answer number one from the Westminster Larger Catechism.

Christmas Eve Services at 7:30pm

You are invited to join us to worship on Christmas Eve at 7:30 pm.  We have the joy of returning to the Sanctuary to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus.  The story of the birth of Jesus will be shared as a pageant during the service.  Kids who would like to participate are still able to join us, please come at 6:30pm.  I would like to thank Restoration One and Rizzo and Sons for their hard work on getting the Sanctuary prepared.  Special thanks to Restoration One for the painting they did  in the Narthex and in the Parlor.  


Special thanks to Lynn and Audrey Takach, the Presbyterian Women, and the Edison High School Choir Parents Organization for making provision for the poinsettias in the Sanctuary.  Not knowing our final disposition for worship until this week, we were not able to put an order in as years gone by as we have been sharing the space in Westminster Hall.


May the Lord bless our church family throughout this holiday season and give us a wonderful and renewed New Year.

Pastor Peter

Remembering Thanksgiving

We are in the Season.  Thanksgiving has come and gone, I hope and pray that it was a time of meaningful gathering of family and friends.  The power of this holiday is that it crosses the divide of faith and nation.  As a national holiday, we look to all that we have as Americans, to remember and to give thanks.  As a religious observance, it looks back to the Pilgrims coming ashore, free to worship in a new land.  One of the great things we, as Christians, have to give thanks for is Christmas.


The Scriptures this week were from Isaiah 2.  Included were the words calling upon the people to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  The call was that they learn war no more.  Those words are on a statue that stands in front of the United Nations, a call to the world from our faith as to what humans are seeking after as a race-when we are at our best.


But we are rarely at our best.  We are more often at war with one another, ‘hot wars’ of active violence and combat, ‘cold wars’ of words, of propaganda, of hidden violence and backroom assault, ‘cyber wars’ of computers versus computers.  We are after power, we are after sharing of power, we are after resources, we are after keeping this world of ours able to sustain us, we are after freedom, we are after our own beliefs.  It is like a pendulum that swings back and forth.  In these United States, the war of words, the tightening of positions in the political sphere, the steady drain on our ability to speak openly and debate in healthy discourse frankly sickens me at times.


What Christmas offers is a Season of Peace.  It gives us a few weeks every year to active practice what real peace looks like, through sharing, giving, loving, good wishes offered to all.  As we Christians gather at the manger, we have the opportunity to provide the Presence of Peace to the whole world, as we share the Prince of Peace. 


The wonder of Thanksgiving is how it has risen above being a sacred celebration to becoming a secular cornerstone of our nation’s holiday-making.  What began as a Christian response to God is now so much more.  It is not simply a day for those of us who identify as followers of Jesus Christ, but it is a moment for all God’s Children-for all humans are God’s children-to respond to that which we have been given.


As Christians, we believe the best is yet to come.  We believe in a life of perfection after this one.  But that does not mean this life is then effectively abandoned.  By no means.  It means we take the lessons of Jesus, the lessons of love and peace and joy and wonder, and we share them with the whole world. 


Peace,

Pastor Peter