The promise seen from afar

I am not accustomed to seeing stained glass depictions of Moses. This past Sunday I preached at the Mt. Nebo Presbyterian Church, and the window shown above was in the center of the chancel. (I think this is the first time in my life that I have seen a stained glass of Moses in a Presbyterian Church.) I find that I am still reflecting on it days later.

The story it depicts, of Moses on Mt. Nebo (Deuteronomy 34:1-5), is a story about denial and promise. Moses is allowed to see the promised land, but is reminded that he will not enter it with the people. It's not really news to him. In Deuteronomy 32:48-52, God commanded Moses to go up Mt. Nebo, described what he would see, and reminded Moses that he was not going to enter the land because he had broken faith with God earlier in his life.

How had Moses broken faith? Moses was denied entrance to the promised land because in Numbers 20:1-13, in the story of the miracle of bringing forth water from the rock, Moses and Aaron had not trusted God. It hardly seems fair to me. Moses and Aaron were in a bad spot, they turned to God, they sort of followed God's directions (although not in the bold way they were commanded), and the miracle happened anyhow. No harm, no foul? Not according to this story. And because of it God decided that neither Moses nor Aaron would lead the people into the promised land.

Even after Moses was obedient to God the rest of his life in leading the people of Israel in the wilderness, God held to the decision that Moses would not lead the people into the promised land.

So on Mt Nebo, God allows Moses to see the vast expanse of the promised land, and reminds him that he is not going there. But the focus in this part of the story is on the promise, and Moses is not just someone being denied entry, but he is the witness of the promise given.

One of the striking features of this story is that Moses has no lines. Moses has spoken through most of the previous 33 chapters. But here his role is merely to witness God's promise and then die. His personal feelings about the whole thing are not revealed, which seems unusual to me given the many times when a reader of Moses' story is shown how Moses felt about his experiences. His angers, his fears, his love for the people have been described in so many other events in the story; but here there is no clue what Moses is feeling. Is he disappointed that he won't actually enter the land? Is he content with knowing that the people will enter? It is not reasonable to conclude that a man whose vigor is not abated would have no feelings about the situation. He must have feelings, but they are not revealed.

The concealment of Moses' feelings is an invitation for readers like me to project onto Moses the feelings that we imagine we would have in his place.

I suspect Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. may have made some reasonable guesses in his final address/sermon in which he alluded to the story of Moses on Mt. Nebo:

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

File under : art, faith, hope

Fire, Beatles, and worship

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.





When I came home from work on Friday I could see that something strange was happening in the playground near the parking lot. When I checked it out I could see that smoke was rising from a number of wood chips around the swings. Strong winds with shifting directions were making the individual chips glow.

I had not seen something like this before. The coals were scattered over an area, but possibly had been ignited at the same time. I had seen lightning activity in another part of the sky as I drove home, but these separate glowing coals had totally unburned areas between them.

Fortunately, within about twnety minutes of my taking these pictures the whole area was drenched by a heavy rain.



I went to see the performance of the Cast of Beatlemania at the Greensburg Community Days. These guys do a good show that brings back a lot of memories.



Sunday it was my privilege to be the guest preacher at the Apollo United Presbyterian Church. They are a very friendly congregation, and give a warm welcome to visitors.



I was fascinated by seeing this stained glass window depicting Christ knocking on the closed door, with the window rotated open to let cool air (and light) into the room. There's a sermon illustration in there somewhere.

File under : Apollo, Greensburg, Lower Burrell, art, music, wierd, worship

Some pictures from my life

On May 1 I went to the "Building Block Blitz" in Macy's Court of the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. Ten teams of young people competed to build houses out of building blocks, the trademark name for which is not being used. The young people were way ahead of us. A number of them were thinking about green architecture and sustainability, but we did not even have a category for judging them on those criteria. The young people did this to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity of Allegheny Valley.



On Wednesday evening I went geocaching in Riverview Park in Tarentum with a few others. We found two well-hidden nano caches. There are no spoilers in the photo above. I just included it because it is a pretty park.



On May 8 I went to the CD release party for Nadina's Cube's CD "Shipwrecked: from birmingham to jericho with no prozac." What an adventure getting into downtown Pittsburgh - couldn't find a place to park. Lots of visibly empty, well-lit parking garages with signs out front saying the garage was full, and not an open parking meter for blocks around. Eventually found a place to leave my car.

The release party was happening in SPACE on Liberty Ave. I've been waiting a number of years to get a copy of this CD. Good stuff.



There was a neat exhibit at SPACE called "Rock, Paper, Scissors" featuring art in a wide range of media from a large number of artists. I gravitated to the piece above. Maybe it reminded me of people to whom I must relate from time to time. Or maybe I recognized something of myself in it. Or maybe it just dominated that corner of the room.

Yeah, that's it. It was big and filled that corner of the room.



This morning I was the guest preacher at two churches where I had never preached before. I've driven past the Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church, pictured above, a number of times when driving from my apartment in Lower Burrell to Cooperstown New York. Now it is a place I've been, with people I've met, rather than just a place I pass.



The Concord Presbyterian Church is the second place I preached this morning. Usually I am pretty successful in determining the location of the churches where I will go for the first time. I blew it when I was programming the location for this one into my nüvi. My nüvi would have taken me a few miles further down the road, but I noticed the sign as I drove past this church. If I hadn't turned back to check the sign I would have been late for church.

File under : Allegheny Valley, Frazer, Habitat, Pittsburgh Mills, Presbyterian Church, Tarentum, art, music, worship

Some of the cool things I saw in Minneapolis

This past weekend I visited Minneapolis for the first time. I spent most of my time there working on business for the Advisory Committee on the Constitution. But I did have a bit of time to look around at the part of the city near our hotel. I flew in a few hours before my meeting began on Saturday at noon, used the light rail to get close to my hotel, and walked down part of Nicollet Mall; Sunday morning I took a walk before breakfast, and walked around the area for a couple hours after my meeting ended on Monday at noon before I headed back to the airport.

I thought the city was very attractive, and I am looking forward to when the PCUSA General Assembly meets there in 2010.

I had researched how to get to from the light rail stop at Nicollet Mall to my hotel. Google Street View helped me orient myself in advance, so that I would recognize what landmarks I would see — as long as I was going in the proper direction. But I chose to use Nicollet Mall as the route to get close to my hotel; Nicollet Mall is a pedestrian mall, so unfortunately the Google Street View vehicles have not captured images of what a beautiful street it is.

Of course, I had to stop at the Mary Tyler Moore statue in front of the Macy's at the corner with 7th Street. It's not that I was a big fan of the show, but while the show was in its first run, it was one that I watched, largely because I didn't have cable.

There are lots of larger statues in downtown Minneapolis, and I really appreciated the art being made available to the public everywhere I went.



On Sunday morning I took a walk early to get breakfast and a cup of coffee. While I was walking down 6th St., I saw flashing lights like an emergency vehicle slowly approaching me in the distance. As they got closer I saw that they were three police motorcycles followed by a crowd of something that seemed to be moving low and close to the ground. Then I saw that what was following the police were a group of people in racing wheelchairs. A bystander explained to me that this was the Wheeler division in the Twin Cities Marathon. I saw about 20 participants in this division, and was very impressed.



On Monday I was warned traffic for a football game that day might complicate my trip back to the airport. Everywhere I went that afternoon I was seeing Vikings jerseys and cheesehead hats. This Minneapolis camoflage would not work in Pittsburgh.

Monday afternoon I also hung out a bit at the PCUSA Polity Conference and caught up with a number of old friends. No General Assembly event would be complete without seeing the Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons and Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow, two cool people.

File under : Minneapolis, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), art, sports

Happy New Year everybody!

Last night I rang in the new year at 'Celebrate Westmoreland 2009' - a free set of events held in and around the campus of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. The falling snow and the frigid temperatures did not deter a large crowd from participating in the festivities.

There were many activities for all ages - and more than anybody could possibly attend in one evening. A synthetic ice skating rink was set up on Academy Hill Place, and it seemed that there was a constant crowd of people skating on it.

Inside the museum there were art activities for children (sponsored by such groups as Greenlight Engage) as well as interactive science activities sponsored by the Discovery & Interactive Science Center. (I liked the percussion demonstration.)

A smorgasbord of musical performances were happening inside the museum, in the auditorium of the Greensburg-Salem Middle School, and at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. I enjoyed two performances by young people from Stage Right. The first was a somewhat impromptu set of audition songs that various students had been working on; they put this together when they learned that another group was not going to show up. The second was a medley of songs performed by the Stage Right Sensations.

The galleries in the Museum were open for anyone who wanted to browse the exhibits. I made a promise to myself to come back and explore the exhibits further when there was not a karaoke contest happening in the next room. 2009 will be a good year for further visits because this is the fiftieth anniversary for the museum.

File under : art, children, holiday, music, science

The window quiz

There is a worship and the arts group at The United Presbyterian Church of New Kensington. Last week they introduced their new art installation of displays in each of the eight windows in the sanctuary. The overall title of the project is "Give Thanks for Our Legacy of Faith."

The last Sunday bulletin invited the church members to match the themes with the windows. The themes are:

A. Three Churches Become One
B. Missionary Women
C. Youth Learning and Doing
D. African Connections
E. Children in our Midst
F. Emerging Ministries
G. Celebrate the Saints
H. A Future Legacy

Here are the eight window displays going clockwise from the front of the sanctuary.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Can you match them all up?

Drag your mouse on the next line to see my educated guesses.

Possibly the right matches: A-5; B-4; C-3; D-2; E-6; F-7; G-8; H-1

File under : New Kensington, United Presbyterian Church, art, worship

The workspace of a 21st Century quilter

This is a picture I took during one of last-month's gatherings of the Central Quilters. When they are working on a quilt that is on a quilting frame, the horizontal surface doubles as a table holding the various small tools that might be needed.

File under : Central Presbyterian Church, Tarentum, art, quilt

Grand Opening for Aresto Comics

On Monday, August 4, a new business opened its doors in Lower Burrell.

Aresto Comics, having existed for a number of years as an eBay store, now also has a physical location at 2785 Leechburg Road Suite C, Lower Burrell, where customers can come and browse and receive personal service.

The small store is neat and well-lit. The owner, Tom Aresto, offers a subscription service, and will have special evening hours on Wednesdays, the days when the new issues come out.

When I visited for the grand opening, I admitted that I had not really followed comic books since my childhood, but that in recent years I had seen that the quality of the printing and artwork had improved enormously. Tom pointed out that the quality of the writing has also improved. That explains to me why so many of the recent movies that I have enjoyed have been based on comics or graphic novels I had not seen.

It is an interesting store. Its location on the well-travelled Leechburg Road is an easy walk from my home. I'll probably be checking out new developments around the store as they happen.

File under: : Lower Burrell, art, book, business

Modeling the benefit shirt

Today I received my "Run, Tom, Run" shirt — the one I described in the previous post.

So I'm not the greatest shirt model ... but CafePress makes good shirts with a high quality printing process.

The link for the shirts again: http://www.cafepress.com/runtomrun.

File under: Tarentum, art, blatant_promotion_of_fundraiser

Run, Tom, Run!

A Tarentum resident and artist had a serious stroke on May 15 while working out of state. He is now back in the Alle-Kiski Valley and making a recovery. His family is using a piece of his artwork to raise funds to pay for his uncovered medical expenses.

If you'd like to encourage Thomas to get back on his feet and moving so that he can put down the next robot uprising, consider buying a t-shirt or other item at http://www.cafepress.com/runtomrun.

File under:  Tarentum, art, blatant_promotion_of_fundraiser, health