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The Faith of the Presidents

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : February 20, 2012

Category: Americana

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Five key conclusions

At this time of year we remember the birthdays of two great presidents, and because of them we think about all the presidents of our country.   It is important to think about the faith in God that has been a part of the character of most of our great leaders as well as of our great country.   To document this and help us remember it, I have taken excepts from inaugural addresses spread over the entire 200 plus year history of our country.  This limitation of source material has led to some surprises concerning recent presidents included and not included.  Reading all these excerpts and considering them as a whole, one cannot help but reach several very significant conclusions. 

  1. Many of these presidents had deep personal Christian faith that is reflected in their addresses as they chose to quote Scripture, pray or chose particularly symbolic Bibles upon which to swear the oath of office. 
  2. In most of the excerpts chosen, the big concepts such as justice, liberty, equality and peace were shaped and informed by Judeao-Christian tradition.   
  3. These presidents expected to be speaking to a people who understood, cherished and were sympathetic to such beliefs.  
  4. It didn’t matter substantially what party the president represented.
  5. The first four observations were not only true of presidents in the first few decades of our country; they were also true of presidents at various times in our history and of some recent presidents. 

As support for these observations, I gleaned these quotes from inaugural speeches from one of Wall Builders resources.  http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/inaugurals.php

From George Washington’s first inaugural address:

It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; …

John Adams conclusion of his inaugural address in 1797:

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Christmas trains running!

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : December 11, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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Our annual Christmas display is a highlight of the season.  I’m a little late getting it up since we visited Keely and Mark over Thanksgiving weekend.   However, I finally have three trains in motion again around our tree.  One of them is the new (to me) 1776 bicentennial engine that my brother Phil purchased in a deal and let me buy from him cheaply.  I have since found a caboose and three cars to match.  It’s always just a little different from the year before.  Here’s a rough video of it in motion.   The clunks are because the cameraman got too close to the action and nearly derailed a train.

 

 

A Prayer on 9/11/11

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : September 11, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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We prayed this prayer in our services this morning for this 10 year anniversary remembrance of 9/11.

 

Our heavenly Father, source of our strength, protector of our homeland, ultimate giver of all prosperity; to you we come on this anniversary of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country.  We come humbly; confessing our unworthiness, our failures as a nation to follow your laws and uphold your values.  Yet we come to you, because we know you are the ultimate source of life, and blessing, and protection.  

On this day we remember again the families of the victims of 9/11.  Undoubtedly the remembrances of this day open tragic memories which only you can heal.   May your comfort and encouragement be theirs as we pray for them.

 We come to you also today on behalf of current public servants whom we remember especially on this day.  We pray for firefighters, police, ambulance personnel, and homeland security workers. We ask that you would give them strength, wisdom, spiritual guidance, and divine protection. We pray that you would grant them success in their work.  Thank you for their selfless sacrifice as they serve us working for public safety.

Our Father, we remember today also on this 10th anniversary of 9/11 that ever since that day our country has been continuously at war. We are reminded to pray for our soldiers wherever they are. We pray especially for those in Iraq and Afghanistan that they may sense your presence daily and be shielded by your power.   We plead also for the leaders of our country that they may have wisdom to guide our country out of war and into peace. 

We seek your face for your blessing on our country.  Above all others our country has been blessed.  Thank you for the safety that you have granted to our country in the last 10 years.   Thank you for the prosperity that we enjoy.   Thank you for the privilege of freedom of worship.  We pray that you would help us so to live that you would be pleased to continue to bless our country.  May our moral example and spiritual passion strengthen the fabric our nation    Help us to preserve our freedoms; and help us to be able to pass to those who follow us a nation that is even stronger than it is today.

We pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, King over all nations, AMEN

September sermon series to be called Preserving America

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : September 7, 2011

Category: Americana, Forward Look, Journal

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I’ve been planning our September service emphasis to go along with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 which we are all marking this next Sunday.  Most of us remember exactly where we were when we first heard the news of the devastation caused by the terrorists’ depraved acts.  The tragedy moved us all to greater prayer and increased awareness of our collective spiritual needs.  Suddenly prayer and patriotism were close companions.   Had we known at that time the 10 years of war and trouble which the enemy’s actions have precipitated, we would have been even more dedicated to prayer than we were.   Yet, unfortunately, such openness to God and dedication to prayer have not been maintained or nourished in most of our cultural landscape.  Instead we have seen unprecedented decline in moral values and an increasing chasm between government and faith.  Now the occasion of this 10 year remembrance provides a time for us to regain our perspective; to once again call upon God on behalf of our country, and to draw closer to Him for ourselves as well.   I am praying that this series will help us to regain our spiritual fervor.     

September sermon series – Preserving America
Date Title Text Key Question
Sep. 11 Remembering Ps 37 Who does God say inherits the land?
Sep. 18 Recommitting 1 Tim. 2:1-8;
Titus 3:1-8		 How do we live in a post-Christian America?
Sep. 25 Protecting and Preserving Eph. 6:10-24 How do we protect and preserve America?

 

More state fair fun

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : September 1, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal, Joy Notes

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Big concerts not our thing

Concerts are a big deal at the fair!  But, for JoAnne and I, the big venue concerts are not our thing.  They are too loud, and very seldom present our kinds of music.  The one at Chevy Court on Tuesday late afternoon was so loud it was literally painful to walk out of the Center of Progress building.  So we detoured back through the building just to avoid it.   

Found two great small concerts

However, that doesn’t mean we don’t like concerts, for we do.  This year, JoAnne and I sat in on two small venue concerts while we were at the state fair.   I thoroughly enjoyed a packed concert by the Rhythm Airs at the New Time Theater.   The group’s big band style seems to appeal mostly to older folks, but some younger folks also came in and seemed to love it too.   My delight was increased by the fact that I knew several people in the group.  It was too bad that it was interrupted by a fire drill.  I heard, but couldn’t confirm, that a cooking display crew burned the “toast”…      

Later, we sat in the Pan African Village Theater and listened with relish and joy to Five for Life, a black a cappella gospel group– what energy, what talent, and what enthusiasm.   They had good voices and exhibited fine stage presence as well.   My enjoyment was increased by our common Christian beliefs, even though we come from different cultural streams.   I am a great fan of quartet singing, gospel singing, and a cappella singing, so Five for Life was a real treat. 

These two concerts made the day really special!

Best NYS Fair Food

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : August 31, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal, Joy Notes

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I’m known as a decent judge of food.  So I have to weigh in (pun not intended) on this one.  Two of my favorite fair foods this year are not on the poll list.   So I will make my own list.  My wife and I eat at the fair every year.  The last couple years we have gone twice so that has increased the chances of a good meal at the fair.   Here’s my 1,2,3 list of great foods.

1.  Jerk Hut – Curry chicken on rice and red beans with cabbage and plantain.   — Great tasting meal, just enough spice, lots of food too, with Jamacian flair at a great price.   Relish the taste, spit out the bones, go away satisfied.

2. Gianelli Sausage with peppers -  always a favorite – Gianelli is tops

3.  Apple dumpling with vanilla caramel sauce, ice cream and whipped cream — Good apple, cooked just right.

You can check out the poll that Syracuse. com is taking at:  http://blog.syracuse.com/cny/2011/08/best_of_central_new_york_vote_for_your_favorite_nys_fair_food_poll.html

Stony Brook State Park

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : August 16, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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Once a year or so, JoAnne and I like to return to another place we remember from our youth, Stony Brook State Park.   It contains a glass-clear stream that tumbles down an impressive glen.  It is located between Arkport and Dansville, NY and it can also be easily reached by going over the hill from Haskinville.  So my home church often held its annual Sunday School picnic there.  This entrancing park was also the site of a very special double date when JoAnne and I were in college.   Last week, JoAnne and I took a few hours off to visit it while we were visiting our parents.   We discovered to our sadness that it is one of the state parks that have been partially shut down by the NY state budget crisis.  What a loss to the Hornell-Dansville and eastern Alleghany County area.   It is a little gem.   I recently saw a copy of an antique postcard showing the Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad Bridge that crossed the top of the glen years before I was born.

The Old Welsh Church

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : August 14, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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Timber-framed Country Churches

Did you ever drive by one of those little white timber frame country churches surrounded by cemetery and wonder what it looked like inside?   My father-in-law used to pastor one in Buck Settlement, New York, years ago when I was dating JoAnne.   I recently visited such a church that has been preserved as a part of the farmer’s museum in Cooperstown.    When I was a boy, I went to a country church like that in Haskinville, N.Y., only ours did not have a cemetery.  Thankfully also, ours was active and has since grown and been remodeled more than once.   But many such have lost their congregations as populations have shifted.   Yet the buildings remain in our countryside as stately if lonely reminders of the strong rural Christian religious heritage of our land. 

Speaking at the Old Welsh Church

Many years ago I was introduced by another pastor to The Old Welsh Church in Nelson area.   It is one such church.   It even has the smell of those antique century-plus old buildings with plank floors, aging wall treatment and antique instruments, wainscoting in the vestibule, and stained glass windows with family names on them.  This church has chosen an unusual route to remain viable in the 21st century.   It is closed most of the year but from Memorial Day to Labor Day services are held at 7 p.m. on Sunday evenings.  Coordinator, Tom Davies, schedules a different music group and visiting minister for each Sunday evening.   Pat Maum told me that the ladies’ singing group that she sings in sang there a few weeks ago.   August seventh I had the privilege to be the speaker there and my wife supplied the special music on her harp.  I also took my trombone and played the offertory.   We sang old hymns and gospel songs I selected from a hymnbook which was probably old when I was young.   But, because I have a long history in the church, I know many of those songs and enjoy leading them too.    Then I preached a gospel message which I trust continued to communicate the “faith once entrusted to the saints (Jude 3)”   that such churches were constructed in order to pass on.  Their very physical presence continues to be a witness to all who pass by that the strong character of our nation in the past was formed by its Christian faith. 

Visiting a Vanderbilt Home

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : July 31, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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The gilded dining room

I knew that the most opulent homes of late nineteenth century in America were built by the Vanderbilt’s, tycoons of the NY Central Railroad.   I did not realize how many homes they built, nor did I know that many of the homes had just one architect, Richard Morris Hunt.  They include The Breakers and the Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island and the Biltmore in Asheville North Carolina.  Years ago when I was stationed in Newport in the Navy we toured the Marble House.  Keely and JoAnne’s brother, Joe, have both recommended Biltmore.

Visiting The Breakers

Last Saturday, on a return visit to Newport, we toured The Breakers, summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt.   The home is immense-65,000 sq. ft.  The magnificent first floor rooms are almost indescribable.  The supersized main dining room could alone be responsible for the term “gilded age” as so much of the ornate wall decorations, door casings, and ceiling are covered in gold leaf of varying thicknesses, washes, and degrees of polish.   My favorite rooms were the billiard room-the nineteenth century version of a “man-cave;” and the music room-just a gorgeous space to match the beauty of the sounds produced there.   Also extremely impressive were the technics used to vary the wall décor.   Various uses of metals, such as platinum, and leather, in addition to the gold leaf gave the walls very unusual textures. As the economic fortunes of the super-rich changed in the depression, the house actually was unused for a time. Now it is owned by the Newport Preservation Society  (http://www.newportmansions.org/).  

The People behind the House

I’m always interested in the personal side of the story.  The house was run by 40 staff—maids and butlers of various kinds who were under the leadership of Mrs. Vanderbilt. Many would have been newer immigrants.  In her bedroom which was also her office, was a row of call buttons to summon them. She also might be required to change clothes as many as seven times a day.  Interestingly, the family was very religious with Mr. Vanderbilt teaching Sunday School and the children restricted as to what entertainments they were allowed on Sunday.   Mr. Vanderbilt who built the house only enjoyed it in good health one summer as he had a stroke the following year. 

Luxury for show; verses to ponder

One cannot help but feel in visiting such a place that much of the luxury was over the top for the sake of ostentation.  This was definitely wealth on display.  The rich and powerful of the day met here and showed off their status by making wealth visible as people have done for centuries and still do.   On the one hand, a prayer such the Psalmist prays would have seemed natural to the Vanderbilt’s; “Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name” (1 Ch 29:12-13 NIV).

While one can understand the cultural history of how such a display of wealth came to be, one cannot help but feel that it was questionable Christian stewardship to put so much wealth into such extravagant exhibition. Those of us enjoying the perspective of a hundred years of history, think instead of other verses;  “All can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others” (Ps 49:10 NIV);  or “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Ti 6:17-19 NIV).   

Cooperstown Farmers’ Museum

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Posted by :pastorkelvin On : July 21, 2011

Category: Americana, Journal

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Fun for children but little antique farm equipment

It was a fun stop, our late afternoon visit to the Cooperstown Farmers’ Museum.   To us as adults looking at what had been collected and what was on display, “Farmers’ Museum” seemed like a misnomer.   But they did have many animals for the children to see – goats, chickens, turkeys, cattle, sheep, and probably pigs that we didn’t see.   It would have been a really fun stop for kids also has they have a splendid working carousel, and some tents set up for children to explore games of that era, to get their pictures dressed up in old fashioned clothes, and even a simulated milk-the-cow station.   What was missing that we expected from the title was antique farm equipment.  Aside from a couple carriages near the entrance we didn’t see any. 

A good cross section of 1830′s village life

 I think the intent was to help a visitor understand the nature of village life around the time that baseball was invented back in the 1830’s.   And the buildings mostly seemed consistent with that goal.   There was a very active blacksmith shop with two blacksmiths, a print shop, an apothecary, a doctor’s office  complete with some of the pre-civil war crude tools used, a tavern, of course, and a very old one-room schoolhouse.  The people who were dressed up in period costumes had obviously studied and become somewhat knowledgeable about their areas too.  The old church was of very early design with divisions in the pews and balconies on both sides.    The doors on either side of the pulpit seemed unusual and made me wonder if the building had been reversed and added onto in its history since the history said it had been used by more than one group.   Were the two doors originally male and female entrances as some of the very earliest colonial churches had?  JoAnne and Jane Kinney enjoyed watching the weavers who were busy at work in two different old houses.   Another farmhouse had a working stone fireplace.   Earlier in the day in a room made for that purpose, they had been making butter.   There were cottage gardens and herb gardens too. 

Recommended

We found it very interesting and worthwhile, a recommended stop.