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tom@firstpresjamestown.com

I brooded recently in a pastoral prayer over whether or not Osama Bin Laden’s parents ever took him for a walk when he was young, exclaiming over the beauty. I suspected not. For when the "eyes of our hearts are enlightened" (Ephesians 1:18) to see and to savor the beauty of soaring mountains and gurgling streams, of iridescent fireflies and starry constellations, of saguaro rising regally from desert sand and bullfrogs bounding into ponds, it is but a short leap to perceiving and honoring the beauty in all people, within ourselves, the beauty infusing all of life.

 

Jesus saw beauty to which others were blind. He saw it in the woman caught in adultery, in Zacchaeus the tax collector, in a wayward prodigal and in a father who refused to give up hope, in a Samaritan who got involved. Most of all, Jesus saw beauty in God’s dream for the world. So winsome was God’s way in the world- a way of compassion and kindness, of justice, mercy, love and laughter -that Jesus gave his whole life in its service and invited us to do likewise.

 

I believe sinfulness to be a failure of our imaginations, collectively and individually, to behold the beauty of God’s shalom which, as the expression of God’s love, binds everything together in perfect harmony. Jesus did not die for our sin but because of it, because he dared to live God’s hope for the world and we feared, and fear, the ramifications of such fidelity to gospel. But so to live is the call of God to the churches. By the power of the same Spirit that was in Jesus, I give my life to calling forth God’s beloved community in which everyone thrives and the whole creation sings "Glory!"
I was born in Washington, D.C. but spent my youth in York, Pennsylvania.  My home church was the First Presbyterian Church of York, "ground zero" for discerning my call to Ministry of Word and Sacrament.  I am a 1980 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, the highlights of those years being my student work at Trinity Presbyterian Church in East Brunswick, New Jersey and my close proximity to Yankee Stadium at which, as a lifelong Orioles fan, I cheered ardently and regularly against the home team.  Prior to coming to Jamestown, I was a youth minister at Catonsville Presbyterian Church (Maryland) for nearly five years and a pastor at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Jarrettsville (Maryland) for ten years.  My passion is to help people to think and live theologically.  I am married to Kim, a superb teacher of Chemistry and Spanish at Chautauqua Lake High School.  We have three great daughters, Molly, Katy, and Emily.  Please join us in our theological adventure and spiritual journey here at First Presbyterian Church, Jamestown, New York!