Pastor Becky is away this week for continuing education. Please join us in welcoming Drew Perdue this Sunday for worship.
March 8, 2026 Third Sunday in Lent
We had another great Soup Supper event last night—we talked about the story of the woman at the well, from John 4:5-42. We used three different pieces of art to reflect on the story and on the assumptions that different people might bring to the text. If you’re curious, you can find the art here:
A 6th century mosaic in Italy:
An early 17th century painting also from Italy:
And a more contemporary piece (1973) from Cameroon:
We also talked a little about the cultural situation in the 1st century in that area of the world, and that gave us even more information to bring to our understanding and our thinking about the story together.
March 1, 2026 Second Sunday in Lent
As part of my morning study and prayer, I’ve been reading Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal, by Esau McCaulley. McCaulley wants to recapture the fullness of Lent, and the gifts that it offers, and to make us think about the things we do to observe this season—and especially why we might do them. Early in his book he writes,
“We hope that as Christians we mature and grow and become more and more like Christ. But the church in its wisdom assumes we will fail, even after our baptism. The church presumes that life is long and zeal fades, not just for some of us but for all. So it has included within its life a season in which all of us can recapture our love for God and his kingdom and can cast off those things that so easily entangle us.” (McCaulley, p.6)
Several parts of that passage struck me, including that the church “assumes we will fail,” even when we have been introduced to Jesus, and the simple acknowledgment that “life is long and zeal fades.” So Lent is a season, and it is a season precisely because our own lives go through seasons: seasons when we are more in need or less, when we are better focused or less, seasons when we are thinking of others and seasons we’re not. Lent is simply a time when we acknowledge that we are human and variable and finite, and it serves as a reminder to return to faithfulness. God’s grace abounds, even when we fail. Our zeal may fade for awhile, but God can and does refresh us. Our human limitations may require reminders of this, but God remains ever constant, in both love and grace.
February 22, 2026 First Sunday in Lent
Greetings on this Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent—
I know that some of you will be able to attend tonight’s service, and some will not. I invite you, either way, to take a moment to reflect on this day. I offer you these thoughts from Esau McCaulley:
“[I]f the ashes of Ash Wednesday point us toward the link between sin, death, and rebellion, they also contain something else, something more important than everything we have seen thus far. The ashes are in the shape of the cross. That cross carries within it an entire story and the foundation of human hope. It is the story of loss and gain, of the incarnation of the truly good one, his glorious life and triumphant defeat of death. The ashes are not just a reminder of our great failure; the remind us of God’s victory over sin and death through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son.”1
1Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal, Esau McCaulley, p. 25.
February 15, 2026 Transfiguration Sunday
As we move toward the season of Lent, we will of course begin with an Ash Wednesday service at 7:00 on the 18th. If for any reason an evening service is difficult for you or simply won’t work out that particular evening, I invite you to join the service at 4:00 on Ash Wednesday at Epworth.
We will also be resuming our Lenten Soup Suppers, starting the week after Ash Wednesday. We will meet each Tuesday evening, February 24th and March 3rd, 10th 17th, 24th, and 31st, at 6:00. We will have a signup sheet in the front hall to help with cooking and clean-up. Remember, it’s Lent, and we’re keeping it simple. Just some soup, preferably with one vegan for hospitality’s sake, and some kind of crackers or bread. Feel free to partner with someone. We’ll have a meal together and some fellowship, to be followed after with some study and conversation. This has been a great experience for our community each year, and I look forward to being with you again.
February 8, 2026 Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany
As I get ready for the site visit Wednesday night, I want to thank the many of you who have taken the time to offer me words of encouragement and affirmation. Our Methodist ordination process is long, and I respect that, as it gives us time to grow and discern and develop, but it also means that a lot is on the line for a long time. So it has been helpful to me to hear that you feel that McKnight is doing good things, and that my ministry has been helpful in whatever way.
And while we’re talking about growth and discernment, thank you for being such a hospitable place for me to learn and grow and figure out how to apply what I’ve learned in seminary and elsewhere. I hope that we are given many more years together.
In the meantime, please be aware of upcoming events, such as our upcoming Psalms event with Dr. Jerome Creach from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Dr. Creach is a nationally respected Old Testament scholar, and he is, in addition to his work at the seminary, also himself a pastor. I think it will be a rich time of learning and discussion.
On another note, we also have Dr. Barry Ball, retired law enforcement officer and husband of our bishop—as well as himself also a pastor—coming to speak with us about drug addiction. Even if you and your family are not personally affected by this problem, it is still good for us to know and care about what our neighbors may be facing. This is also a good event to which to invite neighbors, friends, and “non-church” people, as it is a topic many people care about for various reasons, and it is another low-stakes opportunity to encounter the church in a non-threatening way.
February 1, 2026
I hope you are all keeping warm during this cold, snowy week! Please let me or the church office know if you have any needs that we can help you address in this weather, as we know that it is not easy for everyone to get around in the snow.
Here at church, I am finalizing my ordination papers (one more paper to proof!), and I will send both an email and a paper copy of everything later today. And next week, on the 4th, we have our site visit scheduled—all are welcome. We’ll start at 5:00, have dinner at 6:30, and you’ll have an opportunity to speak with the District Superintendent as well as the ordination site-visit committee about how things are going in church. Church Council members are especially encouraged to attend, if possible.
Please keep an eye out for announcements regarding Sunday’s events – both worship and our visit from Dr. Creach, who is scheduled to speak with us about the Psalms. He prefers to speak in-person, so if it is not safe to meet for worship that day, we are likely to also reschedule his visit.
January 25, 2026 Third Sunday After the Epiphany
This is turning into a cold January! Council has been discussing church this Sunday, as it is predicted to be quite cold, and there are varying predictions of exactly how much snow there will be. No decisions have yet been made—we all know how changeable Pittsburgh weather can be—but however the weather turns out, please stay safe on Sunday, and remember that services can be streamed via Facebook.
For what is going on in the church, I invite you to look further into this newsletter. As has already been announced, we will have the Rev. Dr. (and Professor!) Jerome Creach come and speak to us about the Psalms on February 1st, and I am in conversation with Barry Steiner-Ball, who is the bishop’s husband and a retired law enforcement officer, about coming to speak to us about drug addiction. As you can see already, topics will vary. These are good opportunities to invite friends to church, too—whether or not they choose to come to the event or afterward to worship, it is a good thing to make the world aware of the church’s work, both in itself and in the world around us.
Part of the ordination process is a site visit by members of the Board of Ordained Ministry. This is an opportunity for them to speak with you and with me and to see how our ministry is going together. It has been determined that my site visit will take place here at McKnight, on February 4th, from 5:00-9:00. We will have dinner together, and I'll do a slide presentation on the Vacation Bible School we did this year, and the board will have a chance to speak with all of us. The invitation is open to everyone, so if you're planning to come for dinner, please let us know so that we can have enough for everyone.
January 18, 2026 Second Sunday After the Epiphany
I was so happy to see so many of you on Sunday morning when the bishop came to worship with us—I’m glad you all could make it! Bishop Steiner-Ball is a gifted speaker and a wonderful bishop, and you have now had a chance to see her in action—and she has had a chance to meet us and to see what we have been up to as well!
I would like to ask your prayer: I have just finished the first batch of my ordination paperwork, and the next set is due on the 31st. I have done half of that next set so far. I keep telling myself to “keep on swimming,” and I think things are going well, but your prayers are still very much appreciated, for me and for all of the other candidates, as well as for the committee that will review our work and interview us.
Please keep in mind our Love Baskets/Bags as you go about your errands during the week. These are an excellent opportunity for us to let our shut-ins and some others who have been having a rough time that we love them and that we are thinking about them. Hand lotion, chocolates, small games or treats are all good options for them.
January 4, 2026 Epiphany Sunday
I’m writing this on a snowy day near the end of December, and thinking back on a busy month of services and of beautiful moments together. Thank you to all of you who participated in our Advent services, either by simply attending or by reading, decorating, ushering, or lighting candles—or anything else! Your love and your service are a gift to the church.
Thank you to Carla for coordinating our Hanging of the Greens, and for the many participants both in the service itself and in the preparations beforehand. Thank you to the M&M’s for the cookie walk, which was very successful even after a weather delay. Thank you to Jen for preparing the luminaries, and to the people who set them out and lit them on a cold winter night. And finally, thank you to Samantha for creating beautiful posts for our Facebook page, and thank you to Alex and Anna (and Yan!) for the beautiful music for our Christmas Eve service!
As we look forward into January, please note that Bible study starts again not on January 6th, as previously announced, but on the 13th. As my son Matthew was sick over the Christmas break, Wayne and I did not have a chance to travel to see Wayne’s parents after Christmas, and I simply kept on working that week. We will be traveling on the 6th instead and be gone for just a few days.
I will, however, be back for the service on the 11th, and—great news!—the bishop will be with us that day to give the sermon. I hope that you can all attend, and that you have a chance to meet her. Bishop Steiner-Ball is very interested in all of us in Western Pennsylvania gaining a better sense of our Methodist connectionalism, and so I invited her to come and meet you all.
December 21, 2025 Fourth Sunday in Advent
As we get closer to day Advent points us toward, the activities are ramping up, the shopping list is (hopefully!) getting shorter, the plans and arrangements are getting firmed up—
Christmas can be a lot! Take a breath, and know that however your plans turn out, you are beloved by the God of the universe—so much beloved that God came to live with us and show love to us, and to give us hope.
In the midst of the bustle, I’ll repeat here the invitation to you to come tomorrow night to our Longest Night service, not because you need another thing to do, but because maybe, like me, you need a moment of quiet in this season of rushing around. And especially come if you need a place not to be merry, but simply to sit in the presence of God, as your real self, amidst all of the ups and downs you’re living with, and maybe also with the memories of the ones you miss, especially now.
Please also note that since we weren’t able to do our cookie walk last Sunday, we’re doing it this Sunday. So come to church on Sunday for worship, and for fellowship, and for some lovely treats made by talented and loving bakers!
December 14, 2025 Third Sunday in Advent
I just finished reading The Choice: Embrace the Possible, which is a story of surviving the Holocaust—as well as its aftereffects—by Dr. Edith Eva Eger. After she is freed from the concentration camp, and some time passes, she eventually moves to the United States and, after some time, becomes a psychologist. Some of the people she works with are soldiers who have faced unthinkable things, and who have had great losses, and she has great sympathy for them, as well as an experienced understanding of trauma.
I was deeply moved by her love for the world, and by her continued determination to seek life and hope after so much suffering. But I was also moved by her interest in the people around her, which persists after life has given her every reason to insulate herself for her own safety. Near the end of the book, Eger says to the reader, “And here you are. Here you are! In the sacred present.”
Here you are—in the sacred present. What an excellent reminder of where we exist in time. Even in the Advent scriptures, which take us into some of the dark and difficult places of the world’s need and its disinterest in healing, there is an assertion that life is sacred—that all of our time belongs to God. I could not think of a better phrase for this season than the “sacred present.” Because even if our Scriptures were written long ago, we know that they also describe the humanity of today, which includes us, too.
December 7, 2025 Second Sunday of Advent
On Sunday, I spoke about how Advent “begins the dark”—how, in this time of the year that has actual darkness, as the days get shorter, the lectionary has us thinking about why the world needed Christ to come. And since we are in the world, too, we know also that we needed Christ to come—and that we still need Christ to come, and so we look forward to Christ coming again. We Christians hold all of these truths together—because they are the same idea. We remind ourselves of both of these things every time we have communion, saying together, “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”
So we hold these two truths together: the reality of the darkness in the world, and our trust in the coming of God’s light. We know that whatever mess we human beings—including us Christians—get ourselves into (or have already gotten ourselves into!), we can trust that God, in God’s own time, will set things right. And we give thanks for all of this, knowing that we, too, need to be set right. We give thanks both for the grace that we are given, and for the overwhelming love that gave us that grace.
So I invite you to think about light and dark this Friday, which is the McKnight neighborhood’s Light-Up Night. One of our church families will be here at church that night, lighting candles in our sanctuary windows and shining a spotlight on the stained glass over our front door. We do this partly to participate in our neighborhood, simply to be part of our community, but more importantly, we do it because, as Fleming Rutledge says, “The church keeps her lamps burning through the night, because she still expects her Lord.”
November 30 First Sunday of Advent
As we give thanks this week, I want to say how thankful I am for this community. I am always impressed by how you look out for each other and for the church. I hope that your Thanksgivings are happy, that the stress level is low, and that you are able to find some peace in a busy week. I’ll see you on Sunday, if you’re in town.
November 23, 2025 Christ the King Sunday
We had another visitor this week at church, and I was so glad so many of you were there. What a witness to our community is your presence! And what an encouragement and support to each other—it is good to be in the house of the Lord with the fellow members of the body of Christ.
All of which is not to say that I am offering you a guilt trip if you were not there. I trust that each of you makes what decision you can given your own circumstances, and we pray for those of you who watch online or who are traveling, and you are loved.
I do hope, though, that all of us know that when we can attend worship, our presence is a witness and an encouragement to the other members of this community, as well as to people who visit our church, and who are hoping to find a church home.
It is also simply good to participate in worship, because worship is more than an abstract acknowledgement of the God whom we love and serve. Worship is focusing our time and attention on God, and in that very time and attention, and in the words that we say and sing together and meditate on, worship is also formation, shaping us into the people God has called us to be.
November 16, 2025 Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost
As I was reading the Christian Century earlier this week, I came across an article about a specific Eastern Orthodox icon of Christ called Christ Pantocrator, which is an icon of Christ as omniscient and as the “almighty ruler and judge of all humanity.” I don’t know very much about the Eastern Church—only the broadest strokes, really. But curiosity can lead interesting places, so I read on.
The author of the article, Arthur Aghajanian, acknowledges that the idea of Christ as judge makes most modern people pretty uncomfortable—even if they’re Christian. Most of our ideas about being observed come from cameras, especially those installed or used by a government. We Americans worry about those cameras, and about privacy, and sometimes those cameras make us defensive. And this defensiveness can transfer to our sense of God always being aware of us. As Aghajanian says, “No wonder the medieval embrace of divine omniscience seems so alien to us.”
But this sense of defensiveness and that watchfulness is hostile has not always been the case. Aghajanian again: “for early Christians, the ever-watchful gaze of God was not an intrusion; it was a guiding presence that gave life meaning and direction.” In other words, the idea that you and I are and always have been in God’s view can also be felt as a comfort and a steadying presence.
But Aghajanian points out something else as well, about how we process the reality of always being observed electronically: “we don’t tremble or cry out against the faceless judgment of the digital age, because it asks for nothing.” I think he may be missing here all of the ways our data is used for political ends and for profit, but even so, he’s right about this: we feel we can opt out of what is offered in the product of data surveillance. But a person who knows God also knows that God is one from whom we can’t simply turn off the machine in order to retreat.
But hopefully a person who knows God also knows that in that constant presence there is much more than any human enterprise can offer us:
“Unlike the cold calculus of surveillance, divine judgment is not mere observation. The Pantocrator’s gaze unsettles not because it’s oppressive but because it’s intimate. We might attempt to keep God at a distance, safely divided, but the truth is neither so simple nor so comfortable. The One who walked among us, who overturned tables and wept at tombs, is the same who called forth light and set the cosmos in motion.
“To behold Christ Pantocrator is to become aware that love judges—not to condemn but to make whole. The question is no longer whether we are being watched. Every day, we submit to invisible gazes. The question is whether we will recognize the one gaze that truly sees us.”
There is such a thing as judgment, and even if we’re not comfortable when it’s directed at us, we likely know of cases where we want someone to rule something out of order and unacceptable. The genocide in Rwanda. Abuse of children. Stealing money from vulnerable older persons.
God does know everything, and we depend on that because we depend on God making things right, in God’s good time. And we depend on that, because in the end we need God to make us right, to heal us and to redeem the world from the damage we’ve inflicted, both on the world and on each other.
November 9, 2025 Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost
Here at McKnight, for the past two Thursdays, we were privileged to host the Rev. Dr. Ken Woo, professor of Christian history, who came to talk to us about the Nicene Creed and the Council of Nicaea that wrote it. We learned together the history of the questions that the church was debating together at that time, 1700 years ago, and how at its root the Council was trying to discern together how to talk about Jesus and God, given our New Testament scriptures.
We also learned something about the context of those questions, and about Emperor Constantine’s role in pulling the Council together. Constantine’s interest was more about peace in the empire than about questions of faith or scripture, but he had a role to play nonetheless—and from this secular interest came a witness that continues to be important in the church almost 2000 years later.
I heard more than one person say, after both sessions were over, that what we talked about was “mind-blowing.” And it can be—to know that many of the things we now consider obvious were once in question. But the longevity of the outcome tells us that the church in that moment, with God’s help, came together and saw something that God wanted us to see.
And I also think it’s important to see the church as often and throughout history wrestling with questions. We are not the first to wonder how to understand certain Scriptures, or how to live them out in our own context. This kind of wrestling is exactly what the church is to do together (although of course it is not the only thing we are to do together!). We are to listen and to try to understand God’s word together, as well as how to live it out, and this is not always an easy task—which is one of the reasons why it is so important that we come together, in worship and in study, to talk about these things together. Other people’s insights—as well as other people’s questions—can lead us to think with more breadth or depth, even if we don’t necessarily all agree on every point.
November 2, 2025 All Saints Sunday
As we get deeper into Fall, our planning begins for next year. Some of you heard Bob Moore’s presentation on Sunday about our current financial outlook, which is what Bob called “a great success” for the second year running. We’ve reprinted that report for you in this newsletter, so you can see the highlights—there’s some really good news there, and some evidence of good ministry and good stewardship of our resources.
Also given the season, please consider getting Flu and/or Covid shots this season, whether for you or for the vulnerable ones in our church community. We do have people in our congregation whose immune systems have been negatively affected by medical treatments, and as Christians concerned for each other and for all of our neighbors, we can consider immunization an act of love. I was at first reluctant to say anything on this topic, wondering what the fallout might be of writing on it, but then I learned that President Trump had both vaccines at his annual check-up a few weeks ago. So while there may be different opinions about vaccination, it cannot be called simply a “political” issue. Please know that I wish only the best for you and for this community, and that you are always free to follow your conscience.
As we come to the end of the calendar year, we are also planning the next stages of our McKnight Caring activities. I still have all the sheets that were filled out for us about these ministry possibilities, and am planning to use that feedback in our planning, but if you have a fresh idea or a new opinion, your input is still very welcome. The papers with our ideas remain on the counter in the narthex for you to look at, but you can also contact me directly if you prefer.
October 26, 2025 Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
One of my most loved forms of prayer is one I learned from my pastoral care professor in seminary. Essentially, I set a timer for 10-15 minutes, depending on the day, and then I simply sit, usually looking out the window—observing the command to “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It is a different kind of prayer than I had learned before seminary—rather than always forming words, for this I simply rest in the presence of God. The timer is necessary for me because I am often restless, and I feel the call of the many tasks that await my attention. That 10–15-minute timer helps to set me free from my task list, giving me permission to simply rest in God’s presence. Nearly everything can wait 15 minutes. And when I find my mind wandering, I just quietly remind myself, to “be still, and know” that God is God.
This morning, as I observed this practice sitting in my office, I was watching the trees outside the window, moving in the wind. There are different tree shapes and different leaf shapes, and the various kinds move differently in the wind. I could see the complexity and the constant variation of the air currents in those different movements outside my window. I could see different shades of green, and in contrast, some of yellow. There were sometimes single leaves blowing through the air, some floating, some tumbling. It reminded me—a necessary reminder in times of stress or worry about the world—of the vastness and complexity of God’s creation.
It all made me think of Job 38:4-7, in which we find God speaking directly to Job:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
It is good, sometimes, simply to be amazed—to be awed, to be drawn into wonder with our Lord. It is good to see both a wider picture and the details of God’s work, and to see that work continuing in the world. It is good simply to be reminded of how great our God is. I wish you some wonder and some awe as you go about your week, that you might know that God is God.
October 19, 2025 Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
As some of you may know, I celebrated my first wedding last week, co-officiating with the groom’s father—it was such a delight to see our beautiful sanctuary used for a young couple’s wedding! They’re from outside our church; she’s a nurse and he’s an engineer, and we wish them all the blessings in their new life together.
An important upcoming event here at McKnight: as you know, this year is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea—from which we get our Nicene Creed. I am very happy to tell you that the Rev. Dr. Ken Woo, a professor of church history at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, is going to run a 2-session class talking about the Nicene Creed and the council itself, and helping us to understand what was so important about that time. In light of Dr. Woo’s availability, we’ll have the classes on Thursday October 23rd and Thursday October 30th, both at 7:00 p.m. in the fellowship hall. I hope you can come—this is a great opportunity!
In light of these classes, we will delay the start of our Psalms Bible study by two weeks, so we will begin regular Bible study on November 4th. And speaking of weekly studies, thank you to everyone who read the book While the World Watched for our book study, whether or not you were able to attend the discussions! The book revealed much about both the realities and the consequences of living during the Civil Rights era, and is well worth reading. As soon as I am done with the study at Epworth (which started later than the one here), I will be putting my copy into the church library so that anyone who missed it can still read it.