I can remember a time when I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those preachers who makes football references every Sunday of the season, so I hope former me will forgive current me today. It’s not really a football reference directly; it’s just about football players. Or even more directly football players who have […]
Sometime in the few years after my kids were too old for such things, a friend of mine, an Episcopal priest, started posting pictures on her social media of her “wandering wisemen.” I have to say, I was jealous I missed out on the chance to pick up this tradition with our family, but with […]
In the book of Matthew, John the Baptist, first comes on the scene after the story of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. That is Matthew jumps from the angelic annunciation to Joseph that his betrothed would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit, to the arrival of wise men who came sometime after that child […]
Dear FPCA family, Following last week’s story foretelling the birth of John the Baptist, this week, on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, we jump ahead to a story from his adult life. Imprisoned by the second King Herod, John seems to be wondering if his life’s work was worth it. Is Jesus really who he […]
We are beginning our Advent, our new church year and the time in which we anticipate Christ’s historical and contemporary and future breaking into the human experience, right at the beginning of the gospel according to Luke. It’s a different place to do it. Many times we start with big cosmic stories of apocalypse. Other […]
Dear FPCA family, Last Sunday we observed the final worship of the Christian year, Reign of Christ Sunday, which means this coming Sunday we celebrate the beginning of Advent. Advent is a season marked by a time of preparation for and reflection on the coming of Jesus – his birth, his presence in our lives, […]
I am indebted to one of the Wednesday Bible study participants who pointed me to an episode from the second season of the original Star Trek show. I have to admit up front that I am not a Trekkie so if I get some of the details or language of the universe of that show […]
Let’s be honest with one another. Joel is one of those books of the Bible that when it’s time to look for it, we just start a little more than halfway back, and just flip through the pages until we see the heading go back. I mean, unless you are one of those people who […]
Comedian Gianmarco Soresi has a bit in his stand-up routine about how he realized when he hit his thirties how difficult it is maintain friendships. It’s the kind of comedy bit where if you take the eventual punchline away (which is exactly what I’m going to do), it makes a quite touching point. He acknowledges […]
Rev. Stephanie Anthony: The prophet, Habakkuk, planted himself at a watch post to wait and see how God would answer him. When he had seen the violence that God’s people were experiencing at the hands of their enemies, he challenged God, “Will you not save us?” To Habakkuk it seemed like God was sleeping on […]
We started a new weekly Bible study on Wednesday afternoon, one that is similar to studies I have held in previous congregations, onae that is, maybe selfishly, a huge help to me. If you have a chance to stop by and check it out, all you have to do is bring yourself. Lunches are welcome […]
A Sermon based onJeremiah 8:18 – 9:1 Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Allentown on September 21, 2025 by Pastor Stephanie Anthony In my note to the church included in the weekly eblast I shared a story from my own youth group days. It was in the spring of 1995, the Sunday evening after the […]