Videos and audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
Sermons and thoughts on faith on Scripture from my time at Old Presbyterian Meeting House and Falls Church Presbyterian Church, plus sermons and postings from "Pastor James," my blog while pastor at Boulevard Presbyterian in Columbus, OH.
Videos and audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
Because of
Gratitude
James Sledge June
27, 2021
This offering was clearly very important to Paul. From a strictly practical standpoint, the offering was about helping the poor in the Jerusalem congregation. But Paul also understood the offering to be about the unity of the Church.
Paul’s ministry was to the Gentiles, but he did not want them to lose sight of the debt they owed to Judaism and to Jewish Christians. Even though Paul had a strained relationship with the Jerusalem Church leaders because he did not require converts to be circumcised or adopt Jewish dietary restrictions, he wanted his Gentile congregations to show their gratitude for the new life they experienced in Christ, a new life made possible by a Jewish Messiah and by a Jewish Church that supported a missionary movement.
Paul had given instructions in a previous letter about what he called “the collection for the saints,” and apparently the Corinthians had at first been excited about expressing their tangible gratitude to the mother church. But that initial excitement had waned.
The Corinthians were well-off compared with the Christians in Jerusalem and Paul’s other congregations. Corinth was a booming, cosmopolitan city, and the congregation had a number of wealthy members. But wealth sometimes has a negative impact on giving.
Audios and videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
1 Samuel
15:34-16:13
On Listening for
God
James Sledge June
13, 2021
Alexander Ivanov, 1806-1858Samuel Anoints David to the
Kingdom,
We Presbyterians have a way of doing
things that is a kind of middle ground between the hierarchical church
governance used by Roman Catholics or Episcopalians and the congregational form
of governance found in most Baptist churches. In the former, a bishop appoints a
priest for a congregation. In the latter, there is no bishop. The congregation
can whomever it wants.
Presbyterians, however, don’t look like either of these. When it comes to pastors, the congregation can neither hire nor fire a pastor on their own. They must work with the presbytery, the regional governing body, in both the coming and going of pastors. When a pastor nominating committee looks for a pastor, it must follow procedures set forth by the denomination, and candidates for the position must be vetted and approved by the presbytery.
When a pastor nominating committee, or PNC, begins the work of finding a new pastor, certain prescribed forms must be used, and it must promise to abide by a search process that follows patterns set by the presbytery. As part of this, the PNC must sign a form that attests to their having had the presbytery’s Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action policy explained to them and their agreeing to follow that policy.
One of this policy’s stated purposes is “To inhibit discrimination in employment because of race, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status or disability and to ensure fairness to all candidates.”[1] To carry this out, the policy expects the PNC to interview a diverse group of candidates, regardless of the congregation’s racial makeup, and it requires written reports to confirm that this is happening. There is even a requirement that the PNC interview at least one woman and hear her preach.
Yet despite these requirements, white churches almost always end up with a white pastor. And even in 2021, such churches are more likely to call married, white men to be senior pastors.
You might think that the requirement to look at diverse candidates would cause PNCs occasionally to be wowed by a candidate who didn’t look much like their last pastor, but apparently not. I can’t imagine that many PNCs actually say out loud that they are looking for a married, white male, but somehow everyone on the committee knows that.
I should also mention that the PNC’s job is to discern God’s call. They aren’t looking for the one they like or the one that looks like them but rather the one that God has in mind for their congregation. Apparently, God has a preference for married, white men.
Audios and videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
Mark 3:19b-35
Insiders on the
Outside
James Sledge June
6, 2021
Jesus and His Apostles, |
But none of the gospels were written to tell people the story of Jesus. They were written for congregations who already knew that story well. The gospel writers were trying to help their congregations understand the story and how it impacted their lives and their situation, and so they retold the story of Jesus in particular ways they thought addressed concerns and issues in those congregations.
Mark’s gospel is the first one written, and it seems to address a non-Jewish audience outside of Palestine. Mark’s gospel employs an interesting technique to help his readers understand Jesus and the nature of Christian discipleship. The writer frequently places one story into the middle of another so that the two stories “talk to one another,” hopefully providing the readers a fuller understanding of both stories.
Our reading this morning has one of these bracketed or sandwiched stories. Both stories take place in the same setting, at home or, more literally, in a house. This word for house is used to speak of God’s house along with God’s household. And so it can refer to the Church.
Jesus and his disciples have come into the house for a break because his fame has started to spread, and crowds gather around him wherever he goes. But the house provides little respite. The crowds gather once more, creating such a ruckus that Jesus and his friends cannot even eat in peace.
Somehow Jesus’ family gets wind of the situation and decide that he needs to be restrained. Apparently they think Jesus has taken leave of his senses. Our scripture reading says “people were saying,” that Jesus was crazy, but that seems an unfortunate translation. There is no word “people” in the original Greek. It simply says, When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for they were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” “They” could speak of “people,” but it seems more likely to mean “the family.”