Sermon video: Forsaking All Others

 

Audios and videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Forsaking All Others

 Mark 9:38-50
Forsaking All Others
James Sledge                                                                            September 26, 2021

Jesus Teaching His Disciples
from 1684 Arabic manuscript of the Gospels 
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

 

   Some years ago I stumbled across a wonderful sermon by Tom Long, homiletics professor at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, and one of the best preachers of his generation. In it he tells a story of speaking at some event on the other side of Atlanta and finding himself with a few hours to kill. Needing a haircut, he looked for a Supercuts, or some other place he could just walk in, and, well, I’ll just let him tell it.

I found one, and when I went in I was in the chair, and the woman was cutting my hair, and she said, “I don’t recognize you. Have you ever been in here before?” I told her no, that I was a Presbyterian minister and that I was leading a clergy seminar. And she brightened up and said, “Oh, I’m a Christian, too, you know.” I said, “Really!” She said, “Yes, I’m a member of Creflo Dollar’s church.” You may not know Creflo Dollar, but he is the latest incarnation of the “God Wants You to be Rich” theology. He drives a black Rolls Royce, he has a corporate jet, and his congregation has bought him millions of dollars of real estate. He is known locally as Cash-flow Dollar, and here is this woman telling me, “I’m a member of Creflo Dollar’s church.” I’m thinking to myself, “I’m already getting a bad haircut, now I’m going to get bad theology as well!” 

But to be hospitable I played along – she was holding a razor, after all. I said, “Well, have you got your blessing yet?” 

She said, “Oh yes, I’ve gotten my blessing, all right!” 

“Well, tell me about it,” I said, expecting her to say something about the Lexus in the parking lot or the diamond earrings in the scissors drawer. 

But instead she said, “Two nights a week I get to volunteer in a shelter for battered women. I was one myself, you know, and they trust me. They need me. They know I love them.” 

I sat there silently thinking, “My God! Jesus is loose in Creflo Dollar’s church!” It’s amazing the way he does it… He goes into Creflo Dollar’s church, and he finds a nine-dollar-an-hour hair cutter, and by the power of God he ordains her in the Holy Spirit to be a minister of the most high God…[1]

Tom Long was preaching on a different scripture and a completely different topic than I am, but I thought of his sermon when I read about this non-disciple who is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Apparently it was not uncommon for pagan magicians to invoke Christian or Jewish names they thought powerful. The disciples, quite understandably, try to stop to it. This guy shouldn’t be allowed to borrow Jesus’ name so he could make a buck.

Creflo Dollar is not so different. He uses Jesus’ name to make himself rich, although in his case, he does claim to follow Jesus. You would think Jesus would get all riled up about such a thing, but at least in that pagan magician’s case, Jesus says, “Leave him alone. It will lead to something good in the end.” And Jesus goes on to say that the most trivial good deed done because of his name will be rewarded.

Sermon video: Welcoming the Invisible

 

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Welcoming the Invisible

 Mark 9:30-37
Welcoming the Invisible
James Sledge                                                                            September 19, 2021

Christ Teaching the Disciples*

 

 

 

If Jesus first showed up in our day, rather than 2000 years ago, I wonder what his ministry would look like. There was no news coverage in the first century Roman Empire, no radio or TV, no cameras, cell phones, or social media. Today Jesus would no doubt be a trending topic on Twitter, and lots of people would be posting videos of him on Instagram. Jesus might make YouTube videos and post on Tik Tok. Things would look very different.

But Jesus wouldn’t put everything out there for the masses. First century Jesus often spoke to crowds, but some of his most important teachings happened in private, with only his disciples as the audience. That’s the case in our scripture reading this morning. The passage is quite clear that Jesus wanted no crowds around when he tried for a second time to explain to the disciples about his upcoming arrest, trial, execution, and resurrection. Not that the disciples seem to understand.

Jesus’ teachings about what awaits him in Jerusalem would not show up on YouTube or Instagram if Jesus came in our day. This was not for the curious but only dedicated adherents. And neither would Jesus put a child in his disciples’ midst if he had a 21^st century ministry. The disciples would probably still argue about who was the greatest, but a child would not help Jesus make his point in our day.

Sermon video: Getting Behind Jesus

 

 Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website

Sermon: Getting Behind Jesus

 Mark 8:27-38
Getting Behind Jesus
James Sledge                                                                                     September 12, 2021

Take Up Your Cross, Gary Bunt, 2016

The beginning of this school year has been accompanied by fierce resistance to masks by some. One parent in Texas ripped the mask off a teacher. For reasons that baffle me, resistance to vaccines and masks is often couched is religious language. Last year, in a rebuttal to such views, Scott Hoezee, a pastor on the faculty of Calvin Theological Seminary wrote a blog post entitled, JWWM: Jesus Would Wear a Mask. The post opened with an updated take on the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil.

Then the devil led Jesus to the entrance of the Jerusalem Farmers Market. Jesus observed that most people were prudently wearing face coverings and masks to protect from a severe virus that had made many in the Holy City sick in recent weeks. And the devil said unto him, “If you are the Son of God, then enter the market, talk, shop, and laugh but do not wear a mask for it is written ‘He will give his angels charge over you’ and so we know God will protect you and others from the virus.” And Jesus replied, “It is also written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus then put on his face covering and entered the market in search of some fresh figs. The devil then left him . . . until a more opportune time.[1]

“Until a more opportune time” is a reference to Jesus’ struggle in the garden of Gethsemane, where he is once more tempted to turn away from the path God has placed before him. But there is a hint of that later temptation in our gospel reading for this morning.