Sermon: Help Me, Jesus

Mark 10:35-45
Help Me, Jesus
James Sledge                                                                            October 17, 2021

Study, Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples,
Henry Ossawa Tanner, ca. 1905

   Many years ago, I had my one experience of hobnobbing with political upper crust at one of those $500 a plate dinners. It was back during my time as a corporate pilot. I was flying for a businessman in Georgia who had gotten politically connected during the time that Jimmy Carter was in the White House. He had a construction company that built subsidized, low-income housing complexes, and so he saw political connections as critical to keeping his business going.

The event was a 1983 Atlanta gathering of Democratic hopefuls for the 84 election. It included Jesse Jackson, John Glenn, Gary Hart, Reuben Askew, eventual nominee Walter Mondale, and others. They were there primarily to curry favor with deep pocketed supporters, including the businessman I was flying. He had a block of tickets for the event, and he invited me to tag along rather than hanging out at the airport.

This businessman had spent a lot of time at the White House during the Carter years, and he had gotten to know Mondale fairly well. He liked him and considered him a friend, but he didn’t think Mondale would be able to defeat an incumbent Ronald Reagan. And so he decided to take a seat at Reuben Askew’s table. He thought that Askew, the relatively conservative governor of Florida, had a better chance against Reagan.

The disappointment from the Mondale table was palpable. He clearly had expected to get support from my boss. He had counted on their relationship to give him an advantage. But for my boss, the relationship mattered much less than a connection with the eventual winner. It was a purely business decision for him. He also had his doubts that Askew could win, and so he eventually began to send money to the Republicans.

There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this story. Any savvy, political observer might have predicted the decision my boss made. It wasn’t personal. Political connections were important to his business, and so he had to do what he had to do.

I wonder if James and John had a similar thought process when they approach Jesus to ask for important roles in his upcoming administration. Mark’s gospel makes clear that none of the disciples really understand what is going on. Jesus has just told them for a third time that he will soon be arrested, humiliated, and executed. But Jesus also said he would rise again in three days so perhaps James and John are focused on that.

Sermon video: Help Me, Jesus

 

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon video: Out of Gratitude

 

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Out of Gratitude

 Mark 10:2-16
Out of Gratitude
James Sledge                                                                                                 October 3, 2021

Christ and the Children
Emil Nolde, 1910

   Some of you are old enough to recall a famous advertising campaign by the investment company Smith Barney. It featured a well-known, professorial and upper crust looking actor stating very profoundly, “Smith Barney, we make money the old-fashioned way. We EARN it.”

I suppose the statement was supposed to emphasize both the expertise and strong drive of a company that would work diligently and effectively to make your portfolio grow. You could trust them with your money because they had the skill and tenacity to ensure success.

I have no idea how successful the ad campaign was, but it ran for a long time so the company must have thought it worked. I can see why it would. We Americans are enamored with people who earn their way to the top. The prototypical American icon is the self-made individual who claws their way to success. Such notions are so baked into our culture that many people assume rich people are largely responsible for their wealth while poor people are largely responsible for their poverty. They earned it.

I’ve frequently heard America described as a meritocracy, which is another way of saying that whatever your lot in life, you earned it. Merit even makes its way into to popular religious thinking. You get what you deserve, as countless “There’s a place in heaven…” or “There’s a place in hell…” statements will attest.

But Jesus’ statement at the end of our gospel reading stands at odds with popular thinking about merit. When Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it," he is talking a total lack of merit. Little children in Jesus’ day were totally and completely dependent on others, with no means to acquire things, no merit to apply. They could only receive, not buy, earn, merit, acquire, etc.

Jesus’ words about receiving rather than earning not only undermine thoughts of religious merit, they also provide an interpretive key for understanding what Jesus has just said about marriage. Jesus gives no new religious rules to follow if you want God to like you. Jesus refuses to play that game with those who bring the question about divorce to him.

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.

Sermon video: Equipped by God

 

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

Sermon: Equipped by God

 Ephesians 6:10-20
Equipped by God
James Sledge                                                                                     August 22, 2021

Scene from Trajan’s Column, 

Rome, 113 CE

 Where you are situated when you encounter a scripture passage has a lot to do with what you hear. People in positions of privilege and power may hear a vastly different message than those from the underside do. Slaves in the pre-Civil War American south heard a very different word from the Bible than did those who oppressed and exploited them.

Ever since the 4^th century, when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, interpreters of the Bible and the Christian faith have largely been aligned with empire and power. As a result, the Church has often given its sanction to wars, crusades, and genocide, and much of American Christianity still suffers from an easy, uncritical alliance with patriotism and the privileged status quo.

I suspect that my growing up in a position of privilege, a citizen of a powerful nation that often describes itself as “Christian,” has greatly influenced how I’ve heard this morning’s scripture. It’s always made me a little nervous with its military imagery and talk of spiritual battle against the forces of evil. It’s just the sort of passage that has been used to justify violence against those deemed pagans, heretics, or practitioners of unapproved versions of the faith, and I’ve always avoided preaching from it until today.