All the tech people were at our congregation's weekend retreat. Hence the single, static camera angle.
Audios and videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Sermon video: Gratitude, Trust, and Generosity
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Sermon: Gratitude, Trust, and Generosity
Mark 12:38-44
Gratitude, Trust,
and Generosity
James Sledge November
7, 2021
I googled the term “gratitude journal” the
other day, and the number of entries was astounding. There was a seemingly
endless collection of articles about how to start a gratitude journal, reviews
of the best gratitude journals to purchase, reviews of the best gratitude apps,
along with articles on some of the research around these journals. And of
course, there were ads for hundreds of different gratitude journals.
The Widow's Mite
JESUS MAFA, 1973
If you’ve somehow totally missed this phenomenon, the premise is fairly simple. At its most basic, it involves the regular writing down of things you are grateful for. The various journals and apps provide some structure intended to help and guide you.
You might think this simply one more wellness fad, but there is a growing body of evidence that such journaling is good for your health. Studies have found that giving thanks and counting blessings can help people sleep better, lower stress, and improve interpersonal relationships. Another study found that keeping a gratitude journal decreased materialism and bolstered generosity among adolescents. In yet another study, high school students who kept gratitude journals reported healthier eating, and there’s some evidence suggesting it could lower your risk of heart disease and reduce the symptoms of depression in some.[1]
The studies also suggest that it doesn’t work for everyone and that it’s no panacea, but still, the benefits are impressive. Yet gratitude is hardly a new concept. I’ve mentioned before that John Calvin saw gratitude as the basic motivation for the Christian life. So why does this seem like a new discovery to so many?
It may sound odd, but I started thinking about gratitude when I read our scripture where Jesus denounces the scribes and praises a poor widow. The scribes and the widow represent polar opposites in first century Jerusalem. The scribes were learned, professional men of high esteem, “doctors of the law.” There isn’t really anything quite like them in our world, but Jesus’ description of them reminds me of some businesspeople or politicians in our day. They like to wear fine clothes and be greeted with respect in the public square. They make sure to have the best seats at all the fancy shindigs, and they devour widows’ houses.
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Sermon video: Well Ordered Lives and Loves
Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.
Sermon: Well-Ordered Lives and Loves
Mark 12:28-34
Well Ordered Lives
and Loves
James Sledge October
31, 2021
 |
| Love for One's Neighbor, detail
from a choir screen, National Museum of Scotland |
Jesus draws these words from what he called scripture and what we call the Old Testament. They are likely familiar to you. The love your neighbor part appears regularly in totally secular contexts. But familiarity is very different from understanding. What, exactly, does it mean to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength? For that matter, what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? How are we to define and measure such love?
I recently read an interesting and helpful little book entitled Liturgy of the Ordinary. It’s by Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest whose columns on faith appear regularly in The New York Times. The book has chapters on waking, making the bed, brushing teeth, sitting in traffic, and ends with one on sleeping. I’d like to read you something from that last chapter.
The truth is, I’m far more likely to give up sleep for entertainment than I am for prayer. When I turn on Hulu late at night I don’t consciously think, “I value this episode of Parks and Rec more than my family, prayer, and my own body.” But my habits reveal and shape what I love and what I value, whether I care to admit it or not.[1]
Who knew that your sleep patterns could reveal so much about you, about how well ordered or disordered your loves and your life may be, about the idols in which you place your trust. So what do your sleep patterns say about you?
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Sermon: Sight for the Blind
Mark 10:46-52
Sight for the
Blind
James Sledge October
24, 2021
Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus
I’ve shared before something that happened
at the church I previously served, an event that is seared into my memory. It
happened one Sunday as I was preaching from the pulpit, and I saw it only
because of the peculiar architecture of the sanctuary.
William
Blake, 1799
The back wall of that sanctuary had windows that covered its entire width. The choir and I could look through them into the narthex. There were entry doors from outside on either side of the narthex, but they were beyond the view through those windows.
In this church the ushers had a habit of remaining in the narthex, or the parlor just beyond it, during the worship service. The choir and I could see them milling around, going to get a cup of coffee from the parlor kitchen, and so on. And so there was an usher in the narthex when a rather disheveled man entered.
The man was Black, making him a minority of one, unless the immigrant family from Cameroon that we sponsored was there that day. He might well have been homeless, although I don’t know that, and I assumed that he had entered our church building looking for some assistance.
One of the ushers moved quickly to intercept him. I could see them talking but hear nothing. They conversed for a short while, and then the usher ushered him out of my sight toward the door he must have just entered. From what I could tell, he left willingly but, I presume, unhappily.
It was easy to ascertain what I had just witnessed. The man had come to the church seeking some assistance and likely had asked for the pastor. The usher had then explained that I was in the middle of worship. I was busy and he would need to come back later. I never saw the man again.
Something similar happens in our scripture. In this case it’s a blind man who wants help, but Jesus is busy. Jerusalem is just over the horizon. He’s likely got some final instructions he needs to give his disciples, and time is short. No time to deal with one more desperate person seeking help.
Thursday, October 21, 2021
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 |
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.
Monday, October 4, 2021
Sermon: Out of Gratitude
Mark 10:2-16
Out of Gratitude
James Sledge October
3, 2021
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.” 
Christ and the Children
Emil Nolde, 1910
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.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
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 | |
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.
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