Sermon: Getting Ready

 Luke 3:7-18
Getting Ready
James Sledge                                                         December 12, 2021, Advent 3

JESUS MAFA. John the Baptist Preaching in the Desert,

from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library

 We’re nearly to the middle of December, so I suspect that most of you are well into your preparations for Christmas. Perhaps you’re completely done by now. So what does getting ready for Christmas look like at your house?

We’ve had our tree up for a couple of weeks now, and it even has a few presents under it. We also put lights on the shrubbery in front of our house. That’s a lot of work, and so they’ve only been up for a week or so. At our house, Shawn has to do a certain amount of baking in preparation for Christmas. It just isn’t the holidays without fudge and other goodies.

There are lots of different ways to get ready for Christmas. For some, a daily Advent devotional helps mark the time on the way to Christmas. For others, it just isn’t the season if there isn’t Christmas music playing. And then there are those for whom the season doesn’t truly begin until they see the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life or watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

I know there are people for whom Christmas is just another day, but for many, Christmas is one of the most special times of the year, and that requires a certain amount of preparation. Without it, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas. I know that many of us felt like something was missing last year when we couldn’t gather for our traditional Christmas Eve services.

Our scripture reading this morning is about getting ready, about preparing. John is the one who has come to prepare the way of the Lord, and this preparation is connected to repentance. John offers a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and lots of people come out into the wilderness to see him.

Sermon video for Advent 2: Cynicism and Hope

 

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

Sermon video for Advent 1: Rhythms and Patterns

 

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

Sermon for Advent 2: Cynicism and Hope

 Luke 1:5-25
Cynicism and Hope
James Sledge                                                         December 5, 2021, Advent 2

Annunciation to Zechariah
Ethiopic Bible Illumination,
British Library, ca. 1700

The problem of racism may well be the most persistent and intractable one in American history. It has proved to be remarkably resilient and adaptive. Many hoped that the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s would deal a death blow to racism. But while many forms of discrimination were outlawed, racism remained woven into our culture. The killings of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and more have revealed over and over again how Black lives have less value in our society than do white lives.

Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag in response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing Trayvon Martin, took shape as a movement following Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s killings, and emerged as a powerful force in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Estimates are that somewhere between 15 and 26 million Americans took part in Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, making it one of the largest movements in American history. There seemed to be tremendous momentum for addressing systemic racism in our criminal justice system and society at large. Our own congregation repeatedly held Saturday, Silent Witness demonstrations supporting reforms. Elders offering the prayers of the people during Sunday worship repeatedly appealed to God to assist us in this work.

But more recently, fears over crime have blunted calls for police reform. Parents have objected loudly to diversity efforts in local school systems. Critical Race Theory has become a rallying cry for those who fear a hard look at the impact of racism in this country. And even though confession and repentance are bedrock parts of Christian faith, there is a large contingent of conservative Christians whose objections to racial diversity efforts are seen as articles of their faith. And while the recent Ahmaud Arbery verdict might seem to be a ray of hope, the sad fact is that without that video, there would never have even been a trial.

It is all more than a little disheartening. And if it is disheartening to me, I can only imagine how it must feel for Black leaders who have been on the forefront of racial justice efforts for decades. They must be beyond tired. Will the day ever come?

Sermon for Advent 1: Rhythms and Patterns

 Luke 21:25-36
Rhythms and Patterns
James Sledge                                                         November 28, 2021, Advent 1

Greek icon of the Second Coming,
ca. 1700

It took its sweet time this fall, but the cooler weather finally arrived, and winter weather
is just around the corner. Even though climate change has moderated winters a bit, there is still a regular rhythm to the changing of the seasons, one that we well know how to prepare for.

At my house, the tubs holding sweaters and other winter clothes have been switched out with the shorts and summer clothes in the dressers. And those summer clothes been taken to the basement to hibernate through the winter.

I assume that similar summer to fall to winter preparations have or are taking place at your home. Furnaces get checked out; fireplaces get cleaned; houseplants that had been on the porch get brought inside. The patterns vary from home to home, but we all know how to get ready for winter. We all know the rhythms of the seasons.

Down in Texas, my daughter and her family are preparing for a different sort of transition, the birth of their second child. They’ve done this once before so there is some familiarity, but there will be differences. A toddler will have to adjust to a new sibling and parents will need to navigate caring for a toddler and a newborn. To some degree, it will be uncharted territory, something quite different from the shifts that happen each year with the change of the seasons.

All of our lives we experience changes, but not all changes are the same. Some are regular and predictable. This winter may be colder or warmer, with lots of snow or a little, but with most winters, it will still follow a pattern that is familiar, one where we know what to expect and prepare for. Other changes don’t have regular rhythms and require us to make adjustments to our lives, to learn new skills, to let go of old patterns and rhythms.

Sermon for the Reign of Christ Sunday: Listening to His Voice

 John 18:33-38a
Listening to His Voice
James Sledge                                                   November 21, 2021, Reign of Christ

    When John’s gospel tells the story of Jesus’ trial, Pilate is something of a comic but tragic figure. I say Jesus’ trial, but in John’s gospel, it is actually Pilate who is on trial. We hear only a small portion of the trial in our scripture this morning, but if we had read the entire account, we would have seen Pilate scurrying back and forth between Jesus inside the headquarters and the Jewish leadership gathered outside. For all his apparent power, Pilate is buffeted about, and the situation seems to be totally out of his control.

When Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, Jesus responds with a question of his own. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” It is a straightforward enough question, but Pilate seems uninterested in answering and changes the subject. To answer would be to engage in the truth, and Pilate has little interest in truth.

For his part, Jesus has just invited Pilate to step into the light of truth, just as Jesus has done with others before. If Pilate would engage Jesus, truly respond to him, there is hope, but Pilate shuts the discussion down before it can ever begin. The truth frightens Pilate.

Pilate has lots of company. Many people fear the truth. Politicians come to mind. They worry about losing the next election and that makes for an uneasy relationship with the truth. You almost never hear a politician say they were wrong or made a mistake. That is a truth most dare not speak.

Sermon video from Nov. 21, the Reign of Christ: Listening to His Voice

 

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

Sermon video: Gratitude and Doxology

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

Sermon: Gratitude and Doxology

 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gratitude and Doxology
James Sledge                                                                            November 14, 2021

The Conversion of St. Paul
Bartolome Esteban Murillo, ca. 1675

At a recent staff meeting, I read a meditation by Howard Thurman as a part of our devotional time. The meditation began by speaking of a longing, an urgent seeking and searching for God. But then the meditation took a turn.

With sustained excitement, I recall what, in my own urgency, I had forgotten: God is seeking me. Blessed remembrance! God is seeking me. Wonderful assurance. God is seeking me. This is the meaning of my longing, this is the warp of my desiring, this is my point. The searching that keeps the sand hot under my feet is but my response to (God’s) seeking. Therefore, this moment, I will be still, I will quiet my reaching out, I will abide; for to know really that God is seeking me; to be aware of that NOW is to be found of (God).[1]

I had no real plans for what to do with this reading, and when I finished it, I simply sat in silence for a moment. Then a thought hit me. “When,” I asked, “have you experienced God seeking you?” No one on our Zoom meeting unmuted. It was completely quiet.

I also struggled with something to say, which I found more than a little disturbing. How could I not bring to mind some experience of God moving toward me, God reaching out to me? I had a brief, existential faith crisis. Was God not real to me? That’s certainly a possibility. I know a lot about God, about Jesus, but perhaps I don’t really know God. Or perhaps my god is the one disturbingly described by Anglican scholar N. T. Wright.

For most people in the Western world today, the word ‘god’ refers to a distant, remote being… This god may or may not intervene from time to time in the world, though he usually doesn’t. He has, in fact, left us to muddle through as best we can; which usually means looking after our own interests, carving up the world, and perhaps each other, in our own way. The cat’s asleep upstairs, and the mice — and perhaps the rats — are organizing the world downstairs.

That’s why this remote ‘god’ is the god that the Western world decided it wanted in the eighteenth century: a god to be cooly acknowledged for an hour or so on Sunday mornings, and ignored for the other hundred and sixty-seven hours in the week. No wonder, when they did a survey not long ago, the great majority of people in the United Kingdom said they believed in ‘god’, but only a small minority regularly go to church. If that’s what you believe about ‘god’ …then any sense of worship or religious celebration becomes a vague ritual, a meaningless noise, which merely makes us feel a bit better about ourselves… Can such a god really be God?[2]

The god N. T. Wright describes sounds little like the one the Apostle Paul knew. This God had appointed him for service, had showed him mercy through the love of Jesus, embraced him despite his having persecuted the church. The grace and mercy of God, the call of Jesus are so vivid for Paul that he not only overflows with gratitude, but he cannot help but burst forth in doxology. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon video: Gratitude, Trust, and Generosity

 

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.

Sermon: Gratitude, Trust, and Generosity

 Mark 12:38-44
Gratitude, Trust, and Generosity
James Sledge                                                                                     November 7, 2021

The Widow's Mite
JESUS MAFA, 1973

    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.

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.

Sermon video: Well Ordered Lives and Loves

 

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.