Sermon: Trading in Our T-shirts

Trading in Our T-shirts
Luke 14:25-33
James Sledge                                                                                     September 4, 2022

Some of you may know that I’m a pretty serious runner. Serious is not the same as good, but suffice to say that I run a lot. I’ve been a runner off and on for over 40 years, and during that time I’ve run a slew of races, 5ks, 10ks, half-marathons, and full marathons.

If you’ve ever been a runner or been around races, you probably know that you often get a T-shirt. When I ran my first marathon back in the 1980s, I proudly wore my Charlotte Observer Marathon shirt until it finally became so torn and ratty that my wife made me throw it away. 

If I’m out someplace and see someone else wearing a T-shirt from a race I’ve run, I will often go up to him or her and say something like, “I see you ran the Richmond Marathon. How’d you do?” Sometimes this leads to a nice discussion about the race and layout of the course, a particularly difficult hill, and so on. We talk about how we did and how we hope to do in an upcoming race.

But sometimes when I’ve spoken to someone with a race T-shirt it doesn’t go like this at all. Sometimes the person will say to me, “Oh, I never actually ran in the race. I just liked the T-shirt and found a way to get one.

It always struck me as a little odd that people would want to wear T-shirts from a race they never ran, but clearly some people do. I wonder why they want to be associated with the race without actually running it. 

Sermon video: Living Water and Cracked Cisterns (Jeremiah 2:4-13)

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

Sermon: Living Water and Cracked Cisterns

Jeremiah 2:4-13
Living Water and Cracked Cisterns
James Sledge                                                                                      August 28, 2022

The Prophet Jeremiah
by Marc Chagall

 God seems genuinely shocked at the situation, almost unable to comprehend how things could have ended up this way, this way referring to Israel’s abandonment of their God. Jeremiah is made livid by two different issues. One is worshiping the Canaanite god Baal, and the other is failing to live by God’s ways, failing to follow the commandments and law.

According to the prophet, the very people who should have led Israel in God’s ways have instead led her astray. The priests and the rulers and the prophets have all turned away from God and encouraged the people to do the same. It is a tragic situation that can only lead to ruin.

From what we know of the historical prophet Jeremiah, he was unimpressed by Temple worship and the royal house. In his view it was actual fealty to Yahweh and keeping the commandments that made Israel God’s people. But Israel was doing neither.

God’s shock at Israel’s behavior is rooted in all the blessing the Lord has showered on them. We heard some of these in our scripture this morning. God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, guided them through a barren wilderness, brought them to a good and fertile land, and established them as a successful people in that land.

Yet now Israel has turned away, seemingly forgetting all that God has done for them. They have traded the living God who brought them out of bondage for stone and metal idols, and the prophet employs a vivid metaphor to picture this situation. Unfortunately, many of us are unfamiliar with the elements of this metaphor, living water and cracked cisterns.

Vision Problems (Luke 13:10-17)

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Sermon: Vision Problems

Luke 13:10-17
Vision Problems
James Sledge                                                                                      August 21, 2022

Back in the 1960s, a student at Y

James Tissot, 1836-1902,
Woman with an Infirmity of Eighteen Years

ale University wrote a term paper in which he proposed creating a company that used a fleet of airplanes to deliver envelopes and small packages overnight. Parcels would be picked up in the afternoon, whisked to the airport, flown to a central location where they would be sorted, put back on airplanes, then flown to their destinations to be delivered the next day.

His professor was unimpressed by the paper and gave it a grade of C. Clearly the idea was impractical, and the cost would be prohibitive. No way the market would support the cost of developing a small airline for ferrying around letters and packages at night. And who would pay the high price of getting mail to its destination a couple of days early?

Not too many years later, that student founded Federal Express, now known as Fed Ex. In just over a decade, the company had a billion dollars in revenue and was being copied by UPS and others. The company was so successful and synonymous with overnight delivery that people began to say, “I’ll fed ex that contract to you.”

I’ve often wondered if that Yale professor ever reflected on the poor grade he gave that term paper. Did he wonder how he had failed to see what an innovative idea it was? Did it make him wonder about his own credibility as a professor?

History is littered with smart people, experts in their field, who dismissed cars as a passing fad, television as a ridiculous idea that could never compete with radio and the movies, or the phone as little more than a novelty. It’s amusing to recall how badly these experts missed in their predictions. How could they have gotten it so wrong?

It seems we humans have an impressive ability to misjudge the future, to misjudge what will work and what won’t, to misjudge where the world is really headed. Some of this is simply the limitation of being human. We can’t see into the future, and so it’s no big surprise when that we fail when we try.

But human limitations aside, we also fail to see the future because of poor vision that causes us to miss what later seem obvious signs of coming change. Our vision problems come from a trait we all share to one degree or another. We tend to think that our understanding of how things are is actually how they are and even how they should be. And so we’re usually very slow to accept different views of things, different ideas of what is possible, different ways of doing things. We label such things impractical, unworkable, ill conceived, etc.

When Jesus showed up, proclaiming that the day of God was drawing near, a day when the poor would be lifted up, justice would be done, people would be healed, restored, and experience new life, lots of people couldn’t see it. The problem was especially acute for religious leaders who often saw Jesus and his ideas as disruptive, irreverent, impractical, ill conceived, etc. Even when Jesus did amazing things in their presence, they still couldn’t see it. Jesus just went against the grain too much.

Sermon video: Spirituality of Money (Luke 12:32-40)

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Sermon: Spirituality of Money

Luke 12:32-40
Spirituality of Money
James Sledge                                                                                     August 7, 2022

St. Lucy giving alms, Bernat Martorell, c. 1435
The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

 Several years ago, we were visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Austin, Texas, and we went into one of the many quirky little shops there. While looking around I stumbled onto a playing card sized refrigerator magnet that depicted a stereotypical image of Jesus in a robe with a shepherd’s staff in one hand. With his other hand he appears to be knocking on a door, and just above this image it says, “Jesus Is Coming.” Below the image it says, “Look Busy.”

Our scripture reading for this morning is part of a longer section on discipleship. As Jesus and his followers draw closer to Jerusalem and the cross, he is beginning to teach them how they are to live when he is no longer with them. The disciples are indeed supposed to look busy because they will be about the work of the kingdom, of God’s new day.

Jesus urges his disciples not to worry about and strive for the things of the world. He says, “Instead, strive for God’s kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” It is in the context of this striving that Jesus speaks of selling possessions and giving alms, adding, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Where your treasure is, your heart will be also. In the gospels, Jesus talks a lot about money and treasure and their relationship to faith. I’ve never tried to verify it, but I’ve read that Jesus talks more about money and riches than he does about any other facet of human life. Clearly Jesus thinks that our relationship to money is a critical aspect of faith. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This statement might seem simply to be an obvious statement of fact. If someone’s heart is really given to something, an activity, a cause, another person, then money tends to follow. If someone is totally onboard with a political candidate, really all in, then they are likely to donate money generously to the candidate, work as a volunteer making phone calls, or go door to door handing out campaign literature. It just makes sense that if someone has given their heart over to something, it will show up in how they spend the money and their time.

But I’m not sure that Jesus is simply stating a truism. Rather, I think he has the order reversed from a statement of fact. He’s saying that where you put your money, your heart will follow. That actually is in keeping with much that Jesus says about discipleship. He says that being a disciple starts with letting go, letting go of old ways, letting go of old priorities, and, according to today’s scripture, letting go of some of our treasure. It is a spiritual practice that helps form people into faithful followers of Jesus.

Sermon video: Generous to Others and God (Luke 12:13-21)

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Sermon: Generous to Others and God

Luke 12:13-21
Generous to Others and God
James Sledge                                                                                      July 31, 2022

The parable of the rich fool, 1585
print by Ambrosius Francken
Royal Library of Belgium

I’ve likely mentioned this in some past sermon, but many years ago, I saw a bumper sticker on a car that read, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” I’m assuming that whoever created this bumper sticker meant it in a humorous way, but I also assume that the people who would buy such a bumper sticker were the sort who liked their grown-up toys.

The list of grown-up toys is practically endless. Sporting equipment would seem to qualify as toys of sorts. There are people who spends lots of money on tennis rackets, golf clubs, bicycles, running gear (my favorite), snow skis, and so on. There are actual toys such as video games, skateboards, and remote-control drones. And then there are the really expensive toys such as sports cars, boats, motorcycles, ATVs, and the like.

I’ve owned my share of toys over the years. I used to fly fish and water ski a lot. I have a closet full of running shoes. And I’ve had six different motorcycles over the years. These toys have brought enjoyment, thrills, fun, adventure, a sense of accomplishment, and more to my life, but are they the major component of what makes for a full and meaningful life?

To say, “The one who dies with the most toys wins,” even in jest, implies that what gives life fullness and meaning is accumulating things. To a degree, that is the message our consumer culture sends out. Acquiring more will make you happy, content, secure. To which Jesus replies, “… one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

So what does life consist of? If it isn’t an abundance of possessions that is central to life, what is? Another way to ask the question is what does is it mean to be truly alive and fully human?

Sermon: On Prayer (and the Bible)

Luke 11:1-13
On Prayer (and the Bible)
James Sledge                                                                                                 July 24, 2022

Arabic calligraphy of
the Lord's Prayer

Every Sunday in the bulletin, just below the “Prayers of the People,” there are two lists. The first says “prayer concerns,” and the second says “continued prayers.” The first list is where names go when we first learn of an illness or concern, first find out that someone is in the hospital. The second list is for ongoing concerns. These people were on the first list at some point, but we no longer tell the specifics.

I occasionally hear from someone who was on the prayer list, thanking me for the prayers they received. And sometimes these people tell me how they could feel the prayers and how they helped. No doubt most of us have heard a story of someone with a terrible illness who was being prayed for by many who then had an inexplicable and miraculous recovery.

Of course that is often not the case. People on the prayer list, people for whom I and many others have prayed for healing are sometimes not healed at all. Sometimes this seems especially tragic when a young person is sick and dies. Why are some healed and some not? Why does prayer seem to work sometimes and not in others?

Such questions can feel especially poignant and difficult when part of this morning’s scripture is brought to bear. Jesus says, "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Taken in isolation, these verses might well lead one to think that when prayer doesn’t work it must be the fault of the one doing the praying. Somehow they didn’t say the right words or pray the right way. Perhaps they didn’t have enough faith. There must be some reason that God didn’t respond to those prayers.

Sermon video: On Prayer (and the Bible) (Luke 11:1-13)

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Sermon video: Doom and Gloom (Amos 8:1-12)

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Sermon: Doom and Gloom

Amos 8:1-12
Doom and Gloom
James Sledge                                                                                                 July 17, 2022

The Prophet Amos
by Irving Amen (1918-2011)

You may or may not be aware that this congregation recently became part of something called VOICE or Virginias Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement. VOICE is a coalition of around 50 faith communities who work together to address systemic social justice issues in northern Virginia. Getting well connected with VOICE hasn’t been easy during a pandemic, but I think you will be hearing about initiatives we want to get involved with in the future.

Recently another church member and I attended a VOICE meeting that discussed trying to address some of the issues in what is a woefully inadequate Fairfax County mental health system. Even people with means struggle to access any sort of emergency care for a family member experiencing a mental health crisis, and the situation is even more dire for people who are poor.

Among the many things I learned at this meeting is that the rules for the state of Virginia require that any mental health medications for Medicaid patients must be prescribed by a psychiatrist. No prescriptions from general practitioners allowed. But here’s the catch. Not a single psychiatrist in Fairfax County accepts Medicaid patients. Good mental health care is difficult to find for anyone, but if you are poor, it is nearly impossible.

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring ruin to the poor of the land, saying, “When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

Sermon video: Forsaking Tribal Gods (2 Kings 5:1-14)

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Sermon: Forsaking Tribal Gods

2 Kings 5:1-14
Forsaking Tribal Gods
James Sledge                                                                                     July 3, 2022

Naaman Bathing in the Jordon

Woodcut from the Cologne Bible, 1478-80

 I love July 4^th, patriotic music, and fireworks. I’ve always felt very fortunate to live in the US, and I love all the history that is so much a part of the Washington, DC area. But I’ve never been very comfortable with the intersection of worship and July 4^th. Even in this fairly liberal congregation, I’ve had people get upset that the worship around the 4^th wasn’t patriotic enough.

I once had a colleague who decided to confront such thinking head on. He chose the July 4^th weekend as the Sunday to remove the American flag from the sanctuary, and he preached a sermon on why. It did not go over all that well.

More common is some sort of nod to the holiday by singing a patriotic hymn, making sure to give thanks for the nation in prayer, or, my favorite, putting some 4^th of July illustrations in a sermon that isn’t about the 4^th at all.

My queasiness about bringing July 4^th into worship grows out of two very different ways in which patriotic worship tends to go astray. On the one hand, it easily devolves into worshiping the nation. Worship that it supposed to celebrate and glorify God ends up celebrating and glorifying various aspects of our country.

On the other hand, patriotic worship has a troubling tendency to recast God into to some sort of local, tribal deity who is especially concerned with America. It is all well and good to say, “God bless America,” but that too often carries with it the unspoken caveat, “over and above all others.”

My issues with patriotic worship have always made me deeply appreciative the lectionary’s Old Testament reading for today. Every three years, this passage shows up on the Sunday between July 3^rd and 9^th which means it’s always close to July 4^th. And this passage totally blows up the notion of God as a tribal deity. In fact, it undermines a lot of popular notions of divine power and access to that power.

Sermon video: Lottery Ticket Faith (Luke 9:51-62)

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Sermon: Lottery Ticket Faith

 Luke 9:51-62
Lottery Ticket Faith
James Sledge                                                                                     June 26, 2022

It seems like something of a lost cause, but the Presbyterian Church has long taken a vigorous stand against gambling, including state sponsored gambling such as lotteries. Countless governing bodies of the Church have repeatedly stated that lotteries, usually approved with the promise of additional funding for schools, are the most irresponsible and regressive sorts of government fundraising. Rather than simply requiring the most well off in society to pay for essentials like a good education, the state preys on desperate people who see lotteries and gambling as their best hope out of poverty.

Nevertheless, state after state has passed a lottery, and the state gambling racket continues to grow and multiply. Lotteries have become a part of the American landscape, and even those Presbyterians who ardently worked against their continued spread probably can’t resist the temptation to buy a ticket now and then.

Official Presbyterian policy calls on church members to boycott lotteries and gambling as an article of faith, a matter of principle. Such action is unlikely to change anything, and not many of us are gambling addicts who are personally endangered by lotteries and such. At least I hope that most of you are not the sort of who fill the lottery coffers by buying hundreds of dollars in tickets. Surely not many of you think of the lottery as a good investment. Anyone counting on lottery winnings to get the kids through college, to pay for your retirement, to help you buy your first home, to pay off student loans?  It might be wonderful to win one, but most of us wouldn’t think of entrusting our future to the lottery. And if you do, you have a problem.

Not many of us are going to cash in the life insurance policy, empty the savings account, forego retirement planning or college savings, and bet it all on the lottery. Lottery tickets are something we buy with discretionary money. 

Sermon video: Identity Crisis (Galatians 3:23-29)

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Sermon: Identity Crisis

 Galatians 3:23-29
Identity Crisis
James Sledge                                                                                                 June 19, 2022

The Apostle Paul
Andrei Rublev (1410-20)

 When Christian missionaries began to go to different parts of Africa in the late 1800s, they took more than the good news of Jesus. They also brought with them Western ways. When they started churches among their new converts, they made worship look as much like it did back home as they could manage. They sang Western hymns and imported pianos and pump organs. And they wore black robes regardless of the temperature.

For all intents and purposes, those missionaries said to the people they met, “If you want to be Christian, you must adopt Western ways. No using indigenous musical instruments or existing musical forms. Being Christian meant becoming Western, and of course the Jesus they took with them to Africa was white.

Jesus always gets contextualized and culturized. Christianity began as a Jewish messianic movement, but its forms shifted as it became more and more of a Greco-Roman, Gentile religion. And when the emperor Constantine made Christianity the Roman Empire’s official religion, that religion took on the trappings of empire and power.

So what does it actually mean to be a Christian? What are the identifying marks of a Christian? I know people for whom it isn’t really Christian if it doesn’t include a traditionally shaped sanctuary that includes an organ for the music. I know of colleagues who took positions at new churches and then nearly got run out of town because they decided not to wear a robe, or they preached sermons from somewhere other than the pulpit.

In recent weeks I’ve had more than one conversation where questions about what the church is here for or what it means to be church have been asked. In some of these conversations, there was a bit of frustration with church, with Christian faith. If church is mostly about a certain style of music or architecture or dress, why does church even matter? Does church matter? Perhaps it depends on how we define church or Christianity, on what their identifying marks are.

Sermon video: Set Afire (Acts 2:1-21)

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Set Afire

 Acts 2:1-21
Set Afire
James Sledge                                                                  June 5, 2022 – Pentecost

El Greco,
Decent of the Holy Spirit

I probably don’t need to tell you that the number of the religiously unaffiliated adults is growing rapidly in America. A recent Pew Research study said that nearly three out of ten Americans have no formal religious connection.[1] And younger Americans are even less likely to have a religious home.

Among the unaffiliated, a popular self-designation is SBNR, or spiritual but not religious. Different people mean somewhat different things by this, but a lot in this group think of organized religion as musty old institutions that aren’t really necessary for someone to find a connection to the divine.

I can sympathize with such thinking. Churches have at times gotten focused on things pretty far removed from following Jesus. Add in the hatred espoused by some churches and throw in some sexual misconduct and abuse by clergy, and it isn’t too hard to see why some folks are suspicious of institutional religion.

But when spirituality gets understood as distinct from religion, spirituality moves almost entirely into the private, personal sphere. The term spiritual even takes on a kind of ethereal sense, largely disconnected from the day to day. It’s about internal experience, feelings of well-being and contentment, a warm vibe from a connection to something beyond yourself.

Sermon video: If You Love Me

 Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: If You Love Me

 John 14:15-29
If You Love Me
James Sledge                                                                                                 May 22, 2022

Christ Taking Leave of His Disciples
Duccio di Buoninsegna, Maesta Altarpiece
Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo
Siena, Italy

     When I was growing up, the Church was nestled much more comfortably into the culture than it is nowadays. Stores, movie theaters, and other activities all shut down on Sundays, ceding the day to churches. In the south, where I was raised, schools also wouldn’t schedule events on Wednesday evenings because many churches held suppers and Bible studies on those nights.

It was not unusual for a teacher to pray in my classrooms, and once a year, the Gideons came to my school and handed out their little pocket-sized Gideon’s Bibles. When I played on sports teams in junior and senior high school, we invariably said the Lord’s Prayer right before the game or match.

Billy Graham had a daily advice column in the local newspaper, and one of the local TV newscasts featured regular religious commentary from a prominent, local pastor. Christian faith was so intertwined with the culture it was at times difficult to tell when one ended and the other started. To a significant degree, the Church was propped up by this arrangement as the culture actively encouraged and even coerced church involvement.

To varying degrees, the Church had sold its soul in order to get this cushy arrangement, but nevertheless, it begin to disintegrate during the 1960s and 70s. For a variety of reasons, the culture decided it no longer needed to prop up the Church, and society started to become more and more secular. Many vestiges of that time still exist, things such as prayers to open sessions of Congress or prayers at presidential inaugurations, but by and large, the Church has been left to its own devices.

Sermon video: Transformed by Love

 Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Transformed by Love

 John 13:31-35
Transformed by Love
James Sledge                                                                                      May 15, 2022

Christ Washing the Feet of St. Peter
Sadao Watanabe, 1963

 Over the years, I’ve read a lot of books and been to more than a few conferences that were supposed to help a congregation become more effective, more missional, more welcoming, more generous, more something. Often these books and conferences had some helpful suggestions for evaluating how things were currently working so you could think about how to change things to achieve your desired results.

One suggestion that I appreciated recommended going into the neighborhood around your church and asking people, people who were not church members, to complete this sentence. “XYZ Church, they’re that church that…” The idea is that your neighbors may have some insights into who you are, or at least how you are perceived, that you could never get just by talking amongst yourselves.

We did this at one of the churches I served, and we got a variety of responses. They’re that church with the preschool. They’re that church with the pretty stone building. They’re that church with the nice playground. They’re that church with the block party every fall. They’re that church with the community garden. They’re that church with the tiny parking lot.

We’ve never done this exercise here, although I suppose we could if all of you talked to a few people who lived near you, assuming you live near the church. But since that can’t happen right this moment, I’ll imagine what some of the responses might be.

They’re that church with the pretty stone buildings. They’re that church where people stand along the street with Black Lives Matter signs. They’re that church that has some sort of free meal program. They’re that church where our kids went to learn to roller skate or ride a bike in their parking lot. They’re that church with a rainbow flag. Perhaps you can come up with a few more, although if we did this for real, I suspect there would be a couple of surprises none of us thought of.

Jesus seems to have some thoughts about what people should see when they look at us. Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ words saying, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” And most of us have heard the song whose refrain goes, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Sermon video: Hearing the Shepherd

 Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Hearing the Shepherd

 John 10:22-30
Hearing the Shepherd
James Sledge                                                                                      May 8, 2022

The Good Shepherd, 5^th century mosaic,
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy

 "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." It seems a reasonable enough question that some people ask Jesus. They know he is something special. He’s attracting crowds and there are reports of miracles. He is teaching as a rabbi, and many are mesmerized by what he says. But his teachings tend to be enigmatic with more than one possible meaning. Spell it out for us, Jesus.

I suspect that there are more than a few people in our day who would like a little clarity, too. Jesus’ identity can be hard to pin down, what with so many variations of him running around. For some Jesus’ primary purpose is to get individuals into heaven. For others Jesus came to inaugurate the kingdom, God’s new commonwealth on earth. For others Jesus is a dispenser of wisdom that can guide you into a meaningful life. For still others Jesus is a worker of miracles for those who have sufficient faith.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus would clear all this up? Wouldn’t it be helpful if Jesus said, “I’m this one but not that one”? Come on Jesus, tell us plainly exactly who you are.

Jesus tell his questioners in our scripture, "I have told you, and you do not believe,” which is a little strange because Jesus has done no such thing. Read John’s gospel carefully up to this point and you won’t find any place where Jesus says, “I’m the Messiah,” I’m guessing that’s why Jesus also says, “The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me.”

Jesus hasn’t said he’s the Messiah in so many words, but the things he is doing should provide all the answer that is needed. Jesus seems to think this is clear and compelling testimony as to his identity, but there is a catch. Apparently this testimony isn’t convincing to everyone, only to those who belong to his sheep. Jesus is actually quite blunt on this. “…but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”

Sermon: The Story Continues

 John 21:1-19
The Story Continues
James Sledge                                                                                                 May 1, 2022

Peter Koenig, Breakfast on the Beach, 20^th Century,
Parish of St. Edward, Kettering, UK

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

 When a movie ends, the scene fades to black, “The End” appears, and the credits begin to roll. But rare is the movie where we don’t know it’s the end without these cues. 

Music works in similar fashion. More often than not, we can detect that the piece has ended even when we’ve never heard it before. Any musical tension and dissonance resolve into something that feels complete, finished, and we know we are at the end.

In movies, in plays, in novels, in music, this pattern is familiar to us. Things need to be brought to a conclusion. The war must be won. The broken relationship must be repaired.  The killer must be caught. The jury must come in. The lovers must find one another. The last note must be played. Otherwise we are left with a sense of loose ends. 

The gospel of John has dealt with its loose ends. Jesus has been raised from the dead.  Mary Magdalene has seen him. Then he has appeared to the disciples, commissioned them and given them the Spirit. Finally he has appeared again so that Thomas, who was somehow absent when Jesus appeared that first Easter evening, might see and believe.

And then the gospel ties up the last loose ends and plays the final note. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. Fade to black.

But just as we prepare to get up from our seats, suddenly the story resumes. After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. It’s all rather jarring. Just when we thought we understood exactly how things came out, the story starts up again. It breaks into the feeling of completeness. All that dissonance that had been resolved is stirred up again.

Sermon video: Wait a Minute, Jesus. Are You Sure We're Ready?

 

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: Wait a Minute, Jesus. Are You Sure We're Ready?

 Wait a Minute, Jesus.  Are You Sure We’re Ready?
John 20:19-23
James Sledge                                                                                                             April 24, 2022

Holy Spirit Window
St. Peter's Basilica

 Last Sunday, we celebrated the news that Christ is risen. We filled the place with flowers.  We had special music and sang for joy that Jesus Christ is risen today. Alleluia! But the very first Easter seems not to have gone much like ours. There is little fanfare. There is little in the way of celebration. In fact, our scripture reading finds the disciples in hiding.

It is the evening of Easter. Mary Magdalene met the risen Jesus by the tomb earlier that morning. She returned to the disciples with the wonderful news that she has seen the Lord. But the evening finds the disciples huddled behind locked doors. They are not out proclaiming the good news. They are not rushing to tell everyone that Christ is risen. They are afraid of the authorities, and they are in hiding.

It is not a terribly impressive scene that the gospel paints for us—frightened, cowering disciples, trembling behind closed shutters, drawn curtains, bolted doors, with the lights turned down low. But into this unimpressive group comes Jesus with words of comfort.  Twice he says, “Peace be with you.”

This is much more than a greeting. Jesus is giving them God’s shalom: spiritual wholeness, peace and harmony with God and with others. This is a profound blessing that gives restoration and the assurance of being held in God’s love. “Peace be with you.”

Does that seem at all odd to you? Doesn’t it seem like Jesus would comment on their lack of faith, their lack of understanding? Jesus has taught them, told them what would happen, told them he would be killed and rise again. Now it has all happened. Mary has told them that he has indeed risen. But they hide. Don’t you think Jesus must have been disappointed? Don’t you think he must have wondered if these were the right folks to carry the news to the world, to continue his work in the world?

But it only gets more strange. Not only does Jesus not fuss at them, Jesus commissions them for their work. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” As the Father sent Jesus, he now sends them. Jesus is entrusting them with the very same job God had entrusted him. In the very same way that he embodied God’s love, these disciples are to embody God’s love in the world. And they are empowered to forgive sins just like Jesus.

Hold on a minute, Jesus. Are you sure? Do you really think these folks are ready? They haven’t demonstrated much reason to trust them. Why only a couple of days ago Peter, the leader of the disciples, was denying even knowing Jesus. Even after the resurrection they remain in hiding, and now Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”?

Easter sermon video: Living Presence

 

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Easter sermon: Living Presence

Luke 24:1-12
Living Presence
James Sledge                                                                                     April 17, 2022

Easter Morning,
Cara B. Hochhalter

 Early on a Sunday morning, several women return from the empty tomb and tell the others what they had just experienced, how they had found the tomb empty and encountered two men in dazzling clothes. Presumably these were angels, and they had told the women that Jesus was risen. When they tell the others, however, the women do not find the most receptive audience for their account. Says the reading, But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

Over the years, many have commented on the role gender may have played in this. After all, it was a patriarchal society where women’s voices did not carry that much weight, and the women’s words perhaps seemed an idle tale because men didn’t trust women as reliable witnesses. I’ve no doubt commented on this dynamic in some of my past Easter sermons.

But it turns out that Luke’s gospel does not report some women bringing a report back to male disciples. Instead, it tells of female disciples who bring back a report to the eleven and to all the rest. And no doubt all the rest included more female disciples.

At numerous places in his gospel, Luke depicts women in the role of disciples, and in our passage this morning, the angels confirm this. They say to the women, “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” These women were among the disciples Jesus had instructed on the way to Jerusalem and the cross.

Now if these women are disciples, and if some of those hearing their report are also female disciples, then judging the report an idle tale isn’t about not believing female witnesses. Rather, it seemed an idle tale because it was too difficult to believe. Dead people stay dead. No one goes to a cemetery expecting to meet anyone once buried there, and most of us would think anyone who said they had needed to see a psychiatrist.