Putting on Jesus

 Romans 13:8-14
Putting on Jesus
James Sledge                                                                            September 10, 2023

 

If you watch television at all, you likely have encountered advertisements for the supplement Prevagen. The ads typically feature someone talking about how they noticed they weren’t as sharp as they once were, but after they began taking Prevagen, they saw a marked improvement in their memory and mental acuity.

The ads also tout that such results are clinically proven. What they don’t tell you is that this clinical study was just 10 individuals, that the study was done by the company that owns Prevagen. They’ve also been sued by the FTC over the claims and agreed to put in a small disclaimer.

Numerous scientific and medical authorities have stated categorically that there is no way for Prevagen to work as it’s advertised. Apparently the active ingredient has to make it into the brain intact to have any effect, but this ingredient is easily digested and broken down by the body and so never reaches the brain.

I’ve noticed in some of the more recent commercials that they’ve added the phrase, “available without a prescription.” This clearly implies some sort of significant medical value to the product, despite the fact that this disclaimer is on the package. “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

The advertising for Prevagen borders on deceptive, and no doubt the company has an army of lawyers who research just how far the company can go without actually breaking the law.

I have little doubt that some of these lawyers, and certainly some of the people who work for the company, are church goers who think of themselves as good and faithful people. If anyone were to challenge them on that they would surely say they weren’t doing anything illegal, and besides, faith is a private thing between them and God.

Donald Trump used this last defense when Pope Francis publicly stated that some of Trump’s inklings were not Christian. Said Trump, “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,”^[1]

I have a feeling that both the Apostle Paul, as well as Jesus, would disagree with that statement. In our gospel reading today Jesus speaks of the church correcting members who sin, and Paul is clear that his understanding of the faith calls for people to love one another. He even says that love is the fulfillment of the law because Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

For Paul, to be in Christ transforms one from conforming to the ways of the world, what Paul typically labels “the flesh,” to the way of Jesus. This is above all the way of love. The person who has put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul exhorts his readers to do, will no longer measure their actions by whether or not they can say they are legal. Instead they will only do what does no wrong to a neighbor.

It is most unfortunate that Paul’s words on being saved by grace through faith have been distorted to mean that it only matters what you believe, not what you do. Despite his insistence that we are saved by God’s grace and not our works, Paul nonetheless, in all of his letters, exhorts people to very specific sorts of behavior, just as he does in our reading today.

To be in Christ is to become a new creation who acts out the grace and love received from God. I think Paul would agree with Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that says, “Thus you will know them by their fruits.”

There has been a quote bouncing around on Facebook of late which I also shared on my page. It’s from Kurt Struckmeyer’s book A Conspiracy of Love, and it says this.

At the heart of Christianity is a powerful ethic. It is what the first followers of Jesus call The Way – a way of living based on love and compassion, reconciliation and forgiveness, inclusion and acceptance, generosity and justice. This ethic is what makes Christianity good. Without it, Christians can become rigid and intolerant, self-righteous and condemning, hate filled and violent, selfish and unjust. In other words, without the ethic of Jesus, Christians can represent the worst humanity has to offer.[2]

That’s a rather stunning statement. Christians can represent the worst humanity has to offer if they are not guided by the way of Jesus. Believing in Jesus does not necessitate following the way of Jesus. Even having a relationship with Jesus does not necessarily mean walking in the way of Jesus, and I think Paul is speaking of the way of Jesus when he calls his readers to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be honest, I do not understand why so many people who are adamant in their declarations of Christian faith seem to have missed the part about putting on Christ. To put on Jesus, to wear Jesus like clothing, is to manifest Jesus with one’s life. Wearing Jesus means that other people will see Jesus when they look at you, and that means they will see love. They will see a pattern of behavior that does no wrong to a neighbor.

I wonder what would happen if those working at the advertising agency creating commercials for Prevagen put on Christ and so asked themselves whether or not what they were doing did any wrong to a neighbor. I wonder the same about all sorts of companies that make their money off a tricking people into signing up for paid membership that they thought was free. I wonder about legal advice that helps a company skirt the law. What would happen if all these people cared and asked, does this injure my neighbor?

It seems to me that there are occupations that would be off limits for those who are in Christ, who put on Christ. But the question of whether something harms my neighbor is bigger than just jobs. Does how I spend or invest my money harm my neighbor? Does how I vote harm my neighbor? Does how I live my life harm my neighbor. Paul says that for the Christian, the answer needs to be, ‘No,” for Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Of course it’s a pipe dream to think that people who run deceptive businesses, who worry about profits above all else, who care only for themselves, will suddenly start to worry about whether their actions harm their neighbor. And when the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome, he has no expectation that the world will suddenly be motivated and guided primarily by love, but he does fully expect that to be the way things are in the church.

In the Presbyterian Book of Order there is a hundred-year-old statement labeled “The Great Ends of the Church.” Ends here refers to the church’s primary reasons for existing. The last in the list of six reads, “the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”[3] In other words, it is our job as the church to show the world what things look like when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we wear Jesus and so are guided by love of God and neighbor.

But Paul doesn’t expect this to happen just because we are trying hard to please God. Rather Paul expects this to flow naturally from encountering the incredible love, the amazing grace, the unexpected embrace of God in Jesus that would go so far as a cross to reach out to us.

A famous theologian, when asked to sum up his life’s work in a single sentence, supposedly replied with the words of a song he learned as a child. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”[4] To know that fully, to realize that God’s love in Christ is there for us with no ifs, ands, or buts, is to be held securely in something that frees us to live differently, to live out the way of Jesus. And oh, how the world needs more people, and especially needs more Christians, whose lives show Christ to the world.

---

[1] “Pope Francis Questions Donald Trump’s Christianity,” BBC.com, February 16, 2016

[2] Kurt Struckmeyer, A Conspiracy of Love: Following Jesus in a Postmodern World (p. 202). (Eugene OR: Resource Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2016), Kindle Edition, p. 202

[3] Book of Order, F-1.0304

[4] Attributed to Karl Barth, see www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/01/did-karl-barth-really-say-jesus-loves-me-this-i-know/

Baptism as Beginning (Matthew 3:13-17)

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

Baptism and Beginning

Matthew 3:13-17
Baptism as Beginning
James Sledge                                                                                     January 8, 2023

Liz Valente, Baptism of Jesus, 2021

 Beyond Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, there are not too many events in Jesus’ life that make it into all four gospels. Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist is one of those events, even if the reference to it is rather elliptical in John’s gospel. Jesus’ baptism by John posed something of a difficulty for the early church and for the gospel writers. John’s baptism was one of repentance for sin, so why would Jesus need this? And each gospel has its own way of making sure the reader knows that Jesus is greater than John.

In the reading we heard this morning, John objects to Jesus’ request for baptism. “I need to be baptized by you,” says the Baptist. “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness,” replies Jesus. To be honest, I’ve never been entirely certain what this means, but it implies that this is God’s will. God’s plans have Jesus connected to the problem of human sinfulness.

It is interesting that John is the one who tries to get in the way of God’s will. He is the one who is sent to prepare the way of the Lord, but when Jesus comes to him, he tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized. It does seem a little strange, the Messiah being baptized with the same baptism as all those people who came out because they heard John’s cry, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

John, even though he is God’s prophet, thinks he knows how the Messiah should act. Like most everyone, he is a little surprised by the sort of Messiah Jesus turns out to be. Thankfully, he’s willing to listen to Jesus. A lot of people aren’t. When Jesus surprises or disappoints them, they turn away.

Video of Christmas Day Meditation (Luke 2:1-20)

Videos and audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Video of meditation on the Annunciation to Mary

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

Sermon video - Trusting a Crazy Dream (Matthew 1:18-25)

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

Sermon - Trusting a Crazy Dream

Matthew 1:18-25
Trusting a Crazy Dream
James Sledge                                                                                     December 4, 2022

The Courageous Choice,
Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity,
A Sanctified Art LLC, sanctifiedart.org

Last Sunday we heard a bit of scripture that I’ve not ever heard read in Sunday worship, the genealogy from Matthew’s gospel. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar…” and on and on like this for forty-some generations. It’s a rather odd genealogy in that in contains women, Gentiles, foreigners, scoundrels, and others we might not expect to be highlighted in the genealogy of a Jewish king.

This genealogy, with prefaces our scripture for this morning, seems to serve several purposes. It establishes Jesus as a descendant of David and so someone who could sit on the throne of David. It also foreshadows the diverse, inclusive new community that Jesus comes to inaugurate. And finally, it marks Jesus as something startlingly new in the story of God’s salvation history, something very different from those who came before him.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way, opens today’s scripture. And coming immediately on the heels of that long genealogy where someone fathered somebody and he fathered someone else, this way marks a striking change. It is something miraculous and new, a fresh start, a new creation. But this all depends on Joseph, something Matthew highlights by telling us nothing about Jesus’ birth itself, rather telling us about what Joseph did before and after it.

As critical as Joseph is to the story, we know next to nothing about him. He is the main character in this story and one other in Matthew; he is mentioned briefly in Luke’s gospel, and then he simply disappears. He is absent in all the stories of Jesus as an adult, leading many to find credence in the legend that says Joseph was much older than Mary, and he had died long before Jesus began his ministry. There’s even some uncertainty about his profession. Many of us learned that he was a carpenter, and he well may have been, but there seems to be some confusion in the Bible over whether it is Joseph or Jesus who is the carpenter.

An Interesting Family (Matthew 1:1-17)

Videos and audios of sermons and worship at the FCPC website.

Sermon - An Interesting Family

Matthew 1:1-17
An Interesting Family
James Sledge                                                                                     November 27, 2022

Tree of Jesse from Capuchin's Bible, c. 1180

 How would you answer if someone asked who you are? What would you tell them? Perhaps you would say what you do for a living. Very often when people meet someone for the first time they ask, “What do you do?”

I grew up in what was then still out in “the country,” on land that had been a family farm a couple of generations earlier. There were lots of other people whose families had been in that area for generations, and if you met someone who didn’t know you, they didn’t typically ask what you did, they asked who you belonged to, who your family was.

No one ever asks me that any longer. We live in mobile society where people often don’t have deep roots in the area where they live. Who you belong to, who your people are, isn’t likely to be very helpful in telling anyone who you are. We’ll have to settle for, “What do you do?” or “Where did you go to school?” or “Where did you come from?”

In some ways, I miss that old connection to place and people. I have fond memories of sitting at the Sunday dinner table with my parents and paternal grandparents, listening to stories about my grandfather as a second grader picking up his teacher on the way to school in a little horse drawn sulky. I felt connected to something, part of something.

I think that people who didn’t grow up like I did still sometimes lament that lack of connection. The popularity of Ancestry.com and DNA tests speaks to a desire to connect with our stories, to discover something of who we are through our heritage.

Joining the Cloud - Running the Race (Hebrews 11:39-12:1)

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

Sermon: Joining the Cloud - Running the Race

Hebrews 11:39-12:2
Joining the Cloud – Running the Race
James Sledge                                                                            November 13, 2022

Cloud of Witnesses
Mike Moyers

In July of 2017, at Panama City Beach in Florida, two children got caught in a rip tide and could not make their way back to shore. Their mother went out to help, and she too was caught in the tide. Several more people attempted to help, only to find themselves trapped.

There were no lifeguards at this beach, and a large crowd gathered at the water’s edge, horrified but not knowing what to do. Someone wondered if they might be able to throw a rope out to them and pull them in, but who brings a rope with them to the beach? Besides, they were so far out.

Then someone got the idea to create their own line to those caught in the rip tide. They could form a human chain to pull the people back in. The crowd on the beach, most of them strangers to one another, began to link arms and move out toward the trapped people who were about a hundred yards from the shore. Eighty people joined together, stretching out to those children and would be rescuers who had been caught in the tide. And one by one they pulled every one of them to safety.

I think something similar is going on in the sermon that is the book of Hebrews. It speaks of a great cloud of witnesses that went before us, and over the recent weeks, you been hearing from church members about their witnesses, the ones who mentored them or guided them in some way in their faith journey. It strikes me that the witnesses who went before us, who founded this church, who introduced us to the faith, who taught us important faith lessons, form a kind of human chain that helps pull us forward on our walks of faith.

Sermon video - Reflecting God's Upside-Down World (Luke 16:19-31)

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

Sermon: Reflecting God's Upside-Down World

Luke 16:19-31
Reflecting God’s Upside-Down World
James Sledge                                                                                                 November 6, 2022

The Rich Man and Lazarus,
woodcut by Kreg Yingst

 How many of you have ever given money to your college for some sort of building campaign? I was thinking about that topic, and I googled a map of a local school, George Mason. That map had lots of buildings with people’s names on them, Carrow Hall, David King Hall, Fenwick Library, Peterson Hall, and Harris Theater to name a few. There was also an EagleBank Arena.

I know very little about George Mason, but if it is like many other universities some of these buildings were named because of money or after a benefactor. I’m certain that’s the case with EagleBank Arena.

Most of us don’t have our names on buildings at universities or hospitals, and that’s also because of money, the relatively smaller amounts that most of us give. You need to be truly wealthy, big time rich to get your name on a building.

That is why we should know something is out of whack in this parable Jesus tells before he is more than a line into it. “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  And there was a poor man named Lazarus…” There was a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. 

That’s not how it’s supposed to work. If Daniel Snyder got into an altercation with a homeless person named John Doe, I can assure you the headlines will not read, “John Doe Roughed Up in Altercation with Rich Man!” We all know the headline will say, “Daniel Snyder Accosted by Homeless Man!”

But Jesus’ parable gets this backwards because things are completely different in the Kingdom of God. Everything is turned upside down and inside out, letting us know that the things the world values are not the things God values, and warning all of us who have bought into the world’s way of doing things.

Sermon video - What Salvation Looks Like (Luke 19:1-10)

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

Sermon - What Salvation Looks Like

Luke 19:1-10
What Salvation Looks Like
James Sledge                                                                                                 October 30, 2022

Zacchaeus by Ira Thomas

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he; He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see. Many of you are likely familiar with these song lyrics. The song seems fascinated with Zacchaeus’ size. I wonder why that is. Luke’s story does say that he was “short in stature,” but it seems little more than a reason for him to climb a tree.

I wonder if calling Zacchaeus a wee little man makes him sound like a more palatable character. Wee little man sounds almost cute. What a nice little guy. I suppose it wouldn’t make a very good children’s song if it started, “Zacchaeus was a nasty crook, a nasty crook was he,” but it would perhaps be more accurate.

I mentioned in my sermon last week that tax collectors in Jesus’ day were no civil servants. They were key players in a corrupt system that filled Rome’s coffers and enriched those fortunate enough to buy into the position. By definition, tax collectors engaged in fraud. The only way they made money was to collect more tax than Rome required, keeping the excess. The more they could shake down from people, the richer they got. Chief tax collectors were even worse. They took a cut from all the collectors that worked under them.

It was a lucrative gig if you wanted to get rich, but it was also sure to get you hated and despised. Not only were you using the threat of Roman soldiers to extract money from your neighbors, but you were doing this for an occupying power in a land that longed to be rid of Roman control. When the crowd who sees Jesus go to Zacchaeus’ house complains saying, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner,” neither Jesus not anyone else disputes that statement. If ever anyone could be labeled a sinner, it is Zacchaeus.

Sermon video - How to Impress God (Luke 18:9-14)

Audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon - How to Impress God

Luke 18:9-14
How to Impress God
James Sledge                                                                            October 23, 2022

John Everett Millais
Pharisee and the Publican

The Bible is so much a part of church life, such a constant fixture in worship and Sunday School classes, that we sometimes forget that it wasn’t written for us. It was written for people from a completely different world and culture than our own, and so it can easily lose something in translation.

That may be the case with today’s scripture passage and the two characters in the parable Jesus tells. One is a Pharisee; the other is a tax collector, and the parable assumes that we are familiar with these two, even though that may well not be the case.

Growing up in the church I got the impression that Pharisees were the bad guys. The word pharisaic even means self-righteous and hypocritical. But the fact is that Pharisees were the good religious folks of their day. They were a Jewish reform movement that protested against the rituals, pomp, and sacrifices of Temple worship. They wanted people to “get back to the Bible,” as it were, to read the scriptures and do what it said there. In that sense they were very much like the reformers who led the Protestant Reformation, people like Martin Luther or John Calvin.

The Pharisees were also the inventors of rabbinical Judaism that is still around today. That means that the rabbis over at Temple Yodef Shalom are direct descendants of the Pharisees we see so often in the gospels.

The other character in the parable, the tax collector, poses a different interpretive problem. In his case, we may well not think badly enough of him. Americans may not enjoy interacting with someone from the IRS, but modern tax collectors have little in common with the tax collectors of Jesus’ day.

The Roman tax system awarded contracts to collect revenue, and they provided the support of soldiers for the process. Those with the contracts got to keep anything in excess of what was owed to Rome, and so tax collectors engaged in what was essentially a legal, shake-down racket. Under threat of arrest, they brutalized the population, especially those without any power or influence. In addition, Jewish tax collectors were collaborators with an occupying power, and they were hated and despised by the people.

There is really nothing comparable in our day, certainly no legal occupation that would be held in such universal contempt. In terms of reputation, they would probably fall somewhere between drug dealer and child abuser.

Sermon - Seeing, Faith, and Gratitude

Luke 17:11-19
Seeing, Faith, and Gratitude
James Sledge                                                                                                 October 9, 2022

JESUS MAFA,
The Healing of the Ten Lepers

Sarah was feverishly opening the last of her birthday presents. Wrapping paper, bows, and ribbon were everywhere. So were the gifts that had been in the many bags and boxes only a little while earlier. Most anyone who looked in on the scene would have been very impressed with all that Sarah had gotten. That is, everyone but Sarah. As the last gift came out of the box, Sarah looked around and said, “Is that all?” Her mother glared at her in a way that should have frozen her, but still Sarah said, “Are there any more presents?”

Some of the aunts, uncles, and grandparents who had tried hard to find just the right gift for Sarah were obviously bothered by her obvious lack of regard for their gifts. After everyone had left, Sarah’s mother had long talk with her. Sarah had to call everyone who had brought her a gift and apologize for being rude. That was on top of having to write thank-you notes, too.

Sarah was furious. What was the big deal? Everybody had gotten burgers, cake, and ice cream. You have to bring presents when you go to a party. Why did her mom have to get all worked up over it? After all, they were her relatives.

She was still angry when she went to school the next morning. Her friend Danielle asked what was the matter, and Sarah told her about what had happened, and about the punishment she had gotten from her mother.

“How many presents did you get?” Danielle asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe ten or twelve.”

“Wow,” said Danielle. “If I had gotten anything close to that I would have been running around the room, jumping up and down, kissing everyone, and yelling ‘Thank you.’”

“What are you talking about?” Sarah asked.

“I only got one present at my birthday,” Danielle responded. My dad lost his job a while back. He’s been working at whatever he can find, but it just isn’t enough to make ends meet, so he couldn’t afford to buy me much. And I don’t have any relatives who live around here. I was afraid I wouldn’t get anything, so I was happy with the one that I got.”

“Oh, I see,” Sarah said rather sheepishly.

Sermon video - Seeing, Faith, and Gratitude (Luke 17:11-19)

Audios and videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website. (Apologies for the video quality. One AV person was on vacation and the other was sick.)

Sermon video - A Little Faith (Luke 17:1-10)

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

Sermon: A Little Faith

Luke 17:1-10
A Little Faith
James Sledge                                                                                      October 2, 2022

As many of you know, the scripture passages that I use for preaching normally come from the lectionary, a list of readings for each Sunday that includes an Old Testament passage, a psalm, an epistle reading, and a gospel reading. The lectionary follows the Christian year, beginning with Advent, and it has a three-year cycle. Year one feature’s Matthew’s gospel, year two Mark, and year three, which we’re in now, Luke. John’s gospel doesn’t get a year but gets interspersed here and there in all three years.

The lectionary that I follow is used by pastors in many Protestant denominations. Its full name is the Revised Common Lectionary which replaced a previous, common lectionary in 1983. The revision was done by a committee of scholars and denominational representatives from the US and Canada, but I don’t know much about how they pick certain texts or how they decide where a reading should start and end.

I mention this because today’s gospel passage seems to start in the middle of a conversation. I told you when I read the passage that I expanded the lectionary limits, going back five verses prior to where the lectionary actually starts. Had I simply followed the lectionary, our gospel reading would have begun, The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

Increase our faith! Perhaps you’ve had occasion to offer a similar exclamation. Increase my faith! I know that I have. If you’ve ever made that request, what was it that prompted it? Perhaps you were having some sort of faith crisis, or perhaps you were going through some sort of difficult time. But it seems likely that something would precipitate crying out so.

That’s true of the disciples in our reading for today, which is why I added the five verses before the start of the lectionary passage. The disciples aren’t simply asking for stronger faith. They are reacting to what Jesus tells the to do, worried that they won’t be able to do it.

Sermon video: Enacted Prophecy (Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15)

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

Sermon: Enacted Prophecy

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Enacted Prophecy
James Sledge                                                                                     September 25, 2022

 As a general rule, there’s no such thing as a popular prophet. You might even say that the term popular prophet is an oxymoron. By definition prophets are people who see things that others don’t,

The Peaceable Kingdom, Fritz Eichenberg,
1950, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

and that almost always puts them out of step with the status quo, make them a challenge to the status quo, and that almost always makes them unpopular.

One of our most famous, recent prophets, Martin Luther King, Jr., is a good example. Even though Dr. King is widely honored today, albeit an often sanitized and domesticated version of him, that was hardly the case when he led a civil rights movement. In 1966, the last Gallop poll to ask about his popularity during his lifetime found that 63% of Americans had an unfavorable view of him.[1]

The prophet Jeremiah has a book in the Bible named for him, but during his lifetime, he may well have been more unpopular than Martin Luther King. When Jeremiah first began his ministry, he was a voice of doom and gloom at a time when all seemed to be going well. But Jeremiah knew that Israel’s failure to love God and neighbor, to enact mercy and justice, could only lead to tragedy, and that tragedy eventually showed up in the form of the Babylonian Empire with its powerful army.

Babylon conquered Israel, carried off some of its intelligentsia, royals, and priests into exile. They installed a relative of Israel’s king on the throne to be a puppet ruler, and collected regular tribute from Israel.

Unfortunately for Babylon, and for Israel, this puppet king was convinced to join a pro-Egyptian coalition of neighboring kingdoms who would rebel against Babylon with assistance from Egypt.

Jeremiah had warned the king against such a plan to no avail, and Babylon responded with ferocity. They attacked Israel and besieged the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah urged surrender, for which he was branded a traitor and thrown into jail, which is where we find him in our scripture reading this morning.

Sermon video: God's Strange Economics (Luke 15:1-10)

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

Sermon: God's Strange Economics

Luke 15:1-10
God’s Strange Economics
James Sledge                                                                                     September 11, 2022

Cara B. Hochhalter,
A Parable - The Lost Sheep

 I imagine it must have been exhilarating to meet Jesus when he was walked the dusty roads of Palestine all those years ago. He must have had an incredible presence. We hear over and over how great crowds sought to hear him. There was just something about him. Luke says that people were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. Not only did Jesus do miracles, but people could tell that he was not like other rabbis, not like other teachers and religious leaders.

But for all the thrill of meeting this Jesus, it must have been deeply unsettling as well. You’d be hard pressed to realize it from looking at most churches, but Jesus had this tendency to upset folks, especially religious folks, those who were members of the established church of his day. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees,” Jesus said on many occasions, which in our day might be more like “Woe to you pastors and elders, to you theologians and denominational leaders.” 

But as if that weren’t enough, Jesus had this infuriating habit of explaining what God was like with stories that featured some of the least godly sort of people. Samaritans, who were considered losers both on religious and ethnic grounds, shepherds, who were regarded as unsavory ruffians without morals or couth, and women, who were not even legally recognized as persons, all get lifted up by Jesus as models of the mercy and love of God. 

It happens in today’s reading from the Gospel. Jesus is hanging out with low life and riff raff, and the religious folks get offended. They know that Jesus is a religious man and so they complained about him. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus reaches out and extends hospitality to the very sort of people church folks look down on. No wonder religious leaders got upset.

Jesus responds to this with some of his stories, and of course he highlights a no-account shepherd and a woman, of all people, to exemplify the ways of God. “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”

Which one of you?... I don’t know about you, but I might have raised my hand if Jesus had been talking to me. “Wait a minute, Jesus. You can’t leave the flock alone in the wilderness. What if a lion or a wolf comes while you’re gone? Many could be killed, and the flock would be scattered all over the country side. You might never find lots of them. Sometimes economics require you to cut your losses, sad as that may be. And what’s with throwing a big party for friends and neighbors when you get back home. Come on. How much is one sheep worth. You’ll end up spending more than that on the party.”

Sermon video: Trading in Our T-shirts (Luke 14:25-33)

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

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)

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

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)

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

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)

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

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)

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

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

Videos and audios of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.