Sermons and thoughts on faith on Scripture from my time at Old Presbyterian Meeting House and Falls Church Presbyterian Church, plus sermons and postings from "Pastor James," my blog while pastor at Boulevard Presbyterian in Columbus, OH.
Monday, March 4, 2019
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Sermon: Are You Listening?
Luke 9:28-36
Are You Listening?
James Sledge March
3, 2019 – Transfiguration of the Lord
I’ve
just begun reading a book entitled, The
Answer to Bad Religion Is Not No Religion: A Guide to Good Religion for
Seekers, Skeptics, and Believers. It’s a follow-up to another book by the
same author, “What the Least I Can
Believe and Still Be a Christian?” A Guide to What Matters Most.
Both
books address, in different ways, the issue of Christian identity. It’s a topic
I find increasingly critical in a world
where many didn’t grow up in the church. What they know of Christianity often
comes from its portrayal in the media, too often examples of the “Bad Religion” in that book. Meanwhile,
Mainline and progressive Christians are often fuzzy about our Christian identity,
other than not being like that “Bad Religion.”
It
is all well and good not to be like those “Bad Religion” Christians, but you
can’t define yourself solely by what you are not. You also have to know what
you are. And if we’re talking Christian identity, it must have something to do
with Jesus. That’s one reason I think this scripture on the Transfiguration is
such an important passage.
Just
on the face of it the event is a big deal. A cloud and God’s voice on a
mountaintop recall the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. Moses and Elijah represent the
law and the prophets, the very core of Jewish faith. And the divine words, “This
is my Son,” recall coronation psalms along with Jesus’ baptism.
Just
prior to the Transfiguration, Jesus foretells his coming death, and he teaches his
disciples what it means to follow him. “If any want to become my followers, let
them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who
want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake
will save it.” Those words still
echo when Peter’s befuddled proposal for some sort of shrine is interrupted by
God’s command. "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!"
“Listen
to him.” With Christian identity, there is no avoiding this. Shrines and
rituals alone won’t do. Professing one’s belief won’t do. Being a caring
progressive or holding fast to conservative family values won’t do. We must
listen to Jesus.
When
I was a boy and my mother yelled, “Listen to me!” she spoke of more than hearing
the words. “Listen” put me on notice. I’d better pay attention, and I’d better do
what I heard.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Sermon: Upside Down Blessings
Luke 6:17-26
Upside Down Blessings
James Sledge February
17, 2019
Many
years ago, prior to becoming a pastor, I was teaching an adult Sunday School
class. We were studying Luke, and lesson was on the “Sermon on the Plain,” a
portion of which we just heard. I read the four blessings or beatitudes and the
corresponding woes. I then asked the class what they thought about these words
that spoke of God’s favor on the poor but woe on the wealthy.
One
lady quickly spoke up to correct me. Jesus had said no such thing, she insisted.
He was talking about the poor in spirit, not actual poverty. When I suggested
that she might be thinking of Matthew’s gospel, that Luke spoke of rich and
poor, of well-off and those without enough to eat, she only became more
adamant. Jesus couldn’t possibly have meant that.
I
suspect that when most people think of the Beatitudes, they think of those
found in Matthew. Matthew’s list is a good bit longer than Luke’s, and it has
no corresponding woes. And it also does say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
Matthew’s
beatitudes are more popular, and the long list of blessings sometimes prompts
people to read them as instructions on how to get blessed. I think that misreads
Matthew’s gospel, but you certainly can manage that with many of his beatitudes.
But Luke is an entirely different matter, and unless we’re going to tell people
to become poor, hungry, and mournful in order to gain God’s favor, we’ll have
to find some other way to understand them.
When
Luke tells of these beatitudes and woes, he uses Old Testament language of
blessing and curse. The contrast is between God’s favor and God’s active
disfavor. “Blessed” means God wants things to go well for you. “Woe” means God
wishes bad things upon “you who are rich… who are full now…who are
laughing now… when all speak well of you…”
It’s
more than a little unnerving. If you are poor, hungry, mourning or hated, then
God is for you. But if you’re well off, have a full pantry, are happy and
laughing, and everyone thinks you are wonderful, God is against you. That can’t
be right, can it? No wonder that woman in my Bible study class said what she
did.
These
blessings and woes are completely upside down and backwards from what the world
expects. The world says, “God helps those who help themselves.” We thank God
for our many blessings, often referring to possessions and good fortune that
would seem to put us squarely in the “But woe to you…” camp. And I
think that may be exactly the point Jesus is making. He says that God’s ways
are completely upside down and backwards to ours.
Throughout
history, almost every culture has used religion to buttress the status quo, its
economic system, and so on. It was not so long ago in this country that most
Christian denominations issued statements saying racially based slavery was
ordained by God. Many of these denominations later split in two when Christians
in the north began to question such statements and seek to overturn them.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Sermon: Call Stories
Luke 5:1-11 (Isaiah 6:1-8)
Call Stories
James Sledge February
10, 2019
On
my Facebook feed I’ve seen some of my colleagues commenting on their churches’
annual meetings. It’s that time of year in the Presbyterian Church. Some
churches make a big deal out of it and some simply vote on the pastor’s terms
of call. In many congregations, including this one, the annual meeting includes
electing a new class of elders and, if the church has deacons, deacons as well.
Electing
people as elders and deacons has changed a lot over the years. At one time, becoming
an elder on the Session was a little like getting put on the Supreme Court. You
were likely to stay there until you retired from it or died. This had some good
points. It made elder a very esteemed ministry, and it meant that churches were
very selective in seeking out people who were called to such ministry.
There
was a down side, of course. Sessions sometimes got pretty old and crusty. Some
became heavily invested in making sure nothing ever changed. At some point the
negatives outweighed the positives, and the denomination instituted the term
limits that we have now where no one can serve more than six years without
taking at least a year off.
And
so we’re much less likely to have old and crusty Sessions. In many
congregations, it is unheard of for anyone to serve more than a single, three
year term, and incoming classes of elders and deacons are routinely filled with
people who’ve never been one before. This sometimes makes it difficult to find
enough people year after year to fill all the slots. Talk to anyone who’s ever
served on a nominating committee, and you’ll likely hear about all the times
people said “No” when asked if they would serve.
I
served on a nominating committee at the church where I was a member before
going to seminary, and the pastor is always a member of the nominating
committee, so I’ve had a lot of experience with the process. In my previous
church we even went to a system where the nominating committee came up names
but the associate pastor and I made the actual calls to ask people if they
would serve. It was an idea meant to take away what many saw as the most
difficult part of being on a nominating committee and make it easier to recruit
people for that.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Sermon: People of Love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
People of Love
James Sledge February
3, 2019
Way
back in the spring of 1981, not long after Shawn and I had gotten engaged, we
were visiting at her parents for the weekend. They lived in Gaffney, SC, only
an hour from Charlotte, so we went down there often. And as we typically did on
such visits, we attended worship at First Baptist Church in Gaffney, the church
where Shawn had grown up.
We
had begun thinking about wedding particulars, where the reception would be, who
the bridesmaids and groomsmen were, and the elements of the service itself.
Like a lot of people, we had agreed we wanted the words from today’s scripture
reading used in the wedding, and as we sat in the pews, waiting for worship to
begin on that Sunday morning, I opened up a pew Bible and began to search for
the passage.
I
knew the Bible somewhat, and I was reasonably sure that the passage was in one
of Paul’s letters. I thought it was in 1 Corinthians, but after flipping
repeatedly through its pages, I couldn’t locate it. I may have expanded my search
to other books of the Bible – I don’t really remember – but obviously I didn’t find it there either.
Only
later did I discover why I couldn’t find the passage, even though I had been
looking in the right place. In 1981, First Baptist Church of Gaffney still had
King James Bibles in their pews, and in the King James translation, 1
Corinthians 13 reads differently. Though I speak with the tongues of men and
angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing… And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these
three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Not
exactly the sort of thing to sound all romantic at a wedding ceremony. We still
used the Corinthians passage at our wedding, but not from the King James. In my
twenty some years as a pastor, I’ve probably used this 1 Corinthians passage
more than any other at weddings I’ve done. Always, of course, with a translation
that says “love,” although I typically point out that this isn’t about romantic
love.
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Sermon: Discerning the Body
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Discerning the Body
James Sledge January
27, 2019
I
recently read about a study on why young
people leave church. The study surveyed a couple thousand people, ages 23 to 30,
who had attended Protestant churches regularly while in high school. Two thirds
of these had dropped out, and they were asked to say why, checking as many
items from a list of 55 that applied to them. Almost all checked one or more
boxes in a category labeled “life changes.” This included things such as going
away to college or work responsibilities that made attendance difficult.
Most
of those surveyed said their departure from church was more accidental than
planned. Only a tiny fraction cited a loss of belief. Most were not averse to a
possible return.
This
study got me wondering about the nature of these twenty-somethings connection
to the church. When they had attended, what was the connection? No doubt many
originally went because of parents, but some likely developed an attachment of
their own. Perhaps there were church programs they enjoyed, music, youth
mission trips, a service opportunity that became meaningful. But their
situation changed, and they moved on. They might come back some day. They might
not.
What about you? What is the nature of
your connection to the church? What binds you to the body of Christ? What sort
of thing could break that bond?
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The
Christians in Corinth are different from us. They didn’t grow up with Christian
faith, or Jewish faith for that matter. They were recent converts with a lot of
excitement about their new-found faith. It wasn’t routine to them. They didn’t
come out of habit or expectation. Still, Paul is concerned about their
connection to the body of Christ, about what binds them to the church.
Corinth
was nowhere near the individualistic, consumer culture that we live in, but it
was more so than the one Jesus had lived in or that the church had emerged in.
Perhaps that is why the Corinthians failed to grasp the extremely communal
sense of Christian faith.
Paul
has already addressed a couple of problems related to this, getting particularly
riled up about the Lord’s Supper. The Corinthians worship in the evening in
someone’s home, likely a wealthy member’s. The Lord’s Supper was part of a
full, fellowship meal, but the wealthier members, who were able to get there
earlier, began the meal before the poorer members could finish work and arrive.
At times they had eaten all the food and drunk all the wine before the poorer
members ever got there. Paul chastises them and says that those who
eat and drink without discerning the body eat and drink judgment against
themselves.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Sermon: Spiritual Vitality Exam
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Spiritual Vitality Exam
James Sledge January
20, 2019
Unless
you’re really new around here, you’ve probably heard something about the Renew process that we’ve been doing. There
have been a lot of steps along the way, but what really got the ball rolling
was the results of the Congregational Assessment Tool or CAT.
Two
years ago, representatives from our presbytery walked the Session through the
CAT report drawn from the survey that many of you took. The report was thirty
pages long, filled with all sorts of information and a slew of charts and
graphs. One page was a “Performance Dashboard.” It showed eight gauges that
each went from zero to one hundred. They had labels such as “Governance,
Conflict Management, Engagement in Education,” and so on.
Not
surprisingly, we scored higher in some areas than others, and much our
conversation that day focused on the lower scores. One low score was
“Hospitality,” and we talked about things we might do to address our weaknesses
in this area.
But
our lowest score sparked a different reaction. The needle on the “Spiritual
Vitality” gauge read two, but rather than discussing ways we might deal with this
area of weakness, we instead struggled to understand how this could be. Surely the
score was somehow wrong.
I should point out that these scores are
not absolute. They are percentile rankings that compare us to other
congregations who have taken the CAT survey. In addition, the CAT defines
spiritual vitality in a particular way, and when I looked at the raw data, it
didn’t seem all that bad. Significant majorities tended to agree, agreed, or
strongly agreed that their spiritual experiences impacted how they viewed life,
that they experienced the presence of God in their lives, and they tried to
connect their faith to other aspect of their lives. A minority thought that
while their faith was important other matters were more pressing. Clearly many
individuals here are spiritually vital and vibrant, yet as a community, such
folks make up a smaller percentage than is the case in most other
congregations.
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