Monday, January 25, 2021

Sermon: Leaving Where We Are

Mark 1:14-20
Leaving Where We Are

James Sledge                                                                                      January 24, 2021


 I used to do a bit of fly fishing, and I sometimes go shrimping with a casting net when I’m at the beach. Maybe some of you do a bit of fishing now and then. I bring this up because our gospel reading seems to speak of Jesus’ first disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, repenting of fishing. Why would they need to repent of fishing?

Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”  And the very first action associated with this call to repent and believe is inviting some fisherman to follow him. And immediately they (repented) and followed him. I know. It doesn’t actually say they repented, but that is what happened. They turned away from what they had been doing – fishing – left their nets, their boat, their father, and went with Jesus. There might not be anything evil or sinful about fishing, but they walked away from it, something that may well have been the only way of life they had ever known.

The word “repent” is not a word often used in general conversation. It’s not a word used often in Presbyterian churches other than when it shows up in the Bible. The word has taken on an almost totally religious sense and a negative one at that. “Repent!” comes from a bony fingered street preacher who’s pointing at someone he thinks will go to hell otherwise.  Repent has come to mean, “Stop being bad, and start being good” or, more frequently, “Stop not believing in Jesus and start believing.” But in the Bible, while the word does mean to stop one thing and start another, it does not always follow that the thing is bad.

There is some repenting in our Old Testament reading. You might think I’m talking about the people of Nineveh who heard of God’s judgment against them. But in the verses we read, the one who repents is God. Bible translators are a bit queasy about saying God repented, and so they write, And God changed his mind… But “repented” is the literal translation.

I suspect that when we hear Jesus say, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news,” we assume it isn’t addressed to us. We already believe the good news, so we’re done. But that misses the fact that Jesus calls us to do more than believe. He calls us to follow him, and repenting is part of that. 

Monday, January 11, 2021

Sermon video: A Holy Wind

 

Videos of sermons and worship available on the FCPC website.

Sermon: A Holy Wind

 Genesis 1:1-5; Mark 1:4-1
A Holy Wind

James Sledge                                                                                     January 10, 2021

Baptism of Jesus, Bazile Castera 

Mural in Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, 

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

from Art in the Christian Tradition

a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library

My wife and I have not had the best luck with wind since we came to Falls Church. I can think of a couple of times when winds knocked the power out and it stayed off long enough that we lost the entire contents of the refrigerator. And the terrible derecho that came through Northern Virginia in 2012 struck the evening before the moving truck arrived at the church manse with all our stuff from Columbus, OH. The movers unloaded on a sweltering July day into a house without AC. It was out for most of the week that followed. Fond memories.

This past week, and ill wind blew through Washington, DC, bringing sights I had never imagined, a wind that embodied fear, hate, racism, and privilege. And this wind was driven, in part, by the voice and tweets of our president.

The wind blows and things change, sometimes in terrifying ways. But the wind also blows in our Old Testament reading this morning. Those of you who learned the Genesis creation account some years ago may recall it differently. Previous Bible translations said something like In the beginning… the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. But in the newer translation we heard this morning, a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Sermon: Unexpected, Embodied Love

 John 1:1-18
Unexpected, Embodied Love


January 3, 2021                                                                                         James Sledge

 During our long pandemic, streaming shows and movies has become an even more popular pastime. People are watching The Crown or The Queen’s Gambit, or catching up on movies or shows they’ve missed or re-watching ones they loved.

Even though I’ve not done much binging myself, I did do a little thinking about what really good movies I wouldn’t mind going back and watching again. I enjoy movies that a purely fun. I’ve seen Independence Day more times than I can count. But when I say really good movies, I’m speaking of ones that wrestled with some major issue, that were poignant, that moved me or troubled me in some way. Movies such as One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Lion King, To Kill a Mockingbird, Spotlight, and Saving Private Ryan, although I’m not sure I want to watch the Normandy landing part of that one again.

One movie that both moved and troubled me, perhaps because of its religious themes, was the 1995 film, Dead Man Walking. For those who never saw it, the movie revolves primarily around two characters, Matthew, a death row inmate played by Sean Penn, and Sister Helen, a nun played by Susan Sarandon. Matthew is despicable man with no sense of guilt for his crimes, no concern or sympathy for his victims. He is a walking poster-boy for the death penalty and seems to have absolutely no redeeming qualities.

Sister Helen is not blind to this. In fact she is quite repulsed by Matthew. Yet she feels compelled to keep coming to see him, to try and somehow reach him, to find the image of God somewhere underneath all the evil and hate and viciousness.

Matthew realizes Sister Helen’s religious motivations, and so he toys with her, seeing how much he can shock and infuriate her, testing the limits of her faith convictions. At times she considers not returning, but she always comes back.

Somewhere along the way, Sister Helen’s presence starts to become a comfort to Matthew. He’s not really sure why, but he misses her when she isn’t there. He’s upset when he is unable to see her for any length of time. At the same time he still mistreats her, and seems to try to drive her off. It is as if her presence brings him both comfort and pain.