Seek the Welfare of the City, a sermon based on Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7 and 2 Timothy 2: 8-15, preached on October 12, 2025

What we’ve just read as our second Scripture lesson is a personal letter. It’s part two of a personal letter that tradition tells us was written by Paul, that legendary leader of the Christian faith, who, when he wrote this letter, was nearing retirement. It was a forced retirement. He was imprisoned. He writes to Timothy, who was just getting started, and so the books of our Bible 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy are full of advice from Paul to Timothy, and the portion of 2nd Timothy that you just heard begins with advice of the most common Christian wisdom. Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “Remember Jesus Christ” is among the most basic of Christian principals, and so I ask you: Do you remember Him? Plenty of people forget about Jesus, or maybe they never really knew Him to begin with. Remember Jesus Christ with me this morning so that we do not use His name in vain. Remember with me Jesus who spoke Aramaic, which is a language that so few people spoke in His time, so that when He traveled outside His hometown, people immediately knew where He was from. Have you ever had that experience? In college, I took a trip to New York City. There, I told a man that I was from Georgia, and he responded, “I know.” Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in Galilee. At that time and in that region, the locals spoke a language called Aramaic, which was sort of like a redneck version of Hebrew, yet not everyone remembers that about Jesus. In fact, in 1924, the Governor of Texas, Miriam Ferguson, in an effort to end the teaching of the Spanish language in public school, was quoted as saying, “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for Texas school children.” Remember Jesus Christ, who didn’t speak English, who was raised in a backwater town and spent most of His life, approximately 85% of his ministry, within 12 square miles of clay on the plains of the Gennesaret on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee in what today we call Palestine. Without any form of mass communication other than word of mouth, with no social media presence whatsoever, Jesus of Galilee became the most influential human being ever to walk the earth. What unfolded on 12 square miles of clay forever changed the world, so before you go thinking that you need to head on to the big city to really live and to expand your sphere of influence, remember Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus Christ, who was influential but did not make a career out of being an influencer. Do you all know that term? It’s possible these days to make a living by developing a presence on social media. You put your brand out there on the internet. You share your opinion or your exercise videos, and once you gather enough followers, marketing companies will pay you to promote their products, and so I tell you that this sermon is brought to you by Cokesbury preacher robes, the best robes to preach in. I’m just kidding about that. I’m not trying to become an internet celebrity. Jesus wasn’t. Remember Jesus, who spent most of His life within 12 square miles of clay. Remember Jesus, who walked around marketplaces full of people yet noticed the individuals. Do you remember that there was a crowd of people and one woman who had been bleeding for 12 years? She reached out and touched His robe, and Jesus turned towards her out and spoke to her. He called her daughter and said to her, “Your faith has healed you.” Rather than use a bullhorn to preach from, He spoke to people. He looked into their eyes. He made people feel seen and loved. Remember Jesus Christ. I’ve just read a book that Denise Lobodinski gave me called Theo of Golden. Have you heard of it? Theo of Golden is about a man from out of town who walked into a small-town coffee shop. On the wall of that coffee shop, he notices portraits of the regulars. A local artist who spent much of his time in that coffee shop started drawing the people he saw around him and was trying to sell the portraits by putting them on the coffee shop wall, only no one had bought any of them. This man, Theo from out of town, couldn’t believe it. How could no one have bought such beautiful portraits? Surely these works of art should be hanging in homes, sitting on bedside tables. They should be enjoyed by the people so beautifully captured by the artist, and so one by one, he bought the portraits and delivered them to the people whom the artist had drawn. Gift by gift, these people were changed. That’s the whole plot of the book. I won’t tell you how it ends because I hope you’ll read it. And for every copy sold this morning, I’ll be receiving $1.00 in proceeds. I’m just kidding, but I do hope you’ll read it because it’s a beautiful book illustrating the truth of how much of a difference one person can make when he slows down to notice the people in his neighborhood. Remember that Jesus spent 85% of His ministry within 12 square miles of clay. What kind of a difference can you make in this world? What kind of a difference can you make if you simply notice the people in your neighborhood? If you simply show kindness and remind them that they are forgiven and loved by God? From 12 square miles, Jesus changed the world. Remember Jesus Christ. Thinking about Jesus this way reminds me of a woman I knew named Nancy Oliver. Nancy was a local celebrity in Columbia, Tennessee where we lived and where I was a pastor for seven years before coming here to Marietta. Nancy walked up and down Church Street. She would walk into First Presbyterian Church to get a cup of coffee, and she’d always try to grab a copy of our church directory so that she could solicit our church members. These days, scammers try to cheat you out of your money through email. Nancy Oliver did it the old-fashioned way. She wasn’t perfect, but she was kind. Once, while it was raining, our church secretary put the potted plant that sat on her desk outside the church so it would get some good rainwater. Nancy picked that plant up and took it to the bank, where she gave it to her favorite teller. That was half a kindness, right? She would visit the staff and the bank. She would visit us at the church. She would also sit with the staff at the funeral home. My point here is that Nancy wasn’t particularly kind, but she was kind enough. She wasn’t educated or influential, but she took the time to talk to people, and when she died, I was one of three pastors who officiated her funeral. She had two soloists and a crowd of people in attendance because when we take the time to be present, getting to know the people in our 12 miles of clay, even if our only kindness is stealing someone’s plant to give it to a bank teller, we will make an impact. Don’t think you have to go to Washington, DC to change the world. Don’t think you have to go on a mission trip to Tanzania to be a missionary. Don’t think you have to see your name in lights to see your name in the Book of Life. Do justice. Love mercy. And walk humbly with your God right here, right now. Turn off the TV, get out of your car, give up those habits that isolate you from the world outside your doors and remember again that there are people around you whose names are worthy of remembering and whose faces bear the image of our creator God. Every single one of us has a calling. Every single one of us is called to serve the Lord, to live our lives for His glory. Do not sleep through this life when God has called you to be a blessing. Remember Jesus Christ, who spent 85% of His 30-some years within 12 square miles of clay yet He shaped eternity. He died before turning 40 yet a more complete life has yet to be lived. You don’t have to live to 100 to make an impact. You don’t have to go to a big school to be somebody. Just slow down and notice the people around you. Remember Jesus Christ. When we left Columbia, Tennessee, the home of Nancy Oliver, my friend Jim Grippo told me a story. He said that a moving truck pulled into a gas station. A man got out of the truck and started filling the tank. An old man sitting outside the convenience store asked, “Where you from?” The moving truck driver said, “We’re coming from the most wonderful place. Full of people we loved. We hated to leave. Do you think we’ll like it here?” The old man said, “You’re going to love it. This town is just like the place you left.” An hour later, a second moving truck pulled in for gas. While he filled the tank, the old man asked, “Where you from?” The man filling the tank said, “We’re coming from a place we’re so glad is now in our rearview mirror. It was full of people we’re so glad to forget. I hope this place is different. Is it?” The old man said, “I hate to say it, but this town is just like the place you left.” My friends, the Palestine of Jesus’ day was full of crooks, infidels, sinners, and the unclean. Remember Jesus, who saw them as the children of God. Avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourselves to God as one approved by Him. Be a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth, which is the Good News of Jesus Christ, that He came into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. May He live through you, and may your spirit be lifted, remembering His power and his might to redeem and save. Amen.

For the Love of Money, a sermon based on1 Timothy 6: 6-19, preached on September 28, 2025

A great preacher named Fred Craddock loved to eat at Waffle House. “It’s a great place to get a BLT,” he said. “You have to take a shower after, but it’s a great place to get a BLT.” One afternoon, after he finished his BLT, he asked his waitress for a cup of coffee, which she brought over with a smile. “Two creams, please,” he requested. She patted around, looking for the right pocket. “I can never find anything in this capricious apron,” she said. “Capricious?” Dr. Craddock asked. Finally finding the creamer in her capricious apron, this waitress laid six, not two, creamers on the table, which was more than Dr. Craddock asked for or needed, and so Dr. Craddock took the two he wanted, handed back the remaining four, but the waitress protested, saying, “Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.” “First capricious and now this,” Dr. Craddock responded, “Are you a waitress or a philosopher?” Then realizing he was in an important conversation with a woman capable of debating the metaphysical issues of human existence, he insisted that she take the four creamers he was not going to use, saying, “Better yet is to take what you need, and then give the rest away.” I don’t know how many times I’ve thought about that exchange. I know I’ve told you about it before. I bring it up today not to get you thinking about going to Waffle House after this worship service. Remember, today is the church picnic. Don’t go out for lunch today. I tell you this story to get you thinking about what you have, what you want, what you need, and that great quest we are all on, even and especially Mick Jagger, that is the quest for human satisfaction. I can’t get no, satisfaction. Gonna try. And I try. And I try. And I try. I love that it was Mick Jagger singing that song because he’s rich. Still, he sang the words: I can’t get no satisfaction, offering us the great irony of having enough money to buy whatever you could ever want, while satisfaction still lies out of reach. A rich man lamenting his fruitless quest for satisfaction is the perfect image to complement our second Scripture lesson from the book of 1st Timothy for, as this letter claims, those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. You can’t buy contentment. To find contentment, you must be in touch with what you need and give the rest away. From the book of 1st Timothy, we hear the warning: the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Yet, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment. Godliness combined with contentment. We know that the perpetual pursuit of more, the inability to be happy with what we have, is a reality in our world of excess, materialism, debt, and superficiality. These issues are not new, although envy and covetousness assault us from every side, perhaps more than ever, in this 21st Century. Today, we cannot escape the billboards trying to sell us something. We are constantly exposed to pictures of people who appear to be having more fun than we are, going on luxurious vacations and sitting in fancy cars. Watching TV with my wife, Sara, every evening I see the same commercials again and again produced by drug companies that have a way of convincing me that I suffer from symptoms that I don’t actually have. Do I have restless leg syndrome? I don’t know. Maybe I do? Am I tired of living with dry and itchy skin? Maybe I am? Certainly, I suffer the plight of all of us who live in this consumer culture that wants us spending more money rather than being satisfied. Remember that the rich man sings, “I can’t get no satisfaction,” because satisfaction cannot be bought. Instead, we read in our second Scripture lesson that there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment. How can we learn to be content? We can’t while we suffer from persistent want, while we want what we can’t have, while we don’t know when to stop our quest for satisfaction, while we want what isn’t even good for us, and within those desires is the root of all kinds of evil. Of course, it’s not wrong to want. The deadly sin is not hunger, but gluttony. The sin is not intimacy, but adultery. Our God knows that we have needs and desires, yet there is a limit set, and the ability to live within that limit is the path of contentment. When was the last time you felt it? I mean really felt contentment. The week before last, I was in Scotland with several members of the choir, and near the end of the trip, someone asked me what my favorite meal had been. Now, this is Scotland. A beautiful place, known for quaint villages untouched by the march of time. A region known for majestic highlands, warm and caring people. A region known for rich Presbyterian history but not known for the food. I had some great meals there, but the meal that stuck out in my mind was not the best meal I had but the worst. One evening, we ate in a hotel. The waitstaff was small, so there were 30 of us and three of them. Everything was coming out in a rush. First, there was shrimp topped with a puddle of mayonnaise. It was so much mayonnaise that it was like mayonnaise pudding. Then came a hamburger that tasted like it had just come out of the microwave. I don’t want to complain, but that burger is seared into my memory. This one bad meal overshadows the rest of my culinary journey. I had haggis, black pudding, and a soup called Cullen Skink that might be the best soup I’ve ever had, while I could even now taste a microwaved hamburger that deserves to be forgotten. Why can I not forget about the burger? Why is it easier for me to remember the worst meal rather than the best? Along these same lines, Sara and I were at dinner with friends last summer. We talked about the opposite of pet-peeves. “We all know what little things drive us crazy. What about those little things that bring us joy? That’s the opposite of a pet-peeve.” Can you think of one? Or is it easier to think of what puts you on edge? What drives you nuts? What gets on your nerves? How far out of reach is satisfaction? Where is contentment? What can you do to find it? Is it easy for you to enjoy the trip, or are you quick to fixate on the food that was all wrong? Do you know that you love the feeling of leaves crunching under your feet? My wife, Sara, loves to crunch acorns while she walks. Once, a little girl told her that she was ruining those acorns for the squirrels who needed their shells intact, so they’d stay fresh through the winter. Sara doesn’t care. She loves the feeling of crunching them and says that this way, the squirrel can have an easy snack while he’s working on his winter stores. My point is simply this: There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, and there is so much danger in fixating on what you don’t have, for the grass is not always greener on the other side, and those who can’t learn to find contentment will be on an eternal quest for more that never reaches satisfaction. Let our song be, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.” A story I love to tell is one about a woman who lost her husband. Her pastor came to visit a month or two after the funeral. From the look of the home, she had hardly left. The pall of grief hung over the place. Upon his arrival, this woman offered her pastor a glass of water. That was all she had because she hadn’t been out to buy groceries. What was the point? She led him out to the sunroom on the back of the house, which was different from every other room. While dust covered the living room and while dishes piled up in the kitchen, the sunroom was covered in sunlight, and blooming African violets covered every surface. She told him that she began growing them years before. Her husband’s mother taught her how. After the visit, she offered him one, which he accepted, but asked if he might deliver the violet to a man in the church newly widowed, whom he was on his way to visit. A week later, this newly widowed man wrote the woman a letter, thanking her for the violet, telling her that it was a bright spot during a dark time, which lifted this woman’s spirits so much that she took out her newspaper, read the obituaries, and sent an African violet to every person in the community who was mourning a loss. Step by step, violet by violet, her own broken heart was healed. She washed the dishes in the sink. She dusted the living room. She came back to life, for the way to satisfaction is taking what you need and giving the rest away. My friends, we live in a culture obsessed with more, and I’ve been the victim, thinking to myself that I’ll finally be happy when we can buy a bigger house, and a new car, and then maybe an investment property, yet if that were so then why would the rich man sing, “I can’t get no satisfaction?” I tell you, our culture has no idea where to find satisfaction. If you want happiness, true and abiding contentment, learn the discipline of keeping what you need while giving the rest away. Amen.

He Gave Himself as a Ransom for All, a sermon based on 1 Timothy 2: 1-7, preached on September 21, 2025

After spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released. He’s quoted as saying, “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Hatred is at work in our nation, my friends. Hatred is at work in our world. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. What is there to be done about it? For a moment this morning, let us put the world outside of our minds to focus on what is going on in our hearts. If we are to follow the example of Jesus Christ, I remind you that there are two primary kinds of people according to the Bible: neighbors and enemies, and Jesus commands us to love them both. Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, Jesus says, or risk remaining in a self-imposed prison of hatred, fear, and resentment. We’ve been singing since we were little that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, and such love echoes throughout the ideals of our nation, and so we grew up saying: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” How many times have you said it? I remember our daughter Lily, just three years old, proudly reciting those words that she learned in preschool. She’s now 16. How many times has she recited those words since then? Thousands of times, most likely. Every day it was for us that we said those words in school. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Then on Sunday, we sang, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” That word “all” matters. The question I have for you today is this: When you say “all” do you really mean “all?” When you say “all,” do you subconsciously mean “most” or “some” or “a few?” When it comes to Jesus, we know that He really loved all people, and that He loved them to such a degree that it made scribes and Pharisees uncomfortable. Listen to this: Last Sunday, I was with several members of the choir who were on tour in Scotland. During a worship service last Sunday, they sang in a beautiful cathedral in a breathtaking city called Inverness. There, we heard this beautiful sermon preached by a retired priest, who focused on the Gospel reading for the day. His accent, his delivery, his interpretation of Scripture was Scottish, so he was speaking English, but I had to work to understand him. His words were familiar and new at the same time. As he preached from the Gospel lesson for last Sunday, the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son, he referenced the Pharisees. You know how those parables start. The introduction to the parables goes: Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The priest in Scotland said, “Pharisees are not the bad people in this passage of Scripture. Don’t read this introduction thinking that the Pharisees are the bad guys. Instead, notice that the bad guys are the ones whom Jesus is eating with.” Jesus ate with the bad guys. How could He eat with them? The enemies of our people? The ones who drive us crazy and disrespect decency? Yet when Jesus said all people, He really meant all. All those people who needed correction, He began with grace. All those people rejected for good reason, Jesus ate with them for He lived as though God wanted all people to be welcomed at God’s table. Such love can be offensive, but it is important. 1st Timothy, tradition tells us, was written by Paul the Apostle to young Timothy, who is working hard to understand and comprehend what it means to be a leader in the Christian Church. Paul writes to Timothy: God our savior, desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That Christ Jesus, himself human, gave himself a ransom for all. When this Scripture lesson uses those words everyone and all, it means it. Likewise, we know that our country is built upon the virtue of liberty and justice for, not some, but all. Yet how often do we pray for all people? I know I’m supposed to, but I’m supposed to do all kinds of things that I don’t actually do. Are you the same way? I heard a story last week about a young Scottish minister, invited by a couple from the church to come and have dinner. The couple knew that their new minister didn’t receive much of a salary and so would likely be grateful for a free meal and a bit of warm hospitality. They polished the silver and laid out a linen tablecloth, yet when the meal was over they were missing one silver spoon. You can imagine the wife saying to her husband, “I knew he was poor, but stealing our silver is kind of desperate, isn’t it?” Over time, while they tried to forget about it, the missing spoon invaded her thoughts. She worried over it and how to confront the young pastor. What if he goes stealing from other people, and what of the money put in the offering plate? Does he just help himself to it? Finally, she spoke to her husband, and they decided to have him over for dinner again that at least the hard conversation would be had over a good meal. Perhaps that would soften the blow, so, “We’re missing a spoon,” they said after a couple glasses of wine. The pastor looked up, and said, “You haven’t found it? I left it inside your Bible.” Do not neglect the discipline of reading your Bible, for Scripture calls us to our higher virtues. Do not neglect the discipline of praying for your enemies, for in the words of that great Church Father, John Chrysostom, “No one can feel hatred towards those for whom he prays.” Do you pray for your enemies? Do you pray for those who persecute you? Do you pray for those with whom you disagree? Love your enemies, Jesus said, for we know what happens when people are willing to hate. My friends, the battle lines have been drawn. Hatred lurks around every corner, yet may the darkness of hatred be cast out of this church. May hatred be cast out of your hearts by the bright light of love. Read your Bible. Observe the discipline of praying for your enemies. Let your children and grandchildren hear you do it. Teach them how. Let it begin simply, with simple words: “Lord, we pray for our neighbors, both the Smiths, who gave us cookies, and the Bryans, who let their dog poop in our grass.” “Lord, I pray for my coworkers, even my boss who takes credit for my good ideas and the woman who ate a tuna fish sandwich at her desk and stunk up the whole office. Make me more patient. Prepare me for tomorrow.” “Bless my sister-in-law, even though she is judgmental. Heal my friend, even though her most likely diagnosis is being a hypochondriac.” “Wrestle from my mind the idea that I need to control and judge when You call me to love.” Pray for your enemies. Don’t shoot them. Don’t fire them. Don’t resent them. Don’t vilify them. Pray for them. Let the enemy you really worry about be the one turning you against your neighbor, for God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, is pulling us together, reconciling us to one another rather than urging us to declare war with the other side. In Scotland, just before the choir started singing at that Cathedral in Inverness, a woman went up to Dr. Jeffrey Meeks, asking with an American accent, “Are you really from Marietta, Georgia?” Her mother had just died, and her mother’s dying wish was for her remains to be laid to rest in Scotland, so this woman we met had brought her mother’s remains all the way to Scotland and laid her mother’s remains to rest near a waterfall in that town, Inverness, the same town where we were visiting. It was a long way for this woman to journey with her mother’s remains, and it was an amazing coincidence that we would be there singing because her mother was from Marietta, Georgia. She traveled from her home, then all the way to Scotland, and met us there, for my friends, God is pulling us together. Do not give in to the power of hatred, which pulls us apart. Will Myers, our Director of Communication, and I took a side trip to London to visit little Harriet whom we baptized two summers ago. You may remember that Harriet and her family worship with us on-line. They’ll likely worship with us today all the way over in London. We walked through the door of their house in London, and Harriet read me a psalm out of the Bible that this church gave her. She made a welcome banner, which hung in the kitchen. Her aunt made us so much food; it was like a Thanksgiving dinner-sized meal. Around the table, I said a blessing, giving thanks to God for pulling us together, and after dinner, Will took out his violin and played a concert in their kitchen. Harriet’s aunt cried at the table. She was moved to tears. I was moved as well. How could I not be? Despite all the miles that divide us, there we were, for God brings people together while the enemy tears us apart. My friends, there won’t be a separate section for the Baptists up in Heaven. Nor will there be separate sections for the Democrats and the Republicans. There will be no wall between those who have a Green Card and those who do not. Nor will there be a line to separate the saints from the sinners. Therefore, we had better start getting along together now. Pray for each other, especially your enemies. May love stretch you towards acceptance of difference and may love push you towards reconciliation. While hatred lurks in our world, may an end to the hatred begin with you. May it begin with me. Amen.

There's More Than Meets the Eye, a sermon based on Jeremiah 18: 1-11 and Philemon, preached on September 7, 2025

Up until his funeral last Thursday, I’d only really gotten to know Dr. Nelson Price from reading what he wrote in the Marietta Daily Journal, but reading what he wrote in the paper was one thing. Hearing the eulogies given by friends, colleagues, and family members was another that gave me a fuller appreciation for this man who served the Lord at Roswell Street Baptist Church for 35 years. My favorite was the first eulogy given by the Rev. Dr. Ike Richard of Piedmont Church and CEO of MUST Ministries. You may have read what he said; it was reprinted in the paper last Friday. Ike began his remarks saying, “Dr. Nelson Price called me on the darkest day of my life. On March 1, 1983, I watched my wife and my child die in front of me during childbirth at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. I have no earthly idea how he found out in so short a space of time, but he called me at the hospital, and he said these words to me, “Brother Ike, Cindy is now with the only One who loves her more than you do.” This is 2025, but when Ike told this story about a phone call he received in 1983 at the funeral of the man who took the time to call, the memory was fresh. The difference that call made to him was obvious. Are there phone calls or letters that you received at just the right time that you’ll always remember? Today, our Scripture lesson is a letter sent by Paul to a man named Philemon: a letter that meant so much to him that he never threw it out. If he hadn’t saved it, we wouldn’t have it to read today. While it’s now a book of the Bible, know what we’ve just read was a personal note written from Paul to Philemon about a man named Onesimus, who is the subject of the letter. It’s the well-being of Onesimus that gave Paul a reason to write. You see, Paul knew that Philemon saw Onesimus from one perspective, while Philemon saw Onesimus from another. Knowing that there’s always more than meets the eye when it comes to people, notice verse 11 and see that Paul viewed Onesimus as useful, while Philemon viewed Onesimus as useless. Philemon saw Onesimus as a useless runaway slave, a disobedient headache, while Paul saw Onesimus as his son, his own heart. This difference in perspective reminds me of something we mortal human beings often do. Despite our limited viewpoint, we sometimes mistake our opinion of a person for the truth about a person. Sometimes, we boldly believe that our narrow judgement has authority. We imagine that we know, yet when it comes to people, there is almost always more than meets the eye. Sometimes, parents learn that lesson the hard way at the parent teacher conference. I’ve been to parent teacher conferences where the teacher spoke so glowingly about my children, saying things like, “She’s a delight in class. She’s always smiling and following directions the first time I give them, so I never have to tell her twice.” “Teacher, maybe you’d like to see how she cleans her room after I’ve asked her to clean it four or five times.” You may have had the same experience. We all get so used to seeing people in the light we’ve always seen them in that we can’t see them for who they truly are. Philemon called Onesimus useless, yet Paul called him useful. Why? Maybe because Philemon knew him as his slave, his property, while Paul knew him as his son, his own heart. This is the way it often is. There’s always more to people than meets the eye, even if it’s your husband of 40 years that we’re talking about, or your children, or the guy who cuts your grass. Later today, I’m presenting research for my doctorate, but I still remember the sting of a woman’s words when I was her lawn maintenance man. I was bagging up grass clippings in the driveway of her Buckhead mansion, and I overheard her addressing her children, “Do you see what that man is doing? That’s why you go to college kids, so you don’t have to do that for a living.” I’d like to invite her to my graduation, but there’s no need for that, for while some people in this world may not see me clearly, God always does. God sees me and knows me. He is the Potter, and I am the clay. While I may have at times been nothing more than a lump, I know that God is at work in my life, shaping me towards my infinite potential. God is at work in your life, shaping you towards your infinite potential. God is at work in your neighbor’s life, shaping him towards his infinite potential, so don’t you dare limit him with your understanding of what he is capable of. Has anyone here ever been the victim of some narrowminded assumption? Who here has ever been damaged by a judgmental word? If you know how it hurts to be judged by someone else, then give up judging your neighbor. With all God’s people, there is always more than meets the eye. Take, for example, the crew I worked with cutting grass. In another life, one had been a ballroom dance instructor; another had been a dentist. The circumstances that led to them crossing the border and taking a job cutting grass were stories seldom heard. To many of those we worked for, we were hardly more than Onesimus was to Philemon. Immigrant is a derogatory word in the mouths of some people these days. It carries with it all sorts of misunderstanding and false assumption. Likewise, to Philemon, Onesimus was an enslaved man, useless and disobedient. However, Paul saw Onesimus as a beloved child of God, and so he wrote, “I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you,” and “I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.” Paul doesn’t tell Philemon what to do or how to act. He doesn’t demand that Philemon set Onesimus free, but he does tell him how to decide what to do. In a time when slavery was legal, and Philemon had every right under the law to discipline Onesimus through corporal punishment; in a time when the law allowed for Philemon to sell him or have him thrown in prison, Paul writes to Philemon and to us, urging us to believe that the path to the right decision is informed by love. I appeal to you on the basis of love. Not on the basis of the law, but on the basis of love. While it may be that compassion and empathy sometimes need to be pushed aside by logic, reason, lucidity, and cold hard facts, Paul appeals to Philemon on the basis of love. While we live in a world of law and order, politics and policy, do not forget that ultimately, we will be judged by the only One who loves us more than those who love us most. Grant your neighbors the same grace that you have received in Christ Jesus our Lord, and may the world become a better place through your love. Amen.

Better with Age, a sermon based on Exodus 19: 16-19 and Hebrews 12: 18-29, preached on August 24, 2025

In both our Scripture lessons for this morning, we learn that Moses, a great hero of the faith, a symbol of faithfulness and dedication, was less than confident when he approached God high up on that mountain where he received the Ten Commandments. We read from the book of Exodus: Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak, and God would answer. Our second Scripture lesson alludes to this moment and tells us that as Moses approached God, he trembled with fear. Why wouldn’t he? After all, our God is, according to the book of Hebrews, “a consuming fire.” “A consuming fire,” that refines us so that our impurities go up in smoke. The work of a silver smith is one of refining. Do you know anything about how silver is refined? I’m glad because I want to tell you about it. Silver comes out of the ground full of impurities. You can’t make fine jewelry out of silver fresh from the ground. The impurities must be burned out of it. The silver ore is melted, and the heat of an intense fire burns the impurities so that what remains is pure silver. The silver refiner knows that the silver is finally pure when he looks into the melted silver and can see his reflection looking back at him. Now that’s refining, which is not the same as aging. Birth leads to childhood. Childhood to adolescence. Adolescence to adulthood. Adulthood to old age, but getting old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. Many people resist the whole process and would rather stay young. The comedian Lucille Ball said that the secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and to lie about your age. The continual process of refinement calls us to embrace hardship and to face challenges with courage until our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer looks at us and sees His own reflection looking back. I’m not sure that’s how our youth-obsessed culture thinks about aging. What do we know gets better with age? Wine? Whiskey? Cheese? People? I don’t know that many in our world today believe that people get better with age. If we believed that we could get better with age, we might not spend so much money trying to look young. In 2016, men and women in the United States spent a total of $16 billion dollars on cosmetic treatments to defy ageing. We spend that money because when our skin sags, we want to keep it tight. When our hairlines recede, we resist baldness. To avoid atrophy in our muscles and to maintain bone density, we exercise in weighted vests. When varicose veins appear or unsightly hairs spring out from chins, we do something about it. We pluck and dye. We diet and apply creams. But what if instead we were bold enough to believe that with age comes refinement? That aging makes us better. One of my favorite sayings about aging is that a child becomes a teenager when he can see that his parents are not perfect; a teenager becomes an adult when he forgives them; and an adult becomes wise when he forgives himself. That sounds like refinement. Which requires courage. When I was a pastor in Tennessee, I would often visit Mrs. Jean Love, who would get upset with me whenever I was late for our appointment. Once, she called me to visit because she wanted to plan her funeral. I asked why she wanted to plan with me her funeral when she wasn’t sick and was still living on her own, and she said, “Pastor, getting old is awful, but it’s so much worse if you’re afraid to look it in the eye.” There is so much in this life that I’ve been afraid to face. I’ve feared getting older. I’ve feared looking older, and some mornings I’ve even feared just looking in the mirror, but last Wednesday night I had to. Did you hear that last Wednesday night at the Glover Park Brewery there was a Joe Evans impersonation contest? I was nervous about it, for I feared looking in the mirror. How am I being perceived? When people dress like me, will I be ashamed of how I look? Matt Sitkowski was the winner. There was no question from our daughters, who served as the judges. Matt Sitkowski was the best. He wore a robe like the one I have on. He found some glasses that look like the glasses I’m wearing, and he started out his impersonation talking about growing tomatoes in the basement, which is something that I do, and how I grew the perfect tomato, but went upstairs to make a tomato sandwich, only the Duke’s Mayonnaise jar was empty. How many times have I mentioned Duke’s Mayonnaise? Several. Finding the jar empty, I was at first, “happy, and hungry, and hopeful,” yet the “jar was empty,” Matt said. It was like looking into a mirror only it didn’t make me self-conscious. I didn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed. I only felt thankful because this church, every year, is getting better and stronger and is reaching out into the community with a greater dedication for service, and if I have something to do with it, then I simply want to say, “Thanks be to God” because I just want to be useful. I just want to be found faithful. I just want to serve the One who created me, who sustains me, who gave His life for me, and for Him to look at me and see His image looking back. In this culture of isolation, narcissism, and selfish ambition, let us all get better with age, focused less on looking younger and more on the needy. Focused less on the car that we drive and more on the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the unhoused. This morning, if you were in Holland Hall, then you had the opportunity to get involved in something new: a new Bible study, a new fellowship group, a new way to serve the Lord in this community. If you missed it, it’s not too late: Just pick up one of these catalogs and find a new activity. I promise that every opportunity listed is more fulfilling that staying at home and watching the news, and each one provides the opportunity for you to get better with age because all these opportunities keep us focused on someone other than ourselves. Let us all be refined to love our God and our neighbor more deeply. There is a world outside our doors calling for us to pay attention. Let us shape and change this world as we are refined by the power of God. Amen.

So Great A Cloud of Witnesses, a sermon based on Hebrews 11: 29 - 12: 2, preached on August 17, 2025

The seminary where I was a student was attempting to build relationships with churches in Jacksonville, Florida. Along with four or five others, I was asked to represent the seminary. I had the idea that the development office asked their best and brightest to go on this trip to preach well, reflecting the quality of education at Columbia Theological Seminary, but as the congregation left the sanctuary after my sermon, one man asked me, “What year are you in the seminary?” Proudly, I said, “I’m in my third year, sir.” “Three years? Well, they should have taught you something better than that by now,” he said. I still hear his voice some days. Although, I also hear the voice of Jim Hodges. I’ve told you about him before. A picture of his thumb sits by my desk. He chaired the committee who interviewed and called me to my first church. After each sermon I preached, he’d give me a thumbs up, telling me I’d done well. As he lay dying in the hospital, he took a picture of his thumb and gave it to me so that I’d feel his encouragement even after he was gone. These two and many others whisper in my ear as I stare at the empty page attempting to write another sermon or nervously walk the steps into the pulpit. On the one hand are the critics and on the other, the encouragers. My confidence wavers between the two. If my hands are shaking as I walk into the pulpit, it’s because each Sunday morning, I ask myself the same questions: “Is this sermon any good?” Do I have a word to proclaim? Or am I still that seminary student waiting to learn something better than that sermon I preached in Jacksonville, Florida? Can anyone here relate to what I’m saying? When you step out in faith, which voices whisper in your ear? Is there one saying, “You can do anything” and another saying, “You’ll never amount to anything?” The voices from our past come sneaking back to our consciousness, and for some, the negative voices are the easiest to believe, yet I had a grandmother who thought I hung the moon. When I was 10 or 11, she got a hold of a picture of me in my baseball uniform, and she took it to the photo shop where they blew it up into a three foot by five foot baseball card. That I rarely got on base and mostly sat the bench was of little importance to her. In her eyes, I was going to the major leagues. Did you have a grandmother like that? My friends, there is a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on while we run this race. Can you hear them? A verse from our second Scripture lesson reads: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. I love those words. I appreciate the thought of sin as a weight we carry that we are invited to lay down. I love that image of a crowd of people who love us, who are cheering for us as we journey through the ups and downs of life on our way to glory. That image reminds me of a man I heard about who collects pictures of baseball players as they’re rounding third base after they hit a walk-off home run. Do you know what a walk-off home run is? A walk-off home run is the term used for a home run that wins the game. When a player hits a home run that wins the game, it’s traditional for his teammates to clear the bench and to gather around home plate to welcoming him as he seals the win. When asked why he collects these pictures, the man said, “It’s because that’s how I imagine it will be when we get to heaven.” That great cloud of witnesses, having cheered us through the ups and downs of life, will welcome us to our eternal home. Can you hear them cheering you on now? Do you listen to their voices? And are their voices loud enough to drown out the critics holding you back? Our second Scripture lesson mentions Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. If you haven’t been to Sunday school in a while, you may not know all their names or all their stories. Let me just tell you what they all have in common: They all suffered but never lost faith in the Promise. The odds were against them, but God was on their side. They overcame hardship. They had faith amid despair. Even in times of conflict, they expected peace. They remained hopeful for the rising sun even though the night was long. Their lives pointed to Jesus, who is the Pioneer and Perfector of our faith. He faced the cross, disregarding its shame, and now sits at the right hand of God. In the last two weeks, three members of our church were added to their number in that great cloud of witnesses. Cam Jones died last week. When Cam Jones first visited our church after trying out several churches in the area, during the worship service, he looked at his wife, Darcy, and said, “This is the place.” Harry Vaughn died last week. When Harry was the greeter at the front doors of our church on Sunday mornings, he wore his best chartreuse blazer and seasonally-appropriate tie. The week before last, Bob Brown died. When Bob Brown was recovering from any of his age-related injuries or setbacks, his physical therapists would ask him, “What goal are you working for, Mr. Brown?” “I just want to get back to church.” My friends, they’ve joined that great cloud of witnesses, and when we get there, I look forward to hearing Cam say, “This is the place.” I look forward to Harry welcoming me through the pearly gates wearing that chartreuse blazer. I look forward to Bob telling me, “Getting here was worth working for, but you made it, not of your own strength. You made it by the grace of God.” Bob Brown died at the ripe old age of 98. He loved his country so much that he enlisted in the Navy. A few years later, he reenlisted in the Army. Then a couple years ago, he heard our choir sing a patriotic anthem during a Veterans Day event. Bob walked up to the lectern and declared, “I’m more than 90 years old, but after that, I’m ready to enlist a third time.” One bright morning, our battle will be over. When that day comes, you’ll be welcomed into the Kingdom by that great cloud of witnesses who have been cheering you on all the way through. Listen to them today. Learn to hear their voices, so that you might run without growing weary. Walk, but do not faint. Let us all run this race in faith until we make it to our eternal home. Amen.

Faith: the Assurance of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things Not Seen, a sermon based on Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16, preached on August 10, 2025

Faith is one of those elusive religious words that we use freely but which is difficult to nail down and define succinctly. That’s one reason I love the first verse of this Scripture lesson from the book of Hebrews: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is something like saving for retirement in your 20’s. Do you remember what that was like? Some of you remember what it was like to start saving; others are starting now. I remember being in a meeting with a representative of the Board of Pensions for the Presbyterian Church. I was 25, and he was telling me to prepare now for being 65, which at the time seemed to have so little relevance to me because in that moment I didn’t have enough money to pay the bills that were past due. Why should I worry with bills that would come 40 years down the road? We plan for the future because the future is coming. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Aesop tells the story of the grasshopper who lived only for the day. It was Spring. Why worry about Winter? Yet the ants were filling their storeroom while the grasshopper was enjoying the sun. Winter is coming. Plan for what is not here yet. If you think about faith as something like saving for retirement, then more or less, you are acting on faith all the time. We good Presbyterians don’t just live for today. We’re always preparing for tomorrow. We are all convinced that what we see right here is not all that there will be. We know that change is the constant, so we live today with bright hope for tomorrow. We send our kids to school to prepare for careers that are far down the road. Faith isn’t so complicated a thing. You’re living this way all the time but remember that faith is on the one hand while fear is on the other. When you think about the future, are you acting in faith or out of fear? As you raise your children, which impulse guides your decisions? Listen to this passage from a classic chapter book that my mother read to me: Ramona’s day was off to a promising start for two reasons, both of which proved she was growing up. First of all, she had a loose tooth, a very loose tooth, a tooth that waggled back and forth with only a little help from her tongue. It was probably the loosest tooth in her whole class which meant that the tooth fairy would finally pay a visit to Ramona before long. But not only did Ramona have a loose tooth to make her feel that she was finally beginning to grow up, she was going to walk to school all by herself. Do you remember this book? Those Ramona books were popular years ago, but they’re showing their age now because the scene that I just described, it unfolds as Mrs. Quimby, Ramona’s mother, takes Ramona’s older sister, Beezus, to the dentist. With Mom taking Beezus to the dentist, little Ramona must wait in the kitchen by herself until it’s time to walk herself to school. Her mother tells her to wait in the kitchen watching the clock until it’s a quarter past 8. It’s not a digital clock she’s watching, but a clock with the hands moving around in a circle that some adults have a hard time reading. Mrs. Quimby tells Ramona to leave the house a quarter past 8. Ramona understand 8 but isn’t sure about how many minutes are in a quarter of an hour. She remembers that a quarter coin is worth 25 cents, so she leaves the kitchen at 8:25 when she should have left at 8:15. She misses the chance to walk with her friend Howie, who was waiting at 8:15 but went on to school without her. By the time Ramona left the house, the sidewalk was empty, the crossing guard had gone, and Ramona made it to Kindergarten late. That’s right. Kindergarten. My friends, I was still walking our girls to school into their 5th grade year because in our culture, it’s not just faith that guides our actions, it is also an overwhelming sense of fear, worry, and anxiety. I looked back at a sermon I preached on this passage in Hebrews that we’re focused on this morning from six years ago. In that sermon preached in 2019, I told you that I had just walked Lily to her first day of 5th grade, and I told you that I stood there waving as she walked into Westside Elementary, saying a silent prayer for her safety and her success. I was worried standing there, but I felt better because just before she made it into the school she turned around and waved back to me. It was a wonderful moment that warmed my heart until that afternoon. Lily came home from school and told Sara, “Mama, dad just stands there for so long when he drops me off at school. I finally had to wave him away. Go on to work, Dad. Please tell him to stop standing there for so long.” My point here is that faith is on the one hand while fear is on the other. The Bible speaks to this reality. The phrase “fear not” appears in some form 365 times in the Bible, once for every day of the year, because our lives as Christians must be defined, not by fear but by faith, and when I say faith, I’m not talking about your acceptance of doctrine or dogma. I’m not so worried about how well you’ve memorized and digested the essential tenants of the Creeds and Confessions. What I want is for you to walk out these doors every Sunday assured once again that the One who holds us in His hands is not going to let your foot slip. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. What do you hope for? What have you not seen, but you dream of? I’ve been reading a book that Dr. John Knox wrote. In addition to being a long-time member of our church, John’s been working in the emergency room at Kennestone Hospital for years, and he wrote a book that you can buy on Amazon.com in which we follow the exploits of a surgeon operating on wounded soldiers fighting in the Civil War. It’s a gruesome account. Dr. Knox describes these surgeries, some of which we know took place in our Sanctuary after the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Back then, there was so little that anyone could do for a gunshot wound other than cut off the whole leg or arm, whichever had been shot. The surgeon had to sand down the bone so it wouldn’t poke through the skin once the wound had been stitched closed. Reading this book helped me gain a new appreciation for the suffering of those boys who laid on the floor of our Sanctuary. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be among them? Moreover, could they have imagined what it’s like to be us? Could the 12 families who donated their savings so that our Sanctuary could be built back in 1850 have imagined this church as it is today? Moreover, can you imagine what it will be like to be a member of this church 50 years or 100 years from now? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, and the future is coming, but do you believe that tomorrow will be better than today? My friends, we all know that we are living in this 21st century, where the influence of the Church is waning, where faithfulness appears to be in short supply, but my greater concern is that in the absence of faith comes fear, and I see fear at work all over the place. Fear is making our minds closed rather than open to the promise. Fear is making our hearts small, rather than filled with compassion. Too many are living without knowing where we are going. Too few make wise decisions because they are so fearful for what lies ahead. Those articles covering the decline of Roswell Street Baptist Church have haunted my dreams. Have you seen them? A church that declined in membership from 9,000 to 450. My friends, such reports are staggering, but I’m not afraid today. I’m done with fear. The only way we’ll fail is if we give up. God is with us, working His purpose out. Our lives are defined not by fear but by faith, which is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, so while you might look out on a world today marked by bloodshed and scarred by division, the future we are promised gives us reason to be ever hopeful. We are walking towards the Kingdom of God. Be convinced that love always wins, and that our God is working against injustice for the betterment of all His children. Scripture promises that we are moving towards a tomorrow that is brighter than all our yesterdays. Halleluia. Amen.