It is Good to Say "Thank You," a sermon based on Song of Solomon 2: 8-13 and James 1: 17-27, preached on October 20, 2024

You may know that men have a strange way of expressing their emotions. We don’t always know what to say, especially when love is involved, and so in our first Scripture lesson, this young man is standing behind a wall, looking through the lattice. What is he doing back there? Why doesn’t he just come out to tell this young woman how he feels? Maybe you know. Eventually, he gathers the courage to say: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away,” but that’s not easy for a man to say. It took me months to finally say it. Sara and I were in college together. It was a small school, Presbyterian College, with only 1,200 students. I fell in love with her the first or second time I saw her. Of course, I didn’t know how to tell her that. I couldn’t just come out and say it, so one day, I bought a medallion of beef jerky. I used to love beef jerky, and I bought that beef jerky shaped in the form of a medallion, and I chewed it into a heart, which I gave to her in the library. I’m surprised she didn’t report me to the campus police. I didn’t know how to say how I felt. Maybe you didn’t either. However, at some point, we all must come out from behind the wall to stop looking through the lattice. At some point, we take a leap, we step out to say what’s on our hearts, and no, it’s not always pretty, but it’s always beautiful when it’s love. Love is beautiful, and Bible scholars have been saying for years, since the time of the great Hebrew teachers in Babylon, that the Bible is the love story between God and humanity. Throughout history, God has declared His love to us, and Scripture records it. In the beginning, by speaking light into existence, God says to us, “I love you.” By creating this world for us to live in, By knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs and knowing the number of hairs on our heads, By breathing breath into our lungs, By saving us from slavery in Egypt, By speaking through the prophets when we’d lost our way, By giving us a life to live and a nation to live in, By offering His life on the cross that we would be saved, By dying, then rising, never giving up, loving us with an eternal love, We take the bread and wine and remember, yet all around us are God’s gifts. All around us are God’s declarations of love. God comes right out from behind the lattice to lay His heart on the line. How will we respond? Our daughter Cece left her sandwich on the counter last Wednesday morning. I ran down the driveway to give the sandwich to Sara who drove the sandwich down the street to Cece, who was walking to school. Sara handed Cece that sandwich, and Cece said, “Where’s my lunchbox?” Not, “Thank you.” Not, “I would have gone hungry without you.” But “Where’s my lunch box?” Now, our kids are not ungrateful. Our kids are wonderful. When Cece was in Kindergarten, she had to write an essay on her hero, and she wrote about me. That essay is three sentences long: “My dad is my hero. He built me a treehouse. That’s why he’s my hero,” and I will save that essay for the rest of my life because it feels so good to love someone with your whole heart and then to feel some of her love come back in the form of gratitude or acknowledgement. Parents know that. Grandparents know that. Boys who fall in love know that. How have you responded to God’s declarations of love? All around us, God has declared His love for us, but once God has come out to tell us that He loves us, once He’s stuck His head out from behind the lattice and stepped out from behind the wall to tell us that He would give His very life for us, how will we respond? Will we respond with a, “But where’s my lunch box?” For the fourth Sunday in a row, the book of James asks us the same question in plain terms: Are you doers of the word or merely hearers? Respond to God’s love with the religion that is pure and undefiled. Care for orphans and widows, just as God has cared for you. What happens to couples who stand up on their wedding day, making promises to each other that one keeps and the other doesn’t? What happens to friendships when one is always there yet the other makes excuses? What does it mean for us if God continues to pour His heart out to us, and we never respond? James says it plainly: Faith without works is dead. That’s what the book of James says because the author of this book of Scripture knows that faith, if it’s real, turns into something. Love, when it’s real, turns into something. When we feel it, we respond, and if we never respond, was anything there to begin with? I heard the most beautiful story last week. You may know that our own Jeff Knapp, when he heard that we were livestreaming our worship service into the Cobb County Jail, felt a calling to go and to get to know the men and women there. He started by feeding the jail staff. Then, he gathered up some volunteers, and together they restocked the jail library with more than 2,000 books. They’ve given out more than 500 Bibles. Clothed by the Spirit, Jeff trained to become a jail chaplain and is now leading Bible studies and praying with the men and women in the jail. His story is one of the most inspiring stories that our church has to tell, for he is living out his calling in a powerful way, giving up his time, and what is he receiving in return? Last week, he led a study with eight men, and when it ended and Jeff got up to leave, one of the men stopped him, saying that they wanted to thank him for all that he’s given them, and together, with the guard on duty, those incarcerated men began to sing. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory To wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven The King of kings calls me His own. Beautiful Savior, I’m yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. That’s what they sang. All they had was a song, but that was more than enough. What do you have to give? Have you taken the time to thank God for what He has given you? My friends, take this card, fill it out, and may this act of returning to God a portion of what He provided you be a sign of your gratitude. For it is good to say, “Thank you.” Amen.

Happy Are Those Who Do Not Follow the Advice of the Wicked, a sermon based on James 3: 13 - 4: 3, 7-8a, preached on October 13, 2024

The Bible frequently warns us about money. Did you know that? Look it up. Roughly 2,350 verses concern money in the Bible. Nearly 15% of everything Jesus spoke about related to money and our possessions. I guarantee you that less than 15% of my sermons mention money because money is uncomfortable to talk about. I don’t feel good preaching to you about money, for I assume that not a one of you woke up this morning and said, “We’ve got to get to church. It’s the stewardship season, so I bet Joe is going to tell us what to do with our money. I don’t want to miss that.” However, there are 39 parables in the Gospels. 11 out of the 39 are about money, which basically makes money and how we deal with possessions Jesus’ favorite subject, but why? Jesus wasn’t like the preachers we know who talk about money all the time. They have private jets, and they drive Bentleys, and I swore to myself a long time ago that I’d never become one of them; however, this morning I want to talk with you about money because I’ve learned something from our second Scripture lesson. I’ve learned something from talking with friends and family who are responding to the disaster in Western North Carolina. I’ve learned something from my own life and my own habits. It’s that money can’t buy happiness. I want you to be happy, so I want to talk with you about money this morning because our culture is obsessed with money, but money can’t buy happiness. Amy Sherwood gave me an article to read the week before last. It was an incredible article. I read it twice. In this article, the author was writing about our culture and how we used to spend time thinking and talking about how to live a good and meaningful life. Young people used to say things like, “I want to become a doctor so that I can help people.” Many still say that, but today, one might also hear a young student say, “I want to become a doctor so I can make a lot of money.” Why would anyone do that if money can’t make them happy? From the book of James in our second Scripture lesson, we read: Who is wise among you?” Do what they do. Who is living a meaningful, fulfilling, joyful life? Do what they do. Who is happy? And who is not just happy, but joyful? Who is satisfied? Think about them and do what they do. This is good advice, and so our first Scripture lesson basically said the same thing: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked. Who is wicked? Who is unhappy? Who is on the brink of giving up and shutting down? Don’t do what they do. That’s basic, common-sense wisdom. Do what happy people are doing. Don’t do what miserable people are doing. Yet, if you watch our kids and the kind of people they’re trying to be like, you’ll see that we are not following that basic, common-sense wisdom, but the very opposite. Who do our kids want to be like? You can name them. They’re rich and famous, but are they happy? According to a study published in The Atlantic, compared to the general population, the musicians that our kids love and want to be like (think of Taylor Swift or Morgan Wallen), these big celebrity musicians who tour the country and have so many fans, they die young compared to the general population, and the leading cause of death is suicide. Who among you is wise? Do what they do. Who among you is miserable? Don’t do what they do. That’s what we’ve read in Scripture. That makes sense, but here’s the problem: Sometimes happy people confuse us. For example, my parents have happier in the last few weeks than they’ve been in years, even though a hurricane swept through their neighborhood. They live in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Until last Thursday, they haven’t had power. They’ve had no clean water. They’ve had spotty internet service. They live in an old cabin, and up until hurricane Helene and all this destruction, they didn’t know their neighbors, and so I assumed they’d want to come down here to stay with us. They refused, however, and I couldn’t understand why until I talked with my mom last Tuesday and she said, “We haven’t eaten a meal alone but once since all this happened. Every lunch and dinner, we either invite our neighbors over or they invite us over. We don’t have hot water, but some of our neighbors do. They don’t have power, but we have a gas range, so we have them over for dinner. They all bring a little something for us to share. We play cards by candlelight. We don’t want to leave. We’re having too much fun.” Now, I’m not trying to say that this disaster in Western North Carolina that also swept through Georgia is a good thing. I don’t believe the hurricane that swept through Florida is any good either. When people die it’s not good. It’s tragic, and I promise you, God was the first to weep over this devastation, and yet happiness is spreading among those who are serving because we were built to help each other. We were built to give of ourselves. We were built for generosity while the way of the world makes us selfish. Florrie Chastain Pate has been in Ashville as well. She lives there. She’s here visiting now, but she’s been helping people in Ashville for so long, feeding people in Ashville. She started a nonprofit organization that takes food from restaurants and conference centers and distributes it to hungry people in the city and out in the rural areas around Western North Carolina, so when the hurricane hit, she kept doing that same thing. She was driving a truck to those same communities, feeding hungry people in the wake of the storm, and people have supported her. Restaurants have cleaned out their freezers, and Ashville residents have siphoned gas from their trucks to give her fuel for hers. However, Flori also told us that there were people who had cars flattened by trees, who wouldn’t allow them to siphon off the gas. There were people with vacation homes who wouldn’t allow these kind people to go in to get the food out from those freezers before it rotted so that someone could eat it. You might say, someone that selfish should be punished. I say, they’re being punished already, for there is no more miserable person in this world than the one who thinks only of himself. There is wisdom from above, which says: Give it away. Share what you have. You might have less, yet you will have more joy because this is the way you were created to be. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of salvation. This is the way of the happiest among us. What is this pledge card thing? What is this all about? Will the money I give go to buy Joe a private jet or a Bentley? I promise, it won’t. I’m not that kind of a preacher. I’m more interested in getting you a ticket out. This is a ticket out from the earthly misery we all find ourselves trapped in. Money cannot buy us out of the sadness and isolation that we too often feel, yet generosity can. With generosity comes joy. With giving, we receive. When we live as Jesus taught us, sharing what we have, we make our way to the gates of Heaven and the joy that our Creator intends us to have. So fill this thing out. Volunteer for Rise Against Hunger this afternoon. Give. Serve. And discover joy. Amen.

Those Who Are Generous Are Blessed, a sermon based on James 2: 1-17, preached on September 29, 2024

A few years ago, when I was just a newly-graduated seminary student, learning what it means to be a pastor and hoping to strengthen my interview skills, I ran into a well-respected veteran preacher, who had just retired from a large church in Manhattan. I asked him for advice. I asked him: “What should I be doing to improve my skills as a pastor?” and expected him to say something spiritual, like, “Young man, you need to dedicate yourself to the discipline of daily prayer and Bible study,” or maybe something practical, like, “Seminary didn’t teach you everything, so take a class in church administration.” Instead, he looked at the scuffed loafers on my feet and said, “Son, you need to shine your shoes.” That was his suggestion to the young pastor. It wasn’t spiritual advice. It wasn’t practical advice. You might say it was superficial advice, and yet I’ve passed that same advice on to as many people who would listen because if you want to be taken seriously in this world, you had better take seriously your appearance. Clothes makes the man, so the old saying goes. Or have you seen that Tide commercial with the man in a job interview who has a great big stain on his shirt? The stain is shouting so loudly that you can’t understand what this man is saying. Appearance matters. We are always judging each other based on outward appearance. This is the way of the world. Parents wonder why their children want to spend $60 on a water bottle. It’s because it’s not just a water bottle. It’s a status symbol. We are judged by how we dress and by the cars that we drive. We judge our neighbors according to the state of their front lawns or by the signs in their yards. Yet, our second Scripture lesson warns against that kind of behavior. From the book of James, we read: If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? My friends, with this real-life example of how superficial we can all be, James prompts us to ask ourselves: Are we living like Christians, or do we just say that we’re Christians? Do we talk about grace, or do we live it? Jesus didn’t judge based on outward appearance, so why do we? Do you remember what the Pharisees said about Him? “Who is this that eats with sinners and outcasts?” That’s what they said because Jesus was different. He could see past the stain on a man’s shirt. He even went to Legion, the man who was chained up out in the graveyard, and saw him as a child of God. He did the same with the hemorrhaging woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. No one would go close to her, and yet Jesus turned and saw her. That’s because Jesus saw beneath their outward appearances, and Jesus has seen beneath our outward appearances, so if we say we are Christians, but we act more like Pharisees, then what good is our faith? That’s the big question that the book of James asks us. James says twice in our second Scripture lesson for today that faith without works is dead. Therefore, I ask you today, if we say we follow Jesus, but we don’t take the time to really love our neighbors equally, are we living our faith? No. If our faith has no flesh and bones then it’s not alive. It’s dead. Our intentions must turn to action. If we say we believe but don’t do what we believe, our faith isn’t worth anything. That’s a strong word, but it’s a good one. What I hear James saying to us today makes me think of “thoughts and prayers.” Do you know what I mean by “thoughts and prayers?” That’s a refrain that people use in the midst of disaster. After a school shooting or a hurricane, people will send their thoughts and prayers, yet a band called the Drive-By Truckers wrote a song about how we all respond with thoughts and prayers, yet if those thoughts and prayers never turn into action or policy change, “then I don’t need your thoughts and prayers”. That’s what James is talking about. Thoughts and prayers must turn to action. Our faith must live or it’s dead. If we don’t share the grace that we’ve received, do we truly know what grace is? Speaking of grace: Almighty God knows who we truly are and loves us anyway. Do you believe that? As a family, we’ve been watching a TV show called Young Sheldon. In an episode we watched last week, Sheldon’s mother, who is often pushed to the brink of sanity by her children, is sitting on a swing set crying and smoking a cigarette. If you saw the episode and if you knew what Sheldon had been up to, you’d understand why she’s crying and smoking that cigarette. If you knew what she had to put up with, you might have lit her cigarette and poured her a drink. That’s what her neighbor does. When the neighbor lady peeps over the fence and catches her smoking, she doesn’t judge her for crying or for smoking. Instead, she says, “Don’t smoke out here in the open where all the neighbors can see. Come on over to our henhouse where not even God can see, and let’s have a wine cooler… and bring those cigarettes.” Now, God can see what we do, even in the henhouse, only God doesn’t look down on us, dolling out condemnation, but grace. Having been loved, accepted, and forgiven by God, we would be hypocrites if we didn’t share the love, acceptance, and forgiveness that we have received with the people around us, regardless of the size of the gold hoops in their ears. Do you hear what I’m saying? Why show preferential treatment to those who are clean and upright, when God has shown love, acceptance, and forgiveness to you when you were neither clean nor upright? If you’ve received generosity, then be generous. If you’ve been forgiven, then forgive. If you know what grace means because you’ve needed it, then don’t be stingy with grace. Share it. Spread it around. Show kindness. Live empathy. I can’t help but do it. People will ask me sometimes, “What’s it like to be the pastor of the church you grew up in?” I tell them that they knew the truth about me and called me to be their pastor anyway. There are people here who remember me when I was 13 years old, sneaking out of confirmation class. There are people here who remember how I drove a car painted checkerboard. There are people here who had reason to judge me, but instead, offered me grace, and even though they knew I wasn’t perfect, they called me to be their pastor anyway. Do you know what that feels like? Do you know what grace feels like? I’m not perfect. I’m far from it. You know that. I know that, and so I would be the king of all hypocrites if I didn’t share the grace that I have received. That’s what James is trying to say. If you know what grace is, if you’ve felt the love of God, if God’s salvation is a gift that you’ve received, if you believe it in your bones, then let it turn into action, for faith without works is dead. It’s not enough just to believe. We also must live what we believe. It’s not enough to stand up and to say the creed and to sing the hymns. We have to give those words some flesh and blood. We have to put our faith into action or it’s empty. Is your faith empty? My friends, this is not just the first sermon from the book of James. This is also the first sermon for the stewardship season, when I’ll be asking all of you to fill out a pledge card and to estimate your financial giving to First Presbyterian Church. If you want to put your faith into action, this is a good way to do it. If you want to take that step in sharing a portion of what you’ve received from God, this is the means to do it. If you’ve received generosity, then be generous. If you’ve been forgiven, then forgive. If you know what grace means because you’ve needed it, then don’t be stingy with grace. Share it. Spread it around. Those who are generous are blessed, and they know it, and so they don’t just talk about it. They live it. My parents and my wife, Sara’s, parents live in the path of that storm that swept through last Thursday. I was on the phone trying to get my parents to come down to stay with us. They’re in Hendersonville, and they don’t have power, but they live in this old cabin with a spring and gas appliances, so they’re having the time of their lives living in that old cabin as though it were the 1800’s. They think it’s great and won’t come down here. I wish they would, though. Sara’s parents have been staying with us since Friday, and I hope they’ll stay until the power is back on where they live. In fact, I’d be glad for them to stay a lot longer than that because it feels good to do something for those who have done so much for us. They could stay with us for the next 10 years, and we still wouldn’t have repaid them for all that they’ve done. C. S. Lewis said that our tithes and offering are something like that. The father gave his son $10 to go to the store so that this son could buy his father a present for Father’s Day. The son spent 9 dollars on himself and $1 on the present for his father. So it is with us. Even when we give God our full 10% pledge, it’s still nothing compared to what God has given us. If you know that you’ve been blessed by God, but you’ve never filled out a pledge card before, then do you really know it? Faith without works is dead. Those who are generous are blessed, and they know it. Amen.