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A Community of Pioneers |
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Written by Skip Jackson
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Sunday, 08 November 2009 |
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A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — November 8, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Text: Psalm 126; Hebrews 12:1-13 100th Anniversary Service
…let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…— Hebrews 12:2b-3a
This is one of the most seductive books I own. It’s a Rand McNally Road Atlas, and by opening it I can embark on the most marvelous journeys. Oh, I know all about Google Maps and Google Earth. But I love books. And some of what are on the pages of this book are journeys of memory as I recall odysseys from the past—like May of 1982 when I set out solo on a motorcycle from Los Alamos, New Mexico on a trip that took me 9000 miles in 30 days. Place names and routes in this book take me back— to Carlsbad Caverns… to an empty stretch of highway 54 just south of Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas with rattle snakes sunning themselves on the pavement just after dawn, to Big Bend National Park, and the Alamo, to the French Quarter, the Natchez Trace, Treasure Island in Florida, Kitty Hawk, the C & O Canal along the Potomac, Kalamazoo where I grew up, Lake Itasca (the headwaters of the Mississippi River), on to Wind Cave and Mount Rushmore, finally Estes Park at the gates to Rocky Mountain National Park where, turned back by a June blizzard, I decided it was time to head home.
But a Road Atlas is about more than memories. There be dreams herein. Someone has explored and mapped these places, thereby luring me to go there too. In his first book about being On the Road for CBS News, Charles Kuralt listed his ten most beautiful highway trips in America. I’ve driven five of them and especially love recalling the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park. But the other five—like the Hana Highway in Hawaii—spark my imagination and make me want to drive them too. Odd place names, major and minor “wonders of the world” like the world’s largest hand-dug well in Kansas, ferry boat connections (I love ferry boats)—they’re all in this book. I can pour over a map of Newfoundland and dream of taking the car ferry from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel Port aux Basques, driving around the island, and finally taking a ferry all the way to Goose Bay, Labrador—all the while comfortably ensconced in my living room armchair. It’s a book of dreams.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 November 2009 )
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God in the Ordinary |
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Written by Skip Jackson
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Sunday, 01 November 2009 |
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A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — November 1, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Mark 6:38-44; Mark 14:1-72 — COMMUNION
And all ate and were filled. — Mark 6:42
[Jesus] took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, “Take;this is my body. — Mark 14:22
Things are most definitely coming to a head in Mark 14. As we’ve read our way through the Gospel According to Mark, perhaps you noticed a pattern. Jesus heals and teaches, and then he ends up in conflict with the authorities. At first they accuse him of blasphemy. Then they begin to conspire with each other against him—Pharisees and Herodians and Sadducees, each of whom would see the others as enemies. But united in opposing Jesus, they work together, posing “trick questions” in hopes of destroying his reputation. When that fails, they want have him arrested, but his popularity with the crowds stymies them. Finally they begin looking for a way to kill Jesus, but they will need to do so by stealth, for they still fear the response of the crowds. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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Paying or Giving |
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Written by Skip Jackson
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Sunday, 25 October 2009 |
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A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — October 25, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Ruth 1:1-5 & 4:13-17; Mark 12:38-13:37 — Stewardship & Giving
[Ruth] bore a son… he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. — Ruth 4:13 & 17
[Jesus] said, Beware of the scribes, who… devour widows’ houses…
[Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury… [and] a poor widow came… — Mark 12:38-42
It’s once again that time of year when we here at IPC, along with people in churches all over, begin considering new and renewed commitments to doing ministry in the next year. It’s Stewardship Season. What will we give as individuals to support those missions and good works that are part of who we are as a living community of faith? So I’m going to limit my sermon to the portion of the reading from Mark often referred to as the Story of the Widow’s Mite. I suspect someone made sure when putting together the Common Lectionary that this story would show up at about this time every three years. After all, it has long been a staple of ministers’ stewardship sermons. We’re all supposed to be inspired to “dig a little deeper” by the example of this widow’s amazing generosity in giving, according to Jesus, “everything she had.” Add a few more stories from the files about especially generous givers, and the sermon almost writes itself.
But there’s a problem here. I preached about that problem nine years ago in 2000. I’d only been here just over a month, and it was my third sermon and first stewardship sermon from this pulpit. And if I go by the number of you who have recalled the point of that particular sermon to me over the years, it has to be the most memorable sermon I’ve ever preached. The problem with the Story of the Widow’s Mite (or as the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible labels it, “The Widow’s Offering”) is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with offering. The widow didn’t put her “two small copper coins, which are worth a penny” into the temple treasury because she wanted to. She did so because she had to.
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Seeking Meaning… Making Meaning |
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Written by Skip Jackson
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Friday, 23 October 2009 |
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A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — October 18, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Mark 12:28-40
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” — Mark 12:30
After a great deal of argument and controversy between various religious authorities and Jesus, one scribe asks him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Wonder of wonders, Jesus gives a real answer—no question back, no story, no dispute. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The Shema from Deuteronomy 6—then Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
A great part of life involves us in searching for meaning, generally by asking questions. What’s important? How am I to live? What’s it all about? What’s it all mean? These can be global questions… or deal with the specifics of the moment, right now. When things fall apart, we want to know “Why?” and “What does this mean?” When all is going well, our questions might be less insistent, but they’re still there. Life involves us in seeking answers to questions. And when people find more-or-less good answers for the big questions, these get preserved as a kind of communal wisdom. The more valuable answers tend to be hallowed, to be treated more and more as absolute truths, until they become dogmas.
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Life or Death Matters |
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Written by Skip Jackson
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Sunday, 11 October 2009 |
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A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — October 11, 2009
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Text: Mark 11:27 – 12:27
[The Lord] is God not of the dead, but of the living… — Mark 12:27
After the dramatic story of Jesus cleansing the temple, Mark offers four scenes of conflict between Jesus on one hand and the chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, and Sadducees on the other. And the first thing we learn is that these religious “authorities” don’t have very much authority at all. They ask Jesus, “Where do you get the authority to do what you do?” Yet they can’t answer his question back, because they fear the reaction of the crowds. When Jesus tells a parable against them, they’d like to arrest him, but again their fear of the crowds stops them cold. Apparently whatever authority they have doesn’t go very far.
Next the Pharisees ask Jesus a question designed to get him into trouble with a higher authority—no, not God, but the Roman emperor. “Should we pay taxes to the emperor or not?” Jesus turns this question on its head. No, he doesn’t tell them to pay their taxes with what belongs to the emperor. This isn’t really about paying taxes. And nothing whatsoever belongs to the emperor, because (as the Psalmist sings) “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” The coins these religious “authorities” have in their possession betray their allegiance. They are the “things that are the emperor’s” that are to be given to the emperor. No wonder they’re amazed.
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