A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — March 6, 2011

Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Four passages from the Psalms

 

To download an mp3 of the sermon click HERE

 

Welcome to this 11th Annual “Mardi Gras Sunday” Jazz Worship Service here at Indianola Presbyterian Church.  Once again we welcome Tom Battenberg and the High Street Stompers Dixieland Band to provide the music for the service and the accompaniment to all the hymns we’re singing.  This is their seventh time with us.  We always enjoy the sheer exuberance of their music.  This year we’re highlighting a different aspect of jazz in the service—namely the blues, so you’ve already heard and will be hearing more of their take on the Dixieland Blues from people like “Fats” Waller ("What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue") and “King” Oliver ("Dippermouth Blues").

I borrowed my title for this part in the service—“Getting the Blues”—from a  book by theology professor Stephen J. Nichols’ that explores the roots of blues and jazz in African-American spirituals and early gospel music.  Since everyone “gets the blues” at times, he wants people to “get” what the blues is about and “what blues music teaches us about suffering and salvation” (which is the book’s subtitle).  So we’ll be reading and reflecting on some passages from several of the psalms of lament—what some people have called the “blues songs of the Bible”—and we’ll sing some traditional spirituals and a gospel song or two.  The first reading is from Psalm 88.  Let us pray…

 

A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — February 27, 2011
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts: Psalm 131;  Matthew 6:24-34

 

 

I have calmed and quieted my soul… — Psalm 131:2a

Look at the birds of the air… Consider the lilies of the field… — Matthew 6:26, 28

If you are a worrier like I am, it’s really important to realize that Jesus is not here making rules to be holy.  Rather, he is in the middle of a long string of calls to wake us up to who we really are—children of God living in God’s kingdom.  If “Do not worry” was a new commandment, we’d only have one more thing to worry about—whether we’re worrying or not.  And some of us are already fully capable of worrying about anything… including feeling guilty about worrying.

Jesus comes at this in a light-hearted, poetic manner—pointing to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.  For worrying is not a sin— that is to say, it is not something evil we do.  Rather, worrying distracts us and divides our loyalties the same way wealth does.  The Greek word for worry is related to other Greek words for being divided, because worry leaves us split between hope and fear.  It fractures wholeness and is the opposite of trust.  So it distracts us from God.  It also distracts us from what we are to do, because it torments and ties us up in knots.  The English words, “worry” and “anxiety,” both have as root meanings “to torment, to seize by the throat.”

 

A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — February 20, 2011
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts:  Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18;  Matthew 5:38-48

 

 

You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy…  you shall love your neighbor as yourself:  I am the LORD. — Leviticus 19:2, 18

Love your enemies… so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good… — Matthew 5:44-45

Parts of the two scriptures we just heard are so well known that it is surprising how seldom they actually turn up in the lectionary.  They come around only every third year when the Gospel readings are from Matthew and then only if Easter is late enough that there are at least 8 Sundays between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday (which is fairly rare).  But then maybe these two passages are best left hidden away—“out of sight, out of mind.”  We know them, yes, but I’m not sure we want to.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “love your enemies” are both hard commands to hear, let alone follow.  They sound a little crazy—but not nearly as crazy as some of the other things that are right there in the readings.

We live in a world obsessed with the question, “What’s in it for me?”  But nearly everything in these texts runs counter to self-interest.  Leave behind part of the harvest for the poor?  Unthinkable, as businesses squeeze every last cent of profit out of their holdings!  Equal justice for rich and poor alike?  We’d like to think so, but the reality is far different as the rich get the gold mine and the poor get the shaft.  There are tax cuts for the wealthy and all kinds of tax breaks for businesses, but funding cuts that gut services for the poor, like nutrition programs for pregnant women and children, Head Start for kids, job training for unemployed workers, health care and legal aid for the poor.  Not hold a grudge, not demand vengeance when wronged?  Get real!  Prisons are one of our fastest growing industries.  And internationally as the most powerful nation on the planet, we insist on standing ready to strike back when threatened or attacked.  Give to everyone who begs; loan to everyone who asks?  That’s crazy talk!  And love your enemies?  Impossible!  Especially when focusing on a common enemy is the main way those in power rally people around their cause and consolidate their authority.  Just declare war on something and there are enemies galore.

A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — February 13, 2011
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts:  Psalm 19:1-6;  Genesis 1:20-31

 

Click HERE to download an mp3 of the sermon.

 

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork. — Psalm 19:1

God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind… — Genesis 1:24a

One of the most persistent myths in our culture is that science and religion are in conflict and that the theory of evolution, in particular, is a direct challenge to believing in a God of creation.  As most of you know, I was a professional scientist before becoming a minister, and I know personally that Christianity and modern science are compatible.  In this, I stand with our denomination’s official policy, as well as with the policies of nearly all the other so-called main-line Protestant denominations, the Roman Catholic church, the Unitarian-Universalists, and at least the Reformed and Conservative branches of Judaism.  In essence, they all declare that nothing in the Biblical doctrine of creation excludes evolution as a scientific theory.  Yet the notion that people must choose between faith and evolution persists in the public mind, largely because of the vocal stand of fundamentalist conservative Christians who insist the Bible must be read literally and the counter-arguments of so-called “new atheists” who claim science is the only truth and religion must be rejected.  Both of these groups are guilty of misunderstanding and misrepresentation.

Unfortunately in our world, conflict generates far more press than does compatibility.  So about six years ago, biology professor Michael Zimmerman of Butler University in Indianapolis proposed that churches and clergy publicly discuss the issues at stake in this false dichotomy and demonstrate that people of faith can and do accept evolutionary science.  So the Clergy Letter Project was born, and the first Evolution Weekend was observed by 467 congregations in February, 2006.  In 2009, with the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species, participation peaked at 1049 congregations.  This year we are one of 642 congregations in all 50 states and 13 countries officially listed as observing the 6th Evolution Weekend.  Yesterday was the 202nd anniversary the birth of Charles Darwin.