Martha's Vineyard | Isaiah 5:1–7 & Matthew 21:33–46

What if the things we think we own were never really ours to begin with?

In Jesus' parable of the vineyard, tenants entrusted with the care of someone else's land begin behaving as though it belongs to them. For guest preacher Rev. Dr. Amantha Barbee, that distinction between stewardship and possession speaks directly to the way we understand our own resources, influence, institutions, and communities.

God has given us authority and responsibility, but authority is not the same as ownership. We are tenants in God's vineyard—and faithful stewardship asks us to consider what is being produced under our care.

From the needs of our neighbors in Charlotte to our siblings in Haiti, Amantha challenges us to recognize what has been entrusted to us and to use it so that others may flourish.

God has given us what we need to make a difference. The vineyard belongs to God. We have been given the privilege of being its keepers.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Amantha Barbee at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on October 4, 2026.

Divine Foolishness | Exodus 4:10–17 & 1 Corinthians 1:18–31

If true wisdom tapped us on the shoulder, would we recognize it?

Paul tells the Corinthians that the wisdom of God looks remarkably different from the wisdom of the world. The cross—an instrument of weakness, humiliation, and defeat—becomes the place where God reveals power, reconciliation, forgiveness, and life. Pasted text Pasted text

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores a gospel that refuses to conform to our usual assumptions about success and strength. Christianity is not a set of rules for getting ahead or a formula for getting what we want from God. It is an invitation into life with Christ—a life shaped by the cross.

That can mean doing things the world considers foolish: forgiving those who have hurt us, practicing hospitality toward strangers, crossing the boundaries that divide us, taking risks that require sacrifice, and believing that weakness can become strength. Pasted text

From Moses standing before Pharaoh to a teacher crossing the divide between migrant laborers and farm owners, Lewis reminds us that God repeatedly chooses unlikely people and unexpected means to accomplish something new.

"Only the foolishness of God is wise enough to carry us."

Perhaps wisdom has already tapped us on the shoulder.

Will we recognize it?

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on September 27, 2026.

Saints Alive | Isaiah 43:15–25 & 1 Corinthians 1:1–9

What if the name God gives us is more important than all the names we give ourselves—and one another?

The church in Corinth was far from perfect. Its members argued, divided themselves into factions, looked down on one another, neglected the vulnerable, and struggled to understand what it meant to live together as the body of Christ.

And yet when Paul writes to them, he calls them saints.

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores the difference between seeing sainthood as something extraordinary people achieve and understanding "saint" as an identity God has already given us. We may not always live up to that name, but God continues patiently shaping, smoothing, forgiving, and forming us into the people we were created to become.

Lewis reminds us of the simple words a mother once gave her children as they walked out the door: "Remember who you are." How we understand ourselves shapes how we live.

And perhaps remembering who we are can also change the way we see everyone else.

Instead of defining one another with the labels that divide and diminish, what if we learned to see each other through God's eyes?

Saints alive. Saints together.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on September 20, 2026.

The Thin Sound of Silence | 1 Kings 19:1–18 & 2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18

Where is God when you've given everything you have—and you have nothing left?

After one of the great triumphs of his ministry, Elijah suddenly finds himself running for his life. Exhausted, frightened, and convinced that all his faithfulness has accomplished nothing, he enters the wilderness and tells God, "It is enough."

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on the weariness that comes when faithful effort seems to lead nowhere. Parents, caregivers, teachers, volunteers, people working for justice—even the most committed among us can reach a point where our energy is gone and we wonder why we should keep going.

But Elijah's emptiness becomes the place of encounter. God comes not in the wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the "thin sound of silence"—meeting Elijah in precisely the ruined, burned-out place where he believes there is nothing left.

And God does more than restore him. God calls him forward.

Lewis reminds us that our work is never the whole of God's work. Our failures don't determine the future, and neither do our successes. Even when one season ends, God can create something new from the very soil of what has come before.

When we become quiet enough to listen, perhaps we will hear the question God asks Elijah—and us:

"What are you doing here?"

And then, perhaps, a call toward what comes next.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on September 13, 2026.

Exodus 20:1–17 & Luke 6:1–11

What if rest isn't time wasted—but time made holy?

We measure our lives in hours, days, years, deadlines, appointments, and accomplishments. But Scripture invites us into another experience of time: Sabbath.

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores Sabbath as far more than a day governed by religious rules. Rooted in both creation and liberation, Sabbath reminds us that there is more to life than what we produce and that our worth does not depend upon what we accomplish. We stop our labor to create "breathing room so that God may labor in us."

Sabbath also remembers freedom. Just as Israel was commanded to remember its liberation from slavery, Sabbath invites us to recognize the forms of bondage that still hold human lives—poverty, addiction, despair, anxiety, regret, obsession, and the relentless pressure to do more.

Jesus reminds us that Sabbath isn't meant to diminish life, but to enhance it. It is time for worship, relationship, compassion, healing, joy, and renewal. And perhaps Sabbath isn't simply something we practice individually. Perhaps we can become a community that offers that same rest and freedom to others.

Sacred time. Holy time. Sabbath time.

A different way of living every moment within the grace of God's time.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on September 6, 2026.

Ablaze but Not Consumed | Exodus 3:1–12

What if the life that sets you on fire doesn't have to burn you out?

By the time Moses encounters the burning bush, he knows what it feels like to be burned up and hollowed out. His attempt to fight injustice has ended in violence and failure, and he has spent decades in exile. Then, in the wilderness, he encounters a fire unlike any he has known before—a bush ablaze with heat and light, but somehow still alive.

In this sermon, Rev. Lucy Baum explores the difference between the fires that consume us and the life God calls us toward. Violence, hatred, fear, competition, and the relentless pressure to prove our worth can leave us charred and hollow. God's fire is different: it burns without consuming.

And when Moses doubts whether he is capable of what God is asking of him, God doesn't answer his question with reassurance about Moses's abilities. God simply promises, "I will be with you."

Through Moses's story and the reflections of Parker Palmer, Lucy invites us to consider where we might need to "turn aside"—to leave a path that is consuming us and risk stepping toward a life that makes us more fully alive.

We may not receive assurance before we take that step. Sometimes we only recognize the path by looking backward.

But God will be with us.

Preached by Rev. Lucy Baum at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on August 30, 2026.

Jonah 4:1–11 & Mark 1:29–39

Sometimes the hardest truths aren't the ones we don't understand. They're the ones that demand something of us.

Jonah knows exactly what God is like: gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. But when God extends that mercy to the people of Nineveh—Jonah's enemies—he is furious. He wants God's compassion for himself, but God's judgment for them.

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores our human tendency to draw boundaries around grace and contrasts Jonah's resistance with the ever-widening ministry of Jesus, whose healing love moves beyond the familiar toward people and places others might exclude.

What happens when we encounter someone whose beliefs we reject, whose behavior we cannot understand, or whom we struggle to forgive?

Through the Christian practices of empathy, curiosity, listening, and civility—and through Anne Lamott's deeply personal journey toward forgiving her mother—Lewis invites us to face the places within ourselves where we may still be running from the truth of God's boundless love.

Maybe it's time for us, too, to stop running from God.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on August 23, 2026.

Divine Currents in the Universal Stream | Jonah 3:1–10 & Mark 1:21–28

What forces are shaping our lives—and how can we recognize where God is moving?

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway explores what he calls the "divine currents in the universal stream of life": the movement of God's healing, forgiving, and saving grace through the world.

Jonah struggles against that current because he cannot accept God's mercy toward people he considers undeserving. Jesus, by contrast, embodies God's redemptive movement. In Mark's Gospel, his healing of a man with an unclean spirit becomes a visible sign of God's power pushing back against everything that diminishes and destroys life.

Through Scripture, prayer, and the story of historian Timothy Tyson, Lewis asks us to look beneath the chaos and conflict we see around us and discern a deeper movement—the love of God drawing creation toward forgiveness, healing, justice, and restoration.

And when we lose our way, we return to the source: to God, to worship, and to the stories that remind us that God's redemptive purposes are still flowing through the world.

The question is whether we will fight the current—or learn to move with it.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on August 16, 2026.

No One Left Out | Matthew 20:1–16 & Genesis 12:1–3

What if God's grace isn't fair?

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Chuck Williamson explores one of Jesus' most surprising parables, where workers hired at the very end of the day receive the same wage as those who labored from sunrise.

Rather than teaching us about economics or fairness, Jesus invites us to see the world through the eyes of a generous God—a God who refuses to rank people according to worth, achievement, or status.

Drawing on stories from a Civil Rights pilgrimage, reflections on Carl Sandburg's observation that "the ugliest word is exclusive," and the biblical promise that all the families of the earth will be blessed, Rev. Wood reminds us that the gospel is always moving toward inclusion, reconciliation, and grace.

If none of us stand before God because of our own merit, then every one of us stands because of God's generosity.

And that changes the way we see one another.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Chuck Williamson at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte.

Defining Moments | Jonah 1:1–17 & Mark 1:14–20

There are moments that change the direction of our lives—a door opens, another closes, and suddenly we're faced with a choice about where to go next.

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on the defining moments when God's call asks us to respond. Jonah hears God's call and runs. The disciples hear Jesus say, "Follow me," and leave behind what is familiar. Most of us probably find ourselves somewhere between the two.

But calling isn't reserved for pastors or church leaders. Our vocation is the life we live in response to God, using our particular gifts, experiences, relationships, and work to serve Christ in the world. As Frederick Buechner famously described it, calling is found where our "deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

And what happens when we run?

Through Jonah's story and the story of historian Tim Tyson, Lewis reminds us that God doesn't abandon us when we take the long way around. Sometimes we say no before we say yes. Sometimes we run before we find our way home.

Wherever we are in listening for God's call—perhaps somewhere between "no" and "yes"—God continues to call us toward the lives we were created to live.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on August 9, 2026.

Reaching Life's Goal | Proverbs 3:1–8 & Philippians 3:4–14

The Christian life isn't a sprint—it's a lifelong journey of becoming more like Christ.

In this sermon, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on Paul's image of running a race and reminds us that while following Christ requires intention and discipline, it always begins with grace. Christ has already claimed us; our calling is to keep pressing forward, trusting that God is at work within us.

Lewis explores three practices that have shaped Christians for generations: worship, prayer rooted in Scripture, and lives marked by generosity and service. These disciplines don't earn God's love—they create space for God's transforming work within us.

Preached by Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte on July 26, 2026.