FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant
Wirth
Founders’ Sunday
January 13, 2002
I
was 28 years old, she was well into her eighties, but our first visit went so
well, that I didn’t feel the age gap between us. Her name was Elizabeth Craig and she was a long time member of
The Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, just as her parents and grandparents had
been before her. As the new pastor, I
had been encouraged by several elders to go and see this matriarch of the
congregation and hopefully, to make a good impression.
So
we sat together in her living room for an hour, sipping hot tea, eating
cookies, talking about her family and the history of the church. The conversation was lively and cordial, and
when the time came for me to leave, I got carried away and said with enthusiasm
as I headed out the door, “Elizabeth, this has been great fun and I hope we can
visit again soon.”
She
shook my hand, looked at me over her spectacles and replied, “Young man, I have
enjoyed this time too, but I am old enough to be your grandmother. So from now on, I will call you George and
you will call me Mrs. Craig.” And so I
did, with great respect, until the day that she died in her early nineties and
joined the church triumphant.
I.
On this Founders’ Sunday, 2002, we in the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta have gathered here to worship God, to pay respect to those men and women who officially launched this church back in the winter of 1848, and to rejoice with all the generations who have followed after them.
Rev.
John Simpson Wilson was the first stated supply pastor, and joining together
with 19 other Presbyterian “pioneers,” they adopted the following declaration:
“We,
therefore, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being by the providence of God
assembled in this place, and desiring to enjoy the benefits, privileges and
ordinances of the Church of Christ, as received and administered in the
Presbyterian Church of these United States, of which church we are all members
and communicants, do agree to unite in the organization of a church to be known
as ‘The Presbyterian Church of Atlanta.’
Adopted and subscribed by us at Atlanta, this 8th of January,
1848.” And the names were…
Joel
Kelsey
Oswald
Houston
James
Davis
Minerva
Kelsey
Mary
A. Thompson
Jane
Davis
Keziah
Boyd
C. J.
Caldwell
H. A.
Fraser
Margaret
Boyd
Mary
J. Thompson
Julia
M.L. Fraser
Annie
L. Houston
Joseph
Thompson
Lucinda
Cone
Jane
Gill
Henry
Brockman
Harriet
Norcross
Ruth
A. Brockman
Those
men and women, together with Dr. Wilson, were the “Founding Brothers and
Sisters” of this congregation. Long
ago, God gave them a vision of what this Presbyterian Church could be and
become, and they made the decision to join hearts and hands together to lay the
foundations upon which we still stand today.
II.
Now,
if the theme for this sermon sounds familiar, that’s probably because it comes
from a recent Pulitzer Prize winning book by Joseph Ellis entitled “Founding
Brothers,” which looks back and lifts up the lives of eight political leaders
who helped to shape the life of this Republic as it began in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries: Abigail and John Adams, Aaron Burr,
Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and
George Washington. As I read this book
about them last summer at Chautauqua, the thought occurred to me in making
plans for this sermon that we, in retrospect, often tend to idealize our
founding forbears and don’t fully realize the formidable challenges and
overwhelming obstacles which they faced in their time.
Writing
about the founders of our nation, Joseph Ellis reminds us that “Based on what
we now know about the military history of the American Revolution, if the
British commanders had prosecuted the war more vigorously in its earliest
stages, the Continental Army might have been destroyed at the start and the
movement for American independence nipped in the bud. The signers of the Declaration of Independence would then have
been hunted down, tried and executed for treason, and American history would
have flowed forward in a wholly different direction.”
(From “Founding Brothers – the Revolutionary Generation” by Joseph Ellis,
Alfred A. Knoph Publishers, 2000, page 5)
So
too, did the founders of this congregation face their challenges and
obstacles. Let me read from our own
sesquicentennial history book about an educator named William White, who
arrived here in 1847, and described Atlanta this way: “187 buildings have been put up…within eight months, and more are
in progress. The woods all around are
full of shanties…the streets are…full of stumps and roots…but the stores are
full of trade and bustle…There are twenty-five hundred people within the city,
thirty stores, two hotels, three newspapers and two schools. Not a church has yet been built…and
preaching is held in the railroad depot, and in the school houses…”
White
counted “three Presbyterians in the city, including himself.” But within a year, there were more and by
1848, there were 19 men and women, who without a great deal of money and having
no secured property, established this church.
Moreover,
the storm clouds of division between the north and south had already begun to
gather on the horizon, and by 1861, when the first shots were fired at Fort
Sumter, this congregation, all of Atlanta and an entire nation plunged into the
Civil War.
Local
and far less serious conflicts also emerged, including the debate about whether
or not to install a bell in the square white belfry that was placed atop our
first red brick church building, constructed between 1850 and 1852. The matter was resolved, according to the
late Franklin Garrett, when Mr. John Silvey, “whose house was nearby and who went
to bed at 7 PM, gave a generous contribution in return for which it was agreed
that there would be no bell to interrupt his early nocturnal rest.” (Excerpts taken from “A Church on Peachtree
– A Sesquicentennial Story – 1848-1998,” by Beth Dawkins Bassett, pages 18, 19,
20-21)
So
it was, that our Founding Brothers and Sisters faced all of those
obstacles and challenges, large and small, and envisioned a church in the heart
of this city where we would worship God, grow in faith and reach out to others through
ministry and mission in the name of Jesus Christ.
III.
Over
the past 154 years, as Atlanta has changed and developed into a booming
metropolis of 4 million people, this congregation has also gone through many
transitions, including the move we made in 1915 from downtown to our strategic
location here at the corner of 16th and Peachtree.
But
the original vision of our founding brothers and sisters remains the same. We are still, today, a Presbyterian Church
in the heart of this city, standing firm upon the Reformed Tradition and
centered through our faith in Jesus Christ, who continues to empower our
worship, our fellowship, our ministry and our mission.
That
is how one of the founders of the early church, the apostle Peter, envisioned
it should be and could be, when he wrote 2000 years ago: Like living stones, be yourselves built
into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual
sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ, who is the cornerstone (of the
church)…You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own
people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light.
(I Peter 2:5-6, 9)
My
friends, as God’s glorious light dawns upon another new year, it is good and
appropriate for us to look back and reflect on the marvelous things that have
happened here in the past. Beginning
with our founding brothers and sisters, the Lord has raised up people in each
and every generation to sustain and strengthen the life and work of this
congregation. Building on those firm
foundations which were laid in 1848, our forbears were faithful stewards of
what they received and have now passed it on to all of us today. And if we believe that the apostle Peter was
right when he wrote that we are living stones who are built into a spiritual
house, then you and I have the opportunity and responsibility to embrace
God’s vision for our generation in this community of grace called First
Presbyterian Church.
There
was a man in Washington, D.C. who embraced that vision. He was an Italian stonemason, working on one
of the huge towers under construction that would rise high atop the National
Cathedral. A passer-by noticed that he
was carefully attending to the fine details of an angel’s face which would be
placed up on the tower, so high above that no human eye would ever be able to
see it. The passer-by asked why he was
so intent on getting the details just right, and the stonemason replied in the
great medieval tradition of cathedral builders: “God will see it, and that is all that matters.”
Ever
since 1848, God has watched over this church, guiding us and providing us with
everything we have needed. And if our Founding
Brothers and Sisters and all those who have followed in their footsteps,
could rise up together with one voice and speak to us here and now, I think
they would say to you and to me:
“The foundation is rock solid – build on it!
The past has been grand and glorious – give thanks
for it!
The future is stretched out before you – embrace it!
And the cornerstone, Christ Jesus, still holds you
together today – cling to it! Cling to
Christ the Cornerstone, and let the Lord Jesus lead you forward into all that
is yet to be, rejoicing on your journey every step of the way!
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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