A COMMUNITY OF GRACE

Scripture: Romans 12

INTRODUCTION

On this Rally Day, as we launch another new church year, I am well aware that some of us are not yet finished with the summer, that others of us have mixed emotions about our children going back to school, that many of us are glad to return to our regular Sunday morning schedule and that those of us who are here as first time visitors may be wondering, together with a number of long time members, what this word “Rally” really means!

It brings to mind a Friday night football game with cheerleaders gathered around a bonfire trying to get the crowd excited about the home team. In fact, in Pittsburgh where I served a congregation for thirteen years during the era of four Super Bowl victories by the Steelers, most churches up there called this day “Kick-Off Sunday.” So far, the Falcons haven’t had that kind of theological influence on our city, so we call it “Rally Day” here, and this is how the dictionary describes the word: “rally” – “To gather or call together for a common purpose; to rouse from inactivity; or an assembly intended to inspire enthusiasm.”

I like all of those definitions, but the one which most applies to this church and why we have come this morning is “to be gathered and called together for a common purpose.” You see, our common purpose in this place at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree Streets, is to worship God, to grow in faith, to reach out to others in the name of Jesus Christ and to be and become “A Community of Grace.”

That is the theme our Session has chosen for this new church year, and it comes from the statement which appears on the front of our bulletin each week. So I invite you to read the first four lines of that statement with me now: “It is our purpose as the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to be and to become a Community of Grace.”

During the months which lie ahead, it is my fervent hope and prayer that those words will come alive in us and guide us and provide us with a sense of unity and vision as we seek to follow Jesus Christ in the ministry and mission of this great church.

The scripture passage I have chosen today from the 12^th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, shows us what a community of grace looks like. Paul wrote this epistle from the city of Corinth as he was preparing to leave for Jerusalem. But his eyes, ultimately, looked toward Rome, where he had never been before, and where he someday hoped to go, so that he could establish a base of operations there from which he could evangelize the rest of the western world. (Romans 15:22-29)

The letter was sent sometime between 54-88 A.D. while Claudius was emperor and Rome was the greatest city in the world. The church in that metropolis had been started by Jewish Christians, but it wasn’t long before Gentile converts outnumbered them, including members from the Imperial Civil Service and Governor’s Headquarters. (Philippians 1:13 and 4:22). Moreover, we know, because the book of Acts (Acts 18:2) tells us so, that Claudius had already begun to persecute those early Christians in Rome.

Therefore, Paul was writing his letter to encourage them to hold on and to stick together, not only to withstand the adversity of the emperor but also to deal their own diversity and some dissensions that had flared up among them, including arguments about Jewish food rituals (Romans 14) and disagreements concerning Christian doctrine (Romans 16:17-20).

That is the brief background to this letter, which brings us to the 12^th chapter of Romans, wherein the apostle described for those first century believers and for all of us here and now, how we can worship God with praise, grow together as the body of Christ, care for people in need, and love one another as a Community of Grace.

II.

Paul began with worship as the heart and soul of the Christian faith. I appeal to you, he wrote, to present yourselves (your bodies) as living sacrifices…to God, which is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). For those Christians in Rome nearly 2000 years ago, worship was at the center of their community, and so it still is for all of us in this church today.

Realizing that we pray to God privately, commune with God personally and can sense God’s presence when we are alone, it is here in this sanctuary, Sunday after Sunday, that we gather together as a community to lift up our voices and let our spirits soar toward God in praise.

The question any outside observer might ask of us is “Why? Why do we worship God Sunday after Sunday in this place?” And the answer we as Christians offer in response is, “Grace.”
The contemporary theologian Marva Dawn describes it this way: “We who live by the name Christian are those who have been rescued from ourselves (from sin) by the salvation wrought by Jesus. Since salvation is entirely God’s gift and not deserved or earned (which is the definition of grace), then Christian worship…makes clear that God is the giver of that and every other gift…So it is essential that the church keep God as the subject of our worship…because we believe that God in Jesus Christ is everything to us.” (From “Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: a Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture,” page 76)

Dr. Dawn goes on to remind us how the 19^th century Danish Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard understood it, comparing worship to what happens in the theater. “Whereas many worship services allow congregants to be an audience viewing the pastor and musicians as actors on a stage, genuine worship happens when everyone knows that God is the audience and we are all the actors, directing our act of worship toward the Lord alone.” (Ibid, page 82).

With all of that said, the truth is that we do not come here on Sunday morning just “to be fed,” to feel good or to see our friends. We come here instead to place ourselves before Almighty God – offering our praise, singing the anthems and hymns, confessing our sin, sharing our gifts, celebrating the sacraments, reading the scriptures, proclaiming the gospel, drawing close to Christ and receiving His grace which has the power to transform our lives.

So it is now, and so it was long ago, when Paul encouraged all of those Christians in Rome to present yourselves as living sacrifices to God…which is your spiritual worship.

III.

The apostle then described the Community of Grace in another way, as the Body of Christ, saying that as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we…are one body in Christ, and individually, members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5)

That church in Rome was a diverse congregation made up of many different kinds of people, and so are we. Moreover, Paul told them that, by the grace of God, they had been given a variety of gifts – prophecy, preaching, teaching, serving, caring and sharing – and so have we. What they had to do, said Paul, was to work together as different parts of the body and use their gifts to further the ministry, and so do we.

But how? How can you coordinate all of that diversity and create a sense of unity in a church such as ours?

Last Wednesday afternoon, we had a fire drill here, and at 2:00, all of the people who were inside these buildings heard the alarm and gathered out in the Lombardy Way parking lot. We looked like a General Assembly of the U.N, with homeless people coming for food and assistance, international folks meeting to learn English, meals on wheels volunteers, landscape workers, musicians practicing for Sunday, staff members, presbytery personnel and a whole host of others – almost one hundred children, youth and adults of all kinds and conditions – who poured out into the parking lot.

The Fire Marshalls did a superb job – they evacuated everyone in less than four minutes! But as I looked at that crowd of people, I realized that no one, including the pastor, the clerk of session, the president of the Board of Trustees, not even General George Duncan (our church member) who used to run a whole army, has the wisdom or authority to coordinate all of that diversity and create a sense of unity in a church like this one.

So how does it happen? If you look up toward the Rose Window above, I think we can see the answer before our eyes. A host of angels, playing different instruments and singing the Psalms, are gathered around the risen Lord and they are focused on Him. I believe that symbolic picture is precisely what Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Romans and to all of us that we are the body of Christ, in all of our diversity, but He is the head of the body and the center of the church. Through faith in Him we find our identity and He alone can bind us together in unity by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit.

My friends, that is what we need in our Presbyterian Denomination today, for we are caught up in controversy and struggling with divisive issues that threaten to tear the body apart. I hope that we in this local congregation will continue to pray, and to be agents of reconciliation – A Community of Grace – as we stay focused on Jesus, who has promised to show all of us the way.

IV.

Moreover, Paul wrote to the Romans that, as a community of grace, they were called to contribute to the needs of others and to practice hospitality (Romans 12:13). The Greek word for grace is “Charis,” which literally means “Gift.” In theological language, as we have already said, grace is the unmerited and undeserved gift of salvation which God has given to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

But there is another dimension to the meaning of grace which we Christians call “Stewardship,” and it doesn’t only happen once a year during the Annual Giving Campaign. For God has blessed us with skills and resources, with talents and treasures, with tangible gifts of grace that we can share with people who are poor and homeless and struggling to survive each and every day. I am convinced that most of us have the desire to do it, but what is required is that we take the time and make the decision to see that it happens.

Dr. Charles Allen, once pastor of the Grace Methodist Church here in Atlanta, moved on many years ago to become the preacher of the largest Methodist congregation in Houston, Texas. One morning, as he was headed off in a hurry to a meeting, Dr. Allen walked out the door of the church and saw a man on the street who was disheveled and standing there wearing only one shoe. The preacher stopped for a moment, looked at the man and said, “It seems that you have lost a shoe.” That man looked back at him with a toothless smile on his face and replied, “No sir, I found one. It was in your garbage bin.”

Suddenly, Dr. Charles Allen, pastor of that big church with places to go and people to meet, stopped right there in his tracks, took the man into the church where he helped him find clothing to wear, food to eat and a place to sleep that night. You see, he forgot about his meeting and focused on that one human being in need.

Now I am glad and grateful to say that same thing is happening here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree almost every day. But if any of you sitting in these pews this morning are looking for a way to become more involved in the life and work of this church, if you want to share your gifts with hurting, homeless and often hopeless people across this city and around the world, and make a difference in their lives and in yours, then call us today or sometime this week in the Community Ministries and Mission Outreach offices and we will help you, as the apostle Paul put it, Contribute to the needs of others and practice hospitality. Because that is what we have all been called to do here in this Community of Grace.

CONCLUSION

Which leads us to the final admonition which Paul wrote to the Romans and to you and to me as well, that we should love one another as Christ has loved us. Paul said Let your love be genuine, hold fast to that which is good (Romans 12:17). Render to no one evil for evil (Romans 12:17). And as far as it depends on you, live in peace with one another (Romans 12:18).

If those phrases sound familiar, then let me remind you that they are part of the benediction I say at the conclusion of our worship service every Sunday. I didn’t make the words up by myself - they come from the twelfth chapter of Romans. I wish I could stand here before you and say that I have abided by those words since I became a pastor, but the truth is that I have not always “let my love be genuine” towards others, not even in the church.

I have told you before about something that happened to me in 1972. I had finished my studies at Princeton Seminary and begun serving as a youth pastor of the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church on the main line of Philadelphia. I was rather proud of being called there, and during the first few months, I attended a conference for youth leaders from all over the country, held at Eastern Baptist Seminary. I think I was the only person who showed up wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase!

On the first night, the conference leader put us all into small groups. My group included a Methodist, two Catholic nuns, a couple of Episcopalians, a few Baptists, one other Presbyterian and a young man named Neil Chadwick. As we introduced ourselves to each other, Neil told us that he was an Assemblies of God minister, and right there and then, I decided and determined that I would stay clear of him. After all, he was a “holy roller,” and “wild charismatic” and frankly, I didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

During the conference, I began to learn something from the others in that group, and on the last night, the leader asked us to participate in a “gift giving celebration.” We were supposed to share something with another person in the group – not money, but something on our person that was symbolic and would be a reminder of our group sharing together.

Well, the Catholic nuns gave rosaries to the Methodist and Episcopalians, the Baptists gave crosses to each other and my fellow Presbyterian, and that left Neil and myself. He got up, walked across the circle, looked me straight in the eye and said quietly but deliberately, “George, I have the feeling that you don’t really approve of me. But I want you to know that I love you as a brother in the faith. And I want you to have my clergy card so that you will remember there is an Assemblies of God minister out there somewhere named Neil who is praying for you.”

My heart was pounding and there were tears in my eyes as I stood up, embraced him and gave him a Princeton Seminary bookmark from my Bible. That night, I left the conference with a prayer in my heart and a promise to God that I would try to never again be judgmental toward another brother or sister in the faith. I carry the card with me in my pocket diary every day as a reminder, and I’m still working on that promise! But I am convinced that what the apostle Paul said is absolutely true and profound: Let your love be genuine, no matter how different another person may be from you.

And if we take those words to heart, then the Lord will bind us together as different parts of the body of Christ, worshipping together, caring for those in need and loving one another as He has loved us. That’s the way Paul envisioned it for the church in Rome, and that is how God intends for it to be, right here and right now in the heart of this city, as we, all of us, seek to be and to become a Community of Grace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.