Communion Meditation by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

World Communion Sunday

October 7, 2001

Scripture: Acts 8:25-40

The first convert to the Christian faith from the continent of Africa was an Ethiopian, whose name we do not know, but whose story is told in the 8^th chapter of the book of Acts.

Philip, who was a deacon and an evangelist, commissioned by the 12 apostles (Acts 6:1-7), encountered this Ethiopian man as he was riding in a chariot along a desert road south of Jerusalem. Luke, who wrote the story, tells us this traveler was the Secretary of the Treasury for Candace, the Queen of Ethiopia, and that he was reading a scroll from the book of Isaiah.

Philip approached him and asked if he understood what he was reading. The Ethiopian replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" With that opening, Philip witnessed to him about the good news of Jesus Christ and right there, right then, baptized that man into the faith.

Luke says that as Philip departed from him, the African convert "went on his way rejoicing." We cannot say for certain what eventually became of him, and yet we can imagine that the words he heard from Philip that day on the road to Gaza were carried back home to his people in the ancient kingdom which now encompasses both Ethiopia and the Sudan (See "Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible," under "Candace," Page 498).

I.

All these years later, we are well aware of how the gospel has come alive in Africa down through the centuries of Christianity, primarily through the work and witness of evangelists and missionaries who have gone "into Africa" with the good news of Jesus Christ.

In 1841, David Livingstone left Scotland and launched his ministry in the southern section of the continent, beginning at Cape Town and eventually making his way north to Victoria Falls and into the heart of the central region. Livingstone established mission stations, medical centers and schools which touched and transformed the lives of many people, and after his death in 1873, nearby to Lake Bangweulu, in present day Zambia, David Livingstone was buried at Westminster Abbey in London.

Not long after, the Church of Scotland began to send mission workers into the east African territory now known as Kenya. Like Livingstone, they built churches, schools and medical clinics which ministered to the souls, minds and bodies of the people who lived there.

But others from Great Britain and a number of European nations went into Africa for different reasons, to acquire wealth and seize the land and to try to dominate the great tribes of the Kikuyu, the Kamba, the Nandi and the Maasai. After many years of conflict and the Mau Mau uprising, the people of Kenya secured their freedom and formed an independent government in 1963, with their remarkable and courageous leader, Jomo Kenyatta, a Presbyterian elder, inaugurated as Prime Minister.

During his inaugural address, Kenyatta revived an old African invocation which has become Kenya’s clarion call to unity and reconciliation, an official motto now incorporated on the nation’s coat of arms. He invited all people – Africans, Europeans and Asians to work with one another in the spirit of "HARAMBEE" – that is, "Pulling together to build a great country."

And by the grace of God, the Church of Scotland continued to advance the cause of Christ through its worship and witness, gradually but steadfastly raising up, training and ordaining the next generation of leaders from the Kenyan people themselves.

II.

Over the past decade, it has been our privilege to develop partnerships with those leaders, the congregations and the entire denomination of the PCEA – the Presbyterian Church of East Africa – which now numbers more than 4 million members. First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta has come alongside our brothers and sisters in Kenya to help expand the work of Kikuyu Hospital, to help build the Presbyterian College which is located nearby, to form a sister relationship with St. Andrews Church in the capital city of Nairobi and to help develop the campus of Mt. Kenya Academy to the north in Nyeri, including the construction of Grace Chapel, Westminster House for the chaplain and quarters for a seminary intern. We have also begun to reach out to the suffering people in the Sudan, and recently, it has been our great joy and opportunity to welcome seven refugees from that war-torn country into the fellowship of this congregation.

The initial vision for all of these partnerships came through the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta and its President Emeritus, James Costen. Dr. Costen now serves as our missionary in residence here as he works with the Presbyterian College over there to raise the money needed to build what will someday become one of the great universities and theological institutions on the continent of Africa.

Ten years ago, with the assistance of Bill Rice, Charles Black, Fahed Abu-Akel, Rose Emily Bermudez and many others on our Mission Council, Dr. Costen began to send some of the Kenyan pastors who were studying at ITC and Columbia Seminary to join with us in ministry. And more than 15 of those men and their families have become deeply involved in our church family, leading us in worship, teaching us in Sunday School and helping us to learn about what God is doing across the ocean in Africa.

They, and leaders like Dr. Patrick Rukenya (Secretary General of the PCEA) and Rev. Francis Kihiko (Program Director of the PCEA) who are here with us today, have invited us to come over and see for ourselves. Since 1991, we have sponsored four mission trips to Kenya where we have witnessed with our own eyes how the Presbyterian Church is growing in that part of the world. We have much to learn from them about evangelism and new church development, about the leadership of elders and the myriad of small group ministries that are flourishing all across the denomination.

And as we prepare for our own Annual Giving Campaign, let me tell you that the Kenyans are exemplary in that domain as well. Some of our members worshipped in a small church outside of Nairobi several years ago, and they watched as the pastor and elders called for the offering. The first collection fell short of what they needed, so they closed the doors, sang a hymn, and passed the plates again…and again…and again until the congregation had given the amount that was required, including one live chicken!

All of that and so much more is happening in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. I can tell you from my own experience that it is a wonder to behold, and we here in Atlanta have been given the opportunity to go "into Africa" and to join hearts and hands with our brothers and sisters in the faith to advance the cause of Christ and to build up the Kingdom of God in that place.

But something truly remarkable is happening now at the dawn of the 21^st century as the power of Christianity of coming "Out of Africa" and spreading into the rest of the world. A "new wind" of the Holy Spirit is blowing across that continent, and it is estimated that by 2100 A.D., there will be more Christians in Africa than there are in Europe and the rest of the western hemisphere.

Of course, God only knows how and when those predictions may come true. But I think that we Christians in America are now re-discovering the vision of what God is calling us to do: to give all that we can in support of the mission in Africa, because we have resources which are still needed over there…and to receive all that they have to share with us here as they come to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ.

My friends: that is what is happening in this sanctuary today as we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Surely this is a "HARAMBEE," for God has brought us together, from the east and the west, the north and the south, to come to this table as the body of Christ. The ties that bind us to one another are far stronger than anything which keeps us apart.

So let us lift up our hearts and give thanks to the Lord as He gives us a glimpse and leads us toward the hope of His kingdom, for we all belong to His worldwide church, both now and forevermore.

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