I will say more about our church at the corner of 16th and Peachtree - where we’ve been and where we are going - as we gather together in Fifield Hall for the Annual Meeting following the Benediction. I hope that all of you, as faithful and loyal members of this congregation, will plan to stay for that important meeting.

Last Sunday’s Super Bowl has come and gone and, more than likely, avid football fans across this country are now suffering withdrawal symptoms. To tell you the truth, I only watched a few minutes of the contest because I was away at the Princeton Seminary Board of Trustees meeting, attending to theological business instead of professional sports! But I did enjoy the commercials - all $200 million worth of them - and what little I saw of the game. At the end of the day, the outcome was exactly what the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, Marvin Lewis, had predicted: "hard tackling, forced turnovers, a consistent pass rush and a solid run defense." (From USA Today, Monday, January 29, 2001, page 4C) That was the Ravens’ game plan and they stuck to it in their lopsided defeat of the New York Giants.

Sometimes, in the midst of all the hype and the half-time extravaganza, we forget what this annual football event is all about: two top teams with hopes and dreams of winning, led by their coaching staffs who carefully prepare a game plan that tries to utilize the skills and size of the players -- and as the contest unfolds, being ready to make adjustments to the game plan, to cut down on mistakes, to seize the opportunities and gain the momentum which will carry the team to victory.

Perhaps the Ravens coach Brian Billick put it best when he said after it was all over: "For the first time in my life, I think I finally understand this game: it’s not about the star quarterback or the star running back -- it’s about the team -- if we hadn’t developed such a sense of teamwork, I don’t think we would have had this success." (Sports Illustrated, February 5, 2001, page 5)

This morning, as we worship God in anticipation of our Annual Meeting, I want to focus our attention on God’s Game Plan for each of us as Christians, for all of us in the church and for the whole human family on earth. And the text I have chosen comes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 9 and 10: For God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to the purpose which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time - to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

According to the book of Genesis, God’s original game plan was set in motion at the dawn of creation. The Bible tells us that everything God made - light and darkness, sun and moon, heaven and earth, sea and sky, plants and animals and birds and creatures of every kind - all of that and so much more was balanced together in perfect unity. And God saw and said that it was good! (Genesis 1:1-25)

Then came the crowning moment when God made human beings and gave them dominion over everything, commissioning them to tale care of His creation. And God declared that it was very good. (Genesis 1:26-31)

But however it happened, whenever it happened, why ever it happened, that original picture of unity and harmony was shattered by the invasion of sin. People chose to go their own way instead of following God’s will, and the human wreckage ever since has been strewn across the pages of history - pain and sorrow, conflict and division, bitterness and prejudice, fear and despair.

The miracle of it all is that God has never given up on us and His original game plan has not changed. For the story of salvation is about God’s faithful and relentless resolve to bring us back into a right and holy relationship with Him. And when, in the fullness of time, He sent His Son Jesus into the world to show us how to live together and how to love one another, this was the prayer He offered up for us all: "The glory which Thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and Thou in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world will know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them" (John 17:22-23)

Christian friends, if we listen to those words carefully, they remind us that God, through the revelation of Jesus Christ, has entrusted to the church His vision, His game plan for bringing all people together in unity. But in order for us to fulfill that calling, we Christians first need to deal with and seek God’s help to heal the divisions which continue to hurt, to polarize and to paralyze our own community of faith across this country.

While in Edinburgh last summer, I heard a story about an elder in the Church of Scotland who traveled for the first time to London with some fellow Presbyterians. When he returned home after the tour, his friends asked him, "What were those English people like?" The Scottish elder replied, "Well, most of them are Anglicans, you know, and they weren’t all that cordial. At three o’clock in the morning they began pounding on my hotel room door and then started banging above the ceiling and shouting terrible things to me." "So what did you do about it?" his friends asked. "Ach," answered the Scotsman, "I just kept on playing my bagpipes!"

I’m glad to report that during my summer sabbatical leave, I discovered in Scotland an ecumenical spirit there that is healing old wounds and mending fences between Presbyterians and Anglicans and members of the Roman Catholic Church.

And so it has been here in America during the past 25 years, where different denominations and branches of the Christian Church - Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox - have found ways to break down barriers and build bridges of reconciliation and joint partnerships in worship and in mission. In fact, next month, on March 4, the first Sunday in Lent, we are gong to host an ecumenical service in this sanctuary for members of The Presbyterian Church (USA), The United Church of Christ, The Reformed Church in America and The Evangelical Lutheran Church as we lift up the theme of reconciliation and unity and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. I hope you will plan to join us for that important event.

But while the spirit of cooperation and healing has been increasing over the past quarter of a century between Protestant denominations in the United States, we have also experienced a decrease in trust, a decline in civility and a lack of love between different opposing groups who belong to the same denomination. Sad to say, we Presbyterians are no exception. For like almost all the other Protestant communions, we are caught up in controversy and conflict over issues related to human sexuality, abortion, qualifications for ordination and same sex unions. And we are struggling to discern how our Reformed Theology and Biblical Authority can guide us and provide us with the faith and wisdom we need to discern God’s will and to follow His way.

Of course, none of us knows for sure how this will all turn out. But of this we can be absolutely certain: God’s Game Plan has not and will never change. In the midst of our diversity, He has called us to live together in unity through Jesus Christ. Even as we face all sorts and conditions of adversity, Jesus continues to pray for us, that we may be one. Our primary loyalty and identity is not to be liberal or conservative, orthodox or progressive, or any other label that we can come up with. We are called to be Christians.

And that leads us full circle back to our text for today from the Letter to the Ephesians: God has made known to us (to the church) the mystery of His will which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

God knows that we need unity, peace and reconciliation in this world. And because we know it too, God has revealed to us, through His game plan, what He wants us to do.

It begins right here, in this congregation, as you and I learn to love and to forgive one another as sisters and brothers in Christ. It gathers momentum as we embrace our theme for this year from Micah 6:8: To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God and with all of His children.

Then it moves out across this city, as we welcome the homeless, feed the hungry and minister to the hurting people all around us. In the name of Jesus, it proclaims to folks of every race, color, creed and political party in Atlanta, the State of Georgia and throughout this country that we are bound together by the Creator who made us and will never forsake us.

And as it goes out to the rest of the world, it declares to the nations that united we stand, divided we fall and God’s Game Plan includes all of us as one human family on earth.

Now before we close and go to our Annual Meeting, I want to ask you a question: Do you believe that the unity, reconciliation and peace that I have been preaching about this morning is really possible? Can it actually happen in a family, a congregation, a denomination, in America or in a place like the Middle East? Sometimes I wonder -- and then I think of Elias Chacour.

He’s a Catholic Palestinian priest whom I heard speak in this church some years ago. He told the story about his congregation in the village of Ibillin in Israel, where a family of four brothers had become so divided, so bitter against one another that the entire parish was infected by the poison of their anger and hatred.

Father Chacour tried, over and over again, to bring them together, but to no avail. And then one Palm Sunday morning, God spoke to him and told him what to do. In his own words, this is what happened: "That Palm Sunday, every bench was packed -- and as I stood up to start the service, I was jolted by the stark, staring faces. Looks of hostility greeted me as I saw Abu Mouhib, perched in the front row with his wife and children -- and in each of the other three quadrants of the church were his three brothers with their families. We sang the hymns, said our prayers, I preached my sermon and then, as the people rose for the benediction, I walked toward the doors at the back of the church, shut them tight, took a thick chain from the pocket of my robe, laced it through the handles and fastened it firmly with a padlock.

Returning to the front, I faced the congregation and said, ‘Sitting in this building does not make you a Christian -- in fact, you are a divided people -- and you have disgraced the Body of Christ with your bitterness. For many months, I have tried to unite you. I have failed, because I am only a man. But there is someone else who can bring you together in unity. His name is Jesus Christ and He can help you forgive. So I will be quiet now and ask Him to give you that power. If you refuse, we will stay locked in this room. You can kill each other, and I will provide your funerals for free.’

Everyone glared at me as the minutes passed -- and then, Abu Mouhib rose, faced the congregation and with tears in his eyes he said, ‘I am sorry. I have hated my brothers and more than any of you, I need forgiveness.’ Then he looked at me and said, ‘Father Chacour, can you forgive me?’ I went to him, we embraced and I said, ‘Of course I forgive you. Now go and forgive your brothers.’

Before he was halfway down the aisle, his three brothers rushed to him, they kissed and held onto each other, and at that moment, the church was filled with the spirit of repentance and reconciliation. In the midst of the joyful commotion, I announced out loud, ‘We’re not going to wait until next week to celebrate the resurrection. Let’s celebrate it now, for we were dead to each other, and now we are alive again!’" (From "Blood Brothers," by Fr. Elias Chacour, Chosen Brooks, Fleming H. Ravel Co., 1984)

So I wonder and ask the question once more: "Is God’s Game Plan of unity, peace and reconciliation really possible? In a family, in the church, in America, in the Middle East?" Elias Chacour has no doubt. How about you?

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