In the Heart of the City
Scripture: Isaiah 62:6-12; Revelation 21:1-5
Sermon by George B. Wirth
First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
February 6, 2000

Introduction
In January of 1990, this congregation voted to call me here from suburban Pittsburgh to become pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. I accepted that call with enthusiasm and expectation (which I still feel today) and our family began to make preparations to move to this city.

The following month, in February, I received another call, this one over the telephone, from a church member named Chuck Graham. He told me, as I sat in my study up in Sewickley, that he was chairman of FPC’s Strategic Planning Committee and was looking forward to working together when I arrived in May. General Graham went on to say that there were many decisions to be made about the future of this church but one decision was most important of all. I asked him what that was, and he said to me, “To stay located right where we are at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree. We’re in the heart of the city,” he said, “and that is where we belong.”

To tell you the truth, I don’t recall exactly what I said next, but I think the rest of the conversation sounded something like this: “The thought never occurred to me that the church might move to another location.” And he replied, “Good.”

All these years later, long after Chuck and Alice Graham returned home to Texas, I remember that telephone call with gratitude and some degree of amazement. Because what that man of deep faith and strong conviction said to me was prophetic and true: “We’re in the heart of the city, and that is where we belong.”

Part 1
I believe those words describe what God has called this church to be and to become: an urban, Christian, Presbyterian congregation, strategically placed in the center of one of the most dynamic metropolitan areas across this nation.

From our founding date in 1848 when this church began with 19 men and women, we have grown up with Atlanta, which adopted that name in 1845 and was chartered as a city in 1847, counting its population back then as less than 2,500 people. Our first red brick building, completed in 1852, stood on Marietta Street downtown, in the heart of the city. And as our numbers increased, a larger gothic style sanctuary was constructed on the same spot in 1879, still in the heart of the city.

Then, when we moved here to 16^th and Peachtree, between 1915 and 1919, to be closer to the residential neighborhoods, over the course of time, the city gradually moved out around us. Today we are a congregation of 2,700 members in the midst of a sprawling metropolis of 3.5 million people, surrounded by skyscrapers, office buildings, the Woodruff Arts Center, the MARTA station, Piedmont Park and more apartments, condominiums and homes than anyone could have ever dreamed possible. You see, throughout our history, this church has been and still is today an urban, Christian, Presbyterian congregation in the heart of the city. That is where God has called us to be, and that is where we belong.

Our primary reason for being here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree is to worship God. Sunday after Sunday we gather here in this sacred place to lift up our hearts and voices and to offer our praise to the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of life. We believe, together with our Presbyterian forbears who wrote the old Westminster Catechism of faith, that “the chief end of all people is to glorify God and to enjoy God forever.” Through our Sunday morning prayer and praise breakfast for homeless people in Fifield Hall, our 8:30 communion service in Winship Chapel, our regular worship services in this sanctuary every Sunday, our monthly contemporary services for youth in the Christian Community Center, our midday Holy Week opportunities before Easter, and our weekly radio and television broadcasts - in each and all of those ways - we invite anyone and everyone to join us for the worship of God.

And the mystery of it all is that God who is beyond us becomes present among us when we worship Him here in the heart of the city. During our 150^th anniversary year, I told you about Dr. Ralph Sockman, the distinguished pastor of Christ Methodist Church in New York City, who returned one Sunday night by train after preaching in Philadelphia. As the cab driver picked him up at Grand Central Station, Sockman said, “Take me to Christ Church.” The driver, who must have been a Catholic, wove his way through Manhattan and finally parked at the curb in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Sockman looked out the window and said “But this isn’t Christ Church.” The cabbie looked back at the preacher and replied, “Mister, if He ain’t here, He ain’t nowhere!”

I love that story, because it reminds us of the reality for all Christians who gather to worship God anywhere and everywhere - in great city cathedrals, in rural white-clapboard chapels, in suburban sanctuaries, and in urban storefront churches - that God has promised to be there with them, in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). That is what happens in this place as we offer the Lord our prayer and our praise. And that is our primary purpose of being here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree - to worship God!

Part 2

Now, there are other reasons we are here in the heart of the city, including the many opportunities for Christian education and Bible study, for fellowship and friendship, for singing and ringing bells and playing instruments, for caring about one another and sharing our joys and sorrows, our hopes and fears among all the members of this congregation. Children, youth, adults and older persons are coming here from all over Atlanta, and this gathering place, in the heart of the city, has become our spiritual home where we seek to know Jesus Christ, to grow in faith, and to love one another in His name and for His sake.

Moreover, there are other people out there across this city, nation, and world, who are lost and lonely, homeless and hungry, people who feel forgotten and forsaken and desperately need to hear and to receive the good news of the gospel. As Christians, God has called all of us to reach out to them in mission, and right here, in the heart of the city, to welcome them with open hearts and open arms as brothers and sisters in God’s great human family.

On the back of our bulletin every Sunday, we list the community ministries in Atlanta and our mission outreach to national and international places, including our partnerships with the Presbyterian Church in East Africa and in Haiti and in Brazil, not only to remind us of our commitments but also to encourage people to become involved in what we are doing here.

So it was, long ago, in the city of Jerusalem, as the prophet Isaiah spoke to his people about their God given responsibilities. After years of exile in Babylon, they had returned to rebuild the city, to reconstruct the temple, their house of worship, and to re-commit themselves to loving and serving God and all who were in need.

Standing there, in the heart of the city, Isaiah prophesied the word of the Lord:

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set the watchmen. All the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest...until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth...go through the gates, prepare the way for the people...and they shall be called the holy ones, the redeemed of the Lord...and you shall be called...”a city not forsaken”

(Isaiah 62:6-7, 10, 12).

My friends, here in the heart of the city of Atlanta, that is our calling as well – to speak out on behalf of those who are not able to speak for themselves, to reach out to people who need our help, to receive the gifts they have to share with us and to take no rest until everyone, everyone is welcomed within the gates. If we do that, said Isaiah, the city will not be forsaken, and all of God’s children will experience the height of His love and the depth of His grace.

Part 3
As we prepare for our Annual Meeting on this Sunday in February, 2000 A.D., I am glad to report that the Body of Christ called First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta is healthy and growing stronger here in the heart of the city. Our financial situation is solid and secure, and as your pastor, I am deeply grateful for your generous stewardship and support. Our new Christian Community Center, which has symbolically changed our address to 16^th, Peachtree, and Lombardy Way, is serving a whole host of people every day. The Samaritan Counseling Center on the third floor is ministering to members of this congregation and the people of Midtown and all around the town. The statistics for worship, membership, and church school attendance are good, and the renovation of our older facilities has in part been completed, with some further and important work still to be accomplished.

The parking lot on Lombardy Way and the deck across Peachtree have made a major difference in our Sunday and weekday ministries. And the church staff, for whom I thank God each morning in my prayers, continue to serve effectively and faithfully alongside all of you in so many ways. So these are great days for our congregation and we have good reason to look forward toward the future with hope and expectation.

That is the vision which the 21^st chapter of the book of Revelation sets before us, a vision of renewal and joy in our journey as we embrace all that is yet to be:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...and the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...and I heard a great voice from the throne saying “Behold, the dwelling of God is with His people...and God himself will be with them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no mourning, no more crying, no more pain any more; for the former things have passed away. And He who sits upon the throne shall say “Behold, I make all things new”!

(Revelation 21:1-5)

Standing firm in our tradition, we are a church still in transition, facing changes and taking on new challenges as we seek to become all that the Lord wants us to be. With that vision to guide us, let us rejoice and give thanks in the name of the Lord, for He has called us into service, to worship, work, and witness. That is who we are - our God given identity as an urban, Christian, Presbyterian congregation, located in the heart of the city, and that is where we belong.

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

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