FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. Michael A. Battle

President, Interdenominational Theological Center

URBAN MINISTRY CONFERENCE

January 15, 2006

A SEASON OF RENEWAL

I want to express my deep appreciation to you for having invited me to share with you. I’m honored by the invitation in part because of my phenomenal respect for your pastor, who was one of the first persons to welcome me to Atlanta about two and half years ago when I arrived as President of the Interdenominational Theological Center. And, I said this morning, I don’t know if it’s Presbyterian tradition, but I would like for you to give your pastor a big round of applause.

The year 2006 marks the centennial celebration of two very profound historical moments that like all historical moments shaped not only the current reality at its time, but had implications far beyond the current circumstances in life. Both of these historical moments we are going to be called upon by a series of celebrations throughout this year to recall and we recall them for various reasons.

Two of the most prominent reasons that we remember things that we choose to remember, especially when there is purposefulness and intentionality in the remembering. One reason is that we remember certain things because we want to do everything in our power and we want to garner every ounce of our strength and capacity and insight to make sure that these things are never under any circumstances repeated.

Slavery, for example, is remembered not because people like to waddle in slavery but because there is intent never to allow it to be repeated. The Holocaust is remembered for the same reason, because no one with an ounce of sense would ever like to see that kind of event perpetrated in human history again. And then there are some events that we remember because we want to do all that is within our power to assure that they happen again. If any of you have ever fallen in love and you remember the intensity of that moment and the kind of feeling that captured your heart and your soul and your mind, from time to time you want to fall in love again with your wife, with your mate, in order to make sure that the spark never dies. Some things we remember because we want them to be repeated.

I want to talk briefly today about two centennial celebrations in 2006. One would fall in the category of the former - things we want to make sure that are never repeated, and the other will fall in the category of the later – things that we want to make sure happen again. In 1906, in the great city of Atlanta, there was one of the most violent and viscous race riots that this city had ever experienced and thanks be to God it was the kind of experience that we have never repeated again. For some strange reason in 1906, about 10,000 young men and boys, not all from the city of Atlanta, but from the surrounding area, came into the city of Atlanta and started violently killing other men and women simply because they did not look the same as they looked. Such violence in this great city that has accepted the model now as a city too big to hate is unthinkable.

The interesting thing about Atlanta is that Atlanta is a city set on a hill and unlike Las Vegas, what is done in Atlanta cannot stay in Atlanta. Whatever happens in Atlanta is seen not only throughout the South, but is seen throughout this nation, and it is seen now throughout the whole world. So, in Atlanta there was a group of men who had determined that it was their God-given responsibility to restore the delusion of the old South. The delusion that caused certain people to think that they were inherently superior to others and they were determined by their actions to reinforce an equally negative notion of the inherent inferiority of others who did not look the same way that they looked, so Atlanta had three days of rioting. Some historians say that twelve people were killed. Others say twenty-five, others say approximately fifty. But, we remember the race riot in Atlanta because we want to make sure that God gives us the power and the grace and the insight and the wisdom never to allow anything like that ever to be perpetrated upon us again. We want to guarantee that the circumstances never exist where certain people think that they are inherently superior and others feel that they are inherently inferior.

Another event in 1906 happened in Los Angeles, California, at a little church on Azusa Street, 312 Azusa Street to be exact. There was a gathering in this congregation of women and men across racial lines and across denominational lines. They had gathered to seek a renewal of the Power and Spirit of God. They had gathered because they wanted something to happen on the inside that would transform the world in which they lived and they would be transformed themselves, so they gathered to seek God. You know powerful things happen when you come together to seek God. Whenever you come together for no other reason or purpose then to allow the presence of God in the power of the Holy Spirit to reign and rule in your life, something happens and makes you different then you were before you had that encounter of the Spirit of God. So here where a group of persons gathered together in this small church on Azusa Street, and suddenly things happened the same way they happened in Acts 2. While praying and seeking the presence of God, the Holy Spirit broke loose in that congregation and lives were changed. Weaknesses were transformed into strengths, minds were enlightened, hearts were filled with love and the capacity to be generous was made more strong, because of the presence of God.

Can you imagine for a moment at First Presbyterian Church in the City of Atlanta, Georgia, Wirth is preaching a sermon and men and women across racial lines are saying, as existed here today, and representing a variety of denominations and all of a sudden something happens when George declares that power and grace and mercy of God, and folk who normally sit still, unmoved by the message, would suddenly break out in praise and worship. God, can you imagine First Presbyterian Church on a Sunday like that where shouting broke out in the aisles and hallelujahs rang from people’s lips and others sat still and simply said, thank God for His saving grace. Now I’m not purposing that you do that here at First Presbyterian Church, but can you imagine it.

Well, this is what happened on Azusa Street. While preaching a sermon, Rev. Seymour was all of a sudden filled with the power and presence of God. Now I will not suggest to you that the only way you feel the power of God is by shouting. I’m not a shouter, but I don’t mind other people who do shout. God moves in mysterious ways, and sometimes God is just as alive and real in our silence as He is in our shouting. But the point is we ought to allow God to move however God chooses to move. If God causes me to cry, let me cry and leave me alone in my crying. If God causes me to get emotional, let me be emotional and leave me alone in my emotion, but whatever God decides to do, let God be God and the Church will change. I contend today, that if this nation would encounter the Spirit of God in such a redeeming and renewing fashion, we will not have to worry about recounting the stories of racism and oppression because only God can change a heart that is fixed of prejudices away from prejudices. Only God can cause a person who feels that he or she is downtrodden to know instantly that there’s nothing to be downtrodden about. When you are born and created in the image and likeness of God, I suggest to you that all of us, no matter how much pigmentation we have or how little pigmentation we have, all of us are created in the image and likeness of God. And because of that reality, no one, no one, no one has the power to assume himself or herself better and no one should have the low esteem to assume himself or herself less than significant.

We remember 1906 and the race riot in Atlanta because we don’t ever want it to happen again. In this international city, can you imagine the horror that would break out throughout the rest of the world, if Atlanta allowed itself to sink again into the drudgery of racism and hatred? Can you imagine the newscasts all over the world? Atlanta has fallen from grace, they would say. Then, we remember the Azusa Street revival and I pray that the Spirit of God will break out again on God’s Church and that women and men will feel the power of God in such a way that we will understand that miracles do happen, that miracles happen every day. Miracles happen in our lives and miracles happen in the lives of others around us. So we remember one because we never want it to happen again, and we may remember another because we want the power of God to break out in a way that He hasn’t done in recent times. God bless you.

And all the people say Amen. Amen.