FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

 

Annual Meeting

February 5, 2006

 

PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

 

Scripture:  Luke 4:14-30

 

I

 

When I was twelve years old, my parents encouraged me to join the junior choir in our church.  Because my father served as the pastor and my mother was the soprano soloist, no audition was required…and that seemed to bother our junior choir director named Miss Rita DePaw.

 

She was a school teacher in her fifties, a single woman with no children of her own, and I remember Miss DePaw as a strict disciplinarian who expected us to behave ourselves, to follow her instruction and to show up for rehearsals on time, which unfortunately I failed to do on a Wednesday evening back in October of 1959.

 

After arriving late for the rehearsal, I made the mistake of passing around some of my baseball cards to the boys in the tenor section, which totally disrupted their concentration on whatever anthem we were trying to learn.  Miss DePaw got up from the piano bench, came right to where I was sitting, and with the look of Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor in her eyes, she asked me point blank, “George Wirth, what do you think you are doing”?

 

At that very moment, I realized that I was in serious trouble.  But before any words came from my mouth, the junior choir director said to me in front of all the others: “I don’t care if you are the minister’s son – either you’re going to shape up or ship out”!

 

I was stunned for a moment, like a boxer who didn’t see the punch coming…and then I felt this surge of energy, stood up straight, looked her in the eye and replied “Miss DePaw, I’m shipping out.”  Time does not permit the full description of the consequences of my abrupt decision that night, but suffice it to say, I have not volunteered for, neither have I ever been invited to sing in another church choir since then.

 

However, I love to hear our choirs sing and to watch the Whittakers direct them.  It’s one of my favorite things in this church, and Sunday after Sunday, standing in this pulpit, it is my great privilege to preach to all of you…and to the choir.

 

So in my research this past week, I asked Martha Olson to Google the title for today’s sermon, and here is what she found:

 

“Preaching to the choir means you’re wasting time speaking to people who already agree with you, instead of going out and talking to the people who need to be convinced.”

 

The truth is, although I know that every choir member doesn’t always agree with me, I have been fortunate to enjoy their strong support and to offer the same in return.  Sometimes I get honest feedback from them, including one comment from a baritone in the church I served years ago in suburban Pittsburgh.  The sermon that day dealt with a complicated theological subject, and after the Benediction, the baritone came up to shake my hand and said “Lengthy, but informative.”

 

All of which is to say that preaching to the choir on any given Sunday is almost always well received by the musically talented men and women who are here for the same reason which brings all of us to this sanctuary today – to worship God and to offer Him our praise and adoration!

 

II

 

Now, when Jesus preached the sermon in His hometown of Nazareth, He faced basically the same situation.  The gospel writer Luke tells us in his 4th chapter that:

 

          When Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, He went to the synagogue, as was His custom, and He opened the Book of Isaiah and read:

          The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty to those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.  (Luke 4:16-19 and Isaiah 61:1-2)

 

Most everyone there remembered Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary who had been raised in that congregation.  And assuming they had a choir to lead in the singing of the Psalms, when this young rabbi, just thirty years old, closed the Bible and began the sermon, He was preaching to them and to everyone else who eagerly offered their affirmation and support, hoping that this hometown boy, one of their own and all grown up now, would do well.

 

And He did!  Luke tells us that when Jesus sat down and told them Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, the members of the congregation all spoke well of Him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded from His mouth (Luke 4:22).

 

Over the past 16 years, I can remember similar moments when daughters and sons who have been raised in this church were ordained to the Session or to full-time ministry.  Watching you, as family and friends sitting in the pews, I have seen the joy on your faces and felt the gratitude in your hearts as we laid our hands on these teenagers and young adults who have been called into Christian service.

 

And that’s what those first century people were feeling as Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth that Sabbath Day.  But then, as we say in the South, “He went from preachin’ to meddlin’.”

 

Jesus looked those family members and friends in the eye and He said Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country (Luke 4:24).  And what happened next is a moment in our Lord’s ministry that we need to remember and never forget.  This is how our good friend, the Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor describes it:

 

          “So far as we know, Jesus did nothing for them but to remind them that God’s sense of community was bigger than theirs was.  He offended them by telling…two stories about how God had passed over them and their kind in order to minister to strangers – first the widow from the wrong side of the tracks in Zarephath, and then Naaman the Syrian, who was an officer in the army of Israel’s enemies.  It was like telling them that God had become chaplain to the Ku Klux Klan, or that God had passed over a Sunday school teacher who was sick in order to take care of an ailing Hindu.

          He was not telling them anything new.  He was telling them things that were right there in their own scriptures, only that was not how they used scripture.  They used it to close ranks on outsiders, not to open them up, and they snapped shut on Jesus.  The minute He denied their special status, He went from favorite son to degenerate stranger, who offended them so badly they wanted to kill Him.”  (From a sermon entitled “The Company of Strangers,” in “Home by Another Way,” by Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 1999, pages 44-45)

 

You see, preaching to the choir in the context of what is familiar and comfortable, saying positive things and settling into the status quo, will usually soothe our minds in the attempt to smooth over the rough edges of our lives.

 

But when a prophet like Isaiah, or a preacher like Martin Luther King Jr., or servant leaders like Coretta Scott King and Mother Teresa, or a Savior like Jesus Christ – when they challenge us to change the way that we see and relate to other people and to take “the road less traveled” on our journey of faith – then we have a decision to make, not only as individual Christians but as an entire congregation.

 

Either we will say “No, I don’t want to go there” and shut the door tight…or, we might say “Please give me a little more time and a little more light so that I can see”…or we can embrace the vision which God has set before us and say with Isaiah, Here I am Lord – send me! (Isaiah 6:8)

 

III

 

Follow this worship service, we will gather together for our Annual Meeting to hear the report of the Nominating Committee, recommending that we elect officers to the Session.  I hope and pray that the vote will go through, because the committee is proposing a great group of leaders who will serve this church well!

 

We will also hear reports about the “vital signs” of this congregation – the statistics for our membership, for our financial condition, and some reflections about our ministry and mission here at the corner of 16th and Peachtree in the heart of this city.  I am glad and grateful to tell you in advance that the “vital signs” of the Body of Christ called First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta are healthy and hopeful, which gives us good reason to celebrate!

 

Then we are going to receive the report of our Facilities Planning Committee, chaired by Richard Felker, which has been meeting, working hard, learning, discerning and praying for God’s guidance over the past 15 months.  Richard and others alongside him are going to reveal a challenging vision for this congregation, a vision which points toward the future with great anticipation of all that the Lord might hold in store for us.

 

Eight years ago, following a previous facilities planning process and beginning to celebrate the 150th anniversary year of this church, I preached a sermon in January of 1998 entitled “Cathedral Under Construction,” which included a story that I want to repeat in closing today.

 

It’s about an American tourist being shown the city of Cologne, Germany by a taxicab driver.  The tourist, who was from Chicago, saw a beautiful old building and asked the driver what it was.  “That’s City Hall” said the driver.  “How long did it take to build it?” the tourist wanted to know.  “About four years” answered the driver.  “In America,” boasted the tourist, “we could build that in two.”

 

They passed another majestic building and the tourist asked what it was.  “That’s the opera house” said the driver.  “How long did it take to build it?” asked the tourist.  “About six years,” the driver responded.  “In America,” said the tourist, “we could build that in three.”

 

They finally came to the Cologne Cathedral, one of the oldest and most magnificent church structures in all of Europe.  The American, who was not a sophisticated person, asked “What is that?”

 

The taxicab driver thought for a moment, and then replied with a not-so-subtle smile, “I don’t know.  It wasn’t there last night.”

 

And here’s the point: our Facilities Planning Committee report will reveal a vision that challenges us to make the changes which will help to support the ministry and mission for the future of this church.  We are not in a hurry to get it all done overnight, and every one of us will be needed to accomplish our goals in the years ahead.  Like the vision which Jesus offered to the congregation in Nazareth, it will embrace people from every walk of life – people whom God loves and wants to welcome into His kingdom.

 

CONCLUSION

 

But what is different in our case, in our time and in this place, is that unlike those folks in Nazareth, we have nothing to fear.  Because we believe and recognize that the Lord is with us here, and that He will guide us and provide us with everything we need as He leads us forward and shows us the way on our journey of faith.

 

To have and to hold on to that kind of faith is all that God requires.  And you have helped me believe it’s true, because for 16 years now it has been my joy and privilege to be preaching to you…and to the choir!

 

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

 

 

 

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