FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

Palm-Passion Sunday

April 1, 2007

CHRIST AT THE CENTER:

THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – PROPHECY AND DISCERNMENT

Scripture: Luke 19:28-42; I Corinthians 12

INTRODUCTION

For the past five Sundays in Lent, I have been holding on to a story that has just not fit into any of the sermons. So although Lent is officially over, I thought I would share this one with you before we begin Holy Week. It’s about a French priest who was accosted by an armed robber in a dark back street in Paris, and the robber demanded his wallet. As the priest opened his coat to reach for the wallet, the thief caught sight of the clerical collar for the first time and immediately apologized: “Never mind, Father, I didn’t realize you were a priest – I’ll be on my way.”

Of course the priest was relieved and with forgiveness in his heart, he offered the man a cigar. “No, thank you, Father,” the robber said: “I gave up smoking for Lent.”

Many of us have given up something for Lent and that is good. But we have also been talking about giving in to something throughout the Lenten Season, and that has been even better, as we receive the Gifts of the Spirit that God has given to us.

I

So our Lenten sermon series leads us to the gates of Jerusalem this morning, with the Gift of Prophecy going before us and the Gift of Discernment seeking to guide us, just as it was for Jesus long ago as He entered that ancient city. And if we open our ears to hear, our eyes to see, our hearts to accept and our minds to believe, then what happened on that first Palm Sunday can and will make a difference in our lives today.

The vast majority of people who lived in Jerusalem were Jews, so they knew the prophecy from Psalm 24, our call to worship at the beginning of this worship service:

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors!

That the King of glory may come in.

Who is the King of glory?

The Lord, strong and mighty,

The Lord, mighty in battle!

Who is the King of glory?

The Lord of hosts,

He is the King of glory! (Psalm 24:7-10)

Moreover, those citizens of the city were well aware of what Zechariah had prophesied five hundred years before:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Lo, your King comes to you;

Triumphant and victorious is He,

Humble and riding on…a colt, the foal of

an ass…

And He shall command peace to the nations.

His dominion shall be from sea to sea,

And… to the ends of the earth. (Zech. 9:9-10)

That’s what the Biblical prophecies proclaimed about the arrival of the Messiah, “The Anointed One” who would come to rule over His kingdom. And that’s what the people were waiting for with great anticipation, shouting Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! (Luke 19:38)

However, when Jesus did not fulfill all of their expectations, by the end of that week the crowds turned on Him and cried out for His crucifixion. You see, they knew the prophecies, but from their point of view, those prophecies did not come true.

So it has been down through the centuries, not only for Jews and Christians, but also for folks caught up in all kinds of future predictions and fantasies.

In our own era, we have seen the likes of Edgar Cayce in Kentucky, who, six months before the 1929 stock market crash, predicted the day and the painful impact that would follow. He got that one right, but he also predicted that California would fall into the Pacific Ocean in 1969, which caused thousands of residents to move out of that state in 1968, even though Cayce was wrong.

Do any of you remember Jean Dixon, who predicted in 1952, again in 1956 and then in October of 1963, the assassination of the President of the United States? Tragically, that pronouncement turned out to be accurate. But she also predicted that China would go to war with Russia in 1958, and had that happened, I think we would have heard about it by now.

And from The Book of Predictions, published in 1981, some prognosticators said these things would come true in 1982:

· Muhammad Ali would be elected to the Senate

· Billy Carter would win acclaim for his portrayal of a priest in a movie

· Debby Boone would join a commune

· Frank Sinatra would give up show business to manage a minor league baseball team in Arizona, and

· Red Foxx would become an evangelist in Africa…

(The Book of Predictions, Irving Wallace, 1981)

None of which ever happened.

Far more serious today are the predictions about how Biblical prophecies are supposed to play out through the Second Coming of Christ, the Rapture and “the end of the world as we know it.” I call that serious, because of the millions of people who believe it exactly as some Christian authors have predicted…and because of what’s at stake, especially in the city of Jerusalem, where some zealous Christians and Messianic Jews say that on the Temple Mount, the Muslim Dome of the Rock will have to be destroyed and the Jewish Temple will need to be re-built before Jesus Christ can return to this earth.

Barbara Rossing, a Lutheran pastor and seminary professor, in her book about the Rapture and Revelation, says that these predictions regarding Biblical prophecies “betray a blatant disregard for the New Testament and indeed, for Jesus’ own words in the Gospel of John (chapter 2), where He was speaking about the temple of His resurrected body, not the Temple building itself… and nowhere does the Book of Revelation call for a literal Temple to be rebuilt on earth, but rather in heaven.” (From “The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara R. Rossing, Basic Books, 2004, pages 56-38).

II

Now, there are two things I want to say about these ongoing debates regarding Biblical prophecies, and the first is this: People of faith do not all agree about how we read the scriptures and interpret these words of prophecy, and that has been the case for centuries. So instead of always trying to convince those who disagree that we are right and they are wrong, could it be that God calls all of us in humility to listen and to look for insights other than our own? Imagine what might happen if we Christians would stop fighting over Biblical interpretation and fussing about future predictions, and instead find some common ground that gets us moving in the same direction.

Which leads to a second thing I believe is true: If we equate prophecy to mean predictions about the future only, then we will miss out on the spiritual gifts that God wants us to receive. And I’m speaking now about how you and I can prophecy the Word of the Lord in this present time, and discern not only what He wants us to say, but also what He calls us to do.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, and the crowds shouted out loud Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!, the religious leaders told Him to quiet them down. But Jesus replied I tell you, if they were silent, the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:38-40).

You see, sometimes we need to listen carefully to what God’s Spirit is saying to us. But there are also times we need to speak out boldly when the Spirit has something to say through us.

That’s what got Jesus into trouble, you know. Preaching, teaching and healing people in the northern region of Galilee, He was surrounded by crowds who followed Him and spent much of His time with the disciples, family members and friends. To be sure, He stirred up some commotion and resistance, including that day in His hometown of Nazareth where He preached a sermon about loving and accepting different kinds of people that most of the congregation didn’t like.

But the real storms of animosity and adversity started to strike when Jesus finally came down into Jerusalem. The religious leaders were enraged with the Palm Sunday parade, and as Jesus went into the temple and threw out the money changers, calling them a “den of thieves,” they began to plot against this man who was proclaimed to be a king. The political powers led by Pontius Pilate heard the rumors spreading across the city, and it didn’t take long for them to form a posse that arrested Him. When He was confronted by Pilate, representing Caesar Augustus in Rome, Jesus spoke truth to power, saying My kingship is not from this world, and within 24 hours He was nailed to a cross.

So you see, speaking out with a prophetic voice can get a person into trouble. But once that voice is let loose, God can and will use it to turn injustice upside down and to set His people free.

The movie “Amazing Grace” is showing in theaters across this country. It tells the story about William Wilberforce who led the British Parliament to ban slavery in the late eighteenth century. His pastor and friend John Newton, a former slave ship captain, had been converted to the Christian faith, and it was Wilberforce and Newton who led the way by standing up and speaking out for the freedom of millions of African men, women and children – and they won.

We hear the hymn “Amazing Grace” today and think of weddings, funerals, bagpipes and Judy Collins. But this hymn was actually the anthem of the Abolitionist Movement in England. And as all of know, that struggle will not end, that battle will not be done until people of every race and color and nation have equal opportunity for life, liberty and justice.

If you read Time Magazine, perhaps you saw in last week’s issue the final page essay entitled “The Time for Miracles” written by Bono, the Christian rock star from Ireland, who is a prophetic voice in this world. People are listening to him and he is calling for a campaign against poverty in the developing countries. He cites Africa in flames, the genocide in Darfur, the death beds in Kigali with six AIDs patients stacked onto one cot, the children dying of malaria in a village without clean water; conditions in Africa which are an affront to all the values that we Christians affirm and believe.

The question is: Are we in the church willing to stand up and speak out prophetically both for and with all of those brothers and sisters in God’s human family today?

I heard such a prophetic voice in this church two weeks ago as John Wieland, a leader of our city and a Presbyterian elder from North Avenue, addressed a full house in Fifield Hall at our Business and Professional Luncheon.

He spoke with a sense of humor and humility, with compassion and clarity about some of the things that are of deep concern to him in this country, asking the question, “Is America Broken?” Then John Wieland listed these issues one by one:

· Economic disparity between the rich and the poor

· The lack of affordable housing for all of our citizens

· A decent education for all of our children

· A health system that is not available to everyone

· Violence and gun control

· The war in Iraq which is not going well

· Global warming and energy consumption

· Our policies of trading with other nations

The room was quiet until John Wieland’s speech was over, and then everyone rose for a standing ovation. And I thought to myself as we all went home, “There was a prophet among us today in the tradition of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, John the Baptist and Jesus who was willing to tell the truth.” And at that moment, I remembered what Jesus said as he wept over the city of Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday: Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.

That is the Gift of Prophecy, my friends, and if you read the Bible carefully, most of the prophets spoke out about the here and now – the present moment – more than the there and then and how the world is going to end.

And that is where the Gift of Discernment finally comes into view – not only speaking a word from the Lord, but being able to discern what He wants us to do.

John Wieland concluded his talk with these lines from Edward Everett Hale, former chaplain of the United States Senate:

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And what I can do, and ought to do, I will do, so help me God.”

CONCLUSION

So look again in your mind’s eye at Jesus riding into Jerusalem. His Father in heaven had given to Him the gifts of Prophecy and Discernment, and the time had come to put those gifts into action – to speak out and to do what was required of Him.

On this Palm and Passion Sunday, the Lord Jesus offers those same gifts to us. The question is: Are we ready to receive and to use them to the glory of God and for the work of His kingdom on earth?

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

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