Leadership is important to the church and to our nation. There is a crisis in leadership both in the church and in our nation. Someone once said, “You may not recognize, appreciate or accept leadership when you have it but you sure know when it’s absent.” Some governor in California said, “People want bold leadership, someone who is clear in his or her views, who can make tough decisions and who will reach across the aisles to address the important issues of healthcare, integration and public safety, climate change and the rest, someone who has a vision and a plan for the future well beyond the next election. To put it rather simply both the church and our nation are equally divided on most any issue. Just recently our congress votes on an immigration legislation that failed short of fourteen votes needed to limit debate and to move it toward final passage in the legislation.
I had to look at “Charlie Brown” this morning. I have a cartoon. I was wanting to know what Charlie Brown
might think of leadership and so I want to read this cartoon this morning. They’re building birdhouses and Charlie
says to Linus, Do you think that the birds appreciate these houses we
make? I can’t say although I’d like to
think they did. We need some smoother
boards. A few of these pieces are pretty
rough. Ah, a splinter, a splinter. I have a splinter in my finger. You’d better go home and have your mother
take it out. It will hurt. It will hurt.
She will stick me with a needle and it will hurt. Of course it will hurt, but you don’t want it
to get infected do you? I can’t stand
pain Charlie Brown. Look, do what I
do. While your mother is trying to get
the splinter out, you pretend you’re being taunted by pirates who want you to
tell them where the gold is buried, and see how brave you can be. Linus comes back in disgust. I told them
where the gold had been.
Sometimes as leaders we fail at our best intentions. Sometimes our best intentions fail us. The scripture reminds us that, “Beautiful are
the feet of him or her who shares good news.”
But we as leaders also need to know that our feet are made of clay. That we are mere mortals and that somehow God
has called us to the ministry to the work to be about the Father’s
business. In the words of Abraham
Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It is hard and difficult for us sometimes to
remember that
The birthday of a nation is a time to celebrate, yet is a time to reflect. It is my hope that you will take the time to do both to listen to the great music of John Philip Sousa, you know, “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Have you heard it? And yet somehow or another you want to march when you hear that music when you hear that music of John Philip Sousa and I hope that you will remember the words of Katharine Lee Bates, “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies, America, America God shed His grace on thee and crown they good with brother/sisterhood from sea to shining sea.” It is my prayer and my hope that the celebration will invoke in all of us a spirit of unity and a spirit of hope for our beloved nation, and country that we truly enjoy all the festivities that have been planned, that we find ourselves in the midst of family and friends celebrating the birth of a wonderful country, a wonderful country.
As I thought about this service this morning and reviewed the lectionary readings for this Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the sense of urgency conveyed in these readings and the resoluteness of those who received or responded to the call of God that is their overriding determination and commitment to fulfill their charge. Therefore the title of this sermon, “A Charge To Keep I have.” A Charge to Keep I have, a God to glorify, a never-dying soul to save, and fit it for the sky. To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill: O may it all my powers engage to do the Master’s will!
In this hymn, “A Charge to Keep I have” you gain a sense
of Charles Wesley’s fervor and passion for the Gospel. Many of the hymns were written in times of
trial and he said that “Jesus Lover Of My Soul” was written just after he and
his brother were driven by a violent mob from the church in which they were
preaching. His hymns carried the Gospel
that warmed and kept to the hearts of men and women. It fueled the revival spirit in
This morning in our breakfast, people hovered around and prayed for me as they heard I would be preaching this morning. It is a wonderful thing to have the companions from the breakfast to gather around you and put their arms around you and tell you that they love you that they love you and encourage you and make you want to preach.
Our Old Testament lesson this morning is from 2 Kings and
you heard the story of Elijah and Elisha.
In her sermon last week, Connie spoke about the fear that had captured
Elijah. Caused him to flee the wrath of
Jezebel and his experience in the presence of God at
And you heard the reading this morning. There are three times that he bids him to stay put. For God has sent him to another place and at every time he says as God lives and as you live I am not going to stay here. I’m going to go with you. It reminds you of Naomi and Ruth. Where you go, I will go. Where your God will be my God will be and your people will be my people. So, can you see the persistence in this one who has left the plowing field and followed his teacher, and he must have been a quick learner because we don’t get many descriptions before the whirlwind and the chariots of fire and come along and swoop him up. Take him away. But before that he says to him, “What can I do for you? This kind of commitment requires me to want to do something for you.” And he says, “When I grow up, I want to be like you.” That’s what he says and in fact he says, “I want a double portion that whatever God has given you I want back.” How many of you want a double portion of whatever God has given Elijah this morning to strengthen you and encourage you for your journey in life, I do. I need it because my feet are clay and I need the reassurance of a loving and caring God that he will again and again show me the way.
Well he’s taken up and he’s carried away into heaven. Now these fifty prophets were sort of confused about this Caleb, and so they said “no,” this whirlwind has only taken Elijah and cast him in an adjacent county or in a field somewhere and so they sent a search party out to find him, but Elijah remained faithful and he stayed there, and so after a while, a few weeks they came back and they couldn’t find them, and they sent a search party for him. You believe that, they couldn’t believe a God had taken him up. Now, Elijah and Enoch and Jesus are the only three people in the bible that talk about being taken up, being ascended, being ascended into heaven, and so he was taken up.
The changing of leadership or the guard is a hard and difficult thing for communities and institutions. Change can and does create anxiety and stress. This congregation in the course of one year will experience change in leadership but followers of Elijah had a difficult time letting him go. As I told you already, they sent the search party out to find him but they didn’t. But I want you to know that even as we experienced transition here at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta that God does not abandon God’s people in times of their need. How many of you believe that this morning? That some how or another, God has raised up and has risen up leaders, even now as I speak to fill the shoes of those of us who will not longer be here as pastors and ministers in this place. I do believe that. So don’t send a search party looking for us. It’s all right. Be concerned about us. Pray about us. Hold us before God but don’t send a search party out.
Did you hear Psalm 77 this morning? In times of anxiety, his was one that was sorely depressed. He couldn’t sleep at night but his eyes would stay awake and so he said will God spurn forever. Has God’s steadfast love gone forever? And then he recalls and remembers something very important, that God is a God who works wonders. And so if you find yourself filled with despair and hopelessness, may God lift your weary eyes and tired souls from indifference and mourning and anguish to remember you are the God who works wonders. You have displayed your might among the people. You have with your strong arms redeemed your people. Descendants of Jacob and Joseph, you led your people like a flock by the hand of Aaron and Moses, you led your people like a flock by the hands of Harry Fifield and Paul Eckel, Marilyn Tobin, Jerry Wright, Ernie Davis, just to name a few of them. So God has always and will continue to raise up leadership to serve his church, and then we come to that New Testament lesson. It’s a hard lesson isn’t it? Isaiah said he sent his face like a flint like a compass toward Jerusalem. Luke describes this as a time when he is to be taken up in his earthly ministry is to be completed.
This section is called a travel log. It’s like nothing can stop or deter Jesus from his mission to do his Father’s will or to be about his Father’s business. This section is described as a travel log. Jesus teaches and leads by example. For going with Jesus on this trip for me is worth the price of a ticket. For the part that I love about traveling is I’m not concerned about the destination. It’s getting there. I used to tell our children as would get ready to go Missouri or wherever we go, I said “Now part of the trip is your vacation and so getting there, not getting to the destination but how you get there is a part of the pleasure and we would play games in the car and you remember you would name an animal and somebody else would have to name that and name something else? Well, sometimes the list would get so long as it would get to be this morning, that I would forget and the children would always remind me. But those were teachable moments as we drove in the car and found our way to grandmother’s house or sister’s or uncle’s house, but they were times that we will always remember, traveling time, getting to the place. The only thing that I regret perhaps is we never stopped to see Rock City and we just kept going. I said one day we’re going to see Rock City but we never did do that. We never stopped to see Rock City but traveling, getting there, some people are just so __________ destination.
My time here at First Presbyterian Church has been a journey it has been travel and I’ve enjoyed that every day there’s something different. You just show up and something else happens and so that’s a part of a journey. I’m not concerned about the destination, I just want to enjoy the trip. Some of us are so wanting to get to the destination so fast that we just don’t enjoy life. That happened to me. One women in one church told me, “You need to stop and smell the roses.” I didn’t know what she meant but now I love to plant flowers. I get so much joy and restoration out of a garden that I know what she means. You just need to stop and appreciate and hear the birds sing and not worry about the end but just enjoy the journey, and so I’m hoping that First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Georgia will simply enjoy the journey.
He sends his hospitality party out and he sends them to Sumeria, of all places. Did Jesus know that there was hatred in that land for Jews and persons of that culture? But he sends them there anyway and what happens, the hospitality party is rejected and they’re frustrated because they’ve been rejected, and so they want to rain down fire on them, want to destroy them.
But we get a sense here, I think, that Jesus is saying, “Love your enemy and do good to those who despitefully use you.” He knew of the hostility in that land but he said his disciples wanted to share the friendship and the hope with that group of people. I believe that and so he uses his time to teach the disciples they were on their way to Jerusalem and later in Antioch they became known as a people of the way, travelers, people of the way, and so we are people of the way. We are in the midst of the Gospel. We’re traveling. He tells them three or four good messages that I want to leave with you this morning.
The Gospel in not about condemnation rather redemption. The Gospel is not about death but life and his followers who choose to follow him choose a greater good over the lesser good. As a nation and the church, we are sometimes short on tolerance, we often lead from might and strength and power and pride. We have lost the art of diplomacy and reconciliation, the ability to be civil and vulnerable with each other. There is a sense of rudeness in our culture that is harmful and dangerous. We believe that freedom of speech grants us all kinds of rights to say whatever we feel in degrading others, but Paul reminds us in Galatians, Chapter 5 and verses following, Christ has set us free. “For you were called to freedom brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self
indulgence but through love become slaves to one another.” And so today as we continue on this journey that Christ has given us, let us all be disciples, eager to learn from him, eager to learn from one another, and let us be about the “Charge To Keep We Have.” To be about our Father’s business is to bless and not to curse, it is to heal and not to injure, it is to love and not hate, it is to seek peace rather than war, it is to hold up fairness and justice and to be humble.
May the Lord continue to call up on you and make His face to shine up on you and grant you everlasting peace today, tomorrow and always.