FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

Celebration Sunday

August 26, 2007

CHRIST AT THE CENTER: OUR FIRM FOUNDATION

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22; I Peter 2:4-10

INTRODUCTION

In his massive and masterful two volume biography of Winston Churchill, entitled “The Last Lion,” author William Manchester re-traces the history of one of England’s most distinguished families, going all the way back to the first Winston Churchill who was the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather of the future Prime Minister of Great Britain. The first Sir Winston was born in 1620, died in 1688 and was the father of five children, including John who became a fierce and famous soldier and won a decisive victory over the French at Blenheim on the Danube River in Bavaria.

Queen Anne was so grateful and impressed with Sir John’s military success that she made him the Duke of Marlborough and gave him, actually built for him a palace, named after the battlefield – Blenheim – which is one of my favorite places in the United Kingdom. (From “The Last Lion” by William Manchester, Little, Brown and Company, 1983, page 93)

Not long after all the accolades were heaped on him, Sir John Churchill, who originally came from a humble background, was asked by one of his peers at court, “Your Grace, whose descendant are you?” To which the Duke replied with a not-so-subtle smile, “Sir, I am not a descendant. I am an ancestor.”

As we explore today our heritage as Christians in the Reformed Tradition, setting the context for this sermon about “Our Firm Foundation,” I think a little more humility is called for…which was surely the case when the great granddaughter of William Howard Taft was asked to write her autobiography in the third grade. This is how she began: “My great-grandfather was President of the United States, my grandfather was a U.S. Senator, my father is an Ambassador, and I am a Brownie.”

I

On this Celebration Sunday 2007, we have come to worship God and to begin another new church year, focused on the theme “Christ at the Center: Our Firm Foundation.” I feel excitement in the air, and there’s a sense of great expectation as we look forward toward all that the Lord has in store for us in the months ahead.

And yet with all of that said, I think it’s also important to look back and see where we’ve come from, remembering that the journey has been a long one since the church was launched in the first century A.D. That’s when the foundations were laid, and therein lies the core of our identity.

The two great leaders in that era were Paul and Peter, apostles of Jesus Christ who committed their lives and ultimately died in their service to Him. Although both of them grew up in the Jewish tradition, when they became Christians, those men did not agree on everything. And if you read the Book of Acts, Chapter 15, you will see the way they debated with each other about how Jews and Gentiles could live together and love one another as sisters and brothers in the family of faith.

Soon thereafter, Paul was sent out as a missionary to the Gentile world in Greece and Asia Minor, while Peter remained in Jerusalem as the leader of the church there. But where they both wound up toward the end of their lives was in Rome.

When a devastating fire destroyed much of that city in 64 A.D., the Emperor Nero blamed it all on the Christians. And sometime before Peter and Paul were executed, they wrote letters to their fellow believers who were suffering under severe persecution – letters which we have read this morning as our New Testament lessons. So listen again to what these two men of faith wrote long ago, as they help to lay the foundation for the church to which we belong today.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

Remember that at one time, you Gentiles…were without Christ, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenants of Promise…But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who has made both groups into one, and He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility…reconciling us both to God in one body through the cross.

So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in Whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Ephesians 2:11-22, selected verses)

At almost the same time, from the same city, Peter wrote these words:

Rid yourselves therefore of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy and slander…for indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight; and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ...

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (I Peter 2:1-10, selected verses)

Do you see, Paul and Peter, who did not always agree, were of one mind at the end of their lives about the most important things:

· Jesus Christ was and is the center, the cornerstone of the Christian community

· In Him and through Him, we belong to each other as sisters and brothers in faith, and we are all called to be reconciled to one another in peace and love and unity

· The apostles and early believers who went before us laid the foundations, and every generation since then has been built into the holy household of God

· We have been called to proclaim the name of the Jesus to the whole world, believing that He is our light and our salvation

That is our heritage, our history and our identity – the core and the central conviction of the church, my friends. And if we believe that what Paul and Peter wrote long ago is what God still intends for us today, then the question is: “How are we doing?”

II

On a global scale, with two billion Christians living in this world, most of whom belong to Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant denominations and congregations, we are searching for ways to worship and to work together in cooperation instead of competition. But we are struggling to relate to other religions, particularly those who belong to the Jewish Tradition and now the one billion Muslims who inhabit this planet. If we as Christians believe that these three monotheistic faith communities share a common foundation through Abraham, then the future of the 21^st century may well depend on how we learn to live together with them in peace…and how all of us can do more to touch the poor and suffering people on this earth who are crying out for help. Jesus said In as much as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me, and that is a call to action which transcends all of our religious boundary lines and divisions.

On a national scale, we Christians in America are not all on the same page regarding the foundation of religious freedom envisioned by our forbears in the 18^th century. It seems that the separation of church and state has become a battleground between those who believe the Judeo-Christian Tradition is being threatened by secularism, and those on the other side who perceive that Jews and Christians are pushing their faith agenda too hard at them.

If you watched the CNN special this week entitled “God’s Warriors,” then you might be aware, more than ever before, of how fervent some Americans have become about their convictions. One person who was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour put it this way: “Those on the right and those on the left are engaged in the struggle. But the moderates in the middle…well, they’re just moderate.”

To tell you the truth, that statement really bothered me, because I think that we – mainline, mainstream Presbyterians, like so many other Christians across this land – represent the center of religion in America and seek to be faithful in our worship, work and witness without bullying anybody else or pushing political candidates from the pulpit or imposing our belief system with a “my way or the highway” kind of attitude.

That seems to me to be what our founders had in mind when they made the decisions and wrote the documents that have forged the kind of religious freedom we enjoy in this nation today. Some say that being in the middle is like being lukewarm, wishy washy, non-committal. But I think just the opposite is true. To stand in the middle and seek to bring people together through reconciliation, forgiveness and forbearance is exactly what Paul and Peter were talking about 2000 years ago.

III

And that brings us all the way home to how we are doing in this church, right here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree Streets in the heart of this city. Our Statement of Purpose printed on the front of the bulletin reminds us who we are, in whom we believe and what we are called to do:

It is our purpose as the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to be and to become

A community of grace

A people of praise

A loving congregation

Rooted in tradition, open to the Spirit

Disciples who proclaim and serve

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

In all we say and do

To the glory of God

For the salvation of humankind

For the healing and hope of the city and

For the reconciliation and peace of the world.

So it has been since our founding date on the 8^th of January, 1848 – so it still is today. Jesus Christ has always been the center of this church, and we stand upon the firm foundation of all those generations who have gone before us in the faith. And they are counting on us to build on the foundation which they laid.

So may it be as we launch another new church year! We are about to wrap up our Capital Fund Campaign, putting “First Things First” to renovate all of our facilities for ministry and mission. We are about to launch four search committees to bring new leadership to this congregation as we say “Thank you and God be with you” to Ernie Davis, Eve Earnest, Trisha Senterfitt and Charles Black who have made such a major difference in this church over the years. And God only knows all of the wonderful things He has in store for us in the coming year!

CONCLUSION

In closing, let me tell you how I feel about the future as we celebrate the beginning of another new church year. There are four words carved into the cornerstone of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. which say “The Past is Prologue.”

An international traveler noticed the inscription and asked a cab driver what they meant. As you know, cab drivers have a way of bringing things down to earth. So the cab driver replied: “The past is prologue…that means, man, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” (Illustration quoted with gratitude to my dear friend Dr. Thomas K. Tewell, from his sermon “My Vision for Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church,” preached October 3, 1994)

That is how I feel about the future of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, and I hope and pray that you feel the same way too – and may God guide us and provide us with all that we need as He leads us into all that is yet to be!

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