FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Rev. Al Mead

Associate Pastor, New Hope Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia

August 3, 2008

It’s Here

Scripture: Acts 11:19-26

I believe in this journey that all may worship to be a multi-cultural church. Your vision to reflect our community and to help our community is truly from the Lord. If God has called us to be a generation of inclusion and reconciliation and peace, and I believe he has, it’s going to take his incredible love. Experience the love of God where the gospel proclaims that when people come to Jesus their cultural, their racial, their class, their conditions are superseded by the loyalty to the family of God. Amen.

And experiencing the love of God means that at the foot of the cross, there is equal ground. It is only there that we can submit ourselves to each other whether white, black, Asian, Latino, disabled or able - what a witness to our community, what a witness to our nation, what a witness to the world where the gospel is not only strong enough to save us but also strong enough to reconcile us.

These struggles aren’t new. The first Christians who were spirit-filled believers still had the residue of their heritage and their cultures infecting them just as we all have in our society today, but there was a church who left a powerful example for us to follow, whose clear intent was to break the gospel out of its cultural walls, who was experiencing the incredible level of God multiculturally and this church was Antioch.

Antioch broke new ground. It was the first true multiracial, cross-cultural church. It was here where they were first called Christians. It was Antioch to first send missionaries into the larger world, the first church to cast the vision of foreign missions, headed by strong cross-cultural leadership. Luke goes out of his way to emphasize the ethnic backgrounds of Antioch leaders. Barnabas a Greek Jew, Simeon called Niger or Simeon the Black, Maneon a Jewish aristocrat, Lucius of Cyrene, another African, Saul a Hebrew Jew from Tarsus. This partnership, this fellowship became God’s headquarters for expanding the frontiers of the gospel.

Just how divided was this generation during the first Christian church? Well, you had the Jews on the top rung of the ladder and even they were divided with Jews of Hebrew descent looking down on the Jews of Greek descent, and the two groups worshipped in separate places, and then you had the Samaritans who were considered way below the Jews whom they were battling for a thousand years, and of course you have the Gentiles who were the most despised and it was strictly forbidden for a Jew to even eat or associate with a Gentile. And it was here we find a great persecution breaking out among the Christians and many who were scattered. Now were they running and escaping and hiding? No, these folks were running and preaching. They were speaking the word of God first to no one except the Jews alone but there were some who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, and in this context Greeks is equivalent to Gentiles preaching the word of God.

Now when we experience the love of God multi-culturally, cross-culturally inclusion, my first point is the love of God gives us a passion to become bridge builders. The team of men from Cyprus and the men from Cyrene of North Africa took a bolder step and they preached to everybody, to the neighbors, to the ones the bible says you are to love as yourself especially the one who is different from you, that’s when we truly embrace and experience the incredible love of God and I personally can relate to

being different.

You know I grew up (and don’t hold this against me) on the South Side of Chicago where I had a dream of being one of the greatest athletes in the world. And I love Chicago and it was an awesome place to do a lot of neat things and it was April 40 years ago this year where the whole country, the world that is even, was focused right here on Atlanta. It was on that day that in Chicago we were honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. They let out school in Chicago and I decided (the athlete that I am) I would take that spare time and go play some basketball. And in playing basketball, I went up for a rebound and I came down awkwardly in such a way where the impact that I had with the ground outside created a blood clot, and then an infection, and one thing led to another and another and it seemed like my dreams had crashed as well. But for the next six weeks God’s hand was upon me. Yes, it took three amputations where they amputated my foot, that wasn’t sufficient, then below the knee, that wasn’t sufficient, and finally above the knee.

When my mom told me initially that they would amputate my leg in order to save my life, she knew that I would probably get beside myself and would not take that well. But because I grew up in a very faithful, strong religious home, I told my mom, “Mom it’s going to be okay because if they have to amputate my leg” which is a big word for a nine year old, I said, “God is going to grow it back.” Well, of course my mom looked at my dad and looked me and scratched her head and said, “How are we going to break the news to our son that his leg is not going to grow back? And I said, “Mom when you cut your fingernails what happens? It grows back. When you cut your hair dad what happens? It grows back. Surely all the bible stories that you’ve shared with me how God parted the Red Sea and raised Jesus from the dead surely he can grow a simple leg back.”

Well, God’s hand was upon me and he did grow my leg back. He didn’t grow it back physically, but he grew it back in such a way technologically that he gave me everything I needed to do, everything that he wanted me to do for his purpose and his glory, and when I’m walking, and I praise the Lord for that, I don’t even take that for granted. And when I show you this beautiful brown leg and I say beautiful because part of my story is when the prosthetist first gave me my first leg he said, “It’s unfinished.” He said,

“Go home and take it easy. Walk around a little bit and bring it back and we’ll complete it.” Except there was one unfortunate situation where he sent me home with an unpainted leg and so I walked home and I walked around the neighborhood with a white leg and a black leg. Perhaps the Lord’s hand was upon me saying that I’m going to use you in cross-cultural ministries even. Even God has a sense of humor.

But I can remember on the first day that I’d gotten my leg, I was so enthusiastic in getting back into action in sports that (I’ll share this later on as well) I played football, touch football, and you know I couldn’t run. I was hop skipping like this and you know this is the only thing I could do and I didn’t look like Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears. But I could run. I could get back into action and my friends didn’t want me to play because they didn’t want me to get hurt and I could remember getting my hand on the football, and of course I’m hop skipping toward the goal line, my friends pretended to chase me and make it my special day but little did they know, that the prosthetist told me not to play, the leg is temporary and in my pursuit of the goal, my leg falls off. It falls apart with my hand on the football, my foot’s down the field and I’m hopping like this, just like the kids were, and I had a choice to say, “Lord I can’t believe that I’m in this situation,” and I didn’t. I hopped to the goal line and I said, “touchdown,” and hopped and got my foot back with the socks sticking out of the gym shoe, and I told my friends “I’ll be back” and I came back – why because the Lord’s hand was upon me.

You know the presence of the Lord was with me as it was with them with power. They surrendered and trusted God. Verse 22 said in the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent for Barnabas off to Antioch. You see, when challenging things happen to us, and they will, we don’t know what to do but only to cast all of your care upon him. And you stay strong and you don’t give up and to a point where even if you have to hop with one leg, the news could get around the neighborhood.

The news is getting around the community about First Presbyterian, wants to reach out to our community and reflects our community, wants to look like heaven. The word is getting out that First Presbyterian of Atlanta not just welcomes you no matter what disposition that you are, but once you no matter what position you’re in, that our doors aren’t just open to you but they want this to be a place of worship for you and when we take a bold step like this for the Lord the Lord’s hand will be upon us. People will see people believe and turn to the Lord.

Second point, the love of God rules over culture. You see it doesn’t matter what you were who you were where you were, God’s grace is sufficient. They sent Barnabas and you know Barnabas is one of my favorite in the bible. He was a bridge builder. He was a son of encouragement. He introduced Saul to the inner circle of the apostles whom he himself had persecuted. But you know we’ve all have been hurt, we’ve all have been impacted but here’s the good news, God’s grace is sufficient.

Verse 23 says he witnessed the grace of God and he rejoiced and he began to encourage them all with the resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. That is our challenge to you First Presbyterian, to remain true to the Lord’s cause. When we choose Christ over culture, we witness God’s grace. When we choose Christ over culture, we rejoice, we encourage each other. We have a resolute heart, a purpose of heart - to who, to man, no, to the Lord. And what happens when the love of God rules over culture? This is how we become inclusive welcoming those people with disabilities, those people who don’t look like us or walk like us or talk like us. This is how we grow and when we grow the love of God develops partnerships which is my

third point.

You see Barnabas was so excited that he left for Tarsus to look for Saul because he couldn’t do it himself. I couldn’t do it myself with the achievements God has blessed me with and the context in which look or seeking the bible says. Barnabas had a problem and a tough time looking for Saul. Barnabas wasn’t about to give up. He wanted Saul to picture this, to experience this that it was here where the walls were torn down where everyone was preached to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wanted to picture this and it’s here and it’s here in Antioch. You know there’s nothing like a picture that God gives us when his hand is upon us.

You know when I had the honor of carrying the Olympic torch when it came to Atlanta. The first day that it came I was asked to be apart of the torch run during the six o’clock news hour. Boy was that pretty cool. And there I am running down the street and surrounded by thousands of people that are on the side and that are on roofs and are taking pictures and waving flags and just shouting and it was just one of the most incredible things that I have experienced in my life. And then I wake up the next morning and see the front page of the Atlanta Constitution. The headlines of the Olympic section says Picture This. It’s here. It’s here. There I was carrying the torch.

But even more important than that, picture this. Barnabas said to Saul, Jews, Greeks, Gentiles, and its here. Barriers torn down, it’s here. Hundreds and hundreds are getting saved. It’s here, it’s here where the love of God is moving mightily, and it’s here where neither race or culture or language or political influence but the love of Christ that binds us together. Amen. That’s what they’ll be saying about First Presbyterian. It’s here where they’re experiencing the love of God. Its here and Verse 26 says and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch and it came about that for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. How successful was this experience? How do we know that the incredible love of God was here at this church? This is where they were first called Christians, why, because they were like Christ.

There’s a soldier’s story that I heard someone tell, a story about a platoon escaping an ambush. Running toward the helicopter waiting to save the survivors of this attack, there was mass confusion. It was dark. The area was lit by gunfire and grenade attacks. Smoke filled the air with the sound of the helicopter propellers and it didn’t matter what color you were, it didn’t matter what class you were, as the men were trying to help each other escape. And as they were climbing on the helicopter, pulling each other up, a white soldier pulling up a black soldier and a black soldier pulling up his white comrade and reached out and he wasn’t there, and he said, “I must go back for him, I must find him.” The soldier in the helicopter says, “No don’t go, you’ll get yourself killed. Don’t go back, he’s probably dead.” And the soldier says, “No I can’t leave him. I must go back to help.” And he jumps off the helicopter, runs off and disappears in the smoke filled darkness.

The helicopter leaves and on the next day they come back to survey the area. Walking through the bodies, looking for the one he tried to save, and he found him, the soldier hugging the white comrade he came to save who was dead, and the soldier looking down at him all banged up, bloodied and said to him, “I told you not to go back. I told you you’d get yourself killed. Look at you! Look at you!” And the bloodied soldier hugging his lost comrade looked up to the soldier and said, “When I found him he was alive. And he said to me, ‘I knew you would come back’ and then he died.”

You know if we’ve experienced the incredible love of God, we’re going to have to be like comrades. Amen. We’re going to have to be yoked together no matter what ability or disability or class or race. We’re going to be reconcilers and bridge builders like Barnabas was, like the church in Antioch, but we can’t do it without the person who is the bridge himself and that’s Jesus Christ.

Amen.