FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

 

April 26, 2009

 

CHRIST AT THE CENTER – THE FAMILY OF FAITH

THE SOUND OF A SIREN

 

Scripture:  Psalm 150; Joel 2:1-3, 30-32; I Corinthians 15:50-58

 

INTRODUCTION

 

It happens almost every Sunday, as we gather together to worship God in this sanctuary and listen for His Word – the sound of a siren can be heard out there in the city.

 

Because we are located near to the center, here in the heart of this metropolitan region of more than 5 million people…and claiming out identity as an urban congregation whose doors open out onto the main thoroughfare of Atlanta – we can hear the sound of a siren at the corner of 16th and Peachtree almost every day.

 

An ambulance is headed for one of our hospitals; a fire truck is rushing toward a call for help; a police car is speeding to a 911 emergency, the scene of an accident or a city street where some kind of crime or violence has happened.  Those are the images, and there are many more, which come to mind when we hear The Sound of a Siren.

 

I

 

Now if we are bystanders, listening to that sound or looking at those emergency vehicles going up or down Peachtree, then we can probably identify with what the comedian Flip Wilson used to say – “They wanted me to become a Jehovah’s Witness, but I’m just Jehovah’s bystander.  I really don’t want to get involved.”

 

Being a bystander means, I think, that when we hear the sound of a siren, we might feel a sense of anxiety or apprehension, imagining someone out there who is facing trouble or trauma, danger or distress somewhere in this city.

 

But when the siren is sounding for you or for me or for someone we know and love, then the experience can change and be transformed into a personal sense of hope and anticipation that help is on the way.

 

Back in 1995, a small group of members from this church were invited by the doctor in charge of Grady Hospital’s emergency room to ride in the ambulances with the medics on a Saturday night.  When the 911 calls came in, we were dispatched out, and as the siren sounded, I remember feeling that we were on a mission of mercy to bring hope and help to people in distress.  All these years later, I am still impressed by the doctors, nurses and medics who are working there, and they need our ongoing support and prayers.

 

So here’s the question that leads to the main point and purpose of this sermon: When you hear the sound of a siren out there, what kind of internal reactions are stirred up inside here – inside your own heart and mind, body and soul?  Does fear and fragile apprehension grab hold of you, or do you sense that help and hope are on the way?  And if the siren is sounding in your life today, then what difference can faith in God make to see you through?

 

As you might have guessed, there are no sirens in the Bible.  But our forbears in the faith, as far back as those ancient Hebrew people, did have a way of sounding the alarm when they needed to get everyone’s attention.  It was called the “shophar,” a ram’s horn, reminding the Israelites of the ram that was sacrificed instead of Isaac in Genesis 22.

 

They used that horn as a shrill and loud signal in going to war or making peace, announcing the new moon or beginning the Sabbath, marking the death of a great leader or the sudden approach of danger (see Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Musical Instruments,” pages 472-474).

 

You see, like the sound of a siren today, when the shophar blew many centuries ago, God’s people had to discern the difference between trouble and trauma or help and hope.

 

So it was around 400 B.C. as the prophet Joel spoke to the citizens of Jerusalem.  They had returned from the exile in Babylon, rebuilt the Temple and restored their religion and ritualistic way of life.

 

But then suddenly, a swarm of locusts invaded the land, stripped it bare and left the people in despair again.  So Joel prophesied to them, saying:

          “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!  Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near –

          A day of darkness and gloom.”  (Joel 2:1-2)

 

That sounds like trouble and trauma to me.  But then we hear a resounding note of help on the way and hope for the future, as Joel declares that:

 

          “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, for in Mount Zion and Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.” (Joel 2:30-31)

 

II

 

Has it ever happened in your life, when the odds seemed stacked against you and having tried everything, the only thing left to do was to pray and wait on the Lord for something to happen?

 

A man who belongs to this church wound up in intensive care following what everybody thought would be routine surgery.  For more than a month, he was on life support as the medical team did all they could to revive him.  Every time our pastors visited the hospital, we prayed with the family who kept the vigil by his side, especially his wife who was there hour after hour reading verses from the Bible which she believed he could hear.

 

And then, suddenly, one day he woke up.  Not knowing what had happened, I stopped by to visit, and walking into the room, he looked at me and said “Good afternoon preacher.”  I was startled and responded “You’re back.”  He smiled and replied, “Of course.  That’s what you’ve all been praying for.  How about that!”

 

When the siren sounds, or the shophar blows, the question is: Will trouble and trauma have the final word, or will we discover help and hope?

 

It is happening right now to this church, you know.  Several months ago we were hundreds of thousands of dollars short of our annual giving goal.  As good stewards and responsible Christians, we began to trim the sails of this ship of faith.  It was a painful process.

 

But then the tide turned, the challenge match caught on and the wind of the Spirit filled those sails beyond any of our expectations.  Today, although we are still short of what we set out to raise, thanks to God’s great blessing and your generosity, it looks like we’re going to be ok.

 

A church member, going out the door on Easter Day, showed me the token I had given to her last Christmas which says “With God, all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).  She looked at me and said “Don’t ever forget – we are a church, and that’s what we believe here.”  And this time it was I who replied “Well, how about that!”

 

Long ago when the shophar blew, and now as the siren sounds today, the question is:  Are we stuck with trouble and trauma, or do we really believe that help and hope are on the way?

 

III

 

My friends, we have so much to be thankful for and even more to celebrate in this great church!  During the 11:15 service, we will install The Rev. Hardy Kim as Associate Pastor of Church Growth.  Next Sunday, we will gather for worship, and the Annual Meeting, and then our picnic with the youth carnival and special recognition of all three new associate pastors and their families who have joined our family of faith.

 

But right here, right now in this sanctuary, there are six students and two leaders from Mount Kenya Academy in Nyeri, Kenya – one of our mission partnership schools listed on the back of the bulletin every Sunday.  And if they could teach us the words in their native tongue, our joyful celebration would sound this way:

 

“Bwana asifiwe!”  Will you say that with me?

“Bwana asifwe!”  It means “Praise the Lord!” which is exactly what our text from the 150th Psalm proclaims.  So let me read it to you once again, with one sentence I want to emphasize:

 

“Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

          praise him in his mighty

                   firmament!

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

          praise him according to his

                   surpassing greatness!

 

Praise him with trumpet sound;

          praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with tambourine and

                   dance;

          praise him with strings and pipe!

Praise him with clanging cymbals;

          praise him with loud clashing

                   cymbals!

Let everything that breathes praise the

                   Lord!

          Praise the Lord!”

 

Did you listen with special attention to verse 3?  It says “Praise God with trumpet sound!”  That’s what the Hebrew people did in their time and place.  And that is what our Rose Window above the organ pipes portrays: all of the musicians playing different instruments in worship, with the trumpets leading the way as Jesus Christ sits on the throne in heaven, the center of God’s glory and the Savior whom we praise.

 

If you were here on Easter Day, or tuned in through radio or television, then you heard these words at the end of the worship service, written by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, set to music by George Frederick Handel, sung by our choir and played by our orchestra – all of which dazzled and inspired us beyond description:

 

          “Behold I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…and the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”  (I Corinthians 15:51-52)

 

Those glorious words were written by the Apostle Paul in the first century A.D.; the music of Handel’s Messiah was first heard in Dublin in 1742; and every time it has been performed since then, the sound of the trumpets delivers the message, over and over and over again: “The Lord is risen!  He is risen indeed!”

 

CONCLUSION

 

Which leads us to this final reflection.  Many of us were here in Sunday after September 11, 2001 when John Claypool preached the sermon entitled “The Worst Things Are Never the Last Things.”  During that tragic and traumatic week and over the weekend, the sounds of the sirens were heard in New York City, Washington, D.C. and across this nation.

 

What we needed to hear in this congregation was that trouble and trauma would not prevail, and that help and hope were on the way.  Claypool knew what was at stake, and in closing, this is what he had to say:

 

          “The account of Churchill’s funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral confirms this fact.  He had carefully planned it himself and included in it some of the great hymns of the church and all of the wonder of our Anglican liturgy.  Furthermore, there were two things that he specifically requested at the end that made it unforgettable for every person there.  When the benediction had been said from the high altar, silence fell over the packed cathedral.  A bugler high up in the dome of St. Paul’s had been asked to play the familiar sound of ‘Taps,’ a well-known signal marking the end of something.  Those haunting notes brought home to everyone there the realization that an era had come to an end, and it was reported that there was hardly a dry eye in the church.  However, as Churchill had requested, after the notes of ‘Taps’ had sounded, another bugler on the other side of the dome began to play ‘Reveille’: ‘It’s time to get up, it’s time to get up, it’s time to get up in the morning.’  That final touch caught everyone by surprise but revealed where Churchill had gotten the strength across the years to never give up.  He did believe that the worst things are never the last things and the final sounds of history will not be ‘Taps’ but ‘Reveille.’”

 

(From “The Worst Things are Never the Last Things,” by Rev. John R. Claypool, in a book of sermons “Restored Faith,” by Forrest Church, Walker and Company, 2001)

 

I love that story and the man who told it to us eight years ago.  Today, his words and the sound of that trumpet come echoing, echoing, echoing down to us through time.  My friends, trouble and trauma will always be realities in our lives, but by the grace of God, the power of help and the promise of hope have come to save us in person, in the person of the risen Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!

 

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