News and Announcements

Rev. Dr. Louis M. Anthony speaking at:
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, January 22 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture: John 1:10-12: Jesus, the Light of the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

John 13:12-17: Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

On this Annual Hospitality Day here at Metropolitan, I say to you this morning: “There Are Still Feet to Wash.”

It takes no degree in Sociology to figure out that we are living in a suffocating, narcissistic society – folks are into themselves and off to themselves. The church is even an island unto itself. In too many churches, we measure who is worthy to come through the doors of a house that is not supposed to be our own. The word for hospitality in Greek is “love” and “strangers” – we are the lovers of strangers when we engage in hospitality. Not folks in your Class, or your clique. You are to be a lover of strangers. Your sainted mother 50 years ago decided that your church had to have someone who would welcome the strangers. Ushers sometimes act as if they are part of security instead of hospitality.

In the first part of the scripture text in John (John 1: 10-12), John reminds us that the Creator of the world comes to the world He created, and He finds himself a rejected stranger. The Creator, the Savior of the world, was not welcome in his own place.

I submit to you that our young people don’t come to church because they have figured out that we are FAKING. You have been in the presence of people whose smile or whose gentle touch affected you deeply, and you know they are genuine. But others are not; we refuse to give tithes; we come up with excuses for not worshipping, we have to go out and raise money because we sit on our tithes.

In every church, there must be a Hospitality Club, a Mrs. Williams, a Robie Beatty who will say: “I don’t care how you smell or what ‘club’ you are in, you are welcome in God’s House!” Someone has to be in the house of God to let someone know: “I was once a stranger too – a stranger to grace, to mercy, to forgiveness – and one time He stopped by and touched me and made me a part of His army.”

In the second scripture text (John 13: 12-17), Jesus is washing feet. “There are still yet feet to wash”. In those days, they did not have roads, so your feet would get dusty, and it was the sign of grand hospitality that when you visited someone’s house, they washed your feet. In this Upper Room excerpt from the scripture, the disciples’ feet are in need of hospitality, but instead of allowing someone else to do that job, the Master himself gets up and washes the feet of all 12 disciples, including Judas. Jesus says: “Do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher, Lord, but if I – the teacher – have washed YOUR feet, I expect that you will manifest your love for me by washing the feet of others, and you are blessed if you do it”.

Brothers and sisters, there are still yet feet to wash – Ray Ray, Shanequah and Pookie – people of different cultures, people who are seeking God but who are caught up in an intellectual exercise. The judgment of God is on any house who has visitors and strangers, but no foot-washers.

There are reasons that we just don’t like washing feet, why we don’t like being hospitable, why we cut people off in traffic, why some people rejoice in leaving others out. Here are some of them:

1. Some people won’t wash feet because they are so insecure about their own worth/value/significance that they have not come to know who they are. So many people in the church won’t wash feet because they say “Not me!” Or they are too cute to wash feet. “I went to Harvard; I have a doctoral degree; I can’t condescend to cookies or coffee – we hire caterers for those kinds of things.” But Jesus was not too cute to come to where we are, to die on a cross, to endure humiliations and brutalities so that by His stripes, we are healed today.

2. Hospitality means learning to “be the best to the worst.” Some of you won’t wash feet because you are so happy with your achievements that you think helping someone else is beneath you. Others of you won’t wash feet because they have not learned to “be the best to the worst.” Hospitality does not just embrace people who are nice – it means being hospital to the very people who have an uncanny ability to pluck your last nerve. If you are authentically a Christian, the devil will send you the one who will push your buttons, and when he does, will you be hospitable, or demonic, with them?

Dr. Heschel said the opposite of “human” is not animal; it is “demonic.” Some of us won’t wash the feet of our neighbor, but Jesus even washed the feet of his assassin (Judas). You have to wash the feet of your assassin – of the very person who is trying to do you in – because your gratitude for the hospitality of God is so overwhelming.

3. Some people won’t wash feet because you have not learned how to be patient with ignorance and stupidity. When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, he got to Peter who said: “No Dog; you’re not washing my feet.” Jesus said to him: “You don’t really understand what I’m doing. And if I don’t wash your feet, you can’t be a part of me.” You can’t be hospitable to people until you have learned to be patient with ignorance and stupidity. Patience in Greek means “the capacity to hold your heat.” You can’t be hospitable until God through His spirit has enabled you to “hold your heat” in the face of ignorance and stupidity.

But if you are not insecure; if you’ve learned how to “be the best to worst”, if you’ve learned how to be patient with ignorance and insecurity, there is a place for you. Stephen had been chosen to be a deacon – deacon means: “one who waits on tables”. He was supernaturally gifted, but his first assignment was to handle a “food fight” among the people.

When God looks at authentic hospitality, He tests you to see if you are authentic. Some are just hospitable, gracious, smiling, on an annual basis, until this “Annual Hospitality Day” is over. But God always puts you in the basement before he puts you in the penthouse; He wants to see if you can handle the low place, and then he will trust you with the high place. So Stephen went to the food fight. And with his face shining like an angel, he speaks to them with power that can only come from God. He says: “…Furthermore I looked up and I saw the son of man standing!” The Apostles Creed said the Lord sits at the right hand of God. But back in Stephen’s day, when you were a witness, the witness stood up to give their testimony.

Someone here ought to follow hospitality and live in such a way that God will stand up for a waiter. Waiting on tables, washing feet, dying on a cross (a slaves’ death) – those were the things that Jesus did for us. But if you do what you are supposed to do, you will understand that the slaves and the waiters get promoted. Go out and pick up the trash; take someone home; speak to a stranger who comes to the door so he or she will feel that, in this house, they are welcome.

Are there any foot washers in the house? Is there anybody in here who is grateful that even those we “dissed” Jesus – he didn’t’ get an “attitude”; he stayed on the journey for our redemption to transform his haters into hosts for his glory.

When you get to the other side, God won’t be interested in your degree from Harvard; He won’t be interested in how much money you made (money that you don’t want to tell anyone about). Your resume won’t matter when you get to heaven, only the dusty feet that you washed – only Bay Bay and Shanequa and Pookie and the empty, bruised people who came into your house and left knowing that Jesus had touched them – through a cookie, a cup of coffee, or a sanctified smile. And then people who visit this place will be able to say, “I am going back to that church because they took me just the way I am!”

The condition of being “dull of hearing” doesn’t mean you can’t hear; it means you are selective about what you DO hear. As disruptive as it may seem, the scripture says the same Jesus who went away is coming back. He is coming – the time is not known – but He is coming, and this time He will be coming not to save somebody, but to collect his own. If the glory of God came down during the Ravens game, would you see the end of the game, or would He take you to be with himself? He’s coming and He’s going to take somebody with him, and He’s going to leave others behind.

We live in an inhospitable world; your children are killing themselves; politicians have told so many lies that the lies start to sound like the truth. In some churches, there are enclaves of cliques and clubs – not restoration and redemption. When He comes – we cannot know the date, but even the Mayans are trying to help us figure it out. Something unusual is happening – come and present yourself to Jesus. You say, I’m protected – I am a member of the church, but so is the devil. You say: I grew up in the church – but so did the devil. You say: I know a bible verse or two, I come to church most Sundays – but the devil has never missed a service.

If you don’t know Jesus, “washing feet” won’t be something you will do for too long. But if you’ve been coming to church and listening to Reverends Braxton and Braxton talk about how important it is for the church to be authentic, maybe now you will have an epiphany and know:

“I get it Lord – I’m supposed to be a foot washer! Not once a year but every day! Whatever feet you want me to wash – delinquent children, pregnant mothers, children with disabilities, homeless folk, imprisoned people – whatever feet you assign to me — I won’t be too cute to be a foot washer!”

This is the Word of God for you on this Annual Hospitality Day!

Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor,
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, January 15 2011
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture John 1: 43-51 MSG Bible Version (Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael): 43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.) 45-46Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? [Can anything good come from there?]” But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.” 47When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.” 48Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.” Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.” 49Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!” 50-51Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”

Pastor Braxton shared an extended excerpt from Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Story, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which described the decision-making process that Dr. King when through in weighing multiple career opportunities:

In 1954, after Dr. King had completed the course work for his Ph.D., he had job offers from colleges and churches in the North, and an offer from a church in Montgomery, Alabama, in the deeply segregated South.

The church was comparatively small, with a membership of around three hundred people, but it occupied a central place in the community. Many influential and respected citizens – professional people with substantial incomes – were among its members. Moreover, it had a long tradition of an educated ministry. Some of the nation’s best-trained Negro ministers had held pastorates there. From Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Story, page 3.

He struggled with the decision, and prayed assiduously on it. While he despised “the tragic implications of segregation,” he felt that his place was in the South, where he could do more for his people. He decided to answer the call from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama…the rest is history…

The scripture text may seem to be about Nathanael, but it is more about “The Gritty Joy of Being Blessed to Bless”. There are several lessons to be learned from the scripture.

1. It’s not always easy to be a blessing. When Phillip found Nathanael to tell him that Jesus, Joseph’s son, “the one from Nazareth” had called them to follow him, without even realizing it, Nathanael made a racial and cultural slur. He said: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You know what he is really saying: Can anything good come out of Montgomery? Can anything good come out of the South? Can anything good come out of Southeast (DC)? Can anything good come out of the African American community? Nathanael was contemptuous in his use of those words. Nazareth was an undistinguished place; not the kind of place that anything good was likely to come out of. But Jesus pierced through the unkindness of Nathanael’s words and poured into him a blessing of a lifetime. Jesus demonstrated the Gritty Joy of Being Blessed to Bless.

2. Sometimes as hard as it might be or get, don’t allow “the grittiness of being blessed to bless” rob us of the joy of being a blessing to others. Faced with a number of choices as to where he would go next – to preach, to teach, up north, or down in the segregated south – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had no idea where God would take him. But he knew that a blessing on him would be a blessing on the world. It wasn’t easy. But Dr. King chose the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama; and for him, that choice was the Gritty Joy of Being Blessed to Bless.

3. In the grittiness of human situations, we are best able to be a blessing when our witness, testimony and service are genuine and real. There is a lesson in Jesus’ response to Nathaniel’s derogatory slur, and Jesus’ choice to bless Nathanael with a compliment, despite his harsh language.

I grew up in Young’s Park in the projects in Norfolk, Virginia. Some teachers – and these were Black teachers just like me – despised the children from the projects. No matter what you try to do, you can’t succeed in being a phony. When Jesus saw Nathanael coming after having slurred “anything that came out of Nazareth”, instead of chastising him for his slur, Jesus declared: “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body!”

The real joy is in the grittiness of doing, the gritty joy of being able to bless someone else. If your testimony is fake, others will see right through you. Being a genuine, real Christian means taking off the façade, and blessing someone because God has blessed you.

You really can’t fake when Jesus is real in your life. You can’t fake when God has poured blessings, opened doors, moved mountains and stones out of your way. It will show, and others will be blessed because of you. You can tell when the preacher, the choir, the usher, the officers, the congregation have been blessed, and they know they have been blessed. There is something about a church’s witness when it is real. When the Lord has been good to you; when the Lord has answered your prayer, others can see it.

Sometimes, we would like to escape the gritty joy of being a blessing. We pray: “God just remove me from all of this work! Just let me come to church, pat my feet, put on my blinders, then go home to the comfort and security of my home. I’m tired of people asking me to do this and that!”

In verse 43, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, not to the big city of Jerusalem, not the Nile, but the sea of Galilee, and with gritty joy, to serve and be a blessing. When God can use you, go ahead and open the door and decide to go out into the streets, go out into the ghetto where people are suffering, go out there and help the people to find their way.
Richard Allen could have just chosen to stay in the Methodist Church. Rosa Parks could have just chosen to go the back of the bus. Harriet Tubman could have just decided to stay in the part of the country where she lived. But God had another gritty plan for them! And if you follow God’s gritty plan for your life, He will open doors and put joy in your heart.

Amen!

Rev. Jonathan V. Newton, Assistant Pastor
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, December 11, 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture: Mark 1:18-15 Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son. 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. NIV

The phrase, “What had happened was…” has received a bad reputation in society. It is intended to convey information that something has occurred and we want to relay that information to another person. But when we hear the phrase, “What had happened was…,” we tend to doubt everything that comes after that. People have come to use that phrase to explain something or to make up a fictitious story, or to get off the hook for inappropriate or irresponsible behavior. Students do it to justify not doing a homework assignment; employees do it at their jobs; and we use it at church for not coming to choir rehearsal.

The scripture text is a perfect context for one of the earliest and greatest “But what had happened was…” stories of all time. This story of the birth of Jesus in the “New Revised Updated Southeast International Version” sounds quite different than the way it is articulated in the scripture: “A virgin got pregnant, got a baby, Jesus happened, bam!” We apply this story to our life as evidence that God can do the impossible.

We tend to doubt things that we can’t see or explain. But as a body of believers, we are called upon to have faith in things we cannot see, things that cannot be explained. If we only trust what we can see and understand, we lose out. Because if you can touch it/quantify it/define it, that’s not faith, because God can do things that we cannot explain.

In the scripture, after being away for several months, Mary goes back home to her fiancé Joseph, and he has to deal with the situation of his bride coming back from a trip pregnant. Most of us would not have reacted the way Joseph reacted. Earl Simmons (DMX) coined the eloquent and succinct phrase: “Ya’ll gonna make me act a fool, up in here, up in here!” But Joseph is a “righteous” man; he does not exercise his right act a fool, or to have Mary stoned for becoming pregnant. It gives us our first point for the day:

1. Acting raw and raucous is not always right. Joseph did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace; he set aside his own privilege and took responsibility for Mary’s reputation. How many times do we jump off the handle when someone does something to us? When we act raw and raucous, we miss out on our blessing. We need to learn how to step back before we exercise the privilege to “go off.” Some of us think our status in the world gives us a certain privilege; we are too proud to start at the bottom and work our way up. Even in volunteer work, some of us don’t want to suffer and get down and do the dirty work. But Joseph, a righteous man, did not allow his status in the world to enable him to “go off”. Like Joseph, we need to embrace that principle of stepping back before we act out. Rather than exercise his privilege to ridicule Mary or to have her stoned to death, Joseph chose to do what God asked him to do.

2. Help is only a prayer away. The scripture says after he considered putting her away privately, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream. The message from Joseph is that, often, we don’t put ourselves in a position to hear from God. Before we hit “send” on the angry email, or before we run down the hall or jump out the car to tell someone off, we need to sit back and ask “Lord, what would you have me do in this situation?” Joseph didn’t look for the appropriate butcher knife for the situation. He waited for God’s specific instructions. We need to have that little talk with Jesus, with sincere prayer, seeking His will, asking God, and waiting for His answer. We can’t go to God directing HIM. We need to go to God and ask Him: “What is your will for my life; not my will but your will be done.” Then when he gives us the plan, we’ve got to do what He wants us to do. And we need to do it without scheming our own “backup plan.” Sometimes, you pray for God’s guidance, then you step into a situation, but then you make a backup plan – just in case. Joseph took Mary home with the Lord’s instruction, and no backup plan.

3. We still need a Savior. We have come a long way, but we are still not in the place where we want to be. The angel of the Lord said: “Joseph, thou son of David…”. connecting Joseph to his legacy. Be aware that someone else set aside their rights and privileges to take on responsibility for YOU. Someone took on responsibility for someone other than themselves because that is what God wants. Someone was attacked by dogs, someone was bombed in a church, someone’s father was lynched. Ernest Green saw a day when police officers tried to keep him from going to school; now he worships in a church down the street from where a black man is the president. We must focus on God as our deliverer.

The bible says Jesus came to save us from OUR OWN SINS – from the things in us that separate us from God. Jesus can save us from ourselves – from the sins of complacency, insecurity, from the sin of not helping a brother or sister improve their situation, from the sins that separate us from a community. We are not here just to minister to our own needs. Jesus can set us free from our own sins – all we have to do is trust him. God has a plan, and His plan is to bless us. Free will allows us to deceive ourselves and to devise our own plan. We can deceive ourselves, or we can accept God’s plan for our lives.

Everything we have was attained by the grace of God and countless others who sacrificed for us. Our response should always TRUMP OUR PRIVILEGE.

There are times when we feel selfish and privileged, and we forsake our response for our own sense of privilege. When things come against us, we learn from Jesus that we don’t fly off the handle, we go to God to see what HE has to say, and when He sends us the answer, we do what HE says. He is not the backup option, He is THE option

Even as you are faced with situations that seem impossible, don’t fly off the handle, don’t “go off” or get raw and raucous. Just have a little talk with Jesus, and through his power, the impossible can happen, all the time.

Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor,
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, December 4, 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture:  Mark 1:1-8. John the Baptizer. The good news of Jesus Christ—the Message!—begins here, following to the letter the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Watch closely: I’m sending my preacher ahead of you; He’ll make the road smooth for you. Thunder in the desert! Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road smooth and straight! 4-6John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey. 7-8As he preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.”  The Message Bible

Everyone needs some “good news” after the world takes you on a roller-coaster ride – financial problems, home foreclosure, job loss, dismantled families, sickness – whatever your challenge, it pays to hear some “good news.” The Good News of God crashing into your world is exciting.  In the scripture text, the “good news” comes from John the Baptist. God singled out John the Baptist to stand in the gap to let the people know about the good news of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist stood in the gap crying: “Get ready, get ready, get ready – God is about to do what He promised He would do!  The real action comes next!  I’m baptizing you in the river, turning our old life in for a kingdom life.  His baptism will change you from the inside out!”   God may not come when you think He should come, and He may not do it the way you think He should do it or when you think He should do it, but when He does it – look out!

1.         God has a strange habit of, every now and then, CRASHING into our worlds.  Have you experienced a situation when a family member or friend is in trouble, and God taps YOU on YOUR shoulder, saying:  “Hello, this is God.”  We oftentimes find God crashing into our lives, inconveniencing us, calling us to do something that we did not plan to do. “Hello,” he says. “This is God; go stand and be my witness in this gap. Abraham, go to a place; I will show you when you get there.  Moses, hello; this is God.  I hear the cry of my people.  Moses responds, Lord, I can’t do it.  God says: Yes you can; go and do it anyway, and I will give you what you need when you get there.”

When it comes to God, we often try to mind our own business.  But God has a peculiar habit of breaking into our lives, sometimes when we least expect it.  If you don’t believe me, ask Gandhi, ask Rosa Parks, ask Richard Allen, ask Martin Luther King, Jr., ask Harriet Tubman.  And He doesn’t come crashing just for big causes.  God provides a life-changing opportunity through Christ Jesus for those of us who walk in dark situations to see the Lord and to hear him say:  “I am with you.”

2.         When God comes crashing into your life, you may not be looking for Him, but He comes when He comes.  I was watching that movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I’ve seen it many times, but this time I focused in on the George Bailey character’s words when things had gotten so bad he just couldn’t figure out what to do to solve them.  He said:  “God, I am not a praying man, but I need you now to make a way for me. God, show me a way!”  No matter what situation you are in, God will come down; He will turn your life around, if you ask Him. He will change you from the inside out; and when He changes you, you won’t look like you are troubled; you won’t look like the diagnosis that the doctor gave you.  He will change your whole situation, your spirit, your entire way of living.

When God comes crashing into your life, you will feel like the song:  “I looked at my hands, and they were new; I looked at my feet, and they were too!”

Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor,
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, November 27, 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Scripture: I Corinthians, 1:3-9: 1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving 4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, when someone else just butts right into your conversation? 1 Corinthians, Chapter 1 is like that, because Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth is not the first letter that Apostle Paul wrote to that church. In the scripture, we are sort of “butting in” to the middle of a conversation, with some of the issues having been raised in a prior letter. In the current letter to the church in Corinth, Paul confronted some conflicts that ruffled feathers. He confronted things such as eating the meat offered to the idols, being unable to settle their differences, the “haves” refusing to eat at the Lord’s Table with the “have-nots”. In the scripture, Paul writes to tell the church that the Lord was critical of their attitudes. Paul admonishes them to practice the greatest spiritual gift of all: LOVE.

In the beginning verses of this letter, Paul’s goal was to set the Corinthians’ sight on a higher level. He told them: All of God’s gifts are right in front of you; you have been enriched in Him. Here are some lessons from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.

1. When you begin to look over your life and count all things as a blessing and gift given to you from the grace of God, your focus shifts and your sight is set on a higher place. When you understand that your life has very little to do with you, but more to do with God working in your life; showering your life with power, health and strength, and a degree of well being, your sight is set on a higher place. Yes, you have education, skills and abilities, but everything you have has a higher place. Even a certain degree of wealth you have has a higher place. We ought to stop crying and poor-mouthing about our finances. I know things are tight, but I could take you places this morning that would put your poor-mouthing to shame. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he has done for me, it shifts my focus off myself, and it sets my sights on a higher place.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul is clear that Jesus, like no one else ever has, brings a unique quality to the table of life. Throughout the scripture text, he speaks of everything in terms of its relationship to Jesus, because Jesus is the center of our relationship with God. He notes that, in Christ, I can live with a degree of peace that, whatever comes my way, it is well with my soul. In Christ, hope never fails. In Christ, I can face tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Along the journey, in and through Christ, I can depend on Christ to give me everything I need to get from Point A to Point B. In Christ, I am not worried about the journey. When you are assured that God loves you and that Christ died for you, you can live with whatever life brings your way.

2. Not only will this unique quality of being IN Christ equip you, but it will strengthen you. The letter to the Corinthians says: “Being in Christ is a higher place that provides for us almost supernatural, higher, divine power and strength – not only to do, but to endure.” I know you sometimes hear folks say: “I don’t know how they keep on going.” Being IN Christ God can empower your day to day living with unimaginable strength to conquer your daily living and to keep you from being defeated.

3. Being IN Christ can keep us from “wallowing in the petty particulars of present circumstances.” It is easy to become so occupied with the grit and grind of the day-to-day operation of living. So often we find ourselves so bogged down and entangled in stuff that we lose our focus, we lower our sights, and we become so weak that we do nothing but complain and complain and complain. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a state when nothing goes your way? Where one mountain piles on top of the next mountain; and before you get through the last challenge, another challenge comes along and piles on top of it? Martin Copenhagen called it: “wallowing in the petty particulars of present circumstances.” You have no hope for today, you just complain. You complain because your children, your wife, your husband, your dog, didn’t do it right. If you let it, life has its own way of lowering your sight, making it hard to function. The poet William Wordsworth says it this way: “The world has become too much with us.” But when you are centered in, focused on, waking up in the morning in Christ; sitting at the table in Christ; unlocking the door in Christ; getting behind the steering wheel in Christ; driving on the road in Christ; getting to the job in Christ – that’s called being in a higher place that will empower your day to day living with unambiguous, incredible strength.

After the resurrection, Jesus declared all power in us. I come this morning to declare all power in YOU – if you have a little faith, you have all power – that same power that God gives to Christ God gives to US to witness for HIM.

For me, I have to claim verse 8: He will also strengthen you to the end, and Verse 9: God is faithful. He will do what He said He will do; He will pick you up and carry you along the journey. He will give you strength and hope. When you set your sight on that higher place, you will become knowledgeable that there is no secret what God can do. He’s still a doctor in the sick room, a lawyer in the court room, water in a dry place. When you set your sight in a higher place, your life is equipped with a level of energy and power that witnesses to others that there must be an immovable power in your life. You no longer have a testimony, you BECOME the testimony. Jesus becomes everything, and the world can see it in your walk and in your talk.

When you set your sight on that higher place, you can make it. You can get through. This is the first Sunday in Advent; this is the Sunday of hope; there is a lot in this world that can rob you of your hope for tomorrow…but when you set your sight beyond yourself, your circumstances, your conditions…beyond what the world has put on you, God will equip you and empower you, not only to DO, but to ENDURE.
Amen

 
Rev. Ronald E. Braxton

Rev. Ronald E. Braxton
October 9, 2011, 7:45 AM
Philippians 4: 1-9

 
Rev. Ronald E. Braxton
September 18, 2011

 
Rev. Ronald E. Braxton
July 3, 2011

Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor
Metropolitan AME Church, Washington, DC
Sunday, July 3, 2011
www.metropolitaname.org

Zechariah 9:9-17 The Coming of Zion’s King9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. 13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword. The LORD Will Appear14 Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, 15 and the LORD Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling[c] the corners of the altar. 16 The LORD their God will save his people on that day as a shepherd saves his flock. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. 17 How attractive and beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women. NIV Bible Translation

The Book of Zechariah is a short, unfamiliar book tucked away close to the end of the Old Testament. The message of the prophet Zachariah in the scripture was addressed to the Prisoners of Hope. Peter Craig writes in The Book, that the Jews from Babylon began to move back to Jerusalem, their homeland, but they were ill-equipped to restore the temple. They lacked two features: 1) strong leadership, and 2) hope (for a promising future). As we rebuild this great church, we should keep in mind that rebuilding is a symbol of God’s renewal, and of a promising future.

1. The single worst thing that can happen to an individual, a child, or a community is to be robbed of hope. In verse 11, the words “I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit” were words of hope for those locked behind bars of “I can’t” “We can’t” – those who waste their lives in hopelessness. With God, all things are possible; but without the possibility of God, there can be no celebration of today or tomorrow. We must never let anyone rob us of our hope. We must never allow our children to become victimized by having no hope. Living without hope is worse than a sentence of death.

2. Zachariah does not invite the Prisoners of Hope to an institution; his invitation is to a new “movement of God.” In verse 9 of the Message Bible translation, he tells the prisoners of hope to: “Shout! Praise! Raise the roof!” In Verse 11 he tells the Prisoners of Hope “…you will be released, and restored with double of what you have lost.” Zachariah teaches that hope transforms the communities of those who participate in this “movement.”

3. As Prisoners of Hope, we are not an institution: we are a MOVEMENT. Brothers and Sisters of Metropolitan, we must be more than just another AME Church. We must serve God like we are participants in the life-transforming MOVEMENT of God. Our preaching, music, church school, spiritual attitudes and demeanor – all are transformative movements of God. As for me, I accept that I am a Prisoner of Hope – someone who God brought from a student who barely finished high school to someone who completed post graduate school. I am a Prisoner of Hope.

Prisoners of Hope live shackled to God’s redeeming grace. We live and move trusting God for everything. In the book, Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope, Joan Chittester writes:

Hope is not a matter of waiting for things outside us to get better. Hope is about getting better on the inside…it is about allowing ourselves to believe in the future we cannot see…it is about trusting in God…Hope…sits by the window and waits for one more dawn, despite the fact that there isn’t an ounce of proof in sight…Hope is the last great gift to rise out of the grave of despair.