Guest Minister, Rev. Kimberly Brown Barnes, Pastor, Gethsemane AME
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, July 18, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson, Luke 11:1-13 – Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer. 1One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: ” ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ” 5Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7″Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9″So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 11″Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” NIV Translation
The word “shameless” generally is not considered to have a positive connotation. But in a story captured in the scripture text, Jesus reminds us in the text that we are to be shamelessly persistent in our prayer requests to God. In the text, Jesus’ disciples walking with Jesus, but they are still in need of direction. Jesus uses a story to illustrate the importance of being persistent in our prayer lives.
1. We need to stand our ground. In the scripture text, a man came to his neighbor seeking assistance. In those days, people lived in small homes with elevated floors; the father of the family slept upstairs with the whole family. Once they went to bed, there was no getting back up, because it would wake up the entire family. The message of the scripture is that sometimes, in our faith walk, we need to stand our ground. We need to keep praying for our families and our loved ones; we need to stand our ground in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
2. We need to be tenacious. In our faith walk, we need to be tenacious and we need to seek God. And we ought not to be ashamed to shed tears for Him. In the story, we see friends who fall short in fulfilling a need, and we see a God who NEVER falls short. God will fulfill our needs, but we need to keep knocking. We need to shamelessly persist so that we can feed the hungry, clothe the naked. We need workers in our congregation. Let us shamelessly pray to God for some help. We need to fast together; we need to pray together as children of God; we need to shamelessly persist in our faith walk.
3. We need to be obedient. Finally, as we seek God, we’ve got to be open to God’s response. We have to be obedient to what God says. We need to be willing to wake some folks up. Jesus is teaching the disciples to be open to the responsibility that comes with obedience. We need to be obedient in responding to God, even if we have to come broken, we need to walk through that door, and we need to stand our ground.
At Metropolitan, some folks think we are crazy to be going through a restoration in the midst of a recession. But we are going to shamelessly persist; we are going to fast and pray, because a spiritual restoration is coming our way!
Tags:
Rev. Kimberly Barnes,
Sermon Notes
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, June 6, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson: Luke 7:11-17 11-15 Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother. 16-17They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country. The Message Bible translation
Most of us have lived through some desolate places in life. Illness, chronic pain, death of a loved one, financial disaster, loss of a home, loss of employment, break-up of a long term relationship, violence, child abuse – all are circumstances that shatter a private world. Over the last two weeks, all I have been able to think about is the status of the oil leaks in the gulf and the people who are most affected by it, praying that they fare better than the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I pray that they are not left in a desolate place.
In the scripture, Jesus ministers to a woman in a desolate place. In the village of Nain, he shows compassion for a woman whose son has died. She has no husband; and she is on the way to bury her only son. In those times, widows were in a tenuous status; their fate was left to the remaining male members of their family. If there were no male members of the family to take care of them, they were moved to the margins of society. The scripture provides three lessons for us when we are in desolate places in life.
1. Take comfort that there is no desolation that blinds you from the sight of God. You may not be able to see God, but He has his eyes on you. Jesus knows all about our troubles, he will guide us til the day is done. There’s no friend like the lowly Jesus; no, not one, no not one. You can look to the life of Jesus and see in him the goodness of God. In the text, God shows compassion for the outcast. He demonstrates his ability to reach into our suffering and hurt. The same power that resides in God resides in us. The woman is suffering a pain worse than death. Jesus instructs her: Stop your weeping! He commands the dead corpse to rise and he gives the boy back to his mother.
2. In your desolate place, you have more power and strength than you know. You have the same power that Jesus has. Use your power and command those mountains: Get outta my way! Stand firm; stand bold; stand defiant in your desolation. There is no secret what God can do; what He’s done for others He will do for you.
3. When God blesses you in your desolate place, let your voice of praise and thanksgiving be distinctive. When God enters your desolate place, he restores you, picks you up, and breathes new life into your dead situation. Don’t let anyone or anything drown out your praise and thanksgiving when Jesus opens doors for you. Don’t be afraid to say: Thank you God! Thank you for the food on my table! Thank you for moving the mountains out of my life! Thank you, Lord, in my desolate place!
Don’t wait til the Lord brings you out of your desolate place. Praise Him now. Don’t wait until you get a new job. Don’t wait until you get a new house after you’ve lost your old house. Don’t wait until he delivers your child off those drugs. In your rough places, raise your hand and shout: Hallelujah!
Tags:
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton,
Sermon Notes
“Wow! Look at God!”
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, May 23, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson, John 14:8-17, 25-27 and Acts 2: 1-4. 8Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.” 9-10″You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act. 11-14″Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do. The Spirit of Truth1 5-17″If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! ***25-27″I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught. *** Acts 2: 1-4, A Sound Like a Strong Wind 1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. The Message Bible translation
This is Pentecost Sunday. I was moved by the prospect of the subject “Wow! Look at God!” Have you ever had a moment in your life when God just broke through every obstacle in your way, then delivered even MORE than what you had expected, so you knew it had to be God? Like receiving a diagnosis of inoperable cancer, but when you went back to the doctor, the doctor noticed that the cancer had shrunk and he was being scheduled for surgery.
A “wow” event is an answer to a long-desired prayer. Such as the deliverance of a wayward child; a breakthrough at just the right time; an unexpected blessing you never dreamed of. You know it was nothing but God.
There is a lot of truth to the hymn: “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.” I declare these “wonders” to be “wow” events.
In the scripture, it’s fifty days since Jesus’ resurrection; the disciples had come together in the place where they had last seen him. They were not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. There was a sound like a strong wind, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks. The powerful manifestation of the spirit of God filled the room. Wow! Look at God!!
After the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, the final concern of the disciples was, what would happen when Jesus was no longer physically present? John 14 tells us Jesus had already answered this question: “The ones who believe in me will do greater works than these. From now on, whatever you ask in my name – whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing – I will do it.”
1. Don’t ever be afraid to ask God for anything. Seek God first for everything in your life. There is nothing too big or too trivial. When stuff happens, we turn to every other resource. The Bible says seek first God, and all other things will be added unto you. God will step in. When does God answer? How does God answer? Why does God answer? You gotta ask God those questions, but when your request lines up with the perfect will of God for your life, God always answers “Yes!”
2. There ought to be a door in your life that you can open and personally experience God’s touch. God has an uncanny way of opening a door in our lives that we alone have personal access to. That’s a “wow” moment, when God decides to enter. You ought to have a “secret closet” – some refer to it as a “sacred closet” – a private space in your life and your house in which you can sit and meditate and reflect. Sometimes the door opens through a scripture, sometimes through a familiar line of a hymn, causing you to look back on how the Lord brought you from where you used to be.
3. God will show up in those “wow” moments. God has entered into the space where you are. Sometimes there is the miraculous “wow” – the “God blows your mind” wow. The “out of the ordinary” wow.
God can defy all your logic. It’s not always a “big bang”, yet it is still compelling, exhilarating, surprising, shocking, startling. It comes in different forms. Like the sheer joy when you discover that you made an error in your bank account that worked out in your favor. When the doctor’s diagnosis turns out to be not as bad as you thought it was. When you look at the graduation of that child you never thought would get through high school.
When you think about the goodness of God, sometimes all you can say is: Wow!
Tags:
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton,
Sermon Notes
Rev. Dr. Marie P. Braxton, Assistant Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, May 9, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson – Acts 16: 9-15 Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi. 9During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. 13On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. NIV translation
Life is a continuum of lessons learned; some of which are learned the hard way, through willfulness and disobedience. We have all taken those hard paths and have learned from them.
Many of the lessons we learned were taught to us in our early years. First Lady Michelle Obama held a Mother’s Day tea at which she told the guests of the lessons she learned from her mother, Marion Robinson. These lessons were on the value of a good education, how to present themselves appropriately, and about self-worth, self-esteem and building character. Mrs. Obama chose to share the lessons she had learned from her own mother with young girls in Washington, DC. At the tea, Alexis Herman shared stories of what her Godmother, Dorothy Height, had taught her. In Maya Angelou’s book “Letter to my Daughter”, she told the stories of how her mother had raised her, and she passed these stories along to Oprah.
In the scripture, Paul traveled to the Roman colony of Philippi after having a vision that a man of Macedonia had bid him to come. He used the opportunity to preach the gospel to some women who had gathered at the river. One of the women was Lydia, an influential merchant woman, a dealer of purple cloth – which was a very expensive, luxury item for the rich – who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to receive Paul’s message, and after Paul baptized her and other members of her household, she invited Paul and his companions to come and stay at her home. Lydia teaches us several things.
1. Lydia teaches us some lessons on how to survive in a down economy. Rather than spending today with no plan for tomorrow, Lydia was a wise merchant, and she was a worshiper of God.
2. Lydia teaches us that no matter your title, degrees, or wealth, you still need to receive Jesus in your life. Jesus died for our sins, he was raised from the dead, he gave us everlasting life. Lydia teaches us that you can make it in a down economy if you have the Holy Spirit in your life. Lydia realized that although she had a lot of material things, she still needed to receive the Lord in her heart. Lydia was Paul’s first conversion of a European.
3. Lydia teaches us the power of “Christian Hospitality”. As Christians, we are expected to show hospitality; as a Christian, you are to go out of your way to be kind to others, to attend to another’s needs, to bring others into your space, to make others feel welcomed, loved, honored, and respected.
Christian hospitality, like love, is “not boastful or puffed up”; it’s not “all about me,” but it is about how I can honor and serve YOU. My mother-in-law taught me that no matter how little you have, you can always share what you have. My own mother – a gifted and talented journalist and editor – taught me that it doesn’t hurt to be kind to people, and you do not have to retaliate even if they are unkind to you.
These lessons of life have been passed down for generations. May we learn these lessons well, and may we teach by example to our own children, and to all of the other children in the Village.
Tags:
Rev. Dr. Marie P. Braxton,
Sermon Notes
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, April 18, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson – Acts 9: 1-11, Saul’s Conversion. The Blinding of Saul 1-2 All this time Saul was breathing down the necks of the Master’s disciples, out for the kill. He went to the Chief Priest and got arrest warrants to take to the meeting places in Damascus so that if he found anyone there belonging to the Way, whether men or women, he could arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem. 3-4He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?” 5-6He said, “Who are you, Master?” “I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.” 7-9His companions stood there dumbstruck—they could hear the sound, but couldn’t see anyone—while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone-blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing. 10There was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias. The Master spoke to him in a vision: “Ananias.” “Yes, Master?” he answered. 11-12″Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He’s there praying. He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again.” The Message Bible translation
The scripture is one of a number of post resurrection stories of conversion of many people who either saw Jesus and believed, or whose eyes were opened to the truth of Jesus as a resurrected Messiah through the work of his disciples.
Jesus appeared for Doubting Thomas, the disciple who did not believe the report that Jesus was alive until he put his finger through Jesus’ side. Luke continues to tell the stories of conversion in the Book of Acts. There is the story of the conversion of the crippled beggar who had been begging for alms at the gate all his life, until he saw Jesus; there is the story of the conversion of the youth sitting by the roadside reading, but who did not know what he was reading until Phillip read to him; boy jumped up and shouted “Baptize me now!” Here in Book 9 of Acts, we have the famous story of the conversion of Saul, later called Paul, and the events on the “Road to Damascus”.
Saul/Paul’s story is a powerful story of the transformative power of God, through Christ, to reshape a life; the power to change the entire course of someone’s direction in life. It is rare for such a dramatic transformative experience as that of Saul/Paul. The story of your conversion may not be that dramatic, but it is as legitimate as Saul’s. Some of us have a “faith inferiority complex” because our conversion is not as dramatic as Saul’s. But God finds each of us “where we are”; God knows how each of us can best witness the transforming power of God, and some of us could not handle a dramatic witness as Saul’s. As the elders used to say: “Lord, let me get as close as I can bear.”
In the scripture, Luke tells the story of how awful Saul was to the post-ascension followers of Christ. In verses 1-2, we learn that Saul was a zealous persecutor of the disciples, “breathing down their necks…out for the kill”. The scripture teaches several lessons about what happens “When God Goes to Work in a Life”.
1. There is no life that is exempt from the transformative touch of the power of God. When God decides to work through you, there are no excuses. Whether you are an Anglican preacher named John Wesley, an Israelite named Esther, a freedom fighter known as the Black Moses, the son of a Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King, the son of a freed black slave named Richard Allen, or a poor black boy of single mother from a public housing project [named Rev Ronald Braxton], others can witness through the hand of Jesus touching YOU. Nothing and no one is too small, too big, too rich, too poor, too high, or too low that God cannot transform it.
2. When God goes to work in your life, you will never see life the same way again. In verse 8 of the scripture, Saul got up from the ground; his eyes were open, but he could see nothing. Ananias laid his hands on Saul, and suddenly he could see again.
There are a lot of folks living with their eyes open, but they can’t see God at work in their lives, and in the world. There are too many people suffering from an “eyes-wide-open-blindness syndrome.” Their eyes can’t see God, and their eyes can’t see the needs of others. On the healthcare issue, many people’s eyes are open, but they can’t see.
When God opens your eyes, He will show you new eyes, new hopes, new paths, new visions, new dreams. You will be able to do what you thought you could never accomplish. You will be able to walk through doors you never thought you could go through. You will see people differently – you will see joy, hope, missing power, potential for healing. You will suddenly see all the young boys and young girls losing their way, and you will reach out to them.
Ananias had no power of his own to open Saul’s eyes. He was but an instrument to send out the glorious power of a resurrected God. God opens eyes, changes lives, breathing through to a champion of the faith. It’s God, we don’t have the power on our own. It’s not until God steps in and puts his hands on your soul and opens your eyes, that we can see Jesus as our Lord. As the hymn goes: “What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my life!”
3. When God goes to work in a life, it’s not a “cake walk”. It’s not a cake walk when God goes to work in a life; when you have to start dealing with your own sins. It’s not a cake walk standing up here preaching; it’s not a cake walk singing in the choir, after being careful about where you were last night. It’s not a cake walk calling yourself a Steward or a Trustee, while you’re living ungodly, shabby lives. It’s not a cake walk coming to church on Sunday, because when God goes to work in your life, you can’t go home and beat up on your spouse; you can’t cuss out everybody on your job. It’s not a cake walk to live standing for Christ. It’s not a cake walk, but if you let Him go to work in your life, God will touch you and He will walk with you the whole way through.
I keep on learning that when God touches your life, the lives of unlikely people from diverse backgrounds will rise up to heal, to help to provide. I got news for a lotta folk in here: Ananias didn’t want to have anything to do with Saul/Paul; he protested God’s telling him to lay his hands on that “no good scoundrel” Saul. But he did what God told him to do, and the scales fell from Saul’s eyes.
When God goes to work on you, He puts people in your life; He’ll surround you with folks who will pray for you, who will have your back. He’ll stand by you when the storms of life are raging; when the world has tossed you HE will stand by you. Amen
Tags:
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton,
Sermon Notes
Rev. Dr. Marie P. Braxton, Asst. Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, April 11, 2010 – Second Sunday After Easter
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson Acts 5:27-32: The Apostles Persecuted. 27Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28″We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! 30The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” NIV Version
The Scripture lesson starts at verses Verse 27-32, but I want to call your attention to the passages prior to those, Acts 5, verses 12-26. Today is the second Sunday of Easter. Last week we celebrated the resurrection. Jesus did not rise from the dead of his own accord; he was raised by God the Father. Easter goes on for four weeks, then there is the ascension into heaven; then there is Pentecost.
In the scripture, Jesus’ physical presence has passed; his disciples are now “apostles”; they have taken on Jesus’ ministry. They went out among the people and they preached, taught, healed the sick, cared for the widows and the orphans; they added many more believers to the kingdom, all in the name of Jesus. But this angered the high priest and his associates, the Sadducees.
1. Jealousy is a terrible thing. The apostles performed many miracles, but they were hated and persecuted, beaten and slandered by the community leaders because of it. In verse 17, Luke, the purported author of the Acts, writes that the Sadducees were jealous of the apostles and all of the attention they were getting among the people. Jealousy is when someone has some attribute, opportunity, gift, etc. that you don’t have, and you hold it against them. Jealousy can lead to other things; it can destroy a church.
2. Faith in God will not make your troubles disappear. Faith in God will not make your troubles disappear, but faith makes your troubles less frightening. We are all victors in the midst of strife. On your journey, expect to lose some friends; expect to have some lonely days and nights; expect some tears, but remember: have more faith in following the will of the Lord than the reactions of others. After the apostles were arrested and thrown into jail, an Angel of the Lord came to the jail and let them out. The Angel told the apostles to go back to the temple, pray at sunrise, and teach the people, so they did. In verse 21, we find the apostles at sunrise preaching and teaching about Jesus. Astonished, the high priest and the Sanhedrin asked the apostles why they had violated the order not to preach in Jesus’ name. But the apostles said: “We must obey God rather than men.” They just couldn’t help but to do what the Lord told them to do!
3. I just can’t help myself! When the Lord speaks and you know it is the Lord, you are compelled to do what the Lord says. When the Lord says feed the hungry, clothe the naked: I just can’t help myself. When the Lord says care for the homeless, help the imprisoned: I just can’t help myself. I have to do it because I just can’t help myself. I have come to know the Lord for myself. I witnessed the good news because I just can’t help myself. The Lord is my God, my savior, my shepherd, my healer, my provider, my shelter, my strength, my confidence my protector, my song, my joy, my deliverer, my peace. I said I wasn’t going to tell nobody but I just can’t keep it to myself. I can’t help but to tell somebody what the Lord has done for me. “He picked me up, turned me around, set my feet on solid ground!”
Tags:
Rev. Marie P. Braxton,
Sermon Notes
Rev. Dr. Ronald M. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, March 7, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson: Psalm 63: 1-9. A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. 1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.9 They who seek my life will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth.
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The Commentary on the scripture provides the background in which David, a young lad before he was king, had become a great warrior in Saul’s court. King Saul was jealous about David being a better warrior than he was. His mind was playing tricks on him – stable one minute, in a rage the next; he kept trying to kill David – he even sent an army after him. He seemed to be suffering from bipolar disorder, or maybe he was dealing with the early onset of Alzheimer’s. In any event, David fled into the desert to escape King Saul’s wrath. There, he moved from place to place. He needed food, shelter, water; he was afraid for his life; he was dehydrated and hungry. In the scripture, David is recalling what this experience in the desert was like. He equates his hunger and thirst to a hunger and thirst for GOD.
Brothers and Sisters, we are living in a big world – big accomplishments, big portfolios, big master bedrooms, big screen TVs, big appetites, March Madness, the SUPERbowl, MEGAmillions – not just the lottery: POWERBALL. We live in a robust, big-craving society. We measure our churches by the size of the building, the choir, the membership, the usher board, the pastoral staff. We don’t talk about country churches anymore. The only thing that matters is the MEGA-church, not the size of our ministry. The scripture provides insight on how the presence of God in your life can more than satisfy your hunger and thirst.
1. Only the presence of God in your life can satisfy your hunger and thirst. I submit that our quest for the “big” things is actually a craving for a BIGGER GOD. We are vulnerable creatures, always searching. Ours is a “bipolar” world – sunshine one day, blizzard, earthquake, tsunami-type waves the next . Exercising every day – then your heart stops. At a point, in the midst of all this craving for BIG things, the only thing that will matter is a God who is accessible.
In verse 5, the Psalmist says his soul will only be satisfied with the richest food – such as a prime rib so tender you don’t need a knife. Only God can satisfy your craving for such things. What would your world be like if you just hungered and thirsted for the presence of God in your life? “Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for God,” for only He can satisfy your craving.
2. God not only satisfies your big hunger and thirst, but when you seek Him, He provides more than you can ask for. The Psalmist found himself drinking the glory of the generosity of a living God. I thought I was living big, but I’m really living now. We don’t know joy until God shows up in our lives. We don’t know joy in our lives until we can declare “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.”
If you take the first step outside your door, God walks with you the whole way. He has already gone ahead and will be where you are trying to get to. Psalm 23: “He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies…my cup overflows.” When God shows up in my life, my cup runs over. When God is present, I can reach up through this wilderness and praise Him.
When God is present in your life, it’s time to show praise, to bring forth refreshment, to CELEBRATE. Because He has always stood up for me, I’m not going to wait for the doctor’s report, for Congress to pass a healthcare bill, for the renovations to be complete; I’m going to show praises while the scaffolding is still up, while the floors are still being worked on! After all I’ve been through – after I’ve been “sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes level to the ground” – when I look back over my life and see how good God has been to me, I know it’s time to shout!
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Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton,
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When God is Present
Guest Minister: Rev. Geoffrey Tate, Jr., Pastor
St. Mark AME Church, Wilkinsburg, PA
Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, February 28, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org
Scripture Lesson: Nehemiah 1:1-9 “Nehemiah’s Prayer”: 1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” 4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. 8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As sinners, we are born in debt; not financial debt, but debt due to the mistakes of others. Someone in our family lineage didn’t “do right”. Then the descendants inherited it, and they passed it down to the next generation – a generation that can choose to CORRECT it, or hand down the debts of the past to the NEXT generation.
Most people run from the prospect of trying to correct the mistakes of the past. But before we can build on our future, we must learn from our past mistakes and failures. It is a lonely path, filled with hurt and pain, and dark places we would rather forget.
Some of us are unable to move forward because of what someone said or did to us – our father walked out, our mother had her own agenda and was not focused on us as a child. But we can CHOOSE to: 1) stay defeated, or 2) rise above our situation.
There are a number of great people in our history who did not allow their realities to hinder their destiny – people like Harriet Tubman – whose determination led to her discovery of a pathway to freedom; she took 19 trips on what we know as the “underground railroad”. And Jarena Lee who, despite the injustices within the church, went on to become the first female AME preacher. Frederick Douglass, the forerunner of the abolitionist movement; dynamic speaker and writer, publisher of the North Star newspaper, advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, who helped to change voting rights for former slaves. There’s Rosa Parks, Bishop Vashti MacKenzie (first female AME Bishop), and of course Barack Obama, the first Black President of the United States.
No matter who we are, we are all living in the aftermath of our family’s inheritance. But your destiny is not determined by the negativity of your past. You can rise up from the oppression and depression of your past.
Listen to the words of Nehemiah’s prayer for his people (verses 5-9): 5 Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. 8 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’
Nehemiah’s name means “comfort of the Lord”. The lesson of Nehemiah’s prayer is: acknowledge, reflect, learn, and move forward. He had to reflect on the past before he could move forward.
Nehemiah teaches: As we reflect on our past, we must carry our concerns to God in prayer. Don’t blame a person who may have been responsible for your pain. Nehemiah asked God to forgive his father, and his father’s fathers, and himself. The lesson we must learn from Nehemiah is to forgive those who hurt us in the past. Don’t walk around upset because of what your Daddy did, what your Mother didn’t do, the neighborhood you grew up in. Take a lesson from Nehemiah and “cast all your cares upon the Lord.”
In his book, Up From Slavery, Booker T Washington tells the story of the coarse shirt made of flax that slaves were forced to wear, and the agony he endured as a slave boy the first time he had to put on a new flax shirt. Aware of his little brother’s discomfort, his older brother broke-in Booker T’s flax shirt for him.
Brothers and Sisters, Jesus tried on your flax shirt for you. He loves you so much. He put on your flax shirt and he carried that flax shirt all the way to Calvary, dragging your burdens, your sins, and your distress with him.
You can remain defeated, or you can choose to rise above the disparity of your situation. No matter what life brings your way, know that you can be “more than a conqueror”.
We were all BORN IN DEBT; we have all fallen short. But Jesus paid our debts of sin and we walk in victory!
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Rev. Geoffrey Tate Jr.,
Sermon Notes
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