FPC connects
The Chimes nline
Newsletter of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
SUNDAY Schedule Sunday, July 1 Independence Day Sunday • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:15 am, Winship Chapel
• The Mustard Seed Bookstore - 9:00 am - 12:00 pm • Star-Spangled Celebration - 9:00 am, Fifield • Sunday School for all ages - 9:00 am • Worship Service - 10:15 am, Sanctuary • Popsicle Playground Fellowship - 11:15 am, Playground
Sunday, July 8 • Prayer breakfast for Homeless persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Service 8:15 am, Winship Chapel
• Sunday School for all ages - 9:00 am • Worship Service - 10:15 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour - 11:15 pm, Fifield Hall
July 1 & 8, 2012 Christ at the Center
P
salm 130 is perhaps one of my favorite. I often find myself crying out to God as the psalmist did. I like the psalmist want God to hear my cry. First of all, the psalm July 1 - Charles Black grants me permission to preach to cry out to God. It is so unlike the culture that surrounds you and me. To “cry out” is often considered a weakness and who wants to be considered a ‘weak person.’ I remember the first song that I ever learned in Sunday school, Yes Jesus Love Me, and the words, I am weak but He is strong. The only way that we can approach God is through our weakness. Secondly, the psalm allows me to hear the cries of others as it confirms God’s love for you, me and the whole world. There is plenteous redemption with God. If God kept score, ‘who could stand’? God’s call to each of us is to love him and our neighbor as ourselves and not to defend Him. As I study the scripture lessons designated for July 1st, depicting the nameless woman with the issue of blood and Jarius’ daughter (Mark 5:21-43), I discovered two individuals who fell at the feet of Jesus from different stations in life seeking his presence and power. Neither the nameless woman nor Jarius allow fear to keep them from coming to Jesus, in spite of being told ‘do not trouble the teacher.’ Have you heard the cries of others? I believe the prayer of the psalmist invites each of us to pray for our families, nation, civic, ecclesiastical and world leaders as we celebrate our 236 birthday on July 4th, to be that beacon of hope in the nation and world. Peace of God be with you! Charles D. Black
B
ack in the spring of 1983 Jim Laney, who was then president of Emory University, gave the baccalaureate address to the graduating class, which included his own daughter July 8 - Craig Goodrich Susan. One of you to preach gave me this address a few years ago and I keep coming back to it. In his talk, Laney spoke not of the great future and success that was ahead for these well-educated young people. Instead, he spoke of our human vulnerability. He encouraged the graduates not to avoid this “basic condition,” but to embrace it, saying that our human vulnerability is really “the great theme of the Bible” and the way to a compassionate life. It was an extraordinary speech. And I think Jim Laney got it right. And yet we fight it, don’t we? We would much rather feel strong and project an image of self-sufficiency, than admit our frailties, our weakness and our need for help and for strength beyond ourselves. The apostle Paul knew this struggle well. In his second letter to the Corinthians he speaks of having a “thorn in the flesh” that he asked the Lord three times to remove. But the response he received was simply “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And he concluded, “when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2nd Corinthians 12: 8-10). What about you? Could it be that the “weakness” or vulnerability you are feeling is actually an avenue for God’s grace and power? I hope you will come to worship this Sunday. The sermon title is “The Strength of Weakness.” Faithfully, Craig