the Function of Celebration, Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson

0:09 I am blessed to be back at this marvelous ministry where one of the great preacher pastors serves the Lord in this space, and the Reverend Dr. Howard-John Wesley. I cannot tell you how proud I am of him. and the impact that his ministry has had on my life and on the life of our church and on the collective life of African American pastors in this country.

1:08 Whenever I need, if I need to give a defense for the relevance of black pastors, all I have to do is call the name of Howard John Wesley. And his creative approach to ministry, his thoroughness, his creativity, his commitment is a statement of faith to God. And I praise God for you, Alfred Street, for your dynamic and far-reaching expression of God's grace. I bring you greetings from the people of grace Who tolerated me for 40 years, almost 45 And I

1:54 I'm always glad when I get a call to come to Alfred Street, not only to see my son in ministry, but also to hear this choir. Yes. And so it is my joy to be here on the 216th anniversary of this church. What a powerful statement that is, that people have stayed together for 216 years. What a powerful statement in the face of all kinds of oppositions. demeaning definitions and devalued humanity terrible conditions and strata demarcations losses and fights and struggles but today this church stands as a beacon like that you can make it if you hold on to God's unchanging hand It may be somebody in here this day who needs to know that you can make it if you hold on to God's unchanging hand.

3:19 And this church is a testament to that truth. It's instructive. If you're facing some difficulties in your life tonight, the very fact that we're here serving and celebrating 116 years anniversary is to tell you you can make it if you hold to God's unchanging hand. And so I'm proud to be here and I'm grateful for this opportunity to share. Won't you join me in a word of prayer? Let me say I'm very happy to be joined by most distinguished former president of the National Baptist Convention, Dr. Julia Scruggs, who is someone who has served us well, and whose life and ministry has made a tremendous impact on the cause of Christendom here and across the world. Let us pray.

4:23 Almighty God our mother and our father we thank you for ordering our steps into this sacred space and having come here now we seek to hear your voice above the distracting nuances of our human circumstance we seek to hear your voice above the cynics and critics and those who would call us down from the high work of ministry. We seek to hear your voice. above the mumbling inconsistencies of our humanity, our broken limbs and skipping hearts and elevated blood pressures and narrowing sight and deafening ears.

5:25 We seek to hear your voice. Speak now to our hearts. Touch us where only you have the privilege to reach. And make of this broken vessel an instrument in your perfect hand that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be preached in this place. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. Have your way with us. In the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, our Lord, we pray. Amen and amen. There's the passage of scripture that I want to lay forward for our consideration on this 216th anniversary, this elaborate celebration where the leadership of the congregation has summons the best that it has for this occasion. The choir has prepared itself with brilliant renditions reflective of our journey as people of faith.

6:43 It's complimented by orchestrated musicians who add it to the sanctity and level of this celebration. This is a special celebration. and I want to lay before us a passage that is in itself one of the celebrative moments in the life of Jesus it is in the gospel of Matthew in the 17th chapter verses 1 through 8 and 14 through 20 I may not read all of that, but I want you to have it. but it shall be the platform for our discourse today Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

7:53 And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. and behold Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. And while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice, the bravado of heaven, came over the cloud saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise and do not be afraid.

8:51 And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Now, as they came down from the mountain, and Jesus commanded them saying, keep it to yourself. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. I need you to understand that this complete pericope or passage in the 17th chapter of Matthew is represented by two powerful episodes. There is the one that I've read to you where the disciples are on the mountain with Jesus, and I submit that is they have been called to a moment of celebration. To be sure, Jesus has had something in mind, a special gathering.

9:52 he has not invited everybody he has invited Peter, James and John and they go to the mountain for this special special occasion a special occasion like this is a special occasion he calls them to the mountain and he instructs them what he does is he summons what a powerful notion he summons from the allies of history the lawgiver and the prophet.

10:27 And with he, Moses and Elijah, they are on the mountain talking and sharing. And it is such a powerful moment that a glowingness captures the mountain that causes all of them to shine. And there on that mountain, they are there and Peter has an inspiration. I would say an uninformed inspiration.

11:04 He says, let's concretize what's going up on here. So great. You understand his situation. I would have liked to have been there, wouldn't you? They're on the mountain with Jesus and history and prophecy come together with the Savior? What a powerful moment that must have been. And Peter wanted to capture it. He wanted to concretize it. He says, let's build three tabernacles. Let's permit, let's, let's, let's permitize the, the, the inspiration of the mountain. And, and, you know, that's part of the problem of the church in the 21st century. We are so committed to the permanentizing of inspiration that we fail to get the value of what the ministry ought to be about.

11:52 We are distracted by a desire to raise decibel levels and make the destiny of ministry a shout, to come to church on Sunday to get a hit so we can go through the week and then take another hit the next following Sunday. We have made the goal of ministry to wave flags and blow whistles and concretize it. And Jesus, and Peter wants to stay on the mountain, and Jesus says, well, we can't stay up here, Peter. That's the first episode. You see, the first episode is that they're on the mountain with power, but they have a missed idea of what the power is supposed to achieve. The other episode happens further in the text Where the other nine disciples, in case you were wondering where they were They are down in the valley They are in the valley with a father who has a son Who can't seem to be cured and the son is turning on himself The son is in crisis and this man has come to the disciples And he wants to get their assistance And there is the two powerful pictures there.

13:13 Rembrandt does a painting where all both episodes are captured on the canvas. The three on the mountain and the nine in the valley. The three on the mountain have, they're on the mountain with power. And the other nine are in the valley and they don't have any power. Well, you see, the function of power on the mountain is not to be a destination. destination it is to move us to transform the pain in the valley in other words we come to church on Sunday and Saturday night to get inspired it is not our destination this this is not where we're ending up this is where we have come to get charged up that we may take the power of Sunday and transform the pain of Monday There's great pain in the valley.

14:10 Great pain in the valley. Sons and daughters are on drugs. Our people can't get healthcare. Cruelty in places of authority. Uncivil language, the language of the day. There's pain in the valley. seniors are caught in dilemmas trying to decide whether to buy medicine or to buy food. There is pain in the valley. And while we're on the mountain, we have to consider that the function of the mountain is to transform the valley. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Alfred Street has a great ministry. It has a dynamic leader. It has resources and it understands that this, as marvelous as this is, as sweet as the voices of the choir, as dynamic as the orchestra, as majestic as the sanctuary, Alfred Street understands that this is not the destination of ministry.

15:18 that meaningful ministry functions to transform the pain in the valley Until every valley has been exalted and every mountain made low, we cannot find a permanent place on the mountain. I thank God for the mountain, but I have not misunderstood its function.

15:48 So they, Jesus says, there's pain in the valley and we're on the mountain, but we got to go back to the valley. Now what's happening in the valley is this man comes with his son and he goes to Jesus. He has an expectation of the disciples that they don't have of themselves. He figures that if they are Jesus people and they got Jesus' sign out in the front. He figures that if Jesus is a healer, they ought to be healers too.

16:31 So he goes to the nine disciples and he tells them about his situation and they engage him in irrelevant questions like we as so-called Christians often do. He's talking about his son in trouble and they're talking about, are you a member here? Have you been baptized?

16:58 Who's your mama? He said, well, I didn't come here for that. I didn't really come for membership. I came because I heard that you were Jesus' people. And I got a sick son who needs healing, and I was wondering whether you all could help my son. That's why I came. I came because I got a problem and I need some help. I'm broke and I'm going through pain and it looks like I'm going to lose my boy. I showed up here because I need some help. The Bible says that they don't help him. He leaves them and bumps into Jesus on his own.

17:51 He leaves them and stumbles up on Jesus on his own. Oh, I'm so glad that people can meet Jesus outside the church. Because we got a lot of Jesus blockers in the church.

18:12 I don't mean Alfred Street, but some churches where I've been. They got, they got, we got Jesus blockers. We got folk in the church who are committed to making sure that the right kind of people only get to Jesus. We got people who are body blocking people from getting close to Jesus. So, the Bible says that he stumbles up on Jesus on his own. And then this indictment comes. He says, I took my son to your disciples. and they could not heal him. What a terrible indictment.

19:07 Let that not be said of our churches, that we lose the generation of young people because we couldn't heal them or we didn't care or we wasn't willing to disrupt our program to meet their needs. I took my son to your disciples and they could not heal him. And then Jesus starts cussing. Now, it's in the book. Maybe you can't hear it because the 2,000 years of sanitizing the text. You may not be able to get it, but it's in the text. He says, I brought my son to your disciples and they could not heal him. And Jesus says, oh, you perverse generation, how long do I have to be with you for you understand what my ministry is all about?

20:07 How long do I have to be here before you understand that people matter to me, that people are my priority? I'm not hung up on uniforms or colors of robes. I'm not hung up on buildings. I am in the people business. People are my priority. Then Jesus walks down the road and the disciples follow him very sheepishly ease up on him and say why couldn't we do that?

20:48 And Jesus says in so many words you couldn't do it because you have a faith deficiency. you got inadequate faith. So if you could just have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could speak to the mountain and the mountain would get out your way. Lord have mercy. If you just had a little faith, you could speak to the mountain and the mountain would move. If you just had a little faith, you could speak to the mountain and the mountain would move. You know, at this stage in my journey, I will not be able to, I'd like to be able to master several languages.

21:49 I wish I had paid attention early on. But I have subsided that I shall not be able to achieve that in my lifetime. I will not be able to speak Greek. I won't be able to speak, I'm not going at this to be able to speak Spanish or Portuguese or Italian. I won't be able to speak French. I won't even be able to articulate in the 150 dialects of the continent of Africa. I won't be able to speak those languages. But there is one linguistic competence that I'm still working on trying to speak. And I'm trying to speak faith. I want to be linguistically competent in the capacity to speak faith. Because when faith speaks, what does faith say?

22:44 Faith says, mountain, move. When faith speaks, what does faith say? Faith says the Hittites are in the hills and the Jezebites are by the sea. But our God is able to deliver us. When faith speaks, what does faith say? Faith says, O King, we are not careful to answer you. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. But if not, we're still not going to bow down. When faith speaks, what does faith say? Faith says, take those empty water pots, fill them up with water and serve the feasts. When faith speaks, what does faith say? When faith speaks, what does faith say? Faith says, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow. When faith speaks, what does faith say? Faith says, weeping may endure for the night, but joy, joy comes in the morning. I want to be able, don't you?

23:46 Want to be able to speak faith? And when you speak, mountains understand? When you speak, sickness understands? When you speak, obstacles get out the way? I want to be able to speak faith.

24:12 216 years, we've seen faith's articulation. It has sustained this congregation through the wilderness of slavery, through all the pain of the wars fought for rights we did not have. And so I'm not discouraged tonight about where we are. Because I know there's an army of us who are working on being articulate in faith. There's an army of us who are committed to the language of empowerment. And no matter how high the enemy gets, faith can move the enemy.

25:00 Faith can open the door. Faith can make a way out of no way. Oh for a faith That will not shrink Though pressed by every foe That will not tremble on the brink Of any worthy foe Lord give me Give me some of that Give me such a faith That I may know the hallowed bliss Of my eternal home God give us The faith of our forbearers To speak power To speak life From death to speak hope over despair, to speak healing in the sickness. Lord, give us faith that on the mountain of this celebration, we shall not be captured by the ceremony, but propelled to participate in the transformation.