By The Rev. Dr. Paul A. Leggett
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sermon Text: Luke 8:1-3
Sermon Theme
The Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. (1865-1953) was one of the greatest Christian ministers in American history. For almost thirty years he was the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Powell emphasized the meekness of Jesus Christ. For him “meekness” was an alternative to a cheap grace view of the Gospel. Jesus’ meekness was his sympathy and love. Powell preached a prophetic message which stressed costly discipleship and an emphasis on the role of women in the church. Powell himself lived out this meekness largely unaware of the major impact it would have on one of the most significant figures in modern Christian history.
Sermon Outline
I. Compassion
One of the key characteristics of Jesus is his compassion (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; Luke 7:13). He demonstrates this as he proclaims the good news everywhere he goes (Luke 8:1). Jesus’ ministry also places an emphasis on women. He reaches out to women that others wish to ignore or even want to reject (Matthew 15:21-28; Luke 7:39; John 8:1-11). Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was born in 1865. His mother was a former slave. His father was unknown, possibly his mother’s owner. Powell experienced a major conversion to Christ at age twenty. He went on to become one of the leading ministers in American history. He saw compassion as an essential part of Jesus’ meekness (not weakness) (II Corinthians 10:1). Powell saw Jesus’ meekness as demonstrating his depth of emotion from weeping to driving out the money changers in the temple. Powell also reached out to women in his ministry believing they should be fully equal in the church (Galatians 3:28).
II. Confront
Powell developed his understanding of meekness to mean that individual Christians and the church as a whole need to be continually reaching out. You can’t be compassionate in isolation. Compassion for Powell also meant confronting the demonic powers which held people captive, as Jesus cast out the seven demons from Mary Magdalene. Powell believed we do not read the Bible so much as the Bible reads us. It shows us who we really are. We should read the words of Scripture as our personal prayers for God’s transformation. Christians are defined by what they do, not what they say. Powell stood up against racism, extortion, bribery and prostitution. He promoted women in ministry at a time that was virtually unheard of. For Powell, meekness meant the love and sympathy of Jesus Christ. We need to rediscover that same meekness in our own time.
III. Cost
Powell rejected any attempt to minimize or explain away parts of Scripture, including the sermon on the mount. For Powell, the Bible continues to reveal God’s will. He rejected both the narrow Fundamentalism and the humanistic Liberalism of the early twentieth century. He saw the churches of his day caught up in a pattern of “cheap grace” in which Christians were content simply to believe the truth of the gospel and attend church. For Powell to follow Jesus meant to go into the world and confront its false beliefs, injustice, racism and hypocrisy. He believed the world of the twentieth century thought it had “come of age” and no longer needed God. Powell’s position was costly. He was criticized by skeptical liberals like H. L. Mencken and even denounced by some African American conservatives who were upset by his aggressive stance on racism. He received death threats. He experienced a nervous breakdown. Yet by the time he retired at age seventy-two, the Abyssinian Baptist Church was the largest Protestant Church in New York City. A year after his death in 1953, the modern Civil Rights movement began with the Supreme Court striking down segregation in the case of Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education. Yet Powell’s greatest impact, unknown to him, was the influence his preaching and teaching had on a young German foreign student in 1931. That student’s name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Questions for Us
- What do we think of “the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ” (II Cor. 10:1). How should that be seen in our lives?
- Why do you think “cheap grace” is such a problem in the Christian life? How should we understand “costly grace?”
- What are examples of false beliefs and injustice in our own time?
