The

TRUMPET

of Jubilee

BISHOP J. L. FELTON

FIRST LADY PRISCILLA FELTON

FEBRUARY 2018 EDITION

The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a bold (Ephesians 6:19-20) and invasive activity (Mark 16:15-20). Any person who

experiences the Holy Spirit urging them to proclaim the gospel must be made fully aware that this is a calling that is hazardous to your health, and is not intended for the faint of heart. “Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (II Corinthians 4:1). Paul stresses the fact that we need to have the courage to speak the word of God boldly. That has never been easy, for God sternly warned Jeremiah “be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah: 1:8).

GOSPEL PREACHING AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Isaiah 52:1-10; 53:1-10; Acts 8:26-40

I. Gospel: A Revolutionary Term - Isaiah 52:1-8 Seldom do we see the invitation to discipleship given before the actual homily is preached. Isaiah, however, was a different genre of preacher altogether. Isaiah is the epitome of a proactive preacher, for he writes the first gospel before the actual birth of Jesus. Isaiah is the first person to ever even use the word gospel. In Isaiah 52:6a, God speaks through the prophet saying: “Therefore my people shall know my name.” In Isaiah 52:7, the Lord says: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isaiah uses this revolutionary term again in chapter 61:1-2a: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach gospel unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” It took some nerves to even use the word gospel. The word gospel assures us that there is still hope. If you are bound, you can say I am free! If you are sick, you can say I am healed! If you are weak, now you can catch hold on faith and say I am strong! This is a message of affirmation and liberation! God said that His people shall know His name, but how will they know it except someone who is anointed, and courageous and Spirit-filled proclaim God’s name? Indeed, one is saved through calling upon the name of the Lord. However, there are several critical questions raised in Romans 10:14-15: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things?” Paul has now quoted from Isaiah’s gospel in order to make his case in the book of Romans. Jesus quoted from Isaiah’s gospel to make His case in Luke 4:18-19, which is why we know that preaching the gospel is indeed hazardous to your health, because the Galileans who lived in Nazareth rushed Jesus to the brow of the hill to throw Him down headlong, but as God promised Jeremiah, “I am with thee to deliver thee.” Jesus was not afraid of their

faces. There comes a time when a script won’t get it. You not only have to look the recipients of the gospel in the eyes, you have to stare into their souls, and speak with conviction and power, even in the face of fierce opposition. Remember, God said “I am with thee to deliver thee!”

II. Believing The Lord’s Report - Acts

8:26-40 Isaiah did pose the proactive question, “Who hath believed our report?” The answer to his question comes about seven hundred years later when an African brother of Ethiopian descent reads Isaiah 53 aloud in his chariot. Imagine this: a brother reading the bible aloud in his automobile. Acts 8:26-40 has a TGIF flavor to it. God ironically called Philip out of a city-wide revival in Samaria to preach to one brother in a chariot traveling in the desert. The brother did not know that he was reading the only gospel in circulation. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had not yet been written at the time, so Philip “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” Anytime you find Jesus in scripture, you are in gospel territory! A brother from Africa believed Isaiah’s report, and was baptized! This unnamed Black man takes the message of Jesus Christ home to Africa with him, becoming the father of Koptic Christianity. This is an act of justice because this man had been emasculated in order to be eligible for the job he held. He was a eunuch, which is to say, he was the victim of personal, genital mutilation, which is an assault upon his ability to fully experience or express his manhood. This act of violence against his virility prevented him from ever becoming a father - until he met Jesus! We should note, parenthetically, that this barbaric act upon him was not the result of racism. He was the subject of an African monarch, Queen Candace, and had the charge of all her treasure. His faith in Jesus Christ releases the supernatural power of God in his life. Several miracles are realized in his transformation. The Holy Spirit breathed upon Isaiah a word that would be maximized seven centuries later as the prophecy of Isaiah 53 is fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Philip was empowered by the Holy Spirit to miraculously be in the right place at the right time (not a coincidence) to meet the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch. He had to out run the chariot to hear the actual scripture that the brother was reading. These are also miracles. Philip baptized the brother on the

spot because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that would change the historical and theological course of a people. The Ethiopian was himself surprised to see water in the midst of a desert as he exclaimed, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” Philip baptized the eunuch and another supernatural event happened. “The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”

III. Interpreting the Principle of Justice - Isaiah 53:1-5 The central feature of justice in the preaching of the gospel is not lost upon the passages of scripture for today’s lecture. Surely, we understand, as anointed messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ, that a gospel without justice is no gospel at all. Isaiah was not only a “major prophet” in the Hebrew scriptures, also known as the Old Testament, but he was a forceful preacher of the gospel. The preaching and teaching ministry of Jesus Christ would have been impossible without the theological infrastructure of Isaiah. Jesus taught and preached from the writings of Isaiah. Jesus proclaimed: “In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, ‘By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive’. The spiritual and social context of justice saturates this Founder’s Week, as we pause to reflect upon the fact that we “are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses”. We are cognizant of the spiritual presence of this setting. In the spiritual grandstands are the likes of the founder of The Church of God in Christ, Bishop C. H. Mason, Saint Samuel, F. C. Christmas, U. E. Miller, Riley F. Williams, F. D. Washington, O. T. Jones, Sr. and Jr., J. O. Patterson, Sr. and Jr., J. S. Bailey, O. M. Kelly, W. G. Shipman, William Rimson, E. R. Driver, Charles Pleas, A. B. McEwen, Ithiel Clemmons, D. J. Young, E. M.

Page, Samuel Crouch, J. A. Blake, Sr., Lizzie Robinson, Lillian Brooks Coffey, Annie L. Bailey,

Emily Bram Bibby. This series of lectures is named in honor of Bishop G. E. Patterson, a profound gospel preacher, pastor, builder, and ecumenical leader. Bishop G. E. Patterson was integrally involved in the civil rights issues of the 60’s and 70’s and recognized in interdenominationally as a Pulpiteer of the First Magnitude. The entire world cannot help but admit that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the most recognizable African American preacher in popular and secular

culture in asmuch as he is the only African American for whom a holiday is named and for whom there is a National Monument in Washington. DC. Dr. King spoke from this exact platform as a gospel preacher, social activist, civil rights leader and conscience of America and the world. Yes, there is a tremendous, spiritual presence that compasses us this day. During the past several months of June, July and August, our quarterly theme in the International Sunday School Lessons was: “God Calls For Justice”. Today, seven days after the end of that quarter, we stand in Mason Temple, a monument to Jesus Christ and to the Christian Faith which He founded, for Jesus said: “and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The call to engage in the ministry of social is inherent within the call to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple of Jesus is by nature a student of Jesus Christ. A student of Jesus Christ must understand the profound teaching ability of his master. Jesus was not an elementary teacher, or even a middle or high school teacher. Jesus was a graduate level teacher. This may be the reason why all His students failed His class. Not even one of them passed the class. Jesus had to reconvene His class after His resurrection. In so doing, we note that one of His class members had committed suicide and another of them denied that he was a disciple of Jesus, which equates with, ‘I never even took the class in the first place’.

IV. Learning To Do Justice - Isaiah

61:1-2a The graduate level teachings of Christ were much more profound than the learning curve of the disciples could accommodate. Jesus was spellbinding lawyers and doctors at the age of twelve, having never attended a school. The people recognized the teaching ability of Jesus was unlike that of the scribes or Pharisees, for Jesus “taught them as one having authority”. In order for one to really learn from Jesus, one must have the spirit of Jesus. The word of God teaches that if one does not have the Spirit of (Jesus), he is none of His. It is a striking irony that the critics of Jesus Christ would allege that he was unlearned, when He is actually “the only wise God our Savior”. It is not

enough, then, to be Jesus’ student, or even His follower. One must have His spirit to genuinely belong to Christ. The serious student of Jesus Christ cannot help but be cognizant of Jesus’ passion for social justice. The mission statement of Christ’s ministry in Isaiah 61:1-2a is one that heavily focuses upon liberating the downtrodden. Isaiah begins it with the preface: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. Jesus practically incites a riot in the synagogue when He merely reads a verse and a half of his mission statement, which He fulfills in His first advent. The remainder of the chapter is unfilled. The people in the audience of the small-town synagogue of Nazareth were literally incensed at the tenor of social justice in Christ’s announcement that He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. They would have killed him, as they killed: Medgar Evers, a member of the Church of God in Christ, who registered voters in Mississippi; Emmett Till, a teenager from Chicago, Illinois, who was lynched in Money, Mississippi, also a member of the Church of God in Christ, whose funeral was held at Robert’s

Temple Church of God in Christ at 40th and State Streets in Chicago; Martin Luther King, Jr., whose last sermon was upon this Gospel mountaintop, The Mason Temple Church of God in Christ, not the “Masonic Temple”, as some writers have

erroneously reported. Let us never waver in our commitment to Christ’s servant leadership in Social Justice, for Jesus gave His life on Calvary and rose from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day morning! To God Be the Glory!!! Footnotes: 1. TGIF-“Thank God It’s February” Black History Month 2. King James Version of the Bible; rendered “Kandake” in the NLT 3. Acts 8:26 4. Acts 8:36 5. Acts 8:39 6. Matthew 13:14 7. Hebrews 12:1 8. Matthew 16:18b-19 9. John 7:15 10. Matthew 7:29 11. Romans 8:9 12. Jude, verse 25 References: To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Mission To Save America

The Church of God in Christ Centennial Bible, 2007

Emmett Till

Martin Luther King Jr.

Med

gar Evers

The Lorraine Motel

THE LORRAINE MOTEL HISTORYThe hotel’s history is a short and sad one. It opened in 1925 and was originally a “white” establishment. Today, the National Civil Rights Museum is partially housed in the Lorraine Motel. The National Civil Rights Museum is located in Memphis, TN and is world renowned largely because the Lorraine Motel was the very place where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived his last day of life. He was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room on April 4, 1968. By the end of World War II in 1945, the

motel became minority owned. That was the main reason Dr. King stayed at the Lorraine Motel when he visited Memphis in 1968. Following his death, the motel struggled to remain in business and by 1982, the Lorraine Motel went into foreclosure. So, a group of local citizens formed the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation for the sole purpose of saving the hotel. Monies were raised, loans obtained and the partnership with Lucky Hearts Cosmetics to purchase the motel for $144,000. That purchase, plan, design and build; is what has now become The National Civil Rights Museum.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, was a holiday that had a rocky path to establishment. Although

King was assassinated in 1968, legislation designating the third Monday in January—near his January 15th birthday—as a legal holiday to honor him did not pass until 1983 because some states hesitated to honor that day. However, all states, with the last state of South Carolina, finally recognized MLK Day as a paid holiday in the year 2000. Read more about it at: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/how-martin-luther-king-jr-s-birthday-became-a-holiday-3

MLK Celebration at Mt. Airy Church of God

in Christ

January 14, 2018

March 28th – 30th

28th – 6:30pm – Ecclesiastical Promotions 29th – 6:30pm – Feet Washing Service 30th – Noon – Good Friday Service

tay Connected with Us!

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PA Closed Primary - MAY 15, 2018 (Primary): A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate to run in the general election. Voters are required to register with a political party to vote in the primary election.

PA General Election - NOVEMBER 6, 2018 (General Election): is an election in which candidates are elected to offices. Candidates for a general election are chosen via a primary election.

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