Day of Prayer
June 26, 2009
I have always wanted to be in a choir. When we were growing up, my mother was the choir. She was a lot of things. She was in the youth and children’s program (she and dad). She was also the choir director, and I was gifted with a high tenor voice (actually probably more of a soprano voice). So as I grew up, I was positioned in the front row of the choir to sing with the altos who were all women. And, until I graduated from high school, that was my place in the choir-with the women. So, as I have come to be more comfortable in those gender situations, I am hoping one day to be invited back into the choir to sing, once again, alto with the women.
Almost two weeks ago, Gail and I got on a plane to fly to a warm, sunny place after one of the most remarkable and challenging years I have experienced. It just seemed to wring everything out of me. And I know that there are a lot of us carrying that same load.
There are fewer people doing more at remarkable levels of excellence. So I just want to remind us why we are doing “today”.
Before I do, I want to thank a couple of people. I want to thank the Day of Prayer committee. I don’t know that I’m going to get a chance to do that again today, but I’m deeply grateful that a committee from the community would embrace this day. Thank you. I’m deeply grateful to be able to walk into a place like this and have the worship and music and choir that we just had.
It hit the spot like cool water on a hot day. You see, we got in late last night on an airplane, and it didn’t even occur to me that my car had been sitting for two weeks. I went out this morning-it is so dead-it wouldn’t even unlock. Gail had all kinds of errands to run, and I walked in and gave her the joyful news that I would be using her car. Then, I came in and sat down and listened to that music, and all of the sudden my soul was full, and whatever those cracks were seem to have gone away. I am deeply grateful to be in a room where sound and light and media contribute to the experience. I am deeply grateful to walk into a room and realize that it was probably staff that set up these tables, put the tablecloths down, and figured out the centerpieces and the feel of the room.
I am especially grateful this morning for many who contributed to identifying the Matthew 5:1-16. I was part of that group that sat around the conference table. We considered all of the verses that had been submitted, and I watched as the Spirit moved over a couple meetings, and I saw these words from Jesus emerge. And I imagined Matthew, an eye-witness, moved in mind and hand by the Holy Spirit to pen these words of Jesus. So this year, the passage of the university comes right out of the gospels, and I am deeply grateful for that.
So why do we do this day? We established it in 2001 for two reasons: the first is, to do just what I did-to come with a heart of gratitude. We chose a date that would be as close as possible to the end of the fiscal year to just say, “Thank you, God. Thanks for another year.” And for this past year, honestly, I can’t express my gratitude to Him enough. I was walking in today and talking with a couple of guys about paychecks. He was talking about his kids who all have jobs. And I was thinking, you know, there’s a lot to be thankful for as we get to do Christ-centered ministry in this season right now-I’m deeply grateful. So we established this Day of Prayer to come at the end of a fiscal year and simply, as a community, to express a heart of thanksgiving for God’s provision.
The second reason for today is to come with a listening heart-that we would take a part of the day and, as a community, simply say, “God would you give us a word?” To that end, I’m grateful for the campus pastor’s office and the many who have served now that we have identified our community passage early enough that this can be a theme. So that even today, we would say, “God, what’s your word for us as we go forward for the next 12 months? What would you say to us? How would you have each of us individually dial in for the steps ahead?”
Finally, we set aside this day to ask God boldly, yet also with a heart of thanksgiving and humility, for another 12 months of His provision. I do not take it for granted-I’ve been here long enough to remember there were seasons where we had significant pullback-when the uncertainty was close enough that you got up in the morning wondering what was going to happen in the next eight hours so that the college or the university could have one more month or one more week. I’ve just got to tell you, I am one of the most grateful people you know, both because of what God has done for me personally and spiritually and for the remarkable opportunity of being a part of senior leadership with you.
The third reason we have this annual Day of Prayer is to boldly come before God and say, “It is by your hand we go forward. Bind the spirit of pride and arrogance. Just take that away from us God and please, by your hand of blessing and providence, could we move forward?” And I hope that whatever our futures are, we never let go of this day where we simply stop everything and come to God in prayer.
I was at the Church of Starbucks this morning worshipping at the altar of a grande decaf, and a couple APU staff guys came in, and there were students working there. I watched the exchange: “So what are you doing today?” The staff person said, “Today is the Day of Prayer!” Starbucks was full of people-not all APU people - and I’m thinking, “Boy, what a great statement!” Here’s this guy with an APU shirt on, and everybody in the room hears that today we are shutting the university down, and we are praying. It’s a great message.
So I’m going to ask that whatever the urgency at the end of the week, fight it. I’m fighting it, too. I’m finally back in town after that break, and there’re a hundred things pulling on me today. Resist the urge to lean into any of that; let go of it. Today is God’s day to just thank Him, listen to Him, and ask for His blessing. Does that make sense? That’s the purpose for today.
I’m also grateful for where we are going this afternoon. There will be a couple of times when we show you some video clips of people who have recorded that passage from Matthew 5:1-16. An email went out that said, “Would you please get your group together, go online, and read some Scripture. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but the vision was this: that we would have this site for parents and new students and anybody who wants to know who we are. I did mine on one of those little, cheap cameras in the Rose Garden. I know that the first two or three were done with the IMT folks under perfect lighting and perfect sound and you’d think, “I could never do that,” so they had me be the guinea pig to do something less than the best. Go look at mine, and you’ll see. You can even do it on a cell phone, but I encourage you to record Matthew 5:1-16 and post it through You Tube or however you want to do that, and get it on that site. We would love to have a whole bunch of these so that people can scroll through and get a sense for this passage for this year.
Finally, let me introduce our speaker for the day. Dr. Cameron Lee has been at Fuller Theological Seminary for more than 23 years in the Department of Family Studies. His most recent book entitled, The Unexpected Blessing, is about our university passage for the year. He is an instructor and trainer, a certified family life educator, and a licensed minister in the American Baptist congregation. He teaches and preaches regularly in church settings. He is the author of the book I mentioned, and he knows and has worked with several of our faculty and staff. He is also the brother-in-law of Pershing Lum in our IMT department.
I was reading Cameron’s book last night on the airplane and reflecting on the passage that we’re going to jump in to. This idea of what it means to be a Christ-follower, living in the Kingdom, and unpacking the gift of brokenness, the gift of want, and the gift of need is a powerful conversation for a community like APU, and I am grateful that Dr. Lee is with us this morning. Would you please welcome Cameron as he comes to speak to us.
The Chicago Marathon is a remarkable event-one of the largest in the nation-and it’s amazing that that many people would actually believe that running 26.3 miles is a good thing. It wraps through all of these different ethnic neighborhoods. Often, there are bands or musical groups representing those cultures, and as you run through, it’s really pretty amazing. Then, you turn along the lake and you run, unfortunately, headed into the wind on most days, toward the finish line, with about a half a mile to go. The street that you are running on has huge balloons that form a multi-colored canopy, and you know that the end is coming because it’s a celebration. Does that make sense?
So when I saw the line up for today, I thought doing communion together is kind of like that. We get to remember together this celebration that we have. So forgive me as I unpack for you a few traditions. The older I get, the more important it becomes for me to talk about the traditions of the university, because you’re going to carry them on-many of you in this room.
When I was 26 or 27, I became a dean of students here, and in those days, the dean of students was also the campus pastor. I was mentored and tutored by the then dean of the School of Theology, Dr. Les Blank, and I can remember with clarity, Les talking about this amazing thing that God had brought together at Azusa Pacific College; this place where, under the Lordship of Christ and the authority of Scripture, groups of denominations found a home; that our umbrella was big enough to include them. And that there would be some times when we would do things as part of the body of Christ, like communion. And we need to be clear on the front end, because we have lots of traditions about how we do this in a way that is inviting and falls under the authority of Scripture as it relates to our 110-year tradition.
Back in the day before 9/11, before the gates of the airports were closed, do you remember when you could actually walk a person to the gate? Wasn’t that cool? In that era, we had lots of student missions groups going out, and it was our tradition, to sit on the ground in a corner near the gate, while everyone was waiting for the announcer to say, “Time to board.” And we would take communion together in the airport, sitting on the ground with 15 or 20 students. The parents came, too. If we had had little red poppies and white coffee cans, we could have taken a collection-people would have thought we were a cult, cause we would sing songs and do this whole deal. I can remember one specific time during this celebration for Christ-followers. That day, in the circle, I gave the instructions, “If you’re not a Christian here today, let me just explain.” We unpacked what it meant to have the body broken and the blood shed. After we celebrated communion and watched those students get on the plane, one of the parents came up to me and said, “You know, I don’t know Christ. I don’t know this Jesus you’re talking about. I don’t know His broken body or His shed blood.” The Spirit of God moved in such a way that this parent crossed the line of faith while his daughter was getting on a plane to some foreign country.
It reminds me of the traditions of this institution. 110 years ago, our very first president, Mary Hill, took most of the student body and half the faculty and went to China for 35 years. Such is the nature of our tradition here. I love that passage out of 1 Corinthians 11, where Paul instructed the church, this remarkable church that sits on the connecting land between two great land masses in that time in history when it was the cultural center of the Roman kingdom. It was not unlike multicultural Los Angeles, stressed on every side by trade and commerce and lots of things, and Paul says, “Look when you come together, it’s really important that you focus on what this means.” He said, in that passage, “...a person ought to examine themselves...” I love the church of Corinth-it was the church that caused Paul to always say, “Whoa!” I mean, they shopped at the wrong butcher shops, they partied at the wrong places, and they were the kinds of new Christians that were always doing the wrong things. And even when it came to communion, celebrating the Eucharist together, Paul had to give clear instructions. He said, “Look, before you come to the table, realize this isn’t a time to get drunk or be full. You ought to think about what God is doing in your life.”
So, let’s do that. In a few minutes, we’re going to celebrate. We’re going to remember the Son of God, the covenant He made with us, and the promise we hold as disciples. And you will have an opportunity, if you want, to be a part of it. But leading into that, in a quiet way, I just want you to ask the Spirit of God to move through your heart and see if there’s something that needs to be dislodged, or held up and forgiven, or healed. Do that now. In a minute, I will pray for us.
Father, as we come before you to celebrate the broken body of Christ, His blood shed for us, Father, I ask that we would give your Spirit free reign to move deep within us. If today-this time of prayer, and celebration, and all the things that we’ve been about today-if all of it was simply to get to the place where we’re willing to say, “You know this next 12 months, it all belongs to you anyway, so help me move this thing that has me stuck, or help me to finally put on the altar this pattern of sin that keeps tripping me up, or help me to come and ask forgiveness of that person who just will not leave my mind,” Father whatever that thing is, reflected even in your words on the Sermon on the Mount, Father I pray that as we come to celebrate this promise, this Eucharist, this covenant-we’ll let it go and trust you with it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The interesting thing about these many denominations that come together is the different ways that we celebrate communion together. There are some even out of our own Friends tradition who don’t use visible elements like the bread and the cup. Their celebration looks different, but it’s just as authentic. There are others who come from a tradition that says if they are in a wounded place, and God’s doing work with them, they actually take a pass on this. They say, “I’m just going to let this pass, and I’ll do that next time.” What I’m saying is, I’m giving permission for anybody in this room who wants this cup to pass, or the bread to pass; you know you’re not going to be judged if that happens. I know that all of us in this room are disciples–we are all Christ-followers–so that bridge has been covered. But if there’s a reason you want to let this go, it is okay. And I want to encourage people if the person next to you lets this pass, just hold them up. Maybe there’s a reason; maybe the Spirit is doing something amazing in them.
In Corinthians 11, Paul quotes Christ saying, “As often as you do this, you remember me-my death, my resurrection, and the promise of my return.” Every time, it’s an act of remembrance. He says, “This bread broken for you-this is my body.” I know that you, in this room, give physically in a way-I mean I have seen you at the end of the day, all used up. You know I get a picture of what this symbolizes (holds up bread): the body of Christ broken for us. But I also think it’s a great example for us of what it means to give ourselves away in the name of Christ.
On Walkabout, when we have our celebration at the end of the 10 days, we go to the bakery in Bass Lake and buy fresh loaves of bread, huge French loaves warm out of the oven. We show up and ask students to break off big pieces, and then we ask them to give the bread away, to act out what it means to be called by Christ and live in such a way that they give away the broken body of Christ every single day.
I’ve seen you do that. You live this out in amazing ways. But, today, this bread represents the broken body of Christ for us. Men and women from our own faculty who are clergy and ordained pastors are going to come and bring the bread to each table. I’d like to do this together, so when they bring the bread, would you break off a piece and hold it? We’ll celebrate the broken body of Christ together.
So those of you who have been down this road with me before, just bear with me. You know, I love to bake bread. When I come home and I’m a mess, there’s this thing about kneading it, it rises once, knead it, it rises again, it’s like a three-and-a-half-hour process. Gail will say to me, “Why don’t you go make some bread?” I mean, she likes my bread, but what she really wants me to do is to work out all that tension, and I picture the storehouse of heaven open to us every single day. And God says, “How many loaves do you want today? How much do you want to give away my broken body?” And we leave with what we think is appropriate. And maybe by three or four in the afternoon, we are out of bread. What would happen if we would just trust God to load us down with more bread than we can handle to give away His body broken for those in need. For me, it’s first recognizing that tremendous gift of Christ-His body broken for me. Let’s take and eat together.
Paul says, “In the same way, He took the cup and He said, ‘This is my blood that was shed for you.’”
You know, this is a great theological picture. Sitting at the right hand of God the Father, is God the Son. And on my worst day, the Son says to the Father, “Do you see Jon? On his head is my blood. I paid the price. Don’t see his sins today. Look through my blood on him and see him washed clean.” On my worst day, I’m as clean before God as my best day. If you guys would pass out the cup-and let’s do the same thing again. Would you hold it, and we’ll take it together?
I grew up in a little country church where we practiced communion quarterly, and we would be at tables in the basement of the church. There was a curtain that they would pull down the middle of the basement, and the men would be on one side and the women would be on the other side. It was a modest country church. And, before I had made a decision to invite Jesus into my heart, I would sit on the bench on the men’s side. I remember Mr. McClellan who ended up discipling me-he owned a service station. I sat on the bench with six or eight other young guys, and he looked at us and said, “Someday. Someday you’re going to trust Jesus, and you’re going to sit here with us.” I can remember my conversations with my mom and dad, with my Sunday school teacher-I had this picture that the kingdom of God was available right now and when I got there, I was going to be a part of it with a whole bunch of other people, and together we were going to do some amazing stuff because we got to do communion together.
I feel that more today than I ever have in my life. With the bread, we celebrate this call to give away the broken body of Christ-to remember His body broken for us. Let’s call that a horizontal. But to consider the cup, the blood-let’s consider that a vertical. That’s God the Father who gave His son sacrificed for us, whose blood is on our head so that we are seen clean. Together, let’s take the cup (He drinks).
Father, thank you for this gift, the remembrance we share, for you are Abba, for Christ our Savior, for the Holy Spirit our comforter, for this community called into the kingdom of God to accomplish that which you have given to us. We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
