Commencement

It was a cold and blustery Sunday morning after what seemed to be one of the worst snowstorms in New York City’s history. Total snowfall accumulations reached 12 inches. In the early hours of the morning the New York City Sanitation crews had been hard at work removing the snow from city streets. There were still mounds of snow in piles at the edges of the curb where storeowners and other property owners had shoveled snow, and lots of slippery spots on the sidewalk where melted snow became ice, making the streets treacherous booby traps. And yet there was still a crowd of people who made it to Greater Apostolic for the morning service. Among them was Tim who arrived early with a purpose in his heart.

  Tim was sitting in the half-empty pew reading the exquisitely made hand crafted leather Bible that Tamiko had given him for Christmas. He had taken her advice and had begun to read the New Testament. He started with the book of John and went from there to Matthew. He had to admit that he was fascinated by what he read. In college, he had been told that Jesus was a philosopher, not unlike Plato or Socrates. Tim had read excerpts of the Bible for some of his courses, but never gave the verses much thought, until now. As he had been reading, there was something different about the words that Jesus spoke. His Word was more than a mere philosophy. A philosophy implied a rationed thought or perspective of life that was theoretical, based on supposition. When he read the words that Jesus spoke, he couldn’t help but remember that it was said “He spoke as one having authority, and not as the scribes and pharisees.”1

  Then he remembered in John where Jesus said, “these words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”2 When Jesus spoke he wasn’t wondering about what this life was about. He wasn’t trying to figure it out. He knew because He was from God.

  The more Tim read, the more he was drawn to read. A lot of the things he had spoken to the Pastor Bynum about and that he had preached on before became clear to him. Tim was moved by Jesus’ compassion for the people, especially those who lived in sin. Jesus had mercy on a lot of sinful people who repented to believe on Him. Tim remembered the woman caught in adultery, which Jesus forgave.3 He also thought about the blind men who begged for mercy.4 Jesus even called Matthew the tax collector to be one of his apostles.5 Tim felt like one of those people. He had spent his whole life doubting God and living his own way. It was good to know that God was merciful and full of compassion. Tim had experienced that compassion, mercy, and power, and in light of his present situation, he needed them now more than ever. Yes, Tim could now believe that Jesus was the Son of God. He was ready to finally repent and commit himself fully and completely to living the way God wanted him to live in the little time that he may have left.

  “Hey there”, said Tamiko softly. Tim stood up and greeted her with a hug and then they both sat down in the pew.

  “As you can see, I’ve followed your advice.”

  “And what do you think?”

  “You were right. It put a lot of things in perspective for me”, he said quietly.

  Just then Allen came in and sat on the opposite side of Tim.

  “Hey man, how’s it going?”

  “I’m taking it one day at a time, just like you said.”

  “Good. I see you’re into the Word.”

  “Yeah. I had to make sure the Pastor was telling me the truth”, Tim joked trying to be more casual.

  “Next thing you know, you’ll be joining me for the Brotherhood Bible study.”

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t think that would be a bad idea.”

  Soon, Brother Anderson was at the podium to announce the entrance of the choir and the beginning of the service. As they sang and prayed, Tim prayed and sang along, actively participating in the service. When he first started coming to the church he was a mere voyeur, observing the goings on, listening to, but not actually hearing the sermons. Tim was skeptical of the people’s religious expression, believing as Allen had, that it was all a mere paroxysm brought on by an overabundance of emotion. As time passed, he began to listen and to wonder. Then there were things that were said that began to speak into his life. And he would never forget the prophetic word the pastor had for him that came to life. Now he was beginning to feel a part of the church and to understand what the people were feeling. Even if their outburst were just emotional, he was beginning to understand why the people were so emotional.

  Soon it was time for the sermon, and Pastor Bynum took to the podium to speak.

  “Praise the Lord, everybody!” he greeted the congregation.

  “Praise the Lord!” the congregation responded in unison.

  “I’d like to read from the book of John, chapter 3, vs 14 to 18. When you find it say Amen.

  There was a loud rustling of onionskin pages as the members of the congregation sifted through their Bibles to find the scripture followed by a collective “amen”. Pastor Bynum led them through the scripture reading and then he began his sermon.

  “My subject: The Greatest Love of All. What would you call the greatest love of all? Now there are many things that we call ‘love’. There is a love between a man and his wife: a kind of romantic love. Some people think that’s the greatest love. There’s the love between family: like between a mother and child or between siblings. Some people think that’s the greatest love. There’s a love between friends: a bond of friendship.

  Other people think that’s the greatest love. But I’m here to tell you that none of that compares to the love with which God first loved us. What does it say in chapter 3: it says that ‘God so loved the world’. He loved us. Now I’m not saying he loves what we do all the time, but he does love us. In fact, God loved us so much, that he sent his only begotten Son to save us. How many of you understand that sacrifice that He made? How many of you know what it meant? Say Amen.”

  And the congregation responded with a hearty “Amen”.

  “I say this because there are some of us that don’t understand that sacrifice. If they understood it, they wouldn’t want to live any old kind of way. If they understood just how much God loved us and how much He sacrificed for us, they couldn’t just be satisfied with just coming to church on Sunday. You couldn’t just worry God all the time about what you want. If you knew just how much God has sacrificed for you, you couldn’t sit in that seat like a stone, you’d have to get up and praise Him and say ‘Thank You, Jesus!’”

  At this there were shouts of “Hallelujah!” and “Thank you Jesus!” that resounded throughout the audience.

  “So I’m going to try to explain it to some of y’all who don’t know, or you want to act like you don’t know. Help me somebody. What does the rest of the scripture say? ‘He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Think about that. Did you get that? Everlasting life. Do you know what that means? That means that when the physical life is over, you’re not going to die. There’s a lot of people that will die, and when they leave this world, they are going to experience a second death: a spiritual death. That’s what hell is you know. If you don’t have Christ you’re dead. Even life here on earth without Christ is hell. Yeah, life is tough. If you have Christ you can make it, but if you don’t it’s like living in hell. But for those of us who want to accept this gift that God has given to us out of his love for us, we will have life here on earth and after we leave these physical bodies! I don’t understand why some of you aren’t excited by that! What did Jesus say? ‘I came that you might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.’ I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but be grateful, I can’t help but say Thank Yaaaaaa! Hallelujah!”

  Many of the parishioners stood up to praise God and give the Pastor a standing ovation. When the audience’s enthusiasm subsided, Pastor Bynum continued his message.

  “And don’t think that it came easy. You know when you get a gift that doesn’t mean anything. It’s usually something cheap, and it didn’t cost the giver anything. For example, if someone who’s very wealthy giv
es his wife a diamond it may not be meaningful to him or to his wife because it didn’t really cost him anything. But if a poor man scrimps and saves to buy his wife a diamond, it probably means more because it cost him more. There was a sacrifice involved. You know that abundant life that we got. It cost a lot. That’s how we know the love of God is real. God sent his only begotten son, Jesus, who suffered to give us life. He was tempted by the devil. He was lied on and talked about. They called him a demon and a drunk. And it didn’t stop there. He was spat on and buffeted. He was slapped and mocked and if that wasn’t enough He was hung upon a cross and suffered the pains of death. What does the Bible say ‘No greater love hath a man than one that will lay down his life for his friends’.6 Jesus laid down his life for us! I don’t know about you, but there is no greater love than that! What other god has done that? Did Buddha lay down his life? Did Mohammed? Did the Dalai Lama?”

  The audience responded with thunderous applause at this point. Tamiko was standing and praising God, along with the Sharpes and even Allen was on his feet. So was Tim, who found himself clapping as well. The more he listened, the more he knew it was true. He had been looking for the kind of love the Pastor was talking about all of his life and now he finally found it.

  “And you know how else I know he loves us? He did all that and we didn’t even deserve it. What were we doing? Down here serving wood. Bowing down to stones. Some of us still bowing. They don’t call it Ashtoreth any more, now we call him ‘money’. It’s not called Baal any more, now us call him ‘technology’. Some of you spend more time on the computer than you do reading your Bible. There are a lot of different names for it now. And none of these things has done anything for us. Some of us are sitting down here destroying ourselves, profaning His holy name, and doing anything we’re big enough to do, wallowing in sin. If God was like us, He would have looked down and destroyed us all. He could have said ‘I’m sick of these ungrateful beings, let them perish’, but He didn’t do that. God looked down and had compassion on us. He loved us. He wouldn’t let us go out like that. So He came down and He humbled himself. He sacrificed Himself even though we didn’t deserve it. Now you tell me have any of you ever known a person who can love you like that? I don’t know anyone else who can love me like that!”

  Tim knew what Pastor Bynum was talking about. God had mercy on him and blessed him in so many ways. It was God that took the hatred and envy out of his heart toward Preston and Standoff and enabled him to work with them. It was God’s love and mercy that spoke through him to talk Preston out of suicide. It was God’s mercy that allowed him to do the work of 7 men. And more than anything else, He had blessed Tim with loving and caring friends that had been better to him than his whole family. Friends that had led him to God. Tim hadn’t deserved any of that, and he was thankful for God’s grace and mercy. All of Tim’s life he had worked hard to gain love and acceptance and never got it, even when he thought he deserved it. And here was a God who loved him in spite of everything. Pastor Bynum was right. There was no greater love than this. There was no doubt about it. He was a mighty God. A God that could do anything even send his Son, Jesus, to die for the sins of the people.

  Pastor Bynum concluded his sermon.

  “So I know God loves us. He paid a price for us that we can never repay. And I don’t know about you, but when I think about that loving sacrifice, I can’t help but love Him. I can’t help but to serve Him. I can’t help but to praise Him. I can’t help but to surrender my life to Him because without Him there is no life, and there is no love. He is the Greatest Love of all!”

  Now the church was on fire. There were people praising God, some people were shouting in the aisles without music, and some people were crying. Tim himself found himself praising God with a “Hallelujah”, which caused Allen to turn a startled look toward his friend. He noticed Tim was trying to wipe away tears that had begun to form in the creases of his eyes. Then Pastor Bynum began to make this week’s altar call.

  “How many of you are want to surrender to the Greatest love of all? How many of you want to be baptized and receive the gift that Jesus paid so dearly for? Come on up right now.”

  Tim headed toward the altar, but not before he felt a hand on his arm, pulling him away.

  “Tim, you do know what this means? Are you sure that you’re ready?” Allen asked.

  “I’ve never been more sure about any thing in my whole life.”

  Sixty-Five