Commencement

by Lawrence Cherry

  Sunday morning, Allen stood outside the front door of the Greater Apostolic Temple peering through the crowds of people for Tamiko. His date last night with Holly was pleasantly surprising. Now that he had gotten to know her a little better, he was ashamed of his original intentions for asking Holly out. It turned out she was not as forward as their first meeting suggested, and they shared a lot of interests. He ended up asking her to the Election Night party that Jim and Leandra were hosting, and she accepted. But by the end of the night the budding of the new romance only reminded him of what Jim said about Tim. Allen had tried calling Tim during the weekend, but he wasn’t answering his phone. He then sent Tim several texts with the message “we need to talk” but Tim never responded. That worried Allen. Tim always responded to texts during the weekend unless he was…busy to say the least. Allen’s thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a familiar face, although not the one he was looking for.

  “Hey, Allen! How’s it going?”

  “Tim, what are you doing here?” Allen asked suspiciously.

  “Miko invited me.”

  “She’s invited you countless times before, and you’ve always turned her down. What’s with the sudden change of heart?”

  “Let’s just say her passion about God has piqued my curiosity. So, I decided to come down and see what all the fuss was about.”

  Before Allen could say another word, Tamiko appeared in a lovely white dolman sleeved top, long black skirt, and matching prayer cloth with a double-breasted black wool coat to top it off, and black platform pumps. She completed the look with a black patent leather shoulder bag.

  “Hey Allen! See who I brought?!” she squealed with excitement.

  “He came with you?!” exclaimed Allen in disbelief.

  “He came with me”, interrupted Pastor Bynum as he walked up behind them.

  “Yeah, Tim gave daddy a ride in his car, and I rode with mom in the family car.”

  “Pastor, I didn’t know you and Tim were so close”, remarked Allen.

  “Any friend of yours and Tamiko’s is a friend of mine. I’m just glad to be able to bring a new sheep into the fold. I hope you enjoy your time with us, Tim. Now if you all will excuse me, I have to go get ready for the service”, said Pastor Bynum excusing himself.

  “Tamiko, dear, we should be going inside, too. I’m going to help get the congregation into praise, and you are filling in on the choir”, Mother Rose reminded Tamiko.

  “That’s right, I almost forgot.”

  “Nice seeing you, Allen. Make sure you come with us for dinner afterward”, Mother Rose beamed.

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Mother Rose”, replied Allen.

  “Yeah, and Tim’s coming, too”, added Tamiko.

  “Oh, he is?” asked Mother Rose who was a bit surprised.

  “Yes. Tamiko invited me yesterday”, Tim responded.

  “But if you have something to do Tim, we’ll understand”, Mother Rose added rather hastily.

  “It’s no problem”, said Tim.

  “Yes, well. I’ll see you all inside”, Mother Rose said eyeing Tim strangely before leaving.

  “See you guys”, said Tamiko following behind.

  Allen waited until they were both far enough away before he addressed what was on his mind with Tim.

  “She’s off limits, Tim.”

  “What?! Who’s off limits? What are you talking about?”

  “You know very well what I’m talking about! Now you can play your game on any other sister you want, but not Miko. She’s not that kind of girl.”

  “First of all, I’m not trying to play anything on her; and secondly, who died and made you her protector. I thought she already had a dad.”

  “So what’s with the sudden interest in her?”

  “I like talking to her.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since for a while now.”

  “Oh, really?” said Allen raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

  “I just want to get to know her better on a platonic level, that’s all. We’ve been friends for the past four years and I don’t really know her that well.”

  “You don’t know Callie that well either, but I don’t see you wandering around down at the emergency room at St. Luke’s.”

  “I don’t see what you’re getting so worked up about. Unless there’s something going on between you two that you’re not telling me.”

  “Man, please. You know Miko is like a sister to me. And I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  “And that’s not my intention.”

  “It never is, but it happens a lot anyway. Don’t act like I don’t know you, playa.”

  “Look, Allen, I care about her just as much as you do. I don’t plan on doing anything to jeopardize our relationship as friends.”

  “I know that. ‘Cause I’ma be watchin’ you”, said Allen slipping into ebonics. He often did this when he was trying to make a point to another brother.

  “Oh, I’m so worried. How about we head in before the service starts? After you.”

  “And Jim will be watching you, too.”

  “And God will be watching us all”, said Tim jocosely.

  Tim followed Allen to the third pew from the front in the aisle where Lena and Vernon were sitting. After introductions and greetings, Allen took his seat next to his mother and Tim took his seat on the other side of Allen. Not long after they sat down, the service began, as the clergy on the podium stood up and Brother Anderson asked the congregation to stand for the procession of the choir. As the music to “Gather In Your Name” began to play, the men walked down one aisle and the women down the other, slowly making their way to the stage and taking their places. Many of the congregants sang along with them as they walked, swaying from side to side. Tim and Allen spotted Tamiko who was in the middle of the procession and she waved to them as she passed by. Allen noticed that Tim’s eyes followed her all the way up to the stage. Once the choir had finished their song, it was time for the prayer. Everyone remained standing as the choir belted out “Pass Me Not”, the prayer hymn. When they had done, Brother Anderson began.

  “Heavenly Father, we come before You this day to thank You and to give You honor and glory for all that You have done in our lives. For waking us up to see another day, blessing us with our health and strength, and protecting us from dangers far and near. We come before You, O Lord, to bless Your holy name, not just for what You do for us, but for who You are. We thank You for blessing us with the knowledge of who You are. Lord, as we stand before You today, we could ask for a lot of things. We could ask for money, and cars, healing, and homes, but we want to ask for something worth more than all that. Lord we ask You to open our hearts and minds to the Word we will hear today. We ask that you bless us with the understanding and the strength to apply Your Word, so that when we leave here today we will be faithful servants that stand out as lights in the darkness of the world. For we know that it is not the hearers of the Word, but the doers of Your Word that are justified. Let Your Word touch our hearts and minds in ways that will enable us to bear forth fruit and become the living embodiment of Your Word. Change us, shape us, transform us, and mold us to Your will. We ask this in the name of Your son Jesus. Amen.”

  As Brother Anderson closed his prayer, some of the people in the audience were already crying, and shouts of praise were beginning to resound throughout the temple. Even Allen himself, who usually did not pay much attention while they were praying, was moved by the beauty of the words spoken. There was something in the prayer that really touched him. It was not a prayer for the blessings of material things, but something that was harder to fathom: to be changed and transformed by the Word, to become a living embodiment of the Word. Allen pondered what that meant. Is this what it meant to have a personal relationship with God? Did this transformation happen to someone all at once or little by little? Would he…could he be transformed? He thought about his experience just the day before. It would happen, but Al
len was beginning to realize that he would have to get out of the way and let God do the work. But for someone like Allen who was used to being in control all the time that would be difficult.

  Then the choir director signaled to the choir and they broke into a reprise of “Pass Me Not”. When they had finished, Brother Anderson signaled for the congregation to sit. Then there were several songs by the choir including “Living Sanctuary”, and “Center of My Joy”. After these songs the collection for the offering was taken, followed by meditation time. During the meditation, Tamiko performed the meditation solo “Because of Who You Are”.

  “I didn’t know Tamiko could sing!” whispered Tim, who seemed to be deeply enthralled by her performance.

  “And she can play the violin, too”, Allen whispered back. Allen was sometimes amazed by how he knew so much about all of his friends, yet they knew so little about each other. When Tamiko finished her solo, everyone clapped and then it was time to collect the tithes. The Choir sang “What Shall I Render?”, as the ushers passed the collection plate from row to row. Tim looked at Allen and rolled his eyes as he passed the plate to him without putting a thing into it. When the service was over Allen would have to take Tim to school on how things worked in Greater Apostolic Temple. He didn’t want Tim to think Pastor Bynum was just about cash. The offering was just whatever one could afford. Most people gave donations ranging from twenty-five cents to five dollars. The offering was used for the upkeep of the church and services. The tithes, or the tenth of one’s salary that most members gave, was used to pay for programs the church sponsored to help the poor and underprivileged in the community. The last collection would be the speaker’s offering. The speaker’s offering was the only money that was given to the pastor. Each collection had to be taken separately for accounting purposes. Pastor Bynum always made sure the money was used in the way it was intended, unlike some of the other pastors Allen knew.

  Once the tithes collection was taken up, the church greeting was made by Mother Rose. During the greeting, Mother Rose welcomed all of the first time church visitors. Mother Rose also made the announcements regarding church activities for the week. When she was done, the collection plate was passed around for the speaker’s offering and the choir got into one of the fast songs, which usually got everyone in the place shouting. This time it was “We Worship You”. Pretty soon, there were people in the aisles getting their shout on, and Lena Sharpe was leading the way. To his surprise, Allen even found himself clapping and singing along with the choir. Tim pulled at his collar and shifted in his seat uncomfortably, ever so often checking his watch. Soon the song faded into the straight shout music, and it seemed as if the whole church was alight with the Spirit of God. Allen still didn’t quite understand what all of the people were feeling, but he knew that for some of them, despite the frantic behavior, they seemed truly happy and at peace. For the first time in his life he was beginning to feel that this might be something that he wanted.

  Then Pastor Bynum appeared.

  “Go ‘head and praise the Lord if you want to.”

  As he spoke, his deep, powerful baritone sent the people into more of a frenzy. The band went on playing:

  Drmmp-drmmp. Drmmp-Drmmp. drmmp-drmmp, drrmp drrmp drmmp drmmp da-da-da-drmp.

  Then Pastor Bynum signaled for the band to stop. For several minutes, there were still people who were praising and shouting to the Lord, but eventually everyone began to calm down and take their seats.

  “Praise the Lord, everybody.”

  “Praise the Lord.” the congregation responded.

  “Y’all don’t mind if I preach for a minute”, Pastor Bynum’s voice bellowed through the mike.

  “Take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of John, chapter 14, verse 6 and we’re going to read through verse 21. When you find it, say Amen.”

  Allen shared his Bible with Tim, and the two of them struggled to find the passage. The Pastor and his congregation read together until they had finished the reading.

  “My subject: What do you believe?” began the Pastor.

  “Now I know all of you believe in God, but what do you believe about God? The apostle James tells us “even demons believe and tremble”.1 So believing there is a God is only half of it. It’s what we believe that makes the difference between a child of God and everyone else. There are three very important things that we must believe if we are truly the sons and daughters of the Kingdom. First, we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whom he raised from the dead and imbued with power from on High to cleanse us from all sin. As you just read, no man can come to the Father except through Him. You must believe in Jesus, there is no other way to eternal life. If you don’t believe in Him, He will not abide in you. And if He doesn’t abide in you, you can’t call yourself a child of God”, Pastor Bynum explained.

  Allen had to think about this for a minute. He remembered what he was taught in Sunday school as a child. When he was younger it was hard to understand where Jesus fit into salvation. Allen didn’t seem to understand how someone could be the Son of God and God in the flesh at the same time. Then he reflected on everything he was taught in college. At Harvard, many of the professors and students would talk about Jesus in his freshman philosophy class. To them, he was just a man who led a religious movement. They said that the Bible was part allegory, and part historical fiction. From the way they talked, it all seemed to make sense. Now the pastor was saying that he had to believe something that didn’t seem to make sense to him at all.

  “Some of you folks are thinkin’ ‘Pastor Bynum I don’t know if I can buy that.’ Some of you don’t know how Jesus can be the Son of God. ‘Wasn’t he just a man?’ you ask”

  It was as if Pastor Bynum was reading Allen’s mind.

  “That brings me to the next thing we have to believe if we are truly children of God. Many people want to believe in God for help and healing. ‘O Lord, please help me with my children. O Lord, please bless me with a new home. Lord, please heal me of this disease.’ How can you believe that God can to help you with anything, if you can’t first believe that he wrapped himself in flesh, came down to us, died on the cross taking on all our sins, and then rose again on the third day?”

  The audience burst into thunderous applause at his point of logic. When there was a break he continued.

  “I know some of you want to say, ‘Well, Pastor, I don’t believe everything in the Bible is true’. I say if you can’t believe everything, how can you believe anything? This book is a Testament of the Power of God. It is in itself Power. The apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans that ‘the Word of God is Power unto salvation to every one that believeth.’2 As children of God, we must believe in the power of God. Since he’s God, can there be anything that he can’t do?” You know the answer to that. If you say you believe in God, why would you believe if you think He can’t do anything?” Pastor Bynum expounded. His comment was followed by more applause. Again, when the applause began to die down, the Pastor went on.

  “Some of you still want to argue. You want to say ‘But pastor, what you’re talking about isn’t logical.’ I remember a boy came to me fresh from the university one year. He wants to tell me how I’m a creationist and he doesn’t believe in “creationism”. He says he’s an “evolutionist” because it makes more sense. Said it with his chest stuck out. I told him when you’re God, you don’t have to make sense. Did it make sense for a man who was 99 years old with a wife who was ninety to have a baby?3 Did it make sense that a few thousand folk just walked around a wall three times and it fell down?4 Did it make sense for three men to be thrown into a fiery furnace and walk out unsinged?5 Did it make sense for a man to be dead three days and just get up when Jesus called him?”6

  More shouts of agreement came from the audience as well as thunderous applause as the Pastor continued with his message.

  “And some of you, I know you out there, got some things in your life today that don’t make any sense. Some of you, t
he doctor said you didn’t have but three months to live. Does it make sense that it’s a year later and you’re still here? I see a woman out there. Her little boy fell from a window four stories and landed on the pavement. Does it make sense that he’s sitting next to her alive right now? Some of you had people say to you, you ain’t no good, you ain’t gonna be nothing. Your parents said it, your teachers said it, and your boss said it, and yet you are sitting here today with the blessings of God upon you. They look at you and say to themselves ‘That don’t make sense!’ but when the power of God comes in it doesn’t have to make sense! It doesn’t have to be logical! Didn’t the Apostle Paul say ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.’7 Didn’t he say ‘God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.’”8

  “That’s why when Jesus was walking on the earth there were some people who he couldn’t help. He couldn’t help them because they couldn’t believe on Him and His Power. The Pharisees, the Scribes, the Elders, and such couldn’t benefit from His teaching because they didn’t believe in His power. What did it say ‘He could do no miracle because of their unbelief.’9 Do you know why they didn’t believe? The devil had them fooled. They were wise in their own eyes and couldn’t understand the Power of God. Just like some of these people out here today. You see these wise people out here with their degrees and certificates, and other accolades, think God has to prove something to them. God made us, not the other way around. If we don’t understand the fault is with us, not with God. That’s where I’m gonna get to my last point, and I’ma let you go. If you’re a child of God, you better believe that the devil is real and he’s out there.”

  “You know you right!” a woman shouted.

  “Hallelujah!” a man cried.

  “Praise you, Jesus!” another woman called out.

  “God loves us and wants the best for us. He wants to bless us, and keep us until it is our time to leave this world and be with Him. That’s why He came down in the form of flesh and was tempted, and suffered. He saw us on the road to hell and He came down to make a way for us to be with Him with the gift of grace through his death on the cross in the person of Jesus Christ. But guess who doesn’t want you to have it. If you don’t believe that there’s a devil, believe me that old thing is glad about it. Because then he can come to you and tell you anything to mess you up and you won’t know that it’s him. If you’re a child of God and Satan comes to you with some old mess, you’ll know it and rebuke him. If you know who he is and how he operates, you can resist him. It says in James ‘…resist the devil and he shall flee from you.’10 But when you don’t believe that he exists, you just think that it’s just another random thought, and you entertain satan. Before you know it, he’s got you. The devil is the one that told you Jesus doesn’t mean anything, he’s just a man. He told you that because he doesn’t want you to believe in the power of God. He doesn’t want you to be saved, or healed, or blessed, or anything. Satan just wants you to join him in hell. So he has you look at earthly things like money. C’mon y’all. He’ll have you look at things like connections and people. He’ll have you focusing on things like degrees, property, status, drugs, alcohol, sex, and just about anything else that he can use. He tells you these things have power, but I’m here to tell you there is no power except the Power that comes from on High.”

  At this point people were standing on their feet giving glory to God. Lena, Vernon, Tamiko, and Mother Rose were all on their feet clapping and praising God. Allen couldn’t help but stand to join them. Tim stood out of respect and courtesy, following the crowd.

  “God wants you to have the best here on earth and also in heaven. He has given us the gift of grace through the cross and resurrection, but we have to accept that gift, and not let the devil take it from us. How many of you want to take that first step and accept that gift? How many of you believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior? How many of you truly believe in the Power of God? Come on up here and give your life to him right now.”

  As the altar call began, Brother Anderson and other church officers proceeded to the front of the church and people began to make their way down to the altar. Allen had never had the case put so eloquently to him before. Somehow the Pastor’s message really ministered to his spirit. He had been thinking about what happened Saturday, particularly, about that something that spoke to his heart telling him to trust Him. But after the sermon it seemed that trusting in God would require him to take the biggest leap of faith he had ever known. He didn’t know if he could do it. What could he base it on? Then Allen thought about his life. He was born two months premature, and yet he did not suffer any cognitive or physical handicaps. But weren’t there other premature children like him. He certainly was no “miracle” in that context, but it was something to be grateful for. And then he thought about the recent events in his life, especially those pertaining to his search for work. It seemed, as the pastor had said, the wisdom of this world hadn’t profited him much after all. Everything that seemed to be common sense had failed him. “Why not believe in Christ?” Allen thought to himself. Then he headed toward the altar.

  “Where are you going?” asked Tim.

  “I’m going up to the altar call.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding! You bought all that?”

  “It’s like my mother said: ‘What have I got to lose?’”

  Tim sat back down and shook his head in resignation, while Allen continued to head toward the altar. Lena smiled with approval as she watched Allen move toward the front. Allen stood in the line that was headed by pastor Bynum. As the line moved forward and he got closer to the Pastor, Allen thought more about the decision he was making. It would have to be all or nothing. There would be no doing salvation halfway. If he was going to believe, he would have to believe whether he understood or not. Once he put his hands to the plough he was not going to turn around. Allen had to admit to himself that he wasn’t totally comfortable with what he was doing. He had been used to operating by sight, touch, and tangible evidence. Allen was not used to thinking in terms of the spiritual or intangible, but something inside him told him the choice he had just made was the right one.

  No sooner than he had finalized his decision, he found himself face to face with Pastor Bynum.

  “Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and the gift of eternal life?”

  “Yes.”

  As the pastor laid his hands on his head and began to pray, Allen began to feel something stirring deep within himself. It was like a burden was being lifted from his soul. For the first time he seemed to be awakening to something larger than himself. It was relieving and at the same time, a little frightening. Allen knew within his heart that this was the beginning of something new in his life. Something that would change his life forever.

  Twenty-Four