Cry Out!

Cry Out!

1 Kings 8:28

May 7, 2015 • Portage National Day of Prayer

“Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.” (Solomon)

I’ve prayed for a lot of things in my life—some important things and many trivial things—but that particular day I remember praying like I don’t think I had ever prayed before—and maybe since! I was at a turning point, though I don’t think I really knew it at that moment. All I knew is that I was sick. Two weeks post-surgery and I could barely move. What I didn’t know at the time is that the medicine I was being given to help with the pain was actually making me sicker. I was allergic to it, but all I knew at that moment is that I felt worse than I ever remembered feeling. As I lay on the couch, I prayed a prayer that can only be described as crying out to God. “Either help me feel better and heal me,” I said, “or just get it over with and take me home. I can’t go on like this.” It was a “cry out” moment, a turning point, one I will never forget.

Have you ever had a moment like that, a “cry out” moment? We find such a moment in our Scripture reading today. We only read one verse of it, but that verse is part of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple. Thought the people didn’t know it yet, this was a significant moment for the people of Israel. Significant not in the sense of dedicating a house of worship, though that was the main reason they had gathered to celebrate. But the real significance of the moment comes from taking a longer view and realizing what a huge turning point Israel is at in this moment. David, their great king, the man after God’s own heart, had longed to build a house of worship for God, but God had not allowed him to do so. That job would belong to his son, his heir, Solomon. And when the Temple is done, Solomon dedicates it with a service of worship and prayer. Over and over again in this prayer he asks God to watch over the people and to come to their aid when they are in trouble, when they are at war, when they sin, when they are broken. “Hear the cry and the prayer your servant is praying in your presence this day,” he prays.

In the years to come, Solomon will find himself drifting away from the God he calls on this day, and eventually the kingdom he built will be torn in two. Solomon forgets to come back to this place, this day of prayer, to this “cry out” moment, and we are left to wonder what might have happened if he had heeded the words of his own prayer. Or perhaps we don’t have to wonder all that much. Our time and our land seems to resemble much of what Israel faced in the days surrounding and following this prayer of Solomon’s. There are enemies around us, and we are continually at war. We sin against God and we sin against each other. On top of that, we live in what, to me, seem to be unprecedented times, where the only group it seems still “fair” to verbally and intellectually abuse are Christians. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote that Christians “constitute one of the few groups that it’s safe to mock openly.” It is unfair, Kristof said, and he himself is not a Christian, but he recognizes and will admit to the positive influence Christian faith has on culture. His voice seems strangely alone these days. I don’t remember a time in my life when it seemed that there were people so intentionally trying to wipe religion from the face of the earth and remove it from history. So the question for us, whether we’re in our community, our nation or our world, is this: are we going to stand together or fall apart? Do we recognize the sickness that surrounds us and will we cry out to our loving God, the one who wants to restore and redeem and save?

Because it will take God’s people consistently and constantly crying out to bring renewal and revival to our land, and doing that together, across all the barriers we build and lines we attempt to draw. So let me ask: what are the things you pray for? We most often pray for health and healing, things to go well in our lives—but do we pray for renewal, revival, for justice and righteousness in our city and in our land? There is the story told of a young man who wanted to grow closer to God, but every time he tried to move in that direction there would be other things to do, other interests to pursue. One day, he learned of a monk who lived in a distant location whom, he was told, knew the secret of drawing close to God. So the young man made up his mind; he would make the long journey to find out what the monk knew. Off he went, traveling for many days, and when he finally arrived at the monk’s home, he was exhausted. But he pressed on, knocked on the door and told the monk what he wanted. “I want to know God,” he said. And the monk, without saying anything, left the house and began walking down a wooded path. The young man followed, not really knowing what else to do. When the monk sat down by a stream, the young man followed suit. Then, suddenly, the monk grabbed the young man by the head and forced his head under the water, holding it there with a surprisingly strong grasp. The young man struggled, but he was no match for the monk’s strength, and just as he thought he was a goner, the monk pulled him up out of the water. And as he sat there gasping, the monk spoke for the first time. “You must want God as much as you just wanted air. When you are that desperate for him, then you will truly find him.”

Do we want God that desperately? We pray for revival, for renewal, but do we “cry out” for it? Do we have that same sort of desperation as the young man who wanted air? I confess that I often don’t. It’s far too easy to just “play church” rather than desperately, deeply desiring the presence of God. I want to know God as much as or more than I wanted relief from the pain in my post-surgery days. God answered my prayer that day through the care of a doctor friend of mine, who found the answer everyone else had been looking for. The pain and discomfort went away and healing came. Which also reminds me that, when we cry out to God, when we desperately ask for revival and renewal, we better be ready to be used, to work and even to work alongside other Christians to see it come about. I needed my friend to come alongside to help me find the solution; in praying for revival, it might even be (dare I say it will be?) that God will join different denominations, different theological perspectives, different ways of doing things together to seek his kingdom because he knows—much better than we do—that what brings us together is stronger and more important than the things we allow to keep us apart. God doesn’t care about the label on our buildings; God waits for us to cry out to him and to live a life that is desperate for his presence. We will either stand together or we will fall apart.

Together, we join on this day and in this place, and we pray with Solomon from millennia ago: “Lord, Father, God, hear the cry and the prayer that your servants are praying in your presence this day.” And may the prayers we pray together be only the beginning. May God bring us together to seek first not our own glory but his kingdom. Amen.