Prayer breakfast card.
By Neil Earle
Christians do them all the time, with Presidents and civic leaders and with each other. But there’s a good chance most of our readers have never been to one.
We’re talking about Prayer Breakfasts, and on February 23 the Glendora Ministerial Association just celebrated their fifth in this new series since the event was reinstituted in 2007.
Even though it was a Glendora mayor who suggested we do this, major responsibility for the event falls in the hands of the Glendora Ministerial Association (GMA) who choose a co-coordinating team and line up all the details that make it work.
United Methodist Pastor Doug Hodson was the point man again this year and with the advice of the GMA he picked a date (Feb. 17), selected a venue (Glendora Golf and Country Cub), lined up sponsors, a guest speaker and organized the music, prayer-givers, color guard and arranged other minute details. There are a lot of “little things” behind the scenes to make such an event work. For example: coordinating citizen activists Cyndy Tessitor and Joanne Herman’s floral decorations with donated bird houses from Wal-Mart to decorate our tables.
Every detail counts for, at a suggested donation price of $20 and a turnout of 200 notable civic and denominational leaders, it’s important that things come off well.
And it did, thanks to lots of hard work behind the scenes by Doug and his secretary Kandy Nunn and other volunteers who saw to the special programs, sold tickets and arranged appropriate music.
The breakfast started at 7AM as Miss Maria Wietrzynka of Glenkirk Presbyterian Church played appropriate selections. Grace Episcopal Church also contributed hand bell music under the direction of Marilyn Scranton. Then came Pastor Doug’s welcome. The local Scout Color Guard presented the colors and led in the Pledge of Allegiance. The national anthem was then sung by a particularly proficient soloist, LaKesha Nugent of Azusa Pacific University. Reverend Susan Scranton of Grace Episcopal led us in the Opening Prayer.
Pastor Doug then introduced special guests and offered thanks to the corporate and service club sponsors who ranged from Southern California Edison to the Kiwanis. Glendora Mayor Ken Herman then gave remarks stressing the value of friendship: “God places people in our lives, friends in Christ.” This was followed by a Scripture reading, a welcome reprise from the hand bell section, and the introduction of the keynote speaker by the President of the GMA, Reverend Karen Davis.
After a directed Scipture reading by Mayor Pro Tem Doug Tessitor, specific prayers were offered for the nation and the local Glendora community. We were reminded we were a nation at war and that the miracle-working God “could turn our enemies into our friends” and that 1 Timothy 2:1 is the first prayer commanded upon the Church. “We love Glendora, but not as much as you, Lord, love Glendora,” prayed Reverend Casey Cox of Our Community Network. “This gives us hope.” Another musical selection and a second Scripture reading led to the keynote message by Dr. Joseph Benz, an English and Literature professor from Azusa Pacific University.
Dr. Benz opened his talk with a humorous but graphic description of how God is portrayed in the Hollywood movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. He is an angry Old Testament-style deity, emerging as a terrifying fiery flame out of the so-called Ark of the Covenant smiting everyone who dares look at him. That led to Dr. Benz’s question: How would God appear today?
Indian Jones offers one version, said Dr. Benz, but the new Testament shows how people were constantly missing Jesus when he did walk among the people, even after doing miracles. John 21 shows Jesus appearing on the sea shore and only John recognized him in the early morning light. The disciples finally got the picture and rowed to the shore to find Jesus doing…what? What is Jesus doing? He is making breakfast over an open fire. Making breakfast. How ordinary. Nothing like Raiders of the Lost Ark.
So that, says Professor Benz, is how God often shows up today – in the less, the least and the lost. He referred to Mother Theresa’s experience: “I am not ashamed of the poor and the sick for they are Jesus in disguise.”
“Pay attention to troublesome people,” advised Dr. Benz, “That clerk at the drive-in window who messed up your order; that scathing e-mail you receive. Encountering and knowing each other is about as close as we sometime get to God. He’s in troublesome people,” said Dr. Benz. He then quoted Matthew 25 where the good disciples are surprised that Jesus said he was most obvious among the least in this world, “the least of these my brethren.”
The least are those who need you, you time, your life, people who made their messes and don’t have much to offer. “If you want me to show up, that’s what I’m like,” concluded Dr. Benz speaking on behalf of the one to whom we pray.
LaKesha then invited us to join her in singing the chorus of “How Great Thou Art” and Karen Davis ended the meeting with a dismissal prayer. Another community prayer event had concluded and all went away a little more edified. “It was a feast,” said Alan Doshna, an actor and journalist living in San Dimas.