As part of our mission to equip the local church and Asian American Christians, we are posting sermon excerpts, devotions, and prayers from our SOLA Council members concerning racism and injustice. We hope that these words would be challenging and encouraging to believers as we fight against the sin of racism.
This video is from a sermon given by Michael Lee, lead pastor of All Nations Community Church in Lake View Terrace, CA on June 21, 2020. You can watch the rest of the message here.
Below is an edited transcript of the video. Please note that some changes have been made for readability and clarity.
When we pray for justice and vindication, we are making an appeal of petition before him. And in James 4, James actually explains the misuse of petitionary prayer. Sometimes we pray out of genuine conviction, while other times we pray out of self-interest. Sometimes we pray for the things that we truly need, that our families need, that our communities and our society truly needs. And other times we pray for the things we merely want.
What if one of the main reasons we lack justice in our world is because Christians are not praying for it? What if we are praying, but we are doing it wrongly? We are wasting our breath out of selfish ambition and selfish passion, whether our petitions and our priorities are more aligned with a specific tribe, or specific group rather than considering the heart of God and the truth of God for His people and for this world.
Brothers and sisters, prayer is powerful. It is powerful, and it is a weapon. In the face of injustice, Jesus is calling his people to pray.
He’s not saying, “Pray, pray, pray, and you’ll finally get your way.” It’s sad that people interpret it that way. But that is not the point of Jesus’s parable. You see, there’s a third character in Jesus’ parable, and it’s our Father in heaven.
Unlike the unrighteous judge, our God is just. Church, the nature of petitionary prayer is focused on making an appeal to adjust God in light of an unjust world. The focus is upon God and who he is. Petitionary prayer is about praying the kingdom of God would break into the kingdom of this world.
Yes, we’ve prayed for change, but with no different a tone then when we pray for the well-being of our friends and family, with no different a heart or a posture then we might pray for our food before we eat it. Have we lost our anger, our zeal, our holy and righteous indignation with this world before a holy God?
This is how we are to express petitionary prayer: with a holy anger when we see and experience injustice, with a spirit of rebellion against this world and against its systems, and with an unshakable trust that God is just and that he stands in absolute opposition to evil.
I understand that everyone has different takes. I understand that everyone has different opinions and perspectives on the issues. But there’s one thing that everyone agrees upon and it’s that we have serious problems in the world.
Nobody is dismissive of the fact that our world is broken. Racism is real. Whether it is primarily personal or corporate, racism is real. Injustice and inequity are rampant. It is plaguing our society. People are hurting and filled with hate, anger, and self-righteousness.
And I want to exhort you today — from whatever camp or tribe that you might identify with or find yourself in — I want to exhort you today as a follower of Jesus Christ to take up the call of petitionary prayer. Refuse to accept the evils in our society, and refuse to accept the status quo. Petition our God day and night that he might bring healing to our broken land.
“I want to exhort you today as a follower of Jesus Christ to take up the call of petitionary prayer.”
You see, when someone wrongs us, we can we try to absorb it. Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek.” For the most part, a lot of Asian Americans, we don’t want problems. So growing up, I would walk around the mall, and I would get racist comments from Black, Brown, and White people. I didn’t issue any complaints with my school or teachers when my nickname in junior high was “chinko.” That was my nickname. I allowed my friends to label me a racist nickname because I just wanted their acceptance.
But you know, who wouldn’t have accepted that if they had known? My parents. My parents would not have tolerated that for me — to walk around my school and have all of my white friends say, “Hey, chinko! What’s up? Hey, chinko! Do you want to hang out?” That was okay for me. But that would not be okay for my parents.
When someone wrongs us, we are willing to absorb it. Culturally, if you’re Asian, we’re raised to be rule followers. We respect hierarchy. We ourselves don’t levy complaints to our deans or to our bosses. We’re tentative about going to HR in our workplaces. If you’re an immigrant, you know how to keep your head down and assimilate into a dominant culture. We know the adage that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
But when your children are wronged, you’re not okay with it. Young adults, college students, you may be able to absorb wrong, but how would you react and how have you reacted when your parents have been wronged, when your parents have been wounded, when your parents have been oppressed or hurt? You are angered and that is not okay with you, and so you become an advocate.
We might be willing to absorb, but on behalf of others, we will fight, we will advocate. We deeply share in the suffering of others. We don’t just treat people or family members as individuals or community members as individuals. We say our people, our church, our community.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that the way forward for the Asian American church, for us to truly be salt and light — not only to one another as fellow Asian Americans in this small little tribe — but to really be salt and light, to our local community, to the city of Los Angeles, and to the world, is to love others as we love ourselves. To love others, as we love our children. To love others, as we love our own parents. To see the White, Black, and Brown communities in our country not as categories of them, but as categories of ours. Why? Because we are all made in the image of God.
As fellow image-bearers of God, we are called to have a sense of responsibility, a sense of duty, care, concern, and love for them. And if we can begin to do that, if we can begin to see White, Black and Brown communities as our people, born and made in the image of God, then perhaps we can pray. Perhaps we can advocate. Perhaps we can love them in a way that reflects the love of Jesus.
The power of petitionary prayer lies in not the people who pray. It doesn’t lie in us who pray, but in the one who hears. The way that God will enact justice for his people in our world is through the establishment of his kingdom.
“The power of petitionary prayer lies in not the people who pray. It doesn’t lie in us who pray, but in the one who hears.”
But right now, as followers of Jesus, we live in the tension between two kingdoms. We are citizens of heaven living simultaneously as citizens of this world. Our call is to be set apart from this world and is to rebel actively from this world. Our call is not to just follow the culture and give in to the culture and say, “Hey, we can’t do anything about it. Might as well live in it and assimilate, manage and flourish in it.”
No, our call is to subvert the culture, to reject this world’s kingdom, and to point the world — to point everyone — to a greater kingdom, to a greater culture, to a greater King.
If you and I are not petitioning for God’s kingdom to break into this world, maybe it means that we’ve actually made our home in this world. We actually love this world too much. We like this world; we’re too comfortable in this world. Maybe we have actually made a peace with this world that Jesus Christ never did. And in that truth, I want you to know that we are actually betraying our true king.
This is how we are called to pray: in active rebellion and rejection against the kingdoms of this world because we belong to a greater Kingdom. We serve a greater king.