President Mouw Discusses Christ Working Through Fuller Students at All-Seminary Chapel
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02/20/13
Richard Mouw during All-Seminary Chapel
“It’s not a misstatement when we talk about the work of
Calvary as the finished work of redemption,” began Richard Mouw as he spoke
during an All-Seminary Chapel service, Feb. 20.
“Christ was doing something on Calvary--he was accomplishing something on
our behalf.”
Mouw went on to say the practices Christians do, especially
during the season of Lent, strengthen them for the work of discipleship.
“We are being acted upon by God,” he said. “His power is at work in us. But there is an agency too, so that through
us, he can accomplish abundantly more than we can ask or imagine.”
He referenced Christ achieving the impossible being seen in
the ways he has broken down the dividing walls of hostility.
“We come to this seminary as people who have known a lot of
dividing walls--black and white, Anglo and Latino, Jewish and Arab descent,
Japanese and Korean, Taiwanese and mainland Chinese, Protestant and Catholic,
Pentecostal and Reform, and on and on,” said Mouw. “And Jesus Christ, in our midst is breaking
down the walls of hostility.”
He said that as the Fuller community, we need to be working
on naming those walls.
He told of the president of the School of Missions’ student
body a few years ago, who was a Roman Catholic priest from Africa, sent to
study evangelism at Fuller. Just before
he graduated, he told him that every week he had been meeting with a Pentecostal
pastor from his country that was studying at Fuller.
“The student said, ‘Back in our country, we could not be seen
together as a Pentecostal and a Catholic,” said Mouw. “'But for the last year
here we’ve been praying for a revival of the Holy Spirit in our country. When we go back, we’re going to be seen
together!’”
Mouw referenced another story, which took place during one
of Fuller’s Days of Prayer several years ago.
There were three female students who gave a testimony together--an
African American, a Latina, and a Korean American. They told of being at a leaders’ retreat on
Catalina Island with Intervarsity. The
memories were still strong of the riots that had happened in South Central Los
Angeles. The Korean American female had
had a family member killed by African American looters during the riots, and
she was angry. Her anger came up during
an afternoon discussion. Words were
exchanged and there was tension among all three of the women.
“They couldn’t sleep that night,” said Mouw. “They met in the women’s restroom around
midnight and decided to pray together.
They said, ‘We’ve been praying together for months now and today we’re
all wearing red, because we want you to know we are one in Jesus Christ through
the blood that was shed on Calvary.'”
Mouw said these are some of the precious memories from
things that have happened at Fuller Seminary.
He said the Fuller community has to take advantage of the fact we have a
unique environment here, allowing God’s people from all facets to come together.
In closing, Mouw said, “My prayer is that the power that is
at work in us will begin to do new work beyond what we can ever ask for or
imagine.”