Good Friday (10th April):
3 PM Stations of the Cross (Starting At Christ Temple)
Easter Sunday (12th April):
Morning: 7 AM Sunrise Worship
Evening: 5:30 Easter Service
In keeping with government regulations, in-person Easter services have been canceled. Please check our YouTube page for video messages during Holy Week.
Related Scripture: Matthew 5:21-4
Last year, I was at a meeting of Kowloon Union Church’s Worship Group. We were brainstorming ideas. One member said, “I’d like to hear a sermon series on the difficult sayings of Jesus.” Now, we usually follow the lectionary readings like many churches around the world, so we were thinking how to fit this in, maybe a summer series. It seems though we dropped the idea for the moment. Maybe too many difficult sayings to choose from, maybe it would mess up the preaching calendar if the same bible reading came up later in the lectionary.
Today, however, the Gospel lesson would be a prime candidate for a series of sermons on the difficult sayings of Jesus, all in one passage. We could spend a whole month on it or at least a series of weekly bible studies. But you only get one sermon on it – today – because Transfiguration Sunday is next week and we enter the season of Lent after that. So, I will try to do justice to this challenging passage from the Sermon on the Mount without overwhelming you with too much information. I won’t have time to go into detail though of every verse or you’re going to have a one-hour sermon. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with a one-hour sermon if you are a good Baptist preacher. But I’m a Presbyterian and we were trained to preach for 20 minutes. And then sit down. So, let’s see what we can do in 20 minutes this morning. And then I will sit down.
These difficult sayings of Jesus concern the following topics: murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation and loving your enemy. If this seems a bit like curriculum overload, remember what happened In Matthew before this. In Matthew Chapter 4, we saw Jesus ministering to huge crowds throughout Galilee. He was preaching good news and healing many, many people who were brought to him with every kind of sickness and disease. Then in the Beatitudes at the beginning of Chapter 5 he proclaims blessings upon those suffering in this life. He promises that they are not forgotten by God. Jesus thus ministers to their bodies and spirits before asking anything from them. He offers hope and encouragement before demanding ‘something more’. As one minister put it, grace comes before task.
That said, if we take Jesus’ teachings in today’s Gospel reading seriously, we’re going to need all the grace we can get. Because that ‘something more’ is nothing less than showing the world what total obedience to God requires. As we heard last week, we have to be salt in a world that’s lost its taste for righteousness. We have to be light to a world that has no idea how to give glory to their Creator.
So just how do we do that?
Obviously, it takes more than just following the rules down to the letter. The scribes and Pharisees were already doing that better than anyone. But Jesus warned unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.
We might be thinking, it shouldn’t be that hard to surpass the scribes and Pharisees. They were a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites anyway, right? But if we had been right there at the Sermon of the Mount, we would’ve been shocked at Jesus’ words. Remember his followers were for the most part just grassroots people. They looked up to the scribes and Pharisees as religious experts. Scribes were experts in preserving the Jewish law, Pharisees experts at putting it into practice. If the experts were getting it wrong, how do we get it right?
Let me give you some examples, says Jesus.
So that’s exactly what Jesus is doing here – 1) he’s telling his followers how to get a genuine A+ in holiness and 2) he’s going to show them how to do it by his own life. A Master Teacher indeed but there’s even more. For you know, many of the sayings in the Sermon on the Mount can be found in similar form in other ancient literature. But they become Holy Scripture here because it’s Jesus who is speaking, not someone else. For you see, nobody, nobody had the authority to add ‘something more’ to the law and prophets except Jesus. And nobody, nobody had the right to ask his followers to obey that “something more” except Jesus. Because Jesus is the Son of God, and the Son of God lived and died by those teachings all the way to the Cross. For your salvation and mine.
So, friends, a life truly pleasing to God requires way more than just ticking all the right boxes – even if those boxes represent good things. You and I are children of the living God! A God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. If you and I believe in Him, we are capable of so much more than a C- in holiness.
Let me share a story from the Desert Fathers to illustrate. Abbot Lot came to visit old Abbot Joseph to seek his counsel. “Father,” said Abbot Lot. “According as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation, and contemplative silence; and according as I am able, I strive to purify my thoughts. Now, what more should I do?” Whereupon Abbot Joseph stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire, as he said to him, “Why not become all flame?”
Why not? Why not? That’s what Jesus is asking you and me. Don’t settle for a C- when you could have an A+. But we tremble in our boots when we hear his words. We are afraid. We’re afraid it requires too much, we’re afraid we’re going to fail. If we can just pass with a C-, it’s good enough. We never pretended to be a saint. Let someone else knock themselves out for that A+, and we’ll admire them from afar.
But, you know, Jesus never made two categories of people – saints and the rest of us. Even if some churches recognize a few extraordinary Christians as models of virtue, the reality is we’re all held to the same standard of conduct as children of our Heavenly Father. We may be far from perfect at the moment (I know I am), but that doesn’t change what perfection is in God’s eyes or God’s desire that this be our goal.
N.T. scholar Dale Allison said: Would a mother not bother teaching her children to be generous simply because she knows they’re going to be selfish anyway? We know from experience that a standard must be upheld even when failure is almost certain. The ideal is necessary. It may not raise humanity to the heights, but it can lift us up from the depths. And we might just surprise ourselves what is humanly possible with divine guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit.
O.T. scholar Jack Lundbom compares Jesus to a doctor who tells you to do something you think you can’t do. He tells the story of being in this situation years ago when he had both hips replaced. After the first surgery, on the same day, the doctor came into his room. “I want you to get out of bed and stand on your feet.” Lundbom said, “I can’t possibly do that”. However, the doctor and the nurse provided help. And with effort he did stand briefly on his two feet. During the next few days he had to walk to the door of his room, then a short distance down the hospital corridor, and later he had to do therapy exercises in rehabilitation. He says, “I remember wishing on some days that the nurses and therapists would forget to come and leave me in my bed. Many times, I thought I could not do what was being asked. But with effort, and with help from the therapist, I did do it. In each case it was a ‘stretch’. But that is how I regained my health, was able to walk again, and became the whole person I so much wanted to be.”
Lundbom remembered two very elderly women in the therapy room who were also in rehab. One had to be 90 years old or more. She cried at her therapist, “I can’t do it.” Lundbom felt so sorry for her. The therapist was a compassionate man but someone who in earlier days had trained Olympic gymnasts. The therapist remained firm, saying: “If you don’t try, you will never walk again.” The woman dried her tears and with effort took a few steps. As the days went on, she progressed to the point she too was able to walk out of that hospital.
Lundbom says the Sermon on the Mount is meant to stretch us spiritually. Jesus asks us to do more than we think we can do, but nothing he asks is impossible. As a Master Teacher and the Great Physician, Jesus knew his disciples must aim for higher than a C-. Otherwise, we are never going to enter the Kingdom of heaven. He knew if we didn’t reach for the stars, we’d remain earthbound forever.
Needless to say, however, living up to the Sermon on the Mount is hard. And we will make mistakes and have setbacks along the way. But thanks be to God we have a Savior who will not give up on us. Who forgives us when we fail, who gives us courage to start anew, each and every time. But we do have to try. Because if we don’t try, we’ll never become the healthy, complete and mature followers of Jesus Christ we so much want to be. For truly, we are not only asked to do ‘something more’ for Him. We’re asked to be ‘something more’ through Him who shows us what it is to be holy, to be perfect in the eyes of God.
So, to recap:
Relevant Scripture: 1 Cor. 1:10-18
Gung hei fat choy! Happy New Year of the Rat to everyone. I should probably also say “sam dai tsim hang,” be healthy, given our present worries. It is a scary time, but it is also a time of the year in which people are meant to come together to celebrate a new year and new life. So the question on the mind of so many is whether the joys of friends and family outweighs the risks of traveling in crowded conditions during a disease outbreak. But St. Paul’s message to the Corinthians is that the power of fellowship should always outweigh fear and division. This is why we have also been celebrating Christian unity over the past week.
I can think of no more important time for Christians to be united than the present, when it seems like politics and fear is making us even more divided. Blue and Yellow, Mainland versus local, sick and not sick. But lately, the idea of unity has been a complicated one for me and the denomination that I call home. Some of you will remember that I am a Methodist, a United Methodist to be specific. We’re a slightly different sort than Hong Kong Methodists, whose big churches you can find in Wan Chai. We certainly all share the theology of British evangelist John Wesley, but my church is a distinctively North American variety. Part of the meaning behind our name “united” is that we are the union of several different Methodist denominations, two of which had originally divided over the issue of slavery. What you may not have heard is that U.S. Methodists are—ironically—preparing to split again.
The cause of this split is…as you can probably guess… the issue of same-sex relationships. My church has been debating this controversy for quite some time. Theologically, the question is whether language that condemns homosexuality should be removed from our doctrine, what we call our Book of Discipline. Practically and pastorally, the question is whether LGBTQ+ clergy can be public about their sexual orientation. Of course, the most visible issue is whether pastors are allowed to perform same-sex weddings (some have already been doing without permission). This theological question is unresolved, but in December, a group of bishops did agree, in principle, that the more conservative churches would split off to form their own new Methodist denomination, while the main church will finally remove its prohibitions on the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not certain that this will happen, but the whole church will likely vote in favor of it in May.
My reaction to this news was not sadness but relief. The time, energy and resources spent on the matter has been wasteful and embarrassing. I don’t mean to dismiss the importance of a church being fully welcoming of all human beings, regardless of their sexual orientation, but we should not have spent years on just a small section of text! For me, the theological question is one that is easily answered using tools already available in Wesley’s balanced approach to doing theology. This involves four sources of wisdom and authority: First you have Scripture—the Hebrew and Christian accounts of God’s work in history. These texts say something about God’s relationship to humankind. Second, Scripture is always read and acted out through many different liturgical and theological traditions. Third, we have our human experience. Outside of the Bible and church, we encounter the living God everywhere and at every moment in our lives. Finally, there is a source authority that we often forget about: our reason. Together, all four of these sources of wisdom are needed to form a complete picture of human life in relation to God.
I don’t see how you can reasonably say, in this day in age, that someone who is gay cannot be fully welcomed into a community meant to incarnate God’s unconditional love. A few instances of Scripture condemning a particular lifestyle cannot overturn our experience that gay couples are just as capable of receiving and expressing this love. Of course, there are many Methodists and other Christians who would disagree with this position, but maybe this means that my church was already split a long time ago over this theological question. Instead, the conflict that we have had over the last couple of decades—and the one that may be finally coming to an end—was never a theological one, but rather a political one. One side was trying to gain the power to change the church, while the other sought the means to silence these reformers. Both did so in the name of keeping the church “united”. My hope is that both sides have realized that such a battle is not worth it, or even reflective of Christ’s love.
But wait—how can we reconcile this kind of division with what Paul writes to the Church in Corinth? Are we not to be united in the same mind and purpose? Does this not mean Christians should not divide themselves into factions and denominations?
But unity is not the same as homogeneity, or sameness. Is notable that the Apostle describes the dispute as if the Corinthians are identifying with different Christian leaders, including himself and St. Peter (here called Cephas). Whether or not this is the real cause of the Corinthian’s dispute, Paul here is cleverly reminding us of the relationships that existed between the first Christian evangelists. Even during the early church, those going forth to preach the Gospel would have had their own interpretations of Jesus’ life and ministry. It is only natural that those Christians baptized and taught by different individuals would express similarly diverse views.
Famously, Peter and Paul differed over the status of the gentiles. While Peter is described as being more interested in converting Jews, Paul was more cosmopolitan in his mission. He emphasized that Christ died on behalf of all, and that grace could be received by anyone regardless of culture, ethnicity and language; To him, there was neither Jew nor Greek. Given this attitude, it’s natural that he would be against factional divisions.
But just because Paul cautions us against disagreement doesn’t mean we can’t have strong differences of opinion. Christians come from all walks of life and cultures, and this is something that the apostle affirmed. What Paul refused to do is allow such disagreements to get in the way of what was important—that is, the divine love incarnated and offered through Jesus Christ, our light and salvation. The Corinthians’ disputes were overshadowing this key Truth. For Paul, we are baptized in Christ’s name, not in the name of Peter, Paul or Apollos. Not in the name of John Wesley or John Calvin, Pope Benedict or Pope Francis. We are different denominations, but we are all baptized into one Christian community.
The difficulty for Christians is distinguishing between those divisions that weaken us, and the differences that can actually strengthen us. From Paul’s perspective, the differences of belief and practice had become so divisive in the Corinthian church that they threatened to weaken and destroy it. This is something a young Christian community, part of a minority religion, could not afford. But today our religion faces no such problem. Diversity of mind and practice is our strength not our weakness, and disagreement is not a problem…unless we lose focus on Christ. That is our only existential threat.
My church lost focus on what was important. We wanted to stay united as an organization, but that came at the cost of being disunited as Christians. Together we spent years, decades even, fighting over something important, but that something that was only part of the bigger picture.
Splitting certainly won’t be easy. As a child of divorce I know that, while sometimes it is best to separate, it is an incredibly difficult adjustment. Pastors and congregations will have to make the difficult decision of whether to stay in the UMC or not. It’s likely that my hometown church will vote to leave. My hope is that this grief can be part of a healing process, that we can learn to work better together as separate communities that still share one communion. This is how it is between most Protestant communities, including this one. And of course, I hope that eventually the other side will become more open about sexual orientation and we can potentially come back together, just as the Northern and Southern Methodist churches eventually did.
While this issue has been a personal one for me, and not likely to impact our community here, it is an experience that carries universal meaning. We have to be careful that when we fight for unity, we are not pushing a false unity that suppresses diverse opinions or, worse, doesn’t allow anyone to express any opinion at all! Even if our disputes lead to political separation, if they allow us to work together to pursue God’s love and justice in the world, then we are still united in following the same Christ. To quote Wesley: though we cannot think alike, can we not love alike?
Amen.
Scripture: Matt. 5:13-20, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Salt has been on my mind this week. The first sentence of the Gospel talks about salt. I never really understood the expression “salt of the earth.” It’s something older people said when I was growing up: Mrs. Johnson is the salt of the earth, they’d say. I couldn’t even imagine what that might mean. Now I realize that that was good—they thought Mrs.Johnson was genuine…honest.
I also read in a devotional this week a bit about salt and cooking. (I don’t cook, but I kept reading). Maybe a cook would use a tablespoon of salt to prepare an entire meal. Without the salt, dinner would be bland. Yet just eating an entire tablespoon of salt by itself sounds pretty awful. It’s a matter of the right amount of salt, in just the right places.
I also thought a lot about Pastor Gustav’s message last week on the Beatitudes: blessed are the meek, for they…; the peacemakers, for they….Gustav asked us to think about “they.” Was Jesus talking about us, or about others? Does “they” include me?
Today’s passage is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Here, there doesn’t seem to be any question: Jesus says YOU are the salt of the earth. YOU are the light of the world. He doesn’t even say you will be the salt of the earth, the light of the world. You are!
So far, I’m enjoying this reading. I should let my light shine before others. Great! Some days I feel like I can do that.
Then the lesson takes a sharp turn. Jesus says: Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Not one letter, not even one piece of a letter will pass from the law. This is a problem. I know that I can’t fulfill the law. I can’t. I am well aware of my sin and how I fall short so many times. Jesus even says that unless I exceed the scribes and Pharisees, I will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. These Pharisees were known for their attention to all the details of the law. I can’t exceed them. I don’t even belong in the same room with these devout Pharisees.
Jesus tells us later that the most important part of the law is this: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And “you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.” I know there are eight more commandments, but I’m already sunk. What hope can I find here, in this very direct message?
I do find hope exactly here. Not only does Jesus affirm us as salt and light, he tells us that he has come to fulfill the law. In his ministry on earth, Jesus offers a new interpretation of the law. For some, the law itself is considered a gift—a path to salvation. Now our savior comes, to fulfill, perhaps to complete the law and give us a much greater gift.
If I page through Leviticus, I see the law is very complex. There is so much more than not eating pork or not working on the Sabbath. But Jesus says the law is to love God and our neighbor. How would my life change if I did exactly that?
In First Corinthians, Paul is also direct. Evidently, the Corinthians haven’t been getting along. He doesn’t spell it out for us. But, as Jesus did, he makes a very clear statement: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” It’s so simple and so profound. I decided to know nothing but Christ crucified.
How would my life change if I said this? If I did exactly this? Jesus has fulfilled the law, becoming a sacrifice for us, showing the greatest love for you and for me.
Paul goes on to tell us that we can’t even imagine what God has prepared for those who love him. That’s love. That’s hope. That’s light.
Many of us grew up in colder climates. Epiphany is a very dark time. The daylight is so precious. The image of Christ coming into a dark world as light is very powerful. Christ is the light of the world and we are part of that light. Each one of us. Christ tells us we are!
I am more at ease with being light than salt. Let me return to that devotional about salt. Remember that big spoon of salt? It’s no good all together, but it’s great if it is spread among all the dishes of the feast. Perhaps it’s like all of us gathering tonight. How much more value would we have if each of us would carry a bit of salt into the world, dispersing it exactly where it is needed?
Choose a Better Way
8 December 2019
Judy Chan
SS: Isaiah 11:1-10, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3: 1-12
Around 20 years ago, there was a meeting that I really wanted to go to in the Netherlands. It was the Assembly of the World Association for Christian Communication. I’d been involved in the Asia region of this ecumenical network. And every 6 years they had a global assembly of all the regions. But the problem was I didn’t have enough money to go. Then I heard that WACC was running a logo design contest for the meeting. The theme was “From Conflict to Community”. Anyone who was a regional member could enter the contest. And the grand prize? A free trip to Amsterdam. Here was my chance! Now, I don’t know how to do computer design, so my logo had to be drawn by hand. And what I came up with was a drawing of a lion and a lamb lying down together and the words “From Conflict to Community” over the top. The image, of course, is taken from Isaiah 11. Well, my brilliant idea done in primitive art style didn’t win the contest. The good news, however, is I found other funding and I got to go the Assembly anyway.
20 years later, here we are again with an image of a lion and lamb lying down together in the Old Testament reading. This has captured our collective imagination. If you see pictures of this, usually it’s a majestic lion lying down on the grass with a gentle lamb nestled up in front of it. Other artists inject a bit of humor with a drawing of a lamb and a lion sitting together at a bar having martinis. But the one image that many people think of for Isaiah 11 is the famous painting – The Peaceable Kingdom. This was done by the American Quaker Edward Hicks in the 19th century. Here he takes all of verses 6-8 to include the different animals and children. And way in the background is the Quaker leader, William Penn, negotiating a peace treaty with the native Americans. I didn’t know that Edward Hicks actually painted 62 versions of this picture. And as the story goes, he became more and more discouraged by the conflicts of his time, especially within his religious community. So, in the later versions, he paints the lions and leopards and wolves looking more and more ferocious with glassy eyes and bigger fangs.
It’s obvious then that this dream of a violent world returning to the Garden of Eden wasn’t happening in his lifetime, and maybe not in our lifetime either. There are endless jokes about the lion and lamb lying down together. Here’s one: The lamb says, “Let’s call a truce.” The lion replies, “After I have my dinner, thank you.” This peaceable kingdom then seems no more realistic in the animal world than in the human world. Wild animals do not live together with domestic animals. Lions are not vegetarians. And little children do not lead them, much less play near snake pits. So, what is going on here?
To understand this poem, we need to look at the setting. It’s the 8th century BC and Israel is under threat by the Assyrians. Isaiah predicts the fall of the Assyrians like a tree cut down that will never grow again. But then he turns to the house of David, son of Jesse. And even though David’s house is falling too, Isaiah says there is hope. From that tree stump will sprout a shoot whose branches will grow out from the root of Jesse. A greater King is coming whose reign will truly be one of peace and righteousness.
Christians of course understand this passage to be a prophecy of the Messiah Jesus Christ. The King of kings will save us from our sins. He will protect the poor and the vulnerable. His kingdom will reconcile and restore all of God’s creation – humanity, animal life and the land. But ‘when?’ you ask. Jesus came as a babe in the manger over 2000 years ago, and still there is endless injustice and violence. There’s a carol we often sing at Christmas called “I Heard the Bells”. It’s not just about lovely bells that remind us this is a season of peace. Actually the 5th verse was written while the country was in Civil War. Here Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote:
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” (and women)
Why is there no peace on earth this Christmas even though Jesus Christ has been born? If Jesus is who he says he is, why do lambs continue to be eaten by lions and wolves? Is Isaiah 11 just a faraway vision that will only happen at the 2nd coming of Christ? If so, why did Jesus come the first time if it didn’t really change anything?
Today, I tell you we make a big mistake if we think the coming of Jesus didn’t make any difference. In fact, his Advent into the world 2000 years ago changed everything for you and me. How, you may ask?
By giving us three of the most important things we need:
The promises of God.
The justice of God.
The peace of God.
Let’s look more closely at these from our Bible readings for the 2nd Sunday in Advent.
1) The promises of God: I admit sometimes I forget Jesus was a Jew. We seem to emphasize so much how he was at odds with the Jewish people that it sounds as if he disowned them to start a new religion. As if God had gotten disgusted with the whole lot of them and decided to give someone else the blessing. But that’s definitely not the case. As St Paul wrote to the Romans: “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” What is Paul saying? Instead of feeling smug that we have the Gospel and others don’t, we need to recognize how we got Jesus in the first place – through the Jewish people and the mercy of God. I like the way one of our radio speakers put it. He said, remember, “the Lord we worship and follow is of the tribe of Judah, the son of David; a Jewish child of a Jewish mother. We call him by a Jewish title, Christ, the Messiah. The privilege of belonging to the people of God is ours . . . nevertheless . . . the gifts and calling of God to his ancient people the Jews, are irrevocable.”[1] They can’t be taken away.
This evening, then, let us be grateful that the promises of God to Israel are also ours through the coming of Jesus Christ. As Paul quotes from Isaiah: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him . . . The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.” The promises of God.
2) The justice of God: The 2nd way that the coming of Jesus changed everything is through the justice of God. We read over and over again in the Old Testament that God hates injustice and takes the side of the poor and marginalized and oppressed. And not only is God on their side, so should God’s people be on their side. We know this. We’ve heard it and we believe it. But we also are quite sure we know who are the lions out there and who are the lambs, who are the predators and who are the prey. In many situations it’s obvious. But what if the lion and the lamb are found in the same person? That’s right. What if there is a little lion and a little lamb inside each one of us? Then we have to come to terms with the potential within each of us to become an oppressor as well as the oppressed. To be the bully as well as the victim.
I think that’s why the words of John the Baptist to the Pharisees and Sadducees are so powerful. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” Remember, John was calling on all the people of Israel to repent, everyone to prepare the way of the Lord. But he held special contempt for those who thought they had nothing to repent of, that they were faultless. “Don’t go telling me who your father was,” John says. “If you aren’t bearing the fruit of righteousness, God is ready to chop down your tree.” Wow. If that’s what God says to the people of Israel, what’s the message to us Gentiles? Nothing less than this: God won’t tolerate injustice – to His people or from His people – and that includes you and me.
3. The peace of God: That’s the 3rd way that the coming of Jesus changed everything by making peace truly possible. One of the verses we often quote in this context comes from Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I don’t think that means that God gives us a kind of peace that no one else would call peace – that we passively accept tragedy and violence and suffering in this life because God will give us comfort in the next life. Remember we’ve been talking about “peace on earth, goodwill to all”. So the peace Christ brings to guard our hearts and minds must make some difference now between his first coming and his final coming. And I say it does if we follow not only what Jesus said but what he did.
What then has Jesus done that makes peace possible? We need to look no further than the Cross. For what was his crucifixion but the most violent, humiliating punishment that the Romans could dish out to enemies of the state? I always imagine the Cross of Jesus and the thieves standing alone on Good Friday. But likely there were many more victims hanging on crosses all along the road. This was the Empire’s way of warning others “you might be next”. Yet only at the Cross of Christ do we find meaning and redemption. Only Jesus died out of love for his enemies. Because he knew there was only one way to lasting peace. And that is to accept that even my enemy is a child of God. That God’s ultimate goal has never been revenge or reversal but forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s why Jesus chose to suffer violence rather than be the cause of it. To speak God’s truth by every means possible except violence and hatred. Because he knew once we release our inner beast, we may start to become what we hate. And that would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Of course, we’re not Jesus. And it’s way harder for us to follow his example, he who was both fully human and fully divine. We only got the human part. Yet the good news of the Gospel is that through Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. We now have the possibility of living in peace. If we choose.
So, it turns out the image of the Peaceable Kingdom really is fitting for the Advent season. It’s God’s vision that we do not need to depend on each other’s destruction for our own survival. That in fact, the Gospel tells us that we are ultimately responsible for the life of our neighbor and especially the lives of our enemies.[2]
In Advent, I
have given the sermon the title “Choose A Better Way”. And that’s how I will
close. By asking you to choose a better way through Jesus Christ who opened the
promises of God to the Gentiles. To
choose a better way through Jesus Christ who showed us God won’t tolerate injustice
towards anyone or from anyone – including you and me. To choose a better way
through Jesus Christ who made peace on earth possible by trusting faithful
witnesses to follow His way – all the way to Cross if necessary until there is
justice, peace, healing and unity for all.
[1] Rev. Ross Royden, “Minutes That Matter”, RTHK Radio 4, 30 July 2019.
[2] Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom, p88.
Readings:
A long, long time ago a wise person once said: “Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.” Today’s Gospel reminded me of these words, spoken by a Master named Yoda to a young man named Luke. The young Jedi apprentice had been ready to give up. His X-Wing was stuck in the Dagoban swamp, and with it, his only hope of getting off the planet to save his friends. He had looked at that big ship and thought: “No way. I can’t possibly use the force and pick that thing up. It’s too heavy. But I will ‘try’”, he tells Yoda. But the Master says in response that there is no such thing as “try”. Just do it. Or don’t do it.
Luke still does not understand what Yoda is trying to tell him. And so he “tries” to lift his ship out the swamp. And of course he fails. Discouraged, Luke just starts to walk away. But Yoda, this short, scrawny little elf of an old man, just *sighs*, gestures, and telekinetically lifts this twenty-ton spacecraft out of the muck.
By now you’ve probably realized that I am making a Star Wars reference. If not, I will credit that to cultural differences or poor upbringing. I use this example because, despite being fictional, this is a very poignant and meaningful moment in the film. At least, it is a poignant moment in a movie series about planet-killing space stations and laser swords!
Star Wars was inspired by mythological, Biblical and other religious stories such as the one in Luke 17. Like Luke, Jesus and his disciples are facing many challenges. They have had considerable success, gathering quite the following among the people. But most of these followers are the poor, sick and outcast, and they have to be taken care of. They also have lawyers and pharisees challenging them at every turn, and the Judean and Roman authorities are certainly breathing down their necks.
And even at this stage of their learning, the disciples are still not entirely sure what Jesus is all about. From their perspective, he has said many surprising things, speaking about loving one’s enemies and forgiving those who would do them harm. He has taught radical compassion and healed the the poor, sick and even sinful. He has offered hospitality to non-Jews. Even more concerning, he has made cryptic statements like “the son of man must suffer many terrible things.”
Faced with the immensity of their tasks ahead, and a creeping doubt, they thus ask Jesus to “increase their faith.” I do wonder what exactly they are asking for here. Do they want Jesus to perform a miracle? To prove, somehow, that he is indeed the Son of God, and that all he has said is true? Had they not really understood the last parable, the one that Judy preached on last week? The rich man thought coming back from the dead would convince his brothers to repent. But they were not convinced by the prophets, so why would they believe him? Jesus’ point is that no matter how many miracles he performed, this would not inspire true faith in him as the Son of God. Faith is not the same thing as belief through evidence. You either choose to have faith, or you don’t.
But today the disciples’ request is not to “give them faith”, but to “increase their faith.” They claim to have faith, but now they think they need more of it. Perhaps they need more encouragement, more confidence, maybe even more evidence. This all fits a basic pattern of the Gospel, where over and over again people keep asking Jesus to give them reasons to believe that he really is the Son of God.
Clearly, even now, the disciples have not grasped the full meaning of the parable, and are misunderstanding the nature of faith. Jesus, as expected, rebukes them. This time, though, he alters his phrasing to match their own, talking about the quantity of faith. He bluntly states that it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to tell a mulberry tree to go into the sea. Now, I can’t imagine any instance where we would need to put a mulberry tree in the sea, but this is Jesus’ pithy way of saying that the power of faith is not in the amount of it that you have, but rather the quality. If it is true faith, just a little of it can do a lot!
Luke Skywalker’s mistake was that he understood “the force” far too literally. He was thinking in terms of the physical forces, which are bound by certain laws. Therefore he thought the bigger the object, the stronger he had to be, or put another way, the more force power he needed to possess in order to pick up his spacecraft with his mind. But that is not how the force works! You either have control over it, or you don’t. To control it requires a clear mind, confidence in yourself, and…dare I say it, faith in the force. One must trust that with the force, you can lift anything. Faith is trust that anything is possible through God.
That is not so say that it’s easy. As Christians we can have moments of skepticism or doubt about the truth of the Gospel. If you are like me, you have constantly questioned whether God is truly there amid all the suffering we see around us. Lately this suffering has been right in front of us, with all the anxiety and despair that has crept into Hong Kong. It’s painful to watch as hope and trust gives way to cynicism and paranoia. But faith can involve worry and doubt. And we should be able to be skeptical or critical of the Gospel, while also hanging onto to faith.
Faith is not something we have more or less of, nor is it always appropriate to describe it as “strong” or “weak”. The worry here is that if we do so, we start thinking of it as something material that we can exchange or accumulate, like currency. Some Christians like to use phrases like “you should have more faith” or “be more faithful to God”. But what they really mean is that you should “believe” this or that, or you should “do” this or that. What they means is that having a strong faith means belonging to our church, not that church, and agreeing with what we say, not what they say.
In the U.S. there are some televangelists who will go on camera, and they will pray intensely. You know they are praying intensely because they will contort their faces to it looks like this. As if it’s possible to “pray harder” and generate more spiritual power by straining your facial muscles. They will say things like “Oh Jesus, you are our steadfast rock, our ship through these turbulent waters. You will save those who truly have faith…and to show you our faith we should, we should. No, you! You should…should send us…send our church…a check for two hundred dollars! This makes faith something material that we accumulate and exchange for God’s love and grace.
The second part of today’s Gospel does not seem related to the first, at least not in the literary sense. Suddenly you go from a cute aphorism to a longer, more difficult metaphor—one that actually makes people uncomfortable today. This text and others like it were once used to justify the institution of slavery in my country. But we need to view it historically. Jesus was not arguing in defense of slavery, which did exist during his time period. Rather, he was using this contemporary example as a metaphor for how we should relate to God. If understood that way, then there is a strong connection between the two parts of today’s Gospel. Like the servants coming in from the field, our faith in God does not earn us any special privileges. It does not bring us any further reward. Faith is its own reward. God simply wants us to have it and He wants us to let it guide us in positive ways.
And it’s certainly true that our faith can lead us down the wrong path. Christians have done unspeakable acts in the name of faith. We do this because we don’t take the time to think about what having faith really means. Some, I worry, still think of faith as pure force like Luke Skywalker did. As mental, emotional and physical energy. Thinking in this way moves us not toward peace, but causes us to violently confront those we think of as enemies, whether they are politicians, policemen, school children or foreigners. But that is not true faith in God, but faith in something less than God. That is ideology and idolatry.
Faith is not blind loyalty, fear or cowardice. It is, as Paul tells Timothy, a spirit of love and self-discipline. And once we understand this, it becomes OK to finally use words like “strong” or “weak”. A strong faith is actually one that resists the temptation to show personal strength, to lash out at those who threaten us. A weak faith is one that gives into that temptation. What we have to do is let go of that desire for strength. That means letting go of our will and accepting God’s will.
What God asks from us is not something for ourselves and according to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace. And this is what makes faith difficult, because His purpose is not always clear. It involves waiting quietly for God to reveal Himself, for God act first, as Lamentations 3 tells us. That space, where we wait quietly for God, is the place of true faith.
Now, it is not a passive space. We don’t just sit there and do nothing. But what we do is take the time to listen for God, through prayer and meditation. In doing so, and by exercising true faith, we make room in our hearts for God to speak to us about how we can meet any challenge. And how we can do so through peaceful and loving action. Sometimes this can involve small acts of what we might call defiance, which can seem forceful. And that’s true for any action! But the difference is that such actions come through faith in spirit, not faith in brute force.
Amen.
Readings:
Dear Sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus,
The weeks between All Saints’ Day and Advent aim at bringing our lives in tune with God’s Kingdom. Somehow these Sundays include the expectation of Advent for the coming of Christ – however not only looking forward to his first coming as a the God incarnate, but to his second coming. But in both seasons, it’s all about the coming or manifestation of God’s kingdom.
When Jesus had his earthly ministry, the power of God’s rule was there wherever Jesus was present among people: people were set free from destructive patterns of life. Furthermore, he wanted to set the standard of a new way of living as he invited people to be his disciples. God’s kingdom is about the goal of creation and salvation history i.e. a redeemed humankind that is the body of Christ. Life is fulfilled as each one of us serves one another and the whole in love, following Jesus’ example.
In the readings today we find different aspects of this coming kingdom and how the coming kingdom manifests itself in our present-day life.
Isaiah describes the coming rule of God as a restoration of Jerusalem. Houses will be rebuilt, people will enjoy the fruits of their labour, and all will have a long and blessed life. And Isaiah ends with a vision of the harmonious living together of humans and nature. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent–its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.” And God will never be far away; when they call out for him, he will listen and answer and be with them. This future kingdom is almost Paradise re-found.
The epistle has some suggestions for living a proper disciple-life not associating with people living opposite to the Gospel-values. It focuses on honest work and warns against idleness. St. Paul doesn’t mention the second coming of Christ in this section of his letter, but it is an overarching theme in 2 Thessalonians. Thus, we prepare ourselves for the coming kingdom of God not only through spiritual exercises, but in an honest daily life and in sound human relationships.
In the Gospel Jesus prepares his disciples for some of the trials that will precede the coming of God’s kingdom in its final consummation. There is the danger of falling from the faith in Christ, there are wars and insurrections and rumors of war, nature will be out of order, and there will be persecutions of the disciples. But the Holy Spirit will come to their assistance. All the difficulties give the disciples a chance to testify to the truth of the Gospel; they will make Christ known.
Thes last half years we have witnessed almost apocalyptic scenes in Hong Kong. Is there any chance for the protesters to see their quest for freedom fulfilled? Which side will win the struggle? To whom belong the victory? Or is only Ragnarök, annihilation, the flames of doom and perdition the end result?
In my reflections on the HK situation and today’s readings I turned to chapter 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation to see what Jesus would say to the congregations in Minor Asia in times of spiritual struggle, remembering that the word “conquer” is used at the end of each of these letters from Jesus to the congregations. This made me ask, what is victory? What is it to conquer? If I shall call no man my enemy and love those who harm me, and pray for my persecutors – how shall I understand “victory” and “to conquer”?
Answer:
To conquer is never to subdue another person, it is not to make yourself stronger and superior to others. To conquer is to succeed in growing into the likeness of my Son, Jesus Christ.
To conquer is to die from your old identity, your fallen identity. Your old identity was one of self-interest, of creating your own success – often at the cost of the happiness of others. To conquer is to repent and change the direction of your life; to conquer is to rely on my Son and in the power of my Spirit to enter a brand-new life. When you have died from yourself, you’ll share the throne of Christ with him.
To conquer is to believe in my promises and to follow the Word, to serve in love, patience and faithfulness – even as you meet contradiction, persecution and slander. To conquer is to call others into faith. You will be like a pillar in my heavenly temple and my Son’s name will be yours.
To conquer is to find your first love and to grow in your faith relationship with me. To conquer is to grow in love for your fellow disciples and to serve them with the gifts that my Spirit bestows on you.
To conquer is to care for the stranger and the one who opposes you – and to care for creation that suffers because of human exploitation.
The one who conquers will eat from the tree of life and be nourished by the bread from heaven – and my Son will always be with you and you will always be in his company.
May be there’s some hope in Jesus’ way of turning around the meaning of the words we use as when the conqueror is the one “acts justly and loves mercy and walks humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8)
Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, now is and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Readings: Jeremiah 31:27-34; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus,
Today Jesus admonishes us to pray always and never give up.
Prayer is a hallmark of Christian faith practice. We are waiting for the full manifestation of God’s Kingdom, and this is the reason for Jesus today to exhort us to pray always (Luke 18:1). At other occasions he admonishes us to be on the watch by praying (Luke 21:36), and to be alert! “You do not know when that time will come (Mark 13:33).
Also the apostles exhorts us to pray incessantly: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:7) We should pray when we are in a spiritual conflict; it’s through prayer that we put on the armour of God so that we will stand against the devil’s schemes. ”And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (Ephesians 6).
How should we practice incessant prayer? On the personal level we may somehow have a prayerful awareness in the middle of ordinary life, and thus often communicate with God. This prayerful awareness all day long is the same as living in never ending prayer even though we do not speak out loudly or think prayers all the time. We just know that our life is walking with Jesus. The prayerful awareness means that conscious contact with God can be made at every moment.
As a help to have this prayerful awareness it’s good to have specific more or less fixed times for prayer during the day. The first church in Jerusalem as well as the early church had prayer times several times every day, but most importantly at evening and at morning. In Acts 2 we read:
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
And from Acts 3 we know that it was for the appointed prayers in the Temple that the apostles met in the temple courts:
1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.
The apostles knew that it pleased God to receive the prayers of his people, since God had ordered the prayer times in his Law (cf. e.g. Numbers 28:1–8). Outside Jerusalem there was no Temple, but this didn’t hinder the first generation of Christians to assemble for prayer, e.g 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. And the purpose was to make “petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving … for all people for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
These daily prayer times, especially evening and morning, has set the pattern for the daily prayer life of the church and of individual Christians up to now – not the least in Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican churches – and we also do so on weekdays in Christ Temple: Morning, Midday and Evening.
These fixed hours for prayer set the pattern for our daily prayerful awareness of being in God’s presence.
Another help for this incessant prayer is to use short prayers that are easy to remember. You may change Bible verses that contain Christ’s promises into short prayers. As an example you may have read Romans 8.38-39:
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You may want to remember this promise. To do so you extract the essence of the promise and make it into a short prayer:
No
power on earth
can separate me from
the love of God
that is in Christ
Jesus.
God, I thank you!
Now you have a short prayer that you may use at any time and in any place, even the most stressing situations as you need to affirm your contact with Jesus Christ
Such a short prayer is a kind of affirmation.
Athanasios the great Egyptian church father told this story that may illustrate the use of affirmative prayers: Christians sometimes are like the citizens in a city that is besieged by enemies. The enemy scorns the citizens and threatens them so that they lose heart and feel despair and hopelessness. But the king has a secret way into the city, and he raises his banner. Now the enemy is discouraged and flees from the presence of the king. Our affirmative prayer is like the banner of the king.
You affirm the presence of Christ or God as well as your confidence in God-in-Christ to God himself, to yourself, and you confront every life-threatening power. Thereby reality often is experienced in a new way consistent to the content of your affirmation. This kind of short prayers helps us into the experience that Christ is with us always – even unto the ends of the earth and the end of times.
The difficulties we experience these days in Hong Kong, the despair and hopelessness call for a prayerful presence in the city we love. We may not be able to change much but praying we carry Christ in our hearts to the City. He is among us; he is with us and in us, and thus he is present in the city. We represent the Kingdom of God into the rule of chaos, despair, violence, suppression. We will not surrender to hopelessness as the one who wrote this graffiti: “Give us freedom, or burn with us.” With our prayer and affirmation of faith in Christ’s promise to be with us always, we will keep the door open for people to choose life, to hope rather than the burning fire of Ragnarök.
No power on earth,
no
political oppression, no use of force, no desperate violence
can separate Hong
Kongers from the love of God
that is in Christ
Jesus.
God, we thank you!
I hope these thoughts may help you to pray always and never give up.
Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, now is, and ever shall be. Amen
Come experience Christfulness at Tao Fong Shan!
We invite you to free “try-it-out” sessions of Christfulness, held every Sunday at 3pm. Each day you’ll be introduced to CFN and one particular aspect of it, and have the chance try one or two spiritual exercises. The last Autumn session is the 24th November.
We also invite you to special one-day retreats on the 28th September, 19th October and 23rd November 2019.
For further information: http://www.tfscc.org/en/bd/index.php
Rev. Ole
