"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you." Jonah 3:2
So Jonah headed for Nineveh. He still wasn't happy about it. If we could have heard his proclamation of the Word of God, I suspect it would have been without power and authority. The only thing is, God's Word cannot be preached without returning a harvest - and God provided an instant harvest in Nineveh. The people who heard Jonah proclaim "Repent or die," repented, dressed themselves in sack cloth, and dusted themselves with ashes of remorse. In a matter of days the Word passed throughout a city so great that it took three days to walk from one end to another. Finally the Word reached the throne room of the king of Nineveh. He too repented! Imagine. A whole city won to God in days.
So Jonah rejoiced, right? Hardly. He looked to God and said, "I told you this is what would happen. Now you can't destroy the city!" Jonah wanted a great big fireball to consume the city. He wanted the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He was disappointed that it did not happen! Certainly we are not like Jonah. We would never preach a half-hearted sermon to a people we hated - or would we? Even better, have we? Sorrowfully, I admit that there are those I would rather have not shared the Truth of salvation with. There are those I have crossed the street to avoid. Some received the Word willingly - others never heard because I never spoke! Indeed, there may be some who never heard before their death because I was God's final choice!
With this in mind, I must call upon you to hear the Gospel. Jesus died for you. His blood cleanses you and me from all sin - and we are all sinners. We have all failed to live up to God's expectations. We have all failed to live up to our own expectations. No matter what standard you use to measure success, we have missed it in one way or another. But you do not have to live in your sinful condition. You do not have to die a sinners death - separated from God. All you need to do is call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell Him you are a sinner. Confess to Him that you have failed. Ask Him to forgive you. Accept the forgiveness that He so willingly gives. He will save you. He will redeem you and set you free. Then He will lead you in everything you need to do. Sure, you're not a Ninevite. You may not be an unbeliever. But if you are, today is your opportunity to find the freedom that comes through salvation in Jesus Christ! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Jonah 1:17-2:1
"Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly" Jonah 1:17-2:1
Ok, so you didn't listen yesterday - or it was already too late. Now you're in the belly of some great fish. It's dark, it stinks, it's wet and your skin burns a bit with the bleaching acids. Now what are you going to do?
Jonah prayed! Not surprising, is it? Someone said there are no atheists in a fox hole. I imagine that is more true in the stomach of some great big deep diving fish. What did he pray? "I'M SORRY GOD!" was probably a good, simple translation. He asked for forgiveness. He praised God. He turned his face towards the Temple (but I have no idea how he knew which direction to twist!) and worshipped (how in the world did he get his hands over his head?) Then the fish became sick of the whole thing and at God's command belched Jonah up on the shore.
If you are in the belly of that fish, don't you think a bit of prayer might be advisable? What are you going to pray? Some would say, "God, how could you possibly let this happen to me? I'm your best man (or woman). You can't get along without me. Sure I messed up - but this? Do you really think I deserve this?" Making deals with God is probably not the best thing to do in this situation. After all, you did go against Him. That's how you got on the ship to start with. You did run. That's why God sent the storm. You did confess you were at fault. That's why God prepared the fish - he could have let you drown, you know. Did you deserve what you got? NO WAY! You deserved a whole lot worse!
"OK. I'll ask for forgiveness. I'll tell God I was wrong. I'll worship Him for who He is - the almighty God. I'll even thank Him for loving me enough to send this stinking fish." That's good. Do you really mean it? Yes? Good. Ah, yes. The fish has turned east. Your ears pop with the lessening of the pressure on them. You hear the muffled sound of surf through the sides of the fish ----- whoa! You didn't know the fish was that sick of you! You hit the ground - running I hope! Amen and Amen.
Ok, so you didn't listen yesterday - or it was already too late. Now you're in the belly of some great fish. It's dark, it stinks, it's wet and your skin burns a bit with the bleaching acids. Now what are you going to do?
Jonah prayed! Not surprising, is it? Someone said there are no atheists in a fox hole. I imagine that is more true in the stomach of some great big deep diving fish. What did he pray? "I'M SORRY GOD!" was probably a good, simple translation. He asked for forgiveness. He praised God. He turned his face towards the Temple (but I have no idea how he knew which direction to twist!) and worshipped (how in the world did he get his hands over his head?) Then the fish became sick of the whole thing and at God's command belched Jonah up on the shore.
If you are in the belly of that fish, don't you think a bit of prayer might be advisable? What are you going to pray? Some would say, "God, how could you possibly let this happen to me? I'm your best man (or woman). You can't get along without me. Sure I messed up - but this? Do you really think I deserve this?" Making deals with God is probably not the best thing to do in this situation. After all, you did go against Him. That's how you got on the ship to start with. You did run. That's why God sent the storm. You did confess you were at fault. That's why God prepared the fish - he could have let you drown, you know. Did you deserve what you got? NO WAY! You deserved a whole lot worse!
"OK. I'll ask for forgiveness. I'll tell God I was wrong. I'll worship Him for who He is - the almighty God. I'll even thank Him for loving me enough to send this stinking fish." That's good. Do you really mean it? Yes? Good. Ah, yes. The fish has turned east. Your ears pop with the lessening of the pressure on them. You hear the muffled sound of surf through the sides of the fish ----- whoa! You didn't know the fish was that sick of you! You hit the ground - running I hope! Amen and Amen.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Jonah 1:3
"But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD" Jonah 1:3
Don't tell me you've never done it. We all have at some time or another. Most likely we've done it quite recently. Running from the Lord is a common human condition.
Jonah did it in a royal way. He was ordered to Nineveh. He ran for a ship. That would be fine - if Nineveh were on the sea shore - but that lovely, enemy community was landlocked! Running for a ship was not in God's plans. However, God had made plans for Jonah's disobedience. He provided a ship, a storm and a prize winning fish - and Jonah was the bait!
Of course we know what happened to Jonah. It is said by those who have found people who lived in the belly of a great fish - yes, there are numerous historical accounts of this in modern times - that the swallowee is bleached white by the stomach acids of said swallower. What a sight Jonah must have been when he finally strolled into Nineveh - a pure white man, smelling of fish, shouting "Repent or die!"
I can personally testify that I have never been swallowed by a great fish though I have run from doing the will of God. Sometimes I almost wish I had met a great big fish. The lesson may have been easier to learn. Then again it might not have been because Jonah was a tough student. Though he did the will of the Father, he did it without conviction and enthusiasm. Still, the work was done and the desired results were achieved.
Are you running from God? Is He telling you to do something that you don't desire to do? Have you fled for a ship when a camel would be more appropriate? May I suggest that you stop where you are, turn around and head for the nearest used camel dealer, lay your money down, and ask directions for your Nineveh. I won't ask. I won't even suggest it. I strongly urge you to do it. Remember, your fish may chew his food a little more thoroughly than Jonah's! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Don't tell me you've never done it. We all have at some time or another. Most likely we've done it quite recently. Running from the Lord is a common human condition.
Jonah did it in a royal way. He was ordered to Nineveh. He ran for a ship. That would be fine - if Nineveh were on the sea shore - but that lovely, enemy community was landlocked! Running for a ship was not in God's plans. However, God had made plans for Jonah's disobedience. He provided a ship, a storm and a prize winning fish - and Jonah was the bait!
Of course we know what happened to Jonah. It is said by those who have found people who lived in the belly of a great fish - yes, there are numerous historical accounts of this in modern times - that the swallowee is bleached white by the stomach acids of said swallower. What a sight Jonah must have been when he finally strolled into Nineveh - a pure white man, smelling of fish, shouting "Repent or die!"
I can personally testify that I have never been swallowed by a great fish though I have run from doing the will of God. Sometimes I almost wish I had met a great big fish. The lesson may have been easier to learn. Then again it might not have been because Jonah was a tough student. Though he did the will of the Father, he did it without conviction and enthusiasm. Still, the work was done and the desired results were achieved.
Are you running from God? Is He telling you to do something that you don't desire to do? Have you fled for a ship when a camel would be more appropriate? May I suggest that you stop where you are, turn around and head for the nearest used camel dealer, lay your money down, and ask directions for your Nineveh. I won't ask. I won't even suggest it. I strongly urge you to do it. Remember, your fish may chew his food a little more thoroughly than Jonah's! Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.
Monday, December 28, 2009
James 2:18
"But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" James 2:18
When my son Edward was just a toddler, I would stand him up on the table and call for him to jump from the table into my arms. Did Edward believe I would catch him? Yes. How did I know he believed? Because he jumped. Suppose he wouldn't jump. "Do you believe I will catch you, Edward?" I might coax, and he may nod yes. But if he never jumps, does he really believe I will catch him? No. Faith is active, not passive. Faith takes a stand. Faith makes a move. Faith speaks up.
There are a lot of Christians who claim to have great faith in God but are spiritually lethargic and don't do anything. Faith without action is not faith; it's dead, meaningless (James 2:17, 18)! If it isn't expressed, it isn't faith. In order to believe God and His Word, we must do what He says. If you don't do what He says, you don't really believe Him. Faith and action are inseparable.
Sadly, one of the common pictures of the church today is of a group of people with an assumed faith but little action. We're thankful that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus is preparing a place in heaven for us, but we're basically cowering in fear and defeat in the world, just hanging on until the rapture. We treat the church as if it's a hospital. We get together to compare wounds and hold each other's hands, yearning for Jesus to come take us away.
The church is not a hospital; it's a military outpost under orders to storm the gates of hell. Every believer is on active duty, called to take part in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19, 20). Thankfully the church has an infirmary where we can minister to the weak and wounded, and that ministry is necessary. But our real purpose is to be change agents in the world, taking a stand, living by faith, and accomplishing something for God. You can say you believe God and His Word. But if you are not actively involved in His plan, are you really a mature believer? Amen and Amen.
When my son Edward was just a toddler, I would stand him up on the table and call for him to jump from the table into my arms. Did Edward believe I would catch him? Yes. How did I know he believed? Because he jumped. Suppose he wouldn't jump. "Do you believe I will catch you, Edward?" I might coax, and he may nod yes. But if he never jumps, does he really believe I will catch him? No. Faith is active, not passive. Faith takes a stand. Faith makes a move. Faith speaks up.
There are a lot of Christians who claim to have great faith in God but are spiritually lethargic and don't do anything. Faith without action is not faith; it's dead, meaningless (James 2:17, 18)! If it isn't expressed, it isn't faith. In order to believe God and His Word, we must do what He says. If you don't do what He says, you don't really believe Him. Faith and action are inseparable.
Sadly, one of the common pictures of the church today is of a group of people with an assumed faith but little action. We're thankful that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus is preparing a place in heaven for us, but we're basically cowering in fear and defeat in the world, just hanging on until the rapture. We treat the church as if it's a hospital. We get together to compare wounds and hold each other's hands, yearning for Jesus to come take us away.
The church is not a hospital; it's a military outpost under orders to storm the gates of hell. Every believer is on active duty, called to take part in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19, 20). Thankfully the church has an infirmary where we can minister to the weak and wounded, and that ministry is necessary. But our real purpose is to be change agents in the world, taking a stand, living by faith, and accomplishing something for God. You can say you believe God and His Word. But if you are not actively involved in His plan, are you really a mature believer? Amen and Amen.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
What are you wearing for the wedding?
A minister was planning a wedding at the close of the Sunday morning service. After the blessings he had planned to call the couple down to be married for a brief ceremony before the congregation.
For the life of him, he could not think of the names of those who were to be married. “Will those wanting to get married please come to the front?” He requested.
Immediately, nine single ladies, three widows, four widowers, and six single men stepped to the front.
After Sunday when you get to the church and look around, do you see people who are rejoicing? Do you see people who are happy? Do you see people who know that they are truly blessed?
Or do you see people with long faces, and hear only complaints and grumbling?
When do you talk to other Christians, whether it be in church or outside, do you sense in them real joy over what they are believing in? or do they only talk of the wonder and peace of Heaven as if it something that you can only be experiencing in the future, that is after death?
What about you? Do you rejoice in your faith in Jesus? Or do you see Christianity as a burden? Do you see the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a burden? A burden that you are carrying around because you think or been told that this is the right thing to do?
Unfortunately there are many in this world that sees Christianity as a burden. There are many who do not understand that our faith is liberating. There are many who do not know or think of being a Christian is being a member of God’s Kingdom – of God’s church. They do not think that being a Christian is like being a part of a wedding banquet and not a funeral procession.
There are too many people in this world who think of the Christian life as only a series of rules, a series of do’s and don’ts and are designed to get them a dream in the sky sometime in the very distant future.
They consider the life of faith as only a bundle of shall’s and shall not’s which are to teach them how to treat their neighbours, and they therefore misses out on the fullness of the Christian life.
A good many Christians miss out on the fact that the Christian faith is meant to lead to more than good behaviour and a place in heaven later on…the Christian faith is meant to lead us to joyous living. It is meant to lead us to abundant life. It is meant to lead us to a life and that rich and deep and full of peace, the peace which Paul calls “the peace which passes understanding.”
The parable in this morning’s Gospel reading from the book of Matthew compares the Kingdom of God to a wedding banquet.
Let us think for a moment of all the wedding banquets that you have attended in the past. Were they not times of celebration? Were they not times of rejoicing over the love between the bride and the groom?
Let us now compare a wedding banquet to what is missing in the faith of so many Christians. Their faith ended up as something that kills joy rather than brings in joy. The problem for many Christians is that their faith is not complete. They become stuck in thinking that all one has to do is to show up in church every Sunday and to follow a whole big bundle or rules.
Because of that wrongful concept, some of us will end up failing to cloth ourselves in the clothing that our God has already provided for each and every one of us. Just like the man in today’s Gospel reading, who failed to wear the wedding suit provided for him, and so ended up being kicked out from the banquet.
Let us recall how in today’s Gospel reading of the wedding banquet, after many of the invited guests refuse to come to attend, the king opens up his house to anyone his servants can find.
He throws open the banquet hall, and everyone, regardless of whether they are good or bad, is invited to come and share in the royal wedding banquet. A wedding banquet just like one the one that any royal family, which, had we been invited, we surely would have attended.
All those lucky new guests went, they met the King’s son, and they all sat at the King’s table.
And then the King himself came into meet all the guests, and he suddenly noticed that a man is there who is not dressed as he should be, as he has no put any wedding clothes on, nor his best clothes, but dressed in shorts, old tatty t-shirt and slippers. The King then asked the man “How did you get into the banquet hall without proper wedding clothes.”
The man was speechless, he had no answer for the king, and he was evicted – he was literally thrown out of the house.
Why do you think that this man was speechless?
If you look at his situation from his point of view, I would think that he expected that everything was alright. He was after all, an invited guest, and all kinds of people were there, some of them with very doubtful backgrounds, so what did it matter what he was wearing?
Surely the host will not be caring about what I am wearing – after all he was the one who had thrown his doors wide open for people to come in….
But that view point is not really reasonable, is it?
When you attend a wedding, do you not at least put on your best clothing? Do you not put on your barong tagalong, your Filipiniana dress, your best suit or your best dress? When you attend a wedding, do you not go prepared to celebrate? Do you not go prepared to enjoy yourself? Do you not prepared to be there to help and take part in the rejoicing of the hosts?
What kind of a person would not do his very best, and what host would not look down, or despise a guest who failed to come prepared to celebrate with him, especially since all the clothing that a guest needed, was provided right at the door – as indeed it has been prepared for us.
All of us here today, have been sought out by God and invited to his banquet of life, a banquet held in honour of his Son Jesus.
We have all been invited to richly enjoy life, both in this world and in the next, and we have all accepted the invitation. We have come to the wedding banquet of our King.
Are all of us prepared to celebrate as God wants? Do we have the faith that we all needed? Have we all put on the clothing of righteousness that Christ offers to each and every one of us? In other words have we all changed for the feast? Or are we trying to wear our old clothes and live in the old way?
I remember a story I heard sometime ago of a fisherman by the name of Aaron.
Aaron lived on the banks of a river. Walking home with his eyes half-closed one evening after a hard day’s work, he was dreaming of what he could do if he were rich. As he walked his foot struck against a leather pouch filled with what seemed to him to be small stones.
Absentmindedly he picked up the pouch and began throwing the pebbles one by one into the water. “When I am a rich man,” he said to himself, “ “I will have a large house”. And he threw another pebble into the river. He threw another one and he thought, “My wife and I will have servants and rich food, and many fine things”. And this went on until just stone was left. As Aaron held it in his hand, a ray of light caught it and made it sparkle. He suddenly realized that he was holding a piece of diamond in his hand. He had been throwing away the real riches in his hand, while he was dreaming of unreal riches in the future.”
The story unfortunately summarizes the situation of a great many Christians in this world.
We have been given everything that we need or could ever want, it has been placed in our hand, and we have been invited to enjoy it.
But for some reason or other, many of us do not look into our hands. For some reason or other, many of us do not take what God has given us, or actually uses it.
Instead of using the riches given to us by God, we dream of the day when we will be richly blessed. We dreamed of the day when the joy of the banquet will be ours. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, the letter in the Bible what is actually called the Letter of Joy, recommends to his audience four very simple ways in which they can begin to experience the joy and peace of God; four ways in which they can put on the wedding clothes provided for us by Christ and so keep our place at his wedding table.
First of all, Paul recommends that we REJOICE IN THE LORD and reminds us that HE IS NEAR.
Every one of us here today is near to God.
Every one of us present here today has been invited by God to meet Him and His Son, and to enjoy His wedding banquet.
I know that whenever I am down, when I am getting lost in my own tiredness, troubles or fears, that when someone reminds me that God cares for me, that God is near to me, I can hold on to those things.
When I really think about it – when I am reminded by someone of the love that god has for me, or when I begin to think about what Jesus had done for me – for us – I am moved towards joy. I began to rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord! I will say it again: Rejoice!
That is a part of the clothing that we can wear to the wedding banquet of God. Nothing will shine or look as good as rejoicing; and nothing can be quite as infectious as rejoicing.
Knowing that God is near, Paul then goes on and says:
DO NOT BE ANXIOUS BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN TO HIM.
The thing that blinds so many of our Christian brothers and sisters, the thing that prevents us from putting on the wedding clothing of God and enjoying His banquet is anxiety and fear.
The Christian life is not a problem free life, bad things still happened to us; but my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God is near to us, and while He may not be preventing those bad things from happening to us, He can and He will help us through them.
But we need to ask, for it is only in asking, which we do by prayer, that we will allow His presence to lift us up.
God is near. Tell Him all your joys and concerns, make all your requests known to Him, and then thank Him, as you would thank a friend for listening to you.
Paul says that when we do these two things, when we rejoice in the Lord, and when we present our requests to Him with thanksgiving, that the Peace of God that passes understanding will fill us, and will keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
That peace shines my dear brothers and sisters. I have personally seen it clothe many people whom others would think of unfortunate people; I have seen it clothes many people that others think should be bitter, worried, and resentful towards God, and yet they are not. Instead we find that they have radiance about them.
The THIRD thing that Paul recommends – and it is related to the others. It is that we need to set our minds on good things.
Paul writes: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS. Think about good things – concentrate on what is good, not bad.
Make it a habit to look for and dwell on the true, the noble, the pure, the admirable. You will not then be without rejoicing.
The final thing that Paul recommends is that and I quote: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or whatever you have seen in me put it into practice and the God of Peace will be with you.”
Which Christian have you truly admired? Which grandmother or father or sister or mother impressed you with their faith? How do they live their lives?
Put into practice what you have seen and heard – their way of prayer, their convictions about God and His presence, their way of thinking about this world of ours.
You know – the Christian life works a bit like the way that a freezer works.
If the freezer is almost empty every time you open it, you let out a lot of cold air; warm air will rushes in and makes the motor work extra hard. And that is costly, for it uses more electricity.
Now if we keep the freezer closed – there is no such problem – but keeping it closed means that we can get no use out of it.
The secret is to fill the freezer with good things – then when we open it to take out something; there is no room for the warm air to get in. The motor does not have to work so hard then. There will be less strain on the system.
We, Christians, by putting on our wedding clothing – by rejoicing in the presence of God; by constantly praying and offering thanksgiving to our God; by filling our minds with good things; and by practicing those things of faith that we have seen and admired in other people; we will discover for ourselves the joy of the Christian life, a life that is more than do’s and do not do. A life that has richness to it; a life that shines and gives comfort and joy to other people; much as in the same way as the happiness and joy of a wedding feast would give to everyone a feeling of the blessedness of life.
Rejoice ion the Lord always – again I say Rejoice. Amen.
For the life of him, he could not think of the names of those who were to be married. “Will those wanting to get married please come to the front?” He requested.
Immediately, nine single ladies, three widows, four widowers, and six single men stepped to the front.
After Sunday when you get to the church and look around, do you see people who are rejoicing? Do you see people who are happy? Do you see people who know that they are truly blessed?
Or do you see people with long faces, and hear only complaints and grumbling?
When do you talk to other Christians, whether it be in church or outside, do you sense in them real joy over what they are believing in? or do they only talk of the wonder and peace of Heaven as if it something that you can only be experiencing in the future, that is after death?
What about you? Do you rejoice in your faith in Jesus? Or do you see Christianity as a burden? Do you see the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a burden? A burden that you are carrying around because you think or been told that this is the right thing to do?
Unfortunately there are many in this world that sees Christianity as a burden. There are many who do not understand that our faith is liberating. There are many who do not know or think of being a Christian is being a member of God’s Kingdom – of God’s church. They do not think that being a Christian is like being a part of a wedding banquet and not a funeral procession.
There are too many people in this world who think of the Christian life as only a series of rules, a series of do’s and don’ts and are designed to get them a dream in the sky sometime in the very distant future.
They consider the life of faith as only a bundle of shall’s and shall not’s which are to teach them how to treat their neighbours, and they therefore misses out on the fullness of the Christian life.
A good many Christians miss out on the fact that the Christian faith is meant to lead to more than good behaviour and a place in heaven later on…the Christian faith is meant to lead us to joyous living. It is meant to lead us to abundant life. It is meant to lead us to a life and that rich and deep and full of peace, the peace which Paul calls “the peace which passes understanding.”
The parable in this morning’s Gospel reading from the book of Matthew compares the Kingdom of God to a wedding banquet.
Let us think for a moment of all the wedding banquets that you have attended in the past. Were they not times of celebration? Were they not times of rejoicing over the love between the bride and the groom?
Let us now compare a wedding banquet to what is missing in the faith of so many Christians. Their faith ended up as something that kills joy rather than brings in joy. The problem for many Christians is that their faith is not complete. They become stuck in thinking that all one has to do is to show up in church every Sunday and to follow a whole big bundle or rules.
Because of that wrongful concept, some of us will end up failing to cloth ourselves in the clothing that our God has already provided for each and every one of us. Just like the man in today’s Gospel reading, who failed to wear the wedding suit provided for him, and so ended up being kicked out from the banquet.
Let us recall how in today’s Gospel reading of the wedding banquet, after many of the invited guests refuse to come to attend, the king opens up his house to anyone his servants can find.
He throws open the banquet hall, and everyone, regardless of whether they are good or bad, is invited to come and share in the royal wedding banquet. A wedding banquet just like one the one that any royal family, which, had we been invited, we surely would have attended.
All those lucky new guests went, they met the King’s son, and they all sat at the King’s table.
And then the King himself came into meet all the guests, and he suddenly noticed that a man is there who is not dressed as he should be, as he has no put any wedding clothes on, nor his best clothes, but dressed in shorts, old tatty t-shirt and slippers. The King then asked the man “How did you get into the banquet hall without proper wedding clothes.”
The man was speechless, he had no answer for the king, and he was evicted – he was literally thrown out of the house.
Why do you think that this man was speechless?
If you look at his situation from his point of view, I would think that he expected that everything was alright. He was after all, an invited guest, and all kinds of people were there, some of them with very doubtful backgrounds, so what did it matter what he was wearing?
Surely the host will not be caring about what I am wearing – after all he was the one who had thrown his doors wide open for people to come in….
But that view point is not really reasonable, is it?
When you attend a wedding, do you not at least put on your best clothing? Do you not put on your barong tagalong, your Filipiniana dress, your best suit or your best dress? When you attend a wedding, do you not go prepared to celebrate? Do you not go prepared to enjoy yourself? Do you not prepared to be there to help and take part in the rejoicing of the hosts?
What kind of a person would not do his very best, and what host would not look down, or despise a guest who failed to come prepared to celebrate with him, especially since all the clothing that a guest needed, was provided right at the door – as indeed it has been prepared for us.
All of us here today, have been sought out by God and invited to his banquet of life, a banquet held in honour of his Son Jesus.
We have all been invited to richly enjoy life, both in this world and in the next, and we have all accepted the invitation. We have come to the wedding banquet of our King.
Are all of us prepared to celebrate as God wants? Do we have the faith that we all needed? Have we all put on the clothing of righteousness that Christ offers to each and every one of us? In other words have we all changed for the feast? Or are we trying to wear our old clothes and live in the old way?
I remember a story I heard sometime ago of a fisherman by the name of Aaron.
Aaron lived on the banks of a river. Walking home with his eyes half-closed one evening after a hard day’s work, he was dreaming of what he could do if he were rich. As he walked his foot struck against a leather pouch filled with what seemed to him to be small stones.
Absentmindedly he picked up the pouch and began throwing the pebbles one by one into the water. “When I am a rich man,” he said to himself, “ “I will have a large house”. And he threw another pebble into the river. He threw another one and he thought, “My wife and I will have servants and rich food, and many fine things”. And this went on until just stone was left. As Aaron held it in his hand, a ray of light caught it and made it sparkle. He suddenly realized that he was holding a piece of diamond in his hand. He had been throwing away the real riches in his hand, while he was dreaming of unreal riches in the future.”
The story unfortunately summarizes the situation of a great many Christians in this world.
We have been given everything that we need or could ever want, it has been placed in our hand, and we have been invited to enjoy it.
But for some reason or other, many of us do not look into our hands. For some reason or other, many of us do not take what God has given us, or actually uses it.
Instead of using the riches given to us by God, we dream of the day when we will be richly blessed. We dreamed of the day when the joy of the banquet will be ours. The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, the letter in the Bible what is actually called the Letter of Joy, recommends to his audience four very simple ways in which they can begin to experience the joy and peace of God; four ways in which they can put on the wedding clothes provided for us by Christ and so keep our place at his wedding table.
First of all, Paul recommends that we REJOICE IN THE LORD and reminds us that HE IS NEAR.
Every one of us here today is near to God.
Every one of us present here today has been invited by God to meet Him and His Son, and to enjoy His wedding banquet.
I know that whenever I am down, when I am getting lost in my own tiredness, troubles or fears, that when someone reminds me that God cares for me, that God is near to me, I can hold on to those things.
When I really think about it – when I am reminded by someone of the love that god has for me, or when I begin to think about what Jesus had done for me – for us – I am moved towards joy. I began to rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord! I will say it again: Rejoice!
That is a part of the clothing that we can wear to the wedding banquet of God. Nothing will shine or look as good as rejoicing; and nothing can be quite as infectious as rejoicing.
Knowing that God is near, Paul then goes on and says:
DO NOT BE ANXIOUS BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN TO HIM.
The thing that blinds so many of our Christian brothers and sisters, the thing that prevents us from putting on the wedding clothing of God and enjoying His banquet is anxiety and fear.
The Christian life is not a problem free life, bad things still happened to us; but my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God is near to us, and while He may not be preventing those bad things from happening to us, He can and He will help us through them.
But we need to ask, for it is only in asking, which we do by prayer, that we will allow His presence to lift us up.
God is near. Tell Him all your joys and concerns, make all your requests known to Him, and then thank Him, as you would thank a friend for listening to you.
Paul says that when we do these two things, when we rejoice in the Lord, and when we present our requests to Him with thanksgiving, that the Peace of God that passes understanding will fill us, and will keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
That peace shines my dear brothers and sisters. I have personally seen it clothe many people whom others would think of unfortunate people; I have seen it clothes many people that others think should be bitter, worried, and resentful towards God, and yet they are not. Instead we find that they have radiance about them.
The THIRD thing that Paul recommends – and it is related to the others. It is that we need to set our minds on good things.
Paul writes: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS. Think about good things – concentrate on what is good, not bad.
Make it a habit to look for and dwell on the true, the noble, the pure, the admirable. You will not then be without rejoicing.
The final thing that Paul recommends is that and I quote: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or whatever you have seen in me put it into practice and the God of Peace will be with you.”
Which Christian have you truly admired? Which grandmother or father or sister or mother impressed you with their faith? How do they live their lives?
Put into practice what you have seen and heard – their way of prayer, their convictions about God and His presence, their way of thinking about this world of ours.
You know – the Christian life works a bit like the way that a freezer works.
If the freezer is almost empty every time you open it, you let out a lot of cold air; warm air will rushes in and makes the motor work extra hard. And that is costly, for it uses more electricity.
Now if we keep the freezer closed – there is no such problem – but keeping it closed means that we can get no use out of it.
The secret is to fill the freezer with good things – then when we open it to take out something; there is no room for the warm air to get in. The motor does not have to work so hard then. There will be less strain on the system.
We, Christians, by putting on our wedding clothing – by rejoicing in the presence of God; by constantly praying and offering thanksgiving to our God; by filling our minds with good things; and by practicing those things of faith that we have seen and admired in other people; we will discover for ourselves the joy of the Christian life, a life that is more than do’s and do not do. A life that has richness to it; a life that shines and gives comfort and joy to other people; much as in the same way as the happiness and joy of a wedding feast would give to everyone a feeling of the blessedness of life.
Rejoice ion the Lord always – again I say Rejoice. Amen.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Faith in asking and faith in following
In the silence of the stars, in the quiet of the hills and in the heaving of the sea, you speak O Lord. In the words of the prophets and the message of the Apostles, you speak O Lord. Now we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for you servants listen. Amen.
I would imagine that at one time Bartimeaus, the blind beggar who sat by the roadside, have eyes that could see. His life would have been full of light, and one can also assume that it was full of hope at the time.
However, something unfortunate must have happened to him – and he ended up being unable to see – and as he has been deprived of the usage of his eyesight – all his options in life collapsed, and he ended up as a beggar, sitting and begging by the roadside, hoping upon hope that somebody passing by would take pity on him, always hoping that somebody would fill up his bowl with food, or that some one will give him a few coins in order for him to purchase the little things in life that everybody needs.
In those ancient days of the first century there was very little sympathy one could expect for the misfortune, for those who are blind and those who are handicapped in any manner. I can say with absolute certainty that Bartimaeus was living a very hard life. In some circles in Israel in those days, there were people who assumed that misfortunes was cause by one’s own fault, and that blindness or handicapped of any nature is always a punishment from God, either for something that they have themselves done or for something that their parents may have done.
In some circles the fact that a person was blind simply meant that the person was a drain on precious resources, in other words, a social liability – best to be ignored – best to be left by the roadside begging. How little things have changed in that respect throughout the centuries!
As Bartimaeus was blind and could not see, he was, in the eyes of many people, not even a human being at all. He became to them only an object, an object to be pitied, or cursed, or to even to be completely ignored.
How many of us present here today, I wonder feel as Bartimeaus must have felted?
How many of us present here today feels cut off from the land of the living – being prevented by one reason or another from taking part fully in the life that goes on all around us. How many of us are unable to exercise the options that everybody else seems to be in possession of, feeling hurt and alone, and wondering, wondering if perhaps in some way we do deserve what we are going through right now.
How many of us feel trapped in the life that we are having?
- in the job that we have?
- In the relationships we have?
How many of us have the feeling that we are not able to break free, to change things, or unable to do anything at all, except dream of how it used to be, or dream of how things should have been?
How many of us, being in this kind of position, do anything about it? How many of us reaches out to other people or to God for help?
How many of us reach out to our friends and neighbours and confide to them of our own feelings, our own needs? How many of us here actually ask our family members for help when help is needed? How many of us even think of reaching out to God and ask Him for His help?
Sometimes we suffer really hard; sometimes we suffer for a very long time, not because the situation we found ourselves in cannot be overcome, but only because we are afraid to ask for help. Often we do not ask for help as we do not want to become a burden to others, or perhaps we do not want to seem weak to other people, or even admit our own weaknesses to our own selves.
I have heard of a woman who will not pray to God for herself, just because she thinks he has much more important things to do than to listen to her.
I have heard of a man who will not tell his own wife as to how much he is hurting inside himself, just because he does not think that she will be interested in his plight, as she already has so many of her own problems to bear.
I know of several people in Hong Kong who will not ask other people for help with their own substance abuse problems, just because they cannot admit to themselves that their problems have become much bigger than they themselves are.
I also know of children who are having a very difficult time dealing with life. They will not ask their parents or their teachers for help, just because they are afraid that they by asking for help, they will either get into trouble, or, even worse, be ignored, if they do ask for help from the adults.
There are times in our lives when we all needed help. There are times in our lifetime when if we are to survive at all, if we are to continue living, if we are go keep on growing, we must turn to other people and to God and ask Him for help in getting what we need.
Doctor Fred Collier, a retired medical doctor tells this story about himself when he was a youth.
He was a medical student in the Army Specialized Training Corps in 1945 when the Second World War came to a close. He was from a poor family that did not have the kind of money that he needed in order to complete medical school on his own. So when he was discharged out of the army, he had absolutely no idea as to how he will ever finish his schooling, if indeed he will ever finish it at all.
One day he happened to pick up a copy of a magazine while he was sitting inside a barber’s shop. One of the articles in the magazine talked about the kindness and compassion of Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband, the late President Franklin Roosevelt had passed away only a few months ago.
That particular article in the magazine planted the seed of an idea into Fred’s mind. He went off to the local library and with the help of the librarian found Mrs. Roosevelt’s home address. He got home, sat down and wrote a letter to her, telling her about his problems. He wrote it and rewrote the letter until he had the letter written exactly the way that he wanted it.
When he put the letter in an envelope and deposits it into the mailbox, even his young wife wondered whether the effort was worth the time and the postage stamp that Fred spent on the letter.
Much to Fred’s surprise, Mrs. Roosevelt sent him a letter agreeing to a meeting with him. At the end of the meeting, she gave him her promise to help him. In the months and years of his study, Fred regularly received checks from Mrs. Roosevelt. Fred in turn, kept her informed of his progress and sent her copies of all of his term papers. Her secretary later on said that Mrs. Roosevelt always read Fred’s letters and reports with great interest.
Later on, Mrs. Roosevelt even paid the couple a visit in their sparsely furnished flat. The landlord of the flat nearly had a heart attack when he recognized their famous visitor.
When Fred finally finishes Medical School from Yale University, he told Mrs. Roosevelt that he did not know as to how he would ever be able to repay her. She told him that repayment was not necessary, nor does she want any repayment. Then she told him that she will be adequately repaid, if when one day, after he becomes financially secured, he will help out someone who is truly deserving of help, as he was.
Doctor Fred Collier reached out for help and he received it. So did the blind Bartimaeus. They both reached out for help from someone whom they knew could help them in their respective situations. They reached out to someone they hoped and prayed would help.
It is a very difficult thing to do, this act of asking for help. A very difficult thing, a very humbling thing, but there are times in our lives when each and every one of us will need help from someone. There are times when we must turn to other people and to God for help or else we will perish.
The good news is that there is absolutely no situation in life that is so bad that someone cannot help us with it, that someone cannot help us to overcome such a situation. Or at least to bear it with a hope and strength that will transforms it, and us as a result completely.
And even if it is a situation where we cannot go to someone else for that help that we so desperately needed, there is no situation where we cannot go to God for help and still find the help that we needed so badly.
God does not always answer our prayers in the way or manner that we had in mind, but God will always answer our prayers in a way that is appropriate to the situation. God will always give to us what we need, and God will always give us the strength to bear what we must bear and to bear it so well that our world will changes because of it.
This is the lesson of the Garden of Gethsemane and of every dark night of the soul. It is also the lesson of the cross and of the tomb and of all the sufferings that God may ask us to bear.
It is what lies behind all transformation that matters. What lies behind Easter, what lies behind new life, eternal life, and an abundant and rich life.
Jesus told us that seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. These are all promises of our Lord, Jesus Christ; promises that He kept time and time again in His walk upon this earth with us. Those are promises that he keeps from heaven as he intercedes for us before the throne of God.
Many Bible commentators who commented on today’s Scripture readings from the Gospel of mark commented on how the blind Bartimeaus could see more than many people who have good eyes can see with their sight.
When I was preparing for today’s sermon, I was struck by this. I am struck by this because I know just how easy it is for anyone to be blind to Christ. I know just how easy that we can ignore His presence when I am struggling with some problems or caught up in some situation or other that is hurting me and also hurting someone else. I know the faith that it takes in order to ask God for help; the courage that it takes in order to go to someone and confess your need to them; and the vision that it will require in order to admit your blindness and to beg them for help when deep inside you, there is a voice telling to keep quite about your problems.
But what really strikes me even more about the blind Bartimeaus is not that he not only saw Jesus as the one who could help him and had the faith to ask Jesus for that help. It was that after Jesus helped him and told him to go on his own way, that he had the faith to follow Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God can and definitely help you with your problems, as He helped me all those years with my problems, no matter how big or how small your problem is, He is never too busy to help. From my own experiences I know that His word will give you the wisdom and the insight that you will need when you feel lost.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ will always reach out and touch you when you call upon Him for His help, and that He will always give you your rest when you seek it from Him. The Holy Spirit will give you the strength that you needed when you waited upon the Holy Sprit and will guide you and lead you when you turn to the Spirit for help and guidance.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will do all this freely for you, without demanding that you do anything special in return or that you need to be someone special, for every one of you are special in God’s sight.
God will help every one of us, just as Eleanor Roosevelt helped Dr. Fred Collier. God will help us in many and various ways – sometimes through other people, sometimes directly within your hearts, and always helping us without any expectation of return or repayment of any kind.
After He help those who have had the faith to turn to Him for help, Jesus almost always tell them, as He said to Bartimeaus, “go – your faith has made you well.”
What a wonderful thing it is, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if and when we have the faith to ask, we, like Bartimeaus, also have the faith to follow Jesus and to learn to do for other people what has been done for us.
Never be afraid to ask for help. Do not be afraid to turn to your friends and your neighbours and share your needs; and most important of all, do not be afraid to turn to God, who alone can help you when nobody else can.
Do not be afraid to ask, and after asking – in perfect freedom – pass on what you have received, and follow the one who gives the entire all He has for you.
Praise be to God for the salvation He grants us through Jesus Christ our Lord, brother, our friend, and our servant. Amen.
I would imagine that at one time Bartimeaus, the blind beggar who sat by the roadside, have eyes that could see. His life would have been full of light, and one can also assume that it was full of hope at the time.
However, something unfortunate must have happened to him – and he ended up being unable to see – and as he has been deprived of the usage of his eyesight – all his options in life collapsed, and he ended up as a beggar, sitting and begging by the roadside, hoping upon hope that somebody passing by would take pity on him, always hoping that somebody would fill up his bowl with food, or that some one will give him a few coins in order for him to purchase the little things in life that everybody needs.
In those ancient days of the first century there was very little sympathy one could expect for the misfortune, for those who are blind and those who are handicapped in any manner. I can say with absolute certainty that Bartimaeus was living a very hard life. In some circles in Israel in those days, there were people who assumed that misfortunes was cause by one’s own fault, and that blindness or handicapped of any nature is always a punishment from God, either for something that they have themselves done or for something that their parents may have done.
In some circles the fact that a person was blind simply meant that the person was a drain on precious resources, in other words, a social liability – best to be ignored – best to be left by the roadside begging. How little things have changed in that respect throughout the centuries!
As Bartimaeus was blind and could not see, he was, in the eyes of many people, not even a human being at all. He became to them only an object, an object to be pitied, or cursed, or to even to be completely ignored.
How many of us present here today, I wonder feel as Bartimeaus must have felted?
How many of us present here today feels cut off from the land of the living – being prevented by one reason or another from taking part fully in the life that goes on all around us. How many of us are unable to exercise the options that everybody else seems to be in possession of, feeling hurt and alone, and wondering, wondering if perhaps in some way we do deserve what we are going through right now.
How many of us feel trapped in the life that we are having?
- in the job that we have?
- In the relationships we have?
How many of us have the feeling that we are not able to break free, to change things, or unable to do anything at all, except dream of how it used to be, or dream of how things should have been?
How many of us, being in this kind of position, do anything about it? How many of us reaches out to other people or to God for help?
How many of us reach out to our friends and neighbours and confide to them of our own feelings, our own needs? How many of us here actually ask our family members for help when help is needed? How many of us even think of reaching out to God and ask Him for His help?
Sometimes we suffer really hard; sometimes we suffer for a very long time, not because the situation we found ourselves in cannot be overcome, but only because we are afraid to ask for help. Often we do not ask for help as we do not want to become a burden to others, or perhaps we do not want to seem weak to other people, or even admit our own weaknesses to our own selves.
I have heard of a woman who will not pray to God for herself, just because she thinks he has much more important things to do than to listen to her.
I have heard of a man who will not tell his own wife as to how much he is hurting inside himself, just because he does not think that she will be interested in his plight, as she already has so many of her own problems to bear.
I know of several people in Hong Kong who will not ask other people for help with their own substance abuse problems, just because they cannot admit to themselves that their problems have become much bigger than they themselves are.
I also know of children who are having a very difficult time dealing with life. They will not ask their parents or their teachers for help, just because they are afraid that they by asking for help, they will either get into trouble, or, even worse, be ignored, if they do ask for help from the adults.
There are times in our lives when we all needed help. There are times in our lifetime when if we are to survive at all, if we are to continue living, if we are go keep on growing, we must turn to other people and to God and ask Him for help in getting what we need.
Doctor Fred Collier, a retired medical doctor tells this story about himself when he was a youth.
He was a medical student in the Army Specialized Training Corps in 1945 when the Second World War came to a close. He was from a poor family that did not have the kind of money that he needed in order to complete medical school on his own. So when he was discharged out of the army, he had absolutely no idea as to how he will ever finish his schooling, if indeed he will ever finish it at all.
One day he happened to pick up a copy of a magazine while he was sitting inside a barber’s shop. One of the articles in the magazine talked about the kindness and compassion of Eleanor Roosevelt, whose husband, the late President Franklin Roosevelt had passed away only a few months ago.
That particular article in the magazine planted the seed of an idea into Fred’s mind. He went off to the local library and with the help of the librarian found Mrs. Roosevelt’s home address. He got home, sat down and wrote a letter to her, telling her about his problems. He wrote it and rewrote the letter until he had the letter written exactly the way that he wanted it.
When he put the letter in an envelope and deposits it into the mailbox, even his young wife wondered whether the effort was worth the time and the postage stamp that Fred spent on the letter.
Much to Fred’s surprise, Mrs. Roosevelt sent him a letter agreeing to a meeting with him. At the end of the meeting, she gave him her promise to help him. In the months and years of his study, Fred regularly received checks from Mrs. Roosevelt. Fred in turn, kept her informed of his progress and sent her copies of all of his term papers. Her secretary later on said that Mrs. Roosevelt always read Fred’s letters and reports with great interest.
Later on, Mrs. Roosevelt even paid the couple a visit in their sparsely furnished flat. The landlord of the flat nearly had a heart attack when he recognized their famous visitor.
When Fred finally finishes Medical School from Yale University, he told Mrs. Roosevelt that he did not know as to how he would ever be able to repay her. She told him that repayment was not necessary, nor does she want any repayment. Then she told him that she will be adequately repaid, if when one day, after he becomes financially secured, he will help out someone who is truly deserving of help, as he was.
Doctor Fred Collier reached out for help and he received it. So did the blind Bartimaeus. They both reached out for help from someone whom they knew could help them in their respective situations. They reached out to someone they hoped and prayed would help.
It is a very difficult thing to do, this act of asking for help. A very difficult thing, a very humbling thing, but there are times in our lives when each and every one of us will need help from someone. There are times when we must turn to other people and to God for help or else we will perish.
The good news is that there is absolutely no situation in life that is so bad that someone cannot help us with it, that someone cannot help us to overcome such a situation. Or at least to bear it with a hope and strength that will transforms it, and us as a result completely.
And even if it is a situation where we cannot go to someone else for that help that we so desperately needed, there is no situation where we cannot go to God for help and still find the help that we needed so badly.
God does not always answer our prayers in the way or manner that we had in mind, but God will always answer our prayers in a way that is appropriate to the situation. God will always give to us what we need, and God will always give us the strength to bear what we must bear and to bear it so well that our world will changes because of it.
This is the lesson of the Garden of Gethsemane and of every dark night of the soul. It is also the lesson of the cross and of the tomb and of all the sufferings that God may ask us to bear.
It is what lies behind all transformation that matters. What lies behind Easter, what lies behind new life, eternal life, and an abundant and rich life.
Jesus told us that seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. These are all promises of our Lord, Jesus Christ; promises that He kept time and time again in His walk upon this earth with us. Those are promises that he keeps from heaven as he intercedes for us before the throne of God.
Many Bible commentators who commented on today’s Scripture readings from the Gospel of mark commented on how the blind Bartimeaus could see more than many people who have good eyes can see with their sight.
When I was preparing for today’s sermon, I was struck by this. I am struck by this because I know just how easy it is for anyone to be blind to Christ. I know just how easy that we can ignore His presence when I am struggling with some problems or caught up in some situation or other that is hurting me and also hurting someone else. I know the faith that it takes in order to ask God for help; the courage that it takes in order to go to someone and confess your need to them; and the vision that it will require in order to admit your blindness and to beg them for help when deep inside you, there is a voice telling to keep quite about your problems.
But what really strikes me even more about the blind Bartimeaus is not that he not only saw Jesus as the one who could help him and had the faith to ask Jesus for that help. It was that after Jesus helped him and told him to go on his own way, that he had the faith to follow Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God can and definitely help you with your problems, as He helped me all those years with my problems, no matter how big or how small your problem is, He is never too busy to help. From my own experiences I know that His word will give you the wisdom and the insight that you will need when you feel lost.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ will always reach out and touch you when you call upon Him for His help, and that He will always give you your rest when you seek it from Him. The Holy Spirit will give you the strength that you needed when you waited upon the Holy Sprit and will guide you and lead you when you turn to the Spirit for help and guidance.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will do all this freely for you, without demanding that you do anything special in return or that you need to be someone special, for every one of you are special in God’s sight.
God will help every one of us, just as Eleanor Roosevelt helped Dr. Fred Collier. God will help us in many and various ways – sometimes through other people, sometimes directly within your hearts, and always helping us without any expectation of return or repayment of any kind.
After He help those who have had the faith to turn to Him for help, Jesus almost always tell them, as He said to Bartimeaus, “go – your faith has made you well.”
What a wonderful thing it is, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if and when we have the faith to ask, we, like Bartimeaus, also have the faith to follow Jesus and to learn to do for other people what has been done for us.
Never be afraid to ask for help. Do not be afraid to turn to your friends and your neighbours and share your needs; and most important of all, do not be afraid to turn to God, who alone can help you when nobody else can.
Do not be afraid to ask, and after asking – in perfect freedom – pass on what you have received, and follow the one who gives the entire all He has for you.
Praise be to God for the salvation He grants us through Jesus Christ our Lord, brother, our friend, and our servant. Amen.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Beyond the Manger, the other half of the story
Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
On Sunday afternoon, June 1st 1975, Darrel Dore was on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
Suddenly it wobbled, tipped to one side, and crashed into the sea. Darrell was trapped inside a room on the rig. As the rig sank deeper and deeper into the sea the lights went out and the room began to fill with water.
Thrashing about in the darkness, Darrel accidentally found a huge air bubble that was forming in the corner of the room. He thrust his head inside it.
Then a horrifying thought sent a shiver down his spine. "I'm buried alive". Darrell began to pray - out loud - and as he did, something remarkable happened. He said later:
"I found myself actually talking to Someone. Jesus was there with me. There was no illumination, nothing physical, but I sensed him, a comforting presence. He was real, he was there."
For the next 22 hours that Presence continued to comfort Darrel. But now the oxygen supply inside the bubble was giving out. Death was inevitable. It was just a matter of time.
Then a remarkable thing happened. Darrel saw a tiny star of light shimmering in the pitch-black water. Was it real? or after 22 hours was he beginning to hallucinate? Darrel squinted his eyes. The light seemed to grow brighter. He squinted again.
He wasn't hallucinating. The light was real. It was coming from a diver's helmet. Someone had found him. His 22 hour nightmare was over. Rescue had come. He was saved.
That true story is a remarkable illustration of what Christmas is all about.
Sin had wobbled our world, tipped it to one side, and sent it crashing into the waters of spiritual disaster. Darkness was everywhere. The human race was hopelessly trapped. There was no hope. Humankind was doomed to certain spiritual death.
People turned to God. They prayed in the words of the prophet Isaiah - "O Lord, you are angry and we are sinful, all of us have become unclean. Yet O Lord, you are father. Save and deliver us."
They prayed, and they waited for the time promised to them - the time of the Messiah, the time of the one who would inherit the throne of David and rule - in peace forever.
Then, when the night seemed darkest, something remarkable happened.
A tiny spark of light appeared.
An angel spoke to a young woman and told her that she would conceive and bear a son, and that son would be the Son of the Most High God - that he would be the Messiah.
Another angel told the man engaged to her that though she was pregnant, that he should go ahead and marry her - that her child was the child of God.
The light was dim at first - but its spark could be seen in the cousin of the young woman, who, despite her age and the fact that she had never been able to bear a child before, was suddenly pregnant.
The light was dim - but it brightened through the next weeks and months - at least for some who were looking for such a light. It appeared to them as a star in the sky - a star which they followed in the hope that it would lead them to the birthplace of a great king.
But for all the rest the light was still unseen, and even to those who had seen it it still could be mistaken for nothing but a dream, the hallucination of a drowning man, a hope based on an illusion.
Finally, on the night that the baby was born and laid in a manger, the light appeared to certain poor shepherds who lay a-keeping their flocks, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them as the angel spoke, and said "Behold - I proclaim to you good news of a great joy, for today in David's city a Saviour has been born for you, He is the Messiah, the Lord you have waited for."
And so the nightmare of the human race came to an end. Rescue had come. Jesus, the son of God, had come down from heaven to save the human race, just as the diver had come down to save Darrel Dore.
That is what Christmas is about.
Its about salvation, its about seeing the light come into the world to deliver us from sin and darkness, its about God coming to us, and dwelling with us, and rescuing us from certain death.
Listen to the prophets speak:
Hear O house of David, the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, a virgin is with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel.
You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for God one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. He will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. For a child has been born to us. A son given to us. Authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named - Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This is the other half of the Christmas story, the half we often neglect as we wrap gifts and cook and prepare our homes for Christmas day. This is the part of the story that goes beyond the manger, beyond the beauty of a new born child, beyond the peace of motherhood and the love of kindly strangers.
His birth, his ministry, his very personhood, is summed up in the words of one his disciples and apostles,"The word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life."
The other half of the Christmas Story is the Easter Story - the story of how beyond the manger - lies a cross and the empty tomb.
Let those who have ears listen, the King of Glory has entered in. Amen and Amen.
On Sunday afternoon, June 1st 1975, Darrel Dore was on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
Suddenly it wobbled, tipped to one side, and crashed into the sea. Darrell was trapped inside a room on the rig. As the rig sank deeper and deeper into the sea the lights went out and the room began to fill with water.
Thrashing about in the darkness, Darrel accidentally found a huge air bubble that was forming in the corner of the room. He thrust his head inside it.
Then a horrifying thought sent a shiver down his spine. "I'm buried alive". Darrell began to pray - out loud - and as he did, something remarkable happened. He said later:
"I found myself actually talking to Someone. Jesus was there with me. There was no illumination, nothing physical, but I sensed him, a comforting presence. He was real, he was there."
For the next 22 hours that Presence continued to comfort Darrel. But now the oxygen supply inside the bubble was giving out. Death was inevitable. It was just a matter of time.
Then a remarkable thing happened. Darrel saw a tiny star of light shimmering in the pitch-black water. Was it real? or after 22 hours was he beginning to hallucinate? Darrel squinted his eyes. The light seemed to grow brighter. He squinted again.
He wasn't hallucinating. The light was real. It was coming from a diver's helmet. Someone had found him. His 22 hour nightmare was over. Rescue had come. He was saved.
That true story is a remarkable illustration of what Christmas is all about.
Sin had wobbled our world, tipped it to one side, and sent it crashing into the waters of spiritual disaster. Darkness was everywhere. The human race was hopelessly trapped. There was no hope. Humankind was doomed to certain spiritual death.
People turned to God. They prayed in the words of the prophet Isaiah - "O Lord, you are angry and we are sinful, all of us have become unclean. Yet O Lord, you are father. Save and deliver us."
They prayed, and they waited for the time promised to them - the time of the Messiah, the time of the one who would inherit the throne of David and rule - in peace forever.
Then, when the night seemed darkest, something remarkable happened.
A tiny spark of light appeared.
An angel spoke to a young woman and told her that she would conceive and bear a son, and that son would be the Son of the Most High God - that he would be the Messiah.
Another angel told the man engaged to her that though she was pregnant, that he should go ahead and marry her - that her child was the child of God.
The light was dim at first - but its spark could be seen in the cousin of the young woman, who, despite her age and the fact that she had never been able to bear a child before, was suddenly pregnant.
The light was dim - but it brightened through the next weeks and months - at least for some who were looking for such a light. It appeared to them as a star in the sky - a star which they followed in the hope that it would lead them to the birthplace of a great king.
But for all the rest the light was still unseen, and even to those who had seen it it still could be mistaken for nothing but a dream, the hallucination of a drowning man, a hope based on an illusion.
Finally, on the night that the baby was born and laid in a manger, the light appeared to certain poor shepherds who lay a-keeping their flocks, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them as the angel spoke, and said "Behold - I proclaim to you good news of a great joy, for today in David's city a Saviour has been born for you, He is the Messiah, the Lord you have waited for."
And so the nightmare of the human race came to an end. Rescue had come. Jesus, the son of God, had come down from heaven to save the human race, just as the diver had come down to save Darrel Dore.
That is what Christmas is about.
Its about salvation, its about seeing the light come into the world to deliver us from sin and darkness, its about God coming to us, and dwelling with us, and rescuing us from certain death.
Listen to the prophets speak:
Hear O house of David, the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, a virgin is with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel.
You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for God one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. He will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. For a child has been born to us. A son given to us. Authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named - Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This is the other half of the Christmas story, the half we often neglect as we wrap gifts and cook and prepare our homes for Christmas day. This is the part of the story that goes beyond the manger, beyond the beauty of a new born child, beyond the peace of motherhood and the love of kindly strangers.
His birth, his ministry, his very personhood, is summed up in the words of one his disciples and apostles,"The word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life."
The other half of the Christmas Story is the Easter Story - the story of how beyond the manger - lies a cross and the empty tomb.
Let those who have ears listen, the King of Glory has entered in. Amen and Amen.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A little bit of faith
A nun who works for a local home health care agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it there was a station just down the street. She walked to the station to borrow a can with enough gas to start the car and drive to the station for a fill up.
The attendant regretfully told her that the only can he owned had just been loaned out, but if she would care to wait he was sure it would be back shortly. Since the nun was on the way to see a patient she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.
After looking through her car for something to carry to the station to fill with gas, she spotted a potty she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, she carried it to the station and filled it with gasoline. As she was pouring the gas into the tank of her car two men walked by. One was heard to exclaim, "Now that is what I call faith!"
Back to the sermon:
I am going to tell you a story, this story about a business traveller who was on his way from his home town to a large city in the Middle East by road. One night he met two other travellers travelling on the same road as he was. Their name was Fear and Plague. Plague told the traveller that once they arrived at the city, they were expected to kill 100,000 people in that city. The traveller asked Plague if Plague was to do all the killing by himself. Plague said, “Oh, no. I shall only be killing a few hundred people; it is my friend ‘Fear’ who will do the killing of all the others.
Fear, whether it is real or imagined, can discourage us, overwhelm us, beaten us and even strangle us. Dreadful things happen everywhere. There are people around the world paralyzed by fear. Fear is such a terrible thing!
Fear is widespread in this society of ours; in fact it is widespread throughout the world. We have personal fear – fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of not being loved, a fear of having no work, a fear of not being up to the measurements of our peers, a fear of not being able to help our families, a fear of being looked down by others. We also have social fear, fear that war and disasters will go on forever, a fear that society will collapse, a fear that the pollution in the air will kill us, and so on and so on. Even inside the church too there are fear, personal fears, social fears and spiritual fears. Do you have any fears?
There are many people who feel:
- That they are not able to do anything of real importance
- That they cannot and do not make a difference to society
- That they cannot and do not make a difference to anyone
- That they are unable to do even a part of what it is that God asks them to do
- That they will let God down or that God will let them down.
There are so many Christians in this world who are in a mess. They have forgotten what their faith is all about. They have forgotten that as long as it is the will of God, God will give to you the strength and the means to have it accomplished. Do these feelings describe your life – fear, despair, a sense of failure, a sense of not being competent, and a sense of hopelessness? Do you feel unexcited by your worship of the Lord? Do you feel unsure of just what the good news of the Gospel is? Do you feel burdened by life and by the tasks set to you by God? And yet wanting to believe, wanting to do the right thing, wanting to have the life that God has promised us even in the here and now?
Wanting, and yet……
How can I feed the hungry?
How can I clothe the naked?
How can I help the sick?
How can I bring peace to those around me?
How can I help my family?
How can I help others?
How can I spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?
How can I forgive the people who have hurt me so badly?
How can I even experience the joy that is supposed to be part of life with God, let alone help bring it to others?
The disciples had exactly the same feelings. From our Gospel reading of today, we hear of them crying out to Jesus. A cry similar to one that you may have made to God at one time or another.
They were feeling that what they were facing in life, not to mention what they were facing or will be facing as the ones following Jesus was too much for them to bear, too much for their small faith to handle and so they cry out to the Lord, “Jesus please increase our faith”. “Lord, help us believe enough so that we can do what it is that you have commanded us to do – help us trust enough so that we can live as you say we should be living. Lord, take away our fear.”
Jesus please increases our faith.
And what did Jesus do – how did he answer their prayers? Did he laid his hands upon them and pray and give them more faith as they asked? Did he just snap his fingers and grant them a double dose of his Spirit and his Faith?
No, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ – he did not – instead he told them that “if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted it in the sea and it would obey you.”
If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and plated it in the sea and it would obey you!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do you not find that answer of Jesus to be a strange answer? But really it is the best answer that could be given, for you see, the real issue for everyone of us is not “how much faith do we have?” but rather the question of “do we have any faith at all?”
I would like to share a story with you: Many years ago a shoe company in England sent one of its sales people to Africa to start a business. After a few months this salesperson sent a message back to his head office telling them that he is coming home as nobody in Africa wear shoes and therefore it is a waste of time and money being there. This shoe company did not give up, so they sent another salesperson to Africa to replace the returning one. After a few months this second salesperson sent an urgent message to head office asking them to send more order forms as nobody in Africa is wearing shoes and there are plenty of opportunities making sales. The second salesperson saw the opportunity in his situation – not the difficulties that he is facing, and more to the point, he had in himself and in his products, and because of that he succeeded where the first salesperson failed.
I would like to suggest to you that faith is a bit like being pregnant. You see, you cannot make a valid distinction between having a little faith and a lot of faith, anymore than claiming someone is a little pregnant but not really a lot pregnant. I think you will be completely confused or started laughing if one day I tell you that my wife, Jenny is a little bit pregnant. You would think that Edwin must have either gone crazy or he is too happy and said the wrong thing for there is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. It is a matter of either she is pregnant or she is not. Same with faith, it is either you have faith or you do not. You cannot just have a little bit of faith. It is something that does not make sense to the one who is listening. If we do believe in the promises of Jesus, the promises of God our Father in Heaven, even a little bit, then my brothers and sisters, we are already on the right path. I do sincerely believe that all of you who are here today are on the right track. All of you, who, if you are like the disciples were asking for an increase of our faith, are already, going on the right way.
Having said all that, and having understood the distinction between having faith and not having any faith, the question for us to answer is not how much faith we have, but what do we really have faith in.
There are many Christians in this world who look at themselves instead of God. Often we look at ourselves and say – I cannot do that. I am not strong enough, loving enough, giving enough, wise enough; I do not have the income or the money, the power or the faith to be successful in what I am doing. And those doubts, my brothers and sisters are completely true – we by our own powers are not able to accomplish what God wants us to achieve. We do not have what it is needed what it comes to dealing with what is truly important matters. We will not even last a day in this world without God looking after us. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, God has the power; God is able to do anything that he wishes to do. All we need to do is pray to him and believe in him. Ask God for help and his power will be able to flow through us, and he will work through us to complete what he wants us to complete.
Some of us, at one time or another has met people who have been through very difficult and trying times, and our thoughts were that they must be people of great faith to come out of their trial and tribulations as well as they have. If we ever say to them with respect and admiration that we do not think that we could have faced what they have faced. Your faith must be very strong indeed. Do you know what their answer would be? Their answer would almost always be with words like these: “My faith is no greater than anyone else’s. I just did not know what I had until I have need for it. God helped me through it. If it was not for him I would never have been able to make it.”
Have you not heard of this kind of thing yourselves? Is it not one of those times when we may have said to ourselves: “I wish I had a faith like theirs”?
I wish I had a faith like theirs!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you know that those people of faith that we admire are correct in what they tell us. We very often do not realise just what we have in ourselves. We let our faith in God lie sleeping inside of us, and we go out looking for it. While all the time, God is there, and our faith in God is there, but our faith is doing nothing because we allow it to go to sleep.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ covers all areas of human life:
- It tells us of forgiveness and peace
- It tells us of eternal life
- It addresses the problems of poverty and of war
- It gives solutions to despair and answers to human distress.
But most of all, my brothers and sisters in Christ, it tells us:
- That alone by ourselves we can do nothing
- That we are, as many of us think, inadequate, incapable, sinners lost in a dark world.
- It tells us that are not alone, and that God cares for everyone of us
- That God works in the lives of all those who believes in him
- That God’s good purposes cannot be stopped by anyone or anything
- That his word does not return to him empty
- That he desires to transform not just the human heart but he wants to transform the world in which we are all living in
- And that all we need to do is to reach down to that little seed within us and begin to do what we have been called by God to do and God will do the rest
God will do the rest, which is his promise, however, we must do our part, just like Moses having to stretch out his rod, , just like Moses striking the rock with his staff in order to get water for the people, or the people who need healing must come to Jesus first. God will work in us and through us and bring his word to pass. He will pluck up the mountains and fill in the valleys. He will bring about the kingdom of God here on earth as we pray for. We are after all his partners in his work in this world.
What I am trying to say this morning is not ‘have more faith’ – but rather work with the faith that you already have inside you. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we started acting in faith the very first thing we will notice is that a little is a lot.
There is a Chinese proverb that tells us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I should know as I am Chinese by race, and I am suggesting to you to take the step; follow he commands of God – hear his advice found throughout the scriptures and believe – believe in what God has promised us will come about. He is not one who speaks empty words.
Remember that no matter how small the step you may be taking, each step will bring you closer to your destination when it is taken. But you have to take the step, you have to start claiming God’s word as your own if you are to receive what God has promised and do what God has called you to do.
When you practice your faith, when you pray, when you believe and when you do, then in the language of the story that I began this talk with, you will overcome – God will overcome – plague and his far more dangerous companion – fear, and the blessings of life will be completely yours, yours and your family and the world. Praise be to God, day by day – Amen.
The attendant regretfully told her that the only can he owned had just been loaned out, but if she would care to wait he was sure it would be back shortly. Since the nun was on the way to see a patient she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.
After looking through her car for something to carry to the station to fill with gas, she spotted a potty she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, she carried it to the station and filled it with gasoline. As she was pouring the gas into the tank of her car two men walked by. One was heard to exclaim, "Now that is what I call faith!"
Back to the sermon:
I am going to tell you a story, this story about a business traveller who was on his way from his home town to a large city in the Middle East by road. One night he met two other travellers travelling on the same road as he was. Their name was Fear and Plague. Plague told the traveller that once they arrived at the city, they were expected to kill 100,000 people in that city. The traveller asked Plague if Plague was to do all the killing by himself. Plague said, “Oh, no. I shall only be killing a few hundred people; it is my friend ‘Fear’ who will do the killing of all the others.
Fear, whether it is real or imagined, can discourage us, overwhelm us, beaten us and even strangle us. Dreadful things happen everywhere. There are people around the world paralyzed by fear. Fear is such a terrible thing!
Fear is widespread in this society of ours; in fact it is widespread throughout the world. We have personal fear – fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of not being loved, a fear of having no work, a fear of not being up to the measurements of our peers, a fear of not being able to help our families, a fear of being looked down by others. We also have social fear, fear that war and disasters will go on forever, a fear that society will collapse, a fear that the pollution in the air will kill us, and so on and so on. Even inside the church too there are fear, personal fears, social fears and spiritual fears. Do you have any fears?
There are many people who feel:
- That they are not able to do anything of real importance
- That they cannot and do not make a difference to society
- That they cannot and do not make a difference to anyone
- That they are unable to do even a part of what it is that God asks them to do
- That they will let God down or that God will let them down.
There are so many Christians in this world who are in a mess. They have forgotten what their faith is all about. They have forgotten that as long as it is the will of God, God will give to you the strength and the means to have it accomplished. Do these feelings describe your life – fear, despair, a sense of failure, a sense of not being competent, and a sense of hopelessness? Do you feel unexcited by your worship of the Lord? Do you feel unsure of just what the good news of the Gospel is? Do you feel burdened by life and by the tasks set to you by God? And yet wanting to believe, wanting to do the right thing, wanting to have the life that God has promised us even in the here and now?
Wanting, and yet……
How can I feed the hungry?
How can I clothe the naked?
How can I help the sick?
How can I bring peace to those around me?
How can I help my family?
How can I help others?
How can I spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?
How can I forgive the people who have hurt me so badly?
How can I even experience the joy that is supposed to be part of life with God, let alone help bring it to others?
The disciples had exactly the same feelings. From our Gospel reading of today, we hear of them crying out to Jesus. A cry similar to one that you may have made to God at one time or another.
They were feeling that what they were facing in life, not to mention what they were facing or will be facing as the ones following Jesus was too much for them to bear, too much for their small faith to handle and so they cry out to the Lord, “Jesus please increase our faith”. “Lord, help us believe enough so that we can do what it is that you have commanded us to do – help us trust enough so that we can live as you say we should be living. Lord, take away our fear.”
Jesus please increases our faith.
And what did Jesus do – how did he answer their prayers? Did he laid his hands upon them and pray and give them more faith as they asked? Did he just snap his fingers and grant them a double dose of his Spirit and his Faith?
No, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ – he did not – instead he told them that “if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted it in the sea and it would obey you.”
If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and plated it in the sea and it would obey you!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do you not find that answer of Jesus to be a strange answer? But really it is the best answer that could be given, for you see, the real issue for everyone of us is not “how much faith do we have?” but rather the question of “do we have any faith at all?”
I would like to share a story with you: Many years ago a shoe company in England sent one of its sales people to Africa to start a business. After a few months this salesperson sent a message back to his head office telling them that he is coming home as nobody in Africa wear shoes and therefore it is a waste of time and money being there. This shoe company did not give up, so they sent another salesperson to Africa to replace the returning one. After a few months this second salesperson sent an urgent message to head office asking them to send more order forms as nobody in Africa is wearing shoes and there are plenty of opportunities making sales. The second salesperson saw the opportunity in his situation – not the difficulties that he is facing, and more to the point, he had in himself and in his products, and because of that he succeeded where the first salesperson failed.
I would like to suggest to you that faith is a bit like being pregnant. You see, you cannot make a valid distinction between having a little faith and a lot of faith, anymore than claiming someone is a little pregnant but not really a lot pregnant. I think you will be completely confused or started laughing if one day I tell you that my wife, Jenny is a little bit pregnant. You would think that Edwin must have either gone crazy or he is too happy and said the wrong thing for there is no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. It is a matter of either she is pregnant or she is not. Same with faith, it is either you have faith or you do not. You cannot just have a little bit of faith. It is something that does not make sense to the one who is listening. If we do believe in the promises of Jesus, the promises of God our Father in Heaven, even a little bit, then my brothers and sisters, we are already on the right path. I do sincerely believe that all of you who are here today are on the right track. All of you, who, if you are like the disciples were asking for an increase of our faith, are already, going on the right way.
Having said all that, and having understood the distinction between having faith and not having any faith, the question for us to answer is not how much faith we have, but what do we really have faith in.
There are many Christians in this world who look at themselves instead of God. Often we look at ourselves and say – I cannot do that. I am not strong enough, loving enough, giving enough, wise enough; I do not have the income or the money, the power or the faith to be successful in what I am doing. And those doubts, my brothers and sisters are completely true – we by our own powers are not able to accomplish what God wants us to achieve. We do not have what it is needed what it comes to dealing with what is truly important matters. We will not even last a day in this world without God looking after us. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, God has the power; God is able to do anything that he wishes to do. All we need to do is pray to him and believe in him. Ask God for help and his power will be able to flow through us, and he will work through us to complete what he wants us to complete.
Some of us, at one time or another has met people who have been through very difficult and trying times, and our thoughts were that they must be people of great faith to come out of their trial and tribulations as well as they have. If we ever say to them with respect and admiration that we do not think that we could have faced what they have faced. Your faith must be very strong indeed. Do you know what their answer would be? Their answer would almost always be with words like these: “My faith is no greater than anyone else’s. I just did not know what I had until I have need for it. God helped me through it. If it was not for him I would never have been able to make it.”
Have you not heard of this kind of thing yourselves? Is it not one of those times when we may have said to ourselves: “I wish I had a faith like theirs”?
I wish I had a faith like theirs!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you know that those people of faith that we admire are correct in what they tell us. We very often do not realise just what we have in ourselves. We let our faith in God lie sleeping inside of us, and we go out looking for it. While all the time, God is there, and our faith in God is there, but our faith is doing nothing because we allow it to go to sleep.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ covers all areas of human life:
- It tells us of forgiveness and peace
- It tells us of eternal life
- It addresses the problems of poverty and of war
- It gives solutions to despair and answers to human distress.
But most of all, my brothers and sisters in Christ, it tells us:
- That alone by ourselves we can do nothing
- That we are, as many of us think, inadequate, incapable, sinners lost in a dark world.
- It tells us that are not alone, and that God cares for everyone of us
- That God works in the lives of all those who believes in him
- That God’s good purposes cannot be stopped by anyone or anything
- That his word does not return to him empty
- That he desires to transform not just the human heart but he wants to transform the world in which we are all living in
- And that all we need to do is to reach down to that little seed within us and begin to do what we have been called by God to do and God will do the rest
God will do the rest, which is his promise, however, we must do our part, just like Moses having to stretch out his rod, , just like Moses striking the rock with his staff in order to get water for the people, or the people who need healing must come to Jesus first. God will work in us and through us and bring his word to pass. He will pluck up the mountains and fill in the valleys. He will bring about the kingdom of God here on earth as we pray for. We are after all his partners in his work in this world.
What I am trying to say this morning is not ‘have more faith’ – but rather work with the faith that you already have inside you. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we started acting in faith the very first thing we will notice is that a little is a lot.
There is a Chinese proverb that tells us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I should know as I am Chinese by race, and I am suggesting to you to take the step; follow he commands of God – hear his advice found throughout the scriptures and believe – believe in what God has promised us will come about. He is not one who speaks empty words.
Remember that no matter how small the step you may be taking, each step will bring you closer to your destination when it is taken. But you have to take the step, you have to start claiming God’s word as your own if you are to receive what God has promised and do what God has called you to do.
When you practice your faith, when you pray, when you believe and when you do, then in the language of the story that I began this talk with, you will overcome – God will overcome – plague and his far more dangerous companion – fear, and the blessings of life will be completely yours, yours and your family and the world. Praise be to God, day by day – Amen.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Being Prepared
I heard this story of two young boys who were spending the night at their grandparents a couple of weeks before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs.
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...
I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMEBOY...
I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandmother is!"
Today we are gathered together here to celebrate the Sunday of joy. We are celebrating the joy of God. During the past two Sundays we have been preparing for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are being called to keep alive the vision which will provides us with the hope in order for us to seek the Peace of God. The peace that only God can keep, the peace that is not the peace as we understand it. The peace that which will only come to us when we repent and turn to our God. The peace that we will have only when we take up the walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joy in our hearts is not something that we can buy. Joy is not something that we can get from the supermarket. Joy is not from the Christmas presents that we will get. We from time to catch glimpses of what it is that God is all about. We from time to time come across situations where we see God’s promises coming true, and we suddenly have this great joy in our hearts.
I would like you to imagine for a minute that you are John the Baptist lingering in prison. Herod is about to have him killed. We have no doubts that John the Baptist is very much aware of what is awaiting him, although how he is going to die will be decided by Harod’s wife and daughter.
John is having serious doubts as to whether his mission in this world is completed or not. He is uncertain as to whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. So he sends messengers from prison in order to ask Jesus – “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another.”
Again imagine for a moment how he heard the answer to his question. Imagine the joy and happiness in his heart when his own disciples reported back to him what Jesus said: “God and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blesses are they who take no offense at me.”
Imagine that you are John the Baptist. Imagine how you will be feeling to hear that all that you have been yearning for as child of Abraham is now coming true. The promises that have been given in the Old Testament is now coming true. You can see God working a great work through Jesus, the child of Mary, the kind of work that the prophet Isaiah spoke of in our first reading of this morning.
JOY.
Joy should never be confused with happiness. Joy and happiness is something that a lot of people in this world do get confused with. Joy is not happiness, not even contentment.
The feeling of joy is something that will overwhelm you. It is something that comes to us when we witness God at work. Whether it be in our own personal problems, in our family relationships, in our friends, in our church, in our community or in the world.
I call today’s sermon as the giving and receiving of the gift of Joy, not just to be in keeping with our Advent theme. The theme as suggested by the lighting of the Advent candles. I give it this name in order to highlight to all of us the realities of the gift of joy – that reality of Joy is something that cannot be sought or purchase, it is a gift that can be received and given by us.
Whenever we see the works of God being done, we receive the gift of joy. And whenever we allow God to do his works through us, we give to others the gift of joy, or at the very, very least – the possibility of them receiving that gift of joy from God.
This is part of what this 3rd Sunday during Advent is all about. It is about going about the work of God. It is about caring about other people. It is about praying that joy may come with the giving. It is about praying that the hand of God may be seen.
Joy is a great and wonderful thing. Joy is a thing that will overtakes us when we are traveling on the path shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is something that will overwhelm us when we are taking our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is not a feeling that is with us all the time, it is not continuous, at least not in this world, but it comes up whenever we see God at work. When we see the sick healed, when we see the lame cured, when we see sight given back to the blind. When we see the good news of our Lord being proclaimed to those who are poor in spirit. it comes up whenever we are doing the work of God, and understands that God is doing His work in the situations and circumstances surrounding us.
Everlasting joy will be in our hearts, so testifies Isaiah on the day of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
On that day, he testifies, the wilderness and the dry land shall be
glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall
blossom abundantly, on that day, the ransomed of the LORD shall
return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be
upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and
sighing shall flee away.
There is a day coming which we are called to be prepared for, a day coming, of an eternal joy, a joy which we receive a taste of in the here and now when we receive the gift of seeing God at work, and when we do the works of God and thereby make it possible for others to have the joy of seeing him.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...
I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMEBOY...
I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandmother is!"
Today we are gathered together here to celebrate the Sunday of joy. We are celebrating the joy of God. During the past two Sundays we have been preparing for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are being called to keep alive the vision which will provides us with the hope in order for us to seek the Peace of God. The peace that only God can keep, the peace that is not the peace as we understand it. The peace that which will only come to us when we repent and turn to our God. The peace that we will have only when we take up the walk with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joy in our hearts is not something that we can buy. Joy is not something that we can get from the supermarket. Joy is not from the Christmas presents that we will get. We from time to catch glimpses of what it is that God is all about. We from time to time come across situations where we see God’s promises coming true, and we suddenly have this great joy in our hearts.
I would like you to imagine for a minute that you are John the Baptist lingering in prison. Herod is about to have him killed. We have no doubts that John the Baptist is very much aware of what is awaiting him, although how he is going to die will be decided by Harod’s wife and daughter.
John is having serious doubts as to whether his mission in this world is completed or not. He is uncertain as to whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. So he sends messengers from prison in order to ask Jesus – “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another.”
Again imagine for a moment how he heard the answer to his question. Imagine the joy and happiness in his heart when his own disciples reported back to him what Jesus said: “God and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Blesses are they who take no offense at me.”
Imagine that you are John the Baptist. Imagine how you will be feeling to hear that all that you have been yearning for as child of Abraham is now coming true. The promises that have been given in the Old Testament is now coming true. You can see God working a great work through Jesus, the child of Mary, the kind of work that the prophet Isaiah spoke of in our first reading of this morning.
JOY.
Joy should never be confused with happiness. Joy and happiness is something that a lot of people in this world do get confused with. Joy is not happiness, not even contentment.
The feeling of joy is something that will overwhelm you. It is something that comes to us when we witness God at work. Whether it be in our own personal problems, in our family relationships, in our friends, in our church, in our community or in the world.
I call today’s sermon as the giving and receiving of the gift of Joy, not just to be in keeping with our Advent theme. The theme as suggested by the lighting of the Advent candles. I give it this name in order to highlight to all of us the realities of the gift of joy – that reality of Joy is something that cannot be sought or purchase, it is a gift that can be received and given by us.
Whenever we see the works of God being done, we receive the gift of joy. And whenever we allow God to do his works through us, we give to others the gift of joy, or at the very, very least – the possibility of them receiving that gift of joy from God.
This is part of what this 3rd Sunday during Advent is all about. It is about going about the work of God. It is about caring about other people. It is about praying that joy may come with the giving. It is about praying that the hand of God may be seen.
Joy is a great and wonderful thing. Joy is a thing that will overtakes us when we are traveling on the path shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is something that will overwhelm us when we are taking our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ. Joy is not a feeling that is with us all the time, it is not continuous, at least not in this world, but it comes up whenever we see God at work. When we see the sick healed, when we see the lame cured, when we see sight given back to the blind. When we see the good news of our Lord being proclaimed to those who are poor in spirit. it comes up whenever we are doing the work of God, and understands that God is doing His work in the situations and circumstances surrounding us.
Everlasting joy will be in our hearts, so testifies Isaiah on the day of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
On that day, he testifies, the wilderness and the dry land shall be
glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall
blossom abundantly, on that day, the ransomed of the LORD shall
return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be
upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and
sighing shall flee away.
There is a day coming which we are called to be prepared for, a day coming, of an eternal joy, a joy which we receive a taste of in the here and now when we receive the gift of seeing God at work, and when we do the works of God and thereby make it possible for others to have the joy of seeing him.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Prepare the way for the LORD!
I heard this story of two young boys who were spending the night at their grandparents a couple of weeks before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs.
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...
I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMEBOY...
I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
I do not know about you, but a lot of people find it difficult to understand John the Baptist and what value are his message is to us today.
I have a feeling that very few people, whether it be 2000 years ago, or in today’s world really understand what he was trying to tell us when he was telling everyone that his job was to ‘prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” At least I must admit that I did have a problem in understanding it.
I do not think that there were that many people who could even begin to understand it when he said that “After me comes one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie”
And among all the people who responded to his call of, “Repent and be baptized” they must have been deeply confused to hear him declaring to them “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What was John all about?
Why was he doing what he did?
And what is the importance of his message for all of us gathered here today?
To me, John the Baptist is the very voice of Advent, he is the voice of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to this world to intervene for us in the relationship between God and ourselves.
His message was not only a word about our Lord Jesus.
It was the Good News, in other words, the Gospel. It was the beginning of the Good News for you and me. It was the beginning of the Good News for the entire world.
The entire episode of John and his message was at the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus in this world, and John, as well as his message, still is the beginning today for everyone who want to walk with Jesus. This is for everyone who wants to find their way out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land…..
There is an old Chinese proverb, and I should know, as I am Chinese by race, that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step.
John’s purpose in his ministry was to point out to everyone in those days, and to all of us in today’s world what that first step must be. He was pointing out to us that the way of our Lord Jesus Christ must be prepared, and that we are not simply talking of a highway in the desert, but it must be a highway in our very hearts, a route or direction that we must all take, if we are to be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One day a university professor went to visit a great master by the name of Nan-In.
The university professor asked the Master to teach him what he needed to know in order to have a happy life. He told the Master that he studied the sacred scriptures, he already visited all the greatest teachers in Japan, and yet he was not able to find the answer, and humbly he was asking Nan-In to show him the way to a happy life.
Nan-In started serving tea to his guest. Nan-In poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was flowing down from the table onto the floor. The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It is overfull, stop, no more will go in”. He cried out.
Nan-In said, “Just like this cup, you are full of your opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way to a happy life until and unless you have emptied your cup?”
Indeed how can we ever welcome Christ? How can we ever enter the Promised Land with Him, if we ourselves are so full of our faith and trust in our own strengths, so full of our own high opinions of ourselves, so full of our poor opinion of other people, or so full of our own speculations, and therefore have no room for Him. How can we ever welcome the Jesus into our hearts and minds if our hearts are not prepared? How?
How can we ever welcome Jesus into our hearts and minds if our hearts are not prepared? How?
John the Baptist came in order to prepare the way of the Lord. He prepared the way of the Lord, not by building a highway in the wilderness of Judea. He prepared the way of the Lord by preparing the hearts and minds of all who were willing to listen to him and to repent of their ways.
John the Baptist called on the people to hear his message and to take action, so that they would be able to greet the Messiah, and walk in the way of the Lord.
Repent, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, he cried out, for after me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
REPENT!
What does the word repent mean?
It simply meant to “turn around”, to change the direction that we are going, to face a new way, to begin to move on that new way, and to leave behind the old way. It means to turn to the Lord and not to rely on our own resources, for never could we have salvation by our own efforts or to be able to face our daily trails or to walk with our Lord. By our own efforts we will not even be able to live another day!
Much as the professor had to empty himself to learn the way of how to have a happy life, so each and everyone of us must change direction if we are to truly see the Lord and walk with Him from the wilderness to the Promised Land through all the trials and tribulations we faces in this world.
You may tell me, ‘But Edwin, we are living in Hong Kong, and not in the wilderness of Judea. What are you talking about?” The wilderness we are in, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is contained in our hearts. The wilderness is in our hearts.
The wilderness is in our hearts.
It is not what is outside that defines our wilderness, rather it is what is inside ourselves, it is created by what we are done, or what we left undone. In other words, it is define by our own actions or inactions.
However, outside things do have a great influence and they can, especially during certain time in the year, to point out to us just how barren and how unfruitful our present way of life is.
During Christmas time we can more easily detect the hazards of a life unprepared for our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can more easily see what we are lacking in, and have a more of an experience of our need for God, for something or for anything that will ease our burdens in life.
Christmas can be such a lonely time.
It is a lonely time, not only for those of us who are far away from family and loved ones, but also for those who are alone because they are widows or single mothers. It is also a lonely time for those who have no peace in their minds. It is a lonely time for those who have been deceived into thinking that they can ever buy happiness for their families and friends by purchasing bigger gifts, better gifts or more expensive gifts.
It can be such a barren time and a time without joy, for those who think that somehow all that they ever needed could be found at Christmas parties, whether it be in the office or someone’s home, or in having just the perfect tree, or the nicest decorations in the whole city block, or the best decorated house in the entire province.
Even for those of us who place great value on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christmas can be a time of year that reveals our need for a new way of doing things. A time of the year that shows that we too need to repent, and that we too need to empty our cups so that they can be filled with the water of life.
In so many ways we are all in a wilderness at this time of the year. A wilderness that is not of rocks and sand, heat and thirst, but a wilderness that is just as desolate and which makes us feeling spiritually dry.
Being busy is a feature of this desert of ours. Endless rounds of Christmas shopping, meetings and partying. At the end of the day, all this busyness leaves us exhausted and emotionally drained. All this busyness takes us away from Jesus and from thoughts of our reliance on God.
Noise attacks us. From the noise in the large shopping malls to the endless noise of carols, advertisements attacking us in the middle of our city of Hong Kong, or wherever you might be, not to mention from radios and televisions.
There is great pressure on us to feel happy, to be full of Christmas cheer, to enjoy ourselves, even when we are feeling much too tired, or wrapped up in our private and important grief.
We all feel compelled to spend money that we do not have. Either charging up great big debts on our credit cards, and for those who do not have credit cards, borrow money from money lenders in order for our families and friends either in Hong Kong or overseas can have the latest toys and gadgets that they do not really need.
Before you join the rush, it would be wise to consider this question: In the years to come, how much of your efforts will be appreciated, or even remembered, by family and friends? How many of last year's Christmas gifts and parties do you remember? Probably not many.
On top of all that, we get so many appeals for this charity or that charity, and we are also asked to work harder and longer hours, so that we might, as it was possible in our absence, make our family happier.
We are certainly in a wilderness, a wilderness both within ourselves and outside, and we need desperately the way of the Lord to be made ready in our lives so that we can emerge from that wilderness and come to the place where there is rest, the place of hope, joy, peace, and love, the place where our God resides – within our hearts.
Over the years I heard a lot of suggestions as to how we might better prepare the way in our lives, and in the lives of other people and I would like to share them with you.
The suggestions are ways of turning around in how many of us go through Advent and Christmas, a kind of repentance as it were.
It might be worth considering that instead of doing more things during Advent and Christmas, we might consider doing less, that we might consider slowing down and relaxing a bit more, as these precious Christmas days are much too precious to spend in doing what other people wanted us to do. Maybe we can consider having a month of saying NO.
NO to meetings that I can put off until the month of January. No to invitations that I may regret of giving out or accepting when the date arrives. NO to demands that take our attention away from our families and loved ones. When I say No to all such things, I will be able to say YES to other things, things such as Yes in trying out that new Christmas recipe. Yes to writing to neglected friends and relatives, Yes to sharing Christmas stories and singing the beautiful songs of the season with people I love. Yes to cuddling up to your spouse and love ones.
Maybe we can even consider inviting someone whom we know is lonely over to our house for Christmas dinner? What about reading the scriptures and praying for our church and our world? What about letting go of some unnecessary activity so that we will can have more time for family, church, home and friends. What about meditating each day on the generosity of God and his call for us to live by His love?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, repentance is what most of us needs, the turning around that most of us requires. It is not such a hard thing to do. It is a necessary change of attitude toward life, and towards the things in this world that we hold as important right now.
Repentance is not all about beating on your breast and saying what a miserable sinner I have been. Repentance is not saying I am sorry over and over again. Repentance is doing things in a new way. A way that will give life both to yourselves and to other people. Repentance is the only way that will allow our Lord Jesus Christ to enter more deeply into your hearts.
All of us here today know more about John the Baptist than the people who first heard him some 2000 years ago. We do know that the one, who followed, the one that he called people to prepare for, was the Lord of Life, a man who bestowed health and wholeness on all who were ready for him.
However, John’s words to us are just important today as it was 2000 years ago.
John calls on us to the new life revealed in Jesus.
He reminds us that if are to have that life, we must do just a little more than just wanting it. We must prepare ourselves for it, by making changes in our directions. We must prepare ourselves for it by doing certain things differently than we have done in the past.
To repent is to recognize that the old ways in which we have been traveling on will lead us only to a spiritual death, and will lead further and further away from God. To repent is to recognize the need to turn around, and to ask for God’s forgiveness and help, and by the help of His grace started walking in the way that will lead us to the light.
Repentance is a beginning that is blessed by God, a beginning that we all need to make each day, one day at a time.
As we turn to face Jesus, our lives are warmed, for his light shines on our path. As we walk forward from the place we were, we find our paths are made straight, the valleys in our way are raised up, the mountains and hills are made low, the rough places are leveled out, the rugged places becomes a plain, for Jesus is walking with us.
I hope that we know that the key to having the 'best Christmas ever' is not buying more or decorating more, but focusing on what matters most. The true significance of Christmas is found in pausing to celebrate God's love for us and expressing that love to one another."
Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, all her sins has been paid for. AMEN.
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE...
I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMEBOY...
I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf." To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
I do not know about you, but a lot of people find it difficult to understand John the Baptist and what value are his message is to us today.
I have a feeling that very few people, whether it be 2000 years ago, or in today’s world really understand what he was trying to tell us when he was telling everyone that his job was to ‘prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” At least I must admit that I did have a problem in understanding it.
I do not think that there were that many people who could even begin to understand it when he said that “After me comes one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie”
And among all the people who responded to his call of, “Repent and be baptized” they must have been deeply confused to hear him declaring to them “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What was John all about?
Why was he doing what he did?
And what is the importance of his message for all of us gathered here today?
To me, John the Baptist is the very voice of Advent, he is the voice of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to this world to intervene for us in the relationship between God and ourselves.
His message was not only a word about our Lord Jesus.
It was the Good News, in other words, the Gospel. It was the beginning of the Good News for you and me. It was the beginning of the Good News for the entire world.
The entire episode of John and his message was at the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus in this world, and John, as well as his message, still is the beginning today for everyone who want to walk with Jesus. This is for everyone who wants to find their way out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land…..
There is an old Chinese proverb, and I should know, as I am Chinese by race, that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step.
John’s purpose in his ministry was to point out to everyone in those days, and to all of us in today’s world what that first step must be. He was pointing out to us that the way of our Lord Jesus Christ must be prepared, and that we are not simply talking of a highway in the desert, but it must be a highway in our very hearts, a route or direction that we must all take, if we are to be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One day a university professor went to visit a great master by the name of Nan-In.
The university professor asked the Master to teach him what he needed to know in order to have a happy life. He told the Master that he studied the sacred scriptures, he already visited all the greatest teachers in Japan, and yet he was not able to find the answer, and humbly he was asking Nan-In to show him the way to a happy life.
Nan-In started serving tea to his guest. Nan-In poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was flowing down from the table onto the floor. The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It is overfull, stop, no more will go in”. He cried out.
Nan-In said, “Just like this cup, you are full of your opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way to a happy life until and unless you have emptied your cup?”
Indeed how can we ever welcome Christ? How can we ever enter the Promised Land with Him, if we ourselves are so full of our faith and trust in our own strengths, so full of our own high opinions of ourselves, so full of our poor opinion of other people, or so full of our own speculations, and therefore have no room for Him. How can we ever welcome the Jesus into our hearts and minds if our hearts are not prepared? How?
How can we ever welcome Jesus into our hearts and minds if our hearts are not prepared? How?
John the Baptist came in order to prepare the way of the Lord. He prepared the way of the Lord, not by building a highway in the wilderness of Judea. He prepared the way of the Lord by preparing the hearts and minds of all who were willing to listen to him and to repent of their ways.
John the Baptist called on the people to hear his message and to take action, so that they would be able to greet the Messiah, and walk in the way of the Lord.
Repent, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, he cried out, for after me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
REPENT!
What does the word repent mean?
It simply meant to “turn around”, to change the direction that we are going, to face a new way, to begin to move on that new way, and to leave behind the old way. It means to turn to the Lord and not to rely on our own resources, for never could we have salvation by our own efforts or to be able to face our daily trails or to walk with our Lord. By our own efforts we will not even be able to live another day!
Much as the professor had to empty himself to learn the way of how to have a happy life, so each and everyone of us must change direction if we are to truly see the Lord and walk with Him from the wilderness to the Promised Land through all the trials and tribulations we faces in this world.
You may tell me, ‘But Edwin, we are living in Hong Kong, and not in the wilderness of Judea. What are you talking about?” The wilderness we are in, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is contained in our hearts. The wilderness is in our hearts.
The wilderness is in our hearts.
It is not what is outside that defines our wilderness, rather it is what is inside ourselves, it is created by what we are done, or what we left undone. In other words, it is define by our own actions or inactions.
However, outside things do have a great influence and they can, especially during certain time in the year, to point out to us just how barren and how unfruitful our present way of life is.
During Christmas time we can more easily detect the hazards of a life unprepared for our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can more easily see what we are lacking in, and have a more of an experience of our need for God, for something or for anything that will ease our burdens in life.
Christmas can be such a lonely time.
It is a lonely time, not only for those of us who are far away from family and loved ones, but also for those who are alone because they are widows or single mothers. It is also a lonely time for those who have no peace in their minds. It is a lonely time for those who have been deceived into thinking that they can ever buy happiness for their families and friends by purchasing bigger gifts, better gifts or more expensive gifts.
It can be such a barren time and a time without joy, for those who think that somehow all that they ever needed could be found at Christmas parties, whether it be in the office or someone’s home, or in having just the perfect tree, or the nicest decorations in the whole city block, or the best decorated house in the entire province.
Even for those of us who place great value on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christmas can be a time of year that reveals our need for a new way of doing things. A time of the year that shows that we too need to repent, and that we too need to empty our cups so that they can be filled with the water of life.
In so many ways we are all in a wilderness at this time of the year. A wilderness that is not of rocks and sand, heat and thirst, but a wilderness that is just as desolate and which makes us feeling spiritually dry.
Being busy is a feature of this desert of ours. Endless rounds of Christmas shopping, meetings and partying. At the end of the day, all this busyness leaves us exhausted and emotionally drained. All this busyness takes us away from Jesus and from thoughts of our reliance on God.
Noise attacks us. From the noise in the large shopping malls to the endless noise of carols, advertisements attacking us in the middle of our city of Hong Kong, or wherever you might be, not to mention from radios and televisions.
There is great pressure on us to feel happy, to be full of Christmas cheer, to enjoy ourselves, even when we are feeling much too tired, or wrapped up in our private and important grief.
We all feel compelled to spend money that we do not have. Either charging up great big debts on our credit cards, and for those who do not have credit cards, borrow money from money lenders in order for our families and friends either in Hong Kong or overseas can have the latest toys and gadgets that they do not really need.
Before you join the rush, it would be wise to consider this question: In the years to come, how much of your efforts will be appreciated, or even remembered, by family and friends? How many of last year's Christmas gifts and parties do you remember? Probably not many.
On top of all that, we get so many appeals for this charity or that charity, and we are also asked to work harder and longer hours, so that we might, as it was possible in our absence, make our family happier.
We are certainly in a wilderness, a wilderness both within ourselves and outside, and we need desperately the way of the Lord to be made ready in our lives so that we can emerge from that wilderness and come to the place where there is rest, the place of hope, joy, peace, and love, the place where our God resides – within our hearts.
Over the years I heard a lot of suggestions as to how we might better prepare the way in our lives, and in the lives of other people and I would like to share them with you.
The suggestions are ways of turning around in how many of us go through Advent and Christmas, a kind of repentance as it were.
It might be worth considering that instead of doing more things during Advent and Christmas, we might consider doing less, that we might consider slowing down and relaxing a bit more, as these precious Christmas days are much too precious to spend in doing what other people wanted us to do. Maybe we can consider having a month of saying NO.
NO to meetings that I can put off until the month of January. No to invitations that I may regret of giving out or accepting when the date arrives. NO to demands that take our attention away from our families and loved ones. When I say No to all such things, I will be able to say YES to other things, things such as Yes in trying out that new Christmas recipe. Yes to writing to neglected friends and relatives, Yes to sharing Christmas stories and singing the beautiful songs of the season with people I love. Yes to cuddling up to your spouse and love ones.
Maybe we can even consider inviting someone whom we know is lonely over to our house for Christmas dinner? What about reading the scriptures and praying for our church and our world? What about letting go of some unnecessary activity so that we will can have more time for family, church, home and friends. What about meditating each day on the generosity of God and his call for us to live by His love?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, repentance is what most of us needs, the turning around that most of us requires. It is not such a hard thing to do. It is a necessary change of attitude toward life, and towards the things in this world that we hold as important right now.
Repentance is not all about beating on your breast and saying what a miserable sinner I have been. Repentance is not saying I am sorry over and over again. Repentance is doing things in a new way. A way that will give life both to yourselves and to other people. Repentance is the only way that will allow our Lord Jesus Christ to enter more deeply into your hearts.
All of us here today know more about John the Baptist than the people who first heard him some 2000 years ago. We do know that the one, who followed, the one that he called people to prepare for, was the Lord of Life, a man who bestowed health and wholeness on all who were ready for him.
However, John’s words to us are just important today as it was 2000 years ago.
John calls on us to the new life revealed in Jesus.
He reminds us that if are to have that life, we must do just a little more than just wanting it. We must prepare ourselves for it, by making changes in our directions. We must prepare ourselves for it by doing certain things differently than we have done in the past.
To repent is to recognize that the old ways in which we have been traveling on will lead us only to a spiritual death, and will lead further and further away from God. To repent is to recognize the need to turn around, and to ask for God’s forgiveness and help, and by the help of His grace started walking in the way that will lead us to the light.
Repentance is a beginning that is blessed by God, a beginning that we all need to make each day, one day at a time.
As we turn to face Jesus, our lives are warmed, for his light shines on our path. As we walk forward from the place we were, we find our paths are made straight, the valleys in our way are raised up, the mountains and hills are made low, the rough places are leveled out, the rugged places becomes a plain, for Jesus is walking with us.
I hope that we know that the key to having the 'best Christmas ever' is not buying more or decorating more, but focusing on what matters most. The true significance of Christmas is found in pausing to celebrate God's love for us and expressing that love to one another."
Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, all her sins has been paid for. AMEN.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Can love be wrong
Let us pray – Creator and maker of us all – bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts – grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen.
Can love be wrong?
In my humble opinion, the Book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. To me it is a beautiful story; it is a story that contains in it so many different elements. It is a story about life and death, famine and feast, love and loss, and love regained.
I would encourage you to read the story for yourself sometime this week. It is a very good story, it is a good story, if you got a good translation, will give you and your family entertainment, and to top it up, it is just as good, if not better, than a good television show.
In my sermon of today, which incidentally, is a story sermon, I would like us all to look at the love between Ruth and Boaz and what it might mean to our faith – in other words, what it might mean to how we are going to love our neighbours and our God.
I want to start off by telling you the story of Jonathan, that mysterious person whom we have been hearing about in today’s Old Testament from the Book of Ezra.
To give you a bit of background to the story, I will like to remind you that what happened in the Book of Ezra actually took place over five hundred years after what happened in the book of Ruth.
Even before Jonathan got to the corner of the Old Inn he could already hear someone praying in the square right in front of the house of God.
He knew immediately that something special was happening. Within the city of Jerusalem there was an unusual quite (imagine Causeway Bay being quite during a business day), and apart from the quietness, he noticed that for the last hour he had seem groups of people drifting towards the direction of the temple.
What finally aroused Jonathan’s curiosity and caused him to put down his tools and headed towards the temple was due to the unusual quietness and the movement of the people.
However, he could hardly see anything when he finally got to the temple square as there was already a huge crowd gathered there. All he could see was people everywhere.
Jonathan was very persistent, and after a couple of minutes, having moving first this way, and then that, he finally came to a place where he could see between the adults who were in front of him and over the heads of the children who were also present. And when he finally could see, he saw Ezra, the priest, on his knees before the temple in the middle of an intense prayer.
Ezra had torn his clothes and his tunic. He was also weeping and rocking back and forth. He was rocking back and forth, as he prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and in his voice, a voice which carried clear and loud over the square, Jonathan heard in the voice of Ezra the sound of grief.
Jonathan listened with all the people in the square to the prayer, and heard Ezra confesses to the Lord that his people had sinned, he heard Ezra expressed his fear that God’s people would sin once again, and that they would once again break the commandments of God and become unfaithful to Him. Ezra expressed his fear that the people would once again make treaties with corrupt nations and marry people from countries that scorned and despised both the laws of God and His chosen people. Jonathan as well as all present at the square witnessed Ezra weeping. He heard the anguish in Ezra’s voice, as he prayed that the people of Israel will not be acting the same way that they had been acting in the past. He prayed that they will not again run the risk of total destruction by loving those whom they should not love, and as a result binding themselves to foreigners, to people who worshipped other gods.
Jonathan felt deeply moved upon seeing and hearing the prayers of Ezra.
He too grieved for the glory that Israel once had and now lost. He too mourned for the Israel’s loss of innocence, for the time when David was King, and not only the true faith, but the entire nation was strong.
Jonathan knew, as did all the people present at the square that day, that some kinds of love are simply wrong.
He knew, from the history of Israel that some kinds of love were very dangerous to the nation and to the true faith, and Jonathan felt greatly tempted to join in his voice to those of all the other people who began to weep bitterly with Ezra over the sins and plight of Israel.
He was also tempted to take the vow that they were taking, after Ezra had finished praying. The vow that Shecaniah proposed while everyone was weeping:
- the vow to divorce those whom they should have never married;
- the vow to divorce them and send them as well as their children to the lands to which they originally came from, back to the lands of corruption from which they first came.
As the people around him wept and lifted up their voices in agreement with Shecaniah, Jonathan was tempted to join in with them, but something inside him would not allow him to do so.
Something held Jonathan back from joining the people that day. He was not certain what it was that held him back from that day, but as he walked away from the square with the other people. With a heavy heart he thought about it, and what he was going to do when the people were going to be gathered again in three days time to take action on Erza’s words and to fulfill the vow that had been made.
Jonathan thought about how from the very beginning the people of God had been warned about intermarriage.
Moses had told Israel that it would surely lead to idolatry, and that foreign women would corrupt the faith of their husband, and teach their children to love and worship other gods, until finally the day would come when the nation would perish, because it no longer worshipped the Lord God of Israel.
As Jonathan continued on working in his shop during the next two days, he kept on recalling how Ezra had claimed that the destruction of Israel and of Jerusalem and of the temple happened because the people of Israel had ignored Moses’ warning and their God.
He kept on remembering how Ezra had explained to the people that the current poverty and weakness of Israel was due partly to the same problem, that the people were suffering because they were once again contaminating the nation by marrying foreign women; and that they had weakened themselves by loving the wrong people.
The more he thought about it, Ezra’s words seem to made sense to Jonathan. He was not sure as to hwy he had held back from taking the vow. After all, he did not have a foreign wife, and he nothing to lose personally by going alone with what to all appearances seem to made sense.
Different traditions often do not mix well.
Different faiths more often than not conflicted with each other, and in such a conflict, both faiths normally perish, for a faith that is changed is a faith that is lost.
There were other people besides Moses and Ezra who said that if one truly loved God with all of one’s heart and soul and mind and strength then they would not risk their faith by marrying foreigners, or by loving a person from a different culture and belief.
That kind of love could not help but be dangerous; it could not help but being wrong, and it could very much be like inviting a wolf to come and live inside a sheep pen, no matter how kind the wolf seems to be, and how loving the sheep are, nature would end up having her way.
Jonathan kept on thinking about these things, and he felt confused and disturbed by his reluctance to take the vow – a reluctance he continued to feel despite all the arguments that he had thought of regarding the taking of the vow. It was in this kind of a state of confusion raging in his mind when he went up to the temple square on the third day with all the men of Judah and Benjamin.
His state of mind was exactly the same as the weather of the day – as it was a miserable rainy day. He sat in the square with several thousand other men, trying in vain to stay warm and dry as Ezra mounted the temple steps to talk to them.
Jonathan suddenly felt a measure of desperation when Ezra began to speak.
He still did not know what she should do when Ezra called out for all the men of Israel to renounce their foreign wives. He did not know that if he could agree to the action that would be legislated that very day.
But then, just as Ezra spoke he suddenly what was bothering him.
As Ezra once again proclaimed to the people that the men of Israel had been unfaithful to God because they had married foreign wives, he suddenly understands what had been bothering him all this time. He realized why he had not taken the vow proposed by Shecaniah, son of Jehiel.
It was all because of Ruth.
He remembers that his mother had often told him the story of Ruth and Boaz, about how Ruth had followed Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem, after the death of her first husband. He remembers hearing of how she had worked in the fields gleaning the wheat left behind by the reapers so she could care for herself and for her mother-in-law, until one day Boaz had noticed her and shown her his favor by instructing the harvesters to leave some sheaves for her.
Jonathan remembers how his mother had always loved the story of Ruth, she delighted in telling of the cleverness of Naomi in arranging things so that Ruth would meet up with Boaz again, and how Boaz had won Ruth from the relative who should have married her as according to the law of Moses by getting him to renounce his claim in public.
Jonathan’s mother had dearly loved the story of Ruth and now he realized that it was the story or Ruth that had prevented him from taking the vow of Shecaniah.
Jonathan knew that some kind of love are dangerous, but he also knew as well that all kinds of love can be used by God, it can be used by God, and it can be blessed, even if it may seem to be wrong to have that love.
Jonathan realized that the reason for his hesitation in the square three days ago was because he had known somewhere in his inner being that although it can be a dangerous to love a sinner, however, that love does not necessary end in disaster.
Jonathan remembered what Ezra and Shecaniah seems to have forgotten.
He remembered that Ruth was a Moabitess, she was a foreigner, she came from a tribe who were famous for corruption and idolatry.
Despite Ruth’s switch of faith; despite her proven loyalty to Naomi, Ruth was a like an Irish Protestant marrying a Roman Catholic; Ruth was like a black person marrying a white person in the United States way back in the 1930’s; Ruth was like a prostitute marrying a church elder.
Ruth was the leopard that according what Ezra said about foreigners, could not change its spots; she was the one who led to the destruction of the first temple and the defeat of the nation.
According to Ezra, she was the one, who even now, was destroying the people of Israel.
Jonathan, as he sat huddled down in the square, with the rain pouring down on him, suddenly felt a thrill ran through his body as he remembered how the story of Ruth and Boaz ended, and he thought about what would have happened if Boaz hade to take the vow of Shecaniah.
You see, after Ruth and Boaz got married, she became the mother of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became the king of Israel, the very king out of whom was to come the Messiah, the very king who had made Israel a great nation and the God of Israel famous throughout the known world.
If Boaz had not loved Ruth, who was a foreign woman, and it was supposedly wrong to love, then all the right things would never have happened. There would have been no king David, no king Salomon, no temple, no glory, no kingdom, no power, no might…nothing!
As so as Jonathan sat in the rain and watched Ezra and the people of Jerusalem weep again for all their sins, and decide to send away all the foreign women that they had married. He praised god for the love that they called wrong, for the love that had given to Israel its greatest king and which would soon give to the whole world the Messiah that the world desperately needed.
He praised God, and he, along with three other men present in the square that day, refused to agree with what Ezra proposed. He refused to be in agreement that the love of Ruth and Boaz had been wrong.
Can love be wrong?
In my humble opinion, the Book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. To me it is a beautiful story; it is a story that contains in it so many different elements. It is a story about life and death, famine and feast, love and loss, and love regained.
I would encourage you to read the story for yourself sometime this week. It is a very good story, it is a good story, if you got a good translation, will give you and your family entertainment, and to top it up, it is just as good, if not better, than a good television show.
In my sermon of today, which incidentally, is a story sermon, I would like us all to look at the love between Ruth and Boaz and what it might mean to our faith – in other words, what it might mean to how we are going to love our neighbours and our God.
I want to start off by telling you the story of Jonathan, that mysterious person whom we have been hearing about in today’s Old Testament from the Book of Ezra.
To give you a bit of background to the story, I will like to remind you that what happened in the Book of Ezra actually took place over five hundred years after what happened in the book of Ruth.
Even before Jonathan got to the corner of the Old Inn he could already hear someone praying in the square right in front of the house of God.
He knew immediately that something special was happening. Within the city of Jerusalem there was an unusual quite (imagine Causeway Bay being quite during a business day), and apart from the quietness, he noticed that for the last hour he had seem groups of people drifting towards the direction of the temple.
What finally aroused Jonathan’s curiosity and caused him to put down his tools and headed towards the temple was due to the unusual quietness and the movement of the people.
However, he could hardly see anything when he finally got to the temple square as there was already a huge crowd gathered there. All he could see was people everywhere.
Jonathan was very persistent, and after a couple of minutes, having moving first this way, and then that, he finally came to a place where he could see between the adults who were in front of him and over the heads of the children who were also present. And when he finally could see, he saw Ezra, the priest, on his knees before the temple in the middle of an intense prayer.
Ezra had torn his clothes and his tunic. He was also weeping and rocking back and forth. He was rocking back and forth, as he prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and in his voice, a voice which carried clear and loud over the square, Jonathan heard in the voice of Ezra the sound of grief.
Jonathan listened with all the people in the square to the prayer, and heard Ezra confesses to the Lord that his people had sinned, he heard Ezra expressed his fear that God’s people would sin once again, and that they would once again break the commandments of God and become unfaithful to Him. Ezra expressed his fear that the people would once again make treaties with corrupt nations and marry people from countries that scorned and despised both the laws of God and His chosen people. Jonathan as well as all present at the square witnessed Ezra weeping. He heard the anguish in Ezra’s voice, as he prayed that the people of Israel will not be acting the same way that they had been acting in the past. He prayed that they will not again run the risk of total destruction by loving those whom they should not love, and as a result binding themselves to foreigners, to people who worshipped other gods.
Jonathan felt deeply moved upon seeing and hearing the prayers of Ezra.
He too grieved for the glory that Israel once had and now lost. He too mourned for the Israel’s loss of innocence, for the time when David was King, and not only the true faith, but the entire nation was strong.
Jonathan knew, as did all the people present at the square that day, that some kinds of love are simply wrong.
He knew, from the history of Israel that some kinds of love were very dangerous to the nation and to the true faith, and Jonathan felt greatly tempted to join in his voice to those of all the other people who began to weep bitterly with Ezra over the sins and plight of Israel.
He was also tempted to take the vow that they were taking, after Ezra had finished praying. The vow that Shecaniah proposed while everyone was weeping:
- the vow to divorce those whom they should have never married;
- the vow to divorce them and send them as well as their children to the lands to which they originally came from, back to the lands of corruption from which they first came.
As the people around him wept and lifted up their voices in agreement with Shecaniah, Jonathan was tempted to join in with them, but something inside him would not allow him to do so.
Something held Jonathan back from joining the people that day. He was not certain what it was that held him back from that day, but as he walked away from the square with the other people. With a heavy heart he thought about it, and what he was going to do when the people were going to be gathered again in three days time to take action on Erza’s words and to fulfill the vow that had been made.
Jonathan thought about how from the very beginning the people of God had been warned about intermarriage.
Moses had told Israel that it would surely lead to idolatry, and that foreign women would corrupt the faith of their husband, and teach their children to love and worship other gods, until finally the day would come when the nation would perish, because it no longer worshipped the Lord God of Israel.
As Jonathan continued on working in his shop during the next two days, he kept on recalling how Ezra had claimed that the destruction of Israel and of Jerusalem and of the temple happened because the people of Israel had ignored Moses’ warning and their God.
He kept on remembering how Ezra had explained to the people that the current poverty and weakness of Israel was due partly to the same problem, that the people were suffering because they were once again contaminating the nation by marrying foreign women; and that they had weakened themselves by loving the wrong people.
The more he thought about it, Ezra’s words seem to made sense to Jonathan. He was not sure as to hwy he had held back from taking the vow. After all, he did not have a foreign wife, and he nothing to lose personally by going alone with what to all appearances seem to made sense.
Different traditions often do not mix well.
Different faiths more often than not conflicted with each other, and in such a conflict, both faiths normally perish, for a faith that is changed is a faith that is lost.
There were other people besides Moses and Ezra who said that if one truly loved God with all of one’s heart and soul and mind and strength then they would not risk their faith by marrying foreigners, or by loving a person from a different culture and belief.
That kind of love could not help but be dangerous; it could not help but being wrong, and it could very much be like inviting a wolf to come and live inside a sheep pen, no matter how kind the wolf seems to be, and how loving the sheep are, nature would end up having her way.
Jonathan kept on thinking about these things, and he felt confused and disturbed by his reluctance to take the vow – a reluctance he continued to feel despite all the arguments that he had thought of regarding the taking of the vow. It was in this kind of a state of confusion raging in his mind when he went up to the temple square on the third day with all the men of Judah and Benjamin.
His state of mind was exactly the same as the weather of the day – as it was a miserable rainy day. He sat in the square with several thousand other men, trying in vain to stay warm and dry as Ezra mounted the temple steps to talk to them.
Jonathan suddenly felt a measure of desperation when Ezra began to speak.
He still did not know what she should do when Ezra called out for all the men of Israel to renounce their foreign wives. He did not know that if he could agree to the action that would be legislated that very day.
But then, just as Ezra spoke he suddenly what was bothering him.
As Ezra once again proclaimed to the people that the men of Israel had been unfaithful to God because they had married foreign wives, he suddenly understands what had been bothering him all this time. He realized why he had not taken the vow proposed by Shecaniah, son of Jehiel.
It was all because of Ruth.
He remembers that his mother had often told him the story of Ruth and Boaz, about how Ruth had followed Naomi from Moab to Bethlehem, after the death of her first husband. He remembers hearing of how she had worked in the fields gleaning the wheat left behind by the reapers so she could care for herself and for her mother-in-law, until one day Boaz had noticed her and shown her his favor by instructing the harvesters to leave some sheaves for her.
Jonathan remembers how his mother had always loved the story of Ruth, she delighted in telling of the cleverness of Naomi in arranging things so that Ruth would meet up with Boaz again, and how Boaz had won Ruth from the relative who should have married her as according to the law of Moses by getting him to renounce his claim in public.
Jonathan’s mother had dearly loved the story of Ruth and now he realized that it was the story or Ruth that had prevented him from taking the vow of Shecaniah.
Jonathan knew that some kind of love are dangerous, but he also knew as well that all kinds of love can be used by God, it can be used by God, and it can be blessed, even if it may seem to be wrong to have that love.
Jonathan realized that the reason for his hesitation in the square three days ago was because he had known somewhere in his inner being that although it can be a dangerous to love a sinner, however, that love does not necessary end in disaster.
Jonathan remembered what Ezra and Shecaniah seems to have forgotten.
He remembered that Ruth was a Moabitess, she was a foreigner, she came from a tribe who were famous for corruption and idolatry.
Despite Ruth’s switch of faith; despite her proven loyalty to Naomi, Ruth was a like an Irish Protestant marrying a Roman Catholic; Ruth was like a black person marrying a white person in the United States way back in the 1930’s; Ruth was like a prostitute marrying a church elder.
Ruth was the leopard that according what Ezra said about foreigners, could not change its spots; she was the one who led to the destruction of the first temple and the defeat of the nation.
According to Ezra, she was the one, who even now, was destroying the people of Israel.
Jonathan, as he sat huddled down in the square, with the rain pouring down on him, suddenly felt a thrill ran through his body as he remembered how the story of Ruth and Boaz ended, and he thought about what would have happened if Boaz hade to take the vow of Shecaniah.
You see, after Ruth and Boaz got married, she became the mother of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David, who became the king of Israel, the very king out of whom was to come the Messiah, the very king who had made Israel a great nation and the God of Israel famous throughout the known world.
If Boaz had not loved Ruth, who was a foreign woman, and it was supposedly wrong to love, then all the right things would never have happened. There would have been no king David, no king Salomon, no temple, no glory, no kingdom, no power, no might…nothing!
As so as Jonathan sat in the rain and watched Ezra and the people of Jerusalem weep again for all their sins, and decide to send away all the foreign women that they had married. He praised god for the love that they called wrong, for the love that had given to Israel its greatest king and which would soon give to the whole world the Messiah that the world desperately needed.
He praised God, and he, along with three other men present in the square that day, refused to agree with what Ezra proposed. He refused to be in agreement that the love of Ruth and Boaz had been wrong.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
It can be hard for us to understand John the Baptist today
O Lord, we pray, speak to us all here in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your children listen. Amen.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near
I do not know about you, but a lot of people find it difficult to understand John the Baptist and what value are his message is to us today.
I have a feeling that very few people, whether it be 2000 years ago, or in today’s world really understand what he was trying to tell us when he told everyone that his job was to ‘prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” At least I must admit that I did have a problem in understanding what it means for us in today’s world.
I do not think that there were that many people who could even begin to understand it when he said that “After me comes one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie”
And among all the people who responded to his call of, “Repent and be baptized” they must have been deeply confused to hear him declaring to them “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What was John all about?
Why was he doing what he did?
And what is the importance of his message for all of us gathered here today?
To me, John the Baptist is the very voice of Advent, he is the voice of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to this world to intervene for us in the relationship between God and ourselves.
His message was not only a word about our Lord Jesus.
It was the Good News, in other words, the Gospel. It was the beginning of the Good News for you and me. It was the beginning of the Good News for the entire world.
The entire episode of John and his message was at the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus in this world. John’s message, still is the beginning today for everyone who want to walk with Jesus. This is for everyone who wants to find their way out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land…..
There is an old Chinese proverb, and I should know, as I am Chinese by race, that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step.
John’s purpose in his ministry was to point out to everyone in those days, and to all of us in today’s world what that first step must be. He was pointing out to us that the way of our Lord Jesus Christ must be prepared, and that we are not simply talking of a highway in the desert, but it must be a highway in our very hearts, a route or direction that we must all take, if we are to be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One day a university professor went to visit a great master by the name of Nan-In. The university professor asked the Master to teach him what he needed to know in order to have a happy life. He told the Master that he studied the sacred scriptures, he already visited all the greatest teachers in Japan, and yet he was not able to find the answer, and humbly he was asking Nan-In to show him the way to a happy life.
Nan-In said nothing and started serving tea to his guest. Nan-In kept on pouring tea into his visitor’s cup, and kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was flowing down from the table onto the floor. The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It is overfull, stop, no more will go in”. He cried out.
Nan-In said, “Just like this cup, you are full of your opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way to a happy life until and unless you have emptied your cup?”
Indeed how can we ever welcome Christ? How can we ever enter the Promised Land with Him, if we ourselves are so full of our faith and trust in our own strengths, so full of our own high opinions of ourselves, so full of our poor opinion of other people, or so full of our own speculations, and therefore have no room for Him. How can we ever welcome the Lord if our hearts are not prepared? How?
How can we ever welcome the Lord if our hearts are not prepared? How?
John the Baptist came in order to prepare the way of the Lord. He prepared the way of the Lord, not by building a highway in the wilderness of Judea. He prepared the way of the Lord by preparing the hearts and minds of all who were willing to listen to him and to repent of their ways.
John the Baptist called on the people to hear his message and to take action, so that they would be able to greet the Messiah, and walk in the way of the Lord.
Repent, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, he cried out, for after me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
REPENT!
What does the word repent mean?
It simply meant to “turn around”, to change the direction that we are going, to face a new way, to begin to move on that new way, and to leave behind the old way. It means to turn to the Lord and not to rely on our own resources, for never could we have salvation by our own efforts or to be able to face our daily trails or to walk with our Lord. By our own efforts we will not even be able to live another day!
Much as the professor had to empty himself to learn the way of how to have a happy life, so each and everyone of us must change direction if we are to truly see the Lord and walk with Him from the wilderness to the Promised Land through all the trials and tribulations we faces in this world.
You may tell me, ‘But Edwin, we are living in Hong Kong, and not in the wilderness of Judea. What are you talking about?” The wilderness we are in, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is contained in our hearts. The wilderness is in our hearts.
The wilderness is in our hearts.
It is not what is outside that defines our wilderness, rather it is what is inside ourselves, it is created by what we are done, or what we left undone. In other words, it is define by our own actions or inactions.
However, outside things do have a great influence and they can, especially during certain time in the year, to point out to us just how barren and how unfruitful our present way of life is.
During Christmas time we can more easily detect the hazards of a life unprepared for our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can more easily see what we are lacking in, and have a more of an experience of our need for God, for something or for anything that will ease our burdens in life.
Christmas can be such a lonely time.
It is a lonely time, not only for those of us who are far away from family and loved ones, but also for those who are alone because they are widows or single mothers. It is also a lonely time for those who have no peace in their minds. It is a lonely time for those who have been deceived into thinking that they can ever buy happiness for their families and friends by purchasing bigger gifts, better gifts or more expensive gifts.
It can be such a barren time and a time without joy, for those who think that somehow all that they ever needed could be found at Christmas parties, whether it be in the office or someone’s home, or in having just the perfect tree, or the nicest decorations in the whole city block, or the best decorated house in the entire province.
Even for those of us who place great value on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christmas can be a time of year that reveals our need for a new way of doing things. A time of the year that shows that we too need to repent, and that we too need to empty our cups so that they can be filled with the water of life.
In so many ways we are all in a wilderness at this time of the year. A wilderness that is not of rocks and sand, heat and thirst, but a wilderness that is just as desolate and which makes us feeling spiritually dry.
Being busy is a feature of this desert of ours. Endless rounds of Christmas shopping, meetings and partying. At the end of the day, all this busyness leaves us exhausted and emotionally drained.
Noise attacks us. From the noise in the large shopping malls to the endless noise of carols, advertisements attacking us in the middle of our city of Hong Kong, or wherever you might be, not to mention from radios and televisions.
There is great pressure on us to feel happy, to be full of Christmas cheer, to enjoy ourselves, even when we are feeling much too tired, or wrapped up in our private and important grief.
We all feel compelled to spend money that we do not have. Either charging up great big debts on our credit cards, and for those who do not have credit cards, borrow money from money lenders in order for our families and friends either in Hong Kong or overseas can have the latest toys and gadgets that they do not really need.
On top of all that, we get so many appeals for this charity or that charity, and we are also asked to work harder and longer hours, so that we might, as it was possible in our absence, make our family happier.
We are certainly in a wilderness, a wilderness both within ourselves and outside, and we need desperately the way of the Lord to be made ready in our lives so that we can emerge from that wilderness and come to the place where there is rest, the place of hope, joy, peace, and love, the place where our God resides – within our hearts.
I remember hearing of suggestions as to how we might better prepare the way in our lives, and in the lives of other people.
The suggestions are ways of turning around in how many of us go through Advent and Christmas, a kind of repentance as it were.
It might be worth considering that instead of doing more things during Advent and Christmas, we might consider doing less, that we might consider slowing down and relaxing a bit more, as these precious Christmas days are much too precious to spend in doing what other people wanted us to do. Maybe we can consider having a month of saying NO.
NO to meetings that I can put off until the month of January. No to invitations that I may regret of giving out or accepting when the date arrives. NO to demands that take our attention away from our families and loved ones. When I say No to all such things, I will be able to say YES to other things, things such as Yes in trying out that new Christmas recipe. Yes to writing to neglected friends and relatives, YES to sharing Christmas stories and singing the beautiful songs of the season with people I love. YES to cuddling up to your spouse or love ones.
Maybe we can even consider inviting someone whom we know is lonely over to our house for Christmas dinner? What about reading the scriptures and praying for our church and our world? What about letting go of some unnecessary activity so that we will can have more time for family, church, home and friends. What about meditating each day on the generosity of God and his call for us to live by His love?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, repentance is what most of us needs, the turning around that most of us requires. It is not such a hard thing to do. It is a necessary change of attitude toward life, and towards the things in this world that we hold as important right now.
Repentance is not all about beating on your breast and saying what a miserable sinner I have been. Repentance is not saying I am sorry over and over again. Repentance is doing things in a new way. A way that will give life both to yourselves and to other people. Repentance is the only way that will allow our Lord Jesus Christ to enter more deeply into your hearts.
All of us here today know more about John the Baptist than the people who first heard him some 2000 years ago. We do know that the one, who followed, the one that he called people to prepare for, was the Lord of Life, a man who bestowed health and wholeness on all who were ready for him. However, John’s words to us are just important today as it was 2000 years ago. John calls on us to the new life revealed in Jesus.
JOHN IS CALLING ON US TO THE NEW LIFE REVEALED IN JEUS.
He reminds us that if are to have that life, we must do just a little more than just wanting it. We must prepare ourselves for it, by making changes in our directions. We must prepare ourselves for it by doing certain things differently than we have done in the past.
To repent is to recognize that the old ways in which we have been traveling on will lead us only to a spiritual death, and will lead further and further away from God. To repent is to recognize the need to turn around, and to ask for God’s forgiveness and help, and by the help of His grace started walking in the way that will lead us to the light.
Repentance is a beginning that is blessed by God, a beginning that we all need to make each day, one day at a time.
As we turn to face Jesus, our lives are warmed, for his light shines on our path. As we walk forward from the place we were, we find our paths are made straight, the valleys in our way are raised up, the mountains and hills are made low, the rough places are leveled out, the rugged places becomes a plain, for Jesus is walking with us.
Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, all her sins has been paid for. AMEN.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near
I do not know about you, but a lot of people find it difficult to understand John the Baptist and what value are his message is to us today.
I have a feeling that very few people, whether it be 2000 years ago, or in today’s world really understand what he was trying to tell us when he told everyone that his job was to ‘prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” At least I must admit that I did have a problem in understanding what it means for us in today’s world.
I do not think that there were that many people who could even begin to understand it when he said that “After me comes one whose sandals I am not worthy to untie”
And among all the people who responded to his call of, “Repent and be baptized” they must have been deeply confused to hear him declaring to them “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What was John all about?
Why was he doing what he did?
And what is the importance of his message for all of us gathered here today?
To me, John the Baptist is the very voice of Advent, he is the voice of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to this world to intervene for us in the relationship between God and ourselves.
His message was not only a word about our Lord Jesus.
It was the Good News, in other words, the Gospel. It was the beginning of the Good News for you and me. It was the beginning of the Good News for the entire world.
The entire episode of John and his message was at the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus in this world. John’s message, still is the beginning today for everyone who want to walk with Jesus. This is for everyone who wants to find their way out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land…..
There is an old Chinese proverb, and I should know, as I am Chinese by race, that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step.
John’s purpose in his ministry was to point out to everyone in those days, and to all of us in today’s world what that first step must be. He was pointing out to us that the way of our Lord Jesus Christ must be prepared, and that we are not simply talking of a highway in the desert, but it must be a highway in our very hearts, a route or direction that we must all take, if we are to be ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One day a university professor went to visit a great master by the name of Nan-In. The university professor asked the Master to teach him what he needed to know in order to have a happy life. He told the Master that he studied the sacred scriptures, he already visited all the greatest teachers in Japan, and yet he was not able to find the answer, and humbly he was asking Nan-In to show him the way to a happy life.
Nan-In said nothing and started serving tea to his guest. Nan-In kept on pouring tea into his visitor’s cup, and kept on pouring and pouring so that the tea began to run over the rim of the cup and across the table, and still he poured, until tea was flowing down from the table onto the floor. The professor watched this until he could no longer restrain himself. “It is overfull, stop, no more will go in”. He cried out.
Nan-In said, “Just like this cup, you are full of your opinions and speculations. How can I show you the way to a happy life until and unless you have emptied your cup?”
Indeed how can we ever welcome Christ? How can we ever enter the Promised Land with Him, if we ourselves are so full of our faith and trust in our own strengths, so full of our own high opinions of ourselves, so full of our poor opinion of other people, or so full of our own speculations, and therefore have no room for Him. How can we ever welcome the Lord if our hearts are not prepared? How?
How can we ever welcome the Lord if our hearts are not prepared? How?
John the Baptist came in order to prepare the way of the Lord. He prepared the way of the Lord, not by building a highway in the wilderness of Judea. He prepared the way of the Lord by preparing the hearts and minds of all who were willing to listen to him and to repent of their ways.
John the Baptist called on the people to hear his message and to take action, so that they would be able to greet the Messiah, and walk in the way of the Lord.
Repent, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, he cried out, for after me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
REPENT!
What does the word repent mean?
It simply meant to “turn around”, to change the direction that we are going, to face a new way, to begin to move on that new way, and to leave behind the old way. It means to turn to the Lord and not to rely on our own resources, for never could we have salvation by our own efforts or to be able to face our daily trails or to walk with our Lord. By our own efforts we will not even be able to live another day!
Much as the professor had to empty himself to learn the way of how to have a happy life, so each and everyone of us must change direction if we are to truly see the Lord and walk with Him from the wilderness to the Promised Land through all the trials and tribulations we faces in this world.
You may tell me, ‘But Edwin, we are living in Hong Kong, and not in the wilderness of Judea. What are you talking about?” The wilderness we are in, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is contained in our hearts. The wilderness is in our hearts.
The wilderness is in our hearts.
It is not what is outside that defines our wilderness, rather it is what is inside ourselves, it is created by what we are done, or what we left undone. In other words, it is define by our own actions or inactions.
However, outside things do have a great influence and they can, especially during certain time in the year, to point out to us just how barren and how unfruitful our present way of life is.
During Christmas time we can more easily detect the hazards of a life unprepared for our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can more easily see what we are lacking in, and have a more of an experience of our need for God, for something or for anything that will ease our burdens in life.
Christmas can be such a lonely time.
It is a lonely time, not only for those of us who are far away from family and loved ones, but also for those who are alone because they are widows or single mothers. It is also a lonely time for those who have no peace in their minds. It is a lonely time for those who have been deceived into thinking that they can ever buy happiness for their families and friends by purchasing bigger gifts, better gifts or more expensive gifts.
It can be such a barren time and a time without joy, for those who think that somehow all that they ever needed could be found at Christmas parties, whether it be in the office or someone’s home, or in having just the perfect tree, or the nicest decorations in the whole city block, or the best decorated house in the entire province.
Even for those of us who place great value on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Christmas can be a time of year that reveals our need for a new way of doing things. A time of the year that shows that we too need to repent, and that we too need to empty our cups so that they can be filled with the water of life.
In so many ways we are all in a wilderness at this time of the year. A wilderness that is not of rocks and sand, heat and thirst, but a wilderness that is just as desolate and which makes us feeling spiritually dry.
Being busy is a feature of this desert of ours. Endless rounds of Christmas shopping, meetings and partying. At the end of the day, all this busyness leaves us exhausted and emotionally drained.
Noise attacks us. From the noise in the large shopping malls to the endless noise of carols, advertisements attacking us in the middle of our city of Hong Kong, or wherever you might be, not to mention from radios and televisions.
There is great pressure on us to feel happy, to be full of Christmas cheer, to enjoy ourselves, even when we are feeling much too tired, or wrapped up in our private and important grief.
We all feel compelled to spend money that we do not have. Either charging up great big debts on our credit cards, and for those who do not have credit cards, borrow money from money lenders in order for our families and friends either in Hong Kong or overseas can have the latest toys and gadgets that they do not really need.
On top of all that, we get so many appeals for this charity or that charity, and we are also asked to work harder and longer hours, so that we might, as it was possible in our absence, make our family happier.
We are certainly in a wilderness, a wilderness both within ourselves and outside, and we need desperately the way of the Lord to be made ready in our lives so that we can emerge from that wilderness and come to the place where there is rest, the place of hope, joy, peace, and love, the place where our God resides – within our hearts.
I remember hearing of suggestions as to how we might better prepare the way in our lives, and in the lives of other people.
The suggestions are ways of turning around in how many of us go through Advent and Christmas, a kind of repentance as it were.
It might be worth considering that instead of doing more things during Advent and Christmas, we might consider doing less, that we might consider slowing down and relaxing a bit more, as these precious Christmas days are much too precious to spend in doing what other people wanted us to do. Maybe we can consider having a month of saying NO.
NO to meetings that I can put off until the month of January. No to invitations that I may regret of giving out or accepting when the date arrives. NO to demands that take our attention away from our families and loved ones. When I say No to all such things, I will be able to say YES to other things, things such as Yes in trying out that new Christmas recipe. Yes to writing to neglected friends and relatives, YES to sharing Christmas stories and singing the beautiful songs of the season with people I love. YES to cuddling up to your spouse or love ones.
Maybe we can even consider inviting someone whom we know is lonely over to our house for Christmas dinner? What about reading the scriptures and praying for our church and our world? What about letting go of some unnecessary activity so that we will can have more time for family, church, home and friends. What about meditating each day on the generosity of God and his call for us to live by His love?
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, repentance is what most of us needs, the turning around that most of us requires. It is not such a hard thing to do. It is a necessary change of attitude toward life, and towards the things in this world that we hold as important right now.
Repentance is not all about beating on your breast and saying what a miserable sinner I have been. Repentance is not saying I am sorry over and over again. Repentance is doing things in a new way. A way that will give life both to yourselves and to other people. Repentance is the only way that will allow our Lord Jesus Christ to enter more deeply into your hearts.
All of us here today know more about John the Baptist than the people who first heard him some 2000 years ago. We do know that the one, who followed, the one that he called people to prepare for, was the Lord of Life, a man who bestowed health and wholeness on all who were ready for him. However, John’s words to us are just important today as it was 2000 years ago. John calls on us to the new life revealed in Jesus.
JOHN IS CALLING ON US TO THE NEW LIFE REVEALED IN JEUS.
He reminds us that if are to have that life, we must do just a little more than just wanting it. We must prepare ourselves for it, by making changes in our directions. We must prepare ourselves for it by doing certain things differently than we have done in the past.
To repent is to recognize that the old ways in which we have been traveling on will lead us only to a spiritual death, and will lead further and further away from God. To repent is to recognize the need to turn around, and to ask for God’s forgiveness and help, and by the help of His grace started walking in the way that will lead us to the light.
Repentance is a beginning that is blessed by God, a beginning that we all need to make each day, one day at a time.
As we turn to face Jesus, our lives are warmed, for his light shines on our path. As we walk forward from the place we were, we find our paths are made straight, the valleys in our way are raised up, the mountains and hills are made low, the rough places are leveled out, the rugged places becomes a plain, for Jesus is walking with us.
Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, all her sins has been paid for. AMEN.
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