Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 19th November 2006 by Rev. Kwok Nai Wang.

I John 4:7-21

There is a saga about John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples. In his old age, John went to semi-exile in a Greek island called Patmos. One day, Christians gathered for a meeting. John was asked to be the preacher. Those who gathered expected John to give a lengthy sermon about Jesus’ teaching and miracles. To their utter surprise, John stood up and mumbled three words, “God is love” and then sat down. No more words. There was silence. Yes, God is love. This is not only the core message of the Johannine writings (which include the Gospel of John, three letters by John and the Book of Revelation); it is also the fundamental doctrine of Christianity.

God is love. But in facing difficulties, we cannot avoid asking, “if God is love, why we have to face difficulties; and why are there so many tragedies and incessant human suffering in the world?

We learn from periodic reports of the various agencies of the United Nations that at least one-tenth of the people in the world have to go to sleep at night with an empty stomach. They do not have clean water nor a safe shelter. When they are sick, they receive no medical care. Their children do not have opportunities to go to school. Two years ago, prior to the opening of the United Nations general assembly in October, many heads of state gathered for an “Action Against Hunger and Poverty” summit. The Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva pleaded passionately, “How many times will it be necessary to repeat that the most destructive weapon of mass destruction in the world is POVERTY?” We live in a calamitous and seemingly hopeless world. Where is God?

Then, there are serious natural disasters year after year. In September 2004 typhoon Jeanne hit Haiti. Nearly half of Haiti was wiped out due to heavy landslides and floods. At Christmas 2004, a Tsunami hit many parts of Asia causing more than 200,000 deaths and millions lost their homes. In August 2005, typhoon Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, destroying many towns including the famous tourist city of New Orleans. Then there are constant earthquakes, droughts, floods in China, in many parts of Africa and in the Arab World.

Many a time, fundamental Christians tried to explain that God used these disasters to punish people who were unfaithful to God. God used the Tsunami to punish the non-believers in Thailand (where most of the people are Buddhists), Indonesian (Muslim and Buddhists). God used typhoon Jeanne to punish the greedy Haitian land owners who cut the trees in the land they owned indiscriminately and sold them to furniture factories in Europe and Taiwan. God used Katrina to punish the sinful city of New Orleans (quoting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from GEN. 18-19). No, as Christians we must reject this simplistic and unloving theory. God is love. God is merciful. Even in God’s judgment, God let Adam and Eve live and protected them so that they would not be harmed (c.f. GEN 3). Similarly in the other three human “fall” stories (GEN 4, 6-9 and 11) we can see clearly that as God is the God of justice, God had to judge. But even in God’s judgment, God’s mercy was ever present.

God is love. It is our unloved, uncaring, indifference, ambitions which undo, conceal or withhold God’s love. It is often our selfish desires which ruin our relationship with people and destroy our trust in God.

We do not fully comprehend why people have to suffer. In the story of Jesus healing a blind man, Jesus’ disciples asked the same question, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should have been born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that the works of God might be revealed in him.” (JN 9:1-13). One of my favorite hymns of praise is “God moves in a mysterious way: the wonders to perform”.

We do not fully understand God’s will and God’s activities. But for those of us who claim that we have faith in God, because of this faith, we must also dare to affirm that in the midst of turmoil and ordeal, God never gives up on us. “Emmanuel”, God is with us. God is love. God never turns away from all human suffering. In fact God always stands alongside the people who suffer. In the story of the flood, it was recorded when God saw that “the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness, God was grieved at heart” (GEN. 6:6). Theologians like to call this, the pain of God.

God is love. God responds in God’s way to all human suffering. This was the way the Exodus Event began: Yahweh said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am still aware of their sufferings. And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them out of the country…” (EX. 3:7). This Exodus Event thus has become the prototype of God’s saving acts. The whole history of Israel, by extension all of human history, thus became God’s Salvation History (Heilsgeschichte). As Christians, we should believe that God is the God of history. Out of God’s love, God acts in history incessantly. God saves us from chaos to order, from darkness to light, from fear to faith, from despair to hope, from hatred to love. Through Jesus Christ, God has granted the peace which passes all understanding (PHIL 4:7) to each and everyone of us.

God is love. “God hates nothing that God has made”, so says the Anglican collect (short prayer) on Ash Wednesday. In fact “God so loved the world that God gave the only son so that everyone who believes is God may not perish, but may have eternal life.” (JN. 3:16). Jesus Christ, the incarnate God (God became flesh/human). “Came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (MK. 10:45). Jesus fully manifested God’s love for all humankind and finally being crucified on a cross through his suffering. Jesus’ sacrificial love was able to conquer all (paraphrasing the very last words of Jesus’ farewell discourse in JN. 16:33). This includes alienation, human pride and prejudice, ignorance and self-centredness… As Christians, or to be precise as Jesus’ disciples, do we need to follow Jesus or at least try our very best to imitate Jesus, in our thoughts, words, acts and life style? All his life, Jesus witnessed to God’s love and justice. So must we. Our faith in God always has life inflictions.

Pope Benedict XVI, shortly after he began his papacy visited Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi concentration camp in Poland where tens of thousands Jews were exterminated in the 1940s. This was meant to be a sign of reconciliation: between the Roman Catholics and the Jews. It was also a sign of repentance by the Germans (the Pope is a German) as well as by the Catholic Church.

In strolling inside the camp, Pope Benedict offered prayers and was in a somber mood meditating throughout the brief visit. Then obviously shaken, he uttered, “Where was God when all this happened?” Serious theologians would say that the Pope raised the wrong question. The question he should have asked is “Where was the Church in all these insanities?” As a matter of fact, the Roman Catholic Church did little to prevent the rampage of Hitler. The Roman Catholic Church pontiff at the time, Pope Pius XII remained silent throughout the Nazi atrocities. His silence was widely criticized, especially by Rolf Hochhuth’s powerful drama, “The Deputy” which was published in 1964.

We all live in a global village, to be even more precise, God’s oikoumene. We are all linked together. As God’s children, we are all sisters and brothers. We are interdependent. We need each other. We cannot say that whatever happen in the far corner of the world has nothing to do with us. In every human calamity, we should ask, “Where was I?” Was I concerned or indifferent?”

There was a Negro spiritual called, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord”. The crucifixion of Jesus certainly has everything to do with us. But we are used to be bystanders. So we must repent. We must turn our insensitivity and apathy into love and concern.

As Christians, we all believe that God is love and that we should not only love God but also love one another. But oftentimes we set limits to our love. We choose to love only those whom we think are worthy of our love. But was this what Jesus taught us? Jesus loved especially all those who were marginalized; who were despised by the mainstream in society, such as women, the Samaritans (the non-Jews), the poor and the sinners. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (LK 10:25-37), Jesus tried to introduce the idea of “limitless love”. Indeed God’s love is without limits. The Christian Church is always eager to engage in evangelism. However, often our ultimate goal is only to convert people, who disregard their belief and culture, into Christians.

We are in Asia. Asia is not only the biggest and in terms of race and ethnic background the most complex continent in the world. Almost half of the world’s population live in Asia. Let us not forget Asia is also a continent of immense spirituality.

Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Taoism all have their roots in Asia. (Many even argue that the Judeo-Christian faith also has its roots in the East.) Since God is the God of all humanity, God loves the Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindi just as much as God loves Christians. In our evangelistic efforts we must be more humble in dealing with people who follow different living faiths. After all, Christians are an absolute minority in Asia. We must learn to appreciate the teaching and practice of various faith traditions. In trying to witness to God’s love, we must respect people who are faithful to their traditions.

There was a story in Sri Lanka. A Christian boy has a good friend who is a Buddhist. One day his pastor told him that as a Christian he can go to heaven. The young boy asked whether his good friend who is not a Christian can also go. The pastor quoting from the Bible that “only in him is there salvation” (ACTS 4:12), answered, no he cannot. The boy then said, I would rather stay with my friend and not go to heaven. “Not Without My Neighbour” has become the title of a book by Wesley Ariarjah of the World Council of Churches. This story certainly gives us Christians some food for thought. We should be serious about our neighbours. All people, especially those in need are our neighbours. We should love our neighbours as ourselves. In answering the lawyer who tried to justify himself by setting limits to God’s love, Jesus ended the parable of the Good Samaritan (LK. 10) saying, “Go and do the same yourself”. The Samaritan has shown us that love is without limits. He, the Samaritan, took great care of a Jew who needed help though despite Samaritans and Jews were (and still are) enemies.

We live in a world of uncertainty. In this day and age, people do not trust one another. As a result, we are very afraid to love, to be involved in the life of another person. We simply do not want to get hurt. Let us hear once more John’s insights:

“In love, there is no room for fear but perfect love drives out fear”
(I JN 4:18).

If we truly accept God’s love, we will not be anxious. But instead, we can be free, free to love our sisters and brothers whichever their culture and religion; economic and political backgrounds.

We all have our limitations. We may not be able to do a lot to change the world. But doing something is always better than doing nothing. If all Christians in the world dare to reach out our hand and take that extra step, God’s world will be better off. It will be more humane, just and peaceful. Consequently, more and more people will be able to enjoy their life as given by God.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, we give you thanks for your boundless love. Through Jesus Christ you also have given us the command to love each other. Grant us grace to fulfill it. Mold us to be more gentle and courteous, generous and forbearing. Sanctify our relationship with all our relatives, friends and colleagues. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.