Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 25th November 2007 by Ms. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and 2 Corinthians 9:6-9.


Introduction

Today is the ‘Thanksgiving Service”. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It is a day to give thanks to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest and blessings in every aspect.

The origin of Thanksgiving in both countries is very much related to their national history of their ancestors going to the ‘new land’ of the North America and settled there after much hardship and difficulties. They give thanks to God for the blessings that fall upon them in the land.

Thanksgiving is significant for Jews and Christians to give thanks to God who provides daily needs to enrich lives. Lord God is redeemer who saves her people from the dark and leads them to light.

Coincidently, today is the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women. According to the United Nation’s report “In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women 2006”, at least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. In view of women’s suffering from violence and violation of their basic human rights and dignity, what does ‘thanksgiving’ mean to them and us?

Let me start with my experience

Ten years ago, three friends and I, altogether 4 people all came from social work background formed a new women organization concerning sexual violence against women. We saw the plights of women who are sexually harassed but suffer silently because of the neglect of society and the discrimination against them. Each of us contributed HK$1,000 to start off this organization and the hotline service. The service was initially run by volunteers. You know where was our base at that time? As we were nobody and had no money then, we could not effort to rent any place. With grace, we were allowed to use the office of the Hong Kong Women Christian Council in the evening after their office hours.

After a year of operation, the women organization began to get her first donation of HK$200,000 from the Oxfam. After three years of hard work in delivering direct services to victims and advocacy in community, the organization successfully applied for fund of 6 million dollars from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Fund, to start the first rape crisis centre in Hong Kong, namely Rain Lily (風雨蘭). You may have seen the promotion posters in MTR stations before.

There is a Chinese idiom “Everything starts with difficulty” (萬事起頭難). It is always difficult to start from nothing right at the beginning. It is no exception with the women organization I worked with as a volunteer. What made this organization a success in terms of pursuing the rights of women and serving the victims of sexual violence by eventually establishing the 24-hours Rain Lily Rape Crisis Centre? The key was the commitment and persistence. The other thing was the founders concentrated on what they had and offered them with delight. They were very much concerned with the victims of sexual violence and had a strong conviction for the service provided to this group of women.

The women founders were not rich in money terms, but they had rich experiences in social services and community work. Most important of all, they were willing to give with great commitment. I remembered during the course of advocating the setting up the Crisis Centre for the sexual violence victims, many people including the related government officers put us off by saying the problem of sexual violence was not serious as there were only around 100 rape cases and 1000 sexual harassment cases a year. We however insisted our course of work. To us, one woman suffering from this kind of violence is already too much. It is not a matter of figure, but a matter of human dignity and concern for human suffering.

The women had offered their strength during the course of actions to serve. They concentrated on what they had and not what they were lacking. Let me stop this story here for now, I’ll come back to it later.

Essence of offering---to commit and to give the best with gratitude

Offering of the first fruits ---‘bikurium’ is the Jewish tradition that required under the Jewish law of Mishnah. This is an important practice following God’s commandment to the Israelites that the first born of man and beast belong to God. (Exodus 13: 1) Bikurium teaches us to devote our strongest and freshest resources to God, to those people and to those values that we most cherish. The essence of offering is not to quantify what we have, but to give our best to God out of different kind of limitations.

The ‘first fruits’ offering reminds us that what we are and what we have are from God. We are nothing and nobody if God does not give the gifts to us with her love and grace in the first place. It is thus not only a free will for everyone of us to offer gratitude to God, but also our obligation to offer ourselves with humility and gratitude.

Essence of offering---God remembers the afflicted and the oppressed

The text of Deut 26:1-11 reflects a setting of the Temple Era, every farmer was commanded to bring to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem the first fruits which ripened in his orchard. During the course of expressing gratitude, those who offer would recite a passage to thank God for the Land and its bountiful harvest, and the fruit were given to the priests. The offering of the fruits of the soil is linked to an event in salvation history, the entry of the Promised Land.

The reciting of the salvation history during the offering of first fruits every time is a very significant ritual to remind the people once again Lord is God of deliverance. He is always with the suffered and oppressed. God is a living God. He plays an active role in human history. He will never forsake those who are afflicted and persecuted. God will be with them and save them from oppression. This is a great promise of hope.

From the concern and commitment of the women social workers in the women organization I mentioned at the beginning, I can see how God remembers the women who suffered from sexual violence. God does not abandon the women but it is through these four women founders and some other committed volunteers, God’s love, comforts and hope fell upon the victims.

The recitation of the Israelites’ deliverance in God’s mighty power and grace reminds us also how important it is for people who are brought out of bondage and have been experiencing the liberation of God to remember the grace and abundant blessing of God, and to give thanks to God with humble gratitude. Moreover, thanksgiving grounded in the liberation history reminds us to remember those who are suffering from affliction, toil and oppression in our immediate neighborhood and around the world. In this thanksgiving season, Christians as individual and faithful community has to respond to God’s call to concern and serve the people in need with concrete action.

Essence of offering--- Sharing with the aliens

Thanksgiving Day is a communal celebration marked as a sense of gratitude people feel for all the good things in life. This is done by offering prayers, gifting your near and dear ones. In the States, families try as much as they can to reunion and celebrate together for this event.

In the Jewish tradition of thanksgiving, the commandment of God demands her people to celebrate the blessings with family and beyond by including the aliens/foreigners living with us. In Deut 26: 11 from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), it said “then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and your house.” (In the New Jerusalem Bible, the term foreigner is used) Who are the aliens/foreigners living around us in our society today? I have thought of those migrant workers coming from the Philippines, Indonesia and Nepal etc, as well the asylum seekers and refugees. Any other alien people can you think of at this moment of time? Let’s regard them as part of our family and our community, share with them our bounty gifts given by graceful God.

The essence of thanksgiving is to share with those ‘have not’. The ‘have-not’ people are not necessarily those lacking of material living, they can be the people who suffer from isolation, exclusion, exploitation and marginalization due to differences in race, gender, age, sexual and political orientations, and occupation etc. Recently I read a newsletter of a local organization namely Zi Teng. The aim of this organization is to raise concern on human rights violation and exploitation of sex workers in Hong Kong and China. Due to strong moral judgment and social discrimination against these women working in this sex industry, the police can easily abused their power to take advantage by demanding free sex with the sex workers in the disguise of carrying duties. The police are further accused of manipulating the laws to charge the sex workers. The marginalized and disadvantaged people in society are worthy of our attention and support.

When we share our gifts to Lord, we are asked to offer in the presence of God. (Deut 26:4-5) ‘In the presence of God we offer’ demonstrates a significant meaning of what we do and give is sharing of what God has given to us. We are only agents of God to share with the needy. In the presence of God, all human beings are equal. Therefore those who give are not superior to the receiving end. Giving and serving is a form of sharing, sharing of God’s love and grace. We are no different in terms of the intrinsic values and human dignity from the marginalized and disadvantaged people in the presence of God as we are all God’s holy creatures. It is very much likely that it is only circumstances that make us different in experiences and social positions.

Conclusion

From the Jewish commandment of offering the first fruit to God- bikurim, there are three essences in thanksgiving that I would like to conclude here.

The first essence of thanksgiving is to offer our best gifts with gratitude and rejoice. What we have and what we are, are all from God. The second essence is remembering. To remember our Lord is a liberating God for the oppressed and afflicted. We are God’s people to live with her commandment of love and justice. The third essence of thankgiving is sharing, to share with the have-not in a humble and holy manner.

With the good work done by various local women groups and international organizations such as the Unifem, a United Nation’s body committed to eliminate violence against women, to promote gender equality and women rights tell clearly that God does hear the cry of the women suffering from different forms of violence. Our Lord God does not turn a blind eye and deaf ear to those who are afflicted, oppressed and marginalized.

Thanksgiving involves more than just words -- it requires a commitment; the gratitude must express itself in deeds. Bikurim implies that our thankfulness to God cannot remain in the realm of emotions, thoughts, or even speech, but must also move us to action with passion and compassion.

Now let me return to my story about the women organization concerning violence against women. The women organization could successfully start off its service because it received other people and organizations’ contributions. The Women Christian Council was willing to share its space with us. But did you know that in fact, it was the Kowloon Union Church who gave permission to the Women Christian Council to locate their office in the building right next to this sanctuary in the first place! You can see how the good deeds from different organizations contribute to serve the people in need at the end. In our case, a simple act of generosity for KUC to rent the building to the Women Christian Council had helped to facilitate the establishment of the first rape crisis centre in Hong Kong!

Very often, the results of what we have done and offered may not be seen immediately and obviously. Don’t be frustrated and give up, we have to maintain our will and work towards what is right. As apostle Paul encourages us today through the words of God in the 2 Corinthians 9: 9, “he scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness endure forever.” The fundamental character of God is righteousness. God will fulfill his will to do justice and have mercy for those who suffer. God will use different ways to enrich us with every grace so that we have enough for every conceivable need. Our Lord God will provide the necessary resources for her people doing all kinds of good work for others. Our role as giver and attitude in offering are to make up our mind to give with a willing and cheerful heart. (2 Cor 9:7-8)