Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 9th December 2007 by Rev. Kwok Nai Wang. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 40:10-17 and John 5:30-40.


The second candle in Advent has just been lit. This reminds us that we are now in the 2nd Sunday in Advent. Advent means coming. This is the season for us to prepare for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The birth of Jesus happened about 2,000 years ago. It was history. But the meaning of this historic event is ever new and relevant to all of us. Certainly, we need to celebrate Christmas or to commemorate the birth of Jesus every year; but more importantly, through this celebration of an historical event, we must internalize the true meaning of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is only through this that our life will be revitalized and be more purposeful.

The Christmas decorations went up as early as mid-November. In a highly consumerized society such as Hong Kong, the well-to-do people have begun to go Christmas shopping and make preparations for Christmas parties. The religious meaning or rather the real life meaning of Christmas has long been forgotten. Christians do not fare any better. In order to revert this trend, one of the things we must do is to once again take Advent seriously. The Advent season and particularly the four Sundays in Advent provide us golden opportunities to prepare in our minds as well as in our hearts the historic, yet forever existential and relevant meaning of Christmas.

The theme for the first Sunday in Advent which was last Sunday was “We must be born from above”. The theme for the Second Sunday in Advent is the Bible. The Bible is a key witness to God’s Acts in history, especially His Incarnation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the widest circulated book in all human history. It is the best of the best sellers. According to the Bible Society, three billion copies of the Bible have been printed. It has been translated into 300 odd languages.

Our Bible contains two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament written in Hebrew is the Hebrew Bible. It has 24 books. It may be classified into three categories, namely Torah (or the five books attributed to Moses); Neviim (the Prophets) and Ketuvim (the writings or literature); according to Jeremiah (18:18) or Luke (24:44). However, in our Bible 12 “minor” prophets are considered as 12 books; and the longer books were split into two, such as Ezra-Nehemiah; Kings, Chronicles and Samuel; thus making it 39 books. These 24 books were canonized in the year 91 A.D. when the leaders met in Jamnia. The Hebrew Bible was first translated into Greek in the first century B.C.E. This Greek Bible or the Septuagint was translated into Latin around the 3rd and the 4th centuries. The Latin Bible or the Vulgate finally was translated into English and German in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The New Testament consists of 27 books: 7 Pauline letters; The Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles; the Paulinist letters and the General letters as well as the Johannie Writings (the Gospel of John, 3 letters of John and the Revelations). These 27 books were canonized only in 397 A.D. in the Church Council at Carthage.

Basically, our Bible contains the faith documents of two faith communities, namely, the Isralites or the Jewish people between 1040 B.C.E. to 100 A.D.; and the followers of Jesus or the Early Church between 49 A.D. to 110 A.D.

The Bible primarily is a book for worship. It provides the Jewish and especially the Christian communities abundant resources in hymns, prayers, preaching and creeds or faith statements. Some books or parts of them in the Bible were written exclusively for liturgical purposes. In the Old Testament, for instance, the five little scrolls were written for and to be read in the five main Jewish festivals: Songs of Songs in Passover; Ruth in Pentecost; The Lamentations in Ab – the day when the Jews commemorated the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.; Ecclesiastes in the Feast of the Tabernacle and finally Esther in Purim. Likewise in the New Testament, several books were written for use in public worship for the Early Church. Matthew, Ephesians and Colossians were such examples.

Psalms were written to be sung in public worship. Unfortunately, the music for the psalms have long been lost. There are many other hymns in the Old Testament. The most famous are the Song of Moses (Ex 15:1-8) and a Song by David (II Sam ch.22).

In the New Testament, there are at least six hymns for Christ, viz. Col 1:15-20; Phil 2:6-11; I Tim 3:16; I Peter 3:18-22 (1:20); Hebrews 1:1-4 and the Prologue in John (1:1-14). Another example: In the first two chapters of the Gospel according to Luke alone, there are five hymns of praise or doxologies: Song of Mary or the Magnificat (1:46-55); Song of Zechariah or the Benedictus (1:68-79); the angels sang praises to God after the birth of Jesus (2:14); the song by Simeon or the Nunc Dimitties (2:29-32) and the praise of prophetess Anna (2:38).

There are countless important prayers in the Old Testament: temple prayer in Nehemiah (9:5-31); Hannah’s prayer (I Sam 2:1-10); David’s prayer (II Sam 7:18-29) Jonah’s prayer (2:2-9); and Prophet Habakkuk’s prayer (3:2-19), etc. The most famous prayer in the New Testament of course is the Lord’s Prayer, which we use in worship every Sunday.

The Bible contains countless faith statements. The recitals found in Deuteronomy 6 (vss 21-25) and 26 (vss 5-9) and in Joshua 24 (vss 2-13) are prime examples.

The Bible does not only contain rich resources for preaching, it contains good examples of sermons delivered by Apostle Peter (Acts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10) and Apostle Paul (Acts 13) as well.

Finally, the Bible provides us with valuable guides regarding the order of worship: for example, in the Call of Prophet Isaiah:

Praise (Is 6:2-3)
Confession (Is 6:4-7)
Commission (Is 6:8-13)

Nehemiah 9 gives us the form of the Jewish worship in the Temple.

The Bible as a book of worship enables us to focus on God rather than on our own life; to help us to understand God and our relationship to God. As the Prophet Hosea says, “God is God and not human. God is the Holy One in our midst (meaning God is the infinite Creator and not a finite created being). (Hosea11:9).

Regarding God’s relationship to humans, Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel in quoting Deuteronomy asserted, “God is our God and we are God’s people” (Deut. 29:13; Jer 30:22, 31:1, 31:33; 32:38; Eze 11:20, 26:28, 37:27, etc.). In knowing God, we know who we are. As Proverbs says, “To have reverence to God is the beginning of our wisdom (or knowledge) (1:7).

The Bible also aims to educate the faithful. Besides a look of worship, assisting us to have reverence to God, thus knowing who we are, the Bible is also a book to teach us how to live a life in relationship to God. Thus every Sunday, before we read the Bible, our response, taking from Psalm 119:105 is, “Your Word (the Bible) is a lamp for my feet, a light to my path.”

Apostle Paul had this to say about the Bible, “Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us” (Rom 15:4) or in, the Second Letter to Timothy, “all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living”. (3:16-17).

In fact, all letters written by Paul are “concrete” letters, Paul wrote to the faithful with the purpose to answer their concrete concern or problems in their daily living. For example in his first letter to the Church in Corinth, Paul tried to clarify some concrete questions about marriage (ch. 7); about food offered to idols (ch. 8); about Holy Communion (ch. 11); about Church Unity (ch. 12); about the gift of love (ch. 13); about resurrection (ch.15) and so on.

When we study carefully the letters written by Paul and other apostles, we can easily detect that without exception every letter is divided into two parts: first part is about theological exposition and the second part about how Christians should live their life. That is why sometimes, the Bible in general and the letters in the New Testament in particular is labelled as a book concerning theo-ethics – Christian behaviour based on their understanding of their relationship to God and God’s demand. Another good example is in the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew consists of mainly five teaching blocks by Jesus, namely chs 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount); ch. 10 (the missionary nature of disciples). Ch. 13 (the parables of God’s Kingdom); ch. 18 (the caring nature of the Church) and chs 24-25 (the final judgment). All these teachings are about God’s Kingdom or rather how human beings should live in relation to God. In final analysis, all Biblical teachings are about life, the life as God intended for all of us. This is what John observed in his deep thoughts, “You study the Scriptures, because in them you can find eternal life.” (5:39). To put it in another way, the Scriptures are the source of life because they transmit to us God’s Word, which is the Word of life.

How do we read the Bible?

First of all, we have to realize that the Bible is a highly complicated compilation of writings written in between 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. The Old Testament basically was Jewish in nature. The New Testament also originated from the Jewish culture and religion, but later influenced by the Greeco-Roman world. Now, we live in a completely different age and culture. It is natural that there are many and varied interpretations regarding the message of the Bible. But we must never select a certain passage to judge and to condemn people or their behaviour. For example, in the past several years, some fundamental Christians have used Leviticus 18 and Romans 1:26-27 to condemn homosexuality. This was highly inappropriate.

We should not only read the words of the Bible. As Paul put it, “written letters kill, but the spirit gives life” (II Cor 3:6). Biblicism or Literalism can be extremely dangerous and can easily lead us go astray – away from the Love of God.

We must understand the meaning of the Bible in totality. The Bible uncovers for us what is life – i.e. the life ultimately in relationship to God. The Bible does not merely inform us about the faith of the Jewish people and the faith of the Early Church; but more importantly, the Bible inspires us: It strengthens our faith in God. It is only in this faith that we can experience the rich meaning and purpose in our life, which is the abundant life or eternal life and which is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:
O God, you have commanded the light of Your Word to shine through darkness. Nurture us with this Word and let this Light shine into our hearts and minds, that we may know how to follow the path of righteousness. Amen.