Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 28th December 2008 by the Rev. Kwok Nai Wang. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 60:1-3; 19-22 and Luke 2:1-20.


According to the Tradition of the West, Christmas has 12 days, from December 25 to January 5. I think many of you are familiar with the song: “The 12 days of Christmas” with the beginning, “on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave me, a partridge on a pear tree…”. However, most of the Churches belonging to the Western Tradition celebrate Christmas already in early December as if they can’t wait. But I wonder whether how many Christians really know and feel the message of Peace and Joy at Christmas?

Let me tell you what happened in some of the Christmases I have encountered during my life time.

On Christmas night of 1953, the whole squatter hut area in Shek Kip Mei where my first parish was, was burnt to the ground in a matter of hours. 50,000 people, young and old, children and woman, mostly refugees from the mainland became homeless and their meagre belongings lost.

The Christmas of 2003 brought millions of citizens in Hong Kong to a state of shock and helplessness and their government a state of panic and incapability. Because it was at the peak of SARS.

Then on Boxing day of Christmas in 2004, a tsunami hit South East Asia and Sub-Asia, causing half million people lost their lives and millions lost their loved ones and/ or their homes as well.

This Christmas, the world is experiencing a financial tsunami, never so serious in the human history. The rich have lost a good part of their wealth. Many bread earners are afraid to lose their jobs and will remain unemployed for a long while. All over the world unemployment soars and the economy is going downhill. Many predicted that it will take months, if not also years to recover.

I have been going to the gym and swimming almost on a daily basis for exactly 23 years as of today. I come to know a few familiar faces, though unfortunately not by name. Days ago, I saw one who arrived at the gym an hour later and stayed there even after I have left. For two decades, this very polite gentleman has been going to the same gym Mondays to Fridays, from 6:30-8.00 a.m. He would leave very punctually at 8 and went to work as a senior sales representative of a European-made trucks manufacturer. Since on that day at about 9 he was still around, I enquired whether he was on vacation. He apologetically told me he was laid off as a result of the economic downturn. In the days to come, though he has finished his exercise I saw him still loitering around at the gym and looked depressed.

A retired minister who has been a dear friend for 4 decades told Dorothy a week ago that half of her savings were gone. Her story was that she had been very careful of putting her savings on fixed deposits in a bank. But months ago, a bank manager persuaded her that since the interests were so low that she’d better put her savings in an investment product which was supposed to be safe. Well, it turned out that no investment product can be safe because of this world-wide tsunami! Perhaps millions of people throughout the world are in the state this Christmas.

Deep down in their hearts where is Joy and Peace at Christmas?

In our midst, there are 12 African brothers who are asylum seekers. I feel your anguish in waiting, not knowing where future lies. Do you feel the joy and peace which Christmas supposed to bring?

In our midst, there are just as many domestic helpers from the Philippines who like our African brothers are separated from your loved ones at home. You have been making significant contributions to the Hong Kong society as a whole but sometimes you have been treated unfairly. Hong Kong needs the Bethune House next door to remind all of us about this harsh reality.

Does Christmas bring to this world peace and joy? Don’t forget the daily violent occurrence in the holy land and at Bethlehem where baby Jesus was born! Don’t rationalize all those tragedies by saying that out of destructions and tragedies, there comes new life. For example: the Shek Kip Mei fire, yes; but, out of it came the massive re-housing project for 40% of the people in Hong Kong. SARS in Hong Kong in 2003 causing 2,000 lives yes, but, it has caused the people in Hong Kong more humble and caring (through this was very short-lived).

What is the joy and peace at Christmas? If there is, it looks like very superficial and cannot last. Just as the beautiful Christmas decorations go up by the end of November and come down at the end of December.

Christians like to play up the joyful mood in every Christmas; but forget the pain and suffering of the fathers and mothers whose babies were killed by King Herod in and around Bethlehem. We play up the majestic scene of three Wisemen who came to worship baby Jesus as recorded in Matthew but ignore totally the violence which the first Christian brought, also recorded by the same Gospel.

Yes, not just at Christmases, but throughout the year, indeed throughout the ages, life is full of tragedies, pain and suffering. Some of these were caused by Nature; but many more by human greed, pride, jealously and hate.

However, Christmases, in fact every Christmas, do remind us about these human situations. That is why God has to intervene in the ancient days through prophets and finally He himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The Christmas message is crystal clear. In the midst of human situation of all conditions, God cares and that we may experience Peace and Joy. This peace is simple, yet profound. As Apostle Paul would put it, “the peace which passes all understanding” and because of this, Paul was able to advise us,” always be joyful, then, in the Lord: I repeat, be joyful” (Phil.4:4-7).

We are unhappy because we are disconnected with God who gives us the life which we have now. The sages in the old have this experience of being in communion with God who is the root of human existence and who gives meaning and purpose in our life.

Let me share with you once again the story about Job in the Old Testament. There was once a man in the land of Uz called Job: a sound and honest man who feared God and shunned evil. He was extremely wealthy with a lovely wife, seven sons and three daughters. But for no good reason, one day, he lost everything. Instead of blaming God and other people, this is the summary of what he said,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I shall return again. The Lord gave, The Lord has taken back. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:18)

How many can say what Job said. Stoically, we may say, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return”. For this is a fact of life which we all experience. We may also claim that the Lord gave, but very difficult to say the Lord has taken away the things we have been enjoying. Probably, none of us would say “blessed be the name of the Lord” when we are down and under! But out of this faith in God, Job could. Job has experienced the peace and joy which passes all understanding.

The context for to-day’s Old Testament lesson is as follows: the Israelites were scattered; many were forced to be in exile in Babylon. Their holy city and especially their temple were destroyed. But in the midst of inordinate darkness this is what Prophet Isaiah said,

“Arise, shine out, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen on you. Look! Though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, on you the Lord is rising and over you his glory can be seen. The nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.” (Is 60:1-3).

This is the spirit and ultimate meaning of Christmas. Behind all human conditions, there is always Peace and Joy because Emmanuel, God is with us!

We often fail to see this important state of life because we are overcrowded, jammed and besieged with many preconceived ideas such as wealth, status, fame, popularity, success… We are so preoccupied with our security and benefit, and care only the “self” that we forget God who is the centre or Ground of our Being and forget people especially our loved ones, our friends, our colleagues who are around us.

Christmas is not about beautiful decorations, parties, exchange of gifts. These are pagan and they do cover up the deeper meaning of Christmas. Christmas goes beyond all superficialities. It is about our deep relationship with God.

The Christmas message is very simple. God came to us in Person, to show us in the most concrete way that He loves us and cares for each one of us: though not in our own way and according to our wishes. In our faith to God, we can experience the fact that “all things work for good for those who love the Lord (in return) (Rom.8:28). This indeed is the basis of the Christian faith.

Let us not complicate Christmas with all the superficial trimmings. The ultimate meaning of Christmas is deep and yet simple and even very humble. This is how Luke viewed the birth of Jesus. Baby Jesus was born in a manger. How simple and humble can that be? Yet the meaning of Jesus’ birth is very profound. The birth of Jesus has changed the course of human history.

In order to emphasize the simplicity and humility of Jesus’ birth, Luke also gave us the story that the good tidings about Jesus’ birth was first given to the shepherds, the simple folks at all time. Was it because the kings and nobles, academics and professionals were too sophisticated that they would not be able to accept such a simple message?

So this is the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas brings Joy and Peace to all people in the midst of all human situations. We experience Peace and Joy as long as we have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Incarnate God.

2008 Christmas will soon be over. A New Year is at our footsteps. This is the last Sunday in 2008. Next Sunday will be the first Sunday in 2009. The old will soon be gone and the new will soon arrive.

This is about the time when we would like to review our life for the past year and make some decisions for the coming year. Instead of simply wish how 2009 may bring us, let us decide, come what may, how we should live our life, itself a precious gift form God. Let us decide in the year to come our life be always connected to God. For it is only in this way we can fill our hearts with Peace and Joy.

Peace and Joy be with you and your loved ones, now and evermore. Amen.