Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 21 February 2010 by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Matthew 4: 1-13.


Prayer:
Loving God, open our ears to hear your words and draw us closer to you, that the whole world may be one with you. Amen.

Resist Temptations through total trust in God
Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a time for personal and societal repentance, a time for radical conversion, renewal and transformation.

In this holy season of Lent, we are reminded to repent and draw close to Jesus. We begin our spiritual journey by observing Jesus’ temptations before he started his public ministry for God. As Jesus’ ministry was pointing at the whole world, our reflection and meditation should have to include the social aspect in addition to our personal repentance and conversion.

Jesus, as God’s son, was sent to the earth to save the world. He had a mission to bring God’s kingdom of peace to the earth and free people from all kinds of bondage. With such an important mission given by God, Jesus never stayed away from temptation when he led an earthly journey.

The word ‘temptation’ in the original Greek is ‘peirazein’, which means ‘to test or to try’. This meaning is quite different from the meaning in the English translation. The word ‘temptation’ entails a meaning of leading a person to sin or to commit crime.
Jesus’ temptation came after his praying and fasting for forty days in the wilderness. This should be a familiar narrative account to many of you. Jesus was challenged in three episodes. The first one was the devil asked him to command the stones to become loaves of bread while Jesus was hungry after forty days fasting.

From a human point of view, Jesus’ desire to eat at that time must be strong. To fulfill biological needs is so natural and reasonable to a human being. The test here that Jesus had to overcome was using his exceptional power to fulfill his own desire and needs, by turning stones into bread. He knew clearly that the power and gifts given by God should not be used for self interest. With this strong spiritual power, Jesus was able to transform his desire and move beyond his biological needs by staying away from the devil. Surely, Jesus had also demonstrated a total trust to God and his utter faith in God that his need in life would be fulfilled by his Lord God through his words.

In the season of Lent, we need to repent for ourselves and the people who hold authority by using power for their own interest instead of for others’ benefits.

Jesus’ response of ‘one does not live by bread alone’ would be difficult to take for those who are hungry without food and suffer from poverty for a long time, and to them it does not make any sense. This verse from the scripture should never be used to justify poverty and starvation. But we may look at it from a transforming perspective.

Churches around the world have been engaging in different kinds of charities and offering helps to people in need. It is a good witness to serve and give those in need. This is a demonstration of God’s love. But churches should also be sensitive and critical of the unjust systems that perpetuate any injustice of poverty and slavery of the marginalized.

Therefore, we do not just give food to satisfy the immediate need of a person’s stomach. We have to ask perhaps why these people are poor and without food. This gives us an insight for us to engage in social concern ministry in which social problems are caused by social injustice, and we don’t just give tangible service while the root problem is covered up. We need to ask are there any unjust systems that perpetuate the poverty problem. We may have to critically examine if the political, economical, and social systems are too much inclined to the privileged and the rich but neglecting the poor?

For example, in Hong Kong, the wealth gap is the worst in the world according to the figures released recently. We need to challenge our government to enforce social policies that are able to redistribute social resources more to the poor, ‘the have not’. And in terms of political power, the political system should allow one person one vote to ensure the interest of the grass-roots can be fairly represented and addressed.

In this season of Lent, let us repent for human greed for power and wealth, as well as our insensitivity for the powerless and the poor. And pray to God for our conversion to Jesus by learning his compassionate heart and just practice to the poor and the marginalized.

In the fight for social justice and the journey for social concern, it could be very lonely for those involved. I can imagine the feeling of loneliness for those who have been put in jail or kept in house arrest for years or forced to exile to other countries because of their insistence to speak for the truth, and to fight for freedom, democracy and human rights. To name but a few in our times: Nelson Mandela, jailed for 27 years before his release, Ms Anng Shan Suu Kji, still in house arrest in Burma, Liao Xiabo, Wu Jia sentenced to 11 years and so on. Yesterday when I watched the RTHK documentary about Gao Yaojie who is a HIV/AIDs advocate in China to expose the problem of blood sales that caused the spread of HIV/AIDS. She has to decide to leave China in order to continue to disclose this problem to the public. She is very upset because her son does not support her at all for her actions, because of the risk and of the pressure exerted to her family. But her compassion to the poor children and adults in the poor village keeps her going, to continue to take the risk that comes with her work.

The journey of social advocacy and struggles for God’s kingdom is long and lonely. This is very real indeed. What is the hope then? Our hope lies in God through Jesus Christ. Jesus had encountered great challenge by the devil, alone. He was alone in the wilderness to face the test. He was alone before the night he was taken to the priest, the elders and the rulers for trial. He was alone when he was put up on the cross. But Jesus never gave up. He continued his struggles for God’s sake until his last breath. Furthermore, there are many great people in our human history, known or unknown have demonstrated this courage to continue the struggles in the midst of loneliness and isolation. In view of our modern history, great leaders like Mohandas Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Lurther King, Mother Theresa, Sun Yat Sen (the Father of the Nation in China). Their dedication had brought a better world for compassion, equality and freedom.

God is a God of emancipation. God has been participating and taking care of his world. With the grace of God through the presence of Christ, we are able to overcome. Another wisdom from Jesus’ rejection to the devil’s temptation is to recognize that we are only human beings, we have our limitations. In some circumstances we need to accept and embrace our limitation and weakness for we are not God. But we have a total trust in God that our Lord is God of history.

Resist Temptations Taking responsibilities
The second temptation episode of Jesus was when the devil asked him to throw himself down and let God save him. Obviously Jesus rejected the devil by saying ‘we should not put God to the test’.

I think God is not afraid to take any test and challenge. God is generous and kind to help. But God does not appreciate at all to take up a task or responsibility that should not be taken by God in the first place because it is an outcome of some people’s own intentional actions.

We cry to God for help to save us in time of unexpected crisis which is out of our control. It is natural and fair. However, if the danger and crisis is somehow created out of our own hands, it is not right to totally rely on God’s intervention. We ourselves have to take the responsibility by fixing the outcome that we have contributed.

The social evils such as wars and violence, unjust economic structure, human greed for power and wealth and so on, should be addressed by us human and this is the responsibility of the society.

Very often people, Christian included, have this kind of irresponsible attitude by asking God to fix and handle a situation that we human beings in the world should bear the prime role.

We need to examine ourselves with honesty to see if we have done anything or have not done something that permits the evils or problems to exist in our own lives and in our society. E.g. when we ask God to restore the creation to harmony, do we consciously take the responsibility to take care of the earth by consuming less for our own desire and to share with others of what we have? Have we done enough to promote peace in our day to day live at the personal level and the community level?

Therefore, if we would stay away from temptation and draw close to Jesus, we have to take up our responsibility and bear the cross of Jesus. The direction of our prayer is no longer asking for God’s miracle to fix the things for us. Instead we try to ask God to give us strength, wisdom and courage so that we are able to take up our responsibility for God’s world and mission.

We are able to stay away from temptation when we take our responsibility fully.
The third temptation episode was when Jesus was given the Kingdoms of the world if he worships the devil.

When we see people suffering we may have an urge to do more and try different means. We are consciously and unconsciously being tempted by the worldly values to follow their ways. Use of force to manipulate and control is the usual means offered and practiced by worldly authorities. Jesus’ response to the devil was: ‘worship the Lord your God and serve him only’, this has reminded us to avoid being righteous and tried to achieve the goals by making deals with world values and staying away from God. There is no compromise in Jesus. In fact, Jesus did not choose an easy way. Instead, he had chosen a difficult way to fulfill the Kingdom of God. Jesus walked in a journey of bearing the cross that was rough and tough.

When we read the narrative of Jesus’ temptations, Jesus was tested when he was spiritually strong to be prepared for God’s ministry. When we feel we are strong, it is also a time of danger that the devil will come to test us to use our strength to become God. There is a great temptation that when we feel strong and capable, we will easily lose our humility and forget that we are human beings. We may want to exert our power and influence on others. And worse still we may attempt to play the role of God. In our own personal life and human history, we may find the tendency of staying away from God’s will and sovereignty.

From Jesus we realized that he had faced temptations all in his earthly life. If we are determined to serve God’s kingdom like Jesus, temptations would never end. They will come time and again. Furthermore, we need to be alert that temptation goes to all people and it is in particular challenging to those who choose to stay with God and serve him with the given gifts.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. The Hong Kong Christian Council has suggested the member churches to designate any Sunday in Lent as the Social Concern Sunday. When this liturgical season is inter-linked with social concern, there is a special meaning in Lent that believers should spend time and efforts for repentance and conversion of ourselves, our society and our churches, to the Gospel way of justice, non-violence and a reverence for all life and creation. The season of Lent in this time reminds us also the importance of deep reflection of our inner self and stay close to God to seek for His mercy and blessings to us and all humankind.

I wish our Lord Jesus’ retreat to the wilderness for reflection and his testimony to overcome temptations and his persistence to live with struggles have given us encouragement and insights.

Closing prayer
God of mercy and justice,
your Son was baptized and tempted as we are.
Guide us through this season,
that we may not avoid struggle,
but open ourselves to blessing,
through the cleansing depths of repentance
and the heaven-rending words of the Spirit. Amen.