Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 14 November 2010 by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19.


In Hong Kong, there are rich people donating money to the universities, hospitals, and social services agencies to erect buildings or setting up research and service centres. In return, the buildings or the centers will be named after the donors or their spouse or parents. Perhaps many rich people wish their names or their loved one’s names to be remembered and recognized. Recently I read something in a newspaper that was unusual and very impressive. The Ng family, the founders of the Wing Lung Bank, donated HK$20 million to the Hong Kong Baptist University for setting up a Research Center for Cancer in the School of Chinese Medicine. The Center is named after NG family’s two former maids. The name of the maids were Shum Hiu Fei (岑堯寬) and Shum Pik Chuen(岑碧泉). They were sisters serving the Ng family for over fifty years following the second war world when the family migrated to Hong Kong. Both of the maids died of cancer in the 1990s. In the interview with the reporter, Mr Ng Bo Kong (伍步剛) who represented the Ng’s family foundation shared that these two maids served their family faithfully and took care of the children with love and care. He had been one of those children looked after by them. The family treated their maids like family members. When they were retired, the family bought them a flat (with lift) near the Ng’s home.

In the interview, the Ng’s family warns the employers that they cannot do whatever they like with their wealth. (有錢能為所欲為)

I am very impressed with the family’s generosity and their kind hearts. They are rich and yet they are respectful to people who are not. They are rich and yet they are grateful to those who have helped and supported them. This Christian family has demonstrated a strong Christian faith of humble love and respect to human beings.

The kind and compassionate gesture of the Ng family is a great sign of God. God reveals his will to us through his chosen people. God speaks to us through different people and in different ways. The key is: Do we listen with an attentive heart.

Prophet Isaiah has revealed to us God’s vision of a new creation of heaven and earth. In God’s new creation, people build houses and inhabit them, they plant vineyards and eat their fruits. This image of God’s new creation is understood in an agrarian context. We are of course not living in an agrarian economy where people labor on their land to yield fruits from the farm. We are now living in a highly industrialized and commercialized world, and the divisions of labor are very specific. But we can still see the prime concern of God’s new creation. God cares for the people’s basic rights and needs on food and shelter being satisfied. God does not want people labor in vain. God wants his chosen people to enjoy the products of their hands. To recognize people’s labor and give enough for them to enjoy and lead a dignified life is fundamental in God’s new creation.

God’s vision of new creation is a timely matter for us to reflect upon here and now in Hong Kong.

The widening wealth gap in many parts of the world, but especially here in Hong Kong, has been appalling. The wealth has been accumulated onto the hands of a few rich people. The grassroots and the poor who have little political and economic power receive little because their bargaining power is weak.

The minimum wage legislation was passed by the Legislative Council and the Executive Council proposed to set the minimum wage at HK$28 per hour last week. The controversy and debate on the level of minimum wage revealed that the labor of many working class has not been properly compensated. Low income workers do not earn enough to lead a dignified life. The hardship for them is, they haven’t been earning enough to meet ends, and the living cost of housing, food and transportation has been increasing far more rapidly than any increase of their salaries. The social policies to address the plight of the poor and regulate the wealth distribution are not effective if not a total failure.

Therefore the minimum wage legislation is important to protect the low income workers. The law is significant in terms of regulating the employers’ good practice for employment and educating the public, that our society pay respect for human labor and no employers should take people’s hard work for granted. Exploitation of labor unacceptable.

We should treat everybody’s labor with respect by giving a reasonable wage to lead a decent life. God has promised a beautiful vision, “my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain.” Therefore, we as individuals, and also as a church, should examine and reflect on our lives and the society, and always stand up against any exploitation of workers. People need to work in a dignified environment as well. Long working hours across the broad is another serious problem deserving our attention.

Yesterday, Doris and I, together with some young people from the church, visited a grass roots organization serving the low income families and people receiving government’s welfare benefits -- Comprehensive Social Security Assistant (CSSA). The community organizer guided us on a tour around the old urban area in Mongkok and Tai Kok Tsui. Some of the streets in these districts are now marked under the urban renewal scheme taken care of by the Urban Renewal Authorities. Buildings under this renewal scheme will be demolished and new high rise residential and commercial buildings will be built. The visit concluded by a sharing of a single mother with two children, she is a new immigrant from China receiving social welfare from the government.

The visit has helped us to have better understanding of the life and struggles of the poor, grass root people living in old urban area, and those people live on welfare. In the name of redevelopment, the local residents have lost their community networks which have been established for many years. The local residents who work in the same district may lose their jobs, to live with higher living cost for food and accommodation because property values will rise enormously after redevelopment. According to the organizers, many local residents cannot afford and are forced to move to the new territories looking for lower rent housing.

In God’s vision of the new creation, it is stated that “They shall build houses and inhabit them….They shall not build and another inhabit.”

Housing has become an acute problem in Hong Kong as a few big property developers have manipulated the property market and the government’s ineffective land policy. What make the situation worse is the government does not formulate a long term housing policy to address such a basic need for many.

In God’s ideal new creation, it is an image of peace and harmony. When the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. (Isaiah 65:25)

What a beautiful picture and imagination of people living together and embrace each other with security and equality. The powerful and the rich do not exploit people who are physically and economically less strong. This is a vision the people would share with one another the gift from God, the provider of everything, and treat each other equally with respect and love.

As God’s people, we are given a hope and are called to live a life and advocate for God’s new creation. But we know we are living in a distorted and imperfect world. A lot of things are more easily said than done.

Jesus Christ our Lord knows well the difficulties, hardship and struggles of his faithful followers may face. Immediately after Jesus’ death and in the early Christian era, many of his disciples were persecuted and marginalized. Therefore, Jesus shared his living words to prepare his disciples for the hardship they might have to encounter after his death on earth. By using signs and images to teach his disciples, Jesus had already foretold the difficult life that would be coming. There are natural and human made disasters like earthquake, famine, plague and arrest of Jesus’ disciples.

Realizing the potential risk of being Jesus’ disciples, Jesus gave a remarkable teaching to them, “make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.”

Jesus advised his disciples to live in here and now. He taught them “don’t worry for tomorrow.” Secondly, he has also reminded the disciples not to focus too much on their own interests.

Those who follow Jesus faithfully would be betrayed even by close family members like parents and brothers, by relatives and friends. They will be hated by all because of Jesus’ name. It is a horrible scenario. But God is good. Jesus Christ is a living God and a God of courage. No persecution and human-induced pain can hinder Jesus’ determination to live out God’s vision for a just and peaceful world. Jesus ensured his disciples that, in the midst of persecution and desertion “not a hair of your head will perish”. God will protect his people who are faithful to Christ. Jesus gave also another strong message which is comforting and powerful. Jesus said, “by your endurance you will gain your soul.” In NIV version, it says “By standing firm you will gain life”. The evil power may destroy our worldly possessions. But our spirit will remain strong in God. In God and with God, we are given eternal life by sharing God’s vision and making the new creation on earth a reality.

The vision of God’s new creation and Jesus’ foretelling of the future has given us the insight of ‘hope for the best and prepare for the worst.’ We know that God, the creator of the heaven and the earth is in charge. Our Lord is a loving and compassionate God. We have no fear to face our future, but to lead a life with integrity and faith here and now. Moreover, God through Jesus has prepared his faithful to prepare for the worse. This preparation for the worst does not mean we should lead a life of worry. On the contrary, when we are well prepared for anything that might happen to us in any time, we have no fear, for we entrust that God will give us power to overcome. Because of this preparation for the worst, we are not dominated by the fear of uncertainty, loss and pains. Once we are prepared to bear the cross and take up the cost of discipleship, we are free to engage deeply and faithfully in God’s vision and mission. Amen.