Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 26 February 2012 by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 25:1-12 and Mark 1:9-15.


Opening prayer:
God, in your name we gather today to worship you and to hear your Word. May you lead and bless your servant to proclaim your word with power and faith in you. May your word inspire us and transform us through the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Lenten season has started
Have you noticed that the pulpit fall and the board at the church entrance have been changed to another liturgical color — purple? The liturgical purple indicates we have entered to another church season — Lent.
Lent comes after Epiphany in the church liturgical year.
- Lent is a time for repentance and conversion. “Conversion” literally means "turning around," that is, reorienting of our lives towards God. Lent is a time to face the darkness within and expose it to the light. It is a special season that calls for greater openness to the word of God and a conversion in every area of our lives.
- Conversion is not only for individuals but also for the community. The idea is that we collectively undergo a process of looking inward and reflecting on our life and faith in Christ, re-examine our commitment to advance the Kingdom of God, as well as our readiness to follow Jesus in his journey towards the cross.
Lent lasts for forty weekdays. It starts on Ash Wednesday, and continues up to the Saturday before the celebration of Easter Sunday. The Holy week, and especially Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, are the climax of Lent, as we then commemorate the suffering of Jesus and share the darkest night with Christ’s death on the cross. No Sundays are counted in the Lenten period, Jesus Christ having risen on a Sunday.
Why forty days? It corresponds to the forty-day temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and also to the forty-year journey of Israel from slavery to a new community.

The Hong Kong Christian Council has designated this Sunday ‘Social Concern Sunday’.
Why is the first Sunday of Lent designated as Social Concern Sunday?
Lent is a time to confront our sins and expel them. Sins are not only referring to individual moral sins. Sins include our alienation from all kinds of relationships: our separation from God, from others (our family members and our friends) and also our separation from our own true self. The alienation of relationships could be generated by greed for power, personal desire and tolerance of unjust systems that cause the relatively powerless to suffer. These individual and structural sins have enslaved ourselves and other people in the world.
Time of contemplation and reflection spent with God, as Jesus had, will enable us to understand more of God’s deep love and compassion for the world. The meditation to Jesus Christ’s life, his death and resurrection can help us to gain greater empathy with Christ, and allow us to be more receptive to the needs of our neighbour.

Before Jesus began his public history, he spent forty days in the wilderness. From Jesus’ path to his ministry, we see clearly that essential to upholding God’s mission is designating a period of time — a time to spend with God, to turn to God and to ensure that our focus is always in God.

Social Concern, a concern for the needy in society, a mission to advance the kingdom of justice and peace is grounded in God. Serving the Kingdom of God, is a spiritual journey that requires us to focus our life in Christ and with Christ always.
KUC as a mission church
KUC has identified herself as a mission church to engage in different social ministries and express her concern and voice against injustice and oppression.

We are, however, not a “non government organization” in the usual sense. We are not an activist group. We are not trade union. Indeed, we should never be reduced to a human organization. We are God’s church; our mission is to engage in God’s mission to advance His Kingdom.

While the church is working on various programs, and sisters and brothers have been engaged in various social justice issues, we should never lose sight of nurturing our spirituality which is grounded in God through Christ.

I am a minister of action, I am a doer. However, as a Christian, I do find it extremely important to every day pursue the inner spiritual nurturing part of faith development. In the midst of busyness, this is of prime importance to keep our spirituality in God. The season of Lent is a great time to remind us of this importance.

The spiritual nurturing is important in our course of actions for social concern. It is because we encounter temptations from Satan everyday, just like Jesus, who was tempted too.
If we act and work without grounding ourselves in God, we will easily get lost and eventually we may be reduced to achieving our own desires and goals but not God’s.

The temptations of power encountered by activists, organizations and even churches advocating for social justice and concern, sometimes may lead them to becoming self-righteous. Without constant reflection of our relationship with God and our calling from Jesus Christ, we will easily be tempted to sin. Some people may regard themselves as God to save the world. By then, they are not servant of God anymore, but evil beings struggling for their interest, power and status. What is worse, they do these in the name of God and God’s kingdom.

The power struggles and internal conflicts in many human services organizations, NGOs advocating for human rights and even churches have revealed the sinful nature of human beings. This kind of struggle and internal tension within human service organizations and community groups are familiar to me. I have sadly witnessed how the human sins (weakness) such as fear, pride, arrogance, greed for power and personal interests turned a good course of work to a nightmare.

That is the whole point why we human beings need to repent and turn to God. God is good as S/He knows our limitations. God always gives us chance to return. The season of Lent is a bell to ring for this awakening.
Christians’ social concern cannot be sustained and fulfilled without God’s backup. Without constant and reflection on the word and the will of God, without identifying Jesus’ suffering, sacrifice and death in our course of action, we are not able to carry the essence of social concern that Jesus Christ has called us to do.

Therefore, nurturing our spirituality in Christ is the key to social concern and to sustain our life of service to God.
Lent has been a church tradition for intensive spiritual disciplines by prayers, fasting and almsgiving. The churches with the liturgical tradition – the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran churches – have great emphasize on this practice. It is a good church tradition that we should uphold in here at KUC.
I would like to share with you that we are to encourage our sisters and brothers to practice the spiritual disciplines during the special season of Lent in KUC.
Lent is associated with Christian disciplines of self-examination, study, fasting, prayer and works of love. Some suggestions:
- Daily devotion to read the word of God, the bible; the ONE Daily Devotion booklet has prepared for you; it contains useful material. Of course you may choose your own materials that serve you.
- Spend more time in prayer and deep meditation. I would encourage you to participate in our Friday Lenten Prayer gathering held at 7:00 pm, it takes forty-five minutes.
- Fasting: a voluntary abstaining from some of our physical desire so that we can concentrate more on the spiritual matters and redirect our life to God. You may take different approaches that suit your situation. For example, you may intake less meat or no meat during this period in remembering.
- Pray for the animals and the environment. The outrageous bear farm industry is one example; we may pray for the immediate cessation of this cruel treatment of the bears.
- You may skip one meal a week. In your hunger, pray and remember the poor and those who are in need of love and care. Fasting is a means to help us to better know God and God’s will, and our communion with Christ. We will try the collective fasting on Friday evening by sharing a simple meal of just having bread, fruit and water together after the prayer gathering. For those who are beginners of fasting discipline, I encourage you to join us on Friday.
- Almsgiving: we encourage our congregation to make a special donation to those in need. You might take that money out of your savings. Or perhaps donate at least part of the $6000 citizens received from the Hong Kong government You may also do this by giving the money you have saved by skipping a meal or consuming less on unnecessary items such as snacks or soft drink. We will collect the offering on Easter Sunday. The donation will be given to the Mission, Outreach and Ecumenism Committee to support projects both local and overseas.

Living in a city like Hong Kong, which is extremely fast moving, busy and has a high level of consumption, the season of Lent is a great time to be reminded to slow down and deliberately spend more time to focus our life in and with God by reading God’s word, prayers and meditation, and fasting.

But it is also a big challenge for many of us. It is difficult if we do it as individuals. If we do it collectively in a community and with support to one another, we will have greater chance of success. We would suggest that you all to fill in your pledge and return to us. Our ministerial team will then pray for you.

Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe in the good news.”
Dear sisters and brothers, the good news is proclaimed today by Jesus Christ for you. How are you going to respond to his invitation? What are the areas in your life that require change and transformation? Let us take concrete action right now.

Closing prayer:

God, we thank you for the Word given to us. May we all journey through this year’s Lenten season with a deeper understanding of God, and a closer relationship with Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Give us strength, God, to render us Christian disciples, that we may renounce evil, be transformed and be decisive in following the footsteps of Jesus Christ to bring the good news to the world for your glory. In the name of Christ we pray, amen.