A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 9 June 2013 by
Roy Njuabe. The scripture readings that day were 1 Kings 21:1–10 and Luke
7:36—8:3.
Let us pray: In difficult time in our lives we hear your words, in joyful
moments we hear your words, Lord open our ears that we may hear and our hearts
that we may believe and our hands that we may do. May the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you O Lord. Amen
Introduction:
When the doors of your life seems closed down, when your life seems
desecrated, when you have no hope for the future, when everything in your life
seems moving towards the wrong direction, the question you will often asked
yourself is, what have I done to deserve all this bad luck, or in other words,
why me? At some scenario you may blame yourselves concluding that may be you
are the cause of your misfortune or as some Christians may put it “all these
hardship in your life is because of your sin”. In 1 king Chapter 21 we read a
story about a widow and her son in a difficult situation. When her situation
deteriorated and her son died, she quickly link her son`s death to her sin as
she said to Elijah, “have you come here
oh man of God to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
The gate to our future may be closed, what we want to become is not what
we are today, our dreams and hopes seems blare and we are entangled in all
kinds of worries.
Sometime we simply ignore the closed gate and climb over the gate or a
take a short cut into our future, but at times we work hard to open the gate so
that we may walk straight into our dreams.
However to open this gate may be the toughest thing in our lives. More to
that we don`t even know what is on the other side of the gate. It might be a
blessing or it might be another huddle.
It was in 2006 when I once in my life thought there was nothing calls
hope at all, that the gate to my future was completely shot down. At that time
there was nothing more than just a single voice which keeps telling me day after
day after day after day that “Roy
your life is useless, you have no future just turn into an alcoholic and forget
about life”. The society rejected us, discrimination was our breakfast and the
water we drink was a cup of hate, as every morning when we wake up from sleep
what we can see are people who will let you know that you are not welcome here.
The media vandalized our image so that the society may regard us as those
people against them. At that time there was little or no voice speaking for us or
in other words speak in favor of asylum seekers and refugees.
My life, our lives were like people living in a jungle at the middle of a
city.
I often asked myself many questions? One of the question was “What have
we done to be treated as such”.
Just a few questions for you to think about!
Have you ever once in your life live in a situation where you lost all
hope, nobody even dare to tell you there is hope in life and that your last
hope is to wait for the day you will die.
Have you ever look at someone with compassion and imagine that the person
have all the reason to live life in it fullness and set it is well with you his
or her soul and give him or her another reason to be believed that there is hope?
Scripture:
The widow whom the gospel of Luke talks about was in a horrible
situation, her only source of hope is gone, the source of her well being is
dead, she is left with nothing but a dead body to be buried.
To be a widow during ancient time was like living a miserable life.
Widows had no right in the society; they were rejected by the very society that
celebrated their wedding. Some of them were accused of being the course of dead
of their husbands. Members of the society criticized them and treated them as
slaves who can only eat when the masters are full. However a widow with a son
somehow is treated with a bit of respect.
Gospel Luke chapter 7 pointed out a widow whose son is dead, her only
hope survival. She was on her way to bury her son and the Luke told us that the
crowd was with her, may be sympathizing with her or laughing at her. The widow`s
life was desolate and she was all alone in her family. But her encounter with
Jesus at the gate turns her life around. Luke told us that Jesus looked at her
with compassion and said to her “woman don`t cry”. What an amazing comfort from
our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is always there for us, in pains and in joy, in
peace and in war, He had compassion for His people, He journeys with them even
in the wilderness of their lives. When you experience hardship in your life and
you feel the bottom line has drop out, you thought it is finished, that there
is nothing left call hope, remember that God is still with you and until He
said it is finished, know that it is not yet over.
The widow thought it was over, but Jesus proof to her that it wasn`t over
yet, Jesus reached out His hands and touched the bier and said to the son raise
up. He took the son and gave him to his mother.
Have you lost hope in your struggle for a better future?
Have you lost hope because your child is not the best in class?
Have you lost hope because your child couldn’t be the doctor or the
lawyer, the bank manager, the director you wanted him or her to be?
Have you lost hope for your asylum claim or your claim against torture
(CAT)? Have you lost hope of waiting resettlement to a third country as a
refugee? Know today that there is still hope, know that Jesus is at the gate
waiting, he is waiting to revive your dream and rekindle your desire, to bring
back that lost hope and let you dream again. There is hope in Christ Jesus.
It has been for long that I once lost such hope, that I thought it was
over, but today I stand here to testify of that, the hope is real, that when
Jesus said it is not yet finish, know that it is not yet the end of your
journey.
Today I stand here to testify that whenever you are rejected by people,
know that your dreams, your future is still there because only God can say NO
to your destiny. People can reject you, but they cannot reject your destiny
because your destiny is under God`s Lordship.
Today I stand here to testify that there is the rekindle of lost hope and
dreams whenever we encounter Jesus because he had compassion for us. He took
care of us holistically, not only our spiritual life but also our physical
being.
As a graduate from Lutheran seminary I stand here today testifying of the
Goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nobody can understand the ordeal of life I went through, but the joy to
life was when I walked in the light of Christ, when I realized the compassion
of Jesus Christ.
The life of a
refugee is a life of someone who had nothing left but his own body, whose dignity has being taken away.
How about you
today, what hope have you lost? Are you looking for your
lost dream, are you on the procession going to burry your only hope? You don`t
have to because Christ is with you because He had compassion for you.
You can't find
hope alone, someone need to be there to rekindle
your hope. In Luke gospel chapter 7, Jesus gave the widow
bright new smile, In 1 King chapter 21 Prophet Elijah gave the widow
new reason to say truly you are a man of God.
People can take away your smile, but they can`t
take away your destiny and your dream.
Trouble, pains, worries may over take your peace, but Jesus will restore
your peace.
I
once lost my hope and my dream, but Jesus revive me and brought me back on
track and told me it is well
with your soul.
When I was young I told my mother about my dream to become a pastor. She ridiculed me and
told me never to think of such dream because pastors are poor people. She
wanted me to become a doctor like my elder sister or an engineer like my elder
brother. At my teenage age with no right to control my dream, I followed the
dream of my mother. I studied animal biology at the university. I became a
veterinarian, took care of animals, yet my job gave me no happiness. When I
left my country and moved to Hong Kong, I
faced an ordeal of life. When I thought it was over, that my hope and dreams
are like a shadow, Jesus appeared to me through people like you, through
churches like KUC, proving to me that though society may reject you because of
your difficulties, I am with you. Jesus was at the gate of my life, He called
me into His ministry, he brought back the lost dream and vision, and He
rekindles my desire to become the person He intended me to be.
I took formal theological
training at Lutheran Theological seminary Hong Kong
and today I am a graduate with a big mission ahead of me.
When I started my studies,
I called my mother and told her about my decision to study theology, she felt
so sad not because of my decision but because she felt guilty of being an
obstacle to my dream and vision, she felt sad because she gave me her dream,
not what God wanted me to be. However, I told her away from such guilt because
it is God who decides when and how it will happen.
He allowed the son of the widow to die first before
he brought him back to life. Know that God can use any means to rekindle your
desire and give you a new reason to be happy again.
Do not forget
that in God there is still hope. Sometime you may feel that your dream is like a shadow far away as you struggle
in life, but know that God who planted the dream in you will
bring it back to reality.
Troubles and difficulties may knock at your door, the gate to your future
may be closed, you may ask question to challenge your existence: “what I have
done”? But be aware that it is not yet over until God said it is over. Storms
and hardship may overwhelm your ambitions but know that it is well with your
soul because Jesus had compassion for you, He is at the gate waiting to revive
your dream. Amen
Let`s end today`s sermon with this
beautiful hymn “when Peace Like a river”
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, June 09, 2013
