A sermon preached at
Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 29 June 2014 by Rydeen Yu. The scripture readings
that day were Genesis 1:26-28.
Brothers and sisters,
Good morning! Before the sermon, let’s
pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you as
you are the Creator and Provider of all creatures. May the Spirit of wisdom and truth open our
eyes and ears to understand, and may the love of Christ make us know how to
love others. In Jesus’ name we pray,
amen.
In 1997, Hong Kong was influenced by bird’s flu
H5N1. Due to the fear
of panzootic outbreak from infected poultry to human beings,
all the fowls in Hong Kong were killed – the figure
was around one million three hundred chickens, ducks and gooses. Since then, whenever the highly inflected
H5 series virus was found in dead fowl, all the others fowls in the same farm,
even in the same region, should be all killed. I am not intent to discuss whether
this massive killing of fowls correct or not, but I would like to discuss this
event from another angle.
Modern eco-concern movement can be traced back
to 1960’s. During the cold
war between the East and the West, nuclear weapons
were accumulated to an extent that they were sufficient to destroy dozens of
our living planets. Furthermore, people
recognized the horror of wars after the World War II, Vietnam
War and Korean War. ‘Green Peace’ was found in the middle of 1960’s, to
promote anti-nuclear and peace movements. She is also the forerunner
of many current eco-concern groups.
In the academic world,
there were studies on how
the development of the West influenced our planet, although these studies had not been widely known by the public.
One of the key figures, who brought the
eco-concern issue to public, is an American marine biologist, Rachel Carson. In 1962, she wrote a book
called Silent
Spring, discussing the issue of chemical
pollution. Carson collected many claims which had been published in
scientific journals and newspapers. Carson was able to present her views
in such a way lay people understand. Her primary concern was
not only affection for human beings, but for
the natural world.
Carson’s book Silent
Spring successfully influenced US government to enact a
legislation to limit the use of chemical in 1973, such as
DDT, a kind of Insecticide.
What is the role of human beings
in God’s creation? I think most of us
will refer to Genesis 1:26-28. This scripture has been
critically examined in modern debates, regarding how Western Christianity
causes
environmental crisis. In 1967, a medieval historian, Lynn White, published
an article. He said that one of the historical sources of
ecological degeneration came from the interpretation of Genesis 1:28 taken from the medieval period – “God command human beings
to fill and subdue the earth.” White argues that the corresponding anthropocentric ideology deeply influences
the way of Western development and then causes the ecological crisis of
today. Although, his argument is
over simplified and has been criticized by many scholars, we cannot deny
this is one of the key biblical texts influencing us to consider how we related
ourselves to other God’s creation.
Genesis 1:26-28 informed us that God created the universe in six days. In creating human
beings, God said –
“in our image, according to our likeness”, so human beings can
dominate and rule over other living creatures.
So God created human beings and then blessed them – “be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. In the same way,
God bless the
birds and the creatures in the water. Therefore we may
consider God’s blessings should apply to other creatures on the earth, too. It is worth to notice
that these three verbs, ‘be fruitful, multiply and fill’, in Hebrew Bible are
imperative. In the other words, they are
commands. Different from other living
creatures, God’s blessing toward human beings, or command, included
two more areas: subdue the earth and rule over other living
creatures.
From this analysis, it seems
that God created human beings in His image because God wanted
human beings
to subdue the earth and rule over the living creatures. What is the meaning of human beings created
in God’s image? This is one of the most
difficult phases in the Bible. The text tells no more details other
than subdue and rule. The
most popular interpretation of ‘in God’s image’ is human beings serve
as God’s representative. God grants
human beings authority over other living being, “dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps upon the earth.” It seems like human beings are given the Divine right of kings（君權神授）to rule. Human being becomes
the king of all creatures. As a result, we
can consume and exploit them. However,
an Old Testament Scholar, Norbert Lohfink, has another explanation of ‘in God’s
image’. He points out that in ancient
Israel, her neighbors believed their gods created human beings for
other reason – their gods created human beings to do the works which they
did not want to do. Human beings were
nothing but just labors. But
for Israelite, God created human beings in His image and bears
the likeness of Him.
However, regarding the Hebrew
כבשׁ (kabas) and
רדה (radah) in the Genesis 1:26-28, they
are fitted to interpret as subdue and rule over others in other
biblical texts. Is it true
that God
command human beings to conquer the earth and dominate animals? From the beginning of Genesis 1, God created
the universe from chaos. He created
light, sky, sea and land. Then God
greened the landscape, filled it with all sorts of living creatures – fishes, birds and animals on the earth.
In every section of creation, God left His comment: it was good. ‘Good’, the corresponding Hebrew isטוֹב . It is a singular
adjective in Genesis 1. That
means God treated the creation as a whole, and considered this wholeness is
good. God Himself showed appreciation of
His works, and expressed His love towards His
creation. It seems to be nonsense that
God commands human beings to subdue and exploit His masterpiece.
It is also worth to notice verse 29, which is also part of God’s blessing and command: “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on
the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food.” According to this verse, human beings should be vegetarian in the beginning of God’s
creation, so the existence of animals should not be
for human beings to consume and exploit. In the other words, the word rule רדה should be understood
as governing, not ruling like king.
Human beings should be aware that other animals share
the same blessing from God – “be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth”. God grants
human beings in his image and has the ability
to govern other creatures, but human beings are
not more superior than other creatures.
Go back to the case
of H5N1; it may be the first time human beings got bird’s flu in human
history. But it must
not be the first time in the bird’s world.
As human beings, if we
get flu, we need pill, but it only cures our symptoms, like fever and
running noise. In order to help us fully recover from flu, what we
need is flesh air and rest, so our body will be strengthened
and healed
by itself. However, for poultry, they
may be given pills or injections,
but they do not have flesh air and they do not have space to live apart from the inflected. In modern days, the poultry are mostly living in cages. They live in such a congested environment
because of the huge demand of human beings on fowls. Do we need so many fowls? Do you know the quantity of meat
we
need per day? 4oz or
114g of meat, whatever beef, chicken or pork, can provide the daily protein
reqired
of an adult. If you have no idea the
quantity of 4oz meat, go to Café de Carol, a chain fast food store
in Hong Kong, and observe the steak set they provide – each piece of
steak is 8oz. From this figure and observation of meat consumption around
us, you could know in general we consume too much
meat. Even though we cannot quit
consuming meat and becoming vegetarians, we do not need so many fowls
and keep them in cage.
The fowls should live in a better environment and the bird’s flu would
not be spread to human beings so easily.
I would like to show
you two pictures which I found from the internet. The first one (figure 1) is regarding the
event of H5N1, the treatment of the killed fowls. (Pause for a moment) The second one (figure 2) is regarding the
rabbits suffering from animal test. (Pause for a moment) I think the pictures have given light of some
truth. I do not make additional comment.
As Christians, I do believe that we
are created in God’s image and we can have the ability to follow God’s
command. But in God’s image, it does
not mean human beings are the masters of
all creatures, to rule and subdue the nature as the earthily king. Both human beings and other living
creatures should equally share God’s blessing –
“be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. By studying
Genesis 1:26-28, with the context of Genesis 1, we can understand the principle of
the role of human beings in God’s creation – govern
the creation with God’s love and sovereignty. Human beings are not supreme
than other creatures, we
should treat other creatures as our neighbors, even kin, like our relatives, and learn how to live with them in harmony and unity. Even you
still consider human beings should rule over other creatures as God has
commanded us, please consider how Jesus taught his disciples – who will be the
true leader, the ruler? In Mark
10:42-44, Jesus said who want to be the ruler, please make yourself as servant,
the slave of all. Could you hold this
principle towards other God’s creation?
In the epistle of James 2:18, we
are told and encouraged to live out our faith with deed, so we need to know
how to work out this eco-concern in our daily life. In the reflection
on the massive killing of fowls influencing by bird’s flu and the
eco-concern movement, we understand that we need common sense and knowledge. Frankly speaking, the
Church has not yet taken the prophetic role as prophet to foretell the
eco-crisis. We need scientists, like
Rachel Carson, tell us how worse our current situation is,
and what can we do to seek policy changes from the governments and commercial corporations. In addition, we need to improve
our knowledge, like how much meat we need per day, to review our life style and
to make changes. Do we consume more than
we need? Do we satisfy our own desire at
the expenses of the nature and other living creatures?
To live harmony with
other creatures, to enjoy and rejoice the gracious providence of God together
is not an easy task. Let us pray for the Creator God empowers us, the Holy
Spirit gives us wisdom, and the Redeemer Christ strengthens us with His
love. Amen.
* Rydeen Yu is a
summer interns in KUC. He is studying in MDiv program in the Divinity School of
Chung Chi College.
Figure 1 Figure
2
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, June 29, 2014
A sermon preached at
Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 22 June 2014 by Mr. Abraham Peterson. The scripture readings
that day were Genesis 21:8–21, Romans
6:1b–11 and Matthew 10:24–39.
Do you ever get scared
of what’s in the Bible?
Do things written in
this “Holy” book ever frighten you for how evil they are?
Do you ever wonder how
some things ever made it in and if they’re actually true?
Do some verses or
stories lead you to disbelief?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But these verses from
Genesis today are like that for ME…
Today, our story quite
clearly depicts human life, full of jealousy, revenge, hate, and murder. Today is a great reminder of the drama of
human life!
So, a quick recap…
God calls Abram and his
family, tell him he’ll be a great nation. Abram is 75 and Sarai is 65. They leave and go to Egypt where Sarai is
then taken into the Pharaoh’s harem… At age 65.
Story sound mythical yet? Shenanigans
ensue in Egypt. They leave Egypt and we
presume Hagar, this new Egyptian slave, is now with them. But Sarai has this burden over her – first,
she is repeatedly shown as lacking faith, and second, and worse, she is
childless in a society that is based on inheritance, that centers on male
dominance, patriarchy, and lineage.
Barrenness is a shameful
burden for her and she does shameful things to remedy the situation. She takes her slave, her possession, and
forces her to have sex with Abram so that he can have a male inheritor. Hagar conceives, but this causes tension,
jealousy from Sarai, about which Abram is quite laissez fiare, so Sarai
abuses Hagar and Hagar understandably runs away. Then, after Hagar returns, Sarah conceives
and decides she has no need for Hagar, so tells Abraham to send her and her
son, Ishmael, into the desert to die… PHEW!
So, these verses are
quite honest about human life in all its messiness. That’s not what scares me. It moves into God – and THAT is where I get
nervous.
Based on the drama
above, what’s the next step for God?
Well, SUPPOSEDLY God agrees to Hagar’s death sentence. This woman is caught in the crossfire of
Sarah’s doubt and her jealousy, between her fear and her pride. And clearly Abraham doesn’t really defend
justice in this situation – in fact, he is just as complicit, and in some ways
worse for he enables Sarah’s wicked scheme.
But God.
But God.
Usually in my sermon’s I
say “But God” to mean that humans do things one way, BUT GOD does things
another… Usually God does things a better way.
Usually God’s the good guy.
Usually… But here… Here,
not so much.
Now, some people want to
say that God knew what was going to happen and was going to save Hagar and
Ishmael. Some people say this
demonstrates the miracle of God’s goodness.
Some people say this is a way for God to become the hero of the story…
but that is like saying we need the holocaust to know God’s goodness, that we
need June 4th to see how great God is… as if Evil is needed to
understand God’s goodness. That seems
insensible, irrational, and similarly scary.
Here God is complicit in
this violent abuse; God encourages this casting out; God goes ahead with
Sarah’s death wish for Hagar. Here God
agrees, ENABLES her wicked behavior. God
doesn’t say, “That’s a bad idea to kill them” or “Don’t abuse your slave and
don’t cast her into the desert.” God
supposedly says, “Don’t worry about it.”
AND God does not stop Hagar’s horrors at the hands of her owners.
For me, when I read that
God does not stop this injustice, MORE when God allows Sarah’s jealous, wicked
heart to be so cold and calloused that she can condemn this concubine she
created… I start having my doubts.
Not of God. I don’t doubt God.
I doubt these authors
who put words and intentions in the mouth of God. I doubt these humans who have strung together
the tales of scripture and have given God a voice that somehow agrees with
them…
This is NOT a divine
book after all. These are not the words
FROM God. These were not transcribed in
the presence of the Almighty like an ancient oracle or a modern court reporter. These are words ABOUT God. Our words, our human words about the divine
reality we feel and find in our lives.
This book is not the
revelation of God. As Christians, we say
there is ONE revelation. We say the one
revelation of God is Jesus Christ and that all others, like this Bible, only
point to Jesus Christ. The Bible is not
the Word of God – Jesus is the Word of God!
Too many Christians have
lost that; too many Christians have forgotten that the Bible is just a book,
not a divine book, but a book. It is
simply stories strung together, stories that struggle and try and often fail at
comprehending God.
Why? Why do the Bible stories fail?
Because WE all struggle
and try and often fail at comprehending God.
And as I work at Lutheran Theological Seminary and spend time in
theological institutions, I can reassure you all it is not just the laity who
misunderstands God. It is not just the
“common person” that lacks eyes to see; it is often, and perhaps MORE often
that theologians, pastors, preachers, and priests miss the point.
Yes, I’m in there
too. As the preacher today, I put myself
into that category of those who don’t understand, who struggle and fail to
comprehend God.
Yet here I stand, trying
to walk through these verses with you…
Maybe these verses seem
far away, seen distant, seem ancient.
Maybe these verses lack meaning because we can’t see them happening
today.
Hagar. She’s a slave, given from one person to
another, forced to travel, forced into sex with her new owner, forced to bear
this new owner’s child, and then forced to return after she runs away... Only
to be sent into the wild with no horse, no donkey, none of the excessive wealth
of her master – sentenced to death by starvation in the desert BY the people
who forced her to have a baby BECAUSE she bore the son that she was forced to
bear in the first place.
Seems pretty far away.
So… maybe Hagar’s own
story is not familiar to us today, but what about the other parts? What about the jealousy of Sarai toward
Hagar? Or Sarai toward Ishmael? What about Sarai deciding that she was
incapable, in this case, of bearing a child, and so she cuts corners? What about Abraham justifying his harmful
behavior to please his wife? What about
getting God on his side to allow him to do things that others (us) see as
unjust?
Yeah… these things seem
a bit more like our lives today.
This story IS an image
for us today, too. It’s an image OF
us. This is like the church…
Well, like the story of
Abraham, have similar divisions within the family – two children where one gets
cast out. One of these children gets to
stay and one of these children is sent off to die. One feels a more legitimate claim to God’s
blessings to Abraham.
In the church, some feel
they have a more legitimate claim to God, God’s grace, God’s blessings.
Some feel they live
better – they obey more; some feel they are the true children of God because
they read the Bible a certain way, because they pray a certain number of times,
because they serve more, or because they convert more people.
Some people think they
don’t live in sin, they don’t unravel family values, don’t endanger the morals
of society, aren’t a burden on the church or on society. Some people think they have more claim to God
and so they cast the other out.
They use their power and
privilege, their sense of superiority, and they cast out those who often
already feel like slaves, throwing them out to die in a desert of loneliness,
isolation, and despair.
Maybe we don’t believe
there are those in our midst who feel like slaves, maybe we don’t think there
are those who suffer. Here at Kowloon
Union, I find that hard to believe.
Last Sunday we
celebrated Refugees and Asylum Seekers – people fleeing conditions that enslave
them to fear and injustice only to be enslaved again by a system that seems to
forget them, to neglect them, or worse, to abuse them.
Or think of this Sunday
when we have a forum for sisters and brothers who also fight a system of
slavery that allows them dissimilar rights, wants to silence their voice,
condemns and casts them away. If people
cannot find solace in the church, where can they find it?
If their communities and
families and places of employment and even countries have thrown them aside,
and the church casts them out… If they have nowhere that is safe… If they have
been left in a desert of isolation, injustice, and fear… And if the church is
just as complicit… Well, I hope you can see my horror.
I hope you can see my
horror at how today’s verses implicate God in this idea of casting out. When God reportedly says to Abraham, “Sure –
kick the slave and her son out to die,” I get nervous. I get nervous because I know this is a story
not about history, but about us, about the church. I get nervous that people have used God to
support their abuse, their fiendish acts of emotional or physical violence
against others. I get nervous thinking
God would ever join in abuse, enabling others to be cast out. I get nervous thinking of the God we find in
Jesus drawing the circle smaller or closed to people on the margins, people
hurting, people enslaved, abused, alone.
I get nervous. In fact, I get more than nervous.
I don’t believe it.
I do believe Abraham may
have wanted to justify his and Sarah’s repeated abuse of Hagar and brought in
God to be on his side.
But I don’t believe God
really says, “Sure, cast Hagar and Ishmael out.”
I believe that we may
want to justify our fear and oppression of those who are different, those we
don’t understand, those we don’t even know and subsequently call “issues.”
But I don’t believe God
really says, “Sure, cast the gays and lesbians and transgender and bi and queer
folks out.”
I believe that we may
want to close our eyes, turn away, hide, and have God with us to enable our
behavior.
But I don’t believe God
really says, “Sure, cast the hungry, the destitute, the lonely out.”
I don’t believe that God
ever condones slavery, genocide, holocaust, abuse of women, the foreigner, the
queer. We do those things, however, and
we try to drag God along. Like these
verses, we drag God in to justify us.
And that creates a scary
story. A scary story like we read today
in Genesis.
So we turn to verse
17. “Do not be afraid.”
We turn to our Gospel
reading. “Do not fear.”
The most long-standing
admonition in all of scripture – Do not be afraid! Do not fear!
Fear is what caused
Sarai to abuse Hagar.
Do not fear.
Fear is what caused
Sarah to cast out Hagar and Ishmael.
Do not fear.
Fear is what causes us
to cast out the stranger, the one we don’t understand, don’t know.
Do not fear.
Fear is what causes us
to cling to ancient words rather than the living Spirit.
Do not fear.
Fear is what drives us
to slippery slope thinking, that just because we take one step, that opens the
door to everything imaginable. (Like the
fear people will soon want to marry their pets or animals or…)
Do not fear.
Fear is what creates
“us” versus “them” and fear puts God on “our” side.
Do not fear.
Fear is what ruins
us. Robs us of life and joy. Kills us.
Fear is what destroys
community, terrorizes the church, and sends us spiraling into abuse… abuse like
casting each other out.
Do not fear.
Embrace the goodness of
God. Embrace the life in the
Spirit. Embrace each other.
And do not fear.
Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, June 22, 2014
