A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on
Sunday 23 August 2015 by Bruce Van Voorhis. The scripture readings
that day were Joshua 24:1–2, 14–18, Psalm 84, Ephesians 6:10–20, John 6:56–69.
Spirit of love and compassion, Spirit of
justice and peace, may the meditations of my heart, of my mind and of my spirit
be acceptable and pleasing to you, and may they be a faithful witness to the
wisdom you have gifted to us. In your Son’s name, we pray. Amen.
My message this
morning is actually a continuation of Hope’s sermon last week that was entitled
“Are We Really What We Eat?” Even the beginning of today’s Gospel reading may
sound familiar as the first two verses—John 6:56–58—were the last two verses of our
Gospel reading last week. Thus, in keeping with Hope’s theme of food last week,
I would like to talk about a “Christian diet” today and the ways in which we
can possibly ensure that our “diet of faith” produces a healthy and energetic
person of faith. Perhaps, by the end of my sermon, we will all be ready to eat even
more food during our time of fellowship or at least be hungry after all this
talk about food!
You may recall that Hope said last week that “the Good News is truly Good
News when it confronts or engages the bad news within and around us, i.e.,
whatever it is that keeps people from living the quality of life that God wills
for all.”
She concluded her message to us with these words:
“If we as professing Christians feed on the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus as the Living Word, we may
become what we eat, i.e., transformed persons who, like Christ, will manifest
the love, justice and compassion of God in our lives and relationships. If we
feed on the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus as the Living Word, we will abide
in him and he in us, and we may become bearers of the Good News, filled with
knowledge and courage to confront the bad news within and around us. If we are
what we eat, let us seek not the food that will pass away; but set our hearts
on the food that endures, the food that will show us the true and living way.”
Friends, this week let us focus our attention on the good food of our
faith that endures, not on the junk food of faith that will quickly pass away. As you can see in the sermon title, my recommendation
for a good Christian diet is a hearty helping of yin that’s washed down with a
huge goblet of yang. Mmmmmm, with these “delicacies,” I hope you all don’t
immediately run to the fellowship hall!
Let us begin by
looking at the first few verses of our Gospel reading today in the sixth
chapter of John. In verses 56 and 57, Jesus says, “He who eats my flesh and
drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I
live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.”
Can you imagine
the response of the disciples and everyone who heard these words? Indeed, verse
60 tells us that “many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a
hard saying; who can listen to it?’”
It certainly is a “hard
saying”! My first inclination of hearing these words from someone proclaiming
themselves to be a religious or spiritual leader today would be that this
person is crazy and is the leader of a cult promoting cannibalism!
Jesus, of course,
explains himself later in verse 63: “It is the spirit that gives life, the
flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Jesus again seeks
a reaction from the disciples in verse 67 in which he asks the disciples if
they now “wish to go away.”
Simon Peter in the
next two verses replies: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the
Holy One of God.”
“You are the Holy
One of God”! This statement, of course, is the core of our faith. “You are the
Holy One of God” is what separates us from the believers of all other faiths.
It is what we proclaim every week when we recite the Apostles’ Creed or the
Nicene Creed. It is the assertion that makes us Christians.
How though can we be healthy and energetic Christians?
Now, as you might
suspect, comes “Dr. Bruce s Christian Diet” offering that delicious yin and
that succulent yang! Don t sprint to the fellowship hall yet though. The feast
here is about to begin!
In Chinese philosophy,
yin and yang is rooted in a balance of what may appear to be opposing forces
that, in reality, complement each other and make the whole greater than its
parts. I believe we can adopt this principle to our Christian faith. For me,
the yin and yang of Christianity rests on a balance of the inner dimension of our faith—our spiritual life—and the external
dimension of our faith—our witness in society.
The inner dimension,
the yin, is something internal to us; it’s invisible; it’s something we
experience, and we may even say that we feel. The external dimension, the yang,
is something outside of us; it’s visible; it’s something that others can observe.
Both dimensions, however, can be lived out as individuals and collectively as a
community of faith.
Our faith is rooted
in our relationship with God and with others. Remember the two central
commandments of the New Testament in Matthew 22 and Mark 12: “love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”
and “love your neighbor as yourself.” The first relationship with God is part
of the inner dimension of our faith involving our spiritual life; the second
relationship with others is part of the external dimension of our faith and is
reflected in such acts as our service to the poor, our work for social justice,
our role as peacemakers. Our relationship with others is a reflection of our
relationship with God. If we can keep these two simple, but difficult,
commandments, what a different world we’d have!
Remember as well that
we are called not to obey a set of religious rules but to create and nurture a
relationship with God that, again, is reflected in our values and in how we
live our lives. In Amos 5:21–24, the prophet, quoting the Lord, offers this stern and uncompromising challenge
in the Old Testament:
“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no
delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt
offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings
of your fatted beasts I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your
songs; to the melody of your harps, I will not listen. But let justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
How though can we
make a tasty dish of yin to enhance our Christian lives?
Let us look to this
morning’s psalm, Psalm 84, for a glimpse of what the final dish might look like
and a hint at the recipe, for the psalmist seems almost drunk on the Spirit in
this beautiful psalm of praise and joy:
“How lovely is thy dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yea, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at thy altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in thy house,
ever singing thy praise! [Selah]
Blessed are the men whose strength is in
thee,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! [Selah]
Behold our shield, O God;
look upon the face of thine anointed!
For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house
of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the man who trusts in thee!”
A hint, I believe,
of how we can enrich our spiritual life is contained in the last verse of this
psalm in which the psalmist exclaims that “blessed is the man, [the woman], who
trusts in thee”; for if we can truly trust in God, then we will know true
peace, true joy, true harmony with our God. Trusting in God though sounds
simple, but, in reality, it is much more difficult as our ego is afraid to
surrender to God, to let go for fear of losing control. We are rarely willing
to lose our life in order to find it, to paraphrase Matthew 16:25.
Other paths to deepening our spiritual life are taking place right here,
right now, as we worship God and listen to the Word of God. We can also develop
the inner dimension of our faith, the yin of our faith, through reflecting on
what God says to us during Bible studies and by regularly setting aside time
for daily meditation, or contemplative prayer—the almost forgotten Christian
practice of listening to the Divine in each of us in the silence of our being.
As for the external dimension of our faith, the yang of our faith, what
are we called to do as children of God to witness to God’s unconditional and
unceasing love for all who breathe and have life?
I believe that the witness of any person, any Christian, can be in words
and deeds that are both seemingly big and seemingly small. Every day is an
opportunity to reflect our faith in the world. It may be what we might consider
an insignificant act of taking time to listen to the problems of a friend or
family member, to comfort them, to express our concern. It may be an act that
has implications for the common good of our community and our society, such as
signing a petition, attending a forum or marching in the streets. Whenever our
motivation is to share our compassion or to seek justice or to work for peace,
I believe that God is present in what we say and do even if we don’t
consciously act on the basis of our Christian faith and its values. God is
love. Acts of compassion and acts for justice and peace are acts rooted in love
for others, for someone and something beyond ourselves and our own
self-interests. In these moments, our egos are outward-looking, not
inward-looking.
If we look at this morning’s Old Testament reading from Joshua and epistle
reading from Ephesians, we find some potential targets for our witness as
Christians in the world.
In our Old Testament reading, Joshua asks the people who will they
serve—the Lord or other gods? This same question might be asked of us today.
Who are our other gods? Our answers might include the God of Greed or the God
of Wealth, the God of Vanity, the God of Status, etc. There are numerous
candidates and temptations. When asked the same question posed by Joshua about
who we will serve, we will most likely give the same reply as the people of his
time: we will serve the Lord. Like most aspects of our faith, words are easily
uttered, but deeds are much more challenging for all of us. Thus, discerning
who we will serve is the initial focus of the external dimension of our faith.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that we heard this morning, he mentions
some forces that the people are facing. In Ephesians 6:11–12, he tells the
people to “put on the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For
we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against
the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
That’s a whole of
lot of bad people! Notice that Paul equates “the principalities, . . . the
powers, . . . the world rulers of this present darkness” with the devil. That’s
a pretty strong link!
At any rate, we
too face the same political and economic powers today. Nothing has changed.
Whether or not we equate them with the devil could be the topic of another
sermon, but not today. We though are called, just as the Ephesians were, to
respond to “the principalities, . . . the powers, . . . the world rulers of
this present darkness.” While the context and challenge are different—Paul’s audience was
Christians facing persecution for their faith—the challenge for us as a matter
of faith still remains nonetheless.
Paul, in the remainder of this morning’s epistle reading, gives us some hints
of tools that may be helpful for our witness as Christians today—“gird your
loins with truth,” “shod your feet . . . with the gospel of peace,” “take the
shield of faith,” “take . . . the sword of the Spirit,” “pray at all times in
the Spirit” and “open my mouth boldly.” While taken out of context of this
Letter to the Ephesians, Paul’s recognition of the importance to Christians of his era of truth, peace and non-violence,
faith, the Spirit, prayer and the courage to speak are also important for us
today as we seek to be better witnesses of our faith in the world.
Hopefully, by now,
our spiritual stomachs are full of yin and yang. Our faith is rooted in a
constant cycle of flowing in and flowing out, a constant cycle of inner and
outer, a constant cycle of spirituality and witness. Zen Buddhists might tell
us to breathe in spirituality, breath out witness, breath in spirituality,
breathe out witness. Let us keep breathing in and breathing out our faith and
eating our yin and yang to be healthy and energetic Christians. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, August 23, 2015
A sermon
preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 16 August 2015, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, by Dr. Hope S. Antone. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 34:9-14; John 6:51-58.
How many of you have heard
of the saying, You Are What You Eat?
How many of you have watched the TV show, You
Are What You Eat? How many of you have read the book with the same title, You Are What You Eat? The simple meaning
of the saying that catches my attention is this: ‘What you eat can mean your
health or lack of it’. Your show of hands indicates that the saying is not new
to many of us here.
Indeed, the idea is not
new. Studies on traditional/tribal foods found that the notion, “You are what
you eat,” is shared among Native American and eastern traditional communities.
I know that the Chinese believe that if you eat a lot of chicken you will
manifest chicken energy. [Now I wonder if the muscular energy of my son to
climb the iron gate of our apartment even before he could walk was because of
my eating a lot of chicken feet when I was pregnant with him.]
Are we really what we eat?
If we are what we eat, what does it mean for Christians who claim to eat the
living bread from heaven?
Last Sunday, the Rev Ralph
Lee gave an inspiring and challenging sermon on the living bread that comes
from heaven as the spiritual bread that feeds our minds and hearts, giving us
courage and strength to change our lives and those of others. He said the
change will be from being self-centered to being full of love, justice, peace
and compassion.
In today’s scripture
reading, we see a shift in metaphors: from “living bread” to “flesh and blood”.
Christ Jesus says, “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have
eternal life… for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”
In last Sunday’s lectionary
reading, we read that the Jews complained about Jesus’ claim to be the “bread
of life” because they knew him to be the son of ordinary parents (John 6:35,
41). Now they challenged how he could give his flesh to eat and his blood to
drink for people to have eternal life. “Aionios” (Greek word for eternal life)
refers to the quality of life that belongs to God. So the controversy was more
than a simplistic accusation of practicing cannibalism; it was more seriously
about Jesus’ claim to give the kind of life that only belongs to God.
So today, let us re-visit
the whole idea of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of our Lord and
Saviour, Christ Jesus. Hopefully, we will become more conscious of whether we
are really what we eat, and what that means for our life today.
A most likely meaning of
eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood is of course the celebration of the
Lord’s Supper. As we know, Christian denominations have different
interpretations or doctrines on the Lord’s Supper. Some take the literal
interpretation that during the celebration of the Communion, the elements of
bread and wine will change to the real flesh and blood of Jesus. Others take a
more metaphorical interpretation that the elements of bread and wine (or juice)
are symbolic representations of Jesus’ life, offered and shared with many.
Another possible meaning
requires us to probe deeper and to go beyond the celebration of the Lord’s
Supper. Let us go for this deeper meaning because Jesus was not only concerned
about our celebration of the Last Supper. He was very concerned about how those
who “eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (vs. 56).
The
ancient Jewish law (Leviticus 17) forbade the eating of fat and blood. Instead,
the blood of a slaughtered animal must be spilled out on the altar, and the fat
must be burned on the altar as an offering to God. Ramban, a 13th
century rabbi explained that the life (or ‘soul’) of a creature is in the
blood. Since animals have blood, they have soul. If a human consumes the
animal’s blood, he/she consumes its soul. By spilling the blood on the altar,
the animal’s soul will atone for the human act of killing it. Since it was
believed that only God, giver of life, can consume life, the soul-containing
blood of the animal should be offered to God. Consequently, to eat what is
forbidden and believed to be God’s food is to strive to become like God. That
was a big ‘No No!’ in ancient times,
the punishment of which was to be cut off from the community.
In
view of such ancient belief, it would appear that Jesus is making such a big
offence here. He is not only talking about eating the flesh and drinking the
blood of an animal; he is taking the extreme of asking people to eat his own
flesh and drink his own blood: “…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you… for my flesh is true food and my
blood is true drink.” It did not only sound yucky! It sounded insanely crazy!
I
think Jesus wanted to shake people up from their long held belief that they
could not get any closer to God. He wanted people to know that they too could
eat the food of God, be filled with God, become one with God, and even begin to
resemble God. Isn’t this what it means to be made in the image of God? And that
indeed is having eternal life, the quality of God’s life.
There
are many of us here who like cooking, or whose responsibility includes ensuring
good and healthy food for our loved ones or the people we work and live with.
From experience we know that preparing good and healthy food takes a lot of
time and careful thought and planning. [Not to mention considering our budget
of time and money.] Young children and ageing people need food that is easy to
digest. For growing children, we need to strike a balance in terms of the food
that will make them go, grow, and glow.
It
is the same when feeding on the flesh and blood of Jesus. The assurance of
God’s acceptance, forgiveness and love for us is like our baby food, perhaps
our Sunday School food. But we need to grow up and realize that such love,
acceptance and forgiveness are not just meant for us. They are also meant for
the many others who are often condemned, judged and criticized for their being different, dirty, difficult, or even dangerous
– these are some terms that are often used for people who are not like us, not
known to us, or not one of us. As we grow older, we need to feed on the food of
self-critique, and this requires much more responsibility and a bigger effort
on our part. If our take on the good news of God’s salvation through Christ
Jesus is only centered on our self or ourselves (i.e. the ones we like and
love), we may be feeding partially on the Word of God.
The
Chinese have a belief that most foods have cooling or warming characteristics.
Knowing the condition of one’s body helps in planning for the proper food to
take to ensure balance between the body’s yin
and yang qualities. Knowing the
deficiency in either the yin or yang of one’s body also helps in
preparing the right ingredients and amount of Chinese medicines to address the
deficiency. Not all good food is good for all people all the time. Some people
with health problems may need to avoid certain food or ingredients, and require
careful ways of preparing the food.
Again,
it is the same when feeding on the flesh and blood of Jesus. We are called to
feed on and share the good news. But in fact, the good news is not the same for
everyone all the time. What the famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr advised the
ministry students of his time, is still true today: the role of the bearers of
the Good News is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” The
good news for the poor and the weak is that God wills for them abundant life
and strength. The good news for the rich and strong is that God wills for them
to share with and care for those who are less privileged. The Good News is truly
Good News when it confronts or engages the bad news within and around us – i.e.
whatever it is that keeps people from living the quality of life that God wills
for all.
Finally,
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ Jesus does not only happen
during the Lord’s Supper; or during our feeding on the words and teachings of
our Lord. It happens during all occasions when we get to commune with one
another. For many of us from Asian and African cultures, meals are special
occasions for communion with one another – from the preparation of the dishes
to the actual sharing of the meal, and into the cleaning up after the meal. The
breaking of the bread/food and the pouring of the wine/drink are constantly
reenacted through our daily ritual of sharing a meal, made possible through the
hard work of farmers and fisherfolk. For every grain or seed, meat or plant
that we eat, we absorb the gifts of their hard labor as well as the blessings
from nature’s soil, sun and rain. By partaking of such gifts, we, like Christ
Jesus, then partake of the sufferings of the farmers, fisherfolk, and laborers;
we also partake of the sufferings of the earth, now ravaged by human abuse,
misuse and overuse. This is the wider and deeper meaning of Communion – i.e. affirming
our connectivity with one another and with all in God’s creation.
My
brothers and sisters in Christ, are we really what we eat? If we as professing
Christians feed on the “flesh and blood” of Christ Jesus as the Living Word, we
may become what we eat – i.e. transformed persons who, like Christ, will
manifest the love, justice and compassion of God in our lives and
relationships. If we feed on the “flesh and blood” of Christ Jesus as the
Living Word, we will abide in him and he in us, and we may become bearers of
the Good News, filled with knowledge and courage to confront the bad news
within and around us. If we are what we eat, let us “seek not the food that
will pass away”; but “set our hearts on the food that endures,” the food that will
show us the true and living way.
Let
us pray:
When the journey is long, and we hunger and
thirst,
Bread of Life, sustain us.
When the road is hard, and our bodies weak
Bread of Life, heal us.
When our spirits are low, and we can’t carry on
Bread of Life, revive us.
When we offer our hand, in love and in service
Bread of life, bless us.
When the challenge is great, and the workers are few
Bread of Life, empower us.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, August 16, 2015
