A sermon preached at Kowloon Union
Church on Sunday 19 June 2016, World Refugee Sunday, by Timothy Chan Ka. The scripture readings that day were Psalm
42, Galatians 3:23–29, Luke
8:26–39.
Today is a refugee Sunday.
You might be looking around and wonder who is refugee, and who is not. However,
I would say, every one of us needs to seek refuge and no one knows what would
happen in our life in the next second. Last week, in America, Orlando, 49
people were killed in a gay bar because of homophobia and hatred towards sexual
minority. And In Hong Kong, one of the missing booksellers Lam Wing-Kee came
back to Hong Kong and stormed the media, telling how the Chinese government
confined him, and threatened him. Persecution, violence and injustice are closer
than we imagine. In this Sunday, I want to remind every one of us, no matter
who you are and where you from, God is our refuge, Before we go into the
scripture and today’s message, let us pray:
Loving God, may you open
our eyes, to see how much we need you in our life, and may you open our ears,
to listen what you are telling us this morning. May your Holy Spirit transform
us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
According to the Refugee Convention
adopted by the United Nations in 1951, a refugee is “someone who is unable or
unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of
being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a
particular social group, or political opinion.” However, this definition might not
be able to include all the people facing persecution and different life
threats. Think about the victims in the Orlando shooting, do they match with
the definition? Maybe No, the immigration office in Hong Kong might deny their
case! And in today’s reading, in the Gospel of Luke, we read about a man of the
city Gerasenes, who had demons taken him. Do you think he would be accepted as
a refugee in our society today? If he is in Hong Kong right now, who can he
turn to, for help and assistance? In this story, he was kept under guard and
bound with chains and shackles, and he lives in the tomb, isolated, keeping
distance with the “normal citizens”. He is not welcomed by his own city, and
the tomb is the only place he can go. However, Jesus came all the way to cross
the Lake and see this man and casted out the demons in him and give him a new
life.
Today in our society, in Hong Kong,
many politicians are calling to build a close camp for refugee, propose to
detain them somewhere in Hong Kong or Shen Zhen, and keep them away from the HK
citizens and keep them isolated. This is what exactly the citizens in Gerasenes
did to this man that he was chained and kept in tombs! A tomb is a place for
dead people, by sending this man to the tomb, the citizens might just want to
kill him slowly, or in their eyes, this man is already a dead man. Today we
have to question ourselves, do we see refugee as a problem? Do we also see them
as dead people? That we just want them to disappear from our sight, so that we
do not have to be responsible to what had happened to them?
Jesus offers another way. Jesus rebuked
the demons and casted them to the herd, and hundreds of swine rushed down to
the cliff and drowned. The man who was naked, is now clothed and he got back
his mind. And the man who had been possessed by demons had been healed. The man
who had no dignity has gained his identity back! Praise the Lord! What a
miracle is this! But sadly, this is not what the citizens think. The bible says
they were scared and fear of Jesus! And they urged Jesus to leave them. They
might be troubled by the loss of the pigs which jumped off the cliff, those
might worth a lot of money. However Jesus valued this man much more than those
swine and money. Jesus cherish every one of us, and particularly to those who
are marginalized by the society, and those who are weak. Today our media is
trying to stamp a label of “fake refugee” on the asylum seekers in Hong Kong.
They are trying to tell the citizens of Hong Kong that they do not deserve our
help, as they are not “REAL” refugee. BUT today we have to say No to these
politicians, and No to these inhumane discourses. Today we have to decide that
we will follow Jesus’ teaching and his example, to help and love those who are
in need, no matter they have the “certificate” of “refugee” or not.
In fact, when we listen more to the
stories of our friends, fleeing from their own countries for different reasons.
It opens up our mind. I have started serving refugee and asylum seekers in KUC
about six months ago. As I was listening to their stories, I was really moved,
at the same time, very shocked too. To be honest, I think you are all very
tough and brave. I’m very moved by how their faith to God is so strong. In such
a tough situation, they still managed to praise God, and dance for God. Looking
at myself, maybe I would blame God and would never go to church again. However,
through our asylum seeker brothers and sisters. They show me that, the more in need they are,
the harder they pray and more they want to come to church and praise God. Today they might be stuck in Hong Kong, but God’s
healing is everywhere. Jesus said to the man in Gerasense : “Return to your
home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming
throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.” Yes, today our refugee
friends still cannot go home, however, they have been proclaiming what God has
done for them in Hong Kong! Our team would go to different schools and churches
in Hong Kong, we will go and share, not just about how hard their life is, but
how God has helped them to go through all of these. They are counting the grace
of God. This is the very thing we can learned from their stories!
In today’s reading, psalm 42, you may
open your bible to psalm 42 and read together again. Psalm 42 is a Maskil of
the Korahites. A Maskil is a genre of the Psalms, it means a contemplative
Psalm, and the Korahites, are the descendants of the Levite who are chosen by
God to serve in the temple. They were used to lead the Israelites to Praise God
in the temple! In this Psalm, the Psalmist is very likely a priest, or someone
who used to serve in the temple. However, he was in great trouble and sorrow.
In verse 3, the psalmist says
“My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’”
Even the servant of God would face the
time of trials and turmoil. In fact, every one of us here might have
experienced something similar, we had bad moments, and time we have no idea
where to go, what to do, we couldn’t see our future. To a point that we doubt
“Where is our God.” When the asylum seekers came to Hong Kong, they have no
right to work, forced to rely on a very thin subsidy from the government. They
do not have money to pay for the school fee for their kids, they do not have
enough money to pay for the sky high rent in Hong Kong. They might have asked
“Where is our God?” this is also a question many of us would ask, not just the
refugee and asylum seekers, but every one of us. However, the psalmist did not
give up, he continues to say :
“5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.”
For the psalmist did not give up on God
even though he might be surrounded by his enemies, and the people around him
are mocking him, teasing him saying “Where is your God?” The psalmist
demonstrated his faith in God. It reminds me of a brother in our fellowship, He
comes from India and he is in midst of us now. He grew up in a Sikh family, but
he met Jesus, and decided to become a Christian. Unfortunately, his family and
people in his community are not happy about this. They had beaten him, threaten
to kill him, and denounced him publicly, and his family has decided to cut the
relationship with him and the statement was on the local newspaper. When he
showed me the newspaper, I was really upset. His life is being threatened if he
decides to follow Jesus, that’s why he came to Hong Kong. However, he did not
lose faith in God, when he was facing all these threats around him, he did not
give up on God, where it was supposedly the easiest way for him to survive.
Give up his faith and he will be accepted by the community again. But he did
not, he remembers God, and when he came to Kowloon Union Church, you know what
the very thing he said to me? He said “I
want to be baptized” I hope that, very soon, we will all witness his baptism
here in KUC. Okay?
So the Psalmist says:
“My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you”
Do you remember God when your soul is cast down and
when you are in trouble?
At the end of the psalm, the psalmist reminds us one
more time
“Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.”
God is our refuge. This psalm might be
resounding in the heart of the man from Gerasense. Even he was possessed by
demons, he might still remembering God. Today, I pray that this psalm would
also resound in your soul whenever you are facing challenges, persecutions,
threats, and all kind of difficulty you may encounter in your life. Last night,
in the Vine Church, the refugee ministry group in Hong Kong was celebrating the
World Refugee Day. When the Aineo Gospel Choir sing the song “He’s able”, one
lyric touches me so deeply, it says “Don't give up on God, cause he won't give
up on you”
Brother and sister, in the third
reading of today, in the book of Galatians, it says
“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there
is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you
are one in Christ Jesus.”
Today, our society is giving us a lot
labels, I believe everyone in KUC are holding a different ID card, or paper
right? Some of you are holding a working visa, some of you are permanent
residents, some of you are domestic helpers, some of you might be a travelers,
and some of you are asylum seekers or refugees. But these identities are no
longer important when we are calling “God, help me!” you do not need a HKID to
pray, “Hey God, see I am a HK citizen! Listen to my prayer!” or “Hey God, see
my papers! I am a ‘real’ refugee! Help me!” God’s Love and protection is beyond
all these identities the world has given to us.
In God “There is no longer Jew or
Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female,
there is no longer gay or straight, and there is no longer the so called “real
refugee” or “fake refugee” FOR WE ARE ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.
God is our refuge! Amen!
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, June 19, 2016
