A sermon
preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 21 August 2016, the fourteenth Sunday after
Pentecost, by Pearl Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm
71:1–6; Hebrews 12:18–29; Luke 13:10–17.
Let us pray
Almighty
God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that
this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through
Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God. May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.
Psalm 71, verses 1-6 is the beginning of a prayer that
echoed the voice of the Israelites to Yahweh, their God, for lifelong
protection and help. The first
impression we get from reading the first 6 lines is that, the author of this
Psalm is a person of great faith because God seems to have promised him
everything. The author's faith has
promised him refuge in God, deliver and rescue him from the hand of the wicked.
The author's faith has also rescued him
from injustice and awarded him with hope. It seems that the author's trust in God is unshakable, not for a second did he has
doubt that God will not protect him.
I invite you to read this 6 verses again with new lens, and
to imagine that this is what we call "opposite talk", that we don't
really mean what we say. Imagine what if
the author is in a desperate situation, he has been praying for sometime but his
situation has not improved, and he starts to question why God is silent, why God
is ignoring his prayer. Imagine that the
tone of this prayer sounds like a desperate cry, a plea for help, the author is
praying very loud because he wants to assure himself that God will come to his
rescue, despite the fact that he has been praying for a long time and yet, his
situation has not changed a bit. In
verse 2, the author exclaims, "incline your ear to me and save me." Sounds like he is complaining to God, "why
do you overlook my request, why don't you come and save me?"
If we read further down Psalm 71 to verses 9-12, the author
has expressed clearly his uncertainty in his future.
"Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not
forsake me when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me, and
those who watch for my life consult together. They say, pursue and seize that
person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver. And verse 12,
"O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!" Here
it really sounds like a frenzied petition to God.
So right now, the author is not a person of great faith
anymore, rather, the author is full of doubt about what God can do to save him,
he is full of uncertainties about his future, about what will happen to him
next. Now we wonder, can the author of
Psalm 71 be both faithful and doubtful at the same time?
"FAITH and DOUBT are like sisters, they go hand in
hand." This is a claim I heard from
the Catholic priest Tomas Halik from the Czech Republic, when he was in Hong
Kong few weeks ago promoting the Chinese edition of his book, Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus
Continuing in Us.
The Chinese title of his book is
called 擁抱懷疑的信仰, in English it will be something
like, "Christian Faith that embraces Doubt". Tomas Halik is a theologian, psychotherapist,
painter, journalist and has written 16
books on religion and spirituality, few of his books invite his readers to examine
Christian faith in an age of uncertainty. The ambivalent nature of the world today seems
to make no sense, when violence and discrimination dominate, when exploitation
and greed cause so many sufferings, Christians and atheists sometimes share a
sense of God's absence from the world. Life's
many paradoxes produce phrases like , " God is silent, God is hidden, God
is DEAD!" This exactly is the reason for
Tomas Halik to reiterate that FAITH and DOUBT in Christianity is not
contradictory, rather, they go hand in hand like sisters. Many of
us live in a state of tension
between faith and doubt for most of our
lives, and for some, we are in this tension every day.
In Luke 13 verses 10-17,
Jesus, in which God becomes human, notices people and situations in ways that
others do not. Jesus came to save the
lost, the poor, including every kind of marginalized person whom traditional
religion and great leaders of faith, like the Pharisees in this parable, would
put outside the boundaries. Great
leaders from Jesus' time up until today have constructed many rules that they
presume would keep faith in order, or will help the seekers and doubters affirm their faith. However, Jesus challenges these
great leaders, breaks the law, and reaches out to release the woman from her
oppression. This woman, "a bent
over, unable to stand up straight, crippled, overlooked" image can
represent someone who is humble, low self esteem, constantly doubtful
whether anyone, including God, can heal her. Jesus sees her and is filled with compassion,
reaches out to her and sets her free from bondage that afflicted her for 18 years. Here we see that Jesus makes himself a seeker
with those who seek, and a doubter with those who doubt.
We also see that Jesus criticizes the religious leaders who
consider themselves the very faithful. These leaders value the laws above
everything else, therefore, they condemn Jesus of breaking the law by healing
on Sabbath. Precisely because they focus
on the little rules, they fail to see that Jesus has demonstrated THE LAW given
by God, "Love your neighbor" , and that includes, healing, liberating others from oppression,
showing care and compassion, and doing justice.
Some of us, who consider ourselves the faithful, who have attended
Church for a long time and serve in the church devotedly, perhaps pray and read
the Bible daily, we very often follow and implement the rules blindly. We often create boundaries that push people to
the margins. We separate ourselves "the faithful" from the seekers
and the doubters.
And now, let us consider another reading today, Hebrews 12 verses 14-29. First of all,
the author of the book of Hebrews wants to emphasize that Christ is superior to
everything that went before, and God's people can have full confidence in God's
son. What also concerns the author is the possibility that some believers,
under distress and adversity, will let go of Christ; abandon their trust in
Christ and even have doubts about God's presence and Jesus' saving works. Chapter 12 verses 14-29 belongs to the final
part of the book of Hebrews, and this part is all about faithful perseverance.
Using the contrasting imagery of Mount Sinai and the
heavenly Mount Zion here, the author affirms believers their future
certainty. The Christian community
during the author's time is discouraged because of suffering and perhaps, have
doubts about whether Jesus is really the Son of God who would actualize God's
promise of the New Jerusalem. Likewise,
the Christian community of today live in
a world of darkness, chaos, and absurdity, our prayers do not bring us peace or
comfort; our prayers do not help make things better in our society, and we lose our patience with God. The author of Hebrews not only writes to
convince his community " not to lose faith" on Christ, and not to
abandon God; he writes to remind us as well of this important message.
Are you
those of great faith who have absolute trust in God's grace and providence?
Or are you
those who are doubtful and uncertain about God as your refuge and your
comforter?
Perhaps you
are like me, living in this tension of being faithful and doubtful every day?
Perhaps we
need to humble ourselves and recognize that we, followers of Christ, do not
have all the answers, and definitely, we are not infallible in our faith. What
is more important is to make ourselves seekers with those who seek and question with those who question.
A community
of faith that maintains the spirit of seeking, ongoing questions and
uncertainties, will teach us to live with God's mystery, and not forgetting to
live continually with faith, hope and love.
I now
invite you to meditate on God's promise while I read Psalm 71 verses 19-21.
"You
who have done great things,
O God, who
is like you?
You who
have made me see many troubles and calamities
will revive
me again;
from the
depths of the earth
You will
bring me up again.
You will
increase my honor,
and comfort
me once again."
AMEN
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, August 21, 2016
