A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 23 October
2016, the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, by Rune Nielsen. The
scripture readings that day were Joel 2:23-32; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14.
I used to
work for a small congregation in the United States, and as we had a small
budget, we had no church janitor to clean the space we rented and no deacon.
So, we relied on volunteers a lot. Every Sunday in the bulletin we would list a
thank you to the volunteers who helped at the church that week. We had
different categories in the list, such as “cleaning the sanctuary” and next to
each task would be the name of the volunteer. Well, there was one woman in the
congregation who volunteered quite often, and her name would be listed five
times in the thank yous under different categories for five different things
she’d volunteered for. But when my church started printing shorter bulletins to
save paper, we didn’t have the space to list every category of volunteering. So,
instead we just listed a simple “Thank you to the following people who
volunteered this week:” And each volunteer’s name was shown once in the list.
For the woman who had volunteered five times a week that meant her name was
shown once, the same as the other volunteers. Well, after this happened, she
stopped volunteering altogether.
But what
does this example have to do with today’s gospel lesson? When we look at
today’s gospel reading, we hear about the self-righteous Pharisee who praised
himself when praying to God. It’s a simple message, isn’t it? We can feel good
knowing that we do not pray the self-centered way the Pharisee does; end of
story, we’ve got the lesson covered, right?
…Wrong! When we compare ourselves to
the Pharisee and judge our actions as better than his, we are in fact becoming
the Pharisee. The Pharisee prayed “God, I thank you that I am not like other
people.” Like the woman at my old church who was so pleased with her
competitive volunteering, the Pharisee thinks his good deeds make him better
than other people. We don’t want to be like the Pharisee, but in looking down
on him for his faults we elevate ourselves to the same stuck-up position. Yes,
it is true that the Pharisee is wrong in saying the self-absorbed things he
does, but to judge another is not our job, but God’s. Let’s view our critique
of the Pharisee as self-criticism, knowing that we are sinners too and that we
are prone to the same wicked tendencies.
So, how
many of you are more likely to do something if you know you will be thanked for
it? … Okay, how many of you are more likely to do something if you know you
will be complimented for it? And, how many of you are aware that those are not
good reasons for doing something good?
In the
parable, the Pharisee is standing in the ‘center stage’ of the Temple;
scripture says he was “standing by himself,” perhaps an indicator that he
viewed himself as someone deserving a place of honor. We can imagine him as the
worshipper who pushes ahead of the rest of the congregation to reach the spot
closest to the altar. He wants attention, like the woman at my old congregation
who volunteered five times a week for the sake of seeing her name printed five
times in the bulletin. He wanted thank yous and compliments.
How many of
you think that doing more work deserves more appreciation? Yes, me too. And the
Pharisee in Jesus’ parable seemed to agree with us. And it is wonderful if you
are able to do a lot of volunteering. But when we help others because we want
more appreciation, when we make doing good deeds a competition between people,
we are not really serving God. Already you can see that we are like the
Pharisee in Jesus’ parable. This story was written for people like us.
I once
heard a wise phrase: “ethics is what you do when no one else is looking.” If
the Pharisee didn’t have an audience for his prayers, would he still have done
the good deeds he did?
How many of
you have ever been eating at a fast food place, and you see dirty tables, and
you think—well, those employees need to do a better job of cleaning the tables?
I have. How many of you have ever been in a long line at the bank and thought
to yourself—the bankers need to do better to get the line moving faster? I
have. But again this is yet another way that we are like the Pharisee in Jesus’
parable. He thinks about what other
people have failed to do.
But now
let’s turn our attention to the tax collector for a moment. In Jesus’ context,
tax collectors were absolutely despised by the rest of society. Many of them
would demand that people hand over more money than the amount they were
supposed to collect, and from that extra money they made themselves wealthy.
But the specific tax collector in Jesus’ story begins to regret doing those bad
things. Unlike the Pharisee, the tax collector thinks about the wrong he’s
done. I can imagine him seeing a dirty table at a restaurant and he’s thinking
“I’ve done just as bad, and probably much worse, at my own job.” We can imagine that in his shame the tax
collector stood in the back of the temple, far from the altar--but he was not
far from God.
God listens
to all people equally. Doing more good deeds does not give you a spiritual
megaphone, a louder voice heard by God’s ears. But both the tax collector and
the Pharisee were sinners. From an earthly standpoint, the tax collector was
more of a sinner than the Pharisee, for his sins had very visible consequences.
He had been extorting money. Because he made himself wealthy, other people were
poor. Yet what makes this story’s tax collector more sympathetic than the
Pharisee? He feels distressed about his sins. On the other hand, the Pharisee
thinks he has done nothing wrong. In his mind, he has followed the law
perfectly.
But
actually the Pharisee did break a law. The First Commandment says “You shall
have no other gods before me.” God is perfect, not us; the Pharisee, thinking
he is perfect, puts himself in the place of God; idolatry doesn’t only come in
forms of object worship and the worship of other people. The Pharisee thinks of
himself as the judge, as the one who determines who is saved and who is not. He
does not see into the heart of the tax collector as God does, and he judges the
tax collector as unworthy of God’s attention.
For some
Christians there is a misconception that someone else must be going to hell in
order for them to go to heaven. It’s a false idea of the hierarchy of
believers. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that my spiritual
identity is based on being categorized as one of the good people, one of the
faithful—because that means that there must be a group of losers by comparison.
If you are
nice to someone, do you think they should like you more than another person who
is mean to them? Do you expect them to be nicer to you than they are to the
mean person? Yes, that is also my assumption and the opinion of the Pharisee.
Though we see this pattern with people, we cannot say this is true of God. God
loves us all, no matter how much we have sinned. We face a misconception that
God can love some people more than others, as thought by the Pharisee. But
really the reward for doing work for God is strengthening your relationship
with God, not getting more of God’s love than other people.
God’s love
cannot be earned—it is unconditional.
The tax collector
does not rely on himself, but on God, falling on God’s grace. Yet the Pharisee
focuses on what he has given to God, expecting repayment in the form of praise
from God or perhaps a ticket to heaven. Conversely, the tax collector admits
his lack of giving, admits his failures, and receives God’s mercy.
The
Pharisee follows an attitude we see in our society today- we live in a social
system of ‘work harder, go faster, be better, be more elite’—but if that is how
we think spiritually, we miss the point of spirituality. Instead with God’s
grace, we can say to God, “Here I am, a sinner, do what you can with me. When I
fail, I will lean on you and allow you to guide me back to your path for me.”
After
receiving God’s mercy, what will the tax collector do? He will likely turn his
life around and be an agent of mercy to others. His humility and gratefulness
for God’s mercy will inspire him to do good things. I have talked about the Pharisee being the ‘bad example’ of this
story, but as I said in the beginning, as soon as we look down on him and
categorize him as lower than us, we show the traits in him that we do not like.
Both the Pharisee and the tax collector are loved by God, made in God’s image.
They both have lessons to learn.
So, when
the Pharisee makes his way back from the Temple, will he pass by the tax
collector and be humbled? Will he see himself in the one he considered lowly
and undeserving? Will we do the same? And what about us after we do good deeds?
Will we remember the self-centered prayer of the Pharisee and resist the
temptation to measure our worth by our good deeds?
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 23, 2016
A sermon preached at
Kowloon Union Church on
Sunday 16 October 2016, the twenty-second Sunday
after Pentecost, by Timothy Chan. The scripture readings that day
were Jeremiah 31:27–34; 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5; Luke 18:1–8.
Good morning brothers and sisters, I
have a mixed feeling to share the message to you this morning. As I look at the
scriptures, I was like, God you really need to help me. After reading these
three passages, one word came into my mind, which is Persistence. We all know
it is something good, a virtue. However, it is the most difficult virtue for me
to attain. Persistence does not only mean doing something for a long period of
time, if this is the case, it will be easy for me, because I can sit in front
of my laptop and play computer game for a whole day! This morning, the passages
we read is talking about the persistence to pray, the persistence to live for
God, and being God’s people and Christ follower persistently. Let us pray
before we go into the scripture.
Faithful God, may You
teach us the lesson of persistence. May You inspire us and give us strength to
be persistent on the things we should do as a Christ follower. And May the word
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you. Amen.
When we look at the
gospel reading today, Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray
always and not to lose heart. There were two characters in the story. One is a
bad judge, who fears not God and respects no one. Jesus called him the unjust
judge. The other one is a widow. Widow is a very vulnerable group in the Jewish
tradition. Since they have no right to inherit the land of their husband and
they have very limited civil right. In a society where only men can voice out
for women, widows have no way to present any case if they have been mistreated.
Throughout the Old Testament, we have seen widows being victimized and
exploited. This widow is actually taking a huge step, voicing out for herself,
and hoping that this unjust judge would listen to her plea and grant her
justice. It seems like a mission impossible. However, the ending of this
parable is surprising. The cold judge granted her justice, because he does not
want to hear her voice anymore! This is obviously not a very good reason.
However, the widow has finally got the justice she had been asking for.
By telling this
parable Jesus is not saying God is actually a bad judge that he only answers
your prayer because he doesn’t want to hear your voice anymore. The parable is
suggesting “If a hard hearted judge can be moved to act, how much more will
your God be willing and eager to help the children of God?” How much more!
Most of the time, we are hesitated to pray or to ask for help. I am not sure
how many of you have similar thought as me. “Oh these things are too minor!
Don’t bother God with these”, or “God’s will is always higher than mine, why do
I even have to pray?” It seems theologically sound, but, for me, it is only an
excuse to cover up our doubt. We are suspicious of prayer, we have no faith that
God would listen to our prayer, so we give up praying to God. We might think
that the prayer is never going to be answered, so we stopped praying. We might
think that our prayer request is sooo insignificant, that we think God would
not care!
However, this passage
leads us to reflect on our prayer life. What do we usually ask for and pray
for? Look at the widow in the story, she is praying for justice. She asks for
justice from a judge! Jesus says in the parable “Will not God grant justice to
his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping
them” Prayer is not a list of requests, a job, a car, a house, a partner, but a
way to cry out for justice. We have to be persistent in seeking justice! How
many of you have given up on doing something good or something right when you
face pressure or difficulties? Persistence is not just doing something
continually, but, according the oxford dictionary Persistence is: The
fact of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or
opposition. In spite of difficulty or opposition. In many countries
nowadays, if you criticize the government, you will be killed, jailed, and
maybe disappeared! Sometimes speaking the truth and seeking justice would bring
you a lot of problems. For people who have been mistreated or victimized, it is
very often that they would choose to be silent and give in to injustice. Being
persistent requires you and me to speak out loud and to believe that God is a
good judge! Just like the widow, even though the judge is bad, she keeps on
pushing and finally she received the justice she asked for.
It is sad for me to
read a recent report about sexual harassment in church setting in Hong Kong.
This survey is conducted by the Hong Kong Christian Council, and they collected
data through questionnaire, asking people’s opinion and experience about this
issue. Among the 304 people who finished the questionnaire. 10% of them
reported that they had experienced different degree of sexual harassment in
church, and what makes me sad is, only 3 of them have reported to the ministers
and deacons in the church. Some of you might think, well, we shouldn’t talk
about this in church. However, the passage we read today suggests the other
way, the widow keeps pushing until she is granted the justice! Widow as the
very vulnerable group in the society, we could imagine that this widow had
maybe experienced sexual assault too! When we choose to be silent over
injustice, it actually shows green light to the evildoers. Do not be afraid to
bring your case before God. Our God is just and righteous! Even if you have
been praying for so long, but you still have not seen any progress of your
situation, the bible is telling us, never to lose heart.
Being persistent also
requires us to cope with disappointment. I have No idea how many times the
widow in this parable has been rejected, and how long she had been crying out
to the judge! but she never gives up. Being a Christian doesn’t exclude you
from disappointment and bad things. Instead of blaming God or giving up, we may
learn how to pray, and be persistent during hardship, and not to lose heart
even when there seems no hope. This parable challenges us to reflect our
spiritual life, our theology on prayer, and our relationship with God, and help
us to grow as a Christian and to live according to the teaching of God.
In the book of second
Timothy, the writer reminds Timothy to “Proclaim the message, be persistent
whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage,
with the utmost patience in teaching.” For Timothy, his mission or his
calling is to be a minister and church leader in Ephesus. Therefore, his
mission is to lead the church and teach the people about the Good news of God!
Well, you may say it’s not me, O Lord, not everyone is called, or wants to be a
church leader. However, we all have different goals and dreams to achieve, and
we have different ways to glorify God and live out a life as a Christian. The
message of this letter is not only for those who work in church or mission
field, but for everyone who carry their cross and follow Jesus, and for
everyone who is saved through faith in Christ Jesus.
In verse 16-17 it
says, All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that EVERYONE
who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. So be
persistent on doing good works too! NO matter the time is favorable or
unfavorable. Sometimes I heard from my friend saying to me, I will do the
offering when I have extra, what do you by extra? or when I have done a
big deal, what do you mean by a big deal? then I would donate to the
church, well, you know donation and offering are two different concepts, by
offering, we offer what God has entrusted to us, so that we are involved in the
good works carried out by the church. A few weeks ago, we have a bible study in
our refugee fellowship, and we talked about good work and helping others. They
have countless testimonies to share! Even their situation in Hong Kong are so
tough and needy, they are still trying to help each other, or even they told us
how they helped the elderlies in HK, and homeless people on the street, buying
them food and water!
I was so touched when
they were sharing these testimonies with us, even their life is soo
insufficient, they still choose to live a life of care and mercy. They may say
“we are refugee, what do u want from us!” but they choose to be persistent in
living out a life of a Christian, to share what they have with others, and
bring people to know God, and encourage those who are in despair. Even they are
not a church leader, but they are doing what exactly the bible is telling us to
do. It is not about whether we are having a good time or not, but it is about
what decision we make, whether to do good or not.
So, what is good? How
can we be sure we are doing something right? It can be a very philosophical and
theological question right? The passage we read today in the second Timothy is
really helping us to understand what the bible means in our Christian life, and
what does it mean to do good work. ~~ While a lot of people are using scripture
as a weapon to judge and condemn people. This passage is telling us the
scripture is useful for training in righteousness, so that we, believers may be
proficient and equipped for every good work. Some are using the bible to
justify hatred, discrimination, wars and injustice. However, the writer urges
us to be sober and put up a sound doctrine!
It is easy for us to
say “The bible says this this this and that that that”, it is easy to read the
bible literally, or I should say it is a temptation for us to understand the
bible literally. To be sober means, we have to be aware of the context of the
text and passage we read. It is easy to condemn people with one or two verses,
but the book urges us to be sober, to think, to meditate, to study, and most
importantly, read it through the context of others. Different people from
different cultures would have different inspiration from the same passage.
Kowloon Union Church hosts bible study every Thursday night and I was there
this week. Rune has led us to read the bible with Manga style, a comic style!
It’s a brand new experience for me! Actually different understanding of the
bible would only enrich our understanding of faith and spiritual life, rather
than leading to conflicts and division. It is not our different understanding
leads to division, but our pride, and prejudice lead us to hatred and
exclusion.
You can imagine, in
the early church, there are tons of different doctrines! You can imagine a
church with so many different experience and theologies in Ephesus, and it is
also true that the early church always experience conflicts within the
congregation. More than that, the early church faced many persecutions from the
roman empire. That’s why the writer of this letter encouraged us, //endure
suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. //
There are times, doing good works, being a Christian, would lead you to
suffering and even more difficulties than it was. If you proclaim Jesus as your
savior in certain countries, you are risking your life to do that. Recently we
have a few Christian families coming from the middle east and Africa seeking
asylum in Hong Kong, coming to our church. Many of them are converted
Christians, from Islam. They lost everything, and risked their life coming to
Hong Kong, and one time, I heard a mother teaching her children about God, and
teaching her children to believe in Jesus. Even when this family still had
nowhere to live, the mother is already volunteering, to cook for other
refugees! For me this mother might not be a church leader, but she demonstrates
what it means to carry out the ministry fully, whether the time is favorable or
unfavorable.
In Hong Kong, living
out our faith might cost us a lot too right? I am not sure about your case, but
this morning, is a good opportunity for us to reflect, what does it mean to be
God’s people. Or else, we would never know why we have to be persistent, let it
be to pray, to seek justice and peace, to care and share, or to live out a life
glorifying God.
So Why? Why do we have
to do all these? I shared before the sermon that it is very difficult for me,
to be persistent. One of the reasons is that, why do I have to? What is the
purpose of all these sufferings because I choose to do something good? I
might not have a perfect answer for you this morning. However, we might be able
to understand more through the passage we read in the book of Jeremiah. The
Israelites turned their back to God again and again. And yet God would never
give up on them. God has rescued them many times from their enemies, but then
the Israelites were too quickly to forget what God has done for them, and they
worship other gods and follow the evil ways. Brothers and sisters, the reason
to persist can be very simple. Because God loves us. We can stop for a second
and think about how much God has done in our life. And we, sometime OR most of the
time, like those Israelites in the bible. We forget what the Lord has done for
us, then we started to lose heart, lose faith, and get lost in the midst of
sufferings and disappointments.
In Jeremiah chapter
31:33, the Lord says “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Being a
Christian is a relationship with God. Christianity is not just a philosophy, or
stacks of teaching, e.g. to love another, and do good things, so on and on. Our
Christian Faith is more than rules and regulations, dos and don’ts. Our faith
is a relationship between God and us and the creation. Our faith is about How
Jesus Christ suffers with us and reconciles the creation with God. Our faith is
about how the Holy spirit is always with us, no matter we forget about it or
not. God loves us persistently, how many times we have run away, turn our back,
but God is always there for us. Today we might be asking why we have to be
persistent. But one thing we have missed, is to realize God is loving us
persistently, so that we can repay him in every little thing we do. We love
because he first loved us. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 16, 2016
A sermon preached at Kowloon Union
Church on Sunday 9 October 2016, the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost, by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that
day were
Psalm 111; Luke 17:11-16
Introduction
The United
Nations’ Security Council just announced they had agreed to nominate António Guterres to be the
next General
Secretary to replace Ban Ki-moon. Antonio Guterres described
what he felt at that moment of nomination was one of gratitude and humility.
This Sunday
I would like to share a message about gratitude, with the insights taken from
the lectionary readings today - Psalm 111 and Luke 17:11-16.
What is gratitude and what is a life of gratitude –
why and how?
The straight
forward understanding of gratitude is being thankful for what we have and what
we are and should never be taken for granted.
How do we understand ‘gratitude’ from the bible?
Psalm 111 is a poem of praise
The psalmist praised the Lord for God’s wonderful
work – the psalmist gave thanks to the Lord for the salvation of the Israelites
from bondage. The praise expressed was also for God’s covenant and his
faithfulness to his people. God provided food to those who feared him. This
beautiful poem retells not only the wonderful work of God to the Israelites. It
communicates God’s will, love and care to all people and to the whole creation.
God is merciful, faithful and righteous.
The psalm reaffirms to us once again the redeeming
power of the Lord. The works of God not only bring benefit and salvation to
Israel. The Lord who is the God of history has been participating in the world
that he created. The Psalm reminds us that God is love, life and liberty. God
is forever with his people and the creation. This is the very foundation of our
praise to God and our gratitude to God in all times and in all places.
A life of gratitude
requires a decision of believers
In the Psalm of praise 111:2- “Great are the works
of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2)
Psalm 111:10 – “The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His
praise endures forever. ”
Being grateful to God is more than saying thank
you. A life of gratitude in praise and thanksgiving requires a decision of the
believers to know God, turn to the Lord and walk with him in our life. The
message of praise and thanksgiving to Israel in Psalm echoes in the gospel
story of the Samaritan leper and his encounter with Jesus.
Let me now turn to speak about the gospel story of
the ten lepers whom Jesus healed and only one Samaritan returned to him
praising God and thanking him for his healing.
A little bit of background for you about lepers and
Samaritans: lepers are culturally isolated people because they suffer from a
kind of contagious disease, most commentary referred to it as a skin disease
(see 5:12-16), Samaritans were disliked by Jews for their religious defection
and race impurity, for they are half-breeds (see 9:51-56), they not 100 % Jews.
There were
10 lepers and they went as a group to ask for Jesus’ healing. Theysought mercy
from Jesus collectively. They said to Jesus, “Master, have pity on us”.
It is
interesting to see that only one leper who is a Samaritan returned and praised
with loud praise. It shows his excitement and great joy. He must be very
thankful for being cured by Jesus.
Jesus raised a question ‘It is only the foreigner
who returned. Where are the rest of the lepers who have been healed? Why don’t
they come too?’
This leper who was culturally isolated because of
his disease and religiously rejected because of his race, was courageous to walk
by himself. He took a different path from the rest of the lepers.
According to Jewish religious laws and traditions,
lepers need to go to the priests and show them they were healed according to
the Law. This Samaritan leper did not go to get this affirmation and
endorsement from the religious authority. Symbolically it tells us this person
is no longer enslaved by the Law. He is free!
The
Samaritan leper led a different life after being healed. He was filled by the
spirit of gratitude to praise God. The leper was no longer enslaved by his
illness and stigmatization. He broke his isolation from the community by coming
to the public praising the Lord with a loud voice. He broke his isolation from
individuals by coming to Jesus, prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet.
The gratitude of the Samaritan leper revealed his
faith to God’s work. He exclaimed to his restoration of life and expressed his
appreciation towards God and life through what Jesus did.
From the Samaritan leper, we realize how gratitude
brings to people freedom. A life of gratitude is a manifestation of a person’s
faith.
The remarkable statement by Jesus, “Rise and go,
your faith has made you well.” “Your faith has made you well” is a powerful
proclamation. It tells us that a life of gratitude to seek God, to praise God,
to turn to Christ is an important aspect of faith.
The leper who returned to Christ gives us a pointer
- a life of gratitude requires believers to walk in a new path of life, let the
old self pass away, be courageous to break the chains that have kept us like
prisoners.
The author of Luke, in sharing the story of the
Samaritan leper, intended to call the believers for a decision – to live a life
of gratitude and faith, that is to seek God, to praise God, to turn to Christ. By
doing it, by practicing the faith of gratitude, we are saved.
A life of gratitude brings joy – personal and
communal
Psalm 111:1 – Praise the Lord! I will give thanks
to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the
congregation.
The
declaration of ‘I’ invites all members of the community to join the psalmist in
giving praise; it is a community hymn.
Thanksgiving
and a life of gratitude are relevant both to a person and to a community.
When we
praise God and give thanks for his almighty and love, we know that a life of
gratitude is to share God’s goodness as we are all God’s children. A life of
gratitude leads us to love each other. We love because God first love us.
The Psalm of
Praise reminds us and challenges the church community to nurture the life of
gratitude and practice it amongst us. Every Sunday we gather together to give
honour and praises to God in our worship. Every time we worship, we humble
ourselves, to worship God in spirit and in true. A life of gratitude requires
of us to love and give thanks to each other in our church fellowship, in our
family, in our work and study settings. Let us not take things for
granted. Let us not take others’ support
for granted. On the contrary, we learn to appreciate one another and give
thanks to people who have been with us, supporting us in good times and bad
times. The more gratitude we have inside us and shown in our life, the happier
we are and more joy generated within the community we are living in.
To live a life of gratitude leads me to remember
Rev Kwok, our former Senior Minister of Kowloon Union Church. He was my
supervisor and mentor who I learnt a lot from him. I have deep respect to him
and his faith in God. He was diagnosed
with cancer last May. In midst of his illness, he keeps a positive manner in
life and does whatever he can to treat his illness and keep his body strong. He
continues to swim on a regular basis. Even though he suffers from chronical
illness and easier gets tired, he continues to serve within his capacity. He
continues to join the Monday Prayer Gathering. This is a prayer gathering he
initiated to gather Christians to pray for Hong Kong and her people when the
Umbrella Movement was coming to end in December 2014. He also continues to
mentor young pastors of local churches and writing letters to encourage his
family, friends and sisters and brothers in Christ. All these pastoral letters
were compiled into a book namely ‘Pastoral Letter in Sickness’. Yesterday this
new book was launched in our fellowship
hall.. In good health and illness Rev Kwok lives well and serves the Lord with
joy, hope and peace. Yesterday he shared in the book launch a life of gratitude
make a person happy and joyful. He learns and does his best to give thanks in
all circumstances. He has set a very
good example for us to learn.
Gratitude is not just an act of giving thanks to
God by words or by action such as giving offering of thanksgiving. Gratitude is
a matter of faith – knowing and believing that God is the source of life and
love, God will be with us and take care of us no matter what.
Sisters and brothers,
Praise the Lord!
Let our life be praise.
Let our life be gratitude.
Let our life be love to honor God forever and ever.
Amen
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 09, 2016
