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
