A sermon preached at Kowloon
Union Church on Sunday 5 February 2017, the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture
readings that day were Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 112:1-9; N.T. Matthew
5:13-20.
Good
morning sisters and brothers. Happy Lunar New Year! May I wish you all good
health and good spirit.
In the past few months, I went pretty often to
two places. One is to the hospital as a few of our brothers and sisters from
church suffered from different health challenges.
All friends whom I visited at the hospital
appreciated the medical service but complained a lot about the food. They also
said the food in the hospital is awful because it is tasteless. Perhaps it is for health reasons, they put little
or even no salt in the food.
Food without salt is difficult to take. Salt
helps to bring out the flavour of the food and make it more tasty. Good and tasty food makes people joyful and
healthy. Because patients in general don’t like the food provided by the hospital,
no wonder during the visiting hours, patients are brought food by their family
members and friends. The ward during the
visitation hour is usually full of people, full of love and full of joy.
Salt is cheap and ordinary today but when it
is used properly, it brings goodness and joy to others. Some people may be
thinking: “I am small and ordinary”. I am only a small potato in family, in
work and in the community I belong to. With Jesus’ calling each one of us to be
God’s beloved children, we should never look down upon ourselves. We are God’s
precious gift that could live a life with meaning and bring meaning to others
like the small salt crystal.
In the past few months another place I went
pretty often was the funeral home. I
attended several funeral services, one was for a friend’s mother, Mrs Yau. I
was deeply touched by a message shared by an old lady in remembrance of Mrs Yau
at the service. Mrs Yau was her auntie. This old lady is in her 70s. She said
with grief that the love of her auntie urged her to speak. This old lady was an
orphan when she was a child. Mrs Yau was her only close relative. She said her
auntie treated her like her own daughter, deeply loved and cared for her. Even
after Mrs Yau bore her own children, she still treated her equally and no less
love was given. Even after she got married and has her own children, her auntie
continued to care for her whole family. Therefore she was so much in debt of
her.
Mrs Yau was a full time housewife for most of
her life, taking care of her family, children and grand-children. Her life may
be considered ordinary. But she lived her life in full by sharing love and care
to her own children and to another child who did not have her own parents. Mrs
Yau was deeply respected and loved by her children who grew up into mature
people with good education to make contribution to the society both in Hong
Kong and overseas. Mrs Yau had shone her life with success because of her
unselfish love and generosity to others.
Mrs Yau leads me to remember my Indonesia
domestic helper Mimi. She was with me for eight years helping Tong and I to
take care of our children when they were young, and with all the house works. I
am very grateful to have Mimi spending her youthful years to support us. She
was faithful to our family and loved us so much. Her relationship with my
children has been so deep. My son Daniel had once said Mimi was like her mother
taking care of him. No wonder when Mimi left for Indonesia and to start her own
family, Daniel cried for over half a year. Mimi may be an ordinary woman but
she lived a life extra-ordinary for us. She has been a light shone in our
family and in our life. She continues to shine her life as she lives with love
for her own family and gives the best of her gifts to others. I would never
forget this sister in my life.
Mimi is a Muslim. She is very faithful to her
religious belief. She prayed six times every day, much more diligent and
religious than me! Mimi is my first Muslim friend. I am thus very upset and
angry with the United States President’s recent executive order on travel ban against
Muslims. Trump’s proposals of constructing walls against Mexicans and stop
taking refugees from Syria, are again very much contradictory to the Christian
values of loving our neighbour as ourselves. All these policies that are
turning the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the strangers away are a
complete opposite to what Jesus taught to his disciples: to be salt and light
of the world.
In Jesus’ teaching today taken from Matthew 5,
the Sermon of the Mount, he challenged his believers to live out the law with
sincerity and honesty. He iterated, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of
heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
Pope Francis made it crystal clear in his message
shared with a group of pilgrims from Germany last October. Here I quote:
“the sickness or, you can say the sin,
that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy,” which is precisely what is happening
when someone claims to be a Christian but does not live according to the
teaching of Christ.” He further said,
“You cannot be a Christian without
living like a Christian. “You cannot be a Christian without practicing the
Beatitudes. (Pastor Maggie preached about this last week) You cannot be a
Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25.” This is a
reference to Christ’s injunction to help the needy by such works of mercy as
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger.
This teaching
echoed the prophetic reading today taken from the Book of Isaiah. Prophet
Isaiah reminded the Israelites what the Lord required of them - to share bread with
the hungry with generosity, to bring the homeless poor and strangers into your
house with warm hospitality, to cover the naked with respect, and to treat
everyone like our own kin without discrimination.
Pope challenged Christians
- “It’s
hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone
seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need
of my help.”
It is worthy of our time and effort to
reflect on ourselves if we are hypocritical Christians or not.
It is very true that Trump’s order to
build a wall is crazy and outrageous not only to the Mexicans but also to many
people within the United States and other parts of the world. A wall that
divides and separate people is unacceptable indeed. When I reflect on this order
of building walls, I realized that perhaps there are already walls in the heart
of some people. Even though they don’t say and do anything nasty and obvious
like Trump, they have built walls inside their hearts. There are thousands and
thousands of Christians in the United States supporting Trump’s policies and
his administration. There are Christians rejecting others who are different
from them in race, religious beliefs and sexualities. When Jesus challenged the
religious leaders and the Prophet challenged the people of the faithful if they
were living their faith and Law genuinely, we should also examine ourselves
with an open and humble heart. Are there any dark sides in us hindering us to
become faithful witness of Christ? Are there any prejudice I have that prevent
me from accepting and loving others as my neighbours? Is there any shortcoming
in me that prevents me from shining as Christ’s light to others especially the
neediest?
Immediately after Trump inaugurated as President of the United
States, the Women’s March, a worldwide protest began to protect legislation and
policies regarding human rights to women and sexual minorities, racial equality
and religious freedom. It was estimated that at least 500,000 people joined the
march in Washington, and nearly 5 million participated in other parts of the
world. This morning, the International Migrants Alliance launched rally and
march in Hong Kong protesting against Trump’s recent executive orders in
rejecting Muslims, refugees and immigrants.
In
the last few days, Federal Judges from Washington State declared their opposition
to their President’s Immigration order. The CEO from Amazon also issued
statement to share the same stand as he embraces the American core values of
inclusivity and diversity. All these acts of resistance give light to
Christians on how women and men of righteousness join collective efforts in
striving for human dignity and equality. They are the light that shines to
reveal God’s kingdom of love, justice and peace to all.
Jesus taught his disciples to be light of the world and that light needs
to be visible and shines before others. Our Lord Jesus Christ, and many people
close and far, have set good examples to serve as the light. As highlighted by
the letter of James 2:14-26, faith without works is dead. In the same equation,
love without action is dead. Sisters and brothers, in this new beginning of the
year, let us respond to Jesus’ call – be the salt and light of the world, with
deep faith and concrete actions.
I
would like to invite you all to spend a few minutes of silence to reflect and
pray to God what are the things you need to change and do to become the salt
and light that may serve others and glorify God.
I
will end this silent time with the sounding of the bell and a prayer.
Closing
prayer:
Jesus Christ,
Thank you for your teaching and your calling today. May
your love empower us to be the salt and light of the world. May the Holy Spirit
strengthen the faithful of God, and brings
light over darkness, hope over despair, peace over restlessness and love
over cold-heartedness. Amen.
