A sermon
preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 10 December 2017, the second Sunday in
Advent, by the Rev.
Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah
40:1–11; 2 Peter 3:8–13; Mark 1:1–8.
Opening prayer
Living God,
dwell in us as we open our heart to receive you. May the Word of God guide us
to walk in the way of Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
The Worship
Advisory Committee decided the theme of the Advent this year is Christ, the
Light. Each week we will focus on a different aspect of God’s promise as we are
waiting for the coming of the Lord in this Season.
Last week,
Timothy preached about Hope. This week I will touch on ‘Peace’.
Sisters and brothers,
what does peace
mean to you?
(Showing of a short video)
What does peace mean
to you? Women with cardboard sign (0:38)
After
watching this video, I would like to ask you to spend two minutes to think
about what does peace mean to you, your family, your friends and the world?
(silence for 2 minutes)
When we define the meaning of peace, there are many
different aspects and different levels – personal peace, peace in the society
or world peace.
In Hebrew, peace is Shalom, meaning wholeness.
In Chinese, there
are two phrases to identify peace.
和平 (Wo Ping), 平安 (Ping On) – showing
of PPT
和 Wo - with the word grain on the left, the word
mouth on the right. It means ‘everyone is fed’.
平 Ping (Wo Ping和平and Ping On平安) meaning
Equality
Stillness
Quietness
To fix
To heal
To reconcile
安 On – a female/woman is under the roof;
meaning
A female is
secured and sheltered. There is no peace when women are not well taken care of,
harassed and deprived of basic human rights.
Peace is
everyone given adequate share of food and resources to sustain life. Peace is
all human beings live with security, and treated with equality and dignity.
Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner in 1989, had once shared, "Peace
can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and
where individuals and nations are free."
Martin Luther King, another Nobel Peace Prize Winner, in his fight for racial equality, he iterated that “True peace is not merely the absence of
tension but the presence of justice.”
Peace and justice can never be separated.
Peace and human rights are like twins. They go hand in hand.
Today is the
International Human Rights Day. In the past few years, our church designed the
Sunday closest to this day as Human Rights Sunday.
In today’s
Second Advent Sunday, it is perfectly timely to link the message of peace with
the world’s celebration for human rights.
The United
Nations in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in
the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and
women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of
life in larger freedom.
According to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1, it says, “All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
There are Christians
and pastors making objection to the church in participating in human rights
issues. Their reason is Church should separate from the State and not to get
involved in political matters. However, I would say human rights are linked to
the core of our faith in Christ and God’s calling for his people to engage in
justice.
All people
are created in God’s holy image. We are all God’s children. If anyone is abused
and deprived of basic human dignity, it is a violation of God’s image and
holiness.
Mother
Theresa had also said, "If we have no
peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
In God, we are born equal and share the common
humanity.
In this
regard, as God’s people, and sisters and brothers of one another, we need to
defend everyone’s basic human rights and seek God’s Kingdom of righteousness.
All the
scripture readings we heard today, that include the prophetic vision of Isaiah,
John the Baptizer and the Apostle of the early church, all gave a clear message
to the community of faith in their time - to seek justice for God’s sake as we
prepare the way of the Lord and await the coming of the Lord. Justice and peace
is the way of the Lord that we are called to live with.
Prophet
Isaiah reassured the people of God that when they did justice and served God’s
righteousness faithfully, God’s glory will be revealed. (Isaiah 40:4-5a)
That’s why
KUC has been so vocal in human rights issues and makes a clear stand against
human rights abuse. We stand for refugees and asylum seekers by creating the
peacemaking ministry to serve this community.
We stand for
the sexual minorities and join the Covenant of the Rainbow network to advocate
for equal rights to the LGBTQI community.
We stand for
migrant workers. The church provides space for their services and meetings. On
and off, we joined in petitions in seeking dignified and equal treatment for
the marginalized.
We support
democracy and the civil rights movement in Hong Kong, because all these
manifest the Kingdom of God.
The Season of Advent reminds us to wait for the
coming of the Lord and longing for God’s promise to be realized. In waiting, we
are actively participating to bring peace to the world and live out peace in
our life.
From the Word we heard in the Epistle of 2 Peter, we are encouraged by the early church leader to live a life of
holiness and godliness as we are waiting for coming of the day of God. And the new
heavens and a new earth that are promised by God are where righteousness is.
The righteousness is at home. I will refer this home ‘the center of our heart’.
The promise of peace, of
righteousness is found at our heart. Our heart is where God stays.
When the Prophet Isaiah
and John the Baptizer proclaimed “in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”, we
are reminded to prepare our heart to receive Jesus Christ, who is the light,
love and life fully revealing God’s glory.
There is a saying “Peace in society
will never happen unless everyone in the society has personal peace.”
True and everlasting peace is not an absence of war, tension, problems, worries and
hardship in life, but the presence of God, and the union with Christ.
Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace,
Emmanuel, is our source of peace.
Peace from within is the way to peace. I echoed a saying from the Peace
Pilgrim: "When you find peace within yourself, you
become the kind of person who can live at peace with others."
To end my
sermon, I would like to show a video about peace. As we watch, please watch it with
a meditative heart and a soul of peace.
Closing prayer
Thank
you, God for the gift of peace you give to us through Jesus Christ.
May our
heart be prepared to receive the Christ Child born again within us.
Strengthen
and bless us to be your peace makers, to live a life like Jesus, the peace
advocates of today and our foremothers and forefathers who had devoted
themselves to live a life of peace and justice, hope and compassion. May we
work together with all humanity to make a better world to receive your coming
in glory. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, December 10, 2017
