Reflections: April 2020

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 26 April 2020, Third Sunday of Easter, by Dr KIM Sung-Hyun. The scripture readings that day were Genesis 48:1–16, John 10:22–30.

Good morning!

I am pastor Sung.

When I am asked “where are you from?”, I feel the urge to tell the whole story. But it’s so complicated, and not everybody has the patience to listen to it. So, to make it very short I often just say: I am Korean, as you can see. Then is goes like “oh, I know somebody/something from Korea”.

I realized here in Hong Kong, we often start a conversation like this ‘where are you from?’ just to see that a couple of minutes later we are in the midst of a story of migration. Of course, only if we have the time to do so. Hong Kong is an international city, and you can clearly see that: many, many people having a story of migration or being related to somebody with such a story; only most of the time we are too busy to listen to the whole story.

I think one of the most beautiful and powerful experiences we can have is to discover that there is something to share with people from other backgrounds. That is also what happens

reading the bible. There are stories that resonate with us – although speak of a totally different time with different people. Here at KUC I would like to say something about the Bible in relation to the migrants’ perspective. But where to start with?

Finding the verses

Originally, when I was asked by pastor Phyllis to deliver a sermon here at KUC, I thought of talking about a psalm. I love psalms, and – by the way - that has to do with my time at a monastery in Jerusalem. And I thought that would be nice to talk about a Psalm. But then during the preparation I ran into the reading of the day on John 10, with the famous words of Jesus as a shepherd. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me“

These words reminded me of a quite different context. In Germany where I served as a pastor, we have a liturgy book for funerals, and this word of the shepherd is one of the words you say at the grave: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Just reading out these words is so powerful. “No one will snatch them out of my hand.” It speaks of the power of Jesus the risen Lord to bring to life.

And I wanted to talk about this. In the times of corona and social distancing it seems more than urgent.

But then I skimmed through the verses that contain the word ‘shepherd’, and there it was. The blessing of Jacob that was part of the scripture reading. I have never heard a sermon on these. Have you?

“May the God before whom my fathers
    Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
    all my life to this day,
¹⁶the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
    —may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
    and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
    on the earth.”

Five generations

Within a few lines, this blessing draws a connection between five generations. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and then Manasseh and Ephraim. Do you remember the names of your grand-grand-grand-parents? Well, probably not. Most people don’t know them. Simply because they have never met them. It needs somebody to tell their story who knew them. It seems not by chance that the bible often mentions the span of three or four generations to describe how big a range the experience of a life can cover. Jacob stands in the middle, between his grandfather and these children whose grandfather he is.

Thus, Jacob’s blessing opens up a story bigger than an individual life. We as modern people are not so prone to this view. But it’s the view that sits at the background of the Old Testament: every individual story is part of a family story. Something that psychologists would call a ‘systemic’ perspective. Everything you are stands in a relation to your parents, your siblings and other people that were crucial for your childhood experience.

But this perspective also helps you to see it the other way round. Every family story is woven from individual stories.

This allows for some interesting views: For instance this. Your grandparents also have parents and at some time they were trying to find their own place in life. When we are young it is unconceivable for us that our grandparents once were young, too, and did not have grey hair. But they were! And how they were.

Jacob is one of the few characters in the Bible whose life is told from birth to death in the form of a narrative. As we all know his story we can easily relate to it while reading the blessing he gives to his grandsons.

Strive for blessing

Abraham’s or Isaac’s or Joseph’s story are easier to talk about – it are success stories of migrants if you will. Even Joseph’s story being extremely dramatic is not as ambiguous as his father’s.

Jacob’s story is one of ups and downs, of victories and losses driven by his strive for blessing. The idea of blessing runs through the whole story of Jacob.

Jacob is a young lad full of energy trying to find his way in life. Running away from home because he had trouble with his brother. And when we look at is closely, it was not exactly his brother’s fault, was it? No. It was Jacob who wanted his father’s blessing so much that he disguised as Esau. It’s no exaggeration to say Jacob stole the blessing.

And that became the starting point for his life as a migrant. His strive for blessing pulls him out of his context. He will never return home to see his parents again.

What does he work as?

When Jacob comes back and has to face Esau again, the very night before he wrestles with an angel. What does he say: “I don’t let you go unless you bless me.”

“the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day”

A migrant’s blessing

At the end, Jacob gives his blessing to the grandchildren but not in the way his son Joseph expects him to do. Jacob crosses his arms to put his right hand on the younger child and his less hand on the older one.

# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, April 26, 2020

“Responsible Faith”

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 19 April 2020, Second Sunday of Easter, by Timothy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 16, John 20:19–31.

Good morning friends! Happy Easter again! Last week, we were shouting “Christ is risen, Allelujah, Christ is risen indeed!”, we were filled with joy and hope. Yet, we are also aware of what’s happening around us now. In fact, things are still quite bad. Soon enough, we might forget about the Easter joy, and let the Easter hope slip away. However, the good news is that the message of resurrection is not only for one week. Every day of our life, we need to be reminded of this Good news, that Jesus said to his disciple before his death, “take courage! I have conquered the world.” Today we read about Jesus appearing to his disciples in the midst of fear. Let this Gospel reading inspire us and restore our faith in God. Before we look into the scripture, let us pray:

God of life, open our hearts this morning, through your word O Lord, let us receive your peace in this troubled time, so that we can also bring your peace to this world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

1. In the beginning of the scripture, the disciples locked themselves up at a place. They were hiding from the Jewish leaders because they feared that they would also arrest them because they were all Jesus’ disciples. However, on the same day, earlier that morning, a few hours earlier. “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord””, Peter and the other disciple also witnessed the empty grave and believed that Jesus was resurrected! But the fact that Jesus was resurrected did not bring them peace and hope. For they could not relate this event with what they are facing at that moment. For the disciples, they could not imagine how the resurrection of Jesus could save them from the Jewish religious leader. Jesus understood their struggle, He did not blame them for having little faith. He recognized their fear, and showed up among them, and greeted them saying “Peace be with you!”. Not only that. He proved to them that he was really Jesus by showing them the wounds of his hands and his side. At that moment, the disciples could finally forget about the fear which overwhelmed them.

Sometime, in our Christian life, we have learned a lot about faith, love and hope. However, when troubles come, we would easily forget about the Good news that we have received. We would forget that Jesus was with us through good times and bad times. Or we are like the disciples, we would be consumed by fear, or be overwhelmed by different emotions, that we let the heavenly peace slip away. It might not be our fault, for life is filled with uncertainty, we have no idea what would happen to ourselves, to the people we loved around us, and to the community we belong to. Last Monday morning, the day after Easter, my mother received a call from Mainland telling us that my elder cousin had passed away. He was young, leaving his wife and son. My mother was shocked and was very upset. There are just moments in our life that we feel hopeless and helpless. However, Jesus did not blame us for that. Jesus understands our weakness, and He is the one who reached out to us in such time. All the doors of the house were locked, but they could not stop Jesus from reaching to his disciples. In the same ways, Jesus will meet us in our fear. Jesus will penetrate through all our weakness and limitation, to reach our troubled heart, and say “Peace be with you!”

Our God is a responsible God and He takes responsibility for our being as his children. God is our parent God, loving and forgiving, even if we doubted Him and walked away from faith, He would still guide us and wait for us to return. Not only Jesus recognizes their fear, more importantly, Jesus is showing them one more time how he died and suffered for them. The wounds which were fatal and deadly became marks of victory and salvation. Jesus calls us to follow Him, and he knows we are going to run into challenges, and we would suffer. But the good news is, He is not leaving us alone. God cares about us. He wants to share with us that peace the world could not give. In this time of pandemic, there are a lot of things going out of our control, but I wish when we are reading this story again, we would find the same peace that the disciples have received.

2. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, we have been receiving a lot of news and information every day. In the beginning, the Chinese government said that human to human transmission is not possible. Then we found out they were lying. We read more and more fake news, governments in different countries could not tell whether they should believe in the WHO or not. Should the border be closed? Should we wear masks? Should we stock up toilet papers? It is important to do a fact check. Before you share a post or news online, make sure you check if it is real or not. I was tricked one time. When the Italy government ordered everyone to stay home, people started to upload pictures of how clean Venice has become! And then there was one picture showing a crocodile swimming in the canal in Venice and I shared it. But then a friend commented and said it was a photoshop picture! I was embarrassed and had quickly deleted that post!

That is what Thomas, the disciple, was doing! When Jesus appeared to them the first time, he was not there, so he asked the same thing, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Many people would label Thomas for having little faith or calling him names like “the doubter”. He was asking what the other disciples have seen. We have no idea why Thomas was not with them earlier and why he showed up eight days later, but what we know is Jesus did the same for Thomas. He appeared to him and greeted him peace. More than that, he invited Thomas to put his hand to touch his wounds! Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Sometimes it’s more than just seeing or hearing, but also with touching. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Today we may not be seeing God with our physical sight, but we are all touched by the love of God. When Thomas cried out “My Lord and my God!” it is more than just saying “Oh you are really Jesus” Thomas’ life was being touched, not only by the wounds, but also by his love, by their friendship, by stories and memories they shared together. Do we have this courage to reach out to God when we have doubt and questions?

We are also responsible for our faith, to cultivate it and deepen our understanding of it. I remember in the first class of systematic theology, our teacher was telling us, theology is “Faith seeking understanding”, which means, we began our journey of Christian life in faith, and on this basis, we seek understanding of what it means to be a Christian gradually. For me, what Thomas was asking is not a sign of doubt, but a demonstration of courage and trust. Sometimes, knowing the answer could be painful, especially if the answer is not what we wanted to hear. Asking questions about faith could be an exhausting experience. When what we have experienced is different from what we have been learning about this faith, I think it is the best time to reflect what we are believing.

Asking questions and seeking understanding of our faith is a journey which helps us to combine what we experienced with what we believe! It is like a bridge connecting our world to the church. For example, if we believe that God is justice, then how should we explain the injustice we have experienced? Only if we have the courage to ask, then God would reveal to us his will, and help us to understand. I wish we would all be Thomas, that our faith will grow stronger through encountering God in our doubt and question.

3. We learn that God is responsible for our being, and we are responsible for our faith. God also gives us all a responsibility. In verse 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Jesus appeared to them not only to consolidate their faith and cast out their fear. Jesus breathed on them and empowered them with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so they could be early Christian community leaders, and evangelists, to preach the Gospel of Jesus’ resurrection to the world. As for Thomas, the church tradition tells that he became a missionary to bring the Gospels to India and was later martyred. Today we are living in a generation where Christianity seems irrelevant to this world. People would say religion has no place in the secular world. However, our faith is not only a personal faith, but a faith which can still impact the world and show the world how we should live.

The disciples were given the power to forgive sins and to retain sins. It reminds us that the love of God is not to condemn the world, but to save the world. We are not preaching to condemn, we are not believing so that we could look down on people living a lifestyle different from us. In this world of diversity, we learn how to be forgiving and understanding. We learn to accept each other, and welcome everyone to experience the forgiveness of God. On the other hand, when I read about “retaining sin”, I think of how we should speak up for justice and equality. Even if we are called to be a forgiving community, it does not mean we are silent in front of what is wrong and evil. As people of God, we have the responsibility to voice out for the voiceless, and to preach the message of repentance to this world.

Friends, the task God has entrusted us is not easy at all. We have to remind ourselves that we are not doing all these alone, the Holy Spirit is with us, not only individually, but also in our community and in our church. We are all sharing this responsibility. Knowing that God is responsible for our being, we trust that he cares for us and He will guide us. With the love of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do it, so that, as what the Gospel of John concluded in verse 31, people “may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing they may have life in his name”. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Amen.

# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, April 19, 2020

“Encountering The Risen Christ”

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 12 April, 2020, Easter Sunday, by the Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; John 20:1-18.

Opening prayer:

God of eternity, we thank you for your love given through Jesus and your Word that nourishes our soul. May the holy spirit inspire us to understand your Word and lead us to be Easter people, to live fully of the life given by you. Amen.

I used to greet my beloved congregation on Easter Sunday by saying “Happy Easter!” Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Easter used to be a season of joy and hope.

The Easter celebration this year, however, is extremely unusual. We cannot meet and worship together in person in church and we don’t have the pot-luck lunch after the Service as we normally do today. People in the world, HK of course included, have been adversely affected by the global pandemic in many different ways. Over 1.5 million people have contracted this virus and 85,000 have died. The numbers are still going up daily. Many people are suffering from illness, loss of loved ones, isolation, fear, lack of adequate means to protect themselves. Schools are closed and more and more people lost their jobs.

Honestly, friends, is there any feeling of joy in you as we are celebrating Easter today? In what ways then our risen Christ instill hope in us in this extra-ordinary time of the world?

Encountering the risen Christ

Easter Sunday marks the end of Lent. This year our church has created “Lenten Encounter” as our theme for Lent. I conclude the season of Lent by sharing a message “encountering the risen Christ” on today’s Easter Sunday.

“Encountering the Risen Christ” – be aware of our identity as God’s children

According to the gospel account in John, Mary was the first one who went to the tomb to look for Jesus. She was very upset for Jesus’ death. I can imagine she probably did not sleep at all so she could go to the bomb so early.

According to the account, Mary was very absorbed in her sorrow. She did not recognize the risen Jesus at all until he called her name – Mary!

Encountering the risen Christ begins with an awakening of knowing who we are. Very often we may be too absorbed by our sorrow, hardship, loss and failure in lives. We then forget we are the children of God, wonderfully created and fully loved. Jesus the Son of God who was sent to the world to live and die for us have proved this amazing love.

Dear friends, whenever we are aware of our identity as God’s children and He calls us by name, we are encountering the risen Christ and being empowered by the loving relationship with God. God created this world, He will take good care and responsibility. So let us never lose hope. Let us also help others to recognize this important identity in God, the Creator and our saviour.

“Encountering the risen Christ” – be reconnected to God.

When Mary recognized Jesus, the risen Lord, He asked her to go and tell the disciples by saying - ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’

The charge of Jesus to Mary was to share the good news of ONENESS in God – that is we are in communion with God through Jesus Christ. God is with Jesus and God is with us, each one of us in the world.

Jesus’ Father and His God is our Father and our God. It is a very profound faith statement to all believers and followers of Christ.

Encountering the risen Christ is to reconnect with God as ONE. Who is this God? The God of life and love that is shown in the creation and in Jesus’ forgiving and sacrificing grace.

In Lent this year, I felt death is so close to me. In March, three Christian friends died, leaving behind their beloved wives.

All three wives are saddened to see their beloved husbands passed away. But I see how they encountered the risen Christ not in the dead body but in the beautiful life of their husbands and the love they received from others.

1 The first person I would like to share is Mrs Chang. In the funeral service on Friday, she shared an impressive message about thanksgiving to God and to her husband who had enriched her life.

2 The second friend is May, her husband died and left with her two teenage children to take care of. She was worried about the death of her husband because she did not know what to do. But the support from the church financially and spiritually has strengthened her faith and given her power to move forward.

3 The third person is Pauline, her husband was a pastor serving faithfully in a local church. When she was grieving deeply like Mary, she shared how she experienced God’s deep and amazing love through the comfort and care of so many people from the church and even in hospital from the nurses and doctor.

In the global pandemic crisis, yes there are many ugly human acts. But at the same time we have witnessed many kind hearted people supporting and sharing with each other especially with those who are in need. One of the beautiful and touching example is a priest in Italy who gave his respiratory machine to a young person. The priest died but a young life was saved.

It is the loving spirit and caring act that makes the people see the resurrected Christ.

During the Pandemic Crisis, many reflections in different forms have been shared about human compassion, caring for the poor and the vulnerable. There are also increasing awareness on protecting nature and call for simple life to reduce unnecessary consumption. There are also calls for people to slow down and work less to reduce stress, to focus more on relationship instead of material life. To embrace the gift of life and love and don’t take things for granted.

In a way, COVID-19 Pandemic is a like a tomb of darkness. And yet we meet our risen Christ there.

Encountering the risen Christ is an awakening to reconnect our life with God, the Father, the Parent God who creates and loves the world very much. This is Jesus’ mission to restore humanity and reconnect us to the eternal life and love of God.

Therefore I would say in encountering the risen Christ, we are able to recognize these truths:

-Sorrow is not enduring, joy is

-Fear is not everlasting, peace is

-Uncertainty is not permanent, hope is

-Isolation is not forever, connection is

-Poverty is not our destiny, abundant life is

-Death is not the end, life is

The empty tomb has proved to us life has won the final victory.

With this proclamation -- Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, alleluia…, we encounter the living God in our daily lives in the midst of hardship.

With the saving power of Christ, we can confidently proclaim, we have encountered the risen Christ and we have seen the Lord! Amen!

Closing prayer

Risen Christ,

Awaken us to know that you live in us and we are in you.

Jesus Christ and we are in one body and we are forever connected in life and love.

Help us not to find you in the tomb of darkness but open our eyes to see the light from the sun in the morning and the stars at night.

Risen Christ,

Empower us to change with love and transform with joy and hope. Amen!

# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, April 12, 2020

Divine Surrender

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 5 April 2020, Passion Sunday, by Timothy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Philippians 2:5–11, Matthew 27:11–54.

Good morning friends who are worshipping with us through facebook live. Today is the sixth Sunday in Lent since Ash Wednesday on 26th of February. In the past few weeks, we read about stories of Jesus encountering different characters in the Gospel, and how he opened the blind man’s eyes, and raised Lazarus from death. This week, as pastor Maggie has mentioned in the liturgy, Jesus entered Jerusalem, to prepare for his Passion, to die on the cross for our transgressions. It is really a heavy passage, and it somehow matches with what we are experiencing now throughout the world. Let us pray before we take a closer look at the story:

Loving God, help us to understand your sacrifice and surrender. In this of pandemic, help us to connect with you through your suffering, so we would be empowered and transformed. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

After the last supper with his disciples, Jesus was betrayed by Judas to the high priest Caiaiphas, who has plotted to kill him for quite some time. Then the high priest gathered many false witnesses to accuse Jesus, hoping to find him guilty, but they could not. At the end, they charged him for blasphemy because Jesus admitted himself as the Son of God. For the high priest has no power to put someone to death officially, they brought Jesus to Pilate, who questioned Jesus about the accusations against him, but Jesus did not answer any one of them. Under the pressure from the furious Jews demanding his death, Pilate washed his hand, and sent him to crucifixion.

In the face of wrong accusations, Jesus surrendered his right to defend himself. Even though the trial is unjust, he did not try to defend himself. Jesus knew it was the people who wanted him death. So even if he defended himself, those religious leaders would find another way to kill him too. Sometimes, we put our trust in the legal system, believing that they would be just. But after all, we are all human, some of us are driven by greed, and to trade justice for benefits. Today we would also judge people by whether they are criminal, or whether they have breached the law. Jesus’ passion reminded us that even Jesus himself was a criminal. If he is going to apply for a job today, or apply for immigration, he would have a criminal record with him!

Jesus focused on doing God’s will than to care about how other people think of Him. What Jesus surrendered is more than just his civil right. By doing so, he refused to be limited by the judgement given by the world. He refused to let the earthly authority to define who he is. I am not saying we should surrender our civil right, but I am saying to those who are persecuted by any corrupted legal system now, that our life should not be defined by a court’s decision. As we are children of God, and followers of Christ, we could do all things empowered by the Holy Spirit, regardless of our identity and background. Jesus would not have finished this salvation plan if he was provoked to prove his innocence to the high priest. Do we care about how other would think of us more than following God?

On his way to Golgotha, Jesus was abandoned by the crowd, and beaten by the soldiers, yet he chose to be silent. Not only that, he was also mocked by one of the bandits who were crucified next to Him, saying

“You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” and ‘priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself.”

When I was young, I always thought about this, why wouldn’t Jesus just come down for 1 minute, then went back up again? He could have shown the world his power and at the same time his willingness to die for us all. However, this is not what Jesus was thinking. He was not there to please us, he did all these, suffered all these to save us from God’s judgement and wrath for us.

Jesus surrendered his choice to save himself from mocking, suffering and death. In the same way, he refused to worship satan in the wilderness, and refused bread and comfort in the face of hunger and hardship. He surrendered himself, for the benefit of others, but for himself. In today’s Christianity, churches are emphasizing our personal relationship with God, but we seldom talk about our responsibility to our community, and our environment. We confined faith on a personal level, that everything happening around me has to work for me, to be meaningful to me, and have something to do with ME! The more we think about ourselves, the less we think about others. In this coronavirus pandemic, we saw people and medical staff who surrendered their own comfort and safety, and volunteered themselves or to work extra hours to care for the sick. Without their sacrifice, the situations can be worse.

Jesus thought about the bigger pictures, he chose not to prove to those who mocked him. He did not need to prove to anyone how capable He is. Many churches struggled whether they should open or not, we don’t need to prove that we are scared or not, we don’t need to worry whether people would think we have faith in God or not. Whatever decision we make, are we trying to prove ourselves? Or whether we are thinking of the needs of our neighbours, the vulnerable, and the medical staff? Jesus’ divine surrender leads us to think of others, and it’s all about love. We believe the power of love is way stronger than the power of fear.

At the end, when Jesus was about to die, he cried with a loud voice “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In order to save us, Jesus surrendered the most precious thing, which is his relationship and unity with the Father. At the same time, the Father surrendered his Son to satisfy the wrath and judgement for us. As said in Philippians chapter 2:

Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

He died, so we may live.

When we think about salvation, we would be bothered by the word “wrath” or phrases like “wrath of God is satisfied”. However, if there is no judgement for our sins, Jesus would not need to die in our place. While we are singing for the love of God, we must not forget the cost of sin. Jesus’ death is not just theological, whether his death could satisfy the justice of God or not, or is there another way. The dead of Christ is a way which God would like to relate to us. By death, he experienced our fear. By bearing our sins, like us, He was separated from the love of God.

God connects with us through his death, and in his death, we are connected to his saving grace. As we enter the Holy Week, May I invite you all to remember his sacrifice and divine surrender for us. As St. John the Sinai said “Let the memory of death sleep and awake with you” it could be a memory of us dying to the world or a memory of us saying no to temptation and sin. It could be the moment we denied our own desire and own righteousness, and let God’s will be done in us. In this week of Passion, let us be awakened by these memories of death, and learn from his divine surrender, to love and to serve.

# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, April 05, 2020

Reflections...

A migrant’s blessing

“Responsible Faith”

“Encountering The Risen Christ”

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