Sermon on the letter to the Galater 5, 1-6 * Reformation Day 25th October 2020 in KUC by Rev. Martin Sommer.
The bible reading for our sermon today is from the letter to the Galatians Chapter 5, Verse 1-6:
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
I
Renew the Reformation memorial
Brothers and sisters,
on a day trip to the German town of Worms
we saw the reformation memorial there, where Jan Hus is sculptured
and John Wiclif, Girolamo Savonarola and Peter Waldes,
the so called pre-reformers: With sad faces they were seated
at the feet of Martin Luther in the center of the memorial.
All four persons experienced persecution.
The reformation memorial in Worms was made in 1868 (by Ernst Rietschl).
Last time, I was there, it was scaffolded all over with tarpaulins.
Not the earls of 15th century Germany protect him nowadays,
but covers keep away dirt from the hero’s memorial.
The monument office had to take measures to clean it.
A metaphor.
Access forbidden.
Tourists are forced to keep their distance.
They can watch the reformers only from a distance.
Surrounded by a protective roof
the memorial needs renewal.
Thinking of the Reformation means
freeing the memory from dusty slumber.
II
Freedom from GOD
Churches are shelters on the path of life.
We Christians are on our way,
stopping here and there.
That is what churches are for:
To hold on, to stop and contemplate,
and then go further.
Churches must be open.
We have to generate inspiration
on our way to freedom.
Freedom then means
freedom from old conventions that no longer fit.
Whenever churches seem like a museum
where you are not allowed to touch anything,
church has missed meaning.
When the roof presses us down,
the mighty fortress becomes a prison
then we have to start renovation – or at last reformation.
If we miss out here, we will stay inside and experience
the holy spirit passing by.
III
Find Your place as a real Protestant
Without a place we belong to
without a dwelling we cannot exist.
Whenever you walk through your door
you need the feeling of being home.
We need shelters behind the doors.
We need refuge in a cold and rough world.
And at the same time we feel restricted.
Martin Luther in his time felt the urge
to step out of his church and leave his spiritual home,
since he did not find space for himself,
did not have enough room to breathe.
The freedom to leave behind what is obviously wrong
also means to step into uncertainty.
So, when the time came, Martin Luther,
the Roman Catholic scholar and church priest,
stepped out into the wide open.
Whenever a door to freedom
opens after you were imprisoned,
You will become full of joy.
The Reformers opened doors,
but consequently they had to leave their house.
So, they became defenseless and vulnerable.
Now they were forced to be creative, responsible
and prudent enough to build a new house.
This defenselessness is outstandingly depicted
by the monument in Worms, where
John Wiclif and Jan Hus are shown,
Girolamo Savonarola and Peter Waldes:
All four sitting to the feet, of the great, government protegee.
Martin Luther had never tended to be a hero;
but three centuries later in 1886, when the Worms monument was erected he had become a German idol of the 19th century.
The nationalism of that time used him for some popular virtues
such as steadfastness, purposefulness,
assertiveness, or at least “to do things right”.
IV
Commemorate GODs liberation
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
St. Paul had been a Jewish scribe and student of the pharisees.
He knew the old testaments psalms and the scriptures of the prophets.
And in those scriptures, again and again,
there You can read the warning of a relapse
into a slavish, a pre-emancipative behavior.
The Old Testament refers to the experience of the Exodus from Egypt,
On their way through the desert
the majority of the children of Israel
longed to return to the meat pots
they had enjoyed in Egypt
although they had been slaves:
“Security did we have!”
“Social networks!”
“Regardless of the conditions we live in, at least we were fine.”
They ‘dreamed of leek and onion’ (Numeri 11, 5),
the scanty but nourishing smell in their huts in Egypt.
When centuries later in the kingdom of Israel and Judah
widows and orphans were neglected,
the poor were made slaves by their own people
- the old testament prophet point this out time and again - then
this impact of freedom comes to their mind:
“Commemorate where You have come from.”
“Do not let yourselves be burdened again.”
Freedom is an ambiguous issue.
It can always turn to the reverse.
Former slaves may become slaveholders!
Living freedom can be too great a challenge.
We risk do fall back when we feel vulnerable
and no longer master of the situation.
V
Sisterhood is solidarity
So, stand firm, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
In this chapter of the letter to the Galatians
St Paul deals with a kind of loyalty conflict.
Christians in their area had experienced
the freedom of living together
far away from Palestine
as God’s new family.
They got used to one another,
found a new way of life
having given up some habits from the Palestine context.
And then, old friends appear
from earlier times: How to behave!?
There is some fear:
What will they say about me
when they find me here!?
Follow the new behavior that has been blessed by God.
You have found a new way of living
together with Your new friends,
who are (as well as the others)
Your sisters and brothers in faith.
to the behavior of former times
whenever you have developed
It may not be a big issue, when you talk about table manners.
Maybe there is no problem when eating with knife and fork
or with chopsticks - or with our fingers.
There you may say: “Excuse me, I am still a bit clumsy.”
You can always learn; and the others will not mind.
However: Matters will become more serious,
when a conflict concerns community and fellowship.
For St. Paul and his friends in Galatia
the point of discussion was pretty random:
“Circumcision for everyone – Yes or No?”
On a theoretical level a solution would have been quite easy.
The scandal however was the personal failure in practice:
Hypocrisy – as St. Paul called it – comes up,
when we do not use our own brain,
do not follow our conscience,
but squint at the other:
“What will they say, if I will stay?”
False fears and considerations, that is hypocrisy.
The fault is, when You do not stand with the people,
God has made important as brothers and sisters to you.
That is, what St. Paul means, when talking about the new freedom:
It is the freedom of choosing brotherhood and friendship
without considering outdated patterns of life
no matter whether they have once been founded in faith.
Stand firm, and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Σ
Reformation provides us an open Space
The Church of the Reformation is an open church:
As have seen in the reformation memorial in Worms:
Five human beings stand in an open space
accessible for everyone, even for the birds from heaven.
This slide shows the marketplace in Wittenberg
For the 500th jubilee of Reformation a globe is shaped on an open space.
The church is open, not only for those who are inside,
but also for those, who are standing outside.
For those who find no joy in her the doors will open wide!
Open for all people, who dare
feel the scent of freedom, whenever they pray.
So, Martin Luther reveals the freedom of God’s love:
Without any condition all human beings are included.
And we are set free to abundant love. Amen.
Tai Hang\Causeway Bay\Hongkong SAR
Mail MartinSommer@posteo.net
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 25, 2020
A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 18 October 20209, the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, by Kung Lap Yan.
The scripture readings that day were Psalm 96:1–13, Matthew
22:15–22.
What make people with different backgrounds
or opinions come together? One of the reasons is that they have a common
concern. An example is the relationship between KUC and One Body in Christ. It
is the common goal of being an inclusive church bringing us together. In these
9 years, we have been enriching one another by learning to be a community of
hospitality. The gospel we ready today (Matt 22: 15-22) is also about a
collaboration between Pharisees and Herodians. Unlike our common concern of
being an inclusive community, it is the common enemy, Jesus, bringing Pharisees
and Herodians together. The common enemy transcends their religious and
political differences. In short, Pharisees gave respect to the Torah and were
hesitant to accept the rule of Roman Empire, while Herodians urged the people to
accept Roman sovereignty and spread messianic ideas which they applied to Herod
and his rule.
In order to remove Jesus from their eyes,
Pharisees and Herodians set a trap for Jesus by asking him a question, “Is it
lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” They knew the trick of this
question very well, for this was their debate also. If Jesus said yes to it,
Jesus might lose his trust among the Jews who were suffered different degree of
oppression from the Roman Empire and the tax system. If Jesus said no to it,
Herodians would have a good excuse to report to the Roman government that Jesus
promoted a revolutionary movement. This was not the first time that Jesus was
entrapped. For instance, Jesus was asked whether it was right to stone the
woman taken in adultery, and Jesus responded, “Let anyone among you who is
without sin be the first to thrown a stone at her.” (John 8: 1-11). On other occasions, a lawyer asked Jesus,
“Who is my neighbour?”, and Jesus responded, “It is the one who shows mercy to
the people in need.” (Lk 10: 25-37) Jesus was used to reframe the question from
the challengers, and so, the challengers were turned to be the one to be asked.
The question that Jesus asked was not about political correctness, but very
existential. On this occasion, Jesus added a dimension to the question, that
is, God. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”, and Jesus
answered, “Give to the emperor the
things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Unfortunately, Jesus’
responses are often misread. First, some interpret that God and politics should
be kept separate. Second, some emphasize that religion is a matter of the
heart, and that Jesus doesn’t really care about mundane things like what you do
with your money. Third, some hold that our duty as Christians is to obey the law no matter what it
is. These three interpretations are misreading, because they set a
boundary for God’s sovereignty and fail to be aware of that Jesus’ response is
to restrict the power of the emperor.
Psalm 24:1 says that "The
earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in
it." God is the Lord of lords, and so, an emperor is nothing other than
the servant of God. He is accountable to God no matter whether he believes in
God or not. We are told to “give to
the emperor the things that are the emperor’s”, because this may support him to
serve God better. However, if he fails to honour his role as an accountable
government, Christians are rightly to “obey God rather than men.” (Acts
5:29) It is not because Christians represent God, but because it is Christians
obedience to God.
“Give
to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that
are God’s” means a lot to the people in Hong Kong, Belarus, Thailand and other
countries. Governments in these lands demand more from people than that they
are entitled to. They use law, force, police and punishment to threaten and
compel people to give to them the things that are not theirs, that is, human
dignity. Such kind of governments are thieves, not God’s servants. The thieves
have no right to ask for the things that are not theirs, that is, human
dignity. There is time not to “give to the emperor the things that are the
emperor’s”. Rather the government has to give to the people the things that are
the people’s.
In answering the
question raised by Pharisees and Herodians, Jesus asked them:
“Show
me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he
said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The
emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor
the things that are the emperor’s.”
Likewise, the government is asked what the image of people
is. Humans are created in God’s image. We have to show respect to everyone,
because showing respect to everyone is to respect God. Showing respect is more
than being polite and kind. It is about defending people whose dignity is
discriminated due to gender and sexual orientation, whose freedom is persecuted
due to political and religious stance, whose life is marginalized due to
poverty and disabilities, whose right is displaced due to ethnicity and
nationality. These are the people found in Thailand, Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict and other lands. Let us show our solidarity with people being deprived
of human dignity. You can consider visiting the Thai restaurants in Kowloon
City. Talk to the Thai. They may not support the protest in Thailand, but we at
least can hear different voices and make our appropriate responses.
Humans are created
in God’s image. It is not only a noun, but also a verb. It means imaging God.
This is the concern of discipleship in Matthew Gospel. Discipleship is not
simply being a good person. Rather it is in us that people in the midst of
darkness can discern God’s presence.
May the Spirit of
God empower every one of us so that we are courageously to say NO to thieves’
request, and gratefully to say YES to human dignity in God’s image.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 18, 2020
A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 4 October 2020, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, World Communion Sunday, by Dr. Hope S. Antone. The scripture readings that day were Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-17; Matthew 21:33-46.
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). This is our prayer not only for Kowloon Union Church but for all believers everywhere as we observe the World Communion Sunday. We do affirm, however, that genuine communion does not necessarily happen in face-to-face situations. It happens only when there is real connection of the gathered community and there is real sharing of something in common. What connects believers together in this World Communion Sunday is the affirmation that our unity in Christ is expressed in our belief that Christ is the head of the church everywhere. It is a unity that transcends time and space, and differences in socio-economic status, culture, language, or denomination. What connects us even more deeply is the belief that partaking of Christ’s broken body and poured out blood is not just in the taking of the Communion elements. It is more so in our participation in Christ’s ministry of transforming the world.
Today’s gospel reading is labeled by the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, “the parable of the wicked tenants.” Actually in our daily life, which is very common in the Philippines, this story speaks about the injustice and inequality that many of our peasant farmers and landless people are facing all the time. However, a common explanation of the parable is that the landowner/farmer represents God; the vineyard is the Kingdom of God; the tenants are the religious leaders; the slaves are the prophets; the son as Jesus; and the new tenants, most likely, as the church. This parable is often retold as a story about God entrusting the vineyard to the Israelites during the Old Testament times. Then God sent the prophets at different times of their history to remind and correct the Israelites whenever they steered off course of being the light to the nations. But most did not listen to the prophets. Then God sent Jesus but still many refused to accept him. Instead, many turned against Jesus to the point of killing him. So the driving point of the parable is that, despite having been rejected, Jesus became the chief cornerstone or foundation of the new community that lives out the values of the reign of God.
Since we are already familiar with this type of interpretation, I would like to reflect more on the metaphor of vineyard in the light of our current situation.
A parable uses familiar objects to point to an unfamiliar teaching or truth. The parable here uses the vineyard as a metaphor for that was a common sight for the biblical people. Where they lived, the vineyard was everywhere.
One lesson I can draw from the parable is that the vineyard was a symbol of God’s blessing. After all, the vineyard provided food and livelihood. A good harvest was perceived as a sign of abundance and prosperity. A good harvest also implied a time of peace and tranquility for a vineyard could only blossom well in situations of peace – when workers could attend to the vines more constantly, consistently and watchfully. At a time when wars often happened between rival tribes and nations, the image of sitting under one’s vine symbolized peace and security – as some Old Testament passages have recorded (Mic 4:4; 1 Kings 4:25; Zech 3:10).
Another lesson is that the vineyard signified hard and tedious work. God’s blessing of abundance and prosperity did not just fall from heaven. Vine cultivation required the farmers to have a good relationship with the land and the vine. It’s the kind of relationship that knew well the right type of soil and the right amount of moisture and sunlight for the vine to grow and bear good fruit. Vine cultivation needed watchful care especially before the vine began to bear fruit. It also needed constant pruning of the vine to ensure that the grapes grew to full maturity. So knowledge of and respect for the cycle of planting, growing, pruning, bearing fruit, harvesting was very important. Fencing around the vineyard and building a watchtower were to protect the vineyard from wild animals and thieves. Since vine cultivation was related to wine production, digging a wine press was part of the package.
Still another lesson is that tending the vineyard required an attitude of stewardship, not ownership. In today’s parable, the problem came up when the tenants confused the lease (or temporary possession) with ownership of the vineyard. Having the vineyard on a lease or loan is not the same as ownership. According to the parable, when the tenants behaved as if they were the rightful owners, they became greedy and violent. They couldn’t accept that the real owner would claim the ownership of the vineyard and whatever was due to them. Even the farmer who owned the vineyard must have that attitude of stewardship by giving a tenth of the harvest back to God, as prescribed in the Bible.
Taking the vineyard as a symbol of God’s blessing, hard and tedious work, and that it requires stewardship rather than ownership, what is your vineyard today? What is it that God has entrusted to you in order to sustain your life and provide you with a sense of prosperity, security, and peace? What is it that needs your hard and tedious labor and requires your attitude of stewardship, rather than ownership?
I like the view of the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, a retired Episcopal minister in the USA, who preached on this parable sometime back, saying:
“We – all of humanity – are laborers in the vineyard. The vineyards are our homes, schools and workplaces; our churches, synagogues, and mosques; our cities, suburbs, towns and villages; the Internet and its worldwide web; yes – even, our financial markets. The vineyards are our bodies with their complex genetic coding; our deserts, rainforests, and mountain ranges; our oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes; and even our polar ice caps. The vineyard is our world, our earth, our cosmos. And, we – each in our own way – are called to tend it. Some have management responsibilities, some are trainers, and others are laborers. In a market economy, some people even have limited term tenancy or ownership. But nobody permanently owns the vineyard – none of us. God is the real owner. The vineyard is leased to us as stewards. According to the parable, we human beings, and everything we have, belong to God. We just have it on loan. Someday, perhaps sooner than we anticipate or desire, the term of that loan will expire and we will be called to account. Thus, tending the vineyard is a matter of stewardship for our finite time on this earth.”
It is a long quote but it tells us very clearly that whether it is my body or my life, my career or occupation, my family or loved one, the community or the world – the “vineyard” – which I think I own, is just leased or loaned to me only temporarily. It is entrusted to me to help me sustain my life, to provide me security and peace. But I do not own or possess it.
The Ten Commandments (Book of Exodus) warn readers of the temptation to make idols in the form of anything in heaven, on, or under the earth. It is possible to make any of our “vineyards” an idol – something that replaces God and requires our full allegiance and loyalty. What’s with the preoccupation with earning more, to become better than others, and to become recognized as highly successful – if it is at the expense of our relationships with others characterized by the values of love, justice and compassion? If we don’t remember to live out these values – love, justice and compassion – in our work, our families and families - could these preoccupations with what is good for us be possibly not be signs of making an idol of oneself?
Somehow, the Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us more starkly of the truth that everything we have, including life itself, is a loan from God. We may have made beautiful plans for our work, our lives, our loved ones – but we are not fully in control of it all because we do not own it.
In the wake of the increasing cases of Covid-19 infections in the USA, Fr. Theodore Trinko, a Catholic priest in Maryland, reminded his parishioners of the temporariness of life. I find his statement very profound:
“Even in the worst case, if we were to catch this coronavirus and die, so what? Is not death just a return to the House of the Father? We did not come into this world to stay forever any more than a person goes to a skyscraper to ride the elevator. Sooner or later we will leave it and, by God’s grace, go back to God who made us.”
Truly, we find this pandemic a disruption to our plans – including our personal plans, travel plans, and work-related plans. But it has reminded us that we do not have full control of our life because we do not own it.
So how are you tending your vineyard today, knowing that it is only leased to you on borrowed time?
Stewardship, not ownership, is the better attitude to take. Stewardship makes us more humble because it is without a sense of entitlement – that assumption that we have the right to the many blessings from God. Stewardship makes us more humble because it is without a sense of privilege – another assumption that we are the chosen ones among the many to inherit the kingdom of God. The sense of entitlement and privilege can lead to a sense of pride and arrogance, and even violence.
As the parable states, “the kingdom of God will be taken away (and I would add, from those with a high sense of entitlement and privilege) … and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matthew 21:43). Tending our different vineyards today in the spirit of stewardship means doing the best we can to share ourselves in ways that proclaim the values of the reign of God. It may be caring for a family, helping someone in need, reminding someone that they are loved and valued, or kindling the hope of one who is yoked with heavy burdens – perhaps because of the uncertainty during this time of the national security law, the Covid-19 pandemic, and everything else. All these are part of the work in God’s vineyard.
May we be the new tenants of the vineyard – the community of Christ that makes his cross our own… that looks past the church’s door to find those in need and to work with them for the betterment of life. May it be so.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 04, 2020
