A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on First Sunday in Advent 27 November 2021, by Rev Judy Wong. The scripture readings that day Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36.
Good morning! Happy Advent! There are many traditions associated with the Advent season leading up to Christmas. Christmas decorations are one, the advent candles are another. And then there’s the Advent calendar. Are you familiar with those? The ones I bought in the past were fairly simple, a sheet of thick cardboard with a winter or Christmassy scene on it, and 2 dozen small windows, numbered 1 to 24. You open one window each day from Dec 1st until Xmas Eve. And behind each little window? A Scripture verse or picture related to the coming of Jesus. Sometimes there might even be a piece of chocolate inside.
I thought these were cute to give to my children when they were small. You know, something fun to help them think about the real meaning of Christmas. One year, things were going pretty well for the first few days of Advent. And then at the end of week 1, I came home and found that Christmas had come early. All 24 windows were open, all the chocolates were out. Girls, I said. What happened?? They sheepishly confessed, “Sorry mom! We just couldn’t wait!” That was the last Advent calendar in our house.
Looking back, I think maybe it’s not just children who have trouble getting Advent right. Maybe we adults do too. You know, I grew up as a Baptist so we didn’t even have Advent. Then I went to seminary where I became a Presbyterian and learned about the liturgical seasons and colors. And purple – that was the color for Advent and Lent. So when I was ordained, of course I got myself a set of fancy stoles in different colors (because ministers love to dress up, kind of our version of ‘cosplay’).
Have you ever wondered though why purple is the color for Advent? Lent – we understand that. Lent’s a penitential season, a time of intense self-examination as we journey with Christ to the Cross. But Advent? What are we guilty of before Christmas? Jesus hasn’t even been born yet!
So in some churches, there’s been a move towards using the color blue for Advent instead of purple. They say Advent should be a season of Hope – hope in the 1st coming of Jesus as a baby in a manger and hope for the world in the 2nd coming of Christ at the end of time.
Now, we probably get the first part about hope in the birth of a child – it’s like that popular quote for new moms and dads: “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” But did you know that for much of its history, Advent has been more about the Second Coming of Jesus … Christ returning in glory as Ruler and Judge over the cosmos. In other words, God’s opinion that the world should not go on.
How do we reconcile these two seemingly opposite moods and messages of Advent – repentance and hope, purple and blue, judgment and salvation? Maybe we have to look at the Gospel lesson for today to get some answers. So, let’s go there.
Now when you heard today’s Gospel reading, you might have thought it sounded familiar, very familiar. In fact, it sounds almost like the reading from Mark last week for Christ the King Sunday. And indeed, it is very similar, and likely Luke used Mark’s version as his source for his own Gospel.
As Rev Hans Lutz preached last week, the 2nd Coming of Christ is in the Bible. And it’s in our Creeds too. So we need to take it seriously. And, in reality, when we look around the globe today, the end of the world doesn’t seem that far-fetched anyway, does it?
But the Gospel message in Advent is more than an ancient prediction proven true in the disasters we have wrought upon the Earth. In the message of Advent, God is the subject, not us.
So, let’s spend some time to reflect on God’s message in Luke 21:25-36.
Apocalyptic passages like these are obviously disturbing. There’s no way around that. Alarming signs in the sky, catastrophes in the sea, confusion among the nations. I have to admit that most of the time, I ignored those parts of the Bible that talk like this. I guess my reasoning was: “What can I do about it anyway?”
And if people asked me as a minister what’s the meaning, I would say, “We really don’t know for sure. It’s hard to understand.” Well, to some extent that’s true, but that’s really not doing justice to the text or justice to you as the congregation.
So, what do we find out when we dare to take the 2nd Coming of Jesus seriously? I hear two big messages today from God: (1) Don’t be surprised and (2) Don’t be afraid.
Don’t be surprised. Why should Christians be surprised that Jesus is coming back? Jesus himself speaks of the Son of Man returning in glory. And after his ascension, didn’t the angels tell the disciples that Jesus would come back the same way they saw him go up into heaven? And what do we often hear during Holy Communion liturgy? “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” That’s straight from I Corinthians 11:26.
No, it’s not that we haven’t heard Jesus is coming back. That’s not the problem. I think the problem is we’ve quit believing it’s really going to happen. That the world would actually end with Jesus coming down from the sky to put an end to all our sufferings and injustices. After all, people have been waiting for 2000 years and he hasn’t come back yet.
I cannot tell you the exact day or way Jesus will return. No one knows except God. But I can tell you that the 2nd Coming of Christ is crucial to our hope for eternal life. It’s crucial because if Jesus does not return, there’s no one to rescue us from the pit of Hell. If Jesus does not return, then Evil has the last word.
But you and I know Evil does not have the last word. God does. God spoke it on the Cross when our Savior declared, “It is finished.” IT IS FINISHED. Not just Jesus’ earthly life, but the power of sin and death over the world. Indeed if in his first coming, Jesus declared God’s intention to change our destiny, then his 2nd coming is final confirmation that God has done exactly that.
According to Scripture, the 2nd coming of Jesus will be an earth-shattering event. Just as a heavenly host declared his birth in Bethlehem, and darkness filled the sky at his death in Jerusalem, the return of Jesus will be signaled by cosmic disorder. We’re not sure what all the biblical language means, but for sure if anyone doubts that God is in control, there will be no more reason to doubt. God has returned once and for all to fulfill the promise of a new heaven and a new earth.
So don’t be surprised, Jesus tells us. Don’t be caught off guard or give up hope. Salvation is at hand, and I am coming in person to deliver it.
Which brings us to the other message of Advent today. Don’t be afraid. Well, you might be thinking, why should I be afraid if God is coming to save us? Because the hard truth of the matter is this: There is no salvation without judgment. Jesus is not only coming back to save us, but to judge the living and dead, as we say in the Apostles’ Creed.
I confess when I think about the Final Judgment of God, I am afraid. In fact, one reason I started going back to church when I was a teenager was an illustration in the newspaper showing the Last Judgment. It was the full-page Saturday ad for church services in my little town in Mississippi. There was a terrified looking man and woman and the question “How will you answer God at the Last Judgment when He asks, Why were you not in the House of the Lord on Sunday?”
Well, since then, I’ve spent a whole lot of time in the House of the Lord. And I may think I’m better than a lot of people, or at least I’m not the worst of the bunch, but is that enough? Even if I throw myself at the foot of the Cross and at the mercy of the blood of the Lamb, I’m still afraid of being judged and found coming up short. As we put it: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done." This is our human dilemma.
So if we really take the 2nd coming of Christ seriously, how can we not be afraid? The Bible says by being alert, on duty, 24/7. Everything counts. Everything. It’s like the job of a security guard. You never know what will happen next – so you have to be ready all the time, right? Don’t be caught napping or on your phone looking at the horse races, or coming in late and leaving early. There’s a joke that goes: Jesus is coming, look busy!
Well, Jesus is coming, but we don’t need to look busy. We need to be busy praying and working for the Kingdom of God. You might feel what you do day in and day out doesn’t really matter. But it does. Every act of kindness and compassion, every truth instead of lies, every courageous act for justice and peace, every sacrifice you make for the common good – they all count. They all contribute to the bringing of God’s Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. And they all are remembered by God on that final day when the verdict on our eternal destiny is decided.
So, don’t be surprised and don’t be afraid. Advent is the season to be Born Anew with Hope because He is coming back. And if you look forward to it, long for it, and get ready for it, the 2nd coming of Christ is good news indeed. Thanks be to God. Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, November 28, 2021
A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Twenty Fourth Sunday After Pentecost 14 November 2021, by Rev Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day : Matthew 25:14–30 and 1 Peter 4: 8–11.
Opening prayer
God of love and faithfulness,
May the Word of your love touch our heart. May Your Word deepen our faith. Awaken our Holy Spirit to understand You more and be transformed to be God’s good stewards. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to You. Amen!
Stewardship Sunday has been a tradition arranged annually to encourage church members to make pledges to give faithfully, lovingly and sacrificially, our time, our talents, and even our treasure (money) to our church. We had stopped for a few years and glad that we tried again this year with the Council’s inputs.
Today I would like to share the message about stewardship by going back to the roots – that is from the book of Genesis.
Hear these word taken from Genesis 1:26
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
The scripture reminds us when God created the household of the world, he has entrusted human being to take charge and take responsibility for caring all creatures.
Stewardship is thus the will of God proclaimed right at the beginning when the world was created.
When God entrusted human beings to take care of the world, it implied God has deep trust on human beings of what they can do. With this trust, God has expectations upon humankind. Within the church, Jesus Christ our Lord has expectations on his disciples to take care of the household of the church. All people who are created in holy God’s image are given talents and gifts to do the work of God. Being the steward of God is an inherited duty. Stewardship is also a natural response to the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Today our four brothers had done a funny and lovely drama to illustrate the parable of talents.
The parable is not to teach us about how to make use of our talents for investment or touching on the importance of making profit. The parable is about commitment and attitude of the servants.
The master, who represented God has given us different kinds of gifts according to our ability. God has entrusted us to take care of all the gifts.
The parable reiterates the fact of
Number 1 - God has trust in us
Number 2 - God has expectation on us
Number 3 – there is consequence if we don’t take our own responsibility
In the parable, what really upset the master was that one of the servants made excuses and told lies. The master even scolded him “you are wicked and lazy”.
From the eyes of the master, good stewards are to take their responsibility, and should never find excuses to justify their inactions. Moreover, good stewards are taking seriously of the charge by the master, try to do their best to overcome difficulties, and even willing to take risk and challenging themselves for offering God their best.
The parable reminded me of One Body In Christ (OBIC). OBIC is a church KUC provides venue for their worship and fellowship every Saturday evening.
This year OBIC celebrates their 10th anniversary. One of the activities they planned was fund raising and they had set a targt of HK$100,000. As a small church of around 40 people regularly attending the worship service, this amount was not easy to meet. But they made it. It was amazing!
Members of the church arranged charity sale and charity performances. Anyone who would like to perform in a special evening Service need to raise at least HK$2,000. A member I named her Susan wished to participate and raise fund for the church by singing. But she is not good at it. So she went to a teacher to train her voice and enhance her skills in singing.
Although Susan has her own personal problems to handle. But she did not focus on her problems and inadequacy. She used the gift of her voice and tried to improve it through learning and practising. In the process of her service, I saw her joy and her increasing self-confidence.
From Susan, I realized that being God’s steward is the willingness to overcome difficulties and to walk the extra mile in order to achieve goodness for God. It is exactly what the wicked and lazy servant refused to do in the parable.
Be God’s steward. Sisters and brothers, when an invitation is extended and a need is identified in church that required your help and support, are you willing to say yes by trusting in God and in yourself that you can do it?
Be God’s steward requires trust.
Another important element of being God’s steward is LOVE.
Love is a powerful driving force to stewardship
The reading today taken from 1 Peter 4 reminded us a very important lesson. As God’s steward, our primary role and responsibility is to love and whatever we do is for the glory of God through Jesus Christ.
St Peter experienced deep grace from Jesus through his forgiving and sacrificing love. Do you still remember Peter denied Jesus three times? But Jesus forgave him. More than forgiveness, Jesus commissioned him to be the church leader to tender his sheep. Peter was one of the apostles called to be the rock of the church. Peter affirmed his love to Jesus when he was asked “do you love me” three times after the Lord’s resurrection.
Love from God and love to God is the very reason for our service and being a steward. While church pastors and leaders are encouraging believers to offer time, talents and treasures to God and to church as God’s good steward, we must be humble before God. While sisters and brothers are responding to the call of stewardship, remember there is one purpose, only one, that is for the glory of God and for the sake of his people. Stewardship is never to achieve personal ambition or to fulfil personal desire or to prove one’s ability.
In the early church, Christians suffered a lot of persecution. Being Christians to follow Christ took great risk as they might even lost their lives at that time. The words of St Peter were to encourage the believers to keep loving each other so as to overcome sins, to serve without complaining, to make good use of God’s differing gifts as steward, and to affirm that God is the source of strength and grace. This is great reminder to each one of us as Christians today. We do face a lot of challenges, changes and uncertainty such as job insecurity, relationship problems, mass emigration, threats from Covid 19 pandemic and restricted freedom under NSL and the tough social distancing measures. Many who have works are suffering from long working hours and immense stress. A lot of people young and old are facing health challenges.
God has given us a unique congregation in KUC. When we are able to use our rich God’s given gifts to help each other and beyond, with love, with generosity, with wisdom and with responsibility, we can stand still and strong to overcome the wind and storm.
As one, let us be connected with one another in Christ as God’s steward, to build a community full of life and love, through our giving and our being.
To close my sermon I would like to share this story.
A father who was very rich and had a lot of land gave to his daughter and son a field each. His son was happy in the beginning. But after a month of hard work, he could not fix the field and many problems could not be resolved. He ended up giving up the field. One day, when he passed by his sister’s field, he found her working on the field joyfully. He observed her for a period of time and found that she was always working happily in the field. He eventually went to asked her sister: “why are you so happy working in the field. Don’t you find the work so hard and not rewarding at all.”
His sister shared with him that at the beginning she found the work was so difficult and she was about to give up too. But she went to see her father asking for advice. Her father was patient to teach her and give her a lot of encouragement.
After hearing it, the son started to do the same like his sister. They were working together and supporting each other. Whenever they encountered difficulties, they would discussed together with their father and asked for advice.
One day, the son and daughter got very good harvest and they brought them to their father’ house with great joy. Their father congratulated them for the success because of their hard work.
His son replied instead, “no, father, the harvest was a witness of your love and your trust to us. After that the father gave all the fields he had to them. His two children continued to work with joy because they felt the love from their father. They worked very hard too in order not to disappoint their father and wanted to show their love in return. With love and trust, they did not find working in the fields a big burden. Instead, the responsibility that they have to take was a source of joy and satisfaction.
Closing prayer
Thank you God for your love and your trust on us.
You have entrusted us to be your stewards, to take care of your world and your people.
Strengthen our faith in you and deepen our love in you. Help us to serve you, your creation and your church faithfully and joyfully with a grateful hearts. Unite us in KUC to be your stewards. Through our committed and loving services, may we make this world a better place to live with your full and loving presence. To God be the glory. Amen!
AMEN
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, November 14, 2021
