Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on 21 January 2024, by Katie Ho. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 1 and Luke 6: 20-31. 

“Jesus’ kind of empowerment”

 

Today we are reading the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Luke, which is very different from the particular eight blessings we always refer to in the Gospel of Matthew. As I reflect on the passages we’re reading today, I realise it’s a gradual process of empowerment, of how to build resiliency in the face of attacks and challenges by enemies who refuse to show love and who do not belong to the community of love. I will start by sharing my observations in these passages. 

 

 

First of all, as the Beatitudes in Matthew tend to take on a spiritual meaning, the account we’re reading today focuses on the material poor. In Matthew ch. 5 it says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”; whereas here in Luke chapter 6 it says “Blessed are you who are poor” and “Blessed are you who are hungry”. 

 

If we assume that the two accounts are referring to the same speech, then there is no doubt that the word “poor” describes those afflicted and brought low by adversity. It’s not only poor in the spiritual and emotional sense but also in social and economic poverty.

 

Some of you may remember a questionnaire shared by the peacemaking ministry with the KUC community.  There’s a question asking whether it’s part of our belief that we as Christians should care for the poor, the minorities and the marginalised, and 90% of the respondents totally agreed with this. But when it comes to whether Christians should give preferential care to the poor, only around 50% of respondents gave the same score. 

 

But it is reflected in Jesus’ ministry on earth that he empowered the powerless people, including the sick and the poor, children and women. He recovered their physical and spiritual strength and proclaimed the good news, especially to them. It is also reflected in the Old Testament that God’s salvation is given to the oppressed, not the oppressor. 

So, shall we admit that God has preferential care for the poor, and on this belief, our peacemaking ministry shall continue and be supported because this is our church community’s practice of Jesus’ concern. 

 

The concern does not dismiss Jesus’ concern for the poor's spiritual life; he did not neglect the suffering on earth and prayed every day inside his closed door; he did not attribute other people’s sufferings to spiritual reasons and dismissed it right away by saying “you don’t have enough faith”. 

 

Jesus sees the poor, the hungry people; he sees people who are weeping and people who are hated and excluded and discriminated against, and Jesus blesses them and announces the good news that the lives of these people will turn upside down one day. Not because they have become “great spiritual leaders” or have completed a PhD in theology but because Jesus cares for the poor and does not dismiss them by preaching about spiritual matters. 

 

The reason I’m saying this is because our human nature tends to avoid facing the truth of our lives, be it the thirst for power and success or the desire to be known and loved. It’s easy to wrap up the truth with spiritual explanations, such as thinking God is good because God offers me a promotion at work or attributing the atrophy of the church’s influence and its ever-decreasing numbers to failing to proclaim the so-called “true” gospel. But as we look into the reality of our lives and compare it to the truth of God’s kingdom, sometimes we see the ugly fact that the truth of our lives are way apart from God’s truth. Yet repentance and changes only occur when we acknowledge this fact. 

 

 

 

Following the Beatitudes are the woes, another genre found in the Old Testament, functioning as an expression of pity for those who stand under divine judgement. This relates to the second interesting observation in the Greek text, which is the insertion and frequent use of the second person pronoun “you” in the woes, whereas the pronoun “you” actually does not exist in every first line of the four blessings. 

 

So what we can feel from the text is that Jesus tried to draw his audience’s attention by saying, “Woe to YOU who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to YOU who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to YOU who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to YOU when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” 

 

While Jesus is teaching about the reversal of the social order, he is not talking about something out there, as if the disciples and the crowds listening to him are outsiders or observers. Instead, Jesus is speaking directly to everyone sitting before him, telling them something is happening among them and is not right. He points out what should be condemned and even cursed -  and for him, this is equally important as pronouncing the blessings. 

 

 

My third observation is that, in the Gospel of Matthew, the Beatitude is followed by the metaphor of the Salt and Light, encouraging the audience to live a blessed life and reaffirm their identities as blessed people. However, in the Gospel of Luke, immediately follows the blessings and the woes is the teaching of love for enemies. This makes me think about the implications of this arrangement. 

 

Many people might have misunderstood this teaching to be advocating an unlimited kind of tolerance and even subordination to violence and oppression because Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt”.

 

 

But if we read the scripture with what we’ve heard in the blessings and the woes, we would know that the love of God does not mean being easy-going with sins or turning a blind eye to what’s wrong. Instead, it is important to acknowledge the existence of the problem before showing love to the enemies. 

 

I remember an experience of struggling to seek help after being wronged, yet when I took the first step to recount what happened and say my feelings, the person who I tried to seek help from refused to make a judgement of what was wrong in the situation. That confused me, and I had a lot of self-blame until a close friend acknowledged what happened was not right. 

 

As Christians, we might neglect the need for pointing out the problem by looking for the root cause and the full picture. Because we are so tolerant, benevolent and easy-going, we want to be forgiving and loving all the time. But Jesus’ sermon shows us that we can still love by saying out something is not right according to God’s principle of love. And by doing this, we manifest the love of God more. 

 

I’m not saying we can start pointing our fingers at one another simply because of what makes us feel disappointed. Jesus did not pronounce the woes just because he was unhappy but because he is doing this out of the love of God, which is the love for a world of justice and peace. And only after we point out what’s wrong in the world there’s a chance of change. Only when we spell out the cause of the suffering of the poor and the powerless, there’s a chance of empowerment.  

But here’s a question we can’t omit. 

Who is our enemy? 

In this context, we could understand it as someone who is not following God’s will and, therefore, the enemy of the church. But if we look at other scriptures, “enemy” also means one who has been a brother but is now self-alienated and one who has long been alienated and refuses to be reconciled. Put in simpler words, an enemy is not one we don’t like but is someone who doesn’t like the church community or refuses to reconcile with other people. And Jesus tells us how to get along with these people is to show generosity and patience. 

 

I recall a story that happened among our peacemaking friends, which resonates with the story Pastor Phyllis had told us two weeks before. So the story, in a nutshell, is that when our friend faces attacks from someone who has racist stereotypes, our friend responds with patience and generosity. 

 

It is a fact that our friends from the peacemaking community are able to show this kind of quality of withholding our reflexive response, and showing love and kindness instead. 

 

And I find this practice of showing love to our enemies empowering, because doing an enemy good actually requires internal strength that neutralises the force of the assailant’s attack. And to have this internal strength, one needs to acknowledge the power inside oneself to bring about changes and not to be affected by other people. 

 

Jesus’ approach to empowerment is not a mere provision of their material needs or adding agendas onto the people. Jesus reaffirms the power inside everyone, especially those who deem themselves powerless and unable to control anything, and tell them the worth of themselves is enough to manifest the kingdom of God. Jesus’s empowerment work acknowledges individuals’ ability to bring about changes, even though it’s as simple as cultivating a spirit of generosity that does not keep score between two people. 

 

So, for the peacemaking ministry, we’re trying hard to create platforms instead of agendas for our members to put their faith into action. 

 

We have members who are involved in community services to clean up hoarded homes for elderly people; some members from our fellowship are recently involved in the radio ministry organised by the Hong Kong Christian Council, and we’re now working on the scripts to spread hope and courage.

 

 We also try to create a safe space to exchange ideas during fellowship, and we challenge and inspire one another at the same time to build up a sense of confidence and dignity. We do this to put Jesus’ teaching into action, as we uphold freedom in response to the harsh refugee policy in Hong Kong that suppresses freedom; and we show resiliency in response to discrimination and attacks. 

 

This is also an empowering teaching for many of us living in Hong Kong who see all the deterioration in our city. We shall not forget the power within every one of us, and we pray for resiliency and a sense of power among us as we strive to show love for our enemies. 

 

 

 

So here’s a recap of today’s reading and reflection. 

In the Beatitude we see that the truth of the kingdom of God is a reversal of the way we define success and a blessed life. So let’s face the truth of our lives, our desires and wants so that we can be a bit closer to the life in the kingdom of God. 

 

Second, just as Jesus proclaimed woes to his disciples and the crowd, we should also discern what is and is not going on according to the principle of God’s love. It’s not about right or wrong according to the laws of the Hong Kong government or our borderlines, but it’s about living up to the love of God, and that’s the starting point of empowerment work. 

 

And finally, the teaching of love for enemies reminds us how to respond to other people’s stubbornness and attacks. And we can show love to our enemies only if we acknowledge the power and strength within us. 

 

It’s not easy to do what Jesus taught us to do. Still, as we take the courage to face the truth of our lives and the truth of God’s kingdom, and we try to act according to this truth of love, I believe we will gradually build up this resiliency and kindness in the face of attacks and difficulties in this age. 

 

May the love of God encourage us, and may the peace and wrath for the unjust stay inside us. Amen.

 

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on 14 January 2024, by Paul Cooper. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 119: 97-108 and Luke 4: 16-30.