Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on 01 December 2024, by Rev. Judy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:26-35

Sermon – “Keep Hope Alive”

Good morning. 

One December many years ago, I was reading the newspaper in Hong Kong. A small ad caught my eye. There was a line drawing of a mother, father and a baby in a manger. Obviously, the Nativity scene. The ad said, “Don’t be left this season with no room at the inn. We’ve got plenty of space for you!” The sponsor? A four-star hotel in Kowloon. I thought this was in terribly bad taste. So I wrote to the hotel and complained. I said it was offensive to Christians when you use the Holy Family as a gimmick to make money. I may have even put “Revd.” in front of my name. The hotel wrote back and apologized. They didn’t mean to offend and they’d withdraw the ad immediately. Which they did. 

I thought of that ad when I pondered our Advent theme this year: “The Inn: Housing the Holy”. It really is a fitting image to start the new church year. For what is Advent but a call to welcome Christ’s birth in Bethlehem 2000 years ago? But not at a hotel. Not even a traditional inn. Mary likely delivered her firstborn son in someone’s home. A simple house in Palestine that provided shelter for animals as well as visitors from afar. And the rest, they say, is history. 

Yet Advent is not just about the past. The Gospel reading reminds us it’s also about the future. Our future when Christ comes again in power and glory at the end of time.  C.S. Lewis calls it the coming of ‘God without disguise’. We don’t know exactly when this will happen. Or exactly how, though the Bible gives us a pretty scary picture of turmoil on a cosmic level. We may say, well, that’s ancient biblical language. It’s not meant to be taken literally. True perhaps. But, look at the news right now. Is there not already, as Luke puts it, “fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the earth”?

How then do we light the Candle of Hope on this First Sunday of Advent? What hope do we have in this interval between His First Coming and His Second? Is it enough just to wait and pray? Is that all we’re asked to do?  

Now don’t get me wrong. Waiting upon the Lord and praying unto the Lord are both important. And sometimes that’s the best thing to do. But that’s not the only thing we’re asked to do. To keep hope alive, we have to act as well! We have to act now if we want to stand blameless before God in the future.

It’s been said that “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they don’t remain the way they are.” 

I know I have a lot of anger about the way things are. But do I have enough courage to try to change it?

I’m just one person, I tell myself. And how can we solve the world’s problems anyway? We can’t even solve the problems in our own city, in our own family, in our own life. Well, the Bible tells us, just begin where we are. Because we’re not starting from scratch, you know. As Philippians 1.6 says, “I am confident of this, that the One who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

God is always working for us. Why not let God work in us too? The Polish theologian Tadeusz Dajczer (ta-DOOS/DAJ-zer) says when we see the evils around us, it’s not first a summons to reform the world, or the Church, or my family members and friends. It is first a summons to reform myself. A call to repentance and conversion. In short, a call to become holy, just as God is holy.

Now, I may have a Reverend in front of my name, but I’ve never really thought of myself as holy. If people were to look at my life close up, they might be more inclined to say “Holy Cow!” But we don’t answer the call to holiness by ourselves. It has to be done in partnership – first with God and then with others. And it’s rarely a straightforward process that’s always moving onward and upward. Satan is a lot smarter than to let us off so easy. 

That’s why I am eternally grateful for the Church. There may be many paths to holiness, but the one that God put me on led to the doors of the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church and Kowloon Union Church. These are inns that welcomed me as a child, as an adult and now a retired senior citizen. All are essential places in my faith journey or what some call our spiritual autobiography. 

What about you? If you were to write your spiritual autobiography, how would you go about it?  I know for some, the church has not always been the place that welcomed you with open arms. In fact, it may have been a place you had to leave at some point in order to find peace with God. And I’m sorry for that, but glad you are here today in KUC.

So, what about another approach? Last month in our discipleship series, Dr. Judy Lam asked a series of questions to stimulate our thinking. One question: “What is your favorite book in the New Testament?” That seems simple enough. But our answer can actually reveal a lot about our faith journey and life choices. 

That exercise came to mind this week as I read an article about a remarkable man named Alexei Navalny (uh·lek·say nuh·val·nee). I’m sure some of you know about him. He’s not perfect but he did let God work in his life.  Wikipedia describes him as a Russian opposition leader, anti-corruption activist and a political prisoner. I first heard of him when he was poisoned in 2020 by unknown assailants.

After international outcry and his wife’s persistence, he was allowed to get treatment in Berlin, where he miraculously recovered after coming out of a coma. No one was ever charged with the crime. Navalny returned home to continue the fight. As expected, he was again arrested and jailed. Last December, he was secretly moved from a high security prison to a remote penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. There it is very dark, very cold, and very brutal. Even then, he never lost his signature dark sense of humor and irony. “I’m your new Santa Claus,” he said in an update posted by his lawyers on Twitter. “I don't say 'Ho-ho-ho', but I do say 'Oh-oh-oh' when I look out of the window, where I can see night, then the evening, and then the night again.” Navalny died in prison on 16 February 2024. He was 47 years old. 

Thanks to his diaries and media reports, we know something of his faith journey. His Ukrainian grandmother had him secretly baptized as an infant, like many others under Communist rule. He considered himself an atheist, like many under Communist Rule. Then by the grace of God, he returned to the Orthodox Christian faith when he was 25 after the birth of his first child. This was also the time he began his political activism. 

The Bible passage that influenced him the most was the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, he committed it to memory in Russian, English and French. He thought that might be useful in prison. Specifically, he was motivated by the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” For him, this was more than a Beatitude. It was a commandment and a promise.

Navalny and his equally remarkable wife Yulia accepted that he might never get out of prison alive. But still he insisted: “My job is to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of His family to deal with everything else.” He was certain they would not let him down and they have not. His mother fought tooth and nail to get his body returned for burial. His wife and children carry on his legacy of political activism from overseas. And millions, inspired by his anger and courage, refuse to surrender to the darkness they believe will one day be lifted. 

Our call to holiness may take a very different path than Alexei Navalny’s. We may not be required to go to prison. We may not be asked to die for our beliefs. But we all are called to fight tooth and nail for the dignity of every person. We are all called to keep telling the truth and working for justice. We are all called to refuse to surrender to the darkness. Because as Advent promises, one day the darkness will be lifted…in our world, in our city, in our family, in our lives. Until that day, our job, our only job is to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. And leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of His family to deal with everything else. Amen. Alleluia.