-- by The Rev. Jason Ke (trans. J.L.)
(A Sermon for Sunday, October 19, 2014, at St.James' English Language Service)
Proper 24 (The Sunday closest to October 19)
Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm
99
1
Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew
22:15-22
INTRODUCTION
Good
morning, my dear friends in Christ!
My
sermon for today is entitled “Persevere with Steadfast Faith,” which is
a phrase quoted from The Collect for Today.
Why
did I decide to make it the title of my sermon for this morning? Well, the phrase “persevere with steadfast faith” is closely related to today’s biblical lessons, and also it can be
well applied to our everyday lives.
I.
EXODUS 33:12-23 -- A lesson from The Old Testament
Now,
let’s reflect on the story from the Book of Exodus.
After
escaping from Egypt, the Israelites had lived (or stayed) in the wilderness of
Sinai for a period of time. One day,
Jehovah the Lord wanted Moses to take all his people to Canaan, that is, today’s
Palestine, which the Lord had promised to give to their ancestors Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses
realized that Canaan was a much better place for his people to live in than the
wildness of Sinai was. However, those
who were living in Canaan, whom we call Canaanites, were physically stronger
than the Israelites. The Canaanites had
stronger weapons, and they had plenty of experience of fighting in war. So it can be presumed that the Israelites
were relatively weak on the battlefields!
But
Moses was aware that, in spite of the terrible enemy over there, the Israelites
would be able to win the Promised Land (land of milk and honey) if Jehovah the
Lord went all the way with them.
For
several times Moses asked The
Lord God for specific signs. Moses wanted to see the Lord’s glory as clearly as
possible, and The Lord God gave
him some sign(s) in the end, but not in the way that Moses had expected. God let Moses see his “back” – the back of
God is shown to Moses!
From
then on, Moses was no longer confused about God’s promise. God was really going with Moses, and
therefore all the obstacles on Moses’ journey could be overcome, and dangers
could be removed.
Well,
think about our everyday life. Sometimes
we might have a strong feeling of “stress” and/or “helplessness.” There might be quite a number of “causes”
that made us feel so bad. But, in my
opinion, the most basic, fundamental
cause for those feelings of stress or
helplessness is that we have forgotten God – or that we have never
thought of him from the very beginning.
Take our jobs for example. Our
jobs (or occupations) should be what God wants us to do. If God assigns a piece of work to us, he will
certainly give us wisdom and ability enough to do it. God will lead us himself, so we will not have
a terrible sense of “helplessness.”
Instead, we can be quite confident in doing our “occupation,”
which, in terms of faith, can be referred to as our “vocation”!
II.
PSALM 99
Psalm
99, which we have just read this morning, begins with the words “The Lord is
King …” In the Chinese translation we
say “耶和華做王”
(Jehovah as king!) And in English, the
present tense of verb to be – “is” – is very meaningful: It means that Jehovah “was, is, and will
be” the King.
This
statement is universally true; it’s a fact.
And it is the final conclusion that the poet (the writer of this psalm)
made, after he had lived so many years, looking, thinking, and gathering from his personal experience.
Notice
that the psalms written by Israel's poets
usually start with a conclusion . . . and the conclusion is then followed by
some explanations.
Psalm
99 is a psalm of testimony. It
shows us the author’s admiration for God’s power and wisdom, and for all that
God had done. Just like the author of
Psalm 99, we also should praise
and worship God – sincerely.
It is
not easy to write an excellent poem, and we may not be as able as the psalm
writer. But when we look back on those days which have gone past, we
occasionally may find something
very special, very interesting and marvelous, that we can’t help
but cry out about with excitement,
“Oh, Lord! It’s so great! You are so wonderful . . . .” Something spoken or written like this is also a poetic line, with words of
testimony!
III.
THESSOLONIANS 1:1-10 -- A lesson from The Epistles
Now,
turn to the Epistle: Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians!
Thessalonica
was the capital city of the Roman province of Macedonia. It was a city with convenient transportation
and a very good harbor. The Apostle Paul
preached the Gospel over there for some time, and he established a church in
that city. Soon afterward, the
Christians in that area were badly persecuted, but most of them did not give up
their faith. Some even had the
experience of joy that surpassed their difficult situation: the great joy that prevailed over the
hardship and suffering!
St.
Paul says in this letter, Chapter 1, Verse 6, “In spite of persecution you
received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
Affliction
(受苦) and
joy (喜樂) are
completely different things. However, the joy generated from afflictions
is the core of the Christian faith. It
is also the truth that you can find in this earthly world. For example, it’s very painful for a woman to
give birth to a baby, and it’s a very long and difficult process for parents to
raise their children; however, these difficulties (or hardships) will turn out
to be the most joyful experiences in one’s life.
Dear
friends! Are you coming to church just
for seeking “peace” and “joy”? . . . And,
I have one more question to ask you: Have you ever had a hard time (or
have you ever tried very hard to do something difficult) for the sake of our
Lord Jesus? . . .
IV.
GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 22:15-22
Well,
now let’s spend a few minutes going through the Holy Gospel for this morning.
We
are told that the Pharisees had “picked on” Jesus (and tried to trap him) time
after time. But we shouldn’t mistakenly
think that the Pharisees were a group of “bad guys.” In fact, the Pharisees were very
knowledgeable; they were very good at keeping
the Law of Moses; they very
religious and serious. And, from the
point of view of Judaism, they were also a people who “persevered with
steadfast faith.”
But
from Jesus’ point of view, the Pharisees were hypocritical and arrogant
people who “placed the letter of the law above its spirit” (Mark 2:3–28,
3:1–6). They showed no sympathy to
others; they would make harsh and caustic remarks, comments that were a burning kind of sarcasm, about other
people.
Although
they usually stood in awe of God, they would rather keep a distance from
him. hey didn’t dare to get close to God
because they regarded God as so very holy that men should keep him at a “respectful
distance.” This was, however, a misconception! And this misunderstanding about God is what made the Pharisees “sinners” – sinners who had no idea at all in what way, how, or why they had
sinned!
My
dear friends! We call Jesus “Messiah”
(or “Christ”). What does that really
mean to us? Jesus, who himself is a perfect
example for us to learn from, has come to this world to teach us this: The
relationship between God and man is like “father and son” – a very good (and
close) parent-child relationship that you can see in a happy family, a sweet
home! When Jesus taught his disciples to
pray, he used “Our Father in heaven” as the title of God. See the Lord’s Prayer for how Jesus used this title.
But unfortunately, this
had been regarded as blasphemy by the Jews!
In
today’s Gospel reading, the Pharisees made a plan to trap Jesus with
questions. Yet Jesus cleverly took the
chance to teach them, saying, “Give to the emperor the things that are the
emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21b). When the Pharisees who tried to trap Jesus heard
this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. What a pity that they were not seeking the Truth! The second part of Jesus’ answer, “Give to God the things that
are God’s,” is very important, but too often ignored by human beings. As a matter of fact, all wonderful things are
from God. Do you have anything that is
not from God? . . . Our abilities
(能力), wisdom
(智慧), opportunities
(機會), achievements
(成就),
and our very lives (生命)! – Which of
them has been created and obtained by us
alone?
CONCLUSION
I
really hope that all of us will
spend more time pondering on such questions: How many things do we have
that are, in reality, from Lord God?
Notice that when I ask “how many things,” I mean “all the good things – including visible and invisible
ones.” . . . Moreover, what do we
have that is given by the Lord and
that has come free of charge? The
answer is the grace of the Lord! . . . Well, the more we think about these kinds of things, the better! In so doing, we'll surely increase our thanks to God, and decrease our complaints about other people, or about anything!
Finally,
let me remind you about the word
“perseverance.” As you know, perseverance
is the key to success, but “to persevere” is quite difficult,
unlike “to give up” – which
is much easier! Anyway, let us encourage
each other in Christ, and remember to “persevere with steadfast faith.” Amen.
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