-- by The Rev. Jason Ke (trans. J.L.)
(A Sermon for Sunday, November 16, 2014, at St.James' English Language Service)
Proper 28
Joshua 4:1-7
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
INTRODUCTION
Good
morning, my dear friends in Christ!
In
the Collect for today we can find three key points: (1) the origin of the
Bible, (2) how to study and learn from the Bible, and (3) the
function of the Bible.
Firstly,
on the surface, the Bible was written by human hands and contains many oral traditions,
that is, verbal stories passed
down from generation to generation. But in reality it is God’s Spirit that inspired those oral
tellers of the biblical stories and each one of the writers of the
Bible so that the Bible could be
made complete as it actually is. That’s
why the Collect for today starts with these words: “Blessed Lord, who
caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning . .
.”
Secondly,
how should we approach and study the Bible?
As the Collect indicates, we are supposed to hear, to read, to mark, to learn, and to
inwardly
digest
(that is, to think deeply about) the contents of the Bible so that we
can understand this Holy Book better.
Thirdly,
the function of the Bible is for man to have “the blessed hope of
eternal life.”
The
ideas or concepts mentioned above are nothing new; the three key points
of the Collect for today are not surprising at all. However, if we
reflect on the history of the Church, we might be able to understand the
purpose of this Collect.
About
500 years ago, the Roman Catholic Church (led by the Pope) was the only Church
in Europe. Its power and influence was greater than that of the governments at that time. The Bible was, then, written in Lingua Latina, the Latin language. Ordinary people were unable to read the
Bible, and nobody was allowed to translate it into other languages – If anyone
did, he would be sentenced to death! Only the top leaders of the Church, such
as the Pope, had the right to interpret the Bible.
In
point of fact, the Church at that time had seriously deviated from the Bible’s
truth. So a number of brave “warriors
of the faith,” for example, the well-known Catholic priest Martin Luther,
proposed that the Church should make changes to what they were doing. But none of their reform proposals was
accepted by the church authorities and, as a result, there occurred what became
known as The Protestant Reformation.
In the meantime, the Bible was successfully translated into different
languages and published in great quantities – by those who risked their own
lives to get out of the Roman Catholic Church!
Now,
reviewing this part of the church history, we do have mixed feelings
about why things happened in that way.
We feel sad about those unpleasant or cruel things that have taken
place, yet we can rest assured that there always has been a powerful hand, God’s
invisible hand, sustaining the faithful fighters of the Truth and pushing
the world and the Church forward into a better status or situation.
When
we recall the brave deeds and many achievements of those “Truth
fighters” in the past, let us not
forget to cherish and value the Bible, which we can easily get to read today.
Remember
that by reading the Bible regularly we can not only improve our
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures but also enhance our personal spiritual
life.
KEY MESSAGES:
Regarding the Biblical Readings for Today
I.
Before Jesus Came, God’s People Repeatedly Went Astray
In
the Old-Testament times, the people of Israel sinned against God again and again,
when they forgot about the Word of the Lord.
In
the land of Canaan there was a primitive religion that had existed for a
long time. It was a so-called “fertility religion” or “fertility cult”,
with Baal and Asherah worshiped as the most
important deities – Baal was a male
“god” while Asherah was a “mother goddess.” Those gods and goddesses were extremely
popular with the Canaanites!
After
Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan, he died at the age of a hundred
and ten. (Joshua 24:29, Judges 2:8) From then on, the Israelites had no powerful leaders to lead them
for about 400 years. So “the people of Israel settled down
among the Canaanites, the Hittites,” and so on. “They intermarried with them and
worshiped their gods.” (Judges 3:5-6, Today’s English Version)
“The
Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
forgetting the Lord their God, and worshiping the Baals and the Asherahs.” (Judges 3:7, New Revised Standard Version) This made God very
angry, so he let the Israelites be conquered by their enemies.
After
the Israelites were mistreated for years, they “cried out to the
Lord, and he sent someone to free them.” This kind of thing happened again and
again. You may see Judges 3:9, 15, 4:3, 6:7-8,
etc., for just a few instances.
In The Book of Judges there is a detailed
description of how the Israelites repeatedly forgot the Lord God and worshiped
other gods. The Israelites committed
the same sin over and over again throughout
history.
How
about us? Do we often make the same mistakes
in our lives? – Now, if we look carefully at the primitive religion of Baal, especially from the modern
point of view, we would find that it was a kind of “Money Worship,”
similar to the “materialism” that is quite popular nowadays in this “economy-centered”
society!
Simply
speaking, worshiping Baal and Asherah
was a religion of “fertility” which highlighted “riches on earth”
rather than “riches
in heaven.” Note: The
Gospel of Matthew, 6:19-20, teaches us: “Do not store up treasures
for yourselves on earth . . . but store up riches for yourselves in heaven.”
Living
in this economy-centered society, people tend to strive for “mammon”
only. – “Mammon” means “money” or “wealth,” more specifically, “material
wealth.” For many people, to make money
or to increase material wealth
is the main goal of their
lives. Some money-oriented business owners even try
to make excessive profits by hook or by crook. They are “black-hearted merchants” (黑心商人), so to speak, doing illegal things in
secret. And what they do will inevitably
cause serious damage to the whole society, the entire country, and even affect
many other parts of the world.
We,
as followers of Jesus Christ, must always be aware of the “dark side of the
world.” But we should not be
over-anxious or pessimistic. There is a
Chinese proverb, saying, “A crisis is a chance.” (危機就是轉機)
We have seen a lot of good and honest businessmen who do their best to
provide quality products and excellent services.
We
can support or join them in one way or another, in order that the world will
be, step by step, turning from darkness into light, and so becoming a better
place for human beings to live. Above
all, we have to rely on the Lord God, whose power and mercy will
help us triumph over whatever gloomy
situation in which we might find ourselves.
By
the way, Psalm 123, which we have just read this morning, can be used in our
spiritual life as a very good prayer. I
encourage you to pray often with the words “Have mercy upon us, O
Lord …”
because the Lord our God knows what you are looking forward to. God knows what we need, and he’ll come to
us with compassion and mercy.
II.
People Should Prepare for the Lord Jesus’ Coming Again
The
believers who lived in Thessalonica knew very well that Jesus Christ
would come back before long. Now,
if a man died before the Lord Jesus’ coming again, what would
happen? Would he or she no longer
share the glory when the Lord Jesus comes again from heaven? – The people
living there in Thessalonica asked St. Paul this question.
And
St. Paul’s answer is seen in his First Letter to the Thessalonians,
chapter 5, verses 9-10. “God did not choose us to suffer his anger,
but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us in
order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when
he comes.”
(TEV)
Let’s
be reminded that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come
again
– All of these three are
part of the mystery of the Faith.
They cannot be fully explained by logical reasoning. In the history of the early church, there was a lot of discussion about
them, some being very persuasive, yet some coming from heresy.
Luckily
for us, quite a number of Early Christian Fathers had testified and proved that
Jesus’ death, resurrection, and his Second-Coming are all very true and
correct, though we still have to profess that these three things are mysteries.
Well,
let’s prepare for our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming again!
III.
We Should Make Good Use of What the Lord Has Given Us
In
the Gospel reading for today, Matthew, 25:14-30, we are told a
fascinating story, The Parable of the
Three Servants, which teaches us something about stewardship.
My
interpretation of this story is that “Our Lord Jesus wants us to make good
use of what the Lord has given us.”
Every
one of us should be God’s “servant” (僕人) or “steward”
(管家) whom God
trusts with a certain amount of spiritual
“capital” to do business. With that
amount of spiritual capital, we
are expected to work hard as God’s servants and, in a way that pleases God
our Master, make as much “profit” for
Him as we can.
Some
day in the future, our Master (that is, the Lord our God) will
ask us to report to him how much we have earned for him. Those who have earned a lot will be rewarded;
those who have earned nothing will be “thrown outside in the
darkness”
– where they will “cry and gnash their teeth.”
In
other words, those who do not make
good use of what the Lord has given them will be expelled from the
Kingdom of God.
The
lazy servant in the Parable for this morning was severely punished just
because he didn’t make use of the “capital”
entrusted to him by his master. He
returned the “one
talent”
to his master. If he had wasted the
entrusted money and gave nothing back, how severely, then, would his
master have punished him at the end of the story?
In
our society I see many people wasting their time and energy, harming their
eyesight and, possibly, their brainpower, by plunging themselves into the virtual
world (for example, in computer games) or indulging in something
worse. I am very concerned about those
people who are “servants” of the so-called “3C products.” – Generally “3C” means “Computer, Communication,
and Consumer Electronics” but here I’m
talking especially about the electronic products just for fun, for
entertainment only! Those “servants” of
the 3C products are really wasting what the Lord our God has given them.
CONCLUSION
Advent
(降臨節期) is coming
soon. Are we preparing to greet this new
season? What shall we do to really
get ready to face our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes again? – We need to
practice pondering on this.
Yes,
we need to make good use of what the Lord has given us, and we need to
learn more about the Word of the Lord, which is the spiritual food
for Christians.
In
just two weeks, we’ll have the first Advent Sunday on November 30. That
Sunday will be the beginning of the new “church year.” According to our church calendar, we are now in the final part of Year A,
and we’ll begin Year B on
November 30. May you have a prosperous
New Year! May you be ready to greet this
coming New Year with hope, with love, and with joy!
Amen.
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