No Public Display of Affection Allowed!

Preached by Michael Cheuk, March 25, 2007
Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C

John 12:1-8 Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. ² Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. ³ Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. ⁷ “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

When I was a kid, whenever I saw a boy and a girl being lovey dovey with each other, I would always think, “Eww . . . gross!” When I was in high school, I knew of dating couples in my youth group who were almost fused together . . . and my youth group leader would shout, “Hey, No PDA! No public display of affection allowed!” Now with the coming of spring, along with the blooming of flowers, we witness the blooming of love. We see couples walking around campus, around town–some innocently holding hands, arms around each other, perhaps stealing a kiss, while others you would do better just turning your head the other way and not see what’s going on. My childhood aversion to PDA has been passed down to my kids. So now when Thea and Wesley see Beth and me kiss or hug, they would scream out, “No kissy, no kissy!” as they try to break us apart. Wesley goes so far as to issue this threat: “If you kiss, I’m going to call the cops!” You’d think from Wesley’s rantings that there’s something illegal about showing affection for your spouse. Although, I have to agree, there is something unseemly about extreme public displays of affection, something uncomfortable about wearing your heart too much on your sleeve, something nauseating about Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch declaring his love for Katie Holmes.

Thirst is Everything

Preached by Michael Cheuk, March 11, 2007
Third Sunday in Lent, Year C

Isaiah 55:1-9 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. ² Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. ³ Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. ⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. ⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” ⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. ⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. ⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In the late 90’s a struggling soft drink brand decided to change its image. This soft drink, once touted itself as a sparkling combination of Lime and Lemon soda with “the refreshing taste of lymon,” now came out with an ad campaign that said: “Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst.” Do you know what that soft drink is? (Yep. Sprite.) I remember one of those Sprite ads where a young kid drank Sprite to the background of some upbeat music. And then after taking a drink from the can and feeling energized, he tried to dunk a basketball only to be rejected by the basketball rim. The background music immediately grinded to a halt. And we get message: “Image is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst.” Those Sprite ads seem to expose the false notion that certain soft drinks can make you better looking, more attractive to the opposite sex, more athletic and more prosperous. In a “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” way, those Sprite ads told us not to fall for the manipulative marketing ploys of Madison Ave. No drink is going to help you dunk the basketball like Grant Hill. In the end, when it comes to soft drinks, the only thing that matters is that your thirst is satisfied. So, don’t be shallow and fall for image, drink Sprite to quench your thirst.

Hen in the Fox Lair

Preached by Michael Cheuk, March 4, 2007
Second Sunday in Lent, Year C

^NIV Luke 13:31-35 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” ³² He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³ In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day– for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! ³⁴ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵ Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

I’ve got a question for you this morning. Suppose someone were to tell you, “Hey, you’d better get out of town. So-and-so is trying to kill you.” What would you do?

OK, I know this is far-fetched. We’re not living in the Wild, Wild West. But just suppose it were to happen? What would you do? I would imagine that most of you would check out the validity of that threat, and if you were to find that it was true, most of you would contact the authorities. Some of you might actually pack up your things and get out town for a while. But some of you just might load up that 12-gauge shotgun, and say, “I’m ready for the sucker!”

This is what some scientists call the “fight-or-flight” response, also known as the acute stress response, first theorized by Walter Cannon in 1927 to describe how some animals react to high stress with changes in their bodies that prime them to either fight or flee. Those bodily changes include: secretion of adrenaline, acceleration of heart and lung action, inhibition of stomach and intestinal action, inhibition of tear and saliva glands, the opening up of blood vessels to the muscles, and the dilation of pupils. Have you ever felt your heart almost beating out of your chest, your stomach tied in knots, and your mouth dry when someone unfairly criticized you in public, physically bullied or threatened you or your children, or emotionally manipulated or attacked you? And you either just want to run away as fast as you can or you want to wring somebody’s neck? If so, you’ve experienced the “fight-or-flight” reaction.