Love in Every Language

Preached by Michael Cheuk, May 27, 2007
Pentecost Sunday, Year C
Acts 2:1-21

I have a question for you this morning.  How many of you have been to a foreign country where you did not know the language?  What was that like for you?  A little scary?  Mostly frustrating?  A culture shock?  I had a big dose of culture shock when my family moved from Hong Kong to the United States when I was seven.  We settled in Shreveport, Louisiana, and in 1974, we did not know of any other Asians there other than my uncle and his family.  One Sunday, we visited First Baptist Church in Shreveport, and we were introduced to Marjorie Casanova, the church organist.  She greeted us warmly and the first thing that came out of her mouth was “Nee Hau?” which is “Hello, How are you?” in Mandarin Chinese.  You should have seen the shock and surprise on my parents’ faces as they never expected to hear Mandarin Chinese coming out of the mouth of a fifty-something woman of Italian ancestry!  My mother squealed with delight and started hugging this woman as if she were a long lost relative, separated – way separated – from birth!  Now, it didn’t matter that “Nee Hau” was all the Mandarin that Ms. Casanova knew.  Just those two words in our native tongue were enough to span a bridge to connect two people of radically different cultures and languages.

As we look at our New Testament lesson from the book of Acts this morning, I wonder if a similar experience occurred for all those God fearing Jews from all over the world who had gathered in Jerusalem that day at Pentecost.  The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word for “fifty,” and it was the Greek name of a festival that the Jews celebrated fifty days after the Passover.  This festival was called the “Festival of Weeks” and it was kind of like a homecoming for the Jews.  On this particular Pentecost, a violent wind filled the house where the disciples were staying, and what seemingly looked like tongues of fire rested on each disciple and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other “tongues,” best translated here as “language” or “dialect.”  And when the Jews from around the world heard the disciples speaking, they were surprised and confused because each one heard the disciples speaking in his own language.  Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?”-in other words, “Are not all these men just hillbillies?   So how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?”

Preschool Picnic

Whew! Sunday was a busy day! Starting with a Church Council meeting at 8:30 a.m., and then Sunday School and worship, it was already a busy morning. (It was a saving grace that I had a friend preach in worship this Sunday). After worship, I had a second meeting with my “Simple Church” leadership group. I got home at around 1:45 p.m., grabbed a bite and quickly mowed the lawn so that our church Preschool could have their picnic at our place at 3 p.m.

It was amazing seeing over forty people (I lost count) gathered in our back yard enjoying food, conversation, playing in the swing, climbing the tree house, walking in the woods, etc. The weather was perfect–warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Most of the folks who attended were not members of the church. I recognized most of the preschool children since I do a monthly devotional with them, but it was fun getting to know their parents in a more personal way.

Recently, I’ve been preaching from Acts and highlighting the importance of hospitality and welcoming the strangers. I was struck that many of the families who were at the picnic were relatively new to Farmville. It was nice to practice, in a very small way, what I was preaching.

And it was so easy. We just opened up our place, and Tammy Dunning, our preschool director, and all the parents did the rest. They set up the tables, brought the food, the ice, the drinks. They brought chairs and blankets, ate the food and cleaned up afterwards!

And as they say, “A great time was had by all.” Great food. Great fellowship. Pictures of children having fun. A glimpse of the Kingdom?

Nine is Fine!

My daughter Thea celebrated her ninth birthday this past weekend.  Where did the time go?   It’s sometimes hard to notice the incremental changes and growth that a person goes through when you’re living with her every day.  But as I looked back at her pictures, there’s no denying that she’s growing up!

Here’s Thea at 6 months:

Thea at four:

And Thea now:

Happy Birthday, Thea!  I love you and thank God for you!

The Hospitality of a Woman of Faith

Preached by Michael Cheuk, May 13, 2007
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C
Acts 16:9-15

When I was a kid living in Shreveport, LA, we had a neighbor in her sixties living one street over named Sookie Johnson. When we moved into the neighborhood, she welcomed my whole family with open arms. When we first met her, she told us not to call her “Mrs. Johnson”; she told us to call her “Aunt Sookie.” And she treated us as if we were part of her family. I remember many days of my childhood spending time at her house with my sister eating freshly baked cookies, playing on her piano, and just visiting. In the summer, we would “help” her pick tomatoes from her garden, and she told us to “help” ourselves to those delicious vine-ripened tomatoes. Aunt Sookie would drive me to my doctor’s appointments and choir rehearsals when my parents couldn’t take me. When I was older, and about to enter seminary, Aunt Sookie offered me commentaries and Bible reference books from her library—the ones that she used to consult when she taught Sunday School at Highland Baptist Church for so many years. Aunt Sookie taught me so much about the Christian faith—not through lectures or Bible studies—but through the way she welcomed strangers into her life with the love of Christ. She not only did that with my family and my uncles’ family—the only two Asian families in that whole neighborhood—; she also welcomed many neighborhood kids of all races into her home, and she cared and nurtured many people. Even though Aunt Sookie did not have children of her own, in a very real way, she became a “mother” to my whole family.

Have you ever had anyone like that in your life? Have you ever had a person who was at first a stranger, but extended hospitality to you and welcomed you into her life and nurtured and cared for you like a second mother?

Expanding the Tent

Preached by Dr. Michael Cheuk, May 6, 2007
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C
Acts 11:1-18

Have you ever had a really bizarre dream? I remember when I was in the third or fourth grade and I dreamed that I was in a school field trip, not to a museum or some educational outing, but to an amusement park. Even though it was a school field trip—some of my classmates and teachers were there—other people, like my uncles from Hong Kong, friends from church, and TV personalities like Ronald McDonald and Mr. Rogers were there too. And while we were riding a roller coaster, dinosaurs pounced upon us, and all of a sudden, I found myself running in a forest, then in my neighborhood, then on the beach, all the while these Tyrannosaurus Rexes were chasing after me. I remember shouting “Dinosaur! Dinosaur!” just as my mom was shaking my shoulder trying to wake me up. Now, you might ask how I could still remember this dream after all these years. Well, it’s not that hard, because my mother has been reminding me of this incident ever since: “Remember that time when you had that dream and you were shouting ‘Dinosaur! Dinosaur!’ in your sleep?” “Yes, Mom! You can stop reminding me now!” It is quite embarrassing. If only I had written it all down. Then I could have written a novel, perhaps called Jurassic Park, and I could have made a lot of money!