Created in the Image of God

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 18, 2008, Trinity Sunday, Year A
Genesis 1:1-2:3; Psalm 8:1-9

Today is Trinity Sunday, a day in the Church year when we acknowledge the belief that we worship and serve one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This doctrine is one of the most difficult to understand, and it is a stumbling block for many Christians and non-Christians alike. In the next 10 minutes or so, I’ll try to explore one aspect of this doctrine to the best of my ability, but at the end of the day, I must acknowledge that our affirmation of the unity of God in three Persons is a holy mystery. Explaining the mystery of the Trinity is like trying to explain the mystery of love—we can try to apprehend it, but ultimately, we are called to live in that mystery even though we might not fully understand it.

The Bible never explicitly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity—in fact, the word “trinity” never shows up in the Bible. Nonetheless, within the pages of the Bible, there are intimations that there are three distinct Persons in the one God we worship. In the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis, we read that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the process of creation, the Spirit of God hovered over the dark, chaotic waters before the word of God was spoken to create light and the rest of the world out of chaos. Also, in the beginning of the Gospel of John, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” In these verses here, John is writing about Jesus as the Word of God who was in the beginning with God in the creation of all things. Through these two passages, we can see how a Trinitarian God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—created the universe.

The Breath of Life

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 11, 2008, Pentecost Sunday, Year A
Psalm 104:24-34; Acts 2:1-21

Today, we are celebrating a very special birthday in the life of our church. Yes, Cecil Yeatts is celebrating his 80th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Cecil! 10 more years and you’ll get to celebrate your 90th like Billy Johnson did yesterday! And yes, today also happens to be my birthday. Happy Birthday, me! But more special than these two birthdays, today is Pentecost Sunday, a day on the Christian calendar in which we celebrate the birthday of the Church. Today, we celebrate our birthday as the community of faith of Jesus. Happy Birthday, all of us!

It’s always been interesting to me that we go all-out celebrating the birthday of Jesus during Christmas and we make a big deal celebrating the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, but when it comes to celebrating our birthday as the Church of Jesus Christ, many Christians, we Baptists included, mostly ignore it. In fact, I’m willing to guess that most evangelical churches today will emphasize Mother’s Day more than Pentecost Sunday.

Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating Mother’s Day and recognizing the role that mothers play in bringing forth, sustaining and nurturing life. After all, everyone in this room came into being through a biological mother. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here today. Our mothers carried us in their wombs for around nine months, giving us sustenance and life during a time when we couldn’t do that for ourselves. And then for many mothers, they had to go through a painful labor and delivery process. Bill Cosby once quoted Carol Burnett’s description of what labor pain is like: “Take your bottom lip and pull it over your head!” And through all the breathing and the pushing, our mothers gave birth to us. And we can all be extremely thankful for that. Even so, no matter how much our mothers did for us while we were still in the womb, once we were out, we still had to draw our first breath of life in order to stay alive out in the world apart from the protective cocoon of our mother’s womb.

On that first Pentecost Sunday described in Acts chapter 2, Jesus’ disciples went through a similar birthing experience.

Pray for Myanmar

Please pray for Myanmar as that country tries to recover from a devastating cyclone that hit earlier this week. A U.S. Diplomat estimates that the death toll may hit 100,000. Here’s a recent CNN.com article.

Church member Rodney Dunning has a post on his blog that gives more details about this tragedy. He also suggests ways that we can help (especially regarding malaria).

UPDATE: You can also donate through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship website to help with the humanitarian and rebuilding efforts at Myanmar.

A Prayer for the Church

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 4, 2008, Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year A
John 17:1-11

Have you ever unknowingly walked in on a person who was praying?  It can be a somewhat awkward situation.  I remember one Sunday morning at University Baptist Church, and I was preparing for the worship service.  I had one quick question for Tom Leland, my senior pastor, and so I walked into his office.  I found him in front of a chair on his knees, hands clasped, head bowed obviously deep in prayer.  I quickly turned around and stepped out of his office and waited until he came out before I asked him the question.  He knew that I had entered his office while he was praying, but he was gracious enough not to mention it.

His response was quite different from mine when we had a group of friends over one night for dinner.  One couple, who was notorious for always being late, was of course, late for the meal.  The food was all set out on the dinner table and our other friends were all ready to sit down when we heard that couple’s car drive up.  So we all quickly found our places around the table, and pretended we were saying the blessing.  And right as they walked into the front entrance near the dining room, I prayed: “And O Lord, please be with the Wilsons, as once again they are late.  Let them know that we waited as long as we could before deciding to partake of this meal.  Inspire them to bring a very nice dessert to make up for their tardiness!”  Our tardy friends were at first very quiet and reverent, until they quickly realized that my prayer was part of a joke.

Well this morning, in our Gospel lesson from the book of John, we are given the opportunity to overhear a prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples.  This was a prayer that Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father, but it was also a prayer that was intended to be overheard by his disciples.  And this prayer was no joke.