The Prodigal Father

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 21, 2008
Luke 15:11-31

A lot of what I’m about to say is taken from a sermon by the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book The Preaching Life. It’s a wonderful book, and she’s is a wonderful preacher, and I need to give credit where credit is due.

This is a very familiar Bible story, yes?  This parable is commonly called what?   That’s right.  Most of us grew up calling this story by Jesus the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  But I think that’s a wrong title.  Jesus does not begin his tale by saying, “There once was a man who had a father and an elder brother. . . .”  Instead, Jesus begins by saying: There was a man who had two sons,” letting us know that the story is really about a father and his two children.  This is a darker story than many people suppose.  It is a story about a younger son who was so hungry to see the world that he asked his father for his share of his inheritance.  Now, when does a person usually get an inheritance?  Most people don’t get inheritances until somebody . . . dies.   So basically, this son was telling his father: “I wish you were dead,”-at least symbolically-by asking him to settle his estate early and give both brothers their share.  But the father-apparently valuing his child’s freedom more than his own security-divided his livelihood and said goodbye to his younger son, who went off and squandered everything in wild living-this is a case of “Boy Gone Wild!”  Unfortunately, just as he spent all his money, there was a severe famine in the land.  The young son was so desperate that he hired himself out to feed pigs.  And as all Jews know, that ain’t a kosher thing to do. But one day he “came to himself,” and that’s when he decided to go back home.  So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

And here, scholars disagree on what exactly happened.

Where is God in the Midst of the Storm?

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 14, 2008
Matthew 14:22-33

This morning’s Gospel reading comes right after Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand.  Jesus sends his disciples out on a boat into the Sea of Galilee, while he went up on a mountain to commune with His heavenly Father in prayer.  But while Jesus was alone enjoying a time of rest, his poor disciples were all alone wrestling to keep their little boat afloat while a storm blew them out to sea and threatened to sink them all.  Jesus, the earthly presence of God, was not on the boat with the disciples.  I wonder in the midst of the chaos, if the disciples were tempted to ask, “Where is God in the midst of the storm?”

For the Jewish Christians for whom Matthew wrote his gospel, the picture of the disciples huddled in a little boat in the middle of a raging sea symbolized more than just the dangers of sea travel.  They would have remembered the creation story in Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was formless (literally in a state of confusion) and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”  As you may remember, God then called for light to separate it from the darkness.  And later, God separated the waters to form the sky and dry land.  In biblical thought, the sea–the waters–symbolized the forces of chaos and confusion that God brought into order and control at beginning of creation.  While the waters of chaos may have been subdued by God, the waters nevertheless are always churning waves of anxiety, fear, and death, always threatening to undo the order that God has created and unleash chaos onto His creation.  The victims of tsunamis and hurricanes would certainly relate to this thinking.

The Power of Rest and Prayer

Preached by Michael Cheuk
September 7, 2008
Mark 1:29-39

Note: Last Tuesday, our Associate Pastor, Amanda Johnston, was involved in a serious one-vehicle automobile accident on her way to work.  She is now home and recovering from a concussion and a hairline skull fracture.  Because of Amanda’s accident and the added responsibilities that I had to take on, I decided to postpone the “Reasons to Believe” apologetics sermon series that I had planned for September and October, since Amanda was organizing and leading small groups to complement the sermon series.  Please pray for Amanda as she recovers and for her husband John as he tends to Amanda.  And in order to give myself a breather in the light of added pastoral responsibilities, in the next three Sundays, I will be preaching three “recycled” sermons that I’ve preached before.

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I want you to focus on an image: picture an exercise wheel that gerbils and mice get on to run.  See their little legs moving as fast as they can, but going absolutely nowhere.  Now keep this image in mind as we look into our Bible passage in Mark 1:29-39.  Just before this episode, in Mark 1:21-28, Jesus taught at the synagogue and there, he cast out an unclean spirit from a man.  After that, Mark 1:28 says that word was spreading about Jesus – at once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.    Mark then writes: As soon as they left the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  Mark records: “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.  He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.  Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”  Jesus hardly had time to relax from teaching when he was urgently summoned to heal Simon’s mother-in-law, which he did.  Someone once said that this proved that Jesus was never married, because if he were married, he would never have healed a mother-in-law!  But I think the joke missed the point, because even though Jesus was not married, Simon Peter apparently WAS.  And with Simon Peter dropping everything at once to follow and travel with Jesus, his wife would most likely have had to move back into her mother’s house so that she could have a place to live and get help to raise her children.  The healing that Jesus did was not only an act of mercy for Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, it was also an act of love and provision for Simon Peter’s wife and children.

The Mysterious Name of God

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 31, 2008, Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Year A
Exodus 3:1-15

Last Sunday for my sermon, I did something pretty unexpected and out of the ordinary for me. I eschewed the sermon manuscript and for the most part preached the sermon without notes. I preached from the floor and also invited the congregation to participate as I asked questions that invited those in the room to reflect and to respond.

I did it because as I was reflecting on the scriptural text in Exodus 3:1-15, I felt God was calling me to go beyond my comfort zone and not use a manuscript. Those who know me will tell you that I’m a Type-A personality, very detailed-oriented and organized. I am much more comfortable when things are “under control” through careful planning. I write out sermon manuscripts in which almost every word is carefully chosen. But as I reflected and studied the name that God gives to Moses in Exodus 3:14-15, I was convicted that “YHWH” was a name that ultimately refused to be named, that “I will be Who I will be” or “I shall be there howsoever I shall be there” is really a name that cannot be controlled, domesticated and fully objectified. And in order to communicate this truth more effectively, I too, had to let go of my need to control in the sermon delivery process.

When I sensed that this was what God had wanted me to do, I could really relate to Moses when he responded: “Who am I (to do this?)” And I too, felt God telling me, “I will be with you.”

Therefore, there is no manuscript for this sermon for me to post, but an mp3 of what I preached can be downloaded here. For those who would like to further study on this topic, below the jump is a brief bibliography of sources that I consulted.