Guided by Prayer

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 17, 2009, Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; John 17:6-19

As we prepare to take family trips to St. Louis and Houston this summer, one thing that we are glad to have in our car is a “GPS,” or a “Global Positioning System.”  A GPS is a very handy device.  We program into the little box our final destination, and then a voice calls out directions, turn by turn, through every intersection along the route.  If I fail to follow the instructions, the GPS pauses and then announces . . . “recalculating,” and then it guides me along an alternate route or suggests that I make the nearest U-turn.  While our GPS is not perfect, it certainly has been very useful in guiding us in our travels, especially while driving through strange and unfamiliar parts of the country.

A couple of years ago, Beth took our kids and her dad on a driving trip around Texas.  For the trip, Beth and her dad both thought it was a good idea to have a GPS on hand to guide them.  Their trip was great – Beth’s dad grew up in Texas, and so they stopped in a variety of towns and cities across the state and met up with relatives, friends, and some of her dad’s old army buddies.  While the GPS guided them capably along the way, there were a few times when Beth’s dad would say, “I know the GPS wants you to take the interstate, but let’s turn along this old highway – it doesn’t take any longer and will be a prettier drive.”  So, throughout much of their travels in Texas, Beth and the kids relied on another GPS, the “Grandpa Positioning System.”

Don’t you wish sometimes that we could have a GPS to help us navigate the major crossroads in our lives? 

An Obedient Love

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 17, 2009, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B
John 15:9-17

Love and obedience.  In our day and age, it is hard to see at first glance how these two things go together.  In popular culture, we mostly understand love as a deep feeling of affection and desire, an intense emotional attachment toward someone or something.  Obedience, on the other hand, describes an act of will to submit to the commands of someone in authority.  It may even imply being compelled to meet an obligation regardless of how one feels.  For many, the word “love” suggests wanting to do something in freedom, while “obedience” implies having to meet a duty in servitude.  That’s why in so many wedding ceremonies, many couples drop the promise “to obey” even as they say the rest of the traditional wedding vows.

It reminds me of a story about the time a groom approached the pastor during the wedding rehearsal with an unusual offer.

“Look,” the groom said as he slipped a $100 bill in the minister’s hand, “I’ll give you $100 if you’ll change the wedding vows. When you get to the part where I’m to promise to ‘love, honor and obey’ and ‘forsaking all others’ I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave that part out.”  And with that, the young man walked away feeling satisfied.

The next day, during the wedding service when it got to that part of the ceremony where the vows are exchanged, the pastor looks the groom in the eye and says: “Will you promise to love her, by obeying her every command and wish, by serving her breakfast in bed every morning, and swearing eternally before God and your lovely bride that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?”

An Abiding Love

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 10, 2009, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B
John 15:1-8

On this Mother’s Day Sunday, we come this morning partly to honor our mothers and to recognize their role in bringing us into the world. Mothers have an intimate connection with their children, since they nourished and nurtured them in their own bodies during pregnancy. Mothers play an important role in setting up the kind of household that provides a loving and caring home for their children. Now, I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to grow up with a loving, caring mother, but I think motherhood is a useful metaphor to help us to understand what Jesus is teaching his disciples when he told them: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” The word “remain” has been translated elsewhere by the more archaic term, “abide,” and in this context, it means “to dwell” or “to live closely.” In his translation of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson translates Jesus’ words in verse four this way: “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.”

“Live in me. Make your home in me. Remain in me. Abide in me. And I will abide and make my home in you.” In our increasingly mobile society, we are constantly on the move and our schedules are jammed packed. In our increasingly restless society, we are constantly looking for the next best thing, the next American Idol, the next promotion, the next opportunity. In one of the most famous prayers of all time, St. Augustine prayed: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” I think Augustine is right; we all have restless hearts, constantly searching for purpose, meaning, significance, love and acceptance. But Waylon Jennings is also right when he sang “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” We often to look for love, acceptance, meaning and significance in all the wrong places. Our hearts are restless until they find rest, until they find a home in the abiding love of Christ.

A Shepherding Love

Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 3, 2009, Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B
John 10:11-18

“I am the good shepherd,” Jesus said.  Now, for those of us who are followers of Jesus, if Jesus is the good shepherd, then the implication is that we are the sheep.  Since we no longer live in an agrarian society, most of us have do not know that much about sheep.  But as I learned more about sheep this week in preparing for this sermon, I’ve come to the conclusion that we church-goers have a couple of intriguing similarities with sheep.

First of all, sheep generally have a strong herding instinct that leads them to congregate in a flock.  But when sheep are anxious or stressed, they are quick to panic and flee, which often makes shepherding a difficult task.  People can be similar to sheep in this way.  Sometimes, people separate themselves from the flock because of inner hurts and personal struggles.  Perhaps it is because they don’t feel a sense of belonging.  Perhaps they feel like they are being judged.  Sometimes, people separate from the flock because of a family squabble or a pending divorce or a child getting in trouble with the law.  Sometimes it is due to their anxieties and disagreements about the direction the church is heading.  Many times it is due to disillusionment regarding the church’s leadership or bureaucracy.[1] And so, these sheep flee the flock, some to seek answers on their own while others flee to find greener pastures.