Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 25, 2009
Matthew 6:1-6

Today, I am continuing my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] The past several Sundays, I addressed the issue of health, beauty and sex, and wealth.  Today, I will examine an area of the good life that the checkout line particularly worships: celebrities.  The majority of magazines portray celebrities as the “saints” of the checkout line.  They embody the “good life” because they are often portrayed as healthy, beautiful, sexually fulfilled and, of course, wealthy.  They wear stylish clothes, drive new convertibles and look, even their pets are beautiful!  Because of all these qualities, they are often venerated, if not outright worshipped.

People reach the status of a “celebrity” when their lives are constantly on center stage in the theater of life, their every move watched, photographed and filmed.  It’s almost as if their lives have become a product for people like us to consume by purchasing magazines at the checkout line, and by watching Entertainment Tonight and “reality” TV shows.  They allow themselves to be placed on a high pedestal as models—or dare I say, idols—of the “good life,” where they are admired, desired and glorified from a distance.  While celebrities certainly benefit from all this adulation, there is a huge price to be paid in the form of the loss of privacy.  Their lives are no longer their own, and the same media that anoints celebrities into the pantheon of cultural gods is the same media that relishes in knocking them off that pedestal.  That’s why the checkout line is lined with tabloid magazines and newspapers that relish exposing celebrities of every foible, examining every pound of weight gained or lost, and every romantic relationship blossoming or blown up.  They play into our morbid curiosity over the tragedy of others.  The same lives that were charmed with the stuff of dreams can quickly become charred with a horror worthy of a Halloween nightmare.  All of that gets played out in a public theater generated by our media.

Furthermore, the shelf life of a celebrity is short.  Most get their five minutes of fame and then fade away.  Remember Tina Wesson from the second season of “Survivor” or Evan Marriott from “Joe Millionnaire”?  Many of us don’t recognize these names: Joanne Crawford, Norma Shearer, Dorothy and Lillian Gish and Roland Gilbert.  They were some of the most famous movie stars from the 1920’s.  Actress Carrie Fisher once said: “Celebrity is just obscurity biding its time.”

Some of you might be thinking right now, “I’m not a celebrity or someone famous, so what does all this have to do with me?”  While it is true that none of us in this sanctuary are celebrities like Oprah Winfrey; however, it is probably safe to say that almost all human beings have a desire to be noticed, to be recognized, and to be appreciated by somebody.  We want to be liked, to be admired, and to feel important.  In that sense, we’re no different from celebrities in terms of those desires and that mindset.  When Thea and Wes were younger, I remember when their grandpa and grandma were visiting, they would sometimes behave differently, sometimes literally putting on a show for them.  They would tell their grandparents, “Watch me!  Watch me!” as they competed for the attention of their grandparents.  Of course, grandparents make great audiences, and their “oohs” and “ahhs” and applause of approval would encourage our kids to perform even more.  At an early age, kids learn how to seek the attention of others as a way to garner approval and to affirm their worth.  And while that’s not necessarily bad, I wonder if we as parents sometimes pay too much attention to our children so that we inadvertently train them to always be dependent on us for their approval, their worth and their sense of self.  As a result, our children risk growing up into adults who will always look to other people to give them attention and approval.  And maybe, the reason why we as parents are so focused on our children is because we ourselves are too dependent on our children’s approval of us and our need for our children to like us and to need us.  Whether we’re famous or not, most of us want to be noticed, to be liked, to belong, and to feel needed and important.  That is the celebrity mindset, and I think we all have it to one degree or another as we relate to our parents, to our children, our co-workers, our friends, and our fellow church members.

In today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew, Jesus addresses this celebrity mindset when he teaches his disciples, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them.”  In the Greek language that verse literally says: “Watch out that you do not do your righteousness in front of other people in order to be theater to them.”  As we approach another election, we are once again reminded that so much of what politicians do in public is staged, with handlers working hard to project the right image in front of the voters.  Election campaigns have become extended theater, with candidates tailoring their images and their messages to different audiences.  But it’s not just politicians.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that many times we do the same thing.  We play to different audiences.  When we’re with one group of friends, we act one way; when we’re with another group, we act another way.  In Jesus’ day, there were people who displayed their righteousness and their religiosity in a very public way so that people would notice them and say what good people they were.  When they were helping the poor and needy, when they were doing all sorts of kind deeds and good works, they made sure that they performed these good deeds before an audience.

What Jesus was saying in this passage is that followers of Christ play to an audience of One, God our heavenly Father.  Jesus does not say that we should give up our desire to be noticed, to be recognized and praised.  We human beings are made in the image of God; therefore we are made to notice and be noticed by God.  As such, we are freed to be less concerned about our tailoring our image so that we may be approved by other people, because we already have the image of God within us.  Also, Jesus does not say that we should give up our desire for recognition and award.  It just our desire for reward should be directed toward God and not to others.  People who do things to get public praise have already been rewarded “in full.”  “In full” means that they have all the rewards they are ever going to get—the admiration of people admiration, not the reward of God.

Furthermore, one does not even need to impress oneself when doing a good deed – hence the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.  According to Frederick Dale Bruner: “Our social-justice work or our financial generosity (the one hand) should not be credited to our spiritual standing before God (the other hand).  Not only should there be no external trumpets, but there should not even by any internal music, suggesting, “I am, after all, a pretty decent person.”  Jesus is saying that we should not even seek to impress or internally justify ourselves.  Jesus is trying to liberate us from having to be impressive to anyone, including ourselves.[2] The only Person we need to impress is our heavenly Father, who sees what we have done in secret, and He will reward us, not just in this life, but with an eternal reward.

The one and perfect example of how such a good life is lived can be found in the life of Jesus Christ.  The incarnation of Christ is the antithesis of a celebrity mindset.  He was born in a lowly stable, not in Rome, the center of political power, but in Bethlehem, a small town on the outskirts of the Roman empire.  While He was as a miracle worker, many times commanded those He healed not to tell others about the miracle.  Nothing in scripture suggests that he was fashionable.  Indeed, according to the prophecy of Isaiah 53:2: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”  He did not seek his own glory or his own reward.  Instead, according to Philippians 2:8-11: “He humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Jesus shows us how to live the good life before God.

We are thankful for Jesus and we are thankful for the saints for have gone before us and who are still in our midst to also show us how to live that good life.  They are not perfect, but we can still be encouraged and inspired by them.  And at the end of the service today, we want to recognize four among us—Peggy Cave, Edith Ann Austin, Janie Simpson and Betty Watson—for their lives of service for the glory of God.  What we do today is not their full reward; they will receive their full reward from their heavenly Father later, and for our sakes, hopefully much later.  What we do today is merely our way to give thanks to God for His gift of these four lives in our midst.  May we follow their example and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we seek to live good lives that bring joy and approval from our heavenly Father.  Amen.

[2] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary.  The Christbook: Matthew 1-12. p. 285.

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 25, 2009
Matthew 6:19-24

Today, we are continuing my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] The past two Sundays, I addressed the issue of health and also beauty and sex, and today, I will examine what the checkout line has to teach us about wealth.  If we browse the magazines on display at the check-out lines, we see pages and pages of advertisements and articles that tell us that we are not living the good life because the clothes that we have are out of style, the house we live in is too small, the car that we drive is too dull, the computer we use is too slow, and the cell phone we carry is not smart enough.  The message is that if we acquire those things, we will live the good life.

At first glance, this vision of the good life is attractive and enticing.  Who doesn’t want to live in a mansion, drive a new BMW, wear trendy fashion and play with the latest electronic gadgets?  But upon closer inspection, living the good life this way exacts a price.  I’ll use myself as an example.  You all know that I like photography and that I’ve got a nice digital camera.  When I bought this camera in 2004, it was near the top of the line.  When I took it home, I was on top of the world—I had the biggest, baddest camera in my neighborhood!  But it wasn’t enough to just buy the camera, my new camera exacted a financial price in the form of a new camera bag, new lenses, filters, batteries, and an expensive photo editing program.  Furthermore, it exacted an emotional price in the form of constant anxiety about someone stealing the camera.  It exacted a relational price, as more than once I rebuked my kids for touching or playing with daddy’s big camera.  As time went on, it continues to exact a price of discontentment as newer and better models are being introduced every 18 months.  I must confess that lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time and mental attention reading up on new cameras and trying to talk myself out of upgrading and buying one of them.  While this “old” camera is a “treasure” to me, I’m still tempted to upgrade and start that vicious cycle once again.  So, when one thinks of the ways that this camera has exacted monetary, emotional and relational resources from me, one can rightly ask whether I own the camera, or whether this camera owns me.  Now multiply all the other material possessions that we all accumulate, and you can see how living and buying the good life according to this world is a costly affair, not just for us but for future generations.  In our credit culture of “buy now, pay later,” we as a country have succumbed to accumulating things we can’t afford and we have saddled ourselves and our children with a mountain of debt.

In today’s Gospel lesson, we hear Jesus’ message of what it means to live the good life in God’s Kingdom.  Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”  Everyone has his or her own “treasures.”  It is part of human nature to want to accumulate.  We see that in very young children when they hug a beloved stuffed animal close and proclaim, “Mine!”  We adults do the same thing, except our treasures are usually less soft and huggable.  We want treasures because we think they give us security.  But in fact, earthly treasures lead us to security’s opposite, anxiety.  Jesus knows this and He is trying to free us from anxiety regarding our treasures.  But Jesus is not telling us not to treasure and store up things; He is telling us to treasure and store up the right things, things that last, things that give eternal life.

Many times, we accumulate wealth and treasures out of our desire to impress people, to win their admiration, and perhaps even their jealousy.  If that’s where our heart is, it will show up in the earthly treasures we accumulate.  But if our heart is first and foremost focused on loving God, then we will treasure the things that God values and love, things like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and sharing the good news of God’s Kingdom.  When we make it our ambition to be a success before our heavenly Father, to obey Him and to impress Him, then we will store up treasures that are absolutely secure and lasting.

When it comes to our wealth and material possession, it is so easy to delude ourselves and not clearly see where we stand.  Most people don’t think they are wealthy.  That’s because they compare themselves with the Bill Gates, the Tiger Woods and the Will Smiths of the world.  But when we compare ourselves with the rest of the world, then it is clear that ALL of us are extremely wealthy.  A person earning $25,000 a year is already making more than 90% of the people in the world.[2] Sometimes, people justify making and spending a lot of money by saying that they are doing it for the sake of their children.  But too often, the things we buy for our children are really ways we try to lessen our guilt for not spending time with them because we are always at work making money.  Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.”  We need to have good eyes to clearly see our motivations for our accumulating wealth.  If our eyes are not clear on this matter of money and material possessions, the whole of our lives are perverted.  Following Jesus will cause fundamental lifestyle changes.[3]

Like health, beauty and sex, the heart of the matter is this question: “Who or what will we ultimately serve?”  Discipleship is not just about reading the Bible and attending Bible studies—very important things, to be sure.  It is also about doing what the Bible says, about obeying God’s desire in the way we treat our bodies, our sexuality and in the area of economics.  Jesus tells us that it is impossible to serve both God and Money at the same time; so we might as well not waste our time attempting the impossible.  I find it ironic that some Christians fight so hard to keep “In God We Trust” on our currency, when in practice, we do not act much differently from unbelievers when it comes to how we spend our money.  Could it be that this battle is merely a diversionary tactic Christians use so that we don’t have to face up to the fact that, in reality, we trust and serve money more than God?

Let’s ask ourselves, how has our faith in God transformed our attitudes towards money so that we learn to be more content with what we have?  How has our faith in Jesus Christ transformed our desires for material possessions so that we learn to live with less for ourselves and to be more generous in our giving to neighbors in need?  This month, we’ve raised $478 for missions toward our goal of $1000.  Not a bad start!  But I wonder how that compares to the money we as a church have spent on lunch after worship during these same three Sundays?  Let’s be clear here.  We’re not doing God or the church a favor by our giving to a missions offering or by tithing.  Stewardship drives and missions offerings are gifts that God gives to us to discipline our faith, to declare our allegiance to the one true God and to unbind ourselves from the shackles of the false god of materialism.  Stewardship drives and missions offerings are the spiritual keys to our financial independence!  Learning to spend less on ourselves and to give more to God is a spiritual discipline, just like remaining sexually chaste in our relationships is a discipline of spiritual formation.  Both help us to rightly order our desires so that we are freed from the bondage of the religion of the checkout line.

Jesus is right, we cannot serve two masters.  We cannot serve both God and Money.  Money is a good servant, but a bad master.  The good news this morning is that we have a Master who was described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:9 this way: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich,” and here I add, “with treasures in heaven.”  And so this morning, we are once again invited to choose our master, to choose between life or death, divine security or chronic anxiety, eternal joy or ephemeral happiness.  May God help us not only to choose rightly, but to give us the courage to live faithfully into the good life that God has for us.  Amen.

[2] http://globalrichlist.com/.

[3] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary.  The Christbook: Matthew 1-12, p. 324.

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 18, 2009
1 Corinthians 6:15-20

Last Sunday, I started a new sermon series called “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart” and in this series we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] Last Sunday, we explored the matter of health, and this Sunday, I would like to explore what the check-out line is trying to teach us about beauty and sex.  So, I went to Walmart and picked up the current issues of two magazines, “O” the Oprah magazine for women, and “GQ” or Gentlemen’s Quarterly for men.  There’s no mistaking what GQ is selling on its front cover, and the cover of “O” touts a headline: “Instant Beauty Boosters.”  In both magazines, there are ads and pictures of attractive people calling us to “Live Your Best Life,” and showing images of what it means to be “Beautiful,” at least according to Estée Lauder.  In both magazines, page after page, we see pictures of slim, young models with buff bodies and flawless complexions in romantic settings, selling various products like makeup, perfumes, clothes and cars.  Who can measure up to these body images throughout the course of one’s life?  As Dallas Willard once observed: “As you encounter advertising and other media at supermarket checkout lines, newsstands, and bookstores or on television, you might think that the most unfortunate people in the world today are fat, the misshapen, the bald, the ugly, [and] the old.”[2]

What these magazine ads and articles and media messages teach us is actually a story of salvation.  Just as in the Christian salvation story, the check-out line teaches us that we are lost in a fallen world, but we can live the good life if we buy newer and better products.  The pages of the magazine are filled with images of new clothes, shoes, haircuts and make-up that we will transform us into beautiful and desirable people, worthy of love and acceptance by a group of friends, sure, but most importantly, by the one – your romantic partner.  And the highest, most sacred expression of this love and acceptance, according to the magazines, is sex.  We are taught that a good life that is happy, complete and whole is not possible without sex.

I truly believe that this is one of the stories of salvation preached by the check-out lines.  The stores are the “churches” of this religion, and every time we walk down those aisles, an invitation is extended to surrender our lives to another lord and savior.  And while the message of this religion is certainly enticing, upon further reflection, there is a price to be paid.  We may think that women are more susceptible to this story, but judging from the number of Rogaine and Bowflex commercials out there, men are not immune to it, either.  Both men and women can internalize the message that in order to be acceptable and loved, in order to be desirable and have worth, they will have to either attain or maintain an imaginary Photoshopped standard of beauty.  Their bodies become a commodity, a product.  Even children’s clothing these days can show our society’s pressure for young women to appear sexually appealing and attract a boyfriend.  Unfortunately, this product called “physical beauty” has an optimal shelf life of only about a decade, so that by the time people are in their thirties, we have often gone beyond our “freshness expiration date.”  Then, for the rest of our lives, we are sentenced to constant anxiety while fighting a losing battle to maintain a youthful appearance through botox, hair treatments, and cosmetic surgery.  This salvation story comes with a price and in the end, it is a losing battle.  We can think of any number of celebrities, male and female, who have made themselves a spectacle through endless attempts to cling to youthful beauty.  Is this good news?

One reason why physical beauty is so important in the marketplace is because it is the outward packaging to something all human beings desire: love.  Physical beauty is like a fancy wrapped Christmas gift that attracts our attention and begs us to open it first.  We think we have more of a chance to be loved if we’re physically attractive and desirable to others.  In addition, the check-out line confuses sex with love.  This story tells us that the powerful, ecstatic, bonding experience that sex can provide is the same as love, or at the very least, leads straight to love.  Unfortunately, in this story, sex itself has become a commodity, a product, where the partners come together as consumers, and as long as each is satisfied with the product, they stay together.  That’s why there are so many articles in the check-out line magazines about “improving” one’s sex life.  But if the product gets old or stale, or if new and improved versions of the product come along, then there is a temptation to explore new choices, to surrender to one’s desires and to pay the price by breaking someone’s heart or by divorcing.  That’s why in the check-out line, “great sex” is most often found outside of marriage, where the consumer can select from a choice of partners and indulge in a novelty of experiences while unencumbered by the inconvenience of children and pregnancy.  This story assumes that you’ll always be the consumer.  But the untold story is that sooner or later, we will be the one being consumed, and once we’re used up, we’re just as likely to be cast aside for someone younger and prettier.  Salvation is promised by this story, but we have to pay the price.  Is this good news?

In stark contrast to the salvation story preached at the check-out line is the salvation story found in the Bible.  In this story, at the very beginning in Genesis, it teaches us that God created human beings, not in the image of Madison Avenue, but in God’s own image.  In other words, there’s nothing we human beings need to do to attain God’s image, because God’s image is already in us, in our bodies.  Our bodies are not commodities, products to which other people can assign value, because God the creator has already assigned our bodies intrinsic value and beauty.  There is a world of difference between looking beautiful and being beautiful because our beautiful Lord is living in us.  When God finished creating human beings and their bodies, God told them to be fruitful and increase in number.  Part of what it means to be created in the image of God is to bring other human beings into the world as a way to continue God’s creative work.  And then God declared them not just good, but very good.  This is the starting point for us human beings.

Then the Lord God declared in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”  Notice God did not say, “I will make a pleasurable playmate suitable for him.”  Also, it is important to note that in the Hebrew, the word for “helper” does not mean “servant” or “assistant” because that term is used to describe God Himself. The woman is not a subservient but an equal “helper” in fulfilling God’s mission.  When we are seeking a spouse, the first question we should ask is not, “Will this person make me happy?” or “Will this person complete me?”  Those are questions that consumers ask.  The first question we should ask is “Will this person help me fulfill God’s mission for my life?”  And this second question should quickly follow, “Can I help this person fulfill God’s mission for his or her life?”  If you’re looking for a life mate, pay less attention to whether you two have similar tastes in what you consume – like music, clothes and restaurants.  Pay more attention to whether you two can work together to produce joy and blessing in others by going on mission trips and service projects.  When we stop becoming consumers in our intimate relationships, we will more likely treat our significant others as persons and not as products.  That’s the beginning of true love.

Then there is the classical passage concerning sex within marriage: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).  In God’s story of salvation, sex is intended only for marriage, because the “one flesh” is not only about physical intimacy, but about permanence.  Choice, novelty and convenience are overriding values in the marketplace economy.  But in the economy of God’s kingdom, commitment, loyalty and permanence are the divine virtues of marriage.  In such a marriage, no spouse will fear being cast away for growing old, fat, or bald, and there will be nothing to prove or no standards of performance when it comes to sex.

Now, of course, in God’s story of creation, there too is a fall, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and a great gulf grew between them and God.  In the fall, our human sexual desires were disordered, and one task of Christian discipleship is the ordering of all our desires, of which sexual desire is just one.  Jesus said, in Matthew 22:37-39, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  So instead of just surrendering to every desire and whim, Christians are called to desire God first and foremost.  And if you and your significant other can exercise self-control and order your sexual desires—outside and within marriage—then most likely, you will also be able to exercise self-control in other areas of your life, like financial expenditures, your emotions when you get into arguments, and your responses when things don’t go your way.  Therefore, the Christian admonition to refrain from sex before marriage is not an antiquated rule to spoil your fun.  It is a practice of spiritual formation to rightly order your desire in this powerful area of your life, so that you and your future spouse will develop the skills to rightly order other desires and exercise self-control in other areas of your life.  That is the path to wholeness and peace.

For you see, our bodies and our sexuality are distorted when we make it into a commodity, a product to be used to fulfill unfettered desires.  That’s why Paul warns the Christians of Corinth to not join with prostitutes, because that act traps us in a story that treats the prostitute as a product for pleasure and not as a person created in the image of God.  We also violate God’s intent for the gift of our sexuality and we sin against our own bodies, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  But I might say that anytime we’ve used anything or anyone, even our spouse, as solely a product for our own pleasure, we’ve sinned against our own body and against that person.  And there’s a price to be paid.  But in God’s story of salvation, in God’s economy, God pays the price for our failings and sins in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

There’s a story about a young boy who built a small sailboat. He spent weeks carefully carving the hull, tying the rigging, sewing the sails and the painting it all. Once complete, this sailboat was the best sailboat the little boy had ever seen.  It was beautiful, and it was his.  Every day after school the young boy would take the sailboat down to the creek. One day however, the current was much stronger than usual and it carried his sailboat quickly downstream and it got lost.  Every day after that, the young boy would walk down the creek hoping to find his lost sailboat. One day, he saw a small sailboat lying on a bank.  It was scratched and dented, and the sail was torn, but it was his sailboat, found at last.

Just as he was about to reach for his sailboat another boy appeared and shouted “Get away from that. It’s mine!”

“But it isn’t yours, it’s mine. I made it.”

“I found it, so it’s mine!” cried the second boy.

“Let me buy it back then?” pleaded the maker of the little sailboat.

“How much do you have?”

“Promise to come back here tomorrow, and I’ll show you.” And with that the young boy ran home as fast as he could.  He gathered all his toys, his comics, marbles, soccer ball, boots, even his most prized pocket knife and bundled them all into a backpack.  When the next afternoon came around, the young boy ran to the creek to meet the other boy.

The young boy put his backpack on the ground and opened it, allowing the other boy to see all that was inside. The other boy’s eyes lit up for a moment and then he asked: “How much of that can I have for the sailboat?” he asked.

“I will give you everything,” was the reply.

The deal was done, and the boy took his boat and started home.  As he held it tight near his heart, he said, “Little boat, I love you even more now. You are twice mine. Once because I made you, but then you were lost to me, and now I have bought you back.”

Just as the boy in our story loved his boat so much that he gave all the money he had in order to buy it back, Jesus and God loved us so much that they gave the most precious gift they had in order to buy us back.  That’s why Paul says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”  In other words, we, in our totality—mind, body and soul—were made beautifully by God in His image.  But in our sin, we got lost like that little boat, and as a result, we are marred and broken, and we may feel like we are damaged goods.  But in God’s story, Jesus comes looking for us, and when He finds us, hear these words that He says to us: “Little child, I love you even more now.  You are twice mine.  Once because I made you, but then you were lost to me, and now I have bought you back.”  Now that is beautiful.  That is the love we are looking for, and it is a love true enough that can order our other desires so that we can live a good life.  That is good news.  That is the story worth living.  Amen.

[2] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 122.

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 11, 2009
Romans 12: 1-2

Today, I’m starting a new sermon series called “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart” and in this series, we’re going to examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really for that matter, any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] At the check-out line, there are all those impulse items: candy, breath mints, razors, batteries, lip balm, cheap toys, and seasonal items are all strategically placed so that shoppers and their kids will be tempted to buy them.  Then there are the people celebrity, beauty and Soap Opera magazines.  I don’t know about you, when I’m waiting at the check-out line, I confess that I find myself browsing the magazine covers.  It’s really hard to avert your eyes from the beautiful people and the bold headlines promoting their version of the good life.  And one gets the uneasy feeling that we, the customers, are in reality the ones being browsed.  With their hyper-real eyes and Photoshopped bodies, modern-day sirens call out to us with their enticing songs like: “Less Stress. True Bliss.”  “Make Him Fall in Love with You.” “Ten Easy Steps to Financial Independence.”and “Make Your Dream House Come True.”  Market research has browsed and analyzed our desires and made them into various products, packaged and mass-produced for us to purchase as a way to pursue the good life.  At the check-out line, we are faced with the gospel of the god of materialism and success, trying to mold who we are and make us into that image.  Once we recognize that, we can, with God’s help, not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Today, I want to address the topic of “health” – and just this week, I went to Walmart, and I picked up a couple of magazines at their check-out line.  One of them is Prevention magazine, and on the cover is a picture of Michelle Obama in a blue dress with these headlines: “Happy and Healthy at Any Age: Life Really Gets Good When You’re 40 and 50.”  Another headline is “Flat Belly Foods! Cure Cravings. Speed Metabolism. Beat the Bloat.”  And highlighted in the table of contents is this article: “Win at Weight Loss: What’s the best way to fight over 40 fat?  Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., an exercise pioneer, knows the secret and shares it.  Hint: It’s not with long sessions in the gym.”  Now, I found these articles to be interesting and informative.  I also found them to be wonderful ways to procrastinate from having to work on this sermon!

First of all, let me be clear, I’m not saying that our bodily and mental health is not important.  After all, the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”  We honor God with our bodies when we take care of it, eat right, get exercise, and don’t abuse it.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with the preventative care of our bodies from disease.  Neither do I think there is anything wrong with going to see a doctor when we are ill.

But I do think that “health” has become a major challenge and preoccupation in our society today.  Many of us agree with what the fictional Count Tyrone Rugen said in Princess Bride when he says: “If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.”  For many people, their health is the most important thing in their lives.  Just look at the health care debate that is raging around the country.  Now, I’m not smart enough to evaluate the proposals that are being offered and debated.  But it seems to me that this debate has touched a raw nerve in our country that has elevated our national anxieties and fears.

Apart from our national health care debates over medical access and cost, over justice and equality issues, I think I can safely say that the deepest issue we face as a country today regarding our health is a spiritual one.  For both believers and unbelievers alike, our preoccupation with our health reflects a deep anxiety about death.  How do you want to die?  Most people, including myself would reply:  “Quickly, in my sleep, painlessly and without being a burden.”  Ethicist Stanley Hauerwas once quipped: “You don’t want to be a burden because you don’t trust your children.”  But Hauerwas also argues that it is very interesting to contrast our modern day attitudes towards death with medieval practices and attitudes.  Medieval Christians feared the very thing that we want — a quick death.  A quick death would not give them the time to be ministered to by the church through the sacrament of reconciliation and penance.  A quick death would rob Christians of the opportunity to reconcile with their enemies (largely their families), their church and God.  What the medievals feared was not death, what they feared was God.  Cancer was not a tragedy, it gave them time to live through their death, to slowly prepare to say good-bye to this life.[2] And as late as the 1928 edition of The Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church, there is a litany that has this line: “From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us.”[3] Our modern-day attitude toward death, our hope of avoiding death is very different from what Christians have traditionally believed, and it skews the way we think about and value health.  In medieval times, the great buildings of their day were the cathedrals, great edifices built to pay homage to God.  A case can be made that the great cathedrals of our day are the medical centers, great edifices built to pay homage to fighting illness and death.

In our New Testament lesson today, Paul says in Romans 12: I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.  What does it mean to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God as a spiritual act of worship?”  I think it can mean a lot of things, but I would like to suggest this morning that it can mean that we are called to live our bodily lives – not just as individuals, but in community – in such a way that we point to the grace and goodness of God, not just on Sunday mornings at 11 am, but every moment of every day.  Christians are in training in life and in death, in health and in illness to please God and give God the glory as a community.  When we are healthy, we are tempted to be autonomous and self-sufficient, not needing other people or even God.  Illness forcefully reminds us that we are limited and dependent on others as well as God.

This is the reason why we owe one another our sufferings.  Too often, we come to church to show people that we’re OK, that we’re strong.  Stanley Hauerwas tells a story of his church in South Bend, Indiana, that was made up mostly of self-sufficient, respectable people.  In their prayer times, they would pray for the starving in Ethiopia, to end the war in Iraq.  No one ever said anything about themselves.  One day, a bag lady attended Sunday worship and during the pastoral prayer time at one worship service, this lady prayed aloud: “Lord – I have a terrible cold this week – make these people help me!”  This lady reminded the church that that they needed one another.  They needed to say what was wrong with their lives to one another, to share their illnesses, their uncertainties with one another in a way that made community possible.

As a minister, I visit a lot of sick and dying people, and I used to think that that is my ministry to them.  But now, I’ve come to realize that I am called to visit the sick and the dying not just because I can minister to them, but because to the extent that the sick and the dying are living their lives pointing to the grace and goodness of God, they can train me on how to live with sickness and die with grace.  One example: I have been schooled by Sarah Terry throughout her journey with cancer.  She offered her failing, cancerous body as a living, sacrificial, spiritual act of worship.  And those of you who knew her would agree that she lived a “good life” in the deepest, most profound sense of that term.  The way she lived her life in our community as her health ebbed away transformed my thinking about a proper Christian attitude toward health and death that is less conformed by the idolatries of this world.  What Sarah taught me was not only good, it was beautiful.  And she’s not alone.  I’m sure we can all think of others in this congregation who have blessed us by being powerful models of what it means to live and die in Christ.  And may we learn to be bless others by offering our bodily presence to live a good life in Christ even in the midst of illness, suffering and pending death.

Our Lord Jesus Christ provided such a bodily presence during his Last Supper with his disciples.  He knew he was about to suffer and die, but instead of withdrawing from his friends, he intentionally sought their company and offered his body as a living sacrifice to teach his disciples how to live a good life in the midst of suffering and pending death.  So, when we eat the bread that is his body and drink from the cup that is his blood, we identify ourselves with the suffering and the death of our Lord.  We also proclaim that bodily health is not the ultimate value for us, and that we can live a good life (whether in sickness or in health) that points to the grace and goodness of God because the grace and goodness of God is literally in our bodies.  We also live in the hope of a bodily resurrection made possible by the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus Christ now extends an invitation for His followers to commune with Him at His table so that we may be strengthened and sustained to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God as our spiritual act of worship.  Amen.

[2] http://www.emergentvillage.com/podcast/stanley-hauerwas-on-theology

[3] http://www.commonprayer.org/offices/litany_n.cfm

For five weeks starting September 4, I’m departing from the lectionary and doing a sermon series called “Get a Life!” based on a book by Reggie McNeal called Get a Life!  It IS All About You.

I will not be posting the texts to these sermons because I won’t be preaching out of a manuscript for much of these topical sermons.  However, you can download the audio files below listed in reverse chronological order:

Oct 4: “What Do I Need to Learn?“

Sept 27: “What Am I Really Good At?“

Sept 20: “What Is My Scorecard?“

Sept 13: “What Is Important to Me?“

Sept 6: “Why Am I Here?“

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 23, 2009, Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost, Year B
John 6:55-69

Have you ever been in a situation where you were served something at a meal and you had absolutely no idea what it was? I’ve had several instances in school or in college at which the famous “mystery meat” was served. It’s uncomfortable biting into something you don’t know. However, I do have to say that sometimes for me, it is better to eat something not knowing what it is than to eat something out of the ordinary and knowing exactly what it is. Thirteen years ago, Beth and I traveled to Hong Kong and China with my family to celebrate my grandfather’s eightieth birthday. While we were there, almost every meal was a banquet, and we were served many Chinese “delicacies.” One time, they served us roasted pigeons, which weren’t too bad – I tried to think of them as pieces of midget chickens. Unfortunately for me, among the bits of pigeon wings, thighs, drumsticks and breasts were also roasted pigeon heads, chopped off at the neck, perfectly browned and caramelized, beaks and eyes included! There’s just something disturbing about your food looking back at you while you’re trying to eat it! To make it worse, my Chinese relatives have a practice of reaching into a dish and picking out pieces of food and offering them to Beth and me. On that day, I was praying to God that my relatives would not pick out a pigeon head and put it into my rice bowl. Thankfully they didn’t, but if they had, they would have seen Michael Cheuk up-chuck!

Well, today in our Gospel Lesson from John, Jesus served up some words that were definitely tough to swallow: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” What in the world could Jesus have meant by that? If you remember earlier in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, Jesus had just fed five thousand men (not including women and children), and now, crowds of people were following him, probably wondering when Jesus was going to open up his free buffet again. Jesus then taught the crowds saying, “I am the bread of life,” signifying that the physical bread He was offering was only a sign pointing to something, or Someone, who was more life-giving and eternally satisfying. Now, Jesus followed that up with this scandalous claim in verse 53: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Those are tough words to swallow!

If the crowds surrounding Jesus were following Him because He could fill their empty stomachs, well, this saying was guaranteed to ruin their appetites. What Jesus said was offensive and a stumbling block to every good Jew because, for them, eating human flesh and drinking blood of any sort was totally out of the question. But what Jesus said sounds like cannibalism and it was offensive to Jews back then and is certainly to us today. Now, I certainly don’t think Jesus was literally offering his physical body to be consumed. So why would Jesus say such a shocking and scandalous thing that was almost designed to drive people away?

Anthropologists have discovered tribes that actually practice ritual cannibalism. The rationale for such behavior is usually that in consuming parts of the body, the person ingests the characteristics or the valued qualities of the deceased. In other words, this ritual act was one way a person can make a statement about his or her identity, values and character. It’s so easy for us civilized, enlightened folk to view these tribes as savage and barbaric. But apart from the actual eating of human flesh, are we that different from those tribes in our perspective about food? In our culture, eating is not merely for physical sustenance. We eat and consume things for a variety of reasons. And many times, what we eat makes a statement about our identity, our values and our character. Consider these examples:

I eat steak and potatoes because I’m a no-nonsense, manly man.

You won’t find me dead in a fast food restaurant, because I am cultured and refined.

Fancy French restaurants are not for me because I value frugality.

I am a vegetarian because I am morally sensitive and health conscious.

To some, people who drink Evian water are sophisticated.

To others, people who spend $1.50 for a small bottle of Evian are naïve, which is, after all, “Evian” spelled backwards!

So, the food we eat can tell a lot about us. After all, people say: “You are what you eat.” When Jesus says: I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” Jesus is calling us to “consume” Him so that our identity, our values our character, essentially who we are, are based solely on Him. Jesus is saying, “Eat my life and make it part of you and your life. Nourish yourself by my lifestyle and teaching, wash it down with the blood of my self-giving and sharing. It is not enough to consume what the world has to give. It is not even enough to consume what I can give to you. You have to consume me, take me in, absorb me so that I become an integral part of your life.”

So what does it mean to take in Jesus, to absorb Him integrally into our lives? Let’s do an exercise. Imagine yourself living in a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Imagine that the government came after you, separated you from your family, your children and your loved ones. Imagine the soldiers taking you away to prison, so that you cannot worship in church or at BCM, cannot attend youth group or youth camp, cannot attend Christian conferences and Emmaus Walks, cannot meet with your prayer triplets. You are physically alone in your cell with very little contact with the outside world.

Imagine this scenario and be honest with yourself. If those things happened to you, would there still be joy and peace in your life? Would you still feel the presence and love of Christ within you? I must confess that my answer to those questions would probably be “No.” And my answer tells me just how much I’m still attached to the things of this earth, just how little is Christ an integral part of my life, just how far I have to travel in my spiritual journey. Jesus is saying to me, “Don’t be satisfied with just consuming the blessings that I give to you, consume me.” And when I do that, I will be like the apostle Paul, who, while in prison separated from his family with very little contact with the outside world, could write in Philippians 4:12-13: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Consuming Christ has all sorts of practical implications for my spiritual walk. It implies that it is not enough to consume information about Jesus; I’m called to study the Bible so that I can live like Jesus. It is not enough to seek and consume worshipful experiences of God; my whole life is called to be a worshipful act of living for God. Consuming Christ also has implications in how we “do” church. As a church leader, it is tempting for me to offer people all sorts of programs for their consumption, while leaving them starving for Jesus Himself. Do you know why so many young people active in youth group drop out of church when they go off to college? I think one of the reasons is because church leaders often do a good job of feeding our youth “fun” and “exciting” experiences of God and of community—good things to be sure—but we fail to teach our youth how to feed on Christ Himself. When students go off to college, they are either looking for churches to replicate their past experiences of God, or they are so enticed by other fun and exciting experiences now available to them that they no longer “need” church. Finally, consuming Christ has implications for everyday life. For if I am truly filled and satisfied with Christ, then I will be less enslaved by my past failures, less needy for present approval and affirmation, and less anxious about future uncertainties. It implies that I will be more detached from the things of this earth and more attached to Christ and Christ alone. Things that are out of my control will no longer bother me because I know that Christ in me is fully in control.

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” ultimately means I live in such a way that only Jesus Himself satisfies my deepest longings. These are tough words to swallow, because I live under the illusion that the good life means Christ AND . . . Christ and supportive parents, Christ and a loving spouse, Christ and beautiful children, Christ and a lucrative job, Christ and things going my way, Christ and material goods, health, popularity, success, whatever. But Jesus is actually saying, “No, the good life means Christ, alone.” That’s it. No wonder many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed him. It is so hard to let go of the things of this earth, even though they are merely human, temporary, passing and transient.

After seeing so many turn back from Him, Jesus asked the Twelve: “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter answered: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” New Testament scholar William Barclay once explained “eternal life” this way. He says that it is far better to speak of eternal life than to speak of everlasting life. “Everlasting” means lasting for a long, long time, until the end of time. But “eternal” really means without beginning or end, existing outside of time. God is not everlasting, bounded by time. God is eternal because God existed before time; in fact, God created time. So “eternal life” is not just about how long in time one lives, it is really about living a certain quality, a certain kind of life that God lives. Barclay writes: “To enter into eternal life is to enter into that kind of life which is the life of God. It is to be lifted up above merely human, temporary, passing, transient things, into that joy and peace which belong only to God.”

In other words, we cannot enter into eternal life, that timeless quality of life filled with the joy and peace of God, if we’re still clinging on to the temporary things of this earth, the very things that Christ is calling us to let go of when He invites us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” The Good News is that Jesus wants to come in fully into our lives, not so that we can fix supper for Him, or even so that He can cook for us. He wants to come in so that He can be our feast. Jesus gives Himself to us, even to the point of allowing his body to be broken and his blood shed for us on a cross. When we truly feast on Christ, then we will take on His identity, His values and His character. We will begin to live the kind of life that God lives, not just after we’re dead and in heaven, but starting right now, right here. Peter was right, Jesus has the words of eternal life; in fact, Jesus is the Word, the Way, the Truth and the Life. They may be tough words to swallow at first, but ultimately, they are wonderful words of life! Amen.

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 9, 2009, Tenth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
John 6:35, 41-51

Have you ever been in a situation with a group of people in a quiet setting and your stomach begins growling?  First it starts with a low rumble, and then it quickly crescendos into a loud, gurgling grumble that catches the attention of everyone near you.  You try to look nonchalant, but everyone knows that it is you.  It’s really quite annoying and embarrassing.  But aside from the annoyance and embarrassment, a growling stomach is only a symptom of a deeper issue.  Your body is crying out for food to maintain its existence.  Food, water and air are things that we human beings need on a continuing basis to physically live.  Without those things, we would die.

And so, it is not surprising that when Jesus performed the miracle of feeding five thousand men with loaves of bread and fish at the beginning of John chapter 6, thousands of people began to follow him.  Here was a man who could feed their physical hunger, a man who could sustain their physical existence.  No more embarrassing growling stomachs!  They would have been fools not to follow Jesus.  But Jesus told the crowds in verses 26 and 27 that while they sought Him because they ate the loaves of bread and had their fill, they should work not for food that spoils, but food that endures to eternal life.  Jesus then dug deep into their common history to tell how their ancestors ate manna in the desert, but while that bread would spoil and rot, God the Father could offer the true bread of heaven that gives life to the world.  Upon hearing this, imagine what must have gone through the minds of the people: “Wow, this is even better than the loaves and the fish!  There’s bread that we can eat to give us eternal life!  No more hunger!  No more worries about where our next meal will come from!  One bite of this bread and we can relax and be secure!”  No wonder the crowds responded in verse 34: “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

In response to their request, Jesus replied in verse 35: “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”  One can almost hear a great big “thud” as the sky-high expectations of the crowd fell like a lead balloon.  They were probably expecting Jesus to reach into his robe and carefully bring out a magical bag from which he would distribute morsels of a most delectable, heavenly substance that would instantly fill their growling stomachs.  Instead, Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of life, and claims that the key to being filled is following and believing in Him.

“I am the bread of life.”  We Christians are so used to hearing this from Sunday School lessons and sermons that we’ve forgotten that this is actually a hard saying of Jesus.  There are a lot of things here to get hung up on.  For the crowds that were following Jesus that day, they were scandalized by His use of the term “I AM,” which was the name that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush.  They got hung up on Jesus’ claim of divinity, of being the Son of the heavenly Father, when they knew Jesus to be the son of an earthly father, Joseph the carpenter.  They wanted Jesus to meet their expectations and felt needs on their own terms, but as soon as Jesus failed to meet their expectations and asked for belief and trust on Jesus’ own terms, they grumbled – just like their ancestors grumbled in the desert when God provided another kind of bread from heaven on His own terms.  How many times have we wanted God to meet our needs and to fill our hunger on our own terms but struggled with following God on God’s own terms?

While the crowds were scandalized by Jesus’ identification with the “I AM,” others are scandalized by the meaning of “bread.”  “I am the bread of life” is a hard saying for us “civilized” folk because we are scandalized by Jesus’ claim that “this bread is my flesh.”  The charge of cannibalism has been made against Christians ever since the second century.  Once again, we in the Church are so used to this language, we don’t think twice about it, but for people not raised in the Church, this can be a big stumbling block.  It might be helpful for some to know that, in the beginning of the Gospel of John, Jesus was described as the Word, who became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).  When Jesus said, “this bread is my flesh,” I believe He was making a theological and not a literal statement in line with the truth that human beings do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).  For John, Jesus is the eternal Word of God become flesh.  To receive God’s Word, to consume it into our lives is a part of what it means to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

Finally, while some are scandalized over the “I AM” statement, and others stumble over the meaning of “bread,” still others struggle over the meaning of “life” in the phrase “I am the bread of life.”  In this passage, Jesus made a bold claim in verse 51 that “if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”  For most of us, when we hear this verse, we immediately think about life after death.  And much ink has been spilled over theological debates regarding the efficacy of the bread served at communion or the Eucharist to confer life after death.  But “life” is so much more than mere existence on either side of the grave.  The late Jesuit priest and mystic Anthony de Mello made a profound point:  “My experience is that it’s precisely the ones who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life.”  Many times we are consumed over question of whether there is life after death.  But perhaps the real question is: Is there life before death?[1]

Jesus promised in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  I believe that this full life does not begin after we are dead, but it begins in this life.  The Greek word for life is zoe, which can also be defined as the state of one who is possessed of vitality.  There’s no question that everyone in this sanctuary has physical life this morning.  The real question, I think, is whether everyone in this sanctuary is living life with vitality, meaning, and purpose.  Physical bread and physical food can help us to exist.  But we are created for so much more than mere existence.  We are not meant to just live, we are meant to be alive!  We are not meant to just exist, we are meant to be excited about life, to have vitality, to have meaning and purpose.  As such, we are made to hunger for that zoe, that vitality, that aliveness filled with meaning and purpose.

When Jesus tells the crowds (and us) that He is the bread of life, Jesus is saying that only He can satisfy the deepest hunger of our spirits, only He can satiate the most profound cravings of our souls.  Physical bread can briefly satisfy our physical hunger.  But the Bread of life—the Word of God written in our minds, the Son of God living in our lives, the Spirit of God loving in our hearts—that is the only food that will forever satisfy our spiritual hunger.  Frederick Buechner once said: “A glutton is one who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrition.”[2] Let’s face it, we eat for a lot of reasons.  We eat not just to keep ourselves in existence.  Many times, we eat as an attempt to alleviate not physical hunger, but the many other deep hungers we have – like our hunger for love, acceptance, companionship and emotional peace.  Most eating disorders originate from those unresolved issues, the only difference being some choose to eat a lot while others choose not to eat at all in their attempts to deaden their pain.  But pathology aside, why are we drawn to certain foods, usually nutritionally unhealthy ones called “comfort foods” when we’re sad or lonely?  And it is not just food, why are we drawn to consume things in order to fill a spiritual emptiness or to alleviate emotional pain and fear—things like alcohol, drugs, the internet, new material possessions, and new relationships?  These are the things we consume as futile attempts to satisfy our deep spiritual hunger.  But they are not the bread of life, and in the end, more often than not, those poor substitutes we consume will end up consuming us.

The Good News this morning is that Jesus offers to us Himself, the true bread of life, with the promise that if we eat and receive Him, He will satisfy our deepest, most profound hunger.

For you see, to eat the bread of life is to truly receive and be consumed by God’s boundless love, unconditional acceptance, abiding companionship, and a profound peace that transcends all understanding.  If you have that, then you will have no need to eat chocolate and ice cream when you’re lonely, drink alcohol when you’re sad, shop on Amazon.com when you’re at a loss, and have an affair when you don’t feel loved.  The apostle Paul was a great example of living on the bread of life.  Listen to his assertions in Philippians 3:8 and 4:11: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. . . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  Those who have gained Christ will be content and will never go hungry.  Because when you dine on the bread of life—by embracing God’s love, acceptance, companionship and peace through prayer, scripture reading, Christian community and service—your life will be filled with passion, purpose, excitement and joy.  In other words, you will be alive!

Two Sundays ago, after our Laity Sunday worship service, Bob Pino came up to me and said: “I really sense a spirit of vitality at Farmville Baptist.  It reminds me of the Lord’s Prayer: give us this day our daily bread.  I see so many Christians trying to live off the old, crusted spiritual bread that they received a long time ago . . . and not feasting on the daily bread of life that God wants to give us.”  I think his words are a challenge and an invitation for us to come before Jesus now to receive and feast on the bread of life that He so abundantly offers.  What are you hungry for?  What are you eating to fill that hunger?  May Jesus Christ be your daily bread that satisfies your deepest hunger and vitalizes your life.  Amen.

[2] Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words, p. 130.

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 2, 2009, Ninth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Ephesians 4:1-16

The human body is an amazing organism.  I don’t think you have to be a biology major or a medical doctor to appreciate the complexity and beauty of the human body and its functioning.  Each part of the body has its unique function and in order for the body to be fully healthy, every part of the body must do what it is designed to do.  Did you know that:

• By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)?
• Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels?
• It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown?[1]
• Human thighbones are stronger than concrete?
• The average person’s skin weighs twice as much as their brain?
• Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still?[2]
• No less then 19 muscles and 107 ligaments are used to control the movement of each foot?[3]

Each member of the human body is different in its function, but each is needed for the full vitality and health of the organism as a whole.  Perhaps that’s why the apostle Paul used the metaphor of the human body so many times to describe God’s people, the Church.  We are the body of Christ, says Paul.  In our Epistle lesson this morning, the apostle Paul is teaching us how we as the body of Christ can become mature and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  There are too many truths to be mined in such a rich passage, and so this morning, I want to highlight three things that Paul is trying to teach us that will help us as a church and in our individual lives.  Those three things are maintaining unity, acknowledging diversity and striving for maturity.

First – Paul is teaching us to maintain unity.  In verse 3, Paul writes: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  It sounds great to maintain unity, but it is harder than it seems.  We’ve all heard of people with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, lupus and multiple sclerosis, where the body begins to attack itself.  Those are terrible diseases, but they are not any worse than when members of families, churches, denominations and other organizational bodies attack one another through bickering and in-fighting.  Many times, these attacks take place when the body loses sight of its mission, vision and reason for being.  When families, churches and organizations lose sight of their vision, then they become distracted by little things and fight about insignificant matters.  That’s why Paul begins this chapter by saying: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”  In the original Greek language, the “you” there is plural, not singular.  In essence, Paul was saying “I’m begging you all to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

Do you know what your life calling is?  Is it just to be successful in life, and to make a lot of money?  Or is there a higher calling that God is calling you to that is bigger than your life?

Do you as a family know what God has called you all to be?  Is it just to make other family members happy?  Or is there a higher calling to look beyond your family and its comfort?

Do we as a church know our unique calling?  Is it just to serve our own members?  Or is there a higher calling to look beyond our walls to be the presence of Christ in our community?

It is hard work to discern God’s calling and mission for our lives, and that is precisely what we are attempting to do as a church as we involve ourselves in prayer and sharing.  And when we have a compelling vision and calling from God, we have a better chance to rally around that calling and not pursue our own individual interests and agendas.  But maintaining unity in the body of Christ does not mean that every member has to think, act, believe and worship in exactly the same way.  Paul took pains to write that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.  The unity Paul describes comes from the nature and character of God.  Notice what Paul didn’t say.  He didn’t say there is one age group, one social economic class, one set of thoughts, or one worship style.  Matthew Henry once wrote, “The nature of that unity which the apostle prescribes is the unity of the Spirit. The seat of Christian unity is in the heart or spirit: it does not lie in one set of thoughts, nor in one form and mode of worship, but in one heart and one soul.”

The unity to which we are called is the unity of our hearts to love God.  When we do that, we can then better acknowledge the diversity of the gifts that God has given to each on of us.  Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  And we must also realize that God graces us with gifts often in ways we do not expect.  When I was about ten years old, I remember coming into the kitchen and finding a paper bag on our kitchen table.  Curious, I opened the bag and looked inside.  At once I was confronted with the strong smell of peaches, but as I looked in, I noticed the peaches were all soft, and some even had brown bruises on them.  I yelled out to my mom, “Mom, where’d you get these peaches?  They need help!”  My mom quickly entered the kitchen with panic written all over her face as she tried to shut me up: “They are the peaches that your aunt gave us, and she’s still here!”  My aunt was visiting us and on her way to our house, she stopped by a peach orchard to purchase some overripe peaches.  I think my aunt heard my comments, but she was gracious enough to ignore them.  Later that night, when we had some of those peaches for dessert, they were the juiciest, sweetest peaches I remember ever eating as a child.

How many times do we reject the gifts that God gives us just because, like those overripe peaches, those gifts are not presented to us in ways that are perfectly gift wrapped to our liking?  God presents us with a diversity of people who may be bruised on the outside, who may need help in many areas of their lives, but once you get a chance to look beyond their skin, you realize that they are the sweetest people you’ll ever meet.  How many times have we rejected the gifts that these people may offer to us from God because they are different and unfamiliar or initially uncomfortable to us?  Last Sunday night, I attended our youth group meeting to hear about their experience at Passport camp.  As I heard our young people share how God transformed their lives that week, and how they want to continue to live out that transformation back at their home church, I saw just how God has gifted and graced these young people.  I was inspired by their enthusiasm and by their desire to use their God-given gifts to bless our community.  Sure, there is a generation gap in the way they worship and express their faith, but is that enough of a reason to reject what they might have to offer to the spiritual growth of this congregation?  I was challenged by Paul’s statement in verses 11-12: “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”  As a pastor, am I willing to equip and prepare our youth for works of service, to encourage and bless their desire to worship and serve so that the body of Christ may be built up?  As a congregation, are we willing and open to receiving the diverse gifts that our youth and others can offer?

Maintain unity.  Acknowledge diversity.  Finally, Paul calls us to strive for maturity.  One mark of spiritual and emotional maturity is having the conviction of one’s beliefs and values, and having the ability to remain connected to the body without having to have everything your way.  One needs conviction of beliefs so that one is not tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching or by every passing fad or trend.  But one also needs to remain connected to the body through Christ, because as Paul says, from Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.  We’ve seen too many times when children don’t get their way, they get surly and take their marbles and leave.  We’ve seen so-called adults do that too.  But Paul is calling us to a higher way within the body of Christ, to remain in fellowship with those who are different and difficult, for the sake of Christ and in response to His love.

A story is told about an 11-year-old girl who wanted her dad to accompany her to a Taylor Swift concert with some of her friends.  Her dad was a professional musician with the symphony and frankly, could not stand the music that her daughter and her friends were listening to.  He told his daughter in no uncertain terms that he would NOT take her to the concert.  This crushed the girl and she went away dejected.  Her mother heard the exchange and after a conversation with the father, he consented to allow her to go chaperoned by the parents of her friends.  At the night of the concert, the girl went with her friends and when they finally found their seats, lo and behold, she found her father waiting for her.  “Dad, what are you doing here?  I thought you hated this music!”  “Yes, I hate this music,” her father replied, “but I love you.”

Maturity means having clarity of one’s conviction and yet remaining connected to those in community with us.  For each member of the body of Christ is made in the image of Christ.
Maintain unity.  Ackn0wledge diversity.  Strive for maturity.

May the love of Christ within us overflow in our hearts so that we may mature in Him, and to accept the gifts for the one body to live a life worthy of God’s calling.  Amen.

[2] http://www.funfacts.com.au/interesting-human-body-facts/

[3] http://sweetfeetboutiqueandthings.com/pages/footfacts.php

Preached by Michael Cheuk
July 26, 2009, Ninth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
John 6:1-21

Early in the morning of Tuesday, May 5, 2009, a producer for the Oprah Winfrey show posted this announcement on the oprah.com blog: “FREE, FREE, FREE! It’s the Biggest Giveaway in HARPO HISTORY — and EVERYONE in the U.S. gets one!  This is the most FUN I’ve had working on a show in YEARS! Why? Because there’s NOTHING I love more than . . . Surprising people with something BEYOND their wildest dreams . . . and GIVING AWAY FREE STUFF! And [today’s Oprah] show is CHOCK FULL OF SURPRISES AND FREE STUFF! Including something for EVERYONE in AMERICA!”[1]

On that day’s show, Oprah announced that KFC was giving away free two-piece Kentucky Grilled Chicken meals including two sides and a biscuit.  Viewers had twenty-four hours to download a coupon from Oprah’s website and redeem it within two weeks’ time at any KFC restaurant in America.  Sounds simple and straightforward enough.  Unfortunately, Oprah and KFC underestimated America’s desire for a free lunch.  The response to the giveaway was overwhelming, and the next day, hundreds of people were standing in line around the country for their free chicken, and eventually, they were turned away because KFC ran out.  Two disgruntled viewers who were turned away filed a class action lawsuit against KFC that is still pending.[2] What seemed to be a fabulous idea turned out to be a “fowl” fiasco for KFC.

In today’s Gospel Lesson, John tells the story of Jesus giving away a free meal to a great crowd of people.  Jesus had been attracting throngs of people as a result of his healing ministry.  In order to get away from the crowds and to catch his breath, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and went up the side of a mountain to spend some time with his disciples.  But the crowds, like swarms of ants homing in on a summer picnic, continued to chase after Jesus – either by finding boats to cross the sea or by walking around the sea.  About five thousand men, but also women and children, advanced toward Jesus, a rising tide of desperate humanity, flooding in with incalculable needs and widespread suffering.  Some were sick, some aged; many were poor and hungry.  All were desperate for more wondrous signs from this miracle worker.

It’s hard to blame the crowds for chasing after Jesus, almost stalking him.  After all, most of us know of the efforts that some of our friends and family have gone through in seeking treatment for a dreaded disease.  Recently, we heard about the passing of Farrah Fawcett, and how she sought treatment from doctors all over the world in her fight against cancer.  But it’s not just about our health.  In this present economic crisis, all of us have experienced anxiety about our future, and we are looking for ways to save money and find deals.  Who would refuse a free lunch from KFC in these economic times?

At the sight of the teeming masses, Jesus asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”  It was a ludicrous question, for the disciples had little money and even if they had money, there were probably no grocery stores on the mountainside.  John says that Jesus’ question was a test, for Jesus already knew what he was going to do.  I’ve often wondered what exactly Jesus was testing his disciples that day.  Was it their ability to feed the masses?  If so, the disciples failed as Philip did some quick math and replied: “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”  Philip was a realist who saw the magnitude of the challenge and decided there’s nothing they could do.  Was Jesus testing their ability to solve problems with realistic solutions?  Only Andrew came up with a “solution,” but it certainly was not realistic: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  I can easily imagine the disciples being dismissive or being embarrassed by Andrew’s suggestion.  But Jesus was neither dismissive nor embarrassed by that boy’s meager offering.  He had the crowds sit down, and he gave thanks for the loaves and the fish.  And before you can say “finger lickin’ good,” the teeming masses had all that they could eat, and what’s more, there were twelve baskets of food left over.

In this familiar story, we tend to focus on the miraculous feeding.  How can food literally multiply like that?  Can we believe that it actually happened?  I believe that Jesus really did perform that miracle that day.  But I also believe that another miracle took place before Jesus began feeding all those people.  To me, it was a miracle that a boy would offer his sack lunch to Jesus without knowing what would happen next.  From the boy’s perspective, giving his lunch to Jesus was tantamount to kissing his lunch goodbye.  It was all he had, and he didn’t know where, when or how he was going to get his next meal.  Furthermore, I find it hard to believe that in a crowd of five thousand men, not a single one of them had the foresight to bring along food!  Wait, let me take that back, because after all, we are talking about men here!  Sorry!  But surely, there were women and children in that crowd – it’s just that in those days, they didn’t count women and children.  It’s incredible to believe that in a crowd of ten thousand or more, the only one that the disciples could find with some food was one little boy!  It’s much more likely that people had food, but they were not willing to give it to Jesus!  To me, the offering of that little boy was the miracle of the afternoon.  And the test that Jesus gave was perhaps less to his disciples, and more to the crowd, a test to see who had enough faith in him to offer up a lunch.

If I were the boy, I would have come up with a whole host of excuses not to offer up my lunch to Jesus.  I would have said, “I’m just a small boy, please choose someone bigger.”  “It’s just a small lunch, there are so many others with much better lunches.”  “I’m not old enough to hold a job.  If I give up my lunch, I have no way to earn money to buy another.”  In the eyes of the world, what difference can one little boy with five loaves and two fish make in a sea of hunger and need?  Not much.  But that’s the point.  The boy’s ability to make a difference was not based on what he had, but on who Jesus is.  When Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed them to the crowd, he not only met the physical needs of the five thousand men on that mountainside, Jesus also anticipated a time at a last supper when He would offer not only bread but His body for the spiritual needs of a lost and dying world.  It was not the meager provision of that boy that made a difference, it was the miraculous presence of Jesus that made the difference.  And of all the people in the crowd, that boy drew close into the presence of Jesus.  That boy trusted his future to Jesus and gave up trying to control how his lunch was going to be used.  That boy risked offering what he had in his hand by putting it in Jesus’ hand, so that Jesus could do a miraculous work in meeting people’s needs.  As a result, thousands of people were blessed, and so was he.

In many ways, Farmville Baptist is like that boy in today’s Gospel story.  We’re certainly not the biggest church out there; there are many, many churches with bigger budgets, attendance, programs and staff.  We certainly don’t feel like we have the resources to meet all of our community’s needs.  In fact, halfway through our fiscal year, we are spending about $6,000 more than we are taking in right now.  And really, what difference can prayer cards and prayer triplets make in our community?  They are such small things.

Well, last Sunday morning in our worship service, I experienced first-hand what difference prayer cards and prayer triplets can make in people’s lives.  I was so moved by Bob Pino’s testimony about how those prayer cards ministered to him while he was fighting cancer.  I loved seeing members of our prayer triplets being so at ease with each other and sharing about all the things they are learning from God.  I heard the excitement in their voices as common themes came to the fore – themes like the blessing they are receiving from a closer relationship with God and with members of their triplets.  I heard how we need to trust God to lead us into our future and be less anxious to control and manage what might come.  I heard how God may be calling us to risk more in focusing our energy and resources to people and causes outside the walls of our church.  Those are exactly the qualities that Jesus is looking for in order to do another miracle!

Our ability to make a difference is not based on our power and resources, but upon God’s abundant presence and resources.  But we are asked to offer up what we have to Jesus.  It might be our ability to love and teach children and youth.  It might be our love for visiting senior adults.  It might be our gift in being a handy man or a seamstress.  It could be our time and financial resources.  Yes, those things may seem meager.  But when we offer them to Jesus and put them in His control, Jesus is able to multiply our offering to minister and bless others in amazing and abundant ways.   All God asks of us is to step out in faith and look beyond our anxieties and fears in order to respond to Jesus’ call to meet the needs of others.  And when the storms of life come and rock our boat, the abundant presence of God promises to come to us like Jesus who calmed his disciples and the storm by proclaiming, “It is I!  Don’t be afraid!”

This morning, Jesus wants to offer His abundant presence to us.  There’s nothing God loves more than surprising people with something beyond their wildest dreams and giving away free stuff!  But what God gives is not a free lunch as part of a marketing campaign to boost sales or membership.  What God gives is abundant life and eternal salvation for all the people of the world who would accept His offer.  This offer will never run out and it is free.  Thank goodness it is free because we do not have the resources to purchase it.  The Good News is that Jesus has already purchased it for us when He offered all that He had – his body and blood on a cross – for the forgiveness of our sins.  So now, for those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, we are called to come into the presence of Jesus and offer all that we have so that Jesus can use us to be a blessing to the world.

A story is told of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who began her orphanage by telling her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” A dream and three pennies represented resources as small as a lunch in the hands of a little boy. “Mother Teresa,” her superiors chided gently, “you cannot build an orphanage with three pennies . . . with three pennies you can’t do anything.”  “I know,” she said, smiling, “but with God and three pennies I can do anything.”

May God give us the faith and the courage to dream, to risk and to do anything for Jesus.

Amen.

[2] http://www.examiner.com/x-10201-Oprah-Examiner~y2009m6d23-Lawsuit-filed-against-KFC-for-Oprah-giveaway-gone-astray

Preached by Michael Cheuk
June 28, 2009, Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Mark 5:21-43

Someone once said, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”  In this morning’s Gospel Lesson from Mark, we meet two desperate people facing desperate times.  The first was Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers.  We know his name because he was a highly respected leader perched on the upper crust of Jewish society.  Yet, despite his power, his influence, his connections and his resources, he was helpless in the face of his twelve-year-old daughter’s progressing illness.  Jairus had access to all the best medical care of his day, but they didn’t work out and his daughter’s life was rapidly slipping away.  One wouldn’t blame Jairus if he had resigned himself to his daughter’s death, for in his culture, daughters were not valued as sons.  But she must have been a very special child, the apple of his eye.  Now, he had heard about a faith healer from the podunk town of Nazareth, who, by all reports, was casting out demons and performing miraculous healings.  Talk about alternative medicine!  All the doctors Jairus had talked to thought Jesus was a quack, and all his friends on the synagogue ruling council said that they wouldn’t be caught dead getting help from an uneducated, hick-town preacher.  But Jairus was desperate, and for his beloved daughter, he would try anything.  So when he heard that Jesus was arriving to town from the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Lake of Gennesaret, he decided to leave his dying daughter’s side for one final, desperate mission.

Jairus arrived at the lakeshore only to find it already crowded with people, people that he knew.  He felt the gaze of their curious eyes as he single-mindedly made his way toward Jesus.  He knew what they were thinking.  “What’s Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue doing here?”  “Is he here to check out Jesus’ credentials?”  “To officially welcome him?”  “To tell him to go away?”  After all, chapter 4 of Mark just told us that after just after Jesus exorcised evil spirits from a possessed man and cast them into a herd of pigs, the people pleaded for Jesus to leave.  Nobody really knew what to make of Jesus – and they weren’t sure what to make of Jairus approaching him on this day.

Jairus could hear the collective gasp of surprise when he fell down at Jesus’ feet and earnestly begged: “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”  My, how the high and mighty have been made low, but as they say, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Jesus made no reply, but immediately followed Jairus home, racing against time on a life-saving mission.  Like metal shavings to a magnet, the crowds pressed in around Jesus, eagerly anticipating another spectacular miracle.  Suddenly Jesus stopped, looked around and said, “Who touched my clothes?”  Jesus’ disciples were quick to see the absurdity of this question.  It would be like Michael Phelps suddenly stopping in the middle of a 100 meter freestyle race to ask, “Who got me wet?”  But Jesus was serious about his question, for he felt his power surge out of him in the midst of the pressing flesh.  And as he looked around, a pale, frail woman came and, trembling with fear, fell at Jesus’ feet.

Here, we meet the second desperate person in this story.  It was a woman, so anonymous and insignificant that no one even knew her name.  While women in those days held little power and status, this particular woman was an untouchable in Jewish society.  For twelve years, she suffered from bleeding.  She spent all she had to seek help, but instead she grew worse.  She was tired physically.  Twelve years of anemia exhausted her as little by little, her life-force literally drained away.  She was tired spiritually.  According to Jewish law, a bleeding woman was considered unclean.  Her unclean state prevented her from worshipping in the synagogue, and for twelve years, she had no support from her faith community.  She was tired emotionally.  Her unclean state also meant that she had to be quarantined from other people until her bleeding stopped.  That was tolerable when the bleeding was only for a few days out of every month, but for twelve straight years, this woman was sentenced to solitary confinement in which she was deprived of human touch and human relationship.  In a small community where everyone knew everybody’s business, people in her village shunned her.  Even her own father basically disowned her for fear of becoming contaminated.  She was alone and lonely.

Finally, she was tired . . . of being tired.  She heard about a miracle-worker who was coming into town, and at once she knew that she had to meet him.  But how?  A woman was not supposed to assert herself on a man.  A woman like her had no business being out and about in close contact with other people.  But she was desperate, and so she set out on a final, desperate mission.

She arrived at the lakeshore only to find it already crowded with people, people that she knew.  She felt the gaze of their fearful eyes as she timidly made her way toward Jesus.  She knew what they were thinking.  “What is she doing here?”  “Doesn’t she know to stay in her place?”  “She’s going to contaminate us all!”  Through the hustle and bustle of the crowd, she was surprised to see Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, fall at Jesus’ feet to plead with Jesus.  Jesus stopped to listen, and then immediately changed directions to follow Jairus, and they, together with the crowd, were walking straight toward her!   She could tell they were in a hurry, and she figured that Jesus would never stop to hear her story.  So when Jesus passed by, she turned to follow him and thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”  She felt guilty sneaking about stealing a miracle from Jesus, like a shoplifter swiping a candy bar on her way out of Kroger.  But as they say, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

In our story, we find two desperate people.  In our churches, I wonder what kind of desperate people will we find?  I think many Christians can relate to both Jairus and the woman in our desperation for healing, for relationship, for a miracle that will give joy and meaning to life once again.  But I also think that many Christians are also desperate to hide our brokenness, our hurt, our pain and our struggle.  Like Jairus and the woman, we know and are afraid of what people will think and say.  In a small town where everyone knows everybody’s business, we know that word of our situations will spread like wildfire.  Maybe we even think that we can find the healing we need on their own.  But in the meantime, we are suffering and alone keeping up appearances or going undercover and not making any waves.

In the same way, many churches are also desperate to keep up with appearances that everything is well while their spiritual lifeblood is slowly ebbing away.  These churches become tired – tired physically from all the meetings and programs, tired emotionally from the anxiety of making budget and finding volunteers, tired spiritually because in the midst of their busyness, they are disconnected from God.

The Good News this morning is that Jesus specializes in desperate cases – provided that we acknowledge and recognize our own desperation and come to Him in faith and trust.  Why do you think Jesus stopped everything and interrupted his mission to save Jairus’ daughter when the woman reached up to touch his cloak?  She was already miraculously healed of her bleeding, so why did Jesus choose to take precious time to identify and speak to her?  Was it to call her out and embarrass her in front of the crowd?  No, I don’t think so.  In speaking to her, Jesus addressed an even deeper need than her need for physical healing.  Her faith in Jesus not only healed her physically, but also spiritually and emotionally, so that from now on, she could go in peace, in shalom, in wholeness, freed from her suffering.  To the woman who had no father and no meaningful human relationship for twelve years, Jesus lovingly let everyone know that she is a “daughter,” one who was as beloved and valued by her Heavenly Father as the daughter who lay dying in Jairus’ house.  Holistic healing came not as a result of the potency of her touch, but as a result of the powerful presence of the Son of God.

This tender scene was a moment of holy affirmation that the woman sorely needed, but it was also a moment of high anxiety for Jairus.  While Jesus dallied around, news came that Jairus’ daughter had died, and so there would be no need for Jesus to go to her.  But even before that dreadful announcement, Jairus had reason to fear because, as a ruler of the synagogue, he knew more than anyone that because that unclean, bleeding woman had touched Jesus, Jesus was now unclean and useless for further holy work.  It was as if someone with the swine flu had just sneezed all over a surgeon right as he was going into emergency surgery.  Jairus had power, respectability and prestige, but none of those things were going to bring his daughter back.

Why did Jesus stop and spend time with the woman healed of bleeding?  Was it only to affirm her?  Was it also to frustrate Jairus?  No, I don’t think so.  Just as Jesus knew that the woman needed more than physical healing, Jesus knew that Jairus needed more than his daughter healed.  Jairus himself needed to be healed of his dependence on his own power, of his impatience at God’s timing, and of his fear of losing control.  So Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”  Jairus needed to believe, to have faith, to trust that God is in control of the world, that God works God’s purposes in God’s own timing, and that God has the miraculous power to heal and to raise the dead to life.  Jairus was asked to just have faith to follow Jesus.

Miracles are tricky things.  When we see one happening to others, we want a miracle for ourselves.  We want to control the timing, the purpose and the occasion of miracles.  And we’re often led to believe that if we only have enough faith, miracles will happen.  But as Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Faith does not work miracles.  God does.  To concentrate on the strength of your own belief is to practice magic. . . . This is the difference between believing our lives are in our own hands and believing they are in God’s.  God, not faith, works miracles.”   She continues: “Jairus followed Jesus home and watched that unclean holy man do his work.  Either way, the high point was not then but earlier, when Jesus told him, “Do not fear, only believe.”  If Jairus was able to do that, then he would have survived whatever happened next, even if Jesus had walked into his daughter’s room, closed her eyes with his fingertips, and pulled the sheet over her head.  [Jairus’s] belief would have become the miracle at that point, his willingness to believe that she was still in God’s good hands even though she had slipped out of his.”

Barbara Brown Taylor’s comments make me think that perhaps the real miracles that took place that day were not the healings that Jesus wrought.  Perhaps the real miracles that day were two people acknowledging their desperate need and willing to let Jesus address both their perceived needs and their deepest needs.  Perhaps those are the miracles that we need both in our lives and in our churches.  Will we be desperate enough to drop all semblances of being “OK”?  Will we be desperate enough to shed all veneers of respectability?  Will we be desperate enough to lay aside all pretenses of power and control?  Will we be desperate enough to risk associating with those who are considered “unclean” by our society?  All for the sake of faith or belief or trust in the One who can and will heal our brokenness and raise up the dead places in us to a newness of life.   Amen.

Let us pray: Companion in life and death, your love is steadfast and never ends; our weeping may linger with the night, but you give joy in the morning. Touch us with your healing grace that, restored to wholeness, we may live out our calling as your resurrection people. Amen.