January 6, 2013
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
On this first Sunday of the New Year, we ask this question, “Why am I the way I am?” Or, “Who am I anyway?”
Our answers might be at this time of the year, “After the holidays, I am an overfed, under-exercised human being who spends too much on the cars I own, who’s too materialistic and too busy making money to support my habits, not to speak of supporting the spouse, kids, grandkids and expensive vacations.” Now, I’m not talking about anyone here!
It’s tempting for us to make New Year’s resolutions, all those things people promise to do or stop doing in the coming year that will make their life better, improve their health, etc. But we know that most of the resolutions we try to make never get implemented. I heard that fitness centers are very crowded right now but by next month, it won’t be. Do you know why?
The reason for this is that we can’t fundamentally change our behavior until we fundamentally understand who we are and who we are is shaped by what we believe. If you want to make big changes in your life, you have to be willing to dig deeper into your whole belief system and your reason for existence. For instance, it’s not helpful to resolve to go to the gym, when you haven’t dealt with the reasons why the couch in front of the TV is so important to your life.
New Year resolutions, then, are about what you’ll do, but the real change comes as a result of knowing who you are. What do you fundamentally believe about yourself, about the world, about God, and how does that belief shape your behavior? When we get down to that level of introspection and self-awareness, we will begin to see our behavior change.
When I was in my youth, I believed that God loved me for all of my failings that I became a witness of his grace. If God can use this little child who didn’t speak English until going to public school, small in size, growing up disadvantaged in the black ghetto of Boston and who knows what other failings that I had and still might have in the eyes of the world, then my life is God’s. This is my true identity. After realizing who I am, I was able to take the next step that moved me to ask the question, “Why I am?” This led me to know my purpose in life. And for the past 38 years, the purpose of my life is to be a Minister of the Christian Gospel.
We are all shaped by our beliefs, both positives and negatives, and those beliefs determine our course of action and the trajectory of our lives. How does belief affect you, and where will it take you this New Year?
Why I Am a Christian
Our lesson for today is about the apostle Paul as one example who was driven by such belief. For Paul, belief in Christ was no mere intellectual or philosophical exercise, but a fully embodied faith that drove him to travel across the Mediterranean world at the risk of his life as an apostle.
As Paul writes to the Ephesian church, he is doing so, from prison. This is not the first time that he is in prison. If Paul’s beliefs were merely intellectual, you would think he would recant them easily to avoid jail. It’s clear, however, that Paul is no couch-potato believer in Christ as evidenced by his chains.
We might think of Ephesians as Paul’s “Why I Am” statement, and as we look at it we might get a clue about the ways in which we can build a framework for the exercise of our own beliefs in the coming year. In the first three chapters of Ephesians, we see several core ideas that Paul uses to explain why he is a Christian and an apostle.
First, Paul is a Christian because he has been called by God. In the beginning of the letter, Paul writes, “”Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (1:1). Right up front Paul wants his readers to know that he didn’t come to his profession and practice through his intellectual or philosophical musings. Rather, he understood that God had exercised God’s own will in calling Paul for his mission. In Acts 9, we read about Paul’s dramatic conversion on the Damascus road when Paul the violent persecutor of Christ becomes Christ’s greatest advocate in the Gentile world.
Most of us, however, don’t have that kind of lightning flash call from God. Instead it usually comes more gradually and subversively, often through the combination of Scripture and other people around us who recognize God is at work in us even before we do. When my 3rd grade Sunday school teacher Beatrice Wyatt made us memorized 1 Corinthians 13 before we can receive our new Bibles on Promotion Sunday, it was Scripture that called me to the meaning of love. When Rev. Charles Griffin who is now in his upper 80s gave me my very first paid church job at $10 a week, he was acting on behalf of God recognizing that God is at work in me even before I knew it.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love “ (1:4). That chosen-ness is a result of God’s grace, poured out through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (2:4-7) and not as a result of our own efforts (2:8-9). God’s grace unites people of different backgrounds and origins into one people who are called, individually and collectively to act on the call they have received (2:10).
Secondly, Paul is a Christian because he believes there is meaning behind his circumstances. At the beginning of our lesson today, Paul says he is a “prisoner of Jesus Christ” for the sake of the “Gentiles” (3:1). He goes on to explain how his work and his present circumstances are necessary for the larger purpose of bringing the good news to those outside of Judaism.
Sometimes it’s hard for us to see beyond our suffering, or to see past the inconveniences, interruptions, changes of plans, etc. to understand what God might be doing in our lives. We all have encountered such circumstances in our lives and afterward, we discover with great amazement and wonder how God was actually working in our midst.
Our daughter Lauren, her husband Daniel and the three kids went to the snow country last week to introduce the kids to real snow. When they arrived at their reserved cabin, they quickly realized that they couldn’t stay there and had to find another accommodation for the next two days. In the process they offered prayer for the cabin owner who was struggling to keep his business going, they met another family who shared their sleds with the kids and ended up breaking bread together, and they made new reservations at a Christian facility that welcomed them with Christian warmth and hospitality. What was turning into an awful situation ended up becoming an epiphany of seeing how God is working among them.
Paul asks, “Why am I prisoner?” He discovered that God was present with him, moving in his heart and that his imprisonment was serving a larger purpose.
The third reason why Paul is a Christian is because he believed in God’s plan for the world. Paul expresses this “larger purpose” as the “mystery” of God’s will. In Ephesians 1:10, Paul sees that God’s will is “a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Mystery here is a plan and Paul understood that he is the agent of that plan—the one whose orders were to bring its revelation to the Gentiles (3:1-6).
That plan is that the whole world might know God and the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ has made this possible and we are called to help bring it about. God’s plan did not only involve Paul but it involves all of us.
Did you know I love superhero movies? Whenever I visit our son in North Carolina, we would watch a superhero movie that I have not yet seen. So, I saw the Avengers and Thor the last time. The last Spiderman movie was pretty good. And I heard that a new Superman movie is in production. There’s universal interest in superhero movies because people care about trying to save the world.
We love this stuff because we know the world needs to be saved. We know the world needs wisdom. We know Congress needs cooperation and partnership. We know that there are too many conflicts and war in the world. We know the world needs God, and we love it that God has called us to be a superhero for one corner of the world, or at least a mini-hero or something. Just like Paul, we are Christians because we believe in God’s plan for the world and we are excited to be a part of it.
And lastly, Paul is a Christian because he has been called to be a servant. He is an apostle and a prisoner because Paul understands that he is called to be a “servant” (1:7). While he felt that he was the “least of all the saints,” meaning the other disciples, Paul is excited about this because he knows the work God has called him to do, and to be the person God has called him to be. God has provided the skill-set, gifts and training he needs, “according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power” (3:7).
Honestly, I never would have imagined that you would call me as your pastor 14 years ago when I came from such humble beginnings. I never would have imagined becoming the Vice President of the American Baptists when I was just a little boy in Boston. What God calls us to be and do as his servants, God provides all the necessary skills and gifts to do it.
FCBC Epiphany
Today is Epiphany, 12 days after the birth of Jesus and it’s a rare occurrence to have Epiphany fall upon a Sunday. We remember the Magi or the wise men coming to worship the babe in Bethlehem because they have seen a star that reveals to them that something wonderful has occurred in their world. They have been the recipients of an epiphany.
I believe it’s providential, a part of God’s plan that on this Sunday, January 6th, Epiphany is when we moved into our new Sunday morning schedule. And you have come this day to experience this epiphany. We didn’t enter into this new schedule lightly or without much prayerful thought and planning. Rather, after many hours of exploring how we might strengthen our overall ministries as a church and to begin to enhance worship and encourage more people to attend Sunday school, we believe that this is our FCBC epiphany.
We are witnessing an event in the life of our church that was not necessarily self-generated but rather we have received a revelation that this schedule is how God wants us to be bold and confident in our Christian discipleship. I know that none of us would go out of our way to be inconvenienced. We like the way things are. But I believe what has happened to us in the past few months and coming to fulfillment today is that it’s an epiphany. We have received a revelation from God and this is a gift to celebrate and to participate in.
The Apostle Paul tells us that faith is a gift from God. Our faith as well as this church is more like the work of the star shining upon the Magi. In a great sense, they didn’t come toward the star; it shined toward them. We come to Christ because he first came to us. We come to church this morning with this new schedule because God first came to us with the Good News of Jesus Christ that forever has changed the world as we know it.
Why Am I
So, “Who am I?” or “Why am I the way I am?” are questions that we must ask ourselves if we want to change our behavior. We must first understand who we are and why we are who we are before we can fundamentally change any of our behavior. Like Paul, who understood that he was called by God, understood that there is meaning behind his circumstances, believed that he was a part of God’s plan for the world, and saw himself as a servant, he was given the revelation, the epiphany to become the greatest advocate for Christ in the Gentile world.
When we understand who we are and why we are who we are, we would have no problem with the new Sunday morning schedule because we would understand that we are participating in God’s overall plan.
The “why” of Christian faith is all about God’s plan to reconcile the whole creation, remaking and renewing it in his own image. Jesus himself spoke most often about the “Kingdom of God,” or the reign or rule of God on earth for the purpose of transformation. Those who believe that God has called them also believe that God has given them a mission within God’s larger mission for the world. They are people who “do not lose heart” over their sufferings because, as Paul believed, they are part of the process of bringing God’s glory into the world (3:13).
Some of you have either read the book or seen the movie, The Help about house servants working in southern homes. One of the nannies, continually tells the child “who she is” in order to combat the poor self-esteem that would develop from her parents’ neglect. She said, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”
As the New Year breaks open with 359 days left to go, we are called to examine our beliefs on who we are and what we believe and discover the answers to “Why am I the way I am?” In the Incarnation of Christ, God is continually telling you, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”
New Year resolutions are less important than results. The will of God is for us to go and do the work of the kingdom each day we have to live.
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord God, show yourself to us and surround us with your true nature. Lead us to dig deeper into ourselves to understand who we are and what we believe. Just as the Apostle Paul understood the reason for his life, lead us to discover why our lives are important to the work of your Kingdom. Open our eyes to see the host of epiphanies and revelations that are present to us as we commit to the transformative work of this church in this corner of your amazing world that still needs Good News. In the name of Christ who is God With Us, we pray. Amen.