{"id":110,"date":"2009-01-25T13:34:49","date_gmt":"2009-01-25T13:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=110"},"modified":"2020-11-22T13:45:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T13:45:05","slug":"a-sermon-about-sermons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/a-sermon-about-sermons\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sermon about Sermons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mark 1:14-20<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

January 25, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday around 9:00 in the morning, I along with millions of people in America and 10s of millions around the world stopped what we normally do to listen to President Barack Hussein Obama deliver his inauguration speech. It was indeed inspiring to witness history in the making. No one would have imagined that a country founded by slave-owners would one day elect by its citizens the first African American to its highest office and the undisputed leader of the free world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one who grew up in Roxbury, the black neighborhood of Boston, who attended a middle school that was renamed the Martin Luther King, Jr. school, who couldn\u2019t get home at night one day when race riots roared through our street and the apartment building across our house was burned to the ground, and as one accused by my wife, Joy that I identified with Black people more than I identified with Asian people in college, I could hardly believe that President Obama stood on the same steps that past presidents did to deliver a speech that symbolized our dreams coming true and a presidency that may lead to solving the economic problems of our time and bringing an end to two wars. The San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> called his speech a sermon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps nothing close to the magnitude of listeners and viewers who witnessed President Obama\u2019s speech last Tuesday, but you are one of 50 million Americans who gather in churches this week to do something quite strange\u2014listen to a sermon. By the way, this is millions more than people who will go to a movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are religions that practice their faith by sitting quietly in some serene surroundings and meditate. There are other faiths that cultivate acts of piety, ritual acts that are designed to bring one closer to God. But Christianity believes that a primary way of getting close to God is by listening to a speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a sermon is a speech that is much more. And that \u201cmore\u201d is well illustrated by today\u2019s gospel lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 Sermons Cause Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus has been baptized, recognized by the Holy Spirit, and what does he do? He preaches. Jesus was primarily a preacher of good news. In today\u2019s Gospel, he explodes into the world with words, good words. He said, \u201cThe time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of us today, we hear Jesus\u2019 sermon and we go on with our everyday life. But when we look closely and understand that when Jesus preached about the \u201ckingdom of God has come near,\u201d it is unabashedly \u201cpolitical\u201d and revolutionary. Jesus doesn\u2019t come preaching about personal happiness, individual peace and security, or any of the things that tend to preoccupy many of my sermons. Jesus comes preaching a new kingdom, a change in national administrations, a shift in power. Jesus announces the advent of the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He doesn\u2019t say that God will get God\u2019s rule someday or one of these days. He says it\u2019s now. The kingdom has \u201cdrawn near,\u201d just by his announcing it in a sermon. When Jesus preaches, his sermons cause conflict with the power in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like if I were to stand up this morning and say to you, \u201cHear ye, hear ye. We are no longer living in the United States. The US Constitution is no longer binding on you. We have a new government and a new ruler and he is John McCain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only would you be jolted by such politics but I daresay, once the officials at city hall, or the state capitol, or in Washington heard about that sermon they would move rather quickly to see that you got another preacher!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s just what Jesus is preaching about. His sermon is very \u201cpolitical.\u201d Any sermon that Jesus preaches on is about who is in charge, who rules, where we\u2019re heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 Sermons Cause a Response<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon is more than a speech because it leads us to where we\u2019re heading. Jesus\u2019 sermon calls people to \u201crepent.\u201d Jesus doesn\u2019t just come sharing some interesting new information on people. He expects, demands radical response, a turning around from what one was doing to doing something else. He comes not to just communicate but to enlist. He comes not just saying, \u201cDo you agree?\u201d but rather, \u201cWill you join up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His sermon is not a lecture that we are to ponder and perhaps say, \u201cYes, that seems right to me. That makes sense to me.\u201d It\u2019s not like a calm discussion at the Sermon Talkback class for one hour but rather, we are to say, \u201cI didn\u2019t know that the world had changed. I\u2019ve got to move on to this different world. I\u2019ve got to live differently because I\u2019ve heard the announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing, he called out to them to follow him so that they can fish for people. And when he went a little farther, Jesus saw James and John, sons of Zebedee who were mending their nets and he called out to them to follow him too. Simon, Andrew, James and John all immediately dropped what they were doing and started to follow Jesus. They heard the announcement and they started to live a different life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth of the matter is that these four fishermen were likely quite prosperous. We learn later that Simon and Andrew had a house and an extended family (Mark 1:29-31<\/a>) and that James and John, along with their father Zebedee were wealthy enough to be able to hire additional help in their fishing business. Chances are that with this kind of background these men may have had some education. These weren\u2019t desperate drifters with nothing to lose, but well established businessmen in a culture where prosperity and family were everything. Following Jesus was no small disruption of their lives but a complete change of course. Following Jesus meant throwing out their fishing nets, their security, their reputations and their livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the test of my preaching is never, \u201cPreacher, that was a beautiful sermon that you just preached,\u201d but rather, \u201cPreacher, I can\u2019t wait to get out of here and put this into practice. I\u2019m not only going to take these good words to heart, but also to put them into my hands, my feet and make footprints and live as if the Kingdom of God has drawn near.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is not only announced; it\u2019s got to be enacted. Good news is not simply said, it\u2019s done. We are called to go and do good news. Repentance is a change of heart, but it is more so a change of direction. Jesus\u2019 sermon culminates in the calling of Simon and Andrew as disciples. The sermon ends in vocation and enlistment. Many of us are still working in jobs that we have been equipped and gifted to do. Some of us are finished with work that earned an income. But all of us whether we are still working or retired from our employment are still called in Jesus\u2019 sermon to have a change of direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 sermon is not about some sort of vague, feel-good \u201cspirituality.\u201d It\u2019s about recruitment. The announcement of the arrival of God\u2019s political order, the kingdom of God, calls for repentance, turning around, looking in another direction, and then calls for enlistment\u2014active discipleship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kingdom of God Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As enlisted disciples of Jesus Christ, we believe that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. It is here today. If we were to think that the Kingdom of God were simply a past reality, then what we would be called to do is remember it. If the Kingdom of God were simply a future reality, then what we would be called to do is to hope for it. But the Kingdom of God is both of those things and more. It\u2019s also an ever-present reality that is simultaneously past, future and present. We are called to live in the Kingdom of God as disciples with a different view of the world than even what President Obama said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to continue to live by the purity laws that strictly separate the insiders from the outsiders, the holy and the profane, in God\u2019s kingdom, those laws don\u2019t exist, so you better live like those laws have already been abolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are looking for a position of greatness and prestige, in God\u2019s kingdom, we are all like little children, so you better give up those aspirations of grandeur right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to be on the winning team, the side that will topple the Roman Empire with power and strength, the hallmark of God\u2019s kingdom is peace, so you better lay down your swords and open your arms to your enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nearness of the Kingdom of God demands that we live a radically new kind of life that is still, in many ways, at odds with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Kingdom of God, we are called to reject a capitalistic lifestyle that values money over people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Kingdom of God, we are called to reject the political rhetoric that defines torture as a necessary act of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Kingdom of God, we are called to reject the labeling of our brothers and sisters as unrepentant sinners but to see them as fellow participants in the new life and salvation Jesus Christ brought into the world, fellow citizens of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preaching Like Jesus Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you know that I love to preach. When I was in the Baptist Youth Fellowship in my home church, I would often end up preaching the Youth Sunday sermon. I enjoy preaching that sometimes I have to apologize to you when a casual conversation somehow ends up with me sounding like I am giving a sermon! I\u2019m always looking out for good sermon illustrations and many of you in your lives have provided me with good stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when I compare my preaching with the preaching of Jesus, my preaching frequently comes up short. It\u2019s quite a reach for my sermons to come even close to Jesus\u2019 sermons. But then it\u2019s quite a reach for you, I suspect, to come close to Simon and Andrew\u2019s response to Jesus\u2019 sermons! It\u2019s difficult to preach like Jesus and it\u2019s difficult to respond like Simon and Andrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I not only want to preach like Jesus, every once and awhile. I want even more to respond like Simon and Andrew, every once and awhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We, in America and those in the world are hopeful about what tomorrow may bring because of the speech that our new President Obama gave on Tuesday. We pray that change is coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as followers of Jesus Christ, we have other speeches to listen. Jesus\u2019 sermons are more that speeches because when we listen carefully, we have a way of getting closer to God. Jesus came preaching words that both challenged and encouraged, both cut and healed, both hurt and helped at the same time. Jesus came heralding a new world. And not many turned around, repented and joined up. Just two for now, just enough to turn the whole world upside down because of a sermon. And that\u2019s good news!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Jesus, give us a teachable spirit, receptive and open to your word, even when your sermon assaults our sensibilities and challenges us to the core of our being. Give us the means to hear you when you preach, calling our names, calling us to drop what we may be doing and to become a part of your kingdom. Help us to hear your message as our vocation. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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