Luke 7:11-17<\/p>\n\n\n\n
June 6, 2010<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday morning, it\u2019s particularly difficult for me to pay attention. While I try to greet each of you after worship by calling out your name and looking into your eyes, I can see at the corner of my eye, someone waiting to see me. All of you are very kind and merciful and forgive me when I have a mental block from remembering your name or taking the responsibility to write to me reminding me of what I need to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We live in a world so deeply distracted by media. Our TVs are filled with short, snappy sound bites to make one point. We hear the end results of news but no historical context or explanation of what may have occurred before the event happened. Fewer and fewer people are reading whole stories in the daily newspapers and getting their news briefs online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s no wonder that after 5 minutes into my sermon; some of you are dozing off! We can\u2019t seem to be able to pay attention to what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Widow in Nain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In our Scripture for today, this is an isolated incident in Jesus\u2019 ministry. It\u2019s a very short story. In one sense, it\u2019s about one woman in one story. She doesn\u2019t appear in the verses before or after this passage. The town of Nain doesn\u2019t appear anywhere else in all of Scripture. But in a larger sense, this is a picture of what God is up to in this world, and in that respect it very much involves you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t know what brought Jesus to the city of Nain. But what we do know is that before he entered the town, he encountered a funeral possession. He could have taken another route to avoid all the crowds. I would have done that. Since it was someone else\u2019s funeral, we would have avoided the commotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The body of a young man who had died was being carried out on a portable platform, a plank. We don\u2019t know how he died, if he had been ill for some time, or perhaps been the victim of an accident or even murder. But we do know that his death meant almost certain death for someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His mother was a widow; she had no other children, so the death of her son left her with no means of support. Being a widow, she was excluded from the inheritance laws; any valuables owned by her extended family could not pass on to her. The Hebrew word for widow means, literally, to be unable to speak. Her son, the man who spoke for her is now gone and in his absence, the woman has been silenced. So with the death of her son, the rest of her life was liable to be desperate and brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus knew all of that and saw it in an instant\u2014and he acted. He paid attention to the widow who was silenced. Jesus notices this silenced woman, attends to her, and indeed transformed her from a woman who has no one to speak for her into a woman who is spoken for by the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus, out of his compassion says to her, \u201cDo not weep.\u201d Then he came forward and touched the plank, \u201cYoung man, I say to you, rise!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compassion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone recently shared with me that with so many natural and human-made disasters happening in the world on almost a regular basis that it\u2019s become harder to be compassionate. Hearing so many cries around the world is hardening us from caring. For our own survival, we have blocked the out the cries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible says Jesus had compassion. When we think of compassion we tend to think of pity, of feeling bad for someone in his or her distress. But the Bible\u2019s depiction of compassion is much deeper, more graphic. It was thought that compassion was a physical function, located in a person\u2019s intestines. So when a person felt compassion, he or she would feel an actual, physical pain or wrenching in the intestines. That\u2019s what Jesus felt for this widow. It\u2019s become trite to say, \u201cI feel your pain,\u201d but that\u2019s exactly how Scripture conceives of compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notice that no one came up to Jesus to do anything for the widow. No one came up to Jesus and lobbied on behalf of the widow. No one said, \u201cShe has led a righteous life and has earned a miracle.\u201d In fact, we know nothing at all about this woman, what her life has been like, what she has done or failed to do. There was no complete story of her life for us to read about. Jesus simply sees the tragedy in her life, and acts to bring just a bit more of the Kingdom of God into reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this story, Jesus intrudes on business-as-usual, halts the march of death, speaks grace, and brings forth life. So, we too, as the living, breathing body of Christ in this time and place, are to have a tangible impact on our world. We are to be living reminders that God\u2019s desire for all of humanity, in addition to living eternally with him, is for abundance of life now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we give to the One Great Hour of Sharing offering, we are paying attention to the needs of the world like Jesus paid attention to the needs of the widow. Inasmuch as Jesus had compassion for this widow whom Jesus did not know, we too are to have compassion for people facing disastrous situations that we do not know. We are to be different because Christ is in us. The world is to be different because we are in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what might the world look like if we were to intrude on our business-as-usual culture, if we were to speak about grace and compassion and bring forth life? I think about our Lanna Coffee Project. Business-as-usual would mean that we just buy any coffee when it\u2019s on sale or buy coffee at Costco because it\u2019s cheaper. We might say that every coffee bean looks pretty much alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But 4 years ago, when the eight people from this church visited Thailand and saw the faces of the little children at the House of Love because their parents and villages refuse to accept them because they have AIDS or HIV infected, they experienced compassion\u2014this physical pang or wrenching in their intestines. This was a house of compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then at the New Life Center, they saw girls and young women who became caught up in prostitution and being human trafficked for the sake of earning money to send back to their parents and families that are economically depressed. These eight people from our church felt compassion that they never felt before. They refused to do nothing but to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecting the dots or making sensible of what they saw in Thailand, they returned understanding that if they sold Lanna Coffee that would invest in village economies, making it unnecessary for girls and young women to go into cities like Bangkok to make a living, we would literally stop human prostitution. There will be no children born with AIDS. They paid attention to what they saw. They felt compassion like how Jesus felt compassion for the widow. They felt the pain of the children who\u2019s been abandoned, the hope of the girls and young women whose lives need a new start, the dedication and sacrifices of the missionaries working at the House of Love and the New Life Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are to be different because Christ is in us. The world is to be different because we are in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Realm of God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our story this morning is symbolic because it looks ahead to the end of the Gospel, to the resurrection of Jesus. Just as this young man is raised from the dead by the power of God, so too will Jesus be raised from the dead by the power of God. The whole point of Jesus\u2019 life, death and resurrection is the resurrection from death of all humanity. God\u2019s agenda is nothing less than the redemption of all creation, including you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as Jesus paid attention to the widow and intruding on the realm of death to bring forth new life, how can we pay attention to the world around us? How can we intrude against the realm of death to bring forth new life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a story of a church when a band played for worship and during the breaks between sessions, various members of the band would occasionally say a few words by way of introduction. All except one–the rhythm guitarist. She simply played, never saying a word until the last morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That morning, as the church people were chatting with each other, she stepped up to her mic and said, \u201cI just wanted to say thanks.\u201d The conversation died down as everyone turned their attention to the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA few years ago,\u201d she began, \u201cmy life was pretty messed up. I was on the outside, looking in. Didn\u2019t care about much. Church? Couldn\u2019t care less. God? Couldn\u2019t care less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut then,\u201d she told the group, \u201csomething happened. You came out. You were on the inside, and you came out. You welcome me. You told me that the tattoos didn\u2019t matter. You told me that where I\u2019ve been didn\u2019t matter. You meant it! You were real. After a while I started to get to know Jesus, and I got to know him through you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, I just wanted to say thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somebody paid attention and stopped this woman\u2019s march toward death, spoke grace and showed compassion, and brought forth life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was it you who paid attention, stopped the march of death, spoke grace and showed compassion? In the grace and power of God, will it be you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merciful Lord, we want to be more like you who took notice and paid attention to the people around you. We pray that you would teach us compassion for the many needy people around us and in this world. As the true Body of Christ, we pray that because we are in the world, the world is a better place and reflects a little bit of what your kingdom is like. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luke 7:11-17 June 6, 2010 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. On Sunday morning, it\u2019s particularly difficult for me to pay