Rev. Donald Ng, First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday, June 21\u2014\u201cJesus is the New and Living Way\u201d (Heb. 10:19-21)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hebrews 10:19-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curtains<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our conference theme passage comes from Hebrews 10:19-25. It comes after a long sermon (3 \u00bd chapters) that the Preacher has delivered on Christ\u2019s work for the congregation. So our passage begins, \u201cTherefore.\u201d Now that we have heard the meaning of Christ\u2019s sacrifice that takes away sins, therefore, what is our response?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is: \u201cGet ready to worship!\u201d The high priestly ministry of Jesus has made it possible for us to genuinely worship. We are not to just sit in the pew and go through the motions, but truly have access to the Holy Place, to be brought into communion with the merciful and generous God of all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not like the old days when the high priest, and no one else, parted the curtain and entered the tent of the \u201cHoly of Holies.\u201d Under the new covenant, all of God\u2019s children can enter into the Holy of Holies. The great high priest of Jesus through his death has opened up a \u201cnew and living way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was once a privilege of the high priest alone is now the privilege of every member of the community of faith. The reason why we are here tonight is that we are exercising this privilege of being a community of faith. We are God\u2019s children from near and far with no more curtain to separate us from God and from each other to worship. No longer strangers and outcasts, relegated to the outside, we are brothers and sisters\u2014friends and family welcomed inside the house of God. CONFAB 2002 is getting ready to worship the Lord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our house, we have curtains covering our windows. They are there to shut out the bleaching sun from our rooms. We also have curtains in our churches and in our lives. They separate us from knowing the truth. When the world is constantly changing around us, we have a desire to keep some things the same. When it comes to our church life, we have often wanted to draw close a curtain to separate the threats of the world from the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Timothy Tseng, professor of church history at the Baptist seminary in Berkeley will help us to draw open the curtain so that we may understand the role of Chinese churches in the future. It is only when we appreciate where we have come from, will we cherish the privilege of being a community of faith in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the life of our local churches, we see other curtains being drawn. When the different members of the community of faith are unappreciated and underused, we become divided. Laurene Chan will explore the partnership of women and men in the church by looking at the unique gifts that women bring. Sometimes curtains are closed between the pastor and members particularly over finances and caring support. Augustine Bau will give you a hands-on opportunity to enable you to improve the important relationship between pastor and lay leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when we think about our own personal and family life, there are some more curtains that create barriers and separations. Samuel Leong will help you to take down the curtain between teenagers and parents. Finally, we hang up curtains to keep God away from us. Anne Lau Choy using her skills in spiritual directions, will assist you and your church to foster a deeper relationship with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is the new and living way who has made it possible for us to be here tonight. We pray that you will have a great conference with us this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday Morning, June 22\u2014\u201cLet Us Persevere with a True Heart in Full Assurance of Faith\u201d (Heb. 10:22)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Saturday Night, June 22\u2014\u201cLet Us Hold Fast in Hope of Christ\u2019s Promise\u201d (Heb. 10:23)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hebrews 10: 22-23<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWash Your Hands before Dinner!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was growing up in the Roxbury district of Boston, these days would be the \u201chazy, lazy, days of summer.\u201d We freely played out in the streets and down in the playgrounds until it was time to come home for dinner. From the San Francisco stories that I have heard, it was like that here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a full day of running around the neighborhood, we would be dirty\u2014playing stickball, blazing trails, and dissecting bugs. My mom would say, \u201cWash your hands before dinner!\u201d We would lather all the way past our elbows leaving puddles of water all over the floor. But we were cleaned enough for dinner. Later on we will still need to take baths\u2014rubbing off all that \u201clock nye\u201d and leaving a bathtub ring!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Preacher in Hebrews talks about us having a \u201ctrue heart.\u201d When we come to worship in God\u2019s house, we come as people who have been baptized and forgiven. Believing in the grace and mercy of God, \u201cour hearts sprinkled clean from evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.\u201d Cleaning our bodies is an external sign that God has provided a deeper, inner cleansing so that we can approach God in worship with a true heart in full assurance of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like this passage for CONFAB because it\u2019s ecumenical. We sprinkle and immerse completely!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But sometimes when we are cleaned and dried on the outside, we still feel unclean inside. Our \u201ctrue heart\u201d doesn\u2019t feel that full assurance of faith at all. Sometimes we spend our lives in half-hearted commitments. We may be heartsick over the broken-ness in our lives. Perhaps our hearts are heavy-laden by the cares of life. We have heart disease! That is when we are touched by God\u2019s forgiveness and healed, sprinkled clean by the grace of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Water All Around<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rabbi Marc Gellman shares a story about God\u2019s mercy and grace. God is everywhere, ready to make his presence known to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When God first made the world, nothing turned out right, so God decided to start<\/p>\n\n\n\n all over again. When the animals heard this, they were frightened. They decided to ask God not to end the world. But none of them knew where God lived, so they all flew and flopped, rolled and ran, jerked and jumped, crept and crawled, slithered and slid to the different places they thought God lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The elephant said, \u201cI am the biggest animal, but God must be bigger than I. Surely I will find God in the biggest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The elephant came to the mountain. \u201cThis is the biggest thing around, so it must be God!\u201d And the elephant asked the mountain not to end the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The eagle said, \u201cI can fly higher than any animal, but God must fly higher than I. I will find God in the highest thing.\u201d The eagle flew higher and higher\u2014far higher than any bird had ever flown before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The eagle saw a flurry cloud that was even higher than he. \u201cThis is the highest thing, so it must be God.\u201d And the eagle asked the cloud not to end the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lion said, \u201cMy roar is the loudest animal sound, but God must be louder than I. Surely I will find God in the loudest thing!\u201d So the lion roared and roared and roared and roared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly the clouds gathered together, turned black, and sent out thunder and lightning. \u201cThis is the loudest thing, so it must be God.\u201d And the lion asked the thunder not to end the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon the elephant realized that the mountain wasn\u2019t God because it didn\u2019t answer him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon the eagle realized that the cloud wasn\u2019t God because it blew away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon the lion realized that the thunder wasn\u2019t God because it stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon all the animals were yelling, \u201cWe have to find God or we\u2019re done for!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the fish spoke up. \u201cIn the oceans and seas and rivers and lakes where we live, water is everywhere. There is water above and water below. There is water all around. If the water is everywhere, God must be everywhere too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When God heard what the fish said, the whole world shone and the black clouds blew away. Then God said to the animals, \u201cWhen I end the world, I will save two of each kind of animal so that when the world starts over, you can start over too. But as for the fish\u2026I will save all of them cause only they knew where to find God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even when God was about to end the world of evil that we have, God is still saving us from dying. God is ever-present, just like water is everywhere and seeks its own level, God is ready and prepared to sprinkled clean and wash our bodies for new living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hold Fast in Hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n As new beings, we come hoping and holding on to the promises of God. God has promised that a day is coming when war will be ended, when justice will flow down like a waterfall, and when death and pain will be no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God has promised that a time is coming when no mother will weep again for her lost children, when all will have a place to live and food to eat, when many will come from the east and west, north and south for a great homecoming of God\u2019s extravagant banquet table. But Christians must live in a world where \u201cwe do not yet see\u201d the realization of these promises; therefore we must live in hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must hold fast to the confession of hope without wavering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The focus of this year\u2019s CONFAB is to reaffirm the truth of God\u2019s grace and mercy in the forgiveness that we have received from Jesus Christ. We may feel discouraged and fatigued from laboring long and seeing few results. But the Preacher in Hebrews is calling us to persevere and hold fast to the hope of God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we share our meals together today and participate in the banquet and celebration tomorrow night, we are reflecting our hope that one day, all of us will have a place at God\u2019s extravagant homecoming banquet table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s time for us to wash our hands before dinner!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday, June 24, \u201cLet Us Provoke One Another to Meet, Love, and Do Good Deeds\u201d (Heb. 10:24-25)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hebrews 10: 24-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Hoyt Jr. a bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church wrote,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I was a boy, my father took my sister and me with him to the prayer and testimony meeting each Wednesday night. He was the minister, and sometimes the three of us were the only ones there. But that didn\u2019t stop the service or hold back the Spirit. After we sang together and he prayed, it was time for my sister and me. \u201cIt is your time to pray,\u201d he would say, and I got on my knees and prayed. \u201cNow sing your song,\u201d I would sing my little song. Next my sister would sing and pray. Then my father announced that it was time for the testimonies. And I would get up and say, \u201cThank God for what God has done for me, and I hope that you all will pray for me so that I will grow strong.\u201d On our way home at the end of the evening, he would say, \u201cDidn\u2019t we have a good time tonight!\u201d Yes, we surely did, in song, prayer, and testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I lived 45 of my 53 years in the East Coast. During the long and cold wintry months, there were many occasions when the weather forecaster would predict a snow blizzard on Saturday night. To be a pastor in the East Coast, it was always your job to get up early on Sunday morning, drive gingerly down the snow-covered roads to open the church doors. You take a shovel to push the snow away. You sprinkle salt on the walkways. It\u2019s Sunday. It didn\u2019t matter how many people might show up\u2014it was time to worship God and to have a good time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Preacher in Hebrews knew that attendance at services had not been all that it could be. Some have gotten into the habit of neglecting to meet together. We can understand that. It seems that somehow worshipping God all alone on a deserted beach feels more worship-ful. Somehow the still beauty of the night under the canopy of stars feels more like where God might be. Somehow worshipping God in the midst of a ragtag assembly that shows up at church is the last place we expect to find God. People are not having a good time these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, we just get tired, tired in worship and tired of worship. It is not only that the sermon may ramble on for a tad too long (not when I\u2019m preaching!) or that the pace of the service can sometimes lag; the weariness of worship gives us the sense that nothing of real significance happens here. The local video store has better drama; television has more interesting stories; the Sunday paper has more intrigue, and sleeping in provides a more profound Sabbath rest. What is more, nobody at the beach or the backyard barbecue is going to hand us a pledge card, call us to pray for people in a country whose name we cannot pronounce, or ask us to teach the junior high youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we come to the last day of our conference, sometimes we ponder over the question of whether we should continue to meet as an organization and a conference. Are most people just too tired of CONFAB to attend? Are there more interesting and exciting things to do and places to see than to come to CONFAB?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Preacher in Hebrews seems to know our feelings and thoughts. He is prodding us to aggressively do good works of mercy. He is pushing us to move along the right path. And he is encouraging us to come together to worship\u2014regardless how small the attendance might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian worship is an eschatological event; it is a participation here and now in praises to God and a foretaste of the approaching victory of God. A time is coming, wrote Paul, when \u201cevery knee should bend on heaven and in earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11). When we convene every two years, we come to God to worship with our knee bend and our tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We come to have a good time. God is calling us to faithfully meet together every two years with an eye on that Day that\u2019s approaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. \u201cI\u2019ve gone for 30 years now,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand in that time I have heard something like 3000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can\u2019t remember a single one of them. So I think I\u2019m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This started a real controversy in the \u201cLetters to the Editor\u201d column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I can\u2019t recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time we come together, we receive spiritual food that encourages us; fellowship that nurtures us; and wisdom that equips us toward effective ministries. We must not neglect to meet. We need to have a habit of every two years to be in fellowship again. Didn\u2019t we have a good time last night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The future of CONFAB has never been depended on how many people registered for the conference. It only takes a minister and his two children to pray, sing a little song, and give a testimony. It only takes a determined pastor after a winter blizzard to invite people to worship. It only took a few of us who has provoked each other to love and do good deeds, to not neglect and forget each other but to meet, and finally to encourage one another as we see the day of the Lord coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two years from not, many of us will come back together for the 2004 CONFAB conference. And as we can testify today we will faithfully testify in the future, \u201cDidn\u2019t we have a good time tonight!\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rev. Donald Ng, First Chinese Baptist Church, San Francisco Friday, June 21\u2014\u201cJesus is the New and Living Way\u201d (Heb. 10:19-21) Hebrews 10:19-21 Curtains Our conference theme passage comes from HebrewsDidn\u2019t We Have a Good Time?<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
Two weeks ago, I preached a message on the importance of coming to church regularly and faithfully. I shared this story.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n