{"id":659,"date":"2006-10-01T19:23:30","date_gmt":"2006-10-01T19:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=659"},"modified":"2020-12-02T12:10:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T12:10:03","slug":"gods-superhero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/gods-superhero\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Superhero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Romans 8:18-39<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 1, 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco at the Ordination of Lauren Lisa Ng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all know who we are talking about when we say: \u201cFaster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, it\u2019s a bird, it\u2019s a plane, it\u2019s Superman!\u201d When Lauren was a little child, she was a fan of Superman. She had Superman cup. One of her favorite Christmas tree ornaments is Superman in a telephone booth that changes back and forth from Superman to Clark Kent then back to Superman again. When Lauren was in junior high and the TV series, Lois and Clark<\/em> with Dean Cain playing Superman was on the air, it was a must see TV on Sunday nights after youth group. I think she still has a Superman magnet on her refrigerator door!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of us like the idea of superheroes. There\u2019s Batman who fights the Riddler or the Penguin in Gotham City. We have Wonder Woman with her lasso and invisible plane going after criminals. There\u2019s Spiderman who glides through the city with his spider web tangling up thieves. Many of the blockbuster movies are about superheroes because they portray a power that can ultimately and eventually defeat evil. We want superheroes to be real, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in a world where bad things happen, where people are being killed all the time. Violent death is a daily occurrence in the streets, schools, workplaces and homes in our communities and in this country. Innocent people do die from violence and evil done to them. Such evils are perpetrated not only by individuals, but also by political and social forces, by nations, by governments, by armies and navies. Violence, persecution, hardship, hunger, and homelessness are everyday news items in our world. Paul quoted from Psalm 44:22<\/a>, \u201c\u2026we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.\u201d No wonder we need Superman! We need one of those big spot lights to beam a Batman sign up in the sky for a superhero to help us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffering World<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul writes in Romans 8<\/a> that we are living in between the age of evil and the age of the Spirit. We have received the gift of the Spirit and have first tasted that glory which has entered history in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But God\u2019s reign of splendor is yet to come in its fullness. It is like D-Day, which is not the end of World War II but the beginning of the end. It\u2019s like the Montgomery bus boycott, which was not the end of legalized segregation in the United States but the beginning of the end. It is like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa which was not the end of everyday apartheid but the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though we have this power from the Spirit, Paul reminds us that we live under the ongoing conditions of the age of evil, which is defeated but not yet destroyed. The power of sin and evil is that faithful people still suffer, but the promise of the Spirit is that suffering will give way to our full fellowship in God\u2019s own family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see the sufferings of the present time every time we turn on our computers and read today\u2019s headlines. We don\u2019t need to look too hard to hear the groaning and the cries of people who are hoping that soon they will be adopted and welcomed into God\u2019s house. When the world is suffering, when it is in bondage, when it is groaning like in labor pains, we desperately hope for a superhero to restore the whole creation. But it is exactly during these horrible times that Paul encourages us to have hope because nothing that we see today that horrifies us is worth comparing with the glory of God that is about to be revealed to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Weakness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons why we identify with superheroes is that they all have some kind of vulnerability. Superman may have x-ray vision but he can\u2019t see through lead and when bad guys hide kryptonite in a lead box, Superman would get weaker and loses his superpowers. Batman always struggles with the tragedy of seeing his parents gunned down. Spiderman can\u2019t decide whether he wants to lead a normal teenage life and have a real girlfriend or follow his dying father\u2019s instruction that \u201cThose who have great powers have great responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul says that Christians also have weaknesses. We are weak when it comes to knowing how to pray as we ought. I shared this morning about how we don\u2019t really know how prayer works. And sometimes, as pastors, we yearn to become more effective witnesses and compassionate consolers but find ourselves sighing more than praying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Paul, our weakness, this inward groaning, the waiting, the hoping without seeing; all of this is what it means to live under the cross in this world. This is what it means to be \u201cweak.\u201d Our praying is less than it could be because the gap between who we are and who we are destined to be has been too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our weakness is that we can never completely appreciate and understand what is happening in and around us. What is a good thing? What is a bad thing? Paul insists that we may not understand all things, but we can trust that no things are unusable for God\u2019s final purposes. God\u2019s sovereignty is expressed in God\u2019s ability to take anything and bend it to serve his divine purpose. Paul says, \u201cWe know that all things work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose\u201d (8:28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of us have heard the testimonies of men and women who have suffered the loss of loved ones, or fought cancer or some other dread disease. They declare that great good has come from what they initially saw as a totally negative event. They echo Joseph\u2019s words to his brothers, \u201cEven though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good (Gen. 50:20). God is able to take everything that happens in this world and bend it to serve his divine purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren\u2019s Call<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can testify that the things that are happening in Lauren Ng\u2019s life are working together for good. She loves the Lord and God has called her according to his purpose. Lauren excelled in creative writing and English in college. Her professors were hoping that she might pursue a career in writing and perhaps college teaching. As her father, I found myself encouraging her to do graduate work in this field too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as Lauren wrote in her ordination paper, she became \u201ctroubled by my indifference toward completing\u201d the creative writing graduate program applications sitting on her desk. She said, \u201cPoetry had been my life and passion throughout college and so I couldn\u2019t figure out why I wasn\u2019t excited at the prospect of continuing my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this time, Lauren was working at International Ministries in Valley Forge and on her way home driving on the Schuylkill Expressway in heavy traffic toward Philadelphia in the summer of 2001, she experienced a Damascus event. God took Lauren\u2019s indifference about pursuing a creative writing degree and bend that troubling situation for his divine purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren continues, \u201cI called my father on my cell phone to talk. When he answered, I began to sob. I explained my problem to him and finished by crying out desperately, \u2018Dad, I want to help people!\u2019 It sounded so elementary, and I even laughed out loud at the simplicity of it. As we talked, I realized I didn\u2019t want to spend another two years at school perfecting my craft of writing. I didn\u2019t need more training in syntax, meter, and metaphor. I needed training in compassion, creativity, and servanthood. I know I wanted to use my gifts to serve God\u2019s people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren, you sound a lot like the superheroes we mentioned today. We are so proud of you that you want to help people with the gifts God has blessed you with to serve his people. By doing so, all the things in your life will be working together according to God\u2019s purpose because of your love for God. But we also want to remind you that like every single person here regardless of how young or old, how many degrees we have or not have, how many who are here with clergy robes or any earthly credentials and achievements that we can proclaim, we still have our weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You too may have the weakness of knowing how to pray as we ought\u2014when a loved one dies, when there\u2019s no remedy left to heal, when you have no more comforting words to give\u2014no more syntax, meter or metaphor. You too may discover that you have the weakness of not having the foresight to see the complete plan of God\u2019s will and in anguish, cry out to God for direction. At that point, you and all of us turn to God and the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. God who already knows what is on our minds and in our hearts sends the Holy Spirit to intercede and assist us in our weaknesses so that God\u2019s will may be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s Superhero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against all the things that can separate us from God\u2019s love: sin, flesh, the decay of creation, human weakness, hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword, spirits, demon, time, the past, things to come or astrological forces, anything else in all creation, God won\u2019t let it be. When we see this long list of things that call God\u2019s goodness and power into question, we are loss for words and certainly for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God, however, has not been reduced to silence. From the very same world of violence and vulnerability, God \u201cdid not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us.\u201d The \u201cslaughter of the innocents\u201d is not only recent headlines\u2014this was Jesus\u2019 world too. In Jesus who died, God spoke loudly to the world\u2019s violence, to all that is against us. The Spirit of Christ, who was raised, now intercedes for us. Just as Christ speaks for us, he speaks for all the victims and sufferers too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever is against us, God is not. God is for us. For all who may be tempted to see \u201cthese things\u201d as signs of God\u2019s rejection, we have the blessed assurance that God refuses to reject us. This is good news indeed! Suffering is not the place where God is absent, but where God may be heard to be most powerfully in love with us. We might still secretly wish that some Superman might instantly appear and with his mighty breath blow all the sins and evil of the world away. But the real superhero is God\u2019s giving of his Son, Jesus Christ. We don\u2019t need to beam up a sign to call up a superhero to fight against evil anymore!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can choose to give into the power of evil and suffering, and become consumed with bitterness and fear and cynicism. Or, we can choose to love God\u2014we can trust in the overall, long-range, rock solid promise of a loving and sovereign God. If we make the second choice, let us not kid ourselves. Things will not work differently. The bombs and terror, the suffering and the pain will not stop. But if we choose to love God, what can and will be different is the way we see things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sets Christianity apart from all other religions\u2014what is stunning and unique about our story\u2014is our understanding of suffering. Among all the theological systems that define the world\u2019s various religions, only Christianity presents a God who suffers. Hindus and Buddhists try to escape suffering. For Muslims and Jews, a God who chooses the humiliation and limitations of suffering and death is unthinkable. The only way we as Christians can accept Paul\u2019s words of victory and hope about suffering, is to see\u2014to understand\u2014that our God suffers in every way that we do. And the lens through which our seeing becomes vivid is the person, the flesh and blood of a man named Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Christ, our faith proclaims that God is intimately intertwined and embedded in our human experience, a God who becomes one with humanity so that humanity can become one with God. If you want to know a superhero, know Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a concentration camp in World War II, a philosopher named Berdwaev witnessed the murdering of thousands in the gas chambers. In his words, \u201cAt one point a distraught mother refused to part with her little baby. The officer tussled with her, trying to split them apart because he needed only one more Jew to throw in the gas chamber to fulfill his quota for the day. And then it happened. Another woman, a simple woman named Maria, realized what was happening. In a flash she pushed the mother and the baby out of the way, and she became the one thrown by the officer into the chamber!\u201d \u201cAt that moment,\u201d said Berdwaev, \u201cI saw the power of Christ at work in the world for the first time, and I knew that never again could I be the same person again!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the horrible and unthinkable human suffering and tragedy as the Holocaust, God was not absent. Beyond our human weakness to understand the mystery of God\u2019s purpose, we can only choose to love God, to trust in the overall, long range, rock solid promises of a loving and sovereign God. Even in death, we can see God is using everything for his divine purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than Conquerors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren, you chose Romans 8:37-39<\/a> as your faith defining verse when you were baptized at eleven years old. You said that this passage struck you in a profound way. In your own words, you said, \u201cThese words made it possible for me to see God as a source of love, security, and hope\u2014feelings I used to only associate with my parents. God was beginning to reveal God\u2019s self to me as the ultimate parent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many have asked me what it is like to have your daughter work with you. And I am able to happily reply that it is wonderful. Your mother and I will always be your earthly parents providing you with love, security and hope. But you have now become an adopted daughter of the Lord. God is the spiritual source of your life: for an abiding love, for confidence during those crushing times, and for God\u2019s enduring hope when all other hope has failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may still fantasize about how great it would be to have Superman or a Wonder Woman to fight against the evil and suffering in the world. But Paul said that with Christ, we are more than conquerors. God in Jesus Christ has already conquered death. We don\u2019t have to go around wishing that we can be superheroic conquerors. God has already defeated the evil forces and we just need to have the hope and patience to see the glory that is about to be revealed to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus doesn\u2019t need a \u201csecret identity\u201d like Superman does. We know him as our Lord and Savior. He revealed himself on the Cross for the whole world to see and on that resurrection Easter morning; he revealed God\u2019s mighty glory by defeating death forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Christ, we are more than conquerors. We don\u2019t need to engage in a life of conquest when we are called to loving compassion. We don\u2019t need to be conquerors because those who are more than conquerors are those who refuse to conquer. We don\u2019t need to be conquerors when those who refuse to seek victory are victorious. We don\u2019t need to be conquerors because those who do not glory in their own accomplishments can boast in the glory of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren, you don\u2019t need to fantasize that there are superheroes or that you should be a superheroic conqueror anymore. We are more than conquerors because we don\u2019t need to be conquerors anymore\u2014Jesus Christ, God\u2019s Superhero has conquered death already!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time for you to have a God\u2019s superhero Jesus Christ magnet on your refrigerator door!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lauren, will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword hurt you? Will all the killing that we see all day long separate you from the love of Christ? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For we are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate you and us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Gracious Lord God, we lift up Pastor Lauren as your special servant in Christ Jesus. Bless her with the confidence to follow Jesus as her superhero who has already conquered death and promised us everlasting life. Be with all of us here and remind us that against all trials and tribulations, nothing will ever separate us from your love in Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 8:18-39 October 1, 2006 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco at the Ordination of Lauren Lisa Ng. We all knowContinue readingGod\u2019s Superhero<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,79,14],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-fcbc","tag-lauren-lisa-ng","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2280,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}