January 25, 2009
A sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
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.
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’t 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 called his speech a sermon.
Perhaps nothing close to the magnitude of listeners and viewers who witnessed President Obama’s speech last Tuesday, but you are one of 50 million Americans who gather in churches this week to do something quite strange—listen to a sermon. By the way, this is millions more than people who will go to a movie.
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.
But a sermon is a speech that is much more. And that “more” is well illustrated by today’s gospel lesson.
Jesus’ Sermons Cause Conflict
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’s Gospel, he explodes into the world with words, good words. He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
For most of us today, we hear Jesus’ sermon and we go on with our everyday life. But when we look closely and understand that when Jesus preached about the “kingdom of God has come near,” it is unabashedly “political” and revolutionary. Jesus doesn’t 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.
He doesn’t say that God will get God’s rule someday or one of these days. He says it’s now. The kingdom has “drawn near,” just by his announcing it in a sermon. When Jesus preaches, his sermons cause conflict with the power in place.
It’s like if I were to stand up this morning and say to you, “Hear 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.”
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!
And that’s just what Jesus is preaching about. His sermon is very “political.” Any sermon that Jesus preaches on is about who is in charge, who rules, where we’re heading.
Jesus’ Sermons Cause a Response
A sermon is more than a speech because it leads us to where we’re heading. Jesus’ sermon calls people to “repent.” Jesus doesn’t 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, “Do you agree?” but rather, “Will you join up?”
His sermon is not a lecture that we are to ponder and perhaps say, “Yes, that seems right to me. That makes sense to me.” It’s not like a calm discussion at the Sermon Talkback class for one hour but rather, we are to say, “I didn’t know that the world had changed. I’ve got to move on to this different world. I’ve got to live differently because I’ve heard the announcement.”
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.
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) 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’t 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.
So the test of my preaching is never, “Preacher, that was a beautiful sermon that you just preached,” but rather, “Preacher, I can’t wait to get out of here and put this into practice. I’m 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.”
The good news is not only announced; it’s got to be enacted. Good news is not simply said, it’s 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’ 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’ sermon to have a change of direction.
Jesus’ sermon is not about some sort of vague, feel-good “spirituality.” It’s about recruitment. The announcement of the arrival of God’s political order, the kingdom of God, calls for repentance, turning around, looking in another direction, and then calls for enlistment—active discipleship.
Kingdom of God Today
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’s 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.
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’s kingdom, those laws don’t exist, so you better live like those laws have already been abolished.
If you are looking for a position of greatness and prestige, in God’s kingdom, we are all like little children, so you better give up those aspirations of grandeur right now.
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’s kingdom is peace, so you better lay down your swords and open your arms to your enemies.
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.
In the Kingdom of God, we are called to reject a capitalistic lifestyle that values money over people.
In the Kingdom of God, we are called to reject the political rhetoric that defines torture as a necessary act of violence.
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.
Preaching Like Jesus Christ
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’m always looking out for good sermon illustrations and many of you in your lives have provided me with good stories.
But when I compare my preaching with the preaching of Jesus, my preaching frequently comes up short. It’s quite a reach for my sermons to come even close to Jesus’ sermons. But then it’s quite a reach for you, I suspect, to come close to Simon and Andrew’s response to Jesus’ sermons! It’s difficult to preach like Jesus and it’s difficult to respond like Simon and Andrew.
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.
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.
But as followers of Jesus Christ, we have other speeches to listen. Jesus’ 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’s good news!
Let us pray.
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.
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