Sermon: God’s Blessed
Passage: Luke 19:1-10
My uncle is a dedicated evangelical Christian; we share a faith but have some theological differences, like our impressions of Darwin’s theory of evolution. He made a CD and gave it to me as a present when I visited Korea a few years ago. The CD was a recording of a series of lectures given by an evangelical preacher teaching about Creation in opposition to the theory of evolution. I appreciated that my uncle was thinking of me, and that he took my ministry seriously enough to try to sway my opinion. My uncle would have met few women ministers in Korea who get to preach to their congregations on Sunday morning; a female minister in full charge of a church is still pretty rare in my home country. Despite those cultural norms, he was delighted and proud to know that I, who had grown up in the Roman Catholic Church, took a path to ordination in a Protestant Church, and have actually started ministry, even preaching to an English-speaking Canadian congregation!
My uncle once told me, with pride and happiness, that he has always believed that ‘pastor’ is the most blessed profession because ministers do what they believe in faith. They do what their Christian faith calls them to do, what nurtures them in spirituality, as their JOB. How blessed! That was one point we could happily agree upon.
Among the various things I do as a minister, what makes me feel most honoured and privileged is when I visit those who are dying and hear some of their last words on earth. My first pastoral visit that I ever did was to Betty and John Usher, when Lenore and Janice told me that John was weakening. When I sat with them on the couch in their small apartment, looking up at some of the pictures hung on the walls – of their children and of their boat (name), John told me the story of their whole family having an adventure, sailing across the oceans on (the boat’s name.) The next day, I heard he had passed away peacefully that night.
The journey with Fran will be remembered as long as my lifetime. I witnessed how she honoured her God-given life to the end. Her faith was visible in the luminous transparency and centeredness of her presence on her last days.
On my visit to Doug in the hospital in Duncan, he was waking up from sleeping on the bed and said ‘hello’ with his gentle voice to the three women who were looking down at him – Margaret, Erin, and myself.
Gordon was cheerful and confident, and taught me to see ‘the other side of the window’. John Irving’s last word he left with me was “Amen.”
Today, as a church we are marking this day by remembering all of the saints – those who have gone before us in the past year and those saints of the present, us, and of tomorrow, our children. My mind and heart are so moved by the continuity of faith that passes on through generations; the remarkable and visible continuity of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Today we also celebrate that as a community we are in communion with all of the saints that bless our lives in so many ways. In our Protestant faith, we understand that we all are God’s saints as we live out God’s love; God’s light shines through us. Although we fail, sometimes and many times, in this call we know our intention is true. So we ask God to be our helper.
As we continue to honour the fact that God calls us all God’s saints, today is also for remembering and contemplating death: in a common phrase, ‘the great equalizer’. Like life, it never stops changing. Every generation faces new facts, new ways of thinking about it.
I would like to assure you of my deepest compassion and prayers when death occurs by suicide. Euthanasia is a different topic for another sermon, but today I hope to reach out to those among us who have suffered with the grief and unfathomable pain of a loved one’s suicide.
Last April, I was so sad when I heard the news that Rick Warren’s son, Matthew, took his own life after years of battling serious mental illness. In the letter to his church members, Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, said, “At 27 years of age, Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many… Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts… No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now.”
Warren continued on, saying “In spite of America’s best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided. Today, after a fun evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his life.” Warren wrote that he and his wife “Marveled at his courage… To fight relentless pain… I’ll never forget how, many years ago, after another approach had failed to give relief, Matthew said, ‘Dad, I know I am going to heaven. Why can’t just die and end this pain?’ But he kept going for another decade.”
For a long time, I have been hoping to find a proper time to give consolation and share this message with anyone who would be comforted to hear that God calls all who live God’s love “God’s saints.” Even if our loved one may not profess a faith, I firmly believe that in God’s vast and endless love they would find a home. As much as death is the Great Equalizer, so is God’s love for all God’s children.
Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church, even my young mind could understand how rigid some of the church’s doctrines were about how we should live and what is not acceptable in God’s and the church’s eyes. It is remarkable that even a young child could receive the church’s message so clearly; divorced and re-married people cannot receive communion; they are not entirely inside God’s grace. Those who have committed suicide cannot go to Heaven; they are entirely outside of God’s grace.
Later, when I went to university I got another message very clear from the church group; abortion in any situation is a sin. I understand how these statements make deep wounds and scars on vulnerable hearts, when the message people actually need to hear from the church is God’s affirmative, forgiving and healing love for all who struggle and ache, not the strictures and pronouncements that virtually cast them out from the community of God’s saints.
In today’s Gospel we hear the very well-known story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a rich man with a profession that people hated. He heard that Jesus was coming to town and wanted to see him very much. When Jesus arrived, however, the crowds were thick, so the short Zacchaeus had to climb a sycamore tree. The part I most like about this story is that it was Jesus who called him and said “HURRY and come down. For I must stay at your house today. … Today salvation (which is wholeness) has come to this house, because you too are a son of Abraham.” In other words, You too are God’s saint. Or we can put it differently, I love you. I care about you, your life, the promise of eternal life given to you. The promise is now sown in you. The time is now. I hear from this story Jesus’ affirmation that God finds Zacchaeus and the whole universe will sing with joy that he was once lost, but now is found.
As my uncle has said to me, I am blessed not because I have chosen to be a minister as my profession but because I witness how God’s unconditional love without discrimination and judgment is changing the culture of the churches here and in the world. I get to see how God’s love brings us all together to become one body of Christ, one blessed community of saints. I hope you also know that we all are blessed as we continue to do Jesus’ ministry, removing any obstacle in our society and in the world that blocks God’s unconditional and transformational love from God’s children, God’s saints, God’s blessed. Amen.
Feedback "I loved your sermon."(from a member who mourn for the one's own son)
"Fantastic ."
"A brave sermon." (from a member who comes from Salvation Army background. He said Salvation Army has since long spoken their stance that they offer a funeral service for those who take their own life.)
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