1. The Stories
The bible is full of the stories which were told thousands
years ago and thousand and thousand of miles away from either our home
land Taiwan or our current
residence in the United
States
When the prophet Nathan went to see King David and told him
a story of a very rich man who took a poor man’s one and only loving lamb,
roasted and served to his guest, David was furious over the rich guy (2 Samuel
12: 1-5). It was, to David, just a
story, one of their stories. Until David was
aware that it was exactly his own story, it did not do a thing to him.
And then Jesus told a parable (story) that there were two
men went to the Temple
Guess who
he was. and then guess who we are.
Then that famous story begins with “A man had two sons…”
(Luke 15; 11-32) One could easily identify himself as either good old home bound
brother; the lost/dead and came back to life bad boy…or even as the waiting
father/mother.
The identities and the possibilities of the stories are
unlimited.
Just like the grace of the Lord, unlimited!
2. The Justice
Confession 1 -- I ask more questions than providing answers.
Confession 2 -- Since I completed my formal theological
training in the late 70’s I do not recall that I ever preach a sermon about the
justice of God.
The justice is there yet I could not comprehend enough to
put it into my sermons. It is still
hurting when I preach the love of God to His people (us) who more often turn
our back to Him. Yet it is more than I
could handle when I try to touch upon the subject of the justice of the Lord.
Take the following scriptures for example –
At
midnight the Lord struck
down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who
sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and
all the firstborn of the livestock. Pharaoh
arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there
was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
(Exodus 12: 29-30 NRSV)
Samuel
said to Saul, “The Lord sent
me to anoint you king over his people Israel Egypt
Why would the first
born, the women, child and infant
(Egyptians, Amalekites or whoever) be included
during the “war of revenge”?
during the “war of revenge”?
Was it a divine justice or the human justice?
3. The Good News
Last winter I got a bad cold from a red-eye flight over the US
She said seriously. I opened my mouth and closed immediately
without making a single comment.
As a preacher of the Presbyterian Church I used to utilize
the role of the “teaching elder” more than proclaim the good news in my
sermons. Then I remembered the TV
commercial called “where is the beef?” and I remembered that the congregations
tend to looking for the good news over the theological/biblical interpretation knowledge.
In the parable of weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30) Jesus used the power of the mercy over the punishment and allow weeds like us to be in His grace and survived surprisingly.
The good news is in the weeds as well as in the wheat.
We cannot exclude those who are not like us.
And vice versa.
Take a look of the entire biblical characters, do we see any pure good wheat at all? From Adam/Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David…all is as weed-looking as we are. Yet God used them just like He would use us if we let Him.
The good news is in the weeds as well as in the wheat.
We cannot exclude those who are not like us.
And vice versa.
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” (Isaiah
40:1)
