Sermon: The Great Commission "Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" 15 June 14
The Great Commission : "Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you"
Sermon by Rev Miak Siew
Matthew 28:16-20, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Free Community Church
15 June 2014
This week's lectionary passages mark the beginning of the Bible - Genesis 1:1- 2:4, and the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, and the end of the Epistle 2 Corinthians.
For those of you not familiar, this week's reading from the Gospel according to Matthew is also known as the Great Commission. For many people, this emphasizes missionary work, evangelism and baptism.
Many of you would have heard me repeatedly say - sometimes dividing the Bible into chapter and verse is not helpful because often when we quote the Bible, we lift verses out of their context, or in this case, leave an important part out.
The Great Commission is often truncated to be just verse 19 - " Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." I have had a few people ask me how many people have been baptized at FCC, as though baptizing is the KPI (Key performance indicator) of a church. I often give my signature raised left eyebrow in reply.
I hope FCC does not become so focused on baptizing people that we become a production line. I am concerned that behind the question how many people we have baptized lies the idea that baptism is the ultimate goal - everything else is periphery.
When I was younger, I have been asked many times when I told older folks I am Christian, "Are you baptized?" It seems to them that is the be all and end all of Christianity. I think that is the wrong idea. Baptism is just like a wedding. It is the ceremony to celebrate and honour the relationship between the two persons before the community and before God. The relationship existed before the wedding, and there is even more work for the couple after the wedding. Likewise, our relationship with God existed before the baptism, and baptism doesn't signal the destination of our journey, but rather a milestone. Baptism, to me, is the celebration and honoring of our relationship with God.
Too often we have focused on baptism as the finishing line. I think what is more important than baptism is in the very next verse - "Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."
What did Jesus mean by "everything I have commanded you?" What did Jesus command? What do we try to here at FCC?
"Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. And love your neighbour as yourself."
If you have been here at FCC for a while, you will hear us repeat this often. Jesus said that "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
We say it often enough. We know it by heart (I hope). But do we carry it out in action? How do we love?
I had a little disagreement with a very good friend this week. I had posted about being passive aggressive because this friend told me something having issues about what another friend is doing. And I just asked, in my direct, no-nonsense, almost self-righteous way, "Why don't you just tell it to that person directly?" And the reply I got was, "I don't care enough to let him know."
I was stunned for a moment. And in my time doing the Prayer of Examen that evening, a thought came to me. I hope I would never not care enough to let a person know about an issue that bothers me. If I love someone, I would let them know.
In one of the lectionary passages today - 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 - also the end of the Epistle, the Apostle Paul wrote the church in Corinth "Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you."
Very often, we are told to keep the peace, to agree with one another for the sake of the community, for the sake of the church, for the sake of the family. While i think sometimes it does make sense - especially when folks make mountain out of molehills, i don't think burying everything under the carpet works all the time.
How I wish I can say to you "Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you" and tell all of you to do exactly what I say. You have to agree with me, since I am the pastor. That would really make my life easy. But I think that is not the circumstance and situation that Paul is addressing.
Yes, there are times we need to put things in order. The church is where we hope that there is love, but we are still human, and we often fail as the church. We often end up with a lot of broken relationships and friendships because of our disagreements and our differences. I often struggle to tell people - we often fail to realize that we are forgiven when we ourselves do not learn to forgive others. We keep thinking that God has not forgiven us because that is how we are with the people in our lives. I think this is important - Jesus taught this in the simple prayer he taught us - forgive us as we forgive one another.
But forgiveness does not mean that we just gloss over what happened and pretend that it never happened. I believe that very often, we have to disagree with one another, to point out what is wrong, what can be improved, what needs to be change and hold each other accountable. I think that only when we hold each other accountable and be honest about the issues we have that we are able to grow individually, and as a community. That is the way to build relationships that have deep roots. It is friends who trust each other who are able to offer criticism honestly and constructively.
I know my friend meant when my friend said "Your tone was self righteous." I know that is my flaw very often. I am learning to soften my approach and offer my views in a loving manner. Trust me, I am not there yet. But I am learning and growing because of friends who are able to tell me in the face. I am grateful that instead of just being angry at my facebook post, my friend texted me to tell me. Because it mattered. Because we love each other enough to matter.
I do not want a community of false peace, where everyone smiles at one another, but all have issues with one another that prevent them from building deeper and stronger relationships. I want to build a community of love that is so strong that we can give and receive criticism, we can argue and disagree, we can hold each other accountable, and yet love each other and live in that kind of peace that is not the lack or absence of conflict, but rather the peace that comes from knowing our love for each other is unshakeable.
"Love each other as I have loved you." Jesus says. Jesus does not hold back his criticism of his disciples. He criticises not to put people down, but to offer them the opportunity to reflect, to learn, to change, to grow.
But love isn't just about being honest with people's faults. It is also about being honest about their strengths. We are somehow as stingy with our face to face acknowledgement of the good in people, as we are with our face to face criticism of the bad in people. Yes, we can badmouth someone when we are not in their presence, but we can't tell them in the face. And we also can keep saying good things about someone, but maybe our Asian culture keeps us from saying it in their presence.
Otto Fong commented - Similarly, when some people do right, we are also unable to acknowledge them directly. My own experience was that I did not acknowledge the contributions of my dad and mom to them, but tel everyone else how I felt about them. The result of which is a loss of connection between me and my parents. Our relationships became that much more meaningful when I finally was able to speak my heart to them. Indeed, our way of not talking directly to the people responsible cost us much in terms of our daily connections.
We need to put to practice what we say. Love isn't just a feeling. It is an act. To become loving people, we need to continually practice how to love. Sometimes we will screw up, but that doesn't mean we stop trying. Are we able to communicate honestly and authentically how we feel to each other.
Half the year is almost gone. For the rest of the year, I want to challenge you to do this - to practice love. We keep talking about love. Talking about loving God with all our heart, mind, souls and strength and loving our neighbours. I have seen folks on facebook with the 100Happydays challenge. Some folks have quite interesting ways about being happy - but most of them are all about me, me, me.
So I want to challenge you to do this - get a notebook, or your mobile phones or your computers - and journal down every day 2 things - how have you loved God, and how you have loved your neighbour. Do this until the end of the 2014. Practice love until you get almost perfect at loving.
On the last Sunday of 2012, Su-Lin brought us through a ritual of gratitude at the end of her sermon titled "A Grateful Heart."
Su-Lin said "Gratitude starts with an awareness, an intention and with practice becomes an attitude."
Each post it that is up there is what somebody is grateful for then. We are moving to One Commonwealth, and this is the penultimate service (just love that word) here at Geylang. So I would like to invite you - please don't feel obliged - to come forward and help take down one of these post its, and read its contents and pause to reflect on what is written. Then, pray for the person who wrote it, for yourself - because the content may stir up something for you - and for FCC. Then i invite you to paste the post-it on the pulpit.
This pulpit is a gift from the late Rev Dirk Davenport. It has served us well through the years, but it is time to decommission it as it does not fit in with the space in One Commonwealth. As you paste the post-it on the pulpit, i invite you to do it slowly and meditatively - and think about all those who have come before us who have made FCC possible. How those people answered God's call one way or another to journey as part of our community.
i want us to practise remembering. Remembering how God has be faithfully accompanying and guiding us, just like how God accompanied the Israelites as the pillar of cloud and fire.
Practise, practise, practise. Until remembering, loving, becomes second nature to us.
So how are we going to practise loving for the rest of the year?
Sermon by Rev Miak Siew
Matthew 28:16-20, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Free Community Church
15 June 2014
This week's lectionary passages mark the beginning of the Bible - Genesis 1:1- 2:4, and the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, and the end of the Epistle 2 Corinthians.
For those of you not familiar, this week's reading from the Gospel according to Matthew is also known as the Great Commission. For many people, this emphasizes missionary work, evangelism and baptism.
Many of you would have heard me repeatedly say - sometimes dividing the Bible into chapter and verse is not helpful because often when we quote the Bible, we lift verses out of their context, or in this case, leave an important part out.
The Great Commission is often truncated to be just verse 19 - " Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." I have had a few people ask me how many people have been baptized at FCC, as though baptizing is the KPI (Key performance indicator) of a church. I often give my signature raised left eyebrow in reply.
I hope FCC does not become so focused on baptizing people that we become a production line. I am concerned that behind the question how many people we have baptized lies the idea that baptism is the ultimate goal - everything else is periphery.
When I was younger, I have been asked many times when I told older folks I am Christian, "Are you baptized?" It seems to them that is the be all and end all of Christianity. I think that is the wrong idea. Baptism is just like a wedding. It is the ceremony to celebrate and honour the relationship between the two persons before the community and before God. The relationship existed before the wedding, and there is even more work for the couple after the wedding. Likewise, our relationship with God existed before the baptism, and baptism doesn't signal the destination of our journey, but rather a milestone. Baptism, to me, is the celebration and honoring of our relationship with God.
Too often we have focused on baptism as the finishing line. I think what is more important than baptism is in the very next verse - "Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."
What did Jesus mean by "everything I have commanded you?" What did Jesus command? What do we try to here at FCC?
"Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. And love your neighbour as yourself."
If you have been here at FCC for a while, you will hear us repeat this often. Jesus said that "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
We say it often enough. We know it by heart (I hope). But do we carry it out in action? How do we love?
I had a little disagreement with a very good friend this week. I had posted about being passive aggressive because this friend told me something having issues about what another friend is doing. And I just asked, in my direct, no-nonsense, almost self-righteous way, "Why don't you just tell it to that person directly?" And the reply I got was, "I don't care enough to let him know."
I was stunned for a moment. And in my time doing the Prayer of Examen that evening, a thought came to me. I hope I would never not care enough to let a person know about an issue that bothers me. If I love someone, I would let them know.
In one of the lectionary passages today - 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 - also the end of the Epistle, the Apostle Paul wrote the church in Corinth "Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you."
Very often, we are told to keep the peace, to agree with one another for the sake of the community, for the sake of the church, for the sake of the family. While i think sometimes it does make sense - especially when folks make mountain out of molehills, i don't think burying everything under the carpet works all the time.
How I wish I can say to you "Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you" and tell all of you to do exactly what I say. You have to agree with me, since I am the pastor. That would really make my life easy. But I think that is not the circumstance and situation that Paul is addressing.
Yes, there are times we need to put things in order. The church is where we hope that there is love, but we are still human, and we often fail as the church. We often end up with a lot of broken relationships and friendships because of our disagreements and our differences. I often struggle to tell people - we often fail to realize that we are forgiven when we ourselves do not learn to forgive others. We keep thinking that God has not forgiven us because that is how we are with the people in our lives. I think this is important - Jesus taught this in the simple prayer he taught us - forgive us as we forgive one another.
But forgiveness does not mean that we just gloss over what happened and pretend that it never happened. I believe that very often, we have to disagree with one another, to point out what is wrong, what can be improved, what needs to be change and hold each other accountable. I think that only when we hold each other accountable and be honest about the issues we have that we are able to grow individually, and as a community. That is the way to build relationships that have deep roots. It is friends who trust each other who are able to offer criticism honestly and constructively.
I know my friend meant when my friend said "Your tone was self righteous." I know that is my flaw very often. I am learning to soften my approach and offer my views in a loving manner. Trust me, I am not there yet. But I am learning and growing because of friends who are able to tell me in the face. I am grateful that instead of just being angry at my facebook post, my friend texted me to tell me. Because it mattered. Because we love each other enough to matter.
I do not want a community of false peace, where everyone smiles at one another, but all have issues with one another that prevent them from building deeper and stronger relationships. I want to build a community of love that is so strong that we can give and receive criticism, we can argue and disagree, we can hold each other accountable, and yet love each other and live in that kind of peace that is not the lack or absence of conflict, but rather the peace that comes from knowing our love for each other is unshakeable.
"Love each other as I have loved you." Jesus says. Jesus does not hold back his criticism of his disciples. He criticises not to put people down, but to offer them the opportunity to reflect, to learn, to change, to grow.
But love isn't just about being honest with people's faults. It is also about being honest about their strengths. We are somehow as stingy with our face to face acknowledgement of the good in people, as we are with our face to face criticism of the bad in people. Yes, we can badmouth someone when we are not in their presence, but we can't tell them in the face. And we also can keep saying good things about someone, but maybe our Asian culture keeps us from saying it in their presence.
Otto Fong commented - Similarly, when some people do right, we are also unable to acknowledge them directly. My own experience was that I did not acknowledge the contributions of my dad and mom to them, but tel everyone else how I felt about them. The result of which is a loss of connection between me and my parents. Our relationships became that much more meaningful when I finally was able to speak my heart to them. Indeed, our way of not talking directly to the people responsible cost us much in terms of our daily connections.
We need to put to practice what we say. Love isn't just a feeling. It is an act. To become loving people, we need to continually practice how to love. Sometimes we will screw up, but that doesn't mean we stop trying. Are we able to communicate honestly and authentically how we feel to each other.
Half the year is almost gone. For the rest of the year, I want to challenge you to do this - to practice love. We keep talking about love. Talking about loving God with all our heart, mind, souls and strength and loving our neighbours. I have seen folks on facebook with the 100Happydays challenge. Some folks have quite interesting ways about being happy - but most of them are all about me, me, me.
So I want to challenge you to do this - get a notebook, or your mobile phones or your computers - and journal down every day 2 things - how have you loved God, and how you have loved your neighbour. Do this until the end of the 2014. Practice love until you get almost perfect at loving.
On the last Sunday of 2012, Su-Lin brought us through a ritual of gratitude at the end of her sermon titled "A Grateful Heart."
Su-Lin said "Gratitude starts with an awareness, an intention and with practice becomes an attitude."
Each post it that is up there is what somebody is grateful for then. We are moving to One Commonwealth, and this is the penultimate service (just love that word) here at Geylang. So I would like to invite you - please don't feel obliged - to come forward and help take down one of these post its, and read its contents and pause to reflect on what is written. Then, pray for the person who wrote it, for yourself - because the content may stir up something for you - and for FCC. Then i invite you to paste the post-it on the pulpit.
This pulpit is a gift from the late Rev Dirk Davenport. It has served us well through the years, but it is time to decommission it as it does not fit in with the space in One Commonwealth. As you paste the post-it on the pulpit, i invite you to do it slowly and meditatively - and think about all those who have come before us who have made FCC possible. How those people answered God's call one way or another to journey as part of our community.
i want us to practise remembering. Remembering how God has be faithfully accompanying and guiding us, just like how God accompanied the Israelites as the pillar of cloud and fire.
Practise, practise, practise. Until remembering, loving, becomes second nature to us.
So how are we going to practise loving for the rest of the year?