Posts
(22.11.2009)
Gospel Reading: John 18:33-37
“It is you who say that I am a king”
Imagine you were at this food court in King Centre. And suddenly you see a blind couple. As they were fumbling, they knocked into chairs and tables. What would you do?
I am sure in our hearts and in our minds we wanted to help them. But what is keeping us? And when we see someone reaching out, holding their hands and leading them to a table, we wish we were the ones to reach out and help them. But what is holding us back, when we have the desire to do good?
What is holding us back? Is it because we don’t want to be embarrassed? Or something else? We know what is good. We can do it. Yet, what is holding us back?
The feast we celebrate this evening has a lot to tell about us. You see, Christ the King, in our tradition, marks the beginning of a new calendar year. Next week will be the first week of Advent. It means our liturgical year comes to an end this week. Next week will be a new calendar. Now, we always begin the new calendar year with this feast, Christ the King.
This feast is not about Christ. It is all about us. Christ, our savior, has done everything for us. He became King for us. He became a baby for us. He laid down his life for us. There is not a thing that God can do that God didn’t do. In Christ, everything - possible, impossible – all is done for us.
And yet, when it comes to expressing our concern or our desire to do good, we are so un-free; we are so limited. We have good intentions. We try, but many times we fail. We fail not because we are bad. We fail because we are human.
God has done everything for us to live, to live life fully. And yet, just to receive this life, there is so much in us that puts on the brake, so that we are not free even to receive this life. The feast we celebrate tells us we can. We can be free to respond to Him.
You know what comes to our mind when we talk of king? King means power and authority. Christ can be my king. He can be king only when I entrust myself or submit myself under His power and His authority. But we ask ourselves … yes, we believe in our Lord; we believe in God; we believe in the Holy Spirit. But to submit under the power of Christ, the authority of Christ, concretely means to what extent we allow Him to shape and influence us. Following our tradition and our faith, there are so many ways.
Our baptism empowers us to allow God to shape and influence us. Our prayers, our personal faith, our good deeds .. all these can enable us to allow God to transform us. But, you see, even for me to pray is quite an uphill task. It looks like to have God to listen to me, I may have to pray for twenty years. It is not easy, you know.
But, tonight, when we come before Him as King, we deliberately choose something that all of us can do. Okay, to ask you to pray…. I have difficulty in prayer. Or to do good works…. I too have difficulty. What is it that we all can do?
How about taking this first step - of just being thankful, of being grateful to Him? We look at our life. Yes, it’s not the best. Life is riddled with difficulties, weaknesses and disappointments and heartaches, but this is no reason for us not to be grateful. Because if you just open your eyes, there are people who are worse off than us. In other words, as human, none of us can excuse ourselves for not being grateful just to be alive, or for the blessings we have.
Very often when I drive and I get caught in the traffic, there is so much tendency to grumble and complain, but I always remember those young children – innocent children - in our Cheshire Home. Many of them have no arms or no feet. Don’t you think I have every reason to be grateful to God? To be thankful for my life? Isn’t it true that we have every reason to thank Him?
Now, just to thank Him is empowering. You know King David. He fell in love with Bathsheba, his personal bodyguard’s wife, and to have her, he killed his own top general. So God sent Prophet Nathan to confront him. When Prophet Nathan confronted him, he repented and he came out with this beautiful prayer, Psalm 50 or in some version, Psalm 51, The Miserere. You know, this amazing Psalm is not just King David telling God that I’m sorry. This Psalm shows the greatness of this King David. You know what did he ask God? He was not contented to beg God to forgive him. He pleaded with God to let him hear rejoicing and gladness.
This week, it would be good if you look at Psalm 50. David was down and out, and he knew that God was after him. In his total desperation and desolation, why would he ask God, Yaweh God, to make him hear rejoicing and gladness? You know why? This King David gave the reason. He said, “Make me hear rejoicing and gladness; that the bones you have crushed may revive.”
Can you see the power of just thanking God? Can you see the power of just being grateful to God for life? Just to thank God, just to be grateful to God, even for our problems, for our disappointments. Just to thank Him is empowering.
“Make me hear rejoicing and gladness; that the bones you have crushed may revive.”
Can you see the power of just thanking God?
And in this holy mass, can we take this step of just thanking God for my life; thanking Him for being my savior, for being my King. We have one million one hundred and one reasons to thank Him, to be grateful for.
Tonight we make this simple step, this choice, just to thank Him. And we all can. We all can because we have a God who loves us.
To this God who is our King, we praise and thank Him.
Rev Fr Stephen Lim
Holy Trinity Church, Kuching
