Monday, January 28, 2008

Reading with the heart

Mark 12.28-34

Greetings on National Bible Sunday! Celebrated by Phil. Bible Society; CBCP; PCEC; NCCP; Philippines for Jesus Movement on the theme: Gods Word: Source of Justice, Reconciliation and Peace. Pres. Proclamation 44 and 1067 invites the reading and studying of the Bible for the nation’s spiritual, moral and social renewal.


And we have just completed our 2nd Bible Reading Marathon – 24 hour, non stop reading, participated in by the Gospel Ministers Fellowship of Metro Dumaguete, with 300 + readers, pastors and members of Calvary Baptist, Maranatha, Catholic, 7th Day Adventists, etc. participating. We have received good words as well as bad. There were those who opposed the loudness of the reading. There were those who accused us of Bibliolatry, worshipping the Bible; or reading without understanding, prejudging the readers and listeners from receiving any insight from such an activity. The Bible’s relevance and authority seems eroded.


1. Social research conducted on US Christians showed declining trust in the authority of the Bible. Asked about the inerrancy of the Word of God in faith, history, and secular matters: 95% of Episcopalians said “No.” ; 87% of Methodists said “No.” 82% of Presbyterians said “No.” 77% of American Lutherans said “No.” 67% of American Baptists said “No.” The Gideon, 1994,

2. Bible interpretation (hermeneutics) is a battle field.

There are those who believe that we can impose our own meanings to the Word of God. A professional boxer was converted to Christ. He felt it was wrong to continue hitting people but he only knew one profession — boxing. So he asked a pastor “should I quit boxing?” The pastor answered, “Don’t see why you should stop boxing. Bible says that it’s better to give than to receive.”  To impose meaning on the text is one obstacle to understanding.


On the other hand, there are those who take a skeptical view of what they hold as ancient worldviews in the Bible. Historical and literary critical methods of reading the Bible, casts a pall of skepticism on the text and message of the Bible. The Biblical metaphors are discarded and some people no longer believe the revelation of God in the Bible. They search instead for God in newspapers, in nature and in cultures.


Martin Luther said “God is everywhere. However, He does not want you to reach out for Him everywhere but in the Word. Reach out for it and you will grasp Him correctly. God has established a certain method for us. This teaches us how and where we are to look for Him and find Him, namely, in the Word. 
3. We read the Bible to find God. But which reading is appropriate for which occasion?
Our Scripture text deals with this real issue. One of the teachers of the Word asks Jesus: ‘What is the greatest of all commandments?’ Jesus recites Shema, from Deut. 6.4-5 –which every Hebrew child knows from childhood. “Hear O Israel , the Lord our God the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.”  However Jesus adds a second commandment to this from Lev. 19.18 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself”.’  What we have is a new insight, by combining two separate verses of Scripture!
We tend to get lost. In reading so many words of God, we tend to remember this and forget that. Loving God with all our hearts, and loving our neighbors, which is basically the same, is an insight waiting to happen, to one who is reading the Word with the heart. Loving the neighbor is the action oriented part of our love for God.
Why emphasize the “heart?” Because, metaphorically, it is the heart that really sees. The eye and the mind see and receive and process data and information. But the heart sees reality differently. The heart understands the emotional realities of living, dying, loving, hating, commitment and surrender. Many who live only by the mind are detached from real life. We say they are ‘cold people’. Your heart is something else. It deals with and voices the reality of emotions. They express deeper realities of life. We experience and respond to life with the heart. We experience and respond to God primarily with our heart and that is why Christ commands ‘Love God with all your heart.’  Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.’

When we love God with all our hearts, then God sends us an insight, and the Word becomes “a lamp upon our feet and a light unto our path.”
When we read the Bible for 4 days, we were not reading to show how much stamina we had. There were 300+ readers. We did not read to say we are “holier than thou”. We read the Bible because we are trying to love God with all our hearts. We read to get an insight of our oneness in Christ, whether Baptist, Adventist, United Church , Catholic, Pentecostal. And God’s Words are wonderful to hear! They show God’s majesty, grandeur, power, wisdom, they educate, they unite, they inspire, they instruct, they rebuke, they touch our hearts. Loving God and reading the Word, are understandable only by the heart.

Finally, there were 4 pastors debating about what Bible translation they should endorse to their congregations.  The first pastor said King James Version was the best for the majestic language used. The second pastor batted for the Revised Standard Version, for the scholarly precise language used. The third pastor wanted the Good News Bible for the contemporary language used. The 4th pastor remained silent until the 3 others egged him on to propose the best Bible translation for his congregation. Finally, he said, the best translation is “my mother’s translation”. How so? My mother’s translation involves reading the Word of God everyday and translating those words into action everyday. That is reading the Word, with the heart.


(Sermon delivered Jan. 27, 2008, SU church)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 09:27:05 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Being an Andrew

John 1:35-42

Last week we talked about John baptizing Jesus. We heard the testimony of John the Baptist, “Jesus is: the Lamb of God; the One who baptizes with fire; the Son of God . We also found out that John the Baptizer defined his role as that of a forerunner. He was a voice to prepare the way for Jesus.

Today, we discover that John the Baptist displays the ultimate aim of the forerunner when he divests himself of followers. He transfers the loyalty of his followers to Jesus. “Look the Lamb of God” John gives his disciples a new Master in Jesus.

Christian witnessing is pointing others to Jesus. And that is exactly what John does. “Look, the Lamb of God.” This transfer takes place when v37 states: “and they followed Jesus.” John accomplished his goal. He got his followers, Andrew and another person to be disciples of Jesus.

When they join Him, Jesus asks them “What do you seek?” The two disciples answer with a question: “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus’ response: “Come and see. This is an invitation for them to get to know Jesus. Come with me and you will see. Jesus calls them to a relationship, to discipleship, to be a witness to Jesus Christ. The disciples answered the call and came, and sure enough, their lives were transformed. As a result, Andrew, decides to share the good news with his brother, Simon. Immediately, he finds his brother and tells him: “We have found the Messiah.

Every time we see Andrew, he is witnessing about Jesus: here he witnesses to Simon Peter; in 6:8— he brings a boy to Jesus; in 12:22— he brings Greeks to Jesus. Andrew brought people to Jesus. While Andrew was never as popular as Peter, he was a quiet but purposeful witness. He brought many to Jesus. He was not in the spotlight. He did not receive the recognition of Peter, but he collected people for Jesus.

Being an Andrew does not involve having to go to theological seminary. Being an Andrew means getting people to know Jesus and the love of God in Jesus. Our own Dr. Sylvester Alforque is an Andrew. He is going to Ethiopia. On Jan. 27, the Dumaguete City Habitat for Humanity will have a dental mission here. They are Andrews. A Christian disciple’s job is to get people to know Jesus by sharing his love with those in need. So you could be a caring teacher like Nelia Anito. Or a loving nurse, doctor or administrator like Jim Palmore at SUMC. And you are Andrews.

All our service glorifies God and not ourselves. We do not witness to ourselves. We are witnesses of Christ.

Obviously to be an Andrew, one needs to be ready to recognize a prospect to whom we witness. There is criticism that our church does not care about prospects. No one looks after the first time worshipper and to make them feel comfortable and loved. Think about them. Is he a fellow student? An alumnus? A neighbor or co-teacher? A friend? Do you recognize a prospect to whom you will witness?

Recognize or never witness. After you identify your prospect, your task is to point them to the Sunday School, to Bible study groups, to the choir, the jail ministry, the ministry for the sick, the pastors. Your words will be simple, “come and see.” Many are searching. Your responsibility is simple: point them to Jesus. You must refer them to Jesus or to persons who know Jesus.

Programs are good, but they do not change lives. A moral lifestyle is good, but it does not change a person internally. Christian Education is good. But they do not change lives unless Jesus is introduced. If we point them to Church and fail to get them to Jesus, we have failed. If we encourage them to live a good life and fail to point them to Jesus, we have failed. If we feed the hungry but fail to get them to Jesus, we have failed. We should get people to a relationship with Jesus because Jesus changes lives.

Jesus takes Cephas and makes him Peter. Jesus takes Andrew and makes him an apostle. Jesus takes the drunkard and makes him sober. Jesus takes Mary Magdalene and makes her clean. Jesus takes the laggard and makes him active. Jesus takes the blind and makes them see. Jesus takes the unclean and makes them pure. Jesus changes lives. We need more Andrews.

We need believers who will by God’s grace, bring one person to Jesus, or witness to the love of Jesus to one person each day. Evangelism is usually one person witnessing to one person. One reaching one, one day at a time. Are you willing to be an Andrew? Without Andrew there may have never been a great Simon Peter, who preached the first Christian sermon at Pentecost which won thousands. Those thousands won hundreds of thousands and eventually millions, to Christ. Who are, by the way, long gone. Millions more today are alive and searching.

Andrew was the quiet disciple. Tradition says that Andrew went to what is now Turkey and happily ministered there, until he died on a cross. He hung on that cross for 2 days, and all the while he was preaching, trying to witness to Jesus. Let’s try to be Andrews.

(Sermon delivered Jan. 20, 2008, SU church, 10 am)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 01:48:30 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Monday, January 14, 2008

“Wash Me” (Sermon for a Rainy Week)

Matthew 3:13-17
In 1818, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women.  The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine began in the morgue where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate autopsies with the resultant infection and death of other patients. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and 8,537 babies delivered, he lost only 184 mothers–about 1 in 50.  He spent his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues arguing, “Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound. I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am asking you only to wash. .. For God’s sake, wash your hands.”

It took years for them to understand. But King David understood “Wash me!” was his anguished prayer. “Wash!” was the message of John the Baptist. Jesus said to Peter who did not want his feet washed: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Lord, not only my feet but my head also.


Water the universal solvent, is the compound used for washing and for other purposes. Our bodies are over 2/3 water in composition. We are recommended by doctors to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. We rely on water for our baths, to brush our teeth each day, boiling water for coffee, rain water to hydrate trees in the forest, soapy water to wash clothing and dishes and seas to carry ships to Cebu and Tagbilaran. In short, we rely on water to live. We need lots of it.

If washing is essential to good hygiene, washing of sins is essential to spiritual life. Water figures prominently in the life of Jesus. He was baptized in the waters of the Jordan. After his baptism, Jesus continually met people in the water. He encountered a woman at a well. He healed lepers through the waters of a pool. He called disciples to become fishers of men. He calmed the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee. He walked on water. Well you get the point.

The story of the baptism of Jesus is an epiphany event, God manifested to the world. For it is here where God announces, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”. John the Baptist had never heard anything like it. After calling people to repent, he baptized them at the Jordan river, symbolically washing their sins. But when Jesus came, John pointed to him as the greater one who would wash sins away and renew persons not through water alone, but through the Holy Spirit.
Baptism also symbolizes our entry into church and God’s peace. When we are baptized we are baptized into Christ’s death. We die to the world as Jesus died, and we rise to God’s reign as Jesus rose. Baptism is as much about the symbol of death, as it is of forgiveness. In baptism, we are claimed by God as God’s own and we become family. In Jesus baptism, John heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In baptism, we too are made children of God since God makes us His own beloved sons and daughters.
Baptism by water is only the outward symbol of repentance. It can remain there, symbolic and outward, as it often does. You are a baptized Christian. But that doesn’t say anything about your relationship with God.
The real cleansing & renewing work is of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the HS’ action, he comes to us through the water and the word to make us God’s own. A baby might be sleeping or crying during baptism, and have no active part, because God is the one who acts. God comes to the baby and claims him as God’s child until the time, the baby is able to confirm a relationship that is sustained by prayers, study, worship, faith action, confession and spiraling action to renew the believer by the HS. God does all the action in baptism. God claims a life for eternity and anoints the believer with the HS. In Titus 3:5 “He saved us not on the basis of deeds done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”

A real estate dealer was selling a warehouse property. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash on the floor.
 As he showed a prospective buyer around the property, the dealer apologized saying that he would replace broken windows, correct any structural damage and clean out the garbage.


“Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”


Compared with the renewal God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for demolition. When we become God’s own, the old life is over. God makes all things new. All God wants is the site and the permission to build.
 Baptism builds a new person in us, and all we need to say is, Lord, Wash me!


(Sermon delivered Sunday Jan. 13, 2008, SU church)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 06:51:05 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Sunday, January 6, 2008

The Learned Seek

Matt. 2:1-12
The visit of the 3 wise men, which we commemorate today, on Epiphany Sunday, the end of Christmas season, is about God’s sovereign freedom. The wise men were alerted to the birth of a king, not by angels but by a star. They traveled 500-2,000 km for several months finally arriving in Bethlehem to give their precious gifts. The implications of the visit of the wise men are still unexplored, but for now, we simply note that 3 Learned men, seek a King.
There is a joke that had the wise men been women, things would have turned out differently.
1. They would have asked for directions before they arrived Jerusalem so that they would not need to seek the advice of king Herod;
2. They would have arrived on time and helped deliver the baby;
3. They would have cleaned the stable and brought something practical for the family– like a pot of stew, milk, and clean baby clothes.
4. And there would have been no massacre of the innocents.
Levity aside, the story of the visit of the 3 Wise Men teaches us:

1) God freely communicates with whom God chooses

The first we read of these wise men is when they arrive in Jerusalem . It says, “Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who is born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” The wise men are given a mission, to find the newborn king of the Jews and to worship him.
 What is fascinating about these men is that they were aliens about Israel . Very likely they were Gentiles, from Mesopotomia, Persia, even India . The Jews were expecting a Messiah for the Jews. He was expected to deliver Jews from their oppressors. The visit of the Gentile wise men tells us something of God’s surprising plan. The birth of Jesus was bigger than Israel ’s hopes. The Magis didn’t share the religion of the Jews. They were learned scientists or astrologers. They were the academicians of their time, and God freely reaches out to them to announce the birth of a king to the world.

God breaks many traditional expectations here. The Messiah is a global king. Gentiles announce a Jewish king. God sends a message using an astronomical event, a star, to tell magi to search for the child king. God used a language they understood. God is a surprising communicator.
God freely uses a different language to bring people to a knowledge of Jesus. God comes in the flesh, so that he could be like one of us, and talk to us in our own language, eat our food, experience culture through our eyes, so that he could tell us we are loved. God expects us to do the same for others. God doesn’t want us to compromise our integrity or violate his commandments, but he expects us to use whatever means we can to reach people in any language they understand in order to announce Christ. (Multimedia ministry?)

2) God wants us to diligently seek him –
 I think the second thing the Wise Men teach is that God wants us to actively seek him. More than re-enact a nativity scene year after year, God wants a deeper, not a casual, relationship with us. Coming to church and seeking a relationship with Christ are two different things. Believing in Christ is one thing, becoming a disciple is another. The truth is we can have all the knowledge of the Bible, we can follow God’s commandments, and still miss God’s purpose for our lives. These Gentile astrologers, with only vague information about a king set off on a journey with great faith to find the Christ. It took them 3 months perhaps even longer to get to Bethlehem . That journey cost them time, money, and precious gifts. We know these Magi did not know about the Bible and the Messiah because otherwise they would have looked for the infant in Bethlehem straight away, but they had faith, and walked far to seek the Christ child.

On the other hand we see the religious community in Jerusalem . The chosen people of the Bible, people who lived out the letter of the law as written in Scripture. They did all of the rituals and followed all of the commandments. They knew about God from their Holy Scriptures. Yet, when the Wise Men show up, Herod and these religious leaders, were stunned to find out the Messiah had been born, in fact it says they were “disturbed,” or “troubled” upon hearing the news. They had either not seen the star in the sky, or were unable to interpret its meaning. They had no clue their king had been born, and it had to take some Gentile astrologers to tell them! Surprise!
 We can have cursory knowledge of the Bible, we can have occasional religious convictions, we can even live out God’s commands to the letter and still miss the point. God is seeking a relationship with us, and he wants us to seek him. This means we need a new sensitivity to God’s revelation. Jesus once said, “Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.” The author of Hebrews wrote “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6).”

3) God led them to worship
Worship is surrendering to and praising God. Once the wise men reached Jesus they worshipped him, just like the shepherds who had already visited Jesus and worshipped him by singing praises to God. It says of the Magi: Matt. 2:11 – “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

They bowed down and worshipped him. They presented an offering as a sign of worship and surrender. We worship when we give our offering, we worship by surrendering our time, we worship by surrendering ourselves to God. We worship by surrendering that which is valuable to us. The gifts which the Magi surrendered were very valuable, they were given at great cost to themselves. The Christ deserved a gift worthy of his kingship. The first is gold, a treasure deserving of a king. The second, frankincense was a fragrant scent offered up to God during sacrificial worship. Lastly, myrrh was used as an oil to prepare a body for burial. In fact myrrh was used to embalm Jesus when he died. It was a gift symbolizing Christ’s surrender to His Father. It was a gift for a savior who would die for us all.

What do we bring/offer Christ which is costly to us? What do we lay at his feet?

At the end of Christmas and at the beginning of a new year, we could ask ourselves –have you found the Christ? Perhaps you have found him. But this doesn’t mean we are at the end of our journey. It is only the beginning. A postscript to the story is that the Magi, were told in a dream not to return to Jerusalem . After they had found the Christ, they continued to listen to the leadings of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to be open to the leadings of the Spirit. God speaks to us through Scripture, through prayer, to lead us continuously to his road plan.

Epiphany Sunday is a good time to acknowledge the manifestation of God through Immanuel. What place are you at today? Are you a searcher who has begun your journey to personally find Christ and begin a relationship with Him? Have you found Christ and seek to worship Him more meaningfully? Are you surrendering anything to him? I can tell you what he wants the most, is not your money, or your time, primarily, but what he really wants is your entire life.

Once we find the Christ, we are like the learned men who are given a lifelong mission. It is one thing to find Christ, another thing to live for Him all our lives. May this year be a great year of discipleship for all.

(Sermon delivered Jan. 6, 2008, Epiphany Sunday, SU church)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 04:10:28 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Sunrise, Sunset

Eccl. 3: 1-11


On behalf of the SU church council and of the pastors, we welcome the family of the late Prof. Emiliano Ygnalaga Sr. , his children, Edna May and Samuel Wong, Emiliano Jr and Josephine Molina, Edgar Arthur, Elgie and Atty. Oscar Melad, his grandchildren and great grandchildren to Silliman church.


We acknowledge the Sibulan community, UCCP Sibulan, ROTC unit of SU, his colleagues in the military and comrades of the veteran federation.

We acknowledge, the teaching colleagues and the students of Prof. Ygnalaga in Silliman University , who knew him through his 93 years, and to beneficiaries of Ygnalaga scholarships.

We warmly welcome you in this service to remember and honor the life and witness of Prof. Ygnalaga, to lend comfort to the families, and to commend his soul to the care of our Lord.

We thank the Ygnalaga family for allowing this service at Silliman University and SU Church where Prof. Ygnalaga once served with distinction as chemistry professor, principal of SU High School, and as a Christian mentor. This allows for the Silliman community to remember and honor a member of the family, who has done his part in building a tradition of teaching excellence.

— When someone grows old we say, he is in the sunset of his life.

When someone is born, we say, the baby is in the dawn of his life.

When someone dies, we say, his candle is finished. Life then is a cycle of sunrise and sunsets. Cycle of Light and darkness. We prefer there is no darkness in life, even as the song “No More Nights” just sang intimates, but there is a time for everything under heaven, including darkness and death.

But darkness and death are avoided as the underside of life. When we were young, we were taught to make the most of our time, for time passes and will never return. So as we carry on with our lives, we put back thoughts of dying. As if dying is an unwelcome curse. Death is darkness. Dying is the end of life. We should learn to look at death as part of life and the doorway to something greater – eternal life.

A Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore says it very simply and deeply: “death is like turning off the candle, because the dawn has come. Our Closing hymn is also about Glorious Dawning — “Beyond the sunset O blissful morning, when with our savior, heaven’s begun. Earth’s toiling ended, O glorious dawning, Beyond the sunset when day is done.

 Sunrise , Sunset. The times of our lives are marked with dawns and sunsets. There is a time to be born and a time to die. When someone dies, we realize the time has come for that person to rest. Rest from pain, suffering, sorrow, sickness, rigors of old age.
 
The moment we are born, we start dying. Death is inevitable and rightly so. For who wants to live forever? Not in this body! My grandma at 103 was blind and bedridden and she would cry out “Ginoo kuhaa na ko.” There is a time to die.

My favorite Biblical and philosophical understanding of afterlife is in Eccl. 3:11.– “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has put eternity in our hearts, except no one can find out that work that God does from beginning to end.”

We have an awareness of our immortality. God planted the sense of eternity in our hearts. God gave us a window into that massive expanse of time and place of the heavens, full of wonders we cannot possibly imagine, & have not yet discovered.
 Let us remind ourselves that our earthly life is earthbound. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. If it is earthbound, why would God put eternity in our hearts? Why would God create a vast universe, reveal the glory of his creation of stars, planets, galaxies progressively, only for a brief glimpse? What for?

I recently saw some Hubble telescope pictures of outer space, galaxies that were called lagoon nebula, cloud nebula, blue stars, cosmic dust, black holes. Unbelievable colors. Shapes. Distances. Imagine, just the light of those stars takes eternity to reach us. If we traveled at the speed of light, it would take us thousands of years to get there. When will we ever get to see those galaxies at close range? Never in this life. Never through this corruptible body. So why did God make them? Isn’t it a waste of space? Eternity in our hearts.

St Peter says: “In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead and an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you. (1 Pet. 1:4)

We are meant to be with God in heaven’s glory, eternally. That is why we have to inherit a new body that cannot perish in heaven, so then we can travel millions of years to the farthest star, can’t we? “He has put eternity in our hearts, except no one can find out that work that God does from beginning to end.”

While we are down here, we are so crammed in our small space, and are so often too protective about it, that we often forget, there is a promise of heavenly glory offered to us. Scripture tells us:

1. Life on earth is not everything.
2 Cor 5: 1 “For we know that if our earthly tent is destroyed we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Our faith leads us to a life of grace, a new understanding of who we are in the light of the Kingdom of a Loving God. We are God’s creation, God’s children, we are meant for something glorious, for new life and unimaginable eternal fellowship with our Creator.

Matt. 25: 34 – Come you blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

2. We live in the light of eternity, in the light of God’s magnificent design as huge as the universe – “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared, for those who love him. “ 1 Cor. 2:9.

In the light of eternity, our quest for earthly fame and fortune is meaningless. As Paul would say, “What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” – Phil 3:7

Death is not the end. It is the beginning of the harvest. We reap what we sow on earth.

3. This world is not our permanent home. “for here we have no continuing city. But we seek the one to come.” Heb. 13:14

“For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16) And this is made possible through the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. “Don’t you know, that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? …and just as Christ was raised from the dead …we too might live a new life. ( Rom. 6:3-4) And “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me though he die, yet shall he live”. John 11: 25

And so as we remember Prof. Emiliano Ygnalaga Sr. let us remember that what he was for 93 years is only a preview of his excellent Sonship in Jesus Christ. He is entitled to something greater in eternity.

May we learn from the preview of his life, become like him in making our lives meaningful to others (loving God and our neighbor with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength), in witnessing to the Love of God in Jesus Christ.

Thus we can say with Tagore — “death is like putting off the candle, because the dawn has come.”

(Sermon for the Necrological service of Prof. Emiliano Caruncho Ygnalaga Sr., (1914-2007) Jan. 2, 2008, 2:30 pm, SU church)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 09:15:19 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Wisdom for the new year

Prov. 17:24
Tonight at 11:59 pm, billions of people across the world will be lighting fireworks across the skies to welcome the new year. In the Philippines , hospitals will be full of victims of fireworks explosions before dawn tomorrow. But have you ever wondered why fireworks are used? Well, we borrowed the tradition from the Chinese. One popular belief is that fireworks creates noise which will wake up a dragon who then flies across the skies to bring rain for the crops. Being a country where people depend on agriculture, rain is of great importance in China . Fireworks brings rain and harvest.

Another belief is that the exploding noise of the firecrackers will scare away all evil spirits and misfortunes, preventing them from coming into the New Year.
In other words, fireworks during new year, is a primitive prayer of Hope. Each new year IS a time for hope. It’s a time for opportunity. It’s a time for us to grasp hold of our future/ our destiny

Proverbs 17:24 says that the Wise man has a powerful future waiting for him because he keeps his eyes on wisdom. By contrast, the fool has his eyes on something else… his eyes are on the ends of the earth.

There was a 1995 movie entitled “A Walk in the Clouds” starring  Keanu Reeves and Aitana Sanches Gijon . In this story Reeves, saves a pregnant Aitana from her father’s wrath by posing as the father of Aitana’s unborn child. In one scene, Keanu is taught how to pick grapes in a vineyard owned by Aitana’s father. And the way to pick grapes is to cut grape clusters bush by bush. The key was not to let your eyes wander towards other cutters or towards other bushes where bigger grapes could be found, but to cut clusters, bush by bush. Harvesting grapes is not a matter of finding clusters of grapes that are easier to harvest, or that seem bigger or riper than others. There is no prize for harvesting the biggest grapes. The prize is in being thorough at harvesting.
A fool is easily distracted by easy wins. He’s always seeking an easy way to get ahead in his life. He’s the guy who invests in the future by buying lottery tickets. He can’t seem to stay married because no person is ever good enough. He can’t keep a job because no job is good enough. He can’t stay in one church, because no church is good enough.

There is always a rainbow waiting for them over the next hill. Their eyes wander constantly to the ends of the earth. They are constantly comparing themselves, their families, their jobs, their potential to something else or to someone else. AND THEY ARE NEVER SATISFIED.
Fools hurry from bush to bush always hoping that the next cluster they grab will be the ripest and the biggest. In the end, they have done less with their lives than they could have.

By contrast, the wise personn has 2 advantages over the fool. First, he is focused. A discerning person keeps wisdom in view (Prov. 17:24). He’s not running all over the place looking for an easy way to live his life. He realizes that the only lasting success in life comes by sticking to the task at hand.

Someone observed: No one sermon can help set a church right or remove its troubles. The sense of being a community of faith, is accomplished through the enduring relations of members with God and with one another, with consistent, focused, organized effort. And that is what the wise person does.

A wise person pursues Wisdom. Solomon (who wrote Proverbs) was once asked by God to name the one thing he wanted. When Solomon asked for wisdom God responded, “Since you have asked for (wisdom) and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies… I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart…. Moreover, I will give you what you have NOT asked for— both riches and honor— so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.” 1 Kings 3:11-12

Solomon learned from experience that wisdom gained him an advantage in life. It gave him an edge. Wisdom gave him wealth, power and position.

He realized if you have wealth, but don’t know how to spend it, what will it profit you? If you have power but don’t know how to exercise it, what will it profit you? If you have a position of influence but turn people off, what does it profit you? This truism says the same thing:

We squander our health in search of wealth,
We scheme and toil and save, And all we get’s a grave.
We squander wealth in search of health.
We live and boast of what we own, We die and only get a stone.

“A discerning man keeps wisdom in view” Proverbs 17:24

The second advantage the wise person has over the fool is that he knows where to look for wisdom. Where did Solomon get his wisdom? He asked God. Why? Because wisdom comes from God.

There is of course human wisdom, but it is often contradictory, for example:
· Look before you leap… but he who hesitates is lost.
· Many hands make light work… but too many cooks spoil the broth.
· Clothes make the man… but we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
· Nothing ventured, nothing gained… but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
· If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… but don’t beat a dead horse
· If you lie down with dogs you’ll get fleas… but if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Human wisdom has to do with survival. God’s wisdom goes far beyond surviving in human society. There are no limits to God’s vision. There are no boundaries to what God can see. God is the source of our wisdom and our real hope for the new year.

In Isaiah 46:10 God tells us: “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

Faith is our access to the Wisdom of God in our lives. And we show that we have the wisdom of God when we do what God asks us to do. Remember Jesus once told the parable about how two men built their homes in a song – “theWise man built his house upon the rock”. Jesus ended the parable by saying “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does NOT put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” Matthew 7:26. But, “… everyone who hears these words of mine and PUTS THEM INTO PRACTICE is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

If we want to be wise, to build our house upon the rock, study the BIBLE with us. We have Sunday School at 9 am. Good, experienced volunteer teachers. Hardly any college students. We have Bible study clusters, join one cluster. We have midweek prayer meetings, get more of God’s wisdom …and a greater advantage in this world. We have 5 services on Sundays. So, here are the ways to ensure a good New Year for 2008 — #1 KNOW God’s Wisdom, #2 DO God’s Wisdom

Remember, a foolish person is distracted by the world. A wise person is focused on God’s wisdom and lives in hope.
An American senator toured Calcutta to get some hope from Mother Teresa. He visited the so-called “House of Dying,” where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, the senator was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers face daily. “How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?” he asked. Mother Teresa replied, “My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful.” That is God’s wisdom and hope speaking.

Happy New Year to all with all our prayers of Hope.

(Sermon delivered Dec. 31, 2007, New Year’s Eve service. Silliman University Church.)

Posted by Pastor Noel at 02:01:35 | Permalink | Comments (1) »