SERMON
TITLE: Christ’s Church For the Future
Preached by the Rev. John Lee on January 7,
2007 at DPUC
SCRIPTURE: Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
3:15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were
questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah,
3:16 John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with
water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie
the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with
unquenchable fire."
3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had
been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened,
3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a
dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you
I am well pleased.“
Christ’s Church For the Future
Today is the first Sunday of the year 2007, and I wish all of you a Happy New Year! We gather to celebrate God’s presence in our lives yesterday and today and God’s guidance in our future coming days. In this first Sunday of the year, what we want to celebrate is the church that is filled with the Spirit of hope, Christ’s church for the future. This hope means to us that we have a vision for tomorrow that God has promised.
This hope can be realized by looking at the future world that God is leading us into. This hope can be realized through our commitment of living out peace and justice in our coming new world by seeking harmony, by bringing reconciliation and healing. This is an immense undertaking that requires the transformation of ourselves and the harmony in the whole of God’s creation. This is a concrete way that the church can bring the future vision to the present world.
To be the church with hope, to be the church that brings the vision to the society, the church needs to know what is happening at the present time, what is coming next in our world, what new lifestyle we are going to have in the future; what is the new structure of society that holds new ways of communication and new forms of industry. This requires our keen interest for the future world and future lifestyle.
In this fast-paced changing world that is quickly becoming relatively smaller with the impact of diverse new ideas and differences, we need individuals who are committed to this task of global visioning that helps us to read the signs of the times. With this hope in mind, when I read today’s lectionary readings, they were loaded with hopeful vision for the future.
In fact, the whole message in the Bible is
about the future. Jesus’ preaching, teaching and life is about how we will
prepare for the future life, the
Studying the future is not the task of
other professional people such as politicians, professors or business people,
but it is the task of us who are called to bring the vision to this world. It
is not a thing that can be done later, but it is a thing to be done
immediately. It is because this is the way of Jesus who proclaimed that the
Let us read the Gospel message again. The people in the context of today’s story were filled with expectation: what’s going to happen in the future. They were hoping to have bright future where there are no sick, lonely, poor, etc. They were anticipating that someone will come into their midst and take them to the land of promise. They were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the one, the Messiah.
To this question, John answered, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming.” John’s answer was that “It’s not me. Someone else is coming. That is Jesus.” He continued to say, “Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
For the people of 2000 years ago, baptism was a ritual that begins new life in a new faith community. All the people who gathered with Jesus were baptized and they began a new life together. Jesus was baptized and, together, they began a new life in this new community of faith. The meaning of baptism and the Holy Communion is “together” with Jesus Christ as he was with the people through his baptism. Therefore the Christ’s church for the future gathers with the Spirit of baptism and renewal of baptism.
Baptism symbolizes cleansing or removal of all the faults they had done. Therefore John the Baptist proclaims that Jesus’ baptism by the fire meant burning away all the sins and it was much more powerful than cleansing by water. This means a total new beginning into a new life is possible. This means the new life of repentance, turning around from old ways is possible.
What today’s message speaks to us in this first Sunday of the new year is that we begin the new life and gather together, think and act together and journey together for the future as Christ’s church. To set out on this new journey, we breathe one Spirit who leads us to the future that God has promise.
We are called to be reminded of the Spirit
of Jesus’ baptism. We are called to be one with Christ and we, each one of us,
are called to be one in this Spirit. This Spirit brightens our eyes and enables
us to see, like Jesus, the coming future, the
This means many things for us. We are transformed to plan about future rather than finding fault in others. We become forgiving people to journey together for the future.
We renew our faith in Jesus Christ to set our always new journey with Christ. We deepen our fellowship in Christ to go through many obstacles in front of us. We encourage us each other not to be tempted by the evil, splitting spirit. We sharpen our antenna to lead the society into the future new world.
Is it a tough job? Will it be difficult and almost impossible? Yes. However we, together as one body, can do it. It will make a lot easier when we do together. We are confident because God has promised and blessed our future. And for this journey, Jesus the Christ, our friend and saviour is with us. We are Christ’s Church for the future. And in Christ, with Christ all things are possible.
It is a significant moment. If you are not
convinced, you can make this moment a special one in your life. Let us keep in
our heart, “With Christ, in Christ, nothing is impossible” and set out a brand
new journey. One thing that still echoes in my heart at this moment is that
when he began a new life, Jesus prayed. In this prayer the Holy Spirit was with
him. And in this prayer, Jesus heard the words of affirmation, the words of
blessing, the words of the new promise of God – "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
We are beginning a new year. As we begin the new life with new hope, we
think about what and how we turn around into new ways in our personal journey,
family life, work place and our ministry together. Like Jesus, we want to begin
the new journey with prayer. We want to be inspired by the Spirit of God. At
this moment, as we set out a new journey, we know that Jesus is praying for us.
In this our new journey, I anticipate we all hear the call of God through the
Holy Spirit, "You are my son, you are my daughter, the beloved; with you I am well
pleased." Amen.
This site is prepared by the Rev. John Young-Jung Lee,
a minister of The United Church of Canada
with volunteers who are committed in the works
of Peace and Justice in our global village
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Acknowledgement:
Web planning team: Marion Current, Hannah Lee
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Art design team: Raymond NamKi Jung, Johnny Jong Hyun Jeong
Updated January 7, 2007