Baptist Preaching: A Global Anthology

10. The God We Worship

80 Baptist Preaching All the Marys who are present here today, please be assured that Jesus knows how much you love Him, and He also knows that your burden is too much for you to bear and that is why He identifies with you at this moment. He comforts you. He loves you in spite of your weak faith. Incredibly, He even has tears in His eyes because His love is beyond our understanding. Lastly, for those who have no faith or hope at all, is not this story enough for you to understand the love Jesus has for you? Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic—originally from Australia— has become an internationally successful motivational speaker and preacher. He has published a book, and it includes a photograph of a little girl with him, a man without limbs and a little girl with a leg amputated, and this is what he says: “I will never forget how Jeanette encouraged me. Some would say that she lost her fight to cancer. But, I would say that her loving Heavenly Farther carried her tired body Home.” The picture wets our eyes not because of her tragedy but for the love of Christ seen on her face, in spite of the full knowledge that she would be gone soon. Can you find such love for the suffering anywhere else except through the cross of Christ? In spite of you, Jesus loves you, not just with words but with actions. He takes our suffering, our sin, and bears them on the cross. He arose on the third day and so will we. 10 The god we worship Simon Pau Khan En Tedim Baptist Church Yangon, Myanmar BIOGRAPHY Simon P. K. En’s life has been devoted to theological education, preaching, and soul caring. Early in his ministry he served as a home missionary to Southern Chin State, Myanmar. From 1977 to 1985 he pastored Leipi Baptist Church, and he later served in various positions (including general secretary ) for the Myanmar Baptist Convention. En earned his Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham in 1995. From 2006 to 2010, he also served as the president of the Myanmar Institute of Theology, where he previously taught as a professor of theology (1996–1999). En is married to Zen Khaw Don; they are the parents of six children. Part II—Asia–Pacific Rim 81 SERMON COMMENTARY Simon Pau Khan En offers a sermon that represents “preaching from above” —that is, a theocentric message. Yet his message empathizes and enters into a dialogue with the human condition. The venue specificity of the message reflects a Baptist leaders’ seminar in Myanmar and also anticipates the Myanmar Baptist bicentennial celebration. He further contextualizes the message with specific Asian concerns: the Asian tsunami, the cyclone Nargis of 2008, and brutal persecution. The sermon does not present a given text but rather supports its conversation with multiple texts that underwrite God’s self-disclosure, along with his sometimes puzzling acts or absence in history, and God’s sending mission of transformation. In a sense, the biblical witness to God as the canonical metanarrative resonates as the text behind the sermon. Without one specific text the sermon resounds with the canonical witness to the being and acts of God. The sermon begins with an intriguing introduction of mistaken identity in a story from Myanmar Baptist life that creates suspense before the protagonist suddenly identifies himself. The congregation is drawn into the “heavier” subject of the message by this humorous introduction. The transition from the introduction to the movements of the sermon uses two long questions and two affirmations that play analogically off the introductory narrative. The tertium of not knowing/knowing flows organically from the quaint introductory narrative to the heavier questions of knowing God in a world that sometimes contradicts his presence. The sermon concludes with a stirring call to action on the part of Myanmar Baptists and their 4,600 churches in light of their bicentennial. By summoning the memory of Adoniram Judson (1788–1850) and Ann Judson (1789–1826), who were the first Protestant missionaries to Burma, En sufficiently stirs a sense of historical pathos for the prospect of the two hundredth anniversary of Baptist life in Myanmar. SERMON ANALYSIS In relationship to the McClure codes the scriptural code is one of transformation . In the McClure codification, transformation is “theology centered.”1 Although En makes some denotative affirmations about God, the sermon wrestles with the biblical witness of God...