18th August,, 2011

SIU FUNG WU

I would like to share some reflection about how God uses the weak and lowly to show us profound truths. A couple of years ago I attended a pastors’ conference. The keynote speaker was a professor from North America, who was an outstanding scholar and communicator. The other speakers and workshop facilitators also had exceptional qualifications and experience in their fields. They all gave us great insights into the Bible and ministry.

But the person I remember most was someone I met during a lunch break. He was a pastor of a church in a low socio-economic suburb in Melbourne. Formerly he was a refugee, and had experienced severe persecution for his faith. He was studying for his ordination. But he could barely pay for his fees because his church consisted of low-income people – many of them being refugees themselves – and they could not pay their pastor well. This pastor’s heart for his church and his love for God were inspirational. He reflects God’s glory in his own devotion to Jesus and his perseverance in times of hardship.

WHO ARE WE LISTENING TO? Siu Fung Wu says it's important to remember that it's not just the learned or the affluent who have something to teach us about God. PICTURE: © Perry Kroll (www.istockphoto.com) "I think the educated, the unlearned, the rich, and the poor, all have gifts and talents to build up the body of Christ. The most important person in the Bible is Jesus, and He does not grade people according to their social or economic status. Our pastors, teachers and conference speakers should be people who can help us know Christ and the Scripture. Their qualifications and ministry success – or their lack of them – simply cannot be our primary focus."

I wonder what the conference would have been like if this unknown pastor was one of the speakers? Would he be able to help us learn something important about God’s grace and power?

The speakers I invited

For years I have had the privilege to coordinate a course on international aid and development. Every year I say to the students that we have some of the best guest speakers for the subject. They are those who have postgraduate degrees in development and theology. They have years of solid experience in the field. Some of them still live in poor communities overseas. Some of them are well sought after speakers at conferences. Sometimes I even have prominent people from non-Western low-income countries to speak to us.

But in recent years I have come to realise that I have failed to let the voice of the poor be heard. I have neglected the fact that the tenacity and resilience of the poor are in fact most inspirational and have most to teach us. Yes, indeed our wonderful speakers can speak on behalf of the poor, and challenges us to serve them. But shouldn’t I have worked harder to find speakers who can speak for themselves because they themselves are poor and marginalised? That is, wouldn’t it be really good if I had tried to find speakers who had firsthand experience of what it was like to be trapped in the cycle of socio-economic injustice?

The prominent people in the New Testament

My questions have taken me back to the Bible for answers. I think the educated, the unlearned, the rich, and the poor, all have gifts and talents to build up the body of Christ. The most important person in the Bible is Jesus, and He does not grade people according to their social or economic status. Our pastors, teachers and conference speakers should be people who can help us know Christ and the Scripture. Their qualifications and ministry success – or their lack of them – simply cannot be our primary focus.

But in the Bible we do find that God uses the stories of the humble and lowly to teach us. Jesus, as I said, takes the most prominent place in the New Testament. But His life began with being born in a manger – a feeding trough for animals – and being a refugee in Egypt. His life ended with dying on a Roman cross, which was a symbol of utter shame and humiliation in the ancient world. But God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to the highest place (Philippians 2: 6-11). It is this Messiah – that is, the anointed King – whom we worship. Jesus has shown us what it means to be the type of people God intends us to be through His own obedience to God in His suffering.

Then we have people like Peter and Paul in the Bible. They are the two most prominent figures in the Book of Acts. But they are not superheroes. We know that Peter disowned Jesus three times, a fact that is mentioned in each of the four Gospels (Matthew 26: 69-75; Mark 14: 66-72; Luke 22: 54-62; John 18: 15-18, 25-27). Paul was a persecutor of the church (Acts 22: 3-5), and in his letters he insists that he sees his former qualifications and credentials as rubbish (Philippians 3: 4-8). Indeed he would only boast about his sufferings and God’s power in his weakness (II Corinthians 11: 30; 12: 8-10).

Perhaps we should look for people like that to be our leaders? Maybe we should find people like that to speak at our churches and conferences – those who speak of God’s saving power in their weaknesses, shortcomings and sufferings? In fact, as I write this I am thinking about my own sermons and teaching. Do people mostly think of Jesus after listening to my sermons and lectures? Or do people mostly think of my intellectual learning or ministry? When all has been said and done, are people inspired to follow Jesus’ self-giving life? Or do they only remember the speaker’s insights or eloquent speech? In other words, do we create a culture where people want to “follow the followers of Jesus”? Or do we encourage people to follow Jesus himself?

The lowly in the Bible

The most inspirational people are often the least known people, including those at the margins of the society. Surely the New Testament speaks positively of some prominent people in the society, such as the centurions who demonstrate amazing faith in Jesus and heart for the poor (Luke 7: 1-10; Acts 10). But we also find a woman, Mary, who poured perfume on Jesus’ head, and Jesus says that she is to be remembered wherever the Gospel is preached (Matthew 26: 6-13; John 12: 1-8).

Then there is another woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years – a condition that would have rendered her continually “unclean”. But she put her trust in Jesus and was commended by him (Mark 5: 21-34). We also see a Canaanite woman, who insisted to ask Jesus to heal her daughter. And Jesus commended that she had great faith (Matthew 15:21-28). Then there is a man born blind, who bore witness to Christ’s goodness at great personal cost (John 9:1-41). All of them would have been at the lower end of the social pyramid because of their gender, chronic sickness or racial background. They would have been relatively poor, if not in abject poverty. But they demonstrated amazing tenacity and sincere faith in Jesus. It seems to me that the Scripture tells us their stories so that we can learn something about God’s grace and power from those who are suffering.

The faithful today

Two Christian communities have been a great inspiration to me. First, a mission organisation. I have been to many events organised by them. They don’t have any charismatic speakers, but ordinary (mostly long term) missionaries who faithfully proclaim the Gospel in word and deed. Rarely do they tell stories of large number of people coming to Christ. But they often tell us how God has been faithful in everything they do in the field. They are committed to the Gospel and the people they seek to serve, often with significant personal sacrifice.

Second, a church committed to justice for the marginalised. In this church there are asylum seekers and refugees, who have gone through more hardships and testing of faith than anyone else I know personally. I have learned a lot from their faith in Christ. I have listened to the stories of people who are living with mental illness as they face discrimination at their workplaces and in the society. I admire them greatly because they continue to trust God despite the injustice they face.

In these two communities I see how God’s power manifest in people’s weakness. There is nothing glamorous about their sufferings and hardships. But God uses them to show us His glory as He empowers His people to be faithful followers of Jesus. May God help us to see His power in our own weaknesses.

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