This content is an excerpt from the sermon by Upa Ngulminthang
RIGHTEOUSNESS: ITS PERSECUTIONS AND BLESSINGS
’In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’’ Jeremiah 23:6
We find ourselves in the last month of the year, the smell of air lingers Christmas once again, looking back from the beginning of this year we might review it as a year of success or a year of loss. However as human nature is prone to entropy, impermanence our very existence is defined by our life, our values. The core of a Christian life is being righteous, the moral of being “Christian” is righteousness without which a Christian life is like a dead tree, decay and lifeless. It’s dangerous to adhere the values of righteousness as if we have earned it, as if we are righteous because we deserved it or for our might. Righteousness is however the attributes of God, which we could share through Jesus Christ. The patriarchs of Old Testaments like Abraham, Noah, Moses profoundly work with obedience, faith, trust to be apart of the fellowship with God, “being righteous” Humans are proud of who we are and what we do. It’s a common feature to boast and self-proclaimed ourselves as being “righteous” only to make other feel bad, or to make ourselves superior from others. We have mistaken that the very values in us we boasted are against what we tried to attain, in its cynical worst. The path to righteousness is paved with humbleness, and is viewed based on God’s perspective.
PERSECUTIONS
The world belongs to evil and Christians are scapegoat of the world. All around the world churches are attacked; people are prejudiced and discriminated because they affiliated themselves as “Christians”. As a Christian we valued those as sharing Christ’s suffering, being attacked as they hold on their righteousness towards God and those who have never faced such persecutions are considered to be safe. The fact is human perceptions on a subject as “righteousness” is limited. I want us to have a case study in the story of Hanna, Samuel’s mom of Old Testaments. She is a victim who cries in God’s temple simply because she could not earn her husband’s love. She brought the very core of her personal life, and seeks justice in the temple of God. We often mistake that our personal problems are just ours, while in fact our problems are bigger than us. Whenever we think that we can handle and solve our problems we are in chains struggling. Living in the 21st century, we all are victims of persecution. It is dangerous to place cultural rights, social justice and personal identity higher than Jesus. We cannot risk the essence of God. Personally, I think within Christian community there is a race to become a better Christian, aka. Unleashing people’s weakness and the habit of justifying our sins/wrongs by claiming others act, in other words, competing with the weakness of others.
BLESSINGS
We should humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, he is the judge and will lift us up when the time is alright. The Lord will make our righteous reward shine like the dawn, our vindication like the noonday sun. No one from the east or west or the desert can judge you. God is the judge. He judges one person as guilty, and another as innocent. The Lord can control a king’s mind as easily as he controls a river. He can direct it as he pleases. As a Christian we should submit ourselves to the Lord only which we can receive his blessings and live a life which pleases him.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all
Khamboi Singson
Content writer, Media Team.
