My land, my people, my shepherd

228, 2010 記念禮拜 Sermon by Rev. Rong-Hu Lu

吾土, 吾民, 吾牧

My land, my people, my shepherd

以西結(Ezekiel) 33:30-34:10 啓应文(R.R): 詩篇(Ps.)85:7-13

The true God, the Lord almighty brought the ancient Israel county into being, wanted to make it a model nation for the world to see, and to learn from it that the world may know that there is only one true God who is not only almighty, everlasting, ruler of history, but also is just, holy, loving, and worthy of obeyed and worshipped..

For these purposes He gave the kings of Israelites instructions to govern; gave the prophets His Spirit to inspire and courage to teach; and He gave the land of Canan as the Israelites’ inhabitant.

A king is to protect, to govern, to feed, and to care for his people. A prophet is to declare the will of God, to teach them to worship Him by following His will, by upholding social justice and by loving one another.

When al three parties listen to God His grace, peace, and prosperity will be theirs to enjoy. But, when they departed from God’s way, they were on their own, peril and destruction will soon be on their heels.

There were good kings and bad kings, true and false prophets, as well as good and bad people..

Good king protects and governs his people justly, he gives them abundant life like a good shepherd. A true prophet keeps their feet in line with God’s word. Faithful people take delight in God’s word follow His word with thanksgiving and obedience. Bad kings, false prophets, and evil people live their lives the other way around.

The text we read this morning tells us the way the people of Judah lived right before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

The people of Judah believed that their land was given to their forefather Abram by God and so it should be theirs for good. But the Lord God told His prophet, Ezekiel to proclaim God’s word to the people of Israel and to the house of Judah that the land was not their entitlement, and that if they do not turn their way back to God they will surely perished.

They Lord God also made it clear to Ezekiel the state of mind of His people in both camps-Israel and Judah. They would not listen to any true prophet at all. They look down on God’s prophets as if they were actors and singers. They went to the prophet just to see if he acts well and sing beautifully. They will not take his word seriously nor practice it.

As to the kings, shepherds to His people at that time, those who should tend and care for His flock, they not only did not do so but on the contrary slaughtered his sheep to devour them. As the result the sheep were scattered all over the world with no one to look for them, to care for them.

I live the last 50 years of my life feeling very much the same way as the Lord felt when He related the above messages to Ezekiel.

With the coming of Chiang Kai-sek and his Chinese Nationalist Party (I prefer to call it the Chinese citizen party. For it carries more truth to what they are and is easier to understand by tall), a wild wolf, not shepherd, had come to our homeland devoured billions of our national goods. And from 2.28 of 1947 on began to slaughter tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Taiwan.

For this dismal tale we hold this remembrance service this morning asking the Almighty, and loving God to keep us from suffering the same harm again and to help us do away the hatred that might have lingered in our hearts and souls. Moreover we ask God to grant us wisdom to differentiate the wolf and the shepherd.

I have no desire to retell any sorrowful story of 2.28. There are just too many and to dishearten to mention. But if you are interested or curious enough to find its causes, what have happened, you may go to the Taiwanus.net/ to check them out. There are articles and even movies.

The Lord God gives us a beautiful island, Taiwan-Formosa, to be our inheritance for generations and generations to come. However it is not our entitlement, it is a gift from the Lord. We have to treasure it, keep it beautiful, protect it and even fight for it.

For us, Taiwanese to enjoy this land, justice must prevail over the land. The fear of God and brotherly love must be a common practice in every day living.

We thank God that Taiwan have had so many courageous man and woman who sacrificed their lives for the cause of democracy and have obtained for us a democratic government in Taiwan.

Sadly, after Ma, eng-kau took power he anxiously and hurriedly abused his power and the democratic system, especially in congressional maneuvers. He is rapidly changing himself from a shepherd to a wolf.

In less than two years after he took the presidency, Taiwan sank from an affluent society into pauper state.

Thousand of mothers waited in line to grab whatever leftover from schools lunch.

For every temporarily position hundreds of men and women fighting for it.

More than ten thousand college students stop going to school this semester because their families have no money, and can’t find any job to afford their education.

Man robbed supermarket in order to be arrested and jailed for free food.

While he has no money to assist poor family he is to spend $160 million to build a

bridge in Kim-Bng to benefit about 5 thousand people.

While a lot of families that suffered loss and death from the 8.8 flooding waiting in months for assistance without hope, Mr. Ma pounded on his desk yelling to his Chinese citizen party congressional members to pass the so called Industrial Enhancement Act which will give billion of dollars to the giant corp. such as Hong-Ki for example, and to pass ECFA which will allow the Chinese products to pour into Taiwan and to ruin Taiwan’s market.

Yesterday, after casting his vote to elect the additional congressmen, he felt he had nothing better to do and went to visit one his father’s old friends in order to make clear to him that his father named him Eng-Kau is not because he was born in Kau-long or British colony Hiong kan, but to mean that in his heart he embraces China( kau-chiu ). He was telling his dad’s old friend that he intents to return Taiwan to China.

A big wolf in sheep’s skin, a wild wolf in shepherd figure is bold enough to show his true color. On this 2.28 memorial service please take note of this, and watch out.

There is a Chinese saying, it goes like this: He who is not of us he has no concern for us.

Mr. Ma and his ckmt team have never addressed Taiwan as a sovereign nation or claimed himself to be the president of Taiwan. He recently forced the Education minister to double the compulsory lesions of Chinese history in comparison to that of the Taiwanese. Is he our shepherd? Or a wolf waits at the door?

Observing 2.28 memorial service make me feel sad, I hope someday in the near future we will find no reason to keep it. But before the day arrives we must get some meanings out of this service to make it worthwhile. This is the way I see it:

1) Right all entity/identity.

Make sure you know whom you are, and what other is. Know that Dpp should be Tdpp. Kmt should be Ckmt. They are of Chinese. Call Taiwan, Taiwan; China, China; not the island vs. the continent. No nation will put other’s gain over his.

2) Coerce your relatives and friends to look straight at facts; identifying politicians

whom worked hard to build up Taiwan from those who schemed to sell Taiwan.

Vote for the real Taiwanese not the thief. Stop listening to lies, lie such as vote for

me, and stock will rise to 20,000 points, and you will be all set.

3) Consider yourself a prophet. Give our Taiwanese brothers and sisters facts and

warning.

4) Preaching the gospel. It angers me to see the Taiwanese politicians went to Tao’s

temple to draw straws to check what is in store for the people of Taiwan from those deities. They are dissuading national morale, telling people to give up. They are using it as excuses for their stupidity and corruption. They are telling people that the deities have cast their lot this year, and for anything bad that might happen, no politician has to be responsible.

Preach the gospel. Let people know that the Lord cares for Taiwan, The Lord bids us to uphold justice, to exercise brotherly love, to believe and trust Him knowing

that He is in charge of human history including Taiwanese’s and we can live in

peace and safety when we follow His word.

Amen