National Day Thanksgiving Service Message

The Lord’s Vision for the People

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

First of all, I thank CCM for inviting me to share the Word of God in this Thanksgiving Service for the nation. In less than six hours, Malaysia will turn 52 years old as an independent nation! It is a time to be thankful and gather ourselves to celebrate, reflect and reassure ourselves as a multi-racial nation. For our meditation today, I will be focusing on Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18, 

“Where there is no vision, the people perish; but blessed is he who keeps the law.”

Taking into consideration that Proverbs in chapter 29 basically addresses a nation and its king, verse 18 is the highlight to the whole chapter in a particular way that we will see in a short while. In a nutshell, chapter 29 tells us about “the need for a nation to have a vision.” And a nation that does not capture the vision of the Lord but waste its wealth and leadership, and perverts justice to the poor, stands to be judged before the Lord. It stands in shame before the Lord. And the Lord will turn away from it because ultimately justice is from the Lord. Hence a nation without a vision will perish because the Lord has turned his face away from it.

This is a hard saying for both the nation and its people. It puts upon our head a whole lot of burning coal to stand up and defend our nation before the Lord. As Christians, it is our duty to bring forth the Lord’s vision to our nation. Today it is our responsibility as Christians to ensure that the appointed leaders of this nation faithfully implement and fulfill the vision we have for this nation. As Christians we are called to be the conscience and voice of the Lord. The Lord is surely at work whenever a nation is able to provide a vision for its people. In this case, I can openly say, “Bless Malaysia, Jesus Bless Malaysia, for we have 1 Malaysia!” A vision for the people in Malaysia! Surely, the Lord will not allow us to perish as a nation! 

Having said that, please allow me to say a few words what does this can mean for us today.

Firstly, many of us are distressed that the nation is not heading in the right direction. Do not be unhappy, God has blessed our nation, Malaysia for the past 52 years since Independence. Surely the Lord would keep blessing our nation in the coming years. After our near social break-down in 1969, many have lived in this country in fear of a breakdown of law and order! Please remove all fears from yourself! Nevertheless, the Lord has blessed this nation with law & order, and good leaders. One of the key reasons why we have survived as a plural society is that we have kept everything under control. We often congratulate ourselves for our courtesy and budi bahasa. Our sense of decency and respect for one another demands a polite society. On the other hand, the last decade saw as a slow emergence of a free society. And what may this “free society” be? My dear friends, I define a free society simply as one in which we can have a public debate or to put it in other words “freedom of speech.” The freedom to express our views and opinions! That is what we are having in the press, in the blogs, in the parliament and in the coffee shops. The old fears are there and they stand in the shadows but this is a bold experiment, we are debating issues we dare not talk a decade ago. This is good. This is progress. And we must sincerely thank our government and its leaders for this openness and transparency. The voice of the common people is shaping the vision of the nation. And I think this is justice that is evolving. I think it is society reforming itself. And I like the fundamental direction we are heading as a nation. I assure you that there will be more debates and openness, and it is good that we can read about it. It is said that “you cannot hope to clean your house and not see dirt.” This is it. This is “Satu Malaysia” for me and for us too! Malaysia is heading in the right direction! This is the providence of the Lord for the nations. And this is the vision of the Lord for the people everywhere and also for us to bring Malaysia to greater heights!

Do we then congratulate ourselves and go on “unchecked.” Certainly not! As a Church, we also have to play our part. We have to stand up and be counted as a nation builder. Our job is not to make “holier-than-thou” statements or to overly simplify issues into boxes of black and white. Justice may be denied today, corrupt people may hold power but all things change. Where we fail to effect change, we hope in the Lord, the fountain of all justice. 

And that brings me to the second point. 

President Barrack Obama said that “America will be America so long as what that holds us together is stronger than what that pulls up apart.” A wise saying but how forgetful we can be that “this is what makes a nation.” Malaysia can only be a great nation if we can see that this is so true for Malaysians, as well. Now, how do we as a Church hold together our society? Do we become dogmatic? Wag our fingers now and then? Or do we live our Christian lives and hope others will see how wonderful a community we are and join the peace loving band of Christians? I think these are not enough. We are a nation of many cultures and languages, competing for limited resources, often unable to reach each other. That is the reality. We as a Church need to overcome this. If we are to go beyond preaching the good news, we have to become an integral part of the community we live in. The presence of a Church or a Christian in a community should be felt by everyone. Let me illustrate by asking this question: “how many of us feel this way, suppose one of our churches burn down, we say it will only hurt the members and not the people around us? A general assumption! I think you should remove such inclusive thoughts and feelings! The loss of a church should hurt the whole community, it should be a loss to everyone, and it should impact the well-being of our fellow Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist citizens. Otherwise, our existence is selfish, self-centred and has no locus standi in the affairs of the community. If pastors and congregations cannot be positively involved in the welfare of the community, or Christian leaders keep themselves within their fences, how can we as a people talk about “Satu Malaysia” or legitimately ask for responsible governance, accountability and transparency. I fear that one day God will hold us accountable! 

Thirdly, the Malaysian historical realities have cast us into racial blocs. Our politics are modeled along racial blocs and our economic models are racially planned. We analyze our accomplishment according to races. We even say races are created by God. Truly, the Lord gives us a face that is either this or that and there are many whose God-given face is neither this nor that. While our political models are racial we need to accommodate the new realities of the new faces of the younger generation. While race and racial sentiments are real, we also need to uphold that beyond our cultural heritage as Malaysians we have a shared history that makes us uniquely Malaysians. Communal competition for economic resources must give way to a more democratic society, a “Satu Malaysia.” Though communities whose cultural identity are important for their own well being. And they are not belittled or left behind in this country! Yet we need to seek a more just model for the coming generation that would allocate resources according to economic needs of individuals, on an equal footing in an even field. 

The fourth point is that it is the Lord who judges the leaders and brings them to accountability. As you can see in the foregoing points, the leaders of this land have an extremely heavy responsibility. We all have our grievances about the shortcomings of our leaders and our unhappiness about decisions of the executive or the judiciary. It is difficult to please 25 million people. But we are surely blessed that our leaders are certainly not lazy. They work extremely hard. They need not work hard, and they could have adopted a hundred other methods of governance that could have led us to failure after failure. This is what we gather from our New Testament reading for the day in Romans 13: 1-5. The hand of the Lord is undeniably with them. The Church may protest over issues, it may take to task unpopular decisions but certainly we may not judge our leaders. It is for the Lord to do so. Let us not forget that we are a praying nation. Turn any corner in any street, in any town in Malaysia, there is a temple, a mosque or a church. Come any day, perhaps more on Fridays and Sundays, prayers are made, and the Lord of nations, hears the call of the people. 

As a Church, we too pray that all who hold public office, and judges and magistrates who hold position of trust and power will see that they are the extension of God’s justice when they carry out their duties honestly and kindly. 

As Christians let us pray for our Prime Minister Datuk Sri Najib Abdul Razak and all his Ministers (including our special guest of honour, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok) that they will be strengthened to do what is right always and preserve the resources of the land for our children and their children by not allowing wickedness to overtake the good that they can do. 

Let us all pray for our beloved King and Queen, all the Rulers, the law-makers in the State Assembly and in the Parliament are guided by the vision of truth that they may be wise, prudent and insightful in their deliberations.

Let us pray that the Lord may find that we have not failed to protect the weak, the aggrieved among us, the widows, the orphans, the sick and the homeless, lest our nakedness is uncovered in shame before the Lord our God. 

We thank our Lord for blessing Malaysia abundantly for the past 52 years. May the Lord continue to bless the vision of our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that through his “1 Malaysia” there will be greater democracy, accountability, transparency, and equal rights of all citizens under the Constitution of Malaysia! Not only that the Prime Minister’s 1 Malaysia may forge national unity and build a civil Malaysian society.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. Amen 

Sermon Preached by
Rt. Rev. Dr. Solomon Rajah
Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia

52nd Anniversary of Merdeka
An Ecumenical Service of Thanksgiving for the Nation
Council of Churches of Malaysia

Date: 30th August 2009
Venue: Trinity Methodist Church, Petaling Jaya
Time: 6.00 p.m.