‘A HEART FOR ONE ANOTHER’ THE WEIGHT OF MY NEIGHBOUR’S GLORY

BY REV HENRY HONG

This Sunday, our theme for both the Pulpit and Sunday School reminds us that in our relationship with God and others, let us do so ‘With Christ in Mind.’

Our late Bro Tan Kok Hwa, a faithful servant of God who served as a missionary, maintained such an outlook and became a model and inspiration for us.

My interaction with him was brief but I remember hosting a fellowship meal to know him and his mission work better. He impressed me not only as a gifted musician but also as a humble and unassuming person who loved God deeply and single-mindedly. He was a fellow pilgrim who passed my way and blessed me with the memory of looking to Jesus and keeping God’s eternity in my view.

It reminds me of Jesus’ Parable of The Good Samaritan, which leaves us with the poignant question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’

My neighbour, I realized, is someone God brings into my pathway, outside my comfort zone and my cultural background, but who helps me to recover God’s vision and purpose for my life.

Our late Bro  Tan Kok Hwa was such a pilgrim and neighbour to me. May I humbly ask you, ‘Who is your neighbour?’ or ‘Who will you be a neighbour to?’

Quote:

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. ...

"It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit. ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

-    C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory