Homily: Home

Singapore's National Day - 50 years of Independence

Reading: Isaiah 63.7-9 / Psalm 126 / Colossians 3.12-17 / Luke 12.22-33


Home is where the heart is, they say.

Each of us has different reasons for calling a place “home.”  Family. Friends. Food. Where I grew up. Where we fell in love and stayed. Where they found work and a new life.

Today, we celebrate 50 years of nationhood -- of growing up and being Singaporean.

Some are proud of Singapore’s successes. Some grumble about life here. But I know all of us would confess that Singapore is home.

And it is a good home. We have harmony and peace, success and development. We have friends from other races, colours and religions. We have ample food and portable water. We have access to shelter, education, health, employment and parks. Yes, much more could have been done; the next 50 years give our young a chance to do just that.

Many will attribute Singapore’s success to the vision, the “can-do” determination and the sacrifices of our founding ministers and our pioneer generation. Today, we are citizens and foreigners building on their foundations as we work long and hard for ourselves, our family’s happiness and this country’s good. Yes, we’ve built this city.

But if we looked with eyes of faith, we’ll see that behind the Singapore story of all that we’ve built and achieved, there is God.

Our psalm calls us to remember, to celebrate and to believe in this truth with these lines:

If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labour; if the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.

Yes, we have not built in vain because Singapore is God's own enterprise. I believe God allowed our being thrown out of Malaysia, blessed us with the right people to lead build Singapore, and accompanied us through good times and bad to this happy day. And like every good builder, God continues to keep watch over us

God’s faithfulness and providence in our Singapore story is why we can and must celebrate today. And, yes, we ought to do this with much rejoicing for all the good we have and possess, individually and as a nation, are but God’s marvelous deeds for us, as Isaiah reminds us in our first reading.

This is why our mood today must be joyful thanksgiving. And the right Christian action to do this is to sing praises to a good God who has “lifted us up and carried us throughout the days of old,” as Isaiah recalls.  

Why would God bother with this little red dot? Bother to bring this nation into existence, to nurture its people and to make it flourish?

I can think of no other reason than of who we, Singaporeans, are to God: God’s chosen race, his saints whom God loves, as Paul teaches us in his letter to the Colossians. We are all God’s people, regardless of race, language or religion.

What can being God’s saints mean for us who live, study and work in today’s Singapore? Two things: saints have a disposition for life and saints have a task in life.

A disposition for life

You might have heard of the saying, “pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on you.” Many interpret this to mean turning all we have over to God in prayer, and then working tirelessly and urgently to do God’s work. 

I prefer to reverse it: “pray as if everything depends on you, and work as if everything depends on God.”

Prayer must be central in our lives. It must also be urgent for God wants to do something dramatic and good in our lives but we need to let God in. Prayer moreover puts our work in the right perspective: if work depends on God, we should work hard but leave the outcome up to him. For if God is in charge, then we can surely tolerate mixed results and not be Number 1 all the time, as we can also endure failure when it comes.

Saints do all these. They can because they abandon themselves into God’s providence. They have that Christ-like disposition of trusting dependence in God.

I believe this is the necessary disposition we need to go forward as a nation.  A Singaporean who prays does not need to wear herself out; she only needs to make competent and sufficient effort, and then leave the rest to God who can do all God pleases, which is always very good.

In fact, this is the very disposition Jesus is asking his disciples and us to have in the gospel: do not worry about food, health or clothes for God always and faithfully feeds and provides. Jesus calls us to set our hearts on God’s providence, so that “all these other things will be given you as well.”

What are these other things besides our daily needs? They are what our children pledge themselves to every morning after our red and white, our stars and crescent are raised: happiness, prosperity, and progress for our nation.

A task in life

What a home is depends on how much its inhabitants invest in it. The same is true for any country. This Facebook post by a 30something year old Singaporean father and teacher echoes the kind of Singapore many of us want:

Let's make it better. Let's take better care of the poor, old, sick, and marginalised in our country. Let's be more compassionate. Let's give a voice to the disenfranchised. Let's be more accepting of difference. Let's be more loving to all: our fellow citizens and PRs and also foreign guest workers who build our skyscrapers and schools, clean our estates, teach our children, nurse our sick.*

You and I can build this kind of home for Singapore by learning from Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians; to these saints he gives the following instructions to build community:

live in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other…and practice love, to keep all together.

Our SG50 celebrations then cannot just be about grateful remembrances and joyful celebrations. It must also be about believing in the life-giving role we each have in caring for one another, in walking with each other, and in uplifting all, especially the little, the lost, the last and the least in our midst. This is what moved me when I saw this video about such people in our midst. Today, they especially challenge us to love them as our own. Then, when they and us become truly one, we can better give back to God this song about us, this song of praise, this song of God’s goodness living in everyone of us, no matter who we are.

And yes, this is also where God knows God is home, with us.

*Mark Rozells

Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore

photo: fiftymm99 on flicker
video: home by homes; produced by starhub