St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Depression and Struggles

There are times when we feel really tired. Not just physically but emotionally and spiritually. We feel tired about life. We lose appetite for everything. Lack of motivation. Lack of desire. Nothing makes us happy and satisfied. We get easily angered. We feel all alone.

When we feel like this, we don’t know what to do. There is nothing that we can do. We feel helpless and hopeless. We feel like our will and our desire are attacked. If we have strong will and strong desire, at least we can do something about it. We can fight our problems but when our will and desire are attacked, we don’t know what to do. We don’t have control over our emotions but negative emotions control us.

These days, media talks a lot about mental health issues. Celebrity athletes shared about their struggles.

Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast shared about her depression. She couldn’t continue her program at this Olympic. Some time ago, Naomi Osaka, No. 1 tennis player in the world also shared about her mental issues. She withdrew from the French Open. Michael Phelps who is the most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals shared his struggles about his mental health.

These are people who could achieve what ordinary people could not achieve. They are people who are gifted with special abilities and yet they feel helpless and hopeless. But it is not just those special people who struggle with their mental issues. We all struggle with our mental issues.

Through the Word

We read a very interesting story about Elijah. You know Elijah. He was the one who appeared to Jesus on the mountain with Moses. He was the prophet of the prophets. He was the greatest prophet in Israel history.

He brought fire from heaven and rain during the drought. He was the one who chased out the false prophets whom Jezebel brought into Israel. He didn’t even experience death. He was caught up in the whirlwind into heaven. If you say golf, then Tiger Woods comes into our minds. Swimming, Michael Phelps. Gymnastics, Simone Biles. Like that, if we say prophets, Elijah comes into our minds.

The Scripture does not talk about only good things about people. The Scripture talks about their dark side too. The king David was the most admired king of Israel but the Scripture talks about his dark side too. Peter was the rock on which Jesus built the church but the Scripture talks about his denial of Jesus. In that way, the Scripture is real.

Today, we see a broken man who lost every desire to live. He just wanted to sleep to die.

Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. (1 Kings 19:5)

He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. (1 Kings 19:6)

He just wanted to sleep.

Simone Biles said in her interview with Vogue.

At one point I slept so much because, for me, it was the closest thing to death without harming myself. It was an escape from all of my thoughts, from the world, from what I was dealing with. It was a really dark time.

The prophet Elijah just wanted to sleep. He wanted to die.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.’(1 Kings 19:4)

This gave me a tremendous comfort. Even the greatest prophet went through this kind of struggle. He knew the power of God. He exercised the power of God. And yet he was not invincible. We see a man lying down totally powerlessly. He was about to give up everything. Not only his prophetic career but his life. We see a man totally broken. After all, he was a broken person like all of us.

Yes, we see not a powerful man who performed wonderful miracles but a broken man who was filled with fear and anxiety. But we also see something else. We see God who takes care of him with tender love. We see God who does not leave him alone. We see God who touches him with a gentle hand. 어루만지다: Caress It’s like a mother caressing her baby.

When we want to give up, God does not give up on us. God sent an angel to Elijah. He gave him food. He ate the food but he laid down again to sleep. But God did not give up on him. The angel of the Lord came a second time and touched him. That is how God works. If once is not enough, God comes to us again. If it doesn’t work for the first time, he comes the second time. If it didn’t work for the second time, then the angel would have come the third time.

It shows that healing is a process. It is a journey. It is a life journey.

The angel told him to get up, eat, and take the journey. Keep on keeping on.

What distinguished Elijah was not that he was invincible but that he was faithful. He didn’t feel like getting up. He felt like lying down and sleeping. But when the angel came to him the second time and told him to get up and start journey, he got up and took the journey.

The Voice of Truth

We cannot always live as we feel like it. Our emotions can sometimes drive us into darker places. Living by our emotions is a weak life. We should not be controlled by our emotions. We should learn to hear the inner voices deep within us. The voice of truth. The voice of God. When darkness attacks us, we are surrounded by the overwhelming voices of our emotions. You will not get any better. You are worthless. You are not lovable. No one cares about you. All these voices fill our hearts. Silence them. We will be able to hear the inner voice.

Before, Elijah only saw God in obvious manifestations such as wind, earthquake, and fire. But this time he was able to hear the still small voice.

‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. (1 Kings 19:11, 12)

The voice said,

What are you doing here, Elijah? (1 Kings 19:13)

What are you doing? - This question implies “who are you?” “Where are you in your life?” When we hear the inner voice, reading the Scripture, these questions arise within us.

When we hear the inner voice, we will be restored

Our brokenness takes us where we don’t want to go. It takes us to a dark place. But with God, this dark place becomes mother’s womb where a new life is created. In this dark place, a new life can be created.

"Break"

In Hebrew, the word “break” is the same word as “giving birth.” It is interesting.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin explains how the same word is used for “break”, “giving birth”, and “food.”

The Lord’s language is teaching us that when something breaks and is destroyed, it also can give birth to something entirely new which can provide ongoing sustenance. It’s interesting that this idea has carried over into English where we have similar positive connotations for, “giving someone a break,” “breaking into a new business,” the phrase, “break of day” and of course, having a “breakthrough.”

He also said, “One problem is that often we allow a breaking of something in our lives to break our spirits. Instead, we must ensure that it becomes the birth of something new and positive.”

When your life situations break you, don’t let them break your spirits. May your brokenness be an opportunity to have a new breakthrough. This kind of breakthrough is possible only in our brokenness. Don’t be scared when you are broken. You are in God’s good hands.

Ephesians 4:1-16

Unity and Hostility

Paul begins the passage with an earnest plea to the Ephesians:

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called. (Ephesians 4:1) We have learned over the past two weeks that this calling is the calling to strive for unity. This calling is so important to Paul that he is begging them to do so.

Unity is the most beautiful thing in the world. Through the pandemic, we've missed out on the beauty of weddings. There is nothing like witnessing a couple truly in love, as they make vows of unity. Such moments of unity and love evoke emotions in those who are there to witness and support this couple. Nothing inspires us more than pure unity in love.

Unity is the most beautiful thing in the world, and it is the greatest gift that God has given us so that we can enjoy this life we have.

But the lives we live, and the world we live in, are marked by great disunity. In our relationships with family and friends, at our workplaces, among groups and nations in this world, we often see fractures in unity. The United Nations is united in name only. Instead of unity, relationships are clouded and darkened by hostility. And that hostility creates dividing walls.

As Rev. Kim reflected two weeks ago, hostility is a poison in our souls. It is like a stain we cannot remove from our hearts. No matter how much we want it to go away, it clings on stubbornly and it drives our behaviour.

We need an antidote for hostility. Something to melt away the hostility and lead to unity.

St. Paul describes the antidote to this hostility: …with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2)

Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Bearing with one another in love. These attributes are the antidote to hostility that brings about unity.

But in our everyday lives, we often see the very opposite: We compete to lift ourselves over others. Our words are harsh, judgmental and cold. We are impatient. Bearing with one another is to put up with the flaws of one another, in love. We do not put up with the faults of others. At best, we quietly tolerate it. At worst, we judge, call out and ostracize the other. All of these things further fuel hostility.

Our relationships are supposed to give us the joy of unity, and God created this world for us to experience the joy of oneness in it. But these relationships and our experiences in the world often leave us hurt and disappointed. And that hurt and disappointment breed hostility.

When hostility resides in our hearts, life becomes darker, and we feel separated and alienated from everything and everyone.

The Journey of Removing Hostility

Jesus came to restore unity and wholeness in our relationship with God and with others. He came to free us from the hostility in our hearts. In his ministry, Jesus would say let those with eyes to see, see There is a theme of being blind but having your eyes opened.

The first step in the journey of disunity to unity is to see how your relationships and environments have been shaping you. Are they helping you become more gentle? Humble? Patient? Able to bear another's faults with love and grace? Or do they leave hostility in your heart? We need to step back and critically examine the effects that our relationships and environments have had on us.

The solution is not necessarily to cut off these relationships and environments. Sometimes, you need to let go of a relationship that is abusive or causing harm. But more often, we will see that we are just as much a part of the problem as those around us are. The starting point is to recognize that I need to change for there to be greater unity.

I need to go through the journey of removing hostility from my heart.

I believe this is something that only God can do with God's power. We cannot remove hostility with our willpower. It is too strong. On our own, we are too inconsistent. When things are good or we feel good, we may be gentle, but when things are not good, we react with hostility. No matter how much we want to have the attributes that bring about unity, the hostility in us often overpowers our thoughts and actions.

What we need is a commitment to allowing God to change us. Gentleness and patience are habits of character that God cultivates in us over time. Our commitment is giving God the room in our hearts to change us.

I realized this: our transformation does not take place by being obsessed with being gentle, humble, patient and forebearing. Being fixated on these things just highlights how much we fall short.  It sets us up for disappointment, failure and despair. Our transformation happens as we fix our eyes firmly on the God who transforms us.

When we fix our eyes on God, we will see our sin, but we will also see God's great mercy. When we fix our eyes on God, we see the grace of God that overflows. That grace transforms us.  It melts away hostility. When we experience grace after grace, we are slowly transformed by God into the image of God.

Unity in Our Worship

For St. Paul, real transformation into unity comes as we fix our eyes on God together as one body. We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Ephesians 4:15)

This is the secret to transformation: It happens in our individual hearts, but it comes about through our collective spiritual practice. The change happens within us, but it comes through our experience as a community. This was St. Paul's amazing insight. This is why he goes from talking about unity to the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is built on one foundation: worship and loyalty to God.

To strive for unity, we must strive for unity in our worship of God. This is at the core of what the church is and what the church does. We fix our eyes on God through worship, and we make space for God to dwell and reign in our lives.

Commitment to worship as a church is our spiritual discipline. We think of spiritual discipline as our private, personal disciplines we practice on our own. Those are great. But worship with the body of Christ is the collective spiritual discipline we have been called to do. When we are unified in worship, we become unified in our hearts. So your coming to worship is not just about you – it's about the body of Christ. Your worshipping presence is what builds up the worshipping body.

We need to think of worship as a different quality of time. It is not just another chronological hour of the week. It is not just another thing we do for an hour before going on our way. Worship is a moment in time where everything else in life recedes to the background. It is a moment where collectively, we step back and open ourselves to experience an encounter with the reality of our lives and of God. We begin to see our lives as it is. We see our sin. We experience grace and mercy. And we experience the empowerment that comes from the assurance of God's presence with us. In worship, hostility loses its hold and power over us. There is a mystery and power in this holy time together. Our individual transformation takes place through our collective encounter with God. This is a great mystery and beauty of our human existence.

Cultivating a Community

For St. Paul, the commitment to making room for God meant committing to the body of Christ that was given for those touched by God's grace. We are not independent as human beings. We like to think we are, but we are so deeply shaped by the communities we are a part of. The question is: what community will you be shaped by?

For St. Paul, the body of Christ was fundamental to living out God's calling to bring unity into this world. Unity in the church is the antidote to disunity in the world. There is no other agenda in the church:  We are not out to win a sports match. We are not hired to achieve business goals. We are simply a community of human beings who have experienced the grace of God and are called by God to learn how to live together as human beings.

My main goal in youth ministry was to cultivate a community that is unified in love. To me, there is no goal in youth ministry that is more important. For them to experience true unity in love is to experience what it is to be a complete human being. Their experience of unity is the antidote to the disunity and alienation they feel as they begin to navigate their independent identity in this world. In experiencing this unity, they get a concrete, real sense of what God's love and grace is about. There is no experience more powerful than experiencing unity in love.

The church is God's amazing gift for us to live out God's beautiful vision of unity for this world. It is not perfect by any means, because we are human. Because we are human, we get hurt and get into conflicts. But it is where we learn to work through our conflicts and differences. Through worship together, we are transformed to learn humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another.

The church is a gift worth loving and cultivating. This is why we have been relentlessly going all out to get you all to church.

As we slowly emerge from this pandemic, let us lead lives worthy of the calling to which we are called. Strive for unity wherever we are. Commit to worshipping God with this beautiful community that is called the church. Make room for God in your heart so that God may heal you, transform you and make you an agent of unity in this world.

The post Striving for Unity appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Ephesians 3:14-21

“Shalom”

We began our reflection on Paul's letter to the Ephesians last week. The theme of last week's sermon was God's Grand Vision . Paul somehow saw God's grand vision for humanity – that out of two, one new humanity is created. Paul saw God's beautiful vision for humanity and this world.

God's vision for the world is reflected in the Hebrew word shalom . Shalom at its essence means peace, harmony and wholeness. Shalom has been the purpose of creation, and God created human beings to be partners with God in bringing about shalom.

God made a promise to Abraham to bring shalom to the world through his descendants, the Jews. For many generations, this mission of shalom was the special and exclusive calling of the Jews.

But Paul received a new revelation from God. This is how Paul describes his great discovery: In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:5-6)

His discovery was that this mission was now expanded to non-Jews as well – to Gentiles. In Christ, Gentiles were to share in God's blessings, and they were to share in the work of bringing God's shalom to this world.

The Ephesians were mainly Gentiles. They were outsiders to God's calling and promise. This is how Paul described them: Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. (Ephesians 2:12)

Aliens. Strangers. No hope. Without God. Gentiles were outsiders coming into the Jewish story. Jesus was a Jew. His disciples were all Jews. The early church was composed of Jews. But Paul is making the radical statement that they are now one and a part of this story.

Becoming One

Where there were two – Jew and Gentile – there was now one. This was at the core of Paul's gospel. Whereas we were once separated, now, there is no separation, but oneness.

What kind of oneness is he talking about? I reflected on this question.

What does it mean to be one?

There are two ways to become one:

In the first way: one side has to change while the other doesn't.

One side has to change, adapt and accept the way of the other. There is usually a power imbalance, and it is the weaker party that must become like the powerful party, or subject themselves to the ways of the powerful party.

In the second way: no side makes the other become like them. Both are willing to change in order to make room for the other. Where there is a power imbalance, the more powerful party takes the first step of letting go of that power to make genuine room for the other, and is willing to change. In coming together this way, both sides change, and together they become something new.

Paul saw clearly that God's vision was for us to live this second way. This is why he said that in Christ, there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, male nor female – they are now something new altogether.

In the very early church, the Jews were the stronger party, because it was their covenant, their blessing, their promise and their Messiah. Gentiles were outsiders coming in. Jews had the law from Moses. The law was at the core of Jewish identity. It was unfathomable for a Jew to be a Jew without the law. But for the sake of true unity, Paul makes a radical declaration: He (Jesus) has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two (Ephesians 2:15)

The Messiah of the Jews abolished what was central to his own people so that they may be one with the Gentiles; in order that God's vision of one new humanity may become real.

What Paul saw was that when two parties come together, the stronger party no longer absorbs the weaker party and expects them to assimilate. The stronger party gives up their power, privileges, and everything else they have staked their identity on, with an openness to become something new by joining with the other party. Of course both parties have to undergo change, but the onus is with the more powerful party to take that first step.

That takes a very secure, confident and strong person to do that. A weak and insecure person cannot do that.

A weak and insecure person needs to absorb or assimilate the other person to my way in order to feel less weak and less insecure.

Struggle

When the earliest Korean immigrants came to Canada, there were literally just a handful of Koreans here in Toronto. When they met at church, there was such happiness at meeting fellow Koreans and worshipping together in their language, praying together and supporting one another. Their loneliness and struggle in this new country bound them together. There was a oneness from sharing this difficulty. But over time, conflicts and divisions soon became a feature of church life.

Conflicts arose over who would be in power. To overcome the pain of weakness, they fought to assert their way. When one party could not get their way, they would leave the church, thus creating a split. It's only half a joke that Korean churches increased in great numbers because so many were born from splits.

St. Paul saw this conflict first-hand in every church he started. One group was always dominating over another. One group always fought against another to have their way.

He saw clearly that human beings always struggle for power, and try to create unity by imposing uniformity with that power.

The Ephesians were Gentiles who lived in a world soaked in power. The Roman Empire, with their raw might and power, had created the largest, most powerful empire ever known to the Mediterranean world. Power, status, wealth, and influence were used to impose their way and absorb others into their realm of control. When everyone is surrounded by this kind of power, it makes people feel weak and vulnerable. The way to overcome that weakness is by gaining and using that power for yourself. This was true back then, and this is what we see in our world today.

St. Paul’s Prayer

How can there be shalom in such a world?

St. Paul knew that a greater power was needed to have real shalom and unity. After articulating God's grand vision for humanity as one new humanity out of two, and his revelation that Gentiles are joined with the Jews in God's plan for shalom, he offers a prayer for the Ephesians that is today's passage.

Here is St. Paul's prayer for them:

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

St. Paul is praying that the Ephesians may have the power for unity that brings about God's vision for a new humanity.

He knew that becoming one by giving up one's power, rather than lording it over others, would require God's power.

When we are weak, we seek power to overcome it. St. Paul's prayer is that we may be filled with God's power and fullness, rather than seeking the world's power. When we are filled with the fullness of God, we are secure and confident, and do not need to dominate others. Rather, we can let go of our human power to make room for the other. With God's fullness, we are confident and open to change. With God's fullness and a strengthened inner being, we are ready to be part of the new humanity.

In Our Lives

This new humanity will not be created in the halls of power.

God's grand vision for humanity will be lived out in common people like the Ephesians, and common people like us. It is in our daily life together that we struggle to live out and make real this vision of true oneness.

Now that we're slowly emerging out of this pandemic, we're starting to encounter people again. Human relationships were dormant, kind of on a pause. We missed the interactions, but we were free of human dramas. With interactions resuming, so will the dramas and conflicts that come with human relationships. The struggle to be one will resume.

The church is the place we come to try and live out God's grand vision for humanity. My prayer for this community is that we are filled with the fullness of God, and with that, be open to change and let go of our own comfort, our own ways, to make room for others.

Last Saturday, we had a Session meeting. At that meeting, we talked about life after the pandemic. We believe we have a beautiful community, and that we are called to share the blessings of this community with others. We prayed that God may lead us to others with a spirit of love, that we might grow and change as new people become part of this community. Somehow, the day after, all these new people came to our church!

One of our happiest surprises was to meet Florence and Taka, and their children, Vaniah and Vanessa. When I saw them, I thought they came through an invitation from someone in our church. But it turns out that they knew no one! They moved to the neighborhood last fall and decided to look for a church close by, and found us on the internet. They've been in Canada from late 2019 after immigrating here from Zimbabwe, and spent most of their early days in COVID lockdown. But I was so blessed by their desire to continue the faith they cultivated from their home country.

They shared how they felt the love, unity and warmth in our congregation during the worship and afterward, and that all they want is a church to share their Christian walk with and raise kids in a Godly way. And with that they said they will start attending our church. I asked if I could mention them during the sermon, and they said yes, they are here for God and that getting to know people helps them in their Christian walk. How refreshing that is! So Florence and Taka: we welcome you and your children. We are so blessed that you found us. We know from our own experiences as immigrants and children of immigrants, how difficult it is to transition into a totally new place, especially during a time like we had the past year and a half. We come from different places, but God has brought us together. I pray that we will be a blessing to you in your journey with us, and I pray that we too may be open and willing to change as we get to know you and others who join this community, so that we may be one.

My friends, we are called to live out God's vision and create one new humanity, and bring God's shalom to this world.

This may seem like an impossible dream, but I stand with St. Paul as he closes his prayer:

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

The post Power For Unity appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Ephesians 2:11-22

The Dividing Wall

Paul saw a grand vision for humanity in Jesus. He saw the dividing wall that existed between human beings being destroyed and a new humanity arising out of two.

For he (Jesus) is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2: 14)

What a wonderful image! The dividing wall is broken down. Two have become one. You and I have become WE. No more I and them. But WE. Because you are, I am. This was what God wanted to do for us. God already showed this kind of vision through the prophet Isaiah.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

   the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

   and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

   their young shall lie down together;

   and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

   and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy

   on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

   as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain! All of them will live in peace and harmony. That was God's ultimate vision for the humanity. Jesus came to this world to start working out this grand vision of God. Jesus came to this world and saw the divided world. Jews and gentiles were divided. Men and women were divided. Masters and slaves were divided. Jesus wanted to create a new humanity out of this divided world. Paul saw clearly what Jesus did. Paul understood Jesus and what he wanted to do. Paul was sharp. In Galatians, Paul said,

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

One New Humanity

Jesus became the bridge, not the dividing wall.

For his vision of creating one new humanity out of two, Jesus gave his life. We can see that in Jesus' last prayer before he died. His prayer was like his will. It was all about being one.

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Right from the beginning, God's vision was to BLESS ALL HUMANITY. God chose Israelites to do that. God blessed them so that they might bless all other people. But the blessings did not flow out of Israelites because there was a wall. So, Jesus came to break down the wall so that the blessings might flow out of the Israelites to all people. To do that, JESUS EVEN ABOLISHED THE LAW, St. Paul said.

He (Jesus) has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, (Ephesians 2:15)

That is a pretty radical statement as a Jew. The law was everything to the Jewish people. To say that Jesus has abolished the law is a pretty radical statement.

Paul saw that these commandments were only hindrance to creating one new humanity. Jesus brought all these commandments into one. It is like a black hole, sucking up all these commandments. What was that that sucked up all these commandments? LOVE! Jesus abolished the law with all these commandments and ordinances except one commandment. Love your God and love your neighbors.

Becoming one is more important than keeping these commandments. What good are commandments if they are the reasons for the humanity to be divided?

Hostility

Then what is that dividing wall that shattered humanity into pieces? HOSTILITY. Let me read the verse 14 again.

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. (Ephesians 2:14)

The hostility within us. That is the problem. Jesus saw that commandments could not really do anything about the hostility within people. Keeping the commandments for the sake of keeping them will not do any good. Just because you keep good behaviors, it doesn't mean that hostility within you will disappear.

Hostility killed Jesus. On the cross, human hostility showed its face in its most naked form. Jesus constantly preached love and yet people responded with hostility. Hostility is the evil that exists within human heart. And this is what divides humanity. This is the dividing wall between you and me. Jesus saw that.

When Jesus died on the cross, he crucified the hostility with him on the cross.

(Jesus) might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. (Ephesians 2:16)

Hostility is the greatest sin we human beings have. Because of hostility, peace is not possible. Salvation is being free from this hostility. When we have hostility within us, we cannot reconcile with God and with other fellow human beings. Hostility is the greatest dividing wall. That has to come down. Being a Christian does not mean becoming a nice person. Being a Christian means to be free from hostility. Being a Christian means that we don't treat others with hostility. When hostility within us is taken away, we change. We become a different person.

Yes, sometimes we get angry. Especially when injustice is done to us and to those who are vulnerable, we get angry. Even Jesus was angry. His anger was holy anger or just anger. But hostility is different from this kind of anger. Hostility is to see others as enemies to conquer and threat to get rid of.

Hostility eats us up. It destroys good life. It destroys happiness. It destroys our relationships. It kills many more people than this virus. It causes war, abuses, animosity, and hatred. It is probably the most dangerous and harmful evil that destroys this world.

Hostility – This is a big problem in the world. This is also a big problem personally for many of us. We have become impatient and intolerant. Easily our hostility acts up and we become abusive to others in our actions and words.

In Our World

Last Sunday, England lost the game to Italy and lost the championship. It wasn't a shame to lose a game but what people did was a shame. British police opened investigations Monday into the racist abuse of three young Black players who missed penalties in England’s shootout loss to Italy.

Rashford was one of them. Rashford is a wonderful man. He has been at the forefront of a campaign against child poverty, which convinced the British government to restore free lunches for thousands of poor children during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many people live being enslaved with hostility. It is like living with a ticking bomb. You don't know when they will explode. Hostility is not just what you do. It is what is seated deep within you.

Hostility manifests itself in many different ways. The obvious manifestation may be anger but that is not the only way. Discrimination, passive aggressive attitude, vengeful actions, self-righteousness, and so on.

Hostility – it is what divides us. It is like poison to humanity. It is poison to destroy our relationships with each other. Because of hostility, we don't accept each other.

Our Differences

We are very different and it's ok to be different. There is nothing wrong with that. Our differences are what we should celebrate. They should not be the reason to look down upon each other and hate each other. There is a nice song I like by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. You say potato, I say potahto. You say Tomato, I say Tomahto. What's the matter? The song says at the end, we need each other. Yes, we need each other. We don't need to take each other with hostility. They are not our enemies. They are our friends. Be patient. Be gentle to each other. Accept each other.

We all grew up in different environments. Our upbringing was very different. Families we came from are very different. Our experiences are all different. Our cultures are different. What is important to me may not be very important to you.

We are so different but these differences themselves are not the reason for us to hate each other and be divided.

It is not our differences that divide us. It is hostility that cannot appreciate our differences. That is what divides us. It is not our differences but our attitude towards each other. That's what divides us.

We really have hard time accepting each other's differences. We are very impatient with people who are different from us. It comes from a wrong sense of superiority. In other words, it comes from the lack of humility. We easily make judgment on people who are different from us.

We don't need to live with hostility. That is not what God wants from us. God wants us to live in peace and harmony.

Let us deal with hostility within us. Jesus gave us his love for us to be able to deal with our hostility. Love one another. It is easier said than done. I know. But we still have to do that. Jesus showed us the greatest gift, that is love. There is no room for hostility in love. Whatever situation we may be in, don't let the hostility be what controls you. Let love be what you guides you. You are Jesus' disciples. Jesus crucified hostility on the cross. We are called to live in peace and harmony, bringing about unity. Hostility divides. Love unites.

The post God’s Grand Vision appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Mark 6:14-29

Power

What is the most important power that we should have? I asked myself this question. What is the most important power that I need? What is the power that makes my life happy and meaningful. What is the power that I need to follow Jesus?

My conclusion is that I need the power that CAN DEFEAT MY FEAR. We need the power that helps us overcome our fear. This PANDEMIC killed many lives and it drove many people into fear. This virus has gripped the whole world with fear. It has affected our life in the most profound way. It was real fear, not just imaginary paranoid. As of July 9, it killed 4,025,765 people worldwide.

Real Fears

But it is NOT JUST THIS VIRUS that causes fear within us. Fear is what we experience every day in our lives. Fear is very much A PART OF OUR LIFE. Of course, there are also neurotic fears, I admit. That's why we have all these phobias: acrophobia, aerophobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, and so on. But fear is always with us. We have fear about the unknown future, fear about our finances, our health, our children, and unforeseeable accidents, and fear about death. These are real fears.

Whatever we do, we will encounter our own fear. When we are gripped by fear, we make all kinds of mistakes we wouldn't usually make. Euro Cup Soccer is going on right now. COPA America just finished yesterday. Also Wimbledon Tennis is going on and a Canadian Shapovalov went up to the semi-final, but lost to Djokovic. I saw some games of both soccer and tennis and I saw clearly what fear did to them. They choked. They made mistakes they wouldn't usually make. It's not just in sports, but in every aspect of our lives, when fear grips us, we make mistakes. We cannot think clearly.

So, it is important to learn how to deal with our fear. We can never get rid of fear. It's not even healthy to try to get rid of fear. When we do that, we fall into denial and denial can do worse things than fear. Appropriate fear is all right. But we need to have power to deal with our fear. We need power greater than the power of fear.

Mark's Message

That was what the disciples needed to learn. Mark had a very creative way of communicating his message. Today's story was inserted right in between these two statements.

Verse 13: They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Mark 6:14-29: John the Baptist Beheaded (flashback)

Verse 30: The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.

The story we read is right in between verse 13 and 30.

Mark uses this sandwich method quite a bit in his writing.

Jesus sent out the disciples for a mission. He told them to take nothing. Jesus wanted them to totally depend on God's power, not their own power. They experienced God's power. They never experienced this kind of power in their lives. Actually, it was the first time the disciples did anything themselves. It was all Jesus who did anything fantastic. Until now, the disciples just observed what Jesus did. But this time, they truly experienced God's power for themselves in a tangible way and they did wonderful things. We can see their excitement.

Verse 13: They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

They were able to experience the power of exorcising demons and healing people. They never experienced this kind of power in their lives. So, with the excitement, they shared what they experienced with Jesus.

Verse 30: The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.

But in between these two verses, Mark inserted the story of the head of John the Baptist being beheaded.

Power of Overcoming Fear

What was Mark trying to say? Mark was trying to say that there was a greater power than the power of exorcising demons and healing the sick. IT WAS THE POWER OF OVERCOMING FEAR. That was the kind of power JOHN THE BAPTIST HAD. He didn't do miracles. He didn't exorcise demons. He didn't heal the sick. But he had the POWER to be faithful to God to the end. Even fear of death could not break him.

Mark 6:14-29 is a long passage. You hear about Herod, his wife, and his stepdaughter. It describes how John's head came to be beheaded. Even though it was a story of John the Baptist, JOHN WAS VERY QUIET. We don't hear anything about him. He was completely silent. But his silence spoke volumes. He didn't try to run away. He didn't try to save his life. He didn't try to persuade Herod. But he had the power to live out who he was. He was a voice in the wilderness and he did his job. And when imprisonment and death came as the result of his voice, he accepted them. Imprisonment and death could not break him. He had the power to overcome his own fear.

Herod was different. He had all the power in the world. He had the power to execute people. He had the power to kill John the Baptist. But he was a coward. He was completely controlled by his own fear. When he heard about Jesus and what he did, he was scared. Because he thought John the Baptist he killed came back to life. A murderer fears the person whom he murdered.

But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.' (Mark 6:16)

He feared John. When he was alive, he feared him. But even when he killed him, he feared John. That's why, in Jesus, he saw John the Baptist. He was a man of fear. Even the reason he killed John the Baptist was not because he wanted to but because he feared the people around him.

The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. (Mark 6:26)

Just because he promised to a little girl that he would do anything she was asking for, he would kill a man? What kind of coward was he? He should have confronted the girl and told her how inappropriate it was for her to ask him to kill someone.

Herod had all the power in the world. And yet he didn't have power to deal with his own fear. He could never live a good life. If we have no power to deal with our fear, we can never live a good life.

Discipleship

Discipleship is not about what we do. DISCIPLESHIP IS ABOUT OVERCOMING OUR FEAR. Jesus' disciples experienced wonderful power of God and yet they still had to learn to have the power to overcome their own fear. When Jesus was arrested, they all ran away because of fear. Peter denied Jesus three times because of fear. But in the end, they all learned to have the power to overcome their fear and became faithful to the truth Jesus taught them.

When truth comes alive within us, fear has no place within us. That's why Jesus said,

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.' (John 8:32)

Not just truth, the truth you know. That means when truth comes alive within you. This truth will set us free from fear.

Discipleship is not about doing this or that. Discipleship is a JOURNEY of overcoming our fear. In that sense, discipleship is not limited only to very religious people. Discipleship should be the lifestyle of everyone. And it is the best lifestyle. We are followers of Christ. We are followers of God. God is for us, who can be against us? That was what St. Paul said.

 If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. (Romans 8:31-34)

God called us, and declared that we are justified. Our sins are forgiven. No charge is laid against us. Now God is for us, what will be against us?

We Are Free

We are free from our fear, fear of punishment, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of death. We are free. We have that power to overcome our own fear. We don't need to live in fear any more. That was how John the Baptist lived and died. That was how Jesus lived and died. The stories of John the Baptist and Jesus were not ABOUT THEIR HORRIBLE DEATHS. Their stories were about how they did not submit to the power of fear. Their stories were about how they conquered the power of fear.

One of the greatest blessings we get in getting to know Christ is to get the power to defeat the power of fear. When you have that, you can handle any challenges you may face in your life. As you get to know Christ more deeply, the more power you will have and this power will completely free you from fear.

The post Power To Overcome Our Fear appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Mark 6:1-13

Life Slowly Emerging

Wow. I cannot believe we are here, with so many people in the pews. It's almost surreal.

I'm sure many of you are excited to be here and see each other, but I'm sure there's also a sense of nervousness about seeing people you haven't seen in so long. It can be awkward seeing each other again.

These mixed feelings are signs of life slowly emerging again. The driver of this return to life has been the miracle vaccines that have so far worked better than people had expected. Little known to much of the world is the story of one of the pioneers behind the vaccine. Her name is Katalin Kariko.

Kaitlin Kariko

She was born in a small village in Hungary in 1955. She grew up with no electricity or running water. Her father was a butcher. She was country village girl. But in school, the science bug hit her, and she studied in biology at university.

In graduate school, she learned about a molecule that scientists had just discovered – it was called messenger RNA. What this molecule could do was for her a revolutionary insight that held infinite possibilities. I'm not a scientist, so I don't really understand all this stuff, but what we know is thatAt the age of 22 – right around the age a lot of you are – she was gripped by the possibilities of this molecule. The thing is, at this time in the late 1970's, it was merely a theory. It was considered by most scientists as a joke and fantasy. In Hungary, there were no tools to make this molecule. But she was possessed by this idea and utterly convinced of it.

She began work on trying to make this mRNA, but her lab ran out of money and she was out of a job. She realized that there was no future for her in Hungary, so like Jesus in today's passage, she packed up and left for the United States with her husband, 2-year old daughter, and 900 pounds that she snuck inside her daughter's teddy bear, because they weren't allowed to take money out of the country.

In the US, she toiled away in low-level labs. No one took her seriously or paid attention to her. She continually applied for research grants but got rejected over and over again. For one grant application, 6 out 7 applications were funded: hers was the one that wasn't. Because she was unable to find funding, she was unable to do the research that would get her published in major journals. And because of that, she could not get tenure at any university. No one would talk to her or entertain her because she had no grants, no publications, no tenure, and no reputation.

But she was unwavering in her commitment to this science. She caught a lucky break in 1998, while photocopying documents. At the photocopier, she met an immunologist, Dr. Drew Weismann, who worked for Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is now famous after COVID. She told him about her work with mRNA and he was intrigued. He brought her in to work at his lab.  After many experiments, they were at last able to make the mRNA do what they wanted it to do.

But that breakthrough led to more setbacks, because no one was interested in what they had discovered. No one invested in their company, they received no grants, and no journals would publish their research. For them, it was an amazing discovery, but the world shrugged. No one really understood what the significance of it was, and no one cared.

But still she did not give up. One day, in 2013, she was giving a lecture on mRNA, when this man in the audience came up to her. He was the founder of a small start-up called BioNTech. He understood her vision and what she wanted to do. He offered her a job right there on the spot, and she accepted.

Soon after, BioNTech partnered with this big pharmaceutical company named Pfizer – have you heard of it? In 2018 they began to develop an mRNA-based influenza vaccine. She was working on that, when in 2020, Covid hit. At first, even Kariko didn't think much about it, because it seemed so far off and isolated in China. But we know how the story goes.

The mRNA work they had been doing was well advanced, and they were in a unique position to quickly shift gears to develop a Covid vaccine. Everything she had worked on, all she had endured, led to this moment. This odd thing that no one understood, that they had been toiling on for years in obscurity, might suddenly save the world. A normal vaccine takes a very long time to develop, but they were up and ready to go because they had been working on it for so long, and that's how they rolled it out so quickly.

Kariko had complete confidence in the science behind her work and this vaccine. And the trials would soon prove this to be true. A normal vaccine is considered effective if it has 60 percent efficacy. This one exceeded 90%, beyond anyone's expectations. The rest is history, and here we are now.

When she was asked about her journey: the decades of ordeals, setbacks, and dark moments when no believed in her, this is what she said: I never doubted it would work. (Katalin Kariko) I never doubted it would work.

Her unwavering belief in the power of messenger RNA to make a difference in this world kept her going.

Where Confidence Comes From

I heard this story soon after I chose the passage for today's sermon, and I immediately connected the two in my mind. Reflecting on the passage, and reflecting on this story, I came to realize this: Where our confidence comes from determines the shape of our lives.

Katalin Kariko's confidence was in the power of messenger RNA. That confidence determined the shape of her life. She did not have the pedigree, connections, reputation and resources that you need in scientific research. It was her confidence in the power of mRNA that kept her going. Never would she have imagined that this confidence would lead to a vaccine on a global scale. Her confidence in it determined the shape of her life.

Where does your confidence come from? This may be the most important question you need to ask yourself, because your answer to this will determine the shape of your life. And not what you think the answer is on the surface, but what it really is when you dig deeper and honestly examine yourself. Does it come from your appearance or looking good to others? Does it come from financial security and control? Does it come from your family or being a good parent? Wherever your true confidence comes from, that will really determine the shape of your life.

Or do you simply lack confidence in anything? I know that during the pandemic, it became clear to many young people that they don’t have much confidence in anything. That too, determines the shape of your life – in the form of being aimless and having no motivation.

Where your confidence comes from determines the shape of your life.

Finding Confidence

St. Paul once found great confidence in his pedigree as a Jew, things he refers to as the flesh :

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4-6)

He found his confidence in his birth and living out the way of a good Jew, and that shaped the course of his early life. He really thought he was living a good life.

But on the road to Damascus, something changed. He met Christ and was blinded for 3 days. Scales fell from his eyes. He saw that what he had confidence in was so small and insignificant.

This is his confession:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. (Philippians 3:7-9)

All these things he had once found confidence in paled in comparison to the greater reality he found in Christ. His newfound confidence in Jesus determined the shape of his life to come. That is what a real encounter with Christ is like: it makes everything else we've placed our confidence in seem so small compared to being found by him and in him.

St. Paul's influence is the most enduring one in our Christian faith today. His letters are full of insight and understanding into human nature. He reveals what it looks like for people who are so different to be a community that coexists with love and peace in diversity. And his faith is an inspiration for every generation of believers.

He was not an obvious choice to be such a trailblazer for faith. He was an outsider to this early community of Jesus followers. He was not an original follower of Jesus while he was alive. He was not one of the revered Twelve disciples. All the early followers of Jesus were from Galilee; Paul was a city guy from the Greek-speaking world of Tarsus in Asia. He did not speak the Aramaic that the Galilean followers did. He was not based in Jerusalem like the disciples in the early church. And most of all: he had been a fierce persecutor of this very community – something that would mark him for his entire life.

But nonetheless, Paul carried on, shaped by his confidence in Christ. He endured persecution, suffering, rejection and undermining from others for the sake of the good news he had found in Christ.

Outsiders

You know, something we learn from Katalin Kariko and St. Paul is that they were both outsiders. There was no reason for them to succeed, but yet they did. It was their faith, or confidence in what they believed, that drove them.

We exert so much energy trying to be insiders. That is the safe path. You're in college so you can develop the right credentials and pedigree to make you an insider somewhere. These are important things in life. But what's most important is finding a source of confidence that is lasting and gives shape to your life in a meaningful way. It doesn't lead to an easy life, as we've seen with St. Paul, Kariko and Jesus, but it's a good and meaningful life. I think the most important thing during these years is not getting good marks and a good career – as important as they are – but discovering what you'll place your confidence in, because that will determine the shape of your life.  Careers will come and go, but what you stake your life on should not.

Jesus called his disciples and sent them out. But the manner in which he sent them out is similar to the stories of St. Paul and Kariko:

He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.' (Mark 6:8-10)

They were not sent out with great preparation or provisions. Going out in this manner left them very vulnerable.

Jesus was training his disciples to have confidence in nothing else but him. Jesus gave them authority to carry out the ministry he had started. They were to trust and have confidence in that authority. They were to have confidence in Jesus.

The gospels reveal that they didn't have confidence in Jesus. When things became difficult, they deserted him and ran away.

The disciples did not have confidence in Jesus because they didn't really know him. They thought they did. But the Jesus they thought they knew was really their own projection of who they wanted Jesus to be. They had their own ideas of what a Messiah should be, and they projected that onto him. And so when things unfolded differently from what they expected, they ran away. One of them even betrayed him.

Only after Jesus' death did they come to know who Jesus was. The resurrection opened their eyes to who Jesus really was. And once they got to know Jesus, they developed confidence in him. They had confidence in the last words Jesus spoke to them: And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

That confidence determined the shape of their lives from there on. They became courageous pillars of faith and created the Jesus-following community.

Where is your confidence? Is it in Jesus?

Focusing on Jesus

Looking back on my time as a Hi-C pastor, I realize that I didn't focus too deeply on Jesus. I talked a lot about God and God's love, and about Jesus' teachings, but I didn't go too deeply into Jesus himself. I realize now that I was dealing with my own baggage when it comes to Jesus.

For a long time as a young adult, I was conflicted and uncertain about who Jesus was for me, because I felt that the Jesus preached in church was too simplistic, and that this Jesus could not help me work through my real-life struggles in this complicated, messy world. I didn't like how people used the name of Jesus so brashly and confidently, so simplistically. I was angry at how in the name of Jesus, European and North American Christians conquered people with violence and inflicted such great suffering. We see that clearly nowadays, as horrific evidence of what happened in our church-run residential schools continues to surface. So many bad things have happened and still do in the name of Jesus. We need to be very humble about how we use the name of Jesus.

But still, I realize in hindsight that by not focusing centrally on Jesus, I missed a key entry point to God. I remember, many of you in Hi-C struggled and still struggle to understand a God you cannot see or feel, and so God is just an abstract concept, or you don't know if God is real. What people do understand is human relationships. That is concrete. Focusing on Jesus as the human manifestation of God here on earth could have been a more concrete entrypoint to knowing God. To know Jesus would be to know God. To understand Jesus is to understand who God is.

And so I lament that when I look back and think of the college students here. Pastors and ministers are people, and we all have our own baggage, even when it comes to faith. As a person, I've been on my own journey, and I thank God for the grace that embraces my faults. The last few years, and especially the pandemic, have been a turning point in who Jesus is to me. This journey has come while delving deeper and deeper into our Scriptures – the Bible.

We studied Mark for the past year. Through this study and my own preparation and reflection, my understanding, appreciation and love for Jesus has grown. I see that Jesus has deep and enormous implications for my life and for this world. Profound implications.

I realize that to really know Jesus, we have to engage our whole selves with the Jesus who is made known to us in our Bible. That is where we must get to know him – not through people's personal opinions or even what religious leaders say about him. It's not an easy process: we have to get underneath the old and archaic language of the Bible and understand the historical context to uncover what the authors are really saying. We then have to bring our whole selves and engage critically and honestly with what they're saying. Only in that honest engagement of our lives with the text do we get true insight and a real living encounter with God and Jesus.  That encounter is when the Word of God comes alive in us. This is why study of the Bible is at the center of what we do in this church. It's not a solo journey – there needs to be a community with which we grapple and struggle with. I hope that our College Group, and everyone in this church, can participate honestly and fully in our Bible studies, because this is how we come to know Christ. It does not come merely with our emotion or religiosity.

Knowing Jesus is a life-long journey. I consider myself still at the early stages of it. But I've tasted what a life in and with Jesus is like: there is nothing else like it. It is a hidden treasure more valuable than anything else in the world, and it gives me great confidence. This was St. Paul's discovery and declaration too:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Philippians 3:10-12)

That is my goal, to know Christ more and have my life take on his own shape, because he has made me his own.

Jesus ministered in a context beset with hardship, suffering and difficulty. Crushing circumstances led people to be possessed by demons, develop debilitating physical ailments, and a breakdown of social cohesion in communities. Jesus came with power to show people that they were not mere victims of their circumstances. He came to love, heal, serve and liberate. That is all right there in the Scriptures.

As we Emerge

As we emerge from this pandemic, we emerge into a world that needs love, healing, hope and restoration. In other words, the world needs the love and healing power of Jesus. Jesus calls us to carry on what he began while he was on earth. And like the disciples, he is with us now through the Holy Spirit that empowers us and leads us. We are not alone.

My beloved college students: our idea of Jesus is coloured by the perceptions and opinions of others. But I encourage all of you to take on this journey of getting to know him – who he truly is – as presented in Scripture. Because I think having our confidence in him is really the best kind of life. Let's take this journey together to get to know him, what do you think?

And all of us, as a community of Jesus followers, let us recommit ourselves to this lifelong journey of getting to know him, finding our confidence in him, and having our lives being shaped by him.

The post Shape of Confidence appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Generosity

St. Paul quoted Jesus and said,

It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)

It is a short simple sentence but it has so much truth in it. If we always remember this truth, and live accordingly, we will live a blessed life. The secret of a good life is in giving. We should discover that. True happiness comes from the lifestyle of giving. The question is whether we believe it or not. That was how Jesus lived. He came to this world to give. To give it all. To give everything he had, including his life. Jesus emptied himself so that we may have life to the fullest.

In the passage we read today, St. Paul was making a reference to that.

For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Generosity was the core message of our Lord Jesus Christ. Generosity characterize Jesus' life. Generosity is a hallmark of a great person. Generous people are people who love and enjoy giving. They don't think about benefits that come from giving. They simply enjoy giving. They enjoy giving more than receiving. I will say, it is an acquired taste. When you were younger, you enjoyed receiving, receiving toys, receiving attention, and receiving love. As you get older, you get this acquired taste, the joy of giving. Generosity is possible only when you enjoy giving.

When we enjoy giving, life becomes much more enjoyable. We feel unhappy and dissatisfied when we try to get more. We are made that way. That's why it is more blessed to give than to receive?

As we start to enjoy giving, we change. We become a bigger person. Our heart expands. When our heart expands, life becomes bigger. We experience the abundance of life.

The size of giving is proportional to the size of your heart, not the size of your wallet. The Macedonian church was poorer than the Corinthian church and yet they were the first ones who responded to Paul's request to help the Jerusalem church. The Macedonian church knew the joy of giving. They truly experienced God's grace. Their heart became big. St. Paul wanted to teach the Corinthian church about giving. Paul wanted to encourage them to expand their heart. Because that is the secret of experiencing life's blessings. The more you expand your heart of giving, the more you will enjoy life's blessings.

Bigger Heart

This time I was very pleased to see the way our English-speaking congregation gave generously for the Rose of Sharon project. There were also people who are members of our church but gave through other organizations. One of the doctors gave $20,000. Paul wanted to point out that giving is our spiritual act.

 Now as you excel in everything in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. (2 Corinthians 8:7)

Our heart can either shrink or expand. But unfortunately, we often live with a wrong assumption: GETTING THE MAXIMUM RESULT WITH THE LEAST SACRIFICE. We call it deal. It sounds like a good wisdom but it is not. If we think of life as a deal, if we think of our relationships as a deal, we become small. We become calculating. In that way, we don't experience the abundant blessings of God. Let us not be too smart.

That was what the disciples had to learn. When there were 5,000 people to feed, Jesus told the disciples, you feed them. The first thing they did was calculating how much money they had. I think that was a natural response. I would have done that too. But the task Jesus asked them to do there was no answer in our calculation. It was simply impossible. The solution could not come from calculating the cost. By feeding them with five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus showed them that abundance of life is God's gift. They experienced that the abundance of life is God's gift. I hope that our life moves towards the direction of our heart being expanded, not shrunk.

The bigger your heart becomes, the bigger your life will become. The more you give, the more you will feel rich and abundant. The stingier you become, the more you feel poor and lacking. When people with a big heart gather together, they bless each other with abundance and they will all experience the abundance of life. But when people with a small heart gather together, there will be conflicts, jealousy, tension, and division.

Greed and Love

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love. Generosity is the most concrete way of living out our love for others. So for Christians, generosity is not an option. It is something we have to do. When you sell a car, you cannot put tires as an option. In the same way, becoming a Christian, we cannot make generosity as an option. Because it is at the core of our belief. That was what God taught the Israelites too.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:22)

Don't be too greedy. Don't try to take everything for yourselves. Leave some for those who need them. We don't need to be so petty.

We can be generous because God will take care of our needs. We have nothing to worry about what we shall eat or what we shall wear. God will take care of our needs.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:25, 26)

The more we have faith that God will take care of our needs, the more generous we can be. Let us not be a victim of scarcity. So, generosity is related to our faith. Being generous is proportional to our faith. Generosity comes from the radical faith of leaving our lives in God's hands. That was the offering of the poor widow. She was the one who needed charity but she had the heart to give.

A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.' (Mark 12:42-44)

The widow had the radical faith of leaving her life in God's hands.

We have the ugliest and darkest side within us and that is our GREED. We have to deal with that. Otherwise, our life will not be happy. From greed, all kinds of ugly things happen. That's why St. Paul said,

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

Jesus also said,

No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew 6:24)

Giving

We cannot get rid of greed. Greed will be always there within us. Greed is a root of all kinds of evil. Greed manifests itself most powerfully in our love of money. How do we deal with this greed? Can we get rid of it? I don't think so. Then what do we do? We may not get rid of it but when we live out a life of generous giving, greed will not be able to act up within us. We may not be able to get rid of our greed but we can diminish the power of greed to control us. The more we try to have, the more we will become a slave to our greed. But when we start enjoying the act of giving, greed loses its controlling power.

There are a lot of benefits of giving. But we don't think about that. The moment we think about the benefits of giving, its effects disappear. We live a life of giving, simply because it is A RIGHT THING TO DO. There are people who are in worse situations than us. Sharing with them what we have is simply a right thing to do. We also live a life of giving, because we have learned to enjoy giving. It is not a loss. It's not losing what we have. We are just thankful that we have the opportunity to give. We can also live a life of giving because we trust that God will take care of our basic needs.

I want to tell you briefly about how to give. First, even though you give because you enjoy giving, don't give only when you feel like it. Make a budget in your life. Set aside a portion of your budget for giving. Plan it.

Secondly, make a discipline of giving. It is a spiritual discipline. Discipline is not something you don't enjoy. Because you enjoy it, you discipline yourself. Make giving a habit of your life.

Lastly, expand your heart. In other words, increase your giving. Challenge yourself. Have a radical faith in God and challenge yourself to give more abundantly.

The post Joyful Giving appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Mark 4:35-41

Important Lessons

This story tells us a very important lesson about faith. Before today's story, Jesus taught the disciples about the kingdom of God, using different parables. We examined one of them last Sunday. It was a parable of a seed falling on the ground. It is the smallest seed when it is sown, but becomes the big tree where the birds of the air come and rest. But we don't know how the seed grows. It is something that God does and it is hidden to us. But it has an implication for us that we should never lose hope of sowing the seed even when our situations are helpless. We may be helpless but we are never hopeless.

After these wonderful teachings, Jesus took the disciples to the lake.

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side.' (Mark 4:35-36)

And there in the lake, they encountered a great storm. After teaching all these precious lessons about the kingdom of God, Jesus allowed them to encounter a real situation where they had to put into practice what they learned. Jesus wanted to teach them not in a class room setting but in a real life situation.

BUT THE DISCIPLES FAILED.

They were overwhelmed by the size of the waves they faced. Before the boat was swamped by the waves, they were swamped by their own fear.

We realize that it is one thing to learn and it is another thing to live out what we have learned. Knowing a theory and actually living it out are very different. There are two different levels of knowing. Knowing it in your thoughts and actually living it. It is one thing to know with your brain and another thing to know with your whole self. When you know with your whole self, the knowledge becomes you. As I often said, when a thing happens to other people, it is a concept. But when the same thing happens to you, it is reality.

This is so true when it comes to faith. Faith is not something that remains in your thought; it is something you live out.

Faith We Live

I gave you a story of a tight rope walker. This tight rope walker walked across the Niagara Falls and came back. People were so fascinated that they shouted their amazement. He asked them, this time I will walk across with a person on my back. Do you believe that I can do that? The crowd shouted, yes we believe you can! He asked, who would like to go on my back? Nobody volunteered. I won't do that. But with Jesus, it is a different story.

What good is faith if it remains only in your thought? The kind of faith we need is not faith in our thought but faith we live.

FAITH IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK; FAITH IS WHAT YOU LIVE.

Faith in your thoughts has no power. No power to defeat fear. But faith you live has power to deal with storms in your life. So your faith has to travel from your brain to your life if it is going to be real faith.

What matters in the end is whether we have faith that helps us persevere through our storms. Christian journey is to sail through storms. In the storms, we will all face our own vulnerability.

Jesus’ Journey

That was Jesus' own journey. When you read the Gospel Mark, you can see that clearly. Mark described Jesus' life as journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. On the way, he did many miracles and wonderful things but in Jerusalem, he didn't do any miracles. He didn't do any wonderful things. He didn't even teach. In Jerusalem, he didn't show his power but his faith. His ultimate destiny was the cross where he became totally vulnerable. That was his storm. The ultimate question was whether he had faith to embrace his own vulnerability or not. The ultimate question for us is whether we have faith to be able to embrace our own vulnerability.

This is well described in Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane.

Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want. (Mark 14:36)

Jesus was very vulnerable. The Son of God was very vulnerable. He made himself to be that way. That is our Lord and Saviour. Our saviour went to the extreme degree of his own vulnerability. It was so hard for him to take it and so he asked,

REMOVE THIS CUP FROM ME

But even then Jesus had faith. He didn't follow how he felt, the fear. That's what you feel when you are vulnerable: FEAR He followed his faith. He didn't take control of his situation. He let God take control.

NOT WHAT I WANT, BUT WHAT YOU WANT.

Our Saviour showed us the power of faith. We are saved because of his faith. Jesus even took the cross, ultimately leaving every control in God's hands. That is what faith is.

When Jesus sent twelve disciples, this was what he instructed.

He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. (Mark 6:8-9)

Jesus wanted them to experience vulnerability and total dependence. They had to ask for food from people.

Face Your Own Vulnerability

That was not what Christians did when they reached out to the indigenous people in this land. They went in not with vulnerability but with power. They were not dependent. They were dominant. That's why all these abuses happened.

They didn't go in with desire to serve but the desire to conquer with a sense of superiority. They took away what was important to the indigenous people rather than serving them with faith.

CHRISTIAN JOURNEY IS NOT THE JOURNEY TO CONQUER WITH POWER BUT TO SERVE WITH FAITH.

To take the Christian journey, we have to learn to face our own vulnerability.

The disciples were not just afraid. They panicked. They panicked because they didn't have any power to control their situation. They felt totally vulnerable. They had to learn to deal with their own vulnerability. They had to learn to let go and let God. But it was hard for them to do.

Jesus knew that they would soon find real storms of life. The early Christians experienced the storms in life. When Nero set the fire in Rome and blamed Christians and massacred them, that was about time Mark was written. Roman soldiers invaded Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple and killed many people, that was about time when Mark was written.

Early Christians experienced the storms of life in a real way. They survived because they had faith. They didn't give up and give in. They persevered because they had faith. That faith was not in their thought. For them, faith was everything. It was their faith that made Christianity survive through the storm. Christianity survived not through their own power but through faith.

When their sisters and brothers were thrown into lion's den and when Nero killed Christians and put them on the stake and light up Rome like street lamps, they might have wondered where God was. They felt the silence of God. That is what vulnerability is. But they didn't give up. They believed.

Sometimes we feel that God is silent. We feel that our prayers are not heard. But God is never asleep. God always cares for us.

He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (Psalm 121:4)

Somehow the disciples who had the faith of mustard seed became spiritual giants who had the faith of the tree. We don't know how their faith grew. They didn't know it either. All we need is faith of the mustard seed. Just as their faith has transformed from faith in their thoughts to real faith, our faith will be transformed too, someday.

When we have faith that embraces our own vulnerability, nothing in the world can destroy us. We can face any kind of storms in life.

When life's difficulties hit you, don't complain. That is the best time for your faith to travel from your thoughts to real life. There is no other way. Your faith in thoughts will be challenged when you face your own vulnerability. Just learn to trust in God. God will help you to grow your faith.

The post Faith You Live appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Church.

Mark 4:26-34

The Key

Jesus gave us a wonderful parable.

The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the  ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would  sprout and grow, he does not know how. (Mark 4:26, 27)

He does not know how. This phrase strikes me. It inspires me. It gives me a sense of freedom. I don't need to know everything. I don't need to control the result.

I am not talking about not preparing thoroughly and expecting a  good result. I am not talking about that kind of laziness.

But we all know that we cannot control the result in everything that  we do. We are trying to live a good life that builds the kingdom of God  but we don't know how the kingdom of God is established in  our life. Nobody knows.

What Jesus is trying to say is that we are not the ones who build life  that reflects the kingdom of God. It is ultimately God who builds the kingdom of God. The key is God, not us.

That's why St. Paul said,

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the  one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6, 7)

Jesus lived like that. He showed us how we should live by his example. He didn't do his work all by himself. He always let God work through him. Because he knew ultimately it is God who would bring about God's kingdom.

We are not God. Let us not try to be god. We don't know what the final outcome of the kingdom of God will be like and how God will bring that about.

Broken Vessels

What is the implication of this truth about our life? It gives us tremendous confidence. We do our best to live a good life. But sometimes we feel that even our best is not good enough. We don't see the result and when we don't see the result, we  get discouraged, we get anxious and we even lose hope for  going further. We say to ourselves, What's the point? But ultimately God will bring about the mysterious result in the  way we don't know.

Listen to St. Paul and see his attitude towards his life.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

God will ultimately shape a good life out of us. We are broken vessels and yet God brings good life out of  these broken vessels. Not because you are good, you produce a good life.

Don't be mistaken. Not because you are a good vessel, God puts his treasure.

St. Paul said.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come  from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Until he met Christ, he didn't realize that he was a broken clay jar. He thought that God's work would be done through him  because he was great. But he realized that that was not true after meeting Christ.

He said more clearly this wonderful truth when he talked about the  resurrection. Resurrection is not the reward for our good behavior.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in  glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

The Smallest Seed

Jesus articulated this thought more clearly in his second parable about the kingdom of God.

It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.'  (Mark 4:31-32)

The mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. That means it is insignificant. But when it is sown it grows and becomes the greatest of all  shrubs and the birds of the air can come and rest. But we don't know how. We don't know how the smallest seed becomes the tree where  the birds of the air can come and rest.

Often when we see ourselves, we see only the smallest seed. We see ourselves very small and insignificant. Sometimes we even feel we are worthless. But don't ever forget that the smallest seed has the potential in it to become the greatest tree. That's what the seed is. It has that potential. That's why Jesus used the example of the seed.

We only see the smallest seed. Why?

Because we have eyes of fear. Last Wednesday, I reflected on the King David for the Korean Wednesday service. Even when he was merely a shepherd boy, he had this confidence to defeat the gigantic Goliath because he had not the eyes of fear but the eyes of faith.

Terrible Events

Recently, we have witnessed two terrible events. One is the discovery of the remains of 215 indigenous children. We are confronted again with the evil that was done to the indigenous people in this country. They have been saying this all this time. Just think about how you would feel when your children are taken away against your will and some of them never come home.

Another story is what happened in London, Ontario. A whole family had a wonderful evening walk in the  neighbourhood, not knowing what is to come. They were all killed, including grandma, except a 9 year old boy. The killer intentionally killed them by mowing them with his truck, simply because they were Muslims.

What a crazy world!

When I heard the story, I cried deep inside. I asked why? And I felt so helpless and powerless. When we hear stories like this, we feel so helpless and powerless. We have temptation to say that we just have to accept it as a part of our reality. But I don't want to do that.

I would never lose hope in the goodness of humanity. We human beings are created by God. After God created human beings, he said Good. I believe that we human beings can restore the Good God  declared. I was helpless but I was not hopeless.

The lead singer of the group Tragically Hip , Gord Downie, produced an album, Secret Path , inspired by the story of Chanie Wenjack, 12 year old Ojibway boy who died attempting to run away from the residential school, in Kenora to his home about 600 km away.

That was his last album before Gord Downie died of his brain cancer. He wanted to raise $100 million.

But Gord Downie didn't give up.

Our parable taught us not to give up. Not To Quit. Simply because we don't know how the seed grows, we should not give up. Just because we see only the smallest seed, we should not give up. Just because we don't see the result right away, we should not give up. We should continuously spread the seed even though we do not know the result. We may not change the whole world but we will keep sowing the good seed. We will sow and wait.

That's the spirit we had when we raised the fund for the Rose of  Sharon Nursing Home.

Spread the Seed 

We say power corrupts and the absolute power corrupts absolutely. But powerlessness can also corrupt. This is what Mary Jo Leddy, a Canadian writer said,

We are tempted by power, and it corrupts our family life, our  church life, our social life. But, even more significantly, I think we are  tempted by powerlessness and powerlessness corrupts (Mary Jo  Leddy)

Our sense of powerlessness cannot give us an excuse to give up doing what is good. Feeling of powerlessness is what we experience often. What can I do? I am small. I have no talent. The system is too big and I am nobody. We see challenges too big for us to handle. Yes, we all feel that. Yes, many times we feel helpless. We feel our hands are tide. We also feel pretty small compared to the problems we face. But don't make that as an excuse not to do what is right.

God will use the seed we sow. God will make the seed grow. We don't know how. But God will do it. But if we don't spread the seed, even God can't do anything about it.

In the second parable Jesus said,

It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the  smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet WHEN IT IS SOWN it grows up  and becomes the greatest of all shrubs (Mark 4:31, 32)

Faith is not believing what you can see. Faith is believing what you cannot see. Faith is not believing what you can do. Faith is believing what you cannot do.

That's why the Hebrew writer said,

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of  things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

When we spread the seed, let us believe that God will make it grow. The result is not in our hands. We don't control it. God does. That's why we don't give up. We don't lose hope.

We spread the seed and we wait. But this waiting is not merely killing time. We wait with hope. We wait constantly spreading the seed. This waiting with hope, waiting with faith is our resistance to  accept things as they are. It is our commitment to constantly spread the seed. There are people who choose to hate those who are different from them. We don't accept that as it is. We will spread the seed of love, peace, harmony, and understanding.

If we don't have hope, we will not wait. We will give up. But since we have hope and faith, we wait. We sow the seed and wait. Sometimes we feel helpless but we are not hopeless. We have that hope and this hope will save us and this hope will come true.

The post Helpless But Not Hopeless appeared first on St Timothy Presbyterian Ch...

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

Losing

Many of us watched the Leafs blow the playoff series. It was pretty painful to watch. They were skilled and dazzling during the regular season, but when it came to the playoffs, they just couldn't get the job done. The loss exacerbated the pain of losing that fans have felt for a long time. People want to be connected with a winner. Seeing your team lose year after year is painful.

St. Paul was going through similar challenges with the community in Corinth. Today, Paul is a giant of our faith, and much of our New Testament is written by him. But back in his day, all he did was struggle. Paul had begun the church with great demonstrations of God's power. But over the years, he experienced failures, setbacks and many afflictions and suffering at the hands of others. He was driven out of cities, including Corinth, by people who hated him. In other words, he was not a winner. He was rather a loser.

Corinth was a cosmopolitan city, a major port and center of commerce in the Roman Empire. It was a place that valued success and appearances. They believed that faith should demonstrate visible power. This is why they were very concerned with spiritual gifts – they wanted to see visible signs of God's power. To them, any real spiritual leader should spiritually successful, and be a spiritual winner. Failure and weakness meant that maybe something is wrong with the leader. Paul looked like a failure, steeped in weakness. And what's more, he was not very eloquent, refined or polished. In many ways, Paul was quite an embarrassment to these cosmopolitan big city dwellers.

Judgements and Confidence

The Corinthians made judgments based on what they could see with their eyes.

We too are very driven by what we can see with our eyes. We judge things by how they appear. Our confidence goes up or down depending on what we see with our eyes or experience with our senses.

This is particularly the case in a social media age, especially for our young people. The world of social media is built on appearances. So much energy is poured into building this attractive appearance. You look at people's profiles, and they exude success, polish and confidence. Each post is carefully curated for the world. In this world, your confidence goes up and down with the number of likes or follows you get.

During this whole time of COVID, our moods and confidence have gone up and down with the news of openings and closing. By this point, people want life to open up and resume. We believe that things will be better once things are open. I'm all for this, and I can't wait for that too. But is our confidence tied to circumstances we can see with our eyes? Where does our uplift and confidence really come from?

St. Paul was very peculiar. Despite all the failures and setbacks he experienced, we see great confidence exuding from him. In fact, the more failure he experienced, the more confident he became. How strange! What was the source of this confidence?

Paul begins today's passage with this statement:

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture – I believed, and so I spoke – we also believe, and so we speak. (2 Corinthians 4:13)

Paul is referring to the previous verse where he said:

So death is at work in us (2 Corinthians 4:12)

He is talking about death in many ways: death of our bodies through suffering and affliction; death of our spirit that comes from persecution; death in our relationships; death of hope. Any death of this kind brings about painful silence. When suffering hits us, we are levelled into silence. But Paul is saying that because of the faith he has – the kind of faith shown in scripture – death cannot silence him. Because of faith, he has the confidence now to speak a new word of hope and boldness.

This faith came from what he saw. Paul saw and experienced death – it was very real for him – but he also saw something greater at work underneath that surface: he saw God's power. Underneath his afflictions and hardships, his weakness and failure – he saw God's power at work.

What we See

Paul had a different kind of vision. He had the eyes of faith. With his physical eyes he saw death, but with eyes of faith he saw life arising from that death. Where there was affliction, he saw glory. In terrible darkness, he saw God's power at work. Seeing God's power at work in the midst of his failure and weakness gave him true confidence.

We are so affected by what our eyes see. But what eyes do we see with? Our eyes often deceive us. They don't reveal the full truth. They often don't see beyond what we see on the surface.

One remarkable thing about this time of COVID is the extent to which hidden or buried truths have been unmasked. We've seen things about ourselves that we were previously able to bury underneath busy schedules and distractions. We see the global inequality in vaccine distribution – where the richest countries have been hoarding the majority of vaccines globally. We saw the reality of racism unmasked through the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement and the reality of anti-Asian racism. The world was shaken out of its complacency over the suffering of Palestinians that was quietly hidden from view. And this week we were confronted with the reality of the horrors of the residential school system with the discovery of unmarked graves in Kamloops. COVID has revealed the sins of the world and the sins of humanity.

The ground-penetrating radar that was used to discover the unmarked graves in Kamloops exposed the sin that residential schools and Canadian society buried. There is national reckoning going on now, because we cannot hide from this truth that has been unearthed and exposed. As I reflect on this, I realize this: the first thing that eyes of faith see is the sin that is buried within us. Eyes of faith are like ground-penetrating radar for our souls.

Seeing Sin

Rev. Kim preached about sin last week. Sin is that negative force that diminishes us, and keeps us from being who we want to be. That negative force remains buried within us, often unseen with our eyes, and therefore easy to ignore. But it affects our entire being and keeps us diminished.Eyes of faith are like a ground-penetrating radar into our hearts. We see the power that sin has over us. But sin is not the only thing that eyes of faith see.

St. Paul says this in Romans:

…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Romans 5:20)

He saw his sin very clearly. But he also saw God's grace that abounds even more than sin.

And that was the truth that he saw in the cross: that God's grace is greater than sin. To the physical eye, the cross is where sin and death are victorious. The cross symbolizes all the pain and difficulty we see and experience in the here and now. It does not deny it. It takes on this suffering. But with with eyes of faith, we also see on the cross God's greater power and grace at work. Power that overcomes sin and death. Power that brings forth new life. This is why the cross has power for us, and why we cling to it.

The cross symbolizes our new eyes and sight: we see death, but even more we see life. This is what it means to be a Christian: to see and experience our lives differently from what we see with our eyes. We don't ignore our difficulties, our ugliness or pretend like they don't exist. We see them and acknowledge the effect they have on us. But that is not all we see. Even more than these negative things, we see God's power and grace at work. In any circumstance, we believe in and see that the positive power of God is more powerful than the negative things we see with our physical senses. When we see that power, it becomes our confidence.

We need to cultivate eyes of faith. To see the power of God at work in our lives. St. Paul says this:

we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

The world cannot see it with physical eyes, but with our eyes of faith, we see the power of God at work in us.

Cultivating Eyes of Faith

How do we cultivate eyes of faith? First, you need to honestly confront the sin in your life. That is a truly difficult thing. It's much easier to live life burying it and living life on the surface. But that can never bring about an abundant life. You have to want to confront the truth in your life. If you're content to just keep things buried, then it's already done. ***Ground-penetrating radar for our souls*** Only an honest desire to confront the sin in your life will open up the door to cultivating eyes of faith. There is no one way or single method. Find a way that works for you to honestly examine yourself and reflect on what is blocking you from being the kind of person you wish to be. It can be through honest meditation, writing in your journal, quiet time of prayer, reading scripture or whatever works. But making intentional habits will help with this. Secondly, we need to practice seeing God in our lives. Just like it takes practice to learn piano, seeing God takes spiritual practice and discipline. We cannot see God physically, so we need to cultivate the spirituality of seeing God underneath the physical surface. Again, there is no one method. Meditation and prayer practices help. Reflecting on our lives through critical study of Scripture helps.  Here's one idea: when you are going through something, is there a praise song that resonates with you? If so, let that song speak for you. Those songs are words of faith that help you see God at work.  When there is difficulty and struggle, songs of praise help us to see God at work. After I got ordained, at my final Hi-C retreat as youth pastor, the Hi-C kids made a book for me.  On one of the pages, they listed a personalized praise playlist. They were: Gracefully Broken, Broken Vessels, and Ever Be. My kids knew me so well! And they were so right.  Those songs really express how God has been present in my struggles in life. They allowed me to see God's power and grace at work in my life. Instead of just seeing struggle and difficulties in my past, I can now see my past as filled with the grace-filled love of God. I may not have seen it then when I was gripped by my circumstances, but now I see it. This is why music is such a precious part of our worship and people's faith. They help us see God at work. They cultivate our eyes of faith.

The concluding part of today's passage is so beautiful. I won't read it, but will paraphrase in my own words. With eyes of faith, we never lose heart, we do not shrink back. Even though our daily existence in this world brings about hardship, I am renewed daily by God's loving presence and grace that I now see and believe. The afflictions I face today are real, but slight and momentary compared to the eternal glory of God's love and power. What we see with our physical eyes are all temporary; but what we see with our eyes of faith – the love, power and grace of God – are eternal. With my eyes firmly fixed on this eternal love, I have confidence to face anything in life until I am called home by my Maker.

In Our Community

We are reflecting on our 25th anniversary over the summer and fall. A group of our oldest 1st generation members wrote their stories that will be published this summer.  I read through them, and I could feel sorrow, melancholy, and a sense of how hard it is to find joy in this world. I shed many tears reading them. Most of them were born in the 1930's. They lived through occupation, division, war, poverty and immigration. They lived such difficult lives. They eked out an existence, raised families, and are nearing the end of their life journeys. When we look at them individually, they are small, insignificant lives full of difficulty and struggle. But when I look through eyes of faith, I see great beauty in their collective stories. Out of the broken pieces of their lives, God stitched together something new – a new existence for them and their families here in Canada, and this beautiful community that we get to enjoy. The focus of our 25th anniversary reflection is what God has done in and through this community. It is looking back with eyes of faith, so that we can also see where God is leading us in the future. What I see is God taking these people – who were broken and went through so much, yet have a tenacious will to survive – and creating a beautiful gift for us – the gift of the church. And I believe this unique gift is given to us to be a gift to the world. Their story is summed up by St. Paul's declaration:

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Yes, our 1st generation seniors were clay jars, but God created something beautiful and lasting through them. And I can see God at work now in all of us. I believe God will create more beautiful things for the next 25 years. My prayer and hope for us and the generations to come, is that we can more and more really live out the way of Jesus. This is how Paul described himself and his companions:

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be visible in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

Yes, I pray that the life of Jesus may be visible in our bodies. That we may give ourselves up for the weak and vulnerable just like Jesus did. And that in offering our lives, the life of Jesus may shine through. We ourselves are not that significant in the eyes of the world. Even our church is pretty quiet, small and insignificant. But for me, that is to our advantage. In fact, like St. Paul, I hope we can be even less glorious or significant, so that God's glory can shine through our church. I don't want to be a megachurch. I want to be a faithful church. We don't need to live mega-lives, just faithful ones. Let us have eyes of faith. Don't worry about whether your life is shining brightly. Have faith that God is shining in your life. And let that faith be the source of your confidence.