St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

This past Friday marked the first of four sessions in our Becoming Together: Toward the Beloved Community study led by Rev. Simon Park. During a time where many are coming together to fight for justice for black people in Canada and the United States, it is important that we understand our role as a church and community in anti-black racism. Through delving into Saint Paul’s letters and exploring the discrimination faced by the Galatians, we can better learn about this and reflect on our responsibility.

During the first session, members of our ESM congregation were enlightened on the history of the Galatians, the concept of model minorities, and the white normativity we see in society today. We then split off into groups, discussing our place in society and the way we’ve lived our lives up to now. Has survival within the white normative system been your main focus? Have you perhaps experienced being part of this model minority?

Many shared their life stories and experiences of immigrating or growing up in Canada. It was a very honest time of reflection where we looked at the racism we have faced ourselves and the impact being a visible minority has had towards our confidence and identities. A lot of our members felt peace in their identities of being children of God, however, as it gave the freedom to be okay with oneself. They were reassured by His love.

There were a lot of thoughts and questions that arose on the topics brought up during the study, as well. The way we have been affected by our struggle to survive in society, the strong identity we now lack after being shaped by society, and our perspective towards our friends who are struggling just like us. There were questions about understanding the content better and trying to empathize with the Galatians, as well as what we can do with the unique position we have as model minorities. How do we uplift those around us instead of trying to mirror the way those with “power” govern our lives?

In the next three weeks, we will be working towards answering the following questions: What is true freedom? What is new creation? What is the gospel for us, and what is perversion of this gospel? What are the implications of this message for us? We encourage you to join us on this path to insight and enlightenment.

See you next Friday!

Session 1 E-book

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Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

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Romans 6:20-23; 1 John 4:7-12

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Jeremiah 20:7-13

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Romans 5:1-8

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Psalm 8

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The Psalm that we read today is a beautiful Psalm. This Psalm is about this beautiful world that we live in. This Psalm reminds me of the hymn we heard today (How Great Thou Art), O Lord My God, when I’m in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made.   Also this song reminds me of Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World:  I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you and I think to myself what a wonderful world . 

This psalm says when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers. The moon and the stars that you have established (Psalm 8:3). 

In the world God created, there are so many beautiful things: the mountains, rivers, deep forests, trees, the sun and the moon, and the beautiful stars in the sky. There are so many things that are so beautiful. Above all God made human beings the most beautiful. This is what the psalm said, what are human beings, that you are mindful of them, mortals, that you care for them, yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour (Psalm 8:4-5). We are just a little lower than God. The Psalm says that we are just a little lower than God. How honoured and how beautifully we must have been made! Genesis says that we were created in God’s beautiful image. Today's psalm tells us that we human beings are crowned with glory and honour. Another psalm praises God like this I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works that i know very well my frame was not hidden from you when i was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth (Psalm 139). 

Sometimes, my friends, we feel like we are nobody. We feel like we are nothing. But not to God. To God we are a masterpiece that God has put all his effort into to create. The writer of  today’s psalm knew of the care that God has put into creating us. What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them. (Psalm 8:4) We treat ourselves like we are nobody but God treats us as the most precious thing in the world. Would God throw away something that he created with such care God? Would He just use us and throw us away? No! I don’t think so. God will preserve us and God will keep us when life is over on this earth. God will bring us back to his embrace. That’s what God will do. God will not just throw away that which he made so beautifully. God made us with such care and he told us to use the same care to care for the world that He created. This is what the psalm says, You have even then dominion over the works of your hands you have put all things under their feet (Psalm 8:6). God gave us the commission to take care of the beautiful world that he created. That is our responsibility. Destroying the beautiful world that God created is going against God’s will. That is a serious sin.     

Above all, God told us to keep in mind the dignity of human beings. We have to keep each other's dignity. God has crowned us with glory and honour. We are precious and beautiful because God crowned us with glory and honour. Not because we are better than other people. No one can take away the crown that God has crowned us with. No matter how small a person may be. No matter how insignificant and powerless a person may be. No matter how weak and vulnerable we may be. On the head of that person, there is a crown of glory and honour that God has put on. We cannot take that down and trample it. That is going against God's will. We have to keep the dignity of a human being. Jesus told us to love your neighbor. That means to keep the dignity of your neighbor. We should not ignore and insult another human being. No matter how angry we may be, we simply cannot humiliate another person.

 Whenever a person's dignity is trampled down, we should fight to restore it because that is something that must be kept intact. Jesus fought for the dignity of human beings. The poor, the sick, prostitutes, sinners, and tax collectors they were ostracized, rejected and alienated but Jesus fought for their dignity, sacrificing his own life.

We are so saddened by the story of a precious and beautiful life that was trampled to death in Minnesota. We are saddened because the dignity of a person was trampled. That's why so many people came out on the street in almost every city and every state not only in the US but  the whole world. Their voices were loud and clear. Human dignity must be honoured. Racism is a sin that destroys the dignity of a person. George Floyd was literally trampled to death. Al Sharpton shouted, Take your knee off of our neck. Whenever I think about how he died, it brings tears to my eyes. How can a person die like that? His last words were, I can't breathe and Momma . His mother died two years ago, but he called out Mama . When we are experiencing the last moment of our lives, we are missing the embrace of Mama. That's why he called out, Mama .

We are precious in God's eyes. There is nothing more important than realizing that we are precious. When we understand this, we will understand the heart of Jesus. When we have that understanding, our life will change. Don't forget that you have a crown of glory and honour. And also don't ever, ever forget that there is a crown on your sister's and brother's head, the crown of glory and honour that God has put on. Whenever this crown is taken away, we should put it on again. Let us keep each other's dignity. 

Dear God,

Thank you for giving us this beautiful day today, and for bringing us together week after week during this time of physical and social distancing.  Lord, during these unprecedented times, it's difficult to make sense of what is happening around us, with the pandemic keeping us isolated and separated from our community and family members, to the senseless violence and systemic racism that we still find deeply rooted in our society.  Lord, as the summer is upon us, we pray for the continued health and safety of our community, and with all of our efforts to stay home, that the coronavirus' numbers can continue to flatten and we can safely ease back into the new normal.  Lord we know that the fight against this pandemic will continue for some time, so we pray for patience and strength to continue to endure this difficult period, until we are able to see each other once again.  We also want to continue to keep our healthcare and essential workers in our prayers as well, as they continue to serve the community and keep our vital services open.

Lord, as we have witnessed racism time and time again in the US and across the world, we continue to pray and support not just our African American communities, but also any other people or communities that may be marginalized or those that suffer at the hands of an oppressor, whether white, black, or any other race or religion. As we look to healing and reform, Lord, we pray for acceptance and inclusion in society as a whole, and the eventual hope that people can love, respect, and accept each other for who they are, and not by the colour of our skin.  Lord, let this recent experience not be another senseless statistic, but let it serve purpose and meaning for mobilization efforts, and to demonstrate that we are ready for change, and that change must happen.  We pray for peaceful demonstrations, and as countries, governments, businesses, communities, and individuals contemplate change and how to best effect change, we pray that as human beings we can learn from this experience and move forward in unity.

Lord, we ask that you continue to bless our St Timothy community.  We are apart in distance, but let us continue to feel close in spirit.  Let our ministries continue to flourish, from our mens and women’s groups, our young families and young adults, our college and high-C kids, our grade school and children’s ministries.  We also pray for our pastoral staff and ask that you continue to build them up and give them strength and encouragement.

Lord, thank you for continuing to show your love and grace in new and different ways.  Let us continue to be faithful in our thoughts and in our actions, keep us healthy and safe, and guide us each and every day.  We thank you, and pray in Jesus name.

Amen

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1 Corinthians 12 : 3b-13

Human beings have an innate desire for unity. We become inspired when we see examples of sacrifice, of tireless service, and people coming together. When the pandemic first began, the motto was we're all in it together. The spirit of togetherness was so high. We were willing to endure discomfort, inconvenience and even hardship for the greater good. 

But as time goes on, the forces of division creep back. At this moment, I see forces of division running stronger than the forces of unity. People are tired of staying inside, so they flock together with friends. Others trying to adhere to guidelines see that and get upset, quickly pointing fingers and caricaturizing the people. That's what happened last weekend when people flocked to Trinity Bellwoods Park. South of the border, cities are on fire. Pent up anger is spilling out into violence. Those in power focus on that violence and look for people to blame instead of looking at the roots of that anger. My needs become more important than yours. It's you vs me. They vs us. When this force is given breath, it can overpower and take over the force that seeks unity. 

St. Paul was well aware of this dynamic. He used language of his own time and context to express it, but he captures this dynamic well: For I delight in the law of God in my innermost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:22-23)

Which of our members are winning the war right now? We have people trying to maintain unity, but we have other leaders – powerful leaders – exploiting the chaos and fanning the flames of this division to maintain their grip on power.

St. Paul said this: Each builder must choose with care how to build on [the foundation]… Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. (1 Corinthians 3:10, 12-13)

These times feel like the Day that St. Paul was referring to. The kinds of lives we've built is becoming clear. The kind of world we've built is coming clear. COVID-19 is the fire that has tested and revealed the work we have done in our society. When over 80% of the deaths have taken place in long-term care homes, then we know we've done a poor job taking care of our vulnerable elderly. When deaths in the US are disproportionately borne by black and Latino people, then you know how the country has treated its racial minorities. When in Canada we don't even know exactly who's been suffering the most because we lack the data, then we know that Canada prefers to be blind instead of exposing cracks in its myth as a nice and generous country.

What kind of world have we built? What kind of world are we building right now? Each of our work will be revealed with fire and disclose what we've built. Have we been too passive and blind bystanders to what goes on around us? To the suffering of the most vulnerable in our midst?

The proclamation of our Christian faith is that we are people of the Spirit. Our church mission statement includes a point that we are a spiritual community. But what does this mean? St. Paul said this: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed upon us by God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

Those who live in the Spirit – those who are spiritual – receive and understand the gifts bestowed upon us by God. Today's passage reveals the purpose of these gifts: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:7)

There are varieties of gifts, varieties of service, all according to the unique people we are, but that same Spirit activates these gifts in us for the common good – the well-being of others. In other words, our lives, when activated by the Spirit, are meant to bless and serve others, to make the lives of those around us richer, better, more complete.

Has the Spirit activated your life and gifts to be such a blessing?

We need to seriously ask ourselves this question today. For what purpose is my life serving?

Our gifts are given for the common good. But what is the common good? Who decides what the common good is? Is it merely to take care of my family and those close to me? The people of my inner circle? I believe the answer lies in the words of St. Paul: On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior members, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. (1 Corinthians 12:22-26)

The true sign of spiritual people – those who live in the Spirit – is how well we take care of our weakest members. Whether that be in our families, social circles, our communities, our society and in this world. That is the barometer of our spirituality, as individuals, as a community, as a society.

Our gifts are to be used to lift up the weakest among us. And St. Paul articulated the greatest of these gifts, the gift of love. Here is how he articulates this greatest gift: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

How beautifully written. If we are spiritual people, we have this gift of love. If we all have this gift of love, we are spiritual people. If we have that gift of love, this world would be such a better place. How do we become spiritual people where the gift of love is activated in us? Where we take care of our weaker members?

Ultimately, it is God who makes us spiritual people. It is the Spirit of God who changes us, transforms us, and instills in us God's own grace. We are not in control of that. But there are things we can do to invite God's Spirit to enact that change in us. There is an individual component, and a communal component, and they are highly interconnected.

It first begins with our thinking: where we set our minds. Rev. Kim preached about this last week. And St. Paul again said this: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5) Where are you setting your mind on a consistent basis? Setting our minds on the things of the Spirit is a spiritual discipline. Every day setting our minds on things of the Spirit. Through prayer, reading and study of the Bible, and hearing the Word of God. It involves meditating on what love is. It involves honest self-reflection, on what's driving us. There is a deep inner journey that is required to become spiritual people. But I also realize that this inner journey can never take place alone.

We began a Friday Bible Study series on Mark after the pandemic hit. Part of the Bible study involves people sharing their thoughts on the passage we are to study. Reading these reflections, and listening to the discussions that take place, made me realize a number of things. I could see great spiritual maturity in these members. The maturity took shape in the form of real honesty – about themselves, their lives, and who they were. There's no pretense and hiding behind a veneer of religiosity. But rather, sincere honesty and curiosity. It's often hard to detect an outward spiritual fervency, so often it doesn't seem like there's much spiritual strength, but I can see in the authentic honesty true spiritual strength. And as I thought about it, I realized this: this spiritual maturity has come through consistent engagement in the life of this spiritual community: week after week, month after month, year after year, they have been at this church, absorbing the sermons, Bible studies, retreats, lectures and all those things of the Spirit. Without them realizing it or seeing it, I can see how they have been shaped by the Spirit to become more spiritual people. Their consistent commitment to the church has been a deep and integral part of their own spiritual journey, and I see how it has shaped them.

I never liked it when people said you have to go to church. It can sound like a very legalistic religious rigidity. But here's something I realize: we can only continually set our minds on the things of the Spirit with a community that sets its mind on things of the Spirit. This community is the church, the living body of Christ.

The glory of the church is that it is comprised of very broken, compromised people. We come into the church solely because of God's grace. But in the church, we practice life in the Spirit. As broken people, we bring our self-interest, our pettiness, our jealousies. We get into conflict with one another. But as we seek the things of the Spirit, w...

Ephesians 1:15-23

Our thinking is very important, it shapes us and molds us. We are what we think, when our thinking is distorted, then we develop a distorted lifestyle. It affects our life in a significant way, if your thinking is dark, you become dark. If you constantly think about things to worry about, you can become paranoid.

But the problem is that our thinking is not something that we can control. Our thinking seems to have a mind of its own. It attacks us out of nowhere, one moment you are fine, the next you are in deep fear. Our thinking is separate from our will, desire and wants, it is beyond our power and control.

Then are we just victims of these random thoughts? Do we let these negative thoughts dictate us, take us where we don't want to go? Many people do that. Their lives become paralyzed by these negative thoughts. They try their best to have positive thoughts but somehow they are unable to. They live with anger, fear, disappointment, cynicism, and lack of confidence. They constantly feed themselves with these negative thoughts. They constantly feel like they are not good enough, worrying about what’s going to happen to them, the world, the future. They want to get rid of that thinking but somehow they are unable to do that. 

These days, I am really thankful that I know God. If I didn't know God, my life would have been so sad and dark. This pandemic is not good but on the contrary, there is a silver lining to this pandemic. I heard that our environment got much better, there is less pollution. Our rivers and oceans got much cleaner. There are not many cars on the street and no air travel helped reduce the greenhouse gases.

For me, this pandemic helps me get closer to God. I get to have more quality time with God. I get to know God more intimately. The more I think about God, the clearer my thinking becomes. It is like breathing the fresh air. Thinking about God changes the pattern of our thinking, it creates a new path for our thinking to flow. This new path leads us to good thinking and hopeful thinking. It takes us to the brighter side of our life. When we spend more time with God, amazing things happen. So I realized we are not just victims of random thoughts. We can do something about it.

Our thinking has to be trained. We cannot just let our wild thinking dictate us. Training of our thinking is more difficult than the physical training. But that is more important than the physical training. Of course, physical training helps us with good thinking too but the spiritual training has a much more powerful benefit. So, we need to spiritually train our thinking.

That's why St. Paul said this, Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8) When we think about God, we can think of these things. When we fill our heart with God, God gives us peace that is beyond our intellectual understanding and that peace will guard our thinking. We need that, we need something that guards our thinking. And that is the peace of God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) That is the same as saying guarding your hearts and your thinking in Christ Jesus. That is what the Korean version of the Bible says.  . It says guard your heart and your thinking.

As we spend more time with God and get to know God more deeply, God's peace will guard our hearts and our thinking in Christ Jesus. That is very important, we cannot just let our thinking go everywhere, and we cannot let our thinking take us over. God's peace will guard our thinking. Let God's peace not let our thinking do whatever it wishes. Let God's peace channel our thinking into a good place.

A few days ago, I sent you an inner voice. And I said, Let us set our minds on things that are above. If we set our minds on things that are on earth, we cannot overcome death. What we see on earth is death. When we set our minds on death, we will be destroyed. Let us set our minds on Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead. When we focus on him, life that is hidden in God will be revealed to us.

Our thinking is amazing. It can blind your eyes but also it can brighten your eyes. It can paralyze us but it can also liberate us. St. Paul said in today's Scripture. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Ephesians 1:17-19) That was St. Paul's prayer for Ephesians. This is the prayer we all need in this difficult time.

Our thinking is scattered, our thinking has become darkened, our thinking has become weak. Focus on Jesus; Focus on God. Hebrews writer said this: Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus. (Hebrews 3:1) Fix your thoughts on Jesus. You will experience amazing things, your thinking will find a new path. Only then can you overcome your difficult situations.

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John 14:15-21

These days I realize how important it is to meet people physically. I appreciate the actual social connection, not a virtual connection, more than ever. Today we had a glitching problem with Zoom. In the news, we hear that everyone’s having problems with Zoom. Yet, in this situation, we worship God. I can see you all on the screen, yet I miss meeting you all physically. For ESM, in terms of activities, we haven't changed much. We do all the Bible studies and worship services through Zoom, but it is not the same. Our conversation becomes choppy, and it is hard to get deeper in our reflection. It is all right to communicate information virtually but it is hard to be connected spiritually and enter into deeper understanding. I have realized that we human beings survive and thrive in relationship. To us, relationships are so important. No one is an island.

When God created the world, he repeated this phrase, It is good. Every time he created, he said, “It is good.” But once, he said, It is not good. It is not good for the man to be alone. That’s the first time he said, “it is not good,” and then he created Eve. Creating Eve does not mean that he created another human being. It means that by creating Eve, God created the relationship that wasn't there when Adam was alone. So, God created the relationship – God wants us to live in relationship.

But unfortunately and sadly, when we look around, I see a lot of broken relationships. Rather than peace and harmony, we see a lot of division and hatred. And because of these broken relationships, people get hurt. They go through so many problems, and we see many tears. Sometimes we feel that there is really nobody that we can be connected with in a real sense. Sometimes people feel that, “nobody wants me, nobody seeks after me, nobody is glad to see me, I’m almost invisible.” We feel deep loneliness. We come to a sense that we are really alone in this huge, gigantic universe. We are alone.

Especially when we experience life's problems and suffering, this loneliness gets intensified. We can see that very well on the cross. On the cross, Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Jesus didn't really mean that God abandoned him. Jesus expressed his ultimate aloneness. So when you go through something, you experience deep loneliness or aloneness. 

When we read Job, we don't see only his problems, but we can clearly see his loneliness that was caused by his problems. His children all died; his wife cursed and abandoned him. And his friends who came supposedly to help him threw him into deeper darkness. He was all alone. He didn’t even feel the presence of God. This is what he confessed, If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. Not only was he abandoned by his family, his people, and his friends, but he also felt the total absence of God. He felt that the whole world turned its back against him.

Jesus' disciples must have felt the same when Jesus was crucified on the cross, when Jesus left them. They solely depended on Jesus, they followed Jesus and they were able to endure all kinds of suffering because Jesus was with them. But the problems got deeper, and their master was persecuted and ultimately, he was crucified and they were left all alone. They felt that the whole world was against them. 

Knowing what would happen, Jesus gave them this teaching in today's passage while he was with them. “My friends, my disciples, I will never leave you like an orphan. Even though I am not with you physically, I will ask God to give you the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.” He said he would give the peace that the world cannot give, the world cannot know. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not fear,” he said. While he was with them, he said all these things knowing of this deep loneliness, aloneness and fear. 

We are alone but we are not alone. The Spirit is with us. How do we know that the Spirit is with us? We cannot know it by feeling it. We cannot know by physically seeing it. We can know it because the Spirit gives us peace. By having that peace, we know that the Spirit is with us. When we believe that the Holy Spirit is with us, we experience this peace. Worries and fear will disappear, and God’s peace will come to us and give us confidence.

When we are alone, we have to be careful not to fall into darkness. We have to be careful not to let fear take hold of our life. We have to be careful not to let anxiety paralyze us.

What we need, my friends, is faith – faith that the Spirit is with us. When we believe that the Spirit is with us, we can deal with our aloneness. We will have peace and the peace will give us the confidence. We can defeat our anxiety, fear, and worries that come to us like a flood.

Jesus said, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.  For ever. For ever, the Spirit is with us. Yesterday I visited one of our elders in KSM who is very sick, and I told him, “God is with you. and God will be with you, and God will take you to a good place.” Abiding in you for ever, the Spirit will give us the peace we need.

Let us believe in the Spirit who is with us. He will keep us safe and he will keep us strong. My friends, you’re alone at home, but you’re not alone. The Spirit is with you. God bless all of you. 

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1 Corinthians 13:4-7

When I think of mother's love, two words come to mind. They are selfless and resilient. For me, these two words capture the essence of today's passage, and what mother's love is.

First, it is selfless in a sense that a mother's love is totally (and entirely) for their child – it's a one-way kind of love. They don't ask anything of us; they simply love us. We're the most precious thing in their eyes. It's not the kind of love that's negotiable or calculating. It doesn't depend on what we can do for them. But it is all about us; and as St. Paul said, “it doesn't insist on its own way.” They will do anything for us because we are theirs.

There is a KSM YP group that meets on Wednesday evenings. All of the different groups in the church have been going through the Gospel of Mark. One week, our conversation digressed at one point. We started talking about relationships between parents and children, which really had nothing to do with the passage. Things like misunderstandings and generational gaps, they all came up. But at the end, Rev. Chung said something that stuck with me. He said this in Korean, and I tried my best to translate it, but he said something like, There is no parent in the world who can be selfish when it comes to their child. ( .)

It sort of stayed with me, because it reminded me of my own parents, especially my mother. Over the years, we've had our many fights and disagreements at times, but at the end of the day, she always let me go my own way and supported me even when I was wrong. But, I often mistook her patience and kindness for weakness. Looking back, I recognized a certain strength hidden in her selflessness towards me. And that strength, I believe, is resilience. In their selfless love, this resilience is revealed to us. Not in the sense of a willpower per say, but the kind of strength that's constant and steadfast. No matter what happens, it never fades. It enables them to embrace and persevere through anything. We read this at the end of today's passage, “It [Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” No matter what, our parents, they're always bearing, believing, hoping, and enduring all things for us. 

I see this especially in times of prayer. They say that prayer reveals a person's heart. Whenever we have our prayer gatherings, sometimes we have parents, our mothers, who ask to pray for their children. In their asking, their heart and love for their children come to the fore. Even after all the disappointments and frustrations, they still wait, believe, and hope for the best. And if there is anyone that never stops praying for us, it's our parents.

The more I reflect on all this, the more I realize how extraordinary mother's love is. I mean we all said it today, it's a special kind of love. It's the kind of that can't be fully understood, but is deeply felt when we receive it. It changes us. It reflects what God's love is like. In the same way, we may never fully comprehend the depths of God's heart for us. But when we experience God's love, we feel it to the core – we feel its tenderness and strength. And through our parents, God's love that always hopes and perseveres for our good is made concrete. Perhaps that's why St. Paul said love is the greatest of all, because it never ends. It endures and stands the test of time.

And that is the fullness of God's love for us – love that bears anything and everything for us. Nothing can separate us from it, and God has blessed us with that gift of love in our relationships. Through out relationships we have been shaped by that gift. By God's love which comes alive in our relationships, we're able to persevere through any and all circumstances that we face. Not by our own will, but with God's help.

As Simon mentioned earlier today, in our service, this Mother's Day is a unique and peculiar one. It's unfolded in a way that none of us expected. I remember we used to prepare carnations for our mothers prior to the service; and pin them on them. But now we're on Zoom, celebrating the day together from a distance.

While some of us have the privilege of being with our parents and families, there are those of us who can't be with our own parents today. Some of our parents are in long-term care facilities or at home, alone and on their own. Simple things like hugging our parents have been made impossible with the social distancing. I saw that in BC, the government recommended that people refrain from hugging their parents on Mother's Day if they don't live together in the same place. So, as much as we feel joy and gratitude on a special day like today, we can't help but also feel somewhat anxious and sad.

But even in this difficult time, we can celebrate our mothers and their love for us, and persevere by the strength which God gives us. So, let us comfort and strengthen each other in love, that's what we were called to do. That is our hope.

Jesus said, Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. God's love binds us together in spirit. Not only are we a spiritual community, but we are a spiritual family. We are deeply connected in our relationships with one another. In fact, we are brothers, sisters, and parents to each other. And through our relationships, we can share and imitate the love that we've received.

So let us celebrate and bless all our mothers today. Let us not forget our grandmothers, the expectant mothers, and even those whom we feel like have been mothers to us in this community. Let us remember to show them our appreciation and gratitude. Let us encourage them in this difficult time. Through love, we will experience the extraordinary power that gives us the strength to believe and hope all things. Our hearts will be filled with joy, peace, and gratitude. By the power of God's love, we will be able to overcome even the distance that separates us in this time. I pray that when we look back on this day, this time next year, we will be able to proclaim God's enduring love that's carried us through this time.

Happy Mother's Day everyone, may the Lord be with you.

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