St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Isaiah 42:1-9

Today, as Steve prayed, we mourn for those who died in the airplane crash over Iran. As we read more, we realized that many of them were our neighbors. They’re our friends, coworkers, in this multicultural city and country that we call home. They were people just like us with their own personalities, hopes, and dreams. I was reading through the stories of those who died and I couldn’t help but be very moved. There were babies, children, teens, newlyweds, adults, students, and the whole spectrum of life. One teen, who was in high school, she loved to make YouTube videos. Another child, three years old, was looking forward to dressing up in an avocado costume because she loved avocados. Many were studying for a new life and career here in Canada. Dreams, hopes, laughter, joys, and love all snuffed out from the face of the earth in an instant. It’s all very tragic and senseless. Why did this happen? The Iranian government admitted yesterday that their military mistakenly shot down the airplane. And this mistake stemmed from fear. They were on heightened alert, afraid of how the Americans would respond after they sent missiles to American bases in Iraq, which itself was retaliation for the Americans killing one of their generals. Fear is what killed these innocent people.

In a world run by might, fear and hostility are the driving forces. The exertion of might breeds resentment and hostility. The weaker party, or the aggrieved party is always looking for ways to react against the powerful party. And they’re also fearful of how that party will respond. The powerful party knows this, and so, they too, fear. Their solution is to increase their might to prevent any reactions. So there’s an accumulation of might, fear, and hostility that brings about death, grief, and sadness. They have brought so much tragedy into our world. God must be so sad at how destructive we are to ourselves in this world. God’s heart must lament like a parent who sees their children ruining their lives. The story of the Bible is a story of a God who grieves at our destructive waves, who trembles in anger at the suffering of the innocent and powerless. It is a story of a God whose heart bleeds and mourns. It is the story of God who continually tries to lead us in a better way to live because there has to be a better way.

In today’s passage, God speaks about his servant, and this is what he says, “Here’s my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” The servant is filled with God’s spirit. The servant lives the way of the Spirit, and the way of the spirit is different from the way of the world. When we have been wronged, we seek justice, but the justice we seek in the world often has to do with power and vengeance. The power to avenge the one who caused injury, the power to make the other party pay for what they did, the power to get even; it is the justice that brings down. The justice that the servant brings forth is different. “He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.” The justice that the servant brings is gentle. It is humble. The justice that the Spirit brings is one that heals and restores. This justice lifts up. It brings life. The justice that the world seeks is about power and giving priority to anger. The justice of the Spirit uplifts, heals, and liberates hearts and minds.

By the spirit of God, new life is created and restored. The prophet Ezekiel spoke these words of God, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. This is what happens when God puts a new spirit within us. The heart of stone is hard and dead. Nothing moves in this heart. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. There is no feeling for life or for others. How does the heart get this way? I mean, I really don’t think we start out life this way. I look at my own kids, and their friends, and in them, I see vitality. I see life. I see excitement. Something happens though, that makes the heart become stone. As we go through life, our heart gets damaged and hurt. And the pain from that damage makes us fearful of feeling that again. So when this fear takes over, it chokes off the flow of life to our hearts, cuts off the circulation, and it turns to stone; becomes numb. When our hearts become stone, our brain takes over our thinking and our brains seek power to protect ourselves from danger, to protect ourselves from getting hurt again. Our brains trust might and power. A life without the spirit turns our hearts into stone. But the promise is that with the new spirit, God will give us a new heart of flesh. What beautiful imagery this is, a heart of flesh. This is a heart that is alive and pulses with life, and beats with feeling. Flesh is soft, so it can feel. The heart of flesh is free, free to feel. It feels joy, it feels happiness, but also feels pain, and the pain of others. The heart of flesh feels compassion, but because it’s soft, it’s also very vulnerable. Flesh can be ripped apart and damaged, and it’s very painful. So I realized this, the heart can only be free when it feels safe.

Today’s passage was spoken to those in the second and third generations of exile in Babylon. Their parents and grandparents had experienced the full might of Babylonian power as they were forcibly taken away, uprooted from their Homeland of Judah, and relocated far away in Babylon. Their parents spoke of weeping by the rivers of Babylon. So these children, and grandchildren grew up knowing the might of empire, and knew how small and powerless they were as a people. I mean, this generation carried on, like we all have to carry on with life. Some even became very successful in commerce, and in the Babylonian courts. But deep inside, as a people, they carried a lot of pain. In so many ways, they felt lost, not knowing really who they were or what to believe. The God who had sustained their ancestors seemed terribly absent, and they felt abandoned by that God. Their hearts were broken, but to survive in a world of might, they had to trust might, and their hearts had become stone.

It’s in this situation, that God spoke through Isaiah, to remind them that God was still the master of the universe, and that this same God had not abandoned them. “Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it; I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” I have called you. I have taken you. I have kept you. God had not abandoned them. God still had a plan for them. Not by might, but by Spirit. God had a plan for them to be a light to the nations through God’s way, the way of the Spirit through gentleness and humility. God knew what the world needed. So God wanted to heal their pain and restore their damaged hearts, remove their hearts of stone, and give them hearts of flesh so that they can go out and be a light to the nations. God was reminding them that in the midst of exile, in a world of might, God’s hand was covering them, and that they were still God’s chosen people to be that light to the nations.

I mean, you look around in the news today and the justice that people seek today is based on shutting down their opponents, and talking over each other. Or our hearts are just too numb to feel anything in this media saturated world. We see headlines, but then just move on to the next thing on our news feed and on with our lives. The kind of justice we need today is a Spirit filled justice that flows from the heart of flesh. A heart that has been damaged, yes, but that has been healed by the Spirit, and a heart that feels. All of you have been through your own experiences in life. You’ve had to make your way through a world of might. In the process, we’ve all received damage to our hearts. I mean, this damage distorted us in ways that we don’t usually realize. And this damage comes out in many weird ways, in our thoughts, in our words, and in our behaviors. I mean, you all see it, people around you sometimes. Why is that person saying that or behaving that way? We’re all distorted and damaged. We’re damaged goods, but somehow, through it all, God has kept us. As we sang in the new song that Jonathan introduced, God has kept us. The fact that we are here today means that God has taken us by the hand and called us here. God has called you. God has a plan for you.

We carry fear in our hearts, fearful of what people around us and the world will do to us. But when our eyes can see God’s faithful hand covering us, our hearts can start to feel safe, safe to allow the spirit into our lives. God has called us to put his spirit upon us. The Spirit heals us, restores us, and turns our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. God has a plan for us to be a light to the nations, to be a light where we are.

I mean, many of you spend majority of your time at your workplace. Be a light to those around you at work, live by the way of the spirit, be gentle, understanding, compassionate. Don’t add to the toxic environment of talking behind people’s backs, or putting other people down, or complaining about this or that person. We have enough of that. And instead of just competing against one another, seek the well being of your coworkers and colleagues, connect with them as human beings. Yes, you all have jobs to do, and performing jobs at a high level is what helps us keep our jobs. And some of you might not even like your job, but you know what, I realized, it’s not usually the work itself, right, that makes a job miserable. It’s when you don’t feel any connection with the people around you. So be someone whom people can relate to as a human being. That’s really what it means for our theme of becoming together.

That is what Jesus did throughout his whole life. At his baptism, today is the baptism of Jesus Sunday in the church calendar, he was filled with the spirit and then he lived the way of the Spirit. He lived with compassion. He healed the weak and vulnerable, he lifted up the spirits of the downtrodden, and he brought hope. There’s just too much hostility in the world today. Too much fear. We need more gentleness and compassion. We need more laughter, genuine laughter that comes from deep connection. All of this comes from life in the spirit. In this year, 2020, let us make this a year of living in the spirit. We live not by might, but by Spirit. Saint Paul said this, “If we live by the spirit, let us also be guided by the spirit.” May we all live and be guided by the spirit.

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Jeremiah 31:7-14

As Simon said, we have 52 weeks in this year. Let us make 52 great offerings. Our worship is our offering to God. So 52 offerings, whether we do choir music or special music, sermon, prayer, we really put our effort into it. And then every Sunday becomes a very special Sunday, and we create beautiful worship together. Mostly from our heart, not just a performance, but from our heart, we just gather our hearts together and present it to God 52 times this year.

Long time ago, the priests, to find the perfect fragrance, they try all kinds of weeds, all kinds of grasses, and they burn it. And they say, “No, this is not really the sweet fragrance that I want to give to God.” So they try many things and then finally find that grass and offer it, the sweet fragrance to God. In the same way, hopefully we can create that kind of worship service every Sunday, and 52 times. And that this year may be filled with a worshipful kind of year. And, as Simon said, please come 10 minutes before, we’ll put some music on and also prayer topics. And then you can have time for a prayer for the world, a prayer for yourself and a prayer for your family. So, let’s do that. And welcome to the first Sunday worship service of 2020. God gave us this beautiful new year, and we start new. And then our theme is becoming together. That is a very difficult concept, easy to understand conceptually, but becoming together is very hard, especially in modern days. What does that mean, becoming together?

We are living in such a rugged individualistic society. “I am the most important thing, and everybody else, I use them for myself.” That’s the mentality. So it is very much against the culture that we are experiencing every day. Becoming together, we are a community. We don’t have sense of community. What is community? At most, the community that we can think of is our family, our children, our parents. That’s as far as the community goes, we don’t think about community beyond that. Even the church community, it is really hard to say whether this is community, because we are just gathering together physically. So becoming together is not really a physical phenomena alone. It is much more than that, but it is hard to understand what is much more than that. What is really in a community. I believe that we need that. We, human beings, are created to live in community. God intended for us to live in community, being connected with each other, as Brian beautifully prayed, that we are deeply connected with each other, but that is really hard to understand in modern days.

What does that mean? That I’m deeply connected with you, but Africans, I told you several times about Africans. “Because you are, I am.” That is their mentality. “If you’re not there, I’m not here, because you are, I am.” That kind of sense is lost in modern days. In ancient times, maybe there was a stronger understanding of community, but in modern days, this sense of community is very difficult to grasp. And in other words, Christian message is diluted. We just individualistically come to church physically, and then just get something out of the church for myself. Beyond that, “Oh if I have time, I’ll do it”. But beyond that, “I don’t really care”. That is the kind of mentality that we have. So Christian theology, there’s a strong sense of community in Christian theology. We are together here this morning, this afternoon. I believe that it’s because God called us. God called us to be here. That we are here together. Community is formed and created by God, not by human initiative. It was created by God’s spirit. So we are here together this afternoon because God called each and every one of us to be here, to worship together, to be connected with each other. That’s why we are here. That’s what community is all about.

The Israelite’s had a strong sense of this community, this calling. They believed that they are who they are by God’s call. God called us to be together. Israelite’s, they always believed that we are very connected with each other. A few years ago, Chang Sang, the prime minister of Korea, came to Toronto. And she also visited our church and spoke to us. I had time to have a conversation with her, and we were talking, and then she told me that there are a lot of Jewish people in Seoul. So she went to meet them and then asked them, “What is the difference between Jewish people and we, Koreans? Have you noticed some difference?” And then they said, “Oh, Korean people are so smart, very capable. They are excellent in their academic ability and they are very superior people. But one thing that is different is we, Jewish people, if we have information, we share it with each other immediately, to the whole community. But Korean people, somehow, they don’t share anything. Once they know, they only they keep it to themselves. That’s the difference.” In other words, Jewish people have this strong sense of community, being together.

We are together by God’s call. I mean, they’re lucky to have so many prophets. Prophets came and then continuously spoke to them, “You are God’s people called by God.” They continuously reminded them. They were God’s people called by God. Even when they lost everything. When they lost their country, their religion, their temple, their identity, they lost everything. And yet the prophets come and tell them that, “God will gather you up again and God will form the community for you.” I mean, that’s Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet in a very devastated time of Israel. The superpowers around them, Syria, Babylon, Persia. Now all these super powers invaded them, and they took everything from them. They destroyed their temple. They took their identity. They took everything from them. In this devastated time, Jeremiah came out and spoke this message that, “God will bring you back.” Let me give you a little quote from today’s passage. “See, I am going to bring them from the land of the North, and gather them from the farthest parts of the Earth. With weeping, they shall come, and with consolations, I will lead them back. He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.” It is God who called them. It is God who formed the community again. And he gave them this image, “Among them, the blind, the lame, those with child, those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.” Picture this image, as they come together, the cripples, they will limp, and the blind, they will be led by other people. And the people who are pregnant, the people with little children, they’re all gathered together. Even though it is difficult, they come together because God called them to be together.

Every Sunday morning, I don’t do that in ESM, but in KSM, I stand at the back. We have a lot of elderly people. They can’t walk very well with their canes and all that, yet they all come together. Just seeing them is an inspiration to me. Even though it was so hard for them to even walk, they come because God called them to come and worship God. That is what community is, community is not where all the perfect, healthy, and strong people gather together. Community’s where all kinds of people, blind, crippled, lame, whoever, they all come because God called them to be here. And the Christian community continued this tradition of Israelite’s.

But this time, God called them, not just from one race, from all the regions of the world. God called them together to be my people, to form the community. People came from all of the world. Luke portrayed this image very clearly. Let me read it for you. It is from Acts, “Parthians, Medes Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs- in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power. All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” This is when the Holy spirit came. They all spoke different languages, but somehow there was a miracle. They were able to understand each other. They were very connected, even though they came from all different regions of the world, they were able to understand, they were deeply connected. Then the church was born. When the spirit came, the first thing the spirit did was form the Christian community. The spirit formed the Christian community.

As a community, we may go through difficult times, but let us not forget that it is God who started this community. And it will be God who’ll keep this community safe and together. That was the message Jeremiah received. “With weeping, they shall come and with constellations, I will lead them back. I will let them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble.” God will lead them. God will keep them. Why did God form this community? Simple, to bless you, to bless each and every one of you. Not for himself alone to bless you because that’s the best way to live. Living in a community is the best way to live, because it is hard for you by yourself to go through all the challenges of life. God called you to form a community so that you can help each other. You can take care of each other. You can care for each other. That’s why God called this community, to bless you. And he taught faith. The foundation of life. Faith is the foundation of life. Through this community.

God taught faith, and God taught you how to serve. That is the essence of life, serving other people. That is the essence of living, the backbone of living. He taught us to love one another. That is the beauty of life. Without loving each other, where is the beauty? And God called you to teach each and every one of these things to all of you, not only spiritually, but also God called you to bless you abundantly. Jeremiah said, “They shall come and sing a loud on the height of Zion. And they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish sorrow again.” To bless you abundantly so that you can live an abundant life, God called you. I mean, this community is so important in that sense. And to give us joy. Each one of you to give you joy, as we worshiped together, there is joy. “Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” God will take away mourning, and give us joy. God will take away sorrow and give us gladness. I pray that this community is a source of your blessings. As they see you, “Oh, God is alive.” God is living in their lives. I hope that people could say that because as they see your abundance, they may be able to see the hands of God working in your lives.

January 1st, this year, we had a family gathering together. I have a sister who doesn’t go to church. Her children come to our church, but my sister doesn’t come to church. And then, my brother-in-law, he’s an atheist. And so whenever I go to his house and pray before the meal, he always kind of teases me. “I gave you food. Who do you pray to?” So he was joking and all that. This January 1st we gathered together, then my sister said, “In Kee, I’m so thankful. I’m so thankful. I’m so blessed. I have so much. And I’m so blessed. I’m so thankful.” And then she said, “I think it’s because of you and Edward, that I am blessed.” She recognized she doesn’t even go to church. She recognized where the blessing came from. I hope that God blesses you so much that other people see you and think, “God must have blessed you.” And that was Jesus’ prayer. Jesus said, “I pray that they may be one so that the world may know that I sent them.” That was Jesus’ prayer.

To generous people, right now, I’m telling you a life principle, or what life is like; life truth. To generous people, God will bring abundance. That’s what I saw. Generous people will never be in want. Generous people are always blessed with more abundance. To thankful people, God will give more reasons to be thankful. To forgiving people, God will let them taste the joy of forgiveness. They’ll be forgiven. To loving people, God will embrace them with His love. Be generous people, be forgiving people, be loving people, and be thankful people. Happy new year! And may this year be the blessed year.

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Matthew 2:13-23

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas. I love Christmas. For many of us, Christmas is a time of great happiness and connection with family and those closest to us. I’m sure for many of you, it’s a very busy time, but it’s a very, happy busyness. The birth of Jesus was the birth of good news and the birth of good news began with great joy and excitement. That’s why we celebrate Christmas with such joy and excitement. Wise men from the East far away had come all the way to find and look for baby Jesus. They bowed down in homage and presented find gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And they were filled with joy. Last week, Reverend Kim reflected on how the mystery of this good news was unlocked by faith when Joseph had faith in God’s voice to wed the pregnant Mary. But now that good news almost right away faced the threat of being destroyed. Today’s passage is quite disturbing. There’s tremendous danger, violence and uncertainty. The birth of good news was a threat to the most powerful man in the region and so we see from today that good news does not exist in some fairy tale world. The survival of good news is in question.

Our lives are somewhat like that too. Just like the Christmas season, we can experience moments of great joy and even euphoria. We experience moments where we feel great hope and where anything seems possible. But also often, we quickly find that the reality of life is so different. The hope and joy that we felt becomes in danger of dying. What we see from today’s passage is that the good news survived. Jesus remained safe and alive, but his survival came at a tremendous cost. They had to become refugees living as foreigners in Egypt, and his survival resulted in many babies being murdered. I was very torn by this part. They eventually had to settle in some rural backwater town just to keep Jesus safe. So there was a great disturbing cost to keep the good news alive, but it did remain alive.

Jesus would grow to become that sacrificed lamb that we sang about and Jesus remained alive because of the actions and decisions made by Joseph. Now, Joseph, he’s an interesting figure. So only the gospels of Matthew and Luke have birth narratives of Jesus, Mark and John don’t. But Matthew and Luke, they’re very different from each other. In Luke, Joseph plays virtually no role. You don’t even see the guy. All of the action centers around Mary. Mary is the one who gives us long soliloquy about how God comes to restore the weak and the powerless. But here in Matthew, there’s no peep from her. She’s in the background while Joseph is at the center of the action.

But the funny thing is Joseph, in Matthew, he speaks no words. From the text, we have no sense of his inner thoughts, but what we see are his actions. In his actions, what I see is his faithfulness. Joseph was faithful, loyal, steadfast, and constant in his care and protection of Jesus. I wonder what made Joseph so faithful? I mean, think about it. This guy was dealt a really bad hand. He hadn’t signed up for any of this. Jesus was technically not even his own biological son. If anything, he should have felt fear, frustration and discouragement. Maybe he did feel those things, but nonetheless, we see in his actions that he was faithful right to the end. After today’s passage, we don’t hear from Joseph ever again, but what remains in the permanent record in God’s Word is his faithfulness to Jesus. The faithfulness that kept him safe.

I believe that his faithfulness came as a response to his experience of encountering God. When he was struggling with Mary’s pregnancy while they were engaged, he experienced something. And the scripture says that an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to tell him not to leave Mary. Somehow, in that moment of struggle and trying to figure out what to do, he experienced the presence of God. He experienced God’s reassurance. He experienced God’s faithfulness. In a moment where the situation seemed like bad news, God made it good news. God had made a way when there seemed to be no way. I believe that this experience of God’s faithfulness remained with him. This memory of God’s faithfulness would anchor him when troubled times came after the birth of Jesus. The memory gave him eyes to see God’s protecting hand and ears to hear God’s voice leading them to safety.

Seeing and recognizing God’s faithfulness in our lives is one of the greatest keys to a life of faith. Faith is seeing God’s faithfulness. Seeing God’s faithfulness in protecting hand will carry us through troubled times in our own lives. But seeing that is very difficult in our day and age. In modern life, we tend to only see things that happen on a daily basis, and we see only what’s directly in front of us. And more than that, we’ve come to believe that what is given, what we see, is all there is to reality. It makes it very difficult to see beyond what is in front of us. Most of the time, we’ve even stopped wondering what lies beyond what we see, because all of our thoughts and our energies are consumed by what is given in front of us. When what is given is all we can see, it becomes very hard to see God’s faithfulness at work in our lives. The spiritual life is about going beyond what we see. It is paying attention to what is going on underneath and inside of us. Underneath is where the real raw materials of life exist. Underneath, deep in the realm of our soul, is where we store all of our disappointments, our yearnings, our pain, our fears, and our desires. That is where our most real selves reside. We don’t go there often. We’re too busy or too distracted. We’re too scared.

But somehow if we get down in touch with the place where all our most real feelings and memories reside, at that real level, we can maybe just maybe start to catch a glimpse of something beyond us, to catch a glimpse of God’s faithfulness. I tried to help cultivate some of this spirituality with our college interns over the past summer, what a year 2019 has been. And I’m looking forward to our retreat together too. So one day I had each intern write out their life story in preparation for the ESM retreat on stories of faith. You guys remember that? To think back on key events in their lives and how those events shaped their lives. I didn’t know what to expect, but as they wrote, and as we shared in thinking back on the events of their lives, some of them really dug deep and began to identify deep pain points that they had only vaguely been aware of. See, these were the raw materials of their lives coming out. Their real selves. It was a deeply moving experience with quite a few tears shed. From this very real place, some of them could catch a glimpse of God’s presence and faithfulness in their lives.

I really hope that all of you have, or someday will, catch a glimpse of God’s faithfulness in your life. It can make all the difference. I mean, it’s difficult to catch that glimpse of God’s faithfulness in the midst of everyday life. But when we do, let us hold onto the memory of that moment.

Christian living is about remembering the moments of God’s faithfulness in our lives. It’s not like an Instagram life where one moment is here and gone the next. Christian living is where we hold onto the moments of God’s faithfulness. When we sense God’s faithfulness in our lives, we don’t just let it fade away. We hold onto that memory and keep coming back to it. And that is what worship is about. This is why we have a ritual every week. We keep coming back to our memory of God’s faithfulness to us in our lives, from that memory comes praise and thanksgiving. But it’s not just about remembering the past. Memory of those moments gives us faith for today, and it also gives us hope for tomorrow. Memory of these moments opens our eyes to see more of God’s faithfulness in our lives today. And it gives us faith to face trouble and difficult times.

Joseph’s life was difficult and fraught with danger and uncertainty. During each particular moment, I’m sure he had no idea of what lay ahead, nor was even aware of the bigger picture significance of what he was doing. He was just responding faithfully in that situation. But through it all, somehow he was able to see God’s faithfulness and God’s protection carrying them through. And that gave him the strength to be faithful and carry on. You know what, even though Joseph wasn’t aware of the significance of his actions, through his faithfulness God’s will was fulfilled. Unbeknownst to him. He was just living on the daily level, responding, but God’s hand was moving all along underneath. We ourselves, we usually don’t know what God’s will is. We live just day to day and we don’t see how our decisions or actions affect the future or the bigger picture. But we learn here that simply trusting in God’s faithfulness and living with that trust will lead to God’s will being fulfilled.

As you know, today is the last Sunday of 2019 and the last Sunday of the decade. So many things have happened in all of our lives over the last year, and over the last decade In the midst of all that has happened, do you see traces of God’s faithfulness in your life? I know that 2019 was a big year for me, so many things happened. One of the big highlights was getting ordained. I reflected a lot on my life during the process leading up to my ordination. And as I reflected, I really began to see that thread of God’s faithfulness in all of the events that led me to where I am today, events that at the time I had no idea had any significance or meaning.

When you look back and you can see God’s faithfulness, it touches you to the core when you can recount how God has been faithful in your life, it moves you, often to tears, as it did for me. I mean, I look back over the decade and back to the beginning of 2010, and I had no idea that I would be here right now, doing what I’m doing. Back then, I was just trying to convince Deb to marry me and make a living as a lawyer, just doing my thing, you know. I would never have seen myself standing in the pulpit today at St Timothy. When I look back now, I see God’s faithfulness flowing through my life and it just leads me to give thanks and praise to God. We are entering 2020, a new year, a new decade. We don’t know what will come in the year and decade ahead. There will be joyful moments and moments of great challenge and difficulty. You all have your own hopes, concerns, and thoughts as you look ahead. My prayer for all of us is that we can learn to see God’s faithfulness in our lives and place our trust in God’s faithfulness. May God’s faithfulness shine through your life in the year and decade to come. Amen.

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Matthew 1:18-25

Today is Christmas Sunday. May God’s joy and peace be with you and with your family. I believe that Christmas itself is a mystery. It was a scandal that God came to us in a human form, especially to Jewish people who believed in monotheism, that there is only one God. It was a huge unacceptable scandal. So it was a mystery. Christmas itself is a mystery, but this mystery came to Joseph personally. Joseph encountered the situation where his fiance was pregnant when they didn’t have the relationship yet. Go back to 2000 years ago, put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. Joseph must have been really shocked and confused. Why is this happening to me? From the story self itself I realized that good news does not come to us in a nice and comfortable and acceptable way. It is good news, but when it comes to us, it doesn’t come to us in an easy, pleasant, or comfortable way. To Joseph, that good news did not come as good news. Rather, he came as a scary, shocking news. It didn’t come as joy to the world, the Lord is come. It came to him as a painful reality and incomprehensible mystery.

The good news does not always come as good news. I feel that that is how God works in our lives. When you look at Joseph in the Old Testament, the good news came to Joseph in a dream. And the dream said, the good news said, ‘you will be the great person’. But that goodness became reality only after a long period of struggle, hardships and difficulties. I realized that that is how God works. Before the good news of the resurrection, there is a period of the painful cross.

That is why it is not easy to believe God and to follow God. God drives us into mystery. God drives us into dilemma that doesn’t seem to have a solution. God always pushes us to the limit where we have no strength and no hope. God pushes us into that deep mystery and dilemma. And we cannot solve this dilemma with our brain and our strength doesn’t help us solve this problem. That good news is enveloped or wrapped around by this mystery and dilemma. Unless you break open that mystery and dilemma, we cannot enter into the good news. So it doesn’t come like easily. You have to break it open, to be able to enter into the good news. When Joseph experienced this dilemma, mystery, what did he do? He tried to deal with the situation with his righteousness. He was a good man. Jews might’ve been upset or angry. I mean, you’re supposed to marry me, and you’re already pregnant? For Joseph, it is beyond his understanding. So he might have been upset, disappointed, and also scared when he faced that reality that he had to deal with. Because of his anger, he could have exposed Mary to the public because he didn’t understand and let her be punished accordingly. Usually punishment was stoning at that time. He could have let her be stoned.

Even if he did that no one would’ve blamed him. But the scripture says that Joseph was a righteous man. Good man. His righteousness was not the righteousness of the law. His righteousness was the righteousness of loving his fiance. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to care for her. That’s why he wanted to quit the relationship quietly. He did his best in the given situation is as any human being can do. This was his way of dealing with the mystery and the dilemma that envelops the good news like a wrapping paper. Humanly speaking, he did his best, but that is not the way to break through the mystery and dilemma to reach the good news that is hidden. He might have resolved the situation in the least damaging way, but he would not have experienced the power of the good news.

That was when God sent a messenger to Joseph. The angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. The angel told him the pregnancy was not the result of human relationship, but the work of the Spirit and the child will save his people from their sins. Amazingly at that time, Joseph went beyond his righteousness. He accepted all of that with his faith. Joseph’s righteousness cannot break open the mystery and the dilemma that shielded the good news, but his faith did. His faith broke open the mystery and let him experience the good news. My friends, our life is surrounded by mystery and dilemma. When we try to solve them with human power and wisdom, it is difficult. We get tired, we even become frustrated. I’m sure you all experienced dilemma in life. You all experienced hopelessness in your life. When you tried to deal with your situation only with your brain and power, you get tired. You cannot break through that dilemma. You cannot break open that mystery.

Remember the good news is waiting behind that. What we need is faith to go beyond your dilemma and mystery. When we have faith, then we can break through the dilemma we experienced. If you have that, you have nothing to be scared of in your life. No matter what dilemma, no matter what mystery you may face in your life. If you have that faith then you will be able to break open that surface shield, and then you can enter into the world of the good news. At the end of the journey of faith, the good news is waiting for you. Ultimately that good news is waiting for you. I pray that you break through that thick fog of mystery in your life and see the good news. Look back at your life, how you came to where you are. You have broken through the dilemma and mystery many, many times through your faith.

It was God who helped you to break it open, to be able to embrace that good news. Joseph’s righteousness is good. We should live with that righteousness; being considerate of others. I’m mean Joseph had nothing to lose and Mary had everything to lose, but Joseph was considerate. That heart is a good heart. He was considerate of his fiance just to save her. That is good, but you need more than righteousness to be able to break through that dilemma. That is faith. I believe that that is a Christmas message. When God appears to us, I hope that we all have faith to accept God’s will. Then you’ll be able to live your life with good news, having good news in your heart. Remember two things: being righteous and faithful. These two things will carry us through. No matter what situation I may be in, I’ll be considerate of other people, I’ll always have their heart to care for other people. But also at the same time, I will have faith to go beyond the mystery of life, to be able to see the good news. The saviour who bring us good news is born today. Merry Christmas.

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Matthew 11:2-11

Today’s the third, Sunday of advent. On the third Sunday of advent, the theme is joy. Where do we get joy? Where do we get joy of life? When do we get joyful? When I watch sports games, I can see pure joy from the teams. The winning team’s faces, there’s just pure joy. When the Blue Jays won, I saw it. I still remember 1993. You probably some of you weren’t born then, in 1993. In the ninth inning, we were losing six to five because we lost five points in one inning and we were at two ball, two strike. Joe Carter came out and then he hit a three run home run and then finally we won that game. I still remember Joe Carter, leaping for joy that he was coming home. I could see pure joy on their faces. Victory, that gives us joy. Victory.

The Israelites were thinking about victory as they were waiting for the Messiah. What kind of victory? Victory over Roman soldiers. Victory over the Romans who had colonized them. Even though they didn’t have military power they believed that if the Messiah comes, then this Messiah will bring them victory over the Romans. They didn’t have military. They didn’t have fiscal power, but if the Messiah comes and he will give us victory. That was what they wanted from Jesus. Actually, they wanted Jesus’ power to have victory over the Romans. That was their expectation of the Messiah because when they saw Jesus, they saw that power. Raw power. When he performed miracles, they could feel the power. When Jesus spoke, the experienced the charisma of the Word so they were surprised. What sort of teaching is this? I never heard of this kind of teaching. They felt the power of the word.

They saw Moses in Jesus. “If Moses was an old man, 80 years old, with one staff, could defeat the Egyptian army, why can’t Jesus defeat the roman army?” they thought. Jesus did not deliver the victory they wanted. Rather, he was defeated. He was crucified by the cross. And all that expectation of victory was totally destroyed on A.D. 70. When the Romans finally came into Israel and trampled and it killed all of them. The temple was destroyed, everything that they had was destroyed on A.D. 70. They didn’t experience victory with Jesus. So Christians had to rethink about the power of the Messiah. What is this power, then, of this Messiah, Jesus? If he could not deliver this victory to us over The Romans, what kind of power is this? They had to redefine the power of Jesus, the power of the Messiah from A.D. 70. As you look at Jesus’ life from beginning his power was not about conquering others. He was not about victory. Right from the beginning, Jesus never preached about a victory or the power of victory.

Jesus’ power was always about empowering the powerless. That was Jesus’ power, empowering the powerless. It was not power of defeating the Romans. That was the main reason why Judas left Jesus. That’s why he betrayed Jesus. Because he, he kind of felt that this guy will not bring us the victory. So he betrayed Jesus. Not only Judas, but all the disciples had that kind of understanding about the power of the Messiah. That’s why John and James said, when you’re going to enter into Jerusalem, can we sit on your right hand and on your left hand? Because they wanted a powerful position. All of the 10 disciples were angry and indignant saying, ‘I was going to ask that first and you guys asked for it’. So they all thought about this power of victory.

John the Baptist might have had the same thought because there was a Jewish expectation of the Messiah. That’s why he sent his disciples with this question: ‘are you the one who’s to come? Or are we to wait for another?’. John the Baptist was the one who baptized Jesus and he saw heaven open and he heard a voice from heaven. He also said, he was unworthy to untie the thong of Jesus’ sandal. Now, he was wondering whether Jesus was indeed the Messiah that he was waiting for. John’s question was not the question of curiosity, there was a sense of doubt, whether Jesus was truly the Messiah because he was so different from what they had expected. They all wanted the power to win.

That is the power, they wanted. The Power to survive, the power to be better than others, the power to have more. We what this kind of power. This power, it gives us what we want. When we get what we want we are joyful and feel, content. When we, realize that we don’t have that power, we feel down and depressed. Jesus answered John’s question in this way. When John asked ‘Are you the one?’ Jesus answered with this, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them“. Listen very carefully. When power hungry people read this, the first thing they will see is a miracle. Oh, the blind will receive their sight and the lame will walk! Wow! What miraculous power! The power hungry, they will only see that. The people who know the power of Jesus will see something different. Jesus came to empower the powerless. They’ll see totally different things.

The lame, the blind, the deaf, the poor, they were all powerless people. Do you remember John and Peter? They were walking at the entrance of the temple. There was a crippled man. He couldn’t stand and he asked for money and Peter said, ‘I don’t have money, but in the name of Jesus rise and walk’. As soon as he was able to rise and walk, he entered into the temple. Why? Because everyday he was just sitting there go, he could not go into that temple because the lame cannot enter into the temple. The deaf, cannot enter the temple, the blind cannot enter the temple and they wanted to go into the temple so much to be with God. But they could not. So as soon as they were healed, they went into the temple. The first thing they did was to worship God. These are the powerless people, alienated people from society and Jesus the Messiah came and restored them. Empowered the powerless. That was Jesus’s power.

So whenever Jesus performed miracles, he said, don’t talk to anyone because he was scared that these people would misunderstand the message. They will only see the miracle, rather than what Jesus was truly trying to say. The true joy of life is possible not when you have everything, not when you achieve the highest goal, not when you win every game you play, but it is possible when you, especially powerless people, when you empower the people around you. When you see that people receive new power, new hope, and now life, through you, when you see that, then you can truly have joy of life.

Self-centered joy will not last too long, but when you actually empower people around you, especially weak people, vulnerable people, that joy is everlasting joy. That is the joy of God. You know the story of the prodigal son. The son asked for his inheritance, the money. In other words, he said to his father, ‘I’ll consider you dead. So give me the portion that belongs to me’. And he went out and spent all of it, wasted it. He came back. He was a bad son. The father didn’t say, ‘see what did I tell you? You should’ve listened to me’. He didn’t try to prove himself. Right?

The father, did not say anything. He put a ring and a purple robe on his son. He empowered this powerless son and he was so joyful that he threw a party. That is the joy of God. There are parents who take away power from their children and continuously nag them. All the time saying, ‘You didn’t do this right, you didn’t do that right, you aren’t that great’. It constantly ridicules the kid, and by that they take away their power, what little power they have. There are parents who empower their children. They encourage them, they give them hope, and they say, ‘yes, you can do it. I believe in you!’ There are parents who empower their own children. Jesus expresses God’s heart in this way. “What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost”. Jesus’s ministry was the ministry of empowering the powerless. That was Jesus’s joy.

This is the spirit of Christmas. Christmas is not about you. Christmas is not just about you being happy. Christmas is a season where you look around. Are, there are people who need my encouragement? Are there people who we need to take care of? Are there people who are sad, are there people who are lonely? Are there people who are struggling with their lives? Reach out to those who are broken and empowered them. That is the Christmas spirit. And that should be our attitude every day. Instead of focusing on ourselves, let us build others up, and let us enjoy that. Building up other people and the joy that you get from it, that’s the best joy you can ever ask for. When you can do that, your life will come alive. Your joy will be restored. You know why you’re not so happy? You know why you’re not that joyful? Because they’re so self-centered. We can never be happy, we can never be joyful when we are so self-centered. When you make a way for others, when you empower others then you will find that this is what a joyful life is all about. That’s how Jesus lived. And that’s why Paul said, “rejoice always”. Rejoice not only when things are good, but even when things are bad. You can always empower the others. When you ingrain that lifestyle into you, did you will find true joy and life is fun in that way. Merry Christmas, and have joy all the time.

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Isaiah 11:1-10

Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell“. The Psalmist also said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction“. The prophet Isaiah into today’s passage also said that his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. This is kind of strange statement isn’t it. Fear and delight, they don’t go together. When you fear you don’t delight and you’re happy you don’t fear, but somehow Isaiah put those two words together, delight and fear. I’m sure there is a deeper meaning in this. Fearing God seems to be an important quality in Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible emphasizes the importance of fear of God. Hebrew prophets, including Isaiah seem to strongly emphasize the importance of the fear of God.

You have to know the context. When Isaiah wrote this piece, Judah was invaded by the superpowers and the superpowers came in and took everything. They all felt through their skin that this power can take away everything that was important to them. My property, my wives, my children, the temple, they felt through their skin, that these people could take away everything that was precious and important to them. So they lived with this deep fear every day. That’s how powerless people live; with lots of fear. Because they are vulnerable. They don’t know when they were going to be attacked, when their things were going to be take away. So they lived every day with this deep fear. To these people who live with deep fear, Isaiah and other prophets told them “fear, God”. They are already in fear, why do they emphasize more fear? “Fear God”, they said. I was wondering why they were saying that. If they say ‘do not fear’, or if they say ‘believe in God’, that makes more sense. But fear of God, what did they mean?

What they really meant was fear God and do not fear the superpowers. That’s what they were saying. The prophets were saying fear God and to not fear them, you have nothing to fear about them. Do not fear those who can only kill your body. That was exactly what Jesus said. Do not fear those will kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That’s right. We should fear God, not the world. We should fear God, not the powerful people. We should fear God, not our best circumstances that threaten to take away what is important to us. We don’t need to fear those. We don’t need to fear people. We don’t need to fear our circumstances. We don’t need to fear anything.

A lot of terrible things happen in our lives. Every evening we hear terrible, tragic things. Every night, every morning, our circumstances make us feel very vulnerable. We feel weak. People with power are not necessarily merciful. They can be more cruel, sometimes. The powerful people can take advantage of weaker people. And that’s what they do a lot of times. So people want to have power so they are not to be taken advantage of. And this causes conflicts and tension, not just among people, but among countries. There is a ‘if we don’t have power over them, they will have power over me’ kind of mentality and attitude. As a result, we all fear each other. If I don’t have power over that person, that person may have power over me. This causes fear in each other. People don’t seem to care much about justice, love, and peace anymore. They believe the power is the only thing that can help them overcome their fear. Power is the only thing they can hold on to, to save themselves from fear. But no matter how much power you may have, you become more fearful.

That kind of fear is to do with punishment. You have a lot of these fears to do with punishment. Some people even think about God in that way. They feel God with this kind of sense of punishment so they’re scared of God. That was what Adam had in the beginning, after he committed sin. This is what the Genesis writer told us, “But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. He was afraid. He was scared.

Fearing the world is being afraid and being scared punishment. But this was not what prophets were talking about when they talked about fear of God, God got rid of this kind of fear through Jesus Christ. John described it very well. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” We love because he first loved us. We Christians don’t live with this kind of fear anymore. We should not live with this fear of punishment.

Fearing God is not being scared of God’s punishment. The almighty God who has all the power is not against you, he is for you. That was what Paul said in his letter to Romans. “If God is for us, who is against us?” No one, nothing. No one can be against us. Our fear of God is not about punishment, our fear is about his deep love for us.

Our fear of God is our confession that we don’t need to fear anything else in the world because nothing in the world can destroy us. We can see that very clearly in Paul’s confession, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?“. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We fear nothing, we fear only God. God is the only one who holds our life together because nothing in the world can separate us from God’s love. We don’t need to fear anything. Don’t live with fear. In fear of God, our confidence in God’s love is hidden. Fear of God and love of God are the same thing. It’s two sides of the same coin.

That was what Isaiah was able to say. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. Fear and delight can go together when you understand fear in this way. If that fear were the fear of punishment, you can never enjoy that fear. Fearing God is a beautiful thing. We see humility in those who fear God. We see deep respect and love for God in that fear. We see the courage to say that nothing can intimidate us. When we all fear God we will live, not fearing each other, but we’ll live with deep respect for others is instead of fearing them. Don’t fear those who are different from you. Don’t fear those whose life is different from you. Don’t fear those who have different ideas. That causes only fighting, conflict, and tension.

To those who fear God, God will give us wisdom. When we have that wisdom, this will happen: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid… they will not hurt or destroy“. They will find true peace. Living with love is much more powerful than living with fear. And that love is a fear of God. Deep respect for God. Be strong in the world. Don’t let people intimidate you. The only thing that we need to fear is God.

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Matthew 24:36-44

Today is the first day of December, and I think it’s a good sign that winter is coming. It’s the last month of 2019, and towards the end of the year, often we like to start thinking back on things and what changes we would like to make in the new year. But if you think about it, it’s often difficult to identify what’s happened in your life and how you’ve changed or been shaped over the past year. I think that’s the way our modern life is. We’re very busy and preoccupied with daily concerns, making ends meet, enjoying the company of others, focusing on our relationships and tending to our families. So things tend to be a blur. It takes some time to just think back on all the things that actually have happened in our lives.

Jesus says this in today’s passage, “But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.” I was reflecting on this verse and I realized that we get so caught up with the pressing concerns of our life, that we often don’t see what it is that we’re missing. Somehow in our preoccupation with the daily concerns of living, I think we suspect that we’ve been robbed of the things that matter. Like a thief in the night, life can sneak up on us and take things away. Our health, our youth, our vitality, our optimism. Life takes away our time, our freedom, our choices. And we often don’t even notice what’s been taken away until sometimes it’s too late.

I think perhaps the most important thing that modern life can take away from us is the quality of our relationships. We all know that rich, meaningful relationships bring joy, comfort, and meaning to life. They give us a purpose for our existence, something beyond just ourselves to live for. But it’s so difficult to cultivate rich, meaningful relationships in this day and age. Time is often our greatest enemy. At our young families gathering last night, for example, we were sharing about just how pressed our time is. I think most of us spend more time with our work colleagues than we do with our own family. Many parents barely spend any meaningful time with their spouse, because all of their time at home is spent with the kids. Spouses have become mere collaborators in raising children, not deeply connected partners in life.

I think this certainly has been the case to some extent in my own family. You know, Deb leaves home shortly after seven every morning and even earlier when she’s doing early shifts. She doesn’t get home until around five. And then she’s frantically rushing to make dinner while I’m fighting the kids to bathe them. So then the hour or so we spent to eat is the only time, real time, that we have as a family on a weekday. After that hour or so, we’re fighting to get the kids ready and settled down into bed. As for me, I mean, I do all the pickups and drop-offs, and that makes my days really short. It’s hard to get a lot of work done. So my only real time to do quality work is in the evenings and in the evenings is when she’ll do things like the grocery shopping and preparing lunch and dinner for the next day until 10:00 PM or so sometimes. So we’re lucky if we can fit in a few moments of conversation and catch up on what’s going on.

This is the reality of modern life. Our lives have become very functional. We do things, not for its own sake, but as a function to achieve something else. My work, or your work, is sometimes not done for its own sake, but to earn money for yourself and for your children. These Hi-C kids, they study and I know this, not because they enjoy it or love it, but so that they can get into a good school and eventually get a job and make money. We get along with others, not because we necessarily cherish those relationships, but so that we don’t get a bad reputation or we don’t get knocked down. Right? The things we do merely serve functional needs at many times. I think we’ve learned to live with life as it is, but I think it’s come at a cost. I believe that maybe the greatest thing we’re robbed of in modern life is joy. Joy that comes from deep, meaningful relationships. Joy that comes from believing that what I do is meaningful and valuable in and of itself. Joy that comes from knowing that my life matters and makes a difference.

This is why Jesus warns us to keep awake. We must keep awake to prevent the important things in life from slipping away from us. In your preoccupation with current things, are you being robbed of joy and vitality in your life? What else is it robbing you of? And what effect is your busy life having on the things that are really important? We must be on guard so that our joy, our relationships, and the important things in life are not robbed from us. But I know that very often, the reality is that we have been asleep, haven’t we? And our joy has been robbed. I mean, yeah, we have fun and enjoy little moments in life and try to capture that whenever we can. But I sense a lack of lasting everlasting joy because true joy gives us energy in life. But when there is no joy, we become tired. It becomes tiring to do anything. It becomes tiring to get up and go to work. It’s tiring to meet people. It’s tiring to do anything outside of work and home when there’s no joy. So it becomes easier to do nothing, but watch Netflix and chill. Just shut off our minds.

I think a life without joy is like living in a dry desert with no water or life. It is just hot, dry, and tiring. Life without joy can be like dry bones that have no flesh, no ligaments, no breath. Or life with joy can look like a tree stump that no longer has a trunk and branches and leaves that bear fruit. It’s just a dead stump that has been cut down. I think many people today live this way and it makes our life bear no juicy plump fruit.

But I realized, the amazing thing though, is that in this empty void, God’s promises come. The prophet Isaiah said this, “A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” In the wilderness and in the desert, prepare the way of the Lord. Into this empty void comes a voice from God telling us to get ready for God to come. In this empty void where our life is arid and dry, is where God promises to create new life.

This is the vision that God gave to the prophet Ezekiel: The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, Mortal, can these bones live? I answered, O Lord God, you know. Then he said to me, Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

This is a word of hope that when we have been drained of joy and vitality, when we are mere dry bones, God comes to speak to us and promises that we shall live. I realized this: joy doesn’t necessarily emerge from the happiest circumstances, but rather joy is a byproduct of hope and hope is born and conceived often in pain and darkness. Our life might seem like a barren desert or dead like a tree stump, but in this seeming deadness is precisely where God acts.

The prophet Isaiah said this: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Isn’t this a beautiful image? From a dead tree stump that has no life and nothing going for it, a shoot will come up, form a branch and start to bear new fruit. We believe that this shoot is Jesus! Jesse was the father of King David and Jesus descended from that line of David. From that dead tree came forth a new branch that would bear new fruit, which is why together in Jesus we believe that we too can share in this sprouting of new life.

So hope is the precursor to joy. Joy comes after waiting in hope. Today is the first Sunday of advent and it’s the first Sunday of the church calendar year. Advent is the Latin term for coming. Thus the church year begins with us looking forward to the coming of our Lord,. It begins with us waiting for God to come into our lives again and restore the joy that we have lost. We wait for God to bring something new, to create something new in our lives. We wait and hope for God to come. That is what advent is. Waiting is not a passive thing where we just waste time and allow it to pass. Rather, waiting is an active process of reflecting on our lives and being alert and awake to what is going on in us. Like the owner of the house, waiting with hope prepares our hearts to receive the joy that God will bring into our lives. And so waiting for God to come is a necessary spiritual discipline. You know, after that thief has come, your house may have been robbed of many things, but you know what? There’s one thing that the thief could not break into. A vault, a fireproof safe that contains the most valuable possession of all. Hope

Everything in all else in your life can be taken away. But if you have hope, you always start over again. This vault was placed in your heart by God and in all of us. And this vault can only be unlocked and opened by God. When we actively wait for God, God will come and open that vault and unleash hope into our lives. And that hope will give us the strength to endure, to persevere, and to rebuild our house with all the important things in life. And this hope will lead us to joy. Though the sorrow may last through the night, his joy comes in the morning. That is our hope. So during this advent season, be awake to your own heart. Take stock of what’s in it, and what has been taken away. Guard that vault of hope. Even if many other things in your life have been robbed guard this vault with all of your being and pray for God to come and open it. Because the hope that God opens up will be the strength that carries you through and ultimately lead you to great joy. Let us be awake to this hope.

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Luke 23:33-43

Salvation is a very important question. We all ask this question about salvation. What is salvation? People at the cross also asked this question. There are different people at the cross. They all came for different reasons. The Roman soldiers were carrying out the execution of the crucifixion of Jesus and to criminals and there were also Jewish leaders who did not like Jesus’ thinking and thought that he was dangerous to their well established religious system, and they hated Jesus. They brought Jesus to this horrible death, but there were also ordinary bystanders who came out to see the last moment of the men who claim to be the savior. They were curious whether there will be any things, something like a miracle that would save this savior. So there were different people. They all came for different reasons, but they had one question in mind. All of them had one question in mind that was, can he save himself? Can he save himself? All of them were different, but they raised the same question. Can he save himself?

Roman soldiers mockingly said, “if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself” Jewish leaders caught after him saying he saved. Others, led him, save himself. One of the criminals was filled with fear and asked Jesus angrily as though he was pleading with, Jesus said, are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us. They all ask the same question. One question, can he save himself? Marking, scoffing, and anger. They all express different emotions, but they were interested in the question of salvation. They were all curious about whether could escape or save himself by escaping the cross. Somehow that was their idea of salvation to them. Salvation was escaping the cross. That was what salvation was. That is the idea of salvation. For many of us may have, for many of us, salvation is escaping from tragedies, hardships, suffering, and difficulties. That’s what salvation is. Yes, it is one aspect of salvation. I agree. It is one aspect of salvation with God as our refuge, we can save ourselves from the troubles and hardships to the people at the cross. The cross was cursed. It was hopeless. It was a total defeat. It was death and he was the evil itself. That was what the cross was. And their idea of salvation was to escape all these things at all costs.

It is like running away from the troubles, running away from the cross. That is what salvation is. As far as you can run away from the cross run away from the troubles. That’s what salvation is. They thought, but Jesus’ idea of salvation was different in their minds. Salvation wants to run away from the cross, but Jesus had a different idea. When did, when the people in the disciples follow Jesus, Jesus said, if you want to follow me, take up your cross first and follow me. He didn’t tell them to run away from the cross, but take up your cross and follow me. A very different idea of what salvation is. Why do people run away from the cross? Why do they do that? Because they’re scared of the cross. The Romans knew this fear of the people very well. So they use crucifixion to scare people as their scare tactic. They didn’t use that for Romans their own people, but they use that for Jews and other people to scare them. It’s like, if you disobeyed our Roman government like this, Jesus, then you’ll be also crucified. You’ll die. The same death-like this or this person.

Cross scares people. That’s why they want to run away, but what is luke trying to say through this story? One message. Did our ancestor luke, one, it wanted to get across one message. He wanted to get across through this story. The message luke wanted to get across was that Jesus was not scared. It’s a cross. He was talking about paradise, not death, not fear, not defeat. Jesus saw something at the cross. Nobody saw only Jesus was able to see through the crack in that cross but amazingly one of the criminals saw what Jesus saw. I was so shocked. How could he see that only Jesus was able to see, but how could he see that? What do they see at the cross? They saw the pathway to salvation pathway, to paradise pathway, to the kingdom. This is what he said. One of the criminals, “Jesus. Remember me. When you come into the kingdom,” Jesus was dying on the cross. They were all on the cross. But somehow this criminal saw that Jesus was going into the kingdom. The cross to him was a pathway to that kingdom. That’s what he saw At the last moment on the cross, the criminal received a spiritual insight. His eyes were open. He was able to see what others didn’t see the other guy at the cross. The only thing that he saw was fear of it. Death. That’s why he was angry. After the KSM I’m service. One of the deacons came to me. “I was so shocked because if I were at the cross, I’ll not have thought about anything else, but death, but how could he see that?”

Jesus told him, truly I tell you today, he’ll be with me in paradise. In the cross. Jesus saw the pathway to paradise, troubles, hardships problems, and the cross scares you. So your best way is to run away and that is your idea of salvation. When you see the cross, only with fear, you will see nothing but troubles that can harm you and can even kill you, but when you have courage, you’ll be able to see the doorway to salvation in the cross. Only through the courage, you can see that the courage, the power of fear, the cross has, that was what Jesus did. He bound the power of fear. That crosshead, that’s why he was not scared. The cross cannot intimidate Jesus and that courage comes from faith. Believing that God will save us and protect us through their faith. You can have the courage and with courage, when you see the cross, you will see something else. Then the curse, this was the confession of the Psalmist. He said, “God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. therefor, well not fear though. The earth should change though. The mountains shake in the heart of the sea though its waters roar in form. Do the mountains tremble with this, I will not fear.” This psalmist knew, Saw something in that trouble that other people didn’t see the pathway to salvage. That was what Isaiah saw in the desert. God will create a pathway.

When you know that God is our refuge and strength, we’ll be able to have courage, you know, to live a life. You need courage. Otherwise, you’re going to constantly run away from life. You’re going to constantly run away from problems and they will cause on a chair, or chase after you and hunt you and ultimately control you. That’s what we will or they will do, but when you have courage, the troubles and hardships and difficulties, they will not intimidate you or scare you. Salvation is not to run away. Salvation is to have courage. The courage comes from faith in God. This is what Jesus said “Listen to what Jesus said in the world. You face persecution but take courage. I have conquered the world.” Everyone has a problem. You will all come across all kinds of suffering, different kinds of suffering, sometimes financial problems, sometimes health problems, sometimes relationships, problems. Sometimes the problem of your children, sometimes problems at work, sometimes problems at school. You may face all kinds of troubles and hardships and difficulties. That is your cross don’t run away from the cross, Have courage and all in all these troubles, you’ll be able to see something. You’ll be able to see it. Door path that leads to salvation. Then your life who were full of joy. When you see that pathway to paradise, your life will be filled with joy. So in that sense, the cross is not necessarily all bad. Cross is a way to salvation. Do you agree? Do you agree? I agree. I believe so. So when hardships come, don’t curse yourself. Why this to me, not to others, maybe their serum blessing the cross, maybe a hidden blessing. Once you know how to handle your problems, you will overcome the world and you will have life. That’s what salvation is.

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Isaiah 65:17-25

Today is Isaiah’s vision of new heavens and the new earth, all the description, It is a beautiful picture. I wish that this was our reality. One who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered a cursed, but our reality is different. Only a few people survive to be a hundred years old. We have one person in our congregation. Who’s going to be a hundred, soon, but she’s at a nursing home. It is so rare that the government gives you a congratulation letter. Once you become a hundred years old, it says that the Wolf and the lamb shall feed together and they shall not hurt and destroy each other. He’s talking about a peaceful world where there is no threat danger, violence, and killing people will not simply attack each other and exploit each other. Our world is different. I watch the news every morning and every single day I hear about gun violence. Especially these days, the danger is all around us. There is no play safe. Last time I went to get a haircut and my barber told me, Mister, he doesn’t know who I am, sir, don’t go to Eaton center. And I said, why? Because it’s dangerous. You can get shot there. If you cannot even go to the Eaton center because of danger, where can we go?

The world we live in can be quite harsh and so we are deeply engrossed in the world. We live in that dark reality slowly penetrates into our hearts like us Moses. We don’t see it. We don’t realize it. We don’t feel it because it happens so slowly. We don’t catch ourselves being affected, but soon we become hopeless, lethargic, selfish, negative, and critical. When our heart is dark, the world looks gloomy. Also when our heart is dark, we are looking at only the dark side of our reality. This is not a good cycle. Your heart is dark and used to dark things in the world and that dark thing in the word makes your heart darker and so this cycle becomes worse. Isaiah 6:65. Well, the message of the prophet, Isaiah two, these are lies who just came back from the captivities in Babylon, and then God gave Isaiah this beautiful image and beautiful message. I was wondering why God gave this kind of message to the people who just came back from the Babylonian captivity. They were liberated from captivity, take up political freedom. Now they came back to their home, but when they came back to their home, the home was in rule.

Jerusalem was in rule and the temple was destroyed. It was not like the home that they used to live. Everything was in rule, but more than anything else, their heart was in Rome. Not just a temple, not just the city, but their heart was in ruin. When they were taken into captivity, they lost everything, including their heart. They lost their songs. They cannot sing anymore. Then we heard the beautiful, Anthem from the choir, but they cannot sing this beautiful song anymore because they lost their heart. They lost their song. Simon said this is what Simon. Simon said by the rivers of Babylon. There, we sat down and there we wept. When we remembered Zion. Zion is Jerusalem on the willows. There, we hung up our harps for there our captors asked us for songs and our tormentors asked for mirth saying, sing us. One of the songs of Zion, how do we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? They lost everything. They lost their heart.

When one country has invaded another country. So many cruel things happen. They don’t just come in, invade you. They take everything. There’s violence, humiliation, rape, and exploitation. All kinds of things are happening. When one country in this under the country last week was remembrance day under Nazi occupation. Not only Jews were killed and exploited, but so many people were killed and so many families or destroyed, and they’re being affected and the damage this file has inflicted on the psyche of the people cannot be easily repaired. Once your psyche is damaged. Once your heart is damaged, it is very hard to repair just because you have political freedom. That doesn’t mean that you can enjoy freedom. You are not truly free, just because you are free politically, just because you’re back in your home. That doesn’t mean that you’re restored.

True Freedom is possible only through Healey and he takes many generations for the healing to take place. That was what happened to our or Aboriginal sisters and brothers. The damage done to them. You won’t be repaired very soon and easily, many generations it takes and still they are suffering are a struggle. They are struggling with the damage they live with. The ghost of the past. Koreans also have this damage. They went through 40 years of Japanese occupation, women who were taken into the war to be a prostitute to please Japanese soldiers and as soon as that occupation was finished, as soon as they were liberated, then there was a war, same people, North and South, they killed each other. The families were destroyed. The damage there hurt, threat, fear. They still live, live there. And when they came to Canada in a foreign land, as an immigrant, they lost everything, their dignity, and respect that to live with it.

That to survive, You will take a long time for them to be completely healed and experienced the true freedom in their hearts. That was why God gave Isaiah this message about the new heavens and the new earth. Isaiah wanted to heal the Soul of the Israelites by giving them the vision of new heavens and the new earth. He clearly saw the damage that was inflicted upon them without healing, without the healing of their hearts. Isaiah realized that they could not rebuild the country. That also what God wanted to do through Isaiah, my friend, heart damaged heart. It is hard to repair. I realized that it is the most difficult thing, a more difficult thing, more difficult than anything else. Once a person’s heart is damaged. It is so almost impossible to restore that the pain and hurt are often invisible. They manifest themselves in a different way without realizing it. Sometimes we wonder why that person behaves in that way. We don’t know, but there is a pain and hurt working out. And sometimes we don’t understand why am I behaving in this way? We don’t even know what kind of hurt and pain is affecting us.

Living in this harsh reality, our hearts have become hardened and closed. Jesus expressed this generation in this way. He said, but to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling one another. We play the flute for you and you did not tense. We whale and you did not move. We have become so desensitized. We cannot rejoice with those who rejoice. We cannot cry with those who weep. We have become so indifferent. We have become so harden. Maybe we can see and imagine the brighter future healing comes. It is hope that heals us, hopeless People can not experience healing. When we have hope, we will hear the heartbeat of joy. That’s why Isaiah gave this vision of new heavens and the new earth you heavens and new earth are not We, human beings can create it is what God gave to us.

He said for, I am about to create new heavens and newer. I am in meaning God I will create. I’m about to create. It is not. You can create new heavens and a new earth. It is God who can and Isaiah said, the former things shall not be remembered or come to your mind. In other words, our hearts are so lifted that, you know, memory, the ghost of their past their pain and their frustration and their anger will be lifted up from your memory from your harshly. You don’t even remember that. You know the worst you’ll be restored. Your heart will be restored. It is God who can restore our hearts. Jesus came to do that. You heavens and new earth do not happen a long time in the future. New heavens and new earth happen when you’re in God and that’s what Jesus Christ came to do. This is that’s what Saint Paul saw in Jesus. This is what Saint Paul said. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. You haven’t new earth. Your creation. Everything old has passed away. See everything has to become new. Christ came to do just that God was to create a heart within us. He wants to open a new world and a new life for us. The world may not change right away, but when our hearts are changed there, we can handle our harsh reality. When our hearts are restored, we’ll see a new world that we can dream of a new life. We can dream of a world where the Wolf and the lamb shall feed together without hurting each other. We can dream of a world where there is no discrimination. He treats and division. We can dream of a world where we don’t have to see you, people, anymore because we are all one.

They will all live together in harmony, a blessing. Each other. This fusion of new heavens and new earth will cleanse our hearts by driving out the negative and destructive power from us, but our hearts are renewed. Your life begins. Do world begins. Let us not forget the dream and the vision of this new world and let us try our best to achieve that. The other day I was driving. When I drive, I don’t turn the radio or any music I drive in silence higher. I like quiet because that’s where I can think and it’s wonderful to just drive and think and I was driving to my Bible study on Friday, and these thoughts came to me, and then these three things that somehow God gave me, it is about how we should live. The first thought that came to me was we have to be edifying with what we say these days from news, from the leaders, the words that I hear and not Edify, we should Edify each other with what we say, let us be always gentle with what we say. Let us say beautiful words and communicate our love. Lift up one another. With words, we speak.

Sometimes even being corny is better than being cruel. Don’t you think? So, even if you sound corny to say that’s better than being cruel. So let us really have our tongues sanctified too. The second thought that came to me was to let us put some smiles on our faces. Our face is so dark. Sometimes I see people. Why are you angry? They don’t say anything, but I can see, I can feel the anger. So let us put some smiles on our faces. Our faces, our heart, whatever you’re going through in your heart comes out on your face. The third thought that came to me was to let us speak and let us be kind to each other. Not only the people that you like but to everyone.

When you walk around, open the door for others, when you drive, don’t get so upset, be kind to others. I mean, I told you before, and you know my condo sometimes last time she was just about a few steps away. She went in and closed the door. Like why you wait. Then two people go over and save energy, right? Instead of going all by yourself, notice, be kind to each other. These three things may not bring about you, heavens and the new earth anyway. That’s what God does not we do, but at least we can exercise Your heavens in a small concrete way. When you practice these three every day, somehow you realize life is good. You see a new pattern in your life. So what are these three things first, or as we speak to smile on your face, three kind, be kind to each other? Very simple. Isn’t it let’s do that right after the worship service, we go out to the fellowship hall. Let us practice this there. Why don’t we say hello to each other this time, be kind to each other, put a smile automatically? Everybody’s smiling. Isn’t it? How nice that’s a new heaven and new earth, right?

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Luke 20:27-40

This passage is very little strange. It is not easy to logically follow the argument and I don’t think Jesus is really arguing for the resurrection. There are two big groups, in Jewish culture. One is Pharisees. The other said disease and Sarah say, did not believe in the resurrection and they only took five books of Moses as their scripture and so they came to Jesus, challenging Jesus belief about the resurrection, and they gave us, gave him this a ridiculous example, but it’s not really a ridiculous example. It is in Deuteronomy is called Levirate marriage. At that time women could not survive on their own. So if they, the eldest brother, has a wife and pass away earlier without a child, if there’s a child, a child who will take care of the mother, but if the child is not around that, the second brother has to take the wife of his elder brother. So he’s saying the seven brothers, and they’re all married. This woman whose wife, is she in the resurrection kind of ridiculous kind of scene and even for you to say in a Deuteronomy, we’ll never practice that William.

I mean, just because he’s in the bible, we won’t do that, but that is kind of context and Jesus is not really giving a logical argument, about, resurrections, simply Jesus saying, Moses said, God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and God of Jacob and also God is God of the living. Therefore the God is, and Abraham is alive and Isaac is alive and Jacob is alive. It’s kind of not convincing argument, but what Jesus is really saying is strong, he proclaims the God is God of the living. That’s what he’s saying without really going through large argument, he cleans that God is God of the living and for those of us who have, the God of the living are alive and with you today, I like to reflect on what does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be alive? Being alive does not mean that simply you have a breath or a brain wave. Being alive is not a medical definition or medical condition to Jesus. Being alive is not medical. It was not a medical condition.

Being alive is about our existence. The quality of your existence, the kind of existence you have been alive. It is a statement about our existence and what kind of stimulus there. I believe that that statement being alive, I’m alive. Meaning nothing in the world can destroy me. Nothing in the world can destroy it. That’s what it will be a proclaim. When we say that I’m alive. What we are saying is nothing in the world can destroy me. I’m alive. I will not die. Jesus said this. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die will live and everyone could live and believes in me will never die.” That’s Jesus’ statement. If you believe, while you’re alive, you will live. And then even if you die, you will live. Doesn’t matter what condition you may be physically, but you will live.

That’s what you just saying, because you are alive because you’re alive. You will live. Even if you die, you will live. That’s what Jesus is saying and st. Paul said this for, I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Jesus, even death cannot separate us from the love of God. So being alive mean means that we are connected to the love of God and nothing can separate us from that love of God that you’re connected to. That’s what it means to be alive, to be alive. Does not mean that you just have breath being alive is you’re deeply connected to that love of God, which is inseparable.

Not because we have breath, we are alive, but because God’s love enlivens us that we are alive. Jesus said what is said in today’s passage in the same line of thinking. He said, indeed, they cannot die anymore. That’s a pole statement. Indeed. They cannot die anymore for him. To God. All of them are alive. Jesus continuously proclaiming that nothing in the world can destroy me though. Death can eat up our being alive because being alive is stronger than death. Being alive is not a temporary condition that we have until death comes to us. Being alive is connected with eternity. That’s what being alive is you are connected with eternity. Death cannot do away with our being alive. Being alive basically means death cannot take power over you. When death cannot have power over you. What happens to us when that is a fact, when there’s when that is a truth, death cannot have power over you. When that is the fact what happens, what happens to you in a real way, in a concrete way. That’s my second point.

When death cannot take power over you, you become free. The person whose death cannot take power over them. They’re all experienced this freedom free. From what free from fear. Death creates fear within us. Love casts out fear from us. So when we have that, when we are alive, we become free. No. When I look around, I realized that many, many people, they live with fear because they let death take power over them. It is sad how we are so controlled and manipulated by the fear of death. Didn’t live out. This fear. They constantly ask what if, what if I fail? What if I do not make it? What if people don’t like me? What if I’m seriously ill? What if my children don’t turn out? Well, what if I lose my job? What if there is nothing after I die? They’re constantly asked this question. What if? And they live out? What if so many people live out fear every day, fear, completely controls everything in their lives. It is sad why we let the fear control us so much like that being alive means you’re free from that fear. Death cannot take power over us and that’s why we become free. Free from anxiety, free from fear, free from greed, free from death. Being alive does not mean you have breath. It is much more than that. Being alive means you are completely free. You know, Saint Paul, he was a very zealous man. He was not corrupt in man. He was doing lot of things for God and he was really diligently live for himself. He was doing good works. Every moment. He lived his full potential. He tried to live his full potential, but when he met Christ, he realized this death had dominion over him. When you read through Romans, you can see, he didn’t realize until he met Christ. He led death and he let fear take over his life. Only when he found freedom in Christ, he realized how enslaved he was, unless you really experience freedom. You cannot experience, how enslaved you are.

Don’t let fear paralyze, You don’t let fear paralyze you, don’t let fear have dominion over your life. That’s not how we’re supposed to live. We’re supposed to live as being alive rather than living out the fear. What if that freedom, when you experience freedom, somehow their freedom gives the power to you. These are concrete things. Yeah. That freedom gives you the power. What power that is. My third, third is my third point. That power is the vitality, vitality. The power of being alive, power of life that this power comes from within you like a bubbles. When you experience freedom, that power, the vitality, it arises from within like bubbles. This vitality helps us penetrate through the messy life that we experience every day. This vitality, this power helps us penetrate through the problems and darkness that we experienced every day, that vitality is accessible and available to us. Now, this vitality is different from the passion or ambition, personal ambition. This vitality is filled with love and joy. When we have this vitality, we are full of love, joy overflows. It is different, very different from the passion that comes from greed and ambition. Being alive is God’s gift.

God gave us this gift. So then we live our lives. Meaningfully God gave us this gift so that we can persevere and overcome challenges of life. God is the God of the living, not of the dead. When we are connected with God, we will become alive. God is the God of Abraham. The God of Isaac, the God of Jacob and our God. Abraham is alive. Isaac is alive. Jacob is alive and we are alive. Live your life fully being alive. You’ll enjoy the true gift of life in your life.

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