St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Ephesians 3:1-12

St Paul said he had become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace. He said he was the very least of all the saints, the saints meaning Christians. He’s saying that he is the least of all Christians. He wasn’t not saying this just out of courtesy or modesty and it’s not something that he just said when he wrote a letter, he meant it. He meant it because he had the ugly past, the past of persecuting Christians, imprisoning them and killing them. He was right there when Stephen was stoned to death, probably, most likely he was in charge of the whole thing. He was very devoted to God, but at the same time, he was a very violent man. He had very strong self-will. He did not even know that he was going against God. Paul lives all his life with this burden of his violent past. He was aware of his own sins. That’s why he was saying that “I’m the least of all Christians”, but Jesus appeared to him and forgave him and transformed him, and not only that, he made him his servant. He made him do his work. Paul didn’t do that by his own choice. It was God who did it. It’s not what Paul initiated. He didn’t even know, but God somehow changed him, forgave him, and used him as his servant. Paul was a very capable man, well educated, hardworking, smart, intelligent man, but he was also a man of very strong opinions, but this time he experienced that there was a power that did not belong to him. What happened to him was not something that he did with his own power. He realized that there was a power, some power that he didn’t have inside of him, but that power changed him. That was the first time he experienced the power outside of himself. 

This power totally changed him. This power totally opened his eyes and showed him how wrong he was and how rich God’s abundance was. The first time he experienced that his life was led by the power that was greater than his strong will. That made Paul humble, that made Paul humble, recognizing that there is a power outside of himself and that power was leading him. Recognizing that, he became humble. Christian leadership is built on humility. This kind of humility is not from yourself, not from your power, not from your intelligence. Christian leadership is built upon this humility. Christian leaders are not those who exercise their own power to dictate people what to do, but those who experience this wonderful power of God and share that with people in humility. Christian leaders are those who experience the power of God’s grace, and this amazing grace makes them humble. God uses humble people. God cannot use arrogant people. God always uses humble people. God pours out his abundance upon humble people and lets them see God’s wonderful wisdom. Humble people are the people who believe that there is a power more powerful than themselves working in their lives. 

My friends to live humility is not to live with a pitiful feeling. It’s not to live with an inferiority complex. That’s not what it means to be humble. Humble people always live with this excitement of experiencing God’s wonderful ways of helping their lives. God always shows them new understanding, new secrets, and a new way of living and seeing their lives. Humble people always experience the power that comes from above, beyond themselves. People who are not humble have all of these things are hidden to them. They’re just on their own. People who think their life depends on them and only on their ability have no choice but to live with worries and anxiety. What if I cannot do it? So there is no choice but to have these worries and anxieties. When your life depends on you and you are alone, you have to live. You have no choice but to live with the worries and anxiety and you become totally self-obsessed with yourself, but humble people believe that their life depends on God, not on themselves. So they don’t need to focus so much on themselves. Even if I cannot do it, there is a power that helps me do it. So they don’t have to focus so much on themselves. So they don’t need to worry so much about themselves. They realize that there is a greater power than themselves that carries their lives. They know this hidden power and they trust God in every circumstance. Even when they feel totally powerless and helpless they don’t fear because they know that there is a power that comes from somewhere other than themselves. These humble people live with their faith, not with their ability, and their confidence comes from their faith. St Paul knew this very well. That’s why he said in today’s scripture, we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. Can you? He had confidence through his faith, and I realized in humility there is a power that no one can destroy. That is the power of humility. No one can destroy the humble people. Nothing in the world can destroy the humble people. Why? Even if they themselves get struck down they come back up, because they are more than themselves. Even if their selves are attacked because they don’t depend on their self, even if they destroy their self, they cannot be destroyed. It is tremendous power in humility and St Paul experienced or understood that secret wisdom of life. This is what he said, but we have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. What power. This is a confession of a humble person who lived his life through faith in God, not in himself.  This is a confession of a person who is more than himself. Now I see why God uses humble people. The only kind of power that can stand against the power of the world is the power that comes from humility, because of the power of the work can never destroy them. Humble people have never given in, no matter how hard their circumstances press against them they never give in. Humble people have no false self that is created by pride. That is what humility is. Humble people have no false self that is created by pride. Jesus said if you want to follow me, deny yourself. In other words, destroy your false self. That was created by pride. First, destroy that. Throw that away. Then you follow me. That’s what it means to deny yourself. 

Get rid of your false self. Sometimes in the morning, you wake up and you get so anxious. Why? Because you hold onto your false self. That doesn’t mean that you’re empty with no self. It means that you’re empty of your false self but full of your real self. Humble people don’t spend their energy and time to build themselves with this false identity. Within them, there are very much alive with their new selves filled with life and vitality. The false self is only to hide your shame, your pity, and your imperfection. You have this false self to hide them. It is simply the clothes that you wear, but you are not your clothes. St Paul took off those clothes to find who he really was. St Paul found his “I” which can be found only by God’s grace. That’s why he said, I am who I am. By God’s grace, no one can stop that power humility is power, and no one can stop that power. It is a power that doesn’t look like power because it doesn’t show off. It doesn’t look like power. It doesn’t look like victory, but it is the power that rises up even in the midst of ashes of life’s defeat. It is like a shoot that comes off from the surface of the stump, like Isaiah’s vision. 

It’s like a cross. The cross looks like the total defeat, but we proclaim that cross is the victory. Think about it. That’s why Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. Yourself is that everything, there is a greater power that holds you than your own self. Have faith in God. God will hold you, so humble people are strong. Let us practice our humility this year. Real humility and let us see how God works through your humility. Experience God’s power this year. You’ll be able to see what you didn’t see before. You’ll be able to experience what you didn’t experience before. When you become humble worries and anxieties will disappear and this humility is a foundation upon which you build your leadership, you’ll become a very strong resilient leader.

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Luke 2:41-52

For Mary, celebrating the Passover was nothing out of the ordinary. It was something that she did each year, like how we celebrate Christmas and any religious holidays. Her family, her friends and her relatives made long trips to the temple in Jerusalem to take part in the festival, and it was a tradition which she faithfully kept. In today’s passage, we see that she visits the temple again when her son, Jesus turns 12. But this time it turns out to be no ordinary trip. On their way back home, Mary and Joseph realized that their child is missing. The scripture tells us that it took them about a day before they realized he wasn’t with them. Each week, every Friday we have our staff meeting and at our staff meeting, each week we usually have a passage that whoever’s going to preach on, we reflect on them together, so we share our thoughts on what the passage means to us, and Pastor Sunny read this passage and said what kind of parents would do something like this? I mean, how could they be so forgetful? But I think it’s important to remember that back then people travelled as a large group, like in a caravan. But it was just normal to assume that your child was just somewhere in the mix. When Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus is nowhere to be found, they go back to Jerusalem to look for him and we can only imagine the anxiety they must’ve felt. What if something happened to him? What if he got lost and is looking for us too? I mean, the thought of losing your own child is a nightmare for any parent. I mean, before we started praise practice, I mean Nolan was just running around and I saw Josh going and saying to Nolan, just stay where I can see you.

This is a parental instinct to do that, and even my own parents, they used to tell me how when I was a kid, I was a very curious kid so I would get distracted very easily. So if something interested me, I would run. I would just go off. So they would always look for me and they always told me how much grief I caused them with all that. And it got so bad that I don’t know if they still have this anymore, but they bought like a harness that they attached to my arms so that I wouldn’t go too far, but anyway, after a few days, Mary and Joseph finally found Jesus at the temple. They see their son sitting amongst the teachers, impressing them with this knowledge and understanding. Like any parent would Mary reprimands Jesus for worrying them, but her son, this kid doesn’t apologize. Instead, he tells her, why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house? The 12-year-old acts like she should’ve known better as to exactly where he’d be like there’s nothing to be anxious about. I wonder what Mary thought at that moment. Scripture tells us that neither she nor Joseph understood what Jesus had said. She probably felt this mixture of anxiety and confusion by this curveball that her own child has thrown at her, and as if nothing happened, the boy goes back home with her and remains obedient to his parents, but what is particularly interesting about today’s story is that we see this change in Mary after the incident. When she’s at the temple, she’s anxious, relieved, and confused all at the same time, but when she’s back home, she seems a little different. Luke doesn’t tell us what this change is exactly, but only that his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

It’s not that she had finally understood what Jesus had said at the temple, but that there was something special about the entire experience, that she had. Something special that led her to keep all of these things close to her heart. When we looked at Mary in the scriptures, we see that she’s a very reflective person. She rarely lets an experience just pass her by. She pays attention to what she hears and sees and she ponders and meditates upon them. There’s this sense of maturity and thoughtfulness in the way that she lives her life, even from a young age. At our Christmas service this past Tuesday, we saw how she reflected on the experience she had with the shepherds, the shepherds who came and told her what God had told them about Jesus was just born and scripture tells us that, but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. She listened to the words of the shepherds and meditated on them, and in meditating on their words, she recognized God’s reminder that she was not alone. She remembered the promise that he had made to her Emmanuel, God with us. That God was truly present in our lives and in the world, and in today’s story, Mary remembers all these things again in our experience of losing and finding Jesus she was reminded that her child is was not her own but God’s. That Jesus is God’s gracious gift to her, into the world. God reminds her that he’s watching over the life of her own son, that he will take care of him. I mean it had been a few years there to them, a number of years since the last incident had happened and after all these years, God once again reminds her that in the most unexpected of situations that his promise to her still stands, it allows Mary to find assurance and peace in the midst of all the uncertainty and mystery that lay ahead of her.

Today’s the last Sunday of the month and to me, it just feels like December has just flown right by and for many of us, December is probably the busiest month. I mean a lot of us are finishing up our studies, trying to get our Christmas shopping done on time and then after Christmas there’s boxing day again, gathering of families and friends, some of us travel to places. Never mind the events that we have here at the church. We had the choir festival at the beginning of the month and the Christmas concert, Christmas Day service and all this, It’s just nonstop. And it can be a fun and a busy time for a lot of us, but for some of us, it can also be an anxious and stressful time. It can be depressing and lonely. People close to us, maybe away or absent or it can bring back unpleasant memories. We all experience the holiday season differently and in the midst of it all, I think it’s easy to simply neglect or forget the promise that we’ve been given on Christmas. The promise that God is with us. Like Mary, I believe it is important that we meditate upon this simple promise from God deep within our hearts, and this is why I focused on Mary in today’s passage. I mean, the focus seems to be really on this young boy Jesus, but I see it as being her story just as much as it is Jesus’ story. We often reflect on Mary and her story during Advent and on Christmas, but we rarely talk about her once Christmas is gone. But the more I think about her, the more I realize what a special person that she was. Throughout the gospels, we see that she remains an important part of Jesus’ life, not just in his childhood but throughout his adulthood until his death on the cross. She’s just there. She doesn’t impose herself, but you just see her there and we see that her life is not without difficulties or challenges as a young girl, about to be married, God comes to tell her that she’s going to have to give birth to a baby that’s not really hers. Then once the baby is born, she finds out that the king just wants him dead, so she ends up running off to some other country, Egypt with her husband to seek refuge. She goes through all these ordeals and she even witnesses her own son die later but throughout these ordeals, God reminds her of his promise and then gives her the strength to move forward in faith.

Today it’s not really the new year, but we are in a sort of a transitional phase between Christmas and the new year and as we now transition between those two, I like to encourage us to remind ourselves of the simple yet very powerful promise, that God is with us and will be with us, that we remember the steady hand. I mean as Peter prayed for us today, that carried us through the ups and downs of this year. Facing the new year is like facing the unknown. It comes around every year, we know, but we have no idea what’s in store for us. It makes us wonder and ask all sorts of questions. It seems too big to understand, to comprehend and for that, some of us can feel excited but others it can be daunting for them and it can make us feel very anxious and worried, but when we remember God’s promise and his faithfulness to us, we will be able to venture into the unknown. I believe that is the way that we can truly and fully embrace the mystery that is before us with hope and confidence. God has been with us throughout 2018 and I believe he will be with us throughout 2019. Guiding us and leading us in our never-ending journey, not just in our own individual lives but in the life of our church as well. I mean, personally, I’m excited to see what will come of this new theme of leadership that we’ll be embarking on. I mean to the transition from going to worship into leadership. I mean, I can only imagine what will come with that and as we will sing our response some shortly, let us be really intentional and take the time to reflect on the year that we’ve had. Let us remember how God has been faithful to us. Let us really treasure all the experiences that we’ve had and let us centre ourselves in God and begin from there. Maybe we’ll enter into the new year with confident and abundant hearts. I know it’s early, but Happy New Year. Can we turn around to the people next to us, behind us, in front of us and wish them a Happy New Near too.

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Isaiah 52:7-10

I see a lot of new faces today. Welcome to the worship service. Just one family filled the whole pew there. So I welcome all of you to this special Christmas Sunday’s service. The book of Isaiah, the one that you just heard was written in the darkest moment of Israel’s history. Babylonian captivity was the darkest time for Israel. They lost their country, their land, and their temple. The temple was at the centre of their existence and they lost their temple. Many were taken to the foreign land as captives leaving behind their loving family and their friends. When you lose everything, despair strikes you. You become hopeless because you lost everything. They felt God’s silence and the silence suffocated them. Prophets exposed their sins and the people fell, convicted of their sins. They were complacent, in the midst of being complacent, they became very selfish. They live their lives only concern about themselves, their own security, safety and comfort. They didn’t care about the people around them. They became extremely greedy and selfish. Prophets exposed their sins. You know, when things are going well you don’t think about your sins that much, but when tragedy happens, you think about, what have I done? How have I lived my life? You think about those, so when they were taken to Babylon as captives, they were thinking about their own sins and they were convicted of their sins. Our sins drive us into darkness, because of human sins you see fights and divisions, animosity, and hatred all around us because of human sins. People become victims of hatred and violence, and the darkness covers over the world like thick clouds and people’s heart become dark and gloomy. Human greed will soon reach its peak.

You know, sometimes God punishes us, but he punishes us to save us. If God leaves us alone, then we’ll forever fall into the deep darkness and never get out of it. So sometimes God punishes us to wake us up, to bring us out of that the pattern of falling into the darkness. That was what happened in Isaiah’s time. That was how the prophets interpreted their historical situation, Babylonian captivity. Isaiah gave us his message in this context. It was not written when everything was going well. It was not written in good times. It was not written when the economy was good and life was stable and people felt happy and feel abundant. No, that’s now when Isaiah was written, Isaiah was written when there were pains, frustration, uncertainties, foggy future, tears, and suffering and people had no more energy left to go on further. Isaiah wrote his message in the midst of a very, very difficult time, but his message was full of hope and a bright future. It was so positive. He saw God’s salvation. The imagery is like one person running from Babylon to Jerusalem and saying, God reigns! God comforts you, You’ll be alright! In the midst of a difficult time, Isaiah proclaimed this positive message. He saw God strong hands helping them and saving them. You know, it’s not easy to see positive things when everything around you is negative. It is really hard to see positive things when you feel so negative inside. When your life circumstance is so bad it is hard to be happy. It is very difficult to be positive about life. Everything looks gloomy, even cheerful Christmas songs, bright Christmas lights, and wonderful gifts cannot cheer you up when you’re not happy inside when your life circumstances not very good, but Isaiah proclaimed such a positive message in this very difficult time of Israel’s history. Isaiah cried out, our God reigns your circumstances don’t reign. You don’t reign our God reigns when you’re helpless God still reigns. That’s what Isaiah proclaimed. Our God comforts you and redeems you. You’re sad, then God will comfort you and will redeem you. Our God rolls up his sleeves. The literal saying is the Lord has bared his holy arm. God has rolled up his sleeves ready to help you.

Isaiah sent this beautiful message while he was clearly witnessing the despair, gloominess, and a tremendous sense of loss. This message was such a comfort to the Israelites. It gave them strength and hope. My friend’s, message is powerful, message is powerful, message either can lift you up or completely demoralize you. The message is powerful. That’s why Jesus said you don’t live by bread alone. You live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Israelites survived that difficult time by hearing the message. Luckily they had Prophets. Prophets continuously give them the message and that’s how they survived their difficult times. Even though sometimes the Prophets expose their sins, but in the end, the Prophets always gave them the message of hope, healing and restoration. Today as we are celebrating Christmas Sunday we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Jesus’ birth itself is a message. What is the message? The message that God does not give us up. God does not leave us alone. God is interested in coming into our lives and saving us. The birth of Jesus itself has a message for all of us. Jesus came as the light and drove out the darkness. Jesus came as the joy and chased out the sorrow. Jesus came as the word of God and fulfilled God’s ancient promise for us. Jesus came as the Prince of Peace and stopped the fighting and division. Jesus came and he showed his love on the cross and by doing that he defeated the hatred and ended the judgment that comes with our sins. The birth of Jesus is wonderful news. It is good news. My friends, hear the good news and be the people who proclaim the wonderful news in your life. How beautiful are the feat of those who announce peace, who brings good news? Be the messenger of the good news in your life. Merry Christmas. Even though we already said it. Let’s say it once more. Merry Christmas to each other.

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Zephaniah 3:14-17

It’s just a wonderful thing to do once a week, coming to church and enjoying the music, being uplifted, meditate, and hear the message. I think it’s wonderful that we are able to do that. We reflected on joy last week, we discussed the joy that comes from faith is different from the joy that we feel when everything goes well, it’s very different. The joy that comes from faith is deeper than our feelings. It is not our response to whatever is going on in our situation, but it is our statement of faith. It is our faith about what God will do ultimately. So the joy of faith is about God, who will do something wonderful in the end, ultimately. Today Zephaniah also speaks about joy. He said, “Sing aloud. O Daughter, Zion, shout O Israel, rejoice and exult with all your heart. O daughter, Jerusalem”. He talks about joy, but it sounds like a commandment, rejoice. It’s almost like telling you, how can you tell somebody to be joyful? It doesn’t make sense. Either you feel joyful or not. When you don’t feel good, how can you be joyful? If you’re already joyful why do you tell them to be joyful? It’s Superfluous, it’s unnecessary? Why are these people talking about joy in that manner? I realize that to them, joy is not an emotional language. That’s what I discovered. Joy is not an emotional language. Not only did Zephaniah said that, but also St Paul, so people in the scripture do not see joy as an emotional language. This is what St Paul said, he went one step further. “Rejoice in the Lord always”. Again, I will say rejoice almost like a commandment. So I am telling you to rejoice because to them it is not an emotional language to them joy is a life perspective. It is a point of view. It is their attitude. It is the way they approach their lives. So what they’re telling us, is you should approach life with joyful perspective. 

We have to approach our life with a joyful perspective. No matter how hard life may be, we should go through it with joy. It should be the way you approach your life. Sometimes life seems gloomy. I mean these days, today I see some sun but you know these last few weeks we constantly have so many clouds in the sky and we don’t see much sun, so sometimes you feel the life is gloomy. Yes, life can be gloomy, but you know what? Life is not all gloomy. There is some part that is joyful, there is some part that is light. It’s not just gloomy, it has some light. Yeah, of course, life is hard, but there are some reasons in life where we should be joyful and also thankful. I want you to find that point. That’s an entry point, and enter through that entry point and that joy, joy will come alive. But when you take life with a gloomy attitude, your life will become gloomy. But when you find that entry point, the joy in your life and go through with joy, life will open up. That is what God did and does with us. Today Zephaniah declares an almost unbelievable statement, and when I read that I was so shocked. How could he say that? This is what he said, “the Lord your God is in your midst. A warrior who gives you victory. He said he will rejoice over you with gladness. He will renew you in his love. He will exult over you with loud singing.” That really shocked me. Who am I that God is so joyful for me? Who am I that God is so joyful that he would dance and sing? That was an unbelievable statement that Zephaniah made. It’s not because we are so great that God rejoices over us with gladness it’s not because we did exactly what God desired that God would exalt over us with loud singing. When Zephaniah says that I rejoice over you, I hear God’s resolution, God’s desire. I’m going to make you the person with whom I’m pleased. You may not be that person right now, but I’ll make you that person with whom I am very pleased. So God saw that joyful side inside of us and then found that entry point and enters into us, and he sees us and he rejoices. He rejoices over us. I believe that that’s a solution to our problem. That is gospel. That is good news. When you are able to do that, your life will be brightened up. Find that entry point of joy and you enter into it. When you find that, then your life will open up. That’s what God did with us. Let me ask you, when the prodigal son came home, imagine the father’s face. Would it be the face of anger and rage, for what he did because he did something terrible, but was his face a face of anger and rage or was his face a face of joy? I believe that the father’s face was bright, happy, and filled with joy, but not the brother. His brother’s face would have been the face of anger and rage, but the father’s face was a face of joy. That is good news. That is what Zephaniah found in God. When you read Zephaniah, it begins with God’s rage and anger. 

Do you want to see how angry God was? This is what he said. “I will sweep away humans and animals. I’ll sweep away the birds of the air and the flesh of the sea. I’ll make the wickets stumble. I’ll cut off humanity from the face of the earth, says the Lord.” This is what Zephaniah said, God was filled with anger and rage because of injustice, of the people, but the end of the book, Zephaniah found God who rejoiced over people. Zephaniah found that kind of God who rejoices over us. God rejoices over us with gladness. God exalts over us with loud singing. You know, when I think about that constantly, it is almost too much for me to accept. How could God rejoice over me? It is too much accept. If God forgives me and just accepts me, even that is too much, but God rejoicing over me? That is really a hard concept to accept and that’s what Zephaniah found in God. Well, you know, that is the reason why we can be joyful. We can be joyful because God rejoices over us. 

God overlooks our sins and he rejoices over us and that’s the only reason we can be joyful. God has taken away the judgments against you. God is in the midst of us. God came to us, Emmanuel. That’s what we celebrate on Christmas Day. God came to us. That itself is good news. God renews us in his love. We don’t need to fear disaster anymore. We don’t need to live with fear anymore. Don’t let your hands grow weak because we have become a person with whom God is pleased. My friends, this Christmas season, I hope that you can find this kind of God who rejoices over you. God is not there, ready to punish you. God has forgiven you. God has sent Jesus Christ. God rejoices over you. Trust that God is happy with you. With that joy. Now, let us live a life that God is pleased with. Let us chase away the darkness with the joy. Let us drive out the fear with joy. Let us overcome our weaknesses with joy. Joy is power, I hope all of you find that and restore that joy in your life again. You’ll be alright in God’s hands.

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Philippians 1:3-6

St Paul was very thankful when thinking about the church at Philippi. Whenever he prayed for the Church people at Philippi he felt this tremendous joy. The whole letter of Philippians is like a thank you letter from the beginning to the end. You see the thankfulness of St Paul, so whenever he thought about this congregation he had this overflowing joy, and that joy came from deep in Paul’s heart. I think it’s wonderful to have that kind of joy, not many people live with that kind of joy, that joy that comes from the bottom of your soul and heart, and Paul had that kind of joy. Ministry can be quite frustrating. Church ministry can be quite frustrating. The church is not a perfect place. The church is not a utopia, a church is a place where many people also get hurt and disappointed. So I told KSM members, if you survive church, you’ll go to heaven. The church is a hard place to survive it can be quite difficult, but the Church of Philippi was not that much different. That church had a problem too. There was a division in the church. Two women were fighting with each other and because of these two women leaders, the church was divided too. Some people follow one woman and the other people followed the other woman. That’s why St Paul said at the end of the letter “Euodia and Syntyche have the same mind and same heart in the Lord.” But that problem did not take away joy. It did not deter joy from St Paul. Whenever he was thinking about the church he was still thankful. Not only thankful, but he also had this tremendous joy. We can see that joy in his letter. “I thank my God every time I remember you constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers.”

For all of you can see that joy Paul has, overflowing joy, but it’s not just overflowing joy. It was deep-seeded joy. Somehow it came from the death, not here, but from the depth of his soul. It’s not the joy that just makes you feel good, it is not feel-good joy. When I see Paul’s joy, it was not an emotion it was more like a power, some kind of power. Power to chase away the gloomy and dark thoughts. How powerful that is when you have that, many times we are often surrounded by dark thoughts, but he had this power to chase away those dark thoughts so joy was not just an emotion. It was a power to Paul. It wasn’t that Paul had joy because everything was going well, but his joy came from the belief that everything would be alright. There’s a difference between the joy that you feel because everything is going well. That’s one thing, but there is a joy when you believe that everything will be alright. Those are two different kinds of joy. He confessed that in this way and I think this is really, really important and a good passage for you to remember all the time in your life, and this is what he said, “I am confident of this. That the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ”. It’s a beautiful passage. I want you to remember, memorize and always hold it in your hand. Put it on your forehead and carry around with you all the time. Just insert it and then engrave it in your soul. This passage is very important, and a good passage. God who began a good work will bring it to completion, ultimately when the right time comes. So it wasn’t because Paul felt good about what was going on right now, that he had joy. It was because of his faith, the faith that everything would work out alright, and from that, he had this joy. You know, the joy that you feel because everything is going right right now is an emotion, and that emotion is good but that emotion is very unstable. 

The feeling of joy you feel right now can turn into sorrow immediately and sometimes even into anger the next day. Today you may feel good and you feel joyful, but tomorrow you’ll feel very sad and on the next day, you may get really angry. So that emotion of feeling good, the emotion of joy is good, but it’s unstable. Paul’s joy was not just an emotion. As I said, it was almost like a power. The power that comes from confidence, the confidence that everything will be alright in the end. The joy of faith that is future-oriented, the joy of emotion is present-oriented. The joy of faith is not based on what is going on right now. It is based on the future that didn’t happen yet, so how can you have an emotional response? It didn’t happen yet, but that joy comes from the confidence that everything would be alright. It didn’t happen yet, but everything will be alright, so you can only have the joy from faith because it is based on what hasn’t happened yet. Only with the eyes of faith, we can see our future in a new perspective and that gives us the confidence for our future. I mean, that’s what faith is. A Hebrew writer told us this, “Now, faith is the assurance of things you hoped for, the conviction of things that were not seen”. It didn’t happen yet, ‘not seen’ and it’s just something that you hope for, but the faith is assurance and conviction. What Paul had was the joy of faith and the joy of faith will never disappear. 

Our faith always looks forward, always waits, and always trust in a better future. From that faith, we have this incredible joy, the joy of confidence. That’s why we can be joyful in suffering and in pain. It makes sense why some people can be joyful, even in pain and suffering. James told us to rejoice when we receive trials as we studied the book of James, my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it as nothing but joy. The joy of faith is the power to overcome our trials, it is the power to overcome our sufferings, it is the power to hold on tight and not fall into deep darkness. These days we have a lot of people who are suffering from depression and anxiety problems. I hope that we can all tap into this power of joy when we have this joy of faith, the light will shine in our hearts. Joy and light go together. Being joyful and having the light they go together. All the negative thinking, dark thoughts will dissipate. Our anger, hatred, and struggles will be melted away. From the depth of our soul, the praise of joy overflows our suffering from dark thoughts, unhappiness, anger. I hope that this joy, the power of joy may work within you. Do you believe that your life will work out alright in the end or do you believe that your life is good now, but ultimately my life will be ruined or will not be very good? What do you believe? Do you believe that your life will work out alright in the end or do you believe that your life will not be very good? Whatever you believe will happen. Whatever you believe will shape your future. Our faith shapes our future. Our life follows what we believe. 

Just because things do not go well, do you complain, get frustrated and get angry or do you have faith that in the end, it’ll work out alright? Then you’ll have this joy of faith and you’ll have this power that you can never get from anywhere else, and with that power, you can overcome all the challenges you face in your life. Your feet will be strong, your hand will be strong. You’ll be able to handle the challenges of life. Today’s the second Sunday of advent, in the season of Advent we wait. Waiting is not just bearing through. Waiting is trusting in God’s promise and waiting with joy. When you wait with joy, you will be able to hear good news. You will be able to hear, you will be able to experience a good life. Be merry, be joyful, because God is with you. God will bring you to completion. Merry Christmas. Truly, always starting from December we say Merry Christmas. Every day’s Merry Christmas. So let’s say Merry Christmas. May God be with you and fill your heart with joy. Don’t live with sadness. Don’t live with dark thoughts. Don’t let the anger dictate your life. Always have the power of joy deep within you. Your life will be alright. 

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Luke 21:25-36

The onset of Christmas music everywhere and shopping malls full of people can mean only one thing. That the season of Advent has begun. These days when I’m in the car ride with my kids, the first thing Nathan asked me is, “can I turn on the Christmas radio?” so that’s what I do. Christmas music, it’s everywhere. Today is the first Sunday of advent. Advent stems from the Latin word for coming. So during Advent, we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Christian tradition, there are three meanings to this coming. The first, which we’re most aware of, is the coming of God in the human form of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. The second is awaiting the coming of Christ daily into our hearts. And the third is where we await the second coming of Christ. The language of today’s passage seems to deal with this last part about the second coming of Christ. This passage in Luke is part of the final public teaching of Jesus when he’s at the temple in Jerusalem. Because right after this he’ll have his last supper with the disciples. Then he’ll be caught, captured, trialled and crucified. So this certainly was an interesting way to end his public ministry talking about these last days. 

As I reflected on this passage, I wondered if the second coming has any meaning for our lives today. For those of us who live in this scientific-technological era of the 21st century. For us, time is just a part of nature. It always has and always will continue to march on, but as I read this text carefully, I see a great irony, the language used by Luke in this passage is coached in very symbolic and metaphorical language. He borrows language from the Prophets of ancient Israel. Now the Prophets use this kind of language of nature and stormy things to convey God’s judgment upon the nations. But the great irony is that this language doesn’t seem to be so metaphorical today. It actually seems quite literal. See first here, “there will be on earth distress among nations, confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves”. I mean the seas and the waves, they’d been roaring quite ferociously these days. You see the hurricanes, coastal countries are distressed. There are changes in our ecosystems that are causing confusion. Nations are arguing about what’s causing all of this and what we should do. And also people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. There are great fear and anxiety about the future. I mean, I see it on the faces of our youths. I see it in the faces of parents. I mean, when I think about the world that my own children, you know, Nathan and Abigail and all of our other lovely children when you think about the world they will inherit. I too at times become anxious. Will there even be a world for them to inherit? You know, human beings now single-handedly have more impact on the earth systems than every other natural system combined. This is what some scholars termed the era of the Anthropocene. Never before have we as a species had such an impact and we see this impact only accelerating. We know that our actions are affecting the earth, but can we really come together to do anything about it? And if there is an earth, can they survive in it? 

You know, I’m with the Hi-C every week. I see how hard they study and my heart aches at the stress that you feel inside and the pressure to perform well just to keep up and not fall behind, and I know for many of you who are working, that the pressures and expectations only increase, not decrease. Technological change is relentless and it keeps shaking up the way we do things, but perhaps they can survive materially. But what kind of world are they entering into? We’ve become increasingly disconnected from one another. Community is central to our wellbeing as human beings, but our world makes real community so hard to come by. Everyone’s doing their own thing and the commitment and sacrifice it takes to build a true community is so easy to avoid because there are so many other things for us to do. We take care of ourselves and those closest to us. That’s all that matters or that’s just all that I have time and mental space to take care of. Toronto recently broke the record for homicides this year, in one year. I mean this should be very disturbing for all of us as we should be asking what’s going on in these communities to cause such desperate violence, but we are too busy in our own worlds to worry much about that as long as we’re safe. Community. God’s gift to humanity, I believe has broken down in an individualistic world. I think some of our great musical artists ask the right questions for our time. Marvin Gaye asked what’s going on and the Black Eyed Peas asked, where is the love? 

I saw some of you Hi-Cs mouthing that. I mean I’m sure this past week for many of the GM workers in Oshawa who heard that their plant is closing down. I’m sure that for some of them, it really did feel as if the powers of the heavens have been shaken. You know, when we’re faced with a difficult or unexplainable situation, there’s a popular phrase we often use. It is what it is. It is what it is. I mean, sometimes we say to accept a situation that we have no control over and that can be a good thing, but I suspect many times we say this to excuse ourselves from inaction or to convey our resignation over the situation as if to say, what is is what will always be. It is what it is' can lead to the resigned tune of same old, same old. Luke writes, “then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”. This image comes from the book of Daniel. Daniel saw this vision of the son of man in a dream. In this dream, there are four ferocious animals that he sees and they symbolize the great powers of his time, Babylon, Persia, Greece under Alexander the Great and finally the mightiest beast of them all, the Roman Empire. This last beast comes and devours the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. There was no hope for those who are weak, and it was an utterly impossible situation. But behold, amidst this rampage, Daniel saw this vision of the son of man coming in clouds of power and glory. I mean, what he was seeing was a vision of God breaking into history and the impossible situation to liberate people and restore his dominion. In other words, Daniel saw a vision that was saying to him, what is, is not what will be. What is, is not what will be.

Life can have a way of grinding down our expectations for it. When we’re continually faced with forces and powers that are greater than our hopes, the dark night of life can settle in where the flames of new possibilities get extinguished. And so we often settle for the same old, same old, but what Jesus is saying to us in this passage is that in this dark night, we will see a glimpse of hope for something new. A spark that says what is is not what will be. And when you catch this vision, Jesus tells us, stand up, raise your heads for your redemption is drawing near. God will deliver you when you see the spark of hope, God will liberate you from distress, resignation, fear, and anxiety. What is not what will be. His passage is that in this dark night, we will see a glimpse of hope for something new. A spark that says what is is not what will be. And when you catch this vision, Jesus tells us, stand up. Raise your heads for your redemption is drawing near. God will deliver you when you see the spark of hope, God will liberate you from distress, resignation, fear, and anxiety. What is is not what will be. The very first action God did in the beginning of Genesis was to separate the dark night and the light day and how real that is in life. In life, we experience the darkness of night, but also the light of day. There is the darkness of despair, but also the light of hope. God came in human form to experience the fullness of this human existence and to live it with us, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus experienced the darkness of night when he took the path of the cross on that dark Friday, he experienced the ultimate pain of being utterly forsaken and abandoned by God and the whole world. That Friday, despair, prevailed and death triumphed. That Friday he was all alone, but because of that Friday, we have a glorious Sunday where light overcomes darkness, where hope overcomes despair, where death is defeated. On Sunday a new life is born. The Jesus who comes on cloud is the resurrected Jesus who now exists and comes in power and great glory. This is the Jesus of Sunday and I thank God because even though today, for me, might be Friday where the world is crashing in on me, where the situation seems impossible, where nothing seems to change. I thank God that I can die with my Lord Jesus on Friday and rise together with him on Sunday. I thank God that even though today might be Friday, it’s gonna be Sunday. Today might be Friday, but it’s gonna be Sunday. What is is not what will be. This is the essence of our Christian Confession and proclamation. The whole world may be like mountains crumbling to the sea, God May feel absent like the desert wilderness, my heart may be cold like the desolate winter, heaven and earth itself may pass away, but God’s word still remains. Who are we and what are our lives? The Prophet Isaiah said, All people are grass. Their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. Surely the people are grass , but then the messenger of God replies, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Our lives will come and go. Situations will come and go, but ultimately, God prevails and reigns

All things will ultimately work out according to God’s purpose. This is the “will be” of God’s reign. The “will be” is God’s reign in justice and peace, like James prayed. It will be a time where fear and anxiety subside and are replaced with joy and thanksgiving. It will be a time when all people join together in love declaring that our God reigns and suffering and injustice will be no more. The “will be” is also the ultimate fulfillment of our life’s purpose, not the what is' of the same old, same old or going through the motions, but the “will be” of a life created and destined by our creator to have meaning and purpose. I know that this is often difficult to believe when we are mired up in the “what is”, but this is the promise of God. When our lives are built on this promise, we can stand up and raise our heads to whatever may come our way. When our eyes are fixed on the “will be”, how we see and live, our “what is” changes. We will have the strength to fully engage through the “what is” we press on and strain toward bringing the what is closer to the “will be”. I mean that’s what St Paul was talking about when I press on. What vision is God planting in you about the “will be” for your life and for this world? God has planted in each of us a vision for the “will be”. There is a “will be” for each of us. Have you caught a glimpse of this vision or have you been so drowned in your “what is” to see it? We must be alert and on guard, because Jesus also said be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life. Don’t want to be consumed by the worries of the “what is”. Don’t drown in the self-indulgence of only the “what is”. Set your eyes instead firmly to the god of the “will be”. Don’t let yourselves be pressed down by the darkness of Friday, but wait for and seek out the light of Sunday. Be alert at all times about where your heart is at. Reverend Kim reflected on this verse in yesterday’s inner voice. Pray to be alert about your heart, about this world. During this advent season, we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We await with faith that what is is not what will be. We await with the hope that today might be Friday, but it’s gonna be Sunday. We await the coming of our Lord. Are you weighed down by the worries of life? Is your heart ill at ease? Stand up. Raise your heads because your redemption is near. 

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John 18:33-38

Today is Christ the king the Sunday we celebrate that Jesus is a king. There is a Church calendar, It’s different from the calendar we are using, and according to the Church calendar today is the last Sunday, and starting from next week the New Year begins. So New Year begins with waiting for the coming of Jesus. So 98.1 FM started playing carols starting from today, November 25th to December 25th, for one month, the whole day they play carols. Then this morning I came to church listening to the carols and preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ. So from next Sunday, is beginning with the first advent, the new year begins, it is already the last Sunday of the year. According to the church calendar, we confess that Jesus is our king, but today’s scripture tells us that Jesus' kingship is very different from the kingship that we know, the kingship of the world. Through the mouth of Pilate the question of Jesus’ kingship came out, are you the king? Then Pilate, entered the headquarters and summoned Jesus and asked him, are you the king of the Jews? 

This is a question to all of us too. Is Jesus King to you? And what does that mean when you say that Jesus is my king? Are you the king of the Jews? Pilate asked and Jesus answered him this way. “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here”. Jesus clearly distinguishes Jesus’ kingdom and from the kingdom of this world. There is a difference between the Kingdom of Jesus and the Kingdom of this world. But Pilate really hated having to question Jesus, because he lived in Assyria, and it’s kind of far away from Jerusalem. He came all the way and Jews always complains and emit cases and all that. And again, they brought this matter up and Pilate had to come all the way to Jerusalem and question Jesus and summon Jesus, and Pilate did not really want to listen and did not have any patience to hear this kind of nonsense. When Pilate asked Jesus, are you the king? What he really wanted was just a simple answer. Either you’re king or not. Don’t say anything else. And Jesus was saying that my kingdom is not of this world and all that. He didn’t even want to hear it. He just wanted to deal with this matter as quickly as possible and go back home. As soon as he saw Jesus he instinctively knew that this guy’s not a harmful person, this guy is not a dangerous person who can do serious harm to the Roman government. He knew that those stubborn Jewish leaders were scapegoating this poor guy. I don’t know who that is, but this poor guy is just a victim of these very, vicious, stubborn Jewish leaders. He knew that. He just wanted to hear it directly from Jesus’ lips that he’s not a king. He was not a king. that’s all he needed to hear. So he bluntly asked again, so you’re a king, are you a king or not? Just tell me you’re not a king, then I’ll let you go. Simple as that. Don’t tell me about this world and my kingdom is not of this world. Don’t tell me any of that just tell me that you are not a king. I’ll let you go and the case is over. Pilate did not get the answer he wanted. This poor Jesus or naive Jesus did not give Pilate the answer he wanted. I mean, he could sense it, Jesus could sense it. Oh, that’s what he wanted, so then if I said I’m not a king, then I’ll be free. Jesus didn’t do any of that. He just did not give the answer Pilate wanted.

Jesus gave a very elusive answer. “You say that I’m king.” what did he mean by that? Is he saying that he’s a king or not? Jesus said, “you say that I’m a king”. Then right after that, Jesus said this “for this I was born and for this, I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice”. I think by this time Pilate got really, really frustrated. They were talking about whether Jesus was a king or not, and Jesus is all of a sudden talking about the truth. Pilate thought that what Jesus said was totally unrelated to the issue they were dealing with, so he got so frustrated and bluntly asked Jesus, “what is the truth?” What is the truth? He wasn’t interested in the truth. He was just frustrated. What is the truth? Then he went out and told the Jewish leaders, I find no case against him. Case is over, finished. I don’t see any wrongdoing in him.

Jesus answered Pilate what kind of king he was, but Pilot didn’t understand him. Jesus told Pilate that he was a king of the kingdom that was built not on power, but on truth. The kingdom Jesus is talking about is a kingdom that is built not on power, but on truth. That’s why Jesus said this. “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers will be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” What he meant was my kingdom is not the Kingdom of power. If my kingdom were the kingdom of the power, a kingdom that was built on power, then my people would have come, and not let me be arrested and not let me go through this kind of humiliation of being questioned even by you, but my kingdom is not the Kingdom of power. My kingdom is a kingdom truth. Since Jesus was not the king of the kingdom that was built on the power, he didn’t fight the Jews and Roman soldiers with this power. To keep the kingdom, he kept the truth to the end. That was how he kept the kingdom because it’s a kingdom of truth, not the Kingdom of power because Jesus believed, Jesus knew that ultimately the truth will prevail. Not power. The truth will prevail. The king of this world has a golden crown, but Jesus’ crown was the crown of thorns. The king of this world sits on a golden throne, but Jesus’ throne was the cross. The king of this world rules and governs with power, but the king of the Kingdom of truth rules with love and governs with justice. There is a difference between Jesus’ kingdom and the Kingdom of this world. Which one do you believe? We are born again, born again, not into the Kingdom of this world, but into the Kingdom of the truth. Pilate was not interested in Jesus’ kingdom. In his eyes, Jesus was just merely a poor victim of those vicious Jewish leaders. He didn’t want that kind of king. He didn’t want that kind of powerless king. If they slapped him, he just had to take it. When people nailed him on the cross, he just took the cross. I don’t want that kind of king. I don’t want that kind of kingdom, but he didn’t know. He didn’t know that the cross was not the end. He didn’t know that the cross was not the end. In the end, God raised him from death and showed the world that the truth is more powerful than the power of death and any power of this world. That’s what I believe.

That’s what we believe. What kind of power do we believe? The power of truth or the power of this world. Power of love or the power of people. The power of life or the power of the system. Pilate thought that he had all the power. He thought that he even had the power to release Jesus but in the end, he realized that he didn’t even have that power when people were really raising complaints against him, even though he wanted to let Jesus go, he could not let Jesus go. He had to crucify him. He didn’t have the power to let Jesus go. He didn’t even know that he didn’t have that power. He didn’t even know his powerlessness. The kingdom of power will perish with the power, but the Kingdom of truth will be forever. Your life of power will perish with the power, but your life of truth will remain forever. Jesus said, Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. We are the people who belong to the truth. Don’t be mistaken with your identity. Don’t live with power. Don’t value the power of this world. Don’t be mistaken with your identity. You are Christians. You are children of God. You are Jesus’ disciples who follow the truth, not the power. Don’t ever be mistaken with your identity.

God’s kingdom is not the kingdom built on the power that is visible in human eyes. God’s kingdom is a kingdom that we build with hope. It looks very small like a mustard seed, but ultimately it will become the biggest tree where the birds come and dwell and that’s what I believe. That’s what I believe for the rest of my life. For the rest of my life, that’s what we will do. Jesus’ kingdom is not built on power. It is built on your humble service. It is built on your love that embraces all. It is built on your sacrificial dedication. I pray that our church becomes that kind of kingdom. I pray that you become that kind of kingdom. You are God’s kingdom. This world will never be God’s kingdom. No, never, this world will never be God’s kingdom, but I pray that wherever you are, you may build the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is not a physical structure. It is how you live, what you find inside you. It is about how you live. Pilate didn’t understand Jesus, but Jesus clearly showed what kind of king he was. That kind of King we serve. That’s why he died on the cross. He could crush them, but he just took the cross. When you deal with other people, don’t deal with them with your power, but deal with them with love and humility and service because we believe that kind of kingdom will last forever. Believe in the truth. The truth will prevail.

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1 Samuel 1:4-20

Rev. In Kee Kim:

Thank you choir for the beautiful music. Samuel was a very important person in the Old Testament. He kind of made a new history for Israel. Until Samuel Israel had no king, leaders just arose from anywhere and took over and then they fought for Israel. There was no central government or central system, no kingship. It was Samuel who brought kingship to Israel. Only with Samuel, Israel became a kingdom. He also recruited and anointed David, who basically gave an identity to Israel. When you look at Israel, there are two people who made kind of an identity for Israel. Of course, Abraham started the whole movement, but it was Moses and David. They were the ones who gave a real identity to Israel. Samuel was the one who recruited David and anointed him to be the king. So David was like an engine of Israel. They always remembered David with really fun memories.

This story is a story about his mother. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, and how Samuel came to be born. Hannah was a barren and that caused tremendous stress on her. She wasn’t happy. She lost the appetite of life. Nothing could make her happy. As a matter of fact, she was quite miserable and Peninnah, another wife of Elkanah made it worse by continuously provoking Hannah. She continuously brought up the matter that God closed the womb of Hannah, and Hannah did not like that. She was provoked all the time. She was sad, and she was angry and all that stuff. Her husband Elkanah was very good to her, but that didn’t help her. And Hannah knew that, “this problem, nobody can really help me. Not even my own husband”. Well usually, you know, husbands are not that helpful. But this time it’s true too. She knew this. She had to deal with this problem alone with God. You know, from this story, I can see the integrity of Hannah here. I mean, she could have been very angry with Peninnah, and she could’ve been very angry with the situation. You know, when you have problems, the immediate reaction is anger. Why does this happen to me? All of the people live well, and especially Peninnah, she has so many children. She lives happily, but me, I don’t have a child and my life is miserable and she has all kinds of problems. She could be quite angry with her husband, with her situation, and especially with Peninnah. But she didn’t do that. She didn’t blame anybody. She didn’t blame Elkanah. She didn’t blame Peninnah. She didn’t blame her situation. She didn’t blame herself. She’s simply took matters to God. I think that’s the first lesson we need to learn from the story. Often when we have problems, we tend to find somebody to blame or some thing to blame.

Never am I the problem. Whenever we have problem, we never look at ourselves as a problem. There’s always somebody else who is a problem, and they cause a problem. So we always look for somebody or something to blame. I wonder whether that is our weakness. It shows our inferiority. It shows our weaknesses. We always have to blame somebody else, not myself. We get angry and we get frustrated. But my friends, anger never solves the problem. Anger doesn’t do any good. When I looked at my life, 99.9% I never, never saw with anger. Whenever I let out my anger at the end, after awhile, I shouldn’t have done that. Anger never solves the problem. I mean that was what we learned from the study of James, the book of James. James said, “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” So true. Your anger doesn’t produce any good in your life. Like Hannah, instead of blaming others or yourself or situations, learn to take matters to God. You face problems, go to God. Taking the matters to God is a hard discipline. But discipline yourself to take matters to God. I mean, when you’re angry, when you face problems it is so difficult to go to God with your matter, but learn to do that. God will help you and God will give you the wisdom.

Problems will never destroy you. You destroy yourself because of problems that you face. Let me tell you again, problems will never destroy you. You only destroy yourself as you deal with your problems. So learn and discipline yourself to take matters to God. When you face problems, don’t get carried away. Don’t deal with them with your negative emotions. Don’t play blaming games. It doesn’t do any good. Just taking matters to God, but when you take matters to God, do it with all your heart. That’s what it means to take matters to God. You don’t go to God half-heartedly. You take matters to God with all your heart. You seek God with all your heart. I share about this in inner voice last Friday. When we seek God, we should seek him with our whole heart. This is what it means to seek. When Jesus said, ‘seek and you shall find’, the word seek has a meaning of ‘keep on seeking’. Seeking God with our whole heart means that we seek him without giving up, we’ll find life’s happiness in seeking. That was my meditation on Psalm 1:19, happy are those who seek him with their whole heart. That’s what David said. Hannah sought God with her whole heart. She was so fervent. That priest Eli thought that she was drunk. He even told her to put away her wine, but after realizing that she was not drunk and after hearing all she had to say, this was what Eli said, “Go in peace, the God of Israel grant a petition you have made to him.” Do you know what Hannah did after hearing Eli’s pronouncement? This is what she did, and she said, “Let your servant find favour in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was said no longer. That was really strange because nothing happened yet. She just prayed. Eli just spoke to her. She wasn’t pregnant yet. She didn’t know that she would be pregnant yet, but she changed. Nothing happened on the outside, but inside something is changed. That’s what’s happening. When you seek God, when you seek God immediately, your circumstances may not change, but when you seek god, something inside of you changes, when you seek God with a whole heart, somehow, deep inside you know that everything will be alright.

That’s a result of seeking God with your whole heart. She was sad and miserable. She had this miserable look all the time, but now her countenance had no sadness. She was brightened up. She found her appetite of life again. I think what she did in prayer is that she completely left the matters in God’s hands. So two things. One, seeking God with your whole heart. Another, leaving matters completely in God’s hand. She believed God. She completely trusted God. Seeking God with your whole heart and leaving the matters completely in God’s hands, those two are the pillars of life. There is nothing else you need. Whenever you face problems, seek God with your whole heart and leave matters completely in God’s hands. Seeking God is the greatest weapon that you have in your life. When you’re able to do that, your life will change. You don’t need to live your life any more, reacting negatively to your situations.

You don’t need to calculate in your brain what will be the answer because God will give you the wisdom as you seek God with your whole heart. God will give you the wisdom. You don’t need to use your brain so much to come up with your own solution. You don’t need to worry about the uncertain future, the future that you don’t know yet. You don’t need to worry about what you cannot control. The amount of things that you cannot control. You don’t need to worry about what you cannot control because God will help you. You simply leave matters completely in God’s hands. All you need are those two things. Life is very simple. Don’t make it complicated. Whenever you face challenges, seek God with your whole heart. Second, leave your matters completely in God’s hands. Not only when you have problems do that in everything with your life. You will find courage and confidence. You’re not scared anymore. You don’t need to fear anymore. Whatever problems would come, instead of getting angry, instead of reacting with negative emotion, you just come to God and leave matters in God’s hands. Then you’ll find strength, courage, and confidence and even wisdom to deal with your life.

That was what we learned from the book of James. If any of you are lacking in wisdom, ask God. You feel like you don’t have wisdom. Ask God. Seek God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Ask in faith. Never doubt.

In the end, Hannah gave birth to one of the most important people in the Bible history. She named him Samuel, but this was the reason. In due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord. I have sought God.” She remembered how she sought God, my friend. IT’s easy to remember. Don’t ever forget. One, What is it? Seek God with your whole heart. Two, leave matters completely in God’s hands. Very easy, right? If you cannot remember this, you have a problem. As you walk out the door, don’t forget. I’ll ask in the fellowship hall, two things, what are two things? First, seek God with your whole heart. Two, leave matters completely in God’s hands. One is whole heart, the other is completely. One is seeking God and the other is leave matters, right? Simple, life is simple. Don’t make it complicated and then you’ll be confused every day, every moment, live like this. Then you’ll be fine. You’ll be guided by God.

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Mark 12:38-44

The focus of today’s story is on the widow, not the scribes. The widow was insignificant and almost invisible in their society, but somehow Mark focuses on the story of the widow, not the scribes who are powerful, visible, influential, popular. Mark brings up the lowly, not the people who have high status. That is a difference between the Gospel and other books. Other books put heroes, kings and queens and all the stories of the powerful people, but the Bible talks about the story of the people who otherwise would be invisible voiceless and they, I mean she doesn’t even have name, but Mark puts, highlight and focus on this person and he shares what Jesus said about this woman. Jesus said she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on. That was what Jesus said, but I’m not sure whether it was a compliment or expression of a sigh. Was Jesus praising this woman or was Jesus sighing about the situation that they were in?

At the time the temple was very corrupted. The temple was at the centre of their lives. It wasn’t just a religious centre. It was a political centre and an economic centre All the powerful in that society were in Jerusalem, and not only in Jerusalem, but they were also centred around and somehow connected with the temple. Either they have a job there or have some very intimate connection with the temple. All the powerful people, all the rich people has something to do with the temple. Slowly the temple lost its purity, its essence. It became corrupted. People used it for their own benefit. People used it to keep their status quo and their power. That’s why Jesus cleansed the temple. When he came, he went into the temple and he was not pleased, seeing the temple. He cleansed the temple and he said this; my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.

It is a quotation from the Old Testament, but Jesus mentioned that you, I mean this is the place where you come and pray, but you make it as a den of robbers. Jesus saw the corruption of the temple. Jesus saw the corruption of society. The powerful people exploited the weak and the vulnerable. Even in today’s passage, Jesus said to be aware of the scribes, and he said this; they devour widows’ houses, it shows the corruption of the rich and the powerful. You devour widow’s houses. He was so common for the powerful to take advantage of the weak. The people took it as simply a reality of life. We’ve been living like this all our lives and that is simply the reality that I just have to accept, and these people did this corruption legally, not illegally. The whole legal system was for the rich and powerful. They justify themselves by saying that they are legal, but in the end they exploit it.

The widows, the weak, and the vulnerable. Jesus knew this situation so well. That’s why he was never pleased with the powerful leaders of that society. Describe last week, I told you one scribe, he was the only exception that Jesus complimented. He complimented nobody, no leader, but he was the only one Jesus complimented because he was not very pleased with what was going on in Jesus’ time. You know, to live well, you have to side with a powerful, the rich, powerful, and influential people. Otherwise, you don’t survive in this society. You have to go get along with them, but Jesus did not get along with them. That’s why he was hated by them, and ultimately they killed him.

Jesus knew fairly well that the temple became not a place of prayer, but a den of robbers. Right after this story that is the end of chapter 12, you go into chapter 13 and the disciples went out and saw the temple, a magnificent temple. They probably came from Galilee and they’re like country people. They never saw this kind of big building. You know, they were farmers and the fisherman. They saw this magnificent structure, the temple and said, wow, look at this. Let me read it for you. Chapter 13 verse one and two the first two verses as he came out of the temple, one of the disciples said to him, look, teacher what large stones and what large buildings? They were so impressed, but then Jesus asked them, do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another. All will be thrown down the temple, which it looked so magnificent, will be destroyed. Jesus foresaw the destruction of the temple, knowing, knowing all that, Jesus made this comment about the widow. She gave everything she had in the temple offering box. This widow gave everything she had for the corrupt temple, for the temple that will be destroyed soon. She gave everything she had. I wonder whether Jesus complimented her or he was a sign of Jesus.

Of course, this widow did not know how corrupted the temple was. She didn’t even know that she was adding to the corrupt system. Even though it is very small money, a few pennies a few cents. I’m sure that it must have been hurting for Jesus to say about the widow’s offering. I’m sure there was a sigh of Jesus seeing this ridiculous scene. Maybe there was even Jesus, holy anger for this injustice.

If you’re a film director and choose an actor to play out Jesus, that actor should be very very good, because that actor should be able to portray this very mixed emotion, anger, sigh and sadness, all these things. Plus what I’m willing to say, all these things should be expressed through one expression of face, that actor should be really, really good to be able to do that. How do you do that? With one face, all this mixed emotion? Jesus also saw the heart of this woman. This widow showed a very different image from the scribes and all the elites of that time, Jesus could see a clear contrast. They all used the temple to get their own benefit and use the temple as their tool to keep their power and the status quo. But to this woman, this temple was a real temple. She kept the purity of the temple, to this woman the temple is the place where God dwelled. Temple was a place of prayer to this woman. Not to the scribes, not to the Pharisees, but to this woman, the temple was the temple. In its original purpose.

That widow did not lose a sense of the purity of the temple, the of the temple. That’s what Jesus saw in this woman. First of all, her offering was her thanksgiving for the grace she experienced from God. She knew what God’s grace was all about. She didn’t have much, a few cents. That was everything she had, but at the same time, she was full of God’s grace. And I realize that you feel the grace of God more when you don’t have (things) When you have so much you don’t experience. The grace is such an irony, but that’s something that I see, the people who have so much, they don’t feel the grace of God, but people who have nothing they feel the grace of God. When I went to Madagascar, the grace of God is just an everyday reality, very different.

She experienced the fullness of God’s grace. That reality, that was a spiritual reality. The rich can never experience, they cannot even fathom what that grace is all about. Overflowing grace of God. The abundance is not how much you have, but the abundance is about how much you share. God will never judge you at the end. How much you had. God will judge you, how much did you share? Money, talent, time, effort. Throughout your life, how much have you shared with what you have? That’s what God will see.

Secondly, her offering was her absolute trust in God. I mentioned last Friday about studying the book of James. The trial is there, there are two kinds. One, absolute trust you have in God and then you’ll have wisdom and with that wisdom, you deal with your trial. You’ll survive, you’ll live, you will become whole. You’ll achieve wholeness, but trial comes. The other side is your desire. You’re greed. Ultimately you’ll be destroyed. James is very clear on that. She had complete trust in God. She’d lift every moment with that trust. All the other people lived with their desire, with their greed, but she lived with one desire, and that is absolute trust in God every day. Isn’t that the blessed life, when you’re able to live every day with absolute trust in God? If you are able to do that you are a blessed person. There’s nothing to worry about.

Jesus said do not worry about tomorrow. I will take care of you tomorrow and she lifts out. Jesus message. Jesus teaching. Happy is the person who lives with this absolute trust. If you’re able to do that you’re a blessed person and there’s a problem ahead of you? Have absolute trust in God, you’ll be all right. You’ll be able to overcome all kinds of trials. You’ll be strong people. And we talked about that last Friday, that you know that a lot of people worried about their children. If they don’t build muscles, how can they deal with the trials that come to them? It’s like a muscle. When you’re able to deal with the trial, with absolute trust in God, then you build a muscle, and with this muscle, any trial comes? You’ll be fine. And one of the people, in my group, said, even if I lose everything right now, I think I’ll be all right. Why would he say that? Because he has muscle, muscle to deal with any kind of challenge. Riches, if there is good if there is? Then be thankful. If there is not, you’ll be all right. They come and go. Important thing is to have this muscle of trust in any situation.

Thirdly, what the widow did, showed what Jesus would do for her and for all of us soon. It pointed to Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus gave everything for us. Jesus sacrificed everything he had for us. Her action was exactly what Jesus did, show in the end. There are some people who take lightly, the sacrifice of the people. They think, oh, they’re stupid. They sacrificed everything for the church, and for God and Oh, they’re stupid. I think people who say that they are stupid are the stupid ones. Sacrifice is a beautiful thing. Your life is built on the sacrifice of somebody else. You’re not here on your own. You are here because of somebody’s sacrifice.

When I went to Madagascar, I said, you know, when we preach the Gospel they accept, they’re so responsive. They receive. Why? Because that country is built on the sacrifice of the martyrs built on the blood of Christ. I realized the blood is so precious. Without sacrifice, life is not possible. Without Jesus’ sacrifice life is not possible, so we should not take anybody’s sacrifice so lightly because God takes people’s sacrifice so preciously. No matter how small sacrifice that maybe, that sacrifice is beautiful in the eyes of God. And to all of us, that sacrifice is beautiful. Jesus said this, very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The widow’s offering was like a grain of wheat.

Today is the hundredth anniversary of the end of world war one. As Edward beautifully prayed, we are remembering their sacrifice. 14 million lives were sacrificed. 14 million. I pray that their sacrifice may not be in vain. I pray that their sacrifice may become a grain of wheat that ends the war in this world. War should not be justified in any way. Their sacrifice showed, my friends. Jesus sacrificed for you. That’s precious blood and Jesus also called all of us to take up your cross, to deny yourself and take up the cross and live a life of sacrifice. That’s what Jesus saw in this widow, that widow, you may say, what she did was stupid, but in Jesus’ eyes, that widow did a beautiful, precious sacrifice. She was not tainted by the evil system of that time. Don’t be tainted by this evil system of this world. Be Pure like that woman and your sacrifice will be precious.

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Mark 12:28-34

(*Due to technical difficulties, only a portion of the sermon was recorded. We apologize for the mishap.)

Thank you choir, beautiful music. Today’s scripture is probably the most important passage in the entire Bible. Of all the teachings of Jesus Christ, It is the core of Jesus’ teaching. Not only is it Jesus teaching but all the teachings in the Bible. This particular passage we read today is the most central message for all of us. It summarizes the essence of what we believe. Love your God and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the core of what we believe. Everything else is secondary. This is the most important, most primary thing to remember, but we have to understand the context from which this passage came from.

Just before this passage, there are stories about religious leaders who corner Jesus with their questions. It’s like hyenas trying to eat up a lion trying to kill a lion. Ferriss, the people from Herod’s, they all came with very, very difficult questions, not because they were interested in the answer, but they wanted to trap Jesus. So He started asking questions one by one, very, very difficult questions they asked. But somehow, Jesus answered each one of them brilliantly. They could not outsmart, outwit Jesus’ wisdom. And the scribe was there all along and the scribe saw how Jesus answered each one of their questions and that’s why he was interested in what Jesus had to say. This time the scribe did not come to trap Jesus, but he was interested in what Jesus had to say. The scripture says, “one of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he, Jesus answered them well. He asked him”, so he saw all that, this time he came with a sincere attitude. He was interested in what Jesus has to say and he asked this question, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Which commandment is the first of all, it was a difficult question to answer. It’s almost like what is the purpose of life? Tell me in one sentence, how can he tell you the purpose of life in one sentence. I mean there were so many commandments all together, 613 commandments in the Bible and then he’s asking which commandment is the most important? What? Which commandment is the first? Unless Jesus really knew about commandments, He would not have been able to answer this question, but Jesus summarized it and answered it with one short sentence, maybe two sentences. The people who know the subject, they can explain it in a simple and easy to understand way, but people who don’t understand the subject, they make it so difficult, so complex, so many words they have to use, but people who really know they can, even expert knowledge, they can just summarize or tell you in a very simple, plain language. And Jesus did that.

Jesus knew the commandments so well inside out he summarized with one sentence. He said, “The first is here o Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The first one they were very familiar with, the Lord is one, and you should love your God with all your heart. They knew it and they recited it every day, it’s called Shima. Twice a day in the morning and the evening. The Lord is one and loves the Lord, so they were very familiar with the first part. But the second part, love your neighbor as yourself. It is in the commandment. It is in Leviticus, but with all other commandments, it is hidden in there with all other commandments. But Jesus took that out and connected it with love your God. Jesus was the first person who took that out connected it with the “love your God” sentence.

But when Jesus said that, the scribe had this truth moment. Aha moment. When Jesus said yes, how come I didn’t know it, it was right there, but how come I didn’t know it. He understood immediately that was like a truth moment like truth took over the whole situation. Other people, they were all silent. They didn’t dare to ask questions. You know, sometimes, do you feel that? Certain Bible studies or whatever that truth arrived and everybody’s so quiet, but it’s not dead silence. But it’s creative silence, it’s holy silence that kind of holy silence was there and the scribe understood. But what’s interesting is that Jesus saw somehow the scribe, understood what he was saying. I was wondering what made Jesus see that the scribe understood what Jesus was saying. The scribe almost regurgitated what Jesus said. And then Jesus said to the scribe, when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” After that, no one dares to ask him any questions.

I think this is the first time Jesus praised a religious leader. You know, in the scripture Jesus does not compliment people that much. He always says, how long should I stay with you? Oh, men of little faith. And so he’s not really complimenting a lot of people, especially religious leaders. And this is the first time he complimented this religious leader. What does Jesus see in the answer of the scribe? I think the key is verse 33 “to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.” And he added this one. Jesus then said, “This is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” As soon as he said that, Jesus knew that he understands what I’m saying, right now. The scribe brought up the matter with the burnt offering. The scribe was sharp to understand what Jesus was saying. Jesus didn’t just say to love, he saw the problem of his time. He saw the problem of the people and he’s addressing the issue with this, almost like a diagnosis. He was giving a diagnosis to the people and prescription he writes for the people. That is your problem and that the prescription I want to give to you is loving your God and love your neighbor. That’s a prescription. The scribe exactly understood what Jesus was saying.

The problem was not burnt offerings, the problem was their heart. The hearts were hardened. Their hearts were hardened. There are so many people suffering around him, but their hearts were hardened. All they think about is burnt offering. They were incapable of loving God or others. They were self-absorbed. Even love cannot penetrate their heart. My friends, if all our religious activities cannot bring about love within us, they don’t mean much. Religious sentiment will not cut it. Right Doctoring will not cut it. If you don’t have love, those things will not mean anything. A beautiful saying, all you need is love. What we need in this world is love. No matter how much you pray, no matter how much you read the scripture, if that cannot be translated into concrete love, you won’t help us, help humanity, help God. Love has to be restored in this world. The world needs Jesus’ message of love. We should not let the message of hatred, discrimination, and violence take over the world. We should not let that happen.

We just experienced another tragedy in Pittsburgh at a Jewish synagogue. 11 people died in the synagogue while worshiping. Even when he was coming off the ambulance, he was still yelling, “kill all the Jews.” He was taken to the hospital, Allegheny general hospital, and three people treated him, did surgery because he was wounded, shot, so they treated him. Ironically, all three people were Jews and one of them was a president of the hospital and he was a member of the ‘tree of life’ synagogue, and the ‘tree of life’ synagogue is what had happened. One male nurse who took care of him. After taking care of him, he embraced the president and he just broke down. But they took care of him. Hearing the news, a Muslim community did fundraising to help the victims and family the goal they set for $25,000. Within six hours, they reached $25,000.

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