St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

{Transcript}

You look around the world today, and the powerful – they rule earth. The history of humanity is consisted of people trying to subjugate others into their control. Why? I asked this question to myself many times. Is this the fate of the world? Where the powerful rule while others suffer or do what they can just to get a piece of the crumbs? So when St. Paul says in today’s passage that for those of us being saved, the message of the cross is the power of God. What’s he talking about? I’d like to reflect on that today. Reverend Kim asked me to share a little bit too, about a trip to Cuba that Pastor Dave and I took recently. We had the privilege of going there as part of our study at Knox College, and it was a short trip – one week – but it was a trip that sparked so many thoughts and reflections that I’m still processing right now.

One thing I really learned about what mission is, is that a real mission is just an encounter. And through an encounter with something that’s different from what you’re familiar with, it actually sparks a lot of reflection on yourself. And through that process it makes you more humble and alive to what the world is more about. So that’s what happened. On the last day there we visited an art gallery, a local art gallery. And in the art gallery there were sculptures produced by this famous Cuban artist, his name is Osmany Betancourt Falcon, otherwise known as “Lolo”. I have a picture here. In the first sculpture we see the head of a man. He’s being stomped on by many boots, but if you look at his face, he’s still smiling.

Next sculpture, we see the head of this man – he’s being cut scene, squeezed, pressed from all sides. But if you look at his face closely, there’s still a smile on this face. So to me, art, without me having to articulate it, it really does epitomize quite vividly, I think, the experience of the Cuban people. Cubans, they’ve been through so much, they’ve endured so much. I don’t have time here to go through the entire history lesson. But yet through all this, they’ve come through it with a vibrancy in their souls that’s reflected in their music, in their rhythms, in their art and in their dancing. So for one thing, live bands are everywhere. For the first three nights we were in Havana and we stayed at a hotel there, and there was a live band in the lobby. We enjoyed the music with some drinks, and when the music got a little lively the local Cubans started dancing, and one night they came to us, these Canadian Knox students and pulled us up to start dancing. You could clearly tell who were the Canadians and who were the Cubans – we lack the hip mobility. But it was fun. I mean you know, that kind of hospitality and warmth.

One thing that really stood out is that you see art everywhere. There’s paintings, drawings, sculptures. It was a big contrast to here where I realized we don’t really see that much art. The art we see is the commercialized art for branding purposes, but not that free expression. But one observation I had was that I think there’s a struggle at this moment in their state or stage, where they’re trying to keep the human being at the center while trying to access more of the material benefits that capitalism can offer. I sensed that Cuba is at a transition point where choices have to be made about what direction they go. And some of the conversations I had, I think, illustrate some of these choices. So at the art gallery, I spoke to a young curator who shared with me a struggle that a lot of young people face in Cuba. They can choose a career through which they can help people because education is free there and you can become a professional and you can get a PhD for free and you can get into a helping profession, but you’ll make it very meager salary. Or you can go to one of those resorts, get a job there and make more money than you would have ever dreamed of with all the tourist money that comes in.

We met some seminary students there where we stayed, a few hours from Havana. Now these people impressed me. They’re young – they’re 19, 20 years old – they’re undergrads, but they studied full time during the week, Monday to Friday, and then on weekends they trek out to their various ministries across the island because there’s a big shortage of pastors in Cuba. Many have already left, emigrated to the United States, so there’s a shortage, so they are the ministers for their churches. But here’s the thing, hardly anyone has cars. There’s no credit system and so you need to pay a lump sum for cars and no one has a car. So they take the bus, they hitchhike, they go by any means necessary to their locales. So admirable. One of the students was sharing and his mother was a professional psychologist at a hospital in Havana. It’s a very educated and helping profession. She makes 30 US dollars a month. How can you afford anything? When we’re at the hotel lobby and we’re like, oh, $2 drinks, sweet. Right? So cheap. But after all this I realize, that’s a lot of money for Cubans. So what does the future hold for Cuba? Will they be able to maintain their vibrant humanity as capitalism keeps encroaching into their daily life? So I wonder, and I pray for the future of the country.

One aspect – it was a funny thing – being in Cuba, really made me think a lot about just our Korean history itself. I saw a lot of striking parallels, and I do hope to reflect more on that another day, another time.

In the era of the Roman Empire, Roman power was absolute. Once they decided to conquer an area, its aim was complete submission of that region. They would tolerate no dissent or absolutely no agitation for independence. They came up with a system devised to instill terror into the hearts of those who might even think of rebelling against this absolute power. This system was implemented to exert complete social control. This system was crucifixion. Crucifixion was meant to tell the defeated and subjugated group that resistance really was utterly futile and that they were powerless to resist. And if they been tried, terror would sweep upon them. So in other words, crucifixion was a message to the powerless group that this is your place and don’t try to be otherwise. This is how the Romans enforced their Pax Romana, Roman peace. Roman peace through force and subjugation and terror.

God came into this world, according to our Christian faith and tradition, God came into this world and suffered the ultimate form of powerlessness, and God was crushed by the power of this world. God was crucified. God chose to suffer, as the weak and crushed of this world suffer. God and Jesus did not choose the path of power and glory as the world understands it. And here’s the other thing that the Roman system of crucifixion did: it scared people from banding together and supporting others who are suffering. So the message was, okay, if you don’t want to love us, you don’t have to, but try to get together and do anything and you will be utterly crushed. For us today, I think we all know there is so much suffering and injustice that goes on in the world. And yeah, being there in Cuba, listening to different things, I realize in the broader world there’s so much injustice and suffering. We see things on the news all the time and yet, I think we find ourselves often very numb to it. Or we might have a momentary feeling compassion, but then we move on. It’s very difficult for us to be in true solidarity with those who do suffer. So why is this the case?

Again, being in Cuba and seeing the transitions they’re going through and the choices they have to make, it made me realize something. Being in a different context just made me realize how much, in North America, we’re utterly captive to the power of capitalism. Without even knowing it, the values of capitalism have pervaded every aspect of our daily living. What it does is, it keeps us focused on ourselves and prevents us from banding together in true solidarity with others who might be suffering.

The Romans had a slogan that they used: peace and security. This is the slogan that they used to justify their domination. So there’s a quote from a biblical scholar, “Everywhere that Rome makes an appearance, the provision of peace and security is made to justify the loss of autonomy and more than compensate for all the initial terrors.” This was a strategy that Rome used.

I reflected on this quote and it started to make me think about our context today. So what I did was I replaced the word Rome with capitalism. And I replaced a few words… “Everywhere that capitalism makes an appearance, the provision of peace and security – I replaced it with the provision of financial and material well-being – is made to justify the loss of autonomy and more than compensated for all the initial terrors.” I kept those other two words and I’ll explain why. Financial material well-being justifies the loss of our autonomy. Let’s ask ourselves an honest question… if you did not have to really do your job to make money, would you be doing it? I think there’s maybe a few who would say, “Yes, I love what I do and this is me,” and that’s great, but I know for many people the answer is no.

We are, if you think about it, in bondage to the jobs that provide the financial and material well-being. And what do I mean by compensate for all the initial terrors? What I mean by that is – when I, you know, in my ministry with young people too – during the course of trying to figure out what we’re going to do, we have to often make radical changes in ourselves and who we are so that we fit into the system. As an example, I remember in middle school I moved to a brand new area. This was a very affluent area and I came from a very different area. I felt like a fish out of water. I mean, I had to learn how they talk, how they walk, literally, you know, and it was, it’s like a violent change within yourself that you have to make to adjust psychologically. Same with when you get into the professional world – there were norms, social norms, behavioral norms, things like that. You just, you have to learn and pick things up even if it doesn’t feel natural or in your skin, you have to make that adjustment. And often these are internally violent changes in yourself. I mean, I use a funny example once, you know, I see some young Koreans kicking it back at a soju-bang, you know, and they’re themselves! They’re laughing, drinking, talking, and then they go to karaoke sing songs, and that’s them. But then flip it the next day a professional function for like Bay Street people and it’s an entirely different person, do you know what I mean? These are the kind of internal violent changes that we have to make. But we justified these initial terrorists with the financial material well-being. “Because that is what I need to do, that’s what I got to do, and I justify it.”

So what it is, this system, it keeps us captive I think, it makes us numb to the suffering of others and it keeps us focused on ourselves and our immediate families and our communities. And this is what I’ve realized. I think we’re, just as in Roman times there were visible victims of that system, we too are victims in many ways of the system. I talk to our young people weekly, and the same struggles; “I need to study hard. I need to do this in order to succeed. I don’t want to be a failure.” The system, it’s just less visible. There’s no visible, explicit oppression, but there is something that holds us captive. I realized that cross that was a symbol of terror in Roman times, you know what that cross is today? The cross can appear as having no job, no money, not being able to afford the things that you need, not being useful. So where’s the hope? Do we run away from this system or do we try to topple it? I don’t think either is the solution.

See when Jesus died on the cross, nothing about the raw power of the Roman empire changed. It was just as powerful as before, if not even more. But something else changed. No longer did the ways and values of the empire have any hold on Jesus. Jesus resurrected. And with the resurrection, Jesus announced the coming of a new age. This wasn’t – this would be an age when love, self-giving, humility and justice would reign.

This age was not here yet, nor is it here yet. But that resurrection, it points to the ultimate destination of God’s creation. That’s the hope. But why does there have to be such enormous suffering in the meantime before God’s reign comes? Honestly, I don’t know, and I do ask myself that all the time. To me, the suffering in the world demonstrates the reality of sin in this world, and to ignore human sin I think, is to be naive about it.

But the good news is that – even though we have suffered this violence in our souls of trying to adapt and survive – you know what the goods news is? Tomorrow can be a better day. That is the hope of the resurrection. This system, it crushes our souls but yet, with Christ, we rise up for a better day. No longer do we let the system suck life out of our souls, but with Christ we rise up into a new life of joy, abundance and fullness.

We live in this world, but we no longer buy into the values of it like self centered-ness. Instead, we now live by God’s values of love, justice, and solidarity with others who are weak like us. God chose to side with those who are weak. God takes on the powerlessness of those who suffer great injustices. God takes on our helplessness in this capitalistic system we live in. God forms us together in communities based on new values, and that is what the church is. The church is an alternative community where the core principles of love, self giving and solidarity with the weak are paramount.

Even though in the world the powerful seem more powerful than ever, we press on with the hope that God will have the final triumph. And so, while life is challenging in its day-to-day, we can endure. St. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.”

I pray for the future of Cuba. I pray for this world, especially those who suffer at the hands of the powerful. And I also pray for all those of us who are victims of the system and suffer from stress or low self confidence of trying to succeed in it. God will be victorious in the end. In the meantime, we strive with every ounce of our being to work toward the world that God envisioned. Let us all together imagine this new world and work toward it with God’s power.

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Romans 4:17-18

as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations ) in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become the father of many nations, according to what was said, So numerous shall your descendants be.

Just before the sermon, I gave a little blurb about worship. Worship is something that you give with faith. Without faith, it is not possible to give worship because worship is not an action. Worship is not what you do. Worship is something that happens internally between you and God. So only way to really worship God is through faith. Only through faith. You cannot figure out God with your brain. You can only approach God through faith. And when you approach God through faith, something wonderful happens. As we heard the song today, God made everything beautiful and that beauty of life will be experienced in our lives through the worship. So wonderful things can happen. So, I hope that your life opens, and you experienced that a beauty of life.

I believe that living with faith is very important. Living with faith is more beneficial than living without faith. You can live more meaningfully, and you can achieve even more in life. Abraham is known as the father of faith and I believe that he lived with faith and he lived a truly blessed life. Even hope against hope. He believed he encounter all kinds of impossible situations, but somehow Abraham learns to deal with all his situations, with faith. Not with his brain. For a while he tried to deal with his situation with his brain, he ended up making more mistakes, but somehow, he learned to deal with these situations through faith and in the end, he became a father of faith. If there’s one thing that you need to learn in life, I will say, it is faith. But this learning is different from what you can learn in school. It isn’t life learning, so it’s a little bit more complex than studying the textbook and all that. It involves your life, situations, circumstances, and your attitude, who you are, and everything is involved, but somehow if there’s one thing that you need to learn in life, I believe that that is faith. That if you learn to live your life with faith, you can deal with a lot of situations in a healthy and productive way. Your life will be very different.

Of course, when I talk about faith, I’m talking about faith in Christ and faith in God. But today what I’m going to talk about is when that faith is manifested in our life, what does it look like? How does it manifest itself in life? And I would like to share three things with you.

The first, I believe in circumstances. I believe in circumstances. That’s how faith is manifested. Our circumstances are not always good. There are times that our circumstances are very bad, unbearable even. Sometimes there are times when things work out very well, but there are also moments when life gets so entangled that you don’t know where to start to untangle your life. But no matter how difficult our situations maybe I believe that there is always a way out. That’s what I believe. There always a way out. I believe that all our circumstances will work out alright. If we learn to be patient. A lot of times we make it worse by trying to untangle on our own, but when we wait with faith, somehow our circumstances, life circumstances have their own ways of resolving themselves. We need to be patient. We need to wait, and we must trust in the fact that the circumstances will find their own way out. Even in a hopeless situation, there is a way out.

This is what Saint Paul said. “We know that all things, all things meaning, all circumstances will work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. All circumstances ultimately will work together for good.” That’s what St Paul believed. He believed in circumstances, but all these circumstances will work out for good. That was how Abraham lived his life. Even when he had no child, not a single child, God told him that you will be a father of great nations, many nations. And somehow, he believed when he had no child, he believed. Kind of dumb. When you really look at it. Being too smart, it’s not really being smart. I realized sometimes being dumb is good and Abraham somehow believed that he will be a father of many great nations. And then he got a son, Isaac, and he was so happy. Finally, God is doing his work and then suddenly God told him to sacrifice your son. But strangely he again believed. Somehow something will work out. So, he brought his son Isaac to be sacrificed, believing that somehow there’ll be a way out. And there was a ram right there. Jehovah Jireh, meaning God prepares in all circumstances, Abraham somehow believed, believed that things will work out. If you can believe that you can live a powerful life.

Don’t be victims of your circumstances. Overcome your circumstances and do not fear difficult circumstances. Do not give up just because you face many difficult circumstances. When you learn to live with faith, you will be able to see how things work out for good. I’ve encountered many impossible situations personally, but also other people’s lives and in the end, things worked out. And I’m thankful to God for that. I believe in myself. That’s how faith manifests itself. I believe in myself because God chose me. I believe in myself because God believes in me. This is what Isaiah said, “do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.” This is what Isaiah believed. You are mine God said. I have chosen you. I have called you.

There’s another prophet, Jeremiah, before he was in his mother’s womb, somehow God used Jeremiah. Even before he was born, when he was in mother’s womb, God set him aside as a prophet. But unfortunately, Jeremiah did not believe in himself. This is what Jeremiah said, “our Lord God truly, I don’t know how to speak. For I am only a boy. I’m not a prophet. I’m only a boy.” Jeremiah did not believe in himself. When he did not believe himself, God said to Jeremiah “do not say, I’m only a boy, for you shall go to all. To whom I send you and you shall speak, whatever I command you, do not be afraid of them, for I’m with you to deliver you.” God told Jeremiah, “trust in yourself. Don’t say you’re just a boy.” Trust yourself. Don’t just say that you are a failure, or I cannot do this. I cannot do that. Don’t just say that. Believe in yourself. You can do many things. I believe in myself, not because I’m great, not because I can handle everything well. I make so many mistakes, I fail so many times, but still, I believe in myself because God chose me. God called me. God strengthens me, and God protects me.

Peter articulated our human identity or believer's identity in this way, “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” I don’t know how Peter got all this message to some miracle. I mean that’s how he saw himself and others. In order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That was how he saw himself. If you don’t believe in yourself, you cannot achieve anything. God works through you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, how can God work through you? Only when you believe in yourself, then God can work through you. If you are weak, God will give you strength. If you have no wisdom, God will give you wisdom.

Even before Jesus started his ministry, he was preparing himself by being baptized for his ministry. The first thing that God taught Jesus was, believe in yourself. That was the first thing God taught Jesus. This is what God said. “You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.” In other words, make sure that you remember that you are my son, the beloved, and I am very well pleased with you. Make sure you know that. No matter what circumstances you may go through, make sure that you know that you’re my son. Right after that, Satan comes to Jesus and said to Jesus, if you are the son of God, are you the son of God? He was questioning Jesus, but the first thing God said to Jesus was, you are my son, beloved. I am well pleased with you. Jesus had to believe in himself in all kinds of situations. When you believe in yourself, there’ll be nothing in the world that can destroy you. In any situation. You will come out strong. Come on strong. Believe in yourself.

Third, I believe in my future. I preached a few weeks ago. Tomorrow will be better than today. That’s what I believe. I lived without faith. Tomorrow will be better than today. We learned from the past live in the present and believe in the future. Somebody said, “the future belongs to those who believe in it. For those who don’t believe in the future, there is no future. But the future belongs to those who believe in it.” God told Jeremiah “for surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm. To give you a future with hope.” I believe that. This morning preparing to come to church we turned on the TV and then there was an Olympic closing ceremony. And the chairperson of our IOC came out and said a similar thing. “I have faith in the future. Yes, I have faith in the future. I have faith that someday in the future there will be no situation where the powerful exploit the weak, but everybody lives with equality and love, harmony and understanding. And I believe in the future that North and South Korea will be reunified and become one country. I believe in the future. All nations will come together in harmony and love.” I do believe in the future. Future is not something we can see. You cannot see the future with your physical eyes, but we can see the future with the eyes of hope. If you have eyes of hope and believe in the future, you can persevere through your adversity in the present. If you don’t have it, you cannot persevere. But when you have that, when you have faith in the future, you can persevere through your adversity.

I believe in what St Paul said. This is what Saint Paul 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.” This is a word that I gave to MiSun when she suffered quite a bit/ Ultimately God will bring things to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Luke recorded what the people who received the Holy Spirit look like. When you receive the Holy Spirit, what do they become? This is what he said ” ‘in the last days it will be,’ God declares, ‘that I’ll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.’ ” Prophesy, visions, dreaming dreams. They became the people who believe in the future. When the Holy Spirit comes, that’s what happens.

The early Christian survive through extreme persecution and difficulties. They worship like this, and the next day so and so got killed and so and so disappeared. All kinds of stories they heard every day. But they went through and persevere through extreme situations because they believed in the future. And they saw the future and the future they saw was this. Let me read it for you. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, see, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away.” When you look at the second part is all future tense. They will. They will, they will, he will, but in the beginning, then I saw a new Heaven. They saw the future and they believed the future and they fought for the future. You are God’s people, you’re God’s chosen race. God called you to bring about a better, brighter future in this world. Let us believe in God who is working through us.

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Mark 1:9-15

It is not for me. You don’t come to worship to get anything out of it. We don’t do that, worship is only for God and God only. We come here to worship God and to lift up his name. Of course, ultimately, we get benefit out of it, but we don’t come here to get something out of it. We purely come to give worship to God. Give everything to God. So, as you come to worship, let us come with that heart, with a prepared heart, that we gave our self as a living sacrifice to God. Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, starting from Ash Wednesday for 40 days it’s called a lent. We’re reflecting on Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for us, during this Lent.

The first thing that Jesus experienced during lent was the temptation. So, I’m going to reflect on the reality of temptation with you today. Well, I read this passage, I was always curious as to why did the spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness? Why did the spirit do that? Because wilderness is not a good place. It is a place where there’s temptation, it is a dark place. You’re vulnerable in the wilderness and the wilderness, not a place that you want to be, and you want to get out of it as soon as possible. But why did the Spirit a send or drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted? The Greek word drive here is a very intense word. Almost violent. It is called Ekballo. It means chase out it, drive out. Chase out into the wilderness. The spirit chased Jesus out into the wilderness. When Jesus healed the demon-possessed person, Jesus chased out, like Ekballo that kind of intense, violent of a word. With that, the same with the same intensity the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness on baptism.

The spirit came down like a dove. Very gentle image. Spirit came down like a dove on Jesus at baptism, but all of a sudden, the Spirit change and drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Did the Spirit tempt Jesus? We all know very well that God does not tempt us. God does not tempt you in any way. God does not make you fall in any way. That is not the God we believe in. Our God never tempts us. This is what James said, “no one when tempted should say, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.” Then if God does not tempt us, why did the Spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness. And I was thinking about the reality of temptation. I was thinking whether we can escape or avoid temptation in any way. Can you avoid temptation? Can you live without temptation? No. No matter what we do, we are bound to face temptation in your life. No matter what you do, you will experience temptation. And it’s sometimes very hard, sometimes easier, but we all face temptation. When you’re face temptation, I hope that you don’t give up. You don’t give in.

After baptism, Jesus was about to start gospel work, but right outside of the door, the temptation was waiting for Jesus. Whenever you try to do something good, the temptation is always right there to disturb you. Let’s say, okay, this year I’m going to be a better Christian, and at that moment there is a temptation that makes you go astray. That that is our life. The temptation is real. We all faced temptation. Now I understand why the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. If the temptation is something that you cannot avoid, then you must face it. That’s why Jesus, a Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. To face it face to face. Jesus had to confront temptation face to face. That’s what you got to do. If temptation is a reality that you can never escape or avoid then you must confront temptation. Face to face. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t try to run away from temptation, but confronted face to face. We must see what pulls us down, what presses us down, and we have to confront what blinds our eyes so that we not see. What is that temptation that really pushes you down? That stops you from becoming what you’re supposed to be. What is their power? What is that real reality that does that to you? Not to live as a precious child of God? Once confronted, you’ll see the reality of temptation as naked as possible. You'll be able to start seeing that. When Jesus was driven into the wilderness and confronted temptation, he was able to see what temptation looked like, what real temptation was like.

Mark doesn’t record that, but Matthew and Luke record that. The order is different between Matthew and Luke, but those three things, Jesus was able to see very clearly. The first one was considered the bread more important than God’s word. In other words, survival. Survival is the most important thing. Probably this is the most difficult thing. Difficult temptation to, uh, overcome survival. We feel with our skin and when our survival is at risk, then we get easily tempted. So, survival is the most important thing. The bread is more important than anything else. Two, I’ll give you the whole world. It is a temptation of greed. Many people fall into this temptation. Greed, we want to be great. We only have more. All the time greed is around us. Instead of having a pure desire, we always have this greed for fame and reputation and for material possession all these things. And third, will God really helped me when I come down from the pinnacle of the temple? In Matthew that comes at the end, but in Luke, it comes in the in the middle. Will God help me is a temptation of doubt. When you go through a dark time, a difficult time, you wonder will God help me? Even though God has helped you all this time when you face a new problem, you ask that question again will God be able to help me?

When Jesus confronts the reality of temptation face to face, these things were visible. He was able to see what was bothering him. But this reality temptation is not just for Jesus but also for all of us. I realized that the Spirit is not always gentle and good. Spirit does not always take you to a good or comfortable place. Spirit is not always like a dove. Whenever we talk with Spirit we draw doves. The Spirit is not always like that. Sometimes Spirit takes you into the dark reality of temptation. You don’t like it, but that’s real. That’s what Spirit does. The Spirit that we created, we manufactured, always takes you good in a good place. But real Spirit does not take you to a good place. Sometimes the spirit leads us into deep loneliness, sometimes in into self-doubt, sometimes into the cloud of unknowing and sometimes into thinking that everything is in vain. Temptation cries out life after death. Ridiculous. There is no life after death. Death is the end. The temptation will say that.

In KSM last Wednesday, I was kind of emotional because when I looked around, I saw some older members. I’ve been with them for a long time. They were session members and I looked at them, they were on the verge of death and then they will face the greatest temptation at their deathbed. And then I said to myself, I need to prepare them. I need to prepare them with faith so that they can face their own death, like confidence and faith. Then I got emotional when I thought about them. The temptation will cry out. There’s no life after death. Death is the end. And sometimes temptation cries out no matter how hard you try, that’s no use. You won’t be able to make. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to make it. And sometimes things don’t work out well. Difficult things happen repeatedly even in our church.

This year theme is Healing through Worship and we put the worship as the center. Less in ESM, but in KSM, a lot of hindrances. Some people got into conflict. I don’t know why they do that and all kinds of things were happening things after one after another so that we don’t have meaningful worship. Sometimes instead of facing the reality of temptation, they completely ignore it. Don’t think about it. If I don’t think about it, I don’t fall into temptation, so they don’t think about. They avoid it. They run away from temptation. Sometimes people drink to forget about temptation. Some people just work and work and work to think about anything else. Just work hard and your life will be okay. They’re just scared of temptation, so they try to run away from it. And the result is numbness. You don’t even know what you feel. Total numbness, but the Spirit drives us into the wilderness because we doubt going through the wilderness we can never enter the promised land. But without the wilderness, you cannot live a meaningful life you’re supposed to live.

Right now, the Winter Olympic is going on and the figure skater couple Duhamel and Radford won the bronze medal. At the last Olympics they came in seventh place and they said in an interview, “during this practice, in the middle of it, they said to each other, we’re done. Our Olympic career is done. We can never make it.” But there was a temptation and they overcame it. They practice and practice. Suddenly, things got together, and they started believing in themselves. Had more confidence. And then finally at the Olympic, they got the bronze medal. I think life is like that. No matter what you do, nothing comes easy though.

No one lives an easy life. To live a good and meaningful life we must go through the wilderness of temptation. As you go through the wilderness of temptation, there’s one thing that you must do that is trusting God. It is very concrete advice. When you go through temptation, trust in God. You must learn to trust in God. The wilderness of temptation is the best place to learn how to trust in God. Saint Paul taught us about temptation. This is what it said. No testing has overtaken you. That is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. If you’re just running away from temptation, you will never learn to trust in God. In times of trials and temptation, you must learn to trust in God.

Running away from temptation is a cowardice. Lack of courage brings only regrets. Are you going to live a life with regrets, or are you going to overcome your temptation and live it fully? I want all of you to live a meaningful life, whatever you do. And to do that, you must persevere through temptation. Let us not be scared of temptation. Why be scared? Because God promised that you’ll never be tempted beyond your ability. And God will give you the strength and God will show you a way out when you go through temptation. So, when temptation comes to you, learn to trust in God. God will give you strength and God will show you the way out.

Boldly move forward with your life. Obstacles are there for you to go over. Obstacles are not there for you to avoid. They are there for you to go over. You’ll become stronger. Don’t be frightened with small waves. You’ll be able to handle even the big waves. Be a bigger person. Be a bigger person. The only way to do it is to fight against temptation, to overcome your temptation with God’s strength. Let us sing together.

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Isaiah 43:18-21

Last week we talked about how worship is total immersion. Total immersion is when you enter into God’s presence, but you cannot enter into God’s presence only through the intellect. You can enter into God’s presence through total immersion. Today, I would like to say that worship is my spirit meeting God’s spirit or collectively our spirit meeting God’s spirit. When we meet God’s spirit, because God is spirit and where there is a spirit, there is freedom. We become free. And as we become free we enter into the glory of God. Have we experienced the glory of God? That’s what worship is. If this doesn’t happen, it is just a worshipful act. The worshipful act is not worship. Worship is a spiritual thing. It’s not a physical thing. So when we meet God and our spirit becomes free and we enter into the glory of God and their worship happens, and that’s what we are trying to do every week.

People think of life as a way. A lot of philosophers talked about life as a way and a lot of poets like Robert Frost, who wrote about roads less travelled and they talk about life as a way. Our Lord Jesus also said, “I am the way.” In other words, life is way, I am the way. And also he said there is a narrow road and wide road. He kind of used this metaphor of way to describe our life. We may take a very different road in a different way. Every one of us takes a different way and the way that we choose leads us to a different place.

I’ve seen my own children growing up, Josh and Grace, they are both my children and they lived under the same care, but the way they chose their way was radically different. I realized how different every person’s life is. We cannot necessarily say that one way is better than other ways. We cannot say that everyone should follow one way because that is the best way. And also in life, there is no right order. Always. Life doesn’t happen. One, two, three, four. Sometimes four comes first and the rest of it comes at a different time. Even the order of life is very different. The reason we choose a way depends on many things, for example, our circumstances at that time or our feelings and emotion or the kind of people that we meet and sometimes even our blindness and ignorance. These things affect us in choosing our way sometimes as we look back, I was so stupid. I was so ignorant, I didn’t know anything, and in blindness, I’ve chosen many things. Sometimes we feel that but all these things affect which way we choose, but whatever the reason may be, the way we chose shapes us, defines us and makes us a person who we are right now. We didn’t just come here accidentally. We came here by the way that we chose and we came to this place. We don’t need to blame others or our circumstances. The important thing is we still have a way to choose in front of us.

No matter what you have chosen. Still, we have a way, the road that we need to choose. I’m not talking just talking about our careers or work. I’m talking about the way we live our lives, but I’ve realized that the way is not necessarily something I choose. That’s something I realize the way it’s shown to us. I thought all this time I thought that the way the road I choose, but sometimes the way is opened up for me. You just kind of shown to us.

The problem is we’re not spiritual enough. We don’t pray enough. We don’t have quiet time enough, and so we don’t see what road, what way is opened up for us. Many times we just choose the easy way because that is most convenient. We choose a way because we just feel like it. We just choose a way because that is the only way that I know. I don’t know any other way to choose. I just live my life by the given kind of lifestyle that is given to me or because we are so used to living in a certain way. We just continue living that way. The easy way is not always my way. The secret of life is to always create a new path. I believe that that’s the secret of life. To create a new path there is no way that is already paved. Well for you. There is no way. We just have an illusion that there is a way that is paved for me, but there is no way that is paved specifically for you. You have to create that path, that way on your own. We have to find a way that God opens for us. Today Isaiah said, I’ll make a way in the wilderness.

That’s a very strange statement. I’ll make a way in the wilderness. Wilderness is not a place where there is a way. There’s no road in the wilderness. That’s what wilderness is. But God is saying, I will make a way in the wilderness. We didn’t read it today, but in verse 16, Isaiah described it more dramatically. He said, thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters. I mean, where is there a way in the sea where is water in the mighty waters, but God is saying, I’ll make a way, in the sea. God will create a way where there is no way. That is the kind of God we have. God does not want you to continue your way because you don’t see a new way.

When people hit the dead end, they always try to go back to the old ways. That was what the Israelites did in the wilderness. Every time they did that, not just once or twice. Every time they faced challenges and they experienced the dead end, We can’t go any further here. There’s an ocean in front of us and there’s no food. There’s no drink, there’s no way out and every time we’re in the experience of life challenges, Oh, let us go back to Egypt. Let us go back to Egypt. I mean every time God made a way for them, but still when a new problem comes they automatically say, let us go back to Egypt. That’s what they did.

In Isaiah. God said to the Israelites, do not remember the former things were considered the things of old. What he’s saying is don’t try to go back. Don’t give up. Don’t cut your journey short and then God said, “I am about to do a new thing.” Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? Don’t just see the way, the new way that I created for you do not, don’t you perceive it? I’ll make a new thing for you, don't you see it? And then he said, I’ll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

My friends, in life, there is no map for you. I’m sorry to tell you that, but there is no map for you. That is the difference between the literal way and the metaphorical way. When we think about the literal way, we always think about map, these days GPS. If there is no road in GPS there, if there’s no road in the map, then there is no road, but in a metaphorical way, there is no GPS. In the way God creates for us, there is no GPS. You cannot find a way by turning on your GPS. You are not a map follower. You are a map maker. Our map is not complete yet. So far we have created a map for us, but in front of us there is a road that is not yet on the map and you have to draw that map from this point on. God always makes a new way for you, just because yesterday you lived in this way. You don’t have to live today in the same way, and tomorrow your life will not necessarily be the same. Keeping it the same is not the best strategy of life, It’s not the best thing to do, maybe safest, but it’s not the best thing to do or a most exciting way to live your life.

Don’t just complain because you don’t see the way. Don’t just give up because you don’t see the way. Get used to searching for the way and creating the way. It probably won't be you who created the way but God will open up the way and then you will search for it. While writing this sermon this image came to me. That image is: you make a way you live all your life you make a way and then you come to the dead end. So there. “Oh my goodness, I have nothing. I have no place to go further. But right there you have to create a path, but it’s very short. When you create a path, a new world opens up. But most people, when they see the dead end, they are so scared, they don’t create a path and they just give up there and then life ends right there, at the dead end.

Instead of just sitting down at the dead end, you have to now create a path. Then you will enter into a totally different world. A new world. And I was thinking about death because I have a lot of KSM members who are aged people, they are probably facing the last five years, ten years. And I told them when you face death you may not be able to see the road any further. You think that that’s the dead end, that’s the finish. But when you’re used to seeing what is not, what is hidden, then maybe at the end you’ll be able to see the road that connects the whole thing. And I realize the way that we create, it should not end here, you have to create a path and you have to get there. The whole way will make sense it makes sense. Ah, this is how the road begins and this is how the road ends. Don’t give up in the middle of it. You have a way that you need to create to make the whole way meaningful. Your way is not complete yet. This is the moment that, okay, what way should I create? What way should I search for? Day by day we have to live like that. You may be able to see the map behind you, but you don’t have a map in front of you, but that’s exciting because God will create a way for you.

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Isaiah 40:27-31

Healing through worship. I’m going to talk a little bit about worship right in the beginning, before the sermon, maybe two minutes or so. There’s a Korean word, a very interesting word. It is called “MuLib”, meaning total immersion. That’s what worship is. Total immersion from the beginning to the end. Worship is not what you do, what you do is meaningless. Worship is not the action. Worship is not what you do. Worship is your heart, your spirit meeting God’s spirit. So, without that total immersion, without MuLib, we cannot have worship. I mean, you can do all the actions of worship, all the motions of worship, but it is possible that you never worship God in your entire life. When there is no immersion, there is no worship. To this year, hopefully, that from the beginning to the end, we made totally immersed into God’s presence and have meaningful and good worship. If we learn how to worship our life will change. Our spirituality will change. Only through the worship, healing is possible. Only through the worship real spirituality is possible.

I believe that tomorrow is better than today. That’s what I believe. I live with that belief. Tomorrow will be better than today. Is that not what hope is all about. Hope, meaning that you believe that it will get better. Tomorrow will be better than today. We should live with the belief that life will get better and, we should live a life that gets better as time goes on. Even though our present life may be difficult and very hard, if we have hope, we can see a brighter future. When we see a brighter future, we can have a better attitude towards the present suffering that we are going through. Even though you go through hardship now, if you have hope, you can have a better attitude to deal with the present suffering. That’s what that was what Saint Paul said. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. The glory is not yet here, but the glory that is about to be revealed to us is so great that you can handle the present suffering better.”

I think hope is very important to live a good and meaningful life. Those who have hope will handle life’s difficulties much better than those who have no hope. People who have hope know how to wait. When I see people who live with hope, they know how to wait, they know what it means to wait. This waiting is very important. A hope and waiting can be interchangeable. When you look at NRSV, it says those who wait for the Lord, it’s the same Greek, same verse, but in NRSV says those who wait for the Lord, but in NIV, those who hope for the Lord. So, hope and wait are interchangeable. Ability to wait is a very important quality in your life you should learn, not only to survive but also to thrive in your life. When things don’t work out as you wish and very well, wait. Learn to wait. It will work out and eventually everything will fall into place. When you have problems and you don’t know how to solve your problems, wait. Somehow, you’ll find the wisdom to deal with your problem. Waiting is a secret key to your life. When you learn the art of waiting, the wisdom and power will be given to you, and then you will rise up like an eagle. This is hidden to those who cannot wait. This is hidden to those who don’t have hope, but to those who know how to wait, they will find this wisdom and strength in their lives.

This is what Isaiah cried out. “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” They’ll have this power and wisdom when they wait for the Lord, they will have this power and wisdom to be able to continue to thrive in their lives. Not those people who are waiting, who know how to wait. It’s not because their life is necessarily better than other people. It’s not necessarily because their life is easier and more comfortable than other people. Nobody's life is given to them on a silver platter. We all go through difficulties and hardships, and even for those people who wait for the Lord, hope for Lord go through the exact same problem as anybody else. But somehow those people who wait for the Lord and who hope for the Lord, have the strength to persevere through their trials and difficulties and hardships. They don’t easily give up. They can persevere. They continue to pursue their life even though it is difficult because they experienced the power that fills them up. That is the power that lifts them up and lets them rise up like eagles.

Young people learn to hope for the Lord. Learn to wait for the Lord. More than anything else, learn to wait. You’ll become very strong people. You will receive all kinds of challenges in your life, but you will be able to handle them if you know how to wait and how to hope for the Lord. Tomorrow will be better than today, is not a guess. That is not our wishful thinking. Oh, I wish that tomorrow is better than today. It’s not wishful thinking. It is your faith confession and it is also your commitment. Yes, tomorrows got to be better than today. The reason the early Christians could survive through persecutions, martyrdom and hardships and all kinds of severe situations was that they believed that tomorrow will be better than today. They had this confession that tomorrow will be better than today. That’s how they survived and persevered.

Christian life I believe that it is not just maintaining the status quo. It is our struggle to make tomorrow better, to make our future better. When I say tomorrow will be better than today. I’m not talking about your life situations. I’m not saying that your life situation will be better tomorrow than today. St Paul life situation became worse after he met Christ. I’m not talking about the life situations, but you will change. Tomorrow you will be better. So, you’ll be able to handle your life situations better. Saint Paul got better and better every day, even though his life situations changed. That’s a winner. Be a winner in that way. Be strong in that way. Don’t let your circumstances crushed you down. Believe that tomorrow will be better and then God will make you better.

Jesus said this parable, “the Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” What does it tell you? Tomorrow will be better than today. It starts with a small seed. Have you seen mustard seed? It’s so small that you cannot even see it very well. And tomorrow it will be like a tree where the birds of the air will come and find rest. Maybe you start with a very smart person who is very selfish and self-centred. You only think about yourself in the beginning, so small, but later you become a big person. A bigger person so that other people find rest in you. That should be what our life should be like. We cannot continuously be selfish and self-centred and just ask for something to be given to me, but you will become a bigger person so that you are not just receiving person. You become a giving person at the end. Our life must change like that. When you’re more immature, when you’re young, yes, of course, you will only think about yourself, but as you grow mature, more mature, you think about other people, so you become a bigger person in this way. This is what the Christian journey is all about.

Sometimes we feel like we are stuck. Sometimes you feel so tired and drained and sometimes we see no future and there’ll be no way out, that when you wait for the Lord. Instead of letting yourself be discouraged, that is when you wait for the Lord, hope for the Lord. And you will have to meet God who gives power to the feet and strengthens the powerless. When you look to God, you will have hope. Hope is not something that you can create on your own, only when you look to God, that God can give you the hope and with that hope you wait, and you’ll become a bigger person. And the hope will give you a new strength.

God wanted to teach this to the Israelite. He showed all kinds of things to the Israelite. He made a way when there was no way it was possible. For example, in the middle of the ocean, God made a way and then when there was no food, God gave them food and God gave you the water in the desert. He gave everything for them so that they know how to wait for the Lord, but when Moses disappeared into Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments, he wasn’t around for a while and these people cannot wait for the Lord. What did they do? They made a golden calf and dance around the golden calf. You know in other words, “I have to make my own destiny now This Moses guy? I don’t know where Moses says, let us create our own idols, our own help, and this golden calf will lead us from now on.” They didn’t know how to wait for the Lord. they created their own destiny. Don’t do that. When you’re desperate, when you feel powerless, wait for the Lord rather than creating your own resources, your own idols. Don’t take care of yourself by yourself. You’ll fall into a deeper problem. Look to God and God will give you hope. And with that hope, wait and you will become strong. God will strengthen you.

Isaiah wrote today’s passage when they were captivated, Israel because of their sins and problems. They were invaded so they were all captives by Babylon. So, Isaiah wrote this when they were in Babylon and they lost their country. They lost their temple. They lost their identity. They lost everything. So, in that battle, in the foreign country, Isaiah cried out, wait for the Lord, wait for the Lord, and that Lord will strengthen you guys. Wait for the Lord.

To all of us, God tells us to wait. And when you have this waiting heart, your tomorrow will be better than today. That waiting heart, that yearning is crucial in living a good life. Life without yearning is dead life. When you have that yearning to make your tomorrow better than today. Yes, your tomorrow will be better than today. As the deer pants for the water wait for God. When you come to worship, wait for the Lord to touch you, to speak to you, to empower you, to open your eyes, to give you the wisdom. And God will give you that secret wisdom to you as you seek the Lord. There was another prophet after Isaiah. His name is Jeremiah. Jeremiah cried out like this. Call me and I’ll answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Call me I will show you the secret, secret of life.

All the YA, as you enter university and you’re dealing with all kinds of new challenges, learn to wait for the Lord. Learn to hope for the Lord and Hi-C now your beautiful life is ahead of you but also at the same time, all the challenges will be in front of you. When life’s difficulties come, learn to wait for the Lord and he will help you. He will guide you. And you will go, “Oh God is alive.” God gave me this wisdom and this strength that I never knew before. God will do that. And all of us, those who wait for the Lord God will strengthen you. Let us trust in the Lord who gives the strength to the faint and power to the weak.

Let us sing together.

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Mark 1:21-28

{Transcript}

They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out,  What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the Holy One of God!

Be quiet!  said Jesus sternly.  Come out of him! The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, What is this? A new teaching and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.  News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Today we’re going to reflect on Jesus’ Ministry. This is the first thing Jesus did after baptism and calling the disciples and all that. Jesus did all that before he started ministry, and as he started this ministry, the scripture that we read today was the first thing Jesus did, and the first thing he taught in the synagogue. That was the first time people met this person.

When they first met Jesus they listened to His teaching, and this was their response; they were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. They immediately realized that Jesus' teaching was different from any other kind of teaching that they used to know, like teaching of scribes, teaching of scholars or any kinds of teaching. Jesus’ teaching was somehow very different. Jesus’ teaching had authority and I’m wondering what is the difference between Jesus’ teaching or any other teaching or teachings of the scribes? That’s what I’d like to reflect on with you today.

In the Bible, Jesus and his word are very deeply, intimately connected, so intimately connected that John The Gospel says that Jesus is the word becoming flesh. When Jesus spoke his word in the synagogue, what happened? A synagogue is a small place. People gathered together and as Jesus was teaching, there was a man with an unclean spirit. A man with an unclean spirit. What is that? We don’t usually use that kind of expression, he’s a man with an unclean spirit . It's hard to know what Mark meant, but I see an individual who was completely controlled by the power of darkness. He wasn’t free. He was in deep bondage. Something outside of him controlled him. He wasn’t free to be able to do whatever he wanted, some outside force controlled his thinking, his life, and he was completely abused by this external force, by this power.

When I see this man, I see loneliness, isolation, the void of life he experienced. Emptiness surrounded by absurdity, out of focus, estrangement from reality, an endless struggle. I see all these things in this man who is tortured by some kind of force outside of him, but as I look at that, I realize that’s what modern people are. That’s what modern people complain about. All of us. That’s what we complain about. This story is not just about one man, whether he was a man with an unclean spirit or not, what we experience and what this man experienced was very similar. So this is not just a story about this poor man, this is a story about all of us. This story’s about the predicament of human beings, both ancient and modern. When the word of God came to him, something wonderful happened to this man.

Mark said, and the unclean spirit throwing him into the conversions and crying with a loud voice came out of him and the unclean spirit came out of it. He was released from the power that controlled him, oppressed him, and took life out of him, and I believe that this is the difference between Jesus' teaching and any other teaching.

Jesus’ teaching was to separate the darkness and drive out the darkness. That was Jesus’ teaching.

The teachings of the scribes swore to accumulate knowledge for a given person. Jesus’ teaching was to take out. Not to add on. That was the difference between Jesus’ teaching in any other teaching. Often, we think that when you learn something, you learn new information and new things. You accumulate knowledge, you accumulate all the information in you, but Jesus’ teaching was not to accumulate. Jesus’ teaching was to take out what is unnecessary within us that enslaves us. That was Jesus’ teaching. Two totally different directions. One is to take out, the other is to add on. Jesus did not come to this world to add more. Jesus’ teaching was not about adding more information and knowledge to what was already given. They said, this is a new teaching, but in Jesus’ teaching there was nothing new. Jesus only spoke about what the Old Testament already talked about. Jesus did not add any new information. Jesus always quoted and used the Old Testament. Jesus Christ came to this world not to add more, but to drive out what bound the world. Real teaching is not about adding more knowledge and more power. Real teaching is about freeing us from things that enslave us. If you want to add more to your life, you will lose it. But if you let go of what you have already, you’ll find life. That’s what Jesus taught us. You want to have life, you’ll lose it. You let go of your life, you’ll find it. Real teaching is to help us to let go of what we hold onto without realizing how enslaving that is.

The most powerful culprit that enslaves us, like this man with an unclean spirit is more. More power, more money, more control, more pleasure, more me. The more you want to have it, the more you’ll be enslaved. Our problem is not about having more or adding more. Now we have much more than 50 years ago. We have all the information we want at our fingertips. Within a few seconds you can find even what used to be top secret and within a few seconds, you’ll get all that information as you want, but are we better? Are we freer? I see more people struggling with their life. I see more people being enslaved. I see more depression, I see more problems. I see more unhappiness. We have more and yet we are in a war situation. What kind of teaching is that? Our problem is not having more. People accumulate knowledge and they are proud of how much they have or how much they know, and yet nothing much changes in them and they know it.

No matter what I do, somehow, I don’t change. I’m not really free. I’m not really happy. We know, and we have much more than what we used to, but our feeling of isolation, loneliness, abandonment, and emptiness is more severe than ever before. The answer is not in having more, but human beings keep pursuing more, somehow hoping that having more will heal us and give us freedom. Let me tell you, that’s brainwashing by materialism, by modern society. You have this, you will be happier. You know this, you’ll be happier. That’s a lie. It’s brainwashing by this culture. Having more is better. That’s not how Jesus saw life. Jesus came to take things out of us rather than adding more. In the process of having more, our soul becomes totally incapacitated that our will cannot even change a small, bad habit. We don’t have the power to change even a small bad habit. We’re completely controlled by these things and we don’t know what to do.

We have become so powerless. Jesus empowered us by taking out what is unnecessary within us. His teaching deeply penetrates into our soul and frees us from things that enslave us. Jesus sees very well how enslaved we are. Jesus sees the human condition very well. What we need is not the power to accumulate, but the power to snap us out of this deep predicament. What we need is a teaching that breaks apart the power the controls us against our will and against God.

In Mark, a special word is used; schizo. It means to separate, split, or divide. Of course, the word schizophrenia came from there, but schizo itself is not necessarily a bad word. Schizo means it breaks apart. When Jesus was baptized, the heaven was separated, that's schizo. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain was schizo. It was split, and that was Jesus’ teaching. Jesus’ teaching splits the darkness from us and drives out that darkness. As Jesus tore apart the unclean spirit from the man, Jesus came to tear apart the darkness from us. That is the power of Jesus’ teaching and in that sense Jesus’ teaching was very, very different from others’ teaching. I saw that. In Bible Studies, at the retreat I saw the power of darkness being split and coming out of people and they experienced freedom and empowerment. New empowerment. The empowerment of not having more, but empowerment of being free.

What darkness is enslaving us? Greed? Anger? Pride and stubbornness? Petty, dirty desire? You can be free with the teaching of Jesus Christ. I believe that there’s nothing in the world that can heal you. Only Jesus' teaching can heal us in a true sense.

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1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Just like this past weekend, as elder John talked about, we had a really wonderful opportunity at our New Year Retreat to really reflect on what worship is. What is it to have our spirits meet God’s spirit, and also to really share some of the things that we struggled with. It was a blessing. We had a time of prayer and a time where we can go around and talk with one another and talk about what’s going on in our lives. As we were sharing, I realized that some of these things were really related to the core experiences we go through in life. Things like financial struggles, finding the daily grind of work sapping out joy in life, figuring out how to make a difference in people’s lives within a very structured work environment, dealing with health concerns, struggles in marriage and with family, concerns about children, etc.

In today’s passage, this is written by Saint Paul. It’s a strange passage in a way, because he’s talking about things that are a core part of life’s experience. Being married to a spouse, times of mourning, rejoicing, buying and having possessions, and dealing with things of the world. These experiences are a central part of our human existence. So what does Paul mean when he says that we should live as if these things don’t exist? Surely Paul’s not saying that we should pay no head to such things, is he? But if that’s not what he means, then what’s he saying? What are the implications for what he’s saying? These are questions that we’re going to reflect on today.

One thing I realized about life is that what we hoped something would be like very seldom matches up to the reality of it. For example, I’m not making as much money as I hoped I would. I don’t enjoy my job as much as I hoped I would. My marriage is not what I hoped that it would be or this church is not really what I hoped it would be. Our hopes for something often crashes with the reality of it. The question is: how do we respond when the realities of our lives don’t match up with what we had hoped they would be?

One response is denial. We escape the reality and create a fantasy world for ourselves. This can lead to fanaticism and becoming absorbed in a distorted or false reality. Another response is despair. We resign ourselves to the existing reality. It’s just the way it is. That’s all there is to it. Despair leads to withdrawal and disengagement. I’ve seen this happen in many young people who once had bright smiles on their faces and great dreams. The world has sapped that brightness from a lot of these young people. A third response is hope. We don’t just accept the existing realities as they are, but we have a vision and hope for a different reality. This hope is what we will focus on today.

Hope is what keeps us moving forward in spite of existing realities that are at odds with our expectations. Hope is what has driven people throughout history in the face of unfavorable circumstances. But I realized with hope, there is a Christian hope and there’s other kinds of hope. I realized one kind of hope. It’s rooted in the self, it’s rooted in me. It’s my effort and willpower and determination that will change things in my life. I will use my determination to overcome the challenges and difficulties that come my way. We hear this message often. I think it’s great to have personal motivation and there’s definitely a place for it. But what happens when this kind of hope does not lead to the results that we strive for? We can fall into despair or denial, or we can become even more rigid and fixated on this goal. Our hope hardens and becomes an obsession. Then this tunnel vision hope can cause harm to others or lead us to use others just to get what we want.

Another kind of hope is a hope rooted in other people. I still remember in my younger adulthood, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his first one. I was fascinated by it and I used to watch it on TV every night. My brother knows I’d sit on the couch, just watching CNN and all this stuff. Here was a charismatic figure who electrified the nation’s imagination. His mantra, “Change we can believe in.” The hopes of many people in that nation were placed on this human figure. Once he was in office, the limits of his power were quickly apparent. A unified opposition in Congress and powerful conservative forces bent on curbing his influence, thwarted many of his efforts. Then as we know, the country completely turned directions by electing someone who’s bent on undoing everything that he’s done. So hope in other people has its limits, too.

I realized that these hopes, a hope rooted in me or others, often revolve around circumstances. They are the hope that somehow my circumstances in life will get better. As I reflected, I realized Christian hope is very different. Christian hope is rooted in something beyond human effort and circumstance. It’s a hope based on something independent of circumstance. This hope remains with you whether things are going well or things are going bad. This is the kind of hope I realized that Saint Paul had, and that he wrote about throughout his letters.

As I thought more about his life, this guy lived such a hard life once he answered his calling. Here’s how he described his life in one of his letters, “Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; [What was the theme of his life?] in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.”

What a difficult life this guy led. But despite all these hardships and difficulties, he remained filled with hope. He wrote much of today’s New Testament. His letters, when we read it, they’re infused with talk about hope and joy in the midst of suffering and his words today inspire countless people across the world to endure and carry on. What makes this kind of hope possible? What enables one to carry on in the midst of life’s difficulties and hardships?

During our retreat this weekend, we talked a lot about worship and we learned from Reverend Kim that true worship is to encounter the divine. In the Bible, I realized we see this pattern that occurs. One encounters the divine God. Through that encounter, one comes face to face with their naked, underlying self and reality. From that encounter with the naked reality, healing and repentance comes through that encounter. And once that healing and freedom comes, they then sense their calling in life. So Isaiah, a great prophet from the Old Testament, he encountered God and all of his glory. His first response was, “Woe to me! For I am a man of unclean lips.” In other words, once he encountered God, he saw face to face the depths of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. But yet, in that moment he felt God’s forgiveness, healing, and freedom. Only then did he hear God’s calling the form of the question, “Whom shall I send?” To which he responded, “Here I am; send me!”

The woman at the well experienced the same pattern. She had a personal encounter with Jesus who approached her at the well, and gradually through this encounter, her eyes became more and more opened to her reality. The reality that she was living in isolated, socially-marginalized existence. This encounter with Jesus brought healing in her. Once she experienced this encounter and healing, she went back into the town that she had been isolated from to proclaim the good news about meeting Jesus.

Saint Paul, too, had this encounter with God. Before meeting Christ, he thought that he was living a good life that was pleasing to God. He was doing all of the right things. But once he met Christ, his world turned upside down. He realized the depths of his own sinfulness and brokenness, enough to declare in Romans, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” Through this encounter, he experienced God’s grace and then felt his call to reach out to the very people he had been persecuting. Paul’s encounter with God opened up a new reality. It was a reality different from his everyday reality. In fact, it was a much bigger reality. Paul saw clearly what this new reality meant. For him, through Christ’s death on the cross, God had succumbed to the powers of this world and suffered a humiliating death. That would have seemed to be the end of it. But the resurrection of Christ for Paul signified God’s ultimate victory over death and anything that would take vitality out of life. Through his personal encounter with Christ, he realized now that he too could die with Christ and rise with Christ in his resurrection.

In other words, Paul’s encounter with Christ showed him the possibility of a new life as a new creation. This is not a new life with necessarily changed outward circumstances. We’ve seen that his life was still hard. But inside, he was now a completely new person and could see and approach life with a completely new and different perspective. The death and resurrection of Jesus were the visible promise for him that at the end, at the end of it all, God would be victorious over death, sorrow and injustice. Until that end time came, his calling as well as everyone else who’s encountered God, was to strain with every ounce of his energy to prepare the world for such a time. He saw God’s huge and great reality and how he had a small role to play in that.

This is why I think that he could now endure anything that came his way, because God had already shown that victory would be God’s through the death and resurrection of Christ. This is why he could say in today’s passage, “Let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions.” Paul was not an escapist from reality. He wasn’t trying to deny or avoid these realities, he was fully engaged with the specific circumstances of his time. Most of his letters, in fact, are a response to very concrete, specific issues that people in his churches were facing. So-and-so were fighting over this issue and fighting over that. Paul was responding to these very concrete things. Paul was an emotional guy. He got angry. He was joyful. He was fully himself, fully engaged. He even said, “Weep with those who weep, rejoice with those rejoice.” So feel life. He wasn’t saying escape life.

But all of these specific circumstances and issues he dealt with paled in comparison with the greater reality of God’s ultimate victory and hope, as revealed through the death and resurrection of Christ. For him, at the end of the day, all that we go through in life, the good, the bad and the mediocre, will be subsumed by God’s reality. Life in this new reality is a life filled with hope. When we have this hope, we can bear anything that comes our way. For Paul, not only just bearing it, but when we have this hope, the difficult moments in life actually lead to even greater faith in God’s ultimate promise. So Paul writes, “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope. In other words, our circumstances do not define our reality anymore. We live with a new reality defined by God. And it all begins with an encounter with God.

This encounter happens when we come to worship God for no other reason than to worship God. We learned yesterday that we don’t worship God for our own benefits. Rather, we worship God out of our hearts of thanksgiving and recognition. But as we worship, something happens to us. We learned this yesterday. We begin to experience God’s healing and transformation. We begin to see God’s reality slowly but surely. For me, I can’t really identify one specific or dramatic encounter with God. I think for me, it’s been through a continuous stream of coming to worship, listening to the Word being preached, Bible studies. Through all of this continuous stream that I can, in retrospect, see how much I’ve been changed by God. I think that’s how it is often. We don’t see the spirit at work visibly, but we trust that God is at work in us when we encounter God.

Now, Paul wrote in today’s passage, “The appointed time has grown short.” This is written in Greek originally. There are two words for time. One is chronos, which is the root word for chronology. Like our physical time on a clock and a calendar. But that’s not the word that Paul used in this passage. He used the other word for time, which is Kairos. Kairos. It’s hard to define exactly, but it means a critical opportunity or moment. A critical opportunity or moment. For Paul, he sensed an urgency to share this encounter of God with others. This great new reality, he couldn’t just contain it himself. It had to be shared and others had to be brought into this new life with the new reality.

My brothers and sisters, living life in fullness with hope the way God intended it, it’s too important to put off or take casually. Our lives are too important to be taken casually. The life that God intended for us is too important to just be consumed by the daily realities of our lives, as important as they are. Yes, we face a lot of difficulties and challenges and that’s why we need community to share with one another and we bear one another’s burdens. But there’s this new reality that we are invited into. This new life with Christ, this greater reality that is bigger than our circumstances.

Paul wrote this when thinking about this new reality. “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” How beautiful that is. That really is the meaning of today’s passage God’s will for us is to encounter the living God. Then to see ourselves as we are, to experience God’s healing hand, and to find an everlasting hope rooted in the God who raised Christ from the dead.

This year, with our theme of healing through worship, let us really strain, seek, strive and pursue with all of our hearts to encounter this God. In the midst of our circumstances in life, I think what Paul is saying is: while that’s important, that’s not the central part of your life, your existence. There’s more about your life than what you’re going through every day. So it’s through this encounter with God that God reveals and opens our eyes to this deeper and greater joy, hope, peace, patience, everything that comes from it. Let us strive and have faith that this everlasting God will give us healing and hope to carry on through our everyday challenges.

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1 Samuel 3:1-11

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God we believe is God who calls. When you read this scripture, you will encounter many stories of people, and these stories all talk about calling.

God called Abraham, Moses and the prophets. When God called Abraham, Abraham did not even question. Immediately, he obeyed God’s calling and left his home to go to a place where God called him to go.

When God called Moses, it was a little bit different. Moses was resistant. He said, “I cannot speak. I’m not eloquent. I cannot go.” God continuously called him to go and at the end he said, “No, I can’t really go, so send my brother Aaron.” So it was very different from Abraham. Abraham did not even question, he immediately left his home and went to the place God called. Moses was resistant, but in the end he accepted the call from God and lived out that calling for 40 years, the last 40 years of his life. Very different response, but it has to do with calling.

And also prophets too. When God called Jeremiah, Jeremiah said, “I’m too young to do anything that you ask me to do,” and when God called Isaiah, Isaiah said, “I’m a man of unclean lips. How can I preach your Gospel or good news or message?” All these people responded differently, but their life was to do with the call from God.

When it comes to the New Testament, same thing. God called the ordinary fisher people, fishermen, and God called them. “You follow me,” and they left the net and then followed Christ. When God called, when Christ called, Paul, on the road to Damascus, it was a supernatural experience, but he received a call and lived out God’s call all throughout his life. For example, Jonah the Prophet who we studied last year, God called him and he ran away.

So, very different, but it’s all to do with God’s call. Very interesting. Their lives were intricately connected, with a call. To all these people, life and calling could not be separated. There was no arbitrary division between their personal life and their life of calling. Their life was to fulfill the calling that they received.

I wonder, is there a call in life? Or do I make my own life? What is life that we live? Is there a call that we respond to? Versus “I don’t know about any callings, I’m just busy making my own life.” What is it? Are we so different from the characters in the Bible? Only they got called and God doesn’t call anymore in modern days? Or is calling still a relevant concept to understand my life? I still believe that callings are very much relevant to my life and to our life. That’s what I want to tell you today.

It is wonderful to see that your life is connected with a bigger picture, and I believe that your life is connected with a bigger picture. Your life does not end where you are. It is connected with God’s greater plan. Whatever you do right now has some implication for God’s greater plan. When you have this sense of connected-ness, you will understand that you’re not alone. You don’t have to figure out everything that is going on in your life. You don’t have to solve every problem that you encounter in your lives on your own. You are connected with God and God is with you to help you to work out your life. That was what all these people in the Bible experienced in the background of their lives. They experience that there’s God. In the background of your lives, there is God. You may not necessarily see God, you may do all these things on your own, but in the background of all that you do, there is God. And this God knows you very well. When you read the scripture Samuel, the scripture says, “Samuel did not know Jehovah yet. Samuel did not know God yet, and yet God knew Samuel’s name.” And he knew exactly, “You are the one that I have chosen and I want you to do this.” God knew Samuel when Samuel did not even know God.

God knows all of us. God knows all of us better than we know ourselves. God knows your struggle, your hurt, your pain, your longing, your weaknesses. God knows all about us, and he will give us what we need. To live a life of calling, we need to be able to hear that calling. We need to be able to hear the voice. We need to be attentive to the voice of God. And I believe that there is a voice of God in our lives, not necessarily audible voice – if you hear them, maybe you may see Joe Park – it may not be audible voice, but I believe that we hear God’s voice. And we try our best to live out that voice that speaks to us. That voice is what inspires us, what prompts us, what gives us conviction. Life is not about a whole bunch of your decisions and your schedule. There are sometimes that you have this urge. This voice nudges you. Sometimes uplifts you. Sometimes speaks to you very clearly like, “Hey, this what I want you to do.” I believe that there is a voice. We just ignore it a lot of times.

As we respond to what nudges us, our life is slowly moving towards God’s wonderful plan for you and for the world. And it’s very important to hear God’s voice every day. God said to Samuel, “Then the Lord said to Samuel, see, I’m about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” Does it tingle right now? It’s a very dramatic way or graphic way of listening to the voice of God. It may not be physical tingling, but the tingling of your heart. And it’s not always easy to hear God’s calling. God had to call Samuel three times. Samuel could not understand. Eli must’ve been really upset or frustrated. In the middle of the night this boy comes in and says, “Did you call me?” And he woke him up and “No, I didn’t call you. Lie down,” and the next night, “Did you call me?” Three times! It was hard to hear God’s calling sometimes.

You know, when I read that part of the story, I was reminded of Paul. Paul said he prayed because he had thorn in the flesh and he prayed three times for the thorn to be removed. That three times did not mean that he only prayed three times. He prayed as much as he could, but God did not take out the thorn. So here too, God calls Samuel three times, but it’s almost like God called until he really hears it. God called continuously until he hears it, and finally he heard it with the help of Eli.

God calls us sometimes and we don’t hear it. Why? Because we are so saturated with our own agenda. With my own plan. Or sometimes we’re too strong in our own will, or sometimes we’re too distracted, or sometimes we are too painfully hurt, and sometimes we are too proud and arrogant. And so, many times we don’t hear God’s voice. But God never stops calling us. God never gives up calling us. God continuously calls us.

The way we started TBS, Tuesday Bible Study, I believe that it was God’s calling for me. It’s not what I planned. I was busy as I was and then few people came to me – they said they don’t go to church, but they wanted to have a Bible study. You don’t go to church, why do you want a Bible study? And they said, “Well, we don’t go to church, but we are still interesting in what the Bible really, really says.” “Oh, so you want to know what the Bible really says? Sure, I’ll help you.” So that evening at Knox College in that cafeteria, about 20 of us gathered together. And then one person said, “I’m an atheist,” and another person said, “I’m kind of Buddhist.” All kinds of people and they all wanted to have Bible study. That’s how I started. I didn’t know what God’s plan was, but God had a plan when He called me to start a Bible study. Now we have Pastor Simon here, working for our church from that group.

WBS, same thing. Women’s Bible Study. I don’t know, more than 10 years ago I believe now, and a few women wanted to come. They came to me and they wanted to have a Bible study, so I responded to that call. I didn’t know exactly what would entail, what that Bible study might have entailed, and I realized last 10 years I’ve experienced them changing so much, and they had a profound impact on the church itself.

Inner Voice, that was what God nudged me. Called me. At first, I didn’t have confidence, “Everyday? How? How can I do that?” And he said also to do it in English too. I thought I was going to just do Korean and then do the English one too? “What? I can’t!” But God never stops calling. I mean, I have planned this for three, four years. God gave me this idea three or four years ago and I said, “No, I can’t do it. I’m too busy.” And finally last year I responded to God’s calling. Prayer retreat or New Year’s retreat that we’re going to have… a few years ago, God gave us, gave me that calling. Let people start the new year with prayer, with a fresh spirituality. Let them start with that. “Lord. I’m so busy at the end of the year. You know, I have Christmas worship service and December 31st service and then I have to go to my family gathering and play games all night and all that stuff. I can’t prepare.” And He said, “Do it.” So I just responded. Happiness seminar is the same thing.

My friends, God calls. God calls each and every one of us to respond to his call. It’s not just Bible people who heard God’s calling. Even now, God is calling all of us. Life is my response to God’s calling. It’s as simplest as that. Life is a response to the calling. Be attentive to God’s voice. Be by yourself, where there’s no distraction to that. Every day, be by yourself, where there’s no distraction. Quiet yourself down. Your worries, anxieties and fear, let all those down. Pay attention to God. Try to listen. You can do that. Life is more than your decision. There is something that comes to you from outside or from the depth of your heart. You need to listen to that voice that comes from the depth of your heart rather than just making schedules every day mindlessly and living it out. Instead of doing that, sit down and what voice comes from the depth of your heart.

As you respond to that calling, your life will be enriched. Sometimes that voice makes you cry. Other times, that voice gives you new strength. And sometimes, that voice leads you to repent. And sometimes, God says, “You will be all right. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” When we hear God’s calling, we can be true disciples of Jesus Christ. We all go through hardships, uncertainties and difficulties. Don’t make yourself numb. Listen, and God will guide you… to a very, very good place. Green pasture. Only if you are able to hear that voice.

Let us sing together.

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John 4:19-24

We’re going to build up the worship service as much as much as possible this year so that all of us can come and truly experience true worship. But also so God may be glorified. And during this retreat, I’m going to talk about worship a lot, for two lectures we’re going to do that. I hope that many of you can come without understanding what worship is. Giving true meaningful worship is hard if not impossible. So I hope that, I know you’re busy, but take some time out and please come and start the new year with a prayer for heart, and also next week when we have the town hall meeting, please give us your feedback so that we can choreograph this worship service as meaningfully as possible for everyone who worships here at St. Timothy.

Today’s the first Sunday of 2018. I pray that God’s grace may be with you and with your families this year. God is good and God is faithful. God works beyond our imagination and God deserves our worship. And this year’s theme is healing through worship. And then that is a passage that, that’s John 4, 24. I don’t know why there’s no English one. That’s strange. Is there an English one? I know, but there’s no word in English. I mean, last year we had it right? Strange. Anyway, that 4, 24 we’re going to, we’re ready today. So that is our theme passage. We had a KSM prayer retreat last Friday and Saturday we had a wonderful time together.

What happened was like a taste of heaven. We cried together and we laughed together and most of all we worshiped together in the purest form, purest form. After they learned about worship, the way they gave worse was so beautiful. Friday we had a lecture and then next morning, Saturday morning, we had a worship together. It was one of the most beautiful worship that I experienced. They were really into worshiping God. We experienced that the worship brings healing, but worship is for God, not for us, not even for our benefits. Absolutely, worship is for God, for no one else only God needs to be glorified and only God should be at the center of our worship. We all hide behind the shadow of the cross.

Worship is our purpose in life. Worship is the very reason for us to live. We live to worship God. That’s Christian belief. We live to worship God. Our ultimate purpose is to glorify God and we glorify God through worship. And last year’s theme was serving is living, and this year living is worship. That’s what we want to practice this year. God delivered us from the bondage and made us free so that we may be able to worship. That’s why the choir anthem was so beautiful. God lifts up our soul so that my spirit may be free when my spirit is free. Then with that freedom. We worship God.

When the Israelites were freed from the bondage of Egyptians, God sent Moses to deliver them from that oppression and bondage and made them free so that they could worship God. That was what Moses said. Let us hear, I’ll be with you and this shall be the sign for you. Oh, sorry. Yeah, you read the scripture. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Oh, my goodness. This a phobia, man. Okay. This part, “I’ll be with you and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” The whole purpose of the exodus was for them to worship God. Today we read the story of the Samaritan woman. We didn’t read the whole story because I didn’t want to focus on a woman is herself. I want to focus on the meaning of worship that was revealed in the story. We all know the Samaritan woman very well.

She was a woman who had many problems among them, the greatest problem was that was the fact that she was completely alienated from people you know. It is a terrible experience to be completely alienated from people. That’s why bullying is so hard to take. When you are completely alienated from people that is hard to bear, you become lonely, you become angry and sometimes sad and you feel so worthless and you believe that you are unlovable. She felt judged by the people all the time she lived with this deep wound. Hurt was there and Jesus came to her and she just knew exactly what her problem was, and then write at that moment during the conversation, Jesus completely brought her, out of the bondage and oppression of alienation. Jesus restored her. Jesus lifted up her soul, so that her spirit may be free, and Jesus made sure that she knew that you are a precious child. Precious daughter of God and you are lovable and you’re worthy. Jesus wanted to make sure that she knew that when she experienced the salvation, the first thing she did was to go back to the village and met people who alienated her. That’s amazing. I mean they’re the reason she felt so worthless and unlovable, unloved, but when she was restored by Jesus, she went back to the people who alienated them. She was able to embrace them. In other words, she had enough empowerment to be able to embrace them. She was healed. She was freed.

That’s why she was able to go back and meet those people, but before she went back to the village, there is one question. She asked I wonder why she asked that question. During the conversation, she was going back and forth. She didn’t say much, but one at one point, something was happening within her and the one question rose from her consciousness. You know what that question was? This was the question, our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem. Her question was where should I worship mountain or in Jerusalem? In other words, what is the best way to worship? That question arose from her conscious, from the depth of her soul. This question came up, what is the best way to worship? Did something happen during her conversation with Jesus? She was experiencing the freedom and when she experienced the freedom, the desire to worship arose from within her heart. That’s what it does. That’s what happens when you experience the freedom, the desire to worship arises from within. Where should I worship? she asked. Mountain or Jerusalem? That was important to her. Jesus’ response was this, Jesus said to her “woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but the hour is coming and is nowhere. When the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father seeks the such as those to worship him.” God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. That’s what it is.

God is a spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The important thing about worship is not where you worship. The important thing about worship is where is your heart? Where is your heart in the worship? You worship with your heart. You don’t worship in the sanctuary. You worship in your heart because worship is not physical activity. You all the physical activity, but that is self is not worship. Worship. You can only worship from the heart in heart. When you have God in your heart, then you can worship God in spirit and truth. Worship is not about what you do, worship is about your spirit meeting God’s spirit. That’s what worship is. Our Spirit meets God spirit. The place of worship is not the sanctuary. The place of worship is your heart. God looks for those who worship God.

The father seeks such as these to worship him. God is calling us to worship God and you all responded to that calling, some of your friends, even some of your family members might not have responded to that calling, leaving them behind at home. We came to worship because God called us to worship him. Let us worship God from the depth of our heart. What we need in worship is an inspiration. Not Emotion. Emotion is at the surface, but inspiration comes from the depth of your soul. What we need is an inspiration, not emotion. This year, I hope that we all learn what it means to worship God and through your worship, I pray that we all so experience healing and restoration. When you give true worship to God, wonderful things will happen in your lives.

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1 Samuel 1:4-20

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Today's Scripture passage is taken from the first Samuel Chapter 1, verses 4 to 20. It is a story about Hannah, and in her prayer on the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife, Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters too, but to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her. Though the Lord had closed her womb, her rival used to provoke her severely to irritate her because the Lord had closed her womb, so it went on year after year as often as she went up to the house of the Lord. She used to provoke her, therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad, am I not more to you than 10 sons?” After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord.

Now, Eli, the priest was Eli. The priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “Oh Lord of hosts if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant, a male child then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death, he shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants and no razor shall touch his head, as she continued praying before Lord Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought that she was drunk. So, Eli said to her: “how long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? put away your wine. But Hannah answered, No my Lord. I’m a woman, deeply troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor a strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord, do not regard your servant as a worthless woman. For I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Then Eli answered, “go in peace the God of Israel, grant the petition you have made to him” 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 sad no longer. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Rama.  Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. In due time, Hannah conceived and bore a son, she named him Samuel for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.” This is the word of the Lord.

We’re going to talk about Hannah’s prayer. It's a very famous prayer, through her prayer, a very famous and great prophet, Samuel was born. You have probably heard the name. Samuel is one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. Hannah’s prayer has been known as one of the greatest prayers of mothers, like St. Agustin’s mom, Monica. And Hannah’s prayer, these are great prayers of mother’s in her prayer. She vowed, “Oh Lord of hosts if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant but give her, a male child, then, I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death. And she was dedicated, even before Samuel was born, she dedicated her child to God and I believe that she must have raised her son as she vowed so that he could be the great Samuel.

I’m sure Hannah made a great contribution to make Samuel be Samuel. So, she was a great woman of prayer. That’s true. But today, when you look at Hannah’s prayer very carefully, it is a very self-centred prayer. It’s not really holy in that way. Her prayer was neither a noble prayer for God, God’s work in this world, nor for the country, nor for the holy purpose. She prays simply because she was hurt and humiliated and angry, and she was provoked by her rival. She was personally attacked, that’s why she prayed. So, it was a very self-centred prayer, when I go over the story once more.

Hannah was a wife of Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives at the time, polygamy was kind of acceptable. Jacob had two wives too. And Moses had a few wives and Elkanah had two wives. One was Peninnah, and the other is Hannah. Unfortunately, Hannah had no children and there was no problem with her husband Elkanah. Elkanah did not give any trouble to his wife because she cannot bear a child, rather, Elkanah showed greater favour to a Hannah. He gave a double portion when they went up to the temple, they gave sacrifice and each one brought a portion and Elkanah gave Hannah a double portion. So, he was very good to her and he even said that “you know, am I better than 10 sons? Why are you so troubled by the fact that you don’t have a child?” But that didn’t help. Peninnah constantly provoked Hannah for her barrenness. Hannah could not stand the humiliation that she went through because of Peninnah’s personal vendetta, personal hurt. Maybe, she could not stand the fact that she could not bear a child. Not just Peninnah. What Peninnah did was just rubbing salt into her wounds. That’s all. But her problem was the fact that she could not bear a child. I mean it’s not a problem in modern days and some people even choose not to have any children, but at that time it showed the dignity of a person, of a woman. So she felt like she was not perfect. She felt like she was missing something. She felt like she was kind of rejected even by God. That’s why she prayed nothing else.

Even though she made a vow, the vow was like a negotiation, listen to the vow, “oh lord of hosts. If, it’s a big if, if it’s a condition, if only you will look on the misery of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant, a male child. Then I will set him before you as a Nazarite until the day of  his death is conditional. Well she won, it was a male child, nothing else. What she wanted was to be set free from her misery. What she wanted was her pride being restored. She wanted to live with pride. Not with the stigma that she cannot have a baby, nobody could solve her problem, even Elkanah could not solve her problem. That is something that she had to deal with. Her prayer was so fervent, so passionate that the priest Eli thought that she was a drunk.

You know when you pray for your problems, all of a sudden, your prayers become real and fervent, not when you pray for others. Not when you pray for world peace, not when you pray for the God’s holy purpose, but when you pray for your problems when you encounter certain problems. Oh, then immediately your prayer becomes fervent and passionate. Hannah told Eli, “No my Lord, I am a woman, deeply troubled. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord do not regard your servant as a worthless woman. For I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” She had vexation within her and she was just yelling at him crying out her vexation.

But the amazing thing has God answered Hannah’s prayer and through Hannah, God gave Samuel, one of the greatest prophets. Samuel was born in a very, very critical and important time of Israel. Israel before Samuel was like a tribal nation. It was like a little tribe, and then they wanted to make a kingdom, so they wanted four kings, so when Samuel was born, Israel changed from a tribal nation to the kingdom, and then Samuel anointed the first King Saul, and then he also anointed David, King David who was born with that fate.

Through all this, I was thinking about God's providence. Providence is like God’s, hidden plan, and God’s hidden word. There is an invisible work of God. I call it providence. We don’t know it, but behind the surface, there is tremendous work of God that is done in a hidden way. I’m amazed at how God works in our lives. Whatever happens to you as a person, it’s not just a personal matter. It has a bigger implication in your life. What happens to us is not just about us, it has an implication for the bigger things in life. It is to do with God’s Providence, even the selfish prayer of Hannah, God used. Even the selfish prayer of Hannah was used to move God to make an impact on our history. That was amazing to me, I thought God only listened to real prayer, sincere prayer, faithful prayer and the religious spiritual prayer, but God even used the selfish prayer of a woman to bring out his work.

I believe that that is the power of prayer. Our prayer is very small and limited in its scope and many times and often most of the times it is very self-centred. It is about us. It is about our own personal needs. Who can pray? Knowing God’s great plan or Providence. But God works out his wonderful plan, even though our imperfect prayers, and I learned this about prayer. Prayer has many layers, I realized. It’s not just one layer in prayer, there are many layers. We may see only one layer and praise at the very basic level. That is the level of our personal needs, but your prayers have many layers that we don’t see. In that sense, your prayer is a mystery. It opens a new world that you don’t know. When you pray it may be your prayer, but once your prayer is done it’s not yours anymore. It God’s to use. When I pray, while I’m praying, it is my prayer, but once that prayer is done it is not in any more mine. It is in God’s hands and God uses that prayer to work out his own plan. So, we don’t know the result, no one prays knowing the result.

Prayer is not like a vending machine that you know exactly what to get. You put a coin and then that thing comes up. Prayer is not like that. When you enter into the prayer, you enter with one expectation, but you come out of it with a totally different answer. That’s what prayer is. I pray that your prayers may bring about beautiful results, not only for yourself but also for others. You may have prayed personally only for your personal needs, but your prayers may open up a new world for other people. How much more powerful your prayers can be used if you pray for others and for God’s holy purpose

Today is the last Sunday and the last day of 2017. May your 2018, be the year of offering many prayers so that you may experience the world you never experienced before. 2017 was great. We have experienced a lot of things in 2017. We prayed without knowing what the result will be, but God answered it in a way that I could never imagine. That was like 2017 and 2018 God has many things in store for you, use your prayers. Offer your prayers, don’t think about whether it’s a selfish prayer or self-centred prayer. Don’t think about it too much. Just offer your prayers and God will use them for a wonderful result. And as I said before, when you have items to worry about, turn those items into prayer topics.

If you have things to worry about, use them as your prayer topics. Don’t just run away from your problems, but face it, confront it with prayer. Let us open up 2018 with prayer tonight at night we’re going to celebrate a new year’s kind of service. Eleven o’clock it starts and a whole service will be prayer and praise, a very short sermon and all these three things that I like to pray for. One, prayer, repentance, 2017, the things that we didn’t do, things that we should have done but didn’t do things that we should not have done, but we did. So prayer, repentance and prayer of Thanksgiving are a lot of things that we should be thankful for. And then prayer, of resolution. So as we face the first moment of 2018, we may face it with a prayer for attitude.

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