St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Luke 1:46-55

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Luke 1:47-55,

And my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant, surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy. According to the promise, he made our ancestors to Abraham and to his descendants forever.

This is the word of the Lord.

What you just read is Mary’s Magnificat, Mary Song. When Mary was pregnant with Jesus, she sang that song. I think Mary was a very special person. I wonder how a young girl could have such maturity. I mean, maybe that’s why God chose Mary to send Jesus Christ to us. A virgin getting pregnant. That was difficult news to accept even now, 2000 years later. But during that time, a virgin being pregnant was unacceptable. And Mary was shocked when she first heard that, but she was calm and handled the situation in a very mature way. Not only that, when you read today’s scripture passage, what Mary’s saying and what Mary said was just amazing. She understood exactly why Jesus came to this world. She had a great insight about the baby she was pregnant with.

Let us go back to the story of Angel Gabriel first coming to Mary telling her that you’ll be pregnant. The Angel Gabriel was the one who first broke the news to a Mary. But the Angel Gabriel said a wonderful thing about the child that she was going to give birth to. And the Angel said that the child will be great. He’ll be called the Son of the most high and God will give him the throne of David. He’ll be the king of the kingdom. That will have no end. What a wonderful news. Let’s say you’re pregnant and then somehow in the dream angel came to you and then broke this news to you. You’ll be so amazed. Wow. The baby that I will have will have this kind of character in the future.

Just the other day, Joshua called me then said, “Dad, can I talk to you? Yeah, I got to go right now, but it takes one minute.” “Okay. What is it?” So, he broke the news with me. I was so happy. He said they’re going to have a daughter. “Yeah? Really, I get that. Other things can wait. Talk.” So, we talked to for about two minutes.

I mean even that news made me so happy, but the kind of news, Mary got, it was just amazing news. But after hearing all that, you know, what was Mary’s response? This was Mary’s response. How can this be? Since I’m a virgin, she could not hear anything, Angel Gabriel Said. She only got shocked by the fact that she might be pregnant. That’s the only thing that she could remember. It is totally understandable. At that moment she couldn’t hear anything else, but as time went on, when she was calm when she thought about it, she started hearing. She remembered what Angel Gabriel said. Yeah, the Angel told me the baby that I would have would be a great person, but after this, she sang this song. When you hear Mary Song today, it is very different from what normal parents expect from their child. Normal parents will be very happy that their child will be powerful, famous, and great, but Mary was different. She wasn’t concerned. She wasn’t concerned about her child being great, powerful, and famous. She was able to see what this child would do for humanity. Even at that moment, she was thinking about the poor, powerless, voiceless, and this child would give them the power. Give them the voice. And most of our parents or when we pray for our children, we just pray that they will be healthy. They become great. They get a good job and all these things. We only pray for their wellbeing, but Mary wasn’t concerned about him being great. Mary was concerned about what this child would do for the humanity, for the people who have no power. What a profound and amazing woman she was.

She was a little girl maybe 16 or 17 at most, and she had such a profound insight about Jesus. So, when you, your parents, and all the parents here, when you pray for your children, don’t just pray for their wellbeing, pray for them to have an impact for the people who are less fortunate than them. Pray for your children to live their lives, to uplift the lowly, powerless, and voiceless. This is what humanity is all about.

That’s why Mary was able to accept the death of Jesus, the death of her own son at the cross. She was there. She saw the tragic death on the cross of her son and she was able to digest it because she understood that he had to do it to bring up the lowly, the humble, and the hungry. So, she was able to accept that. Mary’s Christmas wish was for the powerless to have power, the voiceless to have the voice and the poor and the hungry to be filled, but the rich and powerful she wished that they will be sent away empty. Profound theology for a little girl only 16, 17 years old. Mary knew clearly the Christmas message. This is how we human beings should live. This is the value and morality we should uphold. This should be our lifestyle. We are living in a culture where we idolize the power, the fame, but Christian message or Christmas message is totally different the exact opposite. We need to be aware of this message always. We should always think about those around us who have less power than us, less privileged than us, and we should share the power that we have with those who don’t have any.

That is the life of sharing. That is the spirit of this year’s theme. Serving is living. My friends, we have so many blessings from God. Let us share our blessing with others. That is the spirit of Christmas, that kind of life that will have a positive impact on other people. You know we don’t give not because we don’t have money, we don’t give, not because we don’t have any, we don’t give because we have no room to think about others. We are so wrapped around by our needs, but your needs are endless. At one point it's got to stop. You cannot wrap yourself around by your needs alone. There are people who have more needs than us. If we pay just a little attention to others around us, we can do so much for them. We will be able to see many opportunities to help them. Even at the store, if they ask for a donation, whether it’s a Sick Children, whatever, give. Even if you gave five times, give again, just give. Don’t think too much about it. You have enough.

Kahlil Gibran, one of my favorite poet, He said, “you give, but little when you give of your possessions, it is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” That’s the lesson Jesus taught us. He gave off himself, giving life starts from our heart. There must be a desire to live a life of giving in our heart before we actually live a life of giving. When we believe that that is the right thing to do, then we’ll be able to share with the others. That our hearts will move, and our eyes will be able to see the opportunities and if we can live a life of sharing, and I believe that that is a meaningful life. You want to live a meaningful life. I believe that that is a meaningful life. As we live a life of giving, our life will be larger than ourselves. Your life will be larger than yourself. You will become a big person. Be a big person. That’s what’s cool about giving life. Being a big person. Mary was a young girl, but she was a big person. She lived the life larger than herself. Jesus was a big person. He gave all of himself for us. That’s why Angel Gabriel announced this way. He will be great, and Mary knew the meaning of being a great person.

Mary was not only a big person, but she was a blessed person and Mary’s said this, “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on, all generations will call me blessed.” She was a blessed woman. When the lowly person starts living a life of giving day, they become precious people and blessed people. When we live a life of sharing our life becomes precious. You become a very precious person. I want to share a little quote from Winston Churchill to end my sermon. “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” Profound.

This is the Christmas message.

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

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Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the god of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do this.

When I hear the word Christmas, the first image that comes to my mind or first emotion or the first thing that comes to my mind is joy. Joy characterize Christmas: bright lights, cheerful Christmas carols; some radio stations if you turn it on, they play all day Christmas carols from December. I love that, and the joy of giving gifts and receiving gifts, parties and good food. Christmas is a season of joy. It symbolizes that life is good. It symbolizes the happiness of life, but the problem of the joy that we feel during Christmas is that it does not last too long. It is short lived. And when the lights are down, and when carol songs stop, and the bills of Christmas shopping and spending come in the mail and all we see is our weight gain we come back to our gloomy reality.

That’s why February is the most depressing month of the year. In January at least there is a new beginning. And at least you have some hope that something is starting, but in February we have nothing, nothing to look forward to. So government was worried. They created a family a day long weekend and then, longterm, over university, already, they sensed the depression of students and also the suicide rate is pretty high. So they created a reading week in February. I guess the joy that we know is not something that lasts for a long time. The joy that we know is a very short lived experience or a feeling. Is joy just a momentary feeling and that’s about it?

Do we have to keep creating our environment either buying things or having a party or listening to music or watching movies by doing all these things? Do we just keep doing things to have joy? Is there no such thing as everlasting joy? It’s just an instant, instantaneous and temporary, a momentary feeling. That’s about it, but when you look at the scripture, especially when you hear the word from St Paul, his joy was different from the joy that we know. Paul said, “rejoice always”. How can you rejoice always? There are times when you are depressed. There are times when you’re sad. There are times when you go through difficulties. How can you rejoice always? But Paul says, rejoice always. So, his understanding of joy was not a momentary or instantaneous thing. He always had it. Rejoice always. I want to think about what that joy looks like, not just during Christmas season, but also in February. Not just on bright sunny days, but also on gloomy, rainy days. Not just when I’m at the party, but when I’m alone at home.

How can I have that joy? We read Paul’s words in a letter, his letter to the Thessalonians, “rejoice always”, but he talks about joy more in an emphatic way in Philippians rather than Thessalonians. In Philippians, he says, I will say it again. Rejoice . The whole book is about joy. Ironically, he wrote that letter from prison. He was in prison when he wrote it, but the prison system at that time was very different from the prison system right now. We at least have a legal process. But at that time, a lot of times there was no legal proceeding. If the guard said ‘kill him’, then he could be killed the next day. So he didn’t know. You’d expect more in that situation. He said, rejoice, rejoice always'. I realized that the joy Paul is talking about, as well as other spiritual qualities too, did not come from circumstances, or the exciting atmosphere around him. He did not draw joy from outside. Somehow he had joy within him and then I realized that nothing in the world can produce or manufacture joy. Even food cannot produce joy to everyone. Some people enjoy food, but some people, even though it’s delicious food, they don’t even enjoy it. They don’t get joy out of it, so nothing in the world can produce or manufacture the everlasting joy. The joy that comes from our circumstances can make us more depressed. Actually, once those circumstances disappear, change.

Joy is within us. In the Gospel John, there’s a very interesting, very strange kind of statement. It says, whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within them. Rivers, rivers of living, water flow from within you, and Jesus is talking about this holy spirit actually, but I realized that that is what joy looks like. It looks like rivers of living water flowing out of you. In your conscious or in your ecosystems, there’s a flow of living water and that is what joy looks like. It is a power of life. It brings vitality to our existence. It is the energy that boosts up otherwise tasteless existence. When joy touches it, everything comes alive because of the energy. It’s not just feeling and it’s not just emotion, but it’s an energy that is flowing within the us. So whenever this joy that is within us touches anything, it comes alive. It’s not just emotion, it’s not just a feeling, it is the energy that is flowing within you. That’s why he can rejoice always. That’s why we can rejoice always. And there’s another the aspect of this joy. When God created the world. God said, it is good. It is a satisfied joy, a satisfied smile. God created the heaven and earth and everything and then he saw it and he was satisfied and he enjoyed the creation. It is good.

So I realized that joy, another aspect of joy is deep seeded satisfaction. It’s not just the energy that boosts up your existence, but it calms you. It gives you tremendous satisfaction. Okay, it is good. Life is good. Your life is completely in God’s hands. That awareness; you don’t need to worry about anything. When you have that sense, you can start enjoying your life rather than worrying about your life. Your taste buds come alive and so you can enjoy your food. Your ears are open and so you can enjoy your music. Your spirit is alive and so you can enjoy the divine presence. We need joy within us to enjoy life. I don’t think we need that much money to enjoy life, in truth. When we have joy within us, we can enjoy things that are not that extraordinary. When you’re joyful because of you have money, that’s great, but if you’re joyful, even though you don’t have much money, that is really good. That is what joy within us looks like. The joy that comes not from money, but from within, that gives energy and satisfaction. If you have reason to be joyful, that’s good, but if you are joyful, even when you’re sad, that is really good.

After KSM service, one person came up to me and asked, Moksanim, how can we be joyful when you’re sad? How can you be joyful when you’re sad? . I think we can be joyful, even when we cry. Does it make sense? It doesn’t seem to make sense, but it seems to make sense somehow. I felt that. And that was what Saint Paul said in 2 Corinthians, this is what he said. Listen: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything' (2 Corinthians 6:10). That’s a spiritual secret, a spiritual truth. When we have joy even though we are sad, the joy doesn’t disappear because joy is not a feeling. Joy is not a feeling. The joy does not disappear even when we are hurt. The joy does not disappear even when we are hard pressed from all sides. The joy within us is always there. Do you know what the true characteristic of joy is? The joy within us is different from the joy that you get from circumstances. You know what the difference is? The true characteristic of joy within you? The joy within you makes others happy.

That’s what the joy within you does. Joy within you makes other people joyful. The joy you get from the world makes you happy, but the joy the spirit gives within us, makes others happy.

Making others joyful is my joy. Sometimes I get a reply for my inner voice. Whatever they got, whatever message they got from the inner voice, sometimes some people write a short reply to me. When I realized that something that I write that is very short touched their lives and made them joyful, that gives me tremendous joy. Making others happy is the best joy you can ever ask for. Making yourself happy, it’s not that great of a joy, but making others happy because of you gives you tremendous joy. Joy is contagious, trying to make other people joyful for when you’re not joyful, that’s hypocrisy or you’re a clown, but true joy is contagious. When I’m joyful, it makes people around me joyful. There are people like that. When they’re present, somehow the whole atmosphere comes alive. The whole place is like a new light comes in, and they make everything bright. But some people come in the dark. They make everything dark and gloomy. 

Wherever Jesus was, he made people happy.  You know what? Jesus loved parties. He always went to a lot of parties. That’s why people accused him; ‘you’re drunkard and glutton!'. because he loved parties. When Jesus first called disciples, most of them were from John. You know John? John the baptist. He was in the wilderness. He had the camel's clothes and he only ate wild honey. He lived a very ascetic life. So all the disciples followed John expecting that lifestyle and then John told them to follow Jesus, so they started following Jesus. Do you know the first place Jesus took these disciples to? It was not the mountain to pray, it was a wedding party and he enjoyed it and he taught them how to enjoy life. He taught them what joy looks like. The deeper your faith is, the deeper joy will flow out of you. Don’t try to influence other people by trying to change them. The best influence you can give to others is to make them happy and joyful, but often we make other people miserable. We make other people sad. We create so many problems for other people rather than making them happy and joyful. It’s our job to make others happy. In your family, it is your job to make your spouse and to make other people around you, to make your children happy.

Don’t try to make other people miserable. That’s not the right thing to do. Make other people happy. If they’re happy because of you, thank God and praise God. Take joy wherever you go, take smiles wherever you go. Rejoice always. There will be people whose joy is restored because of your joy. When the deep seeded joy comes out from within us and becomes a song, that song will hit the joy that is hidden in others and their song will come out as a beautiful melody. That’s what joy is like. Joy is the best medicine. When we restore our joy, much of our illness will be healed. This world needs more joy. It’s too depressing, too gloomy. We need joy. Let us rejoice all our lives.

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Romans 8:18-25

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This scripture was taken from Romans Eight, 18 to 25. “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us for the creation, waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies for in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what is seen, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” This is the word of the Lord. Christmas season is a season of waiting, waiting with hope, waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ, waiting for a better future, waiting for a better world and waiting for the new year. We wait for all of these things with hope. So I would like to meditate on hope with you today. Hope is a good thing to have, hope makes your life brighter. Hope motivates us to move forward. Hope gives meaning to our present life and hope gives us a reason to persevere our suffering.

So hope is a wonderful thing. This is 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”, even though in the present time there is suffering, that has no comparison with the glory that is about to come with hope. We see the glory, the sufferings we go through cannot crush us and destroy us. Why? Because we have hope. When you have hope, suffering cannot really put you down even when the suffocating darkness surrounds us. Hope gives a glimpse of light and that light will lead us. That is the light of hope. Desmond Tutu, South African bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner said “hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of darkness”, but sometimes I rather see quite often people misunderstand about hope and do not take hope as something very important. To many of them, hope is just wishful thinking. Is hope different from wishful thinking? Is it merely you’re wishing for something better? Is that what hope is? It is something nice to have but not crucial or real. People think that hope is not real concrete help.

It’s just an attitude. This is just like something in the air, vague, ephemeral, but it’s not concrete. It’s not concretely helping you. It’s just so vague. When people say, “I hope you get better.” They’re very kind words, I mean, it’s very nice to say that, but that’s about it, being nice, being kind, something nice to wish for. Is that all about hope? I have this dissatisfaction with the definition about hope. Hope is not just wishful thinking. It’s not just something nice to say. Hope is more than that. The hope that I find in the scripture is more than that. When you buy a lottery ticket, you wish for some good fortune. That’s wishful thinking and we all have these kind of wishes and we live with this wishful thinking. We wish that something good happens in our lives. Something good may happen in our children, something good may happen in our job. We wish that everything may work out well. We merely wished that our circumstances get better. All of this is just wishful thinking and, we all have that, but that’s just wishful thinking. Nothing more than that. Hope is not wishful thinking.

Hope is to have a concrete vision for the future. That’s what hope is, hope is to have concrete vision for the future. Vision to me is not a calculated conclusion for the future, from the visible possibility of the present. Let me say that again. Vision to me is not a calculated conclusion for the future. From the visible possibility of the present, vision comes from hope even when we don’t see any possibility hope gives us this vision and we move forward with this vision, not because we see the possibility, but because the hope is good. That was what Saint Paul meant when he said, “for in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he’s seen, but if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” The reason Desmond Tutu could see a light even in the darkness around him was because he had hope. Everyone thought that the apartheid system in South Africa was too strong to fight. The system was too big to defeat, but that’s when Tutu had a vision, that the systemic evil will be ultimately defeated. And so he fought for his vision, not because he saw the possibility, but because the vision was good. That is hope. People who live with hope do not merely wish for something good, they fight with a concrete vision, and in that fight the hope becomes stronger and stronger. People who live with hope are fighters.

Salvation, we all got it wrong. Oh, if you believe in Jesus Christ, whether conceptual, whatever, I’ll go to heaven that is wrong. Salvation is not something that is given to you like freebies just because you’re a member or once because you believe in Jesus Christ. Salvation is not a ticket to go to heaven. Salvation is possible only through faith and faith always gives us vision and the vision to change, the vision to fight and the vision to be free. If that is not, their salvation is not there. We live with hope that we will be free from the darkness of our sins that will press us and we fight every day with the vision for the freedom and ultimately will become free. If you don’t fight, you wont be free. “Oh yeah. I once believed in Jesus Christ.” That’s not good enough. If you don’t fight, you won’t be free. St Paul said in verse 23, “and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies groan inwardly.” What image does that give you? It is the image of struggle and fight, groan inwardly, and my friends without hope we cannot even fight without hope we don’t even struggle because you have nothing to hope for. Why do you struggle? Life is nice, comfortable, nothing to struggle for, but once you have hope, you have something to fight for. You have something to struggle for, so without hope, salvation, is not possible. That was why St Paul said in hope, we were saved, in hope we were saved people who have no vision for the redemption of the body. How can they be redeemed? We wait and fight for the redemption of our bodies even though we only see the decay of ourselves. The process of fighting for the redemption itself is a salvation. Salvation is not a freebie you get. The process of fighting for the redemption itself is the salvation and hope is the power to live our lives with vision living day by day, without purpose, merely wishing for something good is not living with hope. When we have hope. Our lives change, just because you bought a lottery ticket, does your life change? Maybe if you win it, but when we have hope, it changes us. We’ll have something to pursue. Something to hope for we will have new vision for life. Life will move forward. Not only do we have power to persevere, our sufferings and challenges, but power to overcome them.

Even now, every day I fight, when I look at myself, it’s so pathetic. That’s why I fight. Still pitiful emotions bother me. Still, there’s decay of my bodies rather than redemption. I fight. That’s why  there’s still anger. There’s still hatred, there is lack of belief, doubt. I believe that life should not be in bondage, being pressed down. Whether you’re aware of it or not. I believe that life should not be in bondage. We should not let our circumstance take us as it’s captive. Doesn’t matter how you see it about your life. You may come for yourself “ahh my life is great.” Good. At one point, we just have to get up and move. I cannot live like that any longer, constantly in fear in bondage. I cannot live like that any longer. Get up and move and the hope can give us that strength to get up and move. Hope is not a guessing game about our future. Hope is a spiritual insight to see our future with the promise of God. If we have hope, our life will move towards God’s promise. When people who have hope are gathered together, then the history will move towards a brighter future.

Now we are here together. People as people, with hope, when we get together, the history will move towards a better future. This community will be able to do that. That’s why 2018 for me is exciting because you are going to make some changes. Let us live with hope. It’s not just wishful thinking. Hope is a powerful weapon. All the great people who made a dent in the universe, they lived with hope. The great people who made changes in history, they all lived with hope. Living hope, hope makes you a great person. Find that hope in your life.

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Ezekiel 34:11-16

Thank you, praise team. Uh, it was good to be off drums for one week. It was a nice, hearing the joint praise team play together. So it is an honor and a privilege for me to be, delivering message here today. It’s my first time preaching to the ESM congregation, so I thought the anxiety level would be similar to when the MCed the mission dinner, but not even close. So forgive me if I seem a little nervous, but, you guys are good people. Let us turn through a scripture reading for today. It’s Ezekiel 34:11-16.

“For thus says the Lord, God: I myself, will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they’re among their scatter sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on the day of clouds and thick darkness. I’ll bring them out from the peoples and gathered them from the countries and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the watercourses and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I’ll feed them with good pasture. And the mountain Heights of Israel shall be their pasture. They shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on reach a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord, God. I will seek the lost, and I’ll bring back the strayed and I’ll bind up the injured and I’ll strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I’ll destroy. I’ll feed them with justice.” This is the Lord.

There’s a line from a song by the Deep Purple. It’s called “Soldier of Fortune.” I don’t it just kept coming into my head this week as I was preparing this. And it goes, “Many times I’ve been a traveller/I looked for something new/In days of old when nights were cold/I wandered without you”. I wonder how much of these words resonated with you. They express a sense of longing and searching for something new that always seems to lead to wondering. And I think it’s very human thing to long for something. Think about it. We long for a better day. We tend to long for a better relationship, for a better career for a better life. But underneath all this, I see a much deeper kind of longing, longing for home. And I don’t mean a literal home, but a place where we feel content and at peace. There’s an actual word for it. It is a German word it’s called [zenzut].

I don’t know if I pronounced that correctly, but this how it is. And it means a yearning for some place far away that is not of this earth, that one can call their home. We experienced this, something like this from time to time. It is quiet but powerful, but the irony is we can never tell what this is or where we can find it. There was a period in my life when this was the case. On the surface, I had everything. I had a home. I had a family and friends. I had a job. There wasn’t anything really I lacked. And yet I never didn’t really feel completely at peace. And I was at home yet, I didn’t feel at home. I felt as if that home was out there somewhere. So I often had this inkling to just get up and leave, leave everything behind and just go somewhere.

There was no specific place in mind, just somewhere far where I can feel at peace. And there were times that I did, it took me to different places. At one point, I even flew halfway around the world just to search for it. But each time I did not find what I was looking for. I kept running into dead end. So what is it that constantly drives us to satisfy this restlessness? The feeling that things in life are not as they should be, that they always seemed to be just less than ideal than perfect. And we see different manifestation of this wandering, either doing things or going places we think we should. For example, the Israelites worshiping golden calf in the wilderness as a way to sort of escape the reality that they face in the desert. Or the prodigal son leaving home. Although the parable itself does not really give us an explanations.

And I wonder if this is a symptom of our own brokenness. And these were the thoughts that came to mind as I was reflecting on the lost sheep in today’s passage because I think the image of the wandering sheep in the fields, not having the slightest idea of where to go, yet stubborn enough to their own thing. I think it captures how we go through life at times. And here in Ezekiel it was to show what had become of the Israelites years later. Not only had they been led further astray in their ways, by the bad leadership of Kings in Jerusalem, their land was conquered by enemies and they were scattered all over the place as a result, without their home, isolated and lonely.

To this situation. God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel with these very words, “I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.” (Ezekiel 34:11) It’s a bold statement. In fact, almost every verse in today’s reading alone begins with the words “I will”. There is no denying that God is determined to do what he says he will. And here God says he will look for his people, that he will find them from where each of them are and bring them back, back to where they belong. And I think it’s important that we understand this about God, his heart, that longs deeply for us.

For me, that the passage that best demonstrate this is in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve had taken a bite of the forbidden fruit and hid in shame. And this is what it says, “They heard the sound of the Lord, God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, God, among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God had called to the man and said to him, where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9) Where are you? It is the part that we don’t remember as much from the story in Genesis. When you think about us it’s absurd question, as if God doesn’t know where they are. I mean he’s God. But when we really think about it, we come to understand how God loves. In spite of what we’ve done, God wants to know us first, like a parent, yet he does not force or impose his love upon us. Instead gives us the freedom to respond to him when we are ready. And this is the same God that pursues his people in today’s passage and longs to bring them home.

So I thought to myself, what is this home for us? What is this home where we can to borrow the words from today’s text, lie down in good grazing land and feed on rich pasture, where it can truly say what David said in the beginning of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) I had no idea first. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what it was. I knew the feeling of it, but I just could not put it into words. So I waited. I prayed, I waited. And then it came to me. That home is where we find peace with ourselves. Because when we aren’t at peace with ourselves, it is hard for us to be even content with the simple things of life. Instead, we blame the things around us and outside of us as the source of all our problems. But when we’re at peace with ourselves, we are able to see things more clearly and therefore have the courage to face whatever problems we have instead of running away from them. In other words, we can then be at peace with everything else. And I believe that we can truly be at peace with ourselves when we know God in a meaningful way.

And that is when we respond to God’s longing by bringing our own to him. Because what is a relationship. Relationship is when two people who long to be with one another come together as one. And in relationship one person’s identity is affirmed by the love of the other person. And this allows them to be who they really are. And I’ve been seeing the glimpse of this in this community as well, especially serving the Hi-Cs. Especially when you go on March break or summer retreats, and I see them just playing around, hanging out, playing together, and the little things that they do for each other, they’re very inclusive. They welcome each other. And even the quietest kids, just all of a sudden blossom. And you really see just sort of how much of an impact and the power it has when you affirm somebody just even a little bit. And through one another, you can totally see their true and authentic selves emerge.

In the same way it is in God, I believe, that our God given identity is restored and we begin to live our lives authentically. It is only when we abandoned that identity for something else that we grow restless and wander off on our own. That was precisely the case for the Israelites I think. It was only when they forgot about their own identity, as God’s chosen people that they began to go astray their ways and experience many troubles. And sometimes even the process of embracing our God given identity is not easy because that includes all of our imperfections and complexities.

And it will be almost a year since I’ve been here at St. Timothy just over a year since I’ve answered a call to go into ministry. And in a way it’s strange to think about it when I look back at sort of how the past year and a half has been, because before I actually, I come from a film background. So, I started filming in my undergrad and, and that was sort of, you know, just the, within the fine arts, that realm was sort of my forte. So when I got the call to go into ministry, it would puzzle me because things that seem to, all the skills that seem to, you know, be required for ministry was really not, I didn’t think that it was part of my skillset. So especially after coming to Saint Timothy and starting the Hi-C ministry and whatnot, I think it really, those experiences that I had brought me face to face with a lot of my imperfections, more, what I couldn’t do than what I could do.

And it was difficult at first to kinda deal with that experience, but with something, but something strange that no matter how difficult it was that beneath it all, I felt that peace with everything. But which wasn’t what I necessarily felt before when I was doing something else. When I was in film or when I was doing what I thought I should be doing, because there in that field, I was playing to my strengths, my weaknesses, I could hide them. I don’t really need to address them. What I was good at, I only did that. But going through ministry, it’s sort of the opposite case. Kind of your, you do things that you’re not good at, or you do things and you realize your limitations right away, such as preparing for the sermon today.

I never realized, when I’m speaking with the Hi-Cs, that my preparation usually goes from like, sort of the pointers, but to have to write out a full manuscript. I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I think really raised my respect for Moxanims lot more, but through this experience of being in ministry, I think it was through those things through seeing my imperfections, through seeing my limitations, think I was able to finally embrace my true identity, not my idealized identity, but what it truly was.

And I think what I hope is that people even in, especially when I look at my students, I wish that they could just be who they are, be as they’re made to be. And I see that, especially when I interact with them and I really wish that they don’t lose that when they get older. Albert Camus, a French philosopher once said this, which I thought was very profound, “But above all, in order to be, never try to seem.” There’s a typo there. It’s: “Never try to seem.” It’s a very simple remark, but it’s very deep. Isn’t it true that most of the times we try to seem rather than be? And it’s tiring. It’s exhausting to do that.

So my hope for all of us today is that we will come to know this kind of peace. Sometimes it takes going through a journey of our own and getting lost in order to be found. But I believe that God will never forsake us. And as we saw today he will wait for us. And I believe he’s faithful and will bring us home. So let us see the longings that we have within us as an invitation to draw near to God. I’m sure there will be a day, you’ll answer the question: Where are you with here?, with: Here I am. Let us sing together.

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James 5:7-11

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

It’s easy to talk about being patient, but it is very hard to practice it. We know very well that nothing in the world can be mastered without patience. Nothing can be done easily to achieve anything good. We go through many hardships and pain and difficulties and also we experienced a lot of failures. Only after many failures, we achieved a little bit of what we really want to achieve, but just a fraction of it. But even to achieve that, it takes so much patience, much failures, and hardships. So, this is a painful process to master. And that’s why we need a patience. There is used to be a very interesting visa commercial. I don’t see that anymore. A father is watching a son playing with this board and then the boy writes something and then he shakes it and then the letter is gone and he writes again.

I don’t know what it’s called, that little tablet. You write something and then shake it and gone and writes again. And the father goes to his refrigerator and then he sees his bill statement and he takes it and he shakes it and everything becomes a zero and the commercial said, “if life is like that, you don’t need a visa, but for everything else you need a visa.” I mean, how nice, if our life is that easy as portrayed in the commercial but when I really think about it, I might get boring. If life is like that, if I can get anything I want immediately then I’ll get bored. Life is challenging because there are things in life we can never master. If there were a pen that produces a sermon just like that, whenever I use it, sermon just comes out.

Doesn’t matter how much thousand, $10,000. I’ll buy it. Life would be so much easier that way. But, come to think of it, if I have that pen, my life may be quite boring. The challenge we need these challenges, these challenges give us something to work for and something to pursue. That’s what makes our life exciting. There’s something that you cannot just master, something that you cannot just achieve. That’s why you’re working so hard, but still, you don’t get it, and that process itself gives us a little bit of meaning in life. Spiritual life is more exciting because it is hard to master because it’s challenging. Spiritual life is very challenging and it’s hard to master. Maybe there’s is no such thing as mastering spiritual life. That’s why spiritual life is so exciting. Spirituality always takes us beyond our comfort zone.

Spirituality takes us always beyond what we can do easily. So it is very important to be patient in cultivating a spiritual life. Like the farmer who patiently waits for the rain to fall after they planted the seeds. We have to learn to patiently wait for the spiritual change after we put so much effort into it. Israelites had to learn this patience, in the wilderness for 40 years. Maybe that’s why God left them there to teach them what patience is all about. For 40 years they have to wait. And early Christians, because of their persecution, they experienced tremendous persecution in the beginning and they had to wait. They always called Maranatha, “come Lord.” That’s what it means. And they waited and persevered through all that persecution. I mean, it’s not that it wasn’t their choice. Their environment kind of demanded that from them.

Almost a forced them to be patient. Sometimes you cannot choose our situation, our environment, our life circumstances and just forces us or demand us just to be patient. And the early Christians because they experienced a tremendous persecution, probably they built a muscle, spiritual muscle, muscle of faith. Maybe that’s why we still have Christianity after 2000 years later, if the Christianity was established very easily in the beginning, probably we may not even have Christianity now, but right in the beginning, they went through so much persecution and hardship. They build a strong spirituality in the process. So there is a blessing in disguise. It is hard to take him when he comes, but once you go through it, you become stronger. So it is a blessing in disguise. We may prefer an easy and comfortable life but who doesn’t? But let me tell you, be careful. When your life is too easy and too comfortable, I’ll tell you to be careful because you may lose your purpose of living.

You may lose life itself. You may wonder if this is all about life. Just eating well and living well is that it? Sometimes you may get totally disappointed and disillusioned about your life. Faith grows on suffering and struggle. The best food for faith is struggle and suffering. People want to grow fast and when they want to grow fast, hardships, struggle, and suffering seem like the only hindrance. That slows down your growth, but let me tell you, if you change fast, you change fast. But if you change something, you’re back to zero fast. Nothing changes fast. Real change takes time. Real growth happens one step at a time.

I believe in the power of doing little things every day. I think that it has tremendous power. If you can do something every day I believe you will see the power of that little thing that you do every day. Ancient Roman poet, Ovid said dripping water hollows out the stone, not through force, both through persistence. Even water can make a hole in the rock when it comes down continuously. Chinese has a word for that too, so I memorized, but I forgot now, sorry. I said it in KSM service and they were like, “wow! How did you know?” Of course, Google. You can get anything from Google except sermon. You know, faith is very simple.

I believe that faith is a good habit. That’s what faith is. Good habit. Faith doesn’t happen overnight. You can never have faith if you don’t have a habit. If you don’t have a spiritual habit, doesn’t matter how long you been to church, you can never have faith. Faith is a good habit, and many years of spiritual practices produce faith as a result. And having a habit is very powerful. You don’t become an alcoholic by one binge drinking, but if you repeat heavy drinking every day, every night, it becomes a habit. And the habit controls you. A good habit is also very powerful. You know, Stephen King who write mostly horror books. I don’t read these books much, but one book that he wrote is a just beautiful book, made into a movie, Shawshank Redemption. I’m sure some of you have watched that movie, beautiful movie if you didn’t watch it. Stephen King wrote that book and he said, he writes every day, not a single day. He misses. He writes every day, including his birthday and holidays. He has a quota every day, 2000 words until he writes 2000 words he doesn’t stop his pen. He writes every day.

Mark Twain said the same thing. The good habit makes a good writer. Being patient doesn’t mean that you don’t do anything and just wait. Being patient is you’re doing something believing that you’re doing something worth worthwhile and you believe that someday that will bring the result. So you patiently keep doing it. That’s what waiting is. Waiting is not just sitting down doing nothing. Waiting is you wait for the result because you believe that this is good and you wait for the result and continue to little thing over and over and over again, even though you don’t see the result right away. That’s what waiting is. If there’s one thing that you want to do in your life, put that in your daily schedule. Just don’t say that I want it. If you really want it, put that in your daily schedule. Anger is a problem. You really want to be free from the anger. Put that in the daily schedule. A complaint is a problem. Then put that in the daily schedule. For example, write a Thanksgiving journal every day. Okay. From today I’m going to write five items that I’m thankful for. Every day you write down why you’re thankful for. You keep doing that and your complaint will disappear. Someday, you’ll be a thankful person. Today’s the last Sunday of November already and next Sunday will enter into the last month of this year and then from January you’ll have a new resolution. But start now, from January to late. Think about what you want to achieve in 2018 and prepare yourself from now and start it. And then if you’re a success this year in 2018, the next year, 2019 add another habit. So every year add one habit at a time, what you want to do, what is really important to you. Do that and your life will change.

I really enjoy TBS, Tuesday Bible study, and they are writing these days. What we do is different from other Bible Studies. One week I go and teach and then a week after they gather together with the computer, they sit down and they actually write about their life from what they studied. For example, Job first chapter about running away. And then next week they come together and they write about their life of running away. In the beginning, you know, they are like I don’t like to do it but now, after four weeks, my goodness, the depth of their writing. They’re going to be all writers. It’s a really deep and very interesting as they study. Habits are scary. You can build good habits, good spiritual habit, and your life much more enjoyable and joyful.

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1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

{Transcript}

Today’s scriptures taken from first Thessalonians five, one to eleven. Now concerning the times and the seasons. Brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and they say there is peace and security. Then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and there will be no escape, but you beloved are not in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief for all your children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness, so then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those were drunk, get drunk at night, but since we belonged to the day that is to be sober and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation for God has destined us not for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other as indeed you are doing. This is the word of the Lord.

The early Christians thought that Jesus was coming very soon. Of course, as you know, Jesus did not come as soon as they expected, they kind of lived with some mistaken expectation about the coming of Jesus, but there was one thing that all the early Christians had, they were alert and they lived with a sense of urgency. In the early Christian community. This sense of urgency was very important. Therefore, they all emphasized the importance of living with a sense of urgency. So even in their documentation, they made sure that the story about that will be there. So for example, a Jesus’ parable about 10 bridesmaids; Jesus came, and five bridesmaids prepare the oil, but the other five did not prepare the oil. In other words, the five were awake and alert, and they lived with a sense of urgency, but the other five did not do that.

A lot of stories are in the Bible to show that living with a sense of urgency is very important. In that urgency, I believe that they were able to produce the masterpiece called the Bible. The Bible did not just come into existence in a normal mindset, in that very urgent mindset. They were able to produce the masterpiece called the New Testament. Living with a sense of urgency does that, it puts you in a totally different mindset. The person who lives with urgency, and the person who lives mindlessly, the quality of their mindset, the quality of their thinking are totally different. When you live with a sense of urgency, you can be creative, alert, purposeful, passionate and alive. That’s what he does. People come alive when they have the sense of urgency, the modern society; I don’t know why the model society takes away this sense of urgency in people. I feel like we’re all crazy, like we hear so many people get killed in Las Vegas and then all of a sudden we get this urgency. Wow. And the next day as though nothing happened and that’s something that we look at, and then we walk away. Even when I look at myself, this is crazy. When two people are threatening each other with nuclear threats. Oh, I just hope that nothing bad happens and we just move on. There’s no sense of urgency at all in modern life. I don’t know why. Maybe our life is too structured and programed, so we feel we have security and stability? Is that why?

Whatever the reason may be losing this sense of urgency is killing our soul! it’s killing us. Is it because the world has become so big that we feel drowned in it? I can’t do nothing about it, but I see some exceptional people who live with a sense of urgency. Even around us.

The other day I read an article in the Rolling Stone magazine about Elon Musk. It was a very interesting article. It was a interview, and Elon's brother Kimbal, said about Elon in this way. He’s able to see things more clearly in a way that no one else I know of can understand. His brother saw his brother, and he had this keen sense of seeing things that no other people can see. And Elon Musk said, climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century except for artificial intelligence. Elon Musk makes rockets, he created an electric car, and he is looking for planets for human beings to be able to inhabit- and I don’t know, sounds like crazy. But somehow he’s not comfortable with the way he just lives. He has this sense of urgency. We gotta do something about it. We cannot just move on. I mean, he has so much money, has so much power. He can live his life without worrying about anything, without sense of urgency. He can eat a steak every night if he wants. still has lots of money left. I mean, he could comfortably go on vacation all he wants if he just lives for himself. He didn’t need to feel any sense of urgency. He could just live normal, but he lived with his sense of urgency to leave a better universe, better nature, better earth to the next generation. Is it because he’s so smart and so powerful and so big? That, he could make some changes in the world. He can dare to think about making a dent in the universe or he is there make some changes in the war because he’s so smart and so powerful? Maybe. It may be easier for him to have the sense of urgency because he’s so powerful, that he can do something about it, something about his life and something about the world he lives in, but I don’t think only smart and powerful people can live with a sense of urgency. I think a sense of urgency comes from a clear understanding of one’s purpose.

When you have clear understanding of your purpose, then you have sense of urgency. When you don’t have any purpose, then nothing’s urgent. Just life moves on, you can just live comfortably, but when you have something that you want to achieve while you are alive, then you get this sense of urgency. We won’t be just satisfied with just making a living. When we have a purpose, peace and security will not be everything we want in life. My friends, that’s a lie, that is a lie, peace and security is everything about life? that is a defeated mentality. That’s people who lost their soul, they think like that. Peace and security is not everything about life. That was what Saint Paul said in today’s scripture when they say there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come up on a pregnant woman, and there’ll be no escape.

In Paul’s time. Many people live with sense of security and peace; like Roman peace, Pax Romana. Well, everything is good and fine. Everything is peaceful, and you are secure. Paul was surrounded by that kind of mentality, but he saw something else. No, there’s an urgency here, so peace and security versus urgency. Paul chose urgency and I agree with Paul. Paul is saying live with a sense of urgency, a sense of urgency is more important than living with a false sense of peace and security, living with a false sense of peace and security. We can create nothing. We can do nothing. When we live with a sense of urgency, we enter into a different realm of life. It is different consciousness, different realm of existence. When we have that sense of urgency, we enter into that. When artists produce a masterpiece, they are in a different level of consciousness, a different realm of existence. Your power and energy will come from within us. Everything comes alive within us. Every cell of our bodies, awakened with new vitality. We don’t live falling asleep, we are urgent. I wonder where this sense of urgency comes from, mistaken expectation? “Oh, Jesus will come soon.” Is that how they got the sense of urgency? Maybe partly. So I was reflecting on it. Where did these early Christians get that urgency? I reflected on it and read the Scripture and I found this scripture that is from acts, it is what luke said, but he was actually the quotation from the Joel prophet. He says “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.

When the spirit came upon them, something happened within them. All of a sudden they all became awakened and they got this sense of urgency, and in that state of mind they were able to prophesy. Young people could see visions and old people could dream dreams, something totally no one ever expected happened within them. They were able to see visions. They were able to dream dreams. Certainly Martin Luther King Jr., When everybody automatically assumed racial discrimination is reality of life that you must live by, he said no, and he with a sense of urgency, he wanted to change that. I think it’s the movement of the spirit, it is I believe, the prompting of the spirit, that prompts you to live a better life. They all entered into a different realm of life, different dimension. Their life became a life of vision, dream, and purpose. All the great people in the history saw the vision, had the dream and lived out the purpose they found. That was how they impacted the world. Living a lethargic life is not an only option. Don’t believe in that lie, just because you have a house secured, job secured.

That’s not the only option to live. That can never be your goal. We have to see bigger things in life. You have to find life. We are made. We are made not to be happy when you live only for yourself. That’s how we are created to be. We can never be happy when we live for ourselves. Is it nature? We can only be happy when we live for other people and for God, who takes care of- who cares for the world, only then we can be happy. That is a noble purpose. Time we have, it’s not gonna be there all the time. When we realized that time is limited, we cannot just waste our time. St. Paul said this; “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. You already know it, for you yourself know very well that the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night.”. The other day I watched the news and this guy was making a bomb shelter, he built everything so that he could be saved from the nuclear war, and be able to securely live for many years.

Being awake means this present moment is awake. There may not be tomorrow, tomorrow is tomorrow, but today, we have to be awake. You can do so much. You can do so much. You know, it saddens me when I see talented people waste their lives with defeated mentality. It saddens me. It makes me angry when they could do much better.

The other day I talked with a guy. He called me, he lives in San Francisco “Reverend, I want to give a donation or a gift scholarship in my father’s name.” He said “I’ll give $100,000 initially and every year $12,000.  I want to support theological students with that money.” So I said “that’s great. I’ll help you use your money.” And the other day a woman came to me, “I’ll give a $30,000 to help out the poor and needy during this Christmas season.” at least there is some movement. As we come to God, God will awaken us as we humbly pray, the spirit will awaken us, then we can enter into a different realm of existence, not just victims of materialism. Your horizon will be open, your eyes will be open, you can see the vision and you will dream dreams. I think that is what life is all about. I believe that was the power that broke through the darkness in the early christian history. I mean, it is just a miracle for me how Christianity survived that kind of persecution in the first 20, 30 or 50 years.

I mean, it’s a small set. 12 people started, hundred people gathered together and prayed, and how could they break through that roman power and all that way of roman thinking, and become Christian. Christianity? That itself is a miracle. I believe that it is a power of those who are urgent, who felt urgency, I think it is the power of those who are totally awake. They had a different sense of living. We have to be alive. We have to awake. We have to come alive. Are there artists who can create masterpieces? Are they engineers? Are they a poet? You can come up with a tremendous piece once your whole week. You’re very talented people, but talent itself is not good enough. Your brain is not good enough. You need power for your talents to become actualized like god. Anoint you. Let god take you to a higher level. Let us come out of our shelter and enjoy the freedom to be the best you can be for others sake, for God, and for the world.

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Luke 15:1-10

{Transcript}

Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.

So, he told them this parable: Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.   This is the Word of the Lord.

When I read this passage, I could imagine a sheep wandering all alone in the darkness, in fear and trembling. How scary it must be. There were a lot of wild animals around in the darkness. And how lonely it must have felt. When I was young, I was once lost in Changgyeong Palace. Changgyeong Palace in Seoul, Korea. A very crowded place. It was a scary experience. I was chasing after a balloon and after about 10 minutes I looked around. There was no mom around and I can’t remember exactly, but the emotion, that scary emotion was still very vivid to me.

It is the best feeling to be in 99. We feel safe, warm and comfortable. We don’t feel alone. There’s a group that I can belong to. It is a good feeling to have people around us whom we can depend on, talk to and get advice from. A sense of belonging. It is very important that I belong to somewhere.

When I went to Yale last weekend, when I first got there, I was the only Canadian. There were all Americans and I looked around I was the only Asian. Oh, my goodness. I was sitting there alone, but soon they made me feel so comfortable. I had a great time with them. Two evenings later, about 13 of us, went out for dinner and they found a good place. And then the one guy just paid for everyone. I told them “that’s only what Koreans do.” And they paid for him. It was a really wonderful experience that I had.

Being alone is hard. Some kids who are alienated in school experience serious pain. Some of them even commit suicide, but it’s not just children that seek acceptance. But it is also important for all of us, for adults to have a sense of belonging. We don’t want to feel rejected, not wanted. You want to be recognized, respected and loved. Mother Theresa said this “loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” I think it’s pretty profound statement. We should never make other people feel this way, but there are a lot of people around me and in the world who live with this loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted. They live day by day in isolation. When I go to the nursing home I feel terrible loneliness. And loneliness is a universal experience in our fragmented world.

When we are in deep pain, we feel loneliness. We feel that you’re all alone. When people have a serious illness that’s what they say. “While they’re waiting, they don’t just have fear for the unknown future, but they also feel terrible loneliness, feeling that nobody can help me. I’m all alone to fight this.” When Jesus was on the cross, he said, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He didn’t say that God had abandoned him. That’s not what he was saying. He was expressing his deep pain, the pain of being disconnected and totally abandon from everything, including God. That is a pain that we read. When we are in deep pain we feel lonely. Especially when we feel that we are alienated and feel worthless and feel the nobody understands us we experience pain in loneliness. The lost sheep represents the people who lost not just their way, but everything. Confidence, self-respect, and self-worth. And these people feel lonely, not simply because they are alone physically, but deep inside they feel that I’m not wanted. Deep inside, they feel that I’m worthless. Nobody wants me, nobody understands me. I’m all alone in this giant universe.

What is the solution? I don’t think the solution is not just trying so hard to be a part of 99. I don’t think that is a solution. It is not good to try to be a part of 99 simply because it is more comfortable. We may feel lonelier sometimes we can lose ourselves in the crowd. When you look at the story in the Bible, for example, Job, he lost everything. He lost his honor, dignity, respect, everything! He lost his health. He lost his children. He lost his wealth. Everything was gone. For more than anything else. He felt terribly lonely, losing everything. He was all alone. Job’s friends came to comfort him, but they made Job feel lonelier. Job needed his friends, but he cannot just join his friends, agreeing with them superficially just to be part of them, just to be one of them. He couldn’t do that. He had to find himself. He had to find his own way. That was why Job argues so much with them, not because Job was argumentative, but he had to find himself. He cannot just be part of them. Agreeing with what they were saying. Samaritan woman was like the lost sheep. She feels alienated from people. In reaction, she made herself isolated. “You don’t want to see me? I don’t have to see you. I can live by myself.” So she was living in isolation. She cannot just go back to people and join them. Even if she went back by being just like them, completely ignoring her own needs, she would not have lived a happy life. But when she found herself through Jesus, she was able to go back to them. Actually, when she found herself, the first thing she did was to go back to the people.

When we feel lonely, our answer is neither just to look for a group to join, nor to live alone in loneliness. I only see these two kinds. They feel lonely, so they look for friends. Friends not to share deep stuff but friends to forget about your loneliness, friends to just have fun. That’s not a friend, that’s not friendship. If you just have friends because you wanted to avoid your loneliness, you’re just using them. But there’s also some people cannot even find friends so they just give everything. They just live alone. But, I believe that when we feel lonely, I think that is the best time to meet God in a meaningful way.

We can never meet God unless we are alone. To have a meaningful encounter with God, we need to be alone. When we are alone, sometimes we can see things more clearly. When we’re with people, we don’t see it. But, when we are totally alone, we can see life much more clearly. More often than not, when we are alone, we have a higher chance to be able to meet God in a meaningful way. We just finished studying the life of Jonah. When he was on the boat with other people, even though he faced a storm, he cannot really see things clearly. He cannot even see himself. He could not find himself, he cannot find God. But when he was thrown into the ocean, when he was all totally alone at the bottom of the ocean, in the belly of the fish, when he was alone, he met God in a radically new way. When Jacob home and slept in the wilderness alone, and when Jacob took his family across the river first and when he was alone at night, that was when he met God meaningfully and he found his identity, Israel. He found himself, he found God. Moses’, Samaritan woman and Paul. They’re all like that. When they were alone, they met God. That’s why Jesus often at times likes to be alone. He was always surrounded by people, but he had to move away from them. He went and wanted to alone.

Being lonely is not what you experience all the time, but when you experienced that, use that opportunity to meet God instead of quickly finding friends. Use that opportunity just to sit before God. Jesus told us today and in the scripture, the shepherd will never leave us alone. When we feel lonely, the shepherd comes to look for us. Whether it was because of our mistakes, stupidity or the situation or people who made us feel isolated, it doesn’t really matter. God does not look for a justifiable good reason to come to us. There’s no such thing as, “well I’m lonely because people make me lonely,” but sometimes we feel lonely because of your sin, because of your mistake. When you’re at the bottom of your life, you feel lonely. It doesn’t matter why. What is important to God is that the fact that you are lonely and will God come to us. To go one step further don’t just wait until you feel lonely. We should practice to be alone, even to be lonely. Sometimes don’t even turn on the TV, don’t turn the radio, don’t distract yourself. Just sit. Even if you feel lonely, that’s what we need.

It is comfortable to be in the crowd, but if we are in the crowd all the time, we cannot meet God. Jesus said implicitly in today’s scripture, 99 righteous people who need no repentance, very interesting expression. 99 righteous people, who need no repentance, who doesn’t really need repentance? We all need repentance. In other words, the crowd who doesn’t know themselves. That’s what Jesus is talking about. The 99 who needs no repentance is the crowd or the mob that doesn’t know themselves. Sometimes when we are in the crowd, we’d lose ourselves. We don’t know ourselves.

I experienced that when I used to be a youth pastor for the teenagers. These teenagers individually when I meet them, they’re a human being. But when you gather them together, they turn into animals, beasts! Where did they come from? They lose their personal identity and just become a mob. Sometimes we are like that. When we are alone, we find ourselves. But, when we are in the crowd, sometimes we lose ourselves. We don’t even know who we are. In the 99 who needed no repentance, we cannot truly fine God. We can find God in the one who is lost because God will leave the many to look for the one who is lost.

We sometimes live our lives totally losing ourselves in the crowd. We do not know who we are. We do not know what we want. We do not know what God wants from us. A sign that shows that people are lonely is that they always look for people. They look for something to do to distract them from themselves because they are scared of being lonely. Let us be courageous. we need to leave the crowd and be all alone. We need to find what is really important to us, what we live for, who is God to us? Loneliness. Sometimes it’s the best place to do that. So being lonely, it’s not necessarily all bad.

I shared that with our women’s Bible Study Group. I was at a silent retreat. I really looked forward to it. Silent retreat at a center. There is nothing that you do. You’re just go and be silent. Nobody talks. When you eat lunch, nobody talks to you. We just say hi, but you don’t say hi. You should say hi with your eyes. After you eat lunch, you just go back to your room. First Day was great. Oh, my goodness. I had so much time. I got so many books I started reading. I enjoyed thoroughly. The next day, “so what do I do now?” I’m all by myself. I can’t talk to anybody. And I was feeling a little uneasy. And the third day came, I started missing shopping center. Oh, my goodness. I need people. I need to see people. I need a crowd. I need the hustle and bustle around me. And I felt totally lonely. And the next day came all the darkness coming up and I asked myself, who are you? Who are you? Sometimes loneliness can bring a miracle to us. You could totally awaken you.

Second Secretary-General of UN, a Dag Hammarskjold was awarded the Nobel peace prize and he was a very good diplomat and he said this, “pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.” I think it’s a pretty profound statement. When I went to Yale, I just left the crowd one day for a few hours. I walked around Yale campus and I was just by myself. It was so good. And then I was thinking about what is that something that I live for and what is that something that I die for? After all, I attended the seminar. The title was Life Worth Living. So I want you to think about that.

When people who have meaningful time with God and with themselves in their lonesome, when these people gathered together to make up 99, that 99 will not be the 99 who do not need repentance. The 99 will be the spiritual community. People who gathered together just because they are lonely do not make a spiritual community. They will just use the community. I just need that group. The spiritual community will never be built like that. Two lonely people came can make each other lonelier. Just because you’re lonely, don’t meet people. You can make yourselves lonelier. Let us have time alone with God and come back and reach out to those around us. In that way, we build a spiritual community. Let us defeat, together, the loneliness that is predominant in the modern technocratic society. We human beings become isolated in this technocratic society. Let us defeat loneliness. This society makes being a human being so lonely but by being together we can build a spiritual community. Let us fight the loneliness.

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Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Thank you very much choir and praise team. Uh, that was German, right? Alright. I mean, it’s wonderful. Isn’t it? That we get to worship God and in all sorts, all the variety of creation. So, that’s really how we praise and worship God. So thank you very much. I’ve been suffering through a nasty cough this week, so I pray that my voice, remains and that you bear with me if I start breaking out the cough, but let us hear the word of the Lord for now. Today’s passage is taken from Deuteronomy 34:1-12.

“Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there. Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended. Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses. Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.” This is the word of the Lord.

So I want to start off with a question. I asked this to the Hi-C at the lock-in on Friday. Do you believe that your life is just a random isolated existence, or do you believe that your life is connected to a bigger story? So phrasing it differently. Do you believe that the significance of your life begins and ends with me? Or your family? Or is significance of your life connected with something bigger than yourself? I really believe that how we answer this question makes all the difference in how we look at life and how we respond to the challenges of life. So it’s therefore really important, I think, to examine what we really believe at the core of our existence, because in life things often they don’t go as we expected the way that our life looks today is often different, from what we expected, it might look like. How do we respond when this is the case? So today’s passage is about the end of Moses’s life. His life can generally be divided into three stages,. The first 40 years of his life, he lived a very privileged life in Pharaoh’s palace as a Prince. The next 40 years of his life, he was chilling. He was married, lived out in the country, in the pasture, raised sheep, cattle had wife, kids, very settled life. But then it’s the last 40 years of his life that he’s most remembered for. That’s when God called him to go back to Egypt and help deliver his people from slavery.

So that last period of his life, it started off with a bang. You know, Moses came in with tremendous power. You guys, have seen the Charles Heston movie with the staff and everything. He brought plagues upon Pharaoh and he did all these wondrous things and he brought his people and he parted the red sea. Great power he displayed. It started off with an amazing display of power. Surely with that start, Moses would take them across the finish line, into the promised land, but then something happened. He kind of fizzled out. They did all this, they got out of Egypt, but then they were stuck in the desert for 40 years. And that’s where he died. So, if we look at his life in isolation, I don’t know, we can look at it maybe as kind of a failure or disappointment.

Peyton Manning, you guys know that name? He was a star quarterback in the NFL. You know, he’s this guy, he broke all sorts of records and, and he was a great quarterback, but he started to develop a little bit of reputation. During the regular season is when he smashed all these records and did really great, but come playoff time, I don’t know, somehow like teams ended up losing a lot. It was in the middle of his career when he finally won a Super Bowl. But people are still kind of asking: Was that kind of luck? Was that really because of how great he is?And questions remained. So his reputation, it was questionable. Would he be remembered as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, or would he be remembered as a good regular season performer, but kind of choking the playoffs? And so finally, in his final season, he finally won a second super bowl, thus kind of cementing his legacy. So, I mean, I think for professional athletes, that’s kind of how they want to go out. They want to go out and glory. Right? And I think in life too, we kind of want to have that kind of storybook ending to our life too. We want to look back and say, yeah, I’ve done all this.

But in real life, I think things often, they don’t turn out the way we expected or wanted. I don’t know. Maybe my job or career has been kind of a disappointment or maybe my marriage was not what I thought it might be or going through the routine of waking up, racing out the door, fighting traffic, doing my work, coming home, rinse and repeat. Is this what my life is amounting to? So if we see the significance of our lives, just beginning and ending with me, then I think it’s easy to become disappointed and resigned about life. And I think that’s precisely one of the reasons why in modern life today, so many of us are dissatisfied. Because it start begins and ends with me, I have to achieve all these goals. I have to do this and that, my life has to match that picture that I’ve kind of created. And we place a lot of expectation and pressure on ourselves. And this is mostly because at the end of the day, my life, the significance of my life begins and ends with me. But how did the writer of this passage see Moses his life? He didn’t see Moses as falling short. Rather he referred to Moses as the greatest prophet that Israel had ever seen. What led him to claim that? I think he was able to say this because he saw Moses’s life as one part of a long and continuing story. The story began with God, making a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give the land to his descendants. And then eventually Moses played an important role in delivering his people out of Egypt so that they can make their way to the promised land. But it wasn’t Moses who would deliver them to the promised land.

It was the next generation, Joshua full of the spirit who would eventually lead to the next generation. So, instead of seeing Moses’s life as a failure, this perspective allowed the writer to see something else in Moses that his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated. In other words, Moses lived a full life and did everything in his part and that he could do. So at that time, he saw clearly when they’re in the desert, okay, this time we need to really prepare ourselves spiritually as a people, we can’t just cross in. We need to enter as a people of God. He saw that clearly. And with that sight, his energy remained to the end of the day. He did everything he could to finally have his people enter into covenant with God. So that when they did enter the promised land, they could enter in as a people of God, not just a random scattering of former slaves, but no, as a people of God together.

And this was why they could celebrate the life of Moses and appreciate the immense role that he played. So many scholars actually believe that this passage and the book of Deuteronomy was written much later on during the period of exile. So after, King David and King Solomon Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The Northern kingdom of Israel, the Southern kingdom of Judah. The Northern kingdom of Israel was eventually obliterated. And then the Southern kingdom of Judah, they held off for a while, but eventually Babylon came in and they conquered Judah. And what, what Babylon did was they took all the elites of Judah, the elite members, the landowners, the scribes, the scholars, and they took them to Babylon. Today, we would call this forcible migration or, they deported them. They took them with them to Babylon.

Now this was a deeply traumatic experience for the people. I mean, clearly things hadn’t gone the way that they had expected. God had promised their ancestors, Abraham, this land. But now without this land, who were they? The experience of exile left a deep, psychological imprint in their consciousness. And we can see this clearly in this Psalm of lament in Psalm 137. “By the rivers of Babylon there, we sat down and there we wept. When we remembered Zion on the willows there, we hung up our harps for there. Our captors asked us for songs and our tormentors asked for mirth saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion, but how could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1-4)

If these people believe that their existence was just an isolated existence, I think their history would have ended there. The exiles would have probably just focused on surviving the next day. And they probably would’ve melted into Babylonian society and that’s it. But they struggled. They refused to believe that their life as a people had no meaning. And so they wrote passages like the one we read today to give them strength and hope. So like Moses, perhaps things haven’t gone the way we’ve expected them to, or that we would have imagined. But so we’re not going to slip into despair and hopelessness. Instead, we will see ourselves as part of God’s continuing story. And that this difficult thing we’re going through is one chapter in a long part of God’s story. Our history will not just end in defeat and shame. I think that’s how they interpreted it.

So this period of exile, it was only about seven years in total. Actually think about it. It’s a blip, right? But it ended up being one of the most fertile periods for them spiritually and intellectually. And actually this period produced about half of the old Testament as we know it. Whether they wrote it themselves or edited previous works. So your life, life is uncertain and unpredictable. There are some things we control and many things that we can’t, but how do we see our lives? Do we see it as an isolated experience beginning and ending with me? Or do we see it as one part of God’s long and grand story? So Martin Luther King Jr. I mean, I like this guy a lot. He’s an icon today. He stands for a life dedicated to bringing reconciliation into society, but his life, it was also cut tragically short.

The dude died when he was 39 years old. He actually used the story from today’s passage as the backdrop for his final speech that he gave the night before he got killed. Here’s the last paragraph of that speech. I wish I can repeat his baritone, but I can’t, I’m just going to read it. “Well, I don’t know will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountain top. And I don’t mind like anybody. I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And so I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” How prescient he knew that the outcome of his life was not in his control, but he had a deep faith and belief that his life was part of this greater story. God’s story. So like Moses, all you wanted to do was just do his best and live his fullest, trusting that God’s work would carry on with or without him. And this is what Saint Paul also felt when he said this in Philippians, “I am confident of this, that the one that’s being God, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

You know, back in his day, Saint Paul, he wasn’t a Saint. He was just Paul. He wasn’t widely popular during his time. His life actually became a lot more difficult, once he started following Jesus. He was opposed viciously and violently throughout his ministry. But he knew, he believed deep down that he was part of a part of God’s greater story. And that gave him tremendous confidence and energy. He didn’t know then what kind of impact his life would have, because he was, like I said, he was marginalized among that Christian community. Only in time would his writings come to have the greatest influence in Christianity next to Jesus himself. So my friends, when we place our lives in God’s hands and truly trust that we are part of God’s story, it changes everything. It gives us sight and vigor. No longer is my life just about surviving and adapting to my environment.

I believe that there is a story being told in my life and that there is a story still waiting to be written. When we place our lives in God’s hands, our eyes are open to new possibilities that God has laid out for us. When we bring our lives into God’s story, we begin to realize that my life doesn’t just begin and end with me, but that I am connected to God’s greater plan and purpose for this world. The story of God throughout the Bible has been about God’s persistent, reaching out to a broken humanity. People have sinned and rebelled against God and against God’s intended order of love, justice and harmony. And that has resulted in so much brokenness in our world. But God, it’s a story of God, constantly calling to us to be healed ourselves and to be agents of this love and healing in this world.

And we are invited into that story. Moses did his part to the fullest. He delivered people from bondage and prepared as people in the desert. People like Martin Luther King Jr. did his part in spreading the message of racial reconciliation. St. Paul did his part in communicating the good news of faith to non-Jews. God’s story has continued unabated and people have responded with figure. Evil and brokenness have continued as well, but so has God’s story of trying to repair that. Our call, my friends is to also enter into God’s story. As part of God’s story, we resist becoming numb to the daily routine of our lives. We fight from being reduced to a mere corporate machine or consumer of goods, rather with the unabated vigor that God provides us, we carry on as part of God’s story. The world is in need of love, justice and truth so much so in this day and age.

As Reverend Kim preached last week, we need to see the Imago Dei, the image of God in others, and affirm that in others, especially when others might tell them that they are less than that. The good news is that we are not alone in this story. We have God and we have one another. God’s story is like a great river, great and long river. We are all little streams that feed into this river. Each stream has its own background, its own shape, its own history, its own experiences, but each stream brings that uniqueness into this great river. In that river, we become one body participating actively in God’s story and heading together toward a destination that God has in mind. So let us see ourselves, our lives as part of this great story and let us live life fully with sight and vigor as active participants in it. Let us sing.

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Ephesians 5:1-2

{Transcript}

Imago Dei means the image of God. Let us hear the word of the Lord, Ephesians Chapter Five verse 1 to 2 “therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”. This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Imago Dei, means the image of God. This implies that we human beings are created in God’s image. Meaning we have God’s image within us, each individual, each person has God’s image within them. I think it is very important to understand this, to understand Christian ethics and Christian living because of this theory. Through this theory of basic belief, we consider every human being precious and we uphold their dignity. We oppose any kind of corruption and the abuse that takes away this basic human dignity. The slavery system in human history, the kind of racism their descendants receive in the United States, sexual discrimination and what happened in Las Vegas. We don’t condone these, believing that they opposed our belief that all human beings are created equal in God’s image.

When we understand that we are created in God’s image, the way we treat each other changes. We’ll treat others with respect and affirm their dignity with our mouth, with our behavior, with our attitude. We treat each person with dignity. That’s what we do. Jesus came to this world to restore the image of God in each person, that's what Jesus came to do. Saint Paul told us to be the imitators of God. In other words, being imitators of God, meaning find God’s image within us. You have to know that you have God’s image within you. As beloved children of God, Saint Paul told us to be imitators of God. As we accept that we are God’s beloved children, our Imago Dei is restored within us. When we deeply experience God’s love within us, then we can see the beautiful image of God within us. Then self respect will be restored and this is the very basic thing that the Bible teaches us. Let me say one thing very important for you to remember this morning or this afternoon. We do not have dignity because I am useful, we have dignity because we have God’s image within us. We don’t have dignity just because we are useful. We have dignity because we have God’s image within us. This is a very important statement. We need to affirm this because this is not affirmed in the world we live in. We give dignity to the people who are useful, but we don’t affirm the dignity for the people who we think are not that useful.

When Jesus came to this world, he saw that the useless people were treated badly. These useless people, they said not only are they useless, but they are sinners. They said they were dehumanized. They were labelled as sinners simply because they were useless in their eyes. The lepers, the lame, the blind. All of these people were considered as sinners. When you read the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John went to the temple and when they were about to enter into the temple at the gate, there was a lame sitting down asking for money, begging for money, and Peter and John said this, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk” and this lame was able to stand up and walk. Do you know where he went? First? After he was healed?, he was leaping for joy and entered into the temple. Why? Because he was sitting in front of the temple, but he could not enter into the temple because they said “you are a sinner”. He could not even approach God because they considered them totally useless. They ignored and disrespected the useless people. They saw them as a waste, waste for the society, but Jesus was different. Jesus saw Imago Dei within them, not because they were useful, but because Jesus saw the imago Dei within them. Jesus honoured their dignity.

Today is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and it is also the 21st anniversary of our church. Our church anniversary always falls on the Reformation day, so it has some significance and meaning for this church. On October 31st 1517, the reformer, Martin Luther started the Reformation. He saw the corruption and the exploitation of the Church. The Church had lots of power, but with that power, they took away the rights of the people. Each person’s dignity was not respected. He saw that the church was just an institution and each person was simply used to strengthen the institution. They didn’t know that the people, were the Church. The church did not see each person with a beautiful image of God. Now, 500 years later, we need to restore our church. We need to have reformation for the reformed churches, Protestant. Restoring church means each person’s dignity should be restored. I see a lot of churches just using people as a tool to make the church bigger and bigger. All the mega churches movement, we don’t see Imago Dei in each person. They don’t treat them in that way. When we have the Imago Dei restored within us, we can see the beautiful image of God in other people. Then we can treat each other as though we treat God. The way we treat each other should be changed, just because I have the power, just because I’m smart, we cannot treat those who don’t have the power and intelligence and capability with content. That is not the right thing to do. Yes, we need power to maintain the society. We need power to protect ourselves from chaos and disorder. We need power to control those who abuse the power. We need power to coexist, but this power can not be abused. To take away the image of God in people and dehumanize them. We fight in every way against this kind of attitude because it is against the spirit of Imago Dei. It’s against our belief.

When I look at the modern world, I see the power controlling everything. People are obsessed with power. We’re not much different from the society Jesus came to, if not worse. Jesus saw that the Imago Dei was gone in people’s minds and he saw only the raw power controlling the world. Huge Roman power and huge Jewish power, clerics religious power. So Jesus made a whip and chased the money changers. Once people came to Jesus to test Jesus and they said, “should we pay the tax to Caesars?” because Caesars controlled the Israel. Jesus did not answer their question, but Jesus challenged them with something else. Jesus told them, bring your coin and they brought the coin and he let them see it, “what image do you see there?” and they said “the image of Caesar” and Jesus said, “give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”, in other words see yourself. What image do you see everyday? What image do you see within yourself? Image of Caesar or image of God?

Let us see what image we see within ourselves. Is it the image of power or the image of God? I pray that Imago Dei may be restored within us. I pray that Imago Dei may be restored in this world. The materialism replaces the Imago Dei within us with the image of money. Danielle you’re going to South Africa, you will see a lot of irony. You went there once, but you’re going again. I’ve been there more than 10 times. In our area, just one room a whole family lives, no running water and no washroom. You drive five minutes, you will see Eaton Center right there in South Africa. Still the living standard between white and black are radically different. You’ll see how much people are damaged. You will witness that. I hope that you witness Imago Dei in each person. To restore the Imago Dei Jesus gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God within Jesus. There was Imago Dei. That's why Saint Paul said, “let us see” in their case the God of this world, the God of this, I don’t know what it is, money, power, whatever. The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Who is, Imago Dei. Who is the image of God. Jesus saw the Imago Dei within himself and he saw the Imago Dei within others. That was his life, let us deeply meditate on his life so that our own Imago Dei within us may be restored.

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Exodus 32:1-14

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This is taken from Exodus 32:1-14: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mould,[a] and cast an image of a calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord. They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel. The Lord said to Moses, Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!' The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this person, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you, I will make a great nation. But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. This is the word of the Lord.

This passage, at first I had a problem because the passage we read today has a very foreign concept to all of us, a golden calf. We don’t make golden calves anymore. We don’t make idols with a golden calf anymore. We are too sophisticated, I mean, they’re still idols. I’m sure they’re still idols, but we don’t make a golden calf and say that is my God. I haven’t seen anyone who makes a golden calf and believes that it is their God, but the Israelites believed that this golden calf would lead them out of their miserable life and this is what they say. “And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Strange, isn’t it? Look at the passage very carefully. Don’t you find this strange? The golden calf wasn’t there when they came out of Egypt, but they believed that the golden calf brought them up out of Egypt. That’s very strange to me. It doesn’t make sense, but they believed it anyway and I realize big belief is quite powerful and you want to believe something doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or not. Once you decide to believe you will just believe it. We can even rewrite history and some people call it alternative facts. That was what the golden calf did for them. The golden calf made them believe that he brought them out of Egypt.

The power of the golden calf. What is the golden calf to us? I think it is me. That’s what the golden calf is, narcissism, self-centeredness. Even then, the golden calf was not their idol and they knew it. The Israelites knew it very well. The golden calf was just a materialization of what was in their heart. They didn’t believe in the golden calf. They believed in themselves. The real idols were themselves. The golden calf was just a visible sign of what was in their heart. What did the golden calf do for them? It didn’t do anything. It didn’t give manna, it didn’t give them protection from the enemies and healing, but it gave them fantasy, comfort, a sense of peace. It made their make belief, real. When they saw the golden calf, they kind of felt better. They felt that everything will be all right from now as long as we have this golden calf, but it was only a fantasy in their own minds. Yes, the golden calf gave them fantasy in the wilderness, and they needed it. It gave them a false hope. Don’t we have a fantasy about ourselves? We think we can control our own destiny. We think we have so much power to create our own path. Who brought ourselves to the brink of total destruction? We are the ones who created the nuclear weapons, and yet we say to ourselves, we can bring all the good on our own. We created this kind of disaster, monster, that can eradicate humanity, all the people, and yet we say to ourselves, we can create our own path, we have enough power to make our life better. Do we really make our lives better?

We depend absolutely on ourselves. That’s the only thing that we know we only depend on ourselves. That’s why when we do everything well, we feel like our lives would be alright and there’s a promising future. When my life is going well, we feel like our lives would be great in the future. When we are capable and smart enough to handle our problems, we feel that we can handle almost anything well, but when we are not doing very well and when we feel our powerlessness and when we cannot handle our problems with our brain, we get deeply discouraged and depressed because everything depends on me. Every single thing depends on me and my future depends on me. Happiness depends on me. That’s why we live with this eternal anxiety. What if I can’t? Simon sent to parents an article about the anxiety of the youth. Anxieties not just for the adults. Even the young children, they have anxiety problems because everything depends on me. The world taught them to believe themselves and that only created anxiety. The world taught you that you’re on your own, so take care of yourself. You’re on your own. Nobody’s there to help you. You’re on your own. Take care of yourself. That’s a fantasy. I’m not on my own, my parents helped me, my friends are helping me, my communities, helping me and I have God who cares for me.

We are continuously creating this kind of fantasy that we are on our own and we can take care of ourselves and that gives us only anxiety, narcissism and self-centeredness. That is our golden calf. I think that is so prevalent in our lives, it consumes us. Sometimes we feel like we have all the world in our hands, but soon we feel like we are thrown into the bottom of the darkness. When they said that the golden calf will lead them from now on, what you’re really saying was we will dictate from now on our own destiny. Moses, I don’t know where he is and God, I don’t know where He is. I’ll take care of my own destiny and future. The golden calf was a very good tool to hypnotize themselves with their own positive beliefs. We say to ourselves, “Hey, I have money now. I can take care of my family and myself.” Didn’t you just say to the rich before who thought that I have enough food in my bar so let’s marry and enjoy my life. Jesus said, “your soul will be demanded tonight.” The golden calf cannot make their future. The golden calf cannot make a way for them. My friends, we ourselves cannot create our own path for the future. I believe that God made a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. This is what Isaiah said, “I’m about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I’ll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. I cannot keep myself. It is God who keeps me.” One of my favourite psalms is Psalm 121 and I told KSM members to let us memorize this and maybe ESM too. Memorize this. Let us try to memorize Psalm 121 that is beautiful psalm it goes like this. “I lift up my eyes to the hills from where all my help come. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your food be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. He who keeps Israel, will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The Sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by the night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and you’re coming in from this time on and forevermore.” Isn’t it beautiful, Huh? No feeling so not even beautiful.

Oh my goodness, it’s a beautiful psalm. So it’s constantly talking about keeping you. I don’t keep myself. It is God who keeps us. It is God who holds the key to your future. It is not you. You don’t have to worry about it just because things do not go well. Don’t be too discouraged. Your future doesn’t depend on you alone. Your God is right there with you. Don’t try to solve your life problems on your own. Trust in God. We have to destroy the idols of narcissism or individuality within us. It’s a fantasy. This world taught you. I can take care of myself. That’s a fantasy to me. When these idols take control of our lives, our lives will not get untangled. Sometimes these days. I mean, I told you, every morning I get up, read New York Times, Washington Times and Globe and Mail, and it’s for two hours I try to read what is going on in the world and I say to myself, we human beings cannot take care of humanity by ourselves. I feel helpless and hopeless many, many times, but I will move on. I’ll continue because I believe that there is God who takes care of the history, who sets a path for our destiny. I asked you a question last week. Do you untangle your life or is your life untangled?

When I look back, so many things, they were not in my control and I don’t know how these things were untangled over the years. I’m just thankful to God for taking care of my life and my family and my community. God will be with you on your journey. Trusting God and a new path will be opened up for all of us.

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