St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

2 Peter 3:8-14

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Let us hear the word. It’s taken from 2 Peter 3:8-14, “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire. But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” This is the word of the Lord.

St. Peter said; with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. He was saying that there’s no difference between one day and thousand years to God. To us, one day and thousand years are different. To God, there is not that kind of concept of time.

I’d like to explore its meaning with you today. What implication does it have to us believers? In what way is one day like a thousand years, and thousand years like one day? To, us one day is a very short time and a thousand years is a very long time. When I was young, I used to see a lot of day-flies and I played with them – somehow, I don’t see them much – but when I was young I saw a lot of them. They live only one day, in the morning they’re born and in the evening they die. And then I wonder to myself, and when I saw them, what is the meaning of flying so hard when they’re going to be gone at the end of the day? I was wondering. I mean, they just fly around but soon, within few hours they’ll be gone from the face of the earth.

Then I realized that we are not much different. Compared to the age of the universe, at the most – 100 years – that’s like one day. A select little speck. I still remember when I was really young – I didn’t even go into elementary school yet at that time – and then one day I was lying down at my house and I saw a shooting star at night. We had a little a yard, and so I saw a shooting star and then, “Oh my goodness, my life is so…” I don’t know. I was maybe six or seven. I don’t know, they think like that. But I still remember, “Oh Gosh, scary. My life is going to be like that. It’s just a little spark and gone.” Now I look back, nearing 60 soon in January, and as I look back, my life went by just like that too. What have I done? What did I do? I was very busy, but it passed by so fast. Sometimes I talk with people in their eighties and they tell me, “Reverend, I don’t know how my life just passed by. Gone.”

Maybe life is like that. Moses confessed in his prayer, listen to his prayer, “The days of our life are 70 years or perhaps 80. If we are strong, even then their span is only toil and trouble. They are soon gone and we fly away.” The last sentence really caught my attention. We fly away. Life is like that. We fly away. Some somebody told me, when you’re 50, you’re driving 50 miles per hour. When you’re 60, you’re drive 60 miles per hour. When you’re 90, you are driving 90 miles an hour. Life goes by so fast. Every year goes by so fast. So we fly away, that makes a lot of sense. And in the same prayer, Moses said this, “For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is passed. Or like a watch in the night, you sweep them away. They’re like a dream. Like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and it is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers.” It’s like day-flies. You’re born in the morning and then die in the evening. And Moses and Peter said, “One day is like thousand years and a thousand years like one day.” What did they mean? The first thing that came to my mind was that time flies.

But there’s another thing that they wanted to say. That is; what is important about time? It’s not its length. One day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. What is important about time is not about his length, but what is contained in it. That’s what’s important. Time is not just about the length. Time is about what’s in it. And I realized how people misunderstand salvation or eternal life. They think that salvation is lengthening their time to eternity. That’s salvation to them, they just want to prolong, they just want to extend their life to eternity. That’s what salvation is to them. The desire to lengthen your time to eternity, to me that is attachment, not salvation. It is just life attachment, attachment to life. That is not salvation.

That only gives me fear. People just use the word salvation as they like, when they actually talk about attachment. We human beings are good at doing that. We just put different words that thinking that reality changes. Reality doesn’t change just because you changed the word. Attachment is attachment. Salvation is salvation. Some people call their narrow-minded stubbornness as conviction. That’s not conviction. That’s a narrow-minded stubbornness. We have a way of using words to make it good and acceptable, or to disguise our unpleasant self. To me, real salvation is not attachment to life and be obsessed with it. To me, attachment is simply bondage. Because we have attachment, we have fear of death. When St. Paul rhetorically asked a question to the personalized death, “Oh, death. Where is your victory? Where is your sting?” I see that Paul overcame the attachment to life. He never thought that salvation was an extension of your present life to eternity. His desire was not to lengthen his life, but rather he said he wanted to be with God. Attachment cannot be salvation. Salvation is overcoming your attachment. That’s what salvation is.

When you overcome your attachment to life, what happens? Your moment comes alive and you can see that there is no difference between one day and a thousand years. When your moment comes alive, there is no difference between one day and a thousand years. That’s what it’s like, the moment coming alive – what you have is only the moment. The past is in your memory and the future is in your imagination. The moment is the reality. You have only your moment, but you don’t need to lengthen your moment because the moment is full. You just acknowledge that it is a gift of God and you don’t need to be sad that it will pass by. Salvation is a new realization of your moment. What is contained in that moment is more important, than the quantity of time. What you’re experiencing now and feeling now is more important than how many hours you have left in a day. When the moment comes alive, you don’t need to worry about tomorrow. Jesus said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of his own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

People who want to extend their lives, worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is essential to extend your life. For those who find salvation today, don’t worry about tomorrow. They don’t waste today while worrying about tomorrow. They live each moment fully. In that sense, the moment is not a temporal language. What is important about the moment is not how short it is, but how full of life it is. These moments come together and make your life, and when your moments alive your life is alive.

Salvation did not happen yesterday. Salvation will not happen tomorrow. Salvation is now. Now is the time for salvation. Salvation is God’s blessings on our moments. Unfortunately many people’s moments are completely empty. It is just a short passing moment. As you encounter God in a meaningful way, the concept of time will stop – not the time, the concept of time will stop – and you will enjoy the peace and joy that filled your moment, and that moment becomes eternity. That’s what eternity is all about. When your moments come alive, your past will come alive and your future will come alive. Many people live with regrets about their past, and worries and anxieties about the future. But when your today comes alive, everything comes alive. Regrets will be gone. The worries will be gone. The past will come as a meaningful lesson and the future will come as a beautiful hope. The past comes alive and future comes alive when you experienced salvation today.

Salvation is not about someday in the future. It’s about now. Pay attention to now and see what God is doing in your life. My friends, I don’t feel sad getting old. Not at all. I believe that you’re getting renewed as you age, not getting old. Is it escapism? Maybe, but that’s how I feel.

Young people, don’t waste your time mindlessly. Don’t waste your time mindlessly. Live the moment fully, awake, and enjoy your every moment doing what is the most meaningful to you. Life is not about how long you live. Life is about how well you live. St. Paul enjoyed his life even in prison because he was alive from within. Being alive does not depend on time and space. Being alive is was within you. When you meet God, you come alive. You just simply enjoy every moment. Older people, like Steve, don’t be sad. Just because last Friday you said, “I’m getting old, you know, everything just deteriorates.” Don’t be sad because you’re getting old and everything deteriorates. Cultivate the wisdom. Know what is essential and what is not. Throwaway your attachment, but entrust your life in God’s hands. In that sense, a day is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day. That was my reflection this week.

Let us sing together.

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Luke 17:11-19

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Today’s scripture passage is taken from Luke 17: 11-19.

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! When he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.

This is the word of the Lord.

We all try to define what a good life is. What does it mean to live a good life? We only live once, so I think we all need to live a good life. What is a good life? I was thinking about it, and then this thought came to me. A good life is very simple. Just recognize that your life is by God’s grace. Just that simple recognition, that simple understanding. Your life is by God’s grace. When we recognize that, we can live a good life.

I was thinking about Hank and Inha’s father. The last few days he was struggling with his sickness, I visited the hospital he was at. His room was very dark and did not have any windows, but that day was a bright sunny day. And so he asked me, “Reverend, how’s the weather outside? Is it good?” And I said, “Yes the weather is really good, sunny and all that.” And he said, “I won’t be able to see that on a walk, again, will I?” “Who knows? But I hope that you will get better so that you also enjoy the sun.” He was never able to enjoy that sun again. After a few days, he passed away. Just simple things like that we take for granted. The beautiful sun, we can walk around anywhere we want. Just by recognizing that life is by God’s grace, we can appreciate so much about life.

St. Paul’s confession came to my mind. He said, “I am who I am by God’s grace and His grace towards me has not been in vain.” That simple sentence has profound meaning. St. Paul recognized that he was who he was by God’s grace, and that grace is never in vain. It is important to remind ourselves continuously that we live by the grace of God. Only when we recognize that our lives are by grace and we live by the grace of God, then we can be thankful. We can live a thankful life, and that is so precious.

10 lepers were there. Only one was able to live a thankful life. They were so focused on their healing, they were so focused on themselves. They could not recognize that their healing was by God’s grace. Only one person was able to confess and say that his healing is by God’s grace. That’s why he came back to Jesus just to simply thank him, and Jesus said, that man gave praise to God, gave glory to God.

When we realize that our lives are by God’s grace, then we have this thankfulness and when we express that thankfulness and gratitude to God, that is praising God, and that is the ultimate aim of human being. Our aim is to glorify God and by being thankful we can glorify God. So many people don’t realize that their lives are by God’s grace. Even in today’s scripture, only 10 percent recognize that. In the whole population, even though they have so much, only 10 percent were able to recognize that “my life is by God’s grace”. I’m sure at St. Timothy 90 percent recognize that. Only 10 percent doesn’t recognize. We are very different in that way, but in the whole world, only 10 percent recognize that their life is by God’s grace. Most people don’t recognize that.

In Deuteronomy, God said to the Israelites these words; he made water flow for you from Flint Rock and fed you in the wilderness with Manna that your ancestors did not know to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, my power and the might of my own hand have gained me this will. Do not say to yourself these things. It is God who gave you all that. Do not say to yourself that with your own strength and with your own power, with your own hand, you made your life. It’s not you who made your life. It is God who blessed you.

God cannot freely bless those who do not understand that their life is by God’s grace. You know why? For your sake. If you don’t realize that what you have is by God’s grace, then you take it for granted and you even abuse it. When you abuse the blessing, the blessing turns into a curse. That’s why God cannot freely bless those who do not understand that their life is by God’s grace. Only when you are ready to receive that blessing, God can freely bless you. I think we need the humility to recognize that my life is by God’s grace. In Deuteronomy, he said to humble you and to test you is first and, in the end, to do good to you. First God has to humble us and test us so that in the end we can recognize and appreciate the blessing that we receive from God.

What makes us unhappy is the entitlement attitude. The entitlement attitude is a bad thing. When you start living your life with this entitlement attitude, we become very unhappy and we lose our thankful heart. Without a thankful heart, we can never be happy. Even if we don’t have much, if we have a thankful heart within us, we can be happy. That’s what I believe. I believe that even if I don’t have much, if I am full of a thankful heart, I can be happy. I can tell you from my own experience, when I did not have much before, I was happy when I had a thankful heart. A person who takes a simple bowl of rice with the thankful heart is much happier than the person who returns the airplane simply because the stewardess did not serve the macadamia nuts on a nice plate. Who’s happier? Entitlement attitude. It can never make you happy. What I’m saying now is not a theory. This really happened on Korean airlines.

Behind the thankful heart there are lot of good spiritual qualities. Humility, patience, consideration, deep understanding and appreciation, gentleness, full satisfaction and love and so on. A thankful heart does not just come. A thankful heart comes when you have these spiritual qualities, and behind the complaining heart, there are a lot of undesirable qualities and characters such as pride, arrogance, selfishness, dissatisfaction, anger, hatred and entitlement attitude and so on.

I believe that thankfulness is not a response to our situations. It is not your response. Thankfulness is a viewpoint. It is eyesight. The way you look at the world, the way you look at yourself, and the way you look at life, that’s what thankfulness is. Thankfulness is not a response to the situation around you. Just because all of these things are good, you are thankful. That’s not it. I see a lot of people who have so many things who are never thankful, but the people who don’t have as much as them are thankful because it’s not a response to the situations around us. It is our eyesight, it is our viewpoint. It is how we look at our life, ourselves and our situations. When we have this viewpoint of thankfulness, we’ll be able to see the abundance of life and all of a sudden life becomes beautiful. When you have this thankful heart, everything comes alive. Everything becomes beautiful. The parents that you have, they’re beautiful. The children, they are beautiful. The houses that you live in, they are beautiful. When you have this thankfulness, everything comes alive and everything becomes beautiful. Life itself becomes beautiful.

I learned this secret. You can never deal with your shortcomings by having more. By having more, you feel more lacking, so when you feel that you’re lacking something, don’t try to have more because that will intensify your hunger and desire. Do you know how you deal with your shortcomings? By being thankful. When your heart is filled with thankfulness, you don’t feel that you’re lacking anything, so you deal with your shortcomings. When your heart is filled with thankfulness, you never feel that you don’t have enough. That’s why St. Paul said, I’ve learned to be content in all circumstances. When I’m rich, I’m fine, when I’m poor, I’m fine , because his heart is full of richness. It’s abundant, so he doesn’t feel lacking in anything. But it’s not just Saints who say that, extraordinary people, smart people will be able to say that. Oprah Winfrey said this, but she’s not a saint. Be thankful for what you have. You will end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you’ll never, ever have enough. Pretty Smart, Huh? That’s true. That’s what the scripture says.

Let me ask you, if you just leave your heart alone, where do you think your heart will move towards? Will it move towards thankfulness? Or will it move towards complaints? If you just leave your heart alone, let it go wherever it wants to go, where do you think it will go? I believe that your heart will automatically move towards complaint. Why? Because everyone lives with a natural self defense instinct. That’s why people become overly sensitive to dangers around them because we want to protect ourselves. So when imminent dangers come, people are sensitive, and soon you lose your heart to fear. When you lose your heart to fear, you know what the result is? Complaint.

I learned this not from psychological books. I learned this from the scripture. The Israelites, when they’re in the wilderness, whenever they face dangers, they lose their hearts to fear and then what? At the end, what did they do? They complained. So our heart, if you just leave it alone, it moves towards complaint. Why am I saying this? Thankfulness is not something that will automatically happen to you. It has to be intentional. You have to practice it. You have to have a spiritual discipline to be thankful. If you’re just natural, you’ll never be thankful, but when you have spiritual discipline to be thankful, only then can you be thankful, and you can create a path through the spiritual discipline so that your heart moves to thankfulness. Your heart is here, if you just leave it alone, you will move to the complaint, but if you create a path through spiritual discipline than this heart will move towards thankfulness, and this thankfulness, once you have it, it will create a new path for you. It will open up a new path for you. The road that leads you to abundance, to joy, and to a bright future. When you have a thankful heart, that road opens up for you.

My friends, don’t be too smart. If you’re too smart. You cannot be thankful, because you calculate too much. Then soon you get drunk in your own thinking and you start believing that your thinking is right. You start trusting your own thinking. In the end, we come to the conclusion that I have to make my life with my own hands. That was what God warned the Israelites about in Deuteronomy. Living is by God’s grace. If you don’t realize that, you’re being too smart. If you’re too smart, you make everything complicated.

You cannot untangle life that is in tangles. I asked much older fellows in KSM, they’re in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. I asked them this question, “Do you believe that you untangled your life, or your life became untangled?” I told them, I believe that my life becomes untangled. I can never untangle my life. Am I right? They all said with an Amen, you don’t untangle your life. Your life becomes untangled. Everything will be going alright, and the best way to untangle your life is being thankful. When you’re thankful, everything will be alright. You don’t have to worry about it.

When this man came back to Jesus to thank him, this was what Jesus said, your faith has made you well. What does that mean? He’s already healed. His leprosy is gone, and now Jesus is saying to the person who’s already healed, your faith has made you well. In other words, your life will be alright from now on. You don’t need to worry about it. And I realized that faith and thankfulness go together. This man believed that he was healed by God’s grace. The other nine did not believe that, but this one person believed that his leprosy was healed by God’s grace. So next time difficulties come in his life, because he already had experience he will believe that he’ll be alright because God is with him. When you live with that kind of attitude, your life will become untangled. You will be alright. Your faith has made you well.

You have a wonderful life ahead of you. Don’t make it complicated, and don’t try to untangle on your own. Every moment when you’re thankful, you’ll be alright. Your life will become untangled without you realizing it. “Oh my goodness, all these things happened. Why is this? I don’t deserve this. I didn’t do anything to make these things happen”, but that miracle will happen in your life. You’ll be alright. You don’t need to worry about it. Just be thankful in all circumstances. That is the power to chase away darkness. To chase away complaints. To chase away negative thinking. Be strong.

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Matthew 19:16-22

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Ephesians 2:13-16

In this passage, the author is addressing the hostility between two groups: the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians. So the Jews, they were people of the promise, right? God had made a promise with their ancestor, Abraham, that he would bless and make a great nation of them. So they had this promise and that promise became enshrined in the covenants that they made in the wilderness and through Moses, right? And the symbol of that covenant was the law. So the law was foundational to their Jewish identity as a people. But their existence, it was always kind of precarious. They had this great identity and promise, but what was their history like? It was filled with conquest, domination, exile and being run by foreign powers. Destiny was never in their own hands. And even now in the context of this letter, they’re under the thumb of the great Roman empire. There are a minority people, faith and religion in the sea of a great mighty power, but they had the law, right? They had the law. It symbolized God’s promise to them. And so to these followers now, Jesus was the fulfillment of this law. It was a continuation. And so the law was the access point and the entry points. But what do we have here? Now we have these Gentiles, these non-Jews, these people who are Greek-speaking and part of this Roman Empire, trying to come into our faith in our community. The Jews thought “are they just trying to come to the back door now? What, they don’t want to follow our long-cherished law that has been the cornerstone of our identity?” So these people who had lived apart from the law and the promise are trying to access. So the Jews resented these newcomers and said “okay, you want to be part of us? Do you want to follow Jesus too? Well, you have to follow our law and the requirements that it has.” In other words, you have to be like us. But was this a true community? So the Gentiles who are drawn by the message of Jesus are coming in and trying to be part of this community, but they’re sensing some restrictions and exclusion. And so there’s resentment being built, right? So the law, which was initially a beautiful symbol of God’s covenant with his people actually became a wall between the two groups that fostered hostility between them, right? In our own lives, we have our own laws, right? We have our own requirements for accepting others into our groups. 

To be accepted into a group, you have to have the right personality, or you have to have the right background. Maybe you have to understand our jokes, right? You have to mesh well with me and us. So there are many requirements for acceptance. So these requirements are our current day law that we put and they are walls. If you don’t meet these requirements, you can’t be a part of us. We see these walls everywhere in the world. Today, many Canadians who have been here for generations, feel that newcomers need to pass a Canadian values test in order to be accepted here, to be a good American, you have to stand up for your national Anthem. Otherwise, you should be fired, right? It doesn’t matter what the reason is. So these are all the laws and requirements that we have to be part of the group. And we will learn today about some of these walls that are being built up in a place like Japan. You know, as I reflected, these walls are often put up by a dominant group that feels kind of under threat. You know, as they feel like their way of life or what they’re used to is being shaken from underneath them. And so what they want to regain a sense of control. And so to do that, we put up strict requirements. If you want to join us or become part of us, follow these things. In other words, you gotta really be like us be us, but does this method work? I mean sure, if what the dominant group offers is beneficial, you know, we might want to work hard to meet those requirements. I know there’s some of us in this congregation who when growing up, may not have felt a warm welcome from society. But we felt that the rewards of being part of this society, this group was worth it so we put our heads down and worked really hard, right? To get a good career, money, job and family, those are the requirements. And so for those who made it, now, we feel part of the ingroup. But what about those who are not able to meet the requirements? What if, who they are is very different from what we ask? They will feel excluded and rejected right? And it’s exclusion and rejection that breeds resentment and hostility. You know, the best-recruiting grounds for extremist militants or extremist groups are those who felt rejected and excluded from the society around them. They tap into this sense of exclusion and rejection by providing a sense of identity and purpose towards extremist ends. So ultimately these laws, they all start from a good place and are meant to protect us. But these walls breed hostility and resentment. But the message is that Christ breaks down the dividing walls and how does he do that? 

So in verse 15, “he has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity. “He abolishes the law, the law was this cornerstone of Jewish identity, but it became that dividing wall, that bread hostility. So for the sake of making the two divided groups into one, Christ abolished it and all its requirements. God’s promise was now extended to anyone and everyone, regardless of their background. So for us, what requirements do we place on others to accept them? Christ has come to abolish these requirements for entry. Do we filter out people by their money, status, looks, popularity, racial background, behaviour? Whatever might divide one group from others, Christ has abolished so that we can be one. But you know what? Removing these barriers alone is not enough. Change can’t be forced from the outside. Now when the United States government back in the sixties, abolished segregation with new laws, these new laws, they didn’t remove hostility. Black students who started to attend previously all-white schools, they faced a lot of resentment, anger, hatred. You know, the only way for two groups to really become one is to have that hostility removed. We can experience outward peace, like no fighting or conflict, but without that removal of inner hostility, true reconciliation has not occurred. I mean, how do we do that? Alright, I don’t have all the time to give a full exposition today, but I can share a few insights. So the scripture says that Christ might reconcile both groups to God in one body, through the cross, thus putting to death our hostility through it. So hostility is removed by being reconciled to God through the cross. Now we see this cross figure every week, right? But I feel like we’ve really lost the meaning of it in today’s day and age. In the time of Jesus, the cross was the place of ultimate shame. It was a reminder of your utter powerlessness. If you’re going to resist this great power of Rome, then this is the outcome, utter powerlessness. It was a place to avoid at all costs. Yet this cross is the path that Jesus took. Jesus became powerless and took on shame. It was the ultimate symbol of Jesus denying himself and his own needs and accepting defeat, rather than being victorious with power. And so he died on the cross. But here’s the secret of our faith: through Jesus’s own weakness and self-denial, God showed his power. God used the cross to actually create new life through the resurrection. What the world saw as defeat and powerlessness, God showed his ultimate power with a new reality for a new community. So taking on this path of the cross, that leads to the death of ourselves, but a new life in Christ. Yeah, that sounds good, but what does it entail? It entails actually we need to then be aware of ourselves first. Doesn’t it? We can’t deny ourselves if we don’t know ourselves, I really believe that the source of so much hostility in this world is our own fear and insecurity and our need to compensate for these fears and insecurities by exerting power and control. You know, we’ve all had our experiences in life that have led to us having fears and insecurity. We may have been hurt, felt betrayed, suffered, experienced hardships and loss of control. I mean, all of these things have shaped us and affected us in ways that we’re not aware of. And so our fears have led us to seek control in our lives. And by doing that, we build up our own requirements in order to feel safe. But if we allow our fears and insecurities to drive us, we can never experience true reconciliation because I’m always going to want things my way instead of laying down my own wants, needs, and trying to understand and listen to what the others want and where they’re coming from. That’s the only way reconciliation can happen if we do that with each other. But this will only happen when we lay our fears, our insecurities and our darkness to God on the cross. We have to ask God to reveal what’s in our hearts to reveal the dark corners of things that are lurking. And then we have to ask God for the courage to place these on the cross because only when we can place them and die to ourselves on that cross is new life possible. And that is when we can come together before the cross in reconciliation. So this cross is the precondition of a new life and new community. Let us ask God to reveal these hidden corners of our hearts and for the courage to lay them down on the cross so that God can raise us into a new life and a new community. Amen. Amen to that. 

So we have a special visitor with us today, all the way from Japan. And he’ll talk more about himself. So I’ll keep the introduction very short. David McIntosh, he’s the co-director of the Center for Minority Issues and Mission in Japan. So let’s give a warm welcome to him. Hello everyone, it’s a real pleasure to be here and to be welcomed into this place of worship on this Sunday. My name is David Macintosh and I am one of two co-directors of an organization that just started in April of this year called the Center for Minority Issues and Mission. I’ll probably just refer to it as “the Center”, as I go through my talking. I’m in Canada for about six weeks, sharing with people of the Presbyterian Church and also the United Church in Canada about the work that we’re doing. I say our work at the Mission or my work at the Mission, but it’s really all of our work because the Center receives a lot of prayer and support and also financial support from the Presbyterian and United churches of Canada. Some of you might be wondering why are Canadian churches so interested in minority issues in Japan? Some of you might be looking at me and thinking, why is this white guy so interested in minority issues in Japan? The answer to the first question is fairly straightforward. The Presbyterian Church in Canada has had mission partnerships with the Korean Christian Church in Japan for 90 years since 1927. So this is the 90th anniversary year of that mission partnership relationship. So several generations now of missionaries have been going to Japan, living among Koreans in Japan and hearing everyday stories of difficulties that they are facing, primarily discrimination that they’re facing in Japanese society. So through missionaries, especially the Presbyterian Church in Canada has heard a lot of stories about what it means to be a Korean in Japan. To answer the second question about myself, my father, John and my mother Clarabeth were from Guelph, Ontario about an hour from here. They were brought up there and my father studied theology. And as soon as he finished seminary, he took off for Japan. This was 1961. I was born but hadn’t had my birthday yet. So I kind of tell people, I went to Japan at age zero. I ended up going to Japanese schools through elementary school and junior high school. So that’s why I speak Japanese fluently as well, unfortunately, not Korean however. But many of the people in the Korean language service knew of my parents or had met my parents because, for 40 years, they had been coming to Canada every few years and talking about their mission. So many of your elders would know my parents by their Korean names. They were given sort of honourable or honorary Korean names. My father was also very engaged in social issues as well. So for about seven years, he was in a court case against the Japanese government. The Japanese government used to have a registration law. I’m old enough that I first had to register under the old registration law too. But every three years from age 14, you had to go to a local government office and have all 10 of your fingers fingerprinted and recorded. These were put on file and you had to do this every three years. So you can imagine maybe the sense of humiliation, especially for Koreans in Japan who were third or fourth generation like my friends. They were born and brought up in this society and in many cases, only speaking Japanese. And every three years, they had to go to a government office and be treated almost like they were criminals or something. So there was a court case where my father and quite a few other people took on the Japanese government and over maybe a 10 year period, they were able to at least get rid of the fingerprinting requirements. So this is the kind of work that my father used to do. 

So I’ve spent over half of my life in Japan. This is why I kind of tell people that I have four parts to my identity. I’m Canadian, I’m Japanese, I’m a Korean in Japan and I’m Christian. So I have sort of four parts of my identity. I don’t know if any of you have heard some stories about the struggles of Koreans in Japan before. There has been discrimination in employment or sometimes discrimination when you went looking for an apartment, they would say, “Oh, you’re Korean, no you can’t, you can’t live here.” There’s much less of that now, but it used to happen. There’s a Reverend Glenn Davis who was also a missionary in Japan, working with Koreans. He recently wrote a short one-page introduction letter for me to introduce to various congregations about my work. And in this letter, he was telling this story about a young man who was friends with some of the people that were in Glen’s congregation. This young man was a very bright student all the way through school. He managed in spite of all of the barriers that there are for Koreans in Japan to enter one of Japan’s most prestigious universities. He graduated with a degree that should have been really marketable, but every major Japanese company that he went to look for a job turned him down because he was Korean. He ended up taking a job, driving a dump truck for 14 hours a day, and he stuck with that for two years or so, but eventually, he sort of gave up hope that he’d be able to walk the path of his dreams and became really depressed. And one day he took his own life. I haven’t had personal friends take their own lives, perhaps because I’m a little bit younger and the situation has gradually improved a little bit, but I know at least two good friends of mine who had discrimination affect their personal relationships. Both of my friends were Koreans in Japan and they had girlfriends who happened to be Japanese, and they were very close with their girlfriends and they decided they wanted to get married. So in Japanese tradition and probably Korean too, you go to the parents to ask for their blessing. And when they did this, both sets of parents of the girls refused to accept it. They insisted that they break up their relationship. One of my two friends and his girlfriend, they obeyed and they broke up their relationship. And this caused a very long period of sadness and depression for my friend. The other couple, both parents, also wouldn’t give their blessing. So he and his girlfriend, instead of breaking up their own relationship, they decided to elope. They broke up their relationships with their own families and went off and got married. Fortunately for both of my friends, things turned for the better. My first friend, he eventually found a wonderful person whom he fell in love with and got married and now has a happy family life. The second friend, in their case, they eloped and got married and they had a child. This child happened to be the very first grandchild for both sets of grandparents, so the grandparents, I guess they just couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to see their first grandchild. So this helped to bring the family back together and they were able to and now they’re all okay. But so whether it’s in jobs or in employment situations or in schoolyards, sometimes you might hear children yell at another child and say, “go home to Korea” if they start fighting. You don’t hear about that so much anymore. The situation has improved a lot in the last 20 to 30 years, even since I can remember. If the situation is so much better in Japan today, why do we need something called the Center for Minority Issues and Mission? Well, despite many improvements in the legal, administrative and educational areas of Japan, not all is well in Japan. 

Since about 2012, there has been a rise in hate speech incidents all around Japan. It’s very kind of shocking. I think, being Korean, you would recognize the Japanese Rising Sun. It’s a symbol of the old Japanese empire and it’s almost like the Swastika in Germany. In some cases actually, in hate speech events, you have some Japanese people pulling out and waving around the Swastika too. So it’s a pretty shocking scene. And I think maybe a lot of you felt the same kind of shock earlier this summer when all that violence was breaking out in Charlottesville. So a similar kind of impact. So from about 2012, people in the churches became more and more concerned about this. And in 2014, the Korean Christian Church in Japan, that’s the partner church of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, decided to call out to international partners to have an international conference to deal with issues of minority mission. In 2015 in November, we held a conference and about 130 people came from all over the country, all over the world. The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church in Canada was there as well. At this conference, we talked about the fact that hate speech and discrimination and xenophobia are issues that are not unique to Japan. We heard people from South Africa talk about history there. We heard we had participants from Germany talking about some disturbing incidents that are happening there. So we recognize that there seems to be sort of a disturbing resurgence of xenophobia that is somehow happening around the world. And therefore, as churches, as brothers and sisters, we really needed to work together. Like we used to do when the international church was trying to overcome apartheid in South Africa, the Japanese churches that were participating in that conference committed to the idea of starting up a center that would deal with issues like this. And that’s how the Center for Minority Issues and Mission sort of the ball got rolling. 

So when we use the word minorities in Japan, you might ask what exactly or who exactly does that refer to? The first group is Koreans in Japan and until recently Koreans in Japan have been the largest ethnic minority group in Japan. There are many Koreans who have come to Japan after the second world war, but mostly when I say Koreans in Japan, I’m thinking of third and fourth and fifth-generation Koreans, descendants of people who came to Japan when Korea was under Japanese Imperial occupation. So under Japanese occupation, the Japanese government instituted something called agrarian reform or land reform. And it was basically a nice way of, a nice title that they gave to a land grab that took away ancestral lands from many farmers all around Korea. So there were thousands and thousands of Koreans who were taken off their land, and they were forced to go to Japan for financial reasons to look for work. And the work that they did was working often in factories that produced weapons or goods that fed the Japanese Imperial project. So it was a very sick sort of cycle or economic cycle that they were brought into. But ever since they came to Japan, Koreans in Japan have tended to be discriminated against. So that’s the Zainichi Koreans and there’s also the Burakumin who are similar to the untouchable class or caste. The Dalit is the word that we tend to use now in India, similar to the Indian caste system. Japan used to have an old Buddhist caste system that said people who work with dead animals or who are doing leatherwork, their jobs are unclean and therefore they need to be segregated. So there were many generations of this kind of discrimination and the Burakumin are their descendants. Similar to the Dalit system in India, the government sort of says we don’t recognize the system anymore, but still they are parts of Japanese society. For example, when somebody is getting married, parents from a good Japanese family might check the background of the spouse of their child to make sure that they don’t have any Burakumin background in them. So there’s still some remnants of discrimination there. Then there are the Ainu people, who live in the Northern part of Japan. The West Coast native peoples of Canada are descendants of Ainu, the seafaring people who kind of travelled along the circumference of the Pacific Rim and came to North America many, many years ago. So I’ve sometimes interpreted for Ainu people coming to Canada and the Ainu visitors are often expressing surprise because a native Canadian Haida person looks exactly like their uncle or aunt back home in Japan. But anyways, the Ainu had this very large area that they were masters of for centuries. But from about the 16th century, more and more Japanese people sort of crept up from the South, the Japanese population increased and they sort of settled further and further North. And it pushed Ainu communities further and further into the background, much like what happened with native peoples in Canada. And then there’s the Okinawans, who are in the South. There was a string of islands between the main part of Japan and Taiwan where there used to be an ancient kingdom, a very peaceful kingdom that didn’t have its own armies. It was just a trading kingdom, but back in the 1600s, one of the Southern clans of Japan invaded and took over the Okinawa islands. So ever since then, it’s been part of Japan. But at the end of the second world war, the United States took over Okinawa and started building a bunch of US military bases. So Japan has quite a few US military bases still in Japan, but 80% of those military bases are all concentrated on Okinawa. So even though almost everybody in Okinawa says, we don’t want the bases here, we want to be peaceful people, the American basis remains there. So, the Okinawans are treated like second class citizens within Japan. And then there are more recent groups like post world war two immigrants. Some of these would be Brazilians and Peruvians who came for economic reasons, to work in growing industries in Japan, maybe 20 to 30 years ago. The Japanese economy has sort of seen a downturn, so a lot of these people who came from Peru or Brazil who had jobs at the beginning have lost their jobs. And because they still struggle with language and different cultures, they’re facing difficulties in Japanese society. There are quite a few Filipino women, Thai, Taiwanese, Chinese, and even some Korean women who have married Japanese men in rural areas who have come. They have come because men in rural areas in Japan are having trouble finding young Japanese women to come to the countryside to live there because Japanese young women don’t want to go and be a farmer’s wife. It’s a social issue for rural areas in Japan.

In addition to these minority ethnic groups, we also are working with women’s groups within the church. There are still women’s issues that we’re dealing with. We work together with people with disabilities, and we’re also trying to find responsible and loving ways to try to engage in conversation around the difficult issue of sexual and gender minorities as well. I know that’s an ongoing issue here in Canada, too. So, the Center for Minority Issues and Mission has four pillars. We call it four pillars of our activities, these are struggling against racism, engaging in youth mission, developing the spirituality of reconciliation and peace and communications. So I’ll just go through each of these one at a time. The first one is struggling against racism. We want to serve as a place where all these different minority groups that I was talking about can come together and look for ways to work together because each of the groups tends to be so busy engaging with their own group’s problems that it’s kind of hard for them to find extra time to get together and discuss. So we want to be a place where they can come to, and we can look for new ways of working together. It’s also part of our job to try to work with the United Church and Presbyterian Church in Canada, but also churches in Germany and Taiwan and Korea who we’d like to work with and learn from. So working altogether ecumenically. The second pillar of work is the youth mission. We just held a minority youth forum at the beginning of this month. 25 of us met in Osaka Japan to do some fieldwork, some field study, visit a couple of minority communities within Osaka, learn about the history of Okinawans in Osaka, Koreans in Osaka and then we did some historical study. Then we had lots of discussion groups and a workshop to try to find ways of expressing what we were feeling after hearing all these stories. It was a really fun time. I think the most important thing that it made us do was to think, not just in terms of, you know, what is happening out there, but we asked ourselves what is happening in our own hearts? Are there corners of our hearts where discrimination is there? These are the kind of self-questioning questions that we spent some time on as well. We’ll have another minority youth conference or forum next year, so we’re hoping that we can get some young people from Canada to participate in that one. The third pillar is a spirituality of reconciliation and peace. I’ll just briefly mention that it’s sort of a Bible study that we have in mind here, but not just the Bible study of people sitting in a room, reading the Bible and talking about it. What we want to do is to go on field trips and hear from people who are doing work with minority groups, hear from them what parts of the Bible really motivate them and what is driving their mission? So we’ll go out on a field trip, hear these stories and then the following month, the same group of people will get together. And we’ll look at scriptures and review the scriptures that the person told them about, but also share with each other, what are some other scriptures that resonate with that? So we’re looking for ways to hear new voices from the scriptures that will help us as people interested in minority issues to engage better. And the fourth pillar is communications. Communications is simply a one-word way of saying newsletters and booklets and website and Facebook and all of that. So I brought with me two newsletters. These are in English. So if you have a chance,  I invite you to please take a look through them. I have maybe 20 to 30 copies of each of these. So it’ll give you an idea of what’s going on with us. We hope that people when they read them, they’ll feel free to write to us about ideas that they have, or perhaps experiences that resonate with what is in here.  And maybe every now and then we’ll have a booklet on a specific topic if we want to dig deeper into some topic or another. So I’d like to end by sharing a little bit about the logo that we have. You can see the words Center for Minority Issues and Mission. And inside that circle is the crown of thorns, Jesus’s crown of thorns. And then inside that circle, you will see a teeth tree stump. So a tree that’s been cut and out of that tree stump is one small branch growing with a leaf on it. This image is taken from the scriptures, Isaiah chapter 11, and it represents God’s promise of new life. Even as minorities, we may often feel discouraged or saddened or depressed about the situation that we face, but God always promises new life out of that. 

So I just like to end by reading the section from Isaiah chapter 11, so that you will have a better idea of where this image comes from. It’s Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1-9, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. So this is the image of God’s peaceful kingdom that we are always all praying for and dreaming of. We, the motto of our Center is to let us spread the tent of inclusion. We want to be a part of a project where everybody can be working on spreading and stretching the tent of inclusion so that more and more people can feel welcome in society. So thank you for welcoming me. And I look forward to perhaps seeing some of the young people at the youth forum in Japan sometime. Thank you.

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Numbers 21:4-9

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food. Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live. So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

I generally don’t like complaints. I always believed that complaints are what weak people do. Strong people don’t complain. I like to think about solutions rather than complaining about my problems and situations. If I cannot fix my problems, I just have to accept them and live with them rather than complaining about them. I don’t like to complain about things. Until I see that a problem can be fixed and it can be solved or when I see that is impossible to do so, I don’t see it anymore because that becomes a complaint. I just live with it. I just accept it rather than trying to change it.

I don’t think God likes complainers either. The biggest problem of the Israelites, in the wilderness was their complaints. They constantly complained about everything. One after another. When they faced the Red Sea in front of them, they thought that they would die. Who would see any solution there? So when they saw the Red Sea, this is what they said: Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians ? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. (Exodus 14: 11-12).  I mean they knew that there was no solution. They knew the Moses could not do anything about it, but they complained. Then God opened the water and let them go through.

Then in the wilderness, they didn’t have food. Now this is what they said. If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Exodus 16:3). Again, complaint. They experienced the Red Sea, but a smaller problem occurred and they complained not only twice, but whenever they had problems. Their way of dealing with their problems was complaining and in today’s these scripture, we hear their last complaints. The people spoke against God and against Moses. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food” (Numbers 21:5). The last sentence, ‘we detest this miserable food’. What is that? This miserable food. That miserable food is mana. It was God’s Grace. God rained down mana because they were complaining about food that they had nothing to eat. Eating the same food every day, they got sick of it. It’s kind of understandable. You don’t want to eat the same food twice in a day. If you have a sandwich for lunch, you don’t want a sandwich for dinner. You want to have jjajangmyun or jjampong or something else, but they ate this miserable food for how many years? Morning, lunch, dinner. They just ate this thing. When I went to South Africa, their meal was congee in the mornings. Oh, that’s not bad. Lunch, a little thicker. Dinner, same thing, but little with a little of piece of the sardine and then this morning, again. The same food every day. So I was kind of sick of it. It’s understandable eating manna everyday for how many years. But my friends, this is a wilderness. Think about it, what could Moses do? Could he make any other food? Did he have any solution? Didn’t they know that there was absolutely nothing Moses could do? Be reasonable! But they complained. Sometimes complaining is not reasonable. It’s a habit. It is a spiritual habit.

Complaints get us nowhere. That’s what I learned. Complaints get us nowhere. Be careful. Complaints can be habitual and not a very good habit. Don’t take that habit.  Complaints can also bring disaster to us. That was what happened. So many people got bitten by a poisonous snakes. The complaints about food immediately disappeared because they had a bigger problem. Because of poisonous snakes, they were about to about to perish. When we complain about small problems, we may sometimes face bigger problems, so be careful.

I think there’s a difference between complaints and critical thinking. Complaints come out of emotional explosion.  Critical thinking comes from deep, careful thinking. Complaints are spontaneous reactions, but critical thinking is for the future. Complaints come from self centered thinking and are therefore very subjective. Critical thinking considers everything and therefore there is a good balance between subjective and objective thinking. Complaints always make scapegoats and target them. In today’s scripture, the Israelites scapegoated Moses and even God. Critical thinking involves oneself in his critique. Complaints bring misunderstanding and division. Critical thinking brings understanding and unity. Complaints destroy the community. Critical thinking leads the community for the better future. Critical thinking is a good thing. I don’t like complaints, but I appreciate critical thinking.

The Israelites repented, and came to Moses for help. This was what they said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us” (Numbers 21:7). So Moses prayed for the people. In his prayer he got this message; God told him to make a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole and let people look at the serpent and they’ll be healed. The serpent was their problem. Poisonous snakes were their problem. God told them to gaze on their problems. Don’t be scared. Don’t run away from your problems, look at your problems, but remember, it is God who will help you with your problems. Looking at the serpent was nothing. God didn’t tell them to find some kind of herbs and then put it on your wound and whatever. No, just look at the serpents, but remember, it is God who will heal you. It is the Lord your God who will save you. Jesus used this example in this teaching. This was what Jesus said, and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. Jesus used this incident to talk about Jesus. A Roman Centurion just looked at the cross and saw Jesus and he was healed. He was able to confess that truly this was the son of God. He did nothing to understand that he just looked and understood that that was the Son of God. Salvation is not something I do. Salvation is what God does. It is God’s grace. Don’t create self salvation for yourself. You can never save yourself, even with your religiosity. You cannot save yourself.

I cannot create salvation for myself. God made salvation possible. Instead of complaining, the Israelites should have trusted God. God would have taken care of their needs. Don’t be slaves to your complaints, but look to God and be free from the lifestyle of complaints. If you don’t do that, your life will be constantly complaining one thing after another and your life will not be there anymore. You’re not going to be a happy person. You’ll be a very miserable person by doing that, by keep on doing that. There’s an interesting story about this later in the scripture. It is from 2 Kings 18:4. It is about king Hezekiah. “He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan.” (2 Kings 18:4). It’s very interesting. God told Moses to make bronze serpent and if people saw the bronze serpent and the got healed and this time Hezekiah broke down and destroyed the bronze serpent. Why in the wilderness did God want to teach the Israelites to look to God through bronze serpent? God wanted them to realize that it was God who saved them, but after many years, they made a bronze serpent and they believed that this bronze serpent had power to save them. In other words, they started worshiping this bronze serpent rather than looking to God.

Cross yourself does not have power. It is God who works behind the cross. That has power. When you look at Hollywood horror movie and then the priest comes out with a cross and then people are frightened; the cross doesn’t have power. That’s a myth. That’s a superstition. It is God who works behind the cross. The bronze serpent only pointed to the living God who saved them. It’s like I explained a few times here. It’s like that finger that points to the moon. What is important is the moon, not the fingers by looking at fingers, you can never see the moon. You have to see what the fingers point to.

They just looked at the bronze serpent, but the serpent does not have power. God behind the bronze serpent does. Church itself does not have power. ‘Just coming to the church, you will become better.’ No, you won’t. You won’t be saved by coming to church if you don’t meet God personally in your life, there is no salvation in that. Just becoming a member of St Timothy or any church will not give you salvation. You have to meet God personally and look to God then salvation is possible. Legalism is only to see the law without God. Activism is to only see our action without God. Pietism is only to see your own belief without God. Fanaticism is to see only your own personal spiritual experiences without God. Asceticism is to see only discipline without God. Traditionalism is to see only the tradition without God. What is important is to meet God. When we truly meet God, everything changes. We will experience true healing, freedom and liberation. Look to God. Your complaints will disappear. Your complaints, my friends, have no basis, no ground. It is you. Don’t think that you have valid reason to complain many times. It is you. It is your spiritual problem.

We complain because we are scared. Don’t be scared. Look to God. You can deal with your problems.

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Matthew 6:25-33

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? you of little faith. Therefore do not worry, saying, what will we eat?' or what will we drink?' or what we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”.

Anxiety is a common problem. We all worry about life. We worry about school, about our jobs, about our children and about our health. Sometimes, even when we don’t have anything to worry about, we still worry. It’s kind of strange that I have nothing to worry about and that makes me worry. One comedian said, “You know, there is a day when everything goes so well and that drives me crazy”. I think these comedians know very well about life. Yes, when there’s nothing to worry about, you start to think oh my goodness, why don’t I have anything to worry about? and we start worrying about. Sometimes we have this superstition. If we have something to worry about, that won’t happen to me at the kind of superstition because often what we worry about does not get realized, so worries always follow us like a shadow. It is not a good feeling when you constantly have this dark cloud over your head. Anxiety is a psychological problem, but I believe that it is a spiritual subject to deal with. We need spiritual disciplines to overcome our anxiety. We need to deal with what is going on in our heart to deal with anxiety, and dealing with what’s going on in our heart is a future subject.

Myron Augsburger, a mennonite scholar, summarized anxiety in three words, “Irreverent, irrelevant and irresponsible”, irreverent because there is no respect for God. Into this scripture, Jesus said not to worry about and he gave the main reason. The main reason was because God will take care of you, don’t worry. Simple. God will take care of you. He said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which do you believe that? You are of more value than those things, lilies of the field and birds of the air. If you believe that, I mean they don’t do anything but God takes care of them. If you believe that you’re more value than them, why do we worry? God will take care of your basic needs. What Jesus is saying is we worry because we don’t believe that God will take care of our needs. We should not worry about what we shall eat or what we shall drink or about our body, what will we wear. These are important things, but also, these are basic necessities of life. Jesus saying that Jesus will take care of your basic needs. We need to trust that God will take care of our basic needs and we need to experience that in life. I’ve experienced this many times in my life. All my life, I’ve lived not with much money. Even when I was in the beginning of ministry and when I was a student, I lived with just the basics. My salary was $700 and then rent was $700. After that, what do I do? how do I survive? and that’s how I lived, but even at that time, everything was all right. God is taking care of our basic needs. All this time, if we can not entrust our basic needs in God’s hands, we can not entrust anything to God. There is a big difference between the people who entrust their basic needs to God and people who don’t. There’s a quality difference. If you don’t entrust your basic needs in God’s hands, you can never become a bigger person. You will always worry about what to eat, what to wear. You can never become a bigger thinking. You’ll be enslaved to your fear, so to fight against anxiety, you have to have spiritual discipline to entrust your basic needs in God’s hands. Then your life will be enriched and you will have confidence in life. You can go beyond worrying about your basic needs. You will see bigger things in life; so about your job, about your daily living, God will take care of your basic needs. Don’t worry about it, and do something beyond your basic needs.

Second, it is irrelevant to worry about things. In other words, it’s no use. Worrying does not do any good to you. Jesus said, “can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”, you cannot do anything productive by worrying about it. Sometimes by worrying about your problems, you make the problems worse. You ruined your health both physically and mentally. It is a waste of time and waste of your energy. Spend your time and energy for the things that you can do something about it. Don’t spend that on worrying about your life, by worrying about them you get absorbed deeper into your problems and you’ll be affected both physically and mentally, so it’s no use. Then what do we do? What are spiritual disciplines? The first one is you entrust your basic needs in God’s hands, in second spiritual, a display because it is no use. What do we do? Whenever you worry, turn that into prayer. Make that as your discipline. If there is a subject that you’re worrying about, instead of worrying about it, turn that into prayer. There’s an old hymn, a sweet hour of prayer is a beautiful hymn. Let me read the verses, “sweet hour of prayers sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care, and bids me and my father’s throne. Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief. My soul has often found relief, our cast on him, my every care and wait for the sweet hour of prayer, our cast on him, my every care and way for these sweet hour of prayer. That’s what prayer is, when you turn your anxiety into prayer, you can defeat your anxiety problem. When you have an anxiety attack, turn that into prayer. Your prayer will become real and you will do a lot of prayer too.

We all worry about things, but every time when we turn that into prayer, you’ll become prayer people not worriers, and I want all of you to become prayer people. Worries and anxieties do nothing for you, but prayer brings miracles. When you worry about things, nothing will happen, but when you turn that into prayer, you’ll experience God’s miracles. That’s why Saint Paul said this, “Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication”. This is Saint Paul’s spiritual discipline. Whenever he worries about things, he turned that into prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. When you turn your worries into prayer, God’s peace will guard your heart. You will become strong. Your heart will become strong. That’s a miracle to me. You don’t have feeble heart anymore. You’d have a very strong, peaceful heart. Your life will change.

Third, it is irresponsible to worry, in what ways is it responsible? Worrying to me is escapism. Worry is escapism. It is a way of escaping your problems. Instead of dealing with challenges of life, you hide behind the anxiety, even though we know that worrying does nothing to deal with our challenges because worrying is easier and safer then dealing with problems, we choose to worry so we hide in that way It is irresponsible. When life’s troubles attack us, we believer’s do not sit on our problems or hide behind our worries. Jesus said, conclusively, do not worry about things in life, but seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be alright. That’s Jesus principle. When challenges of life attack you instead of worrying about it, seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be alright. Focus on good things that you can do for other people. Don’t waste your life worrying about your problems. Focus your eyes on the things that you can do for other people. Worries, have no power. They have no weight. We just empower them. We just give them the power, but worrying itself has no power, unless you give it, give the power to the worry. And when worries come, You do this blow it out, try it . When worries come just blow out, come on worries have no power. No weight, it just goes off when you do that. Worries contained in your head, mind, just shake it away. They have no power whatsoever to do anything to you.

But always focus on your heart and mind. What can I do for other people? People who are in difficult situations, people who are in need, that should be your agenda every day. Not on your problems. If you seek first the Kingdom of God, everything else will be alright. That’s how we fight against anxiety. I hope that you cultivate these spiritual disciplines to fight against your worries and anxieties. So these three things; first entrust your basic needs in God’s hands, two turn your worries into prayer, three focus on good things you can do for God and for others. I hope that this will help you to deal with your own worry problems.

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Genesis 11:31-12:3

Thank you very much, Eugene for that wonderful, special music. And thank you also so much for blessing us with the praise, Hi-C praise team. And what great support they got from Hi-C. I actually heard so much singing. They got the post retreat glow. It’s great to hear and see, let us turn to a scripture passage for today. It’s taken from Genesis 11:31-12:3.

“Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred five years; and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'” This is the word of the Lord.

Growing up in church, I think we’ve all heard about Abraham as this big pivotal pioneer of faith. And I know for the Hi-C, this is going to be somewhat of a review, so let’s see how much you retain. So we know a lot about them, this great figure of faith, but we know very little about his pops, his father, Terah. It was actually Terah, who was the one who first set out from the home country of his kindred and the home land to venture out into the land of Canaan. But along the way, so Terah gathered his family, his children, his in laws, and then said, let’s go. But along the way, they came to a place called Heron and they settled there. And that’s where Terah died. So we don’t know much about him. He’s a blip in this history of this, the Genesis account, and he’s a footnote.

So he lived and died a pretty inconsequential life. But a question I asked was why, why did he settled in Heron? If he was destined to go to Canaan, why did he settle there? So as I reflected on it, I dunno, I came up with several possibilities. I imagined that the journey from the Homeland and once they left, it was probably a difficult journey, right? Lot of difficulties, a harsh life, you know, traveling with family and whatever possessions you can have. It was probably a hard life there, probably a lot of dangers around people attacking them, or, you know, it’s probably desert too, right? Food, water. So it was hard. So when they came to Heron, decided to find some shelter and you know, what, it probably became quite comfortable. And it turns out that Terah became quite rich. They gathered a lot of possessions. And so by the time he died, his life was pretty comfortable and safe, inherent. So in other words, life actually became somewhat predictable and controllable.

When Terah died, I think Abraham was probably on a similar trajectory. Yeah. I got all of these riches handed down from my dad. Let’s just live a good life and be comfortable, but God had a different plan. Didn’t he? God called on Abraham to leave. Leave what was familiar, leave, what was comfortable and go to the land that I will show you. So in other words, go to a place in which you don’t know what the outcome or result is going to be. Go to a place in which you don’t have control of what’s going to happen, but just go.

But then it wasn’t just a calling to blind faith. Was it? God made a promise to Abraham. Go, and then what I will bless you, right? I will bless you and take care of you. So God promised to bless and take care of Abraham, even though maybe the final form of that blessing might not have been something that Abraham knew or could predict, God promised to bless him and take care of him. But it was also promised with a purpose, not just blessing for its own sake. I will bless you so that others will be blessed through you, that all the nations and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. So God gave a calling with a promise that had a purpose.

So as you all know, we went to the Hi- C retreat. We came back and, to me, I think the whole overall retreat, the process and the retreat itself was really big lesson in the messages of this passage. Unbeknownst to me at the beginning. I mean the whole process leading up to the retreat I shared with the Hi-C I don’t know why it was a big struggle. I spent more time preparing for this than I have anything else, like a whole month preparing. I read, I think, write down copious notes, but I don’t know. It just didn’t feel like it was coming together. And even by the time the retreat came, I was a little anxious cause I was like, I’m not feeling this.

So I dunno, I just ask God: Okay, God, I mean, here I am, I’ve tried preparing my best, but okay. Guide us and lead us how you may. So the first day came and went, you know, we had, we had some fun and, and whatnot, but anyway, and then I kind of plowed through with the first kind of message and the session I’d prepared, but by the end of it, I still wasn’t feeling it. You know, you could tell by looking at people’s eyes and faces, right. Whether they’re like with it or not. And I was like, okay, something’s a little missing here. So that night we had a meeting between with the executives, the group leaders and the counselors. I asked everyone to go around and share their thoughts and what they’re thinking and it became like a unanimous sense of thinking, that their desire for people to just kind of break down their walls, connect us one another, but that, people still seem to be holding back.

So that’s kind of where it left off and we kind of prayed together and then we all went to bed. So I went to bed, but I don’t know with, with somewhat of a uneasy feeling in my heart. So I went to sleep and then, at 3:15 AM my eyes just kind of came open and I just had all these thoughts flooding in my head. I was like, yo, I need to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us. But as my thoughts kept coming, it started to really dawn on me. You know, that meeting we had where all everyone’s kind of sharing the same thing. Uh, hello. That’s God’s way of telling me, okay, that’s what you need to focus on. That’s what you need to think about. Right. So I did.

And that’s went: Oh, okay. I think things started coming and I wrote my whole morning session from scratch right there, 3:15 till 6:30 AM writing away. So here’s what it was, the youth, the Hi-C, they all come from different places, right. Some were really looking forward to it, having spent a lot of time here. Others, a little bit newer, a little hesitant, shy, and some came very reluctantly. But regardless what I, as I reflected, what I sensed was, you know, you know, among adolescents, teenagers, the deepest thing is a yearning for a sense of connection and intimacy, and it’s not just something for teenagers.

As human beings, it’s something that’s so baked into our DNA. Isn’t it? Our longing for connection. You know, that’s why the worst, I shared this story too, the worst form of punishment, that you can have from my previous career, I realized when someone’s in jail, the worst punishment, it’s solitary confinement. We are just not meant to be an island or live alone. We need that connection. That’s how God created us. And so that is the yearning, but what happens right?

When people get together, fear kind of takes over. So for the Hi-C it’s, you know, fear of awkwardness, if you try to talk to someone. Fear of rejection, or if you’re not, the fear of being not accepted. And so what happens, what happens is you find a group of friends that you feel comfortable with, or that you’re familiar with, that you grew up with and you cling to them. And so you become comfortable and safe, right? Cause in that group of friends, I can’t be hurt. You know, I can’t, I’m not vulnerable. And then for those who are a little more shy or reserved, what happens is you put up walls, right? Well, if I’m, if I’m not responsive, I don’t say much. Then at least they can’t say anything mean to me or they can’t attack me. So that, that that’s what happens. We protect ourselves.

So I really felt that God was challenging us to go beyond what’s comfortable. That’s that was our Haran, right. Life was very comfortable, familiar, but God was calling us to go, go from our comfort zones where we feel safe and protected. Go and reach out. And God made a promise to bless us, you know, regardless of how the other respond, you will actually be blessed by making that effort. Right. You’ll be blessed. And in turn, without you even knowing it, you can be a blessing to that other person. So that was the challenge for the group.

And they went to discussions and, you know, I could, after that, I can slowly start to see, you know, people making a bit of an effort, right. I mean, it’s not immediate, but there was some effort going on. So then the evening session rolls along. And, so based on that, I got a little inspired. I was like, okay, all right, this is good. Right. We’re going to have a good evening session, but I realized, from two summer retreats now big mistake is having an evening session right after dinner. Cause I thought I had something pretty good prepared. I was like, okay, this is good. But then I’m like, yo, why is half the room falling asleep? So I was like, and I’m a realist. I’m not going to just drone on for the sake of it. So I put a stop to it.

I said, you know what, just go talk about your skits instead. And after that, boom, everyone’s awake. What are we going to do for skits? So I was like, Oh, okay. And I was like, all right, God, I guess I’m supposed to just trust this to you. How will you lead us? So that night again, we had another meeting and and it was some good sharing. And then the group leaders and the counselors left and it was actually just the executives and myself and pastor Dave and just a few of the counselors. So, I don’t know, I sensed like, some heavy heartedness. Sensed a bit of a burden. So I just asked them: Guys, okay, what’s going on, tell me, how are you guys feeling? I don’t know, that’s when, I think that’s when some people started to like break down a bit and, I think they were just feeling a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure and a burden, like of really desiring, it came from a good place.

Their desire was to see people just, by this point come together and really bond and be open with one another and share. But they could still sense people holding back. So it was really weighing heavily on them. And so that’s when, you know, we try to remind ourselves that: Okay. Whatever happens, it’s how God leads us at this retreat. Maybe nothing will happen, but that’s okay. Cause ultimately, it’s under God’s control and that’s what we have to really believe. And so we try to reassure ourselves with that kind of faith. We prayed, we went to sleep. I felt I did feel a little more peaceful. So I had no idea what I was going to talk about that morning, but I was like, I’m just going to sleep. I’m tired.

Right. So we did that. But then on the Wednesday morning, that’s when, as I reflected, it starts to become more clear. You know what Haran is? I mean, I mentioned it a little bit, but Haran, the life in Haran, yes, it’s a comfortable, it’s a safe life, but underneath it all, what is it? It’s a life that we try to control. Right? That’s why we want safety. That’s why we want comfort. That’s why we want no predictability because I can control it. Whereas the land that God was calling Abraham to, it’s a place that I do not control. I have no idea what might happen. And that’s a scary thought, right? For us human beings, who wants to leave ourselves that exposed and vulnerable, but I revealed, but as I reflected on this, a big revelation dawned on me, wow. You know what, Simon, this control and Haran, that’s what I’ve been trying to do.

I realized that I had placed so much expectation on myself. And I think that expectation that I placed on myself kind of translated and influenced the execs and people like that too. Cause you know what, don’t you agree with me at guys? Hi-C like the past year we had it. Wasn’t that such a great and awesome year, like starting from last summer retreat. And then we had like all sorts of, Thanksgiving, dinner. We had Christmas party, we had amazing March retreat. Lock-ins, you know, and then a sick summer with an action packed schedule and whatnot. So, you know, the natural expectations. Yes. So we’re going to just cumulate, cumulate, and then this retreat is going to be, boom, it’s going to be so amazing. Right. But honestly, I realized in the back of mind, that’s the expectation I had placed upon myself.

And so that’s why we felt a lot of burden to like really make this happen and forcing it. But that’s when I realized, okay, that’s the life of Haran we’ve been trying to do that. So really became clear that the main message from this passage for us was that we try so hard to control the results, whether it’s out of fear, for whatever reasons. So socially we try to control who our friends are and in our life, we try to control what the outcome will be, but God will lead us in ways that we do not expect when we allow God to be in control. And so this lesson, that was the lesson, it became clear that morning, we shared it and it became real in real life, in a beautiful way. As if God was really saying in real life, here it is.

So on the last day of the retreat, for those of you who grew up in Hi-C too, what’s the highlight, right? What’s one of the highlights? It’s a skits, right? It’s a time where everyone comes together, they perform it’s, it’s a gift. It really is. Right. And so many memories are from skits. Oh, remember that when this guy did that or that girl did this. Right. It really is. So, and you have to understand right. Retreats. It’s a very compressed period of time, it is very intense. Emotions are very intense too. So all the groups were working so hard. They want to provide an entertaining skit for everyone else. Right. That’s their blessing and gift to others. But there was this one group in particular that really struggled. And even when I saw them in the discussions, yeah. They seem to be struggling a bit with connecting with one another.

It just, you can physically even tell that they’re kind of like hesitant or to really open up. And so, this after dinner, I was going to walk into the main building to prepare, finished my message, but then I get stopped. Right. “Pastor Simon.” And I turned around and they have a very distraught look on their face. I’m like, what’s wrong guys. And then, someone in the group was starting to shake a little bit and really emotionally distraught. “You know what, I’m sorry. Uh, uh, we’re not going to be able to have a skit”. And I was like, Oh, okay. I’m just trying to listen. And then I dunno, I just see like someone start to cry and then like I realized, Oh, okay. You know what? I think these, these people are, this is a moment an opportunity to minister.

And this is actually, I realized it’s dawned on me. This is a moment for blessing. So, I reassured them that it’s okay. You know what, God knows that you guys tried and God doesn’t think any less of you and neither do we. Right. I think that’s kind of a reassuring message that they needed to hear, because, as soon as we started talking, they rose up, they started hugging one another and that’s when all the emotions just came like coming down. And I don’t know, I’ve never really been so weepy myself, you know? And, Hi-C does that to me, it just brings out this inner child in me and just weepiness, you know? And I realized this is that lesson in real life, you know, the script, they wanted a certain outcome or result. They wanted a great skit and they just still want it to bless others with the great skit.

But often God has a very different result in mind. If we allow, God will turn what seems like a bad situation into the most beautiful one. So we gathered around in a circle to pray, you know, I don’t know, I could just feel their like brokenness their sadness, their disappointment in themselves. But this was really a moment of grace. You know, when the content and substance of our Christian faith was really alive right here, which is: God doesn’t desire, good performance from us. God doesn’t desire good results from us, but rather just in our brokenness, God calls us. God asks us for our most honest and vulnerable self. And that’s the person that God wants to reach. You know, the group started off inherent, trying so hard to control the result, but God led us to a place he want it to show us and to see that group embracing and comforting one another, such a blessing, so beautiful.

They became way closer than they would otherwise have by like putting on a great skit and whatnot. And through that, they blessed all of us. They blessed me by giving me the content for that final evening session. I was like, this is it right here. This is our Christian faith. That’s all it is. Right. That’s all it is. So at that final session, after I shared the message, I felt compelled to take a risk myself. So the past two retreats last summer and the March one, during our reflection and prayer time, I went around the room, to pray, to share, pray with the individuals or groups of people. And that was beautiful too. That was a blessing. But for this time I felt compelled to just stay at the front by myself and invite the Hi-C students to come one at a time where we can share and pray together. And it was a risk. But what if no one comes? I’m sure. All right then. I actually, I think I kind of tried that last summer, but then I can immediately see it wasn’t going to happen, so that’s why I went around. I’m very adaptable. You know, I shift gears very quickly for those who know me. Right.

But, you know, I mean, our whole message was about stepping outside of our comfort zone and trusting the result and outcome to God. Right. So I was like, okay, preacher, you gotta practice what you preach. So I decided to trust God. And honestly what happened was the most beautiful thing in my ministry so far. I don’t know, sitting with people one-on-one, it felt like nothing else was around us just as they shared what’s deepest in their hearts. You know, their fears, their joys, their struggles, and then being able to pray together, but wow. Wow. Hallelujah. What a blessing that was, I mean, I felt finally full, or I just felt fully the essence of what ministry is all about. And I was so blessed by their openness, their vulnerability, uh, being able to cry together and listen. And for me personally, I felt that for me personally, I felt that God had finally led me to, be in a place where I could bless others after so many years of walking in my own Haran and trying to control my life because I was scared, fearful, resentful, bitter, all of that, but wow, how can it be?

And that’s when I realized where that song comes from. Amazing grace, amazing, amazing grace, but you know what was even greater than that? What was even greater was? So I was so focused on my one-on-ones. I don’t even know how much time passed. Apparently, I think it was like an hour and a half or two hours. I just felt like two minutes. You know? So while that was going, I didn’t know what was going on in the room. Around me, what I heard had happened after what transpired, there was even more beautiful. People were going around the room, praying for one another sharing, crying, laughing together, embracing one another. All those walls that had existed at the beginning of the retreat, just coming down and they’re sharing life together. I’m like, this is what the body of Christ is all about. You know, the executives to whom I spent a whole year, week after week, we meet in discipleship sharing, in praying together, they were going around ministering to their fellow students. How beautiful is that. If that’s not the kingdom of heaven on earth, I don’t know what is. You know, we pray in the Lord’s prayer. “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This was God’s will being done on earth. This was heaven on earth.

Amen. You know, so the main message from the retreat: we struggled as we came in with our own expectations, our own vision of what we wanted, trying to control that outcome. But once we relaxed that pressure from ourselves and allowed God to really lead us, God revealed his power and blessed us so much, which led everyone to be such a blessing to one another. And that’s why when I walked down into the Hi-C room today, I sensed a complete difference, right. Complete, complete difference. And I know everyone’s on a endorphin and whatever high right now, but you know, I really have hope, for this coming year. So this is the lesson I believe that we all need to learn, you know, as adults growing up in this world, when did we become so fearful and comfortable?

When did our grip of control become so tight? The journey that our families took immigrating here, coming here, it wasn’t an easy one. We witnessed so much struggle, hardship, sacrifice, pain, right? Circumstances out of control. And for a lot of us too, growing up with no mentors, being the first in our families to grow up here or, experiencing discriminations of many sorts. I understand our desire for control and safety and predictability, security, stability so that we can live our own lives. And that comfort, I think that became an overriding underlying current in our lives. Right?

I think it became in this cold and competitive world. We actually came to believe that, well, if I don’t take control of my life and myself, and if I don’t take care of myself, who will? So even if we came to church, I think what we developed was a functional atheism that sure, God may exist and stuff, but when it comes to my life, I’m the only one who can really control and shape it. You know what? Life may have become safe and comfortable for us, but what’s happened to our spirits. You know, there’s a slogan from the retreat, right. Hi- C, what was it? You settle? [You die] That’s right. You settle, you die. I’m glad the things remained by settling our hearts. I don’t know. I think they just become numb and they died in a way, in trying to preserve our life with our control.

We’ve lost it. We’ve hunkered down in our safe and comfortable world while we let the world and life, pass us by. We forgotten our calling, to be on a journey. Being led to a place that God leads us. We’re so scared. It’s supposed to be a journey led by God’s promise. God’s promised to bless us and take care of us so that we in turn can be a blessing to others. It is a scary thing to place that control in something else or someone else. But this is the essence of faith. Isn’t it? If we can truly believe in God’s promise that God is ultimately in control and will bless us and take care of me, then this is what gives us great confidence to face any challenge that comes our way in life, that we are under God’s protection.

Even though my temporary circumstances might be difficult, I believe and I trust that ultimately, God has a plan. And God will take care of me and bless me so that I will also be a blessing to others. My friends, let us be people of the promise. Let us respond to God’s call to go, to leave Haran and be led by God into a life of new possibilities. Amen. So the Hi-C had an opportunity on the last day to really reflect, and be honest about themselves and share and write down a prayer and commitment. And it’s symbolized by, I’m embarrassed that I think I’m the only one that didn’t wear it, but we all have, we made bracelets and put it on each other. Who has the bracelets on? That’s right. The blue bracelets. Okay. That’s what it symbolizes. So, I’m going to play for us, the prayers and commitments that they made. So let us be blessed through the honesty and vulnerability of our Hi-C as well. May they minister to us, and bring us back to the essence of trusting God.

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Matthew 7:13-14

{Transcript}

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Today is a kind of graduation service for those who are graduating from high school and also from elementary school. Graduation in other words is commencement. Commencement meaning ‘it begins’, so you begin a new chapter of your life. So I have kind of chosen this passage for you to meditate on as you read the scripture. I’m going to talk about the narrow road. I think the narrow road is not necessarily what we automatically think. We think it means to choose a hard and difficult life.

Maybe there may be hard and difficult life, but narrow road for me is your own unique life that you choose. You follow no one else but your own authentic existence. I’m not talking about just career, but also your existence. What is your unique existence in this world? I think we all are created uniquely, therefore we’re supposed to live a unique life. Sometimes people think ‘I’m going to be in this profession or that profession’, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’re living a unique life. In everyday living your way of thinking, your way of doing things, your way of treating others, your way of thinking of God makes your life. You need to have your unique personality, your own person. And that is what is important.

If you ask a lot of old people. they all say, “I just thought that that is the life you’re supposed to live. So I did everything other people did, but after 40 years, 50 years and kind of wondering whether I chose the right path. When I was young, I didn’t think too much about it. So I just chose whatever is given to me by my parents, from friends. And I just followed it but now that I think about it, I ask, am I living my life or am I living somebody else’s life?” So it is very important to take the narrow road that your own unique life chooses. It doesn’t matter what age you are, I think that is something that we all need to think about. I do believe that to have to choose the narrow road or to make a choice you need courage.

You may wonder what courage do we need? I just, I choose things, but I think you need courage to make conscious choices instead of just living out what is given to you. I think you need courage to choose your own path. Not many people have that, necessarily. You have to have a very strong character to be able to choose your own path, not the path that other people are following. I personally think that you need lots of courage to make choices because often we let our circumstances dictate our lives. We let our circumstances dictate our thinking and the way we view the world. Making a choice in our life is a basic human right. Being able to choose for myself is a basic human right. In some countries that have dictators, the people don’t have a choice, but we live in a free world, so we have choice, but yet we don’t exercise the right to choose. We don’t exercise choice. Living in a very free world we let circumstances dictate us so that we don’t have to make any choices, so we live our lives without making choice for ourselves. I think that is a basic human right. Everything we do, we should do it with our conscious choice. Yes, this is what I want and I want to choose that. I have nobody to blame because it’s my choice.

But many times we don’t choose and then we turn around and say, “Oh, my parents told me to do this” or “Oh, there’s so and so did this,” or “At that time, all my friends did it, so I did it so that it’s not your fault. Ultimately, you make a choice. You’re accountable for that choice. You have a responsibility for the choice that you make. And maybe this why a lot of people don’t make choices because they are not courageous enough to take the responsibility, to take the blame. But making a choice takes courage and making a choice is a basic human right. A Christian writer said, Destiny is a matter of choice, not chance. Your destiny will be decided by your choice, not by chance.

There’s a professional baseball player, Jim Abbott. He used to play for the California Angels, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and all of these famous teams he played, and Sports Illustrated once I praised him as a pitcher who can throw 90 miles per hour. These days, a lot of people do that, but at that time, that was kind of a unique and was a big deal. Since he was young, he wanted to play baseball, but his circumstances were not very good. He really desired to play baseball and to be in the major leagues, but he was born without a right hand. Think about it. You don’t have a right hand. You only have a left hand, but since he was young he wanted to be a baseball player. What do people say? What do his parents say? ‘No, Jim, maybe there’s some other things that you could do well with one hand’ or other friends may say he is being ridiculous. But he wanted to play baseball so much and at the end of it he made it. He was able to play baseball in the Major League and he was even praised in Sports Illustrated.

He chose to go for it. All of the other people said Don’t, but he chose to go for it. He said this, “I’ve been blessed with pretty good left arm and a not so good right arm”. He didn’t have a hand. Jim Abbott summarized his life in this way. “I had to learn to do it with one hand because that’s all I had”. You make choices with all you have. Don’t say that, “If I had money, I would have chosen that”. That’s just an excuse. He chose even with one arm to play baseball.

Your choice is a powerful thing that you can exercise in your life to live your own unique, authentic life. Our destiny is decided not by chance, but by choice. Jesus said to choose the narrow road. He said, enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life. And there are few who find it. Only people who choose the narrow road will find life. Your own authentic life. People who just follow everybody else. You don’t find your own life. Entering through the narrow gate means we live with our choices. Many people take the wide road because they don’t want to choose.

Choose to find your own life since you’re young. Don’t delay it. Whatever you do even, choose to play. If you’re going to play, don’t play just because other people forced you to play. You choose to play. You choose to study. You choose what you want in your life. From when you’re young, you have to learn to make choices. Don’t blame your circumstances. In any circumstance you can exercise your basic human right to choose. Jim Abbott did not give up his right to choose just because he had only hand. He exercised his right to choose. Even in that limited circumstance, one hand was all he had. People who did not make a choice in their lives will live without empowerment. They will live without vision. They’ll live without passion. They will not make their best effort because it’s not something that they chose. They will do mediocre work, live a mediocre life. They will just float along with the rest of the people

But my friends, remember this: to make a choice, you have to know who you are. You have to know what God’s will is. You have to know your circumstances. Making a choice without thinking is not making a choice to me. It is a lazy choice, but to me it is not even a choice. To make the right choice, you have to think hard. You have to meditate upon yourself, upon God’s will and upon your circumstances, and then make your choice. So to live a life of conscious choice, you need to be a thinker. He had no choice but to be a thinker. You need to be able to discern a ray of light that penetrates through the darkness. You’ll be able to see that light. You should be able to hear the whispering voice amidst all the noise around you. You will hear that voice, a very clear voice, and you’ll see a ray of light. When you start making choices in your life, you can see the light. You can hear the voice. Only then we can make choices. Without seeing it, without hearing it, you cannot make choices.

Even if you make a choice, it doesn’t mean anything. In life we need conviction. Seeing the light and hearing the voice is conviction. You need to have conviction to live. One life we live, we live with conviction. St. Paul heard that voice. He lived a mediocre life. He lived a good life following the law and all the good things that other people said is good, but once he met Jesus Christ, all the things that he thought was good were not good anymore. He found his own voice in his life. Jesus’ disciples, what did they discover when they met Jesus? Conviction about life. I thought that was life. Just doing the work and then the fishing and all that. If I have more fish than I’m happy, I thought that was everything about life. But after meeting Christ, they found conviction in life. That’s what they found after meeting Christ. They found the secret of life in Jesus’ teaching.

One more thing about choices. First, you have to live with a choice. Second, you have to know to make a choice. Third is, when you start making choices, you will make mistakes. Definitely you will make mistakes. If you don’t make choices, you won’t make mistakes. If you start making choices, you will make mistakes and those mistakes will make you feel really, really bad because you made a wrong choice. You will all go through that ugly feeling in your life when you start making choices. That’s why a lot of people don’t make choices because they don’t like that kind of ugly feeling.

But instead of not making choices, learn to embrace your own mistakes and even that bad feeling. Don’t be scared of making mistakes. We all make mistakes. People who make conscious choices, you have to be strong. Okay, I made mistakes, but my life is not over. I’m going to attack again, and I am going to confront it again. Don’t be scared of mistakes. We faulty human beings always make mistakes. Our mistakes kind of make a judgment on who we are and that’s why we don’t like it, but through mistakes you learn. This is what Michael Jordan said, “I’ve missed more than more than 9,000 shots in my life. In my career, I’ve lost almost 300 games and 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed”. 26 times. He counted. In other words, he felt really, really bad. That’s why he’s saying that ‘I failed over and over and over again in my life’. We are talking about Michael Jordan and then he said, as I quoted before to you, “I can accept failure. Everyone, everyone feels as something, but I cannot accept not trying”. Why don’t you try something with your life? What are you so scared of? Do something.

Do what God wants you to do. Don’t just pay attention to your parents. Don’t just pay attention to your friends. Pay attention to God, and of course a lot of times God speaks through parents, so I’m not saying that don’t listen to your parents. Often, God speaks through parents too, but ultimately learn to listen to God. And to do something worthwhile, something beautiful, that can only come by conscious choice. Enter through the narrow gate.

(Reflection Song: You are My All in All)

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Psalm 27:1-6

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me

to devour my flesh

my adversaries and foes

they shall stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war rise up against me,

yet I will be confident.

One thing I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

to live in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord,

and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will set me high on a rock.

Now my head is lifted up

above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

These are words of David. Last week we reflected on King David. I said that King David was like the engine of Israel. They could never forget King David, and today I’d like to talk about fear in wake of all these things happening and the violence, hatred, and bigotry that are all around us. There are so many people who are trembling with fear. Fear is something that we all have in our mind. It’s probably one of the most powerful emotions that prevent us to live a fulfilling life. We have to learn to overcome our fear. As long as we have fear, we cannot live a life with confidence. Fear itself is not bad. Without fear will not be able to feel the danger that is imminent around us. Fear alerts us and makes us ready to deal with the danger.

In Barcelona, Mr. Gray, a Canadian, was right there when the attack happened. With his family two, three children – they’re a little older – as soon as they saw something going on, they ran into a hotel. And then they stayed there for five hours without really knowing what was going on. Mr. Gray, he said the scariest thing in the hotel. What he said was that they didn’t know what was going on. They didn’t know if there was one truck, or they might’ve thought that a group of terrorists might come in with guns, and they were able to hear some gunshots too. So they thought, what if they come into the hotel? What if they’re right here in the hotel? There were so scared, and for five hours they just stayed in that hotel.

Fear That Paralyzes

That is the street where Will proposed to Grace. We were just there a few years ago. And that happened. Fear is a natural reaction from people who face danger, but there’s also fear that paralyzes us. Not preparing us to fight against danger or preparing for the danger, but there is a fear that takes away all our energy and desire. It just makes us feel totally helpless. It paralyzes us. We cannot do anything once we are captured by this fear. We freeze with this fear. Usually, fear comes from seeing the real danger that is imminent around you but this kind of fear has nothing to do with real danger that is imminent to you. It is that they are just thinking about the possibility of danger. For example, if you had a painful memory of failure, you will have fear of failure. You cannot do anything because you have this fear of failure.

Changjoo, who is our conductor, he’s going to Australia to study. And yesterday he did a wonderful performance. It was such beautiful music that he powerfully played, and he changed it so much, and we enjoyed it so much. But I’m sure he went through many, many hours of fear of failure. “What if I cannot master this?” But he did not give up. He kept on practicing and playing and ultimately he was able to perform the beautiful piece.

We all sometimes have a kind of unnecessary fear. You may say, if you had a big car accident, you will have a fear of driving. If you’re hurt by people, you will have a fear of people or relationships. Some kids are bitten by dogs and even when they’re grown up, they’re scared of dogs. We have learned this fear through painful life experiences and this kind of fear is not always helpful. It takes away energy and confidence from us. It hinders us from living with confidence. It creates neurotic anxiety. Living with this kind of fear is not fun. Living with this kind of fear makes us very passive.

David and Goliath

You know what fear does? Fear affects the way we see things. Fear makes us see problems bigger than they are. We should see problems as they are. Then we should be able to see the solution, but when you see the problem is much bigger than it is, then you will know you’ll freeze. You will know any solution to the problems. We talked about Goliath and David the Israelites. They saw goliath much, much bigger than he was, so they thought, we have no solution since we're so scared of Goliath, but David saw Goliath. He could see that Goliath was strong, but at the same time, David was able to see his weaknesses too, and he attacked those weaknesses. That’s how he overcame Goliath.

Many times we fall into the problems because we see them as much bigger than they are. We need to learn to see things as they are, then we’ll get better insight about our problems. Don’t pull it up when you have problems. Don’t blow them up. See them as they are, and then you’ll be able to see the solution. You will feel scared not because of our problems, but often because of our fear about problems. If you don’t have fear, you will be able to overcome those problems, but because of fear of your problems, sometimes we feel what David felt. He experienced many crisis in his life. He crept in totally crushed by fear. You know when problems come right before you, you can handle that because you have coming up so you can handle the problems, but once you get home, you sit down by yourself.

How Do You Deal With Fear?

All of us are have let this fearful thinking and emotion overwhelm us, and we lose there. So David, probably when he was alone, these kinds of fears, all kinds of fears probably attacked, but somehow David knew how to deal with his fear. I think that’s very important, knowing how to deal with fear, because we all live with fear. But how do you deal with fear?

This is David’s secret. David said, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.

He had confidence in God. Every time a fearful situation arose. He didn’t focus on his fear, but he focused on God. That is the secret of overcoming our fear.

Spiritual Territory

When fear attacks us and conquers us, we have to find the area in you that is not affected and occupied by fear. So when fear attacks you, you have to think about the area that is not conquered and occupied by fear. I call that spiritual territory. We all have spiritual territory that is not occupied and conquered by fear.

That is the area that we need to hold onto. The part of you that looks to God. When you have the spiritual territory that is not totally paralyzed by fear, doubt will save you from fear. Give special attention to that spiritual territory, that part of consciousness he held onto when everything looks hopeless. That part of consciousness sees hope. When everything looks impossible, that part of consciousness sees possibility. That part of consciousness made David confess in this way. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Evil is not to be Feared

After the terrorist attack in Barcelona, people said this, we will not fear. In other words, they paid attention to the future territory. That part of consciousness which is not occupied and conquered by fear. The very next day neo Nazis came out to to make a demonstration, to say that immigration is not good, and Muslims have to be. They came out to proclaim that they fit right there. People in Barcelona came out, said that they will not let our city be conquered by fear. They will not let our city be conquered by racism, and we will not let our city be totally paralyzed by fear. That is courageous spirit. That is the spiritual territory. They paid attention to that consciousness. They held onto that. Evil is not to be feared. Injustice is not to be feared. Patriotism, bigotry, racism, violence are not to be feared.

Love Gives You Courage

God created us so that we can fight against those things. Fear was supposed to have fear over those things. That’s the future. What is the best way to expand spiritually? I believe that it is love. Love expands that spiritual territory. Love gives you courage. When you have love, you have courage. Now, when you have power, only when you have love, you have courage. Love casts out all fear. This is what John says in 1 John, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out. Fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. Love is what expands the spiritual territory. I hope that your love for God may expand that mutual territory within you. This is what David said, one thing I asked of the Lord that will I seek after to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and tink choir in his temple. He was surrounded by enemies, but he was talking about love for the Lord. He had love for God. Love for God, gave it to them. Courage. Now justice gives you courage. Love for truth gives you the courage. Love for life gives you courage. Be courageous. Don’t fear. Fear and love are like darkness and light. When the light comes, darkness cannot stay. When love comes, fear cannot stay.

God's Love

We love worse within us. Fear slowly disappears from us. You can never be separated from God’s love. In other words, you can always overcome your fear. This is what St Paul discovered. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I’m convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing in the world can separate us from the love of God. Let us not fear the injustice that is not fear, hatred, bigotry, and violence. Let us not fear anything that tries to destroy human goodness. Josh mentioned God is good and goodness will cherish the goodness of God and we will also cherish human goodness. We'll stand up against anything that tries to destroy the human spirit.

God gave the United States so much power, so much resources, so many talented people. They’re supposed to exercise good leadership to build this global community better than it is. I see so much division. America first. That’s not a Christian slogan. Christian slogan is others. First Task Christian slogan. That’s not Christian message. This is the time to stand up with courage. I’m glad that there’s demonstrations everywhere in cities, big cities, Boston, Britain, and everywhere.

This is the Time

This is the time for us Christians to stand up for what we believe, have courage, live out what Jesus commanded you to do. Don’t be silent. Speak up against evil, and any kind of prejudice.

This is the time for us to embrace each other. Love each other, accept each other. This swirl, this globe is to be shared, not to be conquered.

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2 Samuel 23:1-7

2 Samuel 23:1-7

Now these are the last words of David:

The oracle of David, son of Jesse,

The spirit of the Lord speaks through me,

Is not my house like this with God?

David was a great king. The Israelites could never forget King David. King David shaped and defined who Israelites are. He defined the country, the nation. They were proud of David. A king, a leader can have this kind of impact on a nation, on the people. They always, kind of in the back of their minds, they had King David. What King David said, and what King David did. So even their messianic expectation was Davidic. If the Messiah comes, it will come from the Line of David. So King. David was at the center of their consciousness, the consciousness of the Israelites. And as you know, David was not a perfect person. He made a mistake, a big mistake, huge mistake. He was flawed, in many ways.

I’m kind of jealous of the Israelites who had this a great king, a leader. A leader is so important. So I would like to reflect on this King David today, and I’d like to reflect on your life in this country. By reflecting on David, it will give us insights into our life and our own leadership. First of all, David knew how to admit his own flaws, his own mistakes. I think that’s courage, to be able to admit my own flaws and mistakes. When the Prophet Nathan confronted David and rebuked David for what he did, it was a private conversation between Nathan and King David. It was kind of like the private conversation between Comey and Trump. King David had all the power, and he could completely destroy Nathan with the power he had. He could spread false rumors about Nathan, he could do some kind of conspiracy against Nathan, or he could just simply order him to be killed, murdered. He had that kind of power, he was that kind of king.

But he didn’t do that. He accepted the rebuke of Nathan and truly repented. It is hard for a powerful person to admit one’s own fault. We forget who we are when we have so much power. People that are powerful do not admit their faults because to them, that is the sign of weakness. They say only weak people admit their faults. But our greatest leader is different. St Paul, for example, he’s our greatest leader for Christians. St Paul said, “I am the sinner of sinners.” Not only that, he went further. I am the worst sinner. This great leader that we have, we Christians have admitted his own mistakes, false and flaws. Leaders who don’t know themselves are very dangerous. They will use the power accessible to them with their self-centered judgment. We should never make self-centered people as leaders because their judgment will be false. People who recognize their weaknesses can be humble. They’ll be able to understand the pain and suffering of other people. People who cannot feel other people’s suffering and pain should not be leaders. There will become monsters like Hitler. The leaders should be able to empathize with the pain and suffering of the people.

People who know themselves very well can understand others deeply. People who have experienced the failures of life will understand the failures of other people. People who have suffered the sickness can understand the pain of other’s sickness. People have gone through the darkness, the deep, deep darkness of life can understand other people’s darkness when they go through that darkness. Jesus knew us very well. Hebrew writer says this, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. You know, understanding other people deeply is a great skill but is a rare skill. Many people don’t understand what other people feel. A lot of people are so self-centered that they just don’t understand what other people feel. It is a rare skill, but it’s a very important and valuable skill. It shows your integrity. When you have, when you possess that skill, to understand other people’s pain, suffering, and feelings, you have an integrity of life. When we live a self-centered life. We simply cannot understand other people. That’s why Jesus said, if you want to follow me, the first thing, get rid of your self-centeredness. Get rid of self-centered thinking first, deny yourself. and then follow me. As long as you’re self-centered, you cannot follow me.

Second, David knew how to wait. When David’s fame soared sky high, he could have taken kingship from Saul. He was the king when David was becoming famous, King Saul was the king. He could get rid of King Saul very easily because David was more popular. He had so much power he could get rid of Saul right there with the fame and the power he had. If he did that, he could have possessed the throne, but he would not have won the hearts of the people. He could have the position of kingship, but he cannot be the king of the people. David wanted to be the king of the hearts of the people. That’s the real king, not the king who has kingship position, the king who wins the hearts of the people. That’s the real king.

He had many opportunities to kill Saul. When Saul was all by himself sleeping, David was able to enter his room. He did not kill him. He could kill him. He did not kill him, but he just left a mark that I was here. And then once he was with this group of people in the cave and King Saul came into the cave to do his business and then David could have killed him right there, but he just cut the piece of his clothes and told him I was right there, but he did not kill King Saul. He waited. Instead of creating his own future with his power, wisdom, and might, he waited for everything to work out for good. That is the wisdom. People who cannot wait are disqualified to be leaders. People who just react to the situation without waiting, saying stupid things. I wanted to say I’m not qualified to be leaders. Jesus did not do things as he liked. He always waited for the time. He often said, my hour has not come yet.

It is not good to force our life. We need to learn to wait. Moses waited for 40 years in the wilderness, and he himself could not enter the promised land, but Moses, led other people to enter into the promised land. People who do not lose hope while waiting will see the fruit, ultimately. Waiting is not just passively wasting your time. We wait while working hard to prepare the soil with hope and vision. Waiting needs to prepare ourselves to receive the promise. God’s promise grows in our waiting and will bear fruit when the right time comes. In two days, we have August 15. Many of you know that is a significant day for the world and for Koreans. That is the day Korea was freed and liberated from Japanese occupation, and that is the day World War II ended. Koreans were under Japanese occupation for 36 years. Many young women were taken by force to be prostitutes for the soldiers in war. Many people were exploited, their names were erased. Their culture was erased. For 40 years. They suffered under imperialistic occupation. That was the waiting time for Koreans. That became the soil for Koreans. And I believe the God trained them for 40 years. Now the Korean Peninsula is in a great crisis by two monsters. Very harsh words were exchanged between North Korea and the US. I truly pray that there may be a peaceful resolution. I believe that 40 years of waiting was not a waste of time, for God’s great work, God has trained them. Let me say a personal thing. God will produce a great leader using that 40 years of waiting time, and a lot of you are second-generation Koreans. I believe that the leader will come out not from the Korean soil, from the immigrants. Not just people who make less money, thinkers who will come out. You have a previous history of abuse, but that abuse will never be wasted. That will turn into a passion to fight for justice and human rights. Third, David believed that our future and his future is in God’s resolution, not his.

He did not try to create a future with his own power and wisdom. He trusted God and God’s resolution. That trust is in David’s bones, in every cell of his body he had that trust. I am who I am by God’s resolution, he believed. That’s what Saint Paul said. I am who I am by God’s grace. Even when he fought Goliath, he had that trust. We look at today’s passage. We can see David’s heart very well. This is what he said: “Is not my house like this with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. Will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?”. He believed that everything depended on God and his decision. The reason he didn’t touch Saul and waited was that he believed that everything depended on God and his resolution. The country that is built by force will be destroyed by force. History tells us that, but the country that rules over people justly, rules in the fear of God will be like the light of morning like the Sun rising on a cloudless morning gleaming from the rain on the grassy land. Our life is the same. The life that is built by God’s resolution will never be destroyed. Did you build your life, or is your life built by your God’s resolution? When you believe that your life is built by God’s resolution, you’ll never be destroyed. You stand up again because God will never give you up.

I pray that you have a sense that your life is built by God’s decision. David, as a king, had a profound impact on the future of Israel. I pray that we also have that kind of world leaders. We lack leaders. How come the evil came out of the shadow and freely told the whole world their existence, and the leader doesn’t do much about it? You don’t need that kind of leader. We need leaders who can name evil as evil. We should pray for the United States. They’re the world leaders. The most powerful nation. Their leadership is very much needed. This world needs their leadership. I hope that God may use that country to build God’s righteousness and justice and restore that. Let me recap three things that I say. First, David knew how to admit his own faults. Two, David knew how to wait. Three, David believed that his future is in God’s resolution and not his.

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