St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

Isaiah 43:14-21

{Transcript}

Okay, let us hear the word. Isaiah chapter 43, verses 14 to 21 “thus says the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. For Your Sake, I will send to, Babylon and breakdown all the bars and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned to lamentation. I am the Lord your holy one, the creator of Israel. Your King says the Lord who makes a way in to see a path in the mighty waters who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior, they lie down. They can not rise. They’re extinguished. Quenched like a wick do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.  Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I’ll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me. The jackals and the ostriches for I give water in the Wilderness rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people who might form for myself so that they might declare my praise. This is the word of the Lord.

Life is like a path. When you say that life is like a path, life is a path. Do you agree with that? Or is life bunch of unconnected and disconnected events that has nothing to do with each other. This happened and another thing happened and another thing happened. It just random events, they’re not connected at all. You cannot say that it is kind of a connected path. It’s just happening every moment.

Or how do you look at it? When scripture often says, a life is like a story story of Abraham, the story of Jacob and Joseph, there’s a story. So their life is a story. In other words, whatever is happening to them is connected with each other and they create it kind of weaves, a story. So in that sense, a life is not just a whole bunch of unconnected events, but it is connected events that create a story that creates kind of path and we need to find a path, but it’s hard to see a path and find a path. It is pretty difficult. What is the path that i’m walking on. Where does this path lead to and how have I lived all my life? What kind of path have I walked on? If life is a path, am I paving that path? If life is life is a path, do I just follow a general path that everybody is following? You finished school, you get a job, you get married and have children and all that.

Is there a general path that everybody just follows and then I just walk on the same path? Or is their a unique path just for me. Not  for everyone else, but just for me is their a unique path just for me? And I want to say that there is no path that is alike. Every path is unique. As every person is unique, you have your own way. You have your own path to walk on. That’s what I believe. Each person’s path is very, very unique. You cannot walk on other’s path and are the people cannot walk on your path.

Your path consists of your dream, your vision, your passion, the career that you chose, the friends that you make along the way, the kind of family you came from and the kind of family you make now and a kind of community you belong to all of these things together and make a path for you and that is very unique to individual and no one can walk the same path. I mean we may experience the same events, but what you get out of that event is very different. Today you hear the same physical message from me, but each person takes that message differently and processes it and digests it differently and different things are triggered. So even though we are in the same place same time, but what you get is very, very different, different and very unique for each individual. That is your path. How you make a decision, how you feel, how you relate to the world, how you build yourself. All these things shape your path. My friends, I don’t think there is a path already made for you.

I don’t think the path is yet made. The Path you’re gonna walk on is not made yet. You have to make it. It’s not that there is already a path that you just have to walk on, no. The path is not there yet it’s not created yet. Yet you have to create it. You have to make it now at this point. But depending on what kind of path you make, the destination will be very different. If you take the TTC Bloor line, you’ll end up in Scarborough, but if you take the Yonge line, you’ll end up in North York, so depending on what path you create, the destination will be quite different. If you live out your life with resentment, disappointment, greed and selfishness. You’ll create a path that leads to bankruptcy, of life and meaninglessness. But if you live out your forgiveness, love, self giving, and hope you will create a path that leads to an abundant life and eternal life. And then I realized that yes, I have to make a path now, but realized that I cannot make a path all by myself because I don’t know life enough. I don’t have enough knowledge or enough wisdom, not even enough strength to make my own path. Often I experience that I get drifted away and don’t know where I am and where I’m going. I just live busily doing everything. And at one point I question, where am I? Where am I going? Where do I want to go?

Many years ago I used to take a college group to Algonquin Interior. So portaging and all that stuff, sometimes 10 people, sometimes 20, 30 people. I think one trip we even had about 40 people, like troops with canoes. So we went there and it was a very windy day. And on that day, I went out in canoe by myself. I just wanted to experience the quietness. So I went out in the middle of that lake and just lied down and enjoyed the peace and serenity. I really enjoyed the silence and peace. So for about 30 minutes or an hour, I just lied down there looking at the sky, but you know, when you lie down there in the canoe, you don’t know whether the canoe is moving or not. You think that you're at the same place. But after, 30 minutes I went, Where, am I? , you know, I got totally lost and I looked around and way back there.

There was our campsite. I usually look out for the island because of bears, you know, to be safe. Bears won’t come there. I hope. So, and then I found and island so I canoed there by myself. It was windy day. It was so hard to canoe by myself because it goes back and forth like this and that. And then finally I got to the island. But somehow the problem is you get there and then I missed the island. And because of the current, and the way the wind was going like this and there was a guy, I’m not sure, maybe it was John, I maybe. I didn't know who it was. There was a guy standing at the rock and then I wave right. Help, help. How do you say hi?  James is raising his hand, it was James. Yeah, I mean I was going to James. Hi, how are you? And for about five times of saying Hi back and forth he realized, oh, he needs help. So he came out with other guys and then they saved me.

Sometimes, you know we need help. I don’t think I can create my path all by myself. I need help from God. Israelites tried to create a path on their own. They thought they were smart and strong enough. And then Jeremiah a different prophet, he said the mistake of the Israelites were that they created a cistern, like a kind of hole on their own, the things that they made a mistake one day, try to dig a hole all by themselves and they dug a hole that cannot contain water. These two things. How true that is for us. We tried to dig our life by ourselves and at the end of we realize this whole cistern cannot hold water. I create a life that cannot hold water. The Israelites, they try to create their own life and ultimately at the end where did that path, lead them to? To exile. They lost everything. They lost their land, their temple, their identity and everything. That’s sad.

You know if all your life you've lived a really good life and at the end do you want to experience bankruptcy? Do you want to get to a point where life is so meaningless and empty.?. I hope that we don’t end up there. Isaiah today, he said this, their life was like in a desert and in the wild sea the path they created, lead them to the place they didn’t want to be. But Isaiah gave us good news the message of good news. The good news is even though because of our mistakes, we ended up at the desert, but God is going to create a path for you in the desert. That’s Isaiah. What Isaiah proclaimed God would even make a way in the desert.

Because of their stubborn and arrogant attitude. They created a path that led them to nothingness but god created a new path for them. That’s what God does. My friends, sometimes we make innocent mistakes because we don’t know enough because we create a certain path because of our innocent mistakes, but other times knowing that this will lead to nothing but because of our greed and selfishness we followed the path anyway. Sometimes we are so blinded and we don’t see what we are doing. We are just making ourselves busy doing anything and everything without knowing where this life leads to? We just live mindlessly and habitually and we just let things happen and by doing that we create a path that takes us where we don’t want to be, but the good news is that God has given us up. If you’re. If we are at the desert, he’ll come there to make a path. If we are in the mighty waters, he will come there to make a new path in the wild sea. This is what God said, “I am about to do a new thing” The next verse says, “now it springs forth. Now he springs springs forth to you not pursuing.” You know, when I read this this time, what is that? Where is that?

When I read this, this time, somehow that new thing sounded like new path to me. I am going to make a new path for you. Do you not perceive it? I’m going to make a new path for you don’t you see it? That’s what Isaiah said to the israelites and this is what God said. Also, I will give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people. You are God’s chosen people. God will give you to drink.  even though you are creating a path of our life, but we are not creating just my own path. I said we have a very unique path. That’s why Jesus said, take the narrow road. That means your own unique way. Live your life, but yes, my path is unique, but we also create a path together. Each unique path gathers together and create a path for us to walk together. Every drop of water gathers and creates the river and each river, each river gathers and makes an ocean together. We're creating a path and this path that we create together will enrich each and every one of your unique individual paths. It will enrich you only with God. We can create a path that leads to abundance. We don’t want to end up in the desert. We want to be where God’s abundance is, I don’t know where you are individually, but wherever you are, you can always start a new. You don’t have to repeat the same path as you have lived. Now you can create a new path with God and this is what God said “do not remember the former things or consider things of old the path is not made yet for you and it you have to make a path to not make the same path necessarily. You have to make your own wonderful path from this moment on and do it with God, not by yourself, not on your own.

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Exodus 17:1-7

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God gave the Israelites the wilderness experience and in the wilderness they confronted. They had to confront their own fear. There was no water. They were helpless. They’re about to perish and nobody could help them. Even Moses could not help them. As a matter of fact, no human being was able to help them, they were in the wilderness. There was no water. They were dying of thirst. What can anybody do, so they had to confront fear. I wonder if fear is the most common emotion that we have. And that is an emotion that we have to learn how to deal with. If we don’t know how to deal with fear, then our life will be very difficult and timid and we will live as a victim of fear all the time. And fear does very strange things in our lives.

So we have to learn to deal with fear. And the Israelites had to confront their own fear and overcoming fear. It’s not something that you can learn in a classroom. It’s not something that you can read about and intellectually understand it and then deal with that. Fear is something that you have to experience. You have to confront a situation where fear paralyzes you and then you see how much you are victims or you’re controlled by fear. So only through the actual experience of fear, can you deal with the fear, how you can do it. And it is the Israelites in the wilderness, the actual experience of fear and God lead them to experience the fear in those helpless situations. You know, deep inside there, a lot of things within us and you have to learn to train what’s inside of us.

We are trained to do a lot of things on the outside. We learned to make a living. We learned to sing. We learned to do a lot of things, raised children, whatever, but sometimes we don’t pay attention to what’s inside. We don’t know how to deal with what’s going on within us. There are so many things that are going on when we don’t pay attention to that and we become victims of what is going on inside of us. Sometimes we feel great, sometimes we feel down and we don’t even know why we feel good, we don’t even know, why we feel so down and how precious it is to encounter a situation where we are trained to deal with what’s going on within us. There are a lot of things buried within us and therefore we need to visit them and sometimes it just comes out without any warning.

All of a sudden all these emotions start coming up and you don’t know how to deal with them because you never paid attention to them. So you need to be strengthened enough to be able to handle what’s going on inside of us. Last Sunday we had a KSM, a YF meeting. YF are the people in their thirties, forties. They all have little children and they were talking about parenting and how to raise these children and all that. And all of a sudden the topic turned into sharing their pain, their hurt, their own upbringing, what kind of abuse they receive as they were young and all the hard stuff. Painful stuff came out and they probably didn’t even know or didn’t have a plan to share when they first came but once one person started sharing, everyone started sharing about their painful history, forgotten memories, buried hurts and pain.

They are still there in you. And sometimes they torment us and they take us to the dark side. Sometimes once in a while you need to sit down and think, there are things that are buried so deep within you and they control you and they affect you, but we don’t even deal with it. We just leave them. We’re too scared to deal with them. When they come up, we try to push them into the darkness and then they torment us, they make us sick. They make us not live a healthy life, not make us really good, joyful life. They are always in the back of our minds and then I think the common and the most powerful emotion is a fear. When fear is there, we cannot really function very well. We always go around it rather than dealing with it. The Israelites were not very good at handling their fear. Instead of dealing with it, they let out on Moses and scapegoated Moses. That is the easiest thing to do, scapegoating somebody or blaming somebody is the easiest thing to do, but it’s not always the best way or even good way, with your fear, you become hostile. This is what they say. Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?

What’s the point of saying that? I mean, they all know that Moses can do anything. They all know that no one can do anything. Now they are in misery, they’re scared, and then all the could do was finger point, to finger point at Moses, why did you do that? What good is it by asking that and then they tried to stone Moses.

That’s the natural reaction of human beings. I think that’s what human beings do all the time when they encounter fear and this I realized that these are the four steps that human beings normally go through, first, fear that creates anger, and anger creates hatred, and hatred creates violence. This is what’s happening all the time when it begins with fear that creates, anger and hatred and ultimately violence. Jedi Grandmaster Yoda, he’s my favourite. When Grace was born, she looked like Yoda, so I said to the nurse, “hey she looks like Yoda” and she was laughing, but Yoda said this, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” He’s a wise guy, no wonder he’s a Jedi. Instead of dealing with fear, they just let out their raw emotion and behaved as victims of fear being angry, hateful, and violent. By stoning Moses, what good is it? Temporarily, they might have relieved the pressure that comes from fear, but ultimately they will kill each other. If they stone Moses, then they would have perished right there, the results would have been worse, but Moses was different. He turned to God. He knew how to deal with fear. He turned to God and God helped them and solved their problem. I think it’s wonderful to know God. I mean, if you don’t know God, you will not turn to God even if you turn to Him, you won’t know what to do. But since Moses knew God, he knew how to turn to God and he received help from Him.

And I hope that all of you know God in an intimate way. So when a fearful situation comes to you, you know where to go, rather than being angry, hateful, and violent, you just turn to God. And I believe that God will help you. And that is really powerful faith. I hope that all of you learn that skill and then you learn to be trained to deal with fear. Then you’ll be able to overcome anything in your situation and you can try anything and then you’ll be able to do it fine. If you don’t know how to deal with your fear then you won’t be able to. You won’t be able to do anything in your life. But once you know how to deal with your fear, then you’ll be able to do almost anything. There’s nothing for you to worry about, but in life situations, sometimes a fearful situation come health problem, financial problem, job problem, relational problem. When you have children, you have a lot of issues that come up and they make you really scared, fearful. But once you know how, when you’re trained to deal with your fear, then you’ll be able to handle your life well. Otherwise, you will make mistakes of destroying your life. Because fear does very strange things. It can be scary what fear can do in your life. But once you know how to deal with fear, you’ll be able to persevere and you’ll be able to come out stronger than ever before.

Once I attended a roundtable discussion on black issues in Toronto, mostly black people and I was invited to participate in the discussion. And the guest speaker came from Jamaica. He grew up in a small village in Jamaica among 10 siblings. And he said, “You know, poverty was not a problem for us. Rather, poverty was our lifestyle. Life was difficult, but we were very happy.” Instead of living out his fear, he turned fear into a positive lifestyle. After all that suffering, he said he became a person wrestling not only with his own problems but rather with others’ problems. So he learned to wrestle with other people’s problems rather than focusing on his problems. He turned fear into a very positive lifestyle of helping other people. I still remember what is said during the closing worship service. This is what he said, “We are the product of hostile history, but we are going to change it from hostility to hospitality. Have you talked about hospitality before?

The Israelites learned in the wilderness, and they were trained to turn fear, not into hostility. They learned that it is not good to turn fear into hostility. That’s why they wrote this book. They wrote it so that their children may remember we made a mistake as parents and your children, I want you to hear this story so don’t make the same mistakes. We turned fear into hostility, but for you, read this story and don’t turn fear into hostility. They learned that they should not scapegoat anybody because of fear, don’t scapegoat anyone because of fear. How often we scapegoat other people, innocent, helpless victims. We scapegoat them because of our fear. We turn all our attention to those and scapegoat them. The world is teaching fear, constantly they tell you that you have to be scared. They kind of brainwash you with fear. I hope that we don’t listen to that teaching, live life not because of fear, but because of faith and love.

Don’t believe in God because of fear. Fear of going to hell or fear of fear of punishment, believe in God because of love. We do a lot of things because of fear and they make us small and small and small. I hope that you can overcome fear and become a bigger person because you deserve that. The Israelites learned that they should turn to God as Moses did. Sometimes you feel helpless and hopeless, and fear starts rising from the depth. Don’t let fear control you and paralyze you. Don’t blame others. Don’t finger point at others. Don’t turn fear into anger and violence. Turn to God. In God, overcome your fear. Jesus said “in the world, you may have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” That’s what Jesus said. He has overcome the fear.

If Jesus was filled with fear, he could not have done what he did, he was not scared of the cross. He was not scared of the fear. That’s why he told us, you want to follow me? Take up your cross. In other words, embrace your fear. Overcome it and follow me. Only then you can be my disciple. Once you overcome fear, you’ll be a different person. Just a few days ago, a Korean president was impeached. The whole country is in total mess and chaos. They are in tremendous fear. I hope that they don’t become victims of fear, they may not turn fear into hostility. I pray that they may turn fear into creative, constructive discussion, and come out of it more powerfully than ever before. My friends, there are a lot of things going on in the world, but don’t let them fear you, but be strong and courageous and turn to God. God will show you what to do.

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Matthew 4:1-11

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He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him,

Jesus said to him,

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him,

We usually associate temptation with sin, for example, breaking the rules or breaking God’s commandment. And that’s what temptation is. Temptation is what makes you sin. But as you read today’s scripture passage somehow it has anything to do with sin, turning stones into loaves of bread and jumping off from the pinnacle of the temple. How are they sin? I don’t see obvious sin then. So I realized that there is a deeper dimension about temptation is not just what you see on the surface. So I like to reflect with you on those three temptations stories and then see the implication of it and maybe hopefully how we overcome our temptation.

The first temptation was about turning stones into loaves of bread. What does this reveal about temptation? Turning stones into loaves of bread? I think it is to do with survival. I think is to do with making a living. It’s not just about making bread. It’s about making a living. Satan told Jesus to tell these stones to become loaves of bread. I realized that making living is a very big part of our lives. We all make living. We work hard. You go to school, you get a job and you make a living, isn’t it? Is that not why you go to school? And then you build your career to make a living. That’s very important. So all of you, all of us really work hard and I see our people working really hard at their work. And then our Hi-C students study very hard to get into good university and then a to get a good job and to make a good living. That’s our responsibility because it’s very important. But don’t you realize that since it is so important, it becomes temptation? Because it is so important, it becomes temptation. If it is not important, it doesn’t become temptation, but since it is so important, it becomes temptation. We become obsessed with it and forget about everything else, but I want to tell you, making a living is important, but life is not just about making a living. I’m not saying that making a living is not important, but life is more than just making a living. I hope that you realize that life is more than making a living.

My friends since it is so important, don’t you think that we have to leave it in God’s hands instead of taking charge since it’s so important? Actually, God will take care of our basic needs. Jesus told us to pray like this. Give us this day, our daily bread. And Jesus also taught us this lesson. Seek, strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. If you strive for the Kingdom of God and righteousness, everything else will be added unto you. You don’t need to worry about it. As we trust that God will take care of our needs, then your eyes open and you can start seeing that life is more than just making a living. That’s when life opens up. That’s when life opens up for you. That’s when you find treasure in life. Why do you think Peter left all his fish to follow Jesus even when he caught much fish? Because he found treasure in life. So as you leave all your basic needs to God that’s when you see there’s something more beautiful about life than making a good living. Work hard, but find the treasure in life. If you don’t find that treasure in life, then you are in temptation. If you think life is all about making a living, then you’re in temptation, but once you leave all your basic needs in God’s hands, then you can see, life is much more than just making a living. That’s the first temptation and how to overcome temptation. Don’t worry about when you will eat, what should you wear. Don’t worry about it. Doesn’t God know how to feed you? Just leave it in God’s hands and then you’ll be fine. You’ll be able to see what’s important in life.

The second temptation was like this. Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and told Him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written. He will command His angels concerning you and on their hands. They will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against stone. So what kind of temptation is that? It was the temptation of planting seeds of doubt in Jesus’ mind. If Satan didn’t say that, Jesus would not even think about it. It is like telling someone during golf to be careful of the water. After you tell them, they will always be thinking “oh, the water is that way. I have to be careful or the ball will go into the water.” Satan was testing Jesus whether God will protect him or not. Protection is just as important as survival, as important as making living, which we talked about in the first temptation.

We can never protect ourselves 100 percent of the time. That is the truth. That’s the reality. We can never protect ourselves 100 percent of the time, even if you increase the military budget or have security all the time. We can never protect ourselves 100 percent of the time. Last Tuesday, I was all by myself in this building and then there was a guy who then came to this building in a pickup truck and he rang the bell but we don’t even have a bell. He came to the door, but the door was locked. He was about to go and I thought he was here to fix our church. So I ran out and opened the door. And as I called him, he came to me and as soon as I saw his face, I thought, “I’m in trouble.” This guy looks so disturbed. He was half crying and all that. And then he told me, “I need help.” “What can I do for you?” And he, he was saying, “FBI is following me, the police tapped into my phone,” and many other scenarios. I mean he’s saying all of that but just last week I talked about welcoming the stranger on Sundays so I just can’t just kick him out, but to bring him in is too dangerous. I was scared so I went, “okay, come and follow me.” So I went to 102, there was Simon and Reverend Chung, at least they’re bigger than me and also “if I’m going to die, I’ll die with you.”

So we sat down together and then we listened to him for about 30 minutes and he was going on, he was crying and he was banging the desk. He was angry about his problems, and we’re just listening for 30 minutes. In the end, Simon gave Joe’s hospital address and said, “you can go there.” He was so thankful. After 30 minutes, he said, “you know, nobody really listened to me with without judgment. You guys were so good, you listened to me for 30 minutes and all that,” and later he left. But what if he came with the intention to harm me? Luckily he didn’t come to harm me, but if he came with the intention to harm me, I  would not be able to protect myself. We cannot protect ourselves with 100 percent certainty. Just last month 2 KSM families were robbed. Their house was totally robbed. They waited for about two weeks and when they saw an opportunity, they went in and out and timed it perfectly. Both took place in North York. So those who live in North York, be careful. We cannot protect ourselves from a disease. We cannot protect ourselves from disaster. We cannot protect ourselves from evil.

We have to leave our protection in God’s hands. We have to trust, that God will protect. As we sang a moment ago, God will not let us down. God will protect us. Jesus taught us to pray like this, deliver us from evil. Same as protect us from evil. There’s a passage that I like from Psalm 121.

I lift up my eyes to the hills

My help comes from the Lord,

He will not let your foot be moved;

He who keeps Israel

The Lord is your keeper;

The sun shall not strike you by day,

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

The Lord will keep

How beautiful. The Lord will keep you. The Lord will protect you. Don’t test God. Just trust God. God will protect you from your heart. Not only will he take care of your basic needs, God will keep your going out and coming in from this time on and forevermore. There’s nothing for you to worry about your future. God will be with you. You have big things ahead of you, whether it’s wedding or a job, whatever. Don’t worry. God will protect you. Don’t ever doubt that. That is how you overcome your temptation.

The third temptation, Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said, “all these I’ll give you if you will fall down and worship me.” This is a temptation of who or what we worship. You know our life becomes what we worship and we become what we worship. We won’t worship anything else but God and God alone. That’s who we are. We won’t worship anything else but God and God alone. When likes changed my life for the whole world, for the splendor of this world, I won’t. Jesus said, “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” It is God who gave me life. Not only this life but eternal life. In every conscious moment of our life, we will worship God, nothing else. Even when you’re unconscious, then your soul will worship God. Then your life will come alive. Joy will come alive. Hope will come alive. You will sing and dance with joy. That’s what life is. Life is not just about making. Living. Life is not just about protection. Life is not just about having the splendor of this world. Life is to sing and dance with joy. That’s what life is. Life is about having every moment of your life coming alive. God will make your life rich and meaningful. One life we live, right? I hope that you don’t waste your life because of temptation. Always worry about it, and that it will suck the life out of you. I hope that you get out of temptation and live life fully. Don’t waste the precious life you have. Open your eyes. Come out of temptation and live your life.

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Scripture Reading

Leviticus 19: 9-10

Matthew 10: 40-42

1 Peter 4:9-10

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.

Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

I like this English word “welcome”, I think it’s a wonderful word. Whenever I hear this word, I feel warm. I feel good. It makes me feel loved and accepted wherever I go. When they welcome me. When they say that word welcome. I feel good. Even when I go to Boston, when I land, I see this sign; “Welcome to Boston” and I feel welcomed. I don’t know whether they really welcome you are not now, especially these days. But when I look at the sign, I feel good. I feel welcomed, this should be the way we human beings should interact with each other. Doesn’t matter where you meet them, just welcome each other. This should be the way we human being should interact with each other. Even in the church sometimes I feel people pass by and don’t even say hi, why would they do that? Did I offend them in any way? Why won’t they even greet me with eye contact? We become so defensive.

We don’t really welcome other people. You know, when I came back from Madagascar I went out there for a mission and I lost my connecting flight in Paris. Nice place to miss your connecting flight. I arrived there in the morning just 20 minutes I was late. The first plane from Madagascar was late so for 20 minutes, so I lost it, and the next flight was next day, next morning. So I had a whole day in Paris alone. So I walked around everywhere and it’s not, it’s not the picture that I took, but I just walked along the the thin river and I took the subway from the Tegel airport and then just looked at Eiffel Tower, and that’s a place I gotta go, I just walked along the same river and I asked people and you know, many people told me the French people are kind of rude, especially if you speak English, but that was not my experience.  They were so friendly, and nice. They gave me a really detailed instruction and how to get there and all that stuff. They welcomed me. I felt like, yeah, I can live in the city, so I felt really welcomed there. This word welcome is what you should practice to your two strangers, to your family, to your friends, to the people that you don’t know. Welcoming heart. That is something that we need to have. You know, when the new people come to our church, they often say the most scary places, most scary place is a fellowship hall. Worship is fine and everything, but once they get into the fellowship hall they don’t know who to talk to, so they feel very awkward. So it’s a difficult place to be in the fellowship hall. So if you see somebody that you don’t know very well, then your warm smile and kind words mean a lot.

Even as a pastor, a long time ago, when I first went to Toronto, Korean Presbyterian Church to work as a part time pastor, I felt so awkward and nobody came to talk to me. I mean, they’re all here now. Nobody came to talk to me. But the one person that really made me fell, feel welcome was Barbara Bay. She came up to me and she’s really good at that, you know, and she talked to me. She smiled as she explained about the church and all that. Even as a Hi-C pastor at that time, I feel so welcomed. I, I encountered a very interesting book, it’s called “when strangers meet” and subtitle is “how people you don’t know can transform you.” Very small book, very interesting book. It was written by Tarik. She also spoke at Ted talk. She felt bad when people became so indifferent to each other and she didn’t like to see that.

That’s why she was contemplating writing a book about welcoming other people, how we can talk to strangers and she made that as a mission. Her mission. “I’m going to go and talk to strangers because strangers or people don’t talk to each other.” They treat each other like, they have their guard against each other. So this is what she said. She said in her book “talking to people who are different from us can be radically transformative, if  it’s the antidote to fear” So she tries to talk as much as possible to strangers. It is almost like her new found mission. It is resistance to the world where people become indifferent to each other and by doing that people, human beings have become so inhuman and this is what she said “talking to people I have never met is my adventure. It’s my joy, my rebellion, my liberation. It is how I live. This is how we live. Why do we have hostile attitude towards other people? Is it because I have hostility within me? Why are we angry with other people that we don’t know, they didn’t do anything? Why do we avoid them? Why can we approach them? “Hi, how are you?” I do that in the elevator as much as possible. Most people kindly respond. “Hi.” Some of them even invited me for a drink and I gave him a number. He never called me, and that’s how I met him again. “Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, we’ll do that.” Still didn’t call me, but at least, you know, a kind gesture, maybe by mistake. I told him that I was a pastor. Maybe that’s why he didn’t call me for a drink. You know, we try to avoid people we don’t know. We put a guard against them. Instead of welcoming them in. We create a distance for them.  You know when I see that that’s not nice. This shows me a weak character of a person. When they do that, in First Peter, Peter taught us be hospitable, hospitable to one another without complaining. Being hospitable has the same meaning as welcoming. When you invite a guest to your home and you welcome them, you will treat them nicely and you make them feel at home. That is being hospitable and from there, word hospital came. Hospice came, all the good things came from that word. Many cultures have this hospitality built within their culture, Korean, Italian, Taiwanese, Chinese, Vietnamese. They all have this hospitality built within the culture. The Koreans, for example, we never let strangers go home hungry. We always feed them. That’s Korean culture. Jewish people also had some very beautiful tradition. We read a portion of it today. Let me read it again. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

You shall not strip your vineyard, bare or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You should leave them for the poor and the alien, is not really from Mars, so here it means a stranger for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God, don’t harvest to the edge of it just for your benefit. Just leave them so other people, the poor people, strangers can also benefit from that. That’s a beautiful hospitality built in within their culture. This is how we human beings should live. You don’t just take care of the people you are comfortable with. Same Age, same culture, same race, same gender, whatever. You don’t just take care of people who are like you. You don’t exclusively socialize with people who are like you. You need to reach out to people who are very different from you. You need to be comfortable with strangers.

There’s a beautiful English word that came from Greek it’s not commonly used so probably you don’t know the meaning of the word, it’s called “Philoxenia.” Philo meaning a love or friend, Xenia meaning strangers. It’s like treating strangers like your friend. That’s what Philoxenia is. Whenever you meet strangers, you treat them like your friend, but there’s another word that comes from the same root which we use quite often these days in the newspaper, everywhere that is xenophobia. Same word as xeno is a stranger. Phobia is fear. Fear of the people who are different from you. Fear of the people who are strangers. These days we see more xenophobia than Philoxenia.

It requires character to treat strangers like your friends, and we should do that. That’s what Jesus taught us to do. Henry Nouwen talked about hospitality in this way, I thought he was quite articulate about hospitality. This is what he said. “Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the strangers can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom, not disturbed by dividing lies.” What a wonderful vision about hospitality. This is welcoming strangers, and creating space to welcome strangers. Jesus also taught us how to live. Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of the disciple. Truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward, it’s a wonderful thing to welcome people. We should think about our attitude towards people we don’t know very well, that will have profound impact on our lives. And then your children, please teach them to say hi. Even this morning, the downstairs in the basement. I walked in, they didn’t even look at me. I feel rejected in my own church.  What did I do to you?

Once I went to Niagara with our church group, it was lunchtime. I looked around, there are a whole bunch of people and their was one group, another Korean group, Koreans always everywhere. And then, another group, the majority, most people were white. They were from Niagara Geological Society. And another group, there was an Afghanistan group. And then after lunch I had this urge, “I gotta go, towards these people” almost like a pastoral urge. I had to do this. So I started going, you know, I went to the Korean group, you know, as you predict, gave me something to eat. They’re good at that. So I ate something with them and talked a little bit. And I moved onto a geological society and they welcome me and they told me what they were doing in Niagara and all kinds of things they were explaining to me. Then finally I went to the Afghanistan group, and then an old man was sitting there. So I sat down and started talking, while talking. Oh, this man started crying. He had tears in his eyes. And then he told me his wife just passed away a month ago, so I was listening to him and comforted him. Then after, he started calling one family, about 25 people, and he started calling his relatives, his cousin, his brother and his brother’s wife. Then everyone’s lined up to just to greet me, and I realize, this is Heaven. This is the Kingdom of God. That’s what Kingdom of God is like. People are different. People are strangers gathered together and celebrate our oneness together. And we share our life with each other. Wasn’t that the vision that Isaiah saw? This vision of Isaiah, the wolf shall live with the lamb. The Leopard shall lie down with a kid, the calf and the lion together and the little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. The young, shall lie down together 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. Natural enemies come together, live together harmoniously. That was the vision of Isaiah. This world, these healings. We were influenced by the culture of this world, the materialistic culture of this world where we have become inhuman, being inhuman. We need to be healed. We need to restore our relationship with each other at sync together.

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Scripture Reading

Matthew 5: 1-12

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1 Corinthians 3:1-7

{Scripture in Text}

First Corinthians Chapter three, verses one to nine, “and so brothers and sisters, I cannot speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh. As infants in Christ, I fed you with milk, not solid food for you are not ready for solid food even now, you’re still not ready, for you're still of the flesh, for as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, I belong to Paul and another I belong to Apollos. Are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Only Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted and  apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. This is the word of the Lord.

Gospel stories always have implications not only for individuals personally, but for the church, for the society, for humanity. It has implications, so when we hear other gospel stories, we have to always remember that it has a social significance. At the same time, it has a personal significance and also spiritual significance. As you see into the scripture, the Corinthian church was divided. There were people who followed Paul and there were people who followed Apollos. Paul and Apollos were leaders in the Clinton community. Paul was the one who founded the Corinthian community, and Apollos came later, but he was very eloquent and he had charismatic influence on people. Paul and Apollos never had problem with each other, they were not divided at all, but people were divided. People used Paul and Apollos for their own personal agenda and take control, control of the community. When they were fervent, they were religious. They thought that they were good believers, but in Paul’s eyes, they were like infants. They’re not mature Christians. I mean there are some people who really are religious and all that, but in Paul’s eyes they look like infants. So Paul saw this as very immature attitude and he said this, I fed you with milk, not solid food for you because you’re not ready for solid food. Even now, you’re still not ready for you’re still of the flesh for as long as there’s jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving according to human inclination? . Divisive attitude is spiritually immature attitude. A spiritually mature person always tries to build and bring unity even though it may not be the sole purpose, they try their best to bring unity wherever they go.

A church is a place where all kinds of people gather together. Politically, we have very different views. Every one of you probably has a different political colour and are culturally very different. There are some Koreans and non Koreans, others first generation some second generation, Korean speaking and English speaking, some with different hobbies and interests, and finally some who are doing well economically and financially and some who are not doing well. Church is diverse. If the church consists of spiritually immature people who can only drink milk, the church will be divided and many people will get hurt. We have seen this as a historical example, the Korean community in the early immigrant life. They fought so much with each other and so many people got hurt in the middle. We’ll have to spiritually grow to bring unity and harmony in the church. Trying to make everybody like me is not the way to bring unity and harmony. If you have enough influence and power, you may achieve uniformity, but that’s not unity. Uniformity is not in unity. If you have enough power, you can have a small group and build some kind of uniformity and think alike, do things together, but that is not uniform.

A unity is possible only when there is diversity unity is possible, unity without is not unity. Harmony is possible only when they there are different notes. When you sing in unison, you can not bring harmony. So unity is a very different picture from uniformity. Saint Paul knew very well this diverse character of community, and this is what he said in the same letter. We didn’t read it today, but in the same letter he said in Chapter 12, indeed the body does not consist of one member, but of many. It’s not just one member, and diverse people are in the community . Saint Paul said that you have no right to tell another member that you don’t belong here . In other words cliquishness, Paul does not like that kind of attitude. All the racism and sexism, all go together. Whenever there is a problem, the people tell immigrants, go home, go back to your own country. I mean, they were born here, they lived here all their lives and often days they go home. That kind of attitude Paul does not allow. This is what Saint Paul said “I cannot see to the hand, I have no need of you because you don’t look like I, nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you”. That’s not the right thing to do in the Christian community or in our society, or a larger global community. That’s not something that you are to say to each other. We all belong to this earth. We all belong here. We are all different, but we are one that is a miracle. We are all different, but we are one. Everyone is welcomed. This is what Saint Paul said Now there are varieties of gifts, varieties of services, and varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone . When you look at all the red, our varieties, that’s belongs to human beings, all of us, we’re all different, but unity belongs to God. The spirit, the Lord, all the blue letter, we may be all different, but God is the same. We have to understand this very basic composition of the church. We are all different and that is the face of the church. Don’t try to coerce each other to be like you. Accept, allow each other to be the way they authentically are. That’s what Christian community is all about. We don’t achieve oneness by coercing other people to be like me. We achieve oneness, only by valuing each other, each person valueS each person's gift and what each person can bring to the community. When we start valuing that, then unity becomes reality. Saint Paul recognized this very well when he said, “I only planted the church and apollos watered it, so who cares if I planted it and who cares if apollos watered it? We’re nobody we are nothing, but it is God who brings growth”. Look at that. I planted, apollos watered, but God gave the growth so neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the strength. My friends power, device, love unites power by its nature, device and power rules. There’s always powerful, the powerless, the haves and have nots, the rich and the poor, white and black. Whenever you try to build a community with power, there will be division, whether it’s a personal, moral, spiritual or even religious power. When power starts ruling the community, the community divides, but when the love rules the community, it brings unity.

When you plant a church with love and sacrifice, the church will grow with the help of God. Growth comes from God. What we do is nothing and will not bring growth. When we serve with him, with humility and love, God will use us to bring growth. I realized this truth, I can never bring unity. We can never bring unity. I only humbly serve. Only God brings unity. Unity is God’s gift for all of us. Recognizing that we serve each other with love and humility and what love looks like, what does love look like? It looks like this it’s very simple. Let me tell you, Saint Paul said “but God has so arranged the body giving the greater honour to the inferior member. That’s a secret. Give greater honour to the inferior number, a member that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer with it. If one member is honoured, all will rejoice together with it. That is what love looks like. If you truly have love, you always honour and lift up the one who is inferior to one who is broken. That’s what love looks like. You don’t just honour the powerful. You don’t just honour the popular ones, you honour the inferior member. That’s what love looks like. That's very different from the teaching, a message of this world. When you build a church with a love, this, you will be able to see that is a sign of a community. Whether that community is built by love or power. When you see the community that is built by love, you’ll see that members appreciating and honoring the inferior members, and I do believe that this applies to global community too. We have to honour those countries. We have to honour those people who are oppressed, suppressed, rejected because of their lack of power. We don’t conquer them. You don’t don’t trample upon them. The greater honour to the inferior member of the global community, that’s what Paul’s teaching is all about. The country that is run by power will divide and ultimately collapse, that’s what history tells us. Any country that is run only by power will divide, collapse, decline. Even though it is the empire, there’ll be a decline of the empire. For the country that is run by love, justice and compassion, will unite and grow. That’s what we believe. That’s what Christians believe. Together we stand. Whenever I look at Korea, the only country that is divided politically in every way. I hope that there is some kind of unity, and when I look at the global community right now, everyday I get saddened and everyday I read the newspaper, I get saddened because we are fragmented. This whole world is divided, fragmented into pieces. Everybody is so hungry for power, for concurring. We have to restore love, justice, and compassion so that we can create the Kingdom of God. God may build the Kingdom of God. That’s what I pray. May God’s rule come. May God’s kingdom come. May We human beings repent of our sins of greed and let God of compassion rule, then unity will be reality.

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Matthew 5:38-42

{Transcript}

Let us hear the word

Matthew 5:30-42.

You have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth, but I say to you do not resist an evil doer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you

And Ephesians 4:31-32

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

This is the word of the Lord.

I want to read today’s Ephesians passage again and I want you to reflect on it.

Put away from you all, bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Look at those two sentences. If I may summarize in one sentence. That is, don’t be rude. Be kind. So that’s it. That’s my sermon. I can go down. Well, what more can I say? Don’t be rude, be kind. That’s what summarizes this particular passage. I think it’s a very simple principle, but very important and a principle for a good life. Don’t be rude. Be Kind.

Always keep that in mind every time you interact with people, as you live your life. Always remember, don’t be rude, be kind. It’s almost like saying, don’t worry, be happy, same as don’t be rude, be kind. I mean, don’t worry, be happy is a very nice catchphrase, but don’t be rude, be kind. Is as good a catchphrase as don’t worry. That is something that you should always keep in mind in your daily life. Be mindful of that. Be conscious of that. If you cannot do it, work on it. If you keep doing it, you’ll get better at it. Don’t be rude, be kind. The Dalai Lama said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” This is a very profound message. Be kind whenever possible, but it is always possible.We always have to find an opportunity to be kind. That’s simply a good thing to do as a human being, and when the opportunity comes, do it. Be kind to others.

This is what Jesus taught us. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give them your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone. One who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

While writing my sermon, when I wrote this part about Jesus, this came to me. First I chose only the Ephesians passage and then I put the Matthew passage too. That passage came to my mind as I was writing my sermon and as soon as I put it down on my paper, I wanted to scratch it out. I really wanted to scratch it out because there’s deep resistance that was coming from within me. I said, no way. Who can do that? That is a stupid thing to do. People say, if anyone strikes me on the right cheek, I will strike right back. I’m not stupid. I’m not a doormat. If anyone takes my coat by suing me, I’ll make sure to take it back and more. If anyone forces me to go one mile, never mind the one mile. If anyone forces me to do anything, I won’t do it simply because it was forced upon me. No one can force me to do anything. Give to everyone who begs from me, then I’ll be broke. This is ridiculous. It’s stupid. It’s crazy. You can easily put aside this kind of teaching by saying that it is too idealistic. We can’t survive with this kind of teaching especially in this day and age. This is a crazy thought, but I didn’t scratch it out. It still bothered me because it was the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was not a teaching of a crazy lunatic or self centered fanatic. It was our Lord Jesus Christ who gave us this teaching. So instead of putting aside, I reflected on it, read it again and again and again.The more I read it, I felt something beautiful about this teaching. I don’t know how much I can practice this in my life, but there is a beauty to it. I felt the deep love of Jesus for others.

Right after this teaching, as you read further along, Jesus said, love your enemies. Love your enemies? Love and enemies don’t go together. It’s not a sentence that makes sense. Love your enemy? Love your neighbor makes sense, but love your enemies? It doesn’t make sense. These are not two words that go together, love and enemies.

Then I realized the love Jesus is talking about is very different from the love that I know, or most people know. The love Jesus is talking about is radically different.

Love your enemies. I want you to reflect on that. Love your enemies. Only when we understand this kind of love from Jesus, then what the Dalai Lama said is possible. Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Only when that kind of love is there, then what the Dalai Lama said can work.

What Jesus taught about turning the other cheek is one extreme. Yes, it is an extreme message, but the world is going the other extreme. People are running towards the other extreme. The world says, before they strike me on my right cheek, I will strike them first. Preemptive attack. Someone said, not only do we not love our enemies, we don’t even love our neighbors.

Instead of ignoring the teaching of Jesus Christ as idealistic and unrealistic, we need to take that message deep in our heart. Kindness comes from the kind of love Jesus taught us. We can be rude in many situations. But my friends, choose to be kind. Whatever situation you may be in, choose to be kind. Choose your words to be kind. Choose your facial expressions to be kind. Choose for your life to be kind. If possible, choose to be kind and remember, it is always possible. If you can say first “Hello, hi”, don’t wait for other people to do so.

Be kind to each other. Be kind to humanity. Be kind to the earth. That’s what our garbage initiative is all about. Be kind. One word, one smile, one action that comes from kindness has a magical power to have impact on people. When you step out the door everyday in the morning, say to yourself, Lord, give me an opportunity for me to show kindness. Every morning when you step out the door, tell yourself, Lord, give me the opportunity for me to show my kindness. You won’t just find one opportunity, but you’ll be able to find many opportunities.

Last Friday I was finishing up my sermon on kindness and I prayed a in the middle of it, “Lord let me live my life being kind”, and then as soon as I finished, “ding dong”. At the church, there’s a doorbell and I don’t usually go out. The secretary usually goes up and down, so I waited a bit, another “ding dong” came, and so I went out and then this one woman who was preparing lunch for KSM brought all these groceries and meat, so God gave me the opportunity to be kind. Even though I have a bad back, I carried heavy meat, and it was good. It was so strange that right there, God sent me this woman for me to be able to show kindness

As we live looking for the opportunity to be kind, you become happier, and you make everyone happier. When you’re rude, you become unhappy, and you make many people miserable.

Once I got into this elevator, and as soon as I walked in, there was a woman and she said, nice hair. What? Nice hair? My hair is my worst feature in my mind. Nobody tells me about my hair! I don’t usually do my hair, I just look briefly, but on that day, hearing “it’s not bad” as soon as I walked into the elevator, she made my day. I still talk about it. I will never forget that.

Being kind has a powerful impact on people. Happiness is very simple. Be kind. You don’t need to be a philosopher. You don’t need to be a doctor. You don’t need to be a lawyer to be kind. You don’t need to be a millionaire to be kind. And also one great thing about being kind is that you can be kind to anyone, even strangers. You can be kind. Be a kind person, simple as that.

As you try to be kind, you realize how proud you are, how problematic you are. You realize that you cannot even simply be kind to people. Don’t gossip. I don’t know why people gossip about people they don’t know very well. Say Nice things about people. Don’t talk behind people’s backs. That’s not a nice thing to do. Say good things, uplifting things about people. Being kind involves everything. Humility, a big heart, love, compassion, everything. It is a wonderful principal. Don’t be rude. Be kind.

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Scripture Reading

Luke 10: 25-37

{Transcript}

Let’s hear the word of the Lord. It is taken from Luke 10:25-37:

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, What is written in the law? What do you read there? He answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? He said, The one who showed him mercy. Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

This is the word of the Lord.

Two weeks ago we did a retreat for the KSM and we reflected on this theme, serving is living, and last weekend we did a retreat for the English service with this theme, serving is living, and serving is living is a theme for 2017. I hope that every week probably you may reflect on the meaning of serving – our life as a serving – so I hope that kind of theme becomes ingrained in our soul, in our body, in our thinking, in our consciousness… so that we really live this year, with serving as living. And I’m going to reflect on this passage today, and this is a very, very famous story. Not only Christians know this story, but even non-Christians and people from other religions, the whole world knows this story.

Good Samaritan. It is a good story, it is known as a very good story and it is a very important message for humanity. It’s not just for Christians, for any human being, they should live with this message in mind. So they love this story and they like this story and I like it this story too. But somehow it is an important message and yet the meaning of this story is kind of not well understood. They got the wrong message, he’s like, “Be nice to the strangers, be nice to people who’re in trouble or difficulty or in need.” But I don’t think that is the main message of today’s story. So that’s what I’m going to expound with you, explore together, the true meaning of this story. The story started with a question from a lawyer and he asked this question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” A very important question. How can I live eternally? How, how can I have eternal life?

The very important question is about the eternal life. And hearing that question, somehow though, Jesus sensed that the lawyer already had the answer. You know, there’s some questions you ask because you don’t know and you want to find out, but there are some questions that you know, you have an agenda. You don’t really ask that question, but you want to say something else. So Jesus already knew, “Oh, this guy has an agenda, some kind of agenda.” So he already knows the answer, but he’s asking me this question. So Jesus is a very smart person, hearing one thing and he understands hundreds or thousands of much bigger things. He can see through people. So when he heard that question, he knew that he already knew the answer. So instead of answering him, he responded with another question. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” At the time, the law was the Old Testament, and Jesus was right – this guy already knew the answer. He gladly and immediately answered. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” That is a sharp answer, a good answer… it summarizes the whole Old Testament. With just one sentence, he could summarize the whole Old Testament. The lawyer was very sharp, a very smart guy.

Or, he heard this message already before. Because when you read Mark, it was Jesus who gave this answer. It was Jesus who taught this message. So probably in another setting, this lawyer might have heard what Jesus taught. Now he’s answering what Jesus answered maybe, I don’t know. Anyway, it was a very good answer. Jesus was very pleased with his answer. Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. Do this and you will live in others. Do this, you will have eternal life.” But the lawyer’s real question was not there. The lawyer’s real question was in the second question. That’s what he wanted to get at. “Who is my neighbor?” Who is my neighbor? It’s not that he didn’t know the answer this time too. He already knew the answer. Sensing that he already knew the answer, Jesus now finally gave his answer with a story. That’s how the Good Samaritan story came about. He wanted to answer this lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?”

From the beginning, the lawyer came to Jesus with a hostile attitude. When you look at the beginning of the story it says, “Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.” Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. This test is to tempt, it’s not to test anything else but to trap him, to put him in difficulty or difficult situation. The lawyer was probably upset with Jesus. The way Jesus represented, Jesus’ message, Jesus’ actions, Jesus’ life, all these things. He wasn’t really pleased with what Jesus was doing. So he came to challenge Jesus. He came to confront Jesus, he came to prove Jesus wrong. So he asked this question for Jesus to publicly declare that “Who really is my neighbour?” Who are our friends? In the lawyer’s mind, it was very clear. He knew who was his neighbour, who was his friend. His neighbours are fellow Jews who abide by the law. Fellow citizens who are elite, who are doing well. They are the neighbours to this lawyer. Not sinners, not tax collectors, not prostitutes, not the poor, not the sick, not Syrians, not refugees, not Mexicans. The lawyer seemed offended by Jesus’ attitude and teachings.

So Jesus gave this story, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. From Jerusalem to Jericho was 18 miles.” I was there too, but it’s a very dangerous and rough road. So at that time it was known as the way of blood because so many people were robbed and killed on the way. The men fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him, beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. People who are listening to Jesus, they nodded, “Yeah, yeah. That road is very, very dangerous. When you go there on your own, that can happen. Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” So they all identified with what Jesus was saying.

But the story made a quick turn right there, and the story stabbed into the minds of people who were listening like a double edged sword. A priest and Levi passed by, but they didn’t do anything. Your neighbour, your friends, they pass by, but they didn’t do anything. Jesus did not give a reason why they just passed. Probably for their own safety. Or “That guy, I don’t know whether he’s dead or not, but he’s been attacked. Maybe there’s still robbers around.” Or, who knows? Or “This guy may just be pretending that he was attacked. He’s just pretending he’s an innocent victim, maybe he’s a robber. If I go there, he might attack me.”

They wanted to put a distance when on the other side. They were thinking about their own safety. Strikingly, a Samaritan came to help this man who was badly hurt. People who were listening might have shouted in their minds, “Samaritan? Of all the people, Samaritan? No, please. A Samaritan cannot do this. Samaritans cannot do any good” At that time, the Jews and Samaritans did not get along very well. There’s a history behind it, but I don’t have time and you don’t have patience to listen to all the history, so I’ll just skip it. But they were just bad to each other. That’s why people in the southern part and some areas and Galilee, they had to go through the same area. They didn’t want to go through the land of Samaritans. They went around, took detours. But it was stranger, Jesus went through Samaritan areas and met a Samaritan woman when you look at John 4. But they didn’t really along with each other.

But it was a Samaritan who helped the person in trouble. Then, a very, very important question came. That question penetrated into the soul of the people. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” Which of these three? That lawyer had to answer Jesus’ question this time. He came with a question, but now he had to answer Jesus’ question. He said, “The one who showed mercy.” Look at this answer. Look at this answer. The one who showed mercy… he couldn’t say Samaritans. He wouldn’t say Samaritans. He wouldn’t name it. “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus thought that was good enough. So he said, “Go and do likewise.” Go and do likewise.

Now you know who your neighbour is. Go and do likewise. Who is our neighbour? Mexico will not think the USA is their neighbour just because they are neighbouring countries. The people who are captured in the airport, they would think that the USA is their neighbor. There’s some Harvard students, Stanford students, they wanted to go away for a study trip and on the way back, they got trapped. People who work at Google, they went away for business. On the way back, they are trapped. I don’t know what can the world we live in. The whole world is moving toward protectionism. Me first, me first. Us against them.

We become heartless and loveless. Jesus was right when he said, “At the end of the age, people will become loveless.” To show mercy is not easy. Sometimes there is danger involved. The Samaritan risked the danger to show mercy, my friends. Always, showing mercy takes priority. Showing mercy takes priority. That’s the teaching of Jesus, the teaching of Christianity. That’s why Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” My friends, don’t let your consciousness, don’t let your conscience, don’t let your mind be tainted by the teachings of the world. Listen to the teaching of Jesus Christ. That’s who we are. The one who showed mercy to anyone. That’s our neighbour.

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Scripture Reading

Matthew 25: 1-13

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Scripture Reading

Mark 10: 35-45

{Transcript}

Let us hear the word of the Lord, “James and John, the sons of Zebedee came forward to him and said to him, teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you, and he said to them, what is it you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I’m baptized with. They replied. We are able. Then Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I’m baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John so Jesus called them and said to them, you know that among the gentiles, those whom they recognize as their rulers, Lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them, but it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all, for the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” This is the word of the Lord.

Serving is living. That is our theme for this year. This theme implies that serving is not just doing, but your whole lifestyle. Serving is living. Your life is serving. It is our attitude towards life. It is how we look at our lives. It is our perspective. How you see the world, how you see yourself, how you see your existence. It is our perspective for our lives. In that sense, what you do is not as important as who you are. The fact that your servant is more important. Than the wonderful services you may give, everything we do should come from the fact that we are servants and I realize that this is a very interesting way to look at our lives. Me, a servant, that is a very unique and refreshing way to define who I am and to define what my life is.

But these days I started, I mean in the first few weeks I’ve been focusing and reflecting on this servant hood. And I started appreciating the wisdom to see our life in that way. Maybe there is a secret of joy hidden in that lifestyle of being a servant. Maybe there’s a joy hidden there. I think St. Paul found that joy. That’s why I don’t think he said it casually. He meant it in a very much when he said, for example, in Romans, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle servant first. And the apostle. What is important to Paul was the fact that he was a servant. And in Philippians he said, Paul and Timothy Servants of Jesus Christ, that was a new identity Paul found for himself. Before he said, “I’m a Pharisee, I’m a disciple of Gamaliel” all these things he said, but now after finding Christ, he found new identity. He said that I am a servant, servant of Jesus Christ. Why don’t you try to see yourself as a servant this year? You may enjoy that.

So this year’s theme is not just what we do this year. This is maybe the beginning of new life. All of you, as you start seeing your life as servant, your life may turn out differently. You may find something that you never discovered before. Maybe there’s some secret in that lifestyle. So maybe we start this year and it opens up a totally new lifestyle. I am a servant. While, reflecting on this servant hood, one thing I’ve realized is this, somehow being a servant gave me confidence. You know, being a servant is being nothing, just live basically. It’s not a really glorious way to look at your life, but when I look at my life as a servant I realized that it gives me confidence. Where is that confidence coming from? not from the recognition, not from the reward or award. I don’t know what, where it comes from, but when I start seeing myself as a servant, it gives me confidence and I like to share with you today what kind of confidence I’m talking about.

In being a servant the first thing we have to have is humility. Being a servant and being arrogant. Don’t go together. Arrogant people can never serve, they do lots of things, but that’s not serving, lot of doings arrogant people can never serve. Being a servant, being arrogant they can never go together.

Humility. I do believe that has to be the basis on which, every human being should build his or her life. That’s my philosophy. That’s what I believe. Humility is the basis on which every human being should build their life on. I don’t care how capable you are, I don’t care how smart, how diligent you are. Humility has to be at there at the base. Humanity that is not based on humility brings disaster. It will collapse. Humanity has to be built on humility. Doesn’t matter who you are. Doesn’t matter how high you are in society, especially the leaders, presidents they should show humility. Humanity has to be based on humility.

What is humility? I want to simplify this as much as possible for us to understand better. Humility is a condition in which you don’t have to think about yourself too much. That’s what humility is. Humility is a condition in which you don’t have to think about yourself too much. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. You don’t have to prove yourself to the world. You don’t even have to prove yourself to yourself. That is humility. What if? What if people think that I’m nobody? What if people think that I’m a failure? What if people think that I am ugly? All of these “what if’s?” They come from the common fear of human beings? Humble people are those who go beyond this common fear of what if. Many people live out this fear, they look like they have achieved so much, but underneath they’re still living out this fear. They have to constantly prove to the world how worthy they are. Constantly have to prove that they are somebody and their life is not failure. They have to constantly show to the world how worthy they are.

You all know the temptation of Satan very much. When you look at temptation of Satan, what is the core thing? What is one thing? This is one thing. If you are the son of God, if you are the son of God, Satan is a master of temptation. He even knew how to tempt the most powerful man, Jesus.  And his simple word is this. “If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” and further along he said, “if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.” Satan provoked the “what if” of human beings. What if I’m not the son of God? What if people don’t see me as a son of God? What if son of God cannot do all these things? What if Satan attacked that? What if of Jesus Christ and Jesus was a humble man? He didn’t fall into that temptation. Jesus basically said to Satan, I don’t need to prove myself to you. Don’t need to prove myself to you. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone around you, your friends or whoever.

Satan knew how to tempt Jesus. That’s why Satan is a tempter. He has a PHD in tempting. Satan knew the basic human desire: “prove yourself.” But behind that desire my friends Satan also saw the most terrifying fear hidden. What if I cannot prove myself? Satan hit the most vulnerable spot of human beings. Humility defeats this temptation and humility overcomes this fear. Humble people know that life is not about proving oneself. Life is not about me. Life is not about me. It’s about serving. We don’t live just to prove who I am. Life is simply basically about serving this. It is a new perspective. It is a new way of looking at our lives. People who are humble they discover simply that life is about serving. Whatever situation they may be, they always see the needs and they serve those needs. They are humble people. Jesus said, “you know that among the gentiles, those whom they recognize as their rulers, Lord it over them and their great ones are tyrants over them, but it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be the first among you must be slave of all”

The greatest vice of human beings is ego, self centeredness, nothing else. It’s as simple this that the greatest vice of human beings is ego. Humility is the way to defeat that ego and overcome our ego. The only way you can defeat your ego is humble service. The more you practice the humble service, the less you’ll be obsessed with yourself. It is a simple change of our perspective, but it requires training and discipline to keep it up and slowly you’ll become free from the imprisonment of ego. Humble people are the people who are free from the imprisonment of ego. Great people, wonderful people.

Last week was tough for me. Maybe it runs in the family. On my birthday last Sunday I got terribly sick and then while brushing my teeth I snapped my back. Then I lost my voice and that same week I happened to have both funeral and wedding where I had to speak. I could barely speak like now worse than this actually. Then I got infection in my eyes. I couldn’t even see very well and to make it worse on the way out to get my medicine for my eyes. I got caught by police and he gave me three tickets. All those minor tickets, but all three tickets I mean, my birthday was last Sunday and only few days was it a delayed for my permit. I didn’t renew my license, permit and they usually let go. Okay, cool, and do and then bring it back. He gave me a ticket, three tickets. God humbled me to write about humility, so I won’t speak so much about humility anymore. Somehow at the funeral I was very peaceful and comfortable.

It’s almost like a spiritual experience. It was not a funeral for one of my congregation members. Usually I do a funeral for the congregation members, but this time it is a relative of our congregation members, so when I got there, I knew nobody. I didn’t know many people. My body was not very good, my voice, my eyes. Somehow my spirit was very high. You know what came into my head at that moment. This is message God gave me. I simply want to serve their needs. They are sad losing their mother, grandma. I just want to be with them and comfort them and give them words of comfort. I just simply want to serve them even though I don’t have much voice to preach and sing. I want to comfort them. They must have done something two days ago. I got an email from the daughter a long letter of how beautiful the service was, how appreciative she was, and she even attended our service in KSM today. Life. It’s not about you. Life is about serving. A lot. People that you can serve around you. There are a lot of people who need you who are in need, serving them is the most beautiful thing that you can do for humanity. Life of serving gives you a confidence since you simply want to serve. You don’t need to worry about anything else. How will do you do? It’s not that important. It can be quite comfortable. I don’t need to insist on my way own way. As long as I see needs, I simply serve them when the needs are not there anymore, you just move on. Life is not about me. Life is not just about how well I do. Life is about serving as best as you can in your capacity. As long as I can serve I am worthy. Don’t try to find worth of yourself somewhere else as long as you serve, you are worthy. For the people who want to protect themselves, who want to show off, there’s always some fear, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough, fear of worthlessness, but those who wanna simply serve. There’s no fear, only joy, only joy. All you can do is serve and that’s all you will do.

Young people here in this room, don’t worry about what you become. Be a servant, a servant, that’s all you gotta do. Give humble service. You’ll be able to see life in a different way and you’ll be able to see what you can do with your life. That’s where the meaning comes. That’s where the meaning of life comes in. Self serving life, no meaning. and life is all about you, no meaning. You simply serve? You find something that you never found before. Joy, meaning, passion. Life is great. I helped the 2017. You all start a life of service life will open up all the opportunities good things will come. When you try to have you realize you don’t have much. You always lack, but even when you try to serve, you realize how much you have. With what kind of mentality do you want to live? Always, “Oh, I like this, I liked that, or I have so much to give. I would rather live with this mentality that I have so much to give. I’ll tell you, life is life of blessing 2017, my life will be good. Why? Because all the bad things happened already in Korean is called active. All the bad things, gone all the good things are waiting for me. 2017. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to me and happy birthday to me.

Have a great life. Life is short. Have a great life and great. His life is life of serving. That’s why Jesus said I came not to be served, but to serve at a scene together.

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