From the Pastor |
Psalm 62: 5-12 & Mark 1: 14-20
When we look around at everything that has gone on in our nation … I have to admit that it has upset me to see such and incredible rise in what I consider to be Christian “Extremism”. I look to the teachings of Our Lord, Christ Jesus and am rendered speechless and angry when I see what has done and said in the name of Jesus…every day in our nation. It is seriously no wonder that Christians in America have received the reputation of being hypocrites… fanatics… religious extremists! The values held by true Followers of Jesus have been lost in the shouts of intolerance, anger and hatred. That is why I believe we really need to look at the two scriptures we have heard this morning. For in these two readings we can clearly hear the two-fold call of Christ. First, we have the call to put our trust in God… and then we hear the call to follow Jesus. Psalm 62 rings out with our first call… the call to not to depend on the things of this world… the call to not place our hope or trust in the things that cannot save us… those things that are temporary and ultimately unsatisfying… Instead we are called to put our trust ONLY in God. “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him… He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress… On God rests my deliverance and my honor… Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” The psalmist reminds us that we need to trust God at all times… and not the ways of the world. Greed, robbery, and extortion will lead people astray… but true power is found in God. Especially in times of crisis… the only true refuge is the Lord, who is the ultimate source of all hope and steadfast love This call is the message that I think we REALLY need to hear as we look to address the huge challenges we face in our world. It is not easy because we have to fight our human desires to accumulate money and power… to find strength in words and weapons that we think will bring us some sense of security and self-preservation. And in times of crisis, it is easier to look to our status, our money… even extortion and robbery to see us through… but the only true refuge is found in God… our rock… our salvation… our fortress. That is because… if we follow the call to put our trust in God… even in chaotic times such as these… we come to know the truth… that God is the only power we need… Our problems won’t magically disappear… but God’s steadfast love is forever with us… Peace of heart, soul and mind will be ours to help strengthen and support us through whatever this world can throw at us. With God, we can find joy in this life even amid times of suffering. God is the rock… salvation and fortress… the strength, hope and love that is needed… not only for the psalmist but for all who seek the Lord. It is along this same idea that Jesus begins his own ministry. Mark tells us that Jesus starts to preach in Galilee just after the arrest of John. In fact, Jesus begins right where John left off. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Like John… Jesus speaks with urgency and insistence that the Kingdom of God is near… This was definitely Good News for people who were being oppressed by the military and political powers. The call to repentance was a call for them to decide… whether to continue to live in fear of the earthly powers that be… or to, as the Psalmist declares… put their trust in God alone! Then, Mark tells us that Jesus goes a step further and issues the second call… a quiet, gentle call in the middle of a typical day in the life of the people… “Come, follow me!” Here Jesus issues his first call to authentic Christian discipleship. “Come, follow me!” When we, like Simon and Andrew… like James and John… drop what we are doing… leaving what we know behind and answer Jesus’ call to follow him… then we can learn all that Jesus would teach us. You see… following Jesus embodies the act of repentance that Jesus was calling for. Following him led to a new way of being that embraces the life, security and generosity that we find when we fully put our trust in God. For in the kingdom of God, we no longer need to cling to weapons or violence. The security we obtain from the things of this world… money, power, weapons… it is temporary… unreliable… they can be easily taken away, and true security is only found in God In God’s kingdom, we can focus on things that are more important than the accumulation of money and things because we know they can’t provide us with love and meaning… and in God’s kingdom… there is enough for ALL. In the kingdom of God, we have all been granted the identity as God’s own children… we are all brothers and sisters, and the steadfast love and grace of God is eternal. Through Christ, we can fully recognize all that we gain from God because God’s grace and love are revealed completely in Christ. So it makes sense that when we put our trust in God and experience the life God offers… we would also want to share the tremendous joy that we have found. Then… like the psalmist, we can share this incredible… life changing revelation with others. We become the people who have witnessed God’s glory, and who then reflect it to others. Sadly… this has not been what many throughout history and more recently in our own nation, have experienced when dealing with Christians… Unfortunately, for many people… Jesus’ call to follow him… to go and “make disciples of all nations” has been interpreted as a call to change others… by force if necessary… or by threats of hell and damnation. For far too long… evangelism has been about trying to change others… to force others to think, speak and act as they do… to believe what they believe and worshipping ONLY as they do. There are too many who would rather proclaim eternal damnation for those who disagree with them than inviting others to learn and follow Jesus. The message has been about the church… about a religion… instead of about Jesus himself. Rather than allowing God’s glory, revealed in Christ, to shine out for all to see… it has been obscured and distorted and hidden from others. These Christians would rather be right than allow others to see and obtain God’s grace… especially if they do not believe the others are deserving. However, if we are to think that this is following Jesus… we are wrong. What this signifies to me is that by acting this way… we have stopped trusting in God… we have failed to actually follow Jesus, and have instead put our faith in our wealth, our churches and doctrines, our strength, or even our nation. If we are to be true disciples… true followers of Christ… we need to make a choice. We can either respond to the challenges of this world with aggression, or malevolent words… we can repay evil with evil and violence with violence… putting our trust in ourselves, our leaders, our nationalism… OR we can hear Jesus calling us to follow him on a path that is more difficult... but it is the path that breaks the cycle of anger, hatred and violence… the path that calls for his followers to always speak and act in the spirit of the two greatest commandments. You see… when explaining these two commandments… to Love God and to Love our neighbor… Jesus does not provide any outs. If we are to follow him… we MUST Love the Lord our God with our WHOLE being. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves. There were NO clauses or allowances made available for excluding ANYONE from this command. Jesus never said to love the neighbor who is like us… who looks like us… acts like us… believes as we do. He never gave the ok to not love another based on any difference… not their nationality, race, faith or even lack of… not their gender, age or even their sexuality. NO… we are to love any and all of our neighbors… even those we do not like at all. When Jesus called for repentance and faith… he was calling for us to put our whole trust in the Lord our God. When he calls for us to follow him… when he calls us to discipleship… he is not simply calling for us to leave a hostile world of darkness and suffering… offering a better life someday in God’s heavenly kingdom. NO! Jesus is calling us to be a part of God’s kingdom NOW… HERE… he is calling us to follow where he leads so that the world might be changed… so that this world will cease to be a hostile place of suffering… If we are to really follow Christ, we need to embrace the radical inclusivity and grace of God’s kingdom… allowing the light of God’s glory… God’s presence and love to shine and to attract others… openly… boldly inviting them into an inclusive and trusting life that welcomes all… shares with all… and loves all. Amen.
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Psalm 139 & 1 Cor. 6:12-20
I’d like to start today by asking a couple of questions: Who are you? Does anyone really know you? Do you know you? Are you willing to let people see the real you… the good, and the not-so-good that makes up who you are? Well, in Psalm 139, David reminds us that there is someone who knows us… inside and out… the good, the bad and the ugly that is us. The one who created us… KNOWS each and every one of us… personally… intimately… even better than we know ourselves. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me… For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb...” This psalm reveals how intimately God knows the people God has created. Have you thought about that… considered the fact that God knows you… every part of you… even the parts you successfully hide from everyone else? Think about that… God does not only know our physical being… God know our very thoughts… the words we will speak before we speak them. God knows what is on our minds… in our hearts… and God knows us completely. There is nothing about us we can hide from God. David tells us that this is not only because God created us… but because God is always with us. We cannot hide from God. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Even the darkness of this world cannot hide us from God. God sees through the barriers we construct and the mask we put on to hide true selves. God knows us. And it is an incredibly intimate knowledge. So God… the creator of all things… OUR creator… knows us even better than we know ourselves… knows everything there is to know about us… and you know what? God STILL loves us. Think about that for a minute… As flawed as we are… as horrible as we can be at times… GOD STILL LOVES US! No matter what we say or do… good or bad… God still longs to be in a relationship with us. It is hard to imagine, isn’t it? I mean… How easily are you able to forgive someone who hurt you? How easy is it to let that person back into your heart and your life? Yet, that is exactly what God does for us every day. God, who created all things… longs to be known by you. After all… to be in a relationship with someone… they have to know you and you have to know them as well… so now I wonder… Do you know God? God knows you… How well do YOU know GOD? … How can we know God? The Gospel of John tells us: “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” [John 1:18] It is by knowing Jesus that we are able to know God. Jesus came to bring forgiveness and salvation… to offer eternal life to all who come to believe… but that goal of eternal life is not simply to someday live in heaven… it is the knowledge… the revelation of WHO God truly is. For Jesus said “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” [John 17: 1b-3] Through Christ… eternal life… being able to know God… personally… intimately… is something we can have right now. One of the problems with Christianity today is the focus we put on receiving salvation without looking to truly experience an intimate, close relationship with God. We tend to look to being forgiven and “saved”… and then our journey stops. We pray and turn to God in faith… we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior… we are forgiven and we are saved. BOOM… We are done. This is what Paul was warning the believers in Corinth about. They believed that since they had been forgiven and saved by their faith in Christ… they could do as they please. It was all good and they had nothing to worry about. Sin was no more. ““I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial… Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” But Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want… Christ sets us free so that we can come to know God and then do what God wants us to do. And Paul reveals the way God continues to be present within every believer… We become temples of God’s Spirit… and we are no longer our own. As followers of Christ we are blessed with the greatest of gifts… the presence of the Holy Spirit not only with us… but within us… revealing the knowledge of God to us if we would only listen. As Jesus said: “But when… the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth… He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” If we receive forgiveness and salvation through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, but them simply continue on living as we want to live… doing whatever we want to do and ignoring the Holy Spirit… the very presence of God within us… we miss out on the real purpose of our salvation… Knowing God! Unfortunately, it seems like a large portion of Christians in our society have done just that. They look for salvation in heaven… they look to the time they will see God face to face, and they miss the best part… truly knowing God NOW. It is by knowing God that we can truly experience all that God offers now: A deep and abiding Love… peace of heart, soul and mind… immense hope and a joy that fills us even during the darkest times. If we want those things in our lives we need to know God. If you want to know God’s will for your life… if you want to do whatever it is God is calling you to do… you must know God. How can we know God? Jesus, the Christ, came into the world to offer salvation to all who would believe… but he also came to reveal God to us… Not so that we can do anything we want and still be forgiven… but to make it possible for us to know God… to know God in such a way that we are recreated… made new and changed for all to see. By revealing God to us we can look to Jesus and learn how it is we are supposed to act… how we are to treat others, and how we are to respond to greed, injustice, violence and hatred. Forgiveness and salvation is NOT the ultimate goal… knowing God in our hearts… in our minds… in our very souls is the goal. Knowing God in such a way that we learn and grow and become more and more like Christ… perfect… loving… caring and merciful. Working to bring great change to the world … bringing light to a world in darkness… bringing love to a world that knows far too much hatred. We all sin… we all fall short… far short of perfection. But God KNOWS us… and still loves us. By looking to Christ… by studying God’s word… by listening to the Holy Spirit we can know God as well. The thing we need to realize is that when we open ourselves up to learning about and truly knowing God… we hear the call to obey God’s commands come through loudly and insistently… the call to commit our lives to living out the laws of Love… Loving God AND neighbor… We hear the call to continue the wonderful work of Christ in the world… caring for the poor and needy… bringing healing to others… being active participants in God’s plans for revealing himself to the world. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge of God it provides us… we are called to use all that we are… our entire beings… in the service of God. By knowing God… we carry great responsibility… the responsibility for living our lives of faith… shining the light of God’s love in the midst of the darkness. God knows us… personally and intimately and when we open ourselves the truth that God is not just with us, but within us, and God is always speaking to us… guiding us… if we would just learn to listen… then we can come to truly know God. Amen. Isaiah 60:1-6 & Mark 1: 4-11
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, the Christian calendar called us to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany is the day when we set aside to recall how Magi from far off lands followed a strange but amazing astrological event and found the child, Jesus. An epiphany is an appearance or manifestation… a sudden intuitive insight or perception… it is an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure. That is exactly what the Magi experienced. Through their study of the stars and various prophecies, they recognized that this amazing astrological sign heralded something or someone very special. They set out and traveled great distances to find what it all meant. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.” [Matthew 2: 10-11] They experienced an illuminating discovery… the witnessed the manifestation of God in the world and the realization that brought them to their knees… causing them to pay homage to this child they had found. Have you ever wondered why? Why is it important for us thousands of years later? We find the answer in our reading from Isaiah. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you… Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.” Isaiah’s words were written to people who were depressed by what life had given them. These words were for people who had returned from the exile to find their land in ruins… people who felt like giving up. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!” Epiphany celebrates how God’s light and love were revealed in the birth of Jesus, the Christ because it was through the birth of this child that God’s light shone forth and revealing love, truth and grace. This season focuses our eyes on the appearance of this light… for in Christ, God is revealed, made visible, and shown to all... Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus… The child born in Bethlehem… the one sought out by the Wise Men is our epiphany, because in him we can bear witness to the illuminating discovery that is the light of God…. The light of life. Jesus himself tells us, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” [John 8: 12] Jesus IS the Manifestation of God in our world. The Light of God that has come into the world… driving out the darkness and radiating the glory of God upon us. And let’s face it… this past year has been one that has shown us that we truly need the light of Christ to shine. The darkness has raged and spread. We saw the proof of that once again on Wednesday when people charged into our nation’s Capital building bringing the joint session of Congress to a halt. People were injured… one was killed. Tempers flared across our country. Fear and anxiety grew. Concern for what this will mean for us as a nation ran strong. It was a very dark time on the Day of Epiphany. But even in that time of darkness… Christ’s light was shining. What we need to remember is that Christ’s light is not meant to be merely external… Christ is always at work in the hearts and minds of his followers… working in us and through us and even beyond us. After all… he also told his followers “You are the light of the world…” [Matthew 5:14] That is why it is so appropriate this week for us to look to the beginning of Mark’s gospel as well. Just as God’s manifestation was revealed in the child in Bethlehem to strangers from the east… The revelation of the truth of Jesus’ identity also came on the day of his baptism. Like most of the accounts in the gospel of Mark… the account of Jesus’ baptism is short and to the point. “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”” [Mark 1:10-11] This event takes place at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Before heading out to preach and teach and heal the people… Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptized by John… it is there that he is given the gift of the Holy Spirit that will make his ministry possible. It is also there that the truth of his identity is revealed with God’s voice offering powerful words of acceptance, identity, and favor. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Think about the comfort and strength Jesus would have received upon hearing these words… Do you remember your baptism? If you were baptized as a youth or an adult… chances are that you do. If you were a baby at the time… then you probably do not recall the event… but you can probably recall being told about that time. However… no matter if you distinctly remember your experience with the water or not… we all need to remember the aftermath… the life you have led as a baptized follower of Christ Jesus… the new creation that you have since chosen to become. When we are baptized we are remade... we are given a fresh new beginning… a new start. We sometimes need to be reminded of what baptism is all about… Because we all long to hear words of acceptance... and God calls us to come as we are… offering acceptance because we are loved in spite of our flaws and failings. We long to be given our identity as children of God… loved and claimed. We long for the promise and blessings that come from God and help us to face all the challenges, problems and concerns we have about this world and our own lives. For God’s light to illuminate the darkness within and around us. That is precisely the gifts that Baptism brings us… along with the gift of the Holy Spirit… When we are baptized we invite the Holy Spirit to enter in… The Spirit remains with us throughout our lives… inspiring us to praise God… to love and serve both God and our neighbor… to learn and grow in faith a little more each day. The Holy Spirit take up residence within us and brings the light of Christ into our hearts. Each year we celebrate the Day of Epiphany and remember the Baptism of Our Lord because we need these reminders… the revelation of who Christ is… and the reminder of who we are. Christ Jesus is the light of the world… the light that guides our feet every day as we journey through life. Through our baptism… through our faith we have been adopted as the sons and daughters of God… born again into the family of God… embodying the love and light of Christ. When we look to the light of Christ…when we follow that light… the light within us burns brighter… reflecting Christ’s light out into the world around us. We celebrate Christmas because it reminds us of God's gift to us in Christ. We celebrate Epiphany because it reminds us of the revelation of the manifestation of God in Jesus who is the light of the world. We remember our baptism because we recognize who Christ is and who we are in Christ which has us respond with praise and thanksgiving that includes the offering of our whole selves. So today… let us take time to remember our baptism… let us renew our vows and hear God say… “Rise. Shine. Your light has already come. My light is within you. My light is with you. My light is guidance and energy and strength. Get up. Get going. Your light has come… Let it shine through you!” Amen. |
Yeon Shin
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