Christmas: the true story

Read first Luke 2:1-20

We are using King James Bible on the account of 400th Anniversary of its publication.

Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem. They went from Nazareth to Bethlehem because their government wanted to make sure that they would pay tax. While they were in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus, her first born son. In those days they did not have special baby clothes. They wrapped the baby in cloth bands and laid him in a manger. They had to stay in a barn because there was no place else for them to be.

Today parents get ready to receive new babies. They shop for baby’s clothes, toys, and furniture. Before mothers go to hospitals, they see doctors. To give births, they go to hospitals. There were no doctors and no hospitals in Jesus’ time. Babies were born at home. Instead of doctors women who had babies before would come to help. Fathers and family members were sent out. They were not allowed to see babies right away.

Two things were difficult for Mary that day. Firstly, she and Joseph were not in their own home. They were in another city. They had no friends or relations in Bethlehem. Also because there were so many people who came to register to pay tax, there was no room for them at any hotel. They were happy to stay in a barn to be warm and stay out of cold. Bethlehem would get cold at nights because they were very close to a desert. But a barn was not a good place to have a baby. Because they were traveled far from their home in Nazareth, they probably did not have any baby things.

Secondly Mary had to be helped by women in Bethlehem. She probably did not know them at all. Joseph would have been sent out. She would have been alone with strangers.

After Jesus was born, they wrapped Jesus in bands of cloth. There were no stores for baby clothes. There were no furniture store for babies in those days. Baby Jesus would not have his own bed. Often babies would sleep with mother. In a barn, however, Baby Jesus could not sleep with his mother because Mary did not have a bed there. It was likely that she had a mat on a ground to sleep. That may be the reason why Jesus was put in a manger.

After the baby was born, something else was happening out in the fields outside of the city of Bethlehem where shepherds were looking after their sheep. Why shepherds? Because they were not the powerful and rich. They were the lowly—the poor and the weak—for whom God came. Shepherds were out to make sure no one would steal and no animal would attack their sheep.

To them the angel came. Note that there was only one angel at the beginning. The angel spoke, “for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The angel said that the good news was for everyone, not just kings, priests and important people. The good news was, “to you (that was for everyone) Saviour—the Messiah the Lord—is born.” By saying that, the angel told them about Jesus.

Jesus was the Saviour; Jesus was different from all other babies; Jesus was going to grow and become the one who would save the world: he was not going to save few people and leave others; he was going to be the one who would save everyone in the entire world. He would save the world so that everyone would love God and love one’s neighbours.

He was the Messiah. People were waiting for the one who would come and rescue them from troubles and difficulties. Jesus was going to be the one who would lead his people to the world where God would reign. He was going to show how much God loved everyone.

He was the Lord. For those who would follow him, he would be like their king. He would be the one Christians all over the world would listen and follow. Christians would learn love and be more like him in loving and caring others.

After that, the angel told them that they would find this out when they saw the baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Why was he wrapped in bands of cloth? May be it was because King Solomon talked about somewhere that he was taken care with cloth bands at his birth.

What about the manger? In Isaiah (many many years before Jesus was born), people learned that ox would know its owner and a donkey the manger of its owner, but Israel did not know God. This was a deeply important understanding. You see, the reason Jesus was sent by God was to make sure that God’s people would come to know that God called them as God’s own and that God’s people would know God. The people, however, forgot about God and were not worshipping and serving God the way that God desired. Jesus was sent to be their Saviour, who was Christ the Lord because they did not know that they belonged to God in a very special relationship bound by the promise to Abraham. The leaders, kings and priests, were giving them lies. They were feeding them with false spiritual food.

Now, the shepherds were told to find Jesus in a manger. The manger was a place where animals would find their food. These shepherds who were like the lost people of God were being told to find Jesus, the hope of Israel—the Saviour—in the manger. Farmers would fill mangers with food when they wanted to feed their animals. This was symbolic way of saying that the shepherds or the lost people of God would find their true spiritual food in the manger where Jesus lay. (We could almost imagine a communion scene where Jesus told his disciples, “This is my body that is for you…this is the new covenant in my blood...”)

At that announcement, many angels appeared with the one and sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to all.”

With that, shepherds talked to one another and decided to go to Bethlehem. They went in hurry and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger as the angel described. They shared with everyone what they heard. They found Mary, Joseph and the baby, but the passage also seemed to talk about other people who heard what shepherds had to say.

There were three reactions to the good news of the angel. The first one belonged to the shepherds. They hurried on and began talking to others about what they heard. When they found what they heard, they glorified and praised God. The second belonged to those who heard. They wondered just like the way people pondered about the birth of John the Baptist trying to think about how God would lead the child. The last one was Mary’s. She kept everything in her heart. She from the very beginning was obedient. She listened to the angel who brought the news that she was to become the mother of Jesus. She now kept everything in her heart cherishing. These three reactions would be very similar to how Christians would react today; some glorify and enjoy God in this Christmas time; some wonder and think about how God is leading us today; some cherish what God has done.

Today, we ask everyone to be like shepherds and share the story of how and why Jesus was born. At Christmas we remember this story.

Grace

A friend called and wanted to talk. She came into my office, sat with her backs to those big windows in ways I could only see her silhouette, she said that she did not care about anything anymore; she wanted to jump off the cliff and kill herself; for her there was nothing that would stop her and she was ready to get out of this horrible life. Another friend dropped by to say that she was hurting; she gave and gave, but no one loved her back; her trust was betrayed; people stepped on her like dirt. These are stories that our neighbours share with us. They are God’s grace, pains of suffering God, pointing us to life that is love.

How so? How could these broken people and their lives of pain and suffering be the very grace of God that we read about in our Holy Scriptures? Are they not living the consequences of their mismanaged lives? Are they not paying for wrong choices they made?

If we do not know anything about God’s grace, if we think that we live lives of our own making—that is, we believe that our comfortable life is due to our hard work—and that all that we have belongs to us for our own pleasure, then, we do not see in them the presence of one who loved us even unto death on the cross. Instead of seeing Christ in them we only see people deserving pain and suffering for their pathetic choices. In them we see nothing but missed opportunities to better themselves and therefore are nothing more than people who failed in life. Instead of loving, we pity them. They become objects of our charitable programs; we do not see them as partners in life journey.

On the other hand if we are grateful for what we have been entrusted with, if we experience God’s grace daily in all that we do, and if we have been recipients of God’s generosity even when we have not been deserving of it, then, we can begin to see and witness how God comes to us and gives us grace.

When we come to a point of receiving encounters with those who are broken and are suffering terribly in our world as God’s grace being entrusted to us, we become fellow pilgrims in life more than willing to share where we find our food.

Loving

To be in love, we wait for love. That's the way we think. That is, we expect others to love us the way we are without condition. We wait for someone to love us completely. Yet, we desire that those who will love us so would be the kind of people whom we have been dreaming about. That is, we hope that those who will love us so completely will be those who already are ones whom we can love without condition. Outward appearances ought to please us, the way they listen to us ought to be completely open and non-judgmental, the way they care for us ought to be always gentle etc. You get the picture. But this is the opposite of what really happens when we begin to love or fall in love.

One truth about love is that we choose to love someone first: we do not wait for that other person to love us and then we decide whether s/he deserves our love in return. Children show this behaviour the best. If they do not like someone or do not want to go near someone, no matter how much that someone loves them, they ignore or show very little interest. If they like someone and want to be liked by someone, they do all kinds of things to draw the attention of that person.

Let me say it again. To be in loving relationship, we have chosen someone to love first. Then, we wait for that person to love us in return. This is why loving can be so fragile and nerve racking. We have given of ourselves first. Now we wait in hope that my love will be returned in kind and that we are love completely without condition. As I begin to love someone, I find myself to be very sensitive about whether the other person will love me back or now. I pay great deal of attention to see how I am loved back. I get very upset if my love is ignored or not appreciated. Yet the fact that I chose to love that person does not change no matter how hurt I become over the lack of love from that person.

God chose to love us first. Like an ugly aunt whom we paid no attention because we want to find handsome or beautiful person who could fulfill me and could make me feel beautiful, likeable, popular and desirable instead, we ignore God. That is, getting a celebrity like a movie star or famous politician to count her as my friend is more satisfying to me than being recognized by a homeless person, we think.

The whole thing about faith is all about God choosing to love us and wait us to love God through Christ in return. In the same way we see someone we want to be loved by—that is, we choose someone to love—and love her/him secretly first in hope of receiving her/his love in return. We get embarrassed and upset when our love, which was in secret or in open, is rejected. God, like a secret love, waits patiently even when we ignore, belittle, and embarrass God in public and private.

Here is a way of seeing it more personally. Imagine me as that ugly and dirty person you see at a corner of your street every day and think of what might happen. I see that you are beautiful. I, therefore, choose to love you. I fully expect you to ignore and be upset when you find out that I love you. I know that my love for you will embarrass you because I am not your ideal type. You seek someone who is better looking, more caring, able in fulfilling you and completing you; You do not want to be seen with me, but I keep telling you that I love you by the way I smile, try to get attention and show up unexpectedly. You try to ignore, stay away, avoid, and hide from me. Yet, I am always around. Well, that is how God’s love for you is like.

As a Christian I have come to love you much the same way. (Well, I do not stalk you and embarrass you in public.) In a way it is like a father waiting for the return of his prodigal child. In many way, loving you meant that I had no choice but to love you—in actual fact, I was happy to choose to love you because you are a beautiful person in whom Christ is in you—and have loved you ever since I made that decision. I was so willing because I saw that God chose to love you long before you ever knew that you are lovable.

In this love, I wait in hope that you will see what love is and choose to love someone as God loves you and as I love you. That is, I hope that my love for you will remind you in a very small way how God loves you so that you may choose to love someone the same way steadfastly. Just remember, though, in this way of loving, you will wonder why the one whom you love do not love you back, why the person to whom you give everything does not even care to acknowledge you in any way, but considers you to be an embarrassment, and why you are the last to get any response. True love as shown to us by God in Christ is that it is without condition. It does not wait to be loved back in order to continue loving. It is given freely and steadfastly. It is always there in full power.

That is the thing about love. When the other person (people) rejects, hurts, betrays, or even embarrasses me (us) we continue to love them. That is how God loves us after all.

Danger Ahead!

In psychology, cognitive dissonance theory attempts to study how our minds try to reconcile radically different ideas to make sense of our world. For example, when the reality is so different from our beliefs, we find ways to make sense that are advantageous to our beliefs even if this means that we bend truth and facts.

About a year ago, a marketer did an experiment—a variation of this has been seen everywhere including the one that involved a famous perfume—in which a group of people were served frozen food in a somewhat dirty looking restaurant first. They were asked to rate their food. Then, they were taken to a fancy up-class looking restaurant where ambiance resembled the first class with well dressed waiters and waitresses serving the same food with finer china and cutleries with quiet pleasing music being played in the back ground. Again they were asked to rate their food. The same people rated the food they ate in a fancy restaurant better and tastier. Our own perception of our environment persuades us to put aside the facts.

Our minds play tricks on us. Cognitive dissonance experiments remind us that our belief plays very important role in how we see the world. The difficulty is that we are shaded by the very faith we have has been used to iron out many difficult realities we face. Our faith, if not instilled properly, will mislead us and makes us build the world that is not real. This is why some will insist on believing things even when every truth and fact point away from what they believe.

We forget that God we think of and refer to is an image shaped by what we learned from our parents, teachers and our communities. In this sense, more than often we believe not in God who is but God whom we can make sense of in our lives. A warning for us all, indeed!

Waiting

Waiting

Waiting has become a difficult thing. I saw a young child fidgeting after less than 30 seconds waiting on a line at MacDonalds Restaurant. I saw a young woman getting upset at standing in line to buy her clothes at a mall. An adult driver who flipped me a bird for not going fast enough or getting out of her way when she approached behind me at a doubled the speed rate on a street. I see myself being impatient when a waiter takes more than three minutes after I am seated to get my order.

A friend finally sent me a reply to my e-mail—after three weeks. In that time, I felt ignored and not valued as a friend. Why? Because e-mail is supposed to be replied as quickly as possible—at least that is what we think, don’t we? If I am texting, I do want the other person to respond to me immediately instead of making me wait for five long minutes. If I e-mail someone, I would like to have a reply at least within 24 hours. Okay, I will wait 48 hours at the most. If not, I send another e-mail.

Waiting has become a difficult art. It requires patience and lots of practice for us to become good at it. This is sad because we, even those of us who are glued to our tech gadgets, used to be good at waiting. Remember how you waited for Christmas to come to open your gifts?

Now, we do not know how to wait. Waiting makes us feel ignored, stood-up, etc. Silence, therefore, has become a punishment rather than a joy. But the best part about getting a gift of friendship is waiting, no?

Killing of Gadhafi

Gadhafi’s Death

Why was I so disturbed when I saw the final moment of Gadhafi’s death? He was a hated dictator who killed many of his own people. He was as ruthless as those who caught him. Eye for an eye, as they say.

Yet, I have been struggling to figure out what I might have done if I were in that crowd who caught this horrible man. Why should I care? Why would I be concerned with an event that took place across the Atlantic?

Only way I am able to answer is, “Because I am a Christian!” Because I am a Christian who takes the Bible seriously I cannot escape from Matthew 5:43-48,

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In a way I am wrestling with this passage because according to this passage, I have no escape when it comes to loving my enemies. Either I follow what Christ asks of me or I am not a follower. I cannot be a Christian and ignore some parts of Jesus’ teachings.

What would be a Christian response for me if I am in a situation where I have more power than my most dreaded enemy? What is an appropriate response to the most hated enemy who unleashed evil on so many including me when I have him trembling before me? What would it mean for me to love the mortal enemy when all my anger explodes into my brain at his sight?

Would God not excuse me or forgive me for killing the one whose death would bring relief to so many? Would God not bring justice through God’s own servants in this crooked world?

Yet, there comes the voice that calls my attention, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:9).

Christians throughout centuries died praying for those who were persecuting and killing them instead of calling all Christians to rise up in holy war against God's enemies. Should I do any less?

One thing that distinguishes Christians is our insistence of loving our enemies. Here we are talking about loving enemies actively, not passively. We are not to be doormats but those with Christ's love sharing life even with our mortal enemies.

So I ponder about killing of Gadhafi and what my sharing of love might have been if I were one of those who caught him.

Suicide and Christians

Suicide

News of Jamie Hubley, son of Ottawa Councillor Allan Hubley, committing suicide hit me hard. It brought me back to a funeral service of a gay teenager I did in Ottawa. It remains as the saddest worship service I have conducted in my life. What a terrible time it was for him when he chose to kill himself and for his family whom he loved dearly and who loved him dearly.

In the media, as was the case with Yueyue, the focus was put on the issue of teenage suicide provoked by bullying turning people’s attention away from sadness and difficulty of facing what happened. We are told that there are many factors at play; anti-gay environment in high school settings; verbal and cyber-bullying; helplessness of teachers; societal attitudes that allow abuses and so on.

Dissecting and dividing the suicide into many smaller components or examining the whole events as many smaller contributing factors are attempts to control Jamie’s death. As each factor is teased out and examined on its own (i.e. high school atmosphere that breeds homophobic attitudes, inability for teenagers to find appropriate help) Jamie gets lost, not to mention his family. In a way it is an acknowledgement that we as a society feel powerless in dealing with the big issue.

There indeed were many factors that lead to the suicide. Ultimately, the truth is that love that gives life was not what Jamie received from his peers and neighbours. Sure, there were odd ones who tried to care, but whatever care he received did not lead to life.

What I as a Christian struggle with is that after 2 thousand years of preaching and living the life of love demonstrated in Christ Jesus, we are still not able in giving hope of life to those who are distraught, oppressed, hurt, suffering, and in despair.

There are so many people who ponder about committing suicide: they insist that life is no longer for them; they would be better dead than living; they find no meaning to live. Dread and despair have not been overcome by the self-emptying love that leads to life.

It makes me sad that Jamie was never able to experience life in a way that is filled with hope. We as Christians—often too quick in throwing out righteous judgements and condemnations—have not been able to be a faith community where the outcast, oppressed, weak, meek, poor and hopeless find home.

I am profoundly sad especially because we as God’s loving people were not available to Jamie as his home. For good or ill, somehow, it appears as that to Jamie, Christians never appeared as those who would love him dearly.

The young person whose funeral service I conducted did not see Christians as ones who would love him unconditionally; he experiences of Christians were nothing but love; he was sure that a Christian community would disown him.

I wrestle with my own thoughts as I try to think of ways to be a Christian to everyone.

Yueyue and Christians

It did take a while for me to rethink over some of the issues on those three events. I could not settle down long enough to clear my mind thinking about them. Let me tackle them one at a time.

First one was about Yueyue, a Chinese toddler who was run over by a truck and was left for a long time with no one helping and then run over again by another truck. She eventually died. An old lady came to her aid only to be accused later by others that she helped only for money and fame. Josh Tapper of Toronto Star tried to give some backgrounds to help understand in an article.

The Globe and Mail columnist, Gary Mason, wrote about those cases in which we saw many in North America doing the same as those bystanders in China. Of course, the point Mr. Mason made was that we have enough of our own incidences and are as guilty in similar circumstances.

Indeed, Jesus even told the parable of Good Samaritan (Luke 10:28-38) to make the point about who the good neighbour was.

My struggle was not whether the help should have been given or not. The accident—yes, it was an accident and not something that was planned by anyone—ended in a tragic way. Finger pointing aside, self-reflections aside, also my personal view of right and wrong aside, I have been thinking about how we do not seem to miss the little girl in our collective mea culpa and in our attempt to reveal sins of others in order to point accusatory fingers away from us. Let me explain.

The closed circuit camera video that outraged so many galvanized China and beyond and many people wrote, reported and analyized in much the same way Mr. Tapper and Mr. Mason have done. Yes, some have gone further in judging and condemning those who did not help. Yet in all these reports, blogs and writings Yueyue appeared as an act in drama through which people raised their voices. Reading through all of them did not let us come to know her at all. She was a victim at the most and soon became anonymous again.

After she died, the spot light moved on; everyone including those who vented turned back to their daily tasks. She has disappeared back into the anonymity from which she appeared ever so briefly. That is, she no longer existed in the same way she did not exist before the accident took her life.

For a brief moment when she appeared before us until she breathed last, we could have been her neighbour. We could have loved her. We could have made her a precious little girl. Instead, sadly she became a cause celebre for those who were outraged at bystanders for some; a reason to reflect for those who were analytical on human indifferences and/or fears; and an evidence of this cruel world for those who were victims of principalities and powers.

I have been struggling on how we could have been ones who would bring God’s love and presence leading to life as she faced death. I think about how I could have meaningfully loved Yueyue as her neighbour sharing pains, suffering and be there in spirit as she breathed last. I also wonder about ways I as a Christian could have loved her parents who were in deep grief and guilt.

Three awful events

The young toddler being run over by two trucks in China without anyone helping, a teenager committing suicide in Ottawa after being bullied for being different and the killing of Gadhafi have troubled me in the past few days that I could not write clearly. These three are very different in nature, yet, somehow, I cannot dissociate one from another.

The first one was all about the people’s indifference to the terrible suffering of a two year old. The truck driver who turned himself in later explained that he was hoping that the girl would die because the compensation he would pay would be less than if she lived. Many who saw her in such a terrible state ignored her and continued in their daily activities. The naked indifference froze me totally.

In the second case, the teenager did not want to endure the suffering any longer. This incident hit me hard because not too long ago I did a service for a teenager who committed suicide for much the same reason. It still hurts me deeply.

In Gadhafi’s case the rawness of vengeful killing, though justified in the minds of those who have been oppressed by him, left me sadder than ever.

I am still having hard time processing these three horrifying events. I need time to think and meditate before I gain enough courage to examine what these events mean to me.

Silence (Part 1)

Everyone speaks or do they? We communicate in many different ways. Using words is one mode of methods that we seem to prefer. We often think that when we speak we are expressing ourselves. We let others know our feelings, experiences and being by using words. Another way we communicate is through our body language. Often a raising of one’s eyebrow can say more than words). People get cues as to what we are up to by observing our behaviours. Our world in this sense is visual as well as verbal.

What happens, however, if suddenly we enter into a non-visual and non-verbal world? First instinct would probably be to fill it with what we know. That is, we will try to communicate by using words or gestures. We will get very anxious. This is not that different than if one finds oneself in a strange country which speaks a language that is totally different. At least in this case, visual clues do help to navigate in a foreign country. For example, in a monastery where silence was the rule, I noticed that monks developed an elaborate system of communication using various methods including drawing and hand gestures not unlike sign languages used by the deaf.

As relational beings, we become awfully stressed and anxious when we cannot communicate with those around us. Yet, in the world of Christian faith, we plunge into God’s world where words, drawings, or signs often make no sense to us. That is, to most of us—with an exception of the very select few—have only had silence from God. Mind you, many Christians found elaborate ways to interpret the silence they had encountered. Often their interpretations were wrong—as wrong as the predictions of the end of the world.

Yet, silence is far more important part of communications than we might think. Silence is what gives words, gestures, signs and symbols meaning. Indeed silence is far more prevalent than words that make up our sentences, signs that we exchange with one another and symbols we offer. Without right pauses to bring in silence, our sentences are nothing more than words being lined up.

Think, then, for a minute what silence really is.

Voting

I heard a story from a friend who attended a meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches in the 1980s. The chair, Rev. Dr. Allen Boesack, a black African living under Apartheid regime in South Africa at the time, asked people for no votes even if a motion was overwhelmingly or sometimes unanimously agreed. When someone asked why he was doing that, he explained that it was all about allowing everyone to exercise one’s freedom to speak one’s view. To him calling for a nay vote even if there was only one person was the exercise of free speech that needed a special sensitivity. More than that, for him calling out for the smallest of voices was the act of love that made this freedom possible.

In North America we do not worry too much about participating in elections or in voting during meetings. We take our freedom to express our views for granted. We are given enough opportunities to vote in or out a government we do not like. We can vote yes or nay or abstain. We do not have to worry about having someone burning our houses, beating us up on a street, and being thrown into a prison without charges. We would never come to appreciate the very freedom we enjoy until it is taken away from us.

Living with this endless and unbound freedom, we neglect this task of voting and expressing our views. For us, because of the lack of immediate consequences we do not know the price of neglect when we do not bother to vote or become apathetic. As Christians, on the surface, we seem to be justified in not participating in secular political activities. After all, we believe in the separation of church and state. What is there for Christians to say on political matters? We do not want to be like those fundamentalists or evangelical Christians who want to bring God’s dominion over the world, no?

Actually, there is another view that we need to consider as Christians and take seriously the affairs of the world. As Christians who deeply care about God and our neighbours, voting of any kind including elections ought to be seen as our way of contributing to the world, a way of discerning God’s will to establish a fair, just and loving world. That is, casting a vote is to help the world discern a way to love God and neighbour. Our standard in discerning is that it ought to meet the test loving even the enemies as Christ beckoned us to do. The act of voting, therefore, becomes an act of faith that brings hope and love to this troubled world.

What about atheists, agnostics and others, you say? As Christians, we do our part in loving them. The difference between Christians' and secularists' views is that we through vote are helping to discern God's will while the rest of the world express their views. Our hope is that by participating in this democratic process called elections, we come along side secularists and help them discern ways to build a compassionate and caring world where the vulnerable are protected, poor are lifted up, hungry are fed, sick and those who mourn are comforted.

Indeed, our task as Christians is to discern for ourselves and help our neighbours discern the way of loving that casts out fears, brings forgiveness in order that enemies are reconciled, and point to hope-filled world that is to come in Christ. In this, we differ from all other Christians who express in order to impose their views on the world.

Decision to help

Decision

Last Sunday at the congregational meeting, the discussion was held on whether to take $10,000 from our endowment fund and send it to be used by Presbyterian World Service and Development for helping those who are suffering around the world. Hearing the motion, those how were speaking for argued that as Christians we ought to do so because being good stewards would mean to use what God gave us in loving our neighbours. Those who spoke against argued that reducing the fund would affect the future financial viability and that if we wanted to help we ought to raise the money without touching the fund.

An amendment was put forward to say that the fund match up to $5000 of all the money we would raise by Christmas 2011. The rationale behind the amendment was to encourage people to give while we also make sure that sufficient amount to go to help those who are in need. The amendment passed after a lengthy discussion in a fairly close vote. The amendment as the new motion passed.

I was glad to see such important discussion take place. The decision now puts the onus on everyone to do their best to love our neighbours not only here but also all around the world. We are certainly maturing as God's stewards.

Happiness

Today, two friends of mine are enjoying best wishes. It’s their birthday. As I wish them happiness, I have been thinking about what makes us happy. For some of us, being happy is having many friends, is living a comfortable life, is able to live life the way one wants to, is being with our own families, is having ability to enjoy what life has to offer.

Someone defined happiness as being in state of bliss. Another defined it as having achieved one’s life goals. Another insisted that it is nothing more than being surrounded by loving people. Yet another thought that being happy means doing everything one enjoys doing.

How would you define happiness for you?

For me, happiness is being immersed fully in loving God and others to a point that I do not even think of myself. That is, my happiness is found in this relationship with God and others. Even in solitude, I find myself experiencing the presence of God and of you.

What shall I do when someone tells me that a voice is telling him to hurt his friend?

Not too long ago, I was about to enter a hospital to visit someone, a middle aged person approached me and asked, “You are a priest. Tell me what to do because a voice in my head is telling me to hurt a friend of mine.” A few days ago, someone was walking by my office window screaming and shouting profanities to God. You could see many people trying to avoid the man as much as they were able. Another one called me on phone and said that she was going to kill herself.

All three looked very healthy. They wore decently. No one would think of them to be sick. Physically there was nothing wrong with them. The one who heard a voice would have passed as a prosperous business person. The young woman would have been one of members in our church. If the man was not shouting and screaming, he could have been my next door neighbour who would take a walk every day to exercise.

Looks and appearances, however, do mislead us. Their words or behaviours reveal to us how sick they are with mental illnesses. The difficulty is that dissonant visual cues confuse us making us to treat them as if they are dangerous. In most cases we try our best to get away from them as quickly as we are able. We become fearful of anyone whom we do not understand.

In my experiences of talking to many who are mentally ill, I discovered that they are not dangerous especially to me. If anything, often they are danger to themselves more than they are danger to others. Just asking few questions can help us overcome our fears of those who act differently than we.

Initially I talked with them because I felt an obligation as a minister. Soon when I overcame my own prejudices and fear, I began relaxing and was able to talk with and come to know them as who they were: God's people who were suffering not with physical but with mental illnesses.

My personal approach in these situations changed. Now, I do my best to see Christ in them as I do my best to see Christ in me. This way of thinking helps me because when I think this way I can talk to them as if they are my own brothers and sisters who are ill. I no longer see them with fear.

Yes, initially I felt very uncomfortable when someone asked what to do when one heard voices or wanted to harm herself. Now, however, I receive each one as one of God's people who requires my love and attention. I do not offer answers and solutions, but share my time and effort to learn from and be taught by each one who comes to share who s/he is and how s/he suffers with pain and anguish.

What would you do if a stranger came up to you and told you that she wanted to hurt someone or herself?

How much can you do in an hour?

Finally I am away from everything. Or am I? I am certainly away from my office not thinking too much of the work I have to do. This is my day off, after all.

Here I am sitting at Starbucks drinking a juice waiting for Rebekah to finish her piano lesson thinking about tomorrow. Then, realizing that I will not be at my office tomorrow because I will be at a all-day meeting in Toronto I have begun frantically sending e-mails away to cover the work I should be doing tomorrow.

What’s interesting is that in the last twenty minutes, I have done more than enough work to cover one-half of tomorrow morning’s work. I finished and sent a report to a committee noting that I will not be attending, sent numerous e-mails to help others make decisions, and now I am writing a blog.

As I am writing, I am constantly checking three e-mail accounts, messaging through Facebook with those whom we have not had contact for a while.

So, how much can one do in an hour? I am finding that before I finish this expensive Starbuck juice, I will have done most of my work for tomorrow. The amount of work that can be done in an hour depends entirely on my ability to focus. I am sure that you are not different. That is, if you make your mind up to focus and do what you have to do, you will accomplish much.

It would not be that much a stretch for me to say that even spiritually if one focuses and works, much would be done in figuring out what God would want us to do. It is just that we often do not think about doing spiritual work with such single minded focus.

I often thought about how much Jesus could have done in his three year ministry. Three years used to sound so short a period for him to save the whole world. Now, it does not seem so far fetched. If you can do so much in an hour, imagine how much you can do in three years if you focus all your mind, soul and ability. Now imagine what God in Christ accomplished in three years when God focused all of God-self in Christ!

The most amazing thing is that God did all that in Christ because God loves you so dearly.

$10,000

$10,000!

Next Sunday our church will be discussing and vote on a motion to give $10,000 from our Pat Meikle Endowment Fund to the Presbyterian World Service and Development. There have been two major views on this discussion: 1. it is better to help those who are suffering terribly in many parts of the world; 2. it would be more prudent to keep the money in the endowment fund and raise money separately from our members and send whatever we collect—keeping the money will insure that the future needs of the church will be met from the fund.

(Presbyterian World Service and Development is a relief agency within the Presbyterian Church in Canada to carry out Christ's ministry among those who are suffering and in need. The link will show you how this agency of the Presbyterian Church in Canada on our behalf works in troubled regions of our world.)


This discussion is helpful for all of us because it makes us think about our reason for being as a Christian community. Should we put the good of the world ahead of financial security of our church? The debate is raging on. I have a full confidence that people will make a decision that is from God.

How do we discuss these kinds of important matters in a Christian community? How do we bring about decisions that will truly show that we are carrying out the ministry that was shown through Jesus Christ?

To make sure that our decision will reflect God’s loving action in the world, we have set for ourselves a guideline to discuss the proposal;

1. The money that is entrusted in our care belongs to God. It is not ours. We are given the privilege to make the decision because God trusts us as a steward to do God’s will.

2. The decision is to show forth God’s love for the world now and for a long time to come.

3. The discussion is accepted as our efforts to discern God’s will. It is not an attempt to get one’s view imposed on others. Therefore even in the midst of heated argument we remember that we are seeking God’s will.

4. All views are expressed to advance Christ’s love in the world. We are engaged in this discussion to do what is best for Christ and his Church, to which we belong. In all circumstances our decision will show our love for God and for our neighbours—in hearing about our decision others will say that indeed Christians made the decision in love for one another and for the world.

We pray that God will help us in this task. Remember that as Christians you are party to this discerning process. As God’s people we discern together. Even in our diversity we bring forth God’s love in and through the unity of decision.

Blessings to all!

Who am I?

If we want to run a marathon, we follow fairly strict exercise training schedules that are designed based on each person’s ability. To keep a good figure, we exercise regularly to burn off calories and tone our muscles. Even to keep a minimal level of health, we exercise.

So, if we want to live life spiritually, what exercise should we do to maintain our spiritual well being?

Well, let’s be honest! We don’t often think about our spiritual health. It would not be wrong to suggest that most people do not even think about living life spiritually.

Yet, we know we are spiritual beings. That is, we are more than collections of cells that have a certain length of life span. We are more than what our appearances tell others. As human beings we are thinking beings. We assume that we are already pretty knowledgeable about being spiritual. Only problem is that when we need articulate about being spiritual, we get stuck. We have a hard time defining “spiritual life” to others.

We think of Pope or Buddhist monk or those wise people who tell us about what life and death are as spiritual. The truth is that everyone is spiritual. Some are more aware of spirituality than others. Some people become more articulate on spiritual matters because they have a disciplined way of living their lives.

Spiritual stuffs have a lot to do with thinking. However, not all activities related to thinking are spiritual. Being spiritual is far more than knowing how to add numbers, observe stars, and feel the beauty of sunsets. It has much to do with seeing our world in ways that relate us not only to one another, other living beings, but also to all things that exist in our universe and beyond. It points us to something beyond ourselves and helps us to answer the most difficult question, “Who am I?”

The first (and the most basic) spiritual exercise is to ask this question, Who am I? It is an exercise that requires a discipline because the answer is not evident and gets more complicated as we get more serious in finding the answer to it. It can easily frustrate the person who asks it; it offers no easy and quick response; and it forces the questioner to see oneself more deeply than ever before.

There are few things to keep in mind; 1. The answer to this question changes each time we ask it; 2. The one who asks is the only one who can answer—no one can give the correct or right answer to your question (you have to do the hard work); 3. This question leads to many questions which take life time to answer; 4. The most important thing to realize when you ask this question is that if you do not know how to love yourself the answer you get will be the wrong answer; 5. Asking this question requires monumental amount of patience and strength to wait for the answer.

So, are you ready to do this exercise?

If you are a beginner, start slow and give yourself a lot of time. In the same way you train for a marathon, begin this spiritual exercise by spending a small amount of time asking the question and answering. Consistency is the key; spend few minutes each day and increase the time that you spend in seeking the answer after few days. Soon you will be comfortable in spending more time seeking the answer.

Try!

If you need help, let me know. I am here to help you do it.

As a Christian, I have discovered that everyone is spiritual and that the starting point of pondering about God, human being and everything in the world is asking this question of me. Being spiritual is getting engaged in the process of searching for the answer to this crucial question. Without this exercise a person ends up creating one’s own image, thought-world, and universe that are shallow and prone to destruction. In my view Christianity within me does not become real until I begin to ask this question seriously.

Spiritual Health (1)

To be healthy, regular exercises and nutritionally balanced meals are essential. Doing regular exercises does not mean hard workouts, but doing 30 minute exercise for three times a week. Also eating nutritionally does not mean a hard regimen, but eating moderate amount of meat and vegetables—unless you are a vegetarian. Knowing about the benefits of exercise and eating well, however, does not mean that we actually follow our plans in our busy life. We often skip meals for many different reasons. We do not even think of doing a short exercise when we are tired at the end of the day.

Think, then, how much easier it is for us to forget about caring for your spiritual health.

"Say what?" you say.

Yea, you heard me right—“spiritual health!”

Most of us accept that each person is not only a biological being, but also a spiritual being. (By “spiritual” we mean that there are things that are more than physical and emotional. We use the word to refer to being aware consciously and/or subconsciously. (Because of the limitation of space, in this discussion we will assume that you know what I am referring to when I use “spirit” or “spiritual”.) Being spiritual is to be more than listing everything we know.)
Like anything else, spiritual health does not come because we know many things, nor because we are compassionate and kind. We do not become mature spiritual being simply because we are who we are. Incidentally, attending worship services may help, but do not necessarily help our spirits to maintain good health. To be spiritually healthy, we have to train and feed our spirits with appropriate exercises and nutrients.

What are appropriate exercises and nutrients?

The most basic exercise is to take yourself away from everything and examining who you are. For Christians, this means that by taking ourselves away from everything that we have been accustomed to and see ourselves for the first time as who we are. This exercise leads us to discover who we are. Of course this journey leads Christians to what all other Christians learned—that we are created in God’s image with limitations and imperfections, yet beautifully reflecting through all of our beings who God is.

The most basic nutrient we require is love. It is the love that frees us to love ourselves as God in Christ loved us. That is, you need to accept yourself and come to love you with all your limitations, faults and imperfections. Only then, you will come to share love beyond yourself. This love of Christ as the most basic nutrient assists you in loving yourself as God intended.

Tomorrow, let us discuss more on the exercise that will enhance your spiritual health.

Greetings

This morning, I noticed that it took many tries before I gave up recording a new greeting for the church voice mail system. Finally, I chose a very generic info packed greeting. Why was I struggling so much? Was it because I was trying to put so much info on it?

We use many different types of greetings. When addressing strangers, our “Hello!” contains cautious and respectful tone. With friends, the same word expresses our joy of being together. When exchanged within one’s family it has intimacy and understanding that is very deep.
Another interesting thing about our greetings is that it reveals who we are at the moment of exchange. It signals whether we are glad, sad, angry, friendly, hostile, gentle, and so on. That short exchange communicates so much of us to others.

No wonder, then, people try to peer into our mood, well being and feeling when they receive our greetings. This is why I find myself keep recording to find that right tone as I greet people through our answering machine.

Because I do not know in advance who will use our voice mail, I try to bring tones and words that express in a way that listeners can not only say that our recorded message was okay, but also go away having been welcomed by a community of Christians.

Can in a voice mail message a stranger be welcomed as if she was welcomed at home? Can in those few words a person feel the love of Christ we share? As a Christian community, it turns out that these questions do matter because we represent not only who we are but Christ who loved the world.

In a same way, greeting classmates, sales clerks, cashiers, friends and others can be occasions to share God's love or it could be simply a detached word that tells everyone to stay away from us. It could be inviting or rejecting of others. It takes courage to find ways to show not simply your friendliness in general but share a bit your yourself as God's image to others.

TGIF

Friday!

For most of us Friday cannot come quick enough. For many people “weekend” means being away from regular work. There was a time when weekends were not different from regular working days. People did not break from their daily works because Friday, Saturday, and Sunday came upon them. It was not until medieval times when the Church insisted on keeping Friday separate from all other days to remember the death of Jesus. Many Christians remembered the event by not eating meat in some countries. They chose to eat fish instead on Fridays. Sunday was celebrated as the reminder of the resurrection of Christ. Saturday was kept as Sabbath by few Christians, but did not become important for the majority of Christians.

The modern understanding of weekend originated from the practice of keeping Sabbath holy (holy as in setting it apart for sacred purpose). People of Israel, who practice Judaism, always kept Sabbath holy—Sabbath started at Sundown on Friday and ended at Sundown on Saturday. Christians practiced Sunday as their holy day from very early on.

Initially not all Christians could take Sunday off from work to keep it holy like the Jews. Many Christians were slaves in Roman Empire. Many would slip out from their daily duties on Sunday to gather together to worship and return back to do their work. In Book of Acts we read that Paul even went to riverside to find Christians gathering on Sundays.

When the Roman Empire became officially Christian and the Church had much influence, Sunday was declared and kept as the day of worship. The idea behind it was based on one of the Ten Commandments that Sabbath was to be kept holy and that no one ought to work as everyone was required to remember God’s love for all.

In the 20th century Canada, no one worked on Sundays. Everything was closed except churches for worship. This practice of keeping Sunday holy changed in the 1960s and 1970s as more and more shops, theatres, and restaurants began opening with the change of provincial laws. Now in the 21st century, it is not clear who is not open on Sunday. What this means is that we as a society is not resting and taking a day off as we used to. We have gotten away from the practice of keeping one day a week different from all other days to nourish our spiritual needs.

It takes a special understanding and courage to be different from our friends to keep one day open for sacred activities that would fill our souls. Once you decide to say that one day a week you will take time off to love God and others, you face challenges of not doing what you used to do. This is very difficult. It takes a discipline and effort.

I try my best to keep one day that is not filled with anything. On Tuesdays I go away from doing anything. This is not only to demonstrate that I am nourishing my personal need, but more importantly to learn and live out the faith. On this day, I try to love God and neighbours as best as I can. I do my best not to worry about doing things I usually do on regular work days.

Can you really take a day off and nourish your spirit and soul? Can you really live your faith out saying that one week day out of seven you will do what God asks of you—that is, not doing what you need to but simply be loved by God and others and love God and others? Try. Soon you will really look forward to that one day that is holy (different than all other days because you depend on God).

Patience

Standing on a line waiting for a cashier to stop talking to customers and do her work so that I can get my stuff requires patience. On a highway clogged with cars moving at a parking lot speed forces us to face the fact that we are very impatient. Patience is often not in our minds because we do not like waiting. We want things to be done when we want them.

In a way, cell phone culture is a nice metaphor for the world that is impatient. People cannot wait to meet and talk: they have to talk now. People wonder why you are not answering or returning their phone calls now even when you are busy. People interrupt conversations to answer their cell phones immediately and expect others to do the same. Instant culture has no patience.

For Christians living in this instant and impatient culture is difficult because the very first word that describes is love. That is, as the people who loves God and others, we are to be patient in the impatient world. Our life, therefore, becomes totally counter cultural. Instead of demanding instant reply to our e-mail, we are patient in waiting for the reply. Instead of counting every second of passing moment for that return phone call, we love them by being patient.

Patience also works when we react to people who are angry at us because their demands are not met by us instantly, when we deal with impossible people who only think of themselves and their own conveniences, when we meet those who rush things because rushing is only thing they know, and when we minister to one another in most circumstances. Patience as one of the virtues of love requires much discipline and resolve. Yet, being patient demonstrates that we as Christians are loving and live life of love.

Remember that being counter-cultural and standing out in this world of impatient loving is all about being patient.

Meeting people meaningfully

Listen

How do we meet a stranger and have a meaningful relationship even for a brief moment? How do you get to really experience someone so intimately that you would never forget that experience and cherish that moment for the rest of your life? Is such meeting possible in our busy and complicated world?

Of course, it is not easy. We usually take long time to get to know someone to be close—never mind being intimate on any level (we reserve intimacy to people who are very close to us). It takes a long time to be close enough to share a little about us because revealing one’s true self is not that easy. Yet, once in a while we meet a person with whom we can be close right away as if we have been friends for a long time. Through experiences, we know this kind of closeness does not happen often.

Yet, for some of us, close intimacy is possible with many people. This is so because those who accept us are very open and willing to be vulnerable with us. We experience such intense closeness even with strangers when we are vulnerable and open to them. For example, when we go to help people in poor countries, we go there knowing nothing and with much fear. When we are vulnerable, they welcome us with open arms and allow us to be close and intimate with them. They help us with their openness and teach us to be intimate with them. We can also experience it when we visit friends in hospitals, or be with them when they are going through difficult times. So why can we not experience it regularly?

Many of us do not like to show our emotionally vulnerable side. We think that being vulnerable is like showing the world that we are weak. That is why we do not cry in front of others, do not display our angers, and do not share our sadness with just anyone. We feel uncomfortable showing our true selves. This guardedness also gives out the message to the world that we do not want others to share their vulnerabilities with us.

As Christians we think it is important for us to be honest, compassionate and being open to share with others all that we are. However, this view is hard one to live by in the world where we guard ourselves to show others that we are strong and have everything together.
One way of establishing this intimate relationship even with a stranger is to remember that everyone is created in the image of God. If I welcome, listen to and care for a stranger the way that I would with Christ, this intimacy is possible.

The difficulty is, we always see people the way they present themselves to be—not the way God created them to be in God’s own image. We do not spend our energy and effort to see beyond what they want us to see. Their make-ups and designer clothes hide the image that is of God from us in the same way we hide ourselves from others. If we spend time and energy listening to and being with a stranger as if we welcome God, then, our openness will invite even strangers to be vulnerable and share who they are, what they fear, love and care for in life, how they face life’s difficulties and why they have not been free to be who they were intended to be.

I see God’s beauty in each of you. I see how God instilled in you an image that is very special revealing God-self through your uniqueness. I hope you get to see others in the same way.

Sad, Angry, Hope-filled

Listen here.

I am sad. I am sad because a new friend told me about how cruel Christians are. Christians not only fight with each other over power and control in churches, but also hurt each other by being judgmental and being self-righteous. Fighting, hurting, and shaming do not demonstrate Christianity. Yet, we as Christians cannot seem to stop doing these terrible things.

Imagine a situation. You and your non-Christian friend are driving through a small village in upstate New York. You notice that you are running low on gas. You check to see what you have; a credit card that has expired, a gas card from a Canadian company, and some Canadian dollars. You realize that neither the credit card from the Canadian gas company nor Canadian dollars are any good. Naturally you ask for a direction to a bank.

At the bank you are told that they would not exchange Canadian dollars to American unless you have an account with them. You find out the bank will be closing very shortly. As you go outside with your friend to figure out what to do, you see a woman walking out of bank. You explain to her your situation and ask her if she could change some Canadian money for you at the bank.

Instead of saying, yes or no, out of the blue, she asks you if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour. You answer her saying that you are a Christian and that you believe in Christ as the Lord and Saviour. She, then, asks you to say a prayer for your need since God would answer your prayer. You pray with her. After the prayer, instead of helping you to change money, she tells you that God will solve your problem. She also tells you that a man should never ask a woman to do such a thing and berates you for parking your car wrongly and walks away.

This was what happened a week ago to my new friend. Hearing this story made me very sad. Sure, a person may be suspicious about those who were asking for help in front of the bank, but was this the way a Christian ought to treat another Christian? Why ask to pray and say that God will answer your prayer—just not through her? What example did she set for a non-Christian friend when he witnessed this exchange between two Christians?

Unfortunately, Christians do hurt each other terribly. Christians are cruel as they criticize and judge one another and others because others do not meet their standard of being Christians. As Christians we are petty, controlling, and spiteful to one another in many ways. We even fight over what kind of musical instruments are acceptable for worship or not. Some people have told me often that if they see drums in the sanctuary, they are never coming back to the church. Love, forgiveness, and reconciliation are missing in Christian communities. Instead our churches are filled with controlling, self-righteous, selfish, and unbearable people. All these things make me sad.

I am also angry. I am angry that we do so little about their terrible behaviours. I am not talking about we judging, punish or be more self-righteous than them. I am thinking that we ought to do more in demonstrating patiently what forgiveness, reconciliation, and love are in Christ Jesus. I am angry that Christian communities are so reluctant in confronting all these bullies with love.

Yet, I am very hope-filled. Every time I think of every one of you, I am filled with hope because each one of you see how wrong these (judgemental, self-righteous, selfish, self-centered, uncaring, hurtful) behaviours are. You not only want to do nothing with those with these behaviours, but also try your best to be forgiving, healing, reconciling and loving in your actions. In many ways you are not afraid to speak up about how wrong these pain giving behaviours discredit who we are. In your own way, you try to be patient, kind, not boastful, not insist on your own way, and not resentful.

Though I am sad and angry because of so many Christians hurting others, I am hope-filled because you are doing more and will do your best to love others. Keep up and be courageous in loving always.

Home and Worship

I have been thinking about ways to converse with you. You can suggest topics of discussion. In the meantime, I will post things that are in my mind.

Today, I have been thinking about the fact that all of you are away from home.

Audio-if you want to listen

Home is a place where we return to rest after being away for a while. It is also a place that we leave behind again because we know it waits for us to return. It is that comfortable place where you can be you in any way you choose, wear whatever you like, look the way you feel without make-ups and still loved as who you are. It is where you let all your joy, sadness, laughter as well as tears, hurt, pain, anger, and brokenness hang out in their beauty and ugliness. No matter in what shape you are, you return and are welcomed, cared for, and loved just as you are. And... when you are ready for the world again, you go because you know you will return soon enough.

As a Christian, I learned early that worship service is like being at home. It sounds a bit strange to say this out loud, but it is true for me. Wherever I went, even in different countries where cultures were unfamiliar, being part of worship made me belong and be part of the family there as if I arrived at home. In worship I found out that I shared my presence and spirit with all those who were at that worship, was cared for, nourished, restored, and was sent away with love filled with expectations of many joyful reunions.

Initially when you enter any building that is new, including churches where we have never been, you feel very uncomfortable. It feels awkward as if you are entering into someone else’s space. You become a visitor and try your best to be a good visitor. When you go to a church near where you have moved to for the first time, the newness of surroundings make you feel that you do not belong there.

It took a long while before I realized that this was not the way to approach a worship service. It dawned on me that I belonged in all worship services as much as anyone else because I was one of God’s people. I was baptized in the name of God the Creator, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I was called by Christ and have been living as a Christian. There was no reason for me to think that I was a visitor crashing into other people’s holy activities. Since that realization, I have attended worship services not as a stranger or a visitor but as a family member returning home. Worship service is a very place where I get to hang with Christ and his people. Because I am one of them, they are my sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, daughters, sons, (sad to say because I am getting that old) and grandchildren.

Sunday worship services are like weekly gathering of my spiritual family. When I enter to worship, I feel as if I have entered my own home. There, I can relax, be accepted as who I am, share joy, happiness, and all that was wonderful during the week. I also feel secure and loved enough to share sadness, tears, hurts, difficulties and pains because I know everyone, especially God who is present, loves me and cares deeply for me. There, I am given a place of welcome, restoration, care, compassion, and love whether I want them or not.

At the end of the service, when I have to return to the world, I am able because I feel rested enough, strong enough, filled enough with hope, and loved enough to face another week. This is why I go to worship whenever I am able.

I know that you feel like a visitor in a strange church gingerly trying to be a good guest. But what if you think of attending worship as returning home for an hour or so? Because you are coming home as a child of God to the house of God... You are as much a Christian, loved and given life by Christ and was created in God’s image. You are not a visitor, but a family member. At worship, I hope you find home. It is my prayer that you feel and experience home when you worship wherever you are.

Home by Young Friends is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at younyfriends.blogspot.com.