Ha Na Park

Sermon: Sowing, Losing, Waiting…      Mark 4:26-34 Ha Na Park, Immanuel United Church

This morning, I invite you to reflect with me on the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

First, Jesus tells a parable that has the following elements: a small mustard seed, branches, and birds taking shelter. Please note: except for the Gospel of John, all the gospels including the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, report this parable, in various ways — one time with a garden and another with a field; one time with the seed growing into a large vegetable and another with the seed growing into a giant tree. The Gospel of Mark (the version we read this morning) says that the smallest of all the seeds grows into the greatest of all shrubs.
Scholars doubt that this smallest/largest contrast is the original message from Jesus, but they suspect that it comes from Mark’s own need of interpretation and intention to add the image of the end-time as a great tree (which allegorically symbolizes a gr…

Nominee: Ha Na Park 
by Manitoba Northwestern Ontario Conference 
Nomination to Executive of Denominational Council, United Church of Canada 

Please note if there are any other identities this nominee holds that might diversify and strengthen the church's leadership

Living in the intersectionality of race, gender, queerness and faith; immigrant woman; newcomer's perspective; queer person/woman of colour 

Please provide a statement from the nominee on why they wish to serve on the Executive

I would like to enhance my contribution to the life of the United Church of Canada by becoming a Denominational Executive member. In this crucial time of restructuring, my gift of creating accountable theologies from lived experiences and my passion for the call toward equity will add to the voices of reason and experience already on the Council. I am passionate about remaking our church to truly be ours interculturally — our church as an open-ended and growing church which is ready and willing to…

Ha Na Park Minister, Immanuel United Church, Winnipeg
I would like to enhance my contribution to the life of the United Church of Canada by becoming a Denominational Executive member. In this crucial time of restructuring, my gift of creating accountable theologies from lived experiences and my passion for the call toward equity will add to the voices of reason and experience already on the Council. I am passionate about remaking our church to truly be ours interculturally — our church as an open-ended and growing church which is ready and willing to be changed and transformed towards embracing diversity through strong relationships with all people. As we move towards restructuring, we need all of us. Weneed to encourage and affirm proactive initiatives coming from the margins. To make that happen, we must operate on barrier-free principles for promoting radical welcoming, to distribute power fairly, and to persist with courage through the institutional resistance to change. Embracing d…

Baptism Sermon — You are created from everything! 
Psalm 139:12-14
Happiness, or the state of being happy, is always an interesting topic; it’s what our life’s goal and dream in general is invested in nurturing, attaining or maintaining. “Be happy” is a great slogan, and we actually say it to one another a lot of times! “Happy Easter”, “Happy Birthday!”, “Happy Thanksgiving!”, “Happy Anniversary!”, “Happy Hanukkah!” 
Now, if we add “Always” to “be happy”, it makes us think. In our Christian Bible, we’ve heard the Apostle Paul encourage his readers, repeatedly, to “Rejoice in God, always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians), “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians), “Rejoice at all times” (1 Thessalonians). Similarly, in the Jewish mystical tradition, there’s a repeated reference to happiness: “It is a vitally important commandment always to be happy.” In both traditions, the emphasis is on “always.” 
How is it possible to always be happy, when we’ve also learned by experi…

Abiding in love, abiding in one another… John 15: 9-17

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love… This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
The beautiful theme emerges: Abiding in love; abiding in one another.
How do we do the “abiding”? How do we abide in one another? What is an example of abiding, and of not abiding? 
In the passage that we read last Sunday, Jesus says, using the image of a grape vine, “I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”
If you read these verses from the Korean translation of the Bible, the word abiding (in Korean) is closer to the meaning of ‘dwelling’. The image you can get from the Korean understanding of the word is close to the scenario of welcoming your guest into your room and letting your guest stay there with you. It is also close to the image of staying close to each other, witnessing what the other does, learning from the…