For Agnes C

Celebration of the Life of Agnes C

Love is amazing. It is the greatest human privilege to experience it and explore it. It is the greatest gift that God has given to us - as we grow in faith, we grow in love. Love transforms our lives; it refines and redefines our lives. When love makes its home in the core of our being, it changes us - we are never the same. With love touching and changing our lives, our being becomes like a jewel; it shines with a splash of new colour, previously unknown and now unforgettable.

The love that has been freely given to us never ends; it continues its journey like light, which traverses from one end of the universe to the other. When that light starts its journey from a star, even one far from our own galaxy, its speed is steady, its wavelength is set. When it reaches the earth, some of the particles reach us; the others continue, passing our planet. Either way, all the light particles continue their travel on the earth and in all known and unknown places, unseen, unstopped, unchanging, open to and through the universe’s holy time of the eternal. Love works in the same way light travels. It never ends; it lives in the lives of those who have been touched and will touch others when they show love, and act out of love. Love binds us all and opens us all.

We know what it is like to be loved unconditionally and accepted; this love is the sacred place where we find ourselves over and over. This love has the divine spark. Christian faith proclaims that we are all born with a true capacity for love; we all shine like a precious gem. Love calls us all to participate in the process of being and becoming.

When I first met Agnes last October, at her bedside in Victoria General Hospital, Agnes delightfully welcomed and hugged me. The colour of the red, wooly sweater she wore was as cheerful and bright as her spirit. When I read the third chapter of Ecclesiastes for her, she used her whole strength to lean toward me so that she could be as close as possible and hear me reading. If you can imagine, during the next few minutes, she tried to sit up as straight as she could, even in her frailty. I have never been good at “sitting up straight”, even when I was an elementary school student, so I know how very hard it is to keep one’s body upright and unmoving for four minutes. Agnes, however, did it without any complaint and with an impressive loving attention. Agnes responded to each word with such welcome. Her two eyes - excitingly awake - didn’t lose their focus on my face. All the ways that Agnes related to a strange minister she met for the first time were just astounding. That’s how she treated everyone she met in her life: with kindness, welcome, and truly genuine attention. I believe that such welcome and unconditional acceptance and her bright, cheerful and truthful spirit are what gather us all here as we remember her and celebrate her life and the precious gifts that she’s given us so freely.

Our reading for this morning shares that there is a season for everything: a time for giving birth. A time for dying. A time for tears. A time for laughter. A time for mourning. A time for dancing. There is also a time for love, the love which has the closest resemblance to God’s love, unconditional, life-giving and life-transforming - the constant stream that refreshes all seasons, in all lives.

I have recently learned a song that was composed by Weston Priory, a group of Catholic monks who write and sing music based on monastic tradition. When I first read it, it reminded me of the very warm time I had with Agnes and her daughter M last October. I hope that the words allow us a moment to remember Agnes, who is now on a beautiful journey of light, whose time is with the Holy One of the Eternity, surrounded by the steady beam of God’s blessings and God's awesome breadth of love.

When Someone We Love  (Weston Priory)

When someone we love so carefully grows

With courage and struggle to let love be their home.

We sing, yes, we dance and share our delight

To witness such beauty and a strength, oh, so right.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life.

We tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

The joy that you’ve found is gift for us all,

It glows like the velvet of a crystal moonlight.

Over the years the choices you’ve made

Have clothed you with freedom to nurture, to heal.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life.

we tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

And as we move on to horizons of light,

We hope for each other, drink deeply of life,

To know and to love, to choose and to share

This is the garden where happiness dwells.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life,

We tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

Amen.

Remembrance Sunday sermon: Remember to Heal (Nov 8, 2015)

Sermon: Remember to Heal

Text: Mark 12:38-44

Today, we are invited to the act of remembrance, together, as a community and as a nation. The act of remembrance has many different purposes; I believe that the remembrance specific to this time of year invites us to remember to heal: to heal the wounds and the scars that have been caused by violence and aggression of any kind, of any extent, born from any intention, in all places, and to reconstruct what has been destroyed, dislocated, disturbed by internecine or international wars, the bombings and the missiles, the terrorism and the drone strikes; I believe that Remembrance Day for Christians is to remember that our call is to heal, not to take vengeance; the Good News is that “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God”.

On this Remembrance Sunday I want to remember that our Christian calling invites us to expand our visions of peace beyond the limited scope of a Canadian national identity. We need to remember who we are, where we are from, and where we find our home: on this beautiful globe, this singular planet, the earth. I am a permanent resident of this beautiful piece of the earth, Canada, but I am not a Canadian. I stand with you before God as a gathered Christian congregation, mindful of the Beatitudes Jesus proclaimed on the Mount, “Blessed are those who mourn.” This beatitude invites us to deepen our understanding of how mourning may bless us when we mourn and remember to heal. It certainly takes humanity, imagination and an open heart to enter into other people’s grief, to mourn truly and generously not only those whose absence puts a sword through our hearts, but those who lie in unmarked graves, whose names we will never know, whose lives we may think are unrelated to ours.  Marilyn McEntyre rightly says, “One way to mourn authentically the dead whom we may have come to regard as enemies… is to connect the dots that trace a path between us and them – the policies, the expropriation of resources, the forms of protectionism and attitudes of American exceptionalism that need to be renounced in order to recognize that the earth was their home as it is ours.” She also puts it, “Only when we grieve for those we have killed as well as for those we love who have been killed will we be able to enter into the mourning that links us to all humans who live with the aching agony of loss.”

Since my family moved to Canada in 2007, (my husband arrived a little earlier, on Remembrance Day 2006, to make ready our new home in Burnaby) I have seen the imitation poppies worn on people’s coats, sweaters and jackets around this time of year every year, yet I never realized what Remembrance Day really meant for Canadians until I joined the gathering around the cenotaph in Chemainus for the first time in 2011. It seemed like half the town had come out for the ceremony! Since then, I never missed standing by the cenotaph with my family, church members, and friends, absorbing what I heard, what I learned, and the emotions that were deeply stirred by the veterans’ stories and the plaintive notes of The Last Post. I feel like I understand Remembrance Day better now; the most important thing I learned is the primary value Canadians hold, longing for the peace of the nation, peace for the world.

At the same time, every year, Remembrance Day also leads me into deep pondering, even puzzlement to see how the Christian theology of atonement and the sacrifice of Christ is used to explain the sacrifice the soldiers have made - their lives. Here are three points that have me looking for answers each year: First, the Gospel is very clear in its proclamation of peace and Jesus’ choice of non-violence when opposing oppressive conditions and unjust rulers.  

Second, the context of war has changed since the early 20th century. In  2015, the just cause, the theology or the ideology that called men and women to fight in two World Wars cannot be similarly used to justify why contemporary wars should take place in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel and Palestine. In this era of armed globalization, we must find out and seek an alternative strategy to fight against deadly hatred and to achieve global peace, rather than immediately resorting to wars of convenience and vengeance.

Third, I wonder what it really means when we say, “For they have sacrificed their lives that we may live in this country peacefully or that we may be free.” This belief originates from our Christian confession that Christ bled and died on the cross so that God would forgive our sins and save us from punishment. My puzzlement lands upon the word “freedom”. When we say, “we”, who do we refer to? Who is free when, even with our best intentions, the real face of perpetual warfare never allows anyone to be free. War never can bring the peace we hope to achieve; violence begets more violence. The rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria shows that there are terrible consequences to militaristic hubris; it allows continual violation of human integrity and breeds more terrorism than it eliminates.

Humbly and with respect, I would like to share the following three reflections as an invitation to an act of remembrance for us all, this morning.

Last November, I attended an open forum held at the Grand Mosque in our city: #Notinourname: Winnipeg Muslims Speak Against ISIS and Terrorism. Following the wonderful panel discussion, people lined up at the mike one by one to share their stories. The most powerful moment for me was when a young Muslim woman shared her story about the last time she saw her hometown - the stilled and captured picture of the place and the people she loved most. The completely destroyed buildings and houses, the rubble of the broken concrete blocks all over the place - she couldn’t recognize any building in that destroyed town, even the houses of her neighbours, relatives and family members. She spoke sharply, yet very briefly about the terrifying air strikes she experienced, and the anger she felt against the US. Then, she continued, in that period of anger, she had a chance to read the Koran. She read it page by page. She could finally find peace and forgiveness by reading the Koran. Her amazing story simply blew my mind. It was a powerful testimonial to the transformative power of faith. This morning, I remember her faith.

Second, I remember where I come from, and this year, again, I remember that to Koreans, the Korean War is most thoughtfully called “Our Great Tragedy of Mutual Killings of One’s Own Brothers and Sisters.” The phrase, “For they have sacrificed their lives that we may live in this country peacefully” does not translate comfortably into Korean.

Third, I remember all those who have freely offered their lives now and have gone before us for the high hope of peace and justice and for the peace of the nations and the world. In the Gospel reading today, the woman offered two coins out of her poverty. I imagine the act of giving changes her and transforms her even before it reaches the others’ lives. I think of that young Muslim woman, making a gift of her transformation from anger to forgiveness, out of the rubble of her destroyed town. What are our two coins that we can give, out of our poverty? On this Sunday, may we remember to heal, remember to transform, remember to care for all peoples, as a people of the Good News: Blessed are the Peacemakers.

Theme Conversation - The Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt

Theme Conversation – The Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do any of you know where I originally came from? (That’s right! or That’s pretty close..) I’m from Korea, a beautiful country with a lot of green hills and steep mountains. (Show it on the globe.)

Thanksgiving Day in Korea (which we call “Choo-Seok”) begins every year with the image of the Harvest Moon; it’s a holiday to celebrate family and our happiness at being all together. For Korean thanksgiving, families get together and go out and look at the Harvest Moon in the midnight sky. That’s really different from Canadian Thanksgiving, but the feelings are just the same. 

Three years ago when my son was 6 years old, he remembered that tradition, and when I picked him up from daycare, there was a very full harvest moon, which was golden and beautiful, and my son pointed to the moon and said, “There! Mom! I see Korea! That’s Korea! I see my grandma and grandpa living there.” Can you imagine? He thought the full moon was a bright light that came all the way from Korea.

Did you get a chance to go out and see the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago? It was called a blood moon, because of its color. It was also a Supermoon - it looked bigger because it was at the closest point of its orbit around the earth. and- it was also the Harvest Moon! Were you able to go out with your family and look at the reddish moon through the telescope? The moon looked like a treasure! Many kids didn’t go to sleep at their usual bedtime that night, hanging on to that special moment of seeing that rare red moon for the first time. 

Today, we will hear the Gospel story in which Jesus says to a young man, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor so you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  Jesus says to us, “You will have a treasure in heaven.” Like the beautiful, rare, unexpected, unique moon in the midnight sky, we can see the heaven, the treasure of life, in each person’s eyes if we take time to really look at each other. Today, we give thanks to God for our community, how we share our humanity together and pray that it blossoms like a beautiful full moon among us. So here’s the activity I hope to invite all of us to do with our children and youth. Let’s look around! In today’s Gospel story, we will hear twice that Jesus “looked around”. Imagine how Jesus looks around and looks at his friends and disciples with such intent love! Let us look around and look each other in the eyes. 

Friends (children), here’s your task before we hear the choir sing the Anthem. Do you know what colors your eyes are? When you get a chance to look in a mirror really carefully, you will actually see in your eyes more colours than you think there are! I invite you to go and find people, sit beside them, and look them in the eyes; you can do it with your mom or dad or brother or sister or your good friends. They have many different colours in their eyes as well - they shine like jewels! I hope you find out that the treasure of life, the treasure which grows in our hearts when we say our thanks to God, grows faster when we give thanks for each one’s presence here, today.

Sermon: Three Measures of Wheat Flour

Sermon: Three Measures of Wheat Flour

Text: Matthew 13:31-33

As we start our 2015 stewardship campaign, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to Bev, for the ministry you’ve so energetically and wonderfully led with the other leaders and helpers in our gardening group. I am also very thankful to learn how we can not only count our blessings – a 294 lb harvest – but how we can make our blessings count. We, as a church, could easily choose to be quite insular; the world outside our walls is rapidly changing. Society is becoming secularized at a speed that’s hard to comprehend. If you have visited Vancouver or another West Coast city, you might have noticed that it’s much more secular than here in the heartland; it’s like living in a non-religious future. 

For many young people, even here, church is just a very odd place to be. They simply have no idea, concepts, or language that can help them understand what we do here or what we believe. The way in which people form relationships is changing: social media, the internet, handheld devices are now a major channel of how and where people get information – including the information that informs their own spiritual development. It seems like people are on the other side of a window, and we see them through the glass. We know we are visible to those on the outside, and we think that we need to be better at how we keep things looking on the inside and improve how we make our home here. As far as I know, most churches share the same anxiety: we need to establish some security for ourselves, so we focus on planning and sustainability. We try to make sure all our ministries are on the right track, even growing, with increased attendance, better financial statements, well-maintained buildings, a deeper pool of human and other resources. I can’t exaggerate the importance of all your efforts to ensure our sustainability and growth - they are deeply necessary. I would like to encourage us all to express our deepest thanks to all those who invest a great amount of time and energy in making sure that we are stable, self-sustaining and successful. 

I feel like I should mention the first positive impression I received about this congregation, when I applied for a full-time ministry position offered at Meadowood, last year. At the time I had sent my application to 30 different congregations across Canada. That’s a lot of congregations, but I wanted to cast a wide net. For about half of those churches, I read all the documents from their Annual Reports to the reports of all the committees and each church’s financial statements. To be really honest here, among those thirty congregations, the United Church in Meadowood stood out most decisively. This congregation really was outstanding; very organized, solid in its financial status, with a clear demonstration of who they are. I was amazed by the organization, effectiveness, passion about envisioning their future goals, especially their desire to become a truly affirming congregation. My heart was pounding for this congregation even before I had an interview. I really wanted to be part of the confidence that the ministry here expressed so clearly. Sometimes you become so familiar with yourself that you don’t know how great you are until somebody says to you what potential you have and tells you that you really can be confident about who you are and what you have achieved. This church has every reason to be confident. 

Over the past year, I’ve enjoyed many opportunities to learn and get to know more about our congregation. Even for a person who has been given the privilege to be in the center of ministry here, it takes at least a year to really know where I am. I am so thankful that I am in a congregation where I can confidently say that I trust the leadership here – how faith is expressed here in leadership – lay and pastoral – in a way that incorporates hard work, sincerity and true humility. When you see your leader bursting with really great, healthy, delightful laughter for the love of his church, for any small success we share at a Council meeting, the feeling is so infectious - it really helps you be confident about this community. knowing that you are in a good place. Confidence is such a critical factor; it helps us to move forward, and it helps us to take even more steps to amplify the positive impact we can have in our lives and in the lives of others.

I would like to suggest two things for us to ponder:

First, as for our visioning about our church, I hope to encourage you to let go of any sort of insular self-image. Remember my analogy of the window? Windows are transparent. You can see outside, and know what is going on, and you can still be indoors. (But windows also open!)

I don’t think it is an accident that most of Jesus’ parables describing the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven take place outside. Jesus likes to use natural symbols to explain the kingdom of Heaven and how the kingdom of God becomes real; how the kingdom of God is a place that begins now yet whose ultimate coming-into-being is yet to be realized: the tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’.  Stories set indoors can’t really be effective in demonstrating the stark contrast between the beginning and the end; between the mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds, and the greatest of shrubs, then a tree, which is, in reality, an exaggeration. However big a mustard shrub is, shrubs can’t be classified as a proper tree. What this hyperbole tells us is this famous parable is not about the gradual growth of a mustard seed to become a bigger something, but about a miracle, because the end is just unbelievable. It is not so much about the organic and biological development of a seed, or a church, but about how God works – germinating imperceptibly in the beginning, growing to an unknowable end. My son loves numbers, and his favourite number is infinity, because no one can count it. He likes that. I believe that the gift that our gardening group offers this morning is not really the harvest, but the parable. That’s what gives our ministry refreshing water and makes us alive – the connection that is open to the other side of the walls, and through the garden and harvest and the potential to feed people. 

I said most of Jesus’ parables develop their stories outdoors. The only exceptions happen in the kitchen. I am so looking forward to hearing Loraine’s presentation on behalf of UCW. Jesus’ parables never take place without an impact, hyperbole, stark contrast, the scale and the size being extremely exaggerated - it’s never just dinner, it’s a banquet or feast. The second parable about the Kingdom of God in today’s reading says “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.” When you hear this well-known parable, we often focus on the function of the leaven. Yet, the secret or the keyword may be ‘the three measures of wheat flour.’ Can anyone guess how much wheat flour Jesus is talking about? Maybe we think it’s about three cups of flour, enough to make one decent loaf of bread, but experts in ancient cooking practices calculate ‘three measures’ to be approximately fifty pounds of flour - 22 kg. Enough bread would come from that woman’s oven to feed more than one hundred people. Isn’t that amazing? I get goosebumps, thinking about it. Imagine this gospel story with me. On an ordinary evening, no one really pays attention to what this woman does in her kitchen. They might think that she’s preparing a meal for her family, like any other regular evening. Yet, she’s preparing a feast to feed over one hundred people in her community. Who do you think this woman is? She could be God.She could be Jesus. Or she could be a disciple, like us. Now, please welcome the UCW to share their story on food that has been feeding many kinds of hunger. (Loraine P: Food that feeds Many Kinds of Hunger) 

Sermon: Salt, Pepper and Heat

Sermon: Salt, Pepper and Heat

Mark 9:38-50

In today’s reading, Jesus says, “Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

I think that what Jesus is saying here is that having salt in ourselves naturally leads us and helps us to be at peace with each other. Salt has some magic in keeping the peace, just as it is used to bring out a food’s harmony and therefore enhance the taste. I wonder what it means to have salt in ourselves and how this symbolic salt can help us to live out our call to love one another.  

Salt is everywhere. Salt is essential in almost all cooking. Most families keep in their cupboard at least one kind of salt: sea salt, refined salt, coarse salt, Himalayan pink salt, garlic salt. onion salt. Their flavours and nutrients may be slightly different from each other, but salt is salt: it helps make our food special.

For us, salt is ordinary. We can get it easily and cheaply from any nearby grocery store. Salt is salt, and it doesn’t have any more meaning than that. However, salt in Jesus’ time was not so ordinary. Hard to get, it even had a religious value. You may wonder what Jesus really means when he says, “For everyone will be salted with fire”. To Jesus’ audience, it would have been quite obvious that he was making an analogy with a common sacrificial ritual. In Jesus’ time, people came to the temple to celebrate or to remember the most special moments of their lives. They bought and dedicated what they could offer: animals and birds, ritually killed and burned on the altar fire; the smoke rising up to God as appeasement and thanks. Salt plays an important role in the sacrifice, as is written in Old Testament law: “With all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Lev. 2:13) and “Every sacrifice will be salted with fire.” All offerings were salted first, then burnt. In this context, what I hear from Jesus’ message is that we need to be a holy sacrifice offered to God and one another. To make that happen, that symbolic salt should play an integral role in the process. We need that symbolic salt, and heat, and, I like to think, a bit of pepper - the spice of our individual personalities. 

With the images of salt, pepper and heat here, we are not imagining a recipe for chicken wings  but the recipe for making a disciple. Today’s story comes after the story we heard last Sunday. Do you remember it? The twelve disciples were arguing with each other secretly, (or so they thought)  about which of them was the greatest and who would be first when they all entered the new world, the Kingdom of God, which they believed Jesus would establish soon. Their ‘secret’ bickering was immediately challenged by Jesus, who said, “Whoever wants to be the first should be the last of all and the servant of all.” Then he provided a kind of ‘acted parable’ by welcoming a very young child to sit on his lap and saying that welcoming such a young child in his name is like welcoming Jesus himself. What amazes me is how he uses the image of being a servant and reverses its implied meaning. We who live in the 21st century tend to avoid using the image of being a servant as it reminds us of the terrible and painful history of slavery and of the oppressive nature of a stratified society. We strive to build a society that secures equality and equity. As far as I have observed, ‘being a servant leader’ has never been a favored theological concept among United Church folk; the idea has been rarely discussed. Yet in the Gospel, the image of the social hierarchy is, very vividly in Jesus’ words, overturned completely, upside down. “Whoever wants to be the first must be the last of all and a servant of all.” Discipleship, the idea of becoming a servant to all as a disciple of Christ is at odds with the modern, common concept of equality: everyone equal, nobody last, nobody first. 

Jesus’ words that the community of disciples is not equal are very clear. He doesn’t say that you and me and we are equal. Jesus’ words are very clear: “I” must be a servant of all, and the last of all. It is not just imagery - it should be practical. Two weeks ago, when I planned and prepared for the first morning of Interpreting Whispers, our Thursday Morning Bible Study, after a three - month break, I was quite delighted to find a guideline document which was written by a Christian leader who leans to the the Evangelical side of Christianity. I found it quite refreshing to read the recurring emphasis that “A leader always must remember Christ’s instruction to be a servant to the members.” Being a servant may sound like a strange goal - even thinking of becoming a servant to somebody sounds pre-modern. What I was reminded of first was my internship experience at Chemainus United Church. There was a church member who wished to challenge the church leaders to take the meaning of being a ‘servant-leader’ more seriously and to teach the concept to the congregation. And as you may rightly guess, I resisted. At the time, three years ago, I thought it wasn’t right to evoke the image of a servant when I had high hopes of sharing with people an enhanced awareness of ‘equity.’ 

“Being a servant leader has its point, for sure,” I thought. “But should we borrow the image of slavery or a hierarchy to help us understand how to be better Christians?” 

But, as that guideline showed, many Evangelical Christians still use the Biblical image of servanthood to convey the meaning of discipleship, and I’ve surprised myself by taking this old theological concept more seriously. I took some time to ask myself, “Have I become a servant of all, in ministry and in life?” 

That question resonates in my life, inspiring a deeper awareness, disturbance and questions, especially about whether I have been more concerned about myself, my dreams, my achievements, the security of my status, rather than sharing, expanding and delivering the life-giving love of Jesus.  I believe that we should take time as a community to ask ourselves whether we are more concerned about our success than we are eager to learn God’s missions and justice. We need to look through our hearts, minds and behaviours to discern whether it is “Thou” or it is “me” we truly care about most.

I confess that my personal character and my awareness of my own social status – an Asian young(er) woman – has driven me to prove that I am better than the way people see me. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes I feel I should always hold a sign in my hand - my degrees, my qualifications, my varied life experiences, my resumé, to insist that I not be considered as the last. Some of my experiences in Canada have given me a strong impression that I tend to become invisible if I don’t speak up and  insist on being seen. So I taught myself to raise my voice, blow my own horn, and make myself visible and known so that I don’t get lumped into that dreaded last group. 

And I do believe that all the efforts I have made to speak up and be seen have been valuable. Yet, now I am also aware that the call to follow Jesus is universal. I am given the same task as everybody else.  I am aware that I am called to serve God through serving others, helping others to grow, not me. Now, using ‘not’ may sound too strong, but here’s my point for today: The desire to promote oneself and to tend to one’s own need is quite natural. There is a great value in caring for yourself and it takes a lot of practice, yet knowing how to take care of oneself is also very instinctive. It is intuitive. We know the way somehow. Learning self-care is inherent, though it takes firm intention, self-awareness, some learning, and practice to separate self-care from self-indulgence. 

But - serving others, serving both the least and the powerful, loving my neighbours and my enemy, with wisdom, discernment and love, takes a path that may not necessarily be intuitive but even counter-intuitive. Sometimes it takes sacrifice. We need to value harmony. We need to appreciate unity, diversity, and the equal rights of others to live abundantly. For Christians, we need to open the Bible and learn the way of Jesus. Jesus believed in the power attained through embracing vulnerability and weakness – remember the way of the cross - .

So, back to ‘salt’. I have set my new motto for my ministry and life, recently, following my two month vacation in Korea. In other words, one dash of salt I have with me as I am invited to join in God’s new cooking class is, (remember, Jesus says, “have salt in yourselves”) that I will choose to be happier rather than just to be better. I choose to give less care and attention to who I am, my achievements, my success, status, power games, where I am ranked in life’s competition. I choose to develop a more keen awareness about how God engages with you and me and loves you and me and how we can all learn to be happier and enjoy the freedom of spirit that a genuine life of service brings. Jesus asks us to have a dash of salt with us. This week, I challenge you to find your salt that helps you follow the call to engage with the power of love and discipleship. 

  

Theme Conversation: The Power of Care (with the science demonstration: The Egg Drop)

Theme Conversation: CARE

You might wonder why I’m beginning our Theme Conversation by pulling along this mother duck who’s carrying her egg.  If we help the mother duck carry her egg with care, see, it’s just beautiful; the Mother duck is happy. The egg is happy.

Some of us who participated in VBS last summer would know what ‘Action Word’ we learned with the science activity Drop Egg. Of course, this mother duck will never drop her egg, as long as I lead her with care.

Yes! CARE!

I’m going to show you The Power of Care!

(DEMONSTRATION OF THE DROP EGG)

Fill a large plastic drinking glass about three quarters full with water.

Center a pie pan on top of the glass.

Place the toilet paper roll on the pie pan.

With care, set the egg on top of the tube!

“I’m going to have to act with CARE so that, hopefully, eggs and water don’t go everywhere!”

Look! What has just happened?

Has the egg been safely dropped right in the water? With CARE, everyone is safe, happy, included.

Today, we start our children’s church with excitement and SWEETS! Are you excited knowing that you’ll get be able to build your own sundae with the sprinkles of your choice? Our Fellowship Committee made sure that you will have some cool toppings to choose from! That will be really tasty & colourful!

Today, we also learn that we build our community together, with our friends and families and other adults, as we are called to serve one another with love and CARE!

As the body of Jesus, we learn to care for one another as Jesus loves every single one of us equally and with great love. With Jesus, everyone is important; no one is considered more important than anybody else. In today’s Gospel story, Jesus welcomes a very young child, just like you, and lets the child sit on his lap, and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” You know, that was a revolutionary statement in Jesus’ day. 2000 years ago, children were totally powerless - adults never really listened to kids  - they were treated as being unimportant. One source says children were referred to as “it” rather than as ‘he’ or ‘she’. What the children thought or wanted mattered to no one, not even their own parents. However, Jesus says, welcoming such a young child with all their questions and their fresh view of our world is just like welcoming Jesus himself.

As we learn Jesus’ message, let’s give a warm welcome to our youngest members of the Children’s Church. Today, we welcome BB, JG, TP. Let’s all say together, “Welcome, B, Welcome J, Welcome T in Jesus’ name!” (Handing out a lamb to B, T, J)

Theme Conversation: Crocus-Minded (Sept 13, 2015)

Last week, I asked a teen girl, “Have you had a poem or prayer that has inspired you recently?” She did have a poem, and she shared it with me. The title of the poem she recommended was  “Crocus-minded”. I searched for it and found that it’s in the book, Bless this Mess and Other Prayers, written nearly 45 years ago!

(Children) Have you seen crocuses? You’ve probably read this book, The Runaway Bunny, and seen this picture. It’s one of my younger son’s favorite books. Here’s the crocus that the little bunny turns into, hoping that his mother can’t find him, but - she finds him anyway, even disguised as a flower.

I always loved crocuses when I was on Vancouver Island; they look like beautiful gems of the early spring landscape. They poke their heads up from the cold earth, even above the snow after a long winter, signaling that Spring is coming.

Well, it’s not Spring right now, but the fall is quite obviously arriving. We are very alert to the arrival of Fall! I guess it’s because we know what’s coming up following the fall! (Please don’t frown at me, telling you all this stuff related to winter! :)

I learned that the floral emblem of Manitoba, our own province, is the prairie crocus, which is also the floral emblem of South Dakota. I was amazed when I learned that my favourite flower - now in Manitoba, the prairie crocus (botanical name: Anemone Patents) - used to be everywhere in the spring before our prairies were replaced by farms, cities and roads. From my conviction that the gift of the earth is the gift of God, I would like to share this poem, Crocus-Minded, with you, just as that teenage girl shared it with me. Whatever challenges you may face now and in the future as we are called to act and speak for justice and for God, I hope Crocus-Minded finds a home in your heart today and inspires you to take courage.

It takes courage
    to be crocus-minded.
 
Lord, I’d rather wait until June,
    like wise roses,
    when the hazards of winter are safely behind,
    and I’m expected,
    and everything’s ready for roses.
 
But crocuses?
    Highly irregular.
    Knifing up through hard-frozen ground and snow,
        sticking their necks out.
    because they believe in spring
    and have something personal
    and emphatic to say about it.
 
Lord, I am by nature rose-minded.
    Even when I have studied the situation here
    and know there are wrongs that need righting,
    affirmations that need stating,
    and know also that my speaking out may offend–
        for it rocks the boat–
    well, I’d rather wait until June.
    Maybe later things will work themselves out,
    and we won’t have to make an issue of it.
 
Lord, forgive.
    Wrongs don’t work themselves out.
    Injustices and inequities and hurt don’t just dissolve.
 
Somebody has to stick his neck out,
    somebody who cares enough
        to think through
        and work through hard ground,
    because he believes
    and has something personal
        and emphatic to say about it.
 
Me Lord?
 
Could it be that there are things that need to be said,
    and you want me to say them?
 
I pray for courage.
 
                    Amen.

Talking Teens Are Seeking New Leaders/Helpers for this Fall!

Talking Teens Are Seeking New Leaders/Helpers for This Fall!

Erica has been leading Talking Teens for the last two years, (with Ha Na, 2014-5). Recently, she has decided to continue her faith and life journey living with the people at Ploughshares Community Farm, Beausejour, MB. Blessings, Erica!!

While we send our blessings on her adventure, (We’ll keep in touch with her, for sure!), Talking Teens is seeking new volunteers to lead/help for this fall.  Talking Teens meet on two Sundays every month and also on weekdays for other activities. Please have a look at TT Schedule for Fall, 2015 below to see if our new season attracts your interest and / or desire to participate! (Please call/text at Ha Na's cell or email to Hana.Park@ucim.org)

As a Talking Teens leader, you will be able to:

-          - create a type of worship that you find most meaningful and share it with a small group that is open, flexible and non-judgemental

-          - get to know our youth

-          - bring whatever you want to share (whatever you like that is appropriate for church. Our youth is such a flexible group!)  

-         -  explore alternative ways of worshipping that are physical, interactive and movement-based (It is more active than (just!) sitting in the pews!) and to push at the edges of what it means to be the church.

-         -  be experimental

-          - try out your skills in a safe environment  

-         -  talk about your own faith journey with a non-judgemental audience. Share your Two Cents! (For example, Erica always liked to share the deep sense of being loved by this specific community and creation. Love is powerful and acting in the world all the time!)

-         - Last but not least, according to Erica, you will enjoy the “great” benefit which is to work with Ha Na. True! :)

“Planning sessions for the teens helped me to develop my own ideas and deepen my own commitment to faithful living”       ~ Erica Young

TT Schedule for Fall, 2015

Theme (Fall, 2015) Go and Explore who God is Calling Us 2 B !

Goals

·         Building wider relationships and networks inside and outside of our community

·         Exploring faith, justice and service

TT SCHEDULE FOR FALL (the followings are subject to change and can be flexible.)

	August	September	October	November	December
Related Themes	Food Sharing	Food sharing/security, poverty and justice	Peace, love and art, food sharing	Intercultural experience, fun, food	Faith, justice, & service, food sharing/security
Weekdays	Farm trip (29th, Ploughshares Community Farm, Beausejour, MB) *	Children’s Church  welcoming picnic (20th (Sun), UCiM)*	ALF - stock 2015 Youth Retreat  - A celebration of spirituality and the arts **	UCC Intercultural Youth -CONNECT (to be our initiative) Cooking workshop * (Good Food Club, West Broadway Community Ministry) or Volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest *
		Walk a Mile In My Shoes * (26th (Sat), WBCM)	Saturday Night Bungee (Baking bread for communion	Saturday Night Bungee (with theme)	Inside the Church Sleepover with theme, followed by Christmas morning worship

Two Sundays every month @ UCiM ***		Welcome, worship & picnic *(20th)	echo-THE STORY **** (Parables)	echo – THE STORY (kingdom Treasures)	echo – THE STORY (jesus’ encounters)
		X          X         X	X        X        X (We will be at the Conference Youth Retreat, Inglis, MB)	Cooking workshop * (Intercultural)	Advent Worship for Talking Teens (Focus: spirituality and experience)

* These programmes are open to youth, their families and friends

** On Oct 23^rd – 25^th, at Asessippi Ski Area and Resort, Inglis, MB. Open to all youth (Gr. 7-12)

*** Youth-geared worship, echo-THE STORY, or theme-based activities @ 11 am for 30-40 mins

**** echo-THE STORY for Youth (http://wearesparkhouse.org/teens/echothestory/36/)