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Showing posts from March, 2017

Will Friendship Kitchen be ... Our Next Success Story?: An article for Meadowood Monitor, Spring, 2017

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Will Friendship Kitchen be … Our Next Success Story? ~ Ha Na Park Ten years have passed, but I can still vividly picture my family venturing into Save-on-Foods to shop for supper. We were like many other newcomer families in Vancouver: Min-Goo pushing toddler Peace in his stroller, and me quickly searching through the food sections, mostly looking for any familiar items from my home country, Korea, especially vegetables. Many Korean dishes - side or main - are based on a great variety of Korean native greens. I knew that without them, the menus I could create for my family’s supper would be limited. I remember how often I sighed in grocery stores, thinking, “I can’t make Korean cuisine with just spinach, bell peppers, broccoli, squash, and cucumbers. I wish I could take a cooking class. What do Canadians make with these vegetables?” Now, I recollect when I went out for lunch with my theological schoolmates, in my first year in Canada. We all sat down in a family restaurant.

Sermon: What does it mean when we say, "We made a mistake. It was a mistake"? (John 9:1-41), March 26, 2017

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Sermon: What does it mean when we say, "We made a mistake. It was a mistake"? Text: John 9:1-41 Have you ever put the first button in the wrong buttonhole? It’s usually not too bad, because by the time you are buttoning the last buttons on your shirt, you realize you have made a mistake – you see yourself in the mirror, or you see that your hem is crooked – even before leaving your bedroom. No one has seen it. No embarrassment. Fine. You just need to button yourself up again.  But how about in your real life, or in your job, when you realize, ‘Oh, what have I done? I made a mistake!’ What is the first action or step you take to fix the situation? How do you try to right the situation? How are you buttoning it up again? How about when you’re part of a community, and you realize, “Oh. It’s terrible. What have we done? We’ve made a mistake!”? How do you fix what’s gone wrong when there’s more than one pair of hands involved?   Let

Sermon - You are Safe (Mar 5, 2017)

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Sermon - You are Safe Our first reading from the Psalms 104 (v. 24-28) declares that God’s works are myriad in form and shape. It says God has made them all in wisdom; The earth is full of God’s creatures, including ourselves: We are part of God’s holy earth. If you have participated in getting ashes or in taking clay from the stations this morning … through this experiential liturgy and exercise, you have received the truth: God’s creative work with you and within you is not yet done. Has anyone here been warming the clay in your hands and kneading it? (pushing it and shaping it, using your thumbs and fingers) How does it feel? Does the clay become pliable? Has anyone made it into a certain shape? (In the given instructions, you could make a bowl, symbolizing your ‘receiving’ God’s love)  Our being created is not yet done; creation is still being active with us. Maybe it’s because we are not like water-based clay, which dries quickly once it’s shaped or sculpted and left alon