13th June 2021 Pentecost 3 (Third Sunday after Pentecost) God’s Plan and The Kingdom of God (Scripture Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Mark 4: 26-34) By Heeyoung Lim Our pride, arrogance, and self-centeredness often hinder our trust in God. Today’s text invites us to ask God to show us where our pride and self-centeredness are and repent of it so that God can use us in His service. God had rejected Saul’s leadership because Saul had rejected the word of the Lord. Saul’s disobedience grieved God that He had made Saul the first king, but Samuel mourned for him. One day God had a special plan and job for Samuel. God said to him, “I want you to find a new king.” It was the time for Samuel to stop mourning and start new task given by God in accordance with God’s commands. When Jesse and his sons arrived at the sacrifice, Samuel was ready to anoint the new king of Israel, but he made a mistake. Samuel was impressed and was sure this was the LORD’s anointed when he saw the tall and handsome oldest Eliab. But he was wrong. Samuel struggled to perceive God’s choice for the one who will succeed Saul in his view, but He obeyed God’s word. The Lord rejected 7 sons of Jesse. In verse 11-12, Samuel asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? No, there was one who was tending the sheep. God provided Israel a king for the future through a child shepherd, David. The king should be the man after the Lord’s own heart but, Samuel did not know the intent of God’s heart. Samuel’s mistake leads us to consider that faithful leaders must have the right kind of heart. Immediately, the Lord told Samuel to arise and anoint David, Jesse’s youngest son was the one. David is selected by the Lord through Samuel as the new king of Israel. Ancient Near Eastern societies generally gave special inheritance rights and leadership roles to the firstborn son. However, God often chose those overlooked and ignored in the society and culture. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Solomon were younger brothers whom God blessed. The young David was selected from among all Jesse’s sons to be the new king After God rejected Saul as king; God told Samuel to go and anoint a new king, one after God’s own heart. Samuel took the horn of oil and poured its contents on David’s head in the presence of his brothers. (13) David’s anointing is reported in just one verse. David had an extended period of waiting and serving before he begins the reign as king, because there was already a king named Saul. David waited until it was his turn to be king for a long time even after the anointing. God was not concerned with height or appearance; God’s ways are not our ways. God wants us to have the right kind of heart. God looks at our heart instead of appearance; He chooses us and has plans for our lives. God’s sight does not settle for appearances but looks at the heart. Everything belongs to the Lord. I hope we can trust God’s plans and seek the Lord’s heart on all matters. Samuel did what the Lord had commanded him. I hope we can all listen to God’s word and live out the gospel. In fulfilling the vocation God has given us, we also have a time of waiting and service, but our sight needs to focus on the reign of God in all our circumstances. In Mark 4, Jesus tells us the beginning of God’s realm that are like mustard seeds; He teaches a fact that God’s realm grows from the smallest like mustard-seed. Great potential resides in even the smallest. As we live in faith, we are invited to look upon ourselves and the world with spiritual eyes. Trust and faith result in growth. This story is about a parable of the automatically growing seed and the mustard seed. The parable of the mustard seed is found also in Luke 13:18–19 and Matthew 13:31–32, but the parable of the growing seed is found only in Mark. The “seed” has been defined as “the word” in verse 14 and the expression of “on the ground” occurs three times in these two parables. It is also translated with three different phrases that are “on the soil”, “on earth”, and “throughout the world”. (26, 31, 31) That is, the meaning of God’s realm is deeply connected to our lives in the world. In verse 27, the verbs “sleeps” and “rises” signify a long process, but the one who scatters seeds does not understand the process and can only wait patiently. We do not know how the seed sprouts and grows because the seed grows in secret. Sleeping and getting up in the soil are hidden between seed time and harvest. It is unseen and unobserved but exists and grows. In today’s text, Jesus describes what the kingdom of God is like. (26) The kingdom of God will come in its fullness when God reigns over the earth. We can also remind of a Bible verse, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Like the parable of the Sower, this story about the kingdom of God also encourages those who will be sowing God’s word. God is working when we are sowing and scattering God’s word. Mark insists that while humans are called to “sow” or to “scatter the seed,” the growth is completely up to God. We can be sure that growth is taking place by God’s amazing grace and that his harvest will eventually bear fruit. Verse 30-32 describes what the reign of God is like. The mustard seed was the smallest of all the seeds in Palestine, but it will grow until birds can take shelter in its branches. Small beginnings can yield great outcomes in the view of the kingdom of God. Even if

6th June 2021 Pentecost 2 (Second Sunday after Pentecost) Title: God’s Will and Jesus’ Family (Scripture Readings: 1 Samuel 8:4-11; Mark 3: 31-35) By Heeyoung Lim We live in arduous times and try our best to discern how to be faithful to God. The Holy Spirit sometimes comes to us in unfamiliar forms. God’s will is achieved in unexpected ways. First thing we can do is asking God and bringing the matters to God in our all circumstances. In today’s text, we can figure out that Samuel asked God His will when Israel did not seek God’s will. Samuel warns the people about the problems they can expect with an earthly king as their leader. Their immoral behaviour was a departure from God’s will, and the faithless seemed to deny the Samuels leadership. This might hurt Samuel’s feelings and he was unhappy. Complaints must have reached the ears of the elders who gathered in a ruling council, but there was no praying and seeking of the Lord’s face. There was no crying out to God. The elders just demanded that Samuel appoint a king to lead the nation just like the surrounding nations. They wanted a political monarch who would defeat oppressive enemies and a visible and tangible leadership. The request of the elders for a king displeased Samuel, but he wisely brought it to the Lord. God’s response to Samuel’s prayer in verse 8 shows that the request of the elders was wrong, but God told Samuel to listen to the voice of the people. God wanted Samuel to know that Israel had not rejected him as judge, but they had rejected God as king. Israel had continuously rejected God from the day He rescued them out of Egypt until then. Despite Israel’s rejection of God’s plan for leading them, God’s grace was continued. Samuel did just what God asked and proclaimed the words of the LORD to the people. (10) Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel because God allowed their demands. The Israelites under Saul’s leadership defeat the Ammonites. God gave them a king, but He did it in His way. God wants us to grow spiritually so that we do not follow the crowd or worldly desires such as power, fame, and fortune. Sometimes people follow a collective unconsciousness without hesitation and blindly jumping on the worldly desires without reflection. There are lots of leaderships we need to follow or respect in our lives, but we can surrender completely to God as King and Jesus as Lord in our lives. The covenant of kingship is achieved through Jesus the Messiah. God is working through His people. I hope we can ask God to show us God’s will every area of our lives and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us God’s way on our faith journey. We can list our worldly desires in our diary or journal and repent of the sin of rejecting God’s will even though God’s leading may not visible, audible, or tangible. Do we pray for the reign of God in our daily prayers? Do we still have many prayer topics regarding worldly desires? God listens to our prayers, but He also hears our praises. We can list ways we can praise God as King and share the ways with others. We can also ask God for the grace and love whenever we try to serve God and others. I hope we can pray more about the kingdom of God and the reign of God. God’s will be done when we choose to follow God’s lead in our lives. It can be started from our family and communities. Family is the place where we feel safe and secure, where we learn to love and grow as a human being. But not all families are loving, and nurturing. Not all families are safe and secure. When I had a short-mission trip to Thailand, I met about 300 homeless people in a station, visited slum village and met many children who were suffering from their parents’ drug addiction and their various unsafe environment, and went to a refugee site there. On the other hand, I also met some missionaries and Thai Christians who so much loved and helped them regularly and dedicatedly. They did not have secure place or loving family, but they were with extended family with the name of Christians. In John’s Gospel, when Jesus is dying on the cross, he looks at his mother and says to her, “Woman, here is your son.” And then Jesus says to the beloved disciple, “Here is your mother.” Even on the cross Jesus was building His family of followers. So, he gave His mother a new son, and his beloved disciple a new mother. We know that Jesus loved and cared for his mother, even on the cross. (John 19:27) In Matthew 3 and Mark 3, Jesus showed and taught us a new priority in family that transcend the normal blood relations known as “family”. Jesus established a new family where all people can belong. His family is a group of people who believe in Him and follow Him in today’s text. When Jesus asked, “Who are my family,” He looked around him at the people sitting there in a ring and said that all who do will of God are his family. Jesus’ family is doing everything in the Holy Spirit who is connects the reign of God. God’s leadership seems to be a reversal of human ways, but the reign of God is always the best even in our torn environment with suffering and vulnerability. One of important messages of the Gospel is about the reign of God that displaces satanic reign or wrong worldly power. God’s work through Christ entails deliverance and mercy all the time. Jesus’ life and mission always revolved around the will of God. Jesus’ family is defined by commitment to doing God’s will. We are called to be around Jesus listening to Him. God

30th May 2021 Trinity Sunday Title: God’s Presence and Glory (Scripture Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3: 1-17) By Heeyoung Lim God is our creator who invites us into relationship and calls us to lives of faithfulness in accordance with God’s plan. We respond to God with love and celebrate the wonder of God’s presence represented in our lives. Isaiah experiences God’s presence at the temple that is cultural, national, and religious centre at a time when the Assyrians were threatening the Hebrew people. His experience of God’s presence is filled with mystery and power. God called his prophet to confront a faithless king and declare judgment for the present but hope for the future in His glory. The Hebrew word for “glory” means “weight” or “heavy.” It refers to the importance or weight people carry in their lives. We can give glory to God, that is, acknowledge His importance and reputation by honouring Him. We are invited to glorify God. God’s people have no reason to fear worldly powers but need to fear God alone. In today’s text, when God asked, “Who will go for us?”, Isaiah responded, “here I am, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8) I hope we can all respond and participate in God’s work as God-fearing people. God’s promise and His work are revealed in Christ, the Father’s gift of the Son for the eternal life and salvation of the world. In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, approaches Jesus with what he knows about Jesus, and focuses on signs. Jesus accepts Nicodemus, but He immediately teaches the necessity of being born from above to see the kingdom of God. (3) This term “above” is also translated as both “anew” and “again” in Greek meaning. He asks about the biological possibility of being born again. His misunderstanding continues time and again across Jesus’ word and ministry, but he has openness to come, approach, and listen to Jesus’ words. Jesus’ answer is that he needs to be born of the spirit. (3-4) It means that eternal life only comes through personal faith in the cross and the spirit. (9-15) The cross implies the meaning of both a physical lifting and a spiritual exaltation; it was for our salvation and the recovery of relationship with God. The promise for eternal life is connected and fulfilled in the Spirit brought by Jesus. The message about “being born again” written in the gospel of John invites us to be transformed towards new lives in the relationships with God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are new existence empowered by the grace of God and made manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We can find Jesus’ communal language, “We” Testimony in verse 11, it is related to faith community. We are one in Christ. The creative love of God, the redemptive offering of Christ, and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit; these Three are One. The Trinity represents God in loving relationships. The Trinity is a Christian belief where God is one in three persons (theological term, it does not mean just person): God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is difficult to find the right words to explain the Trinity well, that is why many people struggle with the fact of how God can be three distinct parts yet still be one. However, the position or relationship of the Trinity is not hierarchical or scale down version, it is very dynamic and inter relational. The Trinity can be described as a sign and metaphor for our ways of living together, being different and yet being a part of the same life. We need to relate the divine life of the Trinity, that is the life of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, with the life of the earth. I hope we can relate, live, and love together without division just like that God is very relational. John 3.16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It is about God’s love and salvation for the world, and the eternal life promised by Jesus relates to the life we live now and here. We need to gain a new awareness of the Spirit as well as of the world, so that we can understand the eternal love of God for the world. I pray we can show others that we are a lover of light when people come to us at night just like Nicodemus. We are all precious, but we will never forget our own sinfulness and unworthiness when compared to Jesus. In Isaiah, God called a sinful man as His prophet to announce his judgment to his sinful people, in John, Jesus gave Nicodemus who came to Him at night with his own knowledge opportunities to be born again through His living words. I hope we can all accept, proclaim, and live out the gospel certifying that God is truth. Salvation is the work of God and the gift of God’s grace internally through the Holy Spirit, but salvation-promised faith and spirit-filled life can be demonstrated outwardly through faith and godly living. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. As in John 3, believers possess eternal life, but unbelievers do not. Believers are not condemned, but unbelievers are condemned already. Believers live in the light while unbelievers live in the darkness. What can we do when many people reject the gospel because they love darkness and worldly life? I hope we can ask God to forgive us for the times we have refused to listen to Him and obey His word. I believe we will experience more love of God whenever we are closer to God because God is love. In John, God is love in action, and the John’s gospel is the Gospel of Love; the gospel of John represents the experience of a loving life-giving relationship with

23rd May 2021 The Day of Pentecost Title: The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2: 1-21) By Heeyoung Lim We know God’s Spirit is at work; it is for the world, the church, and all people. From the very beginning, Christ calls individuals into community as the church, and the Holy Spirit comes to us in different ways. Pentecost is the festival day marking the birth of the church; it is a good time to reaffirm congregants’ participation as disciples in the body of Christ. God is speaking to individuals who do not feel that belonging to the body of Christ, those who feel discouraged or excluded by the church. He is also giving us the renewal of creation, the liberation from oppression, and the recovery of the torn and broken things. I hope we can discern where and how God is active in the past, present, and the future through the Holy Spirit. In Ezekiel’s vision, God led the prophet back and forth among scattered dry bones. His vision of the dry bones shows the power of God’s Spirit to bring life from death. (Ezekiel 37:1-14) God will revive and unite His people and will defeat those who seek to destroy them. When Ezekiel prophesied as God commanded him, the bones came together. He looked at those bones that were attached, but they did not breathe. God commanded Ezekiel to prophesy a second time, this time to the breath. When the very dried bones are everywhere God restored them. As a result, the bones came to life and stood up on their feet. This message was about resurrection, restoration, and revival of very dried bones which means Israel, but it was not after death. They will be renewed spiritually when God places His Spirit within them in keeping with the new covenant. There are tough times when we are physically struggling, emotionally being exhausted, and spiritually stagnant like scattered dry bones. However, God can do the impossible when our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. God restores us when we live here on earth as God’s restoration was not after death in the text. We know that God is the LORD in our all circumstances. Its emphasis is placed on the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that can give life to dry bones is giving us strength to live lives of faithful obedience pleasing to the Lord. (11) Regarding Acts 2, this is not the first time that the Holy Spirit appeared in the New Testament. Luke introduced him (Luke 1:15) as a witness to the coming of Christ at the incarnation. He also recorded the role of the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth (1:35) and the descending of the Spirit upon Jesus at the time of his baptism (3:22). At the end of chapter 1 the believers gathered in silence and prayer. Obediently, they awaited the promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming and the Lord’s command for them to do nothing until that event occurred. They heard a sound like the blowing of a violent wind. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire. (3) The fire started as one and then separately came upon them. Wind or fire is associated with the presence of God in the Bible. Symbols of the Spirit’s coming were sound of wind and appearance of flame. On the Day of Pentecost, God sent the Holy Spirit upon 120 believers in Jerusalem, and they began to proclaim the gospel in different languages. They did not need to translate because everyone understood in their own language. The experience on the Day of Pentecost was the use of different languages; it seems to happen once without repetition, but other experiences of the Holy Spirit occur with frequency as believers allow God’s Spirit to work through them. (4) Sometimes Pentecost is seen as the reversal of the impacts of the tower of Babel, when the languages of the world were confused, and people were scattered. The Holy Spirit enabled communication possible in Acts 2, but human pride made the communication impossible in the Genesis 11 in which the people of Babel were building a tower and thinking arrogantly. God showed His response to the human arrogance by confusing their languages so that they cannot understand one another and cannot work together in their lives. Genesis 12, God said to Abraham, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”. The blessing and promise given to Abraham came directly after the Babel tower story which represents confusion, curse, and arrogance. God led His people and fulfilled His promise; He continued His work in and through Jesus and the Holy Spirit even though they were sinners. Luke is implying that the curse of confusion and miscommunication are overturned with the coming of the Holy Spirit. That is a special gift and blessing from God. Everyone’s second language was Greek at that time. Many have seen ‘the gift of tongues’ as the gift of a heavenly sound. 3,000 people trusted Christ through Peter’s preaching and the first church was born. God acted by His Spirit in a new way when Peter connected his preaching directly with the promise of Joel that God would pour out His Spirit among His people. God’s spirit has been poured out upon many people at once and the crowds have witnessed. There are no discriminations and barriers between genders, ages, and social classes. There is no division in God’s salvation, it is just focused on all who call on the name of the Lord. (21) The Lord which in Luke indicates Jesus; all who call on the Lord’s name will be saved. Being saved does not just mean going to heaven when people die, it also means God’s rescuing power revealed in Jesus is in our present lives. The salvation has already begun for everyone who calls on the Lord and believes in Jesus. I hope we can discover how it

16th May 2021 Seventh Sunday of Easter Title: Jesus’ Farewell Prayer for His People (Scripture Readings: Psalm1; John 17:6-19) By Heeyoung Lim We live on earth, which is God’s creation and a gift from God, but India COVID-19 crisis, violence by Myanmar coup, serious conflict between the Israeli Army and Palestinian militants, and many kinds of problems and sufferings are continued in the world. For instance, the airstrikes by both sides continued to kill civilians including children, it raised alarm across the world. I expect that we can pray together for our sisters and brothers who are facing violence and conflict in the Middle East, and I hope God of the nations will give to all people the blessings of well-being, peace, freedom, harmony, and unity. Psalm1 described God-blessed life. The godly does not walk in the counsel of the wicked; the righteous person does not stand in the way of sinners, and the person does not sit in the seat of mockers. In the text, the delight of the godly is in the law of the LORD, the person who knows genuine joy reads and meditates God’s Word day and night. (1-2) The person who delights in God’s law will be like a tree planted by streams of water. The godly are abundantly blessed because they are deeply rooted in God’s Word. Verse 6 summarizes the two ways in life; the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, which means that the Lord has a personal relationship with the godly and is involved with them to guide, protect, and bless them. Blessed are the righteous who do not participate in the deceptions and defilements of this world and who internalize God’s Word. Psalm 1 invites us into the blessed life through God’s words. I hope we will be satisfied in the Lord and will be like a tree that yields its fruit in season. The joy and transformation through God’s Word are also seen in Jesus’ farewell prayer from the gospel of John. John 17 verses 6 -19 focuses on Jesus’ concerns for the disciples. This passage is a part of the ‘High Priestly Prayer’ that Jesus offers up in his role as mediator between God and humanity. But Jesus is not portrayed in a priestly role in today’s text, this prayer shows the proximity of the end of Jesus’ ministry. It seems that Jesus is wrapping up his ministry by telling God what will be needed as the disciples move forward. The first act of the Son was to tell disciples and show them what the Father is like. The disciples heard about God and his plan through the Son. Jesus identified his task in the world to His disciples. Jesus prayed for His disciples; this prayer focuses on those believers God has given Him. In verse 10 Jesus says that glory has come to me through them. In Jesus’ prayer His disciples and believers represent the glory of the Son of God even though they are sinning human beings. In verse 13 Jesus said, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world.” Jesus has come from God, and he is returning to God. This is Jesus’ farewell prayer for His disciples and us. In praying for them, Jesus entrusted His people to the Father when Jesus prepares to depart from the world. God watch over Christ’s people who live in the world though they are not of the world. He wanted us as Jesus’ followers to be kept from evil; Jesus was asking the Father to preserve His people from the tricks and traps of the world. Living in the world does not mean being part of the world. The disciples were able to go into the world because they were not of the world. We are also not of the world; we are God’s people who belong to God the Creator, and through faith in Christ, we have become children of God. We are gifts from the Father to the Son and relate to Him by faith. For Christians who have faith and obedience, infiltration is a better strategy than isolation in the world. I hope we can all be God’s instruments to change the world in accordance with God’s will. Jesus told his followers that they should be one in this world. Jesus said that they may be one, as we are one. Jesus wanted us to be one in our communities and witnesses to the world. There is no excuse for Christians not to passionately and newly work towards the unity Jesus prayed for, even though unity cannot be forced in any relationships. As we know being the same is not the basis of unity. Unity does not mean uniformity or a single standard, it is based on peace and love. We do not need to wait for someone else to make peace, we can be the first to try for reconciliation with love as a peacemaker. It will be a necessary process for us to be one in Christ. The Father sent the Son into the world and now the Son was sending the believers into the world. (18) Jesus is praying that God protect for the disciples with the loving care that Jesus himself has received; this is God’s paternal care that will not leave us but prevents us everywhere. Jesus prayed for their protection and sanctification. Jesus wanted us to sanctify by the truth which is God’s word. God gave us the living words and opportunities to sanctify. The meaning of sanctification is that of being set apart for God’s special purpose rather than just doing of good deeds or pretending to be holy. Jesus prays for the disciples to be “set apart” when they live in the world, since they do not belong to the world. It is not a way of being taken out of the world but