Wednesday Meditation October 25, 2023
(Leviticus 19:2, 15)
19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
19:15 You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour.
What does it mean to be holy in this very confusing time? As people who are called to be God’s people, how do we navigate this very difficult time? News of atrocities of wars make us feel helpless. Hearing the number of children who were killed so far breaks our hearts. Add to this number all those women and men, both young and old, whose lives were taken away, then, we have a catastrophic violence we cannot imagine. In the meantime, what we are hearing from leaders is the right for self-defence as a justification to perpetuate violence.
Facing such a terrible evil what does it mean to be holy? How can we be holy like our God rendering right judgement instead of the justice that amounts to nothing more than vengeance disguised as justice. With accusations and counter accusations we get lost in the politics of these wars. We become partial to one side or another without realizing we are favouring one group over against another. Yet, we are not without abilities to be holy.
For Christians, holiness comes not from what our actions say in times of impossible difficulties. In a way, we do have an antidote to the violence that this world unleashes at the powerless and the helpless. It is called “participating in God’s mission.” We know that God is at work in our world everywhere. God’s work through Christ is all about recreating this world where the powerful people reign into the world where God reigns. When we focus on participating in God’s work, we do so in ways that everyone can experience what it is to live under God in fullness. That is, everyone gets to encounter what it is like to be in God’s presence where the lowly are lifted up and the hungry are filled.
It is heartbreaking to see so many innocent people being killed. Along with everyone else, we scream out, “Stop! Stop the senseless killings! Stop the violence that takes lives away!” As the deaf leaders keep insisting on taking more lives, to be holy in this world is to find ways to participate in God’s work of re-creating this death-filled world into the one that allows the fullness of life everywhere as intended by God originally. In this way live as holy people of God. More we align our work by concentrating on the work of filling the hungry with good things, lifting up the lowly and bringing God’s presence even to those who are dying, we manifest the holiness that is required of us.
In this state of being holy, we are able to be just in our judgement. We no longer hastily take a side of those whom we value and care, but impartially extend God’s good news to all. We become centred to part ways with the powerful and mighty. In this holiness, without hating any, we humbly walk as the poor and go to the poor as God sends us. In everything we do, we become part of God’s work that renews the world to bring about faith, hope and love.
Loonies, Toonies October…
This coming Sunday is the last Sunday we will be having our Toonie Jars out. We have collected $775 so far. We are so grateful to you all for participating. Let see if we can reach $1000 by the end of this month.
Thank you for sharing what God blessed you with generously.
Fundraising Concert
We are planning a fundraising concert with Mike, Joan and friends on Friday, November 10 at 7 pm. Please mark your calendars. We ask you to spread the word about this concert. Invite your friends and neighbours.
All proceeds from the concert will be used for our budget that includes our local mission work. As we shared with you, most of our mission funding comes from our own budget.
We are continuing to carry on with English Classes, Fellowship Programs, Cooking Programs, Emergency Food, Spending Time Drawing and many other activities for the newcomers are self- funded. Also we provide various emergency aids to those who are in need.
Remember that we will have a party for November Birthdays on Sunday, November 5th following the service of worship.
Putting our future in God’s hand
We have been changing. The change was slow initially. Now, each Sunday we see different groups of people being part of the church. We are certainly not the same congregation as the one that entered the COVID Pandemic Lockdown. Today, we look different. We participate in God’s mission in areas where we never expected.
If you come to the church on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 pm (Everyone is welcome!), you will see us doing things like baking cookies with children and learning to draw together. It is our hope that on Friday evenings we will share the time of fellowship with newcomers.
Sunday afternoons you will find many things happening at the church as well. For example, this Sunday, a local zoomba group is doing fundraising Zoomba-a-thon. The first Sunday of each month, there is a Hungarian worship and fellowship. The other Sundays, we are planning some sports activities in the church hall.
Your prayer is very much appreciated as we go forward with all these activities.
