Pastoral Letter 152
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
While our hearts go out for those who are suffering because of natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, New Zealand weather disaster, Ukraine war, Artsakh blockade, countries in political turmoil, poverty, refugee crisis and so many other things happening around the world, we should be thankful and grateful for being relatively in a better state here in our beautiful and peaceful country. We should count our blessings that we receive daily and express our thanks to our loving and caring God. Let us continue to pray for all those who need our prayers seeking God’s care, protection and blessings. Let us express our gratitude in action and support those who are in need, sharing from what we have, as we have done when we have seen the need and God will bless us more and more.
Last Sunday we had our AGM, which I think for the fast time went over an hour. We received several reports, discussed the agenda items and made some important resolutions. After supporting for two years the Demirchian family in Artsakh as part of AMAA’s “Empower Artsakh Family” program, we decided to raise $3000 and donate to the AMAA’s fundraising efforts for Artsakh which will be launched in March during the AMAA month activities between 15-29 March, dedicated to Artsakh. We will be honoured by the visit of some official guests from Artsakh, on Sunday 26 February. Also, we were encouraged to do our personal donations individually to the AMAA’s Syria Earthquake fund raising. We do the best we can from the blessings we have received from our loving and caring Father. Also, we talked about a trip to Narrabri that we are planning to have in May looking for expressions of interest.
The Lower North Shore Zone Uniting Churches’ Ash Wednesday Service will be held next Wednesday 22 February at 6:00 pm here at St. Andrew’s.
On Friday 3 March 10:30 am the World Day of Prayer will be held here, at St. Andrew’s. This year the program is prepared by the women of Taiwan. The guest speaker will be Rev. Myung Hwa Park. Rev. Park is currently the Minister of Leura Uniting Church and the President of the NSW Ecumenical Council. She was the Moderator of the UCA NSW and ACT, before the current Moderator Simon Hansford.
If you will not be able to join us for worship tomorrow, please light a candle and worship with us from home following the attached Order of Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let me know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Attached you will find three prayers for the earthquake that we are going to pray on Sunday.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the victims of the devastating earthquake of Türkiye and Syria.
- Pray for New Zealand’s weather disaster and recent earthquake.
- Pray for the people of Artsakh, men, women, young, old and children.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for our church services and activities, as we are back to our normal programs.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
We Are His Witnesses
Matthew 17:1-9
Every Sunday we come to church and participate in a Service. A service which could be enriching, inspiring and relaxing in some way.
But what does it all really mean to attend a church service?
Does it mean we come and then go back to business as usual?
What are we supposed to do?
Are we supposed to get a spiritual fire from Christ, which gives us a special strength to act?
I am happy that almost all of you give me good feedback for the preaching of the word and I am sure that you enjoy our services and feel good. Even some of you quote from my words and raise questions and want to discuss with me the subject further. That’s all good and that’s how it is supposed to be. Every time we come and gather in the church, we know, according to the scripture, God is and will be with us. His presence should be felt in the music, readings, prayers and the message. We come into God’s presence and leave this place encouraged and reenergised with the power of the Spirit to continue our faith journey.
This morning we’re going to look at a powerful event that happened toward the end of Jesus’ ministry.
In today’s reading we see Jesus taking three of His closest followers – Peter, James, and John – and heading to the top of a mountain. This event was extraordinary and somehow impressed those three.
Later John wrote about this incident saying: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” John 1:14.
Peter talked about this event in his second letter when he said: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (1:16-18).
This event is known as “The Transfiguration”, which means “a change beyond or above”, an extraordinary and glorious change that for just a brief time Peter, James, and John were privileged to see. Though they were terrified and fell facedown, Peter encouraged by Jesus said: “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
One of the dangers after a spiritual experience is we want to stay where we are, and we don’t want things to be changed. But God wants us to act and to start playing our role, He wants us to listen to His Son; listen to what He says and do what He says.
To act and to do what Jesus says, one needs to be courageous. Those three were terrified and they needed courage and power to act. They needed an assurance that God will always be with them, if they will be willing to play their role in the spreading of the Good News.
Courage was what they were lacking. Even though the Son of God was with them, they were still weak and unable to perform. Paul wrote to his young pupil Timothy and said: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7).
The secret to having the courage they needed was to look to Him in order to move on. They had to come down from the mountain with a new perspective, strength and energy to be His witnesses.
Interestingly, Jesus tells them not to tell about this experience to anyone. But instead, they go running off to tell everybody about their encounter with Jesus.
But unfortunately, the reverse is true today.
After His resurrection Jesus has told us to tell everyone about Him and what He’s done in our lives. But how do Christians and we respond today to this call?
Generally, we make all kinds of excuses about why we can’t talk to others about Jesus.
We don’t have to know all the right words and we don’t have to have all the right answers. We’re simply called to tell others about the Christ who loves us and wants a relationship with us. We simply need to be faithful in the telling. God will take care of the rest. We are called to be ambassadors for Him.
The question that we should ask ourselves is: “So, now what?” What are we going to do in response to the mountain top experience we have every time we come together to worship God?
Are we going to try to set up camp and not move from where we’ve been?
Or are we going to come down the mountain and get to work?
Will we choose to love the Lord in trust and obedience?
Our spiritual life is a series of highs and lows. Following Jesus down the mountain into the valley then back to the mountain is a series of small steps, small choices all in the right direction. It is journey that we take and try to be His witnesses in this world.
Usually, we have the following question in our minds.
“What if I trip and fall?
What if I am not able to perform well as it is expected from the followers of the Lord?”
We know that coming down the mountain is more dangerous than climbing up. But we have the assurance that even if we fail, God never does. His care and love for us will never fail.
Paul in Rom. 8:38-39 says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The answer is simple.
– Keep looking up to Jesus, our Saviour.
– Be ready to listen to Him and follow His commands.
– Be one of His witnesses
He invites us to keep our eyes on Him, follow Him and be His witnesses.
This is expected from each and every believer.
Let us keep up the good work and continue to be His witnesses in this world.
Amen!