Pastoral Leter 244

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and peace to you all as we farewell the year 2024 and look forward to the year 2025 with great anticipation and hope for a better and peaceful year, full of joy and happiness, as well as to count our blessings even if we undergo hardship, struggle with life threatening situations and face many more challenging days. We are called to rest assured that God will be with us as He was with us till now.

During the year, as the faithful people of God, we did our best we could here at St. Andrew’s. With God’s help we served one more year and tried to be and do our best for His glory. We faced may challenges and rough times, but by letting God to charter us through the rough seas, we reached to the end of yet another year. And now as we look back, we see how God blessed and used us. Yes, we had our tough and difficult days, but we need to look at the others side as well, to what God has done and how He helped us to get us through the good and the bad.

So, now on this last day of the year 2024, let us give thanks to God for all the blessings He provided us, regardless of the many challenges, pains and sorrows we had during the year. We know that the world was and still is in turmoil and our lives were and are full of pain and suffering, but we still believe that God is in control, and we can trust Him, for He is good. With these thoughts and faith, let us look forward to the New Year, being assured that God will be with us. He will take care of us. He will lift us up when we fall down, He will ease our pain when we struggle with serious health issues and surround us with His great love. So, let’s hope for the best and keep trusting Him in every situation and circumstance.

If you are not able to join us tomorrow, please light a candle, and join us following the attached Order of Services.

Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.

Here are some prayer points for this week:

1. Pray for the New Year and ask God to be with us in the year as we move through unchartered territory.
2. Pray for people of Middle East and Armenia, as well as the region, where the situation is uncertain.
3. Pray for the displaced people, the homeless who need shelter.
4. Pray for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the struggling, the stressed and those who are less fortunate.
5. Pray for Virginia and the Knowles family, as they all come together to welcome the New Year.
6. Pray for our church and our future plans as we seek God’s guidance.

In Christ

Krikor

MERSSAGE

In My Father’s House

1 Samuel 2:18-26 and Luke 2: 841-52-20

InIn our two readings today, we come across to the stories of two young boys and their families. From a Christian point of view, the story of the boy Samuel and his family foreshadows the story of Jesus and His family.

As we read both stories and reflect on them, we see parallels in them. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Interesting and tense dynamic between the parents

There is the interesting and tense dynamic between Elkanah and Hannah and Joseph and Mary before their sons were born. In the case of Hannah, she feels like an outcast in her home and community; and that the Lord has not blessed her because she is barren. Her rival, Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, constantly puts Hannah down because of her infertility.

In the case of Mary, there is a parallel in that she finds herself pregnant before she is officially married to Joseph—hence, there is again the danger of her being regarded as an outcast in her home and community and a sinner among “religious people”.

Yet, in both cases, God acts in a miraculous way. In the case of Hannah, God opens her womb, and she is able to give birth to her firstborn son, naming him Samuel, and giving him to the Lord to be Israel’s last judge and an important priest and prophet. In the case of Mary, God works through conceiving Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and He is named Jeshua, the English Jesus, and meaning, “God is salvation”.

Both men, Elkanah and Joseph seem to be caught in a dilemma, which tests their personal integrity. In the case of Elkanah, he is given the difficult task of pleasing two wives in a just and loving manner. He seeks to reassure Hannah of his love for her while struggling with her infertility. In the case of Joseph, he is faced with the decision of whether or not to remain with Mary as her husband in spite of what the neighbours and some “religious people” might think regarding the legitimacy or illegitimacy of Jesus’ birth. Both Elkanah and Joseph prove to be faithful and caring towards their wives.

Looking to these both cases of marriage relationships, we can be encouraged and inspired to be faithful and caring in our marital relationships too. Such faithfulness and caring hopefully will be used by God to be an inspiration and a testimony of the holiness of the marital bond to others too. God calls us to continue to be faithful and caring husbands and wives.

2. Samuel and Jesus both emphasise the importance of a God-given growing in faith

The two stories of Samuel and Jesus both emphasise the importance of a God-given growing in faith. In both stories, the two boys are in God’s house. Samuel, under the instruction of Eli was “ministering before the Lord”. Jesus is in dialogue with the teachers in the Jerusalem temple, and “all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers”. Even in boyhood Samuel and Jesus display incredible faithfulness by serving God.

The Samuel story is woven within a larger setting of Eli and his sons. The story brings out a contrast between Eli’s sons and Samuel. The former were disobedient, evil and sinful. Their greed causes them to choose for themselves the best meat left over from the sacrifices of the people. Their sexual immorality most likely led them to adopt a Canaanite fertility cult, practicing ritual prostitution. On the other hand, the story emphasises that: “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favour with the Lord and with the people”.

In the larger context of the life of Jesus, the gospels also emphasise the plain contrast of Jesus and His opponents. Jesus’ opponents plot and scheme and set out to trap and kill Him at every possible opportunity; until they succeed. It is clear in this all that those who fall under the powers of evil will stop at nothing to do away with Jesus. Yet, in spite of all these evil powers, Jesus remained firmly faithful to God till the end.

In the lives of both Samuel and Jesus there was this constant growth, maturity and faithfulness in serving their God. If we as Christ’s followers are going to be faithful in serving God, then we need to continue to grow and mature in our faith and life. We do this by worshiping, studying the scriptures, praying and sharing the Good News of Jesus with others in our words, thoughts and actions. May our Lord continue to bless us and help us to keep our faith.

3. Samuel and Jesus both ended up serving God as Judges, Priests and Prophets.

A third parallel of these two stories of Samuel and Jesus is that they both ended up serving God as judges, priests and prophets.

In the Samuel story, we learn that he served God as Israel’s last judge; served as a priest at Shiloh, wearing the symbolic garment of a priest at the time—a linen and special robe made by His mother each year. He also served as a prophet, warning Israel of the dangers of their quest for a king and thus becoming like all the other nations. Yet, God employed Samuel to anoint Israel’s greatest king, David. In this act, Samuel was a forerunner, preparing the way centuries later for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, who was born of the house of David.

On the other hand, when we Christians speak of Jesus’ role as judge, priest and prophet—we emphasise that Jesus is greater than Samuel or any other human being. Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords shall one day rule as Judge over all nations. He is the Perfect Priest who offered God the most, for-all-time, Perfect Sacrifice, atoning for the sin of the world. As Perfect Priest He bridged the gap and removed all barriers and divisions between human and human and God and humankind. And He is greater than all other prophets by fulfilling all of their prophecies by His birth, life, teaching, death and resurrection—in other words, the promised coming one has now come.

As we move towards the end of one year and the beginning of another, we can thus be reassured with this Good News that God is with us when we feel like everyone else is against us; that He invites us to enjoy life and continue to grow and mature in our faith journey; that we can look forward to the future and the New Year, trusting in God-with-us, for in Him our lives are made whole, making it possible for us to fulfill our calling as God’s people.

Amen!