Pastoral Letter 185
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and Peace to you all.
Still my heart is broken, as I follow daily the news and make regular contact with the AMAA staff in Armenia. The cry for help is repeated Loud and Clear! Thousands of our Artsakh population have poured through the border into Armenia. The Armenian people of Artsakh are in humanitarian crisis, which is escalating at a fast pace. After living for more than 9 months under a blockade, in the face of a clear demonstration of ethnic cleansing, their lives have been frighteningly turned upside down and shattered completely. Innocent lives have been unethically torn apart. Families have been separated, hundreds have been tortured and killed and still there are many who are unaccountable. While AMAA remains steadfast and on call 24/7 in providing both the physical and spiritual support to the evacuees who have arrived in Armenia, we need support. The situation is dire and the need immediate.
Sadly, still we don’t have any news from the Demirchian family, whom we sponsored for two years. The thousands of Artsakh people took the long journey leaving behind their ancestral homeland and cross over into Armenian. Majority are homeless leaving under tents as they face the cold of Autumn and soon Winter. So, please pray for the suffering people of Artsakh. They need our prayers and support more than ever. The AMAA Australia has made an appeal to raise money to support the people who are in need. I am praying and hoping that the Uniting Church breaks its silence and makes a clear statement, seeing and hearing that thousand of ethnic Christian Armenian are going through, churches, monasteries and places of worship have been desecrated and hundreds of innocent people have been killed. It is time for the Uniting Church to stand in solidarity with their suffering brothers and sisters, young and old; and why not make an appeal to raise funds obeying the Biblical principles of remembering the poor and the needy.
God willing, I will be on leave for two weeks to attend the Armenian Missionary Association’s annual meeting in San Fransisco. Unfortunately, Liam will not be able to take the service on Sunday 15 October, so, we are suggesting that we join Crows Nest Uniting Sunday Service on Sunday 15 October at 10:00 am. Bob Minton will take the Service on October 22. I express my thanks in advance to Bob. Originally my plan was to return on Wednesday 25 October, but I have asked the Elders and the Church Council for permission to extend my trip for another three days to redirect my return from US via Armenia. In those three days I will be with the Artsakh refugees and the AMAA staff on the ground as they endeavour to do everything to provide the needs of the traumatised people. This will a brief time to be with them, encourage them and ensure that we are doing our best to support them.
If you are not able to join us tomorrow, please light a candle and join us following the attached Order of Service.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love; especially the 120,000 people of Artsakh, who have left behind all they had and have been refugees in Armenia. Pray also for those leaders and their families who have been captured by Azeri authorities as prisoners, which include the current and the previous three presidents, the previous Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the people Artsakh who have been refugees now in Armenia.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for the Referendum to be held on 14 October and to cast the right vote.
- Pray for our church and our future plans as we seek God’s guidance.
Best Regards
Krikor
Commandments – Norms of Behaviour
Exodus 20: 1-20
The Ten Commandments define the life God wants us to have with Him and with each other. Every aspect of our lives is to show that we belong to God. The Ten Commandments are minimum standards for a just society and are the framework for how we are to live our lives. We are to reflect God’s righteousness and justice by obeying God’s Commandments. They are the building blocks for a functioning society.
The Ten Commandments are viewed by the Judeo-Christian communities as the basic principles as to how we should live our lives in relationship with God and one another. These ethical commandments that form the basis for most cultures of the world, are for the people of Israel, put into the framework of their relationship with God. God first acted in love and concern to free Israel from bondage. God initiated the relationship. God entered into a covenant with Israel, of which His commandments were to form the basis of Israel’s response to God’s love already revealed toward them. It is not an earthly culture that established these norms of behaviour, but the God who set them free. It was out of gratitude for what God had already done for Israel, that they were to embrace His commands.
But quickly the Israelites forgot what God so graciously had done for them and almost immediately violated the first two commandments and then broke all of them on a regular basis. Those first two commandments, which Israel immediately violated were: “You shall have no other gods before me (or besides me).” And “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship it.” Before Moses came down the mountain, after going up to again receive the commandments, Israel had melted their jewellery, formed a golden calf, and worshiped it.
God wanted to establish a Covenant with His people, which would stand forever and so, He gave Moses a set of rules to be the norms of behaviour. These rules will never be out of date. These rules will never change. These rules will never move because they are eternally the same.
The phrase “I am the Lord Your God” emphasizes His authority and His relationship with His people. They show the love He has for us. God knows that it will be almost impossible for us to perfectly obey these commandments, so He can heal the broken relationship when we break one of the Ten Commandments.
There is no passage more important than the first three verses. “God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me…”
The Ten Commandments being the norms of behaviour, which began with the action of God to enter into a covenant relationship with His creation, should govern our faith and honour the authority of God to set the terms of that relationship.
Hence, the Ten Commandments as the norms of behaviour deal with the concept of relationship, setting a set of rules.
1. These rules deal with our relationship with God
For example, God is a jealous God, in a positive sense. That is why He does not want His people to worship other gods. He loves us so much that He wants the very best for us, and the very best for us is worshipping the one true God. God loves us so much that He wants us to keep His name sacred. That’s why we are told not to take His name in vain. God loves us so much that He wants us to set aside one day a week to worship Him. That is why He tells us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
2. These rules also deal with our relationships with other people
Honouring our parents means loving them as much as God loves us. God wants us to love one another as much as He loves us. If we do, we will not kill, commit adultery, steal, covet our neighbour’s goods or lie. Our love for God will bring us to our knees because of our need to be loved. If we obey God, it shows our love for Him and it is good for us as well.
3. These rules also deal with our ethics of life
God sees that the issues addressed by the Ten Commandments are wrong because they go against moral laws. God wants us to respect the dangers of sin. Appropriate fear of God makes us reverent, obedient and worshipful so that we will not sin. We will obey the Commandments because our commitment to God gives us an overwhelming desire to obey Him. In fact, we are required to obey God when we hear His voice. The Ten Commandments force us to take responsibility for our actions. They are to be part of our response to what Jesus did for us on the cross.
God is a mystery. He has hidden many things from us. These hidden things combined with our sinful human nature to create a gap between us and Him. Throughout the Old Testament several of God’s prophets such as Moses tried to close this gap. The only person who has successfully bridged this gap is Jesus. Jesus is the true mediator between us and God. God tries to restore our relationship with Him through the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments. We can’t ignore this relationship. If it is to be an exclusive relationship, God must be our number one priority. The Ten Commandments are the required response of a grateful people.
We are grateful, but we are not perfect. That’s okay, because God sees us through the eyes of love-the same love that caused Him to send His son Jesus to pay the price for our sins. God hopes that we will look at others through the same eyes of love. We are not perfect, but God has prepared a place for us with His saints.
God tries to restore our relationship with Him through the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments, which Jesus presented and proclaimed; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31).
We can’t ignore this relationship, outlined in the Ten Commandments. If it is to be an exclusive relationship, God must be our number one priority, as Jesus stated clearly. Giving the priority to God, we establish the Ten Commandments to be the norms of behaviour, generally for everyone, but most importantly to us, the Christians, who believe in Jesus and follow Him.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, You gave us Your commandments in order to show us how we ought to live our lives in relationship with You, the source of our very being. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to embrace Your will for our lives, and when we fail, give us the courage to embrace Your redeeming grace, and the power to amend our ways. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen!