Pastoral Letter 24
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It has been more than ten days and I cannot pass a minute without thinking about what happened in Beirut on August 4. The magnitude is incomprehensible. We are devastated by the catastrophe.
Thank you for your prayers. But with our prayers, I am hoping that much needed help will be provided to support our brothers and sisters. Already several countries have come forward to provide their support, including Australia. Churches and charitable organisations have mobilised to raise funds for food, health, medical supplies, as well as for rebuilding homes for more than 300,000 homeless people. Help is needed urgently.
Please continue to pray with me for the people of Lebanon, for the families who have lost loved ones, especially young children, young men and women, the firemen who were there providing their services for the thousands who are left with nothing, no house to live in, no shelter, nothing to provide their daily needs. It is time to show our solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called as the church to extend our helping hand to the poor and the needy.
In regards to COVID-19, we are still facing the dangerous second wave of the pandemic and we have decided to keep our doors closed. Three of the Uniting Churches in our Zone have decided to close their doors once again and refrain from face to face gatherings and worship and do the services online. Only two churches within our zone are congregating to have worship.
As we continue to do what we have for the past 23 weeks, please join the other members tomorrow morning in worship, following the Order of Service. Please light a candle pray for Lebanon.
On behalf of the Church Council and Elders and our treasurer Wendy, thank you all for your Sunday offerings, which is one of the best ways to express our gratitude and thanks to God. Thanks for those who have been regularly depositing their offerings in the church’s bank account. It would certainly help with our finances to continue to receive your Offering on a regular basis.
Bank details are as follows:
Account Name: St. Andrews Uniting Church Longueville
BSB: 032085 Account Number: 810147
On the following page you will find NSW and ACT Moderator Simon Hansford’s heartfelt piece of writing in support of the prayer requests for Lebanon and the appeals.
Continue to pray and remember the following points in your prayers:
- Pray for Lebanon as the country goes through a difficult time.
- Continue to pray for those countries who are still in the midst of the pandemic, where the number of cases of COVID-19 is still growing.
- Pray for those who are struggling financially, those who have lost loved ones and are still in pain and for those who are not well and lonely.
- Pray for world peace.
If you have any prayer points, please let me know and I will include them in the next week’s letter.
Krikor
From the UCA NSW and ACT Moderator, Rev. Simon Hansford:
We have watched in horror and a sense of despair, as the comprehensive disaster in Beirut is revealed to the world.
All of us have friends from Lebanon, many of us have family from there. This disaster must seem almost insurmountable after all the challenges this country faced in the last four decades and beyond.
I have been talking with Revs Gaby Kobrossi (Bankstown) and Krikor Youmshajekian (St. Andrew’s Longueville), who have lived, worked and ministered in Beirut. The church and school communities which they built and in which they worked are profoundly affected by the explosions.
The rebuilding – simply finding enough glass for all the windows alone – will take years, but the restoration of lives and communities will be longer, more challenging task.
What we can we do?
Praying is absolutely vital:
- for those affected, for the families of those wounded and killed;
- for the leaders of the nation, now that the government has resigned and there is ongoing political unrest;
- for international aid, that it be generous, swift and wise in its distribution
- for the many communities in Beirut, who make their home there
- for the ministry of the churches in Lebanon, witnessing to Christ’s justice, healing and hope
if you are able to make an emergency donation, we believe the most direct way to send the money is through the Bankstown Congregation, where Gaby is in placement or to the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia. This will be given directly to the Reformed and Evangelical church and school communities linked with Gaby and Krikor.
You can make direct deposit to the Bankstown District Uniting Church bank account with “Beirut Appeal” as a reference. The Bank details are:
BSB No: 882000 Acc. No: 100136727
Or to the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia Commonwealth bank account with Lebanon Emergency Appel” as reference. The Bank details are:
BSB No: 062272 1009 3977
Gaby has written a prayer for this Sunday, and every other day.
Please continue to pray, to remember and to act.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Simon
Tuesday 11th August 2020
“From my heart, Peace to Beirut” – Rev. Gaby Kobrossi
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? Isaiah 29:17
Beirut – Remembrance Week
On August 4, violence created chaos, destroyed lives and generated fear.
We remember the cries of the people caught amid fire and dust.
We remember families whose loved ones never returned home after that day.
We remember courageous men and women, who worked tirelessly to save lives,
seek the lost and heal the wounded.
We remember with confidence that Hope is still God’s way.
On this day we pray:
Heavenly Father, Your Love never fails:
You are the source of all mercy and giver of comfort.
Today we come before You with heavy hearts as we remember
the events of August 4.
Father we bring before You the people of Beirut – Lebanon.
Unite us in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters in Lebanon.
We grieve with those who still mourn,
and share memories with those who cannot forget.
May we draw strength from those who bravely responded,
and gave their lives to save others.
We remember their generosity and hospitality.
Above all may we remember Your faithfulness to us.
We ask You to help Lebanon to trust in Your unfailing love.
May Lebanon find peace, harmony and serenity.
May the beauty of Lebanon be restored.
May Your peace shattered in Beirut be renewed.
Though Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.
Amen!
Lord Help Me!
A Cry from Lebanon
Matthew 15:21-28
It has been more than ten days since the powerful and terrible explosion in Beirut on August 4. A few hundred people were killed, thousands injured, around 100 are still missing, more than 300,000 people were left without shelter and food, the port of Beirut is in ruins, hospitals, churches, school buildings, thousands of shops destroyed. We all know that Lebanon since 1975 has survived civil wars, invasions, political turmoil and recently an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, which made the people in desperate need of help and support from the world. According to experts, the strong concrete walls of the wheat storage built in the 1960s by an Armenian engineer named Joulfayan, stood as a strong shield absorbing almost 4/5 of the power of the explosion. Otherwise the resulting damage would have been five times more. Our hearts ache seeing images and hearing the cries of the people.
We are called to pray for the suffering nation and stand with them in solidarity. Help them as much as we can in the name of the Lord. The devastating picture is clear, a city lies in ruins, people are shattered with the loss of their dear ones and still not able to comprehend what happened. There are many who have lost hope and are left with nothing.
We hear their cries. Cries for help, cries of suffering and cries to have supportive hands. In similar situations, we usually hear the cries for help.
In our gospel reading we find a similar cry. Some would say a cry of help, but nothing compared to the cries of the people of Lebanon. But for the one who had come to Christ for help, the cry was the same. It was the cry of a mother for her demon-possessed daughter, who was terribly suffering. Interestingly this cry also came from Lebanon. The woman was from the region of Tyre and Sidon.
The first thing we learn about this woman is that she was a “Canaanite Woman”, meaning that she was from outside Israel. Jesus was in the region of Tyre and Sidon, north of Israel. These are two major cities in South Lebanon. The people He was coming into contact here were Gentiles, Pagans, people who were outside of the covenant of Israel. While Jesus and the disciples were travelling, they came across this woman who came up to Him and said: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”
What makes this cry for help important is what this woman called Jesus: “Son of David”. The term “Son of David” is a Messianic phrase, reserved for the descendent of David who would be the promised Messiah. So, it’s clear that this woman, even though she was not a Jew, had some knowledge of the Jewish religion, and knew that there was a promised Messiah from David’s line. We can also believe that she had heard about what Jesus had been doing, the word He proclaimed, the signs that He performed, and from her knowledge of the prophecies of the Messiah, was able to realise that Jesus was the long promised Messiah. She knew that Jesus had the power to help her. So being the good mother that she was, not wanting her daughter to suffer, saw Jesus, came up to Him, cried out, and asked Him to have mercy on her.
Now that’s quite a statement of faith in and of itself, but there’s more to it. At first, Jesus doesn’t answer her. Not only that, the disciples begged Jesus to send her away, because “she keeps crying out after us.” Perhaps they thought she’s not part of the “club” and doesn’t meet the criteria for admission to see Jesus. Especially considering her behaviour here. Now in Jesus’ time, women didn’t go running after Rabbis or teachers, and cry out after them like this woman is doing with Jesus. It was viewed as shameful. Yet, she doesn’t care what others think of her, she knew that Jesus could help, and she was going to do whatever it takes, because Jesus was the only one who could help.
Jesus’ response was a bit puzzling at first, when He said: “I was sent only to the Lost Sheep of Israel.” It seems as if He was rejecting her. But we have to remember the focus of Jesus’ ministry was to fulfil the covenant that God had made with the people of Israel in the Old Testament. They were the people of the covenant, God had a responsibility to fulfil that, and Jesus was the fulfilment of it. That was His primary purpose. I’m sure the disciples knew that and viewed Jesus as an “exclusive” messiah so to speak. However, what often gets lost is that in the prophecies about the Messiah, yes, the Jews are included, but that all nations would be drawn to this Messiah. Jesus wasn’t an exclusive Saviour, but He was for all.
The Jews were God’s chosen “unique” people in order to be a “light to the Gentiles.” Isaiah 49:6 says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” They were God’s people, separated; but with a purpose – to prepare a way by which God’s saviour would be brought to the world. Unfortunately, they often missed this. They missed it again later. Think of the Samaritan woman at the well. The idea that Jesus, a Jew, would be talking to her. She can’t imagine such a thing happening because Gentiles, especially Samaritans, were despised in those days. That’s what makes the story of the Good Samaritan such a powerful one. The fact that one of the Pharisees Jesus was talking to had to admit that the Samaritan who took pity on the man beaten by the road was more of a neighbour than his fellow Jew was hard to admit, though the circumstances Jesus drew in that story left no other choice.
And I suppose some might point to the Gospel lesson today and say: “Hey, isn’t Jesus doing the same? Look at what He said to the Canaanite woman: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’” Today, unfortunately, the church does the same. It thinks only about those who are in, ignoring those who are not part of the family. It looks only to those who are its members, or within its circles. That’s what it looked like at the start when Jesus rejected the woman. But look again. Jesus acted the way He does in the Gospel today, not to put her down, but to encourage her to greater faith; a faith which he commends to her in the end. We should be ready to open our hearts, ears and eyes, to see, to hear and show our love and care in every practical way we can. Yes, we could be from another clan, another nation, have different colours and traditions. But in reality, we are all one in the name of Christ. We are members of the same family, the family of God. The common denominator is our faith in the Lord and our Saviour. Faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The point of all this is that God’s people missed this part of God’s word of promise. They grew to ignore their God-given mission to be lights to the world, missionaries of God’s grace. Instead they grew to think of themselves as the sole object of God’s love and refused to associate with foreigners at all saying, that they’re “not good enough” to fit in. Thanks be to God that He’s here again today with His word that would remind us that truly we are all “foreign” before Him, who alone is righteous and holy, and thus we would remain if not for the grace of God which has made us righteous by faith in Christ and His cross and gathers us together in His love.
This woman must have known that as well, why else would she come to Jesus, call him “Son of David”, and ask him to have mercy on her?
In fact, instead of losing heart at Jesus’ reply and going back home empty-handed and disappointed, she said: “Lord, help me!” A pretty direct request and a cry. She really humbled herself. Jesus responded and said: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” Great! It seems that Jesus called her a “dog”. I know of no one who would want to be equated to a dog, let alone by Jesus, when you’re seeking help from Him, and you’ve begged Him for help. But we see how deep this woman’s faith really was, she was not going to leave, until she got what she wanted. In fact, she responded: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
I found this part of our reading to be very revealing. You see, Jesus got into several debates in His ministry with some folks who were considered to be the “religious elite” of His day, people like the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Rabbis. They knew their Scriptures inside and out, and when Jesus would debate with them, they had come out on the losing end. They couldn’t counter His arguments in the end. You never hear Jesus say “great is your faith” to a Pharisee. Yet here, this woman had a response for Jesus’ argument! She said: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She knew her place; she knew that she was not part of the covenant with Israel; she was content being the dog that gets the gracious crumbs. When you think about this, it’s quite clear Jesus wanted to see how deep this woman’s faith really was. When she responded, in faith, to Jesus’ statement, He knew she really believed that He was and is the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the Nations. That prompted Him to say: “Woman, you have great faith!” or “Great is your faith”.
This Canaanite woman found healing for her daughter in Jesus. This woman didn’t believe in her own strength, she didn’t think that “if I believe hard enough, then Jesus HAS to heal my daughter”, she simply believed that Jesus had the power to heal and she made her plea, her cry, to the Lord Jesus. It was a cry for help.
Today we hear cries for help, from a devastated nation and people of Lebanon. We hear the cries of thousands and thousands of people from all over the world, who have been greatly affected from the pandemic. Many have died, millions are still being cared for in hospitals, jobs have been lost, big financial crises in every country. And it appears that we still have a long way to go, until we will come out on the other side, if not this year, hopefully the next.
So, people cry for help, being greatly affected from the pandemic and in the past ten days as the result of the deadly explosion.
What will be our response?
What will be the response of God?
Was God responsible for what happened in Lebanon?
Is God responsible for the COVID-19 being spread as a pandemic?
What will be our response for the cries?
As long as the cries are done with faith, the response will come soon.
“Great is your faith” Jesus said about the woman in our Gospel reading today. She didn’t let anything get in the way of being in the presence of Christ. She knew that Jesus was the promised Saviour, the promised Messiah. She knew that Jesus was her only hope and she was right. She got what she asked for.
It is my prayer that all we say and do keeps us centred on Jesus Christ, the true and only object of our faith, so that when our lives are complete, Jesus will indeed look at us and say “Great is your faith.” May God grant that faith to us through His Word.
It is my prayer that the people of God, being created in His image, respond to the cries of help of a suffering people. As we expect God to help us and provide for our needs, we too should respond to the cries we hear today.
Our response firstly should be praying for those who are in pain and sorrow. And I believe that if we do pray, naturally we will be moved to do the best we can to respond in practical ways.
Amen!