Pastoral Letter 258
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all. I hope all is well.
We are almost at the end of the Lent Season, the time of reflection, self-examination, self-denial and prayer. Then we move into the Holy or Passion week, moving towards Good Friday and glorious Easter Sunday, when we will recall and retell the story of the wonderful resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesu Christ. Last Sunday, I preached at Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Church, when the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia had its Annual AMAA Sunday Worship followed by a fellowship meal at in the adjacent Soghomonian Hall. I am glad that our dear friend Rev. Gaby Kobrossi took the service here at Longueville and preached on Luke 15. 22-24 and the topic of his message was “Our Loving God”. I was informed that you had a good service with a different voice telling you about the God who loves, who cares and who saves. A big thank you to Gaby for his willingness to lead you in worship with great joy.
Next Sunday (Palm Sunday) we will be privileged again with the visit of the Sydney Central Coast Presbytery’s Chairman Rev. Keith Garner. This will be Keith’s second visit since he became the Chair of the Presbytery. A big thanks to him in advance. I urge you all to make an extra effort to come and worship with us on Palm Sunday.
Also, next Sunday, 13 April 2025, at 3:00 pm at St. Stephen’s Uniting Church 197 Mcquarie Street Sydney, there will be a special Prayer Vigil Service to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the 10th anniversary of the Genocide recognition by the Uniting Church in Australia. The Assembly President, Rev. Charissa Suli, has extended a warm invitation to the Uniting Church members to come and join the Prayer Vigil. We are expecting many church leaders and representatives of both the Christian community, as well as the Armenian community. If you have an hour of spare time, please come and join us. I am glad and so thankful that our Organist, Mark, will be playing the pipe organ during the Service. A big thank you for Mark and Barbara for changing their travel plan to Port Stephen’s to be with us at the Service. Thanks Mark.
If you are not able to join us tomorrow for worship, please light a candle, have a small cup of wine and a small roll of bread and join us for worship following the Order of the Service.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray as we continue our journey of self-denial and self-examination during this Lent.
- Pray for the flood and cyclone victims in Queensland.
- Pray for the victims of the Tonga earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0.
- Pray for Ned and Virginia as they go through a difficult time with ill health.
- Pray for trusting God and asking that He protect those who need protection.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the struggling, the stressed and those who are affected by natural disasters.
- Pray for the Middle East and in particular Syria and the reignited conflict in Israel and Gaza.
- Pray for the coming Federal Election that was announced during the week to take place on 3 May 2025.
In Christ
Krikor
MESSAGE
Straining Ahead!
Phil. 3:4b-14
We are almost at the end of the Lent Season. Next Sunday we will celebrate Palm Sunday, the Triumphal entry of Jesus to the Holy City, Jerusalem.
His entry just before His capture, suffering and Crucifixion is not the first time that Jesus was there. During His lifetime He had been there on several occasions. According to the scripture He was there when He was 12, and later as a faithful male Jew, at least for every Passover. But on this occasion, we know that it would be for the final time.
In the Luke17:11, we read that He was on His way toward Jerusalem. He knew that this will be His last visit. He was looking ahead forgetting what was behind. He knew that His mission was almost at its end. He travelled around, preached, warned the people, invited them to be part of the Kingdom, His kingdom. On several occasions He talked about His coming sufferings and death. He was in the world for a certain mission. He was always on the move. But now He was ready to conclude and willing to be a sacrifice. He was moving forward, and He was ready for the next big thing; His being sacrificed. He was looking ahead to His cross on Calvary.
As we are almost at end of this Lent Season, we too are invited to turn our attention, looking ahead move forward. There is nothing wrong in looking back, we can look back, to see where we were, what we have done, what challenges we have faced and what we have learned.
So, when we look back on the past weeks, we will see the things God has done in our lives.
• Some of those times have been good, and some not so good. For sure we had rough times, unexpected sickness, loss, pain and suffering
• Also, for sure there has been some wonderful times, great celebration, anniversaries, goals achieved, good results, times when we were really blessed by God.
There is nothing wrong in looking back and being grateful to God and even still feel the pain of sorrow and loss.
There is nothing wrong remembering what we had in the past, be it good or bad.
God tells Israel to look back and remember. They were continually asked to look back at the miraculous things God had done for them, most notably, deliverance from centuries of slavery in Egypt.
• Israel never forgot what God did for them. The Passover became the most important observance in Judaism and remains so today.
Looking back and remembering.
It’s the end of Lent and we are invited to look to the cross of Jesus; to His pain and sorrow, without forgetting that His pain and sorrow was for our sake. It was painful and unbearable, but it was for our sake. We look ahead to His cross, our hope and our salvation.
In our reading today Paul invites us to forget the past and look forward.
Paul facing many trials, hardships, beatings, prison and forced to sacrifice so many things, was willing always to move forward. Learning from the past, but forgetting all its pain and suffering, he was always ready to move forward for Christ.
Paul uses the analogy of a runner to describe the Christian’s spiritual growth. The believer has not reached his goal of Christlikeness, but like the runner in a race, he must continue to pursue it.
1 Corinthians 9:24-25 – “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one get the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who completes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever”.
1 Tim. 6:12 – “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses”.
The race toward Christlikeness begins with a sense of honesty and dissatisfaction.
Phil. 3:12 – “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold for me”.
Paul uses the word: ‘I press on’. The Greek word was used of a sprinter, and refers to aggressive, energetic action.
Paul pursued sanctification with all his might, straining every Spiritual muscle to win the prize.
Paul says: “I focus on this “one thing” Christlikeness; Forgetting what’s behind me and go onward!”
If we look carefully to what Paul is saying to us, we can see three important points:
1. Forget the past
Paul says that he is not all that he should be but still focuses his energies on forgetting the past. And that is the point. Sometimes we allow the past to rob us the happiness that should presently be ours. We stay long in regrets over failed plans in our life, or assignments we did not complete or even standards we were not able to meet. This can easily lead to pain and grief that will disturb our peace. And when peace is gone, our fellowship with God is broken.
I believe forgetting the past with its hurts, regrets or pain is quite important. We should strongly believe that with God on our side we will set our hope high as the future might be carrying great surprises for us.
2. Strive ahead
A better word is press on. We might have no valid reason to do so but press on. A dark cloud may be hanging over our life right now, but we have to press. Those who give up too soon miss great opportunities that are waiting around the corner. There is hope because it is a new day! There is hope because God is in that day! Let’s press on and see what He has kept in store for us. Do we know that in life we are the only one who has power over our plans or vision? We can hang onto them and succeed! We might see them accomplished. Paul says he strives ahead; he presses on and that is in spite and despite of all trials he was facing.
3. Get the Prize
But we cannot press on without getting the prize right. What is the prize for our faithfulness and commitment in Christ? That is also something to consider as we labour. We ask ourselves these questions. Are we to live just for this life? Only work to get good education for our children, or own beautiful and expensive homes and maybe even run big businesses? Is that the only thing we should strive for? While I agree it is important to make our life here worthwhile, but it is good to know that if we set wrong goals, we will apply wrong methods to attain it. Our prize is to see Jesus’ face in Heaven. We strive to this end, living righteous and holy lives. We should set our sight on this one goal: to be with our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven and at His coming.
What we should do today:
• Look forward to see, what will this Easter bring forth?
• What will we be able to achieve?
• What will we do to improve our health and wealth?
• What will happen that will alter our life?
• The apostle Paul tells to look ahead “Straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14).
Looking back is good, looking forward is much better.
But Paul also tells us that looking to Jesus is the best.
• Looking to Jesus Paul said: Run toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
• Paul looks to Jesus no matter his tensions, his issues, his doubts, his fears, his mistakes. He says: “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
• Paul looks to Jesus and says: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead”.
As we come to the end of the Lent Season, a time of prayer, self-discipline, self-examination, self-denial and a time to recommitment, let us look ahead, let us strain ahead, pressing on toward the goal, hoping like the apostle Paul to get the Prize.
Christ has called us heavenward, to something much more beautiful and extraordinary than a simple worldly prize. He has prepared for us an eternal joy in His presence. There is nothing wrong in looking back and learning from the past, but we need to look ahead, strain forward and move on with God’s help and blessing.
Amen!