Pastoral Letter 89
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Greetings to you all.
According to the news, the full vaccination rate will reach 90% soon and the single dose rate will pass the 95% in NSW. Some of the churches around us have already opened their doors for worship, and vaccinated and unvaccinated are welcome to attend, respecting the social distancing regulations and masks on. Singing is not allowed; only ten singers will be at the front for leading the worship. From the 1st of December, singing will be allowed in places of worship.
As I have indicated earlier, we will reopen our doors on Sunday 21 November as a start and the following Sunday, 28 November, we will celebrate St. Andrew’s Day together and go into Advent season preparing for Christmas and New Year celebrations. We will invite our neighbours to the service, followed by a special Morning Tea with free Sausage Sizzle from 11:00 am till 12:00 noon. We are all excited as we go back to normal life. Another piece of good news is that international travel will open next week, though there will be many conditions and requirements.
As you know I will be on leave for two weeks from 2-17 November 2021, but you can still contact me anytime for any urgent matter. On 7 November, Pastor Rick will share with us Lane Cove Uniting‘s Sunday Service and on 14 November, our dear friend Bob Minton, has offered to prepare the Service and the message.
After a successful Lower North Shore Zoom Study Series with Rev. Dr. Kenneth Bailey “The Good Shepherd”, which was over five weeks in July and August this year, with the initiative of Crows Nest Uniting Church, we will have an Advent Study Series “Signs of the Times: Christ and Climate” led by Rev. Dr. Clive Pearson. The study will be hybrid – face-to-face at Crows Nest Uniting Church and on Zoom. If you wish to join, make an effort to attend live or on Zoom, whichever suits you. The Zoom link Is:
We will keep you updated with our plan, as we move toward normal times. The Church Elders and Council met last Wednesday and took further steps to organise the coming few weeks and decided to go back to normal with a slower pace. Please pray and be patient, as we look forward to better days and back to our regular programs.
Mark is going into St. George Private Hospital on Monday 1st of November for surgery on his neck. He has nerve compression between neck bones. This has caused pain in his left arm and numbness and pins and needles in his left hand over the past 6 months. Removal of some of the bone will open up space for the nerves and stop the pain. He has been told that the success rate is 99%. Please remember him in your prayers.
In the meantime, please join the other members tomorrow morning in worship, light a candle and follow the Order of Service.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
1. Pray for tomorrow’s service and join in prayer with all the churches, praise, and worship God.
2. Pray as the COVID-19 restrictions are easing with a quicker pace and we look forward to reopening our doors on the 21st of November.
3. Pray for Mark as he goes to hospital to have surgery.
4. Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
5. Pray for Lebanon as people are still in desperation and need help.
6. Pray for the Lower North Shore Zone’s Advent Study Series commencing on 11 November at Crows Nest and via Zoom.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Krikor
Love! The Key to the Kingdom of God
Mark 12:28-24
I have titled today’s message as “Love! The Key to the Kingdom of God”. Instead of the word “Key”, I could have said “Access Card” or “Key Card”. The common aspect behind the Key and the Card is that they give us access to certain rooms or to the premises we have the right to be in. If we walk in the city or catch public transport during business hours, we see many people with cards pinned to their dress or hanging from their neck. The card allows them to have access to their workplace. With “Key Cards” we can access our bank accounts, pay bills or get cash from the ATM machine.
As we think about Eternal Life or the Kingdom of God and how to get in, we think of having the appropriate means or cards to have that access.
In today’s reading we hear that Jesus, by answering the question of the Scribe, demonstrated that to get into the Kingdom we need to have the right means, which in this case is Love. We could be very near to the Kingdom, but to get in we need the right pass.
In our scripture we can see that Jesus is once again being questioned, as the religious leaders of the Jews are trying to discredit Him before the people. These leaders were determined to destroy Christ and they were persistent in their pursuit of Jesus, using every occasion to try to force Him to commit a crime punishable by death.
First, it was the Chief Priests, Scribes and the Elders who came to Jesus to challenge Him.
Then the Pharisees and the Herodians came to catch Jesus if He was to make any mistake or say anything that would condemn Him according to the Jewish Law and they came up with the perfect question.
Then the Sadducees tried to catch Jesus in a mistake that would cost Him his life.
Jesus had quickly and skilfully stopped every attempt, but there was one more attempt yet to come. This time it would come in a different manner. This time it would be from a Scribe who seemed to agree with Jesus and yet was trying to trap Him in a different manner.
This Scribe or the teacher had been standing at the side listening to all of these arguments and attempts to trap the Lord, so he asked a question concerning the Commandments as though he was really desiring to learn something. He almost seemed to be on Jesus’ side, but Jesus knew his heart.
He was closer to the Kingdom of God because he understood what Jesus meant by loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself.
Those who truly Love God with all their heart will keep God in their heart and there will be no room for hatred or attacks against anyone else.
Those who truly Love God with all their soul will be ever thankful that their soul is destined to spend eternity in Heaven.
Those who love God with all their mind will have no time to fill their minds with thoughts of getting even or hurting anyone else.
Those who love God with all their strength won’t have energy to spare to use in attacking another man. Their whole purpose will be in serving the Lord, every minute of every day.
That’s the result of the first commandment – to Love the Lord Jesus Christ with everything that is within you.
If we obey the first commandment, the second commandment, concerning the love for our neighbour, will happen automatically.
How can we love God, serve God, and live for God and be hateful to people at the same time?
It just doesn’t work that way.
Jesus sums up God’s laws in a brief statement that says it all: Love God, love your neighbour–our duty to God and others. This is the law of love on one foot.
Love is the big motivator. Love for God makes us want to please Him. Love makes all the difference. Once God has our love, He’ll have the rest.
We’re to love God and others with our heart, soul, mind, and strength…
The heart is the centre of our being; in the Bible it means the same as our thoughts, words, and deeds. When we say, “I love you with all of my heart”, we mean a love that is full, complete, sincere and true holding nothing back. To give God our lives is to give Him our hearts.
The soul is the immaterial and immortal part of our inner person, that which sets us apart from the rest of creation. It is regarded as the source of our emotions. We love God and others with deep feelings, with enthusiasm. We put some life into our love!
The mind refers to knowledge and perception. Faith does not require intellectual suicide. We love God because we’ve considered and accepted the truth of Scripture. Ours is a reasonable faith, not a leap into the dark.
Our strength suggests that faith isn’t passive. Love for God and others is actively expressed. Love is something we do.
Notice that God expects the fullness of our love: “All your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.” Is our love half-hearted, or does God have our “all”?
This may start to sound like working our way to Heaven. If that’s the case, none of us will make it. Nobody can love completely or perfectly. We don’t love to make it to Heaven; we love because we’ve already been guaranteed a place there. God’s initiative of Love compels us. If we really love God, we can’t help but love others.
In verse 32, how does this student of Scripture respond to Jesus?
He is delighted! He gives his wholehearted agreement. Our translations don’t do justice to his response. In the original language He begins with a shout we could translate as “Right!”, “Excellent!”, or “Beautiful!”. It’s pretty clear Jesus made a big impression on him, and he’s honest enough to admit it.
How do we respond to this summing up of God’s law?
Some might argue, “Isn’t it enough that I show up on Sunday?” God expects more than church attendance. He wants our conversations during the week, our ethical behaviour, our work, our recreation, our relationships to all be immersed in love, to guide all we do. Love comes first. If we love Jesus, we will keep His commandments.
Notice our Lord’s reply in verse 34: “You aren’t far from the Kingdom of God.” What did He mean by that?
In Israel, a person “far off” was far from God, which usually referred to Gentiles or to exiled Jews unable to participate in Temple rituals because they were geographically too far away.
But this man wasn’t far from the Temple. Jesus is saying that our geographical location doesn’t matter. We can spend a great deal of time in church and still be spiritually lost, “far off”. Church helps us find the way to God, and helps grow our faith, but church can only point the way. Jesus is saying that the distance to the Kingdom isn’t measured in miles, nor by ceremonial standards, but by the condition of the heart.
We all need power to love. “We really don’t know much about loving until we’re in touch with love Himself,” said C.S. Lewis. We gain the power to love by first receiving and then resonating God’s love. We need to pray daily: “Lord, show me who You want to love through me this day.”
When Jesus told the Scribe that he was very close to the Kingdom of God. What did He mean?
It meant that he was close to understanding what the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was all about.
The Kingdom of God is all about loving one another. It is all about the Love of God that sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross for you and me.
So, the question is.
How close are we to the Kingdom of God?
Have we come to realize that it is not the law that saves our souls and draws us to the Lord?
It is not when we please men but when we please the Lord that will make people who obey the Lord.
Are we passed the attitudes of the Scribes, the Pharisees, or the Sadducees?
Have we reached the place in our walk with the Lord that we are more concerned about the condition of the heart and soul of a man than whether he does what we think is right?
We can either be condemning and judgmental or we can show forth the Love of God, but we can’t do both.
It’s time we draw near to the Kingdom of God and begin to show the Love of God through our love for God and for our fellowman.
How close are we to the Kingdom of God?
Are we as close as the scribe?
Let’s get closer than that by allowing the Love of God to rule in our lives.
Let’s love God above all and love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves.
Doing that, we will have the key to the Kingdom in our hands.
If we want to be in the Kingdom, then we need to have the right means; we need to have the Key to get in. The key is to love God and to love our neighbour. These are the greatest of the commandments.
Amen!