Sicamous United Church

1 Samuel 16:1-13/ Psalm 23/ John 9:1-41

Blind As Sheep: True Sight

Finding Hidden Objects 

There is a game that I play on my tablet, which is a common and popular game: finding hidden objects. This type of game requires sharp eyes and focused attention. My game has several variations of the classic hidden objects games. My favorite is finding 30 or 50 of the same objects that are peppered throughout the image. I go through the image from corner to corner while picking out the designated object, but almost always, at the end, I realize that I haven’t found all of them. Then, my next step is to zoom in the image and pay closer attention to every inch of it to find what I have missed the first time. Often, I realize that the ones I missed were hidden in plain sight. I am sure we all have similar experiences of not seeing something in plain sight. Sometimes, on TV, we see a character looking for their glasses when they are actually on their head. We laugh at them, but we can also relate to them, can’t we?

Today’s keyword is sight. We will learn today that true sight is not what we can see with our physical eyes.

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Genesis 12:1-4a/ Psalm 121/ John 3:1-17

Pilgrims of God’s Reign

Journey as a Metaphor

Today’s keyword is “journey.” We use the word ‘journey’ in both literal and metaphorical senses. We often speak of life as a journey. Throughout my life, I have been to a lot of different places, both literally and metaphorically. When I look back at my life so far, it was full of drama, both good and hard, and I recognize that God was always with me. When I was a student pastor in New Jersey, I learned an activity from my church’s youth group. We used to share how our week has been, identifying the high and low points of the week and where God was in both places. I learned to recognize how God has been present in my life through good times and bad. I believe I stopped complaining to God ever since I started recognizing God’s constant presence in my life. Life is a journey with or without physical travelling involved.

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Exodus 24: 12-18/ Psalm 99/ Matthew 17:1-9

Being Transformed So We May Transform

Mount Kenya

When I was living in central Kenya, I lived not too far away from Mount Kenya. Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest mountain in Africa. Since it is high, there is snow on the summit all year round. Since it never snows in Kenya, Kenyans don’t know what that white stuff is. So, there is something mysterious about that mountain. But if you think about it, mountains have always been a mysterious place for our ancestors. In a lot of cultures, mountains have been thought to be the dwelling place of their gods. Maybe it was because mountains are high and often unreachable. Even today, when I see clouds covering mountains, I think of our ancestors who thought gods lived there. Mountain is a mysterious place.

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1 Corinthians 1:10-18/ Psalm 27:1, 4-9/ Matthew 4:12-23

United in God’s Kingdom

“The Only Thing That Is Clean and Bright”

Today, we start our lesson with a Korean TV drama. In the Korean action fantasy drama called Alchemy of Souls, there is a character named So-I, who has led a wretched life in poverty, which trained her to be a survivor. She does whatever it takes to survive, including theft and pretending to be the long-lost daughter of a prominent family. For So-I, life has been far from being anything good, enjoyable, or beautiful.

Then one day, she meets a young mage with a good heart named Yul and falls in love with him. Life is still terrible as she gets into a lot of bad situations, but only when she is with him, she doesn’t think only of herself. When Yul is gravely injured, she even tries to revive him by giving him her blood. However, all the bad deeds eventually catch up with her. She tries to run away with Yul’s help, the bad men come to take her, Yul comes to save her and almost get killed, she tries to protect him, and ends up getting killed. Yul holds her hand as she dies, but before her last breath, she confesses that he was the only thing in this world that was clean and bright. This death was her redemption.

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Isaiah 42:1-9/ Acts 10:34-43/ Matthew 3:13-17

                    God’s Children of Water and Light 

Light and Water

As the first Sunday of Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord Sunday, today’s two motives are light and water. Let us think about these two. The function of light is to make things visible. When one is in the dark, one can more comfortably do bad things than when one is fully visible. That is why a lot of crimes are committed at night in isolated places. When we describe someone as light, that person has little darkness and evil to hide. What about water? Water’s important function is to wash dirty things. Water is also an essential life force. Water is life. We can see how water and light became religious metaphors and why we use expressions such as “wash away our sins” and “I am the light of the world.” Today, we celebrate these two.

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