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Reflection Jan. 22nd, 2023

Sicamous United Church Posted on January 24, 2023 by Rev SunnyJanuary 24, 2023

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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Reflection Jan. 15, 2023

Sicamous United Church Posted on January 17, 2023 by Rev SunnyJanuary 17, 2023

Isaiah 49:1-7/ Psalm 40:1-11/ John 1:29-42

Come and See the Mystery

Eagerly Waiting

Have you ever eagerly waited for something? A lot of us have. For example, I wait for Christmas and the performing arts festival all year round. Sometimes, I wait for a new season of my favorite TV shows to come out. Waiting can be frustrating. But it is important to check our values when we eagerly wait for something. Is it worth it? Worthy according to which values and standards?

Last week, I listened to a Korean folk tale in which two middle level government officers eagerly wait for a higher officer to flatter so they can advance in their careers. They do so while wasting their resources on preparing drinks and other things to welcome him when he arrives. They do so while neglecting their duties of caring for their residents. While they coldly turn away peasants passing by because “We are waiting for an important person,” when he finally passes by, they don’t recognize him, for, as a humble man, he dresses down and not uses government’s resources to travel for personal reasons. They end up making a fool of themselves by mistaking him for a peasant and treating him badly.

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Reflection Jan. 8th, 2023 (Baptism of the Lord)

Sicamous United Church Posted on January 9, 2023 by Rev SunnyJanuary 9, 2023

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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Christmas Message 2022

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 28, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 28, 2022

Contextualizing Christmas            

During the past three weeks, we have been learning about the nativity stories in the Bible. We learned that only Matthew and Luke tell stories of the birth of Jesus and why they tell very different stories. We also examined why Mark and John do not tell that story. I explained to you that being historically accurate was not of any importance to the gospel writers and that the purpose of the gospel books was to teach their audiences that Jesus was God’s Anointed One.

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Reflection Dec. 18th, 2022 (Advent 4: Love)

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 21, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 21, 2022

Isaiah 7:10-16/ Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19/ Matthew 1:18-25

Emmanuel: Sign of Love

Love

Let us talk about love. A lot of novels, movies, TV dramas, and popular songs are full of love stories. Beatles sang, “All You Need is Love,” although we also need other things such as food and housing. There are a lot of different types of love; there is the romantic love called Eros, friendship or siblings’ love called Philia, and the unconditional love of God called Agape. These are Greek words. Love may be the most overused word and concept in our lives, but not all loves are equal.

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Reflection Dec. 11th, 2022 (Advent 3: Joy)

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 12, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 21, 2022

Isaiah 35:1-10/ Luke 1:47-55/ Matthew 11:2-11

Hope of Peace Leads to Joy

Joy Based on Justice

I remember what I felt watching Mr. Obama be elected as the US president. In the country with a history of black oppression, seeing a black man become its president, seeing a black family move into the White House gave hope to so many racial minorities inside and outside of the US. We felt hopeful and empowered.

I have already shared with you how I felt about watching the movies Black Panther and Wonder Woman. Seeing a black superhero and a powerful African country, and seeing a strong and compassionate woman be a superhero made me feel great as a woman of colour. I felt the same when a Korean American actress Sandra Oh won an award and kept getting cast as the protagonist in movies and TV shows, while most Asian American actors only get cast as side characters and often playing stereotypical characters.

What I felt was joy, but it is not the same kind of joy we feel in ordinary circumstances. This is the joy that is based on justice; marginalized people feeling empowered.

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Reflection Dec. 4th, 2022 (Advent 2: Peace)

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 8, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 8, 2022

Isaiah 11:1-10/ Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19/ Matthew 3:1-12

Preview of God’s Reign of Peace

Watching Movie Trailers

Do you like watching movies or TV shows? How do you decide which shows to watch? We can read about them, hear about them from other people, or watch the trailers to pre-view them. By watching the trailers, we can decide if the storyline or the visuals interest us. Trailers tell us what to expect from the feature films or TV shows. From the trailers that interest us, we can get excited about the prospect of watching the movies or shows. We get mentally ready to watch them. Now, I am going to show you a trailer. Let’s see if this movie seems like our cup of tea, if we want to watch it.

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Reflection Nov. 13th, 2022 (Remembrance Sunday)

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 8, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 8, 2022

Micah 4:1-5/ Romans 8:31-39/ John 15:9-17

God’s Superheroes

Black Panther and Killmonger

Among the many superhero movies that I have enjoyed, perhaps Black Panther has the most fascinating villain. Black Panther is the king of an imaginary African country called Wakanda. It is a powerful country with rich resources unlike any real-life African countries.

Black Panther is the warrior king of Wakanda. His enemy called Killmonger is his cousin who grew up in the United States with the other African Americans with all their struggles. Killmonger thinks that the powerful resources and weapons of Wakanda could help the black people all over the world. He wants to arm his black siblings around the world so they can destroy their oppressors. Having grown up as a black person in the US, he is full of anger. His biggest problem is that, by destroying the oppressors, he wants to replace them as a ruler. What makes Black Panther great is that he lets Killmonger change his mind about Wakanda’s responsibility in the global community as a powerful nation. In the end, he decides to use their resources for the greater good.

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Reflection Nov. 6th, 2022

Sicamous United Church Posted on December 8, 2022 by Rev SunnyDecember 8, 2022

Haggai 2:1-9/ Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21/ Luke 20:27-38

Dead or Alive, God’s Children

Omnipotent God

Theological school teaches some big theological words. And we use big words to describe God in the Christian Church. We say God is omnipotent and almighty; these are big words. We understand that God is everywhere in spirit and all powerful, being the Creator of the universe and all. There is one particular psalm that sings about the omnipotence and almightiness of God.

Psalm 139 sings, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.”

God transcends time, space, and dimensions.

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Reflection October 16th, 2022

Sicamous United Church Posted on October 18, 2022 by Rev SunnyOctober 18, 2022

Jeremiah 31:27-34/ Psalm 119:97-104/ Luke 18:1-8

Need to Study the Scriptures

Getting to Know a New Friend

I shared with you last Sunday that my new friend was going to join us in our Thanksgiving dinner. We first met at my community theatre group this summer and had just started to form a relationship recently. While knowing practically nothing about him, since I had invited him over for dinner, I had to ask him if there was anything he didn’t eat. The told me that he didn’t like pork. It was crucial information to have since we were planning to cook pork. So, now I know one more thing about him; that he doesn’t like pork. As our relationship develops, we will get to know more and more about each other, as it should.

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