“God – to define is to confine”

John 2:13-22




Richard C. Choe ©

The Third Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

To define is to confine.

I remember writing a final exam for East Asian Studies class in my final year of university. The professor looked up from his reading and watched a few us who were still writing. We were the keeners who were planning to do graduate studies. So we were trying to dump as much information as possible onto the paper to let the professor know that we really cared for the course.

“Please don’t draw legs on a snake,” the professor told us with a smile on his face. It was his way of telling us that what we wrote was more than enough. I am sure that I drew lots of legs on a snake on that exam.

Many years later, while I was marking papers for a course I was teaching at Emmanuel College, I read a few papers that drew lots of legs on a snake. When we try to define without taking enough time we end up confining the subject matter to our limited understanding and draw conclusions that may not be real or true.

Today’s passage is one of those “troublesome” passages in the Bible. We hear about a “not-so-gentle” side of Jesus.

We see Jesus really losing his temper when people were gathering for the Passover, one of the most important religious Jewish holy days. He walked into the temple in Jerusalem, the holiest of holy sites for Jews, and really made a scene. He thrashed the animals with a whip and drove them out of the temple. He emptied out the coffers of the money changers and overturned their tables. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” He yelled at them. His disciples remembered Jesus saying something they did not comprehend at the time, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Why was Jesus so angry? Was his anger justifiable? What about his action?

People selling the animals and the money changers were necessary for the worship at the temple. Pilgrims from far away could not bring animals from home for their obligatory sacrifices so they had to buy them at the temple. Temple tax was received only in “sanctuary shekel,” so they had to exchange their Roman currency into Jewish currency.

Daniel Clendenin, a biblical scholar, writes the following on today’s passage.

“It is not clear whether Jesus objected to any and all commercial activity in the temple out of principle, even honest transactions that were necessary for pilgrims to fulfill their religious obligations, or whether he excoriated the fraud, exploitation and avarice of the religious authorities who controlled the means of ritual purity and thus access to Yahweh.”[i]

Clendenin concludes his article by saying that “the cleansing of the temple [was] a stark warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced allegiances, religious presumption, pathetic excuses, smug self-satisfaction, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed in the name of God are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours. Church is more than a place to enjoy a night of bingo or reinforce my many prejudices and illusions.”[ii]

A warning against any and every false sense of security. But isn’t religion supposed to provide a sense of security?

Clendenin’s article reminded me of my experiences as General Council staff for ten years before I came to KRU.

I remember numerous conversations with congregations across Canada that were willing to die than to change. They would rather keep their local “traditions” that were keeping their neighbours out than to explore new and different ways to be open to their changed ministry context. Being transformed by God’s spirit or serving the neighbours was often forgotten in those congregations. In the absence of clear focus on ministry and mission the upkeep of the church building would often became a focus of the congregation’s priority. It was as if the upkeep of the building provided a sense of security for them. It was as though “tradition” meant something that was unchanging and unmoving.

It was not that the upkeep of church was unimportant or that church should not be utilized efficiently. My concern was that church building was only seen as a property to rent for money or a liability for the congregation’s budget. There were not many conversations about using the building as a form of outreach to the neighbourhood.

“Where is God in all this?” I used to ask myself and people in those congregations. “What are your mission priorities?” I would ask. The answer I heard too often was that they wanted to have more people come in to church so that they would be able to maintain the church building. They seldom talked about serving the neighbours or being transformed by God’s spirit.

One of the exercises I did with congregations was to review the amount of time spent on various areas of their church’s business. Most, if not all, of the congregations that were struggling spent most of the time talking about money and the building. It was a vicious cycle. The less money they had, the more time they spent to talk about money. And the more time they talked about money, the less time they had to talk about their ministry. I would remind people that the amount of time they spent on each topic would show their congregation’s priorities.

Looking beyond themselves, looking at their neighbourhood, and setting up mission and ministry priorities was the last phase of the workshop I facilitated. What was sad was that too many congregations, too often, chose not to change with their changed neighbourhood. It was fear of changes, not faith, which kept them from looking beyond themselves.

Today’s passage from John, for me, is a warning against the kind of things that happens when church loses sight of its priorities, when it is not clear about its reason for existence.

Worship was the reason why the temple was built, not for commercial activities. When business transactions overwhelmed worship Jesus got angry. When business transactions became a priority over transforming people and serving people Jesus overturned the tables.

When we define church based on its survival, we confine church to be self serving. When we define traditions as unchanging, we confine church to become irrelevant to us and our neighbours.

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

This statement is more than just a metaphor of Jesus’ resurrection. It represents the confession of early Christian churches’ understanding that God cannot be defined and confined in the temple but found in each of us and everywhere God is sought.

What about us? What about us at KRU?

How much time, energy and effort do we spend on the upkeep of the building and on the budget? How much time, energy and effort do we spend on transforming ourselves and our neighbours to become whole? How much time do we spend on arguing over the process and the content of worship services in relation to time spent on how we could serve our neighbours?

Our actions, the amount of time and effort we spend, tell us of our priorities.

Where is God in all the activities of our church?

Here is a story that may overturn our understanding of our search for God.

A renowned monk asked a student what he was seeking in his faith journey. The student told the monk that he was seeking to find Buddha so he could become enlightened by Buddha’s wisdom. “When you meet Buddha, kill Buddha,” the monk told the student.

“When you meet Buddha, kill Buddha” is a phrase Buddhist teachers use to explain that seeking truth is not about arrival but a process. Faith is about being in the dynamic process of searching and renewal. It is not about a fixed state of an arrival. The story is a warning against those who become complacent in faith by thinking that she or he has attained wisdom for good.

We are part of the faith tradition that was formed to transform the lives of people and to serve those in need. God calls us to be open to God’s spirit we experience in and through our life. The only security we have is the knowledge that God will accompany us in our faith journey in seeking God’s presence and in being God’s presence for those who are in need.

A Song of Faith, a new Statement of Faith of our church, begins this way:

“God is Holy Mystery,
beyond complete knowledge,
above perfect description.

Yet,
in love,
the one eternal God seeks relationship.”[iii]

God seeks relationship with us so we could become partners in God’s ministry. And this is how the new faith statement ends:

“Divine creation does not cease
until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration with the common ground of all being.

As children of the Timeless One,
our time-bound lives will find completion
in the all-embracing Creator.

In the meantime, we embrace the present,
embodying hope, loving our enemies,
caring for the earth,
choosing life.

Grateful for God’s loving action,
we cannot keep from singing.

Creating and seeking relationship,
in awe and trust,
we witness to Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.

Amen.”[iv]

May we continue our faith journey seeking God who is Holy Mystery. May we continue to be open to possibilities God provides each and every day. May our church building be a place of welcoming, transforming and serving. May we continue to experience liberty and joy as we experience God as our partners in making our world whole.

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[i] Daniel B. Clendenin, “Jesus Unhinged: the Cleansing of the Temple,” The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, Sunday, March 15, 2009, http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090309JJ.shtml.
[ii] Clendenin, “Jesus Unhinged: the Cleansing of the Temple,” http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20090309JJ.shtml.
[iii] A Song of Faith, The United Church of Canada, http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/statements/songfaith.
[iv] A Song of Faith, http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/statements/songfaith.

“Sex & Chocolate: Consequence of Faith?"

March 18 2009

The Second Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. --
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

* * *

Sex and chocolate.

Giving up sex or chocolate, for some folks, is synonymous with Lent. Some of you told me that giving up chocolate has been part of your Lent tradition since you were children. Some of my friends told me – and I am not sure whether they were joking or not – that they would be giving up sex for Lent. The Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail reported that some of the leaders of the Catholic Church are advising the members to give up Facebook for Lent.[i]

It is not just Christian faith that emphasizes “giving up” or “letting go” as part of faith journey. “Emptying oneself” or “surrendering oneself” to a greater being or for a greater cause is an integral part of the spiritual traditions around the global communities. That human beings are in need of liberation from self-absorption seems to be the wisdom found and expressed in faith traditions.

I remember a fast for three days over a weekend retreat during Lent when I was a teenager. I remember the hunger towards the end of the first day. A sense of euphoria enveloped me on the second day. I thought about Jesus and his disciples on the way to Jerusalem as I refrained from food for three days. Refraining from eating helped me to understand a bit about those living in hunger. By the end of the third day, on the way back home, I experienced stillness within me.

As I got older, I began to question fasting as a way of identifying myself with the suffering of Jesus. “What does fasting really accomplish other than feeling a sense of piety?” I asked myself. “How does my fasting really make a difference for those who are starving?” was the question I heard within myself.

What does giving up chocolate, sex or Facebook during Lent mean for us? Does our momentary refrain from our comforts and pleasures accomplish anything meaningful to those who are experiencing crucifixion each and every day? What does our faith require us to do?

“If any of you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. For those of you who want to save life will lose it, and those of you who lose life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Those words of Jesus seem so harsh. Was Jesus “promoting” suffering? Joanna Dewey, a Christian theologian, posed that very question in her article, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world.”

“Christians today, especially Christian women, often interpret Mark 8:34 as a call to sacrifice self – to be subservient and to endure suffering that could be alleviated – as a demand of Christian discipleship. … The invitation can be understood as a glorification of suffering and an encouragement to become a victim: one is to deny oneself, sacrifice oneself, wipe out any sense of self, and to embrace the cross, that is, suffering in general. On the basis of this verse, discipleship is portrayed as "suffer now," presumably for reward later in the age to come. Many a woman has failed to develop her own identity and strengths and has embraced or endured suffering that could be alleviated because she has come to believe that such a way of life is pleasing to God and an imitation of Christ.”[ii]

Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign – a vision of a world where justice is facilitated through compassion for all – in a place where “economic downturn” was not a euphemism but a death sentence by starvation for many. Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign in a time when the Roman military, an occupying force in Palestine and the rest of the Mediterranean region, had absolute power over life and death for those living under their empire.

Jesus proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign knowing that the consequences of his vision would be met with brutality by the Romans and the religious leaders who preferred the status quo. For those in power, their kingdom was already in effect. A proclamation of any other version of the kingdom was seen as an insurgence against them. People in Jesus’ time understood that power was something to be taken from the less powerful or to be taken away by the more powerful.

Suffering continues to be part of human realities. Warrant Officer Dennis Brown, Corporal Dany-Olivier Fortin and Corporal Kenneth Chad O’Quinn died last Tuesday when a bomb exploded near their armoured vehicle in Afghanistan. Two other soldiers were also injured in the explosion. More than 100 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan in 2001 – a war that is now described as “unwinnable” by our Prime Minister.

Current economic crisis continues to impact us and people around the globe. Companies are closing. Wages are being cut. Jobs are being lost. We read that “unemployment in the United States has reached a 26-year high and the recession is claiming jobs at a pace not seen since 1945, with no end in sight.”[iii]

The crosses in our society seem much closer and more apparent to us in this Lent. What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us as we experience so many crises that seem so enormous and too complicated for us to comprehend?

Joanna Dewey writes that Mark 8:34 is not an exhortation of suffering in general when read in the first-century cultural contexts and the larger narrative of Mark. She concludes her article by saying that “to renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group and join the followers of Jesus. It is an exhortation to remain faithful to Jesus and the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”[iv]

“To renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group … and remain faithful to the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”

Joanna Dewey’s remark reminded me of the keynote address by Susan Sontag, a Jewish American writer, on the occasion of the presentation of the Rothko Chapel Oscar Romero Award to Ishai Menuchin, chairman of Yesh Gvul (meaning “There Is a Limit” in Hebrew) in 2003.

Yesh Gvul is the Israeli soldiers’ movement that refuses to serve beyond the 1967 borders. The soldiers who are part of Yesh Gvul believe that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. The soldiers in the movement, who are Jews, take seriously the principle put forward at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46: namely, “that a soldier is not obliged to obey unjust orders, orders that contravene the laws of war.”[v] When Nazi German officers stated that they were just obeying orders as soldiers in massacring Jews and other groups during the war the court ruled that each soldier has an obligation to disobey unjust orders.

Sontag emphasized that “the Israeli soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories are not refusing a particular order. They are refusing to enter the space where illegitimate orders are bound to be given – that is, where it is more than probable that they will be ordered to perform actions that continue the oppression and humiliation of Palestinian civilians. Houses are demolished, groves are uprooted, the stalls of a village market are bulldozed, a cultural center is looted; and now, nearly every day, civilians of all ages are fired on and killed. … These soldiers believe, as I do, that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from Occupied Territories. They have declared collectively that they will not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders ‘in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.’”[vi]

More than one thousand soldiers were part of Yesh Gvul in 2003. More than 250 of them have gone to prison at the time. Yesh Gvul, Sontag believed, provided a model of resistance. Of disobedience. For which there will always be penalties.[vii] There are consequences for one’s belief.

For those in power, for whom their kingdom is already in effect, any other version than the status quo is treason. For those in power, there cannot be any other possibility than what they already have established as the reality they have instituted as the norm for the rest.

Sontag shared that her “admiration for the soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories is as fierce as her belief that it will be a long time before their view prevails.” And she concluded her speech by saying that “All struggle, all resistance is – must be – concrete. And all struggle has a global resonance. If not here, then there. If not now, then soon, Elsewhere as well as here.”[viii]

Sontag’s conviction in justice required of her to speak against the powers and the principalities at the height of the Bush-ism after 9/11, knowing that she would be accused and criticized by many as un-American and anti-Israel. Each conviction lived in action has consequences.
What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us to do as we face the realities of economic crisis and as death tolls rise in our war in Afghanistan?

One of the things we could do is to reflect Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem in and through our life. There were many spiritual leaders envisioning and proclaiming radical changes in Jesus’ time in Palestine. What set Jesus apart from others was that he was a “radical” who sought and proclaimed revolutionary transformation of inner self as well as outer self. In a world dominated by ethics of “eye-for-an-eye” Jesus preached forgiveness. In a world dominated by “entitlement” based on inherited or a violently acquired socio-political power Jesus proclaimed that all are God’s children. In a world full of false prophets promising “suffer now and heaven later” Jesus declared that God’s Reign was already present in each person.
What does our faith require of us?

Taking a risk by letting go of the so-called “conventional truth or wisdom” by looking at things from the “minority” perspective could be a start. Taking a chance in seeing through the eyes of the poor and the disadvantaged could be another. Risking seeing through the eyes of the “enemies” when reading or hearing about the war in Afghanistan and anywhere else could be another. Moving beyond our comfort zone to seek and understand our faith could be another.

Is it possible for us as Canadians to shed tears for those faceless and countless civilians suffering and dying in Afghanistan as we mourn the death of our soldiers? Is it possible for us as Christians to shed tears for those faceless and countless Taliban fighters as we mourn the death of our soldiers?

Is it mutually exclusive to mourn the death of our soldiers and mourn the death of our “enemies”? What does our faith require of us? What are consequences of our faith that are beyond giving up chocolate, sex and Facebook?

Seventeen of us women and men from KRU worked with the Habitat for Humanity in our neighbourhood yesterday. At one point in the day, about 9 to 10 of us formed a line to move bricks from one area to another. The image of us working together, moving bricks and debris was an image of being church for me.

We, who are part of a society where everything is governed by the market economy based on supply and demand, were participating in building houses that are contrary to our current market economy. In our small way we were saying that there is a limit for us as followers of Jesus in participating in the current market economy. In our small way we were resisting the current market economy that rewards the rich and abandons the poor. In our small way we were practicing our faith that God loves all as God’s children and that we are inextricably linked as sisters and brothers.

Yes, there is a limit.

Women around the globe began as an organized global community to speak for their rights in the early 1900s.

Yes, there is a limit.

Israeli soldiers organized to refuse to follow unjust orders that would inevitably cause harm and demean Palestinians.

Yes, there is a limit.

Jesus’ faith in God required him to dream of a world where the true interest of human community is justice and compassion for all.

The season of Lent is a time of reflecting on the consequences of our faith. It is a time of refraining ourselves from the values that demean us and our neighbours. It is a time of finding ways to empty ourselves of the ideologies, beliefs and practices that separate us from our neighbours and God. It is a time of acknowledging and experiencing that there is a limit in human-centeredness and that God continues to invite us to open to possibilities that may lead us from our comfort zones.

May we seek God’s accompaniment in our Lenten journey.

Amen.

--
[i] Erin Anderssen, Lent’s most controversial sacrifice: Facebook, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, F3.
[ii] Joanna Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world,” Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[iii] Paul Waldie, U.S. posts worst rate of job loss since 1945, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, A1&12.
[iv] Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross,” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[v] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, eds., Paolo Dilonardo and Anne Jump, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2007), 185.
[vi] Sontag, On Courage and Resistance,” 185.
[vii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance, 186.
[viii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” 187-191.

"Rainbow Connection"

March 1, 2009
The First Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

Richard C. Choe ©

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8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

* * *

“Lord, your ocean so great,
And my boat is so small.”

I remember the vast ocean of clouds on the way to Canada in 1975. I was 14 years old and my family and I were on our way to a new land we would be calling “home.” There was an endless ocean of white outside the window. I remember feeling so small inside the airplane floating toward the new land. I had no idea what the new land looked like. What I had was a sense of hope and a promise of a new beginning.

With me were two wooden carvings my friends gave me as gifts for the new journey. They were totems – miniaturized versions of the statues found at the entrance of villages in Korea, erected to ward off evil spirits. “The Great General under the Heaven” was inscribed on the male totem. “The Woman General beneath the Earth” was the inscription on the female totem. Like Noah in his ark, I carried the pair to the new land. They were mementoes of my birth place. They were memories from my old homeland. They represented my place of origin and a reminder from friends that I was not travelling alone.

I have experienced many upheavals since then. There were floods that swept away much of memories of my old friends. Their faces have all but faded away in the tides of time. There were experiences of feeling so small in the vast ocean of loneliness, growing up in Canada. But I have carried the two totems with me through all the tides and the floods of my life, knowing that they represent my connection to my ancestral spirit.

According to the Book of Genesis, the Great Flood wiped out all life on earth except the life carried in the ark Noah and his family built. The flood destroyed everything. Noah and his family experienced mortality throughout the flood. Each toss and turn reminded them of the “smallness” of being human in the vast ocean of God’s wrath. Each gust of wind terrified them to death.

When it rains, it pours.

“Women and children continue to suffer and die in Darfur.” “A young man gunned down at home in Toronto.” “Ninety children known to Ontario’s child welfare system died in 2007, according to the latest report from the chief coroner’s office.”[i] Each headline in the newspaper tells us of the floods of violence and horror continuing around us.

Our lives are inundated with so many headlines indicating the floods of destruction around us. And we often feel so small in the vast ocean of torrid currents of despair as the world turns.

When it rains, it pours.

There are times in life when we feel so overwhelmed with crises in life that we feel paralyzed. There are issues with people at work. There are conflicts you are trying to manage with your family members. There are times when life seems to be a continuation of one flood after another. Peace and tranquility seem so illusive.

When will the flood subside in our life? When will we see the dry land?

The wind finally subsided and the dry land was found for Noah and his companions. A new cycle of life was about to begin as Noah and every living thing “went out of the ark by families.”

The first thing Noah and his family did when they disembarked on the dry land was to offer thanksgiving to God. The book of Genesis repeats over and over to emphasize what Noah and his companions heard from God – that God will never again curse the ground.

And the covenant was made between God and Noah to mark the new beginning of life on earth. Noah hears God’s promise that there will not be any more destruction and that the sign of the covenant between them is the rainbow. Thus, a rainbow became the symbol of the first recorded covenant between God and humanity. And the covenant was not only with Noah but also with his descendants and the rest of creation. “I will remember the covenant,” said God to Noah.

What Noah heard, what Noah understood, was that the God he heard was the God of life-giving, not the God of destruction. Noah’s understanding of the covenant underscores his faith and conviction that God is the God of renewal. For him, God is the God of rejuvenation and resurrection.

Noah turned around his experiences of desolation into a prelude of a new beginning of his relationship with God. That is the rainbow connection – God and Noah turned to each other to be present to each other. That was the covenant God and Noah made to each other and with the rest of God’s creation.

Where do we see the sign of the rainbow in our life? Where can we experience God’s voice telling us that there shall be no more destruction and desolation?

Experiences of tragedy and near-death often change people’s outlook on life. Nothing can be more life-changing than an escape from a near death experience. Some succumb to fear and live in the floods of nightmares. But some, like Noah, choose to overcome fear and become hope for others.

Daoud Hari was one of the 2.5 million internally displaced people in Sudan. In 2003, Daoud Hari’s village was attacked and torched to the ground by the Sudanese-government-backed militia. He witnessed how the militia murdered his older brother. Though his family was decimated and dispersed, he eventually found safety across the border in Chad.

With his knowledge of languages, including English, Hari became a translator and guide to the foreign reporters and government officials covering genocide in Darfur. He risked his life again and again to help ensure that the story of his people is told while there is still time to save them.

He was captured by the Sudanese military in one of the missions to cover the story of genocide in Darfur. He and his companions were severely tortured by the Sudanese and Chadian governments. When he was finally released with the help of people abroad, Daoud Hari wrote a book, The Translator: A Memoir, to continue to tell the stories of his people so that the rest of the humanity does not forget them.

“You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life,” Hari wrote in his book.[ii] He stated that “the best way to bury your pain is to help others and to lose yourself in that.”[iii]

Facing our mortality often “awakens” us to realize what’s really important in our life. Near-death or near-disaster in life, if we choose, could help us to renew our life and to cherish those around us. Like Noah and his companions, we could make adversities we face as the beginning of a new way of being. It is true that people often find hope after experiencing adversity. The experiences of desolation and hopelessness often awaken people to search for hope. That’s the rainbow connection – hope arising out of hopelessness.

Noah and his family found hope after experiencing destruction and desolation. Rainbow became a symbol of God’s promise of peace for them. The theme of turning death into renewal – a process of resurrection – continues in our time.

Daoud Hari found hope and became hope for others even after experiencing death and the loss of many of his family members. Gifts from my friends continue to remind me that I am not alone. They remind me that their friendship and love will always accompany me in my life. They remind me that friends are to be found and cherished in life. My old friends’ gifts became a model for my faith and ministry: accompanying those who are in need and being present in their life.

The Season of Lent is a time of searching for such hope – becoming aware of desolations within and around us and turning them into a source of hope and renewal within and around us. Lent is a time of reflecting the life of Jesus and how he became the source of hope for us. Lent is a time of finding ways to become hope for those around us.

When it rains, it pours.

But we also know that it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. God continues to invite us to turn our sorrows into hope. God continues to invite us to become a rainbow to those around us. May we dare to be the rainbow of God’s promise to all. May we dare to turn to God and embody God’s renewing love for all.

Amen.

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[i] Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star, http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/591523.
[ii] Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Memoir (Anchor Canada, 2008 ), 11.
[iii] Hari, The Translator, 64.

"Love's the Reason"

Fun in the Sun

February 22, 2009

Mark 9:2-9

Richard C. Choe ©

Transfiguration

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

* * *

Love’s the reason.

Q&A is the title of a book by Vikas Swarup, a career Indian diplomat. The book was inspired partly by the story of Harshvardhan Nawathe, a 27 year old to who won ten million rupees – about a quarter million dollars – on September 24, 2000 in India’s version of the American game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

In Q&A Swarup wove a story of an orphan with the realities of Mumbai – one of the most culturally diverse cities where the gap between the rich and the poor is just unimaginable for those of us living in Canada.

Slumdog Millionaire, a simplified and “sanitized” version of the book, is nominated for 10 Oscars, including the best picture category. I will be rooting for Slumdog Millionaire at tonight’s Academy Awards.

Love is the reason why Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from Mumbai’s Dharavi slum enters the contest in Slumdog Millionaire. Winning the money was not the reason that Jamal entered the game show. He was after a chance to reunite with Latika, his lost love, whom he knew would be watching the show. Jamal wins 20 million rupees – about $500,000 – in the Who Wants to be a Millionaire and reunites with Latika.

I liked the movie. But I kept comparing the movie with the original book. This is one of the challenges in watching a movie version of the book. Regardless of how well the movie is made, it cannot fully capture the complexities and the subtleties of your own imagination of reading a book. I felt that the plotline was too linear and not as complex as the original story. But, how can you tell a whole book in two hours?

Describing church, I think, is akin to describing the relationship between the book and the movie based on the book. What the screen writer does to the book is similar to how we try to express our understanding of faith in relation to the vision of the Jesus movement which began about two thousand years ago. What we do here at KRU, how we practice our faith through worship and our work – how we relate with one another here in this place and with the people around us – are only facets of the vision of God’s community lived out and expressed by Jesus of Nazareth and his followers.

The answers to questions like “Why are you here?” or “What is church?” would be different for each person. For some of us, church means a place where we grew up. It is a place where we and our relatives and friends got baptized, married, and were eulogized in funerals.

For some of us church conjures up feelings of nationalism and pride in being Canadian. Some associate our faith with the memories of prayers and vigils during the war years when we desperately prayed for the safe return of the loved ones. For some church is a place of memories of being consoled and consoling those whose uncles, sisters, husbands, and aunts came back wounded or who did not return, forever lost at the battlefields in Europe and Asia.

There are others for whom church is a place where a lunch is shared on Fridays during the harsh winter months. For some church is a place of warmth and welcoming.

Each of those stories about church, although meaningful and wonderful, does not fully describe being church as Jesus of Nazareth envisioned.

There are “not-so-wonderful” sides of being church. Being made up of human beings, there are disagreements and, at times, dissensions arise amongst us here. There are times when we are not able to show our regard or respect for one another.

Why our reality of being church falls short of the original vision of Jesus of Nazareth is mostly due to our human condition. We are trying to become one but are not there yet.

Like the movie Slumdog Millionaire in comparison to Q&A, the complex original story, the faith that we practice and how we are church in our community at KRU reflects only parts of the original vision of being church espoused by Jesus more than 2000 years ago.

The director of Slumdog Millionaire flashes Latika’s illuminated face at various points of the movie to capture and to express the love between her and Jamal. Latika’s face symbolizes love that represents their childhood. Latika’s face illumines a love that survived poverty, separation, violence, and chaos. It is a love that helped them to survive through moments of hopelessness and eventually healed their wounds. It is a love that represents naiveté and hope in society accentuated by greed and fast changes. Their love for each other eventually gave them courage to boldly move into the future with hope. Pictures, indeed, speak a thousand words.

The story we heard today about transfiguration, or metamorphosis in Greek, also captured the imagination of being church – a community of God’s beloved – for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The story was so important that Mark, Matthew, and Luke recorded the event. The story of transfiguration illuminated the understanding of the mission and ministry for the followers of Jesus.

It is a scene where three of Jesus’ disciples witnessed Jesus’ physical body being changed, Jesus conversing with heroes of his faith and cultural community – Moses and Elijah – and heard a voice of God.

Like the illuminated face of Latika representing a thousand facets of love between her and Jamal, the story of transfiguration represents God’s call to us to work toward establishing a community based on God’s love and the struggles of establishing such community.

Like Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John, Christian communities struggled with the temptations of “settling down” to build shrines in memory of Jesus. Over the centuries, churches often forgot that Jesus called his disciples to go back down the mountain and share the experience of hearing God’s voice with the rest of the world. The transfiguration story reminds us that the Way of Jesus was a movement to establish a community based on God’s love to the end of the earth.

Churches continue to struggle with the temptation of “settling in” high up at the mountain set apart from the rest of the world at the expense of the mission to feed, heal and free people. Buildings or entitlement of power within church becomes a primary focus when a faith community loses sight of its mission.

The story of transfiguration also reminds us of the times when we “conversed” with ancestors of our faith community, like the way Jesus conversed with Moses and Elijah. “How did you do it, Mom?” “How did you walk through the difficulties of being church when there were divisions and conflict?” “How did you minister together when the membership and resources dwindled?” “How did you deal with the fear of the immense responsibilities of being church?” “How did the leadership emerge faithfully when the congregation needed clarity and direction for its ministry?” “How was God’s presence experienced in your time?”

The transfiguration story also reminds us of how God has illuminated us with love. We remember the times when we were able to embrace ourselves as beloved. Do you remember being in love? Do you remember how you found it impossible to hide the love you were experiencing? Do you remember experiencing God’s presence in times of sorrow and in times of celebration?

As church we are called to feed the hungry, heal the sick and free those who are imprisoned in body as well as in mind and in spirit. That is our primary mission of being the church of Jesus Christ with our body, mind, and spirit.

Each Sunday worship and each act of ministry here and around KRU, we try our best to illumine love of God. We continue to listen for the voice of God within us and amongst us when we gather. We are encouraged by Jesus to go down the mountain, to open ourselves and to serve those in need. And we acknowledge that Jesus’ vision of God’s beloved community is the vision we follow. We also commit ourselves that we will continue to tell that illumination of love throughout our lives. We share the stories of love that invite us to embrace one another as God’s gift. The stories of love that offer hope for all. The stories of love that transform us to become love for all.

Love was the reason Jesus took his disciples up to the mountain. Love was the reason the disciples experienced Jesus’ transformation. Love was the reason they heard God’s voice. And, love was the reason why Jesus and his disciples went down the mountain.

Love is the reason why we are gathered here. Love is the reason why we are challenged by God’s love to open our minds and hearts wide open to embrace our neighbours. Love is the reason why we are continually challenged to be transformed by God’s call to embody and enliven God’s love in our world.

Love is the reason.

Amen.

"Love: Now and Forever"

February 15, 2009
Black History Month

The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

* * *

Love. Now and forever.

All of us seek something that can last forever. Anything of value, in our imagination and understanding, is something that lasts forever. Whether it is something tangible, like a diamond, or the love of your life, something that lasts forever is what we search for in life.

We seek things that will last forever perhaps because of our temporal nature of life. As we get older we are more aware of the fact that nothing lasts forever. So, we seek things – tangible and intangible – that could last forever. Look at all the commercials and advertisements. Anywhere from “Built Tough” to “Forever in Blue Jeans” we see the human longing for things that will last a long time.

A leper came to Jesus and begged him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” “If you choose, Jesus, you can heal me from my physical illness that burdens my whole being,” the leper pleaded with Jesus. “If you will, Jesus, you can lift me from the neglect, the isolation, the degradations, and the humiliations I live through each and every day, that has lasted forever,” the leper appealed to Jesus.

Have you ever had such an experience that has burdened your whole being? Where the angry stares of neighbours and strangers seemed to burn into you? Where your presence seemed to bring out the worst in people? When your physicality defined and confined you from being less than your whole self? When the searing pain of existence seemed to last forever?

A few weeks ago my friend, Glenn, and I went to see the movie, Gran Torino. We both like Clint Eastwood. And we both love Ford Gran Torinos, one of the most recognizable cars of our youth from the 1970s TV series, “Starsky & Hutch.” “Zebra Three” was the radio call sign for them as they tore through the streets of “Bay City” in Starsky’s two-door red Ford Gran Torino.

As a movie, Gran Torino has a remarkably diverse ethnicity of people. Each and every ethnic stereotype is pushed to the extreme limit. Walt Kowalski, the main character, played by Clint Eastwood, is a Polish American retired auto worker who lives with the demons of the Korean War. His barber is Italian. They are both macho men who can only talk to each other with offensive name calling and crude jokes. The taxi driver is Sikh. The tailor looks Lebanese.

You see African American youth and Hispanic American youth in the ghetto portrayed as stereotypical thug wannabees. Kowalski’s children and the White working class neighbours have all moved out of the neighbourhood as the Hmong Americans move in. The Hmong youth are no exception – they also form gangs to belong and to defend themselves from other gangs. Everyone seems to be stuck in typical racial-ethnic stereotypes. Everyone seems to be afraid of one another. Everyone seems to have grudges against one another.

Everything changes when Walter Kowalski begins to interact with Thao and his feisty sister, Sue Vang Lor, his Hmong neighbours. The relationship that begins with Thao trying to steal Walt Kowalski’s 1972 Gran Torino, in the end, transforms all three of them. Three strangers from vastly different backgrounds learn to love and embrace one another.

Walt Kowalski is gradually transformed into a loving surrogate father to the two young people. Then, in the end, Kowalski offers his own life for the lives of his Hmong American neighbours. Thao and Sue Vang Lor’s lives are “cleansed” with Kowalski’s ultimate sacrifice.

Walt Kowalski, a grumpy old man living the nightmares of the past, ultimately chooses love – his “now and forever” – and becomes the Christ figure for his neighbours.

“If you choose, you can make me clean,” the leper said to Jesus. “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus proclaimed. The leper was healed and cleansed of the illness and became the message – God’s healing love. The leper who thought he was lost from God’s love and compassion was found by Jesus’ healing.

“If you choose, you can become love, now and forever,” Walt Kowalski heard a voice within himself. “I do choose. Let me be the Christ figure for my neighbour and lay my life for them,” was the embodiment of Walt Kowalski’s love for his neighbour. A man who was once lost from his own life and from the lives of his children and his neighbours was found by his new neighbours’ healing presence. He was once blind to his neighbours’ humanity but was able to see how compassion could bring out his humanity even from a tortured past.

The moment of healing became “now and forever” for the leper. He became the message of Jesus’ healing and God’s eternal love for all of us. The moment of self sacrifice of Walt Kowalski became the message of how humanity can leap across the chasm of prejudices and hatred when people reach out to one another with compassion.

As we celebrate “Black History Month” in our worship service, we remember how racial prejudices and hatred have blinded us all from our humanity and God’s compassion. We remember how God’s generous gifts of faith helped peoples of African descent move beyond enslavement, injustice, and degradation to stand tall with dignity.

This is what Rev. James Lawson, known as the “militant non-violent preacher,” wrote as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Statement of Purpose on May 14, 1960 during the “Civil Rights” struggles for African Americans and other ethnic minorities in the United Staes.

“Love is the central motif of nonviolence. Love is the force by which God binds humanity to God and with one another. Such love goes to the extreme; it remains loving and forgiving even in the midst of hostility. It matches the capacity of evil to inflict suffering with an even more enduring capacity to absorb evil, all the while persisting in love.” [i]

We acknowledge the continuing angry glares that burn up possibilities of forming genuine relationships with one another. We acknowledge how skin colours continue to define and confine us from cherishing one another as neighbours in this global village. We acknowledge that sticks and stones will break bones and that names do hurt. And that sticks and stones and name callings hurt all of us in the end.

In our remembering of the dis-ease of and segregations of our Black sisters and brothers, we hear the voice of Jesus, “I do choose. Be made clean!” “I do choose. Be made clean of the hatred toward you. You are and you have always been loved by God.”

In our acknowledging of the malady of the continuing racial prejudices and hatred within us and in our society, we hear the voice of the leper, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” “If you choose, Jesus, you can make us clean of the illness of prejudices and hatred within us and within our society.” “If we choose, we can be healed of the malady that blinds us from seeing our neighbours as members of God’s family – our family.”

Love calls us to become the love, now and forever, for our neighbours. Love heals us to become the love, now and forever. Love reminds us to choose love, now and forever.

Amen.

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[i] Rev. James Lawson, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Statement of Purpose, May 14, 1960. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsncc.htm.

"Saved by Love"

Mark 1:21-28
February 1, 2009
The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

* * *

Saved by love.

There was a man who had seven different masks. He wore one for each day of the week. He would cover his face immediately as soon as he got up in the morning. He would then get dressed and go to work. He lived without ever showing his true face.

One night, while he was sleeping, a thief stole all his masks. When he woke up and realized what happened, he ran out of the house to look for his masks. His neighbours saw him running up and down the street cursing the world. He spent the entire day looking for the thief and his masks, but to no avail. Desperate and inconsolable, he broke down. No one seemed to be able to comfort his loss.

A woman passing by stopped and asked him, “What’s the matter, my friend? Why are you crying? He looked up and answered, chocking back his tears, “They stole my masks and with my face exposed like this, I feel so vulnerable.” “Take comfort from me,” she said to him, “I have always shown my face from the day I was born.”

He looked at her face for a long time and saw that she was beautiful and confident. The woman bent down, smiled at him and wiped away his tears. For the first time in his life, the man felt the softness of a caress on his face.[i]

Like the man with the seven masks we, too, struggle with a fear of showing who we really are to those around us. “What would people see in me? What if they don’t like what they see in me? What if I don’t measure up to their expectations?” These questions of “what ifs” diminish us and yet we continue to struggle with them. So we show others about what we want others to think we are – the external and superficial things. And for some of us, the masks we wear eventually define and confine our identity.

Growing up for many of us often means learning to cover and hide our true self with masks of what Carl Jung called persona –“the social self resulting from our efforts to conform to the social, moral and educational norms of our milieu.”[ii] The word persona is derived from a Greek word prosopon – meaning the mask actors wore to portray a character.

Our fear of showing our true self also affects the way we see others. Our fears prevent us from seeing others as who they really are. When we carry our preconceived notions and prejudices, we encounter “our projections of what we think people are” rather than their true selves. We project our fears – the things that make us unwell and unbalanced – to those we meet. It is true that we are who we meet – and we meet who we are.

And yet, there is a sense of sadness within us that no one seems to really understand who we really are. We long to connect with our true self and discover who we really are. There is a deep longing in us to be able to see and connect authentically with those we encounter in life.

The Church is no exception in struggling to understand who we really are, who others are, and who God calls us to be as community together. “When you look for it, you will find it.” Dr. Hazel Bigby, one of my mentors, advised me when I was about to intervene in a crisis that was destroying a congregation. She shared her wisdom that there is a tendency for people to project their fears onto those who are in conflict with them. And that individuals experiencing crisis often experience their own fear as the reality of the entire community. Hazel reminded me that a self-fulfilling prophesy stemming from fear was often the primary cause for diminishing congregations and individuals within from being whole.

What diminishes us as a congregation? How do we discern together who God wants us to be as church?

“Be silent, and come out of him!” Jesus commanded an unclean spirit to be silent and to leave the man. Jesus healed the man by emptying him of the unclean spirit that diminished and limited him from being whole. Jesus healed the man by confronting the spirit that prevented him from being whole. Jesus saw beyond the man’s external self. By placing this story as the first public ministry of Jesus, the Gospel writer Mark emphasized that healing – removing things that diminish people from being whole – was the priority of Jesus’ ministry.

For the Gospel writer Mark, to be fully human is to be able to experience authentic connection with God and with one’s neighbours as beloved. To experience life anything less than whole is to experience an unclean spirit within. According to Mark Jesus restored a man on the Sabbath to become whole again by commanding the unclean spirit to leave him. Healing is about restoration. It is about restoring us to reconnect with God and our neighbours as beloved. Healing begins when we are confronted with truth and empties us of feelings and ideas that confine us and disconnect us from God and our neighbours. It is about reconnecting with our true self – the self who is loved and the self who loves. Each healing moment is an experience of God’s presence.

Healing of our relationships – restoration of our relationships – begins when we see who we really are as the beloved of God. Being church together is about experiencing healing and living out our conviction that God loves all of God’s creation. Being church is living out that proclamation in and through our actions.

We gather here to witness and to celebrate the baptism of Abigail Ross Hewitt, a daughter of Tanis and Christopher.

Baptism is an event through which we affirm our belief that Abigail is a beloved child of God and that she, along with all of us here, is called to love herself and the rest God’s creation. It is also a time of God calling us to be rid of the “unclean spirits” within us and put down the masks we wear that block us from being fully human. The baptism of a child is also a time of “remembering” how our face was once bare, uncovered, authentic. It is a moment of remembering to live as fully as God intended us to be.

Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian, wrote the following words:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime;
therefore, we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense
in any immediate context of history;
therefore, we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone;
Therefore we are saved by love.[iii]

It is with hope that we continue to work together to build a community where we can uncover our true selves. It is with faith that we connect with individuals within our faith community to become whole together. It is with love that we extend our hands with individuals and communities in our neighbourhood and the rest of God’s beloved in building a world that cherishes everyone as beloved.

We are indeed saved by love that uncovers us. We are indeed saved by love that heals and restores us as we encounter people soul to soul. May we continue to be saved by hope, faith and love.
Amen.

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[i] John Monbourquette, How to Befriend Your Shadow: Welcoming Your Unloved Side (Ottawa: Novalis, 2001), 36.
[ii] John Monbourquette, How to Befriend Your Shadow, 37.
[iii] Reinhold Neibuhr, The Irony of American History in Sam M. Intrator & Megan Scribner, eds., Leading from within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead (San Francisco: A Wiley Imprint, 2007), 15.

"Conversion: Living into Hope”

Act 9:1-20

January 25, 2009
The Third Sunday after Epiphany

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

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9Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
10Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

* * *