Triangle Family Church Sunday Service on December 10, 2023
Musical Offering
Sermon - Identity Crisis
Summary:
This sermon discusses the theme of identity crisis and the struggle to understand one's place within the church. It emphasizes the importance of unification and love for all races. The speaker also talks about the significance of Blessed Families and the need to care for one another.
Highlights:
The sermon highlights the importance of unification and love for all races. It emphasizes that loving one's race is fine, but not at the expense of other races. Violence perpetuated by racism is seen as a problem for society and for God.
The power of prayer is emphasized, with the speaker mentioning the creation of a prayer list for church members. The act of praying for others, especially those who may not be actively involved in the church, is seen as a way to strengthen the community and support one another.
The story of Jonah is used as a reminder to obey God's voice. It serves as an example of how trying to escape from God's calling can lead to hardships, but ultimately, following God's guidance can lead to growth and positive outcomes.
The sermon emphasizes the importance of community and supporting one another within the church. It encourages members to be there for each other, whether it's through simple acts of kindness or more significant forms of support.
The speaker expresses gratitude for God's guidance and patience with imperfect individuals. The love and support from God are compared to the love and support a parent has for their child, highlighting the unconditional nature of God's love.
The upcoming Christmas party is mentioned as an opportunity for the community to come together and strengthen their bonds. It is seen as a way to support one another and build a stronger community.
The sermon concludes with a prayer for unity, guidance, and the completion of God's vision. It emphasizes the need to continue striving towards God's vision and to be there for each other on the journey.
UPF Event Report
The event's success was attributed to the hard work and dedication of volunteers from various faiths, emphasizing the importance of unity and cooperation.
The talent within the group, such as Bob's musical abilities, added to the overall beauty and enjoyment of the event, showcasing the diverse skills within the community.
The water ceremony stood out as a highlight, symbolizing spiritual significance and leaving a lasting impression on the participants.
Building relationships and supporting other organizations played a crucial role in the event's success, highlighting the power of collaboration and community involvement.
The presence of individuals from different faiths, including Hindu, Muslim, and Nation of Islam, demonstrated the event's commitment to fostering interfaith dialogue and understanding.
The event not only celebrated peace but also served as a platform for individuals to share their personal stories and experiences related to peace-building efforts.
The discussion of the future Bridge of Peace event showcased the organizers' commitment to creating opportunities for unity and dialogue between different groups, emphasizing the importance of overcoming religious and cultural barriers.
Sunday School: Story based character education - "It's Perfectly True"
The story tells how stories can come from the smallest things, and they can change and spread as they are passed on. The story is about a chicken who plucks out her feathers, but it ends with a different outcome than expected.
Moral: Don't gossip or listen to gossip.
Sermon transcript Japanese translation
I chose this topic because I myself struggle to understand who I am and where I am. I seem to be out of step with a lot of the other members even though I have a strong relationship with God. But I'm also frequently frustrated by what I call Church politics and I don't mean politics by that I mean the church hierarchy. I'm speaking to the members who feel that the unification church is no longer relevant, which would basically be those people that are not here today.
For for me the Unification is more important now than ever, so our life as a search of identity we try to figure out who we are, where we fit in, how we relate with God and with each other. I grew up at the beach. I'm a musician. I'm a southerner. I'm a son of God. You might even say that I am God. John 4:12 says no one has ever seen God but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
I'm white. We all love our race. It's fine to love your race but when we love our race at the expense of other races that creates a problem for us, for society, and for God. Violence perpetrated by racism has been a big headache for God for a Heavenly parent. It's like the murder of Cain by Abel. Murder of Abel by Cain repeated on a loop over and over but God has a solution for that. God sent True Parents to create these blended families where the children identify with multiple races. We used to say that Sunday is the most segregated day of the week. But when I come to church, I see all the races worshiping together. The UPF rally organized by Sharon was like the United Nations. I was sitting on a table with two Muslims, a Bahá'í Buddhist, a Hindu and two unificationists. When we answered the question what is your faith's contribution to World Peace, everybody was so invested in making the world a good place even though some of us identify as senior citizens to retire.
Mother says in her Memoir.
“At the end of the day I reflected that I'm now nearly 80 years old and there's a limit to how long I can live on earth. However since I'm the only begotten daughter and Mother of Peace, I must go anywhere. Even in our 80s if people are searching we must go to them.”
God called me when I was 21 years old and at that time I really believed that the kingdom of heaven was coming on earth in my lifetime. But as the years and the decades passed I lost that inspiration. I lost that vision of what we're here to do. I forgot my true identity. I'm the father of six children. My family is my greatest joy and it's true for everybody because I know that I'm loved and when you are loved there's nothing you can't do. I wish I had known when I was a child that I was loved.
In 1954 Father painted a sign with the words Holy Spirit Association for the unification of World Christianity and hung it in front of a house. 30 years later he took the sign down and raised the flag of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. It indicates two things. First, World Peace comes on the foundation of the family. Second, we need a community to protect those families. Recently we started something new for this area. We got the idea from Dr. Achille in Washington DC.
They made a prayer list. They put everybody connected to our church on the list. They came up with like a thousand names. They just started praying for them. So I started to do that here. We have around 140 to 150 people on the list. It doesn't mean just peripherally connected to the church. I'm talking about Blessed Families with Blessed children. We have so many blessed children in Raleigh and the triangle area. It's mind boggling how many there are. I think next week we're going to have a Christmas party here. I think a lot of them are coming. That's great news because it makes our community stronger whatever we can do together and it doesn't have to be coming to church.
We started to pray for the list and then I had to give a report to Dr. Achille about how many come to church, how many I've been able to touch in some way by call or by seeing them. I figured out that about 20% of church members are somehow they've been to church or they've been involved in something.
I found out recently that one of our early families who was here when I joined the church divorced and three of their children moved to Germany but one of them; Michelle, is still here. I put her on my prayer list. She's a blessed child living in Durham.
We haven't contacted her for many years. But she's a blessed child. So I feel like I have to pray for her. What is a blessed family and a blessed child? According to our theology, we have no connection to original sin that our blood lineage comes from God. We're connected to God's blood lineage but it's hard sometimes to know what that means. If I was a child and you told me you don't have original sin, I would say I don't know.
The point is that we are standing in Able's position whatever that means. We're standing in Able's position. What does that mean? It means we have to take care of Cain. We can't go in front of God without Cain, the person that hates us, the person that's struggling so much in their lives. We have to find them and take care of them. I think about God calling us to take care of his lost children. It puts me in mind of Jonah.
What happened to Jonah? God sent him to Nineveh to minister to the people there. He tried to escape. He said; “I don't want to do that”. He got on a ship and he just sailed away. He thought God won't find him. Then a storm came up and the sailors were afraid to lose their lives. Jonah said; “It's my fault. God is angry with me. Throw me in the ocean to save yourselves.” So they threw him in the ocean but God worked through. He sent a whale. Jonah was able to survive and the whale spit him out on dry land. Jonah resolved that he was going to obey God's voice.
It puts me in mind of our sister; Davetta lived in Durham for 2 years. She was less than 5 miles from here on Duke Street. She was just right there. We never knew she was there. Look at her now. She's the state leader. She was here yesterday. She's amazing. The conclusion here is that whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. We have a beautiful faith community here. We can be here for each other. I've had blessed children asking me for a letter of engagement who were looking for a job, a letter of recommendation, stuff like that. If we believe in True Parents, we're part of this community. If you were blessed by True Parents, you're one of us. There's no one way to worship God. Everybody worships God in their own way. I certainly don't worship the same way as Tim does. But we respect each other's way of going to God and being true to your conscience. If you get to heaven first, pull me up. I get there first, I'll pull you up. Please join me for a prayer.
Dearest Heavenly Parent,
This morning we've been talking about family and community and faith and all the ways in which we strive to relate to you and relate to each other and we just know that you have loved us so much that you never abandon us no matter how much we think we're inadequate and we are inadequate.
But father, your patience with us is similar to our patience and our love for our own children. You've taught us so many things. We've come so far and now we pray that we can go this last mile to finish what we started not allowing this world to become the trash pit but lifting this world up to be what you originally envisioned all the families living together as we did yesterday at the UPF event caring for each other and working things out by listening and by speaking with soft words, not harsh words.
Father, every day is a new revelation. We know that every day you're guiding us then every single problem that we have in our lives. You're always there to help us find a solution for it and for that we thank you for everybody here today and we thank you for all the Blessed couples and children whether they come to church or not. Father, we just feel so much that each one is so precious to you. Thank you, Father. We pray this in the name of the Blessed Central Families.
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