Dec 26-27, 2020
From the Pastor’s Desk: Rev. Simon Lee

Dear brothers and sisters of RCAC,

Farewell to 2020

2020 is a year to which we are all happy to say good-bye.  Need I recount the pain and suffering from the pandemic. The lockdown has affected everyone in the Province since the middle of March. With the number of confirmed cases of positive test of COVID-19 infections at the end of the year still in the hundreds and the death toll is mounting every day, we are all filled with anxiety and for many, despair.

As a Church we have suspended all our worships and other activities held within our Church building and have move all of them online. Our Return-to-Church (RTC) guidelines has followed very closely the orders of our provincial Public Health doctors. After nearly a year of lockdown, we all long for the day when we can all return to worship and fellowship within our Church

When we began the year of 2020, we wanted to use the theme of “Launch out into the Deep” to encourage RCAC to leave our comfort zone and reach out into the community to share the gospel. Little did we know that we will be caught in the sea of Coronavirus So we quickly switched into the theme of “Jesus calms the storms of our lives” to seek to weather the storm. We then learned to “lament” using the “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” and were comforted with the teaching of God’s faithfulness amidst calamities and devastations. Then we went back to the original plan of studying the history of the early Kings of Israel. In the fall we wrapped up the year with the positive messages of Paul to the Philippians and learned to rejoice amid tension and adversities. We sincerely hope that we have been able to find this joy of living in Christ and serving Him. Christmas this year has come and gone before we even notice it, because it will be remembered as a Christmas like no other. But it is my hope and prayer that it has been a most special Christmas where Christ was not crowded out by any man-made trappings, that we finally see Christ clearly as the One born to be our Saviour and Lord.

Welcome 2021

I have never felt so filled with anticipation and hope for the dawn of a new year than this year. Needless to say, we all without exception hope that the new year will bring new life, new joy and new hope. First and foremost, we are all waiting to be vaccinated so we can build immunity against the Coronavirus that has brought so much destruction and devastation to so many people around the world. We hope this will turn things around so that the economy and the livelihood of people around the world can return to some form of “normalcy” with a new vibrancy that will reenergize our communities in enabling us to live with renewed joy and hope for a better future.  Even though it will take months before everyone who wants to be vaccinated will get his or her shot, perhaps way into the summer or even the fall. nevertheless, we are finally seeing the light at the end of the long tunnel.

As a church we look forward to returning to our church building to resume regular worships and other activities within the community, including fellowship gatherings, Sunday school and children ministries. Will that begin in the summer or the fall? We do not know. We need to wait patiently and return cautiously so that we can ensure that we are all safe. May we learn to wait before the Lord with anticipation and with patience at the same time.

In the first quarter of 2021, as scheduled in 2020, we will resume in our examination of the history of Israel and Judah in the book of the Kings. As I prepared the upcoming series, I was struck by the fact that the chosen people of God were constantly in a vicious cycle of enjoying the blessings of God but started to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and sometimes after being warned and judged by the Lord, would return to the Lord and do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. The fact of the matter is their relationship with God was heavily dependent on whether they had a good king or a bad king. After the kingdom was divided into Judah in the south and Israel in the north, there were all bad kings in Israel, and only a handful of good kings in Judah. We shall see highlights of this messy history and trace it all the way to the end of Israel as the result of the Assyrian captivity, and eventually to the end of Israel with the Babylonian captivity. We are going to study in more details the lives of Hezekiah and Josiah (as examples of good kings). I have entitled this series as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and we hope that we can learn from both the success and failure of these kings.

However, in 2021, we hope to stay positive. Having looked at all these mostly bad kings of Israel and Judah, for the rest of the year we are going to turn our eyes to Jesus the Messianic King (in two separate quarters, Spring and Fall), and also the Royal Psalms in the summer. The idea and purpose is summarised in the theme of the year which is “Crown Him with Many Crowns.”

The reason for this theme should be obvious. Amidst all the calamities and desperations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic which has exacerbated the ecological-socio-economico-political crises that we are experiencing, I sincerely hope to remind all of us that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, Lord and King. Herein lies our ultimate hope. So, let’s us worship Him and proclaim His majesty to all the earth.

Indeed, we have just celebrated the birth of Christ the King, but His kingdom is not of this earth, it is heavenly and spiritual. Just as we have learned in Philippians, Jesus came to take on the form of a man, a servant, and was obedient to God the Father to the point of death, even the death on the cross. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phi. 2:8-11)

Have a blessed new year!

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Simon Lee