This time, pastor Cho was doing expository preaching on Psalm 27. With some thoughts and study on my phone, I was trying to keep up, I barely finish studying the Psalm when the sermon ended, but loved it!
Ernest Becker (Pulitzer Prize winner of 1974 for his The Denial of Death which I have just added to my reading wishlist on Amazon) was quoted in the Reflection:
I think taking life seriously means that whatever you do must be done in the lived truth of the evil and terror of life, of the rumble of panic underneath everything - otherwise it is phony. - Ernest Becker, Escape from Evil, (1975)
Basically, suffering is necessary.
And the other quote was from Jonathan Edwards in A Divine and Supernatural Light (1734):
There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind.
The Prelude music: Intrada from Suite for Brass Quintet by Henry Purcell surprised me with a familiar theme from Benjamin Britten's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. I did not know this 20th century composer [Britten] took the ending from a 17th century piece [Purcell] for his introductory theme.
Praise Hymn: Come, Thou Almighty King by Anon, c. 1757, music by Felice de Giardini, 1769.
Confessional Response song: One Thing I Ask from Psalm 27:4,7-9, by Andy Park. Very Asian theme. I'll maintain my reservation. Once you go Puritan, it's very hard to sample any other cultural taste anymore.
Commitment Hymn: The Church's One Foundation by Samuel J. Stone, 1866, music by Samuel S. Wesley, 1864. This song apparently is Redeemer's favorite, at least at W83.
Scripture Reading: Psalm 27:1-14, read by some new young guy (to me). His reading was definitely impressive, comparable to Max McLean in his own right.
Sermon was perhaps the last of the series on The Prayer of Prayers: Exploring Jesus' Model, the Lord's Prayer. It is titled: Repose: The Power and Glory. The last line: For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever, is not in Luke 11, and supposedly only appeared in the later manuscript of Matthew 6.
Psalm 27 begins with two different kinds of fear (v. 1 vs. v.2). One is fear (yirah=fearful awe), the second one is dread/afraid.
This is about a Christian's life struggling between a self-kingdom and the kingdom of God. My paraphrase from Rev. Ab. Cho.
The after Hymn: Be Thou My Vision, of Irish tradition, was definitely sung countless times. But I still love this hymn. Somehow, I just love Irish traditional music. Peculiarly, Irish tradition has certain commonality with some aspects of Chinese culture, or maybe it is just me.
Offertory and Postlude were all Henry Purcell's Suite for Brass Quintet.