This sermon, “Armored with the Gospel: A Spiritual War in need of Spiritual Soldiers” (Ephesians 6:10-20), was originally preached on Sunday, August 9, 2009 at English Worship Service of the North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church-Melville Mission in Richmond Hill, ON.

Audio:

 

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Notes:

Coming soon…

This sermon, “Glued Together by One Gospel: Maintaining a House that Needs Renovation” (Ephesians 4:1-6) , was originally preached on Sunday, August 2, 2009 at North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church-Melville Mission in Richmond Hill, ON. (Sermon is in English with Cantonese translation.)

Audio:

 

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Video:

Glued Together by One Gospel: Maintaining a House that Needs Renovation (Eph 4:1-6) from Alex Leung on Vimeo.

Notes

Coming soon…

Bright Star by English poet John Keats (1795–1821)–one of the key figures of the Romantic movement, expresses the poet’s desire to be like a star. In the poem the tone is melancholic while the theme is the desire to live in an unchanging state. Keats uses rhyme and literary techniques to reveal these ideas.

The melancholic tone is expressed throughout the poem. He begins with the use of apostrophe, by addressing the star. “Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art”. His desire is to be the impossible, unchanging like a star. Although he understands that a star is “sleepless”, he acknowledges this as a positive trait being “patient”. He also recognizes that the star is alone, but refers to this as “splendour”, giving the impression of the bittersweet existence of the star. The imagery of the next few lines involves the observation of life’s great spirituality as he refers to “the moving waters at their priestlike task” and the snow on the mountains. Keats seems to feel that watching life changing from afar would be better than living in it and having to change with it. He ends the poem by saying that he would like to live as a star “or else swoon to death”. It is apparent that Keats understands the sacrifices of living as a star, but acknowledges its benefits as well.

The theme of the poem is the desire to live in an unchanging state. This is achieved by Keats metaphorical analysis of the star. The entire poem personifies the star as a human creature that watches patiently from above. Keats also relays his message through the use of oxymoronic ideas such as “sweet unrest” and patient sleepless”. This concludes that Keats knows the impossibility of his desire to live in an unchanging state. The descriptions of the “earth’s” gifts represent what is changing and the star represents what is “steadfast” and what he desires to be. He finds comfort “pillw’d” in this locale which helps express the theme.

In the poem “Bright Star” by John Keats the desire to experience a life that never moves forward is expressed. The impossibility of this desire leads to its melancholic feeling. (Source)

Here is the original poem:

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art–
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–
No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

Here is the trailer to the upcoming film by Jane Campion featuring Ben Wishaw as the 19th century poet John Keats and Abbie Cornish as his ">the trailer to the upcoming film by Jane Campion featuring Ben Wishaw as the 19th century poet John Keats and Abbie Cornish as his " />#8220;bright star” Fanny Brawne. (Movie opens September 18, 2009)

From TIME Magazine Friday, Oct. 06, 2006:

Written last month [Sept 2006], this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the “Letter from Iraq” moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME’s Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document’s authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.

All: I haven’t written very much from Iraq. There’s really not much to write about. More exactly, there’s not much I can write about because practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military information or is depressing to the point that I’d rather just forget about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that are filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it’s a bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that’s worth reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days, every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents are up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than solutions. Every challenge demands a response. It’s like this every day. Before I know it, I can’t see straight, because it’s 0400 and I’ve been at work for 20 hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process. And once again I haven’t written to anyone. It starts all over again four hours later. It’s not really like Ground Hog Day, it’s more like a level from Dante’s Inferno.

Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I’d just hit the record-setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are among the events and experiences I’ll remember best.

Worst Case of Deja Vu — I thought I was familiar with the feeling of deja vu until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I stepped off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I had left it ten months before — that was deja vu. Kind of unnerving. It was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same… everything. Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel universe. Home wasn’t 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”

Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7 million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar province is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in 2003.

Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How’d you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who’s just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.

Second Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — It’s a 20,000-way tie among all these Marines and Soldiers who venture out on the highways and through the towns of al-Anbar every day, not knowing if it will be their last — and for a couple of them, it will be.

Worst E-Mail Message — “The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need blood type A+ stat.” I always head down to the surgical unit as soon as I get these messages, but I never give blood — there’s always about 80 Marines in line, night or day.

Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we’d get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won’t give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp… Greatest Vindication — Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet Coke from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can’t buy experience.

Biggest Mystery — How some people can gain weight out here. I’m down to 165 lbs. Who has time to eat?

Second Biggest Mystery — if there’s no atheists in foxholes, then why aren’t there more people at Mass every Sunday?

Favorite Iraqi TV Show — Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.

Coolest Insurgent Act — Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank in Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.

Most Memorable Scene — In the middle of the night, on a dusty airfield, watching the better part of a battalion of Marines packed up and ready to go home after over six months in al-Anbar, the relief etched in their young faces even in the moonlight. Then watching these same Marines exchange glances with a similar number of grunts loaded down with gear file past — their replacements. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said.

A U.S. soldier examines an Iraqi girl while on a medical mission in Balad, Iraq, June 2, 2009. The 532nd Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron is responsible for providing security around Joint Base Balad and continuing an established relationship with the local citizens of the villages and farms. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Michael R. Vincent

U.S. Army Spc. Joe Belton from Mesquite, Texas, of Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, takes pictures of Iraqi boys in the village of Ka bashe in Kirkuk, Iraq, May 31. U.S. coalition forces partner with Iraqi police to inspect irrigation systems and meet with local farmers that have agriculture concerns in and around the Kirkuk province of Iraq.

A U.S. Soldier from Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, tosses a soccer ball to a group of Iraqi boys in the village of Ka bashe in Kirkuk, Iraq, May 31. U.S. coalition forces partner with Iraqi police to inspect irrigation systems and meet with local farmers that have agriculture concerns in and around the Kirkuk province of Iraq.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Bryon Clark listens to an Iraqi farmer voicing his concerns in the village of Ka bashe in Kirkuk, Iraq, May 31, 2009. U.S. coalition forces partner with Iraqi police to inspect irrigation systems and meet with local farmers who have agriculture concerns. Clark is assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division’s Company E, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Bobby Allen

Staff Sgt. Kristen Poe, an Intelligence Analyst assigned to the 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division ‘Long Knives, delivers a school bag to an Iraqi girl at the UR Primary School, located in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah Jan. 13. Poe, along with fellow Soldiers assigned to the battalion’s personal security detachment, handed out more than 200 school bags and supplies during the visit. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Damian Steptore)

A group of Iraqi children look on as a U.S. Soldier from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 6th Infantry , assigned to Task Force Regulars practices balancing a plate of bread on his head in the Jameela market area of the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, May 31, 2008. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Cohen A. Young, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Army 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Military Policeman Sgt. Thomas Dwyer of Ft. River, N.J., laughs and claps with Iraqi children while on a patrol in the Muhalla 513 neighborhood just outside Mudafra Square in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on July 28, 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Cohen A. Young/Released)

A young Iraqi boy strikes a muscle pose while standing next to a passing U.S. Soldier from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment as he provides security outside a recreation center during a patrol in the in the Thawra 1 neighborhood of the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq, June 6, 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Cohen A. Young/Released)

U.S. Army 432nd Civil Affairs Battalion Capt Jeovanny Rodriguez is followed by neighborhood Iraqi children while conducting a joint patrol with Task Force Regulars 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, Renegade Company and Iraqi soldiers from the 11th Iraqi Army Division, 42nd Brigade through Thawra 2 and Jameela Market areas in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Aug. 13, 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Cohen A. Young/Released)