Bible Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; John 9:1-7, 17-34 | Preacher: Rev. Monika Bereczki-Farkas | Series: Lent - Easter In our culture we put more emphasis on how we look, having nice clothing, a nice smile, especially at church. I use the mirror every once in a while, to check my teeth and my hair because I don’t want to look crazy. Sometimes I’m successful, other times not. But I have to use the mirror. Just like my homemade mirror. Do you want to see this? It’s easy to make one at home. It’s not perfect but it’s good. But wait a minute. Look into the mirror again. It’s crumpled but it doesn’t mean you are crumpled/wrinkled too. You cannot see your inside in the mirror. Have you ever read the Little Prince by St. Exupery? It’s one of my childhood favourites because it’s so good to hear that “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” I realized that these thoughts are really close to what God says in the Bible, how important it is to look with our hearts and also to examine the heart. And when I heard about the story of Samuel that God looked into the hearts of the people and that’s why Samuel had to look at the inside to find the perfect king chosen by God I realized that in our lives we should learn this ability to look the heart. Do you know how to do this? Do you know the difference between looking with eyes and with hearts? Here we are today we have family Sunday and the traditional sap party afterwards. We want to enjoy this day, although it’s still Lent so we also have to continue our Lenten journey toward Easter. We have one story from the Old Testament in which Samuel, God’s prophet, had to go and look for a new king because Saul, the first king failed and God wanted a new king. Samuel felt sorry for Saul the old king but God wanted Samuel to choose a new one. So he had to go to Bethlehem and choose one of Jesse’s sons. And Samuel went and looked at all of Jesse’s sons, he tried to choose the king but he always looked with his eyes. Just like everyone of us. We use our eyes to choose something. But God told Samuel to see with his heart. Yes, he wanted to choose the best leader for the people, he wanted a strong man and he didn’t really think about the shepherd David. He was young but God wanted him because God looked inside David, and not outside. In the New Testament story Jesus teaches us about the differences between being physically blind and when our hearts are blind. Those people around Jesus should have known that God wanted us to see with our hearts but they were too busy with their rules and laws and didn’t realize that a blind man was healed. In Jesus’ teaching seeing means knowing who God is. If you know God, you believe in him, and when you have personal relationship with him it doesn’t matter if you can see with your physical eyes or not, with your heart you will see God. But those who think they can see with their eyes and don’t use their heart cannot see God. Why is it important to see the heart of another person? Because many times we use masks to cover who we are, we want to look nicer. We spend money to have nice dresses, lotions, creams, and make-up, but how much money you spend for your inside? What was the problem for the Pharisee? Why didn’t they like when Jesus healed the blind man? Because Jesus did that on Saturday and according to them work was not allowed on Saturday, so this meant no healing on Saturday as well. Then others didn’t want to believe that Jesus had done this miraculous healing, they thought that the man was not blind at all. They didn’t look at the man, that he was healed, they couldn’t be happy for him, their hearts were blind. How about your heart? If God looks at your heart today what he will see? I can see – with my physical eyes – nice people, you all look beautiful in your dresses but what about your heart? How do you like each other? And maybe you think yes, we like each other but let’s go further, how do you treat each other? Are you caring for those who live around you? Let’s see the two stories from the Bible again. When Samuel had to find, the new king chosen by God he didn’t think of David, but God did. He was the youngest son in the family and when Samuel visited Jesse, David was with the sheep and do you know what that means? He was ready to save the sheep from all the wild animals, he was ready to fight for his sheep, he didn’t let the enemy get them. I thought about this story when I heard about the human trafficking in our neighborhood. We have youth, you have children and grandchildren. Do you really care for them? Do you want to save them from the enemy? The biggest enemy is when we don’t care about the insides of our children. When they don’t know how special they are, when they have to look for other places to find love and honour. Do we really have to speak about this issue in our church when we don’t really have many young people? We are here to be present with God, we are the children of God and yes, we are responsible for our youth. And it’s not only about human trafficking. Last year the son of one of our good friends committed suicide. His mom broke into pieces and still cannot wake up from that nightmare. And this 20 year old boy was not the only one who took his life while studying in university. Why did I want to share these stories with you on family Sunday? Because we love our family, not only our children, we love everybody in our family and want to take care of them, want to save them from suffering and pain BUT do you know how to do that? Children of God, do you know how special you are to God who can heal your broken heart and broken lives? When Jesus healed the blind man he made a remarkable confession: “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”   Jesus is the only one in this story and in your story who can open blind eyes. Without Jesus, we cannot see with our hearts, we cannot recognize God but with Jesus we can experience the unbelievable, those who are blind can see. Are you blind? How many of you can see with your heart? How many of you feel pain for all those who are living without God? Both David’s and the blind man’s story show us how important it is to see with your heart. With your eyes, you cannot see God but your heart can see him forever.

Bible Text: Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 12:1-4a; Responsive Reading: Psalm 121; New Testament Lesson: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; | Preacher: Rev. Monika Bereczki-Farkas | Series: Lent - Easter Promises. Do you like promises? Do you remember a time when somebody promised something important to you then forgot about it, and didn’t keep their word? I don’t really like promising because I feel terrible when I cannot keep those promises. I will never forget that old man from the Hungarian Church who asked us to stay in Windsor for as long as they were alive because he and his wife wanted a Hungarian funeral, and they loved us. Two years ago his wife died but this man was still alive when I got the email from Rev. Fred Shaffer about Kirkwall. And my first thought was about this old gentleman and my promise that we wouldn’t leave Windsor while he lived. And I preached for the call on the 26th of June last year and you cannot believe this, but the old man’s funeral service was on the 20th of June. It was the perfect timing from God because I kept my promise, then I was free to come and enjoy the weekend. But many times we cannot keep our promises, we promise without thinking, not even realizing that we can hurt others. Especially little ones can remember our promises and over the years they can learn not to trust in promises. Today the promises come from God: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” What a great promise from God, I need this too. And actually when I prepared this sermon and looked in my Hungarian Bible I found a note beside this text: Aug. 7th 2009. This was my fourth day in Canada and I also got this message from God. I was here in a foreign land, I couldn’t imagine my future here, I left behind everything and whenever I felt I couldn’t do it anymore I read this promise again, I wanted to hear more about God’s blessings and I wanted to keep in my mind that my future is in his hands. Do you know how the Israelites taught their children not to forget about God’s words? They wrote the words on small papers and wore them on their foreheads or on their wrists. I remember I attended a youth group when I was 13 and when I went to high school they prepared me a booklet to wear on my wrists about the most important promises from the Bible. And for me this promise, which was for Abraham, was my promise as well. So today we also get this message. Let’s hear this again: I will make the people at Kirkwall Presbyterian Church into a great nation, and I will bless the people of Kirkwall Presbyterian Church; I will make their name great, and they will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, my people, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through the people of Kirkwall Presbyterian Church. Wow, it sounds a bit strange, and we are not sure how this would be possible, but let’s trust in God and ask Him to prepare the road for us and follow him. We don’t have to worry about planning and finances. From the story of Abraham, we know that he left his land and relatives behind and followed God. Today when we continue our Lenten journey, we have the opportunity to see how we should follow God. From the story of Abraham, we can learn what we have to do to have those wonderful promises became true in both our personal and church lives. But first of all, do you want to be blessed by God? Do you want our church to be great? Do you want others to be blessed by you? If your answers are yes, let’s hear what we have to do: “Go to the land, I will show you.”- says our God. It’s as simple as it could possibly be, if we want all the blessings, all the promises from God we only need to go to the land he shows us. But where is that land and what kind of land God is talking about? The land is our future, where the promises will become true. The land can be 2017. 2017 can be our blessed year if we have enough courage to follow God toward an unknown future. From the story of Abraham, we know that Abraham didn’t know the new land. He didn’t make any calculations, didn’t see photos of the land, never asked anybody who lived there what the possibilities would be, he didn’t even have a plan-b (how many of us have one). He only followed God by faith and because of his faith “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” Rm:4:3 And because of his faith and righteousness he and his offspring received promises. What should we do to receive promises? We should follow God by faith. That’s it. But it also means to forget about all of our worries, not count what we have but count on God. Let’s be honest and think about what we have if we look at ourselves…and now try to forget about it and focus on God who calls us to follow him on a way we don’t know, toward a future which is promising but still unknown. If Abraham had heard the calling from God but instead stayed home in the well known land, where everything was so good, he wouldn’t be in the Bible as a great example before us. When he stepped out of his comfort zone and followed God he started his faith journey and later his son, grandson and his offspring followed his way. When we look at Jesus’ genealogy in the gospel of Luke we can read Abraham’s name in it. He was blessed by God and through him all the earth was blessed because of Jesus Christ. Today I invite you to follow God and be blessed. The decision is yours. I cannot decide for you. If we the people of Kirkwall decide today to follow God and go to the land we don’t know, He will bless us and our children. If not, these promises are not for us. Our church’s future depends on this decision whether we want to follow God and be part of a prosperous future or follow our own calculation for how we should survive the upcoming years. And please don’t forget that this decision is not only about our church’s future, but it is also about your own personal life. “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15.

Bible Text: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11 | Preacher: Rev. Monika Bereczki-Farkas | Series: Lent - Easter What do you know about Lent? I always thought Lent was about fasting when you didn't eat meat and fat. As a Presbyterian, I didn't think that we should keep this tradition although I remember how my Catholic grandmother ate only popcorn on Good Friday. I thought it was important to her to keep her family tradition. But later I realized that Lent is about much more than taking away food. For me, it is a journey with Jesus when I remember the road toward the cross. During Lent, the shadow of the cross is always in front of us, we cannot forget about it. When do we think about our things what we want to give up what is our reason? We want clean hearts, we want to get rid of bad habits, we want to have healthy bodies, minds, spirits, etc. These are not bad goals but one of the most important reasons for Lent is to be ready for Easter, ready for the message that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Do you want to be ready for this message? It's not too late to think about your own Lent journey, what you have to do to have purified heart for Easter, what is the things in your life which means a gap between you and God? What should you give up to have more time for God? On October 1, 2006, Charlie Roberts shot 10 Amish girls and five of them died. Charlie's father was a police officer and he and his wife lived in the Amish community when the tragedy happened. Terri, Charlie's mother had a hard time to forgive his son who killed himself after he killed the girls. The parents wanted to move away from the little village but the Amish people helped them to understand what forgiveness meant. Can you imagine how Terri, Charlie's mother thought about her son, can you imagine the anger, the shame which was mixed with the feeling that she lost her son. She was not able to forgive his son till those Amish people explained to them that how do we want forgiveness when we cannot forgive one another? We all need forgiveness but forgiveness is a choice. Today when we start our Lent journey toward Easter and our minds are full of ideas what we should give up, I wanted to share this story with you to see that Lent is not only about giving up meats, fat or chocolate but choosing love, peace, forgiveness... In Matthew 4:1-11 we can read about Jesus' 40 days when he was in the desert and the devil tempted Him but He was able to say No to him. Friends, we have to know about temptation and one of the biggest temptation when we don't think with temptations when we think we are perfect and we don't need Jesus Christ. In the third chapter in the Bible, we can hear about how Adam and Eve were tempted and they couldn't say No. From the Romans we know that we are not better than Adam and Eve, we cannot say No on our own. And please don't think that you are not tempted. Temptation is part of our lives and it doesn't matter if we want to face it or not. How interesting that Satan didn't do anything else, he only talked to Jesus. Satan didn't act but he wanted Jesus to do as per his requests, just like he did in Eden when he suggested to Eve that she eat from the tree. It means we have to be really careful, we have to follow the way of Jesus, we have to know who we are, that we are the children of God. And the best way to know who you are is to spend time with God. Once I got a little song book with children's Christian songs and there was a story at the beginning. Many years ago in a city there was a big tragedy, many children were kidnapped. A young lady lost her little son and daughter. 10 years later a miracle happened and the police found the kidnappers with the children but they were already grown up. The police and social workers organized a meeting for the families and children and when the lady who had lost two of her children looked around she was so sad because she didn't see her children. One of the officers suggested to her to think of a story or a song that she sang to her children when they were young, and maybe they would recognize it. The mother started to sing a simple children's song and when she finished it a boy and a girl ran and hugged her with tears in their eyes. When I read this story I decided that if I ever had a child I would sing to him. That is why I have two favorite children songs to sing to Gedeon and Lili. One is about how our hearts should always listen to God and the second one is the idea that we don't have to fear because we are the children of God. I sing these songs to them almost every day. Because I know that we are like those kidnapped children. Once our father formed us and created us but later we wandered far away from Him, especially the times we didn't want to say "No" to Satan. But our God didn't want to lose us, so He sent Jesus who told us about our God and just like when those children recognized their mother's voice it is the same for us too. Our hearts start to long after God. If I am with God I can hear his voice in my heart, I can recognize His loving presence in my life. Spend time with God. This is the only way to know who you are and how you can say "No" to the temptation.