Today, we as Christ’s followers celebrate 157 years of God’s faithfulness to the temple of the Holy Spirit called Knox, Glenarm. The Bible compares our journey of faith to a spiritual race. This divine race is not a one-time, short-distance event but a long and continuous marathon. In this scripture, the Apostle Paul gives us some advice about moving forward in our sacred journey. As a church, I want us to explore and apply his teaching to our ongoing adventure.

First, the Apostle Paul encourages us to follow his example. When we look at Paul’s biography in his epistle, we can discover his qualified assurance. In those days, he had been known as “A Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:4-6). However, Paul’s confidence did not come from his religious background and human achievements. The reason Paul could urge us to join the path he had walked was related to his godly awareness of a trinity called “through faith, by grace and in Christ alone.” Paul accepted by faith what God had done through Christ Jesus, who completed the salvation ministry on the cross. Paul realized that he could be saved not by his work but by the grace of God. Paul also believed that Jesus Christ alone could solve the problem of sin and death through His sacrifice and resurrection. Those convictions helped Paul enjoy spiritual freedom, despite his shortcomings and failures during his journey. Because of those triune beliefs, he did not dwell on the past experiences but kept moving forward in what was ahead.

We are so thankful to the Lord for the many beautiful things He has done at our church through our spiritual ancestors, our friends, and us over the 157 years. The first church of Knox, Glenarm, known as the Long or White Church, was founded in 1865. According to the Glenarm Manuscript, called Hardscrabble, A. Isabel Wessel published in 1978, during the early settlement in this town, some people emigrating from Scotland met at their places and worshiped God before their church was built. Between 1865 and 1867, one acre of the church land was purchased for twenty dollars and constructed at Glenarm Cemetery. The second church, the current Knox Glenarm building, was built in 1893. Many activities were happening in this church during the peak period of God’s ministry. Besides Sunday worship services, there were weekly prayer meetings, Sabbath Schools, The Glenarm Young People, The Women’s Foreign Missionary Society, The Christian Endeavour Societies, the Annual Glenarm picnic, and so on. While reading the Manuscript, we found one beautiful motto, “For Christ and the Church.” The people of Glenarm have wanted to do an excellent job for Christ and the church. As present members and friends of this church, we are all the recipients of what they have done for God and His people. Throughout the pandemic, God has helped us continue reaching out to people in our community, even overseas, through online communication. The boundary for our ministries has expanded.

On another note, like many other churches, we pray to the Lord to help us keep moving forward in His direction during this challenging season. Last year, Lizz Hoyle, Synodical WMS Representative, shared some portions of John-Peter Smit’s report at the leadership meeting. [JP is one of the leading educational staff in our Synod and has provided many excellent workshops for our presbytery.] It is about many churches’ future administrations. In the first year of Covid-19, they seemed to manage their ministries. However, during the second year, many churches faced difficulties due to a 30 or 40 percent decrease in the total revenues. According to Bill Hoyle, Retired treasurer of the Presbytery of Lindsay and Peterborough, almost half of our clergy pastoral charges do not have ministers. Some other presbyteries have a similar vacancy rate. Many churches have also experienced significant membership losses, particularly among young people and families with kids. This current circumstance has made us pray more and harder about God’s help and guidance in our upcoming ministries.

Now, what are the things for us to “strain toward what is ahead”? The Apostle Paul advises us to keep our eyes off distractions during our race as he and our spiritual ancestors did. They did this by fighting against the influences of “the enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18-20). We can find Paul’s three frequent comments in this letter. First, “their destiny is destruction.” If we are influenced by our spiritual adversaries, we will face the consequences of being discouraged, deceptive, and displeased. Second, “their god is their stomach.” In other words, all their activities could be unholy, impure, immoral, and so on. Third, “their mind is set on earthly things.” If our minds are only occupied with worldly matters, we may forget our Heavenly citizenship. Through faith in the amazing love of God, by His immeasurable grace, we have become a new creation in Christ. We have been asked to offer ourselves as “an instrument of righteousness” (Romans 6:13). Our earthly perishable bodies will be like Christ’s glorious imperishable body when we are called to be with the Lord in Heaven (Philippians 3:21).

As I presented before, we as a reformed and protestant church continue to “protest” against what is wrong based on the Word of God and “reform” our hearts into what is right based on the Word. Like a marathon, the renewed ministry is not a one-time movement but an ongoing sacred activity. One thing we can do for this is to examine our minds through the Living Word of God, repent of whatever wrongdoings we have found through this spiritual evaluation, and dedicate our undivided hearts toward God and His Kingdom ministry. Someone emphasized the importance of continuing spiritual development in the following statement: “The time you stop growing is the time you start dying.” God wants us to keep learning more about Jesus, becoming more like Christ and participating in His mission. Let us continue going forward with our God-given privileged goals regardless of the challenging circumstances.

Lastly, the Apostle Paul urges us to stand firm in the Lord, as he has stated before. Paul is confident that there is joy in Christ and crown in Heaven for those who have faithfully walked on the godly paths. One common theme in this epistle is gladness. Since Paul had an intimate relationship with the Lord, he was joyful even in prison. He encourages his audience to rejoice in the Lord all the time. Because Paul knows this truth, he has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. Furthermore, he advises all Christ-followers to pursue “the crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8). When we stand before God, He will present the Heavenly Prize to those of us who give ourselves entirely to the work of the Lord.

Do you know the meaning of our town’s name, Glenarm? Before we got this name, this town was called “Hardscrabble.” Before the mail service was introduced in this area, people wanted to replace the town’s name with a more attractive one. At that time, Glenarm was suggested by William Thornbury and chosen as our village’s official name. The connection between the Thornbury family and Glenarm is that the family came from Glenarm in Northern Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Both Hardscrabble and Glenarm might indicate some harsh environments for the people who immigrated to this area in those days. Ms. Wessel described this situation in her manuscript: “Glenarm has no river and never had a railway. Without an adequate water supply, it seems remarkable that Glenarm has survived.” Knox Glenarm Church is located in this challenging area. In our special service, we are so grateful to the Lord for having helped us overcome many difficult situations. We are also very thankful to our spiritual forefathers, who have kept the faith and have handed it off to us. Today, by the grace of God, we as a church are given a new path for our God-given ministry. Even though our church building will soon be closed, we as a church will continuously share our excitement with our friends and families in our community and beyond while amalgamating with our dear sister church, St. Andrew’s Fenelon Falls.

Whether we realize it or not, God has helped both congregations in worshipping together via Zoom over the last two and half years and have served the Lord with all our united and loving hearts since both churches became a common charge in 1938. We need to remember that we are not racing in this spiritual journey alone. Think about how often God has provided our church with both human and momentary resources. Over the years, we have been amazed to see many people gave their hands whenever both Glenarm and Fenelon Falls churches planned and prepared some events for our communities. On many occasions, God has met the need of our God-given task with generous contributions from our church members and friends. The Lord, our Mighty God, has blessed our churches through many of His dedicated servants. We also need to remember that we will move ahead together. Since we have been serving the Lord with you for many years, we have felt like part of a caring church family. Our hearts are troubled when we receive challenging news from church families and friends. With the help of the Lord, we, as a session, try to provide practical spiritual assistance for each of them. We have also felt blessed by all of your prayers and support. We are not just the one body offering pastoral care but also the one receiving your heartfelt love for us. We as a church are thankful to God for helping our church become a loving, caring spiritual community.

In this special celebration, we need to remember that we are serving the Almighty God. He is still doing many miracle ministries. As a church and individual Christ-followers, we have experienced God’s mysterious hands leading our churches and our lives. Do we remember many amazing incidents God has done for our families and us? We recall many of the answered prayers when God made a way where there seemed to be no way.

Today, when we remember each of these miraculous memories and rededicate our hearts and minds to the Mighty God, the Lord our Shepherd will continue to help our churches and each of us walk our journey of faith together in the coming months. God will help us keep moving forward into His divine adventure as a Heavenly team. God will also help us keep focusing our eyes on Jesus, who has fulfilled His race and is waiting to provide each of us with the Heavenly Crown.

With all our hearts, once again, we do believe that if we keep prioritizing these divine goals as a church and as individual Christ-followers, the Almighty Living God will continue opening the doors of His ministries and touching the hearts of the people for whom we have prayed. Let us steadfastly build this new joint church together. Each heart and hand toward God and His church will matter. Let us have a confident and courageous mind in God who began an incredible work in our church and will accomplish His vision for our church in His time and way.

*In this sermon, I have been inspired by various speeches from Philippians 3:1-4:1.