It being the last Sunday of April, I'd like to give special thanks for this opportunity. You may have been surprised to see lots of thing in front of the church. Those things used to belong to two of our elderly ladies. She used to live alone, but recently she has began a new life with other elder people in a care home. And, another lady, who is over 80, will soon be moving to a new place in Tokosuka (near Tokyo) where she will be starting a new life with her daughter's family. These two ladies will try a very new life, aged over 80.

The change of life influences us much more than we expect. Especially if you are old, it's much more. As members of God's family, let's keep praying for them.

As we learned last week, Satan broke the bond the existed between God and human beings in the Garden of Eden. But, through Jesus' cross, God gave us a new chance to restore the congregation of love. Satan tried to prevent this by tempting [Jesus, and then] Judas. Satan tried to send chaos in twelve apostles. However, on the day of Pentecost, God descended upon us as the Spirit of God, and carried out His plan and will to restore the holy fellowship between Himself and His people.

In Heaven, as you know, Jesus reigned over everything; all of His creatures were worshipping Him, and waiting on Him. He was beyond everything! Nothing was against Him. He was The King. But, Jesus threw all of this away when He chose to descend into creation. Though Jesus was the Highest in Heaven, He became the lowest and humblest among humans in the World. He who used to be a king washed the feet of students (disciples). Refer to Mark 9:35; 10:43-45. He said to us that, whoever wanted to become great among us, had to become a servant first. This commandment has come to be called a golden rule in leadership. This is very true to us Christian, but it perfectly applies to the World.

I have seen and met several so-called leaders of different groups. Once I met a man who worked hard for the salvation of handicapped people. He was the leader of Japan's Social Party, after the last war. He was well-known and respected by most Japanese people. When I met him, I was greatly impressed by his humility and modestness. Can you imagine Jesus hanging a towel around His waist to wash the feet of those dirty, sweaty men?

In the history of Christianity, several kinds of changes have been attempted, but most of these were not concerned about inner change. The church works were left mainly to the pastors and priests. Other people, who were called lay-people, expected their clergy to do all of the church work. They were 'Sunday Christians'. They attended worship services on Sundays and left the holy and special work of reaching out to people to the pastors and priests. But, in the Bible, we are all called "priests"!

We are the ones who are to do the holy work and go out to the people. In the greek, "Oicos", or "Oi-cares", means each member in God's family. When God's Spirit came down to us on the day of Pentecost, over 3,000 people were saved. Without this "Oicos" of a small family group of God's house, people would not have obtained any spiritual growth.

In these small families, we receive the discipline to love, wait on, care and teach one another. And here is the definition of "Oicos": to get together to share over 60 minutes per week. Without this minimum length of time per week, it can't be called "Oicos".

What about your own family, by the way? According to some American survey, the average father spends 7 minutes a day with his family. This gives us a good reason for the crisis that is occuring world-wide with family breakdowns. This movement of "Oicos", or cell groups, is spreading out remarkably all over Japan. True, it is impossible for a few to oversee 80 people. People will say, and often do, that "this church is cold", or "does not have any love." Yes, that's true. It's impossible to scatter out our love to all the people around us -- we need to have "Oicos" to care, love and wait on one another.

Translated by Junko Okamoto - Edited for the Net by Shido
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