Follow me!”(2)

“Come, follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Mark 1:17)

The verb in a sentence “follow me” is “follow”. Jesus did not say “find a Buddha in your heart!” or “make peace inside!” or “build up the ability for love”, but clearly he said, “follow” me. In here there exists the second core of Christianity. What does it mean by following Jesus in details? As we meditated in yesterday’s text, people have a tendency to religionize the characteristics of Christianity. Many people say that they would go to church for recovery or mental comfort from fear of death or painful life. What is worse, some people go to church in order to cut off smoking, gambling or just to live a good life. These are not Christian essentials. The center of Christianity does not remain in abstract or concrete joy or happiness or living as a role model, but in “following” Jesus who is a real historical person.

Here we’d better listen to Bonhoeffer’s explanation. Once he made definition of Christian identity as “following Jesus”(Nachfolge Christi). This does not mean simply taking the ideas of Jesus Christ or having religious dialogue with Him or learning mystery of God’s world through Him, but means to follow His life in details. It is like Martin Luther’s saying, “If Jesus is in the hell, I will choose to stay in the hell.”

If they were a little thoughtful Christians, they might understand explanation above. But they do not think seriously about what following Jesus means exactly. Being for others or new being or being a pioneer for world mission or nationwide evangelism, they do not have concrete ideas. Most people could think that having diligent church life could be a living like Jesus. That’s right. It must be true that living in that way could be a living to follow Jesus in a sense. The more people who are living like this, the brighter light Christian church could get as a community following Jesus.

But the basic meaning for following Jesus is not a partial following, but a total following. It means the fact that our total being should rely on Jesus Christ. Our thinking, our value, our resolution, our final destiny should be concentrated only on Jesus just like a person, who fell in love with someone and then thought about only that person for 24 hours. These kinds of people could be called followers for Jesus.

Do not misunderstand this. Does it mean we could neglect whatsoever except following Jesus? Does it mean that we should abandon jobs, hobbies? No way! The life style with those things is precious too, but the contents of life should be filled with Christ totally.

Considering as trinitarianistic point of view, following Jesus means that we rely on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a power of life. So when we say we rely on the Holy Spirit, it means a living totally directed toward life. Now the meaning of totally following Jesus seems to come closer to us in full sense. It means we must be living life-oriented life. When we eat, take a walk, get conversation with a friend, learn or teach. it is possible for us to have a life-oriented life. When such direction toward life as well as toward Jesus incident could be harmonized in our life, it might be a living totally following Jesus.

Lord, hope all of my soul to listen carefully only to you. Amen.

“Follow Me!” (1)

“Come, follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Mark 1:17)

Jesus’ saying “follow me” have shaken so many souls from the bottom for last 2 millenniums. It could not be one or two people who had left their worldly lives giving up all the achievements for the monastery or a remote land according to this saying. There is no greater saying among what famous people had said to influence human history than this from Jesus. This sentence is composed of two words. It is a very short sentence with “me” and “follow”.

The focal point in Christian faith is Jesus written as “me”. Jesus is an absolute person as center of Christian faith. This Jesus is a real historical person who lived as a son of a carpenter 2000 years ago. Every incident happened to him as well as his destiny is both roots and fruits for Christianity. On the other hand, Buddhism is quite different. Historical person, Siddhārtha, is very important person for beginning of Buddhism but is not an absolute one for this faith. It is because they say that everyone is able to be a Buddha and should be. If there exists already a Buddha inside the heart of the Buddhists, a real Buddha could not be an absolute being for them. But none of Christians could be either Jesus or Christ. Jesus Christ is only one, and it is possible for salvation only through Him.

If we accept this fact as truth, we should pay attention only to Jesus Christ. Probably someone could ask why I am talking about such an evident fact. Do you think we pay attention only to Jesus these days? Do you really believe that? What a happy person he is if he really could give attention only to Jesus Christ! But as you know it is not that easy to pay attention only to Jesus.

Look at us. Generally speaking, we don’t try to know who Jesus is, but instead try to believe. We only rely on our own religious experiences. It might be possible to say that such attitudes could be just efforts to make us satisfied with our narrow minds, not sincere care for Jesus Christ. Healing by prayers, speaking tongues, or growing up churches in magnitude used to be highlighted in Christianity, but you can see such things from other religion too.

I am not talking about any possibilities or judgment of value in most religions. I am saying that Christianity basically does not regard those things as their essentials. Christianity is not a faith for recognition, which is looking for a Buddha in their hearts, and not like a Baal worship, which guaranteed an abundant life with god’s help. Christianity depends upon basically knowing who Jesus is. The most important thing is to know who Jesus is exactly. We should know historical Jesus and also what kinds of incident in Him lead to salvation. Why? The reason is that we are the people living according to the faith from his command “follow me”.

From some time ago Korean churches have been fallen into sentimentalism like “praise and worship”. This is a psychological spirituality imported from America. Leadership training or counseling is getting much attention from people. But what on earth are these things? How could such things be related with understanding Jesus, Jesus incidents, Jesus destiny, and what does it matter with being in accord with Him? To a person who has interest in these things, “the Kingdom of God” through Jesus does not have any impact. They don’t even imagine what an eschatological hope means. They don’t care why the day of Advent is the beginning of church calendar. It is good enough for them to get comforts while singing “you are the person to be born for getting love” with two raised arms. Please forgive my way of speaking which sounds like to find fault in the remarks. You are not a person being born to get love, but a person whose birth is already God’s love. It is because creation is just like love. Many Korean Christians regard their faith as a soap opera, which cling to love relationship.

This trend in Korean churches is natural consequences of church leaders’ faults. Now many Christians who have this tendency are out of control just like flood. Because they have interest only in religious self-satisfaction now, it might be impossible to ask them to follow Jesus only. Even it is impossible to tell them to look at mystery of life.

Today I think I talked too much. Since the person who had said “follow me” seemed to be hurt these day, I was a little bit agitated. But we don’t have to be discouraged as long as people following Jesus remain to make up their minds to follow only Jesus and also mystery of life as well as of salvation. Probably this could be a just normal phenomenon. It could be inevitable that the number of people who have accepted the truth “follow me” is so short among the awakened.

Lord, Only Jesus is everything for our life. Amen.

Response of the crowd

David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. (Mark 12:37)

The large crowd agreed to all the teachings of Jesus. The meaning ‘listened to him with delight’ is to agree with. Not only in this paragraph but also in the previous paragraph (Mark 12:34) ‘no one dared ask him any more questions’. When the crowd heard Jesus’ teaching about Caesar’s tax they were amazed at him. (Mark 12:17)

During the public life of Jesus, the crowds sometimes fervently supported him and sometimes they withdrew support. However, their response to Jesus was generally amicable. Then they turned their back to Jesus in hostility when Jesus was tried. It signifies that there was no constancy in their response.

This is the very nature of the audience, crowd or the public. They sensitively respond to something which will give them some profit. Populism is echoing to such public psychology. I am not saying that the public is always opportunistic and incited but they are quite vulnerable to the enticement of political and religious leaders.

Jesus was far from such populism. It was quite natural. He absolutely depended on the kingdom of God. At this point we, cannot agree with some people’s contention that the public and the kingdom of God are one. Though the kingdom of God can have the similar character of the public liberation, but in reality, public liberation cannot be made equal with the kingdom of God.

Let us come back to the content again. The response of the crowd that the author of the gospel describes is not an objectified one. The crowd was not the representative of the entire Israel or the people of Jerusalem. The concern of the authors was not the crowd but Jesus. The central point of their concern was the teachings of Jesus and the work was to proclaim the gospel to the people.

Son of David

David himself calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?" The large crowd listened to him with delight. (Mark 12:37)

The verse mentioned above is a little complicated. It is contended that the Lord cannot be the son of David because David himself called Christ ‘Lord’. Then this is a statement to refute those who called Christ as son of David. Here ‘Lord’ means Jesus Christ. The phrase “Son of David” is used in many occasions as another corresponding name for Jesus Christ. Then does the above verse contradict with this fact?

The title Jesus as the son of David often appears in the gospel of Mark. A blind beggar on the way to Jericho from Jerusalem called him son of David (10:48) and the crowd in the scene to enter into Jerusalem also praised the approaching kingdom of David (11:10). The above mentioned verse also comes under this category. Meanly this title was developed within the Judean Christian community of Palestine. It is an unavoidable circumstance. The Christians in Palestine have to accept their tradition about the Messiah in order to persuade the Jews.

However, as we can confirm from the above verse that the early Christianity accepted that Jesus as the son of David in a totally different manner. Jesus is not a son of David according to his parental chronicle. Jesus is rather the Messiah, the Christ whom David called ‘Lord’. Jesus had shifted his position to another which is beyond the ancestral chronicle as a pre-existing being. According to John’s gospel, Jesus was retroactive to the time of creation.

By accepting the tradition of Jews, the Judean Christian community accepted two identities of Jesus. One is son of David and the other is Christ. The former points out the true humanity while the latter the true divinity. Here the fact remains, that, these two characters become a single personality and this is the mysterious being of Jesus Christ that the early Christians understood.

David’s speaking

David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: "'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' (Mark 12:36)

The above verse is quoted by Jesus from Psalm 110:1. This verse found in the Old Testament is mostly quoted in the New Testament. The verses in Acts 2:34, 35, 1 Cor. 15:25, Heb. 1:13 also quoted the same verse. The phrases that are applied in the Apostle Creed are ‘My right hand’, “He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The authors of the New Testament thought that the particular verse in the Psalm talk about Jesus Christ.

Did David really think about the Messiah in this Psalm? We have to give much effort in studying the Biblical and theological background in order to clarify this matter. We cannot deal with question at this moment; rather, first I would like to set a direction only. Though the particular verse in this Psalm does not directly mean the Messiah, there is the possibility of right interpretation of the authors of the New Testament.

This is important. The Old Testament, the Jewish unique history, is clearly the record of God’s revelation among the Jews. However, this God’s revelation and the Messianic mission have been extended not only to the Jews but also to the entire mankind in the world. It is evident that the early Christians had a unique experience with Jesus Christ. Through their unique experience with Jesus, the history of the Jews becomes the universal history of salvation in due course of time.

The word of David is not limited with his own. It might not be the word of God which was limited in the age of David. However, now it is connected to the universal Messiah and his salvation that goes beyond a person and a history. Likewise, history is opened to the end of the world. What meaning and impact will our speech and activity have in the end?

Again in the temple

While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? (12:35)

It is not an exaggeration to say that the most important time of Jesus’ public life was the last one week of his earthly life. Precisely speaking, the important events happened during his last week were his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm’s Sunday, his execution on the cross on Friday and the subsequent burial. The series of incidents that happened were shown in a compressed and focused manner and so it is hard to find the correct and spontaneous flow of time and incidents. However, the important fact we can grasp is that, the incidents happened after Jesus entered into Jerusalem is a clear evidence of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Those incidents happened mostly in and around the temple. Sometimes it does not give a detailed clue that certain events happened in the temple, but as a whole it happened in the temple. Jesus mainly did two things in the temple: teaching (sermon and argument) and acting as a critic for the temple. After the incidence of temple cleaning (Mark 11:15), Jesus had several arguments with many people and finally he prophesied the destruction of the temple. (Mark 13:1) Seeing all these activities of Jesus, the temple leaders might have resolved to get rid of Jesus at any cost.

According to the above mentioned verse, Jesus again taught others in the temple. What place is the temple for? It was not only a religious symbol of Israel but it also the spiritual pivot of the Israelites. It had the authority that even Roman Empire was not able to touch. Saying something about God in the temple itself was a serious challenge against the authority. It is not a strange thing for us who confess Jesus as Christ but it was extremely strange to the people of those days, especially the Priests. However, no one was able to argue with Jesus’ teaching at the level of the truth. From there, Jesus was branded as the dead. It is human history.

Wisdom and the kingdom of God

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:34)

Hearing the scribe’s answer, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Does Jesus mean the wise answer given by the scribe become the precondition for reaching to the kingdom of God? Can a person enter the kingdom of God without possessing such wisdom?

Wisdom is important in the tradition of Jews and the Greek. A large portion of the Old Testaments belongs to the literature of wisdom such as Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Job and Proverbs. Here the meaning of wisdom is the thinking power to understand God’s will. Truly speaking, wisdom belongs to God. When God the source of wisdom allows men to possess wisdom as a gift, human being can be a wise creature on earth.

Greek regarded Philosophy as an important subject. Philosophy is a compound word of ‘Sopia’ meaning wisdom and ‘Philos’, love. Thus Philosophy literally means love of wisdom. According to Ancient Greek, philosophy meant the ability to discern whether myths were true or false. Ancestors of Christianity also positively accepted such Greeks’ philosophical tradition. The thought of Plato, Aristotle and Zenon deeply influenced Christian doctrine of God, anthropology and doctrine of Logos.

In general point of view, such wisdom is the power of thinking to which a person can attain through some professional disciplines. However, it is not always right. Rather the discipline pulls us apart from wisdom. We can see such phenomenon from the lives of the Pharisees and the scribes. True wisdom may be attained through a right attitude toward the truth rather than learning from discipline. Though there is less availability of professional discipline, those who open their ears to the sound of truth can judge wisely. Jesus’ aphorism, “He who has ears, let him hear” is not an empty word.

Power of the Words

“Come, follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Mark 1:17)

Jesus talked to Simon and Andrew who were casting fishing net like this, “follow me”. This is surely the first incident that Jesus spoke to the person. You know Jesus spoke. Jesus, the Son of God, spoke to the man with a human voice.

Do you know when human beings have started to talk? For this, we might need archeological help, but actually we don’t have to know exact date. Instead we could get a little bit of information from a newborn baby. The most important thing for a newborn baby thrown just out of mother’s body is to breathe as well as to cry for his life. Before that time the baby might not need these basic things inside of the womb, because it should be provided every possible things for sustaining his life through a navel string. But baby’s crying is not a word yet. The baby’s crying shows only that he is breathing and his vocal cord is functioning normally. When I observe newborn babies in my church, I could see that it takes a lot of time for them to start talking. Some hasty parents seem to believe that their kids have begun talking with them, even though babies still need more time in order to start talking.

Why is it so hard to learn to speak? It is because speaking is an experience of life existence. Speaking is a life phenomenon that does not happen when he exists by himself and that only it could happen when he recognizes the existence of other beings. So the newborn baby cannot talk because of lack of recognition. Of course even it could be very hard for him to activate his vocal cord. And then when he can recognize his mother and father, he learns to speak. The more objects he could recognize, the more vocabularies the baby could use, and his speech skill improves very fast.

We do not know when anthropoids, our ancestor, started speaking; probably the use of language could not be that long like newborn babies. Probably even they started talking, it might take such a long time before it improved like modern language with abundant vocabularies. Sometimes we could see people who like to train a chimpanzee to talk, but the result seems to be very insignificant, because chimpanzee does not have a deep understanding about existence. Since I am not a linguist, I think I should get back to the text in the Bible.

Actually Jesus spoke to Simon Brothers. This could be happening routinely, but also it is a great encounter. That means that between Jesus and Simon Brothers some great things had started to happen. The words of Jesus began to have a new meaning for their lives. It is an existential power of the word.

Everyday we live talking to each other. But most of our talking could be like garbage. It is much possible for lots of speaking from lots of preachers including me could be garbage. Why? It is because there is no existential power in their words. In order to show him off we call friends and try to persuade them without existential power in our words. Think about it carefully. What kind of words did we speak out of our mouth today? With life and truth, hope and power of love did we talk in our speaking? Just like Jesus did to Simon Brothers?

Christianity had lost the power of the words from some time ago. The world does not have any attention to the words from the church. Our words having life could never sound strange to the worldly people, but instead our words seem to have so much of our greed. Think about it. Does Christians’ opinion to oppose minority religious group, who insist alternative public service to keep their peace-oriented faith, have life in their words? I don’t want to talk about these things in details in here.

Urgently we need like that encounter of words, what Jesus did to Simon Brothers. This encounter does not require complicated theological reasoning. It depends upon that our spirit is open to the spirit of truth or not. Or open to the spirit of love. Can I say one more word? This is upon relationship with the Holy Spirit. That is the relationship with the spirit of life. The core of this event is an open heart to the spirit of Truth, not a close heart for himself. Since Jesus is that person who was in accord with the Holy Spirit, his words could be an event to save human beings.

Did my explanation sound too ideological? The conclusion is concrete like this: “Think carefully before you talk”.

Lord. Hope our talking could be related with the spirit of life. Amen.

The distortion of the bunt offerings

The distortion of the bunt offerings

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."(Mark 12:33)

A wise man keeps talking. He says to love God and neighbor is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. This content is a mere repetition of what Jesus’ mentioned in verses 30, 31. The scribe simply added the items of burnt offerings and sacrifices. However, through this account we can clearly find out what is more important and what is less essential in our religious life.

The burnt offering was an act of worship of the ancient Jews. They offered burnt offering because they thought their sin would be forgiven through this act of burning offering. They had a strong impression that their sacrifices offered to God would be accepted when the smoke goes up to heaven as they burn the sacrificed animals. The burnt offering was the holiest act of worship for them.

However, problem crept in when the burnt offering has lost its spiritual dynamic character and has distorted its original meaning as time went by. For them, the refined form of burnt offering became more important than the close relationship with God. The priests especially wanted to confirm their religious ability or even earn money through the activity of burnt offering. The holiest act has degraded into the most secure and self-centered act.

How about the Korean Church today? There are many churches that have lost the original spirit of worship. Populism penetrates into the worship service. Various forms of worship programs are being developed to quench the religious thirst and feelings of the congregation. The hero in their worship is not God but man. They give too much emphasis on offering. Gradually all the acts and tenets of worship begin to fall on the line of the temporal laws. In spite of this fact, most of the people may not even know the reason why this has become a problem.

God is one (8)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

We are now having the 8th meditation based on the title “God is one”. By this meditation I would like to fold up this topic. The last meditation is an explanation about the fact that ‘God is one’ is the very God who declared ‘I am that I am’ which is found in the account Moses. (Exo. 3:14)

Everything in this world cannot exist by itself. We all are born depending on our parents and even now we are living mainly depending on certain food material. If we are not provided oxygen for ten minutes, our life will be ended. It is not only the human beings but the entire nature also has the same destiny. The existence of the earth depends on the son the bigger nebula.

Basically, in quality, God is totally different from all other things. He exists by himself. The word exists by itself means that the ground of existence is not from without but from within. The ground of existence of all living creatures is from outside force. The creatures cannot directly share the experience of life with the creator whose ground of existence is from within. By any means, we cannot recognize him completely. He alone can say about himself. We have to shut up our mouth before him who says “I am that I am”. He is the very God.

Such being can be only ‘one’. ‘One’ means the whole. He will reveal his complete self on the last day. This is the meaning of the concept of ‘one’. The one God loved the world and gave his son. The son is the very Jesus Christ. The only way for us to experience direct relationship with God is to meet Jesus Christ personally. The fact that Jesus is the real image of the humbled God (Kenosis) is still the shrouded mystery of God’s existence.

God is one (7)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

I have an additional account to be added to the topic of judgment that I discussed yesterday. In fact, this additional account is fundamental and factual rather than a mere supplement. The conventional belief is that God’s judgment starts with the beginning of the end of time. But in reality, judgment has already begun long time ago. The judgment of God has been manifested in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is rather the judgment of God. This is the central point of distinction which clearly distinguishes Christianity from Judaism. Thus the doctrine of resurrection plays an important role in the lives of Christians.

Why does Jesus’ resurrection have the precedence over the judgment? I need to explain the fundamental concept of resurrection. Resurrection is the completion of life. Life is the ultimate outcome of God’s creation and his creative power is beyond our understanding and imagination and therefore we can neither produce nor improve his creation. The impact and the value of Jesus Christ’s resurrection are so great that now all human efforts to achieve personal heights become meaningless. This is the grace of God.

Deeply think about these paragraphs. The ultimate goal of human’s effort to achieve personal greatness is resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus. The Jewish religious power and political power of Roman could not accept Jesus for they thought that Jesus was an obstacle to their way of religious and political achievement. In this way, they judged to get life. However, we cannot get life in this manner. God raised Jesus from the dead. It was an incident that human trial to achieve self completely turned out to be an attempt ended in a state of futility and helplessness.

God’s judgment is in the completion of life. It had already happened in the time of Jesus two thousand years ago. Presently, we are tentatively living in the gap between Jesus’ resurrection and the life that follows the end of time. The one who leads the entire history is the one God the Creator. The reason why Jesus’ resurrection is the completion of life can be proved by the historical facts. Amen.

God is one (6)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

Some insist that Jesus has clearly pointed out the imminence of the judgment by fire in hell. In Luke 16:19-31 speak about the parable of Lazarus, a beggar and a rich man. The beggar Lazarus was received by the angels and embraced by Abraham after his death, while the rich man was thrown into the lake of fire.

A pastor named Yoon frequently quotes this particular verse. In his preaching, the pastor even adds what the Bible does not mention by adding that the beggar Lazarus was sincere to God while he was on earth and as a result of his sincerity and faithfulness to God he was warmly embraced by Abraham. The Bible mentions about the beggar Lazarus’ suffering in this world and there is no mention of his sincerity to God. The Bible never mentions about the rich man’s belief.

The parable of the beggar Lazarus was not a teaching about the existence and nonexistence of hell. It only declares the fact that God’s judgment is totally different from our expectations. The parable about the last judgment recorded in Matthew’s gospel also talks about the same thing. Those who thought that they have not done anything good for the Lord are unexpectedly placed on the right hand side for salvation while those who thought that they have done many good things for the Lord are surprisingly placed on the left hand side for judgment. This ultimate result shows us that we can deceive man but not God. This also signifies the feebleness of human cognition before the God’s absolute character.

Now, I cannot deny the certainty of God’s imminent judgment. If there is no judgment, there is no life either. Judgment is meant for the removal of the power that destroys life. By removing and separating the chaff which is pseudo-life and anti-life from the grain at harvest, the activity of God’s creation will be fully accomplished. However, insisting on God’s judgment as the punishment for the people outside the church would rather transmute its true meaning.

God is one(5)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

Some of you may feel uncomfortable to hear the word ‘Universalism’. I can understand such feeling. It is a serious matter not merely because of the pervading feeling but because it is closely related to the matter of our souls. Evidently, the salvation through Jesus Christ has its exclusive character. We cannot deny this fact.

The important point related to this fact is God’s judgment. The topic of judgment is found mentioned in Jesus’ parable about the kingdom of God. Chaff is burnt on the day of harvest. The virgins who did not prepare their oil in advance could not enter into the banquet and they were left outside the banquet weeping. Jesus’ second coming indicates the final judgment. Then do the terms universalism and judgment contradict each other?

The two doctrines appear to be contradictory to each other when we look at it in a single layer. But they do not seem to oppose with each other when we look into its central part and see it through the multi-layers of it. The combined study of these two doctrines clearly shows us a certain truth just like the right way is directed with the pointing of the forefinger. It appears to be a doctrine of contradiction because we do not have the cognitive ability to clearly see the pointed direction. If we open our sight a little wider and see the reality, we can come to know the fact that the direction of the finger of universalism and judgment is finally identical to each other. In other word, the doctrine of universalism and judgment are no longer contradictory but complementary to each other.

First, imagine, why the Bible talks about judgment though judgment damages God’s creation and his grace. This appears to be a negative view point in relation to God’s absolute character. God’s creation and his subsequent sovereign rule are beautiful and perfect. However, this world is ruled by evil and sin. This world is now in the transitional age. At the end of time when the activity of creation is completed, the countries with absolute truth and righteousness will come to surface. The only way to deal with the gap of the two extreme worlds is judgment. We have to regard the image of judgment as something that brings about the completeness of the kingdom of God rather than that throws certain objects into the eternal lake of fire in hell.

God is one (4)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

After reading the previous meditations, some of you may think and question “do you mean I don’t need to believe Jesus now?” If they can be saved whether they believe Jesus or not, or whether, they do good things or evil things, they may think that they do not need to believe Jesus right now with much hardship. Such question and concept of a man are quite far from the real Christian belief.

It is a wrong concept to hold the view that believing Jesus is a hardship. To believe Jesus is not a hardship but a joyful thing. It is not a matter of heavy burden but it is something that is light and easy to carry. Jesus once told his disciples, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The law is really a heavy burden. But the gospel gives freedom and emancipation to listeners just as a poet or an artist derives joy from their creative and imaginative activities. If someone feels burden with his religious life, there goes something wrong with him.

Do you find it hard not to tell a lie, not to drink, attend early morning prayers, to give offering and attend the church despite family’s objection for believing in Jesus? Belief in Jesus does not have any relationship with those things that we cannot do. Sorry to say that those Korean Christians who still find it difficult to do most of the things that Christians aught to do with ease are far from the essence of Christian faith.

The essence of faith is to know and accept the salvation of God that has been completed through Jesus Christ. This is really wonderful and joyful news. From here only we can get real peace and complete rest. It is so, because, it cannot be obtained by our own effort but it is a gift from God. Those who have received this gift enjoy the joy of it and pray for all the people in the world that the salvation of God may be with them too. May God grant them the same mercy that God has given us!

The Power of Daily Life

“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. (Mark 1:16)

The author of the Gospel of Mark describes so simply the meeting between Jesus and Simon and his brother. It says that Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee and saw Simon and his brother Andrew who were fishing. We could not say decisively because the text did not describe in details, but it might be very possible that Jesus used to go for an early morning walk everyday to the beaches of Galilee. In that case maybe Jesus could see them more often. Probably he could talk with them several times. Jesus used to take a walk to the beaches everyday, and Simon and his brother did fishing everyday.

Take a close look at the description in today’s text. You could see it very simple and dry. Look at verbs only. Walked beside, saw, casting. It ends with the sentence “they were fishermen.” Every description has every aspect in everyday life. We live like this. We wake up and walk beside in the morning, we cast for making money, we see people, and we live with having our name and title. Some people who have a little bit professional jobs teach, study, play music, or fight. Everything happens in this world could be our daily lives.

Such things like these might seem to be boring on the surface. So people could easily fall into mannerism. But there is no greater event than everyday life. Our daily life in which we breathe, eat, excrete, give a birth, live to look at each other is in accord with God’s creation. I don’t think I have to explain these things in details. It is so strange that our daily life has cosmological meanings to someone who has the insights for daily life, but to someone it could be so meaningless. Why does such a thing happen?

The answer is that they cannot see mystery of daily life. For example, it is so mysterious for us to feel gravity, I am saying. What you feel gravity means that you are alive, and also that the earth is working out mechanism of life. If we could feel gravity among our steps of our simple and fatal daily lives, mystery of our daily lives could be enlightened wonderfully. Between people as well as between man and insects, actually there exists a mysterious organism. We just miss the point in them.

Jesus walked beside the beach as usual and he saw Simon and Andrew who were fishing as usual. What on earth did it happen between them? Through the Bible, we could not figure out what had happened exactly. If we did not know the story after this event, we might not have any glimpse of what would happen. Luckily we know what’s going on in the Gospel. Their encounter became a turning point for history of Christianity, and even more for history of the world.

Don’t you think that some amazing events like this are hiding in our daily lives? Those could be exposed or buried in actual history. The results could be enormously important or insignificant according to your point of view. You don’t have to think about it consciously because nobody knows the answer. But it would be nice if we remember that our daily lives are related with history of God’s salvation. There is none excluded from this. Even tax collecters, prostitutes, or sinners are not excluded. All the daily lives are related with the event of Christ in a secret way.

Lord, we like to open our eyes to mystery of our daily lives. Amen.

God is one (3)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

The earlier two meditations might have been delivered to you with the nuance that, possibility of salvation is opened even to the people outside of the church. It is right. There are two reasons for this. First, Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is the universal power of salvation. Second, the power of God’s creation is able to overcome the evils of men. Having these reasons in hand, now it is time to give the third reason.

The Holy Spirit, a person of the Trinity, is the spirit of life. The Spirit is the spirit of creation, the spirit of resurrection and the spirit of everlasting. The spirit creates life not only in the church community but also in the entire world. Christianity alone cannot completely monopolize the life. In other word, Christianity cannot monopolize the Holy Spirit.

According to the teachings of John’s gospel, the Holy Spirit is just like the wind which we do not know where it comes from and where it goes. To be free like the wind has some personal implications. He creates life in the world in his own way and at his own discretion. Christians believe the spirit of life as the one God. Therefore, we should not put a limitation on the activity of the spirit by confining his activity within the walls of Christianity.

I hope you do not misunderstand what I mean. I do not mean that all the religious activities in the world are the acts of the Holy Spirit. Many of them are controlled and occupied by the evil spirit. Idol worship is an act of being manipulated by the evil spirit. An act of incantation and spell of charms is also the work of evil spirit at the cost of damaging man’s spirit.

Furthermore, we must understand the fact that complete submission of ourselves as an empty vessel for the work of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we fall into a religious autism. There is a big difference between a state of belief that firmly holds on one’s wholehearted resolute belief and that easily falls into a religious autism.

The Holy Spirit who works beyond our thoughts and imagination is the Spirit of life. The Spirit fills the entire universe. O Come, Holy Spirit!

God is one (2)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

I told you from yesterday’s meditation that the power of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ can be divided into two levels, namely, positive level and passive level. This is a dialectic relationship of tension rather than a division. Christians experience the joy of salvation in the positive level and at the same time we should also open it in the passive level. Those who truly experience the positive level of salvation naturally accept the passive level of salvation. The reason lies on the fact that God is one and the only creator.

According to Physicist’s explanation, the entire universe including the solar system to which the earth belongs began from a certain point. It is believed that at one point of time there occurred a “Big Bang” (great explosion) in the past. This is the bone of contention between the scientific explanation about the beginning of the universe and the Biblical explanation about the creation. The Bible says God created the universe out of nothing. This nothingness could be referred to the particular point which physicists contend.

God of the Bible we believe is the one who created the heavens and the earth. The creator has the responsibility for his creation activity. Undeniably, the beauty of God’s creation is greatly damaged as a result of human’s sin but even this is also God’s ultimate responsibility. This is God’s mercy. For example, it was the younger son’s responsibility when he left his father’s house as depicted in the parable of the prodigal son. However, the father felt the deep sense of responsibility even for this grievous separation. The father risked his entire destiny for his son’s return. By the mercy of the father, the younger son was saved.

We should not lose the fact that the one God we believe is the creator. With the creation of the heavens and the earth in the beginning, God’s creative activity has not yet come to an end, but is still continuing and will be continued till the end of time. Does not God plan to save the entire human beings who had lived, who are living and who will be living?

Repentance and the Good News (4)

“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’.” (1:15)

The last part of yesterday’s comtemplation was to explain that repentance means to lessen your religious works, and then to pay attention to God’s sovereignty. Maybe some people could wonder why. Does it make sense to reduce religious works, when we are needed to get together more often and evangeliz to the end of the world? And basically why does such reduction mean repentance?

The most misunderstood thing in Christianity generally is that Christians are doing some works in God’s place. It is a non-sense. It is arrogance. We almost don’t have anything to do for God. More strictly speaking, there is none of those on earth. Because salvation, that is the most important thing for God, is totally an exclusive action. We should only take a close look at how salvation being made, and then after we realize what have happened, there is nothing else except praising Him. (doxology).

Of course, it is possible to say that we must get together more often to praise His salvation, and we should do world mission in order to praise Him. But in here we should take a close look at ourselves more honestly. Do we honestly praise His salvation? If so, we might try to learn more what God’s salvation means. This could be repentance. In church life for today’s Christians, is salvation from God regarded as an importanct topic? No, do we actually pay attention even to knowing God? Except small numbers of people, most people do not have any attention to the kingdom of God and His salvation. Of course they use lexicon “salvation”, but it became a dogmatic word, not eschatological event, with open-minded meaning for the future life. The words like God, salvation, glory, sovereignty are dead in the church. I have witnessed that not many preaching from many pulpits are having done for the kingdom of God often.

Maybe some people could ask if we should liquidate our churches. That is not what I mean. Since our religious enthusiam is far from God’s sovereignty, it might not make any serious problems, even though we reduce a lot. Of course materialistic and human resources could be affected. But such things are not related with the kingdom of God. Basically speaking, church should be satisfied as a minority community just like yeast in flour. Without flour if yeast only exists, the relation between flour and yeast might be collapsed. It might be difficult to say decisively, but evangelizing a certain people had not had direct connection with the kingdom of God when we look through history. Latin churches after Emperor Constantinus, European churches during the middle age, Russian Churches before the Red Revolution, could not be our role models.

The problem is what Christianity feels very nervous about being remained as minority. As long as an individual church or the assembly of church consider growth as their priority, it is impossible for repentance basically. This concept applies to our daily lives in the same way. When economic graph shows downsizing, if people might be so anxious that their life could be ruined, it would be impossible for Korea to repent seriously. She could not be a country for justice and peace.

There is none to be more foolish than to waste our spiritual energy meaninglessly. But come to think of it, on the other hand, the reason to waste our spiritual energy meaninglessly is the fact that basically we do not repent. It could mean that we do not pay attention to the kingdom of God, but only to the church as an organization.

Lord, give us a spirit of repentance not to waste our lives and also our spiritual energy. Amen.

God is one (1)

"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. (Mark 12:32)

The scribe was repeating the same statement, “God is one” which Jesus earlier mentioned. Who is the one God? The God is the very God that the Bible talks about. Then who is the object whom other religions follow as the absolute one? In fact, there is no such object. Worshipping something that does not exist is idol worship.

Christians know the answer of the above question. However, we have to think a little more seriously about this world, history and the destiny of human beings. As believers of God, the creator of the universe, it is not a proper attitude if we insist to monopolize God by considering that people outside of the Bible community are hopeless. The God whom the people outside of the Bible community follow may also be a part of God the one. If we premise that having experience with their God is life-oriented, it is also hard to say that there is no life in them.

I do not mean that Christian belief can be compromised with pluralism or relativism. I would rather mean that we should not keep a limitation on the unlimited power of God we trust and follow. Keeping the same analogy in mind, the power of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ works as a great source of power for salvation not only for those who believe in him but for the entire universe as well.

We should not lose Jesus’ cross and his resurrection, the center of Christian belief, both in positive and passive level. In positive level, the incident of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is the power of God to save especially those who believe in him. In the passive level, it is the power of God to work even with the unbelievers beyond our imagination.