Frustrated Dream: Change the World
Michael had the vision to change the world, and he dreamt that everyone would not worry about safety. When he was younger, he was smart enough to get admissions from good colleges. He chose one college which gave an excellent scholarship to him. He thought his dream was close to change the world, and he studied hard in college. However, after graduation, he saw the real world, which looks like a jungle. Those who have power did not want to change the world, and they secured their privilege and power. Michael tried to destroy the wall, but it was not easy. Unfortunately, his father had cancer, and he had to work to earn money to pay the medical bills for his father. So he worked under those who he hated. But he had no option to choose a job to make money immediately. Now, his dream was so scattered, and he had no passion for transforming the world anymore. His life goal seemed to disappear eternally. Suddenly, he thought to himself, “Why do I have to live?” His life was too painful, and nothing was left in his hand. He felt empty. Have you ever had an experience like Michael? It may vary. Sometimes, we experience that our life is floating away without anchors. Also, we sometimes feel that the situation around us is going wrong and getting worse even though we try to fix it. And we experience deep hunger from inside, but we don't know why. It is understandable why Ecclesiastes says, "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." " (1:2-3) Life is like being in the wilderness, and only hopelessness is waiting for us. Like Michael, some of us found there is no passion and future but pain. Frustrated Community Do you know what is the opposite of faith? It is not doubt. Doubt helps faith grow. It is hopelessness and despair. When you have faith, you have a target you should aim at, and you have purpose of life. Paul says, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly[j] call of God in Christ Jesus" in Philippians 3:14. But when you don't have faith, there is no target and life is meaningless. Today the bible passage is Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, and it talks about faith. It is such a famous verse, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." When I was younger, I couldn't understand what it means. What is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen? We need to understand the background of the letter. It was the time of persecution. Emperor Claudia persecuted Christians because they worshiped Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Under the persecution, they might have been tempted to abandon their faith. Thus, Paul wrote a letter for the community who was seemingly defeated, failed, and did not know where the pain came from. As they experienced, faith does not always give you a romantic presence. However, Paul says that faith gives them assurance and conviction God is with them even in the time of persecution, even though it is not seen. When they hold on to faith, there is hope. As Jesus' cross shows us, the painful cross is waiting for us. But we have faith that resurrection is waiting for us at the end of the cross. Without the faith, we can not endure the cross. By Faith Paul called out the names of champions of faith, the ancestors of faith. Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham and Sarah. They had followed God faithfully in a hopeless time. Paul repeats “by faith" multiple times. "By faith, Abraham obeyed. " (v.8) "By faith, he stayed for a time " (v.9) "by faith he received the power of the procreation. " (v.11) For his lifetime, Abraham and Sarah were foreigners. They traveled and traveled endlessly. They had to go to an unknown place where no one knew them. Did they feel frustrated and dissatisfied? Yes, they did feel frustrated and dissatisfied. Their dream was also shaken and became dim. When God asked him to give his son, Isaac as a sacrifice. He was frustrated, and his heart was shattered. When the king of Egypt captured him, he wanted to run away. He was tempted to abandon. But he endured that time because he had faith and God held him through his faith. By faith, he obeyed, stayed in foreign countries and had Isaac. Do you know the difference between faith and political conviction? Political conviction is what I hold. When a good situation comes, the conviction gets hardened and stronger. But when a bad situation happens, it can change. A politician who has liberal ideas can be in a conservative party, and a conservative politician can be in a progressive party, depending on the political situation. However, faith is different. Faith is not that I hold, but that God holds us. Thus, it does not change by the situation. Instead, when hardship comes to our lives, and when we are in the wilderness, we experience the moment when God holds our hands firmly and loves us. Thus, we confess ironically that the time of hardship was the moment of thanksgiving. That is the power of unseen faith. The Champions of Faith – Baby Riot As Paul calls out his ancestors of faith, the champions of the faith. I want to call out the names of champions of the faith. Two young missionaries came to Korea. Horace Grant Underwood and Henry Appenzeller in 1885. Especially, Appenzeller who boarded on the ship to Korea 40 days after his wedding. They built a school, hospital, orphanage, and church to help Korean people. They fed the hungry, taught children, and healed the weak in the hospital. There are tons of episodes I want to share, but I'd like to share the Baby Riot in June 1888. Missionaries faced a huge crisis. At that time, the Korean conservative party did not like to open Korea for foreign countries. Also, Korean people had doubted the western countries, and they were not familiar with the hospitality the missionaries offered. And a rumor spread among people that the western missionaries were monsters who would kill and eat children. Actually, it was a political plot designed by conservative parties. As the rumor got worse, people thought ''there is an evil reason the western missionaries feed children for free,' ''After feeding them, they will sell the children abroad.' There was a rumor which is ''the western people kill the children, eat their tender meats and drink the blood.' Some people saw that missionaries were eating steak cooked with medium rare. And people might be confused by the Holy Communion, ''drinking my blood and eating my body.' Thus, people called them the Western devil or monster. And people got angry, burned houses of missionaries and the hospital, and stoned to missionaries. Missionaries were frustrated, and no hope remained. Their mission seemed to end. Although they wanted to share God's love, their house, church, and hospital were burned down, and people stoned them. In hopelessness and frustration, Pastor Underwood prayed like this, "We believe that we will see the future of the faith of Korea. Although we are as if standing on a desert with bare hands, Although we are condemned to be Western devils, We believe that the day will come when they will rejoice with tears realizing that they are one with our spirit in Christ and that we all have one Kingdom and one Father in Heaven. Although there is no church for you to worship in, no school to study in, although this land is filled with doubt of suspicion, contempt, and disdain, We believe that in the near future this land will become a land of blessing." After the Baby Riot, some Korean people wanted to know and see if the missionaries kill children. Dukk-Gi Jeon was one of them, and he got a job as a cook in missionary William Scranton's house. He stoned missionaries on the road, and he had bad intentions at work. He decided to kill them if the rumor is true. However, he was surprised by Scranton's hospitality and kindness. The Scranton couple treated him like their son. After all, he confessed his intention and said to Scranton, ''I will do everything and follow you.” Later, he was baptized in 1896 and ordained as a Methodist pastor in 1907. God works through your faith The Baby Riot turned out to be the opportunity to spread the Gospel. The prayer of Pastor Underwood came true. Because of their sacrifice and faith, a lot of Korean people knew Jesus Christ and heard the good news. Hebrews 11:3 is so true, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.” They prayed even though they could not see the future and they hoped in the hopeless time. Are you frustrated and scared because of the unseen future? Then hold your faith. God will guide, direct, and lead you into the light. When you fail, and there is nothing in your hand but faith in God, that is the time God works with you. "Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
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If I won the lottery
Have you ever purchased a lottery ticket? Last year, I purchased a lottery ticket for the first time in my life. My father in law asked my wife and I to buy the mega-million lottery. The amount of money for the winner was 1.6 billion dollars. We said if we won the lottery, you get half and my wife and I get half. It was a good deal. My wife and I talked about our golden future. If we won this lottery, Let's buy a good car like tesla and buy a castle in Europe, and let's go somewhere that nobody knows. Anyway, we did not win. I had a short-happy time for myself. If I won the lottery, I maybe not here. What would you do if you won the lottery? There are some people living well after winning a lottery, and some are not. I found a good life lesson from the experience. I discovered my sinful nature because I imagined running away from the relationship that God has bestowed, I imagined to cut off the relationship. I imagined ceasing offering myself to people as Jesus does. And I imagined making one-way relationships like buying goods and paying money without having a deep relationship. It could be different for your case. Jesus on the road According to the lectionary, today’s bible passage is Luke 12:13-21. It gives us an insight regarding wealth and how we as Christians deal with it. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. On the road, he meets many people. He loves to meet people and have talks with them. Anyone is welcomed. Some are regarded religious sinners and outcasts, and some are rich and social leaders. Whoever comes to Jesus, they have a new vision in him. He teaches them how to be true humans and affirms them as children of God. As we know, children of God must be reborn and renewed in grace. Then they must live differently and distinctively from the society. The Parable Among many crowds, someone comes to Jesus and asks, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." It is kind of a ridiculous question because the first son receives twice as much as the second son's inheritance in Jewish Law. Perhaps it does not work for them well, and they might have struggles in their family. Jesus answers them, but it is cynical. v. 14-15 “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you? … Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” If you have a problem regarding inheritance in your family, don't ask Jesus. He is not talking about distribution but warning about possession and greed. Jesus is well aware of the nature of the problem in the family, which is greediness. Furthermore, Jesus tells him a parable. But I think this parable is really weird and somewhat wrong. It does not make sense for us living in the Free market economy system. There is a rich man. I think he worked hard on his farm and produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, v.16 “’What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ then he said ‘ I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.” Perhaps, some of us are farmers on a cornfield and feeding cattle. When you produced a lot, it is natural to build a larger barn, store your crops there, and sell them later. Interestingly, he did not earn abundant wealth by doing bad work, like I did purchasing a lottery ticket. He did not steal someone's possession and he did not get any investment income. Thus, it is not strange for him to say “ Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry” (v.19) I think it is not weird, but it is so natural. For example, if you worked hard, saved much money on the bank for retirement and received them after retiring, it is not bad for you to enjoy your life by using the money. You can say I will relax, eat, drink, be merry. You might plan to go to Hawaii for vacation. In this sense, the rich man is not bad. Then what is the problem? In the parable, God came to the scene and said to the Man, v.20 "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" God calls him “Fool!” why is he foolish? And God added that God will take his soul tonight. If God takes his soul, what does money matter? I think God is a little bit over-reacting and it is too harsh for the man. However, We need to listen to Jesus, he says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (v.21) We can see his fault here. While he stores up treasures for himself, he is not rich toward God. It is not about the quantity of money, but the attitude and miserly mind for God. Then, we need to raise a question, how can we be not miserly toward God? How can we store up treasures for God? How can we store up treasures in Heaven? In Korea, where I grew up, there is the biggest Pentecostal church. I assume This church is the biggest church in the world and bigger than Lakewood church in Houston. The church has influence over the whole Korean Church. And they are always talking about blessing. They would say if you offer many offerings to the church, that is storing up treasures for God and saving them in Heaven. But, I believe it is a decontextualized interpretation. We need to see within the Book of Luke because the author has a peculiar view about it. Luke 12:33-34 says "Sell your possessions, and give alms, make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." To give treasure for God is to remember and help the weak around you by using your money. That is how to store up treasures for God. Then, no one can steal and burn it because God never forgets your good works. Again, this parable is not talking about the quantity of wealth and how much you have. It talks about your mind. The Pareto Principle Have you ever heard about the Pareto principle? It is so-called the 80/20 rule. Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto argues that 20 percent of people have 80 percent of the wealth in the world. On the other hand, 80 percent of people share 20 percent of the wealth. This is how the world distributes wealth, and it still is effective now. You will see clearly this phenomenon at Wall Street in New York, the center of finance. At the end of the year, they have a lot of bonuses. According to the Office of the New York State Comptroller, the workers in Wallstreet receive 27.5 billion dollars in 2018.[1] And they purchase expensive paints and pictures because it will bring high return more than the interest rate in the bank. $27.5 billion are used to buy some paints. Pondering this phenomenon, I can’t but relate this to today’s bible passage. How do they use the money after selling the paints? To stop illiteracy in the world, we need $5 billion. To stop the climate change, we need $8 billion. To stop malnutrition and hunger in the world, we need $18 billion. To forgive debts of poorest 49 countries, we need $27 billion. But $27.5 billion disappear to purchase pictures annually on Wall street. If we do not store our treasures in heaven, the Pareto Principle will be more hardened and stubborn. Christian Life We remember the widow who offered two small coins. Although she is poor, she stores up treasures for God. We also remember Zacchaeus. After he encountered Jesus, he repented not only his soul but also his pocket. He says “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Do you remember what Jesus said to Zacchaeus? “Today salvation has come to this house.” People who are saved by Jesus Christ have a room inside of their heart for other. That is the life of salvation. Let’s store treasures up for God who never forget our kind works. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Amen. |
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