Reflection June 19, 2022

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1 Kings 19:1-15a/ Galatians 3:23-29/ Luke 8:26-39

Grounded and Rooted in God’s Love

Theological School Friends

I had three best friends in theological school. We were together most of the time: at school and after school. We went to supper together, shopping together, and just sat together while some did their reading and some watched TV. Our bond with each other was not solely in the activities we did together; it was also in the silence when we were sitting together and not doing anything with each other.

Fellowship in Silence

“Communion” as in fellowship happens by spending a lot of time together, but not necessarily while we do activities together. Sitting together in silence can create bond and growing love for each other.

It is believed that Mozart said, “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” It is also true in our communication, both oral and written. We find meanings in reading between the lines as much as in the written words. We find meanings in what is not said as much as in what is said out loud.

Elijah Meets God in Silence

Our Prophet Elijah experiences something similar in First Kings chapter 19. Elijah is on the run for his life because Queen Jezebel wants him dead for killing her prophets. In the previous chapter, Elijah competed with the priests of Baal to see whose God is true. Spoiler alert: Elijah’s God won, and the priests of Baal were killed.

But now Elijah is fearing for his life so much that he wants God to take his life, which is weird if you think about it. But I guess, if he has to die, at least he doesn’t want to die at the hands of his enemy. He sleeps, is fed by God’s angel, and hears God say that God will pass him by.

Strong wind passed by but God was not there. Earthquake came but God was not there. Fire came but God was not there. Then after the fire, Elijah hears God’s still small voice.

It is easy to think that God speaks through big cosmic events such as storm, earthquake, and fire, but what we really need to pay attention to is God’s still small voice. This is how God meets us and communicates with us. We can’t hear God’s voice if we are surrounded by noise, both literal and metaphorical noise.

Liberating Spirit of God

What we read in Galatians is the result of having an intimate relationship with God if the Holy Spirit is in us. We have a relationship with God through Christ. Christ brings us closer to God, helps us to understand God better and to resemble Christ.

With the Holy Spirit daily guiding us, our Christian lifestyle does not depend on obeying the Law, the commandments we find in the Bible. Of course, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to ignore all biblical teachings. What it means is that we don’t have to be enslaved by the Law like a lot of religious teachers in Jesus’ time.

The Holy Spirit frees us from the law to lead a lifestyle of love based on God’s compassion and justice. When the Holy Spirit guides us, we live out God’s love without the constraint of the commandments.

Grounded In God’s Love

The Holy Spirit unites us different people as one, helps us to fight our narrowminded prejudices, challenges us to do more good deeds, and to widen our circle to include all God’s people.

In Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, white or black, gay or straight, gendered or gender fluid people, abled or disabled, etc. Changing our lives with the Holy Spirit in us grounds us in God’s love, which was the theme of last weekend’s regional council AGM.

When we are grounded and rooted in God’s love, we welcome all God’s people. We have done this by becoming an affirming regional council to welcome everyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Grounded in God’s love helps us to love ourselves the way God created us. God’s love doesn’t let us think that we are not precious or worthy of love and grace. Grounded in love pushes us to care about the suffering of others and to act. When the human suffering is caused by an unjust system, calling out the social evil is a part of being grounded in God’s love. Taking the side of the marginalized of the society is being grounded and rooted in God’s love.

Healing the Demon-possessed Man

We heard a gospel story in which Jesus heals a demon-possessed man. Healing the sick and exorcising evil spirits from people, which Jesus did a lot, were ways of uplifting the oppressed people of his society.

We know that there is a correlation between marginalization and mental health, as well as physical health. Marginalized and suffering people generally need more healing. Jesus sacrificed the village pigs to save the possessed man to the villagers’ dismay. I don’t like the idea of killing animals but the point we can take away from this story is how a person is considered precious and worthy of God’s love, even this dirty, poor, and demon-possessed person who is being a nuisance to everyone.

Relationship with God

Let us have a close relationship with God and listen to God’s still small voice in silence. Let us draw God’s love and power through the Holy Spirit so that we may be grounded and rooted in God’s love, and so that we may live as the representatives of God in our lives. Let us have the Spirit of God take root in us so that we may be God’s channel of peace, love, and justice in our unjust world.

Reflection June 5, 2022 (Pentecost)

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Acts 2:1-21/ Genesis 11:1-9/ John 14:8-17

All For God’s Reign and God’s Reign for All

All For One, One For All

There is a phrase that became iconic from The Three Musketeers by the French author Alexandre Dumas: “All for one, one for all.” I think this phrase is so cool and healthy because it doesn’t stop at the philosophy that requires members of a group to work and sacrifice for the greater good; it says that the members work for the group and the group will take care of its members in return.

Having grown up in Korea, I am familiar with the idea that the members should sacrifice for the good of the group. As the members of a society, we must sometimes lay down our individual wants and needs for the greater good. But if the members do nothing but sacrifice for the group, that would not be a healthy group; it would be dictatorship.

Having said that, the individualism of the western cultures sometimes catches me by surprise. For example, people who make noise and protest because they don’t want to wear masks or get vaccinated feel extremely selfish to me. Vaccines are a perfect symbol for what we owe to each other living in a society.

Quite literally, we rely on other members of the society to do their parts to create herd immunity to protect every member. Those who have medical conditions that compromise their immune systems and cannot get vaccinated depend on herd immunity to survive. It is our civil duty to carry the weaker members of our society, both inside and outside the medical field. The Three Musketeers teaches us to unite for one goal, under the same leadership, and to work as one for the greater good.

Pentecost and Tower of Babel

Today is Pentecost when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit that gave birth to the Christian Church. The Old Testament and New Testament readings for today have one thing in common; they are both about languages.

These two stories are paired up for Pentecost Sunday because theologians see the Pentecost story as the rewriting or the undoing of the Tower of Babel story. In the Babel story, the division of languages was used to disperse people so they wouldn’t unite and rebel against God. In the Pentecost story, God’s children and disciples of Jesus became united by speaking each other’s languages, powered by the Holy Spirit.

The Pentecost story reminds us that, under the leadership of Jesus, different people are united in all their diversities. I call this “unity in diversity.” There is not one unified way of existing and uniting as God’s people. God created all of us differently; therefore, our diversities must be celebrated. It is God’s design and will for us, revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus whom we follow.

Celebrating Diversity

The various languages that the first disciples speak in Acts chapter 2 are a symbol of the diverse ways in which God created us. We may not understand everyone who is different from us, but we are all God’s beautifully made children. We are people of different ethnic groups, cultures and languages, sexual orientations, gender identities, and so on.

Today is not only Pentecost Sunday but the beginning of the Pride Month. Minority sexual orientations and gender identities are celebrated on purpose because they are usually considered “wrong” or “unnatural.” Minority identities in general must be celebrated to remind ourselves that we are loved and valued despite our differences, social stigmas, and marginalization. That is why we have Black History month, Asian Heritage Month, Indigenous History Month, Pride Month, and more.

Holy Spirit the Helper and Guide

In John chapter 14, before Jesus dies and leaves his friends, he confirms to them that he and God are of one mind, and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit to replace him after he is gone.

When Jesus was living on earth, he could guide his followers with his teachings about God’s will. They were connected to God through his teachings. We are connected to God though Jesus but also through the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us, as Jesus did on earth, and teaches us God’s ways.

God’s ways that we learn from Jesus is the reign of love that is based on equality and justice. When the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are emotionally affected by the evil of the world and human suffering because we are given the heart of God and Jesus. We want to do good and reduce human suffering because we now own the heart of Jesus through the works of the Holy Spirit in us.

Learning from Pentecost and the Pride Month

Pride Month is a great opportunity for our narrow minds and prejudices to be challenged by the Holy Spirit.

We don’t like everyone. We don’t understand everyone. We don’t agree with everyone. However, If the Holy Spirit is in us, we can still acknowledge that we are all united as God’s beloved children and refuse to hurt each other; people who speak different languages, eat different foods, love different genders, live as different genders…

On this Pentecost Sunday, let us receive the Holy Spirit as powerfully as the first disciples did. Let the Spirit challenge us and guide us to love and value all God’s people. Let us unite in the Holy Spirit to work towards the greater good for God; to bring God’s reign on earth, to make a world where all are valued and no one is marginalized or oppressed. Let us be united in all our diversities. Let us proclaim, “All for God’s reign and God’s reign for all.”

 

Reflection May 22, 2022 (Ascension Sunday)

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Acts 1:1-11/ Psalm 93/ Ephesians 1:15-23

We’ve Got Work to Do!

Doctor Who Saving the World

A lot of you already know that I am a big fan of the British TV show Doctor Who. In that show, the Doctor is always trying to save the earth or some other planets from mass destruction, for there are a lot of evil creatures in the universe (of Doctor Who).

Sometimes, when the Doctor is working on opposing the enemies, some innocent people die. When the Doctor is accused of having no heart for not grieving for the dead, the response is always, “We don’t have time to grieve right now. We have to save the planet and its millions of residents first and then have time to grieve.”

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Reflection May 15, 2022 (Korea Peace Appeal)

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Micah 4:1-4/ Psalm 11/ John 14:15-27

Peace, Overdue

Korean War

My parents were in elementary school during the Korean War. My mother’s family had to retreat to the south, and that is where my grandmother gave birth to my youngest uncle. The baby was put in a big box because they didn’t have a crib. That is how my uncle gained his nickname “Big Box.”

My aunts and uncles still call him Big Box and laugh, but when you think about it, it is no joke experiencing pregnancy and childbirth during a war. I am not a biological mother, but I know how serious childbirth is. I have watched a lot of childbirth stories on Call the Midwife. Can we imagine how scared my grandma must have been?

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Reflection May 8, 2022 (Christian Family Sunday)

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Psalm 23/ John 10:22-30

Family: Circle of Trust

Forming a Relationship of Trust

My cat Melody and I have been together for almost 10 years. She’s a shy cat. It took several months till she let me pick her up, and now, she sleeps with me with her backside exposed, which is a sign of trust. She also lets me put my hand on her neck and trusts that I won’t harm her. That trust has been earned over a long period of time.

After my best friends adopted my godchildren, it took probably 2 years for hem to be fully attached to their new parents. They trust my friends fully now, which was also earned from commitment of love and care.

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Reflection May 1st, 2022 (Mental Health Sunday)

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1 Samuel 16:14-23/ Lamentations 5:19-22/ John 13:31-35

Compassionate Circle for Healing

Yook Woo Dang’s Poems of Pain

Korean Rainbow United, a Korean group inside the United Church of Canada of which I am a part, has been working on translating the poems of a teenage Korean boy, a queer activist and poet, who killed himself close to 20 years ago. His pen name was Yook Woo Dang, which means “Six Friends” because booze, cigarettes, sleeping pills, foundation, green tea, and rosary were his six companions in life. I will read to you two of his poems.

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Rev. Juanita (April 24th, 2022)

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The Gift of Doubt
Based on Acts 5:27-32 and John 20:19-29

Mostly I want to focus on the gospel of John this morning, but I invite you to turn aside for a moment and look at this passage from the book of Acts.

Imprisoned Peter in Acts 5

Here we find Peter, in particular, speaking out and challenging the rule makers, healing people and sharing his understanding of what God has been up to in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Peter and other unnamed apostles, have fallen afoul of the Jewish authorities by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus, and God at work through the life and now the Spirit of a man who had been crucified about two months previously. They were imprisoned, but apparently an angel let them out.

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Reflection Easter Sunday 2022

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Luke 24:1-12/ Isaiah 25:6-9/ Psalm 118

Easter Hope: Giving Life

Secularized Holidays

Today is Easter Sunday and as usual, the internet is full of funny Easter memes. In one of them, Jesus walks out of the tomb/ cave and the disciples are busy taking photos of him on their smart phones. In another, Jesus comes out as a zombie, because, of course, he would! How else could a dead person come alive, right? (wink wink) In yet another one, Jesus comes out of the cave with a pizazz, saying “Ta da!”

But if you google “Easter”, there are more contents on Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs than anything to do with Jesus. Even those who despise Christianity “celebrates” Easter with Easter egg hunt for their children. Christmas and Easter has become so secularized that we easily suffer a collective amnesia about what these holidays are about. That is why, as a church minister, I feel compelled to focus on preaching about the true meanings of Easter and Christmas. So, here it is.

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Reflection Palm Sunday 2022

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(Luke 22-23)

As We Follow Jesus to the Cross

Death of Jesus: Traditional Theology

Today is Palm Sunday/ Passion Sunday, starting the Holy Week. Through our exceptionally long scripture reading, we followed Jesus to his cross.

Those of us who grew up in the church learned that Jesus died for our sins, which fits the ancient Jewish concept of scarifying a lamb without any blemish for atonement. This is one theological interpretation of the death of Jesus that became the main Christian idea.

Although this theology humbles us with the idea that everyone is a sinner and comforts us by the grace of God that didn’t spare God’s only Son to save us from sin, not everyone is comforted and empowered by it. Since we are already familiar with the traditional theology that Jesus died for our sins, today, I will focus on an alternative interpretation for the death of Jesus.

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Reflection April 3, 2022 (Lent 5)

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Isaiah 43:16-21/ Philippians 3:5-14/ John 12:1-8

                                      Spiritual Makeover

Makeovers

Do you like makeovers? Makeovers make us feel fresh and new. I feel like a new person when, once a year, I dress up and wear makeup for the performing arts festival. Even something as simple as getting a new haircut makes us feel good, doesn’t it? Today’s theme is spiritual makeovers and I want you to think of how you felt getting a makeover.

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