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Chung

Sermon in Langley, Canada

Where: Langley Presbyterian Church of Canada
When: Nov. 16th, 2003
Text: Hebrew 10: 11-14, 19-25

The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!

Dear friends of The Reformed tradition,

I am very honored and glad to be here and to share with you my reflection on this text.

Please allow me to share my personal story with you first.
When I was young, I spent most of the time with my maternal grandmother because my mother was working as a teacher. My grandmother was a very old-fashioned shamanist and she practiced shamanistic ritual in order to get divine power for special purposes.
Shamanism is a pantheistic natural religion. It relies on the divine power, which the shaman could evoke and manipulate.

My grandmother became Christian through my mother, who received the “good news” from a Christian mission school. After my grandmother became a Christian she was very sincere as a laywoman in terms of attending worship and prayer gatherings and supporting the minister. I have very strong memories of her, especially with a painting of Jesus, which she wrapped very carefully in silky red cloth to make a bundle and kept very carefully in her drawer.

This painting is a very well known image of Jesus as a good-looking Western male, in his thirties with long, blond hair. The Korean Church is proud that their first protestant church was founded by a Korean, who himself received the gospel in China. Koreans already knew a protestant-like movement, before an organized mission activity existed in Korea, but one should acknowledge that Christianity was mainly spread through North American missionaries.

These American missionaries brought this kind of painting to Korea. This painting is well distributed in christian homes, schools and churches. My grandmother is very used to looking at this kind of Jesus painting with its white male portrait. But this kind of painting doesn’t reflect the historical Jesus of the bible. Nevertheless, it has affected deeply the christology of Korean Christianity.

I used to ask her whenever she took this painting from her drawer. “What are you looking at and thinking about?” She answered me “Jesus Christ”. After she became a christian this blond male person took its place as object of her belief. So Jesus as a western male figure took the position of a divine shaman in her faith.
I think it happend not only to my grandmother, but also to many Korean Christians especially women. The image of Jesus as a pale face with Anglo features and blue eyes dominates the christology of Korean Christianity. And this image was an alternative for a divine being in shamanism for many Korean Christians. Therefore the question of whom we confess as Jesus Christ is very important in our Korean cultural religious background.This is not only a question in my country but in different cultural backgrounds. This is a core question for Christians whereever we are living.

Today’s text describes the many sacrifices and the one single sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The anonymous author of this letter to the Hebrews was dealing with Jewish religious background people in order to explain the difference between Jewish belief and Christianity. In this context the author emphasizes the event of Jesus Christ. We have been sanctified once and for all through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, who tore the curtain of the santuary. Therefore we are allowed to enter the sanctuary by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the perfect single offering for all time. All we can do is to believe in this event of Good Friday and Easter.

The significant difference between Eastern religions like Buddhism and Christianity is in their understanding of beliefs. The final goal of Buddhism is for every one to become Buddha through their own efforts. Therefore there is not one Buddha, but many Buddhas, because everyone has the potential to attain Buddhahood. In contrast to this the main element in Christianity is to believe in the Jesus’ event for reconciliation by grace instead of becoming Jesus. Since Jesus has perfected this reconciliation “once for all”, we don’t need to have additional sacrifices, because his was an eternal sacrifice. This uniqueness of Jesus Christ is significant. And Jesus’ sacrifice shouldn’t be misused to gain forgiveness for unjust actions. It doesn’t glorify unjust suffering. It is power and energy to overcome unjust suffering in the light of Easter.

But to believe in this event is not an easy job, especially in our multi cultural, multi religious era and society. There are three kinds of tendencies among Christians: one is exclusivism. This people emphasize Jesus as savior sincerely, but sometimes too strongly tending to be narrow-minded. They insist strongly that there is no salvation without Jesus Christ. The second tendency is to inclusivism. Such people believe in Jesus as savior, but they are open-minded about other truths. The third group advocate religious pluralism. And they think every religion has the same value. Only the expression is different. Inclusivist emphasize the event of Jesus Christ, while pluralist do not.

In Korea we still have the strong voice of the first group among Christians. Their strong passion in confessing Jesus as savior is impressive. But the exclusivism has caused many problems in society, because they build up walls with a “Not like us syndrome”. But the uniqueness of Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t imply the superiority of Christianity over other religions.

We need zeal for truth, but we need also tolerance without judging other people or believers. But I don’t mean that we need to give up our identity as Christians, which is related to our confession. We are living in the times, when Children know about St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, but not Jesus Christ as the reason for Christmas. Are we afraid to witness to the name of Jesus Christ?

To whom and how we confess Jesus Christ was not only a problem of my grand mother, who lived in a non-Christian cultural background. It is a continuing challenge for all of us, especially in this religious pluralistic era.

Jesus Christ revealed God’s love through his body on this earth. By this single offering and the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ we have life-giving energy. And Jesus Christ invites us to share this life-giving energy, which we, with other people, received by grace.

Our common root of reformed tradition is based in this task for our communal well-being through our belief in Jesus Christ. In this tradition we are connected as presbyterians.

Our relationship with the Canadian Presbyterian Church began 1888, when J.S. Gale, the first Canadian Missionary, came to Korea. We are in debted to the Canadian Presbyterian Church so much for all their missionary works. They helped us in the development of the Korean Presbyterian Church with a humble attitude standing on the side of the Korean people. They worked very hard for justice and peace in the Korean peninsula.

Since the Presbyterian Church makes up the majority of Korean Protestant churches, Korean Presbyterianism is very strong in numbers. But there are some problems in terms of division and lack of social outreach activity.

The division of the protestant churches – and the lack of ecumenism - is one of the biggest problems of the Korean Church.
Social justice and action were not particularly specific themes of Korean Christianity, as it remained strongly focused on the faith of the individual. These are areas of weakness in the Korean Presbyterian Church and an urgent challenge and task for us Korean Christians.

One famous phrase of the reformed tradition is “Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda” Reformed church means the church, which continuously must be reformed. No church is perfect on this earth. Each church has different strengths and weaknesses. So we are invited to struggle for our continuing reformation until the new earth and the new heaven have come. I hope we can encourage one another as presbyterians, although we are living in different social contexts.

Jesus Christ broke the barrier and opened the door for all of us. But we human beings tend to do the reverse way. We can live now because God gives us time and life giving energy in God’s mercy. In God’s waiting for us we can live and participate in the Realm of God according to the responsibility and vocation, which God gave us. Let us encourage each other to draw near to God in faith and worship. Let us hold fast the confession of our reformed tradition. And let us, with love, help each other as a reformed family to work together to break the chains of injustice in this world.

Amen.

[인쇄하기] 2017-10-28 09:49:54