Title: Faith on the Road
A closer look at the origins of early Christianity draws attention to the fact that it began on the road. Looking at the incident of the Pentecost, it seems that Christianity began in Mark's upper room, but before that, the gospel was already circulating on the road. First of all, Jesus' Kingdom movement was a movement that was constantly moving on the road. The theology of Jesus was also a theology on the road based on a wandering lifestyle. If you trace the missionary movement of the disciples who inherited his baton, you can see that they wandered from one village to another, and they also moved diligently on the road. Before the official name of ‘Christian’ and ‘Christianity’ came into existence, the identity of the followers of Jesus was thus defined by the expression ‘to hodos’, or ‘the way’ in Chinese characters.
The text we read today also clearly shows that the beginning of Christianity was accomplished by experiencing the faith in the resurrection on the road. One school of ancient philosophy was the School of Disturbing, and they discussed the truth through conversation while walking in turmoil rather than in a room. The tradition of disturbances and conversations along the way is interestingly shown in the lineage of Luke-Acts. In the case of the text as well, in Acts, Deacon Philip shared the truth of the gospel while talking on the road with the eunuch going down to Egypt is an example of the same pattern. The text is the later story of the resurrection of Jesus found only in Luke's Gospel among the Synoptic Gospels. In technical terms, this can be called an 'etiological legend'. If you take a close look at this text, you can open the compressed file to see how and through what path Christianity was created in the first place.
There are two main characters in the text. Globara is a blind disciple and another anonymous disciple. They witnessed a terrible crucifixion in Jerusalem. I also heard the news of the resurrection from the women. It was unbelievable and I was on my way home disappointed. Then I met the resurrected Jesus on the road. As they walked and talked, they finally identified the resurrected Jesus. As they ate with Jesus, their eyes opened dramatically. There are several perspectives to interpret this story. Is it some sort of observation point?
The first is the perspective of their religious change from the perspective of the disciples. The change is the experience of opening your eyes from the blindfolded state. From this point of view, this story becomes a story of enlightenment. It is a story of religious awakening. At that time, the eye is not a medical concept as a body organ, but a concept of perception. The disciples have, for example, achieved a 'transformation of perception'.
Second, from the standpoint of Jesus, there is a point of view that emphasizes the change in Jesus' status. In this story, Jesus transforms from the national leader of the prophet who will redeem Israel to the Christ who suffered the cross and gained the glory of resurrection. From this point of view, the story is an episode about a shift in Christology. Here Jesus undergoes a ‘transformation of being’.
Third, there can be a view that it is a way of all that change. In that way, the method of retrospective and dialogue is first submitted. The two disciples remind Jesus of the recent crucifixion. “He was a prophet mighty in word and deed before all the people, and our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him” (24:19-20). At the same time, a method of criticism, interpretation, and explanation is introduced, where Jesus rebukes his ignorant disciples and explains in detail the meaning derived from it while deciphering and interpreting the meaning of the Bible. Another method emerges: the act of breaking bread together, suggesting that the sacramental act of the Lord's Supper was an important basis for the institutional formation of Christianity.
Fourth, the fact that all of this, the retrospective and dialogue, critique and interpretation and explanation, the act of eating, and the resulting open eyes and theological transformation, was consistently carried out along the way provides another interesting insight. And, it is interesting that as soon as the situation of that realization was over, Jesus disappeared like the wind. After that, the testimonies of the disciples follow, which may give us a sense of disappointment. It's a pity that Jesus would have liked to spend more time with his disciples... However, if we keep in mind the common common sense that when one road ends, another begins, the disappearance of Jesus is a natural consequence. This is because subjective faith is possible for the disciples.
Not only the two disciples on their way to the village of Emmaus, but we are also filled with the mood of going on a new road today. After the 4.15 general election, there are signs of a change in the political mood of this country and this society. The public is showing interest in the election results with cautious anticipation that something new will happen. We, too, have the resurrection faith and are inflated with the desire to start over again by maximizing our vitality. So isn't that normal? It must be nothing less than the fact that we, our lives, are beings on a road where the flow of life flows along time, space, and a certain pattern, and in pursuit of the road of adventure. So, as in the case of Jesus and his disciples, our theology is also a theology on the road, and our faith should also be a faith on the road that we can constantly start over.
Faith on the road opens a new horizon of life and creates a new path that does not exist, but it does not territorialize the path already taken. Rather, they deterritorialize their vested interests and achievements in life. Since I am at school, I mainly use my experiences at school as an object of religious reflection. One of the important experiences is that when a scholar is caught up in his own academic achievements and falls into the habit of tautology and crossbreeding, it becomes a deadly poison to the scholar's academic life. Because it is no different than being locked in a prison of your own making unless you dismantle your achievements, rob them and open a new path.
Thus, faith on the road is the discipline of constantly walking again, rather than building one's fortress and resting in its serene veil. It will be made possible by the faith that leads to enlightenment by recalling, talking, criticizing, reinterpreting, and explaining through memory. Faith on the road, as a result of that realization, is a faith of bold overthrow and self-challenge that can make a 180-degree U-turn and turn back just as the disciples on their way to Emmaus changed their way and headed to Jerusalem.
It's nice to be able to leave again. Some criticize the new complex, but if the new is not a break with tradition, but its critical succession and development, the struggle of dynamics to be renewed would be the privilege of all life.
On the day of the 4.15 general election, I voted early in the morning and moved. As I pondered last night, this was the 16th move in my life. After moving, I thought of Odysseus from Homer's epic. I thought of his review as he returned from a long and tumultuous journey. Eliade's beautiful sentence, "All roads are to home, is a copy of the way back home," came to mind at the same time. To this, I wanted to add to the saying that every house is the basis for the renewal of branches that open a new path and start anew with a new step. The theological meaning of Isa, which I derived through this contemplation, was the awareness that I was not a fixed, fixed object, but a moving creature and a being on the road.
Dynamic creatures on the road are always lively. Even if you eat rice, it is more delicious and memorable if you eat it on the road. When we were young, we went on a picnic, and we will never forget the profound taste of steamed eggs, cider, and gimbap that our mother wrapped us in. How philosophical is the taste of a bowl of ramen boiled on the road while hiking? A meal shared, not eaten alone, would be the simple savor of desires that were naturalized before the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. On that very road, our fake desires, drenched in fetishes, get an opportunity to reflect and become closer to the original desires in their natural state.
Dear brothers and sisters of Saegil Church! I want your faith to be a dynamic faith on the road, not a faith that is locked up in a room. I hope that it will become a faith that opens a new path even if it is rough and strait, rather than the old path, the path everyone goes, and the familiar and comfortable path. So, I sincerely hope that all the members of Saegil Church will live up to the name of Saegil Church. Perhaps, is there one among us, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, who fell into disappointment, discouragement, and helplessness? We pray that our eyes will be opened and we will join in the joy of enlightenment as we reflect on the resurrected Jesus and have conversations with him, exchanging well-meaning criticisms, interpretations, and detailed explanations, and sharing meals. So, I hope this season will be a vibrant one that awakens our dormant vitality.
Like last year, I arrived here about an hour before the service time and took a walk in the nearby Cheongdam Park. Last year, I happened to meet Brother Jin-kwan Kwon on the road and chatted happily, but this time I saw good neighbors instead. I met children with bright eyes. A middle-aged couple talking about religion on a playground bench also caught my attention. I was happy to gaze at the fresh green light, listen to the birdsong, and smell the scent of lilac. I am happy that the afterglow still remains. That happiness may be due to the breath of resurrection that comes from the metabolic movement that all life is trying to renew.
In this season of Resurrection, I pray that your hearts will remain on the path of renewing others by renewing themselves without the ease. I hope that your life force will be maximized and this society inspired by it will be filled with the season of resurrection. The lyrics of a song that accidentally crossed my ear this morning is “The street is singing. Dancing in the breeze and breathing.” Human streets can dance because of your vitality. Your resurrection faith, your faith on a pulsating road, can transform these dry, polluted human streets into dancing, pulsating breaths. We hope that you will join us in the field of history that creates the driving force for change. *