Title: God of the Empty / 2004.10.31
Content 28:10-19, 1 Peter 4:11
Today, on Church Reformation Anniversary Sunday, we are going to receive grace again through the story of Jacob.
Jacob received a blessing from his father that only the eldest son could receive, but he escapes from his brother who promises revenge. Trembling with fear, I hurriedly set out on an unfamiliar road and arrived at a place to meet the first night. In an empty field, with nowhere to turn, you curl up and fall asleep on a cold stone pillow and covered with fallen leaves. That loneliness, that anxiety, that fear, and that emptiness could not have been put into words. Jacob lay alone in an empty field and fell asleep. Then God came to him. When I looked up, I saw a large ladder coming down from heaven, with God above me, and an amazing sight of angels going up and down the ladder. God speaks to Jacob.
I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham,
the God of Isaac.
I will give to you and to your descendants the land on which you lie...
I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you.
Genesis 28:13-15
After this mysterious dream, Jacob got up and confessed:
Surely the LORD is here, and I did not know.
...I am afraid here, nothing else,
This is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 28:16-17
Why is Jacob so surprised? It's a surprise to meet God in Vienna. It is a surprise that God exists in this empty field where there is nothing, just a land of wild beasts and insects. I thought that God only existed in some place with something solemn, splendid, and with great decorations, but I am amazed that I met God in these empty places. In other words, they thought that there is a separate place for God to exist.
You can see us in this Jacob's face. Most of us have the belief that God can only be found in a place where there is some splendid decoration, a solemn atmosphere, and a well-crafted praise ring. Do you not think that God cannot be found in that worldly city where we live, where there is only fierce worldly competition and battles in the past?
That was Jacob's idea. I thought that God would only be in the place where the father Isaac was, where there was a well-made altar, and that altar was set apart so that others could not touch it. So when he came back from his father's house, he thought he was turning away from God. So he thought he was alone. From now on, I thought that I had to fight alone with the harsh sepa in this harsh world, and I had to face the cold wind of the world that was terrifyingly blowing. However, they are amazed at the fact that God exists in those voids and voids.
Sometimes we, too, implicitly live in such thoughts. God is holy and the church is also holy, so we have the belief that we have to go to church to meet God. It is a gracious faith. good idea. That's what our faith should be. However, this kind of thinking can create a narrow faith that seeks to meet God only in the church. God is everywhere. Rather, he is someone we should meet in our workplaces, in our homes, and in our lives. God does not only exist in holy places, but the place where God is is made holy.
Today is the 487th anniversary of the Church Reformation. If the idea before the church reform was to allow people to meet God only in the church, the reform has changed to the belief that anyone can meet God everywhere. There were four mottos of church reform. By the Bible alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, the universal priesthood
The Bible Only: The Protestant tradition of faith is based solely on the Bible. No matter how angelic you are, words that are not in the Bible cannot be the object of your faith. No word in the world can be the goal of life except the Bible.
At the time of the Reformation, the Church argued that it was the papal inerrancy. This was that the Pope's words could never be erroneous, and therefore the Pope's words had the same authority as the Bible. But the Reformers did not follow this argument. Since no one is a sinner more than a human being, makes mistakes, and can go wrong, the absolute authority has come to be placed only on the Bible.
The Bible alone is the goal and standard of our faith. No knowledge, no authority, no miracle or mystical experience, no great person can be a sign of faith. Only the Word is the standard, the goal.
Faith alone: Salvation is by faith alone. No matter how much people do good deeds or penance to pay the price for their sins, their sins are not washed away. The forgiveness of sins and salvation comes only through faith in the grace of Jesus Christ on the cross.
This particularly clearly pointed out the error of the church at that time by making and selling the right of atonement. To receive the forgiveness of sins by paying money is an insult to God's grace and the cross of Jesus Christ, and it is satanic. The salvation of the soul comes through faith and does not require any price or works. If there is any human action, it will already have been made for human merit. But salvation is the absolute grace of God given only through faith.
Only grace: It is said that only God can give the grace of forgiveness of sins. No one can forgive human sins. Only God can forgive sins. So it is only by grace that we can be saved.
All priesthood: This refers to the fact that anyone can go directly to God, hear the word, receive grace, and be saved. Just as everyone is judged for their own sins, it means that everyone is saved through their own faith. Everyone goes to God directly, prays directly to God, receives direct forgiveness of sins, and everyone directly receives God's grace.
There is no separate holy person and there is no separate holy place. Anyone who has faith becomes a holy being, and the place where we meet God becomes a holy place. Only the church is holy, and my workplace or home is not a profane place. If you live with a holy heart, that place is a holy place, and if you do it with faith, that work becomes a holy work. This is our Protestant view of faith and profession.
That is why, wherever I go, whatever I do, I believe in what God has entrusted to me, and I do it with loyalty and the best of heart as if I was doing God's work. This is where the belief of 'calling' was born. It is my belief that God has called me to do this. Therefore, even though this work is not the work of the church, it is a work entrusted to me by God, and the belief that my devotion to do my best for this work is the same as being faithful to God is the faith of my calling.
If anyone speaks, let them speak as if they were speaking the word of God.
If anyone wants to serve, do it with the power that God supplies.
in all things through Jesus Christ
that God may be glorified
To him is glory and power forever and ever. Amen
1 Peter 4:11
Therefore, everyone, wherever you are, no matter what you do, even if it is not church work, even if it is not directly related to faith, I hope that you will become believers who believe that God has entrusted you to me and always do your best with a heart of faith. I hope you have faith that God has sent me to do this. That is the sense of vocation. That is the Christian view of work.
It is here that we meet with today's text. We meet again with the surprise of Jacob, who knew that God only existed in the place where his father Isaac had built an altar. My workplace, the field of my life, and the field of life, where the struggle for survival is sparked, is not a place where only the principle of savagery is rife, and it is not a barren wasteland where wild beasts roam. You come to realize the amazing fact that it is the temple of God where sacrifices are to be made.
Those who actually met God met God more in their place of life and work than in the holy temple. The disciples met Jesus on the way to Emmaus and the Resurrection Lord at a fishing beach. Moses met God in a shepherd field. Gideon met God at the threshing floor. It is meeting God in the empty fields. It is meeting God in the place of life.
The angels who testified of the resurrection of Jesus said to the disciples. 'He has risen from the dead, and he is going before you into Galilee, and there you will see him', said Jesus himself. 'Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there you will see me.' Where is Galilee? It is the disciples' workplace and the field of life. Jerusalem is home to the temple, a great religious center. However, the risen Lord did not promise to meet with the disciples there, but in Galilee, their workplace.
This has the same meaning not only spatially but also temporally. We do not meet God only in times of joy, joy, and happiness, but also in places of sorrow, pain, pain, failure and discouragement, and the Lord is with us. Those are the bins. The beans of our life, the beans that are the field of our lives. There is no other place, but Bethel--God's house.
Even if there is no great building, no beautiful praise, no splendid decorations, God is in those empty spaces. God exists in every field of life. That is the house of God, Bethel. It is because those bins are the place where God is with us.
Just as Jacob saw the ladder of God's presence in the empty fields, I hope you, saints, see God's ladder in your empty fields, the field of your life, and the fierce field of work. I believe that God sent me there, and I hope that I will always do my best. Because that place is not really empty, but God's temple--Bethel. Please believe that you are not alone even when you stand in the cold and hard time of lying in the empty empty of pain, sorrow, and failure and cutting stone pillows from time to time. Please believe that it is not just an empty place, but Bethel where God's ladder is located. Please do not forget that the hand of God's grace is right there.
Today, on Church Reformation Anniversary Sunday, we shared the word while looking for the meaning of 'everyone priesthood' through the story of Jacob. A holy place, a separate place, where we worship God, hear the word, and pray. It must be so. But God is not limited to being in a specific place. You are in the field of our lives. You are in the workplace where we can hear our rough breathing. He is with us in the place of pain, failure, and pain. He is the God in the empty fields.
God in the empty fields, I pray that you will meet that God in the field of your daily life, hear His voice, and live a life that glorifies God.