Title: Heaven, Earth, and the Holy Spirit
“Heaven, Earth, and the Holy Spirit”
[Isaiah 32:15-18]
“Only man can save himself. Not by humans locked up in mammon, but by humans who feel, receive, and have the Spirit of God.”
God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning and said it was good. Why is Heaven and Earth doing such a bad thing? I feel dignified. Could it be that the Creator has a problem? Wasn't it the Creator's fault? We must answer these questions. But the Bible does not have a clear answer to that. Because the Bible says that these calamities also come from God. So, is God both scary and evil?
The book of Job in a corner of the Bible puts a brake on this mainstream idea. In today's terms, the earthquake and tsunami caused Job to lose not only all his possessions, but also all his loved ones. Job's friends said that these disasters were due to Job's past mistakes and would not have happened without them. Job insisted that God was not the one who would bring calamity through cause and effect, and God accepted Job's claim as well.
So, where do these natural disasters come from? We're going to give a vague answer to this. He said that just as God gave us human autonomy, so God has given autonomy to the creatures of heaven and earth.
But rather than in the Bible, we can find the answer to the problem of evil in natural disasters in Lao-tzu's Tao Sutra. I often feel that the Bible alone is insufficient to solve today's problems, and for this reason, I believe that dialogue with other religious traditions and an intertextual (multiple texts) approach are necessary. Lao-tzu used the term “天地不仁” in his Tao-Tai Sutra. The meaning of Cheonji, Buddha is that, if interpreted literally, nature is neither kind nor kind. This means that heaven and earth, or this natural world, are moved by a principle that goes beyond human value judgment. What could be wrong with a lion eating a lamb? However, this is the very principle of the creation of heaven and earth.
Nature is not kind to humans, but those who are prepared will be able to avoid the harm of rough nature to some extent. But we again realize our human weakness in that we are not perfectly prepared for it. Therefore, in our weakness and limitations, we must live peacefully and wisely with nature, not against nature.
Today I would like to tell you about my daily life. Last week, Brother Il-Young Lee explained about the historical tombs and relics he met while taking a walk at the national cemetery near his house, and told me about the history and beliefs involved in it. I would like to tell you about the Anyangcheon Stream, which I often use by bicycle, and the Daerim Stream, which runs from Mok-dong to Bongcheon-dong.
It's been over two years since I've ridden a bike. I rode my bike as much as possible even in winter. I usually ride a bicycle to the elderly care hospital in Bongcheon-dong. Of course, I don't ride my bike on snowy days. It's slippery and dangerous. It doesn't work well even on rainy days. spring