Title: Joyful Faith - Matthew 7:12
Contents
August 25, 2002 (Sun) 11:00 am Cheonan Salim Church
Title: Joyful Faith
Text: Matthew 7:12
Psychologists have found that a very high percentage of churchgoers have OCD. I don't know what kind of grace it is, but it's a fact that is hard to deny. The problem, however, is that the percentage has not risen because people with OCD go to church to be freed from it. Conversely, the problem is that the church life and church teachings are reinforcing the obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Why? We Christians are believers in the freedom of the gospel. But why are so many churchgoers obsessive-compulsive rather than free?
First of all, there is a problem with the teaching of the church. This is because, rather than teaching the freedom of one person and one soul, the sense of belonging as a member of the church is emphasized first, and the framework and order of the church are emphasized. Of course, that method is not exactly the way the world sees it. For example, it is not a form of threatening to 'you have to taste the bitterness of the organization'. It emphasizes belonging in a different way than that. It emphasizes the virtue of obedience. To emphasize that obedience, emphasize the fact that all human beings are sinners. The theology from there is the theology of the history of redemption. 'All human beings are sinners. Therefore, there is no way for man to be saved on his own, but only by the grace of God.' This is the gist of the theology of redemption history.
Of course, as we shared in last week's sermon, there is a reality that humans are inevitably falling into the situation of a sinner. Therefore, the traditional theology of the history of redemption is not at all worthless. It serves to humbly look at the human place. However, human life, and furthermore, faith is not the only dimension. God created the world and said 'it was good to see'. This theology of creation reminds us that human beings are beautiful before they are sinners. The problem with the theology of redemption history is that it puts aside that fact and emphasizes only the dark side of man. And the problem is that they use it as a bondage to bind humans. Therefore, people are always obsessed with guilt and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Of course, the church also teaches joy. But even here there is a problem. Although 'God's grace' is added to the end of every word, considering the value praised in most churches and the reason for joy, it is practically no different from the joy of the world. If business is going well, going to a good school, and having peace in your home, why not be happy? I am also happy to share this message today, so I always hope that everything goes well for all of our alumni. The problem, however, is that those conditions of joy do not at all question the value of a world that follows the principle of competition.
Faith is the exaltation of the principles of the world as they are, despite having to have a different dimension. I think that success is a sign of becoming a Christian, a sign of receiving God's blessing. Therefore, even within the church, they compete to receive blessings. And if you don't, you're afraid you'll be branded as a person of faith. But in reality, worldly success is not something that everyone can achieve at any one time. So, people have no choice but to continue to have obsessive compulsive disorder even after attending church. It's like carrying the heavy burden of the world as it is. It would be nice to come with a heavy load and confide in the church, but there are many cases where you carry another burden on top of that.
Even if you don't exist in the world, even if you fail, even if you are frustrated, when you come to church, you should be able to enjoy joy for another reason. Everyone knows success as joy. However, a true Christian is only a person who can be comforted by failure and can experience joy by having an open heart. I should be able to find joy in being with others, not in the fact that I have beaten everyone.
Today's words, which were meant to start lightly and not heavy, became heavier again after saying 'Inje (Lee In-je) can't give you a habit'. So I look back at myself again to see if I am always instilling obsessive-compulsive disorder in you. I am actually a good person, but when I stand on this pulpit, I feel sorry for the person who emphasizes only solemn faith.
The point is to have a faith that is free with joy, not a faith tied to an obsessive compulsive disorder. It is not that I come to church out of a sense of duty, but I want to be able to come out of it with joy.
Take a look at your life and your religious life. What is your reason for living as a Christian now? There will be questions about the profound dimension of salvation, and questions about ultimate truth. However, looking back, the enjoyable church life will play an important role in being able to ask that question meaningfully. There must have been pain at church, but those good memories have led you to where you are today. We want to build such a community of faith.
The younger generation these days is saying, 'Fun rather than meaning!' It doesn't mean you're just looking for fun. It is to lead a meaningful and enjoyable life of faith. It is to enjoy the faith of joy, the faith of the festival, which God said was really good.
Another psychologist (William Eckardt) says: It is said that the human personality goes through three stages. The first stage is called the obsessive-compulsive stage, the second stage of adaptation, and the third stage of compassion. The obsessive-compulsive stage refers to the stage where only the self knows. When my needs are not met, I feel anxious and dissatisfied. It is a state where I always want to be compensated for something I lack. The reason the church promotes obsessive-compulsive disorder is that people have to be tied up in such an infantile state so they don't leave. And faith teaches as if all that compensates for it. The stage of conformity refers to the stage of normal personality. This is the so-called stage of individual socialization. This is the stage of acquiring the social order and norms represented by the father. Lastly, the stage of mercy is the stage where I can think of you and myself, and my will can be shared with everyone. To put it more grandly, my will is the stage in which my will is in line with God's will. That is the level of faith.
If we make this absolute again and understand it, there may be a situation where we compete to reach a higher level. And I don't know how to climb that ladder. But it doesn't have to be climbed like some kind of ladder ride. We just need to discover another aspect of our lives. If you were only looking forward, you would look back, and if you were only looking to the right, you would look to the left.
The words of Jesus in today's text enlighten us. This is known as the 'golden rule' of the Bible. Please do not be deceived by this nickname, but it does have its own significance. When we say that this text is the golden rule of the Bible, it means that the Bible can be summed up in one word. It means that it is the word that best expresses the spirit of the Bible. "Therefore, in whatever way you would like others to do to you, do also to them. This is the original meaning of the Law and the Prophets."
To tell others to do the same to others as much as I want them to be like a lesson in life skills. But these words mean more than that. This, in a word, is the fact that we are all interconnected. It says that concern for neighbor and concern for others is not the same as sympathy for a person who can afford it, but that is the concern for oneself. Conversely, it refers to a relationship in which interest in oneself is directly related to interest in others.
In a way, I wonder if it is even possible. Maybe I am forcing my standards on others. It seems that it is not completely self-interested to limit myself to others as much as I want. If you always try to satisfy your own standards, thinking, 'If I do this much, I'll do it as much as the other side', and it would certainly be negligible.
However, this verse refers to the fact that 'the other person wants as much as I want'. In other words, the standard is in the other person rather than me. No, more fundamentally, it is thinking about everyone's standards, not just your own standards or the standards of others. Jesus' words that this is the true meaning of the Bible are significant. It is because it is based on a fundamental trust in human beings. Without faith in humans, this 'golden rule' cannot be established as the golden rule. When you say, 'Each person's greed must be limitless, how in the world can we satisfy everyone?' This saying becomes really empty.
Ladies and gentlemen, the most important pillar of the theory of evolution we have learned is the principle of 'survival of the fittest'. It is the principle that only the strong survive. The theory of social evolution is the application of that principle to human society as it is. But is it true? Scientists these days say that there is not only the principle of competition, that is, the principle of survival of the fittest, in the evolution of life. The principle of cooperation and symbiosis is, rather, much more important in the phenomenon of life. It is the principle of symbiosis that can explain the existence of small creatures that are insignificant to humans. Since the principle of symbiosis is being destroyed these days, isn't it a crisis of the ecosystem?
It is said that human society is different from the phenomena of life in nature, but there is no difference in its fundamentals. Last week I talked about 'moral man and immoral society', but the fundamental principle of living is not qualitatively different. In the end, the saying, ?쏷reat others the way you would like them to be treated you too??is in line with the words that God created the heavens and the earth and said, 'It was good to see'. It is a word that is possible from the nobleness of all life on this earth, and the total trust in humans.
Simply put, even if God is good, good will cannot be realized if human beings who follow his will are evil. The consciousness that 'only us are good and you are evil' creates a trap. Even though the spirit of the Law and the Prophets is based on trust in man, it is the very misuse of the Law by those who think they have monopolized the good because of their very distorted consciousness.
Our faith must be rebuilt in the restoration of the belief in humanity that the dominant Christianity and the Church have oppressed and excluded.
Faith is not an obsession, it is true joy and freedom. I pray that it will be me, you, and this church who will restore that faith.*