Title: The Body of God
Sunday, December 21, 2008 Sermon
Bible Verse: Job 1:21
Sermon Title: The Body of God
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord took away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (KJV) / “I was born empty-handed in my mother’s womb; Even when I die, I will return empty-handed. The Lord gave, and the Lord took away; we only praise Your name” (Job 1:21).
<The Bible Story>
Today's Bible verse is the great message that Job confessed after being tempted for the first time. God accepts Satan's offer and puts Job's faith to the test. The first test kills Job's servants, sheep and camels, and at the same time Job's houses are burned and destroyed. At this time, Job's confession is today's Bible verse. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Even when I die, I will return empty-handed. The Lord gave, and the Lord took away; we only praise Your name” (Job 1:21).
And Job shows the amazing world of faith that holds this great confession to the end. In fact, today's Bible verse can be said to be all of the message of the book of Job, and it is the core message of the entire Bible.
However, I would like to pay attention to the phrase ‘naked’ (赤身, naked, empty-handed) in today’s Bible verse. I am trying to imagine spiritually about ‘red body’. Because the moment I read this verse, I was able to feel the message of deeper and higher spirituality through that 'soaked' story.
<The Wet Story>
The word ‘naked’ (赤身) is a Chinese word for ‘naked’ or ‘bare’. Red body, that is, when a child is born, the color is red. In other words, ‘sons and daughters of the earth’ born with the red light of the soil, which is colored with ocher, are buried in their bodies, and that is ‘red body’. For this reason, I think the expression ‘naked’ (赤身) is better than the expression ‘naked’ or ‘empty-handed’.
How did humans come into the world? It came with a red body. It has brought the red color of the earth. That is, they came from the red land and returned to the red land. That's life. But the important thing is that the world of that earth is the world of God. To borrow the words of spiritual theologian Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), “this earth is the body of God”. In other words, the earth is God.
When we talk about faith, we often say that “they come from the bosom of God and return to the bosom of God” (Apostle Paul, Augustine), but the bosom of God is the ‘earth’. It's a very specific message. Not empty, not metaphysical. That ocher-colored land is the body of God, we came from that land, and we are returning to that land, which is the message that the land is God's bosom.
<The Story of the Land>
But what kind of image do we think of the earth? Are we at peace with the earth as God's bosom? It's not like that. We think of the ground as 'cold', and we think of the ground as 'stuffy'. I don't think it's warm like a mother's arms Why? This is because modern humans who have left nature (the world of the earth) and built civilization (the world of cities) have struggled to forget the world of their hometown. The world of that red land is our hometown, and we have been trying to forget the world of our hometown. lost and erased. Really stupid... .
However, the message of the earth that spiritualists are awakening is not like that. The meaning of the land that spiritualists speak of is, in one word, ‘the land as the bosom of God’. The reason we pay attention to the spirit of today's spiritualists is because they contain the 'truth of the earth' that we have lost. Personally, I am interested in Indian philosophy and Celtic spirituality because, in their opinion, the 'mysteries of the earth' that we modern people have lost are still alive. What do the Indians and Celts think of 'the meaning of land'?
Is the land a tool that sustains human life as we modern people think today? It's not like that. The meaning of the land they think of is ‘the land as the mother of man’. It is the land as the mother who gave birth to humans, and the land as the hometown to which we should return. So it is holy and divine, beautiful and happy.
However, we modern humans have lost the truth of the land. I'm really sorry.
<The Story of Modern Civilization>
After swept away from the natural world, modern human beings are proud to build an urban world on that land. The dream of modern mankind is “to live as long as possible in the city”. This is the type of program called 'Dream of Extending Life' that is often aired on TV.
Modern humans value civilization. I try to stay in the urban world as much as possible. I try to stay as much as possible in the world of consciousness, that is, in a world where thoughts are wriggling and will is alive. So, if you lose consciousness (dementia) or you don't know how to use your body, mind, and thoughts properly (when you get old), I think big things will happen. But you have to think carefully.
Were we conscious when we came into this world naked? There wasn't. Also, when we came to this world as naked bodies, did we properly set our bodies, minds and thoughts? It wasn't. We came from the world of the unconscious, where there is no consciousness, and it is a very natural journey to return to the world of the unconscious, and the world of the unconscious is the world of God.
<End of sermon>
Now let's wrap up the sermon. I took the title of today's sermon 'The Body of God'.
It is now winter in full swing. It is a lonely season when all the leaves have already fallen off long ago, and only bare branches are fluttering in the wind. Winter is the season, and so is the season of each of us. Just as a winter tree has lost its leaves, so our life may have dropped many abundant leaves. Some may have dropped the leaf of 'health', some may have dropped the leaf of 'consciousness', some may have dropped the leaf of 'honor', and some may have dropped the leaf of 'wealth'. There is.
But that's ok. It's really ok. Because what we have lost is but a leaf, and our roots are still firmly established in this earth, the Body of God. And it's okay if our lives are uprooted and become a dead tree. For we will still live and die forever and ever, but we will remain in the body of God.
Let me pray for a moment.