Title: The road to a just society
The road to a just society
[When you see the enemy's ox or donkey wandering astray, you must return it to its owner. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you collapsed under a load, do not leave it alone, but you must help the owner raise the donkey. You must not judge a poor man against him because it is a litigation. Defeat false accusations. The innocent and the righteous must not be killed. Because I do not justify the wicked. You must not accept bribes. Bribery blinds people and distorts the words of the righteous. You must not oppress the stranger who clings to you. You, too, have lived as strangers in the land of Egypt, so you will know the plight of a stranger.]
reflection of the year
May the grace and love of the Lord be with you in your life. Today is the last Sunday of the longest season of Pentecost in church terms. From next Sunday, the season of waiting for the Lord begins. According to the church calendar, today is the last Sunday of the year. It reminds me of the hearts of the ancient Israelites who built the stone monuments of Ebenezer saying that the Lord had helped us up to this point. How ripe have you been while living in the power of the Holy Spirit? The leaves of the cherry trees in front of our house, which were proud of their brilliant colors until a few days ago, have all fallen at some point, and only bare branches are enduring the cold wind. Seeing such a scene, the old people said that it was Cheoreum-geum-pung. When the winter wind blows and the leaves fall, the true nature of the tree is revealed. When we worship, we must take off all false clothes and stand before God by our very existence.
Looking back, the road I walked on was dizzy. As an excuse for being busy, we didn't do what we were supposed to do. I couldn't do my best to follow God's will. We have come this far, being driven by the daily events that drive us without a break. The Lord has called us to be neighbors to those who need help right now, but we often overlooked our neighbors. He confessed that Jesus was the way, but he refused to walk that way. Although we confess that we are the Lord Jesus, who showed us the example of forgiveness, reconciliation, and love, we often do not tolerate even the smallest differences. These days, the lyrics of a gospel hymn that I've forgotten for a while keep coming back to my mouth. “My lips look like the Lord/My heart is still ugly, and I only count the love to be received/Jesus, help me” (<Sun in the day, like the moon at night>) .
Even now, we have to turn around and walk on that path. It is said that the farthest journey in the world is the journey from 'head' to 'heart'. The life of faith is the process of empathizing with the words that you have realized with your head and translating them with your hands and feet. Jesus wants us to be people who treat even our enemies with love. He also wants a world where all people coexist peacefully and harmonize. But we didn't get to that point. Sometimes I want to say that it is an impossible request in the first place. However, if that is impossible, then a peaceful life is an ungainly heart in the first place. However, the book of Exodus teaches us how to live as God's people in a relatively specific way. Even if you can't reach the goal of loving your enemies in one month, at least it will teach you how to enter that path.
the beginning of reconciliation
The text I've chosen today is so specific that it doesn't even need a separate explanation. The Bible presents a situation. A cow or a donkey is lost and wandering. If the beast belongs to someone we know well or someone close to us, we will quickly capture it and return it to its owner. The same is true for animals that have been crushed by burdens. Even if we don't know the owner well, we won't be able to overlook the pitiful sight. However, if the owner of the beast is the enemy, the story is different. Whether it's because of a tangled interest in the relationship, or the way of life is so different that they don't agree with each other, the misfortune of the enemy is not so bad. But the Bible is adamant. Even if it is an enemy, if you see an animal that is lost and wanders, you must return it to its owner.
If we understand the Bible literally, we seldom encounter such a difficult situation, so we can safely ignore this passage. However, this is only a concrete example to dictate a more general ethics. What we need to look at is not the ‘enemies’ beasts, who are lost or crushed under heavy burdens, but our hearts in dealing with such situations. When we see a person who arouses hostility toward us in trouble, we can honestly say, ‘It’s okay’ or ‘I’m suing’. However, the Bible says that this is not possible and that we must help them. In English, it is ‘must’. Why are you making such a difficult request? After all, what the Bible is saying is not to forget that although hostility has separated him and me, we are deeply interconnected. Helping an enemy in trouble is actually helping yourself. Because we can overcome the root of bitterness, that is, the evil tendency in us. Giving and receiving help eventually leads us to a greater path of reconciliation.
In 1954, Muzafer Sherif conducted a simulation to understand how group conflict and selfishness work. He selected 22 11-year-old white children. The children had never met. Mujafer randomly divided the children into two groups and took them separately to a summer camp in Oklahoma. The children did not know that there were other groups.
Team between the kids in the first week