Title: There is Jesus.
<There> Jesus is there.
Luke 15:1-2
*This is the original text of the sermon on Sunday, April 1, 2007.
Are you uploading early today?
I spent a lot of time at home because of a cold.
This is because the vibration of spiritual training is still continuing.
Reading book review at the publication commemoration service of the Public Relations and Publishing Bureau on March 29
That is why there was a lot of reading and prayer.
I look forward to the morning of 'April Fool's Day' when I meet the alumni and I long for it.
In 1972, there was a film called <Two Sons Crying at Mother> directed by Il-soo Lee. Kim Ji-mi, Jang Dong-hwi, Kim Hee-ra, and Lee Soon-jae will appear, and the contents are as follows.
Yoon-ok, who was raising a half-child and her own child Du-ho in accordance with the wishes of her deceased husband, is in poverty and wants to raise Doo-ho in an orphanage, but when the state is exhausted from poverty and falls ill, Yun-ok goes insane. After spending three years in a psychiatric hospital, Yoon Ok finds his condition, but it was after he had already been adopted into another house.
After 20 years of hardship, Yoon-ok meets Du-ho, who has become the president after inheriting the property of his adoptive parents and a worker at a construction site. Provide and end a blue many life. The two sons shed tears of regret as they understand their mother's heart.
What would have happened if this movie had not been for the triangular composition of mother, state, and duho? Was it fun? Could the story in the movie be continued? That's right. The love triangle between the poor little son, the rich eldest son, and the mother continues the movie. People hold their breath and enjoy the tension that people in the triangle create.
It is said that the triangle is the most stable among the figures. When I draw, I draw in a triangular composition. Similarly, in human relationships, the triangle is not only the most stable but also the basic relationship. For example, families are more stable when they have children and form a triangle than when there are only a couple. A child can grow up in the healthiest way in a triangle that is loved by both father and mother at the same time.
The most common appearance in TV dramas is a love triangle. It is a story of a woman having a conflict between a rich man and a poor man, or a married man accidentally meeting an old man and conflicting between him and his wife. Even though they know it's an obvious story, the viewer becomes interested in the love triangle and gets sucked into the story.
If there were only Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there would be no history. It was only with the appearance of the serpent that a love triangle was formed, and the serpent's temptation caused a conflict between Adam and Eve as to whether or not they should disobey God's command. They fell into the temptation of the serpent and were cast out of paradise, so the first love triangle that people formed was a tragic one. It can be said that all kinds of human tragedies began with being kicked out of paradise, but at the same time, human history can be said to have begun from there. So the triangle could be said to be the beginning of history. Many of the exciting stories in the Bible have a triangle as their basic structure.
Abraham-Sarah-Hagar
Isaac-Jacob-in
Jacob-Rachel-Leah
Samuel-Saul-David
Saul-David-Jonathan
David - Bathsheba - Uriah
Pharisees - sinners and tax collectors - Jesus
Jesus - The woman who broke the alabaster - The disciples
The man who was robbed - the priest and the Levite - the good Samaritan
Martha - Mary - Jesus
18-year-old sick man-Jesus heals on the Sabbath-The synagogue leader accuses him
The rich - the debtors - the unjust stewards
Rich man - beggar Lazarus - Abraham
Zacchaeus - Those who condemn Zacchaeus - Jesus
Woman caught in adultery - scribes and Pharisees - Jesus
However, we often make the mistake of cutting off one side of this triangle without understanding it properly and viewing it as a relationship between the two of us. Thus, the triangle disappears, leaving a linear relationship between the two of them or an individual alone. Then, the salvation event that the Bible is talking about disappears, and only personal ethics and the meaning of salvation remain.
The most basic relationship at the bottom of the New Testament is also the triangle. No, it makes sense to say that it is a triangular composition. Because the word <triangle> keeps us substituting the ethics of <immorality>. What kind of triangle is the Bible made up of?
Pharisees
tax collectors and sinners
Jesus
These are the main characters of the triangular composition.
When tax collectors and sinners came to Jesus, Jesus welcomed them and ate with them. Over this, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being associated with a sinner. But Jesus rebukes the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and restores the rights of tax collectors and sinners. In this relationship, all three points are important: the tax collector, the sinner, the Pharisee, and Jesus. If you leave out one of them, the shape or triangle is broken. It is in this relationship that it becomes clear what Jesus did. When the point of the Pharisees is clearly highlighted, the love story between Jesus, who is not shaken at all in the midst of such accusations, and the ?쐔ax collectors and sinners??will be clearly revealed.
The problem is that they consider the Pharisees as bad people and unsaved legalists and leave them out of the discussion. It cuts out a point from the triangle composition. What remains is the linear relationship between the ?쁲inner and the publican??and Jesus. And we substitute ?쁈??in the place of sinners and tax collectors, and the glorified Christ in the place of Jesus. Then, the ?쁢vent??of love originally contained in the triangle will disappear, leaving only the ?쁬eaning??of the atonement theory. It means that the reality of life disappears and only theories arise.
Now, let's move on to the text we read today with these eyes.
The basic frame of the ?쁯arable of the lost son??(Luke 15:11-32), known to us as ?쁳he parable of the prodigal son,??is also a very clear triangle. The first son who works diligently and diligently - the second son who squandered his fortune and returned as a beggar - the father who welcomes the second son without reproaching him makes up the three cornerstones, right? People often try to ignore this obvious triangle, because God first puts God in the place of the father, and then an arbitrary person in the place of the two sons. After replacing God in the father's place, the triangle disappears and only two straight relationships remain. One is the ?쁣irst son-father??relationship, and the other is the ?쁲econd son-father??relationship. Among these, only the latter, that is, the relationship between the prodigal son who repents of his sins and God who generously forgives him, stands out more than the former. If you do that, the triangle structure will not stand out, and at the same time, the event you are trying to tell in this parable will disappear, leaving only a personal lesson, which is repentance.
(The representative person who made this interpretation is Tertullian, the early church father)
Today, let's split up the three roles in this passage.
There is a first son station, a second son station, and a father station. Now, which role would you like to play? Do you want to take on the role of the second son in your heart? It's a familiar station where I've been substituted for a lot of myself. Somebody might want to take on the role of the eldest son. Still, he is a faithful eldest son. The question is whether there is anyone willing to take on the role of the father. Someone will leave it to you, but for some reason you may feel that it is not your role. Because we always thought that the role was given to us by God.
However, the point of this role play is in this third station. Because when we take on a role that we haven't taken on before, a role that we don't think is ours, we can capture the heart of this parable that we've been missing.
The eldest son who works diligently and humbly for a guaranteed future within his vested interests, but changes his face and becomes angry when the guaranteed future is threatened even in the slightest, is how we live today. .
The second son, who insisted on his share and ventured into business to overcome the seemingly unfavorable circumstances, failed and frustrated and returned to his parents for help, may also be our view today.
The problem is that he welcomes his son who has returned unsuccessfully and wounded like that without any conditions, and embraces the older son who blushes and protests, saying 'Mine is all yours, so what? It is the image of a father who does not reject one side but embraces them all to form a beautiful triangle. Could that also be us?
Is it not the way we are today that we take on the roles of the first son or the second son well, but consider the father's role as irrelevant to us or entrusting it to God? That is the problem in the life we live today. The thing is that no one lives this role. There is one thing missing from the family, society, and church. There is an eldest son and a second son, but there is no one who takes the role of father. So there are only fights and quarrels. There is no reconciliation of love and a harmonious family through it. People's lives are constantly being divided and falling apart. This is because there are only lines and points and no shapes. Because no one wants to take on the father role.
When we immerse ourselves in these three roles and do well, we will be able to reveal the love events that take place throughout the play. The love event coincides with the love event that took place in the love triangle between the Pharisees and the scribes - tax collectors and sinners - beyond the time span of 2000 years.
The story of Jesus today is that one of the two sons is right and the other is not. We must overcome the mistake of pursuing only the horizontal 'ethical meaning' or the vertical 'religious meaning' while ignoring the triangular composition of real people who struggle with life's problems and the love events that occur in it. We must be able to continue the event of love that Jesus originally intended to say and put into practice in our lives as it is.
In the love triangle formed by the Pharisees and the scribes - publicans and sinners - Jesus did not leave his role to God. He took up the cross because he was faithful to his role. He did his job well to the end, and he tells us to ?쁣ollow me. Our follow-up to him is above all in doing well in the role that has been assigned to us. Sometimes even if it's the father's role. Even the role of the second son should not be criticized and cut off. Even the eldest son of a bear should not be ignored.
The confrontation, conflict, and hatred that occur in a one-to-one linear relationship at home, at church, and at work do not cease. Because there are a lot of people who want to take on the role of first son or second son, but few want to take on the role of father. So it is difficult to live in the world. But even in this world, there are times when the world still feels worth living. It's time to meet someone who gets stuck like licorice in a drugstore in every corner of this world where there is only linear confrontation, makes straight lines into triangles, warms people up, and creates stories. It is time to meet such a person, talk together, walk together, and make an appointment to see each other again. He may not necessarily have a lot, learn a lot, or be good-looking. Such a person brightens the world just by being alive, and when such a person dies, the whole world seems to be darkened and even desolate.
Jesus is such a person. Those who follow Jesus are such people. And, reading this parable, rather than offering a prayer of repentance, it must be the person who rises up with the heart of the Father's fervent love.
Seongam Church is such a church.
The members of Seongam Church are such people.
Those who are willing to assume the role of father, those who do not criticize the second son, and those who do not ignore the first son are the members of Seongam Church.
Because Jesus is there.