Title Areopago Spirituality
Last summer, in Athens, the Olympic medal competition was hotter than 38 degrees. These days, after the Olympic torch has been extinguished, Greeks who have performed great ambassadors, even if they are poor now, feel the cultural and artistic pride of their glorious ancestors in Sangam, Korea.
Like the stadium, you will be interested in the efficient management and use of the newly built stadiums. The Athens Olympic Festival, the origin of 100 years, had no terrorism and no major mishaps, but the sad news is that it is an Olympics that financially ended up in a fiscal deficit.
Throughout the Athens Games, propaganda posters were none other than the cultural relics of the Parthenon, which remained only pillars on the familiar Acropolis hill. With the remaining 17 stone pillars of the 17 rectangular cloned colonnade that supported the building on the three-tiered pedestal, the architectural beauty of the Parthenon, sculptural technique, symmetry, and spatial arrangement in harmony with the surrounding natural environment create a sense of religious dignity and aesthetic beauty. It was loved by people all over the world and was enough to attract tourists. If that is the case with today's ruined Parthenon cultural assets, much less, we can more than imagine the majesty of the Parthenon, which evoked magnificent and sacred emotions when the Apostle Paul preached the gospel of Christ in Athens.
The world has always been like that. People pay attention to outward achievements that appeal to the senses, and they tend to be insensitive to the eternal transcendent truth that is beyond the senses. This is because it is customary that people only pay attention to the high mountain peaks, but not the deep valleys that made the mountain peaks. The Parthenon symbolizes the 'religion of the eyes' that pleases the sensuous eye, but Paul's Areopagus represents the 'religion of the ears' that must listen to the truth and obey the truth.
[2] The truth of the gospel heard in the Areopagus
What are the three key points of Paul's homily in the Areopagus square?
First, it teaches where God is, that is, His presence. Paul said, “The God who created the universe and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not dwell in temples built with human hands” (Acts 17:24).
Think about it, just lift your eyes and see that splendid and majestic Parthenon, which Athenians feel sacred and proud of, standing in front of you, Paul is not intimidated, and the true God is in a man-made temple-like structure. I am sorry that you are not a resident. To put it more positively, since the outer space of heaven and earth has no place to contain God the Creator, to borrow the paradoxical expression of Da-seok Yoo, Young-mo, the true God is the 'Existent', 'Full of emptiness' It means 'the one who seems to be'.
Even though Paul’s Areopagus sermons had already been preached and the priests knew how to read Acts 17, the history of Christianity for 2,000 years was dotted with foolish attempts to build a temple better than the Parthenon, so that God could be inhabited more permanently and exclusively. There is. It wasn't just in the Middle Ages, and such temptations continue to come up these days, so the people of the world tilt their heads, 'Is it right to do that?' to Korean Protestants who spend a lot of money on the construction of large churches. is becoming
Second, today's text tells us who God is. “God is not served by human hands because of what he lacks” (Acts 17:25).
What is Article 1 of the Great Westminster Catechism? This is the catechism we were often asked when we were baptismal questions and answers. The question is, "What is man's primary purpose?" that is. What a great question, and an important question. This is the fundamental question the Bible asks of us who are always anxious about what to eat, what to wear, and what to drink.
But what is the answer? The answer is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. The most just way for a creature to glorify God is to praise the Creator, to give thanks, to practice goodness and goodness, to savor the mysterious life again and again with amazing reverence, and to enjoy God by receiving the grace that is bestowed upon him to enjoy himself. ancestors taught
There is no such thing as protecting God, giving it to God, or satisfying God with material things. I have no idea that it is right to send troops to Iraq to defeat the enemy and to reassure God by further strengthening the pro-American anti-communist alliance. The 'godly delusion' and 'holy greed' of zealous Christians, truth-seeking clergy and believers that they should protect God are tarnishing God's face and making the message of the cross a ridicule of the world.
Third, the essence of Paul's homily is that God is the One who gives life and breath and all things to all, and that we live, move, and move and exist in God (Acts 17:25,28).
As mentioned above, God is a ‘God without existence’ and ‘full of emptiness’, but if he chooses to be present among creation, he is too precious to be present in a temple made of stone bricks, granite, and marble. He chooses only one place, but you need to know that he wants and allows you to exist only in the 'most holy place of the heart' in the middle of a person's life. This is because the temple took 4.5 billion years to build, and because it resembles God, it is loose even when the universe enters when it is opened, but when it is closed, it is a mysterious temple that cannot hold a needle.
This is because the ‘most holy place of the heart’ is the embryo of the grain that has grown and bore fruit with all the spiritual energy in heaven and on earth, so God is a picky person who seeks the purest and most perfect thing. Even in our hearts, the kingdom of God does not come in history before the kingdom of God comes to the hearts of the grassroots. Although we speak of historical participation and historical transformation, and natural ecosystems, God's place of presence is neither history nor natural ecosystems. This is because there is only the spiritual heart of man, and He is the one who tastes the greatest glory in the event that a creature made of dust opens its small mouth and calls itself 'Abba, Father.'
So, these days, when the religious world and human civilization are in pain to break free from hwanggol, we are asked ourselves, as believers, how we should live.
The first is to quietly fear God with a sincere heart without falsehood. It is believing in God with a sincere heart. Jesus said, To believe in God is to do God's works. It seems that there are many kinds of work in the world, but when you know about it, there is only one thing that is the biggest and most fundamental, and that is believing in God.
The problem is that we quickly misunderstand what we must do for God in order to believe in God well. Rather, it is to acknowledge with gratitude the father and mother who gave birth to you, saying that you are my father and mother. It's easy to think that such a task is difficult, but in fact, it is very difficult. If you don't believe properly, like having insurance, you have to go to a place of full faith like Jesus.
Second, we must really love and respect Jesus, who died on the cross, and obey His words. The more we live our lives, the more we realize that there is no one like the Son of Man Jesus. In a nutshell, we who do not truly love Jesus with all our heart and all our souls, we who do not love Him are wicked people and sinners. It proves that the hearts are wicked, stingy, and selfish.
Jesus who wiped away our dirty hearts through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus who loved the woman enough to make a sinful woman break the alabaster and cover her feet with her hair and cry. Jesus, the Son of Man who called and encouraged him in a change, set the example of washing his feet on the last night and left the sacramental ceremony symbolizing his 'flesh and blood', Jesus asking forgiveness for those who threw the spear at him, Promising again and again like Peter Jesus, who seeks out those who betrayed us again, who made a great vow not to change this history into the kingdom of God, we must not just believe in Him, but truly love Him and obey His word.
If you really love Jesus, you must keep his commandments, because that is a sign of your love for him. He said in the Gospel of John, “He who loves me shall keep my commandments; and the one who keeps my commandments, God the Father will love him, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
Third, never look at the present in a dark way, love life with the heart that I work because God is working, have a sense of solidarity with all living things who suffer in pain and suffering, and live a life of sharing as much as we can. do.
I should not think small about how my small good deeds will change the great structural evils of history and what will be the benefit. We must remember Mother Teresa.
In this chaotic world, we must regain our ‘areopago spirituality’, love life, and live vigorously while affirming the world.
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