Title City of Refuge (Joshua 20:1-9)
Contents On the morning of Memorial Day on June 6, 1995, the government sent public power to Myeongdong Cathedral and Jogyesa Temple in Seoul to arrest the officials of the Korea Telecommunication Union who were protesting there. This was strongly opposed by Catholics and Buddhists.
According to the Catholic Church, all priests belonging to the Archdiocese of Seoul will gather to discuss countermeasures and hold a city prayer meeting every afternoon, and at the same time, have decided to strike the cockpit 44 times at 4 pm every day for three weeks from last Friday.
The reason the Catholic Church is so strongly opposed seems to come from a sense of sadness and disappointment that the sanctuary that has been protected for 97 years has been violated overnight. The Catholic Church regards the incident as a blasphemy as if her daughter had been abused by a molester and is expected to continue protesting until an official apology from the government is issued.
We, believers, need to understand exactly how we should view these issues, so I would like to consider this issue today. The verse we read today is related to this.
According to the text of the text, God calls Joshua and commands him to carry out the instructions he had already given to Moses, and the contents are as follows.
Among the cities in the land of Canaan that Joshua conquered, three cities on one side of the river and three on the other side of the river were to be selected as cities of refuge. The six cities to be chosen as cities of refuge are Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Golan, Ramoth, and Bezer.
The question is what is the purpose of this city of refuge. According to today's message, it is as follows. Let's say that someone kills another person unintentionally. Then that person can first escape to this city of refuge. Go to the city of refuge and report the accident to the elder there. Then the elder receives him into the city and first prepares a place for him to live. At this time, the people who came to arrest this murderer came and demanded that the criminal be released, but they refused to let him go. The reason is because there must have been some twists and turns in the murder, but if you just let the criminal go, you will get revenge before you even cover your quarrels. That is why, before the murderer is unilaterally retaliated against, he hides his body first.
How long can the murderer stay in the city of refuge? In principle, he can stay until the trial. But in the long run, you can stay in that city until the death of the then high priest. And then you can go back to your hometown. This is a huge deadline. So it's a story that can last almost a lifetime.
The city of refuge is chosen by God's special command. In any case, even if the person hiding there is clearly a murderer who killed a person, you cannot enter the city of refuge and arrest it.
Why is there a castle of escape? Even though he killed him, it is to first hide him in order to avoid the body and get him punished by going through a fair trial so that he does not feel injustice. This castle of refuge is still applied today, and it developed into the so-called Santuary Movement, or refuge movement, in the United States in the 1970s. And today it has evolved into the concept of political asylum (Refugee).
Often, asylum seekers from the north come to South Korea, and when they do, they are criminals in that country, but in our country, human rights must be protected. Therefore, it is an extension of this system to avoid extradition. The protection and recognition of a church or a vocation as a sanctuary also stems from this concept of a city of refuge.
In this sense, the fact that public authorities entered the sanctuary this time is problematic even from a biblical point of view, and the government has done unreasonable things that should not be done even from a social point of view. There have been two history of police authorities entering Jogyesa Temple, but it is the first time that Myeongdong Cathedral has been established since Myeongdong Cathedral was built in 1898. Moreover, it seems that the Catholic Church was more shocked that the so-called civilian government had done something that did not happen even in the 5th and 6th days of the Yushin Era, when the dictatorship was bleak.
In this case, there are some important self-contradictions and acts of breaking down social norms.
First, it is said that the government injected public power on the grounds that "there is no sanctuary in law enforcement". This poses a very serious theological problem. First, sanctuary is a holy realm. The holy realm is God's space that cannot be invaded by humans. That is why it is a sanctuary. This is the oldest human tradition that has been universally recognized and kept as such, regardless of race, culture, or system, during thousands of years, or even human history, on this earth.
In contrast, the law is a human promise that man makes for the sake of human life. This promise is often amended and rejected because there is often a conflict of interest between those who make the laws and those who are limited by those laws. Until now, whenever the republic changed, the law was revised. This refers to the fact that laws are relative and temporary, not absolute. Even during the Japanese colonial era, when the Japanese authorities oppressed Koreans, they advocated law enforcement. When Hitler founded the Fascist Empire, he also introduced laws. But we all know that their laws are not legal.
Second, the government argues that a church or cathedral is a place to hide from criminals who break the law. Those who do not sin first have no reason to flee.
So there is no need to even visit a church or a church. Taking refuge in yourself is proof that you are in a disadvantaged position. Moreover, in the Bible, the city of refuge is where the murderer hides. It is a place where offenders take refuge first so that they can have room to hide their opinions through dialogue and due investigation so that criminals do not face unreasonable retaliation. Originally, the church is where sinners come from, and the church is where they seek God's mercy.
Third, there is a problem in that we have broken the conventional wisdom. It is a common belief that churches and cathedrals are respected and sacred, even for non-believers. So, no matter how ugly a transgressor is, he has the courtesy not to act recklessly when he enters the church. In the case of Myeongdong Cathedral, there were frequent sit-ups even during the 5th and 6th attacks, and there were cases that continued for 60 or 70 days. Still, the protesters voluntarily disbanded and refrained from putting them in. This was not because the police force was weak at that time, but because it was a holy place, and radical actions were restrained in order to uphold social norms.
However, this situation seems to be surprising and shocking at the fact that the civilian government we expect was like that. According to the newspaper, the police officers guarding Myeong-dong Cathedral doubted that it was possible when the order was issued.
It is a social convention to view cathedrals, churches, and temples as so-called buffer zones, not only in a religious sense, but also in a sociological sense. Religion is something we have all acknowledged and acknowledged as a form of reconciliation and buffering when social opinions clash. It has changed a lot now, but looking at our family in the past, three generations of grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, and grandchildren live in the same house. Occasionally, the grandson gets angry because he does something wrong with his father or mother. At this time, the grandson becomes impatient and runs to his grandfather or grandmother and takes refuge there. At this time, no matter how angry the father or mother is, they cannot take the grandson from the arms of the grandfather or grandmother. This is because, no matter how young you are, you cannot do it recklessly when there is an adult above you.
These days, children's habits deteriorate because of their grandfathers and grandmothers, but at this time, the embrace of grandfathers and grandmothers acts as a buffer zone. The grandfather holds his grandson in his arms and asks kindly why he did it, and tells him not to do it again and to listen to his parents. Parents represent their children's concerns and positions. Then the intervention will come naturally.
At this time, the embrace of the grandfather becomes a place of courtship and reconciliation. This is the role of vocations in society. This time, Myeongdong Cathedral and Jogyesa continued to try to mediate. Still, I don't know if there was an emergency that could be the case, but I don't think it was wise to push it unilaterally.
It happened in Leipzig, former East Germany, before the fall of the Iron Curtain Berlin Wall in 1989. In former East Germany, many people were oppressed under the communist regime. People were not allowed anywhere to publish or discuss their opinions. They knew that even under the communist regime, only one space was free. They flocked into the church, where they discussed freedom and human rights. They named this church the Space of Freedom, or "space of freedom." Even the communist regime, which denied religion, could not touch this church. Members of this church came to pray, and those seeking freedom came and expressed their hope for freedom.
The church is the house where Manmin prays.
It should be a place where all people can come to pray for repentance of individual sins, for forgiveness and salvation, and for justice, peace, and freedom pursued by society, peoples and nations.
A place where even murderers can come and pray.
The church is a place of forgiveness, forgiveness, reconciliation, and love.
There are things we can do and things we can't do when we act as individuals. A person who can control this freely is called a virtuous person and a person of character.