김상근목사
I have a five-year-old son. He is in the midst of learning how to speak. Resembling after his father who says silly things, this child also sometimes says silly things. Once I taught him a new word "Selfish" as well as "Don't be selfish!" Then, a moment later, he asked me "Daddy, why is that there is fish in selfish?" Dear everyone, how could I answer? After pondering it for a while, I could only answer, "Heejoon, don't question it, but just learn it. Selfish. Don't be selfish, OK?"
Several weeks ago, I read a storybook to Heejoon before he went to bed. It was a common story for a five-year-old child. It started this way, "Something exciting is about to happen in your life." "Something surprising and joyful is about to happen to your life." Everyone, aren't these beautiful words? It was an expression that gave a great encouragement and education to a five-year-old child. I thought it could give hope and courage to a five years old child who was stepping out into a strange place called 'the world.' Therefore, the father greedily demanded to his five-year-old child, "Heejoon, you should learn this by heart. These are really nice words. Repeat after me. Something exciting is about to happen in my life." Not really knowing the meaning, he repeated after his father, "Something exciting is about to happen in my life."
*
What about you? Do you like this expression? Can you admit the same about your life? "Something exciting is about to happen in my life. Something so exciting that will surprise the world is about to be unfolded in my life." Are you capable of making this exciting confession? You may reply: Look pastor, you are young enough to say such exciting words, but my heydays have already passed by. I really hopped around when I was your age. Pastor, I feel the generation gap. No way, pastor, what can be so exciting when I am only beginning my immigrant life in America? It is so hard to live day by day. Something exciting? No way. The only comfort I derive is from spending time watching Korean videos from time to time. It is so boring to live the same routine everyday like a squirrel. Pastor, please ask my husband. I am so annoyed with taking care after my children everyday, and serving husband with meals three times a day. Something exciting? Setting aside that, I would like to sleep as enough as I want. I never expected my life would be as plain as this. I wish for my children to turn out well. Isn't it true that we have such thoughts and feelings in mind?
Through the words of the scripture, we may meet such a plain person. His name is Moses. Usually we remember with that name Moses a great leader who liberalized Israel people from Egypt. We remember Moses as a great leader who performed ten miracles in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, hit a rock to spring water and personally received God's commands in mountain Sinai. However, today's scripture presents Moses as plain for he looks rather weak, miserable and small. He was an outsider as he lived on a foreign land with different culture and language, among strangers. Moses was an absconder as he mistakenly murdered a person, fled and hid into the wilderness. Today's scripture verse one reads, "Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian." Almost eighty years old, Moses, who had lived more than forty years in the new settlement, was not tending his herd of sheep, but those of his father-in-law. Since it is not easy to live for couple of years with the wife's family, Moses must have been miserable tending his father-in-law's sheep for forty years. He was once a prince in Egypt. He was once a man of well-being. However, he became a shepherd whom no one acknowledged, moreover, a miserable shepherd who tended the sheep, which was not his own, but rather of his father-in-law.
By some unknown reason, Moses came near Mt. Horeb bringing the sheep of his father-in-law. "Horeb" is "Desert" or "Wasteland" in Hebrew. What Moses was doing on a remote mountainside where no one ever came? Was he grieving about his miserable life? Was he exhausted and just waiting to die? What happened in the wasteland, or desert? A hopeless fellow, who had nothing but a shepherd's staff and tended sheep of his father-in-law, met God on Mt. Horeb, in a land of waste, which no one sought. He received the calling of God.
What Moses found on Mt. Horeb was a burning bush tree. Curiously, the bush tree was in a blaze but it did not burn the tree. It was abnormal in that the bush tree was not burnt when there was smoke billowing from the tree. At this time, Moses says to himself, "I will go over and see this strange sight." Then he step by step approached as he said toward the bush tree with billowing smoke.
*
The resolve of Moses, "I will go over and see this strange sight", was great. How wretched was Moses' life at that time? How monotonous had Moses' life been as a shepherd caring after father-in-law's sheep? Let's think about common characteristics of persons living a miserable and monotonous life. They are characterized by low energy, low spirit, laziness, depression, desperation, a sense of inferiority, and so on. However, such a miserable and monotonous shepherd Moses, after forty years as an unknown shepherd, decided, "I will go over and see this strange sight", when he saw the bush tree burning in the remote wasteland, or desert. Moses was not acknowledged by people and only had a stick in hand, but he stated, "I will go over and see this strange sight." When he saw the burning bush tree, God appeared and called to him.
Dear congregation, what do you hope and expect in your lives? What do you wish for the year 2003 and for your future five years, ten years or forty years from now? Do you have such hopes and expectations like Moses had? Can you confess like this: "I will go over and see this strange sight. Something exciting is about to happen in my life."
*
God called to a shepherd who was living a miserable and monotonous life in a remote and deserted land, or wasteland. "Moses, Moses, where are you?" And God said to Moses, "The place where you are standing is holy ground so remove your shoes." I am sorry to say this, but the land Moses was standing on was not a Holy Land. It was a wasteland, a desert land, a remote mountainside where no one came. I also am sorry to say this, but Moses was not a person deserving of a calling from God. He was a runaway who committed a felony in Egypt. He was so miserable with nothing to show after eighty years of his life. He was so miserable to tending his father-in-law's sheep instead of his own. All he had was a hooked staff. God called to such a miserable person, in such a remote place and proclaimed, "The place where you are standing is holy ground."
Where are you standing now? Why don't you look around where you are standing? Is it a holy ground, or a miserable and monotonous place? Immigrant life is monotonous, isn't it? It is different from the time when you were in Korea in that there are not many friends around to converse with and that there is no place to go to after a day of work. Isn't it a dull life of repeated trips from home to work? Miserable and monotonous life, a continuously and meaninglessly repeated life, isn't it where we are standing now?
But, as God calls to us, He proclaims where we are standing as holy. Even though you and I are standing where no one does not acknowledge us, even though we are living such a monotonous life, even though we are characterized by low energy, low spirit, laziness, depression, desperation, or a sense of inferiority, God calls to you and me, and proclaims where we are standing as a holy land. Because God calls our names, the land where we are standing is just the holy land.
*
Last year, I visited Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Reverend Cho, Cell Meeting workers, and I attended a Small Group Conference at Willow Creek Church. We came out of the church building and were walking toward the parking lot after we by God's grace finished Saturday's entire schedule. Then a middle-aged American woman pulled me aside and talked to me. She proposed that she would take a commemorative group picture for us with the church as the background. I thought, "This church is so large that there is probably even such a merchant of this kind. She earns money by taking pictures here." She seemed to read my mind, as she said she did not want receive money. Therefore, thoughtlessly, we took a picture with the building behind us. I gave my address to her, and completely forgotten about her.
When several weeks were over, a letter was delivered from Chicago. The woman we met at Willow Creek Church indeed sent us the group picture she had taken. On the letter enclosed it was written, "I am a common believer who is attending Willow Church. I experienced the grace that Lord gave me. And I was determined to do something to serve my neighbors. But I was hesitant because I had nothing to give out and had no extensive education. But I happened to find a thing I had. It was rather old, but still usable camera. So, I decided to provide visitors to our church souvenir pictures. Though there are not great pictures, I believe they will be good souvenirs. I thank you for visiting our church. I will pray for your church. I wish you the grace of Lord."
Reading the woman's letter, I realized the reason why Willow Creek church thrived. I realized that why the philosophy of the church was "Pastorate Changing People." I was impressed and deeply moved by the middle-aged woman, who was poor in material goods and not well educated, but served her church and neighbors with an old fashioned camera.
In terms of having a better Nikon camera than that of the woman, a better Sony Camcorder, or a high function digital Camcorder, why do you and I first think about satisfying ourselves rather than living for others? By having a better camera, earning more income, living in better house, and educated more than the woman, do we live more significant lives? While the woman experiences the calling of Lord with her old fashioned camera, do we experience such callings? How much do we have to learn, possess or get busier before we experience the calling of Lord?
God called Moses with evident purpose. He called to Moses to save the Israel people who were suffering in Egypt. He called to Moses to lead them to Canaan where milk and honey flowed. A perfect military campaign should have been prepared to save the Israel people from Egypt. Powerful weapons and enormous number of troops would have been required to fight the strong Egyptian troops. However, the person God had called to was a worthless and miserable shepherd, Moses. God called to Moses who only had a cane in his hand.
When God calls to us, he does not demand from us something special. He lifts and uses what we already have even they are insufficient. He lifts and uses our weakness. He lifts and uses our deficiencies. He is our Lord who lifts our deficiencies and have all the harsh of this world feel shame.
*
We have a big topic for prayer in our Korean Methodist Church of Greater Washington. Many believers are preparing for the construction of a church building at Yunhwa village in China by prayers, and helping this work by offering precious materials. Particularly, elder Young Hwan Park personally went to China last year and helped complete the first step for building the Living Center. Now he has a prayer request in that he wishes to build a church building for the Korean-Chinese disabled believers. Having worked as an architect before he retired, he is leading this holy work with the talent that God granted him.
I remember when elder Young Hwan Park entered China last year. I'm sorry to say this, but his health was in poor condition at that time. While he was not in good health, he suffered paralysis due to some problem in his neuron system just before he was to leave for China. His facial muscles were slightly distorted, and it was a difficult to see that. Many members were concerned about elder Park's health, and advised him to postpone his plan to China. However, with his discomforted body, he went to China, finished his work and returned healthy.
I prayed for elder Park in the early Morning Prayer session during his trip to China. While I was praying for his health, God taught me something. While I was praying for elder Park, I was able to remember a doctor whom I met six or seven years ago in Atlanta. He was an expert cancer doctor who was working in the children cancer ward at Emory University Hospital. He was a famous doctor at Emory University Hospital as well as having worldwide reputation in child cancer treatment. He also was well known for having his hair cut short almost to the point of being bald. Do you know why he always had his hair cut so short? He cut his hair short for these child cancer patients who received radiation therapy and lost their hair. In order to lift up the spirits of the children who lost their hair, he also cut his hair close as to have no hair and tended to child cancer patients with a bright smile on his face in order to give the children courage.
God's lesson to me was this. When our elder Park went to serve the disabled in China, to serve those whose lips were distorted and legs paralyzed, God lifted and used our elder Park, who also suffered paralysis in his face. I was quite sure that God called to elder Park to have sympathy with the disabled and to love them more. God, who makes the harsh feel shame by lifting the weak, and who does not mind our insufficiency, but lifts our weakness, is calling to you and me now. God, who had called to Moses in Mt. Horeb, is calling the names of you and me now. Though we have nothing, we are miserable, and no one acknowledges us, God is calling the names of you and me now. You may not turn away from the calling because you are old, or retired. Moses was eighty years old when he was called from God. You may not turn away from the calling if you have nothing material and have no education. You may have more and maybe are more educated than the woman at the parking lot of Willow Creek Church, who was serving neighbors with a camera. You may not turn away from the calling for the sake of your health. It is because God, who called to elder Park, who was in pain, to understand and love the disabled, is calling you and me now.
I will see the great scene of God's amazing will toward my life. I will see the great scene of God's amazing grace calling the insufficient me. Let us make ourselves be able to confess that. Let us respond to God's calling. Something exciting is about to happen in my life! Let us be able to confess this. God, who has called to Moses in mountain Horeb, promises in today's scripture. "I will be with you." "I will be with you." Though we have nothing, we are miserable, and no one acknowledges us, God has called to us, and promised to be with us. Let us look at the great will of God toward each one of you. Let us altogether see the great scene. Let us witness the amazing plan of God and the amazing scene toward each one of you. Something exciting is about to happen in my life! Let us be able to confess this.
Questionnaire for sharing
Let us share our lives during the past two weeks. What was the calling of God you discovered in your daily lives repeated everyday? What is the Burning Bush, which we cannot just pass by in our lives?
Let us have time of deeper sharing about "Experience of Calling." Have you ever experienced the God's summons? How can we differentiate the "Lord's summons" which strikes our spirits and the "Physical desire" which discovers something latently wanted. What education can we find through today's scripture (through Moses' calling)?
If you have an experience of calling, what resolution have you had to realize it? What would you do this week in order to respond to Lord's calling?
I have a five-year-old son. He is in the midst of learning how to speak. Resembling after his father who says silly things, this child also sometimes says silly things. Once I taught him a new word "Selfish" as well as "Don't be selfish!" Then, a moment later, he asked me "Daddy, why is that there is fish in selfish?" Dear everyone, how could I answer? After pondering it for a while, I could only answer, "Heejoon, don't question it, but just learn it. Selfish. Don't be selfish, OK?"
Several weeks ago, I read a storybook to Heejoon before he went to bed. It was a common story for a five-year-old child. It started this way, "Something exciting is about to happen in your life." "Something surprising and joyful is about to happen to your life." Everyone, aren't these beautiful words? It was an expression that gave a great encouragement and education to a five-year-old child. I thought it could give hope and courage to a five years old child who was stepping out into a strange place called 'the world.' Therefore, the father greedily demanded to his five-year-old child, "Heejoon, you should learn this by heart. These are really nice words. Repeat after me. Something exciting is about to happen in my life." Not really knowing the meaning, he repeated after his father, "Something exciting is about to happen in my life."
*
What about you? Do you like this expression? Can you admit the same about your life? "Something exciting is about to happen in my life. Something so exciting that will surprise the world is about to be unfolded in my life." Are you capable of making this exciting confession? You may reply: Look pastor, you are young enough to say such exciting words, but my heydays have already passed by. I really hopped around when I was your age. Pastor, I feel the generation gap. No way, pastor, what can be so exciting when I am only beginning my immigrant life in America? It is so hard to live day by day. Something exciting? No way. The only comfort I derive is from spending time watching Korean videos from time to time. It is so boring to live the same routine everyday like a squirrel. Pastor, please ask my husband. I am so annoyed with taking care after my children everyday, and serving husband with meals three times a day. Something exciting? Setting aside that, I would like to sleep as enough as I want. I never expected my life would be as plain as this. I wish for my children to turn out well. Isn't it true that we have such thoughts and feelings in mind?
Through the words of the scripture, we may meet such a plain person. His name is Moses. Usually we remember with that name Moses a great leader who liberalized Israel people from Egypt. We remember Moses as a great leader who performed ten miracles in Egypt, parted the Red Sea, hit a rock to spring water and personally received God's commands in mountain Sinai. However, today's scripture presents Moses as plain for he looks rather weak, miserable and small. He was an outsider as he lived on a foreign land with different culture and language, among strangers. Moses was an absconder as he mistakenly murdered a person, fled and hid into the wilderness. Today's scripture verse one reads, "Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian." Almost eighty years old, Moses, who had lived more than forty years in the new settlement, was not tending his herd of sheep, but those of his father-in-law. Since it is not easy to live for couple of years with the wife's family, Moses must have been miserable tending his father-in-law's sheep for forty years. He was once a prince in Egypt. He was once a man of well-being. However, he became a shepherd whom no one acknowledged, moreover, a miserable shepherd who tended the sheep, which was not his own, but rather of his father-in-law.
By some unknown reason, Moses came near Mt. Horeb bringing the sheep of his father-in-law. "Horeb" is "Desert" or "Wasteland" in Hebrew. What Moses was doing on a remote mountainside where no one ever came? Was he grieving about his miserable life? Was he exhausted and just waiting to die? What happened in the wasteland, or desert? A hopeless fellow, who had nothing but a shepherd's staff and tended sheep of his father-in-law, met God on Mt. Horeb, in a land of waste, which no one sought. He received the calling of God.
What Moses found on Mt. Horeb was a burning bush tree. Curiously, the bush tree was in a blaze but it did not burn the tree. It was abnormal in that the bush tree was not burnt when there was smoke billowing from the tree. At this time, Moses says to himself, "I will go over and see this strange sight." Then he step by step approached as he said toward the bush tree with billowing smoke.
*
The resolve of Moses, "I will go over and see this strange sight", was great. How wretched was Moses' life at that time? How monotonous had Moses' life been as a shepherd caring after father-in-law's sheep? Let's think about common characteristics of persons living a miserable and monotonous life. They are characterized by low energy, low spirit, laziness, depression, desperation, a sense of inferiority, and so on. However, such a miserable and monotonous shepherd Moses, after forty years as an unknown shepherd, decided, "I will go over and see this strange sight", when he saw the bush tree burning in the remote wasteland, or desert. Moses was not acknowledged by people and only had a stick in hand, but he stated, "I will go over and see this strange sight." When he saw the burning bush tree, God appeared and called to him.
Dear congregation, what do you hope and expect in your lives? What do you wish for the year 2003 and for your future five years, ten years or forty years from now? Do you have such hopes and expectations like Moses had? Can you confess like this: "I will go over and see this strange sight. Something exciting is about to happen in my life."
*
God called to a shepherd who was living a miserable and monotonous life in a remote and deserted land, or wasteland. "Moses, Moses, where are you?" And God said to Moses, "The place where you are standing is holy ground so remove your shoes." I am sorry to say this, but the land Moses was standing on was not a Holy Land. It was a wasteland, a desert land, a remote mountainside where no one came. I also am sorry to say this, but Moses was not a person deserving of a calling from God. He was a runaway who committed a felony in Egypt. He was so miserable with nothing to show after eighty years of his life. He was so miserable to tending his father-in-law's sheep instead of his own. All he had was a hooked staff. God called to such a miserable person, in such a remote place and proclaimed, "The place where you are standing is holy ground."
Where are you standing now? Why don't you look around where you are standing? Is it a holy ground, or a miserable and monotonous place? Immigrant life is monotonous, isn't it? It is different from the time when you were in Korea in that there are not many friends around to converse with and that there is no place to go to after a day of work. Isn't it a dull life of repeated trips from home to work? Miserable and monotonous life, a continuously and meaninglessly repeated life, isn't it where we are standing now?
But, as God calls to us, He proclaims where we are standing as holy. Even though you and I are standing where no one does not acknowledge us, even though we are living such a monotonous life, even though we are characterized by low energy, low spirit, laziness, depression, desperation, or a sense of inferiority, God calls to you and me, and proclaims where we are standing as a holy land. Because God calls our names, the land where we are standing is just the holy land.
*
Last year, I visited Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Reverend Cho, Cell Meeting workers, and I attended a Small Group Conference at Willow Creek Church. We came out of the church building and were walking toward the parking lot after we by God's grace finished Saturday's entire schedule. Then a middle-aged American woman pulled me aside and talked to me. She proposed that she would take a commemorative group picture for us with the church as the background. I thought, "This church is so large that there is probably even such a merchant of this kind. She earns money by taking pictures here." She seemed to read my mind, as she said she did not want receive money. Therefore, thoughtlessly, we took a picture with the building behind us. I gave my address to her, and completely forgotten about her.
When several weeks were over, a letter was delivered from Chicago. The woman we met at Willow Creek Church indeed sent us the group picture she had taken. On the letter enclosed it was written, "I am a common believer who is attending Willow Church. I experienced the grace that Lord gave me. And I was determined to do something to serve my neighbors. But I was hesitant because I had nothing to give out and had no extensive education. But I happened to find a thing I had. It was rather old, but still usable camera. So, I decided to provide visitors to our church souvenir pictures. Though there are not great pictures, I believe they will be good souvenirs. I thank you for visiting our church. I will pray for your church. I wish you the grace of Lord."
Reading the woman's letter, I realized the reason why Willow Creek church thrived. I realized that why the philosophy of the church was "Pastorate Changing People." I was impressed and deeply moved by the middle-aged woman, who was poor in material goods and not well educated, but served her church and neighbors with an old fashioned camera.
In terms of having a better Nikon camera than that of the woman, a better Sony Camcorder, or a high function digital Camcorder, why do you and I first think about satisfying ourselves rather than living for others? By having a better camera, earning more income, living in better house, and educated more than the woman, do we live more significant lives? While the woman experiences the calling of Lord with her old fashioned camera, do we experience such callings? How much do we have to learn, possess or get busier before we experience the calling of Lord?
God called Moses with evident purpose. He called to Moses to save the Israel people who were suffering in Egypt. He called to Moses to lead them to Canaan where milk and honey flowed. A perfect military campaign should have been prepared to save the Israel people from Egypt. Powerful weapons and enormous number of troops would have been required to fight the strong Egyptian troops. However, the person God had called to was a worthless and miserable shepherd, Moses. God called to Moses who only had a cane in his hand.
When God calls to us, he does not demand from us something special. He lifts and uses what we already have even they are insufficient. He lifts and uses our weakness. He lifts and uses our deficiencies. He is our Lord who lifts our deficiencies and have all the harsh of this world feel shame.
*
We have a big topic for prayer in our Korean Methodist Church of Greater Washington. Many believers are preparing for the construction of a church building at Yunhwa village in China by prayers, and helping this work by offering precious materials. Particularly, elder Young Hwan Park personally went to China last year and helped complete the first step for building the Living Center. Now he has a prayer request in that he wishes to build a church building for the Korean-Chinese disabled believers. Having worked as an architect before he retired, he is leading this holy work with the talent that God granted him.
I remember when elder Young Hwan Park entered China last year. I'm sorry to say this, but his health was in poor condition at that time. While he was not in good health, he suffered paralysis due to some problem in his neuron system just before he was to leave for China. His facial muscles were slightly distorted, and it was a difficult to see that. Many members were concerned about elder Park's health, and advised him to postpone his plan to China. However, with his discomforted body, he went to China, finished his work and returned healthy.
I prayed for elder Park in the early Morning Prayer session during his trip to China. While I was praying for his health, God taught me something. While I was praying for elder Park, I was able to remember a doctor whom I met six or seven years ago in Atlanta. He was an expert cancer doctor who was working in the children cancer ward at Emory University Hospital. He was a famous doctor at Emory University Hospital as well as having worldwide reputation in child cancer treatment. He also was well known for having his hair cut short almost to the point of being bald. Do you know why he always had his hair cut so short? He cut his hair short for these child cancer patients who received radiation therapy and lost their hair. In order to lift up the spirits of the children who lost their hair, he also cut his hair close as to have no hair and tended to child cancer patients with a bright smile on his face in order to give the children courage.
God's lesson to me was this. When our elder Park went to serve the disabled in China, to serve those whose lips were distorted and legs paralyzed, God lifted and used our elder Park, who also suffered paralysis in his face. I was quite sure that God called to elder Park to have sympathy with the disabled and to love them more. God, who makes the harsh feel shame by lifting the weak, and who does not mind our insufficiency, but lifts our weakness, is calling to you and me now. God, who had called to Moses in Mt. Horeb, is calling the names of you and me now. Though we have nothing, we are miserable, and no one acknowledges us, God is calling the names of you and me now. You may not turn away from the calling because you are old, or retired. Moses was eighty years old when he was called from God. You may not turn away from the calling if you have nothing material and have no education. You may have more and maybe are more educated than the woman at the parking lot of Willow Creek Church, who was serving neighbors with a camera. You may not turn away from the calling for the sake of your health. It is because God, who called to elder Park, who was in pain, to understand and love the disabled, is calling you and me now.
I will see the great scene of God's amazing will toward my life. I will see the great scene of God's amazing grace calling the insufficient me. Let us make ourselves be able to confess that. Let us respond to God's calling. Something exciting is about to happen in my life! Let us be able to confess this. God, who has called to Moses in mountain Horeb, promises in today's scripture. "I will be with you." "I will be with you." Though we have nothing, we are miserable, and no one acknowledges us, God has called to us, and promised to be with us. Let us look at the great will of God toward each one of you. Let us altogether see the great scene. Let us witness the amazing plan of God and the amazing scene toward each one of you. Something exciting is about to happen in my life! Let us be able to confess this.
Questionnaire for sharing
Let us share our lives during the past two weeks. What was the calling of God you discovered in your daily lives repeated everyday? What is the Burning Bush, which we cannot just pass by in our lives?
Let us have time of deeper sharing about "Experience of Calling." Have you ever experienced the God's summons? How can we differentiate the "Lord's summons" which strikes our spirits and the "Physical desire" which discovers something latently wanted. What education can we find through today's scripture (through Moses' calling)?
If you have an experience of calling, what resolution have you had to realize it? What would you do this week in order to respond to Lord's calling?
