In 2010, Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan announced that he would open a “society of least unhappiness”. Politics is a matter of how to minimize factors that make people unhappy, such as war and poverty, and the idea was to eliminate social poverty and the resulting conflict structure and to reduce the class, income, and regional disparities. If unhappiness can be minimized, that seems to make sense. Because it is the eternal task of mankind. In fact, passing on poverty is a heartbreaking expression. Poverty that cannot be escaped, and personal and social pain and suffering are issues that everyone should contemplate.

It would be an unusual case if you volunteered to inherit the suffering, even if you couldn't eliminate it. Now, there's that figure in the text. Paul says he will fill his body with the rest of Christ's suffering. I wonder if I should be suspicious of Paul's mental health. I wonder if he's trying to talk about something like "spiritual victory.

In fact, when we say “what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,” we tend to take it for granted that it is Paul’s trademark. In a nutshell, Paul's image does not seem to have anything to do with happiness or comfort, to the extent that he himself says, 'I have learned all the secrets'. Should it be said that it is Paul, and that it is the symbol that makes Paul Paul?

Another thing that draws attention is the expression ‘what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions’. It's a pretty confusing translation, but it's used without hesitation. As you know, this does not mean insufficiency or incompleteness of suffering. It is according to the grace given by the Lord, 'Gabe', and it can be said that it is close to the problem of 'Aufgabe', the task that Christians must continue deal with.

However, as the atmosphere flowing through the background, there seems to be a tendency toward uniformity like ‘remaining suffering = evangelism, missions.’ If you think about it, it is said that the remaining sufferings of Christ are the responsibility of pastors and missionaries. Would it be an incorrect answer to recognize that it belongs to Paul, not the pastor's job, but a common task for all Christians? It is necessary to expand the remaining sufferings of Christ not only to the ministry and missions, but to the concerns for becoming a true church and becoming disciples of Christ.

It's a shameful story, but it's true. There is a sad story that shows that the church is becoming more criticized and ignored during the pandemic. When it was already difficult to find a part-time job, a college student was interviewed. By the way, the store manager looked at his resume and said this. “Uh… are you going to church? It would be difficult to hire you at our store...” He refused. He was a student in the Christian department. When people around him heard the news, they said he would only write the name of the school, not the department. It doesn't seem like much, but I think it's a story that shows the current state of Christianity. It's hard to pinpoint something, but it seems clear that it's a difficult situation, but it seems to require self-reflection rather than making excuses and refuting to avoid this embarrassment.

It seems that many theologians are writing about what Christianity is supposed to recover from after the pandemic. This is a welcome phenomenon. However, if the recovery refers to the restoration of the church to the pre-COVID level, a more in-depth reflection seems to be necessary. It is because there is a great risk that the restoration of the external appearance without restoration of the essence is not a restoration but a “return to the past”.

I hope that there will be more expectations regarding the restoration of the church's ecclesiastical identity. It would be better if all Christians could embark on the path to discipleship. Isn't that the remnant of the sufferings of Christ that we should think about in our day?

There are a few things to note in today’s scripture. It is the fact that the gospel is contained in what remains of Christ’s suffering. As we know, Paul was a persecutor of the church. And he works for the church? It is natural for the people around him to feel uncomfortable, and perhaps Paul himself was in the most difficult position.

If you were to take on the rest of the sufferings of Christ as a kind of obsessive compulsive suffering from the idea of paying off the debt of the past that persecuted the church, that could be a problem in another sense. Because it can lead to a legalistic view of suffering.

For Paul, hearing the voice that the Lord would use him must have been the gospel itself. The fact that you are used for the church, the body of Christ, is a gracious event in itself.

This cannot be explained through legalism. Only through the gospel can it become a gracious event. Today, I hope that this gospel will be restored to us as well. It means that we have to overcome the legalistic bias that we are unaware of.

In the 5th chapter of Daniel in the Old Testament, there is a saying, “Mene Mene Tekel Ubarshin”. The last king of Babylon, Belshazzar, was enjoying a royal banquet, and the finger that appeared on the wall wrote in Aramaic. Daniel interpreted it to mean, “God has measured it with scales, and it is not enough.” As prophesied, Babylon was destroyed by the Medo-Persian army that night. B.C. It is estimated to be around 539 AD.

Come to think of it, all of us may be unworthy in the Lord's sight. If you start from me on the scales of God, you are a poor person. Nevertheless, the Lord gives us a chance. Isn't this the gospel?

Let's think about it this way. Have you tried running the compass app on your smartphone? When you open the compass, it tells you to move it several times, not immediately. As you know, the north that the compass points to is called magnetic north. North on the map is called grid north. And the true north is called true north. Perhaps it is necessary to correct the deviation between them. It seems that we should always check the coordinates of our faith, just like looking at a compass to check the direction and not to get lost.

Let's go back to Apostle Paul. Did Paul enjoy his sufferings because he was an unusual character who was obsessed with his mission? Is it because of his straight-forward instinct, like a legalist, or a workaholic, looking forward and running without any magnetism? In fact, we think that suffering is very natural for Paul, and in some ways, his personality may have caused conflict and created problems. In fact, there are some articles that have something similar to this. However, for Paul, working for the church is the gospel in itself.

Without the gospel, the perception of Christ's remnant suffering is likely to be distorted. In the predicament of the church, it is easy for us to criticize, condemn, and judge the church legalistically. However, am I not in a state where I myself, who criticizes the church, has lost my sense of the gospel? This is a topic that requires deep repentance. We want our thoughts to be evangelical. It would be great if we could have an evangelical insight into the perception of Paul who spoke of the remaining sufferings and also about the difficult reality of Christianity in Korea.

Here is a passage from Augustine's Confessions (Latin, Confessiones), Volume III. Augustine's confession of God's love. “The Lord loves me as if he only loves me.” Isn't this the gospel? Although the Lord loves everyone in the world, if you can feel the thrill as if He loves only me, wouldn't that be an evangelical insight?

There is one more thing. We must spread the gospel through the remaining sufferings of Christ. Since the church, the body of Christ, is a community established by the gospel, we must not lose sight of the fact that the church is the church and through the church we are to be established as a holy people.

I would like to explain a little more about Augustine, which I just introduced. After Constantine, when Christianity was officially recognized, would he have been able to minister to his heart's content in that he lived in a time when he dreamed of a Christian Empire (Christendom), which means the victory of Christianity?

Most people think so, but there are other aspects. Augustine was not interested in the empowerment of the recognized Church. He was rather worried. It is a problematic awareness that the church has lost its essence in an age when martyrdom is no longer necessary. Apologizing for the reality that the world has entered the church, Augustine wrote a note of concern.

“There is a large crowd in the church, including perjury, fraudsters, thieves, solicitors, adulterers, and drunkards, moneylenders, and slave traders. All kinds of people have filled the church, clean or not, mixed until the end.”

Augustine thought that the church should teach discipleship on the pilgrimage to the city of God, rather than enjoying the dream of Christendom by intoxicating triumphalism. He did not like that the period of persecution and martyrdom had passed, but he thought that he should be nervous for the sake of the gospel.

Stanley Hauerwas, a Christian ethicist who read his thoughts, said, “The first task of the church, the first priority is being church.” It is the claim that we must become a church faithful to the gospel and a disciple who lives according to the narrative of Jesus.

If applied to the Korean context, the task of making the church a church, that is, the task of being a church, is the remaining suffering of Christ, and it is the responsibility of all Christians. We must realize that it is the gospel contained in the remaining sufferings, the emotion that needs to be restored, and the holy calling.

As a translator of Hauerworth's book, A Community of character, into 『Becoming the Church』, there is a sentence that comes to mind the most. “A lot of people say there is no hope for the American church. However, God will send His people to the church through generations and generations.” The fact that Hauerworth was interested in being a church and being a disciple is significant in itself.

Let's get out of the Paul text into our context. When it is easy to become a legalist who criticizes, condemns, and judges the church, we must rediscover the gospel contained in the remaining sufferings of Christ.

Have we not lost the social spirituality contained in the gospel while being swayed by the ‘gospel of prosperity’ and obsessed with ‘prosperous spirituality’? This is a time when discipleship is desperately needed to pursue the church's public responsibility, communication, and social spirituality of empathy and hospitality. Of course, that doesn't mean it's a substitute for the gospel. But it's not something new either. It belongs to the evangelical nature of the Church. It is only necessary to rediscover the gospel for being the church and for discipleship. It means to carry on the remaining sufferings of Christ in the gospel.

(*Let us pray in silence)