우리에게 아직 희망이 있습니까? 고후 6:1-13 

Is there still hope for us?

2021 is a historic year for us.

The year 2020-2021 will be recorded as a period of global disaster caused by COVID-19 in human history, a pandemic.

You and I are colleagues who are experiencing and enduring this time of historical crisis together.

But brothers and sisters!

During this difficult time together, what has impressed you the most and made you think?

If I was asked such a question, I would say, 'Our bare face is revealed.'

After hiking or traveling with our acquaintances, the way we feel about each other is very different from before. There are many good points, but I am also embarrassed by the bare face I have never encountered before.

As we experienced a global disaster together, we also experienced incredible love and devotion in the midst of suffering.

However, we got to see a lot of each other's bare faces that couldn't be called positive. It was so personally, socially, nationally and globally.

At one time we focused our attention on who can get more masks and who gets more first. Even those who are known as world leaders spoke irrationally in the face of a sudden disaster, and explicitly practiced their own selfishness to protect their own people.

In a word, it seemed that the era of ‘self-help’ had arrived. The world is one global village, and the slogan of romantic globalization, ‘the world is one’, has been overshadowed by the revealing of ‘the nation first’ and ‘the great nation first’ in the face of the crisis of life caused by disasters.

It is not easy to sing Psalm 133 at a time like this, in these circumstances today.

“How beautiful and delightful! The way brothers and sisters get along and live together!”

Regional/national/class polarization that is deepening day by day due to the contradiction of globalization, a society in which it is no longer possible to succeed in a poor background, that is, the contradictory situation of modern society symbolized by a “hereditary middle class society” where social class change is difficult, and digital transformation is deepening It is not easy to sing Psalm 133 in a reality where conflicts due to confirmation bias intensify.

Will we be able to sing of peace together in a society where ‘individual survival’, which is farther from a ‘fair’ life due to ‘polarization and deepening conflict’, has become a reality?

Is it really possible? Can we still have the dream and hope for a community of peace?

2. Yet there is hope!

Today’s scripture Mark 4:35-41 provides the starting point and clue to live such a life with such hope, even in a reality that seems hopeless to believers at least.

“ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.”

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

That's right. The key is ‘faith.’

The power to keep us from falling into the abyss of despair even in natural disasters such as raging waves and COVID-19 comes from faith. This is because faith is what gives us the realization that the reality we see now, the reality we sense and think is not the whole of reality, and therefore today's difficulties are not the end.

Because faith gives us hope beyond our present helplessness, frustration, pain, and despair.

What we see in front of us is a wave that is strong enough to wreck the small boat the disciples are riding in, but faith makes us look at the fact that God is the ruler of this world where these things happen.

The confusion, anxiety, and fear caused by a disaster are inversely proportional to our belief in the Lord, the Lord of the world, and our belief in His Creator and Ruler.

The Lord, the object of our faith, is the Lord of this world who can stop the wind and calm the waves with His Word!

However, here we need to pay more attention to the following fact.

Even for the disciples who did not have faith, our Lord stopped the wind by saying, “Be still and be still.” This is grace!

But what is even more remarkable is the fact that after the wind stopped and it became very quiet, the disciples were gripped with a greater fear than ever before.

“Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

The words of Mark 4 make us realize that not all problems can be solved by overcoming phenomenal crises.

Rather, the sincerity of belief becomes more important after the visible problem is resolved.

It is important to worship and solve problems during the disaster caused by COVID-19, but the real important problem will start as the era of the new normal that will come after the end of COVID-19 is in full swing.

3. A true believer – God’s servant-like conduct

True faith requires personal trust, loyalty, and understanding of the Triune God, the object of faith. However, it is impossible for a finite human being, who has been twisted into finiteness due to sin, to fully understand God, trust Him, and be faithful to Him.

So the important thing is grace! This is why ‘only grace’ is emphasized along with ‘faith alone’. Also, because that grace was shown and communicated to us through Jesus Christ, it is “only Jesus Christ.”

Today’s epistle reading, 2 Corinthians 6, conveys this truth clearly to us. Above all, today, which is going through a global disaster, is the “time of grace” and “the day of salvation.”

Just as he saved his disciples from the turbulent sea, so we should remember the grace of the Lord who saved us from a world full of sin. It is the grace of the Lord that we are living by enduring this much and overcoming this much crisis.

It is the work of faith that allows us to see the world beyond the visible world!

The apostle Paul later testifies. “Do not receive God's grace in vain.” The German word for grace is Gabe. But it should be pointed out that the Aufgabe, on grace in English, means responsibility.

Faith, now made possible by grace, illuminates our lives, attitudes, attitudes and identities.

“We are God’s co-workers.” Therefore,

“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;”

In fact, it is clear that at that time, among the members of the Apostle Paul and the Corinthian church, the lives of those who tried to live by faith were not in a very favorable environment. “in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger”

Even in this situation, the apostles behaved like God's servants.

“in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left”

Although the objective situation was poor, the apostles, who nevertheless behaved like God's workers, did not yield to the circumstances. Rather, “I opened wide my hearts to you.” We also exhort our sisters and brothers to “open wide your hearts also.”

4. The heart and life that God's workers should strive for in the time of grace and salvation

Dear brothers and sisters!

It is not easy to see brothers and sisters getting along and living together in the era of 'separately' So, recently, with the help of digital technologies and tools that enable an untact life, so-called cultural, economic, and political 'tribalism', in which each person enjoys their own lives and pursues only encounters with like-minded people, has become a trend in social and culture. There is.

Does this aspect of the times really match the kingdom of God that God desires?

Isn't the kingdom of God where the rich and noble, young and old, male and female, the strong like lions and the weak like sheep coexist?

Doesn't the gospel testify that this is the nation that we should hope for, pursue, cultivate, and achieve as God's servants?

By the grace of the cross of Christ, those who are called to realize that such a vision is the truth and the gospel, and to build such a kingdom on this earth as it is in heaven, are not believers, and churches, are they?

Is the church we are gathering in today a place to embrace and serve the world with a ‘open heart’ beyond other religious tribalism?

Going beyond this tribalism is never easy. Even the ancestors of faith were not easy. According to Genesis, Abraham and Lot, Esau and Jacob could not live together in the same place. We think it will be difficult to be together due to a lack of material, but the story of Genesis is a little different. It must be remembered that they were not together because they had too much wealth.

How beautiful and enjoyable!

The way brothers and sisters get along and live together!

Can we still dream of this?

How can this dream become our life?

This is by no means solved only by material abundance!

The grace and fragrance of the Holy Spirit symbolized by the precious oil that flows down Aaron's beard and flows down to his collar in order to establish a community of peace and peace that our Lord has granted through the blood of the cross!

The dew of Hermon that enables a resource like water that enriches Mount Zion as the source of life!

The work and resources of the Holy Spirit for the kingdom of God that only the Lord can give!

Our dream for a peaceful community can be realized only when we hope for, ask for, and receive God's work of the Holy Spirit and the resources he gives us.

Also, when we remember that the resources that we now enjoy and possess are all God's, and all things are granted as gifts from the Lord, we will be able to broaden our hearts toward our neighbors.

In this era of the new normal and the era of self-help, the survival of the strong, we are forming various tribes among ourselves for survival. It is a time of true crisis, but let us remember that this is a time of grace. Let us remember that this is the time of salvation.

At this very time, God has called us to be workers to make today a time of grace and a time of salvation!

We want to be the ones who remember that we are called as God's workers in the history of salvation through the sharing and practice of grace.

Today, the church should be a place and an instrument to taste and realize God's 'grace and salvation' in this time of crisis! The identity of a citizen of the kingdom of God who lives in the world but does not belong to the world! That is why we love the world, but we can live against the tides of the world!

I sincerely hope that we will all become believers and build hope in this land by ‘opening wide our hearts’ and building a church-like church!