우리는 그리스도의 사절

We are Ambassadors for Christ

2020. 11.15.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Yonsei University Church

I liked playing soccer more than studying or going to church since I was young. Like Son Heung-min, he wore No. 7 on his back and continued playing soccer from elementary school to Jeju Island in 6.25. In the early 1970s, there was a match between the two school faculty teams, the world's first university professor soccer match, so don't be surprised. I scored two goals and Yonsei won the game. In addition, Kim Ho-gon, Huh Jung-moo, and Cho Kwang-rae, the leaders of the soccer world, were also the players at the time. * If I had advanced to this field, I would not have been the president of FIFA but also the president of the Korea Football Association.

As you may know, soccer is a game of 11 players. The roles of all players are important, but the most important position among them is the midfielder. This is because the midfielder is like the waist of the team, not only defending and distributing the ball in front, but sometimes as an attacker. Midfielder Ki Sung-yong, who returned to the Seoul Pro Team from Europe last summer, is the representative model.

1. In today's text, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, the apostle Paul claims that God established Jesus Christ as the midfielder in the soccer game of human salvation. God sent Christ into the world as a reconciler to dissolve the estranged relationship with humans, and we humans have restored our relationship with God through Christ. In addition, it is said that we, as creatures renewed through Christ, are called as ambassadors of Christ and have the mission of reconciliation between God and the world, and between man and man. To say that Christ is the conciliator means that he is the central entity in God's saving work.

The site of reconciliation in which Jesus worked was a colony of the Roman Empire, where oppression, poverty, fights and death were rampant. He took the cross while committing to the work of restoring the image of God, that is, true man, of the people who had led the dehumanization along with the people of God who were alienated and disposed of there. Therefore, the cross of the Lord is not just a Roman form of executing rebels, but a symbol of God's work of salvation. God's love is the intersection of the vertical line of justice and God's justice is the intersection of the horizontal line of love. The meaning of Christ's reconciliation has been understood in many ways throughout history. According to Anselmus, a medieval figure, man's sin was so great that the Son of God himself carried the cross as a scapegoat.

On the other hand, John Duns Scotus, who is also a medieval figure, said that unlike Anselmus, the cross of the Lord is a self-sacrificing love from which God comes to save humans. Modern South American liberation theology refers to Christ as a “liberator” who will rescue the people from the oppression of dictatorship, while the Korean Minjung theology refers to Jesus as the “authority of people's liberation”.(典據)”

As such, the theories about the reconciliation of Christ brought about conflict and division between denominations and believers as well as theology. However, it is no doubt that the core is Agape love for God to save humans through Christ. As the reporter in 1 John said, "Because God is love (4:8)."

You will also remember that at the end of the 20th century, Professor McLuhan, a Canadian cultural critic, made a big splash with the words “Media is message.” In this context, it can be said that Christ is the medium that exposed God's image to us and the reality in the human body. Therefore, it would be nice to say that Christ is the medium of reconciliation and the perfector of life who completed the historical mission as the reality of love.

2. Two thousand years have passed since Jesus came as a conciliator. But human life doesn't seem to have changed radically or qualitatively. Looking at the reality of Korea today, we are proud that we have stepped closer to the threshold of advanced countries thanks to superhuman economic development and democratic system. However, our society is still like a wild field where it is very difficult for people to become human or to live like humans. It's like the frozen land in Siberia where the Goryeo people were abandoned over 100 years ago.

We claim that in the course of a short history, we constantly struggled for justice and freedom and achieved democracy at the cost of costly sacrifices and deaths. However, it seems that it is only the appearance that the inner film has stopped walking. As proving the reality, our society as a whole is facing a total crisis that falls into the hell of annihilation as ideologies and classes, men and women, old and young, multicultural families and sexual minorities, etc., conflict and collide with each other.

What's more, leaders are the origin of today's crisis. As those who are supposed to take on the core responsibilities of society, regardless of political or religious circles, are immersed in selfishness and collectivism, they are only engaged in lies, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and confrontation, moral hazard and mental deprivation have spread day by day, and people's livelihoods have fallen into ruin. To make matters worse, social groups and NGOs who have claimed to be breakwaters of division and conflict remain silent like honeyed mittens.

With regard to the DNA of disorder and chaos, some religious scholars have stated that it is the ecstasy of our primitive religion. Once an ideology, religion, trend, or trend is entered, you run toward the extremes, resulting in conflict, division, collapse and confusion. Because heterogeneous entities meet with each other and defend self-absoluteity without sublimation into new creation, common sense is that they cannot reach a square agreement, so they cannot evolve history. Therefore, we often feel ashamed that our destiny is the continuation of a cycle that seems to happen and goes down when it is successful.

Professor Lee Eo-ryeong, a spokesman for Korea's intelligence, recently sent a letter titled "From Wings to Pumgae" in a capsule marking the 100th anniversary of the Chosun Ilbo, which seems to reflect today's sense of crisis. Professor Lee coined the new term "pumgae," meaning "flying animals’ wings" but also bearing eggs, as a message of encouragement to future generations to live with all things, not just fighting because they are different from each other, like the previous generation. But the problem is that "pumgae" is not what you need in 50 years, but a prescription that you need right now, what should we do?

3. Paul stipulated that we Christians, as ambassadors of Christ, are midfielders who reconcile God and the world, and between people and people. The term "conciliator" is not an opportunist, a double agent, or an intermediary standing in the middle of either left or right, nor is it a tourist preparing a trip to Heaven. As the agents of Christ, we are workers who realize reconciliation through advice and challenge to people with powers and caring and healing to the underdog in the field of previous helmets where justice, justice and equality are trampled. Therefore, the church, which is a group of conciliators, should become a community of conciliation first of all. Because the church is a special training ground for reconciliation.

Anyone who professes to be a Christian in this sense should ask themselves about their identity. “What am I doing where and what am I?” Unfortunately, he is not like Cain who killed his younger brother Abel and hides from the face of God. Standing in an extreme position, inflicting a great personal and realistic wound on me and other opponents or enemies, and smiling of satisfaction behind the mask of hypocrisy. Or is it not like Moses, who was drowned in pastoral life in the wilderness of Midian to save his own life? The field, thought to be a zone of guaranteed happiness and safety on earth, was disappointingly the Most Holy of God's presence. God said to him, "The earth where you stand is holy, take off your shoes." It would be great if this word was transformed into a voice of conscience, saying, "You have now received the divine mission of reconciliation.

If we do not realize the mission of reconciliation and live in our daily lives, our Christian identity will be reduced to the identity of a congregation trained in an institutional church. Paul said, "We are the letters of Christ." He used the literary expression, “We are the scent of Christ.” This letter should not be limited to the text and the smell. This is because Paul's words contain the implications of Christ's letter and fragrance that we must be reborn as today's Jesus who carries the cross, the sculpture of reconciliation. Paul confessed of this new existence, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20)."

It is an honor for us to join in his crucifixion as an envoy of Christ, but the rewards that follow will not be desirable in the world. It will be similar to the overwork, poverty, and exposure to life threats experienced by courier workers who work for our convenience today. When we take up the cross of love and justice without bias and throw ourselves for reconciliation, we may be banished to the wild as a scapegoat, as well as contempt and betrayal. But the role of reconciliation in which we join the Lord's crucifixion will lead to a wonderful new world that we have never experienced before, a kingdom of God, overcoming all the dualism and dichotomy.

In the context of today's sermon, I think the last U.S. presidential election has great implications. If President Trump's political moves so far have been a series of conflicts and divisions with allies as well as in the United States, Biden, who won the election, has emerged as a reconciler to resolve conflicts and divisions and heal them. I presume that poverty, the tragic experience of the family and the Christian faith in the growing up have given rise to the mission of being an ambassador of Christ. If Biden plays the role of a reconciler, the mentally and morally broken America will be returned to the New World and a world of conflict and division will become a world of peace. But we must not forget that the name and mission of " ambassadors of Christ" is not only for a specific person or country, but also for all Christians.

In June, Dr. Bang Sook, who attended our University Church for decades, passed away. I met him in the early 1980s, and for nearly 40 years, I had a strong relationship as a pastor and a member of my life. Dr. Bang was active domestically and internationally as a preventive medicine, not only participating in human suffering, but also sincerely loving his neighbors and helping his neighbors, completing the mission of reconciliation as an ambassador of Christ and received God's calling. I am a person who is blessed to meet him, the ambassadors of Christ whom I respect throughout my life. Among them, I consider it with great joy and reward to have a loving fellowship in Christ with Dr. Bang.

Brothers and sisters, I am grateful and honored that I have been in office for 15 years as a senior pastor at the University Ministry because I have been able to serve numerous brothers and sisters who, like Dr. Bang Sook, devoted themselves silently to the noble mission. May each of us now fully fulfill the mission of reconciliation by adding devotion to our dedication as “ambassadors of Christ,” which will serve as a cornerstone and starting point for bringing the Kingdom of God to life on this earth and glorify God. So, I pray that all of us who receive the grace of the Lord, saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" Thank you.