December 23, 2012
- Birth of the Savior -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today's story describes the scene that is familiar to us in the Christmas pageant. As soon as an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, he said, ' Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.' Then he went on to say, ' A Savior has been born to you.' In response to his words, 'Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. ' Today's words tell us that what happened at Christmas brings us great joy, saves us and gives us peace ,namely, peace of mind and relief. However, for the past ten years I have really felt that it is somehow difficult for us to take those words as they are, in view of the present age and our society. When I look back on the messages that I have delivered at Christmas masses and Christmas Eve Prayers for the past ten years, this difficulty has conspicuously been lingering in my heart. When it comes to the result of the last lower house general election, the intellectuals unanimously said that it clearly revealed the anxiety and lack of joy that we possess. In a documentary report broadcast on TV a month or so ago that dealt with poverty spreading among young people, the young woman who lost her parents when young and who was adopted by her grandparents said very feelingly, 'Why have I been born to this world? I had better not have been born', which I cannot forget. In response to this kind of anxiety and lack of joy, what can the event at Christmas tell? Can it give these kinds of people give great joy and peace?
2. The angel says, 'This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. ' A sign means a signal or symbol. For example, a green light is a sign that shows 'You can go. It's OK to go. ' It does not mean that the green light itself is equipped with this word nor that the image signifying ' It's OK to go'is projected directly in its light. But it only means that the message with this content in it is contained indirectly and symbolically in the green light. Those who see the green light read the message contained in it.
Thus the Bible says that Jesus' lying asleep in the manger is a signal. If so, it is no wonder that we should ask why what happened at Christmas is joy or salvation. It is as if we were trying to find out in what happened at Christmas itself the great joy or salvation or peace of mind that is directly given to us. If we try to see directly, what we can see there is nothing but a helpless baby and a successor lying in the manger soiled with saliva of cows and horses. We cannot help but say where on earth we can find joy or peace of mind in itself.
It is on how we viewers look at it that whether we can find out joy or salvation or peace of mind in it depends. We receive the message 'It's OK to go 'from just a green light. Likewise, Jesus is lying asleep in the manger. In such a scene, we can find out joy or salvation or peace of mind. When we get down to it, it is the faith of those who see the sign that enables them to do it.
God dares to use this kind of sign so that we can get joy or salvation or peace of mind from what happened at Christmas. This is what we have heard in the prayers of the Advent over and over again, I think. God will not let Christmas come in such a way as anyone can see that there lies joy or a shelter or salvation and that peace will be provided to us. Rather He lets it come in such a form as a mustard seed that can be blown away with a puff of wind. That is, even John the Baptist could not help but ask Jesus, 'Are you the Savior who is to come? ' In response to it, Jesus answered, 'Blessed are those who do not stumble over me .' Christmas doesn't come in such a way as the Superman flies from space and lands on the earth. It comes only through such a sign where a helpless baby is lying sleeping in the manger. The purpose of it is to give blessings to those who accept that simple sign with faith and who can find out joy or salvation or peace of mind there.
3. Then how were we fortunate enough to find out joy or salvation or peace of mind in the event that was nothing but this sign?
Today we read the Bible starting with Verse 8 but the word in Verse 7 is very familiar to us. It says, 'She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.' This directly tells us why Jesus was born in a stable and he was lying in its manger but that's not what it's all about, I feel. It tells us that this childbirth and nativity took place in the midst of what is described in such a way as ' because there was no room for them in the inn.' Chapter 2 Verse 1 describes how people were swayed and controlled completely under orders of the then Roman Emperor. How much the pregnant Mary was exposed to danger because of that! The childbirth took place in a filthy stable where nobody would not think of giving birth to a baby and that is covered with dung and urine of cows and horses. As a result, the newborn baby had nothing but to lie in the manger. The word 'there was no room for them in the inn' refers to the difficulty and dangerous situation that surround this family. For this newborn baby to be placed into the manger symbolically shows that the environment surrounding him will be really harsh not only at his birth but also in his future.
However, God made this family overcome this adversity of the environment. The childbirth was carried out safely in spite of the adversity where 'there was no room for them in the inn'. The baby is sleeping soundly without any problem in the manger, that is, in the filthiest ever environment. The angel says to us, 'Can't you find joy here? Can't you find salvation and peace of mind here? '
4. As this happened to this family and such things took place to Jesus, so those kinds of things can happen to us. It is there where we are told that we can find joy and peace of mind, I believe. This incident didn't only happen to Jesus. It is the event that will be given to us also. The reason why Jesus was born as a human being in this world is to show that the same event will happen to us also, and to show that what took place to Jesus will be given to us as well.
Whatever age we are in, we human beings are under the authority of the 'Emperor', I think. Even if time passes and the nation may conduct the affairs of state, however good they may be, for our sake, we cannot forget that it originates in the same work as was done by this Emperor. For example, in any age, the Emperor does the same thing in order to make people his military force and also to collect taxes from them. He conducts a census. Therefore, we are placed in the environment where 'there is no room for us.' When we get down to it, the place where we have to live is a stable and a manger.
To such people as us, the sign of Christmas tells the following thing: In spite of this adverse environment, we can live through it. We are literally provided with a new life by God and we can carry out some action that produces something like that and also a baby that is given birth to can sleep soundly even in the manger and grow up healthily.
This is the meaning of the word 'Do not be afraid ' that the angel said as soon as he appeared. We are afraid. We are afraid of the situation where under the reign of the Emperor there is no room for us and where we are compelled to lie in the manger. We are afraid that in such a situation where we cannot live and have no hope and have no joy. However it is not the voice from the angel from heaven but a whisper from an existence called the Devil that is just the opposite to the angel and also a voice within ourselves. The angel tells us not to be afraid. He tells us that if Jesus was born like this and slept soundly in the manger, and lived with joy although he lived a short life until he died on the cross, then we don't have to be afraid.
5. One more thing. I would like to mention joy or peace of mind that we have been able to get from this sign. I am attracted to the word 'a nursing baby.' Just as I mentioned a minute ago, the sign that Jesus was made to lie in the manger does not refer only to this scene but to his whole life in a symbolical way. The same is true with the expression 'a nursing baby,'I think. The whole life of Jesus is that of a nursing baby. When he was a newborn baby, he was brought up literally with milk from his mother and in his father Joseph's care. After he left his parents, the relationship with his disciples or those who served him was his milk. And he incessantly loved the heavenly God as his father and mother and he lived with the spiritual milk from God.
What is the joy or peace of mind that we are provided with, by knowing that Jesus is this kind of person? What is the salvation? It is the message that says that you can be a nursing baby like him and that you don't have to worry about it. Although I have repeated saying this, in any age we are compelled to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, by the existence like the Roman Emperor and as a result we lose the place to stay at. What the Emperor asks us is to be always independent as adults and nothing but to fight as a soldier for the Emperor and to earn money for him. He always assigns such a way to us. As a result, we come to lose room for ourselves rapidly, don't we? And we come to be afraid, don't we?
To such people as us, Jesus' sign talks to us as follows: Even if you don't have room for yourselves and you are placed in the manger, if you try to be a nursing baby, then you will be able to live a peaceful life. You are allowed to live as a nursing baby and not to cease to live as a nursing baby to people around you and to God, which gives us peace of mind or salvation or joy.
Did I answer the groan that the young woman uttered? To that person, a place to live as a nursing baby is essential, I think. The place is a church, right? We can get milk from God and also we get milk in the fellowship of the church and also this time, we give some milk to somebody. Although we live in the place that has no room for all the people, we would like to walk keeping in mind that we are nursing babies in the manger.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI)
The Gospel according to Luke Chapter 2, Verses 8 - 21
The Gospel according to Luke Chapter 2, Verses 8 - 21
8 Now in the same district there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch through the night over their flock.
9 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified,
10 but the angel said, 'Do not be afraid; I bring you good news, news of great joy for the whole nation.
11 Today there has been born to you in the city of David a deliverer ? the Messiah, the Lord.
12 This will be the sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.'
13 All at once there was with the angel a great company of the heavenly host, singing praise to God;
14 'Glory to God in highest heaven,
And on earth peace to all in whom he delights.'
15 After the angels had left them and returned to heaven the shepherds said to one another, 'Come, let us go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'
16 They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
17 When they saw the child, they related what they had been told about him;
18 and all who heard were astonished at what the shepherds said.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered over them.
20 The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen; it had all happened as they had been told.
21 Eight days later the time came to circumcise him, and he was given the name Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived.
(The Revised English Bible)
December 16, 2012
- The birth of a promised child -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today's sermon I entitled 'The birth of a promised child.'By promised child I don't mean Jesus, our Lord, but Isaac who appears in today's Bible passage. I feel though that the birth of Isaac and that of Jesus or the event leading up to Christmas somehow lie on top of each other.
The birth of John, the Baptist, who were born preceding Jesus, was from the couple of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth; they had not been given a child for long, as it was with Abraham and Sarah whose story is told in today's passage. And it may be that Mary had some reason for which she could not marry with Joseph, her bridegroom designate. Mary had a visit by the angel Gabriel who said to her, 'Greetings, most favoured one!'I am inclined to loose my imagination on it that the Lord favored her just because she had some reason which would have barred her from his favor.
Indeed, God used bodies of such being as Elizabeth and Mary in giving births to John and Jesus. Their birth certainly overlaps with that of Isaac which was realized by using the aged couple: man of 100 years and woman of 90 years by ages, which is the central element of today's passage.
According to a preacher, a wall paint of a church in northern France draws the birth of Jesus and that of Isaac in a single picture. Hearing this I thought that some people have a feeling similar to that of mine.
2. In the first two lines of today's passage it is written that the birth of Isaac took place as "the Lord promised," making good "what he had said about her," and "at the time foretold by God."
The promise of God mentioned here refers to what are told in Genesis chapters 17 and 18, to which we have already lent our ears to learn from.
God appeared before Abraham and Sarah and told them of the forthcoming birth of Isaac. When so told they could only sneer at it. But God accepted their derision and told them to call him Isaac (which means to laugh.) Verse 6 of today's passage reminds them of that message of God.
It's been just a year from when God's angel told of it to the Bible passage of today. Yet within that short span of time major events took place. The whole area where his nephew Lot had lived was destroyed by fire and brimstone rained down from the skies; and as if pushed out by the people fleeing in from that area Abraham and Sarah moved westward; finally having nowhere else to move to, they went to a place where Abraham made a big lie for the second time in his life and had to offer his wife who could by then be pregnant to King Abimelech for a pawn, saying she was his sister.
Even in a span of just a year so much took place. It was 25 years ago when for the first time God's promise, albeit in a vague form, was given them of they having descendants; it was given when Abraham was 75 and Sarah was 65 years old. The beginning was made when God promised them saying, 'I shall make you into a great nation,'as written on verse 2 of Genesis chapter 12. A number of major events took place since then. The couple had to go through various, numerous trials because the promise of God did not come true for years.
3. What kind of trials did they have to go through I am not going to go over each of them today. But I am made to wonder why it is that God took so many years and months to make his promise come true.
Some may say it was to train Abraham and Sarah to learn to be patient so as to make them hold firmly on to the hope. But in general retrospect, it does not seem to me that they ever acquired patience. As I touched on a little earlier, Abraham was a kind of man who, even during a short span of just one year, would offer Sarah for a pawn, lying she is his sister.
Abraham did not learn patience; incited by his wife, Sarah, he made a son, Ishmael by a slave woman, Hagar, for he could not wait for the promise about his son to come true, the story of which is told in the passage from verse 9 downward of chapter 21.
The passage from verse 8 downward of chapter 11 of Paul's Letter to the Hebrews is called the list of legendary forefathers of faith. There the couple is described as pious with deep faith, having walked their life steps 'by faith.'
But as a matter of fact they were not any such being.
What are undeniably shown in their 25 years of walk is how frail and broken the faith of the two was; the reality that they could not endure; that they could not hold on to the hope.
The significance of their 25 years lies in that such a real being, of how the forefathers of our faith were like, is described without smoke and mirror.
On reflection it is God who was enduring. God was loyal to promise and kept his words. Even so difficult it is for us and we may fail to hold on to his promise, God remains loyal to his words of promise. That is what the period of 25 years signifies.
4. There is yet other meaning in the period of the 25 years. Verses 2 and 7 say 'in his old age.'Verse 5 tells that Abraham was 100 years of age while verse 7 alludes that Sarah was too aged to bear a child without saying it so straight though.
Why did God dare to let the couple reach ages of 100 and 90? I think the answer is that God did so to bring them to the physical stage where they could no longer expect to have a baby. The state of his body described in Paul's Letter to the Hebrews was 'From one man, a man as good as dead.'
God carried the two to such a state and used their bodies, especially the womb of Sarah; not a young couple, nor a womb of young woman but bodies as good as dead; bodies which has no capacity to produce. But that is how God works and this is the meaning of their 25 years.
When told by the angel of her conception Mary responded saying, 'I am the Lord's servant. May it be as you have said.'This confirms in us the deep grace of God every time Christmas draws near and we are told of her story.
As shown just a moment ago God fulfills his promise as stated in his words, no matter how broken the faiths of Abraham and Sarah were. But for his words to be fulfilled he needs our 'bodies.'His promise is not going to come true into the reality of this world just by his own words alone. For the words of God to be fulfilled as promised, our bodies, even aged and as good as dead at that are indispensable.
5. Hearing the plan of God to use such worn out bodies of them, Abraham and Sarah could not help but get the giggles. For what purpose their aged bodies would be of use, they had to ask and laugh in derision.
This makes me wonder if it does not refer just to the state of our bodies but to the state of our society. The world in which we live is in such a state that we can only get the giggles.
As it happens it is the day of general election (of the lower house of the parliament) today. According to ex-ante opinion polls such parties are about to gain the seats of government or the casting votes as are insisting on the continuation nuclear power generation even though barely 2 years elapsed since the 3-11 incidence, and are urging equipping the country with nuclear arms, to say nothing about upgrading the self-defense forces to much mighty military forces. We have only to get the giggles, saying this is the status of Japan today.
However, on reflection, I assume that the status of Israel in the old days was much more abysmal. Last week and two weeks before last we learned from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and from Zephaniah at our Bible study and prayer meetings.
The time was the late 600 years B.C. when the big country of Assyria was the source of constant threat. Many, who were called prophets, were telling that their country was going to be alright and safe. Just a handful of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zephaniah warned the nation saying God will give even to them a severe future, a prophecy that actually came true.
As a matter of fact though, Judea in south was involved in a gruesome war during 587 to 586 B.C. which in the end destroyed the country: many who survived were taken captives to Babylonia. People were put in a situation where there was nothing left of them, no power to produce anything. They were helpless just as Abraham and Sarah were in today's story of the Bible.
People must have asked why God plunged them into such a misfortune. Then this story of Genesis must have told them something. The story told was the message that God would use us, even such helpless being, for his purpose.
People were in a situation where they could only get the giggles hearing that God would use them; where they could only ask back what, if any, they could produce. God, however, would use them out of such a situation. From them remaining in such a situation are produced people who would bear the future of their society. The prophets called them 'the remnants.'It meant that all wasn't lost.
Even at ages 100 and 90 some survive as remnants. God will use them. As years wore on we get aged and get sick; we'll be put in a situation where we can only get the giggles at us. But remember! That is where the promise of God works. Laugh in derision is changed to laugh in joy.
Genesis 21: 1 - 8 The early years of Isaac
1 The Lord showed favour to Sarah as he had promised, and made good what he had said about her.
2 She conceived and at the time foretold by God she bore a son to Abraham in his old age.
3 The son whom Sarah bore to him Abraham named Isaac,
4 and when Isaac was eight days old Abraham circumcised him, as decreed by God.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.
6 Sarah said, 'God has given me good reason to laugh, and everyone who bears will laugh with me.'
7 She added, 'Whoever would have told Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.'
8 The boy grew and was weaned, and on the day of his weaning Abraham gave a great feast.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
December 9, 2012
- One Lord and diverse gifts -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1-1 Today's word of the scripture makes me wonder very much how I can give a sermon. However, I would like to start with the word'the body of Christ' in Verse 12. In this letter, we can also find 'the church, which is his body, ' in Verse 23, Chapter 1, and 'We are members of his body, ' in Verse 30, Chapter 5.
1-2 To the author of this letter, Paul, it is one of the topics running all through his letter that the church is his body and we believers are members of his body. You can understand the meaning of this idea of his by matching it with Jesus' words 'For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them, ' in Verse 20, Chapter 18 of the gospel according to Matthew. Where believers, even if they are no more than two or three, come together in the name of Jesus, Jesus is. That is, we can feel as if Jesus' body were there. Those who are outside, as well, can get the impression that Jesus is where we believers get together.
2-1 However some people may feel infuriated that the believers' getting together, namely, the church, is called 'the body of Christ'," this way. Where in a real church in the world can you find such a facet of 'the body of Christ'? Can you really say that those who are inside the church feel as if Christ were there and also that those who are outside the church can see the existence of Christ in the church? Just because reality is the opposite, a lot of people stumbled in the church and left there. In Japan even such a denomination as "Nonchurch Denomination" was given birth to.
2-2 As a matter of fact, my father also left his church that way. He was really a pious believer until he was probably 50 years old. He served as a church official for a long time and he was deeply involved in the establishment and management of a kindergarten affiliated with the church. My father suddenly stopped going to church. It was caused by the problem of the relocation of his church. His church was involved in the plan for the expansion of a park and road-widening work. The pastor and part of church officials opposed it. My father agreed to it, probably because he had been working for a construction firm as a clerk for a long time and he might have wanted to replace the old church building and the kindergarten with new ones through the relocation plan. As a result of the dispute, he left the church. His fast life after that, which I imagine was caused by hardships not only at the church but also at his workplace, was beyond description. It was not until he narrowly escaped being killed after he was run over by two cars on the upper lane and the lower lane while he was staggering along a road drunk in a downpour of rain that he stopped a life of drunkenness.
In spite of that, his church life did not come back. It was after I went to Kooriyama Church as a new pastor and I called my parents there that his church life was restored.
2-3 How often I have watched and heard about this kind of reality about a church! Indeed the church has some facet of nothing but a gathering of human beings. It is understandable that some people stumble about it and leave the church. But it has some characteristics that are never lost, because it is 'the body of Christ' even if it shows the feature of the gathering of human beings strongly, I think. The reason why Jesus said, 'For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them, ' in Verse 20, Chapter 18 of the gospel according to Matthew was that he promised and assured that even if the church is nothing but a gathering of human beings, there is a characteristic in it that " I am there. " The apostle's creed that confesses "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of the saints," refers to this very point. To believe means that in reality 'the body of Christ' does not exist there and you might not be able to see with your own eyes. But just because Jesus says so, there he is. We believe in "the body of Christ" and we put our hope on it and do not lose our expectations.
3-1 Then what is the characteristic of the church that is never lost in that the church is 'the body of Christ'? Where in the church can we catch a glimpse of 'the body of Christ'?
3-2 First, what Paul says is what Verses 4 to 6 refer to. In that the church is 'the body of Christ', the believers are united to the body of Christ, and in that we are part of it, we are united to one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God, also it is over all and through all in all. This is a passage that was taught when they were baptized in those days and read aloud and that gives us the impression that it is an address at a ceremony.
3-3 Even if a church is nothing but a gathering of human beings, as long as it is a church, and as long as it is an organization in the name of Jesus, there is faith in Jesus flowing through it. Figuratively speaking, it is something like a community that has a person called Jesus for a common food. A couple or family that eat the same food for a long time comes to be alike in a variety of meanings. The community that lives on the same kind of food, Jesus, cannot help but resemble Jesus in character, and the way of life. We cannot help but reveal Jesus' character and what he has throughout his life. We release Jesus' aroma. It is 'the body of Christ' that appears in its community and the one that people outside the church sense somewhat when they see us, right?
3-4 Or we can put it figuratively. We are branches grafted onto the grape vine called Christ. As long as we are such beings, we cannot bear any other fruit than grapes that vines try to bear. If we try to bear other fruit, we will wither and we cannot help but be distorted. The church cannot help but bear fruit. In that it bears grapes, the vine of Jesus makes its appearance.
4-1 What is the foodstuff called Jesus that we always eat as 'the body of Christ'? What is the fruit of grapes that we are destined to add to? As we are always taught, it is shown in the fact that Jesus became a human and was crucified. We cannot eat any other food at the church. We cannot bear any other fruit. Of course, in this worldly life, we cannot escape from living on advancement in life or honor or rising in the world. However we live, we cannot help but seek a higher and more abundant life. However, in the church it is impossible at least, to put it as an official goal or slogan of it. We cannot officially regard it as the fruit that the church will try to bear.
4-2 We often hear it said that although a person lives such a life daily, in the church he behaves in that way and that he is a hypocrite. We hear that although he lives such a life in this world, is he really a Christian? But I have been reminded afresh that that is all right. What is important is that the way of life in the church or how we should behave is to live a life separate from the way of life in this world and its goal. It is to have the way of behaving in the church different from the way of behaving in this world. To have that kind of part in one day out of seven days is important. Not to seek after the height or wealth partly in our life, and to live on the food Jesus. What is important is to think that those kinds of things are essential to us and indispensable to us. Whatever worldly life we live, even if we live on honor or abundance, the official food in the church is Jesus alone. Just because he became a human being and he was put on the cross, in the church poverty or weakness is never looked down on or made light of.
4-3 I have what I felt intuitively at the church in my hometown when I was young. It was the very thing that the church possessed because it was'the body of Christ.'It is the aroma of Christ and the scent of him. Although I do not know about it accurately now, in my childhood memories, there was a man who belonged to the church. He worked as a garbage man riding on the garbage truck. He had some difficulty in speaking and he was physically handicapped. In worldly terms, he might have been discriminated against. However, in the church he was taken very good care of, I think. He gave me a very gentle gaze and I felt it very heartwarming when I was a child. Also one day a wedding ceremony was held at the church and my family attended it. While a small tea party was under way, the bride fell down in a fit of epilepsy. But everyone around her coped with the situation very naturally and although I was a child, I felt that there was nothing that made those who were present feel suspicious about or look down on her. This is what the church that is'the body of Christ'looks like to me. Although it is subtle, there is Christ, to be sure.
5-1 Next, what Paul mentions as the characteristic of the church that is never lost because it is 'the body of Christ'is what Verses 2 and 3 refer to, I think. At the end of Verse 3, Paul says, 'Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives, ' so as a reality of a church at Ephesus, to their regret, the number of things mentioned might have been very few or they might not have been seen. But the reason why he said, 'Spare no effort to …, 'is that it is possible if they make efforts.
There is nothing that is impossible. The reason why there is nothing that is impossible is that just because the church is 'the body of Christ', its character never fails to make its appearance.
5-2 Humbleness, gentleness, patience, peace and unity are mentioned. This is the character that is bestowed upon the church that is 'the body of Christ.'As the church is an organization made by human beings, it is equipped with such defects as the members not getting well with each other, their likes or dislikes and differences of their thoughts or ideas. Therefore, he doesn't say, 'Get rid of those obstacles and love everyone,'but such a thing is impossible. He doesn't say so. It is not a matter of emotions but we are to admit the position of the other person and respect it. Whatever person he is, we are to give him a right to speak. Such a thing is meant in here, I think.
5-3 One more metaphor. This is a metaphor which I often use. The church is the community whose doctor is Jesus alone or where Jesus' internal organs have been transplanted into the patients, I think. It is the gathering of patients who have negative sides and who because of that have undertaken an operation by Jesus and have managed to live by receiving Jesus' internal organs. If we put forward our positive parts, good parts or the parts that we are proud of, or our outstanding parts, there arise some conflict. However, the church is the gathering of those whose negative parts or lacking parts are made up for by Jesus, right? We are requested to regard ourselves as those kinds of people, which leads to giving the other person a right to speak, I think.
5-4 We are different in character or in jobs or in thoughts and also different in which political party to vote for. Generally speaking, it is impossible for those people to spend the same time. Those people form a church and share a certain time. That is really rare, right? It is possible just because Jesus is there, isn't it? It is the revelation of'the body of Christ,'right?
6 With regard to the third characteristic, I have run out of time. What Verse 7 and the following refer to is that just because the church is'the body of Christ,'we are given a variety of gifts. Gifts refer to the ones especially concerned with works of service. The characteristic that is peculiar to the church as 'the body of Christ,'is the abundance of works of service, right? Service is literally the word diakonia in Greek and 'service ' in English. Worship is also called church service. However, when it comes to service, it refers not only to worship service but also to the service that is indispensable just because we belong to the church. It is the service that first Jesus gave us. He gave us service by becoming a human being and using his whole life for us. He conveyed to us the happiness and pleasure of giving service in our life. Just because of that, we can carry out a variety of services with pleasure. There is no end to the service where two or three people get together and there is no end to the service for those people in this world.
Prayer.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 4: 1-13
1 I implore you then ? I, a prisoner for the Lord's sake: as God has called you, live up to your calling.
2 Be humble always and gentle, and patient too, putting up with one another's failings in the spirit of love.
3 Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit gives.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope held out in God's call to you;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 but each of us has been given a special gift, a particular share in the bounty of Christ.
8 That is why scripture says:
He ascended into the heights;
he took captives into captivity;
he gave gifts to men.
9 Now, the word 'ascended' implies that he has also descended to the lowest level, down to the very earth.
10 He who descended is none other than he who ascended far above all heavens, so that he might fill the universe.
11 And it is he who has given some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
12 to equip God's people for work in his service, for the building up of the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity inherent in our faith and in our manhood, measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
December 2, 2012
- Are you the one who is to come? -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. From today we enter the 4-week period of advent. Today we are given words which are most appropriate to usher in this special period. John, the Baptist, summoned two of his followers and sent them to Jesus with the question: 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?'
Luke does not tell what kind of situation John was placed at the time. Verses 19 and 20 of chapter 3 say as follows:
'Herod the tetrarch, when he was rebuked by him over the affair of his brother's wife Herodias and all his other misdeeds, crowned them all by shutting John up in prison.'
On how this John died Luke only slightly touches in the passage from verse 7 of chapter 9, while Mathew and Mark describe it in detail.
At any rate, the point here is that John, the Baptist, was detained in prison then, and couldn't tell if he is alive tomorrow. He, under such circumstances, sent his followers to Jesus with the question: 'Are you the one who is to come?'There have been various interpretations proposed since old days as to how one should take John asking this question.
As you know it well, the four Gospels tell about things with different
nuance. Nevertheless they say in chorus that it was John, the Baptist,who knew who Jesus was deeper than anyone else and who gave testimony to him as Christ, as the one who was to come.
That such John made this inquiry from the prison plunged many into anxiety. Was his faith in Jesus shattering as the one who was to come? Did he doubt about it? If that's was indeed the case, how much more shattered could we not be?
Therefore, we wish it wasn't the case. Perhaps it was out of similar wish that Mark and John made no mention of it in their Gospels. But Mathew and Luke wrote about it without concealing. As for me, I find solace and encouragement in the fact that even John, thereupon, doubted if Jesus was Christ.
John purposefully took the trouble of sending two of his followers to have answer to his question. Two followers mean that they were sent as witnesses, for one only could not make a witness. That way, John planned to let us, of the later generations, face up with the fact that he confronted Jesus with that question, I am inclined to think.
There will come a time also for you when you will have to make such a question just as I had to. I, who bore witness to Jesus for Christ, had my faith shattered at times, especially when placed in the most difficult circumstance of my life. Without fail there will come such a time for all the followers during each of their life time. And there is nothing contradictory about it. He bore witness and he also had doubt. That is how his faith stood. John posed the question to Jesus, as it were, on behalf of all of us.
2. Why did John have such a doubt? This is understood in the following way and I share that view.
What kind of image did John have about Christ or the one who was to come? The clue to understanding this is given in the passage following verse 7, chapter 3 where he says for his first words proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, 'Who warned you to escape from the wrath that is to come?' 'Already the axe is laid to the roots of the trees: and every tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire.'
For John the work of God is wrath, and an axe that will cut down trees which fail to produce good fruit. It is the one who was to come that demonstrates God's wrath in visible form.
No one else but John himself was about to become the victim of the evil 'axe' of Herod, who was producing bad fruits. It was the prayer of John to say that if Jesus was Christ, he wished him to demonstrate the power of God's axe, overpowering the evil axe of Herod.
It was not just the prayer of John, the Baptist, but the prayers of the followers of Jesus as well as of the general public of Israel of the time.
We are reminded anew that we, too, embrace a similar hope.
There is a question which arises in me whenever Christmas draws near as I told you in my sermon last week. The question is while it is said that Jesus was born 2000 years ago as the Savior, has this world where-after changed to one we can say 'was saved'? Which part of this world can we say is reined by God through Jesus?
To get to the core of it we, too, are imprisoned as John. There is a prison of disease, a prison of economic hardship, and in the world at large there are prisons of wars and violence.
We are having a general election at the last month the year. The Article 9 of the Constitution, which has so vitally contributed to the formation of peace-loving nation during the past 60 years, is now in an extremely precarious position as if a candle fire is put against gusty wind. Some political party proposes the foundation of state armed forces. I am afraid that a draft system could be introduced under such a regime, as, faced with the possibility of being sent out to warring areas of the world, would-be members of the self-defense force will get less and less in number. Such is the reality of Japan, today.
We, too, are imprisoned in such a world. And in the midst of such circumstances, we, too, cannot help but ask 'Are you the one who is to come?' Shallow and simply blissful it would be to say 'Merry Christmas!' without first putting this question.
We are hoping at somewhere and at all times that Jesus will bring 'towering tree-like' rein of God to this world. That was the very wish of John, the Baptist, too.
But as we learnt last week God intends to bring through Jesus his rein like something so tiny as mustard seeds that it's not easy to find and tell where they are. That's the very reason we must also ask, as John did, 'Where is your rein? Where lies your axe?'
3. Jesus concluded his answer to the question of John by saying, 'happy is he who does not find me an obstacle to faith.' It implies that chances are we find Jesus an obstacle. Happy if one does not. It's nothing less than lucky.
I gather that God thinks it's good enough for a single seed to fall on good soil, where it produced a crop, some several tenfold even though other 99 seeds out of 100 are ate up by birds, scorched on the rocky ground or choked among thistles.
God is more pleased to find just one man luckily 'believe' in Jesus, a mustard seed, as the Savior than all of the one hundred, seeing the rein of God appear on the earth as a towering tree through Jesus, prostrate themselves before Jesus saying, 'You are the Christ!' God intends to bless that one with happiness.
At first, Jesus told followers of John, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard."John, who was a forerunner and who baptized Jesus, a mentor, if you will, is now imprisoned and is looking where the salvation is to be found.
It would have been good for Jesus to go and visit John to tell he was the one to come, I am inclined to think. It would have been good to liberate him out of prison with mysterious power if not in the form of God's work making appearance of a towering tree.
Yet Jesus gave only an answer which could be stumbling. "Tell John what you have seen and heard."What is shown to John is hearsay; what his disciples heard. No matter how much he hears of it, that is not going literally to happen to him.
I tend to think that John is receiving the answer of Jesus even at this time on behalf of us just as he posed the question to Jesus on behalf of us. The answer he got is the answer we receive. In other words, the answer we'll be given is also a hearsay.
We have hearsays from authors of the Bible. We also have hearsays from pastors who read the Bible and tell about them in sermons. But that is pleasing to God. God says it is good and enough. God thinks it is what is necessary and is also sufficient.
4. What John heard was that 'the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are brought good news.'
Yet how so much John may hear the hearsay none of that was going to happen to him. And this was the question we tackled with in our worhship service on the last Sunday when we commemorated the ones called to heaven. A widow at Nain got her son revived. But that is a thing that's never going to happen to the bereaved who come to the service.
If that's the case what do we listen to the hearsay for through the Bible. What good is there for us to listen to it? We listen to it because what are written in the Bible are going to take place, in some sense, to us, audience, if not literally.
It is not of no avail to listen to the hearsay. 99 men out of 100 will throw it away as 'mustard seed for no use.' They stumble on it. But in the heart of just one man, something will happen. What could that something be?
A man, Jesus by name, was good to be born as a human being. He was good to live a life of a mustard seed, as it were. He was blown off on the cross. But when we hear of his life through the Bible, I cannot help but feel that it is joy to live as humans. Jesus came to this world as a human being, lived a life with much trouble around, and ended up on a cross. What it tells is that even such a life is happy.
To live as a human being in this world is not so bad. The eyes of Jesus which see the world and the human life like that will become our eyes, our feet and ears, and his soundness and cleanliness become ours. The happiness of Jesus becomes our happiness. That is what it means to be told of the Gospel.
Not in ways in which the whole world in an overwhelming sway ? but in such a way as each of us encounter with Jesus, the mustard seed, and by being connected with him, we get to be able to see what we could not see, live in ways we could not, find joy we did not know. This is the answer to our question, 'Are you the one who is to come?'
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 7:18-28
18 When John was informed of all this by his disciples,
19 he summoned two of them and sent them to the Lord with this question: 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?'
20 The men made their way to Jesus and said, 'John the Baptist has sent us to ask you, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?"'
21 There and then he healed many sufferers from diseases, plagues, and evil spirit; and on many blind people he bestowed sight.
22 The he gave them this answer: 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are reaised to life, the poor are brought good news ?
23 and happy is he who does not find me an obstacle to faith.'
24 After John's messengers had left, Jesus began to speak about him to the crowds: 'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?
25 No? Then what did you go out to see? A man dressed in finery? Grand clothes and luxury are to be found in palaces.
26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes indeed, and far more than a prophet.
27 He is the man of whom scripture says, Here is my herald, whom I send ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before
you.
28 'I tell you, among all who have been born, no one has been greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he is.'
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
November 18, 2012
- Abraham lies once again -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
The Bible passage for today describes a series of events that followed the falsehood which Abraham made against the King of Gerar, Abimelech, saying that Sarah, his wife, was his 'sister.'
We do not know much about Gerar. It is said to mean southern part of where people called Philistines lived on the coast of Mediterranean Sea. How it happened that Abraham came to dwell there, I will come back to it and tell you in due course.
As will have been implied by the title of sermon 'Abraham lies once again,' the first point I would make is that he made almost the same kind falsehoods twenty plus years ago. It appears on Genesis chapter 12, verses 10 and onwards.
Just as I told you then in connection with the story of chapter 12, here also it is difficult to accept word by word that the King of the Land where Abraham moved to dwell took Sarah, his wife, to his side hearing that she was his sister.
Sarah was about 65 in age in the story of chapter 12 and was about to become 90 in the story of today. Some would argue that people in the old days used ways of counting ages which are different from how we do it today. Anyhow, I doubt that the King would take such an aged woman near to him.
Today's passage tells about the King laying hand on her. But he attempting to do such a thing is inconceivable.
I conjecture that it was like a pawn which Abraham, who temporarily resided on the land of others, offered to the King of the land. A pawn so offered had to be treated with all respect and courtesy. To have been taken near the King must have meant that.
If that was indeed the case, her importance must have been greater if she was presented to the King as the wife of Abraham rather than his sister. There was no need for Abraham to dare tell she was his sister. Yet he made lie for two times.
I am drawn by the depth or the length of the arms of the Bible in that it depicts rather than conceals that Abraham lied two times. Abraham is the father of faith for the people who read Bible. It is no surprise if the author chose to hide his second lie if not the first one.
Even more, it was a lie at a particular moment in time. It was around the time, I mean, a long-expected baby was soon to be born to his wife Sarah as written in chapter 21. It was around time when the angels of God told them that a baby will have been born when they come again to visit them about this time next year as in chapter 18.
It was atrocious for Abraham to make such a lie and offer his wife who may well have been pregnant for a pawn to be wife of other man at such a time whatever state of things may have lied behind. In this sense the falsehood at this time was a number of times more atrocious than the one made twenty and some years ago.
However, the Bible depicts it in a detached tone. Why? If you allow me to jump to the conclusion of today's sermon, it was because the author knew that Abraham and Sarah were going to be alright. It's not they were alright on their own; the author believed they were going to be alright if they were such liars because God would protect them. While there was such an atrocity in chapter 20, the Bible says that the couple will surely have a baby as in chapter 21.
How greatly the people of Israel or the Jewish people were encouraged by this story, I cannot tell, who were plunged over a number of times into some similar situation as the couple of Abraham and Sarah had been.
The next question is why, then, had Abraham to move to Gerar and why he had to make such a lie.
I want us to focus our attention to the words 'from there.' Those of you who have Bible with cross-reference will see that Genesis chapter 18, verse 1 is referred to in this connection.
'There' means the side of the terebinths of Mamre. According to chapter 18 it was there by the terebinths of Mamre that Abraham met with the angels of God who told him about the coming birth of Isaac and the destruction of the town where Lot, his nephew, lived.
Abraham, hearing the destruction of the town, clung to God desperately and drew a promise from him that if there were 10 men of innocence the town will be saved.
Going further back on the book we learn that by the terebinths of Mamre had to do with Lot since early on, and was a place Abraham could not forget. Chapter 13 tells there came a time when Abraham had to part with Lot. For Lot the first thing was to maintain flocks of livestock and he chose all the well-watered Jordan plain and settled at the infamous Sodom.
Parting with Lot who's been together since they left the home town and who Abraham even thought of appointing as his heir, he was lonesome and full of anxiety about his future. To him God told 'I shall make your descendants countless as the dust of the earth.' And it was by the terebinths of Mamre that Abraham built an altar to worship God who told him such words of promise. It was also this place that Abraham heard a call for help from Lot who was drawn into wars with the kings and was captured.
The words 'From there' having such a background, Abraham moved to Gerar to settle. I take it to mean he was departing from the place where he built an altar and worshipped God for years, where he listened to the words from God and met with the angels of God. The crisis or setback of his faith is symbolically described here, I feel.
Direct cause of his move to Gerar seems to be the destruction of all the Jordan plain, which is told in the chapter preceding today's story. The grief over possible death of Lot could drive him onto the move. The anger and repulsion toward God who destroyed the town could be the motivating force, with whose angels he had made serious pleas not to.
It could also be that so many people fled away from the destroyed plain land that not much room was left for Abraham and his people, the temporary dwellers from other land, to stay on. Pushed and further pushed to the western edge of the land, called Gerar, facing the Mediterranean Sea. Is this how God treats him, Abraham wondered.
He could not believe God any longer. The situation was the same in chapter 12 also. Putting trust on God and having parted with the clan's people heading onto a foreign land at age 75, the first thing that befell him was famine, something diametrically opposite from blessing.
He could no longer keep trust on God; was caught by imaginary fears and got to having to tell a lie. It's the same thing all over again this time. He was driven to having to falsify just at a time when they were about to be given a baby; a number of times more serious lie compared to the earlier one.
How did God treat such Abraham and Sarah? Has he forsaken them as such fellows who failed to keep faith in God and made an atrocious lie?
No! He never turned himself that way. On the contrary, God protected them. Through Abimelech, whom Abraham was afraid of, God did so. By appearing to Abimelech in a dream and telling him what kind of calamities can happen if he doesn't redress his action, God protected Abraham and Sarah.
A point which stimulates my curiosity is why it is that God chose to make his appearance to Abimelech rather than to Abraham. He may have avoided to make appearance because conditions were not suitable as both Abraham and Sarah were weak in faith and have kept themselves away from worshipping God.
Verse 11 says, "There is no fear of God in this place and I shall be killed for the sake of my wife." It must have been much greater surprise for such Abraham to be told that the one he was afraid of, in fact, feared God, contratry to his expectation.
I cannot help but imagine how deep a signal of solace the Jewish people could receive from this, who were placed in the similar situation as the couple of Abraham and Sarah. The fear Abraham held "There is no fear of God in this place," was indeed the fear the Jewish people continued to hold. They must have encountered with a number of instances in which the fear turned out true.
But it is also true that there were someone like Abimelech. There were people who feared God, encountered with God and treated the Jews fairly even among the people and the places where it was thought "There is no fear of God."
Living under threats and imaginary fears, the people of Israel came to encounter with such kind of people for the facts, and thereby were allowed to overcome crisis, I gather.
Through the words of Abimelech, Abraham came to realize that God treats him, such an atrocious liar, as a 'prophet,' and plans to save Abimelech by his intercession.
Prophet or a man of prayer with power to make it happen is not necessarily a man who never lied or man who never felt his faith weakened. Rather it is a man like Abraham.
Just because Abraham was such he came to realize the depth of God who will support, protect and treat such him as a prophet. It is not that they are going to be alright on their own. They are alright because God protects them, he could tell out of his own experience.
Prayers of Abraham really healed the King and his people in the court, the Bible tells. I want us to be like such a prophet.
(This is translation from the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
Genesis 20: 1 - 18
1 Abraham journeyed by stages from there into the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur, living as an alien in Gerar.
2 He said of Sarah his wife that she was his sister, and King Abimelech of Gerar had her brought to him.
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said, 'You shall die because of this woman whom you have taken; she is a married woman.'
4 Abimelech, who had not gone near her, protested, 'Lord, will you destroy people who are innocent?
5 He told me himself that she was his sister, and she also said that he was her brother. It was in good faith and in all innocence that I did this.'
6 'Yes, I know that you acted in good faith,' God replied in the dream. 'Indeed, it was I who held you back from committing a sin against me. That was why I did not let you touch her.
7 But now send back the man's wife; he is a prophet and will intercede on your behalf, and you will live. But if you do not give her back, I tell you that you are doomed to die, you and all your household.'
8 Next morning Abimelech rose early and called together all his court officials; when he told them the whole story, the men were terrified.
9 Abimelech then summoned Abraham. 'Why have you treated us like this?' he demanded.
'What harm have I done you that you should bring this great sin on me and my kingdom? You have done to me something you ought never have done.'
10 And he asked, 'What was your purpose in doing this?'
11 Abraham answered, 'I said to myself, "There is no fear of God in this place, and I shall be killed for the sake of my wife."
12 She is in fact my sister, my father's daughter though not by my mother, and she became my wife.
13 When God set me wandering from my father's house, I said to her, "there is a duty towards me which you must loyally fulfil: wherever we go, you must say that I am your brother."'
14 Then Abimelech took sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He returned Sarah to him
15 and said, 'My country is at your disposal; settle wherever you please.'
16 to Sarah he said, 'I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver to compensate you for all that has befallen you; you are completely cleared.'
17 Then Abraham interceded with God, and his slave-girls, so that they could have children;
18 for the LORD had made every woman in Abimelech's household barren on account of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
November 11, 2012
- The breadth, length and height and depth of Christ -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.The Bible passage for today depicts Paul's prayer for the church of Ephesians which he made following up on his earlier prayer in the passage from chapter 1, verse 15.
The first thing he prayed at this time was 'God may grant you inward strength,' as written in the latter part of verse 16. This reminds us right away of other words by the same Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 which said, 'No wonder we do not lose heart! Though our outward humanity is in decay, yet day by day we are "inwardly" renewed.'
Paul tried to tell us first among all others that we have a part or a domain called 'inward humanity.' It is for this reason, he says, that we don't have to lose heart; for even if our outward humanity is in decay, we are inwardly renewed day by day.
What do our inward being and the outward humanity mean by the way? Common sense tells that our outward humanity means our outside part or body while inward being refers to our heart or mind. But I say it is a wrong understanding.
Our body as well as our heart and mind are subject to the influence of outside environment or of the circumstances in which we are placed; they constitute only an outward humanity.
Our inward humanity, on the other hand, refers to what the verse 17 says 'through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love.' Getting to the core it means an inner part of heart, where faith is germinated, so-called the spiritual domain where we get connected with God and where we house Jesus.
If we are just an outward being we'll be subjected to the influence of outside environment and we can only be slave of external circumstances; for we get weak in mind as our body weakens.
Paul is now a prisoner of the Roman Empire who cannot even tell if he will pass execution tomorrow. If we humans are just an outward being, Paul would have found himself tied down in the circumstance and could not have any hope whatsoever at all.
The fact of the matter is we have inward being, which is not tied down in the outward circumstances, and which is renewed and strengthened even if our body and mind are in decay under the influence of the outward circumstances. For this very reason Paul could write such a letter to the Philippians which we learnt before his letter to the Ephesians in such way that it is called a letter of joy.
2.We are reminded anew that unlike other living creatures, we, humans, are so made as to have a domain of inward being from the beginning.
I often tell you in my sermon citing from chapter 1 of Genesis that God created us humans, and only us humans, in his image. The whole Bible starts by saying, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' Based on this line we are told that the image of God in us means the power of creation.
Today we are given a bit different perspective on this point. I wonder if the phrase 'in his image' doesn't mean we are a being so deeply connected with or tied to God that we even resemble him. I gather that only being such we can live a creative life.
Formed from the dust of the ground, humans are only an instrument made of soil just as other living creatures, and being an instrument of soil we are subject to the influence of environment.
Yet we can live creatively and freely because we are tied to God. We are a being fundamentally linked with God from the beginning, for God curved it and no one can take it away from us or destroy it. This is the inward humanity in us, I would think.
Is the inward being set in us at our birth as human or since the beginning of creation something that grows when left to itself side by side with our growth in outward humanity, can we say? I don't think it will. I think our internal being needs day to day nutrition just as our body and heart need daily nutrients.
What about us? We don't fail to take food for the growth of our bodies and we never fail to get doctor's help when we fall sick. Also for the growth of our heart and mind, we incessantly take in nutrients through education.
But aren't we neglecting to take care of our inward being? Just because left to itself without care, the inward being begins to strike back, if I may put it that way. The greater the potential or ability God gave to the inward humanity the greater the problems that may arise tend to be as a result of it not growing and left hungry. Into the inward being which grew distorted due to lack of nutrient enter various enigmatic characters and they stampede body, heart and mind of a man.
We learned from one example of that at our Bible Study & Prayer Meeting of the past week. It was about a woman in the Gospel according to John, chapter 4 who met with Jesus at the side of a well of Sychar, a Smaritan town.
She had discourse with Jesus about water, to begin with. Then it was revealed that she had as many as 6 men for husband, and in the end they talked about true worship.
The whole interlocution showed that she had been spiritually thirsty, which could only be healed by her true encounter with God but that she had been seeking to find healing in so many men. Thirst and hunger of her inward being forced her to take such a course of life.
We cannot tell how many live like that today; look at their obsession with drugs, alcohol, goods and money, power, violence and crimes. It's the dear cost to pay as a result of having neglected the inward being and cared only for the growth of outward being, it seems to me.
3.For this very reason we must nurture and strengthen our inward being. We must incessantly feed them.
What does it mean we should do in concrete terms? Verse 17 says, 'through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts.' It's called the inner habitation of Christ. Verse 20, chapter 2 of Paul's letter to the Galatians says, 'the life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me.' I wonder how it is ever possible to get to that state of faith. I rather suspect that it will require some very rare, extraordinary experience of faith for one to be able to believe like that.
This then turns my eyes onto the two words of the following verses. Verse 18 says, 'may you be strong to "grasp" what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love.' Verse 19 says, 'and to "know" it, though it is beyond knowledge.'
These two words suggest that it is important to grasp and to know rather than to have an extraordinary experience of faith for us to get to be able to believe that the life I now live is the life which Christ lives in me, for us to get to stand firm supported by the width of the love of Jesus, for us to be filled with the fullness of God, and for us to be given strength to our inward being.
They mean that if we get to grasp and know the width etc. of the love of Jesus that will be your food to grow your inward being. It means that if you eat them from day to day Jesus will come and live in us.
Verse 20 says, 'who is able through the power which is at work among us to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive.' The extent to which we can get to grasp and know the love of Jesus is very limited indeed, as I will come back and touch on later. It remains just so small a part of the width etc. of Jesus that we start worrying if such a little limited understanding, knowledge and faith of ours are good to strengthen and grow our inward being.
But it is going to be alright. God will do something big, far exceeding such of our worries. Therefore, it is good and suffices if we continue our small efforts to grasp and know Jesus day by day, and in that way take food day after day.
We cannot take large amount of food at once. We cannot eat big and store it in ourselves. Excessive volume of food no matter how nutrient they are will turn out harmful if taken all at once.
Food to grow and strengthen our inward being is best taken a bit by bit day by day. A little grasping and knowledge though they may be, the important thing is to continue getting them. They will grow our inward being much beyond what we think they will and God's power will be at work there.
4.Taught in this way, we needn't humble ourselves for knowing the width etc. of the love of Jesus only so much. We get to be able to find joy straightforwardly in knowing of it, it looks to me.
According to the flow of the story, what Paul describes here as the width and length of the love of Jesus seem to refer to what he mentioned in verses 1 through 13 or more specifically verse 7 and 8 of chapter 3, to which we lent our ears at the last sermon on this letter.
There he says, 'To me, who am less than the least of all God's people, he has granted the privilege of ---.' Paul was not just less than the least. He stood against Jesus by persecuting those who believed in him, stood against God who sent Jesus to the world. By the common knowledge of God he had nothing suitable whatsoever
to be granted a linkage and allowed in a contractual relationship with God. People of Israel, especially the Pharisees to whom Paul belonged, believed you are not permitted entry to the contractual relationship with God unless the human side meets the pertinent qualifications. The 'knowledge (about God)' mentioned in verse 19 meant that kind of knowledge.
But through his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus, Paul was made to know the love of Jesus and the grace of God, which turned out far beyond what the conventional knowledge taught him. It was the love that even picked him, the persecutor and enemy, as a missionary. That was the apparent expression of 'width of the love of Jesus' which Paul mentions in today's passage.
It was the same love just as the disciples of Jesus came to know. They abandoned and betrayed Jesus. They were sealed at that point in time and could not make a move forward. Yet Jesus who was forsaken, betrayed and died, resurrected from his death on the cross; and he made his steps forward. He appeared before the disciples who closed themselves off from outside world. When Jesus appeared he did not show the disciples his wounds on the cross; did not woe or held them accountable. Instead Jesus gave them the word, 'Be at peace,' and told them to propagate the joy and grace of the reunion.
This represents 'the length of the love of Jesus.' Instead of judging and putting blame on the disciples based on a short span of time when they abandoned him, he would use them owing to the length of connection with them. 'The length of his love' refers to this length.
When it comes to 'the height and depth of the love of Christ,' they refer to what's concealed in his incarnation and his death on the cross, as far as I understand them. Abandoning the height of being with God, Christ was born as a human and put him in the depth of lowliness to the point of death on the cross.
Yet that lowliness and the depth were the joy for Jesus. Height and lowliness, suffering and joy, weakness and strength: all of them mingled in the incarnation and the death on the cross of Jesus and turnover our common sense and so far unquestioned postulate.
As for me, I have very little to grasp and know about the width etc. of the love of Christ. Whenever Christmas season comes I have a strong desire to shout out that I have only very little I can talk about Christmas, that I have nothing more to tell, nothing new to tell about Christmas which come year after year.
Yet it is alright as is. Howsoever little understanding and knowledge we have about the love of Jesus, they are the food for us which will not fail to nourish and strengthen our inward being.
(This is translation from the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 3 : 14 - 21
14 With this in mind, then, I kneel in prayer to the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
16 that out of the treasures of his glory he may grant you inward strength and power through his Spirit,
17 that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love. With deep roots and firm foundations
18 may you, in company with all God’s people, be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth
19 of Christ’s love, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you be filled with the very fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able through the power which is at work among us to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive,
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation for evermore! Amen.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
November 4, 2012
- Do not weep -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.(1) Today we offer a prayer for the anniversary for those who ascended to heaven but we do not read the Bible for that purpose alone. In accordance with the usual order of the scripture, I have chosen the words out of the Gospel according to Luke. The content is suitable for today's worship service.
(2) Even so, especially the bereaved families may have some thought if they have read today's part in the Bible. This mother, who lost her only son, came across Jesus very fortunately and she had her son resuscitated. However, such a thing cannot take place to us who read this Bible. The same is true not only with you but also with an innumerable number of people who have read this story. Such a thing cannot take place to us, and still less, cannot be hoped for. Then what on earth does it mean to read this kind of story? Isn't it nothing but pie in the sky?
(3) I have the same idea as yours. As a person who reads the Bible on behalf of you, I have such feelings. Just because of that, in response to this idea, I have the following replies. Verse 15 says,'Jesus gave him back to his mother. ' And to have your loved one returned can happen in a sense, can't it? As I repeat many times, those who ascended to heaven cannot return to you with their body and with their life restored. But in some sense, we have a subtle feeling that those who ascended to heaven are returned as a living existence when we read this word. We come to understand that this kind of thing is taking place to me as well. Just because such a thing has taken place to bereaved families from generation to generation, this word was written in the Bible and has continued to be read, hasn't it?
2.(1) Two weeks ago, I had an opportunity to talk to a daughter of the deceased U for the first time since her funeral. She said that after the funeral, she had various shocks and that she felt for her mother, which caused her remorse to grow bigger. But she said that in her dreams her mother came to appear together with her deceased father. She said that she had very warm and happy feelings on such occasions. I heard the same kind of thing many times at the Kooriyama Church. N herself had very great difficulty accepting her mother's sudden death and still less, that kind of death, didn't she? But by degrees at God's permission, and with the help of her deceased husband, she became able to have such warm and happy feelings, I imagine. Thus, she came to appear in her dreams. That is also a manifestation of 'our loved one's having returned to us', isn't it?
(2) As I have now said, to a bereaved family a person who ascended to heaven has always been the one who had his life deprived through death. Namely, the one who had his precious thing destroyed and deprived through illness or a sudden accident. As a matter of fact, it is not true, but to bereaved families, a deceased person is always such a kind of existence wherever he may be. It is rather those who remain in this world that make a dead person such an existence, isn't it? But actually, to a dead person, what is described in today's words takes place. Such a dead person is not resuscitated with a body but he experiences what I describe from now and is placed in a situation that is gaining warmth and a happy state just as I talked about N. To grasp a deceased person as such an existence and not to regard the deceased person only as the one who was deprived or destroyed but to accept him is to have 'a loved one ' returned, isn't it? I hope that you will be able to understand that kind of thing by reading today's word in the Bible.
3.(1) Now a clue to raising a dead son was, just as shown in Verse 11 and the following, that Jesus happened to see a large crowd that was carrying a dead person, the only son of his mother, and that he was very sorry for the mother filled with sorrow and grief and that he approached her, saying, 'Don't cry,' and touched the coffin.
(2) It is said that Luke, the author of this gospel, was a doctor. As a doctor, how often he had attended the funeral with such profound grief! How much he had wished that a miracle would happen! The event that such a person as he described is this story. We can imagine how Luke thought from the fact that he took the trouble to put that story just behind the event described from Chapter 7 Verse 1 through 10. The story just before that praised the Roman centurion. In response to that faith, came about a miracle.
(3) Then how about today's story? There is no faith at all. What we can find in it is only grief. It is nothing but a crowd that is grieving. When we have lost our precious person, what we have is grieving. But there Jesus comes up to us one-sidedly. He gives us the word 'Don't cry ' that no one can say, and he touches the coffin.
(4) Bereaved families often say that they are hurt very much when their relatives or friends or church friends, trying to encourage them, say 'Why don't you stop crying? Now that so and so months have passed, why not stop crying for the sake of the deceased person? ' However, they think that if they are not spoken to, they are left alone. Therefore, we, people around the bereaved families, are at a loss what to do. What today's word teaches us anew is that
those who can say 'Don't cry ' are only Jesus and God. It is supposed that by putting his hand on the coffin, he has been tainted with impurity. It is a symbol that Jesus put himself in the same position, I think. Only Jesus , who put himself under the suffering of the cross and from there was resurrected, can say, ' Don't cry.' Only he can approach the grieving crowd. Only he can touch the coffin and stop those carrying it. What we can do is to grieve together, isn't it? We have only to join those carrying the coffin, don't we? We have only to leave saying the words'Don't cry ' up to Jesus. Then Jesus will approach us, who have nothing but to grieve.
4.(1) Thus, Jesus said to the dead son, 'Young man, I say to you, get up!'
The event in which Jesus raised a dead person was described three times in the Bible. What is common to all of them is that Jesus talked to the dead person. To the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, he said, 'Talitha, cumi ', which is translated, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise! ' When a dead person is spoken to by Jesus, he obeys his words. It does not mean that those who are dead cannot listen to words.
(2) I am always moved by this story. It is a dead person who waits for words that are necessary for and indispensable to them and no other existence obeys them faithfully as the dead person, right? The voice that the dead person needs, as a matter of fact, may not be the grief or the voice of sorrow at the funeral. Rather, such a voice may all the time confine the dead person in the position that I mentioned at the beginning of my talk, that is, the person who was deprived or the one who was destroyed. Of course, the bereaved families have nothing else to do. That is the only thing that the bereaved family can do but, in any case the indispensable voice to a dead person is God's voice, Jesus' voice, the voice 'Get up. Get out of your grave! ' When such a voice is heard, the dead person obeys it.
(3) In this world, there are some families who won't listen to your talk about Jesus, however earnestly you try to speak to them. People, who live in this world and because of that, put priority on worldly things, don't think it necessary to listen to Jesus and refuse to God's voice. Once they pass away, we come to realize whose voice is necessary to us and what voice is indispensable to us. Just because of that, as I said some time ago, Verses 10 to 11, Philippians 2 will say, 'At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ' Surely the time will come for those under the earth and those who have passed away without believing in Jesus to confess that Jesus Christ is indispensable to them.
5.(1)The Bible says, Thus, 'the dead man sat up and began to talk. ' What he said is not described. It must be what is described in Verse 11 and the following and what the man experienced as a dead person. Where he heard nothing but grief and sorrows at his funeral, came the strange voice,'Don't cry' and 'Get up! ' He found that it was the voice that was necessary to him. And everything turned out to come true as was said. He found that the dead 'self ' is not an existence that ends forever but an existence that discerns the voice that is necessary to him and can respond to it. Now he found himself to be an existence that listens to and follows God's voice. He knew how immense God's power is. Probably this part will tell us what I have said now.
(2) Those who ascended to heaven are also those who tell us such a thing, aren't they? They are returned to their bereaved families as such an existence, right?
(This is translation from the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
The Gospel according to Luke Chapter 7, Verses 11 - 17
11 Afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd.
12 As he approached the gate of the town he met a funeral. The dead man was the only son of his widowed mother; and many of the townspeople were there with her.
13 When the Lord saw her his heart went out to her, and he said, 'Do not weep.'
14 He stepped forward and laid his hand on the bier; and the bearers halted. Then he spoke: Young man, I tell you to get up.'
15 The dead man sat up and began to speak; and Jesus restored him to his mother.
16 Everyone was filled with awe and praised God. 'A great prophet has arisen among us,' they said; 'God has shown his care for his people.'
17 The story of what he has done spread through the whole of Judaea and all the region around.
(The Revised English Bible)
September 23, 2012
- We as a holy temple -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Paul tried, by the words of today's Bible passage, to underscore time and again that Jesus is the essential point of the foundation or the base for us Christians and, in particular for the church, which is a gathering of Christians. Verse 20 refers to a cornerstone. I want us to pay heed to it that this unusual word is used here. Those among you who use the Bible with conferred indices will notice that verse 22 of the Psalm 118 and verse 16, chapter 28 of the Book of the ISAIAH are referred to in the footnote.
These words have great relevance to message of the sermon for today and I'd like to read the words from the Psalms. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner-stone. This is the LORD's doing; it is wonderful in our eyes."(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE) Not only Paul but believers of the early church accepted that Jesus was the "stone the builders rejected." They believed that God put Jesus as the corner-stone of the lives and houses of them, the followers, and the corner-stone of the church they got together for building.
2. Why it is then that in this secular world builders would reject Jesus as worthless, unnecessary stone? What kind of stones builders in the secular world would usually use for the foundation or the base?
Stimulated by the development of politics these days, I have been led to give thought to this question. People in Japan and in China seem to be upset and are raising their fists, though the atmosphere looks a bit calmed down the past couple of days.
In the meantime, all candidates running for the political party chief, which it is conjectured will assume the office of next government, argue in chorus for the formal change to the Constitution article 9 and for the strengthening of military power as a way of defending the country and its territory (even by using the force should it become absolutely necessary.) They would say it is natural to do so to protect a sovereign state. But what they think in their mind is the foundation, the base or the essential for the state and people's living is military power in the final analysis. The state and the territory maintained by military force is the cornerstone in their eyes.
When I was in Koriyama I was one of the members for several years to call on the people in Fukushima prefecture to join together in an assembly for the purpose of maintaining Constitution article 9 and served as the representative for the assembly at Koriyama city. The first approach to me was made by a retired master of the Fukushima University. To be honest, I had some hesitation in joining the movement. I was afraid some of my church members may have a sense of aversion that their pastor will be involved in what are political activities whatsoever you may say in defense of it.
However, by sheer coincidence though, I was watching a video-film about Jesus going through his hard time, entitled 'The Passion,' when I got the phone-call from the retired school master. Soldiers approached Jesus to seize him when Peter, one of the disciples, took up sword and cut off ear of a soldier. But Jesus said to him, "Put up with your sword. All who take the sword die by the sword." Seeing the scenery I, in tears, felt how fortunate it is for me to have come to believe him and have come be called by his name. The story of the film took away the hesitation from me in joining the movement. No member of the church criticized me for doing so. Some showed big endorsement and even participated in the group's gatherings. This, I think, was because they understood that at the bottom of what was in my mind lay the words of Jesus.
In my capacity as a Christian pastor, I used to tell the gatherings of Constitution Article 9 Association the words of Jesus who said "Put up with your sword. All who take the sword die by the sword," and indicated that if we went upstream in search of the source of article 9 we will get to these words of Jesus. I also used to tell them that to take up swords and use them isn't going to be confined just to the relationship with the states or to the international relationship but amounts to us using them against ourselves and our beloved.
The situation we don't like to see surrounding us and the hardship we bear in ourselves, we stand ready to take up swords against and cut them off to do away with them. We are such as are inclined to live by our strength and force. In other words, are we not inclined to make such strength or forces the corner stone when building a house? And isn't that the reason why we are apt to reject Jesus, who did not take up sword and was taken up on a cross?
3. But God put Jesus, whom we reject, as the cornerstone of our life
in faith and as the cornerstone of church. And we, who had no other choice but to reject Jesus, have been led to accept him without knowing the reason as our indispensable cornerstone; churches made up by groups of believers have also been led to accept Jesus as their cornerstone. How was it possible for us to accept him? The psalm says "This is the LORD's doing; it is wonderful in our eyes." It was not something we could achieve by our will or by our power. Unless God made it so happen it had to remain impossible.
That having been said I also feel that the groundwork has already been laid somewhere deep in us to accept Jesus as our cornerstone. There must also have been a groundwork prepared, I think, for us all in chorus to be able to accept this unbelievable Constitution article 9 after the defeat in the last War.
Generally speaking, the power of self-defense is considered naturally given, regardless of whether it concerns with an individual or with a state. Yet the Constitution article 9 stipulates in such a way so that our state won't maintain military force even for the purpose of self-defending. It is due to this article that our incredible Constitution is said nowhere else to be seen at any times and countries.
What made the people of the time willing to accept such a constitution? They accepted it with a painful thought that in the name of self-defense they involved their own countrymen and the neighboring countries into a great calamity. I cannot forget scenery of a motion picture which showed Mr. Shigeru Yoshida, then prime minister of Japan, answering questions in a parliamentary debate in exactly the same sense of remorse and was getting big hands.
It seems to me that the people who advocate the change to Constitution article 9 have none of such a feeling any longer. They speak as if there had not been such calamities caused, and as if actions leading to calamities had been an unavoidable must in the situation with no other choice. That's the very reason, I think, the Chinese and the Korean people are upset that much.
We've been allowed to accept Jesus; and this is nothing but God's work. There must be fundamental feeling in us in accepting Jesus, I suspect, about the extent of calamities cast on us and on the people around us caused by our living with swords raised high; that it must be ill somewhere in us for us to live with swords raised high and rely on them.
It is for this very reason that we need Jesus, who made his steps toward the cross without raising a sword, without wielding his strength. For this reason we wish to be connected with him and make him the corner stone of our life regardless of whether or not we can. We wish to live our life without making judgment based on trifle criteria we have saying that this is wrong and that is disaster ? for to judge is to live raising sword as we learned just a week before. We wish that our life is formed up with Jesus at its base who lived the way he did. And we wish to belong to church which is a congregation of people having this same wish.
4. Paul, by the passage of the Bible for today, tries to explain in various ways how we'll be blessed when we take Jesus as the corner stone of our life. Here Paul refers to the kind of blessing given when Christians, who have made Jesus their corner stone, get together and make their joint steps forward rather than walking alone, i.e. blessing given to church.
I guess I can make two points in this connection. Verse 21 says "He is the one who holds the whole building together and make it grow --," and verse 19 says "You Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; -- you are now members of the family of God." Paul underscores that being built together we can be like members of the family of God, no longer lone disconnected being, when we belong to church with Jesus at its corner.
Despite belonging to church we are naturally different from each other. Yet we, feeling fundamental illness in raising sword for living, are like patients whose common primary doctor is Jesus; more than that, as I often say in a metaphor, we are a company of patients of the same disease to whom something from Jesus must be 'transplanted' or a colleague of patients who have gotten the same type of internal organ transplanted. There we could be built together to form a family of God, I conjecture. Not that we are held together at a point where we would protect the territory of a state to which we belong by raising swords against common enemy. Rather we are held together at the point of us being such that we must take Jesus as the corner stone, such that we must rely on Jesus as primary doctor by whom we got organ transplanted and saved.
Being a family means its members help each other and accommodate each other's financial needs on occasions. My eldest son who is employed by Ni-i-gata prefecture office temporarily made a successful staff enrollment examination for the engineering section of the prefecture government of his homeland, Fukushima prefecture. Looking ahead he thought he won't survive the coming winter with his long-used mini-car, he decided to replace it to find out that interest charged for the car loan is exorbitant. That prompted my wife to offer 'parent loan' for him. It is only among family members that such a thing can happen.
The accommodating of financial needs between individual church members is not necessarily desirable. (But at Koriyama Church they had a system of mutual loan, i.e. not loan between individuals but sort of institutional loan of the church established based on voluntary funding by people concerned, from which one in need can draw up to the maximum of 100,000 yen. Be that as it may,) it is the faith more than anything else that we can mutually offer at church. Here we offer our faith to each other, the faith to put Jesus as the corner stone of our life.
We had a luncheon gathering after the worship service last Sunday. Members 75 years of age and older were invited. And we could have some very agreeable and comforting time. The highly aged know that their life in faith is supported by the followers of next generation, and in turn, our generation can make steps forward given courage by the steps of the seniors. This is indeed the mutual accommodation of life in faith between generations. Belonging to church with Jesus at its corner stone, we can walk as a family of God, drawing necessary help from it rather than live alone disconnected.
5. One other blessing given us from church is referred to in verses 21 and 22 which say, "He is the one who -- and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord," "-- you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit."
We cannot escape from the fact that even church is a gathering of humans. Things can happen there that will make us wonder which part of it is the sacred place of God, whether it is indeed where God lives. Even if that may be the case, church is the sacred temple of God and it doesn't cease to be where God lives. That church is the living house of God; what an awesome and yet an encouraging line this is!
What is at the ground of church being a temple of God, being where God lives? The Bible says 'a sacred,' and 'through his Spirit.' It is indeed as said. We may not be able to see it in our eyes. We may not be able to feel it for real. But when we belong to church we are given something sacred. We benefit from the working of the Holy Spirit. This is how we appreciate the great wonder of living with Jesus as our corner stone, of being a part of church.
(This is a translation of the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO.)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 2 Verses 19 - 22
19 So then, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now citizens together with God's people and members of the family of God.
20 You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself.
21 He is the one who holds the whole building together and make it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord.
22 In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.
(TEV)
The Psalm 118 Verses 22 - 23
22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner-stone.
23 This is the LORD's doing; it is wonderful in our eyes.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
September 16, 2012
- Build your house on the rock -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. We have listened to the words of the 20th and the following verses of chapter 6 of the Gospel according to Luke over the past several worship services. These words are called 'Sermon on the Plain,' comparing them with what is called Sermon on the Mount, i.e. parallel teaching of Jesus in the Gospel according to Mathew. The passage given us for today is the last and the concluding part of the sermon.
The whole sermon started with the words 'Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!' And this first teaching is followed by words after words, all which sounded impossible for us to practice. This very impression we embrace that they are impossible to be practiced is be reflected in the words of Jesus in verse 46, 'Why do you call me "Lord, Lord" ? and never do what I tell you? The famous parable in 48th and the following verse would have been told for the purpose of giving us, the poor fellows, encouragement to practice the words of Jesus.
Commentary by the professor Barkley gives us a good guide for understanding the parable and I will quote from his work (William Barkley, The Bible Commentary Series 4 "The Gospel according to Luke" p.92 of Japanese text.)
"In Palestine, rivers dry up to show sand beds in summer time. But when winter comes after September rains, dry rivers turn to torrents. Many people looked for some suitable land and built their houses on a sand plain which looked captivating, only to learn the hard way with the coming of winter the mistake of having built a house in the midst of a torrent. But when they learned of the mistake it was too late; the house was washed away just in a second.
Wise people would look for rocky land. It is far more difficult to build a house on such a land. The leveling of the ground soil itself is already much work. But the labor is fully rewarded when storms hit in winter. The house won't shatter even by an inch." (Translated back into English based on the Japanese text.)
People who had lived there for long must know that the plain was river bed flooded by torrent during rainy season. Those who would build houses there must have been people coming in to the area from other places. The location on which these people planned to settle may have been such that it was surrounded by hills on both sides where it was difficult to find suitable plots for housing.
Under the circumstances, some people built their houses at the center of river bed, thinking that the plain land is good for housing site. Others chose what may be called river terrace, plots too small for a housing site and difficult to build on due to hard rock which one will come to dug out (although they may have instinctively known that the land which looked spacious and suitable for housing was in fact not safe), and laid foundation bit by bit on rocks and built their houses. When rainy season came things turned out just as the parable put it.
2. What Jesus is trying to tell us by the parable, I think, is that there's no escaping of flood. I don't have to tell you what flood would mean except to say it can be hardships or illness, and finally the death all people will have to face with. The coming of such a flood is unavoidable and yet the vast majority of people build their houses of human life without giving a thought to it, don't you think?
Some of you might argue saying that you are prepared to the coming of flood by, for instance, making health check regularly and heeding not to fall sick, and by having insurance policy and having some savings. Such an argument arises from an idea that if you are prepared that way you could avoid flood.
The fact remains that you cannot avoid flood by whatever means you may use. The man in the parable who built his house on the rock could not avoid flood from hitting him. What we can do is only to build a house which won't be washed away even by flood.
The question would be if indeed we can build a house to protect us from flood. If we have no means to build such a house, all we can do is to fear and tremble over the coming of flood. It will be better to live without looking at the possibility of such a danger, without being caught by such a worry.
Jesus tells us that we can build a sturdy house. It may not be easy. Just as it's not easy to build a house on a rock, it may not be easy for us. Still it is possible for us and the means to do so are already provided for, and the way for us to get them is to listen to and follow the words of Jesus, he says.
3. The words of Jesus are, however, list of impossible things to do as we see them in 20th and the following verses of chapter 6, are they not? How could we ever practice them? What does it mean to do his words to begin with?
Let me expand on this by what I do in my drum beating drill! What on earth made me do so I cannot explain to you but I bought a set of drums in the summer at age 50 and began beating jazz drum, which I have loved to listen to since my middle school days. Nowadays, though on a few occasions in a year and supported by a professional pianist and a base-player who would lead me, I join in sessions with other amateur players at gigs. Though not that good at beating, I have to play solo during the session and therefore need to practice. For that I buy music book and listen to CD a number of times and repeat beating. To beat just 8 bars sometimes takes a week by half an hour rehearsal every day. Even so, I could get to be able to beat though it was beyond reach in the beginning. One can make progress and grow even past the middle50's by age. These days rehearsal over a few hours makes me able to beat. Again, I cannot explain to you why, I happened to buy a trumpet just the other day. I cannot blow to produce sound yet. But I hope to get to be able to play standard numbers of jazz by the time I pass away.
'To do his words' would mean to get finally to be able to beat the phrase in the case of playing drums; to get to be able to play in a session for your own phrase, without relying on the music, and even with your own arrangement. But where did it all begin? Where was the beginning of doing? It began with listening. I listened to the instrument and wished I could also play the phrase; I wanted in my heart to beat drum and blow trumpet and play the music. To have a wish in heart must be equivalent to 'doing.'
4. Some of you may wonder what purpose is served by having a wish in heart. But I'd say what is important is to have a wish in your heart. In this connection, I find myself lured by verse 45 which says, 'The words that the mouth utters come from the overflowing of the heart.' What you embrace in heart bears a fruit; what you don't embrace in your heart never gets to produce fruit.
The other day I happened to hear of a man, who is the same age as me and who graduated from the same university as I did, but got his heart broken within a blink of an eye being told he had cancer. The cancer quickly got worse as his heart was broken. Hearing this, I remembered mother of my wife who suffered from kidney disease for long. On a certain occasion, her attending-doctor advised her to start commuting to Tsuboi Hospital for dialysis. The hospital is known in the city of Kohriyama as one that treats cancer patients. Hearing the name of the hospital my mother-in-law must have thought she had cancer. One week after having been told to go to the hospital, her kidney disease got very bad and she passed away. This again tells me what matters is what you embrace in your heart.
There's no avoiding the coming of flood. By flood our body gets hurt and damaged. But our heart can overcome it. When your heart is washed away by flood it is the true end of everything. The house built on the rock is the house of your heart.
If that is the case, how can we build a house of heart? Let me quote the words of the Proverbs; verse 23 of chapter 4 which I quoted earlier; it says, 'Guard your heart more than anything you treasure, for it is the source of all life.'
What then does it mean when the Bible says 'Guard your heart?' How is it done? The Proverbs go on to say 'Keep your mouth from crooked speech and banish deceitful talk from your lips.' One can guard one's heart by embracing goodwill words, words full of encouragement. To embrace such words in your heart before anything else is the way to guard your heart.
5. Just like that I embrace the words of Jesus in my heart. That's the music phrase and words I want to beat and blow for; the words of wish in my heart that I want to live like that, I want to walk the path of life like that.
To be honest, I cannot even wish so relative to every word from 20th and the following verses of chapter 6. When hit on the cheek I cannot offer or wish to offer the other cheek because it will be too painful. Yet, just as God causes the sun to rise on good and bad alike, and sends the rain on the innocent and the wicked, I wish I can come in touch with people with broad mind and earnestly wish not to judge others.
We tend to judge others too soon; make judgment in various senses of the term. For instance, we judge 'This is no good, and that is good. This is happy and that is unhappy,' based on our narrow value only I would treasure. We tend to make judgment about the situation we find ourselves place in.
But the words that say God causes the sun to rise on good and bad alike would mean, it seems to me, good and bad for God far transcends our judgment. Inscribed these words of God, I hope to be like him. Hoping after hoping we repeatedly apply them to our day to day life. That way we train ourselves so we can get to be able to accept, following the words of Jesus, the situation both me myself and my family are placed in. That is what it means to 'do.'
The first words of today's passage, 'Happy are you poor!' I wish inscribed in our hearts so we get to be able to play music on it as our own arranged phrase. Though it is not so with Luke, the sermon given on the mount teaches the 8 beatitudes. It teaches what God gives us is happiness at any time. But it is given us when we are placed in poverty and grief which we consider misfortune or unhappiness.
We will do well to inscribe these words in our heart. We will fill our heart with these words. Flood will never fail to put us in poverty and grief. If these words are kept in our hearts, and if we can apply these words to the situation we may be put in, we can get to find happiness in there when flood comes. This is how our hearts are guarded even in flood, not washed away.
(This is a translation of the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO.)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 46 - 49
46 'Why do you call me "Lord, Lord" ? and never do what I tell you?
47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and acts on them ? I will show you what he is like.
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundations on the rock. When the river was in flood, it burst upon that house, but could not shift it, because it had been soundly built.
49 But he who hears and does not act is like a man who built his house on the soil without foundations. As soon as the river burst upon it, the house collapsed, and fell with a great crash.'
(The Revised English Bible)
September 2, 2012
- Your faith has healed you -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.
(1）6 Today is the day of stimulation according to the calendar of the church school. I am not sure of the details of the day but probably it is the day when we should prepare for the autumn afresh after the summer vacation is over. So today we have a joint morning worship service. At the joint worship service I have chosen a title in accordance with the teaching material for the teachers at the church school. Therefore, the words that are given today are the ones that I feel strongly attached to personally. Some of you may remember listening to the sermon that I gave at the Christmas Eve worship service last year.
(2) Why do I feel strongly attached to these words? It is because every time I read these words, I am given encouragement as to the smallness and meagerness of my faith. Verse 34 says, Jesus said to this woman, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. 'He promised that her faith would enable her to live with ease and in high spirits and that she would be freed from suffering. Then what kind of faith did she have? As is understood easily, her faith was nothing but'faith by default ,'that is, seeking divine favor, such as the faith that you will be healed if you come up behind Jesus and touch his clothes.
(3) If a person with this kind of faith should say that he or she would like to be baptized and to be a member of the congregation, can I or deacons accept it? Don't we ask for the faith that enables him or her to say that Jesus became a human being, was crucified on the cross and was resurrected for the sake of human beings? We cannot find any faith in her at all. She had nothing but a desire to come up behind Jesus, touch his clothes and be healed. However, the Lord says to a person with such faith, 'Your faith has healed you.'
2.
(1) Our faith can be said to be deeper in comparison with hers, just as I said a minute ago, because we can say that Jesus' becoming a human being, crucifixion and resurrection are done all for our sake. However, I feel that there is little difference between the two. Between her and Jesus, there were a crowd and furthermore, and she came up behind Jesus not from the front. She could not touch Jesus' core because there were clothes between her and Jesus. Just as there were a variety of barriers and obstacles between her and Jesus, so there are barriers and obstacles of the same kind to my faith in Jesus. That is what I always think about. You may think that there are no such things because I am a pastor but I cannot help feeling that way more strongly than any other person, just because I am a pastor. After the sermon is finished, I feel miserable, reflecting on how much I could talk about God and Jesus from the words of the Bible. Since the evening prayer was launched, I have had the same feeling as many as two times in one day. Although I have engaged in this work for more than 25 years by exerting my all-out efforts to make preparations, this is all that I can. Indeed there are barriers and obstacles to knowing Jesus and God truly.
(2) However, still that is'your faith. 'It's not necessary for you to compare your faith with others'. This is what my faith is, not someone else's faith. This is the only faith that I have. However, even if my faith is like that, it saves me and enables me to be in good spirits and go in peace.
(3) To have faith is this big. However small and meager it is like a grain of mustard seed, the faith is magnificently big in comparison with having no faith.
3.
(1) Then how does faith bud and how does it grow and bear fruit? We learn them from the following words. What made her have feelings of this kind toward Jesus, come up to him, touch him and encounter him?
(2) Verse 27 says, 'When she heard about Jesus .'Faith itself originates in listening to Jesus. Budding itself originates in the seed's coming into our heart from God. Then how does this seed flown grow up in our heart? What is important in spreading its roots wide and budding?
(3) It is of vital importance in view of today's words of the Bible that she had been subject to bleeding for twelve years and that she had suffered a great deal under the care of doctors of this world and she grew worse. If it had not been for this incident, she would not have paid attention to Jesus even if she had heard about him. She would not have thought of going to see Jesus. What the doctors of this world regard as a disease which is hard to cure or what some people look upon as a disease or suffering which is hard to get rid of makes us go to Jesus and God. Jesus said that those who are in good health do not need a doctor and that it is those who are sick that need a doctor.
(4) I get encouragement from this. When we pastors cannot do well in spreading the gospel and reinforcing our religious power, we often blame ourselves for it. You blame your failure to bear good witness for being unable to pass your faith down to your family members. However, all that we can do is to pass down the message from God and Jesus. Namely, it is sowing seeds. It depends , as it were, on the person whether the seeds that are sown will sprout or not. It depends upon whether that person is aware of his or her own illness and is going to see the doctor, Jesus and God. We cannot do it by force. Nor can God or Jesus.
4.
(1) Many people say that they don't have such a disease. They say that they are not so sick that they must depend on God or Buddha. I don't think that I am going to make them take a physical checkup. If they themselves think that they are in good health, that's all right. But I would like to ask the following question by all means.
(2) It is a really symbolic symptom that this woman was subject to abnormal vaginal bleeding for twelve years. It was probably a gynecological disease. It indicates that her period was unusually long, namely, she was in the state in which even if the uterus tried to implant a fertilized egg, it failed and as a result the tissue peeled off and fell. I feel that in contrast with this woman were Sarah who gave birth to Isaac, Johanna who had Samuel, Elizabeth who gave birth to John the Baptist, and Mary who conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit. I think that fundamentally it is communion with God. It is not a physical matter but to have communion with God in terms of the spirit, namely, to conceive something in a relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. It is to have communion with God in the very depth and to have a fertilized egg implanted and bring it up. It means that when there is no such thing, we are such a being as this woman who was bleeding. We all are beings who always bleed with something important peeled off, unless we have communion with God and conceive something and implant it. Don't you think so?
(3) I think that as long as we keep company with people, live together with our family and participate in social activities, we are in good health. However, what the Bible asks us is whether we are healthy as long as we are related to people and we are connected with this world. It doesn't mean that only by having communion with God, we can have something that we can conceive. We need more. Deep inside ourselves, there is a certain part that awaits it with patience, something like a womb, isn't there? Unless it has been performed, it keeps bleeding. It is sick. The reason why the number of women in a church is overwhelmingly larger than that of men is that fundamentally women probably know the above mentioned thing, isn't it? They fundamentally know that only having communion with God in faith and through it conceiving something give us something healthy.
5.
(1) Just because of that, the woman's bleeding stopped by her touching Jesus, even if she came up behind him and touched his clothes. It means that in terms of the spirit, she had communion with Jesus and was fertilized and she had her fertilized egg implanted. Her womb finally realized what her soul had sought after for a long time. It was satisfied by touching Jesus. Touching Jesus and being connected with him are not prevented, no matter how large the crowd is and even if there are clothes between Jesus and us. In our faith, just as I said a minute ago, there are a variety of obstacles. We cannot really touch Jesus. We cannot see him with our eyes. We have to be connected with the unseen Jesus through the words of the Bible, through the sermon by the pastor and through the steps of the church. There are some obstacles stemming from it. However, we are able to touch Jesus by overcoming it. We are able to touch him through faith. Once we touch him, surely there flows out some power from Jesus. It enables us to conceive something deep inside ourselves. Pregnant women are obviously in the pink of health. So are we who were able to conceive something through faith.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
The Gospel according to Mark 5 : 25 - 34
25 Among them was a woman who had suffered from hemorrhage for twelve years;
26 and in spite of long treatment by many doctors, on which she had spent all she had, she had become worse rather than better.
27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak;
28 for she said, 'If I touched even his cloak, I shall be healed.'
29 And there and then the flow of blood dried up and she knew in herself that she was cured of her affliction.
30 Aware at once that power had gone out of him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?'
31 His disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing round you and yet you ask, “Who touched me?”'
32 But he kept looking around to see who h ad done it.
33 Then the woman, trembling with fear because she knew what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace, free from your affliction.'
(The Revised English Bible)
August 19, 2012
- Live a life of resurrection -
By Reverend Masashi SAKUMOTO
The central piece of the Bible given us today for our daily routine is the section starting from verse 36, chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles. The theme of my sermon for today is 'the regaining of life.'
The hymn we sang a bit earlier, #58 of the Hymnal 21, of which translation of the title will be "Give us your words," used to be in the Hymn Second Edition as its #80. The lyric writer is the Rev. Mr. Yasushige Imakoma. I equally liked the lyric of former version though, from the viewpoint of the theme of sermon for today, 'the regaining of life,' the version we sang today sounds more pronounced.
The copyright of the lyric belongs to the Publication Bureau of the United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ), so it made it easy for the UCCJ Hymn Committee to make revisions freely. The Reverend Mr. Imakoma wrote to the Committee in 1997, the year when the Hymnal 21 was published, as follows: 'The hidden cause of confusion and slaughter in the contemporary world seems to lie in the judgment by God on the Tower of Babel, resulting in the babble of the language or the inability to understand the words of others. The only way out of such a situation is gaining or regaining, by the grace of God, of understanding of the language of others. Therefore, we must pray saying, "Just give me a word," as the Roman centurion asked for (Mathew 8: 8).'
His message saying that life is regained through regaining of words brought about thanks to the grace of the Holy Spirit shows the direction to which churches should chose to proceed.
Passage of the Old Testament Bible for today is taken from the Book of Hosea chapter 14, from verse 2 downward. Hosea was a prophet who lived in the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century B.C. He prophesied saying that the restoring of the entire Israel is to be brought about by repentance of each one of its constituents for their sins, keeping away from evil and turning back to God.
The key point of the Acts of the Apostles, the passage for today, is also making the same message as Hosea. Each one of us should repent our own sins and come back to stand before true God; that will lead to restoration of the whole community of believers. It applied not just to the early churches but does so to the contemporary churches as well.
From verse 36 downward there appear selected chosen characters. First we are reminded of Peter, one of the 12 Disciples of Jesus Christ. Then there appears Dorcas, a lady disciple. But it's the 'many people' and each one of them who believed as written in verse 42, who the today's Bible passage tells are the truly chosen by God, I tend to think. The choice of God by which a man on the earth is invited to the kingdom of God leads to restoring or regaining of life of a church as a whole, it suggests.
And the regaining of life of a man is great joy for the whole kingdom of God. A loud voice of joy will be heard in heaven, the moment each one of us return to God (Luke 15:7). We would like us to make our steps forward, hearing the joy in heaven through our ears of faith.
Joppa, referred to in verse 36, is located north-west of Jerusalem where it faces the Mediterranean Sea. Lydda was about 18 kilometers from Joppa back toward Jerusalem, it is said. In Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha by Aramaic, who was a believer. (Her name in Greek is Dorcas). But she died. The believers in Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent for him to come as soon as possible.
For what purpose they sent for Peter is not written here. It doesn't look to be for the purpose of burial. I say this because a section just before this one for today tells of Peter healing a man named Aeneas. In those days, when a man died the body of the deceased was cleaned or washed to be anointed. There is nothing to suggest in today's passage that her body was anointed, almost implying that the people were waiting for Peter to revive the lady.
Tabitha was laid in a room upstairs. When Peter arrived at Joppa, he was taken to the room upstairs. All the widows crowded around him, crying and showing him all the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made while she was alive.
Almost all common men of the time lived in a square-shaped house built with sun-baked bricks or adobe. Half of the internal space of such a house was dirt floor and the other half was elevated a bit and devoted for living. It means that a house with upper floor was one that belonged to a very wealthy. Early churches used such a location for worship service.
If Tabitha was a family member of that house or she was there because the building was the place of worship, the passage doesn't tell. It tells of the widow, which means woman whose husband has died and remains unmarried. But there was a hat called widow's assignment in early churches, which was given to single women who made devoted service to church. It could be that Tabitha, referred to as 'a lady disciple,' was a leader of the widows. The word disciple as used in the Acts of the Apostles refers to believers of the time in general, is different from the meaning applied to selected few followers of Jesus during the days of the Gospels.
What these crying women tried to tell Peter was more than that they were given a number of shirts and coats. Shirts and coats of the time were not the kind we imagine against our contemporary background. The long-sleeved gown was the shirt or underwear while mantle or overcoat to put on shirt was the coat. Both had important role in protecting the body from the chill of night.
Peter put them all out of the room upstairs. He knelt down and prayed; then he said, "Tabitha, get up!" She opened her eyes and sat up. God listened to the prayer of Peter and revived Tabitha. Tabitha opened her eyes and sat up. Through the resurrection of Tabitha, many people in Joppa turned to believe in Jesus Christ, it is said.
This story seems to teach us about what a miracle can bring; many people became believers, that is. It means that on the other side of a miracle lies faith. There are miracles which do not lead to faith on the one hand while there are works of God leading to faith even without miracles.
The passage for today tells how much Tabitha loved each one of the widows. But it doesn't tell what else of many "good" she spent her time doing and helping the poor, other than giving them shirts and coats. Tabitha loved to love people and did so in an elegant manner, I would guess. She sew gowns and mantles, remembering who she was doing it for, with much of love, but without drumming out about it, and the result was that the widows brought so many of the shirts and coats to show them to Peter.
Let me take a little detour, with your permission. I have a book here titled 'Five Ways to Tell Your Love,' authored by an American pastor and a marriage counselor, Gary Chapman by name. It is a good book and many of you may know about it already.
He tells what is important about love is not how you loved; but it is if your partner could feel your love as love that is important. Just as anyone of whichever country has his or her own mother tongue and other languages, so also with love, there is a first language of love by which he or she felt loved. It is by the love of first language, man can have taste of being loved, and no other language than that will get one feel loved.
There are five languages of love: 'words of affirmation,' 'quality time (special fulfilling time),' 'giving of gift,' 'act of service or act of dedication,' 'physical contact (in forms according to own culture).' Which one works best differs among different married couples, parent and child, and siblings because the first language or mother tongue differs even among them.
When you don't receive the first language of love, your tank for love gets empty and various problems arise. The author had a question asked if it is not hypocrisy for some to use language he or she couldn't understand. He replied saying 'Love is that you do something for your partner, not that you love someone for you.'
Tabitha was loved by many. It shows, I would think, that Tabitha was a woman who could love many people. So too was Peter. Peter left the house of an affluent family where he brought Tabitha back to life; he went to a beachside house of Simon, the tanner, which was a disliked profession in those days. But it became a house of God, used by God to be a base for wider propagation of the gospel to gentiles; to tell them that no one should be called unclean or filthy because God is God who does not treat humans differently.
To live in faith in Jesus Christ means to be allowed to live a life of resurrection together with Christ who was resurrected. It is here that true joy for us lies who live a life so changed.
Prayer
Our Father in heaven! Help us come back to the original love when we lose sight of you. Lead us so we can continue to make steps with thanks and joy as ones living eternal life given through the atonement by Jesus Christ, your Son. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray this. Amen!
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO.)
The Book of HOSEA 14 Verses 2 - 8
2 Return to the LORD, and let this prayer be your offering to him: "Forgive all our sins and accept our prayers, and we will praise you as we have promised.
3 Assyria can never save us, and war horses cannot protect us. We will never again say to our idols that they are our God. O LORD, you show mercy to those who have no one else to turn to."
The LORD Promises New Life for Israel
4 The LORD says,
"I will bring my people back to me.
I will love them with all my heart;
no longer am I angry with them.
5 I will be to the people of Israel
like rain in a dry land.
They will blossom like flowers;
they will be firmly rooted
like the trees of Lebanon.
6 They will be alive with new growth,
and beautiful like olive trees.
They will be fragrant
Like the cedars of Lebanon.
7 Once again they will live under
my protection.
They will be as famous as the
wine of Lebanon.
8 The people of Israel will have
nothing more to do with idols;
I will answer their prayers and
take care of them;
like an evergreen tree I will
shelter them;
I am the source of all their
blesings."
(TEV)
The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 9 Verses 36 - 43
36 In Joppa there was a woman named Tabitha, who was a believer. (Her name in Greek is Dorcas, meaning "a dear.") She spent all her time doing good and helping the poor.
37 At that time she got sick and died. Her body was washed and laid in a room upstairs.
38 Joppa was not very far from Lydda, and when the believers in Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him with the message, "Please hurry and come to us."
39 So Peter got ready and went with them. When he arrived, he was taken to the room upstairs, where all the widows crowded around him, crying and showing him all the shirts and coats that Dorcas had made while she was alive.
40 Peter put them all out of the room, and knelt down and prayed; then he turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up!" She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41 Peter reached over and helped her get up. Then he called all the believers, including the widows, and presented her alive to them.
42 the news about this spread all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
43 Peter stayed on in Joppa for many days with a tanner of the leather named Simon.
(TEV)
August 12, 2012
- We are one in Christ -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.(1) Today's words, just as the headline outside verse 11 says,'One in Christ,'describe how now in Christ Jesus, the two who were far away and against each other have been brought near . Verse 14 says, 'he is himself our peace .'As now is the time to think about peace, and also just as we can guess from today's words, we may think of such political peace. But the peace that Paul talks about does not mean such a thing. The two who were against each other were Israeli people and Gentiles that Ephesians were.
(2) The reason why Paul tells in today's words that the two peoples became one in Christ is that in the background the conflict between them was very deep, I think. Moreover, I feel that more than the gap between Israeli people and Gentiles, there was a deep gap between Jewish-turned Christians and Gentiles-turned Christians. When we read Paul's letters and Acts, we notice that they are filled with deep gaps everywhere. I think that this gap was lying in the whole of the Early Church that was just given birth to. The church at Ephesus was not an exception. Therefore, Paul had no choice but to emphasize that such a gap could be closed by Christ.
2. (1) Then let's look at what kind of barrier and hostility there were between Jewish people and Gentiles. They are written in verses 11 to 12. Gentiles were called 'uncircumcised 'by the Jewish who called themselves 'the circumcision .'They did not belong to Israeli people by birth and they were excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without God in the world. Verse 15 says that Israeli people lived by sticking to the law with its commandments and regulations.
(2) Why were Jewish people circumcised and why did they follow the Law and try to be Israeli people by blood relationship? I think that the answer lies in the word 'covenants.'In the recent worship services, I often referred to covenants. Covenants are a very special relationship, which means that what God has belongs to us, whereas what we have, which is most of the time ,something like a debt, belongs to God. To put it figuratively, as shown in the Sunday Service last week, this relationship means that we are grafted onto God. By being grafted onto God, we come to have good nature of God's trunk affect us, who are nothing but bad branches and finally we come to bear good fruit.
(3) The question is whether we have conditions on our side, in being grafted onto God, or in concluding covenants. Generally speaking, as we conclude covenants with God, we will bear due obligation and responsibility. The branch that is to be grafted will have to be trimmed appropriately. If not, it will be cut and thrown away. Jewish people believed that way and they were circumcised and followed the Law faithfully. That's why they were circumcised and obeyed the Law. Just because of that they looked down on Gentiles who did not try to be connected to God. Necessarily there arose a deep gap between Israeli people and Gentiles.
3. (1) Now how did what Jewish people kept on observing for a long time change through the advent of Jesus Christ? How did the fundamental point which is essential for our being grafted onto God change? To put it in one word, circumcision nor following the Law is any longer necessary. What is necessary is one thing, that is, to be connected to Jesus Christ. That is equal to being connected to God. This is the point that displeased traditional Jews or Jewish ?turned Christians very much and that was totally unacceptable to them, wasn't it?
(2) When Christians were given birth to, all of them were Jewish. Therefore, to believe in Jesus Christ, to be grafted onto Jesus and to be circumcised and follow the Law did not cause any problem, I think. Believing in Jesus Christ, and being unaware of any contradiction, those people must have behaved as they had done so and they must have circumcised their children.
(3) However, as the Gospel came to be widely heard and genuine Gentiles became Christians, the relationship between the two turned out to be a very important issue. That is, should they circumcise Gentile Christians and ask them to follow the Law or not? This surfaced as a fundamental problem to the newly born church. Chapter 15 in Acts says , ' Some people who had come down from Judaea began to teach the brotherhood that those who were not circumcised in accordance with Mosaic practice could not be saved.'That is why there arose a bitter dispute between them and Paul and in Jerusalem an apostle meeting was held. James, a brother of Jesus, who probably was the leader at the church in Jerusalem in those days, put the disturbance under control finally but the solution can be called ambiguous.
(4) Galatians Chapter 1 Verse 6 says, 'I am astonished to find you turning away so quickly from him who called you by grace, and following a different gospel. ' ' a different gospel'refers to the belief that to be connected to Jesus Christ is insufficient and the circumcision and the observance of the Law are essential . People were still attracted to such a teaching. Although they were taught that to be connected to Jesus Christ is enough, they were affected by a different teaching so early. Today's words do not mention anything, but we can infer that behind the Ephesians there was a gap that was spread throughout the Early Church.
4. (1) Just because of that, Paul says that by being grafted onto Jesus Christ, we can be grafted to God. He says that that is the only thing that turns Jewish people and Gentiles, and also Jewish-turned Christians and Gentiles-turned Christians, into one and that rid them of each other's hostility and barriers.
(2) Probably to Jewish people and Jewish-turned Christians, if you have only to be connected to Jesus Christ, you are being selfish. There was probably a criticism that in concluding covenants with God, we have neglected our obligation to perform and responsibility to take.
(3) However, I really reflect on this. Is it too selfish to wish to be connected with Jesus Christ and to be baptized in order to be connected with him by believing Jesus to be Christ ? Is it too light a responsibility to conclude covenants with God? No. On the contrary, this is a heavier responsibility. To be circumcised and to follow the Law is rather light, isn't it? Because that way is very concrete and easier to understand.
(4) Islam is said to have been established by getting rid of defects or difficult parts of Judaism and Christianity as good examples of how not to behave. The difficulty about Christianity is the faith in which God became a human being, the one in which the God and Savior was killed on the cross and furthermore the faith in which the man who was killed was resurrected. And now we cannot see this Jesus any more. We have to believe in Jesus whom we cannot see. Furthermore, it is very difficult to believe that and unambiguous. In contrast, it is thought that in Islam, to put it simply, they have only to do five things in their everyday lives. As long as they do those things, they can be grafted onto God and can be placed in covenants with God. It is extremely clear.
(5) I am reminded of a book that I lent to somebody and now that is not available. The author who was an outstanding scholar on religion and Buddhism said that he could not understand why Christians believe a man who died a horrible and cruel death on the cross to be God. That the man who died on the cross is God and the Savior is really silly and nothing but a stumbling block. But God treats those who believe such a silly Jesus who is a stumbling block to be Christ and those who try to be connected to Jesus as those who are connected to God himself. To believe in Jesus is a much heavier responsibility that we take for God who places us in covenants with Him, than to be circumcised and to follow the Law.
5. (1) Why do we wish to be connected to Jesus Christ? Especially what do we seek after by being connected to the Christ who was crucified? We can find the phrase 'through the blood of Christ ,'at the end of Verse 13. This is what I talk about figuratively but we need the blood of Christ. It is blood transfusion and it can be likened to the transplant of bone marrow or the transplant of an organ. We are sick. That's why we need the blood of Jesus who is quite healthy, just opposite to us, and we need to have our bone marrow or organs transplanted. It is the death of the cross that is the soundness or lack of sickness of Jesus, I think. To be sure, just as the scholar on Buddhism said, the death on the cross is horrible and heartbreaking. However, it is there that we see how the sacred flawless man gave and shared everything and did not seek after a single piece of profit for himself.
(2) We need this man. The patients who enter a hospital have a sense of something like solidarity or a sense of unity. When the patient is among healthy people, he is nothing but a negative existence. There is no sense of unity. But when we enter a hospital, we turn into patients who have got over the difference of social status or jobs or the difference between the rich and the poor. We are one in that we are a negative existence seeking to be treated. We are all equal.
(3) We are believers and we get together to pray as patients who need to be healed solely by Jesus. We have to receive the blood transfusion from Jesus and have bone marrow or organs transplanted. We cannot be one in a way other than this.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 2 Verses 11 - 18
11 Remember then your former condition, Gentiles as you are by birth, 'the uncircumcised' as you are called by those who call themselves 'the circumcised' because of a physical rite. 12 You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the community of Israel, strangers to God's covenants and the promise that goes with them. Yours was a world without hope and without God. 13 Once you were far off, but now in union with Christ Jesus you have been brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood. 14 For he is himself our peace. Gentiles and Jews, he has made the two one, and in his own body of flesh and blood has broken down the barrier of enmity which separated them; 15 for he annulled the laws with its rules and regulations, so as to create out of the two a single new humanity in himself, thereby making peace. 16 This was his purpose, to reconcile the two in a single body to God through the cross. By which he killed the enmity. 17 So he came and proclaimed the good news: peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. 18 for through him we both alike have access to the Father in the one Spirit. (The Revised English Bible)
Aug. 5, 2012
- Each tree is known by its own fruit -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.The passage of the Bible for today covers the words of Jesus which say, 'Each tree is known by its own fruit,' a line very well known. But I have to doubt if its meaning is equally well known. I say this because, for one thing, the same words appear in the Gospel according to Mathew; it appears in Mathew at two places with utterly different context. The first appears in chapter 7, verses from 16 to 20 which begins by saying 'Beware of false prophets,' while the second is found in chapter 12, 33rd and following verses which immediately follow after yet another difficult to comprehend verse 32 which says, 'but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit- -.' That the same words appear in two places with totally different context is itself an indication that how the words were understood was much different depending on who handed on and recorded them.
To begin with, the fruit itself is understood in various different ways. Professor Berkley wrote the New Testament Bible commentaries for lay Christians. According to him, the passage of today looks to be a jumble of unrelated several statements by Jesus, and are "nothing more to show that a man is judged by his deeds." ["The Gospel according to Luke" in a series of Bible commentary. pp. 90-91] But I cannot 100% agree to his explanation. Verse 45 gives much importance to "the storehouse of heart," about which I plan to come back later in my sermon. Suffice to say here what Jesus meant is that it's the heart which matters rather than deeds, which only come out of the heart. I say this as an example to show that even what is meant by the fruit is unclear.
If the words are to be taken for them straightly, the fruit would mean a result or accomplishment in outside appearance. One might be led to think that outward appearance is all and that there's no need to worry about inner part. If this should be the case, how much is the result or accomplishment we have made in consequence of our faithful life, we have to ask? How many of us can say in triumph I have achieved this much? In this connection, I am reminded of Abraham and Sarah we are learning about in parallel with Luke. Led by God, they took to journey at his age 75, leaving kinsmen and hometown behind for good. How much worthy of mention could they achieve until they reached age 100 and 90 respectively? Symbolically described as their achievement is the fact that they couldn't have a child of their own, and they tried to have one by using the slave-woman Hagar as an instrument for them of having a baby: Ishmael. And serious in-house trouble ensued from it. 99 year-old Abram was giving up and running dry. He was beginning to think there was no other way but to accept the barren life as his own. If outward result or achievement is all that counts and it is the only criterion by which the true identity or value of a tree is judged, we'll all have to give up and accept that "A tree that does not yield sound fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire" as written in the parallel passage of Mathew chapter 7, verse 19.
2.Tough though to understand as we've just had foretaste of it, I'd like us to learn today's passage based on what Jesus emphasized was the most important thing in the section after chapter 6, 20th and following verses. What lies at the center is what is contained in chapter 6, verses 35 and 36 which say, "he (the Most High) himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked- -." As we read in chapter 34 of Exodus also, God is compassionate, remaining faithful to thousands, forgiving iniquity. By the words of Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians, which we are learning in parallel as well in the worship service, God will make us holy and without blemish in the end. We may go astray and out of the way, but God will take us to the goal finally over thousand generations. This is what God is compassionate means. Jesus was trying to point out, I would think, that because God is so compassionate, you should not hasten in judging yourself and others, or should not make such evaluation lightly.
Such a thought of Jesus is reflected also in the Bible passage for today. That we will bear a fruit means nothing else but that, in essence, we'll reach the goal as a holy and without blemish, thanks to the deep compassion of God. As we are such a being that cannot reach the goal while on our tread on the earth, our achievement is really meager. But we should not make a final say just based on our walk on the earth. It is so because God will help us bear fruit in the end.
In terms of bad trees or good trees, we can only say we all are bad trees. But God won't fail to lead us, bad trees, to bear good fruit. In this sense, bad trees can become good trees in the end. Even though you are bad tree bearing only bad fruit now, you can grow to be a good tree that bears good fruit if you walk believing God. Therefore, rest easy is what Jesus is telling us.
3.In this respect, I am reminded of the deep meaning Jesus indicates by using the metaphor of a plant in his teaching. Indeed, Jesus often talked using the metaphor of seeds sowing and plants. The most famous of them may be the words "I am the vine; you are the branches." Why a plant and not an animal?
I browsed in a bookstore the other day. The book is entitled 'How Wonderful Are the Plant!' Plants use surprising technology to survive. They have roots and that make them unable to move like animals. To compensate for the inability to move on their own initiative, they deploy marvelous technology in the given environment. I thought that one of their technologies is what Jesus was saying in the analogy of the vine.
In the analogy of vine, Jesus repeated that even if we are branches which can produce only bad fruits, we can get to bear good fruits when united with the stem, Jesus ? a stem that produces good fruits. This, I think, is one of the technologies of plants, called grafting. We, thanks to faith, can be grafted to God and Jesus. Marvelously, when grafted, we get to manifest the nature of the stem to which we are grafted. It is not that we are grafted directly to God and Jesus. That cannot be. But we get grafted to them by faith. Jesus came to this world as human just so as to make sure that the wonderful phenomenon of grafting takes place when, in faith, we are determined to love and live with him.
That a baby was given to Abraham and Sarah of 100 years and 90 years in age is the symbol of an amazing phenomenon that takes place when men are grafted to God by faith. It is for this reason, Jesus says, one should not lightly judge or cut down oneself and others as bad trees which can produce only bad fruits.
The words in verse 44 about brambles can also be understood in the light of the analogy of grafting, can it not? Though this may be my own way of reading, I could satisfy myself in large measure. Under normal conditions we do not gather figs from brambles or pick grapes from thistles. But what cannot originally take place do in fact take place when grafted. If fig is grated to bramble and grape to thistle, - although I don't know if such a grafting is indeed possible ? fruits of fig and grape with good taste will be produced on the basis of the strength or vitality brambles and thistles have for their growth and multiplication. By faith and thanks to the compassion of God, such a thing takes place. Jesus tells us how wonderful it is to live having belief in God.
4.The words in verse 45 can also be understood in the context said so far. Where does lie the source which will cause the wonderful change; changing us, bad trees, to good trees bearing good fruits? That change takes place in the "storehouse of our heart." As we are united with God and Jesus by faith, and as we give and store nourishment in our heart so created, the heart will become the storehouse for nourishment and we get to bear good fruits. Just as brambles and thistles take healthy deep roots, we, too, take healthy roots of our hearts given through our faith. We take roots looking up at God in heaven, God of eternity; at Jesus who lived as a human on the earth 2000 years ago, and who we believe lives till today. This heart will become the storehouse which will supply nourishment we need to produce good fruits.
Our heart is "the storehouse." Whatever we can store in our heart turns to nourishment. We cannot store money or rich in our heart. What we can store in the storehouse of our heart are only intangible things. The storehouse of our body may decay. The storehouse of our heart never decays. How wonderful are the words of the Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23. It says "Guard your heart more than anything you treasure, for it is the source of all life." The heart created in us by faith is a storehouse that will store unlimited amount of nourishment and let us bear good fruits.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO.)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 43 - 45
43 'There is no such thing as a good tree producing bad fruit, nor yet a bad tree producing good fruit. 44 Each tree is known by its own fruit: you do not gather figs from brambles or pick grapes from thistles. 45 Good people produce good from the store of good within themselves. And evil people produce evil from the evil within them. For the words that the mouth utters come from the overflowing of the heart.
Jul. 29, 2012
- Even at the age of ninety-nine -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage for today is about what happened when God appeared before Abram at his age 99. So I gave the sermon at this time a title 'Even at the age of ninety-nine.' Some of you may think it won't be easy to be told to "be blameless," and having to circumcise at age 99. That is not, however, how I felt reading through the passage for the day.
Having to change his name and having to circumcise: these things symbolize, in essence, to become a new being, I would think. Even at age 99, one could be changed to be a new being. The typical example of it was that a child was given to a couple, who were 100 and 90 years of age respectively. As written in verses 17 and downward, Abram laughed when told by God he is going to have a baby; a derision, meaning that it cannot be. Yet God accepted his reaction with a sense of humor and told him to name the baby ISAAC, which means he laughs. I would like us to read this passage as a story full of encouragement from God.
There is one thing I want us to learn before we proceed along the story. Though it sounds a bit academic, it will help us to comprehend the passage for today with deeper insight. We read Genesis as a single book. But in fact it is a compilation of various writings whose authors and ages of writing were different, as we've learned there and then. For instance, chapters 1 and 2 contain two stories of creation of the universe, or of humans. The two come from different authors and ages of writing. Incidentally, the story of Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 and downward is said to have been written by priests under the Babylonian captivity. Taking the initial letter of the word, priests, it is called the P-document (Priestly-source). Chapter 17 we are reading today is also said to belong to the P-document.
With what kind of ideas in mind did the author-priests write the passage? They, in exile, identified their life with that of Abram of 99 years old, it seems to me. And this is why the talk of God to Abram took such a form. With this foreknowledge in mind, let us listen to the passage of today.
2. Why and with what kind of idea in mind did God appear before Abram at age 99? The last time God appeared before Abram was in chapter 15. Though we cannot be too exact, then Abram must have been around 85 in age. It was around the time when Abram was thinking of appointing Eliezer, the slave, the heir to his household. Ishmael, a son born out of folly human attempt by the slave-woman Hagar, was about 13 years of age then. Abram was around 100 years old. All such incidence had deep meaning, it seems. Age 100 is an epoch-making stage then, as it is now. Age 13 must have been time around which a boy celebrated the coming of age in Japan too in the old days back in history. Nearing such an epoch-making day, Abram must have stronger concern in mind that how to treat Ishmael, who was obviously about to become an adult, must be determined, I suspect. He had to give up the hope to have an heir by Sarai. He belongs to the generation in which one has to give up; he understood that it may be high time to quit in many senses; the feeling of running dry, may I say? Thought of a man who has only to advance in age.
But that was something God could not overlook. God could never accept that Ishmael be the inheriting descendant of the tribe of God's choosing, for he was not born by Sarai but was born as a result of self-serving plan of man, by which a slave-woman was used as an instrument of having a baby. That was something God could not give up. Therefore, just as God stopped Abram from making Eliezer the heir of household in chapter 15, he intervened in the affair this time again. As I said a minute ago, the author-priests in exile must have identified themselves with how Abram lived. How many years have passed since they were taken captive? It may be about time they gave up. It may be just as good to accept the fact of captivity and live as such, may it not? They only had to wither and be finally buried as captive. But God did not accept it. God wouldn't let things go that way.
3. That's the very reason why the first words of God to Abram were, "I am the Almighty God." El Shaddai in original Hebrew. El means God, while the original meaning of Shaddai is yet unclear. However, what the words meant is clear considering the situation in which Abram was placed. In short, El Shaddai or "I am the Almighty God," refers to God in diametrically opposite figure from Abram of the time or the tribe of Israel in exile. He never withers; he keeps himself young forever; he is full of energy; he never ever gives up; he doesn't lose hope. That is how the God, El Shaddai stands. Even Abram of 99 in age or his tribe under captivity are not going to wither, not going to be confined in the old age; they can live with full of energy, providing they walk following after this God. The birth of an heir to Abram was a symbolic manifestation of this truth.
In this connection I want you to know that the words 'be blameless (do what is right by TEV)' have nothing to suggest of being impeccable or perfect as the Japanese words imply. They mean to suggest that a 99 year-old man, given youth, energy and vitality thanks to the linkage with God, could get to produce something. To have a child does not literally apply
either to the priests who wrote this story or to us. Rather it means, as symbolically shown by it, something does take place where it cannot be and where it cannot happen under normal conditions, as if a thing is born from nothing. For the people under captivity for more than 50 years, a thought that a day will come when Babylonia falls and they can return to homeland must have been a subject of laughter. But the day came and the derision turned to joyful laughter. Some such a thing can take place for us, too. In what way it happens will differ respectively from one to the other.
4. What will provide the support or ground for us when believing in God we tread our path? It is the 'covenant'; the term which appears for more than ten times in today's passage. Why covenant rather than other word?
A notable character of covenant is to be found in that it bounds parties to it very strongly. Once signed, a covenant exercises mighty enforcing power not just on the parties to it but to the third parties as well. To any party which does not implement the covenant, it will be imposed upon by compulsion, and one could even be asked to pay compensation for non-compliance. Should a third party come in the way of it, it could be ordered to be taken out. What is noteworthy is that such a strong relationship was unilaterally offered by God and declared effective. Abraham could not even have time to make a comment on it. Certainly, he did bow down and looked to have accepted the covenant according to the description in verse 3. Yet when the content of the covenant was let known and when Abram was told about the God's promise, i.e. his people to increased in number realized through having a baby by Sarai, he could only laugh in derision. Abram could not accept what the covenant said straightforwardly. In the contractual relationship between God and us, even the ability on our side to accept it, or being able to say Amen to it from the bottom of our heart is not the absolute condition for it to take effect, in the final analysis. This truth lies at the root of 'Testament,' in both 'The Old Testament,' and 'The New Testament.'
God is Almighty. God lives forever without withering or getting weak. We'll become perfect only by walking after him. We cannot straightforwardly say Amen to and accept it that we can produce something; but we can only laugh in derision. We have no option but to respond saying how such a thing can take place. Despite all of that, God puts us in contractual relationship with him. That is all the Bible is telling us about.
5. Why is it, by the way, that this one is called the Old Testament? What is new with the New Testament? As we read the Bible passage for today we'll get to understand it well; that God is trying to make sure in us and to help us feel assured through some tangible clue that we are in such a contractual relationship with him. He does so not for him but for us because we tend to forget we are in such a robust relationship with God. God tries to make us understand the wonders of such a relationship by showing us the fruit of it as well.
The clue one could see in the eyes, by which one was assured of the contract of God, was the changing of the names of Abraham and Sarah and the circumcision; the birth of Isaac, the prosperity of descendants, the possession of the land, all which were repeatedly emphasized as the fruits of the contractual relationship. These, I would say, are parts of the Old Testament. But in making this comment, I should remind myself of the fact that the authors of the Bible passage of today were under captivity. Under the circumstances, the tangible clue to the contractual relationship and its fruits inevitably had to be the prosperity of their descendants, not their extinction; it also had to be the regaining of the land back home. There could be no alternative ways for them, then.
For us the clue is Jesus Christ. As we learned in the worship service last week by the Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus was born as a human being, he treated himself as nothing and gave out everything to the extent of death on the cross. Unlike we, who would live by our own selfish judgment and desires, he lived through his life with physical body as one who does good deeds. All these serve as the tangible clue for us to the covenant.
God, through this man, unilaterally offered us the contractual relationship. It doesn't matter if we agreed to it or not. Off course, it is when we make our steps forward believing in Jesus that the contract will have its effects concretely felt. By the fruits of the contract, I do not mean prosperity of descendants or the possessing of land on earth. It means that we are enabled to do goods; believing and loving this man, our life is turned to be such that something good will come out of it. Something we can produce doesn't mean success, prosperity or wealth. It means, as we learned at the Bible Study and Prayer Meeting of last week, that we get to treat travelers kindly, get to give out thought to the abused, think of marriage as important, continue to praise and pray to God without break etc. These were deeds do-able even for the Hebrews placed under difficult living conditions.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO.)
Genesis 17: 1 - 19
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.
2 I will make my covenant with you and give you many descendants."
3 Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said,
4 "I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations.
5 Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, because I am making you the ancestor of many nations.
6 I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.
7 "I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants.
8 I will give to you and your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God."
9 God said to Abraham,
"you also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations.
10 You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you.
11-12 From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old, including slaves born in your homes and slaves bought from foreigners. This will show that there is a covenant between you and me.
13 Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting.
14 Any male who has not been circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me."
15 God said to Abraham,
"You must no longer call your wife Sarai; from now on her name is Sarah.
16 I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations, and there will be kings among her descendants."
17 Abraham bowed down with his face touching the ground, but he began to laugh when he thought, "Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah have a child at ninety?" (TEV)
Jul. 15, 2012
- Do not judge -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands ? all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you."
The Bible scripture given us today is a passage that includes the famous words of Jesus, 'Do not judge.' The passage to read today was to begin with verse 37 of chapter 6 of Luke according to the advance notice I gave you on the weekly gazette. However, in the course of preparation of the sermon for today, it was revealed to me that it should start from a few more lines before that.
Therefore, while knowing it is not the usual way of putting together the lines to read, I asked the lines from the latter of verse 35 onward be read out.
So the story runs as follows: 'The Most High himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. You! Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate.' And the words, 'Do not judge,' follow immediately after this. By the flow of the story God who is the Most High is merciful and compassionate. And it was based on this that Jesus could say 'Do not judge.'
As this nature of the Most High will gradually permeates in us who put trust in him, bit by bit though, we too can become compassionate. Therefore, the mandate not to judge others is not imposed upon us, as it were, as an unreasonable demand. It is put before us by way of exhortation as something exercisable. Not to judge others means, in other words, to be merciful to others.
Today, I want us to look toward what it means when the Gospel says
God is compassionate and merciful. In this connection we must also tackle with the inevitable question, one I dealt with at the joint children and adult worship service, the other day. Mathew, on the similar topics, wrote on verse 45, chapter 5 'heavenly Father sends the rain on the innocent and the wicked.'
Does it mean God doesn't treat the innocent and the wicked any differently? What will become, then, of the distinction between good and bad and different ways of dealing with them, or of the judgment, to use the word of the scripture for today? God is so compassionate and he will equally treat good and bad, and connive at the evil?
By drawing on "Concordance," a dictionary for the words of the Bible, answer to the meaning of being 'merciful and compassionate' was given. It is given in verses 6 and 7, chapter 34 of Exodus and I recommend, in the light of their great relevance, that you will open the page and read them for yourself.
It reads 'The LORD, The LORD, a God compassionate and gracious, - - remaining faithful to thousands, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin but without acquitting the guilty, one who punishes children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the iniquity of their fathers!'
From a glance, we can take it as describing the two contrasting nature of God, i.e. the mercy and not acquitting the guilt (or judging.) It depicts the posture of God who won't connive at the one deserving to be punished. And this posture is written in a way so we take it as different from the mercy of God.
I suspect it contradicts with the posture of God Jesus tells in the Gospel according to Mathew or in today's passage. The compassion of God is put aside from him when he works to punish the ones deserving to be punished, should I say?
About these few lines of Exodus, I've come across with a commentary which caught me with a surprise. Traditional interpretation puts it that 7 natures of God are described there. Natures from 1 to 5 are about his mercy while natures #6 and #7 are about his judgment.
However, some interpretations by Judaism put them together and call them "13 natures of mercy," which somebody would use for explaining the diversity of God's mercy, I am told. And there being no further comment, I could get to know no more than that unfortunately.
But I guess I can tell what that interpretation would go on saying. It will say it is good to take the judging nature of God which is depicted under numbers 6 & 7, also as a manifestation of his mercy. God's posture not to acquit the guilty, and punishes children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the iniquity of their fathers lies also in his mercy. His judgment is made in the context of his being compassionate - - - remaining faithful to several thousands.
God is consistent in being merciful to us. It doesn't mean, however, that he doesn't make judgment of good and bad and connive at the guilty. O yes, he will make judgment. To make judgment comes from his mercy.
This applies, I'd think, also to a case in which a man who committed a crime receives a court ruling and is subjected to certain lengths of prison terms. The man is saved out from repeating crimes any further by being arrested. Awarded court ruling and serving the terms of sentence, he will make up for the crime, and can make a renewed start of life with his chest lifted up squarely, so to say.
It is the same with God when he holds us accountable for our sins and shows his rulings. To be dealt with by the punishment commensurate with the guilt committed and is made to shoulder the responsibility is a must step in making a renewed start. Being connived at the guilt is no mercy nor does it mean that the sin is pardoned.
Forgiveness of our sins by Jesus is often misunderstood, I am afraid. His forgiveness of our sins is taken wrongly to wipe them off altogether as if they have never been connived at. Yet it never is the case.
Just for example, recollect what it happened to Abram, Sarai and Hagar as we learnt it in the last service. They made great sins. Not being able to wait for the promise of God coming true, they interpreted the words of God to their advantage which said, 'Your heir will be a child of your own body.' Instead, they used a slave -woman, Hagar, to have a baby for them, and as soon as they found that the way things evolved didn't suit them they turned on the woman harshly. Indeed such a being they were. But even they were forgiven and were put under the mercy of God. In fact, after ten and plus years they were given long-awaited son, Isaac.
Their sins were forgiven. Did it mean that their sins were ignored or that they were connived at? It wasn't so. Between Ishmael, a son by Hagar and Isaac arose troubles, and Abraham and Sarah had to suffer from their troubles deeply.
Most apparently, we see this in the example of David. He took Bathsheba, the wife of his subject, Uriah. In order to cover this, he sent Uriah intentionally to the war front and put him to death. When the prophet Nathan rebuked him for what he did, David repented bitterly. Then God said he will forgive David; he will wash him clean, as written in Psalm 51.
But the forgiveness of his sins didn't mean, if I may repeat, what he did was connived at, or was erased from the record. The child born between him and Bathsheba was not allowed to live, and after that many misfortunes fell on the house of David one after the other.
Why, then, misfortunes fall on him and his family? The answer to the question was given me bit by bit over time. God would make him take responsibility that way; would make him reap what he sowed. This is the discipline we find penetrating throughout the entire Bible.
Yet, God does not keep David in the sins he made or in a situation where he must continue carrying the result of the sin on his back. God is he who will release sinners from sin (to forgive one's sin originally means to release or to liberate,) and allow them to proceed to make new steps. This is what the forgiveness of sin means. And we get to understand that to hold one accountable for his sin, and to give ruling on its responsibility are also something being done under the mercy of God.
Mercy of such a depth of God is put in the series of words saying,
'Do not judge; pardon; give, and measure - -,' as in 37th and the following verses. What it means that God won't condemn us as sinners can also be well understood from what we've learnt.
God will treat us as sinners over the span of three or four generations, but not forever. Mercy of God dominates us over the span of thousand generations, which one could say is almost eternal compared to three or four generations. Under such mercy of God we are treated in the end as ones whose sins and misdeeds are not going to be counted. How much is it that we will receive by the mercy of God? It is indeed that much as is pressed and shaken down and running over.
We are pleased with this. We are pleased to be kept in the depth of God's mercy. If that is the case how is it that we ourselves cannot be merciful to others around us? This is the point Jesus wished to make when he said 'Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.'
I told you the other day that the words of the Gospel according to Mathew are a stumbling stone for us where it says, 'You must be perfect - just as your Father in heaven is perfect.' How can it be possible? How can we ever realize the perfection of God in us? The same can be said of the words of the Gospel according to Luke we are learning today. These pose a stumbling.
But in fact they are not. Believing makes what belongs to God belong to us. For us, who are linked with God by the covenant called faith, what belongs to God becomes ours and ours are transferred to God. In this venue, deep mercy of God becomes ours. That is because we treasure and find pleasure in seeing us put in the depth of God's mercy.
If we can find joy in it, how is it possible at all that we condemn others as sinners; to keep them in confinement of being sinful on account of the sins of the past and sins of present time? The future is here for them, too.
In the time-frame of the future under which the mercy of God will run over the span of thousand generations, they will be given as much as running over. Such a future is not closed to them. If we cannot be merciful to others around us, we should first ask if we are letting ourselves placed under the mercy of God.
If we want to be merciful to others, we must first put ourselves in God.
By the way, I tend to suspect that Christians in the professions of justice, prosecution and policing are burdened with special worries. There are also aspects in this life when we need to make judgment of good or bad, weighing up on things, and either have to fight with or resist against something in the environment of the day or in the historical setting of the time. My hope is that answers to such questions have been given through the learning of today, learning how deep is the mercy of God.
It is God himself who punishes ones deserving to be punished. If that's the case, we too, as ones given the authority to exercise judgment from God, and all the more for that reason, taking the maximum possible care in exercising the power to make sure that no wanton judgment or treatment is made in the name of God, should be able to make judgment on good and bad, or to make fights.
But it is important to remember that such a judgment is relevant only within the limited time span of three or four generations, if we did make such a judgment; the judgment we can make has short-term relevance only. God puts even ones who exercise wrong-doings under his mercy which covers several thousand generations. God's mercy is not kept away from wrong-doers.
(This is a translation of the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese, not a transcript of spoken sermon. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 35 - 38
35 you will be sons of the Most High, because he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate. 37 'Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned; "Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you. 38 give, and gifts will be given you. Good measure, pressed and shaken down and running over, will be poured into your lap; for whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt to you in return.'
Jul. 8, 2012
- Plans of a man who couldn't wait -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1 Today's words are one of the stories in Genesis of the Old Testament that leave an indelible impression on our mind. The plot of the story is deeply connected with the content of the previous chapter 15 and it reminds me of the importance of'knowing God deeply ' which the morning worship service held last week taught us although what the Bible dealt with was quite different from today's part.
Now I would like to give a gist of the story from Chapter 15 and beyond. Abraham and Sar'ai had no children for a long time. According to Verse 4 in Chapter 16, it was 10 years after he lived in the land of Canaan that what happened today took place, so Abraham was about 85 and Sar'ai was about 75. For that reason, I guess that the couple intended to make their nephew Lot their heir but they had nothing but to part with him. Abraham rescued Lot who was involved in wars between regional kings and became a prisoner of war but Abraham probably hoped that Lot would return to him. This is also what I imagined. But his wish did not come true. At last Abraham tried to make his servant Eliezer his heir. However, God stopped it and said, ' Your own son shall be your heir,'adding that his descendants would be multiplied like stars. Abraham believed this.
If Abraham and Sarai had firmly believed and waited for this promise of God's, today's event would not have taken place. But the couple could not wait. God does not tell the exact time clearly. Also this leads to today's event directly and God said, 'Your own son shall be your heir. 'Depending on the interpretation, it means that as long as the father is Abraham, the mother does not have to be Sarai, for he will be'your own son. ' Of course, God's will or intention does not refer to it but to a person born between Abraham and his wife Sarai. But the two cannot wait. Those who cannot wait always interpret God's will in their favor and invent an alternative thing.
2 If we know God's will deeply, we will never be able to take it in a way that suits us. It is to understand how much God treasures a couple's one-on-one relationship. What happened to this couple reminds us of the time when they retreated to Egypt to escape famine. In order to stay as a temporary resident on the territory of Egypt, Abraham had to hand over Sarai as a hostage. Therefore he did not have to tell a lie saying that she was his sister. But he tells a lie saying that his wife is his sister. Because of that, the king of Egypt and his harem that took Sarai into something like the inner palace had tremendous misfortunes. From this we can understand how much God treasures the couple. In view of this, we cannot obtain our child through a concubine. But just as I say repeatedly, we cannot wait and try to obtain what we wishes for without knowing God deeply and with our plans.
3 Now I would like to mention one more thing. As a person who thinks of such a plan, Sarai says in Verse 2, 'Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. ' Those words draw our attention. She describes God as the person who'has prevented me from bearing children .' Indeed she's right. God does not provide her with what she really longs for. But when we regard Him as such a person, we try to obtain an alternative thing. And it leads to such a trouble as is described in today's words. If we know God deeply, surely we are sometimes not provided with what we want. But just because of that, God gives us something else. Just because we are not provided, which is a negative side, at the same time, we can know that we have a positive side.
With regard to this couple, what example can we give? In Chapter 12 he met God for the first time and when he heard, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, ' he was able to leave for a strange land at the age of 75. It was actually a grace brought about by the fact that the two people had no children, wasn't it? If they had a lot of children who became adults and were married respectively, they would have had too many relatives that they had to part from and they could not have left their hometowns or their father's house, could they? Just because they had no heir, they tried to rescue the prisoner of war Lot and encountered such a mysterious existence as Merkizedec. Also they were able to meet God described in Chapter 15. Those positive sides all refer to the encounter and relationship with God, but as Jesus said in the Gospel according to Luke the other day, just because we are given poverty and sorrows in our relations with human beings, through them, we are provided with an abundant connection with God. We must not forget about it.
4. Now as what kind of result the human plan produced is described in Verse 4 and the following in detail, it will not be necessary to talk a lot. Anyway it is what has come as a result of people's disobeying God's will, their making a plan and trying to obtain an alternative thing instead of God's will. Jesus referred to it by saying 'Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them,' in Matthew 7, v.20,whereas Paul said, 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control' in Galatians 5, V. 22 and the following. While it is under way, we often don't know whether it will please God's will, but as is described here, if the result of the fruit is conceitedness, arrogance, avoidance of responsibility, the attitude of 'my having nothing to do with it ' (as Verse 6 implies), bullying and escape, then it clearly follows that the first plan has been wrong.
How God helped four people, namely, this couple, Hagar and their child who is about to be born out of trouble is described in Verse 7 and the following. When we read this part, we wonder why God did not intervene in it much earlier or stop it. But as I always say, God gives us freedom. He does not prevent us in advance from making an evil plan and getting into trouble. But when we become helpless, He gives us a helping hand. But He never behaves in such a way as He puts us on a rescue boat by depriving us of our freedom. He makes much of our freedom to the last.
Therefore, when the angel of the Lord meets Hagar, he does not say, 'Return to your mistress, and submit to her. ' First he says, 'where have you come from and where are you going? '
5 This way of addressing is a really meaningful way that is full of grace. Where have you come from and where are you going? To elaborate on that, it means the following question: the way of living must be determined in terms of where you come from and where you are going. A straight line is drawn by our determining two points. Just like the straight line, the way of living is determined by fixing its starting point and goal. This is the question asking you whether you have such a starting point and goal.
Of course, the present Hagar does not have such things. Looking back on her life so far, we can find that she was sold as a slave-girl in Egypt, became Sarai's slave, all of a sudden she was taken to Abraham and became an instrument for giving birth to a baby. And once she became excited at her unexpected good fortune, she was bullied and had nothing but to escape at last. Her life was nothing but the one that is at the mercy of something like fate that is beyond human control. What kind of starting point or goal on earth can you find there?
However, now God made her aware that she had them. In Verse 10, The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude." What underlies there is that this event is derived from God's work and you are heading for the goal of your descendants multiplying greatly. As in Romans 11, v. 36, "From him and through him and to him are all things. ' Live in that way. And what you should do is to return to your mistress and submit to her. Yes , indeed. This is what God tells us all, I think. "From him and through him and to him are all things. ' In such a way, what we should do in a real life is to obediently serve what lies in our presence. We have only to perform what we should do, one by one. There is nothing other than that.
By being urged to do so by God, she returns to her mistress, making her determination by herself. Not by being forced by God but by making her own decision, she can make her way of living.
Just because the person Hagar met God and made a fresh start, this couple was probably saved by her. According to Verse 16, Chapter 16, it was when Abraham was 86 years old that Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. And in the next scene, he was 99 years old. This indicates that his family lived a peaceful life. Simply, this is attributed to Hagar. Thanks to the woman who happened to meet God and know Him deeply, the family who was just about to collapse due to their stupid plan was saved.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
Genesis 16 : 1 - 16
1 Now Sar'ai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar;
2 and Sar'ai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sar'ai.
3 So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sar'ai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
5 And Sar'ai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!"
6 But Abram said to Sar'ai, "Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sar'ai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
8 And he said, "Hagar, maid of Sar'ai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from my mistress Sar'ai."
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her."
10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude."
11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ish'mael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction
12 He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen."
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "Thou art a God of seeing"; for
she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?
14 Therefore the well was called Beerla'hai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Jun. 24, 2012
- God's blessings for the poor and the weeper -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The passage of the Bible for this morning covers from verse 20 to the end of the chapter 6 of the Gospel according to Luke. Today's passage is about the similar theme as appearing in the Gospel according to Mathew from its chapters 5 to 7; only that this one is presented in a bit shorter form. While the passage in Mathew is called 'the Sermon on the Mount,' the passage in Luke is sometimes called 'the Sermon at the Level Place.' This naming is based on verse 17 of chapter 6, for it says, "When Jesus had come down from the hill, he stood on a level place." The Sermon on the Mount in Mathew is also called 'The Eight Beatitudes on the Mount,' for it begins with eight blessings. The passage of Luke given to us this morning enlists four each of happiness and unhappiness.
It says,"Happy are you poor," and" Happy are you who weep now."
What on earth can they mean? These words have perplexed the Bible readers since early ages. Some say people have been made to learn to be complacent about being kept and confined in poverty and sorrow because of these teachings of Jesus; and that was very convenient for the rulers who would fatten their personal wallets. On that ground, religion was even criticized as opium.
What kind of thought did Jesus have in mind when he delivered these teachings? These teachings of Jesus are already tough enough on which to deliver a sermon. To make matters more difficult, I had to attend to the funeral of our sister Usumura from last Sunday through Tuesday; I could not have sufficient time to prepare for this sermon. Yet, through what happened to Ms. Usumura and also through how it happened to late Kazuyo Tosha, I feel I have been deeply taught about the meaning of these teachings of Jesus which say, "Happy are you poor, happy are you who weep."
2. First of all I want to point out that it was never the intention of Jesus to keep us in poverty or sorrow, nor did he mean to say that being poor or sorrowful itself constitutes happiness. The point I am making is apparent from verses 18 and 19; there it is written that a large crowd of people gathered at the foot of Jesus, each with their eager wish to manage somehow to touch him because the sick were healed by the power coming out from Jesus when they touched him. As is evident from these lines, Jesus never left people suffering illness in poverty or sorrow to continue unattended. Rather, he tried to relieve them out of such a situation.
How can it ever be happy for one to be in sorrow? One can never be happy that way; and this is what we thoroughly understood learning from the sudden passing of Mses. Tosha and Usumura. It couldn't have been happiness for them, now raised to heaven, to be put in such a sudden death. For neither the only son nor the only daughter they each happened to have, the sudden and painful deaths of their mothers have been far from happiness at all.
3. Then how can it be that the word happiness is attached to sorrow? What can it mean that 'happiness' accompanies sadness? The answer is given in the words that follow, which say, "The Kingdom of God is yours!"
The Kingdom of God is not the heaven we are told to be taken up to after our death. Literally put, it means 'the reign of God;' it means that we'll share in the bountiful acts of God; that we'll come across with the workings of God; that we'll have the privilege of witnessing what only God can make, the likes of which are far beyond what are possible in the realm of men, i.e. by acts and ideas of humans. The poor and the men of sorrow have sadness, hunger and thirst which cannot be healed in the realm of humans. They cannot take comfort from men. So they come to Jesus as in verses from 17 to 19 as if to grab a straw floating over water. And they lay hands on Jesus so the power of Jesus flew out from him. In that way, the poor and the sad lose all other options but to come before God. Then God gives them that something which God alone can give. Only the poor and the sad experience such encounters with God. All I just told you shows that the poverty or the sorrow being talked about in this passage are not the kind which can be dealt with in the realm of men or by means available in this world.
On last Thursday, despite with a small attendance, we had a home gathering at Ms. I's. You may have heard about their stories more than once. But if I may, Ms. I appealed to everyone visiting her saying what she finds is just vanity as if she has a cave at her belly, the size of a round tray good to carry cups and saucers. That was before she encountered with God. Once she made the same point to then pastor of the church, Reverend Wakatsuki. The pastor replied saying that the hole or the cave is where God is going to go into. I cannot agree with him more. The vanity abounding our life cannot be filled by money, though the more of which may be incoming the more we work to earn it. The reality is that the hole of vanity may get even bigger the more we try to fill it on our own. For some kind of hole or poverty can only be filled by God alone.
The painful death of late Ms. Usumura wasn't something that could be healed by any means available in the realm of men as far as it concerned me; this may be more deeply so for the late Usumura herself as well as for her only daughter, the bereaved. Death is the way of the life on this world, some may say. There was no other way around, others said. It was quite like Usumura that she's so decisively, as it were, left for heaven rather than hovers around on the earth, still others said. But none of these words gave solace to her daughter. The body of her mother had to be cremated within the Sunday itself and so it was done at a crematory in Tsuchiura on its last working hours in the afternoon. The daughter repeated words of regret throughout the time necessary for cremation; that if only she could come home just a day earlier from her business trip abroad; that she put all household works on the shoulder of her mother to secure enough time for her own job; that the truth is never said better than the proverb which says we cannot do good to our parents after they are passed away, etc. etc. with tears never ceasing in her eyes. The same was true of the bereaved son of late Ms. Tosha.
No human acts or means available in the realm of men can heal such a sorrow and remorse. It was the words of God that healed us; words given us at the funeral function. Through it, the bereaved had a glimpse of the Kingdom of God; they could have a bit of understanding about what is in the heart of God. Through it, they could realize the meaning of what happened. The only son of late Ms. Tosha, at the function of the night before the funeral, went to the extent of saying "I could now come to accept the way my mother, after having been hit by a car, lay alone, washed by cold drops of rain, with no one to see her off." The only daughter of late Ms. Usumura said at the funeral, "My mother offered her for a sacrifice to lead me to attend the worship service at this church." Hearing the words of God and realizing, just a little bit though, what God intends to do we have come to understand the meaning which the sad event carries. It is there that the happiness lies whereby the Kingdom of God becomes ours.
4. Our happiness being what's been so far explained, we can tell what kind of unhappy situation the circumstances written in 24th and the following verses can mean to us. It points to unhappiness where one's mind is not turning toward the Kingdom of God because he is already full in the realm of men. The truth is that no matter how greatly satisfied he may be at this point in time in the realm of men, a time will come when he will have to face with poverty and sorrow of the kind which nothing in this world can serve to heal. But it is not too late for one to turn his mind toward God at such a time. We have to regret, however, that just a very limited few would take advantage of such an opportunity. When one is put in a situation where he cannot have any solace from the realm of men and yet he cannot get anything from the Kingdom of God, how unhappy he can be?
The elder of my two daughters commenced her career as a nurse this April. She's been assigned to a ward for seriously ill patients. I find myself having to lend my ears to her maundering these days every time she comes home on an off-day. Seeing patients passing in a matter of seconds despite best treatment, she seems to be cut herself deep by the vanity of medicine. One of the patients, having been told by the primary doctor on whom he relied so much that there's no more approach, told her "he was at last abandoned by the doctor," and passed away only after two days. I am afraid it is not limited to him alone but it could apply to any and all of us: we'll all have to go, abandoned by a doctor of excellence in the end; we'll go as ones for whom no human art can do anything to cure. One cannot be unhappier, therefore, than that he or she had only the realm of men and human workings to rely on at such a time.
5. What, then, are the workings of God like with whom we encounter in our sorrow or in our poverty I told you about? In the brief words for today, Jesus tells nothing about it. But I was taught about it again by the teaching revealed in the funeral of late Ms. Usumura.
Late Usumura didn't leave her loved hymn numbers or favorite scriptures written. But her daughter sent a copy of an article about Ms. Usumura which was posted on the March 2003 issue of 'the Christian Newspaper.' The article was about Ms. Usumura retiring from her twenty and some years of working for radio evangelical mission; and it posted sort of a summary of her life by her own words. The whole article was titled 'Radio evangelism is a way of sowing seeds.' Reading it over and again the famous words of the psalm 126 verses 5 and 6 were given me to make the funeral address for her.
The poem says "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy." When I read the words I felt I could understand all the meaning the painful death of Ms. Usumura carries; that late Usumura sowed herself in tears. The bereaved daughter and we, too, sowed her in tears. God sowed her in the death. And this is linked to the time of joyful reaping though we cannot tell when it's going to be. This is the working of God. This is how God deals with our life and death, I thought.
In the realm of humans we only sow the seeds of joy, for we would avoid sorrow as much as possible. And we look forward to reaping more joy greedily. It doesn't turn out that way with God. Only the seeds sown in tears will produce joyful harvest.
We are all just tiny seeds; tiny, little seeds fully stuffed with sorrow and poverty. Even such seeds will have been given ability to germinate. But they need, more than anything else, to be sown over the earth, lain in the soil and decay for them to sprout, grow and bear fruits. Only then they come out as non-decaying life. The earth on which we, the seeds, are spread is God, and it is our life in faith. It is only when we are put in religious life that we, the tiny seeds, are grown enough to be able to produce joyful harvest. How happy we are to learn and realize such workings of God!
(This is a translation of the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese, not a transcript of spoken sermon. Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 20 - 26
20 Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!
21 "Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled! "Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh!
22 "Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that you are evil, all because of the Son of Man!
23 Be glad when that happens and dance for joy, because a great reward is kept for you in heaven. For their ancestors did the very same things to the prophets.
24 "But how terrible for you who are rich now; you have had your easy life!
25 "How terrible for you who are full now; you will go hungry!
"How terrible for you who laugh now; you will mourn and weep!
26 "How terrible when all people speak well of you; their ancestors did the very same things about the false prophets.
(TEV)
Jun. 17, 2012
- Look up at the sky, and count the stars. -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.(1) We have read up to Chapter 15 of Genesis so far. The following few chapters will deal with an heir's being given birth to between Abraham and Sarah as a basic topic, although other episodes are inserted. If we read today's words obediently, we can interpret them in the following way: Abraham, who was worried about being heirless, was going to make his slave Eliezer his heir. However God stopped it and He promised Abraham that his descendants would be so many like stars in the sky, saying that his heir would be a child of his own body. It is a great reward given to Abraham by God. Abraham believed its promise and God reckoned it to him as righteousness.
1.(2) Does Abraham's believing this kind of God's promise mean that we too should believe the same kind of promise? To put it in a very concrete way, does it mean that a couple without a child will be given a child some day and they should expect it as a reward from God? Today we did not read Chapter 7 and the following but the part says that God promised Abraham a plot of land. Does this mean that we should expect to be given a plot of land as well as a child as a reward and should continue to wait?
2.(1) First, Verse 1 says, "After this the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision." It was the words "Do not be afraid." God's speaking to him saying "Do not be afraid" shows, conversely, that at that time he had some fear, I think. The words, "I am your shield," mean what constitutes your foundation and fortress, just as a shield is a weapon for protecting yourself when you fight a war. It means that at that time he was worried about what his own foundation was. The same was true with the words, "Your reward will be very great.' He had a question about his reward, that is, the fruit or harvest of his life.
2.(2) What was such a question or fear? Isn't it the words, "After this" in Verse 1 that suggest it? It goes without saying that "After this" refers to what happened in Chapter 14. I'll summarize it briefly.
2.(3) Lot, who parted from his uncle Abraham, put the first priority on keeping his fortune and chose a fertile place near the Jordan River and dwelt in the infamous town, Sodom. Because of that, he was involved in a war against the nine kings who were fighting wars repeatedly in their regions and he became a prisoner of war. On hearing this, in order to rescue Lot, Abraham led only three hundred men to fight a difficult war. Wasn't his expectation that if Lot were rescued, again he would return to Abraham and would be an heir to him?
2.(4) We regarded the words in Verse 13, Chapter 14 as very important. The reason why Abraham was able to rescue Lot was that he was a Hebrew. He was a wandering temporary resident but he was not just a temporary resident but a resident living by the oaks of Mamre, that is, a temporary resident who put top priority on worshipping God. As such a believer, Abraham rescued Lot. He won a war against kings of this world. However, Lot did not return to Abraham. Abraham could not make him his heir. There lay his fear and futility of life or loneliness, didn't there? Didn't he feel strongly lack of strength to live as a believer, rather, inability to attract Lot or difficulty of obtaining friends or an heir to him?
2.(5) What Abraham is seeking after is, literally, an heir to him but what underlies it is the existence of his friends to share his faith with. It is that especially his family, above all, his own children will inherit his faith and develop it further. To live surrounded by such companions or families is a fortress and foundation. It is to find that you find a person who inherits your faith and you are able to think that your life as a believer has not been useless.
2.(6) Basically, just because Abraham was seeking after this kind of thing, God tried to grant his wish by giving a child to him. The reward that God gave him was never just giving an heir to him. He does not give such a kind of reward. It is not such a thing but to obtain a foundation for living in this world as a believer and to take to our heart its joy and harvest. It is that although we are a minority of people in the world and "Hebrews," we can obtain our companions and heirs and someday our descendants will be so many like stars in the sky as a reward, I think.
3.(1) Now Abraham was given no children for a long time and thought it impossible to realize his wish in view of his present situation (At that time Abraham was 86, whereas Sarah was about 76). Also Lot did not return to him. Therefore, he intended to make his servant Eliezer an heir to his household.
3.(2) Abraham's attempt to make Eliezer an heir to his household is very symbolic, I think. He says to God, "I am childless. You have given me no children." He says that he is not provided with a shield or a reward in the sense that I mentioned a few minutes ago and complains about his lack of power, his weakness, and his poverty as a believer. And he ends up giving up and thinking of something like an alternative, namely, a substitute that God does not give, and a shield or reward available that he can think of by himself.
3.(3) What does this mean to us in the concrete? Something might flash across our mind. Simply, you may give up being provided with an heir to faith. Or you may think that you are not able to produce anything any more.
4.(1) In response to this, God says, "your heir will be a child of your own body.' This is a word that really gives us comfort, I think. God says that an heir will be given birth to by an old couple aged nearly 90 and 80. God says "a child of your own body," which does not refer to, for example, a"momotaro", the "Peach Boy" who suddenly appeared out of a river boy, or "kaguyahime" , the Shining Princess, who was found inside a shining bamboo. Not that but God gives the elderly couple a child by using the bodies of those aged 90 or something and 80 or something. There we find God's miracle but God uses our body.
4.(2) Thus God uses us who have much difficulty finding an heir in faith to us. He uses the plight of our living in poverty. He uses our words of testimony and the way we live. We can still give birth to an heir to our household by being used by God.
4.(3) This may stray from the subject but I was reminded of what I learned from the Bible Study and Prayer Meeting last week. We learned about Paul's letter to his disciple Timothy. It described how a church at Epheseus devoted themselves to helping out widows. I guess what difficult lives widows lived in those days. Even if they received help from their church, they were probably put in such a situation as is shown in today's words, "You don't give me this nor that." But the letter said that it is they who showed travelers hospitality, washed sacred people's feet and helped those who were suffering. We learn that their way of working this way and what they produced became a driving force behind the church's spreading everywhere in the Roman Empire.
5.(1) What God says is unusual. Therefore, in order to convince him of it, God took Abraham out and made him look up at the sky and see an innumerable number of stars. He said, "So many will your descendants be.' And Abraham believed in God.
5.(2) God brought outside Abraham, who complained that he did not have enough and he was not given much, namely, Abraham, who paid attention only to him and could not see anything else. And He made Abraham look up at the sky. There is no logical foundation in God's words, "So many will your descendants be.' There is no connection between there being so many stars in the night sky and Abraham's descendants becoming so. However, when faith works there, these two things which are not connected and which have nothing to do with each other, namely, a lot of stars and a "self" who is not given an heir and is lacking in so many things, suddenly get combined with each other. It is convincing. We can understand that way. This is what takes place in faith.
5.(3) The same is true with Jesus' words in last week's Sermon on the Mount. Our heavenly Father God's completeness and our incompleteness as human beings has no connection. Essentially they cannot be connected. But when Jesus said, "Just as Father in heaven is perfect," he did not mean that we could be perfect and must be so, but he referred to the joy that "imperfect" we could be connected somehow to the perfection of God. What cannot take place does take place in faith. When you believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, it happens.
5.(4) When we look at flowers in the fields and watch birds in the sky, the whole picture of them reminds us intuitively that that it is also provided for us. We are convinced that we can live this way. So when we look up at the night sky and find a scene jeweled with countless stars, we believe that this happens to me too.
We hope that we will share such faith and will be given an heir who can inherit our faith. For that purpose, God will use us. Therefore we would like to be those who produce without giving up.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
Genesis 15 : 1 - 6
1 After this the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said, 'Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield. Your reward will be very great.'
2 Abram replied, 'Lord God, what can you give me, seeing that I am childless? The heir to my household is Eliezer of Damascus.
3 You have given me no children, and so my heir must be a slave born in my house.'
4 The word of the LORD came to him: 'This man will not be your heir; your heir will be a child of your own body.'
5 He brought Abram outside and said, 'Look up at the sky, and count the stars, if you can. So many will your descendants be.
6 Abram put his faith in the LORD, who reckoned it to him as righteousness.
(THE REVISED ENGLISH BIBLE)
May. 27, 2012
- Events on the Day of Pentecost -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today is the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was poured on the disciples and through it they were able to talk about Jesus and God without hesitating and boldly. In order to commemorate it, today's prayer started to be observed. As last Tuesday Ms. Kazuyo TOSHA died because of an accident and on Friday and Saturday the wake and funeral for her were held respectively, I was not able to take time to read God's words carefully as usual. However, through today's Sunday Service, I hope that we can inscribe the necessity and joy to have the Holy Spirit instilled into our hearts at all.
Now when we read the beginning of Verse 1, we find the words "The day of Pentecost had come, and they were all together in one place." Pentecost means "fifty days," which is the origin of the word "Pentecost." Pentecost is the word meaning "fiftieth" in Greek. People in Israel observed Pentecost on the fiftieth day after the Passover festival. Formerly it is said to be the festival to celebrate a harvest of the flour and to offer the first crop of the season to God. Thus at that time, the disciples had got together. It is probably because they had to observe this festival but rather because they had a much larger purpose.
2. To read Chapter 1, Verse 3 and the following carefully would enable you to better understand it. Jesus, who was resurrected from the cross, often appeared to his disciples for 40 days, taught a lot of things and ate meals together with them. Verse 4 says, "Without leaving Jerusalem... While he was in in their company, he directed them not to leave Jerusalem. "You must wait, " he said, " for the gift promised by the Father, of which I told you." At last 40 days passed and the time for Jesus to go back to heaven came. To read Verse 9 and the following enables us to understand well how lonely and anxious the disciples were when Jesus was overshadowed by the clouds and he went out of sight. This is the very time when the Holy Spirit had to be poured on them.
Jesus ascended to heaven and he became invisible unlike before. It became impossible for his disciples to be directly taught by him. Then how can they overcome the barrier between heaven and earth and meet Jesus, receive his teaching, know God and talk about Him from now on? I wonder why on earth Jesus ascended back to heaven in only 40 days. Why didn't He stay together with us everlastingly? The answer to this question can be found in the Gospel according to John, which we listened to on April 8. That is, just as Jesus said to Mary, Magdalene, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet gone back up to the Father," if Jesus continues to stay on the earth, we will hold on to him in a variety of senses. It is as it were, a state where a child cannot become independent of his parents. It is not God's will. In the Sunday Service of last week, we learned that the First Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verse 2, said, "God chose by the folly of the gospel to save those who have faith." It is those who can overcome the barrier between heaven and this earth that is, the difficulty of knowing, believing Jesus and being connected with him directly like before and who can believe in Jesus that God is going to save.
Then the existence who enables us to overcome this barrier tells us about Jesus who is in heaven and it gives us his message and enables us to believe. It makes us serve as a witness for Jesus and God. The existence for that is God of the Holy Spirit. The existence which teaches us what is wrong is a nuisance. It must be God, like God and Jesus in order to teach us. Just because it is on the same basis, it can teach us correctly. As we tend to make mistakes and have misconceptions and distorted ideas, it must be patient and continue to be persistent and to teach us. There arises a hometown called the Trinity there.
3. Thus because Jesus ascended to heaven, his disciples looked forward to the promised Holy Spirit with eagerness. There the Holy Spirit was poured on them. What kind of phenomenon occurred at that time is described in Verse 2 and the following.
What is described first is "Suddenly there came from the sky what sounded like a strong, driving wind." In Hebrew and Greek also, the wind is expressed in the same word as the spirit. In Hebrew it is Ruaha ,whereas it is pnuma. Depending on the situation, it is translated into the wind, the breath or the spirit. As the Holy Spirit is God, it cannot be essentially compared to what is in this world. However the Holy Spirit is similar to the wind. When the Holy Spirit is poured on us, such a phenomenon as a strong, driving wind comes about.
You don't have to say, "Just because such a thing has never happened to me, the Holy Spirit has never been poured on me." You don't have to take such words "what sounded like a strong, driving wind" literally. What is the wind? It sometimes sways and uproots us like the tornado that occurred the other day. It faces us with such an experience or event.
Through the funeral service for the late Ms. Kazuyo Tosha, I knew that she had chosen the words in Job Chapter 37, Verse 7 as her favorite phrase in the essays contributed in celebration of the 25 th anniversary of this church and gave an address on the basis of that at the funeral service. We can find the following words: verse.6 " For he says to the snow, 'Fall over the earth'; to the rainstorms he says, 'Be violent,' Verse .7 "He shuts everyone fast indoors, and all whom he has made are quiet." To the late Ms Kazuyo Tosha, a strong driving wind and the wind or a storm that contained her and her husband's wishes occurred one after another. However, it was through such events that her sisters knew God. In 1980 when her husband was as young as 55 years old, he suffered from cerebral hemorrhage, through which Ms. Tosha knew this church and she was baptized in 1983. In the above mentioned essays, she wrote like this: "My husband's death and the time when it occurred. All of them were God's work and God's love. That is what I think about, five years after that."
Also, the second young people's meeting was held after the Sunday Service last week. At that meeting a certain young man described his present faith very honestly. I think that he, who was baptized at his early age and made a confession of faith in the early stage of his primary school, is now facing the time when his faith is becoming his bones and flesh. There is as it were, "growth pain." In order to overcome it, the Holy Spirit must be poured on us. It is not until the Holy Spirit is poured on us, that we can have an encounter with God, and Jesus. It becomes bones or flesh or blood, forming the body as a believer. However, it involves such an event as a strong, driving wind, although it is hard. We experience such a storm as destroys and contains wishes or deeds of human beings. It is universally common to all. This is what God does, who pours the Holy Spirit on us.
4. The second phenomenon that occurred when the Holy Spirit was poured was the following: "And there appeared to them flames like tongues of fire distributed among them and coming to rest on each one. " They "began to speak in other tongues." We don't have to take this part literally. This part can be translated into "other languages." Just because people of a certain denomination talked in other languages, the disciples had the Holy Spirit poured on them and were able to understand God and Jesus, which turned into their flesh and blood. The disciples who were obliged to talk about God themselves came to give gospels everywhere without being afraid of the differences of languages nor of their awkward way of talking. That is the way of a symbolical and prophetical expression. Even if there is a difference between languages and you are poor at the language, you can easily overcome them, as long as you have a strong will to talk and conviction within yourself.
The words "flames" and "burn" always remind me of an event described in the Bible. It is what happened when Moses saw a mysterious flame that did not disappear however long it burned and met God at the age of 80. I really think that to the 80 year old Moses, there was something attractive about the brushwood that did not disappear however long it burned.
There are many things which make us enthusiastic in this world. To name a few things that are easy to obtain, alcohol, gambling and games. So are love, working and hatred and a desire for revenge. At the age of 40, Moses burned trying to help his brethren who were suffering. He killed the Egyptian who abused his brethren. The next day he offered to serve as a mediator for his brethren who were fighting but it turned out to be nothing but a collapse. After all what makes us burn in this world brings us a collapse and make us burn out. As a result, we have tar of cinders or soot thickly left within ourselves.
In contrast, to know God and Jesus and to be burned through it does not burn us out, strangely enough. It does not leave soot behind. That's why we pastors can give sermons for dozens of years and continue to burn. The reason why we can do this difficult job for 30 or 40 years is that we can burn only with the Holy Spirit.
However long it burns, it does not disappear nor run out. To know God through the Holy Spirit and to have a tongue to talk about God with is to receive such a joy.
(This is translation of the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese, and not a transcription of the sermon as actually spoken. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI)
Acts of the Apostles 2 : 1 - 4
1 The day of Pentecost had come, and they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly there came from the sky what sounded like a strong, driving wind, a noise which filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them flames like tongues of fire distributed among them and coming to rest on each one.
4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk tongues, as the Spirit gave them power of utterance.
(Quoted from the Revised English Bible)
May. 20, 2012
- Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The passage of the Bible for this morning tells about Jesus choosing the twelve apostles together with their individual names. The story about the apostles actually being sent out for the mission appears in chapter 9.
Apostle is apostolos in Greek and it means one who is dispatched, one who is sent out for special purpose, one sent by a sender in such capacity as an envoy.
Verse 12 describes the choosing of the apostles as resulting from Jesus having prayed to God throughout the night before. We can safely conjecture that the choosing of the apostles was triggered by the event of verse 11, which appears just before this one. It tells that there arose a dispute between Jesus and Pharisees and the scholars of the law on the question of Sabbath. These people were highly respected and had great influence in the society of Israelites of the time. Jesus faced with their intense wrath and fatal enmity. Coming to see them in his own eyes, Jesus must have learned of his death instinctively. And Jesus asked God in his all-night prayer how he should best secure continuation of his works should something happen to him. The choosing of the twelve apostles must have been the answer given him.
2. That Jesus elected to choose apostles for the succession of his works may look natural. But when we think of it over and again it turns out as something quite surprising. Those chosen by him were common men with no special ability. One of them was Judas who sold Jesus for money in the end. They couldn't possibly be dispatched as ambassador plenipotentiary on behalf of Jesus. To begin with, Jesus is the only Son of God. How could any one of us, humans, be fit to act as ambassador for such a special being as he is? Once something should happen to him, the works and the mission will be over. No one could possibly succeed them. Common sense would have so counseled.
Jesus also may have possibly thought along this line and he may have brought it before God. The scene of Jesus praying all night tells it was a time of great trial for him, time when he was facing a challenge he had to overcome. To this call of Jesus God answered saying it's going to be OK. Men with you can succeed your works. What they can carry individually on their shoulders is so little and they cannot be compared to what you carry. That's why I suggest that you choose twelve (incidentally the total number grew to seventy two at a later stage, though.) Trust and deploy them. Jesus must have been counseled so by God, I gather.
A professor, Barkley by name, wrote in his commentary on today's Bible passage and said, 'It is highly useful to think of the reasons as to why Jesus chose his disciples. Jesus needed people. (This sentence is not outright quotation from the original language text but a translation from Japanese version.)' That Jesus needed people; that he needs us. What an impressive comment! Because Jesus needed twelve men as written here, little ones like me can remain aligned with the apostles at the very end of the line as a missionary. You, too, are the followers of Jesus and as such you are also dispatched to your respective places as a missionary. We know that the load we can carry individually is small; we are like Peter sometimes and like Judas at other times. Yet we are being dispatched. It is because Jesus needs us.
3. Professor Barkley also implies that Jesus could have elected the following means to see his mission succeeded. That is that considering the possibility of something happening to him and in thinking about the succession of his works, he could have dictated to his disciples exactly each and every word he spoke without a mistake, and have them read the dictation like a parrot because the disciples were unreliable to ask to do otherwise; while picking them for his apostles, Jesus could have elected not to allow them to choose their own ways in their missionary works. To use today's words, he could rather have his disciples take a copy of the text of his speech so each and every word he spoke would be read exactly, with no mistake.
But in reality Jesus didn't choose such an approach. I dare repeat and say that the individual disciples were really little being for apostles and they were no comparison to Jesus, the sender. Such being the state of the apostles, the words they spoke didn't sound confident, and at times their words were spoken as interpreted in their own ways, as taken narrowly based on prejudices, as even misunderstood or colorized. Yet knowing such dangers, Jesus dared to leave the apostles use their own tongues and speak what they had in their minds.
There are four Gospels; all recorded the life and acts of Jesus and they differ substantially from each other in what they tell. But such a thing is inconceivable in the case of the Koran, a book points out, though I am a bit ambiguous as to whether this observation was made in a book titled 'Mystical Christianity,' one of the leading sellers in the world of general books as well as among books about Christianity or it was mentioned in the book titled 'The Bible and the Koran.' At any rate, the Koran is said to have been dictated as if to take video or photograph from the book which God wrote, and which Mohammed found placed on the desk in God's study, so to speak, when he ascended to heaven. It follows then that the Koran as written in Arabic is the work of God by each and every word of it. But any translated version is not. Unlike we pastors do, there cannot be any explanation or comments made in their religion about historical background of the words of the book; and there can absolutely be no suggesting that one shouldn't take certain words of the Holy Book on their surface. In other words, the religion of Islam is founded strictly on the book of the Koran. It is a religion to be succeeded by passing on each and every word in the Koran without mistake.
But it is not so with Christianity. By the words the apostles freely used, by the words that arose in their minds, the apostles were free to speak out about the image and acts of Jesus kept in their memory and the figure of God they encountered with through them. They could speak freely although theirs may have contained mistakes and distortions. That's how there could be as many as four Gospels, it is said. They were not put together and compiled as one which was then authorized to be the only authentic version of the acts of Jesus. How the life and acts of Jesus were going to be told was left to the people who believed in him.
4. This reminds us of verse 21, chapter 1 of the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. It says 'God chose by the folly of the gospel to save those who have faith.' His was the mission not by himself, nor by the words he wrote, but the one assumed by humans who were picked as apostles starting from Peter to Judas, the traitor. And this was the folly means which God chose to deploy. If the mission were to be carried out with accuracy and efficiency after the ascension of Jesus to heaven, it would have been best done by someone with exceptional ability who would have read and taught what Jesus himself left in words. If, today, efficiency and accuracy were to be taken as the first thing as this age requires, it should suffice just to have one missionary for the whole world who may be recognized as the sole ambassador of Jesus due to his special ability or talent and to let him take on the missionary works through televisions and internet. But it wasn't the way God chose. Nor Jesus was told it was the way during his all-night prayer. Mission by the folly means; one that depends on humans. It is all the more for this reason that faith developed. God saves those who have faith in spite of their folly and the poverty.
It is for this reason that the chosen twelve could talk to each individuals they came across with about Jesus and about God they had in themselves, while they themselves remained as they were and used their own words despite lack of special ability and regardless of their denial and even betrayal. The number twelve stood for the 12 tribes of Israel, needless to say, and the whole of Israel, i.e. the entire world. Not just one but twelve apostles were dispatched to all over the world. It was out of the consideration that each one of all people on the earth needed to be attended to. Through one on one encounter and through each one of the apostles being dispatched to respective places, the mission was carried out; the works of Jesus were inherited.
5. So far we've focused our attention to the means and method of the mission; that the works of Jesus or the mission were being succeeded by humans, called the apostles. Now I should like to turn our eyes on to the object of the mission.
I don't have to say that what Jesus did was to tell about God, to tell for the good news that God is good to be our LORD. The question which arises in this connection is if, indeed, this fact is something that can be succeeded by the apostles. I say this because if God and the Gospel were something of a monopoly business of Jesus and could be understood and talked about just by Jesus, the only Son of God, then the apostles and we, not having similar relationship with God as Jesus does, won't be having any words to say if dispatched on a mission. If we were still to tell something, then the only option before us would be for us to take a copy of the dictation and read it.
By Islam, it may be said, a man, Mohammed by name, was given the Koran from God, and he is the only one who could get to know God and was allowed to tell about God. It is for this very reason that for Islam there isn't any being called a pastor like us, it is said. We often hear Imam (teacher) so and so mentioned. What are they? Are they the ones who give explanations about teachings of the Koran during worship service? Anyhow, as far as I understand it, there seems to be nobody except Mohammed who was given special gift and position (though many prophets preceding him were in such positions, but none after him) who could get to know and tell about God.
But it's not like that with Christianity. Jesus thought that God and the Gospel were going to be propagated by the apostles should something happen to him. He thought so because he was convinced that God could get to be known and could be talked about by them as by him. That's how Jesus was counseled by God in his all-night prayer, I gather. Jesus expressed his thanks time and again that God revealed himself not just to Jesus but also to his disciples (See for instance Mathew 11: 25 and the entire chapter of John 13.) To encounter with God and to get to know and get to talk about God are not limited just to Jesus. It's not confined to especially chosen prophets. It is open to all of us. That's why men like us are being dispatched as missionaries.
I am led to feel deeply that our being as the dispatched are like a negative film of photography. Peter who denied of knowing Jesus for three times and Judas who betrayed Jesus are the same with us. Through them, the negative films, Jesus and God emerge on positive film. Jesus who chose them for his apostles from among many, who strived to remain related with them despite three-time denials and hide-in, emerges just because of them. There is no direct reference in the Bible regarding how Judas, who is said to have committed suicide after betraying Jesus, helps by his negative film the positive figure of Jesus to emerge. But I am convinced that the choice of him as an apostle Jesus made through his all-night prayer isn't going to be for no good. Perhaps he is being deployed as one to tell about God and Jesus to many people who were driven to terminate their own lives, I conjecture.
God in this way lets us reveal, tell and make people know about himself through us, his chosen, and through our being as we are.
(Translated by Hiroshi Nishido from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 12 - 16
12 During this time he went out one day into the hill-country to pray, and spent the night in prayer to God.
13 When day broke he called his disciples to him, and from among them he chose twelve and named them apostles:
14 Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,
15 Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaues, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who turned traitor.
(Quoted from the Revised English Bible)
May. 6, 2012
- Blessing in the realm of heaven is filled in Christ -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Starting from this morning I want us to begin learning from the Paul's Letter to the Ephesians along with our learning from Genesis and the Gospel according to Luke.
As it is with his letter to the Philippians, the letter to the Colossians and the letter to Philemon, the Paul's Letter to the Ephesians is also called a "Letter Written in Prison."
I think that in writing such a long letter as this we, too, would intend to give solace and encouragement to an addressee, which will be most fitting to the situation he or she is placed in. This must have been the case with Paul as well. People at the church of Ephesus lived under adverse circumstances. Hearing their difficulty Paul, being unable to overlook it or either sitting or standing as we say, wrote this letter to them, I gather. Therefore, in trying to understand the letter of Paul, it is very important for us to imagine what kind of difficulty the people of Ephesus were in. And this has to be born in our mind whenever we lend our ears to this letter, i.e. not just at this time.
2. We have a clue to getting to know the kind of situation the people at the church of Ephesus were placed in. It is the story of chapter 19 of 'The Acts of the Apostles.' It describes how the town of Ephesus was like when Paul visited it for the first time to propagate the gospel.
The story had been written 10 years or so earlier than his letter to the Ephesians. But there haven't taken place much major changes in the town of Ephesus since then, I gather. We will be able to observe through the story of the Acts how it was like in Ephesus at the time Paul wrote the letter to the people there.
The chapter 19 put in records two stories. One is that, in consequence of the missionary work of Paul, those who had been practicing magic in the town of Ephesus came out in public and burned their magic books. The total value of the books was said to reckon up to 50 thousand pieces of silver coins. We cannot tell exactly how much they were worth. But presuming that a silver coin was worth about day's wage of a laborer, the sum would be an equivalent of JPY 5 million in terms of our today's currency. Put in other words, the story indicates that people of the town were so much dependent on the magic as such a large volume of magic books were being used.
Another story is also the one triggered, if I may say so, by the missionary work of Paul, which tells about an uproar that arose among the craftsmen of silversmith. In Ephesus there was a big temple to worship the goddess Artemis, highly famed one among people of the time. The silver craftsmen were profiting from making silver models of the temple. As it will have been implied by this, faiths in gods were prevalent in the town of Ephesus.
Be it faith in magic or in goddess, that they were prevailing would mean there was some common atmosphere across the town. The magic is the same thing as fortune-telling, which is widely popular still today. It is something people hang on to in order to see what their futures hold or out of desire to see their lives turn out the ways they would see. For people to believe in gods is also out of their wish to have good luck. Be it in magic or in gods the people believed in one thing common among them was their minds wishing to have luck.
I happened to be seeing a Western TV film the other day. But I turned off the switch soon after seeing just the beginnig part of it because it caught me with an unpleasant feeling. It was made based on a Greek mythology and the initial scenes were about gods talking with each other. According to the film humans were but only a tool for gods to serve them. Gods got fat or lean depending on whether or not they were served by and received offerings from humans. With a human being who didn't serve them, gods got angry and penalized him. Human was only a being tossed about by them. Such was the story of the film. Such an idea lay at the basis of faiths of the people who believed in gods of Greece and Rome. Prevalent in Ephesus, too, were this kind of faiths and tendency.
People made offerings to gods and to ones who practiced magic out of their wish to get good luck. Gods gave them the luck in return. People had only to accept it as punishment by gods when something unlucky fell on them. Human was a being to be pitied because they were always at the whim of gods.
On such a state of the town of Ephesus of 2000 years ago don't we see exactly the same look of ourselves of today? Faiths in magic performers and gods are not eminent on the surface today. But there is indeed no shortage in the supply of 'magic' and the like by which people wish to secure their desirable life or luck, and no shortage in the supply of 'gods' on whom people rely who would give us the desired results. The more luck people get the more it catches them just as a narcotic does.
3. To people of Ephesus who were still reliant on the magic and gods and who were placed under circumstances in which they were at their mercy, Paul talked to help them recollect how they had felt when they listened to the gospel through him for the first time and came to encounter with God; how the figure of true God looked, about whom they heard for the first time? Answer to this question is written from verse 3 to the beginning of verse 4.
The initial phrase of verse 4 is so translated into Japanese as to say, "Even before the world was made, God loved us so that we would be holy and without fault before him," as if the sentence anticipates to be followed by another sentence at the latter part of the verse. However the original Greek text doesn't have any punctuation mark in the sentence. In other words, the sentence in question can be so translated as to directly follow the verse 3; in which case it would read like "God, our Father, loved us in his sight in Christ even before the creation of heaven and earth and blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world."
What is being said here is in thorough contrast to the relationship of gods and human beings as observed in Ephesus as we just learned. God loved us as our Father, that is, us as his children. Regardless of whether or not we, having been born to this world as human beings, serve God, and since long before it, God loved us before him and blessed us by giving us every good thing he has. Being fully given all the blessings, being filled with the spiritual blessing, we were born to this world as humans. There can be no way that God of such love will give us penalty and puts us at his whim.
Solace and encouragement the Ephesians and we of today get from this gospel is that one who lives in this world can make steps of life as the one filled with spiritual blessing; we are blessed with the happiness of being allowed to live as ones filled with God's blessings.
It goes without saying that we, as ones living on the earth with our bodies, have to satisfy material needs. That we had been filled with spiritual blessing in God's sight before we were born doesn't mean it is automatically turned to our material blessing. We cannot escape from having to face always with inadequate supply of materials in this world. Yet we can accept short material provision as ones given spiritual blessing from heaven.
Depending on how we recognize and accept it, earthly material shortage unveils different meanings for us. We can accept earthly material shortage as something given by God, our Father in Heaven, to bring with it some meaning for us; as an expression of his love to us, his children. We can accept it as something good for us in the final analysis, not as divine punishment or as the whim of gods. We can believe that God, who loves us, will make everything work together for our good.
4. What Paul told, in the first place, was our way of being as ones blessed by God, blessed at the very primitive outset or even before that beginning. Following it Paul talked about the purpose for which we were given spiritual blessing of God or about the direction which the spiritual blessing bestowed on us. What the verses 4 and 5 try to tell is that God decided and chose us beforehand to make us holy, without fault, and his children in Christ.
The prior-selection or pre-determination is what's been taught us already, that is that we were blessed before God. What the verses 4 and 5 say on top of it is that the decision, choice and blessing of God have some specific purpose and direction. They are directed toward taking us to completion as being holy, without fault and as children of God.
This is, if I may I call it that, 'the motivation' or direction God gave us at the very beginning of beginning. That's why it is never going to go away from us even if we, born on the earth as human beings, were put under various different rulers. Here lie our solace and the gospel. Since before we were born we had been blessed, chosen and destined and we had been truly holy and the children of God. However, once born on the earth, we are far cry from being able to claim to be holy and without fault. We are not the children of God (or ones loved by God in his sight) and can be nothing else but be obedient to different men of the worldly power, are influenced by them and remain at their mercy. In this sense, we cannot be anything else but, for example, 'the children of school,' the children of company, the children of money, the children of property, the children of sickness and the children of death. How pitiable!
Yet Paul talks to us and say there is a motivation within us which God inscribed in us at the very beginning; the direction is already set by God so we can achieve the goal once again to be holy, without fault and children of God; no ruler of this world can deprive us of the direction which God inscribed in us before the creation of heaven and earth.
Once we learned of this we get to be able to understand that various things which fall on us do so on our way towards the goal we shall achieve. Why do we become children of companies, of money and of illness? It is so that we get to long more for the goal set by God the more misery we experience; we get to embrace the goal of becoming children of God.
5. Lastly I want to say a word about the phrases Paul used which says 'through Jesus Christ,' or 'in Christ.' What Paul wanted to say by these, I think, is that we got to be able to embrace the choice, blessing and the giving of direction by God and the achieving of the goal as our conviction and for our firm faith, and that it is thanks to what Jesus did for us, especially thanks to his incarnation and the crucifixion as written in verse 7 which says, 'by the blood of Christ.'
Jesus is the figure of the Son of God and its embodiment. When we meet with Jesus we get to be able to have conviction that we had been blessed likewise at the very beginning of beginning; with that blessing we can tread our paths on the earth, and even under evil rule who would kill us we'll be helped to walk as children of God; breaking away from the yoke of ruling by evil, we'll be helped to attain our goal as holy ones and as children of God.
It is not that something grim and awesome is being said when the Bible says, 'by the blood of Christ.' Instead it means that Jesus was born as human being, died on the cross and resurrected from the dead; we'll get to encounter with and accept that blood shedding personality, if I may, or his very existence; we'll get to be able to identify our lives with his existence; we are able to believe that if Jesus lived as the Son of God, we, too, in him can live likewise.
(Translated from the gist prepared in Japanese by Hiroshi Nishido)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 1 : 3 - 7
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world.
4 Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.
Because of his love
5 God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children ? this was his pleasure and purpose.
6 Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son!
7 For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God (8 which he gave to us in such large measure!)
(Quoted from TEV)
Apr. 29, 2012
- Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage for today describes the exchange or confrontation about the Sabbath day between Jesus on the one hand and the scholars of the Law and the Pharisees on the other.
Verse 11 puts it "Filled with rage they began to discuss--." The Gospel according to Mathew chapter 12, verse 14 is more straightly and say, "the Pharisees -- made plans to kill Jesus."
The "Cleaning of the Temple", about which we learned on the last Palm Sunday, was an event that caused Jesus to be targeted for crucifixion. His contestation with them on the question about Sabbath gave them another reason to go after him. It meant, in other words, that Jesus staked his life on the question of Sabbath just as he did by cleaning the Temple.
Why was Jesus so adamant on the question as to stake his life? He did so because he wanted to put the question of Sabbath right in the light of its importance just as he staked his life in trying to put the Temple right in view of its significance as the house of prayer.
We tend to read this story in today's passage just on its surcease and fall into a misunderstanding; that Jesus didn't take the Sabbath so important and would have abolished it. But it wasn't so.
Verse 5 says, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." And the Son of Man is Jesus himself. To say he himself is lord of Sabbath presumes that he considers Sabbath as important. The same thought is reflected in verse 9 when he questions, "What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm?"
By the way, what is Sabbath? What significance does it have for us that Jesus tried to put it right even by staking his life? This is what I want us to learn today.
2. I would like to begin what the Sabbath day was like originally according to the Old Testament Bible.
About the origin of the Sabbath, we don't know the exact answer yet. Interestingly though, one thing is considered to be certain: that the Sabbath doesn't appear anywhere outside the history of Israel or out of the Old Testament Bible no matter how much scholars have tried in their research. It means that the Sabbath is indigenous and unique to Israel.
Does it then mean that the Sabbath is an invention of Israelites? If it is an institution established by them as they didn't like to work, they would have so stipulated as to have a Sabbath on every other day or otherwise more frequently than just once in seven days. On the part of employers though even a day off out of seven would have been far from acceptable.
Taking into consideration what I just said, I cannot help but accept that the Sabbath is what the people of Israel was given in their encounter with God, not something invented by men. The Sabbath is a principle, or a doctrine, an important rule given in their encounter with God; that is what the Old Testament Bible shows.
Where Sabbath appears first in the Old Testament Bible is Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 to 3. But I would come back to this point later in this sermon because they were written at a much later point in history, i.e. during the days of Babylonian captivity.
Though we cannot be too sure, what is most probable in terms of history is that the Israelites were given Sabbath from God during the days described in Exodus.
Just try to imagine what kind of a situation the Israelites were kept when, after coming out from Egypt, they wandered in wilderness for 40 years as political refugees, to use today's expression.
There was absolutely no way for them to settle down, cultivate arable lands and reap food crops. For the Israelites to survive wandering in wilderness as refugees they had no option but to having to act as if without rule, I gather. But what would have happened if they had indeed behaved that way was as clear as day. They would have had to disappear like sands in wilderness sooner or later.
The principles, doctrines or the rules which God gave them proclaiming "If you followed my rules you will survive in wilderness," were the Law called Ten Commandments, as you know it well
When we hear of a Law we cannot escape from an image of being coerced to do something or of something being imposed upon us. But we cannot understand, based on such a perception, the heart of the author of Psalm who said, "Your Law is the lamp to my feet."
The Law is the lamp which God gave to the Israelites in their difficult situation; a proposition or a rule to guide their way of life so that by following it they could survive.
When we solve a problem of mathematics, for example, we rely on a theorem such as that a sum of the internal angles of a triangle is 180 degrees. We use this theorem and solve the problem. Likewise we find solutions to difficulties in life hanging before us by using the theorem, i.e. the Law.
"The seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; that day you must not do any work." This is one of those principles. And on sixth day God gave the Israelites manna enough to cover provision for the next day so they could comply with the commandment. They didn't have to go out for collecting manna on a Sabbath day.
The Israelites had to collect manna for 6 days of a week; if they didn't they couldn't live. They were constantly kept in a situation where the saying applied which says, "Whoever does not work shall not eat, shall not live." For them to survive they had to work to earn living. In so doing they were bound by worry and anxiety.
But the Sabbath day was different. On that day they could live solely depending on the grace of God. It was a day when they were taken out from a narrow horizon where they had to worry for survival on their own, where life corresponded just to their own labor and earning; it was a day when they were taken into a wide-open world in which they were sustained by God. That was the day of the Sabbath.
The Israelites could outlive the forty-year period thanks to that Law. You, too, will live by it. That is the wish of Jesus.
3. Having outlived the days of wilderness, the Israelites step by step settled on Palestine and grew to establish a kingdom. The question is whether the Law of Sabbath day was still in effect in society at that stage of development; if it still continued enforceable in day to day living of the people. The answer was "No." it seems according to what many prophets tell.
But a time came when the Israelites took efforts once again to apply the Law to their everyday life as an effective theorem. It was during the days of the Babylonian captivity, I think, that they did so, when the words of Genesis chapter 2, verses from 1 to 3 were given them as I touched on earlier.
What the Israelites faced with under the Babylonian captivity was, unlike in the wilderness, the king and rulers of Babylon who would drive them, the captives, work day after day.
The reason for Babylon to bother to leave them, the captives, alive on their land, whose number was tens of thousands, was just one and for nothing else: it was to make them work for the benefit of Babylon. One thing in common with their life in the wilderness was the principle that whoever does not work shall not live.
What kind of a Law or theorem did the Israelites apply for them to survive under such a ruler? It was the proposition that God is their LORD and their true ruler. The first rule of the Ten Commandments is a reflection of this where it says, "I am the LORD your God."
What kind of LORD was their God? Being totally different from the rulers of Babylon, their LORD was such as would himself take rest on the seventh day; who would make the day of rest the holy-most day, and mark it as the day of "Completion."
The Israelites under captivity, in fact, may not have been able to leave themselves away from labor, and the only thing they could to observe the Sabbath day may, at most, have been to have a short time of worship within the family after a day's work under make-shift hut they were given. But by having God for their LORD, the Israelites, the captives, were given spiritual and internal rest. It is good to have rest. To have rest is holy. To rest is to complete. What a solace-full of Law!
4. The scholar of the Law and the Pharisees who appear in today's passage also have their origins in the days of Babylonian captivity, so it is said. They found a way to survive by complying with the Law. That was the time when they came into being. That's why they had tried hard to live by the Law; they applied the theorem of the Law to practical life.
We have to ask how it all changed by the days of Jesus. I dare repeat and say that the very essence of the Law of Sabbath was that God is our LORD. Not that it is I who support me to live; nor that a king or rulers of this world are our lords. Only God is good to be our LORD. Only from this comes peaceful rest, thanks to which they could survive.
Yet how it was with the scholars of the Law and the Pharisees? Reading the Bible passage for today, I wonder if you saw anything which suggests that they have "the LORD" for their footing or in their angle of sight. The only thing we found was them who charge us "Not to do this;" they who were looking just to find good excuses to take Jesus to court. For them, lord was human being, and not God. By this we are reminded that we of today's age are also fallen into the same trap as they were.
I was able to have an intimate, a chord-of-heart touching dialogue with a person I visited the other day. He was injured by the church, I was told. Deep below the scar is his desire to encounter with true, living God. He wishes to encounter with the LORD, God at church.
However, more often than not, he came across with a reality that men have become lords of church. He was involved in it and became a lord himself. This, regrettably, is the fact of church taking place on the Lord's holy day. The pastor, the elected executives, the members of influence all become lords.
Yet, just because such is the case with us, Jesus declared "I am the Lord of Sabbath day." Jesus, our Lord, is the one who came to this world 2000 and plus years ago as a human being so men could see him in their eyes; and he resurrected from the world in which he was victimized by the evil and violence of men.
Such is the Lord of the Sabbath day. We often raise ourselves up to the position of lords, and also uphold men as our lords. Despite making such a mistake or because we make such a mistake, we observe a weekly Sabbath day and look up to Jesus as our Lord. There we find a peaceful rest; we secure the way for survival.
(Translated from the gist prepared in Japanese by Hiroshi Nishido)
The Gospel according to Luke 6 : 1 - 11
The Question about the Sabbath
1 Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. His disciples began to pick the heads of wheat, rub them in their hands, and eat the grains.
2 Some Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what our Law says you cannot do on the Sabbath?"
3 Jesus answered them, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his men were hungry?
4 He went into the house of God, took the bread offered to God ate it, and gave it also to his men. Yet it is against our Law for anyone except the priests to eat that bread."
5 And Jesus concluded, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
The Man with a Paralyzed Hand
6 On another Sabbath Jesus went into a synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was paralyzed.
7 Some teachers of the Law and some Pharisees wanted a reason to accuse Jesus of doing wrong, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.
8 But Jesus their thoughts and said to man, "Stand up and come out here to the front." The man got up and stood there.
9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you: What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or to destroy it?"
10 He looked round at them all; then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand became well again.
11 They were filled with rage and began to discuss among themselves what they could do to Jesus.
(Quoted from THE HOLY BIBLE TODAY'S ENGLISH VERSION [TEV] by The American Bible Society)