December 8, 2013
- The life I now live is the life which Christ lives in me -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The passage of the Bible I asked to be read for this worship service is the central part of Paul's letter to the Galatians, it is said. It is a part very tough to understand and the sentence that says, 'the life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me,' has a profound meaning.
I feel strongly that I haven't gained enough enlightenment yet for me to be able to show you good elaboration as to what it means. However, let me make a trial as best as I can.
Let us read verse 16 once more! It says, 'yet we know that no one is ever justified by doing what the law requires, but only through faith in Christ Jesus. So we too have to put our faith in Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified through this faith, and not through acquisitions dictated by law; for no human being can be justified by keeping the law.'
Let us first look into what it means 'to be justified.' There have been a countless number of books of theology and thesis written on what it means 'to be justified.' If I may present an explanation based on my own understanding of it, I think it is safe to say that for us to be given a linkage with God and to be allowed to live as such means 'to be justified,' as we've been taught time and again in our learning about 'what is the Gospel.'
Concrete image of a person so allowed to live is that of Jacob, whom we remember a number of times in the worship services of these days. Jacob was offered a bridge from God and a promise of God that wherever he goes he'll be protected, guided and won't be forsaken and so could depart for a journey with a fresh thought in mind. That is how a man 'justified,' would stand, I gather.
We've been taught a number of times how indispensable it was for Jacob to be offered a bridge linking with God and so 'to be justified.' He had been tossed up and down by his connection or bondage with the people of blood relationship and his life had gone broke.
Bondage with humans, especially one with the family is very important. However, exactly because family bondage is significant, any twist or distortion in it or love-hate-relationship can drive us to an otherwise unthinkable direction. It is because of this that we need to have linkage with God in heaven as a must.
God who makes us justified is righteous by nature. To be righteous means, in simple terms, just. Our linkage with God in heaven leads us to right way. God led Jacob to a right way who had grown up to be deceptive and cunning. By this example, we learn how important it is for us 'to be justified,' before anything else.
2. What makes us justified, then, turns out to be a question. Paul says no one is justified by doing what the law requires, but only through faith in Chris Jesus. Paul put it very clear that no human being can be justified by keeping the law.
Frankly speaking, when I think of the steps of faith the people of Israel have made I have to wonder if one can assert and declare as Paul did with safety.
I also do think of the Muslims around the world who count several billions in population. They don't necessarily talk about 'practicing of the laws.' Yet they believe, I think, that they'll be justified by God by practicing "5 deeds," in earnest.
Having been selected as Olympic Game players, they must observe the fasting month of Ramadan which happens to overlap with the period of the game. This to us may look that they are bound with Islam's dharma, and are forced to stick to the law. But they may not feel forced to. The practice could not continue for as long as several thousand years coerced.
For them to observe the practice is how they'll be justified by God and will be offered the bridge by God. They practice it willingly with pleasure. Therefore, I don't think one can tell Muslims face to face that they can't be justified by keeping the law.
The same is true of the people of Israel. It is not clear when the Israelites began observing the law. The Bible says, coming out from Egypt, it was during the 40-year wandering in the wilderness that they were given the law with Ten Commandments at its center; an ambiguous story in terms of history.
What is certain is that it became suddenly irreplaceable to observe the law at the very time when their fatherland was destroyed by Babylonia and when they were taken to Babylon as hostage.
As prisoners of war they were given more freedom by comparison, it is said. However, the basic fact remains that they were captives and slaves. They had no choice but to live in the relationship of the ruling and the ruled. That was the reason it has become indispensable for them to live in the bondage with God as Jacob had to. It has become indispensable for them to be guided, supported and protected by God.
And the thing which let them believe it was the doing of what the law required. In the inconvenient living environment, they practiced the law secretly, had male babies circumcised, and observed the Sabbath like hidden Christians. That way of living they believed was the way to be justified by God.
Coming to know of such a history of the Israelites we get unable to say what Paul said, don't you think? At that time, God, for sure, gave the keeping of the law as a clue or a bridge to link the Israelites to him.
Unless we take it the way as just mentioned we'll get to be unable to read the Old Testament Bible as the Bible. We'll get to be unable to take the steps of the walk of the Israelites as their steps of walk in faith.
3. Paul himself used to be one who, as a Pharisee, found joy in keeping the law more than anyone else. He knew about the historical path of Israelites and the meaning of the law better than anyone else. In spite of all of what I just said why did he say with such strength to deny the significance of keeping the law?
In verse 5 of chapter 2 Paul talked of 'dictation.' There were gentiles who believed that they were given connection with God through their belief in Jesus. But some people tried to dictate such gentile believers to follow what the law required while it was apparent they could not. They threatened them by saying that faith in Jesus as Christ isn't enough to be justified; they needed to follow the law.
They imposed on people what God did not demand. That was what Paul could not overlook. That was a provocation thrown on him, as it were. Because someone taught it wasn't enough just to believe in Jesus Christ, Paul had no choice but to rebut and say, 'only through faith in Christ one is justified.' He had to ask 'Could one be really justified by keeping the law? What kind of righteousness is it?'
Had they not been dictated and had they simply said that beside believing in Jesus they would observe the law as well while you, gentiles, don't have to worry about it; just live in the bondage with God based on the belief in Jesus because that's enough for you. Then Paul wouldn't have made such an assertion, I suspect.
Likewise, what if the followers of Judaism and of Islam try to dictate us? To say that just to believe in Jesus is good and enough is asking too much. Practice what the law requires. To these assertions, we'll have to respond by saying, 'only through faith in Jesus we are justified,' won't we?
If it were me, in making a response, I may choose not to say that one is not justified by doing what the law requires. Instead, I may say I do acknowledge that you believe the way you do but I am justified through my faith in Jesus.
Between our faith and that of theirs certainly lie a great difference in believing by what we are justified. There is also a great difference indeed between being justified by doing what the law says and being justified through believing in Jesus, I think.
However, we share a common point in that we all really seek to be justified by God. We agree in acknowledging that we aren't justified by bondage among human beings. My suggestion is that rather than denying each other, it is important to acknowledge what is common at our base, especially in the contemporary age when strife among religions poses a great problem.
4. The following may sound contradictory to what I just said about religions having a commonality. But between the Israelites having been justified by keeping to the law and us Christians being justified through faith in Jesus may lie a crucial difference. I would now like to elaborate on it.
I think that the crucial difference appears in the passage from the latter part of verse 19 to verse 20. There Paul says that at the base ground of the bridge connecting him and God lies 'Christ who lives in him.' The Christ he refers to is 'who loved Paul and gave himself up for him,' Paul says. What he meant by saying 'Christ love me and so forth,' is not too clear. But I take the word to mean as follows:
It wasn't, of course, Paul who pushed Jesus on to the cross and killed him. Yet he persecuted and was at a forefront of killing Christians. It shows that he was among the people who pushed Jesus on to the cross and killed him, albeit in an indirect manner.
But Jesus, who was killed by Paul in indirect terms, appeared before him on his way to Damascus for persecution, and talked to him saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' His talking to Paul is fundamentally the same as God's offering of a bridge to Jacob. Jesus who would talk to the one who killed him if indirectly and who is persecuting him, who offered to lay a bridge is such a person who would offer a bridge to one even if killed or hated by him.
In him lies love, and the figure who offered himself for Paul. In him God offers a bridge for him; and to live being personally connected to him, making response to him is to be justified by God, Paul came to realize.
It is critically different from being justified by ardently following the law. In essence there no such love in the law as to offer oneself for Paul. No law has that love as to talk to and offer a bridge from God to the one who killed and would persecute him.
At the base of the law lies the love of God who would connect us with him, I believe. But the law itself has no love. Over a long period of time, people lose sight of the love of God which should lie at the base of law. Coercion to observe the law, or a fear of being cursed by God if we don't observe; into such kind of faith fell the Muslim followers in the Ayame village of Ethiopia according to a lecture given at an assembly organized by the committee of social concerns of Ibaraki Area the other day.
The belief that one is justified by doing the law may turn out over time to the kind of faith just mentioned, I am afraid. Jesus, however, lives in us who talked to his disciples saying, 'Be at peace!' and offered a connecting bridge despite their betrayal and abandoning him. We can safely and securely live in his love, not forced or unwillingly but making free response to him.
There we may wander and sometimes even wish to leave from. Jesus will, however, try to maintain the connection with us by offering himself up for us just as he offered a linking bridge to Paul. There is no cleavage or distance which this bridge cannot cover. How wonderful it is that for us to live in response to his love means it is the step for us to be justified by God.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Paul's Letter to the Galatians 2: 15 - 21
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth, not gentile sinners;
16 yet we know that no one is ever justified by doing what the law requires, but only through faith in Chris Jesus. So we too have to put our faith in Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified through this faith, and not through acquisitions dictated by law; for no human being can be justified by keeping the law.
17 If then, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves no less than the Gentiles turn out to be sinners, does that mean that Christ is a promoter of sin? Of course not!
18 On the contrary, it is only if I start building up again all I have pulled down that I prove to be one who breaks the law.
19 For through the law I died to the law ? to live for God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ: the life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me; and my present mortal life is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
21 I will not nullify the grace of god; if righteousness comes by law, then Christ died for nothing.
(The Revised English Bible)
December 1, 2013
- Leave the dead to bury their dead -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. I wonder what kind of impressions you've had reading the Bible passage for today. The passage by Japanese language Bible is sub-headed 'determination to be his disciples.' The impression you might be led to have may be that you are required to be prepared sternly to walk the path of life as a follower of Jesus, i.e. you'll always face with a choice between the two.
Three men had dialogue with Jesus according to today's passage. The first man told Jesus, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' And Jesus answered, 'Foxes have their holes and birds their roosts; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' It sounds as if Jesus answered him that he was going to have to make tough walks of life to follow Jesus.
When the second man was told by Jesus to 'follow him,' he replied saying, 'let me first go and bury my father.' It sounds as if Jesus then said, 'Leave the dead to bury their dead; you must go and announce the kingdom of God.'
When the third man said, 'I will follow you, sir; but let me first say goodbye to my people at home,' Jesus sounds to have said, 'No one who sets his hand to the plough and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'
There seems to lie a way of understanding in the minds of the second and the third men that to bury one's father or to go and say goodbye to one's family ? and both reflect, in a nutshell, a posture of one who values one's relationship with loved members of the family on the one hand - and to follow Jesus on the other are a choice between the two; something we cannot have both ways. Based on that understanding they would be still pardoned to go to their family first.
Compared to their postures, according to the way the passage is written, Jesus seems to demand that they put priority on following him or to live in the way suitable to the kingdom of God, and for that purpose to leave away the tie with the family. The passage is taken to mean that Jesus, too, is saying that to value ties with the family and at the same time to live in faith don't go together.
All the sermons and Bible commentaries I ran over in preparation for this sermon are written based on this way of understanding the sayings of Jesus. And this represents a long-inherited way of reading the passage.
2. I feel, however, that I cannot say Amen to that way of reading or understanding the passage. During my youth I read 'La Porte Etroite (Narrow Gate as it is translated into Japanese language)' by Andre Gide a number of times.
But to the idea of Gide I could not agree at any cost and even had strong anger against it as I recall now (it may have been my repulsion to that kind of traditional understanding); his idea was that a tie with loved one and faith in Christ don't go together and you have to abandon the former to pass through the 'Narrow Gate,' which Jesus talked of.
I don't mean to deny that there may be things one has to abandon at any price in order to walk the path of faith. Jesus himself said expressly, 'No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the first and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and despise the second. You cannot serve God and Money.'(Mathew 6: 24)
There can be cases in which one serves God and is given wealth or success as a result. That is good. But one cannot seek wealth from the beginning and also serve God. To seek to be wealthy and also to serve God just don't go together, ever. What I mean to say, however, is that to value a tie with loved one and to seek wealth are clearly two different things.
A message runs through the whole Bible that it pleases God to value a tie with loved one. Genesis points to it that it is primordially linked that we live as ones created in the image of God and that we have been created as 'male and female.' (Genesis 1:27) Bond between male and female is indispensable in order for us to live as ones created in the image of God. Furthermore, 'it is not good for the man to be alone.' Whom he will call, 'is bone from my bones,' it is written is 'A partner suited to him.' (Latter part of Genesis 2)
This doesn't end with a married couple alone. The Ten Commandments stipulates to 'Honor your father and your mother.' (Exodus 20:12) It teaches clearly that our link with God and bondage between parents and children are never a choice between the two. Rather they are compatible. It is the heart of the Ten Commandments that we live by making both bondages stand together.
3. How, then, shall we read today's passage? There is no doubt about it that Jesus indeed wants us to be suitable to the kingdom of God; concretely to put it he wants us to follow him before anything else. In his sermon on the mountain, Jesus said in his own clear words, 'Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else.' (Mathew 6:33) To set our mind on the kingdom of God and to live accordingly is something we shall put before everything including our bondage with our families.
What I should like to say in a loud voice is, however, that to set our mind on the kingdom of God does not do away with the bondage with the family nor it means the two are incompatible. Rather to set our mind first on God's kingdom makes our family bondage deeper, richer and new. That's the very reason why Jesus told us to set our mind on God's kingdom first. That will change our perspective or angle of having a view of burying the dead and our ties tie with the family.
What then does it mean to seek the kingdom of God and is fit for it? We've been taught a number of times that the kingdom of God means 'the reign of God.' From this I think that to be fit for the kingdom of God and also to 'announce' it as written in the dialogue with the second man means for us to live under the reign of God which is governed by his hands and to live in the linkage with God.
To borrow expression from the famous story of 'Jaboc's ladder,' which we learned on Sunday fortnight ago by Genesis 28, to live to fit the kingdom of God means to live as one for whom a bridge is offered from God.
Jacob was made to realize for the first time in his life by a special dream that, while deceiving his father and elder brother and having had to leave away from home due to his cunning character, God was nevertheless offering a ladder for him. That which Jacob learnt through a special dream, we witness by the event of Christmas, the birth of Jesus on earth. There we see a bridge being offered to us from God.
Of course it is indispensable to have faith in order for us to be able to see and understand the birth of Jesus in that way. To believe Jesus for such a person means to follow him. To believe Jesus as a bridge offered us by God, and by following him in that sense we are led to realize that we are allowed to live and are placed in the linkage with God.
4. What kind of change is brought on us once we get to realize that we live in the linkage with or under the reign of God? That brought a great change to Jacob as we've just learnt. He had been annoyed, tossed up and down till then by the twist or distortion in the ties with the family members. He was not loved by his father, was doted by his mother, was always compared with his elder brother and was hated by him to the point of being killed. Therefore he had no way other than to rest on a pillow of stone.
Despite him being such he was led to realize that he was being offered a bridge by God; that he was in the kingdom of God; that God loved him so much as to give him a promised future, and instead of forsaking him promised to be with him till he got there.
Doesn't it mean that he was for once liberated from the bondage with his family which gave him the twist of life and that he was put in a linkage with God of heaven? At that very point he was setting his mind to live in the kingdom of God before valuing bondage with the family. God offered a bridge and offered to guide Jacob to the promised goal despite his ugliness, leaving behind the fact of him having been kept away, hated or doted on the other hand by his family.
Such a linkage with God, with it being put before his tie with the family, made it possible for Jacob to make a new step of life. Being linked with God never pushes away one's bondage with the family; it makes one come closer to it. With this as a starting point, Jacob was pushed out to his tie with uncle Laban for 20 years and tie with his wife.
What was just said may be implicit in the answer Jesus made to the third man who told him, 'let me first go and say goodbye to my people at home,' I am led to think. We are not too sure what Jesus meant by saying, 'sets his hand to the plough.' I would guess he meant that an appropriate time came. Everything was readied and a bumper crop was promised if he only sowed seeds. Just at that very time he looked back for a reason we don't know. He was caught by a worry and stopped seeding.
To believe in Jesus and to start living as one who can appreciate the linkage with God by his faith in Jesus is the same as setting a plough to hand and to start seeding. When such a walk of life in faith begins, a new way of looking at the bondage with the family should be given. That is the harvest.
What kind of harvest is it going to be? The harvest is that you'll get to realize that all people are placed in linkage with God. Then not just people of blood relationship but people outside your blood relationship will also come in your view. And that's going to give good influence on the bondage with your own family members, too; a view of your family will be put in a wider perspective. And that is the harvest. It is indeed to be regretted, Jesus says, that one who is about to start his walk toward such a harvest should cease to follow the path of faith based on a shallow understanding that having faith in God and family bondage don't go together.
5. The dialogue with the second person can also be understood by a similar way of viewing it. When we get to be able to appreciate our relationship with God by believing in Jesus, we'll get to realize that the bridge God offers reaches to the dead also thanks to the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection. That way our view of death and the dead is completely changed.
I do conjecture that the dead may be being offered a bridge connecting to God perhaps more deeply than we, the living, are linked because they are dead. There may be bondage with God which only the dead knows. Therefore Jesus said, 'Let the dead bury their dead.'
We learnt the other day that Moses and Elijah, who were dead long ago, appeared before Jesus and talked about his death. Indeed only the dead would be able to talk about the death thanks to their bondage with God and to suitably deal with the dead, I would imagine. Only the dead can deal with the dead suitably and bury one in a right way, don't you think?
The living regrettably can deal with death only from the viewpoint or a stance of a living. The living has a limited perspective that the only good and happiness is to live on earth. When the living buries the dead one's view of it is just grief and agony.
What will change such of our perspective is the view of linkage with God. Then the dead father would look a being, totally different from how you have looked him. The fact of death will look totally different. That was what Jesus was telling.
Indeed the walk to follow Jesus is to believe who 'had nowhere to lay his head.' However, we will begin to understand how wonderful the walk of life to have faith in who has nowhere to lay his head is. It seems to me to be very different from having to make determination written as a sub-head for today's passage.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 57 - 62
57 As they were going along the road a man said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'
58 Jesus answered, 'Foxes have their holes and birds their roosts; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'
59 To another he said, 'Follow me,' but the man replied, 'let me first go and bury my father.'
60 Jesus said, 'Leave the dead to bury their dead; you must go and announce the kingdom of God.'
61 Yet another said, 'I will follow you, sir; but let me first say goodbye to my people at home.'
62 To him Jesus said, 'No one who sets his hand to the plough and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'
(The Revised English Bible)
November 24, 2013
- Encouragement by one out of 276 -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. It is the thanks-giving day today. It is a day when we have a joint children-and-adults worship service. On occasions like this I make it my custom to pick a Bible passage for the service from the one used by the Church School teachers for children. The passage given us today is from Acts of the Apostles.
I put the title for the sermon today "Encouragement by one out of 276." That number is taken from verse 37 of the same chapter though we haven't had it read this morning. It reads to say, 'All told there were on board two hundred and seventy-six of us.'
Paul was one of the 276 passengers aboard the ship. But it didn't mean he was on a pleasure journey by the ship. He wasn't on a journey of mission, either. He was a prisoner awaiting trial on his way to Rome.
About how did he become a prisoner most of you should know roughly. To make the story short, he visited Jerusalem going against the opposition by his colleagues. Just as worried, Jews who hated him plotted against him and he was captured on the ground of disturbing peace and order of the Roman Empire. He had been detained in custody at Caesarea for two years. Having citizenship of Rome Paul wished to be tried directly by the Emperor and so he was being escorted to Rome.
On the ship journey Paul was treated as nothing more than one of the nuisance; but that was until when a violent wind called the Northeaster swept down. According to verse 9 Paul did advice the centurion or the head of the convoy. But the centurion had little reason to listen to what Paul, just one of the prisoners, told. The ship itself was not exclusively for carrying prisoners; it was a merchant vessel, it seems, to carry merchandise to various ports. Several prisoners and soldiers to haul them may have been forced aboard by the ruling authority on what is essentially a merchant vessel, I gather. Paul must have been chained and squeezed deep into the ship's belly as one of the 276 and a nuisance, having no weight for a person.
However, there came a time when he emerged suddenly as an important person. The turn of event was brought about when the ship was being lost in the ocean. Then Paul stood up among them and talked to them with encouraging words. At the heart and soul of his talk lay the words which an angel of the God gave him the night before.
That way Paul played a role which was indispensable for the other 275 on board to be saved and all the 276 were saved as a result. The point of the God's message for today is that Paul, just one of 276 with no importance in the beginning, became one of the most important and indispensable.
2. How can we accept the story as something which may happen to us, too? There certainly could be various ways of hearing it. As the only Christian in the family you may even be regarded as a nuisance; the same kind of situation Paul was placed at. We can think of a situation where similarly as above we Christians too are treated in Japanese society as representing merely one out of 276 percent and as a nuisance.
What I feel overlaps the most with the status of Paul is the proportion of the faith in each of us, the weight it occupies in our daily life. The number 1/276, I feel, symbolically represents our faith in our daily life. As in verse 23 Paul says, 'the God whose I am and whom I worship.' By one out of 276 he points to our way of dedicating worship to God. 'One,' represents the part of our life by which we worship God.
That part is rather not playing an important role in our daily life when our ship is not involved in a storm, i.e. when it is under smooth sail and it is chained and squeezed into belly of ship. That part is often dealt with like that, isn't it?
In purely numerical terms the religious life for one who would devote 2 hour worship service in a week is 2/168 (though our religious life cannot be measured just by the time devoted to worship service at church.) Therefore, for one who would come and attend worship service once in a month the proportion of religious life approximates 1/276.
That part of our religious life turns suddenly to be something important when hit by a storm. As verse 21 puts it, Paul, having been tucked deep in a ship's belly, stood up amongst people and began to talk something important. What is given us through worshipping the God unfolds as something that gives us courage; it changes one to be an indispensable 1/276 in order to survive the storm.
Why is it so? As verses from 18 to 20 put it, when hit by a storm the ship had to get light and even its gear had to be jettisoned. For days on end there was no sign of either sun or stars, there was no means by which to steer the ship. Everything on which sailors relied was lost. There are occasions when a part called faith in us 'stands up,' and begins to talk something when our last hopes of coming through alive by the means we counted on disappears although such a faith may be criticized as 'The danger is around and the God remembered.'
3. What did Paul tell people on the same boat? At its heart and soul were the words of God told by an angel in the previous night as in verse 24. The first thing God told him was to say, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; it is ordained that you shall appear before Caesar.' Therefore, God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you, was the message. This talk of God served as a lighthouse and a guide for Paul who was sailing adrift without a guide.
The most distinctive feature of the voice of God lies in it that it was not the kind of encouragement simply to say you are going to be safe as you will be cast ashore by such and such a time on an island or to say that the weather will be fine tomorrow and you will see the goal. The remarkable feature of it was that it told Paul of the role he shall play. The mission Paul shall carry out was shown him and it became the clear target for him.
This tells us a very important thing for us, I think. We will get to worship God in earnest when hit by a storm. We will get to hope earnestly for the voice of God which will give us encouragement and hope.
What kind of word do we look for from God, then? Be assured; you are not going to die of this disease for you'll be cured; you can come out of this crisis safely. We apt to hope for a word from God that promises secure future for us. Yet, God won't give us such kind of word.
Instead, God shows us the mission we shall accomplish. His voice isn't about assurance that we will be in good health or we won't fall sick till such and such a time, but it is about the mission we should be engaged in. To accomplish your mission is the way for you to save yourself out of a storm; that is the talk God gives us.
Having to appear before the emperor is indeed a hard mission. In the Roman Empire, the emperor was god and the lord as a matter of principle, although Christian persecution at state level was yet to be launched. Having to talk that Jesus is the God and the Lord before who was regarded as god and lord was really a challenging mission. And the mission had to be done while chained.
Likewise missions we are given by God won't be easy ones to carry out. I would think that each has his/her own 'Emperor,' before whom to appear. The missions God gives us would be ones we find it hard to work on. But to engage ourselves in those missions is the protection God gives us in a storm; a lighthouse, a compass and a wing.
It is unlikely that we get to hear the voice of God spoken directly to us as Paul heard it told by an angel in a strange fashion. Some of us may think we will be much encouraged if we can hear God's words like Paul. We can hear God's words in the worship services we observe. Us being told like this today is the talk of an angel to us, I think.
4. Furthermore, Paul was told 'God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you.' The lives of 275 was in the hands of Paul, one out of 276, who was to appear before the Roman Emperor and who was engaged in that mission. This word also gives us an important lesson.
The lesson given is that the destiny of all the remaining part of us hinges on the part of us having to do with faith engaging itself in the mission given by God. The remaining part could mean good health, or it could mean job or social relationship.
We can also take it in the following way: we have family members who are not believers, and their destiny hinges on us, the only Christian in the family, who engaged ourselves in carrying out the mission given by God. Me engaging in the mission of a pastor will affect your fate, the church members.
What I tell you now may not be that worthy of hearing. In a train on my way to Ohmiya Church to attend a meeting of the District Committee on Social Concerns I read a book entitled 'Is God an Illusion?' There was a passage in it which points to a difference (a substantial difference as I remember it) in the health conditions between people who attend worship service and others who don't, according to a finding of a scientific research.
Coming to worship may regulate one's way of living; for people living alone, coming to church may give encouragement and talking to others in the church may give favorable influence on their health. But I think that the major factor lies in finding a mission by worshipping God. When 1/276 stands up other 275 get cheered up and encouraged.
5. Lastly let me touch on verse 22. What catches my attention here is the sentence to say, 'Only the ship will be lost.' In the words of God to Paul in verse 23 there is no mention of the ship being lost.
How did Paul get that insight? I suspect he must have gotten it also as a suggestion from an angel, though verse 23 makes no mention of it. Paul was told he had to abandon the ship sometime in order for him to stand before the Roman Emperor and for all the people on the boat to be saved.
Such a time will come as when one has to abandon a ship in order not to lose life. Verse 27 and the following show how deliberately Paul was trying to see when that time was coming. As written from verses 27 to 32, Paul advised the vessel crew members not to abandon the ship too soon. But in verse 41 he abandoned it when it ran aground.
For us to accomplish the mission of standing before an emperor, there will be 'a vessel,' made available as appropriate for each occasion. Some vessels it is OK to abandon and other vessels we must abandon. Unless we abandon the ship we will stick to it so it will make us unable to accomplish the mission as our life is lost with the ship. It is my hope that some such an insight is given us through observing worship service.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Acts of the Apostles 27: 21 - 26
gan to fade.
21 When they had gone for a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, 'You should have taken my advice, gentlemen, not to put out from Crete: then you would have avoided this damage and loss.
22 But now I urge you not to lose heart; not a single life will be lost, only the ship.
23 Last night there stood by me an angel of the God whose I am and whom I worship.
24 "Do not be afraid, Paul," he said; "it is ordained that you shall appear before Caesar; and, be assured, God has granted you the lives of all who are sailing with you."
25 So take heart, men! I trust God: it will turn out as I have been told;
26 we are to be cast ashore on an island.
(The Revised English Bible)
November 17, 2013
- The house of God, gateway to heaven -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. These days in the worship service we are listening to words from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians once in every three weeks. The letter repeats telling what the Gospel is time and again. The Gospel means that we are already connected with God thanks to the window of or the bridge of having faith in Jesus as Christ, the Savior. The story of Genesis for today describes how Jacob got connected with God by a bridge albeit in a dream. By the Bible passage for today we would like to be taught what is the Gospel like, and how wonderful it is to be connected with God.
Shown to us first today is what kind of situation Jacob had been in when he got linked with God by a connecting bridge. Verses 10 and 11 put it saying, '10 Jacob set out from Beersheba and journeyed towards Harran. 11 He came to a certain shrine and, because the sun had gone down, he stopped for the night. He took one of the stones there and, using it as a pillow under his head, he lay down to sleep.'
As to how it had happened that Jacob had to find himself in such a situation you know very well as we have been reading about him for sometime by now. Jacob was born as the younger of twins. When he was born he barely managed to come out with his hand grasping the heel of his elder brother Esau, and he was given the name Jacob. I suspect that he was born like a premature baby. The story puts it that Esau became a skilful hunter and was favored by Isaac the father, who liked to eat game meat, while Jacob lived quietly among the tents. (Genesis chapter 25, verse 27) Their mother Rebecca doted on Jacob. The same chapter 25 also tells that when they were grown up to adolescence Jacob took the rights of Esau as the firstborn in exchange for a cup of broth. When father Isaac grew old and his eyes had become dim, he intended to give Esau the property of 'blessing,' he himself succeeded from his father Abraham. Hearing his plan, Rebecca the mother and Jacob deceived Isaac so his blessing was given to Jacob. Esau harbored a grudge against Jacob about it so he planned to kill him. That was how Jacob ended up having to leave away from home looking for protection of mother Rebecca's brother Laban.
It was on the journey to his uncle Laban that Jacob had to lay himself down on ground to sleep with a stone as a pillow. The 'stone,' for pillow symbolizes Jacob himself of the time, it looks to me. Concreted and chilled as a small inorganic stone which cannot produce anything on its own; that was how Jacob was then.
Such being as Jacob was, God intended to lay a bridge and establish connection with him. In no part of the story of Jacob so far it was mentioned that Jacob worshipped God, prayed to God or listened to his words. With Jacob having been able to live by his finagle craft and on his mother's favoritism thus far, there was no room or need for God to offer a bridge for him. God, however, was so good to use such an occasion as to offer Jacob a bridge now that he became like a small, chilling stone. Jacob had no qualification or suitability to ask God for such a connection. It was God who was good to think that now is the time to offer a bridge for him.
We too may find ourselves becoming like a stone at times. We hate and fear to fall in such a situation and make all the desperate strife to avoid it. However, the Bible passage for today tells us not to distaste laying ourselves for sleep on the ground with a stone for pillar. To become like a stone is the way to encounter with the Gospel; an opportunity to encounter with God who will provide a bridge for us.
2. The next point I want us to give our thought to is that it was in a dream God showed Jacob how he would stretch a bridge for him. God often uses dream or vision as an opportunity to reveal his plan. In our learning from Paul's letter to the Galatians last week we were taught it was by visions repeatedly shown by God that Peter got to overcome the Jewish taboo of not eating together with gentiles. How is it that God uses the times of having dreams or seeing visions? He does so because with our physical eyes, eyes by which we can see only when we are awake, we can only see the reality they can see. This is true of Jacob, too. What he saw with his physical eyes was the reality of his life which became like a stone. While seeking protection from his uncle Jacob could only see the future without sure knowledge of how it will unfold. It was therefore necessary to use a dream to let Jacob see the kind of world God prepared for him; the world which lay behind the reality his eyes could see.
Some people will say dreams and visions serve no useful purpose. Indeed most dreams are forgotten as soon as we get awake and therefore serve no useful purpose in real life. But there are times when God himself shows us dreams. Some dreams are such that they show our future as truly planned and prepared as the will of God. That kind of dream does not disappear the moment we get awake but has its effect felt in the reality of our life. This point I would touch on further when we come to verses 16 and the following.
Where are we to have such a dream or vision? It is during the worship service and in reading the Bible there that we see such a dream or a vision, I would think. Not that we literally will have a dream while asleep in service; it is not a dream or a vision in literal sense of the terms I am talking about. But by reading words of the Bible and listening to them in worship service we get a glimpse of the world of God, the plan of God which are firmly there, though they aren't in the real world and physical eyes cannot see them; but they still lie behind reality; the bridge by which we get connected to God we cannot see in the real world but we certainly get to know of it. Repeating the steps by which we get a glimpse of the world of God through the Bible and worship service our steps in the real world clearly get to be different. And the changes come from the power of the Gospel.
3. Let us go further and see what the dream Jacob saw was like. Verse 12 puts it, 'In a dream he saw a ladder, which rested on the ground with its top reaching to heaven, and angels of God were going up and down on it.' This is a point I often touch on in meetings in preparation for Baptism. The question is which way the ladder is stretched. It is stretched from heaven toward the earth; not from the earth toward heaven. And who go up and down on it are angles of God; not us humans.
This scenery tells us various messages as appropriate on each occasion. As for me I am made to feel afresh strongly that the ladder or the staircase is stretched from heaven. It is not something we, humans, stretch toward heaven presuming that it is my bridge connecting me to heaven or it is the linkage I have between me and God. The bridge God extends from heaven may not look a bridge to our eyes. It may even so happen that the bridge linking us was rolled up back into heaven, to our eyes. We may think that the connection is nowhere now. Despite all of our thinking there is a bridge there. It is an unexpected bridge coming down from heaven in appearance which we may never get to think of. The bridge in the person of Jesus is exactly it, isn't he? There God, the angels of God and the Holy Spirit go up and down.
4. Following the scene of the bride or the ladder there came the voice of God. It was full of goodwill toward Jacob as I feel it, though I admit that there can be various ways of hearing his voice. To me the voice from God contained no malice. At the root of the goodwill of God was his careful watch over, guidance on and pledge to Jacob saying, your future is ensured; various hardship may fall on you but your life is worth living; you will continue to live to see good things falling upon you; live to be rewarded.
God who is good to offer connection to Jacob is such kind of God. In establishing a connection with god it is vitally important to make sure you know what kind of being the god is. I say this because there are gods of which a Japanese proverb puts it saying, 'Keep away from god lest you are haunted. (Don't mess with the big dog.)'
On November 4 there was a gathering organized by the committee on social concerns of Kanto District, Ibaraki Area. Myself being responsible for this committee I asked three staff persons of an association to serve as lecturers for the gathering. They all served long as a general secretary of Japan International Food for the Hungry (JIFH). They retired from the institute and established an association named 'Ring of Friends for the Voiceless,' which is into its third year of activity now. When I was serving at Koriyama I was involved in organizing a gathering for UN World Food Day in October every year. The three having background of working for Japan International Food for the Hungry I asked for their involvement in organizing the World Food Day event. My association with them has been since then.
Each time I hear their stories I get more impressed that such is the Gospel indeed. As an example I would tell you a story by Mr. Eisuke Kanda, head of the association (also a pastor), of his visit with Ameya village in Ethiopia, of which the entire population was Muslim. Pastor Kanda made various approaches to the villagers who were suffering from dry spells but the response he got from them was that no help would be of any use. Asked why no help would be useful they answered it is so because they were cursed by god. So dry spells break out and there will be no rain. Nothing can help turn around the situation. While I haven't heard why a god would curse them, the answer probably would be to say that the villagers were not acting in ways demanded or expected by the god. To such villagers Pastor Kanda would tell 'It is not the case. God loves us and would give us good things.' And he helped them build irrigation channels and sow seeds. That's how the whole village has now become Christians so the number of followers must indeed be impressive, I would gather.
Mr. Yanagisawa, one of the three staff I've been in touch with, always gets a pep talk from a Muslim-turned Christian minister, he tells me. The minister would tell him that Christians should do much more to propagate the God in whom they believe as well as the splendor of the Gospel. By the Islam faith there is awe, fear and threat between god and man, while by Christianity there is no such a thing and that is the most important feature of Christian belief.
5. Although the sermon gets a bit long at this time, I want us finally to look into what kind of effect Jacob's encounter with God in a dream and his hearing of good news did bring to his everyday life. Verse 16 says, 'When Jacob woke from his sleep he said, "Truly the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."' The change brought about to Jacob's day to day living after having heard the good news from God appeared in the form of his drastically changed recognition of the 'place,' he was put at. The place where he stands now, the place where he lays himself down with a stone pillow, the place where he finds his life broken and turned to a solid stone so to speak were, in fact, where his life is connected with God, where God shows himself to him, Jacob came to recognize. His recognition of himself as nobody worth nothing more than a stone was changed to such that he was for whom God would lay a bridge, and whose life was full of God's wonders. The change the Gospel brings upon real life is the change in the perception of who I am and also having our eyes opened to wonders and depth of being allowed to live.
The staff person of the association I told you about earlier told me the following: in India the way the believers of Hinduism recognize themselves and the places where they live is indeed abysmal. They were born as something below humans due to the sin committed during the previous life, they are taught. Humans they are but they are taught they are in fact not is the teaching told them. They are treated as animals in such a way that they cannot even use the same kind of dishes as others use. The Gospel is preached to them. Then their human view is changed first of all as well as their recognition of the 'place,' they are put at. Ours are lives for which God of infinite goodwill would lay a bridge and give us good things. The place we are put at is for our lives to be so treated.
Jacob would start his new life now based on such kind of recognition or view about himself. In verses 20 and the following Jacob made a vow which expresses what he has in mind; he said, 'If God will be with me, if he will protect me on my journey and give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I come back safely to my father's house, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up as a sacred pillar shall be a house of God. And of all that you give me, I shall allot a tenth part to you.' It describes Jacob as ready to make a robust step forward based on the faith in the guidance and promise of God. This is the change the Gospel brought upon him.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Genesis 28: 10 - 22
10 Jacob set out from Beersheba and journeyed towards Harran.
11 He came to a certain shrine and, because the sun had gone down, he stopped for the night. He took one of the stones there and, using it as a pillow under his head, he lay down to sleep.
12 In a dream he saw a ladder, which rested on the ground with its top reaching to heaven, and angels of God were going up and down on it.
13 The LORD was standing beside him saying, 'I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. This land on which you are lying I shall give to you and your descendants.
14 They will be countless as the speck of dust on the ground, and you will spread far and wide, to west and east, to north and south. All the families of the earth will wish to be blessed as you and your descendants are blessed.
15 I shall be with you to protect you wherever you go, and I shall bring you back to this land. I shall not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.'
16 When Jacob woke from his sleep he said, 'Truly the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.'
17 He was awestruck and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; it is the gateway to heaven.'
18 Early in the morning, when Jacob awoke, he took the stone on which his head had rested, and set it up as a sacred pillar, pouring oil over it.
19 He named that place Beth-el; but the earlier name of the town was Luz.
20 Jacob made this vow: 'If God will be with me, if he will protect me on my journey and give me food to eat and clothes to wear,
21 so that I come back safely to my father's house, then the LORD shall be my God,
22 and this stone which I have set up as a sacred pillar shall be a house of God. And of all that you give me, I shall allot a tenth part to you.'
(The Revised English Bible)
November 3, 2013
- To this day no one knows his burial-place -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 I have a reason why I determined to read the part at today's morning worship service about how Moses died. In Chapter 9 of the gospel according to Luke, which we listen to once in every three weeks, this Moses appeared. There was a scene in it where Jesus went up a mountain to pray. There, quite strangely enough, Moses, who already died thousands of years ago, and one more person called Elijah, who also passed away a long time ago as well, appeared and the chapter says that the three of them were talking about Jesus' 'departure ', the destiny that he was to fulfill. I think that what they were talking about was probably not only Jesus'departure but also departures of Moses and Elijah. Therefore, at that morning worship service, I took the word from Deuteronomy that described Moses 'departure. But as at that time I talked about it very briefly, today I am going to deal with it deeply together with the bereaved families.
1.2 When I read the scene of the Gospel according to Luke, I had one thing that struck me strongly: It is that the three people over there who were talking about departure shone mysteriously. They were appearing in the glory that God provided them with. Usually, to talk about 'departure 'is unlucky for us and a thing to hate. Still more, to meet one's'departure 'is nothing but hard and sad. The departures of the loved ones whom you remember were probably just the opposite of something like glory. But the Bible says that it was to talk about their departure that led to the three appearing in glory. If to talk leads to appearing in glory, then how much to live their last life will make us appear in glory! Although it is invisible for us, it is such a time, right?
1.3 Moses appeared to Jesus and he passed what I said just now, on to him, I think. Through today's word, Moses will appear to us as well and will teach us the profound meaning of 'departure,'right?
2.1 Now if we take today's word in Deuteronomy superficially, Moses' death seems to be nothing but a hard and unnatural death, doesn't it? We can interpret that God made Moses stand at a spot where he could look out over the Land of Promise that he had taken pains to try to enter for 40 years, as if to annoy him and as if to make him understand strongly how difficult it is not to be able to enter it. God called Moses without Israeli people knowing the place of his burial and when Moses died, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. If we interpret only the letters, his death is nothing but an unnatural death and a sudden death. We can interpret that his death was a death that he died with his goal still unrealized, or rather just before reaching his goal.
2.2 But thousands of years after this death, was the death that Moses, who appeared to Jesus, talked about this kind of death? Did the death that Moses talked about mean only an unnatural death and a sudden farewell? I wonder whether Moses' death had nothing but such a meaning. Didn't it have any glory? If I read today's word more deeply, I feel that that is not the case.
3.1 With what kind of intention did God make Moses look out over the Land of Promise ? First, was it reality at all? Does it mean that with his physical eyes Moses went up Mount Nebo and the top of Pisgah? That is not the case. I think that Moses, who was about to die, had something like illusion, as if he had a near-death experience, was made to look out over the whole picture of the Promised Land. Therefore, I feel strongly that the Land of Promise is never literally'land.'
3.2 So far in learning the Old Testament, we have understood that the land that God promised to give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not such a plot of land that people obtain and control or that makes people struggle or fight with other people for or quarrel about . Although at present Israeli people take the Land of Promise for real land literally, that is not the case. How can God in heaven give us such a plot of land as people argue about or fight with each other for? It is just the opposite. I think that God gives us what is just the other way around. It is the 'land 'that we refer to in the Lord's Prayer saying,'Thy will be done and thy Kingdom come.'It is not a physical thing but the state which is full of complete peace and trust that come from a deep relationship between us and God. Now in this sense, Moses at the time of his last moment was allowed to look out over the Land of Promise in his illusion for the first time, right?
3.3 So far he had been exclusively seeking after nothing but visible land for 40 years. Therefore, he sometimes went as far as to give his people cruel words such as 'Wipe out all the people living there 'as 'God's word .' Now he must have been made acutely aware about how wrong it was and what a big mistake he made just because he sought after 'the Land of Promise.'It is not until the last moment of our life that we are made aware of the mistake, narrowness and smallness of the thing that we have been seeking after, right?
3.4 Therefore, God said to him, 'you shall not go over there,'I think. Moses cannot enter this Land of Promise at the same pace as before , that is, with the same 'feet 'as before. For that purpose, he must be given new feet. Remember that the first word that God gave him when Moses met Him was 'Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet .'Now he must not only take off his shoes but also renew his feet themselves. He must leave for a new sacred place by being provided with new feet. To take on such a meaning is the event of death. 'Departure 'is still a beginning. It is setting out on a journey which aims at reaching a new goal and which is given new feet. It is the time with such splendor.
4.1 Although Moses died a physical death like this, he is never dead as a person who aims for the Land of Promise and as a person who has now made a fresh start. In that context, we would like to interpret the word in Chapter 6 'no man knows the place of his burial to this day.'
4.2 The scholars of the reference books say that as the Old Testament went as far as to write, 'he(the Lord) buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-pe'or,' they cannot really have understood the burial place. We interpret that such a thing was written like that in order that his dead body would not turn into necrolatry. We are not sure about it. I have quoted the word 'no man knows the place of his burial to this day,'as the title of today's sermon but I think that it is a really meaningful and symbolic word.
4.3 What this word tries to tell you is the message that it is not necessary to know where Moses was buried and rather, to try to know his burial place is harmful. To know the place of his burial means that people who are left behind understand the existence of Moses as 'the thing that was buried ', that is, the dead existence that is buried. Just as I said at the beginning, that death is an unnatural death and a sudden death. Those who are left behind confine Moses in the tomb as the person who died such a death. However, Moses is not such an existence. He is alive as a person who has made a fresh start for a new destination.He is advancing. He is not at the place of his burial, and not at the point of that time any more.
4.4 This is the same event as the women heard from the angels and Jesus who was resurrected. Mary Magdalene heard Jesus say, 'Do not hold on to me'(John Chapter 20, Verse 17).The angels said to the women who were weeping in the tomb, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here'( Luke Chapter 24, Verses 5 ~6). Moses also is alive anew and he is not in the tomb. He is beginning to walk.
4.5 Such a thing is being talked to you about today. Of course you know where the deceased person is buried. But just because of that, your thoughts about the dead person are what has been just pointed out now, right? In a really deep sense, those who are left behind on the earth do not know 'the place of his burial. 'We do not know where he was buried nor what kind of thing that death is nor what it is fundamentally. We would like to reflect upon it very deeply.
5.1 Lastly, I would like to deal with the word in Verse 9. It says that it was because of his death that Moses gave his successor Joshua'the spirit of wisdom.' The spirit of wisdom that he gave by directly laying his (physical) hands upon him probably still contained the limited thing related to him, which I referred to just a minute ago. But the spirit of wisdom is, as it were, renewed as Moses takes new steps. It is replaced with new wisdom without stopping. With such a renewed spirit of wisdom, Moses appears to Jesus thousands of years later and is able to teach about 'departure ' deeply.
5.2 To you too, those who ascended to heaven are such an existence. To have a person who ascended to heaven means such a thing. Those who went to heaven should be pouring the spirit of wisdom into you. What kind of wisdom it is was taught to us through the words up to Verse 4: the wisdom that we should not seek after the goal such as obtaining the visible land on the earth, and making us struggle to obtain it, and the wisdom that we are the existence of continuing to live aiming for the Land of Promise that God shows us and of keeping on walking, even after we are finished with our life on the earth.
5.3 We are taught that 'departure 'is an event with such a deep meaning as mentioned above.
(Translated by Mr. Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Deuteronomy 34: 1-9
I And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan,
2 all Naphtali, the land of E'phraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zo'ar.
4 The LoRD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”
5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-pe'or; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.
7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated
8 And the people of Israel wept For Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; so the people Israel obeyed him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
( Revised Standard Version of the Bible)
October 27, 2013
- Which of them was the greatest -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. I find myself making similar introductory note every time I deliver a sermon. The passage of the Bible given us today is deeply linked with the event called 'The transfiguration on the mountain,' written in the passage up to verse 36, chapter 9 of the Gospel according to Luke, which we listened to at the last sermon on Luke.
In between that last passage and the one for today, there is a story inserted; story of a child possessed by evil spirit and was cured by Jesus. Today's passage, with that story included, is deeply linked with the passage of transfiguration on the mountain.
The event on the mountain took place some 8 days after Jesus had made a preliminary announcement of his death on a cross for the first time. When the announcement was made it gave a great shock and despair to the disciples according to the gospels written by other disciples thought Luke doesn't say anything about it. It wouldn't surprise me if Jesus, seeing his disciples thrown in shock and despair, had some kind of hesitation or struggle within himself about the step of life he was to make. That was the reason why he felt it necessary to go up on a mountain and pray. A mountain here means the world of God. In the arms of God, Jesus ardently wanted to know more deeply what his death on a cross would mean. The transfiguration on the mountain was the answer given to the question.
The core of the message of the transfiguration on the mountain, I would think, is that there is an important reversal between somewhere up on the mountain, i.e. the world embraced in the arms of God and somewhere down at its foot, i.e. where we humans live. Based on this premise we can get to understand the word of Jesus when he said, 'For the least among you all is the greatest,' in verse 48 of chapter 9. The state of having been made the least or minimized in this world is the greatest up on the mountain. What is great in the arms of God is treated as the least and worthless in the human world. The word 'Erai in Japanese language (meaning admirable: translator),' originally means 'great.' In the world of God and that of humans there exists a turnabout as to what is great and important. Jesus was enlightened about it in the event of transfiguration on the mountain and he talked about it to his disciples.
The reversal is illustrated in concrete terms in the lines which describe how Moses and Elijah were talking with Jesus about nothing else but inexplicably about 'the departure of Jesus,' the destiny he was to fulfill, and that having a talk about it made them strangely shine in dazzling white. They were not talking just about the departure of Jesus but probably also about the departures of Moses and Elijah, I gather. Their departures and the ways their departures took had missions that could be accomplished only that way. There were things they could leave behind only by their departures for those who remained. Moses and Elijah told Jesus about these things. Hearing them Jesus probably could learn what meaning there would be when he suffers death on a cross. To talk about his departure was the great thing on the mountain. To talk about it or eventually to live the final moment was what made him wonderfully dazzle. What if the talk had been made on the earth? Here on earth talk of departure is to be abhorred and to be held back. There is no dazzling or glory in departure. It is the time when one is minimized in life. But not so up on the mountain; exactly opposite is the case. That is what Jesus was enlightened about on the mountain and he must have told it to his disciples.
2. What is interesting lies at the latter part of the story of transfiguration, which I could not tell you about due to the shortage of time at the last sermon. Seeing the three in glory, Peter said in a loud voice, 'Master, it is good that we are here,' and offered to build three shelters; one for each. But as soon as Peter said it there came a cloud and it cast a shadow over the three. There was a voice saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him,' and only Jesus remained alone without any glory any longer.
Then they came down the mountain as in verse 37. The lines that follow were about the world below the mountain; about how humans were in stark contrast to how it was on the mountain top.
Peter wanted to keep the wonderful glory he had chance to peep through so he can see it indefinitely in this world by building shelters on the mountain. But it couldn't be was the message suggested by the three having been covered by the shadow of cloud. Peter as well we live in the world below the mountain. It is not possible for us to turn the wonders of the world up on the mountain to something we can keep seeing for an indefinite period of time. We have to live in the world below the mountain as ones who cannot see the wonders up on the mountain, as ones for whom it is concealed. For that reason, we are ones who seek 'greatness' in the world below the mountain, the greatness of which is the opposite of what it is up on the mountain. Here lie our anguish and distress. Such a state of our existence is symbolically represented by the story of a child possessed by unclean spirit, which the disciples encountered with for the first thing as they came down from the mountain as in verse 37 and the following.
The child should represent a being that realizes the 'greatness' up on the mountain. I will come back to it at the end of the sermon. As it was, the child was possessed. What made the child possessed were probably the parents of their only son and adults who surrounded him. It was the desire of his parents and surrounding adults who were seeking great things, who wished to have their dreams realized in this world and imposed it on the child that made him an easy prey to evil spirit. The same is true of disciples as described in verse 46. While it is depicted as strife over who among them was the most admirable, it was in essence strife for 'greatness,' rather than over being admirable. They sought to be great in number and volume 'among themselves,' in the competition among humans. Being great among the humans was their measure of happiness. No! Our desire is not confined just to be admired. Our wish is the more number of days or longevity of our life, which we will hopefully find at as far a distance from our 'departure,' or death as possible, and the greatness and strength of our life. Our desire is to be found in being 'great,' which is the opposite of being minimized, being enfeebled and made worthless.
However, the more we seek to be great in this world, the more further away we get from being 'great,' up on the mountain, which is what God intends to give us. The greatness God would give us is for us to talk about 'the departure,' and to live the final moment in life. Each and every one of us must go up on the mountain, like it or not. And the 'greatness,' we seek inevitably gets small. We, inescapably, get to be 'lesser ones,' in this world. In such steps of our life, God intends to give us greatness. It is there that God says a glory is found. If we were to seek the kind of greatness down the mountain foot with our desire to keep away from the 'departure,' regardless of the will God, evil spirit will possess there and one will suffer ill at soul.
3. It was to prepare the disciples for this that Jesus gave them forewarning saying, 'the Son of Man is to be given up into the power of men.' But what was his death on a cross for? Jesus had come to this world to become a bridge, so to say, between the mountain and the lowland flat for us, who have no choice but to live as ones for whom the glory on the mountain is concealed, and indeed he accepted the death on a cross. Jesus is the one who comes and goes between the mountain and the low flats; one who shows us on earth what is the greatness God will give us and show it by his own example; the only Son of God would become a common 'Son of Man,' and would live in a state of 'being given up into the power of men,' the place where we abhor the most and would make 'a mountain,' there; to make there a place of glory full of brilliance. It is through him that we get a glimpse into the world up on the mountain which has been kept from our sight.
It was to be regretted that the disciples could not understand the word of Jesus then, as in verse 45. The meaning was concealed for them so they won't understand, the Bible tells. And the disciples were struggling to be great on earth in verse 46. Seeing such disciples, some of us may wonder if the forewarning of Jesus about his death had served no purpose or in vain. Yet we find Jesus, despite seeing such disciples, not in despair at all. From the way the Bible puts it, it is taken as if it's natural that the disciple were like that. It was natural that they did not understand what Jesus said, wasn't it? It was natural that they didn't understand because they didn't take the words and deeds of Jesus as something they needed ardently. Yet time will come when they will find Jesus and his words as an indispensable bridge, a bridge they will find they can't do without; a bridge that invites them up to the mountain. Such a time will be when the disciples as well as we are made 'the least,' in the world below the mountain; when we are faced with the time of departure. Then the 'greatness,' we have been after all the time will have no meaning. We will begin to look for the brilliance prepared up on the mountain. Such a time will not fail to come. So it's alright if they didn't understand till then. To our surprise though, the disciples could follow Jesus without understanding him. Jesus invites us to have a glimpse through him of the world on the mountain while we may not understand or we may have a very dim vision of it.
4. Lastly I would say a word about the possessed 'child.' That story was told as a symbol of the encouragement Jesus gave to his disciples. What kind of a being a little child was in essence? Wasn't he the 'least'? A being placed on a mountain top, as it were? It symbolizes ones facing the 'departure.' Of course still alive; a being in this world. But such a life is indeed very weak, which will face up with the departure in no time; a being in this world but has a place to be on the mountain top also; one who comes and goes between the mountain top and the low flats, I would guess. The brilliance of a little child may well be such brilliance.
Each and every one of us has come through such a period of childhood. We could live through such a time in the joy of innocence, without worries of life. God created us humans especially in such a way that we live our childhood longer than any other creatures. If that is the case, we should be able to live our final times also like that. For that we need an absolutely indispensable being. We could live our childhood thanks to the sanctuary given by our parents. Just like it we need someone to provide us sanctuary when we live through the final hours in our lives. Jesus is with us and God is with us to give us such sanctuary.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 43-48
43 And they were all struck with awe at the greatness of God.
Amid the general astonishment at all he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
44 'Listen to what I have to tell you. The Son of Man is to be given up into the power of men.'
45 But they did not understand what he said; its meaning had been hidden from them, so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
46 An argument started among them as to which of them was the greatest.
47 Jesus, who knew what was going on in their minds, took a child, stood him by his side,
48 and said, 'Whoever receives this child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the least among you all is the greatest.'
(The New English Bible)
October 20, 2013
- Jacob leaves off away from his home -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Every time I preach on Genesis, I consult the Bible commentary by professor Bruckman. About the story of Jacob the professor says, 'Of all the stories in Genesis, one about Jacob is the most vulgar; it brings the strongest feeling of repulsion. --- If one were to face with this story with commonly- shared religious and moral senses, it will turn out as nothing else but unpleasant. Following the words of Bible in chapter 27 of Genesis which we listened to the last time, the passage we intend to learn from for today will give us that kind of feeling, I am afraid.
Where we read Genesis the last it time was about Rebecca, the wife of Isaac who at the time was failing to see by his eyes suggesting that perhaps his time was drawing near, although his actual passing was years away; it describes how she deceived her husband and motivated her hesitating son Jacob to take the blessing of his father which Isaac intended to give to the elder of the twins, Esau. Her husband Isaac is described as an easy man who would pass the important 'blessing,' he himself succeeded from his father to his son in exchange for a dish of game meat he favored so much as he was foolish to be trapped in the plan of his wife easily.
The passage of today is about more of more serious and unbearable state of the family affairs. Esau got to hate Jacob and the hatred blew up to the point where he told to himself, 'The time of mourning for my father will soon be here; then I am going to kill my brother Jacob.' Upon hearing the mind of Esau, Rebecca their mother, in her attempt to avoid the worst from unfolding, persuaded Jacob to flee to Laban, the elder brother of Rebecca who lived in their homeland, Harran. Her idea was that the duration of stay of her son with his uncle wasn't going to be longer than she told Jacob to'stay with my brother for a while.' But the separation turned out to be their last on earth. While Genesis does not tell how Rebecca died she could not see Jacob again.
Verse 46 is a bit strange when we read it ? according to the commentary, the part covering from this verse to chapter 28, verse 9 was written at a different age and by a different author from the part up to verse 45 ?. This part can be taken to have been added to give reasons as to why Rebecca by her plan entrusted Jacob to her brother Laban's care. Rebecca lamented over the wives her son Esau married (though the Bible doesn't tell specifically what's wrong with them.) Hearing it, Isaac gave thought to it and concluded that Jacob would do well under the care of his wife's brother and marry a girl from his kindred. It was just the same with Isaac for whom Abraham his father planned to get a wife from his home country.
It may well be because the story up to verse 45 was so unbearably unpleasant that readers of the later generation interpreted the leaving of Jacob from his home in that way and added it as verse 46 and the following. According to the story up to verse 45 Jacob left for his mother's brother Laban in order to escape from the hatred of his brother: fleeing it was. The family members so got dispersed from each other, and the mother and the son had to live separately. The same development is described, however, not as leaving off away from home or fleeing but as departing for a journey to find a wife for Jacob, a trip blessed by his parents. (chapter 28, verse 5 )
Perhaps the displeasure may be oozing at such a point. What kind of talking did God wish to give us from this story?
2. I may have told you earlier how I take the story in my own way. I am given a great comfort that the Bible tells so repulsing a story as this, of a family of the son and grandsons of Abraham, of a family which succeeded 'the blessing' from Abraham, of a family especially chosen and blessed by God, without a cover as verse 41 says 'Esau harboured a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him.' Should similar development take place with us, the families of believers, wouldn't we cover it up? Won't we have a feeling of shame or sin for such a thing which should not happen to families of believers? Yet the Bible does not hide them behind or criticizes any one on the scene. Why?
Let us see how the couple of Isaac and Rebecca came to be. Abraham expected his son Isaac to succeed the faith, more than anything else, to believe in God. To realize his wish Abraham sent his trusted servant to his home country to find a young woman for the wife of Isaac from among his kindred (most likely with the intention to find a woman of the same faith). The servant made a plan to realize the wish of his master and prayed to God. He so planned it that as he enters the town of the master's home country he will go first to the side of a spring; there if a girl would give him and to his camels water to drink, then it should be the one to become wife of Isaac. God granted approval to his prayer and made it so happen. This was how Isaac married Rebecca. It means that the couple was made under the guidance of God; a family born out of miracle.
Yet trial after trial came upon the couple. No child was given them for 20 years and Isaac prayed for his wife. God listened to his prayer and Rebecca finally conceived. However, Rebecca felt something wrong perhaps was taking place in her womb and she asked God what it was. God told her that she was having twins and that the elder will be servant to the younger.
It turned out indeed the way as told by God. The series of event, all that happened to the family were taking place as a plan of God. That the elder of the twins will serve the younger is something unacceptable for us. Because such a reversal was taking place, Isaac their father loved the elder Esau (as if in defiance of God's will and taking the place of God.) Rebecca their mother was moved by that and doted on Isaac who was kept away by his father. Isaac had to give blessing to Jacob in spite of his intention, and the elder brother Esau was driven to hate Jacob to the extent of loathing to kill him.
Behind all this was the will of God. And deep in the mind of God lay not an unkind intent to cause hatred among or dispersal of the family, but there lay his plan to give 'blessing.' God intended to realize that the elder of the twins will serve the younger, and it was in order to give blessing to the family. God's will being difficult for us to accept, it brought about tension, chasm, hatred and separation on the family. But these were due to the plan of God who would bless the family as special to him. That is why the passage does not criticize any one appearing on the scene. The family turned out the way it did due to the plan of God. The family was inescapably thrown into such state as written in the passage for God's blessing to appear on it. Don't we have some similar experience as that?
3. What kind of plan of God was about to appear on the family? What kind of blessing was going to be given going through the hatred and separation?
Verse 46 and the following, which I hinted earlier as possibly an addition by later generation, may well reveal a part of God's plan shown to them. The plan Rebecca came up with in her utmost ability to avoid hatred of the elder son was for Jacob to leave off away from home, i.e. fleeing. But according to the will of God it may have been an indispensable opportunity for Jacob in marrying a woman from the kindred of the home country just as Isaac married with Rebecca the same way. And the passage was neither just for lip comfort nor it was to give some cover to the actual state of the family. It was also a bright departure for the journey blessed by Isaac (chapter 28, verse 1.)
As already written at the end of chapter 26, Esau at his age 40 married two women in the same year for whatever reason we don't know from among the local Hittite. Jacob was still a single man. Though this is utterly my own conjecture, Jacob could not get married because of the doting love of his mother Rebecca. He could not marry a local woman as his elder brother did (due to the lament of his mother for doing so as written on verse 46.) But then, he couldn't cast aside his indecision and choose to leave from her mother in search of his wife. We find a mother who cannot part her child and a child who cannot wean. Didn't God throw a wedge there? Faced with great hatred of her elder son, even the strong-minded mother could not help but to part Jacob. Jacob also had no way but to leave off away from home. His stay with Laban the uncle got as long as more than 20 years and with much difficulty at that contrary to expectations of the mother and Jacob himself. However, that's where God's blessing on Jacob lay. He got the blessing from God he could not have gotten if he had stayed with his mother.
'Fortune and misfortune come in turn as fibers are woven to rope,' we say. Just as the proverb puts it, each of the things that falls on us has two sides, doesn't it? Looked from this side it is a leaving off away or fleeing, but from the other it is a blessed departure for a journey. Deep behind the visible misery and hardship lies the blessing which God intends to give us only through such event on surface.
4. I want to touch on another point which is revealed to us as the will of God. It has to do with the elder of the brothers serving the younger. Why was it that Esau had to serve Jacob? Why does Got lower the existence represented by the person of Esau and place high the one appearing in the person of Jacob?
I asked the passage from verse 46 and the following also read because there, the way of living represented by Esau is well described, I felt. Knowing that his parents didn't like his marrying local women, he married a third woman, daughter of Ishmael, father Isaac's half brother. That he was able to marry three women make us feel Esau was sufficiently rich. Indeed he was an able man to have made it possible to get wives as he wanted at once. As chapter 25, verse 27 of Genesis puts it saying 'Esau became a skillful hunter,' thanks to being a hunter he could earn the love of his father who loved dish from game, a skilled one who could get women for his wives as he wanted. In him we find a man who in his life can get anything at his will by the skill he possesses; being 'an elder brother,' represented by Esau.
What about Jacob in comparison? He could not marry yet; he could not get possession of anything of value. Given only ' the blessing,' which didn't have any form tangible yet, he was driven off away from home by the hatred, having to flee to his uncle Laban, as plucked out from the conventional life he was making on to a lonesome journey. Unlike Esau, he wasn't the one who could stay where he was born and brought up, wasn't the one who could get a kind of woman he liked for his wife, wasn't the one who could get to possess whatever he wanted to by the skill he had; he had only to rely on whatever might be given in uncertain future. That was 'a younger brother,' represented by Jacob.
Within each of us Esau and Jacob are pressing on each other, leading to tension and strife. However, God's blessing lies at such a place where the elder brother serves the younger and where the elder brother is stronger than the younger.
(Translated by Mr. Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist prepared in Japanese)
Genesis 27: 41- 28:5
27:41 Esau harboured a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him, and he said to himself, 'The time of mourning for my father will soon be here; then I am going to kill my brother Jacob.'
42 When Rebecca was told what her elder son Esau was planning, she called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, 'Your brother Esau is threatening to kill you.
43 Now, my son, listen to me. Be off at once to my brother Laban in Harran,
44 and stay with him for a while until your brother's anger cools.
45 When it has died down and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will send and fetch you back. Why should I lose you both in one day?'
46 Rebecca said to Isaac, 'I am weary to death of Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite Woman like those who live here, my life will not be worth living.'
28:1 So Isaac called Jacob, and after blessing him, gave him these instructions: 'You are not to marry a Canaanite woman.
2 Go now to the home of Bethuel, your mother's brother, your mother's father, in Paddan-aram, and find there a wife, one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
3 May God Almighty bless you; may he make you fruitful and increase your descendants until they become a community of nations.
4 May he bestow on you and your offspring the blessing given to Abraham, that you may possess the land where you are now living, and which God assigned to Abraham!
5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel, the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
(The New English Bible)
October 6, 2013
- Transfiguration on a mountain -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today we listen to the word that describes the event that has been called 'Transfiguration on a mountain 'since a long time ago. First, Verse 28 says, ' About a week after this.' 'this'refers to the part that we listened to last time, from Chapter 9, Verse 18 through Verse 28. The reason why Luke took the trouble to say so is that he wanted to say that what took place today is deeply connected with the event that took place eight days ago.
1.2 Therefore, let's reflect on what is written in Verse 17 and the following. Jesus performed the miracle in which he satisfied as many as 5,000 men with only five loaves of bread and two fish. I think that a lot of people took the opportunity to regard Jesus as the Messiah or Christ. They started to think that it was this person who was the savior that would save them out of hunger or various sufferings. That's why Jesus realized that now was the time for him to tell clearly what kind of savior he was and how he was going to save people. Thus, as is described in Verse 21 and the following, he announced his suffering and resurrection beforehand to his disciples for the first time. And he said that if you want to save your life, you should follow him, who will suffer, and you should forsake yourself and follow him with your cross on your back.
2.1 During the eight days from the time when Jesus announced like this until today's event took place, Luke mentioned nothing about what happened. The gospels according to Matthew and Mark described how Jesus scolded his disciple Peter severely as in Matthew, Chapter 16, Verse 22. For example, when Peter rebuked him, 'Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you ! , Jesus said,' Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.' We understand these kinds of reactions well that Jesus' disciples show. The reason is that Jesus announced, contrary to their expectations, that the very person whom they expected to be the Savior who would liberate themselves from sufferings would be tortured by important people and would be killed. He said that it is the sign that he is the Messiah. He said further that you too should follow him, bearing sufferings and that it is the way you will be saved. How can such a thing happen? How can we do such a thing? Isn't it just the opposite of salvation? This is what not only his disciples but also a lot of people thought about.
2.2 I think that as he watched how people reacted as well as his disciples, Jesus was driven by the urge to take Peter, John, and James and go up a mountain to pray. The gospels often write that Jesus often prayed but it is very rare that he went up a mountain to pray. This shows how strongly Jesus was urged to do so. He prayed that God might give the conviction that he had told the disciples about eight days before, by going up a mountain that is near to where God resides and by seeking after God's will, right? Even to Jesus, his work as the Savior can be achieved through his suffering, which was a really deep mystery and a matter hard to understand, I think. Just because Jesus was God's only son, it does not mean that he understood everything. He had emotional turmoil and earthly passions. In order to seek after God's encouragement and reply to them, Jesus went up a mountain. The reason why he took his three disciples was that he wanted them to catch a glimpse of a response from God and that he was sure that it would be some encouragement for them, too.
3.1 Then what kind of encouragement did God give Jesus, in response to his prayer on the mountain? How did God convince Jesus of the Savior who suffers?
3.2 That is what is described in Verse 29 and the following: 'And while he was praying the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there were two men talking with him ? Moses and Elijah ?
who appeared in glory.' The disciples witnessed the scene where the three over there shone mysteriously and were in glory. The Bible says, ' Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep,'but why could they become sleepy although they were eyewitnesses to this kind of strange scene? What does sleepiness mean in such a scene? It is an expression of irritation saying that it is impossible to grasp or to understand. It means what is written at the end of Verse 33, namely, ' he spoke without knowing what he was saying.'Although they had great difficulty understanding what is going on, the disciples listened to Jesus, Moses and Elijah talking to each other closely appearing in glory. What were they talking about? This is a very important point. They were talking about this very thing. To talk about it led to Jesus and the other two appearing in glory. Moses and Elijah were sent to Jesus by God so that they could talk about it with Jesus, so to speak, as something like a counselor for Jesus and as an advisor to teach God's will.
3.3 What were they talking about? It is, as is written at the end of Verse 33, '
his departure, the destiny he was to fulfill in Jerusalem,'which his disciples heard eight days ago he was to suffer from. Moses and Elijah taught the meaning of Jesus's 'departure ' by telling what their departures should be like to Jesus.
3.4 Moses and Elijah were trying to tell from their experiences that Jesus was about to bring his'departure 'to fulfillment, that it was what is essential for our salvation and that only through it we could get its fruit, I think.
3.5 These two people might not have been able to realize that mystery when they met their 'departure .'However, after they were called by God , that is, after a very long time passed in terms of the worldly time, they were able to realize deeply what that 'departure 'meant. They were telling such a thing to Jesus, I think.
4.1 Then what kind of thing did these two people teach Jesus? As a matter of fact, of a lot of figures who appeared in the Old Testament, these people, Moses and Elijah, have been handed down from generation to generation as those who met a very strange 'departure .'Actually, as far as I know, there is one more person who met such a 'departure, 'that is, Enoch. Genesis, Chapter 5, Verse 23 says, 'Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.'If Enoch appeared in the presence of Jesus now, he also might have been the right person.
4.2 As this is important, first, let's read Deuteronomy Chapter 34 that describes Moses' 'departure .'You can find it on page 338 in the Old Testament. 'And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. … And the Lord said to him, 'but you shall not go over there .'So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the Land of Moab….Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. '
4.3 After 40 years of struggling to lead his people, Moses came to the place where he could overlook the land of promise, with a lot of difficulty. God made Moses go up the mountain that could overlook the whole area and as if to annoy him, God said, 'but you shall not go over there 'and he called Moses all of a sudden. 'the Lord buried Moses in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no man knows the place of his burial to this day.'This is what his 'departure 'was like.
4.4 Why was he not allowed to enter the land of promise? Although there are various reasons for it, the most probable reason is found in Deuteronomy Chapter 32, Verse 48 and the following.
4.5 I cannot talk in details but the point is that Moses has to carry sins of his people on his back. It means that thanks to his being called by God with sins of his people on his back, Israeli people are able to enter the place of promise. In Moses' 'departure 'we can find such a deep meaning and how it works, I think.
4.6 Next, let's read Elijah's 'departure. ' This is written in 2 Kings, Chapter 2 in the Old Testament. Look at page 578. Let's read Chapter 2, Verse 9. Elijah's disciple, Elisha, strongly refuses to part from his teacher. But Elijah says,'if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.'It is by Elijah's meeting his departure and by Elisha's seeing it that Elisha can inherit a double share of Elijah's spirit, whose meaning is unknown. Elijah goes up by a whirlwind into heaven. Verse 12 says, because of his sorrow, Elisha 'took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. 'At that moment, he took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he struck the water. The water was parted to the one side and to the other and Elisha went over. I take it to heart what a symbolic story it is. His beloved teacher is called to heaven. In his sorrow, Elisha rends his own clothes. At that moment, Elijah's mantle falls from the sky. To pick it up, that is, means that Elisha's wish has been granted.
4.7 Here also, we can find how it is only through Elijah's departure and by the person who is left seeing his departure and taking the sorrow on himself that Elijah was able to pursue his aim and to have his inheritance passed down.
5.1 Jesus was taught by Moses and Elijah the deep meaning of their respective ' departures'and how they work. Through it, he was able to be convinced of the indispensable meaning and work of his own' departure,'I think. I would like to leave it up to each of you to think about how departures of Moses and Elijah overlap Jesus' departure on the cross.
5.2 Now I would like to talk about such things as the following: Peter tried to build three shelters, a cloud appeared and enveloped Moses and others and later Jesus without glory nor splendor was left alone, but God's voice came from the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him,'and so on. But these stories will take a long time. So I would like to omit them. (These days my sermon tends to take a longer time, so I must be careful.)
5.3 What I would like to mention lastly by all means is that through this event, to us also, a big comfort and encouragement are given. Our ' departure'is the last time that we want to mention and that we want to forget if possible. It is thought to be just the opposite of such a time when Peter said, 'it is good for us to be here 'or a time of splendor or glory to our eyes. But today's event teaches us that to speak about' departures'made those three people talking about them shine. It teaches us that it is our' departure'that brings about what is indispensable and that it is the time shining with glory and the time when it leaves people who are left something important. If so, how meaningful it is for us to be given our ' departure'!
5.4 We also have a mountain to go up, I think. As we live on the earth, we may not be aware at all that we have such a mountain to go up. All that we can see is our own figures without any splendor, just as Jesus was alone on the ground without any splendor or glory. However, we should never forget: that such Jesus was shining on the mountain, that to speak about ' departures'brought about it, and that as a matter of fact, such a transfiguration on a mountain is prepared for us too. It is the time when we live up to the' departure.'In the departure, we have to perform our indispensable role. We are leaving for that mountain. We are allowed to live our lives on the earth, with a splendor on the mountain hidden in ourselves and as an existence with such a mystery in their bosoms.
(Translated by Mr. Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist prepared in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 28-36
28 About a week after this he took Peter, John, and James and went up a mountain to pray.
29 And while he was praying the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white.
30 Suddenly there were two men talking with him ? Moses and Elijah ?
31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, the destiny he was to fulfill in Jerusalem.
32 Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep; but when they awoke, they saw his glory and the two men who stood beside him.
33 As these two were moving away from Jesus, Peter said to him, 'Master, it is good that we are here. Shall we make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?' but he spoke without knowing what he was saying.
34 As he spoke there came a cloud,
35 and from it a voice spoke: 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.'
36 After the voice had spoken, Jesus was seen to be alone. The disciples kept silence and did not at that time say a word to anyone of what they had seen.
(The New English Bible)
September 22, 2013
- The gospel you hear is not of human origin -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. It was at the first Sunday service of August that we listened to the word of God from the first half of chapter 1 of Paul's letter to the Galatians. We are coming back to the letter after some time and we will listen to what the latter half of the chapter has to say, today.
Verses 11 and 12 read, 'I must make it clear to you, my friends, that the gospel you heard me preach is not of human origin. I did not take it over from anyone; no one taught it me; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.' Paul told here that the gospel he was preaching hadn't come from man; it had come from God. 'Revelation,' it was he said. It means what has been covered appears on surface in clear form when the cover is taken away. The gospel which he was preaching wasn't something neither he nor other man worked out; it was the gospel which God himself had already given us, but which had remained covered until made apparent by Jesus Christ.
Paul said this with the fact in mind that the gospel which he was preaching was being criticized not only by the churches of Galatia but also by churches of the time in general saying that it wasn't coming from God but was from a man, i.e. it was forged, as it were, by Paul. If he was, indeed, faking it was certainly to be deplored. Paul should be named a big lair if he was preaching only what a man dreamt up as a gospel. In the passage of today Paul tried hard to demonstrate that the gospel he preached was not of human origin but was from God. And this is a critical life-or-death question for us, too. The sermon for today contains a number of theological elements and may sound difficult to comprehend. I implore for your patience as this is indeed a very serious question for us.
2. Let us begin by asking what was the gospel preached by Paul like? The words of chapter 1, verse 6 and the following tell us what it was like as we learned it at the last sermon. It refers to 'him who called you by grace.' 'Him,' means God without saying. The passage shows that at the base of the gospel by Paul lies, before anything else, the fact that God invited us. What then did it mean that God invited us? Why was it good news? Why was it so rejoicing?
At the last Sunday service which fell on 'Pay Respect to the Aged Day,' we were given a passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah chapter 55, verse 8 and the following, which read that God's thoughts were not our thoughts, nor were our ways his ways. How then would God deal with us who are so far away from him? Would he tell us to go the way we would on our own? Would he leave us where we are, which is so far away from him? No! God won't deal with us like that, Isaiah told. As the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return there without watering the earth, making it produce bread grain for us to eat, so God will give us what is good, he told. What was good was the word issuing from the mouth of God as verse 11 put it. God would speak to us at far and help us come to learn his thoughts and ways so we get to be able to live to please him. Here we at far get connected to God, related to and linked with God.
This is the 'call by God,' as mentioned in verse 6, chapter 1 of the letter to Galatians, I would think. God will, through various means, relate him with us, irrespective of our great distance from him, link with us to help us become ones who are able to live according to his will. 'Testament' as in the Old Testament and also as in the New Testament means 'contract,' we've been taught. And when it comes to contract, we at so far away from God cannot even hope to enter into contractual relationship with God. Despite such state of ourselves he would offer to make contract with us. This is the invitation or call of God; and can it be anything else but the gospel?
3. A question that ensues is by what or in which form will God make his invitation. The gospel which Paul preached relates to this very question. God would make invitation to us, have a contract done with us and put us on a start line so we get to be able to live in relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ.
This is what was expressed in verse 6 where it said 'from him who called you by grace (of Christ).' 'Grace of Christ,' is the translation now used. I am of the opinion that this part be better translated to read, 'in the grace of Christ.' God would make his offer of invitation in the grace of Christ. We come to encounter with Jesus Christ and get connected to him, and God invites us on account of that connection. Our connection with Jesus leads to our connection with God. God accepts it this way.
Actually, that may not be even called a connection with God. It may not be called 'a contract done.' In the eyes of the Israelites that was how it looked. They thought it was presumptuous or scam to take one's connection with Jesus by itself as meaning his connection with God. It may very well be. Yet God would accept it that way. That is why it is a grace. God accepts our having connection with nobody else but with Jesus Christ by itself be taken as our having connection with God. Why did God make such a revelation I would elaborate when we touch on verse 15.
4. This is how Paul began preaching the gospel coming from God. but it was absolutely unacceptable for the Israelites. Paul knew very well why it was unacceptable for them as indicated on verses 13 and 14.
Paul himself as a practicing Jew was making attack on this gospel more harshly than anyone else. He did so because he 'outstripped most of his Jewish contemporaries by his boundless devotion to the traditions of his ancestors.'Allow me to repeat and say that the issue is how a man could be invited by God, how can a man enter into contractual relationship with God. How did the traditions of ancestors teach on this point? Their teachings were that it was by observing the laws given by God that one gets invited. It was in their way of thinking natural that they should become the kind of man God would wish them to be because they'll be invited by God. Observe the laws, and be connected with me. That was the words from heaven for the Israelites as written in chapter 55 of the Book of Isaiah. Paul observed the laws willingly. He didn't observe them grudgingly. Many Israelites willingly observed the laws. In doing so they saw what was called a gospel. It is true of them till today. The faith of Islam may also be fundamentally the same as the Jewish religion, I would gather.
Paul as the practicing Jew could not tolerate the kind of gospel which preached that one can receive an invitation of God in the grace of Christ. One's relationship with God stands as one-on-one with God. And a contract with God will only be sustained by observing and fulfilling with sincerity and trying hard what was commanded by God in that one-on-one relationship. But this gospel said that a contract with God will be established when Jesus, an utter stranger, comes into that one-on-one relationship with God. Being related to Christ or to be connected with Christ is the way to be connected to God, without practicing the laws or doing nothing, this gospel says. No way, it could be! A bad religion, Paul thought. This idea of Paul may well be the thought of the followers of Judaism and of Islam till today.
5. How was it that the natural understanding or conviction was overturned? It was overturned by the revelation from God. Verse 15 and the following explain it. What lies behind the passage is the event which fell on Paul on his way to Damascus. But it couldn't be all. Verses 16 through 19 describe the strange actions Paul took after he received the revelation. After the revelation Paul went off to Arabia without consulting anyone and afterwards returned to Damascus. Three years later he went up to see Cephas (Peter) and James, the brother of Jesus, who were leaders of churches of the time. The revelation Paul refers to in this passage must have been given over the time of several years he spent looking for right answer for his serious question.
Paul says in verse 15 'God, who from my birth had set me apart.' He meant to say here that it was God who revealed the gospel in Jesus Christ. He may have wanted to emphasize that God 'who from my birth had set me apart,' was in fact the same God who made him observe the traditions of ancestors and made him practice the laws. While the gospel may have been certainly a revelation given through the encounter with Jesus Christ, one may argue that a man, Jesus by name, may have revealed it to Paul, with Jesus himself having nothing to do with God. But the gospel revealed to Paul was not of that kind. It was the one revealed by God in Jesus. It is the revelation and the gospel given by the same God who made Paul, the ancestors of Israel and his fellow countrymen practice the laws, Paul wanted to point out.
What did God wish to reveal? It is implied by the words 'his Son,' at the beginning of verse 16. Jesus is the Son of God, the only Son of God. Here lies the inevitability of why he came into our contractual relationship with God. As the Son of God he can be attorney for God. One's relationship with the Son by itself can mean one's relationship with God. The only Son of God came as a man and lived with us as a visible creature. His disciples stumbled over him, had doubts about him and betrayed him.
Yet their love and affection towards Jesus never changed. Moreover, Jesus never forsook them from his side. Here lies the grace of Christ. In this relationship of us with Christ, God will see his relationship with us and offer to make a contract with us.
The latter half of verse 16 says 'in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles.' Paul realized that the gospel was reveal to him for it be propagated among the Gentiles more than any other people. Things are alright as is for the people who can believe in sustaining relationship with God by practicing the laws as taught in the traditions of ancestors. Those people aren't the Gentiles. However, what about Peter who denied Jesus? And James (who is said to have been unable to believe that Jesus was the Christ while Jesus lived on earth.)? What about us for whom it is impossible to observe the laws and who are totally unfit as a party to contract with God? Gentiles we indeed are. God offered in a clear way the gospel of invitation to such of us as we are in the grace of his only Son, Christ. God invites us in our relationship with Jesus as long as we yearn after and love Jesus and as long as we are loved by Jesus even if we may have stumbled over or denied Jesus. God gives us who are connected to Jesus all which he gave to his only Son, Jesus.
Here lies the answer to the question we have been upholding. The question is how is God who would make contract with us practicing the laws as in the Old Testament Bible relevant to God who invites us in the grace of Christ. Are they two separate Gods? Is the gospel revealed to us a different gospel? No! There is fundamentally only one gospel: one which tells that God invites us. For the people who believe they can receive invitation from God on the merit of their good behavior and fitness, a gospel orresponding to their belief will be revealed. It suffices for them to practice the laws. It is good for them to perform a limited number of deeds commanded. We don't need to deny the faith of those who follow Judaism or Islam of today. That indeed is also a gospel from God.
That, however, cannot constitute a gospel for us, Gentiles. Not that we are Gentiles by race or by blood in the literal sense of the term; we are Gentiles by our deeds as we cannot enter contractual relationship with God. For us as such God revealed the gospel of invitation in the grace of Christ. It suffices for us to admit with the warrant of a good conscience this belief before the followers of Judaism and of Islam; admit this, telling them we aren't the kind of people like they are who sustain relationship with God by practicing the laws and by doing several deeds. And just because we are who we are, a gospel of invitation in grace of Christ offers the gospel for us.
As in verse 18 and the following, Paul met with Peter and James and talked to them about the gospel revealed to him, giving them assurance that they both believe in the same gospel. Why could Peter who denied Jesus receive the invitation from God? Why could Paul the persecutor become one to preach? There at that very point lies the invitation of God in the grace of Christ.
The Letter of Paul to the Galatians Chapter 1: 11 - 24
11 I must make it clear to you, my friends, that the gospel you heard me preach is not of human origin.
12 I did not take it over from anyone; no one taught it me; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13 You have heard what my manner of life was when I was still a practicing Jew: how savagely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it;
14 and how in the practice of our national religion I outstripped most of my boundless devotion to the traditions of my ancestors.
15 But then in his good pleasure God, who from my birth had set me apart, and who had called me through his grace, chose
16 to reveal his son in and through me, in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. Immediately, without consulting a single person,
17 without going up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, I went off to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.
18 Three year later I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed two weeks with him.
19 I saw none of the other apostles, except James, the Lord's brother.
20 What I write is plain truth; God knows I am not lying.
21 Then I left for the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 I was still unknown by sight to the Christian congregations in Judaea;
23 they had simply heart it said, 'Our former persecutor is preaching the good news of the faith which once he tried to destroy,'
24 and they praised God for what had happened to me. (The New English Bible)
(The Revised English Bible)
September 15, 2013
- Neither are your ways my ways -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 Today is intended for the worship service for those aged 75 and older who receive the blessing of respect for the aged. So I have chosen a part from the Bible in a different way from that on usual Sunday Services. Some of you may keep today's part in mind as their favorite passage.
1.2 First, Verses 8 and 9 say, 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts , neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. ' This means that God's thoughts and ways are different from our thoughts and ways and also that as the heavens are a lot farther from the earth, so God's thoughts and ways are far from our thoughts and ways. From this way of talking to us, we feel that we can get a very significant lesson.
1.3 At the wake held on Wednesday last week and also at the funeral on Thursday for Ms Ikezawa, I introduced an excerpt of her diary in my address. It said in a passage written almost at the end of 2008, 'I pray that what I do may please you as a person who lives today. ' Probably Ms Miyo IKEZAWA was praying earnestly that she might live following God's will and thoughts like this. It is also what we all think. And to be able to have the conviction that 'This thought of mine is God's will and my present steps are following the way that He thinks of' will be a big support for us.
1.4 But often we tend to become conceited and arrogant, thinking 'It is my way of thinking that matches God's will. The rest of the ways doesn't,'right? Regarding this, one thing came to my mind. As this is concerned with a private matter to a great degree, I would like to talk about it by making its content very ambiguous and changing its setting. A fairly long time ago, a person got along with a suggestion from a certain person, who is a pastor as a matter of fact, and by believing that to be engaged in a certain thing and a duty is God's will. However, as a result it is rumored that the person and his family are in a dire situation. When I heard about it, I felt intuitively that what the pastor suggested and how the person and his family lived up to it were never God's will but, to be honest, nothing but 'an ambition 'of the pastor, the person and those related to him. I spoke up that way frankly. They are only thinking as if their own selfish wishes were God's will. I feel how often such a thing occurs to us.
1.5 That's why it is really important to know what on earth pleases God's will and what it is to live up to it. The pastor's cure of souls becomes important and wisdom and cleverness of each and every person of you becomes essential. Anyway what today's word clearly tells us is that God's will is different from our thoughts, just as the heavens are different from the earth. If so, how can we say 'This is God's will. This is God's way prepared for me or you ' lightly? Even if we think that way, it is always withheld and it is kept in a question. Also it must be put in a prayer, just as the deceased Ms Miyo Ikezawa wrote in her diary.
2.1 Today's word in the latter part of Verse 11 tells us that if we follow God's will, achieve what He wishes for and we really perform the mission given by God, what kind of phenomenon appears to us? This is the judgment derived from the result that is given birth to. We are taught that it constitutes the decisive criterion for judging whether our thoughts and steps really match God's thoughts and way.
2.2 Today's word says that if we do what God wishes for and perform the mission that God gives us, then 'you shall go out in joy, … instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle.' Of course from a short term perspective, such a thing might bring about troubles or conflicts. But it takes time in units of at least dozens of years for a cypress to come up instead of the thorn, right? It is going out in joy and being led forth in peace during those years that are the criterion for this kind of thing. Just as I mentioned a minute ago, we still cannot say that rapid expansion of discord despite long years' engagement in the work follows God's will.
2.3 Not only from the result but also from the process, we can judge whether this follows God's will. Look at the word in the latter half of Verse 12: 'the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 'For example, think about the progress of our technological advance in the present age. Or we can consider our way of living respectively in view of this criterion. Taking into consideration what people of today ought to do and our individual way of living, will the mountains and the hills before us break forth into singing and will all the trees of the field clap their hands? Are our steps not hurting them? Are we treating them with kindness? Can we be proud of ourselves in the face of the mountains and the hills before us and the trees of the field? The reflections on these things become an important criterion to use when we ask what pleases God's will.
3.1 Now furthermore, with regard to how to know what pleases God's will, 'to be different' seems to give us another important suggestion. Contrary to what I said at the beginning of this sermon, that is, our arrogant way of thinking by saying, 'This thought of mine is God's will and my present steps are following the way that He thinks of', we sometimes think, 'This is not the way that I have wished for. This is against my will. I 'm in trouble. I 'm unhappy. '
3.2 However, it is at such a time that the word meaning 'to be different'gives us a lot of encouragement, right? That is, 'to be different'means that the very situation where the person is put just now is different. It is different from the situation that he wishes for. That's why God's will might have prepared for you. Of course, it is not necessarily the case. We cannot say that for us to be put into the situation that we don't wish for is God's will.
3.3 Nevertheless, there exists such a possibility. Just because of the difference, there is a strong possibility that the situation where I am put is the one that God wished for. The latter half of Verse 11 says, 'it shall accomplish that which I purpose.'That is the very thing that God wants and it is often contrary to what we wish for.
3.4 That is the word that Jesus said last week: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'And then the person will save his life. To sum up, it is to protect 'ourselves ', multiply and enrich ourselves that we want. It is just the opposite of taking up our cross. However, what God wants us to do is to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
3.5 It is never intended for tormenting or treating us cruelly but for saving our life. To put it in today's word, it is intended for realizing the sight that is described in Verses 12 and 13. Therefore, the way that God prepared for us is the way leading to denying ourselves and taking up our cross. Nevertheless, the destination that we reach after we have walked is the one described in Verses 12 and 13.
3.6 The other day while I was preparing the sermon, one word, in which book I am not sure about, occurred to me. Although it is quite ambiguous, it was the word that means that the trouble that is given when we get old is a good thing and a fortunate thing. Those who have retired from the front line have something like relaxation in various senses. It means in terms of time and also financially. Also mentally they can afford to undergo hardships unlike when they were young. The hardships that they undergo are bound to do good not only to themselves and but also to people around them, right? They produce the very things that are described in Verses 12 and 13. Everybody thinks that it is better to do without hardships but God's will is different from our thoughts.
4.1 It is pretty difficult to know what God's will is, like this, in the situation where we are put concretely. However, to try to know it and to take steps after we have noticed even a little will be great comfort for us. We can see in the word from Verse 10.
4.2 Although we are quite distant from God like the heavens are distant from the earth, as we have heard, God has tried to show His will to us in various forms. He never rejects us by saying 'I am different from you. You couldn't know what I think. I am not going to let you know, either.' But He says to us, 'I am different from you but try to know me. Try to live up to my thoughts. And then you can go out in joy and live.'
4.3 Therefore, Verse 10 describes how the rain and the snow come down from heaven and they do not return there without watering the earth. Although heavens and the earth are distant, God lets the rain and the snow fall down and is sure to pour grace from the heavens. Indeed He does. If it were not for the rain or the snow from the heavens, they could not nurture what is on the earth. They could not turn it into seed nor bread. What comes out of the earth and what is given birth to by the earth doesn't have such power. It is only the thing from the heavens that has such power. Therefore, it is essential for us to live up to the thing from the heavens and the rain and the snow from the heavens, that is, to be able to know God's will and to live up to it.
4.4 Then what are the rain or the snow? They are 'my word that goes forth from my mouth' at the beginning of Verse 11. It is the word of the Bible above all and the word that is spoken in the worship service. Just as we find the word ' empty', sometimes you may feel it empty to read the Bible or to listen to the sermon given by a person at the worship service. But it does not become 'empty .' The word that you have listened to is sure to pour the things from the heavens upon us and to develop us. It will become our bread and give us joy and peace.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
Isaiah 55 : 8 - 13
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 'For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle ; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off.' (Revised Standard Version)
September 8, 2013
- Who do you say I am? -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Last time when we learned from the Gospel according to Luke, we read chapter 9, verses 10 -17 which was about the so-called 'the providing of food to five thousand.' The Bible passage for today follows right after that passage. Allow me to begin today's sermon as if to talk what is written in a Bible commentary.
The event of as many as five thousand men having been fed is the only one of many miracles performed by Jesus which is written down in all the four Gospels. Yet it is only the Gospel according to Luke which writes the story of today's passage immediately following the miracle of five thousand men fed. The other three Gospels, i.e. by Mathew, Mark and John, all put, after the miracle of five thousand men, the story of Jesus walking on the lake to come by the disciples who were horrified on a stormy lake.
By the way Luke edited the story as he did it exudes his thought as to why he put the story of today's passage or how he apprehended today's event, I think. How, in fact, the actual events unfolded we do not know. But how Luke apprehended these events is well expressed in the unique way he edited today's story.
Verse 18 and the following read that Jesus asked the disciples saying, 'Who do the people say I am?' Why did Jesus ask such a thing? In the eyes of Luke it is deeply related to the miracle of the five thousand men having been fed, which he put just before today's story.
Luke's choice of the story of Jesus asking who people say he is may be reminiscent of the story of the event told in chapter 6 of the Gospel according to John. That passage tells of people who witnessed the miracle of five thousand men being fed follow after Jesus importunately. Jesus told them, 'It is because you ate the bread and your hunger was satisfied that you came looking for me.' After a number of discourses with them Jesus said, 'My flesh is real food; my blood is real drink. (John 6: 55) Hearing this, many of his disciples exclaimed, 'This is more than we can stand!' and no longer went about with him. (John 6: 66)Something like what's written in the Gospel according to John could have happened after the miracle of feeding five thousand men. Keeping himself away from such a fray, Jesus 'was praying by himself.' (Luke 9: 18) It was in this prayer, I conjecture, Jesus realized again that time has come for him to ask his disciples what they expected of him, and upon hearing their voices, to reveal clearly who he was.
Hearing it and telling this may lead to manifestation of the divergence or gap of expected image which people and the disciples had of Jesus and who he truly was. It may trigger the departure of his disciples from him. Jesus may have realized, however, that even as the miracle of feeding five thousand men was done it was time to reveal him.
2. To that question, people were saying this and that the disciples replied to Jesus. And to the same question by Jesus on them, 'who do you say I am?' Peter replied, 'God's Messiah.'
What people expected of Jesus was not clear from the rumors his disciples heard from them. But from the reply of Peter we can imagine what he and other disciples expected of Jesus. They expected Jesus as Messiah or Savior to liberate them from hunger and from all kinds of suffering. That was how all the people of the time expected of Messiah to be doing for them.
Luke chapter 9 verses 43 and the following tell that when Jesus told disciples about his suffering to come for the second time, they were afraid to ask him about it. Verses 46 and the following tell of an argument among disciples as to which of them was the greatest. These exude the kind of expectations they had of 'Messiah.'
That, in essence, is a being opposite of "Passion." It is a being which will give them greatness. Because it is a being having nothing to do with suffering, it would save them from the suffering.
Though it is mentioned only in Mathew and Mark and not in Luke, such having been the image of Messiah, Peter, upon hearing the prediction of the suffering of Jesus, rebuked him saying, 'Heaven forbid! No, Lord, this shall never happen to you.' And Peter was scolded by Jesus, 'Out of my sight, Satan.' (Mathew 16: 22-23)
Fully knowing the episode written by Mathew and Mark, Luke chose not to write about it. In any case, these references point to the wide gap that lay in between the expectation Peter and other disciples as well as many people held, the faith to believe Jesus as the Messiah and what Jesus himself had in mind.
3. A question I have in this connection is whether Jesus simply declined such a kind of faith as disciples and people had on him. Was it for the purpose of indicating his refusal of such a faith of Messiah that Jesus made the first foretelling of his suffering in verses 21 and the following? Was it his intent to show what kind of savior the true Messiah was and to command his disciples to follow him? Perhaps that was the nuanced intent of Mathew and Mark. That was the very reason why Peter was scolded by Jesus saying, 'Out of my sight, Satan!'
My attention is drawn afresh to it that Luke had some subtly different nuance by not writing about the episode.
If disciples and people are denied of having expectation or faith of Messiah in Jesus right on the head, it would have been better if no miracle was performed including that of feeding the five thousand. But miracles Jesus had performed. Knowing full well that people will embrace such an expectation, Jesus performed many miracles.
That, I think, reflects the posture on the part of Jesus to accept as good that people and the disciples embrace such an expectation and faith. It is not possible to close out expectation of Messiah from the faith we embrace in Jesus as our savior; the Messiah expectation is included in our faith in Jesus as our savior. Jesus, I would infer, accepted that the element of Messiah expectation cannot be done away with.
Luke is said to be a physician. As such he would accept desires of patients who wished to be healed of or released from sickness and agony. People who hit the stage where they could no longer hope to be healed by physicians in the world turn their face to Messiah from God. And it was quite natural for them to do so. This way of thinking was particularly strong in Luke.
Such a belief may be very far from the "right answer" kind of belief in Messiah, which Jesus wished people to embrace. Yet, Peter could confess Jesus as 'Messiah,' though his may have been what should be categorized in "wrong answers." Knowing well what the nature of his confession was Jesus was very pleased to see Peter make that confession. (Mathew 16: 17- ) Peter could at least say 'Messiah,' while people were saying things way-out; that difference was indeed venerable.
We are reminded of a woman, though the story about her is not confined just to Luke. She had been suffering haemorrhage for twelve long years. Hiding in a crowd she approached towards Jesus from behind and touched the edge of his cloak with the kind of faith that can only be called a faith for one's own secular benefit. Even with that kind of faith, Jesus talked to the woman saying, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.' Even that kind of faith is a 'faith that saves you.' It may be a faith that doesn't qualify as the right answer, if I may so repeat. Yet it is a faith; a faith that seeks Jesus as a savior. Let us keep in mind that Jesus is pleased that people embrace such a faith.
4. However, our faith shall not be occupied by such kind of desires alone; our faith shall not remain just to seek the miracle of feeding the five thousand and believe in Jesus who gives miracle as the Messiah.
Certainly our faith begins where we believe Jesus as the Messiah who gives a miracle. Yet our faith grows over time to believe that the one 'who has to endure great sufferings, and to be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, to be put to death, and to be raised again on the third day,' as foretold by Jesus on verse 21, is our Messiah.
This Messiah cannot liberate us from agony of sickness any longer, as he could not help himself out of his agony. Yet just because he was such that he can give us solace, strength and support.
Is it at all possible that we get to be able to believe in such a thing as that? Can we get to be able to believe such Jesus as our Messiah? When we think about it, the story by Mathew and Mark of Peter rebuking Jesus saying, 'Heaven forbid! No, Lord, this shall never happen to you,' sounds indeed encouraging. Peter and other disciples could not believe it when they were told for the first time about the coming suffering of Jesus.
But in the end they got to be able to believe that Jesus of suffering was indeed the Messiah; got to be able to tell it to people. Disciples, who had such kind of faith in Messiah as mentioned before, now got to be able to accept an exactly opposite kind of faith in Messiah. This is the growth in faith. Faith grows of itself. Faith presently held doesn't remain as it is; it doesn't stay where it is now.
5. Jesus who suffers said, 'Anyone who wants to be a follower of mine must renounce self; day after day he must take up his cross, and follow me.' If we were to take this as a commandment to follow through, we must find ourselves not being able to make it by any means.
In my college days I read a piece of writing by Kierkegaard. The point he made fell on me so severe that I thought I could never become a Christian. His intention was, however, to make the point and say vis-?-vis people who are boastful of themselves as being a Christian or more Christian than anyone else if indeed they are living in the way as told by Jesus.
Yet, hasn't this word of Jesus often driven us to make an impossible effort, effort to renounce ourselves? What Jesus told here is not something we can make out of our efforts, out of our will. Peter, who rebuked Jesus saying, 'Heaven forbid! No, Lord, this shall never happen to you,' whose faith was nothing more than that which sought after miracles, finally got to be able to believe Jesus who suffers as the Messiah, and got to be able to engage in the mission till he was martyred. Was it thanks to the effort of Peter himself that he got to be able to follow Jesus, renouncing himself and carrying cross on his shoulder? The answer is no, not by his effort: his faith grew of itself.
To abandon self is something one cannot do of one's own will. If one cannot and will never wish to, a time will come when one has to; such a time will come as the will of God. If when the time came and yet we would stick to us of yesterday, us in good health conditions, to us who wouldn't renounce, we will end up 'losing ourselves,' 'destroying ourselves.' There's no seashore we can get our boat to. When no choice remains for you but to leave various kinds of 'yourself' out of your hands which have been the base you relied on till yesterday, till a moment ago, when no choice remains but to leave those from your hands for you to proceed ahead, if you say you cannot release them then there's no way of living.
It is at that very moment that Jesus of passion appears to us and says, 'Why don't you follow me?' It is then that we get to realize that the man of passion is our savior.
How is it possible for us, who cannot renounce ourselves in its true sense of the term by any means, to apprehend that Jesus of passion is the savior? To us who cannot apprehend, and to Peter who rebuked saying, 'Heaven forbid!' the Jesus of passion himself addresses head-on saying he is the Messiah. By this Jesus, our hearts are captured.
(From the gist prepared in Japanese, translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 18-27
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 18-27 18. One day, when he had been praying by himself in the company of his disciples, he asked them, 'Who do the people say I am?' 19. They answered, 'Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others that one of the prophets of old has come back to life.' 20. 'And you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'God's Messiah.' 21. then he gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. 22. and he said, 'the son of Man has to endure great sufferings, and to be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, to be put to death, and to be raised again on the third day.' 23. To everybody he said, 'Anyone who wants to be a follower of mine must renounce self; day after day he must take up his cross, and follow me. 24. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25. What does anyone gain by winning the whole world at the cost of destroying himself? 26. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels. 27. In truth I tell you: there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they have seen the kingdom of God. (The Revised English Bible)
September 1, 2013
- I have many people in this city. -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 As today is 'the day of encouragement 'according to the church school calendar, I have made today's worship service that of the joint prayer. At the time of the joint prayer, I select the chapter from the material that church school teachers are using. Today's part, which is ACTS, is not selected for 'the day of encouragement 'but it will literally'encourage ' us, who read it, won't it?
1.2 With regard to why today's word of God encourages our heart, there lies a fact that Paul and the couple of Aquila and Priscilla who appear in today's Bible first had their depressed hearts encouraged, I think. Today we would like to listen to God's word centering on the theme 'How these three people had their depressed hearts encouraged.'
1.3 First, with regard to these people feeling depressed, as long as we read today's word of God, such a thing is not described in a formal way. As Verse 9 says, ' One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, ' it only suggests that Paul felt somewhat afraid, namely, he was in low spirits. However, we can imagine such a matter fully and we can interpret it from Paul's own words.
1.4 First, Verse 1 says 'After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 'Regarding how he looked at that time, Paul described in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2, Verse 3, as follows: 'I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 'As to why he was in such a state, there were no details written there. But many people attribute its cause to 'a failure in gospel preaching. 'With regard to this expression also, as far as in today's Acts Chapter 17, we read how Paul preached the gospel in Athens, do we have to call it 'a failure'? It is true that Acts Chapter 17 Verse 32 and the following say, 'When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, 'We want to hear you again on this subject. ' At that, Paul left the Council. 'But Verse 34 says, 'A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. 'It means that a few people came to believe in God.
1.5 However, this kind of result was probably far from the one that Paul had intended. Although Paul mentioned 'the resurrection of the dead,'he didn't talk about Jesus'having been put on the cross and killed, which is related to what is talked about later. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 1 Verse 23 says, 'Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles ,' and as Paul thought that if he said that Jesus crucified on the cross was Christ, the Savior, he might be called a fool by people in Athens. As he tried to gain a big achievement, he dared to stop talking about it, I think. However, the result was that he was sneered at and he gained nothing but a very small achievement. The missionary work in Athens was shut down and he had to go to Corinth in a state of despondency. If he goes to Corinth, are there any people who are willing to accept the gospel that he will talk about? Does it bear fruit? That is the reason why he says 'I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling, 'right?
1.6 Next, I would like to talk about the couple of Aquila and Priscilla. From the description of Verse 2, 'Claudius had ordered a1l the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 'it is easy to imagine that the couple was also in a state of despondency. With regard to the historical fact of this banishment from Rome, the reference book says as follows: The biography of Claudius written by the ancient historian called Suetnius in Chapter 25, Verse 4 says , 'As Jews confused people very much at Crestos' instigation, Claudius banished them from Rome. 'It is not clear whether this figure called Crestos refers to Jesus. The period in which it took place is supposed to be A.D. 50 or so. Anyway, this couple had to throw away all the property that they had accumulated in Rome until then and come to Corinth. It was natural that it depressed them, right?
2.1 How did these three people have their hearts encouraged? It first filters out of the part from the latter half of Verse 2 to Verse 4: ' Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. 'This part describes nothing but how Paul changed but it enables us to understand that the depressed Paul has now turned out to be a person who can preach the gospel energetically. Verse 5 and the following tell us that he became more energetic with the help of Silas and Timothy and say, 'Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 'It goes without saying that this testimony and preaching to the Jews was the message that 'Jesus crucified was the Christ ,'which was nothing but a stumbling block to them. Here we find Paul who can go on telling the message without being depressed, even if he is ill spoken of and is banished from the synagogue of the Jews. It must have been the encounter with the couple of Aquila and Priscilla who was described in the latter part of Verse 2 that changed Paul like this. What of the encounter encouraged Paul?
2.2 First, it was really simply that those who were in a state of despondency altogether to the same degree met each other in despondency and that especially Paul was allowed to stay with this couple and to work with them, which gave him a big encouragement. But what encouraged Paul was more than that, I think. Just as I said a minute ago, the biggest reason why Paul came to Corinth in a state of despondency was that he had lost self confidence in preaching the gospel to Greek people, namely, in telling that Jesus crucified was the Christ. The encounter with this couple enabled him to recover and strengthen his self confidence, didn't it?
2.3 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2, Verse 2 says ' I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 'Immediately after that comes the part that I quoted, namely, Verse 3, 'I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 'Like this, what caused Paul to make up his mind, through which his heart was encouraged, was the encounter with the couple of Aquila and Priscilla, right? But this is my mere supposition. This couple who was banished from Rome makes their faith in God much stronger without succumbing to that trial. The core of the faith was that Jesus crucified was the Christ, wasn't it? Our life is full of sufferings like this. Therefore, it was in order to support, encourage and comfort our life full of sufferings that Jesus lived his life leading to the cross. It is this person's being crucified that makes our salvation come true. Paul was taught this by this couple, right?
3.1 Furthermore, with regard to the result and fruit of preaching the gospel, this encounter provided Paul with the change of his viewpoint, I think. It is deeply connected with the meaning and understanding of 'many people 'in Verse 10, which comes from God, 'I have many people in this city.'
3.2 As I may run out of time, I would like to mention it now. Judging from the chronological order in which the passage is written, naturally this calling in Verse 9 took place after the event that occurred in Verse 8 and before it. But when we take into consideration the fact described in Verse 8 , 'many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized,'we cannot understand that Paul was still in the state of fear, remained unable to talk and was in the state of despondency. I would like to remind you that he was encouraged by the encounter with the couple of Aquila and Priscilla, which I have mentioned so far. Therefore, the calling in Verse 9 from a vision, God and Jesus was given just when Paul came to Corinth and in the encounter with the couple of Aquila and Priscilla, right? It was in the encounter that Paul was able to understand the meaning of the words 'I have many people in this city ', which God mentioned. The meaning of 'many people 'which is provided as a result of preaching the gospel becomes undertstandable. It is through the understanding of it that Paul was encouraged.
3.3 Then what did Paul understand? Although I repeat, in Athens, he was seeking after literally 'many people 'as a result of preaching the gospel. Just because of that, he was in a state of despondency. But in Corinth Paul meets this couple. Only a single couple. Nothing but two people. Only three people with Paul added believed that Jesus crucified was the Christ. However, Paul was encouraged by meeting these two people. He knew the deep joy of the three of them living with the same faith. If so, the achievement of preaching the gospel is not in literally'many people, 'right? When we get down to it, it is that a single person who believes that Jesus crucified is the Christ is given birth to. Only three people believe in it and live together like this, where the event in which 'I have many people in this city 'is taking place. A single person who can believe that Jesus crucified is the Christ is given birth to. That is 'many people 'from God's view point.
3.4 Therefore, we also would like to deeply appreciate anew how big it is to have been able to believe this, although its faith is still shallow, and what a big achievement and fruit for our life it has been. As this is so big, this faith will play a big role in our life beyond our thoughts. Just because it is the fruit that God calls'many people, 'it has the power to encourage our hearts.
3.5 Verse 5 and the following describe the figure of Paul who became conscious of this. Now he is able to say, 'From now on I will go to the Gentiles ,'remaining calm, although he was banished from the synagogue and he lost the important ground for preaching the gospel. Although he was a single person, Titius Justus was the first to believe in the Lord. Paul rejoices at it very much. From it, Crispus, the synagogue ruler and many of the Corinthians are baptized.
4.1 Now so far we have observed how Paul was encouraged in his heart from the viewpoint of exclusively the encounter with Aquila and Priscilla. This time we would like to consider how this couple was encouraged by the encounter with Paul.
4.2 They parted with everything that they built in Rome and came to Corinth. But in this town they met the preacher Paul and by what were they encouraged? It was encouraging Paul, the preacher who was depressed, and welcoming him into their home and supporting his livelihood to send him with vigor as the preacher as is written in Verse 4 and the following. I think that was what I thought. Verse 3 says 'he was a tentmaker ,'which is very symbolic. It was not just the tent but the tent called'church, 'the tent that is God's house where two or three people who believe Jesus to be the Christ get together that this couple tried to build by inviting Paul. After 'he went next door to the house of Titius Justus ,'the church at Corinth might have moved to this place. But regardless where it was, this couple is devoted to building the tent called the church, in which they were able to find what encouraged their hearts. Therefore, the names of this couple appear here and there in Paul 's letter. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 16, Verse 19 says, 'Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 'This couple's house was the church in that place. They feel joy of living in it.
4.3 To build and maintain a church requires a lot of pains, I think. Why do they do it? What of it encourages their hearts? It lies in the fact that the church is God's house. It is the vessel that human beings build and the community where a variety of problems are given birth to. But their worship services are observed and those who believe Jesus to be the Christ get together. In respect of that, it is God's house and the work of building it is really a big joy, right?
4.4 Aquila and Priscilla were banished from Rome by a Roman Emperor and came to Conrinth. But there was the joy that even the Roman Emperor was unable to deprive them of. It was to devote themselves to building the tent called the church and to live by their hearts being encouraged by it. It was the joy of meeting the preacher Paul and friends with the same faith and of building the faith community. As long as we live in this world, we also will be banished by those with the power of this world and sufferings will be inflicted upon us. But the joy of living together with those with the same faith and building our church will never be deprived. Let's inscribe on our hearts the fact that it encourages us.
Acts 18 : 1 - 11
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered a1l the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. "
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.
8 Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.
10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."
11 So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
(The New International Version )
August 25, 2013
- Steward of Earth -
By Reverend Yoshinobu TOBO
It was April 13, 1970. Three astronauts on Apollo 13 had just finished lunch in the space. Then an oxygen tank exploded at about a point 200,000 miles or 3 million kilo meters from the earth. However, the crew didn't panic and made a cool-headed decision in such a serious situation; instead of landing on the moon, they chose to take a route that orbited the other side of the moon to return back to the earth. En route, they unexpectedly saw the earth rising over the horizon of the moon. It was a blue-coloured spherical body enwrapped by while clouds; a beautiful spaceship Earth soaked in the light of the sun, rising against the dark background of space. The pictures of the earth taken by the crew became an asset to be passed on to the future generation of men. Since around that time people have gotten to be sensitized about the earth as an irreplaceable and frail being. Now it is called 'Ecological sensitivity.'
Today is an age when the 'ecological sensitivity' is much needed. For we are on a spaceship Earth; we live in an environment having its limitation, live with limited water circulation and with air that covers earth's surface. We know that there are limits to resources the earth has, but that was something our former generations did not recognize. Unless we control the emissions of CO2 and CFC, or if we don't conserve and protect energy, water, ozone, minerals and green surface, life will get unsustainable.
Dr. Peacock, a molecular biologist as well as a pastor in England, says it is within the span of only 300 years or more specifically during the most recent 30 years that what had evolved in the space have been unveiled through the venture of man or the science. On planet Earth of Galaxy, protein synthesis took place paving the way for birth of life; the life has evolved as an intelligent life over the span of 2 billion years. But as the life has developed intelligent, the intellect took hold of the 'nucleus' of the space energy. But the intelligent life may dig its own grave by the destructive force of the energy. When the intelligent life called man has come to know that earth is irreplaceable, it acquired ability strong enough to destroy the entire earth. Great paradox it is, indeed. When people thought that science can do everything, man said he doesn't need religion. But the fact is that even as the science has developed as if it is all-around, responsibility of religion and a value in giving thought to the quality of life is all the more needed.
I have given today's sermon the title, 'Steward of the earth.' Genesis chapter 2, verse 15 puts it saying, 'The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and look after it.' Psalm 8 verses 5 and 6 say, 'Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowning his head with glory and honours. You make him master over all that you have made, putting everything in subjection under his feet.' In English language to manage something under entrustment is expressed as stewardship. It is a 'spirit of accepting on trust.' It is a feeling that every being including life is entrusted on your shoulder. Steward in English language means a guardian to look after a garden or a large room, or a gardener, or a butler. The female form of the noun, stewardess, is a person who looks after and offers services in cabin of aircraft. Steward is a person who has a substantial degree of decision-making entrusted on him. To be given a trust suggests a fair degree of independence. Ingenuity is called for. Jesus Christ said in a parable, 'Who is the trusty and sensible man?' Being trusty and sensible points to who is able to take responsible actions independently.
Steward and stewardess show how the Bible sees humans. Many of the Greek philosophers thought small of the matters on earth and materials for living. But the Bible sees life on earth as an important 'trust,' or 'gift.' The poet of psalm 8 begins singing with a sense of surprise saying, 'LORD our sovereign, how glorious is your name throughout the world!' The poem is thought to have been sung by the poet for expressing thanks, coming out of tent at night and looking up, struck by surprise with sky-full of stars. While the Greek philosophy is also said to have begun developing with surprise at its start, so started the Hebrew poet singing faith of thanks with a surprise at its start and goes on to mention the responsibility put on him. We must first of all think humbly of the fact that we are given life and are allowed to live. Then we'll get thankful of life as a wonderful gift and at the same time come to take responsibility for it.
'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.' This is a quotation from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United Nations adopted at its General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The Declaration of Human Rights is known by many people of the world. To commemorate its 50 year anniversary old boys of the world politicians drafted what is titled "Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities, the InterAction Council" in the year 1998. This one is not, however, known that much. On the initial call by the former prime minister of Japan Mr. Takeo Fukuda, the gathering of the former politicians of the world including the former United States president Mr. Jimmy Carter and the former German chancellor Mr. Helmut Schmidt met for the first time in 1983. Since then they met for a number of times for discussing and finalizing the Declaration of Responsibilities. Listed also as participants are the former prime minister of Singapore Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and other Japanese politicians such as Mr. Kiichi Miyazawa, Ms. Takako Doi and Mr. Hiroshi Kato. It described the responsibilities as follows:
Article 1 Every person, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, social status, political opinion, language, age, nationality, or religion, has a responsibility to treat all people in a humane way.
Article 2 No person should lend support to any form of inhumane behavior, but all people have a responsibility to strive for the dignity and self-esteem of all others.
This Declaration, drafted based on dialogue on the environmental problems and views about religion, make mention of the word 'responsibility,' for a number of times.
Article 7 Every person is infinitely precious and must be protected unconditionally. The animals and the natural environment also demand protection. All people have a responsibility to protect the air, water and soil of the earth for the sake of present inhabitants and future generations.
By the way, why do you think it is necessary that we learn from the Bible and pray? According to how the Bible sees humans, to learn from it and to pray are necessary for the humans for them to be able to manage this planet, which is with full of irreplaceable life, in a proper manner. According to this understanding, we are brought up, are supported and are allowed to live thanks to the gift of grace. To put it in words fitting to the feeling of contemporary men, we recognize ourselves as ones being kept alive on the cutting-edge of a carpet of life, which has evolved over time. What is more significant is the fact that we not only sit at the top of life but, given intelligence and the inner man, also have become a being to live responsibly. Jesus Christ gave his life to show us what it means to live in all seriousness. In a response to it, we are motivated to live in stewardship as a friend of Jesus Christ or as a partner of the Creator.
God made a new creature, or a man for his partner, made him sit at the top of all life, and gave him the freedom to be thankful of the significance of being allowed to live and also to think how to build a good society to live in. We the humans are this new being, the only creature which is able to be thankful of life. In this sense, we live 'at the forefront' of the evolution and of the history, and hold responsibility. We are allowed to live having vision rather than to think from the past. We are a being allowed to have a hope, going forward. It is the kind of hope Dr. Martin Luther King had of a community, surpassing difference of our skin colours. It is a vision of peace which allows the strong and the weak to come together, overcoming the law of the jungle, where 'the wolf will live with the lamb,' as envisioned by the prophet Isaiah. The vision of peace, the Shalom model, is the vision of the Kingdom of God which our Lord Jesus brought to us.
These days, we have, however, polluted and torn apart the carpet of life, and have contaminated the natural environment that supports life. I dare say that we live and behave in defiance of the dignity of life by abandoning stewardship and in its stead adopting "dictatorship" of humans. The damage done by humans on the eco-system grows and may ultimately destroy ourselves as well as other living creatures. A nuclear war which we humans may bring upon the earth, for instance, will destroy each of us and at the same time could bring total destruction of human kind, turning the earth to a planet just of desert like the moon. Moreover, it will also destroy the dimension of value such as love, truth and freedom, which we humans have only begun to elucidate at long last. This is a gigantic paradox our generation will have to take responsibility in correcting. We have to open up our eyes wide and look at this firmly to get to know what it does entail.
Just before the story of passion of Jesus in each Gospels begins, dialogue of the Lord Jesus with his disciples is written. There, the dictatorship, which the disciples were wishing to acquire for their benefit, is apparent. Their wish to be given a seat next to Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left, in his kingdom is a wrong wish based on their lack of understanding him; it is a wish that they would like to assume the post of a dictator. Apparently we must change the way as to how we think we should live; repentance and the change of direction are called for. Faced with the wish of his disciples, Jesus Christ taught them to live as one who serves. It is alright to take leadership, but they should live as ones who serve, he told them. We, humans, need to have fresh encounter with something so holy, today. We need to be thankful to God recognising that all life lives supporting and being supported by each other, and we need to take responsibility for this planet, earth. What is needed is the love for all life rather than self love. We need indeed to be taught about love. In the final analysis, to believe in Jesus Christ and to get to know love has cosmic dimension. What is important is to have earth-interest, not self-interest.
Lastly let us give thought to the love of Jesus Christ. Shusaku Endo, a novel writer, pondered about Jesus Christ in earnest as a Japanese novelist. He wrote about Jesus Christ in his representative work 'Chinmoku' or "Silence". The central character of the story is modeled after an actual person. In any case, the character Sebasti?o Rodrigues, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, tried to find out why it is that God wouldn't make response to the persecution and torture done on his followers. Then came a time when Rodrigues himself was put on horrible torture. Yet, God kept silence and didn't respond to his cries and prayers. The missionary forsook the religion. Made to stand before fumie or the testing copper board on which the figure of Christ was curved, he was ordered to step on it. It was then that he heard the voice of God. The writer Endo described it as follows: '--- Father Rodrigues upheld the fumie board and brought it closer to his face. He wanted to press his face against the face of Jesus, which had been trampled on by the feet of many. The man on the board was galled and dented as he had been walked on by many men; galled and dented, Jesus was gazing at Rodrigues with his sad-looking eyes. A drop of tear was almost trickling down out from his eye. ---' "It is just a matter of form. Why bother about what's only a form."--- "It's a matter of stepping on for a form." The father raised his legs. He felt dull and heavy pains at his legs. It wasn't just a matter of form. I am now going to step on what I thought was the most beautiful in my life, what I believed was the most holy, what is the fullest of ideal and dream of man. How severe my feet pain! It was just then that the man on the copper board talked to the Father, "Step on me." Step on me. I know the pain at your legs better than anybody else. Step on it. I was born to this world to be trampled on by you and it was to partake in the pains you suffer that I put the cross on my shoulder.
The Christian faith started with the incidence in which the noblest, the most beautiful was trampled on. God is under us, under our feet, not above us, so to say. The salvation lies under by Christianity, not at high above. That is the love of the Lord Jesus. If who is under us is our savior, we must put away our feet quickly from him as we do so when we step on someone's foot in a crowded city train. Then we gradually change to ones who live supporting each other. Paul said, 'the God of peace,' in chapter 16, verse 20 of the Letter of Paul to the Romans. For God offered his reconciliation with us sinners in Christ. This incidence of reconciliation offers "the source of peace."
The Christianity is all the more necessary for this age as science developed for something all-around. While it may sound paradoxical this is very true. It gives us the solution in a most appropriate way. For Jesus Christ who revealed the secret of God, the Father and the creator who is "I am that I am," who made the carpet of life into being, washed our feet and was gone through the most lowly death on a cross for us, as we believe it. He taught us that it is joy to live in love for real, rather than to live in his own interest. This is the real ecological sensitivity and "the Shalom model," which sees God's reconciliation in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. While stewardship means responsibility for life and environment, furthermore it prompts us to live serving each other as a Shalom model.
Let me pray. Please position yourself for silent prayer and listen to my words of prayer.
(From the gist prepared in Japanese, translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
Psalm 8: 4 - 10
4 What is a frail mortal, that you should be mindful of him, a human being, that you should take notice of him?
5 Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowning his head with glory and honours.
6 You make him master over all that you have made, putting everything in subjection under his feet;
7 all sheep and oxen, all the wild beasts,
8 the birds in the air, the fish in the sea, and everything that moves along ocean paths.
9 LORD our sovereign, how glorious is your name throughout the world!
(The Revised English Bible)
The Gospel according to Luke 12: 41 - 42
41 Peter said, 'Lord, do you intend this parable specially for us or is it for everyone?'
42 the Lord said, 'Who is the trusty and sensible man whom his master will appoint as his steward, to manage his servants and issue their rations at the proper time?
(The Revised English Bible)
August 11, 2013
- The LORD has blessed you -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible text for today follows on verse 25 of chapter 26 from which we learned last Sunday. The text for today is deeply linked in its context with what we learned the last time. Verse 26 tells that a man named Abimelech came to Isaac with his subordinates. To him Isaac asked 'Why have you come here to me?' Those of you who were at my last sermon know it well why Isaac raised such a question. Let us briefly review the story while trying not to make too much of duplication as I will come to it later in the course of my sermon today.
The area of Palestine where Isaac stayed was hit by famine. Isaac thought to take refugee into Egypt. Egypt was likely a good place to live avoiding impact of a famine because there the River Nile watered its banks abundantly. However, on the verge of his departure, God appeared to Isaac for the first time in his life and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt, but stay as an alien in this country as I bid you.' Isaac followed the word of God and settled as an alien in the Gerar where the Philistines lived. Abimelech was the king of Gerar.
Then Isaac had a fortune: something aliens on foreign land could not normally expect to have. That evoked envy of the Philistines on the land who harassed Isaac and his people by stopping up wells, indispensable must for living, and they finally ended up being told to 'Go, leave them; they have become too powerful.' Isaac, even after having been driven out from the midst of the Philistines and despite their tenacious harassment, continued to find wells and now settled at a place called Beesheba. And it was to this Beersheba that Abimelech came to see Isaac. This is why Isaac asked 'You sent me away from your midst. Why you have come here to me?'
They answered, 'We have realized that the LORD is with you.' 'The LORD prospered you.' I will elaborate on this more closely in a minute. Anyhow, there is 'the LORD,' behind Isaac who sides with him and blesses him. Such Isaac they could no longer treat lightly because doing so will tantamount to making 'the LORD' their enemy; such an action will then lead to bringing calamity on them. For this reason they tried to be at peace with Isaac through an oath of peace pact.
People who hated and persecuted Isaac and his people including the king of the area now bent their knees with an offer of reconciliation. That, in a word, was victory on the part of Isaac. He won over the people who hated and persecuted them but not by taking recourse to the same hatred and violence. How encouraging and suggestive this must have been to the Israelites of after generations who read the story!
Genesis chapter 21 tells that Abraham, father of Isaac, also faced with similar situations as his son did. It tells that the Israelites had to settle as aliens on the land ruled by the Philistines over and over again, and that each time they did so they felt they couldn't walk with their heads held high, faced with hatred of the Philistines the Isrealites had to go away from their midst time and again. That was also the situation in which the Israelites of after generations, who read this story of Genesis, found them kept. By reading the story, the Israelites of later generations looked forward to a time when those who hated and drove them out of the land will come to them with their knees bent. They were taught how they should behave in hostile surroundings.
2. Then how was Isaac living to make Abimelech say that 'the LORD is with you,' and that 'the LORD has prospered you.'? Let us make a brief review of it as we learned about it at the last sermon.
Isaac must have had to live as an alien on foreign land feeling he couldn't walk with his head held high, or msut have found himself in an awkward position on foreign land. But in fact he not only just outlived such an environment but was also blessed and prospered: a state of life beyond our comprehension. In ordinary circumstances, an alien on foreign land will find a room for his living getting from narrow to narrower, and exactly because of such a situation he would get so excessively angry about the hostility and persecution from the Philistines and Abimelech that he would return hatred back on them to ignite a skirmish, which then could have cornered him to the jaws of death. But Isaac made no such reactions. He stayed enduring; more than that he gained 'a wider room' as mentioned in verse 22, which they found was better suited for their living.
The beginning of such of his blessed life was that whereas he would have taken refugee from the famine-stricken place to the land of Egypt in ordinary circumstances ? as many refugees must most probably have ?, but Isaac did not for whatever was the reason. What is beyond our comprehension is that Isaac chose to stay in Gerar which was ruled by king Abimelech and inhabited by the Philistines who were superior beyond comparison in terms of culture, economy and of military forces. That was how Isaac was cornered to having to lie about his wife Rebecca saying she was his sister. That, in ordinary circumstances, could well have led to various downfalls for him (this is a story that reminds us of Abraham who made similar lies for two times.) In a great twist, however, as in verse 11, King Abimelech issued an order warning all his people that whoever harmed Isaac or his wife would be put to death. Why would a king issue such an order for a couple who are nobody but just refugees? About this why the Bible says nothing. What we can guess about it is that Abimelech must probably have been strongly prompted by God not to lay hands on them as it was also the case with Abraham. In a situation where Isaac had to make a lie, he was protected for some reasons.
Next comes the story of Isaac having harvested 100 times more than he had sown, thus making him richer and more prosperous despite his being a refugee on foreign land. The land where Isaac was allowed to settle on must have been a wasteland the Philistines probably wouldn't live; one which they couldn't cultivate. On such a barren soil Isaac sowed. He got plenty in harvest. He became richer and more prosperous. Why this fortune to an alien refugee? Unacceptable! That's how he evoked envies of the Philistines.
Then we learnt from the story of verse 15 and the following. What did Isaac do when told to 'Go, leave us,' from the king of Gerar? In ordinary circumstances one wouldn't easily leave the land that gives 100 times more in harvest, and thereby give him wealth and prosperity. One would stick to the land and guard it; when told to leave, he would fight for it. But Isaac never showed his will to take arms, didn't stick to possessing it and left 'that place.' However, he was not headed to Egypt ? journey from Gerar to Egypt took just about 2 or 3 days; it's a stone's throw away ? but he chose to live in the valley at the outskirt of Gerar. In normal times there was no river flow at the place; but once it rained the place gushed by a torrent of water rushing down. It's a dangerous spot no locals would settle down on. There Isaac lived. He had no choice but to settle there.
But choosing to settle on the dangerous place led him to find out a well he had not known ? one that Abraham, his father dug. The first and second wells Isaac dug were plundered by the Philistines through harassment. He did not contend. This third well was no cause of dispute because they didn't claim for it. Isaac gave it a name 'Freedom,' or 'Wide place,' by Japanese version. Yet for some reason Isaac left the place and moved to a place called Beersheba. There he built alter, called the LORD by name and worshipped him; he encamped there and started digging a well all over again.
Now all these things that happened to Isaac the King Abimelech had been watching. What lay behind Isaac so he could live the way he did? From the way Isaac worshipped, pitched tent and dug a well as in verse 25, Abimelech could get to know that there was 'the LORD' with Isaac; by the LORD Isaac was guided. God blesses one who is guided by the LORD. The LORD helps him survive all adverse circumstances and helps him brush off difficulties, and lead him to 'a wide place.' No king of this world can destroy the life of one who worship this LORD, pitch tent there and dig a well.
3. There is one thing shown me as an important point to learn, here. Abimelech told Isaac that 'the LORD is with you;' that he could stand the way he did because the LORD was with him and blessed him. Indeed there can be no argument about it. But one might ask if Isaac could live like that 100% only because 'the LORD was with him,' and he had 'the blessing' of the LORD? It's not so, as it is revealed to me. There can be no dispute about it that the first cause or the prime source of what happened to Isaac lies with God, who stopped him from going to Egypt. Isaac made a lie, and he must have had sufferings and fought inner struggles though nothing is written about them in the Bible. To such Isaac God appeared to give his words and stayed with him all along. God was certainly with him at his base. But it was Isaac himself who kept faith with God, who was determined to follow the words of God, who endured repeated harassment and hatred shown by the king Abimelech and the Philistines, who rose again to resume digging a well. There we see actions of Isaac; his autonomous decision and choice.
There is nothing automatic that God will be with and give blessings. Not that wealth and prosperity will come of themselves, with us doing nothing and simply keeping silence. Isaac sowed seed in verse 12. He let go his hold of the land that produced 100 times as much in harvest. He acceded to a valley of dried up river encamp where no locals would settle on. He dug for wells a number of times. Through such of his decisions and actions it emerged gradually in the reality of his life that God was with him and gave him blessings. Life in faith is like that. That's why it is not easy to keep faithful life. But life in faith means we are given freedom, and that decision is ours to make and there's a lot of room for originality and ingenuity. It is not that God will do everything for us so we have nothing to do.
4. I want us to look into what we in the Bible Study and Prayers Meeting are learning because there is much in common in the Bible message of today and in the message there. Both Saul and David were poured oil on head by God and both made misconducts in life. But it makes us wonder why the two ended up going so far away from each other to right and to left. That one is anointed by God means, in our words of today, that God is with us and we are given his blessings. The important thing, I would point out, is that we put our faith on it, make response to it, and to live keeping our belief even under a difficult situation in which we may find ourselves.
We learnt from chapter 28 of the 1st Book of Samuel at the Study Meeting last week. At the sight of the Philistine forces, Saul was afraid and was struck to the heart by terror. He was cornered to where he had to visit and ask a woman medium to call up now dead Samuel to consult for his advice because God did not answer him when he enquired. On the other hand, David, being chased after for his life by Saul, now lives under custody of a Philistine commander being appointed as his bodyguard. From the story David looks regal, for whatever is the reason, in the midst of a large Philistine army.
What made one look terrified and the other in state? David also failed to keep trust on God and will try to do things as he thinks is best. In this sense, David isn't different from Saul. However, David could see the mind of God in a trivial matter or in an encounter which other people will simply overlook. David saved Saul on two occasions saying, 'God forbid that I should lift my hand against the LORD's anointed!' He accepted also the words of a woman Abigail for he heard in her words the words from God.
Saul also had a number of chances to listen to the voice of God. David saved him, treating him as one 'anointed by God.' It was by an act of God Saul was saved. If Saul could hear the voice of God then, he would have trodden an utterly different way of life. God's blessings for him he must have been able to see tangibly.
God is who is along with us and blesses us. The blessings do not show up automatically as borne out by the circumstance Isaac live in, by the environments in which Saul and David found themselves.
What is critically important is we keep our faith that God is with us even there, that God blesses us there; and based on and keeping to that faith we sow seed, settle in the valley of Gerar and continue digging wells. We will then be able to see God's blessings in tangible manner; blessings surfacing as a reality which even an adversarial king Abimelech had no way of denying or ignoring so they sat together in a banquet of reconciliation safe and peaceful. Then there arrives a report telling that water sprang up from a well they were digging. This is the joy of life in faith.
(From the gist prepared in Japanese, translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
Genesis 26: 26 - 33
26 Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.
27 Isaac said to them, 'Why have you come here to me? You were ill-disposed towards me and sent me away from your midst.'
28 They answered, 'We have realized that the LORD is with you, and we propose that the two us of should bind each other by oath and make a pact.
29 You are to do us no harm, just as we have in no way molested you. We were always ready to do you a good turn and we let you go away peaceably. Now the LORD has prospered you.'
30 Isaac then gave a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31 Early next morning they exchanged oaths, and after Isaac bade them farewell, they parted from him in peace.
32 The same day Isaac's slaves came and told him about a well they had dug; 'We have found water,' they told him.
33 He named the well Shibah; this is why the city is called Beersheba to this day.
(The Revised English Bible)
August 4, 2013
- So quickly turning away to a different gospel -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1.1 As we finished studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we listen to Paul's letter to the Galatians once in every three weeks from today. It is said that the religious reformer Luther who formed the foundation of our Protestant Church loved this letter to the Galatians more than anything else. October 31 is the anniversary of the religious reform and it was immediately after he finished the first lecture about Paul's letter to the Galatians at Wittenberg University that he posted the well-known ninety-five theses on a church door on this day, 1517. Thus this letter to the Galatians is a very important document for us believers of Protestant Churches.
1.2 Now what place Galatea refers to is not yet clearly determined but when you open a biblical map, it is certain that it refers to the central part of the present day Turkey. Although the date is not clarified, Paul spread the gospel to this place. The gospel, which I refer to later, is contained in the expression'the one who called you by the grace of Christ,'which is found at the beginning of Verse 6. However, after Paul left this place, 'some people 'who are referred to in Verse 7 came to their church and preached 'a different gospel.'It refers to what I am going to deal with later in details and what is described in this letter repeatedly, that is, they met the teaching that deeds based on the law is indispensable. People at the church in Galatia were so absorbed in this different gospel 'so quickly ', which 'astonished'Paul.
1.3 Although Paul says that this is not 'a different gospel 'but those people are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ, namely, what they say and the gospel of Christ are similar but quite different, the reality was not so simple, I think. Not only in the letter to the Galatians but also in Philippians that we listened to at the morning worship service in the past, we find the 'gospel'that regards the action based on the law as indispensable everywhere in the New Testament. Rather, that 'gospel 'was a major and main teaching for the newborn early church, right? The gospel that Paul preached was rather criticized as 'a different gospel,'--- similar but different from the gospel--- , right?
1.4 It is easy to understand. As will be dealt with later, Israeli people had already observed the deeds based on the law very faithfully for hundreds of years. Out of such a history Christianity was given birth to. Although I mentioned Verse 6 just a little a minute ago, we find the word 'call ' and today's topic is 'God 's calling.'When we receive God 's calling, we should be equipped with appropriateness conducive to it, as we are invited by God, which is quite natural teaching. That very appropriateness was to keep the law. Therefore this teaching was accepted smoothly by people as a'gospel. 'In contrast, what Paul said was denounced as outrageous and blasphemy against God.
1.5 Thus in terms of whether it is natural and easy to understand, even in the present age, 'a different gospel 'can be said to grasp our hearts easily, right? The reason why not only early churches but also Luther put ninety five questions to the then Catholic Church was that the churches were tainted by this ' different gospel. 'Subsequent Protestant churches were also often tainted with this ' different gospel. '
2.1 Now what was the gospel that first Paul preached? It is ,as I said a minute ago, expressed at the beginning of Verse 6, I think. There we find the word, 'the one who called you by the grace of Christ.' This'the one'is ,needless to say, God. God called us by the grace of Christ. This is the gospel. I would like to translate this part into not 'to the grace of Christ 'but 'through the grace of Christ.'Judging from the original Greek passage, I can probably translate this way. Then God calls us through the grace of Christ, which turns out to be the gospel.
2.2. As we have the word 'call ', as an example, we can think of an invitation letter. God invites us into His own wonderful world and into His room. This is the foundation of the gospel. In the gospel that Paul preached, the condition or qualification for our receiving this invitation is just the grace of Christ. We don't need any other condition or qualification. In contrast, the teaching of'a different gospel'adds to, just as I said a minute ago, the observance of the law. It not only adds to it but also requires it. The grace of Christ is not sufficient. As we are invited to God's fabulous place, we should be equipped with appropriateness appropriate for it. We should be appropriate for God. This is what we are taught.
2.3 What is very important here is in either of the gospels that both gospels are in agreement with each other in that they think it indispensable to be invited by God. The decisive difference lies in the qualification or condition for receiving God's invitation. However, there is no difference in that it is indispensable for us to be invited by God. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to grasp this point. Just because it is indispensable for us to be invited by God, how we can be invited can be so important a matter. It divides the gospels. It is the point that causes Paul to say'let him be eternally condemned! 'Can we say Amen to the idea that it is indispensable for us to be invited by God? Aren't we ambiguous about it? There is no such thing like a correct answer to that necessity or indispensability. With regard to God's inviting us to his wonderful world or room, each of us is allowed to imagine how wonderful it will be.
2.4 I have often been struck with the prayer that Mr Kim and Pak offer, since I shared prayers with parents of Giha with a difficult disease on Wednesday morning and night. The other night Mr Kim prayed like this: 'To us God is the hope of life.' 'As there is nothing that we human beings can do, God is the hope of life. 'To Mr. Kim, God's wonderful world will be the one where his son will be healed above all. No one can criticize Giha's parents for asking God for the 'room 'where they will be invited, as faith seeking divine favor. That is how both the parents are seeking after God's world now in earnest. I am struck with their sincerity. I wonder whether I have such sincerity as theirs.
3.1 I have been reading the Old Testament once in three weeks at the morning worship service and at the Bible Study Meeting I have been reading Samuel. I take it to heart that those who appear there are the very figures that regard God's invitation as indispensable. God's invitation means to be connected with God and to live guided by God. They needed it. They were the people who would be at a loss about how to live if they were not invited by God. How about Abraham? How about David?
3.2 I am not going to recall each of the incidents but overall what they depict is 'the present evil age,'as described in Verse 4 of today's word, I think. What causes that evil is 'our sins ,'as described in the latter part of Verse 4, I think. Abraham tried protecting himself as often as twice by lying that his wife Sara was his sister. Isaac also told the same lies. Just in order to get his heir, he used Hagal, a slave for his wife, as a borrowed womb and expelled her when she became an obstacle. David stole his subordinate's wife Beteshiba and when her pregnancy almost came to light, David sent her husband Uriya to the front line on purpose and caused him to die. He became worried about his future with Saul trying to take his life. Because of his sudden anger, he almost became involved in bloodshed. He lived all his life telling a web of lies.
3.3 There are sins that only human beings have and there are evils that are given birth to by them. There are 'sins 'and 'evils'that no other creature but a human being has just because he is created in the image of God. It is sickness that we human beings have. Just because of that we need the person who heals this sickness by all means. The words 'to rescue us from the present evil age'in Verse 4 refers to this. That rescue and cure correspond to God's invitation. God's invitation is indispensable to us. Without it, we would be drowned in evils that we produce by ourselves. It is indispensable to be connected with God free from sins and evils, to live guided by God and to walk with ourselves placed in that wonderful world, right?
4.1 Just because of that, the question is how we can receive this invitation from God. If we cannot receive the invitation, as it is a matter of life or death, it emerges as a really important matter.
4.2 Israeli people sought after it seriously. They thought from the bottom of their heart that they must be equipped with something suitable for it. It was to obey the law. Out of the history of faith Christianity was given birth to. Naturally a lot of preachers taught that to obey the law was indispensable for our receiving God's invitation. It was the very'different gospel. 'Not only leaders of early churches but also leaders in all ages continued to teach people not just the actions required by the law but that we human beings must be equipped with something like appropriateness or conditions for being invited by God over and over again. Islam is, broadly speaking, such faith that is based on the deeds suitable for receiving God's invitation.
4.3 Paul, who was once a Pharisee, also had no doubt about believing this way. And that Paul heard the gospel that Jesus' disciples were preaching. From now I'll tell you what I imagine. Jesus' disciples were not yet aware of the gospel that they were preaching, I think. They were observing the Sabbath as Jews faithfully and obeying the law. On the basis of that, they were preaching Jesus' grace. It can be said that the gospel that the disciples were preaching was in the state where an original gospel and 'a different gospel'were mixed and where they were not yet distinguished from each other clearly, I think. But the crux of the matter lay in Jesus' grace. To the disciples who deserted and betrayed Jesus and could not help but shut themselves up out of fear, Jesus, who was crucified and resurrected, appeared, forgave them and sent them as his apostles again. They were not appropriate for being invited by God at all. In spite of that, God invited us through Jesus. There they saw God's invitation by the grace of Christ. When Paul heard this, he knew it by intuition, I think. : He knew that this teaching is decisively opposed to the traditional Israeli faith that people can receive God's invitation by obeying the law. Therefore, Paul persecuted those who had such faith. He got involved in the killing of Stephano. He was about to destroy those who were preaching this gospel to the town of Damascus.
5.1 On the way to Damascus, Jesus, who was resurrected, appeared to him. Verse 11 and the following of this letter clearly refer to what happened at that time, although they don't have expressions like'On the way to Damascus.' The very person who tried to persecute the disciples was Paul. He was opposed to a certain thing which is the basis of events about Christ that his disciples experienced. However Jesus spoke to this Paul and met him. He tried to call him, above all, as a preacher for the preaching of the gospel. It was here that Paul experienced God's calling. He experienced God's calling in Christ's grace. Of course, it can be said that as a possibility, this kind of meeting with Christ is Paul's illusion or the Devil's scheme. Also it can be said that it is not God's calling or anything like that and that although to be sure it is an encounter with Christ, it is not connected with God Himself. But to Paul, it was an encounter with God without doubt. Christ's calling was God's calling. Paul came to preach this as the gospel.
5.2 But as I say repeatedly, there is a tradition of time-honored Israeli faith. It is too selfish of us and impudent to receive God's calling without being equipped with something appropriate for receiving it, right? Also by our deeds, we try to be appropriate for being invited by God. It can be said that this gospel is easier to understand. Then we can have the clear knowhow for being invited. That's why the 'different gospel 'attracted people 'so quickly.' In contrast, the calling in an encounter with Christ by his Grace is fundamentally impossible to understand without meeting with Jesus. There is no such easy way to understand how to be invited. We don't have any part that we can manage on our side. The whole thing depends on the meeting with Jesus.
5.3 Why God made his calling into this kind of thing is extremely difficult to understand. But God tried to call those who met Jesus and were captured by Him. If we must be equipped with something appropriate for being called by God, it will be impossible for us to do whatever we may do, I think. We cannot be fundamentally those who are appropriate for God. Just because we are what we are, Jesus made a human being in order'to rescue us from the present evil age, 'and met us. Just as Paul met Jesus and as the disciples met him while they were shutting themselves up, Jesus meets us. We are captured by this Jesus. We don't know anything about God. We don't know what kind person God is. But we are captured by Christ and we cannot be separated from him any more. That is God's calling of us. There is nothing except meeting Christ and being captured by Him. The sacred figure that makes Himself nothing on the cross covers us and also the power of eternal life that overcomes human evils at the time of His resurrection covers us. Now the matter about whether we are appropriate in the presence of God vanishes like mist. Thus we are called by God.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist of sermon written in Japanese)
Ephesians 6: 18 - 24
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. 21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 1 am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. 23 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. (The New International Version )
July 14, 2013
- Peace Plan of the LORD -
By The Rev. Ms. Kimiko TAKE
"11. I alone know my purpose for you, says the LORD: wellbeing and not misfortune, and a long line of descendants after you."(The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 29: 11)
Not so long after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident of 1986 I had an opportunity to attend a gathering for lecture by Dr. Jinzaburo Takagi, which a program organized by Japan Women's Christian Organization. Dr. Takagi was a nuclear scientist. He taught and admonished us that the fire of nuclear cannot be extinguished by human hands and that nuclear plant won't ever forgive mistakes made by humans. He warned that an accident is unavoidable as long as humans are involved with nuclear power plant.
Nuclear plant accident became a reality at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on March 11, 2011. At that time I was assigned to Tokiwa Church as its pastor and a principal of a nursery school affiliated to it, located 45 kilo meters from the plant on what is called the Street on Beachside. We were able to return safely all of the 53 nursery school kids to their custodians. But one of the school staff lost her life, the next day. She sank on the ground while on duty. We let her take rest by lying down. Then she started agonizing from pains. She became silent on the way to a hospital, upon arrival to which it was found she was already in the state of cardiopulmonary arrest. The hospital was very crowded with so many people injured by the earthquake etc. coming in one after the other. Our female staff was simply diagnosed as having died of natural death.
On Sunday the 13th, two days after March 11, we couldn't get in the hall of the church building and eight of us in all had a brief moment of worship service at its yard. Next day on March 14th, I was shocked being informed that a power plant structure was blasted and a PR car of the city was busy going around giving warnings to the inhabitants to stay inside house structure. As of that day we closed the nursery school and carried out in-house sheltering. Many people chose on their own to take shelter outside the prefecture or out of the city, escaping from where they had inhabited. The following nights were deadly silent and I felt like I was left alone. Cars after cars for firefighting were rushing on the by-pass route in the direction of Souma Area all the time with wails of siren.
Many people chose to take shelter at other places on their own while others opted not to; there were people who didn't have any place to go to if they wanted to escape; there were people who simply could not escape if they wanted to. Church members, children of nursery school and its staff were also divided just as people in general were. Despite being a church pastor I also wanted to escape, to be honest. What will become of people around me if I escaped? I could not choose that option: it was absolutely not an option allowed for me. Yet I also wanted to escape. Better, I hoped, it would have been if the city had announced an evacuation order. In such a trying dilemma I found myself placed. In a situation where the earlier explosion of the nuclear plant could be followed by other explosions and a compulsory evacuation order could be issued for people within 30 kilometer radius of the plant, should a next blast take place I, staying at this place, may be killed. The fear of this idea got me by a chill down my spine.
There emerged prophet Jeremiah during the time of Babylonian Captivity of Israel. His image overlaps with that of Dr. Takagi who kept warning against possibility of nuclear plant accident. Dr. Takagi felt responsible for what he had been doing as one on the side of nuclear business and he devoted his later years to anti-nuclear movement. He led anti-nuclear campaigns as scientist of a town after quitting a position at the center in his middle thirty's till he died of cancer at age 61.
Prophets do emerge in ages when a society is confused and is filled with anxiety because people cannot see what unfolds in the future. However, people cannot help but to sway violently in their minds when exposed to prophets who say totally different things from each other. People can tell who held the truth only when a prophecy is realized. But at the time when prophecy is made there is no telling which prophecy holds the truth by simply seeing things on surface. Both the prophet Hananiah and the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the people, starting by saying, 'These are the words of the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel:' I want us to delve into detail a bit by reviewing chapters 28 and 29.
In the year 597 B.C. Jerusalem was surrounded by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The king of Judah and people of the ruling class were taken hostage to Babylon. This was the first Babylonian Captivity. In this first captivity the Temple of Jerusalem was not destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah survived as it was allowed to have its own king, Zedekiah, though he was only enthroned with permission of the King of Babylon.
The prophet Hananiah said the LORD told him, 'I shall break the yoke of the king of Babylon within two years.' Jeremiah on the other hand said the LORD told him, 'when a full seventy years have passed over Babylon, I shall take up your cause and make good my promise to bring you back to this place.' Between two years and seventy years there is a very large gap. Whoever is, however, people couldn't tell at the time when prophecies are made. It becomes apparent for the first time only when their words are fulfilled.
People liked to listen to the spanking and ear-teasing words of Hananiah which said, 'the LORD said, "I shall restore everything which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from the LORD's house and carried off to Babylon. I shall also within two years bring back to this place king of Judah and all the Judaean exiles who went to Babylon; for I shall break the yoke of the king of Babylon."'To the words of Hanniah the prophet Jeremiah responded saying, 'May it be so! May the LORD indeed do this: may he fulfill all that you have prophesied!' If his response didn't conceal cynicism Jeremiah also was one of Israeli tribes and as such would have hoped to see no tragedy or misfortune.
However, because it is when the people have distanced themselves far away from God that prophets are sent, the words of the prophets inevitably have to sound keen to ears of the people including wars, calamities and pests.
This reminds me of the fact that when the Great Earth Quake hit eastern Japan a flood of calls were made all over Japanese archipelago saying, 'Hold out, Japan! Exert yourself, Tohoku Region!' What did they mean to hold out for, I wonder. Till today, many couldn't have gotten back to their own homes and are temporarily settled at Iwaki city since after the disaster. Two years and five months since, the radioactive substance remains dispersed and the ground is left contaminated. In spite of this reality, calls are now loud to say, 'Get back Japan in our hands! Get back the economy in our hands!' With the opening of an era of high growth of the economy, it seems we have pursued more comfort in life, more of more tasty food and allowed escalation of greed of flesh, greed of eyes and arrogance in life. What do people say they will do with Japan and with the economy back in their hands? Perhaps they mean to go back to the way of life again to seek after idol gods which will satisfy insatiable human desires, don't they? If that's the case what was the nuclear plant accident for? 'You haven't yet learnt, Japan! You haven't gotten awake, Japan!' I would say.
Jeremiah thought it would take seventy years for the people of Israel to be cleaned of their sins. It was indeed after seventy years as prophesied by Jeremiah that the people in captivity could get back to their home town Jerusalem. King Zedekiah, in the meantime, urged by patriots, rebelled against Babylon in the year 587 B.C. and so triggered the second captivity of Israel. In this case the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, the king was murdered, and the rest of the people were taken hostage. That was how the kingdom of Judah was totally crumbled away.
Jeremiah conveyed the words of the LORD to the people of Israel who were taken exile to Babylon (chapter 29: verses 5-7). 'Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat the produce; marry wives and rear families; choose wives for your sons and daughters. Increase there and do not dwindle away. Seek the welfare of any city to which I have exiled you, and pray to the LORD for it; on its welfare your welfare will depend.'
The point of the letter Jeremiah addressed to the elders, priests, prophets and all the people deported from Jerusalem to Babylon was to say that they should make a decent living without ruffle as their life in exile will be for over three generations. For God will care to restore you back to Jerusalem after seventy years so you can make fresh start of new life there once again. The tragedy of Babylonian Captivity turned out to be a plan for peace, not a plan for misfortune. It was to offer future and hope.
Until the full time will have passed there's no telling just hearing them on surface which prophet spoke right words. Which is the truth is known only when a prophecy is fulfilled. In the case of this story it was the prophecy of Jeremiah that came to be realized.
The question to ask is where Hananiah and Jeremiah differed from each other. Hananiah did not cast stern eyes on how they lived saying, 'Tragedy of this kind is nothing unusual in the history. We haven't done anything particularly wrong. God would prolong what has happened on us by chance. We'll get back to enjoy life under God again.' Jeremiah, on the other hand, thought that 'Our way of life got so far away from God. Tragedy will have to fall on us as we stand against our LORD this much. And that's not going to be a simple punishment. It will take seventy years for our sins to be cleaned. Now is the time of cleaning. When seventy years will have passed, God will take up our cause. Then we can get back to Jerusalem and make a fresh start as the people of new Israel.'
We too will have to cast stern eyes on our own behavior to avoid following false prophets and instead to listen to what true prophets have to tell us. Lacking this posture on our side we will be deceived by spanking words of Hananiah and will end up following him.
True prophet does not speak of peace too easily. We should say, 'Change our way of life! Convert our ways!' before saying, 'Hold out, Japan! Get it back, Japan!' don't you think?
'I shall take up your cause and make good my promise to bring you back to this place. I alone know my purpose for you, says the LORD: wellbeing and not misfortune, and a long line of descendants after you.' The peace plan of God grows to form a torrent gushing water into the New Testament Bible. The plan was materialized in the form of Jesus Christ, his son, having been sent to this world as the savior. God who so loves the world as to give his only son to it cannot be pleased seeing us humans agonize. On the contrary he wishes that we, who are inclined to live afar from God, will change course, seek God and live in true peace.
'If you invoke me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you: when you seek me, you will find me; if you search wholeheartedly, I shall let you find me, says the LORD.'
'God has not destined us for retribution, but for the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.' (1 Thessalonians 5:9)
'And may God, who is the ground of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you lead the life of faith until, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you overflow with hope.'(Romans 15:13)
The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 29: 10 - 14
10. These are the words of the LORD: When a full seventy years have passed over Babylon, I shall take up your cause and make good my promise to bring you back to this place. 11. I alone know my purpose for you, says the LORD: wellbeing and not misfortune, and a long line of descendants after you. 12. If you invoke me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you: 13. when you seek me, you will find me; if you search wholeheartedly, 14. I shall let you find me, says the LORD. I shall restore your fortunes; I shall gather you from all nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the LORD, and restore you to the place from which I carried you into exile. (The Revised English Bible)
July 7, 2013
- Pray for me -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today is the last day when we learn about Ephesians. Last time we listened to the words Chapter 6, Verse 10 to Verse 17 but today we read the following part. In Verse 10, Paul said to Ephesians, 'Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.' He advised them to put on the full armor of God and listed six pieces of armor in Verse14 and the following. Verses from 18 to 20 that were provided to us today deal with a prayer, as you read and understood. It is the seventh armor that we should put on. He says that a prayer is the most effective and the last armor.
However, some of you may have some doubt about it. I myself, although I am a pastor, have such a doubt. It goes without saying that a prayer is a means to 'be strong in the Lord 'but does the prayer make us strong 'in the mighty power '? Rather, I think that in a prayer our dependence on God and our wish cannot be heard ? our prayer cannot be granted. As it were, a defeat in a prayer or our experience of futile prayers makes us weak. I guess that there is such a thing in this world. Blessed are those who have never had defeats of prayer or vanity of it. But it is rather because they have never prayed, I think. Those who have prayed in earnest ought to have experienced a defeat of a prayer somewhere in their life. This may be 'the devil's schemes' as mentioned in Verse 11. The devil whispers that such a prayer cannot be effective armor at all. This is an episode about myself: My experience of a prayer that is vivid in my memory is the one that I had because my parents quarreled with each other vehemently. I remember praying for more than 10 minutes every night before falling asleep that tonight my parents will not quarrel with each other. I used to not only pray but also put things in order all over my house when I was an infant so that God might see the whole situation of my household and grant my prayer. However, this prayer of mine was not granted often. On the other hand, my parents, aged 96 and 87, and well over their Golden Wedding Anniversary, are still a couple. I sometimes wonder whether this is evidence of my prayer being granted. But at such a time I could not help but think that my prayer was not granted. In spite of that, I did not stop going to church and I have walked as a pastor until today like this. During that time, how often I have prayed for those people and how often I have had defeats of prayer, in which my wish has not been granted!
2. However, why do I still now continue to pray? Although many of you have felt your prayer futile, why don't you stop praying? It is because even if our wish is not granted, there is something that is given by nothing but a prayer. As is told in Verse 10, we see something can be 'strong in his mighty power', to be sure.
What is it that takes place in a prayer? It occurs to me what happened in the book entitled 'Night and Fog' written by V. Frankle, whom I often have mentioned in my sermons. After one day's forced labor comes to an end, when he lies on his bed, his fellow jumps into his barracks and urges him to see something. What is it that his fellow asks Frankle to see? It is just a sight of the evening sun. After the sight continues for several minutes, a certain man murmurs, 'How beautiful this world is! 'A woman who was on the brink of death because of something like epidemic louse- borne typhus said to Frankle , who took care of her in her ward, that she could see a tree from the window of her ward. She is talking with it. Asked what the tree is saying to her, she answered, ' Here I am. Here I am. I exist. I am eternal life.'
Just because they saw the evening sun or they talked with a tree does not mean that they were not liberated from the concentration camp nor set free from their death bed. We cannot help but say that in such a sense this experience is not useful and it is not meaningful. But Frankle says that this is a very important experience to this woman. What lies in its foundation is not directly an encounter with God but an experience to be exposed to something mysterious which is embedded into nature created by God or something that only God possesses or beauty or harmony or eternity that derives from God and to be enveloped by and to be united to it. Now we are surrounded and controlled by something like ugly things created humans like Hitler, ugliness, evil, violence and disorder. Beauty in God's world, harmony and peace are present solemnly without being destroyed by these things made by humans. Now they are connected with the world created by God.
What we experience in praying is just this kind of thing, I think. To be sure, our prayer is often not heard as we wish. It may not eliminate the difficulty or hardship that surrounds us. However, in praying we are exposed to something that God alone possesses.
This is also a story that occurs to me?as I heard it over the radio midnight, I may be wrong. I heard that the famous conductor Kobaken, Mr. Ken'ichiro Kobayashi, encountered music, namely, Beethoven' s symphony (surely No. 9) on the radio during the war or at a turbulent time after the war. Since then the boy Kobayashi continued to listen to tune in to music on the radio and listen to music on the record by using his father's phonograph needle. A prayer is nothing but adjusting our frequency to God like this and dropping our needle and it is just a behavior to direct our ears to music that comes out only from God. Worshipping, and in big words, a behavior of praying, is the one that tries to conform to a wave motion flowing from God and to harmonize the inner most part of ourselves with and to be resonant with it.
3. In Verse 18, Paul taught us that this kind of experience might be referred to as the one expressed in the words 'pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.' The following is my own interpretation but I would like to interpret this way: When we pray on all occasions, in the prayer we are provided with the help of the Spirit. It is the help of the unseen Spirit. So the help doesn't directly seem to grant our wishes, almost of which are the ones of flesh and blood, nor it doesn't feel like that way, either. But the Holy Spirit surely helps us. And the help in the Spirit is above all the help for our spiritual part. The help for our spiritual part is surely bound to have a beneficial influence on our heart, blood and flesh. In the Bible we human beings are regarded as the existence composed of three parts, that is, the spirit, the heart and the body. The basis that makes us alive is the spirit. Verse 7 in Chapter 2 of Genesis says that ' The Lord God formed a human being from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living creature.' The basis of us with the body made of the earthen vessel and the heart is the spirit. It is the spiritual part which originates in God's Spirit that makes us alive. Our spiritual part might be called ' parts ' provided by the Holy Spirit. In the prayer the Holy Spirit helps our spiritual part which can be called its own part. It invigorates its part and causes it to resonate and enhances its wave motion, which invigorates our blood and flesh.
4. Now how the prayer makes us strong is described in verses from the latter part of 18 to 20, I think. Paul says, in the latter part of Verse 18, 'be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints ', and in verses 19 and 20, 'Pray also for me. ' What draws our attention is that the prayer is offered 'for all the saints,' and 'also for me (namely Paul). ' That is, the prayer is not only praying for Ephesians with all kinds of prayers and requests but also the opportunity to remember other people, which, strange to say, wakes up people in Ephesus and makes them patient.
This is what we also experience, right? As a pastor, I am asked by people of my church to ' pray for me,' or ' pray for So and So. ' Then I , who is lazy about praying as a pastor, try to devote all my efforts to praying by straightening my posture. I can pray patiently and persistently. As I repeatedly say, the prayer that I offer that way isn't heard more often. But strangely, praying for other people makes the person who prays strong. When we pray only for ourselves and our family who is equal to ourselves, we become weak without knowing why. We are made to feel how futile it is to pray. The reason is that our desire to gain what we wish for is too strong, right?
The above thing reminds us of what Jesus said in the Gospel according to Luke, which we learned about last week. He told his disciples to live as the persons who were sent, give a testimony of joy of being controlled by God and to cure the sick. To be sent means to be sent to other people. That way of living, first, stands for praying for other people, doesn't it? And praying that way doesn't end up praying. It surely leads to action. It leads to doing something for the person whom you pray for. Such a way of living as a person who is sent makes us strong. It invigorates our life.
5. That's why Paul said the words in Verse 21 and the following. What is written here describes in short the fellowship with Christian believers. Paul is trying to let Ephesians know how he is and what he is doing by sending the disciple called Tychicus to Ephesus. To know that becomes an encouragement for Ephesians. 'Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ' resides in brothers and sisters. It is in the connection with brothers and sisters that love from God is provided. The reason is that in the very connection we can become those who were sent. We can change from those who pray and wish for things related only to ourselves to those who pray for other people and who are sent. It is there that the Holy Spirit is poured the most.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist of sermon written in Japanese)
Ephesians 6: 18 - 24
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.
22 1 am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.
23 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
June 30, 2013
- The sending out of the Twelve -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage given us today is about how Jesus talked to the twelve disciples at the time when they were about to be dispatched ‘to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.' We, the pastors including myself, are the ones who are dispatched just as the Twelve were so I feel that the passage for today is addressed closely to us, the dispatched.
I wonder what kind of message you, the faithfuls, hear from the passage. You, the service attendees, are not making your life supported by proclaiming the gospel, but live staying at one and the same place during your lifetime, which it was not the case for the twelve disciples or for us pastors ‘who travel from village to village.' Such being your life style you may not feel the passage for today particularly close to you.
Go Egami, once a bank worker wrote a book entitled "Tips for Business as Learnt from the Bible." He elucidates the words of Jesus in today's passage as advice to businessmen who are sent out to subsidiary companies for their rehabilitation. One can read the words of Jesus or of the Bible in such ways as will be beneficial to them even without having faith.
Being the faithfuls, we will be able to read the words of Jesus for the day with greater significance than they can. It is so because you, the faithfuls, get conscious, even just a little bit, of being ones also dispatched like the disciples were. Whether one embraces such a consciousness or not would make a big difference in the way of living one follows.
Not a few of the churches make prayer at the end of the worship service or the prayer of benediction as the prayer for dispatch. That is being done with the intent that the 6 day life of the faithfuls during the coming week be made with the understanding that they are dispatched for the gospel. This, I should say, is a very important point of view.
2. Before sending out the disciples, Jesus called them together and ‘gave them power and authority to overcome all demons and to cure diseases.' This should be taken to have meant the same as ‘to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.' The disciples were given such powers from Jesus and were sent out for the purpose.
If we become conscious of ourselves as being ones dispatched for the gospel, perhaps we get to understand over time that similar power is given us also and that we are sent out as ones empowered to perform similar works. And to get to know of this will give us major suggestion for the future of our walks.
At the Bible Study & Prayers Meeting last week, we learnt how King Saul got jealous of David, increased enmity against him and fell into frenzy. David was chosen to become king after Saul. Not knowing it, Saul picked David as his close servant, sent him to a series of active duties including fight with Goliath. David won all the battles with the Philistines and merry making women sang, ‘Saul struck down thousands, but David tens of thousands.' Saul began to be jealous of David. This story has made me think that jealous is the sentiment that afflict us most, one difficult to deal with.
How can we deal with the feeling of being envious and jealous of other people? The words of Jesus for today give us an answer to the question. Each one of us is given power and talent from God and is dispatched by him. It's not like we are put in a situation where people will sing, ‘you struck down thousands, but he tens of thousands.' Jesus never told the twelve disciples to proclaim the gospel to so and so many number of people, and to heal so and so many number of the sick, competing between themselves.
On our part, we may possibly doubt that ‘we have such power.' I will touch on it further later. People around us may cast such doubtful eyes on us; and we worry if we can satisfy their expectations on us. We measure ourselves by the yardstick of expectations others put on us.
Being a pastor, I too get distressed now and then upon recognition that I have only so much power or I can work only this much. Think of just how many pastors quit being missionary due to distress arising out of recognition that they could not satisfy diverse expectations of the church.
That crisis is overcome by the words of Jesus given us today. That is that even if we cannot satisfy expectations of people and the expectations we imagined ourselves will be falling on us, Jesus and God have certainly ‘given me the power and authority,' and sent me out. It wasn't me myself nor the people around me but Jesus who chose me for the mission. He sent me out because in his eyes I can satisfy his expectations. Standing firmly on this foothold we are freed from doubting our ability and from getting jealous and envious of others; that way we get to be able to make forward steps by having trust in the talent God gave me.
3. Still you may embrace doubt in your mind saying, am I really given the kind of power as is written on the passage? Am I indeed sent out as one who can work as written? There's no question we are not able literally to ‘overcome demons and cure diseases.' You, the faithfuls, are not directly engaged in the act of ‘proclaiming the kingdom of God,' as a missionary.
At this juncture, I want us to think what it means to ‘proclaim the kingdom of God.' The kingdom of God in terms of original language means ‘the reign of God.' It means, I think, that we will get to know, experience and get to be able to bear witness to it ? if not by straight expression in words - that we are under the reign of God, we are connected to and are being guided by God.
As are always taught in the worship service, we have not met with God face to face. What we can get to know about God is dim and faint and perhaps with much wrong understanding. The faiths of Abraham, Moses and Samuel about which we learn in the worship service or at the Bible Study & Prayers Meetings are also much with aspects to be scrutinized. Yet their faiths strike home to us that it was indeed necessary, indispensable and joy for them to be ruled and guided by God. I say this means to ‘proclaim the kingdom of God.' It is good if the joy and security of mind of being ruled and guided by God is witnessed through us.
And I say also that for you, the faithfuls, the best witness you can make is to come together to the worship service every Sunday rather than to do anything else. You take the trouble of devoting your time and money to get together at the church. Why do you do that? What are you bearing witness to? You do so because you want the coming week to be ruled under God's guidance. You want the week to be ruled by God.
Let us keep in mind, first of all, that we are proclaiming the kingdom of God by getting together at the worship service just as we do!
4. I suspect that your posture in this sense to ‘proclaim the kingdom of God' works to result in ‘overcoming demons and healing the sick,' among your family members and your friends. It may not be healing in literal sense of the term, if I may repeat. But through such of our images come across that sickness and demons are not ruling over us; that it is God who is holy, good and full of love who reigns over us. They will get peace of mind then.
Or we will have concerns over the sick in body or in heart. They may not be cured by us having concern about them. But it could well be that they get healed by the knowledge that somebody is concerned about the sick and distressed me.
However, the overwhelming reality of us may be that out life in Christian faith, our going to the worship service are not, in most cases, leading to remarkable results. In this connection what is noteworthy is that Jesus already told his disciples in verse 5 and the following that there could be people who ‘will not welcome them to their town.' Not all the people will welcome us who are dispatched for the mission. There may be people who show hostility, refusal and no understanding no matter how we talked to them.
Is that because we, the dispatched, are short of words, faith and power? No, says Jesus. You should not blame yourself. The message of the gospel is not received by them not because you are wrong but because of themselves. In such a case, Jesus told, you should not try to be involved to the very end. You are not to bear that much. Leave the place shaking the dust off your feet. There are places where people will receive you and you should go to such places.
How much have I been encouraged by these words of Jesus? And these are significant advice for the faithfuls, who, while not being a missionary, are the only Christian in the family. There are cases in which a long-running witness does not get through and you think it is because your witness is not sufficient. But it is not so. There are cases where the message is never accepted.
You cannot leave the family even then. To literally leave the family is impossible. In such a case, you will do well not to stick to the matter and to ‘leave the place,' momentarily. That is on the subject of making the mission and passing along the faith with open expectation on it, it is better to keep the matter on hold for a time. Just as the disciples left the matter of the town in the hands of someone else and ultimately in the hands of God and left, we will do well to leave it to God; about what to do with the family members who will not receive.
5. The final point I want to make today is that we will be given support and food from God for sustaining our lives when we choose to work as the dispatched for our way of life; that is the message of the famous words of Jesus written on verse 3.
For what purpose are we made to live, in the first place? We ourselves, family members and people around us embrace various expectations on us and impose targets on us. And we get distress seeing that we are not satisfying their expectations. We get envious of those who are responding to expectations put on them. We get jealous as Saul said, ‘He struck down tens of thousands, but I could only thousands.'
But what God expects me and gives me power for is to do a little thing, i.e. to bear witness to God and have concerns about the sick beside me. In carrying out the work given, our life will be supported. That is what Jesus tells.
(From the gist of sermon in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 9: 1-6
1. Calling the Twelve together he gave them power and authority to overcome all demons and to cure diseases,
2. and sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
3. ‘Take nothing for the journey,' he told them, ‘neither stick nor pack, neither bread nor money; nor are you to have a second coat.
4. When you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place.
5. As for those who will not receive you, when you leave their town shake the dust off your feet as a warning to them.'
6. So they set out and travelled from village to village, and everywhere they announced the good news and healed the sick.
(The Revised English Bible)
June 9, 2013
- I have no silver or gold -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today we are having a joint children and adult worship service. As it is my usual practice on occasions like this, I would draw on the Bible text for this service which Church School teachers use. Reading the Bible passage for the day over and again, it was revealed as the central message that in a situation in which we find ourselves as 'not having,' there is 'abundance,' which itself may be beyond our understanding or may sound paradoxical.
First of all, our attention is drawn to a man who had been crippled from his birth. Some professor said of him as follows: 'The man was all attention to Peter and John; it was simply because he expected that they would give him something. ? In a day to day living he was making depending on alms given from other people, he probably couldn't find joy or worthiness of living; but he had to continue living a life without hope, a gray colored life, fallen into the groove of begging for alms, I am sorry to say.' That is how most teachers described the man. And there is much truth in it.
But my special attention was drawn to the fact that he did not get into the temple, inside the temple gate but was carried to and was laid only near the gate called 'Beautiful.' All the people including Peter and John who came to the temple would ordinarily get into it. People went into the sacred place to encounter with God and to pray. But the man lay only at the gate of the temple. He may have been refused entry while wishing to get in; a man crippled like you since birth are being punished by God. There is no way you could get into the sacred place. He may well have been told such a thing.
Having no healthy body, no ability independently to make both ends meet, his was a life which must depend on the help from others. In the sphere of faith, he could wish for silver and gold but was kept away from worshipping inside the temple. In many sense he was 'not having,' and remained a being having nothing at all. That was how he was according to the passage for today.
2. Was he indeed a being simply to be pitied or scorned? He makes me embrace an impression that, despite such he may have appeared, he had abundance in a sense which it is difficult to describe. He has commonality with the woman we learned about last week who had suffered from haemorrhages for 12 long years. Her faith and the man's way of living were both perhaps flunk judged from the standard norm of faith.
However, the fact is that just because she had suffered from the disease, had lost all her property, and had no one she could rely upon, she single-mindedly made an approach to Jesus and touched him in hope of being healed. Reading her mind Jesus was generous to say 'Your faith has healed you.' The same happened to the man in today's story.
It wasn't to Jesus the man asked for alms. Unfortunately unlike in the days of the gospels, Jesus was not to appear before his eyes as someone the man could make an appeal of his wishes to. Ones that the man actually said his wishes to were merely the disciples of Jesus. And those wishes he only uttered outside the temple, i.e. out of the sacred place. His act overlaps with that of the woman who went to see Jesus and could touch him only very indirectly 'at the edge of his cloak, with herself hiding in mingle of a crowd.'
Yet single-mindedly he asked. True what he asked for was silver and gold or other material things. Even then, he could not rely on himself at all and asked others for help. He asked Peter and John for alms which consequently amounted to asking God and Jesus.
What made it possible for the man consequently to ask God and Jesus for help? I feel that it was his being laid by the gate, Beautiful, day after day that made the encounter possible. It wasn't at any other place but there by the gate that he was laid. His being laid by the gate may have been merely out of calculation on his part that the place is good to earn alms. Even then the fact remains that he didn't choose other place but chose to be laid by the gate leading to the temple, to the sacred place.
It shows that while he may have been unconscious of it himself, his posture or his behavior was telling he was seeking for something holy, i.e. alms from God. That eventually led to an opportunity of his encounter with Peter and John, and to the wonderful grace given him from Jesus and God.
3. We too are counseled to wish and ask aggressively for help, I would think. A man, Luther by name, is said to have taught that Christians are beggars in relation to God. Jesus also taught that happy are the poor. I guess we should wish and ask for much more. I want us to be beggars before God more boldly.
I recalled with fondness some people I encountered with while serving the church at my former post, Koriyama. I recall, for instance, Mr. H who suffered from cerebral palsy from birth and for whom I served as chairman of a volunteer association for long. We helped a small workshop to make hand-made soaps from used oil to earn some income for him. So heavily handicapped he was that he could not live without help from others even for a day. Sometime I pretended to be out in response to the sheer number and importunity of his demand. He would then run on the foundation of pastor's house with his electric wheel chair.
I have been in touch with Mr. F for more than 15 years who is also mentally retarded. I helped him apply for welfare payment, for renting a flat by becoming his guarantor, undertook to be in charge of managing his money and helped make moves from one house to another a number of times. Sometimes I felt weary. Mr. I is another with whom I was connected for long.
They all may have connected with me and the church merely because being laid by the gate will bring handsome earnings just as the man in today's Bible passage did, or because having connection with a pastor and the church may bring much benefit. Still I recall their posture, their figures to seek for help single-mindedly now. Having myself moved over to this place and loosing contact with them I feel I miss them much.
Why is it that I miss them? I miss them because I have been struck by their single-minded and almost majestic seeking of help and alms from others. I have an impression that I myself as well as the church, through the contacts with them seeking for help, was led on occasions to exert the kind of power just as Peter and John had been led to, which was beyond their imagination.
4. Luke, who wrote the Acts of Apostles, depicted the man as having made indispensable contribution to the just born church, it looks to me. Peter, who was poured the Holy Spirit, made majestic sermons after Pentecost. According to chapter 2 verse 41, 'Those who accepted what he said were baptized, and some three thousand were added to the number of believers that day.' Verse 43 adds to say that 'many portents and signs were brought about through the apostles.' These things are, however, what happened over long period of time; not happening in a short span of time, are they not?
And indeed the beginning of the many portents and signs through the apostles is found in what is written in today's passage, isn't it? The apostles including Peter and John did not know at all what kind of fruit their works were going to bear. And it was this man in today's story who helped them find it. By the very act of asking for alms to Peter and John the man helped them recognize what results their works were bringing about.
For a church minister, believers and the church to be asked for help from people around them, as well as church members to be asked from each other can turn out to offer such an opportunity. In these cases whom the help- seekers ask for help is not God or Jesus who are invisible; it is a pastor or church members or the church that they seek help from. It means help-seekers don't have to worry from the beginning if asking for silver and gold is no problem or what he asks for may not please God. Just recollect what the man asked for and what it was the woman was seeking.
What the man wished for were 'silver and gold.' But them Peter and John could not give; unfortunately they could not; indeed they could not. There are things church cannot give if asked; there are things God won't give; there are things church minister and believers cannot give. People will get to understand over time that something is just impossible to get. Therefore, there's no need for us to think 'I should not ask for this thing.' Just go ahead and ask for the thing you would have.
Now on the day for Bible Study & Prayer Meeting at our church, some volunteers get together to make prayers especially for a young brother. I would think that those who cannot assemble on that occasion are also praying for the brother at their homes. The brother I am talking about is with us in this worship service. We don't know if our prayers for him are going to be accepted.
But listening to the prayers made for the brother I, as a pastor, feel that the fact of several people making their prayers to God like a beggar itself is most fitting to us; and that it will lead to providing us at our church with an important opportunity just as it provided Peter and John with powers beyond their imagination, making an epoch event for the early church.
What we are seeking for may be silver and gold of which God says, 'I don't have them.' We may be wishing for an ill-directed something on our own. We may be offering our prayers not in front of God but by the gate at a distance from there. In any case God nods in approval that it is good to beg and wish for something from God. God is telling us that making a wish will result in great works performed.
5. To the man who stared at Peter and John with all attention, Peter said, 'I have no silver or gold; but what I have I give you.' That was the word of God given him through the mouth of Peter. If we asked for something off target, God will tell us clearly 'I don't have what you want from me.' Therefore, we may straightforwardly ask in our prayers for the thing we wish to have boldly and in peace.
Let us keep in mind that what the man was given was what he needed most, which was far more worthy than 'silver and gold,' he wanted. 'I have no silver or gold.' That is not what I am going to give you. If God did not refuse what he wanted he would be been content just with silver or gold; he would have been satisfied without realizing that there was something he needed more acutely, without knowing that there is God who would give him what he needed most. Through the refusal saying, 'I have no silver or gold,' the man is going to be blessed with the help to 'get up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ.'
How then does it manifest with us to get up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ? I don't think it means that some mysterious power will appear in us just by saying the name of Jesus in our mouth. It is not that the name of Jesus Christ will, like a magic word, raise power in us. The power lies in the persons of Peter and John, the believers as Peter put it saying, 'What I have I give you.' They themselves got able to rise up and walk by believing Jesus. It is through them having received the blessing that the power is transferred also to the man and manifests itself in him, I would think.
Verse 7 says Peter 'helped him up grasping him by the right hand.' For the man such a helping hand or care of Peter was necessary. If such a help of Peter is available, if a help is given from church, and if church members will walk along with him in the future as well, a miracle in literal meaning wouldn't have been necessary, one may safely say.
Let us learn from this that the power of Jesus to get a man up and let him walk is charged and entrusted upon us to exert. Supported by the fact that we ourselves believed in Jesus and have been enabled to rise up and walk, we then offer to grasp the man by the hand to walk with him.
Our walk with the man may not be more than teetering. Our walk may be with wondering where the power of Jesus is; it may be with lamenting why the miracle we look for is not given. At any rate the fact that there emerged someone who would walk along with the man is the manifestation of the power, isn't it? The fact that the man got in together through the temple gate and joined ranks of ones who would praise God is the manifestation of the power of Jesus, don't you think?
'I have no silver or gold,' said Peter. Indeed he said he didn't have. It would suggest that it's very important for us also 'not to have.' We tend to lament over not having. However, the state of 'not having' makes us think what it is then that we 'have,' what it is that is given us, and what it is that we can give the man before our eyes, and in this way give us an opportunity to recognize what we have.
Acts of Apostles 3:1-10
1. One day at three in the afternoon, the hour of prayer, Peter and John were on their way up to the temple.
2. Now a man who had been a cripple from birth used to be carried there and laid every day by the temple gate called Beautiful to beg from people as they went in.
3. When he saw Peter and John on their way into the temple, he asked for alms.
4. They both fixed their eyes on him, and Peter said, 'Look at us.'
5. Expecting a gift from them, the man was all attention.
6. Peter said, 'I have no silver or gold; but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.'
7. Then, grasping him by the right hand he helped him up; and at once his feet and ankles grew strong;
8. he sprang to his feet, and started to walk. He entered the temple with them, leaping and praising God as he went.
9. Everyone saw him walking and praising God,
10. and when they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at Beautiful Gate they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
(The Revised English Bible)
June 2, 2013
- Your faith has healed you -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1-1 Today's words in the Bible are one of very impressive stories to me. Some of you may remember that I used this part at the Christmas Eve worship service the year before last.
1-2 What attracted my attention the most is the last word, Verse 48, 'your faith has healed you, 'which Jesus said to this woman.
1-3 Although Jesus said, 'your faith has healed you, 'can we really call her thoughts or attitude toward him 'faith'? If this woman should come to the pastor or the deacons' meeting and say, 'I would like to be baptized,'then shall we accept it at once? Faith should be at least such a thing as you declare by believing that it was 'for my sake' that Jesus became a human, was crucified and resurrected and by saying amen, right?
1-4 However, it can be said that such faith doesn't exist in her. She only sought for being healed of bleeding after she suffered for 12 years without knowing what kind of person Jesus was, and simply she came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.
1-5 It is what we call faith seeking divine favor or magical faith, isn't it? However, Jesus called this kind of thought or attitude of hers 'your faith. 'He said, 'your faith has healed you,'in which I find great comfort and encouragement.
2-1 Of course, Jesus would not regard her faith, such faith as causes her to come up behind him in a crowd and touch the edge of his cloak and as a result, to obtain just what she wishes for, and to say that's all, as permissible, I think.
2-2 As is written in Verse 45 and the following, Jesus interrupted his disciples' words and tried to look for the woman who touched him. And he had her tell how she came to desire to touch him and he said the word in the last Verse 48 to her.
2-3 In other words, Jesus urges her to turn such faith as faith seeking divine favor, magical faith, and faith that causes her to come up behind him in a crowd and to obtain what she wishes for and to say that's all, into faith that causes her to face Jesus one on one, and to talk and to hear his words, I think. Her first faith is , as it were, its starting point. Starting from such a kind of faith, it is made to grow up gradually into such faith as causes her to meet Jesus deeply.
2-4 However, at any rate, faith is a desire to come up behind Jesus and to touch him, not any other existence. She became aware that no other thing in this world could heal her bleeding. Therefore, she approached Jesus and tried to ask him to heal her. She had such an ardent desire.
2-5 Faith is not knowledge. It is not to understand standard knowledge about faith. However much you learn to swim in the textbook or how much you practice what you have learned on your bed, unless you actually swim in the water, you don't know what it is like to swim. Likewise, faith does not start, unless you suffer bleeding in a variety of meanings and you want Jesus to heal it, and also unless you desire to approach and touch Jesus. Faith does not come to be alive, unless it starts from such a wish and meets the mysterious power that flows out of Jesus in concrete. It cannot grow up, either.
3-1 I have one more thing to say. Unlike this woman, I myself have a little more faith, such faith that enables me to say that it is 'for my sake'that Jesus became a human, was crucified and resurrected, I think.
3-2 However, essentially we are not different from this woman, I feel. Although I say repeatedly, she just came up behind Jesus in a crowd and touched the edge of his cloak. The same is true with us. Our way to touch Jesus today is the same as hers, I think. There were a lot of obstacles to her meeting Jesus deeply. Likewise, there are various obstacles to our meeting Jesus deeply, right?
3-3 Anyway, this woman was able to meet Jesus. But we are 2000 years away from Him in time. Actually we cannot meet Jesus. Just through the words of the Bible, and of course through the help of the Holy Spirit, and through awkward words given by the pastor and through this prayer offered by human beings, we cannot help meeting Jesus.
3-4 Also there are narrow-minded ideas or stubborn prejudices that we tend to have. Therefore, we cannot help taking it to heart that our faith in Jesus is really small and little and that we don't understand the depth of Jesus' heart at all.
3-5 However, as this woman tried to approach Jesus, we want to approach and touch him too. We may try to do the same by being in a crowd but by pushing that obstacle away or by coming up behind Jesus or by touching the edge of his cloak. We are trying to touch Jesus. That's why we are attending the morning worship service this way.
3-6 Why? On our side, is there a strong desire to do so? Maybe so. But, when we get down to it, Jesus enables us to do so beyond the time difference of 2000 years. This woman didn't have standard faith. Also we don't understand the depth of Jesus' heart yet. But we are attracted to Jesus, where Jesus really exists. Fundamentally just because Jesus exists, this is taking place.
3-7 'Faith 'is this kind of thing, right? There are no appropriate expressions about it and I may be saying something that contradicts the previous thing. But it is not what is focused on our side. Whether by focusing on our side, that faith is standard or whether it is normal or whether it has passed does not matter.
3-8 When we get down to it, what matters is whether it is caused by Jesus who really exists and God. This woman's wish or attitude was given birth to by no one else but Jesus. Also what we are like is caused by Jesus. On our side, however awkward it is and however little it is, just because it is given birth to by Jesus, it can be called 'faith. '
4-1 With this kind of faith, she touched the edge of Jesus'cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. The Bible says that 'power has gone out from 'Jesus. I really think how wonderful these words are. Although I repeatedly say, she had this kind of faith. Our faith is just shallow faith.
4-2 However, Jesus doesn't say, 'Don't get close to me with such faith. It's out of the question to ask for or wish for something. Come again. Come with stronger faith.'The reason is that as I said just now, even such a kind of faith was originally given birth to and attracted and caused by the existence of Jesus. Jesus and God never make nothing of such a thing. They never look down on it. On the contrary they are greatly pleased. They provide their own power for us with pleasure. They stop bleeding.
4-3 Now what does it mean to us that bleeding stops and that Jesus' power comes out? Some of you who have got together here have some illness that no doctors could cure or some of your family members have such illness. Those people have got together to pray with earnest desires.
4-4 In spite of that, bleeding won't stop, you complain. Is it because your faith is lacking? It is NOT. I hope that you will keep it in mind that it is not so.
4-5 When you are not cured or a miracle doesn't take place, you sometimes hear that 'it is because your faith is lacking.'You sometimes you blame yourself. On such occasions, I would like you to remember today's words. I would like you to remember what her faith was like. Rather I would like you to remember what faith is after all.
4-6 Now in the case of this woman, from God's point of view, it was essential to stop her bleeding. Therefore, Jesus' power went toward it. In the event that the same thing doesn't take place, from God's point of view, it is not necessary, which means that there are further more necessary bleedings that should be stopped. Even if we are not aware of it, surely there are bleedings that Jesus' power is being poured into and that are being halted.
4-7 I am afresh reminded of what is described in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12, Verse 7 and the following. Paul was provided with a thorn in his flesh. He pleaded with the Lord to take it away from him many times but it was not taken away after all. Rather, the following word was given by Jesus: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 'Thus, Paul became able to boast of the very weakness that he had in him. He became able to say that it is when he is in weakness that Christ rests on him.
4-8 These words remind me to wonder what was Paul's bleeding to be healed. It was not to be able to accept weakness. It was just where he was trying to work as a preacher in strength and vigor alone. It was his very 'bleeding, 'and illness. Therefore, in there Jesus' power was poured. And not that his physical illness might be removed but that he might accept his weakness, Jesus' power was poured.
4-9 Thus, finally the words 'Go in peace ,'were given to him. Faith is sure to save us. Even if it does not grant the direct wish that we are asking for, it saves us. It enables us to live in peace. Our desire to come close to Jesus and to try to touch him and to be healed never betrays us.
(Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI from the gist of sermon written in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Luke 8:43-48
43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,but no one could heal her.
44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak,and immediately her bleeding stopped.
45 "Who touched me?" Jesus asked.When they all denied it,Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."
46 But Jesus said,"Someone touched me;I know that power has gone out from me."
47 Then the woman,seeing that she could not go unnoticed,came trembling and fell at his feet.In the presence of all the people,she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
48 Then he said to her, "Daughter,your faith has healed you.Go in peace."
(The New International Version )
May 12, 2013
- Parents and children, masters and slaves -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1-1 Since we started to study Ephesians, we have come to its last chapter, Chapter 6. In the last Sunday Service, we had a lot of difficulty understanding Chapter 5, Verse 21 and the following that deal with the words 'the husband is the head of the wife.'However, Verse 5 and the following that we deal with today are no less easy to understand. The reference book that I have quotes words that a researcher of the history of Christian thought named Yamaya Shogo used. It says that he criticizes Paul for his words as follows: 'Paul is too conservative and uncritical. His eyes toward society were completely closed.'Such a criticism as Mr. Yamaya points out to the effect that Paul was conservative or uncritical was rather off the mark, I think, but Mr Yamaya's criticism was just correct in that Paul was uncritical of the existence of slavery and its system, right? Far from that, as I deal with it later, Paul overlapped a slave' obeying his master and obeying Christ. Why can he liken obeying Christ to obeying earthly masters? Is it all right to say so regarding the state of being a slave?
1-2. Here we can find that even the Bible is not infallible and that the limitations of those who wrote it and their society manifested themselves in a typical way. Also just because such words can be found in the Bible, in the history of Christianity, slavery has existed without shrinking as if it had been justified by God.
1-3. We would like to listen to what Paul wanted to convey to us with the above mentioned problems kept in mind.
2-1. Mr. Yamaya said, as I introduced him a minute ago, that Paul closed his eyes to the then society but I feel that it was rather the other way round. Paul was turning his eyes to deep problems that the then society possessed and also to hardships of those who had to live in the society with such problems without escaping from it. The beginning of Chapter 5, Verse 21 dealing with wives and husbands, as we often remember, starts with the words 'these are evil days'in Chapter 5, Verse 16. In the midst of evil of those days, were found such relations as wives and husbands and parents as well as the relation of master to servant that Chapter 5 Verse 21 and the following dealt with. What was common among these three relations was that wives to their husbands, children to their parents and slaves to their masters were treated as their possessions, respectively. In many cases, women could not have chosen their husbands in those days, of course, or children could not be born by choosing their parents or if you were born as a slave, you continued to be nothing but a slave until your death. How many people were put into this kind of unreasonableness in such society? Paul probably was looking evil of those days in the face.
2-2 In these evil days a lot of people, as was described in Chapter 5 Verse 15 and the following, acted rashly, foolishly enough, and they ruined themselves by drinking. It was very usual in those days. It was the way that people had to live in their society. It is here that Paul says: 'But we don't have to live that way. Rather in the midst of such evil days, still we can live wisely by making the most of every opportunity. ' We were taught repeatedly that to make the most of every opportunity meant to buy back time as our own thing. The time to live is controlled by our husbands, parents or masters. We cannot escape from being kept in such a situation. We cannot live free from compulsion or unreasonableness. But Paul tells us that even in such a situation we believers can live our time by regarding the time that we are compelled to offer as our own time and by recovering it. It is by realizing God's will that we can do it. It is by living with gratitude that we can do it. Paul says so.
2-3. Here we can hear encouragements and comforts that can be applied to the present age. In any age we are put into situations that we cannot escape from or that are enforced on us in various senses or that are unreasonable. Today we criticize Paul for not having protested against the unreasonableness of the slavery and for not having advised the slaves to escape. But however we escape from there, enforced situations strike us one after another. What Paul gaze at is the picture of us who cannot but be put into inescapable evil days or situations. We cannot escape, or choose. In such a situation Paul gives us advice about how we can live wisely without becoming foolish.
3-1. Then what is God's will in it? Verse 1 says first, 'Children, obey your parents; for it is only right that you should.'Verses 5 and 6 say, 'Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.' What Paul wants to say above all things is that to obey parents and to obey earthly masters are an appropriate and right way as a person who is bound with God, literally, bound with a rope with God, and also as a person who follows Christ. It goes without saying that to follow Christ, to be bound with Him and to obey parents or earthly masters are quite different. They are never equal. Of course Paul knows such a thing. However, to obey God overlaps to obey parents or earthly masters somewhere. There is something in common among them in how we should behave. To obey Christ is invisible in concrete, for Christ cannot be seen. Therefore, although the way it can be realized is never equal, it lies in the way we obey our parents or earthly masters, Paul says, doesn't he?
3-2. The above mentioned reminded me of a story in the Gospel according to Luke that we dealt with last week. When the man whose evil spirit Jesus drove out said that he would like to follow Jesus, he heard Jesus say,'Go back home.'Also I was reminded of Jesus' words in the Gospel according to John, Chapter 21, Verse 18, as follows: 'when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.'To serve Jesus means to go back home and to realize what you are told to do where you are made alive. Here we learn that the opportunity to 'serve 'or 'obey'that we are given in concrete is very precious. We think that to dress ourselves and go where we want makes us happy, just as when Paul was younger. While doing so, we say,'serve Jesus.'But Jesus says that for you to stretch out your hands and for someone else to dress you and lead you where you do not want to go actually describes what the person who is connected with Jesus is like. It means 'Find out the appropriateness of the behavior as those who follow Jesus in a situation which is enforced on you and accept it as God's will.
4-1. Here the question that occurs to me is 'Even so, how much should we serve ?'Some of you may be burdened with taking care of your parents alone without any help from others. How much should we serve such an employer as force you to overwork for many hours or to join an antisocial criminal act? Furthermore, there arises such a problem as 'How much should we serve and obey rulers like Hitler?'Should we serve whatever parents they are or whatever master he or she is? What are the appropriate way to serve as a Christian and the appropriate way to obey as a Christian?
4-2. We could not directly find out the answer from today's words and we would run out of time if we started to think about it. But the only thing that gives us suggestions is what Paul orders the parents and masters who are to be served in Verses 4 and 9 as follows: 'Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. ' 'And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.'This is in a sense what we can regard as a reservation when we obey our parents or masters, right? If we cannot help increasing our anger in obeying, our existence is threatened and we are not brought up, then we will sometimes be exempted from obeying or serving, although it is really difficult to carry out, right? Also we are allowed to resist that situation and eliminate and fight against it, aren't we?
5-1. In connection with this, I would like to point out lastly that Paul surely teaches us the reward and benefit that comes from obeying. Even if we serve, if we cannot see the reward for it ---which of course is difficult to see soon---, then we will be allowed to be exempted from serving, right?
5-2. First, regarding obeying our parents, Paul quotes one of the Ten Commandments and says, 'Honor your father and mother'--- which is the first commandment with a promise ---. That promise is the one that Paul is said to have quoted from Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 12, by adding his own interpretation to it, which says, 'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.'What kind of happiness will be given as the promise?
5-3 The time when these Ten Commandments were given was, needless to say, the time when Israeli people escaped from Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness for forty years. They were short of food and drinking water as refugees. To steal and kill and to abandon old parents as useless people must have been thought to be the best idea. But the Lord and God ordered them not to kill, not to steal and to respect their parents. What is the happiness that they can get from respecting their old parents? It will not be literally ' that you may enjoy long life on the earth.' All people will not be rewarded with long life just because they respect their parents. The Bible suggests that that happiness enables us to take living for long --- in abundance, diversely, and deeply---. For example, Isaac was beside his father Abraham and by paying respect to Abraham, he observed how'Abraham was by now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in all that he did'(Genesis, 24: 1). It is not until you respect your parents who have become senile that you will be able to know to get old, to increase sadness, to become a person with many faults but to know that there too you can find joy of living and blessings all the time. We can learn that we can find happiness in getting old and weak not just in youth and strength. Therefore, life can be long and abundant and deep.
5-4. Regarding Verse 8, Paul says,'you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.'What reward will to serve, in concrete to have a scene where we serve and obey, give us? I am very bad at serving. Such a person as I has been able to serve one church the longest of all my alumni pastors and to serve for the parish as long as 12 years of my whole 24 years. The reward for it is to be made patient above all things and to learn an appropriate degree in a sense. There is some reward that is not given without knowing to serve in concrete. Let's be aware of the happiness of being given an opportunity to serve.
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 6: 1 - 9
1. Children, obey your parents; for it is only right that you should.
2. 'Honour your father and your mother' is the first commandment to carry a promise with it:
3. 'that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.'
4. Fathers, do not goad your children to resentment, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
5. Slaves, give single-minded obedience to your earthly masters with fear and trembling, as if to Christ.
6. Do it not merely to catch their eye or curry favour with them, but as slaves of Christ to the will of God wholeheartedly.
7. Give cheerful service, as slaves of the Lord rather than of men.
8. You know that whatever good anyone may do , slave or free, will be repaid by the Lord.
9. Masters, treat your slaves in the same spirit: given up using threats, and remember that you both have the same Master in heaven; there is no favouritism with him.
(The Revised English Bible)
May 5, 2013
- Driving out demons from a possessed man -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage given us this morning is about a man possessed by demons and whom Jesus healed. This is a story taken up by many novel stories. This same Gospel according to Luke writes about another man possessed by a demon in the passage from chapter 4, verse 31 onward, who was also healed by Jesus. Chapter 8 verse 2 and the following tell about a woman, Mary, known as Mary of Magdala, from whom Jesus drove out as many as seven demons.
How shall we understand that one is possessed by demons? What kind of message can we, living in the contemporary age, receive from the story?
Some people will laugh it off as superstition of 2000 years ago. In those days people didn't know what caused most diseases. They thought that one got sick when possessed by demons.
Today, however, almost all of the diseases that appear in the Gospels can be explained in medical terms, it is said. The man in today's passage may be diagnosed as MPD, multiple personality disorder such as DT, delirium tremens or as schizotypical personality disorder.
I have a question, though. Can all the sicknesses that appeared in the Gospels be healed with the contemporary medical diagnoses just mentioned?
What I would tell you now is what I may have already told you when we learnt by the passage of Luke from chapter 4, verse 31 and the following. It is about a well known story that the Reverend Mr. Johan Christoph Blumhardt experienced at a small church in village of M?ttlingen in southern Germany in the middle of 19th century. His experience cast great influence on famous theological scholars of the latter age like Karl Barth and E. Thurneyzen. In a nutshell something like what we saw in the film "The Exorcist," actually took place. Mr. Blumhardt submitted a detailed report about it to the church authority of the time as he was asked to. But he did so reluctantly with much hesitation for he would rather that what it happened be kept unknown to the people. Much was argued about it. But it was clear that what took place couldn't all be explained just in medical terms.
On the other hand, something apprehensive may unfold once we accept that there in fact exist unclean spirits which will possess us. Even in Japan of today, when a streak of misfortunes such as incurable sickness assails family members one after the other, some people are driven to lose money to the tune of hundreds of thousands or millions as they are asked to pay for rituals which are supposedly to clean up the so-called unclean spirits.
In the world of Christianity also, certain denomination puts inordinate emphasis on battle with unclean spirits and they put blames on whatever bad takes place. When, for instance, family members do not easily accept Christian faith, unclean spirits are to blame; when missionary works do not show notable result in a town, again unclean spirits are to blame, according to their interpretation.
Evil spirits are not visible. Therefore, if invisible unclean spirits possess of someone and bring bad things onto them, people may be led to fear them unnecessarily. The pastor Blumhardt was reluctant to let what had happened to go public because he was worried about what then might ensue.
2. By the Bible passage for today, we are told what the essence of unclean spirit is, in the first place. What is told here has a common point with what is written in the passage of chapter 4, verse 31 and the following.
The words of verse 28 in today's passage are those spoken by demons, we can safely say from the context. Demons said, 'Son of the Most High.' Chapter 4, verse 34 describes a demon saying, 'I know who you are ? the Holy One of God.' Demons know who Jesus is better than anybody else.
In the passage preceding that for today, disciples, after having seen Jesus quench the storm, are painted as only being able to say 'who can this be?' Also in the verse just preceding verse 31 of chapter 4, people, seeing Jesus talk in the synagogue of his home village, could only say, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'
When the people didn't understand who Jesus was, unclean spirits understood him. This is because unclean spirits have capacity to perceive 'the Holiness of God,' and 'the Height of God,' which human beings cannot know; it is so because demons are placed in a special relationship with the Holy God, and the God of Most High.
In spite of his perception or recognition of Jesus as the Holy one of God, and the Son of the Most High, the demon begged him not to bother with him; he implored Jesus not to torment him. For him to be concerned about by Jesus, to be approached and is related to was nothing but 'torment.' Here lies the essential character of demons.
I have a book titled 'Deep Layers of Religion ? Urge towards something holy,' at hand. I am strongly lured by its subtitle, 'Urge towards something holy.' Urge towards or longing for some holy thing, our desire to come close to holy thing, to a spiritual being must lie at the root of our faith, I gather. Somewhere and somehow we must be feeling our smallness and the stains of this world. That is why we long to come close to and would touch one who is holy, is clean and lofty and would partake of those characters.
Being such as we are, God sent his only son as a human being to us, and tried to spare with us the Holiness of his Son through giving his life for sacrifice. This is the fundamental message of the Christian faith.
For some reason demons takes it as a torment to be approached by Jesus despite much better knowledge than us about who Jesus really is. For some reason demons would refuse and try to keep away from what is holy and spiritual which he has deep in himself. How such beings came into existence, we don't know. There is no systematic explanation given on this question in the Bible. What the Bible tells us, however, is that demons exist for some reasons.
3. One more thing we learn from the Bible passage for the day as the salient feature of demons is that they need to possess us, humans. Demons got into a herd of pigs by the order of Jesus, and pigs jumped into the lake where they were drowned, it is written.
This suggests that demons themselves would never possess of pigs, I think. Humans are where they would settle in. By possessing a human they will feed or gain energy, as it were.
Why then do demons possess of humans? This comes from the special relationship only humans have with God, I think, which plants and animals don't. Demons have deep rift or irreconcilability with God. While being closer to God than anyone else and having ability to perceive the holiness and spirituality of God, they wouldn't come close. There lies their contradiction. They would possess of us humans perhaps because we have the same irreconcilability in common as they do. They would feed on torment of humans who have the same irreconcilability, I conjecture.
As having been told a number of times, only we humans are created in the 'image' of God unlike animals and plants. An account of Genesis which describes it says, 'Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.' The image of God would mean to live creatively by finding a joy in 'our' relationship, in the linkage of helping each other, to get to the core of it.
Animals and plants may also have such character. But we humans are being which finds the significance of living in that relationship more, I would think. That's the reason why God dared to put his image in the tool made of dust of the ground; he did so with the wish that, just because we are tools made of dust of the ground, we humans come together to help each other and find joy in doing so.
Yet we tend to be captivated by our weakness which comes from us being made with dust of the ground. All our thoughts go to that weakness. Forgetting the purpose for which God let us live, we tend to focus simply on prolonging and strengthening the life of the tool.
Being such as we are, we need the holiness of God, the height of God; being brought to be linked with God, and we need to realize the purpose and joy of living.
Yet not too many people would be connected to God. Nor do they think it is necessary. There lies the fundamental irreconcilability we humans have. Despite God's image having been engraved in us, we wouldn't be related with God. Here lies a deep crevice which only humans have. Sin the Bible calls it. That's where demons would settle down. They'll be only pleased to dwell there. Humans who won't be connected with God are fodders of demons.
It is very symbolic indeed that the man possessed by demons stayed among the tombs and was driven out into the wilds a number of times. People called it soma and sema, to make a little play on words from Greek language of 2000 years ago by which soma means body and sema a tomb. A life only to let your body or a tool made of dust of the ground sustained without being connected with God or without knowing the purpose of living, a life of a tool made of dust of the ground ends up becoming a tomb. There is no other way to look at such life as nothing but a wilderness. We, who can regard life in only that way anguish in our hearts like 'Legion (which means a Roman military unit of the time comprising of soldiers from some 3000 to 6000.) ' We are made to anguish by various forces which will work to tear down our tools made of dust of the ground. It is these crevice and torment that supply demons with their feeds.
4. Being taught this way, I am inclined to think that it's not that a strange thing as written in the passage for today or extraordinary things like the pastor Blumhardt experienced will take place; rather that the demons possessing of us are taking place like everyday occurrence around us.
These days demons may not act so silly as to cause events written in the Bible to take place by possessing us. They may have grown as clever to feed on us as they do without being noticed.
I am struck by the sheer number of people who look to find themselves placed in similar situation as the man in today's passage was: for them to live is not much more than to stay around tombs, and one has to live as if chained with his heart torn apart into thousand pieces. Just as many or more live, if not so desperately, but by indulging themselves just in matters of this world, feeling no urge to come close to something holy or lofty.
Just as symbolic also is that it was into pigs that demons were ordered to go by Jesus. I don't mean to disgrace pigs but I remember the words of Jesus saying, 'Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls to the pigs.' Where is suitable for demons to go into is a place like a herd of pigs. And the pigs rushed over the edge into the lake and were drowned. That is the act of demons.
Such demons Jesus would drive out and protect us from them. Why is it possible for Jesus to set us free from demons and to win the battle with them will have become apparent now.
In verse 28 demons called Jesus 'Jesus, Son of the Most High.' It is Jesus who is Son of the Most High and yet has come to this world as a human being. He chose to take the form of tool made of dust of the ground. He willingly chose a life to be a tool made of dust of the ground, one that had to be crashed into pieces on the cross. He did so to be considerate to us and save us; to give us the holiness and spirituality of God. Jesus carried out the mission of playing the 'image' given by God by shedding blood and by sacrificing his life in his body.
Within Jesus he has no irreconcilability with God. Living as he did in the tool made of dust of the ground, and dying as he did on the cross, there is no crevice between Jesus and God. Demons cannot go into this Jesus. They only have to be driven out by him.
We are under protection by this Jesus. By this Jesus we can receive the holiness and spirituality of God.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Gospel according to Luke 8: 26-39
26 So they landed in the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
27 As he stepped ashore he was met by a man from the town who was possessed by demons. For a long time he had neither worn clothes nor lived in a house, but stayed among the tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus he cried out, and fell at his feet. 'What do you want with me, Jesus, Son the Most High God?' he shouted. 'I implore you, do not torment me.'
29 For Jesus was already ordering the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many a time it had seized him, and then, for safety's sake, they would secure him with chains and fetters; but each time he broke loose and was driven by the demon out into the wilds.
30 Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Legion,' he replied. This was because so many demons had taken possession of him.
31 and they begged him not to banish them to the abyss.
32 There was a large herd of pigs nearby, feeding on the hillside; and the demons begged him to let them go into these pigs. He gave them leave;
33 the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed over the edge into the lake and were drowned.
34 When the men in charge of them saw what had happened, they took to their heels and carried the news to the town and countryside;
35 and the people came out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at his feet clothed and in his right mind, they were afraid.
36 Eyewitnesses told them how the madman had been cured.
37 Then the whole population of the Gerasene district was overcome by fear and asked Jesus to go away. So he got into the boat and went away.
38 the man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him; but Jesus sent him away:
39 'go back home,' he said, 'and tell them what God has done for you.' The man went all over the town proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.
(The Revised English Bible)
April 28, 2013
- In search of a bride for Isaac -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The Bible passage I asked to be read for this Sunday service is a bit long. Even then the passage covers only a third of the entire chapter, which continues to a verse numbered 67. Despite its length, however, what is written is here easy to understand and interesting a story to read.
Abraham asked his servant to look for a bride for his son Isaac. However, the conditions attached to be a candidate for bride were very hard. In spite of the difficulty the servant left for the country of his master, and under God's guidance he came across with a young woman, Rebecca by name. The servant successfully talked with Laban, her brother, about the proposed marriage, and consequently took her to Canaan where she got married with Isaac.
The first point I'd like to make is where or in what context is this long story placed. Chapter 23 which is immediately preceding this one wrote about the passing and burial of Sarah, the mother of Isaac, as we learnt at the last service. Chapter 25 which directly follows this one is about the passing of Abraham, his father.
Verse 2 of today's chapter, i.e. chapter 24 says, 'Give me your solemn oath --.' The same Genesis chapter 47, verse 29 and the following describe Jacob on his death bed, who demanded his son Joseph to make solemn oath for he would leave his will. We may, therefore, be allowed to take today's passage as describing the scene of Abraham's death, or as the commissioning of his will to his servant. (In this case, though, we face with the problem with the age of Abraham. According to chapter 25, verse 20 Isaac married Rebecca when he was 40 years old, implying that then his father Abraham was 140 years old. The same chapter 25 in verse 7 says Abraham died at age 175, meaning that he lived for 35 more years after his son Isaac married.)
Sending Sarah off and seeing his own time coming near, Abraham would have wished to make sure what were indispensable for his son Isaac were certainly provided for. The longest serving servant was in charge of all which Abraham owned and in charge of making sure that his son Isaac inherited it. Abraham left the important will to his servant so that Isaac could inherit not just the tangible property but something more important than that.
It couldn't be as simple as that Abraham wanted Isaac to be married because he worried that his son will be lonesome to live alone after his parents are gone. If it had been that simple he didn't have to impose difficult conditions on his servant in searching for a bride. A girl from Canaanites would have been good. Abraham, however, did not simply wish his son to marry; he wished his son to inherit something far more important.
2. What that something more important was is oozing out in verse 1 of chapter 24 where it says, 'Abraham was by now --.' I wonder, though, if the LORD had really blessed him in all that he did until Abraham was very old to be about to pass away. In reality, situations opposite to this may have been true.
The typical example of such a situation was the death of Sarah as in chapter 23. Its 2nd verse says, 'Abraham went in to mourn over Sarah and to weep for her.' Living many days and getting old mean nothing else but to experience departures with loved ones and from important matters; nothing else but to experience sadness time and again; to repeat facing with events that deprives one of the sight of God's blessing.
Yet Abraham who could accept God as his 'LORD,' must have been able to find 'blessing' in such a situation as well, I would imagine. This very faith to accept God as the 'LORD,' Abraham wished his son Isaac to inherit. It was because he was facing the end of his life on earth that he understood what was important. It's the faith to accept God as the 'LORD,' he wanted his son to inherit; not the property which eyes could see.
What kind of God's blessing could Abraham find in the departure with Sarah? The answer was given us in verse 3 of chapter 23, where it says, 'When at last he rose and left the presence of his dead one, he approached the Hittites.' His being beside the loved one opened up an opportunity for him to gain a plot of land from the Hittites, which he had not been able to do till then. The loosing of important thing out from his hand turned out to be a chance to gain what he could never get before. That's the way God, our LORD, does things for us.
If we were the master of our own life, we wouldn't ever be able to accept the loosing and being beside the past loved one in the way Abraham could. To us as master of our own life, what remains with us is just a sense of loosing something important. In sharp contrast to this, the only fact of being linked with the Lord helps us to find out that the Lord gives in the midst of what he takes away from us, just as Job said, 'The LORD gives and the LORD takes away.' Our steps to live over many days and to get aged are the steps for us to witness the wonderful grace of God, our Lord.
3. The faith which Abraham wished Isaac to succeed can also be seen in verse 6. Of the LORD the God, Abraham said to his servant, 'the LORD the God of heaven.' Abraham said the LORD the God of heaven 'who swore to me that he would give this land to my descendants.' For Abraham the LORD the God is the God 'of heaven,' before anything else. One who is in heaven and guides us living on earth.
We, on earth, repeat making numerous mistakes and wrong decisions. But God of heaven in guiding us does not force us to do something, as we are taught always. He respects our liberty. So we get astray; we would try to go our own ways. Yet God of heaven would guide us and help us arrive at the goal. The book of the prophet Isaiah at chapter 55, verses 8 and 9 say, 'But as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.'
The way which God of heaven leads us to, we cannot see. As just quoted, we go the ways of our own. Yet God of heaven guides us. It is thanks to the guidance given us by God that I stand where I am now. And this was what the aged Abraham after many days realized. And it is this grace, the blessing under which way he was allowed to accept his life that Abraham wished Isaac to succeed.
4. It was for making sure this faith is inherited that Abraham attached difficult qualifications about a girl to become wife of Isaac when he as if to leave his will instructed his servant to look for one. These were indeed tough conditions, which weighed heavily for the trustee. All wills will have such a heavy weight to carry. For something as heavy as that Abraham wanted his wish come true and the servant tried his best to fulfill the master's wish. Perhaps it was because of their earnest eager that God favorably answered their prayers.
There is a lesson for us to learn from this. Whether or not Isaac will succeed the faith to accept God as the LORD is not something Abraham, his father, can make sure no matter how much he desired it to be the case. Faith is not something one can make his child inherit like tangible property. That is something only God can make happen.
However, Abraham did not just leave it to God and withdrew his hands from it. He didn't choose to do nothing as father just because it's something God will give. Abraham did his best so that Isaac will inherit the faith. The imposing of tough conditions about his son's bride is the form his endeavor took.
Question is do we ourselves have that seriousness? Are we that earnestly wishing that the faith to accept God as our Lord be inherited by the ones who will be left after us ? including partners and friends, not to speak of our children and grand-children? Do we have that eagerness to make maximum efforts and come up with plans to make it happen? We should never ever throw up planning or making endeavors to make sure that our faith is succeeded with equal or with even more considerations we pay to our tangible properties.
5. The plan Abraham came up with was an idea that the bride for Isaac should be so qualified as were mentioned. It is very interesting and thought-provoking that the future wife of his son was being considered as a way to help out while the prime matter had to do with the succession of the faith by his son.
My wife and I would, on occasions, make a very similar plan when we think of succession of our faith to our son, the eldest of our children. As we learnt it in the service of last week, wife is an indispensable help for husband. For the faith of husband to grow the faith of wife will offer an indispensable assistance.
The first of the conditions the servant was shown in finding a wife who has faith in the same God was to go to the country of Abraham. Whether the folks of his country were believers of the same God is not clearly written. Descriptions at latter part (for instance, verses 50 and 51) of the chapter look to suggests vaguely that Laban, the elder brother of Rebecca, worshipped the same God as his LORD.
If that's the case, a question could arise as to why, in the first place, God made Abraham leave his own folks who had the same faith and set to a journey to land here-to-for unseen and unknown when he was 75 at age.
The second condition was that if a befitting girl was found, she should be brought over here to the land of Canaan. If she wouldn't she didn't have to be brought here in betrayal of her wish. But never Isaac should be taken to Abraham's home country, he declared.
What Abraham thought was important was his own experience: of him having been led out from his father's house and the land of his birth, as verse 7 writes. The faith to accept God as the LORD demands the follower to accept the thoughts of God, not his own thoughts, as the thoughts of his LORD, and to set out on a journey even leaving from his own folks. Abraham demanded a girl for Isaac's wife to be able to live as an alien just as they do on the land of Canaan. The daughters of the Canaanites means those who would stay in this world relying on geological ties or blood relationship; not ones who would live accepting invisible God as their LORD and would follow him in this world as aliens.
It may perhaps not be possible to get a wife who totally shares the same faith as theirs. However, Abraham may have thought that over time it may become possible for a girl to get to accept God as the LORD if she would draw a line from the Canaanites; if she can accept to leave her clan to live on the land of Canaan as a stranger or alien, and if she can accept that kind of life as good for her.
This ardent wish of Abraham, together with the wise plan of his servant, found its way of realization by God in a way beyond one's imagination. What did the coming of the servant to a well outside the town mean? His saying, 'Here I am by the spring,' has a deep meaning.
If one ardently wishes that the faith to accept God as the LORD be succeeded by somebody, God will likely fulfill it. Such a wish is fulfilled by standing on the side of a spring.
Genesis 24: 1 - 21
1. Abraham was by now a very old man, and the LORD had blessed him in all that he did.
2. Abraham said to the servant who had been longest in his service and was in charge of all he owned, 'Give me your solemn oath:
3. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and earth that you will not take a wife for my son from the women of the Canaanites among whom I am living.
4. You must go to my own country and to my own kindred to find a wife for my son Isaac.'
5. 'What if the woman is unwilling to come with me to this country?' the servant asked. 'Must I take your son back to the land you came from?'
6. Abraham said to him, 'On no account are you to take my son back there.
7. The LORD the God of heaven who took me from my father's house and the land of my birth, the LORD who swore to me that he would give this land to my descendants ? he will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife from there for my son.
8. If the woman is unwilling to come with you, then you will be released from your oath to me; only you must not take my son back there.'
9. The servant then put his hand under his master Abraham's thigh and swore that oath.
10. The servant chose ten camels from his master's herds and, with all kinds of gifts from his master, he went to Aramnaharaim, to the town where Nahor lived.
11. Towards evening, the time when the women go out to draw water, he made the camels kneel down by the well outside the town.
12. 'LORD God of my master Abraham,' he said, 'give me good fortune this day; keep faith with my master Abraham.
13. Here I am by the spring, as the women of the town come out to draw water.
14. I shall say to a girl, "Please lower your jar so that I may drink"; and if she answers, "Drink, and I shall water your camels also," let that be the girl whom you intend for your servant Isaac. In this way I shall know that you have kept faith with my master.'
15. Before he had finished praying, he saw Rebecca coming out with her water-jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.
16. The girl was very beautiful and a virgin guiltless of intercourse with any man. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up again.
17. Abraham's servant hurried to meet her and said, 'Will you give me a little water from your jar?'
18. 'Please drink, sir,' she answered, and at once lowered her jar on to her hand to let him drink.
19. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, 'I shall draw water for your camels also until they have had enough.'
20. She quickly empties her jar into the water trough, and then hurrying again to the well she drew water and watered all the camels.
21. The man was watching quietly to see whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.
(The Revised English Bible)
April 21, 2013
- Wives, be subject to your husbands; husbands, love your wives -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Many of you know it, I gather, that the order of wedding ceremony has a section called 'Teachings to husband and teachings to wife.' The verses 22 ? 24, chapter 5 of the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians are listed as the lines which are to be read in the first place from among the several 'Teachings to wife,' according to a formula prescribed by the United Church of Christ in Japan.
I am reminded that there arose opinions at the UCCJ's executive council meetings which I, being the moderator of Ou District, attended as one of the ex-officio associate members; opinions were raised to the effect that the lines of the Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 - 24 should be deleted from the formula.
I, for one who have conducted a number of wedding ceremonies to-date, do not remember having read out the Bible passage in the formula as it is laid out. If you misunderstood or failed to comprehend the passage as if it came to home to you just by hearing it on its surface, i.e. without being given a considerate elaboration about it, you are not to be blamed.
Whereas in the beginning verse, verse 21, you are advised saying, 'Be subject to one another,' the following verses only require wives to be subject to husbands. Moreover, it is reasoned saying, 'for the man is the head of woman, just as Christ is the head of the church. Christ is, indeed, the savior of that body (meaning the church).'
There is no denying that Christ is the head of the church and its savior. But it is never that apparent that husband is the savior of wife. Therefore, one can never say that husband is the head of wife like Christ is the head of the church.
In what sense, then, did Paul say such a thing? I don't know if I can give good explanation about it so ladies are hit home. Let me try to tell what was shown me by God.
2. The point I want to underline first of all is that the Bible passage for today is inseparably deeply linked with the passage from chapter 5, verse 15 downwards. In verse 16 Paul said, 'these are evil days.'
In what sense were the days evil? The sentence just before it saying, 'Use the present opportunity to the full,' explains it well. The phrase 'Use to the full,' was used in market transactions to mean to buy back something for money to make it your belonging. In the context of today's passage, to 'use the time to the full,' meant to regain the time deprived by somebody as your own. Vice versa, such days are called evil days during which we are deprived of major part of our life-time and are given them by someone else as if rationed and forced to live that time as they would like us to.
I suspect that we live in more evil days today than people did 2000 years ago. It's been a long time since the problem was pointed about the people who are made to work for too long. As the number of workers placed outside the frame of regularly employed increased, it has become more and more difficult for many workers to refuse long hours of work forced upon them. Rumors abound of cases in which even regular employees when found not profiting the company are pushed into 'a disposition room,' as it were, and are tenaciously advised to resign.
How so many people are placed in a situation where they are deprived of their time by people with power and have to spend forced-upon time, I wonder. This doesn't end up just at the place of work. More often than not, we are forced to spend time either ill at health or with afflictions in other forms.
In the midst of such evil days, is it possible for us at all to 'use the time to the full'? How can it be possible? We are counseled that the answer is given us today's Bible passage.
The verse 17 says, 'Understand what the will of the Lord is.' Today's Bible passage provides us with the clue for us to live wisely understanding 'the will of the Lord.' The first one of which is to live in the relationship of 'husband and wife.' For second, it is to live in the relationship of 'parent and child,' as written in chapter 6, verses 1 ? 4. And thirdly to live in the relationship of 'slaves and master,' as in verses 5 ? 9 of chapter 6.
When we look back on the age and society of 2000 years ago, Paul's teaching is indeed striking by which he advised the followers to live in such relationships as the way to understand 'the will of the Lord,' and to live wisely by gaining back the time as their own.
I say this because reading Bible commentaries I get to understand how bad were the relationships of husband and wife, of parent and child and of slave and master in those days.
Reading the Old Testament Bible, we find that polygamy was nothing uncommon. Even among the Jewish people who have succeeded generation after generation reading the words of Bible such as Genesis, infidelity and divorce must have been treated in favor of males.
In Greece and Rome too, wife and child, not to speak of slaves, were the belongings of husband, parent and master. Their life and death were in the hands of husband, parent and master. Unreasoning indeed were their relationships. However, such relationships, Paul said, were opportunities to 'use to the full,' to live wisely, to live according to the will of the Lord.
Paul didn't mean only some special occasions or some situations in which only some special people are placed as the manifestation of the time used to the full. What he meant was the situations in which anyone can be and are placed: situations all too common. And these are situations which by common sense can only be considered bad. But such a situation is the very place, according to Paul, where one can live wisely with understanding of the will of the Lord. Isn't that a surprising?
3. As the first of such a place Paul refers to the relationship of husband and wife in today's passage. How nice it is? It is so nice as Paul, by quoting from the last words of chapter 2 of Genesis, put it saying, 'There is hidden here a great truth,' ? which Jesus too is referred to as uttering in the gospels.
How great a truth is hidden there? How great a truth does God conceal in the relationship of husband and wife and would give it to us? To our regret we humans have refused to take the great truth and treated it without due respect generation after generation since Abraham. But the husband and wife relationship is not to be dealt with so lightly. It is something which God hides great truth in and offers to us to take it so we can live wisely in evil days by it.
That great truth is to be found in the words of verse 31 where it says, 'This is why a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' Before we got married we were such as to have been supported and our life maintained by our father and mother, i.e. by blood relationship. However, since after we get married we get to be ones who are supported in the relationship of husband and wife, though leaving away from the support by blood relationship. No need to say that the blood relationship of parent and child is not going to be gone. Yet since after we get to live in the relationship of husband and wife, the blood relationship cease to be the main support for our lives. It is so true as a naval string which was absolutely vital for a baby in the womb turns out to be of no use at all once the baby comes out of it.
I remember having myself been impressed by the strangeness of this relationship when I began to live with my wife. I didn't feel disgruntled to give all I got as my salary to my wife. We come in the relationship of sharing much, be it in terms of body or of time. Indeed we become 'one.' In such oneness we get to a relationship which chapter 2 of Genesis described saying, 'This one at last is bone from my bones, flesh from my flesh.' We get to accept the naked partner without giving sense of shame.
It is indeed a great truth that we, by becoming husband and wife, are given support for our life leaving ourselves away from the relationship of blood, which protected us up to that point in time. This suggests that the relationship of husband and wife can overcome and free ourselves even from the shackle of work, of sickness and other afflictions in life. That the husband and wife become one and get to be able mutually to receive a naked partner will enable us to get over the bondages forced upon us from various sources, I would think. There must be many who got over difficulty in the company or over the pains of sickness as a married couple. Being husband and wife is the clue to getting your time in life back in your hands. This is the great truth God concealed in the relationship of husband and wife, I would like to think.
4. Paul, in his words of today, used an analogy of the truth of husband and wife relationship to explain that of Christ and the church. This, perhaps, made today's passage difficult to understand. Paul said in verse 32 'I refer to Christ and to the church,' after saying, 'There is hidden here a great truth.' Something about the husband and wife relationship turns out, without knowing, to overlap with that of Christ and the church.
God concealed the great truth in the community of the two, which is nothing more than an organization made by humans, i.e. in the relationship of husband and wife. Likewise God concealed a great truth in the church through Christ, which is but only an organization of humans. Christ changed the church into one where the great truth lies.
And this is what the verses 25 ? 27 refer to. '25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it, 26 to consecrate and cleanse it by water and word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and without blemish.'
The church is also but a community made by humans as I repeated pointing out in my sermons on the anniversary of its foundation and on the Palm Sunday. It cannot escape from becoming robbers' cave, from having opposing opinions and even from jostling each other. After this worship service, we'll be having a general assembly meeting of our church. It is possible that conflicting opinions arise and a war of words might unfold then.
Yet the church is a communion of two or three gathered in the name of Jesus, of people who uphold Christ as our Lord. Among the followers who got in a same boat, to borrow the expression of the Bible passage of last Sunday, there might arise a strife or antagonism. Yet it is a communion of those riding in one and the same boat, of ones who believe in and need the help from Jesus. There we are one, getting over difference and antagonism. What is just an assembly of humans turns out to be a holy community. It changes into a church blessed with wonderful gifts from God. And that is the great truth God put in the church in Christ. Beside being made to be able to live in the relationship of husband and wife, the church is also a place where we are allowed to live wisely following the will of God.
5. Jesus loved the church and gave himself in order to place the great truth of God in it. In order for the church to have the great truth of God, the love of Jesus was indispensable. Paul applied this to the relationship of husband and wife.
This having been said, it goes without saying that not all the matters which lie between Jesus and the church apply likewise to the relationship of husband and wife. Yet, just as a community made of humans needed the love of Jesus for it to have the truth of God, another community of humans, i.e. husband and wife, for it to have the truth of God in practice needs to do something vis-?-vis marriage or to give something to each other. That something is love to be given from husband to wife and for wife to serve her husband, Paul says.
The time is running out and I will confine myself in elaborating just the case of wife to serve her husband. Chapter 2 of Genesis, which we have learnt several times by now, suggests that at the base of this 'service,' lies the fact that Eve was created to be of good helping hands for Adam. One might raise a question why only wife should help husband. That's because husband is a kind who needs the help of his wife that much, I would think. God said, 'It is not good for the man (the male) to be alone; I shall make a partner suited to him.' To serve means to help as I take it from this verse. If you ask me who I think the head of the couple is, I would say virtually the wife may be. Yet, in reality, the wife helps husband as if he is the head. Wife accepts husband like that.
The word 'head' in its root meaning gets to the sequence or the order by which God created the universe, it is said. I don't mean sequence in its superficial meaning under which a man was created first and woman later. Man was created as one, of whom God said, 'It is not good to be alone,' as one who cannot fundamentally do without having good helping hands. Wife was created to help such a husband. Marriage is meant for this. Therefore, in fact, the 'head' means the God' order of creation. To this head serves husband and also wife. Wife, however, serves the head by way of helping her husband. That, I would think, is the profound meaning concealed in the idiomatic phrase used by Paul when he said husband is the head of wife.
How can a husband not care about his wife who is of great help for him? The words of verses 28 and 29 sound strange indeed, by which Paul advised husbands to love their wives. In loving his wife, he loves himself, Paul said. It is for the husband himself that he should love his wife, it's advised. How odd! Yet the fact is that this is indeed true. To esteem and value the wife given as his helping hands is nothing else for the husband but to care about himself. Not to care about his helping wife is the same as not caring about himself.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 5: 21 - 33
21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as though to the Lord; 23 for the man is the head of woman, just as Christ is the head of the church. Christ is, indeed, the savior of that body; 24 but just as the church is subject to Christ, so must women be subject to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it, 26 to consecrate and cleanse it by water and word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way men ought to love their wives, as they love their own bodies. In loving his wife a man loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own body; on the contrary, he keeps it nourished and warm, and that is how Christ treats the church, 30 because it is his body, of which we are living parts. 31 'This is why' (in the words of scripture) 'a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' 32 There is hidden here a great truth, which I take to refer to Christ and to the church. 33 But it applies also to each one of you: the husband must love his wife as his very self, and the wife must show reverence for her husband. (The Revised English Bible)
April 7, 2013
- Possessing of a burial-plot -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. 1-1) Today's words show that Abraham's wife, Sarah, died at the age of 127 and how Abraham purchased a plot of land to bury her. As it was a lengthy story, I asked you to read only the beginning and the end of it. As you might know, the land that Abraham was able to acquire in the promised land was this burial plot, which was his first and last land. I'll talk about it in more detail later.
1-2) What is shown to us first is what kind of thing is brought to the fore. If you should write an address for her funeral, or if you should talk about memories about her at the funeral, what would be their contents? Among women who appeared in the Bible, I hear that it was only Sarah whose age at death was clearly mentioned. Probably she is the only person not only whose age at death but also whose innumerable anecdotes in her life were written. In those anecdotes, what remains in our memory to a large extent is that it was not until she turned 90 that she was provided with Isaac, right?
1-3) The same thing seems to be true with the author of Hebrews. In the so-called biographies of devotees, he talks about Sarah like this: Chapter 11, Verse 11 says "By faith Abraham, even though he was past age ? and Sarah herself was barren--- was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise." This part makes us feel as if Sarah had acquired the power to give birth to a baby even at the age of 90 thanks to her faith. And also it makes us feel as if her faith had been very strong. However, we, those who had been reading the Old Testament, know very well that the reality was not such a thing. When Abraham and Sarah heard from an angel that they would be given a baby, they were not able to believe it. Its biggest evidence was that they named their baby Isaac, which means "laughing." Although they laughed, God, who was sincere, kept his promise to them. That Isaac was given was never thanks to Sarah's own faith nor thanks to the greatness of her faith. It was contrary to the fact. Actually God did it.
1-4) To sum up, what her life revealed is that God did such a thing. If it had not been for God's splendor or if God had not protected and supported her, how tragic her life would have been! Sarah was twice taken into the harem of the Egyptian king and Abimerek respectively, probably as a hostage. On such occasions, it was God who liberated her from there. As she could not wait for being given a baby between her and her husband, she gave her slave Hagal to her husband and she obtained a baby called Ishmael by force. As the pregnant Hagal took the attitude of arrogant superiority, Sarah harassed Hagal and drove her into a situation where she had no choice but to run away. On such an occasion it was God that appeared in her presence and comforted her. Now when the Isaac whom she looked forward to for a long time with her husband was given, she demanded that her husband drive away Hagal and Ishmael. It was God that taught driven Hagal and her baby how to cope with this unreasonable demand and how they should live.
1-5) The same is true with our life as believers. Although we are what is described that way or just because we are what is described that way, if God guided and supported us, our life would be a disaster. We hope that our life would reveal such a picture. We should not have a life about which we boast that our efforts have brought this present state or that our faith has been wonderful. If our life can convey the message to the effect that we have really needed God's guidance, then it's OK.
2. 2-1) Next what today's words show us is what we can know through Sarah's death right after Chapter 22, although I mentioned a little when I dealt with Chapter 22 last time.
2-2) What is written in Chapter 22 is the biggest stumbling block to us, who try to read through the Bible. It was called a sacrifice of Isaac. God told Abraham to offer the Isaac who was provided for him at long last to God as an offering. What on earth did it mean? Did it mean literally as Abraham took it, for him to raise his sword and to kill his son Isaac on wood?
2-3) I am really reminded that what it meant in concrete was Sarah's death that today we are dealing with. 'To offer'means that just like Sarah's death that we talk about today, however much we love, it must be returned to God when time comes and that God does it, however hard it is, out of love for us. God never deprive us of our beloved ones, just because He hates us and He wants to torture and to make us sad.
2-4) "To offer" is really hard for us like this. Therefore, it is impossible to do it with our own power. If we try to do it on our own, it will be forced violence to our loved ones. It means to kill our loved one by ourselves. God does not ask us for such a thing. As Sarah was taken away from Abraham at the end of her 127 ?year life, it happens after the passage of a long time as work that God does himself. Still as is shown at the end of Verse 2, Abraham's parting from Sarah and offering his loved one to God made him grieve and weep. I hope that you will compare his figure here and his figure in Chapter 22 which shows his taking Isaac to a mountain in Moriya and his trying to raise his sword. Chapter 22 has no room for showing a single drop of tears nor grieving. But Chapter 23 is quite different. To offer our loved one means to do it in the midst of grieving. Jesus grieved on the cross saying,' My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?,'didn't he?
2-5) Through his experience of the sadness of losing his wife Sarah, Abraham knew for the first time what it was like to offer his loved one to God, I think. Probably he learned anew how wrong and what a silly behavior it was for him to try to offer Isaac to God in such a way, right?
3. 3-1) Thus Abraham mourned over Sarah and wept for her but as is written in Verse 3, 'at last he rose and left the presence of his dead one .'The reason is written in Verse 3 and the following. He intended to buy a plot of land to bury his wife Sarah's body. In the Easter Sunday Service held last week, we listened to the scene where the women who visited the tomb' rose' and fled out of fear when they heard news from God's messenger. What made the women rise from the tomb was that they knew Jesus'resurrection from God's messenger. Likewise what makes us rise from the tomb and makes us start to take a new good step from an existence of just mourning over and weeping for a dead person is news from God, I think. The same thing was true with Abraham, right? He was told by God that Sarah's death and to be in the presence of his dead one would prompt Abraham to take quite new steps and to gain an opportunity to obtain a very important thing, wasn't he?
3-2) At the beginning of Verse 4, Abraham says, 'I am an alien and a settler among you.' Just because he was in such a situation, although he was rich, he could not buy any plot of land from the local people, however strongly he wished. However, Sarah's death enables him to do it for the reason of burying her body. It is not until you lose a precious thing and grieve over offering what is important to God that you can get something important. The same is true with us, right? It applies not only to pain literally but also to losing what is important for us and being deprived of it. It is a symbolical meaning of being in the presence of a dead body. However, it alone can become an opportunity to enable us to gain something that we have long wanted.
3-3) That the land that Abraham gained was a burial plot was very significant, right? The burial plot was not ordinary land. Like ordinary land, we cannot build a house and live there or build a store and do business. Abraham was able to gain only such special land in the promised land for the first and last time and that land was not the land that could be used for everything. It is there that God's message of sales boycotting can be found for Israeli people and us descendants in faith.
3-4) To have such a burial plot is the most precious property and footing that we can gain in this world, right? Although I repeat many times, this burial plot is the place where to lose and to be given, and to offer and to possess, which essentially cannot be one, are strangely combined. To have such a strange place can become a decisively important footing and foundation for us sojourners in walking in this world. It does not mean that for Israeli people possessing ordinary land to possess the place in Palestine that might cause conflicts over it can be a foundation.
3-5) What does such 'burial plot 'mean to us? What is the place where to lose and to be given are strangely combined? It is Jesus on the cross, I think.
(This is a translation of the gist of a sermon prepared in Japanese; not a transcript. Translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI.)
Genesis 23 :1- 4, 16 - 20
1 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old,
2 and she died in Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in Canaan. Abraham went in to mourn over Sarah and to weep for her.
3 When at last he rose and left the presence of his dead one, he approached the Hittites:
4 'I am an alien and a settler among you,' he said. 'Make over to me some ground among you for a burial-place, that I may bury my dead.'
16 Abraham closed the bargain with him and weighed out the amount that Ephron had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of the standard recognized by merchants.
17 So the plot of the land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah to the east of Mamre, the plot, the cave that is on it, with all the trees in the whole areas, became the
18 legal possession of Abraham, in the presence of all the Hittites who had assembled at the city gate.
19 After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave on the plot of land at Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which is Hebron, in Canaan.
20 Thus, by purchase from the Hittites, the plot and the cave on it became Abraham's possession as a burial-place.
March 24, 2013
- Jesus stakes his life for temple cleaning -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Today is the day of worship called the Palm Sunday. It falls around the time when the festival of Passover for the people of Israel is about to begin, which is like New Year Days for us. Pilgrims from all over the world gathered at Jerusalem and the city's population blew up to several of millions, it is said.
Into such Jerusalem Jesus entered on a colt of donkey. This Jesus people welcomed with shouts of joy, waving palm boroughs and leaves or carpeting the road with them (though the Gospel of Mark we are using this morning at its verse 8, chapter 11 simply puts it only saying that others spread greenery which they had cut in the fields.)
This hail of rejoicing of people turns within a few days to condemnation saying, 'Put him on a cross!' By our days of the week Jesus was put on the cross and died on Friday. It is against this background that we call the week commencing today as Passion Week.
Accidentally the Bible passage I chose for today happens to be the same one as I picked last year at this time. The scene of the temple cleaning is one of the few events described in all the four Gospels apart from his crucifixion and the resurrection.
However, there is a major difference in terms of where and in which context the event is depicted as between the Gospel according to John and the Gospels by three other writers. Typically John wrote Jesus as saying 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again,' (John chapter 2, verse 19), after he drove out merchants and money-changers. These words are not found in Mathew, Mark or Luke. I must add though that the Gospel according to Mark chapter 14, verse 58, for instance, records evidence presented against Jesus: 'We heard him say, "I will pull down this temple, made with human hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands."'
In short, it was critical for Jesus to have acted to clean the temple because it pulled the trigger to drive him on to the cross (as written in verse 18 of today's passage.) In other words, Jesus took the matter so seriously as to have staked his life.
A direct reason why he took such an action was the state of affairs of the Temple of Jerusalem as described in verses 15 and 16. As you may have heard it for a number of times, why were there various kinds of merchants and money-changers in the Temple, perhaps I don't have to elaborate for you in detail. Allow me just to say that the Israelites had to offer animal for sacrifice or pay tax to the Temple once in a year. People could take animals of their own or buy one on the way to the Temple. But those offerings were quibbled about at the office of entry and they ended up having to buy supplies from the Temple itself for unreasoning prices. As regards the Temple tax coins inscribing secular kings and lords weren't acceptable; they had to be changed for especially-made coins. The commission for the money-change was also extortionate.
However, much of the commission was to support the lives of Levites and priests. I don't think Jesus denied all such trades as of 'robbers' cave.' That's not the essential point of the temple cleaning, I suspect.
2. Jesus began the act of temple cleaning by quoting from chapter 56, verse 6 of the Book of Isaiah, which says 'These I shall bring to my holy hill and give them joy in my house of prayer.'
First and foremost, I am drawn to the fact that he began with the words 'in my house.' These were the words of God given through prophet Isaiah. In other words, God says here 'my house.' And Jesus also quoted God so saying. These are manifestation of it that God and Jesus allowed and accepted that there is such a thing as 'my house' constructed and stands on earth in some form, I would think.
This overlaps with what we were taught through the sermon last week. The main theme of the last sermon was 'the house of the LORD.' While we talk about the house of the LORD, and by the same token, about the house of God or my house without being problem-conscious, what are being said by these words have profound implications and are expressions with full of contradiction embracing the fundamental relationship of tension, as we were taught last week.
God resides in heaven and he is everywhere. Can we sensibly say, then, that such God owns a house and lives in the house? Isn't it blasphemy to say such a thing? And this kind of faith is certainly alive among the people of Israel, especially amongst the prophets.
Isaiah chapter 66, verse 1, for instance, says 'these are the words of the LORD: "The heavens are my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where will you build a house for me, where will my resting-place be?"' I told you last week that when David planned to build a temple, God stopped him through the mouth of a prophet Nathan.
On the other hand there is a flow that runs as if against the flow just said; a faith strong and thick, in which God gives recognition to 'my house,' and allows us to build it in some form as good as it is written in today's passage of the Bible. The words of the Psalm we read last week are an expression of such a faith. God who stopped David to build a temple allowed his son Solomon to make one. In the same Book of Isaiah we have passage like that of today while at the same time it has words of chapter 66 we just read.
The mind of God in a word is his kind and special consideration to us, I would think; a compromise for our benefit, if I may say so. God allows us who live in this world, who are on this earth to build 'my house,' as the window for or bastion to believing in the connection with invisible God in heaven. That is not for God himself but for our benefit. Without such a house we on earth cannot get to believe the connection with God in heaven. We cannot get to offer our prayers to him. On this point about prayer I will come back to again later.
3. However, exactly because 'my house' is a consideration or a compromise to us on the part of God, it is always laden with a problem. It has a risk of becoming a 'robbers' cave.' It cannot get free of that primitive risk. This was how there was inevasible reason for Jesus to have staked his life for the temple cleaning.
A question in this connection would be in what sense the Temple is turned to a robbers' cave. God who is everywhere in heaven, we tend to keep in a house on earth. In the case of the people of Israel they tend to confine God in a temple built in a place called Jerusalem. In other words, we tend to put him and keep him in a house or in what human hands made. Moreover, we force him to provide what we desire to have. We try to take it off from him by force.
The other day we learned from the First Book of Samuel chapters 4 and 5 at the Bible Study & Prayer Meeting. It depicts that was how the people of Israel were like. They were given Ark of the Covenant from God which contained stone tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed as the sure testimony that God would be with them or as 'my house,' when after coming out of Egypt and after wandering in the wilderness they were about to enter the land of Palestine.
People forgot about the Ark for sometimes. But when Samuel emerged who encountered with God in the temple where the Ark had been kept, people's faith to God was raised up again; revival of faith took place.
Then they rose up against the Philistines who oppressed them. However, things don't necessarily go that well and they didn't get what they wanted if actions had started with faith. Things may end up in exactly the opposite of what we wanted. The people of Israel had faith only of victory; no defeat. They tried to carry the Ark of the Covenant and therewith tried to get the victory they wanted to get. Yet the result was disastrous. The Ark was taken away and Eli the High Priest, the last Israelite judge before rule of the kings, died.
Just like them we also tend to confine God in heaven in a place which is convenient for us. Church is 'my house,' that God provides as our sure reliance through his only son Jesus; it is not a house made by our hands. Yet church also cannot escape having a character of a house made by us gathering at it, character of a house in this world. That's why we, too, try to contain God in it and try to take what we want from him by force. The history of church is the repeat of such trials. And I repeat here to say that is why the temple cleaning was necessary.
4. God said 'my house,' which he allowed us to build for our benefit, shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, and Jesus cleaned it to revive it as a house of prayer for all nations.
For what purpose is 'my house' given us? For what purpose was Jesus sent to us and we are allowed to build a church? What does God say we should do in the house? God tells it is for us to pray in the house that it was given us. 'My house' is a house for prayer more than for anything else.
However, some say prayer is the real cause behind that makes us implore before God our selfish desires. This reminds me of an encounter at the church which I previously served with who is a grandson of a pastor. He happens to be my senior of undergraduate school and a cousin of a pastor of Yuzawa Church who took a great care of me in my high school days.
He grew up seeing difficult walks of the pastor, his grandfather and his family. The more ardently they prayed the more miserable the church and the pastor's family got, he saw. That's why, he says, he won't pray. Prayer is just a selfish demand on the part of humans. The more you pray the wider gets the break up between men resulting in clash of greed and ambition.
It may very well be so. Yet, despite all of that, we cannot help praying. We, who suffer and worry living on earth, and who have no solution or salvation on earth, can only raise our eyes up to heaven and pray. Being told that a junior school-age youngster got intractable disease, the only thing we can do is to pray. Hopefully the prayers are really addressed to God in heaven and they get answers sent from heaven. It is our sincere hope that our prayers are pleasing to God and that they are answered back with what are sent from heaven; not something we implored God forcibly for.
For Jesus to say 'a house for all nations,' has a deep message. If what is given as a result of our prayers having been heard is indeed from heavenly God, it will benefit all people, transcending states and nations. Howsoever selfish prayers we may make, prayers God would listen to may be only what he recognizes as necessary, only what he thinks are good.
Jesus was born as a human being in order to build such a house of prayer on earth. And Jesus on the cross purifies our house of prayer. So long as this holds good, a gift God will give us in response to our prayers will be one suitable to Jesus on the cross.
(Translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO from the gist of sermon written in Japanese)
The Gospel according to Mark 11:15-19
15 So they came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold there. He upset the tables of the money-changers and the seat of the dealers in pigeons; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry goods through the temple court. 17 Then he began to teach them, and said, 'Does not scripture say, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations"? But you have made it a robbers' cave.' 18 The chief priests and the scribes heard of this and looked for a way to bring about his death; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
March 17, 2013
- Let us go to the house of the LORD -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Tsukuba Gakuen Church was established on March 21, 1978. The coming Thursday marks the 35th anniversary of its foundation. For me this is the second worship service to commemorate the foundation.
It's been my policy to try to listen to what the thematic Bible words for the year has to tell us. The thematic words for this year are taken from Psalm 122, verse 1. It says, 'I rejoiced when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."'
'I rejoiced' is very simple and straight for an expression in the Old Testament Bible: something rare to find. It impresses upon its readers how great the joy was.
The song is said to be the one which Israelites on their pilgrimage to the house of the LORD, to the Temple at Jerusalem, to be more precise, sang together. We don't know the background against which the song was written. Still I can imagine what it was like.
The man who said he rejoiced had called time and again on the people, maybe members of his family or it could have been his friends, to go together on a pilgrimage to the house of the LORD, I guess. But they had not agreed to do so. All of a sudden, however, they told him unexpectedly, 'We would go to the house of the LORD with you. Take us there.' His prayers over many years were now being answered and the joy of coming together to the Temple overwhelmed his heart. It may have been such a situation that was unfolding before his eyes when he wrote the song.
This reminds me that many of you may likely be embracing similar wishes. However, it is not a wish which will be realized over a short span of time just as the man who sang the psalm had to wait for long; something, perhaps, not going to materialize even if we asked persistently. This is probably something which only God can get done. The only thing we can do is to continue to bear witness ourselves how wonderful it is to go to the house of the LORD.
2. By the way, to go to the house of the LORD means, first of all, to believe in God as our 'Lord,' ? 'Lord' means a master, without saying, suggesting that we are his subordinates, and we'll become his servants ? it means we take it good to enter in such a relationship and accept the relationship.
How is it that this is a joy, something to be rejoiced? To many people it could be a real question.
Allow me to make reference to a familiar episode which I talked about some weeks ago. I have a friend since college days. He lives in Kashiwa city and invited me to a dinner at his home. Under the influence of alcohol, my friend kind of picked a quarrel with me, knowing full well that I am a pastor. He challenged me saying he has somewhat of a faith and reaching his age he would increase it; but he can never live with a monotheistic faith or religion; of the kind I upheld which he says stirs terrorism or kill other people.
My friend and I are much alike in that both love to be free. We hate to be given orders and are forced into doing something. He feels that such commandment or compulsion is built in the so-called monotheistic religion. How can you say you rejoice the relationship in which you are committed with one God and are given instructions which you must only follow, he said?
Being Bobbsey Twins, I can understand what he says very well. If my faith to uphold God as my 'Lord,' only results in depriving me of my liberty and I am only asked blindly to follow his order, I don't think I can find joy in such a faith. The fact is that the relationship of God and me, with him as my lord and me his servant, is not like that at all.
3. The word of Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians we learned about last Sunday is recollected. Paul told us to live 'sensibly.' To illustrate what 'sensible' living meant, Paul dared to use the words of merchants of the time which they in their business transactions and told them it meant to 'buy back the time.' 'To buy back the time' means to take back the time of life for your own purpose; it means you become the lead character of the time, which is yours. Sensible living for us is to take back the time as ours while various beings around us and events unfolding may deprive us of our time.
But the point of our learning last Sunday was that it is really difficult to take back our time for us. There is a great force, protagonist or a ruler who deprives me of the time from my life. Most straightly to put, it can be to fall sick; or it can be to die. Worries over them can disturb the hearts of many and take away their peace of mind. It prevents man from living the time remaining as his own. Indispensably valuable time is ruled by disease and death. It leaves away from me as something not belonging to me.
Verse 3 says, 'built compactly and solidly.' The theme sung throughout all the words from verse 6 and the following is 'peace.'
When our time is taken away by disease or death, the first thing which gets dissected out is our heart and body, I would guess. It is the peace and security of our heart and body that are lost.
It is necessary for us that the time of our life doesn't get dissected out by such factors and that we still remain at peace.
What is it that makes it possible? It is not the strength of our own that makes it possible. The lead character, me, doesn't have that power, to our regret. Being shaken by disease or death facing up, I do not have strength to gain back the time lost to disease or death.
Who, then, has that power? It is 'the Lord,' our God who has it. It is the Lord our God, who wins over the battle with the master and ruler such as disease and death and governs me. It is for this very reason that we willingly accept that we are brought under the rule of God; we are pleased to become his servant.
At the root of the relationship in which we uphold God as our Lord and in which we become his servants lies this joy. At its root lies our liberation from various kinds of rulers of the secular world who rein over us the 'slaves,' and deprives us of our time.
Between Israelites and God, the Lord, lay the 'Ten Commandments,' at the depth of their relationship. Generally people may regard their relationship as nothing but one of commanding and obeying between lord and vassals.
But, look, for example, verse 1, chapter 20 of Exodus, which begins saying, 'I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.' It is the Lord our God who will liberate us, winning the battle with various kinds of forces which would make us their slaves.
4. To go to the house of the Lord means we accept that there is a 'house' of the Lord our God, and that we will make our steps forward toward it. In the psalm which we quoted, the house of the Lord specifically meant the Temple built in Jerusalem.
It may look natural that they would go to the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet it has a deep dimension. I am made to think over again that 'the house of the Lord,' is a phrase much contradictory and fundamentally divisive.
For one thing, is it possible at all that God our Lord I've talked about, who transcends all the rulers of the world, is accommodated in a 'house?' If, on the other hand, there isn't such a 'house,' how can we possibly link ourselves in relationship to God? It is possible for us to become house servants, 'house children,' or 'butlers,' because there is such a house, isn't it? It's not possible for us to come under such a relationship without having a place for that. Reverse question is can a temple built by men, built with materials of this world be a house in which God dwells?
Looking back on the faith of Israelites, it seems there have been struggles or stacking up of questioning repeated on this profound matter. There are two extreme positions regarding this. One is that God won't live in a house built by men. The other is to try to confine God in a man-made house. The people of Israel have swayed back and forth between these two extremes. And it does look as if God himself wavers right and left between the two positions.
Now, we are reading the Book of Samuel at the Bible Study & Prayer Meeting on which I might give more detailed explanations some times. Chapter 7 of the Second Book has the following scene; David built a palace for him and planned to build a temple to enshrine the Ark of the Covenant, which is a chest to keep two Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. The intention was, I would think, to enshrine God the Lord who led them out from the slavery in Egypt in a man-built temple and keep him in there. To this God said, 'Go and say to David my servant, "Are you to build me a house to dwell in? Down to this day I have never dwelt in a house since I brought Israel up from Egypt; I lived in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I journeyed with Israel, did I ever ask any of the judges whom I appointed shepherds of my people Israel why they had not built me a cedar house?"' But the God who forbade David to build a temple for him allowed his son Solomon to make one.
Prophets in general were critical of the faith that God dwells in a man-built temple and that it is the house of God. In the faith of the people of Israel, however, the conviction is still alive that the Temple of Jerusalem is the house of the Lord. And God himself does not refuse it. The psalm we read today is also one which testifies to that tradition. To pay pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem is to go to the house of the Lord, people believe. And God does not deny it. God accepts the words of the poet, I think, that heartily he rejoices seeing as many people as possible go to the temple believing it is the house of God.
Verse 2 says, 'Now we (or our feet by Japanese translation) are standing within your gates.' As I said earlier, we must live in this world commanded by various rulers, and must live walking on our 'feet.' For us to walk ahead upholding God as our Lord, it may be necessary to have the house of the Lord in this world where we can anchor our feet and stand. It is indispensable for us to put our feet in a house in this world. This necessity of ours God will approve of, I would think. At the same time we should not forget that such a house is full of constraints and limitations as a house built by men.
5. Here lies the very reason why God sent Jesus to us. Jesus is not the kind of the house of the Lord which men built with materials available in this world, and in which men can confine God. Jesus is the living house of the Lord built by God, not by men.
We can put our feet in the house by loving him, and by desiring to walk with him. We can live in the relationship in which God is our Lord, realized by loving him and wishing to live together with him. That's never a relationship of lord and his subjects, of us being commanded and being forced only to follow. Instead it is one in which we long for him and are attracted by him: one that's natural, simple and with full of joy.
Church is indeed an institution made by men and the chapel is built with materials available in this world. But it is an organization of two or three men assembling who believe in Jesus. In that church is the house of the Lord.
Psalm 122: 1-9 A song of the ascents: for David
1 I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD.'
2 Now we are standing within your gates, Jerusalem:
3 Jerusalem, a city built compactly and solidly.
4 There the tribes went up, the tribes of the LORD, to give thanks to the name of the LORD, the duty laid on Israel.
5 For there the thrones of justice were set, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: 'May those who love you prosper;
7 peace be within your ramparts and prosperity in your palaces.'
8 For the sake of these my brothers and my friends, I shall say, 'Peace be within you.'
9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God I shall pray for your wellbeing.
(The Revised English Bible)
February 24, 2013
- The Lord provides in his mountain -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The word given to us today is one of the most difficult to understand; and it is true not just among the stories in the Old Testament Bible but also among all the stories throughout the entire Bible, i.e. including those in the New Testament Bible.
God gave long-awaited heir to the 100 year-old and 90 year-old much aged couple by miracle. However, the same God demanded Abraham to offer the heir Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham took the word of God at face value and went to the point of almost killing him. God stopped Abraham from killing his son. What was the intent of God? Where did his will lie?
According to a commentary by professor Bruckman, both Luther and Calvin, the reformers, made very honest response to this, what would look a contradiction on the part of God. Calvin is quoted as saying, 'The instruction of God contradicts with the promise he had made,' and Luther saying, 'This is a contradiction appearing as if God was self-contradicting.' As for his own opinion, professor Bruckman wrote 'Commentators will do well not to make comment on this. For there is no way one can explain this.' That being the case, how is it possible for us to deliver a sermon on this story?
This Bible passage reminds me of the course of drill for delivering sermon during the last year of learning at the theological seminary; this passage was given to every student about which to make script for a sermon, which each of us did make in practice.
Scripts were circulated among students for comments to be made by fellow students. Reading script of a student, say of Mr. A, I was caught by surprise and got even upset. The message of the exercise sermon told, in a nut shell, that we, too, shall do as Abraham did for that was how our faith should be. After serving as a pastor for a few years at a church belonging to the United Church of Christ in Japan Mr. A joined the Hebrew University for study and now serves in Israel as a Rabi of the most conservative sect of Judaism. There are also pastors who say that we should follow not just Abraham but also Sarah who gave silent consent to her husband to take their son with him, as well as Isaac who followed his father without saying anything against; and these pastors say our faith should also be like that.
The word of the Bible given today seems to have a function, as it were, to make the faith of the receiver appear on surface, and that in ways which may be different from one person to another, depending on how one receives the message.
As for me, I can never ever believe that God will command us to lay our hands on to kill or inflict injury to who we love. God is not such somebody who will test our faith by seeing if indeed we are engage in such an action or not. Should something tell us to injure or to raise swords against somebody in the name of faith, it's the voice of devil, not of God.
2. How can I read this story then? Verse 1 starts by saying, 'Some time later God put Abraham to test.' There's no doubt in me that God surely put Abraham to test.
For what purpose did God put him to test? The clue to understanding this lies in the beginning of verse 2 which says, 'Take your son, your one and only son Isaac whom you love.' God underlined the point by repeating that Isaac is the son of Abraham and that he is the one and only son whom Abraham loves. And what God pointed here, I say, was the subject of the test; the element which needed to be put to test.
The other way of saying the same, according to some pastor, would be to say that Abraham loved Isaac more than he did God. This way of saying it involves risk of misleading, though. I would say that it is no use to discuss which was stronger or bigger by comparing his love of God with his love of spouse and of child. In this context we are reminded of the message about "light" which we were taught in the service of last Sunday. A man, Paul by name, was on his way to a town called Damascus; he was being led by what he believed was a light. The light was that which was coming from the sun (or the natural light) and was also that which was coming from being trusted by and from the authority delegated to him by the rulers of the time. So our special attention was drawn to the natural light; the light of nature, but not just that of the sun. It is the kind of light which will naturally come in through a porch window upon us as we bathe in the sun, fully content, with no worry and just feeling happy.
It may be safe to say that Abraham was just under such a light then. Hagar and Ishmael were driven out from the clan in chapter 21, who had been the source of family feud for some time. Then he struck a settlement of peace with the king of the area where Abraham and his people lived as aliens. 'Some time later' as written at the beginning of verse 1 refers to these events. With many of the troubles having been settled and an heir having been given, they were living fulfilled, regarding such a state of satisfaction alone as the light of life.
But such a state of happiness does not last long. Time will come when the light of nature is covered by clouds and shattered by storms. Night of darkness comes. Chapter 23, which follows this one, deals with the death of Sarah and that was not by coincidence. Some such a time will come at any day and it was coming close.
Should a time turn around that way, they could not have light in so far as they remained how they were. It was in preparation for such a time that he was put to test. God called him saying, 'Abraham!' That call was the light from heaven. It was the time when God intended to pour light of heaven on him and his family.
3. God said, 'Take your son, your one and only son Isaac whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a sacrifice on one of the heights which I shall show you.' Abraham took it to mean 'Offer your son as a burnt offering.' He took it literally. That's where lay the problem of faith of Abraham.
The way Abraham took the word of God did not represent, however, the true intention of God. The land of Moriah and one of the heights God will show him were the times when the light of nature had to be lost, when Sarah was to go and when Isaac was about to be cut off from his protection.
To go to the land and to go up on the height meant, I think, that it be accepted that such a time would come as an act of God. To live means to accept this fact. We cannot avoid going to the land of Moriah and going up on the height shown by God as long as we live. And on that height we have no choice but to leave us from ourselves and from our family whom we love. All we can do is only to entrust them to God. Suffering and worrying, we have only to accept the time.
What is important to recognize in this context is that to offer to God whom we love ? starting from ourselves, to our spouse and to our children ? is something we cannot do on our own. That is something God does. Our aging and our passing will come as an act of God. Time will come when we have to part from the ones we love, when we can do nothing but to entrust our beloved to God.
How can it be possible that we lay our hands on the ones we love, kill and offer them to God as burnt offerings? That is something we can never ever do. God does not impose on us to do such a thing.
4. Abraham tried to do by his own hands what he could not and should not do. He was absolutely wrong in that. Though it may be a hasty jump to conclude I would suspect that followers of Judaism, of Islam and us in the Christian faith have trodden the same path wrongly: the path to inflict and destroy ourselves; faith to take it right to lay our hands on someone in the name of God. Again repeating it may sound though, I say that it is something accomplished only by God as his acts ? it is nothing artificial indeed, something accomplished in the natural environment, without unreasonable forces ? and accepted by us in the end.
At the Bible Study & Prayer Meeting of last week, we learned how a woman, Hannah by name, was given a son Samuel, and entrusted him to God. Hannah never ever tried to kill him for sacrifice. On the contrary, she kept him by her side, breast-fed him abundantly and poured her love, according to the scripture. When it was time, all the family went together to the shrine and worshipped God. Then the son was entrusted to Eli, the priest. As it will have been seen from this story, to offer a child to God means first to feed him abundantly, to pour love on him and to walk with him, observing worship of God. A time will surely come when the boy had to be taken away from your hand, at which time what you do is to accept that he has to be parted from you. There is no contradiction between loving and offering. To offer and entrust someone to God never ever means to inflict injury on or give him torment.
5. Now, when Abraham was almost to bring knife down on his son, the angel of the Lord stopped him. And when he looked around, he saw a ram caught in a thicket, according to the scripture. Abraham offered the ram for sacrifice to God instead of Isaac. Abraham named the place 'The LORD will provide,' and to this day the saying is: 'In the mountain of the LORD it was provided.'
What is taught here is how the light from heaven shines on us when we make it up to the top of the mountain even though suffering and worrying. What does it mean that God provided a ram for Isaac in his mountain?
Certainly our physical bodies will be burnt off at the mountain of the Lord. We will lose tangible fellowship in body with our loved ones. Yet what disappears or burnt off is only a ram, I suspect. Isaac is not going to go away. What is at the root will remain. We are given more than what's been burnt on top of the Lord's mountain. For 'In the mountain of the LORD it was provided.'
'In the mountain of the LORD it will surely be provided,' is proven by Jesus who was resurrected from death on the cross. Something indeed was burnt off on top of the Lord's mountain, in the event of death on the cross. Something was lost and disappeared. Yet Jesus was not lost. Much more than the previous linkage was now given to his disciples.
Genesis chapter 22 Verses 1- 20
1 Some time later God put Abraham to the test. 'Abraham!' he called to him, and Abraham replied, 'Here I am!'
2 God said, 'Take your son, your one and only son Isaac whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him as a sacrifice on one of the heights which I shall show you.'
3 Early in the morning Abraham saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his men and his son Isaac; and having split firewood for the sacrifice, he set out for the place of which God had spoken.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the shrine in the distance.
5 He said to his men, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go on ahead. We shall worship there, and then come back to you.'
6 Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and put it on his son Isaac's shoulder, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7 Isaac spoke. 'Father!' he said. Abraham answered, 'What is it, my son?' Isaac said, 'Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for a sacrifice?'
8 Abraham answered, 'God will provide himself with a sheep for a sacrifice, my son.' The two of them went on together
9 until they came to the place of which God had spoken. There Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
10 He reached out for the knife to slay his son,
11 but the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, 'Abraham!' He answered, 'Here I am!'
12 The angel said, 'Do not raise your hand against the boy; do not touch him. Now I know that you are a godfearing man. You have not withheld from me your son, your only son.'
13 Abraham looked round, and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went, seized the ram, and offered it as a sacrifice instead of his son.
14 Abraham named that shrine 'The LORD will provide'; and to this day the saying is: 'In the mountain of the LORD it was provided.'
(The Revised English Bible)
February 17, 2013
- Even darkness becomes light -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. (1-1) The latter part of Verse 8 said in the Bible that used to be used before the New Joint Translation, “ Live as children of light.” That is one of the words that we inscribed into our hearts for the first time at a kindergarten affiliated with the church or the church school.
(1-2) Now let's listen to Verse 8. It begins with 'For you were once darkness. ' It literally means that people at the Ephesians' church were darkness, as good as darkness, before they became Christians. But we can regard those people as walking in darkness, can't we? Even so, before they became Christians, they lived with light suitable for them in those days. As no one can walk or drive a car in darkness, without light, they live with something that they call light. What Paul refers to here is that something that he lived on and depended on at that time turned out to be not light but what caused him to stay in darkness a lot longer, I think.
(1-3) In this word of Paul's lies his own experience, doesn't it? I am talking to you by using the Bible with references but Verse 8 leads to Acts Chapter 26, Verse 18 that starts with the word, 'to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. ' I would like to begin to read a few lines before that, that is, Chapter 26, Verse 12. 'On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' 'Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' ''I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting ,'the Lord replied. 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 'This part describes very well what Paul regarded as light in his life, before he became a Christian, before he met Jesus and also what kind of life it caused him to live. Verse 13 says, 'About noon.'It is natural but the light that shone on Paul in those days was first, natural light, namely, the light of the sun. Next, the light that shone on him was that he was trusted by those who were in charge of Jewish society in those days and he was entrusted'with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 'as described in the first part of Verse 12. To Paul, to walk in such a kind of light was equal to, or was just to walk in light from God, and light from heaven.
(1-4) However, how did this cause him to live? As a persecuter. He persecuted Christians, and furthermore Jesus, which was a way of living with hostility against God. In Acts, we can find several anecdotes of his conversion but it is only here that we can find Jesus' word 'It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'Probably at this time really Jesus said so to Paul. When we live by regarding natural light, or the light that we have when we are entrusted with the authority and commission of people, that is, when we live by regarding such a thing as light, our way of living turns out to be a foolish one. It was 'a light from heaven'that converted such Paul as a persecutor.
It shone on him, 'brighter than the sun.'That was Paul's own experience.
2. (2-1)The same word is given to us. What we usually regard as light is first, natural light and the light that we feel when we are recognized by people in our society and entrusted with the authority. The light that we refer to as natural light is not only the light from the sun but also the light of itself, or the light that we radiate from within naturally or the light that is radiated when we or our family are in the state of satisfaction without any anxiety or concern or poverty. In other words, it is the light that shines on us when we are satisfied or when we feel very happy.
(2-2) Under such a light, we infer the value or meaning of our life or the lives of our family members. We judge its color or features. A light has such functions. Verse 9 says, 'the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.'What I am going to talk about may deviate very much from what the word originally meant, but under such a light we judge what is good, righteous and true, don't we?
(2-3) We judge that when under a light from the bright sun, we are satisfied and in our society we are trusted by people and live with the authority entrusted to us, our life is good and right. In contrast we judge that the life contrary to the above life is not good.
(2-4) When everything is going well, it's OK. However, our life never fails to go just the other way around at our last stage. That is the goal of our life in terms of our body, and the time for completion. Even if it is our goal and the time for completion, we must declare that unless we have such a light, we regard it as bad and we are not right, outside of the light and we are nothing but in darkness. How unhappy we are that we should regard our steps in this world and the time for completion, namely, the most important time, as being in darkness!
(2-5) I heard from my daughter who works as a nurse that in her ward of the hospital there are many terminally ill cancer patients and several patients die every day without fail. She says that their suffering is spiritual. Although my daughter is reluctant to talk about religion, as is often the case with a pastor's children, she dares to say such a thing. She means that the suffering comes from a fear of death, and not knowing the meaning of death, or the truth of it. What she knew even from her experience of working for a short time was that those who can pass away peacefully are those who have faith.
(2-6) We look at death by a different light. Or we look at suffering or pain by another light. If it were not for such kinds of lights, our life would be equal to living in darkness, wouldn't it?
(2-7) On a journey to Damascus Paul saw a light from heaven. He saw a light brighter than the sun and a quite different light from natural light or the light by which he was given the authority. He was illuminated by that light when he met Jesus. That kind of light is essential for us. It is by being illuminated by a light from heaven that we know the goodness, righteousness and truth of our life. It can be said that our life of faith lies exclusively in being illuminated by this light.
3. (3-1) With regard to a decisive characteristic of a light from heaven, Paul talks in Verse 14. It says, 'it is light that makes everything visible.'This is a really wonderful and rare word. We can judge whether the light that is given to and shines on every one of us comes really from God in heaven and from Jesus by this characteristic.
(3-2) A light from heaven shines on some darkness within us. And the darkness that is illuminated becomes a light and a light source that emits light. It can never be applied to natural light, nor a light from this world. When it illuminates darkness, it removes darkness and suppresses it with darkness removed. It only gets rid of darkness.
(3-3) Let's read Acts again. There this characteristic of a light from heaven is described really well. It shone on the darkness of Paul the persecutor. It said, 'why do you persecute me?' again and again and illuminated that darkness. But although it illuminated the darkness, it didn't remove it. It didn't remove that part of the persecutor as if a surgeon got rid of cancer. Rather it recognized him as suitable as a servant and a witness. Why did Jesus appoint such a person as Paul as a servant and a witness? It is because he, who was so enthusiastic as to become a persecutor, can know the joy of being connected with God, not by his own deeds or thoughts but solely by God's grace and by believing in Jesus, better than anyone else.
(3-5) Those who appear in the Bible are all people who have such darkness. The same is true with Abraham whom we have been learning about in Genesis. Moses was a murderer. The same is true with David. Jesus' disciples also had darkness and the same is true with a lot of women who appear in the Gospel. However, the light that God and Jesus sent to them was not the light that removed and got rid of darkness. On the contrary, it was the light that emits out of darkness and that illuminates God's forgiveness and grace just because of darkness.
4. (4-1) With regard to the typical picture of a light from heaven and from Jesus, Paul is trying to talk in the latter part of Verse 14. We don't know exactly where this quotation comes from. Also, some translation omits the word 'and'in 'Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you .'In my opinion it is a correct meaning. The reason why sleepers and the dead wake up and rise is exclusively that Christ will shine on them. It is just the other way round that after sleepers and the dead wake up and rise, Jesus will shine on them.
(4-2) A light from heaven and from Christ shines on sleepers and the dead and says to them, 'Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead.'Why does he say that way? Because it is not time for them to sleep. Because they have a mission to be given to each of them. Just because they are the dead, and just because they have got through such darkness, they are obligated to tell something to us, who live by being illuminated by the light and who live by regarding only natural light, light from society and from this world as light. Under this light, we feel that to be the dead is highly esteemed highly. To be the dead never means only a sad thing or a disaster. There is a light which is given just because of their becoming the dead. And they send the light to us, who live on the Earth. The word'and'may come from there. The dead are given a light from heaven and send it to us too. In the light from the dead we are given a light from Jesus.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI)
The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 5: 5-14
5 For be very sure of this: no one given to fornication or vice, or the greed which makes and idol of gain, has any share in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one deceive you with shallow arguments; it is for these things that divine retribution falls on God's rebel subjects.
7 Have nothing to do with them.
8 Though you once were darkness, now as Christians you are light. Prove yourselves at home in the light,
9 for where light is, there is a harvest of goodness, righteousness, and truth.
10 Learn to judge for yourselves what is pleasing to the Lord;
11 take no part in the barren deeds of darkness, but show them up for what they are.
12 It would be shameful even to mention what is done in secret.
13 But everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light.
14 That is why it is said:
Awake, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine upon you.
(The Revised English Bible)
February 3, 2013
- Travail of living as an alien -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. Passage of the Bible for today is given from the section subtitled 'The Agreement between Abraham and Abimelech,' put just before verse 22 begins, according to the Bible of Japanese translation.
Abimelech was the king of the area called Gerar, appearing in the preceding chapter 20.
The area of Gerar belonged to the Philistine, which is the origin of the word Palestine as it is called today.
We cannot grasp what message the section intends to tell us just by giving a glance at it.
The clue to gaining an understanding of this section may lie in finding how it is linked in substance with the preceding section, as it is true also with other similar cases which are tough to comprehend.
The whole of today's chapter 21 began with the story of Abraham and Sarah having been given a long-awaited heir, Isaac. The story unfolds in a way that the other son of Abraham, by now supposedly grown up to 17 by age and his mother Hagar were unreasonably expelled from the clan.
We've learned that this overtly wanton act befitted, however, the will of God at its depth. God intended to make descendants of Abraham through this baby, whom he gave to 100 year- old Abraham and 90 year-old Sarah by laying hands of intervention on them with a miracle. And there will be heirs to this God-given child in succession. God gave that promise and gave assurance to it.
The story of today's section tries to tell how the family of Abraham and the people of Israel should stand and live in this world; it intended to show which was the way of living that was unavoidable for them.
The whole event in today's story seems to have its origin in the trouble about a well as written in verse 25. Abimelech's men took a well which Abraham dug.
Even a family and tribes assured of succession from generation to generation cannot avoid being involved in troubles of this kind as long as they live in this world.
The question then is what it will be that helps them outlive the worldly troubles. What will be the critical discipline or principle to follow under such circumstances? Which way of living should one follow to overcome that sort of problems safely?
2. The discipline or principle more important than any other is shown in verse 34 of today's section. The verse says Abraham, after having been given a heir, lived in the country of the Philistines as an alien for many years.
If a clan was to have heirs and tribes were to flourish from generation to generation they should be given land and property which would serve as the firm base of living, we are inclined to think.
If, by giving them Isaac, God had assured prosperity of the family, what they needed most would have been a land on which to settle, we think.
God, however, did not give this family any such land. The land the couple could finally gain in their life-time was a plot just to bury the dead corps of Sarah, according to chapter 23.
What God granted them as the befitting way of living was for them to live in the country of the Philistines as aliens many years. Living as aliens was unavoidable and they had encountered with troubles because of that.
But, at the same time, they could successfully live out various troubles thanks to having been allowed to live as aliens. To live as an alien was the discipline and the principle of living for them.
How the Israelites of today will hear this, I am interested to know. They might say that the words of verse 34 are what God applied only once for that period of time or only to Abraham to follow; not a discipline or a principle given to the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham for eternity.
The facts of Moses and his people coming out of Egypt, taking land from the people of Palestine (and this was good in the eyes of God according to the Bible), and of their descendants building kingdoms on it since Saul do deny the assertion that the way of living shown in verse 34 is not the ideal way for eternity for the people of Israel, one might say. It may well be that the way in which Israel stands today is in keeping with the way of their people since exodus from Egypt.
But I do not agree with this view. My view is that Abraham is the father of the tribes and father of faith, and as such his way of living is pointing to how the Israelites as well as we, Christians, should live.
I think his way of living is the one that was shown to the tribes to follow after from children to descendants exactly because that was the way shown Abrahamimmediately following the birth of long-awaited heir Isaac.
That Abraham and his descendant Israelites should remain as aliens on the land of the Philistines or Palestine was the way given them as one to which there was no alternative.
This way entails much toil and trouble. Troubles like the one about a well are not going to go away from them for good. Yet, this very way of life is the one by which they could stay long on the land and flourish.
3. Why is it then that the only way for them was to live as aliens? The phrase of verse 34 saying, 'in the country of the Philistines,'is very indicative, it seems to me.
Abimelech was the king of the country. A kingdom was already there and the king was with all the sovereign power. Should Abraham has planned to have a firm foundation and establish an unshakable life on the land of such a country rather than choosing to remain as an alien, he would also have had to build his own country in the face of the existing one and rein as its king with all the power of a kingdom. What would ensue from such a situation needn't be said; war and struggle over territory.
But it was not what God expected of the family of Abraham according to the Bible story for today. Abimelech and Abraham made a pact in the first place: an oath to remain friendly to each other; to live together in peace. It wasn't to go for war. It wasn't to go to take a well by force.
For him to live in a country as somebody not for war, he had to live as an alien. Indeed to live as aliens was the principle or discipline that allowed Israelites to live in succession from generation to generation, don't you think?
When their country was destroyed by Babylonia and the people were taken hostage to Babylon the people of Israel were put on the verge of extinction. And usually in such a case the people and their religion also perish with fall of a country.
Why it was then that Israel did not perish? It did not perish because they did not lose their way of living as aliens. They did not perish because they didn't lose the heritage of faith since Moses to say no to any kingdom built on the land of Palestine (which continued to be told robustly by the prophets) . They did not perish as people when their kingdom was destroyed because in whichever country they lived they did not lose a way of living as aliens.
4. What lies at the foundation for them to live as aliens? It is written in verse 33.
How a tamarisk tree looks like I wonder? When grown it reaches 3 ? 5 meters in height, it's said. One which Abraham planted may be a nursery tree; a short stock. For Abraham, even a short stock of a tree was a good enough tool to arouse remembrance and worship God of eternity.
Comparative observation of his posture of faith with that of a king who builds and rules over a country may be helpful.
For a king the first thing is to see continued existence of the kingdom. The prosperity of his kingdom is what he would ask God for and worship him for that purpose. Therefore, an instrument for the purpose, a facility for worship, a chapel, tends to be built as a large structure. Architecture for worship that will reflect or symbolize prosperity will be built.
But Abraham does not seek prosperity of a kingdom. His mind is directed toward God of eternity. What he looked to was far more than prosperity of a country that eyes can see.
As mentioned, people who worship God have to remain aliens in this country: estranger, heterogeneous being, or an alien. It is not without reason that Israelites and Christians in the Roman Empire and in this country as well are persecuted as mavericks. Indeed, there is a reason for this.
I repeat again to say what I already said. A state will put continued existence of itself the first and foremost objective. The same is true of religion. But it is not so with the faith we've inherited. What a little tamarisk tree points to is Jesus. We, the followers, are aliens who make our steps forward, looking to Jesus. We need to live in a country. But the fundamental way of our life should be that of aliens.
5. Lastly, I want us to learn that their being as aliens made it possible for Abraham and his people to overcome problems in actual life. It was perhaps a dispute over a well that triggered a trouble.
What has become of the trouble in the end? Elusive at best as far as we can find out by reading the story. Abraham tried to have it recognized at least that it was he who dug the well as written in verse 30.
I guess that Abraham and Abimelech likely have settled the dispute by allowing each other to use the well freely. What was the most important was for them to take friendly attitudes to each other, as Abimelech first offered a proposal and Abraham accepted it, and live in peace.
Abraham did not withhold making his case and put blames on the other party of the dispute. But prolonged quarrel wasn't his purpose of disputing.
The purpose was to arrive at a settlement so they could live in peace. That's why he agreed that the other party also use the well in so far as they recognized it was Abraham who dug it. Once a peace pact was established Abraham offered a gift to the other party from his side.
I am inclined to think that it was because Abraham lived as an alien, unbound by land and other things tangible, based upon his worship of God of eternity that he could take such a peace-loving attitude.
To insist that the well belonged to him and him alone, and to refuse others even to use it will be an attitude arising out from it that he is bound by this secular world. It is certainly not an attitude of aliens who are making steps of life, looking to God of eternity.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
Genesis chapter 21 Verses 22 - 34
22 About that time Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham: 'God is with you in all that you do.
23 Here and now swear to me in the name of God, that you will not break faith with me or with my children and my descendants. As I have kept faith with you, so must you keep faith with me and with the country where you are living.'
24 Abraham said, 'I swear it.'
25 It happened that Abraham had a complaint to make to Abimelech about a well which Abimelech's men had seized.
26 Abimelech said, 'I do not know who did this. Up to this moment you never mentioned it, nor did I hear of it from anyone else.'
27 Then Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a pact.
28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart,
29 and when Abimelech asked him why he had done so,
30 he said, 'Accept these seven lambs from me as a testimony on my behalf that I dug this well.'
31 This is why that place was called Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.
32 When they had made the pact at Beersheba, Abimelech departed with Phicol the commander of his army and returned to the country of the Philistines.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he invoked the LORD, the Everlasting God, by name.
34 He lived as an alien in the country of the Philistines for many years.
(The Revised English Bible)
January 27, 2013
- Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1. The most salient feature of the Bible passage for today lies in that Paul repeats time and again words of commandment and prohibition saying 'Do not do ---,' 'Do ---.'
The Paul's repetition suggests to us that the state of affairs in the Church of Ephesus was such that he had to be so tenacious as to be that much insistent on what he had to say. In verse 28 he refers to stealing, and to spite and bad temper, rage, insults and slander in 31.
Chapter 5, verses 3 and downward refer to 'Fornication, indecency and so forth---.'
In short, all these suggest that the people of the Church of Ephesus even after becoming Christians lived in the same way as they had before: no change in their way of life or behavior.
Understandably a man won't experience such a drastic change in the way of living within a short span of time, i.e. before and after he becomes a Christian. I say this to all the would-be Christians in their run-up to baptism; there is no denying that a man could possibly change altogether from the day just before baptism over to the day just after he was baptized. But I have never seen or heard anyone having gone through such a change.
That having been said, I would think that over a long period of, say, several decades, a man certainly would change greatly after he became a Christian. I'd say something must be wrong if one doesn't.
Perhaps the people of the Church of Ephesus haven't been Christians for long enough. It is reflected regrettably in their leading the same, unchanged way of living.
When I reached the age of 50, I attended an alumni reunion at home-town. Among them who joined in the after-party were some who attended the same schools from the grade school to high school with me. I cannot forget being told by one of them with a warm look in his eyes saying, 'You have really changed.'
There is absolutely no telling what kind of a man I would have become if I had remained arrogant and highhanded which was how I had been, if I hadn't become a Christian and had lived away from church.
While I don't mean to say I am no longer arrogant and highhanded, I have become much, much better. I was changed to be of help, albeit a little help it may be, to people around me. That was made possible thanks to it that I have become a Christian and have lived as a pastor.
2. Then we are made to ponder what could be the driving forces that change us after we became Christians. We got to believe in Jesus, got baptized and got linked with Jesus and are poured the Holy Spirit; in a nutshell, it's God who changes us; and what is just as equally certain is that it's not something we could accomplish on our own.
Having said that I must confess though that I was drawn to the point Paul mentioned in the passage from chapter 4, verse 17 downward. There he uses words such as 'to learn,' 'to be taught,' 'notions,' and 'ignorance.' In verse 20 he says 'how you learned Christ,' and 'you were told about Christ, you were taught the truth as it is in Jesus,' in verse 21.
What is vitally significant for one after he became a Christian is that he gets to learn the kind of truth he did not know before. He gains the kind of wisdom, mind and cognition he did not know before and sets out to live with them.
Kanzo Uchimura was originally a scientist and he often talked about experiments of faith; to live on experimenting and substantiating the faith by applying the truth, facts and law gained through faith to the practical life, that is what life in faith means, he said.
3. A little detour here with your permission: I watched a TV program the other day and it made me deeply confirm that to gain a new truth and cognizance through faith leads one to a vastly different way of life. The program was about people on this earth who live in a way we do not even get to imagine.
These are a tribal people in Africa who live their entire lives just on a lake. They have lived like that for the last hundreds of years. How did they come to live like that? Their ancestors were caught by slave traders and were sold as slaves, and that's how they fled onto the lake lying before their eyes and got to live on it.
Why the slave trading tribe did not chase after and get them on the lake? It was taboo for the slave traders to get water on their bodies, though what kind of religion theirs was is not mentioned.
It wasn't the same with the fleeing tribe, though, here again, their religion was not disclosed in concrete terms ? though I am inclined to think that they are probably Christians as a child of a family appearing in the film was being called 'Christian,' when called by the name. ?
They didn't have taboo or commandment of the kind traders had.
They may not have thought of living on a lake until they started to be captured and sold. But under the circumstances, t
hey got to give renewed thinking about their faith, cognition and truth, and applied them to the actual situation they were forced to be in. Thus they came to find out that they did not have any taboo in living on a lake.
The truth and cognition given by faith made it possible for them to make a step forward to a new way of living; made it possible for them to bravely accept life on a lake.
They convinced me afresh that what is wonderful with Christian faith lies in giving us new truth, wisdom and mind and thereby liberating us from previous taboos, prejudice and bias, and in encouraging us to a new way of living; giving us the power to move on to the life on lake.
4. By the way, what were the kind of truth and cognition the people of the Church of Ephesus gained by becoming Christians that they did not know before? Paul tells about several things in this connection in the Bible passage of today, trying to help the Ephesians recollect those things once again.
In verse 30 he says 'that Spirit is the seal with which you were marked for the day of final liberation.' And the center of his teaching here are the lines from verse 32 to the beginning of chapter 5 which say 'God in Christ forgave you. --- As God's dear children, you must be like him. --- Christ loved you and gave himself up on your behalf.'
At its crux is the point that God loves us in Christ as his children, the truth and recognition that nothing can tear us apart from the love of God, can stand in between us thanks to Jesus Christ. How then are the truth and the cognition different from those which people had upheld before they became Christians?
In the early days when we started learning from this letter of Paul, we looked into seeing what kind of a town Ephesus was by referring to the words of chapter 19 of the Acts of Apostles, which depicted how Paul propagated the Gospel there.
They had a temple to worship a goddess Artemis and silversmiths earned their living by making miniature shrines. And a good many of the magicians there, upon hearing the teaching of Paul, threw their magic books to burn them, which value reckoned up to 50 thousand pieces of silver (Verse 18 downward of chapter 19).
I talked to you also about a film made based on a Greek myth which I happened to see. The message of the film, for short, was to say that for the Greek gods humans are nothing more than slaves to serve them; heavenly gods could gain weight and live extravagantly only because men on earth praise them and make offerings for them.
Man with good service to gods is rewarded while he who displeases gods will receive punishment. Man has always to court gods, is made to quiver with uneasiness, wonder if he hadn't displeased them when seeing something bad taking place.
Magic was the only means with which man could hold out against gods; or else they had to court gods through fortune-telling.
Having to serve heavenly gods and having to live fearing them may have nothing to do with us living in today's age. Yet in place of those heavenly gods, there are indeed so many “gods” that force us to serve and work as their slaves, weave us in with anxiety and fear we never get away.
This is an age when only one in three can get regular job; if given full-time employment we live in great fear of being laid off through business restructuring. How many of us get mentally sick, are caught up by anxiety and are obsessed with contemporary forms of taboo, commandments and norms? So many lived based on wrong cognizance and truth under such gods.
5. There, a totally different cognition and truth are brought in; of the kind mentioned a minute ago. Such gods may be there. And there are those with power who rule on us as if we are their slaves and push us around.
Yet they are no god; their rule is not ultimate and they are not the most powerful. The only God is the God who revealed Jesus Christ to us; God who loves us as his children in Christ.
There is nothing that can stand in the way of love which God gives us, that can block and do away with it from us. There is no gods which can cut off the Holy Spirit pouring on us and pull us apart from that power.
The African tribe I talked about early on got to be able make a new way of living on a lake based on this cognition, based on this truth. They had been bound by an idea that they could only live on land: the land where slave traders would catch and sell them; yet that's the only place they had thought they could live.
Under such circumstances they became Christians; or they made a renewed thinking once again on the truth given them as Christians. That led them to find a new way of life. The way allowed them to live on a lake. They could live on a lake.
There on a lake, nothing bothers them from living as the children of God. Rather they find themselves liberated from the threat of slave merchants, freed from having to live with hatred against and confrontation with slave traders.
Wherever we go to and whatever situation we live in we are the children of God who loves us and the Holy Spirit protects us. Recognition of this truth has the power to change our way of life in practical terms.
The way of life Paul showed by way of commandment or exhortation using various different words, for short, is the way of living for us as the children loved by God, for us as ones who know what is necessary is always sufficiently provided for.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Hiroshi NISHIDO)
The letter of Paul to the Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 25 - Chapter 5 verse 5
(Chapter 4)
25 Then have done with falsehood and speak the truth to each other, for we belong to one another as parts of one body.
26 If you are angry, do not be led into sin; do not let sunset find you nursing your anger;
27 and give no foothold to the devil.
28 The thief must give up stealing, and work hard with his hands to earn an honest living, so that he may have something to share with the needy.
29 Let no offensive talk pass your lips, only what is good and helpful to the occasion, so that it brings a blessing to those who hear it.
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for that Spirit is the seal with which you were marked for the day of final liberation.
31 Have done with all spite and bad temper, with rage, insults, and slander, with evil of any kind.
32 Be forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
(Chapter 5)
1 In a word, as God's dear children, you must be like him.
2 Live in love as Christ loved you and gave himself up on your behalf, an offering and sacrifice whose fragrance is pleasing to God.
3 Fornication and indecency of any kind, or ruthless greed, must not be so much as mentioned among you, as befits the people of God.
4 No coarse, stupid, or flippant talk: these things are out of place; you should rather be thanking God.
5 For be very sure of this: no one given to fornication or vice, or the greed which makes an idol of gain, has any share in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
(The Revised English Bible)
January 6, 2013
- Renewed in mind and spirit -
By Reverend Sumio Fukushima
1-1 When I read today'word, what attracted me was the last part of Verse 18, 'they are separated from the life of God.' Needless to say, words such as God or life appear in the Bible innumerable times but it is very rare for the expression 'the life of God 'with the two words put together to appear and probably it is only here that we can find such an expression.
1-2. What does the word 'the life of God 'mean? Also what does the expression 'they are separated from the life of God'mean? Some Bible translated into English says 'strangers from the life God gives.' 'The life of God 'means the life that God gives. In other words, our life is the one that God himself gives, isn't it? We are separated from it. This English translation says that we are 'strangers.'
1-3 Paul tells that the way people behave is applied to 'the Gentiles'described in Verse 17 and the following. The word 'the Gentiles'usually refers to people other than Jewish people but here it refers to those who are not Christians.
1-4. Paul says that 'they live in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.' Judging from his expression, to be separated from the life of God means that thanks to futile notions and lack of intellect and ignorance, with regard to the life of God, --- in my own words, concerning the fact that our life derives from the life that is provided by God, we have no knowledge.
1-5. What is shown as an important point anew is that, with regard to the life of God, Paul emphasizes whether we are intelligent or ignorant. It is a matter in a very rational and intellectual domain that means whether we know it or not, rather than a dimension about whether we believe or not. Of course, as I will state later, it is preferable for us both to believe Jesus to be Christ and to have intellect about the life of God, namely, to have both faith and intellect.
1-6. However, just as we heard throughout the Christmas season, it is not so easy to believe Jesus to be Christ. Some of you who attend this Sunday Service may think that it is pretty hard to believe Jesus to be Christ. Last year at the end of the last Bible Study and Prayer Meeting, a certain person said, 'It is out of place for such a person like me to be here, isn't it? I am sorry about it. ' To him, it might be difficult to believe but he has attended the Bible Study meeting to learn. To try to know is very important, isn't it?
1-7 Although I will mention it later, Verse 19 describes in concrete how to be ignorant of the life of God brings about the way we will live. Whether to know or not brings about such a big difference in the way of living. This part first tells us that to know about the life of God is decisively significant.
2-1. Then with regard to the life of God, in other words, concerning our life, the life that is provided by God and that derives from God himself, what does it mean to know about it? What does it bring us to know it?
2-2. First, we come to know that if this life of ours derives from God, or after all, it is the life of God, it lasts forever and it is what will never be lost. The life of God is, in other words, in expressions that often appear in the Bible, the eternal life.
2-3. Just because many people don't know this, how much misunderstanding they have about life! They think that life lasts nothing but dozens of years within its body. They think that if the life of the body ends, the life itself comes to an end. Therefore, they only think of lengthening the life of the body and keeping themselves in good shape. If some connection lasting dozens of years comes to a close in terms of the life of the body, then they grieve that their connection with loved ones will cease. When we get down to it, they think that our life is only restricted in the body of this world and confined in it.
2-4 This way of thinking has existed since old times. Although we learned several times, a Greek proverb has said, 'Soma Sema' since early days before Christ. Soma means the body whereas sema means a grave. People in those days could only think that the body is what drags life to a graveyard and what we should shun or what is negative.
2-5 It is this way of thinking that brings about 'sensuality'or 'every kind of impurity' as described in Verse 19. Just because to live is controlled by the body, it is at the mercy of the voice from the body. You may think that such a way of living has nothing to do with us. Today a lot of people may not be at the mercy of the voice saying 'Give yourself over to sensuality' or 'Indulge in every kind of impurity.' But our anxiety is aroused by the voice from the body saying 'What if we become ill?' or 'We may lose the present health that we are enjoying at present.'
3-1 To know the life of God gives such people like us a really important intellect. Our life is a thing that we are looking after for God. If so, God probably provided us with the life of the body for some purpose or mission.
3-2 To be sure, just because of the life lasting only dozens of years and the life that is contained in the body, it has pain and cannot help tasting the bitterness of life. But just because of that, we are provided with a mission and a purpose, right? Just because we have our body, just because we have pain or suffering, we give birth to something as is described in the word 'the pains of childbirth'. We experience the pleasure of giving birth to something and the joy of nurturing something. Just because of the body, we can enjoy that pleasure. Just because of the separation of the body, it is precious to spend dozens of years with the body.
3-3 And when the life within the body lasting dozens of years comes to an end, it is finished with its mission and now God's life will move in a new vessel. The life from God does not vanish thanks to the disappearance of the body but it will shift to a next stage so that it will perform in a new vessel the mission that we are entrusted with. However desperately we try to cling to the life of the body, and however long we try to live, we cannot stop this transition of the life of God into a new vessel.
4-1 It is the very Jesus who was born as a human being that taught and demonstrated the precious knowledge mentioned above about the life of God in concrete. Paul talks about it in verses 20 to 21. ' But that is not how you learned Christ. For were you not told about him, were you not as Christians taught the truth as it is in Jesus? ,'We would like to pay attention to the scene where here Paul says that he learned and was taught over again also.
4-2 Of course it is preferable to believe Jesus to be Christ and to be baptized and to learn and to be taught after you have been united with Christ. There may be some knowledge that is not provided to you unless you believe and are united.
4-3 However, just as I said at the beginning, even if you are not able to believe, you may be able to learn and be taught some truth from Jesus' birth and how he lived as a human being and through that fact, right? To learn causes a change to the way we live in concrete, doesn't it? It is the truth about the life of God that we learned just a minute ago.
4-4 Jesus' life described in the Gospel is never satisfying in terms of his body. It started with the event at Christmas. Under orders of the Roman Emperor, his parents who were forced to take a journey had no room for them in the inn. So his mother gave birth to him in a filthy stable and the newborn Jesus had to lie in the manger. That was the beginning of his story. And the end, strictly speaking, in terms of the life of the body, was the pain on the cross and in the midst of suffering.
4-5 However, what we perceive from the Gospel is that his life full of suffering turned out to be filled with joy. The joy is the one that God gave the life of his body when he performed his mission. The life is the one of the body with which he must fulfill his mission. His mission was to suffer and shed his blood in his body.
4-6 After the prayer, we take the Holy Communion. Jesus' word that at this Communion Service a lot of churches in this world have continued to listen to is 'This is the body of Christ broken for us and this is the blood of Christ shed for us.'
4-7 Jesus believed that to shed blood from his body for our sake was a mission from God. It is impossible to shed blood unless it comes out of the life in the body. It is joy that comes because he can perform this mission on the cross. We learn from Jesus that the joy of the life in our body and the joy of life are inseparably combined with the performing of the mission in our body. We learn it as the truth.
4-8 And after it has finished accomplishing this mission, the life that God gave is provided with the new vessel which is the resurrected body so that it can fulfill another mission. This is the truth that we can learn from the fact of the resurrection.
5-1 Paul says, 'Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.' So he tells us to put off our old self and to put on the new self. Although I repeat it many times, he refers to the meaning of learning. To learn enables us to put off our old self and to be made new in the attitude of our minds and to put on the new self. To learn has such a great amount of effectiveness.
5 -2 At the Sunday Service last week, I talked about the dream that I had at the end of November. I said that I felt somewhat purified at parting with everything that I had accumulated until that time and at living as a murderer.
5-3 I would like to talk about again what I felt about that dream. Some day we would have to lose what we have accumulated until that time like that, and to go forward free from them. What this dream tells us is that such an occasion will never fail to come and that even if it is a really harsh life of becoming a murderer, we can bear the life as our new life in a more peaceful manner that is expected, which gives us encouragement.
5-4 Paul's word tells us to put on the new self but it seems that God is trying to make us put on the new self of our own accord. There is no need for you to try to do so beyond your power. Rather from God, He is trying to put the new self on us, as something that we cannot shun.
5-5. The life of the body never fails to put on the clothes as a new vessel. We are taking off a wide variety of old clothes that we have put on in the life of the body and we are surely being made to put on the new clothes. Therefore, what is important is to know the truth about the life of God and to have the attitude toward accepting what this God is going to do. It is also to receive such an intellect and to renew our mind and spirit.
(From the gist of sermon prepared in Japanese translated by Akihiko MOCHIZUKI)
The letter of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 - 24
17 Here then is my word to you, and I urge it on you in the Lord's name: give up living as pagans do with their futile notions.
18 Their minds are closed, they are alienated from the life that is in God, and their ignorance prevails among them and their hearts have grown hard as stone.
19 Dead to all feeling, they have abandoned themselves to vice, and there is no indecency that they do not practice.
20 But that is not how you learned Christ.
21 For were you not told about him, were you not as Christians taught the truth as it is in Jesus?
22 Renouncing your former way of life, you must lay aside the old human nature, which, deluded by its desires, is in process of decay:
23 you must be renewed in mind and spirit,
24 and put on the new nature created in God's likeness, which shows itself in the upright and devout life called for by the truth.
(The Revised English Bible)