Through my short experiences in ministry, I come to realize that I am not the one who is handling the boat. Christ is my captain who knows the ocean perfectly and encourages me to trust in him in this voyage. I wonder this is why Jesus often taught, spent time, and performed miracles in the ocean. You cannot predict anything in the ocean. Jesus even takes a nap in the midst of storm. But he is the One who can calm it.

I am setting sail for another voyage now. I am starting new ministry with new church. I know that I have a lot to grow – wisdom, knowledge, experience, love, forgiveness, patience, generosity, administration … one and one. I may think that I know my boat and the ocean I am sailing but I really don’t. But it is exciting to think that I am not alone in this journey because I am convinced that Jesus is setting sail with me.

And with Christ, I know that this will be a wonderful and great voyage.

In Korea, parents usually give temporary name to the baby till the baby is born. We decided to call our baby “blessing” because God listened to our prayers and showed us God’s grace in times of struggles and trials. As God’s angel said, “His name shall be Immanuel,” we felt strongly that God was with us through our baby. Blessing! Yes, that is your name.

I do not even know how to change diapers now. I do not know how to feed the baby in proper way. I have never bathed a baby before. I will gradually learn to do these things. As God says to us, “Remember who your Father is, Remember who your Creator is,” I tell my baby, “Do not worry, baby. I will prepare everything for you. I will learn to be a great daddy. I will always be there for you.”

I look to God and say, “God, is this also how you feel about us? Wonderful and Awesome!” I feel protected and secure because I know that our heavenly Father will always provide what we need for today and for tomorrow. Even though I may not see clearly as I am still in the womb of my mother, I know that God’s hands are protecting us telling us, “Do not worry about anything. I will always be there for you.”

What is noteworthy here is that he is not only a blind but also a beggar. It is like one misery in our life leads us to another misery, and so on. The poor in our society are not just economically poor. They are also politically marginalized and socially despised. While it would be necessary to care for one in a holistic way, people often try to touch on the surface of the problems by throwing a couple of coins to the poor and marginalized.

But Jesus directly dealt with the root of Bartimaeus’ problem – his blindness that caused him to be placed in economic and religious margin. When Jesus called him, he even threw off his cloak – his everything. He was not a rich but was certainly willing to his everything to go to Jesus. Now, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” Does Jesus not know what he is about to ask of him? He wants to be healed, of course! But Jesus asks him and anticipates his passionate answer, “Let me see again!”

Once healed, he started to follow Jesus on the way. The power of Christ not only healed him with his blindness but also called him to be follower of Christ. I think that we are like Bartimaeus – not being able to see – for John Wesley, our sin blocks us from distinguishing the good from the bad, being confused about what is truth and false. We are like lost sheep, not knowing where to go. Often Jesus may heal people in God’s mercy like Jesus raised the widow’s son from death in Nain. But Jesus also wants us to passionately seek him, cry out to him in our troubles, and even abandon our old-self and follow him.

May God bless us all as we preach the Word of God faithfully and gratefully this coming Sunday.

Text: Colossians 2:6-7

Title: Stay in Love with God

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

My imagination of the Korangal Valley reminds me of what King David says in Psalm 23 – “Even though I walk through the darkest valley.” I wonder what goes through the minds of the soldiers who walk through the valley – at any instance, they could be killed. They think about their loving ones, their spouse, children, parents, and friends. Of course, they will be saluted as hero by the nation but who will comfort their loving ones?

David maybe felt the same way when he was fleeing from his king, Saul, his enemies, and even his son. I cannot imagine how vulnerable he felt, walking in the valley, eating while running away, and sleeping at night. But he says, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Despite the imminent death surrounding him, David confesses, I fear no evil because God is my Shepherd.

Today, I pray for God to give me that faith in God. God is my Shepherd who is leading me with God’s rod and staff. Most of us will not ever be in the Korangal Valley in our life-time. But lot of us have been to situations in which we were experiencing death – not just the loss of our loving ones, but also our spiritual death. Many of us have been there in which we had to totally rely on God. God is our Shepherd, which means that God is walking through the darkest valley with us together. God is standing in front of us leading our ways. Praise God!

Title: Lead Us Not into Temptation

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ²It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. ³David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. ⁵The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

⁶So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. ⁸Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” ¹²Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, ¹³David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

It was my first time to speak at a radio show program.

“Is this Minister Bob? We would like to host you to our program on Tuesday morning.” That was the call I received last Thursday. I thought about all the other people in Seacoast Suicide Prevention Coalition and Police Department who have been working so hard to support the suicide survivors in the Seacoast area. I felt sorry if I was taking their credit by speaking at the radio show program.

I arrived in the show with a representative from National Institute for Mental Illness and a police patrol officer who has much experience in working with suicide. The host was very welcoming for us. He made us comfortable and enjoyable.

As we spoke about suicide together, we were surprised by the power of different groups coming together to speak about the common issue. We definitely agreed that there are many dimensions to suicidal issue. It is not just an issue for law enforcement, not just for social worker, not just for clinicians.

Although it seems difficult to find any words on suicide in the Bible, (we have someone like Saul, Samson, and of course Judas Iscariot) Christian perspective on suicide is likely go back to St. Augustine who considered suicide as sin against God – the 6th commandment: “Thou Shall Not Kill.” Many churches have traditionally shunned away from this issue often condemning those who kill themselves as sinners, and even persecuting the remaining families.

Of course, there would no such extreme churches as above. But it is interesting that while many people who think about killing themselves are likely to speak with counselors or those who are in hot-line, they would not actively seek their ministers to talk about it. The way churches respond to suicide often brings much shame to the suicide survivors so that they tend to be isolated from their families, friends, and even religious communities.

While many of us are tempted to speak whether suicide is right or wrong, I personally believe that God is calling us to speak grace in the middle of devastation. The host asked me, “Chaplain Jon, what is the purpose of the meeting that you are hosting tomorrow at your church?” I paused and then said, “Well, I also tried to think about what I was trying to achieve by having this kind of meeting. While I do not have any clear purpose right now, I believe that healing begins with our hearing from one another. I want people to know that God loves them as they are. And they are not certainly alone because God is walking with them even in their pain and suffering. Since there are lots of different groups of people working together to say yes to our life, I just encourage the listeners to come and share their stories.”

I believe that life is more powerful than death.

I believe that Christ’s resurrection has conquered our death and sins.

“Who shall separate us from the love of God? Will the hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither life, not death, nor rulers, nor angels, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, not depth, nor height, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Even with suicide, we are more than conquerors through Jesus who say yes to our lives.

My friends, no matter what you are going through today,

even in your distress and turbulence,

please know that God loves you all.

And look around; for there are people who care about you.

We are not alone in this world.

Do not lose to depression, harassment, economic difficulty, trauma, stigma,, whatever it is that we are suffering today.

Christ is risen!

And he will also raise us with him too.

Title: Draw the Circle Wide

and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” ²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” ²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

²⁸“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” ³³And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

John 3:1-17

Introduction

“When are you going to preach about the end of the world?” While she was shaking my hands after worship service, Barbara asked me the question. I could not answer the question mainly because the apocalyptic texts are not the first texts I choose to preach from if I were to preach from the lectionary reading. As a matter of fact, the lectionary reading provides a good excuse for preachers to avoid the apocalyptic texts because of 1) the inclination of many contemporary preachers to preach from “good” narrative genres – especially the Gospels and 2) the limited access to the apocalyptic texts provided by the lectionary. Furthermore, preaching the apocalyptic texts may project an image of minister who pounds the pulpits with two tight fists, shouting the vengeance of God on the unbelievers.

Thomas G. Long identifies the contemporary pulpits in U.S. as “unfortunate” especially in regard to the polarization between “the most responsible preachers” who keep quiet and “the least responsible preacher” readily speaks about the apocalyptic vision.[1] While many preachers rest with such extremes with apocalyptic preaching, many Christians in the 21^st century are exposed to many other sources such as novel, TV drams, or movies through which they develop their own apocalyptic spirituality that are often anti-Christian narrative. A flood of apocalyptic theme in the contemporary literature and mass media, therefore, calls preachers to actively engage with the listeners to identify the competing narratives and discern the apocalyptic vision shared by Christian narrative.

Competing Narratives: Gnostic Impulses in the Contemporary Culture

The recent years have witnessed a Golden Age of narrative preaching in American pulpits. While many Christians in 1960s were tired of deductive preaching that tended to be dogmatic, rationalistic, and argumentative, Fred B. Craddock’s inductive way of preaching shifted the loci of preaching from the text to audience. Narrative preaching creatively adopts the genre of narrative as form of preaching, thereby viewing the practice of preaching as “shared journey” between preacher and the listeners. However, many preachers have often misused or overused the narratives as if the narratives would bring about experiencing of the gospel to the hearers.

In response, Thomas G. Long recently wrote Preaching from Memory to Hope in which he cautions preachers with a revival of Neo-Gnosticism that has been creeping into the minds of many Christians. For him, narrative preaching in our time requires critical reflection on the narratives preachers share because he believes that Neo-Gnostic narratives compete with Christian narratives in order to erode the hearing of the gospel. Long identifies four themes in contemporary Gnosticism as “1) Humanity is “saved” by gnosis, by knowledge; 2) An antipathy toward incarnation and embodiment; 3) A focus on the spiritual inner self, the “divine spark” within; 4) An emphasis on present spiritual reality rather than eschatological hope, on the God of timeless truth rather than the God who will bring history to consummation.”[2]

Long’s last point about contemporary Gnosticism seems to resonate with the public obsessiveness with the apocalyptic themes in the popular culture – emphasis the present as the true reality in which hope is already fulfilled while denying eschatological hope from God. For example, the recent movie 2012 deals with the Mayan calendar that predicts 2012 as the doom’s day. In this apocalyptic movie, the entire creation is faced with unexplainable natural disaster that involves earthquake, eruption of volcano, and tsunami. While majority of worldwide population is wiped out, this movie resents a story of survivors who finally enter into “Ark.” While the audience is impressed with the human desire for survival, this movie finds the redemption in the nature itself that eventually finds balance. After all, human beings are the center of such apocalyptic vision provided by 2012. Human beings often become the hero to bring about their own redemption as in Armageddon (1998) and Independence Day (1996).

Apocalyptic Genres and Settings

In The Apocalyptic Imagination, J. J. Collins shares a definition of an apocalypse, presented by Semiea 14 (1979), as “a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.” It is noticeable that the form of the apocalypses is narrative in that a revelation is given to human recipient through visions or otherworldly journeys. It also involves both the divine and human as the giver of revelation and receiver of it. In other words, human being does not initiate the process of revealing what is to come. Finally, apocalypse is both spatial and temporal in ways it involves concrete history as in Daniel often “culminating in a time of crisis and eschatological upheaval.”[3]

While the popular notion of apocalyptic setting is that it was written in a time of persecution, Collins expands it to major crisis that were perceived as critical to the biblical writers. He argues, “The popular view that apocalypses are reactions to persecution is based primarily on the canonical apocalypses of Daniel and Revelation, and is erroneous even in the latter case… It is true, however, that all the apocalypses are related to a crisis, but the crises are of different kinds: persecution in Daniel, apparently culture shock in the Book of the Watchers, the injustice of history (4 Ezra), the inevitability of death (Testament of Abraham).”[4] Long interprets Collins’s argument in a way to point out the powerlessness of people who cry out to God for God’s intervention. For Long, the settings of apocalypse are time and place in which people have absolutely no power to change their situation.

Since Long projects the settings for apocalypse as absolutely powerless, the popular culture that praises heroic action of individuals to redeem the world in chaos is seen as competing against the way Christian narrative envisages the apocalypse. Furthermore, Long criticizes the remnant of the Post-millennialism in the 21^st century that views human beings as “superior rational and moral beings, higher than and separate from the rest of creation, and thus capable of engineering the kingdom’s arrival.”[5] As seen in the contemporary literature or popular culture that deal with apocalyptic theme but refuse to speak about God, the contemporary spirituality, as Long is suspicious of as Gnostic impulse, projects human survival and human redemption as the ultimate theme of apocalypse while proclaiming, “God is dead.”

Preaching Apocalyptic in the 21^st Century

Since preaching is a hermeneutic practice that relates between the text and contemporary listeners, preaching apocalyptic texts also requires preachers and listeners to be cautious in translating, interpreting, and applying to their situation; since the settings of apocalypses are different from that of North America. Of course, some countries in which people experience economic poverty, political oppression, or social discrimination on an extreme level may instantly receive the themes of apocalypses as their stories. But how can one preach to a middle-class people in North America who may not experience the same level of violence and injustice as in North Korea, Sudan, or El Salvador?

While it may be possible to argue how we can preach eschatologically by identifying urgent crisis of our society, I believe that a deeper problem is with the church that still pretends to live in the Christendom. The time when everyone went to church on Sundays, attended bible studies, and committed to spiritual growth is a long-gone history. As a matter of fact, narrative preaching that evocates the gospel narrative through our life experiences may not be a relevant way of preaching in the 21^st century anymore because of amnesia – people do not know the Bible anymore and are not interested in it. With the loss of Christian narrative, many Christians are exposed to many narratives in the popular culture and literature that may imbue their consciousness with some other than Christian narrative.

While some bemoans the fall of Christendom, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon see it as God-given opportunity for the church to be the church. In Resident Aliens, they contend, “The demise of the Constantinian world view, the gradual decline of the notion that the church needs some sort of surrounding “Christian” culture to prop it up and mold its young, is not a death to lament. It is a opportunity to celebrate. The decline of the old, Constantinian synthesis between the church and the world means that we American Christians are at last free to be faithful in a way that makes being a Christian today an exciting adventure.”[6] In this way, preaching apocalyptic is not only for warning the false prophets or sharing a new vision of worship. Instead, it calls the church to be radically different from the world in its belief and practice as it already participates in the kingdom of God that has already broken into this world. Preachers in our time need to preach from apocalyptic texts so that they come to their identity as the church in allegiance to Christ who brings the ultimate judgment and hope.

Conclusion

Our time that is obsessed with apocalyptic themes calls preachers to teach and preach on such themes both faithfully and responsibly. As popular culture and literature also use a narrative framework for describing apocalyptic themes, Christians are encouraged to distinguish Christian narrative among many competing narratives of the world. If preaching proclaims God whose love for God’s creation culminated with life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then I believe that the practice of preaching is the very participation in God’s eschatology in a way it proclaims the kingdom of God already in this world but not yet fulfilled.