“Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not
know about things to come.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NLT)
Morehouse College, “We Shall Overcome!”
Greetings to you all
in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
It has been quite the summer with news of hurricanes,
floods, and fires in many different places in our world, even in the world of
our politics, economy as well as in human relationships, fighting with unseen
enemies like COVID 19 outbreak or all isms. However, we know that human reality
is unavoidable and it is nothing new to us because of our sins from the
beginning in the Christian understanding. I am just wondering where I am and
what I am doing dealing with this reality now.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, how are you dealing with
the same reality in the same world?
First of all, we are the church, the body of Christ, that holds the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. However, what can we do as a church together who holds it?
“Whatever you bind on earth will be
bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:19b, NRSV)
We remember that Jesus promised Peter, calling him the Rock
on which he builds his church. So now what? One thing comes to my mind. “Pray!”
So, do we pray? If so, how do we pray?
More than two thousand years ago, the people of Israel sang
a song in Babylonian exile.
“O Babylon, you will be destroyed.
Happy is the one who pays you back
for what you have done to us. Happy is the one who takes your babies
and smashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137:8-9, NLT)
After they lost their country and their families, they were
captured by their enemy and brought to those enemy’s land. They were not able
to worship in Jerusalem anymore but had to please those Babylonians who crushed
their temple and families as the war slaves. So what could they do? They prayed
for revenge.
I am just wondering if our righteous God listened to their
prayers and crushed them like that prayer at the moment. Would those Hebrew
slaves really be happy? And would it be the will of God done on earth as in
heaven for justice? Maybe temporarily; however, not eternally. Why? Because
they still have to deal with the reality of sin and death after their will be
done on earth. So, do we still want that? No! So what is the eternal solution
for those sinful mortals including us?
“Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, NRSV)
We know we are the ones who can be crushed like that by the
just and righteous God because of our reality of sin and death. It is also
because God listens to our prayers watching all the unjust and unrighteous
things that happen among us and by us against each other. He knows them all.
How can we be free from the wrath of our all-knowing God toward our unavoidable
sin?
Only through Christ and his grace!
Bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the sign of being
freed from the reality of sin and death by the grace of Jesus Christ!
Join us again!
Pastor Kyochul
