Taeil"s sermon, June , 2012 1 Kings 18:20-39 Luke 7:1-10 Last Thursday I was listening to the music and I was caught up by one song. The song was “Where did your heart go?” by Wham. Wham has hit songs such as “Careless Whisper,” “Wake me up before you go-go,” and “Last Christmas.” In the chorus of this song, lyrics says: “Where did your heart go? Did you put it on a train? Did you leave it in the rain or down in Mexico?” The tune of the song is so beautiful, and I got some insights from the lyrics. So, I changed the lyrics like this: “Where did your heart go? Did you put it on a cross of a church? Did you leave it on neon signs in Las Vegas?” If you carefully read today’s scriptures of 1 Kings and Luke, you could guess a theme in my question that I’d like to share in this reflection. In 1 Kings, Elijah clearly says: “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”(1 Kings 18:21) So, I’d like to ask you; “Where is your heart going? Do you put it on the Lord? Are you leaving it in Baal?” 1 Kings contains very spectacular and dramatic scenes. However, the scenes have a problem with interpretation. Before I talk about the problem, let us move on to listening to a brief summary of the confrontation between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. King Solomon once united the Kingdom of Israel, but by the 9th century BC, the Kingdom of Israel was divided into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Omri, King of the northern Israel strived to get domestic security and he had his son Ahab married to Jezebel the daughter of King Sidon as well as a priestess of Baal. Omri’s wrong decision regarding the marriage caused Jezebel to build local temple altars all over the country. Baal was a god of fertility, rain, thunder and agriculture. But, Jezebel’s belief in Baal brought tensions with Israelite prophets who insisted on Mosaic Law, and King Ahab made these tensions worse, by allowing worship of a foreign god in the palace. In this context, Elijah appeared and warned Ahab that there would be severe drought for years, and Ahab and Jezebel thought that Elijah caused the drought and ordered someone to kill him. In the third year of the drought, Elijah presented himself to Ahab, as following the word of the Lord. Ahab said to Elijah, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”(1 Kings 18:17) However, Elijah directly pointed out Ahab as a troublemaker: “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.”(1 King 18:18) Elijah clarified that Ahab and his father Omri’s disbelief brought years of drought to Israel. Elijah asked Ahab to summon Baal and Asherah’s prophets with all Israel at Mount Carmel. Finally, Elijah confronted 450 Baal’s prophets and asked them to make a bet with himself.(1 Kings 18:23-24) Who is the winner of the bet? Elijah. Do you know the result of the bet? Baal’s prophets were killed. Because Elijah ordered to kill them, this story used to be called Elijah’s slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal. Indeed, this story has two facets of the Lord: mercy and cruelty. We can replace the word “cruelty” with the words “sacred violence”. Mercy and sacred violence. Hmm. We can find texts in that God commands Israel to remove their enemies without any mercy on the earth. For example, Deuteronomy 7:1-2 says: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you... and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.” Wow. Is it true? We could question the righteousness of the Lord’s command. If the command of destroying enemies is made by God, all kinds of war crimes against humanity under the name of other gods will be righteous as well. Someone could assert that as a divine wisdom transcends human’s moralilty or humanity, Israel’s enemies or prophets of Baal are evil and deserve their fate. This argument is not limited to Judaism or Christianity. Most religions have same problematic interpretations. Two things we should remember in these problematic interpretations is that Jesus’ words are prior to all kinds of interpretations and the Hebrew Scriptures should be read with the perspectives of the New Testament such as unconditional love, justice, peace and equality. Please, look into the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke shows us the story between a centurion and Jesus our Lord. Who are centurions? They are a part of the Roman occupation force in the first century and do not believe in Jesus as Christ. In fact, they are Gentiles. A centurion in Luke seeks Jesus out for the healing of his slave because he heard about Jesus. The centurion has a middle position in the Roman army and controls 100 soldiers. His authority and power in a territory under occupation are so strong. In the time of Jesus, for the centurion, a slave’s life is worthless. Yet, in order to save his slave, he shows very humble attitude to Jesus: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you.... and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.”(Luke 7:6b-8) When Jesus heard this, he is amazed at him and says: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”(Luke 7:9b) And Jesus heals the centurion’s slave. Do you think the centurion is a believer of Jesus as Christ? I think he is just a man who has very strong humanity as much as he cares for his slave. I think he does not know Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah whom Israel has waited for long time. In fact, when we see the centurion on behalf of Israel, he is an enemy as well as gentile. Nevertheless, as Jesus observes his humanity to save his slave, Jesus heals his slave. In other words, Jesus is surprised at where the centurion’s heart goes. When we consider the story between a centurion and Jesus, even though I don’t mention the meanings of the words “Love your enemies,” we can realize what 1 Kings implies. 1 Kings focuses on where Israel’s heart is. It does not focus on the victory of the Lord against a god of the fertility, Baal. It does not show the righteousness of Elijah’s slaughter or the cruelty of the Lord. The message of Elijah is that our heart should go to the Lord. When we encounter bad things such as unemployment, illness, disaster, accident and so on, our faith is decided by where our heart goes. Do you put your heart on despair or hope? Also, Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew 6: “‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”(Mt. 6:19-21) So, where is your heart? On earth or in heaven? Last Conference Annual meeting in Beausejour, our moderator The Right Rev. Gary Paterson led the comprehensive review and reported what has happened in the United Church of Canada. The key point of his report is that our United Church of Canada has faced a very critical crisis as he likens the church to a pickup truck that doesn’t know where it should go. I think that the future of our church depends on where our heart goes. If we are afraid of changes that can bring something new to our church, our church’s future is self-evident. At the same time we see very wonderful churches that overcome their difficulties as they bring new changes to their churches. Gary wrote: “as I travel across the country, I also hear how difficult it can sometimes be to see these signs of new life. Like many churches, The United Church of Canada is facing significant demographic, cultural, and financial shifts. In many places in our church, fewer people—especially young people—are going to church. Faithful volunteers are spending more time on meetings and paperwork than on ministry. Many congregations are struggling to pay their ministers and maintain their buildings. You are not alone. Different parts of our church are feeling these changes in different ways and to different degrees. But we experience them as one body in Christ. Our task is to discern together how to respond to these shifts, encourage the new life that is emerging, and continue to live faithfully in a changing world. That’s why I’m writing to you today.”1 In conclusion, I’d like to bring the same question again. Do you believe that our church’s future would be decided by our hearts? If it is, where is our heart going?
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 19:57:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015