2002.1.27. Washingtonians(33) - Rev. Young Jin Cho

Let's Leave a Legacy

Romans 16:1-16

The Romans series sermon is coming close to an end. After delivering on Romans 16:17 next week, the series sermon that started the 1st week last year will come to close.

It is said that after death, tiger leaves his skin, but man leaves his name. When one lives a life, it is very important to leave a legacy. Many tried hardest to leave his 3-character name to be recognized and remembered. Some engrave their names on the rocks in the high mountain; others erect tall tombstones at their graves.

But, the most important thing in life is not to leave the 3-character names, but the content of life that is associated his name. The more important thing is, when the name is called, what comes across in our mind as his personal character and the image of his life. Thus, some names evoke the feeling of longing and respect, while for other names you would even hesitate to call their names.

From this perspective, it is necessary to think about what the living people will record your epitaph at your grave. We were told that 3 sentences were recorded on the epitaph of John Wesley, who led the Methodist movement: 'The best thing is God is with us,' 'God buries his workers, but continues his work,' and 'the world is my parish.' It is an image of precious life, wonderful epitaph that reflects his life. While reading the sermon of Rev. Lee Dong Won, I came to these epitaphs; 'My motor mouth wife finally becomes silent.' And then is ' Here lies my loving wife. Please do not wake her up.'

I.

In today's Roman texts 16:1-16, St. Paul was sending his requests and greetings while concluding his letter. These texts include the name of about 27 people including 9 women. They were all St. Paul's fellow workers.

Although brief, all of his expressions were full of love and confidence toward the disciples who were holding hands together and making Christ's history. Phoebe who is the guardian of all of our sisters and others including me, Priscilla and Aquilla, my coworkers in Christ, my loving Epenetus, Mary who worked very hard for me, Ampliatus whom I love in the Lord, Tryphena and Tryphosa and so on, although short in his introduction, Paul sends his greetings to these precious co-workers.

According to biblical scholars, among the people mentioned here, there were Jews like Priscilla and Aquilla, and Paul's relatives, and many non-Jew Gentiles. From the social class point of view, there appeared to be diversity. Because it is presumed that the names like Ampliatus, Urbanos, Hermes, Philologus were used as the names of slaves at the time, and the names like Aristobulus and Narcissus belong to royal or upper classes. The list included Rufus, the son of Cyrene Simon who carried Christ's cross reluctantly, and his mother. In any event, diverse races and classes served the Roman church. The Roman church preserved healthy unity out of this diversity. They were all precious names. All left their precious names. In their names all left the faithful Christ's co-workers' life.

II.

These words have challenging message for us. How can we leave a beautiful life within our names? How shall we live our life to leave a beautiful legacy? What kind of life is a worthy life? Whenever I think of this subject, it reminded me of a particular sermon. It was in the book of Sermon by Rev Martin Luther King. It was the sermon based on Revelation 21:16 "From the perspective of a complete life". Rev King said that to have our life complete, at least 3 dimensions must be developed and formed.

(1) First is the dimension of length. The dimension of length means the domain of life for your own self. It means the development of your possibility and talent to the maximum level. It requires unceasing effort. As in the Longfellow story, the great man arrives at the summit, not through a sudden jump to the top, but because as the results of trying all night long while his friends were sleeping.

God created us as unique individual human beings. He gave us all the ability and possibility. It is a sin in front of God to bury this precious talent through laziness. You must develop and improve your own talent diligently. This is the life you truly love yourself.

For whatever you do, you do your best. This is the way to develop you in the dimension of length. There is no need to despair by comparing yourself to others. I am I. God does not judge you by comparing you to others. When you do your best, it is a success in God's eyes. Rev King cried out to the garbage collectors in this way. If you are called on as garbage collectors, you should collect garbage as the way Michelangelo painted, as Beethoven composed music and as Shakespeare wrote his plays. The true worthy living is from the dimension of the length the maximum development of your life's domain for yourself. It is necessary to become the best possible being in front of God.

(2) But, the length alone is not sufficient. The 2nd dimension needs to be developed. It is the dimension of width. The width means the life for others and neighbors.

My congregation! The true worth of life begins when you transcend the life of length, the life for your self. With the life of length only, you may be successful in developing yourself, but it is a selfish life without helping your neighbors and the society. The truly worthy life that deserves respect is determined by the life's width and breadth.

When God created human being, He created us as social being. It is impossible to live a life for yourself alone. Therefore, the life of sharing and mutual help is natural and a must. But nowadays we are losing the life of width, the love of our neighbors, and the breath of interest in our neighbors.

Matthew 25 shows a metaphor of the last judgment. What is God's standard for the last judgment? It is: did you show love to the weakest? Isn't it the standard? He did not ask: how much did you learn? how famous were you? How much possession did you have? God's standard to judge human beings and interests are: how much did you share? How much did you help your neighbor? How did you live the life of love? The people in today's scripture are those who all lived the life of love. They lived for their neighbors and served together for Christ's public bodies. They shared love and attention.

I am still reminded of one moving incident. When Sister Teresa died, in order to show my feelings and also to teach my son, I went to the Indian embassy to pay condolences. After expressing my condolences, I came out and found a bunch of flowers. There I met a young man who told me the following story. She saved my life. He told me that he was an orphan in India. Through the help of Sister Teresa's organization, he was adopted to an American family. With his adopted parents, he studied and opened a new life in America. On that day I felt one more time Sister Teresa's life of width and the greatness of this width.

My congregation! Yes, do you want a worthy life associated with your name? Do you want a life without shame when standing in front of God? Please preserve width. Please widen the life of width, the life's domain for neighbors. The meaningful life is right here.

(3) But our life cannot be complete with length and width alone. There is one even more important dimension of life. It is the domain of height. The height of life means the life for God.

If your life is wide and long, you may become a great humanist. But we cannot live a worthy live with those two dimensions only. Our life cannot be complete without having the right relationship with God who created human beings and allow us to exist. Today many people think that they can live truly a happy and meaningful life without God. They think that becoming believers in God is merely a matter for only those who are interested in religion. They further think that it is only natural to live life by their own thoughts and values. Especially if everything goes well without any difficulties, they may think God is burdensome.

My congregation! Is it truly a complete life? In this kind of life, people feel spiritual thirst and meaningless of life. People will live a life without the true satisfaction of life and the permanent satisfaction. They cannot find true satisfaction through other substitutes of God. They can only feel uneasiness in front of human being's inevitable death. Because they are orphans who have no home to return to.

Especially the height dimension of life affects the life's dimensions of length and width. My Congregation! How can we expand the length and width of life to the fullest? The only way depends on the dimension of height. Why? As you go up high, you can see far and wider. Those who flew must have experienced this feeling. When we fly up high, we can see far and wide. We can see far and wide.

As we go up higher and higher in the dimension of life for God, our potential ability can be developed to the fullest. If my ability is merely five, and if God's ability is with me, it can change to ten or even twenty. Once believing in God even the incompetent can transform into the competent. If God helps us, we can live armed with God's wisdom and ability, which transcend human wisdom, and ability. The great men in the scripture are those who by climbing high expanded the length of their life.

It is the same with width. As you climb higher, we can live loving our neighbor in wider dimension. You can love not just the people of your liking but also the people of not your liking. How can you love even your enemy? How can you achieve this with the width dimension of life? My love is not sufficient. My ability is definitely limited. As you go up higher, closer to God, we can love more widely. Then we can possess the width that can even accept and love our enemies. Thus, the height is critically important.

My Congregation! Do you want a beautiful image of life associated with your names? I wish you cultivated the height. If the life for God is lacking, our life does not amount to too much. What kind of people were they in today's scripture? They attained, regardless their sex and classes, the height. They were sufficient and rich in the life for God. Thus, we can see the beautiful life in their names. Although introduced in few words, we see their beautiful life.

III.

Today we install 5 new Exhorters. Today's new Exhorters! What kind of life has been associated with your names? Now, what kind of life do you want to live that is associated with your names? Although not grandiose, I wish you lived a life of a true Christ's worker. I wish you increased the length and width, and the height. I wish you filled your names with beautiful life, to be remembered in our church history. I wish you be diligent in developing the life of length for your self. Also, widen your love for the cell members and neighbor. And be loyal to the dimension of height, the life for God who makes everything possible.

This is not just for the Exhorters who are being installed. It is the same with all of us. I wish you pay attention to the day when our life's race ends and the life to be remembered in our names. I wish you worried about this.

I remember the words of Professor Chung, who gave a sermon at our church last January. There was a woman who came to the island where he grew up for marriage. Although she tried, she could not bear child. She was eventually abused and chased out of her husband's family. Out of shame and despair, she decided to flee her town and commit suicide in Seoul. She wanted to jump from the famous Han River in Seoul. But, during daytime, there was too much crowd, so she decided to wait until dark.

When night arrived, she was ready to jump, but heard singing noise nearby with hand clapping. I am ready to die out of despair, but why are these people happily singing and clapping? So, she decided to take a look before she dies. It was a church. She didn't quite enter the church, but heard the hymn and the sermon of Rev Sung Bong Lee at the doorstep. The minister said in his sermon that all those with heavy burden come to me. All those who are discouraged and disappointed come to Christ. Those mothers who are abused and chased out by not bearing child come to Christ. The sick and the poor come to Christ. Those who have worry and anxiety come to Christ. The woman heard the gospel voice that night.

After the revival meeting the minister heard a strange voice coming out of church's doorstep and went out to find its source. A woman was crying, and repeating: who is this Christ? who is this Christ? After listening to her story, he took her to the church at Mokpo where he was preaching and gave her 2 years of religious training. And then he sent her to her island. When returned to her island, with her in-law's understanding, she began to spread the gospel. Wherever she went, she sang the hymn,'I learned Christ's love from the Bible.' And cried out the gospel of Christ's salvation.

In this way, the gospel was spread to Prof. Tai Ki Chung's home island. Through this woman's gospel, the island produced 60 ministers. Among these were Rev Man Shik Lee of Sung Kyul Church, who was the president of the federation of all Korean Christian Churches, Rev. Joon Kon Kim, the godfather of Korean campus ministry, and Rev. Jai Sik Koh, the president of Korean Seminary College. And so was Rev Tai Ki Chung.

We all will leave our names. What kind of name are you going to leave? Rather, what kind of life do you want to leave in your name? Shouldn't you live as the Christ's workers? Shouldn't you live the life of length, width and soaring height? My congregation? What kind of name do you want to leave?