2008. 6. 29 Rev. Kim, Young Bong

The Gospel According to John Sermon Series
“The Gospel of Life (102)”
Love is the Answer
John 20:19-23; Romans 5:1-11

1.

There is a praise song written by a Korean, which in recent years has been sung the most -- if you were to express it in secular terms, a major hit song. This song is titled, “You Were Born to be Loved”. Published by Minsup Lee in 1997, a gospel song evangelist who since then became a pastor, this song is widely loved by believers and non-believers alike.

I asked, “How has this praise song become so beloved?” Of course, the biggest reason is its beautiful melody. When this song is played with a violin or a cello, it is truly pleasing to the ear. I wondered if there is another reason other than this. “Is it because this hymn’s lyrics rouse the basic human desire to be loved?” To put it in more negative terms, “Is it because the lyrics appeal to the selfish and very personal feelings of wanting to be loved by someone?” The lyrics go like this.

You were born to be loved
You are loved in your life (repeat)
God’s love that started from the beginning of time
Has come to fruition through our meeting
Your presence in this world
Is the source of great joy
You were born to be loved
You are still loved by this love (repeat)

Do any of you agree with me? When you hear young female singers singing this hymn, I feel as if the song is being offered to those with love-sick spirits who only want love for themselves. The Christianity contained in this song seems very self-centered, individualistic, and sentimental. In this song, things like “neighbors”, “society”, or “sacrifice”, “service” seem to be lacking, things that are very important in Christian doctrine.

To resolve these negative feelings I thought carefully about the lyrics in this song. I delved deeply into the meaning of love, especially the meaning of God’s love, and how much that love is important for us humans, and what kind of changes occur when humans receive that love. As my meditations on love became deeper, I realized that his song contained the essence of the Gospel.

2.

There is one thing that all modern psychoanalysts attest to. This is that the most important thing that is needed for humans to be humans is love. The conclusion of psychoanalysts is that most mental disorders that humans suffer from are rooted in lack of love, and hence the best treatment for it is also love. In other words, people are born to be loved. One does not become human unless one is loved. Human beings desire love.

There are many kinds of love. It is well known that in the Greek language there are four words that mean love. ‘Eros’ means love between a man and a woman, ‘Philia” is love between friends, “Storge’ is the natural love that parents give to their offspring, and ‘Agape’, which is love that cannot be achieved as humans, an ideal, unconditional, and complete love. The love that humans need in order to be humans is this Agape love. The love between the sexes, Eros, and the friendship love Philia, are only cheap imitations of Agape love.

The closest to Agape is perhaps Storge, the love parents give to their children. Those who do not experience the complete and unconditional love of God still have a healthy personality if he grows up receiving his parents’ sacrificial love. Those who have experienced this kind of love tend to desire and pursue even more God’s love. Because they have at least experienced a little bit of what true love feels like through their parents, they want to more deeply experience a genuine love. Even statistics show this. People who have experienced their parents’ love have a greater chance of finding and believing in God.

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to have many conversations with other pastors on the drive to an assembly in Roanoke. During these conversations, the wounds and pains faced while growing up became the topic. We all agreed that the most important factor in a person’s personality, character and life is how much that person received love as he was growing up. Then, Pastor Kang Hyunshik said to me, “In my opinion, you grew up in the most ideal family”

I told him that this isn’t true, that I grew up in a very typical family. This is true. The family I had when growing up could not be called ideal. My family was just an average family. The pain and conflicts other families had were present also in my family. There were many times when we were faced with difficulties because we didn’t have enough money. In response to this Pastor Kang said, “I meant that, when I observe you I feel like you grew up without any wounds or pains”

After hearing his I briefly considered this. Was this true? It was not. My parents were not all that different from other parents. When difficulties arose due to a restrictive budget, they expressed anger without reason, and sometimes the household was put in a state of anxiety when they came back with the stresses from work outside. At times my mother and father fought, and made us all very anxious. So how could one not have wounds and pains when you grow up in these circumstances? But strangely enough, though the memories of the wounds and pains are in my head, they no longer feel hurtful.

I wondered why this was the case. I realized that this is because I had received a powerful, adoring love that could not be compared with the wounds and pains. This was because I had the faith that my parents’ love was a love that would gladly cut out their flesh for me if it was the case that this was needed for their children to survive. The faith that, even when all others turn their backs at me because of a great fault, my mother would not turn her back, and that my father would be the first one to turn his back, but would secretly shed tears for his son. I wondered if it was the kind of faith that treated all the wounds and aches I had while growing up. If one were to look at it this way, I can say that, yes, I did grow up in an ideal family.

3.

Perhaps, because your experience with parents is different from mine, some of you may still feel the pain and the wounds coming back after all these years to this day whenever looking back. To those of you, I ask for your forgiveness. Let's not forget, however. No matter how great the parents' love may have been, compared to God's love revealed on the cross, they are no more than a mere imitation. Without knowing true love, even if it's only a mere imitation, there is a big difference between people who experienced that love and those who didn't. If one knows true love, however, imitation love loses its light immediately. Once you encounter true love, the fact that you never had imitation love is not an issue any more.

Therefore, there is no reason to resent your parents at this point. Would it change anything? Rather, looking at the cross, we need to encounter God's everlasting love revealed on there. The reason why I have nothing but gratitude when I think about my parents today is that I was more greatly and more deeply healed through God's perfect love. If we experience God's whole love, the lack of other love is no longer a serious problem.

As Apostle Paul says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) In the last week's sermon, I said that, if the 66 books in the Bible were to be summarized into one sentence, "God never gives up the world." Expressed differently, it can be said, "God never gives up on me." The proof of that persistent love is the cross.

When people think about God's love, they frequently talk about 'qualification'. In order to receive God's love, it sounds as if certain qualification is needed. Attending church regularly, giving a tithe and sufficient offering, and being honest and truthful at work, only then you gain qualification to receive God's love. There are some of you who think are not qualified to receive God's love, feeling sorry for not being of much help to church due to poverty. Sometimes, having committed serious sins, they are in despair as if they lost the qualification entirely.

To those who think like that, it would be good to inscribe clearly in thick font style the Romans 5:8 verse. While we were still sinners, God loved us to give us His son. It means that even before I started attending church, God loved me. It means, before I believed in Jesus Christ, He loved me. It means, even now when I don't live like a true believer, while saying that I believe, that God loves me. While I am drinking a lot with my friends until late to be almost drowning in alcohol, or while I cheat on my spouse to have secret pleasure, it means that God still loves me. While I am scheming secret evil plans to make my competitors fall, it means God still loves me.

I am not saying that those sins do not matter to God. Sins we commit hurts God's heart first of all. God is in deep pain when we are deeply mired in sins. Because we are in sins, God loves us with more aching heart. Because we are confused in thinking to be in happiness, even when we are standing in the midst of disaster, His love burns up even more like fire. Just as the love of parents toward sick children is more pressing than toward healthy children, God's love toward people in the midst of sins is more heart wrenching.

God does not love us because we are fully qualified to receive his love. Truly loving parents do not ask if their children have the qualification to be loved. Only with one reason that they are children, they love their children. Likewise, for only one reason that God made me with His own hands, He loves me. He never gives up on me. Until we go back to His loving arms, He does not withdraw His loving hands toward us.

The essence of God is love. If you meet God, you meet His love first. Experiencing the Holy Spirit too is in fact to experience God's love. The reason why you cry out loud when the Holy Spirit touches you is because you are so deeply moved by the love of God. It is just as Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:5, "Because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." We experience God's love through the Holy Spirit, are melted by that love, surrender to that love, and are transformed by that love.

4.

There is a book written by Brennan Manning, Abba's Child. In this book, based on his own experience, he explains that to be intoxicated by God's love helps us to take off our false self and to be born again into true self in which we live. I definitely want to recommend this book to you. The book introduces a fable that James Baxter made up.

In Australia, there was a man whose life came to a point of hardship that he could not take anymore. Fortunately he did not choose to commit a suicide. Instead, he chooses to buy a battered huge heavy metal tank, put all his household necessities in there, and live there in hiding. He would hang the cross on the tank wall, pray, although lonely, and try hard to live a blameless life. Having done that, each day became satisfactory.

But there is one problem. In the morning and night, bullets were flying to the tank wall. In the beginning, the tank wall withstood them all but after bullets after bullets coming everyday morning and night, it started to get thinner and finally bullets were coming into the tank. The man would lower his posture while hearing the bullet sounds and then continue his work when it stops. As time goes on, however, he gets wounded here and there, not being able to dodge all the bullets coming into the tank. On the tank wall, many holes were made for wind and the sunlight to come in, and water would come in when it rained.

He, repairing holes, curses the man shooting toward him day and night everyday. But he who was busy filling the bullet holes would sometimes look out through the holes. He would see children flying kites, lovers walking holding their hands, and clouds and flying birds in the sky. He would forget himself for a while in those moments.

Then one day, the tank that got worn out so badly from bullets becomes no longer useful. He abandons the tank and comes out. Outside, a man is standing holding a small gun. The man who came out of the tank talked, as if he gave up everything. "Now you will kill me. But there is one thing I want to know. What is the reason why you bothered me all this time? I have never hurt you and don't even know you. Why are you trying to kill me?"

The man then put down the gun and grinned. And then he talks. "I am not your enemy. I was not trying to kill you but to liberate you from the self-imposed prison." The man that came out of the tank carefully examines the shooter smiling at him. In his hands and the side, there is a deep wound resulted from shooting. The wounds were reflecting lights under the sunlight.

This story has many similarities with John 20:19-23 that we have been meditating for several weeks through today. As the man hid himself in the tank, filled with fear, the disciples also went into hiding in a corner room in Jerusalem. The man who kept shooting love without giving up until bearing deep wounds in his body resembles Jesus Christ who visited the disciples and showed the wounds in his hands and side. The resurrected Lord showed the disciples the wounds in his hands and the side as his body gestures saying, "I love you this much." The disciples, through the wounds, confirmed the endless love of God toward them and that is when peace came to their hearts. Without the faith that someone loves me, you cannot obtain true peace in your hearts.

As the shooter destroyed the tank with the love gun and liberated the man, Jesus assures His love shown on the cross and sends them out to the world. Jesus, breathing out the spiritual breath to them, says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." As Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:5, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you get intoxicated with the love poured out on the cross. If we get intoxicated with that love, our inner hurts and wounds get healed from that love. We experience unshakable peace in our heart. All darkness inside us gets lifted up, what was crooked gets straightened out, and what was tangled up gets untwisted. When that happens, we finally become people who can love. Only then we can unlock the door that has been shut out to go out to the world, and can come outside abandoning the tank that been locking us up.

5.

Yes, we were born to be loved. What is most important and most needed for us is to be loved. It is to be intoxicated by the unconditional love revealed on the cross. Henry Nouwen has said that the most important experience to Jesus was experiencing God's love and from that He lived thinking of Himself as "God's Beloved".

This is the truth that applies to all believers, not only to Jesus. How about you? Have you experienced this love? If someone asks you, "what is the most critical event that's happened to you?", how would you respond? If you are able to say, "In my life, the most critical event was to realize the fact that God loves me," there is no one happier than you. If someone asks you, "Who are you?" how would you respond? "I am the one receiving the love of God. I have no qualification for that but He would never give up on me. Nothing else matters to me". If you answer that, there is no one happier than you. Because love takes care of it all.

That love melts us and makes us into a new person. We, through imitation love we share, experience this numerous times. How deeply a little bit of love can change a person. How much powerful source of transformation can the parents' love poured out to their children be? What a deep power of change can teachers' love poured out to disciples be. What a great power of change one person's love poured out to another in church can become. If imitation love we act in has this kind of power, how great can God's love be?

Therefore, once you surrender to God's love revealed on the cross, you cannot be the same person anymore. Because that love heals all our pain and wounds, the past twisted and distorted behaviors, rooted in the inner hurts and wounds, are bound to disappear naturally. The love revealed on the cross not only opens our eyes to God but also to our neighbors. Because the hurts and wounds have been healed by God's love, your heart is secure regardless of any wounds and pain that may be coming in your way. Hence, without fear, you can approach your neighbors. And then you get to share with neighbors the God's love that refreshed yourself. That is evangelism, and that is mission.

Mission should be a fruit we bear from a shoot that come up in ourselves before it is a commandment. If God's love is truly alive in us, mission will happen naturally. Without knowing that love, if one tries to do mission work by force, it will be merely people's achievement and accomplishment. If a person says "My heart is overjoyed with God's love." and hides in his tank and locks up the heart's door firmly, that love may not be God's love. God's love doesn't leave us alone to hold onto ourselves only. That love leads me to open the lock in my heart, open my house door, and open my wallet.

Therefore, before going to mission for others, first I have to be evangelized with God's love. I have to be broken with God's love first. Those who go to mission field without that experience should not think, "I am going to mission for others." but might want to think "I am going to mission to be its beneficiary." Going out with that humble heart, through that work, they will meet God's love. How many cases there are while serving in the mission field, they come back totally intoxicated by God's love?

6.

Earlier, I introduced the praise song, "You Were Born to be Loved." If you think about the lyrics again, this praise song you will get to know that this praise song contains the truth but keeps silent on the other half of the truth of love. We were made to be loved. Therefore, we need the love of God. This song, however, has no mention of how people change once they receive this love. It is as if something more to be said is cut short.

There seems to be someone who had the same thought as mine. Another praise evangelist who is now a pastor, Sul Kyung Ook, published in 2002, "Hoping for Yet Another Fruit." This song's lyrics are written as if it is a reply song to the "You Were Born to be Loved." It appears to have been written to supplement what was lacking in that song. The lyrics are like this:

Thank you. I didn't quite realize it
What a precious being I am
From Genesis until now that God's love has been
always directed to me
Thanks to you who taught me that love
to you whom the Lord allowed
serve more with love of the Christ
now I, too will pass it on to the world.

Up to here, it sounds like a response of a person who came to believe in Jesus from this song, "You Were Born to be Loved." After that, the praise song closes like this.

You, to be loved
And to pass that love on
The Lord chose and planted on this land.
Hoping for yet another fruit.

Dear congregation I love and respect, do you know how precious you are and from the beginning til now God's love has been always directed to you and will be forever? Do you believe it? If not, meditate on the cross and rediscover that love. Without that love, nothing will satisfy you truly. Have you experienced it, already know it, and believe it? If then, let's make effort to get intoxicated in that love even more. Let's bring that love alive in us. Until that love grows in me to bear yet another fruit, let us live in that love. That love will save me and save my neighbors.

Lord, who is love
let us look up to the cross.
let us look at the wounds in the Lord's hands and the side.
let us see that real love toward us.
let us surrender to that love.
let us get intoxicated with that love.
With that love, rule over us.
That love will heal our inner beings
That love will break our chains
let us go to our neighbors
and pass that love on.

Amen