2008. 10. 5 Rev. Kang, Hyun Sik

Walk In the Name of Jesus Christ
Acts 3:1-10

1.

Dear congregation, it has been long time. I feel like a newlywed bride who has returned to her maiden home after the first year of marriage. It has been one year that I worked at Manassas, but personally, it has been two years since I started to work at the Korean Methodist Church of Greater Washington. So, in many ways I feel that his is a very meaningful time for me. I’d like to thank everyone who poured their attention and prayers for Manassas, and who looked after me for 2 years in many ways.

Perhaps you may want to hear about the work being done in Manassas. But because it doesn’t seem appropriate to replace Sunday Sermon with briefing on the work in Manassas, I will share the sermon I have prepared based on today’s scripture. If any of you have questions, you may read today’s pastoral column, and also may want to take some time to attend the service at Manassas. This would be a good encouragement for the fellow believers in Manassas, and it would be helpful as members of one church, in understanding the progress being made in Manassas.

2.

The story I want to share with you today is a very memorable incident that occurred during the time of the early churches. There were many such incidences that occurred during the dynamic time surrounding the birth of the early church. Among these, there was one incident that became etched in everyone’s mind. This was one story destined to be told from generation to generation, and it is the story told in today’s scripture.

As you know well, Acts is the book in the Bible we open when we have questions about how the early churches appeared. It is the book we open when we are curious about what kinds of people had first followed Jesus, and what happened to them. If this is the case, as we read this text today, we may be able to inquire how this incident might be relevant to the fundamental nature of the church, and to the Christian identity. I would like to suggest that we enter today’s text with this question in mind: What kind answers does today’s scripture intend to convey about the fundamental nature of the church and the Christian identity?

The story in today’s scripture goes like this. Some people carry a man lame from birth to the gate of the sacred temple called “beautiful gate,” so that the man could beg there. He then begs to Peter and John, who were about to enter the temple to pray. The two look at him straight, and then to the man who was evading their gaze, Peter says, “Look at us!” The crippled man, thinking he might get something from them, looks up. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I don’t have, but I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And then, as Peter took the lame man by his hand and helped him up, immediately he was able to walk.

3.

Let’s focus today’s verses on this man who could walk in the name of Jesus Christ. This man had many names. First of all, he was labeled, “a man lame from his mother’s womb.” A man lame from his mother’s womb! We don’t know why such misfortune happens to people. It’s just heartbreaking. However, if we really think it over, there seems no one among us who does not have an inherent handicap ? whether it is physical, mental, or spiritual. Psychiatry in the past argued that various experiences in someone’s childhood have a decisive impact on that person’s mental or physical handicap. However, now it is said that a greater portion of one’s mental or physical disability may be congenital, a condition one is born with. Regardless of these arguments, in fact, we often find ourselves puzzled, facing problems within us, wondering where they are coming from. We do not know why we have constant emptiness in our hearts; why we are lonely and depressed so often; why we are so weak-willed; why we fall victim so easily to desires; why we are so dishonest; or when, how, and why we have all these problems in our hearts. Our own problems that we can’t control ourselves, the handicap of existence that we are born with, or the problem that we theologically call ‘original sin’ ? don’t we all have something similar? If so, who is “the man who was lame from his mother’s womb” in today’s verses? Whose name is it?

This man who was lame from his mother’s womb had another name. It was “the man carried by others.” The reason why this man was carried around by other people was because he couldn’t walk by himself. The modern man, seemingly intelligent, wise, and possessing a clear sense of identify, in fact in many cases cannot walk on their own. Do you know that the goal in life for many people, surprisingly, is to be “like others”? Do you know that their inner motivation to achieve their goal in life ? to be like others - is “being unenviable,” or “causing others’ envy”? Well educated, talented, seemingly living a life of confidence and style, realizing their dreams ? after all that, they live their lives against someone else’s standards. Ultimately, these people are being carried around by other people. Seeming to live freely, but shackled, living his own life but without self, living hard but somehow feeling empty, walking on his own but being carried around by someone else ? who is the man in today’s verses, who was carried by others? Whose name is it?

This man had one more name. It was “the man sitting at the Beautiful Gate” This ‘Beautiful Gate,’referred to as ‘Mimoon’in the New Translation (Korean) Bible, was the main gate in the East entrance to the temple from the garden of Gentiles. The Beautiful was the nickname for the gate, which was made of brass from Corinth, as it felt all the more beautiful compared to other gates adorned in gold and silver. Imagine a lame man begging for alms at a beautiful gate, the sad contrast feels just too lucid. For some reason, this sad man sat next to this beautiful gate all the time. No matter how beautiful it is, a gate is just a gate. The destination through the gate was elsewhere. The destination through the gate was the inner area of the temple, the essential place for God’s actual existence. Nevertheless, this man had never been to the essential place. He was just wandering around the gate. This man with a name like “a man lame from his mother’s womb” who was living crushed under his own limitations and hopelessness had no choice but to be carried around by other people. A man who has been always carried around by others will not enter the essence of true beauty, even though he is sitting at a gate so beautiful. Those who are working frantically for the sake of happiness but still unable to enter the temple of happiness; people talking about love all the time but unable to enter the temple of love; and people leading a comfortable church life and a disciplined religious life, traveling in and out a beautiful temple gate but still unable to enter the essence of intimate companionship with God ? who are they? “The sad man sitting at the Beautiful Gate” in today’s verses, whose portrait is it?

This man, lame from his mother’s womb, being carried around by other people, therefore begging, sitting at the Beautiful Gate, this man who was happy in his own way -- what was it that this man was seeking in life? It was alms, mere pennies. After all, it was just alms. He was seeking alms that couldn’t solve the fundamental question of his life, alms that couldn’t change his life, and alms that couldn’t bring happiness to him. What we try to achieve in life might be great success, great fame, or great material possessions, however, all these might be just a few alms. All our efforts, trying to achieve our goals, pouring out our time, energy, talent and passion, I’m sorry to say, are simply ‘begging’. If these efforts cannot solve our existential question, if they can’t take us to the essential place of life, then we might be someone who is wasting his or her life begging for alms. “A man who is begging for alms,” whose name is this?

4.

As Peter and John were about to enter the temple, they looked at one man who was begging for money and says, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

The name that was completely different from one that he had, the name of Jesus Christ! A man lame from birth, a man carried by others, a man sitting at the temple gate, Beautiful, a man begging for change, this man was able to take these labels he carried with him all his life and replace these with a new name. It was the name of Jesus Christ. Then something amazing happens. The problem that he had from birth, the problem that had been fundamental to his identity was solved. He who had been carried by others began to walk and run with his own feet. He who was only able to sit near the gate was able to enter into the center of the living God’s presence with his own feet.

5.

What does the time of the birth of the church, the first people who followed Christ, the story that unfolded in today’s text teach us about the church? Don’t you think that it teaches us that the church is none other than the name of Jesus Christ? Yes, the church is the name of Jesus Christ. In this context, it is unfortunate that there is a trend to raise the name of specific churches rather than the name of Jesus Christ. It is unfortunate that the church’s vision became something that raises the columns of a church and has become a means to target growth and accomplishments of individual churches. Church is the name of Jesus Christ. Hence only the name of Jesus Christ should be the church’s vision. When the world tells people incessantly to live the life of the disabled, in the name of surrender, emptiness, and deceitful desires, the church needs to be the fortress that calls out to stand up in the name of hope, truth, life, and the name of Jesus Christ.

Dear congregation, who are Christians? What names do we have? Are we those that live confined within our own limitations? Are we those that live carried by others? Are we those who seek beauty, only circling outside the door? Who exchange mere pennies for our lives? This is not so. We are people that have the name of Jesus Christ, those who walk in His name. We are those that live and die in His name. We are those that let ourselves and others walk. This is why we can say to those that live within their limitations, carried by others, not living a meaningful life, seeking to accrue mere pennies as their life goal, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Oh Lord,
We have been sitting for too long
Living the life without a center, repeatedly circling outside.
We realize we have lived a life seeking mere pennies
Lord, we now yearn to walk
We yearn to walk with our own feet
We yearn to enter into a deep relationship with God.
Into the core of life, the sanctuary of love.
Lord, raise us.
Let us walk in your name.
In the holy name of
Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen