The Words of the Kim Family Before 2008
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The Words of the Kim Family Before 2008 |
Rev.
Chan Kyun Kim, with Mr. Hiroshi Matsuzaki, speaks on the Day of All
Things.
Why do problems exist in the world today? God and the creation are not the origin of the problems; instead, it is man who is the most troublesome being in the whole universe. The relationship between man and God is central to these problems, but today, on the Day of All Things, I want to focus on the relationship between human beings and the creation.
According to the Principle of Creation, God the Creator is to have dominion over man through love and the Principle. Through us, God experiences the joy of give and take; and through give and take with God, we can enjoy all things.
The Bible tells us that all things are groaning in travail, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. Because man fell and lost his proper position of mediator, God and all things came to suffer. If human beings had perfected themselves, they would have been qualified to possess, love, and have dominion over all things. Men and women would have stood in the position of God Himself to the creation, acting on His behalf.
To say the creation is waiting for the sons of God means it is longing for love from us. To love all things in the proper way means to use them or have dominion over them according to their purpose of creation. If our view of the value of something is not in line with its purpose of existing, we will misuse or waste the creation. When I am about to eat breakfast,
I often feel the food is asking me, "Are you really qualified to eat me?" Whenever I have worked very hard for the sake of God's providence, I feel more comfortable about eating my food.
Whether all creation can be restored to its original position and purpose depends on human beings -- they hold the key. The central problem is that man does not know how to properly care for and use all things. Our brothers and sisters in the Unification Church have a much higher standard than most people, even higher than many religious people, in terms of their relationship to God; our members also have a beautiful standard of relationship to those who do not yet know the will of God. However, I find that we sometimes lack care and love for the things around us. In our relationship to the creation, I feel that all of us could do much better.
Human beings are not just commodities in a marketplace; everyone has a unique personality and value. When I first came to my region, I didn't know anything about the brothers and sisters there, so I checked each person's background, age, years in the church, and so on. From this information, I suggested different missions for them. Of course, by using only these external criteria, I didn't have nearly enough information to evaluate their achievements and qualities properly. For example, I assigned one brother to a witnessing team, but afterwards someone explained that this member was an experienced lecturer and witnessing team leader. He was able to change missions, and later I saw him doing splendid work leading a witnessing team at national headquarters. He was just beaming with excitement. Because someone else had understood his experience and potential, he could be in a position to do his best. I repented that I had not completely understood his value or helped him function to the fullest of his abilities.
At
Belvedere, Hyo Jin Nim cuts the holiday cake at pledge service as
(left to right) Kwon Jin Nim, Hyun Jin Nim, Hyung Jin Nim, Young Jin
Nim and Kook Jin Nim look on.
Whenever I speak to a large crowd such as this one, I always notice that if I pay particular attention to someone in the audience, that person feels happier because of my acknowledgment and our communication. I can see him or her begin to smile. Each individual has a unique personality and enjoys being recognized. In the same way, all the things of creation, even though they are not people, have unique character and are eagerly awaiting attention and love from the sons and daughters of God.
Let me illustrate this point with a few stories. In 1960, when I was the leader of the church in the Chung Ju area, I would often hold worship services outside. In one place we frequently visited was a huge tree, perhaps 100 years old, that provided delightful shade, and a large flat rock that was very inviting and comfortable to sit on. Particularly in the summertime, since it was only a mile from the city, it was a very popular spot for picnics and other gatherings.
One warm day when we arrived, some people were already there under the tree, so we had to have our service up on the hill in a spot that wasn't as shady or lovely. Then right after the service, all the members rushed down the hill to have lunch under the big tree. Over lunch we spoke a lot about how wonderful the huge tree and beautiful rock were.
This rock and tree must have been very proud of themselves, having been enjoyed and appreciated by so many people through the years. As I began to eat the lunch that had been lovingly prepared by the brothers and sisters, I looked up the hill. There I saw a twisted and gnarled pine tree that looked like a bent -- over 120 -- year old lady. Beside the shabby tree were some unattractive craggy rocks. Then suddenly, I spiritually saw the rocks turn into the figure of a beggar who was just waiting for the party under the big tree to leave so that he could run over to pick up the leftover food. It was a hungry, heartbroken spirit. The next moment, the spirit became like a sad -- looking, starving donkey. I was shocked and felt a great ache in my heart.
So I grabbed my lunch and ran up to that spot to have some give and take with the poor neglected tree and the sad rocks. My members were looking at me, probably thinking, "My goodness, our church leader must have gone crazy, because he's talking out loud to nobody!" But I didn't care, because I felt the tree and the rocks were saying to me, "We're so happy you've come. We have been neglected all these years, and now finally someone is loving us:'
We communicated deeply with each other for a while. The rocks said, "You know, we may not look very attractive here, but if we were taken from this hill and artistically placed in a rich person's garden in Seoul, we might be worth thousands of dollars. We can also protect the flowers, prevent mudslides, and do many other useful things"
Then the tree started saying, "I, too, would be greatly appreciated in someone's yard. My roots could go very deep under the lawn and protect the soil from erosion. My owners could breathe the oxygen I make through photosynthesis, and when I get old I can be used in their fireplace to keep them warm. You see, we are already living according to the ideal of God's creation, but none of you human beings, who are supposed to be our masters, ever really appreciated us:' They begged me, "Please look at us from the viewpoint of God's ideal of creation, not with pragmatic, small -- minded eyes:'
I stayed up there talking with them for several hours. This deep, beautiful experience of rapport with the creation became a real turning point in my heart.
In 1983 I visited a humble home church center in Chicago. I was giving a morning service when I heard water running from the faucet in the kitchen. The noise and the waste disturbed me, so I asked the sister in charge to fix the faucet. She told me not to worry about the leak because the $200 rent she was paying included the cost of gas, water, and electricity. Thus it didn't hurt her to have the water run. Besides, she said, she had no time to fix the leaky faucet because of her busy schedule of fundraising, witnessing, and home church.
Of course I understood her point -- you must make certain priorities. If you are so busy doing God's work that you can't fix the faucet, then the water will be happy because you are pursuing a much higher purpose. But if you could manage to spend an hour to fix the faucet, the water would be very grateful because it doesn't like to be wasted. The water might say, "My first desire is to be drunk by you, and then, as part of your body, I can attend the will of God. I can clean you and cool you and do many things for you. If that's not possible, at least you could use me for washing your laundry or watering your plants'."
If you can make time to fix a leaky faucet and thereby demonstrate man's loving dominion over the creation, please do so. It's important not be wasteful, not only from the economical point of view but from the viewpoint of the ideal of creation.
True
Parents celebrate the Day of All Things at Han Nam Dong with some of
their children.
One time I saw a church member throwing away some pieces of furniture with only a few scratches on the corners. I felt they had a kind of dignity, so I said, "Can't we spend a little time fixing them instead of throwing them away?" He replied, "No, that would be a waste because we could use the same time to go fundraising and buy brand -- new furniture'.' Economically speaking, he may have been right, but human beings are supposed to take rightful dominion over the creation -- to love and care for things and not just act out of practical considerations.
We ourselves are like broken furniture, in a sense. As sinners, we have many scars. We are all indebted to True Parents for their effort and sacrifice to purify and repair us so we can fulfill our original potential. Similarly, the things of creation don't really want to be thrown away; rather, they desire above all else to be healed by us.
Of course, on the positive side, I have noticed many brothers and sisters who take care of their clothes very well and use them for a long, long time. I have seen some members' clothes so threadbare you can almost see through them. I am very moved by this kind of care.
Father himself also wants to care for and use things as long as possible. At the beginning of this year, the staff at East Garden replaced all the old towels in Father's bathroom with new ones. Father was very disturbed. He kept asking, "Where are the old ones?" until he got them back. He's concerned as well about not wasting water by flushing the toilet too much. Father may look like a rich man with no need to worry about such things, but as lord of creation he gives careful attention to every material thing. His example has made me very sensitive to such details.
The liberation and restoration of all things can only be done by human beings as the mediators between God and the creation. An important symbolic way that we restore the creation is through the practice of offering. I am referring to tithing at Sunday service or the practice of offering to God the money we receive from fundraising. Too often on Sundays, when the offering plate is passed, I see members fumble around in their pockets for whatever they can find -- some loose change or a crumpled dollar bill -- as if they were giving money to a beggar on the street. This kind of offering lacks a sense of preciousness and sincerity.
As central figures of creation, responsible to liberate material things, we have to make our offerings with utmost sincerity. At Sunday morning pledge service, we offer our whole being to God. I even know some brothers and sisters who say the pledge several times a day, making themselves a living offering to God. In our life, everything should be an offering, because everything belongs to God. When we fundraise, we are not making money to gain something for ourselves but to further God's will. In this way we return everything to God and symbolically restore ourselves. It doesn't matter so much how much money we donate or raise; what matters is the sincerity of our heart. Through our offering of external things, our sincerity can be recognized by God.
In Korea, there has always been a tradition at Sunday morning church service which could be called "sincere rice': because the word for it is written in two Chinese characters -- one meaning "sincere" and the other "rice." In the past, the Korean farmers had very little money, so they used rice as the medium of exchange. At Sunday service they would bring rice as an offering. These farmers didn't bring the leftover or surplus rice after making sure they had plenty to eat. No, they brought the best, the first of their supply. This was "sincere rice." With this rice the minister sustained himself. If the minister was sensitive, he could never just enjoy the rice without realizing what sacrifices the people had to make to offer it. He would not be able to eat it without profound gratitude, because the rice represented such sincere devotion to God.
With this standard in mind, we cannot go to church and just carelessly give our spare change. Instead, we should prepare our offering even a week ahead of time. The amount of money doesn't matter so much as the sincere heart of devotion to God that that preparation symbolizes. To tithe by giving your best first is to live a life of attendance with utmost sincerity.
One American sister I worked with truly exemplified this standard of offering. She was often very ill and had many medical bills, yet she donated every penny of some $14,000 she had inherited from her grandmother's will. She had kept it through many years in the church, accumulating interest, because she had wanted to use it as a missionary in Africa to help the people there. But she came to realize that because of her health and her husband's mission, she would never have a chance to be a missionary. One day she heard, through a report from Rev. Kwak, that with just a $10 donation, the African missionaries could buy one acre of land. So she came to me and donated all her money to the missionaries. I was very moved, but not only because of the amount. She had prepared this offering for many years with her whole heart. With all of her health problems, she could have used the money, but instead she offered it for the sake of God's providence. She knew the principle of tithing -- giving the first fruits, not the leftovers. This is a beautiful example of the true spirit of offering.
I would like to share one last story, which illustrates that it is not just quantity, but quality that is most precious in our offering and restoration of all things.
Once I was pioneering in the northern part of Korea, where I had 50 home members to take care of. These generous members would offer me donations of food from their harvests -- rice and vegetables and many other things. But I remember one woman in particular who was in her sixties and lived with her daughter -- in -- law. The daughter -- in -- law was very negative about us and wouldn't let her take any money or food to donate to the church. This old grandma would always come to my room on Saturday when I was preparing my sermon and explain in tears how sorry she was that she couldn't bring anything, any "sincere ricer' She even tried to sneak eggs from the chickens, but her daughter -- in -- law always discovered what she was doing.
Finding nothing to bring to the church, this grandma felt very humiliated. I kept telling her she didn't have to worry, but all she could do was cry and bring me a glass of water. This was all she could offer, but because she brought it with such sincerity, it tasted wonderful to me.
Usually she came to church by bus, but a few times she walked all the way and saved the 20 cents she got for transportation money to buy me something. In Korea, squid is a delicacy, but she could only afford to buy the cheap parts, so one day she brought me one dried squid leg. Another time she bought a very hard three -- day -- old rice ball wrapped in a shabby piece of newspaper. When I received such offerings I couldn't help crying. My teeth were bad at that time, and it took me a very long time to chew and swallow the squid and the rice because they were so dried up. But the physical taste was nothing compared to the taste of her love behind it. My tears mixed with the food. Because of her utmost determination to bring some offering, no matter how humble, I made up my mind to never betray the devotion of these believers. I pledged I would always remember this woman's sincerity, and the thought of her love and humility has kept me inspired to this very day.
Since then, I had the opportunity to take a position that would allow me to live fairly well, but because of the memory of this old lady, I never followed that temptation and am satisfied with whatever circumstances I find myself in.
Today is the Day of All Things. Please remember that we are the central point of the restoration of all things. It is up to us to use things in the right way. Therefore, an attitude of tearfully offering ourselves and the results of our work is of the greatest importance.