Read Mark 4:26-32 - Parables of the Kingdom

Verse 26: So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground

Verse 30: And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it?

Verse 31:It is like a grain of mustard seed….

and Father's Words from March 31, 1998 Speech "On the Occasion of Arriving from Korea after 70 Days Away from America":

We talk about the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament. Testament means promise. When God created Adam and Eve, they were to perfect themselves and establish a true family as the seed of the Kingdom of God on earth and in Heaven. What is the qualification of the seed? The quality of the seed is shown forth in the blood lineage. In that is the value or essence of the seed.

Jesus uses a parable of a mustard seed to explain the Kingdom of God. True Father speaks directly of the seed of the Kingdom of Heaven as being a true family.

In the passage from Father he talks about Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament and says that Testament means promise, it's a covenant, a provision in a will. So then what exactly is the promise that is recorded in these books?

We have a record of God's Old Promise, His New Promise and His Completed Promise. So does God make different promises in the different ages? Is the New Promise different from the Old promise and is the Completed promise different from the Old and New promises?

As we prepare to celebrate the season of Christmas it is always good to reflect about just what was so special about Jesus birth. Jesus' birth was about the fulfillment of God's promise to his people. So let's take a look at that promise.

Let's start with the Old Testament: After God has kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden; the same promise he made to them in the first chapter of Genesis is given to Noah in Gen 9:7-9: And you be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. And God spoke unto Noah and to his sons with him saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you.

So it seems he has given up on Adam and Eve but he hasn't given up on his plan because he makes the same promise to Noah. Then in Gen 17:6-10 he tells Abraham: And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful….And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant… And in every verse from 7- 10 God says thee and thy seed. And all of these promises (covenants) to Adam, Noah and Abraham are all the same and made in the first book of the Bible. And that promise is about seed.

Then if we jump forward to Psalms 89:3,4 we find; I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations, Selah.

And then we go back to Psalm 22:23; Ye that fear the Lord, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.

So every step along the way in the OT it is clear that the seed that God is most interested in has nothing to do with plants and agriculture. It is the seed that produces lineages.

We see in Gen 5:1 "This is the book of the generations of Adam... so even though Adam has been kicked out of the Garden his lineage is still important to God. Throughout the OT long lists of lineages appear: so and so begat so and so, etc, etc.

For children in Sunday school these lists are totally boring and meaningless. But to God they are very important. And in Joshua 21 -- the whole chapter is about what land God is giving to each faithful family and each family is referred to as the children of Israel: the children of Kohath; the children of Gershon; the children of Merari; etc.

Take a look at the last Book, last Chapter and Last verse of the Old Testament: Malachi 4:6; And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Fathers, children, family, tribes…lineage (seed) is of paramount importance to God in the OT. God's (Testament) promise centers on families and lineage and that promise lasts forever.

Then we get to the NT. The birth of Jesus, Christmas, was a great day for God and for Israel. A day that's been celebrated for thousands of years. Why? Because God's only begotten son, the Second Adam, the one in whom the pure lineage will be restored has been born. The pure seed of God that was in Adam is once again on the earth, in the physical world.

But then what happens? Jesus is crucified, he never marries, never has children. It becomes Christian tradition that because Jesus didn't marry that those who would lead the church should not be married either. The Holiest people, the leaders, are the ones who are celibate and leave no lineage.

So it appears that God's New Testament (His New Promise) has nothing to do with lineage. Jesus sacrificed his life so lineage is no longer important. Jesus died so now the Kingdom will come.

There is no mention in the NT about Peter's or Matthew's or John's or Pauls' or anybody's seed being a part of God's everlasting covenant. Apparently the OT promise is no longer relevant.

Does this make any sense?

But now Rev. Moon comes along and starts proclaiming that lineage is still important to God and he has been anointed by Jesus to start the pure lineage God has always wanted and that lineage is the seed of the Kingdom of God on earth. And every family on earth can be grafted into that true lineage. And this is the Completed Testament Age.

So the OT and CT are about a pure blood lineage that can be claimed by God and from that lineage (seed) all of humanity can be restored to the true family of God.

But in the NT age Jesus' death caused man to lose sight of the original plan (ideal) the original promise of God. God's OT ideal clearly got stopped with Jesus death so adjustments had to be made. Mankind's understanding changed because they only grasped part of the story.

But God's plan never changed, only man's understanding changed.

The reason Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is so important is because God's original plan for mankind was once again in a position to be fulfilled. Jesus birth was all about lineage.

God's only begotten son was born. And why was this son different from Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, etc.?

What has been completely lost for more than 2000 years is that Jesus' birth was different because of the seed contained in him. Not some symbolic seed, but the substantial seed, the seminal seed.

JESUS' BIRTH WAS A SEMINAL BIRTH.

In the dictionary there are two definitions of seminal: And both apply to Jesus. The first definition is:

1. highly original and influencing the development of future events: like a seminal artist; seminal ideas.

Jesus was a seminal man because he was highly original and he influenced the development of future events. (one definition of seminal).

But that is not the reason Jesus birth was so special. The second definition of seminal is:

2. pertaining to, containing, or consisting of semen.

He was a Seminal man because of the semen that was a part of his body and his body alone!

In TF speech from 1998 on p. 2 he says "that if Israel had united with Jesus family foundation and established the national foundation Rome would have survived. But humankind lost the true seed."

Lost The True Seed.

Lost the Seminal seed.

Not some symbolic mustard seed. The pure sinless Semen of Jesus. Jesus seminal seed was what God has promised all along after Adam fell. So the OT, NT, and CT are all about the ONE promise made by God.

God promised he would restore his family. Nothing more, nothing less. Lineage has always been important to God. That true Seed has been God's central focus since the day he created Adam.

There was one other thing that was forgotten by mankind in relationship to Jesus birth: that in order for God to restore the family of Adam --  a second Eve was needed to stand beside the second Adam. That seminal seed had no value without the eggs of a second Eve.

God's original plan was for a family that he could call his own. God has never given up on that ideal. Not even after Jesus was prevented from completing it.

That is why Christmas should be celebrated. God succeeded in restoring the seminal seed from which a true, sinless family would grow. The seed that was lost after Adam's fall.

So we as Blessed Central Families should celebrate Christmas with even more enthusiasm now that the true seed has been restored to earth once again and it has born substantial fruit.

So here we are in 2007 and it will soon be 2008. We're celebrating the birth of Jesus AND we're celebrating the substantial manifestation of God's original plan: a lineage that goes three generations deep and has engrafted millions on to it.

So what do we need to be thinking about as we approach God's Day 2008. As we reflect on Jesus original, primary mission we need to reflect on our own mission.

In that same speech from 1998 TF said, If the first family had succeeded, no church would have been necessary. Thus, through the blessing, we don't need churches anymore.

Does anyone know when TF changed our name to Family Federation? It was around 1997.

It's been at least a decade since the name was changed. How many of us still refer to ourselves as the Unification Church? TF said 10 years ago churches aren't necessary anymore.

And according to TF we are no longer in the Completed Testament Age. We are now in the Era of the Opening of Heaven and Earth After the Coming of Heaven. Just looking at this literally it means that Heaven has come and we are living in the age after it has arrived. We are living in an age where we don't need churches. And Age where God's promise has been kept and fulfilled, substantial zed, realized. The Kingdom is here.

As we prepare for 2008 we need to make sure we are living in the right age, the right era. And we all know how hard it is to keep up with TP and all their Providential proclamations.

But I bring this up for two reasons:

1. As we continue to pray about a new property for SC let's not talk about building a new church. Let's talk about creating a Family Federation complex that will support heaven's plan for World Peace and Unification. If we are still Unification Church members trying to build a new Unification Church we are at least a decade behind TP.

2. Secondly, I was involved in a group in Charleston called the Congress of Religions that ceased to exist about 10 years ago. I met some very good people and I'm still in contact with some of them.

There is now an effort to resurrect the Charleston Congress of Religions by honoring those who were originally involved. We had a meeting in the mayor's office last week with about 15 people, (3 rabbis, three imams, Unitarian church minister, one of Charleston's prominent wealthy families who supports interfaith work, the Head of the Christian Council for Social action (in Columbia), a Businessman, and several others). The mayor was an unofficial supporter in the past and he is now agreeing to officially support its resurrection.

But as I sat there in the Mayor's office it occurred to me that I'm in the midst of a Federation. Politicians, religious leaders, economic leaders, etc. A whole range of people with different roles in life but similar interests -- Inter-religious unity.

So now that we are a Federation and not a church, what exactly is a Federation? The dictionary says: A league or association formed by federating; the act of federating or uniting in a league; a federated body formed by a number of nations, states, societies, unions, etc., each retaining control of its own internal affairs. Notice federation is similar to an Association -- remember the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity? That was for Christians only. The Family Federation is for all of God's people and the use of Federation implies that no one group interferes with the internal affairs of the other, but they exist in a relationship of unity.

Father doesn't choose names randomly.

So we have gone from the OT to NT to CT. From HSA to UC to Family Federation. We've participated in Revolutions of Character, Conscience and Heart

AND NOW:

We are living in the Era of the Opening of Heaven and Earth After the Coming of Heaven

And we are also completing a year declared by TP as a Jubilee Year. In the speech that TM gave on the recent 12 city tour she declared: This is the seventh year of Cheon Il Guk, which my husband and I declared as a jubilee year in God's providence, a jubilee year the likes of which humankind has never experienced. Heaven has greatly blessed this holy year. God's heart has been in pain throughout history because Satan's dominion entrapped humankind within its evil sovereignty, in the fetters of the "era before heaven." That time has finally come to an end and, from this year on, the gates to the revolutionary era after the coming of heaven can be opened wide, ushering in an era of a new sovereignty of goodness, in which humanity can attend God as the Central Being.

In Jewish history a Jubilee year was celebrated once every 50 years and during that year slaves were freed, lands were restored to their original owners or heirs and all agricultural labors were suspended. And in the Catholic tradition a Jubilee year is one in which the church pays a special indemnity (indulgence) that keeps sinners from having to suffer physical punishment for their sins.

We all went through a special forgiveness ceremony at the beginning of this year (Dae Mo Nim's Amnesty Ceremony). We have been freed from the fetters of the era before the coming of Heaven.

Fetters are chains or shackles for the ankles or feet; something that restricts freedom. Do we feel that forgiveness, Do we feel that freedom that TP are proclaiming as ours? And do we feel the joy that God and TPs must feel as all these fetters fall away.

I want to conclude with some of True Father's words from his speech (Our Mission in the Last Days of Providential History) given in December 13, 2004 at the Congratulatory Banquet after the Crown of Peace Awards in Washington, D.C. He began with: Respected ladies and gentlemen, until today you have led fairly conventional lives. Now, however, I call you to take on a mission as Heaven's direct emissary. Did you simply come half out of sincerity and half out of curiosity, hoping to enjoy a Christmas party? Whether you like it or not, you have now received Heaven's call. Many of us here today received that call many years ago. And we may still be struggling with liking it. But since we're still here I think the words TF spoke to these dignitaries at a Christmas Party three years ago are appropriate for us today as we prepare for 2008, The Eighth Year of Chun Il Guk.

So today as we commemorate the birth of Jesus and his seminal place in God's eternal plan of restoration and as we reflect on our Mission in the Last Days, I want to offer a suggestion that might help us to more fully realize the age we are living in. I would like to offer some affirmations that TP gave to these dignitaries in 2004. These are statements that True Father made to the gathered dignitaries at this banquet in Washington, D.C.

Statements that should resonate with each and every one of us here today. Statements I think we should repeat to ourselves and to Heaven when we get up every morning and before starting our day.

So every day: Let's remember to give gratitude and glory to God and True Parents,

Let's remember We are members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification,

Let's Remember we are direct emissaries of heaven,

Let's Remember we are patriots who proudly uphold Heaven's lineage of goodness.

Let's Remember, We and Reverend and Mrs. Moon are one, with the common denominator being absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. We and Rev. and Mrs. Moon are to be true parents and kings and queens of peace, together.

Let's Remember, Today, heavenly fortune is with us.

Let's Remember to Go forward everyday with confidence because we have been reborn with a true lineage.

God Bless You and Merry Christmas.