The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2009
|
|
The Words of Hyung Jin Moon From 2009 |
Good Afternoon brothers and sisters. It is really great to be back and see all of you in the Sanctuary. As you know we were in America last week and we met a lot of wonderful American members. We are especially grateful for In Jin Nim’s leadership there. We also had the opportunity to participate in the Lovin’ Life Ministry as well. We sincerely hope and desire that today through the service we can return glory to our Heavenly Father and True Parents and bring joy to them as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters.
Welcome brothers and sisters. It is good to see you. It has been quite a while... Oh my goodness! We are going to read from Peace Messages now. Father says,
“God created this world in order to feel joy from seeing humankind and all things of creation become one through His love, forming a harmonious and peaceful world of love. On such a basis human beings were meant to form true conjugal relationships centering upon His love and to establish families, tribes, peoples, nations and a world of true love. God created this world to participate directly in this process and to feel the joyfulness.”
Brothers and sisters, in our daily life, in our own practice, when we are working day to day, these things seem like small things, but these are the very things that affect our families, our tribes, our nations. So True Father is encouraging us today to follow true love. He is encouraging us today to remember that the most central virtue is to be able to center our lives on true love. Let us give True Parents a round of applause. Let’s give it up for God and True Parents.
Brothers and sisters we want to welcome you all to the service, and let us really participate in the service today. We want to sing together, we want to pray together, we want to offer grace together. We want to meditate together, reflect together, and if we do that, I do believe that we will find more victory in our new week. God will prepare new things, new openings, new people that will help us on the way.
God and True Parents blessed us with the blessed life and through this life they wish for us to inherit the true love of God, to become greater blessings to our spouse, our children, our families, our cities, our neighborhoods, our nations, to the world and to God. Let us join our hands together once more and manifest the Principle: give and receive action, the four position foundation lifted up. All coming together centering on the true love of God. Aju!
We always like to start with something a little interesting. I heard a story about Little Johnny and he was standing in front of the church and it was Veterans’ Day. He was looking at this huge list of names in front of the church. He was looking at that very perplexed. The pastor came over and asked, “Johnny are you OK? You look very confused.” Johnny asked, “Pastor, what is this list of names doing in front of the church?” The Pastor replied, “These are the brave young men and women who once served and who died in service to their nation and the Lord.” Little Johnny listened to that and was quite shocked. He looked at the Pastor and said, “Oh my goodness, did they die during the eight o’clock service or the ten o’clock service?”
Brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you today about ‘Living for the Lord.’ Let us take a look at world scriptures. We are going to look at the notion of grace and gratitude in these scriptures. From Christianity (Ephesians 2: 8-10):
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God -- not because of works, lest any man should boast."
Here Paul speaks about the importance of understanding the incredible grace of receiving salvation. Let us look at Buddhism today. This is from Japanese Buddhism (Shinran, Tannisho):
"We who are caught in the net of our own passions cannot free ourselves from bondage to birth to death, no matter what kind of austerities or good deeds we try to perform. Seeing this and pitying our condition, Amida made his Vow with the intention of bringing wicked men to Buddhahood."
Amida is a Buddha of light. He is a more salvific Buddha in this tradition.
Islam (Qur’an 49:7):
"God has endeared the Faith to you, and has made it beautiful in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you unbelief, wickedness, and rebellion. Such indeed are those who walk in righteousness -- a grace and favor from God."
Again we see that faith is not necessarily something we do. It is a gift, it is favor. Let us now read True Parents' words today. Unificationism -- True Parents (5:209-10):
"Although we believe that God is our Heavenly Father, we should strive for the day when Heavenly Father, our Subject Partner, trusts us, His object partners, one hundred percent...We should take God’s purpose as our clear goal, and dash forward to reach it with one hundred percent conviction. This is the last significant problem that people of this era have to solve... You know very well that the first human ancestors fell because they did not have faith. We should take God’s purpose as our clear goal, and dash forward to reach it with one hundred percent conviction."
After Father revealed to me the seven deaths and resurrections, something very interesting happened to me. When I look at the Bible now it feels completely new. It almost seems that before I couldn’t understand how the Biblical traditions, the ancient traditions, would actually fit in and be guided and be completed by our True Parents. I couldn’t feel it in my heart. After receiving the vision of the seven deaths and resurrections, something happened inside of me. When I look at the Biblical scriptures now there is so much incredible connection to what is happening in our movement, particularly at this time, when I was in America. I will talk about it a little later.
A theologian, who is our member and a graduate from Harvard said to me, "When you understand the seven deaths and resurrections, not only do you understand why True Parents inherited the parental heart -- greater love than even Christ inherited -- you understand the difference between Christ and True Parents. But at the same time you also see the continuity between Christ and True Parents. You understand that Christ was supposed to inherit this type of true love, the parental heart. But because of the failure of the people he was not able to do that. He did not become a parent. So not only do we understand the continuity, but we also understand the discontinuity, the difference. But we also understand the connection that we have with Jesus and his mission."
For me the Bible has become alive again! Very strange, very amazing! The Bible has become alive. In the second century there was a man by the name of Marcian (216-277 A.D). He had a large following around the Mediterranean area. He had created a scripture; it was actually the first Christian scripture so to speak. It was the first organized Christian scripture, the standardized version of scripture. The Marcian text has only the New Testament version. It excluded all the things that were connected to the Judaic law, all the things that were connected to the Old Testament. But it is very interesting that in the third and forth centuries, when the Catholic Church organized the Bible that we have today, they decided to incorporate the Hebrew Scriptures as well as part of the Old AND New Testament Bible. Remember, at that time they were just a young tradition as Christians, a couple of hundred-year-old tradition. But because they inherited the Old Testament and were able to be conversant with it as well, that history (christian history) became three thousand years old immediately.
It is the same with the Completed Testament. When we understand the incredible victory of the seven deaths and resurrections of True Parents -- and why that is the completion of Jesus’ mission and why through that grace we are able to pay off the indemnity conditions that allow us to enter into the eight stages of perfection -- then we understand that by using and including the Old and New Testaments we are not only a fifty year old tradition, but we are a five thousand year old tradition! Let’s give it up for Unification Church brothers and sisters. This is the providential picture that you get, when you understand how it is all connected. That is why today I am going to focus on Scripture like we did a couple of weeks ago.
I want to focus on three Scriptures today. They are in Matthew 10. But before that I want to give you a little background: Jesus is here. He is walking through the towns and synagogues preaching the good news of the Kingdom. He is healing sickness and disease. He has twelve disciples and he calls them to him and he tells them, “I give you the authority, I grant you the authority to drive out evil spirits and heal disease and sickness,” and he instructs them and tells them to go out with confidence, to believe and go out. He gives them a long exposition but I am going to focus on only a few of scriptures today. We will read the three of them together.
Matthew 10:22 -- "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Did you hear that? “Men will hate you because of me,” Jesus said to his disciples. He said, "You are going to be persecuted. You’d better expect it. You better expect that people will hate you and curse you because you are following me, because you are taking on the mantle of the Gospel." He is giving them that instruction. We will come back to that a little later. Let us read:
Matthew 10:24-25 -- "A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub how much more the members of his household!"
Matthew 10:32-33 -- "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
Let us focus on the first scripture, Matthew 10:22 -- "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
In the Acts of the Apostles we see, after the crucifixion, what the apostles are doing. We see in the end of the first chapter that Judas is replaced. He is replaced by Matthias. We see that because the congregation is growing and they are having difficulty with the distribution of food, the twelve disciples said, "We will now elect seven deacons to help with the distribution of food and certain other things so that we can focus on prayer and the preaching of the Gospel." They elected seven deacons.
In the election they elected Stephan whose name in Greek means ‘one who is crowned.’ He was selected as one of the deacons to help. Now Stephan is an incredible prophet. He does great miracles. The scriptures say he witnessed strongly. He is seized by the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin at the time is a council of judges. A council of twenty-three judges was present in each of the cities of the land of Israel. They were judges of the law. They judge if you were consistent with the laws of Moses or whether this or that person was being blasphemous. That was the Sanhedrin.
Stephan was seized by those who wish for him to stop preaching the Gospel. He is seized by the Sanhedrin and brought before them. In Acts 6:13 you see that they produce false witness against him. They say, "This fellow never stops speaking against this Holy Place (Temple) and against the law. For we have heard him say that Jesus -- whoever that is -- that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us. They were saying that Jesus was going to destroy the Temple."
So Stephan testifies to Jesus. He has this extremely long testimony where he goes through all the different prophets of the Old Testament. He arrives at the mission of Christ and he says, "It was a Sanhedrin council just like you, that judges just like you, who betrayed and murdered the Son of God." "Murdered him," he says.
When he says this, in Acts 7:54, they are furious and gnash their teeth. At that moment Stephan looks up and sees a vision of Jesus. A vision of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. He proclaims this and says, “I see the Lord at the right hand of God.” Now the people persecuting Stephan covered their ears and yell at the top of their voices. They rush at him, drag him out of the city and begin to stone him.
Until the end Stephan was faithful to Christ. In Acts 7:59-60 we see what is happening to Stephan while he is being stoned. Listen to this: While they are stoning him he prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Let us say this together. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees. Imagine this. He is being stoned; he is being hit on the face and body. When you see pictures of Stephan you see three stones. One here, one here, and one here. He is portrayed as a Saint. He prays, “Lord receive my spirit. Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Lord, forgive them; they do not know what they do.” The scripture says that when he said this he "fell asleep".
He becomes the first Christian martyr. In the Catholic tradition he is a saint who stood up for his faith. Not only did he not deny Christ at his ending but he remained Christ-like. We can see the parallel between how he prayed and how Christ prayed at the end. When Christ was on the cross he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” When Stefan was being stoned to death, because of his faith and conviction he said, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” and he prayed for his enemies according to Matt 5:44 that says, “Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you.” He prays for his enemies even at the end, when he is being stoned. Think about that, how many of us could do that while being stoned?
When we were in America we were scheduled to come back within about two days. But Father all of a sudden said, “You go do a tour now around America.” I said, “Oh Father, we have to get back to Korea. We have a lot of work to do there. We have the 21,000 temple and we have to witness a lot and are very very busy.” Father said, “You do a tour now.” I said, “I have a plane ticket for today. It is very hard to change a ticket.” He said, “Do it NOW.”
Father told us why he wanted us to do the tour. Initially we did not know there would be a tour. He told me, "Go with your sister In Jin Ah (In Jin Nim), and show unity.” Father asked us to do two things on the tour. He asked us to do that not only in America but to teach this everywhere we go. That is why I am going to mention this now. So Father told us the two reasons why he wanted us to go around America and let the members be clear about this: Number one, we have to unite centered on True Parents at this time. That is essential. Theologically, Unificationism is nothing without True Parents, so we have to unify around True Parents, around the "rock" that we sang about in the previous song.
Number two: Father said we have to pray. We have to pray. We went around America telling the members what we have to do. We have to pray for those leaders who are not uniting with Parents, who don’t want to unite with Parents. Father told us to tell the members, "We have to pray for them." Those two things Father told us: We have to unite with True Parents and pray for those who are having difficulty uniting with True Parents, even splitting with True Parents.
From 2005, before I even started my ministry -- I was still a student of theology -- we had a chance to give lectures before leaders and I said very clearly, I said very clearly, “There is no new True Parent, there is no new King and no new center. There are no new True Parents. It is that simple." I made this very clear before I had any official position, any ministry.
When you look at the early disciples, the apostles, they gave their lives preaching the gospel of Christ. They didn’t go around saying they are the successor of Christ and that now God is going to use them to bring about salvation. In Matt 16:18 Jesus says, “And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock, (pointing to Peter) on you I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” He gives Peter the biggest anointing. He says. “Upon you I will build my holy church. Upon you I give the mission of spreading the Gospel.”
Think about what kind of anointing that is! But Peter did not go around saying that he was the successor because he received that anointing. He did not say that now, after Jesus was gone he is the new Christ. That would have been a fatal error. He went and preached the Gospel. He went with John. He went with the early Apostles. In the Acts of the Apostles we see him moving, we see him meeting Paul, we see him witnessing, and we see miracles happening. Peter was very clear. He preached the crucifixion, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And he blesses and praises and heals in the name of Jesus. That is a very important thing.
Let us read the second scripture, Matthew 10:24-25:
"A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub how much more the members of his household!"
Peter knew that he was a student of the teacher, but not the teacher. He knew he was a servant of the master, but not the master. It is enough for a student to be LIKE his teacher. So Peter tried to be Christ-LIKE, tried to be teacher-LIKE. That is why Christians to this day try to be Christ-LIKE, not to be the Christ, not to be the son of man, but to be Christ-LIKE, as the scripture says. This certainty and clarity is very, very important for us to understand as Unificationists, completing the mission of Christianity. This is the fatal flaw of those who may say they are the next True Parents or the next king or the center of God’s providence. This is what is very worrisome to True Parents.
There are, as you may know, splinter groups that say such things in Japan and in Korea. I tell members, "Don’t worry because the spirit world sees all and in the end our ancestors see how much we have been filial to True Parents. I absolutely believe to this day and continue to believe it from when I was studying theology, that True Parents are the eternal center of God’s providence and it is our task to not be the next True Parents but to inherit the Parental heart they have shown us and to bring glory to True Parents. That is the mission of the next generation."
True Parents, not us, are the ones that were selected to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ. They were the ones selected to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ. They are the ones that died for us, descended into hell to take our place, and they were resurrected seven times. They are the ones who paid the indemnity price for individual, family, tribal, national, world and cosmic sin. There is no way that on our own effort we can pay this indemnity that has been accumulated from the time of the fall. So only the chosen son of God, only the one who has been prepared by the history of the providence can be the one that can pay this indemnity.
By the victory of true love and the inheritance of parental heart, which Jesus was to fulfill, we are given salvation. Not by our own doing. Not because we are great, not because we deserve it, but because of the salvific power, the resurrective power of true love. That is why we receive that grace.
They always ask me when I am doing interviews, “So you are the next successor. How do you feel about this big responsibility? (Imitates the voice of the interviewers in a funny way)” They ask me this all the time. I always have to answer this question. I tell them, “There is no new successor, there are no new True Parents for us. The early apostles centered their life of prayer and faith and testimony and witnessing on the rock of Christ, and so do we, so do I. We center our life on the rock of True Parents. We don’t believe that there are new True Parents, a new successor who could take on that role. They hold the ultimate authority."
I tell them, "We are just employees just like you guys are working for your paper. We are employees, too. We are employees of True Parents. Our time comes and our time goes. We are a cloud, the next generation. Like in a Zen garden. When the beautiful black stones are hit by the rain they become shiny and beautiful. That is the time when the Zen garden is the most beautiful. Just like that we don’t become the rock. We are like the clouds that bring the rain, like the refreshing rain that makes the rock shiny and beautiful. That is our purpose. We are not here to proclaim ourselves as the new True Parents, the rock. The center is clear."
This was the essential point that Father wanted us to be clear on. That is the reason why he told us to do a tour in America and to continue to tell this to our brothers and sisters in Korea and Japan.
Let us look at the third scripture today, Matthew 10:32-33:
"Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
There are Christians who sacrifice their life. I heard a story of a young missionary. He was in a war-torn place. As a pastor he saw a child who was a young convert to Christianity, who loved Jesus. He said he saw this child dying on the street. He was shot five times in the stomach. The reason was that he was asked, “Are you Christian? Do you believe in Christ?” In that nation, in some Islamic nations, if you change your religion you can receive capital punishment. Not all Islamic nations do that but some Islamic nations do. In this story he was in one of those nations. So he was questioned, "Do you believe in Christ? What do you believe? Are you a Christian?" The child, who was eleven years old, said, “I am so scared, so scared, but I will not reject the Lord, and I do believe in Jesus.” He was shot five times. That Pastor said that he held that child in his arms while the child passed away.
So what is the price of having faith in the modern nations, even in Korea or even in America? What is the price of having faith? Someone may say, "You have a different faith then me!" But think about the price of faith in other places of the world. I remember meeting a member in UTS, a brother who was exactly in that same situation. He had to flee from his nation because he became a Unificationist. That is the price that is upon their shoulders and yet, just like Stephan, they did not deny Christ. Of course they don’t go around in those nations saying, "I am a follower of Christ" or singing that they are followers of Christ. But if they are asked they say, “Yes, that is what I believe.” They are that serious about their faith.
Again, “Whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” When we understand the value of True Parents -- True Parents who completed the inheritance of the Parental heart that Jesus was to have completed, who completed the mission of Christ, who inherited the new mission of Christianity -- we can see that True Parents are in that incredible role. And because of that grace, because they have paid off the indemnity conditions for us at all of the levels, we can enter into the direct dominion, which we call Cheon Il Guk or the Kingdom of God.
This incredible grace is enormous. But some may say, "Now that I have received this grace, now because I am in, basically because I am in, I can do whatever I want and live however I want. I can even disown the Lord and do hateful things that God does not approve of. I can live in sin and live selfishly for the rest of my life and I will still be forgiven, still be in."
Even though we are given the grace of entering the Kingdom, still this does not mean that we will be free from judgment. True Parents have said that God is not our judge. In the Christian world we understand God to be our judge. Father has revealed to us that God is not the judge of us, not the judge of man, in the Kingdom. We are our own judges! This is a very incredible statement. We are our own judges, and our ancestors and our peers will judge us if we disown the Lord, who through torture and descending into hell got us into Cheon Il Guk, through their grace. If we disown them, if we betray them, if we go against them then the ancestors will judge us. We will be judged in Cheon Il Guk. We will be judged even though we are able to enter the kingdom. This is essential for us to remember, that we center ourselves on True Parents and not our own selves or our own egos. We need to center ourselves on True Parents, to inherit the Parental heart they have received and inherited from God. Father wanted us to be very clear with this at this time..
While Father is here it so important for us to understand this. While Father is here it is so critical for us to understand who the eternal center is. I am not the new center. Don’t look at me as the new center! Don’t even THINK I am the new king or whatever! That is totally false if you assume that. This applies also to anyone else who proclaims themselves the new true parents. This is what Father wanted us to clarify with the members.
Brothers and sisters around the world, we must be clear on this issue. Father asked us to go around calling for unity, to go around and call for prayer for those that are thinking of splitting from Father, for those who are thinking of not wanting to unite with True Parents. Our job as sons and daughters is not to take the place of True Parents -- as I stated about a million times in this sermon -- but to inherit their selfless love.
That is our job! Our job is to inherit the selfless love of True Parents, and it is our job to glorify them in our lives, glorify them in our works and our deeds. We need to understand that we are given grace. It is not by our own works and our own doings that we are given the grace of entering the Kingdom. Ninety-five percent is by the grace of God and true love. When we understand this then we can understand who we are. We are not our own; we cannot determine our own destiny. Nobody can determine their own destiny. We are in the hands of God and moving with him. True Parents said that this message must absolutely be clarified, not only in America, but also in Korea and also in Japan and around the world.
So brothers and sisters, at this time let us understand truly who is the center. That is our True Parents. They are the rock of our salvation, as we were singing. Let us always hold that deep within our hearts. Let us bow our heads.
God and True Parents have blessed us to be a greater blessing by inheriting the true love of God, the parental heart which will die and die and die for the sake of the children, again and again, the type of true love that can be victorious over death and obstacles, the type of true love that can resurrect and that True Parents have lived. Let us inherit that love and become a greater blessing to our families, cities, nations, world and cosmos. Let us manifest the Principle; let us join our hands together. Give and receive action, four positions foundation lifted up coming together -- may I inherit the true love of God. Aju!
Let us pray together, gather our hearts, and join in prayer. Let us close our eyes and lift our hands up, feel the face of God, feel His presence. Let us wipe away the tears of our True Parents. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much. Father we thank you this day because you are the rock upon which we are saved, and, Father, because of your deaths and resurrections, because of that incredible power and grace, we have a new resurrection inside of us.
Father, our Unification Movement is finally understanding why we are completing the mission of Jesus, why we stand in a providential history, why we are not a young movement, but why we are moving with 5000 years of your providence.
Father, let us get inside of us today. Let us realize that we are walking in the divine destiny with your divine movement, with your blessing. Father, let us have confidence in ourselves, and let us know that it is not by our own doing that good things will be received and good things will come to pass, but by us relying on the love that you have shed upon us and by being grateful for it. We pray that through your love we may be made new and made reborn.
Father, thank you so much for this day. We want to be able to be reborn today in our spirits. Our True Father is crying out to us today that united we stand and divided we fall. Our True Parents are crying out to the world today. Let us be one with them, one in heart and spirit. Let us center ourselves, our prayers, our lives, and our meditation on the victory of true love and move with that providence, move together with that divine destiny, and, Father, let us bring about the change in the world, which is our destiny.
Father, we thank you so much. We want to inherit this today. We hope that you can hold our hands today. We pray that we may be able to receive new life through this realization. Thank you for the everlasting life. We offer our thanks to you for the True Parents whom you called and chose to pay the indemnity for the sins accumulated from the early ancestors, and thank you for that grace. Because of this grace we are entering into the Kingdom. Let us be the best we can be. Father, let us be godly in our behavior, in our thoughts, in our minds. Come into our lives, come into our hearts, make us new, make us reborn. We thank you so much. We pray all this in our names as central blessed families. We pray this in the name of True Parents together as brothers and sisters in true love. Aju!
Our Heavenly Father, we really from the depth of our hearts want to thank you for the incredible message we’ve heard today. Help us to really reach the inside of our hearts and understand what our True Parents have done for us. Let us go back to when we first joined this movement and were filled with incredible inspiration and joy. Help us to remember what that was like and rekindle that fire within us, help us to understand the message today, what our True Parents are asking us to do, to be united with them, be completely one in heart and mind.
Heavenly Father, help us to wipe away any doubt we might have and help us to really pray for those who are struggling or do have doubts. Be with them, give them renewed understanding and faith, give them renewed belief in who True Parents are, and that we truly must stand united or we will be divided. Heavenly Father, thank you so deeply for this incredible message again.
You truly want us to go out to the world and to feel in our hearts that we are the true children of our True Parents, that we are their sons and daughters, that we will lift them up and that we will bring the glory to them that they deserve. Father, you want them to be recognized, for if they are the world can be changed overnight, it doesn’t have to take 500 years, it can take an instant. Guide us to have that confidence in our faith, that we change ourselves and reach out to change others, with this incredible love that we are inheriting.
It’s an amazing true love. Help us to believe in it, to live it, to practice it. Today you can look at us and know that we are your children, that you are the absolute True Father and True Mother. Please receive this prayer, receive our hearts, and receive our new determination that this week ahead will be different. We will be different; we will proclaim who we are, your sons and daughters, united in minds and hearts with our True Parents, to stand tall, strong and bold to claim this world for you. We thank you and we offer all of this with our deepest heartfelt gratitude as your sons and daughters from around the world. Aju!