Readings

Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them.
Yoruba Proverb

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
Hosea 8:7

The imprudent man is consumed by his own deeds.
Dhammapada 136 (Buddhism)

Whatever affliction may visit you is for what your own hands have earned.
Qur'an 42:30

As you plan for somebody, so God plans for you.
Igbo Proverb

I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
Jeremiah 17:10

There are no special doors for calamity and happiness; they come as men themselves call them.
Treatise on Response and Retribution 1-2 (Taoism)

The lesson of the Scriptures is that there is a cosmic justice: Good given does return good, and evil given does return evil. Each one of us receives exactly what we give. John Lennon coined the term "instant karma." Father Moon has emphasized in various speeches in recent years.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes good things happen to bad people. Recently a friend of ours published a book entitled Why Good Things Happen to Good People. So if we add the fact that bad things do happen to bad people, we’ve got all the bases covered. It seems to me that things both good and bad happen to all people, and there are two things to say about that right off the bat. One, because we all are both good and evil. Two, because sometimes we mistake good things for bad, and bad for good.

Seeming misfortune can turn out to have been good fortune. There is the tale of the farmer for whom a series of misfortunes led to his son breaking his leg, but then the son was not taken away by an army passing through, to a battle in which all the men were killed.

The lesson is to be grateful no matter what happens. Why? Because whatever happens is linked to your past. It is the result of your past deeds. It may be a benefit; it may be a liability, or seem one or the other. I’ve often been rather despondent over some state of affairs, and then someone would come along and cast a new light on it, and my thinking would change. So no matter whether you think it is for the better or the worse, be grateful and act for the benefit of others, with love and sacrifice. Your response to whatever comes is the cause of what will happen to you in the future.

And no one controls your response but you. It is the realm in which you and I have complete autonomy. Whatever lack of autonomy we feel is of our own doing; mostly habits, emotional conditions, unresolved experiences, fears, what Hyung Jin Moon calls "thought trains," and so forth.

We always have the freedom to love and sacrifice. These virtues open the path to restore the relationship between people in the love of Christ. On this foundation of love between people, the way is opened to restore our relationship with God.

This was the main purpose of all the teachings and deeds of Jesus. Jesus said, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Mt. 7:2 NKJV) He said, "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Mt. 7:12 NKJV)

Jesus taught love and sacrifice, and he lived it. Jesus came with love and sacrifice to give all that he had to humankind, even offering his life. If we turn to him in faith, we will "not perish but have eternal life."

Jesus gave sacrificial love, but bad things happened to him. Why? Because his very presence, his outreach, his words and deeds, placed a demand on others. In a similar way, my wife’s presence places a demand on me. My child’s presence places a demand on me.

Jesus represented God’s demand on us all, the demand that we love one another unconditionally. My neighbor’s presence places a demand on me. Who is my neighbor? The most difficult one to love, is my neighbor. How am I doing? I’m doing as well as the next guy, except of course if the next guy happens to be the Messiah.

Jesus demanded that people enter into a relationship of perfect love with him. Love that the world has never seen. Complete trust, like children. Put down your nets and follow me, he said. Leave others to bury your father, and follow me. Give all you have to the poor, and follow me. He asked for unconditional, selfless devotion, obedience, sacrifice to him. Not to the Temple, not to the accepted, anointed, appointed, approved and official priests, but to him.

He went against the religious system. Your Temple is fine, he said; your Roman Empire is fine, go ahead and pay your taxes, but it is not enough! You need me, because you are evil. Read Mt 7:11: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children…" Jesus said we all are evil, even though we give good things to our children.

Giving good things to our children doesn’t mean we’re good. So we’re not going to get to Heaven by explaining how we did give good things to our children, as far as Jesus is concerned! That is a radical teaching.

Jesus, like all the great religious founders, prophets, and saints, was like the policeman whose directions pre-empt the normal rules of the road. But he didn’t have a uniform or a badge. The only people who would follow him were those who caught a glimpse of that love and who had some feeling that the rules were wrong and that the road was going nowhere anyway, and there’s a huge wreck coming if we go on down this road, and were desperate to find someone to stand in the road and take responsibility for the situation.

Our True Parents, Father and Mother Moon, like all the great religious founders, prophets and saints, exemplify the same love and sacrifice and get the same response. Your UN is fine! Your food programs and environmental protection programs and anti-discrimination laws are great! But they are not enough! What they are missing is that they are not rooted in God’s original love. Eternal peace cannot come without it. That is what the Messiah is all about.

Let’s look at the world a century ago. Europe had enjoyed peace since the close of the Napoleonic wars. The first Parliament of the World’s Religions had been held in Chicago, 1893. Technology, trade, travel were opening new horizons -- just like today. Many Christians felt that the Kingdom was at hand.

Then Europe plunged headlong into the carnage of the world wars, the scourges of fascism and communism destroying hundreds of millions of lives. The Messiah comes to the world to remind us that we’ve got to deal with the evil that lies beneath our great institutions; we have to deal with an invisible force called the evil mind in each one of us; we have to deal with Satan. The Messiah comes to exorcise, if you will, the devil from every level, from the individual to the family, society, nation, world and Heaven and earth.

August 31, two days ago, marked the 18th anniversary of the day that Reverend Moon declared that he had accomplished that feat. It’s called the Pal Jung Shik, the ceremony of the eight stages. The next day, September 1, 1989, he declared the Day of Heavenly Parentism, the dawning of the era when the world will be governed by parental love and all peoples will live as true families, as one family under God. Reverend and Mrs. Moon returned to Alaska last week, the site of those declarations, and are hosting Ambassadors for Peace from around the world to study Heavenly Parentism and meditate up its application in their spheres of influence.

This month they will come to New York City to celebrate the second anniversary of the inauguration of the Universal Peace Federation on September 12. They have established a spiritually driven partner to the United Nations. Who is he to do that? He doesn’t have a uniform! He has no badge! He’s just standing out there in the road, trying to redirect traffic away from a train wreck.

On the 21st through the 25th, he is convening a global gathering under the auspices of the Universal Peace Federation to network concerning the principles and practices that make for true peace. It is timed to coincide with the General Assembly of the United Nations. He has set forth proposals over the past few years for the UN to consider, for peace zones, for an international highway system, for an advisory council of eminent religious leaders from all the world’s religions. These are excellent proposals, but what he really is about, finally, is the Messiah.

No, Reverend Moon’s Universal Peace Federation is nowhere as big as the UN; it does not have the budget or prestige or power of the UN. Many at the UN do not welcome him. His is a still, small voice telling the world to wake up, that unless we root out the curse of radical evil, Satan’s selfishness, this house, this American-made, Judeo-Christian secular city seal-of-approval house, too, will fall. And this dimension of history, like it or not, has everything to do with the Messiah. It’s invisible, intangible; it addresses the deep root of the human experience. He comes in the name of the Lord.

No one likes to hear this because it addresses the individual in his or her aloneness before God. Mr. Bang Ki Moon, Mr. Kim Jung Il, Mr. George W. Bush Mr. Osama bin Laden, it begins with you, personally. And it begins with Mr. Tyler Hendricks. If I am feeling a lack of love, I have to realize that I’m not giving enough love.

If I’m feeling abused and mistreated, I have to realize that I’ve abused and mistreated others. If I think of the evil that I’ve done, the selfishness that has controlled my life, I live in terror of what awaits me. The recompense comes as I call it to me. It is an inexorable law, for the great and small. Jesus was under this law; so was Buddha, so was Muhammad, so are Reverend and Mrs. Moon, and so is Satan, and so is God. So are you and I.

The core difference between God and Satan in this regard is that God bears the pain of loving and Satan does not. God keeps sacrificing and loving and Satan does not. Satan says, stop, I’ve given enough. I’m not getting what I need and deserve. Too many bad things are happening to me. I’m a pretty good guy, but bad things are happening to me! And look at those others. They aren’t good, but all these good things are happening to them. So, Satan decides, I’m going to put myself in the center. I am number one from now on.

God is not getting what He needs and deserves, but He decides to leave His partner, the Other, at the center. "You are number one," says God. But being God’s number one is not easy. Most of the time, we actually settle for being Satan’s number one. We allow him to turn the stones into false bread in exchange for bodily ease. We accept the kingdoms of the world in exchange for God’s kingdom. We prefer testing God to trusting God.

Let us gain strength from the Word of God, and live for His Kingdom, and trust Him alone. The Psalmist called blessed the one who could meditate on the Law day and night. He wasn’t talking about rules and regulations; he was talking about putting the Word of God first. If we can do that, then we can rise above the good things and bad things that we continually experience. We can release ourselves from the control of what happens to us, and in the face of it all, strive to be a plus in the lives of others.