One for All, All for One

Eph 2:14-22

 

1. Everybody is shocked by the Virginia Tech tragedy, and one of the most shocked communities is the Korean community and churches because it was a Korean kid who killed 33 people including himself. We feel very sorry and guilty, because he is one lost sheep of ours. But if it is neither exclusive Korean problem nor American problem but human problem, where comes the terrible anger and hate? Even though this case involved with severe mental illness, hate and anger is a human problem in general with destructive results. Jesus said on the Mount: “You have heard…  ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”(Mt 5.21-22a) Apostle John said that “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”(1John 3.15) Therefore, we may not ignore our feeling of anger and hate within our deep heart. If we let them silently grow inside our mind, it could make a serious sin of tragic result when it explodes. Let us pray everyday: “Lord, cleanse my soul with your blood and remove any anger or hate in my soul.”

2. Hate and hostility flows from sin, for the essence of sin is self-centeredness, selfish egoism expandable to innumerable kinds of collective egoism. Even though the whole human race is descendents of the same ancestor, Adam and Eve, sinners no longer feel oneness. Sin has continually divided the human race to different groups until only individual is left. Selfish sinners distrust and hate anybody who does not belong to them. Why? Satan put hostility between different groups, whether it is race, people, nation, province, social class, school, clan, party, language, religion, or any grouping. Satan set the barrier and built unbreakable permanent dividing wall of hostility between those groups. As Thomas Hobbes pointed out, everybody became everybody’s enemy. It resulted in the endless fight and war with other groups or other individual whatever form it takes, in order to conquer and subjugate others under their hegemony. It is the history of the world.

3. Jesus Christ came to the world to “destroy the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” between hostile human groups (14). Those dividing walls are so strong and thick that no human power is able to break down. Only God can destroy those satanic walls of hostility. Paul explains how those walls were broken down in v. 15: “by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.” Because what separate human groups is man-made laws that were written for the interest of their own group and therefore conflicting each other, Christ destroyed the wall of separation by abolishing such arbitrary self-centered laws. As far as humans are enslaved by these dividing laws as absolute authority and standard even above the Word of God, those dividing walls are still there. And Christ abolished the human laws “in his flesh”. Jesus Christ incarnated for this purpose and became man. With his flesh he suffered and died to abolish selfish human laws which enslaved humanity with their commandments and requirements by threatening with punishment and even death, and instead he gave the uniting law of the New Commandment of Love. V. 16 say that it was “through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” The cross was the symbol and reality of God’s love for humanity. Whoever personally encounters the cross of Christ, they give up their old hostility to other group or individual, that was based on their own standard and laws.

4. Now we are free from selfish human laws made for collective egoism. Our supreme law is the love of God and neighbors. Any law that contradicts this supreme law has no validity or authority at all for us, the new creature in Christ. Christian is one who confesses Jesus Christ as the Lord, God as the Father, and the Holy Spirit as the Helper. We have the same Lord, and therefore we are one. He died for us all, and therefore we all are for Him. So, the motto of Three Musketeers is ours: “One for All, All for One!” We are One Building with the same foundation and the same cornerstone, Jesus Christ. The purpose of God to send His Son was “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”(Eph 1.10)

5. Therefore, there should not be any dividing wall among our Christians whatever group we came from. Local church should not have any wall around it. Even denomination should not have any dividing wall to other Christian denomination. If there is any remaining wall, we have to keep removing it in Christ through the cross. If we have any reason to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of CRC, it is because we have successfully destroyed the dividing walls little by little, not building the walls higher and higher. Local congregation, classis, or denomination is simply a human necessity due to our physical and cultural limitations. We are one body in Christ. Any church, any Christian in Christ is one.

6. I came to Calvin Seminary in 1979 simply to strengthen my denominational wall. But in His gracious providence I met a wonderful teacher at Calvin, the late John H. Kromminga, whom some of you may know. One morning he came to his CRC history class and he made an astonishing confession without lifting his face to us. I do not remember his words exactly, but the message was clear: “I am a sinner. When I was young, I dedicated to be a servant only of my Lord Jesus Christ. But I am old now. When I reflect my life, I have lived as a racist and denominationalist, as a servant of my race, my people, and my denomination. I had not to live this way. I promised to my Lord to be only His servant, but I did not keep the promise faithfully. You are starting your ministry now. Do not fail this promise. Be the servant of the Lord only in your whole life!” He was crying. It shocked me, the strongest shock I had in my whole life. It changed my way completely. That is the best lesson I got from CRC and Calvin Seminary. You are blessed to have such president of the seminary! He wrote a book entitled “One Body We Are”.

7. CRC has begun with Dutch immigrants and still dominantly so, but now it is a multi-ethnic denomination which includes about 100 Korean congregations, still growing. The first Korean contact with CRC was made through Calvin Seminary. Since the first Korean student, Dr. Shin Hong Myung came to Calvin in 1938, approximately 500 Korean students have studied at Calvin and many of them became leaders in the Korean churches and seminaries. You have been very kind and gracious to Korean students and Korean churches. Dutch and Korean people in the denomination as the first and second largest groups were two different people in the past but now we are one people of God in Christ without dividing walls between us.

8. America is a special country. It is quite a heavenly country with all people of the earth, though it is still on the earth, so imperfect. Church on the earth is a community of reconciliation, a training camp where so many different kinds of people come and be trained to be one in order to be well adjusted to the New Heaven and New Earth. In CRC, whether Dutch and Korean immigrants successfully can be one or not is a divine experiment to make a good model for the smaller ethnic groups in the denomination. Honestly speaking, until now it was not so successful, not much fellowship or unity between us. Let us make continuous effort and make priority to be one, not only between Dutch and Korean, but also with other ethnic groups, and in local congregation, classis and denomination, and further in the universal church of our Lord. I am confident that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”(Phil 1:6) Amen.