SERMON TITLE: Turn Around for the Future
Preached by the Rev. John Lee on
March 11, 2007 at DPUC
SCRIPTURE
13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
13:2 He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.
13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
13:6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.
13:7 So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
13:8 He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.
13:9 If it bears
fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Turn Around for the Future
Firms
nationwide have begun to rely more on video interviews to screen candidates for
jobs. It is because of the current reluctance or inability to use air
travel. The rules for interviewing on
camera resemble those of traditional face-to-face interviews: Let the
interviewer lead, listen carefully so you can connect your value to the
employer's needs, ask pertinent questions, keep your answers succinct and to
the point and show enthusiasm for the job.
The
key difference is that the human interviewer isn't in the room. You're alone
with a camera and monitor, instead of across the desk from a person, and that
may feel strange. “With the presence of a camera, a video interview can make
you feel as if you're walking around without clothes...Once a camera is in the
room, it's another pair of eyes and increased pressure to try and took good,
yet feel comfortable."
Most
people freeze in front of cameras, but to avoid this problem, "ease
yourself into it, and try to make friends with the camera."
I
would like to encourage all of you to be familiar with a video camera. The
human life span has increased a lot. So who knows if you will have the chance
to have a video interview for your new job. And other thing is that you can buy
new telephones for videoconferencing, which lets you see and receive images or
a video while talking.
The world is changing faster than we imagined. But the fundamental questions in our lives remains constant regardless of culture or generations. One of these is the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It is a question all of us ask from time to time.
Some of Jesus’
listeners asked him this same question in today’s Gospel reading. They brought
up a recent news story about some Galileans who had been cruelly offered as
human sacrifices by Pilate. Were they greater sinners than others in
We ask the same question when someone is diagnosed with cancer or when innocent children are killed. There are some things that we cannot control, and when they happen, we ask “why me, why this time?” Jesus had already dealt with this question when confronted with a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples wanted to know was it his parents’ sin or his own that was responsible for his condition?
We know that Jesus doesn’t believe that human tragedy is a punishment for sin and he says that “for God makes God’s sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." (Mt. 5:45b) Jesus was more concerned about our concrete life, especially about our present and future. What should we do in the situation of tragedy? What God wants us to do in this situation or where God leads us. In every difficult situation, we are called to ask God, ask God about what God’s will is.
But in our real life, different things
are happening. Some people want to control the unknowable and uncontrollable
and consult a horoscope or tarot cards. Not just that. Some people use prayers
to manipulate God even though they may do it unintentionally. We may try to
advise God as to what we think is best for us. As Jesus prayed, we want to
pray, "Not my will, but your will be done."
People are judgmental and relate any hardships with sinning. We are driven by
guilty feelings and become judgmental too. Do you think that Jesus likes this
sort of consequence? What then is our affirmation that “God accepts as we are”? Let us look at the second part of the Gospel
reading. The owner of the fig tree says that if it does not bear fruit, cut it
down. Here is an interesting response from the gardener who knows about trees
cares for them. The gardener says,
“Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on
it.”
We know that some trees bear fruit after 3, 4 or 5 years. It can be a message that reminds us of having patience or forgiving others. But it is also the message of treating all the different individuals as they are. As the tree bears the fruit of hope, the people whose gifts and capabilities are not proven are the ones who will bear the fruit of hope in the coming future. We say that the younger people are the owners of the future world. And there is a saying that we are borrowing the future world/earth from our next generations.
We Christians are call to live for others. So Jesus taught us to love others, to love our neighbours as ourselves. Today, Jesus teaches us through the parable that we are called to live for future generations. We should preserve the environment for the coming generations. And we agree that to some extent, we are borrowing the lake, trees, air and all the things around us from the people of next generation.
We are called to repent, to turn around
from our old ways. But we have to keep in mind that this call for repentance
has direction. We are called to repent for the future, the coming world that is
filled with the hope of Christ, joy and peace of Christ, and the love of
Christ. We don’t have to rush to bear fruits. Don’t be burdened by
responsibilities. We are not to be superstitious, trying to win over fate. We
don’t have to seek to control others or our uncertain future. We simply have to
be ourselves as disciples of Christ, take our time and wait for another month,
or two years, or ten years, like the fig tree, and look to the future and
journey with repentance.
When we see the world, there are so many who are worried about the uncertainty
of the future. In
I would like to find an answer from what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German
theologian martyred by the Nazis, labeled as cheap grace: the perception that
Christianity offers only a flood of blessings without committing themselves in
“not my will be done, but thy will be done.” Cheap grace! Christianity without
a price, without a cost, without committing into God’s will, the way of the
cross is cheap grace!
It is we who have been called to do something. We cannot answer the
question why there should be hunger in the world, but we can do our part to see
that some of the hungry are fed. We can’t answer the question why sometimes
healthy adults with families are struck down in midlife, but we can be there to
bring comfort and to supply both material and emotional support.
A young university student visited Wolfgang von Goethe, the noted author and requested an autograph and a few wise words. Goethe thought a moment, and then wrote: "Let each person sweep in front of his own door, and then the whole world will be clean." Each person doing his best, linked to other persons exerting their best efforts, can accomplish great things.
That is our calling. We cannot solve all the world’s problems. Again we don’t have to rush ourselves, we don’t have to be burdened by bearing big fruit. But we must tune ourselves and turn around for the future and do what we can in response to God’s will to be done. We live in the world of many changes. There are so many things we have to consider, to learn and to change. One thing that does not change is the value system and the life style of Jesus Christ, which is open to other cultures, traditions and even other faiths.
As we turn around for the future, when
we see Christ calling us, then we are on the way to healing and reconciliation,
and we are on the way to the
Thanks be to God. Amen.
This site is prepared by the Rev. John Young-Jung Lee,
a minister of The United Church of Canada
with volunteers who are committed in the works
of Peace and Justice in our global village
Volunteers are wecome. Please Contact web master
Acknowledgement:
Web planning team: Marion Current, Hannah Lee
Technical support & web designer: David Nam-Joong Kim
Art design team: Raymond NamKi Jung, Johnny Jong Hyun Jeong
Updated March 11, 2007